Nicolas Cage plays corrupt Lt. Terence McDonagh, a New Orleans police detective who seeks comfort from his girlfriend Frankie, a prostitute, in ”The Bad Lieutenant.”
(First Look Studios)

See the full article from “The Virginian-Pilot”

Levine, while endorsing the idea that quality primary care can be a cost-saver, said the senator’s assessment still overpromises access in a system already short on family-practice physicians willing to accept Medicaid, which generally pays at a lower rate than private insurance.
The back-and-forth is just the latest dustup between Landrieu and the Jindal administration concerning Medicaid and the federal health-care bill.
Landrieu took heat last year when she won an amendment to steer more federal money to Louisiana’s Medicaid program. Jindal had requested the fix, calling it the state’s top budget priority. But he was mum for days when conservative commentators Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh called Landrieu a “prostitute” for getting the provision tacked on to the insurance legislation. The governor eventually released a statement saying “the delegation” should not be criticized for helping Louisiana.

See the full article from “NOLA.com”

And sure enough, many critics have convinced themselves that this is high art, with Herzog the auteur twisting a genre flick to his own ends, creating yet another portrait of a nearly insane obsessive. A more reasonable assessment would be: “Miami Vice” on crack. It’s your basic police procedural drama enlivened with random hallucinatory shots of lizards and dialogue like, “Do fish love dreams?” thrown in to be, well, rather self-consciously arty. Herzog and a crime flick do not make for a comfortable fit.
The story is reminiscent of the original: corrupt, loose cannon detective finds himself surprised to learn he still has a conscience. The film follows Cage’s cocaine-numbed cop as he shakes down nightclubbing couples for drugs (and the sheer thrill of humiliating them), helps himself to coke from the evidence room, and then does even more drugs with his prostitute girlfriend (Eva Mendes). Coupled with this is his surprisingly diligent investigation of a multiple homicide, in which a family of African immigrants — including the children — were brutally gunned down.

See the full article from “The Japan Times”

Currently, after an individual is convicted of a sex crime, the investigating, arresting and prosecuting agencies are left with property that cannot really be utilized and will not be returned. In some cases, the agency has to get a destroy order for the property.
With this change in law, agencies can use the seized property as a source of revenue to continue the fight against these sex crimes.  Specifically, the legislation will allow a court, upon a guilty ruling, to order that the personal property used by the offender at the time of the offense be seized and impounded. The district attorney will then be able to authorize the public sale or auction of the property. 
Crimes linked to this option will include cyberstalking, human trafficking, trafficking of children for sexual purposes, felony carnal knowledge of a juvenile, computer-aided solicitation of a minor, indecent behavior with juveniles, pornography involving juveniles, molestation of a juvenile and enticing persons into prostitution.

See the full article from “KTAL”

If private planes and helicopters seemed too plebeian, then “Silent Wings II” offered an alternative. This modest 104-foot yacht featured a staff of four, including a gourmet chef, and “his” and “her” bathrooms in the largest of the suites. Included in the deal were six luxury suite tickets to the big game and a chauffeured Rolls-Royce. The cost? A modest $100,000. The Super Bowl was consistently the priciest event in Sportsworld, and of course worth every tax-deductible dollar.
A former prostitute once told the Minneapolis Star Tribune, “Pimps see the Super Bowl as a moneymaking opportunity delivered by God.” From special service in the private suites to the halftime quickie, the demand side of the economic equation is highly active. Successful executives on corporate expense accounts display their macho and their cash to grateful clients. New Orleans may be the best Super Bowl city in this respect, but places like Scottsdale, Ariz., advertised 25 escort services, and in Minneapolis, escort services offered a 10 percent discount for the Super Bowl. South Beach will certainly not be found lacking in this respect.

