Wednesday, March 27, 2013

State Sanctioned Kidnapping


By Jim Dossett
US Observer
March 2013

My understanding of the court system in a nut shell was that, truth is found by careful and dutiful dissection in the court room. Evidence is paramount and lies are dissolved. Unfortunately politics, ego and dollars have consumed it.

This is our story. It could happen to anyone.

Parental Rights- A Parent's Right to Choose Education


ParentalRights.org logo
Sign the Petition Donate Volunteer Learn More View Online
March 27, 2013
A Parent's Right to Choose Education
Whether they are concerned about a national student database, failing public schools, bullying and violence, or moral instruction, more and more parents are looking for choices in education. Many pull their children out of school and teach them at home, but not all parents find this solution practical. Others are looking to put their children into private schools that will protect their privacy and their values, whether secular or religious. But some find themselves unable to afford this option, either.

Last week Senator Lamar Alexander of Tennessee introduced an amendment to a budget bill that would allow federal Title I dollars to go to whichever school a student below the poverty line actually attends. Under current rules, that money can only go to the public school in whose district the student lives; it cannot go to a private school. In most cases, changing this rule would allow $1,300 per student per year to go to whatever accredited school the student attends, even if it is a private school. This would allow schools to reduce tuition or credit the money against the tuition of the low-income student.

Some are opposed to any bill that would send tax dollars to a private institution. Others hold that the tax dollars earmarked for education should be used for that purpose, regardless of what school parents choose; private school (and home school) parents pay the same taxes as everyone else.

“School choice for low-income parents and students across America is a way out of the poverty cycle,” sponsoring Senator Rand Paul stated in a Senate.gov release last week. “Allowing Title I funds to follow the student creates an opportunity for students to get the most out of their education in the best environment available.”

While ParentalRights.org does not have an official position on this amendment (which failed on a 39-60 vote), we do support the right of fit parents to direct the upbringing, education, and care of their child. We believe every fit parent has the right to shape their child’s education, and we do not believe poverty should take away this right.

The right to direct the upbringing of one’s child is one of the fundamental liberties traditionally upheld by the Supreme Court, but it is now being eroded in federal courts. This is a result of the fractured and ambiguous ruling in Troxel v. Granville, the 2000 case in which the Supreme Court called parental rights “fundamental” while refusing to accord them proper legal protection.

This ambiguity is a primary reason for our proposed Parental Rights Amendment, which begins:

The liberty of parents to direct the upbringing, education, and care of their children is a fundamental right.
Action Items
1. Pass this email along to your friends and family who might support a parent’s right to direct the education of their child. The Parental Rights Amendment would not ensure tax dollars for private schools – it has nothing to do with funding. But it will preserve the role of parents in deciding the kind of education their children receive.

Ask your friends and family to sign the petition at ParentalRights.org/petition. (If you received this email directly from us, you have already signed this petition.)

2. Volunteer to take an active role. Whatever your passion or skill set, we would appreciate your help in promoting the Parental Rights Amendment. Simply fill out our online volunteer form.

3. If you have not done so lately, please donate to continue our efforts to preserve parental rights. We regret that because we are a lobbying organization, donations cannot be deductible for income tax purposes, but we depend on the support of donors like you to keep us moving forward.

Whether you enroll your children in public school, private school, or home school, we appreciate your support of parental rights. By standing together regardless of our educational choices, we can preserve every family’s right to choose for themselves.

Sincerely,

Michael Ramey
Director of Communications & Research



Share This Online
 
Facebook Twitter More...

Donate

Join the Discussion

P.O. Box 1090 Purcellville, VA 20134 * (540)-751-1200 * info@parentalrights.org

Friday, March 22, 2013

Georgia Psychiatrist faces up to 20 years in prison and $1 Million fine - Preyed on vulnerable women

Date: Fri, 22 Mar 2013 07:17:40 -0400
From: PsychSearch <records@psychsearch.net>

Savannah Psychiatrist Pleads Guilty to Trading Drug Prescriptions for Sex
By JoAnn Merrigan
March 22, 2013

WSAV- A Savannah psychiatrist has pled guilty in federal court to felony charges of distributing drugs to his customers without a legitimate medical purpose.

57 year old William Ellien made his plea before U.S. District Judge William Moore, Jr. Ellien is a former medical director at Memorial Health.

The U.S. Attorney’s office says that according to evidence presented at the hearing, Ellien exchanged prescriptions for very addictive prescription drugs for sex acts with various women from 2009 through 2012. Ellien remains in federal custody and is facing up to 20 years in prison and a $1,000,000 fine. No sentencing date has been set.

U.S. Attorney Edward Tarver said, “This doctor violated his oath, preyed upon patients, and turned into a common criminal, all for his own personal gratification. Whether street pushers or physicians, all drug dealers can expect that justice will be swift and the punishment will be severe.”

Memorial Health is facing a lawsuit because of the case. It was filed on behalf of several women with the suit claiming that “Ellien preyed on vulnerable women and used his position at Memorial Health.” The suit claims that women visited Dr. Ellien on the Memorial Health campus to receive prescriptions.

