Free Republic

A Venezuelan man has been sentenced to 5 1/2 years in prison for shooting and wounding two US military attaches at a strip club in the capital. Carlos Mejias, 32, admitted he shot the US Embassy employees in the early hours of May 28, the attorney general's office said. It said Mejias got into an argument with them at the Antonella 2012 club, better known as "Angelus," in the city's upscale Chacao district. "Later he pulled out a gun and repeatedly fired at the Americans, leaving them wounded at the location," it said in a statement. Five days later, Mejias...

She turned on Anthony Weiner with sexy pillow talk, but Sydney Leathers proved to be a big tease at a Hell’s Kitchen strip club Tuesday night. The 23-year-old online ingenue was supposedly “hosting” at the Headquarters Gentlemen’s Club on W. 38th St., but she appeared to be doing nothing more than texting. Billing herself as “Mrs. Danger” — a riff on Weiner’s sexting alias Carlos Danger — Leathers posed for photos wearing a black minidress and platform heels.

CARACAS — Two employees of the US embassy in Venezuela were shot and wounded early Tuesday in the capital Caracas, in a murky incident that local media and a police source said took place at a strip club. "We can confirm that two members of the US embassy in Caracas were injured during an incident early this morning," State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell told reporters in Washington. "Medical staff inform us that their injuries are not life-threatening," he added, noting that they were hurt at "some sort of a social spot" but without specifying the venue or nature of their...

The massive explosion that rocked Springfield's entertainment district, leveling a strip club and injuring 21 people, was caused by "human error," according to Massachusetts Fire Marshal Stephen D. Coan. Officials said a thorough, block-by-block investigation since Friday's blast indicates the city's gas system is safe, intact and functioning properly. The probe will now focus on the Columbia Gas employee responsible for puncturing a gas line with a tool, and whether proper protocol was followed in the build-up to Friday's explosion. The blast injured 21 people, damaged more than three dozen buildings, and prompted a large-scale evacuation of the city's downtown...

A natural gas leak at a Springfield strip club late this afternoon has left two-and-a-half blocks of houses and stores in shambles, authorities said. The “whole city block went up due to a gas explosion,” Springfield police Sgt. John Delaney said.

TAMPA -- A man enters a Clearwater strip club. He leaves three hours later thinking he's spent $600. A few days later he checks his credit card account and learns he was charged $50,000. There's no punchline or joke. That's what Lokesh Simon James said happened to him after a March night spent at the Bliss Cabaret, 3860 Ulmerton Road.

SPRINGFIELD, Ill., March 9 (LID) – Illinois lawmakers are considering whether the state should levy a special tax against strip-club goers to help the cash-strapped state bankroll violence prevention programs.

Strippers with sob stories or hookers with hearts of gold are often the way that Hollywood glamorizes the career paths of exotic dancers. One combination that you don't hear about often is the stripper turned Wall Street trader. Niki Marx, 27, is that case.

D.C. Attorney General Irvin Nathan has accused a District HIV/AIDS service provider of spending nearly $330,000 in federal tax dollars to open a strip club. In a lawsuit filed Tuesday, Nathan said Miracle Hands Inc. promised the city it was using the cash to renovate a warehouse in Northeast for use as a job training center for residents with HIV/AIDS. Instead, the warehouse was turned into the Stadium Club, a strip club that continues to operate. The grants for the renovations to the warehouse were first given to Miracle Hands in 2006 by the District's HIV/AIDS administration. Earlier this month,...

ARLINGTON- A Mansfield baby boy born in the parking lot of an Arlington nightclub at closing time Tuesday morning had a lot of help from some emergency responders in Arlington. Arlington Fire Engine 5 and paramedics from ambulance eleven with Arlington Medical Response got the call just before two in the morning. Nate Jones had to pull over at the Flashdancer Club parking lot because the baby could not wait. Amenze Jones, mom, was in labor and the baby was coming. Arlington firefighter Edwin Martinez and Arlington paramedics Michael Wynn and Mark Schellenberger raced to the scene a quarter mile...

ABBOTSFORD, Wisconsin - A sign excluding black people from a future Abbotsford, Wisconsin business is enraging some people in the small town. It's a sign generations of people may have never seen, yet Mark Prior says it's his right to discriminate. "If I've got a problem with you it's going to be on the front of my store," says Mark Prior. Prior posted his 'No Negros Allowed' sign after he says he had some problems with black people in the past and needed to make a policy against them. Federal and State law says if the business is open to...

