What About Teen Smoking?
House Speaker Newt Gingrich, from tobacco-growing Georgia, isn’t eager to let the U.S. Food and Drug Administration regulate tobacco.
President Clinton, however, is willing to consider the idea, saying something must be done to curb smoking by juveniles.
Locally, the Spokane County Health District has done something. In each of the past two years, it has carried out sting operations to identify stores, as well as individual clerks, who sell cigarettes to underage purchasers.
The district cited 12 cashiers and stores in June 1994. In May and June of this year, 31 more took the bait.
Hoping to make selling cigarettes to juveniles so risky that stores will avoid doing so, district officials promise more such operations.
What’s your preference? More laws? Tougher enforcement of the ones we have? Other methods? All of the above? Or is teenage smoking none of the government’s business?
To include your thoughts in Thursday’s “Bagpipes,” submit them as explained in the information at the end of this column.
Clinton to Lowry’s rescue?
Paying a former aide $97,500 to drop sexual harassment allegations hasn’t exactly brought legions of Mike Lowry faithful out chanting “Four more years!”
In fact, many of the Washington governor’s friends cautiously are easing their chairs to the other side of the political lunchroom.
About the best most loyalists can do is look for a face-saving way to nudge Lowry out of the 1996 campaign picture. Island County Democratic Chairman Paul Fournier suggested that President Clinton could appoint Lowry to a federal job.
What does that say about the level of political values in the state?
Haven or hell?
Whether the problems that land troubled kids in foster homes are great or small, those homes should provide relative safety and stability.
But that is not what a 15-year-old boy apparently found in the home of Shelly Varnell, 31-year-old counselor at a Coeur d’Alene home for troubled youngsters. The woman, who was the boy’s temporary foster parent, has been charged with third-degree rape of a child following a string of sexual encounters that took them to Seattle.
Rare as it is, this kind of incident poses a question: In their effort to provide desperately needed foster homes, do authorities screen license applicants carefully enough? If not, how could they do better?
, DataTimes MEMO: “Bagpipes” appears Tuesdays and Thursdays. To respond to issues raised on Tuesdays: Call 458-8800, category 9881, from a Touch-Tone phone; or send a fax to 459-5098 or e-mail to celh27b@prodigy.com. Representative replies appear Thursdays. You also can leave Doug Floyd a message at 459-5577, extension 5466.