Gay Marriage Rulings In Oklahoma And Utah Build Momentum

January 15, 2014, 3:34 pm

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OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — In less than a month, two federal judges have struck down state bans on gay marriage for the same reason, concluding that they violate the Constitution's promise of equal treatment under the law.

Although that idea has been the heart of the gay marriage debate for years, the decisions in deeply conservative Oklahoma and Utah offer new momentum for litigants pressing the same argument in dozens of other cases across the country. And experts say the rulings could represent an emerging legal consensus that will carry the issue back to the Supreme Court. The judge who issued Tuesday's decision in Oklahoma "isn't stepping out on his own," said Douglas NeJaime, a professor of law at the University of California, Irvine. "He's doing what a colleague in another court did not long ago."

The more judges who issue such rulings, the more authority other judges feel to render similar decisions, said NeJaime, who expects decisions soon from federal courts in Virginia and Pennsylvania.

An attorney for the plaintiffs in the Oklahoma case said the most important question is whether the Supreme Court agrees to decide the legality of gay marriage bans now or whether the justices bide their time.

"Will they take these two decisions or will they wait for more?" asked Don Holladay.

Litigants in more than three dozen cases are challenging gay marriage bans in 20 separate states.

A federal judge in Ohio last month ordered state authorities to recognize gay marriages on death certificates and signaled that although his ruling is a narrow one, it would undoubtedly incite more lawsuits challenging the state's ban.

Ian James, co-founder and executive director of FreedomOhio, a civil-rights group collecting signatures to put the issue before voters, has also been working on a lawsuit to have that state's gay marriage ban struck down.

James and his husband, who were married in Toronto in 2003, started working on their lawsuit long before the rulings in Utah, Oklahoma and Ohio. But those decisions have given their work renewed inertia.

"Every step along the way actually helps to increase support because people just see the inequality and how we're treating people differently," he said.

Shannon Fauver, who represents two men seeking to have their marriage in Canada recognized in Kentucky, said the Oklahoma and Utah rulings do not directly affect the Kentucky cases, but he added: "Realistically, all the other judges are looking to see what's going on. It is a sea change that all the states are going this way."

The Supreme Court decision last summer to strike down part of the Defense of Marriage Act that defined marriage as between a man and a woman triggered the series of rulings we're now seeing, NeJaime said.

The judges in Utah and Oklahoma cited that decision heavily, essentially interpreting it to mean that same-sex bans are unconstitutional, he said.

Attorneys for same-sex couples have reminded federal judges that the high court said denying the right to marry "demeans" gay and lesbian couples and "humiliates" their children.

In the seven months since the landmark decision, the number of states allowing gay marriage has jumped from 12 to 17. In Utah and Oklahoma, the issue remains in limbo pending appeals.

Prior to Oklahoma's ruling this week, judges in New Mexico, Ohio and even heavily Mormon Utah all ruled in favor of same-sex marriage. Gay marriages in Utah have been put on hold pending a decision from the Denver-based 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

The rulings in Utah and Oklahoma have added significance because they happened in states with histories of being strongly against gay marriage.

In 2004, Oklahoma's same-sex marriage ban was passed by 76 percent of voters and Utah's with 66 percent. Oklahoma also had a law that forbid state officials from recognizing adoptions by same-sex couples that were approved in other states. A higher court overturned that measure, NeJaime said.

"These decisions are coming out of states that didn't seem like they were in play long ago," NeJaime said. "It expands the movement in a lot of ways."

As gay-rights groups win cases around the country, the victories lead to more lawsuits, said Camilla Taylor, marriage project director at the national civil rights organization Lambda Legal. There are currently 43 gay marriage lawsuits active in courts, including 27 in the federal systems. A new one is filed almost weekly, she said.

The latest came from four couples in Arizona who filed a lawsuit Jan. 6 challenging the state's gay marriage ban two weeks after the Utah ruling.

A shift in public sentiment seems to be driving the movement. A third of Americans oppose gay marriage, down from 45 percent in 2011, an AP-GfK poll showed in October.

Twenty-seven states still have constitutional prohibitions on same-sex marriage. Another four — Indiana, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Wyoming — forbid such marriages through state laws.

One scenario that could draw the interest of the Supreme Court justices is if federal appeals courts come out with different rulings on the issue, NeJaime said. The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has a case pending out of Utah, and the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has one out of Nevada.

If the Oklahoma case is appealed, the Denver-based court would get that case too. Appeals of possible rulings in Virginia and Pennsylvania would fall to other federal appeals courts.

Evan Wolfson, founder and president of New York-based Freedom to Marry, which seeks to have same-sex marriage bans struck down nationwide, does not expect the Oklahoma ruling to result in a shifting legal strategy or a flurry of new cases.

But, he said, it will strengthen the resolve of litigants, and it "reinforces rather than changes both the legal argument and the powerful moral argument."

___

McCombs reported from Salt Lake City.

___

Associated Press writers Brett Barrouquere in Louisville, Ky., and Amanda Lee Myers in Cincinnati contributed to this report.

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In Comic Dieudonné, France's Freedom of Expression Meets "The Wall"

January 15, 2014, 3:37 pm

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In the autumn of 2007, I stood in front of the ruins of a smouldering police station in the town of Villiers-le-Bel, about 10 miles north of Paris. Its roof gone, its walls charred black, and tiles scattered about its courtyard, the abandoned shell emanated the stench of burned wood and plastic into the street.

The station had been ransacked and burned by rioters enraged by the deaths of two local teenagers, killed when the motorbike they were driving collided with a police cruiser. Battles between police, firing rubber bullets and tear gas, and rioters attacking with Molotov cocktails, bottles, and even firearms, continued for several days, with 90 police officers injured and dozens of rioters arrested. This social explosion was an echo of similar riots that gripped France in 2005 following the deaths of two youths electrocuted while trying to hide from the police in the banlieue (as the economically-depressed, largely immigrant suburbs that ring France's glittering cities are called) of Clichy-sous-Bois. Rioting then resulted in the torching of 9,000 cars and dozens of buildings, injuries to 130 police and fire fighters, arrests of nearly 2,900 people, and the murder of a retiree beaten to death as he attempted to put out a fire near his home.

France as a country has long held a great fascination for me both on its own terms (I have lived there for extended periods on two separate occasions) and in terms of the colonial legacy I have seen of it in countries such as Haiti and Côte d'Ivoire, where I have worked as a journalist. Despite its many charms, though, it is also a country in which in recent years, a sense of alienation and decay is palpable, and whose political class, both of the left and the right, appear to have run out of ideas as to how to address a chronic 11 percent unemployment rate (that number is around 20 percent in the banlieues), a public debt that measures 95 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), an infinitesimal growth rate of 0.2 percent and a host of restrictive labour laws that stifle entrepreneurship.

As the suburbs fester, the French political elite cavort like latter-day latter-day Bourbons, with Socialist President François Hollande arriving by motor scooter for apparent romantic trysts at a Paris apartment with peripheral links to the Corsican underworld, much as his conservative predecessor Nicolas Sarkozy jetted with his own romantic interest, the model (and now his wife) Carla Bruni, to the Jordan desert in years past. The man expected to have been Hollande's most serious competitor in the Socialist Party, former International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn, awaits trial for pimping after charges were dropped that he raped a maid in a New York City hotel room.

For a while during my time in Paris, I lived in Château Rouge, an almost-entirely West and North African immigrant neighborhood in Paris' 18th arrondissement, and perhaps the overall poorest part of the city proper. Despite the district's rather ill-famed reputation as an area of cheap and abundant drugs and lax policing, I loved it, and found a bracing and fascinating quarter that served as both the subject and the title of an an-yet-unpublished novel I wrote.

Street vendors in dashikis (from time to time brutalized by les flics, the police) and women in colorful African head scarfs, bakeries overflowing with tempting sweets for when fasts would be broken during Muslim holidays, and the rhythms of soukous and rai music filling the streets made it, for me, a far more accurate reflection of modern France than the more famous - and deadly dull - tourist zones of the 8th and 6th arrondissements.

France is changing - it has been changing for decades - yet the question of exactly what it is changing into remains open for debate.

Nowhere has this been more vividly illustrated in recent years that in the case of the French comedian Dieudonné M'bala M'bala, known professional simply as Dieudonné.

Born of a French mother and a father from Cameroon, Dieudonné initially got his start as part of a comedy duo with Élie Semoun, a French Jewish comedian of Moroccan descent. Together, the two performed between 1990 and 1997, with their skits poking often extremely-barbed fun at a France that had uneasily transformed over preceding decades from a Gaullist fortress to a multiethnic modern nation flooded with its former colonial subjects and their descendants.

After the two split, their trajectories could not have been more different. Semoun went on to a largely successful movie career, while Dieudonné's public image took on an ever-more political hue. He unsuccessfully contested the 1997 legislative elections as a representative of the anti-racist left, and spoke out in support of both undocumented immigrants in France and the Palestinian cause. Eventually, however, he drifted away from the orthodox left and his public pronouncements became, well, rather strange.

