US Sex Sells News

A Missouri nutter lawmaker intends to reintroduce a law creating a host of new rules for adult sex stores and strip clubs, including a ban on lap dances. The legislation was proposed in 2008 as House Bill 2026, but it did not pass.

Representative Ed Emery, has said he intends to file the bill again in the 2009 legislative session. He said the language in the bill would remain mostly the same as it was in 2008.

The previous legislation would have required strip clubs to be located at least 1,000 feet from schools, churches, parks and day care facilities.

Among its provisions, the bill requires that No employee who appears in a semi-nude condition in a sexually oriented business shall knowingly or intentionally touch a patron or the clothing of a patron in a sexually orientated business, and further states that semi-nude dancers shall be and remain on a fixed stage at least six feet from all patrons and at least eighteen inches from the floor in a room of at least 600 square feet.

The original version of the bill also stated that No sexually oriented business may remain open at any time between the hours of 10 p.m. and 10 a.m. on weekdays and Saturdays. Such businesses shall be closed on all official state or federal holidays and Sundays.

Emery said the most powerful aspect of the bill would ban any obstructed views in a strip club, requiring all areas of the establishment be in open view.

The slot machines were quiet, and rock music boomed louder than necessary in the half-empty bar. It could have been a scene from any casino on a dirt road in an unforgiving stretch of desert, but this was, in fact, the Hard Rock Hotel, one of the premier gambling and party destinations in America.

Welcome to Las Vegas at the turn of 2008 – possibly the most depressing and alarming year in the hard-living city's short history. A town that was once considered recession-proof, as people continued gambling and drinking away their sorrows during the bad times, is proving to be anything but.

Until now, gaming revenues in Las Vegas have dropped significantly only once since 1970, and that was in the aftermath of 9/11. In October this year they dropped a staggering 25.5%. Visitor numbers to Las Vegas dropped 10% last month compared to the previous year – and those that are visiting are thought to be spending less than in previous years.

Many who once viewed Sin City as an invincible boomtown, which would party on through any storm, are quickly revising those opinions.

One consequence of the current downturn can be seen in the Vegas strip clubs and lap-dancing bars, which according to reports have seen a sharp rise in the number of girls trying to make a living there.

Shai Cohen, the marketing manager at the world's largest gentleman's club, Sapphire, said he has seen a remarkable increase in the number of girls working as lapdancers in Vegas. We used to get between 250 and 300 girls turning up here to work on weekends, said Cohen. Now we are getting between 350 and 400. This started happening in the last six months or so.

A court battle that ensued after police raided a novelty shop here has resulted in a less-than-favorable ruling for the retailer.

Doctor John's Lingerie and Novelty Boutique was raided by police officers bearing a search warrant who sought to take possession of sexually oriented items. While law enforcement removed only a few items, they did warn management to cease selling adult products.

The point of contention is a law that requires businesses to apply for a special permit to sell sex-related products. However, the attorney representing Doctor John's maintains that the distinctions that would require a store to obtain the special permit are unclear. After operating under a general business license after a 2001 tussle, the retailer allegedly recently reintroduced films the city declared pornographic as well as sexual devices.

Attorney Andrew McCullough, who's been retained by the store, told the court during a hearing, We're trying to find the line. All that we're desperately asking you to do is define the line.

However, Third District Judge Denise Lindbergh refused to state such a definition and rejected McCullough's claim that Doctor John's was trying to resolve the question. Lindbergh declared Doctor John's to be in violation of the 2001 ruling and awarded court and attorney fees to the city of Midvale.

Midvale's city lawyer says city ordinances clearly state that the sale of sexually oriented can't be the primary purpose of an establishment that doesn't have a special license. However, McCullough is prepared to appeal and told a reporter that he believes he'll find more success in the appellate courts.

The US Justice Department has released revised Section 2257 regulations and they are expected to go in effect in three months.

The 167-page draft includes a change that enables for third-party recordkeeping, attorney J.D. Obenberger told XBIZ.

It means individuals and small companies will be able to contract with a third party with the necessary records, giving them added privacy and security and reduction in compliance costs, he said.

The revised regulations are more stringent with the application of Adam Walsh Child Protection Act of 2006, which requires notices to be placed on each page of every adult website.

Webmasters will now need to post a link to the disclosure statement on all pages where 2257-triggering content appears, attorney Larry Walters from FirstAmendment.com told XBIZ. This is a change from the prior method of posting a link only on the home page.

Walters added that there are several other interesting nuggets in the regulations, and the comments, such as the determination that videos embedded on Web pages from sites like YouTube.com need to be accompanied by full 2257 compliance efforts, even if the originating site may be exempt from compliance.

Adult DVD Empire celebrates their 10th anniversary by unleashing a list of the best-selling porn DVD's of all time.

20. Jesse Jane: Erotique
19. Space Nuts
18. Kelly the Coed 1
17. Flesh Hunter
16. The New Devil In Miss Jones
15. Ancient Secrets Of The Kama Sutra
14. The Fashionistas
13. Fade to Black
12. Jenna Jameson is the Masseuse
11. Virtual Sex With Tera Patrick
10. Bad Wives
9. Briana Loves Jenna
8. Virtual Sex With Jenna
7. Dream Quest
6. All Star
5. Island Fever 3
4. Pirates
3. Island Fever
2. Award Winning Sex Scenes
1. Flashpoint

London-based studio Harmony Films officially opens its American operations in Van Nuys.

The first movie to be released since Harmony Films moved its American sales and distribution in-house is Gazzman's Young Harlots: Dirty Secrets, starring Susana Abril, Eve Angel, Sandy Cage, Carmen McCarthy, Carmel Moore, Robyn Truelove and Poppy Morgan on Nov. 19.

Online classifieds company Craigslist has reached an agreement with 40 state attorneys general to screen its erotic services section for 'illegal' content.

Craigslist will require advertisers to provide valid identification and will charge the vendors a fee of about $10. Vendors also will be required to provide a valid credit card, according to a report in the New York Times.

Craigslist said the money will be donated to charities working on child exploitation and human trafficking issues.

On behalf of 39 other state attorney generals, Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal earlier this year sent a letter to Craigslist demanding that it remove the erotic ads and enforce its own rules against prostitution.

They identified ads that were crossing the line, s aid Jim Buckmaster, chief executive of Craigslist. We looked at those ads, we saw their point and we resolved to see what we could do to get that stuff off the site.

In March, Craigslist asked the advertisers to provide a valid phone number, and using an automated system, called them advertisers to read a series of digits. The advertisers then had to type into a web page before their ad would appear on the site. Craigslist said that reduced the number of ads.

Buckmaster said: The mere act of authentication will be a very significant deterrent. There are very few prostitutes who want to be called by Craigslist and asked to give additional identifying information.”

