TWW'S CRAZY NEWS STORIES

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City Ponders Ecology Tax for Grocery Bags

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - San Francisco, which has long prided itself on environmentally friendly policies, is debating whether it should become the first U.S. city to tax grocery bags to encourage recycling.

On Tuesday, the city's Department of the Environment will vote on whether to recommend a 17 cent fee on each bag, be it paper or plastic, in an effort to curb the use of an estimated 50 million bags a year in the Californian city.

An economic impact study and city legislative review still lie ahead, which means it would likely be 2006 before such a measure would take effect if it passes, said Ross Mirkarimi, a city legislator who backs the idea.

Environmentalists say that plastic bags create significant litter problems, are rarely recycled and are a threat to marine life. They add that 14 million trees a year are needed to make 10 billion paper grocery bags nationwide.

The city uses 90 percent plastic, 10 percent paper, so the problem is largely plastic.

The Environment Department says the 17 cents figure represents costs to the city to clean up and dispose of each plastic bag.

"We would be setting a trend, certainly, of a city of our size to be issuing this kind of supplantation of plastic bags for an alternative, something more environmentally friendly," Mirkarimi said in an interview.

Mirkarimi and others backing the idea hope consumers will change to reusable cloth bags or recycle plastic an paper bags.

Plastics industry groups oppose the measure and dispute some of the statistics used by San Francisco officials.

Donna Dempsey, an official at the Society of the Plastics Industry, said, for example, that a San Francisco Environment Department claim that the United States uses 12 million barrels of oil annually to make 30 billion plastic bags is just wrong.

Instead, she gave a figure of one million barrels of naphtha, an petroleum derivative.

California state legislators may also consider the issue later in the year. Assemblyman Paul Koretz said he was considering new legislation aimed at reducing the amount of overall packaging American consumers use, although a similar bill of his did not even get out of committee two years ago.

"Bag fees are working in Ireland, Australia, Taiwan Bangladesh and other places," he said in an interview. "Far too many producers and retailers only consider price and consumer convenience in their packaging decisions and leave the public to foot the bill."

Some countries already charge for grocery bags, including Ireland, which imposed a 15 cent fee per bag in 2002. Shoppers in other countries such as Russia have long relied on bringing their own fishnet bags and even shopping strollers to haul home groceries and other goods.

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Police Gather Bare Facts in Brothel Stings

HOUSTON (Reuters) - Sometimes going undercover in Texas means no cover at all.

Houston police, long thwarted in their campaign against prostitution by an internal policy that barred officers from removing their clothes, have reaped results by shedding that unwritten rule.

The change in tactics that allows vice squad officers to undress in pursuit of evidence is part of a crackdown on suspected brothels that advertise themselves as day spas, lingerie modeling studios, massage parlors and "stress relief clinics."

Two investigations using the new rules have resulted in organized crime charges against six business proprietors and dozens of misdemeanor prostitution charges.

Police largely built their investigation through traditional detective work, such as surveillance, but Harris County prosecutor Ted Wilson said the department's ability to pose as naked clients was particularly useful.

"It helped," Wilson said on Monday. "It's something they can do, if necessary, to gather sufficient evidence."

Knowing police were not allowed to disrobe meant sex workers could ask customers to undress before propositioning them to determine if a potential client was an undercover officer.

The series of arrests in November are seen as a signal that Houston police have closed that loophole.

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Hot Cars Leave Drivers Out in the Cold

TORONTO (Reuters) - The price of starting your morning commute in a warm car during Eastern Canada's recent cold snap could easily have been making your vehicle a hot car in the hands of organized thieves, Toronto police say.

Police said on Monday there has been a rash of car thefts in Toronto's affluent neighborhoods as thieves prowl in search of cars left running in driveways to get them warmed up.

The thieves seek out affluent neighborhoods and specific types of cars, police said. They follow weather reports and stake out their prey on cold and snowy mornings.

"If banks left their doors open and put $75,000 in cash on the counter, you'd have criminals coming from all over to take that money," said Detective Jim Gotell of Toronto police's Special Investigation Services.

"This is the exact same thing. Criminals know where the affluent cars are, and they're coming because there's a $75,000 vehicle just waiting to be taken."

Two-thirds of cars stolen in the winter of 2003-2004 were sport utility vehicles and the trend is continuing this year, police said. Luxury SUVs made by Lexus, Acura and BMW are the most frequent targets.

More than 10,000 cars were stolen in Toronto in 2003, the most recent statistics available.

