WFU in the news: Dec. 4-10, 2023

FEATURED NEWS

“Good Impressions” on view at Reynolda House
ArtDaily
“Good Impressions: Portraits Across Three Centuries from Reynolda and Wake Forest” is on view at Reynolda House Museum of American Art in the Northwest Bedroom Gallery of the historic house through October 27, 2024. “The museum and university are both strengthened by collaborations like this small yet glorious presentation of portraits,” said Allison Perkins, executive director, Reynolda House and Wake Forest University associate provost for Reynolda House & Reynolda Gardens. “More importantly, Wake Forest’s students and Winston-Salem’s community have the privilege of seeing extraordinary works in conversation on our walls.” – 12/09/2023

Chile’s lessons and failures in writing a new constitution
By Paige Sutherland, Meghna Chakrabarti | On Point (WBUR-FM)
In 2020, Chileans overwhelmingly supported writing a new constitution. In 2022, they overwhelmingly rejected it. This month, they will vote on a different version, but many say it’s worse than what they already have. Politics and international affairs professor Peter Siavelis, who’s studied Chile for more than 30 years, is a guest on On Point. He’s the author of the academic paper “Chile’s Constitutional Chaos,” published in the Journal of Democracy. – 12/10/2023

NATIONAL & INTERNATIONAL

Investigators plan to exhume the body of ‘The Keepers’ subject Joyce Malecki
By Dan Belson | Baltimore Sun
Disinterment laws vary from state to state. In Maryland, elected prosecutors call the shots. The laws for disinterring human remains from a gravesite are different in each state, but all follow the standard that the dead have a right “to remain in the place they’re buried,” said law professor Tanya Marsh. – 12/08/2023

Why environmental reporting doesn’t always have two equal sides
By Rachel Lewis Hilburn | WHQR-FM (Wilmington, NC)
Enviva company officials assured critics that wood pellets are mostly made of waste: treetops, limbs, even sawdust. Not true, according to reporting from environmental journalist and professor Justin Catanoso, who also says the science shows wood pellet burning contributes more to the climate crisis than burning coal. After covering climate change-related issues for more than a decade, Catanoso has been chipping away at other Enviva company assertions, including the notion that Enviva only buys wood from areas that will be re-planted. – 12/05/2023

Peru’s crackdown on illegal gold mining a success, but only briefly, study shows
South Africa Today
Mining ponds typically show up as yellow to brown; this color is associated with high levels of suspended sediment in the water — a marker for gold mining activity, said the study’s coauthor Luis E. Fernández, executive director of Wake Forest University’s Center for Amazonian Scientific Innovation, based in Madre de Dios. “We use the color changes in the mining ponds as a proxy for [mining] activity. As mining ceases and ponds are abandoned, the sediment settles, and the degree of yellowness diminishes — a pattern the researchers found in the raided areas following Operation Mercury. Conversely, when it turns back to a cappuccino color, we know it’s being mined again,” Fernández added. – 12/08/2023

At COP28, the U.S. proposed new rules for a major greenhouse gas. Can the Biden administration and EPA enforce it?
By Christopher Harress, Gulf Coasts | Reckon
In this Q&A, Stan Meiburg talks with Reckon about the EPA’s enforcement of its rules. Meiburg was acting deputy administrator for the EPA between 2014 to 2017, capping a 39-year career with the agency. He is currently the executive director of the Andrew Sabin Family Center for Environment and Sustainability at Wake Forest University in North Carolina. – 12/07/2023

Managing anticipation over the holidays
Booming Encore
The accumulation of these mini-thrills means you’ll still reap the benefits of looking forward to something, even if it’s not a big-ticket reward, said Christian E. Waugh, a psychology professor at Wake Forest University who studies anticipation. “Plus, with the nearer stuff, there’s more of a sense it’s going to happen for sure,” he said. “You’ve got more control over a small gathering this evening than a vacation in six months.” – 12/07/2023

LOCAL

Manning opts not to run for re-election in US Sixth District under new Republican-drawn maps
By Richard Craver | Winston-Salem Journal
The passage of the controversial Republican-drawn congressional map for North Carolina has led Democratic Rep. Kathy Manning to decide not to run for re-election in the Sixth District. The redrawn Sixth makes it “highly unlikely that a Democratic candidate could be competitive,’ said politics professor John Dinan. “So, it is not surprising that Manning isn’t going to run for reelection. – 12/07/2023