My Personal Rants, Raves, and Ramblings

David Hsu, a software engineer from Norcross, said his car was broken into while he was running errands in Midtown last May.

“A witness had called the police as it happened, but the police ended up not even showing up at the scene, instead offering to take a report over the phone,” he said.

“This really opened my eyes as to how people must take responsibility for their own safety.”

By NANCY BADERTSCHER
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Sunday, February 01, 2009

On the morning after the presidential inauguration, Sean Ely was in Cobb County Probate Court to apply for his first concealed weapons permit.

The Acworth builder had read that it might become harder to get a permit during the Obama administration.

“I figured I’d get it while I can,” Ely said.

Adrian Brown, an EMT student from Austell, was at the court office minutes later to do the same thing but for a different reason.

“I want to protect my family,” said Brown, father of two girls, ages 2 and 6 months. “I don’t think I have to walk around with a bulletproof vest. But in areas I know are high crime, I want to feel safe.”

Across Georgia, there’s been a dramatic surge in applications for firearm permits, and no sign that the trend is slowing. Statewide, 121,219 applications were submitted in 2008, up 79.2 percent from 67,640 in 2007, according to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.

It fits with what’s occurred over the last year in other parts of the country, where dealers report that guns are flying off store shelves, when little else is moving.

The reasons for the surge in Georgia vary — for some permit seekers it’s based on political uncertainties. For others, it was a law change last year that opened up the places where a concealed weapon is allowed.

For still others, it’s about plain old protection. Long gone are the days when the front door could be left unlocked. More and more, locks don’t suffice and steel bars have replaced wire-framed screens. Some crime rates, property crime in particular, are up across metro Atlanta, from the suburbs to intown neighborhoods, where a recent string of violent crime has residents banding together in ways they might not have imagined until now.

In areas where high crime already was an issue, things could get worse before they get better, particularly as officials wrestle with having to cut public safety services to help their budgets. And in areas known to be safer, perceptions are changing — areas like Atlanta’s gentrifying intown neighborhoods.

In recent weeks, motivated by the shooting death last month of Grant Park bartender John Henderson, residents have taken their concerns public, showing up in force for anti-crime rallies, town hall meetings and community vigils to raise awareness and urge change.

In a recent interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Atlanta police Chief Richard Pennington said “according to the data that we have, there are some neighborhoods where the data don’t go along with what has actually transpired in their community. We’ve had reductions [in crime] in a lot of those neighborhoods. And then, some of the neighborhoods that we’ve had an increase in burglary and property crimes, those neighborhoods haven’t had a large outcry.”


2nd Amendment rights

In Cobb County, where Ely and Brown filed their applications, the increase in applications was even more dramatic than it was statewide. Records show permit applications were up in the county by 139.6 percent for 2008, from 3,660 to 8,770.

It caught the eye of Cobb County Probate Judge Keli Wolk on Jan. 2 of this year, her first day in office. By 2 p.m. that day, 71 people had submitted permit applications, Wolk said.

“There are quite a few people in our license area filling out applications at most any time of the day,” she said.

Officials in other counties report a palpable rush. “We literally sometimes have to get deputies to direct our lines,” said Lorraine Stafford, who processes permit applications in Gwinnett County.

Permit applications were up 85.7 percent in Gwinnett, from 3,952 in 2007 to 7,340 in 2008. In the first 15 days of January, another 500 applicants walked through the door, Stafford said.

Ely, who lives in Acworth and works in building in Atlanta, fits with the majority of the more than three dozen, mostly first-time applicants who were interviewed in person, by phone or by e-mail about their decision to obtain a firearms permit. They expressed concern that the Obama administration and the Democrat-controlled Congress may take aim at the Second Amendment by banning certain weapons or even raising the costs of some guns and ammunition.

The mother of the octuplets born this week already has six other young children and refused the option of a selective abortion when told she was expecting multiple babies, it has emerged.

Instead the woman, who has not been publicly named, chose to go ahead and give birth, giving her a total haul of 14 children.

Today, as all the babies continued to make good progress in a Los Angeles hospital, it emerged that the mother’s existing six children were under the age of eight, including one set of twins.

....

The subsequent birth, while being only the second time in history that octuplets have been born and all survived, caused worldwide attention – but also some discomfort among critics who have questioned the medical ethics of implanting multiple embryos, which makes multiple births more likely.

