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• Smoking's last gasp in Lincoln 

"What happened to our constitutional rights?" he complained, standing with a couple of friends around a concrete urn topped with blue-tinted gravel that serves as the restaurant's outdoor ashtray.

Enforcement of a citywide smoking ban - the first in the state - went into effect Saturday. In fact, it began just as partygoers were celebrating the new year. After the clock struck midnight, many smokers snuffed out their cigarettes or headed outside.

Lincoln police received some complaints, though, and ticketed four people for allegedly violating the ban. No restaurant or bar owners were cited.

"I'm judging from the number of citations that most people were complying with the law because the officers who were on duty would have issued more tickets," Lincoln Police Chief Tom Casady said Saturday.

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