The Washington Times has published a four-part investigative series (1, 2, 3, 4) on India's booming business in prenatal ultrasound examinations and sex-selective abortion to eliminate girls. The final article, titled "GE machines used to break law," reports on the scores of thousands of specially designed low-cost ultrasound machines that have been manufactured by General Electric and the Bangalore software company Wipro, and sold with the help of cheap credit offered by GE Capital Services India.

The Washington Times is the right-wing DC newspaper founded by Unification Church leader Sun Myung Moon. According to Wikipedia, the paper has lost money every year since it was founded in 1982, amounting to several billion dollars. Perhaps the cost of an investigative report - an endangered species at many newspapers - pales in the context of that much red ink.

On the other hand, a quick Google search reveals what WT did not: In 2006, Fortune magazine named GE number one on its Annual List of Most Admired Companies.

Public funding of stem cell research in Illinois - already the practice due to executive orders - is about to become enshrined in law. The identical bills which have passed both the House and Senate are, in a number of ways, improvements over those seen in other states, such as California and Connecticut. (I hope that the work of public interest groups to highlight the flaws of these programs played a role in these provisions.) But they do contain significant flaws.

First, the good news:

* The Illinois Regenerative Medicine Institute would be publicly accountable. Its new seven-person board, appointed by the governor, would effectively report to the Department of Public Health, which would establish most of the policies.
* Only nonprofit institutions could receive grants, although corporate representatives are permitted on the board.
* The bills do not set aside, and consequently lock-up, any funds. They merely establish a granting structure. Stem cell research must compete with a complete array of other budget priorities on a level playing field.
* They put various forms of stem cell research on equal footing.
* The bills contain tough provisions to avoid conflict-of-interest and require public disclosure of personal financial interests. This applies to members of the governing board as well as any advisory committees. (California, take note.) What's more, the governing board can't include employees of any institution that is eligible for grants.
* Provisions for transparency include disclosure of the identities of all applicants of funding - not just the grantees. California, take note again.
* Reproductive cloning is banned and criminalized as a class 1 felony.

The most glaring shortcoming of the bills is one of omission: There is no mention of intellectual property provisions. Perhaps there is an existing statute governing state-funded research. If not, who will own the patents? Will the state receive a portion of profitable discoveries made with tax dollars? Will the state's health care program be forced to pay high prices for such therapies?

Furthermore, the bill prohibits neither payments to women to provide eggs for cloning-based stem cell research, nor the reselling of their eggs. But it does call on the governing board to establish research standards "in consultation with... experts such as the International Society for Stem Cell Research, the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, the Institute of Medicine." I would hope, if not expect, that such guidelines would be enforceable - not voluntary - and prohibit compensation for egg providers.

Finally, one clause jumped out at me:

All Institute information concerning medical research shall be confidential and privileged and not subject to disclosure to any person other than Institute personnel.

This is broadly worded, and leaves room for abuse. It should be tightened to cover only justifiable secrets such as research subjects' private details and proprietary trade secrets.

James Cameron is quite accustomed to casting big stars in his films. Leonardo DiCaprio made Cameron’s Titanic the single most profitable movie ever and the Terminator franchise he and Arnold Schwarzenegger built became so successful that the rising political star has been dubbed California’s “Governator.”

Yet many were surprised when Cameron took his legendary casting to the next level by setting his eyes on Jesus – yes, Jesus – as his next leading man. His latest film, “The Lost Tomb of Jesus,” is a documentary claiming to find Jesus’ burial casket. Cameron and crew use DNA testing and statistical probabilities to argue that the woman’s ossuary found next to his with “Mary Magdalene” written on its side contained Jesus’ wife’s remains and that a third ossuary held their son Judah’s bones. Sound vaguely familiar? Well, let’s just say that Dan Brown may very well be looking into whether his copyright has been infringed.

Patenting genes has become a burgeoning biotech business model, with over the 20% of the human genome already in privately owned hands. Thankfully, Congress is starting to look into this matter. Representatives Xavier Becerra (CA-31) and Dave Weldon, (FL-15) recently introduced a bill in the United States House of Representatives aiming to end patents on human genes. Congress would be wise to debate this matter seriously and move swiftly before this human genome gold rush by biomedical 49ers privatizes more of our common humanity. Click here for a thoughtful essay by Lori Andrews on rethinking this area of patent policy.