From The Syndney Morning Herald

Bhutan jails more smokers amid criticism

© 2011 AFP

Last cigar factory shuttered in Red Lion, Pa.

WRITTEN BY CHRISTINA KAUFFMAN, THE YORK DISPATCH

FRIDAY, 27 MAY 2011 09:09

J.C. Winter & Co. of Red Lion, Pa., also manufactured chewing tobacco. This metal thermometer advertises the company’s Happy Jim brand. Image courtesy of LiveAuctioneers Archive and Morphy Auctions. RED LION, Pa. (AP) – Joe Jacobs, now 63, can remember the smell of tobacco curing as he drove into Red Lion as a teen.The town’s cigar factories employed most of its people, and they sold more than 10 percent of the cigars manufactured in the United States, according to local historian Shirley Keeports. She said most current Red Lion residents can still say they know someone who once worked in a Red Lion cigar factory. But unless they know Jacobs or his receptionist, they don’t know anyone who presently works in one. Van Slyke & Horton Inc. was the last remaining factory from the industry that built the town – and it closed production about six weeks ago, said Jacobs, who manages the place. He and his secretary are all that remain. After an auction of most of the manufacturer’s possessions, they’ll be gone, too. “It certainly is the end of an era,” said Jacobs, whose father, Clark Jacobs, owns the factory. “There were a lot of people who lived a very good life because of it. The industry was responsible for Red Lion being such a flourishing community at that time, and there was a time when most men had a cigar in their mouth. We just always thought people would smoke.” He said Van Slyke & Horton, 49 S. Pine St. in Red Lion, was also the last operational cigar factory in York County. The Van Slyke building began manufacturing cigars in 1910 under then-owner J.C. Winters, Jacobs said. It had about 60 employees in the height of cigar popularity and was producing millions of cigars per year. Things had been “rolling downhill” for cigar manufacturers for decades, but the passage of a new tobacco tax a few years ago and the economic recession “pushed us over the cliff,” Jacobs said. The factory made nearly a million cigars last year, selling them to locations all over the world. Workers would condition the loose tobacco and feed it into 20 machines that rolled cigars, and then they’d pack and ship them. But orders slowed and the handful of remaining employees were let go around two months ago, Jacobs said. The machines were sold to an operation in Nicaragua and, on Thursday morning an auction was conducted to disperse decades worth of equipment and memorabilia, Jacobs said. Items sold included labels and bands, antique hand-rolling items such as cutting boards and knives, cigar molds and 250-capacity trunks in which cigars were packed, he said. The building is not for sale, and Jacobs said he’s not sure what will come of it. The cigar industry was so strong in Red Lion by the 1920s that the town was the richest place, per-capita, in the nation, said Keeports, who directs the Red Lion Historical Society’s museum. “I don’t think there were many households that didn’t do some kind of cigar manufacturing,” she said. “You could start stripping tobacco in your own home, and you were called a stripper. Most of the women were strippers, stripping the stem from the leaf.” The town’s opera house and theater were built on cigar profits. So were the lives of the townspeople. Workers wrote songs and poems about the factories, and they treasured their jobs enough to fight for them. In 1934, cigar workers afraid of losing work to machines went on strike. State police were called to control rioters. Women lay down in front of delivery trucks. One Red Lion man was blinded by tear gas, and, according to Keeports, had to make brooms for the rest of his life. Keeports said she’s “greatly upset” by the last factory’s closure. She planned to attend the auction and use Historical Society funds to buy and preserve as much of the memorabilia as possible. Things might be tight, she said, because she recently “spent a lot” at the closing of Loyer’s Pharmacy, another of the town’s institutions. “It’s our history,” she said. “I don’t like to see these things leave the town.”

Read more: http://acn.liveauctioneers.com/index.php/features/collectiblesandpopculture/4676-last-cigar-factory-shuttered-in-red-lion-pa#ixzz1Nbruc6fS

