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

National Coverage

Human Bonds
The New York Times

… An associate professor of history at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Williams examines the historical fact of family separation and renders its emotional truth. She is the rare scholar who writes history with such tenderness that her words can bring a reader to tears.

The best place for business and careers? Not California, says Forbes
The Los Angeles Times

… Raleigh, N.C., fell a spot to second place as its living costs rose, Forbes said, but doing business in the city is still 18% less expensive than the national average. With schools such as Duke University and the University of North Carolina, the workforce is extremely educated.

Mother of All Hormones?
The Huffington Post

… A study in the Journal of Pharmacological Science finds that pregnenolone can help combat addictive behaviors and chemical dependency. Researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill find that pregnenolone plays an important role in alcohol tolerance and withdrawal.

Lawn Boy: the College Years
The Chronicle of Higher Education

… The same can’t be said for the informational sessions, which are almost uniformly deadly.  (I say “almost” because of one exception: an admissions officer at University of North Carolina, who, despite the fact that he appeared to be about 19 years old, managed to be so funny, smart and self-deprecating that he should probably consider conducting summer instructional sessions for his colleagues at other institutions.

Maps of Universities
The Chronicle of Higher Education

… One is the 3Cs counter cartographies collective based at the University of North Carolina. The collective uses maps to mount a critique of the university. In its own words, the collective renders “new images and practices of economies and social relations, destabilize[s] centered and exclusionary representations of the social and economic [and] construct[s] new imaginaries of collective struggle and alternative worlds.” Its two disorientation maps plotting UNC’s wider connections have become well-known in mapping circles. More recently, it has begun operations in London.

State and Local Coverage

Health care reform questions still loom in state, despite court's ruling
The News & Observer (Raleigh)

The vigil for a decision from the Supreme Court on “Obamacare” is over, but across the Triangle uncertainty over the future of health care isn’t. “This settles the case legally but not politically,” said Jonathan Oberlander, a professor of Social Medicine and Health Policy and Management at the UNC-Chapel Hill, who studies and teaches about health-care reform.

Local officials, experts react to health care decision
The Herald-Sun (Durham)

… Michael J. Gerhardt, a constitutional law professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel School of Law and the director of the UNC Center on Law and Government, said he believes Thursday’s decision removes a potential issue for the presidential election.

Now, learning to do business with care shift
The Triangle Business Journal

… In North Carolina, more than 1.57 million residents are uninsured which amounts to about 17 percent of the population. And with more people being covered under the law, it could lead to more primary care, says Dr. Brian Goldstein, UNC Health Care chief operating officer. That means doctors will have to do a better job of coordinating care because more people will be coming through the doors.

UNC Law Professor Impressed With Chief Justice Roberts
WCHL 1360-AM (Chapel Hill)

Chief Justice John Roberts placed the deciding vote in the 5-4 Supreme Court decision upholding the Affordable Care Act, impressing one local constitutional law scholar. “I am generally not too surprised,” says UNC Law School professor Michael Gerhardt. “We expected that it would be a close decision…and Roberts, I think, felt when push came to shove that he would give the benefit of the doubt to Congress.”

UNC Doctor: "Pleasantly Surprised" With SC Ruling
WCHL 1360-AM (Chapel Hill)

The Supreme Court’s decision to uphold the Affordable Care Act will have a major impact on the future of health and medicine, both nationwide and here in the Triangle—and at least one doctor says he’s glad the Court ruled the way it did. "I'm pleasantly surprised…and I think it's a good day for the 50 million uninsured Americans," says Adam Goldstein, professor at UNC Family Medicine and the co-host of WCHL’s “Your Health.” He says when it takes full effect, the Affordable Care Act will help open the door for all Americans to have access to quality health care.

Tracking the Elderly
WUNC-FM

How do older adults maintain healthy, sustainable lives? How does the community they live in come into play? These questions reach into the spheres of urban planning, development policy, and public policy. Kendra Heatwole-Shank explored these ideas and more by keeping track of some seniors with the help of GPS technology. Heatwole-Shank is a PhD candidate in the Occupational Science and Therapy division at the School of Medicine at UNC-Chapel Hill.

UNC wants to expand overtaxed burn unit
The Triangle Business Journal

The N.C. Jaycee Burn Center at UNC Hospitals, one of only two such specialty care operations in the state, ran 7 percent over capacity in 2011, and its leaders hope to add four beds in an attempt to keep up with patient demand. Even after the additions, which would bring the unit to 25 beds, projections show the burn center would still run at a nearly 100 percent capacity every day. “We stay busy here,” says Dr. Bruce A. Cairns, the center’s medical director.
Related Link: http://www.bizjournals.com/triangle/blog/2012/06/unc-burn-center-sees-jump-in-occupancy.html

UNC’s Saskia Neher selected as 2012 Pew Scholar
The Chapel Hill Herald

Saskia B. Neher, Ph.D., assistant professor in the department of biochemistry and biophysics at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine, was one of 22 of America’s most promising scientists to be named Pew Scholars in the Biomedical Sciences by the Pew Charitable Trusts.

UNC law school lands $2.7M gift
The Triangle Business Journal

The UNC-Chapel Hill School of Law has received a $2.7 million gift from the Kathrine R. Everett Charitable Trust. The donation consists of two separate contributions. The first, totaling $2.4 million, will fund at least six full-tuition Everett Chancellors’ Scholarships for promising law students from N.C. The remaining $300,000 will endow the Everett Enrichment Fund, which provides program support to all students awarded Chancellors’ Scholarships.
UNC Release: http://uncnews.unc.edu/content/view/5406/107/

Aquifers at risk (Letter to the Editor)
The News & Observer (Raleigh)

The June 25 Point of View article by Peter A. Coclanis, “Water on our minds,” made a strong case for the importance of water to our civilization. Missing, however, was any mention of the tremendous amount of water expended in the process of fracking. Not only does this process cut into the amount of water available, but the process also leads to contamination of our aquifers, which we need for human survival. Let’s hope that the UNC-Chapel Hill research focus on water will draw attention to the danger and cost of fracking.

Finding Jesus
The News-Record (Greensboro)

Bart Ehrman, chairman of the department of religious studies at UNC-Chapel Hill, asks and answers in his new book an audacious question for someone on the public payroll in the Bible Belt.


Issues and Trends

Gov. Perdue to veto budget bill
North Carolina News Network

At a press conference on Friday morning, Gov. Bev Perdue indicated that she would veto a $20.2 billion budget bill approved by the General Assembly.  Perdue had asked the leadership in the House and Senate to put more money toward public education.  She said on Friday that the response she received was basically one of "take it, or leave it."

UNC Health Care board changed in finalized bill
The Associated Press

The General Assembly has agreed to give more authority to the University of North Carolina system's governing board in choosing who will oversee its state hospital system. Thursday's final approval by the Legislature seeks to cement a facet of a deal reached last month between UNC Health Care and WakeMed Health & Hospitals that ended its high-profile fight.
Related Link: http://www.newsobserver.com/2012/06/28/2166614/unc-health-care-board-changed.html#storylink=misearch

Center’s ‘heat map’ plots state’s demographics
The Triangle Business Journal

… Formed in 1979, the center is an arm of the Chapel Hill-based General Administration of the University of North Carolina system and operates with a staff of six people and an annual budget of $1.3 million, with state funds accounting for about 30 percent of its budget.

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