The Legislature’s ongoing fight against human trafficking will move back to a familiar venue Monday afternoon: the Senate Law and Justice Committee, where a work session will focus on the challenge of identifying those who have been pressed into sexual slavery, and how they may be rescued.

“Most people probably don’t connect the Super Bowl or high-end health spas with the modern-day slavery that goes with human trafficking. As our committee will hear Monday, there is a link,” said Sen. Mike Padden, R-Spokane Valley, who chairs the panel.

“It’s by understanding how the sex-trafficking industry operates, especially in places the average person wouldn’t suspect, that we can best figure out how to go after those who treat young women as a commodity – the pimps who do the selling and the johns who do the buying.” Continue reading →