uncnews.unc.edu

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

International Coverage

Fannie Mae Fix Said to Retain Some U.S. Mortgage Role
Bloomberg News
...Treasury officials also are focused on the government’s role in making mortgages affordable for lower-income borrowers, the people said. Michael A. Stegman, who joined Treasury this year as a counselor on housing finance policy, once headed a research project on affordable homeownership at the University of North Carolina that made the case that loans to low-income borrowers performed well as long as the terms were similar to those given to borrowers qualifying for prime rates. “We’ve got fairly good evidence here that carefully structured financing for lower-income households to buy a home can be very successful,” said Janneke Ratcliffe, who now directs the Center for Community Capital, which Stegman founded.

Can Chavez keep the red flag flying?
The Independent (United Kingdom)
...A lesser ego might surrender to medical counsel and retire. "I think Chavez will hang on until he is incapacitated or dead," Professor Gregory Weeks, director of Latin American studies at the University of North Carolina said yesterday, while noting that the President's health issues are "clearly serious".

National Coverage

Fixing Education: The Problems Are Clear, but the Solutions Aren't Simple
The Atlantic
...If you wanted to find agreement on how to fix the problems of public school education, however, you might have been left spinning your wheels. All the guests on the education panel at New York Ideas agreed that the system needs help. ...Holden Thorp, as chancellor of a major university (North Carolina-Chapel Hill), is part of a higher-education system where small elite colleges, filled with the highest of achievers, spend more per pupil than states school bursting with students who could use greater attention.

State and Local Coverage

UNC study: More costly prostate cancer therapy no better
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
The type of radiation therapy now most commonly used to treat prostate cancer is not only more effective than the traditional form it has largely replaced, but works just as well as a much-trumpeted new approach that requires machinery that can top $125 million, according to a new study by UNC-Chapel Hill researchers. ...“We need to do more studies and be more cautious before we take on a new treatment that may cost more but not actually be better than the current methods,” said Dr. Ronald Chen, an assistant professor of radiation oncology and member of UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center.
Related Link:
http://www.wral.com/lifestyles/healthteam/story/10992097/

Brain Injuries For High School Football Players On The Rise
Fox Charlotte
Catastrophic brain injuries among high school football players are on the rise. A UNC Chapel Hill study found 13 nationwide last year. This is the highest number since 19-84. Local doctors say they're seeing more "mild" brain injuries. Last year, 675 student-athletes in Mecklenburg and surrounding counties were tested for concussions. l
Related Link:
http://www.newsobserver.com/2012/04/17/2007399/unc-researcher-looks-to-rules.html
UNC Release:
http://uncnews.unc.edu/content/view/5254/1/

Roses and Raspberries (Editorial)
The Chapel Hill News
Roses to Dr. Hugh “Chip” McAllister Jr, who last week bestowed a staggeringly generous gift to UNC’s Ackland Art Museum and the McAllister Heart Institute at the UNC School of Medicine. McAllister presented a $10 million gift to the two Carolina institutions in honor of his father and namesake.
UNC Release:
http://uncnews.unc.edu/content/view/5249/1/

Forum to highlight NC's wind power potential
WRAL-TV (CBS/Raleigh)
Leaders of the wind power industry in North Carolina will meet Wednesday evening at a forum at Meredith College to discuss the future of offshore wind development and how it could impact the state's energy future. ...Recent studies by researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory found that North Carolina has the best offshore wind resources of any state on the East Coast.

UNC embarks on $8.7M in capital improvements (Blog)
The Triangle Business Journal
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill will undertake $8.7 million in new capital projects in the next year or so. The UNC Board of Governors approved the projects last week, giving the university leeway to proceed.

Hope And Normalcy At The Hospital School
WUNC-FM (Chapel Hill)
Among the vast, winding hallways inside the UNC Hospital complex, there’s a school. It's small, by public school standards, but it serves a vital purpose. As Dave DeWitt reports, it offers young patients the chance to remain students, and retain a sense of normalcy during a difficult time in their lives.

Eat your fill of strawberries (Column)
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Strawberries are ready! Yes, farm stands are selling them and fields are open to pick your own. Buy them early and often. You can fill up on them without guilt. They’re high in water content and dietary fiber, so they’re bulky. You’ll get full before you need to worry about counting the calories. (Suzanne Havala Hobbs is a registered dietitian and a clinical associate professor in the department of health policy and administration in the Gillings School of Global Public Health at UNC-Chapel Hill.)

Don’t cry for him (Letter to the Editor)
The Chapel Hill News
The old adage is so true – reality is often funnier, more dramatic and certainly more entertaining than anything we could ever make up. I was immediately drawn to the headline “UNC Physicist jailed in Argentina.” Don’t cry for me, indeed, a defiant professor Paul H. Frampton practically screamed from his jail cell in Buenos Aires. (Bill Baucom, Chapel Hill)