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A new study on pollution in Boise, Meridian and Garden City bars is the latest chapter in Smokefree Idaho's 18-month-long campaign to protect workers and patrons.
So far, the campaign has not succeeded in getting any Treasure Valley cities to ban smoking. Eagle came close, but ultimately backed off. But the campaign leaders say they will not stop trying.
"As long as there are workers that are not protected, we are continuing on," said Heidi Low, Idaho director of government relations for the American Cancer Society's Cancer Action Network.
Air in bars on average is 15 times more polluted than air in restaurants, where smoking is prohibited by state law, the coalition said in a news release.
The project is the first scientifically based study of its type to measure the impact of smoking on the indoor air quality in Treasure Valley workplaces, according to a news release from the group.
Volunteers conducted the study under the supervision of the Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo, N.Y., known for its studies of indoor air quality.
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The Moscow City Council has banned smoking in bars and private clubs, relegating smokers to designated areas at least 20 feet away from entrances and prohibiting any indoor smoking rooms.
That's got some bar owners concerned. Mark Deleve, owner of the Third Street Market, says the ordinance dramatically alters the structure in which bar owners operate.
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.
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.
An electronic payments processor has agreed to stop handling transactions for the illegal online sale of cigarettes and other tobacco products. Attorney General Lawrence Wasden and the attorneys general of New York and California reached the settlement with Electronic Clearing House, Inc. (ECHO), of Los Angeles, California.
"Online tobacco retailers are a major source for young people to buy cigarettes illegally," Attorney General Wasden said. "Stopping the illegal sale of cigarettes, especially to minors, is a major step in protecting public health. ECHO has acted responsibly in agreeing to stop processing payments for these illegal sales, and we hope other companies and banks involved in online tobacco sales will follow their lead."
The three states began an investigation of ECHO following a lawsuit Wasden brought against Scott Maybee, one of the highest volume Internet cigarette sellers. Maybee was ordered to pay Idaho more than $160,000 for illegal Internet sales of millions of cigarettes into Idaho.
An electronic payments processor has agreed to stop handling transactions for the illegal online sale of cigarettes and other tobacco products, Attorney General Lawrence Wasden's said.
Wasden and the attorneys general of New York and California reached the settlement with Electronic Clearing House, Inc. of Los Angeles -- often called "ECHO.".
"Online tobacco retailers are a major source for young people to buy cigarettes illegally," Wasden said in a release. "Stopping the illegal sale of cigarettes, especially to minors, is a major step in protecting public health. ECHO has acted responsibly in agreeing to stop processing payments for these illegal sales, and we hope other companies and banks involved in online tobacco sales will follow their lead."
The three states began an investigation of ECHO following a lawsuit Wasden brought against Scott Maybee, one of the highest volume Internet cigarette sellers, Wasden's office said. Maybee was ordered to pay Idaho more than $160,000 for illegal Internet sales of millions of cigarettes into Idaho.
The state of Idaho is suing Native Wholesale Supply Co., contending that the upstate New York cigarette supplier illegally sold millions of smokes to retailers on Native American lands in Idaho.
The lawsuit, originally filed in state court last month, was removed last week to U.S. District Court at the request of Native Wholesale of Gowanda, N.Y.
The complicated case involves Seneca and Opal cigarettes that are made by Grand River Enterprises of Ohsweken, Ontario, and sold by Native Wholesale to Native American-owned retail outlets on reservations in Idaho. . . .
Idaho contends that the cigarettes were sold without required tax permits in violation of the state's Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement Complementary Act, which requires that tobacco products be registered and approved by the state attorney general's office before being be sold in Idaho.
California Attorney General Jerry Brown has teamed with attorneys general from New York and Idaho to prevent First Regional Bank from providing payment processing services to online retailers who illegally sale cigarettes over the Internet.
The California attorney general's office said the settlement agreement will block sales to minors.
"Stopping the illegal sale of cigarettes, especially to minors, is a major step in protecting public health," Brown said. "These online tobacco retailers are known to be a major source for young people to get their illegal cigarettes." . . .
The investigation included a "sting" against one of the largest online tobacco retailers, Scott Maybee, which also discovered the bank's processing of sales was against the law. . . .
Brown said this settlement fulfills California's Master Settlement Agreement, a public health accord designed to reduce the use of tobacco products among minors.
The State of Idaho will receive $3,750 from a legal settlement resolving allegations of illegal cigarette sales to Idaho retail stores, Attorney General Lawrence Wasden said today. Joseph Anderson, doing business as Smokin Joes, a New York-based company, agreed to the settlement to resolve alleged violations of the Idaho Tobacco Master Settlement Complementary Act.
In addition to the payment, Smokin Joes is prohibited from selling cigarettes that are not listed on the Attorney General's Directory of Compliant Tobacco Product Manufacturers and Brand Families. Smokin Joes must also report Idaho cigarette sales to the Attorney General as required by Idaho law.
