The pros and cons of coffee continue to be studied and debated. What might its effect be on stroke? ...more

March 28, 2009

While the price of gasoline burned holes in the wallets of weary consumers last summer, one money-saving option for cash-strapped smokers caught on like wildfire. ...more

March 25, 2009

Florida is long overdue to increase the tax/user fee on tobacco products. Florida is currently 46th in the country in cigarette tax at 33.9 cents per pack. Florida ranks second in cancer incidents and sells the most packs of cigarettes in the country, with 1.3 billion sold each year. ...more

March 23, 2009

More than 400,000 people in the United States will die this year from a tobacco-related disease. For Kick Butts Day this year, SWAT students from Avon Park and Sebring high schools are taking a stand to stop youth from getting hooked on deadly tobacco products. ...more

March 23, 2009

Santiago Carrasco, store manager of Tobacco Depot on Bloomingdale Avenue, said that about the time gas hit $4 a gallon, smokers with pipe dreams about saving a few bucks came in packs to his store to ask how – and how much it would cost - to roll their own cigarettes. But the do-it-yourself department that has been positively smokin' for some eight months is about to be extinguished, he said. An enormous price increase in conjunction with the federal excise tax that takes effect April 1 has already begun to snuff it out. ...more

March 20, 2009

Cigarettes have been a relatively inexpensive addiction for smokers in Florida, even as a pack has neared $4 for most brands. ...more

March 18, 2009

On April 1, the federal excise tax on cigarettes will rise to $1.01 per pack, up 62 cents from the current level. And the Florida Legislature is considering a $1-per-pack increase in the state tax. ...more

March 17, 2009

Lawmakers might raise the cost of a pack of cigarettes by as much as a dollar this year - but don't accuse them of raising "taxes." ...more

March 10, 2009

Write to your governor and senator (their addresses are in the phone book) because come April, when they put more tax on cigarettes, etc., we won't be able to afford to smoke. I know smoking hurts us, but if someone gets drunk behind the wheel of a car and hurts or kills someone, who is going to stop this, or over-tax them? ...more

February 17, 2009

I was a cigarette smoker for over 42 years and like most smokers, I tried just about everything to quit. Over the years I wasted a lot of money on patches, gum and pills. Desperate and feeling out of control I made a call to Jon Spiegel at the Hypnosis Center in downtown Sebring. I knew nothing about hypnosis and actually had some reservations and skepticism about it. ...more

January 23, 2009