Saturday, December 19, 2009 La. judge faces impeachment for drinking, gambling
By BEN EVANS
The Associated Press
FILE - In a Wednesday, Nov. 18, 2009 file photo, New Orleans-based District Judge G. Thomas Porteous Jr. listens to testimony on Capitol Hill in Washington during the House Judiciary Committee's Task Force on Judicial Impeachment meeting considering his impeachment. (AP Photo/Haraz N. Ghanbari)
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WASHINGTON – It’s not the lifestyle of a typical federal judge: Five or six vodka cocktails during lunch; gambling with borrowed money; bankruptcy under a phony name, and cash, trips or home repairs from lawyers and a bail bondsman with business before his court.
Witnesses in the congressional impeachment case against U.S. District Court Judge G. Thomas Porteous Jr. paint a jarring portrait of the former Louisiana state judge who was appointed to the federal bench in 1994 by President Bill Clinton.
As Congress wrapped up several weeks of evidence-gathering hearings this week, legal experts who testified before a House task force suggested Porteous is a clear candidate to become just the eighth federal judge in U.S. history to be impeached and convicted by Congress. Lawmakers appear poised to take their advice and bring charges early next year, setting up a historic trial in the Senate.
“The fact is that we are discovering a pattern of misbehavior that occurred over such a long period of time that it’s virtually unique in the annals of impeachment,” Michael Gerhardt, a constitutional law professor at the University of North Carolina, told the House panel. “Just imagine what happens if you don’t act here? What kind of precedent does that set?”
Porteous, who sits in the Eastern District of Louisiana in New Orleans, so far has offered little in his defense. And while his defense attorney, Richard Westling, acknowledges that the evidence doesn’t look good, he says the House has disregarded key facts and circumstances. Porteous may have made mistakes, Westling argues, but his transgressions don’t warrant impeachment.
“The presentation before the task force has been one-sided and clearly aimed at moving forward toward eventual impeachment,” Westling said in an interview. “We hope that senators will withhold judgment until we have been given a full and fair opportunity to confront the allegations in a Senate trial.”
Westling has his work cut out for him.
In the opening hearing, House investigators said Porteous had racked up more than $150,000 in credit card debt by 2000, mostly for cash advances spent in casinos.
Two New Orleans attorneys who once worked with Porteous said they gave the judge at least $20,000 in cash gifts while he was a judge, including $2,000 stuffed in an envelope in 1999, just before Porteous decided a major civil case in their client’s favor.
After they complained to Porteous about his frequent solicitations for cash and threatened to cut him off, the attorneys said Porteous began sending court-appointed work to their firm. In return, the attorneys sent some of the fees they received to the judge.
At another hearing, the lawyer Porteous hired for his 2001 bankruptcy discussed how he and Porteous initially filed the judge’s bankruptcy under the name “Orteous,” with a hastily arranged post office box as his address, to keep his name out of the newspaper. House investigators said Porteous also lied about his debts and assets in an effort to lower his bankruptcy payments.
Later, New Orleans bail bondsman Louis Marcotte testified that he and Porteous had a long-standing relationship in which Marcotte routinely took Porteous to lavish meals at French Quarter restaurants and offered his employees to work on Porteous’ cars and home. In return, Porteous manipulated bond amounts for defendants to give Marcotte the highest fees possible, said Marcotte, who served 18 months in prison on related corruption charges.
Porteous also erased criminal convictions for two of Marcotte’s employees.
The allegations against Porteous were largely uncovered during the FBI’s Operation Wrinkled Robe, an investigation of state judges in Jefferson Parish, where Porteous served before winning his federal post. That six-year investigation brought 14 convictions, but Porteous was never charged.
Porteous’ defense will in part focus on that fact — that he survived such an exhaustive investigation without prosecution. Porteous also is likely to argue that much of the activity in question occurred before he became a federal judge.
But the panel of legal scholars that testified this week said those circumstances are irrelevant. They said Porteous clearly misled Congress by concealing his behavior during the vetting for his federal nomination.
“It’s not even clear that removing of office is really punishing him ... He is a judge only because the Senate voted to make him one, and they did so under false pretenses. He lied to them,” Akhil Amar, a Yale Law School professor, told lawmakers. “Every day that a fraud continues to claim the title of a federal judge and draw his federal salary is an affront to citizens and taxpayers.”