In a 2002 interview with the weekly Lyon Capitale, Dieudonné told a startled interviewer that Jews were "a cult, a scam." In December 2003, he appeared on the French television show On ne peut pas plaire à tout le monde (You Can't Please Everyone) dressed as a masked Israeli settler and ended his sketch with a fascist salute and a word which some heard as "Israel" and others as "Isra-Heil." Hauled to court on charges of anti-Semitism, he was subsequently acquitted when the judge found that the attacks was not directed against Jews as a people, but rather but against a group "distinguished by their political views." In 2004, he stated that he preferred "the charisma of Bin Laden than George W. Bush," and went on to denounce debate about the Holocaust as "memorial pornography," which netted him a fine of 7,000 euros. He directed a 2012 film, L'Antisémite (The Anti-Semite), in which he portrayed an alcoholic brute in full Nazi regalia, featured the Holocaust denier Robert Faurisson (who had become something of Dieudonné chum in recent years) and mocked Auschwitz. The movie was produced by the Iranian Documentary and Experimental Film Center. The list of such episodes goes on and on. During all of this, Dieudonné managed to gather a very odd cult following around him of both the rabid right and the disillusioned youth of the banlieues, each seemingly convinced that anyone the French establishment hated so much must be on their side.

His flirtation with the extreme right grew in a series of abortive political campaigns, and Jean-Marie Le Pen, the aging founder of France's right-wing Front national (National Front) became the godfather of one of Dieudonné's children. Le Pen himself made it to the final round of France's 2002 president elections (where he was defeated by Jacques Chirac), and Le Pen's daughter, Marine Le Pen (now the National Front's president) came in third in France's 2012 presidential elections. French authorities continued to try and silence Dieudonné through a continuing series of court cases, bans and fines, as if by some magic, when the hate he spewed had no vehicle, the hate itself would disappear.

Certainly, all this looks very strange to American eyes. Aside from the disorientating novelty of a biracial man making common cause with the extreme right, in the United States, freedom of speech is protected by the First Amendment of the United States Constitution. Literally, the first words of the founding legal document of the U.S. read that "congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

The protection is not absolute, of course, and some speech inciting what is know as "imminent lawless action" or terroristic threats can come with penalties, as can defamation, but in general, if there is said to be any common ground between the two political currents in the United States today, the idea that speech, no matter how offensive, should be protected, may be it.

In France, the situation is quite different. Act 90-615 makes denial of the Holocaust a crime punishable by up to five years' imprisonment and a €45,000 fine. A 1972 amendment to France's 1881 Law on the Freedom of the Press also makes incitement to racial hatred and racially defamatory comments a crime subject to prison and a heavy fine.

These tensions within French society came to a head recently when Dieudonné attempted to premier his new routine titled Le Mur (The Wall) around France.

Beginning in 2005, Dieudonné coined a new gesture he named the quenelle (also the name of creamy egg and fish concoction), basically a variation of the English "up yours" with one arm extended straight and the others arm touching the shoulder that he said was an anti-establishment sign. Given Dieudonné's political pronouncements, many saw it as an anti-Semitic gesture akin to the Nazi's Sieg Heil (especially as photos circulated on the internet of fans performing the move in front of synagogues and even in front of Auschwitz).

Nevertheless, a number of celebrities, including Belgium-born, French-raised Tony Parker of the San Antonio Spurs and French footballer Mamadou Sakho, were photographed with the comedian performing the move (though some later apologized). When Dieudonné performed the quenelle at his shows - and when he was filmed with a hidden camera at a show in late 2013 saying that he thought it was "a shame" that "the gas chambers" no longer existed in a reference to (Jewish) French journalist Patrick Cohen - the state intervened.

Dieudonné's most recent nemesis, France's Barcelona-born Minister of Interior Manuel Valls, succeeded in colluding with local authorities to ban Le Mur's opening night on the grounds that it disturbed public order, and said that he would "do everything" to prevent the comedian from being able to appear in public, saying that "a threshold has been crossed" when it came to France's anti-racism laws. Dieudonné responded by dropping the show and saying that he would perform a new show about Africa.

Valls' words would perhaps have not rung so hollow were he himself not a publicly documented xenophobe who, in his position as minster, has called for the mass expulsion of France's Roma community on an ethnic basis, and, as mayor of the city of Évry, was recorded apparently musing that "more white people" would give "a better image" to the town. No legal sanction was forthcoming against Valls.

In response - and further fueling the uproar - last month French footballer Nicolas Anelka performed the quenelle after scoring a goal on behalf of West Bromwich Albion, the football club he plays for in England. and took to Twitter to declare it "a special dedication to my friend Dieudonné."

Though much of what Dieudonné says is undeniably offensive, the actions of the French state to curtail his right to free expression, and the fact that the best France's chattering classes can do in response to his nihilistic charisma is to quote such veteran windbags (and establishment tools) as Bernard-Henri Lévy, is a sadly revealing commentary on a country that, it some quarters, would prefer bury its problems in a hole and hope that they go away rather than death with them head on and demolish them in the public arena on intellectual terms. In the person of Dieudonné has coalesced the potentially cataclysmic common cause of France's extreme right and the alienated youth of its suburbs, a union that France's political oligarchy will ignore at its peril. The state's actions against him have helped, more than his own words ever could, to turn him into an anti-establishment symbol.

Among all the shrieking and posturing, though, one voice spoke thoughtfully, movingly and perceptively about the whole controversy, and evoked the changing country that France still seems to be wrestling with. That voice belonged to Dieudonné's former comic partner, Élie Semoun. Speaking on France's channel Canal + last week, Semoun, looking slightly mournful, said that his friend "has always been paranoid, he sees enemies everywhere" and wondering wryly if it was "all my fault" that Dieudonné one day overhead him discussing Shabbat with his aunt and perhaps thought he had detected a "conspiracy" that had "traumatized" him.

And then, in a few sentences, without state sanction, without the intervention of France's discredited politicians, Semoun flicked all of Dieudonné's conspiratorial nonsense onto the rubbish heap.

"When we started with Dieudonné, we were the same symbol of anti-racism to the point that I forgot I was black and he was Jewish. We did not care about it...Now this is a problem for everyone. Too bad, I liked being black."

The audience applauded.

Web 3.0: What The Internet Could Look Like Without Net Neutrality

January 15, 2014, 3:38 pm

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What will the Web look like without net neutrality?

Net neutrality is dead, a federal appeals court ruled on Tuesday, invalidating Federal Communications Commission rules requiring Internet service providers to treat all traffic equally.

So-called net neutrality principles stipulate that telecoms can't block, stifle or discriminate against traffic. But the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, which sided with Verizon Communications Inc.'s challenge of the FCC rules, said the commission can't regulate Internet service providers like it does phone companies. That means ISPs are now free to make deals with some services, like Netflix and Amazon, to provide faster service.

The ruling, if it stands, may have consequences for everyone who uses the Internet. The FCC has said it may appeal.

Here are some of the ways experts said the Internet may change without net neutrality. This is the Internet of the future -- Web 3.0, you could say, the next evolution of the Internet from its founding and the interactive Web 2.0 of today.

Be warned: It's not pretty.

1. Rich companies will pay big money to see their content delivered quickly. Poor companies will have a harder time accessing their customers.

The most obvious effect of net neutrality's demise will be that deep-pocketed online content providers (websites like Netflix and Amazon) will be able to pay ISPs for faster content delivery, said Derek Turner, a freelance journalist who is research director for the media advocacy group Free Press. But faster delivery for deep-pocketed sites means slower content delivery for poorer online presences. "The Internet is zero-sum," said Turner. Faster delivery for Netflix will almost certainly mean slower delivery for other websites.

Turner likened dismantling net neutrality to breaking a two-lane highway into a "dirt road" and a "clean, really well-maintained toll road." Websites with deep pockets use the toll road for smooth traveling, while everyone else is relegated to the dirt road. Moreover, said Turner, ISPs have an incentive to "not maintain the dirt road" because they want companies to pay for the "toll road."

2. Rich customers and poor customers will see two very different Webs.

The flip side of the "toll road," said Todd O’Boyle, program director of the liberal advocacy organization Common Cause, is that ISPs may begin charging customers to see certain websites. Of course, this would be couched in the language of favoring certain big players -- people could be offered "discount" broadband, where they're only allowed access to a small number of curated sites, while content providers might be asked to pay extra for the privilege of having their content seen by even the ISP's "discount" customers.

O'Boyle said this is already being done in Africa. Facebook is subsidizing its content for subscribers who can't afford the "real" internet. Access to Facebook is probably better than no Internet at all. But do we really want all websites segregated between rich and poor?

3. The big companies of today will be the big companies of tomorrow. The net sans neutrality will smother innovation.

With net neutrality gone, the Internet's "level playing field" is gone, said Turner. In the future, it will be much easier for companies that already have a lot of money to buy better access to consumers, leaving their competitors in the lurch. With net neutrality gone, being an "Internet incumbent" becomes a huge advantage.

Moreover, said Turner, ISPs can now favor content creators that give them a share of the profit by blocking traffic that may interfere with the creator's revenue. Comcast in particular has a nasty history with this. In 2012, it imposed data caps that stifled all online video streaming -- except from Comcast-owned content provider Xfinity. Comcast also attempted to block all types of peer-to-peer trafficking in 2007, a move that, without net neutrality, is now legal.

4. ISPs will curate your Internet like cable does your TV channels.

The obvious business model for ISPs without net neutrality is one much like cable television, said Turner. They'll offer "bundles" that curate the sites you see. The cheapest, fastest bundles will probably include the sites that pay ISPs the most -- most likely the big boys, including Amazon and Netflix. Another possibility is that ISPs could bundle popular sites with less-popular ones that are willing to pay. If you pay for a Netflix bundle, for example, you may be forced to use the Bing search engine.

Nastier yet, said Turner, ISPs and big businesses may team up to offer "exclusive deals." Netflix and Time Warner Cable, say, could strike a deal that makes Netflix only available to Time Warner Cable customers (or, more likely, only available to certain customers at its fastest speed). This kind of deal may make businesses a lot of money. The only people hurt are users.

