Saint Louis County about to waste $2 million of their $7.6 mil of a stimulus grant on smoking ban ads, plus four April 2011 ban referendums

As if Saint Louis County voters need any reminders that selfish smoking bans that only deprive privately owned businesses of their property rights are needed in both Saint Louis city and Saint Louis County from January 2nd and onward. I will not be surprised if many of the businesses that are covered by either the city or county ban after January 2nd quietly plan to thumb their nose at the law in some way, since both bans have crappy exemptions(Saint Louis city is worse, since it only exempts bars that have a floor space of 2000 sq. ft. or less, excluding kitchen areas), and that both should've had exemptions for businesses that are 18 and up at all times, and didn't allow minors inside at any time.

It's already looking like 4 Missouri communities, minimum(though not all confirmed yet), will have smoking bans on the April 5th ballot(Webb City, Cape Girardeau, O'Fallon, and Springfield). Only the first 3 have been confirmed to have enough signatures, and in Springfield, they still have to verify the signatures first. Joplin may or may not have a ban on the ballot in April, but I wouldn't be surprised if the Joplin antis collect the signatures in time before the April election.

I'd love it if all 4 communities could send a strong signal to state lawmakers that they do NOT want Missouri to enact an unnecessary, job-killing smoking ban in 2011. It's too bad those in Fulton who opposed a ban barely came up short in the final vote last month, since I recall it only passed by 6 percentage points there.

QUICK EDIT: Joplin's ban didn't go on the ballot, and Springfield, MO's ban will be going on the ballot in April. So that makes 4 smoking bans overall, which are as I said above, Webb City, Springfield, O'Fallon, and Cape Girardeau). I still will make a post on the November 2010 smoking ban referendums very soon, plus an Alaska community's smoking ban referendum defeat in late 2010 on a total ban I only heard about several months late.

http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/metro/article_accf5ec9-8c19-592a-acd1-ae0a853c9059.html

http://www.joplinglobe.com/local/x797276092/Webb-City-smoking-ban-heads-to-voters (Webb City)

http://www.semissourian.com/story/1688154.html (Cape Girardeau, and btw, I think the newly-formed coalition fighting this ban should just shorten their name to Stand Up Cape, or Speak Out Cape, similar to the past groups Speak Out Amarillo and Speak Out San Angelo)

http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/stcharles/article_2b4ae648-06eb-11e0-8b17-0017a4a78c22.html (O'Fallon, MO, which is in Saint Charles County, MO and not covered by the Saint Louis County ban)

http://www.ky3.com/news/ky3-story-smoking-ban-springfield-businesses-petition-12162010,0,5731564.story (Springfield, MO)

one Missouri community I strangely missed for months(!) that's having a November smoking ban referendum, plus Joplin update

I somehow missed for too many months(until almost the very last minute, boo myself) that an anti-smoking coalition in Fulton, Missouri(called Fresh Air Fulton) has collected enough signatures to place a smoking ban on the November 2nd, 2010 ballot. This now makes 2 Missouri communities(the first one was Jefferson City) that have smoking bans that were placed on the citywide ballot for November.

And since we're fast approaching the 1 year anniversary of when Saint Louis County voters approved a limited smoking ban that exempted casinos, and bars/nightclubs with 75% or greater alcohol sales(and this is one that I still believe is very unfair and was hastily written by renown anti-smoker Barbara Fraser(and as of now is running for a seat in the Missouri State Senate, which I hope she loses greatly), since it strips the property rights away from restaurants and bowling alleys that wish to remain smoker-friendly establishments). This is of course the same ban that 'triggered' the Saint Louis city smoking ban(which is stricter than the county ban, and only has a 5 year exemption for bars/clubs under 2000 sq. ft., and any bar that opens after January 2011 has to be smoke-free, and cannot qualify for the exemption) to go into effect as of January 2011.

That sad anniversary aside, I hope residents in both Fulton and Jefferson City see through the lies of anti-smoking groups, and reject these proposals that've been referred to the ballot(and are 100% smoking bans that include all restaurants and bars, unlike the 2009 Saint Louis County ban referendum). There still is no doubt in my mind that if county board member Barbara Fraser(and chief author of what became the current county smoking ban) could've gotten enough votes on the county board to get a ban including ALL restaurants and bars on the 2009 ballot(rather than one with a 75% or greater alcohol sales exemption for bars/nightclubs), she would've gotten that onto the 2009 ballot instead. Ranting over, here's the article on Fulton, Missouri:
http://www.fultonsun.com/articles/2010/08/27/news/200news01.txt

And as for Joplin, Missouri, their city council rejected approving a citywide smoking ban on a 5-4 vote October 18, but on their October 25th meeting, approved putting a smoking ban referendum(which was barely watered down from the language Smoke-Free Joplin wanted, since the only way their proposal was changed by Joplin's City Council was that private clubs are now exempt, as are restaurant/bar outdoor patios, and the smoke-free radius from doors/windows was reduced from 20 feet to 5 feet) onto the ballot in April 2011. This proposal definitely goes too far, and should've been less restrictive.

