On a need-to-know basis.

• Author: Gearino, G.D.
• Position: FINEPRINT - Biotechnology laboratories

There's a fellow living near Butner, where the federal government is considering building a germ-defense lab, who is prone to dress in a white suit and red cape with a large BS emblazoned on his chest. He's Bio-Safety Man, and he must be a scary dude. Or at least a very persuasive one. Why else would more than a quarter-million dollars of public money have been temporarily earmarked to overcome his opposition to the lab?

That's right: For a few weeks, your money was set to be deployed to counter what is apparently the game-changing power of a cranky activist dressed up like a cartoon superhero. Golden LEAF, the nonprofit that is custodian of a big chunk of the billions of dollars North Carolina ultimately will receive from the cigarette industry, had approved a $262,000 grant to supporters of the National Bio- and Agro-Defense Facility, proposed for Granville County. Supporters say the money would have been used to educate the public about the lab. The educational campaign would have been fair and impartial. It would not have been used to sway, influence or otherwise affect public opinion. I will now pause to give readers a moment to compose themselves after their disbelieving hoots of laughter have subsided.

Are you back? OK, let's now ponder some of the delicious ironies of this situation--not least among them the fact that money the tobacco industry had to cough up to the American public, as penance for being too good at marketing its wares, was set to be used for yet more questionable marketing. (And recall that cigarette makers used to "educate" consumers on the beneficial aspects of tobacco.) More delicious, though, was that the intended beneficiary of Golden LEAF's largesse--the N.C. Biotechnology Center, which supports the construction of the biodefense lab--decided it wouldn't be able to keep a straight face as it went about "educating" the public. In early August, it notified the foundation that it wouldn't accept the money after all, calling the terms onerous. Why, if the Biotech Center had to be neutral and balanced on the matter, the foundation could just keep its stinkin' money.

Such is the swampy territory that lies ahead of any official who seeks to use public money to advocate one thing or another under the guise of education. A similar misstep occurred earlier this year when Orange County commissioners approved spending $100,000 to educate voters on the proposed land-transfer tax. But both the timing of the educational...