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
Thursday, June 10, 2010
Message To Family Court Victims - Read This Book!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEGnweYCadg&feature=related
Ron Paul stop VAWA and TITLE 4 funding
Ron Paul, Stop V.A.W.A. & Title IV d
williamwagener
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFsgd_2rW5A
williamwagener
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFsgd_2rW5A
Allegany Grandparents Chasing a Family Court Master Maslow
Allegany Grandparents Chasing a Family Court Master Maslow
williamwagener
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVWsi0CbWmI
williamwagener
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVWsi0CbWmI
Boy tries to stuff foster mom in car trunk-(Is the money worth it?)
NEW: Boy tries to stuff foster mom in car trunk
Published: Thursday, June 10, 2010
Isn't fostering other peoples stolen children great?
By LINDA GITTLEMAN
Gratiot Managing Editor
A 15-year-old runaway from North Carolina who somehow ended up in Gratiot County’s foster care system allegedly assaulted his foster mother and tried to stuff her into the trunk of the family car early Wednesday evening.
The 66-year-old New Haven Township woman was able to fight her way out and fled in fear of her life, said Michigan State Post Commander Doug Wright.
“He actually picked her up and tried to put her in the trunk,” he said.
The boy then took the car and drove off.
By checking phone records, police were able to learn that the boy apparently had called a teenage friend in Lowell. State police troopers in Ithaca contacted the Lowell police, as well as the sheriff's department and state police there to keep an eye out for the car, Wright said.
Police in Lowell spotted the car sometime between 9 and 10 p.m., he said. A pursuit took place and eventually, stop sticks were used that flattened the tires.
The boy was taken into custody, and troopers from the Ithaca post picked him up.
The boy now is in a Saginaw juvenile detention facility waiting action from Gratiot County's Juvenile Court.
How the boy ended up in Gratiot’s system is not clear.
In January, he and his brother ran away from North Carolina to the mid-Michigan area. The pair were wanted by police in North Carolina for theft of handguns. Knowing that the boys had relatives in central Michigan, police in North Carolina notified state police in Ithaca.
State troopers contacted relatives and asked them to call police if they spotted the boys.
One relative did so and told police they were seen walking in the Perrinton area.
They were found and taken into custody.
No handguns were found, Wright said then, but they had marijuana and about $380 in cash on them.
Police believe the boys had taken a bus from North Carolina to Grand Rapids and found a friend to drive them to Gratiot County. Police speculate that the guns were sold either in North Carolina or Grand Rapids so that they could buy or sell drugs.
The 15-year-old and his brother never went back to North Carolina, and Wright said it’s not known why they were placed in temporary foster care in Michigan.
Wright said the foster mother suffered bruises and is very concerned for her safety.
http://www.themorningsun.com/articles/2010/06/10/news/doc4c1150ba5769e376478182.txt
Published: Thursday, June 10, 2010
Isn't fostering other peoples stolen children great?
By LINDA GITTLEMAN
Gratiot Managing Editor
A 15-year-old runaway from North Carolina who somehow ended up in Gratiot County’s foster care system allegedly assaulted his foster mother and tried to stuff her into the trunk of the family car early Wednesday evening.
The 66-year-old New Haven Township woman was able to fight her way out and fled in fear of her life, said Michigan State Post Commander Doug Wright.
“He actually picked her up and tried to put her in the trunk,” he said.
The boy then took the car and drove off.
By checking phone records, police were able to learn that the boy apparently had called a teenage friend in Lowell. State police troopers in Ithaca contacted the Lowell police, as well as the sheriff's department and state police there to keep an eye out for the car, Wright said.
Police in Lowell spotted the car sometime between 9 and 10 p.m., he said. A pursuit took place and eventually, stop sticks were used that flattened the tires.
The boy was taken into custody, and troopers from the Ithaca post picked him up.
The boy now is in a Saginaw juvenile detention facility waiting action from Gratiot County's Juvenile Court.
How the boy ended up in Gratiot’s system is not clear.
In January, he and his brother ran away from North Carolina to the mid-Michigan area. The pair were wanted by police in North Carolina for theft of handguns. Knowing that the boys had relatives in central Michigan, police in North Carolina notified state police in Ithaca.
State troopers contacted relatives and asked them to call police if they spotted the boys.
One relative did so and told police they were seen walking in the Perrinton area.
They were found and taken into custody.
