Free Republic

When they weren't breaking the law or going in and out of jail, the Jersey Boys who went on to become the Four Seasons were hanging out on street corners singing with cigarettes dangling from their mouths. Not in Chicago. Here, lead singer Frankie Valli, song-writing sensation Bob Gaudio and the boys have gone cold turkey Following an apparent complaint from an irate theatergoer, the Chicago theatrical production of "Jersey Boys" has snuffed out cigarettes...

HARRISBURG -- The state Senate has broken a yearlong stalemate on a statewide smoking ban, approving a compromise bill Tuesday that would make Pennsylvania the 33rd state to outlaw smoking in many workplaces and public spaces. The Senate voted 41-9, sending the bill to Gov. Ed Rendell to be signed into law in what supporters hailed as a step forward for public health and protecting people from the dangers of second-hand smoke. All but one senator representing parts of York County gave approval. The sole holdout was retiring Sen. Terry Punt, R-Franklin, who voted in favor of the same legislation...

A group in Santa Fe says the city is discriminating against them because they say that they're allergic to the wireless Internet signal. And now they want Wi-Fi banned from public buildings. Arthur Firstenberg says he is highly sensitive to certain types of electric fields, including wireless Internet and cell phones. "I get chest pain and it doesn't go away right away," he said. Firstenberg and dozens of other electro-sensitive people in Santa Fe claim that putting up Wi-Fi in public places is a violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act. The city attorney is now checking to see if...

NORTH ROYALTON, Ohio -- A local community is breathing a little easier after a new crackdown on smoking is approved, NewsChannel5 reported. North Royalton has banned smoking in parks, fields, parking lots and outdoor seating areas or on any city-owned land. That means there's no smoking at places like the local ballpark, and the new ordinance takes place just in time for little league season. Council members said they were just exercising the will of the people who want to curb the amount of second-hand smoke they have to breathe. "We just don't like the cigarette butts laying all over...

Initiative Would Exempt Cigar Bars From Indoor Smoking Ban By Austin JenkinsOlympia, WA  March 19, 2008 3:28 p.m. Washington State’s two-year-old indoor smoking ban is facing a challenge. Cigar shop owners have filed a citizen initiative to roll-back part of the law.Dale Taylor is with the newly formed Cigar Association of Washington. He says the initiative would allow smoking in cigar shops, cigar bars, private clubs and service organizations like the Elks.Dale Taylor: “What we’re asking for here is a fair and reasonable exemption to the law that allows a cigar store, for instance like the one I work in,...

All the world's a stage at some of Minnesota's bars. A new state ban on smoking in restaurants and other nightspots contains an exception for performers in theatrical productions. So some bars are getting around the ban by printing up playbills, encouraging customers to come in costume, and pronouncing them "actors." The customers are playing right along, merrily puffing away — and sometimes speaking in funny accents and doing a little improvisation, too. The state Health Department is threatening to bring the curtain down on these sham productions. But for now, it's on with the show. At The Rock, a...

If it is indeed true, as George Bernard Shaw commented, that democracy ensures we get the government we deserve, then I have little sympathy for my neighbors who whine about the smoking ban as they puff their Camel filters in the parking lot outside the bowling alley in the freezing February rain. Besides -- I like to point out -- we voted for the shysters and party hacks who passed the ban. Or -- more likely -- we failed to vote at all. I then call attention to the fact that right next door in Missouri, where the Republican Party...

Should Illinois lawmakers lift the statewide indoor smoking ban at certain facilities, such as riverboat casinos, veterans' halls and private clubs? Yes 40.1% No 59.9% Total votes: 1964

To most political observers, the near-certainty that John McCain will be the Republican nominee ends any prospects for a Michael Bloomberg candidacy as an independent. Alas, Bloomberg begs to differ. He reportedly sees the current state of play as another opening for his presidential dreams. After telling friends he believes Hillary Clinton will be her party's nominee, Bloomberg said at a recent event, "Hillary should pray I get in the race because that would help her," according to a source quoted in the Daily News gossip column Rush & Molloy. Bloomberg, whose office would neither confirm nor deny he made...

