From IVF to RIP

We are currently in a month that has already seen the deaths of Roger Ebert and Margaret Thatcher. But now we have another. Robert G. Edwards, who opened a new era in medicine when he joined a colleague in developing in vitro fertilization, enabling millions of infertile couples to bring children into the world and women to have babies even in menopause, died yesterday at his home near Cambridge, England. Dr. Edwards, who was awarded the Nobel Prize for his breakthrough, was 87. But enough about that because Christchurch project management firm Apollo Projects wants the Government to set a deadline on property owner decisions for development of the retail precinct in City Mall. Apollo has joined with Christchurch merchant bank Ocean Partners in the proposed $200 million One Cashel Square retail, hospitality, and office complex in the CBD. That partnership is vying with others to lead the development of the block bordered by City Mall, Lichfield St, and the Avon River; and it needs the more than a dozen landowners in the block to decide which development they support. I'm sure it will be a contentious race, but also contentious is the fact that the blogger holding a leaked Earthquake Commission (EQC) email with information on 83,000 Christchurch claimants says he is preparing to defy a court order stopping disclosure. The High Court in Wellington yesterday extended an order prohibiting any release of information from the email, accidentally leaked last week to Christchurch businessman Bryan Staples, of Earthquake Services. The blogger told The Press last night he was upset about not getting a hearing in court and believed he should have been given time to prepare his case. Sounds fair enough, but contempt of court is not necessarily the right way to play when it comes to issues like this. But had time been provided, he would have stopped releasing information until a hearing. He would also stop disclosing information from the email if EQC chief executive Ian Simpson agreed to debate several issues with him in a public forum. So with that in mind, they'd better get one underway.