Free Republic

Britney Spears' parenting skills have come under fire yet again after photographs emerged showing the star smoking in front of her son as he plays with a packet of cigarettes. The singer, branded 'Puff Mommy' by the American press, eventually takes the Marlboro Lights and a lighter from the two-year-old's hands, but continues to subject him to second-hand smoke.

Smoking ban leads to new religion Wednesday 16 July 2008Café owners in the Netherlands are joining religious movement known as the One and Universal Smokers Church of God, the Telegraaf reports on Wednesday.‘We stand firmly behind the church’s teachings and that is smoking,’ Cor Busch, owner of the former Lindeboom café in Alkmaar told the paper. ‘Smokers are being discriminated against… but a beer and a cigarette belong together.’ Smoking has been banned in Dutch bars since July 1. Several dozen bars have joined the movement which claims the Dutch constitution and European rules give it legitimacy under the...

ITHACA — Legislation further restricting smoking in the City of Ithaca should reduce exposure to secondhand smoke while not creating unintended consequences, according to members of the Smoke-free Zone Legislation Subcommittee. The smoking ban legislation Common Council is exploring includes ... a huge variety of outdoor, public spaces, including parks, natural areas, outdoor concerts and festivals, trails and walkways, parking garages and lots, transit shelters, Newman Golf Course, and city cemeteries. This would include outdoor dining areas at all times, and entire parks or the entire Commons during festivals like Ithaca Festival or the Chili Cook-Off.... It could also include...

The predominately Democratic California legislature is at it again, coming up with different ways to take your personal freedoms away for the sake of a few. On the heels of attempting to make spanking a misdemeanor, the legislature now wants to make it permissible for a landlord to prevent smoking in apartment buildings on the pretext of protecting other tenants from secondhand smoke. The spineless legislator who sponsored the bill didn’t have the courage to make it a crime under the state’s Health and Safety Code. The proposed legislation merely allows the landlord to make the decision, essentially making him...

It's a story that virtually begs for the "only-in-Santa-Cruz" eye-roll treatment - another item in a wave of wackiness over the years that has painted the beach town, fairly or not, as nuttier than a bowl of granola. Only this time, it might actually be true - the "only-in-Santa-Cruz" part, at least. That's because two cherished progressive ideals - smoking bans and medicinal marijuana - have collided in a cloud of, well, smoke. The city last year banned smoking in two city parks, citing the threat to public health. The city also is on record in support of the local...

The Belmont City Council has passed an ordinance prohibiting smoking in multiunit housing, a measure hailed by supporters as a landmark ban that will give residents relief from second-hand smoke drifting into their apartments and condominiums. "It's to give people who are intolerant of second-hand smoke a chance to say, 'Please stop - you're violating the city's ordinance,' in the same way that if your neighbor has a loud rock band, you can say, 'Please stop,' " City Councilman Dave Warden said today. The council passed the measure Tuesday night by a vote of 3-2. The ordinance also bans smoking...

See the video!This is a definite strike against this candidate for me. This is one position Huckabee should definitely reconsider.

August 28, 2007 -- WASHINGTON - Hillary Clinton lavished praise on New York City's tough anti-smoking laws yesterday - and said she supports smoking bans in public places across the country. Asked at an Iowa forum on cancer whether banning smoking in public places would be good for America, Clinton replied, "Well, personally, I think so. And that's what a lot of local communities and states are starting to do."

Smokers have already been banned from New York bars and restaurants, and soon they could be prohibited from lighting up in cars carrying minors, an idea giving added fuel to critics who say the city has become a nanny state. A City Council member of Queens who is chairman of the council's Environmental Protection Committee, James Gennaro, said he is planning to introduce the smoking bill next week. "I am just seeking every opportunity I can to denormalize smoking and to try to put it out of the reach of kids," Mr. Gennaro said. "I've lost family members to lung...

Belmont moved a step closer Tuesday night to adopting a sweeping ordinance that would ban smoking in multiunit housing, including all apartment buildings. The Belmont City Council instructed the city attorney to draft an ordinance that, when passed at a later date, would be the most far-reaching effort in the nation to protect residents from the dangers of secondhand smoke. "Belmont is the first to say, 'We want to ban smoking in all multiunit housing,' " said Serena Chen, policy director for the American Lung Association in the Bay Area. "These are the pioneers."

