Condoms, lubricants, gels and oils are among a myriad of other items that these workers can claim against tax, according to a fact sheet issued on the office's Web site.

While they cannot claim deductions for fitness classes that keep them in shape, the tax office ruled they can claim the cost of dance lessons.

"You can claim the cost of replacing or repairing things like equipment, adult novelties and other apparatus used in your work," the office advises, under a section titled "tools of trade."

In a brief article to readers, Times Executive Editor Neil Brown said, “Sadly, Gina’s actions irreparably compromised her credibility as a journalist for our company.”

The article says Brown contacted Storms on Thursday to “inform her of the developments.”

Alexander's lawyer, Herschel Katz, said when his client pleaded guilty that Alexander would raise as much of the money as possible by selling his interest in the Long Island house where he lives with his wife, who is divorcing him, and his two children.

The Web site of the dominatrix features numerous photographs of the 43-year-old pain professional in a leather, metal-studded thong and bra, high-heeled lace-up boots, a leather dress and in what appears to be a red latex rubber evening dress. It says she charges $250 an hour and declares: "Professional domination sessions are about good people having great fun."

Little, Brown, which had initially said the book would be revised, declined to comment on whether Viswanathan would have to return her reported six-figure advance.

The decision caps a stunning downfall for Viswanathan, 19, a Harvard sophomore whose novel came out in March to widespread attention. Viswanathan, who was 17 when she signed the deal, did not immediately return calls seeking comment Tuesday.

The novel had modest sales initially, but interest in used editions of the book remains strong enough that it was the No. 58 seller on Amazon.com on Tuesday afternoon.

Meanwhile, The Record of Bergen County said that it will review the news articles Viswanathan wrote for the 180,000-circulation daily paper in northern New Jersey while an intern in 2003 and 2004.

Editor Frank Scandale said The Record, which has written several of its own articles about the plagiarism allegations, will hire a service to vet the dozen or so features she wrote while one of about 18 interns at the paper.

"To us she was a bright young kid that seemed to have the makings of a good writer. There were no alarms; nobody had ever questioned any of her stories," he said. "We have no reason to believe there's anything wrong with her copy. But in light of what's going on, we thought we should check her stuff out."

Little, Brown pulled "Opal Mehta" after extensive similarities were discovered to two works by Megan McCafferty, "Sloppy Firsts" and "Second Helpings." But until Tuesday, the publisher had not said whether the book would be canceled altogether or simply revised, as originally planned.

Agent Leigh Steinberg said Monday that he hasn't spoken to Williams about his football future since last week's NFL announcement of a yearlong suspension following a fourth failed drug test. Steinberg, though, said the Argonauts have expressed a "high degree of interest" in signing Williams to play under coach Michael "Pinball" Clemons, who gained a CFL-record 25,396 all-purpose yards as a wide receiver and returner for 12 seasons.

"They seem to have a very dynamic coach," Steinberg said of Clemons. "The ownership appears to be very progressive, and they describe [Clemons] as someone Ricky could bond with and being a very humanistic, player-type coach."

Steinberg said Williams could play in the CFL if the Dolphins signed a waiver. Coach Nick Saban said last weekend he was uncertain whether he would agree to such an arrangement until Williams knows his future plans.

She won the $100 grand prize.

Then one day, a neighbor saw Pippin in a Playboy video on cable television and called her parents.

Pippin sued, saying she never consented to be included in Playboy Exposed: All American Girls and Girls Gone Crazy: Spring Break.

"I find it disgusting and embarrassing," Pippin, now 21, said in a sworn statement as part of her 2002 federal lawsuit. "I think it makes me look like some kind of prostitute or porn movie star, almost like I am trying to show my body to the camera, which I was not."

Her lawsuit named Playboy Entertainment, Anheuser-Busch, Deslin Hotels, Best Buy and several other entertainment companies.

Pippin settled with Anheuser-Busch and Playboy earlier this month. She could not be reached for comment, and her attorneys would not disclose details of the agreements.

"Sometimes what happens in your childhood should stay in your childhood," said Arthur Tifford, Pippin's Miami attorney.

Public records show that Pippin comes from a family of east Hillsborough County farmers.

Her case resurfaced in Tampa federal court on Thursday with the ongoing litigation against Deslin Hotels, which operated the Desert Inn Resort Motel where the contest took place, and Daytona Beverages, an Anheuser-Busch distributor.

An attorney for Deslin Hotels tried to persuade a federal judge to drop the hotel chain from the suit.

Robert Bowling, Deslin's attorney, said the company had no role in producing or distributing the videos and did not profit from them.

Chief U.S. District Judge Elizabeth A. Kovachevich said she'd rule after further review.

Tifford's law firm filed a similar federal complaint in March 2004 on behalf of four minors who participated in sexually explicit contests during spring break at the same motel. They, too, have been featured in adult material produced and distributed by Playboy, the complaint said.

That case was referred to mediation this week.

Promoters asked whether they were "of age," she said. Pippin said she and others lied about their ages.

Pippin said no one asked for her written permission to include her in adult material.

"I only saw guests of the motel that I believed to be on spring break with personal video cameras," Pippin said in her statement. "I thought I would win the money and never see any of these people again in my life."

Pippin said she felt "uncomfortable" on the stage, allowing men to rub against her as they poured water on her. But she said she decided to do what was "necessary in order to "win' the cash prize."

A licensed clinical social worker wrote that she recommended Pippin call a lawyer because Pippin was a "sexually exploited minor." Pippin's primary care physician wrote that she prescribed antidepressants to Pippin for "mental pain, anguish, anxiety and disturbance of peace of mind … caused by her exploitation."

