Issue #316

Big Win For Freedom In Washington State.
Pierce County NO MORE BAN. The Washington State Supreme Court says state law wins over local laws, ban reversed.
King County NO MORE BAN. State high court: Local boards can’t ban smoking.
Nursing-home residents fuming over smoking rules.
Read more! Another Ban Failed. Dozens of places.

Utah State Smoking Bill Snuffed Out For Good. “Ultimately, I think the right to choose is what won out,” said Brown, who had lobbied against the bill. “Obviously, I’m very happy in the outcome. I guess freedom is just slightly more important than the health issue here in Utah.”

CA Antis Stealing from babies. First 5 commission questioned on costs. New supervisor says $4,000 tab to send commissioners to Sacramento is excessive. “At some point, (we have to) come to terms with the fact … that our principal function is to fund programs to help children and families,” Brandon said, adding that the need to broadcast “what we do and how we do it … is not our mission.”

James Bond is licensed to smoke! Thanks to The British Board of Film Classification James Bond can carry on smoking. According to The Telegraph, the board rejected calls from health groups to cut film scenes showing actors smoking saying that such drastic action smacked of “the nanny state” and there was little public demand for the change.

Malawi will not ratify WHO pact. “We have to put measures in place in order to ensure a continued, if not improved, flourishing tobacco business that will uplift the development of our countries and assist increase employment, food security, health services and the general well being of our citizens,” Chakuamba said.

Ban on Matches, Lighters Vexes Airports. Was the congressional vote to ban butane lighters, or was it to ban all lighters and matches? Under what authority can these restrictions continue to be revised by the TSA, if initially congress had to vote on the issue?
Airline officials have already expressed doubts that articles such as tweezers and small nail files should be on the prohibited list. Apart from the time taken up confiscating these articles, they say it is impossible to make an aircraft interior weapons-free. They also worry that the emphasis on small items detracts from more important searches for explosives and weapons.
Airport Air. Most of the USA’s large hub airports continue to allow smoking in some areas.

MSA Update: Trustbuster. By Scott Woolley. A tiny upstart in the cigarette business threatens to topple a comfortable cartel engineered by big tobacco companies and their strange bedfellows, the state attorneys general.

We Are Everyday People:
WHO Wants Your Alcohol. The U.N.’s Neo-Prohibitionists. By Steve Milloy. The United Nations (search) is coming for your booze and it’s starting to fabricate the kind of factoids that the international health nannies will no doubt try to spin into “conventional wisdom.”
Second Hand Freedom. By Sue Jeffers. The “Freedom to Breathe Act” is a bad law based on bad science and second hand smoke will never be as dangerous as second hand freedom.
Do smokers have any rights? By Alan Caruba. Increasingly, the answer is no.
Fat Suit: McDonald’s settles suit over trans-fats promise.
The Shame And Horror Of The United Nations. Sinners. By Tom Oyler. The World Health Organization, WHO, ranks smokers a step below terrorists.
Number of secondhand smoke victims puzzling. By Steve Lasser. Although I can understand the anti- smoking crusade, I believe that the protesters have gone from the sublime to the ridiculous.
Germs! Discarding The Wet Ones. By Norman E. Kjono. What I do seriously question surviving on occasion is the hate of others that is inspired by such foolish marketing practices that promote intolerance of others to push corporate sales. And I serious doubt the ability of our legitimate public systems to survive the credibility damage that such marketing campaigns impose.

From The Mailbag:
CA: Public Meeting Scientific Review Panel. March 14, 2005, San Francisco.
GA: Athens-Clarke County Update.
IL: Sues Store Chain. The Madison County, Ill., law firm that won a $10.1 billion lawsuit against Phillip Morris Tobacco in 2003 has filed eight lawsuits against the Huck’s Convenience Store chain.
IL: Tax. Gov. Blagojevich wants smokers to cough up 75 cents more per pack to help build more Illinois schools and pave roads — a move that would give the state one of the highest cigarette taxes in the country.
IN: LaPorte Ban Defeated. Another Ban Failed: Council members shot down a plan to study the possibility of a public smoking ban.
KS: Court Rejects Award. A federal appeals court on Wednesday threw out a $15 million punitive damages award to a lifelong smoker who sued RJR.
KY: Tax. A coalition of tobacco trade organizations has come together to try to convince Frankfort officials to rethink plans to raise the state’s 3-cent cigarette tax.
MI: Smoking Apartments. Sharon Stroud, property manager at Kings Lane in Burton, said she has reservations about the smoke-free campaign on principle. “Even though it’s a rental, it’s still the privacy of their home,” she said.
MI: No-Smokers Policy Spurs Worker Privacy Legislation. ? make it illegal for employers to make hiring and firing decisions based on a worker’s smoking preference.
MN:Grand Forks. The well-financed special interests against the legal activity of smoking will coerce legislators into making a major mistake. Please let your representatives know that they should have all the facts before acting.
NY: Ithaca. Eagles prove smoking ban too costly.
OH: Kent. Smoking ban at bars, eateries suggested.
OH: Dead Men Drinking. Lakewood considers suicide. By Pete Kotz. Within its compact five square miles are 150 liquor licenses. “Lakewood has a bar and a church on every corner,” says John Grandzier, owner of Merry Arts Pub.
OH: Columbus Fights. Business owners say they have no choice but to break the law now. AND BarPAC seeks initiative on smoking ban. Group of 100 Columbus bar owners stand as one. Join them today!
SD: “I don’t sign no-tax pledges, I believe it’s our duty to tax people of South Dakota for services,” Lintz said. “What I don’t believe in is engineering social policy to pass this. I don’t want to tell someone they can or can’t do something by forcing a tax on them.”
TX: Houston. Dave Pickrell speaks at the City Council Meeting.
WV: Wheeling. A paper draft of the Clean Indoor Air Act will be finished by February 22nd, the Board of Health’s next meeting.
Cuba: Sure. Like they thought this would ever work.
Radio: Cigar Dave is the creator and host of Smoke This! the acclaimed nationally syndicated radio program devoted entirely to the Cigar Lifestyle.