An inside probe confirms that eight Chicago firefighters let a prostitute turn the firehouse into a hothouse. It turns out you could get more than a little off your top at a Quebec hair salon. And Vermont's governor says his state's voters just don't get it about same sex marriage. All that and more in the Newsex roundup...
CHICAGO - The firehouse turned into a hothouse - eight Chicago firemen face potential suspension or dismissal after an inside probe confirmed a prostitute wasn't making it up when she claimed she "performed sex acts" with them inside a stationhouse. Because the process could take weeks and even months, with no criminal charges yet pending, the eight remain at work. Fire department investigators got independent confirmation that what 27-year-old Jennifer Manzella told them in January was true: she'd performed sex acts with the eight at a North Cumberland Avenue firehouse, though the exact date is unclear. She says a retired fireman with whom she had a sexual relationship took her to the firehouse, where the eight paid her $25 per sex act. Chicago Firefighters Union Local 2 president Bill Kugleman tells APBNews waves it off as a desperate woman who'd say anything to duck prison - Manzella is accused of breaking into the retired fireman's house. Possible policy changes to avoid incidents like the stationhouse sex could include more and unannounced inspections, which Kugleman says involves discipline through fear. "That's not the way you teach," he says. "You want happy employees."
LAVAL, QUEBEC - Some of the ladies who live here had a hunch their men were getting slightly more off the top than a shave and a haircut - and they may have been right. The gendarmes busted eight at Le Salon Sex Symbol, where hair stylists apparently stripped, danced erotically, and talked dirty while cutting customers' hair. The salon's 28-year-old owner and a client were caught naked, playing with a sex toy, and playing with oil, in the police raid. Three female workers and five male customers were charged with working or frequenting a house of prostitution. It sprang from a two-month probe after some women complained to the gendarmes that Le Salon Sex Symbol hairdressers may have been offering sexual services to their spouses or boyfriends. Erotic hair salons are legal here if no touching occurs, but the gendarmes think the paying customers could and often did buy sex.
MONTPELIER, VT - Gov. Howard Dean says his state's voters just don't get it about same-sex marriage: he's criticizing voters at Vermont's traditional town meetings for balloting who voted against a pending law to extend benefits heterosexual couples enjoy to homosexual couples. The so-called "Civil Union Bill" facing debate in the state House of Representatives was voted down in the most recent town meeting. It would create civil unions for gay and lesbian couples while stopping well short of sanctioning gay marriage. Dean says if voters had understood that, they might not have voted the bill down. A December ruling by the state Supreme Court left it up to state lawmakers to determine how to carry out extending traditional heterosexual couple benefits to gay couples.\n--- Compiled by Humphrey Pennyworth
