Citizen lawsuit against Johns Creek

Citizen lawsuit against Johns Creek
They are wasting HUGE $$$$
January 11, 2008 | 03:26 PM

I would like to see a citizen lawsuit against the council members and mayor of Johns Creek for wasting city money and time trying to shut down the Love Shack store. This is a stupid example of prudish government officials trying to violate the constitution and local laws to carry out their weird personal agenda. These people obviously have strange psychological hangups about sex, and they are spending huge amounts of taxpayer money trying to enforce their weird sexual problems on everyone else in the community. This should be stopped, and these unfortunate people should seek professional help for their sexual problems.

Rick Bristol

Navigating the legal changes

Navigating the Legal Challenges

From Northern Virginia to Southern California, federal and state prosecutors and grand juries across America continued to bring criminal obscenity charges against adult operators during 2007.

City urging two adult businesses to close

BY JILLIAN COHAN
The Wichita Eagle


The city of Wichita is negotiating with two adult entertainment businesses to close in response to a new zoning law that takes effect today.

When the law was passed in 2005, there were nine adult entertainment stores that would be affected by the new regulations, which restrict adult entertainment businesses to industrially or commercially zoned areas.

Four of the businesses have since closed, the city's legal department said. Three may be forced to close, relocate or challenge the city in court.

City officials didn't identify which two businesses they were negotiating with.

The city won't be able to enforce the law against new businesses until its constitutionality has been established in court.

The city probably would not sue the businesses directly but would respond if the businesses challenged the law's validity, said Dale Goter, a city spokesman.

"There's no unique legal perspective here," he said.

"It's a done deal. Now it's just following the prescribed path."

Charlie O'Hara, a local lawyer who represents several of the stores, called the zoning law "a ridiculous bunch of politics."

"The owners do not intend to voluntarily move," he said. "A court is probably going to have to order them out."

Jan Beemer of Operation Southwind, the group that led the charge against the stores, said their closure would make the neighborhoods around them safer.

"We would expect the city to proceed forward legally," she said.

The store owners who have not moved are now violating the law, she added.

"They should be charged like you or I would be charged if we were violating an ordinance," Beemer said.

The law, approved by the City Council in 2005, restricts adult entertainment businesses to industrially or commercially zoned areas, such as those along far East and far West Kellogg, sections of 21st Street and a few other small pockets of the city.

The shops also must be more than 500 feet from churches, schools, licensed day care centers, public parks, residential districts, the Old Town entertainment district and other sex-oriented businesses. But that doesn't mean a church or day care can move into an area and force out the adult video stores.




http://www.kansas.com/news/local/story/268761.html

John Cornetta makes the top AVN's Stories Of 2007

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Will Adult Entertainment Ordinance Hold Up?

Posted: 9:50 PM Dec 30, 2007
Email Address: chris.sadeghi@kake.com


A zoning ordinance in Wichita forcing adult entertainment stores to leave town will take effect on January 1st. However, that is not expected to have an impact on some businesses right away. A constitutional challenge will determine if the ordinance will hold up in court.

Back in 2005, the Wichita City Council approved the ordinance, giving adult entertainment shops over two years to move or shutdown. While some have closed, at least three are still open and will not be cited until a ruling is made on the law's constitutionality.

The lawsuit challenging the ordinance will be filed shortly after the turn of the new year.

Below is a statement by the city, released on Monday, Dec 31.

SEXUALLY ORIENTED BUSINESS ORDINANCE STATUS

As of Jan. 1, the moratorium on new licenses for sexually oriented businesses within the City of Wichita will expire. The moratorium was approved Feb. 8, 2005, by the Wichita City Council.

The Council also enacted a new zoning ordinance on that date that restricts those businesses to areas that are further than 500 feet from a church, school, public park, licensed in day care center, residential zoning district boundary, Old Town district boundary, or other adult entertainment establishment.

The 2005 ordinance defines a sexually oriented business within the City of Wichita as a holder of a valid adult entertainment establishment license. By adding the definition, the City’s regulatory code became consistent with the existing City-County unified zoning code.

As of Feb. 8, 2005, there were nine sexually oriented businesses validly operating in the City of Wichita in areas prohibited by the new limitations. The moratorium provided a two-year grace period for those businesses to voluntarily comply with the new ordinance.

Since the enactment of the 2005 ordinance, four of these businesses have closed their doors and ceased to operate. The City is in the process of negotiating the eminent closure of two such additional businesses.