The House needs a simple majority to approve impeachment; the Senate needs a two-thirds vote to convict.
The last time both happened was in 1989, when two judges — Walter Nixon of Mississippi and Alcee L. Hastings of Florida — were removed from office. Hastings went on to win a seat in Congress, where he still serves.
http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/news/worldnation/487700-227/la.-judge-faces-impeachment-for-drinking-gambling.html
Isabella Brooke Knightly and Austin Gamez-Knightly
In Memory of my Loving Husband, William F. Knightly Jr. Murdered by ILLEGAL Palliative Care at a Nashua, NH Hospital
Saturday, December 19, 2009
Friday, December 18, 2009
U.S. Sen. Grassley: Launches U.S. Senate caucus to focus on foster youth
U.S. Sen. Grassley: Launches U.S. Senate caucus to focus on foster youth
12/17/2009
For Immediate Release
Thursday, December 17, 2009
WASHINGTON --- Senator Chuck Grassley today announced the formation of a new Senate Caucus on Foster Youth, which he will co-chair with Senator Mary Landrieu of Louisiana.
Three young Iowans who have been in and out of the foster care system and now are actively involved in helping other kids who’ve “aged out” participated in today’s announcement in Washington, during an event hosted by FosterClub, a nonprofit national network for young people in foster care. “There’s nothing like a real-life story to put a face and focus on a project, so I appreciate the involvement of Iowans Krista Penrod, Tracye Redd and Jacob Baker, and the practical perspective they bring to this effort,” Grassley said.
Grassley said that with the Senate caucus, he wants to help focus attention on the needs of older kids who remain in foster care and the young adults who have just “aged out” of foster care and don’t have the support and stability of a permanent family. “The issues challenging these young people – school attendance and performance, substance abuse, financial literacy, teen pregnancy, homelessness, and juvenile delinquency – have come to my attention through my efforts on foster care and adoption over the last 12 years.”
The statistics associated with young people who leave the foster care system without a safe, permanent family are significant. One study found that 25 percent of foster care alumni who “aged out,” which occurs between ages 18 and 21, depending on the state, don’t have a high school diploma or GED. Over half of them experience some homelessness. And, nearly 30 percent of them are incarcerated. They’re also less likely to be employed.
Grassley said the new Senate Caucus on Foster Youth will focus on this group. He said caucus provides a way “for current and former foster youth to have their voices heard and to make senators more aware of these issues, generate ideas for preventing negative outcomes and create opportunities for success.” Since 1998, more than 200,000 young people nationwide have aged out of foster care. Today, nearly 500,000 children in America are in the foster care system.
The caucus will provide briefings for senators by think-tank experts, foster-care coalitions and other groups close to these kids and familiar with the issues they face. It will be a clearinghouse for up-to-date research and policy initiatives in this area.
Last year, Congress passed and the President signed legislation Grassley initiated and Landrieu co-sponsored to make major updates to foster care laws and dramatically increase adoption into permanent, loving homes. The law – Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act of 2008 -- also broke new ground by establishing opportunities for states to extend care and help “aged out” kids with education and vocational training. Today, Grassley and Landrieu said that monitoring implementation of this new law is another goal of the new Senate caucus.
The following organizations have expressed support for the new Senate caucus: the American Public Human Services Association, Voices for America’s Children, the Child Welfare League of America, the National Foster Care Coalition, the Children’s Defense Fund, the Foster Care Alumni of America, First Focus, Court Appointed Special Advocates, the John Burton Foundation, and the National Alliance to End Homelessness.
Last month, Grassley received a “Legislator of the Year” award from Voice for Adoption, a national organization dedicated to “speaking out for our nation’s waiting children.”
Twelve years ago, Grassley worked to advance the Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997. Since its enactment, adoptions increased to 54,000 per year, and many states have doubled their adoptions from foster care.
The Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 included funding championed by Grassley for grants to train judges, attorneys and legal personnel in child welfare cases, as well as grants to strengthen and improve collaboration between the courts and child welfare agencies. Funding for the court improvement and collaboration grants is scheduled to end at the end of the next fiscal year, and Grassley has said he would work for continuation of necessary funding. Grassley also has worked to protect federal funding for Social Services Block Grants that help fund child welfare services.
