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HHS Faith-Based Grants= Water Gushing from an Uncapped Fire Hydrant. Tracking Them = “Down the Rabbit Hole.” I Suggest a Different Approach.

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HHS Faith-Based Grants= Water Gushing from an Uncapped Fire Hydrant. Tracking Them = “Down the Rabbit Hole.” I Suggest a Different Approach.” Publ. 12/31/2011, <12,000 words.

Format update (add borders + background-color only) 2018 as it came up in a “faith-based” phrase search on this blog.  Currently Table of Contents do not go back to 2011.  My blogging skills were less developed then, and more images may have expired since I was not using “screenprints” to display them, but actual links to website which may have changed since then. ///LGH 5-2-2018.

Excerpt from the post:

The idea of this post began with the grant 90SN0001 to a presumably faith-based group in Connecticut, “Conference of Churches,” which was listed on Whitehouse.gov as the CT contact for a faith-based office.  See?  And the numbering “90SN0001” shows it was the first, possibly formative, in the series.   It should — but hasn’t, enough — raise serious fire alarms when the US Government — which taxes citizens regardless of their faith, while giving nonprofit exempt status to a multitude of churches

2018 inserts: 90SN0001 as it would appear now in a search by that “Award#” @ TAGGS.HHS.gov/SearchAdv

HHS 2009 $250K Grant 90SN0001 to “Conference of Churches” is the only grant shown to this Connecticut Entity. (Searched May 2, 2018).  Saved Search (2018) on #90SN0___ came up w/ under $12M, mostly $250K.  Sort by clicking on any column header and notice grantee type includes many gov’t departmts, mayors offices (includ “…of faith-based” in Michigan), universities, foundations — but few “Special interest other” like this one.


[12/31/2011 text starts here]

OK, So I mix & Match references.  Both apply and Both seem good labels for the situation.  To illustrate the References:

Fire Hydrant Hydration — How to Cool Off Responsibly (Scientific American, Blog post , 7/21/2010, by Ferris Jabr)

An opened fire hydrant in New York gushes 1,000 gallons of water a minute, draining the same reservoirs that supply kitchens, bathrooms, and—of course—fire hoses. “It’s illegal for private citizens to open fire hydrants on their own,” says Farrell Sklerov, a spokesman for the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP). “What people are supposed to do is ask for a spray cap from their local firehouse.”

Free of charge, NYC firemen will install or lend out perforated caps that cut down a hydrant’s gushing to 25 gallons per minute, while still providing constant jets of water for the hot and bothered. The caps help prevent water pressure from dropping dramatically in nearby homes and buildings.
Read the rest of this entry »

Written by Let's Get Honest|She Looks It Up

December 31, 2011 at 6:51 pm

“Faith-Based” = “Father-Focused” = Fast Forward to Fascism, Rewind to Hitler.

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Is the New Year going to be Happy?  

Will We be Faithful to the Underlying Idea (vs. Current Practices) of the USA)?

Because the last President that talked about the separation of church and state with clarity got assassinated.  And the ones recently in office are quite fine with tolerating and expanding their union, starting with legislation by Executive Order, economic control through cronyism, and in cases I have recently witnessed, all but directly paying pastors to set up front corporations and spread certain products — from favored groups — and to a double-standard; failing to file taxes doesn’t even preclude organizations from getting more grants; in fact, it seems to be the preferred method.

I

LISTEN, to JFK @ the Greater Houston Ministerial Association (9/12/1960)

From “American Rhetoric.com” (and an mp3 on the site, too)

Reverend Meza, Reverend Reck, I’m grateful for your generous invitation to state my views.

While the so-called religious issue is necessarily and properly the chief topic here tonight, I want to emphasize from the outset that I believe that we have far more critical issues in the 1960 campaign; the spread of Communist influence, until it now festers only 90 miles from the coast of Florida — the humiliating treatment of our President and Vice President by those who no longer respect our power — the hungry children I saw in West Virginia, the old people who cannot pay their doctors bills, the families forced to give up their farms — an America with too many slums, with too few schools, and too late to the moon and outer space. These are the real issues which should decide this campaign. And they are not religious issues — for war and hunger and ignorance and despair know no religious barrier.

But because I am a Catholic, and no Catholic has ever been elected President, the real issues in this campaign have been obscured — perhaps deliberately, in some quarters less responsible than this. So it is apparently necessary for me to state once again — not what kind of church I believe in, for that should be important only to me — but what kind of America I believe in.

I believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute; where no Catholic prelate would tell the President — should he be Catholic — how to act, and no Protestant minister would tell his parishioners for whom to vote; where no church or church school is granted any public funds or political preference, and where no man is denied public office merely because his religion differs from the President who might appoint him, or the people who might elect him.

I believe in an America that is officially neither Catholic, Protestant nor Jewish; where no public official either requests or accept instructions on public policy from the Pope, the National Council of Churches** or any other ecclesiastical source; where no religious body seeks to impose its will directly or indirectly upon the general populace or the public acts of its officials, and where religious liberty is so indivisible that an act against one church is treated as an act against all.

For while this year it may be a Catholic against whom the finger of suspicion is pointed, in other years it has been — and may someday be again — a Jew, or a Quaker, or a Unitarian, or a Baptist. It was Virginia’s harassment of Baptist preachers, for example, that led to Jefferson’s statute of religious freedom. Today, I may be the victim, but tomorrow it may be you — until the whole fabric of our harmonious society is ripped apart at a time of great national peri

**below, I have a White-House-based list of state faith-based offices.  Note the Connecticut contact:  “Connecticut Office of Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships & Conference of Churches”  I have also seen grants to the National Council of Churches, it seems to me, from HHS.  There is no longer even a pretense of keeping the religion out of either politics, or actual government.

Copying Bush (2001), Some US Governors Establish Offices of Faith-Based Organizations.  Others Stick it in their SRS on taking Office

OK, OK — My blogging tradition of ridiculous titles continues, but that can’t beat how inane is the term ‘Faith-Based Organization.”

Anyone who knows a little history knows that religious groups (and governments) (and sometimes both together) are absolutely GREAT at producing lots and lots of martyrs, sacrificing a few for the good of all (the public is told) — even if it’s rather the other way around, sacrificing multitudes for the good of a few.   The word “faith” occurs in this short (40 verses) chapter 25 times:  It is hailed as the chapter on Faith in the New Testament.  All things will disappear, says I Corinthians 13 (the chapter on “Love”) — but three things remain:  Faith, Hope and Charity — but the Greatest of these is Charity. And the greatest Evil is the love of money (elsewhere).

Fast forward through many bloody centuries — like about 15, 16, 17 of them — and in the colonies on the eastern seaboard of what we now call the United States of America, some colonists get tired of being colonized (while still doing this to their own slaves and continuing to assert that women are also property) — and remembering very recent history, concoct this new thing, that there should be freedom of worship.  Some of the people who came up with this idea, challenging the combo of throne & religion, had lost a lot recently, and witnessed too much because of it.  Here it comes!

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

and (this is simply Wikipedia, simply a reminder):

Opposition to the ratification of the Constitution was partly based on the Constitution’s lack of adequate guarantees for civil liberties. To provide such guarantees, the First Amendment (along with the rest of the Bill of Rights) was submitted to the states for ratification on September 25, 1789, and adopted on December 15, 1791.

Passed in 1786, here’s Jefferson’s Statute of Religious Freedom in Virginia:

Next to the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson took greatest pride in his authorship of the Virginia Statute of Religious Freedom, which, as his friend James Madison said, “extinguished forever the ambitious hope of making laws for the human mind.   Jefferson wrote this statute in 1777, when he had returned from the Continental Congress to begin a wholesale revision of Virginia’s laws that would eradicate every trace of aristocratic privilege hidden in them. At the time, “the free exercise of religion, according to the dictates of conscience” was an established right in Virginia. Yet Jefferson’s statute was bitterly opposed and led to what he later called “the severest contest in which I have ever been engaged.”     

The statute finally passed in 1786, thanks to the political skills of James Madison and only after the assembly had deleted significant portions of Jefferson’s original law. Partly as a result of this victory, however, Jefferson gained a reputation as an enemy of religion. Thirty years later he wrote that “the priests indeed have…thought it proper to ascribe to me…anti-religious sentiments…They wished him to be thought atheist deist, or devil, who could advocate freedom from their religious dictations.”

Here it is, with the “strikeout” representing portions which were deleted by others in order to get it passed:

(Well aware that the opinions and belief of men depend not on their own will, but follow involuntarily the evidence proposed to their minds; that) Almighty God hath created the mind free, (and manifested his supreme will that free it shall remain by making it altogether insusceptible of restraint😉 that all attempts to influence it by temporal punishments…tend only to beget habits of hypocrisy and meanness, and are a departure from the plan of the holy author of our religion, who being lord both of body and mind, yet chose not to propagate it by coercions on either, as was in his Almighty power to do, (but to extend it by its influence on reason alone;) that the impious presumption of legislators…[who] have assumed dominion over the faith of others…hath established and maintained false religions over the greatest part of the world;…(that the opinions of men are not the object of civil government, nor under its jurisdiction;)…and finally, that truth is great and will prevail if left to herself; that she is the proper and sufficient antagonist to error, and has nothing to fear from the conflict unless by human interposition disarmed of her natural weapons, free argument and debate; errors ceasing to be dangerous when it is permitted freely to contradict them

Well, there are quite a few ways to get something done without Congress passing a law.  One of these in recent times has been simply a President issuing an Executive Order.  It’s not a law — just an order.  We know Bush Did (and I’m squawking about it all the time, here, right?).  And it’s kind of follow the leader — if a President can do a “Faith-Based” (whatever that is) so can I! say the Governors.  And here they come (not necessarily in order):

You don’t know what you had til it’s gone…

Here  — from whitehouse.gov — is their list of the state-level faith-based pooh-bahs (look it up) so far.  Pennsylvania is working on one:  Below that, I’m going to talk about three of them:  Indiana, Kansas, and Ohio:

 

State Offices for Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships

Alabama
Jon Mason
Director, Governor’s Office of Faith-based and Community Initiatives
Phone: (334) 954-7440
Email: info@servealabama.gov

Arizona  
Leah Koestner
Assistant, Office of Governor Janice K. Brewer
Phone: (602) 542-
Email:  azgov@az.gov

Arkansas
Jim Abson
Faith-based Liaison, DHS Division of Volunteerism
Phone: (501) 682-7540
Email: james.abson@arkansas.gov

Connecticut
Rev. Shelley D. Best
Director, Faithworks CT: Connecticut Office of Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships & Conference of Churches
Phone: (860) 247-0017
Email:  sbest@conferenceofchurches.org

CT site shows its a project receiving ARRA funding, which itself has received government audit-level reports as being VERY poorly monitored, i.e., the recipients sampled owed as much or more income taxes themselves than the grants received.

0This website is a virtual campus for thought leaders in nonprofit organizations across Connecticut. Whether you’re a seasoned leader or new to the nonprofit world, here’s where you’ll find the tools, courses, and information you need to transform your communities.

FaithWorks—the Connecticut Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships—is a longtime initiative of the Conference of Churches. We’re expanding our scope through funding from the American Recovery and Investment Act.

0Partnership is the catalyst to help neighborhood and faith-based nonprofit organizations to re-envision and transform our urban centers in Connecticut to strong, economically vibrant communities.

They consider themselves “thought leaders” when in fact they are simply following the leader:  BUSH. See “The Family.”

FaithWorks Fellows
The centerpiece of this initiative is the 5-day FaithWorks Community Development Leadership Institute, an intensive series which equips faith-based and neighborhood nonprofits to do bigger things! FaithWorks Fellows—graduates of the Institute— are some of Connecticut’s most articulate and successful thought leaders. They have achieved measurable improvements including 50% increases to their organizational revenues and improved community collaboration. Some Fellows have gone as far as calling the Institute a “life-changing” experience. The relationships they form through the Institute are lasting. Well beyond the 5 days FaithWorks Fellows continue to share ideas and collaborate with one another.

“The context of community is what makes it so valuable.”
—Laura Coffin, Executive Director, Acts 4 Ministry Inc. Waterbury

“Conference of Churches” tax-exempt and getting government grants to do public services (salary of CEO is $78K).  Here are the tax returns per 990-finder:

ORGANIZATION NAME

STATE

YEAR

TOTAL ASSETS

FORM

PAGES

EIN

Capitol Region Conference of Churches CT 2010 $2,357,716 990 22 06-0693695
Capitol Region Conference of Churches CT 2009 $2,318,895 990EZ 14 06-0693695
Capitol Region Conference of Churches CT 2008 $2,957,543 990 24 06-0693695
Capitol Region Conference of Churches CT 2007 $3,159,500 990 19 06-0693695
Capitol Region Conference of Churches CT 2006 $2,756,444 990 22 06-0693695
Capitol Region Conference of Churches CT 2005 $2,756,183 990 20 06-0693695
Capitol Region Conference of Churches CT 2004 $2,749,356 990 16 06-0693695
Capitol Region Conference of Churches CT 2003 $2,618,855 990 17 06-0693695
Capitol Region Conference of Churches CT 2002 $2,568,711 990 17 06-0693695

Searching TAGGS by this EIN#, the charity got $250,000 (only grant showing) in 2009:

FY Recipient City State CFDA Budget Year of Support Award Code Agency Action Issue Date Amount This Action
2009 Conference of Churches  HARTFORD CT 93711 1 0 ACF 09-19-2009 $ 250,000 

The principal investigator here, Shelly Copeland’s bio should be read for its connections:

Rev.Best holds an M.A in Religious leadership from Hartford
Seminary, a M.Div. from Yale University Divinity School and
is a Doctoral Candidate from Hartford Seminary.
 [For her brief
biography, click here.] As an innovative community development consultant and
practitioner, Rev. Best serves as Founding Director of Faith-
BasedCoach.org and President and CEO of The Conference of
Churches as well as director of the Connecticut and Hartford 
Offices of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. She
earned a national reputation through her launch of
FaithWorks Community Development Leadership Institute,
which expanded the capacity of 40 nonprofit organizations
across the US.

Rev. Best has published works on cultural competence, hosts
radio and TV shows, and acted as spokesperson for
Connecticut’s Department of Children and Families

 

It is registered, and has no address or principals on-line at the state commercial registry site:

Business Inquiry Details
Business Name: THE CONFERENCE OF CHURCHES, INC. Business Id: 0100642
Business Address: NONE Mailing Address: NONE
Citizenship/State Inc: Domestic/CT Last Report Year:
Business Type: Non-Stock/Religious Business Status: Active
Date Inc/Register: May 11, 1956
Principals
No Principal Records found for Business with Id: 0100642

So the head of the office also runs services supported by foundations which (it says) often are supported by nonprofits and foundations, and she has a prior spokesperson connection with government in related CT Government Department.

 

Florida
Kay Kammel
President, Volunteer Florida Foundation
Phone: (850) 410-0696
Email:  kay.kammel@vfffund.org

Hawaii
Sonya Seng
Program Specialist
Phone: (808) 586-8675
Email:  Sonya.M.Seng@hawaii.gov

Indiana
James Huston
Executive Director, Governor’s Office of Faith-based and Community Initiatives
Phone: (317) 233-3295
Email: info@ofbci.in.gov

Iowa
Larned A. Waterman
Iowa Nonprofit Resource Center
Phone: (319) 335-9765
Email:  law-nonprofit@uiowa.edu

Kansas
Erica Haas
Attorney, Governor’s Grants Program
Phone: (785) 291-3205
Email:  Erica.Haas@ks.gov

Kentucky
Colmon Elridge
Executive Assistant to the Governor, Office of the Governor
Phone: (502) 564-2611
Email:  Colmon.Elridge@ky.gov

Maryland
Mark Byrd
Interfaith Coordinator, Governor’s Office of Community Initiatives (GOCI)
Phone: (410) 767-1822
Email: alagdameo@goci.state.md.us

Michigan
Greg Roberts
Special Advisor and Director, Governor’s Office of Community and Faith-based Initiatives
Phone: (313) 456-0015
Email:  RobertsG@michigan.gov

Mississippi
Rebekah Staples
Faith-based and Community Liaison, Office of Governor Barbour
Phone: (601) 359-3150
Email:  rstaples@governor.state.ms.us

Missouri
Dante Gliniecki
Statewide Volunteer Coordinator, Department of Public Safety
Phone: (573) 526-9132
Email: dante.gliniecki@sema.dps.mo.gov

New Jersey
Edward LaPorte
Director, NJ Office of Faith-based Initiatives
Phone: (609) 984-6952
Email:  faith@sos.state.nj.us

New Mexico
Hazel Mella
Director of NM OFBCI, Governor’s Office on Faith-based and Community Initiatives
Phone: (505) 841-4582
Email:  hazel.mella@state.nm.us

North Dakota
Beth Zander
Director, Office of Faith-based and Community Initiatives
Phone: (701) 328-5345
Email:  bezander@nd.gov

Ohio
John Matthews
Director, Governor’s Faith-based and Community Initiatives
Phone: (614) 466-3398
Email:  john.r.matthews@governor.ohio.gov

Oklahoma
Robin Jones
Director, Oklahoma Office of Faith-based and Community Initiatives
Phone: (405) 522-0606
Email:  info@faithlinksok.org

PENNSYLVANIA — one guy is trying (again) to get their own version of the Faith-Based office.  Pennsylvania needs to clean up its own series of scandals involving NONPROFIT groups running PUBLIC institutions first, like Luzerne County Kids4Cash, Penn State Child Abuse by Coach, victims supplied by kid-friendly nonprofit “The Second Mile” in part; and Lackawanna County’s possible inflated bills or GAL-related financial fraud precipitating an FBI raid of the courthouse.  What a joke — and they want MORE of this?  (Answer:  Yes!)

http://www.legis.state.pa.us/WU01/LI/CSM/2011/0/5716.pdf. Why not just move back to England — it has a National Church!

 

Puerto Rico
Pastor Migual Cintrón
Oficina de Enlace con la Organizaciones Comunitarias y de Bas de Fe
Phone: (787) 721-7000
Email:  micintron@fortaleza.gobierno.pr

Texas
Chris Bugbee
Director of Social Impact, OneStar Foundation
Phone: (512) 287-2000
Email:  info@onestarfoundation.org

Utah 
Katherine Smith
Director, Office of Faith-based and Community Initiatives
Phone: (801) 538-8875
Email:  kasmith@utah.gov

Virginia
Nikki Nicholau
Director, Office of Volunteerism and Community Service
Phone: (804) 726-7644
Email:  nikki.nicholau@dss.virginia.gov

Washington, D.C.
Pat Henry
Manager, Non-profit & Faith-based Relations
Mayors Office of Partnerships and Grants Development
Phone: (202) 727-0946
Email:  pat.henry@dc.gov

Wisconsin
Sheryl Berdan
Director, Governor’s Office of Community and Faith-based Partnerships
Phone: (414) 227-4344
Email:  sheryl.berdan@wisconsin.gov

 

 

 

INDIANA:  History of the OFCBI:  Effective January 11, 2005

January 2005 – Governor Mitch Daniels enacts Executive Order 05-16, which creates the Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, and as a result the OFBCI assumed the responsibilities of the Indiana Commission on Community Service and Volunteerism and the FaithWorks initiative

Here it is.  NB:  Offices for Children often get established shortly before Faith-Based, or Father.  As I keep explaining, faith leaders have a particular interest in youngsters (see last post).

  • Executive Order 05-16
    Creation of the office of faith-based and community initiatives  (hardly helpful — it was scanned in sideways.  Turn your laptop….)
  • Executive Order 05-15
    Creation of the Indiana department of child services
  • (Another site I just saw says that his first executive order on taking office was 05-14, to get rid of collective bargaining for state employees).
From Wikipedia on Indiana’s Governor Mitch Daniels, Jr.  (I’ve pasted selections into the link:  hover over cursor) We see:   Republican, 2005-2009 and 2010-2014.  In looking at WHY the first three executive orders of his second term led to (05-14) eliminate collective bargaining, (05-15) start a dept. of child services, and (05-16) Create his faith-based office, I see:   Conservative/ Corporate-BigPharma/ Republican, 1985 “Chief political advisor and liaison to Reagan,” OMB [that’s Management and Budget] under Bush, comes from a Pharmaceutical Family (the Eli Lilly connection), stronger laws against abortion (tried withdraw state funding if healthcare providers offered it, lower corporate income tax.  He’s a blueblood as to colleges:  Looked at Yale, Dartmouth Princeton — decided to go with Princeton — then Georgetown.)
He was CEO of Conservative Think Tank “The Hudson Institute” and then in 1990, went to Eli Lilly and Company “the largest corporation HQ’d in Indiana at the time.”

 During his time at Lilly, Daniels managed a successful strategy to deflect attacks on Lilly’s Prozac product by a public relations campaign against the drug being waged by the Church of Scientology.

In one interview in 1992, Daniels said of the organization that “it is no church,”

and that people on Prozac were less likely to become victims of the Church.

The Church responded by suing Daniels in a libel suit for $20 million. A judge dismissed the case.[19]

Eli Lilly experienced dramatic growth during Daniels’ tenure at the company.

Prozac sales made up 30–40% of Lilly’s income during the mid-to-late 1990s,

and Lilly doubled its assets to $12.8 billion and doubled its revenue to $10 billion

during the same period. When Daniels later became Governor of Indiana,

he drew heavily on his former Lilly colleagues to serve as advisers and agency mangers.[20]

During the same period, Daniels also served

on the board of directors of the Indianapolis Power & Light (IPL).

He resigned from the IPL Board in 2001 to join the federal government, and sold his IPL stock for $1.45 million.

(Obviously has a deeply rooted and heartfelt connection with the common man…..)
That Lilly connection, plus Prozac is more that disconcerting:

OK, let me run that by again.  Like Bush — whose first two Executive Orders on taking office in 2000 (despite a contested election, see “Florida”) — Mitchells issues these two executive orders on the SECOND DAY in office.  Needless to say, this Office FBCI reports directly to the Governor; I guess this will help make sure the right people get those grants.

MORE FROM THE INDIANA ABOUT US, HISTORY OF THEIR OFBCI, and THE BUILDUP TO THE EXECUTIVE ORDER MAKING ONE:

2003 – The Faithworks initiative is created to assist faith-based and community-based organizations in applying for state and federal grant dollars to support new or existing self-sufficiency programs.

2002 – The Indiana Department of Workforce Development (DWD) was awarded a $1 million grant by the U.S. Department of Labor to engage in outreach and education activities with faith-based and community-based organizations regarding the WorkOne system program monitoring and compliance.

2001 – The Bush Administration creates the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives to strengthen and expand the role of faith-based and community organizations in addressing the nation’s social problems.

NOTICE — reference to 2001 Bush Executive Order.  If Pres can, so can Governors, right?
and more — it goes back to Welfare Reform of 1996, and just a little further.

2000 – Governor O’Bannon contracts with Indiana’s Department of Workforce Development to manage ICCSV financial and administrative functions, including development of financial policies and procedures.

1997 – The Governor’s Voluntary Action Program (GVAP) is discontinued. The ICCS re-organizes and changes its name to the Indiana Commission on Community Service and Volunteerism (ICCSV) to highlight the expanded role of volunteers in effective community service.

1996 – The Charitable Choice provision is included in the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunities Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) welfare reform legislation. Where non-governmental entities participate in a social service program funded under the PRWORA, FBOs cannot be excluded from participating simply because of their religious character.

During this time, Charitable Choice provisions apply to the following federal programs: Temporary Aid to Needy Families, Welfare-to- Work, Community Services Block Grants, Substance Abuse and Treatment Block Grants, Projects for Assistance in Transition from Homelessness, and other discretionary grant programs for substance abuse prevention and treatment that are administered by SAMHSA.

January 1994 – Governor Evan Bayh establishes the Indiana Commission on Community Service (ICCS) and the Governor’s Voluntary Action Program.

1993 – Congress passes the National Community Service Trust Act, effectively overhauling the nation’s community service and volunteer programs, which established the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS), strengthened existing programs and established new ones

Once the buzz is going, then the social scientists of course have to write it up, as in:

Empirical Evidence on Faith-Based Organizations in an Era of Welfare Reform

David A. Reingold Indiana University–Bloomington

Maureen Pirog Indiana University–Bloomington

David Brady Duke University

Social Service Review (June 2007). 􏰁 2007 by The University of Chicago. All rights reserved. 0037-7961/2007/8102-0003$10.00

(see also Fair Use link on blogroll, below).

Notice how the interest in FAITH-BASED is definitely linked to “SERVICE DELIVERY” and “WELFARE REFORM.”

So, the authors write on page 250:

Indiana’s Welfare Reform and Faith-Based Initiatives

Indiana was one of the first states to adopt an emphasis on work first and personal responsibility, replacing cash assistance with transitional services. Over 1 year before PRWORA was passed, Indiana adopted a welfare policy that included a personal responsibility agreement, a time limit on adult eligibility for cash assistance, a family cap (i.e., thus placing a cap on the family’s benefits by eliminating a policy that increased welfare benefits as the welfare recipient had additional children), and financial sanctions for client failure to meet parenting and program responsibilities. Over the 6 years of welfare reform discussions and im- plementation, Indiana, like many states across the county, experienced a substantial drop in its welfare caseload, from approximately 70,000 in 1994 to 30,000 in 2000.1

AND:

Indiana was also early to adopt a state-level, governor-initiated pro- gram to promote the delivery of poverty assistance through religious social service agencies. Indiana’s FaithWorks entered the planning stages in 1997 and was unveiled in 1999 (U.S. House of Representatives 2001). The program provided training and technical assistance to religious groups that were interested in contracting with local, state, and federal governments. FaithWorks was eventually phased out in 2004, soon after a change in governor (and the governor’s political party). It was replaced by an Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives in the Office of the Governor. During its brief existence, FaithWorks dispersed a modest amount of funds ($3.5 million) to local FBOs (efforts included providing training and technical support for FBOs), but the disbursements during this time period were much less than those in other states, including Michigan (approximately $30 million), Ohio (approximately $17 million), and Texas (approximately $5 million; U.S. House of Represen- tatives 2001).

Because the data used here were collected prior to the actual implementation of FaithWorks activities, it is not possible to investigate any aspect of this short-lived initiative or its successor, the Indiana Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives. 

My point precisely.  For one, the TAGGS.hhs.gov database — which is where public can track the types of grants being disbursed (not contracts) — there is no field to sort on which reads “faith-based.” One would think anyone actually serious about tracking “faith-based” organizations would — in the 10 years since 2010 — have gotten a little database field in there”  “FBO” under “Grantee type” or something.  Instead, the grants which are CLEARLy going to groups that call themselves “faith-based” instead are having TAGGS data entry bleeps and blurps such as:  Changing the name of the organiation, misspelling the word “fatherhood” in several creative ways (as well as words like “responsible” which I think is IRresponsible) and my favorite — the 2011 series of what are clearly many grants (around $119 million) to groups that at least SAY they are “faith-based” (like CHMC and friends) — simply omitting the last name of EVERY principal investigator, doubling the first name instead.

So we’ll have to investigate anecdotally — and the anecdotes sure are piling up.  I have another one, today.

Anyhow:

 

OHIO:  HISTORY OF THE GOFBCI:  Effective Date 9/26/2003

Here it is established by Executive Order from “LawWriter.”

107.12 Governor’s office of faith-based and community initiatives.

(A) As used in this section, “organization” means a faith-based or other organization that is exempt from federal income taxation under section 501(c)(3) of the “Internal Revenue Code of 1986,” 100 Stat. 2085, 26 U.S.C. 1, as amended, and provides charitable services to needy residents of this state.

Faith-based OR OTHER, and a 501(c)3.    OK — so that means we get to look at its tax returns, then right?  If we can find them . . ..

(B) There is hereby established within the office of the governor the governor’s office of faith-based and community initiatives. The office shall:

(1) Serve as a clearinghouse of information on federal, state, and local funding for charitable services performed by organizations;

(2) Encourage organizations to seek public funding for their charitable services;

(3) Assist local, state, and federal agencies in coordinating their activities to secure maximum use of funds and efforts that benefit people receiving charitable services from organizations;

(4) Advise the governor, general assembly, and the advisory board of the governor’s office of faith-based and community initiatives on the barriers that exist to collaboration between organizations and governmental entities and on ways to remove the barriers.

(C) The governor shall appoint an executive director and such other staff as may be necessary to manage the office and perform or oversee the performance of the duties of the office. Within sixty days after being appointed, and every twelve months thereafter, the executive director shall distribute to the advisory board and review with the board a strategic plan. The executive director shall report to the board at least quarterly on proposed initiatives and policies. A report shall include the condition of the budget and the finances of the office.

The first leader of this organization came straight from Indianapolis:  Krista Sisterhen.  Search my blog (or TAGGS database, which is where I found the name).  (I believe I already blogged the 2007 OIG necessary from allegations of grant-steering fraud on the Ohio GOVBCI “WeCareAmerica” fiasco.  So this is just a reminder:   http://watchdog.ohio.gov/investigations/2007063.pdf)  (here’s the Baylor University clean-up report on the same thing)  And that was just the financial angle.  There’s also the “behavior with minors” angle — 2009 account from Ohio reflects a little bit on their choices of staff members, I think:

Ex-director of Ohio’s Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives linked to prostitution ring  Aaron Marshall, The Plain Dealer 

Update (01/22/2009): Although McFadden’s resume said he was a co-founder of the Catholic Alliance for the Common Good, the group disputes that claim.

COLUMBUS — A man once hired by Gov. Ted Strickland to head a state office because of his ties to Ohio’s religious community stands accused of being involved in an online prostitution ring.

Robert Eric McFadden, former director of Strickland’s Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, was arrested Wednesday morning in the Columbus suburb of Dublin. He has been charged with seven felonies, including pandering obscenities involving a minor, promoting prostitution and compelling prostitution, according to a Columbus Police Department spokesman.

Police spokesman Sgt. Richard Weiner confirmed that the 46-year-old is the same person who worked for Strickland.  McFadden headed the faith-based office for nine months before taking a demotion and a pay cut for a short-lived job as an administrative assistant with the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction.

{{doesn’t HEADED mean, RAN?   This guy was running the place?}}

Police believe that McFadden was the man they have been looking for in connection with a prostitution ring that was run from Craig’s List, according to a report on the Web site of Columbus television station WCMH. Police cracked the ring when men involved in a Web site that posts reviews of prostitutes held a raffle for sex at a brothel near downtown Columbus

Anyhow, apart from that, basically the “Faith- Based” is another from of leveraging access to grants, etc.  for example “

The Governor’s Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives (GOFBCI) announces the release of the Together
Ohio Family Support Fund Request for Grant Applications (RFGA)
 (From  Nov. 2009)


KANSAS
KANSAS OFFICE OF FAITH-BASED:  Governor assumes position, reorganizes an Executive Branch, establishes a Faith-Based Operation under it, Sticks a Faith-Based guy from Florida (Siedlick) in charge, and “voila” — secret conference (travel expenses = courtesy citizens of Kansas, although it was a closed-door meeting) and here comes the “Institute for American Values” (isn’t taxation WITH representation an American Value)? personnel to plan their strategies.  Next thing you know — women are supposed to marry their way out of poverty, an attempt to make divorce harder, and Town Halls with lectures from a representative of the Heritage Foundation.
WOW — this is recent (and probably good) news:
SRS Director Rob Siedlecki to step down at the end of the month
Dec. 15, 2011 by John Hanna, AP.

 — The top social services official in Kansas is stepping down after less than a year in office, Gov. Sam Brownback’s office announced Thursday, ending a tenure marked by controversy over administrative decisions and the governor’s policies.Brownback said Social and Rehabilitation Services Secretary Rob Siedlecki is leaving the administration, effective Dec. 31. Siedlecki has held the job since January, when the Republican governor took office.Some legislators, particularly Democrats, began criticizing Siedlecki even before he was confirmed in late March. One issue was his reorganization of top SRS management, and another was the administration’s pursuit of faith-based social services initiatives.

