HERE ARE SOME HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS REASONS WHY SEX-TRAFFICKING CONTINUES TO CAPITALIZE ON THE DEMAND!

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/08/28/rapists-beware-detroit-prosecutor-ids-21-attackers-in-rape-kit-probe.html

Repeating, Reposting and Sharing: HERE ARE SOME HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS REASONS WHY SEX-TRAFFICKING CONTINUES TO CAPITALIZE ON THE DEMAND!

Rape-kit pileups aren’t just a problem in Detroit. In recent years, cities across the country have reported mountains of kits—11,000 in San Antonio, 1,200 in Albuquerque, 4,000 in Houston—according to Sarah Tofte, who has studied the national debacle for the advocacy group Human Rights Watch. Experts estimate that hundreds of thousands of kits are languishing in police warehouses.

If that rape kit had been tested and entered into the database sooner, the man could have been caught sooner—and five women’s lives could have been saved.

Corruption Dare No Longer Be a Taboo Topic in This Presidential Election

First, the sheer magnitude of cash in the elections has a nasty smell. Not since "Watergate" in 1972 have major financial contributors to presidential election campaigns been able to hide their identity as so many of them are now able to do. The Supreme Court asserted in its 2010 Citizens United ruling that as part of the Constitutional right to free speech, organizations and individuals could use their money as they wish, privately and anonymously, in support of whatever political views they might hold.

This is a huge blow to transparency and an invitation to corrupt practices. This year's elections may involve more than $2 billion in campaign cash and it is hard to believe that the biggest donors will not expect to enjoy powerful influence if their candidates win office. The voter sees this and is appalled. The 2008 U.S. elections involved close to $1.8 billion of campaign cash -- how much of it bought special access, special favors and special influence to those with politicians to those who made particularly generous contributions, and those who "bundled" the mega-contributions on behalf of candidates?

Second, many prominent politicians have been brought to justice in recent years by courageous public prosecutors. As each new case hits the headlines, so over time the combined impact is bound to damage the image of all engaged in politics. Rod Blagojevich, former Governor of the State of Illinois, started a 14-year-jail term this year on being found guilty on 17 charges of fraud and corruption -- the harshest sentence that any politician in the U.S. has received in modern times for graft. From Illinois to New Jersey and New York State, to Alabama, California, Florida, Louisiana, Ohio and the U.S. capital of Washington D.C., prominent politicians and public officials have been indicted for corruption and, in many instances, current investigations into corrupt politics are underway. The public reads the stories in the local media, one upon another, as a sick compendium is compiled.

Third, the 2008/2009 financial crisis, which devastated the economy, owed much to the transformation by Wall Street of financial services firms into casinos. But, none of the leaders of the biggest mortgage companies and banks have been indicted for wrong-doing and many of them, who lost their jobs, took home multimillion dollar compensation packages. For many Americans there is an abiding sense that Wall Street financiers participated in massive corruption and got away with it, thanks to their cozy ties to the government agencies that are meant to be regulating our financial system in the public interest.

And, this takes me to the fourth reason why Americans are so concerned about government corruption: They see Washington, D.C. as a cesspool of special interest lobbyists who have made elected officials so beholden to them that Congress is in permanent gridlock, the federal budget is a disaster, the economy is faltering, and a host of enterprises, who engage armies of lobbyists, are prospering.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/frank-vogl/corruption-taboo-topic-election_b_1819087.html

Tampa strip-club king: RNC not great for business

Rikileaks: Redner says his biggest accomplishment has been in the battles he's waged against local, state and federal governments -- some successful, others not. After opening his first strip club -- Redner prefers the term "adult entertainment" -- he was arrested 36 times on obscenity charges by officials. He claimed that it was his First Amendment right to operate the club.

In 2000, Redner vehemently opposed the so-called "six-foot rule," a county ordinance preventing adult entertainers from coming within six feet of their clients. The rule is still on the books, but isn't enforced.

http://www.myfoxdc.com/story/19328548/tampa-strip-club-king-rnc-not-great-for-business

My Movie I’m taking a stand to end slavery: modern-day labor, sex trafficking and child abuse...

