BOSTON — Massachusetts may become the third state to raise the minimum age to buy tobacco products to 21 years old, as a bill proposing the new age requirement flew briskly through the Senate and could land on the floor of the House for a debate before the current session ends.
Earlier this month, the measure garnered an ought-to-pass recommendation from the House Committee on Rules, a crucial step in the lawmaking process, and saw the addition of an amendment that bans outright the use of tobacco products at schools and various public spaces, as well as sales at drugstores. The House Committee on Ways and Means received the amended version of the bill a week ago.
CHICAGO (AP) — Former U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert arrived at a Minnesota prison on Wednesday to serve his 15-month sentence in a hush-money case involving revelations that he sexually abused at least four boys when he coached wrestling at an Illinois high school.
The 74-year-old Illinois Republican — one of the highest-ranking U.S. politicians to ever go to prison — arrived around noon at the facility in Rochester where he will be known as Inmate No. 47991-424.
