Forces offers $3,000 reward leading to the arrest and conviction of anti-smokers....

About time some organization started doing this, due to the fact that the anti-smoking hysteria bandwagon has long overran its course, and that an end to all of this really badly needs to happen! It'd really help, if so many factors could finally start to weed out of office, the most anti-smoking politicians who always enable more incremental laws to happen.

I especially look at Michael Bloomberg as the very worst of all these enabling anti-smoking politicians, and I have a bad feeling about Rahm Emmanuel being Chicago's next mayor doing sneaky that's very anti-smoking. It wouldn't surprise me if sometime during his first term as mayor, he announces he wants to raise the city cigarette tax from its current rate of 68 cents(this is on top of a $2 county cigarette tax, and a 98 cent state tax. and of course, why I don't buy in either Chicago or suburban Cook County). Doesn't help that I recall when he was a Congressman in the district that corrupt Blago and Rostenkowski once represented, Rahm voted in support of SCHIP and FDA tobacco regulation, as noted here:
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h110-976 (SCHIP bill that former Pres. Bush vetoed, he voted in favor of SCHIP each time, including on the failed veto override vote)
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h110-1108 (FDA tobacco regulation bill in 2007, this bill only passed Congress, but never got a U.S. Senate vote)

I'd certainly love to be proven wrong about Emmanuel, but can't help that I don't hold high hopes for him proving me wrong. Something makes me think that his governing style as mayor won't be much different than outgoing mayor Richard Daley, and who I never ONCE voted for. For the record, I was not impressed much with any of the 4 major mayoral candidates, and as a city resident, I very reluctantly voted for Miguel del Valle. Also, I was very divided on whether to vote for him or Chico, thinking there would be an Emmanuel-Chico runoff. But hey, one always has to move on from obsessing what could've been, if past elections had gone slightly differently.

And here's the link from Forces(thanks jredheadgirl for letting me know I forgot to include it, and sorry about that):
http://www.forces.org/reward/reward.htm

great Gothamist interview with Audrey Silk, head of NYC C.L.A.S.H.

And thanks to jred for posting a link to this interview on her blog! It's so funny that when I looked at that site, that I sat in that exact same position as the guy pictured in the very bottom part of the interview section, when I smoked a cigarette in Central Park in summer 2009. Enjoy...

http://gothamist.com/2011/02/08/audrey_silk_smoking_activist.php

Wyoming state district judge strikes down Teton County, WY's ban

Not to also mention, the Wyoming Legislature also smartly rejected a 2011 bill that would've granted county commissioners and health boards the right to ban smoking. Why should health boards selfishly take away the property rights of ANY business that primarily caters to adults to make their own rules on smoking? (or by even entirely banning indoor smoking, if they want) It's bad enough that 4 communities in that state chose to ban smoking in all businesses including bars(Laramie, Cheyenne, Evanston, and , and that only 2 with smoking bans were smart enough to exempt bars and clubs from their ban(Rock Springs and Green River).

I know where I definitely want to travel to, if I ever head west....(and also Idaho, as their state ban doesn't cover bars/clubs(nor affect their ability to serve food, as both food and non-food bars can permit smoking), and that they have a low cig tax)

http://www.vcstar.com/news/2011/feb/10/court-shoots-down-teton-county-smoking-ban/

Court shoots down Teton County smoking ban

• The Associated Press
• Posted February 10, 2011 at 4:11 p.m.

JACKSON, Wyo. (AP) - A district judge has shot down Teton County's ban on smoking in public places, saying the county's health board lacked the authority to enact 2009 rule.

District Judge Timothy Day said in his ruling Wednesday he could "only imagine that the individuals on the board who create the Smokefree Air Rule were motivated by legitimate public health concerns."

But it's clear the state Legislature never gave the Teton County District Board of Health authority to promulgate the rule, which had proposed criminal penalties for violators, Day wrote.

The ban had prohibited smoking in all public areas, including bars, restaurants and places of employment throughout the county, such as the resort area of Jackson Hole.

