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California voters will get a second chance to rule on whether parents should be notified when their daughters seek abortions. They'll also decide whether tobacco taxes should be raised to pay for a variety of anti-smoking and health care programs. Secretary of State Bruce McPherson said Tuesday that both initiatives had attracted enough voter signatures to make the November ballot. They join eight other proposals that previously made the ballot, although a bill moving through the Legislature would move one of those measures, a $9.95 billion high-speed rail bond, to the November 2008 ballot. The abortion measure would require parents...

Attorney General Supports Poochigian’s Request for Review of First 5 Commission’s Use of Taxpayer Funds Citing Conflict, Lockyer Refers Investigation to Sacramento County District Attorney “Attorney General Bill Lockyer has acknowledged that allegations that the First 5 Commission may have misused taxpayer funds in connection with campaign advertising for Proposition 82 warrant a prompt review. Although the Attorney General’s office has investigated and prosecuted other state entities and officers in the past, he has decided to refer this case. I believe that Sacramento County District Attorney Jan Scully will fully investigate the matter and, if warranted, prosecute any civil or...

Rob Reiner better watch his back. It now appears that an outside audit – at the least – will be done of the California Children and Families Commission because it used $23 million in taxpayer funds for TV ads touting “preschool for all” at the same time Reiner, a commission board member, was circulating petitions for his “preschool for all” initiative. And when investigators come to chat, the executive director of the commission just might not go along with the cover story that it was all one big “coincidence” that the TV ads ran at the same time as the...

Strickland Files “Public Documents” Request for Reiner Documents “The public has a right to know how their money is being spent” (Sacramento) – Taxpayer Advocate Tony Strickland has filed a request pursuant to the California Public Records Act for all documents surrounding the decision of a California commission to funnel millions in public funds into a television advertising campaign that may have been designed to boost an initiative petition being circulated by a member of the commission. The Sacramento Bee broke the story in December, with a more recent Los Angeles Times story highlighting the fact that more than $23...

Actor-director Rob Reiner is taking a lot of well-deserved media and political heat - from politicians in both parties, for a change - over a lavish promotional program for preschool education financed by tobacco tax money that is controlled by a commission he heads. Although Reiner and the First 5 California Children and Families Commission insist that he didn't play a direct role, it's perfectly clear that the commission was using public money to boost a Reiner initiative to tax the wealthy for preschool programs. Reiner temporarily stepped down from the chairmanship last week as political and media criticism mounted,...

Normally, I would wait until later to protest the proposed $2.60-per-pack tax on cigarettes being pushed for next fall by the American Cancer Society and other powerful health associations. But it’s such a rotten idea I don’t want to delay. Huge new taxes on specific groups of people create weird backlashes--in this case, probably skyrocketing sales of black-market cigarettes as smokers find creative ways to avoid this grab at their wallets. But, far worse, the proposed $2.1 billion tax, which will hit a shrinking population of mostly working-class and middle-class Californians, is horribly backward. It punishes smokers, yet it uses...

Foxx calls for runoff in 5th District. Runoff election is August 17.

BANNER ELK, NC (Talon News) -- Last month, Talon News reported on the candidacy of Vernon Robinson, a conservative black Republican running for the 5th Congressional District seat in North Carolina in 2004. In continuing coverage, Talon News recently spoke with candidate Virginia Foxx in an exclusive interview. In a positive, calm manner, Foxx says she realizes criticisms levied against her from other candidates vying for the congressional seat are all a part of the "dirty process" of running for political office. "This is one of the most painful things about politics," Foxx told Talon News. "However, I believe that...

LANSING, Mich. (AP) — The state Senate approved a 75-cent-per-pack cigarette tax increase Tuesday, ending weeks of negotiations that focused on how to spend the new revenue. The Senate voted 20-15 to raise the tax on a pack of cigarettes from $1.25 to $2 beginning July 1. "It's a reasonable, fair compromise to help continue solving this short-term budget problem as we continue to do long-term economic investment," said Republican Senate Majority Leader Ken Sikkema of Wyoming. The measure now returns to the House, which will consider the changes made by the Senate. Sikkema had called for spending nearly 19...

