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July 2009

June 2009

Why Women Are Unhappy

by Phyllis Schlafly

6-19-09 -- The National Bureau of Economic Research released a study to be published soon in the American Economic Journal that shows women's happiness has measurably declined since 1970. It's no surprise that this has stimulated much comment. . . . This study covers the same time period as the rise of the so-called women's liberation or feminist movement. The correlation demands an explanation. . . . One theory advanced by the authors, University of Pennsylvania economists Betsey Stevenson and Justin Wolfers, is that the women's liberation movement "raised women's expectations" (sold them a bill of goods), making them feel inadequate when they fail to have it all. A second theory is that the demands on women who are both mothers and jobholders in the labor force are overwhelming. . . . I'm neither an economist nor a psychologist, but I'll join the conversation with my own armchair analysis. Another theory could be that the feminist movement taught women to see themselves as victims of an oppressive patriarchy in which their true worth will never be recognized and any success is beyond their reach. . . . Feminist organizations such as the National Organization for Women held consciousness-raising sessions where they exchanged tales of how badly some man had treated them. Grievances are like flowers; if you water them, they will grow, and self-imposed victimhood is not a recipe for happiness. . . . Another theory could be the increase in easy divorce and illegitimacy (now 40 percent of American births are to single moms), which means that millions of women are raising kids without a husband and therefore expect Big Brother government to substitute as provider. The 2008 election returns showed that 70 percent of unmarried women voted for Barack Obama, perhaps hoping to be beneficiaries of his "spread the wealth" policies. / {MORE}

Reunited after 12 long years apart

Matt Bradley, The National Foreign Correspondent

6-17-09 -- After 12 years of court battles, failed negotiations and deferred hopes, Janet Greer has finally met her daughter, Sarah al Gohary, for the first time since her father kidnapped her and brought her to Egypt in 1997. . . . In the intervening years, the three-year-old American girl Ms Greer remembered has blossomed into a 15-year-old Egyptian teenager. But while Ms al Gohary now shares little more than blood with Ms Greer, a flash of recognition was enough to fill the gaps left by differences in language and culture and years of separation. . . . “She looked at me and my hair … it’s long and blonde,” said Ms Greer, who has since returned to her home in North Carolina, in the United States. “The reason I keep my hair that way is so that she will remember me. She looked at me and she said, ‘yes mum, this is how I remember you’. What can I say, that’s what I needed to hear.” . . . Only days before, such a visit had seemed impossible. On June 1, an administrative court in Cairo had decided against allowing visitation rights for Ms Greer – a decision that marked the culmination of more than a decade of battles in Egyptian courts for custody and eventually, merely for visitation rights.

NEW YORK

Moms sue maker of Baby Gender Mentor kit for inaccurate results

Examiner.com

6-16-09 -- Six moms in New York state are suing the maker of Baby Gender Mentor kits for inaccurate results. The test, which promises that expectant mothers will learn the gender of their unborn child as early as five weeks into the pregnancy, has a 99.9% accuracy rate, according to their website. It also has a money-back guarantee if the results are wrong, which is a nice touch given that the price itself is fairly pricey. Problem is, for these New York moms, the tests were not only wrong but now they can't get their money back. . . . The Baby Gender Mentor kit costs $25 and comes with two pregnancy tests, a blood specimen collection kit, and a prepaid FedEx envelope. It's fairly simple, you prick your finger to collect the blood, put it in a vial, and then send it off to Acu-Gen, the manufacturer of the test. Oh, don't forget your $250 lab fee! You'll be notified when the sample is received and then within a few days you'll receive an email letting you know you can receive your results online with instructions on how to do so. Finally, you can find out whether or not you're having a boy or girl. . . . Just don't get your hopes up too much. The New York moms were told they were expecting one gender, and placed so much faith in the results (and why not, since they were guaranteed and 99.9% accurate?) that they decorated nurseries, named their unborn child, and began to bond with it as the gender they were sure it was. Imagine the shock of learning later that no, Jane is actually a John, or vice versa.

