Here is a sampling of links and notes about Carolina people and programs cited recently in the media:
International Coverage
Should babies be screened for untreatable diseases?
Reuters (Wire Service)
…Slightly less than two-thirds of the couples said yes, according to Debra Skinner of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and colleagues. Most of the mothers who accepted the test said they wanted to know about their child's prospects, and the earlier the better. But many also said they agreed out of a wish to support research, hinting they might have misunderstood the purpose of the poll.
National Coverage
Health-care supply and demand (Blog)
The Washington Post
My post on health care generated some strong comments. I’m glad I offered a staged introduction to my admittedly off-center point of view. Let me address a specific argument, however. Many say that the problem is simply moral hazard. Folks will spend other people’s money on the most expensive thing they can find. I think that moral hazard is generally overstated as a problem and that this is ultimately due to some evolutionary wiring in the human brain. (Karl Smith is an assistant professor of economics and government at the University of North Carolina School of Government.)
Manufacturing collapse (Blog)
The Washington Post
From December of 2007 to December of 2009, the U.S. economy lost about 2.2 million manufacturing jobs. That’s over a quarter of the total job loss over that same period, about 8.5 million. Manufacturing is always hammered heavily during a recession. What made this time different is that manufacturing came in on its knees. It had never recovered from the 2001 recession. (Karl Smith is an assistant professor of economics and government at the University of North Carolina School of Government.)
Related Links:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/post/2011/06/01/AGjQwWGH_blog.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/post/make-health-care-cheap/2011/06/01/AGdr2MGH_blog.html
Hungry Worms From Hell
Science Magazine
…Marine microbiologist Andreas Teske of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, was not surprised that the first multicellular subsurface organism was a nematode; the worms are among the hardiest creatures on the planet. “If all other [nonmicrobial] life was extinguished, the survivors would be nematodes,” he says.
Charge Against Professor Raises Questions About Academic Freedom in Thailand
The Chronicle of Higher Education
…Meanwhile, a separate group of Thai-studies scholars located abroad recently circulated an open letter calling for an end to what they call threats and intimidation. A statement called Mr. Somsak's case the "latest signal of the worsening atmosphere of freedom of expression in Thailand." The document has been signed by 51 people, including some affiliated with the Universities of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and of Cambridge, Cornell and Harvard Universities, and others.
Regional Coverage
Rethinking accountability models in U.S. public education (Opinion-Editorial Column)
The Atlanta Journal Constitution
Policymakers introduced the No Child Left Behind Act in an effort to improve the U.S. public education system through a nationwide accountability system that sets proficiency targets in math and reading each year. (S. Michael Gaddis, a graduate of the University of Georgia, is a Ph.D. candidate in education policy at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.)
State and Local Coverage
UNC Budget Causes Concern
WCHL 1360-AM (Chapel Hill)
UNC will face a 12% cut, rather than the estimates 15% that was projected last month, but that still has some UNC officials worried. “It may be a little better than our worst case scenario, and clearly its better than the original house proposal, but it’s still going to be at the upper reaches, closer to the worst case cut scenario that we planned for,” says Dick Mann, UNC’s Vice Chancellor for Finance and Administration.
TEDx
"The State of Things" WUNC-FM
Jon Gosier and Jonathan Kuniholm don’t seem to have much in common at first glance. One built a company that helps East Africa's budding software entrepreneurs, and the other created an open-source prosthetics nonprofit. But both are speaking at Chapel Hill's TEDx event tomorrow at the Varsity Theater. Gosier and Kuniholm are part of a panel called "Global Health: What's Technology Got to Do with It?" They join host Frank Stasio to talk about their innovative work and TEDx.
Related Link:
http://www.tedxchapelhill.com/ (Mentions Chancellor Thorp’s role as a presenter.)
Changing The World Through War And Peace
Fox News Charlotte
…That's why Rye Barcott, author of "It Happened on the Way to War: A Marine's Path to Peace" and co-founder of Carolina for Kibera, a non-governmental organization doing humanitarian work in a slum community outside Nairobi, Kenya, uses skills learned through war and peace to encourage others to make a difference.
UNC Hosts Sports Concussion Conference
WUNC-FM (Chapel Hill)
Sports equipment manufacturers meet with medical experts in Chapel Hill Thursday to consider ways to prevent sports concussions. …Parish will join doctors, coaches and other equipment manufacturers at Thursday's conference at UNC-Chapel Hill. The meeting comes as North Carolina lawmakers consider a bill that would keep high school athletes on the sidelines if they show signs of a concussion.
CPAs' mood sours, hiring plans still weak
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
…This was the first quarter th
e AICPA, a trade group with offices in Durham, conducted its survey without the help of UNC Chapel Hill's Kenan-Flagler Business School. "We agreed mutually and amicably to dissolve the partnership, which was always sort of informal, as we went through the redesign of the survey over the past year to present it as an index," AICPA spokesman William Roberts wrote in an email.
Issues and Trends
Senate passes $19.7 billion budget (Blog)
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
The state Senate gave its final approval to a $19.7 billion budget today, sending it to the House for a final vote. The Senate vote was along party lines, 31-19, with all Democrats opposed. The House is expected to take up the budget tomorrow, have a final vote early Saturday morning, and pass it to Gov. Bev Perdue.
Related Links:
http://www.citizen-times.com/article/20110602/NEWS/306020020/NC-Senate-gives
-tentative-OK-budget-bill?odyssey=tab|topnsews|text|Frontpage
http://www.newsobserver.com/2011/06/02/1242037/senate-budget-advances-on-party
.html#storylink=misearch
http://www.newsobserver.com/2011/06/02/1241956/republicans-smell-victory-in-budget.html
Better – Budget improves but still pounds education (Editorial)
The Fayetteville Observer
…It includes $62 million to hire more than 1,100 new teachers and it rescinds the Senate's proposed sacking of 13,000 teacher assistants. The University of North Carolina System would get $100 million more than the House budget proposed. But Perdue says Republicans have hidden bombs in the budget weeds: specifically, $322 million in budget cuts passed down to local school boards. The General Assembly may be hiring, but the school boards will be firing.
Only 5 Colleges Do Well by Low-Income Students, Report Says
The Chronicle of Higher Education
…The criteria are narrow enough, in fact, that out of 1,186 four-year colleges the group examined, only five made the cut: …the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. …The three systems that the five colleges belong to have lower-than-average tuition and fees, the report notes, and the states of California, New York, and North Carolina offer more need-based financial aid per student than most others do. Still, the individual colleges have low net prices even compared with others in their systems, suggesting that institutional policies play a role, too, the report says.
Related Link:
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2011/06/02/report_finds_only_five_colleges_
do_enough_for_low_income_students