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"Dear John" Billboard
Anti-Prostitution Billboards Unveiled  Reporting
Vince Gerasole CHICAGO (CBS) -
- CBS
Close   | The Cook County sheriff's office unveiled billboards targeting those who solicit sex near O'Hare International Airport.
CBS |
1 of 1 Men who solicit women for sex and men who force women into prostitution are being put on notice. Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart kicked off an aggressive campaign Sunday with a pricey warning to those who prey on women. CBS 2's Vince Gerasole reports.
For a year now, Dart has been aided by a new county ordinance making it easier to arrest and fine Johns.
Now in a corner of Leyden Township plagued by prostitution, would-be Johns can read all about it and how costly their actions can be.
In broad daylight, a prostitution sting is in progress. The woman is actually an undercover officer, solicited by the driver of an 18-wheeler. Seconds later, Cook County sheriff's detectives swoop in and make their arrest.
"The Johns, if we can get rid of the customers, that's half the battle there," said Sheriff Tom Dart.
Authorities say the sidewalks and no-tell motels of Manheim Road in Leyden Township have been plagued by sexual solicitation for years.
The sheriff's vice unit made some 500 prostitution arrests in Cook County last year; two-thirds occurred at motels and roadside locations.
"It took us a while to nail down the actual visual on them," said Dart.
But since Wednesday, some unconventional billboards up above, now warn Johns that detectives are working undercover below, and the fines they face are upwards of $2,000.
"Just this past Friday, we arrested someone underneath the billboard trying to solicit a prostitute," said Dart.
Dart, who has stepped up these efforts, says in the past year the arrest of over 100 Johns has netted some $50,000. It's money now helping to get prostitutes, many who are addicts, into rehabilitation.
"I just wish the public could get a window into who these prostitutes are," said Dart. "It has literally been sexual abuse since a young age, narcotics abuse throughout, and then physical abuse."
Former prostitute Marion Hatcher's college degree couldn't keep her off the streets.
"Once you get involved in it, it's extremely difficult to get out," she said. "I was rescued by angels with handcuffs."
Hatcher now works as a prostitution counselor for the sheriff's department, thanks in part to the services paid for by the increasing arrest of Johns.
"I did 120 days in women's justice services as my sentence in lieu of going to prison for three to seven years," said Hatcher.
"I'd be lying to you if I said they're all success stories, they're not," said Dart. "But at least we're making a dent in it."
Dart knows billboards alone won't make a difference. He calls them one more tool in the fight to convince people prostitution is not a victimless crime.
Happy Independence Day!
IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America  hen in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. - That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, - That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. - Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world. He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good. He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them. He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only. He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures. He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people. He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within. He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands. He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers. He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries. He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance. He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures. He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power. He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation: For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us: For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States: For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world: For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent: For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury: For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences: For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments: For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever. He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us. He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people. He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation. He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands. He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions. In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people. Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends. We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. - And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor. - John Hancock New Hampshire:
Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton Massachusetts:
John Hancock, Samuel Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry Rhode Island:
Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery Connecticut:
Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott New York:
William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris New Jersey:
Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark Pennsylvania:
Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross Delaware:
Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean Maryland:
Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton Virginia:
George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton North Carolina:
William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn South Carolina:
Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton Georgia:
Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton
Stripper accused of committing worker's comp fraud
On October 11, 2007, I entered an article about a pole dancer getting worker's compenstation. Here's the flip side of that idea, from USA Today. :) -Track- | Stripper accused of committing worker's comp fraud |
QUAKERTOWN, Pa. (AP) - A Pennsylvania woman is facing insurance fraud charges after authorities say she worked as a stripper while collecting worker's compensation payments. The state Attorney General's office said 43-year-old Christina Gamble, of Quakertown, collected thousands of dollars in insurance payments while working at C.R. Fanny's Gentlemen's Club and Sports Bar. According to a complaint, Gamble claimed she fell and hurt her back while working at a restaurant in 2007 and told a doctor it was difficult for her to stand or change positions. Authorities say she received more than $22,000 in disability benefits. Gamble was arraigned Thursday on two counts of insurance fraud and one count of theft by deception and released on her own recognizance. A phone listing for Gamble could not immediately be located. Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Happy Birthday, Ciara
This my fourth use of Hobbyistblogs to wish Ciara a happy birthday on April 20, which definitely makes it a tradition. 
Three years ago I posted the following, and I don't think I can do better...except to mention a second time that it's also Lima Bean Day. Those of you who have no legume issues have some Lima Bean soup. :) On 20 April the Buffalo Charm, the tireless Sinful Ciara herself completes her fourth decade. (Okay, this year, it will be completing her 43rd year.) I'd enter one of her stunning pictures if I could but there's still a glitch from my computer to Kwasi's software. (Actually, this year I succeeded - because I copies it from last year. Yay!) Instead (Additionally), I'll link you to her one page, one stop shopping for all your escorting needs page: http://www.buffalocharm.com/buffaloescort.html It is entirely a coincidence that the Soup Nazi shares her birthday with Adolf Hitler and the date with the Columbine massacre; it is but one day following the Waco Branch Davidian shootings and Timothy McVeigh's Oklahoma City bombing. Really. I am not making this up. Really and truly. Much affection and admiration: Happy birthday, Ciara. Now, about your touring my area (which has yet to happen)....
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