5. Information, organizational tools and activist networks will become luxuries for the rich.

Many tools that have become crucial to American democracy may, in the future, be restricted to the rich. "Information shouldn't become a luxury," said O'Boyle. He said he worries that if ISPs begin offering "discount bundles" to poorer customers, they'll include very few (or no) news sites in the mix. Access to unrestricted news will become a luxury reserved only for those who can pay more to their providers.

That's bad for users -- and bad for alternative news sites, nonprofits, community organizers, activists and anything without big money behind it. Nonprofits and community websites that rely on the Internet to connect with members, said O'Boyle, "will be challenged to maintain a viable presence if they can't afford a fast lane."

That said, Verizon v. FCC may not actually herald the Internet apocalypse; Kevin Werbach of The Atlantic points out that while the ruling was in many ways unfavorable to the FCC, it did establish that the FFC has legal authority to regulate broadband. Given this, Werbach said he doubts the FCC will allow ISPs to run amok.

The Game-Changing Ladies at CES

January 15, 2014, 3:46 pm

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While "booth babes" certainly received the lion's share of attention and eyeballs at International CES last week, it was the ladies who created The Ipsos Girls' Lounge who continue to change the game. Begun almost exactly a year ago at CES 2013, the Girls' Lounge has welcomed more than 1700 women into their circle over the past year at many high-level industry events including the Association of National Advertisers' Masters of Marketing conference, the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity and Advertising Week in New York.

Destroying the notion that women can't work well together, The Girls' Lounge has knocked down the walls of formality and offered a female sanctuary to unload, share and grow both personally and professionally. Founded and led by Shelley Zalis, CEO Ipsos Open Thinking Exchange, this group is comprised of female entrepreneurs, thought leaders, and innovators who are leading the charge for the next generation. From CEO to CMO to manager to PR executive, the room is less about titles and more about the power of the female quotient.

I was happy to be invited to help host the lounge by Zalis and her stalwart team, but they really did most of the work. They arranged activities interspersed throughout CES including morning yoga, LinkedIn digital profile makeovers, professional headshots from Tumblr, wardrobe consulting, power talks and new this year -- the "Girls' Only" Tech Tour.

Alexis Lloyd, creative director for The New York Times R&D Lab, led over 25 women through the frenzied CES floor and provided insight into the products that will revolutionize our industry over the next few years. Heads were turning not only because they were a polished group wearing pink headphones, but also because of the impressive collection of female executives talking about 4K displays, curved TVs and myriad other gadgets being introduced to them.

Our male colleagues wonder what really goes on in The Girls' Lounge. Yes, we do indulge in traditional girly activities -- blowouts, manicures and makeup touchups. But we also unwind from frenzied schedules and share our career stories -- the good and the bad -- how we juggled a demanding boss and small children at home, found our mentors, changed our company cultures and how we can continue to guide more women to the C-Suite.

We agreed that one of our biggest challenges is providing support for female colleagues who are mid-career and toeing the line as to if they want all in. The life of a corporate executive is not an easy path, and women lacking a strong peer network may be tempted to opt-out. The Girls' Lounge teaches them how to stay vested and still enjoy a successful personal and family life.

"During a "Power Conversation" session moderated by Meredith Levien, EVP, Advertising, New York Times, that included media executives Gayle Fuguitt, Wenda Harris Millard, Shelley Zalis, Nadine McHugh and Gail Tifford, strategies for upping the "Female Quotient" in our organizations were discussed. Zalis stressed that it's not about having women at the table just to have women, but instead to cultivate the value of the female perspective. "Most women are great communicators. We also tend to work more collaboratively and bring both passion and intuition. You don't put women at the table to gender balance, you put women at the table to power balance."

McHugh, VP, Global Integrated Media Communications at Colgate Palmolive, shared that she was disappointed that only two female executives gave keynotes at CES this year -- Marissa Mayer, CEO, president and director at Yahoo! and Carolyn Everson, VP, Facebook. We resolve to change that in the years to come.

The Girls' Lounge is not only flush with media power, but also star power. Breakthrough Atlantic Recording artist Meg Myers, joined us in the suite clad in a "All Women are Rebels" black tee and belted out a few ballads that gave chills to everyone listening. Seeing such a young, strong, spirited woman push ahead in the fierce music industry was inspiring.

Fueled by the energy of the wonderful women I met at the Girls' Lounge, I encourage you to mentor and/or find a female mentor within your organization. Host a ladies' lunch among your colleagues and keep the dialogue open and honest. It's up to us to keep changing the game.

The Girls' Lounge will convene next at the 4A's in Los Angeles, March 16-19, and at ARF in New York City, March 23-26.

Follow the Girls' Lounge on Twitter: @TheGirlsLounge
Join the Girls' Lounge on LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/company/ipsos-girls-lounge

How Strip Clubs Are Helping To Fight Sex Trafficking

January 16, 2014, 11:52 am

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In an unlikely alliance, strip clubs are touting themselves as law enforcement's new partners in the fight against sex trafficking.

Club Operators Against Sex Trafficking assembled about 125 strip club owners and employees, including dancers, bartenders, waiters, bouncers -- even cooks -- from across Southern California for a three-hour briefing Wednesday on how to spot pimps and their victims, and what to do about it.

COAST co-founder Michael Ocello, who owns 16 nightclubs in several states, stressed they could save lives.

"Each one of you has an opportunity to do something unprecedented, and that's to make a difference in someone's life," he told the strip club workers at the gathering in Burbank.

"You may be in a place where you may have the opportunity to see something that nobody else in the world has the opportunity to see, and you may be the one person that's able to make a difference in someone's life."

Special Agent Dwayne Angebrandt from Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Homeland Security Investigations directorate, ran down a list of telltale signs.

"One of the things to look at is how an entertainer comes to and leaves work," he said. "Does she have her own transportation, or is somebody bringing her? Is it the same person every day?"

"And when she gets picked up, is the first thing that happens a hug or a kiss, or is it 'Give me the money'?"

Angebrandt also urged workers to keep a lookout for entertainers who have bruises, possibly from a beating; have no control over their identification and travel documents; are deprived of contact with family and friends, as well as food, water, sleep, medical care and other necessities; and are forced into prostitution.

He said Wednesday's meeting helped "break the ice" between the feds and the strip club industry, some of whose patrons may be the very same johns who pay pimps for sex with human trafficking victims.

Ocello believes meeting Angebrandt helped give strip club workers "a certain comfort level to be willing to make that phone call" to report what amounts to modern-day slavery.

Homeland Security Investigations has more than 60 active investigations into human trafficking in the Los Angeles region, including on commercial sex trafficking and forced labor. In the previous fiscal year, it made more than 140 arrests and rescued a dozen juvenile victims.

Rachel Thomas, 29, the daughter of a Los Angeles lawyer, was attending college in Atlanta when a pimp posing as a modeling agent forced her into prostitution by threatening to kill her and her family.

The pimp, who victimized at least six other women, was later sentenced to 15 years in federal prison. Thomas founded the Sowers Education Group and now goes to schools and organizations to offer advice on how to prevent human trafficking and how to help survivors recover.

She has a cynical view of strip clubs, believing they also exploit women.

"A lot of times, working in any commercial sex trade is the very thing that's destroying a woman's life," Thomas said.

"And I know that lots of strip club owners know the girls are prostituting illegally," she added. "They're not as innocent as they'd like to seem, allowing and even facilitating human trafficking."

A 22-year-old student who dances at an Anaheim strip club and goes by the stage name "Alyssa" said she has met several women she believes were human trafficking victims.

"I've talked to girls personally about it but I've never gone to the cops, because you don't really want to get too involved," she said. "After this (briefing), I'll definitely learn how to handle that situation a little better."

When asked whether she would call the authorities when she realizes a fellow stripper is being victimized, however, Alyssa wavered.

"I don't know," she said. "It really depends. I'd like to say that I would, but honestly, when you're in that situation ..."

She shook her head and didn't finish the sentence. ___

(c)2014 the Daily News (Los Angeles)

Visit the Daily News (Los Angeles) at www.dailynews.com

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National Zoo Launches Instagram Featuring Adorable Video Of Baby Panda Bao Bao

January 16, 2014, 11:57 am

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Bao Bao, the giant panda cub, is set to make her first public appearance at the Smithsonian's National Zoo on Saturday, according to the Associated Press.

If you're anything like us, you can't wait that long. Thankfully, there's a way you can get your Bao Bao fix in the meantime. The zoo launched an Instagram account Wednesday featuring this sweet video of Bao Bao saying hello to the camera.

Vanquishing Mom Guilt, Again

January 16, 2014, 12:01 pm

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By Rebecca Hawkes

I know better than to beat myself up with mother guilt. Of course I do. Don't I nod with agreement when I encounter statements in MotherWoman literature about the dangers of the cultural myth of the "Good Mother"? Haven't I spoken words of encouragement to other mothers, urging them to be gentle with themselves? Haven't I sat in conversation other moms wishing that they could be released from the tyranny of self judgment?!

But knowing, and wishing, doesn't necessarily make it so. It's a bullheaded beast, that guilt.

This past Labor Day I returned home after a four-day mini-vacation. It was a trip I'd gone on without my family, with their full support and encouragement. I returned feeling rested and restored, and I walked into my home feeling confident that, with my cup now full, I would be a model of patience and understanding, able to handle any challenge that might come my way with utmost grace.

