A bipartisan effort to ban smoking in public places in Kentucky is moving forward. Sen. Julie Denton, R-Louisville, and Rep. Susan Westrom, D-Lexington, announced that they will file for legislation to ban smoking in public places, a move that has support from Gov. Steve Beshear.

This is the fourth consecutive year Westrom has introduced the legislation. In previous years the measure has gotten out of committee, but Westrom has admitted passing in the General Assembly, particularly the Senate, would be challenging. Senate President Robert Strivers, R-Manchester, has already announced his opposition to the bill.

Update (Feb. 6, 2014) — The bill passed the House Health and Welfare Committee by a vote of 10-3 today. 

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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.