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Gov. Felix Camacho yesterday signed the documents necessary to close the Guam Economic Development and Commerce Authority Tobacco Settlement Asset-Backed Bonds Series 2007, according to a news release from the governor's office.
"We are very pleased with the response we have gotten on the tobacco bonds," Camacho said. "My administration worked closely with our financial advisors and underwriters to ensure that we could get the maximum yield for the people of Guam."
The bonds were issued to refund outstanding 2001 Tobacco Settlement Asset-Backed Bonds
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During my recent visit to the island, I was quite surprised to see so many smoke-filled business establishments. One place was filled with so much smoke that a friend of mine, who is a smoker, went outside to smoke.
All the while I had thought that the Natasha Protection Act was in full effect.
The harmful effects that smoke has on smokers and nonsmokers are universally known.
There is a new policy that prohibits tobacco and betel nut use on the Guam Community College campus.
Over the past year, smoking has been prohibited for many years inside college buildings, but hte new policy would prevent tobacco use and betel nut consumption anywhere on campus.
A SMOKING ban in all dining establishments on Guam is now fully in effect after the Supreme Court of Guam dismissed the appeal of former attorney general Douglas Moylan and affirmed the constitutionality of the Natasha Protection Act. Affirming an earlier decision of the trial court, the Supreme Court said that the Natasha Protection Act is enforceable and not unconstitutional as earlier argued by the former AG. With this development, Atty. Mike Phillips said smoking is now prohibited 24 hours in all restaurants. Bars that exclusively serve alcohol are not covered by the smoking ban while the regulation does apply to bars that double as restaurants. Smoking would be allowed in such establishments between 10 p.m. and 4 a.m., provided they “employ an appropriate smoke ventilation device.”
A tobacco sting operations lead by the Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse and the Department of Revenue and Taxation resulted in 24 citations.
I am an employee in the Guam Public School System and have recently discovered something I think should be brought to the attention of parents and people everywhere. One day while I was working, I poked my head inside of a classroom and found several employees smoking. I talked to other employees about this and they said they also have seen or smelled the smoking in that classroom.
I brought the issue to the attention of my administrators but I feel not enough got done. Parents, you need to know that this is going on. Not only is it against school policy, it's against the law (Public Law 21-139).
But more importantly, they are endangering the lives of the innocent students who attend class in that room daily. Secondhand smoke ... contains more than 4,000 chemicals, 40 of which are known to cause cancer! . . .
Go to your child's school and ask questions. Don't be afraid to come forward if you ever discover that this is going on in your school. These children look up to us as parents and educators. We need to be examples to them by obeying laws and taking care of our health. There are children's lives at stake and I feel it my duty, as an educator, to save as many as I can.
Members of the Guam Hotel Restaurant Association have not yet taken a position on the newly enacted Natasha Protection Act. And until they do, lawmakers don't plan to change what some have called a flawed law, the legislative speaker said yesterday.
At the GHRA's General Membership meeting yesterday, Speaker Mark Forbes told the leaders of the island's hospitality industry that the current ban on smoking in hotel rooms that the act created was an "unintended consequence" of the legislation.
Guam's invitation for tourists will likely include a footnote that smoking in hotel rooms might get them in trouble with local law.
The island's attorney general said the Superior Court of Guam's June 9 decision not to stop the enforcement of portions of the new and broader no-smoking law has the effect of including bars and hotels in the ban.
There's no question restaurants are now covered by the smoking ban, Attorney General Douglas Moylan said. He added he intends to take the new law's unresolved portions -- affecting bars and hotels -- to the Guam Supreme Court.
Meanwhile, he instructed the Department of Public Health and Social Services in a letter after the court's move on Friday that, "until this question is further answered by the courts, that (establishments do) not permit any smoking in any public facilities on Guam, regardless of the installed filtration device, or face prosecution."
Smoking may no longer be an option at several local hotels, since the case against the Natasha Protection Act was dismissed last week.
But the attorney general’s office plans to appeal Superior Court of Guam Judge Steven Unpingco’s Friday dismissal the civil case on the Natasha Protection Act to the Supreme Court. . . .
While his office will appeal the dismissal of the case, Attorney General Douglas Moylan recommended that all enclosed public enclosed places be nonsmoking until the issue is further clarified, something which the Guam Hotel and Restaurant Association has taken to heart.
Restaurants are to comply with the non-smoking law, the Natasha Protection Act. On Friday Court Judge Steven Unpingco dismissed Attorney General Douglas Moylan's motion that questioned the constitutionality of the Act. Now, consider the opinions of a few popular restaurateurs that have developed solutions for smokers and non-smokers alike.
After a good meal or a few drinks, those who have a craving for nicotine usually end up lighting a cigarette. And according to the Americans for Non-Smokers' Rights, while the tobacco industry has claimed for years that smoke-free ordinances have a negative impact on business, particularly hospitality-oriented businesses, that simply is not true. Take popular eating establishments like Tony Roma's and Capricciosa located in the Agana Shopping Center - even before the smoking ban was in its proposal stage, both establishments decided to change their policy, to accommodate everyone.
When you head to a local restaurant this weekend, remember there's no smoking. And in addition to considering that, remember Natasha Perez, the young girl for whom the Natasha Protection Act was named. Superior Court Judge Steven Unpingco issued an order dismissing Attorney General Douglas Moylan's lawsuit that questioned the constitutionality of the Act.
The judge's decision comes hours after the AG and Attorney Mike Phillips presented arguments on the constitutionality of the Act. Moylan argued the Act could not be enforced and requested the judge clarify the Legislature's intent. "This law will be enforced if the court chooses not to rule on it," the AG maintained. "As we pointed out in court we're going to be back with a lot of different people coming in with their attorneys litigating the question that we're trying to have amicably and dispassionately resolved today."
Attorney Phillips argued the Act should be implemented immediately.
The restaurant smoking ban is now in effect, after the case against it was dismissed yesterday.
Superior Court of Guam Judge Steven Unpingco yesterday dismissed the civil case filed by the attorney general's office over the enforceability of the Natasha Protection Act.
The attorney general's office plans to appeal the dismissal to the Supreme Court of Guam.
The law's namesake, Natasha Perez, also died yesterday. The Natasha Protection Act was named after the teenage cancer patient.
If local attorney Mike Phillips gets his way, a smoking ban in restaurants will go into effect immediately. Today Phillips filed an opposition to a motion filed last week by Attorney General Douglas Moylan. The AG had previously requested the court issue a preliminary injunction that would prevent the implementation of the Natasha Protection Act.
Phillips today, in his filing with the court, asked the judge to dismiss the AG's motion (should it be entertained), and suggested the court only rule on the Act's prohibition of smoking in bars and hotel rooms.
For the fourth consecutive year, Mangilao resident Oliva Aguon is preparing to do something tonight a doctor initially thought she would never be able to do: walk in the American Cancer Society's Relay For Life.
The 50-year-old mother of four hasn't missed a relay since the first time she walked the track at George Washington High School field in 2002, the year after she finished more than six months of radiation and chemotherapy to treat lung cancer.
A smoker for more than 30 years, Aguon had quit smoking in June of 2000 in an effort, with her husband Roy, to live a healthier life. The couple began walking, but Oliva Aguon kept feeling a burning pain in her chest.
A stay on the Natasha Protection Act will continue at least for another three weeks as Attorney General Douglas Moylan continues efforts to clarify the constitutionality of a public law that bans smoking in restaurants. The government filed a motion for a preliminary injunction in an effort to stop the implementation of the Act until the law can be clarified relative to filtration devices.