Galvin, Coakley to testify about trading scandal

Massachusetts Secretary of State William F. Galvin and Attorney General Martha Coakley will testify Thursday at a Washington hearing on the sale of auction-rate securities. They will appear before the House Committee on Financial Services, chaired by Representative Barney Frank, a Newton Democrat, who has promised to look into the Wall Street scandal. Regulators, including Galvin and Coakley, have secured settlements requiring brokerage firms to buy back nearly $60 billion in auction-rate securities from their customers who have been unable to sell them since that market collapsed in February. (Beth Healy)

Swiss drug maker Novartis AG is set to open a vaccine research center today on Sydney Street in Cambridge, and by next year plans to hire 150 more full-time scientists to work there. Novartis, one of the larger life sciences companies in the state, already has about 1,800 employees in Cambridge. Its global research headquarters and vaccines and diagnostics unit are based there. A company spokesman said research center scientists will focus on developing vaccines for several major viruses, including influenza and HIV. (Todd Wallack)

Massachusetts has launched the International Stem Cell Registry, intended to be an online resource center for information on human embryonic stem cells for biomedical researchers and the public. The center is based at the University of Massachusetts Medical School in Shrewsbury, alongside the Massachusetts Stem Cell Bank. The stem cell registry was partially funded by a $570,000 grant from the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center, a quasi-public organization established by the state. (Todd Wallack)

A state report calls for expanding access to literacy, basic skills, and English language programs as a way to help working adults find jobs and increase career opportunities. The report, by the Workforce Investment Board, said such programs should be made more available at businesses. The study found that only 5 percent, or $1.5 million, of state funds for adult basic skills and English language programs go to workplace education. Specifically, it calls for a dedicated fund for workplace programs, a board to coordinate and implement programs, improved connections to higher education, and job support and educational counseling. (Robert Gavin)

Federal regulators said one case of a deadly brain infection has been reported in a patient taking Genentech and Biogen Idec's blockbuster arthritis and cancer drug Rituxan. The Food and Drug Administration said the woman died of the rare viral infection more than 1 1/2 years after discontinuing the drug. Genentech and Biogen Idec co-market the drug in the United States. Cases of the infection have previously been reported in patients taking Rituxan for unapproved uses, including lupus. But the FDA said the latest case is the first reported in a patient taking the drug for arthritis. The drug is also approved for non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. A Genentech spokeswoman noted the drug's label already mentions risks of the infection. (AP)

Somerville real estate lawyer Kevin Carey, 48, will be arraigned today at 2 p.m. in Middlesex Superior Court in Woburn, the state attorney general's office said. In August, the state filed charges against Carey, a Middleborough resident, alleging he stole $2 million from lenders by stacking numerous mortgages on a single property between April 2002 and September 2004. Carey took out various mortgages on four different houses but did not pay off the existing loans on the properties, the state said. His attorney, Daniel O'Malley, did not return a call. (Kimberly Blanton)

Transportation Security Administration officers have started wearing new uniforms and, for the first time, badges. The changes were requested in an effort to be more practical and to raise the level of respect for TSA officers. White long-sleeve shirts have been replaced with dark blue ones, patterned burgundy ties have given way to narrower, solid black ones, and embroidered patches have been replaced with metal badges. In addition, each officer now wears a tag displaying last name and rank. The new look grew out of a recommendation from the TSA's National Advisory Council, the formal organization of transportation security officers, assistant federal security directors, and security managers. (Nicole C. Wong)