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This story aired on Aug. 8, Dateline NBC
October 5, 2006. "Troop" Edmonds and his Philippine-born wife, Ravina, are at home in Oregon when they receive a panicked call from overseas.
Troop Edmonds: I'm sitting there. I'm trying to watch a football game. And all of a sudden my wife's cell phone rings. My wife gets really upset.
On the other end on the line is their 22-year-old Filipino niece, Lannie Ejercito…
Troop Edmonds: She was scared. Crying. And in total desperation.
Chris Hansen: And what did she say?
Troop Edmonds:"Get me out of here!"
And then someone on the other end takes the phone away from Lannie.
Troop Edmonds: She said -- if you want your niece back, you have to send us $1,200 and we'll give you a bank account to send it to. And she hung up.
Chris Hansen: They wanted the money wired to this bank account. And did this strike you as a ransom demand?
Troop Edmonds: Yes.
It sounded like kidnappers. But all he knew for sure was that his niece was desperate.
Troop Edmonds: She wanted out of there. She didn't know what else to do so she called the only person on the planet that could possibly help her.
Troop and his wife had just finished putting Lannie through nursing school in the Philippines and thought, on balance, things were looking up.
Chris Hansen: How would you best describe her?
Troop Edmonds: Good-looking, you know. Got everything to live for.
Lannie graduated, but then failed the national nursing exam, which meant her dream of coming to America to work as a nurse was on hold.
Her desperation was palpable as the phone call continued. Lannie provided additional details which led her uncle to fear the worst.
Chris Hansen: What did you think Lannie had gotten herself into?
Troop Edmonds: I thought she was going to be ending up being raped and then put into a life of-- of prostitution.
In other words, he worried that his niece had fallen into the shadowy world of human trafficking, where many are lured by false promises to places thousands of miles from home and find themselves thrown into the sex trade.
Troop Edmonds wasn't sure where Lannie was exactly or who she was with but it was clear she was in trouble.
Her family knew she'd been offered a job as a hotel singer in Malaysia -- 1500 miles away from her home in the Philippines.
But when she got to Malaysia, her passport was taken and she was told to sign an 8-year "contract" meaning she would be in Malaysia, against her will, until she was 30.
Lannie had been trafficked.
Ambassador Lagon: In essence, it's slavery.
Ambassador Mark Lagon says human trafficking is now one of the the fastest growing forms of international organized crime.
Ambassador Lagon: Analysts in the U.S. government estimate there are between 500,000 and 1.1 million people who are trafficked across borders from country to country.
That's every year. Lagon, who leads U.S. efforts to combat human trafficking, says it's basically a bait and switch.
Ambassador Lagon: They're told, "We can get you out of this awful economic situation you're in with better work, the conditions will be good, the pay will be good" and often times it turns out to be the most gross form of sexual exploitation.
And Filipinos like Lannie are a frequent target. There is no shortage of horror stories.
Anna: I work here as a prostitute. I lost my virginity here, and then I got sick. I want to go home. Please help me.
Meet "Anna." Like Lannie, she was trafficked to Malaysia from the Philippines. Anna thought she was going to be a waitress, but when she arrived at this club in Malaysia she was told that "servicing customers" entailed going home with them.
She was forced to sign an official-looking contract which spells out how much she owes her traffickers.
Anna: Air ticket, 500 ringgit. Cash advance, 1,600 ringgit.
Experts call this "debt-bondage." Anna calls it a nightmare. On her first night in Malaysia, her virginity was sold for $80.
Anna: I can do nothing because my boss tell me I need -- I need to do that. If i did not do that, I cannot pay my debt. I will not -– I cannot go back to Philippines.
Locked inside an apartment above this club, she was forced to service a variety of customers, including Americans.
Two months ago, the Philippine embassy in Malaysia rescued Anna. She is free now, but not well.
Anna: Maybe i have -- I'm afraid I have AIDS.
As for Lannie Ejercito, her uncle Troop Edmonds -- a decorated former Marine -- wasn't going to let that happen to his niece. His wife gave him his marching orders.
Troop Edmonds: She said, "You've got to get my niece. Get her. And don't come back without her." That's my assignment.
Troop Edmonds and his wife Ravina didn't know what was happening to their niece, Lannie Ejercito. But they knew she was in trouble. The pretty 22-year-old had taken what she thought was a legitimate job as a singer in Malaysia.
But, in fact, she'd been lured in by human traffickers who were demanding a ransom to free her. She was being forced to sign an eight year contract.
Troop Edmonds: She was scared. She wanted out of there. She's stuck in a situation that she has no control over and she doesn't want to spend eight years of her life there.
As it began to dawn on them that Lannie could be in the hands of some pretty dangerous people, they tried redialing the number of the cell phone used to make the ransom call. Maybe they could get a fix on where she was. It didn't work.
Chris Hansen: You know she's in Malaysia.
Troop Edmonds: Uh-huh (affirm).
Chris Hansen: You've got a phone number that doesn't appear to be good.
Troop Edmonds: Right.
Chris Hansen: That's all you got.
Troop Edmonds: That's all I got. But then I call my friend Jerry up.
Jerry is Jerry Howe, who spent 26 years as an FBI special agent working everything from counterterrorism to organized crime to nearly 100 kidnappings. In fact, he worked the notorious Patty Hearst kidnapping case.
Jerry Howe: He said his niece had been kidnapped and he wanted to know if I could trace the phone number in any way.
Troop Edmonds: Jerry says, "Yup. No problem. When we going?" I go, "Oh no, not you, too." So he was going.
Going to Asia, that is.
Whoever had Lannie probably never imagined what was headed their way as this pair of 60-somethings were about to launch an improbable rescue mission halfway across the globe.
Chris Hansen: Here you are, a retired agent. You've got your buddy Troop, and you guys just going to go over there and get her?
Jerry Howe: Basically. Everybody asks me for a plan. From having to write these scenarios for undercover operations for the FBI, they-- it's-- it's kind of like a waste of paper. It's a-- what you want to happen but never does.
Chris Hansen: So you guys were pretty much going to figure it out as you went along.
Jerry Howe: That's really the only way you can do it.
Having worked the Hearst case, Jerry was especially worried that Lannie's captors might brainwash her during the eight years she would be "under contract."
Chris Hansen: What does that say to you? Eight years?
Jerry Howe: They'll own her in eight years. I mean, psychologically she-- they-- they start immediately. So she is subservient to them. And after eight years, she'd be a robot.
A number of former CIA and FBI officials pitched in and supplied the pair with everything from handheld global positioning units to gyroscope-stabilized binoculars.
The plan -- to the extent there is one -- sounds pretty straightforward: zero in on Lannie's location, create a ruse to separate her from the traffickers, even kick in some doors if they have to. Whatever it takes to get her out of Malaysia as quickly as possible.
Chris Hansen: What did you think the chances were of actually finding Lannie and freeing her?
Troop Edmonds: Maybe ten percent.
Chris Hansen: Ten percent.
Troop Edmonds: Yes. There's a chance. It wasn't hopeful.
After all, the men were traveling 8,000 miles from home to a country of 27 million people in hopes of finding one girl.
Troop Edmonds: I was just worried about the flight home without Lannie. Then breaking my wife's heart. She told me not to come back without her.
Chris Hansen: What made you apprehensive about going on this trip?
Troop Edmonds: You're dealing with bad people. And they all usually have guns. And they all-- and they're bad. I mean, really bad.
Finally, the mission is launched and we're invited along.
Because the two Americans don't know where Lannie is being held, they start in her hometown of Cebu in the southern Philippines.
In her home in this squatters' village, Lannie's mother tells the searchers how it all started.
In early October 2006, she accompanied her daughter to this church, where Lannie and 15 others were told to gather for their trip to Malaysia.
They were met by a woman named Rachel Sabal. She had recruited Lannie and the others, promising them high-paying jobs as singers in Malaysia. For Lannie's rescuers, it's the first big lead.
Jerry Howe: Lannie's mother recognizing and knowing who Rachel was, was the key.
Jerry and Troop pass the name to police who check travel records and quickly discover that a 'Rachel Sabal' has recently returned to the Philippines.
It's a lucky break -- she's still nearby.
Detective Jacob Macabali: She just arrived from Kuala Lumpur four days ago.
Jerry and Troop ride along as detectives go looking for Rachel.
Detective Jacob Macabali: Well if there is a written complaint we can go and just--
Troop Edmonds: --arrest Rachel.
When they do find her, Rachel is defiant, insisting that Lannie and the others went to Malaysia of their own free will and are being treated well. But the cops aren't buying it.
Troop Edmonds: They sweet-talked her and her father into the police station. And then they bilked her for information. And she was getting confident. She was pretty confident--
So confident is Rachel that she's done nothing wrong that she provides police with a crude map showing where she claims Lannie and the 15 other Filipinos are living. It's 1500 miles away, in the Malaysian city of Penang.