In 2006, the Finance Committee held the first hearings on child welfare in over a decade. The hearings were part of an effort that led to passage of the Child and Family Services Improvement Act of 2006, which Grassley developed as Finance Committee Chairman and shepherded through Congress. The legislation improved programs aimed at helping troubled families, provided grants for states and community organizations to combat methamphetamine addiction and other substance abuse, and increased case worker visits for children in foster care.
And, again, last year, Grassley was part of a bipartisan effort to pass the Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoption Act of 2008. This new law represented the most significant and far-reaching improvements to child welfare in over a decade. It provided additional federal incentives for states to move children from foster care to adoptive homes. It included legislation Grassley had introduced in May 2008 to make it easier for foster children to be permanently cared for by their own relatives, including grandparents and aunts and uncles, and to stay in their own home communities. The Grassley provisions in the law also made all children with special needs eligible for federal adoption assistance. Previously, that assistance had been limited to children who are removed from very low-income families. The law gives states the option to extend care for those who have been in foster care by helping those who age-out pursue education or vocational training.
Grassley’s 2008 legislation was supported by more than 500 organizations across the country, including Iowa organizations like the Iowa Foster and Adoptive Parents Association, Boys and Girls Home and Family Services of Sioux City, Family Resources of Davenport, the Iowa Citizen Action Network and Orchard Place of Des Moines. Other organizations supporting the legislation include the Children’s Defense Fund, the Kids Are Waiting: Fix Foster Care Now campaign sponsored by The Pew Charitable Trusts, the North American Council on Adoptable Children, the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption, and the National Foster Care Coalition.
http://www.iowapolitics.com/index.iml?Article=180070
12/17/2009
For Immediate Release
Thursday, December 17, 2009
WASHINGTON --- Senator Chuck Grassley today announced the formation of a new Senate Caucus on Foster Youth, which he will co-chair with Senator Mary Landrieu of Louisiana.
Three young Iowans who have been in and out of the foster care system and now are actively involved in helping other kids who’ve “aged out” participated in today’s announcement in Washington, during an event hosted by FosterClub, a nonprofit national network for young people in foster care. “There’s nothing like a real-life story to put a face and focus on a project, so I appreciate the involvement of Iowans Krista Penrod, Tracye Redd and Jacob Baker, and the practical perspective they bring to this effort,” Grassley said.
Grassley said that with the Senate caucus, he wants to help focus attention on the needs of older kids who remain in foster care and the young adults who have just “aged out” of foster care and don’t have the support and stability of a permanent family. “The issues challenging these young people – school attendance and performance, substance abuse, financial literacy, teen pregnancy, homelessness, and juvenile delinquency – have come to my attention through my efforts on foster care and adoption over the last 12 years.”
The statistics associated with young people who leave the foster care system without a safe, permanent family are significant. One study found that 25 percent of foster care alumni who “aged out,” which occurs between ages 18 and 21, depending on the state, don’t have a high school diploma or GED. Over half of them experience some homelessness. And, nearly 30 percent of them are incarcerated. They’re also less likely to be employed.
Grassley said the new Senate Caucus on Foster Youth will focus on this group. He said caucus provides a way “for current and former foster youth to have their voices heard and to make senators more aware of these issues, generate ideas for preventing negative outcomes and create opportunities for success.” Since 1998, more than 200,000 young people nationwide have aged out of foster care. Today, nearly 500,000 children in America are in the foster care system.
The caucus will provide briefings for senators by think-tank experts, foster-care coalitions and other groups close to these kids and familiar with the issues they face. It will be a clearinghouse for up-to-date research and policy initiatives in this area.
Last year, Congress passed and the President signed legislation Grassley initiated and Landrieu co-sponsored to make major updates to foster care laws and dramatically increase adoption into permanent, loving homes. The law – Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act of 2008 -- also broke new ground by establishing opportunities for states to extend care and help “aged out” kids with education and vocational training. Today, Grassley and Landrieu said that monitoring implementation of this new law is another goal of the new Senate caucus.