SMW Single Moms' Parenting Tips & Resources
12 Tools Every Single Mom Should Own

By Allison O'Connor, Single Minded Women

6-7-09 -- When I bought my first home as a single woman, the very first housewarming gift I received was a Craftsman’s steel tool box complete with a set of tools from my father. I tried my best to muster an appreciative smile and “thank you” but all the while I was thinking, why the heck do I need this?! Well, to my surprise, that tool box still gets used a couple times a month more than 10 years later. And, I’ve even added a few tools to my collection since then. . . . Whether you own your own home or rent, having a few tools on hand for a quick fix can save you time and money you would otherwise have to spend hiring a handyman. And as any single mom knows, whether you’re putting together a crib for the first time or trying to take the batteries out of a toy, you will always need a screw driver. Click to see what else you should also have in your tool kit.

ILLINOIS

Slain mother's fate could teach victims a lesson

In 2001, she wrote: 'If I come back he'll shoot me again'

By Mary Mitchell, Sun-Times Columnist

6-7-09 -- Under the circumstances, it wouldn't be a rush to judgment to suspect that Irma Rodriguez was a victim of domestic violence. . . . On Monday, the 45-year-old mother of three was found dead in the trunk of her car, which was parked on a street in Midlothian. . . . She and her husband of 13 years, Norberto Rodriguez, were going through a divorce. The couple were due in court the day before Irma was killed. . . . Now, Norberto Rodriguez has dropped out of sight. . . . According to a report in the SouthtownStar, "Norberto Rodriguez has not been seen around the neighborhood in Oak Forest, nor could he be reached at several phone numbers listed to his name." . . . That's strange behavior for a man whose son graduated from elementary school last week. . . . Norberto Rodriguez was fired as a Chicago Police officer in 1997 for shooting his wife in the hand during a tussle and was arrested and sent to prison five years later in a botched heroin deal. . . . I'm confident the police will catch up to him. . . . I'm less confident that abused women who can still save themselves will learn from this tragedy.

ENGLAND

Catholic mother's fury after mental breakdown
sees son fostered by gay couple

By Simon Mcgee, Daily Mail

6-7-09 -- A ten-year-old Catholic boy is being placed in the care of homosexual foster parents against the wishes of his religious mother. . . . The child, who cannot be named for legal reasons, is due to arrive tomorrow at his permanent new foster home, a hotel in Brighton run by a middle-aged male couple. . . . In the latest row over gay adoption and fostering, social workers at Brighton and Hove Council, which has full custody of the child, decided his long-term placement last month. . . . A Catholic legal charity is representing the mother in an attempt to change the placement. . . . A devout Catholic, she has told friends she is worried about the environment in which her son will be placed and wants him fostered by a heterosexual couple, in line with her Church’s belief in the traditional family. . . . The boy was first placed in care a year ago when his mother suffered a mental breakdown, the result of an abusive marriage which has left her unable to look after him. . . . Described as ‘bright and lively’, he attends a faith school and is due to take his First Communion soon. He loves tennis and singing, and texts his mother some nights to let her know he has brushed his teeth and said his prayers. . . . The Thomas More Legal Centre, a Catholic legal charity, was instructed last week to represent the mother. Neil Addison, director of the centre, said: ‘We are advising her on her legal options and seeking to resolve the matter with the council by agreement.’ . . . Her parish priest and her son’s headteacher are said to be deeply concerned.

May 2009

UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT

Court Rules Old Maternity Leave Doesn't Count Toward Pension

Associated Press, Wall Street Journal

5-18-09 -- Women who took maternity leave before it became illegal to discriminate against pregnant women can't sue to get their leave time to count for their pensions, the Supreme Court ruled Monday. . . . The high court overturned a lower-court decision that said decades-old maternity leaves should count in determining pensions. . . . Four AT&T Corp. employees who took maternity leave between 1968 and 1976 sued the company to get their leave time credited toward their pensions. Their pregnancies occurred before the 1979 Pregnancy Discrimination Act, which barred companies from treating pregnancy leaves differently from other disability leaves. . . . AT&T lawyers said their pension plan was legal when the women took pregnancy leave, so they shouldn't have to recalculate their retirement benefits now. Congress didn't make the Pregnancy Discrimination Act retroactive, they said, so the women shouldn't get any extra money. . . . A majority of the justices agreed. . . . "A seniority system does not necessarily violate the statute when it gives current effect to such rules that operated before the PDA," wrote Justice David Souter, who will retire next month.

