The Ohio Domestic Violence Network released a study today indicating that demand for services is up while funding for shelters and other crisis programs is being cut in Ohio.

 “Ohio already ranks near the bottom nationally in support for victims of family violence,’’ said ODVN Executive Director Nancy Neylon.  “At a time when demand for services is up, domestic violence programs are forced to cut back or turn people away, resulting in more victims returning to abusers because they feel as if they have no other choice.’’

Key figures in ODVN's survey of 81 shelters and non-residential providers of domestic violence services:

• 82 per cent of respondents saw an increase in demand for services over a two-year period and nearly half of them said more families are seeking shelter;
• More than half said the number of survivors returning to their abusers for economic reasons is on the rise;
• 79 per cent saw an increase in the number of days families remain in shelters;
• 70 per cent reported a decrease in funding, including cuts in mental health levies and decreased support from foundations and the United Way.

  “If we don’t increase funding to provide services for victims, then we will see more injuries,  more police calls and higher court costs,’’ said Linda Johanek, Executive Director of Cleveland’s Domestic Violence Center. “In essence, we are opting to pay more on the back end rather than invest in prevention and other services that will decrease violence and the costs associated with it.’’

Neylon said it is important to understand the link between the economic downturn and domestic violence. “Domestic violence is about power and control, so poverty does not cause violence,’’ Neylon explained. “But a lack of economic resources can serve as a huge barrier to escaping a violent partner. When it is harder to leave, the violence often escalates. When it is harder to access resources, the risk of having to return to the abuser goes up.’’

Charlene Ventura, President and CEO of the YWCA of Greater Cincinnati, said the combination of deep funding cuts and rising demand comes at a time when the economy is making it increasingly difficult for survivors to escape.

“The lack of affordable housing and employment opportunities creates additional hardships for survivors as they work to transition out of protective shelter to live independently and free from violence,” Ventura said.

 “Given the severity of Ohio’s budget problems, ODVN thought it impossible to seek additional state funding at this time,’’ Neylon said. “But we are asking lawmakers to help us save lives and save money by passing bills to prevent violence and protect victims.’’

One bill, House Bill 10, would give juvenile court judges the power to better protect teens in violent relationships by allowing juvenile judges to issue civil protection orders.

House Bill 19 would require schools to teach dating-abuse prevention in health classes.

Legislation to create civil protection orders for minors and to add dating abuse prevention education were inspired by teens who were murdered by former boyfriends. Both are also supported by Johanna Orozco, a Cleveland woman, who was nearly killed two years ago after her ex-boyfriend stalked her and shot her in the face with a shotgun.

Orozco, now 20, championed an identical civil protection order bill in the last legislative session. Although the measure passed the Ohio House of Representatives, it was stopped in the Republican-controlled Ohio Senate.

Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray has championed both HB 10 and HB 19.

Additionally, House Bill 167 seeks new protections for victims of domestic violence in housing and employment – two key resources victims often need to end abusive relationships.

To donate to organizations advocating for survivors of domestic violence:

http://www.actionohio.org/how_help.htm

http://www.odvn.org/

Full list of domestic violence shelters in Ohio – all can use your help:

http://www.actionohio.org/dvshelter.htm

From Gongwer News Ohio (Sub. req.)

PROSECUTORS SUGGEST REPEALING MANDATORY DRUG SENTENCES, EXPANDING TREATMENT FOR REPEAT OFFENDERS

Opposed to Gov. Ted Strickland's plan to alter criminal sentencing laws to save money in the prison budget, Ohio's prosecutors have come up with a surprising alternative plan.

The Ohio Prosecuting Attorneys Association has suggested that the state repeal mandatory drug sentences for all but the most serious offenders and reconsider harsh penalties for certain repeat offenders.

OPAA Executive Director John Murphy acknowledged in an interview that prosecutors generally supported mandatory drug sentencing when the laws were enacted several years ago.

"Things change over the years," he said.

"We still support it for major drug offenders, but it's just an evolving view of what ought to be mandatory penalties and what shouldn't be," he said. "We're not saying it shouldn't be a crime - that the guy shouldn't be sentenced in certain cases. But we're changing our view on whether it ought to be a mandatory penalty."

In a recent memo to members of the House Finance & Appropriations Transportation & Justice Subcommittee, Mr. Murphy suggests repealing mandatory prison terms for possession, trafficking, and illegal manufacture of drugs, possession of chemicals for manufacturing drugs, and other charges.

