uncnews.unc.edu

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

National Coverage

Where the Jobs Are: Finding the Right Spots in a Not So Great Recovery
Time
...The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's career-services office reports that 7% more interviews were scheduled by companies on campus this past fall than the year before. Still, that's 19% below the figure for fall 2007, so students shouldn't expect a welcoming party. Says career-development director Ray Angle: "I cannot tell you how many times I'm sitting across from a recruiter and they say they want to make sure we're getting the best 10% to 20%."

Experimental Drug Helps Fight Aggressive Breast Cancer: Report
HealthDay News
...The findings were enough to generate the interest of Dr. Lisa A. Carey, the co-author of an accompanying editorial. "It is early, but it's really exciting because it's a new class of drugs. It isn't that often that we have a completely new approach to treating cancer," said Carey, medical director of the University of North Carolina Breast Center in Chapel Hill. "This is a new book. We've just opened it up."

Antibiotic May Help Ease Irritable Bowel
HealthDay News
This is important, said Dr. Yehuda Ringel, a gastroenterologist and associate professor of medicine at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a study co-author. Current treatments, including anti-diarrheal and anti-constipation medications, target only the symptoms of IBS and work only as long as people continue taking the drugs, Ringel said. But rifaximin may do more.

State and Local Coverage

Salix drug helps irritable bowel syndrome
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
...Doctors don't know what causes IBS, but the success of the antibiotic strongly suggests a bacterial trigger in some cases, said Dr. Yehuda Ringel, an associate professor of medicine at UNC-CH and co-author of the Xifaxan report in today's journal. "How does it work? We have no idea. We can speculate," Ringel said of the drug's effect. " ...When [intestinal bacteria are] targeted, we get beneficial effect. And the effect lasts for 10 weeks, maybe more. That means we are not targeting only symptoms, but maybe the underlying cause."

Gavels ready, new judges head to bench
The Herald-Sun (Durham)
...Someone new to the bench has to learn how to be a judge, according to James Drennan, who directs the judicial college at the UNC School of Government. The judicial college offers primers for new judges. Yet there's classroom experience. And then there's on-the-job training.

Districts that reach beyond politics (Opinion-Editorial Column)
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Gov. Beverly Perdue is right to call for an independent commission to oversee North Carolina's redistricting process in 2011. We must move away from redistricting that has a political-favoritism face. Instead, we must embrace redistricting with a human and economic face - an approach that's sensitive to the state's contemporary economic and demographic realities and challenges. (James H. Johnson, Jr. is the William Rand Kenan Jr. distinguished professor of entrepreneurship and strategy at UNC-Chapel Hill's Kenan-Flagler Business School. Stanley D. Brunn is a professor of geography at the University of Kentucky.)

Fat fighting (Editorial)
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
...Research into the science of obesity and the diseases that go with it, diabetes being the most discussed, employs a great many dedicated researchers and doctors in the Triangle. Duke University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (they collaborate with other universities as well) have people working on these problems night and day.

Former Panthers assistant joining UNC football staff
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Former Carolina Panthers defensive line coach Brian Baker said this morning that he has accepted a coaching position on UNC coach Butch Davis' staff. Baker will be the defensive line coach/assistant head coach under Davis.
Related Link:
http://www.heraldsun.com/view/full_story_sports/10896930/article-UNC-hires-
former-Panthers-assistant?instance=main_article

Issues and Trends

Era ends - Basnight departure a signpost for dramatic change (Editorial)
The Fayetteville Observer
On Tuesday, Marc Basnight provided the bold exclamation point for the N.C. General Assembly's stunning turnabout. One of the most powerful legislators in state history stepped down. ...Although he could play hardball with his opponents, he mostly used that power for good. That was especially so for education, as he helped turn the University of North Carolina system into one of the nation's top public universities, a feat noted Tuesday in a tribute by his Republican successor, Sen. Phil Berger.

UNCW official accepts new post in UNC system
The Herald-Sun (Durham)
William A. Fleming, assistant to the chancellor for human resources at the UNC Wilmington campus, has been named vice president for human resources of the 17-campus UNC system. Fleming, whose appointment is effective Feb. 1, is the second major hire for UNC President Tom Ross, who took the reins of the university system Jan. 1.