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Tobacco sting nets two alleged violators 

CLARKSTON - Two Asotin County mini marts have been caught selling tobacco to teens.

The Asotin County Health District sent trained teens to local tobacco retailers. The teenagers used their own valid IDs to try to buy tobacco products.

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• Smokin' Huffaker Flip-Flops on Smoking Ban  

The City of Eagle was well on it's way to becoming the first smoke-free city in Idaho, until last week, at least. Councilman Michael Huffaker put a stop to the city's Clean Indoor Air Ordinance when he changed his vote on June 23.

The ordinance would have prohibited smoking at all businesses with more than five employees, including standalone bars, and would limit where smokers could light up outside, within city limits. . . .

Huffaker joined the skeptics last week when he changed his vote in opposition to the ordinance saying that possible detriments to the City of Eagle outweighed the benefits to the city. Huffaker cited a study that claims that if bar rats can't smoke in their favorite bar in Eagle they will drive to neighboring cities to get their fix and then drive home drunk.

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Eagle councilman has a change of heart and derails proposed smoking ban 

In an unexpected change of course, a proposed ordinance that would have made Eagle the first community in Idaho to prohibit smoking in all public areas was tabled Tuesday night. Idaho law bans smoking in restaurants but exempts businesses with fewer than five employees and bars.

The ordinance was previously approved by the council, after Mayor Phil Bandy broke a 2-2 tie vote of the council. But Eagle City Councilman Michael Huffaker had a change of heart Tuesday, when the council was to hear the second and third reading of the ordinance.

The proposal was tabled after a 3-1 vote Tuesday. Eagle City Councilman Al Shoushtarian was the lone vote in favor.

Huffaker said he was persuaded by the arguments of council members Norm Semanko and Jeanne Jackson-Heim, who opposed the ordinance. He said there were a number of issues, including a sense that the issue was something that should be handled at the state level rather than one city at a time.

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Eagle City Council tables smoking ordinance 

A ordinance to ban smoking in bars and certain public places failed to get the support it needed to pass in Eagle.

Council members considered the smoking ordinance Tuesday night, after passing a preliminary one earlier this month. But after several hours of debate and more public input, the council voted 3 to 1 to table the ordinance.

Michael Huffaker was the council member who changed his vote to be against the ban.

"Nothing had changed," Huffaker says. "I was just persuaded, we are all opposed to second hand smoke but this is really not a great way to implement that policy."

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Eagle City Council rejects public smoking ban  

Two weeks ago the city council voted 2-2, forcing Eagle Mayor Phil Bandy to break the tie in favor of the smoking ban.

But last night the vote changed to 3-1 against the ordinance.

"It was a second reading, there shouldn't be any discussion. It should just be the reading and then approved. Then all of a sudden one councilman changed his mind, and that changed the whole idea," said Al Shoushtarian, Eagle City Council.

"I was very surprised the councilman Huffaker changed his mind on the second reading of that ordinance. I thought that showed a lot of character and courage to do that," said Jeanne Jackson-Heim, Eagle City Council. . . .

Huffaker says the ordinance wasn't well written, and believes it would have been hard to enforce.

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Moscow bar owners weigh possible smoking ban  

The north-central Idaho city of Moscow is moving closer to a smoking ban in bars within city limits.

The city's Administrative Committee on Monday recommended only slight changes to the proposal before forwarding it to the Moscow City Council.

Idaho allows smoking in bars, but permits municipalities to pass more restrictive laws.

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Free smoking-cessation classes to end in Boise 

That's what Nancy Caspersen set out to correct when she founded Quit and Live Inc., a company that helps smokers finally kick the butts. But, a cut in state funding means her smoking-cessation classes in Boise will end.

"I had 85 people on the waiting list for the Boise class," Caspersen said. "How am I going to reach those 85 people?"

She's been running the classes with money from the Idaho Millennium Fund. The Legislature created the fund with money Idaho received after tobacco companies settled a lawsuit alleging they targeted minors with their ads.

The fund was meant to provide money for programs that promoted not smoking or that helped people quit. It has since expanded to include other drugs.

