Free Republic

Panhandling will become illegal in the downtown core of Atlanta as soon as Mayor Shirley Franklin signs an ordinance adopted Monday by city council. The council, after two months of debate and numerous boisterous public meetings, voted 12-3 to ban verbal requests for money in the central part of the city, an area referred to as the "tourist triangle." Atlanta police arrested at least seven people, including a former councilman, at City Hall after the vote. People opposed to the ordinance repeatedly shouted, "Shame!" The legislation was drafted by the Franklin administration, and the council expanded it Monday to include...

Meet New York's 'Naked Cowboy' By Jeff Pearlman Newsday staff writer Originally published May 15, 2003 The sky is gray and the afternoon is long, and if ever a Monday in New York City has felt interminable, it is today. On the neon financial news crawlers that help light up an otherwise damp Times Square, bleakness rules. UNEMPLOYMENT RATE RISES FROM 5.9% TO 6% ... PLANNED U.S. LAYOFFS INCREASE FROM 85,396 IN MARCH TO ',399 IN APRIL ... 95,000 AMERICAN MANUFACTURING JOBS LOST IN APRIL; BIGGEST DECLINE SINCE JAN. 2002. How then, to explain ... this?

<p>NEW YORK (AP) -- After an 18-month bacchanal buying Manolo Blahnik, Gucci and Prada, Karyn Bosnak found herself unemployed and more than $20,000 in credit card debt.</p> <p>When the 29-year-old spotted a sign in a supermarket with an odd request -- "Wanted: $7,000 To Pay Off Debt" -- it made perfect sense. The television producer launched a similar appeal to a much larger audience: the World Wide Web.</p>

She wears a shabby red jacket. Her hair is grey and scraggly under a faded purple kerchief. A garbage bag covers her legs. People throw money on it. Lots of people. Sometimes they line up. "She got here about 11," says Const. Paul Stone, 50, on traffic duty at a construction site. "She started shaking as soon as she sat down. She's just rakin' it in now." At Harvey's across the street, photographer Alex Urosevic and I do some figuring. Thirty people in 15 minutes, Alex counts. Fifty in the time it takes me to eat a veggie burger and...