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serve a concurrent two-year sentence for pimping as part of a plea agreement.
• Pennington County deputy state's attorney Lara Roetzel said Caron would find women on two websites and help them to solicit johns on those sites. He would collect a percentage of the women's earnings and pay some of the girls for sex.
• Roetzel said that during Caron's sexual encounters with some of the women, he would videotape them in order to produce videos.
• "The videos were a strange mix of sex tape and instructional video on how to be a good prostitute," she said.
• When authorities questioned Caron about the prostitution, he acknowledged being involved in the enterprise off and on since 2001, Roetzel said.
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Japan's new import rules to help US beef industry
JOSH FUNK,Associated Press
• OMAHA, Neb. (AP) -- Ranchers welcomed Japan's decision Monday to ease restrictions on U.S. beef imports, saying it will provide a boost to the American meat industry but cautioning that it will take time before exports to Japan reach their levels of a decade ago.
• Japan is one of the biggest importers of U.S. beef, despite restrictions that for years haven't allowed the import of beef from cattle older than 20 months instead of the industry standard of 30 months. Those restricted imports were only allowed after Japan banned U.S. beef altogether in 2003 after the U.S. recorded its first case of mad cow disease, which can cause a fatal brain disease in humans.
• The news of the expanded export market is especially welcome now because the beef industry has been hurt by several years of high feed prices and the drought that hit cattle country hard the past two years, said J.D. Alexander, president of the National Cattlemen's Beef Association.
• "It's a great shot in the arm," said Alexander, who runs a feedlot and corn farm near Pilger in northeast Nebraska. "This is going to help the profitability of the beef industry."
• U.S. beef producers eventually hope to restore Japanese sales to their 2003 levels, when Japan was the U.S.'s biggest customer, buying 918 million pounds of beef. If Japan's loosening of restrictions leads to higher demand overall, American consumers may pay more for beef.
• But the North American Meat Association says the effect on prices is likely to be limited because many popular cuts of meat in Japan, like tongue, aren't popular in America.
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