The Family Prostitute - as the recession continues, more and more women are turning to...

laweekly ^ | 2-17-12 | Albo

[doug from upland]

In the workplace lunchroom, dominated by a Formica table stocked with a condiment cradle that holds four kinds of hot sauce, Nikki furrows her brow as she fishes into her purse and retrieves her driver's license. A resident of Riverside, Nikki is filling out some paperwork for her new job. "There's a lot of stuff they want to know," she says.

It's been a busy day for the former administrative assistant. "I flew in and saw the doctor before I even got here," she says. Dressed in "business casual," Nikki is an attractive 24-year-old African-American woman with a retro hairstyle reminiscent of Mary Tyler Moore on the actress's eponymous '70s sitcom. Speaking with a slight but charming lisp, Nikki notes that she can't work until she gets cleared by the authorities, and the doctor visit is the first part of that process. In the meantime, she says, "I'll stay here and get some training because I don't know anything. Tomorrow, I'll get my license at the sheriff's office, and then I can work."

Nikki is one step away from becoming a prostitute in one of Nevada's legal brothels.

She's the sole supporter of two small children and her mother, and the work is important to Nikki. "In the Inland Empire," she laments, "there are no jobs at all. I couldn't even get a job at McDonald's right now."

And so she's come to Moundhouse, Nevada, just east of Carson City, where four of the state's 28 brothels are located just off U.S. Route 50, a desolate track that cuts through a high plain of sage and scrub and is known as "the loneliest road in America."

[CharlesWayneCT]

And I just finished reading about how bad a candidate Santorum was because republicans do better when they embrace libertarian ideals.

[stellaluna]

The house cleaning business is totally Hispanic here Northern Virginia. So is the garden business and if you look in the restaurant kithchens you’ll see Hispanics washing the dishes. I was bemused to see Hispanics in the kitchen in Korean restaurant recently. Illegals are preferred by employers here.