The Family Justice Center of St. Joseph County opened its doors today, the Justice Department and the City of South Bend announced. The center, located in South Bend, Ind., is the final center to be opened under President Bush’s Family Justice Center Initiative, and is located in one of 15 communities chosen under the President’s Initiative to prevent and respond to violence against women.

The President’s Family Justice Center Initiative, which was unveiled by President Bush in October 2003 and funded by the Justice Department, is an unprecedented pilot program designed to make a victim’s search for assistance more effective by bringing the necessary services together under one roof. The Justice Department’s Office on Violence Against Women (OVW) has guided this pilot program with the goal of using these centers as models for how communities should provide coordinated domestic violence services across the country.

“Offering coordinated and centralized services for domestic violence victims is how our communities can better respond to violence against women,” said Mary Beth Buchanan, Acting Director of the Office on Violence Against Women. “We hope that these centers will serve as models for other communities to duplicate across the country.”

The services in communities designed to help victims of domestic violence are often fragmented and uncoordinated. Centers like the Family Justice Center of St. Joseph County are designed to bring together various components, including victim advocates, law enforcement officers, prosecutors, probation officers, forensic medical professionals, civil legal attorneys, chaplains, and representatives from community-based organizations into one centralized location to better serve victims of abuse.

Through the President’s Intiative, the Family Justice Center of St. Joseph County received extensive technical assistance from the original family justice center based in San Diego, Cailf., to aid in the comprehensive development. Additional technical assistance was provided by centers in Indianapolis, Ind. and Hennepin County, Minn. Additionally, the National Network to End Domestic Violence provided the Family Justice Center of St. Joseph County with assistance in technology and victim safety.

Lawyers made their final arguments in the perjury trial of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby Tuesday, with the defense arguing that Libby was a scapegoat for presidential aide Karl Rove's disclosures. In its final remarks, the prosecution argued that Libby was merely trying to a cover up a potentially illegal intelligence leak. In response, the defense said the government's witnesses were not credible and to accept the testimony of Meet the Press moderator Tim Russert as truth "would just be fundamentally unfair."

Libby's defense team rested last week, one week after the prosecution finished presenting its evidence against Libby. Also last week, Chicago Sun-Times columnist Robert Novak testified that Libby did not leak Plame's identity to him. It was Novak's July 2003 column that publicly outed Plame, thus igniting the CIA leak scandal. Libby is not charged with leaking Plame's identity, but instead faces perjury and obstruction of justice charges in connection with the investigation into the leak.

The HTP Unit will work to enhance the Department’s investigation and prosecution of significant human trafficking and slavery cases, such as multi-jurisdictional cases and those involving financial crimes. The Unit will also engage in training, technical assistance and outreach initiatives to federal, state and local law enforcement and NGOs.

The HTP Unit will be headed by noted anti-trafficking prosecutors who have prosecuted traffickers and freed hundreds of foreign and domestic victims from sex trafficking in brothels and forced labor in fields, homes and factories. Robert Moossy will head up the Unit, and is joined by Chief Counsel Lou de Baca and Special Litigation Counsels Hilary Axam and Andrew Kline, who bring significant anti-slavery experience to this effort and have been leaders in developing the modern victim-centered approach to human trafficking investigations and prosecutions. They will be joined in the coming months by additional federal prosecutors, a victim/witness specialist, and support staff. Attorney General Gonzales has made combating human trafficking a top priority of the Justice Department. In the last six fiscal years, the Civil Rights Division, in conjunction with U.S. Attorneys’ Offices, has increased by six-fold the number of human trafficking cases filed, quadrupled the number of defendants charged, and tripled the number of defendants convicted. In FY 2006, the Department initiated 168 investigations, charged 111 defendants in 32 cases, and obtained a record number of convictions totaling 98.

A BID to extradite two people to the United States over an alleged international operation to produce an illegal drug got under way yesterday.

Brian Howes, 43, and Kerry Ann Shanks, 29, are wanted by the American authorities to face 82 charges over the alleged supply of chemicals to people believed to be involved in the production of methamphetamine, better known as crystal meth.

An initial extradition hearing at Edinburgh Sheriff Court heard claims that chemicals allegedly supplied by the pair, of Bo'ness, were traced to more than 80 unlawful laboratories in the US.

Sheriff Isabella McColl remanded them in custody until a further hearing in March.

State lawmakers, governors, and privacy advocates have express concerns about implementing the federal law, with many objecting to the expensive undertaking required for state compliance and privacy concerns associated with the federal requirements. In December 2005, the National Governor's Association, the National Conference of State Legislatures, and the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators, collectively released a report concluding that states are unprepared to implement the law and may need up to eight years to acquire the resources and time to successfully enact the legislation.