Automatic car starters are not much protection, police said, because the devices bypass the vehicle's electronic security when they are installed.

The best prevention: Sit in your car as it warms up. "Unfortunately, that's the best thing you can do," Gotell said.

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Wake Up! Talk to Us! Serbs Tell Prime Minister

BELGRADE (Reuters) - Activists left alarm clocks, radios and toy mobile phones on Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica's doorstep Monday so he could "wake up, hear the news and communicate with the nation."

They also tried to award him a diploma for "extraordinary efforts to lead Serbia back into the darkness" -- a jab at his refusal to arrest war crimes suspects, and the damage it is doing to Serb hopes of joining the European Union. "We want to show the government what we think of its policies," said Konstantin Samofalov, of the opposition Democratic Party's youth wing.

Kostunica is often lampooned as a man in an ivory tower who ignores the tough choices facing his country as it struggles to recover from a decade of war and discard a prickly nationalism.

Earlier this month, Belgrade's defiance of the United Nations war crimes tribunal in The Hague prompted Washington to cut aid to Serbia for the third consecutive year.

Last week, the European Union's chief foreign policy representative Javier Solana postponed a visit on the eve of his scheduled arrival.

Kostunica heads a fragile minority coalition that has to rely on support in parliament from the discredited Socialist Party of ex-strongman Slobodan Milosevic.

Samofalov told Beta news agency the activists were asking Kostunica "whether courting Milosevic's party is more important to him than the fate of millions of people in this country."

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'Alexander,' 'Catwoman' Lead Bad Pix Nominations

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - This could be the year in which Alexander the Great conquers Catwoman and President Bush wins a prize as worst actor.

Nominations for the 25th annual Razzies, which honor the worst films of the year, were announced on Monday with "Catwoman," the Halle Berry box office bomb, besting "Alexander," Oliver Stone's much maligned tale of the bleached blond conqueror, by seven nominations to six.

In addition, the president made the list for worst actor for his film clip appearances in "Fahrenheit 9/11," a movie he might well consider the worst of the year. Also nominated for their appearances in the politically-charged film about the Iraq war were Secretary of State-designate Condoleezza Rice and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.

The Razzies are a traditional spoof award made at Oscar time by the non-profit Golden Raspberry Award Foundation. The group's prizes are given out on Feb. 26, the day before the Oscars. Never has one of its films gone on to win an Oscar.

"Catwoman" and "Alexander" were nominated for Worst Picture, a category which also drew "SuperBabies: Baby Geniuses 2," Ben Affleck's career-eroding "Surviving Christmas," and "White Chicks," the Wayans brothers dress-up, gender-bending comedy that left critics cold.

Bush was nominated for worst actor along with Affleck for "Surviving Christmas" and "Jersey Girl," Vin Diesel for "Chronicles of Riddick," Colin Farrell for "Alexander." Ben Stiller was nominated for "Along Came Polly," "Anchorman," "Dodgeball," "Envy" and "Starsky & Hutch."

Halle Berry was nominated for worst actress for "Catwoman," Hilary Duff for "Cinderella Story" and "Raise Your Voice," Angelina Jolie for "Alexander" and "Taking Lives," Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen for "New York Minute" and Shawn and Marlon Wayans in their incarnation as the Wayans sisters in "White Chicks."

The nominations for worst screen couple include: Ben Affleck and either Jennifer Lopez or Liv Tyler in "Jersey Girl," Halle Berry and either Benjamin Bratt or Sharon Stone in "Catwoman, George W. Bush and either Rice or his pet goat in "Fahrenheit 9/11," the Olsen twins in "New York Minute," the Wayans Brothers, in or out of drag, in "White Chicks."

Worst supporting actress were Carmen Electra for "Starsky & Hutch," Jennifer Lopez for "Jersey Girl," Rice for "Fahrenheit 9/11," Britney Spears for her cameo role in that same movie and Sharon Stone for "Catwoman."

Val Kilmer was nominated for worst supporting actor for "Alexander." Also nominated were California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger for "Around The World in 80 Days," Rumsfeld for "Fahrenheit 9/11," Jon Voight for SuperBabies: Baby Geniuses 2" and Lambert Wilson for "Catwoman."

"Catwoman" led with seven nominations to six for Alexander, five for "Fahrenheit 9/11," five "White Chicks," and four for "SuperBabies."

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Prince Andrew's Golf Travel in Spotlight

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's Prince Andrew has had his taxpayer-funded travel bills trawled through by the nation's finance watchdog which found he often prefers pricey over cheap.

