Angelenos have spotted around town some very suggestive, very sexually suggestive billboards - language only, no imagery. Now we know for certain they're a promotion for the Los Angeles Avengers arena football team. And now we also know who defaced one of the signs - "On Sunday, April 9th, Six Beautiful Women Will Show You Their Panties." It was Azusa City Manager and former Pasadena mayor Rick Cole, who tells the Los Angeles Times the sign outraged him enough that he doused the last two words in black paint in late February. "It is no secret I found [the billboard], a block from a city playground, offensive to me and the families of Azusa," he told the paper. "I took action to address that concern. Of course, I accept fully responsibility or any consequences." That may include his admission that he used a municipal "cherry picker" truck to do the job, with the help of a few residents. His own police department arrested him, and district attorney spokeswoman Sandi Gibbons says they're taking the charges seriously, according to the Times. The billboard was one of over a thousand text-only, black-and-white billboards trumpeting the Avengers around the Los Angeles area in advance of the franchise's first home game. Another of the billboards: "On April 9th, Twelve Men Will Go Both Ways." The panties reference, incidentally, alluded to the team's cheerleaders. The "both ways" reference indicates the arena football practice of players playing offense and defense. The Avengers say they've changed the billboards in other locations where people found them offensive and complained to the team properly - and that Cole knew how to go about it that way because he contacted the club prior to painting over the sign in question.
EVERETT, Wash. - It's 90 days in the clink for a Federal Way man who threatened to spread sexually explicit photos of a former girlfriend unless she paid him $5,000. Molotov Pauling was convicted March 29 of two counts of second-degree extortion, with the judge rejecting his bid for a new trial. But his sentence was stayed pending an appeal, according to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Pauling argues Washington's extortion law is unconstitutional, because it limits freedom of expression. He sent photographs of his former girlfriend to family and neighbors, the paper said, adding she had left the photos behind when she broke up with Pauling in 1998.
DETROIT - Female officers apparently had no strings attached - when they moonlighted as strippers. And the Detroit Police Department is warning the ladies to keep their clothes on. The department's bureau of internal affairs is looking into reports that women officers in the 12th Precinct moonlighted as strippers off duty, both at clubs and private parties. A precinct commander tells the Detroit Free Press she instructed 10 women under her command not to moonlight in jobs that would "dishonor" their badges. Violators could face charges of conduct unbecoming.
--- Compiled by Humphrey Pennyworth
