Under Hawaiian law, undercover police can have intercourse with sex workers, no questions asked; the unreliability of the Internet in terms of privacy is affecting the tech industry; and how much will we pay for streaming music? These discoveries and more below.

On a regular basis, Truthdig brings you the news items and odds and ends that have found their way to Larry Gross, director of the USC Annenberg School for Communication. A specialist in media and culture, art and communication, visual communication and media portrayals of minorities, Gross helped found the field of gay and lesbian studies.

Hawaii Law Lets Police Have Sex With Prostitutes
Honolulu police have urged lawmakers to preserve an exemption in Hawaii law that lets undercover officers have sex with prostitutes during investigations.

Sweet Smell of Success: Human Nose Discerns Giant Array of Odors
What does your nose know? A lot more than you might expect.

One Man’s Analysis of Adolph Reed’s Harper’s Magazine Article
An analysis of Adolph Reed’s Harper’s Magazine Article about the left’s surrender to the GOP.

Spying Is Bad for Business
Can we trust an Internet that’s become a weapon of governments?

Putin’s Crimean History Lesson
President Vladimir Putin’s defiant speech in Moscow on Tuesday, which he followed up by signing a draft treaty to make the Crimea part of Russia, can be interpreted in two ways.

Are ‘Grammar Nazis’ Ruining the English Language?
Split infinitives make them shudder and they’d never end a sentence with a preposition. But linguist Geoffrey Pullum has a message for all grammar pedants: you’re wrong.

Walter Benjamin’s Afterlife
“Fame comes in many sorts and sizes, from the one-week notoriety of the cover story to the splendor of an everlasting name.”

The Price of Music
Will the recorded music industry ever grow again?