http://www.tobacco.org/newsfeed/country/dominican_republic.rss Latest top tobacco news headlines en-us http://www.dominicantoday.com/app/article.aspx?id=25518 http://tobacco.org/news/252710.html Dominican president Leonel Fernández has expressed his satusfaction at the news from the White House that the proposed taxes on tobacco would be vetoed. The president said that this would come as a great relief to thousands of Dominican families who make a living from tobacco cultivation and cigar production and exports. Dominican Today Dominican Republic Usa Sat, 22 Sep 2007 04:00:00 GMT http://www.dominicantoday.com/app/article.aspx?id=25422 http://tobacco.org/news/252400.html President Leonel Fernandez will ask the United States Congress and the Government not to apply more taxes on cigars from Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, Honduras and other Central America countries, said Agriculture minister Salvador Jiménez on Wednesday. He said the chief executive will visit New York City, where he will meet with Representative Charles Rangel (D-New York) to explain the Dominican position to ahead of the application of new levies on cigars on the part of Congress. He said Rangel has been very receptive to Dominican Republic’s position in view of intention the U.S. Government to apply a new tax on cigars. Dominican Today Dominican Republic Thu, 13 Sep 2007 04:00:00 GMT http://www.dominicantoday.com/app/article.aspx?id=25316 http://tobacco.org/news/251954.html The General Directorate of Customs and Ports (DGA) and Philip Morris International Management, S.A. signed a cooperation agreement to confront the issue of contraband and counterfeit in the cigarette trade in the Dominican Republic as a result of more than 6 months working together. The agreement is part of the process of implementing the new Customs policy regarding Intellectual Property that seeks to respond to the requirements of DR-CAFTA. Dominican Today Dominican Republic Mon, 03 Sep 2007 04:00:00 GMT http://www.dominicantoday.com/app/article.aspx?id=25088 http://tobacco.org/news/251176.html For the ninth consecutive year Industria de Tabaco León Jimenes and the Pontifical Catholic Madre y Maestra University ratify a collaboration agreement for the execution of the Community Development Program (PRODECO), a social investment initiative coordinated with the PUCMM´s Urban and Regional Studies Center (CEUR), which seeks to strengthen and generate permanent processes of development in the communities neighboring the production installations of Industria de Tabaco León Jimenes, in the northeastern sector of Santiago. The RD$1.5 million contribution made by the tobacco company and its parent company of Philip Morris International will serve to develop the actions planned within the framework of the program for the present year, ensuring accompaniment by CEUR-PUCMM of the Committee for Community Development of the Northeastern Sector, an entity responsible for community initiatives. Dominican Today Dominican Republic Tue, 14 Aug 2007 04:00:00 GMT http://www.dominicantoday.com/app/article.aspx?id=24947 http://tobacco.org/news/250763.html he head of the Senate’s Farm and Agribusiness Commission asked the Congress to reject a new tax on cigars, as it would “condemn the national tobacco industry." Amílcar Romero (PLD-Duarte) said a new U.S. tax on cigars would cause losses of over US$100 million for the industry, in addition to the loss of jobs in one of the country’s poorest zones. He said he stays in touch with ambassador in Washington, Flavio Darío Espinal, to lobby on the Dominican producers’ concern in the U.S. Senate. The Cigar Producers Association (Procigar) stated their concern to Romero on the Dominican cigars’ future, if the new tax is approved. They said they cultivate in the country’s Cibao and Northwest regions close to 20,000 hectares, which can’t be used for any other type of crop. Dominican Today Dominican Republic Usa Fri, 03 Aug 2007 04:00:00 GMT http://www.floridatoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070427/NEWS01/704270336/1006/rss01 http://tobacco.org/news/246009.html But Nicole and Tim Malley say times have changed, and a trip to Cuba no longer is necessary to enjoy the taste of a quality cigar. As owners of The Cigar Factory in Indialantic, they maintain that premium cigars now are made in the Dominican Republic. "All the best cigar manufacturers in Cuba have left and moved to the Dominican Republic," Nicole Malley said. "It has the same climate