{{THESE TWO GO TOGETHER.  HOPEFULLY SOMETIME SOON OTHERS WILL “GET” that this IS what “FAITH-BASED OFFICES” are principally engaged in, under the guise and sales pitch of ‘social services’ and helping.}}

And Siedlecki had previously served as a high-ranking Florida Department of Health official and in the U.S. Justice and Health and Human Services departments under Republican President George W. Bush.  . . .

AND

The Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services is among the state’s largest agencies, with 5,500 employees and a budget of more than $1.7 billion. SRS also has five hospitals for the mentally ill and developmentally disabled, and it administers cash assistance for poor Kansans,

It administers the state TANF programs, apparently.  It does welfare — that’s a huge chunk of any state’s budget, and it’s a lot of power, too.

oversees the foster care system for abused and neglected children and administers substance abuse programs. But Brownback is proposing significant changes for the agency under a plan he’s outlined for overhauling the state’s Medicaid program, which covers medical care for needy Kansans. SRS would become the Department for Children and Family Services, adding programs for child care and foster home licensing, pregnancy maintenance and prevention programs and juvenile justice grants. In November, several Republican legislators criticized moving the juvenile justice programs to SRS, and one suggested the idea hadn’t been properly vetted, even as Siedlecki touted it as necessary to bring all issues dealing with children and families under one agency.

Read more here: http://www.kansas.com/2011/12/15/2141817/srs-director-to-step-down-at-the.html#storylink=cpy

This comment seems particularly accurate — and understated:

Some legislators were put off by the administration’s moves to involve faith-based groups in programs, fearing money would flow to conservative, evangelical Christian organizations with little experience in providing assistance, such as substance abuse treatment. But SRS said it is will be partners with existing organizations to improve services.** Siedlecki also drew criticism for plans to close local SRS offices in some cities, including Lawrence, the state’s sixth-largest

Read more here: http://www.kansas.com/2011/12/15/2141817/srs-director-to-step-down-at-the.html#storylink=cpy

**In state after state, this has not proven true.
The KANSAS SITUATION, GOOGLED, PRODUCES PLENTY OF RESULTS:
  1. SRS explores faithbased initiatives, vouchers

    Written by Dave Ranney, Kansas Health Institute News Service Without the restriction on proselytizing, Siedlecki said, morefaithbased groups could reach 

  2. Kansas Health Institute | Open records request prompts release of 

    May 23, 2011 – The Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services has  Brownback and SRS Secretary Rob Siedlecki met with the group  The governor has expressed strong support for SRS developing faithbased initiatives 

    You’ve visited this page 6 times. Last visit: 12/23/11
  3. Faith Based Health Initiatives Srs Siedlecki Lawrence Kansas tags 

    wellcommons.com/…/faithbased-health-initiatives-srs-siedlecki-lawre…

    Posts tagged with Faith Based Health Initiatives Srs SiedleckiLawrence Kansas. Posted by KHI News Service on July 22, 2011 at 7:34 p.m.. permalink 

  4. [PDF]

    Former DOH chief of staff returning to Florida after heading Kansas 

    File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat – Quick View
    Dec 19, 2011 – Rob Siedlecki is returning to Florida after resigning his post as Secretary of  and fathering programs and advocated forfaithbased initiatives, 

  5. Kansas SRS head resigns less than year into tenure | Deseret News

    http://www.deseretnews.com/…/Kansas-SRS-head-resigns-less-than-year-int…

    Dec 15, 2011 – The top social services official in Kansas is stepping down after less than  Some legislators, particularly Democrats, began criticizing Siedlecki even  was the administration’s pursuit offaithbased social services initiatives. 

  6. Siedlecki out at Kansas SRS | Midwest Democracy Project

    midwestdemocracyproject.org/blogs/entries/siedlecki-out-kansas-srs/

    Controverisal Kansas SRS director Rob Siedlecki is out:  He’s also well-known for his attempts to bring faithbased initiatives to social service delivery. But he 

  7.  siedlecki | Search Topeka, KS | CJOnline.com   ((I think I got some informative comments on here, comparing it to Ohio’s similar foray into the field))
search.cjonline.com/fast-elements.php?querystring=siedlecki

In KansasSiedlecki ran an agency with more than 5000.  voiced strong support for marriage and fatherhood initiatives, as well asfaithbased social services. 


(a little more from here):

At the Kansas social welfare agency, Siedlecki said he implemented an anti-fraud campaign, expanded the agency’s emphasis on adoption, promoted work rather than reliance on welfare programs and “laid the groundwork for a more child- and family-focused department.”

In October, the secretary said he was fully invested in transforming SRS.

“This is a calling. It’s not a job,” he said.


  1. SRS Secretary Siedlecki Resigns

    http://www.kake.com/…/SRS_Secretary_Siedlecki_Resigns_135691103.ht…

    Dec 15, 2011 – The top social services official in Kansas is stepping down after less than  the administration’s pursuit of faithbased social services initiatives. 

Siedlicki, stepping down from Kansas SRS:  “It’s a Calling Not a Job”

That’s a BIG RED FLAG – and not this Red, White and Blue one, the Red representing the blood shed to get this freedom to start with!
When a public employee, while violating the public trust and being in charge of an EXECUTIVE level department radically restructures it (without voter approval) according to a previous NATIONAL blueprint set by executive order, that’s trouble.  Ordinary people can FORGET their callings until this usurpation of the legislative function (which entails checks and restraints) by the executive.
It’s no accident — let’s stop kidding ourselves (those that are).    When the words “mobilize” communities and “Saturate” communities with marriage education (which — let’s not kid ourselves — is a FOR-profit business, often done by groups with already privileged nonprofit status, like churches, or faith-based “orgs.” that know how to speed-incorporate, speed-get grants, speed-spend grants, and SPEEDILY leave town to safer quarters.
It’s guerilla warfare on the American public — and “hidden” out in open because the same public has already been at the bottom of the heap for so long, they’re wearing out.  They’re also encouraged and led to be easily distracted, stupid (i.e., gullible) when services are prompted, and for those that aren’t (like me and others), the technology available to them to figure out the truth has some intentional roadblocks (like HHS’s inability to SPELL right, structured poorly and its penchant for, when labeling who go the grant, not even using the on-line, corporate, OR tax (990) name of the institution who got it!  Etc.).  Sometimes all that’s needed to pull something off is a poorly structured database, with the more accurate records being privileged access (see “dual docketing” of court systems).
TOP-DOWN SOCIAL TRANSFORMATION ACCORDING TO A COLLECTIVE “TRANCE” (VISION) FROM THE ELITE:
THIS SOCIAL TRANSFORMATION CONFERENCE IS FROM HARVARD.  The next one is called “Social Transformation by the Power of God.”  Its

Overview

Social transformation can be defined as the process of large scale change for an environment where a shift occurs in the consciousness, in attitudes and values of a community or society (whether local, state, national or global).  Scientific discoveries can cause social transformation as can religious movements (such as the great awakening of New England) or governmental policy (such as the end of apartheid in South Africa). Faith-Based Social Transformation is the process of positively changing an environment for the better using faith-based principles. This includes efforts to positively influence a nation’s culture by working to improve the values-based systems and ethical mindsets in its key strategic fronts, spheres or “mountains” — business, government, education, media, arts & entertainment, religion and family.

We have invited a number of prominent faith-based leaders to discuss how faith-based social transformation efforts can improve and better our society, communities and institutions. This will be a groundbreaking event that is positioned to be a catalyst towards inspiring renewal of not only the Harvard student body but of the larger Boston and New England region. This conference will be one of the firsts of its kind where leading voices for the faith-based social transformation of culture and nations will bring the relevance of God’s purpose and power to the students at Harvard consistent with the founding purpose of the university.

As much as this prose attempts to link “faith-based social transformation” with more honorable movements, such as ending apartheid or scientific discovery — at the heart, it is the exact opposite.  The people involved in this are wishing and talking about REWINDING HISTORY back to a more comfortable world, including one where women weren’t so uppity (that’s CENTRAL), monarchy and state religion are better, and most offensive to me in particular, “just leave the thinking to us.”  (Notice above, in “Conference of Churches” CT material, the self-description was “thought leaders,” twice,, following the National Fatherhood Initiative’s self-description of its founders as “a few prominent thinkers.”  Talk about arrogant!)
 The Speakers in this one are fairly representative of many Judaeo-Christian faith-based groups:   Look at the gender ration of male to female. The second female is a motivational speaker.    Notice very little dark skin and I’ll bet primarily one faith– Christian.  As though other faiths didn’t have any….

But we don’t need to look too far to realize that this is the intent — to change society according to the vision of the “few” (and their networking, business promotions, motivational speaking, and etc.).
Stephen Goldsmith (former mayor of Indianapolis) has a Google Book– and apparently he helped incubate the Ohio Faith-based head initially — or vice versa,

The Power of Social Innovation: How Civic Entrepreneurs Ignite ..

With a chapter called “FORCING CULTURAL CHANGE” which talks about the top-down approach, and “creative use of public $$” right up-front.
These people know EXACTLy what they are doing, and who will be paying for it –and it’s the private people funding the public sector; i.e., so much of it is TANF-diversions, which money was extorted from the public through income tax and alleged to be for their own good, the public’s good.  Obviously, when the public can’t agree fast enough to suit the reformers, someone will have to step in and make their decisions for them.  First of all — poor people are not invited into the discussion on what’s happening with their own welfare funding when they’re on it.  That is for the Ph.D.’s writing policy.  Second of all — information is a released on a “need to know” and “you don’t need to know” basis.
If everyone is providing services, justifying all this nonprofit, then where are all the damaged goods people coming from?   will there never be a point at which at least ONE of the public tasks is actually completed?  Whether creating responsible fathers, ending child abuse, reducing poverty, or (fill in the blank).
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Well, perhaps to simplify all this I should produce this 3/21/2006 report from a research assistant at the JFK School of Government at Harvard.  (S/he [“Chris”] spells the word “Initiative” like I do, many times, cute! well, it is marked “Draft” so I should lay off)

STATE OFFICES OF FAITH-BASED AND COMMUNITY INITIAITIVES:

A SUMMARY OF SELECTED RESEARCH

Chris Pineda

Research Assistant, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University

How do states structure their relationship with the faith community? States have opted to follow President Bush’s recommendation to engage FBCOs in three different ways. First, some states have explicitly chosen not to create any new structure for engaging FBCOs. In Delaware, for example, state leaders believe that faith-based community organizations are already sufficiently engaged and have no problem letting state officials know if they need anything.2 Second, several governors have designated a new or existing staff member to serve as both a point person for FBCOs and as advisor the governor. Colorado and Idaho are examples of states where the governor has appointed a staff member to serve as a faith community liaison. Lastly, some states have created actual offices of faith-based initiatives to serve as a resource for the state’s faith community. Alabama and Indiana are states that have established such state offices.

How are state offices created? State offices of faith-based initiatives have been created in two ways: by governors and by state legislatures. All but three state offices were created by executive order of the governor. The other three state offices—in Kentucky, Ohio and Virginia—were actually created by state legislatures, usually based on the recommendation of a bipartisan legislative committee.

(obviously KANSAS came later):
I also note:

Where are state liaisons and offices housed? Not all state offices are housed within governor’s offices, although some are, such as in Michigan and Alabama. Rather, many state offices are housed within other state-level departments, typically in a department of social services. States that fall under this category include New Jersey and Oklahoma. In other states, governors have opted to house their state office or liaison within an existing independent nonprofit organization. Two states—Texas and Florida—house their state offices within nonprofit organizations, while Iowa refers FBCOs to one main nonprofit organization.

etc. etc.
There’s a reason I equate “Faith-based” with “Fascist.”  One reason is history.  The other is personal experience with a single “fascist” authoritarian husband and realizing that it wasn’t just him, but the systems he is in, which judge people by anything BUT their characters or track records (or case files).
The word “Fascist” is based on the word “Fasces” which is rods bound together which are corporately powerful, when individually, less powerful.  While it’s the symbol in US Government Buildings, it is being used currently WITHIN the US as a power grab and AGAINST individuals who differ.
Here’s a (Wikipedia) definition, or part of it.

Fascism (play /ˈfæʃɪzəm/) is a radical authoritarian nationalist political ideology.[1][2] It advocates the creation of atotalitarian single-party state that seeks the mass mobilization of a nation through discipline, indoctrination, physical education, and family policy (such as eugenics).[3][4] This state is led by a supreme leader who exercises a dictatorshipover the fascist movement, the government and other state institutions.[5] Fascist governments forbid and suppress opposition.[6] Fascists seek to rejuvenate their nation based on commitment to the national community as an organic entity, in which individuals are bound together in national identity by suprapersonal connections of ancestry, culture, and blood.[7] To achieve this, fascists purge forces, ideas, people, and systems deemed to be the cause of decadenceand degeneration.[7]

Fascism promotes political violence and war as actions that create national regeneration, spirit and vitality.[3][8] It views violence as a fact of life that is a necessary means to achieve human progress.[9] It exalts militarism as providing positive transformation in society and providing spiritual renovation, education, instilling of a will to dominate in people’s character and creating national comradeship through military service.[10] Fascists commonly utilize paramilitaryorganizations for violent attacks on opponents or to overthrow a political system.[11]

What people fail to realize nowadays (enough) is just what those “paramilitary” organs are.  This includes the media, (the web for sure), and churches, as mini-dictators who will keep their (so-called “their”) families submissive and on the party line, and the women and children in particular.  For the women, this means being subjected to lesser access to information, SPEAKING, transportation and economic independence (lest they leave, if displeased or abused).  For the children, this can and does mean submission in the form of sexually as minors to leaders and/or parents.

I had to step outside church paradigms (in fact, a lot of the conflict within my family was that I DID engage in activities outside the home besides work, and made sure our children did also) to get help, some of it originating from feminists with whom I don’t share all ideology.

However, once there, I ran smack up into religion through government again.

As a PERSON, I am very disturbed at the state of affairs; there is a tight net being closed tighter and tighter over individuals, and too much silence on the violence.   12/30/2011 may not be the best time to bring all this up — and this post definitely not the most organized, as I am having a hard time actually publishing the data I have, it’s so disturbing.  And I haven’t even gotten to “Opus Dei” yet.

 

The simplest — but painful, and unlikely — solution I can see would radically transform the American landscape and economy.

 

#1.     Congress should HAVE to include HALF women in its ranks, even if it means creation of a Senate or House of Reps post which says “female” on its face.  (This doesn’t include Sarah Palin or Michelle Bachmann types.  Or Hillary, who tolerates philandering and financial corruption in the background!)

Women in the US are slightly more than HALF the population — and we live a LOT longer on average.Without this, you can forget it!  This might do something of a seachange such that so many married women, for example, who know of a “sister” being beat up at home, or in a church situation, or virtually held hostage somehow — would not feel it so easy to speak up, without risking their own marriage or safety.  The same thing goes for the “Queen Bees” in the top of the corporate world (including lawyers, and also women employed running social services agencies) — they should not feel it necessary to justify and protect themselves by smacking down women who are already down, in their offices, and in their reports.  Parental Alienation and Parent Coordination (of AFCC) are absolutely woman-heating constructions; there is no excuse for them!

For one, we wouldn’t be firing off our missiles all over the place, starting wars for oil and so forth.

 

#2.   NO NONPROFIT TAX EXEMPTION FOR ANY RELIGIOUS ORGANIZATION

You heard me right.   Did I say anything about “faith-based”?   No, I sure didn’t!

Let the Catholic Church, the Baptist Church and the Conference of Churches compete in an open marketplace without a tax-advantage over individuals.  INDIVIDUALS, FYI, can form sole proprietor business, or one-person-corporations, but they cannot form sole-nonprofits.

Ideally I’d gt rid of the income tax altogether, or almost altogether, and shut down most of HHS (certainly ALL of OCSE which is beyond repair), because all the income tax does is make people who are better at evading it (whether legally or illegally) wealthier.  It’s hardly an even bargaining table.  With the extra wealth, they then engage in global games and social science dreams called inane things like “Futures Without Violence” or making up REALLy dumb acronyms from the Marriage-Mongering movement, such as NWNW (No Wedding No Womb) which isn’t even true — both  men and women can and do purchase the products of surrogate or gestational mothers, for pay.  There are tons of ways to get access to a womb without a wedding.  Or there’s the Wed, fill womb, throw-away version also.

But the worst part of that acronym is that, being in the form of an equation, No Wedding = No Womb, the converse is “Wedding = Womb.” which demeans wedding.

 

This would be a real test of faith for churches — have they got anything to offer, were it not as a tax shelter, and could they raise their own money?  If they start whining, tell ’em to “take it on faith!” or have some.

And it would take the financial motive out of public service, or church-planting.  With less greedy, child-abusing creeps around, there’d be a lot less public mess to cleanup, and probably fewer runaways.   The time and money saved could be put into actually getting to know one’s neighbors and local government.

 

#3.  The “PUBLIC” EDUCATION MONOPOLY (or would-be monopoly):

I believe that #1 & 2 are hard enough concepts for anyone to handle, and #3 is probably too much to stomach for now.   But look — if K-12 did such a great job, then other places would be out of business.  But for some reason we now have public employees of all stripes (but particularly in custody and juvenile fields) wishing to get in front of others by force and teach them a lesson.  Everyone wants to educate a captive audience with compulsory attendance — and WHY.  The best learning is often volunteer and self-driven in nature, ofen in answer to a pressing question the INDIVIDUAL has about what he or she is observing or going through.  Why should ALL americans be taxed to pay a wealth-based caste-sorter educational system, when all americans don’t even have kids?

In this matter, I really do know what I’m talking about.  Most of the time in school is wasted and is crowd control, administration, and babysitting.  It is NOT hard to teach any halfway normal child to read if they haven’t been labeled, spat out, derided and degraded -AND if there is access to at least something decent to read.   This also goes for math.   (See JUMP program).   The present school system is a holdover from a military state, which FYI the US at this point surely seems to be.

There really IS a better way to do this — including especially for single mothers or fathers — it entails resourcefulness and good networking.  This transforms both parent and children (not just one) and leaves time over for other events in their lives.  Government should stop trying to pick of the stragglers, label those who stray off the “public education is the ONLY education” mindset, forcing them to slow down and fail (unnatural to children!), justifying no end of remedial programs and, sometimes, medications.

 

HERE is a link to at TAGGS search by CFDA number.  Browse them please — there IS no number that reflects “faith-based.”  As such, no one is by category able to track what these faith-based are doing.  Moreover, when distinguishing between is it a Fatherhood? or a “Marriage” program – those two (while spread throughout many CFDAs) hold a single CFDA, 93.086.  In effect they are the same thing.  So why all the spin that there is one set of grants to promote “fatherhood” and another to promote “marriage”?

Even some of the language in establishing faith-based offices (Ohio’s for example) admits that it’s “faith-based or other 501(c)3” organization, in effect.  So who judges whether a group is “faith-based” or “godless”? ??  You certainly can’t easily (as a mere citizen) conduct a simple search on it.

The term as presented, when legislating it or restructuring government to accommodate it — is absolutely meaningless as meaningless -yet effective — as any commercial that, when considered, means nothing.  (“Coke ads life” etc.)  In observation, by deductive reasoning, my sample shows that MOST of faith-based organizations are eiter established, and historically bullies and/or recent creations exclusively for these grants, and as such after getting this money, very poor stewards of what they got, and without conscience when caught at even being caught.  They simply move into town, tear things up (like Siedlicki), bring in a few cronies (and he did — in a secret meeting and in town halls too), and then skip town to more friendly waters.   Pretty soon every state will have friendly waters for these sorts.

 

FAITH-BASED is basically FASCISM AT WORK.  Fatherhood–do it for the Fatherland — what’s the difference?  It’s manipulating language to seize power.    It plays on common fears to encourage people to lay down their rights voluntarily, rather than putting up a fight!

These are some of my year-end thoughts that help me deal (in part) with concerns about my own children who were subjected to too much of this, and their whereabouts and welfare.

 

Written by Let's Get Honest|She Looks It Up

December 30, 2011 at 3:28 pm

When Faith in Faith-Based Nonprofits [with Missions to Rescue Helpless (Boys)] is Badly Misplaced. And Potential Remedies.

with one comment

(this is a 15,000 word post, including quite a bit of quotes…. and the result of a whole day’s writing, plus some).

NARRATIVE: 

On Christmas Day, yesterday, having no (biologically-related) family contact, I was driving around noticing society’s nearly unanimous agreement to shut down business-as-usual for December 25th, every year, as I know they did across the country.  Streets and curbs that were normally full of cars, and ripe pickings for the parking monitors (producing income for Traffic Court, etc.), were barren.

So why can’t this same society unanimously also decide to shut down “business-as-usual” for more than one day a year, or in a row, when it comes to child abuse?

Perhaps I’m a heretic in bringing up what happens to young boys in a season focused around the Birth of Baby Jesus to (most likely) what we’d now call an underaged young woman, and Who was the real father??

But let’s get honest — it’d be a hard sell to convince anyone that this season is not about sales to start with.  The news, television, local street lighting some places, house decorations, stores, on-line offers, and did I mention, churches?, are all out strutting their stuff, as newspapers frantically take the measure of the economy and encourage people to step up to the plate for the economy and BUY something that won’t outlast the season, might contribute to a diabetic condition, and is otherwise useless in normal life.

And, if possible, another car, or diamond, to show how much you really love each other.

Therefore, I excuse my own lack of reverence for, participation in, or collaboration with this insane holiday.  It has been the source of equal amounts of joy and pain since I got married, and afterwards, a colossal sense of loss (after kids are gone), preceded by sense of dread for which incident was going to be concocted for THIS year’s holiday.  I could write a chronology of my life based on the transformation of this one holiday (in association with probably also Easter, and the beginning and ends of every school year as well) from, special occasions for wonder, joy, fun, and sharing into the Nightmare on Elm Street.  This metamorphosis began shortly after marriage (I remember the marriage — ALL of it, practically — as a living, and pretty much waking nightmare, and it went on quite too long).

So could many others in similar situations.  Still yet others can’t, because one year, the holiday cost them their lives.  And this is still going on, and “blessed be” anyone that has the guts to keep track by reporting — mine can’t stomach it, for sure.

 To me, it’s “Business as Usual,” which is reporting on this– or that.  Today’s post is a “that.”  It’s been eventful (for sure) in the land of local message-boards stopping local corruption (they’re up / they’re down / they’re up — but is it a real one or a mirror site?) and the parties running them (they’re heroes/ they’re villains), and so forth.  This is why I keep an ear to the ground for character indicators, but like to keep a closer eye on the financial flow — which is a little more of an objective thing.

And monitoring and controlling financial flow is a great handle for stopping abuse, better than saying “We Stop Abuse” loudly, often, and expensively.  (Wow.  I found Women’s Justice Center in Sonoma County CA, is with me on questioning not only these bogus “domestic violence” agencies — which are sleeping (figuratively speaking) with both the family law and the law enforcement sectors, plus some — AFCC — while taking ongoing grants labeled “discretionary” — but also the VAWA itself.   Part of my holiday fund-appeal came from a VAWA-related group (it seems), which I think is funny, because when I appealed to some VAWA-type organizations for real-time, tangible help in my situation — the phone line went dead, so to speak.  I fail to see what help they are doing anyone besides the program adminsitrators, and anyone whose expertise is in setting up beautiful websites, i.e., a lot of the telecommunications and conference-hosting sectors of the economy.)

TODAY’S TOPIC:

  • Remember Kids for Cash in Luzerne County?
  • Remember the Penn State Scandal?
  • Remember my blogging Project Pierre Toussaint and consistently blogging the problems with nonprofits that keep on collecting AFTER they’ve lost their corporation status (let alone after their founder gets arrested, as Doug Perlitz did)?
  • Are You Aware of the Administration’s Knee-Jerk Response in Appointing another Task Force to help others stop embarrassing themselves by getting caught?

Some of my (former) associates are always trying to get a Congressional Hearing to Form a Task Force to appoint Somebody Else to fix the problem they are upset about.  They often do this without even bothering to consider what the job of “Task Forces” is to actually do, namely get grants to justify their existence and issue reports (unmonitored, often) about what they actually are doing, did do, or promise to do.  That, among other reasons, is why these are FORMER associates.  See title of this post.

The other thing Congressionally Appointed Task Forces do – becuase typically they are addressing some systemic outrageous problem that government itself previously created — is to expand authority and expense of the Federal Government’s control over (everyone), while blaming (everyone but itself) for the problems it is solving.

Sooner or later all of this looks to be coalescing, pretty swiftly, into one big, fat, fascist mechanism in which we all will play our federally-assigned places in the newly designed breathing mechanism called “one world” government, aka please re-read Brave New World, 1984, and even A Wrinkle in Time.  It’s not like the authors, artists, musicians and playwrights actually ARE functional authors, artists, musicians and playwrights to start with because they don’t notice what’s going on around them, and synthesize it into understandable and symbolic translations, now — is it?  Government and faith groups certainly understand the power of the arts (and architecture) to communicate world views, and restructure reality — that’s why they pour so much money into them. Nowadays, this includes anything on the internet as well.

In this version of the future, perhaps we will all be one big happy family (that’s certainly the True Parents’/Sun Myung Moon et al.’s vision, which appears to have folded into the US Presidents’/Administration’s fetish with marriage/abstinence/faith-based & fatherhood programs) — and our futures will have no violence, if only we could just stop thinking, feeling, observing, and leave it to the qualified experts we are paying for to do this for us.  But in the meantime we already have had CAPTA (see below) since 1974.  There’s been a multitude of task forces and other entities stopping violence against children around.

~ ~ ~ ~

History tells us that this thing about putting everything in “order” with a single, all-knowing & of course kindly male at the top of the heap, and at the top of every family (kind of like the Pope & Santa Claus & God & a Sugar-Daddy all rolled up together) is less benign and altruistic than it may seem.  Everybody know your places, and don’t get out of them, either!   Just accept another Task Force, and we experts will take care of the problems of:

  • Child Abuse AND
  • Children Exposed to Violence AND
  • woman abuse (VAWA) AND
  • domestic violence (NCADV etc.) AND
  • father-absence (Fatherhood.gov) AND
  • also your local affiliates of the US Government (state/county, Unified Family Court etc.) will take care of local domestic ‘disputes’ as directed by the local AFCC & CRC chapter, about which we are not interested.  (i.e., compartmentalization of tasks, but the most important ones lead back to an executive agency).     

Go back to work, don’t worry.  Somebody, after all, has to pay for this great leadership.  Consume, consume, consume — and we will organize and fix.

~ ~ ~ ~

Now, 2011, from the Federal Register — I am talking about, what happened to all the previous Task Forces (etc.) and Initiatives?  Why a new one, and what’s so different about it this time?  Who wishes — really — to analyze why the other ones have failed in their missions?   And why does it take this amount of firepower to convince ANYONE that children being exposed to violence in the home is bad (and can we discuss that it’s also bad for both adults — the person committing the violence as well as the person taking it on the chin, and other body parts).  Parents of these children have been reporting it for decades.   So have news headlines.  So have DV organizations.  So have Child Abuse organizations.  So now, it’s official?

Notices
Establishment of the Attorney General’s National Task Force on Children Exposed to Violence
Pages 67761 – 67761 [FR DOC # 2011-28319] PDF | Text | More
Hearing of the Attorney General’s National Task Force on Children Exposed to Violence
Pages 67761 – 67762 [FR DOC # 2011-28322] PDF | Text | More

(Below, I post Task Force Members and talk about it more….)

I’m not real informed on CAPTA, but here’s a summary on it from a 2009 Congressional Research Service (fairly neutral gov’t source, I believe; their function is summary explanations; I’ve cited their works on other topics before).  Wikipedia describes CRS as the “public policy research arm of the US Congress”  or example, they will summarize bills and post it on Thomas.gov, I think…  Although Wikipedia also notes:

CRS reports are highly regarded as in-depth, accurate, objective, and timely, but as a matter of policy they are not made directly available to members of the public. There have been several attempts to pass legislation requiring all reports to be made available online, most recently in 2003, but none have passed. Instead, the public must request individual reports from their Senators and Representatives in Congress, purchase them from private vendors, or search for them in various web archives of previously-released documents.

(which what I’m about to cite probably is):

The Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act: Background, Programs, and Funding

[[==”CAPTA”]]

by  Emilie Stoltzfus, Specialist in Social Policy, November 4, 2009

7-5700 http://www.crs.gov R40899

Child abuse and neglect is a significant social concern. Children who experience abuse and/or neglect are more likely to have developmental delays and impaired language or cognitive skills; be identified as “problem” children (with attention difficulties or challenging behaviors); be arrested for delinquency, adult criminality, and violent criminal behavior; experience depression, anxiety, or other mental health problems as adults; engage in more health-risk behaviors as adults; and have poorer health outcomes as adults.

Currently we have a conflict of interest in this statement with the fatherhood groups.  All of the above situations are supposedly caused by father absence.  This is neatly handled by combining the concept of “father absence” with “child welfare” as seen in the multitude of fatherhood programs on the site “childwelfare.gov.”   Actually, a far more significant problem is likely to be father PRESENCE, in some cases, and society’s reluctance to accept that when for the child’s safety father ABSENCE is required, that the mother then (the careless, overly fertile bitch in heat that can’t choose a companion right, and what’s worse is burdening the public welfare caseloads.  Oh yes, we forgot to mention that in initially passing Welfare Reform, we (the US Congress– see ethnic & gender profile) particularly are concerned about this characteristic among women…, and hereby “tweak” the “AFDC” (Aid to Families with Dependent Children) to create “Welfare-to-Work” concept, from which adequate and ever-increasing amounts of marriage/fatherhood(abstinence, relationship skills education, etc.) will be diverted so this problem can be stopped at its (alleged) root!!”)

This being a typical publication (notice the domain name, Child Welfare.gov)

The Importance of Fathers in the Healthy Development of Children

Author(s): Office on Child Abuse and Neglect, U.S. Children’s Bureau Rosenberg, Jeffrey., Wilcox, W. Bradford.
Year Published: 2006

In fact, for a REAL quick “Cliff Notes” (summary at a glance) version of the field, FIRST click on that title above, “The Importance of Being Earnest,” I mean, (sorry, I mixed up my comedy of errors period piece titles), “The Importance of FATHERS…”) and see all the hyperlinks in the outline.  Then go down to “Appendix B” and do the same thing.  That’s about as good a quick education on what’s happening to public funding of untested theory (although the tests continue….) on fatherhood and preventing child abuse through it as one can get.

Appendix B – Resource Listings of Selected National Organizations Concerned with Fatherhood and Child Maltreatment

Listed below are several representatives of the many national organizations and groups that deal with various aspects of child maltreatment, as well as several that address fatherhood issues.  Like (by now any regular readers of this blog should know a few of these names).  Under the section “For Fathers and Fatherhood Groups” (as opposed to general public)

Bootcamp for New Dads  (Irvine, CA)

Center on Fathers, Families, and Public Policy (Madison, WI)

Center for Successful Fathering  (Austin, TX)
Family and Corrections Network  (Palmyra, VA)
The Fathers Network  (Seattle, WA )
— I guess this one is in case the various state-level Commissions on Fatherhood are falling behind on their nationwide PR, and Fathers and Families Coalition of America ever gets busted for how many improperly incorporated organizations are among its affiliates, that is, allegedly are improperly incorporated — meaning, I haven’t gone through all of them yet).
National Center on Fathering  (St. Louis, MO)
National Fatherhood Initiative (Gaithersville, MD)
National Latino Fatherhood and Family Institute (Los Angeles, CA)
National Practitioners Network for Fathers and Families, Inc. (Washington, D.C. and see my blog)
    let’s not forget this set of fathers:  Stay At Home Dads, who (just like some Moms) might feel isolated, and need a support group.  This is a resource for helping them connect with each other.  It just merged with “AtHomeDad” and can be found there (I linked)
with the motto (at new site — angelfire.com carries it) “men who change diapers change the world.”

