February Stories
-----------------------------------LOCAL NEWS
Gloom and Boom
While city officials lament their budget woes, the local economy hass rebounded to the days of Dot.com wine and roses. See what's afoot downtown, what big businesses are moving in, and what's in-store for renters.Realtor Katharine Holland analyzes the residential market and offers tips to both buyers and sellers about the what, when, why and how of owning and flipping your own real estate.
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ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT
Associated Producers
New Documentary Tells Fascinating Tale of Victims and Pimps Caught Up in a Modern Day Slave Market
A few years ago, Toronto filmmaker Ric Bienstock checked into a surprisingly upscale-looking hotel in a remote village of China that turned out to be a brothel for businessmen. The seeds of a new film were planted, and now Beinstock has won several awards for a film called "Sex Slaves".
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COVER STORY
Crime and No Punishment
Despite pronouncements from the mayor and a new ordinance from the Board of Supervisors, city efforts to crack down on massage establishments using trafficked women have failed to stop the lucrative trade. There are over 90 massage parlors in San Francisco, and while more than 1350 arrests of prostitutes were logged last year, brothel owners and traffickers still walk between the raindrops.
Tracy Mostovoy
An in-depth look at prostitution, pornography and trafficking, as seen through the eyes of advocates, academics, lawyers and prostitutes themselves. See why San Francisco women remain so divided on the subject of legalized sex work and pornography, while agreeing that more should be done to help trafficked women.
Kink.com Acquires the S.F. Armory
For a cool $14.5 million, a national historic place has fallen into the hands of a porn film company. A spokeswoman assured a TV reporter that "No one will ever have to know what goes on inside these walls," but we were curious and decided to take a look for ourselves.
Staff writer Meredith May penned a four-part series on sex trafficking last October, never realizing it would ignite so much criticism and debate. Massage customers have accused her of ruining the party for everyone by exposing tales of sexual slavery and debt bondage of women from South Korea smuggled here to work at many establishments around town.
Women's Media Center of Cambodia
A Short History of Sex Slavery and Trafficking
Since the ancient Greeks, women have been considered the booty of war. Follow the trail of one of the planet's most notorious human rights crimes in war and peace, right up to the present day.
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