Stories

A lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of Iowa’s Smokefree Air Act has been dismissed after coalition of Iowa bar owners decided to drop their court challenge.
The lawsuit was filed last year by Choose Freedom Iowa, the Iowa Bar Owners Coalition, Clinton’s Organized Bar & Restaurant Owners and Froehlich Properties Inc. just as the state’s smoking ban [...]

A bipartisan group of 51 lawmakers in the Iowa House sponsored a bill Thursday to overturn the prohibition of smoking in outdoor seating and serving areas of restaurants and bars.

Doug Burns at Iowa Political Alert has an interesting post on how Gov. Chet Culver’s proposed $700 million infrastructure plan could mean the end of Iowa’s six-month-old state smoking ban.
In laying out his plan, Culver said he would use $56 million annually from gaming tax revenues to secure the $700 million in bonds over the [...]

A ban on smoking in casinos, an expansion electronic campaign finance filings and subpoena power for the Iowa Civil Rights Commission are among prefiled bills approved by their sponsors for release to the public.
Rep. Mark Smith, D-Marshalltown, is proposing a bill that would expand the statewide smoking ban passed last session and end the law’s [...]

After being caught by a reporter from The Des Moines Register smoking in in a state-owned vehicle, a violation of the state’s smoking ban, Iowa First Lady Mari Culver apologized and promised it would never happen again.
Culver was spotted by the Register smoking in a Chevrolet Tahoe that the state provides to the [...]

In the course of a week, Iowa’s smokers received a setback in court and the right to light up while eating something on a stick. All in all, a pretty eventful few days.

Independent Congressional candidate William Meyers, who lost his district’s Democratic primary last month, has launched a new Web site he hopes will become the focal point for the movement to repeal the recently enacted statewide smoking ban. The site attacks most Democrats in both chambers of the state legislature.

Legislators that supported the smoking ban in Iowa will benefit at the polls this fall, Gov. Chet Culver said.

Even though gaming floors are exempt from Iowa’s statewide somking ban, the new law still poses challenges for the state’s 17 licensed casinos, said officials during the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission meeting.

The Iowa State Board of Health will hold a special meeting this Friday at 10:00 to consider the administrative rules to accompany the Smokefree Air Act. The rules clarify language not already defined in the legislation and outline how implementation and enforcement of the new law will take place. If adopted by the Board, the [...]