The American Legacy Foundation's latest "Connect truth" TV spot recently took to the airwaves but will not be seen by viewers of Fox, CBS and ABC programming because those networks declined to accept the ad. Dr. Cheryl Healton, ALF president and CEO, said she may instruct the foundation's attorneys to seek the Federal Trade Commission's involvement in the matter. ...

The adolescent brain appears to be more responsive to nicotine’s rewarding effects than the adult brain, a UC Irvine Transdisciplinary Tobacco Use Research Center (TTURC) animal study has found. In addition, the researchers found that the first exposure to nicotine during adolescence changes subsequent behavioral responses to the drug. These findings may help explain why teen smokers are prone to continue the habit into adulthood. ...

Peter Rossi smoked for 40 years, sometimes as much as four packs a day. Even when he was near death, on morphine to ease the pain of cancer, Rossi pretended to drag on a cigarette. He was 55 when he died, leaving behind three daughters, an ex-wife and a second wife. His family, who lived for nearly 20 years in Westfield, wanted him to be more than a statistic, so they sued the tobacco companies. ...

Lawmakers voted Monday to raise cigarette taxes by 26 cents per pack to help balance the state operating budget for the year starting Oct. 1. Next year's operating budget would spend $1.42 billion from the General Fund, the largest of many pots of money for state agencies. That would be an increase of $196.2 million, or 16 percent, from this year, the biggest percentage jump since at least 1988. Tax and spending bills lawmakers passed Monday would: ...

The state House could vote this week to increase the state tax on cigarettes by 75 cents a pack. It's the second time Republican House Speaker Rick Johnson of LeRoy has hinted that the chamber could take up legislation imposing the $2-per-pack tax. He said he decided against holding a vote on the bill last week after support from Democrats appeared unclear. ...

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday spared cigarette makers from facing a lawsuit seeking recovery of smokers' Medicare costs. The court rejected an appeal on behalf of three smokers that invoked a federal law to sue for double damages that would be split with the federal government. Their lawyer, Robert J. Cynkar, said the suit sought to recover an estimated $100 billion in Medicare costs spent on smokers in the U.S. since 1992. ...

A Manhattan appeals court Tuesday reinstated a $1.3 billion fee award for attorneys who helped to settle tobacco litigation in California, saying the arbitrators who awarded the fee did not exceed their authority and should not have been second-guessed by a state judge. In October 2002, Manhattan Supreme Justice Nicholas Figueroa said the fee award was improperly based on work the attorneys had done in nationwide tobacco litigation, rather than just the litigation to settle claims on behalf of the state of California. ...

One year ago, a Florida appeals court tossed out a landmark $145 billion class-action judgment against the five largest U.S. cigarette makers, reversing the jury verdict that had produced the largest damage award in U.S. history. Florida jurors had found the companies liable for the illnesses of about 700,000 smokers. But the appellate judges said in May 2003 that the smokers and their issues with the cigarette companies were too diverse to be lumped into a single claim. With that, the tobacco industry's single most damaging case was behind it. The worst was over. Or so it seemed ...

Attorneys for Louisiana smokers want Big Tobacco to roll out $1 billion for a quit-smoking program - an expense that the industry says is unjustified and unneeded. A state district court jury will begin deliberating Wednesday the second phase of a long-running class-action suit. In July, the same jury found that cigarette makers had deceived the public with an addictive product and schemed to market cigarettes to children. ...

Sweet-flavored cigarettes -- one of the hottest new product categories in the tobacco industry -- are leaving a bitter taste in the mouths of Massachusetts's regulators. The first state or government agency to crack down on the products, Massachusetts is demanding that two major tobacco companies and a third smaller player pull cigarettes spiked with candy, fruit and other sweet flavors from store shelves. ...