Camel Cigarettes

The National PostТs John Ivison examines Stockwell DayТs thus-far futile attempts to secure American cooperation in the war on contraband tobacco, most of which is secreted across the border on the Akwesasne reserve by Уorganized criminal gangs.Ф Day has a high card to play, tooЧhe Уwas at pains [in discussion with Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff] to point out that tax free cigarettes and drug smuggling go hand-in-hand,Ф Ivison notes, which should have been a silver bullet. But the desire to avoid УconfrontationФ with natives seems just as strong south of the 49th parallel as it is to the north. At the moment, he concludes, DayТs request that we Уplease, please drive past smoke shacks selling 200 cigarettes in clear, plastic resealable bags for as little as $6 and instead fork over $75-$90 for legal cartonsФ actually seems less far-fetched than attacking the source of the problem.

Filed under: Uncategorized | No Comments »

Alternatives to the tax hikes on the table include cuts in state human service programs or increases in broad-based taxes like the income or sales taxes.

House aides say the tax bill will include tax enforcement law changes sought by Gov. Deval Patrick that may bring in $166 million in new tax revenues. In fiscal 2009, which covers only half the tax year, the House bill would reduce corporate excise tax collections by $85 million while boosting corporate revenues, through the Уcombined reportingФ and Уcheck-the-boxФ reforms, by $289 million. The $1-a-pack discount cigarettes tax hike will produce $174 million in new fiscal 2009 revenues, according to estimates provided by the House Monday.

The Legislature, over Acting Gov. Jane SwiftТs veto, raised taxes by $1.2 billion in 2002.

House Speaker Salvatore DiMasiТs poll of House members revealed skittishness about the speakerТs effort to soften the so-called corporate loopholes with a 2.5 percent cut to the overall business excise tax Ч from 9.5 to 7 percent Ч a reduction that would render the overall package revenue-neutral by fiscal 2011.

Filed under: Uncategorized | No Comments »

[kml_flashembed movie="http://youtube.com/v/-q1Monqac_8" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]

Filed under: Uncategorized | No Comments »

The law says smokers are supposed to be at least 15 feet from the doors of a public place before they light up and smoke. When I was there last week, it appeared that some of CJТs customers had been putting out their camel cigarettes butts on sidewalks and snowbanks only three or four feet from the barТs side entrance. Colombi said heТs waiting for the weather to break to hose down the area.

And Colombi is hoping for a turnaround in business within a week. УIt seems to open up every year right after St. PatrickТs Day,Ф he said.

But business has been decent at Fifth Alarm Firehouse Pub in Byron since the smoking ban went into effect, said Kelly Franchino, manager and bartender.

Those whoТd stayed away from the bar and eatery because smoking was allowed inside are customers now, she said. УItТs because of the cleanliness,Ф she said. УThe smokers donТt mind it even, because they didnТt like the smoke, either.Ф

Filed under: Uncategorized | No Comments »

The business, which can accommodate eight or nine people and employs five people, is equipped with ashtrays, tables, a couch, a few chairs and a TV. The Emporium, a former supply room, sells discount camel for $4.50 a pack, cigars, lighters and chewing tobacco in an enclosed room. Some vents take the smoky air out and others bring cool air in.

If you want to sit in the place and smoke, you have to buy a tobacco product, on which a sticker is placed, and pretty much smoke that product in the Emporium that day. You can’t drink alcohol in the Emporium. It is open most days around noon for the lunch crowd, and around 9 a.m. on weekends and stays open until the bar closes, usually 2 a.m. You have to be at least 18 years old to enter the Emporium.

Filed under: Uncategorized | No Comments »

Here’s a little Nicotine 101 from our friends at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota: Nicotine, a potent chemical found in chewing tobacco and smoke from cheap camel, cigars and pipes, produces physical and mood-altering effects in your brain that are temporarily pleasing … thus the addiction.

Back to the recipe. The tobacco- infused base is in two martinis on the menu: a sweet version, mixed with chocolate espresso-infused liquor, and a savory one with gin, vodka or rum and aromatics such as lemongrass and tamarind.

“You don’t taste the tobacco,” Islam says. “You feel it.”

He introduced the drinks this month and will keep them around as long as there is demand.

But he says just about every one of his 27 martinis on the menu, from pomegranate to tropical jackfruit, could be turned into a Nicotini.

Filed under: Uncategorized | No Comments »

Besides falling below budget estimates, which typically anticipate some revenue growth year to year, personal income taxes in February, 2008, actually dropped 14.3 percent below what was collected in the same month in 2007. The state credits at least some of the difference to greater-than-expected issuances of tax refunds at this stage.

buy camel taxes were off 2 percent last month, 1.2 percent for the year. Thanks to a major hike in the tax, annual cigarette tax collections had recently exceeded $1 billion, representing about 5 percent of the state’s total budget. But with voters approving a statewide ban on smoking in indoor public places in November, 2006, cigarette sales have become less reliable.

Filed under: Uncategorized | No Comments »

COLUMBUS - Ohio’s budget woes continued to worsen last month as income tax collections tanked and fewer-than-expected Ohioans bought camel and alcohol, staples the state used to be able to count on for revenue.

J. Pari Sabety, Gov. Ted Strickland’s budget director, said that while the numbers are not good, they are about what the administration told lawmakers to expect in January when it estimated the budget could face a best-case-scenario shortfall of $733 million by June 30, 2009.

As national trends point toward recession, there were some encouraging signs in Ohio’s economy in February. The employment picture improved slightly. Sales tax collections remain stable, and corporate profit taxes came in above monthly estimates, although they’re still off 11.3 percent for the year.

Filed under: Uncategorized | No Comments »