Image via LAist.

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Jomo Zambia tried to recruit an undercover police officer to work as a prostitute for him. He's since been convicted of pandering, the act of encouraging another to join the sex trade. His lawyer has come up with a crafty loophole and is arguing that pandering only applies when an innocent victim is targeted, and not someone already involved in sex work.

The California Supreme Court will be settling the matter in 90 days. In the meantime, the media has had a field day with the case, offering up images of fur-wearing, bejeweled, usually African American men to make the point that we don't seem to have a working definition of the word "pimp." Because that's really helpful.

Per CBS Los Angeles: "Is it the fast money and flashy cars, or is it the fish tank platform shoes? Whatever your personal opinion, the issue of when exactly someone becomes a pimp has reached the highest court in the state."

Over at LAist, Lindsay William-Ross writes: "Is it the neck laden with big, blingy gold chains? The omnipresent sunglasses, walking stick, or dapper hat? The animal print mixed with bold-colored garb?" What makes a pimp? The floss! Not his or her position in the sex trade or the coercion and abuse that occasionally accompany it. No, not that. It's a look, yo!

Photo by Jake Bellucci.

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If we haven't all made one, we've all at least been exposed to one -- the do-me playlist. We know intimately that it can either make the mood or shatter it. Music soothes the savage beast, that everyone knows. But now a study confirms that it can and does affect women's sexual receptivity.

Image via Google Maps.

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We hope your dinner reservations aren't in Santa Monica -- unless you actually live there. Reports on Twitter over the past couple of hours indicate that the 405 north is currently a parking lot. There is a vehicle in the center divider at Sunset and another up by the Getty. This is blocking all cars in the freeway and affecting the major thoroughfares in the area.

Photo by the Chemical Heritage Foundation.

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We were wrong. Not to be alarmist, but the face of porn may be about to change. Four Los Angeles council members are backing a motion that ultimately seeks the denial of permits to any porn company that doesn't practice safe sex. Permits, if the motion succeeds, will contain safety requirements for "shields" to prevent "contact with potentially infectious material," i.e., condoms, dental dams, face shields, goggles, etc.

The motion was proposed by Bill Rosendahl and seconded by members Ed Reyes, Paul Koretz and Eric Garcetti and reads as follows:

AIM Healthcare Foundation.

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Things have been heated between the Adult Industry Medical Healthcare Foundation (AIM) and the AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) since 24-year-old porn performer Derrick Burts tested positive for HIV in October. Among questions of whether monthly tests are sufficient to protect performers, AIM faces claims that it did not respond to the positive result in a timely fashion and that it denied Burts appropriate services.

Despite setbacks by the unfortunate HIV-positive test result of an actor that brought porn valley to a halt, the city has no plans to cease issuing permits to adult entertainment production companies for filming.

Per the LA Weekly's Informer, Councilman Richard Alarcon, chair of the jobs and economic development committee that oversees the permits, spoke to the council on the matter, saying:

I don't think there's a majority or even close to a majority [on the council] that are even interested in this subject ... To pull the permits for all the businesses ... could cause some severe legal challenges that could cost the taxpayers money.

As much as many of us are appalled by that activity, they are completely willing and capable of defending themselves with the highest paid lawyers to fight for their civil rights and, to date, they have been able to fend off these kinds of challenges.

Rumors of a Heidi Montag sex tape are about to meet their end.

Photo by Valli Hilaire.

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Not one to be conned into a publicity stunt, the president of Vivid Entertainment, Steven Hirsch, has told Montag ex-husband Spencer Pratt that Vivid will meet with him about buying the tape once he sees a 30-second preview.

Meet Anthony Paik, a sociologist and assistant professor at the University of Iowa and head of a new study that has found that connections based entirely on chemistry are not necessarily doomed to failure. That's right, hookups may actually develop into long-lasting relationships.

Photo by Jean Manuel Beauchamp Noriega.

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Paik analyzed 642 heterosexual adults and found that average relationship quality was higher for individuals who waited to get serious before getting it on when compared to those where sex happened earlier as it happens with hookups, NSA situations and friends with benefits scenarios.

Twitter, the way news travels. We were crestfallen to see this tweet by CNN's Anderson Cooper fly by:

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The link, which heads over to CNN's 360 blog, confirmed that a federal appeals court has blocked same-sex marriages in California until a three-judge panel hears more on the constitutionality of the unions.

It's been a week since Proposition 8 was overturned, and today, chief judge of the Federal District Court in San Francisco, Vaughan Walker, lifted his temporary stay on ceremonies, opening the door for gay couples to get married in California after Wednesday, August 18.

Photo by Ted Soqui.

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"The evidence presented at trial and the position of the representatives of the State of California show that an injunction against enforcement of Proposition 8 is in the public's interest," judge Walker told the New York Times. "Accordingly, the court concludes that the public interest counsels against entry of the stay proponents seek."

Both Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Attorney General Jerry Brown had asked the court to lift the stay.

"Doing so is consistent with California's long history of treating all people and their relationships with equal dignity and respect," said a brief from Schwarzenegger's lawyers filed last Friday.