December 16, 2009

Putnam introduces bill to promote healthier foods in schools

November 11, 2009

Serve only healthy drinks in school, state education official says

State Board of Education member John Padget (the same person who wants to revamp school grades) said this afternoon that he thinks the state should look at removing all but “healthy” drinks from its public schools. more.

October 6, 2009

Hershey Joins Nationwide Industry Campaign to Help Reduce Obesity


Healthy Weight Commitment Foundation Seeks to Encourage Behavior Change

and Provide Tools to Help Consumers Achieve Energy Balance

in the Marketplace, in the Workplace and in Schools

 

The Hershey Company today announced that it has joined 40 food and beverage manufacturers and retailers and non-governmental organizations in a national, multi-year effort to help reduce obesity – especially childhood obesity – by 2015. The Healthy Weight Commitment  Foundation (HWCF) will promote ways to help people achieve a healthy weight through energy balance. It focuses on three critical areas – the marketplace, the workplace and schools.

 

“Changing public health requires innovative thinking, a commitment to partnership and responsible action, and we are proud to be a founding member of the Healthy Weight Commitment,” said Dave West, President and Chief Executive Officer. “The campaign’s message – ‘Eat Well. Play Hard. Burn Energy.’ – will connect with consumers and their families, making informed nutritional choices easier than ever. We strongly endorse the campaign’s focus in three critical areas – the marketplace, the workplace and schools.” 

 

The Healthy Weight Commitment Foundation will promote the concept of energy balance – balancing calories consumed as part of a healthy diet with calories expended by physical activity – to people in the places where they spend much of their time: to consumers in the marketplace, to employees through workplace programs and to children in schools.

 

Members of the HWCF have already committed $20 million to this joint initiative to raise awareness about the importance of balancing a healthy diet with physical activity, particularly among children ages six to 11 years old and their parents and caregivers. This effort will include a soon-to-be announced national public education campaign on energy balance.

 

In support of the HWCF, Hershey will continue to improve the health of its employees and their families through extensive workplace and community wellness programs. The HWCF provides the opportunity to share the insights gained into youth fitness through the company’s 32-year sponsorship of the Hershey’s Track & Field Games, which has allowed more than 10 million children in thousands of communities across North America to run, jump and throw in a fun and friendly competition.

 

The Three Pillars of Hershey’s Healthy Weight Commitment

Marketplace

As a leading manufacturer of quality chocolate and confectionery products, The Hershey Company is committed to innovation, taking a leadership role in providing consumers with choices within our sector that meet every lifestyle. Over the years, Hershey has provided its consumers with a variety of sugar-free and low-fat chocolate and confectionery products as well as low-calorie refreshments, such as gums and mints. Hershey is in the forefront of research, investigating and raising awareness of the health benefits and healthful compounds, such as antioxidants found in cocoa, as well as the benefits associated with nuts and their consumption.

 

Workplace

For more than 15 years, Hershey has offered a wide variety of programs to help employees develop and maintain healthy lifestyles. The Hershey Company is particularly proud of our efforts at the local, state and national level to sponsor events that promote physical activity, including Hershey’s Track & Field Games, the Chocolatetown Challenge and Hershey’s Tour de Pink.

 

 

Schools  – Healthy School Partnership

Hershey is a founding member of the American Council for Fitness and Nutrition (ACFN), which works toward viable long-term solutions to the nation’s obesity epidemic, and was instrumental in developing the Healthy Schools Partnership. In addition to the schools and communities that will receive support through the HWCF, Hershey and our ACFN partners are entering the third year of financial support for six schools in Kansas City that have already been participating in the Healthy Schools Partnership.

 

The soda-tax solution

The United States needs a healthcare sweet spot — a way to raise revenue for needed programs now and a way to lower healthcare costs in the future. Taxes on sugar-sweetened beverages — those with added sugar, high-fructose corn syrup or so-called fruit juice concentrates — would answer that need, and California could be the test case that proves it once and for all. more.

August 31, 2009

Major Cigarette Makers Sue Over New Tobacco Law

Two of the three largest U.S. tobacco companies filed suit Monday to block marketing restrictions in a law that gives the U.S. Food and Drug Administration authority over tobacco, claiming the provisions violate their right to free speech. more.

August 23, 2009

Calls to tax junk food gain ground

“Sin taxes” on cigarettes have turned out to be the most effective weapon in the campaign to reduce smoking.  Why not try it on Flamin’ Hot Cheetos, vanilla Coke and Twinkies? more.