ILLINOIS  

Amy Leichtenberg turning pain of sons' slayings into purpose

Mom becoming an advocate, working to draw attention to her case

By Stacy St. Clair | Tribune reporter

5-17-09 -- Amy Leichtenberg clings to the memory of that final morning with her sons -- when the two boys were hers, healthy and alive. . . . She replays it in her mind, looking for things she could have done differently or words she could have used to convince authorities that the boys were in danger. . . . She watches herself call the LeRoy Police Department about 9 a.m. March 7 to tell the on-duty officer that she won't allow her sons to spend a court-ordered weekend with their father because of his increasingly erratic behavior. She hears the officer threaten to arrest her, and she winces as she caves to his authority. . . . Leichtenberg hurriedly packs two backpacks for the boys, kisses them goodbye, tells them that their mama loves them to the heavens and back. She sees them climb into a car with her ex-husband, an unemployed pharmaceutical salesman who has vowed to cut her open, frequently threatens to kill himself and allegedly violated her orders of protection 56 times. . . . She shudders in hindsight, knowing her sons were walking toward their deaths. . . . Duncan and Jack Connolly, ages 9 and 7, never returned from that visit. Their bodies were found in a remote area of Putnam County three weeks later. Their father, Michael Connolly, hanged himself from a nearby tree. . . . "Nobody took me seriously," Leichtenberg said in her first extensive interviews. "I'll spend the rest of my life wondering why no one would listen to me." . . . Troubling picture. . . . Law-enforcement records, court transcripts and other public documents obtained by the Tribune paint a troubling picture of a system that often ignored Leichtenberg's cries for help and instead aided her ex-husband as he worked toward supposed redemption. Despite his odd behavior and criminal record, Connolly received the benefit of the doubt from police, prosecutors and a family court judge in McLean County in central Illinois. . . . Leichtenberg, 39, has filed an official complaint against Judge James E. Souk, who granted Connolly unsupervised visits. She also wants more information about disciplinary action against LeRoy Police Chief Gordon Beck, who was suspended for a week without pay shortly after the Tribune reported that his department had thwarted an Amber Alert request for the boys. No reason was given for the punishment.

LOUISIANA   

Comments in alleged abuse case land judge in hot seat, again

By The Associated Press, Tri Parish Times

5-14-09 -- A Houma judge disciplined for racial insensitivity has been brought back before the Louisiana Supreme Court to answer allegations that he belittled a woman who wanted a restraining order against her husband. . . . Justice Greg Guidry asked why 32nd District Judge Timothy Ellender was back before the Supreme Court only five years after his six-month suspension and orders to take a sociology course about racial diversity for wearing blackface at a Halloween party. . . . "That sanction was severe, but it didn't prevent this from happening," Guidry told the Timothy Ellender Jr., who represented his father at last Wednesday's hearing. . . . "It's a completely different incident," the younger Ellender said. "That was about racial insensitivity." . . . Guidry replied: "And this is insensitivity to women. That's the big distinction you're making? I see lots of similarities between the two cases: disrespectful, insensitive and insightful behavior." . . . Judge Ellender admitted the facts of the case, which was on audiotape. The Supreme Court must decide a penalty.

OREGON  

Mom gets probation for fleeing with baby

Texas trek - The Portland lawyer was afraid the state would take custody of her son

Aimee Green, The Oregonian Staff

5-13-09 -- A Portland attorney who fled to Texas with her 2-month-old son and the boy's father pleaded guilty to custodial interference and was sentenced Tuesday to three years' probation. . . . Amanda Lynn Stanley, 31, sparked a nationwide search in February when she drove off with her baby out of fear that state child-welfare workers would win permanent custody of the boy. . . . Stanley, a tax and business attorney, received the recommended sentence under Oregon's sentencing guidelines. A charge that she stole more than $3,000 from client trust accounts in order to finance her trip was dismissed, but Stanley will have to pay the money back.

ARKANSAS  

Lawyer sued over car wreck injury to mom's unborn child

By Scott F. Davis, Northwest Arkansas Times

5-10-09 -- A Springdale attorney is accused in a lawsuit of injuring an unborn child during an automobile accident in 2007. . . . Kelly Kettle of Fayetteville filed a complaint on Thursday on behalf of her daughter, Peyton, against H. Todd Whatley involving an automobile accident on Oct. 19, 2007. . . . Her husband, Derek, was driving their 2002 Chevrolet pickup and traveling north on Crossover Road when Whatley attempted to make a left turn through the northbound lane, causing an accident with the Kettles' vehicle, according to the complaint. . . . Kelly Kettle, who was 35 weeks pregnant, was wearing her seat belt, but she was injured and transported from the accident scene to Washington Regional Medical Center, according to the complaint.

