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Nation in brief

D.C. council approves citywide smoking ban

By wire services
Published January 5, 2006

WASHINGTON - Smoking inside most bars and restaurants in the nation's capital would become illegal under a ban approved Wednesday by the D.C. council.

"It's going to ban smoking virtually everywhere," council member Marion Barry said of the measure prohibiting smoking in most public and private buildings.

Brew pubs, bars, restaurants, taverns, nightclubs and hookah bars where patrons share communal pipes would be exempt if 10 percent of their total sales were generated by tobacco products. There are also exemptions for private offices, hotel rooms, medical research facilities, cigar bars and tobacco stores.

Antismoking advocates said they were generally pleased, though some vowed to seek even tougher prohibitions.

The new prohibitions are schedule to take effect Jan. 1, 2007. The delay is designed to give the city health department time to hire and train inspectors. It will also give some restaurant and club owners time to design and build outdoor facilities where smoking will be allowed.

NEW YORK - New York's City Council on Wednesday elected its first woman and first openly gay leader, a position widely regarded as the second-most powerful seat in city government.

Christine Quinn wept during a speech to the 51-member council, thanking her father and her partner, Kim Catullo, who looked on from the audience.

"Let me say that I am incredibly proud that in the most diverse city in the world, diversity is seen as a strength, and not an impediment," Quinn said.

Quinn, 39, a Democrat, was elected by a vote of 50 to 0, with one member abstaining. Other council members had sought the job, but Quinn became a virtual lock when she gained the support of Democratic organizations in Queens, the Bronx and Brooklyn.

WAKEMAN, Ohio - A couple accused of abusing their 11 adopted special-needs children by making them sleep in cages defended their actions but said they would be willing to give up the enclosures to get the children back.

Michael and Sharen Gravelle said they would be more lenient and would send the home-schooled children, who have a host of health and behavioral problems, to public school.

"I will do whatever is necessary to get our children home," Michael Gravelle said.

A judge ruled Dec. 22 during a custody hearing that making the children sleep in wooden cages without pillows or mattresses constituted abuse. The judge also decided to keep the children, ages 1 to 15, in foster care.

The Gravelles defended their initial decision to make some of the children sleep in the cages. They said the enclosures were necessary to keep the children from harming themselves or one another.

The children have problems such as fetal alcohol syndrome and a disorder that involves eating dirt.

The Gravelles have not been charged with a crime. They could regain custody, with some restrictions, after a Jan. 18 hearing.

BALTIMORE - Two weeks before his 30th anniversary with the Baltimore Sun, columnist Michael Olesker resigned amid allegations of plagiarism, the newspaper said Wednesday.

"I made mistakes," Olesker said as he cleaned out his desk.

Olesker wrote a twice-a-week column for 27 years.

The allegations surfaced Tuesday from Gadi Dechter, a media reporter at the Baltimore City Paper, an alternative weekly.

Dechter said he and a researcher had reviewed Olesker's columns during the past two years and found instances in which the columnist had apparently used the work of journalists at the New York Times, Washington Post and Baltimore Sun without attribution.

[Last modified January 5, 2006, 01:19:08]