Mr. Murphy further suggested policymakers review all fifth-degree felonies to determine whether they should be reduced to misdemeanors. And stricter penalties for prior convictions for crimes other than drunken driving and aggravated vehicular homicide should be "re-examined."

The proposals are part of a package of suggestions he offered as alternatives to the Strickland administration's plan to reduce prison overcrowding by expanding the "earned credit" program. Prosecutors vehemently oppose the provision in the budget (HB 1) to increase from one to seven days per month the time by which inmates could reduce their sentences for participating in programs like drug treatment and education. 

Department of Rehabilitation & Correction Director Terry Collins said Thursday that the agency would review the prosecutors' suggestions to determine how they would impact the state's rising prison costs.

"We certainly appreciate the fact that the prosecutors are willing to have an open and frank conversation about some changes that could help stabilize the prison population," he said in an interview. "They've always said that they understand our situation and want to help and it appears these things would be good options to try and help."

Terry Collins, the director of the Ohio Dept. of Rehabilitation and Correction, laid it all out in a speech at the Statehouse today:

"We cannot continue to believe the only option is to punish people by sending them to prison. We need to stop sending people to prison who we are just 'mad at'.... Prison beds should be maintained for those who are just plain 'bad.' " 

He continued, stating the obvious, but politically tough truth: "We've lost the war on drugs, yet we keep sending people to state prisons."

In December, Collins presented 15 proposals to the legislature that would reduce Ohio's $2 billion in annual prison costs while still detering crime and respecting public safety.

Collins was appointed by ex-Gov. Taft and has spent over 30 years working in Ohio's prison system.

At 3:30 in this video, Mark Preston from CNN asks Ohio Rep. John Boehner the following question, submitted by a Digg user, “Why is it that drugs (alcohol, tobacco) that kill thousands of people each year are legal, yet other drugs (marijuana) which are used for medical purposes and do far less harm and don't cause death, are illegal? “

Boehner starts his reply:

“Whether it is the American Medical Association, the American Cancer Society, all of those people, by and large, don’t believe there is any [emphasis his] medicinal value in marijuana.”

Both the AMA and the American Cancer Society support further research into medical marijuana. The AMA states that "preclinical, anecdotal, or controlled evidence suggests possible efficacy." Many other mainstream medical organizations, like the 2.9 million member American Nurses Association and the American College of Physicians, support legal access to medical marijuana.

Boehner then waffles for a bit, confusing medical marijuana with the legalization of all drugs, before going on to praise democratic government which allows us all to disagree.

From the Washington Post:

"In one of its first actions, the Obama administration instructed military prosecutors late Tuesday to seek a 120-day suspension of legal proceedings involving detainees at the naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba -- a clear break with the approach of the outgoing Bush administration.

The instruction came in a motion filed late Tuesday with a military court handling the case of five defendants accused of organizing the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States. The motion called for "a continuance of the proceedings" until May 20 so that "the newly inaugurated president and his administration [can] review the military commissions process, generally, and the cases currently pending before military commissions, specifically."

The same motion was filed in another case scheduled to resume Wednesday, involving a Canadian detainee, and will be filed in all other pending matters.

Such a request may not be automatically granted by military judges, and not all defense attorneys may agree to such a suspension. But the move is a first step toward closing a detention facility and system of military trials that became a worldwide symbol of the Bush administration's war on terrorism and its unyielding attitude toward foreign and domestic critics."

Ohio legislators are considering raising the sentences for powder cocaine offenses so they match those for crack cocaine.

An end to this disparity is long overdue for two reasons. Crack is not objectively "100 times worse" than powder, which is what the sentence difference is at the federal.

Secondly, while 2/3rds of users are white or hispanic, over 80% of those arrested for crack are low-level black dealers.

In other news, George Bush pardoned a grad from perhaps the most prestigious high school in the country, Phillips Exeter, for smuggling $1.4 million in coke into the country. 

Oh, and it so happens he's a rapper.

Bush's last great hope at restoring his legacy rests in his ability to get Lauryn Hill away from supposed cult leader Brother Anthony, thus clearing the way for a Fugees reunion tour.

In November 2006, then gubernatorial candidate Sarah Palin declared that she would not support an abortion for her own daughter even if she had been raped.

Granting exceptions only if the mother's life was in danger, Palin said that when it came to her daughter, "I would choose life."

