World's Top Five Weird, Funny and Hot News of the Day: Bike lane

Yesterday, we reported that a woman was spotted strolling the Bowery topless. Yes, full-on topless, no bra, no shirt, just boob. Two of them. One photo suggests that the woman was getting a ticket from two cops, but some of you commenters pointed out that this lady had every right to be beating the heat in the buff. We emailed NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Public Information Paul Browne our original post, asking whether or not this woman was breaking the law. He replied:

The state's highest court established long ago that women have the same right as men to appear topless in public. Absent a link to some commercial enterprise or promotion, the woman's lack of certain attire in this instance does not appear to be a police matter.

Browne added in a later email that there was no evidence that he was aware of to suggest that the woman was in fact ticketed. Topless Bowery lady, get in touch, we want to hear your story!

A woman's right to go topless in New York has a long history. The defendants in the 1992 case People v. Ramona Santorelli and Mary Lou Schloss were arrested along with five others in a Rochester park for violating a law which prohibited women from showing "that portion of the breast which is below the top of the areola." (Areola = coloring around the nipple). Santorelli and Schloss argued that the law was "discriminatory on its face since it defines 'private or intimate parts' of a woman's but not a man's body as including a specific part of the breast." The New York Court of Appeals ruled in favor of the two women. More than 10 years later, Jill Coccaro was arrested in 2005 on

Delancey Street

for going topless, but sued the city and received $29,000 in a settlement. So ladies, it's a scorcher out there, feel free to bare it all on top, and if you want some solidarity, August 21 is National Go-Topless Day. But remember this other handy comment on our earlier story: "Honestly, I find it much cooler to wear a T-shirt because the cotton absorbs the stickiness." Noted!

Why- Bikini billboard makes them blush in Auburn

A billboard of a bikini-clad model is causing a stir in Auburn.This morning someone covered the 12- by 24-foot billboard off Highway 49 with a black tarp and the words "no more porn in our town.""There is nothing pornographic about the image at all. It shows a beautiful tan on a confident women. It's a very classy image," said Jeremy McCain, media director for California Sun, the company behind the advertisement.

The image - shot at Folsom Lake - shows a woman in a white bikini and cowboy boots lying on a granite rock at the edge of the water.

"If you go out to the lake or the beach, women wear bikinis all the time. It's a very conservative bikini," McCain said.

The billboard campaign has been up - undisturbed - in Sacramento for a month. The Auburn billboard went up two days ago, McCain said.

Wow- Dog left $12M by

U.S.

hotelier dies

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - A very rich dog, which inherited $12 million from

U.S.

hotelier Leona Helmsley, has died, a spokeswoman for the deceased hotel mogul’s trust said Thursday. Helmsley, who owned the Helmsley hotel chain, left $12 million in her will to care for her beloved Maltese named Trouble when she died in 2007. A judge reduced the amount to $2 million. Though Trouble’s death is just now being reported, the dog actually died in December at the age of 12, said Eileen Sullivan, spokeswoman for the Helmsley Charitable Trust. “She was cremated and her remains are being privately retained. The funds held in trust for her care have reverted to the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust for charitable purposes,” Sullivan said in a statement.

Unlucky-Man returns to

Britain

to find his home being used as a brothel

BUSINESSMAN returned to Britain to find his home had been turned into a brothel, a court heard.The successful operation allegedly made £277,000 in eight months.Davidson Okoye, 52, denies running the brothel at landlord Paul Khera’s two-storey pad with alleged madam Elam Rani, 40. Mr Khera said when he returned to the flat in Clerkenwell, Central London, “every room had a bed”, Blackfriars crown court heard.

Strange- Law bans Internet images that cause 'emotional distress'

There goes the Internet. A new Tennessee law makes it a crime to post an image online that might "frighten, intimidate or cause emotional distress" to someone.

As reported by the technology website Ars Technica, the state already has a law against making phone calls, sending e-mails or otherwise communicating with someone in a way that would cause emotional distress. This latest ban, signed by Gov. Bill Haslam last week, is an update to that law.

The difference is that offenders may be prosecuted even if it's not the intended recipient who is "distressed." Anyone who sees the image - which means anyone on the Internet - could claim it upset them.