Thursday, March 21, 2013

Traditional Marriage Still the Best for Children

To: National Desk

Contact: Den Trumbull, MD, FCP,
President,
American College of Pediatricians,
352-376-1877

Traditional Marriage Still the Best for Children

GAINESVILLE, Fla., March 21, 2013 /Standard Newswire/ -- "The American College of Pediatricians reaffirms that the intact, functional family consisting of a married (female) mother and (male) father provides the best opportunity for children. The College, therefore, disputes the American Academy of Pediatrics' (AAP) claim that supporting same-sex unions promotes the "well-being of children." In its newly released statement, "Promoting the Well-Being of Children Whose Parents Are Gay or Lesbian," the AAP ignores important research on risks to children in favor of the wants of adults.

"The College does not support the alteration of this time-honored and proven standard to conform to pressures from 'politically correct' groups. No one concerned with the well-being of children can reasonably ignore the evidence for maintaining the current standard, nor can they or we ignore the equally strong evidence that harm to children can result if the current standards are rejected," says Den Trumbull, MD, President of the American College of Pediatricians. "The AAP ignores generations of evidence of health risks to children in advocating for the legality and legitimacy of same-sex marriage and child-rearing."

The American College of Pediatricians is a national medical association of licensed physicians and healthcare professionals who specialize in the care of infants, children, and adolescents. The mission of the College is to enable all children to reach their optimal physical and emotional health and well-being. For more information about the College, please visit our website www.Best4Children.org.

Standard Newswire

Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Dr. Ann Blake Tracy- 10 YEARS AFTER BOWLING FOR COLUMBINE-MY RESPONSE TO MICHAEL MOORE

Subject: [drugawareness] 10 YEARS AFTER BOWLING FOR COLUMBINE-MY RESPONSE TO MICHAEL MOORE
Date: Wed, 20 Mar 2013 03:59:19 -0400 (EDT)
From: Dr. Ann Blake Tracy <atracyphd2@aol.com>
Reply-To: drugawareness-owner@yahoogroups.com

WHERE ARE WE 10 YEARS AFTER???

Michael Moore is asking everyone this Saturday to hold their own 10 year anniversary party of the opening of his movie Bowling for Columbine which of course blamed guns for the massacre at Columbine High School. But in the movie I did with him, The Drugging of Our Children (http://www.drugawareness.org/videos/the-drugging-of-our-children), he said all those reasons they came up with in his movie for the reason Columbine happened were BS. (Michael’s direct quote: http://www.drugawareness.org/articles/michael-moore-cause-of-columbine)

Yet now he is using his movie once again to promote gun control instead of taking the opportunity to give the world answers to what really is causing all these school shootings???? Why? He should take the opportunity to tell the world the truth if he has the stage now to do that.

I encourage all of you to hold your own 10 year anniversary of Bowling for Columbine and use the following information I just wrote in a letter to Michael Moore to set the world straight on what REALLY happened at Columbine and the large majority of other school shootings!!! Watch Gary Null’s The Drugging of Our Children instead. Or READ IT HERE

PLEASE SHARE THIS EVERYWHERE: your local news, internet, Facebook, radio, television, etc. There is no excuse for this “BS” as Michael called it to continue to be spread around since Pharma gives us enough BS on your nightly television about antidepressants to cover the planet!!

Ann Blake Tracy, Executive Director,
International Coalition for Drug Awareness
www.drugawareness.org & http://ssristories.drugawareness.org
Author: Prozac: Panacea or Pandora? – Our Serotonin Nightmare – The Complete Truth of the Full Impact of Antidepressants Upon Us & Our World” & Withdrawal CD “Help! I Can’t Get Off My Antidepressant!”

MY LETTER TO MICHAEL MOORE

“Michael I would be more than happy to join you on that panel March 23, but have not received my invitation. Yet as you know I have been tracking the school shootings and testifying in those cases more than any one individual I know of worldwide.

MICHAEL MOORE SAYS ALL CAUSES GIVEN FOR COLUMBINE IN HIS MOVIE WERE BS

“When you and I did the movie together, The Drugging Of Our Children by Gary Null, after you read my book, Prozac: Panacea or Pandora?, you CLEARLY stated that ALL the reasons you looked at in your movie Bowling for Columbine as the cause for the tragedy were BS. You went on to say that the only reason that made any sense for this violence were the antidepressants given to these kids. Your direct quote:

"ANTIDEPRESSANTS HAVE WARNINGS FOR SUICIDE AND HOMICIDE" 
http://www.drugawareness.org/articles/michael-moore-cause-of-columbine

Please click the following link to continue reading the full text with all the documentation about the drug link to shootings:

http://www.drugawareness.org/recentcasesblog/10-years-after-bowling-for-columbine-my-response-to-michael-moore

Parental Rights- National Database of School Children Launched

ParentalRights.org logo
Sign the Petition Donate Volunteer Learn More View Online
March 20, 2013
National Database of School Children Launched
Last week the SXSWedu Technology Conference in Austin, Texas, featured a new project that has many educational technology companies very excited – and that has many parents angry and deeply concerned. The project is called inBloom – a massive national database of personal information on public school students – and it is already up and running. Largely funded by the pro-internationalist Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the $100 million project contains information on millions of children to date.

So far, at least 9 states are using or planning to use the system: Colorado, Delaware, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, New York, and North Carolina.

But parents in New York are furious that their child’s information is being shared with private companies “to create a national database for businesses that contract with public schools,” according to the New York Daily News.

Data being stored includes identifying information such as name, address, and social security number, along with school grades, attendance, and even information on hobbies, interests, and attitudes toward school.

