Free Republic

RALEIGH – Emergency room visits by North Carolinians experiencing heart attacks have declined by 21 percent since the January 2010 start of the state’s Smoke-Free Restaurants and Bars Law. State Health Director Dr. Jeffrey Engel reported the results to the Justus-Warren Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention Task Force this morning. “We pushed for passage of this law because we knew it would save lives,” said Governor Bev Perdue, who signed the law into effect. “Our goal was to protect workers and patrons from breathing secondhand smoke and we are seeing positive results.” The N.C. Division of Public Health report cites...

“More States Allowing Guns in Bars,” The New York Times reported back in 2010, eliciting the expected “Wild West” analogies the hoplophobes always seem to drag up whenever the people actually seek to exercise their right to keep and bear arms. “That’s not cool in my book,” Art Andersen, 44, said as he nursed a Coors Light at Sam’s Sports Bar and Grill near Vanderbilt University. “It opens the door to trouble. It’s giving you the right to be Wyatt Earp.” Somebody ought to tell the nursing Mr. Andersen to put the damn beer down. What is it about sports...

The IDF barred Knesset Members and rabbis of yeshivas from entering Kever Yosef (Joseph’s Tomb) in Shechem Sunday evening, on the anniversary of the death of the Biblical Yosef. Police arrested more than 40 people who tried to enter without permits. The military and police allowed only 12 buses to enter the holy site after having originally allowed 20 busloads to enter. The last-minute restrictions on the number of participants, and the ban on public figures, caused Samaria (Shomron) Regional Council Chairman Gershon Mesika and leading ZIonist rabbi Rav Elyakim Levanon to boycott the event. Kever Yosef has been the...

LONDON, July 21 (Reuters) - Olympic organisers are "very alive" to the threat of a cyber attack on the London 2012 Olympics, made more challenging because of its evolving nature, senior Interior Ministry officials said on Tuesday. Ticketing systems, the transport network and hotel bookings as well as security are among potential targets. Olympic security officials are also planning for the possible diversion of aircraft to protect airspace around the venues from terrorist attacks, the officials said. The greatest threat to security at the Games is international terrorism, the government's latest "Safety and Security Strategy" report said.

Video at source link. "Gun control is too simple a phrase to define all the complications and nuances of it, frankly. In Arizona they have a wide open system. I would be nervous about going into a bar or restaurant in Arizona on a Saturday night where people can carry concealed without permits," Tom Brokaw said on MSNBC's "Morning Joe." (via Noel at Newsbusters)

“Dangerous combination,” The Akron Beacon Journal editorial headline reads. “A lame-duck maneuver to allow guns in bars,” the subhead clarifies. Ohio Rep. Danny Bubp is trying to get enough signatures on discharge petitions to force two gun bills passed earlier in the Senate to the House floor for a vote. Oxymoronically, the "Authorized Journalists," who ordinarily present themselves as champions of democracy, along with House Democrats, don’t want a vote to happen: In the House, Armond Budish, the Democratic speaker, wisely has taken a firm stand against the bills. The Ohio Association of Chiefs of Police, the Fraternal Order of...

HOUSTON – As in most states, a bar owner can be held liable if a drunken patron injures someone else. But the I-Team discovered how the big liquor lobby pushed through a legal loophole that gets bars around the law, and leaves some Texas families in anguish. Matthew Garcia was bright and talented, and at 21, too young to die, his family said. "He would sit at the piano for hours and play," recalled Laurri Garcia of her son’s affection for music. “Life is horrible without Matthew, I miss him incredibly." But amid his parents' pain, there’s something else....

This is probably the worst Friday night of my life - and that's saying something. I'm sat on a high stool at a small table, plasma screens are oozing sports programmes around my head and there is a grubby plastic menu in front of me that is littered with pictures of fast food. Not a green vegetable in sight, unless you count a deep fried chilli, coated in batter. There is the thump, thump, thump of awful music in the background, competing with the braying of table upon table of men: young men, old men, students, office workers, football supporters......

