With great thanks to all the Conspirators and their friends who took time out of their days to contact their representatives and senators in NH, we are happy to announce that HB 1177, the bill that would have forced restaurant and bar owners in the state to disallow smoking in their private establishments, lost by one vote.

It is a day to celebrate. Sort of. The popularly titled bill "Michelle's Law", has passed the Senate unanimously. This bill, now to become law, would force insurance companies to have to continue to cover catastrophically ill clients for up to a year after dropping college due to illness, even if their polcies stipulated that they had to be full-time students to get certain rates.

Though it is a mixed bag for freedom today, the very high-profile regualtory mess that is HB 1177 has been defeated, and kudos are sent to all the people involved with the New Hampshire Liberty Alliance, Coalition of NH Taxpayers, the Josiah Bartlett Center for Public Policy and other groups that have worked so hard, mostly as volunteers, to kill the bill.