Reblogged from Cjaye57′s Weblog:

About me: I am super excited to be a father. Oh how my life has changed. March 23rd is going to be a great day. Information Networks: E. Michigan Alum ’03 Relationship Status: Married to Leigh Wilson Todd Website: http://www.leighandjames2009.com James A Todd Basic Information Networks: E. Michigan Alum ’03 Sex: Male Relationship Status: Married to Leigh Wilson Todd Looking For: Friendship Networking Contact Information Website: http://www.leighandjames2009.com Education and Work Grad School: Sierra …

source:http://news.change.org/stories/ask-paula-deen-rachael-ray-bobby-flay-emeril-for-fair-trade-smores-this-summer

Recently,  police have busted two gangs for sex trafficking young girls at Wyndham  hotels. At one California hotel, Wyndham staff acted as lookouts and  accepted bribes from the traffickers, while they sold over a dozen girls  as young as 14. At another Virginia hotel, Wyndham staff ignored 6-7  men per night coming and going from a room where a 15-year-old girl was  being held in sexual slavery. Gang-run child sex trafficking at Wyndham  hotels needs to stop, immediately. Here’s what you can do:

Post a message on Wyndham’s Facebook wall,  where they advertise travel specials, asking the company to sign the  Code of Conduct to prevent any future use of their properties for child  sex trafficking. Post your own message or copy and paste the one below:

For me, an extra special vacation means staying at a hotel that has has  signed The Code of Conduct to Protect Children from Sexual Exploitation  and implemented a zero-tolerance policy on child sex trafficking. Will  Wyndham stand against child exploitation so I can continue vacationing  at your hotels?

So far, over 700 people have asked Wyndham to take the simple step of signing the Code of Conduct, but they have not responded. Will you join the movement by making sure children are safe from sex trafficking?

source:  http://news.change.org/stories/facebook-rally-ask-wyndham-to-stop-child-sex-trafficking-at-their-hotels

Child Protective Services took custody of Valor after Chandler police arrested his mom, Jamie Howell, last week for an outstanding warrant in Canada.

Authorities there said she kidnapped the boy in 2003, breaking a joint custody agreeement with Valor’s dad, Garrett Taylor.

Taylor flew to the Valley this past weekend to pick up his son and take him back to Canada.

“A hole in our heart that’s been there for years is filled back in, and now we can get on with our lives and just lead a normal life,” said Taylor.

Sgt. Gil Shannon with the Metropolitan Police Department’s Vice Section said the sweep, which took place June 19-22, was intended to rescue children caught in the sex trade.

“Even one is successful when you’re taking children off streets who are engaging in prostitution,” Shannon said.

In addition, 61 adult prostitutes and five pimps were arrested locally during the sweep, dubbed “Operation Cross Country.”

Shannon wouldn’t disclose where the three girls were taken, saying only, “We have them in a safe location.”

He also wouldn’t specify the girls’ ages other than to say they were younger than 18.

Shannon said the arrests made only a small dent in the local prostitution market. He estimated that thousands of prostitutes work throughout the Las Vegas Valley.

Shannon said 37 agents with the FBI and Las Vegas police collaborated to make the local arrests.

Nationally, 345 people, including 290 adult prostitutes, were arrested in the sweep in Atlanta, Detroit, Los Angeles, Miami and other cities.

In Reno, agents arrested 13 adults.

1) Investigate. Read through the johns’ boards; see how many
massage parlors are in your area. Making a map helps; ours was color-coded by
city council district to make it easy for people to see how close these places
are to our homes and schools. Be warned: these boards can be extremely graphic
and disturbing.

2) Identify. Look for the best person or office to introduce
the ordinance. Perhaps your county has more investigative powers than your city;
maybe your state house is the best place to look. Ending human trafficking is a
non-partisan issue, so feel free to look for supporters from outside of your own
experience. We have received wonderful support from the religious community in
Pittsburgh, including Sister Jeanette Bussen, a local nun and anti-trafficking
activist who I would never have met without this work.

3) Instigate. Start drumming up community support. Ask to
talk for 15 minutes at the ends of college clubs’ meetings, present to church
groups and contact local fraternal organizations. Ask local massage therapists
if they know where illegitimate establishments are located; because johns
sometimes confuse good businesses with places to buy sex, some massage
therapists have been sexually harassed by them. These places are deeply embedded
in our communities — in Pittsburgh, not one of the 15 brothels posing as
massage parlors is more than a few blocks from a church, synagogue or mosque. It
is an issue on everyone’s plate, whether we know it or not.

