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.)

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