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**FOR FLORIDA RESIDENTS ONLY** ACTION NEEDED – House Bill 211 Proposed To Further Restrict Smoking in Florida PetitionID: Florida001 Statewide Authority Over Smoking Bans Should Be Preserved Help Defeat House Bill 211 in Florida A piece of legislation that sets a dangerous precedent has been introduced in the Florida legislature. House Bill 211 would limit the state “preemption clause” to indoor smoking bans, only. In other words, the rapid growth of outdoor smoking bans would be allowed to proliferate throughout the State of Florida, by empowering local governments to pass such limits on the enjoyment of cigars, outdoors. Yes, it could lead to having a debate with every local government in Florida regarding smoking on patios of bars, restaurants, cigar shops, much less all “public property.” Freshman House member Kathleen C. Passidomo, R-Naples, has introduced this legislation. She said she did so at the request of Naples, Florida Mayor Bill Barnett. It’s time to send both of them a message. Tell Representative Passidomo and Mayor Barnett that liberty should be preserved in the State of Florida; That public property (beaches, golf courses and parks) belong to everyone, and that Florida doesn’t need any more Nanny State legislation. ACTION STEPS: 1. Notify your member of the Florida legislature. Tell them to say NO to HB 211. - Locate your House Representative - Locate your Senator 2. Sign the CRA Petition. - Click Here to Sign the Petition Spotlight Support Your Local Florida Great American Cigar Shops™

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Wealth without work

Pleasure without conscience

Knowledge without character

Religion without sacrifice

Politics without principle

Science without humanity

Business without ethics

— Mahatma Gandhi

Detroit-area cigar lounge has an aggressive challenger: Fidel Castro’s Cuban tobacco company

ED WHITE

Associated Press

PLYMOUTH, Mich. (AP) — A cigar lounge in suburban Detroit is decorated with paintings and photos of famous people with a stogie: John F. Kennedy, Winston Churchill, even the 1950s Cuban revolutionary Che Guevara.

“We have only one thing in common,” said owner Ismail Houmani, a U.S. war veteran, pointing at a cigar in the fingers of Guevara, a Marxist rebel.

Cuba, however, believes the shop has too much common with its own famous cigar business. Cuba’s government-owned tobacco company is suing Houmani in federal court in Detroit, claiming the name of his four shops, La Casa De La Habana, is illegal because it’s too similar to its own franchised shops, known around the world as La Casa del Habano.

Cuba, of course, can’t do business in America because of a nearly 50-year-old trade embargo imposed after Fidel Castro, with Guevara’s help, turned the Caribbean island into a socialist state. Nonetheless, Cubatabaco claims it still has a right to protect its U.S. trademark even if it can’t export prized Cuban cigars to U.S. shores.

“I love cases like this,” U.S. District Judge Stephen Murphy III told both sides last year. “I find it to be extremely interesting and challenging.”

Houmani’s lawyer, Brad Smith, wonders why Cuba would care about a Michigan cigar lounge. “Small potatoes,” he said in an interview.

Cubatabaco’s lawyer, David Goldstein of New York, said in court that a trademark must be protected or “what I have is a worthless piece of paper.”

In Plymouth, a suburb west of Detroit, La Casa De La Habana has been open about a decade. A climate-controlled humidor displays dozens of cigars, some costing $38 each, from Honduras, theDominican Republic and Nicaragua. There is walk-in business, but customers also can have their own gym-locker-sized humidor with a nameplate for $100 a month.

There are televisions, leather couches and an espresso bar. In downtown Detroit, Houmani runs a 7,000-square-foot location offering martinis, live music and local handmade cigars stuffed with imported tobacco.

“Over a cigar, you can meet some interesting people — doctors, lawyers, judges, movie actors. They want to sit down and relax,” said Houmani, 42, who immigrated to Toledo, Ohio, from Lebanon when he was 18. “I wanted to create something that’s really unique.”

He said he was thinking about Cuba’s reputation for Latin jazz, rum and cigars when he chose the name La Casa De La Habana, which means “The House of Havana” in Spanish. Houmani notes that “Habano,” the word used in the name of Cuban shops, refers to a Havana cigar.

“I’m not selling or advertising Cuban cigars,” he said.

International agreements allow government-controlled businesses like Cuba’s to register trademarks in the U.S., even when dormant under an economic embargo. Still, Smith said the lawsuit should be governed by a simple rule: “You use it or lose it.”

A trademark expert at the University of Michigan law school believes Cubatabaco has a strong case for infringement.

“Cuba’s got reason to hope that it will be able to enter the U.S. market within the foreseeable future,” Jessica Litman said. “Its mark is pretty valuable, and the potential for confusion seems real.”

The judge has urged each side to settle the dispute out of court. Houmani concedes he may have to change the name of his business, although he would prefer to keep “La Casa” in it. He has much admiration for Cuba’s cigars, despite the lawsuit and that country’s communist government.

“It’s the best tobacco in the world because of the soil. It’s God’s gift to the Cubans,” said Houmani, who has smoked Cuban cigars during trips to the Middle East. “As cigar makers, we don’t look at political affiliations.”