Once you have the knowledge, the institutional and the community support, you
may need to address the concerns of local business owners, consult law
enforcemen and make sure that your case is as solid as possible. And ask for
help — the Project to End Human Trafficking and I are committed to getting this
passed in Pittsburgh and elsewhere. If you live in Pittsburgh, please consider
volunteering for or donating to the Project to End Human Trafficking
or handwriting a letter of support to Mayor Ravenstahl.

I am a bit of a policy wonk, so my first reaction to a new issue is to do
research. For me, reading through all of the materials put out by the National
Human Trafficking Resource Center, calling the National Human Trafficking
Hotline at 1-888-373-7888 for information on anti-trafficking organizations in
my area and reading the U.S. State Department’s Trafficking in Persons report
gave me enough of a foundation to form an opinion about how to best combat
trafficking in Pittsburgh.

If you are better with counseling than I am, volunteer to work with
survivors. It can be satisfying work, if not always fun. If you only have a
little time, consider writing a paper on trafficking. I bet you $10 donated to
your favorite anti-trafficking organization, I can take any term-paper topic and
find a way to make it about ending trafficking. Seriously. Email me.

The most important thing any student can do is to learn the signs of human
trafficking. Confinement, abuse, debt-bondage, threats, minors in commercial
sex, adults in jobs they can’t leave — these are things anyone can see anytime
and report to the National Human Trafficking Hotline (1-888-373-7888). The call
specialists keep track of all of the tips they receive and pass them on to law
enforcement. Together, we can end sex trafficking in our communities.

source: http://news.change.org/humantrafficking.rss

Over 30,000 Change.org members have asked the 2011 Super Bowl host committee to stand against child sex trafficking by incorporating the “I’m Not Buying It” campaign into their official event materials. “I’m Not Buying It” is an innovative public education and prevention campaign developed by local anti-trafficking organization Traffick911. The campaign features a PSA made by former New England Patriot Devin Wyman, where he addresses child sex trafficking and asks other men to join him in protecting kids.  The campaign also offers free posters, banners, and informational cards aimed at preventing the victimization of children. All these materials have been offered to the Super Bowl host committee. But so far, they refuse to lift a finger to distribute them and help kids in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area.

And they’re just about the only ones in Texas unwilling to help stop child sex trafficking. Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott publicly stated that “the Super Bowl is one of the biggest human trafficking events in the United States.” His office is working with law enforcement and victims’ advocacy groups to identify and assist children trafficked into Texas for the big game. Traffick911 is also working on the ground to get the word out that child traffickers are unwelcome in Dallas/Ft. Worth or near the Cowboys stadium. But unfortunately, all this great work is happening without the help of the host committee, the organization poised to have the biggest impact in the fight against trafficking in Texas.

No one knows how many children will be trafficked to Dallas/Ft. Worth for this year’s Super Bowl. But considering that Texas has one of the biggest human trafficking problems in the country, and that last year’s Super Bowl saw an increase in the amount of child trafficking around the event, the issue is potentially explosive. The Super Bowl host committee can continue to ignore this problem while young children are bought and sold at their event, or they can use their considerable influence to fight child sex trafficking in Texas.

Will you join the over 30,000 Change.org members in asking the Super Bowl XLV host committee to stand against child sex trafficking and incorporate Traffick911′s “I’m Not Buying It” awareness campaign into their official materials.?

source: http://humantrafficking.change.org/blog/view/why_wont_the_2011_super_bowl_committee_protect_kids_from_rape

This victory was won by the Coalition for Humane Immigration Rights in Los Angeles and the American Immigration Lawyers Association, both of whom worked to get the detained women released, and in some cases, interviewed as possible human trafficking victims. Additionally, over 1,000 Change.org members signed a petition demanding that the LAPD stop treating potential trafficking victims like criminals. Thanks to the advocacy of so many, this case has a happy ending. But across the country, trafficked men and women — especially undocumented victims — are treated as criminals and deported before they get a chance to tell their stories.

The remaining failure in the Club 907 case is that the police didn’t arrest any of the people responsible for trafficking, abusing, or taking advantage of these women. Sadly, the double injustice of arresting trafficking victims while their traffickers and buyers go free is not unusual news. In this case, the injustice of arresting victims has been corrected. But as Lauren Markham writes over on the Immigrant Rights blog, the club owners were advertising for more dancers on Craigslist within a week.

The process of reforming police departments to identify potential trafficking victims and treat them as such will be a long one. That’s why the efforts from organizations like CHIR and AILA, as well as grassroots advocacy like Change.org members holding police accountable, are so critical to protect human trafficking victims. And maybe next time, this victory will be even more complete when the victims are treated as victims and their abusers are held accountable.

source: http://humantrafficking.change.org/blog/view/victory_lapd_releases_detained_trafficking_victims