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Smoking vote puffs nearer  

The 2008 smoking ban vote has brought in about half the number of voters the 2005 smoking ban did in early voting.

About 7,200 voters showed up at the polls in Amarillo this week and last to vote on banning smoking in most public places. More than 14,000 people voted early on the 2005 ban, which failed by about 550 votes.

The last chance to vote will be from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday.

Some voters appear not to understand who can vote on whether to curb public smoking.

"I don't want people to be disappointed," said Randall County Clerk Sue Bartolino, whose office is running the election for the city of Amarillo. "If they live in Amarillo and are registered, then they can vote."

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Rep. McCord caught allowing smoking in state office building 

Local Rep. Joe McCord, R-Maryville, said Tuesday he expects to receive a formal complaint over allowing smoking in his offices and that he will no longer allow the practice. Smoking has been banned in state-owned buildings for several years. Nashville television station WSMV reported Monday that McCord had been allowing people to smoke in a conference room he shared with another representative who has been absent while undergoing treatment for cancer. "I've known that occasionally people smoke in my office," McCord said. "I should have disallowed it, but there will be no more." McCord said some of the staff at his office had been smoking for years, and he had decided not to order them to stop as long as there were no complaints about it. After the TV report, he said he expects to receive a formal complaint and he said he is no longer allowing anyone to smoke in his office.

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Despite ban, Tennessee Rep. Joe McCord admits smoking in his office 

State Rep. Joe McCord acknowledged that he and others have smoked in his legislative office suite, even though smoking is prohibited at the state Capitol.

WSMV-TV in Nashville first reported that smoking was going on in McCord's office and aired a video that showed someone holding a cigarette through a window at the legislative War Memorial Building.

The Maryville Republican told The Knoxville News Sentinel that he and others have smoked in his office but that the practice would cease.

Ashtrays, an air purification system and a sandbag used to seal the space below a door were all used

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Tobacco donations blasted 

Alberta's Liberal Opposition is criticizing the governing Progressive Conservatives for taking political donations from a tobacco firm.

The Liberals point to public documents that show the Alberta PC party received three donations last year worth a total of $5,125 from the National Smokeless Tobacco Co.

But PC party spokesman Jim Campbell says he sees nothing wrong with taking such donations, which in this case were tickets to leaders' dinners in Calgary and Edmonton.

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The politics of tobacco 

They're making political hay these days in Southwestern Ontario's tobacco belt about the federal government's refusal to help growers get out of the business.

Political opponents of Conservative MPs Joe Preston (Elgin-Middlesex-London) and Diane Finley (Haldimand-Norfolk) are churning the stuff out by the bale.

Liberal rivals for both are blasting Preston and the Conservatives for voting down a Liberal motion in Ottawa last week to immediately implement an exit strategy for hard-pressed tobacco producers.

Suzanne van Bommel in Elgin-Middlesex-London is accusing Preston of preferring to vote with his party than to support his constituents. . . .

Both issued press releases criticizing Preston for joining three other Conservatives late last week to oppose the Liberal motion of support for tobacco farmers introduced at the Commons standing committee on agriculture and agri-food. Agriculture minister Gerry Ritz had earlier ruled out funding an exit plan for producers.

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Liberals Accuse Stelmach Tories Of Taking Donations From Big Tobacco 

Alberta's Liberal Opposition is criticizing the governing Progressive Conservatives for taking political donations from a tobacco firm.

The Liberals point to public documents that show the Alberta PC Party received three donations last year worth a total of $5,125 from the National Smokeless Tobacco Co.

Party spokesman Jim Campbell says he sees nothing wrong with taking donations from `a legal company selling a legal product.' . . .

Liberal health critic Dave Taylor says it simply doesn't look right when a government that's taking steps to reduce smoking is also taking political donations from a tobacco firm.

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• I-Team: Do Lawmakers Skirt Smoking Law?  

The I-Team has discovered that some state lawmakers may not be abiding by a law meant to affect all Tennessee residents.

Video: I-Team Spots Smokers Inside State Building

Everyone, including the thousands of state workers in Nashville, have to walk outside to specified areas if they should want to smoke.

State law prohibits smoking inside state buildings, but for those who want to skirt the law and know the right people, there's a room upstairs for them. . . .

Finley said McCord's is the only office about which the I-Team received complaints. McCord shares the conference room with Rep. Park M. Strader, R-Knoxville. Strader has been out of the state and Legislature recently for cancer treatment.

It's unclear if there are other offices set up for smoking.

Could McCord or any of the people smoking in the smoking room face repercussions?

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• Tobacco dollars still in politics, but few go to Clinton, McCain or Obama 

Among candidates still standing or running...

... Sen. Hillary Clinton has taken the most -- $46,300 from executives and employees of tobacco companies.

Sen. John McCain, himself a cancer survivor, has taken $27,400.

Sen. Barack Obama, who famously has tried to quit smoking with off-and-on success, has taken $22,000, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

These remaining candidates have not been particularly kind to the tobacco industry, according to Stanton Glantz, an anti-tobacco advocate, researcher and medical school professor at University of California, San Francisco.

