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Day two of David Pecker testimony wraps in NY Trump trial; Supreme Court hears arguments on Idaho's near-total abortion ban; ND sees a flurry of campaigning among Native candidates; and NH lags behind other states in restricting firearms at polling sites.

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The Senate moves forward with a foreign aid package. A North Carolina judge overturns an aged law penalizing released felons. And child protection groups call a Texas immigration policy traumatic for kids.

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Wyoming needs more educators who can teach kids trade skills, a proposal to open 40-thousand acres of an Ohio forest to fracking has environmental advocates alarmed and rural communities lure bicyclists with state-of-the-art bike trail systems.

Report: Fewer Minnesota Kids Getting Tobacco

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Friday, November 2, 2007   

St. Paul, MN – The latest state spot-check finds it's getting more difficult for underage kids to buy cigarettes. Carol Falkowski, of the Minnesota Department of Human Services, says the most recent undercover compliance check of tobacco retailers finds more than 92 percent aren't selling to minors, which is a 20 percent improvement over the past decade.

"We're really encouraged by this, and I hope that it has the desired effect of making fewer kids smokers in the state of Minnesota. I think this is really good news for the health of young Minnesotans."

The department's annual compliance check involved 400 retailers statewide over three months. Falkowski explains the main factors in keeping kids and tobacco "apart" are checking IDs, high prices, and education. Minnesota law outlaws tobacco sales to anyone under 18 and, indeed, she says fewer kids are lighting up because retailers are more diligent in enforcing the law.

"I also think we're sort-of poised at a cultural change about smoking in Minnesota. We're now one of the states that has joined the ranks of places with smoke-free indoor environments. I think people are realizing this is an enormous public health issue at enormous public cost, and we are all collectively part of the solution."

Andy Berndt is with Catalyst, a Minnesota-based group trying to keep kids smoke-free. He says using retailers as "gatekeepers" is effective, because many kids don't know the consequences of smoking.

"I think it's important that this law is enforced well, because young people aren't necessarily making that connection between starting smoking when they're young, to later developing lung cancer, emphysema, and all sorts of different, various diseases, and then later dying from those diseases."

Berndt agrees, the harder it is for kids to get cigarettes, the fewer will smoke. Health officials say, nationally, each day 4,000 kids under 18 take their first puff, and 1,200 become smokers.


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