A youth with a pistol grabbed a woman by the throat in a Coromandel shop before making off with packets of tobacco, police said today. The woman, who was behind the counter at the Boomerang Store in Te Puru, north of Thames on Saturday morning, was shaken by the incident, police said. The offender, described as a male caucasian teenager, entered the shop alone at 6.48am with a pistol-type firearm. Detective Constable Andre Kavanagh said the off ... Jump to full article >>

The Philadelphia City Council on Thursday stepped up efforts to curb under-age smoking by sharply increasing fines on retailers who sell cigarettes to children. Philadelphia has more smokers under 18 than any other large U.S. city, according to a recent study by the city’s Department of Public Health. The council voted unanimously for a bill hiking fines for selling tobacco to under-18s to a maximum of $2,000 per violation, from $300. R ... Jump to full article >>

The University of the Philippines College of Law is prodding the Aquino administration to adopt a uniform tax structure on tobacco products to jack up state revenues and make cigarettes less affordable to the youth. In a policy paper co-written by HealthJustice, the law school said the immediate step involves removing the price classification freeze and reducing the number of tiers from four to three. The second step further reduces the number o ... Jump to full article >>

A new bill passed last month by the Minnesota Senate and House updates the state’s tobacco laws. It takes effect Aug. 1, 2010. The Tobacco Modernization and Compliance Act of 2010, signed by Gov. Tim Pawlenty in May, makes sure tobacco cessation products won’t be taxed as tobacco products, among other changes. “This is an issue where legislators on both sides of the aisle agreed that more control is needed over these products,& ... Jump to full article >>