What Will The Commissioner Do?:
No one has the authority to give a town permission to contradict or break the State laws.

Government Smokes:
By Charles Paul Freund. How are states using their tobacco settlement windfall? The Investor Responsibility Research Center (IRRC) recently surveyed state treasurers to find out. It found that seven states -- Texas, Connecticut, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, Utah, and West Virginia -- had taken millions of dollars intended to reimburse them for tobacco-related health expenditures and invested the funds in tobacco companies.

World No-Tobacco Day:
By Luc Martial. The FTCS and the MAC are both a direct result of years of lobbying by these publicly funded organizations which seem to know what's good for you, even if you don't or don't agree.

Stealth Leftists Subvert Democracy:
By John Leo. He was referring to the suing of tobacco companies, gunmakers, and perhaps the producers of fatty foods and liquor as "end runs around the democratic process." Reich called it "faux legislation, which sacrifices democracy to the discretion of administration officials operating in secrecy."
Attorney Aims At Restaurant Industry
John Banzhaf made his name, and a lot of money, by suing tobacco companies. The George Washington University professor heads up an organization that promises "hundreds of billions [YES, BILLIONS!] of dollars" from anti-tobacco lawsuits. At a cost, of course: If you want one of his "lawsuit kits," you'll have to pay up.

Big Fat Lie:
By Jacob Sullum. The war on obesity, like the war on smoking, is all about protecting people from their own choices. Yet its Orwellian tacticians argue that their real aim is liberating people from the conditions that make them overeat.

Medical Journal Highlights Flaws In Studies:
Researchers looked at problems such as bias and conflict of interest among peer reviewers who approve studies before they are published. Another study looked at how news releases may fail to mention a study's limitations or industry funding.

We Are Everyday People:

Transcript From "The Daily Show" With Jon Stewart:
Professor Banzhaf, name one way you're not Hitler.

Money From Sugar Kings:
OK, we got Big Tobacco... That half-Trillion bucks was great, but now we need more....A Parody (or is it?)

Welcome sign for the state of Delaware

Reader Opinions

R.J. Reynolds Fined $20M for Ads:
California Judge Fines Tobacco Company $20 Million for Ads Targeting Teens. Although it applies only to California, the ruling will force Reynolds to change its practices in magazines with a nationwide circulation, Leaf said.

From The Mailbag:
I can say there is something "worse than walking into a full room of stinky smoke." Walking out of that room into the eau-de-diesel that perfumes the air of "The Choice City" would be worse, don't you think? Why don't you pick on the real culprits? Leave smokers alone.
Fred "Derf" Collier

Politicians Who Think All Voters Are Created Equal:
OH: Allen Roy
IL: Cal Skinner