uncnews.unc.edu

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

National Coverage

Video Highlights Danger Of Texting While Driving
National Public Radio
The dangers of texting while driving should be blatantly obvious. Yet lots of people still do it all over the world. A graphic new video public service announcement shows just how lethal it can be. It was made in Wales, but thanks to YouTube it has gone viral around the world. ...Rob Foss isn't surprised by Hughes' response. Foss is director of the Center for the Study of Young Drivers at the University of North Carolina. He says he watched the first two minutes of the video PSA from Wales, but then stopped. "I've seen this sort of stuff so many times, I didn't watch the rest of it," he says.

The Next Steps for Kennedy's Cause: Healthcare Reform
U.S. News & World Report
Sen. Ted Kennedy was out of sight this summer, fighting the brain cancer that finally claimed his life lastweek, but up until his last days he was still at work, following C-SPAN's healthcare reform coverage and calling his Washington colleagues. ..."There is no doubt he would have been the most eloquent voice there could be for the cause of universal health insurance," says Jonathan Oberlander, a health policy expert and professor at the University of North Carolina.

When a Hospital Let Families Call for Rapid-Response Help (Blog)
The Wall Street Journal
...In 2005, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill launched a pediatric rapid-response team at the North Carolina Children’s Hospital, instructing staff members to call on the team if a family member expressed concern about a patient’s condition. After a year, it found “family concern” was behind 20% of the calls — and more than half the patients in those calls had to be transferred to an intensive-care unit. As a result, in 2007, the hospital created the Family Alert Initiative that allows families to directly call the rapid-response team using the same system as hospital staff.

Helmet tech aimed at concussions
ESPN.com
...Reduction, not elimination, is the key word when it comes to concussions. "I think [technique is] going to solve half the problem," said Kevin Guskiewicz, an athletic trainer and researcher at the University of North Carolina Injury Prevention Research Center, and chair of UNC's Department of Exercise and Sport Science.

Regional Coverage

Pickin' sessions are as old as Southern music
The August Chronicle (Georgia)
...Pickin' nights have been a Southern staple since the 1800s, even before bluegrass emerged in the 1940s, said Glenn Hinson, an associate professor of folklore and anthropology at the University of North Carolina. "It's been a part of Southern culture as long as there's been a Southern culture," Dr. Hinson said. "I dare say one could trace that as far back as one could trace the music."

State and Local Coverage

Bain & Company working at another university (Blog)
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
When UNC Chapel Hill hired Bain & Company, a global consulting firm, to analyze the university's finances and administrative structures earlier this year, some folks were bothered in part because the firm had little experience with higher education. ...According to this report in the Cornell Daily Sun, Bain has been hired to help administrators there find ways to become "leaner and stronger."

Socialism, You Say?
"The State of Things" WUNC-FM
You can’t tune into the current health care debate or the ongoing story of the financial crisis without hearing the word “socialism.” The politically-charged term is being thrown around a lot lately, but what does it mean? It seems that scholars use it one way, policy wonks another and angry taxpayers have their own ideas. Host Frank Stasio convenes a panel of experts to unpack the term, and consider the history and the future of socialism in America. Joining the program is...Gary Marks, Burton Craige Distinguished Professor of Political Science at the UNC Chapel Hill and the co-author of the book, "It Didn't Happen Here: Why Socialism Failed in the United States” (Norton/2001).
Note: "The State of Things" is the statewide public affairs program airing live at noon weekdays and rebroadcast at 9 p.m. Mondays-Thursdays.

For small businesses, a big choice
The Herald-Sun (Durham)
When it comes to health insurance, many small-business owners, especially those newly minted entrepreneurs, have to make the difficult decision of going without. ...On the other end of the spectrum, Sue Tolleson-Rinehart, an adjunct assistant professor in UNC Chapel Hill’s School of Public Health, said she believes the public option would be an effective way of opening more insurance to those who aren’t covered in the existing system. “I think that a public option could improve reform generally by making things more competitive.

Concussions get more attention
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
...Concussions are an unseen epidemic, according to Dr. Kevin Guskiewicz, chairman of the Department of Exercise and Sport Science at the University of North Carolina. The American Association of Neurological Surgeons said 10 percent to 15 percent of high school athletes sustain a concussion each year. ...UNC is establishing a new Concussion Clinical Research Institute in the Department of Exercise and Sport Science.

Drivers ignore crosswalks in school zones
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
...There's nothing unusual about Dixie Trail and other streets around Lacy Elementary School in West Raleigh. Schools across the Triangle know the problem: Drivers speed through school zones and refuse to stop for children in the crosswalks. "Many people are in a hurry," said Charlie Zegeer, who studies pedestrian safety as associate director of the UNC-CH Highway Safety Research Center. "They may be late for work or not thinking about pedestrians, and often they're just careless."