Most people now know that, but most don't know this:

While Sarah Palin was serving as the Mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, the city charged victims of sexual assault between $300 and $1200 for their own rape kits necessary to prove their case.

A rape kit is a sexual assault forensic evidence kit, used to collect DNA that can be used in criminal proceedings to assist in the conviction of those who commit sex crimes. The tests are to be performed as soon as possible after a sexual assault or attack has been committed.

The Frontiersman / May 23, 2000

ANCHORAGE - Gov. Tony Knowles recently signed legislation protecting victims of sexual assault from being billed for tests to collect evidence of the crime, but one local police chief said the new law will further burden taxpayers.

The governor signed House Bill 270, sponsored by Rep. Eric Croft, D-Anchorage, outside the Sexual Assault Response Team (SART) exam room at Alaska Regional Hospital. In attendance at the signing were members of victims advocate groups, law enforcement agencies and legislators.

The new law makes it illegal for any law enforcement agency to bill victims or victims insurance companies for the costs of examinations that take place to collect evidence of a sexual assault or determine if a sexual assault did occur.

We would never bill the victim of a burglary for fingerprinting and photographing the crime scene, or for the cost of gathering other evidence, Knowles said. Nor should we bill rape victims just because the crime scene happens to be their bodies.

While the Alaska State Troopers and most municipal police agencies have covered the cost of exams, which cost between $300 to $1,200 apiece, the Wasilla police department does charge the victims of sexual assault for the tests.

Wasilla Police Chief Charlie Fannon does not agree with the new legislation, saying the law will require the city and communities to come up with more funds to cover the costs of the forensic exams.

In the past we've charged the cost of exams to the victims insurance company when possible. I just dont want to see any more burden put on the taxpayer, Fannon said.

Now, the article from the Wasilla hometown paper doesn't mention Palin by name or whether she specifically supported charging the victim of a potential crime to investigate that crime itself, but clearly she did support Fallon for and as Police Chief of Wasilla.  In fact, she hired him in what at the time was a very controversial move.

It was Palin herself who fired the previous Chief  because he wanted to close bars in Wasilla at 2am instead of 5am due to drunk driving incidents and reduce hand gun conceilment to protect his officers.

His firing led to a potential recall of Palin by citizens of Wasilla.

She then hired Fannon as police chief:

Police Chief Accused Palin of Politically-Motivated Firing.

"Wasilla got a new police chief Thursday, one who said he will bring to the job a philosophy of personal freedom that doesn't include his predecessor's support of limiting bar hours…'I don't think the answer to crime is restricting people's freedom more and more.' Fannon is replacing Irl Stambaugh, whom the mayor fired in January. Palin said she did not think Stambaugh supported her administration...Stambaugh has sued the city, alleging Palin fired him because local bar owners and the National Rifle Association asked the mayor to do so. Stambaugh wanted the city to adopt earlier bar closings as a way to combat alcohol-related traffic accidents, according to the complaint." [Anchorage Daily News, 3/28/97] 

In a town the size of Wasilla (then 5,000) with public statements being made by her controversial handpicked Police Chief to the hometown press with respect to this specific issue, it would be hard to say that Sarah Palin did not know of the practice. Without any comment to the contrary  by Mayor Palin at the time or since other than her position that rape babies must be carried until birth, one can fairly conclude that she supported the practice of charging rape victims for these tests.

Yes, I know that a few other states and cities have until recently conducted the same practice.  Though in  Palmer, AK a neighboring town to Wasilla of similar size and similar values they did not at the time and never did.

Palmer police chief Laren Zager said that to his knowledge, no sexual assault victim has ever been billed by the city of Palmer for an exam to collect evidence of a crime. Zager, who has been police chief since January, said he would never expect a victim to be burdened with the cost of a police investigation.

Im prepared to pay every dime in an investigation. As long as I am chief, I would never bill a victim, Zager said.

The primary reason that the heinous practice of charging possible rape victims for producing their own evidence has ended  is that under The Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) states lose federal funding and grants (something that would get Gov, Palin's attention) if they are not in compliance with the Federal Law protecting women.

Who sponsored and wrote the Violence Against Women Act?

None other than Democratic Presidential candidate Senator Joe Biden. 

