The Gawker leak of e-mails and photos sent to a Craigslist personals ad has caused Chris Lee to resign from the New York House of Representatives. Image from Wikimedia Commons.

Christopher Lee has resigned as congressman because of a leaked photo, which he had sent to a woman he met on Craigslist. Lee is a Republican congressman from New York and in the middle of his second term. He announced his resignation seemingly to head off a scandal before it got out of hand.

False claims in personals ad response by ‘Craigslist congressman’

Christopher Lee’s resignation from the New York House of Representatives was the culmination of events that began on Craigslist. Photos were leaked to popular site Gawker.com, according to the Washington Post. Lee responded to a personal ad on Craigslist by an unnamed woman who lived in Maryland. In the ad, the woman asked “will someone prove to me not all CL men look like toads?” Lee, beginning his second term in the House of Representatives, wrote her back claiming that he was a lobbyist on Capitol Hill and that he was younger than his actual age of 46. The two bantered back and forth, but the ruse was discovered once he sent her pictures of himself.

Pictures lead to Gawker leak

When Lee sent shirtless pictures of himself, his Craigslist correspondent asked if he habitually sent pictures of himself topless, and he said that it was “all I had.” As the two kept e-mailing each other, eventually she asked about his marital status, to which he replied that he was divorced. Lee is married and has a son. Vaguely recognizing the photograph, she searched the internet for his name and discovered he was actually older than 40, married and a congressman from the 26th District of New York. She sent the e-mails and pictures to Gawker.com, and the news broke.

Gawker forces resignation

Gawker.com published the pictures and the e-mails on Wednesday., Feb. 9, and the story quickly gained online momentum. Lee wrote a letter to John Boehner, the Speaker of the House, notifying him that he was resigning within hours of the news breaking, according to NPR. A clerk read the letter aloud on the floor later in the day. A special election will have to be called by Andrew Cuomo, governor of New York, to replace him.

Sources

Washington Post

NPR

E-mails and photos on Gawker

It's easy to replace a couch or love seat for very cheap, if someone takes the right shortcuts. Image from Wikimedia Commons.

Every now and again, people do have to buy new furniture. For some it is not always the most pleasant experience, but there are some ways to make it easier and a lot lighter on the wallet. There are a few excellent places to look for great deals.

Replacing a couch or love seat

Replacing furniture and appliances is part of every day life, and for some it can be a somewhat unpleasant experience. Replacing living room furniture such as a recliner, a couch or love seat can also be expensive. New furniture can cost hundreds of dollars, and financing can be risky. However, there are some ways to find a great deal on home furnishings if a person is determined enough.

Be all right with used furniture

When putting together a living room on a budget, the fact may be that there is not a new piece in the right price range. Therefore, a person has to be willing to buy used furniture. Used furniture does not automatically mean lower quality. There are plenty of well maintained used sofas, recliners, love seats, coffee tables and other furniture out there, one must simply be willing to look. Here are some great starting points.

• Craigslist – look for picture ads, as Craigslist ads can run from awful to amazing.
• Garage sales – look for garage sales put on by housing communities, especially the kind where a home owners association only allows them now and again.
• “Ding and dent” stores – furniture and appliance stores have their slightly damaged goods resold for them, at discounts up to 50 percent off or more.
• Call furniture and appliance stores directly – ask about dinged and dented pieces, and try to negotiate a bargain. It could be easier than one might think.

Rent to own and financing

Going the rent-to-own route or financing through a furniture store might not be the best choice. Rent to own stores mark their furniture up, and consumers in the end pay more than retail. Financing furniture through a store usually means a no interest period before the balance is due, but if whatever is not paid off has the interest assessed automatically.

