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Lindsay Lohan Handed Bathroom Attendant $100 After Sneaky Cigarette Break at White House Dinner  

• A call to arms for a class war, from the top down 

Two months before he was nominated for the Supreme Court, Lewis F. Powell Jr. penned a confidential memo to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce calling for an aggressive counterattack by business against the progressive ideology that had gripped the nation.

Lewis F. Powell's 1971 memorandum to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce --- "Attack on American Free Enterprise System" -- may or may not have been the first shot fired in the nation's late-20th-century right-wing revolution. But from the document's title to its ominous conclusion -- "Business and the enterprise system are in deep trouble, and the hour is late" -- it was a literal call to the political arms that have subsequently driven the nation's devolution from democracy to oligarchy. . . .

In a brief introduction to the document itself, the Primary Sources website declares, "The memo is credited with inspiring the founding of many conservative think tanks, including the Heritage Foundation, the Cato Institute and the Manhattan Institute."

In an October 2011 speech at Public Citizens' 40th anniversary gala in New York City, journalist Bill Moyers pinpointed its submission as the moment today's ruling oligarchy began taking form. An excerpt titled "How Wall Street Occupied America" was published in the Nov. 2, 2011, issue of The Nation.

"The rise of the money power in our time goes back 40 years," he said. "We can pinpoint the date. On Aug. 23, 1971, a corporate lawyer named Lewis Powell -- a board member of the death-dealing tobacco giant Philip Morris and a future justice of the Supreme Court -- released a confidential memorandum for his friends at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. We look back on it now as a call to arms for class war waged from the top down." . . .

Schmitt credited the Alliance for Justice's 1993 report "Justice for Sale" with reviving interest in the Powell Memo. He termed the report "a superb and still-relevant analysis of the use of corporate and right-wing foundation funds to reshape the legal academy, to introduce judges to 'law and economics' dogma, to promote tort reform and to build right-wing public-interest law firms." . . .

Still, Schmitt said, the Powell Memo has been "routinely invoked as the blueprint for virtually all of the conservative intellectual infrastructure built in the 1970s and 1980s - 'a memo that changed the course of history,' in the words of one analysis of the anti-environmental movement, 'the attack memo that changed America,' in another account." "The memo is credited with inspiring the founding of many conservative think tanks, including the Heritage Foundation, the Cato Institute and the Manhattan Institute."

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• Tobacco: The intriguing story of Bermuda and Virginia  

Could it be that the Spanish or Portuguese, well acquainted with tobacco since 1492, planted tobacco in Bermuda and probably the better quality Caribbean variety? Raleigh's Indian tobacco was of inferior quality compared to the Caribbean variety. Tobacco does not cross oceans easily and grow naturally or wild, yet two patches of tobacco were found in Bermuda: In 1603, tobacco was found by the shipwrecked Captain Ramirez at Spanish Point and it is arguable that Sir George Somers found or grew a patch of tobacco at Tobacco Bay, St George's in 1609. Could it be that Sir George Somers and John Rolfe (both on the Sea Venture which was wrecked in Bermuda on its way to Jamestown in July 1609) took the Bermuda Tobacco seed to Virginia from Bermuda on the two ships they built, the Deliverance and Patience, in May 1610?

Several facts support this theory:

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Chelsea Handler: I paid $500 to have a pack of ‘Russian hooker’ cigarettes delivered to my home  

In a podcast interview with “WTF with Marc Maron,” which aired Monday, the outspoken host of “Chelsea Lately” admitted she recently paid $500 to have a pack of cigarettes delivered to her doorstep.

Handler, 37, recalled inviting some co-workers to have drinks at her Bel Air home, where the group ended up playing ping pong and watching the tear-inducing romantic-drama, “Like Crazy.”

“I smoke sometimes when I drink,” explained Handler, whose list of best-selling books includes “Are You There Vodka? It’s Me, Chelsea.” “I like to smoke when I drink so I only drink a couple nights a week, actually.”

