As we mentioned briefly yesterday, the second fire in two years at Capitol Lounge has been found to have resulted from the same reason as the first: a cigarette, which was left burning in a trash can behind the building. Last week’s fire caused about $100,000 of damage to the Lounge as well as the Trover Gift Shop next door. Now The Examiner reports that D.C. Fire Chief Dennis Rubin is calling for a new law which would require vendors in D.C. to offer “fire-safe” cigarettes in the hopes that their availability might prevent similar fires in the future.
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Mark Locklear, Staff writer

LUMBERTON - The opening of the tobacco markets in Southeastern North Carolina last week went virtually unnoticed in Robeson County. Aside the from the contract sales at S&P Tobacco Marketing in Lumberton, the next closest receiving station is 100 miles away in Mullins, S.C.

The Lumberton warehouse was converted into a receiving station years ago after Congress approved a $10 billion buyout of the federal tobacco quota system. The buyout dismantled the tobacco price-support and quota program that had existed since the 1930s. Many farmers turned to other alternative crops or got out of the farming business altogether.

There were 5,158 acres of tobacco planted in Robeson County this year, about a third of what was being planted in the mid-1990s. That tobacco will generate about $20 million of income, which is also about a third of the tobacco revenue produced just more than a decade ago.
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By Tonya Root - The Sun News

MULLINS –
Matt Willoughby reached a milestone Thursday when he drove his family’s blue International flatbed truck through the yellow doors at the Big L tobacco warehouse off Front Street in Mullins.

The truck’s bed bulged with 16 bales of golden tobacco - his first tobacco crop.

The 26-year-old Green Sea-area resident joined numerous flue-cured tobacco growers this week in taking their crop to market. Some sold at the Flue-Cured Tobacco Cooperation warehouse where Willoughby went, and others through a contract with one of the big cigarette manufacturers.

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By Elitsa Grancharova

At a news conference on August 2 2007, Philip Morris Bulgaria (PMB), a subsidiary of Philip Morris International, announced the launch of a new product for the Bulgarian market. The Assos Slim product is called Bond Street and is part of the company’s Assos International brand. The name comes from Bond Street in London where Philip Morris opened his very first tobacco shop in 1847. According to the company, the Bond Street brand is smoked in more than 30 countries, making it the ninth biggest brand worldwide. Bond Street is available in three varieties and is aimed at the lower end of the market. It is being sold for about two leva a packet.

In addition, on August 10 PMB launched its next Marlboro product, Marlboro Silver.
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MINEOLA, N.Y. -

Authorities seized nearly 600,000 packs of cigarettes with brand names like Marlboro and Newport, half of which are suspected of being counterfeits from China, prosecutors announced Monday.

Three Chinese men were arrested in the raid late last week at a warehouse in the Corona section of Queens, Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice said at a news conference. The cigarettes have an estimated street value of more than $3.4 million.
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By Thomas Mulier

Aug. 13 (Bloomberg) — Imperial Tobacco Group Plc investors almost unanimously approved the company’s 12.6 billion-euro ($17 billion) bid for Altadis SA, the maker of Gauloises cigarettes and the world’s best-selling cigars.

Shareholders met today in the southwestern English city of Bristol, where Imperial, the owner of the Davidoff cigarette brand, is located. The company agreed on July 18 to buy Madrid- based Altadis for 50 euros a share in cash after a four-month takeover battle with buyout firm CVC Capital Partners Ltd. About 99.8 percent of shareholders voted in favor, Imperial said in a Regulatory News Service statement.
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FORT WORTH, Texas — Fort Worth restaurant owners said if the city wants a smoking ban that it should be done right the first time.

The council may vote on a ban this month, but it could exempt free-standing bars.

The Tarrant County Restaurant Association wants an across-the-board ban, so that restaurants can compete with bars.

“There is no reason to distinguish between a stand-alone bar at 75 percent alcohol sales and someone who does less than 74 percent. It doesn’t make sense,” said David Rotman, with Cafe Aspen.

There are 20 cities in Texas that have already have enacted a complete smoking ban in bars and restaurants.

Copyright 2007 by nbc5i.com. 

A Franklin couple who changed their restaurant into a private club are asking a judge to bar city officials from enforcing a smoking ban against them.

Jim and Mary Barnaby operate the D and D Club in the city about 20 miles south of Indianapolis. They’re asking a Johnson Superior Court judge for a preliminary injunction requiring officials to stop citing the club, which they say is exempt from the smoking ordinance because it is private.

Franklin’s ordinance was passed in July 2006. It bans smoking in public establishments and workplaces, but exempts private clubs and bars open only to those 21 and older.

The city says that the Barnabys’ business is not really a club. An attorney for the city says the business operates the same as it did when it was Don and Dona’s restaurant.

(Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

By Steve Lonegan

Some U.S. Senators want to pass a huge cigarette tax hike to finance expansion of a government-run socialized health insurance program.  The bill would increase the federal cigarette tax from .39 to $1.00 per pack and the cigar tax from 4.8 cents to an astounding 53% up to $10.00 per cigar.

The Senate Finance Committee will be marking up a bill this week to expand the State Children’s Health Insurance (SCHIP) program, a program started by President Clinton to provide government-run health insurance for low-income children who are not poor enough to qualify for Medicaid.  Whatever the merits of SCHIP, its expansion should not be financed by hiking the regressive federal cigarette excise tax.

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by Patrick Basham

According to anti-smoking groups, the current Congressional attempt to give the Food and Drug Administration authority to regulate tobacco is the most important piece of legislation since the surgeon general spoke out on the dangers of smoking 40 years ago. Surprisingly, it is not just the foes of Big Tobacco that support the proposed law, which was approved by the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee on Wednesday.

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