The Shocking Consequences of the World's Meat Addiction

More than 9 billion animals are slaughtered in the U.S. every year for meat with global demand skyrocketing. Animal agriculture is putting an ever-increasing strain on world resources, particularly global water supplies, according to VICE’s two-part episode, Meathooked and End of Water, which premieres March 4 at 11 p.m. on HBO.

In Vice’s fifth episode of season 4, Isobel Yeung traveled to feedlots, farms and slaughterhouses to learn where our meat comes from and to uncover its true costs, and Vikram Gandhi traveled to the Central Valley in California and São Paulo, Brazil to find out just how severe the global water crisis has become.

In California’s Central Valley, farmers are quickly depleting the state’s groundwater as the state remains mired in a drought, despite El Niño rains. São Paulo’s drought has become so bad that water in at least one of the area’s reservoirs is below what engineers consider zero, meaning that they have to pipe the remaining water uphill just to get it to the intake pipes.

“Meat production, globally, is an environmental disaster now,” Ken Cook, president of Environmental Working Group, said. “If we try and expand production to reach 9 billion people by 2050, it will be a complete and unthinkable disaster.”

“Let’s assume the population will reach 9 billion by 2050,” Cook said. “There isn’t enough land, there isn’t enough water, there isn’t the capacity for the Earth’s atmosphere to absorb all of the CO2 and the methane that would come out of animal agriculture. The problem is that our focus is on making the meat as cheap as possible, and as they cut those corners, that’s where we often have environmental catastrophes.”

But there are agricultural innovators hoping to change the way we raise animals for food. Yeung met with Joel Salatin of Polyface Farms in Virginia. Salatin uses a sustainable system of raising animals called “rotational grazing.”

Young also met with Dr. Mark Post, professor of physiology at Maastricht University in the Netherlands, to discuss his work on creating the first synthetic burger. He has grown meat in a lab from stem cells in just seven weeks—”much, much faster” than raising a cow for slaughter, he noted. The first trial cost $325,000, but he hopes to grow it cheaper and faster soon.

Watch a preview of the episode here.

Resource :  http://www.truth-out.org/buzzflash/commentary/the-shocking-consequences-of-the-world-s-meat-addiction

The Microscope, Part 1

Pass with me through a wonderful brazen tunnel, with crystal doors at the entrance,” Agnes Callow wrote in her 1851 book “Drops of Water.” In the 1840s, advances in grinding fragile sheets of glass refined the eye of the microscope, revolutionizing the science of that century. The instrument’s precious lens exposed new views of the Blaschkas’ glittering sea creatures.

Their earliest brochures marketed the Blaschkas’ products as “ornaments for the elegant room,” waterless aquaria that could serve the same function as their high-maintenance counterparts. By the time entrepreneur Henry Ward brought this casket of glass treasures to North America, however, universities and museums constituted the critical market for artificial sea creatures: The same difficulties that plagued hobbyists affected zoologists as well. The new audience brought new demands for accuracy. In a letter to naturalist Ernest Haeckel, Leopold wrote that his offerings in Ward’s 1878 catalog would be “restricted only to scientific models.” The Museum of Comparative Zoology archives hold a copy of this catalog; pencil marks in the margin note the price of the “Oaten Pipes Hydroid.” They also indicate the purchase of two enlargement models—a novel offering by the Blaschkas. That year, the glassworkers introduced into their oeuvre 13 microscopic views.

In 1877, the year they wrote to Haeckel, the Blaschkas also received their first shipments of living sea creatures. Aiming for more realistic models, they drew preparatory sketches from animals that swam in their aquaria. Ironically, however, the glassworkers and their customers struggled with precisely the same challenges: The Blaschkas’ home water usage increased by 120 percent, and suppliers sent them identical specimens repeatedly. Like many of their products, the Hydroid and its enlargements were modelled not from life but from a zoological illustration.

If the Blaschkas had been crafting bird eggs, they might have based on their works on photographs instead of drawings. During the latter decades of the 19th century, photography began filtering into zoological publications. Heated fights broke out in the scientific community over whether the new mechanical objectivity offered by photography could properly replace the trained judgment of the illustrator-observer. In this acrimonious conflict, microscopists hotly defended traditional methods of scientific illustration.

Although a microscope lens might have been clear as crystal, the picture it produced wasn’t so limpid. A cloudy twilight hung over the world of high magnification. Devotees of the finely ground lens relied on drawings to piece together the murky details their eyes tugged out of the shadows; the illustration was an invaluable aid to the devoted microscopist. During the fierce contest between the photograph and the drawing, the proponents of the microscope alleged that they could not carry out their work without the hand-drawn illustration. And the opinion of the microscope proponents was influential, given their importance; since the seminal publication of “Polypes” in 1744, no study of hydroids had been complete without the use of a microscope.
Accordingly, Irish natural historian George Allman produced the three plates in his monograph by means of his sensitively trained judgment as a scientist-cum-illustrator. As such, his plate of “Tubularia indivisa” didn’t reproduce an incomprehensible beast but an idealized and thus legible creature. Our alien friend transformed into an imaginary animal. By the time the Blaschkas began their work, the messy truth had been much tidied by Allman’s editorial labors. Tracing his plate in their own hand, the Blaschkas familiarized themselves with its orderly forms and graceful proportions. But one more step remained in the reconstruction of “Tubularia indivisa”: the transformation from paper fiction to glass fantasy.

