uncnews.unc.edu

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

National Coverage

In Preschool, What Matters More: 'Education' or Play?
Time Magazine
... But those studies don't sound familiar to Kathleen Gallagher, a research scientist and director of the childcare program at the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute (FPG) at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. “There is no evidence-based research that I know of that ensures these privileged kids success later on,” she says. But there is research about poor, at-risk kids and early childhood education, some of it from FPG; those in high-quality play-based preschools do better in grade school and on standardized tests and have higher educational achievement as adults.

Radiation risks unknown
Nature
... Steve Wing, an epidemiologist from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, points out that even the low levels of radiation that remain in the environment could be significant in the long run "because so many more people are exposed, even though the dose per person decreases farther from the plant".

Supreme Court to decide when a juvenile is 'in custody'
McClatchy Newspapers
In September 2005, a 13-year-old boy was pulled out of his class at a Chapel Hill, N.C., middle school, escorted to another room and interrogated behind a closed door by a police detective and three other adults. The boy confessed to a neighborhood larceny. He never was read his so-called Miranda rights, which include the right to an attorney. ... "It comes down to the type of society we want to live in," said Tamar Birckhead, an assistant professor at the University of North Carolina School of Law who has written about the case. She and other juvenile-justice advocates argue that children should be given extra consideration by police officers in the early stages of an investigation, including in interrogations.

Regional Coverage

How UNC journalism students used graphics to tell story of Tar Heels’ history, players
Poynter.org
There’s an expression in basketball: “You’ve got to see the court.” In other words, anticipate what’s coming and be ready to play. Students in Terence Oliver’s infographics class at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill were ready when the Tar Heels made it into the NCAA Tournament. They had prepared 14 graphics for avid fans who can’t get enough history and information about their favorite team during March Madness.

State and Local Coverage

Earthquakes happen here, too, but forget tsunamis
The Winston-Salem Journal
The experts rate the chances of a major earthquake as pretty low in Winston-Salem and most parts of North Carolina, although some point out that there's not a lot of information to go on. ... "We don't have a lot of earthquakes, so we don't know a lot about them," said Jonathan Lees, a professor of geological sciences at UNC Chapel Hill. "If they are not talking to us, it is hard to investigate."

UNC grad returns from Japan teaching program
WRAL-TV (CBS/Raleigh)
A University of North Carolina graduate enrolled in the Japanese Exchange Teaching Program said Tuesday that she was almost assigned to the country’s coast, where an earthquake and tsunami caused devastation and killed a fellow teacher. Margie Wiggins, 23, of Emerald Isle, said she didn’t personally know JET program member Taylor Anderson, whose body was found 10 days after the disaster, but the entire teaching community was reeling from the loss.

UNC Students Abroad Talk Japanese Earthquake
WCHL 1360-AM (Chapel Hill)
August Armbrister is a Carolina junior studying abroad at Waseda University in Tokyo. Like all the UNC students in Japan this semester, he survived the earthquake, but that doesn’t mean his life has returned to normal. When the initial quake hit on Friday, Armbrister was at home babysitting for his host family.

Expert to speak on nuclear power safety
The Fayetteville Observer
David McNelis, an energy scientist with the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, is scheduled to speak tonight in Fayetteville on the safety of nuclear power. "People are justified with being concerned about what's going on in Japan," he said Tuesday during a telephone interview.

Special Forces may have role in Libya conflict
The Fayetteville Observer
While U.S. military involvement in Libya has been limited to strikes from the air and sea, analysts say it's possible that U.S. Special Forces soldiers could become involved in the conflict. ... Their use would represent a "middle ground" between a full invasion and the current airstrikes and would help bolster rebel fighters by providing weapons and expertise, said David Gray, a retired Air Force officer and professor of international security at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Fayetteville State University.

'Invasion of the Mind Snatchers,' starring Rep. Peter King
The Asheville Citizen-Times
... But New York Rep. Peter King, who convened last week's hearings, is, putting it mildly, a less than credible instrument for such critical work. ... He claims, for instance, that 85 percent of mosque leaders in this country are extremists. It is a “statistic” based on nothing. And he says Muslims refuse to help ferret out extremism in their community although, according to a University of North Carolina study, fully 40 percent of foiled terrorist plots were interrupted with the help of Muslims.And he says Muslims refuse to help ferret out extremism in their community although, according to a University of North Carolina study, fully 40 percent of foiled terrorist plots were interrupted with the help of Muslims.

