Blind Clerk Is Fired for Selling Youth Cigarettes

HAUPPAUGE, N.Y. —  A blind newsstand worker hired under a federal job program for blind people has been fired after selling cigarettes to a minor during a sting operation.

Mike Redina, 44, was working at the Small Change newsstand at a state office building last week when he sold a pack of cigarettes to a 16-year-old sent in by the Suffolk County Health Department. The legal age to buy tobacco is 18.

Lack of an audio scanner to read identification cards for blind clerks meant Redina could not check IDs. Store owner Morgan Edwards said he fired Redina when health officials said Redina could not be left alone to sell cigarettes.