The following organizations have expressed support for the new Senate caucus: the American Public Human Services Association, Voices for America’s Children, the Child Welfare League of America, the National Foster Care Coalition, the Children’s Defense Fund, the Foster Care Alumni of America, First Focus, Court Appointed Special Advocates, the John Burton Foundation, and the National Alliance to End Homelessness.
Last month, Grassley received a “Legislator of the Year” award from Voice for Adoption, a national organization dedicated to “speaking out for our nation’s waiting children.”
Twelve years ago, Grassley worked to advance the Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997. Since its enactment, adoptions increased to 54,000 per year, and many states have doubled their adoptions from foster care.
The Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 included funding championed by Grassley for grants to train judges, attorneys and legal personnel in child welfare cases, as well as grants to strengthen and improve collaboration between the courts and child welfare agencies. Funding for the court improvement and collaboration grants is scheduled to end at the end of the next fiscal year, and Grassley has said he would work for continuation of necessary funding. Grassley also has worked to protect federal funding for Social Services Block Grants that help fund child welfare services.
In 2006, the Finance Committee held the first hearings on child welfare in over a decade. The hearings were part of an effort that led to passage of the Child and Family Services Improvement Act of 2006, which Grassley developed as Finance Committee Chairman and shepherded through Congress. The legislation improved programs aimed at helping troubled families, provided grants for states and community organizations to combat methamphetamine addiction and other substance abuse, and increased case worker visits for children in foster care.
And, again, last year, Grassley was part of a bipartisan effort to pass the Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoption Act of 2008. This new law represented the most significant and far-reaching improvements to child welfare in over a decade. It provided additional federal incentives for states to move children from foster care to adoptive homes. It included legislation Grassley had introduced in May 2008 to make it easier for foster children to be permanently cared for by their own relatives, including grandparents and aunts and uncles, and to stay in their own home communities. The Grassley provisions in the law also made all children with special needs eligible for federal adoption assistance. Previously, that assistance had been limited to children who are removed from very low-income families. The law gives states the option to extend care for those who have been in foster care by helping those who age-out pursue education or vocational training.
Grassley’s 2008 legislation was supported by more than 500 organizations across the country, including Iowa organizations like the Iowa Foster and Adoptive Parents Association, Boys and Girls Home and Family Services of Sioux City, Family Resources of Davenport, the Iowa Citizen Action Network and Orchard Place of Des Moines. Other organizations supporting the legislation include the Children’s Defense Fund, the Kids Are Waiting: Fix Foster Care Now campaign sponsored by The Pew Charitable Trusts, the North American Council on Adoptable Children, the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption, and the National Foster Care Coalition.
http://www.iowapolitics.com/index.iml?Article=180070
The Manhattan Declaration-Please Sign
TO ALL FAMILY RIGHTS ACTIVISTS,,,
Have you been keeping an eye on the numbers of Christians signing the Manhattan Declaration? Christians are vowing to choose civil disobedience over obeying corrupt government laws and policies that they see as being unjust and/or immoral.
All Family Rights Activists need to be joining ranks with our Christian Leaders by signing the Declaration. The Family Law Courts are most certainly unjust and immoral.
You can sign the Declaration at: http://www.manhattandeclaration.org/Please do,,and then spread the word to other Family rights activist. Signatures are now up to 300,683 as of 8:46am this morning, with quite an impressive list of Top Christian Leaders in this nation being the first to sign.
Have you been keeping an eye on the numbers of Christians signing the Manhattan Declaration? Christians are vowing to choose civil disobedience over obeying corrupt government laws and policies that they see as being unjust and/or immoral.
All Family Rights Activists need to be joining ranks with our Christian Leaders by signing the Declaration. The Family Law Courts are most certainly unjust and immoral.
You can sign the Declaration at: http://www.manhattandeclaration.org/Please do,,and then spread the word to other Family rights activist. Signatures are now up to 300,683 as of 8:46am this morning, with quite an impressive list of Top Christian Leaders in this nation being the first to sign.
Twas the Night Before Christmas-Dedicated to Austin and Isabella Knightly
I wrote this poem for my grandchildren on Christmas Eve 2006, after they were stolen by Nashua, NH DCYF.
