Pimps

Attorneys for the San Francisco couple are calling it "every parent's nightmare. " Barry Laprell Gilton and Lupe Mercado watched, dismayed and helpless, as their 17-year-old daughter was lured away from home by a known Compton gang member, who became her pimp. The couple tried to persuade the teenager to break ties with 22-year-old Calvin Sneed. They sought help from law enforcement -- to no avail -- and later added the girl to several missing and exploited children registries, according to their lawyers.

Gale Banks Engineering of Azusa is one of about 1,000 companies in California that are part of the nation's $30-billion aftermarket industry. Join David Lazarus and me for a live video chat with Banks, age 70, the aftermarket automotive legend who sold his first car engine when he was 16. As president of Banks Engineering, he's involved with enhancing the performance of a broad array of vehicles. It's called aftermarket because these companies are involved in virtually all aspects of improving the stock, showroom condition of the cars we drive.

The Sneaker Pimps headlined the sold-out Hollywood Athletic Club on Saturday with a hypnotically uninspired performance. The act is a combination of shoegazer feedback rock and beat-heavy trip-hop--Garbage meets Portishead. For the record industry, it is a recipe made in heaven, a bridge between the heavyweight champion of chart genres, alternative, and the new hope of pop, dance music.

Even from behind bars, Kyle Edwards was still calling the shots. The now-convicted pimp contacted his girlfriend, Latysha Burleson, after his arrest in June and gave her a task: Get ahold of the 16-year-old girl he was accused of  trafficking around the Southland and convince her not to testify against him. Burleson did what Edwards said and eventually pleaded guilty to dissuading a witness, according to a statement from the Los Angeles Police...

It was a promise that spoke to high school girls of humble means and less-than-stable homes — quick money to get their hair and nails done, buy a house, even get their kids back from foster care. It was, a girl allegedly told her schoolmates, simply a matter of "using what you got to get what you want. " That was how 19-year-old Kimberly Alberti lured underage girls at her school to work for her pimp, prosecutors allege, bringing them into the control of a sex-trafficking ring in which they were beaten, raped and locked up while being forced into prostitution.

"It's lights, camera and action, baby! A pimp always has to dress his best." Kenny "K-Red" Red, 35, sits on the white marble steps below the Capitol building, a mountainous structure that symbolizes capitalism, prosperity and uniquely American virtues.

A woman who is awaiting trial with her husband for allegedly running an Internet prostitution ring out of their home when they lived in Redondo Beach was arrested Monday on suspicion of pimping, authorities said. Police arrested Jill Ellen McGrath, 36, who had been out on bail, at her Lawndale home. Redondo Beach Police Sgt.

A former prostitute serving life in prison for murdering her abusive pimp sued Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley on Thursday, contending that he reneged on a promise that would have shaved significant time off her sentence, attorneys said.

Bishop Don Magic Juan smiles--the diamonds and emeralds embedded in his front teeth glittering as he surveys his Los Angeles living room. He is swathed in lime-green leopard print from the hat on his head to the custom shoes on his feet. The Bishop, who rose to iconic stature as a symbol of street success in his Chicago heyday, gave up the life in the mid-80s, after finding Jesus.

The crowd was small but energetic and ready to give an earful to city officials. They'd been struggling for months to draw attention to a big problem in a small section of their West Adams neighborhood. An onslaught of prostitutes, pimps and johns had turned their quiet network of side streets into an urban combat zone. Fed-up neighbors had pushed for the meeting at the LAPD's Southwest Division last month. It was a collegial affair. Police officers and city officials opened with facts about shrinking budgets, criminal networks, law enforcement's balancing act. Residents submitted questions on index cards, then segued into indignant complaints.

A man and a woman who allegedly forced a 14-year-old runaway to walk the streets near Knott's Berry Farm as a prostitute have been charged under a recently approved law that toughens penalties for human trafficking. Under the new law, Chuncey Tarae Garcia, 33, could face life in prison if convicted of human trafficking of a minor by force or fear. He and Cierra Melissa Robinson, 27, Garcia's alleged accomplice, are in the first wave of people in California and the first in Orange County to be charged with human trafficking since the state's adoption of Proposition 35. Garcia is accused of being a pimp and teaming with Robinson, who prosecutors say worked for him as his highest-ranking prostitute.

