Heidi Fleiss didn't even get an application in to the Nye County Commission for her stud farm. But that has not deterred the Shady Lady brothel, also in Nye County, from beginning the interview process for male prostitutes to service female customers. One problem: The rules for county brothels still require all prostitutes to have a regular cervical exam. The Shady Lady has yet to resolve that issue for their proposed male hookers.

Also, Shady Lady is offering the Las Vegas Sun price quotes: "The minimum would be two hours, probably at a cost of $500, she said. Three hours would cost $700 and four hours, $1,000. An overnight stay would be $2,000." This is interesting because traditional brothel prostitutes in Nye Country are all independent contractors who set their own rates that are only required to exceed a house minimum.

My guess is that the idea of male prostitutes for female-only clients is once again going nowhere. But Shady Lady has been willing to take issues to court in the past such as the ban on brothels being allowed to advertise. The issue of if Nye Country is willing to license male prostitutes to service female clients will get a far more credible test than Fleiss offered from Shady Lady. This particular brothel sits more than 100 miles north of Las Vegas. But if the Shady Lady gets the law changed for Nye County, that would apply to the brothels that sit closer to Vegas just over the Clark County line.

PAHRUMP, Nev. -- To many people, Saphire's career may look like a downward spiral. As a model she appeared in Penthouse. She moved on to doing porn and is now working as a prostitute at Chicken Ranch. But that is not at all how Saphire sees it. "I have a plan now," she says. "I am going to work doing this for another 12 years and then I am going to quit to start a business."

The business she wants to start is creating period clothing of the sort favored by people who reenact the Civil War or go to Renaissance fairs.  And, while that may seem eccentric, Saphire is actually working toward her goal. The most prominent object in her room is her sewing machine, and as I type this, she is working on a paper for her history class at UNLV.

Unlike most of the other women here, Saphire is completely not fussy about how I photograph her. There was no quick change into a sexy outfit or even checking her hair in the mirror. "I don't want to look like a generic girl. I've accepted that I am not going to fit any typical stereotype of how we should look. I sell my personality. I like prostitution better than porn because the customers here that I meet are much more interesting than the people on porn sets."

PAHRUMP, Nev. -- Alicia knows the UPS delivery driver who comes to Chicken Ranch by name and awaits his arrival eagerly. What did she order? Nothing. "It's all gifts from customers. A lot of them are my regulars. They appreciate me and they have a good time with me and sometimes they want to buy me a gift." Actually a lot of times. Today she is expecting a Louis Vuitton bag. A customer bought her the bracelet from Tiffany's she wears, the designer luggage she uses, and the flat-screen television and sofa in her room at Chicken Ranch. Another customer bought her a truck, the most costly gift she has ever received. Alicia makes it easy for those customers who want to give her gifts: "I send links to what I want." 

PAHRUMP, Nev. -- Despite the idea of legal prostitution in Las Vegas having been shunted aside as quickly as it appeared in the Legislature, the issue will not die in the public arena. Driving to the Chicken Ranch Wednesday, I listened to the local NPR affiliate's "State of Nevada" program, on which advocates for legalization and callers in favor of legalization of prostitution seemed to predominate.

But the district attorney's office and the police declined to appear on the show. Yet, at this very moment, authorities are making a public relations campaign out of their list, two years in the making, of the top 50 "most prolific prostitutes" in Vegas and methodically busting them on charges that in almost every case do not include actual prostitution. (Charges are more in the vein of trespassing or loitering with intent to solicit prostitution.)

Many of the callers to KNPR and experts from University of Nevada Las Vegas on the show noted that although law enforcement and the courts in Vegas are dedicating tremendous resources to the issue of illegal prostitution, there is legal prostitution about an hour away at the Chicken Ranch. So, why is it unthinkable to legalize something in Clark County that is already legal in Nye County? It seems such a reasonable question on the surface. And, of course, Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman has been pushing for years to deal with that inconsistency by studying the effects of bringing legal prostitution to the city.

