BRYAN CO., OK – Topless bars, nightclubs and a store selling sex toys. We’re not talking about the big city here. We’re talking about a 25-mile stretch from Kingston to Calera, OK. All of these businesses have opened within the last few weeks and months. Is this a sign of the times? Or is it a lack of regulations against such businesses? KTEN’s Chris Severy reports.

Call it an anomaly or just plain opportunism. From Christie’s Toy Box near Calera, to a topless club in Mead, and a bar turned self-described gentlemen’s club in Kingston, these adult oriented businesses seem to be popping up everywhere in this area. They’re steamy, salacious, many will say indecent and just plain wrong. Whether they’re called strip joints, nudie bars or gentleman’s clubs, when they open they draw attention. Just look at the protestors holding signs outside of the “Surfin’ Sand Club” Wednesday night in Kingston. Concerned citizen Kylie Green said, “We disagree with the strip club opening in such a family oriented community.” The Calera Church of Christ went one step further and bought a billboard outside of Christie’s Toy Box. “God is very observant of things that people do,” says minister Travis Huffman. So, if so many people seem opposed to the idea of adult-oriented businesses, then why are they setting up shop in southeastern Oklahoma? “One of those businesses we’re talking about has other locations in southeast OK and they’re a pretty good distance from here, so maybe they’re just wanting to expand. I don’t know the answer to that, why they chose Bryan County,” said Bryan County Commissioner Monty Montgomery. He’s fielded more than his fair share of calls from concerned residents. But there’s only so much he and other community leaders and lawmakers can do. Montgomery added, “I’m of the firm belief that if the citizens of this county choose not to support these businesses, then they won’t be here for long.” Kingston Mayor Ophelia Cooper said she echoes those same comments. She said Kingston is working on updating city ordinances, and creating zoning within city limits. But at the end of the day, she says there’s just not much the city can do to keep these adult businesses out.

Article and porn resources by Chris Severy, KTEN News.

LOS ANGELES — A judge sentenced “Girls Gone Wild” founder Joe Francis on Friday to 301 days already served and a year of probation for filing false income tax returns and bribing Nevada jail workers.

U.S. District Judge S. James Otero accepted the terms of a plea deal between the soft-porn mogul and prosecutors, who struck the agreement after learning on the eve of trial that a key witness had withheld information from them.

An ecstatic Francis politely answered questions during the hearing then turned and kissed his mother after he was sentenced.

“I think we won that one,” he said after the hearing.

Francis who filmed and marketed videos of young women was indicted by a federal grand jury on tax evasion charges in 2007. He initially was accused of taking $20 million in fraudulent tax deductions.

Under the deal, Francis pleaded guilty in September to two misdemeanor counts of filing false tax returns and one count of bribing Nevada jail workers in exchange for food.

He acknowledged omitting more than $500,000 in interest income on his 2003 tax returns and said he gave more than $5,000 in goods to the jail employees.

The plea deal also required Francis to pay $250,000 in restitution to the Internal Revenue Service.

Otero did not restrict travel by Francis but said he must tell authorities if he intended to travel abroad.

Francis vowed to steer clear of trouble and get back to work building the “Girls Gone Wild” brand in the U.S. and abroad.

The tax case against him fizzled when his former accountant Michael Barrett told prosecutors about hundreds of e-mails that Francis is using in a lawsuit against Barrett.

Francis accuses Barrett in the pending litigation of fraudulently billing him for hundreds of thousands of dollars in phony goods and expenses.

Barrett, who had filed tax returns for Francis, had sought a reward from the IRS for pointing out alleged wrongdoing, a move that Otero told prosecutors put his credibility in serious question.

A phone message left for Barrett’s attorney was not immediately returned Friday.

Source – huffingtonpost.com

A Chinese government watchdog has ordered Yahoo China to clean pornographic content from a photo-sharing site it hosted, a reminder of the regulatory challenges often faced by foreign Internet companies in China.

The government-linked Internet Society of China on Friday said Yahoo China and other local Web sites had “violated social morals” by allowing porn to appear on their domains. The same group censured Google earlier this year in a row over pornographic search results that ultimately led authorities to block Google.com and Google Apps for a few hours across China.

The criticism of Yahoo China, also called China Yahoo, gave no hint that such escalation was likely. The offending service, a user-generated blog and photo album site called Yahoo Space in Chinese, was closed at the end of last month, said a spokesman for Alibaba Group, a local e-commerce group that owns Yahoo China. Alibaba is restructuring Yahoo China to focus on entertainment features.

Chinese authorities patrol the Internet for porn, sensitive political discussions and other content deemed illegal or harmful. Owners of search engines, blog services and other sites are expected to censor such content themselves and can face punishment for failing to do so.

Google defused its tension with the government by changing the algorithm on its China search engine to block problematic search results. Google sites did not appear on the watchdog’s newest list.

China has shuttered thousands of Web sites and arrested dozens of people this year in a campaign against porn and other online content.

Source:  Computer World