Nearly four years after Los Angeles County passed new requirements for pornographic performers, the porn industry has spread to nearby counties like Ventura County — and much of that filming is happening in residents’ homes with or without their knowledge.

Private citizens believe their home is being rented out for a few days — perhaps never knowing it’s become the set of a raunchy pornographic title.

An enema kit, bottle of lubricant and a business card are among the things Kristina Knapic said she discovered after renting her house out on the online rental service Airbnb.Doing a bit of research, she learned the person who rented the house was Michael Lucas, an adult performer and producer, and owner of Lucas Entertainment.

In a television interview with Matt Lauer on Friday morning, following a successful debate performance, Sen. Marco Rubiocalled fellow GOP presidential contender Donald Trump “a con artist” about five times. Rubio added, “I admit I’m an underdog.” But he implored those watching to “put a stop to this lunacy” by not voting for Trump. He continued, “We’re on the verge of having someone take over the conservative movement and the Republican Party who’s a con artist…. His target audience is working Americans who are really struggling over the last few years in this economy, but he has spent a career sticking it to working Americans.”

It’s time to make sure that your friends, family and associates sign up to receive LBN (if they’ve got the guts!). It simple: To sign up, go to LBNElert.com and sign up.

The United States, supported by China, submitted a draft resolution Thursday to the UN Security Council aimed at creating tougher sanctions on North Korea. Ambassador to the UN Samantha Power said that for the first time, the sanctions would require inspection of cargo ships leaving and entering North Korea in an effort to ensure Pyongyang would be held accountable for its actions. A vote is expected over the weekend. “We are opposed to any nuclear testing and the launch testing of ballistic-missile technology and we hope this resolution will help to prevent further occurrences of this nature,” Chinese Ambassador Liu Jieyi said after a closed-door meeting where the draft was circulated to all 15 council members.

*LBN-INVESTIGATES: As of July 2011, the population of Egypt was 82,079,663, making it the 15th most populated country in the world. Approximately 99% of the population lives on about 5.5% of the land

As the five remaining Republican presidential contenders battled it out in the Houston debate Thursday night, former candidate Lindsey Graham entertained a crowd at the Washington Press Club’s annual congressional dinner with his true feelings on the 2016 race. “My party has gone batshit crazy,” Graham told the crowd. The South Carolina senator lashed out at GOP frontrunner Donald Trump, adding that he thinks the billionaire will lose in the general election, “because he’s just generally a loser as a person and a candidate.” Making light of his own failed campaign and subsequent endorsement of Jeb Bush, who dropped out on Saturday, Graham called himself the Dr. Jack Kevorkian of the Republican primary—before putting on a Trump hat.

A United Nations science report cautions that many species of butterflies, bees, and other pollinators are getting closer to extinction. The nearly 20,000 species are an important element in billions of dollars’ of crops every year, including those for coffee and chocolate, in addition to lots of fruits and vegetables. Pollinators like hummingbirds and bats are in a slightly better position, with one in six species inching toward extinction. Officials say they suspect pesticides and habitat loss are contributing factors, but scientists have been unable to point toward a specific cause.

*LBN-NOTICED:   ***“Gotham,” stars Ben McKenzie andMorena Baccarin seeing off-Broadway play “The Woodsman” in NYC.   ***Future and a crew of 50 friends dining at Jue Lan Club in NYC.   ***Taylor Swift and her producer having dinner at Maia in LA.   ***Natalia Vodianova and Karlie Klossdancing the night away as they co-hosted Naked Heart Foundation’s second annual Fabulous Fund Fair, sponsored by Euphoria Calvin Klein.   ***John McEnroe dining with former Yankee Pat Kelly and friends at Hunt & Fish Club in NYC.   ***Angela Bassett dining with a friend at Benjamin Steakhouse.   ***Media expert and author Michael Levine at the Geffen Playhouse in Westwood village last night seeing the play “Barcelona.”

*LBN-MUSIC INSIDER:   **Elton John is now attacking Janet Jackson for lip-syncing, 12 years after he blasted Madonna for not singing live.“You know, [bleeping] music magazines writing a review of Janet Jackson, saying, ‘This is the greatest show — 4 ¹/₂ stars.’ It’s [bleeping] lip-synced! Hello! . . . I’d rather go and see a drag queen. [Bleep] off,” John tells Rolling Stone.