RICHMOND, VA (WWBT) - It has now been just about two weeks since a new Virginia law went into effect allowing concealed weapons in bars and restaurants. Now, both sides of the issue are already weighing in on its impact. Today we get the opinions of people directly connected to the new law. Phillip Van Cleave is the President of the Virginia Citizens Defense League, a group that fought to get the law passed.

If you're looking to buy a lottery ticket this weekend in Michigan there are some bars that won't be selling them. That's because they're staging a boycott against the state over the new smoking laws they say is hurting their business, according to our reporting partners at WSJM, Benton Harbor, Mi. An internet-born boycott has bar owners opposed to the smoking ban, taking part in the boycott. Those bars will not offer lotto games from 11a.m. Saturday to 2 a.m. Sunday. One state official estimated the boycott could involve hundreds of bars, especially those along the Indiana border fighting to...

Why not?The arguments presented in favor of the law that now bans smoking in all bars and restaurants in Va. was that smoking poses a serious health danger to the public.Separate designated non-smoking areas wasn't sufficient the proponents argued, because second-hand smoke also poses a danger. As it stands now, the only bars or restaurants in Va. that can legally accommodate patrons who wish to smoke are those that have totally closed-off, separate areas, with there own ventilation system. Or, if they are private and not open to the general public. Can the case be made that the consumption of alcoholic beverages also poses a serious health danger to...

Thirsty residents of one of Australia's hottest towns face a 400-mile round trip to get a beer after they drank their local pub dry. Last weekend, The Ironclad Hotel, the only pub in Marble Bar, Western Australia, closed its doors for good. The town, with a population of just 300, is barely a dot on the map of the vast Pilbara region, and has no dedicated off-licence. Supermarkets in Australia are not allowed to sell liquor. Temperatures in the town regularly top 113F and the average maximum temperature exceeds normal human body temperature for six months of the year. So...

Gov. Phil Bredesen for the second year in a row has vetoed a bill to allow Tennessee handgun permit holders to bring their weapons into bars and restaurants that serve alcohol.

Not since the Salem witchcraft trials has there been a worse disgrace in the annals of Massachusetts jurisprudence: the railroading of an innocent Malden family during the legally sanctioned insanity known as the Fells Acres child-abuse case. Probably the apogee of the mass hysteria that gripped the U.S. beginning about 1995, the Amirault case continues to resonate – in part thanks to Martha Coakley’s inexplicable disinterest in seeing that justice was done. You can read up on the case here and here. Be sure to steel yourself. And then ask yourself: how could any rational human being have possibly believed...

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As Montana bars dealt with their first smoke-free weekend since the state’s indoor smoking ban went into effect, ingenuity ruled. In Missoula, according to a great piece by Michael Moore in the Missoulian, the Rhino Bar gave smokers their very own place to light up: a Butt Hutt, created by Dave Golden of Well Done Welding and Jim Bell, a general contractor. Moore describes the hut as a 4-by-8-foot “metal smoking dugout” in the alley behind the Rhino in Missoula. The no-smoking laws spark the type of debate that never seems to get extinguished. Pro-smokers argue that the bans hurt...

Poll: If Jesus were on earth today in bodily form, would he frequent bars and pubs to befriend "sinners"? A Daily Poll

"Alcohol encourages dangerous behavior" admits restaurant owner. And knowing how these owners feel about their duty to their communities, I have no doubt that they will be glad to support legislation banning alcohol sales in restaurants. After all, this is not the “Wild West”. We do not need saloons on every corner.

A bar in Spain is encouraging its customers to insult its staff by offering free drinks to the funniest abusers. The owner of the bar says he's introduced the idea as a way for his customers to release their frustrations of every day life. Customers who belt out the most original or funny abuse will be rewarded with free drinks.

In bright yellow capital letters, the sign on the karaoke bar in downtown Peoria was clear: "WE ARE NOT A GAY BAR!!" The local gay community got the message. And it apparently was just the rallying cry it needed. In a flurry of forwarded Facebook, MySpace and text messages, a coalition quickly mobilized and dozens of gay rights supporters lined up last weekend outside The Elbo Room to express their outrage. The sign, they said, might as well have read, "Gays are not welcome here." "The sign was basically a sign of intolerance, and we're not going to stand for...

