September 5th, 2009

NEW YORK – The ladies of New York have hit back at high-priced Eliot Spitzer escort Ashley Dupre’s claim that the average NY woman is no better than a prostitute as she strives to marry a wealthy man.

Ashley Dupre

Dupre, 24, had posted an online diatribe on September 2 on rap impresario Russell Simmons’ Global Grind Web site, stating that she has seen a lot of women toy with men, go on dates to get good food, beg for clothes and ask for rent money. “I don’t agree with what she said-I would totally never do anything like that,” the New York Post quoted a disgusted Justyna Cichon, 29, of Long Island City as saying.

“She did it, [and] she thinks that every woman is like that.

“When she says that all women are that way, I’m included. So I think that’s offensive,” she stated.

Another lady, who was outraged by Dupre’s statement, was Lena Herdoon, a 21-year-old student from SoHo.

“What she said about all women isn’t true. I think it’s offensive. In today’s society, you shouldn’t have to put yourself out there to get ahead,” Herdoon said.

“It’s disheartening she feels this way about women. When she says that women have to do that to get ahead, I completely disagree. As a woman, you have to have self-respect,” she added.

But while some city women were incensed, others agreed that there are some women who go about doing exactly what Dupre said.

“I agree. There are a lot of women like her. It’s expensive to live here,” Jasmin, a 20-year-old Queens woman, said.

Kristen, 24, of Manhattan, who asked her last name not be used, said she was on the same page as Dupre.

“It’s just as easy to fall in love with a rich man as a poor man, so why would you go with the poor guy?” she said.

“This city is filled with very wealthy men, and it’s not difficult to do. It’s a certain type of girl who will do that. There are girls who will play that game. [That's why] you’ve got those services like Sugardaddy.com,” she added.

Autumn, 29, a Manhattan woman who also asked to remain anonymous, said Dupre exposed one of the city’s ugly truths.

“It’s reality in New York. It’s true. I’d like to say it’s not, but it is,” she said.

“There is many a story: When you move to the city, you meet rich, 40-year-old guys who buy you drinks and offer to put you up in a hotel room.

“They are not giving you direct cash, but you’re getting things for sleeping with them. You’re getting something you want, and he is getting someone he wants,” she added.

Meanwhile, Dupre spoke out on September 4 on Twitter thanking supporters and saying that she was only speaking the “ugly truth”.

“I am only fighting to be who I really am,” she tweeted. (ANI)

Md. Firefighter Among Many Charged

By Dan Morse
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, August 8, 2009

The arrest of a longtime Montgomery County firefighter on charges of soliciting sex from a minor was part of a broader online sting operation that netted at least 17 men from a variety of backgrounds, one of whom lives as far away as Ohio, Montgomery County police said Friday.

Police said the sting, which goes back to March, worked this way: Officers placed an advertisement on Craigslist purporting to offer sex. Men who responded were directed to MySpace, where they were told the woman was 16 years old. Police said the men continued their inquiries even after being told the age.

An attorney for four of the men said the operation has been aggressive and unfair because the men were lured with a photograph of an adult-looking woman. “They’re attacking people looking for normal sex, and they’re destroying lives,” said the attorney, Rebecca Nitkin.

In some cases, her clients didn’t realize they were communicating with a purported minor, Nitkin said. Those who did realize her age did not know it is illegal to arrange online for sex with a 16-year-old or thought the claim that she was a teenager was more of a “marketing” tool than reality, Nitkin said.

A police spokesman said the initial Craigslist site might not have disclosed the age. “There’s no 16-year-old area on Craigslist,” Lt. Paul Starks said.

In ensuing exchanges, either by e-mail or text messages, the officers clearly presented themselves as underage, police said.

The sting eventually apprehended men ranging in age from about 17 to 60, Starks said.

One of those charged was Lt. Wayne A. Mothershead, a Montgomery firefighter for more than 20 years. Police said he initiated contact at a Craigslist site and was referred by police to a MySpace page that indicated that the person was 16 years old.

Nitkin, who represents the firefighter, said there is insufficient evidence to prove the charges.

According to charging documents, Mothershead was taken into custody and admitted to police that he communicated “with a subject he believed to be a 16-year-old female for the purpose of prostitution.”

Nitkin said that of her three other clients, one pleaded guilty to marijuana charges and the soliciting charges were dropped. She said the other two have entered pleas of soliciting prostitution from an adult and await sentencing.

At her office Friday, Nitkin allowed one client to speak to a reporter on the condition that his name not be disclosed. The client, an engineer, said that after his initial Craigslist query, he learned that the subject of his interest claimed to be 16. “First I thought, ‘No good,’ ” he said.