Resource :  http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2016/3/8/microscope-1/

Would a half-burned joint count as an open container or proof of DUI?

Chris wonders, “If you have a used pipe in your truck (or an unsmoked or partially smoked joint), can that be considered an open container, or proof of intoxication even if you have not smoked in several hours?”

Lots going on with this question, so let’s start with where the law stands. As of this moment, Alaska doesn’t have an open-container law on the books when it comes to cannabis. Such provisions were included in the omnibus crime bill last session. But that bill ended up staggering to a halt at the end of the regular term like a pipeline-surplus Suburban. It currently sits referred to the House Judiciary Committee.

Without a state law on cannabis open containers yet, communities may feel the need to go their own way. Anchorage was the first, and as far as I know, only community to put a cannabis open-container law on its books before the proposed state version reaches a final outcome. If I learn of another one, I’ll update this space. It’s a fair bet that if other communities have done so, they will follow Anchorage and just write it into existing alcohol open-container laws.
Read more Highly Informed: Seeking answers to Alaska's cannabis questions

So for now, all of this open container stuff just applies to Anchorage, with the understanding that similar rules may soon come to state law. But just because Anchorage has an open-container law for cannabis and the state doesn’t, that doesn’t mean drivers should immediately unseal cannabis containers as soon as they leave Anchorage as a gleeful expression of sweet, sweet freedom. There are many factors to be aware of.
Tamper-proof

For the time being, following the standard set by Anchorage would be smartly cautious. There is no open-container law at the state level, and there aren’t clear definitions of cannabis impairment as there are for alcohol. But there are impaired driving laws that have been used to bring cases against people for driving while stoned. They’re very rare, for reasons we’ve explored in past columns, but they have happened.




Anchorage’s cannabis open-container law is essentially the same as the one for alcohol. If your marijuana isn’t closed up in a sealed, tamper-evident package, and you’re not a chauffeur or paid driver observing another set of rules, the container needs to be in a trunk or out of the passenger compartment. In most vehicles that means behind the last upright passenger seat. For your perusal, the applicable city law is 9.36.200.

Anchorage’s open-container law only applies to cannabis “in any form,” not to paraphernalia, assistant municipal prosecutor Seneca Theno said in an email. She explained that the open-container law itself doesn’t consider whether the amount of unsealed cannabis found in a vehicle could get someone high or could potentially impair their driving.

“To use the open container of alcoholic beverage law as a comparison,” she wrote, “the officer doesn’t have to prove there was enough beer in the can to get drunk on – only that there was beer in the can, as opposed to an empty can, or a beer can filled with water. The same would be true for marijuana” (emphasis hers).

So a half-burned joint? Nope. That’s a marijuana container which contains marijuana, and it’d be open. Pretty obvious there’s beer in that can, in other words. When restaurants send you home with a half-drunk bottle of wine, they usually recork it, then wrap it up entirely in a plastic bag and zip-tie it at the top. So, either do something like that, roll the joint small enough to finish and sober up, or bring more friends.

Theno clarified that she meant “marijuana in any form” to indicate things like “loose pot, or a joint, or an edible with marijuana concentrate in it, or tincture, or oil for vaping, or any other form for consumption.”

But since burned resin is a consumable (although nasty) form of marijuana, what about a dirty pipe? Would it be like an empty can that previously held beer, or like a can that still had a gulp or two of beer left in it? A definitive answer isn't available. So to be ultra-safest in this time of freshly born policy and code, and in keeping with the beer can analogy above, the piece should show no indication there was marijuana in it. Depending on the circumstance, there’s a risk that a piece of paraphernalia with residue in the bowl could reasonably be interpreted as an unsealed container with a form of cannabis in it, and therefore an open container. If you clean your pieces like a raccoon cleans its food, there’s likely much less risk. Heck, if it were squeaky clean, you could probably drive around with 15-foot steamroller sticking out of the cab past the tailgate as long as you tie it down and hook a safety flag on it.
Proof of impaired driving?

But could an open cannabis container or dirty pipe be used as proof of impaired driving, as Chris asks? Well sure, why not? Remember, as we discussed in two earlier columns, compared to alcohol impairment there aren’t specific laws or limits to determine marijuana impairment, so discretion and judgment play a big role here. And every little bit of evidence counts in an investigation.



