Free Talk Live

A Florida man trying to kick the smoking habit was puffing on an electronic cigarette when a faulty battery caused it to explode in his mouth, taking out some of his front teeth and a chunk of his tongue and severely burning his face, fire officials said Wednesday.

SFO banned electronic cigarettes earlier this month and now the city is in the first stages of banning them. The plan is to fold them into the current smoking ordinance, saying that anything that looks, feels or functions like a cigarette is a cigarette and has to be banned from public places.

In many states, Gary Richards would not have been able to light up a cigarette before biting into his meat-lover's pizza, as he did at Satisfaction Restaurant & Bar this week. But in North Carolina, the nation’s leading tobacco producer, limits on indoor smoking have lagged behind those in much of the country.

A man who refused to stop smoking an electronic cigarette forced a Continental Airlines flight to return to Portland Tuesday afternoon. he was held overnight on a federal detainer and formal charges are expected today. The Department of Transportation is considering banning the devices, which are currently legal. However, Continental has a policy banning the use of e-smokes.

CONCORD, N.H. — “I can tell you in New Hampshire people don’t like sales tax,” a diner eating lunch in a Concord restaurant told the former Godfather’s Pizza CEO. “Don’t confuse the New Hampshire sales tax with this because you’re going to have to pay that anyway,” Cain said.

But the man quickly corrected the presidential candidate: “New Hampshire doesn’t have a sales tax.” “Don’t mix the two,” Cain insisted. “Some people say, well we don’t want a sales tax. It’s not a state sales tax.”

SACRAMENTO — The days of most tax-free Internet shopping in California are over.

After years of controversy, the world's largest online retailer, Amazon.com Inc., was set to begin collecting state and local sales taxes on California purchases at 12:01 a.m. Saturday. Depending on where you live, sales taxes in the state range from 7.25% to 9.75%.

Electronic cigarettes are opening a new front in the tobacco wars as state and local lawmakers try to restrict the product, which may allow users to circumvent smoking bans.

Not content with driving cigarette sales out-of-state with high taxes, New York Michael Bloomberg has begun a "partnership" aimed at “reducing alcohol retail outlet density" and "reduc[ing] the exposure to alcohol products and bar advertising and promotion in retail." Hey, it worked in the 1920s, right?

Amazon is no fan of collecting state sales taxes, and it's ready to play hardball once again in its attempt to avoid the levy. An e-mail sent from the company to all of its Illinois affiliates this morning warns that, should Illinois Governor Pat Quinn sign a just-passed tax bill, Amazon is cutting off every affiliate in Illinois.