"What do you suggest she should have done?" Ms Suleman told the newspaper. "She refused to have them killed. That is a very painful thing."

The mother, who described the newborn babies as "so tiny and beautiful", admitted that being able to bring up 14 children – the others are aged seven, six, five, three and two – would be difficult. She added that her daughter's father was going back to Iraq, where he is believed to work as a contractor, to help support the extended family.

Although the octuplets' mother has not been identified in order to protect the identities of her young children, journalists have tracked the family down to what was said to be a cul-de-sac in Whittier.

The woman, who is believed to be 33 years of age, gave birth to the octuplets last Monday at the Kaiser Permanente Medical Centre in Bellflower, where the youngsters remain. They were delivered by a team of 46 doctors, nurses and assistants, with the entire procedure lasting just five minutes. Doctors said the eighth child was a complete surprise, as they had only expected seven.

Hours after media vans and reporters gathered outside the Whittier home, the hospital issued a fresh statement on behalf of the mother requesting privacy.

"Please know, in our own time, we will share additional details about this miraculous experience," the statement read.

"The babies continue to grow strong every day and make good progress. My family and I are ecstatic about all of their arrivals. Needless to say the eighth was a surprise to us all, but a blessing as well."

Dr Mandhir Gupta, one of the delivery team, said that seven of the babies were breathing without assistance. One was still receiving oxygen through a tube in his nose. Seven of the infants were being tube-fed donated breast milk. One of the boys was expected to begin feeding today. All babies continued to receive an intravenous nutritional combination. They were expected to remain in the hospital for several more weeks.

The medical community, meanwhile, remain divided about the ethics of implanting so many embryos when the chances of an unusually large number of multiple births were so high. According to the American Society of Reproductive Medicine, doctors would usually refuse to implant any more than two embryos at any given time for a woman under the age of 35.

Dr Harold Henry, who was part of the delivery team, told the LA Times that he had given Ms Suleman the option of aborting some of the foetuses.

"What I do is just explain the facts. I always talk about the risks," he said. "The mother weighs those options, and she chooses the option based on spiritual or personal makeup."

However, most practitioners - while confirming that guidance tells them not to implant multiple embryos - acknowledge the choice is not ultimately theirs to make and rests solely with the mother. "Who am I to say that six is the limit?" Dr Jeffrey Steinberg, medical director of Fertility Institutes, which has clinics in Los Angeles, Las Vegas and New York City, told the Associated Press news agency. "There are people who like to have big families."

Dr James Grifo, professor of obstetrics and gynaecology at the New York University School of Medicine, added: "I don’t think it's our job to tell them how many babies they’re allowed to have. I am not a policeman for reproduction in the United States. My role is to educate patients."

WASHINGTON — The capital flew into a bit of a tizzy when, on his first full day in the White House, President Obama was photographed in the Oval Office without his suit jacket. There was, however, a logical explanation: Mr. Obama, who hates the cold, had cranked up the thermostat.

“He’s from Hawaii, O.K.?” said Mr. Obama’s senior adviser, David Axelrod, who occupies the small but strategically located office next door to his boss. “He likes it warm. You could grow orchids in there.”

Self-defense classes, gun licenses rise in response to crime

By CHRISTIAN BOONE, JAMIE GUMBRECHT
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Tuesday, January 27, 2009

In early December, three heavily armed men broke into Chris Devoe’s Little Five Points apartment and attacked him and a friend.

One intruder struck Devoe repeatedly in the head with a shotgun and then tied his hands with a cord. Two took his friend, Rachael Spiewak, into another room and sexually assaulted her. The third left with the victims’ ATM cards and passwords, returned, and then he, too, sexually assaulted her.

Word of the attack spread quickly through Atlanta’s gentrifying intown neighborhoods. It became one of a string of violent crimes that together shook residents’ sense of security.

Some responded by forming neighborhood groups and calling for more police protection. Others enrolled in self-defense classes. Still others say they have armed themselves, and applications for new gun permits nearly doubled in Fulton and DeKalb counties from 2007 to 2008, according to statistics from the county probate courts.

Spiewak, a 27-year-old social worker who manages a bicycle co-op, says the assault tested her values, but she felt she passed the test. She didn’t change. Like many of her neighbors, she wants additional cops on the street, but also more community centers, youth programs and better access to public transportation.

“The answer is always non-violence,” said Spiewak, who asked to be named in this article even though The Atlanta Journal-Constitution usually does not identify victims of sexual attacks.