Birth Mother's Day eases adoption grief

By Leanne Italie, / Boston Globe

5-3-09 -- Mother's Day, Eileen McQuade used to watch forlornly as flowers were handed out to beaming women surrounded by their loving children. Though she was raising two daughters, her special day was filled with grief and shame. . . . In 1966, when she was an 18-year-old college freshman, she gave up her firstborn for adoption. . . . "I didn't feel like I should take the flower because I didn't feel I deserved it," said McQuade, who splits her time between Delray Beach, Fla., and South Windsor, Conn. . . . Like McQuade, many birth mothers can't shake their anguish and guilt when Mother's Day rolls around each May, so they've taken on the Saturday before the holiday as their own - Birth Mother's Day. The day was established by a group of Seattle birth mothers in 1990, and has grown over the years to include candle lightings, poetry readings, and other events around the country. . . . "The old myth about adoption was that birth mothers would go and have their children and forget it ever happened and the adoptees wouldn't care where they came from," said the 62-year-old McQuade, who was reunited with her daughter 12 years ago. "We know that it doesn't really happen that way. We have a much better sense of it now. Birth Mother's Day is a healing for many."

TENNESSEE

Millions Potentially At Stake In Illegal Immigrant's Child Custody Case

Associated Press, FOXNews 

5-2-09 -- At 4 years old, Alessandra Villalobos spends nearly all of her time confined to a bed. She is severely brain-damaged, can neither walk nor talk and is at the center of a medical malpractice lawsuit and a custody fight waged in two Nashville courts. . . . The child-custody case is complex because of the girl's extraordinary health conditions. Alessandra requires round-the-clock nursing care — the result, lawyers say, of a medical mishap when she was 3 that forever altered her life. If the lawsuit is successful, it could provide millions of dollars to cover the cost of her care. . . . But the battle over the child is complicated even more because her mother, Ingrid Diaz, is in the country illegally and facing deportation while her daughter was born in the U.S. and is an American citizen. . . . Diaz, who moved from Mexico to Nashville five years ago, says she wants to keep her child but is willing to relinquish custody if it's in her daughter's best interests. . . . "All I want is what's best for her, and if other people think that she should be with someone else, I'm willing to accept that, as long as it's best for Alessandra," the mother said last week, speaking through an interpreter.

April 2009

NORTH CAROLINA

12 years later, Waynesville mom hopes to see daughter

Susan Reinhardt • CITIZEN-TIMES.com

4-30-09 -- Six years ago I wrote a three-part series on Janet Greer, a Waynesville woman whose 3-year-old daughter was abducted in 1997 by the child's father and taken to his homeland in Egypt. . . . The little girl, Sarah “Dowsha” Elgohary, was kidnapped while living in Hawaii with her mother. During a visitation, her noncustodial father smuggled the toddler into Egypt. . . . Greer hasn't seen Sarah since and has fought for 12 years to get her daughter back, having lived in Egypt on three occasions and winning custody twice in Egyptian courts, only to have it overturned. Two governments, including her own, have failed her. . . . Organizations like PARENT International — Parents Advocating for Recovery through Education by Networking Together — have supported her, along with countless others. . . . Still nothing. . . . But now everything may change. . . . An Egyptian-American journalist and child rescuer has come to her aid and published a stinging piece about her situation in Egyptian newspapers. The publicity and outcry have enlightened the government and enraged the people, said writer Zagloul Ayad, of Boston, who also runs a nonprofit to help others. . . . “I believe she's close to being reunited,” he said. “It's not 100 percent, but 95 percent — within the next month or so. The article is putting pressure on the government and making the public aware. Everyone in Egypt is siding with Janet. The people there have hearts.” . . . While Greer has come close several times, once as far as driving to her daughter's apartment building but not being allowed to get out of the car, she's hopeful this might be her best shot at a reunion with her long-lost daughter.