By this time, it's clear Rachel is in some hot water. She's given a crash course in Filipino law.
Officer: ...the recruitment and transportation of persons by others using violence or threat of violence...
Rachel calls her sister, who we learn is in Malaysia keeping watch over Lannie and the others.
Jerry and Troop discover that the number Rachel has dialed is the same one Lannie's captors used to make the ransom call.
Troop Edmonds: They had a district attorney-type thing who came and was going to try to check out everybody's story. And he went in and had one talk with her and he told us, "Book her. She's the most blatant human trafficker I've ever seen."
Troop Edmonds: And then they threw her in the clink and she fell apart at the seams.
Rachel: (crying and screaming at the same time)
While this is all going on, Rachel's cell phone rings -- and you won't believe who's on the other end. It's Lannie.
But it's like she's a different person than the one who called Oregon in a panic only weeks earlier. She tells her mother things are fine in Malaysia and that she wants to stay. Her uncle Troop doesn't believe it, fearful that somone else is putting those words in her mouth.
Troop Edmonds: I just told her, Lannie, we are coming for you. And we're coming now.
And as quickly as they arrived, Troop and Jerry depart the Philippines for Malaysia, unsure of Lannie's precise location.
It's been three weeks since Lannie Ejercito fell prey to a human trafficking network stretching from the Philippines to Malaysia.
She's managed to make two calls to her family.
During the first call she was in a panic, but the second time she called she was peculiarly calm.
Was someone controlling her?
Jerry Howe: I felt everything she said has been orchestrated. She's been told to say what they want her to say.
Retired FBI agent Jerry Howe and Lannie's uncle, Troop Edmonds, are in Asia trying to find and free Lannie.
Flying into Malaysia, the pair knew the clock was ticking.
The arrest of Lannie's recruiter provided important leads but may also have given those holding Lannie a heads up.
Troop Edmonds: I'm worried, we've wasted so much time. They know we're coming. They're going to just be splitting and taking Lannie. We'll never find her. I mean, how we going to find her?
Armed with a crude map that Rachel the reruiter drew for police, Jerry and Troop canvass a neighborhood near the university in Penang.
Lannie's rescuers are pointed to an apartment on the top floor.
Jerry Howe: There were lots of shoes outside the door. But the shoes didn't look like shoes that students would wear. So I felt that we had the right place.
But he can't proceed further without help from the authorities, and that's a bit of a crapshoot.
Unlike the Philippines, Malaysia hasn't always been the most hospitable toward America or Americans.
Troop Edmonds: The Filipino police said, "Troop and Jerry, you be real careful. That's a Muslim country over there and, you know, and you're American. And, you know."
Chris Hansen: You might not be welcome there? Is that what they were saying?
Troop Edmonds: Yeah. That's what they told me. They said, "We don't even like to go there."
After two days of conducting their own investigation, the two Americans roll the dice and approach the Malaysian police.
Troop Edmonds: We just walk up. And we say, well, we'd like to talk to the supervisor. Somebody in charge.
Chris Hansen: And they don't know you're coming.
Troop Edmonds: Oh, no.
Chris Hansen: You don't have an appointment.
Troop Edmonds: No, we--
Chris Hansen: You don't have a contact name.
Troop Edmonds: We don't. No contact name.
Chris Hansen: No phone number.
Troop Edmonds: No.
Chris Hansen: Nothing.
Troop Edmonds: Nothing.
Chris Hansen: You just show up.
Troop Edmonds: Just show up.
They're taken to see a top police official who doesn't quite know what to make of the men or their mission.
Troop Edmonds: Here's these two-- looks like a couple of middle-aged losers, you know. I mean, it's like Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon stumbling across Asia. And here's this incredible story about we're looking for a young Asian girl who was lured into this human trafficking thing. And we're asking for their help.
Whether out of sheer curiosity or a sense of duty, the police agree to send a team to the apartment.
Malaysian policeman: (bangs on door) Hello? Hello?
The window is open, and there are still shoes out front -- all of which suggests someone is inside. But no one answers, and the police move in.
The place is empty. And it seems whoever was living there left in a hurry.
Is Rachel's map bogus? Or are Troop and Jerry just too late?
Troop Edmonds: When they weren't there when we cased the place our hearts sank a little bit. I mean, a nerve-- I wouldn't say a little bit. A lot.
But then in sweeping the apartment the Malaysian police find something.
Jerry Howe: That's her! A picture of Lannie.
Lannie had left behind a scrapbook.
Jerry Howe: It just flashed by me [and] I knew it was her. This one. Well, we're at the right place.
Right place, wrong time. It looked like it had something to do with that phone call Lannie placed days earlier.
Jerry Howe: When we were in the Philippines Troop was actually able to talk to Lannie for a few minutes. And Troop announced that we were coming, which I may not have done as an FBI agent, but I understand as an uncle saying, "We're coming to get you." I'm sure they moved them because of that.
The scrapbook is a hopeful sign. Troop wonders if Lannie has left it behind as a deliberate clue that she'd been there.
Troop Edmonds: The good thing is, it was proof that this-- they actually were here. So we got something to go on. And the bad part of it is-- is, you know, she's gone.
Chris Hansen: What was your worst fear at that point?
Troop Edmonds: Well, it was a-- I mean how do you find somebody in a country like Malaysia? I mean my god.
But it wasn't just could they find her but would they find her before she was victimized?
Every year, the U.S. State Department ranks countries on their efforts against human trafficking. In its most recent report, Malaysia is at the bottom -- alongside North Korea, Iran and Sudan. The State Department says that human trafficking and the sex trade it fuels are rampant here. Yet in all of 2006, not a single trafficker was prosecuted.
Despite its reputation as a conservative, predominantly Muslim nation, Malaysia has a thriving sex industry. We went out with our cameras and met girls from half a dozen countries working as prostitutes.
Madame: Bring the girls who can speak English for you...
In this upscale karaoke bar, the madame literally paraded the girls before us.
Madame: Lisa, Nadia...
It's a world "Anna" knows only too well. She came to Malaysia for a waitressing job only to be told she had to work as a prostitute. She went to Malaysian immigration authorities for help.
Anna: I want them to help me -- to rescue me -- so I can go back Philippines.
But instead, she says, a top immigration official called her traffickers and then passed along some words of advice.
Anna: "Go back to work."
Anna says some of the Malaysian police and immigration officials were actually clients of the clubs where she worked and helped themselves to the girls.
Malaysian officials are notorious for turning a blind eye to trafficking. So much so that when victims like Anna show up looking for help, they are often brought up on immigration charges.
Troop and Jerry know they need to find Lannie and find her fast.
Chris Hansen: At this point she had been missing for three weeks?
Troop Edmonds: Yeah. Three weeks, that's about right.
Chris Hansen: That's a long time?
Troop Edmonds: Oh, yeah. I mean they could have already gone through the initiations of the prostitution thing and all that. But, you know, you still want to get her back.
They'd come 8,000 miles to rescue her and watched as police raided an apartment where she may have been held captive.
But they were too late. Neighbors say a fleet of taxis arrived a couple days earlier and took Lannie Ejercito and fifteen other young people away.
Lannie's uncle Troop and his friend, retired FBI agent Jerry Howe, asked cabbies if they remembered seeing Lannie or the others.
Troop Edmonds: This person. Two pictures of this person.
Taxi driver: This person? No, no.
They were desperate, even willing to consult a local faith healer with a reputation for finding missing persons.
Then -- finally -- a break. Word that Lannie has surfaced in of all places a police station.
They race over to see her. And Troop and Lannie are reunited behind closed doors.
Lannie: I've been waiting for you.
Troop Edmonds: Oh, I know. Your mother ... your mother is so worried. (Lannie's crying) So worried.
Troop Edmonds: As soon as i walked in that door she jumped up and she gave me this really strong hug. And she was squeezing me hard. And she just wouldn't let me go. I thought Lannie was just going to go with us and that was it. And-- turns out that wasn't it.
The reunion is short-lived. Jerry and Troop discover that Lannie was brought to the police station by Kenny Kang, one of the people who has been holding her captive. Kang, who reportedly has ties to Chinese organized crime, may have brought her in to convince police she is not being held against her will.
In fact, she's been saying all is well--she's fine.
Jerry Howe: Lannie had already given them a statement saying that Kang wasn't doing anything wrong. But--
Chris Hansen: And what was your problem with that statement?
Jerry Howe: Well, he was there.
The Malaysian police were interviewing Lannie with Kenny Kang sitting right next to her.
Jerry Howe, who's conducted hundreds of interviews during his 26 years in the FBI, is shocked that the lead detective failed to separate the victim from the victimizer.
Jerry Howe: And when I suggested that, it's like the light bulb went off in his head. "Oh, yeah, that's a good idea." (laughter) And they'll move-- they moved him away from her so should could speak. But she was still terrified.
Kang is moved to an adjoining room where he proceeds to make himself at home.
