Steve Kroft

Few journalists have achieved the impact and recognition that Steve Kroft' s "60 Minutes" work has generated for over two decades. He delivered his first report for the broadcast in September 1989; the 2012-13 season is his 24th on "60 Minutes."

Kroft's "60 Minutes" story on insider trading in the U.S. Congress in late 2011 drove the passage of Senate and House versions of the STOCK Act (Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge) to prevent members of Congress from financial market trading based on nonpublic information learned in the course of their congressional work. His investigation of the Stuxnet computer virus that sabotaged the Iranian nuclear program served as a reminder of the weapon's threat to U.S. infrastructure or other high profile targets. He also reported two of the biggest news stories of 2011, getting the only interview of President Barack Obama on the killing of Osama bin Laden and revealing that Greg Mortenson lied in his best-selling book, "Three Cups of Tea" and misrepresented the achievements of his charity.

In 2010, Kroft was chosen for the Paul White Award by the Radio, Television and Digital News Association (RTDNA) - the highest honor from the industry's largest peer association. At the same time, he became the only "60 Minutes" correspondent to ever win two Peabody Awards in the same year. One was for a story on the vulnerability to computer hackers of crucial infrastructures like the power grid, and the other for a story examining the enormous sums of money spent prolonging the lives of dying Americans, bringing his total number of Peabody awards to five. The year 2010 continued to bring more recognition, as he received a George Polk award for his report attributing wild swings in the price of oil to Wall Street speculation and an Emmy for his report on rising Islamic militancy in Pakistan.

In 2008, he landed what was arguably the biggest interview of the year: the first post-election sit-down with Barack and Michelle Obama. It was broadcast on "60 Minutes" Nov. 16 to 25.1 million viewers, the largest primetime television audience of the season to that point. His joint investigation with the Washington Post exposing the deeply flawed forensic science of bullet lead analysis won the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism award earlier in 2008 and was one of four major awards he won in the space of a year. He won the Sigma Delta Chi award for the same story and the coveted Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University silver baton for an investigation into the disappearance of over $500 million from Iraq's treasury. He also received the Fred Friendly First Amendment award from Quinnipiac University, one of the industry's most prestigious recognitions, in May 2007. His considerable body of work also was recognized with a Lifetime Achievement Emmy in September 2003. And one of his finest investigative stories, a report examining the conflicts of interest between military contractors and the government in the awarding of contracts, "All in the Family" (April 2003), earned him a Peabody Award.

Many of Kroft's other "60 Minutes" reports have been recognized by awards committees. His report "America's Worst Nightmare" (Oct. 2000), on Pakistan's political instability, nuclear weapons and ties to Islamic militant groups such as the Taliban, won him an Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University silver baton for a report the committee called "strikingly prophetic." "I.N.S." (March 2002), on the Immigration and Naturalization Service, was cited as one of the reports for which CBS News won the 2003 Overall Excellence Award from the RTDNA. Kroft won an Emmy for a "60 Minutes" segment about the risks posed to the nation's water supply by the gasoline additive MTBE.

In 1998, two of Kroft's "60 Minutes" reports were honored with a George Foster Peabody Award: "Veronica Guerin," a piece about an Irish reporter gunned down by drug dealers, and "West Side Story," an uplifting account of racial tension turned into racial harmony. Another Peabody winner, "Friendly Fire," about a Gulf War incident which explored the tragic, yet common occurrence of soldiers accidentally killing their own men, was broadcast on "60 Minutes" in 1992.

In 1996, Kroft's report "The Worst Nightmare" was the first to document the involvement of the Russian mafia in the smuggling of nuclear materials out of the former Soviet Union. The story won the prestigious Renner Award for reporting on organized crime, which is given by the Association of Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE).

In 1994, Kroft was honored with two of his 11 Emmy Awards. One was for a profile of Senator Bob Dole and the other for a report on the Cuban government's policy of quarantining people infected with the AIDS virus. His 1998 story about the tough, flamboyant mayor of Moscow, Yuri Luzhkov, won an Emmy as well.

His exclusive 1992 interview with then-Governor Bill Clinton and his wife, Hillary, ended up on the front page of virtually every newspaper in the country, and it is continually cited as one of the defining moments of that presidential election.

