Roll Call is a Washington DC based newspaper that focuses on national legislative news. Greg Lang
I'd like to thank Roll Call for showing some interest in our little rebellion here in Minnesota. Below is our Media Packet to help you report on the story. Feel free to contact me if you have any questions.
I'd like to thank Roll Call for showing some interest in our little rebellion here in Minnesota. Below is our Media Packet to help you report on the story. Feel free to contact me if you have any questions.
MN SMOKING BAN “LOOPHOLE” – YES, IT’S LEGAL TO SMOKE INDOORS AGAIN
Minnesota’s Smoking Ban has a lovely little exception that allows bar owners and patrons to smoke indoors –legally – as long as they are performing in a “theatrical production”.
On Saturday, February 9th,my op-ed column appeared in the Star Tribune. You can find it at:
That evening my Traveling Tobacco Troupe performed a satirical play at Barnacle’s Resort in Aitkin. In addition to demonstrating how the “theatrical productions” exception works, wefocused on the financial distress of small bar owners because of the smoking ban. You can see some of our performance in this You Tube video:
The next Saturday the 16th,Barnacles Bar – in addition to at least a half dozen other small town barsacross the state – hosted Theater Night and smoked indoors without violating the law. Here we are again on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=baz0NkVjGTk&eurl=http://www.millelacsmessenger.com/
On Tuesday night the 19th,the first major metro-area bar, The Rock Night Club in Maplewood, hosted a Theater Night sponsored by radio station 93X. They doubled their business that night from 200 customers to 400.
And this has gotten some legislators and the Minnesota Department of Health in a bit of a tizzy. For their reactions, please see the Feb. 15 StarTrib article:
On Tuesday evening, Feb. 26, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s show “As It Happens” interviewed Lisa Anderson, owner of Mike’s Uptown in Hill City, and me. It runs for about 9 minutes and can be found 19 minutes into the show right here:
On Wednesday, March 5, 2008, the Minnesota Department of Health finally responded to the Theater Night phenomenon by issuing a Press Release declaring that “theater nights” in bars do not fall within the “theatrical productions” exception to the state-wide smoking ban … without explaining why:
We responded with our own press release and challenge to the Minnesota Department of Health: if they are going to insist on bullying our bar owners with intimidation and threats of $10,000 fines – and not actually write a ticket or levy a fine so that we can test the legality of Theater Night in a court of law – then I am willing to engage them in a live,unscripted televised debate in the court of public opinion and we’ll see who wins.
On Tuesday, March 11, 2008, I gave a speech to veterans and managers of the Twin Cities Legions and VFWs regarding Theater Night. I also gave an interview to KSTP TV and reiterated my challenge:
This is all happening because last spring the smoking ban bill was referred to conference committee where an exception for “theatrical productions” was quietly (and hurriedly) slipped in. Who slipped it in? According to the Feb. 16th edition of the Duluth News Tribune, it was Rep. Thomas Huntley. Here is the article (Note - you will have to pay $2.95 to get the full text):
https://secure.forumcomm.com/duluth/articles/index.cfm?page=purchase&id=60455&user_id=612670&CFID=6234269&CFTOKEN=90636258&jsessionid=883052baf5373710627b
Incredibly, Rep. Huntley admits that he was “approached” by the Guthrie because the Guthrie was worried that its plays would be sullied if the performers couldn’t smoke real tobacco cigarettes. And he gave them the exception with no public debate. This, after he consistently denied any consideration or accommodation to our veterans in the VFW and Legion posts, or our blue-collar bar owners, waitresses and bartenders. Rep. Huntley is the one responsible for the Theater Night tsunami, not Mark W. Benjamin – the Cambridge attorney who “discovered” that the theatrical productions exception could apply to bars.
Incredibly, Rep. Huntley admits that he was “approached” by the Guthrie because the Guthrie was worried that its plays would be sullied if the performers couldn’t smoke real tobacco cigarettes. And he gave them the exception with no public debate. This, after he consistently denied any consideration or accommodation to our veterans in the VFW and Legion posts, or our blue-collar bar owners, waitresses and bartenders. Rep. Huntley is the one responsible for the Theater Night tsunami, not Mark W. Benjamin – the Cambridge attorney who “discovered” that the theatrical productions exception could apply to bars.
If you are wondering why Rep.Huntley thought it so important to quietly slip in this exception in the conference committee during the hurry and flurry of the last days of the 2007 Legislature, you can call him at 651-296-2228 or email him at
Unfortunately for the anti-smoking lobby, Rep. Huntley and all the rest of the tired legislators forgot to carefully define what constitutes a “theatrical production”. As Shakespeare wrote, “All the world’s a stage.”
My Troupe will continue helping small bar owners to host Theater Nights. And, with the media present, we will continue to voice our message: “Public health” needs to be about more than just clean air; it needs to incorporate economic health and social health.
People who are financially stressed do not live as well or as long. People who do not maintain their social connections with their friends and neighbors at their small town bar do not live as well or as long. Economic health and social health are deserving of discussion when we talk about the health of the public. We are asking the Legislature to engage us in that discussion.
If you wish, you can open the attachments to this email. They are: my handsome mug; a poster; a playbill; an informational packet; our press release of 3.7.2008 challenging the MN Dept. of Health; and a picture of the fabulous Traveling Tobacco Troupe (to be used by permission of Mille Lacs Messenger, photo by Vivian Clark, Staff Writer.)
The performers in the picture are, from left to right: Cynthia Kalina, Mark Benjamin,and Ben Wuerflein.
If you have any questions – and I wouldn’t blame you if you did – feel free to call or write.-- Mark BenjaminAttorney at LawCriminal Defense, P.A.
237 Second Avenue SW, Suite 111
Cambridge, MN 55008
763-691-0900 (office)
763-670-9664 (mobile)
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