Which gets me thinking – if we could enforce this policy with members of Congress — get them to practice this — perhaps there’d be fewer fatherless children around — there’d be fewer wars!

CONGRESSIONAL RESOURCE SERVICE ON CAPTA, cont’d. , now that I’m through with the sarcasm part…  This 2009 summary seems to be in preparation for making sure funding for this act continues.  CAPTA started in 1974.  We are on the topic of how forming child abuse prevention task forces is a surefire way to stop child abuse, as Penn State and the Haitian Fund, and for that matter, a recent child-rape during a supervised visitation (with both of her parents, one with a sex abuse prior on his record, as I recall) in an FCFC (that’s Families & Children First) funded type building, supported 77% by government funding, including a recent state-wide “Children’s Levy” in Trumbull County, Ohio.  Ohio is very “up” on preventing abuse of children — because it has BOTh a commission on Families and Children AND a commission on fatherhood, not to mention a Governor’s Office of FaithBased and Community Initiatives which draws funding (probably) from both sides of that fence (promoting fatherhood and protecting children, as it did the family in Trumbull County which also (I forgot to mention) had an older child — snatched at BIRTH — later (not much later — at about age two) die in foster care too.  Which brings me also to the concept of federal incentives to states for foster care, ALSO, and so on . . .. ).

LIKE I KEEP SAYING — IF YOU WANT TO PREVENT CRIMINAL BEHAVIOR, PASS A LAW AGAINST IT, SET UP A TASK FORCE, PAY, EVALUATE, REPORT, AND HOPE.  THIS IS FROM THE CRS 2009 REPORT ON CAPTA:

In FY2007, states reported an estimated 3.5 million children were in families investigated or assessed by CPS workers and some 794,000 were identified as victims of abuse or neglect.

In 1974, Congress enacted the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA, P.L. 93-247) to create a single federal focus for preventing and responding to child abuse and neglect. As a condition of receiving state grant funds under that act, states are required to have procedures in place for receiving and responding to allegations of abuse or neglect and for ensuring children’s safety.

YES.  and by the same logic, to receive federal fatherhood grants, the state organizations or (whatever) are supposed to have procedures in place to prevent domestic violence also.  Neither says that there is supposed to actually be any evidence that the program LAST year (or last 5 years) actually did prevent child abuse or domestic violence.  Just to have procedures in place.  Again I say — where do all these horrible parents come from to start with?  Who raised THEM?  (See public education, USA??  Foster Care USA?  Prior failure to stop child abuse or domestic violence in or out of the home, USA?).

Further, they must define child abuse and neglect in a way that is consistent with CAPTA, which defines the term as “ at a minimum, any recent act or failure to act on the part of a parent or caretaker, which results in death, serious physical or emotional harm, sexual abuse or exploitation, or an act or failure to act which presents an imminent risk of serious harm.”

Since its enactment, CAPTA has been reauthorized numerous times, most recently by the Keeping Children and Families Safe Act of 2003 (P.L. 108-36). Currently, it authorizes formula grants to states to help improve their child protective services; competitive grants and contracts for research, demonstration, and other activities related to better identifying, preventing, and treating child abuse and neglect; and formula grants to states for support of community-based child abuse and neglect prevention services. Funding authorization for these CAPTA programs expired with FY2008. However, Congress appropriated $110 million for CAPTA in FY2009 (P.L. 111-8) and a similar amount has been proposed for FY2010 (H.R. 3293). In addition, CAPTA authorizes grants to improve the prosecution and handling of child abuse and neglect cases. These formula grants to states, commonly referred to as Children’s Justice Act grants, are funded via an annual set-aside of up to $20 million from the Crime Victims fund.

CAPTA is LARGE, PERVASIVE, INVASIVE & EXPENSIVE — has it been successful?  The CRS summary here shows some of the extent:

Between 1963 and 1967, every state and the District of Columbia enacted some form of child abuse and neglect reporting law to permit individuals to refer cases of suspected child abuse or neglect to a public agency.

Reminder:  by definition any “Public Agency” is being financially supported by the public.  We pay income taxes, sales taxes, city, state taxes, property taxes, and you name it.  Our taxes are used for things far beyond our awareness and comprehension at times, including unwarranted wars on foreign soil (Iraq) and otherwise protecting such things as corporate wealth and Bush Family Interests, aka Oil.    Citizens with or without children pay for public schools that apparently are turning out child abusers, and we also pay for the world’s largest per-capita system of prisons, again, which are getting privatized.  In these prisons, there’s plenty of outcry about juvenile abuse — as in rapes, isolation, you name it.  We fund all levels of law enforcement from the local up to Mr. Holder.   So when a public agency exists to protect children and is failing — that’s a very serious situation, and that IS the situation.

I come from a region of the US where a man previously convicted of kidnapping and raping, and had done jail time for it, was let out and thereafter, something got lost — and he was able (with a wife he married, who met him on a prison visit) — to kidnap another minor, hold her hostage in a series of sheds in the backyard in a suburban area outside the SF Bay Area — and while on probation.  In this matter, he also went to prison for some other reason for a while — and the wife (living in a mother’s home) held down the fort.  This young woman was not only kept hostage and raped, giving birth to two children which she then somehow managed to raise and thought she was their SISTER — she also financially assisted her rapist/captor in his printing business.  This went on for 18 years.  I’m talking about obviously Phil Garrido & Jaycee Dugard.  So I believe from these and plenty of other instances, that it’s time for people at the street level — not the top, most official levels — to examine WHY child abuse continues to be such a horrible problem decade after decade.   And to do this we have to start looking at our mindsets (the cult of the experts) and our willingness to believe everything said on the internet and in a very officious manner — without the means to check it out.

Or, our habits of simply throwing up our hands and saying, it’s out of my control, I don’t know.  Suppose it were your kid?

Sometimes the most valuable learning comes after the most serious setbacks and defeats — but it happens with a cost, a cost of somehow making the TIME to reflect and investigate “how did we get here” and an insistence on acknowledging when the usual answers simply make no sense.

BACK to CAPTA description:  

The rapid adoption of these laws was aided by a model reporting law disseminated by the Children’s Bureau, which is housed within the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

In 1974, Congress passed the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA, P.L. 93-247) and state reporting laws were modified to conform to the standards it established. In creating CAPTA, Congress sought to increase understanding of child abuse and neglect and improve the response to its occurrence by establishing a single federal focal point on the issue. Since its enactment 35 years ago, the law has been reauthorized and amended numerous times, most recently by the Keeping Children and Families Safe Act of 2003 (P.L. 108-36).2 Currently, CAPTA authorizes:

State Grants: Formula grants to states and territories to help improve their child protective service (CPS) systems, in exchange for which states must comply with various requirements related to the reporting, investigation, and treatment of child maltreatment cases. The FY2009 appropriation was $26.5 million.

Discretionary Activities: Federal data collection, dissemination, and technical assistance efforts related to child abuse prevention and treatment, as well as competitive grants to a range of eligible entities for research and demonstration projects or other activities related to the identification, prevention, and treatment of child abuse or neglect. The FY2009 appropriation was $41.8 million (including a $13.5 million set-aside for the ACF home visitation initiative, $500,000 for a feasibility study related to a national child abuse and neglect

CAPTA — Children’s Bureau in HHS/ACF sets the standard – CPS strengthening — Federal leadership — millions invested.  Lots of data collection, dissemination, and technical assistance, plus research & demonstration grants.  The same approach has been used for fatherhood and for domestic violence activities, wouldn’t you say (with HHS often the lead public agency, alongside DOJ)….  (All these years, has anyone IN government or HHS bothered to investigate the role of the AFCC, CRC, etc? directorates?)

As a consequence of this huge effort, there are now major reform efforts by parents (and complaints) about CPS abuses of families. It appears their invasions, tossing away due process, guilty-til-proven innocent (but then after proven guilty, other systems still exist to put kids back into the care and comfort of their abusers) and other — a multitude of other — issues tend to bring up whether or not CAPTA was actually a good idea.

See Nancy Schaefer (sorry to keep bringing this up, but a questionable murder/suicide of a State Senator & Her Husband — from Georgia — I feel bears remembering!)

Backing up to 2001 (this is for purposes of simply stating who CAPTA is, and what it’s supposed to be doing, in very basic format, just an intro):

And testimony on its reauthorization in 2001, from a Disabilities Consortium (Disabled Children are at much higher risk of assault, and are assaulted more often, it asserts — which only makes sense when one considers what kind of creep mentality gets off on assaulting helpless children:

Testimony for  The Committee on Education and the Workforce Select Education Subcommittee

United State House of Representatives Hearing on

Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act [[= “CAPTA”]]

August 2, 2001

Room 2175 Rayburn House Office Building

Submitted by:

Consortium for Citizens with Disabilities  (CCD)
Task Force on Child Abuse and Neglect

According to an HHS report released in April 2001, substantiated cases of child abuse and neglect investigated by child protective service (CPS) agencies numbered an estimated 826,000 children nationally in 1999. States report that nearly half (44.2%) of the child victims or their families in confirmed cases of child abuse and neglect receive no treatment or any other kind of services following investigation of the report. Deaths from child maltreatment remain unacceptably high: an estimated 1,100 children died of abuse or neglect in 1999 alone. And, as noted above, near-fatal child maltreatment leaves thousands of children permanently disabled each year.

Ergo, Child Abuse is Bad.  Establish and Fund procedures to Stop it.   When Child Abuse is not stopped by these procedures, just do more of them anyhow, to appease whoever noticed that there’s still child abuse going on.
Hero Worship is Good for the Economy, and particularly while worshipping heroes, include the charities they set up to Help the Helpless (and/or Fatherless) children.  See Penn State, Sandusky and the Second Mile.

Now here’s the resulting Task Force from recent Congressional Hearings:

Here’s an article on how we need — OBviously– more government funding to study and raise people’s consciousness about the effects of domestic violence upon children (i.e., all those parents reporting all these years, and the children themselves reporting, plust abusers that go on to kill their children is not “real” evidence presented in JUST the right way to convince (who? precisely) that it’s actually bad for children to witness one of their parents beating and abusing the other?  We need more evidence that it’s bad WHY?  Perhaps to counter the institution — called, for one, the family law system — that tells one parent (often the mothers) that it’s all in their heads?  Here it goes, again:

By Rep. John Conyers, Jr. (D-Mich.) and Brian Martin – 11/03/11 06:36 PM ET

Read on for the translation of what is really meant by this: . . . what do they really want?  First the rhetoric:

There are recent examples of positive steps to address the intractable problem of domestic violence. On Oct. 12, the Makers of Memories Foundationparticipated in a special congressional briefing on Capitol Hill to educate policymakers, leaders and the public about the children affected by domestic violence, which UNICEF has called “one of the most damaging unaddressed human rights violations in the world today.”Children who are raised in homes with domestic violence are 50 times more likely to abuse alcohol and other drugs and six times more likely to commit suicide. Shockingly, 90 percent of prison inmates report that they experienced domestic violence as children.

First of all, whoever wrote this should start talking — we want to listen in of course — to the marriage/fatherhood movement, which asserts that NO, it’s NOT domestic violence that causes criminal behavior and substance abuse, plus suicide — it’s fatherlessness!   . . . But I believe the reason they are NOT getting their talk lined up right is that it’s just too convenient to lump them together — when it comes to obtaining grants and starting up certain groups to get them — and too inconvenient to let on that they know thats the racket!  First of all, we have to hear how no one has done anything to prevent domestic violence against, or traum from witnessing it against someone else, on behalf of children since at least 1974, when CAPTA was passed:

While it is common to hear calls for an “end to the cycle of violence,” it cannot logically end without a substantial focus on the children

Domestic violence programs throughout the country are focused primarily on adults who are involved in violent relationships. A range of services are offered, including temporary housing, crisis counseling, legal assistance, health services, vocational aid, substance abuse programs and anger management and other behavioral modification initiatives for perpetrators. The focus on children comes as a distant second concern.

Perhaps that’s because domestic violence groups are aware of CAPTA already.  In fact, they’ve had plenty of conferences with both the child abuse prevention and the fatherhood promotion groups (including BWJP with AFCC on custody matters) already.  But if this were publicized then what would justfiy more grants with the “new, improved, re-labeled” emphasis?

OF COURSE, here’s yet ANOTHER (presumably nonprofit — should I check them?) calling the Congressional Hearing a bunch of baloney, and reporting AGAINST it.  I’ve heard of this group before, maybe you have:

SAVE: Stop Abusive and Violent Environments

Here’s their E-Alert about the (then’) upcoming 10/12/11 conference on this theme:

ELERT: Trash-Talk: Call on Rep. Gwen Moore to Cancel Gender-Biased Briefing

A Congressional Briefing on the Effects of Domestic Violence on Children has been scheduled for this coming Wednesday, Oct. 12 in Washington DC. The event is hosted by Makers of Memories and the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence (NCADV).

See, when one group sees another group making some inroads against THEIR interests, here comes the negative press, and they go after them with crying gender bias

I see the same reporting and (with my particular background) think:  “Hmmm.  NCADV — I’ve looked at this group, some of its conferences, grants received, items for sale, and bedfellows, but who is this “Makers of Memories”???  And then I read on — it’s a FOUNDATION.  It’s a Nonprofit.

Now here comes “SAVE” to SAVE the day with counterintelligence to the feminists:

As you can see to the side, the image they chose to promote the briefing shows a man, presumably a father, yelling at a small girl who is cowering in the corner. And no surprise, the websites of Makers of Memories and the NCADV are brimming with gender-biased information.

SAVE supports evidence-based efforts to address young victims of family violence. These are the facts that need to be highlighted:

1.    Women are at least as likely as men to engage in intimate partner violence. One national survey found mothers are twice as likely as fathers to engage in severe marital violence. [i]

Well, I’m going to say this anyhow — OK, “SAVE,” show me all the headlines on the “estranged husband” “custody dispute” “crime scene cleanp” and the wife was the killer.    . . .. .  Anyhow, the next two points made:

2.    Most child abuse is committed by mothers. According to the DHHS, “approximately one-half (53.8%) of child abuse and neglect perpetrators were women and more than 40 percent (44.4%) were men.” [ii]

3.    Partner-abusing mothers are equally likely to abuse their children as partner-abusing fathers. [iii]

(I slogged through some of these type of reports on-line in earlier 2011 on the SFWeekly series by Peter Jamison on California Courts giving Custody to Pedophiles.  The GlennSacks hounds were talking like SAVE and NCADV people arguing back.  Some look at the stats shows how the word “mothers” breaks down into biological, step- etc.  I say there is a difference, but more to the point, let’s talk about what all this talk is really about anyhow — it’s going to be, in the bottom line, about who gets more funding.  And I say, it’s about time we scream “WHOA!” — and inspect whether there has been a pattern of tax-compliance and reporting, or tax-EVASION and non-reporting, before voting ANY more appropriations for this stuff.  And then I want more parents like me (mothers, and fathers) to get up there and say what difference did it make in My case, or in anyone’s case in our neighborhoods, that we can point to — or that any of these organizations can point to their having tracked.

The truth is, apparently — most of them do not track much more than who was “served” — and notice the quotes.

– – – — ANYHOW — HERE WE ARE WITH ANOTHER TASK FORCE: (found at “findyouthinfo.org”)

December 05, 2011

National Task Force on Children Exposed to Violence Holds First Public Hearing

On November 29, Attorney General Eric Holder’s National Task Force on Children Exposed to Violence, part of the Defending Childhood Initiative, convened its first hearing in Baltimore, Maryland. This hearing is the first of four that will aim to gather expert and community testimony on the epidemic of children’s exposure to violence. Coming out of these hearings, the Task Force will identify {{WHAT ELSE:…..}}} promising practices, programming, and community strategies used to prevent and respond to children’s exposure to violence and will issue a comprehensive report presenting its findings.Learn more.

I’d bet my bottom dollar that this “comprehensive” report doesn’t address — at all — what is going on in the family law system, or how all the previous helping groups (particularly certain categories of them0 are presently using the federal grants stream, which apparently goes underground, lots of it, once it’s out of the the very large faucet pointed at favorites.

Who is actually ON the task force is a real slap in the face to common sense. let alone pointing another one — at all — on the issue.  Like it’s a TASK FORCE — get it?  How many simultaneously operating and funded task forces does it take to turn the other way while some adult in another “help the children” nonprofit (or situation of professional ongoing access to children which already has severe and highly publicized violations of trust track in the record)?

I don’t know — but looks like here’s another one.  Public Outcry — Appoint a Task Force — Go through the routines solemnly — distract the public — end of story.

HERE’s the DOJ Description of Who’s ON that Task Force:

The task force is composed of 13 leading experts from diverse fields and perspectives, including practitioners, child and family advocates, academic experts and licensed clinicians. Joe Torre, Major League Baseball executive vice president of baseball operations, founder of the Joe Torre Safe at Home Foundation, and a witness of domestic violence as a child himself; and Robert Listenbee Jr., chief of the juvenile unit of the Defender Association of Philadelphia, serve as co-chairs of the task force. The full list of Task force members is located at:

How appropriate — in view of recent VERY high-profile incidents of sexual abuse (allegations) to a high-profile sports figures functioning as substitute father figure for youngsters (i.e., young boys especially) , and highly positioned religious leaders (which seems an unending parade), to make sure the leading edge of this “prevent abuse” includes a Leading Sports Figure with close associations with Fatherhood Promoting Organizations (which Joe Torres has) and a Jesuit Priest, simultaneous with a federal lawsuit against “The Society Of Jesus” for outrages in Haiti, and subsequent money-laundering (?) or at least continuing to collect funding after the perpetrator was arrested!

This “Task Force” membership reveals the public expectation that ONLY prominently placed citizens and people running other nonprofits and foundations (etc.) are truly qualified to report on how to stop child abuse — no matter how often we come to understand that it’s exactly in some of these fields (Child Psychiatry much?) that this abuse takes place and is covered up!    I’m listing them all here.

FYI, when I saw this list, I wasn’t just disheartened (hardly unexpected) but also incensed.  Another person, who forwarded the link, although we all seem to know how eager certain protective mothers groups are to get a “Congressional Hearing” and feel victorious once they get one — said (she) was “livid,”

This is who is on the force.  There are 13 members, and to their credit, 6 are women, but that’s beside the point.  Look at the associations:

http://www.justice.gov/defendingchildhood/tf-members.html

Co-Chair:Joe Torre, Chairman of the Joe Torre Safe at Home® Foundation 
Mr. Torre, Major League Baseball’s Executive Vice President for Baseball Operations and former manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers and the New York Yankees, created his foundation to educate students, parents, teachers, and school faculty about the effects of domestic violence.

Everyone wants to educate others about domestic violence.  What an industry.  I don’t mean to disrespect or pick on Mr. Torres as a person, however, as myself a person — and a victim of domestic violence — I can assert most groups dono’t want to hear about it.  Particularly judges in the family law system, GALs, mediators, faith-groups, and for that matter, when I sought help in recent years from a local DV group, they didn’t have anyone to sit with me until the hearing to renew, or re-instate a restraining order to protect my right to work without harassment from this ex.  No money in the budget.  I heard the same thing from another judge after my kids were stolen on an UNsupervised visitation exchange:  No money in the budget.  Eventually, I am out of work and go to the local employment agency looking for some — and lo and behold, there’s LOTS of money from one of the same organizations — to go into middle schools and teach about domestic violence and preventing it.  Something’s wrong with that picture — you can perhaps support yourself (as a DV survivor) by becoming a DV advocate, a professional, if you are willing to promote programs that you already now do not, actually, prevent domestic violence or address what happens when children are involved.  A.k.a. Sell your Soul,  join the business.

Just perhaps people who’ve gone through years of this might want to work in something OUTside the field?

Anyhow — briefly — Joe Torres LOVES the Family VIolence Prevention Fund (and vice versa) which is a major resource center (per HHS) in Preventing Violence.  Obviously it’s working — which is why we need this task force, right?  Here he is, with FVPF founder Esta Soler, amid other luminaries, rejoicing at the new, groundbreaking “Futures without Violence” set up at the SF Praesidio, as reported in “SF Philanthropy”

Photographer: DREW ALTIZER PHOTOGRAPHY
Publication Date: JANUARY 17, 2010

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, UNIFEM Goodwill Ambassador Nicole Kidman, Major League Baseball Manager Joe Torre and Actress Joan ChenCelebrated Renovation of Family Violence Prevention Fund’s New International Center and Exhibit Hall on the Main Post of San Francisco’s Historic Presidio. . . .

The Family Violence Prevention Fund, one of the world’s most innovative and respected agencies working to stop violence against women and children, broke new ground on Friday, January 8th with the start of construction on an international conference center and exhibition hall.

Among those who joined Family Violence Prevention Fund (FVPF) Founder and President Esta Soler for the groundbreaking ceremony were House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, whose support has provided significant funding for the $18 million project, actress Nicole Kidman, who will appear on behalf of UNIFEM (United Nations Development Fund for Women) and Los Angeles Dodgers manager Joe Torre, who has been an active supporter of the FVPF’s highly successful national campaign, Coaching Boys Into Men . . .

Building 100, located on the Main Post of San Francisco’s historic Presidio, will be redesigned and reconstructed as a global action center to serve as a forum for international discourse, leadership training, education programs and public exhibitions designed to change attitudes and practices that harm women and children who are oppressed or exploited around the world.  Architectural design was provided by BAR Architects and construction is being managed by Oliver and Company.

Success attracts success attracts federal funding — and the architectual firms, etc. and management, and all kinds of businesses are EXACTLY who is profiting from these types of projects.  From a group that has used years of “DISCRETIONARY” funding, to be shared with battered women’s shelters in the area — to expand it’s customer base, at its clients expenses.   Here’s their own website’s description of the same event.

Meanwhile — in the same city! — we see how the propensity for glamour and royalty and love of the theatrical occasions is shared by family court commissioners and judges — and POOR (Silenced) Mamas continue to speak out against this.  No federal funding fro THAT activity! (At least since last I checked).  I just about started my blog (unintentionally) contrasting Poor Mamas with “what a friend we have in each other” rhetoric, back in 2009.  I didn’t realize at the time that this may have opened a local can of worms.  Anyhow, here’s the latest from the same source (looks like the on-line got SOME funding, as it’s had a facelift also, but nothing close to Futures without Violence’s):

(I have posted this photo before on the blog, but from different URL):

Silenced Mamas Speak back to Commissioner Slabach!  (LGH: please read!)

PNNscholar1 – Posted on 29 September 2010

Author:  Marlon Crump

San Francisco Family Law Commissioner Marjorie A. Slabach was featured as a “queen” alongside of other California county judges in “Familawt” years ago. Picture featured on the Rogues Gallery at http://home.earthlink.net/~elnunes/camelot.htm Silenced Mamas Speak back to Commissioner Slabach!

 FACT:  Family Law Proceedings sometimes result in homeless mothers, a.k.a. Poor.  The article, besides detailing its intent to continue ongoing reports of this particular commissioner, and outrage at a 2010 Glide Foundation honoring her (by another person I believe shown in the royalty picture above)…

. . .Below are details of the upcoming event “Through the Eyes of Children” presented by The Family Law Section of the Bar Association of San Francisco and Rally Visitation Services ** of Saint Francisco Memorial Hospital:

Where: Pierrotti Pavillion Saint Francis Memorial Hospital 900 Hyde Street San Francisco, CA 94109

When: October 7th, 2010. Time: 5:30 p.m.-7:30 p.m. Keynote Speaker: Janise Mirkitani, President, Glide Foundation Honoring: Dr. Patricia Galamba and Commissioner, Marjorie A. Slabach Lifetime Achievement Award presented to: Judge Donna Hitchens In a continued effort in re-porting and supporting the “Silenced Mamas” movement, POOR Magazine/PNN will be at this event to protest the honoring of Marjorie Slabach.

**Translation:  Access/Visitation funding, Supervised Visitation Network, and how to extract a child from a mother, for profit . . . and other things FVPF simply refuses to acknowledge or properly report about – –in their own back yard!   There are 94 signatures on the petition page to have her removed, revealing several of the common practices in family law courts that FWV (formerly FVPF) could care less about — and has treated with silence.

Here’s a slide from an “Winslow Events” organization about this wonderful “futures without violence” group. Obviously the kind of individuals who would know firsthand about the matters they’re dealing with….  They are poor, they are oppressed, and they have walked the walk, particularly with communities of color and helping (groups like Winslow Events — which produced “Produced a stage program and reception event for 500 guests” in order to help stop violence).

Mr. Torres — who says that baseball was a safe refuge for him from violence at home (I understand how getting involved in such activities can help counter it — and until MY family went into the family law system, and even during abuse, I was able to negotiate, bargain and get them there.  However, once the custody courts eliminated the ability to work safely, and insisted on frequent and continuing contact (without REAL protection for me at any time past removal of the restraining order) I could not handle this entire burden — which FVPF simply wasn’t interested in — nor could other women in the same situation.  You can get help from the Feminists to join a DV group, and simultaneously from the Fatherhood Groups (either directly, or while participating in a so-called DV prevention group), but good luck getting any help going through family law as a result of, or after, leaving abuse.   That’s why I believe BOTH terms:  “Domestic Violence”  AND “Fatherhood” need to be retired, and instead, let’s just look at the nonprofits foundations, and etc.

I don’t see the photo was looking for (Mr. Torres actually holding a banner of FVPF), but this will show his close association:

  He tells his story on their website; baseball was a place where he could hide from his father.

On Mother’s Day, he created a video in honor of his mother for the Founding Fathers.  Mr. Torre is a member of the Founding Fathers movement which promotes the Coaching Boys Into Men media campaign and training programs.  Mr. Torre is featured in the Coaching Boys into Men playbook.  You can learn more about the program at the Futures Without Violence’s (formerly the Family Violence Prevention Fund) web site.  Mr. Torre also created a PSA for their RESPECT campaign.

Mr. Torre’s story was featured in “Breaking the Silence: Children’s Stories,” a PBS special funded by the Mary Kay Ash Charitable Foundation.

Here’s a listing of a whole BUNCH of the Stop Violence, End Abuse, Prevent Domestic Violence, and “A Call to Men” type groups, including “Safe at Home.”  This one happens to link to another film, “TELLING AMY’s STORY” which likewise, I have some serious issues with.  It is billed as a “Domestic Violence Documentary Film and Public Service Media Project.”

Moreover, it was out of PENN STATE!    If you judge by the beauty of the websites and film productions — I’d rate it highly.  If you judge by content, I give it a zero!  The “Amy” in this situation had a custody case.  They dono’t report anything relevant on the family law situation, and she dies at the end, by making a very foolish decisions right after confronting the father (around getting some diapers!) and her parents were lucky they didn’t die too, given the circumstances.  The film made no commentary on this, and did not reply when I made several attempts to contact (phone messages, phone contact, as I recall email) about this very disturbing omission.    This one even has the One-Stop Justice Shop alliance (that’s what I’m going to call them):

The Family Justice Center Alliance aims to create a network of national and international Family Justice Centers and other models of co-located, multi-agency service centers for victims of family violence and their children with close working relationships, shared training and technical assistance, collaborative learning processes, and coordinated funding assistance.

A LET”S GET HONEST MOMENT (actually, COMment):

The laugh truly is on the public if we continue to believe that people who insist on associating with each other as luminaries, reformes, educators, and collaborators — the coalitions of coalitions, the alliances, the partnerships, the centers, the projects, the initiatives, and — case in point — the Task Forces — are going to ever do anything other than MORE OF THE SAME until it becomes unprofitable for these individual groups to keep doing so.  Seeing as we have been taught to look up them and be reassured by them that “someone” is on the job, that’s probably not anytime soon.

NEXT MEMBER OF THIS DEFENDING THE CHILDREN TYPE TASK FORCE:

Co-Chair:Robert Listenbee, Jr., J.D., Chief of the Juvenile Unit of the Defender Association of Philadelphia 
Mr. Listenbee also serves as a member of the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Committee of the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency.

Father Gregory Boyle, S.J., Founder of Homeboy Industries 
Fr. Boyle was ordained as a Jesuit priest in 1984 and serves as a member of the National Gang Center Advisory Board.

I believe that this Father Boyle very likely has done wonders, and helped lots of people.  But as I am in the business of looking at the business angle, I first of all noticed that (no offence) I think it’s relevant that someone decided to put a sports figure (above) and a Jesuit Priest on a task force of this nature, when there’s an open federal court, and a SCANDALOUS one involving a Jesuit Priest at a (I think) Jesuit University scamming the public by continuing to collect funds AFTER arrest of a perp — in Connecticut, USA regarding Haiti.   Would it not make sense for members of some of these organizations, rather than trying to save everyone and stop gang violence, instead started cleaning their own hosue and examining their own consciences?

Be that as it may — and this might be a separate post (except it’s been a long day, and I need to close out).  I looked, naturally, at Fr. Boyle, S.J. and noticed that he was recipient of an “Opus Prize.”  I know Latin, and had heard of a cult called “Opus Dei,” however, this relates to the Opus Corporation.   TO cut matters short, they aren’t all they’re cracked up to be, except that this kind of behavior apparently goes with the territory of being wildly successful as a corporation (particularly real estate) and figuring out the proper use of foundations –and subsidiaries — which is to funnel money torwards the family trusts (in this case “Rauenhorst”)

In such situations, along the way helping stop some gang violence, sooner or later somebody reports.  No matter — at this level, one can afford lawyers, and/or to settle when caught (or accused).  This settlement kind of reminds me of child support contractor, the megalith “Maximus” having to settle for about $30 million on fraud (or — see record) charges in more than one state.  No matter– it’s still in business all over the US and abroad also.

Wealth Accumulation and “keeping it in the Family” hasn’t exactly been a new practice for this religion, or others, but here’s how it played out this time.

To make it clear — I’m not at all connecting the individual, Fr. Gregory Boyle, S.J. — with this corporation other than to say its Prize is funded by its Foundation which is funded by its Corporation, which apparently has some ethical issues.  Didn’t take me too long to find the reports on it — so goes the internet, if you look…..

05/20/2011

Opus Corp. Quietly Settles Suit Filed by Subsidiary

The Star Tribune, citing “two people familiar with the case,” said that the two parties settled last month for $45 million; Opus West had accused its parent company of siphoning tens of millions of dollars and causing its demise.

Once-prominent developer Opus Corporation quietly settled a lawsuit brought by subsidiary Opus West, which claimed that it siphoned vast portions of Opus West earnings and kept the subsidiary in a constant state of financial dependency that ultimately led to bankruptcy.

{{Sounds like family court already, only played larger….}}

The case, which dates back to 2009, was officially dismissed April 29, according to court documents.

The parties aren’t revealing the terms of the settlement. But the Star Tribune, citing “two people familiar with the case,” said that they secretly settled last month in Dallas for $45 million. The case was set to go to trial within a matter of days.

About one-third of the settlement—or $15 million—will go to lawyers, the sources told the Minneapolis newspaper. Most of the remaining $30 million will reportedly go to the two largest creditors in Phoenix-based Opus West’s bankruptcy case: Bank of America and Wells Fargo Bank. The two banks were collectively owed more than $260 million.

