A combination of poor policies, lack of political leadership, high credit card transaction fees and contraband tobacco are having a devastating impact on Canada’s corner stores, forcing 350 to close last year alone, according to the trade body representing mom and pop shops. Last year, sales at convenience stores without gas stations were $11.2 billion, virtually unchanged from the year before. Those selling gas reported a rise of 9.2% to $22.6 billion, helped by higher prices at the pump, according to the Canadian Convenience Stores Association’s annual report. Canada’s con ... Jump to full article >>

One of Europe’s biggest taxi firms today lost a legal battle over its unauthorised installation of cigarette “adbins” outside pubs and restaurants. For more than three years, Addison Lee has sponsored more than 19,000 “adbins” outside businesses across London where smokers could leave their discarded butts. Today, a judge ruled that the business – which has more than 2,500 minicabs – acted illegally by erecting some of the bins without planning permission. Westminster City Council brought the legal action over 21 advertisements at seven sites – s ... Jump to full article >>

A Macomb County Circuit judge did not rule the Michigan smoking ban unconstitutional Monday, but called some of the language in the ban confusing. Judge Edward Servitto also allowed Warren bar owner Boyd Cottrell to keep his license and did not order him to pay a $500 fine for violating the ban. Cottrell, owner of Sporty O’Toole’s, was cited in May for violating the ban and paid a $100 fine. His second ticket came in October, but he did not pay the $500 fine. The Macomb County Health Department filed a complaint in Circuit Court, and Cottrell took up the challenge, the first in th ... Jump to full article >>

The mother of a casino employee who died of cancer last year has filed a class action lawsuit against the owners of Harrah’s New Orleans Casino, alleging that secondhand smoke killed her son and exposed other employees to health risks. The secondhand smoke lawsuit was filed earlier this month against Caesars Entertainment Corp. by Denise Bevrotte, the mother of Maceo Bevrotte Jr., who died of cancer on March 9, 2010. According to allegations raised in the complaint, Maceo Bevroette Jr.’s cancer was caused by inhaling the casino’s smoke-filled air for about 15 years, even though he did n ... Jump to full article >>

The former chairman of Circuit City Stores Inc. and CarMax Inc. has joined the board of directors of a local company that makes smokeless tobacco products. Star Scientific Inc. said Thursday that it has named Richard L. Sharp to its seven-member board. The Henrico County-based company makes smokeless, spitless, oral tobacco products under the brand names Stonewall and Ariva. Star Scientific shook up the tobacco industry in the late 1990s and early 2000s by contracting with farmers to produce reduced-carcinogen tobacco, but the company has not turned a profit in years as it pursued a decade-lo ... Jump to full article >>

BROOKLYN — The New York Landmarks Conservancy, the Brooklyn Heights Association (BHA), and the Fulton Ferry Landing Association went back to court Tuesday on the Tobacco Warehouse issue. They filed an amended complaint to their federal lawsuit challenging the recent decision by the National Park Service to allow the state Parks Department to remove the 19th century Tobacco Warehouse from federal park protection, allowing for the now-roofless warehouse’s development into a theater by the performing arts group St. Ann’s Warehouse. The warehouse, whose roof was removed after it was destabil ... Jump to full article >>

Lorillard Inc and R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co have filed a lawsuit against the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) saying there were conflicts of interest and bias among members of an advisory panel which may recommend banning menthol cigarettes. The FDA advisory panel’s recommendations are not binding, however the agency usually goes along with its advice. Panel members are expected to put forward their recommendations regarding menthol-flavored cigarettes on 23rd March this year. Nearly 1 in every 3 cigarettes sold in the USA is mentholated. R. J. Reynolds sells a menthol Camel version as ... Jump to full article >>

The Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected the Centre’s plea for more time to notify the law to regulate the use of plastic pouches for ‘gutka’ and other tobacco products and asked it to come out with the notification in two days. A Bench of Justices G.S. Singhvi and A.K. Ganguly rejected the request counsel for the Union government made on the ground that the eight weeks the court granted on December 7 last was due to expire in the next two days. Rules had already been framed in September 2009, counsel said, and only a formal notification was required. To this, Justice Singhvi sa ... Jump to full article >>

A Northampton County Prison guard ran an illegal tobacco ring in the prison and helped cooperating inmates assault other inmates, according to a federal lawsuit filed last week. The suit filed in federal court claims guard James Boehm was suspended before the incident for his involvement in “illicit and organized tobacco distribution” in the prison. John Mucha, of Upper Mount Bethel Township, filed the suit against the county and a host of county and prison officials. Mucha claims he and his three cellmates were assaulted on Jan. 29, 2009, by three other inmates, at the behest of Boehm. Mu ... Jump to full article >>

Prisoners forced to share their cells with smokers have lodged compensation claims against the Scottish Prison Service. The situation emerged after the European Court of Human Rights ruled in favour of a murderer in Romania whose health had been damaged by spending six years of his sentence incarcerated with three smokers. The court judged that Anesti Elefteriadis had his rights violated under Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which prohibits inhuman or degrading treatment. Elefteriadis had been declared medically fit when sentenced in 1992 but, by 1999, he had been diagnos ... Jump to full article >>

A federal lawsuit has been filed against King County, Wash., for its decision to reject advertisements about “Israeli war crimes” on downtown Seattle buses. The Seattle Mideast Awareness Campaign and the American Civil Liberties Union of Washington filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Seattle last week charging that King County violated the campaign’s First Amendment rights. The suit asks the court to order the county to place the ad for four weeks on the sides of 12 buses, as the Metro Transit system and its ad agency originally agreed to do. The Seattle Midwest Awarene ... Jump to full article >>