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MARIN COUNTY, Calif. (KGO) -- A Marin County smoking ban is on hold while lawmakers consider weeding out marijuana from the measure. The ordinance as written would outlaw smoking in unincorporated county apartments and included marijuana and other herbs as well as tobacco. It was abruptly sent back to committee Wednesday when Supervisor Kate Sears said only tobacco should be banned...

INDIANAPOLIS— Anti-smoking advocates are on the verge of success in the Indiana General Assembly but must wait out House Democrats' boycott of a divisive labor bill. A bipartisan group of lawmakers in both the Senate and House is pushing to ban smoking in most public places and workplaces, including bars. The only exemptions it includes are the gambling floors of casinos and pari-mutuel betting parlors, private clubs and cigar and hookah bars.

Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels says he will push for a statewide smoking ban and mild local government reforms in the 2012 legislative session. Those are among the priorities Daniels, a Republican who will begin his last year in office in January, plans to outline in a noon speech Friday at the downtown Skyline Club for the Kiwanis Club of Indianapolis. In an interview Thursday, he also hinted that he would support a proposal seeking legislative approval to let voters decide whether to increase local income taxes to expand mass transit in Marion County and surrounding counties. “My attitude is the...

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...

Pam Lezotte, owner of Buster's Place in Trenton: “I've lost my smoking clientele. Instead of coming here, they're holding house parties, where they can smoke while they drink.” She also said it isn't difficult to distinguish between the effects of the ban and those of the recession. “We (the bar) were packed right up to the day that the smoking ban started,” Lezotte said. “It's clear that the ban chased away regular customers. When we held an outdoor event my smoking customers were back, but they aren't back into the bar. They want to be able to smoke while they...

Small bar owners angered over losing their butts to the statewide indoor smoking ban plan to give lawmakers the boot. A newly formed group, Protect Private Property Rights in Michigan (PPPRM), has organized an effort to ban lawmakers from their establishments in protest against Michigan's smoking ban. This lawmaker ban is scheduled to start Sept. 1. PPPRM, which claims to have a membership of about 500 businesses, argues that the smoking ban has been disastrous for Michigan's small bar owners and their employees. “We're not smoking advocates or advocates for tobacco use,” PPPRM Executive Director Stephen Mace said. “We 're...

A majority of Americans (59%) support a ban on smoking in all public places for the first time since Gallup initially asked the question in 2001. At the same time, fewer than 2 in 10 support the idea of making smoking totally illegal in this country. According to the American Lung Association, 27 states plus the District of Columbia have passed comprehensive smoke-free laws. A New York City law bans smoking in virtually all public places, including outdoor plazas and beaches. When Gallup first asked about a ban on public smoking in 2001, 39% were in favor, an attitude that...

ANN ARBOR (AP) — Lights-out time is approaching at the University of Michigan, where a campuswide ban on smoking outdoors and indoors takes effect next month. The school says it is the first major university in the state to adopt such a ban, while Big Ten rivals Indiana University and the University of Iowa already have them in place. “We are approaching this issue with great respect for the difficulty in discontinuing tobacco use,” said Robert Winfield, the university’s chief health officer. “It is our expectation that this will entail a culture change that will take a number of years...

Attention Times Square denizens and those out for a stroll in Central Park: It will soon be time to put out your smokes — forever. The New York City Council is slated Wednesday afternoon to approve a ban on smoking in parks, beaches, marinas, boardwalks and pedestrian plazas like Times Square. The legislation marks the most ambitious expansion of the city’s antismoking laws since Mayor Michael Bloomberg convinced the city lawmakers to approve a ban on smoking in indoor workplaces and park playgrounds in 2003. “When this legislation is passed, all New Yorkers will be able to enjoy a walk...

ADRIAN, MI (WTOL) A blatant act of civil disobedience is planned on New Year's Eve in Michigan. Bars and restaurants are being urged to ignore the state's ban on smoking in public places and allow customers to light up. This protest is being organized by a Bloomfield Hills group called Protect Privacy Rights in Michigan. They believe you should run your business the way you see fit without government intrusion. The group claims 350 bars and restaurants have already agreed to break the law. Since Michigan's smoking ban went into effect May 1, business at Club 109 in Adrian, MI...

