skip to main content
skip to newscasts

Friday, March 29, 2024

Public News Service Logo
facebook instagram linkedin reddit youtube twitter
view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina's congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Mayorkas.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

North Dakota to Begin Child Sex Trafficking Education

play audio
Play

Monday, December 7, 2015   

BISMARCK, N.D. – Child sex trafficking continues to be a problem in North Dakota.

To help with that, the state's Department of Human Services will be co-hosting four free training sessions on the issue this month.

Starting next week, human trafficking experts will be talking with social workers, police and foster parents.

Shari Doe, director of North Dakota's Children and Family Services Division, says the idea is to help these professionals identify possible victims and how to get them the best help available.

"We need communities to be aware and to come together, so that we don't end up re-victimizing these youth as they try to go through our system," she stresses.

According to the National Human Trafficking Resource Center, there have been at least 11 cases reported in the state this year. The majority of those involved one or more children, all female.

Nationally, almost 2,800 trafficking cases have been reported.

Doe says the push to do the training comes from a federal anti-trafficking law that Congress passed last year.

She also says it's difficult to put an exact number on how many children are being commercially exploited for sex in the state, but it is something government agencies are trying to resolve.

"A lot of our information is anecdotal, but one of the facets of this new law is for states to collect data on children that are being trafficked, so that nationally we will be able to get a handle on what kind of numbers we're looking at," she points out.

North Dakota has been making other changes to help victims of child sex trafficking.

Over the summer, state lawmakers approved a move to exempt minors from being charged with prostitution. And during a late November Senate hearing, U.S. Sen. Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota blasted the website Backpage.com, which has become an Internet hotspot for sex trafficking.

Heitkamp has been asking that the website do more to keep traffickers from posting anonymous ads for sex.





get more stories like this via email

more stories
The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments this week about the popular abortion pill Mifepristone and will weigh in on whether the U.S. Food and Drug Administration was correct in how it can be dosed and prescribed. (Ascannio/Adobe Stock)

Health and Wellness

play sound

Missouri residents are worried about future access to birth control. The latest survey from The Right Time, an initiative based in Missouri…


Social Issues

play sound

Wisconsin children from low-income families are now on track to get nutritious foods over the summer. Federal officials have approved the Badger …

Social Issues

play sound

Almost 2,900 people are unsheltered on any given night in the Beehive State. Gov. Spencer Cox is celebrating signing nine bills he says are geared …


The U.S. teaching workforce remains primarily white while the percentage of Black teachers has declined. However, the percentage of Asian and Latinx teachers is rising.(WavebreakMediaMicro/Adobestock)

Social Issues

play sound

Education advocates are calling on lawmakers to increase funding for programs to combat the teacher shortage. Around 37% of schools nationwide …

Environment

play sound

New York's Legislature is considering a bill to get clean-energy projects connected to the grid faster. It's called the RAPID Act, for "Renewable …

Social Issues

play sound

Earlier this month, a new Arizona Public Service rate hike went into effect and one senior advocacy group said those on a fixed income may struggle …

Social Issues

play sound

Michigan recently implemented a significant juvenile justice reform package following recommendations from a task force made up of prosecutors…

 

Phone: 303.448.9105 Toll Free: 888.891.9416 Fax: 208.247.1830 Your trusted member- and audience-supported news source since 1996 Copyright © 2021