The ordinance requires the City to test the constitutional validity of the ordinance in court before it seeks to enforce it against any of the remaining, pre-existing businesses. It is likely there will be three such businesses. These businesses will not be sued directly. There are available court procedures that will allow the City to seek a court determination without placing the burden of defense on those businesses. However, those remaining businesses will have an opportunity to appear in court if they so choose to address the validity of the ordinance.

There are seven sexually oriented businesses in the City currently operating in areas allowed by the resolution.

The specific ordinance that addresses the lawsuit requirement is found at VII-J.2.c of the Wichita/ Sedgwick County Unified Zoning Code.

Dale Goter
Government Relations Manager
City of Wichita



http://www.kake.com/news/headlines/12930162.html

Adult ‘fantasy’ store planning expansion

BY CHARLES SCHILLINGER


DICKSON CITY — A Dickson City shop trading in adult sex products is looking to quadruple in size, adding a 6,000-square-foot addition.

The new owners of Adult Outlet at 2109 Business Route 6, Clindum LLC, received permission to expand the store from the borough’s Zoning Hearing Board this month, though not without conditions. And building plans must still be approved by the borough as well.

Clindum bought the business in January with the intention of renovating the 2,000-square-foot building and “making it more upscale,” said the company’s director of marketing, Robyn Anderson.

“It’s going to be very tasteful. It’s a fantasy store for couples,” she said, adding the addition would be filled with retail products such as lingerie, shoes and lotions.

Ms. Anderson declined to say how many stores the company operates.

Competition and the continuing growth of Business Route 6 attracted Clindum to the area with the idea of expanding.

When the company submitted its intentions to expand, Dickson City zoning officer Jim Damski initially rejected it. Adult stores are permitted as special exceptions only and need Zoning Hearing Board approval, he said.

However, in the company’s appeal to the Zoning Hearing Board, Mr. Damski said it was found the company was more interested in expanding the retail part of the business, including the sale of lingerie. The board was more agreeable to that, he said.

The company also asked to expand the number of “viewing booths” it had in its existing shop from 18 to 24; however, at the borough’s request, the company put aside those plans.

Clindum is “perfectly content” with the conditions set for its expansion, said Ms. Anderson.

Mr. Damski indicated those conditions included the addition being limited to retail products and the company not expanding the viewing booths. The exact details were not available as the formal written report from the hearing had not been finalized as of last week.

Contact the writer: cschillinger@timesshamrock.com



http://www.thetimes-tribune.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=19155944&BRD=2185&PAG=461&dept_id=416046&rfi=6

2257 Software Packages

2257 Software Packages

Software for those who prefer not to start their digital record-keeping systems from scratch.

Cornetta Makes good with the Charity Fundraser

Cornetta Makes Good With Charity Fundraiser

Love Shack owner John Cornetta sponsored a fundraiser on Sunday to benefit the town of Johns Creek and help fund fire and rescue services for the small town.

FBI Halts 2257 Inspections of Secondaries

FBI Halts 2257 Inspections of Secondaries

Special Agent Chuck Joyner, head of the FBI's 2257 inspection effort, clarifies the FBI's inspection policies.

Love Shack stays open

2007-12-20
JOHNS CREEK HERALD
Love Shack stays open

by Caron Cooper




December 27, 2007
Same headline, different year.

About this time last year, John Cornetta, owner of Love Shack, was busy removing items from his shelves to comply with a court order to close down his controversial business, but only if it is selling "a significant quantity of sexually explicit materials."

Love Shack had opened without a business license from Fulton County Nov. 29, 2006, citing a county ordinance that gives a business 30 days to obtain one, in an attempt to be grandfathered in before the city of Johns Creek was to take over licensing and zoning services in January 2007.

Rumors had been swirling that Love Shack was to be padlocked at 3 p.m. Dec. 21, 2006, if Cornetta didn't follow the court order.

Courts had previously ruled "significant" to mean more than 25 percent. So Cornetta went beyond that, reducing his sexually-related inventory to about 5 percent and replacing it with purses and other non-sexual novelties.

But Cornetta predicted the opposite.

"At 3 p.m., they are going to show up and cite me," he said to the crowd that had started to gather in front of his store that day.

Shortly after 3 p.m., a handful of Fulton County code enforcement officers, along with a U.S. federal marshal, arrived on scene. Cornetta was right – the officers measured his store and counted the amount of merchandise that was sexual in nature to determine a ratio of square footage versus sexually explicit merchandise.

He was cited again that day for not possessing a sign banner and for inappropriate zoning.

"Victory," Cornetta announced to the crowd. "We're still open."

