Kids removed after dog bites 4-year-old boy

Saturday, July 24, 2010
Kids removed after dog bites 4-year-old boy
By ALBERT McKEON
Staff Writer

NASHUA – A 4-year-old boy suffered a serious lip injury after a family pit bull bit him, police said.
While responding to the dog bite Friday morning, police and city officials discovered unsanitary living conditions at the 102 Ledge St. residence, police Lt. Jeffrey Bukunt said.
As a result, the boy and his two young siblings were removed from the home and placed in the care of relatives, Bukunt said.
A city code enforcement official ordered the house vacated because of the unsanitary conditions, Bukunt said.
The boy suffered serious but non-life-threatening injuries when an adult pit bull, one of two dogs the family has owned for only about a week, bit him, Bukunt said.
The injury appeared to be isolated to the boy’s upper lip, but is extensive, Bukunt said. He was initially treated at Southern New Hampshire Medical Center, then transferred to Children’s Hospital Boston.
The bite was reported to police at around 9:45 a.m. The mother and her other two children were home, but the children’s father was not, Bukunt said.
The family has two pit bulls, the adult and a puppy, he said. The dogs are now in the custody of the Humane Society for Greater Nashua.
The human society is conducting tests for rabies. Once the tests are complete, and if the dogs are deemed healthy, a Nashua Police animal control officer will determine whether the dogs should be returned to the owners, Bukunt said.
Bukunt declined to specify the conditions that prompted a city Health Department officer to deem the home unsanitary.
The unsanitary nature of the home was an issue separate from the Code Enforcement officer discovering that a basement apartment was being built at the 102 Ledge St. home without a permit, Bukunt said.
The boy and his family lived in the main section of the home while construction was underway downstairs, he said.
It’s unclear who owns the residence, Bukunt said. He wasn’t sure whether the parents are owners or tenants.
City assessment records list David and Veronica Clark, of Nashua, as the owners of the residence.
No criminal charges will be filed, but the owner and the occupants could be cited for code violations, Bukunt said.
The state Division for Children, Youth & Families handled the transfer of custody of the three children from the parents to relatives, Bukunt said.
This is at least the second discovery this month of an illegal basement apartment in a home after a police response. The city learned of an illegal apartment in the basement of 2 Morningside Drive after a long police standoff involving a home invasion.
Albert McKeon can be reached at 594-5832 or amckeon@nashuatelegraph.com.

http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/news/803404-196/pit-bull-bites-nashua-boy-in-face.html

Judge To Judge On Illegal Payments To Judges

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNKnvwamrEA&feature=player_embedded

Child-porn probe nets 20 Pentagon workers

Child-porn probe nets 20 Pentagon workers
SATURDAY, JULY 24, 2010 02:52 AM
BY DANA HEDGPETH
THE WASHINGTON POST

DispatchPolitics

DispatchPolitics.com

WASHINGTON - Federal investigators have identified about 20 Pentagon employees and contractors who allegedly bought and downloaded child pornography; some even viewed the illegal material on their government-issued computers.

Yesterday, the Defense Department's inspector general's office released a 94-page report that says some of those involved had top-secret security clearances and worked for divisions such as the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the National Security Agency and the National Reconnaissance Office. Those agencies deal with some of the government's most sensitive intelligence and defense work.

Government auditors released the report, with certain names and information redacted, after The Boston Globe reported the pornography investigation.

The number of Pentagon employees investigated was not disclosed in the report, but a Pentagon spokeswoman said the probe involved about 20 people who had an "affiliation with the Defense Department" as full-time employees, former military members or contractors.

Some have been prosecuted, but some of those cases were dropped for lack of evidence. Others remain open.

The cases are part of a wider probe, Operation Flicker, which U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement began four years ago. It has identified more than 5,000 subscribers to child-pornography websites.

http://www.dispatchpolitics.com/live/content/national_world/stories/2010/07/24/copy/child-porn-probe-nets-20-pentagon-workers.html?sid=101

Amber White Removed From Home

Amber White Removed From Home
Update

POSTED: 9:10 pm CDT July 23, 2010
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UPDATED: 11:12 pm CDT July 23, 2010

Lee White says for the second time in less than a week his family has been ripped apart.
MORE INFO
Video: Amber White Removed From Home
We have an update on the case of Amber White, 12. Her father says the state removed her and her little sister from the home. Lee White says for the second time in less than a week, his family has been ripped apart.
Amber White was found Wednesday after disappearing from her neighborhood in west Shreveport last Sunday. She vanished while walking to a nearby swimming pool. Her father says the Department of Children and Family Services told him the reason they removed his daughters was lack of supervision. White says they told him it was because they let her walk to the pool without a parent.
Henry Lee, the 25-year-old man linked to white's disappearance, went before a judge yesterday morning. He's charged with aggravated rape.
According to court documents, Lee told police that white was a runaway and he was keeping her at his house. He then handed the girl off to his cousin, but doesn't know what happened to her after that.
Police reports also indicate there are witness reports that white was forced into a car.

http://www.ktbs.com/news/24376367/detail.html

Child Protective Services - in DC CPS (CFSA) Corruption, Coverup and Criminals

Fostering for the Money-Foster Parent's Upset Over Late Payments

Fewer Pa. children in foster care earns praise-Finding relative to take child is key element in drive

Fewer Pa. children in foster care earns praise

Finding relative to take child is key element in drive

Saturday, July 24, 2010
By Katie Falloon, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Thanks to a host of new strategies -- the latest a reference guide for family court judges and child practitioners -- the state is improving the way cases involving neglected and abused children are handled both in the courtroom and outside it.