Atlanta residents are finding a variety of ways to react to crime.

After a wave of robberies at upscale boutiques, Lindsay Daniel, owner of Poppy’s boutique in Buckhead, decided she didn’t want a weapon that could be taken from her and used against her. She installed a buzzer system at her store and signed up for self-defense classes.

“I just figured, ‘Can’t hurt.’ Not only in my work setting, but walking across the grocery store parking lot,” said Daniel, 30.

Malinda Adams, a Grant Park condo owner who noticed more break-ins in the neighborhood, has a different answer. The 48-year-old has a security system and a strike plate on her door, and, in December, she brought a pistol home. “I would use and I will use it,” Adams said. “I hope I don’t have to.”

Gun ownership has become a hot topic on message boards and social networking sites dedicated to intown crime concerns. And some of the remarks following the Jan. 15 fatal shooting of a robbery suspect by his intended victim outside an East Atlanta bar illustrated an undercurrent of vigilantism.

“I wish we could have a story like this every day!” wrote one commenter on the newly formed Atlantans Together Against Crime’s Facebook page. A woman who identified herself as a waitress in East Atlanta Village replied, “I’m so glad this happened!”

The man who shot Jamarcus Usher, the would-be mugger, has been identified as David M. Stanley, 28.

One of ATAC’s founders said he was disturbed by some of the comments by group members, though he understands the gut response.

“When confronted with a violent crime, your immediate reaction is ‘I want to get a gun,’” said Kyle Keyser, who was robbed at gunpoint outside a North Avenue restaurant Dec. 17. He thought about buying a firearm but decided against it. “We’re not here to say it’s right or wrong,” Keyser said of his organization.

ATAC formed and gathered more than 5,000 members online after the slaying of bartender John Henderson earlier this month at a restaurant on Memorial Drive. The group held the first in a series of planned monthly rallies Monday night in Little Five Points, attracting 175 people.

In a recent interview, Atlanta Police Chief Richard Pennington said crime in some neighborhoods is decreasing even as the public outcry in those same areas is growing. He attributes residents’ reactions to their ability to share and organize.

“If they hear about a crime going on down the street, everyone gets nervous,” Pennington said. “And so they want to make sure nobody else becomes a victim. And they have a right to do that.”

Robert Friedmann, a professor of criminal justice at Georgia State University, said crime can’t be eliminated, but with a “tremendous” amount of work, communities can minimize it. “If you want to make a difference, values need to be clearly articulated, laws have to be clearly articulated,” Friedmann said.

But values can — and do — change, said Jason Hatcher, a 14-year Atlanta resident. In 1996, Hatcher pulled his gun on a man who threatened him with a knife at a gas station. Afterward, Hatcher decided he couldn’t handle a court case or the stress of shooting another person. He locked his guns safely at home and let his gun license lapse.

But after recent break-ins and vandalism near his home on a dead-end street in Ormewood Park, he says, he’s changed again.

One recent night, he heard a car creep down the street, squeaking brakes, four doors slamming. He called 911, grabbed his gun and went outside. Men with a police-style battering ram approached the home of a neighbor who was out of town.

“They knocked the door completely, shattered the door frame, knocked it off its hinges, knocked it almost off the frame,” said Hatcher, 38. “It happened so quickly.”

The men spotted Hatcher — and his gun. They held up their own weapons, while he dropped to the floor and slammed the door. No shots were fired and the men fled. Police arrived about 90 seconds later, Hatcher said.

Now residents on his street are forming a neighborhood watch with patrols. He’s got an alarm system and two large dogs. An Atlanta police detective visited this week and said patrols in the area would increase, he said. Still, Hatcher plans to reapply for a gun permit, and to carry his weapon wherever it’s legal.

“I don’t want to kill people. I’m not a vigilante,” Hatcher said. “I feel unsafe in my home, unsafe on my street. I feel the fear of my neighbors — single moms, with children. That only adds to the bulk of my own personal emotions.

“If you were me the other night — it will change your life.”

— Staff writer Tim Eberly contributed to this report.

BELLFLOWER, Calif. (AP) - The octuplets born to a mother in Southern California are doing "very, very well" and breathing on their own, one of their doctors said Tuesday.
Dr. Mandhir Gupta, a neonatologist at Kaiser Permanente Bellflower Medical Center, told ABC's "Good Morning America" the eight babies were in stable condition.