School boards and education materials producers are very excited. Product Manager Jeffrey Olen of CompassLearning, an education software company, told Reuters, “This is going to be a huge win for us.” And Brandon Williams, a director at the Illinois State Board of Education, told them, “We look at personalized learning as the next big leap forward in education.”

But parents are equally "excited" – and deeply concerned – about all of that data being collected about their child and stored in a massive database with nationwide access by anyone with whom the school system would like to share it. And that’s saying nothing of hackers who might get at it illegally.

The Electronic Privacy Law Center in Washington is suing the U.S. Department of Education over this issue. Their administrative counsel, Khaliah Barnes, told the Daily News, “It’s a lot of smoke and mirrors. What happens if a company using the data is compromised? What happens if the company goes out of business? We don’t know the answers.”

Donna Lieberman of the New York Civil Liberties Union is also concerned. “Turning massive amounts of personal data about public school students to a private corporation without any public input is profoundly disturbing and irresponsible,” she told the Daily News. Her organization has blasted the state for not giving parents any notice of the plan or the opportunity to opt their child out of the program.

But the committee that oversees implementation of the United Nations’ Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) would be proud. They routinely include the following in their Concluding Observations to a nation’s periodic report on CRC implementation: “The Committee reiterates its recommendation for the State party to set up a national and comprehensive data collection system and to analyse the data collected as a basis for consistently assessing progress achieved in the realization of child rights and to help design policies and programmes to strengthen the implementation of the Convention.”i

With inBloom building a comprehensive national database to track students from Kindergarten through high school, much of that work will already be done in the United States.

Those who believe there is no need for a Parental Rights Amendment tend to fall into one of two groups. Either they believe the government would never really threaten the right of fit parents to direct the upbringing of their child, or they believe the government would make better decisions than most parents. Secretly shipping personal and educational data on millions of school students to a private corporation seems like an excellent way to prove both of these groups wrong. Far more important, it leaves the identities, reputations, privacy, and future of our children at stake.

Action Items
1. Sign the petition. If you haven’t already done so, please visit parentalrights.org/petition to sign up in support of the Parental Rights Amendment. (If you received this email directly from ParentalRights.org, you are already signed up.) The Amendment will codify in the U.S. Constitution the fundamental right of parents to direct the upbringing, education, and care of their children; it would also prevent ratification of such intrusive treaties as the United Nations’ CRC.

2. Pass this email to as many friends and family as you can who might be concerned over this privacy violation in the public schools of America. While you’re at it, encourage them to sign the petition and join the fight to protect children by empowering their parents.

3. Sign up to volunteer. If you’d like to be more actively involved in your region, whether it is to pass a statute or resolution in your state, or just to help spread the word where you live, please fill out our volunteer form. Done that already? Email David@parentalrights.org.

4. Make a generous donation to ParentalRights.org to support our ongoing efforts to halt threats such as these. Or, if you love liberty and have not yet received Michael Farris's DVD series Constitutional Literacy, you might want to donate during a special offer period coming this Friday.*

Together we can empower parents, and empowered parents can halt the invasion of their children’s privacy. Thank you for teaming with us to protect our children by preserving parental rights.

Sincerely,

Michael Ramey
Director of Communications & Research


i. Committee on the Rights of the Child, Concluding Observations, Sixty-first session, Sept. – Oct. 2012. This (or in 2 cases a similar) injunction occurs in all seven reports from the session: Albania (paragraph 18), Andorra (para. 18), Austria (19), Bosnia & Herzegovina (18), Canada (21), Liberia (20), and Namibia (19).

* Because ParentalRights.org is a 501(c)(4) lobbying organization, we regret that donations cannot be deductible for income tax purposes.
Share This Online
Facebook Twitter More...

Donate

Join the Discussion

P.O. Box 1090 Purcellville, VA 20134 * (540)-751-1200 * info@parentalrights.org

Sunday, March 17, 2013

AHRP- Psychiatrists and the University of Minnesota Must Be Held Accountable for Research Misconduct

Sat, 16 Mar 2013 13:53:46 -0400
From: AHRP <ahrp@ahrp.org>
To: Infomail1@ahrp.org

 ALLIANCE FOR HUMAN RESEARCH PROTECTION (AHRP)
Advancing Honest and Ethical Medical Research
www.ahrp.org

FYI and ACTION

I have just signed a petition urging Mark Dayton, Governor of Minnesota to appoint an independent, external panel of experts to conduct an investigation into gross medical research and clinical care misconduct by psychiatrists at the University of Minnesota who put their financial interests above the life of a patient in their care. http://chn.ge/13TtenX
Background: In November 2003, a court ordered independent assessment confirmed that Dan was psychotic, “lacked capacity to make decisions regarding neuroleptic medication. ”  Instead of acute standard care at the hospital, Dan was enrolled into a commercial, market promotion drug trial by psychiatrists at the University of Minnesota who coerced Dan with the threat of involuntary commitment—i.e, incarceration—to get him to agree to be a subject in AstraZeneca's Seroquel trial.

The psychiatrists and the University had significant financial interests in signing up patients as subjects.          

Dan was enrolled over the objections of his mother, Mary Weiss, and his mental condition quickly worsened into acute paranoid psychosis.  For months Mary tried desperately to get her only son out of the dangerous experiment, warning the psychiatrists that Dan’s condition was deteriorating and that he was in danger of killing himself.