Craigslist also filed 14 lawsuits in San Francisco against companies that were helping advertisers circumvent the telephone verification system by generating Internet telephone numbers that could be used temporarily and then discarded.

Pushed by religious nutters, Louisiana legislators are considering imposing regulations that could potentially drain lap dance revenue from strip clubs across the state.

According to a report in New Orleans City Business, Louisiana Family Forum's lobbying recently yielded a bill proposed by Senator John Smith that called for a six-foot buffer between dancers and customers.

The bill didn't get enough votes to make it out of the state's Senate Commerce Committee, but the forum said it plans to press its cause. And, according to City Business, people on both sides agree it will pass by a wide margin if it comes up for a full vote.

State Senator Danny Martiny voted against the bill because he thought it was too broad and strip clubs should be regulated at the community level. He received a call from a priest, who apparently was notified via alert from the forum. Few politicians would withstand that kind of moral pressure, and that is one of the goals of the Forum, Robert Watters, owner of Rick's Cabaret in New Orleans, he said.

Proposition K failed to gain voter approval in San Francisco and lost by 16 percentage points. It proposed to van the enforcement of the states anti-prostitution laws.

The result so far is that with 98% of precincts counted. Yes - 42%. No - 58%. (The measure required a simple majority to pass).

Meanwhile, this election's wackiest ballot measure, Proposition R - which would rename a city sewage plant after George W Bush - went down the shitter by 31% in favour to 69% against.

HBO's reality series Cathouse is in the doghouse. Nutters of  The Coalition Against Trafficking in Women (CATW) , and the U.S Department of State's Ambassador for the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, Mark Lagon, picketed outside HBO Headquarters on Tuesday.

They were whinging about the reality show about a brothel in Nevada which they say distorts the reality of the harm of prostitution and sexual exploitation, and plays a key role in the cultural mainstreaming of prostitution.

It (HBO's show) builds up the demand, it makes it seem like it is just fine to sell a woman for sex. You've got to realize that selling a woman's body for 30 minutes defines the slavery of our time, said Mark Lagon, currently visiting New York to promote the nonsense that all prostitution can be considered as trafficking.

Norma Ramos, Co-Executive Director of CATW, wrote a letter to HBO at a previous protest in April, only to receive a brush-off response, and no returned calls: I don't think they've got the message yet. The gist of their response to our letter was that ‘we do programming that is critical of violence against women,' and our response was that you cannot undo the damage that you're doing through the promotion of prostitution

What they're doing with their programming is normalizing prostitution. Our partners all over the world ask us to fight the cultural acceptance of prostitution, and HBO is a major vehicle of the cultural acceptance of prostitution.

Veteran actor/director Buck Adams had died of complications from heart failure. He was 52.

Born Charles Stephen Allen on November 11, 1955, Adams was the brother of adult superstar Amber Lynn. A former boxer and bouncer, he entered the industry shortly after his sister began her own adult video career in the early 1980s.

A three-time winner of AVN's Best Actor award and a member of the AVN Hall of Fame, Adams performed in more than 600 adult movies and directed 80 of them himself. Among his many credits are Paul Thomas' original Bad Wives (1989), Sin City's popular Babewatch series, Buck Adams' Frankenstein , Beach Patrol , and Uncle Buck (2005).

As director, Adams garnered a Best Film nomination from AVN for his big-budget 35mm Antigua Pictures feature Uninhibited , starring Rocco Siffredi. Originally shot in 1993 at a reported cost of $1.2 million, the movie was rated R by the MPAA and picked up by HBO and USA Network. Hardcore sex scenes were put back into the movie for its release to the adult video market in 2006.

Adams was well-liked in the industry and respected for overcoming his battles with drugs and alcohol. He survived several near-fatal heart attacks in the 1990s, and toward the end of his life had just finished building a studio where he planned to produce Internet content.

Pioneering adult film director Gerard Damiano died Saturday of complications from a stroke. He was 80.

Damiano is best known for directing the adult film classics Deep Throat and The Devil in Miss Jones .

The theatrical release of Deep Throat in 1972 created the phenomenon of porno chic, making it acceptable for couples and celebrities to attend X-rated movies and changing the way the public viewed explicit sex on screen.

During the late '60s and early '70s, Damiano directed sexploitation docs and marriage manual films including We All Go Down (1969), Changes (1970), and Sex USA (1971). These early skin flicks made Damiano part of a circle that included performers Harry Reems, Jason and Tina Russell, Jamie Gillis, Fred Lincoln, Marc Stevens, and Shaun Costello.

But it was Deep Throat that defined Damiano's career and revolutionized adult cinema. Shot in six days on a shoestring budget in Miami, the Linda Lovelace classic became an instant box-office smash and a cultural event whose impact continues to be felt today.

By the time Damiano made his follow-up film The Devil in Miss Jones in 1973, he had become the adult film world's first real auteur.

Actress Georgina Spelvin, who played the part of Miss Jones in the seminal film, met Damiano through Harry Reems. Spelvin wrote about her first encounter with a real fuck-film director in her recently published memoir The Devil Made Me Do It. What's a nice girl like you doing in a porn shop like this? Damiano asked Spelvin. It was the beginning of a warm friendship that would last for 35 years.

Damiano went on to direct other acclaimed, high-profile adult features including Memories Within Miss Aggie (1974), The Story of Joanna (1975), The Satisfiers of Alpha Blue (1981) and Night Hunger (1983). Outside the X-rated genre, he made the little-seen '70s horror film Legacy of Satan .

San Francisco would become the first major U.S. city to decriminalize prostitution if voters next month approve Proposition K — a measure that forbids local authorities from investigating, arresting or prosecuting anyone for selling sex.

The ballot question technically would not legalize prostitution since state law still prohibits it, but the measure would eliminate the power of local law enforcement officials to go after prostitutes.

Proponents say the measure will free up $11 million the police spend each year arresting prostitutes and allow them to form collectives.

Even in tolerant San Francisco the measure faces an uphill battle, with much of the political establishment opposing it. Proposition K has been endorsed by the local Democratic Party. But the mayor, district attorney, police department and much of the business community oppose the idea, contending it would increase street prostitution, allow pimps the run of neighborhoods and hamper the fight against sex trafficking, which would remain illegal because it involves forcing people into the sex trade.

Some form of prostitution is already legal in two states. Brothels are allowed in rural counties in Nevada. And Rhode Island permits the sale of sex behind closed doors between consulting adults, but it prohibits street prostitution and brothels.

Police made 1,583 prostitution arrests in 2007 and expect to make a similar number this year. But the district attorney's office says most defendants are fined, placed in diversion programs or both. Fewer than 5% get prosecuted for solicitation, which is a misdemeanor punishable by up to six months in jail.