A Dutch smoking ban will come into force in July next year for all restaurants and cafes -- including coffee shops where cannabis is the top attraction, the government decided on Friday. "Coffee shops will be treated in the same manner as other catering businesses. They will be smoke-free," Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende told NOS television.

" The Nazi party barred smoking in public places, including party offices and waiting rooms."

Delray Beach · Smokers on the city's beach would be confined to two 30-foot-by-30-foot areas about a third of a mile apart if the City Commission accepts a recommendation by the Ocean Rescue department Tuesday. Each smoking area, roughly the footprint of a small house, would be roped off and have one receptacle for cigarette butts within its boundaries, Ocean Rescue suggests. Daily patrolling of the beach is recommended. The suggestions are the first to be made since Mayor Jeff Perlman introduced the concept of limiting smoking on the beach in September. Delray Beach will become one of the first...

Texas Department of Protective and Regulatory Services has approved a new rule that will prohibit any family that has foster children living with them from smoking in their own home. "The rule prohibits foster parents from smoking in their homes, as long as there are children assigned to their homes," said Darrell Azar of the TDPRS. "It also bans foster parents from smoking in their cars if there are children present in their cars. It is believed to be the toughest anti smoking rules in the country, and the first rules ever approved that prohibit smoking inside detached homes. Azar...

<p>Sign to be posted at all publication locations: "NO SMOKING. To report violations, call... It reminds me of Nazis.</p>

Ballwin — An early-morning fire that destroyed the Seventh Inn restaurant in Ballwin was an accident, officials said Monday afternoon. "There was no malicious intent. It was not a set fire," said Michael Thiemann, spokesman for the Metro West Fire Protection District. "It was accidental, and apparently started in the lounge area."

Kismayo - Islamic religious police on Tuesday arrested 22 people for smoking in the Somali port of Kismayo, where they will be flogged if found guilty of violating a new tobacco ban, officials said. Those detained were nabbed just days after local Islamist officials announced a total ban on the use of tobacco in the key southern port, in a new sign of their increasingly strict application of Sharia law. "We started raids against tobacco users and we have arrested 22 people so far," Kismayo police deputy chief Mohmaed Abdulkadir Jibril told reporters here, about 500km south of the capital...

Belmont to be first U.S. city to ban all smoking By Dana Yates, Daily Journal Staff Belmont is set to make history by becoming the first city in the nation to ban smoking on its streets and almost everywhere else. The Belmont City Council voted unanimously last night to pursue a strict law that will prohibit smoking anywhere in the city except for single-family detached residences. Smoking on the street, in a park and even in one’s car will become illegal and police would have the option of handing out tickets if they catch someone. The actual language of the...

Houston City Council voted to extend the current indoor smoking ban to include bars, not just restaurants, by a vote of 13-2 Wednesday night. After reviewing amendments that would have watered down Mayor Bill White’s proposed ban that had divided council members two weeks ago, the ban stayed intact. The new ban forbids smoking at indoor restaurants and most bars, some outdoor sports venues, and within 25 feet of a building entrance. Outdoor patios of restaurants and bars are exempt, and there are some other exceptions: tobacco retailers and "cigar bars" that derive a significant portion of revenue from the...

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 smoking ban has had a dramatic effect on Scotland's pubs, leading regulars to stay at home and causing an 11 per cent drop in drink sales, the leading trade body said yesterday. Releasing the results of the first major survey of its membership since the ban came into force in March, the Scottish Licensed Trade Association (SLTA) said the results were far worse than the 7 per cent downturn it had predicted. Paul Waterson, the chief executive of the SLTA, said last night that his organisation was considering seeking compensation from the Scottish Executive for its members who have...

* Tom and Jerry cartoons have been censored following a single complaint * Animation showing smoking on the Boomerang channel is to be cut * Media watchdog Ofcom investigated the complaint Key quote "To me it's political correctness gone mad. If you're really going to be concerned about children taking something up perhaps Ofcom could look at Tom dropping an anvil on Jerry's head or putting Jerry in an egg slicer. " - Adrian Monck, media analyst Story in full TOM and Jerry can flatten each other with anvils and batter themselves senseless with mallets, but censors have drawn a...