No handguns were found, Wright said then, but they had marijuana and about $380 in cash on them.
Police believe the boys had taken a bus from North Carolina to Grand Rapids and found a friend to drive them to Gratiot County. Police speculate that the guns were sold either in North Carolina or Grand Rapids so that they could buy or sell drugs.
The 15-year-old and his brother never went back to North Carolina, and Wright said it’s not known why they were placed in temporary foster care in Michigan.
Wright said the foster mother suffered bruises and is very concerned for her safety.
http://www.themorningsun.com/articles/2010/06/10/news/doc4c1150ba5769e376478182.txt
Researchers find genes related to autism
Researchers find genes related to autism
Updated 21h 1m ago | |
Q&A FROM AUTISM STUDY
A study published in Nature answers some questions about autism's genetic roots but raises many others. USA TODAY's Liz Szabo asked experts to explain.
Q: Will the study help doctors diagnose autism?
A: Yes. Within a few years, children may be able to take a blood test to predict their risk of developing autism, says coauthor Louise Gallagher of Trinity College Dublin.
Q: Will the study help to develop new drugs for autism?
A: Doctors hope so.
The study points out new genetic targets, says co-author Anthony Monaco of the Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics in the United Kingdom. Drug companies are likely to test drugs that are already "on the shelf" to see whether any existing chemicals might correct some of these newly discovered genetic flaws.
Creating hundreds of new autism drugs for each genetic problem wouldn't be practical, says study co-author Stephen Scherer. But he notes that many of these defects are clustered on the same communication pathways involved with how brain cells talk to each other. So researchers may be able to create a drug that targets an entire pathway, correcting defects along that line.
Q: Does the study explain why diagnoses of autism are 10 times more common today than a decade ago?
A: No, says Bryan King of Seattle Children's Hospital, who wasn't involved in the study. Autism now occurs in one in every 110 children, according to Autism Speaks.
Q: So why are autism diagnoses rising?
A: The trend could be related to an increase in premature birth, older parents and use of assisted reprodutive technologies, which increase the risk of autism. It's possible that increased awareness has led to more diagnoses even if the real rate hasn't changed that much, King says.
AUTISM AT A GLANCE
Autism is an umbrella name for a family of disorders that begin in childhood, last a lifetime and disrupt a person's social and communication skills.
Prevalence
• 1 in 110 U.S. children is diagnosed with autism. Boys are four times more likely than girls to have autism.
• 1 million to 1.5 million Americans have an autism spectrum disorder
Diagnosis
• Less than a decade ago, the disease was diagnosed at age 3 or 4. Now it is routinely diagnosed at 2.
• Symptoms range from mild to severe. Many people with autism display rigid routines and repetitive behaviors.
Treatment
• There is no single treatment for children with autism. Most respond best to structured behavioral programs.
Cost
• Lifetime cost of caring for a child with autism: $3.5 million to $5 million
• Annual U.S. cost: $90 billion
Source: Autism Society of America and Autism Speaks
HEALTH REPORTER TWEETS
By Liz Szabo, USA TODAY
Scientists have found dozens of new autism-related genes, according to a study that eventually could help doctors develop better ways to diagnose and treat the condition.
Yet the study, published online Wednesday in Nature, also suggests that the genetic roots of autism are quite complicated.
Unlike children with cystic fibrosis, whose disease is caused by defects in a single gene, people with autism may share little in common genetically, says study co-author Stephen Scherer, who compared the DNA of nearly 1,000 children with autism with nearly 1,300 children who don't have autism.
But even the most common genetic changes in his study were found in only 1% or less of patients, Scherer says. That suggests that "most individuals with autism are probably genetically quite unique," says Scherer of the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, one of 120 scientists from 11 countries working on the study, called the Autism Genome Project.
As co-author Stanley Nelson of the University of California-Los Angeles describes it: "If you had 100 kids with autism, you could have 100 different genetic causes."
Taken together, these genetic changes could explain up to 20% of cases of autism, says Hakon Hakonarson, director of Children's Hospital of Philadelphia's Center for Applied Genomics, a co-author of the study, which was funded by Autism Speaks and the National Institutes of Health.
Researchers focused on a type of genetic change called "copy number variations," places where DNA has been either inserted or deleted. Because genes include instructions for making proteins, that can lead to an overdose of a protein, an underdose, a total absence of protein or a malfunctioning one, Hakonarson says.
