Free Republic

WASHINGTONA legal battle may be looming between states, including North Carolina, and tobacco companies over money owed from a landmark 1998 settlement agreement. What's at stake could be more than $1 billion.An economic consulting firm determined late Monday that the agreement between the cigarette companies and the states was a "significant factor" in contributing to a loss of market share for the companies that signed on to the settlement.The report stated that the agreement, which imposed numerous marketing limits on the companies and required billions of dollars in payments to states, led to the erosion of their market share...

AUGUSTA, Maine --The Maine Senate changed its mind Monday about smoking in private clubs and overturned its vote from last week in support of snuffing out smokes in Elks, American Legion and other clubs that have employees.The Senate's 21-13 vote Monday against the club smoking ban came just a few days after its unexpected vote to put the ban in place. The measure now goes back to the House.Monday's vote also followed a debate in which senators defending the ban said it's consistent with state policy to protect the health of people in the workplace, while treating businesses and clubs...

ACKSON, Miss. - Gov. Haley Barbour on Monday vetoed a bill that would continue to allow the Mississippi Legislature to give $20 million a year to a private, nonprofit anti-tobacco organization.In his veto message, Barbour said "the Partnership for a Healthy Mississippi has been cloaked in politics and cronyism."The Partnership has received $20 million a year by court order since 2000. The money comes from a massive lawsuit Mississippi settled with tobacco companies in 1997.Barbour, a Republican, sued in 2005 seeking to halt payments to the Partnership, which is led by former Attorney General Mike Moore, a Democrat.Moore filed...

For the past eight years, major cigarette makers and 46 state governments have enjoyed a beautiful partnership: The cigarette companies paid billions into state coffers in return for the states abandoning legal claims against the industry.On Monday comes a decision that could fray the relationship.That's when an arbiter is to issue a decision that could allow cigarette companies to reduce a multibillion-dollar payment due this spring by $1.2 billion -- and potentially similar amounts in future years. A decision in favor of the industry would be a significant blow to the states, which have come to rely on the annual...

The need for jobs and the condition of downtown buildings top the list of issues facing Sedalia, said mayoral candidates Thursday at a forum hosted by the League of Women Voters.Candidates David Schick and Larry Stevenson said Sedalia needs small businesses."That way if they come in, and things don't work, we don't have the catastrophe like when the Union Pacific shops came in here," Mr. Stevenson said. "... When they shut down, they crippled Sedalia."Mr. Stevenson, 63, said he would promote the enhanced enterprise zone to attract more business to the community.Kevin Walker says better jobs will help single parents...

Dozens of cities and towns have already banned smoking in such clubs, which include veterans' posts and ethnic heritage clubs. The high court's decision keeps these bans in place.

UGUSTA, Maine — Senators gave their approval Wednesday to two bills dealing with smoking in private clubs, one making it easier for clubs to allow smoking and the other barring it outright in clubs that have paid employees. After a brief debate, senators gave initial approval to a measure that would correct what´s seen as a flaw in the year-old state law that regulates smoking in private clubs such as Elks and American Legions. The current rules say that in order to allow smoking, a majority of a club´s members must vote yes. Critics contend that´s unfair because even...

It looks like a bar. The customers look like they're in a bar. But technically speaking, it's not. The sign hanging out front of this newcomer to Chicago reads "Smokers Welcome" and it's no joke: smokers are free to light up and puff away, despite being in a city which, like many others nowadays, has strict anti-smoking laws covering most public places. Inside this storefront, not far from downtown, there is a wet bar and a coffee bar, but for some – that may not be the main event. CBS News correspondent Cynthia Bowers says the establishment's operator has...

BEAUMONT - Every evening Pat Roy's bar fills up with workers in their boots and overalls who come to enjoy a few drinks and cigarettes. But if a proposed ban on lighting up in public spaces is approved by the Beaumont City Council, Roy predicts a 50 percent drop in business. "(The ban) would be devastating," said Roy, the owner of Patrick's Pub. For many of her customers, smoking and drinking go hand in hand, Roy said. If they cannot smoke in Beaumont, they will start frequenting bars in Nederland or Port Neches, she said. Roy and about a...

While I have been arguing for some time that making fallacious scientific claims ("health" claims) is wrong, there has been, so far, no response from anti-smoking groups or advocates, other than ad hominem attacks on me, a defense of the organizations in question, and a questioning of why it is such a big deal anyway. In this post, I will address the issue of why this is a big deal. I have already discussed why I think this is a big deal in terms of its implications for the effectiveness of the tobacco control movement. I believe it will...