Need to Know
The Fayetteville Observer
Suspense novelist P.T. Deutermann will be at the Cumberland County Headquarters Library at 6:30 tonight as part of the Authors on the Road program. The program is part of the 2009 North Carolina Literary Festival at UNC-Chapel Hill. Deutermann is the author of "The Moonpool" and "Spider Mountain." For more information about the literary festival, go to www.ncliteraryfestival.org.
UNC Release:
http://uncnews.unc.edu/content/view/2755/73/

UNC Project Malawi In Phase III Research
WCHL 1360-AM (Chapel Hill)
UNC Project – Malawi began the Phase III trial of the world’s most clinically advanced malaria vaccine candidate, known as RTSS. Irving Hoffman, U.S. director of UNC Project – Malawi, and the study’s co-principal investigator says the medication showed 50-percent efficacy in its Phase II trials.
UNC Release:
http://uncnews.unc.edu/content/view/2819/71/

Iranian rapper to miss UNC gig
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
UNC's Memorial Hall has canceled an Iranian hip-hop concert because Iran's government revoked rapper YAS' passport amid this summer's post-election turmoil. In July, Carolina Performing Arts spokeswoman Kara Larson said the Iranian government had confiscated the rapper's passport. At the time, his wife and agent, Neda Sarmast, confirmed that but declined to discuss details. Sarmast, a filmmaker, and her husband work to promote international understanding and reconciliation through their art.
UNC Release:
http://uncnews.unc.edu/content/view/2825/66/

Signing spree (Under the Dome)
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Gov. Beverly Perdue had signed 102 bills as of Sunday. The governor has 30 days after adjournment to sign or veto bills. If she does neither, they become law automatically. ...Authorize capital projects on UNC system campuses. The projects have a funding stream to repay debt for the projects. List includes $21.8 million for a parking deck at N.C. State University and a $10 million renovation of the Carolina Inn at UNC-Chapel Hill.

Budget cuts threaten NCRC jobs
The Salisbury Post
As many as six people working for the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill at the N.C. Research Campus could lose their jobs in a $1.1 million budget cut. The jobs in jeopardy at the UNC Nutrition Research Institute in Kannapolis are administrative positions, not scientists. But losing support staff will affect research, deputy director Jana Harrison said.

At UNC-CH, journals on the chopping block (Blog)
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Attention, UNC Chapel Hill faculty: that scholarly journal you like thumbing through from time to time may be on the chopping block. ...In this era of budget cutting, the university stands to save hundreds of thousands of dollars by killing off subcriptions to hundreds of journal subscriptions, some arcane, some outdated, many very, very expensive.

North Carolina Volunteers Package One Million Meals For Hungry
WITN-TV (NBC/Washington)
Volunteers and students from UNC-Chapel Hill, UNC-Wilmington, Duke University, NC Central University and Peace College packaged 481,260 meals on the final day of University Million Meal Week 2009, bringing the UMMW 2009 total to 1,031,776 and exceeding last year’s total by 21,402. ...Meals packaged during UMMW 2009 will be used to feed school children in some of the world’s most impoverished areas of Haiti, Kenya and Nicaragua. As the UNC-CH event ended, a truck loaded with the life-saving meals headed to Feed the Hungry in Kenya.

Issues and Trends

Media sue for video of police shooting
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Five media organizations including The News & Observer are going to court to get a police video recording of the traffic stop in which a UNC student was shot to death last week. The organizations also are asking for an unedited version of the student's 911 call.
Related Links:
http://www.heraldsun.com/pages/full_story/push?article-Questions
+surround+Smith+case%20&id=3506574-Questions+surround+Smith+case
http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/5902890/

State campuses to cut 900 jobs
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
The 16-campus UNC system expects to eliminate about 900 administrative positions this year, an acknowledgement by university leaders of job growth gone wild. Those 900 positions and other administrative costs could account for 75 percent or more of cuts that public university campuses will be asked to make this year as the system pares $171 million from its budget, UNC system officials say. In cutting so heavily into administrative costs, UNC system President Erskine Bowles and others say they hope to protect academics.
Related Links:
http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/5904760/
http://www.bizjournals.com/triangle/stories/2009/08/31/daily15.html
http://news14.com/?ArID=614032

Got 'em covered (Editorial)
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Could it be that somewhere in the often contentious debate over health-care reform there will be a lesson in what the University of North Carolina system is doing, starting next fall? That's when a requirement that all students at all 16 campuses have health insurance kicks in. Those who have insurance will not need to do anything. But those who do not can buy coverage through the system, which should have strong bargaining power with insurers given that there are 215,000 students within it.