The psychiatrists, Dr. Stephen Olson and Dr. Charles Schulz, refused to listen to Mary Weiss' pleas to withdraw her only son from the trial that clearly endangered his life. 
On May 8, 2004, Dan committed suicide by mutilating himself with a box cutter, so violently he nearly decapitated himself. http://markingson.blogspot.com/ 

More recently, evidence of misconduct and serious privacy violations in psychiatric studies at the university have emerged, suggesting that other research subjects may have died or suffered serious injuries, or that they have been mistreated in other ways. Eight bioethicists at the University of Minnesota itself have called for an external investigation, yet the university still refuses.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/49659724/U-of-M-Board-of-Regents-Markingson-Letter



Dan Markingson’s  case has garnered outrage from a growing list of prominent physicians, bioethicists, health law specialists, medical humanities faculty,  and concerned citizens who have joined the call for an investigation by signing the petition headed by Jerome Kassirer, former editor of the New England Journal of Medicine, and Peter Gotzsche of the Nordic Cochrane Center.  See partial list of petition signers

Please add your name and sign the petition urging the Governor of Minnesota to appoint an independent, external panel of experts to conduct an investigation into gross medical research and clinical care misconduct at the University of Minnesota. http://chn.ge/13TtenX

Vera Sharav

Saturday, March 16, 2013

Brian Christine leaving prison after 12 years

I was asked about this today and had to go find the story.  We were into this case long ago-

Brian Christine leaving prison after 12 years
March 9, 2013, 12:17 p.m. PST
The News-Review


ROSEBURG, Ore. (AP) — Brian Christine is scheduled to be released from prison next week after spending 12 years behind bars for kidnapping his three daughters from child-welfare workers, a case that brought national attention to the issue of parental rights.

Christine, took the girls at gunpoint near Myrtle Creek in 2001. Christine, his wife Ruth and an accomplice were arrested days later in Montana.

While awaiting trial, Ruth Christine appeared on NBC's "Today" show to assert that the state had overstepped its authority by taking custody of their children. The case also generated much interest from anti-government and parental-rights activists on the Internet and talk radio.

Originally from Indiana, the Christines had been traveling for a year in a converted school bus when they rolled into Grants Pass, Ore., in the summer of 2000.

An anonymous caller told police that the three girls appeared to be starved and dehydrated. The state took the children into protective custody after concluding they were in poor health.

In the ensuing months, the Christines fought with state officials and demanded their children back.

On Aug. 1, 2001, Brian Christine pointed a gun at two child-welfare workers taking the girls back to a Bandon foster home following a supervised visit with their parents. He ordered the workers out of the van and drove off with the girls to a nearby lumber mill.

Abandoning the van, the Christines and a friend drove to Montana, where they were arrested a few days later after Brian Christine was stopped for speeding. The children were found unharmed in Montana. Both parents were brought back to Oregon, along with accomplice Matthew Garawon, who was sentenced to six months in jail.

The Christines were represented by Idaho attorney Edgar Steele, who once represented the white supremacist Aryan Nations group and is now serving a 50-year sentence for targeting his wife and mother-in-law in an unsuccessful 2011 murder-for-hire plot.

Brian Christine, now 40, was convicted in Douglas County Circuit Court of first-degree robbery, auto theft and custodial interference and sentenced to 12 1/2 years in prison. He is scheduled to be released March 14 from the Oregon State Penitentiary in Salem, the Roseburg News Review reported (http://bit.ly/12AKkra).

Ruth Christine spent eight years in prison before being released and deported back to her native England.
___

Information from: The News-Review, http://www.nrtoday.com

Friday, March 15, 2013

Child Welfare Information Gateway E-lert March 2013

Child Welfare Information Gateway Child Welfare Information Gateway

Child Welfare Information Gateway E-lert! March 2013

Encourage your colleagues to subcribe to E-lert!
To ensure that E-lert! reaches you each month, please add us to your safe senders list.
The following new and updated publications and resources are now available from Child Welfare Information Gateway. Use the links listed below, or contact us to request print copies, which we will mail you free if they are available.
The Information Gateway website search function is now powered by Google. Check it out today!

What's New

Annual Report to Congress on State Child Welfare Expenditures reported on the CFS-101
Provides national totals of planned spending by service category for the Stephanie Tubbs Jones Child Welfare Services program and planned and actual spending by service category for the Promoting Safe and Stable Families program.
http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cb/resource/cfs-101-report-to-congress-2012
Programs for Families Affected by HIV/AIDS Webpage
Features resources to support children and families affected by HIV/AIDS and to help reduce the risk factors of child maltreatment in families with caregivers who are impacted by HIV/AIDs.
https://www.childwelfare.gov/systemwide/service_array/health/hiv.cfm

Updates

Access to Adoption Records
Discusses laws that provide for access to both nonidentifying and identifying information from an adoption record by adoptive parents and adult adopted persons.
https://www.childwelfare.gov/systemwide/laws_policies/statutes/infoaccessap.cfm

In This Month's CBX

The March issue of Children's Bureau Express (CBX) highlights research on reunification outcomes among incarcerated parents and their children in foster care, characteristics of imprisoned parents, and the benefits of contact visitation.
https://cbexpress.acf.hhs.gov
The CBX Centennial Series, CB Decade-by-Decade, features articles that examine highlights from each decade of the Children's Bureau's first 100 years.
https://cbexpress.acf.hhs.gov/index.cfm?event=website.viewArticles&issueid=144&sectionid=1&articleid=3791
Subscribe to CBX at https://www.childwelfare.gov/admin/subscribe

Did You Know?

