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Here is a sampling of links and notes about Carolina people and programs cited recently in the media:

National Coverage

Unions wary of Dems' N.C. convention plans
The Associated Press

…"You've got this combination of workers who are kind of ambivalent about unions in the first place, a history of violent repression and employers who are fiercely anti-union, and the result is an environment that is both culturally and legally hostile to the union movement," said Harry Watson, director of the Center for the Study of the American South at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill.

Stocks mixed as strong year ends
The Associated Press

For investors, 2010 was a 12-month tug of war between optimism and doubt. Stocks initially strengthened, the job market didn't, and fears of economic collapse in Europe and a chilling "flash crash" left many investors almost too stunned to act. …"The flash crash made retail investors take a step back and say, 'Is this really just a legalized gambling arena?"', said Scott Rostan, a financial consultant for investment banks and an adjunct professor at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

City of the Future: An Airport? (Book Review)
The New York Times

…(John D. ) Kasarda, a professor in the business school at the University of North Carolina who has consulted with four White House administrations and numerous cities and governments, believes that something very different from La Guardia is transforming our world: the gleaming “aerotropolis,” with a state-of-the-art airport at its center, surrounded by customized transportation links, fine restaurants, designer shopping and nearby corporate suburbs connecting workers umbilically to the global marketplace.

Explaining a Consequence of Closing Freddie and Fannie (Blog)
The New York Times

…A 2004 paper by professors at the University of Kentucky and the University of North Carolina compared interest rates on loans that were not guaranteed by Fannie and Freddie. The study found that rural borrowers paid a premium of 0.08 percentage points compared to suburban borrowers – about $5 a month on a $100,000 loan.

The Puzzle of Chronic Fatigue
The Wall Street Journal

…Nortin M. Hadler, a rheumatologist at the University of North Carolina Hospitals, says the fact that there is no diagnostic test for the syndrome can contribute to the way patients cope. Many patients feel like they must prove they have a disease to feel validated, he says. As a result, "they get sicker and sicker."

Is it healthy to drink diet soft drinks? The answer is fizzy
USA Today

…When it comes to beverages, there are many choices that are far better than any type of soda, says Barry Popkin, a nutrition professor at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and one of the nation's top experts on beverage consumption. "I prefer Americans drink water or unsweetened or lightly sweetened coffee or tea, but if it is between diet beverages and juice, fruit drinks or soda with tons of sugar in them, diet beverages are preferred," he says.

When test scores seem too good to believe
USA Today

…Given the mounting pressure on teachers, principals and superintendents to produce high scores, "no one has incentives to vigorously pursue" testing irregularities, says Gregory Cizek, a professor at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill who studies cheating. "In fact, there's a strong disincentive."

Whatever Happened To The Audiophile?
National Public Radio

…"There are still people who passionately pursue the highest possible sound quality in their playback equipment, and are willing to spend large portions of their income to the best speakers, amplifiers or turntables," says Mark Katz, an associate professor of music at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and author of Capturing Sound: How Technology Has Changed Music. "That said, the landscape — or perhaps soundscape — has changed."

The Tar Heels and their town
ESPN.com

…Last month, the National Trust for Historic Preservation named Chapel Hill one of America's Dozen Distinctive Destinations, which, according to the nonprofit organization, "highlights 12 places each year that actively preserve their history and offer different attractions than the typical vacation getaway offers." And for two years running Forbes has ranked UNC No. 1 on its list of Most Valuable College Basketball Teams.

Healthcare Services: Research Workforce Growing in Numbers and Importance
The Washington Post

…The Health Services Research Projects database (HSRProj)–a joint effort of the AcademyHealth and the Cecil G. Sheps Center at the University of North Carolina–contains descriptions on more than 7,500 current HSR projects funded by foundations, private organizations and government and state agencies.

Regional Coverage

AZ students make unbelievable progress on AIMS test
KTAR-FM (Phoenix, Ariz.)