Within an hour I was a cranky, irritable, hot mess, snapping at my family members like a rabid animal. My bliss bubble was gone! And what did I find in its place? You guessed it: mom guilt.

Looking back at the situation, I can now see that I didn't walk into my house unencumbered. Rather, I was carrying a couple of problematic beliefs: 1) It's okay for Mom to go on vacation by herself as long as there's an overall benefit to the family as a whole as a result of her doing so; in other words, time away is only justified if Mom returns as a more resourceful parent. 2) Mom needs to make up for her time away by being extra patient and supportive of her children upon her return.

But wait a minute! Hold the presses! Why can't a mom go on vacation, just like everybody else, simply for the sake of the vacation itself? And where were these beliefs coming from? No one in my family was saying, or even thinking, these things. I was putting it on myself, yes. But it also came from "out there" -- the dreaded myth of the Good Mother rearing its head again.

The next morning I drove my daughter to her first day of middle school, providing a supportive listening ear as she expressed her anxieties. I dropped her off -- with words of reassurance, a backpack full of school supplies, and money in her pocket for lunch -- confident that I had provided for her needs of the day. And all was well. Until I opened Facebook later that morning. There they were, one after another after another in my stream: the obligatory back-to-school photos. I, of course, had neglected to take such photos, both on that morning and the previous week when my older daughter went back to school. Suddenly I had visions of my children looking back critically on their childhood, convinced that their mother hadn't really loved them based on the lack of photographic evidence of their carefully selected first-day-of-school outfits. Never mind that my children, like many children of this digital age, are photographed practically every day of their lives. No, I was sure of it -- what would stand out in their minds would be my failure to capture this one particular moment.

I posted a joking comment on Facebook about my "mom failure" and waited. Minutes passed. More minutes. And then, at last, she arrived -- the mom who instantly became my most favorite in the universe. "I have back to school picture guilt too," she wrote, "It will be okay."

It will be okay. It will be okay. Say it with me. Repeat it as a mantra. It will be okay.

Over and over again, I come back to this place, reminding myself of the lessons I've already learned. Mom guilt is not something I conquer once and for all, vanquishing from my queendom forever. I exile it, and it slinks back, again and again. As with so many things in life, this is an ongoing process.

And you know what? It will be okay!

It will be okay, in part, because I know I am not alone. Organizations like MotherWoman connect me with other moms and also help me stay connected to my own intention to treat myself gently. Events like the Book Release Party for The Good Mother Myth (co-sponsored by MotherWoman), which I am looking forward to attending this Friday, allow me to learn from the experiences of others while also providing companionship in the process!

Rebecca Hawkes writes about adoption, family, and identity at Sea Glass and Other Fragments, The Thriving Child, Lost Daughters, and Adoption Voices Magazine. She is a co-founder of Ashley's Moms and lives in Western Massachusetts with her husband, her two daughters, and a dog named Buddy.

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Out of Sight, Out of Mind?

January 16, 2014, 1:00 pm

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Recently, as the mercury dropped to record lows, compassionate Illinoisians could not help but wonder what it would mean for the 10,171 homeless individuals throughout our state. Indeed, we saw a rapid emergency response to the immediate needs of the homeless, and, for a few days, increasing societal empathy toward their struggles.

Now the temperature has returned to the mid-thirties (what Chicagoans might deem "balmy"), and I have to wonder how we might sustain this compassion and consciousness? All I have to do is think about the 1 in 3 American women, who either live in poverty or are on the brink of it.

When I think of these women on the brink, I can't help but think of Leona. We met Leona while visiting one of Chicago Foundation for Women's grantees, Deborah's Place. Until recently, Leona was a resident of Teresa's Interim Housing at Deborah's Place, which is a four-month temporary housing program that provides up to 10 women a safe, structured community where women and staff work together to meet goals such as housing, employment, family reunification, improved health and education. Today, thanks to Deborah's Place and their proven program, Leona has found permanent housing and is on a pathway out of poverty. But, she took a lot of twists and wrong-turns getting there.

As a child, Leona was sexually and physically abused. She says that her teenage mom wasn't around much and her alcoholic grandmother didn't protect her from the abuse. After a miscarriage at the age of 14, Leona finally ran away from home in hopes of finding that better life. For a few years, Leona lived in hallways and survived by "doing strange things for change," anything to survive. She depended upon abusive and drug-addicted boyfriends to keep from having to live on the streets. Eventually, she became homeless.

Although homelessness affects people of all ages, races, ethnicities and geographies, there are certain groups of people who are at higher risk and, at one point or another, Leona has presented many of these risks: people living in "doubled up" situations, people discharged from prison, young adults leaving foster care, and people without health insurance. Whether it was when she was a child of a teen mom suffering from abuse, during her teen years as a runaway, during her struggles with substance abuse, or following her incarceration -- she regularly presented warning signs she was headed toward homelessness.

When the temperature suddenly plummets, when a tornado ravages a town, we tend to coalesce around the emergency. This gives me great pride and hope. We enthusiastically give of time and treasure to ensure there are more beds at the shelter, emergency assistance at the disaster site, and more cans of food on the pantry shelf.

But, what happens when the problem is not a tidal wave, but rather, seeping and pervasive. What happens when a person, like Leona, spends more than a decade teetering on the brink and still falls through the cracks? How can we collectively intervene and mobilize to prevent poverty rather than wait for it become an emergency for us to rally around?

If we are to truly win the war on poverty, impact homelessness, and build secure families and communities, we must focus on the systemic barriers standing in the way. For me, there are many issues that need our attention, but where better to start than with the needs of those that make up the majority of our nation's poor: women and children. One solution is to grow the Earned Income Tax Credit to respond to the the rapidly growing income gap between our nation's richest and poorest (and, for a more politically palatable option, I'd settle for a nationwide minimum wage increase). These solutions will help not only women, but all families on the brink.

We need so much more, but it all begins with a shift in focus to the things we cannot immediately see, but are just around the corner, waiting to be the next inevitable crisis.

---

Higher Education Changes for Adult Students. Or Does It?

January 16, 2014, 1:26 pm

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Four Noteworthy Developments in 2013...And What We're Watching in 2014

Written by Beth Doyle, Sr. Director of Marketing & Communication, Council for Adult and Experiential Learning

Higher education was often a front-and-center news topic in 2013, featuring stories about jaw-dropping levels of student debt and efforts by Congress to rein in college loan rates. The impact that higher education changes had on working-age adults did not get as much attention as it did for those in the 18-22 age bracket, but it was more than it has received in the past.

Approximately 55 million jobs are expected to open up in the economy by 2020, and 65% of those jobs will require workers to possess postsecondary credentials. The need to help more adults enroll in - and graduate from - college has become critical. And it hits home for most of us. Even if we have our degree, we likely know someone who is one of the 22% of U.S. adults with some college experience but without a degree. We also know what lacking a degree might cost them: job security and a decent wage.

There were four important issues affecting adult students that we had our eye on last year and are continuing to follow in 2014:

1) Students should earn college credit for what they already know. Prior learning assessment (PLA) - the concept of earning college credit for college-level learning that occurs outside of a classroom - is being recognized as a cost-effective, time-saving solution for working adult students.

Last year was one of its biggest years yet as PLA gained momentum among Congressional leaders on both sides of the aisle. PLA also got a boost from President Obama, who called on colleges to award prior learning credits to students as part of his overall plan for college affordability legislation. As noted last March in Inside Higher Ed, "[t]he safe bet... is that credit for prior learning is going to continue expanding." And it's about time. With so many adults in need of a degree and the cost of college rising, it is just wasteful to force students to take courses in subjects they already know. This is even more relevant for adult students with 10 or 20 years of work and life experience.

2) College still is worth it. But... As evidenced by a report last November from the policy organization Public Agenda, many adults are not making informed choices about which school to attend. Many are failing to take into account important factors, such as graduation rates, and do not understand which types of institutions are better suited for their needs.

One idea proposed in the president's college affordability plan is a rating system that ranks schools based on factors like graduation rates, levels of post-graduation debt, and students' ability to find employment after graduation. There are also calls for education and policy experts to create more navigable online resources to help adults in their school search. For any of these systems to be effective, they must, above all, be user-friendly and informative.

Beyond school choice issues, adults enrolling in college also face decisions about their career path. Unfortunately, most of their advice is coming from friends or colleges interested in pushing their own programs. Very few college advisors use labor market data to determine job availability or are able to dedicate the time needed to match students with a career suited to their interests and strengths.
The gap between student needs and their college and career choices adds to the skill shortage. They may have skills, but not the ones in demand. The result is what experts call a skills mismatch, which may be damaging job creation even more than the problem of low skills.

3) MOOCs and online education are on the move. Massive open online courses (MOOCs) - which are web-based courses that are open to everyone and free of charge - continue to generate discussion. Some see their potential as a mainstream learning tool. Others see them as a way of commoditizing the college experience and lowering the quality of education. Despite the calls for the demise of MOOCs, there is no doubt that online education is here to stay. The ways that we all learn and receive information will only become more accessible as technology expands - and nothing can be done to stop that.

Before online courses, most adults did not have the work schedule, location or financial circumstances to attend college as a "typical" college student. They were essentially locked out of higher education. The impact of online education on working adults is an issue rarely discussed in these debates. Whether MOOCs remain, or are replaced with something new, more colleges and universities will be forced to acknowledge, and respond to, the needs of these students.

4) Southern New Hampshire University's CBE system. Last April, Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU) made news when it became the first institution in the nation to receive Department of Education funding for its competency-based education (CBE) system. This meant that instead of evaluating student progress on the amount of time spent in a classroom (using the credit hour, which is the default standard for measuring progress), students would now receive college credit based on their actual demonstration of skills learned.