Cannabis DUIs are rare in Alaska, for several reasons that we discussed in the previous columns linked above. But that doesn’t mean they aren’t possible. Since there’s no state law against an open container of herb, and the potential consequences for a drugged driving DUI are as severe as for an alcohol DUI, that means it’s safest to avoid all question. That’s just smart anyway, regardless of whether there’s a clear guideline on either marijuana DUI or open containers.

Seasoned veterans of the war on cannabis may also remember other precautions to take: not being impaired when you get behind the wheel; driving safely and defensively for the conditions and posted speed; making sure every passenger is wearing a seatbelt; stowing the driver’s cell phone; and periodically, like every few fill-ups, checking signal lights and other equipment for good working order. But all that is smart practice for any driver.
Bad data

Aside from potential criminal liability here, there’s another thing to think about in deciding whether to carry unsealed cannabis or dirty paraphernalia in the passenger compartment: data collection.

As former Anchorage Police Chief Mark Mew told us in May, if police suspect marijuana of contributing to a crime, and if they have some corroboration (like smelling it, seeing it or getting an admission), then they'll check a box on the police report that will contribute to an ongoing picture of "marijuana-involved" crime.

Mew said checking the box is not alleging “proof beyond a reasonable doubt for purposes of collecting the statistic,” just that it's a common-sense call that helps police understand how often they encounter marijuana or anything else. Mew said, “We apply the same bar to 'alcohol involved,' '(domestic violence) involved,' and maybe some other things we want to track.”

Naturally common sense varies by individual circumstance and person, but it’s safe to assume a degree of “involvement” that pretty much everyone who checks that box agrees on. The stats being collected are not an absolute measure of marijuana’s influence in crimes, but they are useful to police, policy makers and the public. But still. Good data is good data.

So say you are sober as a judge, but carrying a dirty pipe or half-burnt joint in the cab of your truck, and you get in a wreck. And if the officer at the scene spots it, he or she could reasonably decide to check the little box to indicate “marijuana-involved.” And in that case, it could contribute in a small way to a faulty understanding of cannabis’s role in car accident statistics.

But naturally bad data would be the least of someone’s worries in that situation.

Have a question about marijuana news or culture in Alaska? Send it to cannabis-north@alaskadispatch.com with "Highly Informed" in the subject line

Resource :  http://www.adn.com/article/20160130/would-half-burned-joint-count-open-container-or-proof-dui

Cashing in

Now that the season of giving is over, here are a few ideas to ensure that your kids won’t let all that aginaldo get into their heads


Post-holidays are the perfect time to teach kids about money. They are not only a few hundred pesos richer—and absolutely clueless on what to do with their money besides buying the latest Shopkins toy or that Star Wars lightsaber—they may or may not have gotten their Christmas wishes, both of which need some kind of a follow-up lesson. According to Kiddo-preneur founder and ANC anchor Maiki Oreta, who has three daughters, a 10-year-old, a five-year-old, and a six-month-old, Christmas and New Year, a time when everyone is so focused on spending and getting gifts, bring to light the importance of teaching kids how to earn and save up for the things they want, all on their own.

Giving kids money lessons is not that difficult as long as parents keep it fun and get the kids involved. Here are ways to teach kids about money, post-holidays.

HAVE THEM MAKE THEIR OWN GIFTS

One way for kids to realize how hard and costly it is to give gifts is to let them take responsibility for their own gift-giving. That way, they will understand that people cannot always give them what they want and that buying gifts is not as easy as  it seems.

Many parents shoulder the cost of their kids’ gifts to friends, to cousins, to titos and titas, arguing they are not earning enough money to buy. But why should they buy when they can make gifts instead?

“My husband and I encourage our kids to make greetings cards like birthday and thank you cards, Christmas cards. The kids make them from scratch. They even sell some to friends and family members. With this, they are not only doing something fun, they are also earning from it.”

Oreta, for one, encourages her kids to make homemade gifts. For instance, just this Christmas, the family bought raw organic honey and glass jars from wholesale suppliers. They packaged them into gifts and made special gift tags for each.

LET THEM OFFER THEIR SERVICES
Getting kids to accept small, easy-to-accomplish jobs exposes them to the concept of “earning money in exchange for work.” This is an excellent way for them to learn about money and understand its value. Children won’t place as much value to money when it is given to them as opposed to them earning it through their own efforts. For instance, kids can offer babysitting or tutoring services to their younger cousins or even to neighbor’s kids. They can offer stimulating activities like telling them an interactive story, which they can playact or playing board games with them. Ates and kuyas can help little kids with their projects and other schoolwork, prepare for exams, or learn something new like playing an instrument or doing calligraphy. The job of taking care of children younger than they are will not only earn them money but also give them a sense of responsibility.

Oreta also suggests getting kids to wrap gifts for a fee. Older ones can also offer a Christmas tree packing service, where they offer to take down Christmas trees for family, friends, and neighbors, and properly store the ornaments in bubble wrap or boxes. They can also offer to set up the table or create Christmas decorations, or come up with the entertainment for Noche Buena. Moms and dads can then compensate them based on their efforts. It may be too late now to institute these Christmas ideas but one can still keep this idea in mind for Christmas this December.