They chase each other at high speed wielding axes and hammers. But the famous cartoon duo of Tom and Jerry are in trouble for smoking on screen. Media regulator Ofcom received a complaint from a viewer who took offence at two episodes involving smoking. In one, "Texas Tom", the hapless cat Tom tries to impress a feline female by rolling a cigarette, lighting it and smoking it with one hand. In the other, "Tennis Chumps", Tom's opponent in a match smokes a large cigar. In a bulletin posted online, Ofcom noted "concerns that smoking on television may normalise smoking", and...

ASSOCIATED PRESS CARSON CITY, Nev. (AP) - A gambling industry lawyer says backers of a petition to outlaw smoking in most public places misled voters by falsely claiming the ban wouldn't extend to all Nevada hotel and motel rooms. Nevada Resort Association lawyer Todd Bice has filed briefs asking the Supreme Court to remove the anti-smoking petition from the November ballot because signers were told that the smoking ban wouldn't include hotel and motel rooms when the opposite is true. Bice quoted Michael Hackett, campaign manager for Nevadans for Tobacco-Free Kids, who said in June that it wasn't his organization's...

Officials in the Carolinas, traditionally two of the nation's most smoker-friendly states, hope a new U.S. surgeon general's report on the dangers of secondhand smoke can boost their efforts to stub out smoking. N.C. legislators are considering a bill that would allow community colleges to ban smoking on their campuses. And activists plan to reintroduce a bill next year that would allow local governments in Mecklenburg County to ban smoking in all workplaces, even bars and restaurants. S.C. officials are also planning to expand their survey of smoking practices around the state as part of a smoking education effort. And...

Quietly, the tattooed bartender scans the room, poker-faced. It's about 11 p.m. on a weeknight. A man with a shaved head is talking about being in a heavy-metal band. Two young women are flipping through an adult entertainment industry magazine. About a dozen others are drinking in the bar. Grant M. Haller / P-I Alicia Kenan, 37, smokes in a Seattle bar after most of the other patrons have left. Smokers can still find spots to light up, inside. Nobody looks like the type who'd rat the bartender out to the health department. So she pulls out a stack of...

People who smoke marijuana do not appear to be at increased risk for developing lung cancerlung cancer, new research suggests. While a clear increase in cancercancer risk was seen among cigarette smokers in the study, no such association was seen for regular cannabis users. Even very heavy, long-term marijuana users who had smoked more than 22,000 joints over a lifetime seemed to have no greater risk than infrequent marijuana users or nonusers. The findings surprised the study’s researchers, who expected to see an increase in cancer among people who smoked marijuana regularly in their youth. “We know that there are...

The smoke from burning marijuana leaves contains several known carcinogens and the tar it creates contains 50 percent more of some of the chemicals linked to lung cancer than tobacco smoke. A marijuana cigarette also deposits four times as much of that tar as an equivalent tobacco one. Scientists were therefore surprised to learn that a study of more than 2,000 people found no increase in the risk of developing lung cancer for marijuana smokers. "We expected that we would find that a history of heavy marijuana use--more than 500 to 1,000 uses--would increase the risk of cancer from several...

As a physician who has devoted 21 years to advocacy in tobacco control, conducting research and publishing a number of studies on the hazards of secondhand smoke, it is not surprising that I favor a wide range of anti-smoking measures. But anti-smoking tactics adopted by some municipalities, companies and organizations do not serve smokers or the public. The methods are mean-spirited, unsupported by science and attempt to stamp out smoking by punishing and marginalizing smokers. They go too far. The City Council in Calabasas, Calif., recently enacted an ordinance - supported by several anti-smoking groups - that bans smoking in...

"KINDA cosmopolitan, eh?" says a rosy-cheeked punter as his female companion attempts to light her cigarette on a gas cylinder lamp used to heat an outdoor smoking area at a suburban pub. Around them, ashtrays overflow, piled high, one on top of the other. Relative strangers shyly shimmy closer to one another, nestling up to the gas heaters hanging over their heads. Paris in the springtime this is not, but on the first weekend following Scotland's ban on smoking in public places, there is ample joie de vivre in residence. It was a scene repeated across Scotland on Friday night,...

SCOTLAND looked to have made a smooth transition to a smoke-free future yesterday as ministers hailed the introduction of the law banning lighting up in public places as the "largest single step" to improve the nation's health for generations. Despite warnings that the new regulations would be resisted by smokers, it appeared last night that most, if not all, Scots decided to abide by the new rules, which came into force at 6am yesterday. Around Scotland, local authorities - which are responsible for enforcing the ban - seemed to be following the exhortation of the First Minister, Jack McConnell, to...

