Prostitution

From the street the faded, yellow house on Belair Road looks unassuming. Three large picture windows overlook a community recreation center and an elementary school. It's around the corner from a community baseball diamond. On one recent visit, a small American flag lay discarded on the front lawn, along with a few scattered cigarette butts. A metal pipe protrudes above a side door. Before the police raided this house, prosecutors said the pipe held a surveillance camera placed there by the operators that recorded the number of men who passed through the entrance, and helped monitor the women working inside.

It has been a tough news cycle for taxpayers. Not only did we get a real-time look on April 17 at what we donate to the government, we also are getting a harrowing look at how the government spends it. The General Services Administration, often referred to as the government's personal shopper, blew $822,000 flying 300 of its employees to Las Vegas for a four-day bonding experience that included a clown, a mind-reader and $7,000 worth of...

Annapolis police arrested seven people last week in a special operation to target suspects soliciting prostitutes, police said Monday. Police had received numerous complaints about prostitution activity in the area of the 200 block of West St. Nearby residents told police they often see suspects solicit prostitutes on West Street near Southgate and Monticello avenues and drive to nearby residential streets to park and conduct sexual activity, Det....

Annapolis police arrested seven people last week in a special operation to target suspects soliciting prostitutes, police said Monday. Police had received numerous complaints about prostitution activity in the area of the 200 block of West St. Nearby residents told police they often see suspects solicit prostitutes on West Street near Southgate and Monticello avenues and drive to nearby residential streets to park and conduct sexual activity, Det....

Federal authorities said they have rescued a 15-year-old girl from being prostituted by a Washington man who had advertised her on the Backpage website and took her to College Park to meet a man. Melvin Longwood, age 31, was indicted on charges of transporting a minor for the purposes of prostitution. Authorities, working with the National center for Missing and Exploited Children, allege he used the girl between September and February. The investigation began with a report of a missing teenager from Virginia.

B ill Lehman watches the cars go by. A red pickup truck heads south on Second Street, disappears, then returns heading north on Second Street. "That red truck will be back," Lehman says. Sure enough, the same red truck passes Lehman seven times in 20 minutes on the same residential block in South Baltimore's Brooklyn neighborhood. Lehman calls out the plate number as Jessica Mazan jots it down in her log and Jessica's mother, Nancy Mazan, grabs her binoculars to confirm the sighting.

Human trafficking happens because prostitution is illegal ("House of ill-repute," July 29 ). Prostitution is illegal only because the majority of people don't like it. Making something a crime forces it underground which is what enables abuse to take place. What happens between two consenting adults should not be the business of anyone if no one is harmed. Wendel Dean Renner

Wanda lifts a swollen hand to her face, scratches her nose and tells the eternal lie about quitting the heroin habit.Her eyelids are at half-mast, and her voice is the low grumble of the junkie as she talks about life on the street in the white glow of the Marylander Motel sign on Pulaski Highway."

CHICAGO - The Chicago Police Department has a new weapon against prostitution: a Web site that regularly posts the names, addresses and photos of those arrested for trying to purchase such services. Mayor Richard M. Daley announced the new tool a few weeks ago with some harsh words for anyone thinking of paying for sex. "In Chicago, if you solicit a prostitute, you will be arrested, and when you are arrested, people will know," he declared. It requires a leap of faith to think that a guy who is not deterred by the risk of being arrested and fined and losing his car will be deterred by the fear of being publicly shamed.

In a two-day operation that ended last night, police arrested 16 men for solicitation and 15 women for prostitution in West Baltimore and impounded several cars belonging to customers.One of the men arrested Wednesday night solicited a female police officer for sex while riding a 10-speed bicycle, which also was impounded.Western District Sgts. James Kelly and Michael Caperoon said the arrests were made at Baltimore and Schroeder streets last night and at North and Pennsylvania avenues Wednesday.

Many of us who labor in journalism inevitably have contact with U.S. Secret Service agentsand encounter men and women as devoted to their task, as serious of purpose, and as professional as any of the finest in law enforcement. So it is nothing short of shocking to learn not only of last week's scandal in Colombia but also of hints that the problem may run deeper than one night of wild partying with prostitutes in Cartagena. President Barack Obama has said that he will be "angry" if the allegations prove true, but it appears the White House is slightly behind the curve.

