Holly Springs, U.S.A. — On August 8, Liberty Institute will represent Opulent Life Church of Holly Springs, Mississippi, at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in New Orleans, La. The Court will hear oral arguments from the City of Holly Springs, Opulent Life Church and the U.S. Department of Justice. Like Liberty Institute, the DOJ contends that Holly Springs’ ordinance improperly singles out places of worship for special restriction and is in violation of federal law.

“We are thankful that the Department of Justice is weighing in on the importance of securing religious freedom for a church like Opulent Life that is facing discriminatory restrictions,” said Hiram Sasser, Liberty Institute’s Director of Litigation. “Churches should be able to grow and expand free from discrimination. Placing special burdens on them is unfair, unconstitutional and illegal.”

In the case Opulent Life Church; Telsa DeBerry v. City of Holly Springs, Mississippi , the Church sought to move to a new space in the town square area of Holly Springs, Miss. Due to zoning restrictions, the city told the church it must get the approval of 60 percent of local property owners and the city’s mayor before it can exist in the downtown area. This ordinance only applies to churches. Businesses and other groups are not subject to this requirement.

In January 2012, Liberty Institute filed a lawsuit on behalf of Opulent Life Church and its pastor, Telsa DeBerry, and sought a preliminary injunction, which the federal district court unfortunately denied. In March 2012, Liberty Institute filed an appeal, arguing that the city’s zoning ordinance unfairly singles out churches, and asking the court to reverse the lower court’s decision.

Liberty Institute is a nonprofit legal group dedicated to defending and restoring religious liberty across America, their vision is to reestablish religious liberty in accordance with the principles of the  nation’s Founders

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The movie “Taken” released in 2008 brought to light and grabbed the attention of millions across the world as the movie raised awareness about one of the fast growing industries in the world: Sex trafficking.

While the movie revolves around girls being smuggled as traveling tourists in western European countries, then addicted to drugs and forced into prostitution, there is one thing that the movie doesn’t recognize; this is not something foreign that is going on. It’s not just in Europe or Asia or Africa. It’s happening right here in the United States, in our very own backyards.

According to Sarah Vardaman, Senior Director of Shared Hope International, “the majority of the victims that we’re finding who are child sex-trafficking victims are U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents.” And According to the U.S. Department of Justice, sex-trafficking is growing at an alarmingly fast rate.

“In 2005, the Department of Justice reported there have been an estimated 100,000 to 150,000 sex slaves in the U.S,” reported International Crisis Aid on their website. They also pointed out that “in 2009, a University of Pennsylvania study estimated nearly 300,000 youth in the United States were at risk of being sexually exploited for commercial uses.”

One of the youths that represent this statistic is 16-year-old Brianna (her real name was changed for her own protection), who was 12 and living in New York City at the time that she was captured.  Brianna had gotten into an argument with her mother one evening and decided to leave the house for the night with plans to stay with her friend’s older brother.

Her plans of returning home in the morning changed in an instant when she found out her friend’s older brother was a pimp and she was now his property. From that point on, Brianna’s life changed forever and her childhood had been taken from her.

The first thing the pimp did was lock her in a room where he took several provocative pictures of her and then posted her on Backpage.com. This website is known to be the most advertised and popular website in America today for sex trafficking. According to AIM Group, “Backpage accounts for about 70 percent of America’s prostitution ads.”

Brianna  was repeatedly beaten and advertised on Backpage.com. After three years of living in fear, bearing sexual and physical abuse and being demoralized by men willing to pay to watch her perform sexual acts on the web, Brianna managed to escape. She ran away to a place called “Gateways,” which is a treatment center for girls ages 12-16 that have been victims of the sex trafficking trade.

New York Times’ Reporter, Nicholas Kristof claims Brianna, who is now receiving the therapy and support she needs, is one of the “lucky few.” According to the Huffington Post, “Brianna is one of one hundred thousand American girls exploited through commercial sex.”

Kristof believes that this is a growing epidemic, similar to that of the AIDS virus. The sex and human trafficking industries keep growing and if more people aren’t informed soon, or willing to raise awareness and learn about what’s going on right before their eyes, then many more young girls’ childhoods will be swiped out from under them and they will be robbed of having any future at all.

If you are interested in helping putting a stop to this rapidly growing industry and want to learn more about sex/human trafficking please join or check out the campaigns at:

WWW.HumanTrafficking.org & WWW.NotForSaleCampaign.org.

