Research & Rescue

Action Alert: Combat Sex Trafficking in the U.S.

Received this action alert via e-mail:

The FBI estimates that more than 100,000 underage girls are exploited for sex in the Unites States each year. Sex trafficking is a modern form of slavery, yet all too often victims are difficult to identify and trafficked persons are often prosecuted as prostitutes or deported as undocumented immigrants.

The Senate has already passed a bill by unanimous consent that would call victims of sex trafficking what they are -- victims -- and establish pilot programs which would provide counseling, education, and basic support for these young women. This bill, the Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking Deterrence and Victims Support Act (S. 2925/H.R. 5575), would also mandate participation at all levels of law enforcement and educate officers and prosecutors in how to identify, investigate, and prosecute traffickers.

With just days remaining in the lame duck session, we cannot allow the House to fail to take action to support young women exploited by sex traffickers in our very own country. To act now is to make a real difference in the lives of thousands of women and girls.

Combat Sex Trafficking in the U.S.

Action Alert: It's Crunch Time for Paycheck Fairness

Time is running out.  Congress' August recess is almost upon us, and the elections will dominate much of their time in the fall.  It's been a year and a half since the House passed the Paycheck Fairness Act, but the Senate has yet to act on this critical piece of legislation.  The hard truth is that the time remaining to get this bill passed in this Congress is running short -- but we're not giving up!  As a cosponsor of the Paycheck Fairness Act, your senator needs to push Majority Leader Harry Reid to bring this bill to the Senate floor now, and he or she needs to hear from you to make this happen. 

Visit the AAUW Capwiz page to make your voice heard: www.capwiz.com

Action: Don't reduce Medicare payments to doctors

Received from Democrat Women of Sandoval County via e-mail today:

Doctors accepting Medicare are scheduled to receive a 21% reduction in reimbursements based on current Medicare law. AARP has been lobbying strongly to get Congress to stop this reduction – we believe that such a reduction will discourage doctors from accepting Medicare. AARP has been pushing Congress to take action before the upcoming summer recess.

Please call 1-800-944-6711 (toll free) to reach our U. S. Senators and provide the following message: "I need access to my doc. Please fix this before the recess!”

ACLU - Facebook Revolt at Hand?

The ACLU has started a petition to convince Facebook to reign in it's privacy policies. If you like, you an access their online petition here: Facebook's Privacy Policy: Gain Control of Your Information. The petition page says tens of thousands have signed already. I also saw somewhere that there was a cancellation movement on May 31st. Is anyone reading this planning to pull out? I think I'd rather see things fixed than bail altogether but Im interested in hearing your views.

Yesterday, Facebook reportedly called an "all hands" meeting to discuss its privacy policies. That's because they are facing a brewing revolt among Facebook users alarmed by the company's, ahem, cavalier attitude toward protecting your privacy....

...At every step, we've worked to get word of these changes out, and pushed back, because at the ACLU, we believe Facebook users deserve control over their personal information.

Facebook's founder Mark Zuckerberg has claimed that "the default is social." But to Facebook, "social" seems to mean making your personal information public to the entire world.

Tens of thousands have signed an ACLU petition making clear that people need the ability to control who they share information with....

via www.aclu.org

Trevor Project to provide suicide prevention training in Santa Fe

The Trevor Project, a crisis group for teens, will be in Santa Fe on May 16th to provide a 2-day training in suicide prevention. Much more detail is available in the Santa Fe Reporter, but here's your "mark the calendar" info:

On the 17th “Life Guard” (guarding people lives) training for youth that focuses on anti-bullying, oppression issues and suicide prevention

May 17th 4:00pm-8:00pm

Warehouse 21

Community Panel

May 17th 7:00-8:00 pm

Warehouse 21

Training for Providers

May 18th 8:30 am-1:00 pm

Santa Fe Lodge

Santa Fe crises response lines

(505) 820-6333

1-888-920-6333

The Trevor Project

866-4-U-TREVOR

http://thetrevorproject.org

via www.sfreeper.com

Pet hair use in oil spills cleanup

You and your feline can help with the BP oil spill cleanup! Or you and your canine. Or you and your hairdresser. Wow, even you and your llama can help!

