Jim Hood joins colleagues to take on human sex traffickers

Attorneys General to Backpage.com: Prove You Are Fighting Human Trafficking

August 31, 2011

Contact:  Jan Schaefer

Public Information Officer

601-359-2002

jscha@ago.state.ms.us 

 Jackson, MS—Attorney General Jim Hood and 45 other attorneys general today called for information about how Backpage.com presumably attempts to remove advertising for sex trafficking, especially ads that could involve minors.

In a letter to the online classified site’s lawyers, the attorneys general say that Backpage.com claims it has strict policies to prevent illegal activity. Yet the chief legal officers of Washington state, Missouri and Connecticut have found hundreds of ads on Backpage.com’s regional sites that are clearly for illegal services.

“It does not require forensic training to understand that these advertisements are for prostitution,” the attorneys general wrote.

The letter says the hub for illegal sex ads is a magnet for those seeking to exploit minors and points to more than 50 cases, in 22 states over three years, involving the trafficking or attempted trafficking of minors through Backpage.com.  “These are only the stories that made it into the news; many more instances likely exist,” the attorneys general wrote. They also reminded Backpage.com of a 2010 request from nearly two dozen attorneys general asking that the adult services site be taken down.

“Traffickers who exploit runaways and other disadvantaged kids shouldn’t be provided with a tool that makes that process so much easier,” said Attorney General Hood.  “The only way for Backpage.com to completely stop child sex trafficking on its site is to take down adult services advertisements altogether and take aggressive steps to be sure such posts don’t appear elsewhere on the site.”

Many state attorneys general believe that Backpage.com is attempting to minimize the impact of child sex trafficking because they fear it will turn attention to the company’s robust prostitution advertising business. While Backpage.com has ramped up its effort to screen some ads for minors, the attorneys general involved in today’s letter believe that “Backpage.com sets a minimal bar for content review in an effort to temper public condemnation, while ensuring that the revenue spigot provided by prostitution advertising remains intact.”

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Cole in as new Dem Executive Director

From the Mississippi Democratic Party

STATE DEMOCRATS APPOINT RICKEY COLE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

The Mississippi State Democratic Party announces the decision of its Administrative Committee to appoint Rickey Cole as Executive Director of the state party to succeed Travis Brock. Cole is an experienced Democratic leader and activist, having served as state party chairman 2001-2004 and as the Democratic nominee for Commissioner of Agriculture and Commerce in 2007.

"We're proud to have Rickey in this role," said State Chairman Jamie Franks.  "Rickey brings a wealth of knowledge, experience and enthusiasm into our central office at a critical time as the general election campaign begins.  We know he will give his utmost." 

"I'm honored to have been asked to serve in this role," Cole said. "The coming weeks will be busy as we rally our supporters and carry out effective action plans to elect Democrats up and down the ticket. We're looking forward to Election Day."

Late is late

From Better Mississippi Report:

Now that all the wild-eyed speculation and finger pointing has subsided, let's look at what really happened with the official certification of the partisan primary results of August 2, 2011.


While Better Mississippi Report doesn't have an inside report on what was going on over at Republican State Headquarters on Amite Street, we do know that the GOP report was filed to the Secretary of State's Office on Aug. 15, three days after the Aug. 12 deadline. Arnie Hederman had to file an amended certification report because one of their counties had failed to report on time (Washington), and someone had incorrectly added a county's return numbers.  Here's the amendment letter.


Over on North Congress, a similar scene was playing out at the Mississippi Democratic Party headquarters -- only with 16 counties failing to turn in their vote counts.  On Friday, the Mississippi Democratic Party Executive Committee voted to certify as accurate the counts that were certified on the local level. 


The trouble was, they couldn't submit a tabulated report without the following counties in hand:  Clay, Hancock, Jefferson, Lincoln, Marshall, Oktibbeha, Smith, Stone, Tippah, Tishomingo, Tunica, Walthall, Washington, Wilkinson, Winston, and Yalobusha.  Marshall County advised they had submitted the appropriate forms, but nobody could locate them.  Friday passed without the Mississippi Democratic Party filing returns with the Secretary of State's Office, though the vote to certify had taken place. 