NEW YORK  

Lawyer Says Kaye Scholer Partner Wasn't Abandoning Her Kids

Jim Fitzgerald, The Associated Press

4-27-09 -- The woman who allegedly ordered her squabbling young daughters out of her car and drove off without them quickly returned to the scene expecting to pick them up, her lawyer said Friday. . . . Madlyn Primoff, 45, simply drove around the block in downtown White Plains, N.Y., but the 10- and 12-year-old girls were gone when she returned, defense attorney Vincent Bricetti said. . . . "She wasn't abandoning her children," he said. "She expected to find her children." . . . Briccetti said the older girl had begun walking home -- 3 miles away -- and the younger girl was apparently taken in hand by a passer-by who called police on Sunday evening.

NEW YORK  

Lawyer Madlyn Primoff in trouble with the law after passing point where parents snap

James Bone in New York Times Online

4-24-09 -- Many a parent has contemplated ordering their fighting children out of the car. Some even pull over to the side of the road to underline the threat. Seldom does a mother go as far as Madlyn Primoff, a New York lawyer, allegedly did. . . . Ms Primoff, a partner at the Park Avenue law firm Kaye Scholer, is said to have ordered her bickering daughters, 10 and 12, out of the car three miles from their home in the New York suburb of Scarsdale on Sunday. They were left on a street in White Plains. . . . She is now facing a criminal charge of child endangerment. . . . Ms Primoff, who is married to another Ivy League-educated lawyer, let the 12-year-old back in when she caught up with the car. The ten-year-old was allegedly abandoned on the pavement, where a “Good Samaritan” found her in tears, bought her an ice cream and flagged down a police car.

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA  

After Mom's Wistful Remark, A Maternity Ward Inquisition

By Marc Fisher

4-23-09 -- Woozy from pain medication after a Caesarean section, swinging from joy over her newborn boy to exhaustion from the strain of delivering him, Karen Piper mentioned to her doctor that she'd been hoping for a girl. She would come to regret those words. . . . There she was at Washington Hospital Center on an early spring afternoon, three days after giving birth. She'd be taking Luke home to the room she had lovingly prepared, to a time she'd dreamed about for years, just the two of them getting to know each other, reveling in the miracle of new life. . . . When nurses finally told Piper she was free to leave, no discharge papers for her son were brought out. Instead, she faced a parade of inquisitive official visitors, including uniformed police, a social worker, a psychiatrist, and assorted doctors and nurses. Her baby had been placed on medical hold while government investigators considered whether Piper was fit to take Luke home to Prince George's County, the authorities said. She had failed to bond with her baby, a nurse told Piper.

NEW YORK  

Police: Mom ordered daughters out, drove off

Partner in Manhattan law firm reportedly upset by kids' bickering

The Associated Press, MSNBC

4-22-09 -- Usually, it's an empty threat: "If you kids don't stop fighting, I'm going to stop this car right now and leave you here!" But a mother from an upper-crust New York suburb went through with it, ordering her battling 10- and 12-year-old daughters out of her car in White Plains' business district and driving off, police said Tuesday. . . . A judge on Wednesday modified a temporary order of protection against 45-year-old Madlyn Primoff and her two daughters. Her lawyer, Vincent Briccetti, said Primoff is no longer barred from living or talking with her children. . . . Primoff, a partner in a Manhattan law firm, pleaded not guilty to a charge of endangering a child on Monday.

Mental health screening targets moms-to-be

Questionnaire will be used to determine 'depression' in patients

© 2009 WorldNetDaily

4-2-09 -- A bill that would subject pregnant women to mental health screenings – and possibly medications that would follow any diagnosis of "depression" – has returned and already is more than halfway through Congress, a concerned family group is warning. . . . WND reported a year ago when the plan was proposed to allow the government to order tests on mothers for baby blues. The proposal later died. . . . However, officials with United Nonprofits and Individuals for Truth and Ethics say the bill is back, and it already has been approved by the U.S. House and assigned to a Senate committee under the designation S.324. . . . It's named the "Melanie Blocker Stokes Mother's Act" after a pharmaceutical sales manager who killed herself by jumping out of a window after receiving four cocktails of antidepressants, anti-anxiety and antipsychotic drugs and electroshock therapy following the birth of her child.