“Twas The Night Before Christmas”
Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house,
Not a grandchild was laughing, not a present in the house,
The stocking’s weren’t hung by the chimney this year,
Because of DCYF, the children wouldn’t be here,
We begged and we pleaded for the children’s return,
But the DCYF Gestapo love to see Grandparent’s squirm,
They claim we’re emotional when we fight for our right’s,
But we’ll never give up this horrible fight,
They’ve made us aware of their corruption this year,
They want all family’s to live in fear,
They’ve taken away what we hold most dear,
They’ve taken away our Grandparent’s Right’s,
We need to stand up and Fight, Fight, Fight,
So the stocking’s are packed away for this year,
I’m sure DCYF won’t shed a tear,
As long as they get their incentive, which they hold so dear,
Grandchildren mean everything, but what does DCYF care?
Feds investigating high prescribing Fla. docs
Feds investigating high prescribing Fla. docs
By KELLI KENNEDY
Associated Press Writer
MIAMI (AP) -- The federal government has stopped reimbursing a Miami doctor who wrote nearly 97,000 prescriptions for mental health drugs to Medicaid patients over 18 months, in a case that prompted a key Senator to call for a nationwide investigation.
U.S. Sen. Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa said Dr. Fernando Mendez Villamil wrote an average of 153 prescriptions a day for 18 months ending in March 2009. That's nearly twice the number of the second highest prescriber in Florida, who wrote a little more than 53,000 prescriptions, according to a list compiled by state officials.
Grassley, an Iowa Republican and ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, which oversees Medicare and Medicaid, called the figures alarming and sent a letter Wednesday to the Department of Health and Human Services asking the agency to investigate top prescribers across the country. His inquiry comes as the government targets waste and fraud in the taxpayer funded programs.
HHS officials said they were aware of Florida's list of high prescribing doctors and were working closely with the state and federal agencies that investigate Medicaid fraud, according to a statement from Sec. Kathleen Sebelius' office.
Dr. Villamil hasn't been reimbursed by Medicare since May when HHS started investigating him.
An employee at Villamil's office declined to comment and a voicemail left at his office Thursday was not immediately returned.
"It's hard to believe that this dramatic level of activity could go unnoticed," Grassley told The Associated Press.
"It's a matter of program integrity, taxpayer protection and patient safety," added Grassley, who asked HHS officials to explain whether and how the agency tracks high-prescribing doctors.
The vast majority of the doctors near the top of Florida's list are in the Miami area, where Medicare fraud totals over $3 billion a year, higher than any place else in the country.
"The highest prescribers are always in Miami," said Karen Koch, vice president of the Florida Council for Community Mental Health. "They tend to use medication more maybe than in some others areas and then sometimes it's an anomaly in the data."
Koch said that some doctors on the list have multiple practices with other prescribers using their license, which is legal. The state also has a shortage of psychiatrists, meaning a smaller number of doctors are serving more patients each.
And sometimes patients doctor shop with the intention of selling the drugs, which also drives up prescription numbers.
The drugs that Villamil, a psychiatrist, prescribed most commonly included Seroquel, Zyprexia and Abilify.
Seroquel is the only drug that has street value in the United States. "When snorted, it acts like cocaine," said Koch. The other drugs "have high street value in South American countries because it is not available there so families in the U.S. are always trying to get it for their relatives there," she said.
The state's top prescriber list is part of the Medicaid Drug Therapy Management Program, which began monitoring mental and behavioral health medications when the program was created in 2006.
"The number of prescriptions recorded for Dr. Fernando Mendez-Villamil is high when compared to other Medicaid prescribers," state Agency for Health Care Administration spokesman Sue Conte said in an e-mail to The Associated Press.
However, she said "it does not indicate that there is anything improper regarding his prescribing," saying patients seeing a specialist like Villamil would need daily medications plus medications for acute episodes. Villamil's prescriptions also included refills, she said.
If a concern arises, AHCA's Office of Inspector General will more thoroughly investigate billing practices and prescribing patterns. If fraud is suspected, the case is sent to the Florida's Attorney General. About 123 cases were referred to the Medicaid Fraud unit in the past fiscal year, according to AHCA.
A spokesman for Florida's Attorney General said the office has a pending investigation into Villamil, stemming from a 2007 request from a private citizen. She declined to comment further.
A Florida doctor who prescribed several mental health medications to a 7-year-old foster care boy who killed himself in April is also on the list. The drugs carried a special FDA black box warning indicating they can cause suicidal thoughts and are not approved for young children, though some doctors still prescribe them to treat children.