Then he said he considered several things, among them that the person had to be older to have a credit card to set up an online presence, and concluded she was older.

By Ashley Powers

November 4, 2008

Reporting from Wells, Nev. — The women at Donna’s Ranch are crowded around the kitchen table on a warm summer night, dining on stir fry, tugging at thigh-high dresses, griping about depleted bank accounts. At this northeastern Nevada bordello, which marks a gravel road’s end, they woo grizzled truckers and weary travelers for a single reason: money.

Lately, the women don’t go home with much.

Amy, 58, once bought a $32,000 Toyota Tacoma in cash; now her $1,200 mortgage saps her dwindling pay. Some weeks, she could make more flipping burgers than flirting under a made-up name. Marisol’s daughters think she works at a resort; she struggles to keep up the ruse. It now takes months, not weeks, to bring $5,000 back to Southern California.

“Marisol,” one of her regulars tells her, “it costs me in gas what it takes for me to spend a half-hour with you.”

Tonight, she tries lingering at the dimly lighted bar that’s decorated with red Christmas lights and smells of hot dogs and beans. Wearing a shimmering strapless top, Marisol sips cheap champagne and tries to seduce travelers, some with thick guts and most with thin wallets. After 20 minutes, she gives up.

Signs of the economic free fall have cropped up in many of Nevada’s 25 or so legal brothels. The Mustang Ranch, for example, has a steady stream of customers, but the number of women vying for work has soared. Even a 74-year-old applied. This summer, the Shady Lady gave $50 gas cards to those who spent $300. The Moonlite Bunny Ranch offered extras to customers paying with their economic stimulus checks.

Here, 180 miles west of Salt Lake City, near the junction of Interstate 80 and Highway 93, Donna’s Ranch has seen its business plummet nearly 20%. More than three-quarters of its customers are long-haul truckers, and high fuel and food prices have drained them of “play money,” owner Geoff Arnold says. That cuts into pay for his 10-member staff and the “working girls.”

Marisol, 49, retreats to the kitchen, a homey nook with lemon-yellow walls and a plate of scones that another woman whipped up. Amy is staring at the Lazy Susan, snuffing out a Misty cigarette. “There are two guys,” Marisol says, her voice thick with frustration. “They want to relax and drink a beer and think about it.”

She plops into a chair, pushes open blue curtains and scans a parking lot, bathed in yellow and pink by the neon advertising DONNA’S. Her face puckers. It’s empty.

The brothel’s woes start with the barflies, who are hoarding what little money they’ve saved. Tonight, two of them slouch in their stools and bemoan the economic slump, their voices rising to near shouts.

“The government’s got to do something,” says Dean Hargis, a tattooed trucker who calls Springfield, Mo., home. “Everybody who eats or drinks anything, they’re going to hurt. It affects what I eat, it affects what motel I stay in, it affects what dog food I buy.”

David Zett, a long-hauler from Loretta, Wis., gulps a Miller Genuine Draft and bashes oil companies: “They’ve got you over a barrel and can do whatever they want to you, and they don’t even kiss you when they’re done.”

“Just like this place,” Hargis says.

“No,” Zett says. “They kiss you.”

The bartender, Gayle Salinas, shakes her head. She’s pinching pennies too. She used to take home $50 in tips at the end of most shifts. Now she might pocket $12. Her pay is linked to how much the prostitutes make — and customers aren’t choosing their most expensive offerings.

The women negotiate the price of “parties” and their duration, which the bartender tracks using kitchen timers. Ten to 15 minutes costs at least $100. Customers once regularly paid thousands of dollars for extras listed on a hot-pink “menu” — but these days, for example, few men desire the hot tub or mirrored fantasy room.

Earlier that night, Marisol had guided Rob Siddoway, a gangly, pony-tailed trucker from Tooele, Utah, into the fantasy room. This was his first brothel trip in a year; he used to stop by every few months. “See how comfortable you can get?” Marisol coos. She points to a red-blanketed, circular bed and a pillow stitched with the word LOVE.

“You can see yourself in the mirror,” she says. He looks instead at her: olive skin, substantial curves, dark, tired eyes. He passes on buying an expensive party. Marisol isn’t surprised. She had played a fortune-telling card game that afternoon; it showed the future would bring little cash.

About a dozen years ago, Arnold plunked down more than $1 million for Donna’s Ranch. He’s a certified public accountant in Boise, Idaho, and had combed the books of several brothels; buying one seemed business-savvy. He owns another in Battle Mountain, Nev.

“They’re easy to run,” says Arnold, president of the state brothel association. “If you keep the girls happy, you’re done. If the girls are happy, then the guys are happy. I can’t think of any other business as good as a brothel, except for a doctor’s office — they’re equally profitable.”