Approximately $3 million will be shared by about 150 Opus West employees who lost their jobs when the subsidiary filed for bankruptcy in 2009, according to the unnamed sources.   ($3,000,000 / 150 = $300,000/15 = around $20,000 each, other things being equal (which they probably aren’t). Wonder how many lawyers were involved…

Opus West’s lawsuit claimed that Minnetonka [MN]-based Opus Corporation routinely engaged in “self-dealing transactions, blindly siphoning tens of millions of dollars that left Opus West with almost non-existent levels of working capital…”

{{Like I said, reminds me of conciliation court.}}

It went on to call the once-sterling reputation of the Rauenhorst family—which owns Opus Corporation—a “carefully-cultivated myth, an appealing veneer specifically designed to hide the true guiding ethos of the Rauenhorst business empire: to make sure the Rauenhorst family and their ultra-rich friends got rich and stayed rich.”

According to the suit, 10 percent of Opus West’s pretax income went to charity—and three-quarters of the subsidiary’s remaining income went to Opus Corporation. Opus Corporation and its executives knew that the payments were leaving Opus West “chronically undercapitalized,” according to Opus West’s complaint. 

. . . .

Opus Corporation has since shut down and reorganized under a newly restructured parent company—Opus Holding, LLC. The assets of the two remaining subsidiaries were later bought by Opus Holding.

The Opus Group now includes Opus Holding, LLC, and Opus Holding, Inc., and their operating subsidiaries—Opus Development Corporation; Opus Design Build, LLC; and architectural arm Opus AE Group, Inc.

Legal battles for Opus haven’t ended with the recent settlement. The company still faces a lawsuit filed in July 2010 by 16 former Opus West employees who claim to be collectively owed $32.4 million in deferred compensation, bonuses, and pensions.

According to the complaint, Opus Corporation transferred more than $193.8 million of former subsidiary Opus West’s assets into family trusts linked to Opus founder Gerald Rauenhorst while failing to compensate Opus West employees.

—Christa Meland

Posted in

Twin Cities Business

Thank you, Ms. Meland.  Moral: Always! look up the businesses behind the people!

1999 Feature ARticle from “American Catholic” on the “Jesuit Gang Priest” and his work in East L.A.  I’m sure he’s doing great work, but if he’s almost too busy to tell his story to the reporter here, how is he going to have time to effectively serve on this 2011 task force?

Pico Gardens and Aliso Village, sometimes called “The Projects,” is the largest tract of subsidized housing west of the Mississippi. This huge piece of social engineering hasn’t worked out so well. It’s poor, crowded and packed with gangs.

Some of Pico/Aliso overlaps Boyle Heights (different era, different Boyle). Within those 16 square miles, 60 gangs claim 10,000 members, Hispanic and black. This equals violence and plenty of action at the Hollenbeck division of the Los Angeles Police Department—if Father Greg Boyle doesn’t get there first…

Here he is giving a commencement address at Creighton U in 2009 (A Jesuit university in Omaha, NE . . . . HOW close to BoysTown is Creighton??)

And in 2011 getting the OPUS PRIZE   $100,000 Opus Prize Recipient

Sr. Beatrice Chipeta

Father Gregory Boyle, S.J.
Homeboy Industries 
Los Angeles, United States

Fr. Greg Boyle grew up in the “gang capital of the world,” Los Angeles, California, just west of where he has spent more than 25 years ministering to the families of Dolores Mission parish, and mentoring hundreds of young people whose daily lives have been dominated by membership in neighborhood gangs.  A Jesuit priest, he is the founder and Executive Director of Homeboy Industries, an organization that he created 23 years ago as a modest job training program in the east Los Angeles community of Boyle Heights that continues to be wracked by a seemingly unending cycle of gang violence and murder passed on from generation to generation.

Homeboy Industries — “Nothing Stops a Bullet Like a Job.”  (tell that to the former employees of Opus West).

Entity Number Date Filed Status Entity Name Agent for Service of Process
C2226433 02/29/2000 ACTIVE HOMEBOY INDUSTRIES LARRY KERVIN

(EIN# 954800735, and it seems they are at least filing in CA.  I used the Charity Research Tool)

Available 990s
Year IRS Process Date Form Type Assets
2008 11/06/2009 990 Initial Return $12,635,874
2007 01/17/2009 990 Initial Return $16,009,890
2006 04/04/2008 990 Initial Return $16,070,640
2005 08/25/2006 990 Initial Return $6,567,183
2004 10/06/2005 990 Initial Return $2,982,741
2003 09/10/2004 990 Initial Return $1,940,179
2002 09/16/2003 990 Initial Return $2,148,684

WELL — with the IRS, but not with the STate.  Someone needs to tell this prospering organization that CALIFORNIA gets some of the reporting, and fees, too, please!   Status is still current, despite this pretty poor track record — as to the state level filings at least:

Related Documents
00000156 Delinquency Letter (2nd Request)(hover cursor over link to read the letter)
00000155 Delinquency Letter
1037559 RRF-1 2003
1037560 IRS Form 990 2008
1037561 IRS Form 990 2004
1049341 RRF-1 2008
00000550 CT-550 2009

**=incomplete rept, ltr Oct. 2010.  They sent in an RRF but

no accompanying IRS form, as required, and the RRF was incomplete

also.  As above, “hover cursor over link” to read ltr”

(or read on-line at the OAG”)

I’m putting it here to preserve the record in case

it changes after I start reporting on this group.

(To read these, one probably has to search the group again on the “Registry Search” page for California)  This little square, above, tells us that the 2011 winner of a $100K OPUS Prize, run by someone who just got appointed to help Defend Childhood and (see task force description), etc. — is himself running an operation which DOESN”T FILE ITS STATE TAX RETURNS, INCLUDING AFTER DELINQUENCY LETTER REQUESTS…. it is also engaging at least two professional fundraisers. . . . .

There are two Delinquency letters dating to 2009, including the 2nd one with a significant threat.  No answer is posted, and this is now the end of 2011 and the charity is marked “current.”  There has (meantime) also been a change of administration in the Office of Attorney General (which oversees), so presumably they either made peace with HomeBoy Industries, or it’s now too big to fail (note:  Assets in 2007 were $15 million, Revenues $6 million — and they get a pass?) (This was a very tough time in many people’s lives — but as a foundation, well, what the heck….)

You know the routine — I’ve posted these before on my blog.  (also posted to link in above chart.  The link is inactive, but the description is viewable if you hover cursor over it without clicking):

HOMEBOY INDUSTRIES 130 W. BRUNO ST. LOS ANGELES CA 90012

State of California DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE

1300 I Street P. O. Box 903447 Sacramento, CA 94203-4470 Telephone: (916) 445-2021 Ext 6 Fax: (916) 444-3651 E-Mail Address: Delinquency@doj.ca.gov

December 16, 2009 CT FILE NUMBER: 118772

RE: SECOND NOTICE : WARNING OF ASSESSMENT OF PENALTIES AND LATE FEES, AND SUSPENSION OF REGISTERED STATUS

Unless the above-described report(s) are filed with the Registry of Charitable Trusts within thirty (30) days of the date of this letter, the following will occur:

1. The California Franchise Tax Board will be notified to disallow the tax exemption of the above-named entity. In addition, the above-named entity will be billed $800 plus interest by Franchise Tax Board, which represents the minimum tax penalty. (See Revenue and Taxation Code section 23703).

2. Late fees will be imposed by the Registry of Charitable Trusts for each month or partial month for which the report(s) are delinquent. Directors, trustees, officers and return preparers

Doc CT-451A Warning Impend Tax Assess 2nd Notresponsible for failure to timely file these reports are also personally liable for payment of all late fees.

PLEASE NOTE: Charitable assets cannot be used to pay these avoidable costs. Accordingly, directors, trustees, officers and return preparers responsible for failure to timely file the above-described report(s) are personally liable for payment of all penalties, interest and other costs incurred to restore exempt status.

3. In accordance with the provisions of Government Code section 12598, subdivision (e), the Attorney General will suspend the registration of the above-named entity.

As that is now TWO YEARS ago, either they complied — and no one has posted it yet; or the next Attorney General felt differently (and was too busy), or like I say, something else is up.  Because as you and I can see — the OAG has not followed through with its warning.  They are still marked “current.”  Assuming they still ARE current, we can safely assume that such warnings are pretty meaningless, perhaps?  They might affect a smaller group, but not one that is too closely linked with government operations, I’ll speculate.  That’s speculate, but — what do you think?  (Comments field available).

Tax returns should be looked at, and whether or not they are the finalized returns (complete with signature), etc.  For example, I just looked at an (unsighed) 2008 return stating that the organization’s main operation was formerly a bakery, formed in 1994.  That’s not what the date of incorporation shows above: it says 2000.  In which case it’s been more than – not just about 11 years — in which this L.A. business has NOT been filing its returns (?).  The 2008 return shows about $37K of “Donor Determined” vehicle donations, yet a 2010 letter shows that they omitted the “donated vehicle” question #8 on a state RRF that (for once) actually was sent in).   These are definite red flags — and we’re to expect that a LARGE Hoop-law on thhis 13- member task force, recently appointed by US Attorney General Eric Holder (If I got WHo appointed it right) is to help somehow???

QUESTION;  If they don’t notice things like this — which an amateur like myself can pick up IMMEDIATELY — out in the open (once I know enough to look) how do they plan to prevent things like abuse — where the perpetrators obviously are pretty smart and don’t want to get caught?  Unless there is collaboration somewhere along the way….

So the question becomes, what is that “something else” that acounts for why HomeBoy Industries, given its resounding success, doesn’t have to take some of its millions of revenues — or sell off some of its larger millions of assets — to pay a tax return person?  Also, it seems to me that above a certain level of funding (I DNR which) an orgnization ALSO has to hire an independent auditor for its financial statement (not that I see any financial statements here).

Why can individuals get thrown in jail for contempt of IRS (or, for that matter, a child support order), but charities — who cares?  Perhaps the share is being obtained by some other method than traceable tax returns (and, perhaps not).  All I know is, I sure don’t like it!

One more minor detail about this Homeboy Organization — it says it started the bakery operation in 1994 with the homeBOYS.   That’s fine, why not (the Oakland area also had a Bakery operation:   (Google Chauncey Bailey, Oakland, CA) you’ll read all about it).  And then finally in 2004, something for the girls — which was restaurant/cafe.  Boys create, Girls serve it up?  Not to mention a 10 year gap?

SO NOW — HOW DOES THAT MAKE ANY SENSE?  Since this is a DOJ task force, and clearly the person is working from Los Angeles, why wouldn’t someone run at least the 10 minute background check I just did (actually, a bit more) and figure out (which part took 2 minutes) that this organization isn’t filing?   If he can’ handle or delegate someone to correctly file — with $12 million in assets — more than like 3 times in 10 years, why should he be put over a NATIONAL issue of this significance.  Part of protecting the public has to include protecting them from public theft — which failure to file obviously puts us at risk from?

Oh — I forgot — this is in Los Angeles….

ANYHOW, here’s the Opus Prize:

And the Opus PRIZE:  $1,000,000 (writeoff) per year, plus 2X $100,000:

The Opus Prize is given annually to recognize unsung heroes of any faith tradition, anywhere in the world. This $1 million faith-based humanitarian award and two $100,000 awards are collectively one of the world’s largest faith-based, humanitarian awards for social innovation. Father Greg is one of the two $100,000 Opus Prize finalists, the other is Sister Rita Pessoa, R.S.H.M. from the Association of Small Rural Producers of Jacare in Filadelfia, Brazil. The $1,000,000 grand prize winner announced on November 2 at Loyloa Marymount University is Lyn Lusi from Heal Africa in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. A big congratulations to all three leaders —  “unsung heroes who are conquering the world’s persistent social problems, who have dedicated their lives to help tranform others.

The Prize’s Funding is the OPUS PRIZE FOUNDATION

Origins and Values
The Opus Prize Foundation is a private and independent nonprofit foundation. Established in 1994 by the founding chairman of Opus Corporation, the Opus Prize Foundation is a self-sufficient foundation independent from The Opus Group™.

The Prize has universities help with its nominations, listed here.  Note University of St. Thomas with campuses in St. Paul, MN & Rome…

The Opus Prize Foundation selects universities as partners to organize and execute the Opus Prize selection process and award ceremony. Through these partnerships, students are challenged to think globally and inspired to live lives of service.

The remaining members of the Task Force.  Every One of these associations should be checked out.  However, on the face of it — it’s celar that NOT ONE of them is reporting on the HHS fatherhood grants the Access Visitation grants (in any critical manner) or for that matter — specializing in issues relating to the family law venue.  It’s like it just does not exist!

Sharon W. Cooper, M.D., CEO of Developmental & Forensic Pediatrics, P.A.
Dr. Cooper serves as a consultant and board member of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC).

Sarah Deer, Citizen of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation of Oklahoma
Professor Deer is an assistant professor at William Mitchell College of Law and her scholarship focuses on the intersection of tribal law and victims’ rights.

Deanne Tilton Durfee, Executive Director of the Los Angeles County Inter-Agency Council on Child Abuse and Neglect (ICAN) 
Ms. Tilton Durfee also serves as Chairperson of the National Center on Child Fatality Review.

Thea James, M.D., Director of the Boston Medical Center Massachusetts Violence Intervention Advocacy Program
Dr. James is Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine at Boston Medical Center/Boston University School of Medicine.

Alicia Lieberman, Ph.D., Director of the Early Trauma Treatment Network
Dr. Lieberman is Irving B. Harris Endowed Chair of Infant Mental Health at UCSF Department of Psychiatry and Director of the Child Trauma Research Program, San Francisco General Hospital.

Robert Macy, Ph.D., Founder, Director, and President of the International Center for Disaster Resilience-Boston
Dr. Macy is also the founder and Executive Director of the Boston Children’s Foundation and serves as Co-Director of the Division of Disaster Resilience at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.

Steven Marans, Ph.D., Director of the National Center for Children Exposed to Violence
Dr. Marans is Harris Professor of Child Psychiatry, Professor of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine, and also serves as director of the Childhood Violent Trauma Center at Yale University.

The NCCEV was established in 1999 at the Yale Child Study Center by the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP). This occurred in response to the pioneering success of the Yale Child Study Center’s Child Development-Community Policing Program (CD-CP), a community policing model first launched in 1991 in partnership with the City of New Haven and the New Haven Department of Police Service.

Supported by:

NCCEV is supported by grants from the U.S. Departments of Justice (OJJDP grant # 2005-JW-FX-K001) and Health and Human Services (SAMHSA grant # 5 U79 SM54318-06); U.S. Department of Homeland Security; Office of Domestic Preparedness: Urban Area Security Initative (UASI) Program; Pritzker Early Childhood Foundation; Seedlings Foundation & New Alliance Foundation

Jim McDonnell, Chief of Police, Long Beach Police Department, California 
Chief McDonnell teaches public policy issues at UCLA and served with the LAPD for 28 years.

Georgina Mendoza, J.D., Senior Deputy Attorney and Community Safety Director for the City of Salinas, California
Ms. Mendoza has been involved in the California Cities Gang Prevention Network for the past four years and serves as the Salinas lead in the White House’s National Forum on Youth Violence.

Retired Major General Antonio Taguba, President of TDLS Consulting, LLC, and Chairman of Pan Pacific American Leaders and Mentors (PPALM)
General Taguba served 34 years on active duty, including serving as Deputy Commanding General for Support, Coalition Forces Land Component Command (CFLCC)/ARCENT/Third U.S. Army, forward deployed to Kuwait and Iraq during Operation Iraqi Freedom.

A Retired Major General has earned his stripes, so to speak, and I think him for his service.  However the nonprofit PPALM has NOT, yet.  Look:

Pan-Pacific American Leaders & Mentors is an all-volunteer organization comprised of Military and Civilian professionals committed to mentoring and promoting professional development, retention and the advancement of Asian American Pacific Islander leaders – Active, Reserve, Army National Guard, and DoD Civilians. Pan-Pacific American Leaders & Mentors Organization is incorporated with the Commonwealth of Virginia (April 21, 2010) and approved by the U.S. Internal Revenue Service as a 501(c)(3) organization.

{{just barely — their meeting notes sound like they’re still working on it (See site)}}:

At the Board of Directors meeting on November 19, 2011, we finalized the revised By Laws as required in the PPALM Strategic Plan 2011-2013, and in concert with IRS reporting requirements to maintain our tax exempt, non-profit status. This is to ensure PPALM is compliant within the established governance rules for the Board members and within the leadership, operations and fiscal functions currently and into the future.

We will announce elections of new Board members not later than January 20, 2012 and to be held not later than March 20, 2012. This will be done thru the PPALM website and other forms of notification. I will appoint new members of the nominating committee who will represent the interest of PPALM members at the national level. Written guidance will also be published to ensure we are compliant with the By Laws in electing new members of the BoD.”

{{But the ABOUT US says it was “activated” in November 2007.  In what corporate format, and in which state?}}:

Complementing the Army Strong Campaign, PPALM was activated on November 11, 2007 to mentor and counsel US Army officers and civilians in achieving their career goals.  While PPALM’s current focus in the US Army, we are expanding to include members of the other uniformed services.  Membership is open to Veterans, National Guard, Reserve, Active Duty personnel, and Department of Defense Civilians.  It is also open to spouses and supporters of PPALM’s goals and objectives.

(Virginia Corporations Search shows it incorporated (not as a nonprofit) 6/19/2007) and the Charities Search, that it hasn’t showed up yet as a Charity — although website has donation and membership collection pages already.)  Virginia requires annual filings; there is no history (showing) of efilings so let’s presume they filed elsewhere that isn’t uploaded yet.   2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, and this is year 2011.

Pan Pacific American Leaders and Mentors

SCC ID: 06792519
Business Entity Type: Corporation
Jurisdiction of Formation: VA
Date of Formation/Registration: 6/19/2007
Status: Active
Shares Authorized: 0
Filings for Corp ID: 06792519
AR Year Filing Date View Filing
2011 6/28/2011 Click Here To View Report
2010 4/21/2010 Click Here To View Report
Using the SCC ID above, it looks like my organization here has filed in 2010 and 2011, but not 2007, 2008, or 2009.
Sounds like a fine organization; I’m wondering how the consulting plus mentoring plus defending childhood goes together….
(This simply lists officers and addresses; it says nothing about income)

LIKEWISE — TDLS CONSULTING, LLC — was also formed by Retired Major General Taguba, one year ago:

SCC ID: S3454347
Business Entity Type: Limited Liability Company
Jurisdiction of Formation: VA
Date of Formation/Registration: 11/23/2010
Status: Active

AGAIN — HERE’s ANOTHER ANNOUNCEMENT OF THIS TASK FORCE.  Now it’s coming back to me; I remember protesting among on-line advocates; “Puh-LEEZ” stop begging the White House to help you.  All they are going to do is form another initiative, appoint their cronies to it, and laugh there way to more retirement income (multiple streams) and/or grants-funded evaluations.

Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP), Serving Children, Families, and Communities

Department of Justice Announces the Defending Childhood Task Force

October 14, 2011

Defending Childhood Logo. Protect.  Heal. Thrive.On October 13, 2011, the Department of Justice issued the following press release:

WASHINGTON – Associate Attorney General Tom Perrelli today announced the establishment of the Attorney General’s National Task Force on Children Exposed to Violence. The task force is part of the Attorney General’s Defending Childhood initiative, a project arising from the need to respond to the epidemic levels of exposure to violence faced by our nation’s children.

“Our vision of justice must start with preventing crime before it happens, protecting our children, and ending cycles of violence and victimization. Every young person deserves the opportunity to grow and develop free from fear of violence,” said Associate Attorney General Perrelli. “The task force will develop knowledge and spread awareness about the pervasive problem of children’s exposure to violence – this will ultimately improve our homes, cities, towns and communities.”

Following the release of the compelling findings of the first National Survey on Children Exposed to Violence (2009), Attorney General Eric Holder launched the Defending Childhood initiative in September 2010. The goals of the initiative are to prevent children’s exposure to violence as victims and witnesses, reduce the negative effects experienced by children exposed to violence, and develop knowledge about and increase awareness of this issue.

The Defending Childhood Task Force is composed of 14 leading experts from diverse fields and perspectives, including practitioners, child and family advocates, academic experts and licensed clinicians. Joe Torre, Major League Baseball Executive Vice President of Baseball Operations, founder of the Joe Torre Safe at Home® Foundation, and a witness to domestic violence as a child himself, will serve as the co-chair of the task force.

 YES, Yes, Yes, now I recall.  Announce an Initiative and throw some money at it:

WASHINGTON – Attorney General Eric Holder today officially unveiled Defending Childhood, a new Department of Justice initiative focused on addressing children’s exposure to violence.      The goals of the initiative are to prevent children’s exposure to violence as victims and witnesses, mitigate the negative effects experienced by children exposed to violence, and develop knowledge about and increase awareness of this issue.

What’s WiTh our society’s always figuring out we can pay someone to do our monitoring, prevention, enforcement, defence (including of Childhood), protection (including of Children), and so forth?  The more money is extracted to supposedly stop all this (see CAPTA, 1974) — the less responsibility the cash-drained individuals locally can, really, be expected to take for it. After all — they paid, right?  What are police for?   What is CPS for?  What are Judges for, what are prisons for, and all the other superstructure and infrastructure.

What makes us think that the massive infrastructure, as great as it is at wiretapping, computer hacking, monitoring who signs what books out of the library (talking more general here, obviously), and did I mention what happens when people try to get on an airplane flight?   (Like the Mom who was forced to pour out her breast milk, and punished for complaining about the process on a return trip, see courthousenews). — what makes us even THINK that this is going to change Business As Usual?

WILL EVEN FEDERAL LAWSUITS — and I HOPE this one produces some remedies — STEM THE TIDE OF HUMAN FOOLISHNESS ABOUT WHO ELSE IS GONNA DO WHAT WE OUGHT TO DO FOR OURSELVES, BY KNOWING OUR NEIGHBORS, INBETWEEN RUNNING OFF TO JOBS TO FUND THE SYSTEM THAT IS PROMISING MORE JOBS — BUT INSTEAD DELIVERING GRANTS TO JUST ABOUT ANYBODY WHO KNOWS HOW TO INCORPORATE — AND PRIZES TO GROUPS THAT DON’T FILE TAXES YEAR AFTER YEAR, EVEN THOUGH THEY HAVE LOCAL CONTRACTS (Homeboy Industries seems to have one with City of Los Angeles or County — see the tax returns) AND POSSIBLY OTHER FEDERAL GRANTS?

Recipient Name City State ZIP Code County DUNS Number Sum of Awards
Homeboy Industries  LOS ANGELES CA 900121815 LOS ANGELES 874873987 $ 799,988

Did it occur to either of the principal investigators of this grant’s projects below to check up on the organizations tax filing status?

Grantee Class Award Number Award Title Action Issue Date Principal Investigator Sum of Actions
2011 SAMHSA Homeboy Industries Non-Profit Public Non-Government Organizations TI022609 PROJECT STAR (SUBSTANCE USE TREATMENT AND RECOVERY) 05/19/2011 FAJIMA BEDRAN $ 0
2011 SAMHSA Homeboy Industries Non-Profit Public Non-Government Organizations TI022609 PROJECT STAR (SUBSTANCE USE TREATMENT AND RECOVERY) 06/27/2011 FAJIMA BEDRAN $ 399,994
2010 SAMHSA Homeboy Industries Non-Profit Public Non-Government Organizations TI022609 PROJECT STAR (SUBSTANCE USE TREATMENT AND RECOVERY) 09/29/2010 MARNEY STOFFLET $ 399,994

(SAMHSA grants, 2010 and 2011 — even though the California OAG dinged this group the same year and earlier on nonfiling) for Substance Abuse Treatment and Recovery, or some such.  Take that “DUNS” # over to USASPENDING.gov and find out what else, if anything.

Well, it’s the end of my blogging day which started with concern about THIS:

PROJECT PIERRE TOUSSAINT victim’s FEDERAL LAWSUIT:

JOSEPH JEAN-CHARLES, a/k/a JEAN-CHARLES JOSEPH,

Plaintiff

v.

DOUGLAS PERLITZ; FATHER PAUL E. CARRIER, S.J.; HOPE E. CARTER; HAITI FUND, INC.; FAIRFIELD UNIVERSITY; THE SOCIETY OF JESUS OF NEW ENGLAND; JOHN DOE ONE; JOHN DOE TWO; JOHN DOE THREE; JOHN DOE FOUR; JOHN DOE FIVE; JOHN DOE SIX; JOHN DOE SEVEN; JOHN DOE EIGHT; JOHN DOE NINE; JOHN DOE TEN; JOHN DOE ELEVEN; AND JOHN DOE TWELVE,

CIVIL ACTION NO.

Defendants

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT DISTRICT OF CONNECTICUT

COMPLAINT AND JURY TRIAL DEMAND

COMPLAINT AND JURY TRIAL DEMAND

A. INTRODUCTION

1. Defendants Douglas Perlitz, Father Paul E. Carrier, S.J., Fairfield University and other Defendants established a residential school in the Republic of Haiti, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. This school, Project Pierre Toussaint, purported to provide services to the poorest children of Haiti, many of whom lacked homes and regular meals. Defendant Douglas Perlitz was the director in Haiti of Project Pierre Toussaint, which provided him with an image of substantial trust and authority. Defendant Douglas Perlitz used that trust and authority, with the assistance of other Defendants to sexually molest Plaintiff and numerous other minor boys who attended Project Pierre Toussaint. Defendant Douglas Perlitz was convicted of violating 18 U.S.C. §2423(b), Travel With Intent To Engage In Illicit Sexual Conduct. In molesting Plaintiff, Defendant Douglas Perlitz was aided by the intentional or negligent acts of the other Defendants. Plaintiff seeks damages for Plaintiff’s personal injuries pursuant to 18 U.S.C. §2255 and common law.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

That’s about how most abusive systems get their start, seems to me.  Anyone who is intending to get access to kids, a flow of them, to molest and abuse has to have at least enough strategic organizing ability to know where to get the vulnerable kids, how to convince some people with the money that your real intent is to HELP them, not to – – E W them (i.e., use them carnally, and allow others to).  In addition such personalities also need to have – or associate with people who have — knowledge of incorporations, how to get a nonprofit status & board together, and start fundraising.

FOR EXAMPLE TAKE DOUG PERLITZ & FRIENDS, who I see have been sued in Federal Court in New Haven, Connecticut.  My post today started here — because I browse Courthouse Forum News in general.  See my Dec. 2, 2011 post,  Outrageous Outreach Activities in Haiti //Project Pierre Toussaint.  I will be coming back to this — but it’s a long introduction.  One thing someone forgot to consider when structuring a family court system that eliminates fully-adult mothers (like me) from their primary occupation — taking care of and fighting for their kids’ welfare — and often the secondary one, called normal employment (which often is a battle casualty) — is that, if we are not homeless or dead in the process, that leaves us a lot to think about, and some time to think about it in, time which otherwise would be involved in seeing one’s own children regularly!   And in the process of this thinking, we come with some very unique analyses and creative thinking on how to make sure this type of scam is stopped, permanently, from occurring again in the U.S.

USUALLy our creative thinking — the best of it anyhow — doesn’t come up by repeating the same processes that enabled the abuse to start wtih, such as assuming someone else in the public domain is going to do their job right, or that the systems that be even allow them to actually DO what their appointed job’s title allegedly is for.  Like, for example, “Children’s Protection Services,” ethically, honestly and effectively?  (you answer that question on your spare time….don’t forget to go ask Georgia Senator Nancy Schaefer, or at least what remains of her pre-murder communications on-line, said murder having happened while she was in the process of investigating and reporting on CPS abuses in her state).

ANYHOW, for those who by definition don’t have access to religiously-sanctioned normal marital relationships and a lifelong partnership for normal sexual relationships with consenting adults, other options are alas, sought.

And what better place to do such things and find such unprotected children than “the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere”??

1. Defendants Douglas Perlitz, Father Paul E. Carrier, S.J., Fairfield University and other Defendants established a residential school in the Republic of Haiti, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. This school, Project Pierre Toussaint, purported to provide services to the poorest children of Haiti, many of whom lacked homes and regular meals. Defendant Douglas Perlitz was the director in Haiti of Project Pierre Toussaint, which provided him with an image of substantial trust and authority. . .

And what better type or organization to do this than being a priest? (exception;  Being certain types of Congressional legislators or other powerful civic leaders — see The Franklin Coverup).

HOW FEDS STOP THINGS THEY DON’T APPROVE OF, EVEN IF IT’S LEGAL IN SOME STATES:

TO CONTROL ALLEGED OR REAL ABUSE OF TRAFFICKING IN SUBSTANCES  — WHEN THE FEDS ARE ACTUALLY SERIOUS ABOUT THIS, WHAT DO THEY DO?  THEY GO FOR THE JUGULAR — THE CASH FLOW!

For example*, California has its fights over legalization of medical marijuana, and one dispensary is fighting the feds to stay open, apparently.  Here’s their site:   http://www.harborsidehealthcenter.com/  and here’s how the Feds are trying to stop distribution, even in states which have legalized it, as reported in July 18, 2011 MiamiHerald(.com):   “Federal medical marijuana memo stirs angst in industry

(*and don’t think that this is something I’m following closely.  I have a wide-ranging field of vision and simply happen to live in California which, unlike being a mother in the family court system, doesn’t per se make me a “criminal” to be restrained.  I actually look at the news . . . . and bring this up for a teaching point about a different topic).

By Peter Hecht The Sacramento Bee

In October 2009, medical marijuana advocates celebrated a U.S. Department of Justice memo declaring that federal authorities wouldn’t target the legal use of medicinal pot in states where it is permitted.

The memo from Deputy U.S. Attorney General David Ogden was credited with accelerating a California medical marijuana boom, including a proliferation of dispensaries that now handle more than $1 billion in pot transactions.

But last month brought a new memo from another deputy attorney general, James Cole. And this time, it is stirring industry fears of federal raids on pot dispensaries and sweeping crackdowns on large-scale medical pot cultivation. Cole asserted in the June 29 memo that state laws “are not a defense” from federal prosecution, saying, “Congress has determined that marijuana is a dangerous drug” – and that distributing it “is a serious crime.”Justice Department officials said the memo offered “guidance” for states permitting medical marijuana and didn’t mark a harsher shift in federal policy. But it was a clear signal of the government’s concern about a move toward industrial-scale operations that would generate millions of dollars in revenue.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/07/18/2318955/federal-medical-marijuana-memo.html#storylink=cpy

The federal government is always going to be interesting in anything that generates millions of $$ of revenue. . . . . So are City Goverments.  It’s as much about who gets to control & regulate the funding as about the harm to citizens, if you ask me.  Generally speaking:

In February, U.S. Attorney Melinda Haag in San Francisco declared that the Justice Department was “considering civil and criminal remedies” against anyone trying to set up “industrial marijuana-growing warehouses in Oakland.” The Alameda County district attorney* warned that meant public officials weren’t immune from prosecution.Oakland City Councilwoman Patricia Kernighan said the city hasn’t given up on taxing and licensing medical marijuana cultivation.
Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/07/18/2318955/federal-medical-marijuana-memo.html#storylink=cpy

*re:  “Alameda County District Attorney” — search the term “Steve Boatbrain” (investigative reporting on IndyMedia, will bring up my blogs on the One-Stop Justice Shop, and I just saw another older result from San Mateo, County (California) on greatly reduced bail for accused child molester/Child Psychiatrist Ayres — who was being fed victims (per the active comments field analysis) from the Juvenile Court.  See comments thread 21-48 for Boatbrain input — but it sure does make one think):  “Hunched over and clad in an orange jumpsuit, a prominent child psychiatrist charged with 14 counts of lewd and lascivious acts with three children under the age of 14 stood before a judge Friday . . . .” and among the comments, Blogger “Here They Go Again” April 7, 2007, writes:

It is interesting that this accused child molester was commending him for his “commitment to children” by none other than the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors and had clients (victims) referred to him by Juvenile Court Supervising Judge Marta Diaz, Chief Probation Officer Loren Buddress, and Gerry Hilliard, managing attorney for the Private Defender Program in juvenile court and now he gets a reduction in bail from $1.5 million to $250,000 by San Mateo Superior Court Judge Thomas McGinn Smith. I guess these folks stick pretty close together.