In case you weren't aware, hair of many varieties can be used to create mats and also to make floating hair sausages to [hopefully] prevent the spill from reaching shore. The organization in the first video is called Matter of Trust and their site with details on how you can help is called ExcessAccess (they also match donors with other excess material needs) but you will have to register to get the information on exactly how to donate your goods. There is also an e-How page on this that gives a brief explanation.

So, watch the videos below, shed your excess and get donating! It takes a lot of hair to accomplish this, so consider contacting your hair salon or barber and convince them to participate!

..and wondering how this oil slick cleanup actually works? CNN also has a nice video to explain that, as well:

Contact your senator to support International Affairs budget request

Dear ONE Member, There are only a few days left for senators to sign a bipartisan letter calling for robust funding of the 2011 International Affairs Budget. You’re already taken action to help preserve critical poverty-fighting funding—but we need your friends to take action now too. Click the link below to encourage your friends to contact their senators today. http://one.org/us/actnow/2011budgetletter/signed.html?id=1601-4450625-yg8eoRx&t=1 We need the Senate to support the president’s International Affairs Budget request in order to preserve the effective global health programs, sustainable global agricultural development, basic education, debt relief, and economic development programs we as ONE members care about so much. Right now, while the Senate is determining next year’s budget, we need your friends and family to contact their senators and let them know that fighting extreme poverty is important to them. The bipartisan letter senators need to sign to show their support closes in just a few days. Please use the link below to ask your friends to take action right away. http://one.org/us/actnow/2011budgetletter/signed.html?id=1601-4450625-yg8eoRx&t=2 Thank you, Sheila Nix U.S. Executive Director, ONE

Help Adam empower trafficking survivors

While you may think slavery is a thing of the past, it is not. Slavery is not legal anywhere in the world but exists anyway. There are more than 27 million victims of human slavery, whether through sexual exploitation, forced or bonded labour. Sorry to say, the very clothes you are wearing could very well be the product of someone working in a sweatshop in an attempt to gain his or her freedom. Made by Survivors estimates that half of all victims of human trafficking are below the age of 18. You can find out more about human trafficking at their website.

Please consider either supporting this new anti-slavery project, Empower Survivors with Music and Awareness, either by donating or by embedding the widget below on your own website to publicize (click through the widget to get the embed code or donate), or both.

Action alert from Public Citizen: Shareholder Protection Act

Received via email....

Newly empowered by the Supreme Court's disastrous ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, corporate executives are ready to spend unprecedented millions to influence upcoming elections. Curb the corporate agenda of activist CEOs! If you or someone you know has a 401(k), a similar retirement account or other investments, the corporations funded by these investments could be part of the problem. Don't let families' nest eggs become political weapons for the corporate agenda. If a majority of shareholders tell a corporation to stay out of politics, then the corporation should do exactly that. Corporations aren't people, but shareholders are. The Shareholder Protection Act (H.R. 4790) proposed by Rep. Michael Capuano (D-Mass.) would empower shareholders to vote on whether or not to allow executives to spend corporate money on political campaigns. Take action for the Shareholder Protection Act today! Any household with a 401(k) invested in stocks or mutual funds - nearly one out of every two today - has a stake in how the corporate money in those funds is spent. The 2010 elections are right around the corner, and CEOs are eager to use investors' money to promote the corporate agenda. Now is the time to stand up to corporate power! Tell your representative to support the Shareholder Protection Act. Thank you for all you do. Rick, Angela and Glenn Your advocates at Public Citizen [email protected]

Moooooove your money

According to the Consumerist, someone decided to tell Chase Banking what's what. Here's the poop on it at consumerist.com