The State reports: Committee OK's 50-cent hike to SC cigarette tax

South Carolina's cigarette tax would increase by 50-cents per pack under a plan advancing through the Legislature.

The Senate Finance Committee on Thursday voted 16-5 to raise the nation's lowest per pack tax from 7 cents to 57 cents.

The nod came after lawmakers scrapped plans to use the $145 million that would be raised by the tax to set up a new health insurance program for the state's low-income residents.

Instead, much of the money would go to a trust fund for future health care needs. Some $5 million would go to a cancer research center at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston.

South Carolina's cigarette tax hasn't been increased since 1977.

The Boston Herald reports: Cancer sidelines Jerry Remy, voice of Red Sox

Jerry Remy, the voice of the Red Sox [team stats] for more than 20 years, is fighting the aftereffects of lung cancer and will be out of the broadcast booth indefinitely.

Remy underwent surgery late last year, NESN revealed yesterday, and has since battled an infection and pneumonia.

On his Twitter site, Remy said he suffered his setback as he left for spring training. “In hindsight, it was a mistake to go and I am paying the price for it now,” he wrote.

He added he’ll be back in time “to take the team all the way to the 2009 World Series.”

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The State reports: Backlog may snuff cigarette tax hike

Advocates of raising the state’s lowest-in-the-nation cigarette tax are worried a legislative backlog could prevent the bill from becoming law until the Legislature returns next year.

The Senate Finance Committee today is expected to vote on the plan, which would raise the tax by 50 cents a pack. The $139 million the tax is expected to raise would help employers purchase health insurance for low-income employees, or for those employees to purchase insurance directly.

The bill has widespread support, but lawmakers said the delays over payday lending, stimulus money and other legislation mean the cigarette tax might run out of time this session.

“It’s a very real possibility,” said Sen. Harvey Peeler, R-Cherokee. “It’s not an impossible jump, but there’s a lot of things ahead of it.”

Peeler said he has heard little opposition to the bill so far. Sen. Thomas Alexander, R-Oconee and chairman of the subcommittee studying the bill, expected minor changes to the House plan.

Lawmakers said one change would use tax revenue to fund the Hollings Cancer Center and another amendment might change the way smokeless tobacco products are taxed.

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Routine Exam May Have Been Life-Saver for Greenville's WYFF Weathercaster Keisha Kirkland

If you're young and healthy, it's easy to think that there's not much reason to worry about your health and that an annual physical is something that other, older people have to think about, not you.

But for WYFF 4 Weathercaster Keisha Kirkland, getting that annual physical may have just saved her life.

Keisha, 36, said that she felt perfectly healthy, but because of a family history of heart disease, she had some tests run several months ago.

Her heart was fine, but doctors found that she had the beginning stages of lung cancer.
"I’ve never smoked. I’m young, you know, in shape, I exercise, eat well," Keisha told WYFF News 4's Jane Robelot. "But, hey, I’m still dealing with this."

Dr. James Stephenson of Greenville Hospital System, Keisha's surgeon, said discovering the cancer was almost as unlikely as her chances of having it.

"She decided to have a calcium scoring test to look for heart disease due to some family history," Stephenson said. "Just by chance this abnormal area in her lung was noted on that scan."

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Read Keisha Kirkland's Bio.

Dr. Joan Schiller, National Lung Cancer Partnership President, was nominated to receive the Lynn Kotsiantos Lifetime Achievement Award

Congratulations!

Dr. Joan Schiller, Partnership President, was nominated to receive the Lynn Kotsiantos Lifetime Achievement Award by the Respiratory Health Association of Metropolitan Chicago (RHAMC). The award is made every year in honor of Lynn, a young mother who died from lung cancer.

Dr. Schiller will accept the award at RHAMC's May 7th Inspiration benefit for women's lung health in Chicago, IL.

Read more about Dr. Schiller, the National Lung Cancer Partnership's President here.