Dr. Sohail Punjwani wrote 10,150 prescriptions during the same two year period, according to the report.
Dr. Punjwani, who has appeared on the high-prescriber list multiple times but has never been sanctioned, did not immediately return a phone call left by The Associated Press on Thursday.
Grassley's letter comes months after Gabriel Myers hung himself with a shower cord at his foster parents' home while under Punjwani's care. The boy's death prompted debate at the state's child welfare agency about stricter rules for prescribing powerful antidepressants and other drugs to foster children.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_MEDICAID_TOP_PRESCRIBERS_FLOL-?SITE=FLPET&SECTION=HOME
By KELLI KENNEDY
Associated Press Writer
MIAMI (AP) -- The federal government has stopped reimbursing a Miami doctor who wrote nearly 97,000 prescriptions for mental health drugs to Medicaid patients over 18 months, in a case that prompted a key Senator to call for a nationwide investigation.
U.S. Sen. Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa said Dr. Fernando Mendez Villamil wrote an average of 153 prescriptions a day for 18 months ending in March 2009. That's nearly twice the number of the second highest prescriber in Florida, who wrote a little more than 53,000 prescriptions, according to a list compiled by state officials.
Grassley, an Iowa Republican and ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, which oversees Medicare and Medicaid, called the figures alarming and sent a letter Wednesday to the Department of Health and Human Services asking the agency to investigate top prescribers across the country. His inquiry comes as the government targets waste and fraud in the taxpayer funded programs.
HHS officials said they were aware of Florida's list of high prescribing doctors and were working closely with the state and federal agencies that investigate Medicaid fraud, according to a statement from Sec. Kathleen Sebelius' office.
Dr. Villamil hasn't been reimbursed by Medicare since May when HHS started investigating him.
An employee at Villamil's office declined to comment and a voicemail left at his office Thursday was not immediately returned.
"It's hard to believe that this dramatic level of activity could go unnoticed," Grassley told The Associated Press.
"It's a matter of program integrity, taxpayer protection and patient safety," added Grassley, who asked HHS officials to explain whether and how the agency tracks high-prescribing doctors.
The vast majority of the doctors near the top of Florida's list are in the Miami area, where Medicare fraud totals over $3 billion a year, higher than any place else in the country.
"The highest prescribers are always in Miami," said Karen Koch, vice president of the Florida Council for Community Mental Health. "They tend to use medication more maybe than in some others areas and then sometimes it's an anomaly in the data."
Koch said that some doctors on the list have multiple practices with other prescribers using their license, which is legal. The state also has a shortage of psychiatrists, meaning a smaller number of doctors are serving more patients each.
And sometimes patients doctor shop with the intention of selling the drugs, which also drives up prescription numbers.
The drugs that Villamil, a psychiatrist, prescribed most commonly included Seroquel, Zyprexia and Abilify.
Seroquel is the only drug that has street value in the United States. "When snorted, it acts like cocaine," said Koch. The other drugs "have high street value in South American countries because it is not available there so families in the U.S. are always trying to get it for their relatives there," she said.
The state's top prescriber list is part of the Medicaid Drug Therapy Management Program, which began monitoring mental and behavioral health medications when the program was created in 2006.
"The number of prescriptions recorded for Dr. Fernando Mendez-Villamil is high when compared to other Medicaid prescribers," state Agency for Health Care Administration spokesman Sue Conte said in an e-mail to The Associated Press.
However, she said "it does not indicate that there is anything improper regarding his prescribing," saying patients seeing a specialist like Villamil would need daily medications plus medications for acute episodes. Villamil's prescriptions also included refills, she said.
If a concern arises, AHCA's Office of Inspector General will more thoroughly investigate billing practices and prescribing patterns. If fraud is suspected, the case is sent to the Florida's Attorney General. About 123 cases were referred to the Medicaid Fraud unit in the past fiscal year, according to AHCA.
A spokesman for Florida's Attorney General said the office has a pending investigation into Villamil, stemming from a 2007 request from a private citizen. She declined to comment further.
