Forums: Smoke Gets In Your Eyes (Homicide: Life On The Street)

Inspired by Albany Fire Chief Marc McGinn's passion and four years of research, City Council members voted unanimously Monday night to require a somewhat uncommon type of smoke alarm in many homes and businesses in the city from this point forward. In doing so, Albany became the first city in California, officials said, to take a public stand on the importance of photoelectric-only alarms, which use a light source to detect the presence of smoke, in saving lives. Ionization alarms, which use a different trigger, are much more common. Albany joins the state of Vermont in requiring photoelectric alarms. Vermont...

A thin layer of smoke is covering much of New Hampshire today, spillover from more than 50 wildfires that are burning out of control in Quebec. The fires have been burning since last week over about 150,000 acres in central Quebec, north of Montreal and Quebec City, and about 500 miles north of Manchester.

Everybody knows that smoking is a popular pastime in Missouri, but certain groups light up more than others. About 36 percent of the state’s gay, lesbian and transgendered community smoke, compared to nearly 25 percent of the general population. And the gay community has less desire to stop — 37 percent say they’ll quit in the next six months, compared to 64 percent of all smokers in Missouri. The stats come from a new report out of the nonprofit Missouri Foundation for Health. The foundation wanted to figure out who’s smoking, so prevention and cessation programs can be targeted at...

Abd al Rahim al-Nashiri, according to the 9-11 commission report, was the mastermind of the Oct. 12, 2000, attack on the U.S.S. Cole that killed 17 U.S. sailors. Nashiri was also the target of an "unauthorized" CIA interrogation technique (that had not been legally vetted by the Justice Department) that is described in a May 7, 2004, CIA inspector general's report that was partially declassified by the Obama administration this week. CIA officers blew smoke in Nashiri's face, according to the report, and they used cigars. The IG's office described this smoke-blowing as one of several "unauthorized or undocumented techniques"...

t happens all the time. Someone cooking on the stove or outdoor grill walks away to do something else, or falls asleep, or forgets about the food. And a fire starts. Cooking was the leading cause of residential fires in Virginia in 2008, according to a new state report that examines fires and responses to them. Cooking, which includes outdoor grilling, accounted for 31 percent of all residential structure fires, up from 28 percent in 2007, according to the 2009 annual report from the Virginia Department of Fire Programs. Heating-related fires were the next-most-common cause, at 16 percent. "Cooking is...