OKLAHOMA

Bill Lets Moms-To-Be Kill To Save Baby

Measure Would Authorize Deadly Force If Unborn Child's Life At Risk

4-2-09 -- A bill in the Oklahoma Legislature would allow pregnant women to use deadly force in order to save the lives of their babies. . . . The bill stems from a Michigan case where a woman who was carrying quadruplets stabbed and killed her boyfriend after he hit her in the stomach. The woman lost the babies and was convicted of manslaughter. . . . Oklahoma lawmakers said they want to make sure that a woman can legally protect her unborn child. . . . "Unfortunately, we feel we need legislation like this," said Rep. Mike Thompson. "What we want to make sure is that a woman feels safe and secure defending herself and her unborn child against any attacker."

NEW YORK

Woman’s Sting Operation to Free Her Son Incurs Judge’s Wrath

By Kareem Fahim, New York Times

4-1-09 -- A Brooklyn judge issued a stinging rebuke on Wednesday of a mother’s attempt to exonerate her son of murder charges, saying her attempts to elicit incriminating statements from a juror in her son’s trial amounted to “vigilante” behavior. . . . The judge, Alan D. Marrus, denied a motion by the son, John Giuca, to vacate the verdict or at least hold a hearing on allegations of juror misconduct. “The defendant,” Judge Marrus wrote,” is entitled to no relief from his judgment of conviction.” . . . Judge Marrus said that the mother, Doreen Giuliano, “contacted the juror two years after the trial without information that juror had done anything improper, lied to him about who she was and why she was speaking to him, engaged in a long-term, quasi-romantic relationship with the juror during which she repeatedly manipulated their conversations to get him to speak about this case, and surreptitiously recorded some of their conversations.

March 2009

FEDERAL COURTS

N.Y. Federal Judge Overturns FDA Regulation on Sales of Plan B Contraceptive

Mark Fass, New York Law Journal

3-24-09 – A federal judge in Brooklyn, N.Y., has ordered the Food and Drug Administration to allow the manufacturers of Plan B to make the emergency contraceptive available to 17-year-olds without a prescription. . . . Eastern District of New York Judge Edward R. Korman also ordered the FDA to reconsider whether adolescents younger than 17 should be able to purchase the drug over the counter, as adult women have been able to do since 2006. . . . The FDA's decisions limiting access to the drug were tainted by improper political influence and departures from the agency's own policies, Korman wrote. . . . "Plaintiffs have presented unrebutted evidence of the FDA's lack of good faith," he said in his 52-page decision, Tummino v. Torti, 05-CV-366.

NORTH CAROLINA  

Mom will fight judge's order against homeschooling

'I couldn't believe how he overlooked all the facts to legislate from the bench'

© 2009 WorldNetDaily

3-15-09 -- A North Carolina homeschooling mother, ordered to stop teaching her children at home and send them to public school, said she will appeal the judge's ruling. . . . "I couldn't believe how he overlooked all the facts to legislate from the bench," said Venessa Mills of Wake County District Court Judge Ned Mangum's ruling that it would be in the "best interests" of her three children, ages 12, 11 and 10, to be placed in public school, even though two are learning at two grades above grade level while the third is at grade level. . . . As WND reported, the judge's action came in the divorce proceeding between Mills and her husband, Thomas. . . . At a court hearing last week, Mangum conceded the children are "thriving" under Mills' instruction but said they need to be exposed to the "real world." . . . "It will do them a great benefit to be in the public schools, and they will challenge some of the ideas that you've taught them, and they could learn from that and make them stronger," the judge said. . . . Mangum, when contacted by WND, explained his goal in ordering the children to register and attend a public school was to make sure they have a "more well-rounded education." . . . "I thought Ms. Mills had done a good job [in homeschooling]," he said. "It was great for them to have that access, and [I had] no problems with homeschooling. I said public schooling would be a good complement."

Wake divorce case illustrates what is wrong with the current judicial system
The domestic relations system in this state is broken and needs to be fixed

Delma Blinson News, analysis and commentary

3-15-09 -- We posted an article from the Raleigh News and Observer on our State News page about a domestic relations dispute in Wake County. An oversimplified review of the case is that a District Court Judge, Ned Mangum, has ordered a divorced mom to stop homeschooling her three children and to send them to the public schools. According to reports the judge came to this conclusion without hearing any evidence to support a decision that the homeschooling was harming the children. . . . We think the case is a good illustration of the corruption we see all too often in domestic cases in this state. The problem, it seems to us, is that the current law in North Carolina is all too lax in what it requires of a judge in handing down such decisions. Because of the inadequacies of the law judges operate pretty much as omnipotent arbiters of what is going to happen with children in a divorce case. The law needs to be changed, as this case illustrates.

