[TBINEWS.WORDPRESS] A three-day operation by Special Agents with the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation and detectives with the Knoxville Police Department to combat human trafficking in Knoxville has resulted in the arrest of 32 men and women on prostitution and human trafficking-related charges. Two of the men, including a children’s minister, responded to ads for what they thought were girls under the age of 18. The Knoxville anti-trafficking operation, called "Operation Someone Like Me", is the fifth operation of its kind in the state between the TBI and partner agencies to help identify, investigate and prosecute trafficking, and rescue victims.
With the partnership including the Knoxville Police Department, Community Coalition Against Human Trafficking, End Slavery Tennessee, and Second Life Chattanooga, TBI Agents and intelligence analysts embarked on an undercover operation to identify potential victims of trafficking, arrest those seeking to purchase illicit sex from a juvenile, and learn more about the specific nuances of this type of crime.
"Finding these people who are trying to buy Tennessee children is a priority for us," says TBI Director Mark Gwyn. "We want anyone responding to these ads to think there may be a TBI Agent on the other end of it. We will do whatever we can to make a difference in reducing the human trafficking that takes place in Tennessee."
During the three-day operation, undercover Agents posted ads on Backpage.com. During that time, more than 300 contacts were made to those ads. In one ad the Agents posed as a juvenile girl. That ad received more than two dozen contacts.
"Human trafficking is a scourge on society," says Knoxville Police Chief David Rausch. "We will continue to commit all the necessary resources and work alongside our law enforcement partners to help protect our most precious resource, our children."
Posted by: Fred ||
05/24/2016 00:00 ||
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Oregon. A good place to be from.
A "transmasculine" teacher at an Oregon elementary school has been awarded $60,000 by her school district as compensation for harassment she claims to have suffered on the job, including being referred to by the wrong pronoun.
According to The Oregonian, Leo Soell was born a woman, but now prefers to identify as "transmasculine" and "genderqueer," meaning she does not consider herself to be male or female. After getting breast cancer in late 2014, she had her breasts amputated to create a more masculine appearance and changed her name to Leo. Once she returned from medical school in May, 2015, Soell was fully public with her gender-neutral identity.
Once she returned to work, Soell claims she fell victim to relentless harassment from her co-workers. She says employees persisted in calling her hurtful terms like "Miss Soell," "lady," and "she." If a student asked Soell's sex, she says she was ordered to reply it was a private matter not suitable for discussion at school.
At an elementary school? That makes sense unless you're insane...
Some teachers were even worse, Soell said. She claimed one teacher screamed at her in the hallway that her gender choice was offensive to God, and she said teachers conspired to use the school's only gender-neutral bathroom so Soell would have to wait a half-hour or more to use it.
The school conducted an internal investigation after Soell complained, but found no proof of harassment.
Eventually, Soell was able to cut a deal with the school to have her referred to by her preferred pronoun, "they," but Soell said the harassment didn't stop, so she finally hired an attorney and prepared to file an official complaint.
Oregon is a very friendly state for individuals who claim they have suffered discrimination based on gender identity. The state's labor commissioner, Brad Avakian, forced a bakery to pay $135,000 to a lesbian couple they wouldn't bake a cake for, and he has also compelled a bar owner to pay a whopping $400,000 to a group of transgender customers he tried to ban from his bar. Private establishments?!
I think I see the problem here...
Eager to avoid meeting a similar fate, district officials agreed to pay Soell $60,000 in compensation for her emotional distress, and they also agreed to adopt a whole battery of new policies to make the district more transgender-friendly. Among other things, the new policy will require all teachers to refer to their co-workers by their preferred names and pronouns, and it will also ensure transgender employees and students have their bathroom needs met. Teachers who refuse to comply with the pronoun command may be fired, the school district warns.
So free speech for, um, 'her', but not the rest of us...
#7
Agreed, but when it comes to hiring you can silently find better candidates (or you are hosed). I suspect a lot of folks will do that now that things are getting so lawyerly.
#11
OregonGuy - The Pizza guy shouldn't have said a thing - just dusted their pizza with - (if he's feeling nice) a laxative or mean other unpleasant herbs.
[India Times] JAISALMER: Left in the heat with its legs tied all day, a camel attacked its owner and severed his head in anger in Rajasthan's Barmer district on Saturday. About 25 villagers struggled for 6 hours to calm the animal down.
Urjaram of Mangta village was entertaining guests at his house on Saturday night when he suddenly realised that his camel had been out in the heat all day with its legs tied. He was attacked when he tried to untie the annoyed animal.
"The animal lifted him by the neck and threw him on to the ground, chewed the body and severed the head," villager Thakara Ram said. Villagers revealed that the camel had attacked Urjaram in the past as well.
Areas in Rajasthan are witnessing some of the highest mercury levels in the country. Jawans patrolling the border with Pakistan, too, are facing a tough time dealing with camels in this heat. Recently, a camel attempted to get a jawan off its back while rushing to the shade.
Google’s robots are reading SO much cheap erotica.
"This was the only way/it was the only way.
"it was her turn to blink.
"it was hard to tell.
"it was time to move on.
"he had to do it again."
No, this isn’t dopey teenage poetry. A robot wrote it.
In their quest to make artificial intelligence more and more human-like, Google is letting the bots try their hand at free verse romantic poetry.
