Rather than diminishing, reports of children victimized by human traffickers are increasing. Worldwide, children comprised 20 percent of all victims from 2003 to 2006 - that rose to 27 percent over the next three years.

The report estimates 20.9 million adults and children are trafficked every year, and that 1.5 million of them are within the United States, says Sharon Buchbinder. They're sold for forced labor, organs and sex.

"Prostitution, statutory rape and kidnapping are all illegal, so we must have quite a robust criminal underworld," says Buchbinder, an award-winning, multi-published novelist who recently published "Obsession," (www.sharonbuchbinder.com), which deals with international kidnapping.

The FBI recently announced the biggest sex-trafficking bust in U.S. history, featuring the arrests of 150 alleged pimps and the rescues of 105 children. However, this is by no means a rare occurrence in our country, Buchbinder says.

"If you're not familiar with these cases, you may ask yourself, 'How is this possible?' " says Buchbinder, who reviews some the major, enabling factors.

• Sexually exploiting women and girls is big business. A human trafficker can potentially earn 20 times the amount paid for a girl. Unlike drugs and guns, the same girl can be sold over and over again. Poor girls can be found in all corners of the world, and a wealthy country like the U.S. is a prime market. Once a girl has been sufficiently frightened by her victimizer - told that she'll be found and punished if she flees, or that the lives of her family in another country may be at stake - she will follow a pimp's demands.

• The internet is a free channel for the criminal underworld. According to one estimate, 76 percent of transactions for sex with underage girls start on the internet. A website called Backpage.com is thought to be the largest U.S. forum for sex trafficking of these girls. While the site connects many consenting adults, it's also rife with girls and women forced into prostitution. A New York Times expose revealed the site is owned by private equity financiers, with a 16 percent stake formerly owned by Goldman Sachs. It sold its shares after the newspaper's inquiry. The internet also allows traffickers to find and "befriend" girls who reveal through their postings the characteristics traffickers are looking for.

• Diplomats can take advantage of immunity. Diplomats to this country are allowed to obtain special visas to bring workers from their home country. Some of these officials take advantage of this and exploit workers. After confiscating passports, an abusive diplomat may force workers to toil for long hours with little or no pay. Several women have been sexually abused under these conditions. And, because of diplomatic immunity, these officials are not prosecuted.

• Major events provide opportunity for traffickers. As reported by Forbes, the 2011 Super Bowl in Dallas included 133 underage arrests for prostitution; more than 10,000 prostitutes were packed into Miami for the Super Bowl in 2010. These are facts that officials know about; however, former victims say they were trafficked to various major events throughout the United States decades ago.

"Human trafficking is not a foreign problem; it's a sad fact throughout the world and in our own backyards," Buchbinder says.

About Sharon Buchbinder

Sharon Buchbinder is an award-winning author published in contemporary, erotic, paranormal and romantic-suspense genres. After working in health care delivery for years, Buchbinder became an executive, a health care researcher and an academic in higher education. Despite enjoying the good life with a good career, her supportive husband and an amazing son, the itch to write kept beckoning her. She credits much of her success to the kindness of family, friends, critique partners, Romance Writers of America and Maryland Romance Writers.

Along with all of its other unfortunate consequences, divorce can be so financially devastating for both spouses, sometimes neither ever recovers.

This poses a special problem for people aged 50 and older, one of the fastest-growing demographics of new divorcees. Today, one in four divorces is an older couple; that's double the rate of 1980 numbers, according to studies published this summer.

"After 10, 20 or 30 years of marriage, divorce is complicated by the varied assets couples have acquired," says wealth management advisor Haitham "Hutch" Ashoo, CEO of Pillar Wealth Management, (www.pillarwm.com).  "If you own a business, stock options, commercial real estate, private company stock, or have a deferred compensation package, putting a value on them can be a nightmare."

The best protection, of course, is having signed a prenuptial agreement before saying, "I do,"  Ashoo and attorney John Hartog of Hartog & Baer Trust and Estate Law, (www.hartogbaer.com), agree.