Treatment & Trauma-Informed Care Web Section
This section provides information on building trauma-informed systems, assessing and treating trauma, addressing secondary trauma in caseworkers, and trauma training.
https://www.childwelfare.gov/responding/trauma.cfm

Upcoming Conferences

We will be at the following upcoming conferences. Please stop by and see us if you will be attending!
March 22–23: Child Sexual Abuse & Trauma in the African-American Community: The Shame, The Blame & The Solutions, in Baltimore, MD
April 7–10: 31st Annual Protecting Our Children National American Indian Conference on Child Abuse and Neglect, in Tulsa, OK
April 14–17: CWLA's 2013 National Conference Making Children and Families a Priority: Raising the Bar, in Washington, DC at booth 31

Give Us Your Feedback

To help us meet your needs, we welcome your ideas and suggestions. Please check out our website for publications surveys and other ways you can provide input. Thank you!

Connect With Information Gateway and the Children's Bureau on Facebook

Child Welfare Information Gateway and the Children's Bureau are on Facebook! "Like" both pages today and start connecting with others in child welfare and related professions.
http://www.facebook.com/childwelfare
http://www.facebook.com/thechildrensbureau

Contact Information

Child Welfare Information Gateway
Phone: 800.394.3366
Email: info@childwelfare.gov
Web: https://www.childwelfare.gov
Chat live with an Information Specialist between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. EDT.
E-lert! is a free service of the Children's Bureau/ACF/HHS and Child Welfare Information Gateway.

Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Parental Rights- A Tale of Two Measures

ParentalRights.org logo
Sign the Petition Donate Volunteer Learn More View Online
March 13, 2013
A Tale of Two Measures
Two state measures are facing important votes this week, and they provide the perfect opportunity to clear up a few things about what is going on in the states.

The first measure is Oklahoma’s HB1384, the Parents’ Bill of Rights bill. It passed the Human Services Committee on Feb. 20 and now faces a floor vote in the Oklahoma House. If it passes, it will go to the Senate, where it will again be assigned to a committee before it can go to the floor. (Oklahomans can read the current alert here.)

The second measure is Nebraska’s LR42, a legislative resolution that would call on the U.S. Congress to adopt the Parental Rights Amendment and send it to the states for ratification. LR42 faces a hearing in the unicameral Judiciary Committee on Thursday at 1:30 p.m. (Nebraskans can read the current alert here.)

So, how exactly does a bill like HB1384 differ from a resolution like LR42? What is our plan for using these measures in the states?

A Bill Creates Law
A bill such as Oklahoma’s proposed Parents’ Bill of Rights is intended to make law. It has a direct and binding effect within the state that passes it. Generally, the parental rights statutes we are championing in various states take the legal standard that has been established by the courts, and add it to the state code, or written laws. This preserves the standard so that it will not erode under future courts or legislatures, but it does so without disrupting the legal balance already in place. States continue to exercise jurisdiction over matters of child abuse or neglect, for instance, but the fundamental right of parents to direct their child’s upbringing is secured.

Oklahoma’s bill will also preserve this balance, but it is a more involved statute than for instance the one passed in Virginia last month. HB1384 seeks to establish the rights of parents in a number of specific areas impacting children. Boiled down, it would still equate to a preservation of fundamental parental rights; it just involves greater detail.

If it passes, HB1384 will become binding law on every court in Oklahoma. However, even HB1384 is not sufficient to protect parents and children if the U.S. Senate chooses to adopt the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) or the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). Once ratified, those treaties would become “the supreme law of the land.... anything in the law or constitution of any State to the contrary notwithstanding.”

So why pass it? Because the law would provide clarity and security for families in the courts until such time as one of these treaties is adopted.

A Resolution Impacts Congress
On the other hand, Nebraska’s LR42 doesn’t make any state law at all. Rather, it constitutes a request from the government of Nebraska to the government of the United States: send us the Parental Rights Amendment so that we and our sister states can ratify it.

Resolutions like LR42 have already been adopted in Louisiana, South Dakota, Florida, Idaho, Wyoming, and Montana, and though they have no legal effect, they have an impact on the U.S. Congress.

First, the Congressmen and Senators who represent that state in Washington, D.C., are encouraged to support the aim of the resolution. Second, both grassroots supporters and other members of Congress can see the support spread across the country.

Finally, enough resolutions could ultimately put Congress over a barrel. While 6 or 7 may not seem significant, if we start to reach 28 or 30 resolutions, Congress will be under a lot of pressure to propose the amendment. That’s because the Constitution allows two methods of amendment. The first is for 2/3 of each house of Congress to pass the amendment, then to send it to the states for ratification. (Ratification requires the approval of 38 states.)

The second way is for 2/3 of the state legislatures – that’s 33 states – to apply to Congress for a convention to propose an amendment. If 30 or more states have called on Congress to propose the amendment, it becomes clear that those same states could decide to call for a convention. The handwriting would be on the wall, so to speak, so Congress may as well pass the amendment along. (Ratification still requires 38 states.)