“Around 1 in the morning, I decided I wanted a cigarette so we called Yummy.com,” she continued. . . .

“I called them back and said ‘I will give you $500 if you bring me a pack of Capris.’ And they’re like, ‘What are Capris?’” she said. “I’m like ‘They’re for Russian hookers and we need a pack of Capris and I will give you $500.’”

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THIS WEEK IN LOCAL HISTORY: Agents raided Mid-Missouri strip clubs  

25 YEARS AGO

From the Centralia Fireside Guard, April 29, 1987: The Boone County Courthouse was set to go smokeless on May 15 — almost. The city of Columbia enacted an ordinance restricting smoking in public buildings, but the Boone County Commission made a change at the courthouse because it was not a part of city government.

Smoking in courtrooms was already banned. Individual offices within the courthouse would be allowed to designate a private smoking area.

Northern District Commissioner Alex Gates was a smoker but voted for the ban.

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SMOKING FINE BURNS UP KIRSTEN DUNST  

Smokin' hot KIRSTEN DUNST got all burned up during lunch in the Chateau Marmont garden when a waiter told her to douse her cigarette pronto - or be liable for a $500 fine!

Snapped the "Spider-Man" sweetie: "I always smoke here!"

Sighed the waiter: "Not anymore!" - explaining that the hotel's now strictly enforcing the city of West Hollywood's no-smoking policies, which include fines for both the establishment and the smoker!

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Kyle’s puffed his way through three marathons  

RUNNER Kyle Stephens rewarded himself with a cigarette at the end of each of the three marathons he has completed.

The exhausted 28-year-old ran in the London, Brighton and Milton Keynes marathons over a 15 day stretch.

He was raising money for Epilepsy Action because his niece, 17-year-old Siobhan, has been affected by the condition.

Kyle gave up smoking two months ago and plans to stay away from the cigarettes but could not resist a quick puff after each of the gruelling runs.

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Iconic skyscraper may find new life as hotel  

I am not a bad influence: Srinagara Kitty 

Judge Floyd McBride dies; memorized the dictionary to show he had the smarts to become a lawyer 

Judge Floyd McBride Jr. died Monday (April 23, 2012) at Barnes-Jewish Extended Care center in Clayton. He was 81 and a longtime resident of St. Louis before moving to Glendale.

Judge McBride gave up cigarettes in the 1970s and took up cigar smoking. He gave up his stogies in 2001 after a five-way bypass operation. Ten days before his death, his family said, he was diagnosed with lung, liver and bone cancer.

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Enoch Williams, 5-Term New York City Councilman, Dies at 84  

Enoch H. Williams, a former New York City councilman who used his leadership positions to pass a law banning smoking in most public spaces and to help stop the Giuliani administration from selling city-owned hospitals, but who also came under fire from gay rights groups, died on Tuesday at his home in Heathrow, Fla. He was 84.

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Tardy Lindsay Lohan's Smoky Day on the "Glee" Set 

John Lydon Calls For Smoking Ban Review 

Rocker John Lydon is urging British Prime Minister David Cameron to overturn the U.K.'s smoking ban, insisting it's a "ludicrous" law.

Legislation prohibiting tobacco smoking in public buildings was introduced in 2007, but the punk icon has never been a fan of the law and now he's suggesting citizens should to be given the option of going to venues where they are allowed to light up.

The Sex Pistols star tells Nme, "It's ridiculous you're forcing people out onto the streets. Save the health of non-smokers within? Then have smoking-environment pubs! Give people the choice.

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Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan summoned for smoking 

A court in India's Rajasthan state has summoned Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan for smoking in public.

The actor has been asked to appear in court in the city of Jaipur on 26 May.

Khan is accused of violating anti-smoking laws and setting a bad example by smoking during an Indian Premier League (IPL) match on 8 April.

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Cameron's new nanny "shop lifts, smokes and swears"