Federal authorities said they have rescued a 15-year-old girl from being prostituted by a Washington man who had advertised her on the Backpage website and took her to College Park to meet a man. Melvin Longwood, age 31, was indicted on charges of transporting a minor for the purposes of prostitution. Authorities, working with the National center for Missing and Exploited Children, allege he used the girl between September and February. The investigation began with a report of a missing teenager from Virginia.

New federal charges have been filed against 10 people from Maryland who are being held in a sex-trafficking case that allegedly was centered in Baltimore and Western Texas, said prosecutors, who are calling the case a "forced prostitution" scheme. The superseding indictment made public Thursday alleges that five of the defendants "used their ties to the music industry to recruit young women, then force them to work as strippers and prostitutes," according to the U.S. attorney's office for the Western District of Texas.

The woman, barely in her 20s and estranged from her family, worked two jobs as she tried to launch a singing career. When she started chatting online with the head of "424 Records," she thought she had finally gotten her break. The purported record label had music videos on Facebook and YouTube. The promoters appeared to have the cliched trappings of hip-hop — the cars, the gold chains, the girls, the lingo, the cash. But the group's motto breathed tranquillity: "One Team, One Family.

The Abell Foundation has awarded the Baltimore State's Attorney's Office a grant worth nearly $128,000, which will be used to "double the capacity" of an anti-prostitution program, top prosecutor Gregg Bernstein announced Thursday. One of his deputy state's attorney's, Elizabeth Embry, is the daughter of foundation President Robert Embry, who could not be reached for comment. Roughly 1,200 prostitution arrests are logged in Baltimore each year, according to the State's Attorney's Office, which launched the "Specialized Prostitution Diversion" program in 2009 to help offenders break the recidivist cycle, by offering them drug, health and employment services.

Police and federal agents arrested 10 people in Baltimore this week on charges that they ran a prostitution ring and forced women to travel to Texas for sex, according to law enforcement authorities and an indictment. Few details of the case were publicly released. The suspects were arraigned Friday in U.S. District Court in Baltimore and ordered detained. Prosecutors in El Paso, Texas, said they would be transferred to that state for prosecution. A statement from the U.S. attorney's office in the western district of Texas identifies the suspected ringleader as Alarcon Allen Wiggins, 43, who has addresses in the past few years that include Pulaski Highway in Baltimore and Hampstead in Carroll County.

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. -- Sixty men arrested in a Wes Palm Beach prostitution sting last week could soon be getting an unpleasant surprise when they open their morning newspaper.The Police Department and Mayor Nancy Graham want to buy advertisements listing the names of the men arrested in the Wednesday night sting and publish them in daily newspapers that circulate in Palm Beach County."We couldn't get anyone to publish them in stories, so Nancy's going to take out ads," police spokesman Sgt. Rob Robertson said Friday.

The Annapolis city council will vote tonight on ordinances to discourage prostitution on city streets and smoking in government buildings.The prostitution ordinance, sponsored by Alderman Samuel Gilmer, a Ward 3 Democrat, would require prostitutes to leave an area upon police orders.Prostitutes who disobey police orders to move would be subject to a fine not exceeding $100 or imprisonment of 90 days.The anti-smoking ordinance, sponsored by Alderman Carl O. Snowden, a Ward 5 Democrat, would amend the city code to prohibit smoking in government buildings.

Now that the “Sunny” writers don't have to improvise around Dee Reynolds' baby bump this season, “Sunny” fans may find themselves wondering, “Why is Mac the fat one now?” Maybe it's because Mac (Rob McElhenney) is carrying around a trash bag full of chimichangas. (To picture his new look, see Roger Clarvin - Will Ferrell's character in the Hot Tub Lovers skit on “SNL.”) Or maybe it's because the members of the gang have now reached their “Second Acts.” Dennis (Glenn Howerton)

A New Jersey man was arrested Thursday in Glen Burnie on charges of human trafficking and prostitution, police said. Uzodimma Nnamdi Oguh, 32, transported women along the East Coast to work as prostitutes, Maryland State Police said in a statement Friday. Police said they searched a Baltimore hotel where they said Oguh was running the business locally. Oguh has been charged with six counts of human trafficking, three counts of prostitution, one count of motor vehicle theft and other related criminal charges, police said.