Heads and tales: Roll the dice
By Wade Kwon
Hold your breath: Southern Research Institute is reopening a renovated lab in July at its Southside location to research anthrax. The upgraded facility is expected to attract new projects worth millions of dollars to better understand and counteract the bioweapon. This is the same company that shipped live anthrax spores from its Maryland lab to a children’s hospital research center in California in 2004. Even worse, no laws exist to regulate safety oversight. Not panicking, yet.
• SRI scientists to test anthrax [Birmingham News]
The upside of corporate crime: Because of the increasing number of high-profile corporate trials, law firms are devoting more attorneys to advising business leaders. The opportunity is there not only to defend them in court, but advise them before so that they could, you know, not break the law. Enforcement of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act is largely responsible for the latest wave of white-collar crimes brought to trial. Ah, lawyers … is there anything they can’t do?
• Demand swells for white-collar defense work [Birmingham Business Journal]
Regards and rebounds: Ben Wallace, Detroit Pistons center and White Hall native, became the NBA’s Defensive Player of the Year today. He’s the first to win that honor four times in five years; only Dikembe Mutombo has also won the title four times. And Wallace is the only pro in the Top 10 in rebounds, steals and blocks. Meanwhile, NBA legend and Alabama son Charles Barkley has also put up an impressive number: $10 million. That’s the amount he estimates he lost on gambling: “I do have a gambling problem. But I don’t consider it a problem because I can afford to gamble.” We’ll take that bet.
• Wallace Successfully Defends Defensive Crown [Associated Press]
Also:
- State political candidates debate logic, reality
- New video store actually stocks DVDs
- Did we remember to shut off the irony?
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