Chris Hansen: Did it appear to you that Kenny Kang had a preexisting relationship with some of the police officers?
Jerry Howe: Boy, did I-- I got that impression. I just--
Chris Hansen: And what gave you that impression?
Jerry Howe: Well, he's laughing. He's making phone calls. He's joking with the police officer that he's with. And we can see all this through the glass in the offices there. I was--
Chris Hansen: He was treating this as a minor inconvenience?
Jerry Howe: Right. Minor inconvenience. And thought he was going to leave.
But now, with Kang out of earshot, Lannie makes clear where she stands. She wants out. But that's easier said than done.
Chris Hansen: Who had the passport?
Jerry Howe: Kang.
And he isn't about to give it back.
Now her uncle's blood was beginning to boil. He wasn't leaving without the passport, and he wasn't the slightest bit afraid of a showdown with Kang, a reputed mobster.
Troop Edmonds: Do you have ... do you have the passport? Do you have her passport.
Kenny Kang: Yes, why?
Troop Edmonds: We want it. Mister Kang has her passport. So we need to get that. Like now. You know what a passport is?
Kenny Kang: Yes.
Troop Edmonds: I'm sure you do. We want it.
Kenny Kang: I'll talk to...
Troop Edmonds: No you're talking to me.
Ishmael: The passport I will...
Troop Edmonds: ...get it. OK.
Ishmael: I will get it. Not you.
Troop Edmonds: OK.
Chris Hansen: You were mad.
Troop Edmonds: Oh, I was really mad. And then when I looked in his eyes I saw this horrible thing. It was like-- not a chance am I going to give you the passport. It's like, "She's my property. And she's leaving this police station with me."
Although there's no evidence money changed hands, Lannie's frustrated rescuers start to suspect the worst: that the police are in Kang's pocket.
Troop Edmonds: He paid that other bastard off! That's why he wanted back in there. He did not want to hand over the passport. He paid off that other guy.
Jerry Howe: We need to get the passport and get out of here.
Chris Hansen: Was there a point when you started to think, "Maybe we're not going to get this resolved, even here at the police department?"
Jerry Howe: When the incident happened with the passport, I was very worried at that point that we were all going to (laughter) end up in jail. And--
Chris Hansen: The whole group?
Jerry Howe: The whole (laughter) group of us, yeah.
And just when it seemed things couldn't get any stranger, in walks a man who describes himself as Kenny Kang's business partner, a gynecologist named Ng Kok Kwang.
Ng: I'm Dr. Ng.
Edmonds: Dr. Ng? Dr. Ng, a doctor?
Ng: Yeah.
The doctor says he has a side business supplying singers to work at various hotels and he insists he's not engaged in human trafficking.
Dr. Ng: I'm a professional, ok? I do not want to do any illegal things in terms of this, because that's going to affect my business. I'm making…
Troop Edmonds: Wait a minute, wait a minute, what are you talking about?
Dr. Ng: No no no, I'm just telling you I do not know why this all happen, this all have happened. We have never kidnapped her, I just want to make it clear to you.
Dr. Ng: We never hold them as prisoners, please
Jerry Howe: If you have their passports, they're prisoners.
Dr. Ng: No no, it's not like that, if they want to come to us and tell us they want to go home, they go home.
That's what he claims. But then he pulls something straight out of the human trafficking playbook, arguing that before Lannie and the others can go free they must first reimburse him for the money he says he spent transporting, housing and training them.
Dr. Ng: According to the contract they have signed, they have to pay 200,000…
That translates to nearly $60,000 -- a sum so high it would take the average Filipino at least 20 years to pay it off.
We asked to see that eight year contract Dr. Ng keeps talking about.
Dr. Ng: This is the contract we have with them. Oh, no, no. It's "P and C." Sorry. We can't give you a copy. It's private and confidential … If you want any document, I think I must discuss with my partner. I can't just release it like that all right?
Contract or no contract, Jerry and Troop make it clear they aren't about to give in.
Jerry Howe: Well, since you made a mistake and illegally recruited them, we'll just go, we'll just need to pick up her papers and leave and get out the police.
Dr. Ng: OK, OK, please, please, please, I have enough headache, too, OK. I do not want to…
Jerry Howe: You're busy, we're busy, we want to go home.
Finally, convinced Troop and Jerry mean business, Dr. Ng calls it a day. Lannie is free to leave with her passport.
Also free to leave: Dr. Ng and his cohort Kenny Kang.
The police let them walk.
Chris Hansen: Now, you were out of the police station. But you were not out of the country.
Jerry Howe: That's true. And as much as I really wanted to go find the other girls, we felt that it was probably better to get her out before whatever organization Kang was associated with would come looking for us.
Chris Hansen: You weren't wasting any time?
Jerry Howe: No. No. Once we decided to go, we left in a hurry, yeah.
But they weren't home free. They still had to get out of Malaysia, steering clear of angry human traffickers and government officials who seemed to treat the traffickers with kid gloves.
They wouldn't be safe until they reached the Philippines. But would they finally get the whole story from Lannie?
Troop Edmonds and Jerry Howe succeed in freeing Lannie Ejercito and they return her to the Philippines for an emotional reunion with her family.
It was only when Lannie reached the Philippines that she confirmed the truth of her ordeal. She says her trafficker's promise of a singing job was an empty one.
Chris Hansen: They took your passport. They locked you in an apartment. You never got an audition?
Lannie: Yeah.
Chris Hansen: Were you a prisoner?
Lannie: Yeah, we were a prisoner.
She said she only pretended everything was fine in front of the police and on the phone to her parents for one reason: self-preservation.
Lannie: I'm afraid they're going to do something bad at me. So have no choice then.
Chris Hansen: Where do you think you'd be today if your uncle and Jerry hadn't rescued you?
Lannie: That's a big problem. I really don't know.
Chris Hansen: Do you think you could have ended up in jail?
Lannie: Yeah.
Chris Hansen: Or still locked in that apartment?
Lannie: Yeah.
Although she was relieved to be rescued, she was scared for those she left behind: 15 other young trafficking victims.
As far as she knew, they were still in the hands of Dr Ng and Kenny Kang, who we last saw leaving the police station, apparently with no trafficking charges having been filed against them.
Chris Hansen: Dr. Ng? Chris Hansen, how are you? Sir?
And when we went back to Malaysia to ask him about what Lannie told us, there he was, still free and still practicing medicine.
Chris Hansen: What is a doctor -- a gynecologist -- doing getting involved in this sort of business?
Dr. Ng: Like I told you, it is an investment. I let my friend deal with all of that.
Chris Hansen: And your friend is who?
Dr. Ng: Mr. Kenny
Chris Hansen: Kenny Kang.
Dr. Ng: Yeah yeah
So what about those eight year contracts which Dr. Ng and Kenny Kang pressured Lannie and the others to sign? How could they possibly be on the level?
Hansen: So, you became a doctor in eight years. Are you saying it takes eight years to become a singer?
Dr. Ng: The eight years is not the training part of it. What i am trying to tell you...we have calculated that in order to get back the investment money we put we have to have an eight years contract. Because we bring them in fresh.
Dr. Ng insists Lannie owes him money for training he admits she never received and for housing, which Lannie says amounted to being locked up for weeks on end.
Chris Hansen: We are being told that if these girls don't get jobs singing they are threatened with being booked. Booked. Sent out as a prostitute.
Dr. Ng: No.
Chris Hansen: No?
Dr. Ng: I have shown my agreement last time that no prostitution is involved.
Chris Hansen: You may put that in there to protect yourself but that is not what exactly we are being told doctor.
Dr. Ng: Ahhh, come on! If I want to get involved in illegal things I don't have to become a doctor all right? I am a gynecologist. I am a gynecologist, ok? I don't have to get involved in this kind of illegal thing to make money.
But Lannie isn't the only one accusing him of wrong-doing.
Earlier this year, Philippine officials staged a dramatic late-night operation in Malaysia and freed the 15 others who Dr. Ng and his partner, Kenny Kang, kept locked up for over three months. We sat down with some of them.
Chris Hansen: So what happened after Lannie left the apartment?
Male voice: Kenny started threatening us.
Chris Hansen: Kenny started threatening you?
Male voice: Yeah.
Female voice: They said when we can't pass the audition, they will send us to prostitution.
Chris Hansen: To prostitution?
Female voice: Yeah.
Chris Hansen: Kenny Kang said this to you?
Male voice: Yes all of us.
Female voice: Yeah.
Chris Hansen: To all of you even the boys?
Male voice: Yeah.
Chris Hansen: So if you don't make the audition, and start bringing in some money as singers, you are going to go into prostitution.
Female voice: Yes.
Male voice: That's right.
Chris Hansen: How did that make you feel when he said "I'm going to put you in to prostitution"?
Female voice: I was scared.
Female voice: Of course, you're scared.
Chris Hansen: Do you think he meant it? Was he serious?
Male voice: Yeah, he's serious.
Female voice: He is.
