unc.edu/news

International Coverage

Obama avoids black neighborhoods
United Press International
Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., has been avoiding stops in black communities in his quest to become the first black major party nominee for the U.S. presidency. Isaac Unah, a political science professor at the University of North Carolina, told the Boston Globe that black voters appear to understand Obama's campaign strategy.

Meyer: I was 'verballed' by Murdoch (Blog)
The Guardian (United Kingdom)
For a couple of years I have been quoting, and gently poking fun, at Philip Meyer for his prediction that newspapers will disappear by 2043. It is the "fact" everyone is supposed to remember from his book, The Vanishing Newspaper. ...Meyer, professor of journalism at the university of North Carolina, said that Murdoch, when addressing an American Society of Newspaper Editors' conference, mentioned a chart in his book about the decline in the number of adults reading papers every day and then "extended the line" to come up with the date April 2043.

National Coverage

Clinton Pushes Hard in North Carolina
Time
If candidates go where they know they'll win, then Hillary Clinton has the western part of North Carolina shored up for the May 6 primary. ..."Both Clinton and Obama have a lot at stake here," says Ferrel Guillory, director of UNC's Program on Public Life at the university's Center for the Study of the American South, "Because of Obama's dust-up with his pastor, he needs North Carolina to get him back on the winning track to show that he can rebound in a rather large state."

Obama, Clinton intensify pursuit of white working class
The Christian Science Monitor
Benny McIntyre represents Hillary Rodham Clinton's strength and Barack Obama's challenge here in the Tar Heel State. ..."That has been a factor here, but I don't think race is going to be as significant as it was several decades ago," says Thad Beyle, a political scientist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. "We have much more easygoing discussions now."

Indiana and North Carolina Contests Pose Challenges for Clinton, Obama
The Wall Street Journal
The Indiana and North Carolina primaries have forced Democratic presidential candidates Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton to establish their credentials in two economies that could scarcely be more distinct. ..."This state is not Pennsylvania," said Ferrel Guillory, a longtime observer of North Carolina's political scene and director of the University of North Carolina's Program on Public Life.

Which Genetic Tests Are Really Worth Getting?
The Wall Street Journal
With Congress poised to eliminate a big barrier to genetic testing for risk of certain diseases, consumers still face challenges in figuring out which ones offer useful information. ..."You get a lot of information, but very little knowledge," says Howard McLeod, a professor at the University of North Carolina.

Regional Coverage

Clinton gaining in key N.C.
The Baltimore Sun (Maryland)
Digging his plastic fork into a succulent mound of chopped pork, John Davis, 64, says he'll vote for Hillary Clinton next week but "not because I like her. Because I have no other choice." ..."This is not a state that gives anybody landslides," said Ferrel Guillory, director of the Program on Public Life at the University of North Carolina.

State and Local Coverage

UNC will bestow honorary degrees
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
A Nobel Prize-winning chemist, a highly accredited genome scientist, one of Canada's most powerful women, one of the United States' most celebrated performing artists, and a North Carolina state senator will receive honorary degrees May 11 at UNC-Chapel Hill's spring commencement.
UNC News Release:
http://uncnews.unc.edu/news/campus-and-community/unc-to-recognize-
commencement-speaker-four-others-with-honorary-degrees.html

A pay picture complicated by immigrants, family size (Opinion-Editorial Column)
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
In recent weeks we've been blitzed by stories about the stagnation -- even decline -- of family and household incomes in the United States over the past generation. Many leading journalists have written powerful pieces about this subject, the central point being that the boom of the past generation has bypassed most Americans. (Peter A. Coclanis is associate provost for international affairs and Albert R. Newsome professor of history at UNC-Chapel Hill.)

Black in America: two men, two visions
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
For many black voters, the break between Sen. Barack Obama and his former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr., presents a conflict between a new vision of race in America and civil rights-era disaffection toward the government. ...Some people expect Obama to share the views he heard at church about race or the U.S. government or AIDS. Yet few would make any such assumption of white presidential candidates, said the Rev. Peter Gomes, a visiting professor at UNC-Chapel Hill and Duke Divinity School and the pastor of Memorial Church at Harvard University.

Are male media types dissing Clinton?
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Comments by male pundits and political analysts about Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton have so often crossed the line that, by now, even a seemingly innocent metaphor can get a guy in trouble. ...Lois Boynton, associate professor at the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Journalism and Mass Communication, sees a culture struggling clumsily with something many other countries have already experienced: the possibility of a female leader.

GOP candidate Paul to visit UNC
The Herald-Sun (Durham)
Republican presidential candidate and Texas Congressman Ron Paul will appear at UNC's Carmichael Auditorium today, in addition to a previously announced stop at Duke University tonight. The UNC event is free and open to the public and begins at 3:30 p.m.

Follow 'Paper Trail of ancient life'
The Chapel Hill News
Morehead Planetarium and Science Center at UNC presents the next topic of its Current Science Forums series today, with "Following the Paper Trail of Ancient Life." Recent findings of cellulose microfibers in salt deposits by a UNC professor could change how life is looked for on other planets and push back the earliest direct evidence of biological material on Earth by about 200 million years, according to UNC News Services.

Issues and Trends

UNC, Duke low-income student ratios lag
The Triangle Business Journal
Despite the high-publicity launches of initiatives at Duke University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to get more low-income students on campus, federal grant information suggests that poor students are still having trouble accessing the two schools.

Probation revoked for suspect in Carson case
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Before Demario Atwater had his probation revoked in a Wake County jail courtroom Thursday, his attorney made the same claim Atwater himself made to a judge in Granville County nearly nine months before his arrest in the March shooting death of Eve Carson, the UNC-Chapel Hill student body president.
Related Links:
http://news14.com/content/headlines/595400/probation-revoked-for-
carson-suspect/Default.aspx
http://www2.journalnow.com/content/2008/may/02/carson-case-
suspects-probation-lifted/?news