Viva Lascivious Las Vegas!

by Emily Hudson

As pop star Regina Spektor once said, “Summer in the city means cleavage, cleavage, cleavage,” and it is definitely summer in Las Vegas, Nevada.

The sun beats down on Las Vegas Boulevard as the tourists and locals swarm the sidewalks and casinos, looking for the next exciting distraction. Lights flash in the slot machine-filled lobbies of the Pallagio hotel, Caesar’s Palace, Treasure Island and the Venetian. Every Black Jack table is full, and the empty seats in front of the “penny slots” beckon passers-by to sit down and try their luck.

No matter when you arrive at your Vegas destination, there will invariably be something happening somewhere.

People from all over the world come to Vegas. Walking down the strip I ran into Stefan and Sandra Weissmann, a young couple from Straubing, Germany who flew to Vegas for a four-day weekend with their family. 

The Weissmann’s stood in front of the unnaturally blue waters of the Pallagio hotel, holding hands and drinking in the Vegas atmosphere.

“We’ve been here since Monday, and we have to leave tomorrow,” Stefan said smiling broadly behind his aviators, his German dialect drawing attention from people passing by. “It’s such a wonderful place. We just came to have fun and to play!” 

As if the bright lights and the seemingly never-ending list of attractions weren’t enough of a draw, the people in Vegas are incredibly nice. An employee of the local Deseret Industries smiled and chatted as she bagged up my thrift store finds, and fellow sidewalkers smiled and struck up conversations. It’s dubious, however whether that joviality is influenced by the never-ending supply of alcoholic beverages in Vegas.

It is the friendliness and the booze that brought Chris Hansen up from Texas for the weekend. 

Hansen, a building coordinator for Texas power plants, didn’t look like much of a businessman in his Hawaiian shorts and white T-shirt. Especially holding the amount of alcohol he had in his hand.

"This is the best place in the world,” Hansen said enthusiastically as he paused to take a drink from his oversized gallon of beer. “If you need to get away for the weekend you can just come here, enjoy the big city and the really nice people. It’s just great.” 

Yes, Vegas is a fun weekend getaway. But if you were thinking about bringing the kids, you may want to reconsider your vacation city.

“Vegas tried the whole ‘family friendly’ approach a couple years back, and it was a flop,” said Trustin Anderson, a resident of Vegas who moved down for graduate school at the Univeristy of Las Vegas Nevada. “Now they’re back to their old ‘what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas’ motto.”

Hotels like Treasure Island used to have some family-focused shows, but it would seem that the revenue for a family hot spot just wasn’t there for Vegas. Now the shows at Treasure Island focus more on the pirate wenches than anything the kids would be interested in.

Residents of Vegas seem less enthralled with its charms and more bothered by its paradox.

“It’s weird here,” said Cody Schafer, life-long resident of Las Vegas. “People visit here to party, but people move here to be left alone.”

Vegas residents are most likely disenchanted by the city’s slums, which surround most of the strip and most of the actual city. 

North Las Vegas Boulevard is the opposite of shiny and exciting. It is dilapidated and has a “lock the car doors” kind of a feel. It’s seven blocks of shady drive-by chapels and gentlemen’s clubs that hail to the city’s not-so-distant past. 

Crime is also a concern in North Las Vegas. According to cityrating.com, North Las Vegas’s crime rate per capita is 1.29 times higher than the national average in the areas of “All Violent Crime,” which includes “Murder,” “Forcible Rape” and “Aggravated Assault.” Comparably, “All Property Crimes” in the Northern part of the city sit at a meager 1.10 times the national average. 

However, most tourists won’t see that side of Vegas, unless they get wasted and decide to marry the worker from the craps table. People who come to Vegas for the thrills will most likely stay on the glistening strip, gambling all through the night in the windowless casinos.

Gambling is possibly the main reason why people come to Vegas, and is definitely the reason they leave with lighter pockets. According to insidervlv.com, nearly $7 billion were lost in Vegas just in Casinos on the strip in 2007.

