Here is a sampling of links and notes about Carolina people and programs cited recently in the media:
International Coverage
The BBC
Syria crisis: Hints of a US-Muslim divide on Obama plan
Sept. 4
At an Islamic conference in Washington DC, the BBC's Tara McKelvey found delegates split about President Obama's plan to attack Syria. … Minhaj Baqai, a student at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, described the situation as "a modern-day holocaust.” http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-23964574
National Coverage
Sequencing baby's genome: a help in treatment or too much information?
The Los Angeles Times
Sept. 4
Diapers? Check. Infant car seat? Check. Comprehensive genome analysis? Roger that, too.
For thousands of newborns born in and around Boston; San Francisco; Kansas City, Missouri; and North Carolina over the next several years, a full genomic sequencing may be among the medical tests conducted in the first days of baby's life. … a $20-million bucket of grants announced this week by the National Institutes of Health will help decide whether such genomic analysis should be among the routine screenings conducted on all newborns. … to be explored over the next five years at the medical centers of UC San Francisco, UC Berkeley and the University of North Carolina, and at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, Boston Children's Hospital and Children's Mercy Hospital in Kansas City.
http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-
sequencing-newborn-genome-20130904,0,4119608.story
Related links:
http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/09/05/researchers-study-
value-dna-analysis-in-screening-newborns/#ixzz2e1VXfRfr
http://news.sciencemag.org/biology/2013/09/nih-studies-
explore-promise-sequencing-babies%E2%80%99-genomes
NFL offering millions for helmet innovations
USA TODAY Sports
Sept. 4
The NFL launched a $10 million incentive program Wednesday aimed at finding better shock absorbent materials for helmets and other technological advances to protect the brain from concussions. …Kevin Guskiewicz, University of North Carolina researcher and a member of the NFL's Head, Neck and Spine Committee, said the league is ready to try sensors on NFL players for the first time this season. …
http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/2013/09/04/helmets
-concussions-roger-goodell/2768237/
Related link:
http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/09/04/nfl-moving-closer-to-using-helmet-sensors/
Conservative student group at University of North Carolina claims political bias robbed it of funding
Fox News
Sept. 4
Conservatives at the University of North Carolina say the Tar Heel student government plays favorites when it comes to doling out budgets to campus groups, and they rank somewhere below self-professed anarchists. The College Republicans of the school's Chapel Hill campus say their request for $8,000 to fund guest speakers Townhall.com editor and Fox News Contributor Katie Pavlich and filmmaker Ann McElhinney got chopped to just $3,000 because the Student Congress doesn't share their politics. …
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/09/04/conservative-student-
group-at-unc-claims-funding-lowered-because-political-bias/#ixzz2e1LZmTdy
UNC panel recommendations revealing
ESPN.com (blog)
Sept. 4
North Carolina's athletics department has not had a very good year. Actually, check that: UNC athletics has not had a very good five years. … but this quote from athletics director Bubba Cunningham is encouraging: “The infusion of money into college athletics has been tremendous in the last 30 years, and I don’t think anyone understood what that was going to mean to the institution,” he said. …
http://espn.go.com/blog/north-carolina-basketball/
post/_/id/13451/whats-next-for-north-carolina-athletics
State & Local Coverage
Pharma pioneer, investing tycoon Ingram to receive NACD Lifetime Achievement Award
Triangle Business Journal
Sept. 5
GlaxoSmithKline spearhead and venture capitalist Bob Ingram is being honored again, this time with the National Association of Corporate Directors’ 2013 Lifetime Achievement Award. …Ingram currently serves as chairman of Elan Corporation and lead director of Valeant Pharmaceuticals International and Cree (Nasdaq: CREE). … It was Ingram and Cree co-founder Neal Hunter, for example, whose cash initially fueled Novan Therapeutics, a dermatology company born out of UNC-Chapel Hill that’s already generating buzz in wound care and acne research. …
http://www.bizjournals.com/triangle/news/2013/09/04/
investing-tycoon-ingram-to-receive.html
State support for new resort? Report: Legislators against county plans benefited from Harrah's
The Star (Shelby)
Sept. 4
Cleveland County leaders hope the Catawba Indian tribe will create a money trail for the region with their plans to build and operate a resort and casino near I-85 comparable to Harrah's Cherokee. …According to a 2011 UNC study, more than 3.6 million people visited Harrah's Cherokee in 2010 and nearly $390 million was generated into the local economy that year.
http://www.shelbystar.com/news/local/state-support-for-new-
resort-report-legislators-against-county-plans-benefited-from-harrah-s-1.197502
Issues & Trends
The Syllabus: State spending, tuition and numbers
The News and Record (Greensboro; blog)
Sept. 4
It's a little too easy to blame rising tuition on faculty salaries (professors use TAs to teach and grade and they get their summers off!), administrative bloat, the easy availability of student loans and miscellaneous waste. The real reason, at least for state universities, is declining state support.…
http://www.news-record.com/blogs/the_syllabus/
article_503d8f1c-1590-11e3-b1d2-0019bb30f31a.html
Trouble for Teens
Chapel Hill News/News & Observer (letter to the editor)
Sept. 4
UNC Board of Governors vice chairman and farmer Fred Grainger pleads for more low-skilled foreign workers in his Sept. 3 Point of View piece, “A critical need for a workable visa plan”:
Congress ought to hear such pleas while thinking about the already dismal prospects for America’s young …The plunging teen employment rate is likely to mean trouble for this generation of young workers of all races.”
http://www.newsobserver.com/2013/09/04/
3163912/tom-shuford-help-teens-find-work.html
Winston-Salem State U. to Investigate Alleged Campaigning in Class
The Chronicle of Higher Education
Sept. 4
A committee at Winston-Salem State University, in North Carolina, will investigate an incident in which a candidate for city council allegedly campaigned during a political-science class.
http://chronicle.com/blogs/ticker/jp/winston-salem-state-u-to-investigate-alleged-campaigning-in-class
Related link:
http://myfox8.com/2013/09/04/wssu-names-panel-
to-investigate-city-council-candidate-campaigning-in-class/
Point was aimed at UNC faculty
The Observer (Fayetteville; Letter to the Editor)
Sept. 4
Rebecca J. Britton, past president of North Carolina Advocates for Justice (formerly known as the North Carolina Academy of Trial Lawyers), failed in her recent op-ed ("Work to reduce medical errors," Aug. 28) to address the two significant points in my earlier op-ed ("Let's find a litigation vaccine" Aug. 18) regarding legal fees and the UNC School of Medicine faculty acting as mercenaries to raise funds for the medical school.
http://m.fayobserver.com/articles?path=/
articles/2013/09/04/1279835