Senator Biden wrote the ground-breaking Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) in the 1990s that set the national agenda on criminalizing violence against women and holding batterers truly accountable. It encouraged states to set up coordinated community responses to domestic violence and rape; was the catalyst for passage of hundreds of state laws prohibiting family violence; and provided resources to set up shelters so battered women abused by husbands and boyfriends had a place to go. The law also established the national hotline that over 1.5 million abused women have called for help. By empowering women to make changes in their lives, and by training police and prosecutors to arrest and convict abusive husbands instead of telling them to take a walk around the block, domestic violence is down 50 percent and rape is down 60 percent nationwide.

Each time the Senator renewed the Act – in 2000 and 2005 – he pushed for new initiatives. In 2000, the Act was attached to ground-breaking laws on human trafficking – crimes where over 80% of the victims are women. In 2005, the Violence Against Women Act tackled issues like domestic violence in public housing and treating children witnesses of family violence.

HT: AmericaBlog

Of course not, but he does seem to be suffering from a hereditary case of lawsuit amnesia.

John McCain's mother sued his ex-wife for amongst other things an "18th century Burmise Buddist Preist (Burmese Buddhist priest)", a needlepoint screen and a "Butlers Tray for Liquor."

But she'll put her "hand on a Bible" and swear it didn't happen, in the face of court records and Carol McCain's attestation. And McCain's spokesman will swear it was filed "unintentionally."

A decade later John McCain and his ex-wife filed a $1 million punitive lawsuit over some mutual property that was accidentally tossed out. But his spokesman swears it didn't happen, in the face of court records and Carol McCain's attestation.

This is particularly interesting given that the Club for Growth says Sen. McCain's "record on tort reform is generally positive" (read: anti-plaintiff. At least when it's someone else filing the lawsuit).

Freakonomics runs a cop-generated list of unofficial law enforcement tactics:

• Always deal with domestic violence on the spot. Make sure that when you catch a perp, all the folks on the block see you drag his sorry a– to court. Shaming somebody can sometimes be your greatest weapon. Hell, sometimes we will cuff the perp to the car, turn on the lights, and just keep him there until all the people get a chance to see him.
• Let two gangs beat each other up without weapons, and the winner gets to deal on the corner. Or, we grab a bunch of muggers, or maybe two crews who steal cars, and tell them, “Okay, you all fight each other — the one still standing gets to avoid jail.” I know: it sounds awful, but believe me, this really works.
• When I was in Hell’s Kitchen, I used to make those guys pay their women [prostitutes] extra, for maybe two months at a time, if they bruised them.

This isn't an indictment of the police, but may be an eye-opener for those whose dealings with the police are more... limited.

Where do you draw the line between efficacy and civil rights?

McClatchy News launched a huge investigation that found... drumroll

[I]nstead of confining terrorists, Guantanamo often produced more of them by rounding up common criminals, conscripts, low-level foot soldiers and men with no allegiance to radical Islam and then housing them in cells next to radical Islamists.

Are there people in Guantanamo that have committed atrocious acts?  Certainly, but many of the detainees were small-time criminals or totally innocent, and there only because of the huge bounty the US offered in return for virtually anyone, including ethnic Chinese.

Helicopters broadcast similar announcements over the Afghan mountains, enticing people to “Hand over the Arabs and feed your families for a lifetime,” said Najeeb al-Nauimi, a former Qatar justice minister and leader of a group of Arab lawyers representing nearly 100 detainees....

A detainee who said he was a Saudi businessman claimed, “The Pakistani police sold me for money to the Americans.” ...

“It’s obvious. They knew Americans were looking for Arabs, so they captured Arabs and sold them — just like someone catches a fish and sells it,” he said.

After six odd years of being denied basic right, caged next to "the worst of the worst", the study's findings are a small surprise.

*Update*

Stumbled across this run-down on Salon that makes a much better case that many of the POWs in the War on Terror weren't at war with anybody.

An analysis of autopsies in 2007 released this week by the Florida Medical Examiners Commission found that the rate of deaths caused by prescription drugs was three times the rate of deaths caused by all illicit drugs combined.

And of course, this analysis doesn't include the one legal, non-prescription drug that is responsible for 20% of the deaths in the country.

The answer then is not to ban all drugs, or legalize them all, but start with a clean slate and create more sensible drug policies worldwide so that we can reduce head-slapping idiocy such as this:

...Doctors Without Borders performed 10,000 surgeries around the world. The total number of vials of morphine used in those operations: 10. ...in France, where the organization was founded, a woman who gives birth by Ceasarean section may receive up to 12 vials of morphine by injection.

