Commissioners in Lucas County want an adult bookstore to move and make way for a baseball park. The county has negotiated with Nasser Bagheri, the store's owner, to no avail, because Bagheri doesn't want to move; but he says, reportedly, that if he has to move, commissioners have to find him a good location for his business. Toledo has restricted adult business zoning, but county officials say asking him to move has nothing to do with his business itself, according to the Toledo Blade.
BROOKLYN, N.Y. - A borough trustee plans to bring up an ordinance April 5 to block new adult entertainment from opening. Nathaniel O'Bannon's bill would stop new adult businesses from taking any license left vacant with Fantasyland owner Everette O. Baker's conviction for money laundering. Fantasyland included an adult video and magazine store, a topless nightclub, and a massage parlor. O'Bannon says his bill sets up, essentially, a process of elimination for adult businesses. Brooklyn, he tells the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, wants "businesses with dignity."
NASHVILLE - A Tennessee law restricting adult businesses heavily doesn't violate the First Amendment, according to a state appeals court. The appeals court says the law is content-neutral and was aimed not at clamping down on free expression but "to prevent harmful secondary effects" many think are associated with adult businesses, says the First Amendment Center. The Adult-Oriented Establishment Registration Act of 1998 lets local governments require 6-foot buffers between exotic dancers and customers and 18-inch or higher stages for dances, as well as banning total nudity and alcohol at adult businesses, according to the First Amendment Center. The Show Palace and Bottoms-Up in Sullivan County challenged the law on constitutional grounds in late 1998. They appealed after a trial judge upheld its constitutionality. The Show Palace's attorney says he will appeal the new ruling.
MIAMI, Fla. - The Boardwalk Bar in Sunny Isles Beach can re-open, as long as they do it without adult entertainment. That's the call from Sunny Isles Beach officials after a long hearing on the matter. The bar was turned down for a license application because of violations that included operating 16 years without required licenses. The Boardwalk is said, also, to have been the site of numerous lewd and lascivious conduct arrests, including one for a man running inside with a paint-ball gun, screaming profanities, and shooting a bartender, according to the Miami Herald. The bar argued it was a crime against the bar, but Mayor Dave Samson argued that was like saying the rape victim caused the crime because of provocative dress.
--- Compiled by Humphrey Pennyworth