1/18/2008 - MAYVILLE — It only took two members of the Chautauqua County Board of Health to save the coveted waivers that permit a handful of area clubs, businesses and veterans organizations to allow smoking in their establishments. Until Thursday, it was unclear how determined Board of Health members were to eliminate the waivers, which were first distributed after the state’s indoor smoking ban went into effect five years ago, banning the practice in almost all places of business. But motivated by studies that have pointed to significant health benefits in the wake of the smoking ban, board member Marcia...

Germans puff on as smoking ban fizzles By Sarah Roberts Tue Jan 15, 8:39 PM ET Photographer Frank Blum puffed contentedly on a hand-rolled cigarette in a cafe in central Berlin, blatantly ignoring a ban that went into effect in most of Germany this month. "I'm smoking because no one's stopping me," Blum, 43, said from behind his laptop, one of a dozen customers happily smoking without fear. "The cafes aren't making it difficult." Blum is just one of many disobeying a law banning smoking in public places -- cafes, bars, restaurants and night clubs -- in force in Berlin...

The head of the Portuguese agency responsible for enforcing a new ban on smoking in public was seen lighting up at a New Year party, breaking the law on the first day it came into effect. Antonio Nunes, president of Portugal's food standards agency, was photographed by the daily Diario de Noticias smoking a cigar at a casino on the outskirts of Lisbon. Nunes told the daily he was not aware the anti-smoking law, which applies to cafes, restaurants and bars, also included casinos. But a spokesman for the Ministry of Health said it did. "We will have to look...

The statewide smoking ban is ... good for Illinois. 33.5% bad for Illinois. 66.5% Total votes: 248

PARIS - From next week, one of France's most iconic institutions — the smoky cafe — will be but a hazy memory. The extension of France's smoking ban to bars, discotheques, restaurants, hotels, casinos and cafes on Jan. 1 marks a momentous cultural shift in a country where thinkers like Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir once held court while clutching cigarettes in Left Bank cafes. For smokers, this is the most distressing part of a phased smoking ban that began last February in workplaces, schools, airports, hospitals and other "closed and covered" public places like train stations. But many...

France fears arrival of cigarette-smoking ban By William Langley in Paris  Last Updated: 12:35am GMT 23/12/2007     The authentic French bistro-dweller's look of perpetual anguish requires that the eyes be directed upwards, the corners of the mouth drawn downwards, and a crumpled cigarette balanced vaguely on the horizontal. A guide to Western cigarette-smoking bansFrom next month, the expression will feature more despair and fewer cigarettes.   Brigitte Bardot avec cigarette   The day of reckoning has arrived for Europe's most incorrigible smokers. On January 1, it will become illegal to light up in bars, restaurants or nightclubs, and as...

The Ithaca Common Council continues to investigate how to prohibit smoking on some city-owned land. Council's Environment and Neighborhood Quality committee will work with the City Attorney's office to “develop a list of areas that could be designated smoke free,” according to Robin Korherr, D-5th, chair of the committee. “Smoking is a habit and we develop our habits from our environment,” Korherr said. “We're trying to target youth and let them know that it's okay not to smoke and it doesn't need to be allowed everywhere. If they don't see it happening around them, they may not choose to smoke...

Smoking ban costing some workers their jobs

LOS ANGELES -- The City Council in Calabasas plans to discuss a proposal Wednesday on whether to extend its anti-smoking law to some homes. Council members may consider a law that would prohibit renters from lighting up inside apartments. Current resident smokers would be exempted from the ban as long as they stayed in the same apartment. The law would require all new buildings with at least 15 units to be smoke-free; the law would cover condominiums, as well as apartment buildings.

Smokers, already pushed outside in New York, may be getting more grief than usual for lighting up in public places thanks to a new ad campaign designed to discourage smoking around children. The state's $5 million campaign, one more push for champions of the anti-smoking movement, came at the same time a report by the U.S. Surgeon General indicates infants and young children are especially vulnerable to secondhand smoke. One print ad warns "when you smoke around your kids, they smoke too. By the age of 5 they'll have inhaled over 100 packs." For years, state health officials and the...