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More than half of America’s states now have Voter ID laws. Nine states have passed or strengthened their voter ID laws since 2008, when President Barack Obama became the first African-American President.

Critics say this is a direct rollback on the Voting Rights Act of 1965 that prohibited the government from blocking people’s right to vote by using Jim Crow era tactics, such as literacy tests.

Pennsylvania’s General Assembly passed Voter ID legislation on Wednesday. Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett then signed legislation law making Pennsylvania the 32nd state to adopt a Voter Identification law.

More than half the states in America have some form of voter ID laws. Nine states, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Mississippi, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Wisconsin, have strict photo ID guidelines requiring photos must be used shown to vote. Another seven states ask for a photo ID, but will allow people to vote if they can provide another form of identification or meet other criteria. Those states are Alabama, Florida, Hawaii, Idaho, Louisiana, Michigan and South Dakota. Other states require non-photo IDs which can include a bank statement or utility bill in some instances. Those states are Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Kentucky, Missouri, Montana, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, Utah, Virginia and Washington State.

GOP leaders say voter ID laws are needed to prevent widespread voter fraud from occurring. Republican leaders say people who are not on voter registration rolls, double voters and dead people have voted in previous elections. The GOP said Democratic-supportive organizations are to blame because they have submitted illegal voter registration ID cards.

There have been instances of voter fraud but it is extremely rare, according to the Brennan Center for Justice, a division of the New York University School of Law. The Center is a non-partisan public policy and law institute which advocates for voting rights, campaign finance reform, civil justice, fair courts and racial justice.

“There is no documented wave or trend of individuals voting multiple times, voting as someone else, or voting despite knowing that they are ineligible,” according to a Justice Center policy brief.

The Center further says there is no proof that non-profit organizations have illegally registered voters. Many of the duplicate voting discrepancies have arisen through computer mistakes, people voting in two states or voting for a deceased relative. Reports from the Center also point out that these voting fraud cases would not have been prevented by asking for photo identification.

“We find absolutely no proven cases of fraudulent votes that could be prevented by the restrictive ID law being challenged,” the Justice Center said after reviewing more than 250 claims of fraud.

An interview from a top Texas Republican Party member suggests that the Republicans know that voter fraud is not an expanding problem, yet Republicans are trying to discourage primarily Democratic voters from the polls.

In a May 2007 Houston Chronicle article, former Political Director for the Texas Republican Party Royal Masset said Republicans could gain 3 percent of votes because requiring photo IDs could result in less Democratic voters casting ballots.

“Among Republicans it is an ‘article of religious faith that voter fraud is causing us to lose elections,’ Masset said. He doesn’t agree with that, but does believe that requiring photo IDs could cause enough of a dropoff in legitimate Democratic voting to add 3 percent to the Republican vote,” stated the Houston Chronicle article.

Democrats are continuing to fight against the recent wave of Voter ID registration laws. The Obama Administration’s Justice Department rejected Texas preclearance for its Voter ID law. Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 requires Texas and 15 other states to submit changes to their Voting ID laws to the federal government for review to ensure minorities would not be discriminated against.

U.S. Asst. Attorney General Thomas Perez wrote in a letter to the Texas Secretary of State’s Director of Elections, that the Department of Justice objected to Texas’ voter identification law because it could directly and adversely affect the voting rights of up to nearly 604,000 of registered voting Hispanics. The state did not provide any data regarding how African-American or Asian voters would be impacted by the new law.

The Texas law would require people to show a state-issued id, either a driver license, personal ID card, military ID card, passport, a U.S. citizenship certificate with photo, concealed handgun permit or free voting ID card. The driver license, personal ID cards are only available through the Department of Public Safety. The lack of extended hours, the distance some people would have to travel and the availability of people affected having a vehicle to travel to a DPS office.

Only 49 of the 221 state’s DPS offices have extended hours and 81 out of the state’s 254 counties do not have an office, Perez letter stated.

Perez letter also points out that the state did not show any “significant in-person voter impersonation not already addressed by the state’s existing laws.”

The state of Texas has the option of asking the Department of Justice to reconsider its decision or seek a decision from the United States District Court for the District of Columbia.

Image Courtesey of  Gage Skidmore

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A Senate Committee on Indian Affairs hearing will explore how Indian tribes could be impacted by the recent U.S. Department of Justice opinion that permits states to allow all forms of online betting that do not involve sports.

