Free Republic

Democracy is alive and well in Columbia.That has to be the conclusion after a couple of hundred people packed the city council chambers Tuesday night to debate a Board of Health proposal that would ban smoking in bars and restaurants in the city. To some, the question of a ban on smoking isn’t a matter of whether but when. The politically correct bandwagon that says secondhand smoke is the root of all evil is charging through cities, states and nations all around the globe. Why should Columbia be any different? That’s how things seemed a couple of years ago when...

Poll results released late Tuesday show most Ohioans favor a smoking ban that exempts bars, bowling alleys, private clubs and restaurants that reserve separate rooms for smoking. The Ohio Licensed Beverage Association polled 600 voters and found Ohioans would reject a total smoking ban by a 52 percent to 46 percent margin. But a majority of those polled support a modified ban, and 62 percent believe business owners should be allowed to determine their own smoking policies. Locally, the city of Centerville implemented a smoking ban that went into effect last spring. Except for a handful of bars, restaurants...

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg yesterday announced a settlement with an online cigarette vendor that will allow the city to pursue residents for up to $33 million in unpaid excise taxes.It was the largest such settlement, officials said, since the city sued dozens of companies and individuals in 2003 for illegally selling cigarettes over the Internet to city residents. A 2000 state law banned direct sales of cigarettes over the Internet and by telephone or mail. Tobacco companies challenged the ban, but a federal appellate court upheld it in February 2003. The state began enforcing the law that June. Officials...

MADISON — A lawmaker pushing a statewide smoking ban that would pre-empt local rules by allowing people to light up in bars and certain restaurants says time is running out for action. While he doesn't consider the bill dead, Sen. Scott Fitzgerald, R-Juneau, said he doubts it will get passed this year. "I've been around the building long enough to know that, until session is over, it's not over," Fitzgerald said late last week. "I will say this, the votes were not there to bring it to the floor this past fall and it still remains (at the committee...

Where's there's smoke, there's a lawsuit. A coalition of bars, restaurants and bowling alley operators filed a federal lawsuit in Trenton today to strike down New Jersey's indoor smoking ban as unconstitutional. The group is angry that the law excludes Atlantic City casinos, The Smoke-Free Air Act bans smoking in restaurants, bars, private office buildings and other indoor places but permits it on the casino floors. Sponsors and supporters said the casino exemption was needed to keep the casinos competitive with those in other states where smoking is allowed. Attorney Robert Gluck says the group would be satisfied if...

You probably won't get eighty-sixed for smoking cigarettes at Stella's Sand Trap. But you might be asked to leave if you ask too many nosy questions about smoking at the east Bakersfield tavern.It was a typical weeknight at Stella's. The beer and conversation were flowing and the hard, wooden "crack" of cue balls punctuated the air as pool players shot eight ball at the tavern's lighted tables.Cigarette smoke swirled thick and luxuriously toxic above the bar -- and for a moment, it seemed like the era of Merle Haggard's "swinging doors, a jukebox and a barstool" was back.The message was...

ST. PAUL — Several Iron Range lawmakers have snuffed out any talk of a possible statewide smoking ban. They believe it’s a local control issue.St. Louis County commissioners earlier this week deferred action on a possible countywide smoking ban and passed a resolution urging the Legislature deal with the issueCurrently the smoking ban bill is still “alive” in the Senate, but was put to rest in the House last year, and supporters of the legislation in the House will have to resurrect the measure again.Rep. Tom Rukavinia, DFL-Virginia, who described himself as a “libertarian” on this issue, was adamantly...

High up on my list of annoyances are references to the United States as a democracy and the suggestion that Iraq should become a democracy. The word "democracy" appears in neither of our founding documents – the Declaration of Independence nor the U.S. Constitution. Our nation's founders had disdain for democracy and majority rule. James Madison, in Federalist Paper No. 10, said in a pure democracy, "there is nothing to check the inducement to sacrifice the weaker party or the obnoxious individual." During the 1787 Constitutional Convention, Edmund Randolph said that "in tracing these evils to their origin every man...

The senator who introduced legislation to prohibit smoking in most public, indoor spaces in Virginia requested another hearing for the bill yesterday after its defeat in a House subcommittee. But the two House of Delegates members who could most easily revive the measure said they will not do so. The bill, sponsored by Sen. Brandon Bell, R-Roanoke County, would have prohibited smoking in restaurants and other indoor places accessible to the public with few exceptions. It passed the Senate 21-18 but was unanimously rejected by a six-member House General Laws subcommittee Thursday night. Under rules adopted by the House...

A WOMAN in a wheelchair must go outside into the cold weather for a cigarette even though she is 93 - because smoking is banned in her nursing home. Gladys Gornall, known as Chris, of the Norwood Lodge Nursing Home in Nore Road, Portishead, took up smoking 10 years ago after her husband died. Daughter Joan Mock, 68, says it is the only thing she has left that keeps her happy. And she says she fears her mother is more likely to die from exposure to cold winter weather than from smoking. Mrs Mock said: "She's 93, she's in...