Cornetta has maintained from the beginning that Love Shack is not an adult bookstore as defined by the county's ordinance. He says the county's determination was presumptuous and prevents Love Shack's right to free speech.

The case was in federal court last month to hear oral arguments. Cornetta is appealing the preliminary injunction ordered by the U.S. District Court, which calls for Love Shack cease operation or comply with the county's ordinances.

A ruling could take months. Cornetta's attorney, Cary Wiggins, said it could go three ways: one, court finds Cornetta's appeal moot; two, court sides with Love Shack that injunction was improper; or three, the court upholds the county's injunction.

Either way, the parties will return to district court and Judge Thomas Thrash for a decision on the remaining motions filed.

Love Shack has remained open since November 2006. In the meantime, Cornetta has taken on another opponent – Johns Creek.

The city filed a motion this summer asking Fulton County Superior Court to order Love Shack to cease operation, citing the U.S. District Court's findings that the business is operating unlawfully at its current location. The city has maintained this case is not about free speech – it is about zoning. And under the city's ordinances, Love Shack fits the definition of a sexually oriented business in a location not zoned for such. That's why the city also denied Love Shack a business license.

But Wiggins has maintained that the city sat on the Love Shack's business license application without explanation for a solid month while City Council adopted a new ordinance, and two weeks later, the city finally denied the application.

Wiggins said at the time that all of this is moot because the city's updated super-ordinance was not in place when the business application was submitted to the city. He also said that the part of the definition specific to language used in advertising is likely in violation of the First Amendment.

Love Shack then sued the city, naming specific city staff and members of the city's Zoning Board of Appeals, for denying the adult business's applications for sign and banner permits.

The Love Shack's petition to Fulton County Superior Court says the city staff's denial is based on "arbitrary criteria" and asks the court to declare that decision as beyond the scope of power. Neither the city's sign ordinance nor its zoning ordinance states a business license as prerequisite for a sign or banner permit.

The city disagrees.

"What's the logic of issuing a sign to a business that does not have a license and is in essence operating illegally," said Johns Creek Mayor Mike Bodker.

The city must answer the petition within 30 calendar days from Nov. 19, the date the city was served, but is not uncommon for parties to request more time.

And so Johns Creek residents will continue to wait into 2008 to see if the New Year will bring any results.





http://www.northfulton.com/Articles-i-2007-12-20-168927.112113_Love_Shack_stays_open.html

Regs Putting the Squeeze on Industry

Regs Putting the Squeeze on Industry

In June 2005, the adult entertainment industry seemed thrown into a near-panic when the U.S. updated 18 U.S.C. §2257

Cornetta Charitable Foundation Raises $1,400 With Dunk Tank Event

Cornetta Charitable Foundation Raises $1,400 With Dunk Tank Event
Mike South plays Johns Creek Mayor in public spectacle

By Peter Warren, AVN Media Network

Posted: 11:30 AM PST Dec 20, 2007


JOHNS CREEK, Ga. — Love Shack owner John Cornetta raised $1,400 at a public event on Sunday designed to benefit civil services in Johns Creek - but the city has not yet agreed to accept the money.
Cornetta and porn director Mike South served as the targets in a booth where participants paid $20 for the chance to douse them in flour. South stood in for Johns Creek mayor Mike Bodker, who refused the Love Shack owner's public challenge to participate in the event.
Cornetta has been locked in a legal battle with Johns Creek since he opened his Love Shack store in the city over a year ago. The adult retailer has lambasted the city for spending over $150,000 to shut down his store when that money could have been used to fund fire and other rescue services.

After a Memorial Day fire killed Fulton County firefighter Felix Roberts and Johns Creek resident John Callahan, Cornetta established a charitable foundation for the victims' families and the city's fire department. He dedicated a percentage of the Love Shack's summer profits to the cause, setting out a collection bucket in the store for customers to contribute.
Cornetta presented a check for $2,913 to the city Sept. 28, but the city sent it back on the grounds that it could be perceived as an attempt to influence the outcome of the Love Shack litigation.
Fulton County Fire Chief Larry Few angrily chastised Cornetta in an e-mail for attempting to make the donation as a publicity grab to push his own agenda.

"You have sought to use the death of a hero and other firefighters in order [to] move forward with or push an agenda," Few wrote in the e-mail, "and I personally find that unpleasant."

Ironically, as Cornetta and South were holding the event Saturday, a massive fire destroyed the home of a local single mother and her two daughters. All three survived, but the family lost everything.

Said South, "Playing the mayor was very tough for me to do — I had never been that big of a putz my whole life."