Two of the newborns—the second live octuplets born in U.S. history—were initially put on ventilators, but their breathing tubes have been removed.

"Only three babies need some sort of oxygen through the nose right now but they are breathing on their own," Gupta said. "The babies are doing actually very, very well."

The mother, who was not identified, gave birth Monday to the six boys and two girls weighing between 1 pound, 8 ounces, and 3 pounds, 4 ounces. The eighth baby was a surprise to the parents and doctors who had been expecting only seven children.

"It is quite easy to miss a baby when you're anticipating seven," said Dr. Harold Henry, chief of maternal and fetal medicine and one of 46 doctors, nurses and assistants who delivered the children by Caesarean section.

Just five minutes after the first birth, the unexpected eighth baby came out at 10:48 a.m. "My eyes were wide," said Dr. Karen Maples, chief of the department of obstetrics and gynecology.

Maples said the mother was "very comfortable now. She is currently stable and we're observing her. She's also very excited about the health of her babies and she's extremely happy."

(WSB Radio) -- A man and his son were not seriously hurt during an overnight home invasion in north Fulton County.

Johns Creek Police Lt. Chris Byers tells WSB's Jon Lewis the victims called 9-1-1 just after 1 o'clock Monday morning to report they had been tied up and robbed of cash kept in their house on Buice Road, off of Autrey Mill Road.

Investigators aren't sure how many suspects entered the home and the only description they have is of armed men dressed in black with masks and gloves.

One question authorities cannot answer is how the intruders made it past a security gate with a card swipe without the homeowner's knowledge.

Johns Creek police Monday were investigating the early-morning armed robbery of two men at a house in the north Fulton County town.

The incident happened around 1 a.m. at a home off Buice Road.

The victims told investigators that they were tied up and robbed by an unknown number of suspects “who came in and demanded money,” Johns Creek police spokesman Chris Byers told WSB-TV.

The suspects “went to a location in the home and retrieved some money, and at that time, they fled the scene,” Byers said.

The victims, a father and his son, were not injured in the robbery

"The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, self-appointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny." --James Madison

Answer: *shrug*... I don't know.

Fairbanks — Al Gore can thank the Nobel Committee for honoring him with the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize.

He can also thank Fairbanks businessman Craig Compeau for what could be the farthest-north likeness of the former vice president: A 5-ton ice sculpture of a “shivering” Gore, created during a recent spell of bitterly cold weather in Alaska and aimed at confronting global-warming theories.

Compeau described himself as a moderate skeptic of those who “rabidly” believe man-made emissions are contributing to a rise in global temperatures. Gore won his Nobel for raising awareness of global warming as one of the greatest challenges facing mankind.

“Be skeptical. Or not. But research it yourself,” Compeau told the roughly three dozen onlookers and reporters gathered at the corner of Airport Way and Cushman Street at 10 a.m. Monday under gray skies. “There’s a lot on both sides.”

Compeau, who manages an outdoor recreation sporting goods store, is coupling the unveiling with a fundraiser to benefit the Presbyterian Hospitality House, a local nonprofit. Anyone — skeptic or not — can play by guessing whether this winter will be warmer or colder, and by how much, than was the winter of 1947-1948. Gore was born on March 31, 1948.

Compeau unveiled the sculpture — created by a local artist Steve Dean — near the downtown Thrifty Liquor store, where he said it will stay through March or “until it melts.”

The 8 1/2-foot-tall sculpture dominated the corner from its perch on the back of a flatbed truck.

Compeau said he hatched the idea for the carving when talking to another businessman two weeks ago, when much of Alaska was suffering from one of the coldest snaps in recent memory. By the time Dean was done with the carving, however, the temperature had warmed to record-breaking highs in the upper 40s. Thermometers had settled in-between by Monday morning, reading around 20 degrees.

Climate change scientists say Alaska has warmed by 3 degrees Fahrenheit during the past 50 years. Many say the planet will keep warming, at least partly because of man-made emissions.

Compeau used Monday’s unveiling to publicly invite the Nobel-winner to visit Interior Alaska — specifically, Tetlin Junction, where reports indicated temperatures earlier this month bottomed out at close to 80 degrees below zero — and explain, first-hand, global warming theories. He even offered specifics — if Gore travels by electric car and speaks exactly one year after then temperature there hit bottom — on Jan. 8, 2010 — Compeau and others will cover his room and board.