So, if you’re feeling lucky and up to the challenge of avoiding the drive-by pornography, Vegas is a viable vacation option.

If you plan on coming, you must absolutely schedule your trip so you arrive at night. It is, after all, the city of lights. Whether you’re driving or flying, the sudden luminescent explosion as you reach your destination is an important part of the Vegas experience.

States may remove the death penalty to save money

by Emily Hudson

For decades the death penalty has been a taboo topic among acquaintances, spurring countless moral arguments at the dinner table of average Americans all the way to the lofty benches of the highest court in the nation and back.

Yet, this year alone 11 states put forth legislation to abolish the death penalty. The reason has nothing to do with religion or politics, but about one major factor: the money.

In the past few months, state governments looking for budget cuts to ease to weight of the sinking national economy have begun considering the cost-effectiveness of the death penalty, some in lieu of their previous pro-capital convictions.

On March 18, New Mexico became the 15th state to abolish capital punishment in spite of Governor Bill Richardson’s previous long-term support of pro-capital punishment. 

The bill removes capital punishment as an option, but replaces it with a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Many opponents of the bill argued that abolishing capital punishment would remove a major factor helping to deter heinous crimes in the state. Richardson, on the other hand was convinced otherwise.

“Yes, the death penalty is a tool for law enforcement. But it’s not the only tool,” Richardson said last Wednesday at the signing. “For some would-be criminals, the death penalty may be a deterrent. But it’s not, and never will be, for many, many others.”

Richardson also cited the inadequacies of the criminal justice system as a reason for his change of heart.

“More than 130 death row inmates have been exonerated in the past 10 years in this country, including four New Mexicans – a fact I cannot ignore,” Richardson said.

Similar bills are being discussed in Colorado, Illinois, Maryland, Montana, New Hampshire, Texas and Washington. All of these bills are currently on their way through the states’ Senate and House committees. This is a diverse group of states coming together in principle on the common ground of high cost. 

Maryland democratic governor, Martin O’Malley, has been a long time advocate against the death penalty, citing a religious obligation to the practice. He recently spoke before the Maryland senate, arguing in favor of cutting the practice to cut costs.


O’Malley said that the death penalty is unnecessary when there are better and cheaper ways to reduce crime.

According to a 2008 study by the Urban Institute, a capital-eligible case in Maryland could cost the state approximately $3 million. That is $1.9 million more than it would cost for a case that was not capitally prosecuted. Prison costs were also more than three times more expensive in cases where capital punishment was sought.

Those in opposition to the new legislation argue that money should not impugn justice.

For State Senator Carolyn McGinn, R-Kansas, the decision to abolish the death penalty is about the costliness and necessity of capital punishment. 

“Having this discussion in no way diminishes the pain and grief that victims and family members go through. Nor does it indicate that those on death row are not deserving of dying in prison,” McGinn said in a recently published opinion editorial. “It does cause one to ask whether lethal injection is worse than being forced to live life in isolation until death.”

The state of Utah was among those 11 states with proposed bills seeking to save money by avoiding the appellate swamp that accompanies a death sentence. However, the bill died in the House on March 12.

