Jump to full article: Jamestown (ND) Sun, 2008-04-16
Author: Mike Nowatzki, The Forum, The Jamestown Sun
Intro: Former North Dakota Attorney General Heidi Heitkamp announced a proposed ballot measure Tuesday that would create a tobacco prevention and control program using funds that start rolling into the state this year from its settlement with the tobacco industry 10 years ago.
Heitkamp said the state hasn’t directed enough of its settlement money toward tobacco cessation and prevention efforts. She said the issue is personal for her, as she and the state’s solicitor general, Laurie Loveland, worked on the settlement.
Loveland died in 2002 of pancreatic cancer. . . .
The initiative petition was submitted Tuesday afternoon to Secretary of State Al Jaeger.
Sponsors must gather at least 12,844 signatures by Aug. 5 to get the measure on the November ballot, Jaeger said.
The measure would create a committee to develop and implement the plan, as well as a trust fund to support it. A nine-member advisory board appointed by the governor would manage the fund.
Jump to full article » |