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If you’re going to pull up in a van to try and roll some dude pumping gas, you really should realize that your mark will be holding a weapon capable of spraying a noxious, dangerous, highly flammable liquid all over you.

It’s not often I’m happy to see a bureaucrat leave their job. That’s not entirely true, I would like to see every bureaucrat leave their job and would cheer wildly if they did. But I’m cheering one specific bureaucrat leaving his job because he was particularly dangerous at it – Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Scott Gottlieb. Why would I, and why should you, care that the head of the FDA has given his notice? Because, if you’re like me, or care about anyone in the future who might be, his resignation might just save lives. Like too many people,...

Mayor de Blasio is ramping up the city’s war against smoking — at home, The Post has learned. The administration is planning to select and pay four health-advocacy groups $9,000 apiece to pressure landlords and developers to prohibit smoking in their apartment complexes so neighboring tenants don’t inhale secondhand smoke. That means smokers would be barred from lighting up in one of their last sanctuaries: their own living quarters. Smoking is already banned in public places, including bars and restaurants, workplaces, sports venues and parks.

SPARTANBURG COUNTY, S.C. — Four men and a woman have been charged in an attack on a 73-year-old man who was left bleeding in the street after his truck was stolen. The 73-year-old man, whose name is not being released, said he was driving to church at about 7 p.m. on Nov. 14 when someone in the area of Dillon Drive and Hammett Street kicked his truck. He said when he got out to see who had kicked the truck, he was attacked by several people. Deputies found the man lying in the street bleeding from the head. He was...

WOO! HOO! Let's all celebrate! WILLIAM RIVERS PITT has gone 100 days without smoking. I just knew you had the fortitude to pull it off, Will! Oops! Has anyone noticed that with all the early hoopla by Pitt about quitting cigarettes that there hasn't been a self-promoting post by him on this topic since his Day 50 THREAD, "Fifty days. No smokes." So what does that tell us? It tells us that Pitt is back to sucking down the cancerous fumes again. Let us do some math to prove my point. Pitt's "Fifty Days, No Smokes" thread was posted...

THE tax on cigarettes will rise by 25 per cent from midnight as part of the Federal Government's crackdown on smoking. The Government will also force tobacco companies to use plain packaging from July 1, 2012. The changes will cut tobacco consumption by six per cent and the number of smokers by two or three per cent - about 87,000 Australians, the Government said. The 25 per cent tax increase will mean an increase of about $2.16 for a pack of 30, raising the cost to about $17.95.

NORFOLK, Va., April 10 (UPI) -- The U.S. Navy announced smoking will be banned below decks on all submarines effective Dec. 31. "This policy was initiated for the health of the sailors who choose not to smoke," said Lt. Commander Mark Jones, spokesman for the Commander Naval Submarine Forces in Norfolk, Va. "It is unfair for them to be exposed to the unhealthy side effects of secondhand smoke." Jones said a 2009 study by the Navy found non-smokers were exposed to secondhand smoke on all four classes of submarines, CNN reported. The Navy has 71 subs with 13,000 sailors on...

FBI: No Explosives Found on United Jet in Denver Authorities Say Qatari Diplomat Told Air Marshals, 'I'm Lighting My Shoes' FBI agents say no explosives were found in the shoes of a Qatar diplomat who was subdued by federal air marshals on a United flight to Denver Wednesday night after allegedly telling the marshals, "I'm lighting my shoes on fire." Authorities say the diplomat was wrestled to the ground and two F-16 fighter jets were dispatched to accompany the 757 on the final 40 minutes of its flight to Denver. Flight 663 originated from Washington Reagan airport. A US security...

For painter and decorator Gordon Williams, his van is simply a means of getting from A to B. But council officials chose to give the vehicle a more lofty status. When they spotted him behind the wheel with a cigarette, they handed him an on-the-spot fine of £30 - for smoking in his place of work.

Smokers would find it harder to buy their cigarettes and light up in public under two proposals under consideration by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. Mayor Gavin Newsom has proposed prohibiting tobacco sales in pharmacies, including Walgreens and Rite Aid. The city's public health chief said the proposal is modeled after rules in eight provinces in Canada but has not been tried anywhere in the United States. Supervisor Chris Daly has proposed legislation that would vastly limit areas where people can smoke. Gone would be smoking in all businesses and bars, which now make an exception for owner-operated ones....