On Monday, the state party staff continued calling the truant counties to submit their returns.  Next, the task was to input all the data. 


On Tuesday, a single member of the Elections Committee met staff at headquarters and began the compilation process.  Better Mississippi Report has learned that the state Democratic Party staff was keeping the Secretary of State employees, particularly "Amanda,"  informed hour-to-hour of the situation at their headquarters with a determination that the finalized reports would be available by day's end. 


In other words, the Mississippi Secretary of State staff knew where the discrepancies lay and also knew of the Democrats' determination to get the certification filed as completely and timely as they could.


Inexplicably, the Secretary of State staff decided to issue a press release proclaiming the Democrats' failure to certify their returns as of 4 p.m. on Tuesday.  Here is the release.   The Democrats filed at approximately 4:30 p.m.


Result?  Mass speculation, confusion, chaos and sincere doubts as to the validity of the Party's absentee ballots cast prior to Tuesday.  Oh, and  another public black eye for the Mississippi Democratic Party.

Better Mississippi Report questions the motives behind the crowing eminating from  Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann's office on Tuesday afternoon at 4 p.m. and longs for the day when Secretary of State Eric Clark held a steel hand over the Elections Division to make sure there was never any hint of partisan application of the Mississippi Election Code by his employees. 


After all, late is late, whether there's an R or a D by one's name.


So now, the returns are in. Let the elections proceed.  On the legislative agenda for next session: revisiting the certification process with an eye toward extending the time between primaries and runoffs.  And perhaps a measure of accountability for the county committees upon whom the entire election process depends.

(Amended 8/18/2011 3:25 p.m. to add Democratic filing time; 7:11 p.m. to correct participants on Tuesday.)

# # #

Who is subsidizing the Leonard Bentz PSC election campaign?

LEONARD BENTZ

From Better Mississippi Report:

Nothing like having the luxury of a taxpayer-funded tour around the district during the last week of a campaign to keep a candidate in the public eye. Just ask incumbent Public Service Commissioner Leonard Bentz.

Bentz announced today a series of “ratepayer forums,” where Bentz and his staff will meet with voters, er ratepayers, “to assist Mississippi Ratepayers with their utility concerns in the continuation of the series of Ratepayers’ Forums. Information on registration for several utility assistance programs such as LIHEAP, Lifeline/LinkUp, Weatherization assistance, Zap the Gap and the No-Call program will be available. Other utility questions and current issues involving the Public Service Commission will also be addressed.”

House Democrat – not Phil Bryant – created sales tax holiday

PHIL BRYANT

As Republican gubernatorial candidate Phil Bryant swings across the state taking credit for this weekend’s sales tax holiday, Better Mississippi Report wants to set the record straight.

Other than serving as president of the state Senate, Bryant had NOTHING to do with the legislation.

State Rep. Percy Watson, a Democrat from Hattiesburg and chairman of the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee, sponsored the sales tax holiday legislation. He and other Democratic Party leaders in the House are the reason this passed and became law.

The debt ceiling -- Tupelo's Reed makes sense

We think it's safe to say that everybody in the world within earshot of a television, radio or podcast, understands the United States is on the brink of defaulting on its debts.  A little-known process called "raising the debt ceiling," a necessary step in preventing an economic collapse with world-wide implications -- something referred to by the previous administration who avoided catastrophe seven times by employing it as "housekeeping," has suddenly become a part of the common vernacular.  Kind of like "balanced budget" and "election promises."

We ran across a column by Tupelo's Scott Reed in Sunday's Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal, that was one of the most cogent discussions of the importance of this issue we've seen to date.  Mr. Reed breaks it down in terms everyone can understand.  We particularly note his closing paragraphs:

Raising the debt ceiling was what we have to do to pay our debts and the ramification of not paying our debts is unthinkable.