*LBN-BOOK NEWS:   ***Author of the “The Charisma Code,” Robin Sol Lieberman will speak next Monday at the United Nations in New York City in advance of her book release on June 20th.

*LBN-R.I.P.: **Yolande Betbeze Fox, a convent-educated Alabamian who defied convention, and set new standards, by refusing to tour the country as Miss America of 1951 in revealing bathing suits, died on Monday in Washington. She was 87. Her death was confirmed by the Joseph Gawler’s Sons funeral home in Washington.

*LBN-COMMENTARY by David Brooks: We live in a big, diverse society. There are essentially two ways to maintain order and get things done in such a society — politics or some form of dictatorship. Either through compromise or brute force. Our founding fathers chose politics.Politics is an activity in which you recognize the simultaneous existence of different groups, interests and opinions. You try to find some way to balance or reconcile or compromise those interests, or at least a majority of them. You follow a set of rules, enshrined in a constitution or in custom, to help you reach these compromises in a way everybody considers legitimate. The downside of politics is that people never really get everything they want. It’s messy, limited and no issue is ever really settled. Politics is a muddled activity in which people have to recognize restraints and settle for less than they want. Disappointment is normal. But that’s sort of the beauty of politics, too. It involves an endless conversation in which we learn about other people and see things from their vantage point and try to balance their needs against our own. Plus, it’s better than the alternative: rule by some authoritarian tyrant who tries to govern by clobbering everyone in his way.

*LBN-A DIFFERENT VIEW:….

*LBN-OVERHEARD:   ***Justin Bieber’s dad, Jeremy Bieber, is engaged. The bratty pop star’s father, 41, proposed to his longtime girlfriend, Chelsea Rebelo, in St. Barths last week, reports TMZ. According to footage on the site, Chelsea, 28, was overcome with emotion when Jeremy got down on bended knee.

This month, Chinese banking officials omitted currency data from closely watched economic reports. Just weeks earlier, Chinese regulators fined a journalist $23,000 for reposting a message that said a big securities firm had told elite clients to sell stock. Before that, officials pressed two companies to stop releasing early results from a survey of Chinese factories that often moved markets. Chinese leaders are taking increasingly bold steps to stop rising pessimism about turbulent markets and the slowing of the country’s growth. As financial and economic troubles threaten to undermine confidence in the Communist Party, Beijing is tightening the flow of economic information and even criminalizing commentary that officials believe could hurt stocks or the currency.

Apple is reportedly creating a new version of the iPhone with strict security features to make it even tougher to hack into, The New York Times reported Wednesday, citing unidentified sources. The Times said Apple engineers are working on a security system that would make it “impossible” for government officials to break into a locked iPhone. The new security push is the latest twist in Apple’s data-encryption fight with the Justice Department, which last week ordered the company to help unlock the iPhone of San Bernardino shooter Syed Farook. Apple CEO Tim Cook told ABC News he would take the fight to the Supreme Court if necessary. The company has until Friday to respond to the court order.

Senator Marco Rubio has persuaded wealthy donors, Republican Party elders and his colleagues in Congress that he represents their best chance to overtake the seemingly invincible force that is Donald J. Trump. He just cannot seem to persuade the voters. His second-place finish in Nevada on Tuesday night — 22 points behind Mr. Trump and just 2.5 ahead of Senator Ted Cruz — highlights how precarious his path is becoming and the profound difficulty Mr. Rubio faces as the candidate of the party’s pragmatic mainstream in a year of voter anger and rejection.

Jeb Bush apologized to his donors during a conference call Wednesday, telling supporters he never expected his presidential campaign to be cut short, The New York Times reported. “I’m sorry that it didn’t turn out the way that I intended,” the former Florida governor said, according to an audio recording of the call. “The reality was that you had a year of disruption, a year of outsiders making a compelling case to people who were deeply disaffected and angry, and I just didn’t get the breakthrough that I needed in the early states and felt it was important to not move on without a clear path to winning,” he said. Bush dropped out of the 2016 Republican race on Saturday after a disappointing fourth-place finish in the South Carolina primary.

