Last Sunday we ran a major story about the alleged prostitution occurring at two spas in our community.

We, like you, have heard rumors about prostitution for years, but we didn't run the story before because of the possibility of undercover police investigations. As you can read in our story, the police are having difficulty undertaking such investigations and are looking to work with the public.

The comments about this story have been mixed. Some people felt that even though we know prostitution exists we should not have written a story about the problem, because it paints the city in a bad light.

We appreciate all of the comments and always want to hear our readers' concerns.

We recognize that you can't change people's morals, and that's not why we ran the story and will continue to cover stories as they arise. Our major concern, even more than blatant illegal activity, is the possibility that the young women working in these spas are being trafficked and mistreated.

We hope that every one of our readers would find such a practice unacceptable and want it to be exposed. While we realize human trafficking is generally a matter for federal authorities, we still feel a story can be one of the first steps toward change.

We ask you to contact your state and federal officials and ask them to make investigating these spas a priority. If these businesses are engaging in prostitution and human trafficking, they need to be shut down, and that won't happen if people continue to look the other way.