The prosecutor stated during my court hearings that I never handled, used or sold any of the drugs involved in the conspiracy. Yet, I was sentenced as a first-time nonviolent drug offender to 24.5 years, one for every year of my life.... After my boyfriend was murdered, the U.S. government came after me and held me accountable for the total amount of drugs within the conspiracy, which was 255 kilograms of crack cocaine, even though according to the government’s investigation, the drug dealing started two years before I even met him.

McCain, 6/13/08: “The United States Supreme Court yesterday rendered a decision which I think is one of the worst decisions in the history of this country.

McCain, 12/13/03: "They may not have any rights under the Geneva Conventions as far as I’m concerned, but they [the detainees] have rights under various human rights declarations. And one of them is the right not to be detained indefinitely.”

The New York Times:

Ohio must stop using a common combination of three chemicals to execute condemned inmates because they may produce excruciating pain, a state court judge there ruled Tuesday.

Then, in what legal experts said was a first, the judge instead ordered the state to start using a single large dose of barbiturate, common in animal euthanasia.

The decision is an exception to recent judicial trends in the wake of the United States Supreme Court’s decision in April in Baze v. Rees, which upheld Kentucky’s lethal injection protocol, similar to the one used in Ohio.

 . . .

The Baze decision did not foreclose all challenges to lethal injections under the Eighth Amendment, which bars cruel and unusual punishment. But it said challengers must show a demonstrated risk of severe pain along with a feasible alternative that would significantly reduce that risk.

The Ohio judge, James M. Burge of the Lorain County Court of Common Pleas in Elyria, appeared to concede that a constitutional challenge to the Ohio protocol would fail under Baze. Judge Burge based his decision instead on an Ohio law requiring that lethal injections use “a drug or combination of drugs of sufficient dosage to quickly and painlessly cause death.”

Baze, Judge Burge wrote, said the Constitution did not require the avoidance of all risk of pain. The Ohio law, by contrast, he said, “demands the avoidance of any unnecessary risk of pain and, as well, any unnecessary expectation by the condemned person that his execution may be agonizing or excruciatingly painful.”

The three chemicals used in Ohio and elsewhere are a sedative, a paralyzing agent and a drug that stops the heart. If the first is administered improperly, Judge Burge wrote, the second and third chemicals can give rise to suffocation and intense pain.

Commissions appointed to study lethal injections have questioned the three-chemical combination, as have some judges, saying it is cumbersome and risky. But Judge Burge was the first judge to require a sedative-only protocol, experts in the field said.

The case was brought by Ruben O. Rivera and Ronald McCloud, who have been charged with capital crimes but have not yet been tried. The state had sought to halt the proceeding before Judge Burge as premature, but the Ohio Supreme Court declined to intercede. Mr. Rivera is charged with killing a man during a robbery. Mr. McCloud is charged with raping and killing a woman.

Read The Full Story At The New York Times

Elisabeth A. Semel, the director of the Death Penalty Clinic at the University of California, Berkeley, welcomed Judge Burge’s ruling.

“It is likely to reduce the risk of executions that cause suffocation and excruciating pain,” Professor Semel said.

A spokeswoman for the Ohio attorney general’s office said lawyers there were reviewing the decision.

You be the judge.

In a display of legislative meddling not seen Bill Frist diagnosed Terry Schiavo from the floor of the Senate, Oklahoma is mandating invasive ultrasounds for those seeking abortions.

Failure to perform the ultrasound also leads to fines beginning at $10,000 and increasing to more than $100,000. By comparison, the highest fine for negligent homicide or driving under the influence in Oklahoma is $1,000. This "Big Brother" assault by minority special interests on the doctor-patient relationship should repel all Americans. We must hold our legislators accountable for this very literal government intrusion into women’s bodies.

This year students will have three exciting opportunities to use their spring breaks to fight for progressive social change! Campus Progress is teaming up with several partner organizations to organize Alternative Spring Breaks on three different issues. Each event will include training, actions, and education about their respective topics. There will also be plenty of fun activities and chances to meet cool and committed students from around the country.

For more information and to register, check out: http://springbreakalternative.org 

Death Penalty – Austin, TX – March 10-14
Iraq Action Camp – Philadelphia, PA – March 15-17
Climate Change – Santa Barbara, CA – March 24-27

As the Jena 6 incident is gaining media attention, people may feel a disconnect between what happened to students in Jena, LA, and what happens in their daily lives. They think, "Whew, I'm glad such blatant racism isn't in my backyard." But let's look at the bigger picture. Jena 6 is more than just a racial issue. It's about demanding a fair and just legal system. If our system fails the Jena 6, will it fail you, too?

