A possible statewide smoking ban drew a yawn from an interim legislative panel recently, but at least one lawmaker is going to push the issue anyway. State Sen. Roger Reitz, R-Manhattan, a physician, said he’ll introduce a bill to ban smoking in public places, with no exceptions. “It may not be the time to do this, because it’s an election year,” Reitz said, “but it’s my take that we’re seeing the desire for this issue to be addressed at the state level. I’ll see how it sticks in people’s craws, but we should at least debate it. If it’s a bad bill, it will die on its own merits. But to dilute it is to make it unfair.”
It was interesting to read in last Sunday’s Eagle that the owner of the venerable Town & Country on West Kellogg, which allows smoking throughout the restaurant, “secretly wishes the city would pass a no-smoking ordinance and solve the problem for him.”
Posted by Rhonda Holman
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