and the same soil as Cuba." However, soon after opening their Indialantic cigar and coffee shop in December 2005, the Malleys discovered there were drawbacks to relying on someone else to transport the tobacco. Florida Today webmaster@floridatoday.com (JENNIFER TORRES FOR FLORIDA TODAY) Dominican Republic Fri, 27 Apr 2007 04:00:00 GMT http://www.cigaraficionado.com/Cigar/CA_Blogs/Blog_Detail/0,4695,61,00.html http://tobacco.org/news/245507.html Marvin Shanken and I headed off the Dominican Republic to tour the nation's cigar factories. . . . I jumped in with both feet. At one time, I seem to remember having all 12 cigars going at the same time. Puffing on one. Tasting the next one. Jumping to another. In truth, my memory is probably failing, and I didn't have more than five or six going at any one time. But suffice it to say that in an hour, I sampled all 12 cigars, wrote notes, and talked about each one with DiMeola and Seijas. . . . I stumbled off the plane, and we made our way to the hotel. I was still pretty much forced to hang my head out the window of the SUV, praying that we would get to the hotel as fast as possible. Once we checked in, I lay down on the bed and waited a couple of hours for the feeling to pass. I found out later that I had been through a not-uncommon experience for cigar tasters: nicotine overdose. Sweats. Nausea. Chills. All are symptoms of getting too much nicotine into your system…and I wasn't inhaling that day, either. I also learned later that there is a pretty simple cure: swallow a sugar cube whole and it will alleviate the worst of the symptoms. Cigar Aficionado Dominican Republic Wed, 18 Apr 2007 04:00:00 GMT http://users1.wsj.com/lmda/do/checkLogin?mg=wsj-users1&url=http%3A%2F%2Fonline.wsj.com%2Farticle%2FBT-CO-20061121-715937-YLY_OuJCmDu4NlDAdyhiMUfba94_20071122.html%3Fmod%3Dcrnews http://tobacco.org/news/236596.html Industria de Tabaco Leon Jimenes S.A., the Dominican Republic's largest cigarette manufacturer, is now the sole property of Philip Morris International Inc., officials for both companies said Tuesday. The announcement completes a reorganization plan in which Philip Morris' parent, New York-based Altria Group Inc. (MO), traded its interest in the Dominican national brewery for the cigarette business and $427 million in cash. The Wall Street Journal Interactive Edition onlinejournal@wsj.com Dominican Republic Tue, 21 Nov 2006 05:00:00 GMT http://www.dominicantoday.com/app/article.aspx?id=19766 http://tobacco.org/news/236212.html According to Reuters, Altria Group Inc. said on Thursday that its Philip Morris International business plans to change its tobacco and beer equity holdings in the Dominican Republic later this month, leading to a boost in its 2006 forecast. Philip Morris International holds a 47.5 percent stake in E. Leon Jimenes C. por. A., which has equity holdings in tobacco and beer operations in the Dominican Republic. Philip Morris International plans to exchange that stake for full ownership of E. Leon Jimenes' cigarette subsidiary, Industria de Tabaco Leon Jimenes SA, and about $427 million of cash. The reorganization is expected to close later this month. Dominican Today Dominican Republic Fri, 17 Nov 2006 05:00:00 GMT http://www.dominicantoday.com/app/article.aspx?id=18535 http://tobacco.org/news/233937.html Local Environment Ministry officials would temporarily close the company British American Tobacco tomorrow, because it ignored the warning to build a structure to house their powerplant. North Zone Environmental coordinator Domingo Olivo provided the information this morning, affirming that the authorities will be present in the companyâ?(TM)s temporary shutdown. The official said that the decision was taken because the Bristish American Tobacco executives failed to meet the deadline to build the enclosure, to house the company's powerplant. Dominican Today Dominican Republic Wed, 11 Oct 2006 04:00:00 GMT http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/26/nyregion/26senator.html?