Clearing the Air

March 16th, 2010 · 11 Comments

Clearing the Air How the Smoking Ban Was Won by Peter Ruddell and Emily Gerkin Palsrok March 16, 2010 Chapters 1 & 2 | Chapters 3 & 4 | Chapter 5 | Chapters 6, 7 & 8 Chapter 1: The Campaign for Smokefree Air April 2005 With less than 24 hours to go before launching [...]

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Tags: Features

Clearing the Air: Chapters 3 & 4

March 16th, 2010 · No Comments

Clearing the Air Chapters 1 & 2 | Chapters 3 & 4 | Chapter 5 | Chapters 6, 7 & 8 Chapter 3: The 2006 Elections A monumental event in the fight for smokefree air occurred prior to the 2006 elections, when U. S. Surgeon General Richard H. Carmona issued his landmark report The Health [...]

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Tags: Features

Clearing the Air: Chapters 6, 7 & 8

March 16th, 2010 · 5 Comments

Clearing the Air Chapters 1 & 2 | Chapters 3 & 4 | Chapter 5 | Chapters 6, 7 & 8 Chapter 6: Headed to Conference We were given the choice by House leadership to either ping-pong HB 4163 back and forth between the Senate and House in hopes of achieving concurrence, or to send [...]

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Tags: Features

Clearing the Air: Chapter 5

March 16th, 2010 · 1 Comment

Clearing the Air Chapters 1 & 2 | Chapters 3 & 4 | Chapter 5 | Chapters 6, 7 & 8 Chapter 5: Gamechanger With the fight now in the Republican-controlled Senate, we needed new angles to exploit. Our previous polling consistently demonstrated this was not a partisan issue, with identical support from Republican and [...]

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Tags: Features

Smokefree Sausage

March 16th, 2010 · 1 Comment

Smokefree Sausage by T. Scott March 16, 2010 Throw barbs at this Michigan Legislature if you will (and must, because it’s usually justified), but don’t overlook the fact that last December it did produce one of its most important pieces of work in many years. Whether it was luck (give an infinite number of lawmakers…), [...]

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Tags: Editor's Notes

Holiday Letter from Legislators

December 26th, 2009 · 2 Comments

Holiday Letter from Legislators by Tim Skubick December 26, 2009 Okay, be honest. Everyone who enjoys receiving those gawdawful holiday letters in your holiday cards, raise your hands. You know, the ones that begin, “As we look back at 2009, we can’t believe how many wonderful things have happened to us,” and then chronicle, ad [...]

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Tags: Tim Skubick

No More Clouds

December 15th, 2009 · 4 Comments

No More Clouds by Annie Scott December 16, 2009 Here’s what’s going on in a land far away but not so far apart from the Mitten … As I read the news that Michigan was at long last closing in on a statewide smoking ban in public areas, I breathed a huge sigh of relief. [...]

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Tags: Foreign Correspondent