A Florida doctor who prescribed several mental health medications to a 7-year-old foster care boy who killed himself in April is also on the list. The drugs carried a special FDA black box warning indicating they can cause suicidal thoughts and are not approved for young children, though some doctors still prescribe them to treat children.
Dr. Sohail Punjwani wrote 10,150 prescriptions during the same two year period, according to the report.
Dr. Punjwani, who has appeared on the high-prescriber list multiple times but has never been sanctioned, did not immediately return a phone call left by The Associated Press on Thursday.
Grassley's letter comes months after Gabriel Myers hung himself with a shower cord at his foster parents' home while under Punjwani's care. The boy's death prompted debate at the state's child welfare agency about stricter rules for prescribing powerful antidepressants and other drugs to foster children.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_MEDICAID_TOP_PRESCRIBERS_FLOL-?SITE=FLPET&SECTION=HOME
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Man who killed foster son sentenced to 5 years
Updated: 4:48 PM Dec 17, 2009
Man who killed foster son sentenced to 5 years
A Hawkins County judge sentenced a Hamblen County foster father to five years in prison for killing his foster son.
Posted: 1:04 PM Dec 17, 2009
Reporter: Staff
Email Address: wvlt.news@wvlt-tv.com
HAWKINS COUNTY, Tenn. (WVLT) -- A Hawkins County judge sentenced a Hamblen County foster father to five years in prison for killing his foster son. Kenneth Wayne Taylor must serve 30 percent of his sentence, or about 18 months, before becoming eligible for parole.
Taylor was put on trial for first degree murder, but the jury found him guilty of the lesser offense of voluntary manslaughter in connection to the November 2007 death of his foster child Jordan Shelton, 16.
Taylor was also found guilty of reckless aggravated assault, a lesser charge than the aggravated child abuse count he also faced.
Taylor's attorney, Herb Moncier, argued throughout the trial that Taylor put Shleton in a headlock out of self-defense when the boy went out of control after Taylor caught him smoking.
http://www.volunteertv.com/home/headlines/79541087.html?source=enews&c=y
Man who killed foster son sentenced to 5 years
A Hawkins County judge sentenced a Hamblen County foster father to five years in prison for killing his foster son.
Posted: 1:04 PM Dec 17, 2009
Reporter: Staff
Email Address: wvlt.news@wvlt-tv.com
HAWKINS COUNTY, Tenn. (WVLT) -- A Hawkins County judge sentenced a Hamblen County foster father to five years in prison for killing his foster son. Kenneth Wayne Taylor must serve 30 percent of his sentence, or about 18 months, before becoming eligible for parole.
Taylor was put on trial for first degree murder, but the jury found him guilty of the lesser offense of voluntary manslaughter in connection to the November 2007 death of his foster child Jordan Shelton, 16.
Taylor was also found guilty of reckless aggravated assault, a lesser charge than the aggravated child abuse count he also faced.
Taylor's attorney, Herb Moncier, argued throughout the trial that Taylor put Shleton in a headlock out of self-defense when the boy went out of control after Taylor caught him smoking.
http://www.volunteertv.com/home/headlines/79541087.html?source=enews&c=y
Open Government Is Needed-Senator Pam Roach
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Morning News Tribune Gets It...Open Government Is Needed
As a member of the "Sunshine Committee" I have stressed the need, indeed, the mandate by the people to open the doors of government. There can be no accountability without it. Kim...point your efforts right at CPS.
Sunshine Committee still waiting to be heard
Posted By Kim Bradford
Tacoma News Tribune, December 17th
The Sunshine Committee could be on its way out. Perhaps lawmakers would consider a parting gift of finally heeding the committee’s advice?
The Sunshine Committee, aka the Public Records Exemptions Accountability Committee, was among the 95 boards and commissions Gov. Chris Gregoire targeted for elimination earlier this month.
This isn’t the committee’s first death threat, nor would it be the last should the committee survive the legislative session. Some lawmakers complain that the committee hasn’t done enough to justify its existence.
But the Sunshine Committee is only as worthless as the Legislature makes it.
Some of the same legislators who would do away with the committee also refuse to sign onto bills that would see its recommendations given the force of law. {Right On Kim!)Worse yet is the lawmaker who sits on the committee yet in at least one instance worked to thwart its legislative agenda.
