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Have fun with coworkers, friends or family while also helping children. Bowl For Kids’ Sake benefits Big Brothers Big Sisters of East Tennessee. Every dollar raised goes toward uniting at-risk children with caring adult mentors. It is a FUNtastic way to spend time together and help our community.

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It is just reprehensible that a person who laid her life on the line in a deployment to a war zone would lose her child. Hopefully some high-powered, high-priced family law attorney will get wind of this and take on her case pro bono.

She had raised her daughter for six years following the divorce, shuttling to soccer practice and cheerleading, making sure schoolwork was done. Then Lt. Eva Crouch was mobilized with the Kentucky National Guard, and Sara went to stay with Dad.

A year and a half later, her assignment up, Crouch pulled into her driveway with one thing in mind — bringing home the little girl who shared her smile and blue eyes. She dialed her ex and said she’d be there the next day to pick Sara up, but his response sent her reeling.

“Not without a court order you won’t.”

Full Article

But, I forget, the Bush Administration is all about supporting the troops! NOT!

I find this incredibly disturbing. My stepdaughter is 15 years old, and talks fairly openly with us about the stresses and issues that she and her friends deal with. It seems a lot harder to be a teen today than it did 25 years ago - and it was hard enough then!

Link...

The suicide rate among preteen and young teen girls spiked 76 percent, a disturbing sign that federal health officials say they can't fully explain.

For all young people between ages 10 to 24, the suicide rate rose 8 percent from 2003 to 2004 — the biggest single-year bump in 15 years — in what one official called "a dramatic and huge increase."

The report, based on the latest numbers available, was released Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and suggests a troubling reversal in recent trends. Suicide rates had fallen by 28.5 percent since 1990 among young people.

Read the rest of the article here...

By way of Stormare Mackee at Appalachistan:

"May is the National Foster Care Month. There are over 500,000 kids in foster care in the United States. If you're interested in helping children in foster care, the L.I.F.T. mentoring program established by Governor Bredesen desperately needs volunteers. For four to six hours per month, you can help a teen in foster care to gain valuable life skills. Individuals interested in applying to be a mentor can call 1-866-519-LIFT (5438) to receive an application, or contact Youth Villages at 215-7220."

Stacey X has introduced a pair of interesting bills.

HB995 (PDF format) would require the petitioner (i.e. the person seeking an order of protection) to pay all legal costs if the order of protection is denied.

HB990 (PDF format) would give the respondent (i.e. the person the petitioner is seeking protection from) the right to conduct discovery and to depose the petitioner (the person seeking protection).

Does the second one open up fishing expeditions into matters unrelated to the order of protection and create an opportunity to intimidate the person seeking protection? Does the first one also introduce an element of financial risk that, say, a battered spouse might not be willing or able to take?

Just asking, because I don't know and I haven't studied the law these bills would amend or what problem with the law they are trying to fix.

UPDATE: It occurred to me that the first one might actually be an improvement if the petitioner currently always pays, and this would make it so the respondent has to pay if an order is granted. But I don't know how it works now. Can any lawyers out there explain what this is all about?

UPDATE: Checked the existing law. It says:

(a) Notwithstanding any other provision of law to the contrary, the petitioner shall not be required to pay any filing fees, litigation taxes or any other costs associated with the filing, issuance, service or enforcement of an order of protection authorized by this part upon the filing of the petition. The judge shall assess court costs and litigation taxes at the hearing of the petition or upon dismissal of the petition. If the court, after the hearing, issues or extends an order of protection, petitioner's court costs and attorney fees shall be assessed against the respondent.

Here's what Stacey X's bill would make it say:

(a) Notwithstanding any other provision of law to the contrary, the petitioner shall not be required to pay any filing fees, litigation taxes or any other costs associated with the filing, issuance, service or enforcement of an order of protection authorized by this part upon the filing of the petition. The judge shall assess court costs and litigation taxes at the hearing of the petition or upon dismissal of the petition. If the court, after the hearing, issues or extends an order of protection, then the petitioner's court costs and attorney fees shall be assessed against the respondent. If the court, after the hearing, dismisses the petition, then the respondent's court costs and attorney fees shall be assessed against the petitioner.

So it looks like under the old law the petitioner only had to pay their own costs if the petition was denied. Now the petitioner would have to pay their own AND the respondent's costs, which could now be even more if they hired expensive lawyers to do $50,000 worth of discovery and depositions.

UPDATE: The third semi-related bill (PDF format) in this trifecta would assess all legal fees of the accused to an accuser if the court finds that the accuser "knowingly" makes false accusations of sexual abuse and the accusations are thrown out, and would also hold the accuser in contempt of court. I suppose "knowingly" is the key here, but again this is a bill that could give an accuser and/or their lawyer pause. And what "the court finds" is a roll of the dice sometimes.

