smoking ban developments in 2 North Dakota cities, while a 3rd begins enforcement of its ban

The city attorney(of all people, and NOT a city council member interestingly) was the one who introduced this proposal onto the Bismarck, ND City Council agenda for an August 24th hearing. I can't help but wonder if the North Dakota Tobacco Coalition very quietly contacted Bismarck's city attorney behind the scenes to place this onto the city council agenda, though none of the commissioners interestingly(and strangely) placed it on the agenda themselves? I think I don't need to mention what antis in North Dakota's state legislature will(inevitably) do at the start of their 2011 legislative session(introduce yet another proposal for a statewide bar smoking ban), regardless if Bismarck's City Commission is foolish enough to pass this proposal or not. Two articles below:
ttp://www.bismarcktribune.com/news/local/article_a21af782-a5ce-11df-8a65-001cc4c03286.html (includes a very stupid comment from Fargo's mayor pound-chesting about 'how great our city bar smoking ban is, blah blah blah'. already up to 57 comments at the time of me reading the article, wow!)
http://www.bismarcktribune.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/article_46636c44-a501-11df-b4af-001cc4c03286.html (w/comments section. the very first time I read this article, it was creepy I saw a North Dakota Tobacco Quitline banner ad above it!)

A second city, Devils Lake, chose a month ago to put a smoking ban proposal on the November ballot, instead of doing an up-or-down vote for or against the proposal when it was being debated on the Devils Lake city commission. I just wish Grand Forks had let their residents vote on the ban, instead of the Grand Forks city commission passing the ban without residents voicing their opinion on it(other than public testimony during the GF smoking ban hearings). The latter city begun enforcing their smoking ban in bars, and ended the former exemptions for bowling alleys and truck stops that invested money to build enclosed smoking bars/rooms, as of today. (all 3 exemptions are in the current North Dakota state smoking ban that's been in effect for 5 years)

Articles on Devils Lake and Grand Forks:
http://www.devilslakejournal.com/newsnow/x1609353793/Voters-to-decide-smoking-ban-commission-opening
http://www.grandforksherald.com/event/article/id/171998/
http://www.grandforksherald.com/event/article/id/171583/

I even found this comments page on Grand Forks Herald as to whether bars should begin enforcing the ban as of midnight yesterday(technically today) published during the middle of last week(pre-smoking ban), since the ban took effect as of today, 8/15/10. interestingly there is only 3 pages worth of comments, and not more: http://www.grandforksherald.com/event/chat/id/650/

More on Grand Forks in my next post, I will copy-and-paste 2 articles from a site that stupidly reverts articles way too quickly from free to paid articles.