But much about autism remains a mystery, including the cause of the other 80% of cases, says Bryan King, an autism expert at Seattle Children's Hospital. Study authors say they need to study the genes of many more children to get more precise answers about autism's genetic roots.
But doctors may one day be able to use these findings to offer parents an early genetic test to help predict children's risk of autism, says co-author Louise Gallagher of Trinity College Dublin.
The study also could lead to new drugs, because it points out new genetic targets, says co-author Anthony Monaco of the Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics in the United Kingdom.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2010-06-10-autism10_st_N.htm
Updated 21h 1m ago | |
Q&A FROM AUTISM STUDY
A study published in Nature answers some questions about autism's genetic roots but raises many others. USA TODAY's Liz Szabo asked experts to explain.
Q: Will the study help doctors diagnose autism?
A: Yes. Within a few years, children may be able to take a blood test to predict their risk of developing autism, says coauthor Louise Gallagher of Trinity College Dublin.
Q: Will the study help to develop new drugs for autism?
A: Doctors hope so.
The study points out new genetic targets, says co-author Anthony Monaco of the Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics in the United Kingdom. Drug companies are likely to test drugs that are already "on the shelf" to see whether any existing chemicals might correct some of these newly discovered genetic flaws.
Creating hundreds of new autism drugs for each genetic problem wouldn't be practical, says study co-author Stephen Scherer. But he notes that many of these defects are clustered on the same communication pathways involved with how brain cells talk to each other. So researchers may be able to create a drug that targets an entire pathway, correcting defects along that line.
Q: Does the study explain why diagnoses of autism are 10 times more common today than a decade ago?
A: No, says Bryan King of Seattle Children's Hospital, who wasn't involved in the study. Autism now occurs in one in every 110 children, according to Autism Speaks.
Q: So why are autism diagnoses rising?
A: The trend could be related to an increase in premature birth, older parents and use of assisted reprodutive technologies, which increase the risk of autism. It's possible that increased awareness has led to more diagnoses even if the real rate hasn't changed that much, King says.
AUTISM AT A GLANCE
Autism is an umbrella name for a family of disorders that begin in childhood, last a lifetime and disrupt a person's social and communication skills.
Prevalence
• 1 in 110 U.S. children is diagnosed with autism. Boys are four times more likely than girls to have autism.
• 1 million to 1.5 million Americans have an autism spectrum disorder
Diagnosis
• Less than a decade ago, the disease was diagnosed at age 3 or 4. Now it is routinely diagnosed at 2.
• Symptoms range from mild to severe. Many people with autism display rigid routines and repetitive behaviors.
Treatment
• There is no single treatment for children with autism. Most respond best to structured behavioral programs.
Cost
• Lifetime cost of caring for a child with autism: $3.5 million to $5 million
• Annual U.S. cost: $90 billion
Source: Autism Society of America and Autism Speaks
HEALTH REPORTER TWEETS
By Liz Szabo, USA TODAY
Scientists have found dozens of new autism-related genes, according to a study that eventually could help doctors develop better ways to diagnose and treat the condition.
Yet the study, published online Wednesday in Nature, also suggests that the genetic roots of autism are quite complicated.
Unlike children with cystic fibrosis, whose disease is caused by defects in a single gene, people with autism may share little in common genetically, says study co-author Stephen Scherer, who compared the DNA of nearly 1,000 children with autism with nearly 1,300 children who don't have autism.
But even the most common genetic changes in his study were found in only 1% or less of patients, Scherer says. That suggests that "most individuals with autism are probably genetically quite unique," says Scherer of the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, one of 120 scientists from 11 countries working on the study, called the Autism Genome Project.
As co-author Stanley Nelson of the University of California-Los Angeles describes it: "If you had 100 kids with autism, you could have 100 different genetic causes."
Taken together, these genetic changes could explain up to 20% of cases of autism, says Hakon Hakonarson, director of Children's Hospital of Philadelphia's Center for Applied Genomics, a co-author of the study, which was funded by Autism Speaks and the National Institutes of Health.
Researchers focused on a type of genetic change called "copy number variations," places where DNA has been either inserted or deleted. Because genes include instructions for making proteins, that can lead to an overdose of a protein, an underdose, a total absence of protein or a malfunctioning one, Hakonarson says.