Success makes pre-kindergarten More at Four a model (Letter to the Editor)
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Regarding the March 18 front-page article "Preschool programs may be forced to merge": The 2010 UNC study mentioned in the article did show that economically disadvantaged children who attended More at Four performed significantly better on statewide third grade reading and math tests than similar children who were not served by the program. What you neglected to mention is that More at Four also is helping to close the third grade achievement gap between disadvantaged and middle-class children. UNC researchers found that the gap between average test scores of economically disadvantaged students who attended More and Four and middle-class students has been reduced by between 25 and 40 percent, depending on the test and the year.

Monday conference to examine state's soaring poverty rate (Letter to the Editor)
The Chapel Hill News
The UNC Center on Poverty, Work and Opportunity will convene a Poverty Summit at the George Watts Hill Alumni Center on campus on Monday, March 28, (8:30 a.m. - 5 p.m.) to explore the dramatic challenges faced by low income North Carolinians and the crucial steps that must be taken, in the months ahead, to address them. We hope that North Carolinians from all walks of life will join us. An incredible array of speakers will participate, including the Rev. William Barber [keynote], President Emeritus William Friday, Tim Tyson, Chris Fitzsimon, Andrea Bazan, Jim Johnson, Sandy Darity, Anita Brown-Graham, Leslie Winner, Rep. Angela Bryant, Ferrel Guillory, Bob Hall, Pablo Escobar, MaryBe McMillan, Jarvis Hall and many, many others.

The Kidney Kare's success is no mistake
The Chapel Hill News
... The Kidney Kare event is the Center's biggest fundraising effort. "This is an effort to raise money for our outreach efforts which we do across the state trying to encourage patients to ask, 'Hey, Doc, how are my kidneys?'" UNC Kidney Center director Ronald Falk said. "This is also for patients who simply can't afford simple things like paying for their electric bills or blankets."

Issues and Trends

Ohio State case casts doubt on power of school presidents
USA Today
Two weeks ago when Ohio State suspended football coach Jim Tressel for the first two games of the season for committing a major rules violation, the school president was asked if firing his enormously successful coach ever crossed his mind. ... "The big point here is: Who's in charge? We've had this issue long enough, but the public is reaching the conclusion that nobody is and nobody will do anything," said William Friday, president emeritus of the University of North Carolina and former co-chairman of the watchdog Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics.

Can You Own a Color?
Inside Higher Ed
When Syracuse University quietly filed for a federal trademark on the word “orange" for use on apparel in 2006, nothing seemed to stand in the way. After all, a similar but broader filing it had made two years earlier was being considered, and Syracuse hadn’t heard a whisper of protest. Orange is the university's sports nickname and team color. Late last year, though, several colleges that use orange as one of their main colors for sports, marketing, and the like caught wind of the trademark filing.

NC Senate weighs Reconstruction governor's pardon
The Associated Press
North Carolina's present-day lawmakers are deciding whether to pass judgment on a decision by their Reconstruction-era predecessors 140 years ago to impeach and kick out a governor whose chief offense stemmed from stopping Ku Klux Klan violence during the turbulent years after the Civil War. ... Senate debate on the resolution scheduled for Tuesday was delayed until at least Wednesday after senators were given a document citing a nearly 100-year-old book by a University of North Carolina history professor criticizing Holden for supporting carpetbaggers and scalawags.

Report faults Army in 2001 anthrax mailings
The Los Angeles Times
The Army scientist believed responsible for the 2001 anthrax letter attacks that killed five people and crippled mail delivery in parts of the country had exhibited alarming mental problems that military officials should have noticed and acted on long before he had a chance to strike, a panel of behavioral analysts has found. ... Over the same period, he tormented a former member of the sorority, Nancy Haigwood, by stealing her laboratory notebook, which was integral to her pursuit of a doctoral degree, and by vandalizing her residence. Ivins was a postdoctoral researcher at the University of North Carolina in the 1970s when Haigwood was a graduate student there.