Brothels

The women at Donna's Ranch are crowded around the kitchen table on a warm summer night, dining on stir fry, tugging at thigh-high dresses, griping about depleted bank accounts. At this northeastern Nevada bordello, which marks a gravel road's end, they woo grizzled truckers and weary travelers for a single reason: money. Lately, the women don't go home with much. Amy, 58, once bought a $32,000 Toyota Tacoma in cash; now her $1,200 mortgage saps her dwindling pay.

Six people have been charged with pimping and operating 10 brothels staffed by women from China in what authorities said was the largest prostitution investigation ever in Orange County. Law enforcement officials said the ring, which also operated in Los Angeles and Riverside counties, was broken up last week after a three-year investigation by local and federal agencies. Investigators believe the ring may have been running at least 31 houses of prostitution.

The last remaining building on the grounds where the state's first legal brothel once stood is history. The 48-room structure known as the Mustang Ranch II annex was destroyed in a firefighting training exercise. The government, which padlocked the Mustang Ranch just east of Reno in 1999 after years of tax problems, sold the pink stucco buildings that formed the heart of the complex to another brothel owner, who moved them to another site and operates them under the same name.

The leader of what prosecutors describe as the largest ring of brothels ever uncovered in Orange County was sentenced to three years in state prison Tuesday after pleading guilty to pimping. Jian Shi's day in court came just one month after two associates, including a licensed acupuncturist, pleaded guilty and were also sentenced to prison terms.

Amsterdam's infamous Yab Yum brothel must shut its doors, a city court ruled. Yab Yum went to court last month after the city decided to withdraw its license based on a law that allows it to close companies that could be involved in criminal activities. Yab Yum said before the ruling that allegations it was in the hands of the Hells Angels biker gang were "absolutely wrong." In December, the city of Amsterdam announced plans to clean up its red-light district.

Former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer's call girl scandal prompted ABC News to give the go-ahead to a two-hour prime-time special on prostitution that includes Diane Sawyer's visit to a legal brothel in Nevada. The "20/20" special, which airs at 9 p.m. Friday, has been in the works for two years. It was expected to be on sometime in May or June, but ABC moved it up because Spitzer's resignation last week put the topic in the headlines, said David Sloan, executive producer of ABC's newsmagazines.

All four women were prostitutes. And all four were killed in rented apartments where they were working alone. The back-to-back killings have drawn attention to a peculiarity of Hong Kong law: Prostitution is legal, but brothels are not. As a result, many prostitutes work alone in apartments, leaving them vulnerable to attack. The law also bans others from making money off prostitution -- a rule meant to keep out pimps, but which also prevents sex workers from hiring security guards.

If ever a filmmaker deserved to be in her own movie, it would be Zana Briski. During the seven years it took to make her documentary, "Born Into Brothels," she spent more than three of them living in a Calcutta brothel, taught the children of prostitutes the rudiments of photography, and even helped place some of these children in schools. She crossed the line between reporter and participant, albeit reluctantly. She didn't even particularly like the place.

The Academy Award for best documentary was given Sunday to "Born Into Brothels," a socially conscious story about the offspring of prostitutes in Calcutta's red-light district that includes shots taken by the children themselves with still cameras. "We thank the kids; they're watching in Calcutta," director Zana Briski said while accepting the award with co-director Ross Kauffman. It was the directorial debut for both. The alternately despairing and hopeful "Brothels" is the rare documentary in which the filmmakers get involved in the lives of the subjects, as the directors worked to educate the children and keep them from following their mothers into sex work.

Thieves broke into the historic Dumas Brothel museum in Butte and stole what the owner described as irreplaceable items, including rare sex toys. Owner Rudy Giecek said he believed at least two thieves entered through the museum's back door, disabled an alarm and looted rooms. They dismantled beds, stole antique lamps and artwork and emptied glass cases full of brothel artifacts. Police are investigating the thefts. The brothel enjoyed 92 years of risque business until it closed in 1982.