A Growing Sin-dustry: The History and Effects of Cigarette Excise Taxation and Regulation in the United States

Originating with the gabelle taxes of France during the close of the Albigensian Crusades, excise taxes and regulations on consumer products have historically been used by local and federal governments to generate revenue during periods of war. Following the enactment of the Internal Revenue Act on June 30, 1864, the United States extended their definition of consumer products to include cigarettes and other tobacco products. The United States Federal government justifies cigarette taxes as a method not only to discourage the habit of smoking but also to recover the costs of the negative externalities associated with the “sinful” behavior. Through an analysis of price elasticities as well as individual state taxation and cigarette consumption data, this thesis attempts to explain why increased prices of cigarettes due to excise taxes are not effective deterrents for smokers without additional enforcement of tax-avoidant behaviors. The first section of this study defines excise taxation through historical and contemporary theories. In addition, the analysis chronologically reviews the history of excise taxation and regulation, including those imposed on cigarette and tobacco, in the United States. This chronological review also highlights the evolution of government policy and the acceptability of cigarette consumption in the United States. The second section analyzes tobacco taxation in the United States during the year 2015. The section begins with an overview of the federal governments’ tobacco taxation policies in the nation. The section concludes with a review of differing taxation rates in individual states. The conclusion introduces factors that affect smoking behavior, which will be used in the proceeding econometric analyses. The third section uses an econometric analysis, conducted by John Lovell Jarvis at Wesleyan University, to explain the price elasticity of cigarettes and the impact of tax-induced prices on annual per capita cigarette consumption. The fourth section also illustrates a differing explanation of price elasticity from the perspective of tobacco companies. The final section studies the impact of cigarette taxation in the state of New York as well as the advantages and disadvantages of cigarette excise taxes. The section explores the increases in tax-avoidant behaviors and additional legislation that affect cigarette consumption in New York and the United States as a whole. Using the results from these studies, the conclusion section discusses the effects of cigarette taxation and regulation on consumer smoking behavior in the United States

Genome Sequence of the Deep-Sea Bacterium Idiomarina abyssalis KMM 227T

diomarina abyssalis KMM 227T is an aerobic flagellar gammaproteobacterium found at a depth of 4,000 to 5,000 m below sea level in the Pacific Ocean. This paper presents a draft genome sequence for I. abyssalis KMM 227T, with a predicted composition of 2,684,812 bp (47.15% G+C content) and 2,611 genes, of which 2,508 were predicted coding sequences

Institutionalizing Blended and Distance Learning in Language Teaching at a Research University

Higher education institutions (HEIs) are increasingly exploring innovative strategies to adapt to the 21st century changing institutional context and to respond to the students’ needs and expectations. Given that technology in all its forms is ubiquitous in Education, one of HEIs’ strategical responses is the implementation of blended learning (BL) and distance learning (DL) as new pedagogies in all faculties. This organizational improvement plan (OIP) examines how a language department, part of the Faculty of Arts in a large research-focused University, can integrate BL and DL in language teaching. As this change is a significant departure from the current traditional lecture-based pedagogy and to ensure that the department, as well as its faculty members, feel supported and motivated, servant and transformational leadership alongside a distributive leadership style are deployed. Moreover, Cawsey et al.’s, (2016) change path model in conjunction with Kotter’s (1996) change model are used as change frameworks to focus on the organizational structure. There are key changes involved in this OIP, namely a departmental and individual cultural change since teaching a language rests on a long history of face-to-face interactions. The main challenge is to deal with limited resources and faculty resistance as well as the complexity of technological teacher training. As this implementation is done incrementally over four years, data is collected from various stakeholders, examined and reviewed to allow leaders to adjust according to feedback. As University X’s language teachers gain knowledge and power lead by a guiding coalition, it is anticipated that the institutionalization of BL and DL in language teaching will be reached in time