Two of Kroft's most significant reports have been on Chernobyl. In 1990, he was the first American journalist to be given extensive access to the contaminated nuclear power complex in Ukraine. That report also won an Emmy for special achievement in broadcasting. Kroft returned to Chernobyl in 1994 and became the first American reporter to enter the crippled reactor building.

Other memorable "60 Minutes" stories include an undercover investigation on the rolling back of odometers by car wholesalers in Houston, which triggered a federal grand-jury investigation that resulted in five convictions; the only television interview with Woody Allen during his bitter custody battle with Mia Farrow; a report on alleged jury tampering in the O. J. Simpson murder case; and his investigation of Saddam Hussein's hidden financial assets, estimated in the billions of dollars, which attracted worldwide attention.

Before joining "60 Minutes," Kroft was a principal correspondent on the CBS News magazine "West 57th," after having been a foreign correspondent for CBS News based in the London bureau, a period during which he covered international terrorism in Europe and the Middle East, including the TWA hijacking in Beirut, the massacres at the Rome and Vienna airports by the Abu Nidal terrorist cell and the Achille Lauro hijacking. He also covered the war in Beirut and the sectarian violence in Northern Ireland. His report for the CBS Evening News on the assassination of Indira Gandhi won an Emmy Award.

Prior to his assignment in London, Kroft was a correspondent in the CBS News Miami bureau (1983) and traveled extensively in Latin America and the Caribbean. During that time, he covered the civil war in El Salvador and the U.S. invasion of Grenada.

Kroft joined CBS News in January 1980 as a reporter in the Northeast bureau in New York. He was named a correspondent in May 1981 and worked out of the Dallas bureau (January 1981-May 1983).

Before joining CBS News, Kroft was a reporter for WPLG-TV Miami, WJXT-TV Jacksonville, Fla., and WSYR-TV Syracuse, N.Y.

He was born Aug. 22, 1945, in Kokomo, Ind., and was graduated from Syracuse University in 1967 with a bachelor of science degree. He was honored by his alma mater in 1992 with the George Arents Medal, the highest honor the university gives to an alumnus. Kroft earned a master's degree from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and received an honorary doctorate of humane letters from Indiana University. He served with the United States Army in Vietnam as a correspondent and photographer for Pacific Stars and Stripes.

Kroft is married to journalist Jennet Conant. They live in New York with their son, John Conant Kroft.

[Hydra-Glide]

Friday, 17 May 2013

Good News!

~ No Association Between Cumulative Consumption Of Cannabis Smoke And Lung Cancer Risk ~
Los Angeles, CA: Subjects who regularly inhale cannabis smoke possess no greater risk of lung cancer than do those who consume it occasionally or not at all, according to data presented at the annual meeting of the American Academy for Cancer Research.

Investigators from the University of California, Los Angeles analyzed data from six case-control studies, conducted between 1999 and 2012, involving over 5,000 subjects (2,159 cases and 2,985 controls) from around the world.

Researchers reported, "Our pooled results showed no significant association between the intensity, duration, or cumulative consumption of cannabis smoke and the risk of lung cancer overall or in never smokers."

Previous case-control studies have also failed to find an association between cannabis smoking and head and neck cancers or cancers of the upper aerodigestive tract.

Preclinical studies have documented that cannabinoids possess potent anti-cancer properties, including the inhibition of lung cancer cell growth. To date, however, scientists have yet to conduct clinical trials seeking to replicate these results in human subjects.

For more information, please contact Allen St. Pierre, NORML Executive Director, at [phone] or Paul Armentano, NORML Deputy Director, at: [e-mail].

[Hydra-Glide]

~ THE MARIHUANA TAX ACT OF 1937 ~
~ Why the name "MARIJUANA" has now been abandoned ~
~ Now known as "GODSPRIN" or "GOD'S ELIXIR"