Still, those opposed to legalization feel so strongly about the issue that legal prostitution in Vegas will likely remain at the fringes of political discourse for now despite the horrible economic times. Las Vegas Review Journal's John L. Smith has been particularly hostile to the idea. Smith was scathing in his comments. He sees this entire discussion as the Nevada Legislature looking to distract people from all the taxes that should be raised from other business interests in the state by instead focusing on ways to broaden the group who pay taxes to include newly legal brothels in Vegas. Smith wrote:

"Not that I endorse legalizing prostitution for the purpose of taxation. It's about as morally backward an idea as I've heard. It's the depth of desperation -- even in a recession. ... It's ethically bankrupt, a real sellout in a state whose lawmakers, with a few exceptions, haven't mustered the collective will to tax businesses and banks and big mining."

Meanwhile, the issue of City Life that came out today offers this provocative cover text "Why learn? Whore instead!" Inside the writer, a school teacher, is even worried about the effect of the media attention the issue is generating. He writes: "Instead of merely aspiring to become valet parking attendants or cosmetologists, kids in Vegas now see themselves as having another opportunity upon graduation." That is sort of misleading, because all Nye County brothel prostitutes must be 21.

But there is definitely a connection between the costs of higher education and legal sex work. At the Chicken Ranch, I have already met one worker using her income from prostitution to pay for her UNLV tuition. Actually, she is taking an online class at the brothel. Also, on Wednesday, I talked to a prostitute who has an undergraduate degree in history but has taken a leave of absence from her day job at a library in another state to come to Nevada and earn enough money to pay off her student loans. Her plan is to save enough money to go back to graduate school to get a master's degree in library science.

Obviously, there are many ways to pay college tuition or student loans that don't involve prostitution. But using legal prostitution to pay for school is taking place here in Nye County whereas in Vegas "student" seems mostly to be a lame advertisement codeword for young sex workers. Case in point: signs for "Hot Asian Students Direct To your Room."

Photo: Richard Abowitz

All of the attention devoted to the Eliot Spitzer story made me wonder how much interest was generated by the alleged criminal behavior and how much by a married man's decision to hire prostitutes? In 49 states these questions would not be separable.

But in Nevada, of course, brothels offer legal prostitutes to men. I approached local columnists for the Review-Journal and the Las Vegas Sun with the question: Were you to find out an elected official was frequenting one of our legal brothels, would you consider that a story worth pursuing absent any underlying crusade against legal brothels in his politics?

The Sun's political guru Jon Ralston wrote back instantly:

"If he were not married, it's not a story, unless he ran on a campaign platform against brothels. If he were married, it's a little trickier. It's legal and is it anyone's business?  I tend to shy away from private lives unless there is a nexus to public performance, so would have to take into account the latter before making final call."

The Review-Journal's John L. Smith, perhaps, the most widely respected columnist in Nevada, rephrased my question slightly in his response:

"Would I write about a Nevada politician visiting a legal brothel?

Probably not -- unless the official was being a hypocrite (pretended to be a buttoned-down guy, religion on sleeve, etc.) Does the politician vote on adult industry-related stuff?"

Of course, this is a hypothetical politician, and neither Smith nor Ralston seems to offer a definitive answer. But their responses do seem to make clear that to them absent the criminal issue the legitimacy of the story becomes much more questionable.

My personal view is that without some public posture about family values, even for a married man it is none of my business as a journalist if the person is not breaking the law. And no matter who the politician was in the scandal, I suspect, the secondary story of what hooker he was visiting at the brothel would not get play down to her MySpace page, as has happened here. If it was a legal employee just going to work and doing her legal job, she would not be the tabloid star this "Kristen" has become. Or at least not unless she wanted the attention. 

This is one of those problems you only have to face in Nevada; one of the reasons working here is so unique.

What do you think: Would the press be reporting on Spitzer with the same fury if he had flown to Nevada and spent his money at legal brothels instead of allegedly patronizing illegal escorts? Would you care as much?