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A proposed ban on smoking in most public places will be debated Monday in the Senate, and the chamber's top two leaders said Friday that the bill's chances for passage are good. "If there are no substantive amendments, I would assume it would pass," said Senate President Steve Morris, a Hugoton Republican. Senate Vice President John Vratil agreed, but cautioned that opponents will try to load it up with amendments.

"It's funny what a wonderful gentility you get in the bar of a big hotel," Ernest Hemingway has Jake Barnes say to Brett Ashley in "The Sun Also Rises." They are sipping nice icy Martinis at the bar of the Palace Hotel in Madrid and marveling at the elegant professionalism of bartenders. "Barmen and jockeys are the only people who are polite any more," Brett says, and Jake agrees: "No matter how vulgar a hotel is, the bar is always nice." If only that were still true. Once upon a time, hotel bars set the standard for sophisticated drinking, with...

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...

What the ...? A St. Louis-area town is considering a bill that would ban swearing in bars, along with table-dancing, drinking contests and profane music. City officials contend the bill is needed to keep rowdy crowds under control because the historic downtown area gets a little too lively on some nights. City Councilman Richard Veit said he was prompted to propose the bill after complaints about bad bar behavior. He says it will give police some rules to enforce when things get too rowdy. But some bar owners worry the bill is too vague and restrictive, saying it may be...

Smoking ban leaves some bars smolderingA few ignore state's six-month-old law rather than lose customers. Officials continue to issue fines By Tracy Wheeler Beacon Journal medical writer Published on Sunday, Nov 18, 2007 Billy McFrye, owner of Corky's Thomastown Cafe, in Akron, Ohio, stands Nov. 16, 2007, in the patio built in May for smoking customers. He is fighting for smoking to be legal in it. The business leads Akron in smoking complaints. (Gavin Jackon/Akron Beacon Journal) In the first month of Ohio's public smoking ban, the little bar in a blue-collar Summit County neighborhood lost $1,000. The reason was...

Citing and hailing the latest production of epidemiological junk science … Here comes the first solid prelude to the "denormalization" of alcohol -- the third and final phase of "public health’s" sick-minded social engineering. Of course alcohol causes cancer! They “proved it” with the same methods used to “prove” the carcinogenicity of smoking: a) multifactorial epidemiological junk science; b) finding molecules that, administered in millions of times greater quantities, may cause cancer in mice. What else is new? All of you non-smokers who were so happy about “smoke-free” pubs and bars and restaurants, enjoy: it is your turn. The gipsy...

Ever wonder what it would be like to drink in the great watering holes of yore? Well, pack your flask and climb aboard the MDM time machine — your guide Richard English is taking you on a whirlwind tour of the hottest of history’s hot spots.

The aggressive bear that was killed a week ago by an Amish Road homeowner after the animal charged and then attempted to pull out a window air conditioner has tested positive for rabies... "We sent the head to our health and mental hygiene lab in Baltimore on Thursday and got the results Friday," ... At 7:30 p.m. on Aug. 29, the homeowners had heard a commotion outside and saw a bear attempting to get at two penned pygmy goats. When the family hollered from its main doorway at the bear, it wheeled and charged the house. "At first it was...

HAGERSTOWN - A rabid black bear trying to rip out a window air conditioner lost its tug-of-war with a terrified housewife when her husband blasted the beast with a shotgun, the woman and a state wildlife official said today. The bear rushed the house after Charlotte Stanton yelled out her screen door to try to scare it away from a goat pen. Stanton, 39, of rural Grantsville in Garrett County, said she was losing her tussle with the 134-pound sow when Michael Stanton pulled the trigger. "I finally yelled at my husband, because I couldn't hold on to that air...

Identical twins Capt. Jordan Burfield (left), Company C, 1st Battalion, 227th Aviation Regiment, 1st Air Cavalry Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division and Capt. Jonah Burfield, 47th Ordnance Company, 79th Ordnance Battalion, are reunited at the Al Faw Palace on Camp Victory in western Baghdad for their promotions to captain, July 1, 2007. This deployment has been the longest period of time the Lacrosse, Wis., natives have been separated. U.S. Army photo by Spc. Shea Butler U.S. Army Capt. Jordan Burfield U.S. Army Capt. Jonah Burfield Identical Twins Pin on Captain’s Bars Together By Spc. Shea Butler 7th Mobile Public Affairs...

