Here is a sampling of links and notes about Carolina people and programs cited recently in the media:
National Coverage
Fed said to widen commodities review to Goldman, Morgan Stanley
The Chicago Tribune
Oct. 1
The Federal Reserve has expanded its scrutiny of banks' physical commodities operations to encompass businesses run by Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley that Congress had previously authorized. …After the Fed granted Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley the right to convert into banks in September 2008, the firms got five years to divest any non-financial businesses that didn't comply with the Bank Holding Company Act. … Saule Omarova, a law professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, said the five-year grace period to convert non-financial operations "strongly implies the Fed has to make that determination." She wrote a draft report last year on banks' roles in commodities and shared it with lawmakers.
Product Testing to Foster Care System
Science Daily (website)
Oct. 1
Ever since … the 1940s, businesses have been devising trial runs for a small number of consumers to test merchandise prior to mass production. Today, companies still make important changes based on this "usability testing" before taking their goods to the wider market, and researchers from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill are part of a team that says that what works for cell phones and video games may also work for human services
Regional Coverage
NC voter law intentionally discriminates, Holder says
The State (S.C.)
Oct. 1
The U.S. Justice Department’s lawsuit challenging North Carolina’s controversial voter ID law is the Obama administration’s latest forceful response to a Supreme Court decision that critics say gutted the 1965 Voting Rights Act. …“North Carolina has been in the middle of some of the most potent court cases in modern history about voting in redistricting,” said Ferrel Guillory, a political analyst at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.
Job training gains ground
The News-Journal (Pensacola, FL)
Oct. 1
Public schools, colleges and universities in Northwest Florida have not turned a deaf ear to the rising call for more workforce training. … Aside from education, the symposium’s last day also focused on other segments of the workforce. University of North Carolina professor James Johnson made a case that immigrants underpin the economy, paying taxes and creating jobs. “The growth of the U.S. economy is going to depend on immigrants,” he said.
State & Local Coverage
Government shutdown touches Triangle too
The Herald-Sun (Durham)
Oct. 1
The impact of the federal government shutdown was felt Tuesday in the Triangle, where … researchers [are] applying for and working under federal research dollars. Duke and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill officials indicated Tuesday that the short-term impact of the shutdown was minimal, but could have more significant effects on research funding in the longer term. … James W. Dean Jr., executive vice chancellor and provost at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, said in an email to the campus Tuesday that the university planned for the shutdown scenario and was prepared for it. “Currently, the university is operating on a normal basis,” he said.
Speaker extols benefits of globalization, student exchanges
The Mount Airy News
Oct. 2
Loida Peterson spoke at the Mount Airy Rotary Club’s luncheon at Cross Creek County Club Tuesday about economic as well as educational benefits of globalization through student cultural exchange programs. Peterson taught at Surry Community College for eight years and continues to teach Portuguese at SCC in addition to teaching at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.
Grand jury hands up indictments in UNC football-related cases
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Oct. 1
An Orange County grand jury heard from an investigator with the Secretary of State’s office this week on cases related to the 2010 football scandal at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Indictments were handed up in the cases, but court documents related to the charges were sealed and names were redacted.
Timeline of the UNC football scandal
WTVD-TV (ABC; Raleigh/Durham)
Oct. 1
The whole UNC football scandal has been a long and winding road with investigations of improper payments from sports agents, and academics on campus.
Issues & Trends
With U.S. Approval, Montana Sets Sex Assault Policy
Inside HigherEd
Oct. 2
The U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Education Department's Office for Civil Rights have approved the University of Montana's new sexual assault policy, cementing a resolution agreement that the federal government said would make Montana's procedures a "blueprint" for colleges nationwide. While some student activists and victims' rights advocates have lauded the terms of the settlement, which is more extensive than previous federal mandates, free speech organizations have expressed concern that Montana's policy is overbroad and violates the First Amendment. …
UNC-Charlotte fraternity under investigation
The News & Record (Greensboro)
Oct. 2
A fraternity at the University of North Carolina Charlotte has been suspended as college officials and law enforcement investigate a pledge's hospitalization. Authorities say an 18-year-old pledge of Pi Kappa Alpha was taken to a hospital Sept. 7 after failing to wake up during the fraternity's campout in Uwharrie National Forest. The student's blood alcohol level was 0.42, or more than five times the legal limit.
UNC system reviews security on campuses
The News & Observer
Oct. 1
The UNC system began a months-long review of security at its 17 campuses Tuesday. The initiative comes as several North Carolina universities are under the microscope of state and federal investigators.