This week's In the News examines the November 16, 1998 $206 billion settlement reached between tobacco industry leaders and eight US states. The twelve resources discussed provide press releases, opinion, and background information on the economics of tobacco production and consumption in the US. Following increasing pressure from anti-tobacco activists at the state level, Philip Morris Incorporated, R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corporation, and the Lorillard Tobacco Company settled pending lawsuits with New York, California, and Wisconsin, among other states. The agreement requires the companies to pay the potential medical costs of sick smokers based on a formula that factors state-by-state population, tobacco use, and previous Medicaid cost. The agreement also provides for a $1.5 billion anti-smoking campaign fund and bans billboard and transit ads in addition to "branded" merchandising -- the sale and distribution of items bearing tobacco brands' names or logos. Although these provisions give anti-smoking organizations much needed funding for educational resources, critics fear that the settlement protects the tobacco industry more than it hinders it. According to Gary Black, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., the settlement "removes the remaining threat of bankruptcy from the stocks and reduces the litigation discount that has plagued tobacco companies since 1994." With little risk of future lawsuits according to Black, "we're back to business as usual."