News highlights for July 27, 2010

CisionPoint news monitoring provides this small sampling of the university's daily news coverage. Click headline to read full text via Cision or link directly to the online article where available. For questions or comments about this service, or to add or delete a name from the mailing list, please contact Gerry Everding.  

Outlet: St. Louis Business Journal
Title/Program:
UMSL beats $100M fundraising goal two years early
Publication Date:
07/26/2010

Extract: The University of Missouri-St. Louis said Monday that its Gateway for Greatness Campaign reached its $100 million fundraising goal two years ahead of schedule and surpassed it by $2 million. As of June, Washington University was on pace to collect 30 percent more than the $154.6 million in gifts it brought in last year. At Saint Louis University, gifts and pledges reached $46.4 million in the fiscal year ended June 30, 2009, and as of April 30 this year, were ahead of where it was at the same time last year, according to a SLU spokesman. Link to Article

Outlet: St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Title/Program:
Swimming with E. coli? Maybe High levels recorded for years in creek; WU professor says it’s hard to tell when it’s safe.
Publication Date:
07/27/2010

Extract: The issue of E. coli in state waters has received its share of attention recently. But Kiefer Creek in Castlewood State Park in St. Louis County is a different situation. State officials note that because the creek is not a designated swimming area, the state isn’t required to monitor the water quality. “There are times when it (the creek) is OK. There are times when it’s not,” said Robert Criss, a professor of earth and planetary sciences at Washington University who has studied urban streams in St. Louis County.” It’s not easy to tell those apart.” But whether the state classifies it as such or not, the creek is indeed a “swimming area,” said Criss. “It’s a state park with people in the water,” Criss said. “Only a dang attorney would say, ‘We don’t care because it’s not on our list.'” Link to Article

Outlet: St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Title/Program:
A tax we usually find fault with: Value-added tax draws interest with government mired in red ink.
Publication Date:
07/27/2010

Extract: Spending cuts still have to come first, argues Washington University economist Murray Weidenbaum, who recently began a line-by-line study of federal expenditures. He hopes to quantify the amount spent on special-interest programs, as well as on things that are “nice to have “but not essential” if Uncle Sam needs to tighten his belt. “If you make a useful try at cutting spending and it’s not enough, then you can look at a VAT,” he advises. “It’s a cart-and-horse thing. If you start off focusing on a VAT, you soft-pedal and maybe miss the opportunity of cutting part of the government spending structure.” Weidenbaum was a top economic adviser to President Ronald Reagan, so he knows how Washington works. He agrees that the VAT has some efficiency advantages, but he hopes Congress doesn’t view it as the easy way out. Link to Article

Outlet: NPR
Title/Program:
Scientists Stalk Cemeteries For Signs Of Wildlife
Publication Date:
07/27/2010

Extract: Across the U.S., development agriculture has fundamentally altered the American landscape. In some cases the change has been so dramatic that conservationists researchers are now looking for what they call ‘hidden habitats.’ Among those are cemeteries which serve as refuges for some of the America’s most endangered native plants insects. We spend a lot of time driving around, looking for these remnant forested areas they’re not a lot of them left,’ says Laura Burkle, an ecologist at Washington University in St. Louis. ‘It’s really, really rare.’ With research partner Tiffany Knight, Burkle paid a visit to Moore Cemetery, a rural graveyard outside of Carlinville, Ill. AUDIO AVAILABLE. Link to Article

Outlet: The Transport Politic
Title/Program:
St. Louis’ Loop District Gets Endorsement from Feds with Grant for Streetcar
Publication Date:
07/27/2010

Extract: St. Louis’ successful bid for a $25 million grant to partially fund the construction of a new streetcar line in the city’s Loop district is being hailed as a major achievement. Joe Edwards, the neighborhood developer, has been a proponent of eventually extending the streetcar route all the way to the riverfront, mirroring the route of the city’s old trolley network. Yet this would needlessly duplicate the services already provided by Metrolink. Rather, extensions south along Big Bend Boulevard, passing by the University City Metrolink Station, the two campuses of Washington University, and reaching Richmond Heights, could be truly valuable since it would encourage transit use by students for local-area commutes and connect dense areas with a corridor not currently serviced by rapid transit. Link to Article

News in higher education

Outlet: United Press International

Title/Program: Colleges don’t make grade curbing alcohol

Publication Date: 07/242010

Few U.S. colleges make satisfactory grades in efforts to curb student drinking, University of Minnesota researchers find

Outlet: The Boston Globe

Title/Program: As College Text Prices Soar, Students Get a Rental Option

Publication Date: 7/27/2010

College students will have new, cheaper alternatives this fall to shelling out hundreds of dollars each semester for textbooks they may never use again.

In an effort to curb escalating book prices amid sky-high college costs, bookstores at more than a dozen campuses across the state and hundreds more around the country will begin renting textbooks at about half the cost of buying them.

Outlet: Bloomberg News

Title/Program: Universities Fail to Report Taxable Income, IRS Says

Publication Date: 07/26/2010

Nonprofit colleges and universities may be failing to report the full extent of their taxable income to the Internal Revenue Service, according to Lois Lerner, the agency’s director of exempt organizations.

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