TOBACCO

New Jersey Files Suit: The state joined more than a dozen others seeking compensation from tobacco firms for money spent treating smoking-related illnesses. The complaint, filed in the Chancery Division of Middlesex County Superior Court, alleges that the industry “engaged in a campaign of misinformation, concealment and consumer fraud,” the attorney general’s office said in a statement. Meanwhile, the board that administers Florida’s $53.3-billion pension fund launched a study to decide whether to sell its tobacco holdings, the St. Petersburg Times reported. The move comes at the urging of Gov. Lawton Chiles, a longtime critic of smoking and one of three members of the state Board of Administration, which oversees the fund.