COCOA BEACH, Fla. -- Cocoa Beach police stormed in for a raid on a local strip club on South Industry Road on Thursday. Six dancers and the manager of the “Playmates” club were arrested for illegal nudity and prostitution offenses, police said. Detectives said they found used condoms on the floor, pills, guns and code violations inside the club. “Unfortunately, the criminal activity spills out into the parking lot and we can't allow that to happen,” Officer Barbara Matthews said. In 2009, police also raided the club for hiring underage girls with fake identification cards. The owner promised to clean...

The Republican National Committee finance chief, the guy in charge of the purse strings when staffers charged nearly $2,000 for "meals" at a Los Angeles bondage-themed club, has been fired. Rob Bickhart will be replaced by Mary Heitman, former finance director for the Republican Governors Association, Politico reported Friday. Bickhart's dismissal comes as the RNC tries to lure back donors who were put off by reports earlier this year of the after-hours outing to Voyeur West Hollywood by the Young Eagles, the invitation-only group of young donors to the Republican Party. In March, the RNC fired Allison Meyers, the staffer...

DETROIT, - The manager of a topless Detroit bar faces felony charges after a mother found her 14-year-old daughter dancing there, police said. Andrew Hutson, 31, was arrested at the All Star when the mother called police Wednesday, The Detroit News reported Saturday. He was charged with child sexual abuse activity and faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted. The mother said she only learned Wednesday her daughter had been performing at the club for two months. She said she called a friend trying to locate the girl, was told she was at All Star and went to...

There won't be 72 virgins in paradise for Fort Hood madman Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan -- but he spent his nights enjoying earthly carnal pleasures at a no-frills strip club. The girls of Starz -- an off-base jiggle joint in Killeen, Texas -- remember Hasan well for his unusual interest in their personal lives and his self-restraint with alcohol. Hasan, the Army shrink accused of killing 13 people and wounding 42 two weeks ago in an Islamic terror-inspired rampage, had visited the club at least three times, the dancers say. He paid particular attention to a 31-year-old blonde named Jennifer...

The Long Island Lolita is all grown up now and she's traded her prison garb for stripper's lingerie. Amy Fisher, who has gone from teenage other-woman-shooter to prison wench to writer, will dance at an Independence Day weekend show at the Déjà Vu strip club.

ALAMANCE COUNTY, N.C. - An undercover raid leads to the shut down of an Alamance County strip club. Sheriff Terry Johnson said in the last five months, more than 700 crimes were committed at the Paradise Club on Hwy. 87 west. "We have video tape and everything else where they're jumping on laps and all kinds of different sexual acts," said Johnson, referring to the club's dancers. Thursday afternoon, the club was raided. Club owners Ronald Davis and his wife Theresa Davis face more than 400 criminal charges, ranging from drug deals to nude dancing. Ronald Davis denies any wrongdoing....

SPRINGFIELD — A 24-year-old man is under arrest after police say he came out of a bathroom at a local strip club early today and started firing a gun, killing one man and injuring several other people. A State Police community action team was on patrol near Club 418 on Worthington Street when troopers saw people streaming out of the building in panic.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Here's a job opportunity you won't need to buy a new wardrobe for. Hoping to take advantage of Rhode Island's floundering economy, owners of the Foxy Lady strip club in Providence plan to hold a job fair on Saturday. They say they're looking to fill around 30 positions, from strippers and waitresses to disc jockeys and bartenders, at that club and two others in Massachusetts. "I need more managers, I need more competent staff, and I need more attractive waitresses to go along with the ones I have right now," said co-owner Tom Tsoumas.

SEATTLE -- The fare at Cyndy's House of Pancakes in Seattle may change slightly if it turns into a strip club. A man who sued the city to force it to end a strip club moratorium, Bob Davis, plans to open a club at the site of the north Seattle restaurant, if the sale and building permit go through. Davis says he'd keep the name Cyndy's, which the restaurant has had since 1972. He also told The Seattle Times it might still sell pancakes. He says the appeal of the building is its kitchen. He wants to have food service...