School officials in Palo Alto are reconsidering their use of a popular speaker for an annual career day after he advised middle school students that they could earn a good living as strip dancers.

William Fried told eighth-graders at Jane Lathrop Stanford Middle School that stripping and exotic dancing could be lucrative career moves for girls, offering as much as $250,000 or more per year, depending on their bust size.

"It's sick, but it's true," Fried, president of Foster City's Precision Selling, a management consulting firm, told The Associated Press. "The truth of the matter is you can earn a tremendous amount of money as an exotic dancer, if that's your desire."

The school has asked Fried to give his 55-minute presentation, "The Secret of a Happy Life," for the past three years.

A tip sheet he distributes to students includes a list of 140 potential careers and areas of interest they can consider pursuing. Along with professions as accounting and nursing, the list offers such nontraditional suggestions as exotic dancing, stripping and acting as a spiritual medium. Full Story...

Posted by Matt at 09:03 AM | Permalink

An erection killed Charles Ray George.

To be more exact, it was the desperation to satisfy an erection that killed the San Onofre nuclear-plant engineer on Jan. 29, 2001. That’s the view of Daniel Louis Parra, a 37-year-old community-college student who owned an Orange County escort service, and his top stripper, 29-year-old Elizabeth Nava of Irvine.

You might think escorts hope to leave their customers happy, but an underwear-clad George was left dying in a pool of blood on his San Clemente living-room floor. Nava, a onetime dry-cleaning employee, ran from the scene without calling 911. Parra walked away calmly, still carrying the heavy flashlight he used to crack George’s skull. Later, defense lawyers portrayed Parra as a "hero" for preventing the rape of his employee.

Law-enforcement officers see the gruesome killing differently. Deputy DA Michael F. Murray concedes George was looking for female companionship in his final hours but says the craving that ended the 54-year-old man’s life had little to do with sex. According to Murray, George died solely because of Parra and Nava’s greed.

"They wanted to satisfy their lust for money," the homicide prosecutor said. "They were taking money under the pretense of sex, and somebody got killed."

On Dec. 8, the two defendants sat quietly as a somber jury of seven men and five women found them guilty of first-degree murder with special circumstances and a series of other felonies. Although sentencing by Superior Court Judge Frank F. Fasel isn’t scheduled until next month, neither Parra nor Nava will ever walk free again. The verdicts carry mandatory punishment of life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Did the George murder, the five-week trial and subsequent convictions slow Southern California’s escort/dancer/model/massage/stripper industry? Vice cops say no; business is flourishing. There is apparently no time for reflection when telephone pagers constantly ring, unfulfilled sexual desires govern men and so much cash is at stake. Full Story...

Posted by Matt at 06:34 AM | Permalink