_r=1&oref=slogin http://tobacco.org/news/230803.html Efraín González Jr., one of the longest-serving Hispanic members of the State Senate, was indicted yesterday on federal charges of mail fraud, accused of using $37,000 from a nonprofit organization for personal expenses, including Yankees tickets and membership fees at a vacation club in the Dominican Republic. Senator González, 58, who represents portions of the Bronx, surrendered to federal authorities yesterday morning and was released several hours later after posting $25,000 bail. . . . Mr. González has typically shunned the spotlight, and aides say he is more comfortable meeting people in informal settings than he is making speeches. He has set up his own cigar company, using tobacco from the Dominican Republic, where it is grown from Cuban seeds. The company has yet to begin full-scale operations, but Mr. González sometimes hands out cigars as he works a room. He has advised the government of the Dominican Republic, where his wife lives, on housing issues. New York Times Dominican Republic Sat, 26 Aug 2006 04:00:00 GMT http://travel.guardian.co.uk/onlocation/story/0,,1820881,00.html?gusrc=rss http://tobacco.org/news/228267.html Where could possibly double for 50s Cuba, the island Andy Garcia left as a child and the subject of his latest film? . . . 'When I decided to direct, the story of Havana was the story I felt compelled to tell," said Andy Garcia, through a curl of Cuban cigar smoke. . . . The fruit of Garcia's childhood eccentricity is The Lost City, a luxurious snapshot of 50s Havana set against the outbreak of revolution . . . it was a non-Cuban friend, Carlos Fuentes Junior (of Dominican Republic's Fuentes cigar concern) who solved Garcia's main production problem - the choice of location. . . . says Garcia. "But the Dominican Republic had everything: tobacco fields, the colonial palace, sugar cane, and a musical pulse similar to Cuba's. And Carlos offered to plant a couple of fields of wrapper-leaf tobacco off-season, too, which meant we could shoot everything at once, as well as getting in some great cigars for the wrap party." . . . After a hard day of filming, Garcia would unwind in the bar of the Santo Domingo's Renaissance Jaragua Hotel, listening to the house band play a bachata and indulging in a fine cigar -one thing, he says, that the Cubans will always do better. The Guardian Dominican Republic Sat, 15 Jul 2006 04:00:00 GMT http://www.nypost.com/gossip/cindy/cindy.htm http://tobacco.org/news/222012.html . . . Andy Garcia's "The Lost City," shot in the Dominican with the help of Carlos Fuente, opens the 28th. Fuente, whose tobacco business dates to 1800 in Cuba, played a cameo as a tobacco grower. He says: "Up at dawn, setups, retakes, weather worries was exhausting. Rolling cigars is easier." . . . New York Post Dominican Republic Tue, 18 Apr 2006 04:00:00 GMT http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/20/international/americas/20dominican.html?pagewanted=all http://tobacco.org/news/210479.html The tobacco fields are being planted a little late this year because the Haitian immigrants who work them were driven away by threats of a lynching. The troubles in this farm town in the country's northwest started in late September, with allegations that a Dominican worker had been killed by two black men. Too angry to wait for a trial, local Dominicans armed themselves with machetes and went out for vengeance. "Where there are two Haitians, kill one; where there are three Haitians, kill two," said leaders of the mobs that descended on the immigrants' camps, the Haitians here recalled. "But always let one go so that he can run back to his country and tell them what happened." Several Haitian workers were beaten by the Dominican mobs, said Jacobo Martínez Jiménez, an immigrant organizer. . . . "The problem is that there is no real justice," said Francisco Cabrera, who rents a few dozen acres of tobacco land here and uses Haitian laborers. He said the police rarely tried to stop attacks on them. "So people take justice into their own hands." New York Times Dominican Republic Haiti Sun, 20 Nov 2005 05:00:00 GMT http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/uniontowns/index.ssf?/base/news-0/1121287879250930.xml&coll=1 http://tobacco.org/news/201939.html For cigar aficionados passing through a Union Township smoke shop, it may be about getting a good stogie. For the owners, it's about something greater. Richard Penk and Dennis Panchyshyn, of the Smoker's Delight Cigar Shop on Stuyvesant Avenue, have raised more than $10,000 in the last three years through online auctions and charity events for those in need in the Dominican Republic. Working with Fuente & Newman Premium Cigars Limited Inc., Smoker's Delight has helped raise money to build a grammar school and water purification systems in impoverished areas of the Dominican Republic -- a country known for its fine cigars. Star-Ledger Dominican Republic Thu, 14 Jul 2005 04:00:00 GMT