What type of people do we have running San Mateo County’s government? It appears that the reckless and grossly negligent decisions and actions by people in positions of power in San Mateo County’s government are endangering the community.

Maybe it is time for the FBI to investigate San Mateo’s County government?

AND, a little later, commenter “Happy1” writes:

The biggest problem in this case is that the judges themselves are involved because they and their associates in the juvenile justice system were feeding this guy victims. Now, they appear to be getting together and participating in a whitewash by reducing his bail to a ridiculously low level and working behind the scenes to help him.

By helping this guy, isn’t the San Mateo County judiciary making itself part and parcel of the child molestation problem?

SAN MATEO is a county south of SAN FRANCISCO which is just a little west of the East Bay’s ALAMEDA COUNTY.   In Pennsylvania, there were also some judges feeding juveniles — without due process -to institutions the same judges had a financial interest in.  You think that’s just in PA?  Follow the nonprofits ! ! !

Someone then (we’re talking 2007) called the blogger a crazy (paranoid conspiracy delusion) and got this response:

Fred-o wrote:
paranoid conspiracy delusion.

Read the papers fool. This creep’s victims were referred to him by the San Mateo County Courts and Juvenile Probation Department. 

To which conversation  “George” from Seattle, WA (a few months later — June 2007) added:

Cinque- If you read the papers, you will see that boys came forward in the 1980s shortly after they were molested. The police did nothing. That’s why they are coming forward again.

and eventually (Sept. 2007) Mr. Boatbrain:

I want to be absolutely sure on this, Judge Thomas Smith in the past referred boys directly to Dr. Ayres, and now he is not recusing himself from this case? That smells bad, doesn’t it? I am not saying he did anything wrong, but he should not be on this case.

In fact, it sounds like the Attorney General should be handling this altogehter with all these connections between people.

(ALL font changes, italics, underlining, bolding etc. added by me — not the posters).

Let’s think (briefly, here) about the role of the top of the Law Enforcement Pyramid in any state:   Attorney General.  They are over District Attorneys and a whole lot more.  I used to believe (not understanding except by unfortunate experience — see child-stealing — the supreme amount of discretion District Attorneys have in whether to prosecute or NOT prosecute.  As such they are very powerful when it comes to protecting (or not) women & children.  See Sonoma County nonprofit site “Justicewomen.org” on this one, and I’ve blogged it too.

I had had children taken on overnight visitation –completely illegally — no factual or legal justification ever given by any judge, and I had contacted District Attorneys in more than one county (who I understood to be responsible in prosecuting criminal matters, or getting someone to HELP ME recover access to the children, when it was a clear violation of existing court order).  This was somehow mixed in with very abusive treatment by their underlings, county sheriffs and police, in the matters leading up to the situation of an entirely preventable crime.  I’m starting, gradually, to comprehend that the phrase “District Attorney” includes the words “Attorney” and the word “District” simply refers to their territory, turf, and essentially fiefdom.

Regarding the Attorney General should be investigating, that term — while now in California it’s Kamala Harris, who is going to have her hands full if she seeks to ever fully follow up on unregistered or just ain’t filing with the state charities in the state continuing to do business — sometimes WITH THE COURTS & PROBATION– and seek donations.  And one of whose employees (Fay) just had a young girl kidnapped on court-ordered visitation, not returned, and discovered too late as the “murder” victim in a murder-suicide (Samaan/Fay), previously we are talking about Attorney General Bill Lockyer, whose wife Nadya was somehow shuffled to the front of the pack to take over this ONE_STOP_JUSTICE_SHOP in Alameda County, which I’ve blogged on as well.  See my blog or, as I said, google the phrase “steve boatbrain” who obviously has his brain in operation on these matters, too.  Thanks, mister!

CHARITIES THAT DON’T FILE ARE UNDER THE AUTHORITY OF THE STATE OFFICE OF ATTORNEY GENERAL:

By habitually, and at some point I have to say intentionally refusing or failing to file properly with the Office of Attorney General, these groups are depriving the public, including the taxpayers, of the opportunity to review their tax returns, sometimes their articles of incorporation, or other sources to check who is on their boards, to verify if what’s said on the websites is true, or junk information, and connections between multiple organizations with similar board members.  Which is already hard enough to do on the California Secretary of State Business search site — which doesn’t enable ANY search by incorporator (i.e, person/business who set up the corp.), or even by EIN#!

FROM THE BIBLE:  “HE THAT IS FAITHFUL IN THAT WHICH IS LEAST. . .”

LET THESE FAITH-BASED GROUPS START DEMONSTRATING PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY AND ACCOUNTABILITY — AND START WITH THE FINANCES.  THOSE WILL LIKELY LEAD TO FURTHER INDICATORS OF CORRUPTION, POSSIBLY INVOLVING MINORS.  HANDLE THE ONE, YOU’RE LIKELY TO HANDLE THE OTHER.  TRY AND PAY YOUR LOCAL GOVERNMENT REPRESENTATIVE TO DO IT — YOU’LL PROBABLY JUST EXPAND THE BASE OF OPERATIONS!
AND DON’T BELIEVE EVERY TOM, DICK & HARRY (OR ESTER, JOE AND ERIC) WHO ARE PROMISING YOU ANYTHING THEY AREN’T QUALIFIED TO DELIVER — SUCH AS “FUTURES WITHOUT VIOLENCE” OR “DEFENSE OF CHILDHOOD.”

Written by Let's Get Honest|She Looks It Up

December 26, 2011 at 9:37 pm

Posted in 1996 TANF PRWORA (cat. added 11/2011), After HE Speaks Up - Reporting Child Sexual Abuse, Business Enterprise, Who's Who (bio snapshots)

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Domestic Relations on “Doherty Deceit”: Pennsylvania “Expose Corruption” Forum Moderator’s Wife says Enough! (in a kickout order), to the tune of Cheers and Jeers (Publ. Dec. 23, 2011)

leave a comment »

~ |Update Comments, Aug. 1, 2019| ~

Post Title: Domestic Relations on “Doherty Deceit”: Pennsylvania “Expose Corruption” Forum Moderator’s Wife says Enough! (in a kickout order), to the tune of Cheers and Jeers (publ. Dec. 23, 2011) short-link ends “-Wx” (approx. length, just about 12,000 words, including several tables.. and this intro which I expanded by looking up an organization referenced in the post.)

The usual update routine: This older post came up in a search, I didn’t have a shortening (“Click to Read More”) link, meaning the entire post would display in search results intended to show which posts dealt with the topic, so I came back and put one in. While here, applied the usual html to clean it up some.  Older posts do not have margin specs, and when the blog capacity was upgraded, the default background color changed to, I think, an ugly light blue/green. Those are simple fixes.

The Updated comments followed up on (just) one entity mentioned in the post, found it had been IRS-revoked (w/ Chicago address) for not filing three years in a row, was re-instated (by the IRS) in Dec. 2015 and is now based in Texas. Someone needs to counsel the “Council on Contemporary Families” about basics of staying registered with the IRS as ethical behavior, especially for those focused on analyzing and counseling others.  The current address reflects a “Population Center” at a U-Texas Austin, no doubt because the principal officer listed works there now.


The forum quoted and referenced below has gone down, but my time on it, and looking into things “Pennsylvania” was definitely memorable. As the state has come back up again, in pending (?) bills targeting family court decision-making, and as this post despite its title and beginnings, has a lot of organizations profiled towards the bottom, I’m applying a quick face-lift, the usual title + short-link protocol, and hoping for the best. //LGH Aug 1, 2019.

ByTheWay, this came up in a search for “enhancing judicial skills in domestic violence cases” (search without the quotes) on the blog, i.e., an internal phrase search…. also, the publish date I added to the title (now my usual protocol for all new posts) was taken from the URL which displays, actually, last edited date (probably the same).  That search generally leads straight to something involving the NCJFCJ, which may also be seen as a recently pinned Tweet at my @LetUsGetHonest Twitter account (somewhat more active in recent half-year or so).

Post Title: Domestic Relations on “Doherty Deceit”: Pennsylvania “Expose Corruption” Forum Moderator’s Wife says Enough! (in a kickout order), to the tune of Cheers and Jeers (publ. Dec. 23, 2011) short-link ends “-Wx” (approx. length, just under 12,000 words. That includes several tables.. and this intro which I sort of expanded by looking up an organization referenced in the post.)

I see TAGGS or other reports on:  PCADV, NRCDV (one of its projects), the PA Dept of Welfare, a reference to Jeffrey Leving, Esq., to the Council on Contemporary Families (“CCF” EIN#52-2070511, established in IL ca. 1998; it has a journal, I believe), and because it relates to Lackawanna County PA (which this forum did), some mentions of Justice Chet Harhut (who was AFCC-related), Ms. Termini (who was NACC, and both were “working” the Lackawanna County court-referral system quite well, as I recall).  (CCF FY2008 990EZ was its first tax return; I see revs. typically under $50K, no more filed since.  It may be filing Form 990-Ns).  Without posting it all here, the IRS says it was legitimate, but their “Determination letter” showed it as since Dec. 2015 and with an Austin, TX address (“305 E 23rd Street Stop G1800, Austin, TX 7871″).  Turns out they were auto-revoked (for not filing three years in a row, will do it…) in 2012, which was posted 2013, then re-instated LATE 2015, and have been filing Forms 990-N ever since, with principal officer “Jennifer Glass” and the website “contemporaryfamilies.org” (that information available on an IRS tax-exempt organization search). (“EOS”).   Anyone want to place a bet whether kept publishing while inactive and IRS-revoked?  (Either way, the operational size shown is small).


Found Jennifer Glass, Ph.D. (UWisconsin-Madison) (as suggested by the above website) at UTexas Austin, under the Population Research Center.  Curriculum vitae shows a Lifelong Sociologist, from way back, and cites at the top of “Honors and Awards” “Center for Contemporary Families – 2015 – ” (!).  Steady work and publishing career, though.  This is not the place to discuss it… But what a sorry-ass website (check it out! The CCF’s I mean, not Dr. Glass’s!)||


Otherwise: TAGGS grants shown here run off the right margins, but can be easily re-searched again on the government website, so I’m not restructuring them at this time.  Enjoy!!

~ |end, “Update” comments, Aug. 1, 2019| ~

(Below here is Dec., 2011 text and in a different tone than the update comments, obviously):


I hope I wasn’t responsible for provoking this incident, or lighting the final fuse, when I took on Joe Pilchesky’s mixture of excellent political activism + personal public misogyny below.   But a bouncing caricature of a tube-top set of boobs, and various other parts of (clothed) female anatomy, either animate or inanimate, characterized or photographed — is a little different than a naked woman half out of a pool (?) in a forum where the leader is being a real man and taking on other men for oppressing defenseless mothers.  Plus I felt the groupthink in that no one else did.  I still have some question (based on the “members on-line views and a few other things*) on whether some of the usernames do or do not have a single author.

This is a case where unless one knows a little more property, business (ownership of internet forum) and legal marital history, one probably can’t know the whole story, but certain educated guesses are possible.  However, in the process of detaching and detoxing (I felt I at least “delivered the goods” to the area, and some helpful links & analysis), I also responded to one too many “Shut up, Woman!” remarks from the local folk hero.  The habit was inappropriate, and I don’t feel that whether or not I am getting fVcked at any point in time should affect whether or not I have a right to speak.  Especially to someone who appears to be about my age, and had been asserting that the family law system didn’t have anything to do with gender, and federal grants were not gender-specific (both false).

After posting what’s below, I went back on-line yesterday morning, and found out that not only had Mrs. Pilchesky evicted her husband from her (per property deeds) home — possibly enabling her to either move back in, sell it, rent it, or whatever she wants to do with it — but she also took control of the forum and apparently is purging it of “defamatory, personal or libelous” commentary.  And the fur is flying for sure.  Some claimed she “mutinied” (interesting metaphor; that ship had a captain), others that it was about time!  She abandoned poor Joe to handle the forum alone; she put up with his crap too long, how can you put a guy out of his home right before Christmas? . . . well, it wasn’t exactly “his” home . . . and attempts to boycott the forum, go follow the leader!

 

As of this morning, the site still looks like this, or at least this was a precipitating message from the Mrs.: (image link broken)

(from Joane Pilchesky): (image link broken; it was probably a gravatar)

 

Status: Offline
Posts: 2172
Date: Dec 21 10:21 PM, 2011

Reply Quote

 Printer Friendly

I have relieved Joe Pilchesky from his administrative responsibilities and privileges. It is my belief that the Doherty Deceit website, which operated by Joe and another Administrator, will have a link to a mirror message board that may look like and function like this one.I have disabled this message board temporarily because I am attempting to prevent any defamatory, libelous or vulgar statements to be exported from this site and imported onto the new message forum.

It is my intent to clean up some of the posts on this board, removing ethnic, cultural, personal and all defamatory statements and then re-activate it. It should be up and running by tomorrow early a.m.

I thank you for your patience and understanding. If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact me at scrantonpoliticaltimes@gmail.com and rest assured that your anonymity, as always, is guaranteed.

__________________

Educate and inform the whole mass of the people… They are the only sure reliance for the preservation of our liberty. – Thomas Jefferson

 

My point was, we need more leaders, and fewer blind followers.  I expect that got rather lost in the din….

Meanwhile, people, plural (that means women) have continued to contact me on-line privately about their cases, meaning I get to hear more nightmare information about HOW very young children are separated from their mothers, who sure sound pretty coherent, given that situation.   And I’m not that hero… or an attorney . . . or ready to live more vicarious trauma.   No, I want to tell the truth in a principled format; so that others can check THEIR particulars, and if the shoe fits, pull it on and start making some tracks.

So, if you like gossip — there you go.  Moral?  Those who post to forums should be sure to save their work!


ANOTHER TRADE (membership-based) NonProfit, with professors, speakers, authors, historians, therapists . . . (and Jeffrey Leving) — which can’t file a tax return?!?

Yep.

Scroll to bottom for another nonprofit association of the FBI-raided GAL from Scranton, PA:  Council on Contemporary Families.

  • ANYHOW — This next section is partial dialogue, but also delivers more data — and proves, yet again, that a simple google search on a person’s name can unearth some strange bedfellows, and more nonprofit associations.  Heads-up towards the bottom on a new AFCC+Arts/Farts & Ph.D.-staffed nonprofit from Illinois — which has illustrious membership (plus a GAL from Scranton, which I’d have to characterize as social climbing, given the company) — and in its entire existence, complete with state-of-the-art email marketing (obnoxious, actually) on its website — has filedl it looks like ONE (count it, ONE!) tax return — that’s for the IRS.
  • The tax return shows an Illinois address, in fact UIC (University of Illinois Chicago) – – – but Illinois itself shows NO record of the group, either incorporation or as the nonprofit which the tax return shows it is.  While the income shown on this membership organization is modest (and possibly falsified/understated — they have about 220 members now, $100 a pop except students $50, and showed between $14-$16K membership income in only 2008.  I’d love to see the membership roster.

WRITTEN 12-21-2011 and earlier, continued from previous post (I copied some overlap for context):

This is why I’d bother to give the forum the time of day.  Because it’s different.  What a shame that means wading through the misogyny as well, and not just for me.  In a workplace I wonder if that’d be grounds for harassment.  (I blogged this earlier:).  Look at how the Good ol’ boys handled it:
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Written by Let's Get Honest|She Looks It Up

December 23, 2011 at 9:00 am

For Scrantonians — To Assert is Fine, but To Prove is Best. Study How Kentucky Got Its 70 Judicial Center Projects, 9 Court Programs (including 11 Divorce Ed. courses so far). You’re Next!

with 8 comments

This post sounds more state-specific than it is.  When pilot programs and model courts are being coordinated with help from outside the state to within any state, there’s little state-specific about the courts taking place these days.  Remember also the influence of federal funding, and the speed of change facilitated by our lovely internet technology (think, approximately 1980s becoming more popularly accessible — but governments (especially military, who of course need great communications and data processing), academia, and lawyers will generally be further ahead than most of the public).

Original Post Published 12/21/2011.  I had occasion to refer to it, and began updating 9/8/2015, in part because the Kentucky State Court had re-arranged its website, creating broken-link-syndrome.   On noticing they, too, unified the court system, and by “Judicial Article” in 1976 created an “AOC” with a Chief Justice (i.e., centralized operations), I immediately remembered the NYS Unified Court System and its “Public/private partnership” with the under-reported “Fund for the City of New York,” (first funded 1968) which was labeled at some point, possibly post-1993, the Center for Court Innovation.

The Center for Court Innovation being often mischaracterized in print, I decided it was time to talk about how the system is set for privatization, and of course, global alignment internationally.  This would be hard to achieve directly and get past most voters — but it’s already been arranged to do it INdirectly, under the lable just improving systems, and helping families, communities, and in the public interest.

Tax-exempt, tax (and privately) funded, and WHERE did your famous legal rights go??  Perhaps a better question to ask is where did the money go, which might help answer the former questions.

I added a substantial section (light-green background) to my 2011 commentary and word-battles (at a few points) with a now-defunct forum in Scranton, PA.  It will become a separate post soon, I hope.  If so, this one will be shortened, with a referral link.  Maybe.  (Catch it while you can…)

🙂


 

Righteous Indignation, Determination to do something, and a Healthy Sarcasm  — admirable, I love it.

Also one has to love anyone who can file enough Right To Knows, get information sufficient to file a CIVIL suit against a FAMILY court racket(eering set of individuals), have (I believe as a result of that and related) suit, the FBI come charging in to haul off evidence (for what purpose, remains to be seen)  and post it for all to see.  And keep posting.  Again, I came here from Kentucky — after I found some dude from this area (Dunmore, PA) getting his product marketed through the Kentucky Family Court System, which has a ridiculous number dof “Divorce Education” programs and one that clearly uses extortion to get Dads in arrears into fatherhood program probably aimed at about 6th grade (maybe tops, 8th) level of intellect.  And that is called a “Court of Justice”!

 Judicial Center Projects **

Since 1998 the Kentucky Court of Justice has completed, authorized or begun construction on 70 new judicial centers.

These new facilities have given Kentucky citizens safe, efficient, cost-effective buildings in which to exercise their legal and constitutional rights

[**Original Post was 12/21/2011; Updates, Link Correction (different background color)  @ 9/8/2015]:

The Courts.ky.gov web pages have changed since this post, and no longer so clearly display the 11 divorce education programs below. More info at.  Notice the AOC was put in place in 1976 by “the Judicial Article.”  Their summary provides no link to that article, or description of who issued it, was there a referendum, did the judges come together in decide, or what.

 Kentucky Administrative Office of the Courts

The Administrative Office of the Courts is the operational arm of the Judicial Branch. The AOC supports court facilities and programs in all 120 counties, with its main campus in Frankfort.

The AOC was established in 1976 as a result of the Judicial Article. The Judicial Article created Kentucky’s unified court system and made the chief justice head of the state court system, also known as the Kentucky Court of Justice.


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Substance-Poor, Repetition-Rich: Parsing ~ Parent Coordination ~ Rhetoric ~ and some Organizations..(Publ. Dec. 14, 2011, updated (format) Oct. 30, 2017)

with 5 comments

POST TITLE IS: 

Substance-Poor, Repetition-Rich: Parsing ~ Parent Coordination ~ Rhetoric ~ and some Organizations..(Publ. Dec. 14, 2011, updated (format) Oct. 30, 2017) (WordPress-generated, case-sensitive shortlink ends “-WN”

My practice of adding borders and listing the post title with shortlink is more recent.

Currently this post is NOT listed on any Table of Contents (my lists only go as far back as Sept. 2012)…I see that many of the logos will not display, and that this post as written was about 10,000 words long. This update made only because a basic search on the blog for an organization I’m writing about again brought it up. (Update this time is only minimal format changes for easier reading; is not in detail and doesn’t include fixing broken links/missing logos, or more recent information on the organizations referenced).//LGH Oct. 30, 2017.


INTRO:

Overall, I seriously doubt that it’s possible to clean up or straighten up the family law system — at all, and I am utterly serious in saying this.  There is too much incentive for fraud, and too much need to “pay the mortgages” in the courthouses by ordering more services, and too little oversight and tracking of the funding.  There are too many public employees forming nonprofit corporations to franchise for-profit curricula (marriage, parent education, etc.) — in the old NonProfit/ForProfit combo.

There are too few tools in many states to track WHO is repeatedly forming corporations that go belly-up, only to have a partner or other person formerly on one board just go forth and from another one — in another state.   Many of these groups, as my last post showed, are membership organizations — membership is charged, conferences run, and we have some evidence from county payrolls or vouchers from court-connected professionals, that the public is billed to fund attendance at nonprofits whose ONE purpose is to expand their services.  Child support is one of the worst of these, but they come in all flavors.

Despite the bleak outlook — I still report and I am going to finish reporting on this field of Parent Coordination until it is CLEAR what the AFCC professionals’ intent is in establishing this field and, if possible, having it legitimized at the state level by establishing standards, or by mandate.

The Association for Family and Conciliation Courts runs many task forces at a time, as part of its strategic plan to expand (itself) and transform the “old” language of criminal law into more friendly-to-its-practitioners concepts.    One of them which they are taking VERY seriously in promoting — and I take VERY seriously in protesting — is Parenting Coordination.

Parents didn’t ask for this — it’s no grassroots movement, and from what I can tell how it’s been (1) advertised (2) pushed and (3) practiced — there’s no genuine NEED for it either.  For that matter, I see no historical record that parents as a sector (both male and female) asked for the family law system, either.

Why I’m addressing it — again:   

(1) AFCC PROMOTED IT – NOT PARENTS.  NO REAL NEED EXISTED, and SERIOUS ISSUES & OBJECTIONS AS THEY DID.

The LizLibrary lists a page of them, and towards the bottom, some legal opinions, too:  Parenting Coordination:  A Bad Idea

Here’s less than half the list — and so far I agree with ALL of them.  Thank you, Liz (Kates, the FL Family Law attorney, not Richards, of NAFCJ.net)
© 1996-2011 argate.net        frcp:

  • Parenting coordination is an inappropriate delegation of the judicial function
  • Parenting coordination is an impediment to court access
  • Parenting coordination is a denial of due process
  • Parenting coordination violates privacy
  • The parenting coordinator concept encroaches on family liberty interests
  • Parenting coordination represents arbitrary dictate by a person, in denigration of rule of law
  • Parenting coordination is a make-work role newly invented by psychology trade promotion groups
  • No studies indicate parenting coordinators make good decisions
  • No studies indicate parenting coordination improves families’ lives or child wellbeing.
  • Nothing qualifies a stranger to make family decisions for other people
  • Nothing qualifies a mental health professional to interpret a court order or legal document
  • Nothing qualifies a lawyer to play at being an unlicensed, unregulated therapist for hire
  • Nothing qualifies any third party to “fill in the gaps” in someone else’s contract
  • There is no definition of what constitutes a successful parenting coordination
  • Parenting coordination does not, in the long run, alleviate court docket congestion
  • It creates additional issues and leaves the door open for return trips to resolve them
  • Parenting coordination provides a new forum for squabbling over petty disputes
  • Parenting coordination is an additional expense that many can ill afford
  • Parenting coordination enables one parent to spend the other’s funds
  • Parenting coordination is time-consuming and tedious
  • Parenting coordination is not confidential
  • Parenting coordination constitutes continuous government discovery, 4th Amendment
  • Parenting coordination constitutes continuous discovery by each parent into the affairs of the other
  • Parenting coordination can never be “voluntary” because it implements unwanted court orders
  • Parenting coordinators demand that the parties sign “consents” that give up constitutional rights
  • Some have demanded that parties give up the right to go to court, contact police, or involve their lawyers
  • They are hired or appointed under shadow of the threat of court sanctions or loss of custody
  • They are agreed to by parties ignorant of the repercussions, in fear, out of funds, or overwhelmed
  • Parenting coordination does not result in increased family well-being
  • Parenting coordination does not make children happier, healthier, or better adjusted
  • Parenting coordination is not therapy but coercion backed by the state’s police power
  • Parenting coordinators tend to be hostile to, and at odds with attorney-client relationships
  • They align with GALs and other court appointees in a pretext of “focus on the children”
  • They encroach on parental-child relationships and decision-making
  • They undermine the parental authority children require for a sense of security and well-being
  • Instead of at least one authoritative parent, children have no authoritative parent
  • Petty tyrants place a premium on the perception of who is cooperating with them
  • Cooperation with the parenting coordinator is court-ordered and
  • They alone decide if a parent is “cooperating” with them

From the same page, a case “Parenting Coordinator Out of Control” — and I have to note that it’s an appeal from an order at the FL (presumably 20th) Circuit Court Level bearing Judge Hugh Starnes‘ name!

The Hon. Hugh Starnes showed up in yesterday’s post, where I was simply blogging an AFCC judge, and also his nonprofit in FL with the initials AFLP (logo on the post).  I also happen to know he was quite active in FL-AFCC Chapter establishment, which seemed to have the primary agenda of getting parenting coordination passed in Florida.  They have since succeeded, I believe, too.
Like I keep saying — sometime others will acknowledge — parenting coordinators are themselves pushy, and AFCC pushed Parenting Coordination, in fact they are one set of bullies when it comes to getting THEIR priorities into practice, then law – citing it’s already in practice anyhow.
This is primarily what AFCC does.  From the organization’s point of view, this is phrased as “innovative” and “helping” and “problem-solving.”  The problem (sic) is always the recalcitrant parents, and the UNFORTUNATE vestiges of separation of powers (legal/judicial/executive branch) and little details like confidentiality in a lawsuit, and legal restraints.
Here’s a link to Parentcoordination.com’s complaint about the legal limits part – and their plan of PC as an end-run around those limits!   {{It looks like I didn’t post that link, or it wasn’t saved to final… unless it’s shown in the DVLeap 2010 brief.}}

“The Court’s parenting coordinator orders unconsitutionally delegate judicial power and violate due process… The Special Master Order’s requirement that Appellant pay for the parenting coordinators to whom she objects violates law and public policy… The Special Master Order requiring Appellant to waive her medical privilege violates her statutory and constitutional rights to privacy…”

AFCC could care less.  They DEMANDED it and are still finishing up trying to get this mandated in every single United State.

  •  Even the brother of the Marriage Promotion President, the “Family” family, George Bush — as Governor of Florida, Jeb Bush, FL (2004) had the sense to object based on sound principles.  A newly formed (probably for this purpose) chapter of AFCC strategized, lobbied, publicized, practiced, and finally managed to ram it through, over his veto.  It only slowed them down slightly.

June 18, 2004   

Ms. Glenda E. Hood Secretary of State Florida Department of State

By the authority vested in me as Governor of Florida, under the provisions of Article III, Section 8, of the Constitution of Florida, I do hereby withhold my approval of and transmit to you with my objections, Committee Substitute for Senate Bill 2640, enacted during the 36th session of the Legislature, convened under the Constitution of 1968, during the Regular Session of 2004, and entitled:

An act relating to Parenting Coordination. . .

Committee Substitute for Senate Bill 2640 authorizes courts to appoint a parenting coordinator when the court finds the parties have not implemented the court-ordered parenting plan, mediation has not been successful, and the court finds the appointment is in the best interest of the children involved.

 

  • He lists 5 objections, two of which clearly recognize that it in effect allows a parent coordinator to function as both judge and jury of parents’ or children’s rights, and one of which is that it fails to protect victims of domestic violence.   I also note from the language that it looks like a Committee (not the general legislature) attempted to have this substitute for an existing Senate Bill. . . . . 

(2) The “Termini/Boyan Factor” —

  • The People fixed on training parent coordinators have a terrible track record when it comes to staying incorporated(I found another one today — Seminars for Advanced Interdisciplinary Family Professionals, or “SAIF.”  Formed in 2006, it’s already behind in its filings, in the state of Indiana. And it appears that, again, a nonprofit/for-profit combo, originating not with litigants, but with the professionals, was set up to give (again) some family law attorneys the right to crow about their own parent coordination training seminars they helped run themselves.  By and large, that seems to be the situation in Indiana — which it seems New Hampshire liked a lot, too. Termini/Boyan are Georgia/Pennsylvania — but same general idea.

(3) The language of “parent coordination” is impoverished and repetitive.

Here’s an example, from a family law attorney, a bona-fide certified one  (although the nonprofit membership she cites all over is anything but “bona-fide” when it comes to filing charitable returns in the home state!)

It’s even from an Amicus Brief (I THINK it got filed, although this isn’t the stamped version). Actually, this is where the title to my post came from:

 

CASE NO. C064475

SUPERIOR COURT CASE NO. 34-3009-80000359

IN THE COURT OF APPEAL FOR THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA

THIRD APPELLATE DISTRICT

__________________

RANDY RAND, ED.D. Plaintiff and Appellant, v. BOARD OF PSYCHOLOGY, Defendant and Respondent. __________________

BRIEF OF AMICUS CURIAE

ASSOCIATION OF CERTIFIED FAMILY LAW SPECIALISTS __________________

Face sheet as posted at CaliforniaParentingCoordinator.com (using link from this 12/14/2011 post).

[Three images, inside blue borders, added in 2017 update.  See also their list Table of Authorities].

 

In the statute of authorities for this brief, bearing the name “Leslie Ellen Shear” and “Stephen Temko” (although the certificate of interested parties form bears the name Shear, and is dated 1/27/2011), after the legal and rules of court list, comes:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Table of Contents from Amicus Brief (source url shown on gray window-frame at top of image).

 

 

 

“Treatises, Law Reviews and Other Authorities” – and on reading it, I see it quotes, among others:

  • The nonprofit ACFLS (which she’s head of Amicus Brief Committee on, or was)
  • AFCC itself (at least twice)
  • A host of people, known to be AFCC professionals anyhow, for those who pay attention — such as Ahrons, Coates, Deutch, Greenberg, Kelly, and who knows about some of the others.  These quotations include those from the AFCC publication, Family Court Review (joint with “Hofstra Univ. School of Law”) and AFCC newsletters, etc.
  • Herself, like 3 times, in:
    • Shear (2008) In Search of Statutory Authority for Parenting Coordinator Orders in California: Using a Grass-roots, Hybrid Model Without an Enabling Statute 5 Journal of Child Custody 88…………………………………………..5, 18, 25  (cited on page 5, 18 & 25).

(I’m also adding this quote in 2017 update, from the Amicus Brief):

ACFLS’s purposes in appearing as amicus are to protect and perfect the parenting coordination service model in California family courts, discuss the implications of the issues raised in this case for the future of parent coordination in California, and address the implications of those issues for other family court appointed neutrals including but not limited to child custody evaluators4, minors’ counsel appointed per Fam. Code §3150 et seq., mediators, therapists, members of collaborative family law teams, and other court appointed or connected quasi-judicial dispute resolution professionals.

In other words, to protect her own kind….

 

Note title — trying to legislate parenting coordination.

Another set of professionals tried to write “Kids Turn” into law around 2002, right? (see my “Kicking Salesmanship Up a Notch post.”) then-Governor Gray Davis (properly!) vetoed even the version of it put out which didn’t overtly say “Kids’ Turn” on its face.

So here’s a sample section of this Amicus:

On page 4, quoting AFCC person Greenberg (whose writing I also ran across) cites who came up with the idea, vaguely characterized as:

In 1994, the concept of parenting coordination was spawned by a concerned group of professionals in California and Colorado who realized that some high conflict families remained chronically mired in conflict and required something different. . . For these families, the traditional tried and true approaches to containing familial conflict such as litigation, mediation, forensics, and therapy had not worked. Thus, the concept of parenting coordination was conceived as a different and needed dispute resolution intervention.

