The Justice Department wants the largest cigarette manufacturers to admit that they lied to the public about the dangers of smoking, forcing the industry to set up and pay for an advertising campaign of self-criticism for past behavior.

As part of a 12-year-old lawsuit against the tobacco industry, the government on Wednesday released 14 “corrective statements” that it says the companies should be required to make.

One “corrective” statement says: “A federal court is requiring tobacco companies to tell the truth about cigarette smoking. Here’s the truth: … Smoking kills 1,200 Americans. Every day.”

Another of the government’s proposed statements begins: “We falsely marketed low tar and light cigarettes as less harmful than regular cigarettes to keep people smoking and sustain our profits.”

“For decades, we denied that we controlled the level of nicotine delivered in cigarettes,” a third statement says. “Here’s the truth. … We control nicotine delivery to create and sustain smokers’ addiction, because that’s how we keep customers coming back.”

Philip Morris USA, maker of Marlboro, the nation’s top-selling cigarette brand, and its parent company, Altria Group Inc., said Wednesday they were prepared to fight if the Justice Department won’t dial back its hard-hitting proposals.

Philip Morris said the Justice Department plan would compel an admission of wrongdoing under threat of contempt of court by a judge.

“Such a proposal is unprecedented in our legal system and would violate basic constitutional and statutory standards,” the company statement said. Read the rest of this entry »

Nearly half the country either believes President Obama’s health care law has been repealed or doesn’t know, a new survey shows. The law has not been repealed, though House Republicans have passed a repeal measure. The Senate would have to pass that measure and then Mr. Obama would need to sign it for repeal to go into effect.

Twenty-two percent of Americans said the reform package has been repealed, the new Kaiser Family Foundation poll shows. Another 26 percent say they don’t know enough to say whether it’s still law. Roughly half of Americans, 52 percent, correctly responded that the reforms are still in place.

After campaigning in the 2010 midterm elections on the promise to repeal the president’s sweeping reforms, the new Republican majority in the House of Representatives made repeal its top priority. The GOP-led House passed a repeal bill in January. Democrats still control the Senate, however, and they voted down the repeal measure earlier this month. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell has vowed to continue fighting the reforms. Read the rest of this entry »

Colorado law enforcement would have to alert prosecutors if they suspect a person in their custody is an illegal immigrant under a bill tentatively approved Thursday by House lawmakers.

The bill would also force bail bond agents to forfeit a bond if a client is deported, a move meant to make the businesses more diligent about their transactions.

Legislators approved House Bill 1088 on a voice vote without any lawmakers speaking against it, but several yelled “No!” during the vote call. The proposal still faces another vote before it heads to the Senate.

Immigrant advocates say they’re worried the bill will lead to discrimination but supporters argue the proposal is needed to make prosecutors aware of a suspect’s immigration status and whether he or she is a flight risk.

“This bill is about ensuring that the parties who are charged with crimes appear in Colorado court to face justice,” said Republican Rep. Mark Barker, the bill’s prime sponsor. “That’s all it does.”

Barker made substantial changes to his bill to appease concerns from opponents before his colleagues voted on the House floor. When Barker first introduced it, his bill sought to lower the legal standard of “probable cause” to “reasonable grounds” for believing someone was in the country illegally when determining bail. His bill also would have required judge’s to consider a person’s immigration status when setting bail. Read the rest of this entry »

An Arizona Senate bill designed to protect stranded motorists and roadside assistance workers has moved to two committees in the Arizona House of Representatives.

Senate Bill 1133 would require motorists to make a lane change or slow down, if safely possible, when approaching any stationary vehicle, such as a tow truck or car, displaying flashing lights or warning lights. The current law requires motorists to slow down or move into another lane only for emergency or law enforcement vehicles.

The House Transportation and Rules committees are currently discussing the bill. The bill passed out of the Senate by a 28 to 1 vote on Feb. 8. Sen. Andy Biggs, R-Gilbert, voted against the bill.

According to AAA Arizona, 49 other states have laws that require motorists to move over for emergency vehicles and 39 have “move over” laws that include tow truck drivers and other roadside service vehicles.

According to AAA Arizona, a tow truck driver and motorist were killed in August 2008 on Route 202 near Phoenix when a heavy-equipment truck drove into them.

Two other tow truck drivers lost their lives in similar accidents in 2006.

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The House Monday gave final approval to the repeal of Montana’s medical marijuana law and sent it to the Senate.

On a final House vote, House Bill 161, by Speaker Mike Milburn, R-Cascade passed 62-37.

It now moves to the Senate where prospects for repeal may be less certain.

The Senate Judiciary Committee is planning to work on a committee bill aimed at putting into place a licensing and regulatory system for the medical marijuana industry, paid for by new licensing fees.

Montana voters, by 62 percent to 28 percent, passed an initiative in 2004 to legalize medical marijuana.

However, Milburn and other critics have said the industry has grown out of control over the past year, with 28,300 people here now holding green cards allowing them to obtain medical pot.

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Hondurans who light up a smoke at home have something to be concerned about: The police may come get them.

A new law in Honduras that went into effect Monday says family members can call police to snitch on anyone smoking at home. The law doesn’t ban lighting up at home, but it allows relatives to summon police to deal with the smoker.

