uncnews.unc.edu

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

International Coverage

Opponents of US healthcare reform wield fear weapon
Reuters (Wire Service)
Opponents of U.S. healthcare reform have been wielding one of the most effective political weapons: fear. People who are frightened will cling to false beliefs even if they are proven repeatedly to be untrue, and effective politicians and lobbyists know this, says sociologist Andrew Perrin of the University of North Carolina. The administration of President Barack Obama will have to struggle to counter this powerful effect and may also have to make emotional appeals to do so, Perrin said.

National Coverage

Parenting and Food: Eat Your Peas. Or Don’t. Whatever.
The New York Times
...Cynthia M. Bulik, the director of the University of North Carolina Eating Disorders Program, explained that “diet” implies deprivation, “and deprivation goes into that whole mindset that, ‘I deserve something when this is over, and this is short term.’ And it can’t be. It’s got to roll right into a lifestyle.”

Coroner Rules Jackson's Death a Homicide
The Associated Press
Michael Jackson's death was a homicide caused primarily by the powerful anesthetic propofol and another sedative, the coroner announced Friday in a highly anticipated ruling increasing the likelihood of criminal charges against the pop star's doctor. ...Dr. David Zvara, anesthesia chairman at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, said it's difficult to determine what constitutes a fatal dose of propofol in someone receiving other sedatives. "It's hard to set any level because of the way those act in synergy," he said. Given after the sedative lorazepam, "Even a small dose of propofol might have a very large effect."

Soul-Searching on Facebook
The Washington Post
...Such fear of judgment plays an outsize role in how young adults express their religious views online, said Piotr Bobkowski, a doctoral student at the University of North Carolina who is in the midst of a two-year grant-funded survey of religion on MySpace. He has found that a significant portion of privately religious young adults -- almost a third in the case of Protestants -- avoid identifying themselves by their traditional sects.

5 College Majors On the Rise
The Chronicle of Higher Education
...David D. Potenziani, senior associate dean for planning, coordination, and administration at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's School of Public Health, says he hears regularly from physicians and hospital directors who want to hire information-technology workers with a strong understanding of health-care delivery systems, and from public-health agencies who need specialists who can make sense of data, such as medical-reimbursement records, to ground policy recommendations. The university is considering what kind of health-informatics program it might offer.

Ankle Circulation Could Warn of Future Strokes
HealthDay News
A simple test of blood circulation in the ankle could help doctors identify patients at high risk of suffering another stroke, researchers say. ...The test "may be appropriate for screening stroke/TIA patients who may be at high risk for vascular events," said lead researcher Dr. Souvik Sen, director of the Stroke Center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, in the news release. "The test is easily performed in less than 15 minutes at the physician's office or at bedside in hospitalized patients."

Regional Coverage

Atlanta schools soft on cheats?
The Atlanta Journal Constitutional
...Schools and districts typically do the initial investigation when allegations of cheating surface. Educators must report such improprieties to superiors; systems must report testing irregularities to the state. At least one national testing expert has questioned the practice of leaving the initial probe to school districts, which are measured by test results, too. “The incentives are for the districts to get high scores,” said Gregory Cizek, a University of North Carolina testing expert.

Local high school coaches take care to protect players from heat
The Philadelphia Daily News
...Public awareness of the dangers of playing football in the heat has ascended since the 2001 death of Korey Stringer, the 6-4, 335-pound Minnesota Vikings offensive lineman who died at age 27 of complications related to heat stroke. But that was just one of 114 deaths that have been attributed to heat stroke between 1960 and 2007 on all levels of football, according to a study conducted by Dr. Frederick Mueller at the University of North Carolina for the American Football Association in 2008. And experts say they could have been prevented.

Debunkers can’t change Bible’s truth (Column)
The Bangor Daily News (Maine)
Oh, no, not again! I’d never heard of Bart Ehrman until I saw his book “Jesus Interrupted, Revealing the Hidden Contradictions in the Bible (and Why We Don’t Know About Them)” on display at the library. A little research revealed the former pastor of Princeton Baptist Church, a leading authority on the New Testament and current professor of religious studies at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, has renounced his faith in the Bible as the inerrant infallible Word of God.

State and Local Coverage

UNC looks at DKE frat party
The Herald-Sun (Durham)
UNC officials are investigating whether there were violations of campus alcohol policies at a DKE fraternity party last Saturday night, but there are no indications that the party is linked in any way to the later shooting death of Courtland Benjamin Smith, Chancellor Holden Thorp said Friday.
UNC Chancellor's Blog:
http://holden.unc.edu/2009/08/learning-from-the-courtland-smith-tragedy/

Professor speaks up for consumers
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
In Bob Adler's first public hearing as a member of the Consumer Product Safety Commission, he listened to stories about deadly baby cribs and toddlers tumbling out windows of high-rise apartment buildings. ...President Barack Obama nominated Adler in May to become one of five commissioners overseeing the Consumer Product Safety Commission. Adler, a legal studies professor in UNC-Chapel Hill's business school for the past 22 years, now helps monitor the safety of 15,000 products used around the home, from toys to appliances.

