George James

January is recognized as Human Trafficking Awareness Month across the country. According to the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, “Human trafficking affects individuals across the world, and right here in Michigan. It is commonly regarded as the second largest criminal enterprise after drugs, and it affects every community in Michigan across age, gender, ethnicity, and socio-economic backgrounds.”

While the awareness of the issue has increased in many cities and states across the country, much still remains to be done. One major area of focus for many organizations has become prevention and education efforts. It’s what the Michigan Abolitionist Project (MAP) was founded on. Since 2012, the organization has presented to dozens of organizations each year and have been a catalyst for collaboration among advocates and stakeholders addressing human trafficking in Michigan. 

This month, MAP is teaming up with St. Clair County Community College to offer a free movie night on January 21. The event will take place from 6:30-8:30 in the college’s Fine Arts Theatre. The featured movie, titled Break the Chain,chronicles two survivors of Human Trafficking within Michigan communities providing a detailed look at how trafficking goes unnoticed within our backyards. To find out more about what you can do or how to attend the event, visit michiganabolitionistproject.org/events.

Reporting for WGRT, Karly Hurley.

With one year left in his term on the bench, Sanilac County Circuit Court Judge Donald Teeple has announced that he will not be seeking reelection, as he has aged out of the process.  State law prevents those aged 70 and older from running for judge. Judge Teeple was elected in 1990 and when his term runs out at the end of 2020, he will have put in 30 years as a judge in the 24th District Circuit Court.

 Judge Teeple was admitted to the bar in 1974 after graduating from the University of Michigan and University of Detroit School of Law. He has been involved in a range of high-profile cases over his tenure from those involving wind energy and the multitude of windmills throughout the county, local government and school district conflicts, and a record $4.4 million award for a wrongful death case against the Michigan State Police. The men behind the Oklahoma City bombing appeared in Judge Teeple’s courtroom in 1993. 

Judge Teeple is a lifelong Sanilac County resident and has plans to assist as a visiting judge as needed. Applicants have until mid-April to file to run for the open seat on the bench. The Sanilac County Circuit Court hears civil and criminal cases. It also houses a family division and hears appeals from other courts.

Reporting for WGRT, Karly Hurley.

There has been some confusion regarding recent laws related to the new legal age to buy tobacco products in the United States. While it is a federal law that was enacted, it is now illegal for anyone, including individuals in Michigan, under the age of 21 to buy cigarettes, cigars or other tobacco products across the U.S. 

Put into place by Congress and signed by the President a few weeks ago, electronic cigarettes and vaping products that contain nicotine, fall under the new law as well. In order to protect the next generation from becoming addicted to tobacco products, the age was raised from 18 to 21 nationwide. Although one-third of states had already placed their own laws restricting sales to people 21 and older, this new legislation took effect right away due to simply increasing the age limit of an existing law. 

Advocates of anti-smoking laws believe that this new age limit should make access to tobacco products more difficult for students in high school where older classmates or friends were buying for them. Stores in violation can be fined or barred from selling tobacco if repeated. 

In more tobacco related news, the Michigan Supreme Court says it won’t take an expedited appeal from Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in a dispute over flavored e-cigarettes. The court says any appeal should follow a traditional course to the Court of Appeals. 

In October, a Court of Claims judge blocked Governor Whitmer’s ban on flavored e-cigarettes, saying health officials can’t justify shortcuts to adopt the new regulations.

The judge also expressed concern about the impact on adults who might be vaping to avoid regular cigarettes. Whitmer said the ban was necessary to keep flavored e-cigarettes away from teens. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 52 deaths in 26 states are among the 2,409 hospitalized cases that have been reported across the nation this year due to vaping.

Reporting for WGRT, Karly Hurley.

A familiar billboard is making its appearance during January once again this year. Periodically, over the past sixteen years, the Blue Water Pax Christi organization has purchased billboards bearing the faces of internationally recognized peace advocates. For the past several years, they have included portraits of St. Teresa of Calcutta (Mother Teresa) and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The message is one of non-violence, mercy, and justice. 

The billboard project started in 2003 in response to the beginning of the Iraq war. They have had the current billboard for the past nine years. The local organization promotes a 64-day “Season of Non-Violence” that begins with the anniversary of Gandhi’s assassination and ends with the anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Pax Christi is an international organization that was started in France in 1945. The Blue Water branch was started in 2002 and while Catholic in its roots, it offers programs for the whole Blue Water community. The January billboards are paid for by donations from local church groups and community members. The billboards are digital this year and can be seen at multiple locations in the Port Huron area through the end of January.

Reporting for WGRT, Karly Hurley.

With no place to go or a warm bed to sleep in, the Blue Water Area Rescue Mission goes beyond providing food, shelter, and clothing to individuals in need of those resources. In addition to this, they encourage people to do something with their lives and better themselves by asking for 10 job applications within the week or gifting their time to community service if they are not able to get a job. 

Arnold “Arnie” Koontz, executive Director, explained to ebw.tv in an interview that the most successful program is Inside Out, where they assist incarcerated individuals back into the community. Dante Ferrazza, former Inside Out mentor, told ebw.tv in an interview that he grew up in violence and at the age of 18 he went to prison and spent the next 53 years in and out of it. However, over the last 25 years Ferrazza was in prison, he became a Christian and started looking for a church. After one of his friends invited him to River of Life Christian Fellowship, he is now a senior deacon at the church. With all his needs met, he does not find a need in the extra stuff. 

The Blue Water Rescue Mission is currently working on a new expansion of their facility after graduating 53 men and putting $1.6 million back into the community. Find out more on how the Blue Water Rescue Mission is going to continue changing lives in the New Year in this feature. 

People celebrate the new year in many different ways. From dressing up and going out to the bar, or staying close to home with family, there has been one accessory that remains constant through it all… New Year’s glasses. After almost a decade, it is finally time to be able to have two circles to see through instead of having a “1” blocking the view. 

The novelty glasses were invented in 1990 by Richard Sclafani and his friend and business partner, Pete Cicero but were no longer sold around 2010 due to an abundance of knockoff versions that made their venture unprofitable. 

For 119 years, a Pennsylvania-based company, Party Express, has been selling New Year’s novelties to consumers and businesses and this year they have seen an increase in pairs sold. Mark Sullivan, Party Express manager, explained that 2000 to 2009 was the easiest when it came to designing the glasses as no thought really had to go behind it. This year makes the glasses fun because of the irony with 20/20 vision. 

Since 2000, this is the most interest Party Express has had with the glasses as it was the turn of the millennium and the natural excitement of having three zero’s. With this year being a new decade and people celebrating “The Roaring ’20’s,” New Year’s sales as a whole have simply been bigger. However you dress up for the new year, we hope you started it with 20/20 vision!

Adapted from the Today Show’s “2020 will be the best year in a long time for those New Year’s glasses” by TODAY.