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Repace is paid to say those kinds of things.

Please - give me someone who is at least credible.

Considering you are in Florida, I will go out on a limb and assume you are well aware of the wind strengths of a hurricane. Are you aware that Repace considers 300mph winds to be "gale force"????

Please - give me someone who is at least credible.

Please give me something! You have posted NO facts to support your basis. If you are so 'linked' to the capital in-crowd, you surely must have your hands on some 'real data' ....

Restaurants and bars typically have high fail rates. About one quarter of new restaurants and bars fail every year. Now in NYC, every time a restaurant or bar fails, the media points to NYC's smokefree workplace law.

This week's New York Post article featuring Joan Borkowski (owner of Billy's Steakhouse) saying that revenues were down 50% is particularly suspect for the following reasons: 1) Joan was Philip Morris' front person during the 1995 battle, 2) After passage of NYC's 1995 law, she also said revenues were down some huge amount, 3) Her restaurant, like almost all NYC restaurants, was already smokefree (except at the bar) before passage of the current law, 4) Approximately 80% of New Yorkers don't smoke, 5) The 20% of New Yorkers who do smoke tend to have lower income and therefore eat out less often 6) New York Post owner Rupert Murdoch was on the Board of Philip Morris from 1989 until 2001.

There is no way that NYC's new smokefree workplace law could cause a 50% drop in business at Billy's Steakhouse. If Joan's business is down that much, she must be putting ashes in the food. Common sense tells us that it's just not possible for a small percentage of restaurant smokers who now can't smoke at the bar to have such a large impact on revenues. It sounds to me like the tobacco industry is planting fictitious stories.