Health care Q&A
The Herald-Sun (Durham)
What do the leaders of the state’s largest physician organization and the state’s largest health insurer have in common? What does the head of UNC Hospitals think of insurance companies? What’s a doctor’s idea of what the ideal health care system looks like? ...Jonathan Oberlander is an associate professor of Health Policy and Management at UNC Chapel Hill and author of “The Political Life of Medicare” and a frequent commentator on health care issues.

Viva, Ché!
The Herald-Sun (Durham)
Ernesto “Ché” Guevara was killed in Bolivia in 1967, but his image lives on, printed on countless T-shirts and posters. At UNC Chapel Hill’s Ackland Art Museum, that image is offered in multiple forms, beginning with a copy of Alberto Korda’s circa 1960 photo of Guevara with flowing hair, eyes looking into the distance, and characteristic black beret. ...The images and others can be found in an exhibit that opened this weekend at the Ackland at UNC, titled “Almost Now: Cuban Art, Cinema, and Politics in the 1960s and 1970s.”

Week's End (Editorial)
The Herald-Sun (Durham)
After everything Elizabeth Edwards has been through, many of us would pull the covers over our heads and tell the world to mind its own business....She's been on TV to promote her new book, aptly titled "Resilience: Reflections on the Burdens and Gifts of Facing Life's Adversities." She spoke on Wednesday to remember Sen. Edward Kennedy, and to announce she will attend the N.C. Literary Festival at UNC Chapel Hill Sept. 10-13.
UNC Release:
http://uncnews.unc.edu/content/view/2816/73/

From genocide to redemption (Column)
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
The spirited chanting and drumming started up again, and the murderer -- a skeletal man in his 60s -- made a beeline for me. I had just heard Mathias Sendegeya ask forgiveness for his part in the genocide that devastated Rwanda 15 years ago. Now he was ready to dance. ...A few dozen villagers turned out on a summer morning to greet 21 students from UNC-Chapel Hill with a ceremony of sober testimony, potent banana beer, chewy goat kebabs and traditional intore dancing. My wife, Donna LeFebvre, was their professor, but Sendegeya may have mistaken me for the group leader.

Statues at Capitol belie N.C.'s diversity
The Charlotte Observer
...It's not about numbers, though, said John Sanders, an author and researcher on the Capitol who is retired from the UNC Chapel Hill's School of Government. A moratorium on new statues and monuments was imposed in the 1980s for a sound reason, he said. Part of the Capitol's distinction as a historic landmark is its uncluttered character, Sanders said.

New death penalty law concerns Pitt attorney
The Daily Reflector (Greenville)
Pitt County's chief prosecutor said an adopted law is an attempt to stop death penalty prosecutions without doing away with the punishment. The Racial Justice Act, signed into law Aug. 11 by Gov. Beverly Perdue, seeks to prevent death sentences “sought or obtained on the basis of race.” ...However, a 2001 study “Race and the Death Penalty in North Carolina” conducted by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill found in the mid-1990s in murder cases where the victim was white and the suspect was black, North Carolina prosecutors were 3 1/2 times more likely to seek the death penalty than in same race or white-on-black murders, (N.C. Sen. Floyd B.) McKissick said.

Legal review spurs Guilford County to rethink incentive terms
The Business Journal of the Greater Triad Area
The Guilford County Board of Commissioners will likely alter a controversial proposal to offer tax incentives to existing small businesses before board members discuss the policy again on Sept. 3. The possible changes come following a review by attorneys and the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Government amid fears that the commissioners’ proposal might be illegal.

UNC dorms to get upgrade of stoves
The Chapel Hill Herald
In a mass makeover of college cooking, the UNC Chapel Hill fire marshal plans to use $221,018 in federal grant money to upgrade stoves in the university dorms. Billy Mitchell, fire marshal at UNC, plans to fulfill that goal by putting the grant money towards safer stove elements in the campus dorms.

Moeser Starts Post-Chancellor Life At UNC
WCHL 1360-AM (Chapel Hill)
He’s been out of the Chancellor’s House for over a year now, but Chapel Hill still doesn’t look any different to James Moeser. Now he’s in his role as an ex-chancellor, which is a challenge in itself. In certain college cultures, it’s expected that the chancellor will disappear from town after stepping down. But after spending the last year traveling throughout the country speaking at various college, Moeser is back in Chapel Hill. He’s now teaching in UNC’s Department of Music.