Playboy Enterprises will stop making DVDs in the coming year as part of an effort to cut costs and shift the company's focus to online content distribution.

In a report filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Playboy estimated that phasing out DVD production will help save the company $12 million in annual expenses.

CEO Christie Hefner wrote in a memo to employees that Playboy will continue to increase its digital content delivery while exiting the DVD business in phases over a period of several months.

A federal judge has overturned a four-year-old law the restricted the number of places where gentlemen's clubs could be built.

Judge Christopher C. Wilkes of the 23rd Judicial Circuit based his ruling on a 2006 West Virginia Supreme Court ruling that prevents counties with planning commissions from restricting the locations of strip clubs.

The 2004 exotic entertainment ordinance, which governs Berkeley County would affect the location of Paradise City Gentleman's Club in the southern area of the county.

The attorney for the gentlemen's club asked Judge Wilkes for an injunction against the county's planning commission, which was planning to enforce the old law. The judge grudgingly agreed, calling the oridinance invalid.

In the latest development in the ongoing battle between adult store Love Shack and the city of Johns Creek, Atlanta, Love Shack owner John Cornetta has closed the store, saying he will seek $1.7 million in damages from the city.

There was no court order, it was simply a business decision, Cornetta told XBIZ: it stemmed from the losses and how the losses occurred.

The store had responded to the city's denial of a business license in April with an ante litem notice, requesting compensation for lost profits and offering to settle for a payment of $668,000 and the issuance of a sign and banner permit.

The Love Shack was opened a few days before the city was officially established on Dec. 1, 2006, giving Cornetta the argument that the store was in existence before the city and was grandfathered in.

According to Cornetta, the city's unwillingness to give him a sign permit ran him out of business. The city has said it won't give a sign permit or a business license for an adult business in an area not zoned for adult businesses.

For two years we sat there without a sign, Cornetta said: We had a little 'Open' sign in the window. We had a little banner up and we got 43 misdemeanor charges. Every day they stopped and gave us another misdemeanor charge. We're still waiting to go to court on those charges.

Cornetta told XBIZ that he will be opening another store in Atlanta in two weeks.

A federal jury has convicted Hard2Find Videos owner Loren Jay Adams of six counts of selling and distributing obscene material.

In addition to the conviction on charged counts, Adams must forfeit all of the obscene films in his possession and his business websites.

Adams, who operated Hard2Find Videos and L&J and L and J, used the US mail to ship the videos from Martinsville, Indiana, to Martinsburg, West Virgina.

Unfortunately, this case is another in a line of victories for the government in recent obscenity cases, First Amendment lawyer Lawrence G. Walters told XBIZ. The nature of the content was not widely publicized, but apparently included some fisting material. That activity, on its own, has not been the focus of obscenity prosecution for a number of years now. However, West Virginia is generally a conservative Bible Belt area, so federal obscenity cases can be difficult to defend in that kind of jurisdiction. Since this case involved the mailing of DVDs, it does not appear that this conviction will be tremendously precedential for the adult Internet industry.

The Justice Department's Obscenity Prosecution Task Force prosecuted the case.

Adams faces a maximum of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine on each count. No sentencing date has been set.

Veteran adult director Henri Pachard died over the weekend from complications of cancer. He was 69.

It was a sad thing, veteran director Roy Karch told XBIZ: Ron Sullivan [Pachard's real name] was one of the true gentlemen of our business. He was a true filmmaker, too. When you said 'rack-focus,' he understood it. Ron was also a pornographer. He was dirty-minded, as reflected in his toilet scenes and stuff with Gloria Leonard in New York.

Pachard's career went back to the '70s Golden Age, when adult productions were shot on film, using scripts and actors from the New York acting community, and shown in theaters. He directed more than 300 titles, writing and directing classic films including Outlaw Ladies , October Silk , The Budding of Brie and Babylon Pink . He was working as recently as last year, when he was shooting gonzo scenes on video.

Pachard was married five times, divorced four. He is survived by his wife Deloras and two adult sons, one of whom is adult-industry cinematographer Ralph Parfait.

Mayor Dennis Elwell has announced that he intends to stop the Exxxotica New York show from taking place this coming weekend at the Meadowlands Expo Center.

According to NJ.com, the city plans to use zoning laws to shut down the three-day adult consumer expo.

A pornographic convention where alcohol is served in violation of state law and at a facility adjacent to a nursery school and playground is not the sort of atmosphere I'll allow in Secaucus, Elwell said in a statement to the press.

Elwell and other city officials have called a press conference to address the situation tomorrow at noon at the Harmony Early Learning Center in Secaucus.

Many of the adult industry's biggest stars, studios and vendors are scheduled to attend Exxxotica NY.

Victory Tradeshow Management has produced four successful Exxxotica conventions in Miami Beach since launching the event in 2005. This year's Miami Beach show drew a reported 22,000 attendees. First announced in June, the Meadowlands event is the first Exxxotica convention to be promoted in the New York area.

Update: Moved

9th September 2008, Based on article from avn.com

AVN has learned that the Exxxotica NY show originally scheduled for this weekend at the Meadowlands Expo Center has been moved to a new venue due to legal issues with the town of Secaucus.

The show will now take place Friday - Sunday at the New Jersey Convention and Exposition Center at the Raritan Center in Edison, N.J. Show hours on Sunday have been changed to 11 a.m. - 5 p.m., but otherwise, all scheduling remains the same.

Outgoing Nassau County Commissioner Marianne Marshall apparently hopes to leave behind a legacy that will guarantee free speech suppression for years to come - but First Amendment advocate Lawrence G. Walters won't be making it easy for her.

Marshall's the driving force behind a new proposed county ordinance that would outlaw the sale of any sexually explicit material that, among other characteristics, depicts multiple penetration by multiple partners of body orifices; visible penetration during intercourse, sodomy, or oral sodomy; visible ejaculation, urination, menstruation, bowel movements, ejaculate or feces; and visible penetration of a bodily orifice with a digit, hand, foot, or inanimate object.

Trouble is, some or all of those characteristics can be found in every sexually explicit movie produced in the U.S., so what the ordinance does is effectively prohibit any XXX product from being sold anywhere in the county.

What they've tried to do is create a new category of unprotected speech which, as we know from recent Supreme Court precedent in the Free Speech Coalition case, that cannot be done, Walters told AVN.

The proposed ordinance states, The purpose of this Ordinance is to afford the citizens of Nassau County a civil remedy to enjoin the distribution of pornographic materials for profit and commercial purposes within the community, and to recover civil penalties and damages. Further, this Ordinance shall provide these remedies to any church or religious organization, or other representative group of organization.

Any person, firm, corporation, association, or entity, or any agent or employee of the foregoing, who willfully and knowingly distributes for profit or other commercial use pornographic materials, within the state, is liable for a civil penalty of not more than $1,000 for each such violation.