"The funding was cut nearly in half this year, which means less money for contractors like me to runour classes," said Caspersen, a registered nurse and tobacco cessation specialist.

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VIDEO: Moscow considers smoking ban 

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Moscow mulls smoking ban in bars  

The City of Moscow is considering banning smoking within bars.

City officials say if passed, the ban would include a $50 fine for violations. Fines would have to be paid within 2 weeks, and after a third ticket, violators could be charged with a misdemeanor.

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Eagle passes ban on smoking in public places  

The Eagle City Council approved a ban on smoking in public places. The new ordinance includes restaurants, bars and workplaces.

This new ordinance would make Eagle the first city in Idaho to ban smoking, and goes beyond state law which does not ban smoking in bars.

During Tuesday night's meeting many opinions were shared, but in the end it was passed.

The vote for the ban was three to two in favor, with Eagle Mayor Phil Bandy cast the deciding vote.

"My position is that any that a perspective employee of any place of work shouldn't have to worry about whether or not they're going to go into a place and be subjected to direct or secondhand smoke," Bandy said. "That shouldn't even come into the equation."

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Eagle City Council will revisit smoking ban in all public areas 

Passage of the ordinance would make Eagle the first community in Idaho to prohibit smoking in all public areas. Idaho law currently bans smoking in restaurants but exempts businesses with fewer than five employees and bars.

The City Council tabled a previous ordinance in April over concerns that fines on individuals of up to $300 and up to six months in jail were excessive. The redrafted ordinance still prohibits smoking in any public building, including restaurants, bars and workplaces, but reduces the individual fines to a written warning for a first offense and $25 and $50 fines for a second and third offense, respectively.

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• Eagle first Idaho town to ban all public smoking 

The Eagle City Council approved a ban on smoking in public places. The new ordinance includes restaurants, bars and workplaces.

This new ordinance makes Eagle the first city in Idaho to ban smoking, and goes beyond state law which does not ban smoking in bars.

During Tuesday night's meeting many opinions were shared, but in the end it was passed.

The vote for the ban was three to two in favor... Eagle mayor Phil Bandy cast the deciding vote.

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EDITORIAL: Can this man save thousands of lives?  

Imagine the worldwide alarm if over a year's time 443,000 of the metropolitan Boise population of 587,000 died. Such a massive death toll of 75 percent of the city's people would be twice the 220,000 killed by atomic bombs at Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.

Yet, without much statistical change from year to year and with scant public outcry, more than 400,000 Americans died each year between 2000 and 2004 from tobacco use, inflicting a stunning $97 billion in lost human productivity and $96 billion in health care costs.

Help is on the way, however.

President Obama has picked Dr. Thomas Frieden, New York City's health commissioner, to take over the main federal public health agency, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The physician-trained Frieden is the right person at the right moment. His record in New York City was awesome. He pushed through smoking bans in restaurants. The city now claims it has 300,000 fewer smokers as a result. . . .

Timing is everything. With Dr. Frieden's appointment, President Obama has fortified his commitment to a national health care policy designed not only to provide insurance coverage for illnesses, but a campaign to step up wellness and preventive medicine programs that reduce costs dramatically.

Vital as Dr. Frieden and organized medicine are to health care, the ultimate provider, of course, is the individual, who can avoid illness-inducing habits and lessen the chances of becoming a health burden to family and society.

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Eagle council will revisit proposed smoking ban in Tuesday meeting 

The Eagle City Council will revisit a proposed anti-smoking ordinance on Tuesday.

The council put the ordinance on hold in April to give its staff time to study how effective such ordinances have been in other communities, and what penalties an Eagle ordinance should include.

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Are you a student struggling to stop Smoking? 

as a student, how and why should you even get the process of quitting started?

To begin, Boise State is becoming a smoke-free campus effective August 17. There will be literally no smoking permitted anywhere on campus. Second to that, there has been a recent raise in the tobacco excise tax. Currently, smoking carries with larger and more complex costs for the average student smoker. Aside from the now obligatory information about health risks, new studies illustrate the implications of smoking and its influence on academic success. Beyond the negative influences in the classroom, smoking will play a role in taking the life of one in nine students who smoke, according to the Health and Wellness center.

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