Archive

Archive for February, 2009

California Family Law: Elkins Task Force

February 16th, 2009 1 comment

The “Elkins Task Force” has been set up to help correct problems in the family law courts in California.

The next Elkins Family Law Task Force meeting is on Tuesday, February 24, 2009, from 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. This meeting will be at the following location:

Department of Water & Power
111 N. Hope Street, Lower Level
Los Angeles, California 90012

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Santa Clara County False Child Sex Abuse Scandal

February 15th, 2009 1 comment

Child sexual abuse is a serious allegation, often destroying the lives of those accused even when they not convicted. The trauma of the investigation often damages the children, too. In the case of children who were not abused, the investigation can be far more abusive than anything that really did happen to them. Yet apparently the government of Santa Clara County behaves as if child sexual abuse allegations warrant hiding evidence to prevent a defense and possibly bullying children into getting the testimony the police and DA want for their cases.

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False Sexual Abuse Allegations in Child Custody Disputes

February 15th, 2009 25 comments

Biological parents are not likely to sexually abuse their own children. But in recent decades, there has been an epidemic of false sexual abuse claims against biological parents. This epidemic started in earnest along with changes in laws and policies to allow fathers to have partial or full custody of children after a divorce.

The false claims of sexual abuse may be made by either parent. However, they are more common coming from mothers trying any method they can to prevent the children’s fathers from having contact, custody, and/or visitation with the children. This is a despicable strategy related to parental alienation. It is also particularly effective because of societal taboos and the difficulty of proving innocence of a crime which according to the false accuser was seen by nobody but the alleged perpetrator and a small child (who may not even be able to talk!) and of which there is frequently no physical evidence because the false reports are made about false incidents which supposedly occurred weeks or months earlier.

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San Diego County Grand Jury Letter Regarding CPS Abuses

February 14th, 2009 9 comments

The San Diego County Grand Jury conducted years of investigations into misconduct of San Diego County DSS and CPS and their social workers. Despite overwhelming evidence of a routine pattern of misconduct and government abuse of power, the problems have not stopped even years later. This letter from the San Diego County Grand Jury in 1992 explains the problems well. Sadly, nothing much has changed other than the name of the agency, now called Child Welfare Services. The children and families, particularly the fathers, continue to pay the high price of lives damaged and destroyed by San Diego County Child Welfare Services.

In the early to mid 1990’s, there was a push to force CPS agencies to behave according to due process and to be accountable for their misconduct. This was only partly successful. Although the extreme atrocities of the Alicia Wade and Dale Akiki cases are now less common, CPS continues to abuse its power and acts with incompetence, irresponsibility, and impunity ruining the lives of children and their parents without due process.

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Vitamin B12 Reduces Frequency and Severity of Canker Sores

February 13th, 2009 No comments

(Click here for more coverage of preventing canker sores.)

We’ve previously reported that taking supplementary lysine can significantly reduce the frequency and severity of canker sores, medically referred to as recurrent aphthous stomatitis (RAS). Up to 25% of the general population suffers from these oral lesions, and they can be extremely painful, take weeks to heal, and occur many times per year. So it would be really nice to have some options to help alleviate problems with canker stores.

Happily, vitamin B12 has been found to be yet another option for preventing canker sores. A recent study was published in the January 2009 issue of the The Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine that covered a small double-blind placebo-controlled trail following 58 patients suffering from RAS for a period of 6 months. 31 participants received 1000mcg (1mg) of vitamin B12 via sublingual lozenges (mouth-dissolving tablets used under the tongue), and 27 participants received placebos.

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Multiple Sclerosis Risk Linked to Vitamin D Deficiency

February 12th, 2009 2 comments

In recent years, multiple studies have shown there is a link between vitamin D deficiency and contracting multiple sclerosis (MS). MS is an autoimmune disorder that results in the body attacking the myelin sheath that protects nerve cells. Worldwide, more than 2.5 million people have MS.

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US Constitution Second Amendment vs. Restraining Orders

February 11th, 2009 No comments

Gun control laws are likely to be a topic of further discord under the Obama Administration. The US Constitution Second Amendment states:

A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the People to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.

Over the years, some of the federal cases involving 2nd amendment law found that there was no individual right to bear arms but that instead the right belongs to the States. Other decisions found the right to bear arms is an individual right accorded to the people of the United States, not merely to the States.

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Brain Scans on Borderlines Show Emotional Oversensitivity

February 11th, 2009 No comments

(Click here for more coverage of Borderline Personality Disorder.)

Recent estimates are that about 6% of the US population suffers from Borderline Personality Disorder. The condition typically results in a range of symptoms involving emotional instability, lack of empathy for others, and increased suicidality with about 10% of Borderlines suffering death by suicide.

On January 17, 2009, Dr. Harold Koenigsberg of Mount Sinai School of Medicine announced his team’s findings that functional MRI scans of adults diagnosed with BPD show they have significant and detectable differences in brain operation versus adults without BPD.

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Swedish Mother Kidnaps Australian Boys

February 10th, 2009 1 comment

Swedish mother Ann-Louise Valette is wanted on child abduction charges for the parental kidnapping of her sons Frank and Andre. She is believed to have been hiding them in Sweden, but it is not certain if they are still there as Swedish police have been unable to locate them. Valette violated court orders to put the boys on an October 9, 2008, airplane flight to return them to their father in Melbourne, Australia.

Andre Nicholas Valette age 9 (left) and Frank Oliver Valette age 11 (center) have been missing since they visited their mother Ann-Louise Valette (right) in Sweden.

Andre Nicholas Valette age 9 (left) and Frank Oliver Valette age 11 (center) have been missing since they visited their mother Ann-Louise Valette (right) in Sweden.

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Erin Pizzey, Domestic Violence Pioneer

February 9th, 2009 2 comments

Another of my favorite “real feminist” authors is Erin Pizzey. She was a pioneer in domestic violence activism, in 1971 setting up the Chiswick Refuge in London, UK as one of the first shelters for battered women in the world.

Early on in her work at Chiswick, she noticed that many of the women coming to her shelters were “violence prone”. They sought out abusive relationships and committed a significant amount of violence themselves. Often their violent ways triggered their partner’s abuses against them. Worse, these families raised their children to be a new generation of abusers addicted to violent behaviors.

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