New in CW 10.23.06

National NAACP bucks CA chapter, backs tobacco tax initiative The national NAACP this weekend endorsed the tobacco tax on California's November ballot, putting the national branch at odds with the state arm of the NAACP and its president Alice Huffman. The vote, which took place at the national board's meeting in St. Louis, Mo. comes less than two weeks after Capitol Weekly reported that Huffman's political consulting firm, A.C. Public Affairs, had received $100,000 from cigarette-maker Philip Morris at the same time the California NAACP was opposing the new cigarette tax. "From our earliest days, the health status of African-Americans has been a major NAACP concern. Proposition 86 will be a great step toward that goal," said Julian Bond, chairman of the NAACP's board of directors, in a statement after the vote... Read the rest here.