Chris Hansen: At the end of the day, you didn't just rescue one girl.
Jerry Howe: No. We actually got, I think 15. Yeah. Total.
Chris Hansen: Now you've solved a lot of cases as an FBI agent, as a security consultant, in retirement?
Jerry Howe: Yeah.
Chris Hansen: Where does this case rank?
Jerry Howe: Oh, it's the best one. It really is. Yeah. It's-- I mean, there's a, you know, lots of criminals. Lots of victims. But this was really a, this was really a highlight. And to be able to do it without a badge was (laughter), that was really great.
Chris Hansen: The reality is it sort of played out like a buddy film in a way.
Troop Edmonds: Well, it did. That's what makes the thing such a great story. Is that finally there's a good ending and everybody is pretty much at peace with the whole thing.
Chris Hansen: Lannie, where do you think you'll be 10 years from now?
Lannie: Successful nurse. (laughter)
Chris Hansen: A successful nurse.
Lannie: Yes.
Lannie recently re-took her nursing exam and is determined to come to the U.S. to work.
Chris Hansen: Do you think you can do it?
Lannie: Yes. If I fail, then go again. Fail it, go again.
Chris Hansen: But you'll make it.
Lannie: I will make it.
Lannie says she was saved from an ordeal that could have ruined her life and her health. Anna, who you also met in our story, was not so lucky. Since her rescue, she's been diagnosed with human papillomavirus --a risk factor for cervical cancer. She will soon undergo a test for HIV/AIDS.
Just last month, the government of Malaysia enacted a law designed to crack down on human trafficking. That said, President Bush will decide next month if Malaysia should be sanctioned for what U.S. officials call its poor record in combating human trafficking.
© 2013 MSNBC Interactive. Reprints


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Jay Carney: "Technical" Social Security Cuts Still On The TablePosted: February 11, 2013 | Author: bostonboomer | Filed under: Barack Obama, U.S. Economy, U.S. Politics | Tags: Bernie Sanders, Chained CPI, digby, medicare, Social Security |12 Comments
Jay Carney was sent out today to mouth Obama's slimy weasel words at the daily press briefing:
Q [Johnathan Karl, ABC] What about reducing the annual cost of living increases for Social Security recipients?
MR. CARNEY: Again, as part of a big deal, part of a comprehensive package that reduces our deficit and achieves that $4-trillion goal that was set out by so many people in and outside of government a number of years ago, he would consider that the hard choice that includes the so-called chain CPI, in fact, he put that on the table in his proposal, but not in a cherry-picked or piecemeal way. That's got to be part of a comprehensive package that asks that the burden be shared; that we don't, as some in Congress want, ask seniors to bear the burden of further deficit reduction alone, or middle-class families who are struggling to send their kids to college, or parents of children who are disabled who rely on programs to help them get through….
Q But I just want to be clear what you said at the beginning of that answer, which is the President….as part of an overall balanced approach, he does not rule out effectively reducing benefits for Social Security recipients?
MR. CARNEY: He has put forward a technical change as part of a big deal — and it's on the table — that he put forward to the Speaker of the House. The Speaker of the House, by the way, walked away from that deal even though it met the Republicans halfway on revenues and halfway on spending cuts and included some tough decisions by the President on entitlements. The Speaker walked away from that deal.
But as part of that deal, the technical change in the so-called CPI is possible in his own offer as part of a big deal.
Excuse me? Cutting Social Security benefits by means of the Chained CPI is NOT a "technical change." Once again, Bernie Sanders explains what is really going on: Chained CPI: An economic, moral disaster.
How many candidates for Congress last year won on the following platform?
1. That Social Security cost-of-living adjustments are too generous. Social Security should be cut over the next two decades by more than $1,000 a year for 85-year-old widows living on $1,200 a month.
2. That benefits earned by disabled veterans as a result of losing their arms, legs or eyesight in Iraq and Afghanistan are too generous. Disabled veterans' benefits should be cut over the next 15 years by more than $1,400 a year.
3. That working families and the middle class don't pay enough in taxes. We need to enact an across-the-board tax increase that disproportionately hurts workers making between $30,000 and $40,000 a year.
Answer: None.
And yet all of these things will happen if Congress changes the way inflation is calculated by switching to a consumer price index (CPI) designed to lower cost-of-living adjustments….Wall Street billionaires and other supporters claim that changing the consumer price index is a "minor tweak." Tell that to the millions of senior citizens trying to survive on just $14,000 a year whose Social Security benefits would be cut overall by $112 billion during the next decade.
Average 65-year-olds would get $650 a year less in benefits when they turn 75 and see a $1,000 a year cut when they turn 85.
Earlier, in response to an earlier question by Jonathan Karl, Carney supposedly took raising the eligibility age for Medicare off the table.
But why should we believe him? Sure enough Beltway Bob interprets the weasel words for us. On raising the Medicare age:
the cutoff for Medicare eligibility age has been under consideration repeatedly, giving health-care experts more time to run the numbers and parse their results. Their conclusion, essentially, was that raising the Medicare eligibility age is counterproductive: It cuts the deficit but raises national health spending as it moves seniors to more expensive insurance options. Some in the White House are simply more skeptical of the policy than they were two years ago.
The White House wants more revenues, and they want to get them through tax reform. But they're not going to get $1 trillion in newer revenues. They're hoping, at best, for another $600 billion or so. But that's not enough for the administration to take the hit on the Medicare eligibility age. So they're making their base happy and taking it off the table.
Does that mean it's really off the table? Well, if Boehner went to the White House tomorrow and offered $1 trillion in new revenues, half of which would come via a carbon tax, in return for Medicare eligibility, I'm pretty certain the White House would hear him out. But the White House is pretty sure Boehner's not going to offer that deal.
Digby has an update on possible "changes" to Medicare.
Here's your Village in action. We have Ben White, POLITICO Chief Economic Correspondent, declaring on twitter that the White House offer to cut Social Security just isn't going to get the job done:
If all WH has in return for another tax increase is superlative CPI I really don't see any deal materializing.
— Ben White (@morningmoneyben) February 11, 2013
Ok fine, he's just being a typical jaded and "savvy" Politico reporter. Why, of course, anyone who's anyone knows that simply destroying Social security won't be enough.
But look at how the White House immediately responds:
@morningmoneyben Remember we have an offer on the table that includes CPI, but also inclues Medicare changes and spending cuts
— Dan Pfeiffer (@pfeiffer44) February 11, 2013
@morningmoneyben R's have no offer on the table, no plan, and no longer agree with their previous position that tax refom can reduce deficit
— Dan Pfeiffer (@pfeiffer44) February 11, 2013
See? We really do want to cut Social Security but that's not all! We also want to "change" medicare and cut more spending. Really! We just dying to enact more austerity and we're willing to do it as far as the eye can see! Those Republicans won't even agree to tax reform, (which everyone knows means that we're going to lower corporate rates.)
Ok, how about if we agree to slash funding for education and Veteran's health care? Would you give us credit then? How about if we agree to ritualistically kill Big Bird on national TV? Then will you believe that we're Grown-ups? CAN'T YOU SEE THAT WE ARE THE GROWN-UPS!!!! Why won't you give us credit for being grown-ups ? We try so hard….
Read the rest of Digby's post for her review of yesterday's Sunday House of Pain with Dancin' Dave.
Have I mentioned lately how much I fucking hate these fucking mealy-mouthed granny starvers? (h/t Mike Malloy) If we're really lucky, and John Boehner is as stupid as he looks and sounds, Ben White's prediction will be correct and there won't be a "big deal." Assuming Obama doesn't get down on he knees and beg the Republicans to cut Social Security anyway, that is.
12 Comments on "Jay Carney: "Technical" Social Security Cuts Still On The Table"
Pilgrim says:
"slimy weasel words" …. indeed
bostonboomer says:
The entire Village is permanently stuck on stupid. They are going to drive us into another "Great Recession" for sure.
Riverbird says:
Oh good grief. I thought the chained CPI was off the table. Silly me.
JJ Lopez Minkoff says:
I knew we were going to get screwed…
Beata says:
I'm glad I've given up following the news so I can read novels in my free time. Life is short but art is long. Or something like that.
bostonboomer says:
I'm glad you checked in, Beata. Enjoy your reading. I've been reading more fiction too, and it's good therapy.
NW Luna says:
Ars longa, vita brevis / The lyf so short, the craft so long to lerne
Chaucer, riffing off an old Roman saying, which came from an old Greek saying by Hippocrates, who probably got it from someone older still.
Lives are going to be shorter and nastier out on the ice floes, so we may as well read pleasant books while we can.
NW Luna says:
So much for Obama's noble objectives in his second term. I hate it when my cynical predictions come true.
bostonboomer says:
Christopher Dorner bought scuba gear 48 hrs. before beginning murder spree (w/surveillance video)
RalphB says:
Wonder if he's managed to get to Mexico while they've been searching Big Bear?
bostonboomer says:
I don't know. I think it's more likely he has already committed suicide, but maybe not.
