Kansas – from www.cjonline.com – Jefferson County morals crusader Stephanie Kaniper pleaded in an emotion-choked voice Monday for intervention by the House to thwart expansion of sexually oriented businesses in Kansas.

The Ozawkie leader of a grass-roots organization fighting a proposed strip club in Meriden — the site would be 900 feet from Jefferson West Middle School — sought passage of the bill to strengthen the hand of cities and counties under assault from the skin industry.

“Many lack legal expertise and have scarce funds to withstand lengthy lawsuits,” she said.

Her opposite, Sedgwick County strip-club attorney Charles O’Hara, took a free-enterprise approach by opposing restrictions on locations of new cabaret establishments and severe limitations on business practices of existing venues.

He said a single provision — prohibition on serving of alcohol in the cabarets — would destroy the economic viability of clubs and throw people out of work.

“If this passes,” he said,”they can’t function.”

The House Federal and State Affairs Committee completed the first of two days of hearings on House Bill 2107. A second day of testimony is scheduled Tuesday, and the committee is likely to vote on the bill later this week.

The House bill mirrors a controversial new Missouri law designed to wrap state control around sexually oriented businesses.

The proposed Kansas measure would prohibit cities or counties from granting permits for adult clubs within 1,000 feet of churches, schools, daycare centers, parks and libraries.

In existing adult entertainment venues, the bill would prevent alcohol from being served and ban full nudity in those establishments.

Semi-nude entertainers would be required to stay on an elevated stage a minimum of six feet from all customers. Dancers would not be allowed to touch clients, effectively banning lap dancing.

Clubs couldn’t be open from midnight to 6 a.m.

Wichita Rep. Judy Loganbill, the ranking Democrat on the House committee, said there was irony in sponsorship of these types of bills by legislators who advocate removal of government’s hand from private business affairs so entrepreneurs can create jobs.

“It’s always interesting those who argue the most for less government intrusion into one’s personal and one’s business life seem to produce the bills that are designed to impose regulation on people,” she said.

Rep. Forrest Knox, a Fredonia Republican on the committee, said the bill regulating sexually oriented business could fairly be called intrusive.

However, he said, negative consequences of operating these types of businesses in Kansas necessitates passage of the bill. The damage to people from exposure to explicit entertainment and spin-off criminal conduct in communities should be unacceptable, he said.

“You’ve got to weigh this,” Knox said. “We’re talking sin. I will not walk away from that.”