WFU in the news: April 22-28, 2024

FEATURED NEWS

The era of one-stop grocery shopping is over
By Rachel Wolfe | The Wall Street Journal
Traditional grocers ate up 66% of total consumer spending on food at home in 2022 according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the most recent year for which data is available. That’s down from 69% in 2017. Marketing professor Roger Beahm said some food stores are now leaning into differentiation rather than trying to be all things to all people. “Retailers are looking at specific categories that they can excel in and being able to offer consumers superior products in these.” – 4/27/2024

NATIONAL & INTERNATIONAL

Supreme Court to consider clash of Idaho abortion ban with federal law for emergency care
By Melissa Quinn | CBS News
But states can still enforce their abortion restrictions, said law professor Meghan Boone, who is an expert on reproductive rights. “The overlap here where there could be a potential conflict between what EMTALA requires and what Idaho says is criminal is a fairly narrow range of cases. It’s not going to cover all abortions.” – 4/22/2024

John V. Petrocelli & Juliet Jeske break down Fox News clips
Decoding Fox News
Psychology professor John Petrocelli, author of “The Life-Changing Science of Detecting Bullshit,” listens to evergreen news clips and comments on examples of techniques used to mislead, lie or manipulate an audience. – 4/28/2024

Peel police chief met Sri Lankan officer a court says ‘participated’ in torture
By Touria Izri | Global News
The head of one of Canada’s largest police forces met with a Sri Lankan inspector general of police who two weeks earlier had been found by the South Asian country’s highest court to have “participated in the torture” of an arrested man. Tennakoon’s recent appointment as police chief shows “much about how law enforcement authorities in the island operate with impunity,” said politics professor Neil DeVotta. – 4/23/2024

Japanese green tea once fueled the midwest
By Andrew Coletti | Atlas Obscura
“It’s just so amazing how something like this can be so quickly forgotten. And this is the challenge of a historian: trying to figure out why. There’s no documents that tell us ‘This is why we really [liked] green tea,” said history professor Robert Hellyer, author of ”Green with Milk and Sugar: When Japan Filled America’s Teacups.” – 4/25/2024

New EPA rules subject Georgia Power to severe emissions restrictions at planned plants
Savannah Morning News
While Georgia Power’s planned new units would be subject to the revised rules, they would not apply to its existing gas-fired plants because the EPA put off regulatory changes for plants built before May 24, 2023. “This reflects that retrofits are more complex in both law and equity,” said Stan Meiburg, executive director of Wake Forest’s Sabin Center for Environment and Sustainability. – 4/26/2024

Add this castle-like estate In North Carolina to your vacation bucket list
By Ashlyn Needham | Southern Living
A few minutes outside of downtown Winston-Salem, North Carolina, sits the enchanting and historic Graylyn Estate. Built with 85 rooms to accommodate overnight guests in several lodging facilities, the estate-turned-hotel and conference center combines plenty of charm with a splendid hospitable staff while preserving rich, local history. In a way, it resembles a more intimate version of the Biltmore. – 4/26/2024

REGIONAL & TRADE

The rise of mega-hospitals
By Michelle Crouch, Charlotte Ledger | North Carolina Health News
The larger a hospital’s footprint, the more bargaining power it has when it negotiates prices with health insurance companies, said law professor Mark Hall. Hospitals also cite economies of scale and operational efficiencies they say will enhance patient care, he said. – 4/22/2024

Let us compare mythologies
By Stephanie Bastek | The American Scholar
“Teaching theoretical lenses, approaches, ways of understanding history, ways of understanding a text, is really vital. And I think that that necessarily points to discussions about what has been used historically to understand these cultures, these periods, these texts, and what are the shortfalls, what are the gaps,” said classics professor T.H.M. Gellar-Goad. – 4/26/2024

North Carolina campuses team up for unique renewable energy partnership
By Jennifer J. Roberts | Spectrum News Charlotte
Davidson College, Wake Forest University and Elon University have teamed up with several higher education institutions in Pennsylvania for the Sebree Solar II Project, which will bring a large-scale solar facility online in western Kentucky. – 4/23/2024

LOCAL

WFU commits to 100% renewable energy
WSJS-AM (Winston-Salem, NC)
“Sustainability is a big commitment here,” said Vice President for Institutional Sustainability and Chief Sustainability Officer Dedee DeLongpré Johnston, in an interview with Jeffrey Griffin about the University’s collaborative solar energy project. “This is an exciting partnership with eight other institutions for us to take part in activating a big solar installation in Kentucky,” DeLongre Johnson said. “It is a great spot for us to invest in renewable energy….that community benefits and we benefit through renewable energy credits that will become part of our overall greenhouse gas accounting equation.” – 4/23/2024

Parkland students looking forward to attending Trevor Noah event after studying his memoir
By Lindsay Clein | WXII-TV (Winston Salem, NC)
Some Parkland High School students have a lot to look forward to next week after studying Trevor Noah’s memoir “Born A Crime.” The students wrote to Wake Forest in hopes of attending the Face-to-Face speaker event at the LJVM Coliseum, featuring Noah. The students received complimentary tickets in response. – 4/26/2024

Wake Forest, Davidson, Elon flip switch on combined solar farm project
By Richard Craver | Winston-Salem Journal
What does a planned large-scale solar facility in western Kentucky and Wake Forest and Elon universities have in common? The Sebree Solar II facility, near Robards, Kentucky and the Ohio River, will play a substantial role in the universities meeting their ambitious renewable energy goals potentially into the 2050s. The $195 million project on a 900-acre site is projected to generate up to 150 megawatts of renewable energy with a 30-year lifespan. – 4/28/2024

Wake Forest University partners with Speas Elementary to make learning creative and engaging
By Lindsay Clein | WXII-TV (Winston Salem, NC)
Learning got creative at Speas Elementary School in Winston-Salem thanks to some Wake Forest students. The elementary students were able to experience hands-on learning as part of an innovative program called, “Theater in Education.” Education and theater students have been working with second graders using the performing arts to teach lessons on science. – 4/24/2024

Spectrum News also covered the program.

Winston-Salem and Wake Forest partner to make improvements to Polo Road
By Casey Zanowic | WXLV-TV (Winston Salem, NC)
“As a player in the community, we have a role as stewards in the community. Making sure we’re not needlessly adding single-occupancy vehicle commuters to the road,” said DeDee DeLongpre Johnston, vice president for sustainability and chief sustainability officer. “We have a lot of bicycle and pedestrian corridors leading to and from campus already, so we want to make sure that the folks who are opting for active transportation are doing so as safely as possible.” – 4/23/2024