If you actually read a hard copy of The Boston Globe, check out page B2. If not, let us guide you through the interesting cluster of stories there.

First, read the nice feature on a scientific training partnership between BU and Xavier University in New Orleans.

Just below it, note the wire service story on how state lawmakers want to repeal a ban on pharma gifts to doctors and researchers.

A two-year-old state ban on gifts in the medical and pharmaceutical industries would be repealed under an economic development bill that the House budget committee began polling its members on yesterday.

The ban, which prohibits drug firms from giving gifts and meals to health care professionals, has cut back on local business profits, a summary of the bill states. When it passed as part of a broader health care bill in 2008, supporters called it a way of curbing pharmaceutical companies’ influence.

Finally, check out the New England in Brief column to the right.

Doctor will serve time for faked research

A doctor who pleaded guilty to health care fraud in February was sentenced in federal court yesterday to six months in prison. Dr. Scott Reuben, 51, an anesthesiologist from Longmeadow, had faked research using grants and free drugs he received through contracts with pharmaceutical companies, US Attorney Carmen Ortiz said. The falsified research was published in medical journals. The sentence included three years of supervised release, $50,000 in forfeiture, restitution of $361,932, and a $5,000 fine.