Weekly News Brief

McGruff the Crime Dog Celebrates His 30th Birthday ? Laurie O. Robinson, OJP's Assistant Attorney General, will speak at McGruff the Crime Dog's 30th Birthday Celebration Thursday, July 1, at 6 p.m. at the National Museum of Crime and Punishment in Washington, DC. OJP and the National Crime Prevention Council, which introduced McGruff in 1980, have partnered on many crime prevention efforts, including Celebrate Safe Communities, a program that marks National Crime Prevention Month in October. The July 1 event is open to the media. www.ncpc.org.

New Web Site Focuses on Drug Courts ? On Monday, June 28, OJP's Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA), in partnership with the National Association of Drug Court Professionals, launched the online National Drug Court Resource Center. The site is intended to service those in the field and it will feature webinars, blogs, and live chat about drug courts. http://www.ndcrc.org/.

Human Trafficking Grants Will Take a Comprehensive Approach ? OJP's Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) and its Office for Victims of Crime (OVC) are working together to broaden OJP's efforts to combat human trafficking. The recently announced Fiscal Year 2010 competitive solicitation, ?Enhanced Collaborative Model to Combat Human Trafficking,? will fund up to six cooperative agreements designed to assist anti-human trafficking task forces in the United States in taking a comprehensive approach to combating all forms of trafficking ? sex trafficking and labor trafficking of foreign nationals and U.S. citizens (male and female, adults and minors). Of the six available cooperative agreements, three awards are expected to be made by BJA to support law enforcement agencies to coordinate the goals, objectives, and activities of the entire task force in close collaboration with the local U.S. Attorney's Office (USAO) and victim service provider partner. Three awards are expected to be made by OVC to support a victim service organization to coordinate an array of services for human trafficking victims within a task force's geographic area. The deadline for applications is 8 p.m., EDT, on Tuesday, July 27, 2010.

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