OPEN A BANK ACCOUNT FOR THEM

With the few hundreds (sometimes even thousands) that children have gotten from Christmas and New Year ampaw, open a bank account. This will open their eyes to the concept of saving money and of getting an interest for their money. Parents can tell the kids that with the money they saved, they can buy what they want for Christmas. Some parents even sweeten the pot by telling the kids they will double whatever the kids save at the end of the year, giving them a nice incentive and teaching delayed gratification at the same time. “Once they have the cash, children can create a budget per head on their Christmas list and then spend accordingly,” advises Oreta.



HELP THEM START A SMALL BUSINESS

Another way to make wise use of the aginaldo children received for the holidays, aside from putting them in a savings account, is to invest a portion of it in a small business. Kids, for instance, can make loom band bracelets and sell them to relatives and friends. If they like baking cookies and cakes, why not make several batches and sell them to others? Lemonade isn’t the only thing that kids can sell nowadays as what can be seen in every Kiddo-preneur event where kids sell their own stuff.

Although the start of the year is a good time to start these projects, it won’t be a problem if you start it in the middle of the year. Most parents would take on projects like these during summer when the kids are not so busy with schoolwork. It doesn’t really matter when you start it as long as you do. “As with anything else like piano lessons, soccer, ballet, etc. the more practice the kids get, the better they’ll become at it—same goes with entrepreneurship,” Oreta says.



To know when the next Kiddo-preneur event will be and for more ideas on how children can earn, save, invest, and donate, visit www.kiddo-preneur.com/

Resource :  http://www.mb.com.ph/cashing-in/

Riverdale: Police Blotter, Jan. 20, 2015

Marijuana complaint

A 19-year-old North Haledon woman was charged with marijuana possession after police stopped her gray Nissan for alleged speeding on Interstate 287 North, Lt. James MacIntosh reports.

On Jan. 10 at 11:55 p.m., Patrolman Daniel Salvati used radar to confirm the Nissan was traveling at 85 mph in a 65-mph zone, MacIntosh said. While speaking with the driver, who was identified as Jade Conklin, the officer detected a strong odor of raw marijuana in the vehicle, and police said Conklin turned over a glass jar containing a green vegetation believed to be this drug.

According to MacIntosh, Conklin was charged with possession of marijuana under 50 grams, a disorderly person offense. She also received summonses for speeding 85/65 and possession of controlled dangerous substance in a car. She was released with a January date in Municipal Court.

Shoplifting charge

An employee of the Target store on Route 23 North was charged with shoplifting based on the reports of store security, according to the police blotter.

On Tuesday, Jan. 12 at 9 a.m., Patrolman Andrew Duffy responded to the store where it was reported that an employee had clocked out of work and then taken various items over the past month.
The total amount of merchandise allegedly taken by Billy Bohmer, 26, of Oak Ridge was worth $200, said Lt. James MacIntosh. Bohmer was terminated from his employment and charged with shoplifting, he said, adding that a court date was scheduled.

Credit fraud alleged

Patrolman Gary Keil and Sgt. Rob DiGirolamo responded to BJ's Wholesale club for a woman reportedly trying to make purchases with fraudulent credit cards at 1 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 16. The suspect provided a Pennsylvania driver's license to officers, but this, upon inspection, turned out to be a fake, Lt. James MacIntosh reported.

MacIntosh explained that the address on the license was spelled incorrectly with an "H" at the end of Harrisburg. When questioned further, the suspect stated that she had lived in Connecticut for three years and had not obtained a license there.

When the license was run through the Pennsylvania Division of Motor Vehicles, the number on the license came back to a man. Several credit cards were also discovered in the woman’s purse and she was taken into custody, according to MacIntosh.

At headquarters, she was finally identified as Rockel Samas, 22, of Norwalk, Conn. Samas was charged with credit card fraud, hindering apprehension, and obstruction. She was processed and released with a January date at Morris County Central Judicial Processing. The matter has been forwarded to the Detective Bureau for a follow-up investigation.

Bryan LaPlaca &

Donna Rolando

"Police news" is compiled by Suburban Trends from information provided by the police department. The information is released to the press at the discretion of the police department and may not represent the total scope of police activity. All persons are presumed innocent unless proven guilty.

Resource :  http://www.northjersey.com/news/crime-and-courts/police-blotters/riverdale-1.1495815

Local Creators Revamp Wine Bottle Candle

If Andy Worley were a candle, he would radiate a blend of basil, sage, mint and bergamot. His aromatic attribute is a smooth, revitalizing fragrance with a menthol boost called “Enliven,” and it’s one of 12 original scents created by A Squared Decor owners Worley and Andrew Harris, whose signature product is Glowine, an evolved wine bottle candle — a different take on the gift-store-staple truncated wine bottle version.