…Gregory Cizek, a testing expert at University of North Carolina, says that the gains some schools made could be classified as a miracle. "It could be with a small group and powerful interventions and a dedicated staff, you could pull off a miracle," said Cizek, author of a book on detecting and preventing cheating. "But there are no currently known interventions or instructional practices that have been shown to produce gains of that magnitude."

State and Local Coverage

Liquidia gets $10M for vaccine work
The Herald-Sun (Durham)

Morrisville-based Liquidia Technologies received a $10 million equity investment from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, according to a company announcement made Friday. …Michael Parks, a spokesman for Liqui
dia, said the company was founded by Joe DeSimone, a chemistry professor at UNC Chapel Hill, based around the development of the company's proprietary PRINT technology.
UNC Release:
http://uncnews.unc.edu/content/view/4357/74/

Job market is shrinking for Hispanics in N.C.
The News & Observer (Raleigh)

…Researchers have said that Hispanics contribute billions of dollars a year to the state's economy through purchases, taxes and labor. But there are costs as well, for school districts struggling to pay for English-as-a-second-language classes, for example, and government agencies that pay for health care for illegal immigrants. A 2005 study by UNC-Chapel Hill found the state was spending $102 per Hispanic resident on health care, education and correctional services.

Hospital patient discharges get more attention
The News & Observer (Raleigh)

…According to a growing number of professionals studying hospital discharges, it's also time for the conclusion of an in-depth, often demanding process to make sure the patient will have the necessary support upon returning home. A partnership between state human services and UNC-Chapel Hill social work officials has used a $1.2 million federal grant to work with communities across the state. The goal: to improve the quality and results of hospital discharges of older people and those with disabilities.

Out-of-state fees still low at UNC
The News & Observer (Raleigh)

As they've approved much-needed tuition increases recently, trustees at UNC-Chapel Hill have resisted the urge to treat out-of-state students like a bank machine. But in doing so, the trustees are leaving millions of dollars on the table. At a time when campuses have little new revenue to counter cuts to staff, class sections and teaching resources, some states are instituting disproportionately high tuition increases for out-of-state college students. It is a strategy that might work at UNC-CH, an extraordinarily competitive institution that gets its pick of top nonresident applicants.

How does memory work?
The News & Observer (Raleigh)

Dr. William Snider, director of the Neuroscience Center at UNC-Chapel Hill School of Medicine, explains how memory works and why some people are better at remembering things than others. Questions and answers have been edited.

Buncombe County manager Wanda Greene, kin make $423K from county (Column)
The Citizen-Times (Asheville)

…Frayda Bluestein, a professor of public law and government at the School of Government at UNC Chapel Hill, said county managers don't directly fall under the state's nepotism laws. “We don't have nepotism laws in North Carolina, except in certain offices — the sheriff's office and the register of deeds,” Bluestein said. “In general, with most local governmental positions, it's statutorily left to the unit to decide what their policies about that are going to be.”

Meet Jeff Whetstone
"The State of Things" WUNC-FM

Late last month Jeff Whetstone premiered his newest artwork. It's a video depicting a turkey hunt. But it's not a documentary. …Whetstone’s artwork has won many prestigious awards, including a Guggenheim Fellowship, and is exhibited around the world. When he's not in the field taking pictures or in the dark room printing, Whetstone teaches art and photography at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Today he joins host Frank Stasio to talk about photography, nature, humanity and the art of the turkey call.

With more people, vision needed to preserve WNC assets (Editorial)
The Citizen-Times (Asheville)

…Ferrel Guillory, director of the Program on Public Policy at the University of North Carolina, said, “Classic North Carolina is a spread-out, decentralized state of small cities, small towns, small factories and small farms. We are not that anymore and haven't been that in a while. We have become a more muscular metro state.”