Stephanie Brown, Richard’s 17-year old granddaughter, died of a fatal drug-overdose on March 16, 2007, after being hired at a local downriver strip-club in Lincoln Park, Michigan, where two patrons (a volunteer basketball coach and an ordained minister) including a dancer at the club, sex-trafficked Stephanie to a local motel down the street and where she died that morning.

Together the State of Michigan and Stephanie’s family successfully prosecuted the drug-dealing, junior high school volunteer coach and later settled out-of-court with the strip-club for employing an underage person for sex-work. However, Richard continues to pursue other legal rights, causes and criminal investigations in human and labor trafficking cases regarding Stephanie’s death at the local, state and federal levels including international awareness and education.

Richard A. Sands, Ret. PI

(MIRRC) Board of Directors
(AhEeCOSH) Investigative Reporter
Marygrove College - MA Student
Social Justice Program - 10th Cohort
734-771-7251 Fax: 734-281-4087
rsands4996@marygrove.edu
rsnsinternational@sob-csc.org
http://richard-a-sands.blogspot.com
http://www.michiganrescueandrestore.com
http://ulcantislaverycoalition.wordpress.com
http://4preventiondghtnews.wordpress.com
http://sob-csc.org

Catholic Nuns Send Romney Letter, Call Out His 'Woeful Lack Of Knowledge’ About The Poor

The group of Catholic nuns who launched the Nuns On A Bus tour to shed light on the effects the House Republican budget would have on the poor turned its attention to the GOP’s presidential candidate this week, challenging Mitt Romney to join them for a day to learn about the plight of the poor. NETWORK, a Catholic social justice organization, issued the call on Wednesday and was joined yesterday by the Franciscan Action Network, an organization of friars and sisters.

We are deeply troubled by your campaign’s recent advertisements and statements about welfare, which we believe demonize the families we serve and reflect a woeful lack of knowledge about the challenges faced by tens of millions of Americans. By accepting our invitation, we hope that you will have the opportunity to see firsthand the struggles of those in need and have the compassion to desist your campaign’s harsh attacks.

We are all God’s children and equal in God’s eyes. Efforts to divide us by class or score political points at the expense of the most vulnerable of our brothers and sisters reveal the worst side of our country’s politics. Please accept our invitation to witness and to serve.

http://www.alternet.org/hot-news-views/catholic-nuns-send-romney-letter-call-out-his-woeful-lack-knowledge-about-poor

Top human traffickers need not fear Obama (?) “What is Mitt Romney’s Plan of Action” (?)

By Chuck Neubauer The Washington Times Sunday, July 29, 2012

The failure of the White House to enforce threatened sanctions against countries that the State Department has accused of doing little to control human trafficking is “appalling,” with the Obama administration • much like the George W. Bush administration before it — using “every loophole possible” to issue waivers to avoid punishing the offending nations by cutting U.S. aid, according to elected officials, human rights activists and others.

Of the 23 countries cited by the State Department in a June 2011 report as having failed to meet minimum standards in fighting human trafficking, whose victims are usually women and children, President Obama granted full waivers in September to 13 — including Algeria, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Yemen — and partial waivers to seven others, including Cuba, Iran, Myanmar and Venezuela. Only three countries faced the full force of the sanctions — Eritrea, Madagascar and North Korea — which were not anticipated to get the types of foreign assistance that could be restricted.

Rep. Christopher H. Smith, who wrote the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000, which requires the State Department to annually rank each country’s efforts at controlling human trafficking and provides penalties for those that fail to meet minimum standards, said the lack of implementation is “appalling.”

“I don’t know a more serious human rights violation than human trafficking, and we should treat it as such,” the New Jersey Republican said. “We can’t play games with human rights.”

Last month, the State Department’s 2012 trafficking report cited 17 nations as failing to do enough against human trafficking. Mr. Obama has until mid-September to decide whether to issue new waivers. A White House spokesman referred questions about the waivers to the State Department.

But Michael Horowitz, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, a Washington-based nonpartisan policy research organization, said foreign embassies no longer are worried about enforcement of the act because of the widespread use of waivers.

“Major legislation passed, but it is not being enforced,” said Mr. Horowitz, who played a role in passing the original trafficking legislation. “It is not taken seriously by foreign governments.” He said the U.S. government’s response to human trafficking has become “a series of press conferences with no bite,” and described the State Department as “a white noise operation.”