Fannie says:
I think I'm going to plant fucking daffodils for the rest of this administration………..


text:
If former Dallas Cowboys QB Tony Romo thought facing blitzing linebackers was a tough gig, he hasn't seen anything yet.
Former CBS sideline reporter Bonnie Bernstein took to Twitter Tuesday slamming Romo following a report the retiring QB was heading to CBS and potentially ousting lead NFL analyst Phil Simms. Bernstein took note of Romo's lack of television experience despite walking into the highly-coveted television role.
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Romo, who will be paired with play-by-play announcer Jim Nantz, considered multiple network offers along with whether he wanted to pursue a Super Bowl elsewhere after losing the starting job in Dallas last season, a person told The Associated Press on Tuesday. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because Romo hasn't discussed his plans publicly. A CBS spokeswoman did not immediately return messages seeking comment.
But late Tuesday afternoon Romo took to Twitter himself, casting any doubts to his destination aside.
The departure of the all-time passing leader from the storied franchise has been expected since November, when Romo conceded the job to rookie Dak Prescott after missing 10 weeks with a back injury.


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Will San Francisco dehydrate itself in the name of beauty?
That, in essence, is what would happen under a proposed local ballot initiative to restore the Hetch Hetchy Valley in the Sierras, near the Yosemite Valley.
The beautiful Hetch Hetchy was said to rival Yosemite for beauty before it was turned into a reservoir in 1923. That reservoir now supplies water for San Francisco. The initiative would replace that water through conservation measures and other reservoirs.
U.S. & World
News from around the country and around the globe
In any other city in California, such a measure would be written off as sheer madness. Local governments worry about not having enough water, not about whether their water is despoiling a valley 200 miles away.
But this is San Francisco.
So bring on the water civil war. Mayor Ed Lee already opposes the measure. Look for others to join him. And look for considerable attention to accrue to this initiative if it reaches the ballot.
Let us know what you think. Comment below, send us your thoughts via Twitter @PropZero or add your comment to our Facebook page.


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Eric Stockhausen has not received any gifts yet
Posted on April 30, 2012 at 6:00pm 0 Comments 1 Like
Parody and Humor:
Dan Barker, Christianity in a Nutshell: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3E0Bqa97tUI&feature=share
Vania Heymann, Watering Can: http://vimeo.com/25149893
TmsT, Two Guys and A Puzzle: …Continue
Posted on May 15, 2011 at 5:07pm 2 Comments 0 Likes
Posted on May 15, 2011 at 5:03pm 0 Comments 0 Likes
i am ur last friend from eritrea i have changed my profile name and picture pla accept my request thanks
No worries! Have a great weekend! *brohoof*
Hey Eric,
There are many possible things you can do with this email of which I am very much unable to predict exactly which one you will choose. My hope is that read on.
I am relatively sure that you follow Dan Dennet's progress far better than I follow Sam Harris' progress.
By "coincidence", I was made aware of an article by Sam Harris today with the title: Free Will and "Free Will": How my view differs from Daniel Dennett's
I started to read through it and I was struck by the similarity of our discussion yesterday.
I would hope that you read at least the parts about color in the beginning of the article (if not the whole article).
I wonder if you will notice how much nicer Sam puts it than I do, but basically he is saying that Dan is playing word games.
I quote a little bit of Sam's article here to make a point:
"In Free Will, I argue that people are mistaken in believing that they are free in the usual sense. I claim that this realization has consequences—good ones, for the most part—and for that reason we should not gloss over it by revising our definition of "free will" too quickly."
I quote those sentences to show that if you do not understand them, but you want to, then you might be more inclinded to read the whole thing.
You can share this email with anyone you like except the Devil. Oh no! I am God and the Devil, so if you share it with God, you will also share it with the Devil! Word games, they are so frustrating.
Oh! Can't forget the link to the webpage containing Sam's article: http://www.samharris.org/blog/item/free-will-and-free-will
Love your Rainbow Dash picture! *bro hoof*
Hi Eric, and welcome to this rational world of Internet atheism---a haven from the superstitions and fictional god of the masses.
We invite you to make good friends by joining the busy group "ORIGINS: Universe, Astronomy, Life, Earth, Humans, Religion, Gods, Atheism, Evolution, Darwin..." with its 470 discussion topics and 2680 members.
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Welcome, Eric! Glad you could join us. :D I see you jumped right in with some blog posts.
Please consider joining a group to meet people and talk about anything that's on your mind, Hang With Friends.
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text:
The statistics are clear: 80 percent of all churches in the United States average fewer than 200 attendees each weekend. Without major change in leadership style, congregational dynamics, ministry vision or some other significant aspect of church-life, churches that have existed for more than five years will most likely stay the size they are now, with only moderate growth over time.
One of the shame-inducing truisms floating around the body of Christ goes something like, "All healthy organisms grow." Pastors of smaller or plateaued churches feel the implied jab: Lack of growth is symptomatic of underlying sickness. That's not very helpful in the real church-world. To begin with, there are limits to the size any organism can reach (Trophy trout are rare--especially in small streams), and if you keep growing after the legal age, it's called getting fat.
Most of us have been stuck somewhere, somehow--in the desert sand off the main road, up a tree we climbed in our pre-adolescence or on a tricky algebra problem. But somehow, someway, we got unstuck. When our tires spun uselessly in the sand, we tried different approaches; when the algebra equation withstood one thought, we assaulted it with another.
Getting stuck forces us to adapt our approach to life. In fact, one theory of learning says the brain is wired to solve predicaments, and true learning only happens when the mind tries to figure something out. God designed us to keep at it--knocking, seeking and asking--but to do so in close counsel with Him.
We may find more solutions to what hinders our churches from growing larger if we think in terms of getting unstuck, rather than just getting bigger. The point is not, I hope, just to grow bigger congregations. Our true aim ought to be to grow more spiritually significant people.
Get Spirit-filled content delivered right to your inbox! Click here to subscribe to our newsletter.
Rather than trying the latest surefire program emphases just to attract more people, we can actually focus our church-growth strategies on the very things that make for bigger people. If we remember the goal has never been to put on church per se, but to develop people with the tool called church, we can still find several ways to get our people unleashed and our churches unstuck.
While we must reject too clinical an approach to church growth--making it devoid of God's sovereign working--so too must we refuse to attribute all the growth of some churches to the arbitrary whims of God-sent revival. Thus, a healthy perspective on church growth leaves to God the things only He can do (the stuff we pray about), but willingly assumes responsibility for the things we can do something about. God gave me the teeth He gave me, but I brush them.
Just as 95 percent of all the fish in a lake inhabit a mere 5 percent of the space, and most computer problems can be traced to a limited number of common issues, so, too, do growth stick-points tend to cluster around a few factors.
Of the many such elements, there are three that seem most critical to me: staff composition, fellowship grouping and people mobilizing.
1. Who comprises the staff? This includes both paid and volunteer. A church will rarely grow beyond the capacity of its staff. One of the easiest, surest ways to foster church growth is to add people with staff responsibilities (not necessarily salary). The benefit to each of those new "staff members" and to the whole church cannot be overstated.
2. What fellowship groups exist in the church? And how easy is it for individuals to attach themselves to those clusters of people? Small churches stay stuck by trying to keep everybody doing all the same things as one big, happy family. Multiple services, small groups, choirs and other groupings within the church will gear congregations for expansion--and open more opportunities for individuals to lead meaningfully.
3. How is responsibility delegated? Have significant levels and types of responsibility been delegated to people in the church? If God entrusts His church with increasing levels of responsibility based on proven faithfulness, He will bless churches that do likewise. Besides, the more leaders are freed from doing "the same old same old," the more they initiate new enterprises. Growing churches keep generating new ministries that inspire and challenge the congregation.
Churches get stuck at some sizes more than others, and while the plateau numbers may not be exact figurings, they do present pastors with slightly different challenges for trying new strategies in staffing, grouping and delegating. Let's take a look at some of the most common plateau points--and how to break free from them.
Generally speaking, the leader feels his job involves knowing everything about each and every person in the congregation, and "being there" personally for everybody. Church is a big family at the dinner table; that's why potluck meals work so well within this size church. The pastor cares and does so much, he lulls the congregation away from its own responsibility to bear one another's burdens. For the most part, he responds to problems and reacts to situations that arise in the normal course of people's lives.
Acting more as a chaplain or a concerned parent, the pastor of the typical small church delegates almost nothing. And if he does ask someone to oversee an aspect of church life, he will keep checking on it so often and so intrusively, the individual feels about as empowered as a youngster with a learner's permit on her first driving lesson with mom.
1. Identify three ministry jobs (for example, creating the bulletin, selecting the worship songs or running the sound system), turn them over to volunteers, and after explaining the job for an hour, do nothing and say nothing related to those jobs for three months.