Odor of Cigarette Smoke Causes School Employee to Lose Job The Denton Independent School District has removed an employee from her position because she smells like cigarette smoke. Suzanne Lidster was thrilled when she was recently hired to assist a student with disabilities at L.A. Nelson Elementary. "It's something that God sent me here to do with this child," Lidster told FOX 4. "It's like OK, this fell in my lap." But after less than two weeks on the job, Lidster said she received a voicemail informing her that she had lost her position. The school's principal left a message...

It'll be up to patrons, bars to ban smoking City will not beef up tactics for enforcement When the city of Houston's smoking ban expands next month to include bars, it largely will be up to bar managers and their customers to enforce the new rules. The city is not beefing up enforcement tactics — it only has one smoking-enforcement officer, as well as 43 sanitarians who can issue citations — primarily because officials expect the ban to be self-enforcing, said Kathy Barton, spokeswoman for the city's Department of Health and Human Services. In other words, the non-smoking public likely...

CHICAGO - Illinois smokers are in for a cold winter. Gov. Rod Blagojevich signed legislation Monday making Illinois the latest state to ban smoking in public places — including bars, restaurants and work places. The law goes into effect Jan. 1. Chicago and dozens of other communities already restrict smoking, but the new law trumps local ordinances that are weaker or that exempt businesses with air filtration systems, state health officials said. Smokers will still be allowed to light up in their homes, cars, at retail tobacco shops, in certain motel rooms and outdoors. If they get caught smoking in...

Local nonsmokers would appear to have benefited from the Cattaraugus County Health Department's strong enforcement of the state's four-year-old indoor smoking ban. A statewide study showed the level of a byproduct of nicotine in nonsmokers dropped by nearly half since July 2003. Since smoking was already banned in most workplaces at the time, most nonsmokers were being exposed to cigarette smoke in restaurants and bars. Cattaraugus County Public Health Director Barbara J. Hastings said, "Through the efforts of many people we are bettering the health of residents of Cattaraugus County. "Second-hand smoke is a carcinogen," she said. "Anything we can...

CAIRO, Egypt - In a country where perhaps the most popular national past-time is puffing on a water pipe or chain smoking while drinking tea, new laws designed to curb smoking are receiving a skeptical response. But some doctors and lawmakers here want to change Egypt‘s smoking culture. The country‘s parliament recently passed laws banning tobacco advertising and smoking in some public places including government buildings, schools and hospitals. If individuals break the law, they could be fined up $17. Establishments could be forced to pay about $3,500, if they don‘t follow the law, said el-Sayyed, who also head‘s Egypt‘s...

A British millionaire who has reportedly hired outgoing Prime Minister Tony Blair's wife, Cherie, to fight the New Labour Government's ban on smoking, described Tony Blair as an "a***hole" on peak-time radio on Sunday. Sixty-three-year-old Dave West, a lapdance boss, resorted to the use of unparliamentary language after claiming that human rights lawyer Cherie Blair, 52, thought his club should be exempted from new cigarette laws. Interviewed onj BBC Radio Five, West was quoted by The Sun a saying that Tony Blair was an a***hole for introducing the smoking ban. When Nicky Campbell, the show's host, said that there was...

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — Mayor Bloomberg is decrying the state of the 2008 presidential race, faulting the major party candidates for offering shallow, simplistic prescriptions, and scolding the press for failing to demand more from those seeking the White House. During an appearance at Google's headquarters in Silicon Valley yesterday, Mr. Bloomberg said the televised debates among the presidential candidates have been, in essence, a waste of time. "They have absolutely nothing to do with the job and the qualifications. And they don't tell you anything about whether or not any of those candidates would be good or bad presidents....

