City officials said a referendum petition will not be able to repeal the citywide smoking ban passed by voters in the April 5 election. The smoke-free O’Fallon measure passed with 73 percent of the vote, banning smoking in most of the city’s bars, restaurants and public places. It is set to go into effect on June 16. Last week, a group called Repeal the Ban Committee filed an affidavit with City Clerk Pamela Clements to begin a referendum petition to repeal the smoking ordinance. The three petition committee members listed are Carrie Ellis, Roman N. Bettag and Marina Bishop. On Wednesday, ... Jump to full article >>

Bismarck’s bars, truck stops and tobacco shops are now officially smoke-free. The Bismarck City Commission accepted the April 19 special election results that put the ban into effect and set its start at 1 a.m. today, after the bars closed. Final election results were: 5,282 voted to ban smoking and 3,563 voted no. 4,490 voted not to allow smoking huts and to ban smoking and 4,294 favored allowing smoking huts and banning smoking. 4,467 opposed using city sales tax money to pay for the special election while 4,187 favored it. Some of opponents of the ban argued this week that the word ... Jump to full article >>

Opponents of the proposed smoking ban say the measure, if approved, would be among the strictest in the state. Unlike smoking bans adopted recently in other Missouri cities — and three others up for vote April 5 — the proposed Springfield ordinance contains almost no exceptions. The ban, which covers electronic cigarettes as well as traditional tobacco products, allows smoking indoors only in private homes and vehicles and up to a quarter of the rooms for rent in hotels. In contrast, ordinances going before voters in Cape Girardeau, O’Fallon and Webb City all include exemptio ... Jump to full article >>

Teen Mom 2 star Jenelle Evans has avoided jail time after missing a scheduled court date in January. Bringing along an MTV crew to document today’s court appearance for her hit reality TV show, Jenelle faced a Brunswick County judge to explain why she failed to turn up to the hearing relating to charges of marijuana possession and breaking and entering. In today’s North Carolina ‘show cause’ hearing, Jenelle said she missed the important date because she’d been sick that day and had car trouble. Arriving to court in a plaid shirt and black trousers, the 19-year-o ... Jump to full article >>

A bill to allow smoking in cigar lounges and tobacco shops in Washington has been moving forward in the state Legislature, but it has been controversial every step of the way. Senate Bill 5542, which had a hearing Wednesday in the Senate Ways and Means Committee, would set up special smoking endorsements people could buy and contribute the money to the state’s Basic Health Program. Supporters say the proposal would be safe, but opponents argue it would be bad health policy for Washington. Sen. Jerome Delvin, a Richland Republican and the bill’s sponsor, said it was a good opportunity for t ... Jump to full article >>

A big question on a lot of Statehouse minds right now is: Why would Senate President John Cullerton all of a sudden decide to string out his members yet again on a dollar a pack cigarette tax hike when he surely knows that the House will kill it for the umpteenth time? Cullerton wants to raise money from the cigarette tax so he can kill off the controversial law legalizing video gaming in taverns, clubs and truck stops. Video gaming proceeds are supposed to subsidize part of the state’s massive capital construction plan, but the video gaming program hasn’t got off the ground after ... Jump to full article >>

A bill to allow smoking in cigar lounges and tobacco shops in Washington has been moving forward in the state Legislature, but it has been controversial every step of the way. Senate Bill 5542, which had a hearing in the Senate Ways and Means Committee today, would set up special smoking endorsements people could buy and contribute the money to the state’s Basic Health Program, a proposal supporters say would be safe but opponents argue would be bad health policy for Washington. Sen. Jerome Delvin, a Richland Republican and the bill’s sponsor said it was a good opportunity for the state to ... Jump to full article >>

BATON ROUGE — Health advocates, business interests and the cigarette lobby are expected to collide during the upcoming regular session when lawmakers debate how much smokes should cost and where they should be used. Tobacco and Louisiana politics have shared an interesting history, whether it’s more recent — like the spit-cup ways of Timmy Teepell, Gov. Bobby Jindal’s chief of staff, who inspired the state House to adopt an internal ban on tobacco products — or further back — such as 1926, when the Legislature passed its first cigarette tax. That inaugural tax was one penny fo ... Jump to full article >>

George Clooney has revealed the reason he will never become a politician – he has a bad boy past. The Hollywood star, who has campaigned tirelessly for the people of Sudan, said he wasn’t squeaky clean and his past could come back to haunt him if he ever held office. ‘I didn’t live my life in the right way for politics, you knowI f***ed too many chicks and did too many drugs, and that’s the truth,’ he said. Clooney said anyone going into politics would have to face scandals from their past. The actor, who is considered the most eligible bachelor in Hollywoo ... Jump to full article >>

WASHINGTON — Andrew Traver, nominated to lead the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), faces a powerful foe on the road to Senate approval. Traver, 47, praised for his work against the Chicago area’s street gangs, has led the ATF in Illinois since 2004. Obama nominated him in November, eliciting strong opposition from the National Rifle Association, which called him hostile to the Second Amendment. It urged the president to withdraw the nomination. Traver “has been deeply aligned with gun-control advocates and anti-gun activities,” Chris Cox, w ... Jump to full article >>

Her chosen meeting place was suitably seedy — a deserted disco whose drink-stained tables and overflowing ashtrays were yet to be cleaned, the morning after the night before. Just four hours earlier, 18-year-old belly-dancer Karima El Mahroug — or Ruby the Heartbreaker, as she styles herself — had been gyrating here, before a sea of leering faces. Now Italy’s answer to Christine Keeler had slipped on a see-through pullover and returned to the nightclub, in the tough Mediterranean port of Genoa, intent on making more money — this time without breaking sweat. She was hawking what she c ... Jump to full article >>