An estimated 20,000 people filled the small town of Jena to protest the unequal punishments for two racially charged incidents at the local high school.

On Thursday, the Third Circuit Court of Appeal ordered a hearing within 72 hours to determine if the only one of the six still behind bars can be released.

I first found out about Jena 6 through an online petition started by  ColorofChange.org.

Please click here to read great commentary from CNN contributor Roland S. Martin.

Background: 

In August 2006, black students began to sit under a tree that white students normally congregated under. A day later, three white students hung nooses from the tree. The guilty white students were suspended in spite of the principal's recommendation for expulsion. When black students sat under the tree to protest the unfair punishment, the District Attorney and town police demanded the students end their protest, telling them, "I can be your best friend or your worst enemy... I can take away your lives with a stroke of my pen."

A series of racially-charged incidents occurred at the school, but the DA didn't intervene until a white student was beaten up in a school yard fight. And not surprisingly, the punishment for the six black students, dubbed the "Jena 6" was far worse; they were expelled, arrested, and charged with attempted murder and conspiracy to commit murder. 

Five of the six students have been released from prison.

Visit ColorofChange.org to learn more.

LANCASTER -Some sexual predators may end up committed to institutions or monitored by satellite tracking devices under a bill being considered in the Ohio Senate.

[snip]

"The bill does two things. It provides for civil commitment for sexual predators, the most violent offenders, and it will provide for GPS tracking of those who are released," said Ohio Senator Keith Faber, R-Celina.

Senate Bill 22 is before the Ohio Senate Criminal Justice Committee. Faber said committee members are waiting for estimates of the cost of the civil commitment and Global Positioning Satellite tracking of sexual predators.

[snip]

One of the bill's cosponsor is Senator Tim Schaffer, R-Lancaster. He hopes the bill is signed by the governor.

"Using a GPS system is a great way of tracking these people and since the recidivism rates are so high for these offenders, it is good to tools to provide the judges," Schaffer said.

The recidivism rates - the rate the offender likely will commit a similar offense - for sexual predators is 60 percent, according to the Department of Rehabilitation.

"It seems crazy to me that we are letting people out of prison who are likely to commit the same offense when they return to our neighborhoods," Faber said. "When we compare the costs of a civil commitment to the long range costs to the victims and their new victims when they are let back out, it seems more cost effective to have a civil commitment."

GPS tracking also is a cost-effective way to track predators released from civil commitment and prison.

"We can then compare where they are registered with where they are living, and we can tell if they are near places they are not supposed to be, like schools and parks," Faber said. "The annual corrections budget is around $2 billion, so even if the costs of GPS tracking and civil commitments are $18 million, that's still a drop in their overall budget."

Read the Full Story in the Lancaster Eagle-Gazette 

This seems like a good cost effective proposal to me.

Have I lost my "progressive bona fides" with this response?

What are your thoughts? 

A trio of legislators is pushing for passage of a new state law that would make it a felony to engage in human trafficking.

To help make their case, they hosted a news conference that included a former victim of human trafficking and detective who said trafficking is a common problem in Ohio, but one that requires new tools if the problem is to be addressed.

“Human trafficking is modern-day slavery,’’ Sen. Teresa Fedor, a Toledo Democrat,  told the news conference. “Like the heroes of the Underground Railroad, it’s up to us to stop it.’’

She cited studies showing that each year, as many as 17,500 foreign men, women and children are trafficked to the United States where that are subjected to humiliation, physical and sexual abuse and psychological manipulation.

The National Runaway Switchboard schildren in the United States are at high risk of commercial sexual exploitation.3 The National Runaway Switchboard further states that there are between 1,300,000 and 2,800,000 runaway and/or homeless youth living on the streets every day4 —making many extremely vulnerable to instances

Fedor plans to soon introduce a bill that will define human trafficking and make those who engage in it subject to felony charges.

A recent study, “Human Trafficking and Modern Day Slavery in Ohio,” (pdf 1.7mb) explains the challenges facing the state:

“Like many other states, Ohio has and continues to experience incidents of human trafficking in forms of forced labor and commercial sexual exploitation. Often times, however, local and state law enforcement agencies are unaware, lack training in identifying human trafficking related cases and have little or no budget to address the problem. As a result, many victims have received no legal protections and are often treated as criminals. This has assured traffickers that they face little to no legal ramifications and so continue to exploit their victims.’’

