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Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) reacted to a grand jury's decision to not indict a New York City Police Officer in the death of Eric Garner by saying he was "horrified" by the video and blasting politicians for passing "bad laws" that "put our police in a difficult situation" in an interview broadcast on Wednesday's "Hardball" on MSNBC.

Taking a break from soliciting support for the Arthritis and Rheumatism Foundation, "Koko" the poodle pauses for a cigarette.

November 24, 2014 11:27 AMFrenchman Quits ISIS Because He Couldn’t Handle Its Smoking Ban Flavien Moreau said he even tried Nicorette, but it didn't work. By Katherine Timpf A French militant who was recently sent to to prison for his involvement with the Islamic State said he left the terrorist organization because he couldn’t handle its strict ban on smoking cigarrettes. “I really struggled with not smoking,” 27-year-old Flavien Moreau testified before a Paris court, according to France 24. “It was forbidden by the katiba [a group of Islamist militants]. I had brought Nicorette gum with me, but it wasn’t...

A proposal that would have made the town the first in the nation to ban all tobacco sales has gone up in smoke. Westminster’s board of health voted 2-1 to drop the proposal at its regular meeting on Wednesday, a week after rowdy opposition led board members to end a public hearing early. The board had initially said the ban would help keep a variety of tobacco products from young people, but businesses strongly opposed it.

There’s a time and place for everything, but that isn’t the case for a small Massachusetts town that could have become the first municipality in the nation to ban tobacco sales. The Westminster Board of Health withdrew its proposal to ban all tobacco sales on Wednesday after receiving criticism and outrage from the audience at a meeting last week. Board of health members Peter Munro and Ed Simoncini voted against the ban while Chairwoman Andrea Crete voted to keep the proposal for consideration, reported the Boston Globe. “It is obvious the town is against it and therefore I am against...

“My job was just to see if the numbers added up,” Dr. Jonathan Gruber, the controversial architect of ObamaCare, told PBS two years ago. And add up the numbers did – at least in terms of Gruber’s consulting fees. A Fox News review of state and federal websites, as well as published reports, finds the MIT economist----and his firm----have secured millions in federal and state contracts stretching back over the last fifteen years. Most famously, HHS retained Gruber March 2009 to produce, as the contract stipulated, “a series of technical memoranda on the estimated changes in health insurance coverage and...

WESTMINSTER — An unruly public hearing on a proposal to prohibit the sale of tobacco products came to a sudden and rowdy halt Wednesday evening after shouting and clapping opponents of the ban repeatedly refused the chairwoman’s request to come to order. The ban, proposed by the Board of Health in this Central Massachusetts town, would be the first of its kind in the state. It has led to angry reactions from residents who worry that it will hurt the local economy and allow government too much discretion in controlling private conduct. “This is about freedom; it’s my body and...

They may take our lives, but they’ll never take . . . our cigarettes? Westminster may become the first municipality in the country to ban all tobacco sales, but some businesses and town members are not ready to give up their Marlboros, Camels and Parliaments. A public hearing on a potential tobacco ban in the western Massachusetts town of Westminster was shut down Wednesday night after boisterous audience members loudly voiced their opposition to the ban.

--SNIP-- "It's really bad right now. We're in real bad shape," he said, adding that the decrease in cigarette sales has had a ripple effect on the rest of his business. He has let go of four employees in the past month. "Now it's just me, my wife and my sister." Martinez isn't alone. Other store owners and distributors in the city said they have seen a dramatic drop in revenue since the tax was added, causing them to wonder what the collateral damage will be on their livelihoods. "It's detrimental all over the city. There are probably over 2,000...

The Central Massachusetts town of Westminster would become the first community in the state, and perhaps the nation, to ban all tobacco sales under a proposal made public Monday that regulators say is designed to improve health, especially among the young. Draft regulations posted on the town’s website would prohibit sales of products containing tobacco or nicotine, including cigarettes, chewing tobacco, and even electronic cigarettes, which use batteries to heat nicotine-laced liquid, producing a vapor that is inhaled. The plan has infuriated local store owners, who are circulating petitions to block the action, saying it would drive them out of...

