How is this story "neato" or even slightly unusual? Surely people are arrested for public sexual conduct in many places in the US. The only thing slightly exceptional is that it was in a church parking lot, but in my opinion, that's more a case of it being a bit more salacious than notable.

By the way, I can see two problems with getting a hotel room. (1) There might be a major event in the area and all the local hotels are booked up. (Concert, sporting event, convention, ...) (2) I was surprised to learn that some or many hotels don't allow local people! The justification one front-desk agent gave is that local people probably want a hotel room because they want to do something that they don't want to try at home. It might just be a large party, for example, but it might be something sexual, or drug-related, or damaging and messy. Another agent mentioned renting only if the person gave a reason -- for example, when I've gotten a local room, I mentioned that my air conditioning was out or that my power was out.

Vox used the picture to illustrate the general phenomenon of axial tilt, but it's a picture of the solstice (around June 21 / December 21). So in this context, a little snippet about the spring / fall equinox, is it a bit confusing?