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 female is the facilitator who attracts the less frugal male to the bar. Bringing females to a bar is a conspicuous display of your wealth, but in this case the currency has 34-Cs. Rolling into a venue with an attractive female on each hip is like pulling up to an awards show in a Bentley Continental GT - completely unnecessary, yet thoroughly effective at getting your point across.

Since immigration and Patrick Kennedy are popular issues being talked about, here is part of the voting record of Patrick Kennedy on immigration. Rep. Kennedy voted againstH.R. 4437, the Border Protection, Antiterrorism, and Illegal Immigration Control Act of 2005. H.R. 4437, as amended and passed, includes major improvements in interior enforcement and border security, as well as a reduction in legal immigration numbers. Among its most significant provisions are: a requirement that all businesses must use an electronic system to check if all new hires have the legal right to work in the country; additional security fencing along the Mexican...

SAN ANTONIO, Texas (Reuters) - A controversial Texas program to send undercover agents into bars to arrest drunks has been halted after a firestorm of protest from the public. The Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission has "temporarily suspended" what it called "Operation Last Call" even though it still believes it was worthwhile, commission spokeswoman Carolyn Beck said on Thursday. "We understand that everything has room for improvement, this included," she said. She said most of those arrested in the sting operations had been "dangerously drunk" and might have tried to drive if TABC agents had not busted them. The TABC has...

McDermott: Taping Dispute Not Personal By MATTHEW DALY, Associated Press Writer Last update: April 01, 2006 – 4:28 AM WASHINGTON (AP) - Rep. Jim McDermott says his eight-year dispute with House Majority Leader John Boehner over an intercepted telephone call is not personal, but involves a crucial right of voters to know what their leaders are doing. "Unfortunately, it's portrayed in the paper as Boehner v. McDermott. It really is the government versus the people,'' McDermott, D-Wash., said Friday in an interview with The Associated Press. McDermott commented three days after a federal appeals court ruling against him in the...

The Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission sent a message to bar patrons last week. TABC agents and Irving police swept through 36 Irving bars and arrested about 30 people on charges of public intoxication. Agency representatives say the move came as a proactive measure to curtail drunken driving. North Texans interviewed by NBC 5, however, worried that the sweep went too far. At one location, for example, agents and police arrested patrons of a hotel bar. Some of the suspects said they were registered at the hotel and had no intention of driving. Arresting authorities said the patrons were a danger...

Benton Harbor, MI - A Benton Harbor father is charged with murdering his own daughter. Friends say there had been on-going friction between 60-year-old Albert Ellington and his 12-year-old daughter, Albertnisha for some time. Sunday night, an apparent argument ended with Albertnisha being stabbed to death. Shocking tragedy Albert Ellington just got custody of his two pre-teen daughters late last year. Friends say the meek, mild-mannered man apparently snapped after, what they say, was physical and mental abuse by his daughter. As Albert was arraigned for killing his 12-year-old daughter, those who knew of the situation inside their Hurd Street...

WASHINGTON, March 13, 2006 – A high-tech Defense Department identification system has linked some captured terrorists to previous crimes and prevented their release from overseas detention facilities, senior defense officials said at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing here March 10. A sample biometric ID card is checked at a stationary verification station during a DoD biometric identification system demonstration held in the Washington, D.C., area in May 2005. At the right is a fingerprint checker. Photo by Gerry J. Gilmore  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. "I understand that the (defense) department is collecting biometric information from individuals...

WILMINGTON -- An upset woman came to NewsChannel 3. Her boyfriend is a marine and was told he could not go to a local bar because of it. In downtown Wilmington there's more than one bar that doesn't allow marines or other members of the military in. Ashley Kidd says her military boyfriend was denied bar access. "They are being denied access to even enter a bar. It's just not right. It's discrimination. It's wrong," Kidd said. Ashley Kidd's boyfriend is a marine at Camp Lejeune. She says he recently tried to get in a popular Wilmington bar and a...

