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Tobacco Companies Will Air Warning Ads
American tobacco companies are returning to prime-time TV after decades of being banned from advertising on the air.
But the ads won't be selling any products.
The tobacco companies are being forced to air these messages, which are blunt warnings about the dangers and addictive properties of smoking.
The spots are the result of a 1999 lawsuit filed by the Justice Department.
Despite a sharp decline in cigarette use, smoking remains the nation's deadliest preventable cause of illness.
Boone Vote Questioned
A challenge to Boone's recent elections is being appealed to the state level. A former Republican official says Watauga's election board didn't follow the rules.
The protest from Anne-Marie Yates argues that the board did not properly keep the public notified about the elections. She says that includes proper notices about the long-contested use of Appalachian State University's student union as a precinct site.
The Watauga Democrat reports that Yates' decision to ask the state to consider the matter came after the county board of elections unanimously denied her protest.
If the protest is approved, it would nullify the votes from the Boone municipal election earlier this month.
Yates is the former chair of the Watauga County GOP.
Duke Energy Rate Increase Focused On Coal Ash Cleanup Cost
The country's largest electric company heads into a fight for a rate hike with regulators in its top market focused on setting a precedent for charging consumers the full cost of cleaning up coal ash pits loaded with toxic metals.
The North Carolina Utilities Commission opens hearings Monday into whether Duke Energy Corp. will be allowed to charge consumers nearly $200 million a year for the cleanup.
The company and consumer advocates reached a tentative deal last week that would cut the requested rate increase of almost 15 percent.
Chemical Company's Response To Water Worries: Silence
A Fortune 500 chemical company with a pollution problem in North Carolina is staying all but silent about industrial discharges found in well and treated water for hundreds of thousands of people.
Wilmington, Delaware-based Chemours Co. has faced questions for six months about an unregulated chemical with unknown health risks that flowed from the company's plant near Fayetteville into the Cape Fear River.
The company has said virtually nothing in its own defense about chemicals it may have discharged for nearly four decades, and it skipped legislative hearings looking into health concerns.
North Carolina Department Warns Of Personal Data Exposure
A North Carolina agency says a spreadsheet containing personal information for nearly 6,000 people was sent in error to a vendor in an unencrypted email.
The N.C. Department of Health and Human Services is telling the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights of the problem.
The spreadsheet includes names, social security numbers and test results for people who underwent routine drug screenings for employment, intern and volunteer opportunities. Inclusion in the spreadsheet reflects only that people sought an employment, intern or volunteer opportunity at DHHS within the affected period.
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