Smokin Joes must pay an additional $3,750 to the State of Idaho if it violates any provisions of the settlement within the next five years.
Federal prosecutors are wrapping up -- without going to trial -- an investigation of eight people accused of smuggling millions of dollars worth of cigarettes from North Idaho to tribal smoke shops in western Washington.
A trial date was cancelled Friday with guilty pleas from four final defendants, including accused ringleader Louie Mahoney, of Plummer, Idaho.
The latest guilty pleas came eight months after at least three defendants from western Washington cut plea-bargain deals with federal prosecutors and agreed to testify against Mahoney and other co-conspirators living in North Idaho, court documents reveal.
The smuggling operation between 1999 and May 2003 cost the state of Washington an estimated $56 million in lost taxes, according to Jim McDevitt, the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Washington.
Philip Morris USA has sued a Fruitland store owner, alleging the store is selling counterfeit cigarettes.
In the lawsuit filed Friday in U.S. District Court, Philip Morris claims The Orchard Store has been selling fake Marlboro and Marlboro Lights cigarettes, infringing on the company's trademark.
"In a blatant attempt to profit from Philip Morris USA's substantial investment in its Marlboro marks, defendant has sold cigarettes in packaging that bears spurious marks that are either identical with or substantially indistinguishable from the Marlboro marks," the company claims.
The owner of The Orchard Store, Alberto Gonzalez, said he does not even sell whole packs of cigarettes at his store. Instead, he said, he occasionally sells individual cigarettes. Gonzalez said he has never carried Marlboro brand cigarettes in his convenience store, and has not yet seen the lawsuit.
Four-fifths of the money given to Idaho from a 1998 tobacco-industry settlement would go into a permanent fund under a constitutional amendment that passed the Idaho Senate today.
The Millennium Fund comes from Idaho's share of a pact with the nation's five largest tobacco companies.
Lawmakers who oversee the fund have been trying for several years to create an endowment with it. They want to protect the money from being used to balance state budgets, as it was in 2002 and 2003.
Federal indictments against four Plummer residents were handed down Wednesday, charging racketeering, money laundering, mail fraud and trafficking in contraband cigarettes.
Louie Mahoney and Kathleen Mahoney, both 56, Christine Mahoney-Meyer, 53 and Margaret R. Jose, 60, all of Plummer, were charged in a conspiracy which federal authorities said resulted in the loss of $56 million in tax revenues over five years. . . .
"In this investigation individuals located on the Coeur d'Alene Indian Reservation sold millions of cartons of contraband cigarettes to smoke shops located on Indian Reservations within the state of Washington," said U.S. Department of Justice officials from the Eastern District of Washington. . . .
Two Washington smoke shops were also raided, with the ATF claiming seizure of nearly 40 million cigarettes.
They seized the cigarettes, along with $777,000 in cash, and two of the company's biggest Washington customers: The Little Brown Smoke Shop in Zillah, near Yakima, and the Indian Smoke Shop in Milton, near Tacoma.
Published reports at the time said agents bought untaxed cigarettes at both sites and found boxes of untaxed cigarettes at businesses.
A lawsuit that challenged Idaho's 2003 cigarette and sales tax increases as unconstitutional has been thrown out by the State Supreme Court.
Ralph Gallagher, a smoker from Nampa, brought the lawsuit. He argued that the Legislature's 190-(M) million-dollar tax increases were passed in violation of a constitutional requirement that all tax increase bills originate in the House of Representatives. He said the state Senate amended the bills so substantially that they were no longer the same measures passed by the House.
The sales tax was increased by a penny for two years and the cigarette tax was increased 29 cents per pack.
In its ruling last week, the Idaho Supreme Court did not (NOT) address whether the amending process was constitutional. The court said Gallagher didn't have standing to bring the lawsuit because he wasn't affected any differently from any other smoker, and because the tax technically is imposed on cigarette wholesalers.
An Idaho state senator wants to allow smoking in the state's homes for veterans, arguing that forcing former service men and women to go outside is an "injustice" that needs to be remedied.
Sen. John Goedde, R-Coeur d'Alene, introduced the Idaho Senate's first bill for the 2005 session Tuesday, asking the Legislature to allow residents of veterans homes to smoke in designated areas. Under an indoor smoking law passed in the 2004 session, all smoking in restaurants and public buildings was banned, and that included state veterans homes.
Studies have shown that Americans often take up smoking after joining one of the branches of the military. . . .
If Goedde's bill is successful, veterans will be able to smoke in designated smoking rooms inside the homes. He said the smoking rooms provide good ventilation for the veterans and make sure smoke doesn't spread to other parts of the homes.
"It seemed like an injustice," said Goedde. "The (veterans) have to go outside in 100-degree heat or below-freezing temperatures to smoke. That's not right." . . .
The American Cancer Society does not oppose Goedde's proposal.
When it supported the legislation last year, officials said they intended that state-owned veterans homes be afforded the same flexibility as other nursing homes in the state, which by law can allow designated smoking areas for their residents.