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....

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The attorneys general of 32 states are asking Hollywood's major movie studios to place an anti-smoking announcement on DVDs, videos and other home entertainment products to combat teen tobacco use....

Rome Italy (AHN) - An Italian theater was forced to change the script of an Arthur Miller play after a spectator complained about an actor's smoking. "This had never happened to me in more than 300 performances," the actor, Sebastiano Lo Monaco, was quoted as saying by the Web site of Italian daily Corriere della Sera. Italy has banned lighting up in all enclosed public places since January this year. Lo Monaco was smoking, in line with the script, while playing the main character Sunday in Miller's "A View from the Bridge" at a theater in the northeastern city of...

Despite the claims of anti-smoking groups that research studies have conclusively proved that secondhand tobacco smoke causes lung cancer, the city councils of Arlington Heights, Evanston and Wheeling rejected smoking bans. The three Illinois municipalities have created significant restaurant industries that play an important role in their economies, and the council members concluded that the risks of loss of businesses were not worth the health benefits that some claimed would result from a ban on smoking. Now the Chicago City Council is considering banning smoking in virtually all restaurants, bars and commercial buildings. Anti-smoking groups with a collectivist political agenda,...

SACRAMENTO – Perhaps nothing symbolizes the up and down political fortunes of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger better than his "smoking tent" – his deal-making lair set up in a courtyard outside his Capitol office. Last year, Democrats competed for a chance to sit in the tent with the popular governor. They'd talk policy, smoke one of Schwarzenegger's coveted custom label cigars and maybe, just maybe, bring a few home as souvenirs. Now, with Schwarzenegger experiencing declining poll numbers and fierce partisan battles, some Democrats are trying to shut down the tent. Critics view it as a monument to an unhealthy habit....

The National Conference on Tobacco and Health, held in downtown Chicago last week (May 4th through the 6th), produced a historic and very unusual experience for many Chicagoans.  The Sheraton Chicago and Hyatt Regency Chicago hotels, which hosted this convention, became entirely non-smoking for three days with no warning.  The only exceptions were their smoking guest rooms.   The purpose of this National Conference was "...To help improve and sustain the effectiveness and reach of tobacco control programs and activities in the United States."  For a registration fee of $575 per attendee, approximately 3200 people from all parts of our...

The mere mention of the Libertarian Party was apparently enough to kill a proposed smoking ban ordinance in LaPorte, Ind., earlier this month, continuing the Indiana LP's dedication to standing up for the rights of business owners to set their own policies. The mayor of LaPorte had proposed forming a "study committee" to target small business owners -- such as restaurants and bars -- by banning smoking in such businesses. And it looked like a done deal, says Indiana Libertarian Party chairman Mark Rutherford, noting that 11 of the 14 city council members were expected to approve the formation of...

Fidel Castro's plan to ban smoking in public places, due to come into force on Monday, appears to be a revolution too far for most Cubans. Mr Castro, 78, is clamping down on the island's Habano cigars and black tobacco cigarettes as part of a campaign to increase life expectancy to 80 years by 2010, up from the 75-76 average. But many doubt the “maximum leader” can make the law stick. Yuleisis Fonseca, a 27-year-old nurse, said Mr Castro would need an army of “extraterrestrials” to enforce the ban. “Where I work the doctors are the first to smoke and...

Employers have recently tried every carrot they can think of — including cash incentives and iPods — to persuade employees to quit smoking. Now some are trying the stick. Pointing to rising health costs and the oversized proportion of insurance claims attributed to smokers, some employers in California and around the country are refusing to hire applicants who smoke and, sometimes, firing employees who refuse to quit. "Employers are realizing the majority of health costs are spent on a small minority of workers," says Bill Whitmer, chief executive of the Health Enhancement Research Organization, an employer and healthcare coalition in...

The New York Times was impressed by Bloomington’s overreaching ban on smoking in public places. Libertarians are not so dazzled. The last thing Indiana cities should do is to copy Bloomington’s lead. Karla Sneegas, the executive director of Indiana Tobacco Prevention and Cessation, told a New York Times reporter that “one way to start changing cultural norms on smoking is to institute new policies.” Only one problem. It’s not the government’s job to set cultural norms. Imagine if it were not something as maligned as smoking. Maybe these cities ought to ban coffee. It stains teeth a nasty shade, the...