Giving up smoking may be a New Year's resolution for some, but all US sailors will now have to follow suit, as the US Navy moves to ban its crews from smoking aboard submarines starting Friday. In a country where fights against Big Tobacco are common, troops deprived of fresh air and natural light for months were surprisingly allowed to smoke in submerged submarines. But no more, after a Pentagon study found the risks of second-hand smoke were severe in those highly confined spaces. Submarine Forces Commander Vice Admiral John Donnelly ordered the ban aboard 73 US subs, citing health...

A recent survey by a restaurant lobbyist group shows that restaurants are seeing a drop in sales due to the state-wide smoking ban that took effect May 1. But Andy Deloney, a spokesman for the Michigan Restaurant Association which did the survey, feels the impact may be greater once the warm weather fades. Deloney said his association expects to do another survey in the winter on sales. "It's one thing to step right outside the door when it is 80 degrees out but it's another to do that when it is a blustery 15 degrees," Deloney said. The survey found...

The City Council on Thursday approved a fortified smoke-free ordinance aimed at protecting public health, despite pleas from frustrated bar and restaurant owners who said that the ban would hurt their business. The new ordinance, which will qualify San Antonio as a smoke-free city under criteria set by Americans for Nonsmokers' Rights, closes exemptions that have allowed smoking in bars, pool and bingo halls, comedy clubs and restaurants with enclosed smoking areas. Council members listened to 90 minutes of public input and then deliberated for more than two hours before voting 7-4 to approve the ordinance. The vote was the...

Plans To Allow Women and Gays, Ban Smoking Shake World of Navy Submarines Craig Whitlock April 22, 2010 Imagine 150 fraternity brothers packed into a container the size of a three-bedroom house. Announce you are breaking hallowed traditions by taking away their cigarettes and admitting women. Then lock the doors and push the container deep into the sea, for months at a time. That's what the Navy, after decades of contemplation and controversy, has decided to do with its Submarine Force, an elite fraternity of 13,000 active-duty sailors that has been patrolling the oceans for 110 years. As of Dec....

NORFOLK, Va., April 10 (UPI) -- The U.S. Navy announced smoking will be banned below decks on all submarines effective Dec. 31. "This policy was initiated for the health of the sailors who choose not to smoke," said Lt. Commander Mark Jones, spokesman for the Commander Naval Submarine Forces in Norfolk, Va. "It is unfair for them to be exposed to the unhealthy side effects of secondhand smoke." Jones said a 2009 study by the Navy found non-smokers were exposed to secondhand smoke on all four classes of submarines, CNN reported. The Navy has 71 subs with 13,000 sailors on...

(edit)Closed after a 2005 state law banned public indoor smoking, the cigar lounge at Tacoma’s upscale El Gaucho steakhouse has reopened.Smoking a Dominica-wrapped Romeo y Julieta Habana Reserve inside the newly branded “VIP Lounge” on Monday, El Gaucho owner Paul Mackay said that he and a trio of Cohiba-loving cohorts have met state regulations and now welcome certain cigar smokers to puff away four nights a week.The lounge has been open for nearly two weeks without complaint to the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department.For Mackay, the decision to refurbish and open the room was as much a matter of principle as...

Michigan's state Senate and House passed a smoking ban that will make indoor smoking illegal, save for gambling areas, cigar bars and cigar shops. The measure, HB 4377, passed by a vote of 24 to 13 in the Senate and was overwhelmingly approved by the House in a vote of 75 to 30. The legislation will become law when Gov. Jennifer Granholm signs it; she has come out in favor of such legislation, according to press reports from Michigan. The law will go into effect May 1. Exemptions to the legislation include cigar bars, tobacco stores and casinos. A smoking...

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...

New York City’s workplace smoking ban six years ago drove cigarette and cigar puffers outdoors. But soon some of the outdoors may be off limits, too: The city’s health commissioner, Dr. Thomas A. Farley, said Monday that he would seek to ban smoking at city parks and beaches. Dr. Farley said the ban — which officials said may require the approval of the City Council, but could possibly be done through administrative rule-making by the city’s Department of Parks and Recreation — was part of a broader strategy to further curb smoking rates, which have fallen in recent years. The...