The fact that they're talking about banning commercial pornography and identify it as a nuisance, is just amazing to us, Walters said: And they're going to allow church groups to sue to get damages against anybody who dares to distribute commercial pornography in the county - in fact, they're trying to regulate the whole state; the distribution cannot occur anywhere in the state - I don't see how anyone connected with the Board who has a working knowledge of the law could allow this to pass.

The ordinance's author projects that it will go into effect on Jan. 1, 2009.

A new bill introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives, H.R. 3887, the William Wilberforce Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2007, is worrying to both travellers and porn producers

Titled Sex tourism , Sec. 2423A provides, in subparagraph (a), that A person who travels in interstate commerce or travels into the United States, or a United States citizen or an alien admitted for permanent residence in the United States who travels in foreign commerce, for the purpose of engaging in any illicit sexual conduct with another person shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 10 years, or both.

In case you don't know what illicit sexual conduct is, the Act later defines it as, in part, a commercial sex act - and in case you don't know what that is, Sec. 1591 of Title 18 already defines it as any sex act, on account of which anything of value is given to or received by any person. Hell, it doesn't even have to be money; treating the gal to a nice dinner, or paying for her flight or hotel room, could arguably fulfill the requirement!

But what many porn proucers may not realize is that there are few areas in the U.S. where courts have determined that it is legal to record adults engaging in sexually explicit conduct. The California Supreme Court's decision in People v. Freeman secures that right for anyone filming in California; a recent decision in New York City similarly distinguishes porn performances from prostitution, and it's unclear whether the areas of Nevada where prostitution is legal would also allow the filming of consensual commercial sex acts - but the legal right to make porn exists nowhere else in the U.S., and some jurisdictions specifically forbid it. Hence, any attempt to shoot foreign women engaged in sexually explicit conduct in the U.S. outside of the above-mentioned areas, either for magazines, DVDs or a Website, or if American women traveled abroad for similar shooting in countries that similarly forbid porn production, such performances would likely constitute illicit sexual conduct under H.R. 3887 and could trigger a decade's worth of imprisonment plus unspecified fines for the participants.

Worse, however, is subsection (c): Whoever, for the purpose of commercial advantage or private financial gain, arranges, induces, procures, or facilitates the travel of a person knowing that such a person is traveling in interstate commerce or foreign commerce for the purpose of engaging in illicit sexual conduct shall be fined under this title, imprisoned not more than 10 years, or both.

Translation: Bring a foreign woman to the U.S. to shoot porn, or send an American woman overseas for the same purpose - or in any way assist that international travel - and that "facilitator" could find him/herself facing a 10-year sentence and possibly huge fines under this Act. And let's not forget (e): Whoever attempts or conspires to violate this section shall be punishable in the same manner as for the completed violation.

The U.S. District Court in Cleveland recently upheld a law regulating sexually oriented businesses in Ohio.

Last year, the General Assembly passed the Community Defense Act, which sets hours of operation for sex shops and prohibits contact between patrons and dancers. Sex-shop owners challenged the law.

Judge Solomon Oliver Jr. said more than enough evidence was presented to show the negative effects of sexually oriented businesses on the community.

California Assembly Bill 2914, which would have imposed a 25% excise tax on adult products and productions, has died in committee.

The outrageous tax burden would have applied to all businesses that either sell or produce sexually explicit shows, movies, books and magazines — as well as websites. It was proposed by Democratic Assemblyman Charles Calderon.

According to Diane Duke, Executive Director of FSC, who attended one of the bill's hearings, the people Calderon got to testify were very inflammatory: [They] were telling lies about the industry; that people were committing suicide and that drugs were rampant on the set. Of course, we had people from the set there to testify that [those things] are not happening.

Some opponents opposed the bill on the belief that the government shouldn't be involved in people's sex lives; some saw it as a violation of free-speech rights as it singled out the adult industry, which could have been forced to leave the state; while others saw it as a simple case of the Democrat's trying to pile more taxes on legitimate business owners.

The Legal Obscenities seminar that took place at XBIZ Summer Forum ’08 is now available for viewing on the event website.

The hour and a half seminar features an outstanding lineup of industry attorneys and Evil Angel’s John Stagliano, who was recently charged in federal court with obscenity.

The video of the seminar will provide the opportunity to stay educated on a subject of huge importance not only for those charged with obscenity crimes but also for the industry as a whole. The attorneys who participated represent a peerless brain trust of legal experience and insight into the specifics of obscenity law and legal strategy, and remarks by John Stagliano of Evil Angel provided a poignant human dimension to the occasion.

Would a woman ever pay to have sex with a man at a brothel? If you believe Heidi Fleiss, the clearly unstable yet strangely charming former “Hollywood madam” (she served 21 months in federal prison for tax evasion related to her dial-a-hooker business), the answer is yes.

Hence the ultra-modern, oyster-shaped complex she has designed to be constructed just outside a town in the Nevada desert with the very unsexy name of Pahrump. Fleiss is convinced that the frustrated housewives of America want nothing more than to drive to one of the most godforsaken places on the planet to pay hundreds of dollars to be groped by an off-duty and probably homosexual Chippendale.

Her ideas are detailed in a sadly compelling new HBO documentary, Heidi Fleiss: The Would-Be Madam of Crystal (Crystal being the name of the proposed brothel location, as well as a snide reference to crystal meth, to which Fleiss appears hopelessly addicted).

As Fleiss mentally and physically disintegrates throughout the film, you get the feeling The Stud Farm might have been one of the greatest PR con-jobs of all time. But for all the suggestions that Fleiss was planning to open the place up to gays, thus guaranteeing profitability, I like to think she was genuinely interested in the brothel as a social experiment. For that reason alone I hope she cleans up and gets her licence.

The new set of guidelines from the Indian Censor Board have asked filmmakers to refrain from using caste names that could in any way undermine or hurt any section of the society.

This came in the wake of protests by some organisations, which voiced out concerns against objectionable dialogues in films like Maharadhi , Kantri , Ready and Gorintaku . In fact, the filmmakers were also asked to apologise.

However, the filmmakers are unhappy and are up in arms against the Censor Board. We have never hurt anyone intentionally. The guidelines are unwarranted, says Tammareddy Bharadwaj, president of Producers' Council.

Many filmmakers like Dil Raju feel that the guidelines will curb the creativity of the filmmakers. Films mirror the reality. Where's the originality left if there are so many restrictions, opines director EVV.

Meanwhile, the filmmakers have given a strong representation to the Board, requesting for revoking its decision.

A measure that would make it more difficult to investigate and punish prostitution crimes in San Francisco has qualified for the November ballot, opening another passage in the city's long fight over decriminalizing the sex-trade industry.