NOT content with trampling smokers' rights, the New York State Dept. of Health has launched an insidious campaign to erase all traces of tobacco from the movies. The department's tobacco control program was behind the formation of Reality Check, a well-funded group supposedly started by and for teens against smoking. One of R.C.'s missions is to eradicate smoking from the movies, and their methods have put some noses out of joint. [snip] Insiders say Reality Check plans an even more outrageous campaign, however. In addition to pressuring studios to keep smoking and cigarettes out of new movies — beginning...

Like a lot of New York's straight-off-the-boat Irish barmen, Brian ("no surname, thanks") has a problem with authority, one that means keeping a weather eye on the door of the unfashionable watering hole where he slings suds from 6pm until closing time. As an undocumented alien with a tourist visa that expired more than three years ago, Brian's chief concern has always been the immigration authorities. These days, though, there is another threat to his livelihood: the Big Apple's smoking police. "It's a fookin' crime," he said, "the way those bastards behave." The regulars at Brian's bar agreed. The talk...

WASHINGTON — Chief movie lobbyist Jack Valenti defended smoking in Hollywood films, but senators insisted the industry must do more to stop the practice. "I don't believe that whatever the director does ought to incite the intervention of the government in any form," Valenti, head of the Motion Picture Association of America, told a Senate Commerce Committee hearing yesterday. "I've got to tell you I believe it is his right to tell the story as he chooses to tell it." Some lawmakers were dissatisfied by his answers. A study last year found that teens who watch movies with smoking in...

U.S. Joins Tobacco Treaty WASHINGTON - The United States signed the World Health Organization's anti-tobacco treaty yesterday, the 108th nation to join an accord that promises major advertising restrictions and other controls on it. Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson signed the document at the United Nations late yesterday. The Senate still must ratify the treaty; it's not clear how quickly that could come.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - California could be on its way to becoming the first U.S. state to outlaw smoking in cars or trucks that have children inside. A bill is being considered in the state Assembly to allow police to stop vehicles if a minor appears to be exposed to smoke from a pipe, cigar, cigarette, or "any other plant." The bill has the support of the American Lung Association, which points to research showing secondhand smoke can cause cancer, respiratory infections and asthma. Assemblyman Marco Firebaugh, a Democrat and author of the bill, has referred to a survey by...

Employees of the municipality of Levanger had to completely abstain from smoking during their working hours. The county administrator (Fylkesmann) claims such a strict ban contravenes human rights and has now repealed the controversial prohibition, newspaper Trønder-Avisa reports. "A good day for us. The Fylkesmann's ruling shows that democracy works. We have said all along that government or municipal rulings could not contravene Norwegian law. Now everyone must see that we are right," said Progress Party representatives Birger Meinhardt and Steinar Holten, who celebrated their victory for local smokers by lighting up cigars. Levanger's extremely strict anti-smoking law, which also...

<p>ALBANY, New York (Reuters) - Still steamed over a looming smoking ban, some New York bar and restaurant owners hit the state where it hurts -- in the pocketbook.</p> <p>They unplugged the lottery machines in their establishments.</p> <p>This week's coordinated cutting off of Quick Draw Lottery machines is costing the state $1 million in lost revenue, according to Scott Wexler, head of the Empire State Restaurant and Tavern Association, which represents more than 3,000 bars and eateries across the state.</p>

CHICAGO (Reuters) - The leading U.S. group of cancer physicians on Saturday urged an immediate $2-per-pack increase in taxes on cigarettes and other steps to curb smoking, which is projected to kill a billion people worldwide this century. "Oncologists see the end product from smoking. To see a preventable form of cancer is a tragedy," said Dr. Paul Bunn, president of the American Society of Clinical Oncologists at a news conference at the group's annual meeting. In a new policy statement, the group representing tens of thousands of cancer experts globally, recommended creation of a "blue-ribbon" panel to focus U.S....

Hey, Boston get your butts over here! By Deborah Eisner / Chronicle Staff Wednesday, December 18, 2002 Smokers upset about Boston's decision to ban smoking in all restaurants, bars and nightclubs, will only have to take a quick trip across the river if they want someplace to light up. That's because just three months after public health officials here were talking about making Cambridge a smoke-free city as if it were a done deal, the City Council appears to be unwilling to support the effort. Only four city councilors are poised to vote in favor of the proposed ordinance which...