Most trafficking victims, Fedor said, are women and children.

Read the Full Report

While Ohio's news and blogosphere spent Friday in a tizzy over a personnel matter gone bad in the Ohio Attorney General's office (no excuse for Mr. Alli but it seems to me they moved rather swiftly), lost in translation was the fact that the highly regarded legal side of the office (gee isn't that what we need an Attorney General for) did something long overdue ...

Yes, our good old Attorney General actually took the time to collect money owed in arrears by tobacco companies. Gee, how many times have we heard Ohio AGs trumpet collecting money against Ohio taxpayers like zealous patriots and look the other way for big-ticket items.

Seems this AG actually went after an errant big-ticket corporation, instead of the poor senior in a nursing home who has to turn over their only asset (their house equity) in exchange for receiving dignified nursing home medical care from medicaid.

What a concept!

COLUMBUS – Ohio Attorney General Marc Dann announced a $303,401,671 payment to the state of Ohio today under the 1998 tobacco Master Settlement Agreement (MSA) and filed suit against tobacco manufactures R.J. Reynolds and Lorillard Tobacco for failing to make their full required payments.

Three major tobacco manufacturers, Philip Morris, R.J. Reynolds, and Lorillard Tobacco, accounted for the large majority of the total MSA payment. Of these three, only one, Philip Morris, made its payment in full. The other two, R.J. Reynolds and Lorillard, each paid only about ¬¬75%. In Ohio’s case, this translated to an unpaid sum of roughly $37 million.

“By failing to meet their required payments, R.J. Reynolds and Lorillard have shirked their obligation under the tobacco Master Settlement Agreement,” said Attorney General Marc Dann. “My office will doggedly pursue any and all legal remedies in the recovery of these dollars on behalf of Ohio taxpayers.”

R.J. Reynolds and Lorillard withheld full payment based on an alleged entitlement to a downward payment adjustment for cigarette sales lost to tobacco companies that have declined to sign the MSA. Holdout companies, known as “Non-Participating Manufacturers” or “NPMs”, reduced all total tobacco companies’ payments to the MSA States by approximately $704 million, or 10.4 % of the total $6.75 billion in payments due.

The MSA provides that any State that has diligently enforced a Model or Qualifying Statute during a year is immune from an NPM Adjustment reduction to its MSA. Ohio has enacted a Model Statute and has diligently enforced it at all relevant times. Failing a successful result through negotiation, the Ohio Attorney General’s office is fully prepared to litigate the matter.

While the MSA results in very large amounts paid to the signatory States, the accord is primarily a public health agreement with strong prohibitions on numerous forms of advertising, promotion and marketing of cigarettes by the signatory tobacco companies. Since the MSA was executed, cigarette sales in the United States have fallen by more than 21 percent. The natural result of such a decline in cigarette sales — which is precisely what the MSA’s negotiators wanted to achieve — is a decline in revenues under the MSA. The public health gains resulting from reduced smoking more than compensate for this revenue decline

Republican support for Attorney General Alberto Gonzales eroded Sunday as three key senators sharply questioned his truthfulness and a Democrat joined the list of lawmakers who want him to resign over the firing of eight federal prosecutors.

"We have to have an attorney general who is candid and truthful. And if we find out he's not been candid and truthful, that's a very compelling reason for him not to stay on," said Sen. Arlen Specter, the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, which oversees the Justice Department.

Specter, R-Pa., said he would wait until Gonzales' scheduled April 17 testimony to the committee on the dismissals before deciding whether he could continue to support the attorney general. He called it a "make or break" appearance.

To Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., Gonzales "does have a credibility problem. ... We govern with one currency, and that's trust. And that trust is all important. And when you lose or debase that currency, then you can't govern. And I think he's going to have some difficulties."

Hagel cited changing stories from the Justice Department about the circumstances for firing the eight U.S. attorneys. "I don't know if he got bad advice or if he was not involved in the day-to-day management. I don't know what the problem is, but he's got a problem. You cannot have the nation's chief law enforcement officer with a cloud hanging over his credibility," Hagel said.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said Gonzales has been "wounded" by the firings. `He has said some things that just don't add up," said Graham, who is on the Senate Judiciary Committee.