August 10, 2009

States Go To War On Cigarette Smuggling

WASHINGTON — States across the U.S. have been taking a harder line against an old problem — cigarette smuggling — as part of the widening search for solutions to their budget problems.  States including Florida, Maryland, Michigan, New York, Rhode Island and Virginia this year have stepped up lawenforcement efforts with the aim of recouping taxes lost to bootleg cigarette sales. more.

July 27, 2009

Tough love for fat people: Tax their food to pay for healthcare

When historians look back to identify the pivotal moments in the nation’s struggle against obesity, they might point to the current period as the moment when those who influenced opinion and made public policy decided it was time to take the gloves off. more.

July 26, 2009

Florida’s Tobacco tax: Be very careful what you wish for

Whenever you hear politicians touting the wisdom of their pet ideas, remind them of the Law of Unintended Consequences. The positives they ascribe to certain courses of action could be accompanied by negatives that offset the benefits. more.

July 23,2009

Hot dogs should carry a warning label, lawsuit says

“Warning: Consuming hot dogs and other processed meats increases the risk of cancer.”  That’s the label that a vegan advocacy group wants a New Jersey court to order Oscar Mayer, Hebrew National and other food companies to slap on hot dog packages. more.

FDA considers ways to short-circuit electronic cigarettes

The Food and Drug Administration, recently granted the authority to regulate tobacco as a drug, is taking aim at electronic cigarettes — battery-powered cigarette look-alikes that deliver nicotine and produce a puff of odorless vapor. more.

July 16, 2009

Officials Say Pot Tax Would Bring in $1.4 Billion

SAN FRANCISCO | A bill to tax and regulate marijuana in California like alcohol would generate nearly $1.4 billion in revenue for the cash-strapped state, according to an official analysis released Wednesday by tax officials. more.

July 1, 2009

Cigarette tax forces special agents to conduct audits

Tobacco retailers across the Sunshine State should expect a surprise visit from agents with the Florida Division of Alcohol, Beverages & Tobacco.  All week, agents have hit restaurants convenience stores, even American Legion buldings.more.

June 30, 2009

Tobacco tax worries retailers

Florida’s 2.6 million smokers wake up to a new reality on Wednesday when the cost of a pack of cigarettes zooms another dollar. more.
   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

June 8, 2009

Senate vote a sea change for tobacco

A landmark tobacco regulation bill advanced in the Senate on Monday amid growing pressure for the House to quickly accept the final product and lock up a long-sought victory for anti-smoking forces — and for President Barack Obama. more.

June 3, 2009

FDA close to gaining oversight of tobacco

In a historic shift in public-health policy, Congress is poised to give the federal government sweeping new authority to regulate the manufacture of cigarettes and other tobacco products.  The legislation, long resisted by the tobacco industry, could allow consumers to see what chemicals and other additives tobacco companies put in their products. It would empower the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to put new limits on harmful ingredients and prohibit tobacco companies from marketing “light” cigarettes. more.

June 2, 2009

‘Soda is the next tobacco,’ obesity center official says

Move over, cigarettes. Trans fats, please make room. The battle to improve Americans’ health is zeroing in on a new target: Pop.  “I believe soda is the next tobacco,” said Barry Popkin, director of the University of North Carolina’s Interdisciplinary Obesity Center and author of The World is Fat, published this year. Soda drinkers haven’t achieved pariah status like smokers before them, but proposed sugar taxes and social pressure to be healthy can put a damper on doing the Dew — and even some in the growing ranks of diet pop drinkers are feeling soda shame. more.


May 29, 2009

‘No tax increase’ promise comes back to haunt Crist

Spinning around the news dial … click.  A politician, who shall remain nameless, told me the other day that it would be crazy for a politician to promise to never, ever support a tax increase. more.

Florida Gov. Charlie Crist signs $1-per-pack cigarette tax hike into law

 Gov. Charlie Crist signed into law a $1-per-pack cigarette tax hike Wednesday – the biggest of its kind in Florida history — saying he hopes to kill the habit that results in thousands of deaths every year. more.

May 28, 2009

Tobacco regulations: FDA poised to take on historic new role in regulating industry

In a historic shift in public-health policy half a century after the U.S. surgeon general first warned of the lethal dangers of smoking, Congress is poised to give the federal government sweeping new authority to regulate the manufacturing of cigarettes and other tobacco products. more.

