| State looking to smokers to finance health care law
A $1 increase would bring it to $6.41, or about 32 cents per cigarette. Harwich resident Carol Hughes said the price hike wouldn't keep her from smoking. "I won't stop, but I would have to smoke less," she said, working at a Christy's in Dennisport on Route 28. Hughes said she used to smoke 10 packs a week, but as state taxes have risen, she's reduced it to five packs a week. "To me, they are forcing you to stop smoking," Hughes said.
Driven by health careThe cost of the state's new health care law is driving the cigarette tax debate. Since last year, 300,000 state residents have signed up for private or state subsidized health care plans. Gov. Deval Patrick proposed spending $400 million more on health care in the 2009 fiscal budget, in part as a result of rising enrollment in the state's subsidized health insurance programs.
Bad gas has motorists fuming
MOUNT PLEASANT — Rosemary Palonis' troubles all started when she picked up the nozzle to refuel her car Monday afternoon.It was the start of a nightmare for the Chicago resident, who came here to visit her sister, Patricia Palonis, for Super Bowl weekend. Monday Rosemary was ready to head home with her two daughters and two grandchildren.But when she paid for her gasoline at MJ Petroleum, 2325 Racine St., and tried to start her car, Palonis said, “It went about 20 feet, and the whole car shut off, and it wouldn't start."“My daughter said, ‘Mom, it has to be the gas.'" .
1968: 40 years later
As the news spreads, uprisings begin in 125 cities.
6 Eldridge Cleaver is arrested following a police ambush of Black Panthers in Oakland, Calif. He will later escape to Algeria, eventually to be joined by LSD guru Timothy Leary thanks to his own prison break, engineered by the radical Weather Underground.
8 The U.S. Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs, precursor to todays DEA, is established.
23 Student demonstrations lead to the occupation of five campus buildings at Columbia University, in protest of plans for building a gymnasium on land used by the neighboring Harlem community. When police end the sit-in with force eight days later, 700 people are arrested and more than 150 people injured.
27 Vice President Hubert Humphrey announced his candidacy for the job being vacated by LBJ.
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