Albuquerque smokers can forget about lighting up in city parks, Civic Plaza or outside the airport. Mayor Martin Chávez [Democrat] signed an order on Monday banning outdoor smoking on all city-owned property. Smoking indoors is already prohibited. The order goes into effect Friday— timed to coincide with the start of new state regulations that prohibit smoking in bars, restaurants and workplaces. Chávez, in a news conference, ... described the ban as an "executive order," meaning it doesn't require City Council approval. Bianca Ortiz Wertheim, legislative coordinator for the mayor, said the outdoor-smoking ban will help protect children and others from...

Editorial: Smoking ban proves Legislature can get things done 5/17/2007 8:56:33 AM ... The hope comes in the form of the "Freedom to Breathe Act," which Gov. Tim Pawlenty signed on Wednesday. The act, which will take effect on Oct. 1, bans smoking in virtually all bars and restaurants in the state. A statewide smoking ban was proposed in previous legislative sessions, but the bills died amid the partisan rancor that has beset the Legislature through the 2000s. This year, however, nearly equal numbers of Republican and DFL lawmakers joined together to pass the statewide smoking ban by comfortable margins...

House OKs bill; Ritter expected to sign By ED SEALOVER, THE GAZETTE April 28, 2007 - 12:40AM DENVER - Throw down the baby’s meal money and order another shot of whiskey — but whatever you do, don’t light up that cigarette at the poker table. Beginning Jan. 1, Colorado’s casinos likely will be home to one less vice. The House voted Thursday to ban smoking in casinos beginning at 8 a.m. on the first day of 2008, joining the Senate in a compromise between the July 1, 2007, snuff-out date proposed by the House and the July 1, 2008, deadline...

An Allegheny County judge today refused to extend an injunction that delayed a smoking ban in bars and restaurants. Unless a state appeals court takes action later today, the ban will take effect at midnight tonight. Judge Michael A. Della Vecchia, who had granted additional time for some bar owners, this afternoon said he wouldn't extend that time. "This is not a matter I've treated lightly," the judge said during a hearing. He said he had allowed time for opponents of the smoking ban to try to get the state Legislature to resolve the question.

Adams ruling calls state law unconstitutional By April M. Washington, Rocky Mountain News April 12, 2007 Correction This story should have said that Adams County Judge Robert S. Doyle declared the state's smoking ban unconstitutional for two reasons. First, he found that the law denied due process because it allowed smoking in "tobacco bars" and not other establishments without providing any opportunity for a bar to establish itself as a tobacco bar before the effective date of the act, and by not allowing any process by which a new bar could become a tobacco bar. Second, Judge Doyle found that...

Next target of smoking ban: casinos By ED SEALOVER THE GAZETTE March 27, 2007 - 12:29AM DENVER - Colorado casinos, one of the last bastions for smokers since a statewide ban went into effect in 2006, might be losing their exemption after a year’s reprieve. State senators voted 22-12 Monday in favor of a measure banning smoking at casinos in Cripple Creek, Central City and Black Hawk. Casinos were granted an exemption from the ban in last year’s Colorado Clean Indoor Air Act, along with cigar bars, businesses of three employees or less that aren’t open to the public and...

Restaurant is first to file claim on Tosa ban on smoking By Janice Kayser Staff Writer Posted: March 20, 2007 Hector's, A Mexican Restaurant has filed a notice of claim with the city asking for $75,000 in lost revenue - a loss the owner has pinned on the city's restaurant smoking ban. Robert H. Messinger, owner of Hector's, 7118 W. State St., sent a letter late last week to City Hall claiming he lost $53,586 between last July 1, when the ban went into effect, to Dec. 31. He also claims additional revenues of $21,414 were lost between Jan. 1...

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Posted: March 26, 2007 9:23 p.m. Eastern © 2007 WorldNetDaily.com Stewart Laidlaw (courtesy Dumfermline Press) Scotland's ban on smoking in pubs has backfired, so to speak, on a regular customer whose constant habit of breaking wind has now resulted in his expulsion from his favorite watering hole. Stewart Laidlaw, 35, is being barred from Thirsty Kirsty's in Dunfermline, Fife, for failing to control his flatulence. "No one could smell anything when the pub was full of cigarette smoke," Laidlaw told Wales on Sunday. "I never used to complain about the smell of their cigarette smoke, but now everyone complains...

