Free Republic

A lawyer for the owner of the Player's Club Bar and Grill in Independence has challenged in court the enforceability of the city's Clean Indoor Air Act ordinance and won. John Carnes, an Independence attorney for Player's Club owner Jennifer Brashear, got Jackson County Circuit Court Judge Jeffrey Bushur to overturn two clean air citations given to Brashear. Municipal judges in Independence had found Brashear guilty of violating the city's health code by allowing patrons of the lounge to smoke on two separate occasions. "There are some holes in that ordinance that basically makes it unenforceable," Carnes said. "It's an...

CBS) Rick Berman takes a certain pride, even joy, in the nickname Dr. Evil. But the people who use it see nothing funny about it—they mean it. His real name is Rick Berman, a Washington lobbyist and arch-enemy of other lobbyists and do-gooders who would have government control, and even ban, a myriad of products they claim are killing us. Products like caffeine, salt, fast food and the oil they fry it in. He's against Mothers Against Drunk Driving, animal rights activists, food watchdog groups and unions of every kind. As correspondent Morley Safer reports, Berman believes we are fast...

A new study by Harvard University is touting some of the benefits of illegal immigration, namely the fact that it has the effect of “driving down relative wages among high-skilled workers” and can increase “more tax dollars to the general coffers.” Hold it. I must have read that wrong. Nope. That’s right. Michael Kremer, the researcher, is Gates Professor of Developing Societies in the Department of Economics at Harvard University, is an affiliate of the Center for International Development and has authored a paper titled “The Globalization of Household Production.”

NEW YORK - Pornographic movies now seem nearly as pervasive in America's hotel rooms as tiny shampoo bottles, and the lodging industry shows little concern as conservative activists rev up a protest campaign aimed at triggering a federal crackdown. A coalition of 13 conservative groups — including the Family Research Council and Concerned Women for America — took out full-page ads in some editions of USA Today earlier this month urging the Justice Department and FBI to investigate whether some of the pay-per-view movies widely available in hotels violate federal and state obscenity laws. The coalition also is trying to...

June 27, 2006 The Death of Hospitality ...1:27 pm The U.S. Surgeon General didn’t do any of his own new studies, but with great fanfare is announcing that secondhand smoke is really, really bad, based on citing such facts as the following: Earlier this year, California health officials estimated that secondhand smoke kills about 3,400 nonsmoking Americans annually from lung cancer, 46,000 from heart disease, and 430 from SIDS. I don’t even trust my own doctor, let alone some nameless “California health officials” who dish out impossible-to-verify estimates. Garbage piled upon garbage ultimately will add up to a hill, and...

A northwest suburban high school board member seeks to ban seven books from classroom use because she thinks the profanity, depiction of graphic sex, and drug and abortion references in the literature are inappropriate for teenagers. Leslie Pinney admits she only read passages of the controversial selections, including Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five and Toni Morrison's Beloved, which were on the American Library Association's 100 most challenged books list between 1990 and 2000. But Pinney said perusing the questionable parts of the books made it clear they weren't suitable for children and should be taken off Township High School District 214's proposed...

COLUMBUS — Ohio’s anti-smoking effort, funded by the tobacco settlement, has poured more than $2 million into passage and implementation of local clean indoor air laws. But now that the Super Bowl of smoking bans is before the Ohio General Assembly — a statewide ban that would be among the strictest in the nation — the Tobacco Use Prevention and Control Foundation must sit on the sidelines, at least officially. The 2000 law that created the foundation forbids it from lobbying or otherwise getting involved in a state ballot issue, the goal behind petitions certified by Secretary of State Kenneth...

China's emergence as an economic superpower has been well-documented. Western business leaders are said to be gearing up for all the changes to come, but they are not the only ones keen to get a head start. An increasing number of families in the United States is looking to employ Chinese nannies - not so much for their child-rearing abilities, but more for their language skills. Parents always want to give their children a good head start in life to prepare them for the future. It seems that families in the United States with a lot of disposable income...