May 15, 2009

Gov. Charlie Crist’s pledge might lead him to veto Florida budget

Gov. Charlie Crist signed a no-new-taxes pledge Thursday, indicating that while he’s running for the U.S. Senate he might veto some of the fees and taxes legislators raised to balance Florida’s budget.  In the Americans for Tax Reform pledge for federal candidates, Crist promises to oppose income-tax increases. Crist’s Republican rival for the Senate seat, Marco Rubio, also signed the pledge on Thursday. Crist and Rubio had signed a similar pledge for state officeholders. more.

May 13, 2009

Smokers, drinkers to carry tax burden?

If you make big bucks — or enjoy alcohol, cigarettes and Coke — the government might hit you up to pay for fixing the nation’s health care system.  On Tuesday, the Senate Finance Committee peeked into vending machines and liquor stores, company payrolls and health savings accounts, looking for a mix of tax increases and spending cuts as a way to pay for a health overhaul — which could cost more than $1.5 trillion over 10 years. more.

May 12, 2009

Soda Tax Weighed to Pay for Health Care

Senate leaders are considering new federal taxes on soda and other sugary drinks to help pay for an overhaul of the nation’s health-care system.  The taxes would pay for only a fraction of the cost to expand health-insurance coverage to all Americans and would face strong opposition from the beverage industry. They also could spark a backlash from consumers who would have to pay several cents more for a soft drink.  more.

April 1, 2009

Biggest U.S. tax hike on tobacco takes effect

Smokers are gasping at higher cigarette and cigar prices as the largest federal tobacco tax increase in history takes effect. “Oh my gosh,” Bernardo Torres said Tuesday when a clerk at a CVS Pharmacy in Falls Church, Va., told him the new price, which went up in anticipation of the tax increase. more.

Florida Senate panel embraces tax hike on tobacco products

TALLAHASSEE — A Senate committee ended a nearly 15-year freeze on tax hike proposals in Florida Tuesday, unanimously voting to raise the cigarette tax $1 per pack and increase the tax on cigars and smokeless tobacco $1 per ounce. more.

March 6, 2009

Cigarette Tax Opponents Say Hike Enable Bootleggers

Convenience store operators and wholesale distributors said Friday that arguments that a cigarette tax increase would reduce smoking were full of hot air, claiming instead that the proposed $1 extra levy on smokes would drive price-conscience consumers to buy from bootleggers.  To make their point, the Florida Petroleum Marketers and Convenience Store Association and the Florida Wholesale Distributors Association drove three heavy duty vehicles - a 18 wheeler, a mover’s truck and a cargo van – to the Capitol courtyard. They said the three trucks could easily be stuffed with contraband cigarettes if lawmakers proceed with the push to increase the tax this year. more.

February 26, 2009

Cigarette Distributers Oppose Tax Hike

A Florida wholesaler’s organization is opposing a possible hike in the cigarette tax.  A Miami legislature proposed a bill that would raise the tax to a dollar, from about 33 cents, claiming it would bring in a half a billion dollars a year. more.

February 8, 2009

Boston Bans Cigarette Sales In Drug Stores

(CBS) Boston will become the nation’s second city to ban the sale of cigarettes by pharmacies on Monday, as new rules approved by the city’s public health commission take effect. The regulations passed by the commission two months ago also ban colleges from selling tobacco products on campus and will force smoking bars to shut their doors within a decade, reports CBS News correspondent Randall Pinkston.more.

February 3, 2009

Cigarette Tax, Then What?

I’ve been reading and hearing a lot of opinions about the extra dollar per pack tax on cigarettes and it reminds me of what we were taught in school about how America first became a country of its own. The English were charging too much tax on tea and there was a term called taxation without representation. more.

January 27, 2009

States look to close small-cigars loophole

The surging popularity of small cigars, available in fruit and candy flavors, is prompting state and local governments to try to regulate and tax them like cigarettes.  Baltimore announced this month that, beginning in October, it will require single cigars retailing for less than $2.50 each to be sold in packs of five. more.


January 15, 2009

Republicans upset over children’s health bill

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A push by congressional Democrats to make good on Barack Obama’s pledge to provide millions more American children with health care coverage has Republicans accusing them of breaking the president-elect’s promise of bipartisanship. more.

House Votes to Expand Child Health Insurance

The House easily approved an expansion of government health coverage for low-income children yesterday, a top priority for President-elect Barack Obama and the first in a series of stalled measures expected to move quickly through the Democratic Congress as President Bush leaves office. more.

