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Barack Obama is still struggling to kick smoking, according to his first medical examination since becoming president. Obama is sensitive about his cigarette habit and tetchy with reporters who raise it. But after his 90-minute medical at the Navy hospital outside Washington yesterday morning, his doctors confirmed he had not yet managed to conquer the habit and suggested he "continue smoking cessation efforts". The doctors also recommended "moderation of alcohol intake".

The cap of an entertaining, wide-ranging press conference that included a spirited defense of the public health care option: A carefully-framed, detailed question from Obama on his smoking habit. "You just think it's neat to ask me about my smoking," he told the reporter, before conceding that he has "fallen off the wagon sometimes." "Am I a daily, a constant smoker? No," he said. "I don't do it in front of my kids. i don't do it in front of my family." Obama said he was "95% cured" and compared himself to a recovering alcoholic. "Once you've gone down this...

Barely two weeks in office, President Barack Hussein Obama will raise taxes this afternoon with his signature on the SCHIP bill scheduled to pass the House of Representatives today.The reauthorization of the State Children's Health Insurance Program includes massive tax increases on cigarettes, cigars and other tobacco products. Similar bills were vetoed twice by President George W. Bush in part because of the tax increases. Democrats in the House and Senate have voted overwhelmingly for the tax increases each time the bill was proposed and were joined by a handful of Republicans.The bill Obama will sign today raises the federal...

Former German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt's famous fondness for tobacco has got him into trouble. The former leader lit up at a theater in Hamburg -- after the city introduced a smoking ban. Now an anti-smoking group has reported them to the police. Helmut Schmidt, former German chancellor, former minister of defense and co-publisher of the influential weekly newspaper Die Zeit, is being accused of breaking the law -- for violating Germany's new ban on smoking in public places. Committed smokers Helmut Schmidt and his wife Loki -- aged a lung-cancer-defying 89 and 88, respectively -- are being investigated by Hamburg...

CLARKSTON, WASH. - Washington smokers facing a ban on lighting up in bars and restaurants are taking their habit - and money - to Idaho. "I've had regular clientele tell me right to my face they're going to Idaho to smoke," Tony Salerno, owner of Hogan's in Clarkston, told the Lewiston Tribune. Washington voters approved Initiative 901 in November, which bans smoking within 25 feet of doorways, windows and air intakes of public places and workplaces. It took effect Dec. 8. That has left some establishments in Washington near the Idaho border having to compete with bars and restaurants in...

Smoking-ordinance hearing, vote delayed Council doesn't appear to support mayor's plan or an all-out ban 04:58 PM CDT on Wednesday, October 8, 2003 By ERIC AASEN / The Dallas Morning News The future of a new smoking ordinance in Irving is uncertain after Mayor Joe Putnam requested last week that the City Council not vote on the matter at the end of the month. In addition, the city has canceled a public hearing next week about the ordinance. The developments suddenly stall an issue that has generated vigorous debate in recent months: whether to ban smoking in most public...

The first scene in NBC's new fall sitcom "Whoopi" begins with the star, Whoopi Goldberg, puffing on a cigarette, ignoring a nearby "No Smoking" sign. "You know, secondhand smoke kills," says an irritated guest of the hotel Goldberg's character owns. "So do I," she shoots back, glaring at the guest. Scheduled to premiere Sept. 23, the show is designed to be a Norman Lear-like commentary on American society, in the same vein as the groundbreaking "All in the Family." That show was built around bigoted jokes that boomeranged on Archie Bunker, while "Whoopi," featuring a relationship in which her brother...

Smoking ban backlash ensnares AIDS group By EMILY C. DOOLEY STAFF WRITER PROVINCETOWN - It began with an angry letter shortly after he was named executive director of the AIDS Support Group of Cape Cod. Then Mark Baker received a handwritten note on the back of a donation card. "Due to my recent decline in salary since the smoking ban, I regret that I am unable to make a donation at this time," wrote bartender and regular donor Michael Pickens. Baker works for the support group and is also chairman of the Provincetown Board of Health, which approved a smoking...

Council OKs ban on public smoking By JAMES AMOS The Pueblo Chieftain City Council on Monday banned smoking in all public places, a move that includes bars and restaurants in addition to stores, buses and other places where the public is invited. The ban goes into effect Jan. 1. Council had been considering a measure to ban smoking in most public places, excepting freestanding bars. They heard hours of testimony from restaurant and bar owners about how the move would cost them money, and from smokers about how it would cost them their rights. The first measure would have banned...

Smoker Fumes & Fights Back Defending right to light up By GREG WILSON Daily News Brooklyn Bureau Chief Brooklyn cop Audrey Silk says she is out to arrest the tobacco police — while protecting fellow smokers from unfair taxes and the pariah treatment. Unabashed smoker and cop Audrey Silk's lobbying group has recently taken on the anti-tobacco movement with a complaint to the IRS. In her off-duty time, Silk, 37, founded Citizens Lobbying Against Smoker Harassment (CLASH) to stick up for folks who light up. The group recently served a formal complaint to the Internal Revenue Service challenging the tax-exempt...