Here is a video report from Indiana that features U.S. military personnel sounding off about the ban on smoking in the military being considered. According to the report, if adopted, the ban would require all new recruits to quit smoking before enlisting, and would not allow smoking on military bases, in military vehicles, or onboard ships. Cigarettes would also no longer be sold in military facilities. In the report, one soldier says, "I don't agree with it. I think it's a waste of taxpayer's money to get involved with this." . . . . (Watch Video)

Sales have been hurt by the spread of indoor smoking bans, which have forced people to go outside to smoke. Tampa will lose part of its cigar heritage in August when Hav-A-Tampa shuts its factory near Seffner and lays off about 495 employees, closing a factory that has been operating since 1902. The company announced the closing today. Many employees there make Hav-A-Tampa's iconic Jewels, inexpensive machine-made cigars known for their birchwood tips. Some workers have labored there for two decades or longer, including one who's been there for 50 years, said Richard McKenzie, a senior vice president of human...

President Obama on Monday signed a landmark anti-smoking bill which he said will reduce the number of children who take up smoking and ultimately save American lives. The bill would give the federal government unprecedented authority to regulate tobacco. The law allows the regulatory Food and Drug Administration to reduce nicotine in tobacco products, ban candy flavorings and block labels such "low tar" and "light." Tobacco companies also will be required to cover their cartons with large graphic warnings.

PIERRE, S.D. (AP) — South Dakota Gov. Mike Rounds has signed a law banning smoking from nearly all indoor public places, including bars, video lottery casinos and gambling halls.

PORT HOPE -- It's only a matter of time before someone "snaps" after being pulled over under Ontario's new law forbidding smoking in a vehicle carrying a minor, a police officer said yesterday in response to a quirk in the legislation that was made evident during a weekend incident. "People got mad enough when they couldn't smoke in bars anymore or bingo parlours," Port Hope Sgt. Bryant Wood said. "Now you're telling them they can't smoke in cars. At some point somebody's going to snap along the way here." Nova Scotia is the only other jurisdiction in the country to...

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.

APOLLO — Volunteer fire departments are hurting from the state smoking ban, which has driven players away from the bingo games that raise cash for training firefighters and paying bills, representatives of seven Westmoreland and Armstrong county departments said Sunday.

Cheers To You bar owner Robert Brown wants his customers to smoke if they want to. And Brown said he found a way to keep his private club in Salt Lake City smoker-friendly despite, or maybe because of, the Jan. 1 smoking ban. But Utah Department of Health officials, in a formal declaration issued Tuesday, said that loophole doesn't exist, and the smoking ban stays.

Union that represents Pa. university faculty wants indoor/outdoor ban rescinded. HARRISBURG — Grabbing a quick smoke between classes has become impossible for Lock Haven University political science professor Robert Storch. An indoor and outdoor smoking ban imposed at Pennsylvania’s state university system in September means Storch must walk off campus whenever he craves nicotine — a 20-minute roundtrip excursion that he cannot cram into a 15-minute break between classes. “I find it ridiculous,” Storch told a Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board hearing examiner Tuesday. “You feel like a leper anyway. It’s really very demeaning.” Storch was among a handful of professors...

When they weren't breaking the law or going in and out of jail, the Jersey Boys who went on to become the Four Seasons were hanging out on street corners singing with cigarettes dangling from their mouths. Not in Chicago. Here, lead singer Frankie Valli, song-writing sensation Bob Gaudio and the boys have gone cold turkey Following an apparent complaint from an irate theatergoer, the Chicago theatrical production of "Jersey Boys" has snuffed out cigarettes...

HARRISBURG -- The state Senate has broken a yearlong stalemate on a statewide smoking ban, approving a compromise bill Tuesday that would make Pennsylvania the 33rd state to outlaw smoking in many workplaces and public spaces. The Senate voted 41-9, sending the bill to Gov. Ed Rendell to be signed into law in what supporters hailed as a step forward for public health and protecting people from the dangers of second-hand smoke. All but one senator representing parts of York County gave approval. The sole holdout was retiring Sen. Terry Punt, R-Franklin, who voted in favor of the same legislation...

