Halt or throw out Oshkosh’s restaurant smoking ban or pay restaurants the “monetary damages” they say they’ve incurred since cigarettes, cigars and pipes became outlaw in city eateries. That’s the ultimatum from a group of 27 city restaurants in a claim against the city of Oshkosh seeking to snuff out a less than two-month-old restaurant smoking ban. ...

Note to Hollywood producers: If you put a cigarette in your star's mouth, you might be seeing an "R" on your movie. That is what delegates to the American Medical Association (AMA) are asking the nation's largest medical organization to adopt as policy: equate cigarette smoking to graphic violence, graphic language and nudity on the screen. ...

A Kentucky cigarette maker is taking attorneys general to court in five states, claiming many of its competitors have been allowed to dodge the bill for treating sick smokers. At issue are laws requiring dozens of independent tobacco companies to set money aside for payment of future claims related to smokers' health. ...

It was supposed to be the deal that finally broke the logjam on a $140 billion corporate tax bill, but it could end up causing a new stalemate down the road. When House Republicans bring the bill up for a floor vote this week, it will contain a provision that would pay tobacco farmers $9.6 billion to give up a system of quotas and price supports that dates back to the Depression. ...

As much as it promises to help rural North Carolina, the tobacco-quota buyout headed to a vote on the U.S. House floor is a raw deal for the average American. Not only would the deal do nothing for public health, it would be paid for with money owed to the taxpayers. As such, it appears headed for a well-deserved landing in the Senate trash can. ...

The state legislative leaders said Thursday they do not favor amending the state's 2003 workplace smoking ban to exempt bars equipped with air filtration systems. ...

Offering smoking cessation programs to health plan enrollees may not cause a decline in a health plan's total expenditures, but such programs are highly cost-effective, add an average of 7.1 years to the lives of enrollees who quit, and should be offered by more managed care organizations (MCO), a new study recommends. ...

Matt Coleman is in an uphill fight, pushing a smoking ban in a Big Tobacco state with the highest smoking rate in the nation. "Yes, tobacco has a very rich history here," says Coleman, a senior health educator with the Northern Kentucky Health District. "It built a lot of roads, built a lot of buildings and put a lot of people through school. But times have changed, and it's time to do something that is good for the community to make it healthier and to improve the quality of life." As Cincinnati City Council forms an advisory committee to consider banning smoking in all workplaces, including bars and restaurants, Northern Kentucky advocates are gearing up, too. ...

For the first time since it was adopted in May 2003, countries are coming together to discuss the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) in a meeting that will help determine the strength of the treaty's implementation. Set to take place from 21-25 June at the World Health Organization, the FCTC Intergovernmental Working Group will debate critical issues such as: the participation of civil society, the exclusion of the tobacco industry, the designation of a permanent Secretariat and the adequate funding of FCTC implementation. The US-based corporate accountability organization Infact and other members of the Network for Accountability of Tobacco Transnationals (NATT) are urging delegates to be vigilant to attempts by the tobacco industry and the US to derail the treaty. ...

More than two-thirds of the $9.6 billion tobacco-grower buyout approved by the House would go to only 10 percent of the people and companies eligible for any compensation, according to a study by the nonprofit Environmental Working Group. ...