Sen. Adam Kline, D-Seattle, sponsored a bill earlier this year that purported to implement the Sunshine Committee’s nonunanimous recommendations. Upon closer inspection, open government advocates found that what it actually proposed to do was take a bad court ruling and make it state law.
That ruling introduced an attorney-client privilege into the open records act, making a slew of records exempt from public disclosure even when there is no controversy. The Sunshine Committee voted 7-3 last year to ask the Legislature to clarify the law and preserve public disclosure; that recommendation still awaits the Legislature’s approval.
So does the committee’s more recent recommendation to get rid of the so-called “legislative privilege” that lawmakers use to get around open records requirements.
This privilege has been cobbled together from a sloppy definition of “legislative records” and an untested 2006 Snohomish County court case. Lawmakers, as well as the public agencies that communicate with them, use it to avoid disclosure of e-mails, letters and memos written on state equipment by state employees.
Earlier this year, the Department of Revenue balked at giving up records relating to tax proposals it had analyzed for lawmakers. The reason? Legislative privilege. Lawmakers eventually relented, but maintained that they did so only out of the goodness of their hearts.
The Sunshine Committee, which includes attorneys who advise local governments, takes a dim view of state lawmakers getting special treatment.
“Every other legislative body in the state of Washington is fully subject to the public records act,” the committee wrote in its recommendation. “There is no principled reason why the state Legislature should be exempt.”
That message remains true whether the messenger lives or dies.
Posted by State Senator Pam Roach at 8:05 AM
http://pamroachreport.blogspot.com/2009/12/morning-news-tribune-gets-itopen.html
Morning News Tribune Gets It...Open Government Is Needed
As a member of the "Sunshine Committee" I have stressed the need, indeed, the mandate by the people to open the doors of government. There can be no accountability without it. Kim...point your efforts right at CPS.
Sunshine Committee still waiting to be heard
Posted By Kim Bradford
Tacoma News Tribune, December 17th
The Sunshine Committee could be on its way out. Perhaps lawmakers would consider a parting gift of finally heeding the committee’s advice?
The Sunshine Committee, aka the Public Records Exemptions Accountability Committee, was among the 95 boards and commissions Gov. Chris Gregoire targeted for elimination earlier this month.
This isn’t the committee’s first death threat, nor would it be the last should the committee survive the legislative session. Some lawmakers complain that the committee hasn’t done enough to justify its existence.
But the Sunshine Committee is only as worthless as the Legislature makes it.
Some of the same legislators who would do away with the committee also refuse to sign onto bills that would see its recommendations given the force of law. {Right On Kim!)Worse yet is the lawmaker who sits on the committee yet in at least one instance worked to thwart its legislative agenda.
Sen. Adam Kline, D-Seattle, sponsored a bill earlier this year that purported to implement the Sunshine Committee’s nonunanimous recommendations. Upon closer inspection, open government advocates found that what it actually proposed to do was take a bad court ruling and make it state law.
That ruling introduced an attorney-client privilege into the open records act, making a slew of records exempt from public disclosure even when there is no controversy. The Sunshine Committee voted 7-3 last year to ask the Legislature to clarify the law and preserve public disclosure; that recommendation still awaits the Legislature’s approval.
So does the committee’s more recent recommendation to get rid of the so-called “legislative privilege” that lawmakers use to get around open records requirements.
This privilege has been cobbled together from a sloppy definition of “legislative records” and an untested 2006 Snohomish County court case. Lawmakers, as well as the public agencies that communicate with them, use it to avoid disclosure of e-mails, letters and memos written on state equipment by state employees.
Earlier this year, the Department of Revenue balked at giving up records relating to tax proposals it had analyzed for lawmakers. The reason? Legislative privilege. Lawmakers eventually relented, but maintained that they did so only out of the goodness of their hearts.
The Sunshine Committee, which includes attorneys who advise local governments, takes a dim view of state lawmakers getting special treatment.
“Every other legislative body in the state of Washington is fully subject to the public records act,” the committee wrote in its recommendation. “There is no principled reason why the state Legislature should be exempt.”
That message remains true whether the messenger lives or dies.
Posted by State Senator Pam Roach at 8:05 AM
http://pamroachreport.blogspot.com/2009/12/morning-news-tribune-gets-itopen.html
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