Are lap dances considered legitimate artistic expression? 75 year-old University of Maryland professor Judith Hanna believes so, and she testified as much in state court for Nite Moves, an Albany-area strip club that is seeking exemption from the state's sales tax that other purveyors of "dramatic or musical performances" receive on cover charges. If Patrick Henry High's Joan Henderson is reading this: Scores WAS a legitimate detour on that 10th grade field trip. more ›

20 people were arrested in an early morning raid yesterday at strip clubs in NYC and Long Island, where women from Russia and Eastern Europe danced after being illegally smuggled into the country. All 20 face racketeering and extortion crimes related to their involvement in several strip clubs, which are allegedly controlled by the Gambino and Bonanno crime families. Authorities say the ring would lure women to the U.S. with promises of jobs as waitresses, but upon arrival they'd be enlisted to dance at clubs including Cheetah's in Manhattan; Gallagher’s 2000, Perfection and Rouge in Queens; and Scene in Commack, Long Island. more ›

Gallagher's 2000 in Long Island City has been under the microscope in federal court by prosecutors who think the club has been sketchy with paying their taxes. But as "pistol-packing" owner Robert Potenza testified, "They didn't seem like they knew much about my business." And thus, some trade secrets of the strip club game were revealed in court as Potenza defended his legitimate business. more ›

There's a cliche in movies (and certain, uh, adult films) that many strippers are actually empowered women trying to pay their way through graduate school. Scoff if you will, but considering how many strippers have successfully sued the city or their employers in the last year, for everything from career-ending scars to sexual harassment, we're starting to think there may be something to this. more ›

In a shocking turn of events, attorney Louis "Big Daddy Lou" Posner was automatically disbarred after he admitted earlier this year to promoting prostitution at his popular strip club, the Hot Lap Dance Club. But today, the reality of that ignoble honor was made crystal clear: his name was completely stricken from the state's roll of lawyers by a state appeals court. more ›

The city often uses tax breaks as incentives to entice businesses (and the jobs they provide) to stay in town, which is how they were able to keep Jet Blue here. In this way, the tax breaks are like the city's desperate pleas during pillow talk, the equivalent of Mayor Bloomberg cooing breathlessly in the ear of his paramour would-be investors. Taken in that light, it's completely appropriate that several high-end nudie bars have been getting such tax breaks under an obscure property tax exemption. more ›

Thanks to some uptight judge, now nobody can enjoy the delicious cuisine of places like Ten's Cabaret while indulging in the sights and sounds of topless ladies parading their wares around the floor. The Manhattan judge ruled in favor of city zoning regulations aimed at shutting down "60-40" clubs, in which only 40% of the club is used for adult entertainment, and the other 60% is used for "non-adult" entertainment like a restaurant. The law states that X-rated stores or clubs must be in certain zones, while anything outside the zones can't have more than 40% X-rated material. It was unclear just how many women needed to be topless for a restaurant to break the 40% mark. more ›

A Kew Gardens man tried to get a bouncer arrested for roughing him up, but cops ended up booking the accuser when they discovered he was caught on camera inflicting the damage onto himself. The Post reports 34-year-old Khuram Murtaza had been thrown out of Rouge Gentlemen's Club in Maspeth around 1 a.m. Tuesday and called the cops to report he had been beaten up, showing them that his face was bloodied and bruised when they arrived. But bouncers simply showed police surveillance video that revealed Murtaza smashing his own face against a car, cutting his nose. Murtaza was charged with falsely reporting an incident; he had been arrested in Forest Park earlier in the summer for criminal mischief. Reviewers of the club had nothing but good thimgs to say about bouncers, that they remember your name and even look out for you when use the ATM. Regulars also note that Rouge is the spot to go to for "young Russian girls," though some have immigrated so recently that they're "not much in the way of witty conversation." more ›

On The Square, by Ade in New York at flickr
• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: shots fired by police at Blake and Vermont in Brooklyn, an escaped prisoner at East 112th St. and Madison Ave. in Manhattan, and a person under a train at Central Park West and 60th St. in Manhattan.
• Hassan Askari was invited to the State of the Union Address as the guest of Queens Congressman Rep. Joseph Crowley. Askari came to the aid of several Jewish people who were being attacked on the subway.
• A new Bronx courthouse is finally set to open, only three years behind schedule and $100 million over budget.