New Restaurant to Open in Wells Fargo Building

By Emily Hudson - 9 Apr 2008

This summer a new restaurant and lounge being built on the bottom floor of the Wells Fargo building on University Avenue will be joining the ranks of Muse, Velour, Mode, Coal Umbrella and the other businesses catering to the hip, contemporary Provo scene. Spark is the first business venture of Blake Ballard, a BYU alumnus who graduated in accounting. Ballard hopes by mixing a chef formally trained in French cuisine with affordable prices and a sleek, contemporary atmosphere, Spark will be a big hit. "Spark is a restaurant lounge," Ballard said. "Its primary purpose is to give Provo and Utah Valley a social and cultural experience in food and nightlife by creating a sleek and modern atmosphere." Ballard got the idea for Spark while living in the Bay area in California. "I went to a lot of different bars and lounges and I realized they provide a great social outlet," Ballard said. But Ballard doesn't want to market Spark as a hip spot just for students. "It's not meant to be the BYU hangout," Ballard said. "It's meant to be for anyone looking for an escape; it's all about the experience. The strategy is to give people an out-of-Provo experience." One of the biggest parts of the out-of-Provo experience Ballard talked about will be the food. Viet Pham is the executive chef for Spark, and with formal training in French cuisine and experience working at the Fifth Floor Restaurant, a high-end California restaurant, Pham said he hopes to bring a bit of flare to Provo with his meals. However, the menu will be diverse and will not only feature French foods. Italian and Chinese, among many other flavors, will grace the Spark kitchen. Pham said he was not always excited about the idea of moving from California to work at Spark, but since he's been to Provo and seen the location he has been all in. "I think this will be a breath of fresh air for Provo," Pham said. "I think people here want something more trendy with a nightlife, and I think this is going to be it." With a heavy emphasis on the restaurant aspect of Spark, both Ballard and Pham hope they avoid the stigma that Spark will be a nightclub. Ballard is excited, but cautious about publicizing the restaurant because people might get the wrong idea. "People in the area could have misconceptions about what 'nightlife' entails, and those misconceptions might conflict with their personal beliefs," Ballard said. Ballard was concerned people would get the idea that Spark is going to be a "bar" or a "dance club," two things it will not be. The trouble with the idea of nightclubs in Provo comes mostly from the controversial party spot, Club Omni, which closed some time after a fatal gang-related shooting in 1998. Due to unruly raves, and questionable parking lot activities including alcohol and drug use at Omni, the Provo City Council passed the infamous Dance Hall Ordinance, which required every business or group hosting a dance to provide their own security. It also required Omni to install security cameras, and metal detectors. This ordinance made it nearly impossible for people to sponsor dances, and left many students and residents crying "Footloose." Still, since the ordinance was passed, Provo's live music scene has been growing steadily. But Spark will not cater to this dance hall demographic. "There will obviously be music, so if people end up dancing that's fine," Ballard said. "But there won't be a dance floor; it's not a dance club." Spark is being built in the location that was supposed to be home to The Vault, a dance hall that had ambitions to revive Provo's diminished contemporary clubbing scene in 2005. The club tried to mix dinner with dancing, but the idea didn't go over well. "It just never took off at all, it never happened," said Suzanne York, the designer for Spark. The new restaurant lounge will not only be a night hang out, but will be open during the day as well. "We'll cater to the business crowd more during the day," Ballard said. However, after a certain time at night there will be an 18+ age limit until the lounge closes, which will be about 1 a.m. on weekdays. With the late hours, Spark will provide an opportunity for BYU students to hang out somewhere other than their apartments, or outside after the housing curfew. "Aside from Wendy's there's not really a place for people to go out late at night to hang out in Provo," York said. Graphic Design student Amanda Cockreil was excited about the new addition to Provo's downtown. "I think it has potential to bring a little class to the Provo neighborhood," Cockreil said. "It could be cool."