The bots were asked to fill in the blanks between two lines. The AI isn’t just meant to link sentences together, the aim is to link those sentences together in a way that mimics natural speech.
In order to give the bots a wide vocabulary and a sense of natural rhythm, Google needed them to read books ‐ and a shit tonne of them. What’s the biggest genre of crappy, easy-to-emulate books? Romance.
Google force-fed the AI 2865 romance books, and about 1500 fantasy books. Pity these robots. They’re learning from cheap, bodice-ripping romance books.
In which Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert McDonald, who should know better, says a really stupid thing. Because like his former employer, Disney measures everything.
#2
Ummm, SimPark did, pretty damn sure Disney does too.
And even if they aren't, which they are, but the customers are which is why there is the deal where someone pays to chaperone a handicapped person so as both can use the express lane.
#3
4. Disney does measure wait times. There are signs saying from this point on 30 minutes, or 45 minutes. Also they've set up fast pass to help avoid the lines if you plan ahead.
#5
Are Disney's wait times designed to have customers die off before receiving services, like the VA?
Posted by: regular joe ||
05/24/2016 12:44 Comments ||
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#6
Disney, McDonald's, Applebee's, AT&T, Amazon, Jiffy Lube, most major private Hospital and Health Care entities plus lots of other companies (and maybe even some Waffle Houses) all measure customer wait times to determine improvements in their 'satisfaction delivery'. Some are VERY detailed in their measurements as their revenue depends on it, And I'm sure the Disney Company is no exception.
It IS a big deal for most firms, making the customer happy that is. They're not the 'Only Game in Town' like the VA.
Bureau of Indian Affairs Health System sucks, too.
Wonder what the common thread is?
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
05/24/2016 14:26 Comments ||
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#10
What gorb said except I'd want them to get rid of all the folks at ABC News too.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
05/24/2016 17:58 Comments ||
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#11
Go back to the original copyright of 14 years with an extension by the individual artist/inventor/creator for another 14 years. Everything other than trademarks, would be public domain as it was originally intended. Now that would be payback.
#12
Why haven't we heard from Bernie on this? He is on the Veteran's Affairs Committie. In 2014 he was the Chairman. He's doing what he does best. Sitting on his ass, doing nothing, collecting a paycheck and waiting for someone else to do something.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
05/24/2016 19:57 Comments ||
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[Partiya Karkeren Kurdistan] Although male dominance is well institutionalised, men too are enslaved. The system is in fact reproducing itself in the individual male and female and their relationship. Therefore, if we want to defeat the system, we need a radical, new approach towards woman, man and their relationship.
History, in a sense, is the history of the dominant male who gained power with the rise of classed society. The ruling class character is formed concurrent with the dominant male character. Again, rule is validated through mythological lies and divine punishment. Beneath these masks lies the reality of bare force and coarse exploitation. In the name of honour, man seized the position and rights of woman in the most insidious, traitorous and despotic manner. The fact that, throughout history, woman was left bereft of her identity and character - the eternal captive - at the hands of man, has caused considerably more damage than class division has. The captivity of woman is a measure of society's general enslavement and decline; it is also a measure of its lies, theft and tyranny. The dominant male character of society has to date not even allowed for scientific analysis of the phenomenon of woman.
The fundamental question is why man is so jealous, dominant and villainous where woman is concerned; why he continues to play the rapist. Undoubtedly, rape and domination are phenomena related to social exploitation; they reflect society's rape by hierarchy, patriarchy and power. If we look a little deeper, we will see that these acts also express a betrayal of life.
Woman's multi-faceted devotion to life may clarify man's societal sexist stand. Societal sexism means the loss of wealth of life under the blinding and exhausting influence of sexism and the consequent rise of anger, rape and a dominating stance.
This is why it is important to place on the agenda the problem of man, which is far more serious than the issue of woman. It is probably more difficult to analyse the concepts of domination and power, concepts related to man. It is not woman but man that is unwilling to transform. He fears that abandoning the role of the dominant male figure would leave him in the position of the monarch who has lost his state. He should be made aware that this most hollow form of domination leaves him bereft of freedom as well and, even worse, it forecloses reform.
#1
My eyes crossed as I read that, they were rolling so hard. President Erdogan and his neo-Ottomans would be out for PKK blood on the basis of that alone, even if the PKK weren't fighting back.
And neither the author nor President Erdogan would approve of me at all, so there's that.
Oscar-winning actress and activist Angelina Jolie has been appointed a visiting professor at one of Britain's most prestigious universities.
The London School of Economics announced Monday that Jolie will be working with students studying for a master's degree in Women, Peace and Security. Among others appointed to teach the course is former British Foreign Secretary William Hague. File under decline of the West
#4
Very unusual person she is. I would not underestimate her. I am certain she will provide a drama for these students that will be long remembered. She will push their minds.
#6
Upon reflection I think she is a self driven person. She has ambitions far beyond the puff and fluff of a celebrity life. The next few years will be interesting. With aging acting parts will become few. In politics her acting will be many years longer and real.
#7
Hey guys, she went to Iraq. Saw what was really going on and said we shouldn't abandon them. When Obama did abandoned them, she was out spoken in her criticism. She did not climb into an AA gun seat.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