After numerous hearings over the past months on the opportunity to regulate Internet gambling, Michael Waxman, spokesperson for the Safe and Secure Internet Gambling Initiative, issued the following statement that calls on Congress to adopt federal legislation that regulates the industry in order to best protect consumers.

“There is no question that the recent Justice Department opinion has increased pressure on Congress to move on legislation to regulate Internet gambling activity. If the main objective of regulation is to protect consumers, this can be best achieved through federal legislation that sets the strict standard for licensing operators, requires the most innovative safeguards be put in place and stringently monitors all gambling and financial activity.

Alternatively, states being left to develop a patchwork of regulatory structures will not encourage national collaboration to monitor the many operators expected to offer services and ensure the utilization of state-of-the-art technologies to protect consumers and combat fraud and money laundering. Moreover, the time to move is now, as numerous states are starting to move quickly to create Internet gambling programs.

“The federal regulation of Internet gambling should respect the rights of Indian sovereignty, reinforce states’ rights and utilize the enforcement expertise of existing regulatory bodies – all objectives proposed in pending legislation to regulate the industry. Indian tribes should be able to apply for a license and become an Internet gambling operator or set any restrictions they wish on the activity within their respective geographic borders.

“Hearings are valuable for providing information, but the facts haven’t changed since Congress first started to explore the need to regulate Internet gambling – without regulation consumers are left unprotected and all of the economic benefits that could be gained for controlling the activity will continue to be lost to offshore operators.

“Congress should immediately consider pending bills introduced by Reps. Campbell and Barton which provide a path to requiring licensed operators to put in place practical and enforceable standards to control Internet gambling activity, protect consumers and respect Indian sovereignty.

The upside for the Campbell bill is wider protections and opportunities for economic benefits through more jobs and government revenue.”

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A new public awareness campaign has debuted in the San Francisco Bay Area to raise awareness of abuse in teen relationships and encourage local youth to get help.

Launched to coincide with Teen Dating Violence Awareness Month in February, the campaign is a partnership between INOBTR (“I Know Better”), a non-profit organization focused on educating kids through public awareness to keep them safe, and the California Adolescent Health Collaborative (CAHC), a public-private statewide coalition of individuals and organizations that works to increase understanding and support of adolescent health and well-being.

The campaign is funded through a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP). Teen dating violence is defined as a pattern of physically, sexually, verbally, or emotionally abusive actions committed by a partner to establish control over the other. The abusive behavior may occur in a dating or similarly defined relationship where one or both persons are a minor.

According to Liz Claiborne Inc. and Futures Without Violence (formerly Family Violence Prevention Fund), nearly one in three teens who have been in relationships have experienced dating violence or abuse, such as extreme jealousy or insecurity, threatening or humiliating emails or text messages, and isolation from family or friends.

“These numbers are sobering, and far too many teens suffer silently in abusive relationships,” said Melodee Hanes, Acting Administrator, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, U.S. Department of Justice. “Working together, we need to do what is right for America’s children.  We are pleased to partner in this effort to spread the word about teen dating violence and, most importantly, help teens know they can stop it.”

The campaign is comprised of educational public service ads that will run on San Francisco MUNI bus lines, BART trains and station platforms, AC Transit buses and at the Westfield San Francisco Center Mall during February.  In addition, grassroots materials such as posters and fact sheets will be distributed and are available to local healthcare providers to use as awareness tools.

“INOBTR is proud to lead this campaign highlighting an important issue that affects teenagers on a multitude of levels,” said INOBTR Communications Director Kelly McMahon. “What many people do not realize is that abuse goes beyond just physical violence and that it can be controlling behavior that inflicts emotional harm as well.  Our goal is to encourage healthy relationships amongst teens and to educate about signs of abuse within relationships.  We hope teens who are in abusive relationships will reach out to local resources and seek help immediately.”

Recognizing the important role healthcare providers play in teen dating violence prevention and intervention, the CAHC also worked with Elizabeth Miller, MD, PhD, and Futures Without Violence to develop the Healthcare Education, Assessment and Response Tool for Teen Relationships (HEART) Primer, an innovative resource designed to improve the recognition of teen dating violence and provide tools to healthcare providers to address this issue.

The Primer was implemented on a pilot basis at the New Generation Health Center and the Alameda High School-Based Health Center.  Of the youth who visited the two centers following the implementation of the Primer, almost 80 percent said that it is helpful for healthcare providers to talk about healthy and unhealthy relationships with them.

