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• Cuba looks to women to boost sagging cigar sales 

With anti-smoking laws and the global recession causing sales to fall, Cuba wants to develop a largely untapped market for its famous cigars -- women.

Habanos S.A. executives said on Monday sales fell 8 percent to $360 million in 2009, so they have created the Julieta, a smaller, milder version of the Romeo y Julieta cigar, aimed specifically at female smokers.

Women now make up only 5 to 10 percent of customers for Habanos, the worldwide distributor of Cuban cigars, marketing director Ana Lopez told a news conference kicking off the annual Habanos cigar festival.

The Julieta is an attempt to overcome perceptions among women that Cuban cigars are made up of "only strong tobacco for men," she said.

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EDITORIAL: $2 billion: Amazing record  

U.S. Sen. Robert C. Byrd, D-W.Va., sometimes is called the state's best economic developer because he has brought $2 billion in federal construction projects and jobs to West Virginia.

Meanwhile, a different state leader also has produced $2 billion gains. Attorney General Darrell McGraw has scored a bonanza for taxpayers by suing harmful industries and shady exploiters.

Investigative reporter Paul Nyden spelled out this remarkable record:

In his biggest case, McGraw sued 23 tobacco corporations because cigarettes sicken and kill thousands of West Virginians, incurring huge state medical expense. Former Gov. Gaston Caperton opposed the lawsuit, and former Kanawha Circuit Judge Irene Berger threw out McGraw's initial attempt. But he persisted. Finally, in 1998, McGraw won a historic $1.7 billion judgment, payable over 25 years -- plus $200 million more in a later action. . . .

The attorney general has been somewhat controversial during his long career in West Virginia government, but he's one of only two leaders to achieve the amazing feat of gaining $2 billion for the state's people. That's impressive.

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Smoke clears: Tobacco prevention, cessation agency survives committee review 

Senate Bill 298, which threatens to abolish the Indiana Tobacco Use Prevention and Cessation Agency, essentially died in the House Ways and Means Committee on Thursday with no action taken. The day before, at least 40 advocates supporting the agency testified before legislators for 2 1/2 hours, but no one from the public at-large spoke on the merits of the bill.

The non-vote was little cause for the bill's critics to celebrate.

"I am hearing there may never be one (a vote), one way to let it die in committee," said Dr. Richard Feldman, the former state health commissioner. "That would be good news for now, but it will certainly be inserted in another bill or be decided upon at the end of the session in conference committee."

If that happens, the measure could still eliminate the agency's program with its volunteer executive board and shift the agency's nearly $11 million budget to the Department of Health, where it could be more easily controlled by the governor's office.

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FELDMAN: Agency's end will endanger Hoosiers' health 

My proudest moment as state health commissioner was sitting beside Gov. Frank O'Bannon as he signed Indiana's historic 1999 tobacco settlement legislation and handed me the pen. . . .

SB298 contains a provision that would abolish ITPC, move this independent program and its funding to the ISDH, terminate its 14 staff positions, and dissolve its 22-member volunteer executive board that includes tobacco control experts and public health professionals. . . .

Indiana now ranks second-highest in adult smoking. Indiana should not only increase tobacco-control funding but also retain ITPC, a wisely-designed nationally-acclaimed independent agency with the expertise to deliver CDC evidenced-based tobacco-prevention and cessation programs.

In one of the unhealthiest states in the nation, it is shameful, unconscionable and short-sighted to do otherwise. If this agency is dismantled, a future of more death and disease from increased smoking awaits Hoosier children.

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TOBACCO COMPANY MARKETING TO AFRICAN AMERICANS 

(The following was issued by the Washington County Health Department)

“We don’t smoke that s_ _ _. We just sell it. We reserve the right to smoke for the young, the poor, the black and stupid.”

R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company Executive

The tobacco industry has gone to great lengths to target the African-American community over the past 30 years. Through market research and aggressive advertising, the industry has successfully penetrated this population. The industry’s “investment” in the African-American community has had a destructive impact: African Americans suffer the greatest burden of tobacco-related mortality of any ethnic or racial group in the United States.2

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• Cuban Cigar Sales Plummeted 8 Pct in '09  

Cuban cigar sales tumbled 8 percent to $360 million in 2009 and have fallen by more than a tenth in the past two years as the demand for luxury goods around the world has plunged.

Government-run tobacco company Habanos SA said Monday that sales were most sluggish last year in Spain, the top market for the island's coveted stogies, but one also ravaged by recession and rising unemployment.

A drop in international travel also hurt sales at airport duty free shops in Cuba and elsewhere, which account for as much as 23 percent of the company's total business, said Habanos Vice President Manuel Garcia.

"This is not what we were expecting, not what we hoped for anyway," Garcia said during a news conference kicking off Cuba's five-day annual cigar festival.

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US Files Appeal to Supreme Court to Get More Remedies in RICO Case 

The pre-trial ruling for which the United States seeks review rejected the proposed remedy under the civil provisions of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) seeking forfeiture of the cigarette industry’s ill-gotten gains flowing from sales to children. It also limited other potential remedies that often available to the judiciary unless they were clearly “forward looking” and carefully tailored to prevent future RICO violations. . . .

Mark Gottlieb, Director of the Tobacco Products Liability Project at Northeastern University School of Law in Boston said: “The Solicitor General’s Petition is enormously important because it could result in a second opportunity for the District Court to mete out justice with a fuller option of remedies in its arsenal. These could include disgorgement of ill-gotten gains; industry-funded cessation programs; counter-marketing; and many other remedies.”

