Last week, the areas to smoke in Harlingen, Texas became significantly reduced. On a 3-2 vote, the City Council passed a smoking law that would ban smoking at all indoor public places except private clubs, fraternal organizations and retail tobacco shops.

The new law will go into effect on July 1. Smoking inside the city’s Valley Race Park will be allowed until Jan. 1, 2016. In addition, after that date public events in private clubs will be subject to the smoking ban.

Harlingen is located in Cameron County, in what is essentially the most southeastern part of Texas. It is located roughly 10 miles from the U.S. border with Mexico. It has a population around 65,000.

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Charlie Minato

I am an editor and co-founder of halfwheel.com/Rueda Media, LLC. I previously co-founded and published TheCigarFeed, one of the two predecessors of halfwheel. I have written about the cigar industry for more than a decade, covering everything from product launches to regulation to M&A. In addition, I handle a lot of the behind-the-scenes stuff here at halfwheel. I enjoy playing tennis, watching boxing, falling asleep to the Le Mans 24, wearing sweatshirts year-round and eating gyros. echte liebe.