UAlbany in the News

by Lisa James Goldsberry (December 10, 2004)

� A study done by the Center for Women in Government and Civil Society was featured in an article in the October 31 issue of The Boston Globe. The focus of �Calling the Shots� was three Massachusetts law enforcement agencies in the midst of upheaval that are headed by women. According to the article, it�s the first state to have three top-ranking women in policing. In the UAlbany study, Appointed Policy Makers in State Government, Five-Year Trend Analysis, the state ranked first among the 50 states in the percentage of women appointed by the governor to policy-making positions.

� The October 6 edition of Newsday featured quotes and research done by David Carpenter, director of the Institute for Health and the Environment in the School of Public Health. In �Where to Get Omega-3,� it discussed things to consider when increasing one�s fish-oil intake and the American Heart Association�s recommendation that healthy adults eat fish twice a week. �I advise consumers not to eat farmed salmon until the industry changes the way it feeds the salmon,� Carpenter was quoted as saying. According to his study, published in Science magazine, farmed salmon contains 10 times more PCBs, dioxins, and other potentially cancer-causing industrial chemicals than wild salmon.

� Stephen Wasby, professor emeritus of political science, was quoted in the November 21 edition of the Houston Chronicle. Written by Chronicle columnist Cragg Hines, the article �Supremes to Texas Appeals Court: You Still Don�t Get It� focused on the nation�s highest court reversing decisions by Texas jurists. The no-argument/ reversal tack is used only �when justices think the lower court�s �transgression� is particularly obvious,� said Wasby, who has expertise in federal and state courts.

� �Keep Your Thoughts to Yourself? Not Anymore� in the November 21 issue of the Minneapolis Star Tribune featured quotes from Jonathan Wolpaw of Biomedical Sciences. It examined two remarkable experiments in which researchers have demonstrated ways to convert thoughts to computer commands by reading brain signals, and which offer potential to help severely disabled people carry out simple tasks or communicate thoughts. Wolpaw, a long-time brain researcher who was not involved in either experiment, was quoted as saying, �It�s clear that there�s a great deal you can do with the non-invasive methods such as the scalp, more than was thought possible in the past.