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Soon Logan County will be pulsing with activity as it gets set to kick off its Tobacco & Heritage Festival - a staple for the county for the past 52 years.
A slew of activities are in place to make the week-long festival its best. Starting today with Family Health Fest at Logan Memorial Hospital, the festival will feature food, crafts, tours of historic Russellville and entertainment throughout the week - culminating Oct. 11 with a parade and more activities.
"It's just a great community event, great time for the community to get together," said Holli Brown, festival chairwoman. . . .
A kiddie parade will begin at 11 a.m.
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ulture that once dominated the state.
Cities across Kentucky - still one of the country's leading tobacco-producing states - are restricting when and where smokers can light up. The restrictions range from strict local bans that forbid all indoor smoking in public buildings or work places to less-stringent limits that make allowances for bars and bingo halls. Some permit smoking in separate rooms with ventilation systems.
It's a stark difference from the days when people could light up cigarettes just about everywhere.
"The heritage is something of the past," said Rod Kuegel, who grows burley tobacco in Daviess County in western Kentucky. "As you take away the tobacco culture, you take away that defensive mode."
At last count, 13 cities and seven counties in Kentucky had passed forms of smok ing bans broader than just municipal buildings, according to the Kentucky League of Cities.
Those ordinances cover nearly one-third of Kentucky's population, according to Irene Centers, director of the state's Tobacco Cessation program in the Department for Public Health. . . .
Just across the Ohio River from Cincinnati, officials in three northern Kentucky counties - Boone, Kenton and Campbell - are considering whether to join together in passing a smoke-free ordinance. The proposal remains on the drawing board, but a public health advocate is urging a sweeping ban applying to all public indoor workplaces, including restaurants and bars.
A Chicago man who admitted to buying 455,000 packs of cigarettes in Kentucky and illegally reselling them in Chicago and New York, which have higher tobacco taxes, was sentenced to 30 months in prison Monday.
Howard J. Mui, 42, bought 9 million cigarettes in Madison and Fayette counties from December 2005 to January 2008. He bought them in Kentucky because it has one of the lowest cigarette taxes in the nation, 30 cents a pack.
Mui then resold the cigarettes in Chicago's "Chinatown," which has a $3.66 a pack tax, and in New York, where the tax is $4.25. The illegal business netted Mui $1.27 million, according to court records.
If you want to light up at a Sheldon Clark Cardinals game or on Martin County school property the schools superintendent says there are other places to go. The ordinance is not county-wide.
"We are by no means anti-tobacco in the county, that is not our intentions at all. We simply want our sites to be as clean and outstanding as possible," Martin County Schools Superintendent Mark Blackburn said. . . .
We talked to some Sheldon Clark tailgaters and they are not fans of the ban.
"They have took my rights and twisted them to a point where I can not smoke anywhere on the premises," Mable Sites said.
"I disagree. I think they should have a smoking area the parents. They come out and support the kids so they should have a place to smoke," Sheldon Clark Senior Martika McCoy said.
Asked whether or not a designated area for smokers would happen, Blackburn said it was possible but for now the policy stays as is.
Who's smoking and who's paying when it comes to smoking ban fines? WAVE 3 News took a look at recent citations being handed out. Metro health Department officials tell us, the results are surprising - especially when you look at who is complying with the law.
Sandy Burton, the manager of the Pour Haus Bar in Germantown calls the smoking ban citations she's gotten ironic, because she says they are putting her in the poor house.
"Once they give one fine, I think they just keep going back to the same ones," said Burton.
The bar is one of several Louisville businesses at the top of the citation list.
Twenty years ago, Howard Mui emigrated from China to Chicago, where he opened a small store in the Chinatown neighborhood selling telephone cards, trinkets, Rubik's Cubes, kites and other items.
Then Mui got greedy, selling more than $1.2 million in cigarettes in recent years by buying them in low-tax Kentucky and illegally selling them mostly in Cook County, authorities say.
On Monday, Mui, 42, was sentenced in federal court in Lexington, Ky., to 2½ years in prison and ordered to pay more than $1.6 million to the State of Illinois, Cook County and the City of Chicago in lost cigarette taxes, court records show. Mui, who had earlier pleaded guilty to cigarette trafficking charges, resold more than 9 million cigarettes in the scheme, realizing profits of almost $290,000 in little more than two years, authorities said.