We’re starting to find out who will carry water for Governor Doyle’s mega-intrusive plan to outlaw smoking in all public places. One of Doyle’s press releases in January said, “Governor Doyle will call on the Legislature to pass a statewide smoking ban that is fair and equitable – banning smoking in all public buildings, workplaces, restaurants, and taverns. This ban would be in legislation separate from the budget.” Someone in the Legislature had to author and introduce the bill. We now know who they are. State Senators Fred Risser (D-Madison) and Carol Roessler (R-Oshkosh) and state Representatives Mark Gottllieb (R-Port...

Residents support statewide smoking ban Madison - Nearly two-thirds of Wisconsin voters support a statewide smoking ban, with more than half saying they strongly back such a law, according to a poll released today by backers of a proposal to prohibit smoking in all public places in the state. The telephone poll of 500 registered Wisconsin voters was conducted after Gov. Jim Doyle called for a statewide smoking ban; the survey by the Mellman Group and Public Opinion Strategies occurred between Feb. 17 and 19, and has a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points. The survey...

Honolulu – I drafted and introduced Bill H.B. No. 792 in the Hawaii State House of Representatives to exempt bars, nightclubs, and restaurants from the complete ban on smoking, provided that exterior signage adequately warns the public that smoking is allowed within. I'm very concerned with the calls my office is receiving about the loss of revenue that small business owners are experiencing across the state since the statewide smoking ban went into affect in November. Many long time business establishments have closed in other states due to the passage of smoking ban legislation and hundreds of others are limping...

Gov. Jim Doyle today announced a "broad attack on tobacco in this state," ranging from a statewide smoking ban to a $1.25-per-pack increase in cigarette taxes, all aimed at getting Wisconsin smokers to quit and youths not to start. The smoking ban would be similar to a controversial law enacted in Madison last year and would ban smoking in all public places - including workplaces, bars, and restaurants. "We're taking it all on," Doyle said during a press conference at the Executive Residence this morning. "We know which direction history is going on this issue. The real issue for me...

RENO, Nev. (AP) - Thirty years after it began as just another quirky movement in Berkeley, Calif., the push to ban smoking in restaurants, bars and other public places has reached a national milestone. For the first time in the nation's history, more than half of Americans live in a city or state with laws mandating that workplaces, restaurants or bars be smoke-free, according to Americans for Nonsmokers' Rights. ''The movement for smoke-free air has gone from being a California oddity to the nationwide norm,'' said Bronson Frick, the group's associate director. ''We think 100 percent of Americans will live...

Smoking fine may jump to $1,000 BY STACY BROWN STAFF WRITER Fines for violating Scranton’s new smoking ban could rise to as much as $1,000 if Scranton Councilwoman Sherry Nealon Fanucci has her way. “It’s insulting when you read the newspaper and turn on the television and see some restaurant and bar owners openly saying that they are going to break the law,” Ms. Fanucci said Wednesday. “(Tonight), I will ask for the ordinance to be amended to include either a $500 fine or a $1,000 fine to be levied against establishment owners who allow smoking.” Last month, City Council...

Beneath the trendy Tabaq restaurant in the U Street corridor lies a hookah bar, a remaining legal refuge for smokers of a different kind. The District's smoking ban went into effect last week, snuffing out smokers in almost all the city's bars, restaurants and hotels. But for bars that feature the ancient Middle Eastern water pipe, known as a hookah or shisha pipe, along with cigar bars, the new law does not prohibit them from catering to tobacco loyalists. "I want to make sure if somebody wants to smoke, we can give them a place to do it," said Omer...

Scranton’s recent decision to ban smoking in almost all public places — coming on the heels of a similar bans in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh — represents one of the biggest culture changes of our times. Such a ban would have been unthinkable 50 years ago, when cigarette commercials dominated the airwaves and glamorous movie stars lit up regularly on the silver screen. In recent years, 17 states and more than 500 local municipalities have enacted smoking bans. Cigarette sales have dropped 20 percent since 1998, when tobacco companies agreed to pay $248 billion to the states to help cover the...

