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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...

A proposed smoking ban on the Kirkwood ballot on Tuesday is setting a fire under the electorate, business groups and politicians. The Kirkwood Smoke-free Workplace Initiative would eliminate smoking in all indoor public places, including bars and restaurants and places of employment. The measure would allow smoking in private homes, private vehicles and outdoor areas away from enclosed or semi-enclosed structures.

DENVER -- If you are old enough to remember candy cigarettes, they may be what actors have to use in front of Colorado audiences. Even pretending to be a smoker is illegal in the state, if real cigarettes are used as props on stage. Denver District Judge Michael A. Martinez said there is no exemption allowed for Colorado's theater companies to use real cigarettes on stage. The state's indoor smoking ban gets top billing. Theaters seeking the exception said they didn't even want to smoke tobacco, they've been smoking herbal alternatives on stage for years. But the judge says there's...

ELON, N.C. - Almost 65 percent of North Carolina residents would support a statewide ban on smoking in public places, and more than half prefer restaurants that don't allow smoking, according to a survey released Tuesday by Elon University. The survey also found that 65 percent of residents support allowing city and town governments to pass local smoking bans, which is barred under state law. "It appears that the historical ties to tobacco in this state are now essentially severed as anti-smoking sentiments prevail among North Carolinians," said Hunter Bacot, who directed the poll. The survey of 649 people was...

Up in Smoke City Hall and the Greater Houston Restaurant Association once again threaten the right to light up in bars Health nuts are gonna feel pretty stupid someday, lying in hospitals, dyin' o' nothin'. -- Redd Foxx Here we go again...City Hall is a-rumble once more with talk of a smoking ban in bars. And no, they aren't responding to a groundswell of popular support -- they are acting at the behest of the Greater Houston Restaurant Association, which has now officially flip-flopped from its partial-ban position from last year. You'll recall that sensible, live-and-let-live legislation -- it banned...

The day of the smoke-filled room could come to an end for a growing number of Texas cities, as places like Baytown and Houston are looking seriously at comprehensive smoking bans. Supporters of smoke-free public places contend the Lone Star State can no longer afford to embrace the tough, cowboy image of the Marlboro Man, who can smoke wherever he wants. They point to the new U.S. Surgeon General's report, released in June, that concluded even a brief whiff of second-hand smoke can be harmful. Further, the report said the health effect of such exposure is more pervasive than originally...

* Tom and Jerry cartoons have been censored following a single complaint * Animation showing smoking on the Boomerang channel is to be cut * Media watchdog Ofcom investigated the complaint Key quote "To me it's political correctness gone mad. If you're really going to be concerned about children taking something up perhaps Ofcom could look at Tom dropping an anvil on Jerry's head or putting Jerry in an egg slicer. " - Adrian Monck, media analyst Story in full TOM and Jerry can flatten each other with anvils and batter themselves senseless with mallets, but censors have drawn a...

Targeting a new frontier in the fight against smoking, California lawmakers may ban motorists from lighting up near young passengers. The measure would mark the first time that Californians would be prohibited from smoking legal tobacco products on private property not open to the public or employees. No state had passed such a vehicle smoking ban until this year, when Arkansas and Louisiana set a precedent by barring the practice when passengers are under 6 or 13, respectively. Assemblyman Paul Koretz, a West Hollywood Democrat who proposed California's ban, Assembly Bill 379, said some parents don't seem to know --...

ASSOCIATED PRESS CARSON CITY, Nev. (AP) - A gambling industry lawyer says backers of a petition to outlaw smoking in most public places misled voters by falsely claiming the ban wouldn't extend to all Nevada hotel and motel rooms. Nevada Resort Association lawyer Todd Bice has filed briefs asking the Supreme Court to remove the anti-smoking petition from the November ballot because signers were told that the smoking ban wouldn't include hotel and motel rooms when the opposite is true. Bice quoted Michael Hackett, campaign manager for Nevadans for Tobacco-Free Kids, who said in June that it wasn't his organization's...

view lo speed video view hi speed video (WSBT) It snuffed-out lighting-up in St. Joseph County, but now there's a fight over an amendment to the smoking ban. Tuesday morning County Commissioners vetoed an amendment that would have let some businesses have a smoking room for their workers. The two commissioners who voted down the amendment say it's really a matter of people's health. Cindy Bodle and Steve Ross say they supported the ban in the first place because they wanted people to have cleaner air in public places. Some businesses had complained that workers should have a place to...

