Senator Max Baucus (D-Montana) has agreed to ask prosecutors to dismiss “disruption of Congress” charges against thirteen single payer advocates.

Baucus met for 45 minutes today with single payer advocates after facing intense negative public reaction to his decision to bar those advocates from testifying last month at three days of health care reform hearings before the Senate Finance Committee which he chairs.

More than a decade after Harvard researchers first revealed that life and health insurance companies were major investors in tobacco stocks – prompting calls upon them to divest – the insurance industry has yet to kick the habit.

A new article on insurance company holdings, published in today’s New England Journal of Medicine, shows that U.S., Canadian and U.K.-based insurance firms hold at least $4.4 billion of investments in companies whose subsidiaries manufacture cigarettes, cigars, chewing tobacco and related products.