To curb smoke, city officials burn midnight oil

It was negotiation by phone last week when city officials and competing teams of lobbyists conducted marathon bargaining on the terms of Chicago’s new smoking ban ordinance. The back-and-forth stretched into the wee hours Wednesday, said a bleary-eyed Ald. Burton Natarus (42nd), one of the participants.

When did Natarus make it to bed?

“Oh, I don’t know,” the alderman said after the council voted to nix cigs. “Ask my cat. Maybe it was 2:30, maybe it was 3, maybe it was earlier than that. It was late.”