House Bill 1046 started out as a joke to just about everyone but Bob Mathis. And now it’s his turn to laugh. The Hot Springs Democrat and reformed smoker spent much of this week in strong opposition to a bill to ban smoking in most workplaces. It was a Mathis amendment that came close to killing that bill, says Gov. Mike Huckabee, the primary supporter of the measure. So when Mathis filed a bill Wednesday evening to ban smoking in cars carrying young children who are restrained in car seats, a lot of people laughed. They didn’t take him or...

Smoke-free bars and public houses will attract more female customers and could fuel the rise in binge drinking among women, a report warns. It points out that as bars and pubs become more appealing venues to women, female customers are more likely to consume larger amounts of alcoholic drinks than before. And because women are marrying later, they are spending more time in pubs and other venues that serve alcohol, where they are more likely to meet men. The rise in alcohol consumption among women is causing serious concern for the Government. Doctors say liver disease is now being seen...

"KINDA cosmopolitan, eh?" says a rosy-cheeked punter as his female companion attempts to light her cigarette on a gas cylinder lamp used to heat an outdoor smoking area at a suburban pub. Around them, ashtrays overflow, piled high, one on top of the other. Relative strangers shyly shimmy closer to one another, nestling up to the gas heaters hanging over their heads. Paris in the springtime this is not, but on the first weekend following Scotland's ban on smoking in public places, there is ample joie de vivre in residence. It was a scene repeated across Scotland on Friday night,...

Calabasas makes it illegal to light up in public spaces, with fines up to $500. Some residents breathe easier, but others just fume. As a pioneering public smoking ban went into effect Friday in Calabasas, enforcement came from a higher authority: Mother Nature. A pouring rainstorm snuffed out renegade smokers' cigarettes and sent them scurrying for cover as security guards began issuing warnings at the town's main shopping center. Calabasas, an upscale suburb perched on the western edge of the San Fernando Valley, was generating international attention for what appears to be the nation's first ban on smoking in all...

Life will be a drag for smokers in the city of Calabasas starting today, when a strict ban on lighting up in most outdoor spaces takes effect. The ban, perhaps the most comprehensive smoking ban in the United States, prohibits smoking in all public places at times when other people can be exposed to secondhand smoke. Businesses can apply to create a designated smoking area far away from non-smokers starting in April. The "Comprehensive Secondhand Smoke Control Ordinance" includes indoor and outdoor businesses, hotels, parks, sidewalks, restaurants and bars where people can be reasonably expected to congregate or meet, according...

Because it's getting hard to keep track of all the places where you're not allowed to smoke, the city council of Calabasas, Calif., decided to start over from scratch and make things simple. "Smoking is prohibited everywhere in the city," says a Calabasas ordinance that takes effect on March 17, "except as otherwise provided." The exceptions are private residences, up to 20 percent of hotel rooms, "smokers' outposts" in shopping-center parking lots, and "any outdoor area in which no nonsmoker is present and... it is not reasonable to expect another person to arrive." The smoke-free areas, a k a "everywhere...

It's been almost a year since Minnesota's largest city enacted a smoking ban. That means all bars, restaurants, pool halls and bowling alleys in Minneapolis are supposed to be smoke free. But is that a smokescreen? This law is on the books to protect the public from the dangers of second hand smoke, but after a year, there's still plenty of smoke to go around. Just ask Molly Pittelkow. She recently celebrated a birthday by going out with friends to sing karaoke. They settled on a joint called U Otter Stop In, just across the river from downtown Minneapolis. When...

Smoking Could Be Banned In All Public Places (AP) SPRINGFIELD, Ill. Smokers, beware. Illinois lawmakers are considering a statewide ban on smoking in public places, like restaurants, bars and bowling alleys. Health advocates say smokers shouldn't inflict their smoke on employees and other customers. One expert says a waitress who breathes second-hand smoke for eight hours has essentially smoked a pack of cigarettes. But business groups oppose a ban. They say customers can vote with their feet and choose whether to go to places that allow smoking. They also note that it was just a few months ago that lawmakers...

SOUTH BEND -- St. Joseph County residents will no longer have to request restaurant seating in a "no smoking" area. Beginning April 10, all the areas in most restaurants will be smoke-free. After months of deliberation, the County Council voted 7-2 on Tuesday to adopt an ordinance that will ban smoking in restaurants and other public places, and in private businesses as well. Dozens of area residents, including several physicians warning of health risks and restaurant owners fearful that they will lose business appeared in the County-City Building to support or oppose the issue. Jerry Scott, vice president of human...

The smoking banners have been all over this poll, we also have the Governor of Chicago and the Mayor of Chicago holding a press conference on passing a state "so called" assault weapons ban since the Feds went out in 2004.