Planning Our Efforts
Initially, we were working on resolutions at the state level to engage grassroots volunteers and involve the state legislatures. Recently, though, we have come to realize that parental rights in America may or may not have the time to wait for passage of the amendment. Statutes provide real legal protection right now, and until we get the Amendment adopted.

That’s why some states have tried one method and others another. Virginia’s House of Delegates adopted a resolution 3 years ago (which died in the Senate), but the full legislature just passed a parental rights statute earlier this year. Resolutions are currently being considered in Texas and Mississippi as well as in Nebraska, while Oklahoma is joined by Kansas, Missouri, and Arkansas in attempting to secure legislation this session. Other state efforts will soon be getting under way, too, while we hope to engage many other states next year.

Action Items
If you live in Nebraska or Oklahoma, please see the respective alerts and take action in your state this week.

If your state is otherwise listed in this email, be prepared to take action when an alert comes your way. Decide now that when you receive that message, you will take the time to act.

Finally, if you would like to help with the launching and championing of a resolution or a statute in your state, please email David and let him know of your interest.

And no matter what state you live in, your generous donation* today will help support and continue our efforts in every state until parental rights – and the children they protect – are secured throughout the United States.

Sincerely,

Michael Ramey
Director of Communications & Research

* Because ParentalRights.org is a 501(c)(4) lobbying organization, we regret that donations cannot be deductible for income tax purposes.
Share This Online
Facebook Twitter More...

Donate

Join the Discussion

P.O. Box 1090 Purcellville, VA 20134 * (540)-751-1200 * info@parentalrights.org

Tuesday, March 5, 2013

Antiviral Prophylaxis Study in African Women FAILS

Date: Tue, 05 Mar 2013 13:07:50 -0500
From: AHRP <ahrp@ahrp.org>

ALLIANCE FOR HUMAN RESEARCH PROTECTION (AHRP)
Advancing Honest and Ethical Medical Research
www.ahrp.org

FYI

The much hyped story about the alleged "miraculous" cured HIV-infected baby may have  been planted to obscure the announcement on Monday, of a FAILED " AIDS prevention" study conducted on more than 5,000 HIV-NEGATIVE African women.

Medscape reports: "A large study to determine if pre-exposure prophylaxis could prevent HIV transmission among high-risk women failed to show any significant differences between those who took oral medication or vaginal gel or placebo medications in protection against acquiring infections."  http://www.medpagetoday.com/MeetingCoverage/CROI/37659

Read more: http://www.ahrp.org/cms/content/view/909/9/

There are many elements of concern about the Mississippi baby story--who has been identified as a girl.

The Wall Street Journal reported:

"...at about 18 months, for reasons that aren't clear, the mother stopped bringing the baby in for the checks. Dr. Gay summoned health-department and child-protection workers, who found her last August, and she returned to the clinic.  The baby had been off therapy for at least five months, Dr. Gay said. Before resuming treatment, Dr. Gay ordered a test to make sure the baby's virus hadn't developed resistance to any of the drugs. To her astonishment, technicians couldn't find any virus to test." "At first, Dr. Gay worried that she had been treating an uninfected baby for more than a year."    

How often, one wonders, have doctors like Dr. Gay, subjected uninfected, healthy babies to retroviral drugs?

If there are some reported cases of "babies clearing the virus, even without treatment"--as reported in The New England Journal of Medicine--why are doctors and government researchers only focusing on aggressive prescribing regimens using multiple drugs at ever higher doses?

Another concern is doctors who are summoning "child protection workers" to coerce individuals into submission of their babies to possibly unnecessary aggressive treatment. 

Indeed, had the Mississippi mother obeyed the baby's doctors, by not withdrawing the aggressive drug regimen from her infant, that baby would have been condemned to be on those drugs for life!

Read our expanded discussion on our website:  http://www.ahrp.org/cms/content/view/909/9/

Vera Sharav

Paul Stuckle wins child abduction and indecency trial as pro hac vice attorney in Illinois

Date: Tue, 5 Mar 2013 18:06:18 +0000
From: Paul Stuckle <Paul@stuckle-ferguson.com>
To: leonard@familyrights.us <leonard@familyrights.us>

Leonard:

I thought you might appreciate this.  We won a hard fought trial last week in Illinois.  Please find the newspaper article on it.

Take care, Paul
Stuckle & Ferguson

Monday, March 4, 2013

Baby Alleged to Have been "HIV Infected" is "Deemed Cured"--But Where is the Proof?

Date: Tue, 05 Mar 2013 00:03:22 -0500
From: AHRP <ahrp@ahrp.org>
To: Infomail1@ahrp.org

ALLIANCE FOR HUMAN RESEARCH PROTECTION (AHRP)
Advancing Honest and Ethical Medical Research
www.ahrp.org

FYI

The New York Times front page article, "In Medical First, Baby With HIV Is Reported Cured," in its sub-heading acknowledges, "SOME SKEPTICISM VOICED".
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/04/health/for-first-time-baby-cured-of-hiv-doctors-say.html?ref=science

Furthermore, the Times report states: "doctors announced...that a baby had been cured of an HIV infection for the first time...." but the report notes that the claimed "cure" has not been confirmed, published, or even peer reviewed.

Indeed, The Times notes that "Dr. Persaud and other researchers spoke in advance of a presentation of the findings at a Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections."

"If the report is confirmed, the child born in Mississippi would be only the second well-documented case of a cure in the world."

Well documented?