Some parties have argued that the aim of the 1937 Tax Act was to reduce the size of the hemp industry, largely as an effort of businessmen Andrew Mellon, Randolph Hearst, and the Du Pont family. The same parties have argued that with the invention of the decorticator, hemp had became a very cheap substitute for the paper pulp that was used in the newspaper industry. These parties argue that Hearst felt that this was a threat to his extensive timber holdings. Mellon, Secretary of the Treasury and the wealthiest man in America, had invested heavily in the Du Pont family's new synthetic fiber, nylon, a fiber that was competing with hemp.
In 1916, United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) chief scientists Jason L. Merrill and Lyster H. Dewey created a paper, USDA Bulletin No. 404 "Hemp Hurds as Paper-Making Material", in which they concluded that paper from the woody inner portion of the hemp stem broken into pieces, so called hemp hurds, was "favorable in comparison with those used with pulp wood". Dewey and Merrill believed that hemp hurds were a suitable source for paper production. However, later research does not confirm this. The concentration of cellulose in hemp hurds is only between 32-percent and 38-percent (not 77-percent, a number often repeated by Jack Herer [Cannabis or "Godsprin" grower] and others on the Internet).
Manufacture of paper with hemp as a raw material has shown that hemp lacks the qualities needed to become a major competitor to the traditional paper industry, which still uses wood or waste paper as raw material. In 2003, 95% of the hemp hurds in EU were used for animal bedding, almost 5% were used as building material.

The American Medical Association (AMA) opposed the "1937 Gods Elixir Tax Act" act because the tax was imposed on physicians prescribing cannabis, retail pharmacists selling cannabis, and medical cannabis cultivation/manufacturing. The AMA proposed that cannabis instead be added to the Harrison Narcotics Tax Act. The bill was passed over the last-minute objections of the American Medical Association. Dr. William Woodward, legislative counsel for the AMA objected to the bill on the grounds that the bill had been prepared in SECRET without giving proper time to prepare their opposition to the bill. He doubted their claims about marijuana addiction, violence, and overdosage; he further asserted that because the word Marijuana was largely unknown at the time, the medical profession did not realize they were losing cannabis. "Marijuana is not the correct term... Yet the burden of this bill is placed heavily on the doctors and pharmacists of this country."
------------------------------------------------------------
True, Marijuana has never been the correct term. So, what is the correct term?
Since cannabis was on earth about 10,000 years before the creation of "Jesus" was even a concept, we assert that cannabis was here first, so it belongs to GOD. Cannabis has healing powers. We call that "Elixir".

"God's Elixir" is one term that may be used from this day forward.

For those that find that term too cumbersome to pronounce, we have developed another term for everyday use, by combining the still mysterious, modern miracle compound word ASPRIN, with GOD the owner of cannabis, to form GODSPRIN.

Your choice today, but "Marijuana and Marihuana" have been bundled, wrapped, and sent back to the families of Hearst, Mellon and Du Pont and the Episcopal Church for their safe keeping in a small dark place of their own choosing.

[Hydra-Glide]

As a matter of fact, the word "Marijuana" or "Marihuana" is a Wikipedia public-certified racial slur that is meant to infer that cannabis and the violent addiction reactions of weed that Hearst propagated in his newspapers originated in Mexico.
Not so! My prior hashish smuggling routes and the people I was involved with, all point to southwest-central China (Uighurs: wee-gers) as the spot where cannabis smoke was first inhaled.

Marijuana and Marihuana are terms as prejudice as "******".
Change the name.

[Hydra-Glide]

~ The Respect State Marijuana Laws Act, H.R. 1523 ~

A 75-year old battle of persecution will be won, by a historic bill introduced in Congress that will spare marijuana users from federal prosecution in states where pot is legal.

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (Republican, Calif.), the bipartisan bill's main sponsor, called the measure a 'common-sense approach' that respects individual states' marijuana laws. Eighteen (18) states (and Washington, D.C.) all have laws legalizing the use of medical marijuana, along with the states of Colorado and Washington that voted in 2012, to legalize cannabis (aka, Hearst/Dupont/Mellon "marihuana" lie) for recreational use.

A bill was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives Friday, May 3, that would effectively tell the U.S. Justice Department to stop persecuting marijuana users in states where the drug has been made legal for either medical or recreational use.