Can't excerpt from the New Yorker, therefore I'll just here slam one of the more asinine of New Yorker articles... Big and Bad (called online "Road Killers") Hating Life (and the SUV) Some nine years ago I leased a Jeep Grand Cherokee. It was November. I remember it. I had just moved to Virginia from Miami. Got the car, and it snowed three feet two days later. Awesome! I ran that damned car in glorious circles all over the Safeway parking lot. Driving around the next day I saw at least five other, what we now call, SUVs (I think...

Anti-smoking group ASH sent registered letters to 170 leading firms in the hospitality trade making it clear legal action will be taken on behalf of staff. John Banzhaf is one of the most dangerous men in America today. This is the guy who said of a smoker-friendly restaurant "Nice place you got here. Hate to see anything bad happen to it." He's a bully and a thug, and he TEACHES LAW!

Month later, health officials pleased with Delaware smoking ban By Drew Volturo, Staff writer DOVER - The much-anticipated statewide smoking ban passed a milestone Friday, reaching its one-month anniversary. The amendments to the Clean Indoor Air Act, passed in May and effective Nov. 27, bans smoking in nearly all indoor public places, such as restaurants, bowling alleys, bars, taverns and casinos. The ban has been the center of attention for much of the year, as advocates and opponents lined up on either side of the issue while it was debated in the General Assembly. With the signature of Gov....

DOWNSTATE - 'Twas the night before the smoking ban, and all through the state, tobacco lovers everywhere pondered their fate. Smokers can't toke at a bar drinking beer, but bingo players have less to fear. As of midnight today, smoking is no longer permitted in most public places, including bars, restaurants, bowling alleys and casinos. Exempted from the prohibition are fire halls, fraternal organizations, such as Elks lodges, and private clubs. Kevin E. Charles, chief of health protections systems for the state Division of Public Health, said any activities in fraternal organizations and fire halls would be exempt, not just...

Smoking ban fires up opponents When State Rep. Robert F. Gilligan, D-Sherwood Park, had to make a "yes" or "no" decision on SB 99, the Clean Indoor Air Act, he didn’t have to think too hard or too long. Since both his parents were victims of cancer and his 46-year-old brother died of lung cancer, the beliefs of the minority leader of the House’s vote were clear. "I have always voted anti-smoking, "he says. "No one needs to inhale others’ smoke. It’s a health issue, not an economic one." Not everyone would agree with Gilligan’s view on health vs. economy....

New rules that restrict smoking in thousands of Oklahoma restaurants and indoor workplaces were signed into law Wednesday by Gov. Frank Keating, who said excessive tobacco use keeps the state unhealthy and poor."These rules are fair. Secondhand smoke shouldn't be wafting over our children," Keating said at a state Capitol news conference. The anti-smoking regulations take effect Monday, but state Health Department leaders said full compliance will not be enforced until later in the summer. The Oklahoma Restaurant Association plans to file a lawsuit today in Sapulpa to block the regulations. "This is a glaring example of why citizens often...

<p>A bill that would outlaw smoking in most public Delaware buildings, including bars, restaurants and casinos, is headed back to the state Senate, where it faces an uncertain future.</p> <p>The bill started in the Senate, where the 21-member body voted last year to spare casinos and bars from a smoking prohibition.</p>

ALL aboard the ‘Bacci Bus’ to Belgium. A travel firm has infuriated health campaigners by organising three-day holiday trips to the Continent for Scots smokers to stock up on cheap cigarettes. Hundreds of tobacco tourists have already signed up for the holidays, with the first coach load due to leave Glasgow tomorrow en route for Zeebrugge. Each of the 49 smokers aboard the luxury double decker is expected to return with up to 2,500 cigarettes, saving them an estimated £300 and costing the treasury as much as £14,700 a trip in lost duty. Anti-smoking campaigners say the holidays are undermining...