Tobacco News

Two Chicago men were charged with dressing as police officers to rob a west suburban Elmhurst store of $39,000 worth of cigarettes last Friday.

Claiborne Robertson and Charles Tyrone Watkins entered the Little Shopper store at 697 N. York Rd. in Elmhurst about 9:40 a.m. May 11 dressed as police officers and claimed to be inspectors needing to check cigarette stamps, according to an Elmhurst police release. Ream more »

PORTLAND, Maine — Police in Portland, Maine, say someone cut a hole in the wall of a pharmacy to get inside and steal at least 10 cartons of cigarettes.

Police say the bandit went into an adjacent store that was under renovation, cut a hole in the wall and then absconded with $625 in cigarettes.
Ream more »

A former employee at a Litchfield group home who had sexual contact with a 17-year-old girl in exchange for a pack of cigarettes, was sentenced to one year in jail in Litchfield Superior Court Tuesday. David Traverso, 34, of 708 Colony Road in Meriden, previously pleaded guilty in Litchfield Superior Court to second-degree sexual assault. Read more

On August 27th, I spoke about the plan of Governor Patterson to enforce cigarette tax laws on Native American Indian tribes. In that discussion, it was noted that NYC Mayor Bloomberg stated that “the governor should act like a cowboy with a shotgun and enforce the state tax law.”
This is in addition to my understanding that, according to what the Gov. was proposing, a violation of the 4th Amendment was under way. Ream more »

The good news for a Northwest Knoxville convenience store operator? He has convinced the FBI he’s not a terrorist.The bad news? He’s going to prison anyway.What started four years ago as a probe into Hazam Ali Ahmed’s boast of ties to al-Qaida and talk of blowing up a mall in an act of holy war ended Thursday with Ahmed’s guilty plea to an unholy pursuit – hawking tens of thousands of untaxed cigarettes to convenience store operators in East Knoxville and Detroit.Ahmed, 38, admitted at a hearing before U.S. District Judge Tom Varlan to a slew of charges, including heading up two separate cigarette smuggling operations that robbed tax coffers in Tennessee and Michigan of nearly $500,000 in tobacco taxes. Read more

Five people sleeping inside a Lenox Avenue house are lucky to be alive this Saturday morning after fire ripped through the house, investigators said.The official cause is: “Careless disposal of smoking material,” according to Deputy Chief Keith Phillips of Pittsfield Fire Dept.Around 2:30AM, the homeowner flicked a cigarette out the front door of 154 Lenox Avenue onto the porch just before going to bed, authorities said. The fire smoldered for a few hours and the winds fanned the flames, Phillips said. Read more

Responding to the West Seattle Herald’s May 7 story “Experts Urge West Seattle families to communicate directly about drugs and alcohol,” long-time West Seattle resident, Bob Fox, wanted to weigh in with his years of fighting our tobacco-smoking culture and the powers behind it. A retired Boeing employee who with many positions including customer support, Fox tried, with some success, to change the corporate smoking culture in his work place. He recalled that at work the supervisor would announce several times a day it was time for a smoke break, and if an employee said he did not smoke, he was told to keep working. Read more

The Federal Government says changes to cigarette packet labelling will have a dramatic impact on Indigenous health. Read more

Some high school nurses say they have noticed fewer students smoking cigarettes, but they can’t be sure if more are switching to smokeless tobacco as a substitute. Read more