Worried that measures to limit smoking don't go far enough, Elk Grove Village officials are considering banning the sale of cigarettes, apparently the first time that has been seriously proposed in Illinois, experts said. Mayor Craig Johnson said the village would be hypocritical to consider a current proposal to restrict smoking in bars and restaurants without going after cigarettes themselves. "If we think smoking is so detrimental to the community that we should ban it, then we should think about a ban on selling cigarettes,"

THE public are to be told not to smoke in their own homes as part of plans to protect public sector workers from the effect of passive smoking. The move is the latest part of the Scottish Executive's ban on smoking in public places, which will come into force on 26 March next year. Ministers have told councils, health boards and social work departments that they should compile a "smokers' map" of Scotland, focusing on those who regularly receive visits from officials and carers. This would identify individual households where a smoker is resident. The smokers would then be sent...

Children's health will be put at risk from passive smoking if the government bans smoking in all restaurants and bars, according to dramatic new research out today. The study, which will provoke fresh controversy over whether a partial ban would be the better option, concluded that parents, particularly poorer ones, who are prevented from smoking in bars tend to smoke more in front of their children at home. Passive smoking has been linked to breathing difficulties and asthma among children.[snip] [Researchers] concluded that parents smoke more at home if they are prevented from lighting up in bars or restaurants. The...

LITTLE ROCK (AP) -- Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee said Tuesday he supports a statewide ban on smoking in the workplace and will consider proposing a ban if the Legislature meets for a special session in 2006. "Maybe to some people's surprise, I would support a statewide workplace smoking ban, which to me is doing it in the right place for the right reasons," Huckabee said in an interview with The Associated Press on Tuesday. "It presents for (workers) a health risk we should eliminate, in the same way we would eliminate other health risks like lead paint or asbestos." Huckabee...

Aldermen reached a tentative agreement today on an ordinance that would make virtually all indoor public places smoke-free, but would give drinking establishments up to three years to comply with the law. Final language of the accord was being fashioned this afternoon as some aldermen sought a two-year deadline for full compliance. The full City Council is expected to vote on the compromise measure Wednesday. Ald. Patrick O'Connor (40th) said aldermen wanted to resolve the controversy "in a way that was amicable, and it was getting pretty ugly around here the last couple of weeks." "Ultimately, people knew we had...

ASSOCIATED PRESS WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. -- A major hotel chain is going smoke-free next month and will add $200 to the bill of anyone who violates the policy, an executive said Monday. Westin Hotels & Resorts is banning smoking indoors and poolside at all 77 of its properties in the United States, Canada and the Caribbean, said senior Vice President Sue Brush. Smokers will have to go to a designated outdoor area, she said. Enica Thompson, spokeswoman for the American Hotel & Lodging Association, said Westin is the first major American chain to go smoke-free and predicted that "many of...

The fact that I have to call Fado, an Irish pub in LoDo, to inquire whether smoking is allowed feels like an assault on my fundamental understanding of freedom. If you can't smoke at an Irish pub, where can you smoke? "Smoke 'em if you got 'em," they say. I was on my way to discuss a recent study that alleges heart attack rates in Pueblo had dropped an implausible 27 percent since a smoking ban was imposed in bars, restaurants and other public places in July 2003. When I get there, Jimmy Powell, my affable bartender, mulls it over...

HARRISBURG -- Mary Molinaro loves bingo, but it's been ages since she's played. "They smoke up a storm in those bingos. It gives me a headache," said Mrs. Molinaro, 72, of Glassport. That's why she's hoping for the passage of legislation that would prohibit smoking in all public workplaces, including restaurants, stores, sports arenas, bars and, yes, bingo halls. Violators would be subject to fines of up to $100 for the first violation, $200 for the second violation within one year and $500 for subsequent violations in the same year. Similar bills have been proposed over the last several years,...

The city’s smoking ban never sleeps. Tiffany Hurter, a bartender at Conroy’s, found that out the hard way this week. Hurter became the city’s first nonbusiness owner or manager cited under the city’s workplace smoking ban early Wednesday. Police officers received a tip that the bar was serving drinks after the legal cut-off time of 2 a.m. on Wednesday. A police officer went to the bar, 3115 W. Sixth St., and found no drinking but discovered Hurter smoking a cigarette while talking with a fellow employee and a couple of other friends Hurter had agreed to give a ride. Hurter...

Smokers beware: Puffing within 25 feet of the door of a publicly used building, a park or in other public spaces could cost you $500 or a year in prison. But if alcohol is being served or you're rolling the dice, well, smoke 'em if you got 'em. The Metro Council narrowly approved an anti-smoking ordinance filled with exemptions Wednesday. Some council members expressed concern about enforcing the new ban. The long list of exemptions includes bars and lounges, restaurants with liquor licenses and casinos. "You can smoke -- with limitations. You can drink -- with limitations. You just can't...