A group in Santa Fe says the city is discriminating against them because they say that they're allergic to the wireless Internet signal. And now they want Wi-Fi banned from public buildings. Arthur Firstenberg says he is highly sensitive to certain types of electric fields, including wireless Internet and cell phones. "I get chest pain and it doesn't go away right away," he said. Firstenberg and dozens of other electro-sensitive people in Santa Fe claim that putting up Wi-Fi in public places is a violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act. The city attorney is now checking to see if...

NORTH ROYALTON, Ohio -- A local community is breathing a little easier after a new crackdown on smoking is approved, NewsChannel5 reported. North Royalton has banned smoking in parks, fields, parking lots and outdoor seating areas or on any city-owned land. That means there's no smoking at places like the local ballpark, and the new ordinance takes place just in time for little league season. Council members said they were just exercising the will of the people who want to curb the amount of second-hand smoke they have to breathe. "We just don't like the cigarette butts laying all over...

Initiative Would Exempt Cigar Bars From Indoor Smoking Ban By Austin JenkinsOlympia, WA  March 19, 2008 3:28 p.m. Washington State’s two-year-old indoor smoking ban is facing a challenge. Cigar shop owners have filed a citizen initiative to roll-back part of the law.Dale Taylor is with the newly formed Cigar Association of Washington. He says the initiative would allow smoking in cigar shops, cigar bars, private clubs and service organizations like the Elks.Dale Taylor: “What we’re asking for here is a fair and reasonable exemption to the law that allows a cigar store, for instance like the one I work in,...

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...

If it is indeed true, as George Bernard Shaw commented, that democracy ensures we get the government we deserve, then I have little sympathy for my neighbors who whine about the smoking ban as they puff their Camel filters in the parking lot outside the bowling alley in the freezing February rain. Besides -- I like to point out -- we voted for the shysters and party hacks who passed the ban. Or -- more likely -- we failed to vote at all. I then call attention to the fact that right next door in Missouri, where the Republican Party...

Should Illinois lawmakers lift the statewide indoor smoking ban at certain facilities, such as riverboat casinos, veterans' halls and private clubs? Yes 40.1% No 59.9% Total votes: 1964

To most political observers, the near-certainty that John McCain will be the Republican nominee ends any prospects for a Michael Bloomberg candidacy as an independent. Alas, Bloomberg begs to differ. He reportedly sees the current state of play as another opening for his presidential dreams. After telling friends he believes Hillary Clinton will be her party's nominee, Bloomberg said at a recent event, "Hillary should pray I get in the race because that would help her," according to a source quoted in the Daily News gossip column Rush & Molloy. Bloomberg, whose office would neither confirm nor deny he made...

1/18/2008 - MAYVILLE — It only took two members of the Chautauqua County Board of Health to save the coveted waivers that permit a handful of area clubs, businesses and veterans organizations to allow smoking in their establishments. Until Thursday, it was unclear how determined Board of Health members were to eliminate the waivers, which were first distributed after the state’s indoor smoking ban went into effect five years ago, banning the practice in almost all places of business. But motivated by studies that have pointed to significant health benefits in the wake of the smoking ban, board member Marcia...

Germans puff on as smoking ban fizzles By Sarah Roberts Tue Jan 15, 8:39 PM ET Photographer Frank Blum puffed contentedly on a hand-rolled cigarette in a cafe in central Berlin, blatantly ignoring a ban that went into effect in most of Germany this month. "I'm smoking because no one's stopping me," Blum, 43, said from behind his laptop, one of a dozen customers happily smoking without fear. "The cafes aren't making it difficult." Blum is just one of many disobeying a law banning smoking in public places -- cafes, bars, restaurants and night clubs -- in force in Berlin...

The head of the Portuguese agency responsible for enforcing a new ban on smoking in public was seen lighting up at a New Year party, breaking the law on the first day it came into effect. Antonio Nunes, president of Portugal's food standards agency, was photographed by the daily Diario de Noticias smoking a cigar at a casino on the outskirts of Lisbon. Nunes told the daily he was not aware the anti-smoking law, which applies to cafes, restaurants and bars, also included casinos. But a spokesman for the Ministry of Health said it did. "We will have to look...