Yet another prostitution ring has been spotted by authorities, this time on Craigslist in Albany, N.Y. (Photo Credit: CC BY-SA/Eideard)

Craigslist has caught heat in recent years for allowing online ads for prostitution and “girlfriend experience” (GFE) to publish. Authorities have tried to crack down on this online sex trade, but as Bronx News reports, such efforts are like trying to get rid of crabgrass. This time, authorities have intervened in a prostitution ring advertised on Craigslist Albany. A 25-year-old former utility worker named Ross Campbell has been charged with pimping women. He faces up to 50 years in prison, reports the Bronx News New York blog.

Craigslist Albany was a front for numerous crimes

According to Bronx District Attorney Robert Johnson, Queens resident Campbell’s business on Craigslist Albany included sex trafficking, kidnapping, rape and various other offenses involving two “young” victims. This is reportedly the first such online-related conviction in Bronx County and one of only a few made under New York’s Sex Trafficking statute that became law in 2007. All of Ross Campbell’s Craigslist Albany crimes, save for promoting prostitution, are classified as Class B felonies, punishable by up to 25 years in jail for each offense. Thus, consecutive terms are possible, yet a combined term may occur.

Tales of the online prostitution trial

According to court documents, a 19-year-old woman testified that she came to the Bronx with her 3-year-old child under the impression that she would be living with Campbell, with whom she’d become romantically entangled. After relocating to an apartment rented by Campbell’s cousin, Daniel Ebron, she was “forced to engage in prostitution” under threat that her child would be harmed or killed. The woman worked as a prostitute for customers solicited through Craigslist Albany ads until she eventually managed to escape with her son.

Campbell allegedly kidnapped and raped two other victims, ages 18 and 19, at a later time.

Sources

Bronx News

When a massage is actually a GFE

Get your errands done quickly and easily using a (human) TaskRabbit. Image: Flickr/wwarby

TaskRabbit is a new online service that calls itself  “service networking.” Anyone who needs help with a task can match up with someone who has some extra time. By combining user ratings and reviews, TaskRabbit proves to be safer and more reliable than other, similar services online.

The idea of TaskRabbit

The basic idea of TaskRabbit is simple: there are things that people need help with. Be it watering window boxes, picking up dog food or running dry cleaning, everyone has something. Most people can’t afford a personal assistant to do their running around, but TaskRabbit helps them find help. Anyone with a task posts the details and how much they’re willing to pay, and someone in their area can agree to help out. It ends up being a win-win.

Making money with TaskRabbit

TaskRabbit is attractive not only because people can get things done, but because you can make extra money. The system of TaskRabbit allows for runners to make counteroffers or bids for the tasks. The “service networking” system helps anyone with a few extra minutes turn it into cash. There are a few major considerations to keep in mind when accepting a task. First, what the cost of the task might be. Second, how much time the task might take. Finally, consider what your hourly rate is going to be and if amount offered is enough for what you’re worth. Remember that you will have to pay self-employment taxes if you make more than $600 in a year.

TaskRabbit in your town

Currently, TaskRabbit is only available in Boston and SanFransisco. There are plans for TaskRabbit to expand, but it will take time for the service to add extra cities. If you’re in one of the many areas where there is no TaskRabbit, then you can still make extra money with the concept. You can check out the “gigs” section of Craigslist, first. You can also get a business license and hire yourself out as a “personal assistant” by the hour.

Craigslist is run as a bare-bones operation, though sex ad fees bring in millions of dollars. Image from Flickr.

Craigslist — the central hub for free online classified advertisements, auto financing and personals ads — is once again finding itself at the center of multiple Craig’s List controversies. Connecticut’s attorney general has lambasted Craigslist for allowing sexually explicit advertising on the website and keeping the profits from that advertising. At the same time, a father in New York State has been arrested for posting his children for sale on Craig’s List. In Oakland, police are warning residents to be wary of Craigslist – a rash of violent robberies have started with Craig’s List postings.