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) -- The year 2005 wasn't the only thing being toasted away in South Carolina: Partygoers and bar owners finally said good riddance to the minibottle. For 22 years, South Carolina law required bartenders to use the tiny 1.7-ounce bottles most often associated with airplanes and hotel minibars. Then, last year, South Carolinians voted the minibottles out, and lawmakers followed through earlier this year by approving regulations to give bars and restaurants the choice to pour from the big bottles starting Jan. 1. With the law change, the state's method for taxing liquor sales changed, too. South Carolina...

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...

DUBLIN (Reuters) - A nursing home in Ireland has hit on a cheering way to keep up the spirits of its elderly patients -- by providing its own pub. St Mary's Hospital in County Monaghan, near the Irish border with Northern Ireland, believes ready access to a good pint may help its patients -- average age 85 -- actually live longer. "We would say the whole social aspect of life does extend the years -- it means the patients aren't bored to death," Rose Mooney, assistant director of nursing told Reuters. The pub, which opens at 11 a.m. and closes...

SACRAMENTO, Calif. – California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger ignored strong lobbying from software makers and signed legislation Friday that bans the sale of violent video games to children. Passed by the California legislature last month, the measure follows heated national debate after game publisher Take-Two Interactive Software Inc. pulled its best-selling game "Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas" from retailers this summer because of hidden sex scenes. "I am a parent myself and I think this is extremely important that we know what our kids watch or what kind of games that they play," Schwarzenegger told reporters. "I am a big believer...

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...

Group accused of forcing Honduran women to work in New Jersey bars as slaves NEWARK, N.J. (AP) - Women as young as 14 were smuggled into the United States from rural Honduran villages and put to work in three northern New Jersey bars, drinking and dancing with customers to repay the smugglers, who beat the women if they objected, according to a federal indictment handed up Thursday. Some of the women were raped by the smugglers, and those who became pregnant were forced to take abortion-inducing drugs so they could stay on the job, enticing bar patrons to buy more...

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...

Cigar sellers argue for a smoking ban exemption WILLIAM LYONS wlyons@scotlandonsunday.com SCOTLAND’S independent cigar merchants have written to Health Minister Andy Kerr in a last-minute bid to have their shops exempted from the impending ban on smoking in public places. The letter, signed by Phillip Shervington, the chairman of the Association of Independent Tobacco Specialists, argues that it is essential for their business that clients are able to taste their products before buying. There are only 18 specialist tobacco shops in Scotland and it is hoped the small number can persuade the health minister to grant an exemption. The letter...

State tells taverns it's time to fold 'em, not hold 'em Sunday, February 27, 2005 By Josh Grosteffon Times Writer With a surge of popularity sparked by television coverage, Texas hold 'em is returning to bars where the card game once prospered. However, hosting poker games or even condoning gambling can cost bar owners hundreds of dollars in fines or even their liquor license. In November, the Hooters at 966 E. Midland St. hosted a Texas hold 'em tournament, a four-week event played for an electric scooter donated by an area business. After a few successful nights, drawing anywhere from...

HALLOCK, Minn. - On Dec. 18, I attended a panel discussion sponsored by the Grand Forks Tobacco Free Coalition at the Alerus Center. After listening to the panel members and researching both sides of the issues, and having lived in California when the smoking ban was instituted there, I strongly urge the Grand Forks City Council and other agencies to take no action on the issue at this time, except to research the facts on both sides.Why? First, the health issue is seriously questionable. As the American Council on Science and Health has put it, "the role of environmental tobacco...

The old excuse 'I've left my wallet at home' will soon no longer hold when it's your round. A nightclub is about to offer its regulars the option of having a microchip implanted in their arm that will obviate the need to carry cash or plastic. Queuing for entry or a drink at the bar would also become a thing of the past when the 'digital wallet' is introduced by Bar Soba in Glasgow. The chip is already proving popular with VIP members at two nightclubs in Barcelona and Rotterdam. While the concept strikes critics as Orwellian, others believe that,...