Thrift store raises $1 million
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
...The operation, fueled by the tobacco-field work ethic and thrift-store prowess of owner Laura Gaddis, has raised $1 million for Alzheimer's research in North Carolina during the past six years. ..."I've never heard of anybody doing anything like this," said Dr. Daniel Kaufer, a UNC-Chapel Hill professor and head of the UNC Memory and Cognitive Disorders Program. "I think what Laura has done is really remarkable in terms of making a commitment."

Celebration to mark black history exhibit
The Chapel Hill News
...Lynden Harris, the artistic director, and Kathy Williams, the performances director, were working with 16 UNC students -- none of whom had any stage experience -- and six community members, on a frantically tight deadline. At right about the same time, UNC's Frank Porter Graham Student Union approached them to ask whether they'd be interested in putting up the big visual exbihit portion of the project in the Union's Great Hall.

The missing sonata and the quest
The Herald-Sun (Durham)
When Paul Green read about a missing sonata that he stumbled upon in an encyclopedia, he embarked on a quest that would lead him to the discovery of a significant verse in the history of music. ...Green finally located the document with the help of Timothy Carter, a professor of music at UNC Chapel Hill. "Paul also told me about his Schumann quest, and as a result, I thought I'd just spend some time with Google. A few keywords later, I came across a rather obscure online document reporting the presence of the Schumann manuscript at Stanford," Carter said.

UNC workers unhappy with early dismissal
WTVD-TV (ABC/Raleigh)
Football is at the center of a controversy on Carolina's campus, but the debate isn't over Xs and Os but rather parking and employees. Thousands of UNC hourly workers recently got an unexpected notice that the televised pigskin matchup between Florida State and the Tar Heels on Thursday, October 22 means some employees will have to go home at 3 p.m. instead of 5 p.m.

Addictive little stories
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
...That's the goal in "Long Story Short: Flash Fiction by Sixty-Five of North Carolina's Finest Writers" (University of North Carolina Press). ...(Marianne) Gingher, a UNC-Chapel Hill creative writing professor, says the late Max Steele turned her on to the beauty of brevity. In his later years, Steele, who had directed UNC's creative writing program, became impatient with longer fiction forms.

Puppets get a picture deal
The Chapel Hill News
...Making friends with firefighters is just one of the goals of "Johnnie Joins the Fire Department," a fire-safety puppet show the Chapel Hill Museum has been staging for nine years. Now, after requests to perform as far as Mobile, Ala., the museum has received a $15,000 grant from Progress Energy to turn the live show into a movie. With additional help from the N.C. Jaycees Burn Center, taping got under way last week at Fire Station No. 1 downtown.

Issues and Trends

In a recession, is college worth it? Fear of debt changes plans
USA Today
...For years, an article of faith in this country has been that college is the gateway to a better life. So deeply held is this belief that many students, such as Horn, borrow tens of thousands of dollars to attend prestigious public or private universities.

Bowles orders UNC to cut from the top
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
UNC system President Erskine Bowles has rebuked the leaders of the 17 campuses for their top-heavy administrations and put them on notice: Make significant cuts.
Related Links:
http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/5897289/
http://chronicle.com/blogPost/UNC-President-Embarrassed-by/7860/

Businesses look to score with fans
The Chapel Hill Herald
Whether the UNC football team wins, loses or ties this fall, several area organizations would like Tar Heel fans to linger a while after the game. ...(Laurie) Paolicelli’s organization, in conjunction with the Chapel Hill Downtown Partnership, Chapel Hill-Carrboro Chamber of Commerce, Town of Chapel Hill, UNC Department of Athletics and UNC Rams Club, have banded to create the “Touch Downtown Chapel Hill” campaign to bolster community spirit and economic activity during football weekends.

Big ideas (Editorial)
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
...With UNC-Chapel Hill's N.C. Cancer Hospital set to open, there will be, officials say, a tremendous opportunity for the area to become a center for clinical trials. And UNC-CH officials, in addition to those at Duke, vow they will not view the existence of the facilities as a competition, but rather collaboration.

Bus route gets warm reception
The Herald-Sun (Durham)
Chapel Hill Transit officials don’t have hard numbers yet, but say the new public bus route from Pittsboro to Chapel Hill has been well-received. The “Chatham County Express,” as the new route has been dubbed, began Aug. 24 and was created to reduce the need for residents of Pittsboro and other parts of Chatham County to have to drive their cars into parking-challenged Chapel Hill. ...Chatham residents who work at UNC and UNC Hospitals are expected to be the primary beneficiaries of the new services. About 30 percent of the university’s and hospital’s employees live in Chatham and Alamance counties.