CGS-authored
Nearly nine months after losing at the ballot box, the conservative groups that opposed the California stem cell institute haven't given up. Early this month, the California Family Bioethics Council filed a lawsuit, the third aimed at stopping the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine in its tracks. Though motivated by moral concerns, the suits focus on oversight of the institute's funds. With the three civil cases pending, the state Attorney General's Office is wary of signing off on the first of the $3 billion in bonds for the institute, which plans to move from Emeryville to Mission Bay by year's end.
Actually, however, by impeding progress on the stem cell institute, the lawsuits could be a godsend to California taxpayers. In its first eight months of operation, the institute and its 29-member Independent Citizens Oversight Committee (ICOC) -- an unwieldy sort of board of directors -- have burned through more than $2 million in cash and signed contracts promising $1 million more. And all this spending occurred without an approved operating budget or an organizational structure that defines who does...