“I like to liven things up,” Worley says. “I’m lively and energetic but not too heavy.” A portable display — a handmade concoction of recycled doors and wine crates — decorates the duo’s Covington home that, for now, doubles as a workplace for their candle and home décor business.

Cincinnati natives Worley and Harris started Glowine five years ago looking to make a candle product that was recycled and rare. A process of trial and error took them from pillar candles in Mason jars to wine bottles with hinged tops.

Glowine bottles are recycled wine bottles that come decorated with art deco and filigree label designs. A separate cylinder candle in a glass jar fits snugly inside each cut and hinged bottle. Each candle burns for 100 hours, is made from natural palm wax and contains a cotton wick. Once the candle has burned out, the empty jar can be removed and replaced with one of Glowine’s hand-poured refills. They also make Flicker Liquor candles from vodka, tequila and other booze bottles.

“We wanted something different than just the wine bottle cut off, because that’s what everyone does,” Worley says. “That’s where the hinge idea came from.

Now it’s this refillable, nice version of a wine bottle candle.”

The two self-taught innovators use as many locally sourced materials as possible, such as the wick, wax and fragrance. Many of their candles are sold wholesale to local stores like Covington’s Village Gifts KY.

Part of the appeal is the handmade quality, but there’s also Worley's and Harris’ dedication to making the product affordable, consistent and refillable. They are involved in every aspect of the process, from candle pouring to packaging and website design to product photography.

Other than a 200-pound wax-melting pot, the main tools Worley and Harris use are their hands. They leave out commercial versions of glass warmers and bottle cutters and create their own tools, most of which are an A Squared Decor secret.

Harris’ background in brick masonry and construction aided the development of the bottle-cutting process. What was once a scoring and breaking process is now a quick table-saw maneuver.

“Obsess” is the scent that embodies Harris, he says. A warm, comforting balance of sandalwood, cedar and vanilla combined with amber personifies his drive and focus. Harris says a lot of productivity comes from obsessing over an idea until the problem is solved.

“There’s a lot more science in candle making than people think,” Worley says. Everything has to be the right temperature; the wick’s diameter has to be accurate; the ratio of color to fragrance and wax to color must be precise.

The room smells of a blown-out candle, burnt but fragrant. It’s organized but tightly packed with measuring cups, raw wax and assorted tools. Stains of color and splashes of dry wax cover the workspace. This candle pouring and staging room is one of three in their house full of A Squared Decor material, not to mention the entire basement.

Right now the only hindrance is working from home. “Our biggest issue is space,” Harris says.

But The Center for Great Neighborhoods of Covington is potentially offering a solution to their space issues. A Squared Decor is a prospective tenant of an up-and-coming CGN establishment called the Hellmann Creative Center, says Sarah Allan, CGN program director of creative placemaking. Set for complete operation in early July, the center will house seven to eight artist studios, a community event space and CGN offices.

A space dedicated to A Squared Decor is exactly what Worley and Harris hope will perpetuate the Glowine brand and allow them to develop other home decor projects in the future.

Resource :  http://citybeat.com/cincinnati/article-34551-local_creators_revamp_wine_bottle_candle.html

Generation Next: Brooklyn Fixture Sahadi’s Awaits a Changing of the Guard

Exit bustling Atlantic Avenue, duck into the sprawling storefront and consider the array before you: 140 giant glass jars, each filled with a different nut, dried fruit or candy. Additional bins, stacked on surrounding shelves, each contain something foreign or familiar, from oatmeal and amaranth and to dried molokia, a Middle Eastern spinach. Back further, a bar touts 39 types of olives, pickles and marinated peppers. Don’t overlook the cheese section at the rear, where cases overflow with more than 250 varieties. And that’s just in one of the three storefronts over which Sahadi Importing Company has spread.

In all, Sahadi’s carries 4,000 to 5,000 different products from across the globe. Presiding over this plethora of provisions is Charlie Sahadi, who for 51 years has run the store his father established in 1941. Charlie, who turns 72 next month, spends most of his days welcoming customers with a warm greeting and schmooze and, for long-timers, a hug. “I’m the people person here,” he told the Observer.

But Charlie’s reign is scheduled to end next week, when he retires from day-to-day running of the store, and his daughter Christine and son Ron take over.

Brooklynites weary of disappearing authenticity—across Atlantic, a Barneys outpost sells high-end handbags, condo towers rise nearby and that strip-mall standby, Michaels, will soon open a block away—need not fear that Sahadi’s changing of the guard means the end of a neighborhood standby.

When she takes the reins, Christine may give the place a fresh coat of paint, but other changes will be limited to the store’s back end, she said. “Very little change will be visible to the customers, because the customers are happy.” 

