idiots ....

Bread it also includes having bars closed between 12am and 6am

Bread Styx wrote:

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I guess I should care because this is just the first step to the government controlling our lives in every way. What next....."no sex between the hours of 6 a.m. and 12 midnight." 

Thanks for providing the info......we are close to being one of those "Lets stone her because she is talking to a man without a legal guardian" places, huh? 

-- Edited by Bread Styx at 09:49, 2007-05-04

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AMEN!!!!! When you look at the bigger picture it really is just one more step toward total control by our government! It doesn't matter if it directly points at you, when it is taking away a freedom, it will effect you in the long run!

Wonder how this is going to effect Nevada where prostitution is legal ...

I keep saying it's time to storm the capital and throw the bums out ... but no one is listening ...

Ohio ... last I herd it was perfectly legal for a woman to walk down the street topless in Ohio ...

How strip clubs plan to dance around law
If entertainers wear bikinis, some cabarets would be able to avoid being shut down by city


By MATT STILES
Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle


Targeted establishments
NewsWatch: City Hall: The list of businesses
Locations of businesses



WHY IS HYATT REGENCY HOUSTON ON THE LIST?

The city sent 123 businesses letters Thursday notifying them they do not comply with Houston's sexually oriented businesses ordinance. The list included one curious entry: The Hyatt Regency Houston.

Why: The Hyatt's sales director, Stan Skadal, said Houston police vice officers required a permit two years ago after the hotel booked an invitation-only party for a local radio station. The event featured nudity. The vice officers had the hotel served with a letter because it's near a church and day care center.

Next: Skadal said the hotel doesn't plan to offer a similar event in the future, and plans to return the permit next week. "It's a tempest in a teapot," he said.
Facing a looming city crackdown on sexually oriented businesses, some strip clubs in Houston have a fallback strategy to keep their operations open: requiring their dancers to cover up.

A little.
**
Topless and fully nude clubs could avoid regulation altogether if their dancers wear bikinis, or even skimpier opaque coverings, allowing them to get around the "sexually oriented" classification, police and city officials acknowledged.

That would allow the clubs to remain open at their current locations, despite an ordinance now prohibiting them from operating within 1,500 feet of churches, schools, parks and residential areas.

"If they do, that's within the law," said Capt. Steve Jett, who heads the Houston police vice division, which regulates the clubs, along with adult bookstores, "modeling" studios and other places now targeted under the ordinance.

"If they don't, we've got investigations already going, and we will continue those investigations and make arrests in the fairly near future," he said.

The clubs' strategy has been under consideration for some time, as the deep-pocketed leaders of Houston's adult industry have waged a court battle with the city since a tougher ordinance was passed in 1997.

A federal judge ruled in March that the city could enforce the location restrictions in the ordinance, a provision that could keep so-called sex businesses from operating in large swaths of Houston's core.

After promising aggressive enforcement in the wake of the ruling, the city mailed more than 120 such businesses letters on Thursday, notifying them that they must close their operations or face criminal or civil penalties. Employees and owners could face Class A misdemeanor charges punishable by a year in jail and a $4,000 fine.

At least two clubs have requested a stay of enforcement with the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans.

But the bikini loophole offers a contingency to dozens of topless and nude clubs, known as cabarets, should that effort fail.

"In the industry, there has been significant discussion about how businesses could change their method of operation and become compliant under the ordinance," said the owner at one of Houston's largest topless clubs who asked for anonymity out of fear that his employees would be targeted first.


Would customers still visit?
Such a loophole exists because the ordinance uses specified anatomical areas and activities to define sexually oriented businesses. If employees in the businesses strategically place opaque clothing on certain body parts, and they're careful not to simulate sexual acts, those operations would be exempt.

"If you have the proper coverage, then it takes you out of the ordinance," said Nelson Hensley, a lawyer who recently filed state lawsuits on behalf of some adult businesses related to amortization, a process of allowing them to recoup their investments before closing or moving.

With bikinis, the clubs would be able to operate anywhere, subject to state alcohol regulations and local deed restrictions, city lawyers said. They also wouldn't have to comply with other restrictions in the sexually oriented businesses ordinance, such as rules prohibiting close contact between entertainers and patrons.

What's not clear is whether those customers, used to seeing topless or nude entertainers, will stop visiting the establishments.

"I still think it will be a profitable business," said Thomas Venza, a manager at Centerfolds Adult Entertainment in the 6100 block of Richmond.

But some who support the ordinance disagree.

"They're going to be trying to adapt an ad-hoc business plan to an existing format. That isn't going to work," said City Councilman Adrian Garcia, a former police officer who chairs the council's public safety committee. "At some point, customers will be looking for the real thing, and they will be going somewhere else."

Former Councilman Jew Don Boney, who helped craft the ordinance a decade ago, said he doesn't believe the city legally can prevent a business from featuring bikini-clad women.

That doesn't mean he approves, he said.

"This is not really about what part of the body is exposed, from my perspective. It is about the kind of behavior," he said. "We've got some issues with our social values and norms that I think are unhealthy for the nation. I fully support adults' rights to behavior that I would not condone, but we have to be very careful about what we're doing to our society."