In addition, there was a reported decrease in technological abuse behavior and an increase in awareness of available community resources to help teens avoid or end relationship abuse.

“Teen dating violence is a serious issue, but many young people may be afraid to speak up,” said Sandi Goldstein, MPH, Director of the California Adolescent Health Collaborative. “As our work with the HEART Primer has shown, it is important for healthcare providers at clinics, schools and community health centers to talk to young patients about healthy relationships so they can be more comfortable assessing unhealthy relationships. By targeting both teens and providers, we hope to promote healthy relationships among young people.”

Based on the initial success locally, the Primer will be used at additional school-based health centers. In addition, the Primer is being rolled out nationally and will be revised to be relevant to healthcare providers in all 50 states.

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One of the nation’s largest consumer debt buyers has agreed to pay a $2.5 million civil penalty to settle Federal Trade Commission charges that it made a range of misrepresentations when trying to collect old debts.  In addition, the company, Asset Acceptance, has agreed to tell consumers whose debt may be too old to be legally enforceable that it will not sue to collect on that debt.

The proposed settlement order resolving the agency’s charges also requires that when consumers dispute the accuracy of a debt, Asset Acceptance must investigate the dispute, ensuring that it has a reasonable basis for its claims the consumer owes the debt, before continuing its collection efforts.

The proposed order also bars the company from placing debt on consumers’ credit reports without notifying them about the negative report.  The U.S. Department of Justice filed the proposed settlement order within a week at the FTC’s request. ”Most consumers do not know their legal rights with respect to collection of old debts past the statute of limitations,” said David Vladeck, Director of the agency’s Bureau of Consumer Protection.

“When a collector tells a consumer that she owes money and demands payment, it may create the misleading impression that the collector can sue the consumer in court to collect that debt.  This FTC settlement signals that, even with old debt, the prohibitions against deceptive and unfair collection methods apply.”

The FTC’s action – alleging that Asset Acceptance violated the FTC Act, the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, and the Fair Credit Reporting Act –  is part of the FTC’s continuing efforts to protect consumers adversely affected by the struggling economy.  The agency today also issued a new publication for consumers, “Time-Barred Debts: Understanding Your Rights When It Comes to Old Debts”.

Michigan-based Asset Acceptance buys unpaid debts from credit originators such as credit card companies, health clubs, and telecommunications and utilities providers, as well as other debt buyers, and attempts to collect them.  Asset Acceptance has purchased tens of millions of consumer accounts for pennies on the dollar.

It targets accounts that other collectors have pursued and are more than a year past due, and in some cases attempts to collect debt that is more than 10 years old.  Some of this debt is too old to be legally enforceable – state statutes of limitations cut off the right to sue to collect the debt after some period of time has passed, depending on the state and the type of debt.  And many consumers do not know that making a partial payment of a debt may reset the state law’s clock on the collector’s ability to take legal action.

The FTC’s nine-count complaint charged Asset Acceptance with:

• misrepresenting that consumers owed a debt when it could not substantiate its representations;
• failing to disclose that debts are too old to be legally enforceable or that a partial payment would extend the time a debt could be legally enforceable;
• providing information to credit reporting agencies, while knowing or having reasonable cause to believe that the information was inaccurate;
• failing to notify consumers in writing that it provided negative information to a credit reporting agency;
• failing to conduct a reasonable investigation when it received a notice of dispute from a credit reporting agency;
• repeatedly calling third parties who do not owe a debt;
• informing third parties about a debt;
• using illegal debt-collection practices, including misrepresenting the character, amount, or legal status of a debt; providing inaccurate information to credit reporting agencies; and making false representations to collect a debt; and
• failing to provide verification of the debt and continuing to attempt to collect a debt when it is disputed by the consumer.

The proposed settlement requires that when Asset Acceptance knows or should know debt may not be legally enforceable under state law – often referred to as “time-barred” debt –  it must disclose to the consumer that it will not sue on the debt and, if true, that it may report nonpayment to the credit reporting agencies.  Once it has made that disclosure, it may not sue the consumer, even if the consumer makes a partial payment that otherwise would make the debt no longer time-barred.

The order also prohibits the company from:

• Making any material misrepresentation to consumers and making any representation that a consumer owes a particular debt, or as to the amount of the debt, unless it has a reasonable basis for the representation.  To ensure it has such a basis, the order requires Asset Acceptance to investigate consumer disputes before continuing collection efforts;
• “Parking” – or placing – debt on a consumer’s credit report when it has failed to notify the consumer in writing about the negative report, and;
• Violating the Fair Credit Reporting Act and the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, in the ways alleged in the complaint.