"This is one of the biggest cases of cigarette smuggling that we've had," said Kyle Edelen, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office in Lexington.
First, the exemption for outdoor bars and restaurant areas is a concern. To me this seems a bit of unusual. Why is it okay for me to eat or have a drink indoors and not be bothered by smoke, but outdoors I do not have the same protection?
Anyone who has sat downwind from a smoker knows that being outdoors does not eliminate the problem of secondhand smoke. . . .
My other concern is the exemption for cigar bars. I say let them have their cigars but not cigarettes. If this is not to be changed there needs to be a very strict definition of what a "cigar bar" is. They should be separately licensed and regulated to assure that this does not become a loophole in the law. I very much fear that if this is not done many establishments will declare themselves cigar bars just to be able to allow smoking. There needs to be strong regulations in this regard or I feel certain it will get out of hand.
Agriculture officials say this year's burley tobacco crop will be a good one.
The weather plays a huge role in crop production, said Gary Tilghman, a University of Kentucky Extension Agent for Barren County.
"Early rains have really made it grow," he said. "It's been a good crop year to this point."
A Chicago man was sentenced to 30 months in prison Monday for purchasing large quantities of cigarettes in where he generated approximately $1,274,000 in proceeds.
Police say that from December 2005 until last January Howard J. Mui, 42, of Chicago and others bought more than 455,000 packs of cigarettes in Kentucky and transported them to New York and Chicago to sell them for profit.
Big, green grasshoppers and small, black crickets hop from leaf to leaf trying to find cover as the slow-moving tractors made their way down the long rows of tobacco. Two crews of eight migrant workers hurry alongside the tobacco wagons the tractors pulled in hopes of getting the last of the burley off the ground and hung to cure in a nearby Stanley, Ky., barn. . . .
Long gone are the many tobacco warehouses in Owensboro and Henderson, Ky. And instead of five-acre operations, many tobacco farmers are planting plots of 20 to 50 acres.
With two rows of tobacco loaded onto the trailer, a worker harpoons the ends of each row with a stake to anchor the tobacco in place for the trip to the barn.
"Agua," tractor driver Denny Grant shouts, signaling break time.
"Agua," members of the crew respond before gathering around the orange cooler, filling up 20-ounce cups, drinking their fill, relaxing a bit and then getting back to the last half-acre of the six-acre plot. So far, they were winning their race with the impending rain.
Kentucky leads the nation in tobacco production and use. So it's not a surprise to Kristy Bolen of the Ashland-Boyd Health Department that Kentucky also leads the country in lung cancer rates in both men and women.
"(We call those stats) the 'Kentucky Uglies'," Bolen said. "we've seen a decline in youth smoking, which is a really good indicator, because, eventually, the youth will grow up."
Kentucky is fourth in the country in all cancer cases.
Kentucky's love affair with cigarettes has some unwanted progeny: high rates of cancers that are caused by tobacco.
A new report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention examines the relationship between smoking and tobacco-related cancers. Kentucky ranks high on both lists.
The state has the highest rate of smoking in the nation and the highest rate of lung cancer, for both men and women, the highest rate of cancer of the larynx or vocal cords for women and the third highest rate of cancer of the larynx for men.
The report found that states with high rates of smoking also have high rates of tobacco-related cancers.
National Tobacco Company, LP ['NTC'], a subsidiary of North Atlantic Trading Company Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of North Atlantic Holding Company Inc., announced today that all tobacco product manufacturing and distribution at its Louisville facility will cease by year-end 2009.
Production of all NTC loose leaf tobacco brands, which is the primary function of the Louisville facility, will be transitioned to Owensboro, Kentucky under a long-term agreement with Swedish Match North America Inc. NTC will retain all marketing, distribution and trademark rights over its brands. Specific plans for NTC Roll-Your-Own tobacco manufacturing and Louisville product distribution will be announced in the future.
National Tobacco Co. will stop manufacturing tobacco products at its Louisville, Kentucky, USA, facility by year-end 2009. The company will maintain its administrative headquarters in Louisville.
The production of Loose leaf tobacco brands will be moved to Owensboro, Kentucky, under a long-term agreement with Swedish Match North America. NTC will retain all marketing, distribution and trademark rights over its brands.