Billed as the West’s oldest continuously operating bordello, Donna’s Ranch greets drivers with a sign that depicts a cowboy-hatted, buxom brunet preening atop a truck bed. The red-roofed, single-story brothel is plagued with leaks; a recent earthquake cracked its beige exterior. The women’s rooms are small. Most have a double bed, a television and DVD player, and tables with assorted lotions, sex toys and toiletries. There’s also a handmade sign that reminds customers: Tips are appreciated.

From 2006 to 2007, the brothel’s revenue climbed 7.6%, to about $1 million. This year, Arnold expects to make about $200,000 less. Closing that gap is tricky: Brothel advertising is legal, but billboards and bus ads risk upsetting neighbors. So the bordello sponsors a soccer team in Boise and a rodeo in Wells. It also bought lights for the high school football field and gave local motels pens, which boast that Donna’s is “Your Biggest Bang for the Buck.”

Arnold’s staff clips coupons to slash the $3,300 monthly grocery bill. He brainstorms other cost-cutting measures. He owns 33 acres in Wells — enough room, by his calculation, for five to 10 cows that could feed his workers.

“That’s what we’ve come to,” he says, chuckling at the idea. “Donna’s Ranch could be a real ranch.”

In the kitchen, Amy alternately smooths her black, rhinestone-trimmed mini-dress and reddened hair that falls to her waist. She appears about a decade younger than she is, with a trim figure, high cheekbones and a tendency to giggle.

She waits for the CB radio to crackle. During even-numbered hours, the women take turns sweet-talking truckers. (They cede the odd-numbered hours to Bella’s, the other brothel in this city of 1,300 people.) The tactic, which lures more than a third of Donna’s customers, is more vital now that business is slumping.

Amy is perched on a chair, legs crossed, a wedge heel dangling off French-manicured toes. At last, a trucker grunts through the airwaves: “Where you girls at?” Amy leans toward a microphone and urges him to pull off at Exit 352.

“Are you the Asian girl?” he asks.

“Bingo!” she says.

Amy has worked in brothels, on and off, for eight years. She needed cash to get her own place, but also blames “a broken heart.” Her grown son is the only person who’s figured out her line of work, something she admits with downcast eyes.

She typically does three-week stints, but starts wanting to go home to Utah after two. She used to pocket $6,000 each time — even after splitting money with the house and covering room and board, condoms, licenses and legally required medical tests. But what she wistfully terms the good old days — when she could see up to 13 men a day and afford to turn down customers — are gone.

Tonight, the bartender counts four brothel customers. Maybe, Salinas says, things will pick up. Some car buffs are in Wells for a show. “I don’t know,” Amy says. “They bring their wives.” The other women — who likewise use pseudonyms and hide their jobs from their children and friends — are discouraged too.

Tori, a blond veteran with a no-nonsense manner — she waves off questions about her age — commutes from the Reno area with an array of wigs and sequined get-ups. In the early ’90s, she was laid off from a Southern California real estate office; she eventually turned to the brothel circuit: winters in southern Nevada, summers up north. She wants to work in auto sales but makes do at Donna’s.

“Some other places want you to work 24 hours,” she says. “They don’t want you to sleep.”

Danielle, younger and more reserved than the other women, is passing time solving word puzzles. She is milky-skinned with a long brown ponytail. She ended up here after a divorce. She periodically flies to South Carolina — ticket prices have soared — and tries to return with at least $2,000. But most customers have been trying to bargain down their prices. Some are paying with credit cards — an indication they don’t have as much cash. (The receipts say Apache Wells Development Co., not Donna’s Ranch.)

“Whatever they have,” Amy says, “you have to take it.”

Earlier, when she was parrying with the trucker, Amy curled up at a folding table just big enough for a radio and mike, a water bottle, a gray stuffed kitten, an ashtray and a dry erase board listing selling points:

Free beer. Free chili. Free shower. SOUVENIRS.

“I’m going to bed,” the trucker tells her.

“Maybe come here and have a happy ending?” she purrs.

“Tell me what a happy ending is.”

“I can’t talk about it over the radio.”

Silence.

Thanks, the trucker says. Not tonight.

By Abigail Goldman
Sun, Dec 14, 2008 (2 a.m.)

The pleasure of Stacie’s company used to cost $450 an hour, but no longer. Her clients were capped at 35 and older; today she’s taking almost anyone. Sex acts once off the menu are suddenly back on — recession specials, served with a side of shrugging compromise.

If she doesn’t do more for less, Stacie says, another prostitute will. And her weekly income is still down by half.