---SNIP--- What’s the draw at this Bensalem store? Cigarettes, some priced at under $6 a pack. No more than a mile away in Philadelphia, the same cigarettes cost more than $8. “We used to get between 300 and 400 cartons of cigarettes every other night. Now, we’re getting about 1,500 cartons. I would say sales have gone up from about 2,000 packs a day to between 4,000 and 4,500 packs daily,” inventory manager Jim Watson said. That adds up at least $24,000 a day in sales, an increase of $12,000-plus since nearby Philadelphia increased its tax on a pack of...

In a Trans-Atlantic debate over cigarette packaging, North Carolina’s governor poses a rhetorical question to the Irish and French governments: Would Guinness be recognizable labeled simply as “beer?” Or would champagne sell as well in a bottle lacking its distinctive curves? Gov. Pat McCrory has written letters to French and Irish officials decrying plans in those countries to force manufacturers to package their cigarettes in plain containers. McCrory argues farmers and manufacturers in the top U.S. tobacco-producing state would be hurt by the proposals to remove brand logos and colors from cigarette boxes. “Plain packaging laws are a direct assault...

California Republican Rep. Duncan Hunter is fighting a potential ban on tobacco sales on military bases and ships. The idea of a ban is currently under a department review, thanks to Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel. But Hunter, a Marine reservist who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, is already fighting the idea. “It’s not curbed for anybody else. Why pick out the folks who choose of their own accord to fight for their country and serve their country, and punish them?”

Nicotiana benthamiana, already used to produce West Nile virus antibodies, offers similar protection against the devastating Ebola virus The already wide horticultural field has expanded yet more to the new science of pharming. This involves the production of pharmaceuticals through the use of genetic engineering to insert genes that code for desired and otherwise expensive and complicated to produce pharmaceuticals into plants. Today, thanks to the herbaceous plant and close relative of tobacco, Nicotiana benthamiana, already used to produce West Nile virus antibodies, offers similar protection against the devastating Ebola virus. Found amongst rocks on hills and cliffs throughout the...

What are the odds? In 2009, Congress passed landmark legislation directing the Food and Drug Administration to regulate tobacco products, aiming to cut the toll from the leading preventable cause of disease and death. Three times since, however, cigarette and e-cigarette companies have filed successful legal challenges to thwart rules intended to make their products less appealing to consumers–and less accessible to kids. The three cases, which, among other things, have blocked graphic cigarette warning labels and delayed regulation of e-cigarettes for at least a few years, were decided in favor of industry plaintiffs by the same federal judge, Richard...

Pot may be legal in Colorado, but you can still be fired for using it. Brandon Coats, a quadriplegic medical marijuana patient who was fired by the Dish Network after failing a drug test more than four years ago, says he still can't find steady work because employers are wary of his off-duty smoking. In a case being closely watched around the country, Colorado's Supreme Court on Tuesday will hear arguments in Coats' case, which could have big implications for pot smokers in the first state to legalize recreational sales of the drug. The case highlights the clash between state...

The unelected and unaccountable sages at the World Health Organization (WHO) can’t seem to help themselves or resist the temptation to try to regulate the behavior of everyone on the planet. This is a shame, really, because a group like that could actually do some good if they stuck to trying to get basic supplies and medical care to people in remote, poverty stricken countries. But rather than devoting themselves to such laudable goals, they’re once again pushing to get every government on the planet to jack up sin taxes on tobacco.(This is something they’ve tried before, as I wrote...

CVS Caremark has followed through with its long-promised cigarette ban, as the tobacco-free pharmacy chain officially changed its name to CVS Health. "The sale of cigarettes and tobacco at CVS pharmacy stores ends today," said Larry Merlo, president and CEO of CVS, in a video statement on the company web site. "By eliminating the sale of cigarettes and tobacco products in our stores, we can make a difference in the health of all Americans." CVS (CVS) stopped selling cigarettes nearly a month earlier than expected, since the chain had previously announced the ban would go into effect by Oct. 1.

As CVS sharpens its focus on customer health, the nation's second-largest drugstore chain will tweak its corporate name and stop the sale of tobacco nearly a month sooner than planned. CVS Caremark will now be known as CVS Health. The signs on its roughly 7,700 drugstores won't change, so the tweak may not register with shoppers.

The American Heart Association says e-cigarettes are dangerous gateway products that cause nicotine addiction and should be subject to strict federal controls for minor-aged use. The group published its statement into the journal Circulation. Among its views: Ban e-cigarettes for minors, tightly regulate the product’s marketing and ban vapors that have flavors because they entice youngsters to try the product, Medical News Today reported.