*LBN-INVESTIGATES:  The U.S. Presidents

1. Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) is the only U.S. president who was also a licensed bartender. He was co-owner of Berry and Lincoln, a saloon in Springfield, Illinois.

2. The only president to be unanimously elected was George Washington (1732-1799). He also refused to accept his presidential salary, which was $25,000 a year.

3. Because the KKK was a powerful political force, Truman was encouraged to join the organization. According to some accounts, he was inducted, though he was “never active.” Other accounts claim that though he gave the KKK a $10 membership fee, he demanded it back and was never inducted or initiated.

4. Grover Cleveland was the only president in history to hold the job of a hangman. He was once the sheriff of Erie County, New York, and twice had to spring the trap at a hanging.

5. The “S” in Harry S Truman doesn’t stand for anything; therefore, there is no period after his middle initial.

6. Lincoln Logs are named after Abraham Lincoln and the log cabin where he was born. John Lloyd Wright, son of famous architect Francis Lloyd Wright, invented them.

7. Thomas Jefferson and John Adams once traveled to Stratford-upon-Avon to visit Shakespeare’s birthplace. While there, they took a knife to one of Shakespeare’s chairs so they could take home some wood chips as souvenirs.

8. James Madison and Thomas Jefferson were once arrested together for taking a carriage ride in the countryside of Vermont on a Sunday, which violated the laws of that state.

9. Andrew Johnson is the only tailor ever to be president. As president, he would typically stop by a tailor shop to say hello. He would wear only the suits that he made himself.

10. “Teddy Bears” were so named when Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt (1858-1919) refused to shoot a small bear cub one day. The incident was reported in the news, which inspired a toy manufacture to come out with the cute stuffed animals.

*LBN-TODAY’S BIRTHDAY

George Harrison (1943)
Harrison was a British rock singer, guitarist, and songwriter, best known as a member of the Beatles from 1962 to 1970. Although John Lennon and Paul McCartney were the Beatles’ main songwriters, Harrison, “the quiet Beatle,” generally wrote or sang lead on a few songs per album. His later compositions included hits such as “Here Comes the Sun” and “Something.”

*LBN-R.I.P.:   ***Alisa Marie Bellettini, a former television producer who created the popular MTV fashion show “House of Style,” naming the supermodel Cindy Crawford as its first host, died on Feb. 16 in Sacramento. She was 61. Her sister Gina DeHerrera confirmed the death but did not give a cause.

*LBN-A DIFFERENT VIEW:….

*LBN-OVERHEARD: Christian Slater’s father is suing him for $20 million. Thomas Knight Slater, whose stage name is Michael Hawkins, thinks his son has hindered his ability to get acting work, according to TMZ. In the suit filed on Wednesday, Thomas, 80, claims his son’s comment in a 2015 Interview magazine article that he suffered from manic-depressive schizophrenia caused him to be blacklisted in Hollywood.   ***A naked Pam Anderson breaks down politics in the newest edition of Paper magazine. “We have to know the past, to think of the future. We live in a paradise. Politicians are telling us it’s OK. Media prints what politicians say. It’s not OK,” the “Baywatch” babe explained. “We have to take charge, demonstrate. Act up! Beware people that repeat themselves over and over. It is a brainwashing trick used by Hitler.”   ***President Obama wrote an elementary school teacher from Hawaii a letter wishing him a happy 80th birthday last year — and the educator has turned around and is selling the handwritten note. It’s now up for sale for $12,500. In the letter to his former teacher, named only as “Bill,” Obama writes: “Happy 80th birthday! I have very fond memories of Punahou [School], and am grateful for educators like you that made such a difference in the lives of so many young people — including me.” He adds, “I hope you . . . and the extended family have a joyous celebration. Aloha.”   ***Wedding plans are already in full swing for Mariah Carey and her Aussie billionaire beau James Packer after their January engagement — and while Carey’s being coy, sources say the nuptials could take place in Tahiti and involve Packer’s beloved superyacht. Carey hinted this week, “I’ve picked a lot of things that I can’t tell,” and, “It’s not going to be a big wedding, but it’s going to be grand . . . I’m most excited about the grandeur, darling.”