The illegal prostitution economy in Clark County is a multimillion-dollar beast fed by a black market so diverse that it’s impossible to pin down. On one hand, midrange prostitutes like Stacie say they’re being crippled by the economy. On the other, high-end call girls claim they’re not feeling much pain. And the women charging the least reportedly are making the most these days — counterintuitive in an industry where bargains come with risks.

Consider the work of sociologist Sudhir Venkatesh, who surveyed hundreds of high-end prostitutes in New York and discovered that 40 percent of “trades” in the sex economy never went beyond light petting or kissing.

In Las Vegas, the economy’s effect on call girls is even more complicated: The bulk of clients — or johns — here are from out of town, tourists or businessmen who spend days in convention halls and nights in hotel rooms with to-your-door entertainment. These men are bread and butter for local prostitutes, provided the clients come to town. And anybody in the hospitality industry — here that illicitly includes call girls too — can agree that fewer men are flying in, with less money to spend.

Meanwhile, more women reportedly are getting into the business, which creates a classic supply and demand squeeze. An escort agency owner told the Sun he’s getting about 40 interested applicants every day, the majority of whom are women running from the wreckage of lost finance jobs.

Now fold another factor into that dynamic: When the economy is bad, when people feel their mortgages closing in, they seek comfort: alcohol, cigarettes, gambling, pornography and perhaps prostitution.

When all these elements collide in the nebulous economy of escorting, a trend emerges: The Clark County call girl economy has a tipping point — about $650.

In Vegas, prostitutes who charge between $600 and $700 are being hit the hardest. The women (and the smaller number of men in the business) who charge in the $200 to $300 range are doing the same business as before, if not better, according to Susan Lopez, founder of the Sin City Alternative Professionals’ Association for local sex workers. And women who charge thousands of dollars for multi-hour appointments tell Lopez, and the Sun, that they’re not really being affected at all.

Although this is no scientific study — and people should be wary of any numbers that claim to definitively capture any element of the sex-for-pay market — the tipping point does make sense: People tightening their belts are downgrading to cheaper service; people who don’t need to tighten their belts aren’t really doing it at all. If you can buy a Bentley today, the logic goes, you’re probably going to be able to buy one tomorrow.

Or maybe you’ll buy an evening with Rebecca. She’s been a call girl in Las Vegas for several years, after leaving a job in finance behind. Winters are always slow, she says, but overall, the money is good. How good? Her best month was $32,000. An average month is more like $15,000.

“I get a lot of doctors and lawyers and they don’t even blink,” she said. “By January or February I’m fully expecting to raise my rates.”

Her rates, for now, are $2,000 to start. Overnights cost $4,000. Travel and multiple-day excursions are negotiable.

If you don’t believe people would pay that kind of money, consider the case of former New York Gov. Elliot Spitzer, who authorities allege spent $80,000 on escorts in one year, despite having a lot more to lose than the cash.

Call girls difficult to count

Calculating Las Vegas’ call girl economy is, at best, a guessing game. Academics have estimated there are anywhere from 3,000 to 3,500 indoor working prostitutes in Las Vegas at any given time. Imagine, however, that only a fraction of them, say, 1,000, are working year-round. Now imagine that each sees only one client a day, and charges only $300. You still have an annual economy of $109.5 million. Imagine the number of working girls is even smaller — 500 prostitutes charging $250 a day. That’s still more than $45 million a year.

Trace our economy backward from bust to boom and you’ll hit the glory days that helped create the world of high-cost call girls. A glut of new millionaires, paired with a sex industry that seamlessly got online and off the streets, gave birth to agencies such as the Emperors Club — Spitzer’s alleged company of choice, where the cheapest dates still commanded $1,000 an hour.

Writing about this subject, The Wall Street Journal cited a study conducted by wealth research firm Prince & Associates, which surveyed 661 people rich enough to own private jets and found 34 percent of the men and 20 percent of the women had paid for sex. Now extend that group to people who are rich enough to own, say, a beach house, or a Porsche, or their own firm — and you get an idea of just how big the market could be.

Blogging on The Economist Web site, economist Allison Schrager notes that the prostitution market is countercyclical; less attractive and cheaper prostitutes, while available, aren’t always desirable. Prostitution, Schrager says, appears to be what’s called a “Giffen good” — a product for which demand rises with price.

Charging too little has dangers

When financial panic intrudes on the prostitution world, escorts often lower their rates in response, according to Amanda Brooks, author of the Internet Escorts Handbooks. That’s a mistake, she says, not just because established higher-end prostitutes are more immune to economic fluctuations, but because lowering rates changes the kind of clientele call girls attract.