Draft Whole-Genome Sequence of the Marine Bacterium Idiomarina zobellii KMM 231T

Idiomarina zobellii was isolated from the northwest Pacific Ocean at a depth of 4,000 to 5,000 m in 1985. The draft whole-genome shotgun sequence of I. zobellii KMM 231T described in this paper has a predicted length of 2,602,160 bp, containing 2,570 total genes, 52 tRNAs, and a G+C content of 47.10%

Alien Registration- Rheaume, Josephine (Biddeford, York County)

https://digitalmaine.com/alien_docs/5293/thumbnail.jp

South Goes South: American Perspectives on Southern Immigrants to Brazil

Reconstruction following the American Civil War led to conditions in the South that caused upwards of 20,000 Americans to go into exile. Of these, approximately 2,500 to 3,500 made the trip to Brazil and established settlements of varying success. One hundred forty one years later descendents of the original settlers, known as the Confederados, still populate the areas of Americana and Santa Barbara D’Oeste, Brazil. Extensive studies have been conducted on the history of the migration and the resulting settlements, yet conflicting perspectives of the Confederados exist within American society. These include different understandings of the Confederate Battle Flag, the purpose of their annual Festa Confederada and the racial dynamics within the Confederado community. This research seeks to uncover the underlying causes of these varying perspectives and to suggest ways in which a more accurate understanding of the Confederado community may be gained

The Middle School Concept Implementation Gap: A Leadership Lens

Middle school scholars periodically lament the lack of holistic implementation of the middle school concept (Alverson et al. 2021; Dickinson & Butler, 2001; Lounsbury 2013; Schaefer et al. 2016;). The results of a case study conducted in Alberta, Canada (Rheaume, 2018) are compared to a recent examination of the current status of middle schools in America (Alverson et al., 2021) to illustrate common implementation gaps and challenges. Consideration of the role of middle level leadership in supporting the implementation of the middle school concept is followed by a proposed expansion of the developmentally responsive middle level leadership (DRMLL) model (Brown et al., 2002)

The impact of school culture on the high school experience: perceptions of graduating seniors

The Mill Cities Charter School is a public urban charter high school founded on the Essential School Philosophy (ESP). Introduced in 1984, ESP “envisions an educational system that equips students with the intellectual, emotional and social habits and skills to become powerful and informed citizens who contribute actively toward a democratic and equitable society” (Coalition of Essential Schools, 2015). However, there is a lack of empirical research exploring the implementation of ESP, as well as its impacts on students’ personal, social and academic growth. Thus, this study’s goals were to gain an interpretive understanding of student perceptions and developmental impacts; as well as the process through which school culture influences positive youth development. A qualitative phenomenological approach was utilized, based on the philosophy of critical realism, which mediates between subjective experience and objective reality. In-depth, in-person semi-structured interviews were conducted on-site with 20 members of the senior class to explore their perceptions of the school culture and its impacts on their personal, social and academic development. Findings revealed that students largely had positive perceptions of school culture experience in all explored dimensions (Safety, Relationships, Teaching and Learning, Institutional Environment) with one notable exception, the School Improvement Process dimension, in which concerns were expressed about the school’s expansion plan changing the existing culture. Students also reported positive gains in personal, social and academic development, which they directly attributed to the school culture. Further, theoretical analysis revealed students’ internalization of cultural identity as the mediating process to explain “how” school culture positively impacted development. This relationship between individual and institutional cultural identity was bi-directional, with reciprocal impacts on both students and the school culture itself. This dissertation may inform educational policy discussions concerning the relationship between school culture and positive youth development. Findings regarding the ESP’s successful implementation into an urban public charter school setting and positive perceived impacts on high risk students’ development offer insights into the transformational elements of school culture. Significantly, this study offers understanding of this transformational process as a reciprocal interactive relationship between individual internalization of cultural identity and institutional externalization of a unique, recognizable organizational identity

Washington State Phase I county watershed-scale stormwater planning studies: a long term plan to identify stormwater management strategies to improve receiving waters

