Joe Guidry is the deputy editorial page editor of The Tampa Tribune. He is a Tampa native and a graduate of the University of South Florida. He is married and has an adult son.

Jeff Stidham

Jeff Stidham grew up and lives in Bartow. He has been with the Tribune for nearly 22 years, the last 10 on the editorial board.

William Yelverton

William Yelverton is a Tribune editorial writer who has worked for the paper nearly 22 years. He lives in the Dade City area.

Jim Beamguard

Jim Beamguard is a Tribune editorial writer. He is a native of North Carolina and a graduate of Davidson College. He and his family live in Brandon.

Jackie Papandrew:

Jackie Papandrew is a freelance writer and editor. Her syndicated humor column appears in publications in the United States, Canada and India. She lives in Largo with her husband and children. Visit her website at www.jackiepapandrew.com.

Camille Beredjick

Camille Beredjick is a senior at Chamberlain High School, an avid musician and a scribbler with a quirky sense of humor. In the fall, she will be attending Northwestern University to study journalism, political science and music, and she plans to pursue a career in journalism.

Jim Harnish

Jim Harnish is in his 17th year as Senior Pastor at Hyde Park United Methodist Church in Tampa. He and his wife, Marsha, have two daughters and two grandchildren. He is a graduate of Asbury Theological Seminary and received the honorary Doctor of Divinity degree from Bethune-Cookman University. He is the author of six books and numerous articles and studies. He enjoys playing with his grandchildren and cheering for the Florida Gators.

Angela Hunt

Angela Hunt is a novelist living in Pinellas County with her husband and two 220-pound mastiffs.

Sheryl Young

Sheryl Young was a Tampa Tribune Community Columnist in 2005-2006. A freelance writer since 1997, including the Tampa Bay Business Journal, Tampa Style Magazines, St. Pete Times and nationally in Better Nutrition, Today’s Christian Woman and more. She’s received a First Place Amy Foundation national "Roaring Lambs" Writing Award, and has lived in Tampa Bay with her family for over 20 years.

Christie Gold

Christie Gold teaches English and journalism at Freedom High School in Tampa where she advises Revolution, the school newspaper. She has been both the Hillsborough County Teacher of the Year and Florida Journalism Teacher of the Year. She lives on a small farm in Wesley Chapel where she trains as a competitive equestrian.

Natalie D. Preston

Natalie D. Preston is a karaoke singing, only-child pouting, Seminole Tomahawk waving, newlywed bride blushing, 50-state traveling, girlie girl who loves to shop, read, run and jump up and down on her soapbox.

Fernando Figueroa

Gary Beemer

Interests include humor, politics, economics, community and world affairs, finance, people, religion, music, sports, current events, the arts and education.

Nicole Yunger Halpern

Nicole Yunger Halpern is an undergraduate at Dartmouth College, where she studies everything she can get her nerdy little hands on. Desired major: life. No, not necessarily biology. Life.

Kris DiGiovanni

Kris DiGiovanni is a Tribune Community Columnist, Huffington Post contributor, Daily Kos diarist, and teacher, who recently moved from NW Hillsborough to another planet - a small beach community in Pinellas County. She also blogs at www.sandscript.wordpress.com

H. David Braswell Jr.

H. David Braswell Jr. is an Information Systems Professional. He is a native New Yorker and a lifelong NY Giants fan. He attended college in California (Cal State Northridge) and moved to Tampa in 1998.

Sean Marcus

Sean Marcus teaches creative writing, journalism and reading at Chamberlain High School. He has one son and is expecting a daughter in early March. He can be reached at wuizabug@gmail.com

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Tampa’s Notorious Top Honors: Human Trafficking Capital of Florida

Posted Jul 16, 2010 by Sheryl Young

Updated Jul 16, 2010 at 11:37 AM

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement has stated since 2008 that human trafficking is the biggest “invisible” crime in Florida.

Unfortunately, Tampa and its Hillsborough County outskirts take the top honors for having the most sex-related businesses in the state, and the highest rate of human trafficking.

Exotic dance parlors, adult theatres, video stores and “massage” parlors that serve as covers for escort services or prostitution rings all gravitated here after other Florida cities and counties began either outlawing them or laying down too many regulations for these businesses to make their money.

This in turn has led to an influx of criminals indulging in sex trafficking and child trafficking for sexual slavery, prostitution, forced labor and making pornographic movies against the victims’ will. Human trafficking grabs could be happening under our noses, in an instant.

Human Trafficking is no longer a “foreign” thing.
It’s something Americans associate with a few European or third world countries. But the U.S. State Department’s 2009 “Trafficking in Humans” Report has documented problems in 175 nations, including interstate trafficking within and between the 50 states.

Estimated FBI numbers show 100,000-300,000 teens and children under the age of 18 have been trafficked within the United States per year. It’s harder to obtain statistics for adult victims, because of a finer line between “voluntary” and forced prostitution and sexual slavery.

How does this happen?
American and immigrant girls, women, children who wind up on milk cartons and both male and female teen runaways are being kidnapped and shipped to new U.S. locations—or even to be used by everyday suburban couples as captive sex toys not far from their own home.

Young women are often enticed by the possibility of modeling or acting jobs. The Hollywood dream of obtaining fame and fortune at a young age through television and movies has become an obsession. Once they are lured to the location of their “audition,” they are trapped, kept in back rooms for sex acts or pornographic films against their will.

This past spring, the Florida House and Senate each came up with bills aimed at helping law enforcement push back against human trafficking, sex slavery and sex-related businesses in the Tampa area.

On April 22, 2010, the Florida House unanimously passed Bill 633. Senate Bill 966 apparently “died” in the Senate on April 30, pending a reference review. Whatever that means. Meanwhile Tampa’s human trafficking problem continues.

Some runaways and other victims are also used to commit theft and other acts for their captors, and are arrested as criminals when they are really victims. Here are some warning signs that a person has been trafficked*:
-They become flustered at the mention of law enforcement.
-They are disoriented and ask where they are (what city, what area).
-They won’t make eye contact.
-They are closely held by a companion and not given a chance to speak.
-Or, they evade questions.
-They don’t appear healthy or clean.
-They may seem sleepy or drugged.
Please recognize the signs and try to get an opportunity to ask the person if they need help.

If you have a missing loved one or friend, plant the possibility of human trafficking in the minds of the authorities with whom you are working. They don’t always consider it.

*Some of the warning signs given here are cited in: “Human Trafficking in America,” by Tammy LaVigne, appearing in this month’s Overflow Magazine, an excellent new free Tampa area publication that can be picked up at some Publix stores and other locations.

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