Smokers at Brandon Regional Hospital will have to stifle their tobacco cravings. ...more

December 30, 2009

Not a fan Oprah Winfrey has announced that she will go off the air in 2011. I'm suggesting she do us all a favor and do it earlier, at the end of this month. What a waste of air time. ...more

November 27, 2009

Volunteers cooking up turkeys. ...more

November 25, 2009

The pros and cons of coffee continue to be studied and debated. What might its effect be on stroke? ...more

March 28, 2009

While the price of gasoline burned holes in the wallets of weary consumers last summer, one money-saving option for cash-strapped smokers caught on like wildfire. ...more

March 25, 2009

More than 400,000 people in the United States will die this year from a tobacco-related disease. For Kick Butts Day this year, SWAT students from Avon Park and Sebring high schools are taking a stand to stop youth from getting hooked on deadly tobacco products. ...more

March 23, 2009

Florida is long overdue to increase the tax/user fee on tobacco products. Florida is currently 46th in the country in cigarette tax at 33.9 cents per pack. Florida ranks second in cancer incidents and sells the most packs of cigarettes in the country, with 1.3 billion sold each year. ...more

March 23, 2009

Santiago Carrasco, store manager of Tobacco Depot on Bloomingdale Avenue, said that about the time gas hit $4 a gallon, smokers with pipe dreams about saving a few bucks came in packs to his store to ask how – and how much it would cost - to roll their own cigarettes. But the do-it-yourself department that has been positively smokin' for some eight months is about to be extinguished, he said. An enormous price increase in conjunction with the federal excise tax that takes effect April 1 has already begun to snuff it out. ...more

March 20, 2009

Cigarettes have been a relatively inexpensive addiction for smokers in Florida, even as a pack has neared $4 for most brands. ...more

March 18, 2009

On April 1, the federal excise tax on cigarettes will rise to $1.01 per pack, up 62 cents from the current level. And the Florida Legislature is considering a $1-per-pack increase in the state tax. ...more

March 17, 2009