Grants

California's voter-created stem cell institute approved a $2.6-million grant earlier this month to a Los Angeles-based research center whose founding president, a South Korean fertility expert, is embroiled in an international dispute over authorship of a medical journal article.

In an emerging revolt against abstinence-only sex education, states are turning down millions of dollars in federal grants, unwilling to accept White House dictates that the money be used for classes focused almost exclusively on teaching chastity. In Ohio, Democratic Gov. Ted Strickland said that regardless of the state's sluggish economic picture, he didn't see the point in taking part in the controversial State Abstinence Education Program anymore.

The Borromeo String Quartet, violinist Yura Lee and bassist DaXun Zhang have won $25,000 Avery Fisher Career Grants for rising performers. Formed in 1989 in Stresa, Italy, the Borromeo is the quartet in residence at the New England Conservatory of Music and at Dai-Ichi Semei Hall in Tokyo. Its members are violinists Nicholas Kitchen and Kristopher Tong, violist Mai Motobuchi and cellist Yeesun Kim.

The Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum in Topanga will get $25,000 from the National Endowment for the Arts for programs aimed at introducing Southland students in grades 5-12 to "The Tempest" and "A Midsummer Night's Dream."

The Pacific Chorale and the organizers of "Craft in America," a seven-city touring exhibition that opened recently in Little Rock, Ark., are the only L.A.-area recipients reaping six-figure support in a round of federal grants announced Tuesday by the National Endowment for the Arts.

The Department of Homeland Security on Thursday distributed $445 million in infrastructure grants -- a 10% increase from last year -- to be used to strengthen the ability of ports, transit and intercity bus systems to protect against terrorist attacks. California is receiving more than $30 million in port security funding for fiscal year 2007, almost doubling last year's $17-million grant. "This represents a significant boost in funding for California's ports," said Sen.

A consumer advocacy group urged the UC Board of Regents on Wednesday to ensure that BP does not benefit inappropriately from its $500-million research grant to UC Berkeley by obtaining exclusive rights to scientific discoveries. The Santa Monica-based Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights also called on the regents to prohibit the British oil company from conducting secret research at the public university and from using UC's name in marketing campaigns without the regents' approval.

IT is the start of the summer movie season, when theater screens are filled with all manner of mayhem, when Hollywood movie stars electrify audiences in high-speed car chases, elaborate fight sequences and deafening explosions that send bodies hurtling through the air. But two stuntmen who provide such thrills and chills admit they are lucky to be alive today.

There was something in the way Nadia Williams would move her 92-year-old hands when she spoke of her son that seemed weighty: how she worried paper between her thumbs when someone mentioned his disappearance, or flung her palms up in joy with the recollection of his childhood.

Pretty soon, if you Google "hybrid car," one of the search results may be Google. Google Inc. on Monday unveiled a program to speed up the development of so-called plug-in hybrids, which can run for limited periods on electric power and deliver significantly better fuel economy than the Toyota Prius and other hybrid vehicles. The search-engine giant's philanthropic arm, Google.