UPDATE: CE Petro already covered this last week. I'm a little behind sometimes.

A Maryville man says the Bratz Jade singalong karaoke doll his daughter got for Christmas drops the F bomb. There have been other complaints.

The manufacturer denies that Bratz Jade is a potty mouth and says people are mishearing the lyrics. Surely there's an MP3 on the internets somewhere by now? (There's already a YouTube of a news report, but the lyrics in question are bleeped out.)

WATE is reporting a fire near Madisonville that has destroyed the home of a legally blind mother and her five children.  All escaped the blaze but now they have only each other.

They need clothing for children aged 3 - 16; they need furniture and housing.  The Red Cross is putting them up temporarily in a motel.

There is a help line at (423) 337-9011. 

The World 'o Crap gang is going to have to rethink their designation of Meghan Cox Gurdon as America's Worst Mother after taking a look at this dreck.

I don't even know where to start.  

USA Today has done a fascinating study comparing party representation in Congressional districts with number of children and marriage rates. There's lots of good information in the article, and the chart below shows one astounding correlation. Republicans control the 25 Congressional districts with the highest marriage rate, while Democrats control the 25 Congressional districts with the lowest marriage rates.

Link...

Excerpt from the story:

A coalition of 13 conservative groups -- including the Family Research Council and Concerned Women for America -- took out full-page ads in some editions of USA Today earlier this month urging the Justice Department and FBI to investigate whether some of the pay-per-view movies widely available in hotels violate federal and state obscenity laws.

The coalition also is trying to draw attention to CleanHotels.com, a directory of hotels and motels nationwide that pledge to exclude adult offerings from their in-room entertainment service.

End excerpt.

I'm really, really sick of the ultra puritanical folks who want to control everyone else's choices in the name of shielding their own children.

There isn't a big enough :rolleyes: for this quote:

"As more and more of these (hardcore) titles become available, we're going to have sexual abuse cases coming out of the hotels," he said. "Hotels are just as dangerous as environments around strip joints and porn stores."

Phil Burress, a self-described former porn addict who heads the Cincinnati-based Citizens for Community Values.

So he's saying that areas around strip joints and porn stores have a higher incidence of sexual abuse, and that the same thing is going to happen in and around hotels now? Fascinating stuff, but I just don't buy it.

Gah!

Looking for part-time mother's helper/nanny in Knoxville I am once again on the hunt for a part-time mother's helper/nanny person to help me with caring for and transporting my three children (ages 14, 10 and 8) afterschool and this summer. I need someone who can drive (I'll pay for gas) and is insured and has a good driving record. This would be a very flexible, fun part-time job for a college student. If you are interested or know someone who would be interested, please contact me ASAP at kagranju@gmail.com Feel free to share this message with others. Thanks- Katie

According to this WBIR report, a Hawkins Co. deputy charged a 4th grader with disorderly conduct for threatening to "blow up" a school bus. We presume Homeland Security has been alerted. Do they have a juvenile detention facility at Guantanamo?

It keeps getting reported that tools of the Internets are luring children to trouble. MySpace.com is reportedly the newest offender. MySpace.com is not luring the children into trouble, per se. The users of the Internet tool are luring the children into trouble. How do people protect their children? I do not know the answer. Some parents apparently are attempting to forbid their children from using MySpace.com through their schools and local libraries (www.websense.com). Let us hope they are watching what is going on at home as well.

"You wouldn't leave your kid on the side of the highway without supervision," Morano (Connecticut Chief State's Attorney) said. "You shouldn't put them on the Internet highway without the same type of supervision."

Methods for children to get into trouble have grown. The mobility of our society has increased the likelihood of encountering a pedophile from the West Cost on the East Coast. Children are our future. Children are also usually smarter than we give them credit. We must not only protect them, but inform them.

Be careful out there...

 

My 10 year old daughter's much loved dachshund, Cookie, disappeared from our yard in North Knox, off Central Avenue on Friday afternoon. I have been frantically looking for him and putting up flyers all weekend. He's still missing. He's microchipped and had a collar and tag, but I fear someone may have dognapped him because he's seriously adorable and sweet. I pretty much feel ill. Here are some photos: http://katieallisongranju.blogspot.com/2006/02/awfulness.html and if anyone is willing to hang flyers at your vet, office, grocery, etc - I will e-mail them to you. If you see him or are willing to put up flyers, please contact me at kagranju@gmail.com Thanks- Katie