The statewide smoking ban is ... good for Illinois. 33.5% bad for Illinois. 66.5% Total votes: 248

PARIS - From next week, one of France's most iconic institutions — the smoky cafe — will be but a hazy memory. The extension of France's smoking ban to bars, discotheques, restaurants, hotels, casinos and cafes on Jan. 1 marks a momentous cultural shift in a country where thinkers like Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir once held court while clutching cigarettes in Left Bank cafes. For smokers, this is the most distressing part of a phased smoking ban that began last February in workplaces, schools, airports, hospitals and other "closed and covered" public places like train stations. But many...

France fears arrival of cigarette-smoking ban By William Langley in Paris  Last Updated: 12:35am GMT 23/12/2007     The authentic French bistro-dweller's look of perpetual anguish requires that the eyes be directed upwards, the corners of the mouth drawn downwards, and a crumpled cigarette balanced vaguely on the horizontal. A guide to Western cigarette-smoking bansFrom next month, the expression will feature more despair and fewer cigarettes.   Brigitte Bardot avec cigarette   The day of reckoning has arrived for Europe's most incorrigible smokers. On January 1, it will become illegal to light up in bars, restaurants or nightclubs, and as...

The Ithaca Common Council continues to investigate how to prohibit smoking on some city-owned land. Council's Environment and Neighborhood Quality committee will work with the City Attorney's office to “develop a list of areas that could be designated smoke free,” according to Robin Korherr, D-5th, chair of the committee. “Smoking is a habit and we develop our habits from our environment,” Korherr said. “We're trying to target youth and let them know that it's okay not to smoke and it doesn't need to be allowed everywhere. If they don't see it happening around them, they may not choose to smoke...

Smoking ban costing some workers their jobs

LOS ANGELES -- The City Council in Calabasas plans to discuss a proposal Wednesday on whether to extend its anti-smoking law to some homes. Council members may consider a law that would prohibit renters from lighting up inside apartments. Current resident smokers would be exempted from the ban as long as they stayed in the same apartment. The law would require all new buildings with at least 15 units to be smoke-free; the law would cover condominiums, as well as apartment buildings.

Smokers, already pushed outside in New York, may be getting more grief than usual for lighting up in public places thanks to a new ad campaign designed to discourage smoking around children. The state's $5 million campaign, one more push for champions of the anti-smoking movement, came at the same time a report by the U.S. Surgeon General indicates infants and young children are especially vulnerable to secondhand smoke. One print ad warns "when you smoke around your kids, they smoke too. By the age of 5 they'll have inhaled over 100 packs." For years, state health officials and the...

Odor of Cigarette Smoke Causes School Employee to Lose Job The Denton Independent School District has removed an employee from her position because she smells like cigarette smoke. Suzanne Lidster was thrilled when she was recently hired to assist a student with disabilities at L.A. Nelson Elementary. "It's something that God sent me here to do with this child," Lidster told FOX 4. "It's like OK, this fell in my lap." But after less than two weeks on the job, Lidster said she received a voicemail informing her that she had lost her position. The school's principal left a message...

It'll be up to patrons, bars to ban smoking City will not beef up tactics for enforcement When the city of Houston's smoking ban expands next month to include bars, it largely will be up to bar managers and their customers to enforce the new rules. The city is not beefing up enforcement tactics — it only has one smoking-enforcement officer, as well as 43 sanitarians who can issue citations — primarily because officials expect the ban to be self-enforcing, said Kathy Barton, spokeswoman for the city's Department of Health and Human Services. In other words, the non-smoking public likely...

CHICAGO - Illinois smokers are in for a cold winter. Gov. Rod Blagojevich signed legislation Monday making Illinois the latest state to ban smoking in public places — including bars, restaurants and work places. The law goes into effect Jan. 1. Chicago and dozens of other communities already restrict smoking, but the new law trumps local ordinances that are weaker or that exempt businesses with air filtration systems, state health officials said. Smokers will still be allowed to light up in their homes, cars, at retail tobacco shops, in certain motel rooms and outdoors. If they get caught smoking in...