In late July, our news pages carried an article  about a series of potentially favorable stock trades in shares of Thousand Oaks-based Amgen that may have benefited the wealthy wife of U.S. Sen. John Kerry.

Disclosure of the trades, made in 2007 on behalf of a trust that benefits Teresa Heinz Kerry, would not have been required under the newly passed STOCK Act. The act was signed into law earlier this year in the wake of revelations about perfectly legal insider stock trading by House and Senate members.

The scandal over insider trading on Capitol Hill caused a firestorm of outrage, and Congress, with unusual speed, was forced to address the issue. The outrage continued amid media reports that the hastily passed act did not include trades by spouses.

However, a bill awaiting the signature of President Barack Obama would require disclosure of spouse and family-member stock trading as well. We’re not totally sure it would apply to a trust situation, such as the one that benefits the Kerry family, but this is a move in the right direction.