(Tried and True?  [is that really an appropriate phrase for use in an amicus brief?]

Try “Tried and found seriously wanting.”  Don’t believe me?  Look here.  I’ve already mentioned the Seal Beach (CA) massacre enough times, so here’s one fresh off the press — like YESTERDAY, in Florida.  Actually, it seems there’s an acquiescent mother in this one: even after Dad murdered the son, the surviving children (including one witness to that murder) miss their Daddy.  And they shouldn’t even be supervised, but be able to go to events like church, sports, etc.

Sounds like perhaps this is a stepfather (or second family) situation here, judging by age of the children.  And the shooter was a retired police officer!

Dad accused of killing son wants custody rights to surviving kids; judge lets him have unsupervised contact (Orlando, Florida)

POSTED: 5:56 pm EST December 13, 2011
UPDATED: 6:45 pm EST December 13, 2011

ORLANDO, Fla. — A former Orlando police officer accused of killing his son was back in court, arguing for custody rights to his other children. 

Timothy Davis Sr. won a victory of sorts Tuesday when a judge granted him the ability to pick up his younger children from school, including his 9-year-old daughter who authorities said witnessed the killing.

The retired police officer is accused of shooting his son, 22-year-old Timothy Davis Jr., to death at their Apopka home in what he said was self-defense after his son attacked him, injuring his knee in October.

Here’s another involving 3 children, and a custody hearing, plus prior assaults on the child and wife.

Dad managed to get himself shot (to death) after apparently attacking a state trooper.  I do not call this ‘tried and true.”  This was an American military, married in Germany, but the divorce action  appears to be HERE. He also was Marine Corps.

Here’s one from Texas; 40 year old father, who apparently had custody? (or certainly unsupervised visitation), emails nude pictures of his 12 year old daughter.   This man was living with his mother who, thankfully, was honest enough to do something about her pervert son, although somehow the courts weren’t alert to this in custody decisions:

by KHOU.com staff

khou.com
Posted on December 8, 2011 at 8:58 PM

KATY, Texas – A 40-year-old father is facing charges for allegedly distributing nude photos of his 12-year-old daughter online.

According to court documents, the suspect was living with his daughter at his mother’s house in Katy when the offenses occurred.

Investigators said that in August of 2011, the suspect’s mother found emails sent from the suspect’s gmail account that contained nude images of children.   Some of those images were of the suspect’s daughter, the grandmother said.

Sorry to bring up this very unpleasant reality-check, but when in Amicus Brief a parent-coordinator pusher talks about previously tried methods that work — the definition of “works” or “tried and true” apparently / generally just means “tried, sometimes resulting in death, physical or sexual abuse of minors post-separation, or having minor children showing up in child pornography in father’s possession.”  All of these were from December 2011 news articles, only.

Keep these incidents for a point of reference while I quote from p.12, a whole chapter on how parent coordinators have such difficult parents to deal with, “poor them”:

 

III. Parenting Coordinators Work With the Most Difficult Family Court Population – Those Most Prone to Assert Grievances and Challenge Decisionmakers

… cases are usually referred to parenting coordination because they are chronically litigious and difficult to manage.** These parents have often had several attorneys, evaluators, and mediators — professional hopping and shopping is rampant. Their court files are thick with motions, court appearances, and allegations of wrongdoing by the parents.

Coates, Deutsch et al. (2004) Parenting Coordination for High-Conflict Families 42 Fam. Ct. Rev. 246, 252

**Difficult-to manage parents are the bread and butter of the family court.  They are the income producers.  Assigning them to parent coordination is yet one more source of income for the professionals, taken from either the parents, or (looks like there’s some effort to make even broke parents participate in this too — AFCC-CA has a workshop or presentation, on the 2012 hearing on this).

Perhaps the professionals in question should re-think the business of “managing parents” to start with.

So, the opening quote to this chapter is from two long-time AFCC professionals (Coates/Deutsch) in an AFCC publication?, although it’s only 2004, using an AFCC-originated concept and term, “high-conflict families” (although I hear Bill Eddy now says they are high-conflict individuals — see my post on “yet another AFCC wet dream.” and his High-conflict Institute….)

The child custody cases referred to parenting coordinators are the most complex, acrimonious, difficult and demanding cases. Most parents regain their perspective and bearings within two years of separation, and do not need this kind of intensive and ongoing service model. Parents who continue to re- turn to court with enforcement and modification requests after completing co- parenting educational programs,* and after a child custody evaluation are can- didates for parenting coordination,

* perhaps this speaks to the quality of the co-parenting educational programs, more than the parents.

* or perhaps they are pissed at being forced to take co-parenting classes to start with, not mentioning affected if they also have to pay.

Parents who need a PC intervention are typically a special group for whom the passage of time has not reduced the rage and angry behaviors of at least one if not both parents.

A casual dismissal of whether it’s just one — or both — parents here.  We KNOW that many of these cases — not just some — are in fact cases involving danger, abuse, and etc.   These cases do NOT belong in family court at all — but they are there because of greed of professionals, and because of the fatherhood movement (backlash to feminism) that incentivizes and insists that single motherhood is bad for kids.  For that matter, even if Mom remarries happily, it’s still supposedly bad for the world if biological father isn’t in his kids’ life.

In short — Ms. Shear and Mr. Temko (whoever drafted this) — are, with their colleagues — unable to literally distinguish between one parent and another when discussing “parents” in front of others who have some privilege (like a statutory justification) or grant to give them.

BUT — their own handbooks, and some appellate cases already involving parenting coordination, show clearly that they are QUITE able to distinguish one parent from another, and not only do, but literally plan how to, target mothers, specifically, for badmouthing and possible intervention in the form of getting the kids away from her.  (I have two links to parent coordination handbooks on this post, you can check them out.).

The 10–20% of parents who remain in entrenched and high conflict two to three years after separation/divorce are significantly more likely to have severe personality disorders and/or mental illness (Johnston & Roseby, 1997).

You can’t see it here, but on the pdf it shows:  in this quote, we have a triple-layer AFCC site.  I believe Johnston is probably Janet Johnston (AFCC Board, or was).  Kelly, (below) who’s being quoted in the section, if it’s Joan B. Kelly, has been called the “grande dame” of AFCC and mediation promotion in the family law courts.  She runs a Northern California Mediation Center, and obviously publishes too.   And Shear is AFCC.  So — if so — that represents:

AFCC Shear quotes AFCC Kelly quoting AFCC Johnston, as to parent coordination, which is an AFCC idea.  (this is FAR more common than most people — who are less obsessive about looking things up than me — realize.  I have labored through some pretty detailed writings (NYState) where when they ran out of ideas, they simply restated them, and I literally read ALL the footnotes too, most of which were “ibid.”   

Understanding the characteristics of parents with severe borderline, dependent, narcissistic, and antisocial personality disorders, why these parents react so strongly to rejection and loss, how the child is used in attempts to re-stabilize their functioning and punish the other parent, and how personality disorders are exacerbated by stress, conflict and the adversarial system will facilitate more effective work with these difficult clients.

Kelly (2008) Preparing for the Parenting Coordination Role: Training Needs for Mental Health and Legal Professionals 5 Journal of Child Custody 140,149-150

I don’t know how to state this clearly enough.  The difficulty any professional has — who by definition holds an option to quit the profession (which they chose) in dealing with a ‘difficult client” is no comparison with the difficulty of dealing — year after year thanks to policies — with an “ex” who has threatened to kidnap or kill, who has beaten one before, or who may be and/or has molested children, possibly one’s own (dep. on the case) before.   Suppose the shoe was on the other foot?  Again, if professionals don’t like the difficulty they have an option — find another line of work.

But thanks to their insistence on THIS line of work, i.e., at public AND private expense, and explicit danger to the communities — almost no parent — and I’m going to say mother, specifically– can actually get free from real criminals they’ve had children with, even when he’s already in jail.

I know of one case where the person has already done time in an unbelievably severe situation, and this mother/daughter who already went through hell — is being stalked again.  Until she’s safe, I’m not naming names, but once she is/they are, I will – because this case was high-profile and has been in the news.

One point of view is dealing with comfort, and potential burnout, in the performance of one’s duties that have internationally networked, federally-funded, county-judicial-level endorsed, and more — support groups.  The other is of staying alive, housed, and after that, functional and employed at all.

If one continues to read the Amicus, it continues to complain and blame.  The next quote by Shear is of Shear.  Here’s a little further on in the Amicus:

Parenting coordination is a very intrusive model, inserting state authority into the daily family lives of parents and children. With those intrusive powers comes a duty to exercise restraint, discretion and wisdom.

This work often creates the perfect storm. Parenting coordinators struggle to avoid being triangulated into the family’s conflicts.

Well, they triangulated themselves in there to start with, intentionally!   Which shows a lack of:   “restraint, discretion, and wisdom” per se.

From page 18 (“just one more”!) – This chapter complains that California hasn’t legislated parenting coordination by stipulation (i.e., authorizing it by force)  yet:

The only thing that is clear about appointment of parenting coordinators in California is that family courts are without jurisdiction to make them without a stipulation. Moreover, no published case has upheld orders resulting from a stipulated appointment of a parenting coordinator.

The quote from Greenberg in this Amicus acknowledges that professionals in California & Colorado (two hotspots of family law leadership; Center for Policy Research/Jessica Pearson et al. are in Denver) “spawned” the concept.  Or rather, it “was spawned” — we can’t name an individual father, so perhaps it was a sort of psychological gang-rape that produced the idea (just kidding).  Unlike “collaborative law” which actually names a father, “Stu Webb” out of MN. . ..      And that this began in the 1990s.

We are now in 2011.  Perhaps it’s time to admit that it’s a bad idea to start with; if even in California — where AFCC originated — they can’t get it into law!

The text continues — and understanding that I don’t know the underlying case, have not read the entire brief and am not an attorney, I’m to add a comment to the next section:

Of course, courts have no power to modify statutes. Statutes prescribe and proscribe what courts may do.

Damn right they do! On the other hand, has that really slowed down AFCC initiatives, has it?  I think there’s been a track record of resounding success, if getting around constitutional and statutory limits pending changing the statutes to accommodate more income streams to court-connected (or formerly court-connected, like retired judges) professionals… is what’s intended.

The California Constitution (art. VI, § 22) prohibits the delegation of judicial power except for the performance of subordinate judicial duties. A trial court lacks either statutory or inherent power to require the parties to bear the cost of a special master’s services, even where it may have the authority to make the appointment. (People v. Superior Court (Laff) (2001) 25 Cal.4th 703)

The Court of Appeal reversed trial court orders delegating authority over the visitation schedule to a child custody evaluator, requiring one of the parents to participate in psychotherapy and requiring that all future custody mat- ters be heard before the same bench officer in In re Marriage of Matthews (1980) 101 Cal.App.3d 811, 816–817 because there was no statutory authority supporting such a delegation.

Just GUESSING here, but perhaps if over a 21-year period (in one state), it’s still being stated that there are Constitutional limits on delegating Judicial power, and three years later the Governor of Florida (Jeb Bush) brings it up in a reason for vetoing a parent coordination stipulation — there just MIGHT be a good reason!   Parent Coordination is hardly an Occupy San Francisco (or anywhere else in California) grassroots protest or demand, is it, either?

We’re third generation fatherhood programs out here, we are also probably at least second-generation post-TANF (1996), post fatherhood (i.e., about 15-16 years since they passed), and perhaps– just perhaps — the last thing this state needs is more ideas originating from this nonprofit and all its collaborators in therapeutic jurisprudence great ideas.

Perhaps — just perhaps — it’s a good thing if constitutional and statutory limits on out-sourcing the judicial function mean something around here, for a change! Be content with what you got so far, as authorized by access/visitation (three categories of potential program fraud enabled) and all the marriage promotion money too, plus lots of the nonprofits — like ACFLS — not even bothering to report into the state Registry of Charitable Trusts (OAG) anyhow!

(REASON 4)

(4)

Moreover  — like most AFCC promotions — the language promoting parent coordination continues to refuse to think or talk in terms of legal rights to INDIVIDUALS as the Declaration of Independence asserted, which helped kickstart the USA, claims they are.   The language of parent coordination is continually pluralized, or group-talk.  It does not, really, acknowledge that a person could be a member of a family (like “parent” “father” or “mother”) and yet really have — and deserve — equal standing as an individual in any matter, before the law.

Here’s an example from ParentCoordinationCentral.com (Termini/Boyan site).  These are the supposed GOALS OF PARENT COORDINATION:

  1. Educate parents regarding the impact of their behaviors on their child(ren)’s development.

    [supports my thesis that AFCC members are often frustrated teachers.  They want to teach EVERYONE, and if people don’t agree, they are clever about figuring out ways to force this, and be paid for it, too.]
  2. Reduce parental conflict through anger management, communication and conflict resolutions skills. 
    [increasing the expense of divorce, treating parents like kids, undermining judicial authority, & due process, and invading one’s privacy sure will “reduce parental conflict”!! . .. And I haven’t even got (this post anyhow) to the training manual which has an openly hostile attitude towards mothers, it’s unbelievable).
  3. Decrease inappropriate parental behaviors to reduce stress for the child.
    [goes with AFCC goal of switching from a legally defined set of prohibited behaviors to an arbitrary, subjective, and personalized version of what is appropriate or inappropriate parental behavior.   Instead, how about just accept the basic definitions in the law, and as to court orders, compliance with them?]
  4. Work with parents in developing a detailed plan for issues such as discipline, decision-making, communication, etc.
     [Good Grief! — Go have your own children, and raise them — well.  Let’s see what fine examples they are, then parents can judge FREELY whether Mr. , Ms. & Mrs. Parent Coordinators are competent to make these plans.  I mean — the concept is ridiculous!  What about various cultures and family values, so long as they are not child abuse, domestic violence, or otherwise illegal?] [Even then it probably wouldn’t be a comparable situation, because the psychologists involved with the court, and AFCC professionals can usually drum up plenty of high-paying business, whereas a lot of the parents they are dealing with probably, by the time they are on the scene, absolutely cannot.]
  5. Create a more relaxed home atmosphere allowing the child to  adjust more effectively with the new family structure.
    [You want to have a more relaxed home atmosphere with children/  Again, go have your own and show it to us.  Then we can, awestruck by your competence – – and if we want to — copy it!]
  6. Collaborate with professionals involved with the family in order to offer coordinated service.
    [that’s closer to the real reason for it — more business referrals to colleagues]
  7. Monitor parental behaviors to ensure that parents are fulfilling their obligations to their child while complying with the  recommendations of the Court.
    [Children need due process, and they need an active, and respected Bill of Rights, for when they grow up.  One purpose of the Bill of Rights was to keep snoops out of one’s private business, so long as that business didn’t ramble over into the criminal arena.   It’s called LIFE, LIBERTY and PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS.  How can one pursue anything with the thought police on one’s heels?. . . . .
    Anyone who’s trying to function as a parent coordinator, and talking about children’s needs constantly (to justify it) apparently doesn’t comprehend what long-term dedication to one’s family AND country entails.  It entails respecting its laws.  I have before blogged an SF-area parent coordinator and family law attorney, who posted on his own site that the Constitution needs to be scrapped and rewritten, why revere it like Christians revere their Bible (guess he’s not one, and doesn’t understand how few Christians actually practice what’s in their Bible — or Constitution — to start with…)]
  • The NH “Parent Coordinators” Association of 2009 “FAQs” suggest a benefit is:
  • Q. What are the benefits of Parenting Coordination?

Parenting Coordination offers a much better way of resolving parenting plan issues than returning to court. And the resolution comes much faster than waiting for a court date and then the court decision. The Parenting Coordinator educates the parents about the harm to the children of hostility between parents, mediates issues as they arise, and if the parents are unable to resolve minor issues, makes the decision.

As ever, when selling their services, AFCC professionals see themselves as the mature adults on the scene, and the parents as a “plural,” and refuse to assign responsibility where it’s perhaps due.  They seem to utterly lack curiosity in fact-finding as to that matter.  This is understandable, because they deal in “psychology” more than law– which is the culture of the association.  While two individual parents are often involved, in the marketing prose, it’s always “the parents” v. “the helping professionals”

However, once in the door, and in practice — then they are quick to blame ONE parent, often the mother, and recommend severe intervention, often removing of contact with the children to counter supposed “alienation.”   In other words, they are hypocrites — professing neutrality and to be helping, but planning in advance (in this case) to do harm to one gender — the female, should she as a parent (mother) counter them.

I blogged this earlier, but again (from the same site) — here is their “sample” report from the handbook:

Handbook

A handbook for the purpose and practice of parenting coordination prepared by PCANH.

 Parts of this were credited (fn1 inside) to “Families Moving Forward, Inc.” in Indiana.  This is a nonprofit formed in 2005, EIN# 432074631 with principal listed c/o “Gloria K. Mitchell.”

So of course I looked this person up — she is a Rising Star Super Attorney, member of National Association of Counsel for Children, and works in a four-woman firm.  The nonprofit, however, is categorized as “exempt — earning under $25,000).  website’s “Divorce and Parenting Research Links” is typical, plus a direct link to the Children’s Rights Council” (hover URL).  CRC is pretty big in Indiana…  Six years after passing the bar, Ms. Mitchell was on the Executive Committee of Family Law Section of Indiana Bar Assoc., and chaired it in 2005.   The articles of incorporation show it’s a 501(c)4 (not “3”) and by address its place of business is another law firm in Noblesville, Indiana:  Holt, Fleck & Romini.  If the image (showing org.’s purpose) doesn’t show, it’s viewable for free on the site below.

Entity Name Type Entity Type City / State
FAMILIES MOVING FORWARD, INC. Legal Non-Profit Domestic Corporation INDIANAPOLIS, IN

Gloria K. Mitchell, and the four attorneys in the law firm, 
Though only incorporated in winter (February) 2005, by summer (July) 2005,  Indiana, “Families Moving Forward”** already had a “Parent Coordination Committee” and presented the following report in this context:

Indiana Continuing Legal Education Forum

3rd Annual Family Law Summer Institute

and Family ICO Training Session July 28-29, 2005*

 *Note:  the Nonprofit to present this was incorporated 2/14/2005, in time for this, 3rd Annual Family Law Summer Institute agenda (see link) doesn’t show anything about parent coordination, although certainly it could’ve happened.  Law firm page for Ms. Mitchell notes that she was “Executive Committee of the “Family Law Section” 1994-2005 and its chair in 2004-2005.     So it would make sense that her nonprofit would have a good shot at presenting at that summer institute.
I note that at Ms. Mitchell’s office, one of her associates began as Parent Coordinator in 2006.
Another very smart attorney with stellar credits is Amy Stewart  (valedictorian of her law class) is president of this nonprofit (FMF):  notice also collaborative law emphasis, plus an AFCC affiliation.   In 1999 she had an article published on “Covenant Marriage:  Legislating Family Values”  Good summary of the issues of religiosity in marriage by a UK author, here  Actually, it’s a good summary and a timely read of marriage/divorce, and role of rising religiosity (UK/America) in the mix.
But it was a search for “Families Moving Forward, Inc.” that brought her name up.
Here’s Ms. Stewart’s bio (notice “Collaborative Law”); she works at Bingham McHale, LLP, a large firm with locations in 3 Indiana counties.  She is a partner.

Amy concentrates her practice in matrimonial and family law matters. She was one of the first Indiana attorneys trained  in collaborative law, and she has been instrumental in introducing the approach in Indiana. She has practiced collaborative law since 2007, has attended several conferences of the International Association of Collaborative Professionals,* and has been trained by collaborative law founder Stuart Webb. In addition, Amy also practices traditional litigation.   

*Readers probably may not remember, so I’ll remind us.  the “IACP” is another incarnation, membership association — out of many — formed by AFCC-type professionals, as you can see by the description:

iacp,collaborative law,collaborative practice,collaborative divorce,international academy of collaborative professionals

ACP is the International Academy of Collaborative Professionals, an international community of legal, mental health and financial professionals working in concert to create client-centered processes for resolving conflict.

I probably blogged it, too.  I remember looking up the various websites, corporate registrations, etc.   Here’s their About Us/History narrative.  I notice a good chunk of it (after inspiration by “Stu Webb” in MN) took form in the Northern California family court association nonprofit factor, aka the SF Bay Area, including Oakland (East Bay) and other well-known cities:

In May of 1999, the first annual AICP [=American Institute of Collaborative Professionals] networking forum was held in Oakland, California. The following year, a meeting was held in Chicago to discuss the state of Collaborative legal practice across the country. The nearly 50 practitioners who attended this meeting agreed that AICP should serve as the umbrella organization for our rapidly-growing movement. At the same time, they recognized that since Collaborative Practice was also developing exponentially across Canada, the organization needed a broader, more inclusive name and mission. Thus the International Academy of Collaborative Professionals was born in late 2000, officially changing its name in 2001.

The Collaborative Review has been published continuously since May, 1999. The work begun by initial editors Jennifer Jackson and Pauline Tesler. . . 

Jennifer Jackson (FYI, I’ve never met, spoken to, or dealt with her in court) is kind of branded in my mind as having helped start up Kids’ Turn (SF):

FYI — here is another Super Lawyer, high-profile, longstanding success.  Her “about” page lists many accomplishments. Notice which comes first; notice also the variety of terms which are basic to the field:  I’ll bold them:

About Jennifer Jackson

Before becoming a family lawyer in 1985, Jennifer Jackson was an illustrator and photographer, raising three children.

A LITTLE LOCAL COMMENTARY relating to this Super-Productive/Super Attorney and her many Nonprofits:  

I know artists, including photographers and illustrators.  It’s not that easy to make a living at; this speaks of either a good prior divorce settlement, (or not marrying) or some substantial education somewhere along the line, undergrad plus law school.  That’s quite a set of accomplishments, but I don’t think represents an indigence.  See Resume:

  • BA with Honors in 1966, became family lawyer (passed bar?)
  • 1985, with Professor’s Assistanceships (in law school) on child-related and mediation topics.  Maybe I can assume that almost 20 year gap is called “Mom” and “Wife” time.
  • In 1987, she helped found Kids’ Turn and was simultaneously involved in PTA Board at “Campolindo High School” where her kids probably attended.   Campolindo is — well, its site describes it well:

“Located in the hills east of the University of California, Berkeley, Campolindo serves the professionally-oriented and well-educated suburban communities of Moraga and Lafayette. Students, teachers and parents work together to provide a positive climate for learning where mutual respect, trust and esteem are valued. ” . . .”In statewide API (Academic Performance Index) ratings, for the fifth year in a row, both the Acalanes District and Campolindo are ranked in the very top percentiles of all public high schools in California with an API score of 919. Nationally, Campolindo is recognized regularly in Newsweek magazine as one of the “Best High Schools in America”.  The Association of Californa School Administrators honored Campolindo’s Principal, Carol Kitchens, as the Secondary Principal of the Year in 2009

This is my way — as is this demographics piechart** of saying, as fantastic as these achievements are for Ms. Jackson — something had her living (presumably) in Moraga around the time she passed the bar — and that’s a privileged community.   A neighboring one, Orinda, shows has a 2009 median household of $156K, and more than half the town earning that much, and the largest sector earning over $200K.
To get a general feel for housing in the area — this is my tactful way of saying that until the 1960s, some of these communities did not allow African-American housing loans, or greatly restricted them — read this thoughtful summary of Berkeley, including a lot on demographics and migration.
Essentially, people that might work as professors, or other high-paying jobs in SF or Berkeley (or even Oakland) would then leave those urban areas and commute straight past (on highways like as not) the dangerous and darker-skinned areas, right on back to the suburbs.  Just keep this in mind when someone from this area (however s/he got there) is all excited about helping poor kids, single mother or no single mother. And I don’t know specifically that Jennifer Jackson was; although no mention of a husband is made, or the children’s father.
(**scroll down to see race (total African Americans:  166, Hispanic, invisible — they are living elsewhere and working on the lawns and in the retail & domestic sectors no doubt (wikipedia, though, says 7% in 2010) — how few single parent households, and almost NO violent crime).  As of 2010, Moraga had a total population of 16,016 people.  As of the 2000 census, Moraga was the 79th wealthiest place in the US with a population above 10,000.   The median income for a household in the town is $98,080, and the median income for a family is $116,113. Males have a median income of $92,815 versus $51,296 for females.[almost 2:1!!] )

Blending this background of creativity, caring and flexibility with her legal training enhances her practice of family law and expands the options for her clients.

Jennifer believes that a lawyer must be actively involved in her professional community, and that life is about making a difference. Jennifer is one of the founders of Kids’ Turn, a program for separating families begun in San Francisco which has expanded exponentially in size and in quality of service to children and families.

(If you know my blog, you know EXACTLY why and how Kids’ Turn “expanded exponentially in size” — see family law attorneys, evaluators & judges on the board, see access/visitation funds “facilitating” parent education programs. . . . .As to the quality of service?  That’s debatable, but as I haven’t sat through any of the classes — except to note they use the word “parental alienation” a lot in stating benefits, i.e., “reduces parental alienation” type claims.  I’ll withhold judgment on this, as should others who haven’t  !!)

She is one of the founders of the International Academy of Collaborative Professionals and served for eight years as co-editor of its journal, The Collaborative Review. She has had leadership roles in her professional organizations at local, state national and international levels, and is a past president of the Northern California chapter of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers.

Within five years of passing the bar, she is serving as a judge pro tem– how common is that? Or this?

Standing Committee on Custody, North: Chair 1988-1990

San Francisco Bar Association

Executive Committee, Family Law Section: Chair, 1992; Member: 1987-present
Fee Arbitration Panel: 1988-1990
Barristers Club, Co-Chair, Family Law Committee: 1988-1990
BASF Delegate to the State Bar Convention: 1989, 1990
Volunteer Legal Services Program Volunteer Attorney: 1986-2000  

[[This is almost another topic — I’ve footnoted it [VLSP* at bottom of post, a section in itself….]

Expert: Temporary Restraining Order Clinic

Jennifer has been given an “AV” rating by Martindale-Hubbell and has been named one of the top 50 female lawyers (“Super Lawyers”) in Northern California in all areas of practice by Law and Politics Publications for the past five years in a row. Jennifer practices alternative dispute resolution exclusively; she has trained extensively in mediation and collaboration, and is committed to keeping clients out of court and at the negotiating table.

The IACP has created Standards for practitioners, trainers and collaborative practice trainings. It has promulgated Ethical Guidelines for Practitioners, and continues to support excellence in collaborative practice through resources, training curriculum, practice tools, mentoring and a comprehensive website, allowing collaborative practitioners to continue our tradition of sharing and learning from one another.

Where we are going…

Today, the IACP has over 4,000 members from twenty four countries around the world. We are dedicated to educating the public about the Collaborative alternative. We are committed to fostering professional excellence in conflict resolution through Collaborative Practice. We invite you to peruse this site to learn more about IACP, our services and initiatives.

Amy is the past-chair of the Family Law Section of the Indianapolis Bar Association (2003) and is president of Families Moving Forward, Inc., a multi-disciplinary non-profit organization devoted to developing healthy approaches to family transitions.. . .[Law Degree summa cum laude Indiana Univ. School of Law, 1999; admitted to IN bar same year, graduate “with high distinction” in 1986. ]

5 years of work and/or law school, and within 4 more years she’s charing the Family Law Section of Indianapolis (that’s one city, not the whole state’s) Bar Assocation.  What a nice nonprofit and what accomplished professionals, and how successful they are.  As such, we should believe what they say, especially as the nonprofit “Families Moving Forward, Inc.” is DEVOTED to a HEALTHY APPROACH to “Family transitions.” (typically called divorces or custody matters).
 ** a name in other states used for purposes such as helping with homelessness, or infants with fetal alcohol syndrome, other issues, here it’s referring to divorce:

FAMILIES MOVING FORWARD, INC., is an interdisciplinary organization of attorneys, mental health providers, accountants, and other professionals committed to improving the process of family transition in Indiana, by reducing conflict and cost, creating healthier outcomes for children, and enhancing the satisfaction of professionals serving families.

(However, notice the articles of incorporation say it’s there to serve the families as well as the professionals serving the families)
This report is on-line at “SAIF” where it probably was presented:

Seminars For Advanced Interdisciplinary Family Professionals


This For-Profit group incorporated as below in Indiana, with the address “9000 KEYSTONE CROSSING, STE 600, INDIANAPOLIS, IN 46240 (which is “HuirasLaw,”  Wm. E. Huiras, although the Registered Agent is another attorney, Robin Brown Neihaus (LinkedIn)

Date Name (Type)
7/27/2006 SEMINARS FOR ADVANCED INTERDISCIPLINARY FAMILY PROFESSIONALS, INC. D/B/A SAIF  (Assumed))
(the entity filed one report in 2008, file notes, it owes 2010/2011 – perhaps IN is only every 2 years).

Segments from the Indiana 2005 Sample PC report (handbook):

The sample report begins with a situation between father and stepfather which was hostile.  Both wanted to coach on Little (10) Joey’s baseball team.

Therapy for both TOGETHER is recommended:

5. Mr. Smith and Mr. Doe should attend counseling sessions together to attempt to resolve their(For example, the mother did not want the father to volunteer on Fridays at school any longer. She maintained that the children were emotional and upset on those mornings and did not want to go to school. The teachers were contacted and reported that the children looked forward to and enjoyed their father’s presence.

AFCC CLAIMS CREDIT FOR HAVING DEVELOPING PARENT COORDINATION:

From their 5-year prospectus:

AFCC Guidelines for Parenting Coordination

In 2003, AFCC President George Czutrin appointed a Task Force to develop Model Standards of Practice for Parenting Coordination, following the first Task Force on Parenting

Coordination that conducted research and published the 2003 Report on Parenting Coordination Implementation Issues. The Task Force determined that the Parenting Coordination process was too new to use the term “Model Standards” and, in May 2005, proposed to the Board of Directors the AFCC Guidelines for Parenting Coordination. The Guidelines passed unanimously and are available on the AFCC Web site at http://www.afccnet.org/resources/standards_practice.asp.

AFCC Parenting Coordination Task Force: Christie Coates, J.D., M.Ed. (Chair), Linda Fieldstone, M.Ed., (Secretary), Barbara Ann Bartlett, J.D., Robin Deutsch, Ph.D., Billie Lee Dunford-Jackson, J.D. , Philip Epstein, Q.C., Barbara Fidler, Ph.D., Jonathan Gould, Ph.D., Hon. William Jones (ret.), Joan Kelly, Ph.D., Matthew J. Sullivan, Ph.D., Robert N. Wistner, J.D

. . . .

The following new publications have been developed since 2002 while dated products were been eliminated:

• Parenting Coordination: Implementation Issues

There are scholarly articles galore about this.  One by matthew Sullivan, Ph.D. (and a parent coordinator) uses the phrase repeatedly in the abstract — but to access the article one-time costs $34 and permanently $155.  Needless to say, not many people who have parent coordinators in their lives can afford to read up on it….

“In 1994 the concept of parent coordination was spawned by a concerned group of professionals in California and Colorado who

WHILE PROMOTION EFFORTS TEND TO PHRASE PARENT COORDINATION PASSIVELY (as if a natural development), IN PRIVATE PUBLICATIONS, IT TAKES RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE PROMOTION OF THE FIELD:

AFCC STAYS FOCUSED ON IMPLEMENTING AND PROMOTING PARENT COORDINATION:

And I am going to show you what apparent frauds some of the prime “trainers” are in this field too.     But first, let’s look at the upcoming 2012 conference called:

The New Frontier

Exploring the Challenges and Possibilities of the Changed Landscape for Children and the Courts:

This is an upcoming (Feb. 2012) meeting of the California Chapter of the AFCC.  An entire day is dedicated to a workshop on Parenting Coordination, and a secondary one talks about how to get it in there — even if parents are indigent.