Washington State Department of Ecology’s 2013-2018 NPDES Municipal Stormwater permittees conducted detailed hydrologic modeling studies to demonstrate how planned development could be accommodated while restoring the beneficial and designated uses to the receiving waters in urbanized watersheds. The jurisdictions used modeling tools including HSPF hydrologic modeling, in-stream ecological targets, and cost optimization tool to determine the most cost effective set of infrastructure to achieve in-stream ecological targets). This talk focusses on the lessons learned from those plans, looking across the plans for similarities and differences. Each of the four counties (Snohomish, King, Pierce, Clark) selected a medium sized (10+ square mile) watershed which included urban growth areas designated pursuant to the Growth Management Act, and therefore known to be under pressure for development in the near future. Counties and cities in Washington are required to plan for and accommodate growth, cities are required to allow high intensity to meet growth targets dictated by the State of Washington. The watersheds had unique characteristics, but all are already partially urbanized. The counties created models to test a suite of strategies in various scenarios to see if water quality standards were, or could be, met. The modeling reports for the three plans submitted so far (King County will submit their plan in spring 2018) showed that current and future stormwater impacts caused by development in these watersheds result in receiving water bodies that do not meet water quality standards, and actions beyond site and subdivision scale of stormwater management will be needed to make receiving waters healthy in urbanized watersheds. The models in all of the watersheds projected that riparian restoration (for temperature) and large amounts of additional stormwater detention and infiltration are needed to improve receiving water conditions. Other in-stream projects (not associated with managing municipal stormwater discharges) were also modeled as having near-term and cost-effective positive outcomes on receiving water bodies. The anticipated costs to recover from these impairments is tens of thousands of dollars per acre for watersheds in Snohomish and Clark Counties. The costs per acre for these typical Puget lowland and lower Columbia developing watersheds are significantly lower than for more developed basins. (City of Kirkland’s Juanita Creek Study estimated costs were approximately $300,000 per acre). While this demonstrates that current permit requirements are having a significant impact, the modeled additional effort to recover the beneficial uses are still well beyond current funding programs and approaches. We encouraged counties to look at the spectrum of strategies available, including structural retrofits, land use strategies and education and outreach. While some of these strategies could not be modeled it was acknowledged that, if properly implemented, they could accelerate the recovery of the receiving water. The basis of the modeling included a hydrologic focus since those stormwater hydrologic impacts on streams have long been acknowledged as the primary loss of salmonid habitat (highest existing beneficial use) in urban receiving waters. Accordingly, some of the common strategies included structural stormwater controls geared towards flow control. For instance, traditional detention was a widely used strategy. Low Impact Development (LID), where feasible, provided a large lift on a smaller relative footprint. If the watershed has infiltrative soils, infiltrating stormwater facilities were the most cost effective. One important strategy that the counties did not highlight in their scenarios was changing the land use designation or zoning codes established as part of the land use comprehensive planning process under the Growth Management Act. Comprehensive planning, and stormwater management are regulated under different laws and overseen by different state and local departments with separate administrative and public processes. Despite knowing that such changes could help protect water quality without the high capital project costs identified by the models, these non-structural strategies are difficult to commit to doing in a short amount of time, are difficult to predict into the future, and receiving water habitat has not to date been a priority in growth management planning. It is difficult for stormwater managers to cross this boundary of authority and responsibility as part of an exercise required by the MS4 permit. Development stormwater infrastructure requirements in western Washington result in stormwater detention and treatment infrastructure that’s intended to mitigate (hydrologic and water quality) development impacts. Due to this construct, cities and counties typically have no design for what their stormwater infrastructure will be, or how it will impacts receiving waters in the future, on a watershed scale. They rely mostly on private investment in stormwater infrastructure improvements needed to have healthy urban receiving waters. Without better long range planning, and a funding source in addition to private investments, and in-stream and buffer improvements, with a focus on what a receiving water needs, the stormwater efforts currently underway will likely not result in healthy urban receiving waters

In Re Reilly, Revamping Taylor in Contravention of the Code

Article published in the Michigan State University School of Law Student Scholarship Collection