Utah
Utah couple fights human-trafficking through Salt Lake-based nonprofit
SALT LAKE CITY (KUTV) — A Utah couple turned a heartbreaking experience into a mission — and now they’re rallying everyday people across every industry to fight back against human trafficking.
Krissi and Tommy Green had no roadmap when they were first pulled into the fight. It started when a young girl in Europe reached out for help — and ended up being trafficked.
“I thought we were going to help her while her family was falling apart, and she ended up being trafficked,” Krissi said.
MORE | Pay It Forward
It took a year to get her out. Tommy said she was found with fourteen other teenage girls.
“She told us, ‘You have to keep sharing. There are many more like me,’” Krissi recalled.
That message became the title of Krissi’s book, “Many More Like Me,” and the origin of something much bigger.
“You have to keep sharing. There are many more like me,” Krissi was told. That message became the title of Krissi’s book and the origin of something much bigger. (Photo: KUTV)
The Greens founded Against Trafficking Industries, a nonprofit focused on advocacy, education, prevention, and funding recovery and aftercare for survivors.
“It’s happening in Salt Lake City,” Tommy said. “It’s such a huge problem, so extensive, too big.”
Their approach is different. Rather than asking people to take on the whole problem, they rally everyday people across music, business, and brands to chip in where they can.
“If you give twenty bucks a month and fifteen hundred people are doing that, we can fund these impact projects,” Tommy said.
And for those who feel overwhelmed by the scale of the problem, Krissi has a simple message:
“I can do this. I can be a part of somebody’s solution. I can be part of somebody’s new life and recovery.”
To honor their work, Mountain America Credit Union surprised the Greens with a gift through KUTV’s Pay It Forward program.
To learn more about Against Trafficking Industries, click here.
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The state of Utah has revoked the license of a boarding school where socialite Paris Hilton said she was abused as a teen, saying the school “failed to provide applicable health and safety services for clients.” The state’s action, which took effect Monday, cites multiple noncompliance issues against the Provo Canyon School’s campus in Springville, reports the AP. The school has 15 days to request a hearing before the Department of Health & Human Services. The wide-ranging citations, which go back to 2025, include failing to increase staff-to-client ratios, engaging in unnecessary restraint and aggressive physical contact with a client, neglecting care, and not verifying employee information or submitting background checks for applicants in a timely manner.
“For more than fifty years, children came forward with stories of abuse, neglect, and trauma,” Hilton said in a statement provided Tuesday. “Today, the state confirmed what survivors have known all along: Provo Canyon School failed the children in its care. I was one of those children. I know what it feels like to cry for help and believe no one is coming. Today, children still inside that facility know someone is finally coming to protect them.” Hilton, the hotel heiress and media personality, spent almost a year at the school in the late 1990s. She alleges staff members beat her, watched her shower, fed her unknown pills, and locked her in solitary confinement without clothing.
Hilton, 45, called on Utah regulators to shut down the school. She has testified about her experiences there in Congress and state legislatures around the US, helping pass laws to protect teens in Utah and 15 other states. Utah has long played an outsized role in the troubled teen industry, a network of private, for-profit residential centers for children with behavioral issues. In June, Hilton returned to the school to speak in support of two families who filed lawsuits alleging their children were mistreated there. The school is under new ownership. The administration has said it can’t comment on anything that came before the change, including Hilton’s time there. Provo Canyon School did not immediately respond to an AP email seeking comment. The state said in its letter that all services at the campus must be terminated by Aug. 6.
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ST. GEORGE, Utah (KUTV) — Gov. Spencer Cox’s executive order imposing a temporary statewide ban on fireworks has expired, leaving state officials to decide what restrictions, if any, will be in place for Pioneer Day on July 24.
The statewide ban expired July 5. State and unincorporated county areas remain under Type 2 fire restrictions, which prohibit fireworks and open flames. Cities are responsible for setting their own restrictions.
“I think going into Pioneer Day, the restrictions are going to have to be what they were for the Fourth of July,” said Jason Bradley, director of emergency management for Washington County. “Nothing’s changing. The fuels are still what they are. Everything is super dry.”
Bradley said the fireworks restrictions were “very successful” in Washington County, with no significant wildfires started. However, he said there were still violations that caused house fires and property damage.
MORE | Fireworks
“There were plenty of violations. I saw dozens and dozens of calls throughout the night,” he said. “Our dispatch was inundated with people calling saying, ‘Hey, people are starting fireworks in my neighborhood.’ There’s only a few areas where that was allowed.”
Bradley said it is a “very tough political call” to tighten restrictions for cities and the state.
“Those leaderships have a lot at stake. There’s a lot of commerce that’s at stake. Your political folks understand the financial ramifications for vendors of fireworks, and they understand our desires as really the citizens of America that we want to do that,” he said. “But there are other safer ways to celebrate this year. The problem is so bad right now that I see the leadership, the political leadership, needing to do something like that again for the 24th.”
Bradley said officials are exploring alternatives for Pioneer Day, including a designated area where people could legally use fireworks.
“We’re hoping that we could come up with a location for the county for unincorporated areas that we might be able to allow those people to come do fireworks. It’s in the works. We just want to try to have somewhere for folks to do it besides just a few parks here in St. George,” he said. “But again, we’re pretty dry. Those efforts could fall through. We’re going to see if we can’t come up with something.”
Bradley added that even a single fire can divert resources needed to patrol for fireworks violations, making enforcement difficult. He said anyone who causes a fire can be held criminally, civilly and financially liable for the damage.
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