Weekly News (September 20, 2010)

It’s unfortunately that time of the year again… smoking bans. New York City is proposing a ban on smoking in parks and beaches, at the same time a Pipe and Cigar club is opposing a ban on smoking at their campus. Also in New York, two were charged trying to avoid the State’s high taxes and Ithaca extended a smoking ban. In the west, Menlo Park, CA is close to a stricter smoking ban and Santa Monica’s porch ban took effect, while Tacoma decided not to ban smoking in Apartments and Bismarck, ND refused to ban the sale of tobacco. San Antonio, which previously had a controversial smoking ban, now has smoke-free workplaces. Litto Gomez decided to take a stance against this with his new ad, which you can see here.

In other news, I previously wrote about the Congressional Cigar Association, the Watchdog Institute at San Diego State University is reporting that Rep. Bilbray, the sponsor of the group, is still acting shady. Frank Herrera did an almost State of the Union regarding current lawsuits in the cigar world. This included some thoughts on the Tatuaje vs. Tattoo case. In other news, Cuba decided to layoff half a million workers and allow for more private jobs.

In product news… A host of new cigars began to hit stores this week including the AVO Heritage, E.P. Carrillo Core Line, My Father Limited Edition and the Padrón Family Reserve 46. The Inter-tabac show took place in Germany this past week. Guillermo León tweeted that La Aurora launched the León Jimenes Leyenda, there were some rumblings about the U.S. release. La Aurora is almost sold out of the 107 Lancero, which was mentioned in everyone’s favorite lifestyle publication. A round of special edition Opus Xs for Prometheus and the Cigar Family Charitable Foundation were announced. Ian Hummel tweeted a bunch of new Oliva, Cain and NUb accessories – you can find examples here, here, here, here and here.

Charlie Minato

I am an editor and co-founder of halfwheel.com/Rueda Media, LLC. I previously co-founded and published TheCigarFeed, one of the two predecessors of halfwheel. I have written about the cigar industry for more than a decade, covering everything from product launches to regulation to M&A. In addition, I handle a lot of the behind-the-scenes stuff here at halfwheel. I enjoy playing tennis, watching boxing, falling asleep to the Le Mans 24, wearing sweatshirts year-round and eating gyros. echte liebe.