SNHU is using the CBE system for an associate's degree program, and this development potentially opens the door for more institutions to develop their own CBE systems and receive federal funding. Like PLA, CBE could be a strategy to help students save money and time in their pursuit of a degree.

Where are we headed?

The higher education news this year was music to my ears. Never before have I seen so much discussion of ideas that are favorable to adult students. I look forward to the upcoming year, but I also worry.

Will we forget these ideas? Will our public officials and colleges continue to give them the urgency they deserve? Or will vast numbers of adults continue to be left behind? And if they are, will our businesses and country be left behind as other nations scurry ahead? Let's hope not, and resolve to do everything in our power to prevent that.

WWE Legend And Women's Wrestling Pioneer Johnnie Mae Young Dies At 90 (VIDEO)

January 16, 2014, 1:34 pm

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In 1939, Johnnie Mae Young began her professional wrestling career. Little did we know that career would span eight decades.

Known as "The Great Mae Young," the deceased Hall-of-Famer made sporadic appearances in the 21st century WWE, including when she was notoriously power-bombed through a table by Bubba Ray Dudley at the age of 76.

"There will never be another Mae Young," said Vince McMahon, the chairman and chief executive of World Wrestling Entertainment.

In a tribute to Young, the WWE released the video above.

She's a wrestling pioneer. I truly had deep affection & respect for "Aunty Mae" Young. RIP. #IMissUMae pic.twitter.com/r9oG9rLw9Z

— Dwayne Johnson (@TheRock) January 15, 2014

Public Water Systems Can Help the War on Poverty

January 16, 2014, 1:41 pm

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No army can win a war without good quality water. Dysentery took more lives in the U.S. Civil War than battle wounds. Likewise, the War on Poverty won't be won without healthy and affordable water.

The conversation this week about the War on Poverty is long overdue, especially welcome is the noisy clamor to raise the minimum wage. At the same time, families' budgets swell with multiple expenses. The War on Poverty will be won when some of those can be shrunk, especially those that can be more equitably shared. Let's take a look at water.

An account might start with the nearly $500 average that a U.S. households spends on water. On top of that, figure in their share of the $14 billion that U.S. households spend on bottled water -- to some degree motivated by a lack of trust in public water. Then there are important savings to take stock of: reduced health care costs due to good quality water. Those savings can be significant.

So upon first glance, the news released by the U.S. Conference of Mayors spelling out increased municipal spending for water and sanitation seems highly favorable.

"The historical spending record clearly establishes local government as the dominant investor in public water, and by virtue of the investment, also establishes local government as a critical water environment steward. Combined public water and wastewater investment is estimated to be $1.77 trillion from 1972 to 2010: $981.4 billion for water supply; and, $796.4 billion for wastewater systems."

The mayors' study begins in 1972, when not long after the War on Poverty began, the Clean Water Act was passed during the Nixon administration. It triggered massive public spending in public water.

While government investment in the water commons is terrific news, according to the U.S. Mayors report, "A serious concern for local government is the disproportionate financial impact on families at or below the poverty level ... because user fees command a greater percentage of their annual incomes. This disparate financial impact is regressive."

Not only is it regressive, but the investment is inadequate. The Conference of Mayors estimates that, "investment needs over the 20 year horizon (2008-2028) is likely in the range of $2.8 to $4.8 trillion." Many municipalities have already issued all the bonds they can without ruining their credit ratings. Local taxes and water rates have been rising to pay the costs.

The mayors support "the widely held view by Americans that water is a common good owned by everyone, and government should retain the authority to deliver it locally/regionally." Yet they raise concerns that water is becoming unaffordable, hampered by current rate structures, which can restrict differential pricing for varied users. They call for "a fresh look at local affordability and national water policy."

How can we improve the state of our water commons and guarantee the right to water and sanitation without driving families deeper into poverty? A Forbes article raises the possibility of a clean water trust fund as a solution for how to raise the money more equitably.

"In a 2009 study, the U.S. Government Accountability Office considered how to raise $10 billion annually for the fund and suggested that payment come from industries that profit from water or damage its quality, including those that make beverages, fertilizers and pesticides, flushable products, pharmaceuticals, water appliances and plumbing fixtures."

Such creative cross-subsidies offer an alternative to socking low-income users with "full cost recovery" -- covering all water operator costs with spiraling user charges. Behind such progressive financing is an affirmation that water is a public good, not dissimilar from public education. We all benefit from an educated population and so spread the expense across society. Likewise with water, the public health benefits are enormous. A clean water trust has the benefit of providing disincentives to polluters and is supported by consumer advocacy groups like Food and Water Watch.

At the same time, there are large savings in the water sector through innovation with green or natural infrastructure -- permeable surfaces instead of channeling all storm water into waste water treatment, water recycling, using one grade of water for showers and another for drinking and more. Upstream watershed management -- especially with water utilities at the helm -- also delivers savings, as New York City has proven in its partnership with upstate farmers. These are not simple transition for utilities to make, but there is a new hopeful current emerging.

Worldwide, the links between poverty reduction, public health and access to clean and affordable water are even more dramatic. For the billions of people without clean water and sanitation, climbing out of poverty while carrying a child sick with diarrhea is impossibly unfair.

Fifty years ago, it wasn't uncommon for water hoses to be used against anti-poverty and civil rights campaigners. Following in their footsteps, and taking a cue from Isaiah, we
might try bending those hoses into clean, affordable water for all.

--

Daniel Moss is Coordinator of Our Water Commons and active in the Reclaiming Public Water Network. He has recently published a report on public water utility investments in water source protection and watershed conservation entitled, "Urban Water Utilities and Upstream Communities Working Together."

A Big Brand With the Opportunity to Lead on an Increasingly Complex Problem: Climate

January 16, 2014, 1:43 pm

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Last weekend I enjoyed the opening festivities for a spectacular new building on the Yale campus, designed by Norman Foster to house the Yale School of Management.

YSOM is the "different" business school. From its founding in 1976, it has attracted individuals drawn to complex problems and to a world where business "leans in" to the big issues of our day. Under the rubric, "Business + Society: Leadership in an Increasingly Complex World" and with break-out sessions under provocative titles like "Preparing Leaders for a Flatter World," the conversation spanned big problems where business has a big footprint -- from climate change to inequality.

I imagine it was a heady experience for the current students in attendance. Alumni, in the sessions I attended, demonstrated a willingness to look at complex issues from multiple perspectives, the hallmark of the schools' innovative curriculum.

Just how complex these issues can get was visible in the last session.

The panel was titled "Finance in Society: Markets and Behavior." Two of the featured speakers, Jane Mendillo, CEO of Harvard Management Company, and David Swensen, Mendillo's counterpart at Yale, oversee the largest university endowments on the planet. Their comments illustrate the complexity behind a very hot topic -- amassing financial power to address a real financial risk: climate change.

Mendillo, a Yalie who manages money for the country's "oldest corporation," talked about the kind of stewardship that will allow the Harvard endowment to last another 400 years. She acknowledged students are "excited" about the climate issue--but her job is to maximize returns for Harvard so that other parts of the university--including scientists and policy specialists--might continue to look for answers.

David Swensen, the highly regarded manager of Yale's endowment, said the real answer was obvious: get a price on carbon. However, that challenge, Mr. Swensen believes, resides with government. Once there is a price--albeit in the distant future given the excruciatingly slow pace of the political process--then he will need to offload coal.

Yale Professor Bob Shiller, who was recently granted the Nobel Prize in Economics, weighed in to acknowledge the yawning gap between the power of global institutions and sticky problems like this one. No one institution has the mandate and reach to get the job done.

Dear Leaders of an Increasingly Complex World: I see a great opportunity. The system is perfectly designed for the results we have now. What might we do to change the game?

The two fund managers have managed through remarkably turbulent times. Their success is widely admired--even, envied. From the perspective of Harvard and Yale, they are doing the job they are hired to do exceedingly well. Yet, if the time horizon is really 400 years, what questions should current managers, directors, and beneficiaries of a combined $50 Billion be asking?

The answers require out-of-the-box thinking--and that means the finance faculty need to join forces with their colleagues in strategy and environment. Speakers at an earlier session, "The Path to Resilient Prosperity," could help brainstorm ways for endowments to pick up the pace of change--from engaging in dialogue with carbon laden equity holdings, to asking analysts to take a more serious look at the long term risks associated with business as usual, to requiring outside asset managers to disclose how they are paid--is it quarterly stock price, or something more?

The session ended on a high note: the belief that education can elevate our most enlightened values and ethics--but on the ground we have a classic disconnect. For the current consumers of education, continuing to act as if climate risk is someone else's problem is an issue of morality, not just markets. The student campaigners are already at the door.

Dean Ted Snyder, in his closing remarks, used a sports analogy to talk about the potential to raise our game. In thanking the village of donors, designers, workers and colleagues who worked tirelessly to bring the new campus on line--he described what it feels like when you reach a different, higher level of performance on the field. You can think you were lucky that everything went well, or you can decide this IS your new level of play.

The Dean has set a high bar for his school, whose graduates aspire to influence and lead the world's most important institutions, both public and private. With its peers, the university has unparalleled convening power to move money management to a new level of consciousness about the impact of investment on environment.

The fabulous new building is as green as it gets; how about the actions of its graduates? What game should we--the extremely fortunate consumers of an extraordinary education--play now?

