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• Altria's Exit Stuns City, County and State: Joe Mysak (Correct) 

``Philip Morris Quits North Carolina,'' the Charlotte Observer reported on Page 1, summing things up philosophically, and without a trace of hysteria. . . .

When tobacco bonds were first sold in 1999, the report said that cigarette smoking peaked in 1981, when Americans consumed 640 billion of the things. It also said that consumption would fall to 247 billion by 2032. This new edition of the report now puts the 2032 number at 234 billion. By 2052, Americans will be smoking only 163 billion cigarettes.

That's good news and bad news, of course. It's good news for everyone who thinks people should stop engaging in self- destructive behavior, bad news for the states and municipalities that depend upon tobacco companies for jobs and tax revenue and those annual settlement payments.

Altria hopes to shut down the Concord factory by the end of 2010, giving municipal officials -- and bondholders -- plenty of time to think about how they are going to deal with this ``event.''

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