May 11th, 2011
Times Leader
A state judge has issued a temporary order preventing New York from taxing reservation cigarette sales to non-Indian customers.
Lawyers for the Seneca Nation went to state Supreme Court on Tuesday seeking an injunction blocking the tax. The judge gave them until June 1 to make their case that the state adopted the regulations hastily and without required public comment.
The state Attorney General’s office opposed the request.
The order comes a day after a federal appeals court lifted orders that had been barring the collections on other grounds.
May 9th, 2011
The Crikey Health Blog
If you’re trying to gauge public opinion on matters of the day, then don’t put too much weight on the sort of commentary posted at the bottom of online news articles.
That is the implication of a new study (abstract only) analysing the content of online commentary on news stories about plain tobacco packaging, just published by Becky Freeman, Lecturer and PhD Candidate in the Sydney School of Public Health, University of Sydney.
***
Do public health advocates need to get more active in commenting online? **
Becky Freeman writes:
May 4th, 2011
CRE Note: Please note the following quotation in the article:
“However, Dr. Lawrence Deyton, director of the FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products (CTP), has been adamant that the recommendation “is simply that—a committee recommendation based on its review of current, prevailing science on the topic of menthol as an ingredient in cigarettes.”
“In an exclusive meeting with Convenience Store Decisions at CTP headquarters in Rockville, Md., Deyton stressed that no decision has been made on menthol cigarettes. He said the FDA wants “open and transparent communications with convenience store retailers to ensure they are selling tobacco responsibly to adult consumers. It is a legal product.”
