"O" E-Clips: highlights of media coverage involving the UO and its faculty and staff

UO E-Clips is a daily report prepared by the Office of Communications (http://comm.uoregon.edu) summarizing current news coverage of the University of Oregon.

Media mentions for July 5

How Heat Kills

LiveScience (story provided by Discovery News): It's hot out there. Last month, more than 3,200 temperature records were broken or tied around the United States, with mercury readings including a scorching 114 degrees Fahrenheit in Yuma, Ariz., 94 in Lincoln Neb., and 98 in Queens, NY… Hot weather alone is not dangerous, said Chris Minson, an environmental physiologist at the University of Oregon, Eugene. Instead, it's a combination of hot temperatures, high humidity, and often preexisting health conditions that can push a person's core body temperature to reach the danger zone of 104 F.

New report suggests hiring increased last month: Oregon economic news

Oregonian: A private report released this morning suggests employers ramped up hiring in June, adding 176,000 jobs. Last month’s job growth could provide critical evidence whether the economy’s sluggish recovery has slowed to a halt or lost further ground… But University of Oregon economist Tim Duy writes in his popular blog, Fed Watch, that he’s hesitant to embrace the tradeoff theory, given residential construction’s impact on the economy’s growth. He argues instead that a housing price bubble may continue to hamper growth.

What Can We Expect From Housing?

Seeking Alpha (story by guest contributor Tim Duy from UO): Josh Lehner and Bill McBride note that the manufacturing slowdown does not necessarily indicate recession, something I noted as well. Another version of that story is seen by comparing the ISM headline number with the new orders data…Again, manufacturing slowdowns in 1995 and 1998 did not presage recessions (albeit possibly due to offsetting monetary policy). McBride reiterates that housing is a better leading indicator than manufacturing, and Lehner discusses a "tradeoff" from manufacturing to housing.

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Media mentions for July 4

Open search for president isn’t always the right move

Statesman Journal: A few weeks ago the University of Oregon hired a new president, Dr. Michael Gottfredson, who is a top higher education leader, a well-known scholar in his field and, by all counts, someone whom the entire university community can get behind to support the institution’s mission. Generally in Oregon public higher education, when selecting a president, we follow an “open search” process. A search committee (representative of university stakeholders) reviews candidates, interviews in person 10-12 candidates, narrows to about three and brings those finalists to campus for open, public forums and meetings with stakeholders. Over the last 10 years, six of the eight presidential searches in the Oregon University System have been “open.”

Teens & Pot Laws

dailyRx: When marijuana was made medically legal in certain states, researchers found teenager’s desire or ability to gain access was not impacted. It appears dispensaries aren’t weed candy stores for minors. A recent study conducted by a team of economists crunched the numbers in states where medical marijuana had been legalized to see if rates of teenage marijuana use increased. The economists may have found numbers to suggest usage rates actually dropped slightly…Daniel I. Rees, PhD, professor of economics at the University of Colorado at Denver, Benjamin Hansen, PhD, assistant professor of economics at the University of Oregon, and Mark Anderson, PhD, assistant professor of economics at Montana State University, looked at data from the Youth Risky Behavior Survey (YRBS), which provided information on high school students from 1993-2009 in the 13 states where medical marijuana was made legal during that time span.