They’ve been so for more than a century. The Sahadi legend begins with A. Sahadi, which was opened in 1895 by Charlie’s uncle Abrahim. Abrahim’s brother Wade—Charlie’s father—began working there in 1919, but two decades later a family spat ended with Wade being bought out with chickpeas and bulgur. He subsequently opened Sahadi’s Importing Company—three doors down from A. Sahadi—and eventually moved to Brooklyn in 1946. It took Wade two years to get a tenant out of the ground-floor storefront (some things in Brooklyn real estate don’t change) and in 1948, Sahadi’s opened where it remains today, expansions and improvements notwithstanding.

In a dingy office above the store, Charlie and his wife, Audrey, sit at facing, paper-strewn desks. Christine works on her computer an arm’s length away. Charlie, born and raised in an Antiochian Christian Orthodox family in Bay Ridge, has kept the family close. Ron lives next door to his parents in Bay Ridge, and Christine lives in a house back to back with Charlie and Audrey’s. (The youngest daughter, Renee, lives in Pennsylvania.)

Despite Christine’s pledge to carry on more or less as before, Charlie said he would understand if his children decide to cash out of the now-prime property.

“I came into the business because my dad expected me to,” Charlie said. “Fortunately it worked out for me. Putting in 70, 80, 90 hours a week isn’t for everybody.” Grandson Ron shows interest in the business, but only time will tell if he or one of his five cousins wants to be the fourth generation to run the retail store and wholesale business, the latter of which, Sahadi Fine Foods, became a separate company 15 years ago and distributes products out of a Sunset Park warehouse, where it also roasts the fresh nuts sold at the store.

“The Sahadi family has been doing this for 120 years. If it didn’t continue, yeah I’d be sad, but we don’t keep it going because it’s a family tradition,” Charlie said. “I don’t want the kids or grandkids to ever feel they’re disappointing the family” by choosing a different life. Charlie himself is already looking ahead, getting ready for a Texas vacation with his wife. “I wouldn’t change my life one iota,” he told the Observer. “It’s been a blessing.”

Resource :  http://observer.com/2016/01/generation-next-brooklyn-fixture-sahadis-awaits-a-changing-of-the-guard/

Electronic cigarette tax vexes vapers

A hefty excise tax on wholesale tobacco products sold in the Matanuska Susitna Borough is under scrutiny. At last [Sept 15] week’s meeting of the Matanuska Susitna Borough Assembly, e -cigarette users spoke out against the new tax.

The new ordinance went into effect when it was passed in August. It puts a a 55 % tax on wholesale purchases of e cigarette products in the Mat Su Borough. That Borough ordinance, was followed by outcries from owners of fledgling ” vape ” shops. Those are the retailers providing the products used in e-cigarettes.

“Putting them out of business, running them out of the city, is not something that is going to help smoking, it’s not something that is going to help the economy, and you will lose the sales tax revenue you are currently generating from these businesses.”

That’s e-cig smoker Mark Sowers. The tax is passed onto consumers  through the retail price of the products.  Mat Su Borough Assemblyman Jim Sykes says there’s good reason for the high tax.

“The nicotine juices cost very little on wholesale and the markup is pretty high. so 55%…It’s 90 % in Minnesota, so there’s a lot of money being made here, that’s why shops are opening like crazy all over the country.”



Sykes says money from the tax goes into the Borough’s general fund, and is to  be used for anti smoking education, although the ordinance is not specific as to how the tax will be spent. Sykes says the high tax could help to sway young people from buying tobacco products.

The legislation, however, has raised complaints from e-cigarette smokers and owners of vape shops. It also has ping – ponged from approval to mayoral veto to override and then back to the Assembly, where it showed up on the agenda last week, waiting for an amendment that never materialized.

At the meeting , Ashley Peltier, applauded the Assembly’s action,  saying that the ordinance’s 55 % tax should stand.

“Presently, there is no oversight over these products. Therefore, there is no way the public health, the medical community or consumers to know exactly what chemicals are contained in or emitted from these devices, or what the short and long term health implications may be.

But a greater number of smokers came out swinging at the meeting, and claimed that “vaping”, or smoking e cigarettes, has  helped them stop smoking tobacco cigarettes. Many, like Mike McInnes, disputed the fact that vaping causes the same kind of damage that smoking tobacco does.

“If anything should be taxed, it should be the nicotine. We should not be punishing people that are vaping at zero milligram nicotine. We should not be taxing the equipment itself, especially the batteries that can be bought at all kinds of different places. ”

According to Assemblyman Sykes, the ordinance is copied from one now in effect in Juneau, only with a ten percent higher tax rate.

Resource : http://www.alaskapublic.org/2015/09/22/e-cig-tax-vexes-vapers/

Kansas Cigarette Sales Up After Tax Increase But Further Hike Unlikely

The 2015 session of the Kansas Legislature began with a budget crisis and Gov. Sam Brownback proposing a large hike in the state tobacco tax to help solve it.