Dubbed the ~ Respect State Marijuana Laws Act, H.R. 1523 ~ would modify the federal Controlled Substances Act and grant immunity from federal prosecution to any person acting in accordance with state marijuana laws.
"This bipartisan bill represents a common-sense approach that establishes federal government respect for all states' marijuana laws," Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.), the bill's main sponsor, said in a press release. "It does so by keeping the federal government out of the business of criminalizing marijuana activities in states that don't want it to be criminal."
So far, 18 states and the District of Columbia have passed laws legalizing the use of medical marijuana, and in 2012 Washington and Colorado became the first two states to legalize the recreational use of the drug for people over the age of 21.
The bill's bipartisan sponsors include Reps. Justin Amash (R-Mich.), Don Young (R-Alaska), Earl Blumenauer (D-Oregon), Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.) and Jared Polis (D-Colo.).
A survey released last week by the Pew Research Center found that, for the first time, more Americans now favor legalizing marijuana. Fifty-two percent of those asked said they thought pot should be legal, while 45% said the drug should be illegal.
As voters in more states have legalized marijuana, the drug is still classified as a Schedule I controlled substance under the Controlled Substances Act, and its possession, sale and use is subject to prosecution.
Public opinion, however, appears to be in staunch opposition to the enforcement federal marijuana laws over state measures.
Sixty percent of those surveyed told Pew that the federal government should not try to prosecute marijuana users in states where the drug has been made legal.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Of Note:
This bill will be heard in Congress about June 15, but before adjournment.
Friday, May 3, the DEA vowed to close every dispensary and MMJ delivery service in San Diego County before Congress meets on H.R. 1523 in June.

A myth is being circulated by the prohibitionist that Marijuana Delivery Services are sleazo. NOT SO!

https://legalmarijuanadispensary.com/dispensaries/california/north-inland/green-nectar-delivery-8ths-4-0g

This is the same "lab tested meds" delivery service I posted months ago. They have to keep on the move and changing their internet locations in order to supply patients with state lab-tested weed and avoid the DEA's black persecution "death squads".
Once you find a supplier for "ThC lab tested marijuana", you will never buy anything but lab tested. Read the menu. See the photos. That's what you get.
I use about one (1) ounce a month or less, plus I keep a couple of Green Nectar's 80+ percent ThC hash oil cartridges for my (2) Blunt-E battery vaporizer pens for "padded comfort".
I buy a 1/2 ounce at a time, because I like marijuana over 27-percent ThC only. This way I can wait until the 27, 28, 29+ percent Thc weed shows up on the menu. I make a call and receive a delivery of not 3.5 grams, but four (4) grams or (32 gram ounces!). I can use my credit card to pay and gain air miles.
I don't have to drive anywhere. My daily routine is not upset. I would have No Need to ever go into a brick and mortar pot shop, if I can have it delivered. So delivery is a Good thing Martha. Stay home.

[Hydra-Glide]

~ A Civics Lesson in the Progression of a Federal Bill ~

In preparation for the passage of H.R.1523, "Respect States Marijuana Laws Act", the federal courts are now indexing for hearings, all court cases pertinent to the Re-Classification of Marijuana from a Schedule-1, Class-A Narcotic, before the H.R. 1523 Bill is heard, on or before, June 15, 2013.

A unanimous California state Supreme Court ruled on Monday, May 6, 2013, that local governments can outlaw medical marijuana dispensaries if they desire, rejecting arguments that the states' landmark medical marijuana law, Prop. 215 prohibited such bans.
The ruling from the high court was expected - the justices telegraphed as much during oral arguments in the case several months ago, and is seen by activists as a positive prelude to passing the H.R 1523 Bill of "states right to choose".
In the past, approximately 200 city governments around the state have passed some kind of law prohibiting MMJ sales and distribution. The ruling by the state Supreme Court gives all city governments a sound base to make decisions from, for or against dispensaries, once H.R. 1523 has been established as federal law.
The 44-page ruling on Monday, said that California's successful Proposition 215 was narrow in scope, and did no more than eliminate prosecution for MMJ use under certain circumstances, and "Did not establish a comprehensive state system of legalized MMJ; or grant a right of convenient access to MMJ, or override the zoning, licensing, and police powers of local jurisdictions; or mandate local accommodations of MMJ cooperatives, collectives or dispensaries", but included in the decision, Associate Justice Marvin Baxter added that, "The legislature, if it wanted to, could pass laws addressing those areas".
----------------------------------------
Thank you Judge Baxter.

[mostlydisappointed]

PLEASE revisit the STOCK ACT report! It's toothless now, so either find out why or remove the accolade at the beginning of your bio. The report you did 2 years ago was fantastic! Keep on these greedy politicians!!!

