- When you're dealing with regulation of adult retailers, it often doesn't take long to go from bad to worse. \n Take Bill 980204, proposed by two Philadelphia City Councilmen, which would restrict the hours of operation of adult bookstores to the 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. slot, while leaving topless bars - which are under the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board's authority - alone. We learned that 980204 was being introduced less than a month ago, and wrote a story on it for the July AVN. But a phone call just today [June 17] from Nova Products' Tom Gorman informs us that, with as little publicity as possible, the bill has already been through the Rules Committee, had public hearings, and is scheduled to be voted on tomorrow! \n "It went from our lawyer telling us, åDon't worry, this is something that's just simmering on the back burner; it shouldn't even happen this year,'" Gorman told AVN. "Then all of a sudden, a week later, we're told they're having hearings on it. \n They tried to avoid telling us about it; they were very secretive about it, but we found about it through another civic association. The Rules Committee had a hearing on it; it went to caucus or whatever they need to decide to do it, and now they're going to have a full vote on it, and all rumors are that it's going to pass tomorrow [June 18]." \n Gorman, whose company also runs the Scorpio Adult Boutique, an adult emporium that's less than three blocks from City Hall, was the only adult business speaker present at the bill's official public hearing last week. \n "The main reason I was there," Gorman said, "was to ask them if they had any studies whatsoever that provided statistical proof that problems were being caused by the fact that we were open past 12 a.m., which they had no studies to back it up." \n In fact, Gorman recalled that a similar study, done while he was in Phoenix several years ago, revealed that less than 2% of all crime takes place in or around adult businesses. \n So Gorman and others are planning to sue the City if Bill 980204 passes, and are encouraging anyone who reads about it in time to rendezvous at the City Council chambers before the vote, scheduled for 10 a.m. on June 18. \n "Even the officers on the beat are signing our petitions," Gorman noted happily. "They know we aren't a problem, and if anybody would know, they would."
All models were at least 18 years old at the time of their performance. 18 U.S.C. 2257 Record-Keeping Requirements Compliance Statement.