Unless independently verifiable documented evidence  is presented for confirmation, this story appears to be propaganda.

The announcement is calculated to persuade health policy officials to divert scarce healthcare dollars for expensive AIDS drug cocktails to be forced on newborn babies born to poor, uninformed young women.

The Times quotes Dr. Deborah Persaud of Johns Hopkins stating: "It's proof of principle that we can cure HIV infection if we can replicate this case."

Proof in principle is NOT proof of cure!

"Some outside experts, who have not yet heard all the details, said they needed convincing that the baby had truly been infected. If not, this would be a case of prevention, something already done for babies born to infected mothers."

Dr. Daniel R. Kuritzkes, chief of infectious diseases at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston is quoted stating:  “The one uncertainty is really definitive evidence that the child was indeed infected.”

The Times reports: "The mother arrived at a rural hospital in the fall of 2010 already in labor and gave birth prematurely. She had not seen a doctor during the pregnancy and did not know she had H.I.V. When a test showed the mother might be infected, the hospital transferred the baby to the University of Mississippi Medical Center, where it arrived at about 30 hours old."

"Typically a newborn with an infected mother would be given one or two drugs as a prophylactic measure. But Dr. Gay said that based on her experience, she almost immediately used a three-drug regimen aimed at treatment, not prophylaxis, not even waiting for the test results confirming infection. "

"Without test results confirming infection..."  Does this not constitute medical malpractice?

"Virus levels rapidly declined with treatment and were undetectable by the time the baby was a month old. That remained the case until the baby was 18 months old, after which the mother stopped coming to the hospital and stopped giving the drugs.When the mother and child returned five months later, Dr. Gay expected to see high viral loads in the baby. But the tests were negative. "

"Suspecting a laboratory error, she ordered more tests. “To my greater surprise, all of these came back negative,” Dr. Gay said. "

"There have been scattered cases reported in the past, including one in The New England Journal of Medicine in 1995, of babies clearing the virus, even without treatment. "

The Times report suggests the tenuous reliability of the announced "miracle"

"One hypothesis is that the drugs killed off the virus before it could establish a hidden reservoir in the baby. One reason people cannot be cured now is that the virus hides in a dormant state, out of reach of existing drugs. When drug therapy is stopped, the virus can emerge from hiding." 

"In the United States, transmission from mother to child is rare — several experts said there are only about 200 cases a year or even fewer — because infected mothers are generally treated during their pregnancies. "

"Dr. Bryson, who was not involved in the Mississippi work, said she was certain the baby had been infected and called the finding “one of the most exciting things I’ve heard in a long time.”

Does any of this sound like proven scientific findings???

By Monday afternoon the story was no longer on the Times' website front page .

Vera Sharav

Student suspended for shaping Pop-Tart into gun

By Krista Hostetler
CREATED MAR. 3, 2013

Baltimore, MD (KTNV) -- A student in Baltimore was suspended over breakfast.

7-year-old Josh Welch was eating a Pop-Tart at school. A teacher saw the pastry and said she thought it looked like it was being shaped into a gun.

The teacher also said she heard Welch say, "Bang Bang" while he was holding it.

That was enough to get him suspended.

Welch said his teacher got it completely wrong, "It was already a rectangle and I just kept on biting it and tore off the top, and it kind of looked like a gun but it wasn't."

Welch said he was trying to shape the Pop-Tart into a mountain.

The school sent out a letter late in the day to parents explaining what happened and why they thought it was a threat saying, "A student used food to make an inappropriate gesture."

Welch was suspended for two days.

SEE FULL STORY AND VIDEO

DOJ: Children Do Not Need—and Have No Right to--Mothers

March 3, 2013
By Terence P. Jeffrey

(CNSNews.com) - The Obama Justice Department is arguing in the United States Supreme Court that children do not need mothers.

The Justice Department’s argument on the superfluity of motherhood is presented in a brief the Obama administration filed in the case of Hollingsworth v. Perry, which challenges the constitutionality of Proposition 8, the California ballot initiative that amended California’s Constitution to say that marriage involves only one man and one woman.

The Justice Department presented its conclusions about parenthood in rebutting an argument made by proponents of Proposition 8 that the traditional two-parent family, led by both a mother and a father, was the ideal place, determined even by nature itself, to raise a child.

The Obama administration argues this is not true. It argues that children need neither a father nor a mother and that having two fathers or two mothers is just as good as having one of each.

FULL STORY

Friday, March 1, 2013

Updated- Child (or agency) Protection?

See the new Updated- Child (or agency) Protection?

Editor Note- Four years ago, an employee of Oregon CPS contacted me about publishing an article he wrote.  I thought it was an excellent article and published it as Child (or agency) Protection?

Now four years later, I heard back from him with his new article about events in his efforts to get the agency to apply the law and the resulting termination of his employment from the agency.

See the new Updated- Child (or agency) Protection?

73-YEAR OLD WISCONSIN PSYCHIATRIST BUSTED – CHILD PORN

Wisconsin State Journal
Madison psychiatrist with history of inappropriate behavior charged with possessing child pornography
By Sandy Cullen
February 28, 2013

http://www.psychsearch.net/73-year-old-wisconsin-psychiatrist-busted-child-porn/

Parental Rights- Farris on Fox News Saturday

ParentalRights.org logo
Sign the Petition Donate Volunteer Learn More View Online
March 1, 2013
Farris on Fox News Saturday
ParentalRights.org president and constitutional law scholar Michael Farris will appear on the Fox News Network’s Huckabee show on Saturday evening at 8 p.m. Eastern. (The show is often re-aired at later hours, too, so check your local listings.) Farris and host Mike Huckabee will discuss parental rights and the pending Sixth Circuit Court case, Eric Holder v. Romeike.

