Word: tobacco
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1990-1999
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Thinking: Big Tobacco knowingly sells a defective product that, when used exactly as intended (i.e., you smoke the thing), addicts the consumer to nicotine and eventually sickens and kills him. Big Tobacco should pay billions in damages, not only to smokers and their families but also to state governments to cover the smokers' Medicaid expenses...
...Assuming the Risk: The Mavericks, the Lawyers, and the Whistle-Blowers Who Beat Big Tobacco (Little, Brown; 384 pages; $24.95), Michael Orey, an editor at the Wall Street Journal, describes the American journey from a public attitude of "Tough luck, buddy" to the group-grievance activism of the '90s, brought to lucrative fruition in lawsuits--by Mississippi, Minnesota and 38 other states--that have extruded from the tobacco industry the promise of close to $250 billion, to be paid out over 25 years...
Finally, Bill Clinton got the headline he has been dreaming of for years: "Justice Department Sues Big Tobacco." Claiming that tobacco companies conspired to conceal the risks of cigarette smoking from the public and thus engaged in consumer fraud, federal lawyers will invoke the federal civil racketeering statute and ask for $25 billion to recoup taxpayer dollars spent to cover smoking-related health-care costs for veterans, military personnel, federal employees and the elderly through Medicare payments. Although under the law an award could be triple that if the feds can get a jury to see things their way, even...
...Clinton made in January?s State of the Union address. "As complex as this litigation is, there?s going to be a strong desire to settle on both sides," says Sanders. And as badly as the surplus-minded Clinton could use $75 billion, a legacy-building handcuffing of Big Tobacco is priceless...
...irony is that Freaks, the least strenuously hip of the shows, may stand the strongest chance of controversy. The "freaks" of the title are Led Zeppelin-listening Midwestern burnouts who smoke--not just tobacco, of course. "The show will never be pro pot," executive producer Judd Apatow avers. "But every time a kid smokes pot, you can't show him coughing and retching and losing his mind...