Free Republic

The first lawsuit over the U.S. government's embattled coronavirus small business loan program was filed in federal court Wednesday by a company that operates a strip club in Michigan. It's the first of what could end up being a series of protracted legal battles over which businesses qualify for the hastily-conceived $349 billion relief effort. The lawsuit asserts the Small Business Administration (SBA) and the Treasury violated the Constitution by barring coronavirus relief loans for businesses that have "live performances of a prurient sexual nature." Which businesses qualify has evolved since the plan’s first version. The plan currently states that...

SEATTLE (AP/WSVN) — A Seattle man is accused of posing as a porn recruiter and tricking women into having sex with him. Now he can add a consumer protection complaint to the criminal rape charges he is facing. Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson said Wednesday that he sued Michael-Jon Matthew Hickey under the state Consumer Protection Act and the Commercial Electronic Mail Act, seeking restitution and thousands of dollars in penalties. Hickey’s been held on $200,000 bail at the King County Jail on three counts of second-degree rape since his arrest in Las Vegas in October. Authorities say he created...

Dust off those resumes, the Los Angeles City Council may soon be looking for a condom cop. Earlier this year the council appointed a committee to study how a newly minted law requiring the use of condoms on some adult film sets could be enforced. After several meetings between police, representatives of the porn industry and other committee members, the city’s administrative officer issued a 47-page report Wednesday. Among its recommendations: contracting with a licensed medical professional who would conduct periodic inspections of film productions to make sure condoms are used. Other proposals include establishing a fee, the amount to...

The owner of a soon-to-be-built strip club in the western suburb of Stone Park has this to say to a group of neighboring nuns who don’t like his plans: Mind your own business. “As a legal, tax-paying citizen of this community, we ask only to be judged fairly by what we have done and not through the recent religious fervor,” Bob Itzkow, the club’s owner, said in statement released Friday. “In reference to our non-tax-paying neighbors, we ask that you treat us as we have treated you, by not trying to unduly disturb us by imposing your religious beliefs on...

After it was revealed yesterday that an increasing number of women are using the sex industry to pay their way through university, one woman has told her story of stripping while studying. Emma Green, of Glamorgan, Wales, turned to stripping on a webcam for men and earned £200-a-week to fund her studies. The 25-year-old, who studied multi-media design at Glamorgan University before spending another year at a beauty therapy college in 2009, says a normal part-time job was out of the question because of her intense course workload.

Pornography has invaded the world’s imagination. It is everywhere: On the Internet, in films, in movies, in rap music videos. Five-year-old girls dress and are taught to behave like pornography stars in order to win beauty contests. Ten- to twelve-year-old girls both dress and behave like the pornographic images that surround them—and they provide sexual services to young boys. Opera—high culture—has also been increasingly “sexed up.” I have seen productions of “Carmen” and “Lulu” in which the lead diva was half-naked and in which she, too, sang the role as if she was a contemporary pornography star and prostitute. No,...

I expect liberal feminists won't mind this, since they support those formerly known as prostitutes: "sex workers." From the New York Post, today: A reality show that promises to sell off 3 virgins to the highest bidder is - to say the least - raising a storm of controversy on 2 sides of the Pacific.... The show is the brainchild of an Australian filmmaker, Justin Sisley [pictured above], and will be made for TV there. But, as of yesterday, the show was set to be filmed in NV. The 3 virgins - 2 women and 1 man - are to...

Who would hire the first legal male hooker in the country? A desperate spinster? A lonely divorcee? A New York Post reporter on undercover assignment? Answer: All of the above. This month, as Nevada anointed the country’s first-ever legal male prostitute — in the form of “Markus,” a 25-year-old beefy ex-Marine — it became incredibly clear that one thing had to happen immediately. The Post had to have a go at this gigolo. --snip-- “I’m not a hooker,” MARKUS says repeatedly. “I’m a surrogate lover.” At 3 p.m., I arrive at the appropriately titled Shady Lady Ranch for my two-hour...

Obama asked about legalizing prostitution, gambling, drugs to create jobs By Sam Youngman - 12/04/09 01:08 PM ET Even though President Barack Obama has repeatedly said that he welcomes all good suggestions about how to spur job growth in the U.S., he made it clear Friday that there are some lengths to which he is not willing to go. At a townhall meeting at Lehigh Carbon Community College in Allentown, Pa., the president was asked by a student whether Obama what he thinks about legalizing prostitution, gambling or drugs to spur job creation. After the auditorium erupted in laughter, the...

Two owners and the manager of two Suffolk County bars were arrested last night pursuant to a federal complaint charging them with crimes involving forced prostitution. The complaint charges Antonio Rivera, Jasmin Rivera, and John Whaley with conspiracy, sex trafficking, forced labor, and alien harboring. Simultaneously with the arrests, law enforcement agents executed search warrants at both bars. The defendants are scheduled to make their initial appearances this afternoon before United States Magistrate Judge Michael L. Orenstein at the U.S. Courthouse, in Central Islip, New York. The charges were announced by Benton J. Campbell, United States Attorney for the Eastern...

