Cash prizes

Last week, controversial J. Craig Venter, millionaire, self-styled master of the human genome, and UCSD alumnus who maintains a handsome home in La Jolla, received the prestigious National Medal of Science from Barack Obama at a White House ceremony. Whether by coincidence or not, Venter is a big Democratic donor, though he favored the campaign of Hillary Clinton over that of Obama in the 2008 presidential derby, $7150 to $4600. … State attorney general Jerry Brown has just opened his gubernatorial exploratory campaign kitty for business; one of the first donors is San Diego’s Cubic Transportation Systems, Inc., with $10,000.