David Ferrell, 20, says he sees a good future in farming, even for tobacco, a crop that has sustained his family’s farm in Charlotte County for several generations.

The banking industry is under attack these days and unjustly so. Traditional banking has long been the backbone of communities all over this country and the driver of economic growth. Since the beginning of the modern banking era—which I define as dating back to the creation of the FDIC in 1933—banks have been through a roller coaster of regulatory cycles.

requiring all tobacco products, including cigars, be stored behind sales counters;
banning the terms “lights” or “mild” for newly introduced cigarettes and in advertising, beginning next year;
eventually requiring larger, stronger graphic warning labels for cigarettes;
requiring stronger warnings for smokeless tobacco;
requiring tobacco companies to report all ingredients used; and

The tragic death of Andrew Joseph Johnson, a toddler who baked to death in a van after he was left in it by a careless day-care worker earlier this summer, has refocused attention on the question of child-care safety. The news is good. A review of state records by The Times-Dispatch found children were left behind in vehicles 11 times in Virginia during the past two and a half years—and with the exception of 13-month-old Johnson, no child was seriously hurt.

It’s hard not to see the reasoning behind the Virginia Professional Firefighters’ support for a proposal to require sprinkler systems in all new home construction. Homes with sprinklers incur far less damage from fires than homes without them, and the cost of the sprinklers can be recovered through lower insurance premiums. It’s also hard not to see the reasoning behind the Home Builders Association of Virginia’s opposition to the idea. Requiring sprinklers adds to the up-front price of a new home—a price that often is jacked up further by proffers, minimum lot-size requirements, and other government policies that help put homes out of affordable reach for many first-time buyers.

Big changes are coming to the tobacco industry, and we’ve ramped up our coverage in the Richmond Times-Dispatch to keep you informed. Tobacco has long been a focus of our coverage—the business has been a key component of Virginia’s economy since soon after its founding at Jamestown. Now more than ever, Richmond is at the heart of the industry.

It took more than a decade for Congress to grant the U.S. Food and Drug Administration authority to regulate tobacco products. Now that the FDA has been given that job, the agency must set up a new regulatory office.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is taking public comments through Sept. 29 on how it should implement the regulation of tobacco products. The agency said in a federal register notice that it is particularly interested in approaches and actions it should consider to reduce tobacco use and protect public health. Comments can be submitted to the agency online at http://www.regulations.gov, or by mail to the Division of Dockets Management [HFA-305], Food and Drug Administration, 5630 Fishers Lane, Room 1061, Rockville, MD 20852. Comments should be identified with the docket number, FDA-2009-N-0294.

Here are some of the effective dates for FDA regulations of tobacco products:
  July 22, 2009: Use of descriptors such as “light” and “mild” prohibited for newly introduced cigarettes.
  Sept. 20, 2009: Artificial flavors other than menthol banned from cigarettes.
  Oct. 1, 2009: Start of fee collections from tobacco companies to fund the new FDA tobacco center.

The U.S. government’s new tobacco regulations spell out the words, size and color of new cigarette warning labels—but despite much publicity about tough new warnings, don’t expect to see any for three years.

What has seemed inevitable for several years drew a step closer to reality this week as a House committee approved legislation that would give the U.S. Food and Drug Administration regulatory control over tobacco products. We are generally skeptical about expanding government regulation, and we have been ardent foes of tobacco laws that restrict property rights—such as the restaurant smoking ban recently passed in Virginia. Still, the tobacco regulation bill, similar to one that passed the full House last year, is for the most part reasonable and harmless.

A House panel passed a sweeping tobacco-regulation bill yesterday, putting it on pace for passage by the full House far earlier in the congressional session than last year.

A House panel passed a sweeping tobacco-regulation bill today, putting it on pace for passage by the full House far earlier in the congressional session than last year.

The Richmond-based 4th Circuit recently heard a case that touches on one reason recessions may be worse than they should be, and economic growth may be less than it could be. The case concerns a Maryland law limiting the ownership of funeral homes to licensed funeral directors and a few other parties, such as the spouses of deceased funeral directors.

Comedian Bill Cosby once joked that intellectuals are people who study what others already know. A new report has found that reductions in fine particulates—from vehicle exhaust, factory smokestacks, and so on—boosted life expectancy by five to 10 months, depending on the region examined. In short, clean air is better for you than pollution. Surprise!