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Tobacco farmers fuming mad over taxes 

lawyer working with tobacco farmers in Ontario says Canada's high cigarette taxes are unconstitutional and suggests governments could face a court challenge over it.

The farmers are considering filing a lawsuit worth at least $800 million against the federal and provincial governments, blaming them for the downturn in the tobacco industry.

Lawyer Malcolm Bennett of London, Ont., also suggested the farmers could sue over federal and provincial governments' failure to protect the tobacco growing industry by allowing illegal and contraband cigarettes into the country.

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New smoking prevention program 

The new ySTART Addiction Education Program from Realityworks gives young people an experience with tobacco addiction using handheld technology. The PreventPak Addiction Simulator employs behavior modification principles to help teens practice refusal skills in a true-to-life peer pressure situation. A two-day simulation is paired with an engaging curriculum-designed to meet the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's guidelines for health education programs to prevent tobacco use and addiction. Upon completion of the simulation, reports are generated that measure each participant's performance. The goal of the ySTART Program is to influence healthy behaviors in young people before tobacco robs their power to resist.

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Smoking banned at State Fair Grandstand 

The New York State Fair's grandstand has just become a no-smoking area. Starting immediately, smoking will be banned in the 16,000-seat outdoor grandstand.

State Fair officials announced the new policy at a news conference this morning. Last year, tobacco sales were banned at the Fairgrounds. Officials last year also adopted new rules prohibiting a tobacco company from sponsoring any event at the fairgrounds.

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Clinton's Mark Penn Problem  

Penn has long been the most controversial figure in Clinton's political orbit, in part because his other relationships have repeatedly placed her campaign in an uncomfortable position. Among his firm's clients have been drug companies, a tuna industry group, a tobacco firm and the controversial military contractor Blackwater USA. . . .

Penn's outside work does not represent the first time that this kind of conflict has arisen in a presidential campaign. In 2000, for instance, Al Gore drew fire over the fact that a key aide, Carter Eskew, had done work on a tobacco industry advertising campaign that was aimed at undermining the Clinton Administration's tobacco settlement deal. (The work had been done before Eskew joined Gore's campaign, and he left the firm at Gore's request when he came on board.)

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NE facing multiple crises: Ramadoss 

Raising alarms over multiple crises striking the eastern Himalayan States including the north eastern region, Union Health and Family Welfare Minister, Dr Ambumoni Ramadoss said region's hostile borders have aggravated the problems. The Minister, addressing a meeting on Trafficking, HIV, Labour and Migration 'Bringing the Centre to the People and Building Positive Partnership' said the region is plagued with myriads of problems ranging from rising cases of cancer to TB to HIV/AIDS and human trafficking. The meeting was organized jointly by UNIFEM, National Media Coalition and EHRTHNET.

The Union Health Minister said rising cases of HIV, malaria and cancer in the North-east had sent alarm bells ringing. In Mizoram, 85 per cent men and 60 per cent women use tobacco. Consumption of tobacco is directly linked to cancer "What do we do in these States," he asked.

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The Last Cigarette: The Smoking Diaries Volume 3 by Simon Gray  

Gray has been saying that this is the last book. He regards himself, at 70, as a very, very old man - which he isn't, but he plainly feels like one, beset by bereavements, hating his teetotal condition and full of the self-disgust of age. At one point he muses on the difference in meaning between "shaming" and "shameful", and calls on "hating" and "hateful" to help him out. The choice is not insignificant. At the end of the book, he reports the discovery of a tumour on his lung (the goal of giving up smoking, of course, was never achieved). But if he wants to stop writing these diaries now, he has certainly earned the right. It seems to me that the triumph of these books is not in how a man redeems himself, but how a writer does. Gray used to write unashamedly old-fashioned plays; being remembered for them alone would of course have been sufficient. But whoever could have predicted that at the end of his career he would hit on such an artful, brilliant, personal and glitteringly postmodern way of - well - settling his own hash?

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• Nearly one-third smoke while pregnant  

SMOKING rates among pregnant Tasmanian women are twice the national average and pushing the state's embattled health system further into crisis, authorities warn.

New State Government figures reveal a shocking 27.6 per cent of Tasmania's pregnant women smoke - most of them are young and economically disadvantaged.

Describing the problem as a health disaster for the state, public health director Roscoe Taylor said there were large gaps in smoking rates between the rich and the poor.

While 8.3 per cent of private pregnant patients smoked, the rate for public patients was 35.7 per cent.

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Bar and 3 patrons cited in smoking raid in Will County  

The latest raid on illegal smokers in Will County nabbed a bar and three patrons in Rockdale last weekend, officials said Wednesday.