Communication Between BYU and Provo City Lacking

By Emily Hudson - 25 Mar 2008

BYU officials chose not to attend a Provo city meeting on Saturday about the future redevelopment of the downtown area, including numerous changes that will affect university students. The meeting on Saturday was a continuation of ongoing discussions of the Provo Downtown Strategic Plan, a look at cultural identity, civic beauty, community connections and urban variety in an attempt to improve the city for all those living here. Members of the group noted the significant representation of students mixed in with the permanent residents of the Provo population, and spent time discussing how to maximize the downtown district for all members of the community. BYU comprises a large part of Provo city. With the number of BYU students reaching close to 33,000, the university alone makes up about 29 percent of Provo's population. The university was not made aware of the first two meetings because of confusion about who should be contacted. "It's just hard to know who from the university should come [to the meetings]," said Paul Glauser, Provo Redevelopment Agency director. "We've got a few students and faculty members who come of their own volition because they're interested. The university is such a large organization it's hard to say who we should talk to about each individual issue." The university was made aware of Saturday's meeting, yet did not send a representative. "There are a lot of different obligations that our university officials have going on," said Michael Smart, media relations manager for University Communications. "There just wasn't room on the calendar." Carri Jenkins, assistant to the president for University Communications, said that if they were invited to a meeting, they would certainly review the request. Then, once a decision has been made, BYU would send the most appropriate person for that particular meeting or assignment. In Saturday's downtown meeting, where BYU was not represented, almost all of the discussion of urban variety centered around increasing student activity in the downtown area, student housing issues and transportation. While the university and the city work well together on some issues, there may be room for improvement when it comes to communication. "There is good cooperation [between BYU and the city] on a lot of issues," Glauser said. "I think maybe that we each get going down our own paths. We each have our own missions and sometimes they intersect and sometimes they don't." Glauser also mentioned the different goals and objectives of the city and the university that need to be considered when looking at their relationship. However, the overwhelming attitude of those in attendance at the meeting seemed to be that either BYU or Provo was more interested in its own agenda than working together for everyone's benefit. When it comes to events and student activity downtown, Annalisa Jensen, the owner of Gallery OneTen, said she thinks the university might see themselves as in a contest for student attendance at social activities. "I think they see it like, 'we can't advertise your events because it's in competition with our events,' but I don't think it needs to be that way," Jensen said. "If students are able to know what's going on and participate there will be an upswelling of community activity, and it will create more of a synergistic relationship between the university and the city." However, Jenkins doesn't see the university as in competition with the city events. "I don't think that at all," she said. "We have so many students here on campus who are very involved in what's happening in our community." If people are concerned about not being able to pass out flyers or advertise on campus, Jenkins said they should note that even the university students aren't allowed to do so without going through an approval process. But she offered other means of advertising around the university. "The Daily Universe is certainly a wonderful mechanism that's in place to distribute news about community events," Jenkins said. But the tension doesn't just come from the university. Katherine Glover, a retail marketing and recruiting specialist brought in as a consultant on the Provo Strategic Plan project, brought up both the openness and the resistance Provo has for the students. "People want the students, but then they don't," Glover said. "Students bring noise, and people don't like the housing." Brandon Plewe, assistant professor of geography at BYU, who was not representing BYU, called the relationship between the city and the university schizophrenic. "The city doesn't know whether it loves it [BYU] or hates it," Plewe said. "They're not foes because they need each other, and yet they have competing issues with what they want." Along the lines of communication, Glauser said it was troublesome that BYU doesn't inform the city when it is going to make big changes that will not only affect the students but the city as a whole. "BYU radically changes their whole policy on bus passes, and we read about it in the newspaper the next morning," Glauser said. "It happens a lot with housing. They change the radius where they'll approve housing, and we read about it in the papers, and that changes the whole housing demographic of the area." Jenkins said, however, the university does try to send communication in an adequate amount of time. "With the change that we had with the two-mile radius, we announced that five years before it was put in place, and there was a lot of media attention at the time," Jenkins said. "It was certainly not something that happened overnight." Along with noting a lack of communication, Glauser also cited an example of how communication and working together with BYU had really enhanced the city's discussion of a downtown convention center project. "When we were working on a downtown convention center, there was someone from conferences and workshops from BYU chosen to serve on that task force, and that man really added a lot," Glauser said. The benefits of a future relationship between the city and the university at the Downtown Strategic Plan meetings are unknown. "We would first need to be invited. It's not something that we're going to interfere with the city on, and then we would carefully review it," Jenkins said. In general, there are fundamental differences between the university and the Provo city government. "Universities don't want to become cities, and a city should never function as a university," Glauser said. "It might just be like having two 600-pound gorillas in the same room."