The report, released on Monday, came after Labour member of parliament Ian Davidson asked for a review of Andrew's 315,000 pound ($592,200) bill for domestic and foreign flights during the 2003/2004 tax year.

The row, which has seen Queen Elizabeth's second dubbed "Air Miles Andy" and "Prince of the Freebies" by tabloid newspapers, comes as Britain's royals face close scrutiny.

Prince Harry, who is third in line to the throne, caused a furor earlier this month after publication of a front-page picture of him wearing a Nazi uniform to a party.

The National Audit Office (NAO), which drew no conclusions in its report, said Prince Andrew chose a chartered helicopter over first class rail travel on several trips it examined.

In June 2003 for example, he flew from London to Oxford by helicopter, a distance of nearly 60 miles, paying 2,939 pounds instead of just 97 for the train trip.

The aircraft was chartered after the Queen's helicopter, which would have cost 1,014 pounds, was used elsewhere.

"We found no documentary evidence that the (royal) household reconsidered whether saving the Duke an hour and a half's traveling time, and doubt about train reliability, justified the extra costs involved in using a chartered helicopter," the report said.

Davidson also asked the NAO to look at whether golf games at St Andrews in Scotland determined the Prince's mode of travel and engagement dates, and how much the Royal and Ancient had paid for journeys made in the year he was its club captain.

The auditor found no cases where travel was directly determined by golf but did find one where saving an hour's travel time meant choosing a 4,645 pound military flight versus 254 pounds to fly commercial.

A Buckingham palace spokeswoman welcomed the report, which she said was published at the royal family's request, saying it exonerated Prince Andrew's choice of transport.

"It's up to people to draw their own conclusions on it," she said, adding arrangements had always been made based on questions of security, cost and journey time.

She said the Oxford trip took place on a day the Prince was involved in the visit by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The cost of Royal travel by air and rail for official engagements is met by grants from the Department for Transport.

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Radio Station Apologizes Over Tsunami Slur

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A New York radio station apologized on Monday for repeatedly airing a joke song that ridiculed victims of the recent tsunami in South Asia and used racial slurs, saying the piece was in poor taste.

New York FM radio station WQHT, or HOT 97, ran the segment on its "Miss Jones in the Morning" show. The piece used racial slurs to describe people swept away in the disaster, made jokes about child slavery and people watching their mothers die.

The hip-hop and R&B station, known for its "shock jocks," apologized on its Web site, saying it, "regrets the airing of material that made light of a serious and tragic event. We apologize to our listeners and anyone who was offended."

WQHT's program director and deejay Tarsha Nicole Jones, who uses the on-air name Miss Jones, apologized on the program and said the segment should not have been broadcast.

The piece drew wide criticism from Albany to New York's City Hall, with many lawmakers calling on the U.S. Federal Communications Commission to fine HOT 97.

"At a time when virtually the entire world has come together to help in the tsunami tragedy relief, employees of HOT 97 have come up with this song," said New York State Assembly member Jimmy Meng, a Democrat from Queens. "We are disgusted and demand immediate action by the FCC."

An FCC spokesman in Washington had no immediate comment.

The piece was also denounced by the Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations, which said it had received calls from Muslims offended by the piece.

Station-owner Emmis Communications Corp. issued an apology and said the seven-person staff of the show has agreed to contribute one-week's pay each to tsunami-relief efforts.

Four weeks after giant waves killed as many as 234,000 people across the Indian Ocean region, workers are still pulling hundreds of bodies from the mud and rubble each day and aid groups say they are struggling to reach isolated areas.

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BBC Upholds Complaint from Narcolepsy Sufferers

LONDON (Reuters) - BBC chiefs ruled Wednesday that a comedy show called "TV's Greatest Moments" should not have shown a clip of narcolepsy sufferers falling asleep at a help-group meeting.

The footage, which had originally formed part of a serious documentary into sleep disorder problems, was greeted with uproarious laughter by the audience when it appeared on the prime-time "2002 Greatest TV Moments" show.

The Narcolepsy Association UK (UKAN), which represents people who are prone to sleep disorder attacks, said the clip lampooned the condition, and encouraged the public to ridicule and humiliate sufferers.

The clip had initially been considered acceptable by the BBC's head of program complaints but a committee of five BBC governors later supported UKAN and ruled it was inappropriate to show the footage out of context.

"The audience of 2002 Greatest TV Moments knew nothing about the condition or the effect it had on sufferers' lives. Because the clip had been presented out of its original context, the audience had reacted to it with laughter," the committee said.