2. Do not attend the next church fellowship function, and for the next three months always invite someone different to open any gatherings (with a prayer or a greeting) and to close them. Have neither the first nor the last word.
3. Redirect one hour of your weekly schedule-- something you normally do--and go sit somewhere, such as in a coffee shop, with pen and paper. Write down any new ideas for your church (not reminders).
Having broken free from the previous stick-point, churches of this size are developing into a comfortable community, not just a family. Usually, there are not (yet) many structural or logistical problems. The first faint glimpses of a leadership structure are emerging, but delegation is probably friendship-based and related almost exclusively to small or easily controlled aspects of church life. No one is really being freed to do things the way they think is best. Rather, the pastor has thought it through and merely tells someone what to do and how to do it.
There will always be exceptions, but generally speaking, a church of 90 will stay stuck without a full-time pastor and a half-time assistant who keeps regular office hours.
1. Legitimize your operations by making the "office staff" more substantial--setting prescribed hours when you're (always) open, filling those hours with workers (paid and unpaid), getting a "real" piece of office equipment, having a "staff lunch" for volunteers, and so on.
2. Begin to establish multiple gatherings of the same kind. Some examples: dividing into two weekend services even if your building is not full, starting three breakfast groups for emerging leaders, for five months discontinuing regular meetings with your elders so they can each meet during that time slot with their own group of the same size/gender composition as the former elders' group.
3. Identify three main areas of ministry (for example, children's ministry, worship or men's meetings), and invite at least five people in each area to two brainstorming sessions to dream big. Delegate specific jobs and responsibilities to each participant. Help them to do it if they need the help, but expect them to do it. Leave it in their hands.
The vast majority of all U.S. churches stay stuck here because it marks the limit to the number of people with whom the pastor has the time, energy or personal reserves to stay close. People drift in and out of the church because the pastor has unknowingly set up the expectation that he, personally, is going to attend to them. Sooner or later, the pastor will unintentionally violate that agreement, and they will feel as though things "just aren't the same anymore" since all the new people came.
The pastoral strategy must be to remove himself slightly from the whole congregation in order to concentrate on a few present or prospective leaders. Forced to become more strategic and long term in thinking, the pastor must back away from the people and get ahead of them.
1. Consider hiring more staff. Staffing plays an especially critical role in pushing past the 200 barrier. Even if it seems as though the money is not there, seriously consider "hiring" two full-time, pastoral-level staff with two full-time support personnel. Begin by paying salaries to the two support personnel, and add pastors to the payroll as you can. (They're much more expensive to hire and far more likely to be excited about the role--even as a volunteer.)
2. Identify a fairly major work project and bond people to one another by getting them to work together on it. If people scrape paint side by side, they will feel as though they are a part of the body, and the church will begin to grow. It builds esprit de corps, a vital replacement to the "big, happy family" feeling.
3. Write down the names of the seven most active-in-leadership individuals or couples in your church and the "hats" they wear; ask each individual or couple to help you think of other people to whom you can delegate all but two of your leaders' jobs.
The pastor is absolutely convinced he or she cannot and should not pastor all the people in the church, so significant administrative and discipleship measures to utilize "the few" to pastor the many have already been adopted. Pastoral care, along with virtually every other ministry segment of the church, must be delegated the way Jethro instructed Moses. Church is administratively and relationally complex. Individuals and groups shift the focus of attention, and some "widows" are not going to be serviced properly.
The church becomes its own mission field, needing sub-congregations almost like new churches pioneered within it. Leaders are beginning to have an ambition for the people they directly oversee, and sometimes that internal ambition will cross grains with the whole program. Internal expansion and program needs should win out over the larger church program at least some of the time.
It's time for the youth pastor to be his or her own person. The senior pastor should welcome times when various ministry leaders "buck the system" (developing kingdoms within a kingdom), not in the spirit of Absalom, but in the spirit of true servants who, like you, are in the business of ministry because they see the sheep needing more shepherds. Commission and appoint people, full of the Holy Spirit and power, to oversee areas of ministry responsibility.
1. Staff for sanity and for growth. If you keep an appropriate ratio of staff to people, sanity calls for the equivalent of six full-time staff, and growth will likely require a couple more than that. Make a list of everyone you would hire (and what they would do) if you were given $500,000 to be used only for salaries. Don't wait for the money. Ask the people on the list to start doing what you'd like them to oversee.
2. Appraise and repair the church-program offerings to increase the number of strands--fellowship situations or opportunities--in the net you're using to fish for people. The two main types of groups are getting (people come for care and nurture without having to do anything) and giving (people come in order to provide service for others). With an apprentice leader at your side, start two new groups, one of each variety, with very specific focuses--for example, one targeting fathers in blended families and the other developing prayer teams.
3. Provide opportunities for sharing. One of the most substantial ways to build team spirit and cooperation is to encourage members of the team to share their stories, successes and struggles with the whole group--especially with the primary leader present and attentive. Pastors who do all the talking at leadership gatherings miss a great opportunity to promote others into greater involvement and service.
At your next churchwide leaders' meeting, ask at least eight people to give a five- to seven-minute presentation (complete with handouts) on the current condition of and the future vision for the "department" they oversee. And you take notes while they are speaking!
Bottom line: If we're going to burn the hell out of our world, it certainly doesn't hurt to have a few bigger bonfires. But there's a lot to be said for firing the flames of even the smallest campfire, so that it will jump outside whatever presently rings it in. The kingdom principle has always been multiplication. We find our spiritual significance not through collecting people, but in gathering them for the purpose of sending them out to replicate their experience with us.
Remember what we're supposed to be growing: congregants not congregations. For some amazing reason, Jesus did not choose to bequeath to His church a special potion to be poured on pews to attract people like bees come to honey. He didn't give us a franchise-church-in-a-box or limitless sources of money to erect impressive buildings.
Instead, He gave the church people-gifts (prophets, mercy-showers, exhorters, and so on) and a prayer focus (more laborers). Hmmm...
So, whether a church has big or small numbers, God's interest is the same. And even more to the point, that interest is a sobering reality check for us pastors, regardless of how big or small our congregations may be. The true question is not, "How can I get a bigger church?" but, "How can I empower more of my church in ministry that really matters?"
How do you diagnose a church's health? Here are some distinguishing characteristics.
If size alone is not a legitimate indicator of spiritual health--since political conventions, Mormon Temples and stock car races all attract crowds--are there other more telling signs of well-being in church? Here are some of the pulse points I keep my finger on in my congregation:
Leaders' lives. As in the lives of the Old Testament prophets, the true leaders in my church are experiencing the strange and marvelous reality of "living out" stuff God is doing in the whole church. For instance, recently--over the course of one week--four different men told me of their desires to volunteer one afternoon a week at the church. Coincidence or Godincidence?
What is happening in leaders is especially diagnostic of seasons God may be bringing our way. Look for changes in the prevailing winds.
Post-service conversations. Do people want to stick around after "church" is over? What are the subjects of their conversations with one another?
If the same groups of friends are just chitchatting or tacking down details, I'm not nearly as excited as if I notice the normal groups are split up among newer people, and they're talking about what God has done in them recently.
Expectant worship. Regardless of the piano player or song selection, I'm curious about the atmosphere in times of corporate celebration of the Lord. Are people leaning in or back? I am thrilled when many individuals seem to form their own little pockets of personal intimacy with the Lord in the midst of the whole congregation--not doing their own thing apart from the rest of us, but "lost" in communion in the midst of us.
Stories. The more I hear testimonies about what God is doing or saying in people's lives (as opposed to just the normal goings-on), the happier I am. And when the talk around church moves a bit further toward friends' and neighbors' encounters with God through evangelism, the more certain I am that we're healthy.
Affection levels. Godliness (the whole hope for churchgoers) shows up more in qualities such as kindness, patience and tenderness than in thunderous pronouncements and self-righteous judgments. People on whom God has been working tend to manifest soft hearts, and Jesus' trade secret says, "Who has been forgiven much, loves much." Beyond what is normal for friends in a Rotary Club, what signs of affection do I pick up in my church?
Cheerful, heartened buzz. Forgive the pagan allusion, but the best way I know to describe this attribute in church is to call it pixie dust. When that stuff gets sprinkled on a congregation, it creates an excited joy, a sense of expectation about the future, coupled with such enjoyment of the present that no one is in a hurry to move on. It's like enjoying a fabulous meal and spying--at the same time--the dessert tray with its exquisite possibilities. Such timelessness and inability to contain the entire blessing is a touch of heaven to come.
Daniel A. Brown is senior pastor of The Coastlands in Aptos, California. He is the author of several books including Enjoying Your Journey With God (Charisma House), which covers the basics of the Christian faith in a nonreligious way and is designed for small-group study. Buy it at www.charismahouse.com.