New Hampshire is one step closer to a statewide ban on smoking in restaurants and bars. The House Commerce Committee voted Wednesday to recommend the full House approve a ban. Current state law allows smoking in restaurants with fewer than 50 seats. Larger restaurants must have ventilation systems and a segregated non-smoking area. But supporters of the ban say that does not protect workers. If approved, New Hampshire would be the 12th state to institute a statewide ban. All the other five New England states have a statewide smoking ban.

Flirtations with smoking bans in Virginia and Maryland came to abrupt ends yesterday, as legislative panels in each state rejected bills that would have made restaurants and virtually all other public places smoke-free. In Virginia, a House of Delegates subcommittee unanimously rejected a bill that had won Senate approval despite the state's long-standing ties to the tobacco industry. In Maryland, a House committee chaired by a Baltimore delegate whose downtown district is dotted with bars and taverns turned back a similar proposal by a narrow margin. Health groups -- including the American Cancer Society, the American Heart Association and...

Companies are charging smokers more money for health insurance CINCINNATI — Smokers already feeling pressure from increasing cigarette costs and workplace smoking bans are now feeling squeezed from another direction — health insurance premiums. A growing number of employers — private and public — are charging employees who use tobacco more money for their health insurance coverage. Employers hope that the higher charges will motivate more employees to stop smoking, resulting in improved health and lower health care costs for the companies and their workers. "With smokers costing companies about 25 percent more than nonsmokers in the area of health...

I wish Mr. Menconi’s crusade was merely a “stunt,” as Don Rogers put it. I believe it’s much worse than that.Mr. Menconi uses the tools of the propagandist and avoids any actual facts or real scientific proof of his claims. Rather than show actual risk, he wants to use “scary” made up relative risk numbers — a typical propagandist’s tool.Like so many in the anti-smoking industry, Mr. Menconi expects his readers to accept his claims prima-facie, without anyone actually questioning that his statements might be false.He doesn’t use any actual studies or evidence to prove his case. he merely makes...

SACRAMENTO, Calif.--Hundreds of volunteers throughout the state will hit shopping malls and grocery stores Saturday at 9 a.m. as they kickoff efforts to gather nearly one million signatures needed to place an initiative on the November 2006 ballot that would provide critical funding to reduce smoking, keep emergency rooms open, fund health insurance for children and expand nursing education. "This initiative will save lives, by raising the tobacco tax and funding urgently needed community emergency and related health care services," said Paul Knepprath of the American Heart Association of California. "This is the broadest coalition that's ever come together to...

After a delay of several weeks, the General Assembly began moving this week on the Clean Air Act, which could ban smoking in bars, restaurants and all indoor public places.“It would immensely affect Ocean City, I think,” Delegate Bennett Bozman said. “I keep hearing different reports from people. The act slows down for a little while and then it picks back up bigger than ever.” Should the state of Maryland pass the act, it will be the 12th state to make such legislation law. Similar bills have been defeated in the General Assembly for the past three years. “To...

Could all tobacco products soon be banned in Utah? At issue is the legislative bill currently being debated which would ban smoking in public places like bars and clubs. But ABC 4 News has learned that a substitute bill is being drafted - one which would ban tobacco products from the state. It's all part of the last minute wheeling and dealing before the final vote on the no-smoking bill. The substitute bill banning all tobacco products is expected to be introduced during the final debate over the no-smoking bill.

The Senate Local Government Committee has defeated a bill six-to-two that would have allowed South Dakota cities and counties to regulate smoking. The bill would have allowed local governments to set stricter standards than the state on tobacco use, distribution, marketing and sales. Senator Stan Adelstein of Rapid City says the bill should have gone to the full Senate for consideration and revision. Senator Mike Broderick of Canton says lawmakers spent more than enough time on the issue. The state government will remain the only government in South Dakota that can regulate tobacco.

RICHMOND, Va. - The Virginia Senate voted Monday to ban smoking in restaurants and virtually all other public places, an extraordinary sign of cultural change in a state that is home to the worldwide headquarters of Philip Morris and whose agricultural economy has been rooted in tobacco farming for almost 400 years. The bill is unlikely to survive review in the House of Delegates. Yet its passage on the floor of the Senate -- where smoking has never been formally banned and lawmakers lit up openly even until the late 1990s -- signaled mounting popular support for smoking restrictions....

Both sides of the debate to ban smoking in public are running out of time to gather necessary signatures for a citizen initiative vote in May. Advocacy groups can call a citizen initiative and put an ordinance or even a charter amendment on the ballot by getting the right number of signatures on a petition. The city charter said the number of signatures is 25 percent of the number of people who voted in the last regular citywide municipal election. Information from the Baytown City Clerk shows 3,056 votes were cast in the last regular election, so each group...