January 9, 2009

Big Tobacco: A Disappearing Friendship

 

 

 

 

Does Big Tobacco have a better friend than the Florida Legislature?  Certainly not in Washington. The smoking lobby’s most loyal ally, President Bush, is on his way out. And Congress is preparing a multifront campaign against smoking. It is predicted that, shortly after he takes office, Barack Obama will be able to sign legislation raising the federal tax on tobacco from 61 cents to $1. The $35 billion raised will help fund health insurance for children. more.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

January 8, 2009

Crist assures tobacco lawyer Chiles endowment will be repaid

Gov. Charlie Crist today met with the attorney threatening to sue the state for raiding the historic settlement with tobacco companies to help close a $2.3 billion spending gap.  Tampa lawyer Steve Yerrid, one of the lawyers responsible for the $11.3 billion settlement in 1997 that created the Lawton Chiles Endowment, said Crist assured him the fund will be replenished when Florida receives its share of a federal economic stimulus package. more.

January 5, 2009

Coming Down on Tobacco

The new Congress plans to move aggressively against the tobacco industry in coming months by regulating cigarettes, raising per-pack sales taxes and ratifying an international antitobacco treaty, according to aides for key lawmakers and experts who expect the Obama administration to break a logjam on smoking issues. more.

Fla. Lawmakers Sharpen Budget Ax

TALLAHASSEE | Learning that state revenue fell by another $100 million last month, Florida lawmakers began their new year Monday preparing to cut some $1 billion in funding for schools, nursing homes and other government services as they try to mend a $2.3 billion deficit in the state budget. more.

December 18, 2008

Special Session to Patch Budget

Lawmakers are preparing for their Jan. 5 special session knowing the worst is yet to come on the state budget. House and Senate members used this week to prepare for the task of having to find ways to cut or fund a $2 billion-plus deficit in this year’s $66 billion budget. more.

December 17, 2008

Budget woes, scandals fuel legislative tension

TALLAHASSEE — Florida lawmakers were barely moved into their offices on Wednesday, but tensions were already high as Republicans and Democrats in the House attempted to contain competing political scandals and budget writers in the Senate inched toward another round of brutal cuts. “It’s not going to take much to make this whole chamber explode,” said Rep. Ron Saunders, D-Key West. more.

Will increasing the cigarette tax put a dent on the financial crisis?

TALLAHASSEE — There seems to be growing momentum in the capitol for raising Florida’s 34-cent cigarette tax as one way to deal with the state’s deepening financial crisis — but a new estimate indicates smokes might not provide the budget boost once envisioned. more.

Florida faces stark choice: Taxes vs. services

TALLAHASSEE - Florida’s ruling Republican lawmakers, scurrying to prepare for a budget-cutting special session in two weeks, also face a grim fork in the road in the months ahead: raise new taxes or radically slash the size of government. Lawmakers returned to work Tuesday facing a special session set to start Jan. 5 that will require slashing nearly $2.3 billion from the current budget. more.

December 14, 2008

In Albany, N.Y., New taxes, cuts in budget plan

New taxes, deep cuts to education and health care, and a restructuring of the state’s economic development programs will be hallmarks of Gov. David Paterson’s first budget plan to be released in two days, according to interviews of people briefed on components. The plan will come with a host of revenue raisers — increased taxes on hospitals and insurance policies, for instance — and at least one new assessment, a so-called obesity tax on non-diet soda to raise $404 million. The governor also is contemplating requiring new license plates to raise cash, reviving sales tax on clothing purchases, removing the tax cap on gasoline and threatening to require Indian retailers to collect taxes on sales to non-Indians by signing into law a bill passed earlier this year by the Legislature. more.

December 11, 2008

Cigarette Tax Eyed as Tallahassee Faces Budget Shortfalls

TALLAHASSEE - Democratic lawmakers want to raise the cigarette tax, and some Republicans are warming to the idea. Gov. Charlie Crist says he hasn’t. Crist and lawmakers want to use the Lawton Chiles Endowment Fund to shore up the state budget. Lawton “Bud” Chiles, son of the late Gov. Lawton Chiles, is threatening to sue if they do. more.

December 10, 2008

Florida’s budget deficit jumps by $150 million to $2.3 billion

TALLAHASSEE — As the economy tanks, Florida legislators learned Wednesday that the state’s budget deficit has ballooned to $2.3 billion — a $150 million increase in just weeks due mostly to soaring healthcare costs. The grim financial picture was laid out in detail during a rare pre-session meeting of the full Senate called by Senate President Jeff Atwater, who told the lawmakers that the state is running out of time and money. more.

