Today's News Weekend Edition, Monday, October 1st, 2012
Featured
Radio K: 100 years young
Is it really a century old? Roger, codger. But these days the University of Minnesota station appears more vital than ever.
Star Tribune
http://www.startribune.com/entertainment/music/171824341.html?refer=y
This Week at Minnesota is back!
In this episode of the weekly video feature, we visit the health careers fair, get a free flu shot and learn how to know when you're sick enough to stay home from class.
To Watch: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPA8_WEFow4&feature=youtu.be
Research
Pregnancy generates sustained maternal anergy to fetal antigen
Pregnancy generates fetal-specific immune cells that suppress the immune response towards the fetus, which are rapidly re-accumulated in subsequent pregnancies, according to an experimental study published online Sept. 26 in Nature. To establish the antigen specificity and cellular origin of maternal regulatory T cells that accumulate during gestation, Jared H. Rowe, Ph.D., from the University of Minnesota School of Medicine in Minneapolis, and colleagues impregnated female mice with strains of male mice expressing a surrogate fetal antigen.
Doctors Lounge
http://www.doctorslounge.com/index.php/news/pb/32391
After returning home, many veterans get into motor vehicle accidents
Despite ample data that service in Iraq and Afghanistan is linked to driving difficulties, the Department of Veterans Affairs only recently has stepped up efforts to identify veterans at risk and help them alter their driving habits. It has taken Dr. Erica Stern, associate professor of occupational therapy at the University of Minnesota, three years to find military bases that would allow the necessary access to soldiers.
Austin American-Statesman
http://www.statesman.com/news/news/local-military/veterans-motor-vehicle-accidents/nSPh8/
Hantavirus in Yosemite may be shape of things to come
Hantavirus in Yosemite. West Nile virus in 48 states. Even a case of bubonic plague. Extreme weather patterns have played a big role in the two recent outbreaks, and health officials worry more such events could be on the horizon because of climate change. Climate cycles very clearly play a part in outbreaks, says Michael Osterholm,director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis.
USA Today
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2012/09/29/hantavirus-yosemite-west-nile-bubonic-plague/1566407/
Putting student safety on tap
Last school year, UMass Lowell sent an intercampus shuttle bus around the downtown at 1 a.m. on weekends to pick up some undesirable passengers: intoxicated students. Toben Nelson, assistant professor of the Division of Epidemiology & Community Health at University of Minnesota, who has been part of the Harvard School of Public Health College Alcohol Study, said in recent years more universities seem interested in having on-campus restaurants and lounges that serve alcohol.
Lowell-Sun
http://www.lowellsun.com/todaysheadlines/ci_21666544/putting-student-safety-tap
St. Louis car accident attorney encourages sports fans to seek sober rides home if they drink during games
Alcohol seems to have become central to watching sports in America, according to recent studies. In 2011, a study by University of Minnesota researchers found that one of every 12 fans leaving major sporting events was intoxicated.
Missouri Sports Magazine
http://missourisportsmag.com/?p=77407
Business and Politics
Budget bright spot: Wheat Scab Initiative funding partially restored
The wheat industry received rare positive budget news last week when the U.S. Wheat and Barley Scab Initiative informed researchers that 66 percent of the funding cuts from the Initiative’s FY2012 budget are being restored. Universities receiving funding through the initiative include North Dakota State University, University of Minnesota, Kansas State University, Virginia Tech and University of Kentucky.
Western Farm Press
http://westernfarmpress.com/government/budget-bright-spot-wheat-scab-initiative-funding-partially-restored
Case of landlords vs. city winds back to St. Paul
How St. Paul enforces housing codes is the key issue in a suit that has traveled a tortuous legal road to the U.S. Supreme Court and back -- and raised the ire of Republican congressional leaders along the way. Former Vice President Walter Mondale, who authored the Fair Housing Act when he was in the Senate, said that he called St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman after University of Minnesota law professor Myron Orfield "recommended the city withdraw and go to trial, which is what they've done."