However it rejected UKAN's complaints about two other BBC programs on the subject, "Living Nightmare" and "Nap Attack" which had included the offending clip, saying they had been factual and informative.

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Missile Deleted from EBay But Launcher Remains

LONDON (Reuters) - A British man trying to sell a deactivated Soviet-era missile on eBay was forced to delete it after Web site staff contacted him for breaching company rules.

But eBay told Richard Moore, from Cambridgeshire, to remove the missile because he broke eBay regulations by listing it alongside its vehicle launcher, which should have appeared as a separate item -- and not because it was a weapon.

The online auctioneer bans the sale of any ammunition, replica guns or firearms on its sites.

Selling demilitarized missiles however is acceptable, an eBay spokesman said.

"There's a large market in demilitarized weaponry, and they're classified as museum pieces," the spokesman said.

The missile's fully operational launcher is still on offer, at 18,990 pounds ($35,660).

"I guess anything with the word 'missile' in it is sensitive, but as I keep saying to everyone, the missile in question couldn't cause any harm and is literally just the shell," Moore told Reuters.

On his eBay page, Moore describes the Zil 135 Free Range Over Ground (FROG) rocket launcher as the "mother of all toys."

"It's a hugely collectable piece of kit which should have been broken up so there's really not many of them around," he said. Although the missile itself is no longer on eBay, he would still sell it to interested parties.

But Moore stressed he was not an arms dealer just a Russian military vehicle specialist.

He bought both items two weeks ago from a specialist company that provides vehicles for film production.

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Firefighters Suspended for Sex on Duty

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Four Sacramento, California firefighters who admitted to having sex while on duty have been suspended pending an investigation, a spokesman for the city's fire department said on Tuesday.

The three men, including a captain, admitted to having sex with a fourth firefighter, a woman, while on duty. Superiors put all four on administrative leave on Monday, marking the second recent sex scandal to hit the sleepy state capital's fire department.

"The four individuals have admitted to having sex in the firehouse," said Captain Niko King, a spokesman for the department. "They even conspired to keep it secret by putting one person on watch so they wouldn't get caught."

The firefighters face disciplinary action ranging from time off without pay to dismissal, said King, noting officials took quick action as rumors of on-duty sex circulated through the department.

The probe follows an investigation after city firefighters attended a local porn-star costume ball last July. The department began that probe, its largest internal investigation ever, after a woman who does not work for the department said she had been sexually assaulted by a firefighter in a department fire truck.

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Gambler Sues MGM Mirage

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A Southern California man has sued MGM Mirage for preying on his gambling addiction and inducing him to borrow and lose millions of dollars at its Las Vegas casinos.

The suit was filed on Monday in a Los Angeles U.S. District Court by Shibley Horaney, a resident of Newport Beach, California, who says that since 1995 he has lost and paid back about $4 million on credit provided to him by the MGM Grand and $1 million on credit from The Mirage casino.

In 2003, he borrowed and lost another $475,000, which the casinos are still seeking to collect.

Alan Feldman, a spokesman for MGM Mirage, declined to comment specifically on Horaney's suit, but said similar lawsuits in the past have been shown to have no merit.

"There are lots of cases where people make their own decisions and choices then turn around and sue the casino," he said.

The suit alleges that MGM contacted Horaney over the phone and by mail over a period of at least nine years, offering to provide free transportation and hotel rooms as well as lines of credit to gamble at the casinos.

The lawsuit argues that California law bars such predatory conduct and does not allow collection of gambling losses.

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Court Backs No-Contact Rule for Strippers

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A California city's regulation requiring some distance between exotic dancers and their audience during a performance is constitutional, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on Wednesday.

The San Francisco-based court conceded nude and scantily dressed dancers may be impaired from exercising their rights to freedom of speech by the rule requiring at least two feet (60 cm) between them and their audience, but held it did not entirely ban the performers from conveying an "erotic message."

The court held the city of La Habra, near Los Angeles, California, crafted its regulation narrowly to deter negative "secondary effects" from adult cabaret venues, such as the exchange of drugs and money for prostitution.

The owner of a La Habra club and several of its dancers had challenged the city regulation and sought to enable dancers to get even closer to the patrons.

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Gives New Meaning to 'Phone Sex'

NEW YORK (Reuters) - This is one cellphone you might not want to set to "High & Vibrate."

stuff star Jenna Jameson is now hawking her "moan tones."