Edward L. Sweda, Jr., Senior Attorney for the Tobacco Products Liability Project noted that: “Freed from the constraints of the pre-trial decision by the DC Circuit Court of Appeals, the District Court would be able to reshape the public health landscape around cigarettes and prevent future violations of RICO.”

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VIDEO: Tobacco Battle Continues  

The Obama administration wants the Supreme Court to allow the government to seek nearly $300-billion from the tobacco industry due to a half century of deception.

We spoke with a local tobacco farmer about this issue and what might happen if the government gets the money.

"As far as the 50 states, Kentucky ranks the highest in tobacco production, and if something like this were to happen, there'd be many families affected by this," said Joel Cook, a local tobacco farmer from Simpson County.

Cook just recently sold the last of his tobacco crop, and he'll start replanting mid-March to once again start the year-long process of growing tobacco.

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Big tobacco wields First Amendment argument 

Tobacco companies are relying heavily on the First Amendment in challenging the government’s prosecution of cigarette makers under the federal racketeering statute.

Several big tobacco companies filed briefs at the Supreme Court on Feb. 19, seeking reversal of an appeals court ruling that upheld a finding of guilt under the RICO law (Racketeeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act). The finding was based on a “multi-faceted, sophisticated scheme to defraud” the public about the dangers of smoking.

The companies assert that the First Amendment protects statements made to congressional committees and in press releases that the government pointed to in its prosecution. The district court and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled that because the statements were examples of fraudulent commercial speech, they were not protected by the First Amendment.

If the rulings are allowed to stand, Philip Morris USA told the Supreme Court, “the government will henceforth be free to pervert RICO into a device for … penalizing and chilling public debate on scientific matters, and constraining constitutionally protected speech.” D.C. lawyer Miguel Estrada, author of the brief in Philip Morris v. U.S., asserted that under the 1984 Supreme Court ruling Bose Corp. v. Consumers Union, the appeals court should have fully reviewed the record because of the First Amendment issue involved.

In a separate brief in the parallel case R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company v. U.S., R.J. Reynolds said the statements challenged by the government were valid opinions at the time, not fraudulent statements. For example, when companies and the now-defunct Tobacco Institute denied the harmfulness of secondhand smoke in the 1980s, their view was “shared by very reputable scientists,” wrote D.C. lawyer Michael Carvin in the R.J. Reynolds brief.

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• State smoking ban has cost $2 million 

Ohio taxpayers have paid more than $2 million to rid bars, restaurants and workplaces of tobacco smoke since the statewide smoking ban took effect in 2007, a sum that opponents say could be better used elsewhere.

The state has spent $3.2 million so far to identify businesses that are violating the smoking ban, to look for infractions and to process them through the court system, according to information released by the Ohio Department of Health to state Sen. Bill Seitz, a critic of the smoking ban.

Health authorities have issued $1.2 million in fines and collected about $400,000, the health department said.

Critics of the smoking ban, which was approved by 58 percent of Ohio voters in 2006, point to the data as evidence that taxpayers are putting a lot of money toward patchy enforcement of the smoking law while violators shirk their fines. . . .

Backers of the smoking ban take the opposite view. They say $2 million over nearly three years is a modest sum to reduce smoking rates in Ohio and protect nonsmokers from secondhand smoke. Since the ban took effect, Ohio's adult smoking rate dipped from 22.5 percent to 20.2 percent

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Ohio smoking ban net cost $2M  

Newly released Ohio Department of Health figures show the state has spent $3.2 million to impose $1.2 million in fines on violators of Ohio's smoking ban.

Republican state Sen. Bill Seitz of Cincinnati says the state's $2 million net cost of enforcing the law is money that would be better spent on education, health care or other programs. The health department provided the numbers on a request from Seitz, a critic of the ban and a smoker himself.

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University settling into new smoking ban 

On Jan. 1, MSU joined 222 other colleges and universities around the country that prohibit smoking and all forms of tobacco. MSU is one of only two campuses in Texas, along with Alamo Community Colleges, to be 100 percent smoke-free.

MSU was the first public university in Texas to establish such a policy.

The new rule appears to be accepted and followed, even though MSU Vice President for Student Affairs Keith Lamb admitted Friday that adherence probably isn’t 100 percent campuswide.

Indeed, some students have been seen walking to classes with a burning cigarette held down low. Others say that some tenured faculty members still puff on cigarettes on campus when they’re not in class, just like they did for years before the ban.

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Statehouse smoking hot issue  

While some state workers smolder over inequities in smoking policies, others quietly light up outdoors and go with the flow.

The state Capitol Complex is exempt from Kanawha County's smoking ban because it is technically property of the state. The state Division of Personnel has its own policy that bars smoking inside and within 15 feet of any state-owned buildings. The policy applies only to the executive branch and is enforced by department heads.

Leaders of the House and Senate ask lawmakers to smoke outdoors, but the order is unofficial and not strictly followed.

The matter has swirled into such a controversy that some Kanawha County delegates have introduced legislation to ban smoking in the entire statehouse, including the offices of lawmakers.

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• Video of Cohen v. R.J. Reynolds - Trial - 03/01/10 ($$) 

Description:4 week Engle progeny tobacco liability jury trial.

Trial - 03/01/10

Case Number:07-11515 . . .

17th Judicial Circuit of Florida

Judge: Streitfeld, Jeffrey

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Bafta Awards 2010: Top 10 facts about The Hurt Locker  

4. Part of the shooting took place during the Muslim month of Ramadan, which is observed by fasting from sunrise to sundown. Non-Muslim crew members hid out and ate in tents and specialty hotels with windows covered by carpets out of respect for Jordanian law. Smoking, eating or drinking in public during daylight hours is banned during Ramadan.

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