Proponents of the measure were able to collect more than 12,000 signatures, including those from three members of the Board of Supervisors, to put it on the ballot, according to the Erotic Service Providers Union, the labor group backing the measure. The same group was unsuccessful in putting a similar measure on the ballot in 2006.

The measure would end San Francisco's First Offender Prostitution Program for men who have been arrested for soliciting a prostitute. Men who go to "john school," which was created in 1996, pay $1,000 and attend a class on prostitution in exchange for the district attorney's office dropping the misdemeanor charge against them.

Mean minded politicians such as Mayor Gavin Newsom this week said the measure would severely hamper the city's ability to investigate and prosecute sex-trafficking cases.

The main goal of decriminalization, proponents say, is the safety of prostitutes. Maxine Doogan, a founder of the Erotic Service Providers Union, wrote in an e-mail: We want the right to make reports of crimes against us without being retaliated against by the Police Department.

Escorts say TheEroticReview.com founder's arrest could change paid-sex industry.

Private sex-industry message boards are buzzing with stories of how Dave Elms, the now-jailed founder of TheEroticReview.com, removed reviews of escorts who refused to offer him free sex in exchange for maintaining their good standing on his influential site.

In an interview with Valleywag, Nancy, an escort in California who says she relies on TheEroticReview for the bulk of her clientele, says she continues to use Elms's site even though she has "seen his 'work' of persuading girls to come and service him" to maintain the presence of the reviews critical to their business.

Independent traveling escort Ashley is one of the thousands of providers whose services have been reviewed on TheEroticReview. She had a run-in with Elms two months ago, when she asked that he change her name on the website to throw off a stalker. Elms took this opportunity to make his own pitch and that meant sleeping with him. She declined, and later found her reviews removed from TER.

Last week, after she heard that Elms had been jailed, she attempted to post a warning to escorts and clients on the board, but it was blocked by administrators and her account was disabled.

Elms is unlikely to face charges over these allegations of abuse. He is versed in what the law says, Nancy explains: He knew exactly what he could get away with and did it for a long time. In fact he could have continued getting girls to service him, had he not been jailed.

And the fate of TER? TER is the industry standard for men seeking providers, says Nancy. There is no other that comes close. Reviews are what fuel the industry.

Pennsylvania state representative Paul Clymer has introduced his Sexually Oriented Businesses Revenue Act to state legislators. Proposed last month, the bill calls for a $5 "pole tax" at strip clubs to benefit the Pennsylvania Coalition Against Rape.

Seventeen co-sponsors signed the bill, which would require strip club owners to collect the fee from every patron and send the proceeds to the state. The bill was inspired by the opening of Coyotes Show Club in Milford, Pa. and modeled on a strip-club tax introduced earlier this year in Texas.

The Texas pole tax was declared unconstitutional in March by a District Court judge. Clymer has implemented changes to his proposal in order to avoid similar legal challenges: We have strengthened the bill, and I believe it will meet constitutional muster. We're trying to advance good values and morality and be a help to the hardworking parents who are bringing their children up to have strong character.

Opponents of the bill, however, feel it will only drag Pennsylvania into unnecessary legal battles that will be costly to taxpayers.

Others claim that Clymer drafted the bill as an attempt to legislate his religious beliefs. Whatever happened to separation of church and state? asked Glenn McGogney, an attorney for Coyotes Show Club: He's picking on a business he doesn't like because of his personal religious objections and placing a tax on that.

In Brooklyn, New York, residents are hardly batting an eye over the opening of a new kind of sex shop. The high-design Babeland shop, which sells itself as being "kid-friendly," doesn't exactly scream sex though.

Unlike the older sex shops, often dark and dingy, the Babeland store has upbeat music, well-dressed saleswomen and infant changing tables -- marketing itself as a fun place for couples to shop. It's part of a growing trend that has been spreading from Louisville to Los Angeles in an attempt to take take the sleeze out of this part of the sex industry.

This store is the fifth Babeland store.

The Coalition Against Trafficking in Women (CATW) has called on the television network HBO to stop airing shows like Cathouse , which promote sex trafficking and prostitution.

On April 24, 2008, CATW held a picket line protest in front of the corporate offices of HBO in New York City to protest its reality series Cathouse , set in a brothel.

CATW claimed that by airing shows like Cathouse, HBO normalizes prostitution and its legalization. The cultural and legal acceptance of prostitution, in turn, encourages the demand for prostituted and trafficked women and girls in the global sex trade. Legitimizing pimps as entrepreneurs and managers, as well as portraying patronizing prostituted women as acceptable, harmless entertainment commences a vicious cycle in which the sex industry expands, and increases the demand for sex trafficked women and girls.

An association of First Amendment supporters and retailers have filed suit against the state of Indiana over a new law that would require sellers of sexually explicit and even softcore material to pay a litany of fees in order to do business.

Among the plaintiffs in the suit are the ACLU of Indiana, the Indianapolis Museum of Art, the Media Coalition, the Association of American Publishers Inc. and the National Association of Recording Merchandisers.

At issue is Indiana House Bill 1042, which Gov. Mitch Daniels signed into law at the end of March. The new law, which covers any business opening after July 1, 2008, or any existing business which changes location after that date, requires the affected business to register with the Secretary of State and pay a $250 registration fee, with several other fees possibly to follow, if the business sells sexually explicit materials.

The big question, of course, is, what constitutes sexually explicit materials ? Well, among other things, it's any product or service that is harmful to minors or that is designed for use in, marketed primarily for, or provides for the stimulation of the human genital organs or masochism or a masochistic experience, sadism or a sadistic experience, sexual bondage, or sexual domination.

As to what is harmful to minors :

• It describes or represents, in any form, nudity, sexual conduct, sexual excitement or sadomasochistic abuse.
• Considered as a whole, it appeals to the prurient interest in sex of minors.
• It is patently offensive to prevailing standards in the adult community as a whole with respect to what is suitable matter for or performance before minors.
• Considered as a whole, it lacks serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value to minors.

Rep. Terry Goodin claims the law will target pornography vendors that pop up along interstate exits in unincorporated areas. What it will do, however, is to require any business that deals in any way with any product or service that's remotely sexual - for instance, museums or art stores that sell statues of Michelangelo's David, or bookstores that sell mildly erotic literature or information on erectile dysfunction - to pay the $250 fee.

We're talking about a law that has very broad and very vague and, we would contend, very unconstitutional restrictions and burdens, said Ken Falk, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana: To the best of my knowledge, there is no similar law in the United States.

The Coalition Against Trafficking in Women (CATW) has called on the television network HBO to stop airing shows like Cathouse , which promote sex trafficking and prostitution.

On April 24, 2008, CATW held a picket line protest in front of the corporate offices of HBO in New York City to protest its reality series Cathouse , set in a brothel.

A New Hampshire adult video store's roadside sign will be moved, but not removed from the property.