An 8-year-old girl was caught in the crossfire of gunshots exchanged by four men who burst into the Chamblee home where she was attending a birthday party, police said.

Chamblee police Chief Marc Johnson said Andrea Martinez Reneaud suffered a graze wound to her chest. The bullet then traveled through her arm without hitting bone, he said. She is expected to recover.

Johnson said the girl was at a house on Ortega Way for a birthday party held Sunday for a 7-year-old friend.

About a half-dozen adults and their children were still socializing inside the house about 12:30 a.m. Monday when four armed men burst through the unlocked front door, demanding money, Johnson said.

Johnson said the house was randomly targeted probably because it was the only one on the street with lights still on. None of the occupants of the house were armed, he said.

“The suspects identified themselves as police officers but had no identifying patches or badges,” he said. “They demanded money and were threatening the people inside.”

The suspects split up inside the house, with one firing shots at an adult male as he chased him to the back. The suspect missed the man but when his accomplices heard the shots, they returned fire, thinking the occupants were defending themselves, Johnson said.

The exchange of bullets, one of which hit Reneaud, must have scared the suspects, who left empty-handed.

The Bishop, Gene Robinson, who stated “he will be careful not to be especially Christian in my prayer.” (emphasis mine). A sign of the times?

Of course, the invitation to openly gay Episcopal Bishop V. Gene Robinson to pray at the inaugural kick off event on Sunday has again stirred great controversy.

“President-elect Obama has again demonstrated his genuine commitment to bringing all Americans of goodwill together in search of common ground," Warren said in a statement provided to Christianity Today. "I applaud his desire to be the president of every citizen.”

“I’m all for Rick Warren being at the table,” Bishop Robinson told The New York Times, “but we’re not talking about a discussion, we’re talking about putting someone up front and center at what will be the most watched inauguration in history, and asking his blessing on the nation. And the God that he’s praying to is not the God that I know.”

There is speculation over whether Warren will pray in Jesus' name or not. Robinson told the Concord Monitor that he doesn't yet know what he'll say, but he knows he won't use a Bible.

"While that is a holy and sacred text to me, it is not for many Americans," Robinson said. "I will be careful not to be especially Christian in my prayer. This is a prayer for the whole nation."

Police do not believe the shooting has any connection to the recent high-profile killing at a bar on Memorial Drive. The suspected robber carried a Colt .40-caliber handgun, while the gun that killed bar worker John Henderson was a 9mm, Atlanta police Detective Michael Willis said.

The killing Wednesday comes a week after Henderson’s murder in another popular hangout about two miles away, Standard Food & Spirits, sparked an outpouring of community support and galvanized grassroots efforts to improve public safety by some who say the city is becoming more dangerous.

Willis declined to name the man and woman police said were the intended robbery victims. The man who opened fire in self defense is a 28-year-old who works in the airline industry and lives in a northern suburb of Atlanta, possibly Cobb County, Willis said.

When they left the bar around 11:15 p.m., the man gave his date the keys to his Ford Ranger pickup truck so she could drive. They walked to the truck, parked in an Ace Hardware lot across a side street on the same side of Glenwood Avenue.

Inside the vehicle, the woman was adjusting the driver’s seat and mirrors when the man looked over his shoulder and saw Usher standing at his passenger window, Willis said.

Believing the man was going to beg for money, the passenger rolled down his window a few inches, Willis said. But he had a strange feeling about the man, so he grabbed his gun from the glove box and put it on his lap, Willis said.

He asked the stranger what he wanted, and noticed the man was reaching for his waistband or pockets, the detective said. Instinctively, the passenger shoved open his door, knocking the suspected robber back a few feet, Willis said. The woman started screaming.

The man got out of the truck and the suspected robber raised a weapon at him, Willis said. “When he saw that, he just started shooting,” the detective said.

The man shot the suspected robber five or six times, in the stomach and chest, Willis said. The robber did not fire any shots.

“He just got the jump on him,” Willis said of the victim. “He told me he fired until the guy was no longer a threat to him.”

Willis said the man’s accuracy was impressive. In an interview later, the man told Willis that his brother used to shoot firearms competitively and taught him to shoot.

"The problem with the cover is it's a man standing in a 'superman' pose. And thank you, but the women of this country can stand up for themselves." - Amy Siskind, The New Agenda

People who take in the caffeine equivalent of three cups of brewed coffee (or seven cups of instant) are more likely to hallucinate, a new study suggests.