Budget Crisis Likely to Mean Cuts to the Basics

TALLAHASSEE | Facing a $2 billion hole in this year’s state budget and a larger shortfall for the next budget year, Senate leaders said Wednesday they are preparing for a special session early next year that will signal the beginning of an extraordinarily difficult time as lawmakers may be forced to make deep cuts in basic state services ranging from schools to health care to prisons.more.

December 8, 2008

Health advocates push for $1-increase tax on cigarettes

Could tobacco help save Florida’s public health? A coalition of health-care providers is pushing for a $1-per-pack cigarette tax increase in an effort to save Medicaid programs and to dissuade Floridians - especially children - from getting hooked on cancer-causing nicotine. more.

December 7, 2008

Former Gov. Chiles’ family threatens to sue state

TALLAHASSEE — In stark and angry terms, the family of former Gov. Lawton Chiles is threatening to sue Gov. Charlie Crist and legislative leaders if they try to balance the budget by raiding the Lawton Chiles Endowment Fund for children and seniors.more.

December 3, 2008

Smokers, time to inhale to help the state

Lately, the headlines seem of a theme: Stocks in free fall and homelessness rising, budgets slashed and nonprofits cut. In one grim sign-of-the-times story, a mother tried to stretch her pennies by watering down her baby’s formula to make it last, not knowing it could have killed him.more.

December 1, 2008

Smoking might get costlier

TALLAHASSEE - The most dire fiscal crisis in decades, and some creative word play, could lead Florida’s lawmakers to join the rest of the nation in raising taxes on cigarettes. A $1 per pack tax — a.k.a. cigarette “user fee” — is being pitched again this year, and insiders say it appears to have a stronger chance of passing.more.

Florida voters narrowly want cigarette tax increase

An InsiderAdvantage overnight poll on cigarette taxes demonstrates as much about polls and public relations as it does about “sin” revenue and government coffers. We asked, “Do you favor or oppose an additional $1 per pack tax on cigarettes in Florida to help the state overcome its budget shortfall?” more.

November 18, 2008

Florida Facing Historic Budget Dilemma

TALLAHASSEE | Confronted with a historic budget crisis that may only deepen into next year, Florida’s new legislative leaders took office Tuesday just days before state economists could project another $1 billion drop in state revenue.more.

November 17, 2008

Legislators want special budget shortfall session after numbers are in

Treasure Coast legislators, off to Tallahassee for Tuesday’s biennial organizational meetings, agree with Gov. Crist that talk of a special session on the latest projected $1 billion budget shortfall should wait until the quarterly revenue update is released later this week. more.

November 13, 2008

18 arrested in sting targeting illegal cigarette sales

State Police and special agents from the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and Explosives rounded up 18 men Thursday on charges of selling contraband cigarettes at convenience stores and gas stations in Detroit, Dearborn, Hamtramck and Canton Township.more.

Sansom lukewarm on special session

State Rep. Ray Sansom may consider a special session of the Legislature to address Florida’s revenue shortfall, but not before he gets revenue estimates at a conference next Friday, he said.more.

November 11, 2008

California Cracks Down … On Bake Sales

(CBS) In California it’s still legal to sell cupcakes, cookies and brownies in a bakery … but not at a school bake sale. That fundraising slice of Americana - loaded with sugar and fat - has been banned in California schools by government order, reports CBS News correspondent John Blackstone.more.

November 7, 2008

Appeal may affect smokers’ lawsuits

TALLAHASSEE - A tobacco lawyer asked the Florida Supreme Court to reverse a $545,000 product-liability verdict Thursday because the ailing smoker who won the judgment wasn’t required to prove the company could have made a safer cigarette.more

Schwarzenegger: $4.4B in tax hikes to end deficit

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has proposed $4.4 billion in tax increases and billions more in spending cuts to close California’s worsening budget deficit, declaring: “We must stop the bleeding.” Schwarzenegger on Thursday called for a special session of the state Legislature to address a deficit that has grown to $11.2 billion just six weeks after he signed the budget for the current fiscal year.more.

States consider billions in cuts as deficits widen

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) - The nation’s economic meltdown is taking state budgets down with it - especially in California, where Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said Thursday he wants to close a $11.2 billion gap in part by raising sales taxes on everything from cars to Disneyland tickets.more.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

         

 

 

 

 

 

 

         

 

         

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

         

 

 

 

 

 

 

         

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

         

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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