NEW YORK

Prosecutors: Woman had ex-husband killed to keep daughter

The Associated Press

3-9-09 -- Prosecutors say a Queens woman hired a relative to kill her ex-husband because she feared the court would hand her daughter over to him. . . . In closing arguments Monday in state Supreme Court, prosecutors said defendants Mazoltuv Borukhova and Mikhail Mallayev acted in concert. Both face murder charges in the death of orthodontist Daniel Malakov. . . . The 34-year-old Malakov was delivering the girl for a supervised visit with her mother when he was shot dead in October 2007.

GEORGIA

'Octomom' Bill Referred for More Study

Shannon McCaffrey, The Associated Press
March 6, 2009 

3-6-09 -- A Georgia measure that would place first-in-the-nation restrictions on the number of embryos fertility doctors may implant likely won't pass this year after it was shipped to a subcommittee on Thursday for more study. . . . "The Ethical Treatment of Human Embryos Act" was inspired by California's "octomom." It would restrict the number of fertilized embryos a woman could create and implant through in-vitro treatments. . . . The issue is expected to resurface next year. Several key state lawmakers said they supported the thinking behind the legislation but that it needed more study to avoid legal challenges. Parliamentary rules say any bill would have to reported out of committee on Monday to be considered this session, meaning the measure is effectively dead. . . . State Sen. Ralph Hudgens said he sponsored the bill to avoid Georgia spawning its own Nadya Suleman. Suleman gave birth to octuplets in Bellflower, Calif., on Jan. 26. She has six other children, lives in her mother's three-bedroom home and has relied on food stamps and disability income to provide for her family.

VIRGINIA

Bethany House Of Virginia, An Abuse Shelter Out Of Control
by Carey Roberts, Post Chronicle Editorial

3-3-09 -- Bethany House of Northern Virginia is an abuse shelter that provides "warmth and shelter" to persons suffering from domestic violence -- at least that's what the group claims. But now a former shelter worker, client, husband, and a sitting judge have all come forward to reveal a sordid tale of unethical and illegal conduct. . . . The first bombshell hit in 2004 when a former shelter volunteer filed a three-page letter of complaint. Alleging the staff was "enraged with a bottomless pit of anger at men," she charged the shelter admitted women who had never suffered physical abuse, indoctrinated them into feminist ideology, and then bribed them to commit perjury against their husbands. . . . "I have spoken with several wives at BHNV who have deeply regretted having contacted BHNV," the shelter worker concludes. The women "deeply regret destroying their marriage, family, husband, and their children's future." Her full complaint can be seen here.

February 2009

CALIFORNIA

Suleman says hospital wants proof she can care for octuplets

By Jessica Garrison and Kimi Yoshino 

2-25-09 -- Nadya Suleman told TV host "Dr. Phil" McGraw on Tuesday that she fears Kaiser Permanente Medical Center may not release her octuplets to her until she proves she can care for them. . . . In an interview with The Times, McGraw said Suleman called him Tuesday afternoon, distressed after talking to Kaiser officials. Suleman has taped two episodes of McGraw's show, the first of which is scheduled to run today. . . . "What she is telling me is that unless and until she has a better living arrangement, that they are not likely to release the children to her," McGraw said. . . . Suleman, a single mother who already had six children before giving birth to octuplets Jan. 26, lives in Whittier with her mother in a three-bedroom house that is in pre-foreclosure. Suleman has no job and relies on government assistance, including food stamps and disability income for three of her six older children.