Goal of bargaining for temporary smoking tax increase should be elimination of unwise Single Business Tax http://www.detnews.com/2004/editorial/0406/09/a12-177915.htm

http://www.freep.com/news/latestnews/pm20177_20040608.htm

<p>Gov. Ernie Fletcher must think bigger if he wants an increase in the cigarette tax to be as good for the state's health as he expects it could be for its budget, health advocates warned yesterday.</p> <p>While smoking opponents said any tax increase is good news, they also said it would take at least a 75-cents-a-pack jump in the price of cigarettes to persuade enough smokers to quit to make a big difference.</p>

<p>LANSING -- Gov. Jennifer Granholm will call for a 75-cent per pack increase in the state's cigarette tax in her budget plan Thursday to help avert a $1.3-billion deficit in the next fiscal year.</p> <p>Because they are taxed, it is illegal to buy cigarettes in other states and bring them back to Michigan, including those purchased on the Internet. Since 1998, Michigan has required a state stamp on all cigarette packs.</p>

<p>February 7, 2004 -- The ringleader of an illegal cigarette scam in Queens was smoked out yesterday after he tried to bribe an NYPD sergeant with up to $20,000 to keep patrol officers away from his bootleg butt business, police said. Robert Booker, 35, was arrested Thursday night for selling untaxed cigarettes near the Long Island Rail Road station in Jamaica.</p>

WASHINGTON (AP) - Four former surgeons general on Tuesday unveiled a plan to reduce smoking that included a $2-per-pack tax they predicted would prompt at least 5 million smokers to quit. They also called for a nationwide counseling and support line for smokers trying to quit, an idea that immediately was put into practice by Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson. Thompson said more than $25 million would be dedicated for the toll-free, national "quitline" that will be established by year's end. States also would receive additional funding to either supplement or create their own quitline services. "The benefit...

WASHINGTON - In the largest crackdown of its kind, federal officials said Wednesday they had broken up a cigarette-smuggling operation in five states. Officials with Immigration and Customs Enforcement said ten people have been arrested in Texas, New Mexico, New York, Florida and California. Portions of a 92-count indictment detailing the alleged scheme were unsealed in El Paso. Federal agents have spent more than three years investigating the smuggling operation, which they said sought to bring 5 million packs of bootleg cigarettes into the country. Authorities seized about 2.5 million packs, said to be worth about $20 million. The indictment...

Washington-AP -- The Feds are announcing a big cigarette bust. They say they've broken up a cigarette-smuggling operation covering a half-dozen states -- and it's the largest crackdown of its kind. Officials with Immigration and Customs Enforcement say arrests are being made in Texas, New Mexico, New York, New Jersey, Florida and California. A 92-count indictment naming 19 people has been unsealed in El Paso, Texas. Federal agents have spent more than three years investigating the smuggling ring, which they say sought to bring (m) millions of packs of bootleg cigarettes into the country. Authorities seized about two-and-a-half (m) million...

<p>New Yorkers can earn cash rewards for ratting out bodegas, groceries and individuals selling bootlegged cigarettes if a bill supported by Mayor Bloomberg wins approval.</p> <p>Under the bill, the city would give a "suitable" reward to anyone who provides information that leads to the detection of violations of the cigarette tax.</p>

Man Sentenced For Cigarette Smuggling Suspect Must Repay State More Than $2 Million POSTED: 10:57 PM EST January 8, 2004 UPDATED: 11:06 PM EST January 8, 2004 DETROIT -- A Dearborn man convicted of taking part in a multi-state cigarette-smuggling ring was sentenced Thursday to 70 months in prison without the possibility of parole, U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Collins said. Elias Mohamad Akhdar, 31, pleaded guilty in July to a charge of conspiring to violate the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. He could have received up to 78 months in prison for the crime under federal sentencing guidelines. Akhdar...

By rolling his own cigarettes, Charles Fox of Washingtonville pays 80 cents every time he smokes the equivalent of a pack. Fox has been rolling his own for about a year and a half, ever since the state nearly tripled to $1 its tax on packs of cigarettes. "It was the cost," Fox explained as he walked up Main Street in Bloomsburg puffing a hand-rolled smoke and carrying a 53/4-oz. can of tobacco. That tin of tobacco, which included 200 rolling papers inside, gives Fox the equivalent of a carton of cigarettes — 10 packs of 20 cigarettes — for...