New York City's attempt to sue Internet cigarette sellers for lost tax revenue under a racketeering theory has been dismissed by a federal judge for the second time.Southern District Judge Deborah Batts dismissed the amended complaint filed in City of New York v. Nexicon, 03 CV 383, finding that the city had once again failed to meet the standard for pleading a racketeering enterprise. The case is one of five that the corporation counsel has brought against Internet cigarette sellers it claimed have been avoiding taxes and failing to file tax reports on the number of sales they make to...

Cuyahoga Falls Mayor Don Robart is a nonsmoker who says he runs eight miles every day. A year ago, he banned smoking on the job for city employees. Since then, municipal buildings including the Natatorium have gone completely smoke free.Yet Robart is one of two big-city mayors in Summit County who virtually ensured the defeat of the countywide smoking ban by refusing to go along with it.Welcome to the complicated politics of the ill-fated Summit County Clean Indoor Air law.The smoking ban was originally sponsored by Summit County Executive James B. McCarthy and council members Pete Crossland, D-4; Paul Gallagher,...

BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) _ The state Department of Taxation and Finance has advised a Buffalo cigarette wholesaler it can ignore a new law requiring tax collection on tobacco products sold to Seneca Nation and other Indian businesses. That eased tensions on Indian reservations in western New York where nervous suppliers cut off shipments to smoke shops earlier in the week. Indians accuse the state of ignoring their sovereignty. In 1997, the last time the state tried to collect the tobacco taxes, confrontations between Senecas and state police closed a section of the Thruway. By noon Friday, supplier Milhem Attea &...

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. -- A month before most indoor smoking is to be banned in New Jersey, a coalition of restaurants, bars and bowling alleys on Wednesday asked a federal judge to block the prohibition from taking effect. The opponents of the ban, scheduled to begin April 15, already have filed a lawsuit against the state, alleging it will unfairly harm their businesses. The federal court filing Wednesday seeks to halt the ban until that lawsuit can be heard.U.S. District Judge Stanley Chesler in Trenton did not immediately set a hearing date on Wednesday's request by the New Jersey Hospitality...

BURLINGTON, Vt. --The Veterans of Foreign Wars post in Hyde Park is defying a 6-month-old state law and will allow members to smoke in a private section of the club.Sign up for: Globe Headlines e-mail | Breaking News Alerts VFW Post 7779 Commander Bruce Martin, a nonsmoker, said he was one of those who voted to allow smoking. The issue was more than cigarettes."These people are sick of the state taking away our private rights," he said.Immediately after club members voted 7-4 Tuesday night to bring back smoking a number of members lit up.VFW auxiliary member Robin Ferris filed a...

Help Stop The Attack On Your Rights!!!The City of Calabasas in an over whelming attempt to stamp out what they feel is an unwanted part of their community has passed a law banning smoking from public places. Not only banning but making it a misdemeanor punishable by up to $1000 fine and/or six months in jail. That is not all if you witness a smoker in the act and don't report them you are guilty of aiding and abiding which holds the same punishment regardless of how you feel about smoking.Calabasas using its own unique judgment has inacted a law...

How would you feel about smoke-free restaurants? If some state lawmakers have it their way, the "no smoking" sign will be posted in every section of your favorite diner.If you enjoy smoking after a meal, like Melody Boutwell, you may have to light up outside. “I do smoke, but I don't like smoking around children. So I typically, even in a restaurant, go outside to smoke,” Boutwell said. A proposed bill would ban smoking in restaurants and possibly public buildings. “The debate has increased over the years, and at this point, it is the most intense I've seen it...

The air pollution scare industry is at it again -- in a very timely manner to help the Environmental Protection Agency impose more dubious regulations on us. “When the air is filled with increased levels of soot and other tiny particles, more people end up in the hospital with heart and lung problems, according to the largest study yet on the health effects of such pollutants,” reported the Chicago Sun-Times on March 8. Published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, the study reports that “short-term exposure to [fine particulate air pollution or soot] increases the risk for...

A statewide indoor smoking ban that exempts casinos is unfair and should never have been signed into law.When they approved an indoor smoking ban for New Jersey in January, lawmakers all but admitted a double standard was being set by allowing Atlantic City's casinos to continue allowing smoking. Now, a coalition of bars, restaurants and bowling alleys is rightly challenging the New Jersey Smoke-Free Air Act, set to go into effect April 15, asking a federal court to strike it down as unconstitutional. Hopefully, their challenge will lead to the law being scrapped. It was shockingly hypocritical for state lawmakers,...

The rest of the story is quite simple. The Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids is not the only national anti-smoking advocacy organization that works just on tobacco issues.  According to a prominent anti-smoking researcher and advocate, the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids - a national anti-smoking advocacy organization - has sent out a communication to its constituents claiming to be the only national purely anti-smoking organization. The communication reportedly stated: "As the only national advocacy organization that works just on tobacco issues, it's critical that we team up with other organizations and individuals to be successful." [emphasis mine] The Rest of the...