Should Mayor Bodker reject the money raised Saturday, Pastor Michael Cole — chairman of the Cornetta Charitable Foundation Board of Advisers and clergyman at the Cathedral of the Holy Spirit at Chapel Hill — will decide how it is disbursed.

For more information and/or donation inquiries, contact Kate Cook at kate@cornetta.com or (770) 458-4386 ext. 105.




http://www.avn.com/index.cfm?objectID=F4001585-EBC9-D813-F3DE4FCA68160909&slid=324399

Xbiz Reports Ga. Town Restricts Adult Businesses

By Tod Hunter
Thursday, Dec 20, 2007
FLOWERY BRANCH, Ga. — The Flowery Branch City Council has repealed its adult business ordinance and passed a new adult business ordinance restricting them. Flowery Branch Mayor Diane Hirling said no adult businesses have made new requests to move into the city limits, but the ordinance was passed in preparation for future requests.
The new adult business ordinance brought the city's adult entertainment rules in line with a 2006 zoning ordinance passed that detailed where specific businesses are allowed to operate within the city, according to Hirling.
The new ordinance establishes operating hours for adult businesses of 8 a.m.-midnight and prohibits the serving of alcoholic beverages. Adult businesses cannot operate within 1,000 feet of any place of worship, school building, college campus, religious institution or any governmental building including public parks, hospitals, libraries, children’s day care centers or another adult entertainment venue.
"It’s not that we’re trying to keep them out," Hirling said. "We’re just keeping them away from schools and churches."
The new adult business ordinance continues the restriction that adult business establishments can only operate in areas zoned manufacture industrial.

Xbiz Reports Wisc. Town With No Adult Businesses Restricts Them

By Tod Hunter
Wednesday, Dec 19, 2007
MENASHA, Wis. — The Menasha Town Board adopted a revised liquor license ordinance by a 5-0 vote, a license that provides restrictions to license holders who might want to offer adult entertainment or sexually oriented business.Town officials may continue to look for additional restrictions as well. The town currently does not have any business offering adult entertainment.
"I think we all agree we don't want that type of business in our town," said Town Chairman Arden Tews, who recommended the city continue to look at requiring licenses for any such business seeking to locate in the town.
Fears that a nude "juice bar" that doesn't offer alcohol might still locate in the town worries former town supervisor Jay Schroeder, who has said that when the county reduced the legal setback distance from churches, schools and parks from 2,000 feet to 600 feet it went too far, opening up more areas in the town where an adult business can legally operate.
The county's adult entertainment zoning ordinance, passed earlier this year, restricted strip clubs to operating only in certain areas and prohibited the sale or consumption of alcohol at adult entertainment facilities, unless permitted by towns through issuance of a liquor license.
Town Attorney Chuck Koehler, consulting with Virginia attorney Pat Trueman, incorporated Trueman's advice into Menasha's new liquor license ordinance. Trueman offers free legal advice to nonprofit groups or communities seeking protection against sexually oriented businesses.
Koehler called the revised ordinance a "backstop" for whatever enforcement or legal deficiencies that might exist in the county's ordinance, suggesting that the town adopt the revised ordinance and then continue examining various issues before making amendments, if needed.
"It's a matter of time before one comes here," former supervisor Schroeder said. "I don't believe [the revised ordinance] is complete enough."

Dear Chief Few and Fulton County representatives

"I understand Chief Few has denied donations from Mr. and Mrs. Cornetta recently fora fallen Fulton County firefighter, Felix Roberts and John Callahan who lost theirlives in a recent fire.

I am truely saddend by these losses, but I cannot condone your response to his generosity. Shame on you Cheif for not acceptng monetary donations from Mr. and Mrs. Cornetta on behalf of these families. Mr. Cornetta has every right to his offerings and tocontradict John's Creek in the manner in which they have ear marked so much money to fight his business and to build a City Hall without their own emergency service providers for the newly established community.

I am afraid this effort by John'sCreek against Cornetta's Love Shack business has many negative overtones, but the facts are: without ample emergency services in John's Creek more citizens may benegatively and unecessarily affected. I don't live or vote in Fulton County so you probably don't care what I think, butit appears to me, you don't care what the people who pay taxes in your communitythink as well.

Now, should you try to run in Cobb County, I will be ready to alerteveryone here about this historic mistake.

For those who have read this, thank you for your time. "

T.C.

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Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances. First Amendment to the United States Constitution.

"Monsieur l'abbé, I detest what you write, but I would give my life to make it possible for you to continue to write." Voltaire, letter to M. le Riche, February 6, 1770.