Pippin went to Daytona Beach with friends whose parents chaperoned. She said the first day she visited the Desert Inn, where some of her high school buddies were staying, the wet T-shirt promoters "accosted" her to participate. She declined, she said.

"I had never seen a wet T-shirt contest before," she said.

It was money that he had no right to and despite a court ruling, the funeral director refused to pay. What's even more puzzling is that he's not just any debtor, he's the mayor of the small town and a member of a City Council that has financial responsibility for the city's budget.

7NEWS also found that he has other debts as well, something his constituents may want to know.

Jason Sepulveda, a Marine, was training at Camp Lejune in North Carolina, preparing to go to Iraq, when in an evening off-base, he was killed in a car accident.

"My son died instantly and the other Marine died approximately two weeks after," said Elis Sepulveda, Jason's mother.

His parents, who spoke with him weekly, knew he had been saving his money for a long weekend when they would all be together.

"We were going on vacation for the Fourth of July to visit him," Sepulveda said. "I know he had been sacrificing because they don't get paid very much."

Jason's body was returned to Colorado for burial. Records show that the funeral was paid, in full, by the Marines. But after closing out her son's accounts, Jason's mother realized that the probate court had sent the proceeds of Jason's savings account to the funeral home, which is run by Jim Bostick.

"I called Mr. Bostick and I said, 'Well, the courts sent you my son's savings account.' He just kind of really blew me off a lot," Sepulveda said.

She said he didn't give her any receipts or bills and just kept the money.

In addition to his duties as mayor and member of the Ft. Lupton City Council, Bostick also owns two funeral homes. In his role with the city, he is heavily involved in overseeing the finances of the town.

Sepulveda took Bostick to court over the money he wouldn't return to her family. The judge's order in the case was final.

"She gave damages, interests, court fines, everything, and I assumed that if you go to court that you pay it," Sepulveda said.

But despite the judgment of more than $7,500, Bostick has refused to pay.

When 7NEWS Investigator John Ferrugia confronted Bostick and asked him why he was still holding money from the Sepulvedas, Bostick said, "I'm not holding the money for them. I don't want to be on camera right now."

But Bostick not only owes the Sepulvedas, he owes other people money.

"You've got other judgments out there. Do you want to talk to me about that?" Ferrugia asked Bostick.

"No, I don't," Bostick said.

In fact, court records show Bostick has several current unsatisfied debts to creditors from Greeley to Montana and that doesn't include money he owed when he filed bankruptcy in 2001. He claims he is trying to repay the money.

But Bostick didn't want to talk about the money he owes the Sepulveda family or whether, given his personal financial problems, he should be making fiscal decisions for the town of Fort Lupton.

"I want to know if you think it's appropriate for the mayor who has fiduciary responsibility to owe this kind of money," Ferrugia said.

7NEWS obtained letters written by Bostick to the family, saying that he would settle the debt.

"It got to the point where he would just not accept our phone calls and just say, 'I can't hear you, I can't hear you,'" Sepulveda said.

"You wrote. You said, 'I want to settle this,' and you never have. Why not?" Ferrugia asked Bostick.

"I don't recall ever writing letters to …" Bostick responded. "Well, I don't recall that, no. Right off, I don't recall it."

Finally, using the same double-talk that has frustrated the Marine family, Bostick seemed to make clear he has no intention of settling the claim.

Commissioner Jim Scott was equally chagrined. "This was a harum-scarum operation," he said.

At issue is an effort started three years ago to find a warehouse, estimated to cost less than $10 million, for Broward County's new voting machinery. It ballooned into a $45 million proposal to build offices and warehouses for the elections supervisor, the property appraiser and county revenue collection division.

The project collapsed when Property Appraiser Lori Parrish opted out of the deal after reports in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel on Oct. 8 that lobbyists and developers were pushing to have the complex built on land outside of downtown owned by the chairman of the Fort Lauderdale Downtown Development Agency, Charles Ladd.

Commissioners last week ordered an examination of what happened and plan to discuss what to do next at their meeting on Tuesday.

The county will have to pay $110,000 a year for the next 30 years for a dilapidated warehouse at Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport it doesn't want. Parrish and Elections Supervisor Brenda Snipes need more room quickly, but most solutions will take more than two years to accomplish.

A central issue on how the deal went astray is the actions of a committee appointed by commissioners to shepherd the warehouse project. That negotiating committee, along with staff, skirted protocol by making major decisions without commission approval or public input.

Records and interviews also reveal that plans to renovate the warehouse chosen for the elections office went on for more than a year even though Snipes disliked them. And work repeatedly stalled amid second-guessing about what to do. That was because of problems with another county office renovation project.

CHAIN OF EVENTS

The commissioners who sat on the negotiating committee for the warehouse project were Wexler, Ilene Lieberman, Diana Wasserman-Rubin, Ben Graber and Josephus Eggelletion. Snipes and three high-ranking county employees were also on the committee.

Although they were tasked with choosing a company to renovate the warehouse leased for Snipes, the group rejected all bids in a committee meeting on June 30.

The final say on such a move should rest with the County Commission. But rather than submitting its recommendation and allowing the full commission to decide what to do next, the committee ordered county staff to research sites where Parrish and Snipes' offices could be housed together.

Minutes of the meeting show the motion came from Eggelletion. He could not be reached for comment despite calls to his office.

Subsequently and without the full commission's agreement, staff narrowed the field to sites owned by Ladd and Tarragon South Development. That's the recommendation that landed on the commissioners' agenda last week and was rejected.

"These were policy decisions and they belonged with the board," Commissioner John Rodstrom said. "This had not been fully cooked, and it's disturbing how it got this far."