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Smoking ban left to voters  

The way has been cleared for voters to decide the fate of South Dakota's smoking ban in next year's general election after Secretary of State Chris Nelson and Attorney General Marty Jackley announced Friday the state will not appeal a Circuit Court decision.

Judge Kathleen Trandahl ruled this month that opponents of the smoking ban secured enough valid signatures in a petition drive to meet the threshold for a referendum. The ban was passed by the Legislature in March and signed into law but never enforced. . . .

"I think the reality of the likelihood of success in an appeal made this a fairly easy decision," he said. "Am I greatly troubled by some areas the judge said were OK and found substantial compliance? Absolutely."

Nelson said he might recommend to the state Board of Elections when it meets in December that the Legislature be approached to tighten up statutes to avoid a repeat of the controversy over the smoking ban petitions.

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RC Business: Smoking Ban Has Been 'Positive' 

While some establishments across KELOLAND are waiting for the smoking ban to go to a public vote before they snuff out smoking in their restaurants, many popular bars in South Dakota's second largest city have already made the switch.

You'll find a busy waitstaff, tables filled with food and plenty of hungry customers over the noon hour at Sports Rock in Rapid City, but you won't find a single ashtray. The bar went non-smoking this summer when the ban was first discussed in Pierre.

"A lot of customers wanted to come in and eat and have an environment where it wasn't full of smoke, and we just felt that we should accommodate them because there's a huge number of people who did request that," General Manager Debbi Davids said.

Months later, they've had the option to switch back and allow smoking, but Davids says her customers seem to like the change.

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• 16th Asian Games to be tobacco-free 

The 16th Asian Games, part of the worldwide Olympic movement and governed by the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA), will be “going smokeless” with firm prohibitions on the sale of tobacco products and tobacco sponsorship of the Games.

The Asian Games are the second largest sports event in the world after the Summer Olympic Games.

Governed by the Olympic Council of Asia, the 16th Asian Games follows all mandates of the International Olympic Committee in which Games’ organizers are prohibited from accepting sponsorship of the Games by tobacco manufactures.

Organizers are also prohibited from allowing the sale of cigarettes or tobacco products at any athletic venue.

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LETTER: Tobacco-free initiative needs compromise 

So what can we do as a university to compromise between the two groups?

I think we should grab hold of the policy Bluegrass Community and Technical College adopted in August.

With designated smoking areas, smokers will not have to venture off campus to smoke, be late for classes because of their need for a cigarette or drop their cigarette butts in local neighborhoods, but will be forced to group together in a smaller, more controlled area.

In a perfect world, the smoking ban at UK would rid the campus of addiction, pollution and allergies, but maybe the most realistic first step would be a compromise.

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Law makes big tobacco, crooks pay health costs 

Health Minister Ron Liepert suggested a new law allowing the province to recover health costs from convicted criminals will have teeth.

"Let me give you an example, a purely hypothetical example. You have an individual who decides in the middle of the night to break into the Calgary Zoo. He goes one step further and decides he's going to break into the tiger cage and challenge the tiger," Liepert said.

"Guess what happens? The tiger takes on the character, and he's hospitalized for quite some time. Who's paying his hospital bill? All of us as taxpayers. Because some hypothetical individual decided to take on a tiger in the middle of the night."

The health minister made the comments as MLAs ended debate of Bill 48, the Crown's Right of Recovery Act.

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Rate of tobacco sales to minors rises 

Each year the rate of tobacco sales to under-aged youth is tested through a collaboration between the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), the Nebraska State Patrol and the City of Omaha Police Department.

"We encourage merchants to review their procedures to stop tobacco sales to minors, and to have their employees always ask for identification from those wanting to buy tobacco products," said Scot Adams, Ph.D., director of the DHHS Division of Behavioral Health. "IDs should be carefully reviewed, because it's illegal to sell tobacco products to anyone under 18."

Nebraska's buy rate has been edging up since 2005, when the rate was 10.7 percent. In 2009, cooperating teens attempted buys in 767 locations and made purchases in 104, for a statewide rate of 13.6 percent.

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SGA utilizes blog to get input on possible UGA smoking ban  

The University's Student Government Association wants to know what students think about lighting up on campus.

With an increasing number of colleges and universities implementing campus-wide smoking bans, members of SGA said they want to gauge student interest at the University with a poll on the SGA blog.

"The smoking policy on campus is not something that is widely known," said Suzanne Meller, SGA General Assembly secretary. "We're exploring this because it's an issue."

The smoking policy on campus adopted in 2006 prohibits smoking in dormitories, all University facilities, Sanford Stadium and areas adjacent to buildings. An administrator told The Red & Black in an interview in September they would be open to changing the policy if students and faculty supported and proposed a different plan.

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Outside smoking at courthouse doors banned  

Concerns by the director of the Health Department about patient health and compliance with provisions associated with federal funding spurred the Phelps County Commission to take action Thursday.

The Commission approved banning smoking within 25 feet of any public entrance at the courthouse.