For $2.50 fans of the ubiquitous porno queen can choose from a variety of moans, grunts and lurid sexual noises all recorded by the blond bombshell.

If that's not enough, Jameson will talk dirty to you when you phones rings, in English or Spanish.

Jameson, who recently wrote a best-selling memoir, has launched the venture with Wicked Wireless, a mobile music and entertainment company.

Also available are color pictures of the stuff star posing naked that can be displayed on your phone for $2.99.

"Rock stars make music tones, stuff stars make moan tones," said Dennis Adamo, head of Wicked Wireless. "We thought it would be an interesting novel approach of introducing new content to the mobile users."

Jameson's charms are already being downloaded in Argentina, Ecuador, Venezuela, and in a couple of weeks will be available from Mexico to Uruguay.

Latin American users can download a moan or a picture for $1.00 each, while U.S. customers will pay $2.50 for a moan and $2.99 for a wallpaper once the service is launched.

Some people were shocked, but others said they wanted more from the product.

"If you can get her to say my name then I would buy it. I need that kind of personal attention," said New Yorker Julian McCullough.

U.S. users will have to wait to get Jameson on their phones as no mobile carriers in the United States have expressed any interest in carrying the service.

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Jilted Man Begs for Wife's Return in $17,000 Ad

MIAMI (Reuters) - A Florida man has tried to win back his estranged wife with a full-page, $17,000 newspaper ad begging her to give him another chance.

Dubbed "Lonesome Larry" by the Florida Times-Union, the man told the newspaper that his wife of 17-1/2 years had moved out, changed her cell phone number, refused to return his calls, barred him from entering her parents' gated community and ignored the five dozen roses he sent.

So Larry took out an ad addressed to "Marianne" on Tuesday.

"Please believe the words in my letter, they are true and from my heart. I can only hope you will give me the chance to prove my unending love for you. Life without you is empty and meaningless," the ad reads. "Please, please, please call me. I love you with all my heart!"

The ad prompted calls from readers curious to know how things turned out, the newspaper said on Wednesday. It did not identify the man because of an advertiser privacy policy, but contacted him to learn what prompted the ad and whether Marianne had relented.

Larry told the newspaper that he knows his wife saw the advertisement because a relative is still speaking to him.

"She said my wife read the ad and started crying. But so far I've had no response from her," the newspaper quoted Larry as saying.

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The stuff Tape on the Bus Goes Round and Round...

ATHENS (Reuters) - A bus driver shuttling pupils to school in northern Greece shocked their parents when he put on a stuff tape, officials said on Thursday.

The incident on Tuesday in the town of Kilkis prompted dozens of complaints by parents who have asked the bus company to fire him.

"The driver said 'kids we've got stuff, do you want to watch it'," one of the pupils told reporters. "Everyone started shouting yes, yes and he just put in a tape and we watched it on the small TV screens on the bus."

The children were aged 12 to 15.

The bus company will meet on Friday to decide what action to take against the driver, local government officials said.

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State Senator Wants Cockfights, with Gloves

OKLAHOMA CITY (Reuters) - An Oklahoma senator hopes to revive cockfighting in the state by putting tiny boxing gloves on the roosters instead of razors.

The Oklahoma legislature outlawed the blood sport in 2002 because of its cruelty to the roosters, which are slashed and pecked to death while human spectators bet on the outcome.

But State Sen. Frank Shurden, a Democrat from Henryetta and a long-time defender of cockfighting, said the ban had wiped out a $100-million business.

To try to revive it, he has proposed that roosters wear little boxing gloves attached to their spurs, as well as lightweight, chicken-sized vests configured with electronic sensors to record hits and help keep score.

"It's like the fencing that you see on the Olympics, you know, where they have little balls on the ends of the swords and the fencers wear vests," said Shurden. "That's the same application that would be applied to the roosters."

Janet Halliburton, president of the Oklahoma Coalition Against Cockfighting, which led the drive for the 2002 law, said Shurden is really seeking to loosen the ban.

"What this is going to do is make a platform for him to continually try to amend the existing ban," Halliburton told The Oklahoman newspaper.

The State Senate will consider Shurden's proposal next month.

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Quit Smoking or Quit Your Job, Company Says

CHICAGO (Reuters) - The owner of a Michigan company who forced his employees to either quit smoking or quit their jobs said on Wednesday he also wants to tell fat workers to lose weight or else.

A ban on tobacco use -- whether at home or at the workplace -- led four employees to quit their jobs last week at Okemos, Michigan-based Weyco Inc., which handles insurance claims.

