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• Anti-Tobacco Activists Protest Family Dollar Selling Cigarettes  

A group of anti-tobacco activists is protesting Matthews, N.C.-based Family Dollar's recent decision to start selling cigarettes, saying the stores will push more cigarettes on low-income consumers, who already smoke more than average.

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Bele Chere board delays decision on tobacco sponsorships 

The board of volunteers that helps oversee Bele Chere, the city's annual, three-day summer street party, decided Wednesday to put off a vote on whether to drop tobacco sponsorships of the festival.

A group of local teens has been lobbying the Bele Chere Board of Directors, as well as the city's Parks, Recreation and Cultural Arts Department board, for months with impassioned pleas asking the boards to drop the sponsorships starting in 2013. A group of about 25 teens, parents and other anti-tobacco residents spoke again Wednesday.

"Even though youths aren't allowed into the booth, it still sends a message that it's OK,"

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Iconic skyscraper may find new life as hotel  

Ohio farm union looks to aid tobacco workers in NC 

A farm workers union based in Ohio says it will help lead a discussion about the conditions and rights of workers who cut and harvest tobacco in North Carolina.

The Farm Labor Organizing Committee said it will sit down with tobacco growers and several large tobacco manufacturers to talk about wages and working conditions for the field workers.

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Blue Ridge Terrace going smoke-free on June 1 

Residents who live at Blue Ridge Terrace, particularly those who like to smoke, are being told to take their habit elsewhere.

The apartment complex onCarson Streetgoes smoke-free on June 1.

Judy Lail, manager of Blue Ridge Terrace, said the decision was based on the health effects of secondhand smoke to residents and the overall cost.

"We researched this matter extensively and factored up what it costs the property and residents before we made our decision," she said.

Lail said units that occupy smokers are three times more expensive to refurbish once the smoker moves out.

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March on Reynolds Shareholders Meeting May 3, 2012  

Major tobacco companies agree to meet with FLOC and discuss farmworkers’ right to freedom of association  

• Groups protest Family Dollar tobacco sales  

“We’re not in the business of judging our customers for their purchases,” said Family Dollar spokesman Joshua Braverman. “It’s just another category where we add the convenience for them.”

But in a letter to Family Dollar CEO Howard Levine, the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids and the Break Free Alliance said the increased availability of tobacco at Family Dollar’s 7,100 stores will add to customers’ health problems.

“Selling tobacco to your customers will make it easier for them to become addicted or sustain an existing addiction,” said the letter, co-signed by the groups’ directors. “The fact that your customer base is comprised of low-income families makes your decision even more troubling.”

The groups said about 26.9 percent of low-income adults smoke, compared to 19.3 percent of the total adult population.

Braverman told the Observer that Family Dollar customers smoke at a higher rate than the general population, which was one factor driving the decision to start selling tobacco.

“Our customer over-indexes as tobacco users,” Braverman said. “We know they’re going to other retailers to purchase their tobacco products.”

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State Specific Benefits: NORTH CAROLINA 

The state's largest market was Canada. North Carolina posted merchandise exports of $5.4 billion to Canada in 2010, 22 percent of the state’s total merchandise exports. Canada was followed by China ($2.2 billion), Mexico ($1.8 billion), Japan ($1.7 billion), and France ($1.1 billion).

The state's largest merchandise export category is chemicals manufactures, which accounted for $4.9 billion of North Carolina's total merchandise exports in 2010. Other top merchandise exports are machinery manufactures ($3.1 billion), computers and electronic products ($2.7 billion), transportation equipment ($2.6 billion), and textiles manufactures ($1.5 billion).

North Carolina's Metropolitan Exports

In 2009, the metropolitan area of Greensboro-High Point exported $3.2 billion in merchandise, 14.5 percent of North Carolina's total merchandise exports. Other major metropolitan areas in North Carolina that exported in 2009 included Durham ($2.7 billion), Raleigh-Cary ($1.8 billion), Winston-Salem ($1.7 billion), and Wilmington ($1.1 billion).

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Tobacco firms agree to discuss farm workers' rights  

Tobacco companies, growers and workers to meet  

A meeting between tobacco companies, growers and workers to discuss the freedom of association — or workers' right to organize — appears to be in the making after several years of urging by the AFL-CIO union.

The Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC) of the union announced that a committee has been formed between the three groups that will work toward setting a meeting to discuss "the issue of freedom of association without fear of retaliation, wages, housing and forced labor, among other supply chain inequities."

The committee responsible for setting the meeting will include representatives from FLOC, the N.C. Growers Association, Winston-Salem-based Reynolds American Inc. Reynolds American Inc. Latest from The Business Journals Lorillard reports 10 percent drop in 1Q profits, buys blu ecigsReynolds American 1Q profits down 29 percentVote No: Amendment will affect state’s image; could lead to litigation over same-sex benefits Follow this company (NYSE: RAI) and Philip Morris USA and U.S. Smokeless Tobacco, both owned by Altria Group Inc. Altria Group Inc. Latest from The Business Journals Lorillard CEO nets .2M in 2011 compensationSales upturn cheers state’s wineriesSix Shook Hardy partners leave to follow Lorillard work to Hughes Hubbard Follow this company (NYSE: MO).

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VIDEO:Tobacco magnate mansion up for auction 

Sexton: Reynolds auction offers look into lives  

Who wouldn't want to have a look at items that belonged to the Reynoldses -- the family that put this town on the global map?

The "lots" -- auctionspeak for the items to be sold at noon Saturday at Leinbach Auction and Realty LLC -- only number about 100.

Some things, such as a step-back walnut cupboard handcrafted in the mid-1800s and a Venetian glass chandelier predating the invention of electricity, are on the high end of the fancy scale.

Others, such as an inscribed Hardy Boys book collection, are more pedestrian. And still others -- a Christmas stocking presented to young Zach Reynolds and a white scarf he wore while flying in air shows -- are more intensely personal.

"It's exciting," said Todd Leinbach, who will oversee the auction. "I mean, we get the chance to see and sell some items for a family that means so much to this area. I feel very fortunate to have the chance."

The things up for sale basically came from one of three places -- the Reynoldses' sprawling hunting lodge near Devotion in Surry County, a family mountain home in Roaring Gap and a house here in town.

They belonged to the late Zachary T. "Zach" Reynolds, the grandson of the R.J. Reynolds -- the founder of the tobacco company. Zach Reynolds was killed at the age of 41 with three other people in a plane crash near Pinnacle on Sept. 4, 1979.

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• VIDEO: Durham prepares for outdoor smoking ban  

The push is on to get out the word about Durham's new outdoor smoking ban.

The ordinance will ban smoking on sidewalks, in parks and other public outdoor spaces beginning Aug. 1, and the County has begun putting up educational billboards this week.

It's a transition for a town with a tobacco tradition.

"I can remember when the tobacco haze just filled the air," said Gayle Harris, public health director for Durham County.

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Ballantyne family angry a cigarette caused townhome fire 

Firefighters responding to an alarm Saturday night at townhomes burned by fire in Ballantyne Friday found nothing - the same day they announced the fire had started because of "improperly discarded smoking materials" left on the balcony of one of the burned units.

The three-alarm fire Friday night destroyed two units in the six-unit building and caused $1.5 million damage, the fire department said.

"Take a look - see what irresponsible smokers do? They don't just kill you with cancer, they kill you with fire," said Denise Lasalle, as she looked at her daughter's burned home.

Her voice broke as she described her anger.

"My family's out of a home now because somebody decided to leave a lit cigarette hanging around," she said.

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