Under the clarified rules, about 200 tobacco products that have been marketed in Montana as "little cigars" will be classified as cigarettes. A clarification in the way the state defines and taxes certain tobacco products will put smoking a little more out of reach for Montana children, state officials say. The increase made the state's cigarette tax the sixth-highest in the nation, but it has since dropped to 10th as other states have raised their rates. Tobacco companies spend $49...

Department of Agriculture said surveys since 1997 have shown annual decreases in the land used for farming in Horry and Brunswick counties. In recent years, and since a federally approved tobacco buyout in 2004, a number of area farmers have sold whole farms or portions for development, or diversified their crops to make continued farming profitable. Avery, which Shelley and his son, Cam, now use for small tasks, is a symbol of their family's roughly 60-year farming tradition. In its...

In addition, Tyler grows about seven acres of tobacco, while Reynolds got out of the tobacco business a few years ago. Without the income from tobacco, he said, it might not have been possible. Growing tobacco no longer appeals to Reynolds, but farm life still does. Reynolds says his family really shares the award with extension agents, agronomists, bankers, crop consultants, fertilizer people and more. The 72 acres of land was plenty to get the young farmers started. Married since 1986,...

Prosecutors pointed to robbery as the motive, saying Crews needed money because his tobacco crop was poor. With a 50-year sentence, he would be eligible for parole in a little more than 17 years because of credit for the time he has served in the Boyle County jail. The 34-year-old Maddox was shot in the back and beaten in the head. Jury convicts man in tobacco warehouse slaying. George said there was no gunshot residue on Crews and no blood on his hands, shoes or coveralls. Crews'...

June 15, 2007 IT IS the apparent insignificance of a discarded cigarette butt that makes it almost as insidious in the harm it does as the smoke that enters the smoker's lungs. Sustainability Victoria is starting a campaign against cigarette littering, which chief executive Geoff Mabbett says is a problem precisely because smokers "excuse their littering because butts are small" This poses an enduring environmental hazard, as the filter material takes up to 12 years to break down and...