Free Republic

Isn't it fun to watch fat cats get fatter? On top of his $739,695 base salary, UCLA administrator David Feinberg -- who serves as both associate vice chancellor and CEO of the university's hospital system -- received a $218,728 "award" from the UC Regents this month for a job well done. That brings his yearly earnings to about $1 million. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, the regents approved Feinberg's bonus, along with roughly $3 million more in "incentive pay and raises" for top UC medical officials, on January 21.

Scotland Yard's famous Vice Squad, which deals with prostitution and other aspects of London's underworld, has changed its title to the rather less dynamic "Serious Crime Directorate 9: Human Exploitation and Organised Crime Command", or SCD9 for short. The explanation is one that would draw a robust response from DCI Hunt, the old-school detective from BBC One's Life on Mars and Ashes to Ashes. Metropolitan Police sources said the switch had been ordered in part because the word "vice" was thought to have negative "connotations". It reflects a growing trend by law enforcement agencies to treat prostitutes as victims rather...

Hedge fund mogul and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, who went free this week, lived in a depraved world of thrice-daily massages, pornographic artwork, and hush money—that’s only now being revealed. Conchita Sarnoff follows up on her investigation of the legal wrangling that saved him from a long prison term and reports on the sordid details in part two of her exclusive exposé. Also: • Palm Beach’s police chief objected to Epstein’s “special treatment” and gave The Daily Beast an exclusive look at his nine-hour deposition about the investigation. • Earlier versions of the U.S attorney’s charges, including a sealed 53-page...

I hate to come across as a "square" but it is nearly impossible to go anywhere in the United States of America today and not sense the oppressive sexual culture in which we live. It is a subliminal, hypnotic barrage of immoral images, lewd language and erotic enticements that consciously and subconsciously affects our entire nation. It has gone so far that we have become a base and morally callous people. Where can anyone go today without being continuously bombarded by the “24/ 7” decadent drumbeat of this licentious orchestra? We have indeed become a “Red Light District” nation! This...

...The U.S. (federal and states) will spend about $47 billion this year on drug enforcement, clogging our court systems and overcrowding our prisons, in many cases dooming young men to a life in the underclass...And I don’t think we’re getting a good value for our $47 billion. In fact, I think our efforts may be counterproductive, and that we should explore a more sensible route, the same one we use for alcohol and tobacco. In short, legalize it, regulate it and tax it. Legalization would quickly shrink that $47 billion annual cost of law enforcement to a small fraction of...

Columbus, Ohio, Jul 13, 2009 / 10:47 pm (CNA).- R. Eric McFadden, a former leader of several Democrat-leaning Catholic groups, has pled guilty to two counts of compelling prostitution for prostituting a 17-year-old girl on the internet. Five other counts of pandering obscenity and promoting prostitution were dismissed. McFadden, 46, was former director of Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland’s Office of Faith-Based Initiatives. He worked for Catholics for Kerry in 2004 and served as the president of Catholics for Faithful Citizenship in 2005. In 2006 he served as a spokesman for Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good and was an...

VILLANOVA, Pa. (AP) - Authorities say the dean of Villanova University's law school was involved in a prostitution investigation before resigning last week. State police say Mark Sargent was seen leaving a suspected house of prostitution in suburban Philadelphia just before a raid Nov. 25. He was not charged. Instead, police say Sargent was one of two customers who provided information to authorities prosecuting the case. The owner of the Kennett Township home recently pleaded no contest to promoting prostitution; two co-defendants pleaded guilty to the charge.

Charalambos Christodoulides's body was found in a warehouse complex A property developer told a US prostitute he had strangled a man in London because he was "in the way", a court has heard. Rebecca DeFalco told the Old Bailey of her relationship with her client Thanos Papalexis, of Palm Beach, Florida. The body of caretaker Charalambos Christodoulides, 55, was found in 2000 in the warehouse complex where he lived in Kensal Rise, north-west London. Mr Papalexis, 36, and two of his employees have denied murder. Failed Kosovan asylum seekers Ylli Xhelo, 36, unemployed, and Robert Baxhija, 29, a painter of...

PHOENIX — A prostitute doing time behind bars, Marcia Powell was temporarily moved one day last month to an outdoor holding pen with nothing but a chain-link-fence roof to shield her from the searing desert sun. She lasted less than four hours. Powell, 48, collapsed in the 108-degree heat and died at a hospital the next day, touching off a criminal investigation and bringing an abrupt end to a little-known practice in Arizona's prison system that inmate-rights activists found repellent.

