Free Republic

As the anesthetic wore off, Naseem Mohammed said, he felt an acute pain in lower left side of his abdomen. Fighting drowsiness, he fumbled beneath the unfamiliar folds of a green medical gown and traced his fingers over a bandage attached with surgical tape. An armed guard by the door told him that his kidney had been removed. Mr. Mohammed was the last of about 500 Indians whose kidneys were removed by a team of doctors running an illegal transplant operation, supplying kidneys to rich Indians and foreigners, police officials said. A few hours after his operation last Thursday, the...

A former top Hollywood studio lawyer and his wife were on Monday sentenced by a Los Angeles judge after admitting to mistreating their Filipino maid in a case of "modern-day slavery," a court heard. US District Judge Dale Fischer ordered James Jackson, 53, a former vice-president of legal affairs at Sony Pictures to perform 200 hours of community service for admitting a charge of alien harboring. Jackson's wife Elizabeth, 54, was given a three-year jail term after pleading guilty to a charge of forced labor. In passing sentence, Fischer said Elizabeth Jackson had treated the victim, former schoolteacher Nena Ruiz,...

Enrique Najera sometimes makes $150 for a full day's work. Those days come rarely. Najera is a day laborer whose workday usually lasts no longer than three or four hours. On slow weeks, he gets only two jobs and makes less than $100. Najera, who says he sends money to Mexico to help support his four children, sleeps at homeless shelters or friends' rooms because he can't stretch his wages far enough to cover rent. On Friday, the San Francisco Day Labor Program took a step toward helping Najera and other day laborers by increasing the minimum wage for its...