The U.S. Justice Department began its $280 billion civil racketeering suit against cigarette makers Tuesday by alleging "flat-out lies" over decades that "victimized the youth of America."Tobacco lawyers, in a preview of their opening statements Wednesday, said the government's case was simply a rehash of decades-old evidence that doesn't take into account changes the industry has made in the past five years, changes the Justice Department countered are "too little, too late." ...

The tobacco industry never purposely lied to the American public about the dangers of smoking, though individual tobacco company officials made mistakes and showed poor judgment in dismissing evidence of health risks, industry attorneys said yesterday. In their opening statements for the largest civil racketeering trial in U.S. history, tobacco industry lawyers contended that government claims of a massive, industry-devised fraud rely almost entirely on events of the distant past. ...

District Court Judge Gladys Kessler sharply criticized tobacco lawyers Wednesday for offering more than 300 objections to the opening witness's direct testimony. The government's first witness in its $280 billion racketeering suit against cigarette makers is former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner David Kessler. Kessler, who is unrelated to the judge, was FDA chief from 1990 to 1997. ...

Robert Zangrando maintained a log, dutifully noting on his typewriter his neighbor's smoking propensity and her refusals to stop. Over several months, the journal, in which Zangrando refers to himself in the third person, grew to 24 pages, containing several dozen entries. He's now using the log as evidence in his civil lawsuit against his neighbor, alleging her habit is a nuisance and a health hazard. ...

Cigarette makers on Thursday tried to portray former Food and Drug Administration chief David Kessler as a publicity-seeker out to get the industry as he took the stand as the first witness in the government's $280 billion racketeering suit. Kessler, FDA commissioner from 1990 to 1997, called in 1994 for possible regulation of nicotine as a drug and helped shape the Clinton administration's tough line with the industry, including the current suit. ...

The state is taking legal action against more than a dozen small cigarette manufacturers who are not making payments required under a 1998 settlement with tobacco companies. In some cases, the state will not see much money from the lawsuits, but is obligated to pursue the small companies or face being sued by the nation's most powerful tobacco companies, who reached the settlement with Iowa and 45 other states. They could sue states that fail to go after small non-participating companies that aren't part of the settlement, said Donn Stanley, the assistant attorney general heading Iowa's legal effort against the small manufacturers. ...

After the smoke cleared and the ashes settled, a jury spoke through its verdict Monday: One neighbor's cigarette pleasure outweighs another's cough. In what is being described as the first such lawsuit of its kind in the country, a Summit County jury took about an hour to side with a smoker who was sued by her former Stow neighbor over secondhand fumes. ...

A lawyer for cigarette makers fighting the U.S. government's $280 billion racketeering suit sparred with a medical expert on Wednesday over whether the public was misled on the dangers of secondhand smoke. Pulmonary specialist Jonathan Samet told U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler researchers concluded beginning in the 1980s that exposure to secondhand smoke increased the risk of lung cancer. ...

California doesn't violate tobacco companies' free-speech rights by using cigarette tax money to produce anti-smoking ads that portray tobacco executives as callous and amoral, a divided federal appeals court ruled Tuesday. ...

L O S A N G E L E S, — A California jury ruled against Philip Morris Inc. on Thursday and ordered the cigarette maker to pay a former smoker $850,000 in damages after finding the company responsible in a fraud, negligence and product liability lawsuit. Jurors awarded Betty Bullock, 64, of Newport Beach, $750,000 in economic damages and $100,000 for pain and suffering. Bullock started smoking when she was 17 and was diagnosed with lung cancer last year. It has since spread to her liver. ...