Geology – can you dig it? (Opinion-Editorial Column)
The News & Observer (Raleigh)

Oil prices have hit $100 per barrel again. Scores were killed recently by an earthquake in New Zealand. In the past year, floods, tsunamis, earthquakes and volcanoes have devastated parts of the globe. Metal prices are skyrocketing. What's going on? Geologists understand these events, but few people seem to understand what geologists do. (Allen F. Glazner is Kenan distinguished professor and chair of the Department of Geological Sciences at UNC-Chapel Hill.)

Chapel Hill gets its own war stories
The News & Observer (Raleigh)

UNC student Fabius Haywood had a difficult senior year. Final exams in his major, analytical chemistry, were famously difficult – and on-campus living in East Building was no picnic. Then, just after graduation, the Raleigh native joined the Confederate Army – 5th North Carolina Infantry Regiment. He fought in one of the bloodiest engagements in recorded military history, the Battle of Gettysburg, where he was grievously wounded, captured by Union soldiers and imprisoned for two years. Clearly, undergraduate concerns have changed in 150 years.

African Union ambassador to speak
The Chapel Hill Herald

The ambassador to the United States for the African Union, which includes Egypt and Libya, will speak on March 23 at UNC Chapel Hill. Amina Salum Ali is expected to discuss recent and current events in those countries, two of the union's 23 member states, as well as decisions at the recent 16th AU Summit held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Related Link:
http://wchl1360.com/detailswide.html?id=17660
UNC Release:
http://uncnews.unc.edu/content/view/4343/107/

Amy Hempel to read March 16
The Herald-Sun (Durham)

Short story writer Amy Hempel will read from her work March 16 at the University
of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Hempel, coming to campus as the 2011 Morgan Writer-in-Residence in UNC's College of Arts and Sciences, will share her stories in a free public reading at 6 p.m. in Carroll Hall auditorium, off Cameron Avenue behind Memorial Hall.
UNC Release:
http://uncnews.unc.edu/content/view/4342/107/

Legislation would toughen rules on sports agents
WRAL-TV (CBS/Raleigh)

A bill expected to be introduced Monday in the Senate would put more teeth into the state law designed to keep sports agents away from college and high school athletes. Senate Bill 224 comes in the wake of an NCAA investigation of the University of North Carolina football team.

Building blocks of culture
The News & Observer (Raleigh)

At the seventh annual LEGO-palooza at the Morehead Planetarium and Science Center in Chapel Hill, Sandy Cash, center, 43, of Durham discusses his Islamic-style LEGO architecture. Organizers estimate that more than 2,500 people streamed through over the weekend to see 250,000 plastic bricks in dozens of displays.

Aetna's fee fight adds to cancer patient's stress
The News & Observer (Raleigh)

The last thing Jean Holstein needed as she faced eye surgery and ongoing chemotherapy for breast cancer was a battle with her insurance company. But Holstein, along with thousands of others in the Triangle and beyond, was covered by Aetna, which UNC Health Care and its physicians stopped accepting last month because of a fee dispute.

Issues and Trends

The Billionaire Who Is Planning His 125th Birthday
The New York Times Magazine

One morning in early January, David Murdock awoke to an unsettling sensation. …It is there, outside of Charlotte, in a city named Kannapolis near his lodge, that he has spent some $500 million of his fortune in recent years to construct the North Carolina Research Campus, a scientific center dedicated to his conviction that plants, eaten in copious quantities and the right variety, hold the promise of optimal health and maximal life span.

Gray named senior adviser to Ross
The Herald-Sun (Durham)

Lyons Gray, a Winston-Salem businessman who served six terms in the N.C. General Assembly before joining the administration of President George W. Bush, has been named senior adviser to the president of the 17-campus University of North Carolina. The one-year appointment, effective March 14, was announced Thursday by UNC President Tom Ross.
Related Link:
http://www2.journalnow.com/news/2011/mar/06/higher-ed-ar-837626/

Hospital to bring jobs, revenue
The Chapel Hill News

Construction begins this year on a new UNC hospital that will bring jobs and boost the economy, but so far, no other business has committed to move into the Waterstone development.

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