NEW JERSEY

A helping hand for women in need

Posted by Bob Braun/The Star-Ledger

2-18-09 -- There can be money in it -- if the clients are rich enough -- but many lawyers don't like to touch family law issues. That's one of the reasons state courts set aside one judge just to hear so-called "unrepresented" cases -- there are so many of them. . . . So it's no surprise that one of New Jersey's premier voluntary efforts to help women deal with domestic violence and other family law matters is housed in a Montclair office building that is, to be generous, dismal. No glass tower, this--no conference room with leather chairs and an endless polished table. . . . "We sometimes have to say 'No,'" says Jane Hanson, executive director of Partners for Women and Justice, a public interest law firm dedicated to the legal problems of women. . . . "We just don't have the capacity." . . . If the importance of an issue were judged by standards of life and death, then problems related to family law would attract more attention. On average, of some 450 to 500 homicides a year in New Jersey, about one in five is related to domestic violence--usually a man killing a woman. Sometimes, he kills the kids, too, and then himself.

CALIFORNIA  

Panel Affirms Ex-Lawyer’s Life Sentence for Torturing Wife

By Sherri M. Okamoto, Staff Writer

2-10-09 -- The Third District Court of Appeal yesterday upheld the torture conviction of former criminal defense attorney Richard William Hamlin of El Dorado Hills. . . . Although sufficient evidence that Hamlin’s course of conduct physically abusing his wife supported the torture conviction, the panel ruled that El Dorado Superior Court Judge Eddie T. Keller erred in imposing upper terms on Hamlin’s convictions for making a criminal threat and inflicting corporal injury on a spouse based on facts not found to exist by the jury, admitted by defendant, or justified based on defendant’s record of prior convictions. . . . Hamlin’s wife, identified in the opinion only as S., testified that Hamlin physically abused her every day, sometimes multiple times each day, and in front of the couple’s four children, between June 2003 and February 2004. . . . The prosecution contended that Hamlin had committed the crime of torture against S. by his conduct. . . . A jury found Hamlin guilty of torture, three counts of misdemeanor child abuse, on count of making a criminal threat, and three counts of inflicting corporal injury on a spouse.

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Octuplet Mom: Blame the Lawyers

Forbes, NY

2-2-09 -- The story of Nadya Suleman, the woman who delivered octuplets in Los Angeles last week, is troubling to many medical ethicists and frankly, normal observers. Why was a woman who already had six children get so many embryos implanted during an in vitro fertilization procedure? Adding to the concern is that one of her other children might have special needs--and that she is a single mother whose own mother, with whom she lives, reportedly disapproved of her decision to ahead with so many births. . . . Some of the blame has been directed at Suleman's fertility doctor. That doctor has not yet been identified in the press. But it seems like others in the field have a non-judgmental approach. In one dispatch, a fertility specialist says: "Who am I to say that six is the limit? There are people who like to have big families." Another says that he cannot be a "policeman for reproduction."  In other words, doctors don't consider it their role to steer patients away from making bad decisions. . . . But legally-speaking, can they refuse to aid and abet if they so desire? The answer is no, at least according to a recent high-profile court case in Suleman’s state of California. In that case a lesbian couple in San Diego went to a fertility specialist so that one of the women, Guadalupe Benitez, could get pregnant. The doctor, Christine Brody, refused to treat Benitez, explaining that she objected to unmarried women having children. Brody offered to refer the couple to another doctor. Benitez and her partner sued Brody and her medical practice, claiming civil rights violations.

January 2009

Court: Christian mom's child must visit lesbian

State threatens to take daughter by force, if necessary

© 2009 WorldNetDaily

1-19-09 -- A Christian mother has been told by a Virginia court that her 6-year-old daughter must now visit the mother's former lesbian partner in Vermont, and if she refuses, the law will remove the girl by force, if necessary. . . . As WND has reported, Lisa Miller left the homosexual lifestyle and became a Christian when her daughter, Isabella, was 17 months old. But Janet Jenkins, Lisa's same-sex partner when Lisa gave birth to Isabella, is seeking full custody of the girl, claiming she was a parent even though she is not biologically related to Isabella and never sought to adopt her. . . . The case has been further tangled by the courts, as Jenkins and Miller were joined in civil union in Vermont, but Miller and her daughter now live in Virginia, where the laws forbid recognition of civil unions. . . . Earlier this month, however, Judge William Sharp of the Shenandoah County Domestic Relations District Court in Virginia, ordered Miller to allow Jenkins a three-day unsupervised visit with Isabella. . . . Miller told LifeSiteNews that Sharp also ruled that Vermont's civil union laws must be upheld in Virginia.