uncnews.unc.edu

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

International Coverage

Black men survive longer in prison than out: study
Reuters (Wire Service)
Black men are half as likely to die at any given time if they're in prison than if they aren't, suggests a new study of North Carolina inmates. ..."For some populations, being in prison likely provides benefits in regards to access to healthcare and life expectancy," said study author Dr. David Rosen, from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Rise of obesity could undo longevity gains
The Vancouver Sun (Canada)
For the first time in decades, the young adults of today might live shorter lives than previous generations, a new study suggests. The cause: rising rates of obesity. To come up with the result, researchers used new statistical tools to predict the number of deaths from obesity-related illnesses in a collaboration between the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, Utah State University and the University of Illinois-Chicago.

National Coverage

Once politically taboo, proposals to shift more Medicare costs to elderly are gaining traction
The Los Angeles Times
The heated debate over the federal deficit has pumped new life into controversial proposals for requiring Americans on Medicare to pay more for their healthcare, raising the possibility that seniors' medical bills could jump hundreds, or even thousands of dollars. ..."What many people may not realize is that the Medicare benefit package is not actually very generous," said Jonathan Oberlander, a University of North Carolina health policy professor who has written extensively about the program's history.

4 Out of 5 in Community College Want to Transfer, Report Says (Blog)
The New York Times
...“This is an exaggeration, but you can take care of a first-year student in a minute, and then your next appointment is a community college transfer student and you’re talking about an hour,” Steve Farmer, director of admissions and associate provost at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, is quoted as saying in the report. “There are no rules that apply adequately to the personal circumstances of these students.”

For U.S. soccer, it's a woman's world
The Los Angeles Times
It was an hour or so after the game, on the ride back to the team hotel, that Alex Morgan found a moment to reminisce. ..."If you just looked at the countries where women had a lot of freedoms, you could almost rank the women's teams in that order," said Anson Dorrance, a longtime coach at the University of North Carolina. "The Scandinavian countries were strong and our women had a lot of freedom, certainly to pursue athletics at an aggressive level."

Regional Coverage

Culture of cheating breeding in schools across U.S.
The Washington Times (Washington D.C.)
...“There’s a very simple cause: consequences,” said Gregory Cizek, a professor of educational measurement and evaluation in the School of Education at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. “Any district where you’ve got kids who are at risk of not succeeding … there are problems as big as Atlanta, as big as D.C., as big as Philadelphia. The more stakes there are involved, the more you’re going to see it.”

State and Local Coverage

Study: No magic bullet to improve diet, stop obesity
The Chapel Hill Herald
...These and other policy interventions may be useful steps toward better public health, but no single approach alone will effectively improve Americans' diets or stem the obesity epidemic, concludes a study by researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In a report released July 11 in the journal Archives of Internal Medicine, nutrition researchers from UNC's Gillings School of Global Public Health found that having access to neighborhood grocery stores or larger supermarkets alone did not make a significant change in dietary habits.
UNC Release:
http://uncnews.unc.edu/content/view/4631/71/

Eat your peas or pay sin taxes (Editorial)
The Chapel Hill Herald
A benchmark study spearheaded by researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill appears to have thrown the proverbial cold water onto an energetic school of thought promoted by government social engineers that "food deserts" in low-income neighborhoods can be linked directly to obesity. A report released July 11 in the journal Archives of Internal Medicine by nutrition researchers from UNC's Gillings School of Global Public Health, investigated, among other situations, whether "increased access to supermarkets will translate into improvements in diet behavior and health."

The Casino Business
"The State of Things" WUNC-FM
Gambling is big business in Western North Carolina. A new report by researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill shows that Harrah's Cherokee Casino pours more than $380 million into the local economy there. That has led to improvements in life expectancy, poverty rates and even education in the area. Host Frank Stasio talks about the state’s casino business with report co-author Jim Johnson, Director of the Urban Investment Strategies Center and distinguished professor at the Kenan-Flagler Business School at UNC Chapel Hill.
UNC Release:
http://uncnews.unc.edu/content/view/4607/67/

UNC and Duke will read together
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Tar Heels and Blue Devils are teaming up for this summer's reading assignment for incoming students. Both UNC-Chapel Hill and Duke have selected the book "Eating Animals" by Jonathan Safran Foer. New students are asked to read the book before arriving, then they will participate in small group discussions. Foer himself will speak at both campuses on Aug. 25.

UNC planes on final takeoffs at Chapel Hill strip
The Triangle Business Journal
Little planes buzzing in and out of Horace Williams Airport in Chapel Hill on medical missions soon will become a site of the past. At the end of the month, UNC-Chapel Hill’s Medical Air Operations will relocate to Raleigh-Durham International Airport after operating out of Horace Williams for 43 years. While the airport won’t close for at least a year, the move of the medical flights has long been in the works.

PlayMakers to get grants this season
The Chapel Hill Herald
PlayMakers Repertory Company will receive two national arts grants for its staging of a Shakespearean epic during the upcoming season. For the fourth year in a row, the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) has recognized the professional theater company, which is based in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
UNC Release:
http://uncnews.unc.edu/content/view/4629/66/

As state aid wanes, charity care spirals at UNC Hospitals
The Triangle Business Journal
Even as North Carolina’s public hospital system receives less state funding, its uncompensated care costs continue to rise – creating a road map to higher costs for patients who pay and their insurers, hospital layoffs and service cuts. UNC Heath Care, which manages UNC HospitalsbizWatch , has seen its uncompensated care costs increase by 36 percent since 2008, from $257 million that year to a projected $350 in the fiscal year that began July 1.

Austin uses Twitter to defend McAdoo
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
After a major setback for former University of North Carolina football player Michael McAdoo on Wednesday in a Durham courtroom, Marvin Austin took his frustrations to Twitter to defend his friend and former teammate.

Issues and Trends

Community colleges protest merger idea
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Community college leaders expressed alarm Thursday over a recommendation to consolidate smaller community colleges with larger ones to save money. Board members, presidents, trustees and administrators sounded a chorus against the idea put forward last month in an analysis by the legislature's Program Evaluation Division. The report suggested reducing the number of small community colleges through 15 mergers involving 22 colleges to save an estimated $5.1 million a year.

Research campus, spared in budget cutting, will get leader
The Triangle Business Journal
The University of North Carolina System is searching for an executive director to lead its operations at the N.C. Research Campus. It will be the university system’s first administrative post dedicated to the Kannapolis biotech hub, which is focused on health, nutrition and agriculture.