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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 Monday, April 6, 2009, at the Judicial Council Conference Center of the Administrative Office of the Courts in San Francisco. It is scheduled for 10:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. at:

Administrative Office of the Courts
455 Golden Gate Avenue
Milton Marks Auditorium, Lower Level
San Francisco, California 94102

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The way victims of Borderline Personality Disorder and similar personality disorders communicate is confusing and upsetting to many. If you’ve been living with such a person, you’ll find this animation to be a common, perhaps even a tame, version of things that often happen to you. If not, it may give you some insights into how miserable Borderlines can make the lives of their loved ones.
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If you or a loved one, especially your children, have an allergy to peanuts, you should read the news about a research study sponsored by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and the Consortium of Food Allergy Research. It appears the doctors have found a way to significantly decrease and possibly cure peanut allergies using an exposure desensitization method. The method being studied is so effective that children who used to have extreme reactions to even small bit of a peanut can now eat many of them with no allergic reaction.
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American baby care products are not as safe as consumers may expect. The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics released a report on 48 baby care products that were tested for the carcinogens formaldehyde and 1,4-dioxane. The March 2009 report, entitled “No More Toxic Tub”, reveals that 67 percent of the products tested contained detectable levels of 1,4-dioxane. 82 percent of the products tested contained detectable levels of formaldehyde and 1,4-dioxane. And 61 percent of products tested contained both.

Of the 48 products tested, only 28 were tested for formaldehyde. So there’s a chance that if all products had been tested for both, the percentage of products contaminated with both could be higher than 61 percent.

The State of California classifies both chemicals as carcinogens under its Proposition 65 “The Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986” passed in 1986. Both were listed as carcinogens on January 1, 1988. The US EPA regards both as probable carcinogens.
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Tylenol is a common over-the-counter painkiller used worldwide. It’s the name-brand version of generic acetaminophen (US name) or paracetamol (name outside of the US). Both generic names are taken from the full chemical name N-acetyl-para-aminophenol. It’s sometimes referred to as APAP. The drug appears both in tablets by itself as well as combined into many other solid and liquid medicines for colds, flus, fevers, and headaches. These include cough syrups and sleep aids. They are labelled and sold for children and adults.

Acetaminophen is also a common ingredient in many stronger painkillers. It is frequently mixed with stronger opioid painkillers such as codeine and hydrocodone. The hydrocodone and acetaminophen mix is generally called Vicodin.
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Among the many repercussions of the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008 (CPSIA) is the banning of lead components inside of products that aren’t likely to have any health effect on children, at least not from the lead. Among them are motor sports products for kids, including ATVs and kid-sized dirt bikes and motorcycles. These products use lead in the engines, batteries, and other internal components. Therefore, they are now banned products that cannot be sold in the United States as of February 10, 2009.

The Motorcycle Industry Council estimates that the CPSIA ban on these products will cause economic losses of $1 billion in 2009 alone. The ban affects products that have lead contents above 600ppm, but that is a moving target with the goal heading down towards 100ppm limits over time. Many motorsports dealers now have substantial inventories of products intended for children they can no longer sell legally.
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Fink vs. Charney

The recent web site and web advertising campaigns citing Los Angeles lawyer Keith Fink for various alleged misconducts, improprieties, and court sanctions appears to be part of an ongoing battle between Fink and American Apparel and its CEO Dov Charney. Fink has represented client Mary Nelson in a law suit against American Apparel alleging sexually harassing conduct by American Apparel and Dov Charney. The alleged harassment includes weird claims about how Charney conducted business meetings in the nude.
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Toni Valentin, mother of a 5-year-old daughter, was unhappy with the child custody arrangement she had with her ex-husband. On February 17, 2009, she and her boyfriend Dante Quezada allegedly took the daughter to her father’s brother’s home in the 300 block of West 47th Street in Los Angeles, where she believed the father was located at the time, in a minivan allegedly driven by their friend Felipe Carias. Quezada then allegedly proceeded to shoot out the windows of the home with a semi-automatic pistol, in the process shooting the daughter’s 7-year-old cousin in the chest and arm as she was doing her homework. Apparently they were hoping to kill the 5-year-old’s father while she watched. Fortunately, her cousin is expected to fully recover.
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Guess what group is among top of those showing contempt of court?

Family Law Judges!

Family law courts in the United States are a disgusting and abusive mess. While we can’t blame it all on the judges as many problems are caused by lying litigants, the judges are ultimately responsible for most of the problems. They should be upholding the law, ensuring that people’s rights are not violated, and requiring reasonable proof of allegations before they are acted upon. But in the United States today, that’s not the function of family law judges.
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Melinda Stratton of Sydney, Australia, has abducted her 4 year old son Andrew Thompson and fled Australia to go into hiding. She was unhappy her son was seeing his father at all even in supervised visitation because she claimed he was an unfit parent. She made allegations against him that were investigated and dismissed, making this look like yet another case of a parental alienator bent on using any means to prevent a child from having contact with the other parent.

Stratton fled to Germany with Andrew in April 2008. Her current whereabouts are unknown.

On January 15, 2009, she recently wrote a letter stating that she claims “the appalling failure of the Family Law Court and Child Protection Services” is why she’s run away with the child. She claims that he’s an unfit father because of depression and anxiety. He denies that he suffers from these mental illnesses. Even if he did, depression and anxiety are very common especially during divorce and hardly justify a parent being judged as unfit unless they are unusually severe.

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