Starting Monday, all 100 of the state's acute care hospitals will be tobacco free, so patients, visitors and staff will have to smoke elsewhere.

The initiative was spearheaded by N.C. Prevention Partners with a $600,000 grant from the Duke Endowment. Efforts began three years ago, and hospitals around the state have been phasing in the new smoke-free policy since then.

All the hospitals in the Triangle went smoke free last year at this time.

"North Carolina will pass a major health milestone next week," Meg Molloy, President and CEO of N.C .Prevention Partners, said in a preparted statement. "We are leading the nation in tobacco-free hospitals and, with these policies in place, millions of hospital patients, visitors and employees will be protected from exposure to harmful secondhand smoke. Hospitals are natural health leaders and are setting the pace for healthy communities in North Carolina. We are grateful to The Duke Endowment and NC Hospital Association for their unwavering support."

For more information about N.C. Prevention Partners, go to www.ncpreventionpartners.org.

Obesity rates are rising faster in North Carolina than the national average, and physical activity also lags, giving the state a D in those subjects on its annual health report card.

But there is progress, according to N.C. Prevention Partners, which has been grading the state on its health habits since 1998.

The state improved to a C+ from a C on its tobacco use. That score could soon rise to a B as a result of actions taken this year by the state legislature, which passed a law to ban smoking in bars and restaurants.

"The tobacco story has some good things," said Meg Molloy, president of N.C. Prevention Partners. She said recent efforts by hospitals throughout the state to ban smoking has also been major plus, and could serve as a model for other businesses.

More findings:

• 1.5 million North Carolina adults, or 23 percent, smoke cigarettes.

• Sixty-five percent of adults in North Carolina are overweight, compared to 63 percent nationally.

• Youth obesity rates are the fifth-worst in the nation.

• Only 44 percent of adults in the state get enough exercise.

• On average, North Carolinians die two years earlier than people elsewhere in the nation.

"It's become too easy for people to be unhealthy," Molloy said. "Cigarettes and calories are cheap."

As a result, she said, it's important for organizations to work for policy changes, such as the smoking ban and changing unhealthy food options in hospitals and schools.

smoked bluefish is easy and good

What do you know, the state legislature passed an anti-smoking bill on Wednesday. But does this mean you'll be able to go hear live music in nightclubs without feeling as if you've been rolling around in an ashtray? Not necessarily. Click through for more.

Judge Howard Manning, famous for slapping the N.C. school system for inequality in education, entertained a packed courtroom this week as the visiting judge in Orange County Superior Court.

As assistant district attorney Lamar Proctor called out names from the court docket Tuesday, some offenders were not present in court. Typically in that situation, a judge will ask the bailiff to repeat their names three times then issue an order for their arrest. But not Manning. He wanted to "bullseye" them but circling their names on the docket, then order their arrests after Proctor had gone through the entire docket.

After all, Manning said, "They might have stopped in for a tall 40 on the way over," causing the courtroom to erupt in laughter.

 "They don't smoke blunts over here in Orange County, do they?" Manning asked, referring to a cigar with marijuana instead of tobacco. "How many of you know what a wrap is?," Manning asked, waiting for an answer. I'm pretty sure he was talking about the cigar wrap that goes around the cannibis, but maybe someone can enlighten OrangeChat. "Well, I'm not going to tell you because only three of you know," Manning told the crowd. "I guess we'll have to wait till we get a few more folks over from Durham County."

Then Manning mused on another possible explanation for the no-shows from Chapel Hill and Carrboro: "All the mopeds won't start."

Manning also poked fun at Chapel Hill's ban on public consumption of alcohol, as a man charged with that crime waited for his case to be heard.

"He's got the most benign charge on the docket," Manning said. "It used to be perfectly all right to do so.

"We used to drink beer on a bench and smoke in Chapel Hill," he said. "I did it for four years until I quit smoking, and then I continued to drink beer."

Manning wondered why the law does not apply to outdoor dining areas such as the third-floor balcony at Top of the Hill.

"You can lean over and drink your beer and look at Franklin Street, but that's not in public?"

"I like this guy," said a man waiting to address his cocaine charges.