Companies such as RJR Tobacco oppose any mandatory conversion to so-called fire-safe cigarettes, calling them misleading, because they still burn and they can still cause fires. After a house fire killed six children and four adults in February, Kentucky recently passed a law allowing only the sale of cigarettes that extinguish themselves. North Carolina could soon join 20 other states considering legislation that would require the sale of so-called "fire-safe" cigarettes. Fire officials...

Mary's County restaurant the other day, an aging collection of folks whose families have been farming in Southern Maryland for generations, even centuries, worried about how many will be the last of the line. Estate taxes, low profits, labor and equipment costs, the decline of tobacco, the sheer drudgery of working the land and - most dangerous of all - the siren call of developers eager to pay handsomely to buy them out have drastically thinned the ranks of Maryland farmers and spell...

Letters Headlines Good arguments can be made for Perry tax increase Residential street continues to suffer because of Route 800 bridge project Yesterday's Headlines Henderson is fine educator Strickland shouldn't revert to shell game on school funding Letters guidelines. Letters Headlines Good arguments can be made for Perry tax increase Residential street continues to suffer because of Route 800 bridge project Yesterday's Headlines Henderson is fine educator Strickland shouldn't revert to...

This will be a tough change for underage smokers in Japan, who have been purchasing 300-yen cigarette packs on their way to school as readily as buying a can of soda. To buy cigarettes from vending machines in the future, smokers will have to flash a smart card against an electronic reader to prove they are above the legal age of 20. But the smart card devices, which are costing the tobacco companies and vending machine makers close to 90 billion yen ($763. The system will be phased in...

Jonathan Williams asks the right question: "So why promote poor tax policies that will drive the economy farther into the ground?" But he doesn't answer it. The state has increased the tax on tobacco, and wants to again. The economic prosperity that was predicted by Republicans never materialized, and Michigan citizens, families and businesses are suffering as a result. We need to end the rigging of politics in Michigan so that when voters make up their minds, we have the unity necessary...