"If you've already divorced and you're thinking about remarrying, the smartest thing you can do is enter into a prenuptial contract that lays out how you'll divide your property in the event of divorce," Hartog says.

Such conversations can be difficult, so people avoid them, notes CPA Jim Kohles, chairman of RINA accountancy corporation, (www.rina.com).  But dealing with tough issues while the relationship is healthy may actually help ensure you never get divorced.

"Talking about the hard things helps couples build trust," he says. "Then, when they face a serious problem, they're better equipped to resolve it."

The three experts offer these tips for ensuring divorce does not financially destroy you, your spouse, or your family.

• This is not a do-it-yourself project. "My partner, Chris Snyder, and I invest much energy into getting to know top minds in the different fields because no two ultra-high net worth situations are exactly the same and one top-notch divorce attorney is not necessarily the best fit for all of our clients," says wealth manager Ashoo. "We have witnessed much pain, anger, grief and downright nastiness through many of our clients' marriage dissolutions."

It is not too late to try to protect your family and wealth through a postnuptial agreement, he says. This contract is signed by both parties and accompanied by a full disclosure of all assets, income and debt of both parties, free from fraud and duress and entered into freely.

"Most importantly," Ashoo says, "both parties must have been given ample opportunity to consider the contents and obtain legal advice before signing. And both parties need legal representation during the process."

• If you're older and entering a second or third marriage, consider estate planning. Couples marrying later in life often have obligations, particularly children, from prior relationships. Estate planning to take care of the children and the new spouse can prevent problems in the case of death or divorce, advises attorney Hartog.

"So often with ill-conceived estate plans, the probate becomes, in essence, a post-death divorce. All of the emotional elements that happen in a divorce get deferred to after your death," he says. "The kids are fighting with the widow about who owns what and who's entitled to how much. It's even worse if both spouses die and leave adult children with no emotional connection."

• Have the "what if" conversation now. What if one of us should suddenly die? What if something should happen to one of the children? What if one of us were to become disabled?

"Any  of these situations can lead to divorce," says CPA Kohles. "So while you're talking about it, talk about 'What if we were to divorce?' "

Divorce can be a major tax problem, he says. Support payments, property settlements, and retirement accounts can all affect your tax burden. When you discuss division of assets, consider the tax implications.

"Have the conversation before the bad thing happens, and set up trusts to take care of the parties you wish to take care. If you don't want a post-nup, at least write down a general agreement that you both sign. That gives you a base from which to work if trouble occurs. 
"A great way to have a disagreement," he says, "is to not have an agreement."

About Haitham "Hutch" Ashoo, John Hartog & Jim Kohles

Haitham "Hutch" Ashoo is the CEO of Pillar Wealth Management, LLC, in Walnut Creek, Calif., specializing in client-centered wealth management. John Hartog is a partner at Hartog & Baer Trust and Estate Law in Orinda, Calif. He is a certified specialist in estate planning, trust and probate law, and taxation law. Jim Kohles is chairman of the board of RINA accountancy corporation of Walnut Creek, Calif. He is a certified public accountant specializing in business consulting, succession and retirement planning, and insurance. All three advise ultra affluent families.

DAVENPORT, IA - On September 17, 2013, Charles Arthur Ruhl, Jr., age 59, of Davenport, Iowa, pled guilty pursuant to a plea agreement to one count of wire fraud and one count of money laundering, announced United States Attorney Nicholas A. Klinefeldt. Ruhl will appear for sentencing at the United States Courthouse in Davenport, Iowa, on a date to be determined. As part of the plea agreement, Ruhl and the government jointly recommended that Ruhl be sentenced to a term of imprisonment somewhere within the range of one day and twenty-four months.

