Today's Globe: SPARK cuts, Tufts tussle, Newton-Wellesley expansion, electronic records in hospitals, circumcision, pharmaceuticals in fish

Mattapan's SPARK Center - serving children with serious medical, developmental, and emotional issues - is facing major cuts. But parents are vowing to fight for the school's survival.

Tufts University has withdrawn an invitation for a top aide to US Senator Charles E. Grassley to give the keynote speech at a conference on conflicts of interest in medicine and research, leading one conference organizer to pull out and question the university's commitment to academic freedom.

Newton-Wellesley Hospital's bid to expand into Framingham has reignited an old debate: whether a nonprofit facility's services to the community outweigh the loss in property tax dollars.

Less than 2 percent of US hospitals have adopted fully functional electronic medical records, with most citing cost as the biggest barrier, US researchers said yesterday.

Circumcision not only protects against HIV in heterosexual men, but also helps prevent two other sexually transmitted infections, a large new study found.

Fish caught near wastewater treatment plants serving five major US cities had residues of pharmaceuticals in them, including medicines used to treat high cholesterol, allergies, high blood pressure, bipolar disorder, and depression, researchers reported yesterday.