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HOLY SMOKES: Biker John's ministry offers church, cigars and rock 'n' roll  

For those who find traditional church a little stifling, Sunday morning services at Cork's Cigar Bar at 425 Old Main St. in downtown Bradenton could be just the place to get a good shot of Christianity.

It's called the Church of the Faithful Few, and when the preaching is over, attendees can hang around and enjoy a cold one and a smoke, no questions asked.

"We do things a little different here," said Jim "Cork" Miller, co-owner of Cork's. "We're not judgmental."

Church of the Faithful Few was started by the Rev. John Rogers, the father of an acquaintance of Miller's.

Rogers got the idea for Church of the Faithful Few after a near-fatal motorcycle accident in New Hampshire. At the time, Rogers was with the International Evangelists for Heaven's Saints, a motorcycle ministry started by former Hell's Angel Charles "Barry" Mayson.

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Council imposes ban on flavored tobacco products 

The New York City Council has banned the sale of all flavored tobacco products, including little cigars.These little cigars look just like cigarettes, but, due to a tax loophole, cost considerably less. . . .

Council Member Letitia James pointed out that in Central Brooklyn and other communities like it, these brightly packaged flavored cigars are often marketed near the candy, right where they can best capture the attention of the youth. Most councilmembersof her colleagues in the council agreed. The prohibited flavors include chocolate, vanilla, honey, candy, cocoa, dessert, alcoholic beverage, herb and spice flavors. (Menthol, mint and wintergreen flavors are excluded from the ban.)

"A significant number of constituents that I have spoken with also believe that smoking cigars is less toxic and less addictive than cigarettes," James added. "They are wrong. One cigar has as much tobacco as five cigarettes and contains more nicotine. That is why we, as adults, have to stand up and ban these products."

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On the Town: Two Omaha cigar bars ready to roll 

Sniff, sniff. Cigar smokers smell victory at hand as two new cigar bars -- Ravenite Cigar Bar & Lounge and Havana Garage -- get ready to open.

The Nebraska Liquor Control Commission recently approved rules to facilitate a new state law that exempts cigar bars from the statewide public smoking ban.

Under those rules -- which are still waiting approval from the governor and attorney general -- to become a cigar bar, businesses would have to obtain a special liquor license, install a walk-in humidor (a special room with temperature and humidity controls for storing and displaying cigars), generate at least 10 percent of their gross revenue from tobacco sales (except cigarettes), and would be prohibited from allowing cigarette smoking and selling food. (Tobacco shops also are exempt from the statewide smoking ban.)

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• As taxes rose, cigar makers supersized their stogies 

Last spring, the cigar industry fretted that the government might tax so-called "little cigars" into oblivion.

Several months later, though, it appears the makers of cigarette-shaped little cigars have found a way to escape the high taxes. The cigar makers have added more weight to their cigars, reclassified them as large cigars and now are subject to a lower tax rate, said Norman Sharp, president of the Cigar Association of America.

Last spring, the cigar industry rallied against a higher tax rate implemented to benefit the State Children's Health Insurance Program, or SCHIP. One Tampa cigar factory, Hav-A-Tampa, blamed SCHIP for a steep drop in sales, and it ceased its Tampa operations over the summer. Hav-A-Tampa's parent, Altadis USA, moved the Tampa plant's operations to Puerto Rico.

Little cigars may not be as iconic as fat stogies, but hundreds of millions are produced every year. They look like cigarettes and come 20 to a pack. Some popular brands include Cheyenne and Dutch Treats. . . .

Sharp, the cigar association president, said it appears cigar makers changed their production techniques to factor in the SCHIP tax.

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Smoking lounges on Long Beach council agenda again  

In March, the council instituted a yearlong moratorium on new cigar and hookah lounges so that city staff could refine regulations for the businesses. City health officials and attorneys say they are expecting to have the new ordinance ready this month, but a local smoking opponent is concerned that Uranga's committee meeting may circumvent the health officials' considerations.

Melinda Cotton, of the Coalition for a Smoke-Free Long Beach, said Monday that Uranga's request to have the Economic Development and Finance Committee, of which Uranga is a member, take on the issue appears to be "a total end run" around the Department of Health and Human Services. Uranga calls for the smoking lounge exemptions to go before the committee "for discussion and formulating a recommendation to the City Council," according to the meeting agenda.