Center Aims To Boost Provo Cultural Level

By Emily Hudson - 17 Mar 2008

Photo by Stephanie Rhodes From left, Ryan Neely, Maht Paulos, and Jason Metcalf stand in front of what will soon be the Sego Art Center. They wanted to bring some international culture with this soon to be art house cinema in Provo. With 1,000 square feet of gallery space, a basement with 1,500 square feet of studio space and a sculpture garden in the back, the new Sego Art Center has the potential to be a Mecca of sorts for starving modern artists in Utah County. Members of the Sego Arts Foundation recently signed the lease for the location of the Sego Art Center at 169 N. University Ave., which will serve as a modern art gallery and as the first step toward Provo's own art house cinema, among other things. Maht Paulos, the founder of the Sego Arts Foundation, said Sego has a three-fold mission: music, art and film. The new art center will be the home for several projects, such as the Provo Film Society, a cabaret poetry show once a month, art workshops and classes for community members. The center will open its doors on May 2 for its first show just 52 days after signing the building lease. "It's all happening fast," Paulos said. "Kind of just make it happen and then go for it." The gallery will feature local artists, as well as well-known artists who will bring national attention. "At Sego, our big thing is that we only accepted local art and music," Paulos said. "That might change in some ways, but will remain our emphasis." Another big project for Sego is the community outreach programs, especially those dealing with high school students. Paulos wants the new Sego center to have a program that will give high school students more venues to show their art. He also wants the center to provide workshops for high school art teachers. One of the goals of the Sego Arts Foundation is to eventually generate enough revenue to start an art house cinema, which would show international and local independent films. "It's going to take a lot of things coming together to get an art house cinema off the ground, including serious funding," Paulos said. "But we're formally organizing the Provo Film Society, which will have its home in the Sego Arts Center." The society is a recently organized group with the main purpose of helping promote and inspire local filmmakers and give them a venue to show their art. "We have so many talented filmmakers in this area who need to be let know what's going on with film around the world," said Raquel Smith Callis, the public arts program director for the Downtown Business Alliance. "I think that having an art house cinema so close to the university would fill a large niche." Since Sego is run on a 100 percent volunteer basis, it doesn't have the funding to start up an art house cinema from scratch. So Paulos along with other members of the Sego Art Center plan to start sponsoring small screenings of independent films in the basement of the building. "We're interested in bringing intellectually stimulating films to Provo to enhance the culture," said Ryan Neely, member of the Sego Arts Foundation and local business owner. "We're looking for art. We don't care if some arbitrary organization puts a rating on it." That ideology has given Neely and the other members of Sego some trouble when it comes to acquiring a space for the theater. Local property owners don't want to sell their buildings if R-rated films will be shown. However, supporters of the art house cinema don't see what the big deal is. "There have been movies that I've felt the need to walk out of and I walk out," Callis said. "It's not my place to draw the line for anyone else; they have to draw it for themselves according to their background and belief systems." Of course, not all of the movies that would be shown at the art house cinema would be rated R. Just like other movie theaters in Provo, there would be a wide variety of topics, film styles and ratings. Many independent and international films aren't gratuitously violent, vulgar or sexual. "Just from watching the Oscars I can see that there are some enchanting, beautiful films out there, and we just don't have a place to show them in Provo," Callis said. Neely, along with the other members of Sego and their supporters, thinks the unique demographic of Provo makes it an excellent candidate city for an art house cinema. "Within a five-mile radius there are more people in downtown Provo than there are surrounding the Broadway theater in Salt Lake City, and they are 10 years younger and have a higher income level." Neely said. "Statistically that is the best scenario for a successful art house cinema." According to income statistics, the Broadway theater brought in about $900,000 in 2007 from independent films. Approximately $800,000 of this money came from movies that never came to Provo. "One of the biggest film festivals in the world is right up the canyon from us, and it has no part in Provo," Neely said. But this isn't the first time a group of hopefuls tried to establish an art house cinema in Provo. In 1998, Melissa Puente, a BYU alumna who graduated from the film department, and her husband tried to buy the old Provo Academy Theater, once located downtown. But the couple found that while people seemed enthusiastic about the idea, there wasn't enough community support for independent cinema. "We did everything we could to promote the theater, but it was just a very clear message that people just weren't interested," Puente said. The building was later razed. In contrast, Paulos put together a screening for the Sigur Ros film, "Heima," at Velour, a local music venue, in November 2007. The turnout for the film was more than Paulos had expected. "About 400 people showed up and we ended up showing it over two days," Paulos said. "It was one of the most successful screenings of the film in the country." So it would seem public interest has grown since 1998. "I think it's interesting that they're trying to do the same thing that we did," Puente said. "That would be great if things have changed."

