Tax-Funded Texas Cancer Agency Investigated as a Boondoggle

Throwing money around and driving-away credible scientists

The new Texas agency that is leading the state's 10-year, $3 billion push to cure cancer is fighting for its reputation and future in the face of doubts about its operations.

Spurred on by Governor Rick Perry and cyclist Lance Armstrong, voters in 2007 overwhelmingly approved a ballot measure that makes Texas the largest state funder of cancer research and prevention, second only to the federal government.

At issue is whether the Cancer Prevention Research Institute of Texas, commonly called CPRIT, is letting politics trump science in the way it doles out grant money.