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

International Coverage

Facebook’s Fastest Growing Markets
"The World" Public Radio International

Everyone is buzzing about Facebook on Wednesday, thanks to its planned $5 billion initial public offering. A lot of investors will soon be scrambling to pick up some shares. …Anchor Marco Werman talks to Zeynep Tufekci, professor at the University of North Carolina. Tufekci teaches the social impacts of technology at the University.

One step closer to a Pill for men?
The Globe and Mail (Canada)

…The treatment – which has been performed on rats and is a long way from being tested on humans – involved warming the testes briefly over two sessions. It “pretty much wiped out” sperm, said James Tsuruta, lead author of the report published in the journal Reproductive Biology and Endocrinology. “Just two weeks after we did these treatments, the rats’ sperm counts were down far below levels that we would normally see in fertile men,” said Dr. Tsuruta, assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

DRC election protest goes viral
The Mail and Guardian (Johannesburg, South Africa)

…Professor Georges Nzongola, the director of the African Governance Institute at the University of North Carolina, said this anger, especially against the South African government, was understandable, considering Defence Minister Lindiwe Sisulu's comments that the DRC's electoral commission, the Commission Electorale Nationale Indépendante, had done a "sterling job".

National Coverage

S.E.C. Is Avoiding Tough Sanctions for Large Banks
The New York Times

…Thomas Lee Hazen, a securities law professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, said that it is understandable that the S.E.C. might relax some potential sanctions on Wall Street firms — where it appears that lessons have been learned, or when a fine is thought to be sufficient punishment. “The ripple effect of having a sanction that could shut them down or could seriously impede a company’s operations would seriously affect a lot of innocent customers,” he said.

Social Anxiety
Inside Higher Ed

Gunther Eysenbach’s paper about Twitter and scholarly communications foretold its own fate as a topic of lively discussion. …One of those reviewers was Jason Priem, a graduate student in library sciences at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a well-known advocate for alt-metrics.

Senioritis in Remission, at Least Until the A.P. Exams (Blog)
The New York Times

…After being admitted into six schools, and sometimes their honors programs, I have started to feel the symptoms of senioritis. I’m still waiting to hear from Boston University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, but after being accepted I can’t help feeling that hard work from kindergarten to halfway through my senior year is good enough. It feels like I deserve to start vacation five months early.

State and Local Coverage

Thorp Back In Class This Fall, Teaching Entrepreneurship
WCHL 1360-AM (Chapel Hill)

In keeping with the ongoing initiative to promote innovation at UNC, University Chancellor Holden Thorp will reenter the classroom this fall to co-teach a course called “Introduction to Entrepreneurship.” Economics professor Buck Goldstein—a lifelong entrepreneur himself—says the course grew out of the book they co-wrote in 2010.

New Clinic to Treat Rare Disorder
WUNC-FM (Chapel Hill)

UNC Chapel Hill this afternoon will officially mark the opening of its new Comprehensive Angelman Syndrome Clinic at the Carolina Institute for Developmental Disabilities. Anne Wheeler is a psychologist at CIDD; she's also co-coordinator for the new clinic. She says Angelman Syndrome is a rare congenital disorder that occurs in about 1 in 15-thousand births.

HUD chief touts aid plan for homeowners
The News & Observer (Raleigh)

The Obama administration sent its top housing official to the Triangle on Thursday to tout the president's latest efforts to help struggling homeowners and stem the foreclosure crisis. Shaun Donovan, the secretary of Housing and Urban Development, visited Triangle Family Services, a Durham nonprofit that assists families in crisis, and held a town hall discussion on the campus of UNC-Chapel Hill.

Shakespeare’s King Henry, extended version
The Herald-Sun (Durham)

…PlayMakers Repertory Company artistic director Joe Haj pointed to those long-term reading and viewing scenarios while discussing the success of his company’s annual rotating repertory efforts. In previous years, PlayMakers took on two-part performances of “Nicholas Nickleby” and “Angels in America.” This season it’s “The Making of a King,” which brings William Shakespeare’s “Henry IV, Part 1 and Part 2” into the first production, paired with “Henry V.”

Issues and Trends

Senate Republicans Question Obama's Plan to Tie Federal Aid to Tuition
The Chronicle of Higher Education

Senate Republicans pushed back against President Obama's college-affordability agenda at an education-committee hearing Thursday, expressing doubts about the administration's plans to reward colleges and states that hold down tuition and maintain their higher-education budgets. "I don't believe the government's role is to pick winners and losers," said Sen. Richard Burr of North Carolina, explaining that he was uncomfortable "shifting the determination of affordability to Washington."

Bowles won't run for governor, but Etheridge joins race
The News & Observer (Raleigh)

Erskine Bowles said Thursday that he would not run for governor, but other Democrats moved to fill the void with former Congressman Bob Etheridge announcing that he would seek his party's nomination. Bowles, 66, a Charlotte investment banker, was the rarest of political figures: the subject of a legitimate draft by his party, which saw the former university president, former White House chief of staff and budget hawk as the sort of senior statesman who might rescue the Democrats after Gov. Bev Perdue's surprise announcement last week that she would not seek re-election.
Related Links:
http://www.wral.com/news/state/nccapitol/blogpost/10678711/
http://abclocal.go.com/wtvd/story?section=news/politics&id=8528683

Exodus from legislature grows
The News & Observer (Raleigh)

State Rep. Joe Hackney, a 32-year veteran lawmaker and former speaker, said Thursday he would not seek another term, becoming the latest in a string of top Democrats to announce retirements in the past week. The Democratic departures are not coordinated. But lawmakers say the moves signal deep frustrations with the new GOP legislative leadership and a desire to avoid bruising re-election battles in unfavorable districts newly drawn by Republicans.
Related Link:
http://wunc.org/programs/news/archive/sjj020312.mp3/view
http://www.heraldsun.com/view/full_story/17383011/article-Hackney
-won%E2%80%99t-seek-re-election-to-state-House?

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