The 2016 session is set to begin in January with the budget again in need of patching. But the kind of tobacco tax increase anti-smoking advocates believe would spur Kansans to kick the habit is less likely.

Last year’s temporary budget fix raised the cigarette tax by 50 cents per pack. That was only one-third what Brownback had requested, but even that level of increase was a source of considerable angst for legislators.

Brownback said in October that he plans to balance the budget in the upcoming session without further tax increases. His spokeswoman, Eileen Hawley, said in an email Friday that he will not propose another cigarette tax hike, even after revenue estimates were lowered in November, leaving another budget hole.

But the fears some legislators voiced about last session’s tax increase have not come to pass, which could crack the door for another increase if the Legislature finds itself scrambling against the clock to balance the budget again.

Taxes on smokeless tobacco products also could be part of the discussion, and hearings on electronic cigarette legislation are almost a certainty.

Border issue

Happy Patel is a big fan of the cigarette tax increase that the Kansas Legislature enacted last session. He believes it’s helped his business.

Patel owns Discount Smokes & Cheap Smokes, a tobacco shop on the Missouri side of State Line Road in Kansas City. Missouri has the lowest cigarette tax in the nation at 17 cents per pack. Across the street in Kansas the tax is now $1.29 per pack, and those who usually shop on the Kansas side of State Line Road seem to like his prices.

“They say, ‘We buy it in Kansas,’” said Patel, adding that customers say the prices at his store in Missouri are much lower.

Patel’s windfall was the nightmare scenario for Kansas legislators. They disregarded Brownback’s larger tax-increase proposal in part because they feared Kansans in border counties would flock to Missouri to buy their cigarettes, nullifying the revenue boost needed to balance the budget.

Despite anecdotes like Patel’s, the aggregate data shows that so far cigarette tax collections in Kansas haven’t suffered.

Since the state tax rose from 79 cents to $1.29 per pack — a 63.3 percent increase — revenue from tax stamps is up 65.5 percent over the same period in 2014. That means cigarette sales actually have climbed a bit in Kansas for the first five months of the higher tax.

Kansas isn’t losing much cigarette business to Missouri. Nor have Kansans cut back on their cigarette use.

“We haven’t seen the decline in consumption that was expected, but don’t have an explanation,” Jeannine Koranda, a spokeswoman for the Kansas Department of Revenue, said in an email.

Public health advocates had warned that the 50-cent increase wasn’t likely to be nearly the deterrent that Brownback’s proposed $1.50-per-pack hike would have been.

But they still expect it to help lower smoking rates somewhat in the long run.

“Regular and significant tobacco tax increases are an effective strategy for reducing tobacco use, particularly when the increase is coupled with funding for proven cessation programs,” said Kevin Walker, regional vice president of advocacy for the American Heart Association, which was part of a coalition of public health groups that pushed for the governor’s $1.50 increase.
Anti-smoking advocates say the state is paid back several times in public health savings for every dollar lost in tobacco taxes when a person quits.

But in the short term, the extra revenue from Kansans continuing to buy cigarettes looks good to legislators weary of budget crises.

Addressing an interim committee last month, Chris Courtright, the legislative research department’s top economist, called the higher-than-expected cigarette tax revenue “the biggest piece of good news” after months of lackluster reports from other revenue streams.

But Courtright also warned that recent history suggests anti-smoking advocates may be right.

“There may be some early indication that the slippage model developed by the Department of Revenue may have overestimated consumer behavior in response to this particular tax increase,” Courtright said. “But I would hasten to add that the last time the state raised cigarette taxes back in 2002-2003, the major slippage for some reason really began showing up in the second fiscal year. So this one will also bear some close scrutiny, I think, over the next 18 months.”

Walker offered a possible explanation for the delayed consumer reaction. Tobacco companies often use coupons and rebates to buffer the effect of a tax increase and ease smokers into paying more.

Walker expects cigarette purchases to fall but said Kansas policymakers still have work to do to deter smoking. The tax rate remains in the bottom half of states nationally, and Kansas doesn’t fund programs that help people quit at recommended levels.

Other products

Brownback’s proposal for the last legislative session would have raised the tax rate on other tobacco products as well, but legislators stripped that part from the final package.

The current tax of 10 percent of wholesale price on products like smokeless tobacco and cigars has not changed in decades. Jodi Radke, regional advocacy director for the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, said not keeping the smokeless tobacco tax in line with the cigarette tax gives smokers an incentive to shift their addiction to smokeless tobacco rather than quit.

“The Legislature’s decision to not include other tobacco products in the final package last session, despite Gov. Brownback’s inclusion in his budget proposal, was disappointing and a missed opportunity that encourages users to choose alternate products to evade the current taxation on cigarettes,” Radke said.

Smokeless tobacco users remain a much smaller share of the overall tobacco market than cigarette smokers, but their numbers have been growing in recent years while cigarette use has declined.

