Stop-smoking tablet approved

WASHINGTON (AP) ? A tablet shown to help more than one in five smokers quit joined the limited number of effective stop-smoking drugs on Thursday, approved by federal regulators.

When varenicline goes on sale later this year, it will become the first new prescription drug for smoking cessation approved by the Food and Drug Administration in nearly a decade and only the second stop-smoking drug that is nicotine-free, according to Pfizer Inc.

The New York company plans to market the twice-daily tablet, intended for adults only, as Chantix.

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(AP) ? With a gallon of gas breaking $3 and voters unhappy, state leaders across the country are taking a sudden, sharp dislike to gasoline taxes, proposing to eliminate the levies that are a mainstay for road programs ? or at least suspend them for the summer.

Governors have floated ideas to trim or suspend state gas taxes in Maryland, South Carolina and Connecticut. State legislators are pushing similar measures in Georgia, New York and Nevada. The proposals are winning vocal support from Republicans and Democrats alike, though none have yet become law.