But much about autism remains a mystery, including the cause of the other 80% of cases, says Bryan King, an autism expert at Seattle Children's Hospital. Study authors say they need to study the genes of many more children to get more precise answers about autism's genetic roots.
But doctors may one day be able to use these findings to offer parents an early genetic test to help predict children's risk of autism, says co-author Louise Gallagher of Trinity College Dublin.
The study also could lead to new drugs, because it points out new genetic targets, says co-author Anthony Monaco of the Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics in the United Kingdom.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2010-06-10-autism10_st_N.htm
Man facing 220 years Social services worker is charged with stealing low-income clients' identities to file tax returns.
Home > News
Man facing 220 years
Social services worker is charged with stealing low-income clients' identities to file tax returns.
By Veronica Rocha
June 9, 2010
GLENDALE — A Glendale man was arrested Monday on suspicion of defrauding the IRS of more than $2 million by using the personal information of his social service clients to file bogus tax returns, officials said.
Trang Van Dinh, 62, who had worked for the Los Angeles County Department of Public Social Services, was arrested Monday at Los Angeles International Airport after returning from a trip to Vietnam, according to the U.S. district attorney's office.
Prosecutors charged him with 22 counts of making false claims and identity theft after investigators discovered that he had stolen the Social Security numbers of 176 low-income clients to file tax returns, said Assistant U.S. Atty. Angela Davis of the Major Frauds Section.
"This is a person who was put in a position of public trust," she said. "It was his job to help people and to do his job honestly for L.A. County, and he used his position to do a very egregious crime that created a lot of problems for a lot of people, and also tried to steal $2 million from the federal government."
Dinh worked for a decade as a county eligibility worker and interviewer, according to the U.S. district attorney's office. His clients typically sought help acquiring county-supplied benefits, including food stamps and temporary employment and financial assistance.
In evaluating their finances and making home visits, Davis said Dinh "had access to a lot of personal information."
Dinh used the information to file fraudulent electronic tax returns, requesting that IRS refunds be sent to several bank accounts set up in his name, which tipped off investigators to the scheme, Davis said.
When the clients tried to file their true tax return, they were unable to get a tax refund because the IRS already had a record of them receiving it, she said.
Bank officials froze some of the money before Dinh was able to withdraw the funds, but he was able to withdraw $650,000, according to the U.S. district attorney's office.
IRS officials declined to comment on the case because it is under investigation.
If convicted, Dinh faces a maximum sentence of 220 years in federal prison. He is scheduled to be arraigned later this month.
http://www.glendalenewspress.com/news/gnp-arrest060910,0,2897052.story
Man facing 220 years
Social services worker is charged with stealing low-income clients' identities to file tax returns.
By Veronica Rocha
June 9, 2010
GLENDALE — A Glendale man was arrested Monday on suspicion of defrauding the IRS of more than $2 million by using the personal information of his social service clients to file bogus tax returns, officials said.
Trang Van Dinh, 62, who had worked for the Los Angeles County Department of Public Social Services, was arrested Monday at Los Angeles International Airport after returning from a trip to Vietnam, according to the U.S. district attorney's office.
Prosecutors charged him with 22 counts of making false claims and identity theft after investigators discovered that he had stolen the Social Security numbers of 176 low-income clients to file tax returns, said Assistant U.S. Atty. Angela Davis of the Major Frauds Section.
"This is a person who was put in a position of public trust," she said. "It was his job to help people and to do his job honestly for L.A. County, and he used his position to do a very egregious crime that created a lot of problems for a lot of people, and also tried to steal $2 million from the federal government."
Dinh worked for a decade as a county eligibility worker and interviewer, according to the U.S. district attorney's office. His clients typically sought help acquiring county-supplied benefits, including food stamps and temporary employment and financial assistance.
In evaluating their finances and making home visits, Davis said Dinh "had access to a lot of personal information."
Dinh used the information to file fraudulent electronic tax returns, requesting that IRS refunds be sent to several bank accounts set up in his name, which tipped off investigators to the scheme, Davis said.
When the clients tried to file their true tax return, they were unable to get a tax refund because the IRS already had a record of them receiving it, she said.
Bank officials froze some of the money before Dinh was able to withdraw the funds, but he was able to withdraw $650,000, according to the U.S. district attorney's office.
IRS officials declined to comment on the case because it is under investigation.
