When money trumps everything

MANIFESTO

Pardon the pun in the title, but this item caught my eye.

After a month of fresh air, smoking is once again allowed inside Atlantic City's 11 casinos.

The City Council had passed a total smoking ban in April, but then the financial meltdown rocked the economy and led to even steeper declines at the casinos.

The council changed its mind at the last moment and agreed to repeal the smoking ban for at least a year, but couldn't legally stop the no-smoking rules from taking effect on Oct. 15.

The ban expired a minute after midnight Sunday, and gamblers can now light up again.

It's unfortunate, but not surprising, that the economy is considered so bad that it's thought that something (no matter how deleterious) has to be done to improve the take of the casinos.

In another possibly economy-based story,

Many bars in the Big Apple will be shutting down a little early this New Year's Eve.

Local bar owners must file for a permit to push last call back four hours to 8 a.m.

But the deadline is tomorrow to file that request, and according to the New York Post, only 39 bars have requested all-night permits, down from 400 last year.

Is it possible that New York revelers can't even afford New Year's Eve?