The FTC has issued a new publication to help consumers understand how debt collectors attempt to collect old debts, along with their rights in these cases.

“Time-Barred Debts: Understanding Your Rights When It Comes to Old Debts” provides information on when a debt is too old for a collector to sue, what consumers should do if a debt collector calls about a time-barred debt, and whether a consumer should pay a debt that’s considered time-barred.

It also provides advice on what consumers should do if they are sued for a time-barred debt, including defending themselves in court and asserting their rights under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.  Finally, it has links to other FTC publications and videos about dealing with debt.

The Commission vote authorizing the staff to refer the complaint to the Department of Justice was 4-1, and the vote to approve the proposed consent decree, was 3-1, with Commissioner J. Thomas Rosch voting no for both.  The DOJ filed the complaint and proposed consent decree on behalf of the Commission in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida.  The proposed consent decree is subject to court approval.

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Horizon Lines has announced that its Horizon Lines, LLC operating subsidiary has entered into an agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice, under which the ocean cargo carrier will plead guilty to two counts of providing federal authorities with false vessel oil record-keeping entries on a containership in the U.S. West Coast-Hawaii service.

Under the agreement, which is subject to court approval, the company will pay a fine of $1.0 million and donate an additional $500,000 to the National Fish & Wildlife Foundation for environmental community service programs. The company also has agreed to be placed on probation for three years and institute an environmental compliance plan.

The charges stem from the improper use of an oily water separator and related inappropriate record keeping on the Horizon Enterprise, an American-flag containership that sails between Tacoma, Oakland and Honolulu.  Oily water separators are used to remove oil from bilge or wastewater, so that the water can then be legally discharged into the ocean.

The company responded promptly and proactively to the discovery of these violations. As part of the company’s environmental review, Horizon Lines conducted a fleet-wide audit and has cooperated fully with the Department of Justice, the U.S. Coast Guard and other authorities involved. It also immediately implemented a compliance and training program, which is being performed by an outside contractor.

The program augments the company’s existing environmental policies for mitigating operational impacts while at sea. Additionally, the company has established the position of Environmental Compliance Director to lead Horizon’s overall environmental compliance programs. The position reports directly to the company’s Chief Compliance Officer and the Board of Directors.

“Horizon Lines has always endeavored to operate as a responsible environmental steward,” said Stephen Fraser, President and Chief Executive Officer. “We do not in any way minimize the unauthorized actions by a few individuals that run contrary to the care and training normally demonstrated by our vessel crews throughout the company.  We are making every effort to see that this does not happen again, as we continue to provide service to our customers as an environmentally responsible American corporation.”

Image Courtesy of    http://www.flickr.com/photos/armgov/

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The U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced that a Chicago-area company has agreed to stop making its ready-to-eat sandwiches and produce after FDA investigators repeatedly found unsanitary conditions and bacterial contamination in the facility.

The company, Triple A Services, and its owners and operators, Thomas J. Whennen, Scott C. Whennen and David A. Frisco, have agreed to stop producing and distributing the sandwiches and produce as part of a consent decree filed in the U.S. District Court of the Northern District of Illinois.

The terms of the decree would also require Triple A to hire a sanitation expert to help establish an effective sanitation program, to comply with FDA regulations and to eliminate Listeria contamination from company facilities.

The government’s complaint, filed by the U.S. Department of Justice on December 22, 2011, describes Triple A’s history of operating under unsanitary conditions and Listeria monocytogenes contamination in the processing facility. It also outlines Triple A’s failure to comply with Current Good Manufacturing Practice and seafood Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point regulations.

Listeriosis, the illness caused by Listeria monocytogenes, can be serious and sometimes causes fatal infections in young children, older people, and in those with weakened immune systems. Healthy people may experience short-term symptoms such as high fever, severe headache, stiffness, nausea, abdominal pain, and diarrhea. Listeriosis can also cause miscarriages and stillbirths.

“FDA took these aggressive actions because Triple A Services continued to violate current good manufacturing practice regulations and allow for conditions that could affect the health of consumers,” said Dara Corrigan, the FDA’s associate commissioner for regulatory affairs.

No illnesses have been reported to date from Triple A Services’ products. Illnesses or adverse events related to use of these products should be reported to the FDA at https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/medwatch/medwatch-online.htm.

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