Tobacco Firm Gives $50,000 to Ventura County GOP

The Altria Group -- parent company of Philip Morris USA, the country's largest tobacco company - - has donated $50,000 to the Ventura County Republican Central Committee. Jim Knox, vice president of the American Cancer Society Action Network, said the tobacco industry played "a major role in killing health care reform in California last year."

• "Tobacco Firm Funds County GOP" (Herdt, Ventura County Star, 6/8).