The researchers found that people with a caffeine intake that high, whether it came from coffee, tea, chocolate or caffeinated energy drinks or pills, had a three-times-higher tendency to hear voices and see things that were not there than those who consumed the equivalent of a half-cup of brewed coffee (or one cup of instant coffee).

Though most people who drink loads of coffee are not known to hallucinate seriously, when these types of experiences interfere with daily functioning, they are considered to be psychotic.

Seven cups of instant coffee contain a total of 315 milligrams of caffeine, according to data used by the researchers. That translates to about six cups of strong tea, nine colas, four Red Bulls and about one-and-a-half cups of coffee at a boutique café.

In the study, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council and the Medical Research Council, 200 non-smoking students at a United Kingdom university were asked about their typical intake of caffeine-containing products, such as coffee, tea and energy drinks, as well as chocolate bars and caffeine tablets.

Their stress levels and their propensity to have hallucinatory experiences were also assessed. Seeing things that were not there, hearing voices, and sensing the presence of dead people were amongst the experiences reported by some of the participants.

The explanation could be that caffeine has been found to exacerbate the physiological effects of stress. When under stress, the body releases a stress hormone called cortisol. More of this hormone is released in response to stress when people have recently had caffeine.

"Hallucinations are not necessarily a sign of mental illness," Jones said. "Most people will have had brief experiences of hearing voices when there is no one there, and around three percent of people regularly hear such voices. Many of these people cope well with this and live normal lives."

Those who cannot cope should seek professional help.

"I've got my gun out. Somebody's trying to get in my house. I'll have to shoot him if he comes in.

I have this poor man, he's scared to death, if he moves I will have to kill him! I don't want to have to kill anybody, but I will."

Q: "Is the new administration going to get rid of the 'don't ask don't tell' policy?"
A: "Thaddous, you don't hear politician give a one word answer much, but it's Yes!"

"A Constitution of Government once changed from Freedom, can never be
restored. Liberty, once lost, is lost forever." - John Adams

Johns Creek pays high price in battle against adult business - City has spent about $238,000 for mostly successful litigation

By DOUG NURSE
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Sunday, January 04, 2009

To take on its lone adult business, Johns Creek hired a legal sharpshooter who drafted a no-loophole ordinance that made the store clean up its act. Ultimately the store, the Love Shack, closed.

But the fight wasn’t cheap. And it’s not over.

Since hiring attorney Scott Bergthold of Chattanooga in 2006, the city has paid him $238,000, at $250 an hour. City Attorney Bill Riley is paid $150 an hour for litigation. The city typically budgets $700,000 or so a year for legal expenses. It has paid another firm about $61,100 in Love Shack litigation fees.

Mayor Mike Bodker makes no apologies for the expense.

“We have laws on the books that say this business, because it’s an adult business, cannot operate in this zoning district,” Bodker said. “Short of repealing that law, we should enforce it.”

The owner of the Love Shack, John Cornetta, is fighting the city in Superior Court, the state Supreme Court and a federal appellate court. So far, the city has mostly prevailed. But three related cases linger in the courts.

Bergthold, who has a national anti-adult-business legal practice, said he brings experience and expertise to a field that is constantly changing and that can be extremely tricky to navigate because of its constitutional issues.

“We’ve seen a lot of the strategies and tactics and legal theories that have been advanced against municipal ordinances across the country,” he said. “We see industry tactics other lawyers wouldn’t see unless they practiced it extensively.”

Cornetta sounded incredulous upon hearing the price tag for the legal fight against him.

“Are you kidding?” he asked. He estimated he has spent $110,000 on legal fees. “That’s shocking. But then they did hire the biggest Bible-thumper money could buy.”

Bergthold’s clients range from Bartow County to Clark County, Nev. — home to Las Vegas — from Daytona Beach, Fla., to Pasadena, Calif., and points in between.

Another reason the bill is so high, Bodker said, is because there are three related cases in various stages of trial.

Chuck Thompson, executive director of the International Municipal Lawyers Association, said adult businesses try to delay a final decision because in the meantime, they get to stay open and make money.

Thompson said he wasn’t surprised at the $238,000 bill.

“That sounds pretty typical,” he said. “It’s an expensive proposition. It’s very time-intensive.”

Bergthold has been advising the city since its birth on Dec. 1, 2006. In the first hour of the city’s first City Council meeting, Bergthold gave a briefing on how to respond to the Love Shack, which had opened a few days earlier.