Pimps

A suspected pimp was shot and killed early Saturday outside a doughnut shop, police said. The shooting happened just after 6 a.m. outside a store in the 5300 block of Sunset Boulevard, police said. The unidentified victim was shot several times. He died after being taken by paramedics to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.

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.

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.

From a second-floor room in skid row's Russ Hotel, Shirley Ree Smith spends sleepless nights listening to the knife fights and profanity-laced taunts of the drug dealers, pimps and brawlers who populate South San Julian Street. She ventures out after dark only as far as she needs to get cellphone reception for the nightly call from her daughter, Tomeka, in Kankakee, Ill. It is the emotional high point of each day spent looking for work no one will give her. Smith has been separated from her daughter and grandchildren for 14 years, since her arrest in the 1996 death of her 7-week-old grandson.

The police were pretty sure he was a pimp. A homeowner had called to report a creepy guy loitering near her Hollywood house with his prostitute. The tipster provided detailed information: the suspect's physical description, the type of car he drove, his actions and his exact location. When police arrived, they arrested the woman under the state's misdemeanor loitering laws. The man stood by and watched. "We couldn't get the pimp," recalled Sgt.

Oscar-winning writer-director Steven Soderbergh isn't coy about his motive for casting Sasha Grey in his low-budget indie drama "The Girlfriend Experience." In a movie entirely populated by nonprofessional actors, who better to portray a $2,000-an-hour Manhattan call-girl than one of the most prolific and in-demand adult film stars working the so-called San Pornando Valley? Still, he cops to a certain degree of exploitation.

A man charged with kidnapping a 15-year-old Seattle girl, taking her to Anaheim and forcing her into prostitution was arrested Friday in Oregon, according to the FBI. William Earl "Eflav" Flavors, 26, was taken into custody without incident by Hubbard, Ore., police officers and FBI agents from Portland, said James DeSarno, assistant director in charge of the FBI office in Los Angeles.

A former California Highway Patrol officer accused of running a prostitution ring of teen-age girls out of his Huntington Beach apartment abruptly pleaded guilty at his preliminary hearing Monday in exchange for an eight-year prison sentence. William Scott Taylor, 49, could have faced a 16-year sentence if convicted. But in an agreement approved by Superior Court Judge Luis A.

Richard (Roman) Eshun, the escort service operator who failed to show up for his jury trial Wednesday, walked into Orange County Superior Court on Friday morning, apparently confused about which day he was supposed to appear. Eshun, 36, was arrested last October by Anaheim police for allegedly running a prostitution operation. He was subsequently charged with 10 felony counts of pimping and pandering in connection with operating Great Company Escorts.

IT'S Bun B's 35th birthday and he says he isn't doing anything to celebrate. The Houston rap legend has a rare day off at home before heading to Oklahoma for the next leg of the promotional tour he's been doing with Zune. It's all building up to the release of his second solo record, "II Trill" (out May 20 on Jive), his first to be released after the December death of his longtime partner in UGK, Pimp C.