The Romeikes are a German family granted asylum in the United States because of persecution they have suffered at the hands of the German government over their educational choices. When they opted out of state-run schools to train their children at home, they were prosecuted under Germany’s state-school-only mandatory attendance laws. In U.S. courts, the Romeikes have claimed Germany’s law violates a parent’s prior right to determine the education of their children – a right recognized in international human rights agreements and by the U.S. Supreme Court.

The office of the U.S. Attorney General has appealed the decision, essentially arguing that no such right exists.

Farris, who is representing the Romeikes in the case, will discuss the parental rights issues implicated and the threat he sees in our own government’s response.

Action Items
Please watch or record the show, and encourage your friends to watch it, too. The show will highlight the need to protect our parental rights against a government increasingly hostile to those rights. It will be a great chance for your friends to see the need to act, while a boost in the ratings can encourage Fox News and Mike Huckabee to have Mr. Farris on the show again.

Please support our efforts with your most generous donation*. We are supporting parental rights legislation in several states while gearing up for the Parental Rights Amendment in the new Congress. And Senate insiders have warned us that the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities – an international treaty that threatens the right of parents to direct the care of their children with disabilities – will be back in the Senate in the near future. All of these efforts can be costly, and we rely solely on the support of concerned champions like you to keep us going.

Finally, become a fan of ParentalRights.org on Facebook. Those who are may have already seen notice of this upcoming interview – we broke the news there on Tuesday. (We just confirmed details last night, which is why you are just getting this email today.) You can also get in on the earliest, most up-to-date parental rights news by following our Facebook page.

Thank you for standing with us to defend parental rights and to spread the word so that others can join us in the fight.

Sincerely,

Michael Ramey
Director of Communications & Research

* Because ParentalRights.org is a 501(c)(4) lobbying organization, donations cannot be tax deductible for income tax purposes.

Share This Online
 
Facebook Twitter More...

Donate

Join the Discussion

P.O. Box 1090 Purcellville, VA 20134 * (540)-751-1200 * info@parentalrights.org

News From the Children's Bureau

Children's Bureau Express
Welcome to the monthly email alert from Children's Bureau Express
March 2013, Vol. 14, No. 2 News From the Children's Bureau
The tenth and final article in our second Centennial Series highlights the Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act of 2008. We also feature a special issue of the Journal of Family Strengths honoring CB's centennial.
Centennial Series: Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act
Journal of Family Strengths Celebrates CB
President Signs Universal Accreditation Act
New! From CB
Spotlight on the Impact of Parental Incarceration
The number of children with one or more incarcerated parents has increased steadily in recent years, and the trauma of this parental separation can lead to a number of negative outcomes. This month, CBX highlights research on reunification outcomes among incarcerated parents and their children in foster care, characteristics of imprisoned parents, and the benefits of contact visitation.
NRC on Children and Families of the Incarcerated
Parental Incarceration and Foster Care Reunification
Children on the Outside
Characteristics of Imprisoned Mothers and Fathers
Contact Visits With Incarcerated Parents
State Prison Visitation Policies
Training and Technical Assistance Network Updates
Updates from CB's T&TA Network this month include a blog entry focused on a Pennsylvania family-centered home visiting program and a factsheet series to help States and Tribes implement provisions in the Fostering Connections Act.
Family-Centered Home Visits
Fostering Connections Factsheets
More Updates From the T&TA Network
Children's Bureau Grantee News
Every spring, ACF recruits new grant reviewers. Find out how to become a grant reviewer, and read a new site visit report about the Denver's Village program.
Site Visit: Denver's Village
Funding Opportunity Announcement Change
Apply to Be a Grant Reviewer
Child Welfare News
CBX points to research on the causal relationship between economic downturns and child abuse, the impact of Head Start on the development of school readiness outcomes, and the promotion of well-being through treatment foster care.
Economic Downturns and Child Abuse
Head Start's Impact on School Readiness
Engaging Kin and Reasonable Efforts
Treatment Foster Care and Well-Being
Strategies and Tools for Practice

Federal Adoption Tax Credit
LGBTQ Youth in Foster Care
Evidence-Based Treatments for Child Trauma
Resources

Drug Abuse Prevention Guide
Youth Credentials Tool
Family Guide to Child Protection
Training and Conferences

Online Mandatory Reporter Training
Conferences
Children's Bureau Express is designed for professionals concerned with child abuse and neglect, child welfare, and adoption. Children's Bureau Express is supported by the Children's Bureau, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and published by Child Welfare Information Gateway. Articles in Children's Bureau Express are presented for informational purposes only; their inclusion does not represent an endorsement by the Children's Bureau or Child Welfare Information Gateway.
Children's Bureau Express does not disclose, give, sell, or transfer any personal information, including email addresses, unless required for law enforcement by statute.
Child Welfare Information Gateway
www.childwelfare.gov
800.394.3366

Children's Bureau, 1250 Maryland Avenue, SW, Eighth Floor
Washington, DC 20024
EMAIL: cb_express@childwelfare.gov