Shailey Tripp's movie "Boys Will be Boys" is no more.

Courtesy of the "Boys Will be Boys" movie site: 

July 17th 2015 

It is with great sadness that we announce that, despite our best efforts to make the book "Boys Will Boys" (by Shailey M. Tripp) into a movie, we have been forced to suspend any further work on the project at this time. 

We have encountered many hurdles while nevertheless making progress in this project. However, the most significant and damaging situation was provided in recent weeks when it was announced from the Louisiana State Capitol that the Governor of Louisiana had signed-off on a cap to limit tax credits for movie-makers in the state. This has led to severe uncertainty within the industry, including announcements of varying veracity, that movie productions scheduled to be produced in Louisiana as well as existing productions already being filmed in Louisiana would be pulling out or relocating to alternative states. 

Such a measure has caused severe nervousness and an atmosphere of uncertainty among potential investors throughout the industry, such that interest in "Boys Will Be Boys - The Movie" has cooled to the extent that Pink Hat Productions can no longer afford to support the project to its intended scale. 

We would like to thank all those individuals who have made a commitment to the project, including those who have worked countless hours and to those who have given donations to help us defray the costs of the campaign, to help us in our efforts towards in trying to achieve the considerable amount of funding required to get the movie under way. We will do everything we can to preserve the property and hope very much that we can resurrect the project in some way in the future. 

Stephen James 
Partner and Executive Director 
Pink Hat Productions, LLC. 

First off I have to say that I don't personally think this film had anything to do with Bobby Jindal's decision to cap tax credits for movie makers. (That's actually a fairly crazy thing to assume, but you know somebody will.)

Secondly I have not spoken with Shailey since January so I have no update on how she is or how this is affecting her.

As you probably remember a year ago Shailey was attacked, and briefly hospitalized, but since then I have only had minimal contact with her.

If anybody knows anything more, feel free to share the information here. (As long as it does not reveal Shailey's current location of course.

Alaska task force hears testimony on sex trafficking. Has anybody seen Todd Palin lately?

Governor Parnell signing sex trafficking bill.

Courtesy of the Huffington Post:  

Experts testifying before a new Alaska task force on sex trafficking said Monday the teenage victims often are too afraid and embarrassed, and sometimes too addicted to drugs, to come forward. 

The comments were made at a hearing to address sex trafficking, which authorities say is notoriously underreported. Among the most vulnerable are chronic runaways whose own parents have quit looking for them, said Detective Sgt. Kathy Lacey, who heads the Anchorage Police Department's vice unit. 

"Those kids are falling through the cracks," she told the panel. 

Jolene Goeden, an FBI special agent in Anchorage who investigates sex crimes, said there have been seven federal prosecutions of human trafficking cases, noting that not all of them were filed as trafficking cases. In the seven cases, 105 trafficking victims were identified. 

Recorded conversations with a victim identified as "Heather" also were played. She said her pimp initially was treated her well and told her she would not want for anything, then the relationship deteriorated to the point where she was beaten for being even a dollar short, hogtied and gagged and thrown into an "underground tunnel" for days. 

"It was brutal," she said. 

The state task force aims to gauge the prevalence of human trafficking and prostitution in Alaska, as well as the services available to help victims. It also plans a December public hearing in Bethel.

Apparently the task force will report its findings to the legislators by January 15th. 

I actually don't know how excited any of us should be at the possibility that Todd Palin will be investigated, but I DID send an e-mail to Parnell a while back telling him about Shailey's book, and telling him that if he was serious about really DOING something about this problem he would prove it by bringing Todd in for questioning and talking to Shailey and some of the girls she worked with as well.

I never received a response.

Is Alaska Governor Sean Parnell gunning for Todd Palin?

Today I was reading this article in the Alaska Dispatch about the frustration that legislators are feeling about being called back to a special session by Parnell to work on a new oil tax bill, when I happened to read this:

He's also urging the swift passage of a measure that would toughen criminal sentences for pimps and others who engage in sex trafficking.

Now that kind of caught me by surprise since I have not been following  Alaska politics very much recently.  However with a little more digging I found that recently Parnell had a bill passed that accomplished the following:

Under HB359, the crime of sex trafficking would be punished as a felony. While many of those crimes are already prosecuted with harsh penalties, Gov. Sean Parnell said he wanted to make sure prosecutors had the tools they needed to fight the problem. 

In a statement, he called trafficking "a horrible crime that degrades dignity and violates the most basic human rights." 

Current law labels victims as prostitutes, but the bill would write into law that they are victims. 

Parnell proposed the bill in February. It now moves to the Senate for consideration.

Now why this is rather fascinating, and possibly problematic for a certain Wasilla snowmachine racer, is that recently Shailey Tripp was asked just WHO she had sent copies of her book to, or contacted about her situation, and she answered thusly:

The asssociated press, cnn, msnbc, fox news, et, nancy grace, heraldo, anderson cooper, new york times, the white house, The President, the first lady, Sean Parnell, the polic chief, the FBI, the IRS, Homeland Security, Salvation Army, and many many many other places.

Hmm, interesting no?

Now obviously Shailey's experiences may have NOTHING to do with Parnell's desire to increase the penalties for sex trafficking, but even before she wrote the book he HAD to be aware that her story was out there.

Now it would go against EVERYTHING we know about Parnell to imagine him going up against the Palins. But then again what better way to send a message to a certain Grizzled Mama that her interference in his administration is no longer welcome? Or even to rise up out of her shadow by convicting her husband of such a heinous crime?

Your thoughts?