We are considered the safest investment in the world. If we give the world markets a reason to question that safety, then we will be sailing into uncharted and unsafe waters.

Bernanke said that we have spent years spending money with no plan for paying it back and then we say we will never raise taxes or decrease benefits. Then we complain about raising the debt ceiling.

Does any of that make sense?

The reason the two party system has done so well over the years is that it forces us to compromise on major issues.

One party can’t have it all, but it tends to fall apart when there is no compromise. That is what we seem to have in Washington these days.

The Republicans refuse to raise taxes and the Democrats refuse to cut services, yet we know that we have too little money and too many services.

One of the best things you can do for your investments is to tell your Congressmen and women that we are past the point of good sound bites and we need real change to the system. That will take willingness to compromise and a desire to do what is right for this country.

Not easy, but necessary.
Read more: NEMS360.com - SCOTT REED We need real change to our system

 

Scott Reed is CEO of Hardy Reed Capital Advisors in Tupelo.

Mann V. Ford to air July 18 on HBO

As part of its summer documentary series, HBO is set to air Mann V. Ford on Monday night, July 18, at 8:00 p.m. 



Attorney Vicki L. Gilliam of Clinton



Featuring Clinton lawyer Vicki L. Gilliam, plaintiffs attorney, the movie follows the saga of the Ramapough Mountain Indians seeking justice for the environmental disaster they suffered from toxic paint sludge left by a Ford Motor Company manufacturing plant.  Posting in The New York Observer, one attendee of the production's New York premiere last week had this to say:

Isis: I was at a premiere for this documentary -- heartbreaking and horrific. First heard about this story through The Record newspaper's Toxic Legacy series, which is now continuing under the name Toxic Landscape and covers many of the sites, including Ringwood, in NJ. So glad the Ramapough's story is getting out there.

Here's the review summary from the July 16 New York Times.

A community's mission to clean up the toxic byproduct of the American Dream, and to seek justice for themselves and their families. Located just 19 miles from New York City is one of the worst environmental disasters in the United States. This toxic site is the former home of the Ford Motor Plant in Mahwah, NJ, which was the country's largest car factory when it opened in 1955. Thousands of cars were produced there over several decades, along with a mountain of toxic paint sludge, which was dumped on the land of the Ramapough Mountain Indians. Here, we meet Wayne Mann, the leader of a small Native American community, who stands up to Ford and whose efforts resulted in the first Superfund site ever re-listed by the EPA. ~ Baseline StudioSystems

Mann V. Ford marks the second documentary of the HBO summer series to portray a Mississippian in the struggle for civil justice -- Hot Coffee, aired in June, recounts the struggles of former Supreme Court Justice Oliver Diaz against the U. S. Chamber of Commerce and the United States Justice Department.

Pulling curtain on tort reform, appropriations chair controversy

REP. JOHN MAYO

By BETTER MISSISSIPPI REPORT

Gotta hand it to Rep. John Mayo, D-Clarksdale. The guy makes a special effort to keep his constitutents informed via regular, newsy e-mail posts. Occasionally, he'll say the unthinkable for a politician -- a truthful assessment of a sticky situation.

Today's post is another example of Mayo's propensity for, as they say, venturing in where angels fear to tread. He reveals the role legislative rhetoric played in dismantling the Mississippi civil justice system as he takes up for Republican Sen. Doug Davis, whose performance as Senate Appropriations chair is being challenged. 

Here is Rep. Mayo's revelation about what was going on behind the scenes during the great tort reform battles of 2002 and 2004: 

In the legislature there is rhetoric and then there is responsible discussion.  Case in point.  During the big tort reform debate, I wish I could tell you the number of Republican attorneys who came up to myself and other Democrats quietly telling us they hoped we had the votes to turn back reform.  All the while they were at the podium and in the papers telling the public just how much they supported tort reform.