Off The Street

A veteran detective reveals the brutal truth of the "victimless" crime of prostitution.

Across the world, the impacts on society of drug criminalization have been the same: the costs of controlling substance abuse through criminal law is just too high. Whatever the issues raised by legalization, whatever the questions surrounding regulation, it’s time for a new way forward.

Sometimes justice takes a different path. For a hard-charging detective in the Pandering Investigative Team (PIT), deliverance comes in the manner of long prison sentences, humiliation, and bankruptcy for the animals who subjugate, beat, and torture women into selling their bodies, while reaping all the financial rewards. With that single-minded goal, Las Vegas detective Chris Baughman finds frustration and dead ends as he and his team work countless hours hunting down someone from his past – Mario Davis, a promising athlete whose bright future takes a sadistic U-turn. Helping Chris are two young women from Davis’ stable of ten, who reach out to Chris for rescue after Mario severely beats them. Chris picks up the chase to find and finish Mario off for good, gratis of the Las Vegas penal system. But justice is complicated, and Chris fears the case is slipping through his fingers when the two women fear testifying against Mario. After being brutalized numerous times, there is still a shred of loyalty. No matter how frustrated Chris is, he knows he can’t ask them to put their lives at further risk. Through countless hours and too many sleepless nights, he fears Mario will go free and there will be no justice for the victims. The tough lesson Chris must face is that his job offers a different kind of deliverance and rescue that is far more powerful and encouraging. As head of the Pandering Investigation Team and Human Trafficking Task Force, Christopher Baughman has changed the culture and scope of the crimes they investigate. He has arrested several of the wealthiest and most violent criminals in Las Vegas. This success caught the attention of investigative reporter Chris Hansen of Dateline NBC's To Catch a Predator. Chris teaches the anatomy of pandering investigations to other departments across the nation, including members of the FBI and IRS, as well as federal parole and probation officers.

Second Edition I Ain’t Never Been Off This Street is a novel based on a salesman, Jake, who peddles insurance policies to lower income and working-class residents in a rundown apartment building at 8TH Street and 31ST Avenue. We meet and get a glimpse into the lives of several of the building's tenants as Jake, somewhat of a Southern charmer, shows up every month to collect premiums and solicit new customers. Handsome, sharp, and known for his salesmanship, there is still doubt as to whether or not he is a legitimate salesman; even amidst doubt, he is successful at selling the Peace of Mind that so many seek to validate their existence and importance in the world. On a recent visit to the apartment building, Jake is forced to learn more about the people behind the faces that he has replaced with dollar signs as he briefly steps out of his own privilege. An interaction with two fourteen year olds and the promise of money sets off a chain of events and regrets that can never be reversed as his eyes are opened to the day-to-day struggles in the lives of the people behind the dollar signs. On this day, Jake and those he comes into contact with are forced to come to terms with themselves, their plight, and their places in the world.

In Just Off Main Street, author Steven Mulak takes us on a seasonal tour that, month by month, celebrates his beloved New England's landscape, as well as the people, plants, and animals that occupy it. Mulak explores his personal world just off Main Street in such a wise, reflective manner that we more fully appreciate the observational skill emotionally uplifting sight of spring's first willows to the kaleidoscope of autumn color, to the occasional despair of never-ending winter, this book offers a fresh look at New England. The meticulous eye of the fine artist he is.

“Mama admitted she was not the nest-building type." With these words author Jean Knight Green starts readers on an engaging journey through backwoods and dusty hamlets of the early 1900's Pacific Northwest. Told from the viewpoint of her high-spirited childhood self, she recounts her Mama's audacious bargain with Papa, bold Englishman and gold speculator, that began the family's saga. Here pledge: to support the family for three years by teaching in remote outposts (Spokane, where did they lived, did not allow married teachers) so Papa could have time to put the family "on Easy Street" as he always promised. While Papa chased gold, strong-willed Mama fearlessly carved out an unusual, adventurous life for her daughters while opening minds of all ages in a chilly one-room schoolhouse. Off Easy Street: A Memoir recounts an inspiring tale of family and relationships, exploits and adventures. "Papa promised Mama mink and pearls, but all she ever wanted was a new corset." Chasing dreams, managing reality: in today's lives only the details have changed. Concluding with Erma Bombeck-style tales from her later years, the author, a born storyteller, rounds out the engaging account of a life filled with remarkable memories and good humor. Green died in 2001. Her daughter Jennifer Ralston Blair edited and compiled her mother's works to introduce others to her mother's delightful tales.

Whether he's fighting fires, passing a kidney stone, hammering down I-80 in an 18-wheeler, or meditating on the relationship between cowboys and God, Michael Perry draws on his rural roots and footloose past to write from a perspective that merges the local with the global. Ranging across subjects as diverse as lot lizards, Klan wizards, and small-town funerals, Perry's writing in this wise and witty collection of essays balances earthiness with poetry, kinetics with contemplation, and is regularly salted with his unique brand of humor.

The lives of Bobby Long, content drowning his life in alcohol and tolerant woman, and his partner, Byron Burns, take a bizarre turn when their female companion dies and they find themselves putting up her young daughter, Hanna.