Provo City Discusses New Master Plan for Downtown

By Emily Hudson - 14 Feb 2008

The Provo City Redevelopment Agency is embarking on a downtown strategy plan to revamp the Provo business district. The redevelopment plans will kick off Saturday. A meeting will be in Room 201 at the Provo City Library at 550 N. University Ave., 8:30-11:30 a.m. The public, residents and students are encouraged to contribute their thoughts and ideas. "There are two things that we're trying to do with this project," said Paul Glauser, the director of the Provo City Redevelopment Agency. "We're trying to achieve a common community vision of what downtown Provo should be, and to come up with a specific step by step action plan to accomplish that vision." Provo city's relationship with local college students is a topic that will be discussed over the course of the meetings. "One of the big things we're thinking about is if there is more downtown Provo should be doing to offer recreation to university students," Glauser said. "The students are encouraged to come so they know what's going on and so they can have a voice." Allyse Robertson, a junior from Idaho, likes the old feel of Center Street, but doesn't know what the city can do to make people hang out there. "It's not really much of a city center," Robertson said. "People only go down there if they hear about an event that's happening. But they have really good restaurants and stuff down there. I don't know why people don't know about those things." Glauser said ways local businesses can dress themselves up and be more appealing is one of the things that will be discussed at the meeting. A new outdoor plaza for the city is one of the bigger projects to be considered. Mayor Lewis Billings described the changes Provo has already undergone in the past few years as a rebirth. "Ten years ago, some thought we were a little disconnected from reality as we talked about plans for new mid-rise office towers, a new center for the arts, a bustling daytime business population and new downtown residential living units," Billings said. While Provo has seen improvements the city has not finished growing. "I predict that it will be even more exciting to see what happens in downtown Provo over the next ten years." City officials involved in planning this meeting are excited about some potential additions to the downtown scene, and are curious to know how the public feels about the suggestions. "We'll also be discussing the future of University Avenue," Glauser said. "There has been some talk of a bus-rail transit system, which would be a combination of a bus and a light rail system, that would run from UVSC to the Provo Towne Center mall. We want to know if that would be a good thing." The city has organized a group of people who have some kind of stake in the downtown district, such as business and landowners, who will run the discussion. But the public will also have room to make their ideas and opinions known. "While a lot has already happened, we have a wonderful opportunity in downtown Provo to create something even more exciting and incredible than at anytime in its previous history," Billings said. According to a news release by Provo city, a consulting team consisting of Cooper Roberts Simonsen Associates, and Design Workshop along with city staff and some other organizations will facilitate the planning process. Both companies have experience working together both in and outside of the state on similar planning projects.

