Free Republic

TRENTON, N.J. - Ashtrays have been disappearing in cars like fins on Cadillacs, and so could smoking while driving in New Jersey, under a measure introduced in the Legislature. Although the measure faces long odds, it still has smokers incensed and arguing it’s a Big Brother intrusion that threatens to take away one of the few places they can enjoy their habit. “The day a politician wants to tell me I can’t smoke in my car, that’s the day he takes over my lease payments,” said John Cito, a financial planner from Hackensack with a taste for $20 cigars.

City work crews Friday removed nine tons of dead jumbo squid that had blanketed La Jolla Cove and the Children's Pool area since Thursday. "Basically I have a bucket brigade down here," said Angel Prado, grounds maintenance manager for the city of San Diego. "We have a line of employees, and I'm at the end of the line." A crew of about 20 workers began the cleanup at 7 a.m., filling numerous 200-pound metal drums. They were expected to be at the task all day, Prado said. "We sent a least two trash trucks to the dump already," Prado said...