Industry leaders disagree, saying the businesses are constitutionally protected establishments with a broad customer base that's reflected by the millions of dollars in sales, beverage and property taxes they pay government.


No loophole for bookstores
The bikini loophole presumably wouldn't apply to adult bookstores, which typically sell magazines and videos featuring sexual acts and fully nude subjects.

Modeling studios or spas, which police say can serve as fronts for prostitution, also would no longer be able to feature topless or nude employees if they are located within restricted areas.

Despite the loophole, Councilwoman Toni Lawrence said the ordinance still is important. She said she believes it will help neighborhoods and businesses opposed to having establishments nearby.

"This is a chess match," she said.

"Sometimes you lose the battle, but the big picture is that you want to win the war."

Martin Ziddell, the owner of Dare Wear, a lingerie and clothing store in the 6300 block of Westheimer, said he fears that the crackdown could have a ``ripple effect'' on other businesses.

His customers include ``many dancers'' from nearby clubs, he said.

The crackdown ``is not going to affect just those businesses, but many of the other businesses in this area, who rely on the incomes of people who work as dancers, waitresses and bartenders,'' Ziddell said. ``Fortunately for the local economy, the people who work in those businesses make good money. And they spend it."



Chronicle reporter Anne Marie Kilday contributed to this report.

13 Undercover investigates educators' test scores
A 13 Undercover exclusive
By Wayne Dolcefino
(5/11/07 - KTRK/HOUSTON) - There are new lessons from 13 Undercover on whether Houston area school teachers are making the grade. Hear from a teacher not afraid to talk to 13 Undercover about the trouble she's having proving she is competent to teach. We will also show parents what else they have a right to know about the teacher in their child's classroom.


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BY THE NUMBERS
So how did your child's teacher perform on competency tests? 13 Undercover examined one million records of Texas teacher competency tests for this story. See the scores for yourself.
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Want to see a breakdown of how your child's district compares with others when it comes to passing grades on competency tests? Click here for the results.
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This link will allow you to check the certification record of all Texas educators. If you do not find your teacher, it could mean their name was not changed after marriage. You have a right to ask your local school district for the teachers certification.
The final bell rings at south Houston intermediate school. Class is over for the day. But soon, a teaching career may be over for Loretta Lacour because the school has given her one more chance to prove she's competent to teach.

"I have no choice or I don't have a job," she told us.

Loretta passed the basic minimum skills teaching test the first time around with a 70 -- the lowest possible score.

"It's the core part that I'm having a problem passing," said Lacour.

That means the subject Lacour actually teaches. In this case, English

"I read avidly," she told us. "I'm a reading teacher."


Her first love is Shakespeare.

"I want to teach Shakespeare and Chauncer," she told us.

Actually it's Chaucer, but Lacour hasn't been teaching Shakespeare. She's been teaching seventh grade.

"I'm stuck in that position until I pass that test," she said.

Her bookshelves are filled with teacher test preparation materials, but it hasn't helped.

"It's never more than six points more that I didn't make it," said Lacour.

"An F is an F," we told her.

"Yea, I know," she said.

No other English teacher in 44 Houston area school districts have failed the English teaching test more than Loretta has -- 14 times.

"That's $82 each time," she said.

"That's also an F each time," we said.

"Yeah, I know," she said.

Once she failed by just one point.

"Each time I feel I know I passed and it's gotten to two points, one point and I'm thinking, 'one point'?" she said.

"Now you know how the kids feel," we said.

"I already knew how the kids feel," she said.

Lacour failed the test five times in 2006, but she was allowed to teach again this year.

"There's just no research that infers the number of times you take the exam determine how good of a teach you are or how well your students perform," said Shirley Neeley, commissioner of the Texas Education Agency.

So why is the standard different for our children? If kids fail just one part of one TAKS test, they can't graduate.

"I don't think a graduation should be based on a test score," said Lacour.

You may not have known until this week you had a right to get the scores teacher make on their competency tests. Under the federal No Child Left Behind Act, you have other questions you have a right to ask your school.

1, Whether the teacher has met state qualification for their grade and subject
2. If the teacher has an emergency permit
3. The degrees held by the teacher and in what subjects
4. Whether your child is provided services by paraprofessionals, and if so, their qualifications.
"I don't know that most parents really sit and question if teacher is fully certified," said Neely. "I think they are most interested in the relationship students have with their teachers, how well they're doing."

That's what Lacour hopes because her kids are learning from a teacher who has not proven she is competent under state law to teach them.

"My kids learn and I make sure they learn," she said.

Eighty-five percent of all Texas teachers pass this test the first time around. If you appreciate the job they're doing with your kids, tell them that they're making the grade in more ways than one.

Do you want to check your child's teacher or district? Look up teacher test scores, a link to the states teaching certificates and a breakdown of school districts as well as the percentage of their teachers who have passed tests.
(Copyright © 2007, KTRK-TV)

**
The reason this one has so many pissed is due that kids MUST pass the TASK test to get the diploma. The teachers can take it as many times as they need to, and teach even when they are not passing it. double standard. and how can you teach what you dont know.
plus the test is nothing but politcs, and politcs is not education.