If convicted, Dinh faces a maximum sentence of 220 years in federal prison. He is scheduled to be arraigned later this month.
http://www.glendalenewspress.com/news/gnp-arrest060910,0,2897052.story
Ind. woman sues after daughter dies in foster care
Ind. woman sues after daughter dies in foster care
Associated Press
11:24 a.m. CDT, June 9, 2010
LaGRANGE, Ind. — A northern Indiana woman whose 15-month-old daughter died while in foster care is suing the foster parents and a state agency over her death.
Kelli Sprunger's lawsuit seeks damages for her and her family for an amount that "would make them whole" following Alissa B. Guernsey's March 2009 death. It does not specify a dollar figure.
The suit was filed in LaGrange Circuit Court, but was moved this month to federal court in Fort Wayne. It names the Indiana Department of Child Services, 31-year-old Christy Shaffer and her husband, Matthew Shaffer, as well as Steuben County and Ashley Westgate, a DCS employee who works in that county.
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Christy Shaffer, the toddler's state-appointed foster parent, was indicted by a LaGrange County grand jury late last year on two counts of neglect of a dependent. Her case is scheduled to go to a jury trial next February.
Although LaGrange County Prosecutor Jeff Wible declined to link the indictments to the child's death, court documents say blunt-force trauma head injuries the child suffered resulted from Shaffer's actions.
The lawsuit alleges that Guernsey was placed with Shaffer by Westgate, a DCS employee. Although she was not a foster parent, DCS officials said Shaffer had passed a background check before the girl was placed with her.
State officials said the child was related to Shaffer.
Calls to the Shaffers' Topeka home were not answered Wednesday and did not go to voicemail.
DCS spokeswoman Ann Householder told The Journal Gazette that further comment on the case would be inappropriate because it is now before a judge.
Few details of how the girl died were made available because they are kept secret under grand jury proceedings. But earlier this year The Journal Gazette obtained a copy of the autopsy report that said the child was found unresponsive while riding in a car seat and that emergency medical workers attempted a full resuscitation.
The autopsy report said the child's medical history indicated there had been a previous soft-tissue injury to the elbow and "growth plate displacement from a `fall."'
It also found bleeding inside her skull, an inch-long cut inside her mouth that was starting to heal and multiple facial bruises with no medical explanation for them at that time.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-ap-in-fostercarelawsuit,0,5350128.story
Associated Press
11:24 a.m. CDT, June 9, 2010
LaGRANGE, Ind. — A northern Indiana woman whose 15-month-old daughter died while in foster care is suing the foster parents and a state agency over her death.
Kelli Sprunger's lawsuit seeks damages for her and her family for an amount that "would make them whole" following Alissa B. Guernsey's March 2009 death. It does not specify a dollar figure.
The suit was filed in LaGrange Circuit Court, but was moved this month to federal court in Fort Wayne. It names the Indiana Department of Child Services, 31-year-old Christy Shaffer and her husband, Matthew Shaffer, as well as Steuben County and Ashley Westgate, a DCS employee who works in that county.
Get the Chicago Tribune delivered to your home for only $1 a week >>
Christy Shaffer, the toddler's state-appointed foster parent, was indicted by a LaGrange County grand jury late last year on two counts of neglect of a dependent. Her case is scheduled to go to a jury trial next February.
Although LaGrange County Prosecutor Jeff Wible declined to link the indictments to the child's death, court documents say blunt-force trauma head injuries the child suffered resulted from Shaffer's actions.
The lawsuit alleges that Guernsey was placed with Shaffer by Westgate, a DCS employee. Although she was not a foster parent, DCS officials said Shaffer had passed a background check before the girl was placed with her.
State officials said the child was related to Shaffer.
Calls to the Shaffers' Topeka home were not answered Wednesday and did not go to voicemail.
DCS spokeswoman Ann Householder told The Journal Gazette that further comment on the case would be inappropriate because it is now before a judge.
Few details of how the girl died were made available because they are kept secret under grand jury proceedings. But earlier this year The Journal Gazette obtained a copy of the autopsy report that said the child was found unresponsive while riding in a car seat and that emergency medical workers attempted a full resuscitation.
The autopsy report said the child's medical history indicated there had been a previous soft-tissue injury to the elbow and "growth plate displacement from a `fall."'
It also found bleeding inside her skull, an inch-long cut inside her mouth that was starting to heal and multiple facial bruises with no medical explanation for them at that time.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-ap-in-fostercarelawsuit,0,5350128.story
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