Customers were caught smoking Saturday at E. Street Bar and Grill, 400 Moen Ave., during a compliance check, officials said.

Health officials and police checked three other bars but did not find anyone else breaking the Smoke-Free Illinois Act, which took effect Jan. 1, officials said.

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No smoking ban enforcement in Marshfield starts Sunday 

Marshfield Police Department will begin enforcing the newly-passed ban on indoor smoking in public places at the time businesses open on Sunday morning.

By law, Ordinance 11-11 goes into effect the day after it is published in the legal section of the Marshfield News-Herald.

Fines for violations are as follows: $96.40 for smoking violators; $96.40 for a first offense of a person in charge who allows smoking, $172 for the second offense and $298 for the third offense.

Questions also have been raised about the definition of indoors

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Marshfield Smoking Ban Goes in Effect Sunday Morning 

Marshfield will soon be among Wisconsin cities with an indoor smoking ban starting this Sunday.

Throughout Wisconsin, cities like Madison, Appleton, and Eau Claire have ordinances that prohibit smoking inside businesses.

And Marshfield is now on the list, after residents overwhelmingly approved the ban in the last election.

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Marshfield Smoking Ban Starts Sunday 

In just two days, the City of Marshfield will be smoke-free. The ban just passed a referendum vote on April 1.

The Marshfield police chief says they will be enforcing the rule Sunday morning, but not until establishments re-open Sunday. With the new smoking ban soon to be in effect business owners worry how this will affect them.

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• Smoking ban in city? Prospects appear hazy 

Kansas City voted this week to make its bars and restaurants smoke-free, joining Ballwin, Columbia and a handful of other Missouri cities that have done the same in recent years.

Illinois joined at least two dozen states when a statewide ban took effect in January.

With all this action on the smoking front, can St. Louis be far behind? . . .

But a smoke-free future in this smoke-friendly city could be a long way off. Aldermen here say they won't ban smoking in restaurants unless St. Louis County does the same. A proposed smoking ban there went down in flames in 2006.

"St. Louis has the most dedicated opposition to a smoking ban than any city in the country," said Bill Hannegan, head of Keep St. Louis Free, a group that formed in 2005 to help defeat the proposed St. Louis County ban.

Since the early 1990s, when city government buildings went smoke-free, little has happened to advance a smoke-free policy for restaurants and bars.

Opponents in St. Louis, like those in cities around the state and country, have long said that smoking bans would hurt businesses, particularly small neighborhood bars. Two city aldermen are themselves pub owners.

"Die-hard smokers want to smoke when they drink," said Mario Mazzola, manager of Famous Bar on Chippewa Street, which sells cigarettes and cigars behind the bar. "It would definitely hurt our business."

Opponents of a ban point to recent research showing that business at bars in Columbia, Mo., dropped 11 percent after a smoke-free policy took effect there.

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Judge Puts Tobacco Money Battle On Hold 

NBC 4's Tom Brockman reported the latest from the Franklin County Courthouse at noon.

Attorneys representing the foundation filed a complaint in Franklin County Common Pleas Court Wednesday against Cordray to essentially try to stop the treasurer from taking the organization's monies for the state, Brockman reported.

All sides met Thursday morning in front of Judge David Fais.

Brockman said attorneys made a multi-faceted argument on why the legislation signed into law on Tuesday isn't legitimate.

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Capital Area agency to ban tobacco use  

Capital Area Human Services District-operated facilities will be tobacco-free workplaces beginning May 1, the agency announced Friday.

Capital Area oversees state mental health and addictive behavior programs in the East Baton Rouge areas.

The idea is to promote a healthier environment for clients, staff and visitors to the agency's buildings, the agency's Executive Director Jan Kasofsky said in a news release. Tobacco use of any kind will not be allowed anywhere on the grounds of Capital Area-operated facilities.

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Government too broke to pay out tobacco farmers, says agriculture critic 

The federal government is to blame for raising the expectations of tobacco growers that they would win an exit strategy from their dying crop sector, then reneging on a commitment because its management of the country's finances doesn't leave enough money to do the job.

That is the assessment of Liberal agriculture critic Wayne Easter who was in Brantford on Friday to deliver an address in the Brant federal riding association's ongoing speaker series on national issues.

"One of the worst things a government or a politician can do is raise expectations that get people to take a long time working toward a goal, only to have their hopes dashed," Easter, MP for the riding of Malpeque, P.E.I. said in an interview outside the lecture theatre in the Odeon Building just before his address.

"There is no question a clear commitment was made and that it came from the senior levels of the government. The simple fact is those people broke their word. It has caused havoc in the lives of growers, their families and their communities."

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