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Upon learning how boredom plagues troops in the Middle East, incoming ������Ƶ freshman Peter Gallagher and a friend started Games for Heroes, an organization that to date has collected more than $100,000 in hand held video games and cash that today keep hundreds of off-duty soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan entertained.

Hollywood doesn’t really like government, judging by the movies it produces, but when you look at the way film directors portray individual employees, new research co-authored by an ������Ƶ professor and alumna reveals a lot of on-screen respect for civil servants.

Mileah Kromer, an assistant professor of political science and assistant director of the ������Ƶ Poll, spoke at length with the Scripps Howard Foundation Wire this month on the role of social media in American elections.

������Ƶ Poll director Hunter Bacot spoke with News 14 Carolina on July 9 on recent controversies in the North Carolina State Highway Patrol and how Gov. Bev Perdue has handled the public relations fallout.

Assistant professor Dion Farganis spoke with News 14 Carolina for a "TalkBack" segment on the Elena Kagan hearings that took place in Washington this summer as lawmakers prepare to vote on her nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court.

If you think U.S. Supreme Court nominees have become much more evasive in recent years during their confirmation hearings, Dion Farganis, an ������Ƶ assistant professor of political science, offers a bit of advice: Think again. Work by Farganis received national attention this week as the Senate Judiciary Committee opened hearings into Elena Kagan’s nomination to the highest court in the land.

Assistant professor Jason Kirk was a featured guest June 30 on "The State of Things" program hosted by WUNC, a North Carolina affiliate of National Public Radio.

������Ƶ Poll director Hunter Bacot spoke at length in June with NBC17 in Raleigh, N.C., and with the national news organization Real Clear Politics about the challenges faced by Democrats in unseating U.S. Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., in November.

Mileah Kromer, an assistant professor of political science, spoke at length with News 14 Carolina on June 11 about the upcoming runoff election between N.C. Secretary of State Elaine Marshall and former state Sen. Cal Cunningham for the Democratic nomination to take on incumbent U.S. Sen. Richard Burr in November.

������Ƶ young alumna Kristine Silverstri served as a guest writer this week for Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times columnist Nicholas D. Kristof, who published on his newspaper blog Silvestri's account of contracting malaria when she visited Ghana in late 2008.