TOBACCO

Tobacco Whistle-Blower Gives Deposition: Jeffrey Wigand, who is said to have “devastating” inside information, fielded questions from lawyers for the state of Mississippi and the Justice Department, despite his former employer’s effort to silence him. Government sources in Washington, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Wigand met in private for several hours with lawyers from the Justice Department’s antitrust division for an investigation into whether tobacco companies conspired to suppress development of safer, self-extinguishing cigarettes. Wigand, who was fired in 1993 as vice president of research at Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp., also submitted to questioning by the Mississippi attorney general’s office, which is suing 13 tobacco companies for reimbursement of millions of taxpayer dollars spent treating low-income people with smoking-related illnesses.