Craigslist sex ads

This morning, Advanced Interactive Media Group, a company that specializes in estimating finances of privately held companies, announced that Craigslist sex ads will bring in a projected $36 million. This is a 22 percent increase from Craig’s List estimated earnings last year. These Craigslist sex ads have encountered numerous legal challenges in 40 states, with law enforcement saying Craig’s List is responsible for removing ads “used for illegal ends.”

Craigslist ‘joke’ gets dad arrested

At the same time the Connecticut attorney general was raising arguments with his letter to Craigslist, a New York dad is wishing he had not posted his ad. Joshua Stagnitto was arrested for “falsely reporting an incident” – after Child Protective Services was called. Stagnetto posted an ad on Craig’s List offering his children for sale, which prompted calls to CPS and led to his arrest. Perhaps he should have just gotten online payday loans instant approval. Joshua Stagnitto claims the post was “just a joke.”

Craigslist does not claim responsibility

Craigslist maintains that it is protected by the Communications Decency Act – as a service provider, it is not responsible for what users post. The CEO of Craigslist, James Bruckmaster, has also stated that “Misuse of Craigslist for criminal purposes is utterly unacceptable.” Many of the sex ads on Craigslist come close to the line – some blatantly offer prostitution, while others are more subtle. Craigslist terms of service specifically disallow illegal or pornographic posts. Either way, the $5 to $10 fees per ad bring in a majority of Craigslist’s income. The company is privately held and is currently embroiled in legal disagreements with minority owner eBay.

Sources:

NY Times
CNN
Mercury News
Telegraph.co.uk

Creating Multiple Income Streams Online

Just about everyone knows about selling items on eBay or Craigslist, and while both can be very lucrative ventures, these work-at-home ideas have been done to death and won’t be listed here. However, the following are a few very realistic suggestions for how to make money online:

Flipping web sites

If you are skilled at making web sites, turn that talent into fast cash by creating web sites on various niche topics and selling them for profit. Take the time to learn how to research profitable keywords and how to create SEO (search engine optimized) copy, or contract someone to do both, and you can easily create a new income stream to help pay down debt.

Sell Domains

Buy popular domain names and sell them for profit. Again, this will take a little knowledge about researching popular keywords, as well as a little luck in creating domain names that people will actually want to pay you for, but this can also be one of the more profitable ways to make money online.

Sell Ad Space on your web site, Facebook or blog

If you have a web site, a Facebook account or a blog, consider featuring non-intrusive advertisements to create additional income for yourself. To make even more money, invest time in learning how to increase your blog’s traffic and, thus, increase the value of your blog to merchants who may want to advertise to your audience. There are tons of websites and information products related to this income stream.

Affiliate Marketing

To increase overall sales, companies and individual entrepreneurs will pay a percentage of profits on sales originating from a third-party blog or web site. By researching Internet marketing, most find that a lot of information on how to get started in affiliate marketing can be gathered for free or at a very low cost online.

Sell on Facebook’s Marketplace

Most people have a Facebook account, but few know about the ways in which they can turn their participation in Facebook’s community into profit. The next time you’re in need of fast cash, mosey on over to the Facebook Marketplace and consider posting items or services for sale there. Similar to Craigslist, this is also a good place to save money when looking for everyday items or even for specialty items, such as textbooks or electronic equipment.

Become a Virtual Assistant

With more and more work being performed online, people are finding that outsourcing things like clerical tasks, web research and a variety of other services is actually beneficial to their bottom line. Instead of paying for additional office space to house an assistant, equipment costs, insurance costs and full-time pay, savvy entrepreneurs are realizing that contemporary technology makes it more cost-effective to hire a virtual assistant. By providing services like these, a VA is able to operate her own business from home with nothing more than a computer, an Internet connection and a telephone.

Each of these ideas, as well as the suggestions that will be featured in part two of this series, can be started on a shoestring budget. Anyone interested in pursuing one of more of these can easily find all of the information that they need right at their fingertips with a simple Internet search. With so many ways to make money online, there is no excuse for anyone not to have multiple income streams.