The sign for XXXPosed in Wyndham has sparked complaints from passers-by who find the female silhouette on it racy and inappropriate for children to view. The planning director said, his department has received seven or eight complaints about the sign's content in the past several weeks.

Nonetheless, the sign's content is in keeping with local regulations, town officials say.

But the sign's location was deemed 7 feet too close to the right-of-way and must be moved back, said town Planning Director Al Turner.

Business co-owner Maurice Brancato said he has contracted with a company to move the sign.

Meanwhile, Planning Board nutter Ruth-Ellen Post said she can see how the sign would bother a mother with young children. In fact, she said, she would avoid it if she were transporting a young child.

Cops raided a New York S&M club  hauling off six dominatrices accused of prostitution, police sources said.

Undercover officers posed as customers to infiltrate Rebecca's Hidden Chamber, which bills itself as "the polite dungeon," according to its Web site.

The W. 31st St. club's Web site advertises more than 30 beauties available for spanking, whipping and the fulfillment of a variety of fetishes.

According to the site, a guide to adult entertainment named Rebecca's the best dungeon and fetish facility in New York.

Increased controls have been approved by the Dallas City Council to outlaw the presence of minors and closed-door VIP rooms in strip clubs.

According to The Dallas Morning News, the council revised its requirements for an adult business license after police discovered a 12-year-old girl dancing nude at Diamond's Cabaret in March.

Free Speech Coalition executive director Diane Duke criticized the revisions as "overbroad and overreaching for what they want to do.

The reforms to Dallas' adult business laws call for:

• An automatic one-year revocation of licenses for any adult business found to be employing or allowing entrance by minors
• A ban on doors, walls, drapes or anything obstructing the view of VIP areas in a strip club from the rest of the premises
• A designated official club operator to be present during all operating hours and responsible for all activity within a club
• Detailed records to be kept on file of all employees including their age, an original photo, a copy of a valid driver's license, their fingerprints and a Texas criminal history report

The revised ordinance takes effect inediately. It reduces the number of days within which a club cited with a violation can be shut down from 30 to 10, but does not include several requirements some council members had hoped to impose.

Those include city licenses for adult business employees, mandatory cover charges and the prohibition of physical contact between strip club dancers and patrons. There was concern amongst city officials that these edicts would invite legal challenges.

A $5-per-customer fee on Texas strip club patrons dubbed the "pole tax" has been declared unconstitutional.

A state district judge ruled that clubs can't collect the fee. The charge went into effect in January and was expected to raise about $44 million.

Judge Scott Jenkins wrote in the March 28 decision that the fee, while furthering laudable goals, violates the First Amendment to the United States Constitution and is therefore invalid.

The Texas Entertainment Association Inc., which is a group of topless clubs, and the owner of an Amarillo club, sued Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott and Comptroller Susan Combs over the fee.

Witnesses for the strip clubs testified at a hearing last year that the clubs would go out of business if they had to collect an additional $5-per-patron fee.

Lawyers for the state had said the Legislature was within its rights to impose the fee on businesses that serve alcohol and offer nude performances.

Attorneys for the state have argued that the fee does not prohibit nude dancing, does not regulate what entertainers wear and does not regulate the businesses in other ways. The state can appeal the decision.

Update: Unconstitutional Tax Continues

23rd April 2008

State District Judge Stephen Yelenosky has told attorneys for Texas strip clubs that the state can continue to collect a controversial strip club fee — which was struck down as unconstitutional three weeks ago — while the state appeals the ruling.

South Carolina State Senator Mike Fair wants to add a 20% surcharge on magazines like Playboy and Hustler that show frontal nudity. He says the tax hike would raise $385,000 dollars for the state to pay for tracking devices for sex offenders.

Just as we're trying to do with cigarettes, we have tried to do and continue to try to do with alcohol, is lets the users of those products pay for some of the consequences that come from that, Fair explained.

Senator Fair introduced the proposal at a senate finance committee. Right now the group is working on the sate's seven million dollar budget. Senators did not vote on the idea yet, but he hopes they discuss it more when they meet again soon.

A new Indiana law that requires sellers of adult material to register with the state has Hoosier bookstore owners fuming about government censorship and threatening a legal challenge.

This lumps us in with businesses that sell things that you can’t even mention in a family newspaper, said Ernie Ford, owner of Fine Print Book Store in Greencastle.

Ford was talking about HEA 1042, which Governor Mitch Daniels signed into law last week. He was one of 15 independent Indiana booksellers who signed a letter last week urging Daniels to veto the legislation.

The new law that takes effect July 1 requires businesses that sell sexually explicit material to pay a $250 fee and register with the secretary of state, which would then pass the information to municipal or county officials so they can monitor the businesses for potential violations of local ordinances.

Co-sponsor Brent Steele said the law does not apply to businesses that sold sexually explicit material on or before June 30; it applies only to new businesses, those that relocate or businesses that begin offering such material after that date.

But groups representing state and national booksellers say the law casts its net too wide. A legal scholar agrees, calling it overly broad and so ambiguous that it may violate constitutional rights.

The way we read this bill, if you stock a single book with sexual content — even a novel or a book about sex education — you will have to register as a business that sells sexually explicit material, said Chris Finan, president of American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression: This is just outrageous from our standpoint, and we believe it is a violation of the First Amendment.

While the law does not prohibit stores from selling a book with sexual content, he said, it has a chilling effect that could force sellers to limit the scope of their offerings or get out of the business rather than being placed on a state list of businesses that sell sexually explicit works.

Finan said his group will ask the Media Coalition — a New York-based group that defends Americans’ First Amendment right to produce and sell books, movies, magazines, recordings, DVDs, videotapes and video games, as well as the public’s right to have access to the broadest possible range of opinion and entertainment — to take legal action to overturn the legislation. A decision by the coalition on whether to enter the fight is expected by mid-April, he said.

Kansas legislation that would prohibit alcoholic beverages at establishments where there is nude dancing was heard Monday but probably won’t be acted on this session.

State Representative Arlen Siegfreid, chairman of the House Federal and State Affairs Committee, said his committee had too many other bills to consider with only a couple of days left for committee work.

Siegfreid said he expected lawmakers will consider the proposal next year. State Rep. Lance Kinzer, R-Olathe, the bill’s sponsor, appeared to be OK with that.

House Bill 2835 would regulate sexually oriented businesses, such as adult book and film stores, and nude bars.

It would prohibit sexually oriented businesses from being open between midnight and 6 a.m. and ban serving alcoholic beverages. Nude or semi-nude dancers would have to remain at least six feet from patrons. Also, sexually oriented businesses could not be opened any closer than 1,000 feet from a school, house of worship, public library, park, day care facility or other sexually oriented business.

