Recent News

By Category: Policy & Initiatives

House votes to cut KBA role in funding of NBAF bio lab

TOPEKA, Kan. — The Kansas House has approved a bill ending the Kansas Bioscience Authority’s role in issuing state bonds to help finance a new national biodefense lab in Manhattan. Wednesday’s 123-0 vote sends the measure to the Senate. The bill comes amid criticism of the Bioscience Authority’s operations and an investigation by the Johnson Read More »

May 12, 2011
| Filed under Policy & Initiatives and Research
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A “whole-system redesign” of U.S. agriculture

HOMELAND SECURITY NEWSWIRE — Transformative changes in markets, policy, and science, rather than just incremental changes in farming practices and technology, will be critical if the United States is to achieve long-term sustainability in agriculture, according to a nationwide team of agriculturists that includes a University of California, Davis, animal scientist

May 10, 2011
| Filed under North America, Agriculture, and Policy & Initiatives
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The Biological Weapons Convention: Proceeding without a verification protocol

BULLETIN OF ATOMIC SCIENTISTS — The Seventh Review Conference of the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) will be held this December in Geneva, with member states convening to assess the bioweapons nonproliferation regime and discuss ways to improve it. But is it worth trying to strengthen the BWC? Since its inception, the treaty has been plagued Read More »

May 10, 2011
| Filed under North America, International, and Policy & Initiatives
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A small pox, a big debate

ABC ONLINE — In a few weeks time the WHO will meet to consider whether or not to formally recommend that the last remaining stocks of smallpox virus be permanently destroyed. At least two laboratories in the USA and Russia are said to maintain stocks of the virus frozen in liquid nitrogen, presumably as a Read More »

May 5, 2011
| Filed under Europe, North America, Agents & Toxins, International, and Policy & Initiatives
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Lawmakers Urge Funding for FDA Construction Project

GLOBAL SECURITY NEWSWIRE — Five US lawmakers from Maryland last week warned that failure to provide funding for a project to consolidate Food and Drug Administration facilities could have a detrimental effect on biodefense research (see GSN, April 26). …