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EDITORIAL: What others think: N.D. should spend more to stop tobacco use 

Heidi Heitkamp was the attorney general who negotiated with big tobacco on our behalf. She and others want to increase the percentage of master settlement funds that actually have something to do with the problem of tobacco use.

They’ve come up with an initiative to force a change in the law. It’s been to the attorney general’s office for review and on to the secretary of state’s office. It went back to the initiators for final work and should be ready Monday for Secretary of State Al Jaeger to give final review and approval of the format of a petition to go out for signatures. The backers’ hope is that everything necessary will be accomplished so that the measure can be on the November ballot.

Heitkamp said that an average of $2.2 million of the payment to North Dakota each year is spent on programs dealing with tobacco use prevention or cessation. The proposal is to spend $9 million a year.

That doesn’t sound like much.

But $9 million annually is the amount the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention calculates this state should be spending.

Yes, at least that.

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LETTER: State wasted tobacco money 

After reading how Iowa's so-called stewards of taxpayer money, of which Dearden is a proud member, managed to squander $2 billion of tobacco-settlement money in five years, private accounts are the only safe option we have.

How can anyone trust these people anymore? I don't. If a business had misused corporate funds like the state has ours, the crooks would be on the way to jail. Instead, they are running for re-election. Government couldn't operate a day under the same scrutiny as Wall Street.

I'd be hanging my head in shame instead of buying ads and deceiving the public about how good a job I was doing.

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Smoking ban update 

May 10 is voting day! The question is: should smoking be banned in public places or not?

Sott Camarata, owns the smoke-free restaurant 'Café Marizon' and he represents the group 'Speak out Amarillo.' He said everyone knows the dangers of smoking and that is not what the debate is about. Camarata said it is about our rights as Americans and several people feel the same way. He said some have called and others have stopped him on the street to tell him about their opinions.

"We are going to do a letter-campaign in the next couple weeks. We've already made commercials and since day one, we've had a poster campaign," Camarata said. "We will also be posting nine-foot banners in the next couple weeks throughout town."

On the flip-side, 'Breathe Easy Amarillo' has an awareness campaign of their own to focus on. Dr. Arredondo is a member and he is a big advocate of education.

"I ask people every day, in my clinical practice, about smoking," Arredondo said. "It's an awareness issue. If the referendem doesn't pass, I think at least people are aware of the issue that maybe smokers, on their own accord, will be a little more curteous and not smoke in front of others. If it passes, it will be a declaration of the voting population majority."

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Brownfield mayor seeks vote on smoking ban 

Brownfield's mayor wants residents in his city to vote this November on whether to ban smoking in public places throughout the city.

"I want it to go to a vote of the people," Mayor Glenn Waters said Tuesday.

Details of the ordinance are still unclear.

Waters plans to hold a public hearing to gauge the public's opinion on the matter before moving much further in the process.

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Huge support for smoke ban petition 

Nearly 4,000 people have now signed a petition calling on Gordon Brown to allow pubs to apply for smoking licences.

The petition, posted on the 10 Downing Street website, says the ban has "universally forced smokers out in the cold and forced some businesses to close where previously their business was mostly to smoking customers. Not to mention the loss of personal freedom."

It suggests that councils should be given the power to hand out a limited number of smoking licences.

"It is the perfect compromise, allowing business owners to decide how to run their businesses and customers to weigh up health risks for themselves," the petition adds.

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• Jeff Stier: Obama's Health  

The fact that Sen. Obama was a smoker is old news, since he quit. Right? Think again.

The stories that have explored this issue all missed the point: Obama's history of smoking raises questions about his current and future health. . . .

But what of Senator Obama's health? It's not as if once you quit smoking, all of the health effects immediately disappear. In fact, after enough smoking, some health effects are irreversible. Consider just the arteries and lungs.

How long and how much one smokes makes a difference. . . .

He admits to having smoked up to ten cigarettes a day, but usually closer to five or six. Most people underestimate how much they smoke, but let's take him at his word. Let's also assume he really did quit when he said he did, in February 2007 (although he admits to having fallen off the wagon). That's about twenty-six years, given that we know he was smoking by the time he was a freshman at Occidental College. That's more than 55,000 -- maybe 70,000 cigarettes! Has this aspect of Sen. Obama's ability to serve really been explored? . . .

Just because he's young, looks great, and exercises doesn't mean he's healthy. Recall Jim Fixx. . . .

while the stresses of running may have contributed to Fixx's death, it was his years of smoking, not his running, that caused the plaque to build up in his arteries. . . .

The public deserves to know how long and how much Sen. Obama really smoked. Does he have other risk factors for heart disease? Compared to whites, for instance, African-Americans are more likely to die of a stroke, according to the American Heart Association.

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Smoking Labour voters threaten MPs with backlash  

Traditional Labour supporters are threatening to oust Luton's MPs at the next election in protest at the smoking ban.

That was the warning from campaigners at the town centre's CIU working men's club as the site faces tough times.

Sean Spillane, a Labour voter who works at the Arndale-based social club, has lead protests against the ban since private clubs were first included.

He said Margaret Moran MP and Kelvin Hopkins MP stood to lose their seats as core voters punished them for supporting an all-out ban and damaging a way of life.

"The local Labour Party should be worried because traditional voters have already left," he said.

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