2003

The state legislature in Wisconsin approved a bill to protect restaurants and food distributors from lawsuits filed by those who claim they didn't know what they ate would make them fat.

In Lincoln, Nebraska, Mayor Colleen Seng has vetoed a smoker ban. She said that an amendment was "unfair to some businesses." The original proposal would have banned smoking from most workplaces, and made Lincoln the first place in Nebraska to ban smokers from bars & restaurants.

In South Dakota, An anti-smoker group is complaining that too little of the bucks the state received under the national tobacco settlement is being used to curb smoking. he state will spend about 2.5 million this year on tobacco control projects. The trust fund for the state from the settlement now total 350 million, and a portion may be transferred to the general fund each year.

More than half of Wisconsin's  79 local anti-smoking groups that received state aid in 2003 will get no state funds this year. The cuts were made after tobacco control spending was slashed from 15 million to 10 million in the state's budget.

City officials in Fargo, North Dakota are considering whether to require restaurants serving customers under the age of 21 to go smoker-free.  A city "task force" is working on a recommendation. Neighboring Morrehead, Minnesota and West Fargo are also considering smoke-free ordinances, and are waiting to see what Fargo does.

In Tennessee, officials in several cities (Nashville, Memphis, and Knoxville) say they want to repeal a state law that prevents them from regulating smoking in all businesses (the state law was set up in 1994, during the Clinton years). At least three bills pending in the legislature by anti-tobacco senators would wipe the law from the books. Past efforts to regulate smoking have met extremely stiff opposition from the restaurant industry and farm groups.