Women who are getting into the industry for the first time also tend to price themselves too low, Brooks said, because they don’t understand that higher rates mean higher quality clients. There’s another side, too — the handful of prostitutes who Brooks says are taking on straight jobs to fill in the gaps between “dates.”

Women who price themselves at the tipping point, $600 or $700 for a few hours’ work, have “always had a difficult time. They’ve always been in a kind of limbo land, between the true high end and the rest,” she said. “Those girls are definitely feeling the crunch.”

For Stacie, who discounted her hourly rate by $100 or more, lowering costs also comes with increasing risks. She is forced to do more outcall work — going to clients’ rooms rather than the having them come to her hotel room, which makes her feel more vulnerable. She also agrees to a wider range of sex acts, which puts her at additional health risk.

“I can’t do this for too many years longer,” she said, “just until I save up enough.

“You always want to be safe, but you’re always lowering your standards.”

In the past, Stacie saved $1,000 a week — on top of the $5,000 she made and spent. Now she’s down to $3,000 and she’s not setting aside any money. Still, that’s an incredibly high salary for most people, which puts the working girls’ woes into context for others struggling with the bad economy.

Stacie and Rebecca, despite the difference in what they charge, are still part of what academics classify as the “indoor” sex trade — the vast majority of the illicit industry, though it’s largely invisible.

“Outdoor” sex workers, the stereotypical streetwalkers, are only 15 percent of the prostitution world, though they represent 85 to 90 percent of the vice arrests, according to a study by Venkatesh and “Freakonomics” author Steven Levitt, who found that street prostitutes in Chicago earn roughly $25 to $30 an hour.

How street prostitutes are faring in Las Vegas is unclear — even women with close ties to the industry, like Rebecca or Lopez, are so far removed from these prostitutes that they don’t know. None contacted by the Sun would agree to talk.

Women who work for escort services also face a strain that independents such as Stacie and Rebecca do not. The escort service charges a base fee of several hundred dollars, and it’s up to the escort to negotiate with the client on top of that — a tip determined upfront. One local escort, reflecting on the economy, said she knew things were getting bad when women who once would walk out of a room for anything less than a $1,500 tip were now hanging around for only a few hundred dollars.

But here’s the irony: When the economy is stable, women who charge midrange fees often end up making more money than call girls serving the high-end clientele, Lopez said. High-end call girl Rebecca makes $15,000 in an average month, but when times are good, Stacie, who charges midrange fees, can clear $25,000 — she just has to hustle much harder for it. It’s a trade-off that plays money against mental health and safety.

If the bad economy does anything to escorting, author Brooks figures, it will be this: Prostitutes will become better at marketing themselves.

“They going to be looking into Web sites, looking into blogging, getting a little more savvy about their marketing,” she said. “And the smart ones will compete for clients in a way that doesn’t impact the girls, not by lowering their prices and by giving more than they feel comfortable with, but by increasing their market savvy.”

One of those is Amber, a New York-based escort available for travel anywhere. She has been flown to Vegas a few times this year, by men who cover her expenses and pay about $5,000 on top of that.

“Vegas is very competitive, and you really feel it,” she said. “I’ve had to be a little more creative, a little more aggressive in my marketing.”

Even then, she added, “I travel the world, but I’m not living as lavishly as I was.”

]]> http://fantasyescortguide.com/cop-talk/usa-escorts/not-even-prostitution-is-immune-to-economics-of-supply-demand.htm/feed 1 http://fantasyescortguide.com/cop-talk/escort-industry/financial-crisis-tames-demand-for-world%e2%80%99s-oldest-service.htm http://fantasyescortguide.com/cop-talk/escort-industry/financial-crisis-tames-demand-for-world%e2%80%99s-oldest-service.htm#comments Thu, 11 Dec 2008 02:13:48 +0000 Support http://fantasyescortguide.com/cop-talk/?p=65

PRAGUE — On a recent night at Big Sister, which calls itself the world’s biggest Internet brothel, a middle-aged man selected a prostitute by pressing an electronic menu on a flat-screen TV to review the age, hair color, weight and languages spoken by the women on offer.

Once he had chosen an 18-year-old brunette, he put on a mandatory terry-cloth robe and proceeded to one of the brothel’s luridly lighted theme rooms: an Alpine suite decorated with foam rubber mountains covered with fake snow.

Nearby, in the brothel’s cramped control room, two young technicians worked dozens of hidden cameras that would film the man’s performance and stream it, live, onto Big Sister’s Web site.

Customers can have sex free of charge at Big Sister, in return for signing a release form allowing the brothel to film their sexual exploits.

But even with this financial incentive, Carl Borowitz, 26, Big Sister’s marketing manager, a Moravian computer engineer, lamented that the global financial crisis had diminished the number of sex tourists coming to Prague.

