(U-WIRE) COLLEGE STATION, Texas – The cloning project at Texas A’M’s College of Veterinary… (U-WIRE) COLLEGE STATION, Texas – The cloning project at Texas A’M’s College of Veterinary Medicine, which produced the world’s first cloned cat, has come to an end.

Arizona businessman John Sperling and the company he created more than three years ago to clone his pet dog, a mixed breed named Missy, have withdrawn their funding from the A’M “Missiplicity” project after it failed to produce a clone of his dog.

That’s a loss of $3.7 million for the program and an end, for now, to the controversial cloning of domesticated pets at the A’M lab that was made famous in the race to clone the most species.

Genetic Savings and Clone, the biotechnology company founded by Sperling, will seek an industrial partnership in the hopes of obtaining better technology, said Ben Carlson, vice president of communications for the company.

In the meantime, A’M’s lab is left looking for funding through more traditional sources.

“We will seek other sources of funding and continue our work through the National Institutes of Health, the United States Department of Agriculture or other private investors,” said Dr. Mark Westhusin, Missiplicity team member and A’M associate professor of veterinary physiology and pharmacology.

The Missiplicity research team achieved one canine conception, but the pregnancy failed to come to term, Westhusin said.

– Rob Phillips

The Battalion (Texas A’M U.)

Bush pushes homeland security agency, says he’ll stick with Cheney

WASHINGTON – Emboldened by Republican gains in Tuesday’s elections, President Bush demanded Thursday that Congress approve his new homeland security agency and said he intended to stick with Vice President Dick Cheney in any re-election campaign.

Although Bush declined to take credit for the Republican takeover of the Senate, he left no doubt that he intends to leverage his clout in Congress. In a wide-ranging afternoon news conference, he pledged to push for additional tax cuts and other steps to stimulate the sluggish economy.

“There’s going to be a huge laundry list of things people want to get done, and my job is to set priorities and get them done,” Bush said. “Job security and economic security, as well as homeland security, are the two most important priorities we face.”

The president said the lame-duck Congress that would convene next week should focus first on his proposal to create a new federal agency to guard against terrorist attacks. Bush’s plan for the biggest government reorganization since World War II has stalled in the Senate over turf wars and a dispute with Democrats over civil-service job rules for employees of the new department.

“The election may be over, but a terrorist threat is still real,” Bush said. “It’s imperative that the Congress sends me a bill that I can sign before the 107th Congress ends.”

However, it appears unlikely that the holdover Senate will act on the legislation. “I expect homeland security will wait,” Sen. Thomas Carper, D-Del., said after a conference call with Democratic Senate leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D.

– Ron Hutcheson

Knight Ridder Newspapers

(Knight Ridder correspondent James Kuhnhenn contributed to this report).

“Reality” programming feeds the frenzy to cover celebrity scandals

The day after a landmark election that saw Republicans take control of Congress, there was one story that television’s cable-news commentators couldn’t stop talking about.

The guilty verdict in a shoplifting trial.

Few stories rivet the nation’s attention more than the crime scandal of a Hollywood starlet fallen on hard times. On cable news, radio-talk shows and at office water coolers across the country, the trial of Winona Ryder is playing like a smash reality show.

“Celebrities, scandal and a courtroom proceeding are an irresistible combination for the media,” says Howard Weitzman, a criminal defense lawyer whose experience with celebrity justice includes being O.J. Simpson’s first attorney – before the “Dream Team” was assembled.

“Sometimes that attention is warranted, but most times it isn’t. This is an extreme example of unwarranted attention. It was a simple case, there were no surprises, and the case has no relevance or proximity to the average person. But there was a celebrity and a scandal, and the media couldn’t resist.”

The case has been on the media’s front burner since the Oscar-nominated actress was detained last December outside the Saks Fifth Avenue store in Beverly Hills with several clothes items she hadn’t purchased.

– Tom Maurstad

The Dallas Morning News