Sale of 'Murderabilia' Raises Moral Questions

By Emily Hudson - 5 Feb 2008

Infamous for his clean-cut appearance and his heinous murders, Ted Bundy is a man who is well known as one of the most diabolical serial killers in American history, having killed an estimated 30 young women. Bundy was executed by electric chair at Florida State Prison in Starke, Fla. His last words were, "I'd like you to give my love to my family and friends." Then, more than 2,000 volts of electricity were sent through his body. He was pronounced dead at 7:16 a.m. on Jan. 24, 1989. But that was not the end of Ted Bundy. Anyone willing to pay the price can keep him alive by owning one of his "fried hairs" found underneath his execution chair. Similar items, such as the poems, artwork and even fingernail clippings and bodily fluids of infamous serial killers, referred to as "murderabilia," sell for big bucks on various online markets and auction sites. The more common items on these sites are prison envelopes, self-portraits, pictures and various letters between the infamous killers and family, friends or legal counsel. Fans of the different murderers, named "serialphiles" by sociologists, will spend anything from pocket change to large sums of money, depending on the notoriety of the murderer. The gun Gary Gilmore used to kill his victims started out in auction at $1 million. Andy Kahan, director of the Houston Mayor's Crime Victims Office, is arguably the most vocal critic and active advocate against the sale of serial killer paraphernalia. He has been fighting for notoriety-for-profit legislation on the state level for years since he accidentally stumbled upon the phenomenon of selling what he has since nicknamed murderabilia. "I found it on a total fluke," Kahan said. "I was perusing a Rochester online newspaper and read that a serial killer's artwork was for sale on eBay." This was the beginning of a crusade of sorts for Kahan. "I became an active buyer for over a year," Kahan said. "I figured I should know more about it if I was going to be against it, and I am now the owner of hair samples from five different serial killers, fingernails, toenails, bodily fluids, pornographic artwork and letters." Passing Laws Kahan has since been pushing for individual state laws against the sale of murderabilia. Utah is one of the five states to have passed a "Son of Sam" or notoriety-for-profit law. This law, named after the infamous New York killer David Berkowitz, also known as "Son of Sam," sayswhen a criminal enters into a contract to make money off the recounting of his or her crime, the contractor (usually a corporation) must give the state all the money that would go to the offender under the contract. This basically prohibits criminals from making money off movies, books, television shows or other depictions of the crimes they have committed. Berkowitz has been Kahan's greatest resource in his movement to make the auctioning of these items illegal. "David Berkowitz has been a tremendous asset and has provided me with a lot of information," Kahan said. "Because of his high-profile nature he gets a lot of letters from these people trying to coerce him into writing them so they can sell it." When Kahan first started searching for this murderabilia, it was readily available on eBay. The online auction Web site initially told Kahan they weren't the morality police and if it was legal they weren't going to pull the items from the site. However, around the time murderabilia began to gain national attention, and 20/20 was preparing to do a segment on the macabre hobby, eBay banned such items from its shelves. Since eBay has begun refusing to sell such macabre items, buyers, dealers and traders have had to move elsewhere. "It's kind of like exterminating cockroaches. If you exterminate one room, then they move on to the next," Kahan said. Online Market New Web sites designed specifically to sell this murderabilia have become blooming market places. Serial Killer Central, DaisySeven.com and supernaught.com are all popular places for serialphiles. Tod Bohannon, a kindergarten teacher from Georgia, runs the most popular site, murderauction.com. This site has been a main target of Kahan's for years. "I don't begrudge Andy [Kahan] for what he does," Bohannon said. "He believes in his heart that he's doing a good thing. I just think he should focus on something else." The main concern with the sale of "murderabilia" is criminals are making money off of this stuff from behind bars. The auction site DaisySeven operates under the slogan "Who says crime doesn't pay? Daisy Seven, where crime pays every day." That is exactly what disgusts Kahan. "I'm as much of an advocate of free enterprise as anyone, but I just don't think you should be able to rob, rape, murder and turn around and make a buck off of it," Kahan said. However, Bohannon said the criminals are not making a killing off their crimes. "Andy says this is a quarter of a million dollar industry," Bohannon