"What this appears to do is to put this totally in the hands of the Economic Development and Finance Committee," Cotton said.

Uranga said Monday that isn't the case.

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Research and Markets: The 2009 Import and Export Market for Cigars, Cheroots, Cigarillos, and Cigarettes Made with Tobacco Substitutes in Thailand  

Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/749c8d/the_2009_import_an) has announced the addition of the "The 2009 Import and Export Market for Cigars, Cheroots, Cigarillos, and Cigarettes Made with Tobacco Substitutes in Thailand" report to their offering.

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• Ban on Flavored Tobacco Products Becomes City Law  

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg signed legislation on Wednesday to prohibit the sale of most forms of flavored tobacco products in New York City. The new law is more extensive than the federal Food and Drug Administration's ban on candy- and fruit-flavored cigarettes, which took effect last month.

The City Council approved the bill on Oct. 14. The legislation covers "chocolate, vanilla, honey, candy, cocoa, dessert, alcoholic beverage, herb or spice flavors," but exempts "tobacco, menthol, mint or wintergreen flavors."

The city ban includes cigars and smokeless tobacco, while the federal ban is limited to cigarettes. That ban prohibits the sale of cigarettes with "an artificial or natural flavor (other than tobacco or menthol) or an herb or spice, including strawberry, grape, orange, clove, cinnamon, pineapple, vanilla, coconut, licorice, cocoa, chocolate, cherry, or coffee."

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Flavored Tobacco Ban Takes Root at C.U. 

The faint scent of cherry, vanilla or chocolate can no longer be detected in the cigarette smoke that lingers over the small patch of asphalt leading past Rand Hall or the walkway adjoining Uris and Olin Libraries. The smoke of regular, straight tobacco prevails these days as a direct result of a recent federal ban on cigarettes enhanced with fragrances.

The ban, which took effect Sept. 22, applies to the manufacture, shipment or sale of cigarettes flavored to taste like cloves, candy or fruit. As part of a national effort by the Food and Drug Administration to reduce smoking in the United States, this provision belongs to the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, which President Barack Obama signed into law on June 22. . . .

Drawing from his personal experiences, Jin-Sung Kim ’11 noted that he has never observed somebody start to smoke with flavored cigarettes. “The effectiveness of such a ban seems tenuous at best. Most smokers [that I know] have experimented with flavored cigarettes only after smoking for a while,” he said. “It seems like this ban might be hurting clove cigarette aficionados more than it is helping keep the youth smoke-free.”

Local Ithaca smoke shops have felt the subtle effects of the ban, as consumers look for close substitutes to flavored cigarettes. According to Brian Watson, a sales employee at Mayers’ Smokeshop and Newsstand, “[the ban] has made a small dent [in sales], but the ban seems to be more punitive than anything to be concerned about.”

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Clove Makers All Like, 'What Cigarettes?'  

Here you see a photo of kreteks, the kind of cloves everyone smokes in the USA. See them? They are cigarettes. But Kretek International is now suing the FDA to get them branded "Cigars," because, the WSJ points out, "The wrapper is homogenized leaf, the tobacco air-cured, and the finished product comes in boxes of 12, not 20."

Try this: Take a dozen clove cigarettes and put them in a box. Now look at them again. Have they magically been transformed into cigars? No? Damn it. Well, don't get too upset, hippies. Consider it part of your government-mandated path towards becoming Marlboro addicts.

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• To the FDA, This Indonesian Smoke Is Close but No Cigar  

the FDA reminded the public that its ban applies to anything that fits a cigarette's profile, even if it's labeled as a "cigar." And the House Committee on Energy and Commerce announced an investigation to find out whether the "flavored cigars are no different than flavored cigarettes."

Immediately, Kretek International Inc., the closely held importer in Moorpark, Calif., sued the FDA, accusing it of "deliberately obfuscating" the "definition of cigarette." . . .

"If a product is a cigar, it is not a cigarette and vice versa," says its complaint. "Kretek contends that Djarum cigars are cigars."

The company has asked the U.S. District Court in Washington for a declaratory cigar-is-a-cigar judgment. The FDA declines comment and has yet to file a response. Without legal guidance, meanwhile, America's clove-conscious now have to judge for themselves whether Djarum's new cigars, deep down, are concealing an alter ego.

