Kansas

Known as the “Sunflower State,” Kansas became the 34th state in 1861. The state’s name comes from the Kansa or Kaw Indians and is a Sioux Indian term meaning “south wind people.” Within Kansas’s borders is the magnetic center mark for all of North America. All land surveys in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico use this as a reference point. The geographic center of the 48 contiguous (connected) states is located in a Kansas pasture. The native sunflower is the state flower and the capital is Topeka.

Human trafficking is a serious issue that affects people all around the world, including in Kansas. It is a form of modern slavery in which individuals are exploited for labor, sexual exploitation, or other purposes.

In Kansas, human trafficking can take many forms, including forced labor, domestic servitude, and sexual exploitation. It often affects vulnerable populations, such as immigrants, children, and people who are homeless or in poverty.

If you suspect that someone you know may be a victim of human trafficking, there are steps you can take to help. You can report the situation to the National Human Trafficking Hotline at 1-888-373-7888 or by text at 233733. You can also contact local law enforcement or a trusted organization that provides services to victims of human trafficking. It is important to remember that the safety of the victim should be the top priority and to handle the situation with care and sensitivity.

 

 

Texas and Louisiana’s First Spouses’ Global Human Trafficking Summit – 10.14.21
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Texas and Louisiana’s First Spouses’ Global Human Trafficking Summit – 10.14.21

First Lady of Texas Cecilia Abbott and First Lady of Louisiana Donna Edwards have partnered in the past year to educate other first spouses along with key stakeholders across the country on anti-human trafficking efforts and resources they can bring back to their own states. The latest educational summit in October 2021 was hosted by the Texas Governor’s Child Sex Trafficking…

“Dead Man Walking” at Sing Sing
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“Dead Man Walking” at Sing Sing

Photograph by Karen Almond / Courtesy Met Opera The epigraph to Sister Helen Prejean’s book “Dead Man Walking,” published in 1993, is from “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn”: “I went right along, not fixing up any particular plan, but just trusting in Providence to put the right words in my mouth when the time come:…

Forced Labor Continues in Colorado, Years After Vote to End Prison Slavery  – Bolts
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Forced Labor Continues in Colorado, Years After Vote to End Prison Slavery  – Bolts

Throughout Abron Arrington’s decades-long incarceration in Colorado, he often found himself in solitary confinement—not because he was causing trouble, but simply because he refused to work. He didn’t see the point given he was paid 13 cents an hour and figured his time could be better spent learning physics. Before Arrington was incarcerated in 1989,…

Right-wing group warns of ‘surge in human trafficking,’ despite lack of local cases
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Right-wing group warns of ‘surge in human trafficking,’ despite lack of local cases

Editor’s note: this is an example of news / commentary in America.  A conservative women’s group rallied nearly 100 people last month to raise the alarm about the growing threat of human trafficking to local children — despite a dearth of local cases. “Human trafficking is all around us, we just don’t know it,” Alcinda…

Timothy Plan’s proactive approach to combat human trafficking
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Timothy Plan’s proactive approach to combat human trafficking

Facebook is the No. 1 platform used by sex traffickers to recruit victims By Art Ally, Op-ed Contributor | Sunday, July 16, 2023 It is unfortunate that not enough attention has been paid to a worldwide scourge: kidnapping people and using them as slave labor or pressing them into sexual bondage. In an ongoing effort…

Testimony by Tara Lee Rodas for The House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration Integrity, Security, and Enforcement
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Testimony by Tara Lee Rodas for The House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration Integrity, Security, and Enforcement

Editor’s note: We are non-partisan. Children are being hurt. Please, watch, read, learn, and act accordingly. Hearing Date: Wednesday 04/26/2023 – 3:00 PM Hearing Location: 2141 Rayburn House Office Building The hearing, “The Biden Border Crisis: Exploitation of Unaccompanied Alien Children,” will examine the unprecedented surge of unaccompanied alien children at the southwest border and…

History of labor trafficking
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History of labor trafficking

ARIZONA, La. (KTAL/KMSS) –   The kids ran circles around the old brick chimney, yelling “You’re it,” at one another until they tired and headed back to the front porch of the crumbling mansion—but if the children had known the truth about the chimney in the middle of that Claiborne Parish field, would they have used…

Arizona changed how it sells prisoners to companies. The state raked in millions, but workers were neglected
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Arizona changed how it sells prisoners to companies. The state raked in millions, but workers were neglected

Clothed in orange with elbow-high rubber gloves and large black masks, a line of workers along a conveyor belt pull lead from cathode-ray tubes. At a construction warehouse, more workers in orange jumpsuits piece together wall frames for single-family homes until one shoots a nail into his knee with a nail gun. At a canning…

LEARNS Act challenge in the hands of the Arkansas Supreme Court – The Lion
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LEARNS Act challenge in the hands of the Arkansas Supreme Court – The Lion

(The Center Square) – Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin is asking the state’s Supreme Court to immediately stay a lower court order that suspends the implementation of the LEARNS Act. Circuit Court Judge Herbert T. Wright suspended implementation of the law until a June 20 hearing. At issue is whether or not lawmakers should have…

Exploitative Child Labor Is Hurting Kids’ Ability to Stay in School
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Exploitative Child Labor Is Hurting Kids’ Ability to Stay in School

When Guatemalan immigrant Jose Velasquez was 13, he began spending his summers working alongside his mother in North Carolina’s tobacco fields. “I worked 10 to 12 hours a day, five days a week in the Goldsboro area,” he told Truthout. “I had to get up at 4:30 am. A rusty van would come by, cram…