A Queens woman was arrested by federal authorities after a JetBlue flight was forced to make an emergency landing because she allegedly lit and refused to extinguish a cigarette on the plane and punched a flight attendant in the face, according to KUSA.com. The plane was en route from John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York to San Francisco, Calif., on Tuesday when officials said passenger Christina Szele, 35, lit a cigarette in her seat and starting smoking, the Rocky Mountain News reported. Smoking is forbidden on all domestic flights, but the Rocky Mountain News reported that when a...

The owner of a small German computer company has fired three non-smoking workers because they were threatening to disturb the peace after they requested a smoke-free environment. The manager of the 10-person IT company in Buesum, named Thomas J., told the Hamburger Morgenpost newspaper he had fired the trio because their non-smoking was causing disruptions. Germany introduced non-smoking rules in pubs and restaurants on January 1, but Germans working in small offices are still allowed to smoke. "I can't be bothered with trouble-makers," Thomas was quoted saying. "We're on the phone all the time and it's just easier to work...

Smoking ban for Dear Leader’s benefit By Anna Fifield in Seoul Published: July 24 2007 02:16 | Last updated: July 24 2007 02:16 Paris, Dublin, New York and ... Pyongyang? The North Korean capital, hardly known for its exciting nightlife, appears to be the latest city to impose a smoking ban. Like those international cities, the Pyongyang ban is for health reasons. But instead of trying to protect the general populace from unwanted smoke, the North Korean crackdown – like so much of life in the world’s most totalitarian state – is all about Kim Jong-il. “After his heart operation,...

Meg Lundeen and her husband had gone out to celebrate her 30th birthday with friends and colleagues, visiting a couple of bars on Friday night. Before the couple returned to their home in Brooklyn Center early Saturday, Lundeen called a friend to say that she'd been fighting with her husband and wanted to come over. But around 2:40 a.m., a neighbor found Lundeen bleeding profusely on her driveway. An argument over her smoking a cigarette led her husband, Randy P. Aaser, to slash her throat, severing her tongue and windpipe, according to attempted-murder charges filed Tuesday. Lundeen was in critical...

Berkeley figures it's found a way to get homeless people off the streets. Keep them from smoking there. As Mayor Tom Bates sees it, the alcoholics, meth addicts and the like who make up a good portion of the homeless population on Shattuck Avenue downtown and Telegraph Avenue on the south side of the UC Berkeley campus "almost always smoke." And because smoking bans are the hot ticket these days for California cities, why not meld the two as part of a "comprehensive package" for dealing with the street problem that Bates says "has gone over the top"? In this...

Foster parents who smoke can no longer light up around the children they care for in their homes beginning Jan. 1. A new policy, adopted by the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services, aims to reduce health risks for children in foster care, said Sasha Rasco, the agency's director of policy and program operations for child care licensing. Another new rule taking effect next year requires foster families to completely enclose backyard pools and ponds with fences to prevent accidental drownings. Since the state already prohibits smoking in day care centers, Rasco said, it was only natural to extend...

Warning: R-rated language. See for example this thread first. A man lights a cig, goes to jail Why didn't they let him make bail? To add to his plight 'Twas his wedding night! They're no-smoking NAZIs I say!

Common areas such as parking garages, elevators and restrooms would be added to the law under legislation to be introduced today. SACRAMENTO -- California's landmark workplace smoking ban would be extended to parking garages and some other common areas not covered by the law under a measure expected to be introduced today by South Bay Assemblywoman Jenny Oropeza. The legislation would outlaw smoking in public and private parking structures, elevators, lobbies, lounges, restrooms, stairwells and waiting areas, according to an Oropeza aide. Some of those areas were left out of the original legislation at the request of the state's lodging...

Ahhhhh. Fresh Air!Thank you Washington! (State)"Initiative 901 in Washington State: protecting our right to breathe clean indoor air where we eat, work and socialize. Thank you Washington! Your overwhelming support makes Washington the next smoke-free state!I-901 goes into effect on December 8, 2005Everyone has the right to breathe clean air where they work, eat and socialize. I-901 will protect families, children, workers and the elderly from secondhand smoke, which is associated with a number of illnesses, including asthma, bronchitis, pneumonia, lung cancer, and heart disease Secondhand smoke kills more than 38,000 Americans every year. Secondhand smoke contains more than 4,000...

With a law barring smokers from lighting up in nearly all city-run open spaces in San Francisco scheduled to take effect next Friday, "No Smoking" signs have yet to be posted, raising questions about how well the ban will be enforced. Six months ago, the Board of Supervisors passed what is believed to be the most comprehensive outdoor smoking ban in the country. The ban covers parks, squares, gardens and playing fields under city jurisdiction. First offenders could be slapped with a $100 fine issued by a police officer or member of the city's park patrol. At the time the...