Today we looked at Mayor Bloomberg's snacking habits. Was the banisher of trans-fat recently seen with an open bag of Cheez-Its on his desk? We'll likely never know (at least, not until his greasy fingerprint-laden desk set is back from the lab). While we await the results of the faux cheese traces, let's take a look at what some of our commenters had to say: more ›

When we decided to check in on the status of the proposed bill to regulate New York’s exotic dancers, it was partially in the interest of pleasuring ourselves with some droll double entendres. But it seems you’ve got to get up pretty early in the morning to beat Daily News Bronx Borough Chief Bob Kappstatter to the pun:

A bill that would license exotic dancers has been bumping and grinding its way ever so slowly through the legislative hopper in Albany - but the "sin-tax" in the measure may leave legislators poles apart.

After years of legal wrangling, the Appellate Court has backed the College of Staten Island and says that the CUNY school can deny official status to fraternity Chi Iota. But the battle may not be over, as the brothers want to fight this at the Supreme Court. more ›

This week ended with the launch of the seventh and final Harry Potter installation. But while the world was consumed with Pottermania, it's important to remember that there were more serious things going on in the world, too - two of them in -Ist cities. more ›

• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a stabbing on Knickerbocker Ave. in Brooklyn, a shooting on East 166th St. and College Ave. in the Bronx, and a chain saw accident at Crystal Ave. and Wade St. on Staten Island
• Neighbors in Forest Hills, Queens banded together in order to save four black and white kittens, as the alley the animals called home flooded in this week's torrential downpour. The accompanying photo is priceless.
• While his roommate was unconscious from a car accident that cost him a leg, Anthony Giordano stole the man's wallet and used it to steal his identity. He eventually ran up credit card bills totalling $22,000, blowing the cash on a 15-year-old car and strip clubs.
• A man from Syracuse aligned an array of corporate benefactors to treat his best friend since kindergarten to a weekend in NYC and a game at Yankee Stadium, where they will meet the friend's favorite Yankee: Don Mattingly. Michael Sayre is already blind in one eye and losing sight in the other. His best friend Michael Aiden wanted him to see Mattingly in person while there was still time.
• Two Brooklyn restaurant owners were arrested for attempting to bribe health inspectors to overlook code violations like uncovered raw meat and mouse droppings in their establishments.
• A stolen religious relic (a bone fragment of the church's patron saint) was returned to St. Demetrios Greek Orthodox Church in Queens this week, after it was stolen by a drug abuser who had been baptized in that very same church.
• Water attracts coins, and the Times looks at the man responsible for removing them from the fountains at The Metropolitan Museum.
• A father and son were discovered dead inside their Brooklyn apartment this afternoon, in what police suspect may have been a murder suicide.

After the Post went for the jugular with its "Stray-Rod" cover, the floodgates of gossip about the Yankees third baseman (and the leading vote-getter for the All-Star Game so far) have opened. more ›

Next for T&A: Albany style pork? We have to give Assemblyman Felix Ortiz props for thinking of creative ways to increase revenue, even if it's hilarious. The Post reports that the Brooklyn politician is proposing that strippers need to be licensed and have permits, or else they'll be fined as will any establishment that employees unlicensed strippers. The Post has details:

In his bill sponsor memo, Ortiz said his proposal is meant to protect human-trafficking victims, many of whom "are often found in the streets or working in establishments that offer commercial sex acts, such as strip clubs and pornography production companies. more ›