While Teton County didn't try to enforce the ban while the legal challenge was pending, most establishments there have implemented their own voluntary smoking bans.

The Legislature has defeated proposed statewide smoking bans in the past. A bill that would have given county health boards the authority to impose smoking bans has died in the current legislative session.

Voters in Cheyenne, Laramie and Evanston have enacted smoking bans. Voters in Casper have rejected a ban.

Day ruled in response to a lawsuit brought by the owners of The Virginian Saloon and associations representing contractors, truckers and the liquor industry.

Mike Kraft, general manager of The Virginian Saloon, said Thursday that the saloon has continued to allow smoking. He said other establishments in town have banned smoking on their own voluntarily.

Kraft said perhaps half the patrons of The Virginian Saloon smoke. He said it's possible the saloon would someday implement a smoking ban of its own, depending on what its customers prefer.

"It's like the judge said, they didn't have the enabling legislation," Kraft said of the health board. "To me, it was all about the legislation part of it; the board that passed it didn't have the legislation to do it, and if it could happen in one instance, it could set a precedent for something else."

Keith Gingery, a lawyer with Teton County, represented the health board. He's also a Republican state legislator.

Gingery said Thursday the board will have to determine whether to appeal Day's ruling. He said he's concerned the ruling could affect other board rules, such as its regulations on the operation of tattoo parlors.

Gingery said The Virginian Saloon was the only establishment in town that allowed smoking even before the ban.

"And that was part of the argument against it; why is government getting involved, when they had voluntarily abandoned it?"

UCLA's college newspaper editorializes against campus smoking bans, plus 2 people speak out against Bloomberg's park/beach/pdstrn. plaza ban

Still hoping as this new year proceeds, I can get back in the groove of regularly updating this blog again ever so often, even if not each week.

Anyway, for anyone who missed this story(and probably not many), the NYC city council selfishly passed a total park smoking ban for something like 1700 parks and beaches in New York City, and for pedestrian plazas like Times Square. No question to me that this will be impossible to enforce citywide, and that the city will waste so much money installing unnecessary 'no smoking' signs citywide, for a law that's not needed to begin with. Do the 36 fools who voted for this ban really expect this will be successfully enforced at ALL NYC parks? Not to mention, the 36 council members on NYC's council should apologize and confess this isn't about health, but just another sneaky way to collect fine revenue from smokers visiting NYC? No question it is that, just like how many cities and suburbs install red-light cameras as a way to collect revenue from unsuspecting drivers who aren't aware of where they are placed.....

http://www.dailybruin.com/index.php/article/2011/02/ismoking_ban_for_college_compuses_less_productive_than_intendedi
http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=12832434 (Whoopi Goldberg speaks out against the NYC park ban, on The View)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gtQ5v8JyCwU (radio talk show host Allen Hunt speaks out against ban)
http://www.allenhuntshow.com/ (this is his regular show's site, though you can only listen to his clip speaking out against this ban on Youtube, as of currently)

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)

and I'd like to have some opinions on what I should do in 2011

with the poll section. I'm considering extending the length of how long I keep the poll open to 2 months, from the existing 1 month. Please vote now, on what your preference should be(whether I should keep the length of each poll at 1 month and not change it, or if you like this idea). Thanks to everyone who reads this blog, and sorry for how much I've stunk updating this since October. I hope to be totally caught up and be very active again with posts here, before the start of 2011.

Regular polls should return by February, knock on wood. I just want to see how much regular readers here like this idea, before I decide on either proceeding or not proceeding with this idea. I might do some other minor changes too, such as(once I settle on something that isn't bad!) changing the look of this blog from the current black/white look.

-Allan

new surgeon general's report called 'unscientific and potentially unethical'

I'm going to make another try to stay active with this blog, hopefully this time, I am able to stick with keeping it active, unlike my past failed attempts. Enjoy this new article:

http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/surgeon-general-s-report-tobacco-called

And Dr. Michael Siegal has also quickly blasted the new report as well:
http://tobaccoanalysis.blogspot.com/2010/12/surgeon-generals-office-again.html