With strawberries showing up in the market now, how do you know what to look for? Here are some tips on choosing, storing and using berries, courtesy of Food Editor Russ Parsons: Choose the best berries by aroma, not color or size. The flavor of strawberries is complex; only by sniffing around will you be able to get the best. Once you've found the ones that smell the sweetest, check the underside of the box to make sure there's no spoilage. Store strawberries at room temperature for as long as possible.

A Moreno Valley school board member who was convicted of running a prostitution ring out of his home - once flashing his district business card to recruit a young woman - was sentenced Friday to 14 years in state prison. Riverside County Deputy Dist. Atty. Michael Brusselback said Mike Rios' actions and his total lack of remorse called for a stiff prison sentence. Rios continues to insist he was the victim of a political vendetta, which Brusselback said was evidence of a "warped sense of reality.

A man suspected in a deadly car-to-car shooting in the heart of the Las Vegas Strip was arrested Thursday at a Studio City apartment complex, bringing an end to a weeklong manhunt. Los Angeles police and FBI agents surrounded the suburban apartment complex in the 4100 block of Arch Drive about noon and ordered Ammar Harris to surrender. Officers said there was a woman inside the apartment where he was holed up; she was not arrested. Harris, 26, is being held on suspicion of murder and is expected to be extradited back to Nevada.

The young woman on the witness stand said Mike Rios approached her on the street with a school district business card and a job opportunity: He wanted her "to gather girls and sell them," she said. Identified in court only as Valery, she testified Wednesday that she and others worked as prostitutes for Rios, a member of the Moreno Valley Unified School District Board of Education. Valery's testimony came on the opening day of Rios' trial in Riverside County Superior Court. He faces 35 felony charges, including rape, pandering and pimping involving six females, two of them underage.

President Obama's reelection has caused right-wingers to become completely unhinged. They are purple-faced and apoplectic, convinced that an ignorant horde of government-dependent social leeches has destroyed traditional America and banished God from the country. The craziest comments came from certifiably loony celebrities. Gun-crazy rocker Ted Nugent tweeted that “Pimps whores & welfare brats & their soulless supporters hav [sic] a president to destroy America,” and  former Saturday Night Live goofball Victoria Jackson let loose a series of tweets, saying in part, “Thanks a lot, Christians, for not showing up. You disgust me… In the Good vs. Evil battle, today Evil won.” Egomaniacal rich guy Donald Trump simply called for a revolution.

This is in response to the "debate" over AB 1035, which makes it a crime to loiter with the intent of engaging in prostitution or drug dealing. I live just south of Sunset Boulevard near Fairfax Avenue. For 15 years, I and other residents have spent a great deal of time, money and emotional energy dealing with prostitution. Many of us have built fences to keep them from using our lawns and driveways for sex. And yet, used condoms continue to litter our sidewalks and gutters. Johns' cars continue to circle our blocks in the wee small hours.

A man who turned three runaway teenage girls into prostitutes was convicted of pimping and pandering. A jury on Tuesday took less than four hours to convict Omoro Conteh McCoy, 20, of Long Beach of three counts of pimping, three counts of pandering and two counts of procuring lewd acts on children. He is scheduled to be sentenced March 23. The three girls met McCoy while roaming the streets of Anaheim. Two of them, ages 13 and 14, had run away from their Anaheim Hills home.

TORONTO--It's been a long time since Woody Allen acted in a film he didn't direct. It's probably even longer - as in never - since he's played a pimp. The 76-year-old bespectacled one will do just that in “Fading Gigolo,” a movie conceived and written by John Turturro. Turturro will direct and - of course - play the hooker. The johns? Those would be Sofia Vergara, Vanessa Paradis and Sharon Stone. There are plenty of highly touted Hollywood movies at the Toronto International Film Festival playing to the eager masses and media.