The law bans smoking in most closed public and private establishments and requires smokers to stand at least six feet from non-smokers in open spaces. Those who break the law are subject to fines.

The smoking at home law is murkier. What police can do once they show up at the smoker’s house is unclear.

Some analysts say the law will be almost impossible to enforce in the Central American nation, which is also a significant producer of cigars.

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Web-based e-mail, social-networking and peer-to-peer services are frustrating law enforcement wiretapping efforts, a lawyer for the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation told lawmakers Thursday, but she did not offer concrete ideas on how to fix the problem.

President Barack Obama’s administration is debating ways to deal with Web-based services not covered by traditional wiretap laws, including incentives for companies to build in surveillance capabilities, said Valerie Caproni, general counsel at the FBI.

Many Internet services are not covered by the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA), which requires traditional telecom carriers to allow law enforcement agencies real-time access to communications after a court has issued a wiretap order, she told members of a subcommittee of the U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee

But Caproni told lawmakers she was not asking for expanded CALEA powers. And she stopped short of calling for rules requiring Web-based communication providers to build in so-called back doors allowing law enforcement access to their software, although she said she’s optimistic the U.S. government can find incentives for companies to “have intercept solutions engineered into their systems.”

The FBI is concerned that law enforcement investigations are being compromised by the lack of wiretap capability on some Web-based services and encrypted mobile telephone traffic, Caproni said.

“We are not looking for any new authority,” she added. “We are concerned we are losing ground in actually being able to gather the information we are authorized to have.” Read the rest of this entry »

Alaska Gov. Sean Parnell took an unusually defiant stand against the federal health care overhaul passed by Congress last year, declaring Thursday that he will refuse to implement a law he views as blatantly unconstitutional.

Parnell is the latest Republican governor to lash out against the law as the courts weigh the constitutionality of the overhaul. At least half of all states, including Alaska, have sued the government over the health care plan pushed by President Barack Obama.

Several experts believe Parnell is on shaky legal ground and that his comments are little more than symbolic. The law won’t fully take effect until 2015 — just after his first term will have ended — and the constitutionality question will not get settled until the U.S. Supreme Court decides it.

Until then, in Parnell’s view the decision by a federal judge in Florida, striking down the law as unconstitutional, “is the law of the land, as it pertains to Alaska.”

Alaska was one of 26 states party to that case. In other cases, two federal judges have upheld the law and another judge ruled a provision requiring citizens to buy health insurance or face penalties — a major point of contention in the Florida case — is unconstitutional but did not strike down the rest of the law.

“This is one renegade judge that has reached this decision,” said Timothy S. Jost, a professor at the Washington and Lee University School of Law. He called the opinion “extremist” and likely to be reversed on appeal. In refusing to participate in the law, he said, Alaska “is really the outlier” among states. Read the rest of this entry »

Lawmakers must approve a change in state law in order to prevent more than 7,000 jobless Mainers from losing unemployment benefits next month.

More than 7,000 Mainers will loose their unemployment benefits next month if lawmakers don’t approve a change in state law to comply with federal changes in the unemployment insurance law passed in December.

“The U.S. Department of Labor releases their trigger numbers, threshold numbers, on the 11th of the month, so March 11th, they’ll release ours,” Laura Boyette, director of the Maine Unemployment program told Capitol News Service. “If this is not enacted prior to that date, we will trigger off and about 7,100 folks will lose their benefits.”

Boyette says the federal government pays for all but the benefits for workers laid off by state or local governments That means the program will cost about 250 government agencies as much as $400,000 for the rest of the year. But the overall program will bring in as much as $20 million to the state for more than 7,000 workers.

The co-chair of the state’s Labor, Commerce, Research and Economic Development Committee says he expects the Legislature to make the change because there are still Maine workers who need to be protected.

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A new federal law requiring employers to make accommodations for breast-feeding mothers will represent a big shift for some Central Kentucky companies because few have comprehensive plans.

Before the law, some breast-feeding women found themselves with no alternative at work but to pump their milk in bathroom stalls.

Support from an employer can make a difference in the life of a new mom. Lauren Goodpaster pumped milk for her son, Sam, now 2, while working at the University of Kentucky, which last year introduced a comprehensive breast-feeding program.

“It’s not easy being a working mom when you are trying to breast-feed,” said Goodpaster, who is pumping now for her 8-month-old, Max. “Just having the support, having people say that’s a great thing you are doing, that was kind of a boost to keep me going on days when it is such a pain.”

The U.S. Department of Labor is still finalizing specific accommodation requirements and penalties for those who don’t adhere to the new regulations, which are part of the health care reform bill, said Doraine Bailey, a breast-feeding support services coordinator at the Lexington-Fayette County Health Department.

Accommodations could range from providing a clean room with a locked door for an office worker to allowing an hourly worker at a fast-food restaurant — where space might be scarce — time to use a breast pump in her car.

The federal law and a recently announced pro-breast-feeding campaign by the U.S. surgeon general reinforce the health benefits of breast milk for infants. Children who are breast-fed are sick less often, which means new mothers lose fewer days at work, Bailey said. According to the National Center for Women’s Health, nursing mothers are half as likely to miss work with a sick child compared to women feeding their babies formula.

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