http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/17/nyregion/17foster.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

Officials Accused of Taking Agency Money in Fake Adoptions
By BENJAMIN WEISER
Published: July 17, 2008

Two officials of New York City’s child-welfare agency and the fiscal
director of a Brooklyn foster care agency have been charged with
creating phantom adoptions in a scheme to pocket hundreds of thousands
of dollars intended for the care of children with disabilities or
special needs, federal authorities said on Wednesday.

One of the two officials of the city agency, the Administration for
Children’s Services, was also charged with issuing government checks
for work that was not performed in return for kickbacks.

The senior Children’s Services official accused, Lethem Duncan, was
the deputy director of the payments-services department, federal
prosecutors said.

In the phony-adoption scheme, the officials said, Mr. Duncan worked
with the second employee, Nigel Osarenkhoe, who they said used the
agency’s computers to create false names and issue checks as if they
were subsidies for real adoptions.

I have it good authority that Captain Jack is the Face of Boe.
But whatever . . .

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1035399/I-want-adopt-child-says-gay...

'I want to adopt a child', says gay Torchwood star John Barrowman
By SARAH BRUCE
15th July 2008

He is best known as a footloose and fancy-free Doctor Who time agent,
who never spends long enough in one place in the universe to put down
any roots.

But now, Scots-born actor and performer John Barrowman has revealed
that he and his partner are ready to settle down and bring up a family
of their own.

The gay Dr Who star who got his own spin-off series Torchwood, where
he plays Captain Jack Harkness, is building a Tardis-like new home
with architect Scott Gill.

And the pair, who cemented their 15-year relationship with a civil
ceremony in 2006, are planning to fill the sprawling seaside home with
a brood of their own.

Barrowman, 41, said: 'We're building a house in Cardiff on the beach.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/15/washington/15rule.html?_r=1&scp=5&sq=&st=cse&oref...

Abortion Proposal Sets Condition on Aid
By ROBERT PEAR
Published: July 15, 2008

WASHINGTON — The Bush administration wants to require all recipients
of aid under federal health programs to certify that they will not
refuse to hire nurses and other providers who object to abortion and
even certain types of birth control.

Under the draft of a proposed rule, hospitals, clinics, researchers
and medical schools would have to sign “written certifications” as a
prerequisite to getting money under any program run by the Department
of Health and Human Services.

Such certification would also be required of state and local
governments, forbidden to discriminate, in areas like grant-making,
against hospitals and other institutions that have policies against
providing abortion.

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20080714/anglica_leslie_080714/20080714...

Adoption process can proceed for Angelica-Leslie
Updated Mon. Jul. 14 2008
CTV.ca News Staff

A Toronto judge has made baby Angelica-Leslie a ward of the Crown.

The decision means adoption proceedings can begin for the child who
was found abandoned in a freezing Toronto stairwell last January.

"We can move on to find a loving, caring family for her and there are
no further legal impediments," said Corrie Tuyl, an official with CAS.

The Toronto Children's Aid Society, which will be overseeing the
adoption process, told CTV Toronto that 149 families from across
Canada have contacted the organization in hopes of adopting Angelica-
Leslie.

Three families are being considered as possible candidates, CAS said.

"We're very eager to find her a family," Tuyl said. "She deserves that
and she needs that at this point."

The baby has been in foster care since shortly after she was found in
the Toronto parking garage stairwell.

Jersey home dossier to reveal children were murdered...then burnt
Exclusive by Lucy Panton

A SHOCK secret police report into the Jersey House of Hell children's
home reveals youngsters there WERE murdered then BURNED in a furnace
to COVER UP the atrocities.

It's feared island authorities may try to hush up the dossier on Haut
de la Garenne orphanage but a source told us: "Officers on this case
are in NO DOUBT what went on."

Innocent children WERE raped, murdered and their bodies then BURNT in
a FURNACE at the Jersey House of Horrors, says a top-secret police
report into the scandal.

Lenny Harper - Jersey's Deputy Chief of Police - is the 'old school
copper' heading the probeA News of the World investigation reveals
cops have shocking new evidence of how the killings were COVERED UP at
the Haut de la Garenne care home.
Our chilling revelations come as officers prepare to hand over their
damning dossier from Britain's biggest ever child abuse probe to the
island's States of Jersey authorities.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/camilla_cavendish/article4346958...

A moving response to our family justice campaign
The Times call for an end to secrecy has produced a huge reaction -
except from the man who could change it
Camilla Cavendish

I am awed by the response to the family justice campaign that The
Times launched last week. So many readers have e-mailed their MPs that
I am getting calls from all three main parties. Several MPs have also
raised their private concerns about how their own local authorities
behave. It is uplifting to see democracy in action.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/14/AR2008071401397....

Adolescence Can Sting Adopted Kids
By Rick Weiss
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Adolescents are expected to chafe at adult oversight, act impulsively
and brood about the meaning of life.

But adolescents who were adopted in infancy are almost twice as likely
as their non-adopted peers to end up in counseling for those kinds of
behaviors, a fact that leaves many adoptive parents wondering: Do
adopted children really have more adjustment problems in adolescence?
Or do adoptive parents, hypervigilant as they famously are, overreact
to the conventional struggles of young adulthood and refer their
children to mental health professionals more often than need be?

Now research involving more than 1,000 adolescents is helping to
settle those long-standing questions.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/16/AR2008071602506....

Attract, repel: lifelike dolls are collector cult
By Sophie Taylor
Reuters
Wednesday, July 16, 2008; 8:12 PM

EDINBURGH (Reuters) - Their chests rise and fall and you can hear a
tiny heartbeat, but these babies for sale over the Internet are not
alive.

"Reborn babies" are disconcertingly life-like baby dolls carefully
crafted in vinyl, which have become swiftly popular mainly with
collectors, but also with nostalgic grandparents and grieving parents.

Made and collected by an online community of enthusiasts, they are
painted several times to create the mottled colour of newborn skin,
have mohair hair and eyelashes, and are weighted to make them feel as
heavy as human babies.

Fans of the hobby, who call it "reborning," are mostly women and
increasingly guarded about discussing it since media reports
highlighted their purchase by bereaved parents, prompting some to
portray the hobby as macabre.