From the end of 2008 through early 2012, Ruhl engaged in a scheme and artifice to defraud, by unlawfully withdrawing funds from several limited liability companies that he managed, including Lincoln Healthcare Building, LLC, Caxton on Bass St., LLC, Biaggi's West Des Moines, LLC, and Crow Valley Park Venture, LLC. In total Ruhl unlawfully withdrew approximately $1.3 million from these entities' accounts. Ruhl then spent the money on Ruhl & Ruhl Commercial expenses and personal expenses. Ruhl concealed his fraud by directing his chief financial officers to omit his withdrawals from financial statements provided to the investors or to enter false deposits on the statements to offset his withdrawals. These doctored statements showed large cash balances when in actuality the balances were depleted because of Ruhl's withdrawals. Ruhl directed Ruhl & Ruhl Commercial property managers to distribute the doctored financial statements to the investors/members of the involved LLCs. Ruhl and his staff created notes payable to document the withdrawals. Some of these notes were not created and/or signed until well after Ruhl had withdrawn the funds documented in the notes. None of the notes payable had been disclosed to the other members of the LLC's at the time they were created.

On January 15 and January 17, 2011, Ruhl directed an employee of Ruhl & Ruhl commercial to email financial statements to the investors/members of the Lincoln Healthcare LLC. Ruhl knew that the emails contained false financial statements for the Lincoln tax escrow account. The financial statements had been altered at Ruhl's direction to conceal his withdrawals of $75,000 from the account over the time period reflected in the statements. The statements also misrepresented and inflated the ending balance in the tax escrow account to conceal Ruhl's withdrawals. Ruhl directed the transmittal of the altered statements via interstate wire facilities in furtherance of his scheme to defraud and with the intent to defraud. Ruhl engaged in multiple financial transactions involving the proceeds of his wire fraud scheme. As part of the wire fraud scheme, on or about August 3, 2010, Ruhl directed Ruhl & Ruhl Commercial employees to issue a check drawn on the Lincoln Healthcare tax escrow account at Wells Fargo bank, made out to Ruhl personally for $47,000. Ruhl deposited the check or caused the deposit of the check into his personal account at U.S. Bank. Ruhl deposited the check or caused the deposit of the check with the intent to defraud and in furtherance of his wire fraud scheme to defraud the members/investors of Lincoln Healthcare LLC.

Ruhl's personal account balance was approximately $350 as of August 3, 2010, the date of the $47,000 deposit. Ruhl deposited the $47,000 check for the purpose of paying property taxes on a personal vacation home in Gogebic County, Michigan. On August 4, 2010, a check written by Ruhl to the Gogebic County treasurer was processed in the amount of $46,735.10.

The check would not have cleared if it were not for Ruhl's deposit of Lincoln funds into his account on August 3, 2010. Ruhl engaged in the payment of his Michigan property taxes via check knowing that the transaction involved the proceeds of a criminal offense, wire fraud.

Since the financial transaction involved property of a value greater than $10,000 derived from wire fraud, the financial transaction violated Section 1957 of Title 18 of the United States Code.

This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation, and the case is being prosecuted by the United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Iowa.

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Rock Island, IL - The Rock Island Public Library has partnered with the University of Illinois Extension on an opinion study aimed at gathering public input on library services, usage patterns, and perceptions.

Library users have until October 5, 2013 to complete an online survey that will provide the library with input on why they do or do not use libraries, the services they find most beneficial, and their feelings about the role of the library in their community.

"The purpose of the study is to gain a better understanding of how the public accesses our services, the value they place on specific services, and their perceptions about our organization. The responses we get will help us improve experiences with the Rock Island Library," said Angela Campbell, Rock Island Library director.

Individual survey responses are anonymous and confidential, with results collated by University of Illinois Extension staff. The online survey is available on the Library website at www.rockislandlibrary.org or at the following direct link: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/Z2CBLDQ

A printed copy of the survey may also be picked up and completed at the Rock Island Main, 30/31 or Southwest Branch Libraries.

Development of the survey was funded by a grant from the Rock Island Community Foundation. A summary of responses will be available in print at the University of Illinois Extension Unit Office, 321 W 2nd Avenue, Milan, IL

For more information about the Rock Island Library, call 309 732 -7323 or visit the library website at www.rockislandlibrary.org.

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