Appetizers: Sex-for-rent plan goes awry; Crooked stockbroker to play poker to stay out of jail

A couple of unique stories in the news this week. Here's a rundown.

Two Fairfax County, Va. women have been charged with trying to extort money from their landlord after a sex-for-rent plan deteriorated. It's a tough debate to determine who made the worst decision: the landlord or the women in their 20s. The man's first mistake, according to The Washington Post story, was undressing in the bedroom by himself. If you're entering in to a situation like this, you say two words before proceeding: You first. But the women compounded a bad decision by escalating the initial bad offer into a demand for $11,000. Be honest, how long would a sex-for-rent deal last before it took a negative turn? The sad thing is police said this isn't a rare occurrence, it's the blackmail part that gets the authorities involved. It's a bad situation all around: The women will sit in jail for several years - a maximum of 10 - and the landlord has some serious splaining to do to his wife. If his marriage isn't already on the rocks after this.

Maybe this guy is in the wrong profession. An Albuquerque stockbroker, Samuel McMaster, received a creative sentence from a judge for swindling more than $400,000 from investors. McMaster can play poker as long as he makes monthly payments. He "earned" this sentence because he was diagnosed with a gambling problem. (How do lawyers find a doctor that would sign off on that diagnosis?) This story asks a legitimate question: Would you allow an alcoholic to drink his way out, or bartend? Of course, this has a catch for McMaster. He must make monthly payments of $7,500, and if he misses two straight payments, he will be sentenced to up to 12 years in the slammer.