Walgreens has decided to raise its minimum age for tobacco sales several weeks after a top federal official chastised the drugstore chain for violating laws restricting access to cigarettes and other tobacco products.
Deerfield, Illinois-based Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. said Tuesday that it will require customers to be at least 21 years old to purchase tobacco in any of its more than 9,500 stores nationwide. The policy starts Sept. 1.
Former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb said in March that Walgreens was a top violator of tobacco sales laws among pharmacies that sell those products. Rival CVS Health Corp. stopped several years ago.
Laws restricting tobacco sales vary nationally.
Most states have set a minimum age of 18, while a dozen have raised that to 21, according to the American Lung Association. Alaska and Alabama set their minimum ages at 19. Many cities and counties also have passed local laws establishing the minimum at 21.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said last week that he plans to introduce legislation to raise the minimum age to 21 nationally. The Kentucky Republican called the legislation a top priority.
GE engineer charged with stealing secrets
A former General Electric engineer and his business partner in China were indicted Tuesday on charges they stole the company’s trade secrets from a New York plant for the Chinese government in what federal prosecutors called “a textbook example” of industrial espionage.
The Department of Justice announced that Xiaoqing Zheng, 56, of Niskayuna, New York, and Zhaoxi Zhang, 47, of Liaoning Province, China, were charged with economic espionage and conspiracy for stealing GE’s turbine technologies for China.
Zheng was working for Boston-based GE’s power division in Schenectady when he was arrested at his home last summer. FBI agents raided his suburban home and removed computers, cash and other items. Zhang, the business partner, wasn’t charged at the time.
Prosecutors allege that Zheng stole computer files dealing with GE’s gas and steam turbines and sent them to Zhang, who’s in China.
The thefts are “a textbook example of the Chinese government’s strategy to rob American companies of their intellectual property and to replicate their products in Chinese factories,” said Assistant Attorney General for National Security John Demers.
GE said at the time of Zheng’s arrest that it was cooperating with the investigation.
United agent charged with racial slur
A United Airlines airport agent is accused of using a racial slur against a customer and faces a misdemeanor charge of disorderly conduct.
The charge against Carmella Davano was filed in municipal court in Houston last month after a Feb. 26 incident at Bush Intercontinental Airport. United says Davano has been removed from working while the airline investigates the incident.
Houston Police spokesman Victor Senties said Tuesday that passenger Cacilie Hughes, who is black, and two witnesses told officers that the agent called her a monkey.
Hughes told police that after her plane arrived in Houston, she walked on the tarmac to see if workers were unloading bags, and Davano yelled at her to return inside the terminal. Hughes said the confrontation occurred after she asked Davano for a supervisor so she could discuss other issues about the flight.
Senties said officers issued a citation against Davano. The charge is punishable by a fine of up to $500. A jury trial is scheduled for June 3.