Male prostitutes coming to Nevada

by Sean McLachlan on

A Nevada brothel plans to be the first in the state to offer male prostitutes.

The Shady Lady Ranch, 150 miles north of Las Vegas, is now taking applications for the position of male sex worker. Applicants must be between 21 and 40 years of age, have a good attitude, and be “service oriented”.

While male visitors to Nevada have long enjoyed the state’s legal prosititution, there hasn’t been anything for female tourists until now. I got to speak with Jim Davis, who helps run the ranch with his wife Bobbi, the owner and Madam, and ask him about the new service.

How did you decide to offer male escorts?
I had several people over the last couple of years request this service, both women AND married couples wanting a “threesome”. Economy slow, business a little slow, why not try it?

Was there any problem clearing that legally?
Legally, the State Health code had a requirement of an “endocervical” exam in their rules, otherwise they were gender neutral. We had to have the Health Department and County Licensing board address that issue. We received waivers of that requirement from both entities and they added an additional test for STD’s for the men.

What kind of men are you looking for?
The Madam is looking for sexy looking men, 21 to 40 that can provide an exciting and rewarding experience for our lady customers. Don’t ask how she’ll know, guesswork I guess, but she’ll use trial and error until she finds the right guys. She is presently starting the interviews, and we hope to have someone on staff in a couple of weeks.
Did you do any research into male escorts, such as visiting other countries where they’re legal?
We have done NO research, just going with experience and a hunch.

How will you market this to women? Won’t they be a bit reluctant to come to a place where men generally pay for companionship?
Advanced publicity has helped, Internet exposure on our website and discreet ads in appropriate newspapers is the plan.

Are you going to set up a separate building for male and female clients?
We will operate in the same house, we do have already appropriate separate facilities on site. We don’t anticipate this to be a problem.

What can female clients expect when they go to the Shady Lady?
The female client can expect an exciting and rewarding experience, all about them. We hope each individual lady gets exactly what they want to get from the experience, that’s our goal.

While men have paid for companionship since the beginning of time, women hiring men isn’t nearly as common. Do you think this is changing and why?
We think a PRIVATE, safe, healthy environment with the spotlight on HER wants and desires will work as well with the ladies as it does with the men.

Will you be offering male escorts to male clients?
Our business model is heterosexual but, the same as a gay-orientated bar lets in straight people and straight bars let in gay people, we are required by law to NOT discriminate. A man that requests an all male line-up will get one, that’s the law, however our sex workers are not required by law (or by us) to do anything in the room that they do not want to do. We intend to hire men that we think best suited to serve our female clients.

When will you be starting this service?
We will be starting this service as soon as Bobbi finds the right guys and they get the proper work cards.

NYC tops U.S. list of most expensive cities

by Tom Johansmeyer on

It’s not exactly shocking to see that New York City is the most expensive city in the United States. Groceries, gasoline and other items tend to run a tad more than twice the national average. Whether you rent or buy, you’ll spend a fortune in this city, where the average price for a home is $1.1 million and an apartment, on average, will cost $3,400 a month.

So, how can so many bloggers live here? Remember: these are averages. That means someone has to be on the underside of them.

Housing prices were also among the reasons why San Francisco, San Jose, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. worked their way into top spots on the list. Average home prices shot past $600,000 in all four of these cities. In Austin, the average home price is a much more modest $226,998, and it’s even more comfortable in Nashville, at $201,020.

The measure used to determine the cost of leaving in each of the cities is based on expenses in six categories: groceries, housing (rent/mortgage), healthcare, utilities, transportation and miscellaneous items. The prices of 57 goods in these categories were used.Six of the most expensive cities in the country are in California, with four of them among the top 10. Texas has four – Austin, San Antonio, Houston and Dallas. Most of the costliest cities are on the two coasts, though Chicago (14), Las Vegas (18), Phoenix (25) and St. Louis (35) made the top 40.

The most surprising appearance on the list of most expensive places to live is Detroit. Even though it’s plagued by unemployment of 16.7 percent, utilities are expensive. Electricity costs an average of $243.56 a month, compared to a mere $141.64 in Atlanta.

The ten most expensive cities on the list are:

  1. New York City
  2. San Francisco
  3. San Jose
  4. Los Angeles
  5. Washington DC
  6. San Diego
  7. Boston
  8. Philadeplhia
  9. Seattle
  10. Baltimore

Check out the full list here.

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[Photo via MigrantBlogger]

CityCenter Las Vegas time lapse video

by Justin Glow on


After more than three years of construction, and an estimated $8.5-billion budget, CityCenter — Las Vegas’s newest money pit — opened for business yesterday. Three years isn’t that long, really, when you consider the size of the Strip’s largest project to date. At nearly 17-million square feet spread across 76 acres, this city-within-a-city boasts thousands upon thousands of rooms spread across nearly a half-dozen hotels, multiple casinos, countless restaurants, entertainment and retail districts, residential condos, and the Strip’s first grocery store.

And now you can watch it all come together in the Las Vegas Sun’s timlepase video above. They make it seem so easy!

Hawaiian airlines offers free flights to the mainland

by Katie Hammel on

Hawaii seems like a beautiful place to live – great coffee, awesome surf conditions, nearly perfect weather at all times. But, hundreds of miles out in the Pacific, I imagine it starts to feel a bit isolated, especially with the high cost of flights from the islands back to the mainland US. But for those Hawaiian islanders looking to get away to the rest of the US for a while, Hawaiian airlines, has a pretty great deal.

For every inter-island round trip flight you book on Hawaiian Airlines, you’ll get a discount on your flight from Hawaii to other destinations in the US. The discount starts at 10% (for one round trip flight) and goes all the way up to 100% (yep, a free flight!) after you’ve taken 10 round trip flights around the islands.

Inter-island flights began racking up points towards the discounts on August 3 and will continue through December 31, 2009. The discount can be applied towards flights booked for now through June 15, 2010.

The discount applies to flights to select cities in California, Oregon, Washington and Nevada.

Some hotel futures at risk

by Tom Johansmeyer on

The number of hotels defaulting on their loans surged 125 percent in May and June this year. Travel is down (no shit), which has an obvious effect on the top line. When there’s no money coming in, it’s hard to send cash out to meet some pretty hefty obligations. So, if none comes in, none can go out … and defaults start to rise.

Some high-profile properties have defaulted already, including the Four Seasons and Renaissance Stanford Court Hotel – both in San Francisco – and the W Hotel in San Diego. Nobody’s safe in this market. Outside California, 13 hotel loans adding up to $596 million became delinquent in June alone. Most of the carnage came from Phoenix, Las Vegas and New York City.

Of course, the defaults don’t spell the end for these properties. There is always the chance that the loan terms can be changed or the hotels can be sold. There’s a long way between defaulting loans and closed doors.