| UI Goes Smokeless In 2009
IOWA CITY – Do not plan to light up on the University of Iowa campus anywhere. It is going completely smoke-free. Smokers are obviously upset.The idea has been debated for years. But on Monday came the burning reality, University of Iowa President Sally Mason announced the decision. And now begins the time of transition. The haze hovering around the University of Iowa campus Monday is not from smokers trying to get their last puffs in before the ban goes into effect. It does not happen until July 1, 2009. The university believes that will be enough time to educate the thousands of people who work and go to school here. University spokesman Steve Parrott said, “Really what we're looking to do is create a healthy environment, healthy culture for everyone on campus." The university will spend the next 17 months letting people know of smoking cessation programs.
Attendance soars at Jockeyâ€s Ridge State Park in N.C.
NAGS HEAD, N.C. As a hang gliding instructor on the East Coast’s tallest sand dune for 21 years, Bruce Weaver is well acquainted with Jockey’s Ridge State Park. He has seen children and teens gleefully flinging themselves off the dunes and rolling down hills. He has seen young people sprinting up the 90-foot crest, panting adults in their wake. He has seen thousands of people on top of the ridge, slicing the sky with kites. He has regularly seen spectacular sunsets. It’s no surprise to Weaver that Jockey’s Ridge had record attendance in 2007, the highest of all the state’s parks. Figures released recently by the North Carolina Division of Parks and Recreation show that the 426-acre park had 1.5 million visitors, a 43 percent increase from the previous year. The park’s appeal, he said, has been consistent through the years: It’s free, it’s outdoors, and its combination of vast mounds of sand, sound access and maritime thicket makes it attractive to all ages and many recreational interests.
Nobody's winning this war of words
Among recurring questions asked in the build-up to the writers strike (starting with "Will there be one?," and I got that right) has been which side is "winning" the battle of public opinion. Since perspective is invariably the first casualty in such an emotional dispute, let's answer that with another question: Who did you passionately support during the strike-shortened 1999 NBA basketball season or the 2004 NHL lockout that body-checked hockey? If the knee-jerk response is "A pox on both their houses," bingo. Comparisons to sports -- where billionaire owners square off with millionaire talent -- are admittedly imprecise, but the obvious parallels include careers with extremely lucrative potential that tend to be equally fleeting. Moreover, the irritation associated with depriving people of a beloved pastime is fundamentally the same.
Commentary: Will Fred pounce on Clinton misstep?
As Hillary Clinton continues to stretch her lead in national polls among likely Democratic Party primary voters it is becoming increasingly clear that the nomination is hers to lose – unless she makes a major mistake. In the most recent debate she may have done just that on an issue that resonates strongly with the voters: illegal immigration.When asked about her position on a controversial proposal by New York Governor and fellow Democrat Elliot Spitzer to grant drivers' licenses to illegal aliens Clinton expressed support, opposition and indecision about the plan…all in the space of a single answer. “Do I think this is the best thing for any governor to do?" Clinton said. “No. But do I understand the sense of real desperation, trying to get a handle on this? Remember, in New York we want to know who's in New York.
Visy, Pratt fined $36m over price-fixing
Billionaire Richard Pratt and his Visy group companies have been fined a record $36 million for price fixing in the cardboard market, in a case the Federal Court says is the worst in Australia's corporate history. Mr Pratt's right-hand man, former Visy chief executive Harry Debney, has been fined $1.5 million and former general manager Rod Carroll was fined $500,000. Federal Court judge Justice Peter Heerey said the penalty imposed on Visy was twice the highest previous fine imposed by his court. ``That is reflective of the fact that this must be, by far, the most serious cartel case to come before the court in the 30-plus years in which price fixing has been prohibited by statute,'' Justice Heerey said in his decision. A Visy spokesman said the company respected the decision.
Smith says Oregon vote not an argument against S-CHIP expansion
PORTLAND, Ore. The vote against a cigarette tax in Oregon isnt a good argument against a similar effort nationally to expand health insurance for children, Republican Sen. Gordon Smith says. Opponents of expanding the federal State Childrens Health Insurance Program, or S-CHIP, have pounced on the Oregon vote. They say its evidence raising the federal tobacco tax by 61 cents to insure four million more children nationally will never fly. President Bush, who vetoed the S-CHIP bill, referred to the Oregon vote in speeches and in a call to U.S. Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore., the only member of the Oregon delegation to vote against the bill. Smith said Thursday he thought Bush misunderstood the Oregon vote. Oregonians were impatient that legislators hadnt handled the matter themselves, rather than putting it to a statewide vote, Smith said.
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