Tobacco Products

Once again, Lincoln County baseball player Brandon Weir could use your vote. Earlier this year, Weir was named Player of the Week for the Get Healthy Kentucky (GHK) "No Spit" All-Star Program, thanks to online voting. Now, Weir is on the ballot for the All-Star of the Year and, like before, the winner will be determined by online voting. Weir, a pitcher/infielder, hit .432 this past season at LCHS with two triples, four doubles, three home runs, 19 RBI's, and 10 stolen bases.

The Cabinet for Health and Family Services has released results from the 2006 Kentucky Youth Tobacco Survey that show a continued decline in youth smoking rates statewide and an encouraging change in young people's attitudes about smoking and the use of tobacco products. Efforts to promote healthy lifestyle choices, including avoiding the harmful effects of tobacco, are connecting with more Kentucky teenagers, according to the survey conducted by the Department for Public Health.

Smoke 'em if you got 'em. That was the catch phrase at the Boyle County Detention Center on Thursday, the last day that inmates and guards can use tobacco inside the facility. "You can feel it in the air, just that anticipation knowing it's going to happen. It's like they are waiting for the flood," Lt. Sue Denton, chief deputy jailer, said Thursday. "It's like serving a year and that 364th day rolls around and you can't hardly stand it. It's like waiting for the flood. " The jail is prohibiting tobacco products effective today to get ahead of pending legislation that will mandate all jails become smoke-free later this year if they expect to house state inmates, said Capt.

Danville City Commission isn't the only governing body in town in the midst of implementing a no-smoking policy. The Housing Authority of Danville is about to impose its own policy but on a much smaller scale. While most of the public attention has been aimed at the commission, the housing authority board quietly has drafted its own no-smoking policy for its residential buildings. It will take effect June 1, barring an unforeseen avalanche of opposition from tenants. The board wrote the policy in March and has given residents until the end of April to voice their opinions of it, said Executive Director Rachel White.

Hypocrisy, n., 1. False claim to virtue; insincerity, pretense, deceit, duplicity, playacting, phoniness. (The Oxford American Desk Dictionary and Thesaurus) The desire to have a statewide referendum on casino gambling should be viewed, essentially, as a tourism and economic-development issue that will give our economically-troubled commonwealth an important new source of jobs, taxes and revenue, in addition to giving a leg up to our signature industry, horse racing and breeding.

Dear Editor: Recently, Charles O. Kidd asserted in a letter on this page that the consumption of alcohol was more dangerous than smoking. He argued that laws banning smoking effectively denied his political rights, and suggested that there is no evidence that cigarettes are harmful. His letter even seemed to admonish those who seek to stop children and teens from smoking. Certainly, excessive drinking, especially before driving, is dangerous; that's why we have laws that address drunk driving.

Members of the Community Planning Initiative reconvened Thursday night to talk about what they have been doing for the past six months. Or, as facilitator Steve Rinehart put it, "This is a reporting session: What's been going on?" The answers to that question took various forms as leaders of groups grappling with seven different issues updated their fellow members on progress made since the initiative was launched in March by the Economic Development Partnership as a way to move the community forward.

Pam Hawkins calls herself a "reformed smoker. " And like many converts, she is strongly supportive of her new life and just as strongly repulsed by her old one. "Since I quit smoking, I have grown to hate cigarettes and cigarette smoke," said the Danville woman. "When I enter a room or a building where there's smoking, my head stops up and I start to feel awful. "I don't know why I ever smoked, but I do know I love my life as a non-smoker and wish smokers would join the cause," she said.

Proper nutrition of tobacco is a prerequisite for achieving high yields of cured leaf possessing desirable marketing characteristics. Together with the variety grown, soils, climate, and curing conditions, a desirable nutrient environment greatly influences yield, quality and usability of the leaf produced. Early fall is a good time to select and soil sample fields for future tobacco crops and to soil sample this year's tobacco fields which will be used for tobacco next year, then you can assess the fields needs for lime, phosphorus, and potassium.

Dear Editor, Over the past two weeks, my office has been inundated with phone calls regarding a substantial tax increase on all tobacco products. This tax, if passed, would put an unfair burden on farmers throughout Kentucky who depend on growing tobacco to make ends meet. I voted against this increase on Aug. 1. Since coming to Congress in 1995, I have opposed all tax increases on tobacco products. With tobacco contributing over $400 million to Kentucky's economy and thousands of families depending on the cash crop as their livelihoods, I feel a responsibility to help ensure that our farmers are able to continue operating and providing for their families.