Word: tobaccoed
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...misery. Laws in all states except Vermont require a balanced budget. To achieve that in the current fiscal year, which in most cases runs through June 30, states must slash spending and tack on fees and taxes. What they are pondering ranges from the relatively painless (new taxes on tobacco and expanding gaming and lotteries) to the inconvenient (shortening hours at DMV and welfare offices) to the positively painful (closing hospitals, parks-and-recreation departments and libraries, cutting Medicaid, raising college tuitions and laying off thousands of state employees...
Given the resistance to tax increases, look for states to raise revenue with sneaky fees and by further targeting such "sins" as alcohol, gambling and tobacco. In Virginia the DMV levies a service charge on credit-card payments. California is expected to triple motor-vehicle--license fees, adding nearly $4 billion a year to the state's coffers. Higher income taxes for the wealthiest Californians are a possibility too, according to Democratic state senator John Burton. In New York City, Mayor Michael Bloomberg is weighing a surtax on those who earn more than $200,000 a year...
...adhere to the strict letter of Islamic law, known as Shari'a. Compliance is neither easy nor cheap. The law, which derives from the Koran, covers all areas of Islamic life, including management of financial affairs. Pious Muslims are not allowed to invest in industries that have ties to tobacco, alcohol, weapons, pornography or pork products. Since the law prohibits banks from charging or paying interest, Noriba and other Islamic Financial Institutions (ifis) instead make money by using a system based on the sharing of capital gains or losses. But even with post-Sept. 11 suspicions that Islamic banks...
Still, some of the lawyers helping the plaintiffs previously won against tobacco companies. Cigarette makers ended up paying billions not so much because they produced an unhealthy product but since they concealed the full foulness of it. Sweet must now determine if McDonald's engaged in similarly "deceptive acts" by promoting its food to children without properly detailing the contents. If he rules against the company, your future Big Mac may be wrapped in a grease-smudged warning label. --By John Cloud/New York
That may be overstating the situation, but what is clear is that the cleanup is under way. Lawmakers in a dozen states have introduced bills to ban the sale of junk food in schools. Some districts have gone organic, while others bake fries and skin chicken. Anti-tobacco lawyers, who gave advice for a suit against McDonald's filed by a group of obese New York teens (see box), are threatening similarly aggressive actions against a school board near you. Congress is gearing up to take a hard look at school meals when it reauthorizes the $6.4 billion government-funded...