[Hydra-Glide]

"STOCK ACT....It's toothless now"...."
•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

Thanks for last night's update. So, how can Congress wipe-out the

restrictions put in place recently to keep them from profiting from

early stock tips now? Nothing?

Why take the time and money to create a law that will be changed a

couple of weeks later, by the politicians it was intended to govern?

***?

What if citizens started writing their own amendments to laws on

the books - following by example?

Who exactly was in the room when this took place? WHO?

We want to know. Drag their butts on screen.

[Hydra-Glide]

~ San Diego Marijuana State of the Non-Profit Address ~

Former (D) congressman, now mayor, Bob Filner's 2013 Marijuana Dispensary proposal on Monday, April 22, that would have allowed dispensaries within 600 ft. of each other and schools, was stifled before it's merits barely began discussion, by Councilwoman Marti Emerald, who suggested using an older (2011) ordinance as a starting point to create new rules for dispensaries today.

The past-proposed 2011 ordinance required a 600 foot separation of pot shops from each other, churches, schools, playgrounds, libraries, child care, and youth facilities.
The 2011 ordinance was thought to be too restrictive for the "growers" and "pot shop owners", so they collectively paid "petition signature gatherer's" to successfully thwart the 2011 city proposal.
The pot shops and patients were then attacked by the city attorney who attempted to close all of them. But he didn't, and respectable delivery services became available, with a daily menu listing of tHc lab-tested marijuana, that grew cheaper and convenient access to those housebound or not wanting to drive long distances.

["Filnites" note: "Bob's plan" didn't include churches, libraries, or youth facilities within the 600 ft. proposed distance, but included a yearly $5,000 permit fee, and a 2-percent excise tax on wholesale marijuana acquisitions (before retail sales)].

A tentative agreement was been reached on Monday, April, 22.
Councilwoman Emerald reported, "The debate over Medical Marijuana has been settled in California, and it should be allowed for compassionate use" - but said she preferred a more restrictive approach than the one offered by Filner.

In closing, Filner told the council, "It's not an easy balance...On the one hand, we would like to provide (marijuana) access, and on the other hand, we don't want to impose on neighborhoods, and we certainly don't want to endanger our children.
That's the aim. I think we might all share to various degrees of where we put that emphasis on".

One part of Emerald's successful motion was to direct the mayor to enforce the (marijuana) law while a new ordinance goes through the approval process.

- In part, from the S.D. Union Tribune.

[Hydra-Glide]

~ Agricultural Hemp ~

There's been NOTHING NEW in farming since 1938. Same ol' same ol', corn and corn borers, fertilizer n' pesticides; cotton and boll weevils, fertilizer n' pesticides, then they tried some DDT for awhile, but it killed a bunch of wildlife, and over and over since how long? Lobby, lobby, lobby.... ching! 75-years in October. Dow Chemical loves the sequence.

If you want to kick the farm system's butt like Steve Kroft, and change the world to less fertilizers and pesticides, and 5X longer wearing clothing, then take a minute and read up on HEMP. And wonder.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hemp

I've tried to fray and wear-out (3) pair of 17" inseam cell phone shorts for the last (5) months and cannot get the edge of the front pockets to even show any wear at all. Look for yourself.

I am appealing to mother's (because men don't buy anything) as a clothing designer... You-cannot-wear-this-fabric-out. If you did, it will take years and years. Look at the before and after examples of the brown 17" shorts side by side at the bottom of the posting.
The one on the left is new, but the one on the right is un-touched after (5) months of punishing washer/dryer and key-fob abuse. The right pocket edge isn't even frayed at all for crying out loud! I don't sell these shorts. They're for you to wear-judge only.

Look at the frayed edges of the 100% cotton khaki's.... they're done-in. Wasted at (5) months.

Demand 55% hemp/ 45% cotton. Tell your haberdashery you'll go elsewhere to find them.

http://vintagetwin.com/topic.php?id=192

[Hydra-Glide]

Hemp won't take the place of cotton, but it frees-up enough supply - that perhaps Penny's can return to a (Towncraft) heavy-weight pocket-T and survive.

[truzika]

Your report on how representatives is the house were profiting in the stock market from information not accessible to the public is by far the best piece of journalism since the Watergate scandal. It directly led to the passage of the Stock Act four months later. Those who profited like Pelosi and Boehner should be ashamed of themselves. You exposed that they care more about personal gain than the American people they pretend to serve. Before your report, only six congressman supported the Stock Act. In less than six months after your report, it passed. What an amazing turnaround. You're my hero Mr. Kroft!

