Who's Kids Are They Anyway?
By Mike Gallagher

http://www.townhall.com/Columnists/MikeGallagher/2008/05/23/whos_kids_are_they_anyway...

I'm not sure that I have ever been so relieved to see a headline. "Court
Rules Removal of Children From FLDS Compound was Illegal."

Halleluiah. A court finally got one right.

The mass abduction of hundreds of children who lived at the "Yearning
for Zion" ranch in Eldorado, Texas was just the beginning of predictably
disgraceful behavior by the state's Child Protective Services agency.
CPS is an agency that frequently runs amok in many states, an
out-of-control organization that regularly tramples on the rights of
adults accused of abusing children. The horror stories of parents
humiliated by the storm trooper tactics of this bunch of state
bureaucrats are lengthy.

I certainly understand that CPS has an unenviable task. It is
extraordinarily difficult to weed out fact from fiction, particularly in
a culture where more and more children are perfectly capable of spinning
tall tales in order to exact revenge upon a strict parent.

State Investigates Foster Care Agency for Over billing

http://www.kmtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=8371878

Omaha, NE - The Nebraska State Patrol and the Department of Health and
Human Services are investigating Sigma Treatment Foster Care in Omaha
for alleged over billing. A spokesperson for HHS tells Action 3 News
Sigma has a contract with the state to provide counseling and family
support services to ninety children currently in state foster care. A
search warrant was issued for records related to bills submitted to the
state. The office was searched Friday morning by state and federal
investigators.

Accusations of over billing trigger a state and federal investigation of
a north Omaha foster care provider. The financial shake down started
when someone tipped off the Department of Health and Human Services.

After two months of behind-the-scenes investigating, today detectives
raid Sigma Treatment Foster Care.

"There has been some allegations made of some improper financial
dealings and we are just trying to find out what the truth is," says Lt.
Scott Kracl, Nebraska State Patrol.

N. CAROLINA TO PAY $23.8M TO RESOLVE OVERBILLING ALLEGATIONS FOR STATES
FOSTER CARE & CHILDCARE SERVICES

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_pjus/is_200309/ai_1007958931

WASHINGTON, D.C. - North Carolina has agreed to pay the United States
$23.8 million to resolve multiple allegations of False Claims Act
violations, as well as administrative violations, concerning federal
funding of the states foster care and childcare services, the Justice
Department announced today.

North Carolina has agreed to resolve allegations that the State Division
of Mental Health, Developmental Disabilities and Substance Abuse
knowingly billed the federal government for costs that were ineligible
for federal foster care training funds. The settlement agreement also
resolves allegations outlined in reports by the U.S. Department of
Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General that North
Carolina committed administrative violations by failing to document its
actual costs spent on day care services.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GEtZlR3zp4c

Nice job nominating this guy Republicans...

Riverview Man Arrested, Charged With Falsifying DCF Records

By HOWARD ALTMAN and MIKE WELLS

http://brandonnews2.tbo.com/content/2008/may/22/tampa-man-arrested-charged-falsifying.../

The Tampa Tribune

Published: May 22, 2008

Updated: 05:49 pm

TAMPA - Two former child welfare workers were arrested today on charges
they lied in official state records about having face-to-face meetings
with children and foster parents, officials said.

Andrew Joseph, 36, of Riverview, was arrested today at his home on 33
counts of falsifying records – a third-degree felony, according to
officials. Robert Matthew Vilardebo, 34, of Brandon, turned himself in
at Orient Road Jail and was charged with two counts of falsifying records.

Both men claimed to have conducted in-person interviews with children
and foster parents at their homes, Florida Department of Law Enforcement
spokeswoman Trina Reddick said.

"...As of this writing, Intrade.com contracts are showing a
58 percent chance of Obama winning the presidency and a 38
percent chance of a McCain victory.

I'd say that McCain has got problems. What are they?

There's a long list. But one big one, in my view, is Novak's
observation that McCain's conservative base is mush. I'd qualify
this to say his evangelical Christian base, 78 percent that
supported President Bush in 2004.

Was it accidental that the same day McCain disassociated himself
from John Hagee, a point and a half was shaved off his Intrade.com
contract?..."
http://www.scrippsnews.com/node/33446

Protection Racket
They didn’t do it for the children.

By Timothy Lynch

http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=NGQzZjkwNTM3NjI0NGU1NDQyMWI0YjYyM2NlODAzZmI=

Court proceedings are underway in Texas to sort out the controversial
seizure of 465 children from the religious sect near Eldorado. A Texas
appeals court ruled Thursday that Texas’s Child Protective Services
(CPS) failed to justify the seizure of the very young children and
teenage boys. The Court said there was simply “no evidence” of immediate
danger to them. More legal challenges are expected to follow.

To understand the stakes involved, it will be useful revisit some of the
key events and claims.

Culture shock is not a crime. Today marriage and child bearing are
commonly delayed into one’s 30s, so there was some culture shock when
the news broke about a raid on a religious sect where teen pregnancy was
reportedly the norm. Texas law-enforcement officials may recoil from
such behavior but it cannot send agents out on a whim to enforce a new
set of rules.

http://www.americanfreepress.net/html/members_of_obama_s_church_kill.html

Three Members of Obama’s Church Killed
Investigator close to case believes there’s more to the brutal murders
than mainstream press is letting on
By Victor Thorn

Is a Barack Obama bombshell lurking in the shadows, waiting to derail
one of the biggest Cinderella stories in recent history?

While most political prognosticators in the mainstream press presume
that Obama is the presumptive Democratic nominee for president, they
still wonder aloud if Hillary Clinton (or some other entity) has
something up their sleeve.

The bombshell may involve the murder of Donald Young, a 47-year-old
choir master at former Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s Trinity United Church of
Christ—the same congregation that Obama has attended for the past 20
years. Two other young black men that attended the same church—Larry
Bland and Nate Spencer—were also murdered execution style with bullets
to the backs of their heads—all within 40 days of each other,
beginning in November 2007. All three were openly homosexual.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/24/us/politics/24clinton.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

[Zeppnote: I tend to take Clinton's assertion that she was influenced
by the recent news about Senator Kennedy at face value, it's certainly
no more grotesque then the old joke about Nixon offering to race
Eisenhower up the Capitol steps, but the element of "Well, I'll stay
in, because, what the hell, he might get shot" isn't gonna help much.
Especially since a lot of people are worried that that might happen.
But if Hillary wants to compare her situation to that of Hubert
Humphrey, she should remember what happened in '68, and what
Humphrey's legacy was after that. ]

Clinton’s Reference to Slaying of Robert Kennedy Stirs Uproar

Published: May 24, 2008

http://firedoglake.com/2008/05/23/mccains-medical-records-the-nodes-know-were-still.../#more-24492

McCain’s Medical Records: The Nodes Know We’re Still In The Dark

As Cliff noted, John McCain's carefully staged media event this
morning releasing a handful of his medical records really told us next
to nothing -- even though the press seemed eager to convince us it
gave him a clean bill of health. Nothing to see here, move along.

But that assessment is bogus. And if you want an example of why it
matters that the rest of us know what McCain's doctors know about the
full range his health, consider, if you will, a previously-unreported
incident regarding the medical records of our last senior-citizen
president: Ronald Reagan.