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Carolina in the News

International Coverage

Study shows alarming return of syphilis
The Daily News (South Africa)
Syphilis, which was largely eliminated in China between 1960 and 1980, has returned with a vengeance and urgent intervention is needed to curb the epidemic, according to researchers in China and the United States. ..."Syphilis has returned to China with a vengeance. The data demonstrates a syphilis epidemic of such scope and magnitude that it will require terrific effort to intervene," said lead researcher Myron S. Cohen, director of the Centre for Infectious Diseases at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine.

National Coverage

Durham: Don't Blame Us for Lacrosse Case
The Associated Press
The city of Durham says it should be dropped from a lawsuit filed by three former Duke lacrosse players wrongly accused of rape, arguing that the plaintiffs were overreaching in an effort to put taxpayers on the hook for a prosecutor's mistakes. ...S. Elizabeth Gibson, a law professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, said the bankruptcy filing temporarily stops the lawsuit from proceeding against Nifong. It can, however, continue against the other defendants.

The State of Black Student First-Year Enrollments at the Nation’s Highest-Ranked
Colleges and Universities
The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education
...For six of the past eight years the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill stood atop our rankings as the high-ranking university with the largest percentage of black freshmen. This year, Chapel Hill drops to third place. Yet blacks still make up 11.1 percent of the entering class, down from 12.3 percent a year ago.

Regional Coverage

The controversy over fibromyalgia (Opinion-Editorial Column)
The Reporter News (Abilene, Texas)
Two classic questions that confront medical science are how to define disease and how to measure and treat pain. Both questions are brought into sharp relief by the controversy over fibromyalgia. ...Nortin Hadler, a professor of medicine at the University of North Carolina, claims as much: "These people live under a cloud," he told the Times. "And the more they seem to be around the medical establishment, the sicker they get." (Paul Campos is a writer for the Reporter News.)

Study questions efficacy of antidepressant drugs
The Oregonian (Portland, Ore.)
The portrayal of antidepressant drugs in medical journals significantly overstates their effectiveness, according to a study led by Oregon researchers. ...Drug companies aren't solely to blame for nondisclosure, said Dr. Lisa Abaid with the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Subpar Ratings For the Ratings Agencies
The New York Sun (N.Y.)
Much has been written, and there will be more to come, about the failure of Moody's Investors Service and Standard & Poor's to anticipate the subprime mortgage debacle. ...An online chronicler of news on the sector, MortgageDaily.com, reported in January 2005 on a subprime study by the University of North Carolina's Center for Community Capitalism.

From $20,000 to $2 -- local woman's "Jeopardy!" run ends
The Daily Press (Newport News, Va.)
...Newport News native Rebecca Knickmeyer lost on Wednesday night's episode of the popular syndicated game show "Jeopardy!" One night after unseating the champion and winning $20,001, she was unseated herself and finished with just $2. But watching from her home in Chapel Hill, N.C., where she works as a psychobiologist at University of North Carolina, she realized that it wasn't so bad.

State and Local Coverage

UNC Nutrition Research Institute getting started
The Kannapolis Citizen
The UNC Nutrition Research Institute is wasting no time making a name for itself locally and worldwide. ...Dr. Steve Zeisel, director of the Nutrition Research Institute in Kannapolis, has some help organizing the event from colleagues at Boston University and Duke University.

Shaking baby syndrome (Editorial)
The Herald-Sun (Durham)
For some stressed out parents, or caretakers, the sound of a wailing baby is enough to make them lose their cool. ...Led by UNC pediatrics professor Desmond Runyan, the program is a promising and welcome attempt to prevent parents from ruining their lives and those of their infant children.
UNC News Release:
http://uncnews.unc.edu/news/health-and-medicine/unc-duke-lead-first-statewide-
shaken-baby-prevention-research-project-in-u.s..html
Related Links:
http://www.bizjournals.com/triangle/stories/2008/01/14/daily16.html
http://www.roanoke-chowannewsherald.com/articles/2008/01/16/opinion/column2.txt

Benefits of screening preschoolers cited
The Chapel Hill Herald
Preschoolers can benefit when early childhood programs use a simple and inexpensive mental health screening process that flags emergent socio-emotional problems that can affect future school success, according to research by UNC's FPG Child Development Institute.
...Yet, only 21 percent of children nationally who might benefit from mental health screening and evaluations actually receive them, said Oscar Barbarin, FPG fellow and the author of a paper in the American Journal of Orthopsyhiatry that explains the studies.

Brody is a model for Moldova health
The Daily Reflector (Greenville)
During a visit to Greenville on Wednesday, Moldova's minister of health saw how medicine in eastern North Carolina and Moldova are worlds apart, yet very much the same. ...At the first North Carolina-Moldova Health Summit, held Monday at the University of North Carolina School of Public Health, U.S. Ambassador to Moldova Michael Kirby said universities throughout the state are helping promote primary care as a medical emphasis in Moldova.

Mackey: Rules were all obeyed
The Charlotte Observer
Charlotte lawyer Nick Mackey says he did nothing wrong in organizing precincts during his bid to become Mecklenburg sheriff, yet more complaints arose Wednesday and the Democratic Party said it's considering tighter rules. ...Precinct organization problems don't appear to violate N.C. elections laws, which focus on irregularities in general elections and primaries, not internal party votes, said Michael Crowell of the Institute of Government at UNC Chapel Hill.

Former lacrosse coach wants suit changed
The Herald-Sun (Durham)
Former Duke men's lacrosse coach Mike Pressler wants to back away from a claim that his one-time employers violated the terms of a confidential settlement arising from his forced ouster in 2006. ...A media-law lawyer, Amanda Martin, said Pressler and his lawyers will have to establish that the comments made about him went beyond mere statements of opinion. "Things that cannot be proven to be true or false cannot give rise to a libel or slander suit," said Martin, a private-practice lawyer and sometime instructor of media law at UNC Chapel Hill.

Issues and Trends

N.C.'s cabinet of inertia for public education
The Charlotte Observer
A shotgun marriage usually works about as well as you'd expect. It may take care of appearances, but it can't make anybody feel real love. That's one way to describe North Carolina's so-called Education Cabinet, which consists of the people who lead the state's public school, university and community college systems. ..."There's not a real working relationship between the three bodies," said Erskine Bowles, president of the University of North Carolina system.

Franklin hospital pleas made
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Critics continued on Wednesday to blast the partnership of Rex Healthcare and a Florida for-profit health care company for planning to move a hospital from central Franklin County to a location near Wake County. ...Opponents say that goes against the mission of Rex's owner, UNC Hospital Systems, which calls for health care for all.
Related Link:
http://www.newsobserver.com/news/story/885413.html