Mitzi, by Raymond. Tag yours "gothamist" on Flickr if you want us to use them. more ›

There's a rather wild NY Times article about how the Sunset Park strip club, Sweet Cherry, has managed to stay open, despite repeated attempts from the city to shut it down - it's like the Teflon Cherry. And these days, more and more strip clubs may have to shut down, due to proposed changes to the zoning law - the Times has a graphic of 21 strip clubs in the Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Queens, including Scores. But Sweet Cherry has been able to stay open and probably will after the zoning laws, in spite of "two civil actions by the Police Department, voluminous criminal charges and neighborhood protests." Incidents include drug sales, an off-duty police officer getting stabbed outside, hiring an underage dancer (who said she had been raped), being called a house of prostitution and dancers attacking each other (!). The neighborhood, naturally, has been pretty upset that the club has managed to stay open, with the area full of churches and ripe for redevelopment. more ›

Apparently the Knicks have decided to embarrass themselves off the court for a change. GM Isiah Thomas has been accused of sexually harassing a female marketing executive who is no longer with the team. Anuche Browne Sanders claims that Thomas referred to her in a derogatory manner and made unwanted sexual advances on her. When she sought help from MSG President, Steve Mills, she was warned that Isiah would spread rumors about her. more ›

The man suspected of attacking a former coworker has been spotted in Cleveland. According to America's Most Wanted, Peter Braunstein traveled to Cleveland (NYC to Hoboken to Newark then a bus!) in early November, telling people he was a movie producer or writer from LA, visiting strip clubs, placing ads in the Cleveland Plain Dealer looking for a driver, and calling himself "Peter Bronson." Braunstein was spotted in Brooklyn in mid November, which is possible since police are unsure of his whereabouts after November 10-11 (seen at a bus station in Columbus, OH). more ›

The Post ("BIZ BOOB BUSTS BANK FOR BABES") and the Daily News ($lap dance!) are having a good time at the expense of Robert McCormick, who apparently managed to blow through $241,000 in one drunken night of partying at Scores. McCormick, CEO of Savvis Communications and a 38-year old father of three kids, was in from Missouri and celebrating some business his company had just closed. Scores claims that after the tab hit $10,000, they got fingerprints and signed waivers testifying that he wasn't intoxicated-- and they also called American Express every hour to verify he had the rights to continue using the card. AMEX was forced to pay the 241k, and now they are suing McCormick for the cash. more ›

Mick Stingley, Low-Rent Rock Critic more ›

The Javits Center is like the stepchild of the city's development projects: No one really cares - they want flashy architects or scary renderings of what a Jets stadium might look like. But now the Javits Development Corporation has selected an architect to design a new expansion, British architect Richard Rogers. Not only is he knighted, he designed the Centre Pompidou in Paris (with Renzo Piano) and the Millennium Dome in London, making Gothamist wonder if the next James Bond film will film at the Javits expansion! The NY Times reports that Rogers was selected over Rafael Vinoly and Thom Mayne, and the rest of the team will include FX Fowle and A. Epstein: "The current plans for the $1.4 billion project would extend the convention hall to 40th Street from 39th Street, expanding the exhibition space to 1.1 million from 760,000 square feet" - plus develop a hotel nearby, because apparently the car and boat shows aren't doing it for them - they want the trade show business. If the Javits expands, you can bet that more high end strip clubs will open up in the area to cater to the trade show types. And the community was worried about businesses! more ›

Management at the clubs say more couples are going to clubs together, since clubs are less likely to be dingy and scary, and that's true. On a recent visit to the Penthouse Executive Club (pictured), Gothamist and friends enjoyed some of the fabulous steak at Robert's, lapdances (or watching others get lapdances), bubbly, and other frivolity. But, of course, there was no sex in the champagne room. more ›

Hell's Kitchen Online is a great West Side resource; their focus of late is the proposed Jets stadium. more ›