unc.edu/news

International Coverage

Birds' hatching order effects studied
United Press International
A U.S. biologist has found birds' first-laid eggs are the least likely to hatch, countering a belief that first-laid eggs have the best chance of survival. The researchers led by University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Assistant Professor Keith Sockman studied a population of Lincoln's sparrows in a remote stretch of Colorado's San Juan Mountains. They discovered first-laid eggs are the least likely to hatch.
UNC News Release:
http://uncnews.unc.edu/news/science-and-technology/early-bird-doesnt-
always-get-worm-unc-researcher-finds.html

National Coverage

Born Bathed in Carolina Blue (Opinion-Editorial Column)
The Wall Street Journal
The seeds of pulling for an elite team like the North Carolina Tar Heels get planted early—in my case, in the womb. My mother attended UNC-Chapel Hill, and since most of my kin carry either degrees or employment records (or both) from the university, there was little chance I'd bleed anything but Carolina blue.

Has Serious Academic Reform Of College Athletics Arrived?
The Wall Street Journal
...The college-sports sanctioning body is toughening up on schools that fail to meet minimum academic standards. The NCAA has long had its Graduation Success Rate (GSR), a six-year rolling average that measures how successful schools are at graduating athletes. ...On average, Division 1 schools graduate about 77% of their athletes, according to the latest numbers from the NCAA. But the numbers run the gamut. For instance, looking at the Associated Press Top 25 for the week of March 10, No. 1 North Carolina graduated 86% of its basketball players using the NCAA's GSR measure, while No. 2 Memphis graduated just 40%.

FDA Identifies Contaminant in Heparin Batches
The Wall Street Journal
A contaminant found in recalled batches of the blood-thinner heparin was deliberately altered in a way that mimicked the real drug, the Food and Drug Administration said, a finding that will add to pressure on U.S. regulators and pharmaceutical companies to step up oversight of burgeoning Chinese drug production. ...The extra sulfate would make the chondroitin sulfate more chemically similar to heparin, and it could have clumped together with the actual heparin in a way that would make it difficult to detect through most standard processing, said Jian Liu, an associate professor at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

How able are Americans to bear the costs of war?
The Christian Science Monitor
War in Iraq presents a paradox on the American home front: The military effort has had little discernible impact on most Americans, but by some forecasts, the Iraq effort will end up costing more per citizen than many US wars with higher numbers of casualties – Korea, Vietnam, and the Civil War. ..."It's just a number to the American people," says Richard Kohn, a military historian at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Campus Violence, Viewed From Afar
Inside Higher Ed
The message came from all corners after the Virginia Tech and Northern Illinois University attacks. It’s timely again this month after the violent deaths of students in separate incidents near the campuses of Auburn University, the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Related Links:
http://www.jewishpress.com/displayContent_new.cfm?contentid=30805&mode=a&
sectionid=1&contentname=Murdered_UNC_Student_Remembered_
As_Force_For_Unity&recnum=1
http://www.newsreview.com/reno/Content?oid=640061

Regional Coverage

Relax, no pharmaceuticals found in our drinking water
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
...Drinking water has been in the news of late. An Associated Press investigation, published in newspapers nationwide on March 11, found that an array of pharmaceuticals have been found in the drinking water supplies of at least 41 million Americans. Some findings included traces of medicine taken for heart problems and cholesterol. ...In December, the county authorized the University of North Carolina to conduct tests for pharmaceuticals and personal care products at three locations: Our water source (Lake Lanier), drinking water and treated wastewater at the F. Wayne Hill Water Resources Center in Buford.

Guns in Workplace: A badly flawed bill
The Times-Union (Jacksonville, Fla.)
A modified version of the "guns in the workplace" bill has emerged in the Florida House, unfortunately. The bill grants many employees the right to carry a firearm to work, even if the employer objects, as long as it's left in a parked car. ...To the contrary, the Florida Retail Federation - citing a University of North Carolina study - says homicides are five times more likely at work sites where firearms are permitted than where they are not.

State and Local Coverage

Easley offers Carson reward
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
The UNC-Chapel Hill Board of Trustees paid $25,000 in rewards for tips that led to the arrests of Eve Carson's alleged killers. Now the governor's office is offering $10,000 more.

Wright faces possible vote today to kick him out of N.C. House
The Associated Press
No member of the General Assembly has been removed from office in nearly 130 years. That streak stands to end today with Rep. Thomas Wright. ...“It has not occurred during my lifetime,” said Joe Ferrell, an expert on the General Assembly who began working at the School of Government at UNC Chapel Hill since 1964.

Judge scolds Johnston DA's staff
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
A judge scolded the Johnston County district attorney's staff Tuesday for failing to turn over hundreds of pages of evidence to a defense attorney until days before the start of a murder trial. ...The reprimand carries no additional punishment other than the public scrutiny, said Jim Drennan, professor at the University of North Carolina's Institute of Government.

New UNC anti-war group rallies to its own drum beat
The Herald-Sun (Durham)/The Chapel Hill Herald
On the fifth anniversary of the launching of a controversial war, the UNC Coalition Against the War marched to the beat of its own drum. A line of percussionists rhythmically pounded out beats as more than 100 members of the newly formed coalition -- made up of a number of groups on campus calling for an end to the Iraq war -- held a rally in the Pit on Wednesday afternoon before marching to downtown, where traffic was temporarily blocked at the intersection of Franklin and Columbia streets.
Related Links:
http://www.newsobserver.com/264/story/1006057.html
http://www.nbc17.com/midatlantic/ncn/news.apx.-content-articles-
NCN-2008-03-19-0031.html

Steps toward reducing prostate cancer risk (Column)
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Can the food you eat prevent or help treat prostate cancer? Researchers have yet to make a definite link between diet and prostate cancer, but some sensible steps may lower men's risk and help protect against other diseases and health conditions at the same time. (Suzanne Havala Hobbs is a registered dietitian and a clinical assistant professor in the Department of Health Policy at UNC-Chapel Hill.)

Guillory named to e-mail policy panel
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Journalist and UNC-Chapel Hill faculty member Ferrel Guillory was announced Wednesday as the first member of a committee set up by Gov. Mike Easley to decide whether his administration should change its practices for handling e-mail.

Issues and Trends

Should Lovette have been in jail? (Editorial)
The Herald-Sun (Durham)
Allegations of the court system botching what should have been a first-degree burglary case deserve a thorough investigation, as Mayor Bill Bell has requested. Most burglaries don't garner that level of attention, but this one is different. The perpetrator of the Nov. 7 crime was Laurence Lovette Jr., 17, also charged with the murders of UNC student body president Eve Carson and Duke grad student Abhijit Mahato.

Durham must stop trying to administer justice on the cheap (Opinion-Editorial Column)
The Herald-Sun (Durham)
...The recent murders of UNC and Duke students are horrendous. They are just the most recent, more newsworthy murders. The loss of these people fully justifies using the facts and circumstances surrounding their deaths to fully examine what went wrong, what can be improved. We must demand that the appropriate changes be funded.

Lovette evaded burglary charge?
The Herald-Sun (Durham)
Police appear to have passed up a chance in November to lodge a first-degree burglary charge against a Durham teenager now charged with killing two area college students.