Ron Hein, representing the Motion Picture Association of America, said the group objected to a provision in the bill that included the MPAA’s movie rating system. Incorporating the voluntary rating system into law could cause some filmmakers to stop using the rating system, he said.

Philip Bradley, with the Kansas Licensed Beverage Association, said establishments that serve alcoholic beverages and feature nude dancing already are highly regulated through their liquor licenses and local ordinances.

Back in 2003, Sherri Williams was in the midst of fighting for her right to sell dildos and vibrators in Alabama. She hired lobbyist John Teague to find an Alabama legislator who would be willing to introduce a bill that would strip the prohibition on "obscene devices" from Alabama law – and Teague found one in the person of Representative John W. Rogers Jr.

Rogers introduced the same bill in succeeding years with little success, and this year, it's been designated as House Bill 12, which, if finally passed, would delete the language or any device designed or marketed as useful primarily for the stimulation of human genital organs from Alabama's obscenity law, allowing the sale of vibrators, etc., to go forward.

And if they do like they did the last four years consecutively, lawmakers will refuse to vote on it because they don't want that coming up on their voting record.

Williams is doing all she can to get the bill enacted: I put together a postcard campaign, and I've got all my customers and any other adult store customers that would like to get involved mailing postcards to the House members encouraging them to actually vote on it...We've already mailed out 2,000....It's a huge, huge response."

The card, which bears the headline, Stop Government from intruding into the bedrooms of law abiding citizens! , quotes the text of the bill, gives a short history of Williams' fight and notes, Yes, for 9 Years, the State of Alabama has spent hundreds of thousands of TAX DOLLARS to defend a law that bans the sale of sexual aids to adults for use in the privacy of their own bedrooms. Now they must spend hundreds of thousands of TAX DOLLARS upholding this law. WHY? ... Doesn't the State have more critical reasons to spend my tax dollars, than to police my personal & intimate choices?

The legislature has until early May to pass (or defeat) the legislation, and Williams hopes that if enough adult store patrons from around the state send in their postcards, and with the legislators undoubtedly aware that their neighboring federal district recently struck down that exact "obscene device" law, this year, HB 12 just might have a chance of passage.

House leaders from both parties and the White House reached agreement yesterday on a bill that would more than triple in size the Bush administration's global AIDS program, already the largest foreign aid initiative aimed at fighting a single disease in US history.

The bill loosens the requirement for abstinence messages in AIDS prevention strategies, a source of constant criticism of the program since it was unveiled by President Bush in 2003.

The bill authorizes $50 billion over five years to prevent infection, treat people already ill from HIV, and care for children orphaned by the epidemic. The program, known as the President's Emergency Program for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), provided $15 billion over its first five years.

This historic agreement will save millions of lives, said Paul Zeitz, a physician who heads the Global AIDS Alliance, a vocal critic of some original PEPFAR provisions. With bipartisan support, Congress is beginning to fix aspects of the AIDS program that were clearly not working.

The original PEPFAR law's requirement that one-third of prevention dollars be used to promote abstinence set off a rhetorical war between the program's State Department leaders and much of the rest of the AIDS community. The new bill appears to signal a truce.

The reauthorized bill requires PEPFAR's chief to provide "balanced funding" for prevention and to ensure that abstinence and faithfulness activities are implemented and funded in a meaningful and equitable way. If a country spends less than 50 percent of its sexual-transmission prevention funding on the promotion of abstinence and faithfulness, the program must justify that decision to Congress.

However, a requirement that every organization receiving PEPFAR money adopt a specific policy against "prostitution and human trafficking" - which many activist groups also find rankling - remains in the new bill.

The bill now goes to the Senate.

A federal appeals court has overturned a statute outlawing sex toy sales in Texas, one of the last of the southern states to retain such a ban.

The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the Texas law making it illegal to sell or promote obscene devices, punishable by as many as two years in jail, violated the right to privacy guaranteed by the 14th Amendment.

Companies that own Dreamer's and Le Rouge Boutique, which sell the devices in its Austin stores, and the retail distributor Adam & Eve sued in federal court in Austin in 2004 over the constitutionality of the law. They appealed after a federal judge dismissed the suit and said the Constitution did not protect their right to publicly promote such devices.

In its decision, the appeals court cited Lawrence and Garner v. Texas, the U.S. Supreme Court's 2003 opinion that struck down bans on consensual sex between same-sex couples.

Just as in Lawrence, the state here wants to use its laws to enforce a public moral code by restricting private intimate conduct, the appeals judges wrote. The case is not about public sex. It is not about controlling commerce in sex. It is about controlling what people do in the privacy of their own homes because the state is morally opposed to a certain type of consensual private intimate conduct. This is an insufficient justification after Lawrence.

The Texas attorney general's office, which represented the Travis County district attorney in the case, has not decided whether to appeal, said agency spokesman Tom Kelley.

Phil Harvey, president of Adam & Eve Inc., said: I think it's wonderful, but it does seem to me that since Texas was one of three states in the country — along with Mississippi and Alabama — that continued to outlaw the sale of sex toys and vibrators, that it was probably past time .

Alabama is in the 11th Circuit. But now it's unlikely that the law in Mississippi, which also is in the 5th Circuit, will be prosecuted, some legal experts said. Louisiana, Kansas, Colorado and Georgia had laws barring obscene devices, but courts have since struck them down. The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals struck down a Georgia law banning the advertising of sex toys, which can be sold under some approved circumstances.

Update: Mississippi Shaken

25th February 2008

It is also speculated that the Mississippi sex toy ban is now also in jeopardy as it is on the same circuit of appeal courts as Texas

Seven strip clubs in Memphis have filed a federal lawsuit against the city and Shelby County seeking to block a recently passed ordinance that bans beer sales and topless dancing in the clubs.

Arguing that the entertainment offered in their establishments would be "unconstitutionally diminished" should the ordinance be enforced, the clubs also say the law is unenforceable in municipalities that have their own regulations and ordinances.

The law is irrational, arbitrary and capricious, says the suit, which was filed by attorneys. The clubs represented in the suit are: Christie's Cabaret; Platinum Rose; The Gold Club; New York, New York; The Pony; the Jet Strip and Downtown Dolls.

The ordinance was modeled after Tennessee's Adult-Oriented Establishment Registration Act of 1998, which has been upheld twice in court. In addition to the banning of alcohol and nudity, it requires dancers to maintain a distance of six feet from customers while performing. Employees of any type at the clubs are also required under the ordinance to file applications with the Shelby County Clerk's Office.

Unless defeated by the clubs' suit, the ordinance will take effect Apr. 29.

Update: Effected

4th May 2008

The repressive law came into effect as described above

A Colorado Representative, Amy Stephens, is sponsoring a state bill to tax adult movies ordered in hotel rooms as a means of funding child sex-abuse programs.