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Oh, Japan. Is it not enough that you have robot butlers and creepy maid cafés, but do you have to be the only market to have these great track-friendly, well-loved sports cars, too? The Subaru BRZ/Scion FR-S/Toyota GT86 are respected all over for their handling, fun, and back-to-basics sports car feel, and it's all but assured these will become track-day toys as well as daily drivers for many people. In Japan, that job's been made much easier thanks to the Subaru BRZ RA and the Toyota GT86 RC.
These have been teased and shown previously, but are now on sale. It seems that the warranty situation will be different for these cars, because, duh.
The Subaru BRZ RA is a BRZ all suited up for the track. That means a six-point roll cage, oil cooler mounted in the grille, ventilated disc brakes front and rear with cooling ducts, Torsen limited-slip diff, four-point (FIA certified) seat belt harness, and, while it loses the radio, keeps a/c. Oh, and also it gets custom floor mats to clear the cage, because racing your car doesn't mean muddy carpets. All this for $31,500 or so in U.S. dollars, which it's unlikely ever to be exchanged for. But we can hope.
The Toyota GT86 RC version (also introduced last year, and now available) is not, as I hoped, the remote-control version. It's actually the stripper model, designed to act as a blank canvas for modifiers and customizers. As a result, the car is stripped down to the barest essentials. The front and rear bumper covers are unpainted, as are the door handles and mirrors, there's no radio, a/c, foglights, or even some of the trim and badging on the interior, dash and steering wheel.
It's cheaper in Japan than the normal GT86, and while there's no plans yet to bring it anywhere else, there's a big perverse part of me that would love this, as is, as a daily driver. Well, maybe I'd throw a Craigslist Sparkomatic radio in there.
Both cars ride on 16" steelies, on the assumption that you'll be swapping out your track wheels and tires when you decide to go racing. Personally, I love the look of the basic steelies as they are, even for a normal daily-driver BRZ/FR-S.
So, if you're outside of Japan, you can add another couple cars to your list of great cars you're never gonna get here, ever.
(References: Road & Track, Wikipedia)


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Kentwood High (KHS) Class of 1989 Alumni List
Help us Update the Kentwood High 1989 Class List by adding any names missing from the list below:
Registered Alumni
1989 Class List
- Sharon Brown
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- Pearl Huynh
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- Tara Scott
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- Joanne Taft
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The top movie in theaters during 1989 was Batman, grossing over $251,188,924 in its lifetime. The most popular television series for 1989 was The Cosby Show
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More 1989 alumni from Kentwood HS Covington, WA have posted profiles on Classmates.com®. Click here to register for free at Classmates.com® and view other 1989 alumni.
The students that went to school at the Covington high school called Kentwood High School and graduated in '89 are on this page. Register to add your name to the class of 1989 graduates list.
If you are an alumn of Kentwood High you should register now in the alumni directory. We also encourage you to interact with the rest of the alumni on this site. You can find old friends, share photos and stay updated on the latest school news.


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The British Fashion Council has confirmed over 170 emerging and established accessories, jewellery and ready to wear labels to show their autumn/winter 11 collections at the leading international designer showcase, The Exhibition at London Fashion Week. Known as a platform to view emerging designer businesses alongside established brands, this season the exhibition will showcase 60 design talents new to London Fashion Week. The Exhibition is open to all UK and International media and buyers. Registration is available on site from 18th – 22nd February, 10am until 7pm (closing at 6pm on 22nd).
The Exhibition will be based in the South Wing of Somerset House over 4 floors, where accessories, footwear, jewellery, and ready-to-wear and designers will come together to form the sales hub of London Fashion Week. Amongst the new designers showcasing this season are Draw in Light; Nancy Van Ostren; Sarah Baadarani; Shao Yen Chen; Teatum Jones and Tze Goh. More established brands Lara Bohinc and Linda Farrow will rejoin the likes of Erickson Beamon and milliner Stephen Jones, whilst new accessories designers include Ongwat's architecturally inspired jewellery; Joanne Stoker's footwear label and skillfully constructed handbags from Thomas Blaak. Boundary pushing product designer Paperself will be showcasing their unique and expressive eyelashes collection, inspired by the art of Chinese paper cutting. The Exhibition will once again feature an impressive selection of established footwear designers including understated luxury brand Georgina Goodman and British Fashion Award nominee Camilla Skovgaard.
Exhibitors are selected by an expert panel of media and retailers to guarantee the integrity and quality of the exhibition, and ensure the collections will appeal to an audience of both UK and international retailers alike. As well as installations and multibrand showrooms, The Exhibition will have merchandised feature areas for each of the BFC's showcasing initiatives. NEWGEN, sponsored by TOPSHOP will feature some of London's most innovative designers in the Terrace Rooms at Somerset House; Estethica, sponsored by Monsoon, gives a platform for eco-sustainable design; Headonism, brings new British milliners curated by Stephen Jones; BFC/Elle Talent Launch Pad winners will once again have a show space in the embankment galleries; and The Navy Board Room collective, comprising of NEWGEN alumni, is located on the first floor.
The NEWGEN area of the Exhibition, sponsored by Topshop, will feature seventeen of the UK's best emerging design talents including on-schedule designers as well as those showing in the exhibition and on the presentation schedule. Designers receiving NEWGEN sponsorship for the first time this season include milliner Nasir Mazhar, who has designed collections for Gareth Pugh, Richard Nicoll and The Royal Opera House, as well as creating commissions for Lady Gaga and Madonna. Directional designer Thomas Tait's has also won NEWGEN sponsorship for the first time; he will showcase his Autumn/Winter 2011 ready-to-wear collection at The Exhibition.
The British Fashion Council's ethical showcase, Estethica, sponsored by Monsoon, will be located in the embankment galleries at Somerset House. This season sees the largest Estethica showcase to date, where 30 designers will be showcasing their ethically aware labels. Estethica designer Christopher Raeburn, who's ethically aware outerwear has received much critical acclaim, will this season showcase his menswear line in an innovative presentation. Amongst the new designers are Fashion East winner Dr Noki, with his NHS ready to wear collection, alongside millinery by Jacob James and jewellery designer Kumvana Gomani who will also be showing for the first time. An Estethica brunch for press and buyers will be held on Saturday 19th, 11.15am to 1pm.
Headonism, an initiative to showcase and support emerging milliners in London, curated by iconic British milliner Stephen Jones, will showcase five designers, Piers Atkinson, J Smith Esquire, Little Shilpa, Noel Stewart and Soren Bach.
This year's BFC/Elle Talent Launch Pad winner's designated area in the exhibition provides an introduction for the designers and their collections. The BFC/Elle Talent Launch Pad area will feature the timeless aesthic designs of Clemency London, David Longshaw's illustrative and embellished collection, androgynous womenswear from Eudon Choi, Holly Fulton's unique art-deco signature pieces and statement accessories; the edgy womenswear from designers Irwin and Jordan, and sculpture based jewellery from Yunas and Eliza, all selected by leading independent retailers throughout the UK.
The Navy Board Room collective brings together a group of NEWGEN alumni including Atalanta Weller, Cooperative Designs, Felder Felder, KTZ, Marjan Pejoski, Mark Fast, MFP and Michael Lewis. These designers have gone on from winning NEWGEN sponsorship, to develop their businesses, to leading the sales at London Fashion Week. After four successful seasons with NEWGEN, Atalanta Weller joins the Navy Board Room collective with her inspirational take on footwear, alongside revolutionary knitwear design from Mark Fast and Maria Francesca Pepe's avant garde creations which merge the link between ornament and wearability.
Four prominent multi-brand showrooms will be representing designers in The Exhibition. Showrooms Haynes and Rainbowwave will be joined by Bloody Grey PR and Place Rouge who are also showing their support for the new direction of brand selection within The Exhibition. Haynes will be located in The Navy Board Rooms on the First Floor and will represent Ksubi, Louise Amstrup, Chronicles of Never, Ostwald Helgason, and Panda Kunst by Louis-marie de Castelbajac. Also located on the first floor are Rainbowwave, representing Camilla Skovgaard, Douud, Enza Costa, Deepa Gurnani, Anne Louise Landelius and Mou, and Place Rouge presenting AF Vandevorst, Anne Valerie, Hash, InsideOut, Jean-Pierre Braganza, Jean-Charles de Castelbajac. Bloody Grey PR will showcase Neurotica, Rachel Freiere, E.g., Tosha, Albion Trinketry, James Hock, Martina Spetlova, Two Weeks, Broken Fab, and La Cav Du Bon in the Embankment Galleries.
Menswear day will have a dedicated showcase of up and coming menswear talent on Wednesday 23th February from 1pm – 5pm. An installation from NEWGEN MEN winner Christopher Raeburn will be located on the first floor alongside Estethica's Junky Styling. Fashion East Men installations will be based on the ground floor embankment galleries featuring collections from some of London's most innovative menswear designers. For the full list of menswear exhibitors visit www.londonfashionweek.co.uk/newgenmenfashioneastinstallations
Caroline Rush, Chief Executive of the British Fashion Council commented "This is an edited exhibition for the UK and International leading retailers and media offering new talent selections alongside established brands and showrooms. An early morning opening on Tuesday 22nd for those who cover the shows and a working lounge for buyers will make the exhibition even more accessible to London Fashion Week's audiences."