said. "But if it was, then I wouldn't still be teaching school." Bohannon's main argument is criminals can't make a profit off of their letters and artwork. "A lot of these items are traded or sold cheap," Bohannon said. "Most of the items that sell for big bucks are from people who are dead, like Bundy, Gacy, etc." Bohannon also pointed out some states, like California, require inmates to pay restitution as part of their sentence. That means the state takes 55 percent of any amount of money deposited into criminal's accounts. Then the prison charges the inmate for the cost of envelopes and postage they supply every month. After the restitution and fees have been paid, if the inmate has any money left, he or she is required to pay for the next set of toiletries: toothpaste, shampoo and soap to name a few items. At this rate, Bohannon argues, even if someone did have a couple dollars left after all of that, no one is making a substantial amount of money through the sale of murderabilia. "If you call what they are doing business, then they suffer by far more than anyone," Bohannon said. Crusade of forgiveness For Bohannon, the interest in serial killers and murderabilia is not about the horror, or the blood. Bohannon said his crusade is one of forgiveness."More people are victimized in these situations than those who were killed and their families," Bohannon said. He used the example of Dennis Rader, also known as the BTK killer, a serial killer from Kansas. "For example, Rader has a daughter, and wherever she goes, people will look at her and have her dad in their minds. She's been victimized by Dennis's actions." Bohannon, a self-proclaimed agnostic was frustrated with the hypocrisy of some Christian attitudes. "Christians preach forgiveness, but they're the first to turn around and say 'we should just kill that man today, he doesn't deserve a trial that will waste our money,'" Bohannon said. "They don't think that a convicted killer deserves even $5 for chips and cigarettes. They're the first to hate when they're supposed to be the first to forgive." However, some people, like Andy Kahan, don't think forgiveness is the issue. "People have been trading and collecting this stuff since the dawn of time," Kahan said. "Collect all you want, draw and doodle all you want; just don't make money off of it. It's blood money, plain and simple." Kahan is slowly accomplishing his goal of drying up the murderabilia market. Some states are making it illegal to ship and sell these items. To speed up the process, Kahan is spearheading a national attack. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, is working with Kahan to pass Senate bill 1528, which would make the sale of such items illegal nationwide and require federal monitoring of related Web sites. "It is with startling and increasing frequency that prisoners are turning to the Internet and seeking to profit from their deplorable crimes. This heinous activity hurts the victims and their families yet again," said Cornyn in his May 30, 2007, newsletter. Cornyn explained the legislation further in his newsletter. "This new legislation would cut off the source of these murderabilia Web sites-by simply prohibiting state or federal prisoners from placing almost any item into the mail for purposes of interstate commerce. Experts like Andy Kahan think this approach will shut down the industry, and I hope and pray they are right. I intend to push this legislation until this despicable industry is gone forever." The bill has been filed, and Kahan is planning to travel to Washington, D.C., in late February or early March to see how things are coming along. The next step is getting it into hearings. But Bohannon is not worried. Selling the Web site "I've offered to sell Kahan and the victims families my Web site for $10,000," Bohannon said. "I've even agreed to sign a non-disclosure agreement to not open another site for five years. But if the sites don't exist anymore then Andy doesn't have anything to preach about." According to Bohannon, shutting down the sites and making it illegal for prisoners to ship things out from prison would not damage the murderabilia market. With more than 850 e-mail addresses in his possession, Bohannon was confident while the legislation might force the movement underground, it would also help his business. "Right now I've got hundreds of art pieces and Hadden [Clark, a murderer and cannibal serving a life sentence in Maryland] is sending out new pieces all the time," Bohannon said. "But if you shut me down, and dry up the market, these $12 pieces could turn into $100 pieces. Basically, you're increasing my market for what I already have times 10." Like many other topics people find distasteful on the Internet, Bohannon suggests if someone doesn't like the idea of murderabilia then they shouldn't go to his site. Referencing the First Amendment, he said people have to take the good with the bad in order to protect the freedom of speech and expression.