[Hydra-Glide]

Yep. No doubt about it. Kroft kicked Nancy Pelosi's butt and made Boehner cry (while peeking through his fingers, still counting cash).

Her expression was a snapshot moment in Greed, delivered in classic Kroft style - pencil held aloft near his right temple and it shell-shocked her to the bone.

It's the only revenge and justice to "*dry-thieving" we're able to receive as a viewing group.
There's a long list of world changes 60 Minutes has created.

(*elected government officials "working" a loophole until someone finally closes it.)

Thanks for all that, for all these years.

[crose2011]

Mr. Kroft

I would love to hear you do a report on the Tulsa Race Riot that happened in Greenwood Oklahoma May 31 or 1 June 1921. This story has remained out of history books. Greenwood was known as the Black Wall Street and at the time it was the wealthiest Black community in the United States. Investigate the story and please tell the world.

[Hydra-Glide]

Read up:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulsa_race_riot

[Hydra-Glide]

~ Guinness Book of World Record Contender ~

There's an alternative means for immediate world-wide Medical Marijuana recognition. The MMJ community of San Diego County can construct a 30 foot tall, double-chamber, percolating hookah on private property.
I have a single-hose, 1969 issue, gold-leaf, 3 ft. tall glass hooka from Lebanon to use as a start-model. It's silver top is petal fluted with a 2" drilled ceramic "screen".
At 30 ft., the MMJ community hookah would have a 3 ft. wide bowl and stainless-steel mesh screen.
Instead of a single hose, the hookah will have (20) 1/2" surgical rubber hoses.
A cherry picker will load the bowl with (10) kilos of 29.2 % tHc (smooth tasting) Platinum Cookies. A leaf blower will clear the ash and flush the stem and vessel when needed.
People will see and wonder, without a doubt, ask questions.

I'll need to unearth the hookah to post a pic on NORML-San Diego tomorrow, it hasn't been used since 1971.

Now is the time to heard and seen.

[Hydra-Glide]

~ NY Tobacco Products Hidden From View ~

It's interesting to watch New Yorkers rebel against tobacco products being hidden from customers view. We here, in "post-hidden-cigarette-legislation" California have a something to say to our friends in New York, "You won't miss not being assaulted by luring packages of cigarettes above your head at every checkout counter (on either side of the Hudson)."

California keeps packs n' cartons of "nickies" locked inside wooden-slat and chicken-wire enclosures along the exit wall of supermarkets (along with the charcoal and starter fluid). So when a customer wants to invest in a carton, the checkout clerk has to close the register and walk over, or ask an assistant, to unlock the cage and extract their purchase.
From California, watching NY go through a "loss of freedom" protest, is like a snapshot back in time - like we're looking into the past at a scene from 1960 Selma, Alabama - like we can "see" the New Yorkers are "stupid" (not a bad thing) to where their culture should be, and we know that one day their society will be "up" a couple of levels - it's just odd that NY can't evolve at an accelerated pace.
After all, the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock (east coast) not in Newport Beach (west coast).

That fellow Bloomberg doesn't HAVE to work for anybody. He's one-eyed in a blind state - and we don't think he's trying to "make a statement for his own posterity". Ditto with NY's so called "marijuana problem". Every time we watch the NY cop show "Blue Bloods" and they chase a human being around for smoking marijuana and then lock him/her up like they're a criminal.... it's like... "you-poor-ignorant-people, God love you, but you poor-poor-persecuted-uninformed people.
Spend a couple weeks in California or Colorado and you'll see what we mean. You won't think the same when you go back to NY.
Keep Bloomberg. Judge his decisions 2 years after implementation. Let him do what he wants. We belive he "knows" more than his protesters. Nicotine is a nasty habit to kick, but you have to sometime.

We went to France for 2 weeks around 1994, just before the cigarette ban began at the NYC airports. When we came back the smoking ban was in effect. We could see and smell the difference immediately. New Yorker's were already stalking smoker's - spotting lurkers in the airport shadows and saying, "Look! - there's one of those smoking weasels now!".

Get behind Bloomberg, not in front of him.