Unchaining the Elephants of Nepal

January 16, 2014, 2:28 pm

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As part of my work with animals I meet some extraordinary people. One of them is Carol Buckley, the Founder and Director of Elephant Aid International.

Carol has worked with elephants since she was a 19-year-old college student and brought a young elephant she called Tara from a car dealer in California who was using her as a promotional gimmick. She taught Tarra how to roller skate and created Tarra Productions. Tarra and Carol traveled to circuses around the country.

But one day she was confronted by a woman who thought Tarra was being mistreated because she was forced to roller skate. Carol began to reassess her relationship with Tarra. She founded the Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee financed through the sale of her home in California. She realized that elephants are wild animals that don't belong in circuses or zoos. Tarra had a new home, and Carol a new cause -- protecting elephants.

Today, she works tirelessly on behalf of elephants around the world. Her latest crusade is to end the barbaric practice of chaining the legs of working elephants in Nepal. These poor creatures who work in fields, forests and in the busy streets of Nepal have their front legs chained together when they are not working, severely restricting their movements. They can't move or socialize with each other. Often they are stuck standing in their own waste. Their feet become deformed and painful from infected tissue. They exhibit abnormal rocking, bobbing and swaying behaviors. Many die sick and broken.

It is a testimony to Carol's work with elephants that the Nepalese government recently invited Elephant Aid International to create the country's first-ever chain-free corrals at Chitwan National Park, where 63 working elephants now live shackled in chains.

The project will cost $441,000 - $7,000 per corral. Elephant Aid International plans on building 63 corrals for 63 elephants. Each elephant gets a one-acre corral, which is interconnected, allowing elephants to socialize with each other. She needs to have the money in hand by February 1 so that the project can be completed before the chief warden of Chitwan, who has supported her efforts, leaves office.

Carol has already successfully implemented a pilot project in Nepal for chain-free corrals. She now needs to create 15 spacious, outdoor stables with 63 chain-free corrals using state-of-the-art, solar-powered fencing that will not harm the elephants. The elephants will have natural vegetation for shade and streams for bathing.

But best of all, the Nepalese government has promised that its goal is to make all working elephants chain-free. This is tremendous news because it will have an impact on all elephants currently in chains throughout Asia. It is an opportunity to change the lives of thousands of elephants.

We need to teach our children and grandchildren that elephants don't belong in circuses and zoos. They are wild animals. We do respect the fact that working elephants are vital to the economy of many poor nations. But that doesn't mean they can't be treated with care and respect.

I urge you to visit Carol's website. My company, PRAI Beauty is supporting the work of Elephant Aid International and I urge you to join me. You will not only guarantee the Nepalese elephants a better life -- you will be helping those who rely on these elephants for their livelihood.

Sex Trafficking: Beyond the Abstract Evil

January 16, 2014, 2:33 pm

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Readers of my work know I've investigated the horrors of sex trafficking in places like Thailand and Cambodia. But besides personally meeting the survivors and warriors who work daily to combat this complex crime, I've also become a bit of an anti-slavery conference nut. I've attended conferences in Chittagong, Manila, L.A., D.C. and N.Y.C. Some were funded by well-established NGOs, while others by a group of people simply looking to generate community engagement. The primary focus of each conference was to find practical solutions to combat sex trafficking, that type of modern-day slavery which is arguably the most difficult to talk about and, at times, listen to.

"The way to truly combat this crime is not, and never will be, to talk around it. We must talk through it."

The stories from survivors, as empowering as they can be, can also take their toll on those of us fortunate enough not to have actually experienced such trauma. That "toll" is often referred to as "vicarious trauma." It's the result of our empathic engagement and our trying so hard to understand the survivor's trauma that, even if for a brief moment, we lose perspective that they are there and we are here. That as much as we are connected, we are still separate. That we didn't actually experience what they did. I'm recovering now from a bout of vicarious trauma. Still struggling with sleep and mood issues, and with finding a rhythm at work because of it.

This is all to say that I know well the many difficulties that can arise from talking about these issues. But the way to truly combat this crime is not and never will be to talk around it. We must talk through it.

By far the most effective conference I attended was in Chittagong, Bangladesh. Government officials, peace activists, law enforcement, NGO representatives and survivors all took turns sharing the details of their experience. They didn't turn distinct realities into faraway metaphors of "darkness" and "evil" and "letting light shine." There was no sugar-coating. In fact, it was the kind of intense and detail-oriented environment where sugar-coating wouldn't have even been tolerated. Those who spoke went straight at the issues of exactly how they were tricked, by who and when and why, how the raid happened, the exact cultural, social and economic variables that encouraged the crime. They provided the names of laws and even what precise word in the law needed to be changed in order to close loopholes that allow the criminals to escape.

Months after this conference, I shared the experience with a man I met at a conference in L.A. I'll never forget what he said:

If religion or your faith community brought you to this fight, great. You are needed more than you may ever know. But we must be careful not to speak of the concrete dynamics of this crime with the often abstract language of our religious faiths.

He nailed it. This is what happened in Manila. And this is what was happening before our eyes in L.A. This was the problem I'd been experiencing, but couldn't yet articulate.

"We must work to demystify the criminals, and learn to speak about them as though they are real-life human beings (because they are)."

The reason we understand today how organized crime works, for example, is because we interviewed and listened to everyone involved in it -- including the high-ranking gang members themselves. Just calling them "evil" and putting them "out of sight, out of mind" by locking them up would have had disastrous consequences for the way we approached future situations. Police officers studied their criminal patterns; sociologists dug into the homes and environments they came from; psychologists explored the way their upbringing may very well have shaped their criminal behavior, and Criminology majors sat in class and dissected what these criminals said about their motives, their family backgrounds and their current lifestyles. We got to the root of the crime, in part, by talking real, and by doing the hard work of remaining emotionally stable enough to listen and learn from the criminal.

Is this a call for all of us to be willing to listen to the mother who sold her child into a life of sex slavery? Yes. Is this a call to extract what information we can about the man who arranged, say, the kidnapping of sex trafficking survivor Shandra Woworuntu from JFK airport? Yes. Am I asking you, as Thich Nhat Hanh did with the father of a Sandy Hook victim, to think of the criminals involved in these horrific crimes as victims as well? Yes, I am.

We feel deeply when we hear traumatic stories such as those from Somaly Mam or of the young boys in Chiang Mai who have HIV as a result of being passed around as sex slaves. The voices of the survivors must remain at the forefront so that we know with precision the kind of treatment they endured, and the myriad factors that went into their being victimized. But so too must we listen to the victimizers. Just as we work to empathize with and learn from the survivors, so too must we demystify the criminals and learn to speak about them as though they are real-life human beings (because they are).

Essay originally appeared at The Good Men Project.

Housing First Doesn't Work: The Homeless Need Community Support

January 16, 2014, 2:39 pm

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Homeless advocates from 36 states are gathering this week at the Beyond Housing Conference sponsored by the Institute for Children, Poverty and Homelessness (ICPH). Institute President and CEO, Ralph DaCosta Nunez, opened the conference by explaining the agency's intent when they named the event. Nunez said, "There is a lot of misunderstanding about this issue," that goes beyond homelessness.

Nunez should know. He served as Mayor Koch's Deputy Director when New York City first started tackling the issue of homeless families. He explained that the city's initial approach was a rush to find housing. Families burned out by their homes, or those who lost housing after paying a big medical bill were relatively easy to help. And the numbers were workable. Thirty years ago there were 800 families a year. Nunez said they worked with their re-housing model, but when that number jumped to 5000, they realized the problem wasn't going to "go away." It wasn't even going to "level off." Additionally, and because of a change in direction the federal government took in the 1980s, the situation of homelessness went from a problem to a catastrophe. Today, there are 12,155 homeless families in New York City. Nunez told the group, "Tonight, 55,000 men, women and children will sleep in shelters all across the city."

After praising the War on Poverty for the enormous impact individual programs like food stamps or head start made mitigating poverty, Nunez, a Professor at Columbia University, opined that while the programs were right on, public policy was all wrong.

With commentary that would make any civil rights advocate cringe, Nunez explained that three public policy implementations alienated the average American voter. He pointed out that these were voters who overwhelmingly supported Lyndon Johnson and his Great Society reforms. Nunez explained that the programs had "good intentions," but "poor methodology."

Nunez believes the first mistake made was instituting hiring quotas. People who wanted reforms to help the poor found themselves in line with workers who could cut in front of them as the Great Society attempted to level a playing field made unequal by age old discriminations. Decisions for hiring included consideration of race and past oppression. Unemployed contemporaries vying for available jobs didn't find these affirmative action qualifications germane when it came to competing with the socially underprivileged, if it meant that they themselves remained out of work.

The second mistake was the location of public housing in middle class neighborhoods. As Housing and Urban Development (HUD) started building low-income housing, their efforts to build those homes outside the poverty zone alienated the same middle class voters who had voted for the reforms. The NIMBYs -- an anagram used to describe these folks and formed from the phrase "not in my back yard" -- wanted to help the poor, just not in their own neighborhoods.

Nunez said the third and final methodological mistake was bussing. As part of education reform, poor kids were bussed to more affluent school districts and kids from those well-to-do neighborhoods were bussed to the poor kids' schools. Nunez contended that bussing really annoyed families who often purchased homes precisely because of the school district, and then learned that their kids wouldn't be allowed to attend those schools.

Nunez described the Reagan Revolution -- President Ronald Reagan's political strategy of offering to "get government off your back" -- as a brilliant exploitation of the disgruntled feelings these reforms had caused.

