Which Way, L.A.?
Tobacco Under Fire
As the California Senate repeals the tobacco shield law, will the state join the bandwagon in suing tobacco companies? Is California a day late and potentially millions of dollars short? The major tobacco companies are talking about settling - should they even be allowed to? And who decides?
By Warren Olney • • 1 min readDan Walters: A syndicated columnist based at the Sacramento Bee, veteran reporter on state politics Gordon Hart: Counsel to the Speaker of the California Assembly, who is sponsor of an assembly bill that would lift restrictions against suing tobacco companies, for gov't entities to recover health costs, but not for individuals to do so Gray Davis: Has sued tobacco companies as an individual, not as Lt. Governor of the state William "Pete" Knight: Republican Senator of Palmdale, who attacked the Kopp bill. He is a smoker. Richard Klein: Author of "Cigarettes are Sublime;" his most current book is "Eat Fat" Professor in the Romance Studies Dept of Cornell University Gary Schwartz: Professor of Law at UCLA, Contributed a chapter to a book about tobacco liability called Smoking Policy: Law, Politics, and Culture. He is concerned with the legal ramifications of tobacco liability lawsuits. Julie DeFalco: Policy analyst at the Competitive Enterprise Institute; FDA reform is area of specialty; she also considers transportation issues and internet censorship David Koff: Attorney with Local 11 in the Belmont School case Ronald Brownstein: National Political Correspondent for the Los Angeles Times; author of the weekly "Washington Outlook" column; author of several books, on Hollywood and politics; and on the republican revolution
