uncnews.unc.edu

Here is a sampling of links and notes about Carolina people and programs cited recently in the media:

National Coverage

Kennedy's cancer puts focus on quality of life
The Associated Press
...Time is important to any cancer patient. Quality of life, not just how much life they can squeeze out, is increasingly the focus for people with a terminal illness, cancer specialists say. It also is one of the chief goals of treatments for brain tumors, since these therapies typically do not buy much time. "The advances that we've made in prolonging survival aren't as big as we've liked them to be, but people have stayed at a good quality of life right up to the end," said Dr. Matthew Ewend, neurosurgery chief at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

How Will Warmer Oceans Affect Sea Life?
Scientific American
This June, the world's oceans reached 17 degrees Celsius, their highest average temperature since record keeping for these data began in the 19th century. And a new experiment suggests that those balmier waters might mean big changes for the marine food chain. Marine ecologist Mary O'Connor of the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and colleagues at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill set up five four-liter "microcosms" of seawater filled with microorganisms from the Bogue Sound estuary on the North Carolina coast.
Related Link:
http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2009/826/3?rss=1
UNC Release:
http://uncnews.unc.edu/content/view/2805/74/

ATF traces source of fireworks explosion
The Associated Press
Electric igniters being pushed into fireworks exploded inside a truck in North Carolina, killing four crew members July 4 on Ocracoke Island, N.C., according to a report from federal investigators. The Virginian-Pilot of Norfolk requested the report from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. The report says agents got the information from a July 4 interview with someone at the University of North Carolina Burn Center in Chapel Hill.

Regional Coverage

Helmet chip could prevent heatstroke
The Denver Post (Colorado)
The genesis of HotHead Sports' heat-sensing football helmet came not on the sidelines, but on a sizzling rooftop in Puerto Rico. ...According to the National Center for Catastrophic Sport Injury Research at the University of North Carolina, about four high school football players die each year from heat-related illnesses. Since 1955, there have been 117 heatstroke fatalities in football. Last year, six football-related heatstroke deaths were reported, four at the high school level — the most reported since 1972.

State and Local Coverage

UNC student's final call was calm, chilling
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Minutes before he was shot to death by an Archdale police officer early Sunday, a UNC-Chapel Hill student called an emergency dispatcher from his speeding SUV, claimed to have a 9 mm pistol in his back pocket and said that he had been drinking.
Related Links:
http://www.heraldsun.com/pages/full_story/push?article-Courtland+Smith+remembered+as+
a+true+leader%20&id=3268853-Courtland+Smith+remembered+as+a+true+leader
http://www.news-record.com/content/2009/08/26/article/911_call_released_in_unc_students_death
http://dailytarheel.com/content/hundreds-gather-mourn-courtland-smith

911 call released in student shooting
WTVD-TV (ABC/Raleigh)
Authorities released a recording of a 911 call Wednesday made by a University of North Carolina student minutes before he was shot and killed by a police officer in Randolph County. Courtland Smith, 20, of Houston, Texas, died Sunday morning along Interstate 85 after he called 911 to report he was feeling suicidal.
Related Links:
http://orange.mync.com/site/orange/news|Sports|Lifestyles/story/40834/
officials-release-911-tape-of-unc-student-shooting
http://www.myfox8.com/wghp-courtland-smith-911-call-090826,0,3620420.story
http://news14.com/content/local_news/triangle/613846/friends-say
-goodbye-to-fraternity-president-at-memorial/

Through challenges, Elizabeth Edwards makes her mark
News 14 Carolina
The promotion of the upcoming North Carolina Literary Festival brought Elizabeth Edwards to the University of North Carolina campus at Chapel Hill Wednesday. There, she talked about her recently released second book, "Resilience: Reflections on the Burdens and Gifts of Facing Life's Adversities."
UNC Release:
http://uncnews.unc.edu/content/view/2808/73/

