Reported cases of sexual trafficking in the United States are horrifying and, unfortunately, not uncommon. In recent years, our federal courts have heard cases involving a group of Thai women - promised good-paying restaurant jobs - forced into prostitution upon their arrival in New York; a group of Mexican teenagers - told they would be working as waitresses and child- and elder-care workers - held in sexual slavery in Florida and the Carolinas; a syndicate of smugglers and pimps who brought hundreds of Asian women (some as young as 13) into the United States, forcing them to work as prostitutes - and making them live in bondage - until their "contracts" were paid off.

In a large room of a warehouse, countless cardboard boxes sit on the floor and along the walls, overflowing with televisions, computer monitors, wire, and various computer components. An adjoining room has bales of compressed pieces of plastic stacked three and four bundles high that look as if they're ready for the junkyard.

A nighttime walk through a haunted house? Scary. A nighttime walk through an unfamiliar forest or abandoned, ramshackle building? Scary. A nighttime walk through a haunted house set in an unfamiliar forest or abandoned, ramshackle building? Freakin' terrifying.

Several Rock Island organizations have come together to donate $90,000 to the local Rock Island Youthbuild program to keep it from having to shut down because of a lack of funding. As a result, Youthbuild will be able to remain operational until at least December.