And while the War on Poverty worked, bringing the number of people living in poverty down from 19 percent in 1960 to 10 percent in 1980, reversals over the last 34 years have devastated those gains. Nunez reminded his audience that the reversal wasn't the doing of any one political party. According to Nunez, welfare reform -- a legacy of President Clinton's administration -- "threw another rock in the boat" exacerbating the increasing poverty rate.

Today 16 percent of Americans live in poverty and those numbers are growing. This week's ICPH conference hopes to train 500 advocates from all across the country to understand the underlying causes of homelessness and empower them to go back to their communities with a renewed "Beyond Housing" approach to ending homelessness.

Nunez chided the federal government's current Housing First model. Nunez said that it is all that's left after the other poverty fighting programs have been underfunded or eliminated. Destined to fail, as New York City's own recidivism statistics prove, Nunez described Housing First's one-size-fits-all approach not as "public policy" but rather as "public stupidity."

Nunez encouraged the room to ask: Are people without homes homeless? Are people without homes and with mental illness homeless? Are people without homes and victims of domestic violence homeless? Are people without homes and without educations homeless?

If the answer to all these questions is yes, then the answer, Nunez points out, can't be just homes.

Nunez recommended a three-tiered solution. He said "of course Housing First," for families and individuals who just need housing. But there also needs to be a Housing Second option for folks who need education or other job training and placement assistance. Lastly, there needs to be a Housing Third option for individuals and families with problems that compound their job and/or housing situation. Those requiring the Housing Third model often have other complicated challenges including substance abuse, generational poverty, and mental or physical illness.

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ICPH provides data and assistance to providers nationwide at no charge.Folks interested in changing poverty and homelessness dynamics in their own communities can access staff and statistics at the ICPH website.

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Breastfeeding Mom Learns Victoria's Secret Doesn't Always Support Boobs

January 16, 2014, 2:46 pm

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Here we go again.

Fox7 reports that when Ashley Clawson asked a Victoria's Secret employee if she could nurse her child in a dressing room, she was not only denied, but directed to go to the nearest alleyway. The employee allegedly claimed "no one usually goes there." Adding insult to injury, Clawson had just spent $150 at the store.

"I was humiliated by the whole thing," Clawson told Fox. "Once your child is hungry, there's no going back."

Texas law -- much like other similar state laws -- makes it clear that women are a permitted to breastfeed in any public or private location where the mother is authorized to be.

So, when Clawson got home she decided to air her grievances on her Facebook page. She wrote:

"I have to blast Victoria's Secret at the Domain for telling me I wasn't aloud to nurse my very hungry, fussy son in their fitting room after I spent a fair amount in their store. She actually told me to go outside and walk down an alley where no one 'usually' goes and nurse him. Seriously?!? Lost a customer for sure."

She also filed two complaints to which they told her she'd be receiving something in the mail.

Victoria's Secret released the following statement to the station:

"We take this issue very seriously. We have a longstanding policy permitting mothers to nurse their children in our stores and we are sorry that it was not followed in this case. We have apologized to Ms. Clawson, and we are taking actions to ensure all associates understand our policy that welcomes mothers to breastfeed in our stores."

Despite taking the issue seriously, this isn't the first time Victoria's Secret has been under fire for trying to deter moms from nursing in its stores. A Wisconsin mother was told in 2006 to use the employee restroom. The spokesperson at the time, Anthony Hebron, said that Victoria's Secret has a long standing policy for allowing mothers to breastfeed in the store. Moms organized a nurse-in at the store in response.

"I do think that Victoria's Secret needs to train their employee's better on the breastfeeding policy and know the laws on it," Clawson said. And perhaps treat breasts with a little more respect.

"The posters and everything are just women showing their breasts and obviously to Victoria's Secret in my eyes, it's looked at as a play toy. Not necessarily, means for you know nursing your child, which is why we have breasts to begin with."

Couple Injured In Boston Marathon Bombing Will Get A Fairy Tale Wedding

January 16, 2014, 3:03 pm

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Rebekah Gregory and Pete DiMartino were waiting at the finish line of the Boston Marathon when the bombs went off on April 15, 2013. Now, almost a year later, the couple is getting ready to walk down the aisle. And thanks to wedding planning website The Knot, they'll receive the wedding of their dreams.

Gregroy and DiMartino met in 2012 and began a long-distance relationship. In April 2013, they were in Boston to cheer on DiMartino's mother as she ran the marathon. Gregory's 6-year-old son was there too. When the bombs went off, Gregory instinctively shielded her son, and in the process, broke almost every bone in her foot, leg and ankle. She is still in a wheelchair.

DiMartino lost 90 percent of his right Achilles tendon and suffered broken ankle bones and a ruptured eardrum.

But the tragic events of that day put the couple's love in perspective. In October 2013, DiMartino proposed and Gregory, of course, said "Yes."

"[In] the end, we decided our relationship was worth more," Gregory told People. "We realized that we didn't have to survive that day -– we could've lost one another –- and for me, I knew I didn't want to spend another day without this guy. For whatever time I have left on Earth I want to be with him."

The Knot heard about the couple's hardship and chose them as the 2014 Dream Wedding recipients. The couple's entire wedding -- from flowers, to the dress, to the cake -- will all be voted on by readers, but The Knot will foot the bill.

"Being able to show people that you can take something so horrible and turn it into something so beautiful has been such a blessing for us," Gregory told The Knot. "I don't know if I'll be able to walk down the aisle, but all I want to do is marry the love of my life, Pete."

This is not the only love story to come out of the tragic events that day. Boston bombing survivor Jamse Costello is set to marry the nurse who helped him recover after he was badly burned and hurt by shrapnel in the blasts.

Watch the video below for more on the couple's love story.

Keep in touch! Check out HuffPost Weddings on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest.

How a Surprise Pregnancy in Africa Made Us a Family

January 16, 2014, 3:20 pm

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When I was 27, I discovered that I was 8 ½ months pregnant.

At the time, I lived in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. I'd been living there for a year with my fiancé, whom I'd met when we were both teaching in a rural village. We fell in love and eventually moved to the city together to begin the visa process so we could live in the United States. One week before his interview, we discovered the pregnancy.

I'd been ill, off and on, for months. I'd been temporarily hospitalized with a vicious bacterial infection. I'd been repeatedly tested for malaria and all sorts of bugs. One doctor told me I had swollen tonsils (I decided not to tell him I'd had my tonsils removed years ago). I'd given so many urine and fecal samples that it stopped being embarrassing to carry a bag of my own poop on a rickshaw.

Until one day my normal doctor wasn't in, so a bony German doctor with a long ponytail saw me. She looked at my chart and frowned. I knew the feeling; I'd been googling my symptoms on WebMD for months and it never gave me hopeful results. She asked me a few questions, and when she discovered my partner was a Tanzanian she clucked at me. "You can't trust them, you know," she warned me severely. "He's only using you for a visa." I was so gobsmacked at the error and inappropriateness of her statement that my eyes welled with tears. She took it as encouragement to continue, and by the time she was handing me yet another cup to pee in, she'd told me that this was the time to leave him, before the visa interview.

My family visiting Cape Town when I was about 7 months (unknowingly) pregnant.


I barely thought about the urine sample, or any possible results, when I handed it to the nurse and then, a few moments later, was ushered back into the room. The doctor sat on a stool and sighed. "You're pregnant," she announced, and I could tell she thought she was delivering terrible news. I was shocked to be sure. "Wait, but I've given at least ten urine samples in the last few months," I told her, "and they didn't... I mean, no one said anything about... pregnancy?"

She looked at my chart. "You weren't tested for pregnancy before," she said. And all of a sudden, my American naivety came crashing down. I stammered an excuse, of how if a woman of childbearing age complains of stomach problems in the U.S., she's automatically tested and... I'd just assumed that's the way it was here, too.

The ultrasound didn't tell us the gender, but it did stun us into silence when the doctor told us that I was likely about 34 weeks pregnant. All of a sudden my quickly-composed plans to deliver at home in the United States evaporated. On the plus side, my fiancé took the sonogram to his visa interview, and walked away with an American visa.

I delivered Grace via C-section at the AMI Hospital in Dar es Salaam, where a rooster crowed outside my window, which also held a view of a beautifully blooming jacaranda and, in the distance, the Indian Ocean. My blood pressure had shot up and I called my mom. "The doctor here doesn't seem worried," I said. "Deliver today," my mom ordered as she frantically searched online for tickets to Tanzania. "That's how pre-eclampsia begins." I didn't have time to be frustrated or scared at delivering in a foreign country away from my entire family. All of a sudden I cared so deeply for this little child, who, two weeks ago, I hadn't known existed.

Me holding my daughter the day she was born (exhausted and in love!).


I don't always tell people that I didn't know I was pregnant. Although I'll never forget the surprise, I often wonder, "Why didn't I know?" I think back to the missed periods, which I dismissed after no one commented on my first urine sample, since my periods have never been regular and tend to go missing when I'm sick or stressed. I think back to the weight gain, which I had supposed was from lack of exercise in a new environment, as my weight tends to fluctuate around my midsection. I could excuse all the signs, really, which I missed while trying to adjust to a new country, the visa process, traveling, and a new fiancé, not to mention sometimes-crushing homesickness. My parents even visited my fiancé and me when I was seven months along, and had no idea.

I suppose it was the burden of being a foreigner in a foreign land. One Tanzanian doctor laughed at me and said she saw women in my situation all the time, but usually they were not American. I spent hours online, guiltily trying to assure myself that I wasn't alone in my ignorance, and was surprised to find many other mothers like myself. In any case, when Grace was one week old, she had her passport photo taken, and then a meeting at the embassy. Two weeks later, the three of us finally, finally made it to the United States.