“Sex is a steady demand, because everyone needs it, and it used to be taboo, which made a service like ours all the more attractive,” said Mr. Borowitz, who looks more like Harry Potter than Larry Flynt. “But the problem today is that there is too much competition and our clients don’t have as much disposable income as before.”

In the Czech Republic, where prostitution operates in a legal gray zone, the sex industry is big business, generating more than $500 million in annual revenues, 60 percent of which is derived from foreign visitors, according to Mag Consulting, a Prague-based research firm that studies the industry.

Big Sister is not the only brothel suffering the effects of a battered global economy. While the world’s oldest profession may also be one of its most recession-proof businesses, brothel owners in Europe and the United States say the global financial crisis is hurting a once lucrative industry.

Egbert Krumeich, the manager of Artemis, Berlin’s largest brothel, said that in November, usually peak season for the sex trade, revenues were down by 20 percent. In Reno, Nev., the famed Mustang Ranch recently laid off 30 percent of its staff, citing a decline in high-spending clients.

Big Sister is not struggling as much as some of its more traditional rivals, since its revenues are largely derived from the 30 euros a month, or about $38, its 10,000 clients pay to gain access to its site.

But Mr. Borowitz said Big Sister hoped to offset a 15 percent drop in revenues over the past quarter by expanding into the United States. The brothel also produces cable TV shows that air on Sky Italia and Britain’s Television X, as well as DVDs like “World Cup Love Truck.”

Ester, an 18-year-old prostitute at Big Sister who declined to give her last name, said that big-spending clients had diminished, but that she was still earning nearly 2,000 euros a month — enough to pay the rent and buy Louis Vuitton bags. “The reason to do this is for the money,” she said, after gyrating half-naked on a pole. Being filmed, she added, made her feel more like an actress than a sex object.

Since the fall of Communism in 1989, the Czech Republic has become a major transit and destination country for women and girls trafficked from countries farther east like Ukraine, Russia, Belarus and Moldova, according to the police.

For nearly 20 years, tens of thousands of sex tourists have streamed into Prague, the pristinely beautiful Czech capital, drawn by inexpensive erotic services, an atmosphere of anonymity for customers and a liberal population tolerant of adultery. According to Mag Consulting, 14 percent of Czech men admit to having sex with prostitutes, compared with a European Union average of 10 percent.

Dozens of cheap flights to Prague have also ensured a flow of bachelor parties from across Europe, with multiple daily flights from Britain alone.

Jaromir Beranek, an analyst with Mag Consulting, said the strength of the Czech crown against the euro, lower spending power and competition from lower-cost sex capitals like Riga, Latvia, and Krakow, Poland, were threatening one of the country’s most thriving sectors.

Many Czechs are more than happy to see Prague shrug off its reputation as one of the world’s top 20 sex destinations. But some in the hotel industry are so alarmed by the drop in tourists that they are lobbying the government to legalize the trade, in the hope that it will help lure more clients.

While some critics have warned that legalization would effectively transform the Czech state into the country’s biggest pimp, the Czech government is considering whether to emulate the Netherlands and Germany by regulating prostitution like any other industry. It is considering passing legislation by the end of the year that would require the Czech Republic’s estimated 10,000 prostitutes to register with the local authorities.

Dzamila Stehlikova, a minister from the Green Party, who is shepherding the bill through Parliament, argued that by forcing the business out into the open, it would make it harder for human traffickers to thrive, while helping to ensure mandatory health checkups for prostitutes. Other advocates argued that legalization would generate millions of euros in lost tax revenue from an industry that was largely underground.

Not everyone is enthusiastic; the prostitutes themselves say that being issued prostitution identification cards would further stigmatize them.

Hana Malinova, director of Bliss Without Risk, a prostitution outreach group, said she feared the current credit crunch was pushing more poor women into prostitution, since they could make more money selling their bodies — about 120 euros for a half-hour session at some upscale sex clubs in Prague — than flipping burgers at McDonald’s.

Even with the downturn, she added, prostitution was far more resilient than other industries, though the downturn was discouraging adultery.

“An Austrian farmer from a remote area who is not married will still cross the border to the Czech Republic looking for sex,” she said. “On the other hand, the recession is helping to keep husbands at home who might otherwise be cheating on their wives.”

In Czech towns near the German border in northern Bohemia, long blighted by a daily influx of sex tourists, many are happy that the business is suffering.

Only a few years ago the town of Dubi was so overrun by prostitution that a nearby orphanage was opened to provide refuge for dozens of unwanted babies of prostitutes and their German clients. Sex could be purchased for as little as 5 euros — the price of a few beers in Dresden — drawing a daily influx of more than 1,000 sex tourists.