HONOLULU - Hawaii, known for its fresh ocean air and pristine beauty, has implemented one of the nation's strictest no-smoking laws. State officials say the new law will protect people from secondhand smoke, but some fear it may deter cigarette-puffing tourists from coming to the islands, especially high-spending visitors from Japan. The Smoke-Free Hawaii Law went into effect Nov. 16, banning smoking in all public places such as restaurants, bowling alleys, and malls, as well as airports. Many of the islands already had county laws limiting smoking, but lighting up now in partially enclosed areas, bars and less than 20...

On the same day Allegheny County was sued over its new law and one week after Erie County was advised by its solicitor against such an ordinance, Scranton City Council “rolled the dice” and approved a smoking ban Thursday. “Our solicitor wants to roll the dice, but it behooves us to proceed with caution, because I think we can ill afford more litigation in Scranton,” said Councilwoman Janet Evans, whose motion to table the ordinance failed. Council passed the ordinance by a 4-to-1 vote. Solicitor Amil Minora reiterated his belief that the panel was on solid footing in going forth...

African restaurants are planning to shelve traditional attractions in the wake of the smoking ban. Restaurant owners said shisha or hookah pipes would be left as merely decorations to hang on walls after the new law comes into effect next year. The ban will mean the end of shisha cafs, whose clients are mainly Muslims and use shisha as an alternative to drinking alcohol, forbidden in Islam. But also the use of the pipes in ordinary restaurants which serve hookahs for smoking fruit-flavoured tobacco as a dessert option. Sherry Eskici, who owns the Mascara Restaurant in Western Road, Brighton, with...

The Kansas City Council is expected to vote today on whether to join Overland Park, Olathe and other cities in a smoking ban affecting even bars and restaurants. That is faster than was expected — Kansas City originally was going to wait until nearly the entire metro area passed comprehensive bans. But irate bar and restaurant owners told a council committee Wednesday that the proposal is unfair because it would exempt the gaming floors of Kansas City’s casinos. “Why exempt one industry?” asked Thomas Norsworthy, who owns bars and restaurants that he said must compete with the casinos. When Finance...

The Belmont (CA) City Council is considering drafting an ordinance that declares secondhand smoke “a public nuisance” and extends the city’s current ban on smoking in workplaces and most public areas to any residence except a single-family detached home. The proposal, aimed at multi-unit apartment buildings, is meant to address the health concerns of elderly apartment residents who complained of complications caused by second-hand smoke, according to The Associated Press. The City Council of this Silicon Valley suburb of San Francisco is expected to enforce the ordinance by relying on civil suits brought by citizens or the city, and by...

Ballwin — An early-morning fire that destroyed the Seventh Inn restaurant in Ballwin was an accident, officials said Monday afternoon. "There was no malicious intent. It was not a set fire," said Michael Thiemann, spokesman for the Metro West Fire Protection District. "It was accidental, and apparently started in the lounge area."

Sheik Jamal Said stood before the packed mosque and worked the crowd like an auctioneer. Speaking Arabic, the prayer leader asked for a donation of $10,000. No one responded. He asked for $5,000, and three men raised their hands. < SNIP> The recipient of the worshipers' generosity was Sami Al-Arian, a Palestinian activist accused by the U.S. government of aiding terrorists. And the prayer leader's passionate appeal is a reflection of the ascendancy of Muslim hard-liners at the mosque, one of the most outspoken and embattled in the U.S. The mosque did not become this way without a struggle. Relying...

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico -- Night after night for almost seven years, Loraine Cardona inhaled clouds of acrid cigar and cigarette smoke at the Diamond Palace Casino in Condado, San Juan's hip tourist district. A supervisor at the blackjack tables, Cardona wheezed though bouts of bronchitis, pneumonia and asthma while players puffed into the wee hours of the night. ... Studies suggest tourism officials may not have much to fear from the smoking ban. The University of Florida's Bureau of Economic and Business Research found that sales at Florida restaurants increased by 7 percent after the state's smoking ban went...