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 >>

Even as the Smoke-Free Mumbai Campaign shifts gear by targeting taxis and BEST buses, a survey has found that tobacco companies have found a glitzy way of advertising their wares. Display boards-commissioned and maintained by tobacco companies-have multiplied across the city. Worse, they either blatantly or subtly violate the stringent regulations laid down in the Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products (Prohibition) Act of 2003, reveals a survey by the Cancer Patient Aid Association (CPAA) conducted between May and July. There are 125 displays in five South Mumbai wards. “About 65% of th ... Jump to full article >>

Central Wisconsin cities are selling fewer permits to allow cigarette sales, and it’s not just related to the statewide smoking ban. About the same time the smoking ban went into effect, July 1, a change in federal law regulating cigarette vending machines was implemented, said Marshfield City Clerk Deb Hall, whose office sells the licenses for cigarette sales. Federal law bans cigarette vending ma-chines in any establishment where children are allowed. “Since children can accompany their parents to a tavern and a lot of taverns used vending machines for cigarette sales, we didn ... Jump to full article >>

There is Big Tobacco and then, in China, there is very, very Big Tobacco. The China National Tobacco Corp is the world’s largest cigarette maker. According to the Tobacco Atlas, published by the American Cancer Society and World Lung Foundation, CNTC controls 32 per cent of the global cigarette market – almost as much as the No 2 and 3 companies, Philip Morris International and British American Tobacco, combined. Surprisingly, the global public health lobby has come a long way in China. Judith Mackay, a Hong Kong-based doctor, remembers attending a 1987 meeting about tobacco and its h ... Jump to full article >>

Today’s sanctuary for and one of the last bastions of camaraderie, friendship and sociability – the corner cigar store – could become history along with many other businesses in Savannah if City Council has its way, says the International Premium Cigar & Pipe Retailers Association. The current proposal would eliminate exemptions in the Georgia state law by making all workplaces smoke-free. This includes all indoor and outdoor areas of bars, restaurants, private clubs and other businesses, including cigar stores and within 20 feet from the entrance to any such workplace. Today’s san ... Jump to full article >>

In this crowded and muggy speck of Europe perched on Africa’s shoulder, with the Mediterranean to one side and gigantic Morocco to the other, a person might be forgiven for going a little stir crazy. The few aircraft that come to this far-flung Spanish enclave are smallish, noisy prop planes that bank gut-wrenchingly to negotiate a short runway. The drone of propellers over deep blue sea is a throwback to another era of travel, like going somewhere stuck in time. Border crossings are often tense places, but perhaps more so at this loud, dirty and chaotic conduit point between Europe̵ ... Jump to full article >>

Shortly after taking over as CEO of British Petroleum (BP), Tony Haywood said, “We have too many people [at BP] who want to save the world…we need to concentrate on our primary goal: creating value for our shareholders.” Similarly, a well known anti-tobacco advert features an actor playing a tobacco company executive saying to its customers: “We’re not in business for your health.” Tobacco and oil companies are easy targets, the first causing completely preventable disease and death, the latter consistently befouling the environment and killing endangered species as an integral ... Jump to full article >>