Inside Politics

FLORIDA

Gingrich wants study of in vitro clinics

LUTZ — Republican presidential contender Newt Gingrich has proposed a commission to study the management of in vitro fertilization clinics, where infertile couples seek treatment to allow pregnancy and large numbers of leftover embryos are discarded or stored.

Mr. Gingrich said in vitro fertilization is the creation of life, and serious study is needed of the rules covering it.

The former House speaker made his comments to reporters outside the Exciting Idlewild Baptist Church, where he attended Sunday services.

Mr. Gingrich said he opposes the use of leftover embryos for stem cell research, which advocates think may lead to treatments or cures for a variety of diseases.

The fertilization procedure involves creating an embryo outside a woman’s body, then implanting it inside the womb. Excess embryos are thought to number in the hundreds of thousands.

JUSTICE

Procedures change after Fast and Furious

The Justice Department is tightening procedures for responding to information requests from Congress in the aftermath of a troubled arms trafficking investigation.

In Operation Fast and Furious, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives allowed hundreds of weapons to flow across the border into Mexico.

The Justice Department told three congressional committees in a letter Friday night that it has improved coordination between agents and their managers in carrying out arms trafficking investigations.

Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. is expected to face questions about the changes when he testifies Thursday before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. That committee has been investigating the department’s mistakes in the probe since early last year.

PENTAGON

Weapons for future include relics of past

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