Here is a sampling of links and notes about Carolina people and programs cited recently in the media:
State & Local Coverage
Conservationists' report links NC pellet mills with wetland clear-cutting
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Sensitive wetland forests in northeastern North Carolina are threatened by Europe’s voracious appetite for wood pellets, two environmental groups say in a new report that targets the Enviva pellet mill in Ahoskie. …Alan Weakley, a UNC Chapel Hill ecologist who helped produce the forest maps, said these lands promote water quality and support a variety of wildlife.“Hardwood wetland forests play a vital role in maintaining biodiversity in this eco-region, and increased industrial logging in these forests can have significant, negative impacts,” Weakley, who heads the UNC Herbarium, said in a news release accompanying the report.
UNC Budget Close to Completion
Chapelboro.com
UNC Provost Jim Dean says University leaders are in the process of putting the final touches on this year’s budget.“We’re on a fiscal year budget of July through June, but we can’t really do our budgeting until the legislature does their budgeting, and then the General Administration does their budget,” Dean says.
Surging Water Warnings
UNC-TV/Science
… "The storm surge is almost always the most dangerous,” says Rick Luettich, Director, The University of North Carolina Chapel Hill Institute of Marine Science. “If you are in a wind storm, there’s a good chance you cab survive. If you are in a flooding event then you have many fewer options.”
Experts: Watauga elections board broke no law
The Citizen-Times (Asheville)
Experts in government law say the chairman of the Watauga County Board of Elections broke no state law when he asked that a heated discussion during a board meeting be dropped from the minutes. The Winston-Salem Journal reports that UNC School of Government Professor Frayda Bluestein said the board can limit the detail in the official minutes as it sees fit.
Theater companies to collaborate on King play
The Durham News
This fall, two of North Carolina’s leading theater companies, PlayMakers Repertory Company and Triad Stage, will co-produce the regional premiere of “The Mountaintop” by Katori Hall. The play focuses on the last night in the life of Martin Luther King Jr.
UNC Release:
http://uncnews.unc.edu/content/view/6088/66/
Can commissioners turn their albatross into apartments for 20-somethings?
The Smoky Mountain News (Waynesville)
…So Haywood County, the town of Waynesville and the Haywood Advancement Foundation together commissioned the University of North Carolina School of Government to evaluate and recommend redevelopment options for the aging building, which affects both the county and town. … “It is hard to know unless you put it out to the market,” said William Lambe, director of UNC’s Community and Economic Development Program. “We could test those waters.”
Issues & Trends
Lost grant, sequestration taking toll on UNCG research funds
The Triad Business Journal
UNC-Greensboro saw a steep drop in the amount of research dollars brought to campus by outside sponsors in fiscal 2013 and also in the amount of money its faculty submitted proposals to win. According to a report prepared for UNCG trustees to review at their meeting Aug. 29, total awards for fiscal 2013 numbered 228, worth $27.1 million. That was down from 247 awards worth $47.8 million in fiscal 2012 and was the lowest number of awards and dollar value for any year included in the report, back to 2009.
NC students weighing in on voting controversy
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
The University of North Carolina Association of Student Governments, a student group representing all 17 state campuses, has passed a resolution denouncing the recent actions of newly installed Republican county board of elections in college towns. And they are urging the State Board of Elections to overturn the actions when they meet on September 3rd. The students are upset about the actions of the Watauga County Board of Elections in moving the voting place from Appalachian State University, and the Pasquotank Board of Elections in ruling that an Elizabeth City State University student was ineligible to run for city council because he did not meet the residency requirements.
UNCSA resumes search for chancellor
The Winston-Salem Journal
The search is back on for a new chancellor for the UNC School of the Arts. “We can't settle,” UNC System President Tom Ross said Tuesday in his address to the school’s search committee. “This institution is too valuable — not just to us, but to the country.” …James Moeser, a former chancellor at UNC Chapel Hill, has served as interim chancellor since Aug. 1.