Today, more than three dozen brothels have been winnowed down to four; several were converted into goulash restaurants or golf clubs.

Petr Pipal, Dubi’s conservative mayor whose zero-tolerance policy was a key reason for the change, said that installing surveillance cameras and police officers at the entrance of brothels had deterred sex tourists. Rising prices for sex services and the global financial crisis, he added, were also helping to tame demand.

“Two or three years ago, we would get 1,000 men coming here for sex on a Friday night, which is a lot for a town of 8,000 people,” he said. “The one good thing about the economic crisis is that it is helping to keep sex tourists away.”

In Prague, even brothels in the most touristy areas complain they are suffering from economic hardship. On a recent night near Wenceslas Square in Prague, dozens of young men loitered outside a row of neon-lighted sex clubs, beckoning passing tourists with offers of complementary alcohol and racy strip shows.

Inside Darling, a multilevel cabaret famous for cancan shows modeled on the Moulin Rouge in Paris, young women gyrated on a stage, surrounded by leopard skin couches, flashing disco balls and paintings of naked women.

Suzana Brezinova, the club’s marketing director, said some high-spending businessmen still visited Darling to shrug off economic doldrums.

“People have less money,” she said. “But hard times also mean that people want to be cheered up.”

Jan Krcmar contributed reporting from Prague, and Victor Homola from Berlin.

MINNEAPOLIS – Idaho Sen. Larry Craig has lost his latest attempt to withdraw his guilty plea in the Minneapolis airport men’s room sex sting that effectively ended his Senate career.

A three-judge panel of the Minnesota Court of Appeals on Tuesday rejected the Republican’s bid to toss out his disorderly conduct conviction.

Craig still has the option of appealing to the Minnesota Supreme Court, and he said Tuesday he was considering future options.

Craig was arrested June 11, 2007, by an undercover police officer who was conducting a sting operation against men cruising for gay sex at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.

He quietly pleaded guilty to the misdemeanor and paid a fine, but changed his mind after word of his arrest became public that August. Craig insisted he was innocent and said he was not gay. His attorney argued that the police officer misconstrued Craig’s foot-tapping, hand movements and other conduct.

But the case brought widespread ridicule and effectively ended his political career.

Craig lost several GOP leadership positions in the wake of the scandal, and the Senate Ethics Committee said in February that Craig had brought discredit on the Senate. The committee members said they believed he was guilty, and that his attempt to withdraw his plea was just an effort to evade the legal consequences of his own actions.

He did not seek a fourth term in last month’s election. He will be replaced in January by Idaho Lt. Gov. Jim Risch, a Republican.

Craig’s attorney, Billy Martin, argued before the appeals court in September that there was insufficient evidence for any judge to find him guilty.

In its 10-page opinion, the appeals panel said that Craig failed to show that Hennepin County District Judge Charles Porter abused his discretion by denying his petition to withdraw his plea. Porter had said the plea was “accurate, voluntary and intelligent, and … supported by the evidence.”

Tuesday’s opinion also said Craig failed to show that the state’s disorderly conduct law was unconstitutionally overbroad.

“I am extremely disappointed by the action of the Minnesota Court of Appeals,” Craig said in a statement. “I disagree with their conclusion and remain steadfast in my belief that nothing criminal or improper occurred at the Minneapolis airport.” He said he and his attorneys were reviewing into the possibility of further appeals.

After the story became public, Craig had initially said that he would resign from the Senate, but he changed his mind about that, too, and vowed to fight to clear his name.

Patrick Hogan, a spokesman for the Metropolitan Airports Commission, which runs the airport, said the appellate decision again confirms that Craig knew what he was doing when he entered his plea. He said the agency hopes it’s the end of the case.

By Tom Brady Security Editor
Friday December 05 2008

Katie David
Issue date: 12/5/08 Section: Commentary

The world’s oldest profession seems to be very “in” right now. Between the Eliot Spitzer scandal, an NBC special on “The Business of High-End Prostitution,” a Showtime series about a London “escort” entitled The Secret Diary of a Call Girl and Ashley Dupré’s (Spitzer’s infamous call girl) media tour, the American public is very interested in prostitution. However, the media is not showing images of what many consider the typical victim of the sex trade, such as an impoverished and malnourished woman selling her body for crack. Clearly, that image is too disturbing for the middle-class American living room. Instead, the media focuses on “high-end” prostitution, where women are paid thousands for their services, which range from sex to compliments (seriously). While the data for this industry is difficult to track, the media is most likely not focusing on these “escort services” because they pose a deep societal problem. Instead the media probably sees what many young women today observe when examining the dynamics of high-end prostitution: how closely it resembles the dating situation for young women today.