Elizabeth Edwards remembers Kennedy, pitches book, festival
The Herald-Sun (Durham)
Elizabeth Edwards on Wednesday remembered U.S. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., who died Tuesday of cancer, as "an extraordinarily compassionate man." ...Edwards -- wife of former senator, vice presidential and presidential candidate John Edwards -- made her comments during a wide-ranging session with reporters at Wilson Library at UNC Chapel Hill to announce the N.C. Literary Festival, to be held Sept. 10-13 at UNC. Edwards will be at the festival Sept. 12 to discuss her book, "Resilience: Reflections on the Burdens and Gifts of Facing Life's Adversities."
Related Link:
http://www.newsobserver.com/politics/politicians/edwards/story/1663819.html

Thorp Takes CEO Approach To Academics
WCHL 1360-AM (Chapel Hill)
To say the least, Holden Thorp’s first year as UNC Chancellor wasn’t easy. It featured the worst budget crisis since the Great Depression. On the other hand, the university had a record-breaking year for grants and contracts. The growth of the grants was not enough to offset the 60-million dollars in cuts the university was forced to make because of a reduction in funding from the General Assembly.

Where to Harness the Wind
WHQR-FM (Wilmington)
A new study on harnessing offshore winds finds the waters off Dare County are ideal for wind turbines. The study's being presented Thursday to the Coastal Resource Commission. The study gauged the strongest winds off the coast of Dare County. And about eight miles out, in federal waters, the sediment is strong enough to anchor wind turbines. It's a location that would also not interfere with commercial fishing. But UNC-Chapel Hill Professor Pete Peterson, says there's a hitch.
Related Link:
http://www2.wnct.com/nct/news/state_regional/article/coastal_
commission_to_hear_about_wind_study/48227/

UNC exceeds its limit (Editorial)
The News & Record (Greensboro)
The five starting players on the UNC Tar Heels' national championship basketball team this year came from New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Missouri and California. Carolina's outstanding basketball program always attracts top players from across the country. The same is true of classroom stars. Half the university's Morehead-Cain scholars are residents of other states.

Is there a chef in the house?
The Chapel Hill News
As a chef at a Ritz Carlton and other fairly fancy restaurants, Shawn Dolan saw his share of customers with dietary restraints. But with his new job came an unusual challenge: A woman who couldn't eat gluten, eggs, dairy, soy or nuts without sickening the young baby she was nursing. ...But such was the puzzle facing the new executive chef at UNC Hospitals. The woman's 13-month-old child was having an allergic reaction to something, and doctors were doing the process-of-elimination thing to figure it out.

Spize Cafe opens in Raleigh: "Ooh, that gave me a jolt!"
Independent Weekly
In another online food project, UNC-Chapel Hill students from the school of journalism and mass communication launched their latest multimedia project—Powering a Nation: The Quest for Energy in a Changing USA. It's an impressive site, which features a section titled "The High Energy Diet," that includes an interview with author Michael Pollan discussing our nation's food system and its use of fossil fuel energy.

Airport Authority: Closed meeting was not in violation
The Macon County News
Alarm bells went off when it was learned that an unannounced, closed meeting had been held with representatives of the county Airport Authority, the state Department of Transportation and the Federal Aviation Administration in attendance. ...Professor David Lawrence of the University of North Carolina School of Government at Chapel Hill agreed that, as described, the event seemed not to constitute a violation. Lawrence has written a short book on the state’s Open Meetings Law.

Give us choice (Letter to the Editor)
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
I'm a health-care provider and a consumer of health services. Currently I get my health care coverage by virtue of my service with the University of North Carolina here in Chapel Hill. When I started working for UNC in 1990, I paid $152 a month for coverage for my family, and I had four plans from which I could choose. (Paul Brinich, Chapel Hill)

Issues and Trends

Former UNC president William Friday remembers Sen. Kennedy
WRAL-TV (CBS/Raleigh)
Former University of North Carolina President William Friday remembers Sen. Kennedy, who died Tuesday night at his home on Cape Cod after a year-long struggle with brain cancer.

Duke bets big on a new cancer center
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
...It will follow the creation of a cancer center just down the road, UNC-Chapel Hill's N.C. Cancer Hospital, which will open next month. Officials at both universities say they plan to collaborate more and don't view each other as competition. "The number of cancer patients and the need for cancer care will outstrip our ability as a state to manage it," said Shelton Earp, director of UNC-CH's Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center. "We will both, unfortunately, have more than enough patients to take care of."