My husband, daughter and me in Dar es Salaam at Christmas time,
when she was only 10 days old.

Top 5 Goals for Open Government in 2014

January 16, 2014, 3:53 pm

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Open government offers a society a number of attractive benefits. Transparency begets accountability. The provision of information enhances the ability of governments to provide valuable public goods and services. Its data, furthermore, can be analyzed and used by third parties in innovative ways, resulting in other socially beneficial products. The classic example here are the private weather forecasts made possible from government-supplied weather information. Or the maps that derive from GPS. By governments making information easily accessible, citizens are also more likely to get engaged in some form of their governance.

Despite these benefits, however, open government has spun a few wheels on the road to achieving its potential. For the past two summers, the Aspen Institute Communications and Society Program has convened its Forum on Communications and Society (FOCAS) on the topic of open governance, with funding from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. From those meetings, I'd like to suggest five goals for open government in 2014.


1. Improve the procurement process

Procurement plays a critical role in technology's implementation and utilization at all government levels. The problematic rollout of the Affordable Care Act's website, www.healthcare.gov, epitomizes how ineffective procurement processes can derail or stall a public project. Labeled as the definition of a bad IT project and one of the worst product flops of 2013, it appears that (with some notable exceptions) government's deployment of information and communication technologies is still stuck in the last century. As explained in the last two FOCAS reports, cumbersome rules for how agencies can buy and use software create a barrier to integrating lightweight and open alternatives into government operations. This inevitably inhibits progress.

Improving the procurement process will help spur innovation. With technology now enabling cheaper, innovative solutions to both narrow and large-scale problems, participants at FOCAS agreed that we need a more flexible procurement system that promotes and encourages the integration of effective and innovative services. For example, reforms that provide the opportunity for smaller, more nimble companies to solve software problems might lead to more efficient and successful outcomes. Procurement rules should make it easier for these small companies to bid and for government to pay out winning bids to non-legacy contractors. The system needs to embrace more experimentation and allow for risk absorption.

It often takes an urgency to bring about a reform. Let's hope that the learning moment from the breakdown of healthcare.gov can result in positive reforms of government procurement processes at all levels in 2014.


2. Increase transparency

Early in December, the Obama Administration released the second US Open Government National Action Plan, announcing 23 new or expanded open-government commitments that aim to advance such efforts further. 'We the People," Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Modernization, The Global Initiative on Fiscal Transparency (GIFT), Open Data to the Public and Participatory Budgeting are among the highlights. Despite these worthy initiatives, particularly enhanced by the excellent work coming out of the President's Office of Science and Technology Policy, openness has not been a pervasive enough theme of this administration. As New York Times Public Editor Margaret Sullivan wrote, "Instead, it's turning out to be the administration of unprecedented secrecy and of unprecedented attacks on a free press."

Indeed, the administration's effort to prevent leaks and control information is said to be the most aggressive since the Nixon administration. And the White House has increasingly sought to control the news emanating from Washington. "Transparency" just isn't getting the data out.

State and local governments have also claimed to increase transparency in government, and again there have been advances at these levels. But much work remains in this area, and the rhetoric does not always correlate to the actions. For example, Georgia's governor, Nathan Deal, touted a need for trust and transparency in government, saying, "Our success as leaders of Georgia depends heavily on the public's ability to trust us." Yet the governor faces allegations that some of his administration worked with the state ethics staff to destroy evidence from an investigation into the governor's financial records from his 2010 campaign. (Over the years, it is alleged, the governor collected hundreds of thousands of dollars in unreported contributions.) The case of Nathan Deal demonstrates a need for transparency in government and the important role journalism plays in exposing potentially unethical activities.


3. Encourage citizen engagement

The full potential of open government and its ability to engage citizens has yet to be realized.
Organizations such as Code for America and the Sunlight Foundation have created ecosystems for innovation and citizen interaction. However, as a whole, we are moving forward without a clear understanding of just how to encourage engagement, or even what we mean by that word.

A big takeaway from the 2013 FOCAS conference is the need for empathy in open government. As Panthea Lee, Principal and Co-Founder at Reboot explains, "If we hope to get beyond a world of perpetual pilots with few success stories, we need to move beyond 'the citizen' and 'the government,' and toward sophisticated and informed understanding of the people we seek to serve and influence."

Steven Clift's e-Democracy.org is an online public space with the mission of harnessing online tools to support participation in public life, strengthen communities, and build democracy. It is within spaces such as this that we can inspire more inclusive community engagements in 2014.


4. Use government data for social good

Access to a broad range of government data in usable formats encourages ingenuity and unlocks value by allowing the free flow of information. Its full potential to empower citizens, revolutionize how government works, and improve delivery of public goods and services has not been fully utilized. McKinsey research determined that government data could unlock more than $3 trillion in value every year in seven domains of the global economy. By not harnessing this data, we stand to lose the transformative social impacts as well.

This is where organizations like the Open Data Institute (ODI) come in. ODI is catalyzing the evolution of open data culture to create economic, environmental, and social value. Located in the United Kingdom, it has affiliates around the world to help reveal supply, generate demand, create and disseminate knowledge to address local and global issues.

In a positive step forward, a group of practitioners and transparency advocates recently started a similar US organization to test the ODI model in the United States. ODI USA, made possible by a grant from the Knight Foundation (that materialized as a result of the FOCAS Forum), will help facilitate the sharing of data through convenings and open source projects. By connecting businesses, government agencies and non-profits, ODI USA aims to help overcome some of the barriers that currently impede these organizations from sharing valuable data and collaborating in innovate ways. The year ahead will test the effectiveness of these organizations. But with or without ODI, entrepreneurs from the for-profit and non-profit worlds can analyze, manipulate and use government supplied data in new, socially beneficial ways.


5. Government, Don't Overreach

Not much needs to be said here - so many are already addressing the topic. But given recent NSA events, an important goal for the upcoming year is protection over individuals' data. We need assurances that when governments peruse, collect or use personal data, they will not overreach their boundaries and that the appropriate controls exist. It is a classic clash of values--security vs. personal privacy. It is also a case where protection against one harm can lead to detrimental effects in another important area of national interest, its foreign relations.

In the year ahead, the US president and Congress will address the extensive surveillance techniques of the NSA. We might see FISA Court reforms, increased Congressional oversight, and a variety of other suggestions from the president's oversight committee, and organizations such as the Electronic Privacy Information Center. All this in the Hippocratic words, "first, do no harm."

So the year 2014 presents open government advocates with a large agenda and an opportunity to make significant progress in this emerging and important field.

What Do Ted Turner, Erin Brockovich and Rufus Wainwright Have in Common?

January 17, 2014, 11:49 am

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Billionaires are eccentric, but Ted Turner may be the only one who hosts an annual fundraiser in honor of a cartoon character. Each year in Atlanta, the cable-mogul-turned-rancher and his daughter Laura Turner Seydel gather a crew of celebs who are as crazy about saving the environment as they are -- all in the name of Captain Planet, the animated eco superhero Turner, 75, created in 1991 with Barbara Pyle (the syndicated series still airs on Turner networks). In 2012, Richard Branson and Alison Krauss helped Turner fund green causes and youth programs supported by the Captain Planet Foundation Gala; in 2013, it was time for Erin Brockovich and Rufus Wainwright to join the ranks.

Each year, the Gala honors environmental activists who dedicate their time and resources to finding workable solutions for environmental change, both on the community and global scales. Honorees at the December 2013 event at the Georgia Aquarium included Dr. David Suzuki, a Japanese/Canadian science broadcaster (along with his wife, Dr. Tara Cullis, a writer and Harvard alum) and the David Suzuki Foundation, which assists urban centers in Canada to protect green and blue spaces; Erin Brockovich, a consumer advocate and the subject of an eponymous Oscar winning film about her work to save a rural area from environmental disaster; Tom Szaky, the 30-year-old owner of TerraCycle, which makes bikes out of garbage; and Charles Orgbon ΙΙΙ, a young entrepreneur who formed the advocacy group, Greening Forward. As hosts and recipients discussed climate change and the state of the world's oceans, whale sharks and beluga whales swam behind them inside tanks filled with 10 million gallons of salt water.



Singer Rufus Wainwright, who performed at the 2013 Captain Planet Foundation Gala event and had his photo made with Captain Planet before dinner, said he was excited to be part of the evening because his role as father of a 2 1/2 year-old daughter has sharpened his desire to keep climate change at bay. Wainwright created an energy conservation and concert event called Blackout Sabbath in 2008 after being inspired by the Northeast blackout of 2003 and subsequent blackouts he experienced in New York City in 2006 and 2007. Although plans to expand the project were shelved after his mother became ill with cancer and passed away, Wainwright hopes he can revive the idea soon:

"My concept was to have 24 hours without power, starting at midnight and you just turn off as much as you can," says Wainwright, whose greatest hits album, Vibrate, will be released in February. "We would do a show in an acoustically appropriate venue without any power or lighting, just with candles. I think it was really ambitious to expect people to completely shut off for a 24-hour period. It was a little bit based on the New York City power outage [of 2003]. I was in the city at that point and the power was out for like 2-3 days. It was one of the most rewarding, peaceful experiences I've ever had. I'm sure if it had lasted one more day, there would've been riots in the streets. But for a few hours, just the silence and people coming together and having these real-life, real-time experiences."

For more information about getting involved with environmental projects in your community, visit the Captain Planet Foundation.