Ashley Dupré and I have something in common. Neither of us has a degree in sociology or is really qualified to make sweeping statements about cultural movements. But we do it anyway. In Ashley’s recent interview with People magazine, she explains how the dynamics of prostitution have permeated the mainstream.

“This wasn’t any different than going on a date with someone you barely knew and hooking up with them,” she reasoned. “The only difference is I can pay my rent.”

In short, the relationship between sex and money is apparent outside the industry of high-end prostitution. Many young women today often joke about becoming trophy wives. I must admit that once I realized that no profession I was interested in could make me rich, that lifestyle seemed appealing to me. Women who “marry up” or “marry rich” are only lightly chastised by public opinion when what they are doing, offering up their bodies and looks for wealth, is not so different from high-end prostitution.

More pervasive, however, is how young women are responding to offers of wealth in exchange for the “hook-ups” Ashley describes. In our parents’ generation, women could expect men to pay for them and it was considered chivalrous. Today for us young women, when a boy buys dinner for us, we often feel guilty if we don’t give him something in return. In this post-feminist era, women are having trouble finding their place in the relationship balance and money only complicates that dilemma. Women are no longer burning their bras, but instead finding men who will buy them expensive ones.

According to CNBC, the most popular item offered by escorts today is called the Girlfriend Experience (or GFE). While there isn’t a standard definition, most in the industry agree that it involves some facsimile of real romance, including dinners, vacations and gifts in addition to original payments. With the advent of online dating, reality shows like The Girls Next Door (documenting the lives of the ultimate high-end prostitutes, Hugh Hefner’s three girlfriends) and the sex trade evolving into the “relationship trade,” more and more people are approaching dating like a business transaction instead of a search for companionship. And the media’s glamorization of high-end prostitution is not helping. If our society, especially young women like myself, continue to think this way, perhaps all relationships will simply become glorified “girlfriend experiences.” Chivalry may not be dead, but it could come at a hefty price.

By Mark Dagostino
updated 8:04 a.m. ET, Thurs., Nov. 20, 2008

She was the tabloid sensation at the center of the sex scandal that brought down New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer. But in her very first interview, Ashley Alexandra Dupré tells PEOPLE, “I am a normal girl.”

“Everyone knows me as ‘that girl,’ but I’m not just ‘that girl,’ ” the 23-year-old former escort says in the new issue of PEOPLE, on sale Friday. “I have a lot of depth, a lot of layers.”

Enduring a media spotlight that included seeing her MySpace photos splashed on front pages “has been really hard,” the New Jersey native explains. “But I’m a survivor.”

Spitzer was unknown to her
Her descent into tabloid mayhem began the night of Feb. 13, 2008, when Dupré — who had worked as a high-end escort to help pay the bills on and off since 2004 — met a client who turned out to be the Governor of New York.

Dupré claims she had no idea who the man was that night. What she does recall is that “Client 9,” as Spitzer was reportedly known at her escort service (which was shut down in March), “was polite.

“Some guys, they want to have conversations and really get to know each other. With him, it clearly was not like that. It was more of a transaction. Strictly business.”

Casually dressed and with no entourage in tow, Spitzer didn’t strike Dupré as someone important. Besides, “I was there for a purpose — not to wonder who [he] could be.”

FBI steps in
In fact, she didn’t find out who he was until March when, just days after learning she was mixed up in some sort of FBI investigation, she saw the Spitzer apologizing on TV. “It was surreal,” Dupré says of seeing the client she had met a month before. “I felt like I was sinking.”

As for the former governor, “I think he’s been punished enough.” Asked what she might tell his wife, Silda, who stood at Spitzer’s side when he announced his resignation, Dupré offers, “I’m sorry for your pain.”

In the interview, Dupré also opens up about her troubled past — running away at age 17 into a non-stop life of drinking and partying and how a girl from the suburbs could fathom becoming a prostitute: “This wasn’t any different than going on a date with someone you barely knew and hooking up with them,” she reasoned. “The only difference is I can pay my rent.”

Mother finds out
Once the FBI told her they were looking into one of her clients, Dupré says she was forced to confide in her homemaker mother, Carolyn, that she was turning tricks.

“It was extremely painful for her,” Dupré says, though “my mother wasn’t angry. She was supportive.”

Now living with her mother and stepfather in New Jersey, Dupré says she has learned her lesson, and then some.

“I’m 23 years old,” she says. “I want to do music, to do fashion, to write books — there’s so many things.” One thing she won’t be doing: selling her body to make ends meet. “No,” she says. “Never again.”