November 11, 2005 in Nation/World

Smoking continues to drop in the U.S.

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Atlanta The smoking rate among U.S. adults continues to inch downward, with 20.9 percent of Americans describing themselves as regular puffers last year.

That is a decline from 21.6 percent in 2003 and 22.5 percent in 2002, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Thursday.

The rate has fallen steadily since the late 1990s. The fall from 2002 to 2004 was the largest two-year drop since the late 1980s, public health advocates noted.

Increased cigarette taxes, workplace smoking bans and state-based prevention efforts are the main reasons for the decline, said Dr. Corinne Husten, acting director of the CDC’s Office on Smoking and Health.

Alito defends staying on Vanguard case

Washington Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito said Thursday he was “unduly restrictive” in promising in 1990 to avoid appeals cases involving two investment firms and said he has not made any rulings in which he had a “legal or ethical obligation” to step aside.

In a letter to Sen. Arlen Specter, chairman of the Judiciary Committee, Alito said a 1990 questionnaire he filled out for the panel covered his plans for “initial service” as a judge on the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

“I respectfully submit that it was not inconsistent with my questionnaire response for me to participate in two isolated cases seven and 13 years later, respectively,” he wrote.

Alito issued the letter one day after all eight Democrats on the committee called for voluminous records involving a 2002 case in which Vanguard was a defendant. They noted that Alito had promised at the time of his confirmation to the appeals court to avoid cases involving Vanguard, Smith Barney, First Federal Savings & Loan of Rochester, N.Y., and his sister’s law firm.

N.J. woman admits to child endangerment

Camden, N.J. A woman whose four adopted sons were found severely malnourished has pleaded guilty to child endangerment.

Vanessa Jackson, 50, admitted on Thursday to not providing the children with proper food or medical care.

Jackson and her husband, Raymond, were thrust into the national spotlight after one of the boys was found scavenging in a trash can for food. He was 19, but from his size – 45 pounds – police figured him for about 7.

First funeral held for tornado victims

Evansville, Ind. Funeral services were held for a 4-year-old boy on Thursday, one of the youngest victims of the tornado that tore through an Indiana mobile home park and killed 22 people.

More than 100 people attended the funeral for Isaiah Blaylock, the first service for those killed in the tornado.

“It’s just hard to believe that life could change so drastically, so quickly,” Isaiah’s mother, Jessica Hendricks, said before the funeral.

Isaiah, along with his father, Brandon Blaylock, 25, and two grandparents were killed when the tornado struck the Eastbrook Mobile Home Park in Evansville on Sunday – 11 minutes after sirens warned the community of danger.

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