Cammie King Conlon, who jokingly lamented that she was famous for an experience she barely remembered, portraying Scarlett O’Hara and Rhett Butler’s ill-fated young daughter in the film “Gone With the Wind,” has died. She was 76. Conlon, whose brief movie-acting career included voicing the fawn Faline in “Bambi,” died Wednesday of cancer at her home in Ft. Bragg, Calif., said Bruce Lewis, a friend. At 4, she was cast as Bonnie Blue Butler for her resemblance to her film-screen parents — Vivien Leigh and Clark Gable — but her memories of making the epic ... Jump to full article >>

Seneca Nation leaders have renounced violence, urged calm and tried to dampen the emotion in the buildup to the state’s attempt to collect taxes on cigarettes. Even so, some emotion — mostly frustration — has bubbled up from the Cattaraugus Reservation. With questions about potential economic harm from a successful attempt at tax collection, sometimes it sounds like a people’s attempt at survival. While two public, “peaceful” rallies are planned on the reservation this morning, tensions had been climbing, and the raw emotion has still shown its head. The Sen ... Jump to full article >>

A growing body of evidence suggests that the widely used diabetes drug metformin can reduce the risk of cancer, researchers said Wednesday. A study in mice exposed to tobacco carcinogens shows that the drug can reduce the development of lung tumors by more than 70%, and results from a small clinical trial in Japan suggest it can reduce rates of colorectal tumors in humans. The National Cancer Institute is now organizing a clinical trial to test the drug in people who smoke, and other trials are testing it against breast and prostate cancer. There is not yet enough evidence to recommend using t ... Jump to full article >>

Bob Schapiro explained how he arrived at his latest obsession two years ago. “It was a day like today: hot,” said the 92-year-old. “I was walking down the street and I passed a cigar store.” Bob doesn’t smoke — “Why take a poisonous plant and rub it on your lungs?” he said — but the store was nicely air-conditioned, a respite from the heat. Inside, Bob fell in love. “They were so handsomely made,” he said, not of the cigars — the Cohibas and Montecristos — but of the boxes the cigars came in. Some were glossily varn ... Jump to full article >>

As of Wednesday, September 1 there will be a blanket ban on smoking in all indoor public areas throughout Greece, with stiff fines for transgressors. The ban applies equally to work places and recreational venues, without the option of a special smoking area, except in the case of casinos and recreational venues larger than 300 square metres playing live music. For the last two categories, there will be an eight-month transitional period and the full ban will begin to apply from June 1, 2011. Under the new law, private individuals that flout the smoking ban face fines ranging from 50-500 e ... Jump to full article >>

Seneca Indians may have lost another court battle Monday in their attempts to keep state taxes from being collected on cigarettes sold to non-Indians on Native American land, but they say their legal battle is not complete. Not only will Senecas head to the state’s Appellate Division seeking to overturn a decision made Monday by state Supreme Court Judge Donna Siwek that will allow for tax collections, but the nation also plans to head back to U.S. Federal District Court in hopes of convincing Judge Richard Arcara to block the way the state plans to collect the taxes. On Monday, Judge Si ... Jump to full article >>

The nearly two-month-old statewide smoking ban does not appear to be harming taverns or other hospitality businesses and might actually be helping some, though bar owners say they still are withholding judgment. Cries were heard statewide that the smoking ban, which went into effect July 5, would be the demise of bars that relied upon smokers for their business. The state Tavern League and others complained that their customers would stay at home to drink and smoke rather than visiting bars in which tobacco was prohibited. So far, bars aren’t shutting their doors, but the real test will ... Jump to full article >>

Scores of tobacco retailers in the U.S. are taking advantage of a federal tax loophole to offer deep discounts on roll-your-own cigarettes. But the practice is attracting scrutiny from regulators and cigarette manufacturers. At Smoke Zone, a store in this Chicago suburb, customers one recent afternoon flocked to two high-speed rolling machines that produce a carton of cigarettes in eight minutes. The price: $21—less than half the cost of a carton of Marlboro cigarettes. “People have waited an hour for these some days,” said Taren DeNicolo, the store’s manager. About 150 tob ... Jump to full article >>

Google has accepted pro-pot-legalization ads similar to those rejected by Facebook, a spokesman for the Just Say Now coalition told HuffPost Wednesday, providing a confirmation email from a Google representative. Google also accepted ads attacking Facebook for blocking the campaign’s web ads. [UPDATE: Google will allow the ads to reference to controversy but not name Facebook specifically, for trademark reasons.] “Facebook’s concocted prissiness over political advocacy is more to be disparaged than imitated. Freedom of expression is made of sterner stuff. Google deserves appl ... Jump to full article >>

As legal and political battles continue over whether New York will ever collect taxes from the sale of cigarettes on Indian land, the Oneida Indian Nation is taking steps to strengthen its own position. The nation announced today it will move its Buffalo-based cigarette manufacturing plant to Oneida to take advantage of a federal law protecting products tribes manufacture on their own reservations from state tax laws. According to a press release from the nation, the federal law preempts state efforts to tax products manufactured on reservation land. The nation purchased cigarette manufacturer ... Jump to full article >>

Florence Henderson takes her acting very seriously, but that doesn’t mean she doesn’t like to fool around now and then. Case in point: Her role as a clown groupie who wakes up in bed with Bob Goldthwait’s boozy clown in the 1992 cult favorite “Shakes the Clown.” “I met Adam Sandler and he said, ‘You probably don’t remember me, but I was in ‘Shakes the Clown.’ ” Then there was her appearance at the 1993 MTV Movie Awards, in which she put her own take on several of the nominated films that year including portraying Jack Nicholson ... Jump to full article >>