"Although Craigslist is widely known for other services, the erotic services portion of the site had more visitors in the Washington area last month than all "for-sale" ads, according to an analysis that Compete.Com performed for The Washington Post." "Last month, more than 217,000 visitors, or 12 percent of Craigslist's total Washington area traffic, visited the erotic services section, spending an average of 64 minutes."

Seven individuals were arrested for running a prostitution ring that advertised on Craigslist, New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said Wednesday. The online classified-ads site has drawn attention from law-enforcement agencies, especially after a woman was attacked and another killed by what authorities call the Craigslist killer. The arrests of Scott Rosenberg, 45, and Josef Davenport, 31, who are accused of owning a prostitution ring in Queens, N.Y., known as Room Service Entertainment. They allegedly advertised in the since-discontinued "erotic services" section of Craigslist. "Until Craigslist gets serious about putting real protections in place, it will continue to be an...

A New York City prostitution ring run primarily on Craigslist has been busted, and Attorney General Andrew Cuomo ripped into the site Wednesday, saying it will continue to be a haven for illegal activity until it takes more action to prevent crime. Seven people were arrested and charged in a 47-count indictment for taking part in the service operated out of Queens. "Until Craigslist gets serious about putting real protections in place, it will continue to be an environment where criminal operations thrive with impunity," Cuomo said. Scott Sal Rosenberg, 45, and Josef Davenport, 31, are accused of co-owning and...

The Catechism describes sloth as a culpable lack of physical or spiritual effort that can actually refuse the joy that comes from God. The slothful person is lukewarm towards, perhaps even repelled by, divine goodness and spiritual practices (Catechism #1866, 2094, 2733). The loss of one’s spiritual moorings manifests itself in flight from God and apathy in the service of one’s neighbor. How can we overcome this most deadly vice? Mass society engenders a sense of powerlessness, but size need not leave us apathetic. It is possible to carve out a more human scale of life. Begin with your family,...

PRAGUE: On a recent night at Big Sister, which calls itself the world's biggest Internet brothel, a middle-aged man selected a prostitute from an electronic menu on a flat-screen television, pressing his index finger against it to review the age, hair color, weight and languages spoken by the women on offer. Once he had chosen an 18-year-old brunette, he put on a mandatory burgundy terry cloth robe and proceeded to one of the brothel's luridly-lit theme rooms, an Alpine suite decorated with foam rubber mountains covered with fake snow. Nearby, in the brothel's cramped control room, two young technicians used...

... Opponents of the clean-up - including coffee-shop owners and the prostitutes' union, De Rode Draad (Red Thread), which represents 20,000 Dutch prostitutes - told The Observer yesterday that they believed that, far from reducing crime, it would encourage drug dealers and prostitutes to go underground in areas where they were banned. They also warned that the new clampdown on drugs and the sex industry would have a profound effect on the economics of a city famous for both things. 'Amsterdam is the city of sex and drugs and rock 'n' roll,' said Metje Blaak, a spokeswoman for De Rode...

Rumor is that PBS is polling so they can run an ad in the swing states. Please freep this poll and vote YES for our Sarah!!! http://www.pbs.org/cgi-registry/poll/poll.pl

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Indiana Sen. Evan Bayh and Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine have been told by Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama's campaign they will not be his vice presidential choice, NBC News reported on Friday quoting sources.

The lure of a $30 trick with a Lowell hooker ended up nearly costing one man more than $60,000 in cash, police said. Jessica Garcia, 30, was released on personal recognizance yesterday after allegations that she agreed to perform oral sex on the drunken john for $30, but then tied him up and ran off with $62,000 in cash he kept in a duffel bag. The man had been drinking cognac for several hours on Saturday night when he hopped on his bicycle, cash in tow, to search for a street walker, police said.....

Barack Obama’s vice presidential vetting team will undoubtedly run across some quirky and potentially troublesome issues as it goes about the business of scouring the backgrounds of possible running mates. But it’s unlikely they’ll find one so curious as Virginia Democratic Sen. Jim Webb’s affinity for the cause of the Confederacy. Webb is no mere student of the Civil War era. He’s an author, too, and he’s left a trail of writings and statements about one of the rawest and most sensitive topics in American history. He has suggested many times that while the Confederacy is a symbol to many...

An Iranian police chief in charge of fighting vice in Tehran was jailed today for reportedly consorting in an underground brothel. Local media reported that General Reza Zarei was jailed after being caught with six naked women at a prostitution den in the Iranian capital. Ali Reza Jamshidi, a spokesman for Iran’s judiciary, confirmed today that Mr Zarei had been taken to jail. He refused to elaborate further about the case, however, saying it was now “in the legal stage.”