Radke said if the Legislature is willing to consider increasing the tax rate on other tobacco products in the upcoming session, her group would support that.

Anti-smoking advocates will be taking more of a “wait-and-see” approach on e-cigarette taxes, she said.

Last year’s tax package included a levy on the liquid nicotine that e-cigarettes burn to produce an inhalable vapor. The tax goes into effect in July 2016, but e-cigarette industry representatives have called it unworkably vague, given the variation in e-cigarette liquids.

Tax committee leaders have said they’ll take another look at it during the 2016 session, and Radke said anti-smoking advocates will watch what comes of those talks.

“We anticipate that the introduced language last session may change, and thus, will need to see the language before determining any level of involvement or position,” Radke said.

Other health advocates have said they’ll push for e-cigarettes to be included in the state’s smoking ban during the upcoming session. In August, Topeka became the sixth Kansas city to add them to local smoking bans.

Andy Marso is a reporter for KHI News Service in Topeka, a partner in the Heartland Health Monitor team. You can reach him on Twitter @andymarso

Resource :http://salinapost.com/2016/01/10/kansas-cigarette-sales-up-after-tax-increase-but-further-hike-unlikely/

Legislation would prohibit use of e-cigarettes in restaurants

By JOHN REID BLACKWELL Richmond Times-Dispatch

State lawmakers will tackle at least one proposal during this General Assembly session to restrict the use of electronic cigarettes in some public places such as restaurants.

Smoking conventional cigarettes has been prohibited inside Virginia restaurants since 2009, with an exception for eateries that allow smoking only in separately enclosed and ventilated rooms.

A bill introduced by Sen. John C. Miller, D-Newport News, would expand that prohibition to include electronic cigarettes, the battery-powered devices that some smokers use as an alternative to conventional cigarettes.

Miller’s bill, which has been referred to the Senate committee on local government, seeks to broaden the definition of “smoking” in the Virginia Indoor Clean Air Act to include e-cigarettes, also known as vapor products.

The bill is facing opposition from the Virginia Smoke Free Association, a trade group that was formed last year by electronic cigarette retailers to advocate for the burgeoning e-cigarette industry. The group currently has about 50 members.

Miller said he introduced the bill to protect people from exposure to e-cigarette vapor in restaurants.

“A few years ago, we banned smoking in restaurants, and I think that is a good thing,” Miller said. “It protects folks from secondhand smoke and makes the dining experience much more enjoyable.”

“What we didn’t do is account for e-cigarettes,” he said. “You walk into a restaurant and there is somebody puffing away on an e-cig and spewing God knows what into the atmosphere.

“I just think, if we have banned smoking in restaurants, it is logical that we ban e-cigarettes in restaurants as well.”

The bill also would bar e-cigarette use in such areas as elevators, cashier lines, schools and school buses and day care centers.

Jay Taylor, owner of the Voltage Vapin’ store in Chesterfield County, contends it is unfair to lump e-cigs with conventional cigarettes. His store sells various electronic cigarettes and “vaping” products.

Research indicates that e-cigs contain far fewer toxins and carcinogens than conventional cigarettes, said Taylor, who is acting president of the Smoke Free Association.

Public health groups say that, because e-cigarettes are not regulated, there is no way to know what ingredients they might contain and their health risk.

The devices do not produce smoke from burning tobacco. Instead, they heat a liquid solution of propylene glycol or vegetable glycerin and nicotine, producing a vapor that the user inhales. The practice has come to be known as “vaping.”

“The reason I started this organization is to protect this industry for our consumers,” Taylor said. “I started my business because I was a three-pack-a-day smoker, and I was able to get off cigarettes within 48 hours by using these products. I knew if it would work for me, it would work for anybody.

“I have got thousands of customers that I have helped switch from traditional tobacco to electronic cigarettes, or vapor products,” he said. “I really feel like it is my duty to help protect this industry.”

To lobby on its behalf, the Smoke Free Association has retained Steve Baril, a partner with Kaplan Voekler Cunningham & Frank PLC in Richmond.

“Our agenda is not to advocate for the right to vape anywhere,” Baril said. “The way it stands now, any particular restaurant has the prerogative to ask a customer not to do that.”

Most chain restaurants have voluntarily banned e-cig use, Taylor said, based on anecdotal information. Independent and mom-and-pop restaurants have tended to be more open to vaping, “as long as you are not being obnoxious,” he said.

The Smoke Free Association also was gearing up to fight a bill introduced by Del. Paul E. Krizek, D-Fairfax, that would levy a 15 percent wholesale tax on e-cigarettes.

But Krizek said last week that he intends to withdraw the bill for this legislative session. He said he plans to work with public health groups to introduce a more comprehensive tax bill next year.

Resource :http://www.newsadvance.com/work_it_lynchburg/news/legislation-would-prohibit-use-of-e-cigarettes-in-restaurants/article_b1b99a36-c350-11e5-8e73-2b8fb24b30bf.html