The workers refused to take a mandatory urine test demanded of Weyco's 200 employees by founder and sole owner Howard Weyers, a demand that he said was perfectly legal.

"If you don't want to take the test, you can leave," Weyers told Reuters. "I'm not controlling their lives; they have a choice whether they want to work here."

Next on the firing line: overweight workers.

"We have to work on eating habits and getting people to exercise. But if you're obese, you're (legally) protected," Weyers said.

He has brought in an eating disorder therapist to speak to workers, provided eating coaches, created a point system for employees to earn health-related $100 bonuses and plans to offer $45 vouchers for health club memberships.

The 71-year-old Weyers, who said he has never smoked and pronounced himself in good shape thanks to daily runs, said employees' health as well as saving money on the company's own insurance claims led him to first bar smokers from being hired in 2003.

Last year, he banned smoking during office hours, then demanded smokers pay a monthly $50 "assessment," and finally instituted mandatory testing.

Twenty workers quit the habit.

Weyers tells clients to quit whining about health care costs and to "set some expectations; demand some things."

Job placement specialist John Challenger said Weyco's moves could set a precedent for larger companies -- if it survives potential legal challenges.

"Certainly it raises an interesting boundary issue: rising health care costs and society's aversion to smoking versus privacy and freedom rights of an individual," Challenger said.

So far no legal challenges have been made to Weyco's policies.

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Secret Ingredient for Elderly Romance

LONDON (Reuters) - A mystery chemical isolated from the sweat of young women seems to act as a romance booster for their older counterparts.

When the researchers added the compound, Pheromone 10:13, to a perfume and gave it to older women, it made their partners more affectionate.

"In diaries kept by the women for 6 weeks, 41 percent of pheromone users reported more petting, kissing and affection with partners," New Scientist magazine said Wednesday.

Pheromones are airborne chemicals secreted from the body and recognized by their smell. Humans and animals emit pheromones.

Joan Friebely of Harvard University and Susan Rako, a doctor from Newton, Massachusetts, studied the behavior of 44 post-menopausal women. Half were given a perfume with the compound while the remainder used a fragrance with a placebo or dummy chemical.

Only 14 percent of women using the perfume with the placebo reported an increase in affection from their partners.

Biologist Winnifred Cutler, the discoverer of the mystery pheromone, is keeping the identify of the compound a secret until patents have been granted to her organization, the Athena Institute for Women's Wellness Research in Chester Springs, Pennsylvania, according to the magazine.

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The Master of His Domain....

OTTAWA (Reuters) - A Canadian who masturbated at a window in his house won his appeal against a conviction for indecency on Thursday after Canada's top court ruled there was no evidence of intent to commit an indecent act, and a home was not a public place.

The Supreme Court of Canada noted that British Columbian, Daryl Clark, had agreed it was an indecent act to have masturbated "in an illuminated room near an uncovered window visible to neighbors."

But Justice Morris Fish, writing the 9-0 decision, said such acts have to be done in public places to be a crime -- and a home was not a public place. The law also says indecent acts are only crimes in every location if the person intends to give offense.

Clark was convicted of an indecent act in a public place and given a four-month sentence after a prosecution that followed complaints from his neighbor, named in court documents only as Mrs. S.

The woman said she spotted Clark while she was watching television with her two young daughters in their family room.

She alerted her husband, and the couple observed Clark from their darkened bedroom for 10 or 15 minutes -- also using binoculars and a telescope -- before summoning the police, who said the upper part of Clark's body was visible from just below the navel.

"In my respectful view, the trial judge ... erred in concluding that the appellant's living room had been converted by him into a public place simply because he could be seen through his living room window and, though he did not know this, was being watched by Mr. and Mrs. S. from the privacy of their own bedroom 90 to 150 feet away," Fish wrote.

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Taxing Face-Lifts -- a New Wrinkle

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Preserving one's looks may become even more taxing in Washington state if lawmakers there approve a bill proposing a levy on face-lifts, hair plugs, liposuction and other cosmetic procedures.

Democratic state Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles said on Thursday she had co-sponsored a measure to tax such procedures, including laser hair removal and chemical peels, at the state's 6.5 percent sales tax rate.

"We are really looking to do what we can to find new revenues sources because we have a $1.8 billion shortfall," Kohl-Welles said.

The bill would exempt reconstructive surgery and dentistry to treat birth defects, trauma, infections and disease. The new revenue would fund health programs for children.