Going down in the downturn More women are turning to sex work in a bad economy. Does it beat working at McDonald's? Tracy Clark-Flory June 22, 2009 | Castro Valley, Calif. -- "Boob play," "pics of kitty," "topless housecleaning" and "hypno role play." The list, scribbled in a lined yellow notebook, is followed by a double-underlined figure: $725. It's 9 a.m. on a Friday and 30-year-old Marie is sitting on her couch clad in Donald Duck pajamas, munching on buttered toast and staring at her cellphone like she can will it to ring. If someone calls in response to the...

Downtown D.C. Declared 'Prostitution Free Zone' @ 3:12 pm by Walter Alarkon The police in Washington, D.C. have declared several downtown blocks a "prostitution free zone" for Inauguration Week, reports DCist. In an area just east of Mt. Vernon Square and west of Union Station, the police will be on the lookout for anyone seeking sex for cash. According to D.C. law, officers will first hand out warnings to people they suspect engaging in "prostitution or prostitution-related activities" in that area, and then they would arrest them if they failed to obey orders to disperse. A conviction could lead to...

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) is seeking to become the first woman president, and a man who has published countless pictures of naked women is pitching in for her White House bid. Hugh Hefner, the founder of the Playboy Enterprises empire, is among the many celebrities who have picked their favorite candidate to succeed President Bush in 2009. Hefner contributed $2,300 (the maximum allowed in the primary) to Clinton’s campaign on March 28, identifying his occupation on the fundraiser form as “editor-in-chief” of Playboy magazine. Hefner has given thousands to Democrats over the years, including $2,000 to Sen. John Kerry...

Nearly 50 percent of men in Scotland who pay for sex at home or abroad have a partner and the percentage could be greater, researchers said on Monday. One in 10 men questioned in a survey in Glasgow admitted that they had paid for sex recently and 27 percent said they repeatedly visited prostitutes. "Approximately half of all men paying for sex were in a concurrent relationship," said Dr Tamsin Groom, of the Sandyford Initiative in Glasgow, in the journal Sexually Transmitted Infections. The men visited prostitutes abroad or at home but rarely did both. Most used condoms but unprotected...

At 22, Sarah Patterson has already spent several years in the working world, but she has yet to report her income to the government. For one thing, Ms. Patterson, of Manhattan, works in a cash business, with no withholding tax. But she is also worried about how to list her profession on a 1040 form — she is a foot fetish model. "What I do is not commonly considered work," explained Ms. Patterson, who said she earns more than $100 an hour for letting men ogle or stroke her shapely feet. "When they ask for your occupation, I can't imagine...

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Amsterdam's famed red light district held its first ever "open day" Saturday as its peep-shows and brothels gave crowds of wide-eyed visitors free entry to help shed the area's increasingly negative reputation. Armed with a list of 25 establishments opening their doors and flinging back their red curtains, hundreds of tourists and locals seized the opportunity to see a prostitute's bedroom, watch a brief live peep-show or chat to a lap dancer. Harrowing reports of forced prostitution and human trafficking have caused a public outcry in recent months and even prompted calls from councillors for the 800-year-old...

Columbia House, famous for its "12 CDs for a penny" record clubs, will launch its own adult video club with Playboy Entertainment at the end of this month. The service, called Hush, will sell pornography through direct mail and a Web site. While 50-year-old Columbia House is eager to cash in on the $12 billion porn business, officials are pretty hush hush about Hush.

WASHINGTON - The sex industry funded part of a campaign that opposes the construction of a new baseball stadium on the Anacostia waterfront. Opponents of a publicly financed baseball stadium spent roughly $50,000, trying to sway public opinion. In one method used to get their message out, opponents used an automated phone line. The person on the automated phone call says he's from a group called Friends of the Earth, and he's opposed to a stadium built with public money Friends of the Earth is part of a coalition called "No D.C. Taxes For Baseball." And, WTOP Radio has learned...

"Most Americans today believe slavery was outlawed in the United States many years ago, and they are correct. But they falsely believe that slavery doesn't exist in the United States and on that, they are sadly mistaken," said Wade Horn, assistant secretary U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Administration for Children and Families. During a news conference in Newark announcing the program, U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie said federal prosecutors are conducting several investigations into trafficking rings. Archbishop John Myers promised a new anti-trafficking clearinghouse in Newark. Victims are often smuggled into the U.S. from their home countries with the...

Strippers and pole dancers should be banned from performing in stretch limousines, according to a British report. Councillors from the mountainous Welsh county of Gwynedd said many limousine hire companies were providing the erotic dancers as entertainment for clients, but in-car striptease was an "inappropriate" activity. "Lately, stretch limousines have been used more and more," said the report, released on Tuesday. "Some operators are providing entertainment to clients within the vehicle which may involve inappropriate activities such as lap dancing, giving rise to concerns about indecency." The new proposals recommend a blanket ban on striptease, lap dancing, pole dancing and...