Here are the presenters’ bios (please scroll through).  Some are more than a page, others short.  Notice the types of professionals involved (typical), Judges, Attorneys and Psychologists, Mediators, etc.    Some have been around forever (Joan B. Kelly, Dianna Gould-Saltzmann) others seem newer:

Abbas Hadjian, JD, CFLS

Graduate of Tehran University School of Law and Harvard…

Abbas Hadjian, Esquire devotes a substantial part of his family law practice to educating the Farsi‐speaking community on the comparisons between the American and Iranian legal system and recently published “Divorce in California,” which is written in Farsi. He is an expert on Iranian culture and laws.

(from his website, partial description of an amazing background):

Mr. Hadjian was born, educated and lived in Iran until 1980. Between 1959 and 1968 Mr. Hadjian was a professional journalist in Iran, with positions including editor, writer, reporter, translator and commentator in major Iranian publications and news agencies. His profession a journalist required and helped Mr. Hadjian’s foundational understanding of the Iranian legal, social, economical and political structure. Between 1962 and 1966, Mr. Hadjian attended the School of Law, Political Science and Economics in Tehran University. Among others, he received courses in Iranian Constitution, Civil, Family and Probate law, furthering his understanding of the legal, social, economic and political infrastructure of his native country.

Upon graduation. Mr. Hadjian became a political appointee in the Office of the Governor General, Iranian Southern Ports and Islands (Persian Gulf), where he acted as a ranking civil officer in the region until 1978, the year of the Iranian Revolution. As deputy to the Governor General in social and economic affairs, Mr. Hadjian relied heavily on his legal studies and implemented them in real life situations. In 1975, Harvard University accepted him to the renowned Edward S. Mason Program for Public Development on full scholarship, acknowledging five years of Mr. Hadjian’s services in developing the Persian Gulf region as one year of post-graduate studies. He was awarded a Masters Degree in Public Administration

A related site from “Culture Counts.net” (site has three diverse professionals) has a page about fatherhood, the new normal, which “surprisingly” reminds readers about:

Positive Effects of Father Involvement on Children

  • Children display increased self-confidence.
  • Better able to deal with frustration and other feelings.
  • Higher grade point averages.
  • More likely to mature into compassionate adults.
  • Paternal emotional responses to sons were associated with a 50% decrease in sons’ expressions of sadness and anxiety from preschool to early school age

Positive Effects of Father Involvement on Men

  • Helps men reevaluate their priorities and become more caring human beings who are concerned about future generations.
  • May reduce health-risk behaviors.
  • Decreases psychological distress as emotional involvement with children acts as a buffer against work-related stress.
  • Happiness and increased physical activity.
  • Sense of accomplishment, well-being, and contentment.
  • Men tend to be more involved with extended family and others in the community.
  • Over time, fatherhood increases marital stability.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _
Here is the rather short blurb of a long-time attorney in California, who in this conference is presenting an all-day workshop on Parenting Coordination:

Leslie Ellen Shear, JD, CFLS, CALS

Ms. Shear is a graduate of UCLA School of Law and admitted to the California Bar in 1976 and maintains her practice in Encino, California. A frequent lecturer in custody matters, she has been involved in a number of high-profile custody cases over the years – most recently, Marriage of LaMusga and Marriage of Seagondollar.

I note she was admitted to the bar fully 20 years before welfare reform and almost as much before VAWA.
These three are going to present on Parenting Coordination — an all-day institute.  It must be important:

9:00am – 5:15pm

All Day Institute (2)

(I2) Inside Parenting Coordination Practice in California: Managing Roles, Responsibilities, and Risks

  • Lyn Greenberg, Ph D
  • Alexandra Leichtner, JD
  • Leslie Ellen Shear, JD, CFLS, CALS
Apparently even indigent people need parent coordination — there’s a workshop on how to get it to them:
  • W1 Establishing a Local Parenting Coordination Program Including Pro Bono PC Services to Indigent FamiliesHonorable Lorna Alksne// Charlene S. Baron, JD, MA // Shirley Ann Higuchi, JD  // Lori Love, Ph D


http://www.link.cs.cmu.edu/link/submit-sentence-4.html

III. Parenting Coordinators Work With the Most Difficult Family Court Population – Those Most Prone to Assert Grievances and Challenge Decisionmakers

… cases are usually referred to parenting coordination because they are chronically litigious and difficult to manage. These parents have often had several attorneys, evaluators, and mediators — professional hopping and shopping is rampant. Their court files are thick with motions, court appearances, and allegations of wrongdoing by the parents.
Coates, Deutsch et al. (2004) Parenting Coordination for High-Conflict Fami- lies 42 Fam. Ct. Rev. 246, 252

The child custody cases referred to parenting coordinators are the most complex, acrimonious, difficult and demanding cases. Most parents regain their perspective and bearings within two years of separation, and do not need this kind of intensive and ongoing service model. Parents who continue to return to court with enforcement and modification requests after completing co- parenting educational programs, and after a child custody evaluation are can- didates for parenting coordination,

Parents who need a PC intervention are typically a special group for whom the passage of time has not reduced the rage and angry behaviors of at least one if not both parents. The 10–20% of parents who remain in entrenched and high conflict two to three years after separation/divorce are significantly more likely to have severe personality disorders and/or mental illness (Johnston & Roseby, 1997). Understanding the characteristics of parents with severe borderline, dependent, narcissistic, and antisocial personality disorders, why these parents react so strongly to rejection and loss, how the child is used in attempts to re-stabilize their functioning and punish the other parent, and how personality disorders are exacerbated by stress, conflict and the adversarial system will facilitate more effective work with these difficult clients.

Kelly (2008) Preparing for the Parenting Coordination Role: Training Needs for Mental Health and Legal Professionals 5 Journal of Child Custody 140,149-150

+ + + + = = = + + +  = = =

[VSLP*].  This footnote comes from a fragment of attorney Jennifer Jackson’s resume, which itself came from a bio of another nonprofit, Families Moving Forward, Inc. in Indiana.  I was following up in another nonprofit, “International Association Collaborative Professionals” and I guess you can see about how curious I am about the inter-relationships of various nonprofits.

I looked at the staff.  This one caught my attention — because of the specialties, not him personally:

Chris Emley (in 2011, or at least now on the website.)

Chris is a certified family law specialist and a Fellow of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers, with 41 years of experience focusing on child custody litigation.  He has been included in Best Lawyers in America since 1991.  He has helped to govern VLSP since its inception in 1979.  He received the State Bar President’s Pro Bono Service Award in 1983, the Legal Assistance Association of California’s Award of Merit in 1989, and two Awards of Merit from The Bar Association of San Francisco (1977 and 2004).  He was a BASF board member from 1979 through 1981, and chaired the Lawyer Referral Service Committee.  Chris was Vice President of the San Francisco Child Abuse Council, Chairman of the Board of Legal Assistance to the Elderly, and Chairman of the Board of Legal Services for Children, Inc.

There happens to be one pro bono group in the SF Bay area which used to help women leaving violence and eventually in the news (and had I known at the time to check all these 990s, I’d have seen the notation that it specialized in helping NONCustodial, low-income fathers, I’d have realized why this group refused to help so many mothers stuck in the family law system.).   The presence of a Certified Family Law Practitioner on the board of VSLP, with his emphasis being on children’s rights, and without question, children in ANY institutional system these days need help and representation, does make me wonder who is helping with women’s rights when it comes to actual mothers who aren’t in jail for killing their batterers (which have some groups advocating) — but actually dealing with the horrors of year after year in a custody battle with a violent or abusive ex, and doing so without even a grasp of how it works, or who pays its bills.

General Comments:

I don’t see anything in VSLP which remotely deals with the situation, and was able to get no actual help (legal representation of any sort, pro bono) in my case either, not past the initial restraining order, and a perfunctory (and NOT in court) attempt to renew it, which I was told would be a non-issue, it’s often granted automatically!  No one came to court where I, like many, many other “custodial” mothers after leaving abuse, was blindsided by a prior ex parte movement consolidating renewal with a divorce and custody matter, thus shifting the case into the family law system, where it remained, and where the actual topic of ongoing DV was drowned by the type of talk we see in these realms — psychological states, not literal deeds!

The moral is, every program and every nonprofit has its target clientele.  As the target clientele (for keeping in their proper place) in so many federal grants to the states are fathers (when it comes to custody matters), it would make no “sense” for the government to also pay the opposing side, the protective mothers!

[[Interesting program, project of SF Bar: its family law person Chris Emley also on Board of “Legal Services for Children” which (as of 2001) got funding from City & County of SF, SF Dept. of Public Health, and SF Dept. of Children, Youth & Their Families.

Its address seems to be a few doors down from Kids Turn:  1254 Market vs. 1242 Market Street.  “Legal Services for Children” (2010) shows no Chris Emley on the Board, but its main purposes are:  1.  Guardianship for children wanting it; 2.  Helping kids dealing with expulsion and school-related issues; 3.  Immigration. . ..It also represents children in foster care and helps support LGBT youth.  200 Volunteer attorneys gave over $1mil worth of their help.    The group received over $1 mill. of contrib& grants, and gave $65,000 to a DC nonprofit, National Juvenile Defender Center (EIN# 02060456.  On “Foundation Finder” this EIN doesn’t pull up a tax return…..for any year.  Nor does a name search! However from NCCSdataweb, I see that it was incorporated in 2002 (legal services for children, in 1975).  This “National Juvenile Defender Center” interests me:  2002 income, 0.  A 2007 letter from Andrea Weisman, signed DC Dept of Youth Rehab. Services (“DYRS”)  (shares address with a Board member of NJDC, Mark Soler, 2002) expresses the serious problems of Youth in Adult Facilities.  Weisman and Soler (again, board member of the group which got $65K grant from the West-Coast “Legal Services for Children,” which takes funding from various depts. of SF and its city & county) worked together (1999?) on “No Minor Matter:  Children in Maryland’s Jails.”  Weisman notes she got a $1.6mil grant from OJJDP.   ]]

National Juvenile Defender Center:  

2002– income is zero.  By 2009 — they are into Technical Training and Assistance.  And ExDir. Patricia Puritz as only paid director, gets $134K salary) — and have landed over $5 million of grants, and earning $10K from investment income and have some serious program income in 2010 ($119K= almost (but not quite) enough to pay their own Exec. Director:.  Check it out.  So why, in the following year (revenues down to $405K — but probably some leftovers, wanna bet?) did a group in SF just grant them $65,000?  Or was that a sort of tax equalization between them both.  I live in the same state as “Legal Service for Children, Inc.” and we know that our K-12 schools are taking a serious hit?  Why should enough money to feed, clothe and house three families in this area for a year, be given to a nonprofit out of DC that just got $5 million the year before?

http://njdc.info/about_us.php

The National Juvenile Defender Center (NJDC) was created in 1999 to respond to the critical need to build the capacity of the juvenile defense bar and to improve access to counsel and quality of representation for children in the justice system. In 2005, the National Juvenile Defender Center separated from the American Bar Association to become an independent organization. NJDC gives juvenile defense attorneys a more permanent capacity to address practice issues, improve advocacy skills, build partnerships, exchange information, and participate in the national debate over juvenile crime.

They operate 9 US Regional Centers; the California one is in SF and among its projects is:

MacArthur Juvenile Indigent Defense Action Network (JIDAN)

In 2008, California was selected by the the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation as one of four sites in the nation to participate in the foundation’s Juvenile Indigent Defense Action Network (JIDAN).  The four JIDAN sites, Massachusetts, Florida, New Jersey and California, join the four MacArthur Models for Change “core” states of Illinois, Louisiana, Pennsylvania and Washington to form an eight-state network.

The California team is led by the Youth Law Center, and includes members from the Center for Families, Children and the Courts of the California Administrative Office of the Courts; the Loyola Law School Center for Juvenile Law & Policy; the Los Angeles County Public Defender’s Office; theSan Francisco Public Defender’s Office; the Contra Costa County Public Defender’s Office; andHuman Rights Watch.

The eight-state network is coordinated through the National Juvenile Defender Center (NJDC), and engages juvenile defenders, policymakers, judges and other key stakeholders in designing strategies to improve juvenile indigent defense policy and practice. California was chosen as a result of its demonstrated ability to achieve measurable reform on juvenile indigent defense issues.  California’s JIDAN work will be centered in the Pacific Juvenile Defender Center.

The Exec. Director of this “NJDC.INFO” nonprofit (inc. 2002) was in 2003 appointed by the Governor of Virginia to a Board of Juvenile Justice:

This bio/blurb places Ms. Puritz Professionally, prior to here, she was ABA Juvenile Justice Center, etc.

Much of this relates to the “OJJDP” and the Juvenile Justice Delinquency Prevention Act.  This is an entirely different category than “Parenting Coordination” through the family law center; it is dealing with things such as the US being the world largest per-capita jailor, that those in jail are disproprotionately minority, that horrible things are happening to youth while in confinement, etc.  By comparison, the “Parent Coordinator” issue seems like kids’ play unless one begins to wonder how many of the youth in detention had parents stuck in the family law system, which definitely cuts down on actual parenting time and focus!

p://www.americanbar.org/groups/child_law/policy/juvenile_justice.html

Written by Let's Get Honest|She Looks It Up

December 14, 2011 at 9:00 pm

Posted in 1996 TANF PRWORA (cat. added 11/2011), AFCC, After She Speaks Up - Reporting Child Sexual Abuse, After She Speaks Up - Reporting Domestic Violence and/or Suicide Threats, Bush Influence & Appointees (Cat added 11/2011), Business Enterprise, Cast, Script, Characters, Scenery, Stage Directions, Designer Families, Domestic Violence vs Family Law, Lackawanna County PA Corruption Protests, Lethality Indicators - in News, Organizations, Foundations, Associations NGO Hybrids, Parent Education promotion, Parenting Coordination promotion, Psychology & Law = an AFCC tactical lobbying unit, When Police Shoot / Shoot Back, Where's Mom?, Who's Who (bio snapshots)

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An Interlocking Directorate of Associations and Foundations, AFCC forward….[Publ. Dec. 12, 2011]

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This post came up in my own 3/25/2018 blog search for Open Society Foundations.  It wasn’t the top search result but because this post’s contents from 2011 are still so relevant I decided to add some formatting to make for better viewing.

The blog appearance (background color especially, border, and width limits especially) changed years later during an upgrade, so I am adding those formatting changes to this older post for better viewing.  Another habit I also developed later was adding complete post title with “shortlink” to it at the top of posts, and including for clarity, the publication date in the actual title itself. The shortlink is for convenience of blog administrator and anyone else who might be copying a link to the post for use elsewhere under full (or shortened) title.

This is not a complete post review for broken links or images that don’t display (If image was provided by a link to an on-line url, that link has probably changed since.  I now do this differently so it happens less often…//LGH 3/25/2018.

Post formats now (March 2018) look more like this, including full title with link, date published and approximate length typically at or very close to the top:

An Interlocking Directorate of Associations and Foundations, AFCC forward….[Publ. Dec. 12, 2011] about 9,900 words; case-sensitive, WordPress-generated shortlink ends “-WA”

Readers (such as you be) no doubt realize I’m pretty jaundiced about how many associations are simply duplicates of each other, and how many of the same types of associations were, somewhere in their murky origins, related to Association of Family and Conciliation Courts, Children’s Rights Council (or both), associations for mediators, dispute resolution practitioners, and now– (association for) conflict resolution.

(The terms have to be refreshed periodically to reflect the expanding purposes of the same basic set of people).  Parent coordinators obviously fits in here somewhere (it’s an AFCC project) and because it takes money to do all this — and not all money going THROUGH the courts comes FROM the courts — we can see today where a particular foundation played a role in expanding AFCC.

For this post, I’d meant to fill in some of the background for this ACFLS (see yesterday’s post) and relate it to AFCC.  Then I felt it would be appropriate to look at the AFCC tax returns, in general — and next thing you know, in explaning Peter Salem’s $130K salary, I ended up looking more at  — first the AFCC/Peter Salem / Andrew Schepard Hofstra University Connection.

After which a simple look at the elements of the AFCC description of Mr. Salem’s credits revealed a certain award (John M. Hayne) from the “Association for Conflict Resolution.” . . .. Because I read so (damn) much, I picked up that “ACR” is the new “ADR”.  And that organization appears to have been following true AFCC style –issuing awards to people on its own board, and sho ’nuff at least one of them was in trouble with the state for nonfiling of tax returns.  (Kenneth Cloke, below).

And we take a look also at one of the (many) corporations funding the field of “Conflict Resolution” (plus fatherhood promotion), who happen to be SF Bay ARea based — and pack a lot of clout, too — the Hewlitt Foundation.

All in all, I find it fascinating, and like to engage in conversations with — the material.  However, the format of this blog is less than fascinating.  I’m actually very tired of looking at it and dealing with its idiosyncrasies (plus techniques I don’t know yet to how to handle — for example, around issues of pasting information from other sites, and the ever-disappearing paragraph spacing.

SO — FamilyCourtMatters is not about to get a facelift — it’s about to get pre-empted by another blog platform, or simply dropped.  I have a mental deadline of the end of January 2012, just to handle what comes up at the next BMCC conference.

I am much (MUCH) more interested in the “hard sciences,” than social sciences!  The social science shepherds have a pretty limited vocabulary, which is continually elaborated — but not that solid to start with.  This vocabulary and mindset are at odds — at “high-conflict” as it were — with the language of the US Constitution, concepts of freedom of choice, liberty and justice as a process.   They do not deal with the spiritual matters central to humanity, but instead set up more and more demonstration projects to test their theories, forcibly, on others, and at public and corporate expense.

It’s not NATURE:

This is absolutely not true when one begins to examine the sky, the ground, the water, or things with a microscope.  Those things become more fascinating.  The closer I look at these “corporations” and nonprofits, the more they behave similarly — and crooked.   This is also true with the writing — it’s not even good writing, but mostly rhetoric borrowed from each other.  Then, as if to give it more merit, citing each other.  I don’t know when the last individual in the whole field had an original idea.  It’s mostly groupthink.  Where the real creativity comes in is ways to hide the flow of finances among and between the different corporations.

It’s not ART:

It’s also for the most part, not that true when one deals with (the best of) the arts:  music, literature, drama, architecture, dance, etc.  There is enough interest and genuine expression in there for a lifetime of experience, study,and participation.

Even the study of MONEY is more interesting, when viewed as how it circulates and affects others over time, and in different forms  There’s something of a mathematical principle to this.

it uses Technology, but it’s not Technology:

But the Family Courts + Federal Funds + Faith-Based Pooh-Bahs + various Institutes (etc.) are  Basically CROWD CONTROL, Population Management from Afar.  It reminds me of the Nazis discussing what to do with the inferiors, and this comes through in the language also.   The one thing that is NOT taking place in the multiple conferences, and tax-evasion and supposed public benefit operations — is a fair and real engagement with any of the public supposedly benefitted.

Those talking conciliation, conciliation, are actually engaged in a hierarchical manipulation — they wish to rule and change the world, they promise heaven (and demand support to bring it to pass) while delivering — as to the family courts at least, plus the squandering of public funds — hell and in justice.  And I know men and women both will agree on this.

One Promise of “Heaven” as follows, and grandiose aspirations:

NATIONAL PEACEMAKER MUSEUM:

Not to be confused with the B36 Peacemaker Museum in Ft. Worth Texas (a 501(c)3) which concept is about maintaining a balance of powers

National Peacemaker Museum

Mission Statement (Approved June 29, 2009)

The National Peacemaker Museum Constellation will encourage peaceful conflict resolution between human beings in every corner of the world. It will honor those courageous and innovative individuals and institutions who work toward peace rather than conflict, foster harmony amongst humanity rather than division, and embrace the rich tapestry of human difference while building bridges upon our commonalities. The National Peacemaker Museum will challenge, inspire, educate, and enable visitors from around the world to be peacemakers themselves, to contribute as they can to the ability of the human race to solve our problems creatively and collaboratively, and to craft solutions that are fair, compassionate, and wise. National Peacemaker Museum will accomplish this mission through a diverse array of partnerships and outreach techniques, both virtual and tangible, in an ongoing effort to reach the full diversity of humanity, speaking in a way that each listening ear can hear.

The Association for Conflict Resolution (ACR) is supporting a coalition of organizations to establish a National Peacemaker Museum. In November 2007, ACR Immediate Past President, Marilyn S. McKnight established a Taskforce to launch this effort and appointed Forrest (Woody) Mosten to serve as Chair. This Taskforce recognizes that there is an exciting, vibrant peace community comprised of a diverse array of organizations and individuals. The Taskforce is committed to reaching out to these organizations and individuals and to exploring the possibilities building a coalition comprised of a broad array of partners.

Since its inception, the Task Force has established dialogue with the United States Institute of Peace which is building a Peace Educational Center on the Mall in Washington D.C currently in construction (opening scheduled for 2010-2011) and is exploring funding for on-line exhibits as a first step to a web-based museum as well as regional and traveling exhibits.

The Goals of the National Peacemaker Museum Taskforce (of the organization, Association for Conflict Resolution — see below) shall be to (partial list):

  • Support Development of Model Peace Education Courses, Modules, Writing Contests and Other Public Peace Education Activities
  • Support ACR Conference Keynote or Plenary Program for ACR 2010 ACR Annual Meeting in Chicago. Keynote/Plenary with following workshops would be a call to action and formation of a concrete agenda by the field for increased Public Education on Peacemaking.
  • Identify Potential Partner Organizations
  • Build a Coalition of Museum Partners and Supporters
  • Identify and Cultivate Potential Funding Sources

The Task Force:

Who is on this Task Force?  here’s the list of 23 individuals.  Notice most of the affililations.  Number 23, I ran across below and it turns out while his organization “Mediators Beyond Borders” seems legitimate, his own “Center for Dispute Resolution” — incorporated in California in 1987 (per Secretary of State) has NEVER filed — til threatened in the year about 2011 — its annual returns, either with the state or with the IRS.   When threatened with a hefty fine by the states’ Office of Attorney General/ Charitable Trusts Registry, it appears he forked over a bunch of RRF (state-level returns) stating the organization made absolutely nothing — 0 –  since its inception.  It has no assets or income.

This didn’t stop (Mr. Cloke) from referencing his “Center for Dispute Resolution” all over the place, and having a website up that is advertising, in the year 2011, some expensive trainings he is to be holding through its website registration and contact.  Moreover, in the year 2010, this organization (that’s sponsoring the Peacemakers Museum) ACR gave him an award, in a series of awards since 2001 designed to puff up the groups’ credibility and public image.

Quite frankly, as a “commoner” watching all this, I’m getting real tired of it.  Anyhow, here are the 23 “taskforce” members:

  • Michael Aloi, ACR President
  • Doug Kleine, ACR Executive Director
  • Forrest Mosten, Chair, Task Force
  • Jerome Barrett, Author and ACR Archivist
  • Mark Bramford, Public Policy Mediator
  • Guy and Heidi Burgess, Co-Directors, Colorado Conflict Research Consortium
  • Rita Callahan, ACR Board Member
  • Marci DuPraw, Facilitator and Mediator
  • Katrina Everhart, Museum Consultant
  • Fernaunda Ferguson, ACR Board Member
  • Francisco Laguna, International Legal and Business Mediator
  • David Matz, Professor of Dispute Resolution, University of Massachusetts, Boston
  • Marilyn McKnight, Past President, ACR  (see immediately below here**)
  • Josh Moore, Associate Director, International Education at Beloit College in Beloit, Wisconsin
  • Catherine Morris, Director, Peacemakers Trust, Canada
  • June O’Connor, Professor of Religious Studies, University of California, Riverside
  • Jim Rosenstein,  Immediate Past ACR President
  • Jocylen Wurtzburg, Mediator, Memphis, Tennesee
  • Lela Love, Liaison, ABA Dispute Resolution Section
  • Ronald Supancic, Liaison, International Academy of Collaborative Professionals
  • Andrew Schepard, Liaison, Association of Family and Conciliation Courts
  • Ken Cloke, Liaison, Mediators Beyond Borders

**Marilyn McKnight, I just found: (missing image. <==Broken link updated to “Mediators & Staff” submenu March 2018, but the quote is from earlier website)

 

Marilyn S. McKnight, M.A.

Marilyn S. McKnight, M.A., director and co-founder

Marilyn is a mediator, trainer, parent coordinator and author who has practiced exclusively in the field of mediation since 1977 after an extensive career in public social work.

In the early 1980s Marilyn began workshops on mediating divorces where there is domestic violence. She received a Bush Leadership Fellowship Award in 1987. In 1988 Marilyn was elected to the Board of the Academy of Family Mediators where she began work toward the voluntary certification of mediators and later, served as President of the Academy.

{{Timing:  In 1994 the VAWA, Violence Against Women Act, was passed, and around this time it was becoming clear that medation is NOT advisable (due to power imbalance) when there’s been assault and battery, in effect, domestic violence.  IT was fought hard against, and made mandatory in certain areas, as partially enabled by access/visitation grants during welfare reform.  It was identified as a way to get more NONcustodial parenting time — when other means, such as the legal process, or the fact that one parent may have been a criminal, which possibly caused separation — wouldn’t get the same result.  In short, Mediation was viewed and funded as a PAID SOURCE to turn justice into an OUT-COME BASED proceedings, with one party (the custodial parent) not knowing what hit (her) in the proceedings!  It also turned anyone who’d been on TANF and involved in this, into an at-risk for supply social science material for the head of HHS — and what litigants even thinks about checking a federal agency for information on WTF happened to their due process rights, or other Constitutionally provided Bill of Rights!}}

In 1996 she and her partner Steve Erickson were awarded the Distinguished Mediator Award by the Academy for their outstanding contributions to the field of mediation.

Marilyn has been an adjunct professor teaching divorce mediation at the University of Minnesota Graduate School of Social Work, and at the William Mitchell College of Law.

In May 2006 Marilyn was elected to the Board of Directors of the Association for Conflict Resolution (ACR)._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

UPDATE/2018 INSERT: Images of other “Mediators & Staff” at this Minnesota-based organization shows McKnight, Steve Erickson (his daughter?), Solveig Erickson, two other (male) mediators, and an office manager/client services specialists (scheduling and taking calls mentioned) who is a woman:  The font size is uneven in the home page, and Steven McKnight’s (though listed second) has larger font and longer bio blurb. Viewing: Click any image to enlarge, and navigate from one to another with arrows or (I think) another click. This is a four-part “image gallery.”

[[Returning to 2011 post text:]] Apparently the Task Force (above) was her idea too (see description).  A little more:

Articles and Video:

Marilyn McKnight: Belief that Mediation Needs to be Separate from Courts – Video
Marilyn McKnight discusses how court-connected mediators’ first duty is to the court, not the client.

{{Clients go in unawares, believing that their first duty is to the truth — facts of the case, rules of civil procedure pertaining to them, and honesty.  Usually, we are sorely disappointed.  I’ve yet to run across a mother whose custody mediator showed evidence of having even read the case file…. Mine even admitted he didn-t — but still made recommendation to the courts.}}

McKnight, Marilyn: Mediate.com Interview
This is the complete interview with Marilyn McKnight, former President of the Academy of Family Mediators and Association for Conflict Resolution, filmed as part of Mediate.com’s “The Mediators: Views from the Eye of the Storm” Series.

(Interesting;  “a Vibrant Community of Peacemakers.” )

So that’s where this Mother, Woman, and Person is, in my almost 20th years since the first blows started landing on me pregnant, all the way through to fighting the second half of my kids’ minority through this system, only to find, partly through, that almost every group and professional I stood before, hired, or dealt with, has been a liar, and simply perpetuating their own particular job in their own particular system — while this same system destroyed lives and jobs for those it was supposedly helping.

Give me an honest enemy any time than such a system of helpful people and institutes!  I will respect the enemy for honesty in his/her/its position and then engage (and ideally, defeat).  

To go into a family courtroom and confuse what’s supposed to happen in there (you think) with LAW, or that it somehow relates to whether one was a good or not so good parent — is a serious mistake.  These seem far less relevant that which programs the practitioners are jacked up on, these days, and which rhetoric.

I accept there are plenty of cases where mediation — real mediation, not what we see in the family law racket — is important and useful.  But until one recognizes WHO  has been pushing this, and just how much most of their talk is about each other (in glowing terms, complete with awards and honors, and long lists of professional accomplishments), but when it comes to the parents, their clients (without whose distress and troubles, the fields wouldn’t even exist), then the terminology switches (when talking to each other) about “managing difficult parents in the court system” or similar phrases.

Of course it helps the speciality of family law if one of your promoters long ago was a legislator, then a judge (or vice versa) (Pfaff), not to mention sizeable donations in THIS century from the William and Flora Hewitt Foundation to increase membership, as a Five-Year Retrospective of the AFCC claims (2002-2007 years).

FIVE-YEAR REPORT

Bear in mind this report is now 4 years old, and if it’s news to you, you are seriously behind whassup in the courts.  Don’t feel bad, most people follow the mainstream and the veteran reporters on the AFCC are most definitely not welcome in mainstream — unless they collaborate.  Which of course would likely compromise the message, and has (cf. Battered Women’s Justice Project et al.)
Association of Family & Conciliation Courts WI 2005 $929,894 990 17 95-2597407
Association of Family & Conciliation Courts WI 2004 $636,483 990 17 95-2597407
Association of Family and Conciliation Courts WI 2010 $2,192,367 990 28 95-2597407
Association of Family and Conciliation Courts WI 2009 $1,720,844 990 27 95-2597407
Association of Family and Conciliation Courts WI 2008 $1,743,428 990 26 95-2597407
Association of Family and Conciliation Courts WI 2007 $1,403,917 990 25 95-2597407
Association of Family and Conciliation Courts WI 2006 $1,158,339 990 20 95-2597407
Association of Family and Conciliation Courts WI 2003 $467,421 990 16 95-2597407
Association of Family and Conciliation Courts AZ 2005 $19,149.31 990EZ 9 86-0578107

 

2018 UPDATES/INSERT: A search on the bottom row above’s EIN# 86-0578107 shows this is the Arizona Chapter of AFCC (AZAFCC.org), with last three tax returns showing its very small size.  This happens to have been over time, however, a very active chapter (it seems) and with its proximity to California, well, interesting.  For example Philip Stahl (formerly of Northern California and well known for his promotion of “parental alienation” remedies — i.e., standard AFCC purposes) at some point had moved to Arizona.  I DNK where he presently is, but probably still an active member):

Total results: 3Search Again.

(Below:  exact same search results, but in image form (I provided copy & paste above table so interactive links could be clicked on) as it shows in actual search results.  The database provider changed its color scheme years ago, but because I’d already manually (boilerplate copied into each example) maintained the above color scheme to represent Form 990 tables in this blog (which now has 769 posts and over 50 pages!) as opposed to charity registration (California) tables which have similarly light-blue, gray, white colors, I maintained the color scheme from earlier…). (Back in 2011 I obviously didn’t know how to “paint” background colors into tables).

Search of EIN# associated with AZAFCC.org, done 3-25-2018 by blog author LGH

Don’t let the small size of top row (FYE2016) mislead you.  It still received $73K revenues, claims to have spent over $111K on “Other expenses” (mostly conferences), despite having only 3 independent board members (all unpaid, and some of the with the title “Hon.,” i.e., likely judges), and “0” employees, it (a) left page III (which is not optional to leave blank) blank — except to say “Program Services” this year — none.  However, under “functional expenses” page, it listed a grant of $1,500, which should be reported on that Part III (page 2).  Under “Board Members” section, despite only three independently voting, it said “see additional table” thus keeping the existence of judges (and current AFCC — parent organization — President? Annette Burns) further away from the top of the tax return (i.e., less visible) and not on any IRS form, pre-printed or electronic. (click any image to enlarge.  I annotated but did not “caption” the next three from AZAFCC.org.

