Tobacco Industry

You hear a lot these days about all the miles Americans aren't driving because of $4 gas. How about all the cigarettes they aren't smoking because of some sensible anti-smoking investments? And the money saved on health care (not to mention the improved health of ex-smokers). New research finds that California's anti-tobacco program has yielded a 50-to-1 return and prevented 3.6 billion--yes, billion with a "b"--packs of cigarettes from being smoked in 15 years.

The report in the Aug. 25 issue of PLoS Medicine by a University of California, San Francisco team found that between 1989 and 2004 the $1.8 billion program saved $86 billion (in inflation-adjusted 2004 dollars).

"The benefits of the program accrued very quickly and are very large," senior author Stanton Glantz, director of the UCSF Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education, was quoted as saying. The California program showed rapid health care costs savings because it was directed at adults, not youths, so the impact on heart and lung disease, even cancer, could be seen.

UTAH FIGHT OVER POWER OF REFERENDUM, INITIATIVVE: A new Utah law, which goes into effect next month, would prevent local voters from making land-use decisions at the ballot. But a group in Sevier County, Utah is attempting to challenge the law -- and plans to build a coal-fired electricity plant in their community.

MORE FIXED THAN PUTIN: At an event on budget reform in Garden Grove Monday, gov. Schwarzenegger -- in answer to a question on his redistricting initiative -- talked about the lack of political compeititon. He repeated the statistic that out of 496 seats up for grabs in the last three election cycles in California, only four changed party hands. "Think about that," he said. "That's a fixed system. We always laugh at Putin in Russia when he has his elections. We say, 'This is ridiculous, it's fixed.' Ours is more fixed, I can guarantee you that. It is crazy." More fixed than Putin? Hard to judge. But on turnover, the governor has got a point, as seats in the Duma have changed party hands -- in large part because of Putin's strong-arming -- more often than California legislative and Congressional seats.