Following its successful launch last season, London Fashion Week publications The Inside Guide, which gives readers in-depth information and editorial insight into those showcasing in the exhibition, and the Little Black Book, providing full press and sales contacts for all the exhibitors, will once again be available to all press and buyers upon registration. This season also sees the launch of The Great Exhibition poster, a new publication edited by Jenny Dyson which gives the key autumn/winter 11 trends to look out for at The Exhibition.
Opening Hours of the Exhibition - Friday 18th – Monday 21st February 2011, 10am - 7pm daily. The Exhibition will have an early opening on Tuesday 22nd from 8.30am and will close at 6pm.
Press releases on this season's NEWGEN recipients; BFC/Elle Talent Launch Pad designers and the Estethica collective are available at www.londonfashionweek.co.uk/press


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- May 15, 2013
The EMS Energy Institute recently acquired the Argonne Premium Coal Sample Bank (APC), one of the most extensively used sample banks in the world. Last week, the coals were physically moved to the Institute where they will now be housed and available to researchers, which required moving thousands of samples, and large shelving units. This acquisition complements the Penn State Coal Sample Bank and Database already housed at the Institute.
The APC Sample Bank can supply researchers investigating coal structure, properties, and behavior with highly uniform coal samples unexposed to oxygen. The sample bank consists of eight coals, including lignite, subbituminous coal, high volatile, medium volatile, and low volatile bituminous coal, as well as a liptinite-rich, an inertinite-rich, and a coking coal. Coals from the collection have been placed in sealed glass ampoules or 5-gallon carboys and have been stored in carefully controlled conditions.
Representative splits from each coal sample are chemically and physically as identical as possible, and will be stable over a long period of time. Because of the sample uniformity and premium quality of APC samples, researchers are assured that the analysis results they generate are comparable with results generated by other workers using APC samples.
Coal samples from the APC Sample Bank are available to all members of the coal research community. The Institute can provide assistance in identifying samples that match specifications or that best suit the research needs of the requestor. Coals from the collection are distributed at a reasonable cost plus shipping and handling in two different mass/particle size quantities, 5g of minus 0.15 mm or 10g of minus 0.85 mm). More information is available on our factsheet. Anyone with questions related to the sample bank can contact Gareth Mitchell, firstname.lastname@example.com, or (814) 865-6543.


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They say you should keep your friends close, and your enemies closer. Today, Nice Price or Crack Pipe has a Citroën that's small enough for you to do both!
Yesterday, we checked out a low-mileage 944S which engendered one of the healthier debates over Nice Priciness, or Crack Piperdom. Who knew a Porsche could be so polarizing? In the end (front end, as this was a 944) it walked away with a pretty decisive 74% Nice Price win, so the haters may have been disproportionately vocal, or just too lazy to vote.
Something else that's lazy is the performance of today's contender, which is an out of the ordinary and eclectically-styled 1964 Ami6 from Citroën. Meaning Friend in its native tongue, and offered up on eBay from its adopted home of Milwaukee, WI, this bigger brother to the 2CV is something you'll probably never see coming your way here in the land of Freedom Fries. But, having considered this one, you won't be left standing there wondering what just bleu bayou, should one pass by.
The $12,400 Buy-It-Now price reflects its lofty position on the supply side of the economic equation- while common in France, they're rare as mime appreciation societies here in the U.S.. Also reflective is how nice this car appears, which is; very. That's because of a recent restoration, mechanical overhaul, and a re-spray in sacre-bleu back in 2007.
The Ami6 was built between 1961 and 1978, and was intended to be a more civilized compatriot to the agrarian Deux chevaux- no baskets of eggs for the Ami! The country mouse/city mouse differences were mostly in the body, which features slide-open windows and a traditional trunk. Mechanically, it is the 2CV, continuing that car's leading/trailing arm suspension and horizontally-opposed air-cooled twin. As all that luxury (remember the windows?) added weight, the Ami received an enlarged
prostate motor of 602-ccs, still allowing it to limbo under the government-imposed 610-cc tax limit. That provides 24 bhp which still took over 30 wacks to get its 1,360 lbs up to 50. Top speed is about 65 mph, given enough room to build up a head of steam and a tail wind, while a light drizzle hitting the windscreen may drop that by a few.
As proof that those 24 ponies are really all you need, the seller includes some YouTube Cinéma vérité shorts, including the following, simply titled: Ma voiture est un poisson très grand.
You might have noticed an iconic, and some might say bizarre, styling feature of the Ami which is the reverse-raked rear window. Similar to the Mercury Monterey or Ford Anglia, the design affords plenty of headroom as well as makes the car look like it's doing 20 while just standing still. The yellow Cibies and three-lug rims (check out the spare) complete the Franco-bona fides of this little salon.
So, would you pay $12,400 so you and three of your Amis (we recommend Rachel, Monica and Phoebe) can travel in Gallic style? Or does that price make this Citroën a friend in name only?
You decide!
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Premilla Nadasen, Queens College, with commentary by Ruth Milkman RI '13, City University of New York and Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study
The Boston Seminar Series on the History of Women and Gender—cosponsored by the Massachusetts Historical Society and the Schlesinger Library at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study—offers scholars and students an opportunity to discuss new research on any aspect of the history of women and gender in the United States, without chronological limitation.
The seminar series includes four meetings that will take place during the 2012–2013 academic year, each revolving around the discussion of a precirculated paper. Sessions open with remarks from the essayist and an assigned commentator, after which the discussion is opened to the floor.
Registration for the series is required. Registered participants may access the papers online at the Massachusetts Historical Society website. For more information, please call 617-495-8647.
Organizing Committee
Nancy F. Cott, Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University
Cornelia H. Dayton, University of Connecticut
Crystal Feimster, Yale University
Judith E. Smith, University of Massachusetts at Boston
Conrad Edick Wright, Massachusetts Historical Society


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Series Preview
Preview: Season 2018 | 27s
Anya Taylor-Joy stars in this adaptation of Jessie Burton's bestselling novel about a young woman married off to a wealthy merchant in morally conflicted 1600s Amsterdam. The Miniaturist premieres Sunday, Sept. 9, 9/8C on MASTERPIECE on PBS. #MiniaturistPBS
Aired: 09/09/18Video has closed captioning.


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The MedShare family welcomes Charles Redding as its new Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and President, effective May 5, 2014. Redding succeeds Meridith Rentz, who served as the organization's CEO and President for the last three years. Rentz resigned in April 2014 to spend more time with her family. Her last day at MedShare was May 2nd.
"Charles has a keen global perspective and a strong vision for MedShare's ongoing commitment to making the world a better place," said Thomas Asher, MedShare's board chair. "What Charles has done for MedShare in just two years is outstanding. He is the right person at the right time to take our organization to the next level of service excellence for our recipients worldwide."
Redding has been MedShare's Chief Operating Officer (COO) since 2012. He led the company's efforts to expand into the Northeast by opening a Sorting & Collection Center in Secaucus, New Jersey. Prior to this role, he held a number of senior management positions with Johnson & Johnson (J&J) including the first Plant Manger for Ethicon in Juarez, Mexico and Director of Asia Pacific Operations, where he was based in Shanghai, China and managed facilities in China and India. His latest role at J&J was that of Vice President of Global Operations for their Aesthetic Medicine business. He was responsible for 1200 employees in the U.S., France, The Netherlands, and Mauritius and managed a 200 million dollar budget. A native of Atlanta, Redding graduated from the Georgia Institute of Technology with a bachelors degree in Chemical Engineering, and received a certificate in Team Management from the Daniel School of Management at the University of South Carolina.
"It's an honor to be leading MedShare as our 15th anniversary year comes to a close," said Redding. "The support and commitment of our board of trustees, regional council members, staff, and volunteers will help us make an even greater impact on the health care of the recipients we serve in local U.S. communities and around the world."
Founded in Atlanta in 1998, MedShare sources essential, surplus medical supplies and equipment, and delivers them directly to underserved populations worldwide while lessening the impact of medical waste in the U.S. Its ultimate goal is to improve the quality of life of people, communities, and the planet.
Since its founding, MedShare has mobilized thousands of community volunteers, corporate, hospital, and nongovernmental partners to ship nearly 1,000 forty-foot containers to hospitals and clinics in need in over 95 countries, including free clinics in the U.S. In addition to Atlanta, MedShare has offices in the San Francisco Bay and the New York City metropolitan areas.


text: We hope you've all enjoyed our CES 2008 video coverage. We've gone through our hours of footage, and picked out some of the best bloopers that our staff experienced. We know how disappointed you all probably are to realize that we aren't perfect, but we think you should have gathered that from the Gear Live documentary.