Star Tribune
http://www.startribune.com/local/stpaul/172023641.html
Voter ID is an unfunded mandate
As Minnesotans ponder the proposed constitutional amendment for photo voter IDs, one issue that's rarely included in the discussion is the financial cost, paid directly by taxpayers through higher property taxes. In a report from the University of Minnesota with a comprehensive analysis of expenses, the first year costs alone are almost $70 million, of which approximately $63 million would come from local governments.
Post Bulletin
http://www.postbulletin.com/news/stories/display.php?id=1510085
The fog of diplomacy -- and journalism
Foggy Bottom, the nickname for the State Department, could also describe the cloudy circumstances surrounding the public dispute between the department and CNN over the private journal of Chris Stevens, the slain U.S. ambassador to Libya. The spat hasn't just split the two internationally focused institutions; it has divided some media ethicists and editors as well. "The consulate was not secured; they didn't steal it," said Jane Kirtley, director of the Silha Center for the Study of Media Ethics and Law at the University of Minnesota.
Star Tribune
http://www.startribune.com/opinion/commentaries/171862581.html?refer=y
People and Lifestyle
Many paths lead to medical school in Duluth
In a solemn but uplifting ceremony, 58 first-year medical students received white coats and stethoscopes Saturday at the University of Minnesota Duluth’s Weber Music Hall. The students, along with two classmates who were unable to attend, comprise the 41st class of the University of Minnesota Medical School at Duluth. The students will spend two years on the Duluth campus before transferring to Minneapolis.
Duluth News Tribune
http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/event/article/id/245015/
Minnesota queen bee seeks national crown
Some people view bees as a nuisance or a threat. Emily Campbell sees the insects as fascinating and beneficial. “They’re really super-interesting. And they’re so important to agriculture,” said Campbell, a native of Aitkin, Minn., and a freshman at the University of Minnesota-Crookston. Campbell — the Minnesota Honey Queen and a seven-time grand champion at the Minnesota State Fair for projects involving bees — will compete in Hershey, Pa., in January to become American Honey Queen.
Grand Folks Herald
http://www.grandforksherald.com/event/article/id/245949/
Tasting hundreds of apples to find a few winners
University of Minnesota apple breeder David Bedford didn’t like apples growing up .Back then, the main apple variety on the market was Red Delicious, and he didn’t taste another kind until college. But for the past 32 years, he has tasted 500 to 600 apples a day during the apple harvest, which is currently in its peak.
Brainerd Dispatch
http://brainerddispatch.com/news/2012-09-30/tasting-hundreds-apples-find-few-winners
HIT + The Moving Cell Project
Black Label Movement’s Artistic Director Carl Flink teams up with University of Minnesota biomedical engineer David Odde for The Moving Cell Project, an unlikely collaboration that has proven to be mutually beneficial. Using dancers to model the behavior of molecules within a cell, Odde and his colleagues are able to quickly test theories and communicate their ideas more effectively with each other and with the greater public.
Minnesota Original
To Watch: http://www.mnoriginal.org/episode/hit-the-moving-cell-project/
Black faculty, staff look to reboot association
People of color at the University of Minnesota can feel isolated on a campus where faculty, staff and students are primarily white. In an effort to change this, Alysia Lajune, assistant department director for orientation and first-year programs, wants to re-establish a University-wide organization for African-American faculty and staff that existed in the 1980s.
Minnesota Daily
http://www.mndaily.com/2012/10/01/black-faculty-staff-look-reboot-association
Updates and Events
U labs aim for a safer environment
For department heads at the University of Minnesota, safety concerns are a growing issue in academic labs. To address these concerns, two University science departments, in collaboration with the Dow Chemical Company, have launched a new laboratory safety initiative.
Minnesota Daily
http://www.mndaily.com/2012/10/01/u-labs-aim-safer-environment
Frac sand industry protest
Opponents of the frac sand industry will rally outside a conference on silica sand mining. Starting Monday, the University of Minnesota-Duluth’s Precambrian Research Center is hosting a three-day conference at the Earle Brown Heritage Center in Brooklyn Center. People at The Conference on the Silica Sand Resources of Minnesota and Wisconsin will discuss frac sand issues, such as air quality and ground water protection.
KSTP
http://kstp.com/article/stories/s2784465.shtml