I really hope Joplin voters reject this proposal next year, and send Joplin's City Council a message that they need a ban like what the city of Wichita had, before Kansas' statewide smoking ban took effect this past summer(which exempted any restaurant or bar that chose to be an 18 and up adult establishment, or had walled off smoking rooms with their own ventilation system, and didn't require non-smokers to walk through such areas to access things like bathrooms. it also required any establishment that chose to be a smoking establishment to disclose to potential employees that they were a smoking establishment, and that they would be exposed to SHS. that's extremely fair as hell to me, and a proposal that I'd gladly 100% support).

http://www.joplinglobe.com/local/x693282390/Joplin-council-puts-off-smoking-ban-for-now
http://www.joplinglobe.com/local/x1787496751/Council-agrees-to-put-smoking-ban-on-ballot

Webb City, MO(near Joplin) puts smoking ban referendum on April 2011 ballot

The more I think about it, it makes sense, considering they weren't enthused about touching this issue. But if it gives local businesses(both smoking ones, and non-smoking businesses that still favor freedom of choice) a great chance to successfully organize and fight this proposal before it's too late, more power to Webb City's council(and a la Devil Lake, ND's recent decision to refer a ban proposal to the ballot, instead of approving it).

More people need to organize against the Joplin-area group that's leading all these local smoking ban coalitions in each Joplin-area community, called Clean Air Project(it's an umbrella group that leads all the other local ones, like Smoke-Free Webb City). I'm slightly surprised Carthage wasn't the first community to refer it to the ballot, since that was the first community around there where their council had a hearing on this issue....

http://www.joplinglobe.com/local/x797276092/Webb-City-smoking-ban-heads-to-voters

Creve Coeur now wants to stupidly copy Brentwood's bar ban, plus (YAWN) new St. Charles County ACS poll

So, I just saw a new article that shows yet another Councilwoman(Beth Kistner) in Creve Coeur wants to copy off Clayton, Kirkwood, and Brentwood's jumping off of the cliff, and throw Creve Coeur bars over the cliff as well. Isn't it time for businesses and residents to demand that their city councils quit touching this issue, and truly solve real problems other than smoking instead? After all, if people didn't want some establishments(even restaurants) to have smoking, they'd have banned smoking on their own accord by now. The western part(aka 'West County') portion of Saint Louis County must be full as heck with anti-smoking supporters(and probably is like Chicago's North Shore suburbs), if communities from Ballwin all the way east to Clayton have unnecessarily passed these draconian laws, killing the business of any place that used to legally be able to cater to smokers. :(

And Creve Coeur's mayor(Harold Dielmann) is willing to go along with this nonsense, despite that ALREADY, 70% of restaurants in Creve Coeur are non-smoking on their own accord? He states that he's okay with a citywide ban even including the lone CC bar exempt by the Saint Louis County ban (EDIT) yet to take effect in January 2011, as long as restaurant and bar patios are exempt. Screw Mayor Dielmann, politicians truly need to learn to listen to the people, or they will see the revenge of karma turning against them, and get voted out by voters fed up by anti-smoking nonsense. And they really should turn against these municipal politicians, whenever they come up for reelection.

http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/stcharles/article_9c5c657c-d791-55fc-b955-af71114d5c80.html

Missouri voters make me proud, and set here a great example for respecting personal freedom

Nice to see 71% of state voters in Missouri's primary voted in favor of a (well, it's basically symbolic, as state laws don't override federal law) referendum that would prohibit the federal government from requiring individuals to purchase health insurance, and also prohibit the feds from reprimanding individuals that don't have health insurance.

Go Mizzou! (hope Missouri residents and visitors who are fond of that state don't mind my use of University of Missouri's nickname, lol)

http://habledash.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=817:proposition-c-missouri-rejects-obamas-mandatory-health-care-law&catid=45:the-nook&Itemid=59
http://keepstlouisfree.blogspot.com/2010/08/vote-yes-on-proposition-c.html

some in Brentwood crazy enough screw over the few bars exempt under Saint Louis County, MO 2011 ban

It's amazing that some in Brentwood, Missouri would be crazy enough to screw over those businesses that DO NOT allow children inside whatsoever, and freely choose on their own to be a smoking establishment catering to adults, and of course would fall under the 25% or less food sales exemption in the county ban going into effect in January 2011. Got the heads-up on this story, from Keep Saint Louis Free:
http://keepstlouisfree.blogspot.com/2010/07/brentwood-smoking-ban.html