{"id":1063293,"date":"2012-06-03T15:52:49","date_gmt":"2012-06-03T15:52:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.longevitymedicine.tv\/california-stem-cell-agency-fires-back-at-la-times-columnist\/"},"modified":"2024-08-17T20:28:28","modified_gmt":"2024-08-18T00:28:28","slug":"california-stem-cell-agency-fires-back-at-la-times-columnist-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/stem-cell-therapy\/california-stem-cell-agency-fires-back-at-la-times-columnist-2.php","title":{"rendered":"California Stem Cell Agency Fires Back at LA Times Columnist"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/feedads.g.doubleclick.net\/~a\/pC129jayciFAZnYIRx50Awv3Pog\/0\/da\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.longevitymedicine.tv\/wp-content\/plugins\/wp-o-matic\/cache\/b9832_di\" border=\"0\" style=\"padding-left:10px; padding-right: 10px;\"><\/a><br><a href=\"http:\/\/feedads.g.doubleclick.net\/~a\/pC129jayciFAZnYIRx50Awv3Pog\/1\/da\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.longevitymedicine.tv\/wp-content\/plugins\/wp-o-matic\/cache\/b9832_di\" border=\"0\" style=\"padding-left:10px; padding-right: 10px;\"><\/a><\/p><p>The top two leaders of the California<br>stem cell agency today took strong issue with a column in the <b>Los<br>Angeles Times<\/b> that spoke <a href=\"http:\/\/californiastemcellreport.blogspot.com\/2012\/05\/look-at-son-of-cirm-proposal-on-june.html\">less than favorably <\/a>about the history and<br>efforts of the state research enterprise.<\/p><div><\/div><div>Pulitzer Prize-winning writer <b>Michael<br>Hiltzik<\/b> mentioned California's $3 billion stem cell effort in a piece<br>May 27 about <b>Proposition 29<\/b> on the June ballot. The \"<b>Son of CIRM<\/b>\" initiative,<br>tailored after the ballot measure that created the stem cell agency<br>in 2004, would provide $800 million annually for research into<br>tobacco-related illnesses. The money would be derived from  a $1<br>dollar-a-pack tax on cigarettes.<\/div><div><\/div><div>Among other things, Hiltzik said,<\/div><blockquote><p>\"Proposition 71(the stem cell<br>initiative), you may recall, was sold to a gullible public via<br>candy-coated images of&nbsp;<b>Christopher Reeve<\/b>&nbsp;walking again<br>and&nbsp;<b>Michael J. Fox<\/b>&nbsp;cured of&nbsp;Parkinson's. The<br>implication was that these miracles would happen if voters approved a<br>$3-billion bond issue for stem cell research.\"<\/p><\/blockquote><div>The reponse from <b>J.T. Thomas<\/b>, chairman<br>of the CIRM board and a Los Angeles bond financier, and CIRM<br>President <b>Alan Trounson <\/b>came in the form of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.latimes.com\/news\/opinion\/letters\/la-le-0530-wednesday-prop29-20120530,0,2281037.story\">a letter to the editor<\/a>.<br>The letter was only four paragraphs long and may have been cut prior<br>to publication, which is common practice for letters to the editor.<br>We have asked CIRM about whether there is more to the letter. (Following publication of this item, CIRM spokesman <b>Kevin McCormack<\/b> said the complete text was published by the Times, which has a 150-word limit on letters. The CIRM letter was 148.)<\/div><div><\/div><div>Here is the full text as published.<\/div><blockquote><p>\"In his article opposing<br>Proposition 29, Michael Hiltzik makes a number of misleading<br>statements about Proposition 71, the voter-approved measure funding<br>stem-cell research.&nbsp;<\/p><\/blockquote><blockquote><p>\"No ads for Proposition 71<br>promised miraculous cures. They promised good science, and that is<br>what is being funded, with more than 62 promising therapies for 40<br>different diseases on their way to clinical trials.&nbsp;<\/p><\/blockquote><blockquote><p>\"The stem-cell agency has<br>conflict-of-interest rules as strict as any government agency. We<br>undergo state-mandated audits to ensure we follow all rules and<br>regulations, and the most recent one, completed just this month,<br>praised the agency for its performance.&nbsp;<\/p><\/blockquote><blockquote><p>\"As for being 'an unwieldy<br>bureaucrac just 6% of the money we get goes to pay for staff; 94%<br>goes to fund research here in California, creating new jobs,<br>generating income for the state and, most important, helping find<br>treatments for deadly diseases.\"&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p><\/blockquote><p><\/p><div><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\" src=\"http:\/\/www.longevitymedicine.tv\/wp-content\/plugins\/wp-o-matic\/cache\/7e436_10000891-1691742049047738557?l=californiastemcellreport.blogspot.com\" alt=\"\" style=\"padding-left:10px; padding-right: 10px;\"><\/div><p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.longevitymedicine.tv\/wp-content\/plugins\/wp-o-matic\/cache\/7e436_DYIRpjdP1kQ\" height=\"1\" width=\"1\" style=\"padding-left:10px; padding-right: 10px;\">Source:<br><a href=\"http:\/\/californiastemcellreport.blogspot.com\/feeds\/posts\/default?alt=rss\">http:\/\/californiastemcellreport.blogspot.com\/feeds\/posts\/default?alt=rss<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The top two leaders of the Californiastem cell agency today took strong issue with a column in the LosAngeles Times that spoke less than favorably about the history andefforts of the state research enterprise.Pulitzer Prize-winning writer MichaelHiltzik mentioned California's $3 &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/stem-cell-therapy\/california-stem-cell-agency-fires-back-at-la-times-columnist-2.php\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":64,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"limit_modified_date":"","last_modified_date":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[25,1246878],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1063293","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-stem-cell-therapy","category-stem-cells"],"modified_by":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1063293"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/64"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1063293"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1063293\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1063293"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1063293"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1063293"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}