House Bill 1086 currently calls for a 99-cent fee on all in-room pay-per-view movies, but Stephens seeks to narrow the targeted material down to adult movies only.

Stephens said that taxing adult movies for this cause only stands to reason, as most of our sexual predators in prison are addicted to pornography.

Cathryn Hazouri, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado, countered Stephens' argument, saying that her proposal would violate the First Amendment.

In December, the Hook reported on the case of Rick Krial, the owner of Staunton adult video store After Hours Video who faces eight felony obscenity counts after undercover police purchased 10 DVDs from his establishment. Now, the cashier who sold police those DVDs has also been charged.

Staunton Commonwealth's Attorney Ray Robertson indicted Tinsley Embrey on six felony and four misdemeanor counts. A date for pretrial motions has been set for March 6 at 8:30am, three weeks after Krial's own trial opens at 1pm on the appropriate date of February 14.

The prosecutor told the Staunton News Leader that he charged the cashier because He knew what he was selling. The article also states that Krial will foot the legal bill for Embrey.

In the obscenity cases we've done, I don't recall any of the clerical staff ever being charged, says Kent Willis, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia. If you target the owner of the store, then the store goes away. If you target an employee who has little to no decision-making power over what items are for sale, it just means more work for the prosecution to achieve the same goal.

Update: Trial

11th March 2008

Krial and his company, LSP of Virginia, will face two initial misdemeanor counts of selling obscenity at a June 17 trial. Krial's employee, Tinsley W. Embrey, also will face two misdemeanor counts of selling obscenity at that time.

While grand juries indicted the defendants on additional felony counts of obscenity, these charges will be left for future trial dates.

Update: Defence Rejected

2nd June 2008

A motion to dismiss obscenity charges against a Staunton adult video store owner and one of his employees on constitutional grounds was denied at a hearing Wednesday morning in Staunton Circuit Court. The case is scheduled to proceed to trial Aug. 12.

All Memphis Sex Workers Must be Licensed. An ordinance that took effect January 1st requires workers at adult-oriented businesses and the owners of those businesses to be licensed annually before they're allowed to work in Shelby County.

Bartenders, waitresses, dancers, bouncers, store clerks, movie-theater employees, and others at the county's more than two dozen adult establishments must undergo criminal background checks and complete county license applications or change careers.

Background checks will be conducted by sheriff's deputies and the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation. A history of prostitution, rape (including statutory rape), sexual battery, public indecency, pandering, sale or distribution of obscene materials, or other illegal activities can keep a worker or business owner from being licensed by the five-member Shelby County Adult Oriented Establishment Board.

The adult industry’s biggest star has confirmed her retirement from performing in adult movies. Jenna Jameson announced that she will no longer “spread her legs again” for the industry while presenting onstage at the 25th Annual AVN Adult Movie Awards.

She addressed recent tabloid headlines, saying I’m happier than I’ve ever been.

Then came the official word straight from the icon’s lips.

Honesty is key, Jameson said. I will never spread my legs in this industry again, but I love all of you.

Scattered boos followed her announcement, no doubt in disappointment that the world’s biggest sex star is finished performing.

The Mayor and Council settled on a course of repression regarding sexually oriented businesses this week, with a unanimous vote for a scenario that outlines the tiny and limited portion of town that will allow for sexually oriented businesses.

Ocean City in Maryland currently consists of only one sexually oriented business, but the possibility of more following en suite was enough to spur the Mayor and Council to place a moratorium on sexually oriented businesses until a decision on the licensing and zoning of sexually oriented businesses could be made.

The council agreed to go with the most restrictive scenario available, which will require a 600-foot buffer from protected facilities and a 300-foot buffer from residential uses. This scenario will yield two acres of property and 0.09% of developable land for sexually oriented businesses. With the restrictions of the scenario, the only area of town that will be zoned for additional sexually oriented businesses will be in the Food Lion Shopping Center between 118th and 119th streets.

I think it's fair based on what we have today , said Mayor Rick Meehan.

Jeffrey Baxter, the owner of Stardust nightclub, has been charged with violating Alabama's Anti-Obscenity Act in connection with the arrests of three women at the club for indecent exposure.

The girls were arrested for flashing others in the club, and Baxter is being held liable, as the owner, for allowing it to happen.

Baxter told the Eagle that the three women were not employees of the club, and that his employees in fact were the ones who called police to have them removed.

This is a case of girls gone way too wild, Baxter said, adding, "A girl could flash in any bar in Dothan and the same thing would happen.

Baxter was charged with a Class C felony, and the Dothan office of Alabama's Alcohol Beverage Control Board is recommending that the state ABC board suspend or revoke Stardust's alcohol license because this was the club's third offense in the year 2007.

Senator Jane Orie is pushing for a 10% state tax on adult entertainment, including pornography distributors, publishers, adult bookstores, escort services and strip clubs.

Orie said she will ask the Senate to authorize her proposal for the Legislative Budget and Finance Committee to study whether the tax is feasible in Pennsylvania. Similar laws in Utah and Texas have been challenged on the grounds that they are unconstitutional.

The senator believes the revenues from the proposed porn tax would help "remediate the harm" of adult entertainment's negative "secondary effects".

Update: Constitutionally Inconsistent

13th January 2008

From X Biz see full article

Jeffrey Douglas, chairman of the Free Speech Coalition, told XBIZ that assurances that the tax would be constitutional if limited to “secondary effects” adult entertainment were an oversimplification of the question, at best.

At the heart of this kind of proposal is taxation that targets one form of protected expression over another, and it means that the government is favoring one form of expression over another, Douglas said. No matter how proponents embroider it, all of these taxation schemes are designed to burden forms of expression that they don’t like, but not forms of expression that express the same thing, but that don’t show off the same body parts.

Asked why state governments would continue to propose such forms of taxation if they are doomed to be struck down by the courts, Douglas said it all comes down to politics: These proposals are inconsistent with the 1st Amendment and inconsistent with legal precedent — but they make great local politics, so we continue to see these bills.

Attorneys for Lollipops Gentlemen's Club have taken their fight against the city's anti-nudity ordinance to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Their petition was filed this month.

We're asking the Supreme Court to give some guidance, said Brett Hartley, an attorney representing Lollipops.

City Attorney Marie Hartman has said the city would respond to the petition filed with the Supreme Court.

The city's ordinance states if a club sells alcohol, or is within 500 feet of a business that sells alcohol, the dancers must wear modest bikinis. The city will allow adult entertainment in certain areas, including undeveloped land west of the city.

The Supreme Court often denies cases, but Hartley says the Lollipops' attorneys are seeking guidance from the high court because there is not uniformity in similar ordinances across the country. He said the city's argument that such businesses create "adverse effects" is not supported by facts and "flies in the face of common sense."