Hey ya'll,

As you may recall, I've now been communicating rather steadily with my bmom,
usually via email. Of course, the big topic of discussion lately has been
my meeting my bdad and half-siblings next month...

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/sns-ap-abuse-adopted-children,0,3957959...

NY woman gets almost 11 years for fraud that helped her adopt 11 kids
she's accused of abusing
By LARRY NEUMEISTER | Associated Press Writer
July 16, 2008

NEW YORK (AP) _ A woman who lied to adopt 11 disabled children whom
authorities say she abused while she raked in more than $1 million in
subsidies was sentenced Tuesday to nearly 11 years in prison.U.S.
District Judge Richard M. Berman said Judith Leekin engaged in "a
heartless, dangerous money-driven scheme" when she used fake names and
lies about the children to defraud social service agencies in New York
City and New York state.

Leekin, 63, has been accused of treating the children like prisoners,
subjecting them to beatings and handcuffs while they stayed in a
locked room without food, depriving them of medical and dental care
and not sending them to school. Authorities said the children were so
physically and emotionally abused they can never recover.

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/07/16/4-are-charged-with-child-welfare-fraud/...

July 16, 2008,
4 Are Charged With Child Welfare Fraud
By BENJAMIN WEISER

The United States attorney’s office in Manhattan plans to announce
this afternoon the arrests of four people — two officials of the
Administration for Children’s Services, one employee of a nonprofit
foster care agency in Brooklyn and one independent contractor who had
his office in that agency — on charges that prosecutors say stem from
the embezzlement of money intended to assist needy children.

A federal complaint made public on Wednesday morning said that one of
the A.C.S. officials admitted in an interview with prosecutors to have
participated in two separate criminal schemes while working at the
city agency, which oversees the adoption and foster care system.

One was a scheme to fraudulently obtain tens of thousands of dollars
of government adoption subsidy payments which were intended for
parents of adoptive children, some of whom had mental and physical
disabilities.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/leading_article/article4318599.ece

July 12, 2008
Justice for Families
An enormous response to the articles in The Times highlights
widespread concern over the secrecy that shrouds the family courts
It is five days since The Times launched its campaign to open up the
family courts and make social services more accountable for the
removal of children from their families. The enormous response so far
has bolstered our view that this is a vital debate. Many parents, but
also lawyers, social workers and members of the medical profession
have written in to sound the alarm about different aspects of the
child protection system.

Not everyone supports our position. One common criticism was put
eloquently by Sir Mark Potter, Britain's most-senior family judge, in
The Times yesterday. He argued that the family courts are not
“secret”, but “private”, operating in what he described as “a
minefield of complexity and emotion”. And that most families desire
privacy, because family hearings expose deeply personal details.