The Dumbest Things President Bush Said in 2007

10. “And there is distrust in Washington. I am surprised, frankly, at the amount of distrust that exists in this town. And I’m sorry it’s the case, and I’ll work hard to try to elevate it.” –interview on National Public Radio, Jan. 29, 2007



9. “I fully understand those who say you can’t win this thing militarily. That’s exactly what the United States military says, that you can’t win this military.” –on the need for political progress in Iraq, Washington, D.C., Oct. 17, 2007



8. “One of my concerns is that the health care not be as good as it can possibly be.” –on military benefits, Tipp City, Ohio, April 19, 2007



7. “Mr. Prime Minister, thank you for your introduction. Thank you for being such a fine host for the OPEC summit.” –addressing Australian Prime Minister John Howard at the APEC Summit. Later, in the same speech: “As John Howard accurately noted when he went to thank the Austrian troops there last year…” –referring to Australian troops as “Austrian troops,” Sept. 7, 2007



6. “My relationship with this good man is where I’ve been focused, and that’s where my concentration is. And I don’t regret any other aspect of it. And so I — we filled a lot of space together.” –on British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Washington, D.C., May 17, 2007



5. “You helped our nation celebrate its bicentennial in 17 — 1976.” –to Queen Elizabeth, Washington, D.C., May 7, 2007


4. “The question is, who ought to make that decision? The Congress or the commanders? And as you know, my position is clear — I’m a Commander Guy.” –deciding he is no longer just “The Decider,” Washington, D.C., May 2, 2007


3. “Information is moving — you know, nightly news is one way, of course, but it’s also moving through the blogosphere and through the Internets.” –Washington, D.C., May 2, 2007


2. “There are some similarities, of course (between Iraq and Vietnam). Death is terrible.” –Tipp City, Ohio, April 19, 2007


1. “As yesterday’s positive report card shows, childrens do learn when standards are high and results are measured.” –on the No Child Left Behind Act, Washington, D.C., Sept. 26, 2007

Written by Ron Chusid

From liberalvalues.com

Butch lesbians accuse DeKalb police of bias

Department has no plans for gay liaison officer, not that that has helped gays under APD control.

Please view article in full at http://www.southernvoice.com/2007/12-14/news/localnews/7860.cfm

End of the Year Approaches, What will you stand for?

Para-phrased from V, to apply to us all.

Good evening, US Citizens. Allow me first to apologize for this interruption. I do, like many of you, appreciate the comforts of every day routine- the security of the familiar, the tranquility of repetition. I enjoy them as much as any bloke. But in the spirit of commemoration, thereby those important events of the past usually associated with someone's death or the end of some awful bloody struggle, a celebration of a nice holiday, I thought we could mark this December the 31st, a day that is sadly no longer remembered, by taking some time out of our daily lives to sit down and have a little chat. There are of course those who do not want us to speak. I suspect even now, orders are being shouted into telephones, and men with guns will soon be on their way. Why? Because while the truncheon may be used in lieu of conversation, words will always retain their power. Words offer the means to meaning, and for those who will listen, the enunciation of truth. And the truth is, there is something terribly wrong with this country, isn't there? Cruelty and injustice, intolerance and oppression. And where once you had the freedom to object, to think and speak as you saw fit, you now have censors and systems of surveillance coercing your conformity and soliciting your submission. How did this happen? Who's to blame? Well certainly there are those more responsible than others, and they will be held accountable, but again truth be told, if you're looking for the guilty, you need only look into a mirror. I know why you did it. I know you were afraid. Who wouldn't be? War, terror, disease. There were a myriad of problems which conspired to corrupt your reason and rob you of your common sense. Fear got the best of you, and in your panic you turned to the now high chancellor, George Bush. He promised you order, he promised you peace, and all he demanded in return was your silent, obedient consent. Last night I sought to end that silence. Last night I destroyed the Old ways in my dreams, to remind this country of what it has forgotten. More than four hundred years ago a great citizen wished to embed the 31st of December forever in our memory. His hope was to remind the world that fairness, justice, and freedom are more than words, they are perspectives.

So if you've seen nothing, if the crimes of this government remain unknown to you then I would suggest you allow the 31st of December to pass unmarked. But if you see what I see, if you feel as I feel, and if you would seek as I seek, then I ask you to stand beside me , outside the gates of the white house, city hall, governors mansion, wherever those who seek to oppress you live and work, and together we shall give them 2008 that shall never, ever be forgot. Let 2008 be the year that true democracy and freedom return to this great nation of ours!