AG Program Holds Forum, Releases Podcasts on Human Trafficking as NAAG Announces New National Initiative (June 22, 2011)
The National State Attorneys General Program, in conjunction with the National Attorneys General Training & Research Institute (NAGTRI), hosted a forum for a group of 20 international criminal prosecutors and recorded podcasts on the subject of human trafficking. “The goal of this program is to respond to the shrinking world that we have in which cross-border relationships in the law enforcement arena are becoming increasingly important,” said NAGTRI Director Chris Toth in an interview with Program Director James E. Tierney for the AG Program Podcast. “We’re building relationships; we’re bringing people together to collaborate on a common problem.” Anne Milgram, a former attorney general of New Jersey who currently serves as a Senior Fellow at the New York University School of Law’s Center on the Administration of Criminal Law, discussed the inherent difficulties in cooperating amongst nations and states with disparate human trafficking. “For this to be done effectively, the federal government and the state and local law enforcement need to be at the table together,” said Milgram.
Association of Attorneys General President-elect Rob McKenna, the Attorney General of Washington, announced a nationwide initiative amongst offices of state attorneys general intended to combat human trafficking at the NAAG Summer Meeting in Chicago. Tierney was in attendance at the summer meeting along with Program Counsel Cindy Lott and Shelley Mayer.
On Tuesday, June 21, Program Director James E. Tierney delivered an ethics presentation at the Summer Meeting of the National State Attorneys General Association (NAAG) in Chicago. Entitled "Prosecutorial Ethics in a Changing Prosecutorial World," Tierney was accompanied to the conference by Program Senior Counsel Cindy Lott and Shelly Mayer.
AG Program Director and former Attorney General of Maine James Tierney, has submitted testimony to the Maine Committee on Labor, Commerce, Research and Economic Development, opposing a bill that would eliminate the requirement that minimum wage and overtime be paid to workers at farms that have over 300,000 egg-laying hens. As state representative, Tierney had sponsored the amendment in 1975 in response to poor working conditions at the a Decoster Egg Farms processing plant, and DeCoster is currently the only Maine employer to which it applies. In opposing repeal of the amendment, Tierney's testimony noted that the 1975 amendment passed with unanimous support from the state's Labor Committee and both chambers of the Legislature and that Decoster has since been cited and fined for numerous labor, animal cruelty, civil rights and health and safety violations.
Program Director James E. Tierney commented on the relationship between governors and state attorneys general in a profile of New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman, who was elected in November 2010. “Every governor wants to be attorney general, especially the ones who used to be attorney general,” Tierney said. “It’s just the way it is.” Schneiderman succeeded Andrew Cuomo as attorney general; Cuomo was elected governor in the same election.
The National State Attorneys General Program at Columbia Law School has issued a report on state wage and hour law enforcement, analyzing survey responses from 37 states and the District of Columbia. The study, based on data available in the fall of 2010, is the first of its breadth and depth to be conducted on a national scale, and includes an objective analysis of wage and hour enforcement on the state level, measuring the methods and extent of enforcement, and the ability of states to track and share data on wage and hour enforcement. It is based on data available in the fall of 2010.
The full report can be found below:
The conference, open only to state charities regulators, addressed topics of increasing urgency to the sector, including data privacy, fundraising and marketing via new technologies including social media and data aggregation, e-registration of charities, and investigatory methods of collecting and admitting social media evidence. Charities regulators from 35 states and American Samoa gathered on the Columbia campus for a conference entitled At the Intersection of Technology, the Charitable Sector and State Regulators. The conference was co-sponsored by the Charities Regulation and Oversight Project of the National State Attorney General Program at Columbia Law School and the National Attorneys General Training & Research Institute (NAGTRI).
Lessons from Arizona: A Discussion With Former Attorney General and Phoenix Mayor Terry Goddard (January 26, 2011)
The National State Attorneys General Program and Columbia Law School's Social Justice Initiatives presented a discussion and Q&A session on current events in Arizona and nationwide with Terry Goddard, who served as Mayor of Phoenix from 1984-1990 and as Arizona Attorney General from 2003-2011.