Jodi Waltman, director of the Phelps/Maries County Health Department, told commissioners the smokers who congregate near the lower-level entrance to the department posed a health risk to pregnant women and children who enter the building.

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Health trust relaxes smoking rules saying blanket ban was too difficult to enforce 

HOSPITAL chiefs in Sheffield have defended a decision to provide smoking shelters around their sites, saying a blanket ban had proved too difficult for staff to enforce.

Contractors have been putting up the shelters in several locations on sites run by the Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

Signs are currently displayed which say smoking is banned and inform people they are breaking the law unless they leave hospital grounds before lighting up.

But yesterday deputy chief nurse Richard Parker said the rules would be relaxed to encourage people to smoke in the shelters and move them away from other locations.

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Florida Jury Orders Philip Morris to Pay $300 million to Ex-Smoker  

Legal experts predict that thousands of tobacco lawsuits could gain momentum in Florida after a Fort Lauderdale jury ordered Philip Morris USA to pay $300 million to a former smoker who says she needs a lung transplant.

If it survives an appeal, the verdict late Thursday would be the nation's largest award of damages to an individual suing a tobacco company and could encourage thousands of plaintiffs who have filed similar cases in Florida, according to Clifford E. Douglas of the University of Michigan Tobacco Research Network. . . .

Brendan J. McCormick, a spokesman for Altria, said Friday that the company expected the federal appellate court to reject the standards of proof set by the state Supreme Court. "What you have is a defined number of cases in Florida with unique issues that will ultimately be resolved on appeal," he said.

David J. Adelman, a tobacco analyst for Morgan Stanley, said the Florida case and, separately, forthcoming class-action lawsuits over light cigarette claims pose an "undeniable" increase in the industry's legal risk "which had previously declined to an unprecedented low point."

In an interview, Mr. Adelman noted that there were no jury trials in cigarette cases all of last year, and that other states had decertified class-action suits

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The Inalienable Right to Smoke - Cigarettes  

Several large NYC landlords are moving to ban smoking inside their own apartment complexes, and on the sidewalks outside them, as well. Clearly, this violates our just-made-up list of Places People Can Always Smoke, No Takebacks.

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Outdoor smoking ban becomes law in Timmins 

Timmins city council has passed an amendment to the local anti-smoking bylaw. It says that along with not being allowed to smoke in local bars or restaurants, smokers are no longer allowed to light up in such outdoor spaces as beaches, playgrounds, parks and recreation fields. The bylaw says smoker must be ten metres away from such public spaces.

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Report claims fewer Ohioans are lighting up  

Confronted with a public smoking ban, higher sin taxes and more anti-smoking efforts, fewer Ohioans are lighting up.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports 20.2 percent of Ohioans smoked in 2008, a 7.5 percent decline from 2001, when Ohio ranked fourth in the country for smokers. The CDC data goes back to 1998, when the smoking rate was 26.2.

Ohio now has the 17th-highest rate of smokers, according to the study. The CDC reports that 21.5 percent of men in Ohio smoked and 19 percent of women.

But some fear those numbers could rise again.

In 2008, the state cut funding for the Ohio Tobacco Prevention Foundation, which funded community anti-smoking initiatives after the state received its share of a settlement with tobacco companies. The foundation began in 2000 with a $40 million budget.

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Winston Churchill D-Day cigar discovered 

The cigar has now been valued at £800 by an expert during the filming of the Antiques Roadshow.

Student Christian Williams, 33, was given the cigar when he was just 12 by his grandad Ronald Williams, a WWII veteran.

At over six inches long the cigar has never been touched by its owner, who keeps it safe in a sturdy wooden box.

It was taken from a historic meeting between Churchill and the other Allied leaders at the famous Casablanca Conference.

Placecards bearing the names of the world leaders taken with the cigar from the conference combined with Mr William senior's testimony helped the authentication of the cigar.

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Stevenson High School officials halt publication of student newspaper, the Statesman  

Administrators at Stevenson High School in Lincolnshire spiked Friday's edition of the school's award-winning newspaper because of concerns about stories on drinking and smoking by honor students, teen pregnancy, and shoplifting, the editor said.

Advocates of press freedom bashed the decision to halt publication.

"It is irresponsible to withhold this information so they can protect their fantasy image of Stevenson as a place where no one has ever gotten pregnant or shoplifted," said Frank LoMante, executive director of the Virginia-based Student Press Law Center. . . .

In the most recent incident, administrators on the paper's review board warned editor Pam Selman, a senior, not to submit a front-page story by senior managing editor Evan Ribot about students in the National Honor Society and freshmen mentors program.

In it, two students, quoted anonymously, admitted to drinking and smoking, which are prohibited under the society's no-use contract.

The administrators warned that they would ask for the students' names and potentially take disciplinary action against them, Selman said.

Rather than revealing their sources, the paper's staff decided to submit a blank front page to the board on Tuesday, she said, with a note to readers about why the story wasn't there.

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