The D.C. Council is considering legislation that would prohibit smoking in city parks and playgrounds, but Eleanor Holmes Norton says that wouldn’t go very far. And she’s right.

According to a D.C. group, a number of hookah bars and a new cigar lounge are violating D.C.’s ban on smoking in bars and restaurants.

Cleveland Park residents and smokers from across the city were saddened to see Bedrock Management’s Aroma close its doors a few weeks ago. Word around town is that the space will reopen after renovations as some kind of wine & tapas spot, with the crucial difference being that it will no longer sell cigars. Whatever ends up replacing it, one of the few bars inside the District that legally allowed smoking is gone for…

Photo by Bogotron The D.C. Council is taking up a bill this session that would expand parts of the existing citywide smoking ban, including a provision that would allow property owners to legally prohibit smoking within 25 feet of any building entrance, even if that area includes public areas like sidewalks, Michael Neibauer reports today in the Examiner. The idea is to cut down on the number of times city residents are forced to…

Photo by cacophony76 The last two smoking rooms on Capitol Hill, in the Cannon and Longworth House Office Buildings, will close for good this week, The Hill reports. How can Congressional office buildings even have smoking rooms anymore? Because they are technically exempt from D.C. law, so they aren’t subject to the workplace smoking ban the District enacted at the beginning of 2007. But when Democrats took over Congress a couple years ago, they…

Photo by akkleis The Virginia General Assembly today voted to approve a smoking ban in most of the state’s bars and restaurants. The Virginia Senate approved the measure 27-13 on Thursday morning, and a few hours later, the House passed it as well, 60 to 39, without debate. This is a big deal, since the home state of Philip Morris has failed to pass a smoking ban numerous times over the course of a…

Let’s assume the deal worked out between Kaine and Howell stands up, and Virginia is about to enact a statewide smoking ban. Keep a careful eye on the stipulation that private clubs may be exempt. My hometown (Tucson, AZ) enacted a restaurant smoking ban in the late 1990s, which included a similar exemption for “private clubs.” One popular downtown diner quickly adapted by creating a “Smoker’s Club” for patrons. They would sell you a year-long…

Photo by akkleis Really big news from Virginia. The Post is reporting that Gov. Tim Kaine and House Speaker William Howell (R) announced this morning that they have struck a deal on legislation that would ban smoking in restaurants and bars across the entire state. The agreement is one that some thought would never come, given the importance of tobacco to the state’s economy. The bill would ban smoking in restaurants and bars, with…

Starting today, Montgomery College has banned tobacco anywhere on its campuses, including outdoor areas far away from any buildings. In the Post’s lengthy story on the decision, the two sides of the smoking debate muse on whether this sort of policy will become standard on most college campuses around the country over the next few years. Anti-smoking and health advocates see this sort of policy as the inevitable next step. Others think it’s going…

It’s official: the Virginia House of Delegates killed the latest package of smoking ban proposals in a subcommittee Thursday. The set of proposed bans would have barred smoking in restaurants, offices and other public places. The bills’ defeat means a state-wide ban won’t come before the Virginia legislature again this year. The House had previously spiked their own versions of the smoking ban proposals. Yesterday’s subcommittee action put an end to the bills that had…