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) -- The day the Legislature approved a smoking ban for most North Dakota businesses, Dennis Laches put a sign on his laundry and television repair shop, announcing he would close when the ban took effect Aug. 1. "Nobody knew if he was going to go through with it," said Troy Mosbrucker, the mayor of Mott, a town of about 800 in southwestern North Dakota. "He had a point to prove, and he proved it." As promised, Laches closed his business that day. He said it had nothing to do with his pack-a-day habit. Rather, he said, it...

APPLETON (AP) - At Jokers Bar, the staff of eight has been laid off. Owner Tony Schaefer said he's now working the bar with his brother. Schaefer is among many business owners still fuming a month after a ban on smoking at all indoor workplaces was enacted in this city. The ban was approved by 56 percent of voters in an April 5 referendum and went into effect on July 1. Madison's similar smoking ban went into effect on the same day, although there was no referendum preceding it. "We'll be closing up" if business doesn't improve, Schaefer said. "The...

MADRID (Reuters) - Spaniards are no longer allowed to smoke as they take a Sunday stroll in the woods, under new government rules aimed at curbing the risk of fires such as a recent one in which 11 firefighters died. Lighting fires in open spaces is banned nationwide until November, by when the country's severe drought may have eased. Friday's law, which comes into force immediately, emphasizes the danger of barbecues at picnic places, thought to be the cause of the fatal blaze in Guadalajara, and prohibits farmers from burning stubble, for example. Just under 30 percent of Spaniards over...

MADISON, Wis. (AP) Some Madison tavern owners say their revenues are dissipating because of the city's smoking ban, while some customers say they are leaving for out-of-city pubs for a smoke and a drink. The city enacted an ordinance that bans smoking in bars and restaurants July 1, joining about 20 other Wisconsin cities with some kind of ban. Madison's move created a firestorm of controversy, with smokers accusing the City Council of trying to run their lives. Already a faction of aldermen wants to repeal the ban, and Republican legislators are trying to pass a bill that would water...

MILWAUKEE (AP) Smoking would be banned in hotels, bars, restaurants, taxi cabs and workplaces in the state's largest city under a proposal unveiled Tuesday. The ordinance would ban smoking in public places and would be similar or more stringent than already strict ordinances in New York City and Minneapolis, said Patricia McManus, a spokeswoman for the Smoke-Free Milwaukee Project. The group has been working with the proposal's main sponsor, Alderman Joe Davis, who cited the risks of secondhand smoke and the rising costs of health care in creating the proposal. Exceptions would include tobacco stores, outdoor patios and private homes,...

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Bowling lane owners send shoes to lawmakers May 21, 2005, 6:54 PM EDT TRENTON, N.J. -- A bowling alley industry group has sent a single bowling shoe to each member of the state Legislature as a reminder of why they oppose a proposed indoor smoking ban. The Bowling Proprietors' Association of North Jersey and Southern New Jersey said it sent the shoes to highlight how the special leather-soled shoes slip easily on wet surfacing. The group claims an indoor smoking ban would raise their insurance rates because smokers going outside to smoke on a rainy day would bring water back...

Opponents of the ban may not give up the battle after the ordinance which prohibits smoking in public places barely passed Saturday night. Rounding up to 52 percent, the smoking ban passes by a narrow margin. It takes effect on Sept. 1. Advocates for the ban say that the voters have spoken, and we should leave it at that. However, opponents say that they have some legal options here and argue this fight has not only been about the economic impact on businesses that welcome smokers but about one's civil rights as well. As the results rolled in Saturday night,...

HELENA, Mont. (AP) - Gov. Brian Schweitzer signed into law Monday a compromise smoking ban between public health groups and Montana tavern owners in "Marlboro Country." The prohibition on public smoking takes effect Oct. 1 for all buildings and offices open to the public, but it will not apply to Montana's 1,700 bars for another four years, a concession to the tavern industry. "This is classic example of what can happen in Montana with commonsense people finding Montana common ground," Schweitzer, a Democrat, said during a signing ceremony at the Capitol. "This will protect children for generations to come." In...

Mayor Tom George sounds weary. He presides over a congested suburb where nearly every structure, street, and sewer is 100 years old. Its few factories are either dead or walking with a limp. Its retail is slim and struggling. Aside from thrift stores, it has but one thriving industry: bars. And now the Lakewood City Council is considering killing them. This month, a commission will recommend whether or not to enact a smoking ban. In a daintier locale, this might not be cause for uproar. Everyone could rally around, knowing they were saving heathens from their carcinogens. Unfortunately, this is...