See the full article from “PopPolitics”

It’s somewhere around 11 p.m., and Jezebel’s Juke Joint and Brothel (3862 High St.) is jumping.
It’s Mardi Gras. Purple, green and gold streamers festoon the brick walls, and a giant Mardi mask overlooks the festivities from a perch above the crowd. Most of the crowd is wearing feathery masks, too, and draped with beads.
Jezebel’s is getting packed as Fat Tuesday fades into Ash Wednesday, and the revelers are rowdy. Loud blues music pounds through the old building — it’s been around more than 100 years — and the dance floor is filling up. The bar is slammed with happy customers celebrating both Mardi Gras and Jezebel’s grand opening.
Some buildings are just meant to be what they are. After decades of saloons filling its space, and maybe a real upstairs brothel back in the day, Jezebel’s is one of those buildings.

See the full article from “Denver Post”

The legislation that grants limited administrative subpoena authority to investigators of online sexual predators would be used most often, said Hugo Holland, Caddo assistant district attorney, who primarily prosecutes sexual assault suspects and assisted in the drafting of the legislation.
Doing so would reduce the wait time from months to a matter of days.
“It is very difficult for us to sit back and wait for this information,” Caddo sheriff’s Detective Robert Greer said, adding he knows while they wait, other children are being victimized. Parents who report their children being contacted by sexual predators are “horrified” when they find out how long they have to wait, Greer said.
Holland said the most useful bill would be that which allows for the forfeiture of property directly used in the commission of the following sex crimes, from cyberstalking and possession of child pornography to human trafficking and enticing persons into prostitution.

See the full article from “Shreveport Times”

What was Herzog thinking when
dealing with this foray into the underworld of the Big Easy?
He denies that this was a remake of Ferrara’s cult effort,
but the resemblances are there. We have the character of
Terrence McDonagh, a New Orleans policeman who irreparably
injures his back while rescuing a convict during the rising
waters of Hurricane Katrina. The injury induces a sliding
drug addiction. As he succumbs, he trawls the city for
drugs, sadistic pleasures and bets. His fixation with
hunting down the murderers of five Senegalese residents
takes him into an unholy alliance with Big Fate (Alvin
‘Xzibit’ Joiner).
Cage struggles to patch together a
consistent performance. According to Manohla Dargis in the
New York Times (Nov 15, 2009), ‘Mr. Cage is
reliably unreliable.’ He falls quite someway short of
generating an impression of drug-driven angst, instead
hamming a performance that grates more than inspires.
Indeed, Herzog’s entire effort here is problematic. There
is no deep engagement with the subject matter. If anything,
one is utterly disengaged. The relationship between McDonagh
and Eva Mendes’ character, the prostitute Frankie
Donnenfeld, is a triumph of shallowness. Val Kilmer seems
to be a mere prop as Stevie Pruit, McDonagh’s
partner.

See the full article from “Scoop.co.nz”

As we approached a particularly drunk group of men, wondering why such a congregation had formed, I looked up at the apartment’s windows only to see three pairs of boobs looking back down at me. One girl had her breasts out of her pulled down bra, her shirt bunched up near her neck. She simply sat with her boobs out as the guy sitting next to her on the windowsill jiggled them around and yelled to the audience to throw her beads. The second woman, a little more outgoing than the first, kept pulling up her shirt to expose her abnormally large breasts while yelling out a “woo” with each lift.
Finally, the third pair of sweater monkeys I had the “pleasure” of seeing belonged to a girl that seemed incredibly sure of herself. She had completely taken off her shirt and bra, apparently allowing for easier access and numerous showings to the awaiting crowd. Acting as a true stripper would, she would hold herself …

See the full article from “Daily Northwestern”

As we approached a particularly drunk group of men, wondering why such a congregation had formed, I looked up at the apartment’s windows only to see three pairs of boobs looking back down at me. One girl had her breasts out of her pulled down bra, her shirt bunched up near her neck. She simply sat with her boobs out as the guy sitting next to her on the windowsill jiggled them around and yelled to the audience to throw her beads. The second woman, a little more outgoing than the first, kept pulling up her shirt to expose her abnormally large breasts while yelling out a “woo” with each lift.
Finally, the third pair of sweater monkeys I had the “pleasure” of seeing belonged to a girl that seemed incredibly sure of herself. She had completely taken off her shirt and bra, apparently allowing for easier access and numerous showings to the awaiting crowd. Acting as a true stripper would, she would hold herself …

See the full article from “Daily Northwestern”