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/jul/29/the-failure-of-the-white-house-to-enforce-threaten/?page=all#pagebreak

Poll: Corruption is No. 2 issue for 2013
By TIM MAK | 7/30/12 6:17 AM EDT   POLITICO

Americans view reducing government corruption as the second-highest priority for the next president, behind only job creation, according to a new Gallup poll released Monday.

Eighty-seven percent of respondents said that reducing corruption in the federal government is an “extremely important” or “very important” priority for the next president, compared with 92 percent who said the same about creating good jobs.

Notably, corruption ranks ahead of issues such as reducing the federal budget deficit (86 percent), dealing with terrorism (86 percent) and continuing Social Security and Medicare (85 percent).

Obama supporters and Romney supporters have slightly different priorities when it comes to the next presidential term.

While health care remains the top priority for Obama supporters, with 50 percent characterizing it as “extremely important,” 51 percent of Romney supporters prioritize reducing the federal budget deficit.

For both camps, however, 48 percent view job creation as “extremely important” for the next presidential term, making it the second-most-important issue.

Obama supporters round out the top five priorities with Social Security and Medicare, public schools and government corruption, while Romney supporters stressed government corruption, terrorism and moral standards.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0712/79109.html

Google Ideas: joining the fight against drug cartels, (sex trafficking, forced labor - etc.,) and other illicit networks

Introducing the Google Ideas INFO Summit

Several readers sent word that Google has announced its intention to start fighting drug cartels and other 'illicit networks.' According to a post on the official blog, the company thinks modern technology plays a key role in helping to 'expose and dismantle global criminal networks, which depend on secrecy and discretion in order to function.' They're holding a summit in Los Angeles this week, which aims to 'bring together a full-range of stakeholders, from survivors of organ trafficking, sex trafficking and forced labor to government officials, dozens of engineers, tech leaders and product managers from Google and beyond. Through the summit, which lasts until Wednesday, we hope to discover ways that technology can be used to expose and disrupt these networks as a whole—and to put some of these ideas into practice.'

http://yro.slashdot.org/story/12/07/17/2245212/google-joining-fight-against-drug-cartels

Violent illicit networks represent a trillion-dollar problem that affects every society in the world and claims hundreds of thousands of lives each year. For example, more than 50,000 people have died in the past five years as a result of the ongoing war in Mexico between rival drug cartels. And although data on this subject is scarce and often unreliable, in 2003 the UN estimated the value of the illicit drug market to be nearly $320 billion, greater than the gross domestic product of 88 percent of countries in the world—and that was almost 10 years ago. It’s clear that illicit networks—particularly those that are violent and coercive like drug smugglers, arms dealers and human traffickers—have a devastating human and financial impact on every nation.

We think Google can help. Eighteen months ago we launched Google Ideas with the belief that Google is in the unique position to explore the role that technology can play in tackling some of the toughest human challenges in the world. Our first area of focus was counter-radicalization; last year we convened the Summit Against Violent Extremism with former gang members, right-wing extremists, jihadists and militants as well as survivors of violent extremism. Among the many outcomes of the summit was a platform that we established as a one-stop shop for tackling violent extremism through formers and survivors.

Recently, we’ve expanded our focus to include violent illicit networks such as narco-trafficking, human trafficking, organ harvesting and arms dealing. We believe that technology has the power to expose and dismantle global criminal networks, which depend on secrecy and discretion in order to function. And for the past few months, we’ve been working with people fighting on the front line to gain a better understanding of what drives these networks and how they function.

This week, in partnership with the Council on Foreign Relations and the Tribeca Film Festival, we’re convening Illicit Networks: Forces in Opposition (or the INFO summit) in Los Angeles, Calif. Too often illicit networks are seen only in the silos of those who study them. This summit aims to break down those silos by bringing together a full-range of stakeholders, from survivors of organ trafficking, sex trafficking and forced labor to government officials, dozens of engineers, tech leaders and product managers from Google and beyond. Through the summit, which lasts until Wednesday, we hope to discover ways that technology can be used to expose and disrupt these networks as a whole—and to put some of these ideas into practice.

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2012/07/google-ideas-joining-fight-against-drug.html#!/2012/07/google-ideas-joining-fight-against-drug.html