The plan for an indoor smoking ban in St. Joseph, Mo. hit a roadblock Monday night when the City Council refused to implement the citizen-drive push for a ban on indoor smoking. Smoke-Free St. Joseph lobbied to have smoking banned indoors except in 10 percent of hotel rooms and private clubs without employees, something the City Council was unwilling to simply pass.

While the measure was voted down, it will be reevaluated on Jan. 21 and appears likely to be a ballot initiative on April 8.

The major push against the ban came from casino-owner Affinity Gaming. St. Joseph is located in northwest Missouri and has a population just under 80,000.

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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.