Nevada's monopoly on vice may be easing with push to eliminate nearly half the state's brothels

PAHRUMP, Nev. - A straight, five-mile stretch is all that separates Heritage Bible Church from the brothels at the end of Homestead Road in Pahrump. The speed limit between sin and salvation is 45 mph.

Pastor W.R. Budd Hawk stood outside his white church on a Sunday morning before service and said he's seen the limousines headed toward the Chicken Ranch or Sheri's Ranch. "It's obvious where they're going," he said. "The cars are usually going pretty fast - maybe 60."

A few years ago, the church put up the Ten Commandments facing oncoming traffic in hopes it might slow people down, get them to reconsider their life choice. Hawk regularly prayed, of course, that the brothels would be closed.

Now he thinks those prayers could be answered.

Residents began gathering signatures in April to qualify a ballot measure to make brothels illegal in Nye and Lyon counties.