At the Indonesian restaurant he owns here in Alexandria, Sonny Setiantoko passed one under his nose. "That smell!" he said.

On a quiet Monday night, he sat at a rear table after a spicy meal of satay and coconut rice.

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LOPEZ: Over cigars, getting a handle on Trutanich  

Nobody wants a public servant behaving like a thug or a palooka.

So I set up last week's little chat to take Trutanich's temperature. Unfortunately, Homegirls was closing for the day, so Nuch suggested we go to 2nd Street Cigar.

Sure, I told him. Last time I had a cigar with a public official, it was Gov. Schwarzenegger.

Trutanich travels in a police-issue Chevy Tahoe with an armed security guard, sometimes two. At the cigar shop, he picked the stogies, which were big enough to carry astronauts

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Franklin County area smokers fired up about cigar tax  

The struggling state coffers will burden smokers to get more revenue.

Little cigars -- the ones that come with filters in sweet flavors and look like cigarettes -- will more than double in price because of the state budget crisis.

Beginning Nov. 1, the cigars will cost an additional $1.60 per pack. The price will jump from 99 cents a pack to $2.59. At the same time, the price of cigarettes will go up an additional 25 cents.

"They need to start picking on the drinkers for a change, and not just the smokers," said Melody Hopkins, manager of Puff N Snuff, Chambersburg. "There's not a lot of people who would die because you light up on the road, but a lot of people die when you drink and drive."

The state tax on small cigars was only recently passed. It equals about 8 cents per stick.

"There were some proposals that involved all cigars and smokeless tobacco, but the one that passed was for small cigars," said Wendy Lewis, budget analysis for the Democratic House Committee on Appropriations in Harrisburg.

Currently there is no tax on small cigars.

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Troubled times for tobacco farmers  

A disastrous growing season plagued by bad weather and crop viruses -- combined with sagging cigar sales -- has left many tobacco growers in the Connecticut River Valley reeling.

There's no better place in America to grow broadleaf and shade tobacco, used for premium cigar wrappers and binders. But these are troubled times along New England's own tobacco road, roughly 75 miles straddling western Massachusetts and Connecticut.

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New York City to ban flavored cigars, says they tempt kids to start puffin' 

The city that led the country in banning smoking in bars, restaurants and most public spaces is about to ban the sale of flavored tobacco products.

A long-debated bill authorizing the flavored-tobacco ban was finally approved by the City Council last Wednesday, by a 46-to-1 vote. Mayor Bloomberg - who instigated the city's smoking crackdown in 2002 - said he will sign the bill into law soon.

The ban will likely kick in around February, and cost the city up to $2 million a year in lost sales tax revenues.

Advocates argued that although cigarette smoking continues to decrease, the sales of cigars and cigarillos have been rising, including those with candy-like flavors. The flavored smokes can lure teens into becoming addicted, Council Speaker Christine Quinn (D-Manhattan) said during the vote, and the ban is needed "to protect the children of New York City."

Michele Bonan, regional director of advocacy for the American Cancer Society, one of the groups pushing the ban, said flavored tobacco is "Big Tobacco's version of training wheels" to attract young smokers.

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• Kiddie puffin' stuff outlawed  

They are sold right next to the candy and gum at stores across Staten Island -- products like strawberry-flavored mini-cigars packaged like lip gloss.

And they will soon be illegal.

Calling it a move that will help save children from a dangerous addiction, the City Council voted yesterday to ban sales of almost all flavored tobacco products, including small cigars and chewing tobacco.

The bill, expected to be signed into law by Mayor Michael Bloomberg, is the latest bit of bad news for the tobacco industry and smokers in the city, who already have been banned from all public buildings and restaurants and have seen taxes on cigarettes skyrocket.

Yesterday's ban is intended to close a loophole in a law enacted in June by the federal Food and Drug Administration banning the manufacture, importation, marketing and distribution of cigarettes made to taste like candy, fruit and cloves. Since the legal definition of a cigarette is vague, manufacturers found a way to circumvent the ban by repackaging products to make them attractive to kids, like smaller "cigarillos" and SNUS, pouches of flavored tobacco used like snuff.

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