According to Department of Welfare statistics, the number of Pennsylvania children in foster care fell from 21,395 in September 2006 to 15,920 in March 2010. As a result of 5,475 fewer children in foster care, the child welfare system has saved Pennsylvania $220 million.

The number of children in foster care in Allegheny County decreased by 1,005, from 2,918 to 1,913, during that four-year period.

"As a physician, I'm 100 percent for the trend," said Janet Squires, chief at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh Child Advocacy Center. But she does have a caveat: "There's a reason that sometimes children have to be moved." The system still isn't perfect, she said, even if the new strategies have earned Allegheny County bragging rights.

"Pennsylvania is on the cusp, if not already being recognized as one of the absolute national leaders [in child welfare]," said state Supreme Court Justice Max Baer, adding that 10 years ago the state child welfare system was probably one of the most dysfunctional.

Behind the reduction is the combination of six different practices including Family Finding, which helps professionals find relatives who could potentially care for an abused and neglected child, said Sandy Moore, administrator at the Office of Children and Families in Courts. The brainchild of Justice Baer, the office was created by court in 2006 to minimize the amount of time children spend in foster care, reunite families and accelerate adoptions.

Benjamin Zuckerman, a managing attorney at Juvenile Court Project, attended an all day Family Finding training session. He said the "impressive" program succeeds in finding relatives for potential placement that might not otherwise be found.

But the program isn't just about placement -- it also can improve the lives of children by providing a relative to visit them on a holiday or buy them a birthday present, Mr. Zuckerman said.

Some of the other practices are more frequent judicial reviews -- state law requires one every six months, but in prioritized counties one is done every three, or more if necessary -- and Family Group Decision-Making, which involves family members in deciding the fate of an abused or neglected child.

"Do I think we're achieving reunification at a higher rate? I think when you have a parent who's a part of formulating the plan for reunification, they're going to be more invested in it. You also have family members who are invested in it. It does help," said Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Kathleen Mulligan, who is assigned to the family division.

In much of child welfare, children are placed directly in shelters or in the homes of strangers, Justice Baer said. Foster care, created to be a form of emergency care, ended up becoming a long-term solution, with children moving from home to home and waiting, often unrealistically, for their biological parents to become capable of caring for them, Justice Baer said.

"If those kids did not have mental health and emotional issues when we took them from mom's home," said Justice Baer, "certainly they did by time we were done with them."

Placing children with family members is not the perfect solution, but it is one of the best out there, he said, adding that experts agree.

"Most often those available placements, if they're appropriate, are the best chance the child has to maintain as much normality in their lives as possible and to minimize the natural stress that's going to come with being removed," Mr. Zuckerman said.

A possible drawback can be a lack of responsibility on the part of the parents -- such a move doesn't always force them to acknowledge the problem and make the necessary changes, said Dr. Squires. And placement with family members still requires oversight to look out for the best interests of the child, something that isn't always provided, especially in tough economic times, Dr. Squires added.

The practices are being phased in across the state's 67 counties, Ms. Moore said. The first phase, which included Allegheny County, was completed in 2009 and the third phase is under way. A total of 31 counties are now involved, and together cover about 76 percent of children in out-of-home care, Ms. Moore said.

The newest addition to the child welfare improvement strategy, the 263-page Pennsylvania Dependency Benchbook, will provide help to the new and inexperienced judges often presiding over the family court system, as well as the more seasoned judges who want a refresher on a rule or statute, Justice Baer said.

In six months, a science component to the benchbook will be issued. It will cover topics such as child development, mental health issues and drugs and alcohol, Ms. Moore said.

Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Kelly Bigley, who has been serving in family court for about 21/2 years, said she believes the book will be a big help. But she added that new judges who dominate the family court bring something more than inexperience to the bench -- an openness and a willingness to try new programs.

"I think it has actually worked to the advantage to the court," Judge Bigley said. "I didn't come in with 'this is how it works, this is how it's always been done.' I'm not stuck in the old patterns and the old ways."

While Justice Baer said the number of children in foster care will never reach zero, he is hopeful that the decrease will continue.

"The better we do the slower [improvements will occur], but I think we'll still be getting better 20 years from now," he said.

Katie Falloon: kfalloon@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1723.


Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10205/1075007-454.stm#ixzz0ud2a7O2X

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10205/1075007-454.stm