I should probably blog this in a current year; have other posts since (use “SEARCH function on the blog to find, enter the word “AFCC chapters” to find) have more detail on these chapters than I listed here in just December 2011.//LGH 3/25/2018

[Back to Dec. 2011 texts, and referring to the table above showing the same organization name but different EIN#s in that columne, not the one on Arizona I just provided].



(from the Foundation Center.  I always wonder why some years don’t show in chrono order, does it relate to when the organization filed?)

Something was prospering:   2003__$467K;

2004 __$636K

2005___$929K

2006___$1158K 9 ($1.158 mil)

2007_ _ _ $1.403 mil;

2008___  $1.743 mil, …2010____$2.192 mil, and so forth.  And that’s income that IS reported…..

Tidbits from the tax returns (one really should browse some of these — very informative).  For year 2007:  Two of the Board members are judges.   The Exec Director Peter Salem makes $130K.

  • $790,306 = Program service revenue, including government fees and contracts
  • $512,473 = Membership fees.
  • $65K = dividend interest from securities;

Under Parts VII & VIII, Analysis of income-producing activities, &  Relationship of Activities to the Accomplishment of Exempt Purposes 

  • (lines 93a, 93B, 93C & 94 on the tax return)
  1.  REVENUE FROM THE SALE OF PUBLICATIONS ON DIVORCE, SEPERATION AND FAMILY DISPUTE RESOLUTION  ($74,970)
  2. REGISTRATION FEES TO ATTEND CONFERENCES AND TRAINING SEMINARS TO SHARE IDEAS ON RESOLUTION OF FAMILY DISPUTES AND TRAININGS TO ASSIST CURRENT PROFESSIONALS  ($703,976)
  3. MISCELLANEOUS FEES AND CHARGES FOR SHIPPING AND OTHER MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS  ($11.400)
  4. MEMBER DUES RECEIVED IN EXCHANGE FOR DISCOUNTS ON CONFERENCE REGISTRATION, MEMBER NEWSLETTERS AND OTHER MEMBER BENEFITS ($512,473)

Judges on the board (that year) included the Hons. William Fee *(IN), Emile Kruzick (Ontario, Canada), Hugh Starnes (FL), and Graham Mullane (Australia, ret. 2008, now consulting) — all listed at the WI address, although, not their home courts.

INDIANA AFCC 2007 Board Member Judge Wm. Fee — Positioning:

*The Hon Wm. C. Fee happens to currently chair the Domestic Relations Committee of the Indiana Judiciary.  “The Domestic Relations Committee is working on revisions to Indiana’s Child Support Guidelines. They previously completed a Domestic Relations Benchbook and child-centered Parenting Time guidelines. They also established recommended standards for countywide domestic relations ADR plans.”  Let’s hope (?) He kept his AFCC agenda and motivations (to help families resolve disputes by selling them — or other government entitities — products & services) separate from the oath of office, which I presume has something to do with uphold and preserving the state constitution.  As AFCC has openly stated its intent is to change the language of criminal law, there would seem to be a built-in conflict of interest.  But I have noticed that when money, and children, are involved, concerns about conflict of interest tend to go out the window.

 For a glimpse at types of inbound grants to courts, see “Grant Programs Administered by State Court Administration and the Indiana Judicial Center

FLORIDA AFCC Board Member 2007 Judge Hugh Starnes — 2010, 2011:

Judge Starnes (among many other things, such as forming a nonprofit group Association of Family Law Professionals with local lawyer, and being infamously involved in Foreclosure Rocket Dockets, where some judgments were signed before the hearings, and so many hearings scheduled in one day that it was foregone that they’d not all be heard: ” More Perverse Procedures in Ft. Myers”  This article talks about over-scheduling of dockets, fully knowing they won’t all be tried, in a “total lakc of respect for the parties and their lawyers . . .  These judges have elevated their own desire to clear the dockets a bove all else…Judge Starnes likes to talk about how the foreclosure crisis has forced courts to employe procedures like this. ” (but only his county does it){{Same reasoning — and results — used in the family law arena also.}}    “

LEE COUNTY (FL)— For the past few years, Lee County’s busiest court docket has also been the most notorious in the state.  Dubbed the ‘rocket docket’, the county’s foreclosure track cruises through several hundred cases daily, many ending in judgments for the lender and the subsequent scheduling of a foreclosure sale.

In the process, critics say, the docket tramples basic rules of civil procedure and due process. They point to the speed with which judges move cases along, and the emphasis on an expedited trial or summary judgment versus discovery.  “It’s just a lack of, I don’t know, respect for the defendant by the court,” Naples attorney Todd Allen said.

 Bear with me — this article (cited by Stopa — but I don’t see from where) tells how a clever attorney tried to get a judge to commit to a verbal statement — by the head judge — that they don’t follow FL rules of civil procedure.  The opposing side OK’d the draft, too.  As it turned out, the head judge didn’t sign it — but Judge Starnes did!

His case turned heads last year after a clever order drafted by Allen made local news and several foreclosure blogs. Frustrated when Lee (Lee County, FL) Senior Judge James Thompson rejected a motion in December to toss what Allen considered a flawed affidavit by a bank employee, the attorney drafted the resulting order to explicitly state what he says Thompson told him — that Lee County does not comply with Florida Rules of Civil Procedure.  The attorney for lender HSBC signed off on the draft, Allen said, and it went to Thompson’s office.

“I knew one of two things was going to happen,” Allen said. “Either he was going to read it and sign it, which is bad because it means it was policy, or he wasn’t going to read it and sign it, which is even worse.”  Instead, the other senior judge on the docket, Hugh E. Starnes, signed the order.  “Blown away,” is how Allen described his reaction.

(further anecdotal shows the traffic there.  In family law hearings (those that aren’t ex parte) a custody decision could be switched in 20 minutes or less; the child goes to the other household, stamped, ordered. signed & sealed.  THat is not justice, and the other parent (til broke or defeated in spirit not just in the issue at hand) is going to come back for another attempt at it — that’s another reason the dockets get crowded!)

Around 11:40 a.m., Starnes completed the docket, more than 100 cases by his count. With another 104 slated for the afternoon session and little time for lunch, he postponed Shinneman’s trial.  “I’ve got to object,” Allen protested. “That’s completely prejudicing my client.”  “I understand,” Starnes replied.

Here’s another nonprofit this Judge was involved with, which a mother in a custody battle from Florida (not Linda Marie Sacks — not her line of approach!)  asked me to research:  (link provided, image updated, by text search + memory of having been asked to look this up, plus specific participating professionals (Judge Starnes, Shelly Finman, etc.) I know it’s the same one.  (2011 post originally had a large blank image here, and no link):

http://aflpnetwork.com/history/

Association of Family Law Professionals website (viewed 3/25/2018)

History of the above group:

“We are Judges, lawyers, mental health and financial professionals, Judicial Assistants and Court staff members, mediators, school counselors, educators, and other professionals working to help families through the maze of marital and family law matters.”

YES — and many of you are already public employees.  So why form more nonprofits than AFCC — which already meets this definition — to do your jobs?  Did the families ask your help in navigating the custody maze (your groups helped create by trying to put psychology on a par with law)?

Well, the motive was obviously helping and public service:

  1. A committee formed {{spontaneously?}} in the mid-1980’s with a diverse membership, co-chaired by Mary Robinson, Solomon Agin and (Family attorney) Shelly Finman, tasked {{by whom?}} with determining whether or not our community was in need of Court sponsored mediationAfter 2 years of regular morning meetings at the old Snack House Restaurant at the Collier Arcade, it was decided we did.  {{ANY OTHER COMMUNITY MEMBERS INVOLVED?}} However, there was no budget.  Therefore, with the support of a “shoe string” budget from the office of Court Administration (Doug Wilkinson) and Judge Hugh Starnes, we began training volunteer mediators at the HRS offices in the evenings.
  1. A committee, called the “cooperation committee” consisting of Judge Lynn Gerald, Judge Starnes, Steve Helgemo, George Kluttz, Gail Markham, and Shelly Finman met at the Veranda Restaurant in the mid to late 80’s, discussing ways to change some of the adversarial methods, resulting in local orders and posturing the Bench and Bar with non-adversarial, more conciliatory methods of practicing in Court

Gee golly ding, gosh darn, gee whiz — where did they get THAT radical concept from (and how long were the members also AFCC members??)  etc.

(One can search Starnes & Finman @ Florida’s sunbiz.org — I did  — for more info.  Probably blogged it here somewhere, too.  Groups like RESTORATIVE JUVENILE JUSTICE PROJECT, INC. (never got an EIN, dissolved for failure to file), the family law association in question (shelly finman shows on earliest on-line report, 1995).  Clearly restorative justice is an ongoing field, to be countered, however, with awareness of places like Luzerne County, PA in which kickbacks were involved, violation of due process extreme, and finally some judges caught in RICO over the matter, — or 2008 Congressional Oversight of the HEAD of the OJJDP (Flores) because of grants-steering to faith-based professionals.   In this context, forming a nonprofit to get a grant is like — pretty much what they do.

Or, in the case (TBA _- I haven’t checked all 50 states, only some of the states in which they are advertising trainings..) institutes, like “Cooperative Parenting Institute” etc. simply post the website references, with glorious self-referential credits & titles,  and skip the incorporating part entirely, which would require filing tax returns somewhere along the way, and conceivably letting the public look at them, without the subpoena, FOIA and all that.

RE:  Peter Salem – the Hofstra Connection:

2007 Exec Director of AFCC  — Peter Salem, and his ($130K) = $10,00+/month salary in that capacity:

He has many accomplishments, including teaching mediation at a law school — but he is not an attorney; he has an M.A.   Lets review this again:  the head of the AFCC is not an attorney, his specialty is NOT law.

Before I go into this too much, let’s look at the “Hofstra Connection” which I feel too few people notice, when it comes to AFCC.  Of course, most people complaining about problems with family law   – – –    – – – –    – – –    are so busy with that narrative they completely ignore the existence of organizations where the people running it plan their Standard Operating Procedure.  In otherwords, they completely ignore the AFCC as well.

However, when I found out it was publishing most of the materials in local courthouses (self-help centers, etc.), not to mention that as an organization, it began in a corrupt manner, and many of its members continue in that corruption — I got fairly more interested!

Hofstra University in NY has a School of Law and as of 2001, it also has a CCFL, similar idea to UBaltimore’s School of Law “CFCC” (which I blogged):

The Center for Children, Families and the Law was established in 2001 in response to the urgent need for more effective representation for children and families in crisis.

Its unique interdisciplinary program of education, community service and research is designed to encourage professionals from law and mental health to work together for the benefit of children and families involved in the legal system.The Center’s training program is one of the most comprehensive child and family advocacy curricula offered in the United States. Its interdisciplinary approach is designed to better prepare a new generation of legal and mental health professionals to promote appropriate and effective justice in both the juvenile and family court systems. The Center’s community service programs provide direct assistance to New York area children and families in need and serve as models for states across the country.

To carry out its mission, the Center partners with the University’s Department of Psychology, and health and human service agencies and law associations, including the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts (AFCC), the American Bar Association (ABA), the National Institute for Trial Advocacy (NITA), and the New York Permanent Judicial Commission on Justice for Children.

AFCC cannot be considered a “law association,” given its membership and its stated intent to change the language of criminal law into a more “therapeutic” framework.  But where does Peter Salem & AFCC fit in?  Which came first — the (AFCC) chicken, or the (Family Court Review joint-published with AFCC) the egg?

Welcome

Family Court Review (FCR) is a peer-reviewed, quarterly journal published under the auspices of the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts (AFCC)Family Court Review is an international, interdisciplinary family law journal — a forum for the exchange of ideas, programs, research, legislation, case law and reforms. The journal’s editorial staff, under the direction of Faculty Editor-in-Chief Andrew Schepard*, is based at the Law School. Its fundamental premise is that productive discussion of family law is facilitated by a dialogue between the judiciary, lawyers, mediators, mental health and social services communities. AFCC is an interdisciplinary, international association of judges, counselors, evaluators, mediators, attorneys and others concerned with the constructive resolution of family conflict.

Schepard, Parent Education Promoter, AFCC-approved.

Professor Schepard is a founder and project director for Parent Education and Custody Effectiveness (P.E.A.C.E.), an interdisciplinary, court-affiliated education program for parents to help them reduce the difficulties their children experience during divorce and separation. P.E.A.C.E. has produced an award-winning video for parents, and has been recognized by the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts for its “ongoing contribution to improving the lives of parents and children.

He and Mr. Salem are on an AFCC Task Force together.

After all, if one wishes to entirely develop and steer the field of family law, one must definitely get to the education of family lawyers.   One cannot change practices from the outcome end only; obviously one has to get a the new, fresh-faced graduating class of attorneys, in fact get to them before they graduate and are faced with the bedrock of experience, which  may counter some of that theory before it’s solidifies.

Well, so does this group:  from the AFCC site:

Task Forces and Initiatives   Family Law Education Reform Project  (“FLER”)

Co-sponsored by the Hofstra Law School 
Center for Children, Families and the Law

Andrew Schepard, J.D., Co-Chair  
Andrew Schepard

Peter Salem, M.A., Co-Chair
Peter Salem

Project Information:  Family Law Education Reform Project Final Report (PDF)

They work together.  Apparently he joined AFCC as staff in 1994; two founders (Meyer Elkin, 1994 and Stanley Cohen 1995) died around this time.  It seems Mr. Salem was working in Wisconsin in the same fields.  This summary from AFCC History seems so relevant.  In maroon font:

1993—AFCC’s 30th Anniversary

AFCC celebrated its 30th Anniversary in New Orleans in May 1993.  The conference theme and opening night videotape, “The Economic Impact of Divorce,” provided an opportunity for more than 700 delegates to look at the big-picture impact of divorce and celebrate the largest conference attendance to date. 

In 1993, the association received a major grant from the Hewlett Foundation that enabled AFCC to add additional staff and absorb some of the work of AFCC’s many hard-working volunteer members.  In 1994, Peter Salem joined the AFCC staff to become AFCC’s associate director. Conference planning was centralized in the administrative office and AFCC began to offer additional training and consulting services. 

Database records from usual sources don’t go back that far.  But obviously the Hewlett Foundation has some similar interests in family matters.  Their history page can be read; sons managed it until 1981, In 1974 that they hired an executive director, and this gives a scope of the influence (like, having the President of the University of California as President of the Foundation, etc.) (section here in BLUE)

http://www.hewlett.org/about-the-william-and-flora-hewlett-foundation/william-and-flora-hewlett-and-the-hewlett-foundation

By the time Roger Heyns retired in 1992, the Foundation’s assets had increased more than thirtyfold – to more than $800 million, and the Hewlett Foundation was highly respected for its work in the fields of conflict resolution, education, environment, performing arts, and population, and was a key source of funding to a host of institutions that provide vital services to disadvantaged Bay Area communities.

In 1993, former University of California President David P. Gardner succeeded Roger Heyns as president of the Foundation, and served for six years, during which time the Foundation’s assets increased to more than $2 billion, and annual grantmaking rose from $35 million in 1993 to $84 million in 1998

Sooner or later we all have to ‘fess up to (admit, to ourselves and each other) how great an influence foundations (personal corporate wealth transferred into foundations) have upon this country and what its government and nongovernment programs and culture looks like.


This foundation was interested in conflict resolution and helped develop it as a field, and (in AFCC’s 5 year retrospective, 2002-2007, below, it acknowledged their help.  Sounds like they got in on the last round of Hewlit Foundation grants in this field):

The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation played a major role in developing and supporting the conflict resolution field for nearly two decades. During that time, the field grew and matured and achieved considerable acceptance and self-sufficiency across various areas of practice. While recognizing the continuing value of conflict resolution and peacemaking in the United States and internationally, the Foundation decided to wind down its support for this area and to deploy its resources to other pressing social issues. The Conflict Resolution Program made its final grants in 2004

They are also big on promoting and enabling fatherhood involvement, as is AFCC also:

Responsible Fatherhood and Male Involvement. The Foundation supported programs that enabled fathers to participate actively in the emotional and financial support {{CHILD SUPPORT, got it?}} of the family and that promote adult male involvement in teh lives of children and youth from father-absent environments.

Someone has to deal with the domestic violence issue sooner or later.  This organization did so by funding Family Violence Prevention Fund (already deep into fatherhood as a tool to prevent violence, sure, that’ll work) and funded a report on preventing teen violence, with phraseology like this:

Other gaps must be closed as well. More attention and resources should be focused on men, on the low-income communities that have disproportionate experience with abuse, on promoting economic independence, and on ending the exclusive reliance on punitive responses such as incarceration, which is intolerable to many communities of color and immigrant communities.

With characteristic “modesty” FVPF introduces its 2003 report:

Foreword

The Family Violence Prevention Fund is proud to issue this unprecedented Report, which provides the most comprehensive analysis to date of the status of domestic violence prevention efforts. This Report does more than examine our nation’s considerable progress in understanding and stopping domestic violence. It takes a close look at what strategies have and have not worked, identi- fying the most promising approaches and making recommendations for how to expend energies and allocate resources in years ahead.

(I just searched.  There is zero mention of family law, custody, visitation, fatherhood barely, and/or access visitation, even though many teens have children, as mothers or fathers.   The word   “fatherhood” (incl. programs) shows up 5 times, and it’s somehow suggested that Child Support Enforcement is a means to provide opportunities and incentives for DV prevention. (p. 19).  I have already blogged on this group (see “About this Blog”), but as I have been living and working in the same general area, am more aware than most of just how much they are (deliberately) ignoring; actually the more people drop like flies in the immediate neighborhood (and often this is around the divorce issue or a custody battle), the better it looks for justifying more grants of this sort. )

Back to AFCC describing itself:

Second World Congress on Family Law and the Rights of Children and Youth 

In 1997, AFCC partnered with Australia’s World Congress, Inc. to host the Second World Congress on Family Law and the Rights of Children and Youth.  Chaired by AFCC’s first non-North American president, Hon. Alastair Nicholson, Chief Justice of the Family Court of Australia, the three-year planning effort involved hundreds of AFCC volunteers and culminated with more than 1,500 delegates from more than 50 countries participating in the five-day extravaganza.  The lengthy list of luminaries included First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, who served as honorary chairperson; renowned pediatrician Dr. T. Barry Brazelton; San Francisco Mayor Hon. Willie Brown; Nobel Peace Prize Recipient Dr. Jose Ramos-Horta; and former U.S. Congresswoman Hon. Patricia Schroeder.

By 1998, mediation had established itself as a professional field of practice. 

NO field of practice establishes itself.  Fields of practice have people promoting them, through membership associations (very often) which then solicit funding.  As I showed above, the Hewlitt Foundation was one promoter of “conflict resolution” (which includes mediation) as a field of practice and takes credit for it.   This is so typical of AFCC prose — they like to claim that some field established itself, like the flowers come out in spring, just naturally.  There’s nothing further from the truth!!

Executive Director
Peter Salem, M.A.

Peter Salem has served as Executive Director since 2002 and was Associate Director from 1994-2002.

I’m guessing he didn’t join AFCC and immediately become Executive Director; i.e., the involvement is longstanding (1994-2011 is 17 years), and either he has influence it, or its agenda and operations– including emphasis on mediation — are in agreement with his life’s work.

He taught mediation at Marquette University Law School for ten years and served as mediator and director of Mediation and Family Court Services in Rock County, Wisconsin. Mr. Salem is a former president of the Wisconsin Association for Mediators and is co-editor of Divorce Mediation: Models, Techniques and Applications. He has provided training and technical assistance to family court service agencies throughout the United States since 1990. {{Probably also for free. . …}}

He is author of numerous articles and videos on mediation, domestic violence and divorce. He received the [[1]] John M. Haynes Distinguished Mediator Award presented by the Association for Conflict Resolution** [[2]] in 2008 and received a William T. Grant Foundation Distinguished Fellows award in 2009. He holds an M.A. in Communication and Mediation Management from Emerson College in Boston [[3]] and a B.A. in Political Science from McGill University in Montreal.  [[4]]

I decided to look these up.  Fnotes in order in text, but below, out of order, they are filed in chrono order, i.e., undergraduate comes before graduate references.  The biggest “find” is the (ridiculous) Association for Conflict Resolution.  I’ll back up the “ridiculous” under that footnote.  I have found that when AFCC (and related organizations) begin to pile on the titles and awards, well-earned though they may be, it pays to look up who’s awarding what, to see if it has some significance.  Most people know awards like Nobel Price, Fullbright or Rhodes Scholarship, etc. — but as almost every new nonprofit in the courts (schools, etc.) mediation fields tries to pump up its credibility by setting up awards, they need more scrutiny.

[[4]] McGill (see link) is more wide-ranging; it’s undergraduates (now) are 417 women/164 men).  Apparently Mr. Salem is from Canada? which may explain AFCC’s large Canadian component?  Looks like a well-respected university, with a variety of programs, but my point is, Mr. Salem’s interest was political science, i.e., interest in how society works and potentially changing it.  See next degree:

[[3]] Emerson College in Boston:

Emerson College, located in the heart of Boston, Massachusetts, is the nation’s premiere institution in higher education devoted to communication and the arts in a liberal arts context.

Emerson is internationally recognized in its fields of specialization, which are communication studies; marketing communication; journalism; communication sciences and disorders; visual and media arts; the performing arts; and writing, literature and publishing.

I don’t see any legal, or any really “hard sciences” study — here’s the list of science course minors for “communication sciences” majors.

Here’s a typical “Political Communication” UNDERgraduate coursework (understanding it must have changed over time, I wonder what year Peter Salem got his M.A. in….):

A major in Leadership, Politics, and Social Advocacy will prepare you for such careers as communication advisor, press secretary, governmental relations officer, nonprofit leader, and cultural affairs advocate, among many others. The program’s core curriculum balances the theory and the practical skills necessary for effective, ethical communication in a changing and complex media environment.

And GRADUATE coursework:

Communication Management

The Master of Arts in Communication Management provides students with the knowledge, theory, and skills necessary to design and execute strategic, integrated communication plans for public and private organizations. In addition to honing your speaking, writing, listening, and negotiating skills, you will develop expertise in web-based communication and learn how to adapt to and utilize new media to the advantage of your future employers or clients. The program is divided into two academic tracks:

  • Human Resources & Employee Communication
  • Public Relations & Stakeholder Communication

Our graduates have achieved professional success in a variety of industries including pharmaceuticals, political communication, event planning, travel and tourism, public advocacy, health care, among many others.

And this is the current Emerson graduate program director’s background, with degrees from Texas and North Carolina, heavily into social science, and mediation.

[[1]] John M. Haynes Distinguished Mediator Award :

The John M. Haynes Distinguished Mediator Award is presented annually to a prominent and internationally recognized leader in mediation who demonstrates personal and professional commitment to finding mediation solutions to conflict while balancing therapeutic and legal perspectives. John M. Haynes was a pioneer in the field of family mediation, a respected author and practitioner, an international trainer, and the first president of the Academy of Family Mediators.

(sigh).  Mediation, having a problem with “conflict” and trying to balance therapy (outcome based, analysis = psychology, pathological emphasis) with law (process based, with reference to written standards voted into law by citizens in various states, to protect them from EXACTLY what happens when institutionalizing and labeling/medicating are used to oppress and control unruly reformers or those who challenge the status quo, i.e., Archipelago.  In short, these characteristics basically define AFCC to start with.)

The list of recipients speaks loudly, lots of them are simply AFCC hotshots:

  • 2011: Christine Coates, J.D.  [[AFCC]]
  • 2010: Kenneth Cloke  [[Santa Monica, Center for Dispute Resolution, Pepperdine, you name it]]  SEE ~**~, I looked this one up
Why should this one get an award when the state of California OAG/Trusts had to chase him down over zero income, or filings,  for the past 24 years?  After they threatened him with $800 fine and more, he responded. …. Yet the nonprofit website is still advertising some very pricey trainings!  ($200, $1,000, etc.)
  • 2009: Robert D. Benjamin  [[Currently in Portland.  Pepperdine.  Mediation etc. since 1979, and he practiced law.  Columnist and advanced practitioner in ACR]]
  • 2008: Peter Salem   [[AFCC]]
  • 2007: Jim Melamed, J.D.  [[Oregon Mediation Center, which he founded in 1983, he is CEO of “Mediate.com,” ADR, etc.  See “history” at N2N, here — shows they borrowed the idea from SF, and eventually got funding]]
  • 2006: Arnie Shienvold, Ph.D.  [[AFCC.  Scranton, PA parents had this name on posters recently protesting family court corruption.  I blogged it recently, see tags]]
  • 2005: Nina R. Meierding, MS., J.D.  [[FT private mediation since 1986, former family law attorney, Certificate in Dispute Resolution from Pepperdine (like others on the list) and — get this — yet another who is per mediate.com now, past board member of ACR!
  • 2004: Zena D. Zumeta, J.D.  [[From Michigan, since 1981, ADR, and get this — she gets the award from ACR and “She is currently on the Association for Conflict Resolution’s Membership Committee, and sat on the Advisory Council to its Family Section.”  Works from a Dispute Resolution Center (one of several in state) that takes business from courts, gov’t, social service etc., and has two judges on its advisory board and is a trainer]]
  • 2003: Barbara Landau, Ph.D., LL.B., LL.M.  [[Worked in Toronto Court, has a business, ADR, Mediator, Trainer, etc.  “Dr. Barbara Landau’s company “Cooperative Solutions” continues to expand. Please see information below on our two Associates, Daryl Landau, and Mary-Anne Popescu.”]]
  • 2002: Donald T. Saposnek, Ph.D.  {{since 1983, appears to have made a good living off the family courts as mediator & trainer, typical}}
  • 2001: Larry S. Fong, Ph.D. (2005 AFCC conference on Solving the Family Court Puzzle shows him as President of the ACR, and Canadian, another conference in 2011 on Advanced Mediation Issues — when one parent is Gay))

DIVERSION:  A Nonprofit around since 1987, high-profile speaker, zero income reported?

~**~ re:  Kenneth Cloke, Center for Dispute Resolution  (How many more fit this description?  It was Calif, so I looked it up quickly.  “Center for Dispute Resolution” search brought up 5 corporations, only 2 of which were active.  This one, b. 1987, was active.  Its title includes the word “foundation.”  I hopped over and looked up the charity and found it hadn’t been filing IRS forms and its Dissolution is “Pending” — an usual situation.  EIN# 546565246

(FYI, Santa Monica is within Los Angeles County)

After a particularly stern letter from the OAG (Kamala Harris, Jan. 2011), Kenneth writes in response:

This is a request to obtain a dissolution waiver and to dissolve a California nonprofit corporation, the Center for Dispute Resolution Foundation, #C1583109.

The corporation was never operational, and neither raised, received or spent any money at any time. There are no assets to be distributed. There are no financial statements, and the corporation never had any income or assets since incorporating.

If you have any questions or 1 need to do anything further, please contact me at. . .

I just looked up the address at the bottom of the letterhead — which is “Kenneth Cloke Law Offices.”   His DisputeResolutionCenter claims to be very much up and operating (perhaps it’s just not getting any takers, any customers?)  It lists Training for FALL 2011:

http://www.kennethcloke.com/training.htm

 

Kenneth Cloke will conduct a four day training for beginning, intermediate and advanced mediators who are interested in improving their conflict resolution skills. Please see the printable course description, registration form and book list here.

Classes begin at 9 am and end at 4:30 pm
Classes are held at the Center for Dispute Resolution, 2411 18th St., Santa Monica, CA 90405
Phone: (310) 399-4426 
| FAX (310) 399-5906 

Each participant will receive a Mediation Certificate on completion of the training, along with a Training Manual that includes basic forms that are useful in starting a mediation practice.

Cost is $250.00 per class or $1000.00 for the series.
Click here to print the Registration Form with Course Description and Book List

For a group that began with several people on the board in 1987, that’s quite an accomplishment!! to earn absolutely nothing while having such a fine website.  Kind of reminds me of the Termini/Boyan combo — only it looks like they actually had some takers.

What does it say about ACR to give this person its 2010 award?  Yet in January 2011, the OAG got on their case.  Perhaps the award is what drew its attention — who knows?  Note:  this 2009 speaker engagement as co-founder of “Mediators Beyond Borders” lists the above outfit first in his credits.  I wonder how many of the other fantastic credits below check out.  Either he is doing that all — and earning no money at it, so not filing taxes– or he’s doing all those things, making a living and too busy to comply with state charitable registration laws, while promoting himself and his work & books.

Join us as Kenneth Cloke discusses his most recent publication titled “Conflict Revolution: Mediating Evil, War, Injustice and Terrorism.”

Wednesday, March 11, 2009
12:00 PM
Public Affairs Room 2355
Los Angeles, CA 90095

As Director of the Center for Dispute Revolution, Kenneth Cloke has served as a mediator, arbitrator, attorney, coach, consultant and trainer.

Mediators Beyond Borders incorporated in PA in Oct. 2006, per Corporations search:

Name Name Type
Mediators Beyond Borders International Current Name
MEDIATORS WITHOUT BORDERS Prior Name
Mediators Beyond Borders Prior Name

Non-Profit (Non Stock) – Domestic – Information
Entity Number: 3686096
Status: Active
Entity Creation Date: 10/19/2006
State of Business.: PA

ORGANIZATION NAME

STATE

YEAR

TOTAL ASSETS

FORM

PAGES

EIN

Mediators Beyond Borders PA 2009 $40,949 990EZ 18 20-5716275
Mediators Beyond Borders PA 2008 $38,013 990EZ 30 20-5716275
Mediators Beyond Borders PA 2007 $13,946 990EZ 16 20-5716275

Robert A. Creo (attorney) (hover cursor over link for a sample) seems the professional heavy-lifter in this relationship, and business is registered out of his law offices. MBB International has a project to rehabilitate child soldiers of Liberia. . . .   Creo and associate McKay operate “Mastermediators.com” and of course a Master Mediator Institute to go with it, much of which deals with training.  It says, he has an ability to “create, organize and lead” ADR organizations (which seems obvious).  Mediators Beyond Borders and Master Mediators Institute both show his office address, i.e., he’s operating a number of nonprofits out of his own offiice:

About MMI

A belief that conflict resolution requires an integrated knowledge of law, neuroscience, neurobiology, psychology, economics, communications and other disciplines led to the creation of the Master Mediator Institute. MMI offers Immersion Courses to allow mediators, advocates and other professionals to connect with leading scientists and academics to explore cutting edge knowledge about the mind, the brain and the science of decision making.

The website looks great (both websites); better than average and easy to negotiate, and professional in design and color.  MMI has only been around for two and a half years; it was incorporated in 6/2009.  I wonder what nonprofit is next!






The Master Mediator Institute 3889281 Non-Profit (Non Stock) Active 6/22/2009
R

Colleague Monique MacKay (I found through linkedin) shows up in Virginia — so the corresponding LLC to the nonprofit is in a different state and was incorporated the same month, 6/3/2009.  So let’s say they had a plan up front, and the websites plus testimonials show it as (unlike Mr. Cloke’s) a going concern:

The Master Mediators LLC

SCC ID: S2941864
Business Entity Type: Limited Liability Company
Jurisdiction of Formation: VA
Date of Formation/Registration: 6/3/2009
Status: Active

He seems less interested in family law, which means I’m less interested in this case, other than what it says about the Association for Conflict Resolution.

[[3]]Association for Conflict Resolution:

**”Association for Conflict Resolution” is an expansion of, &/or where “Alternate Dispute Resolution” went, linguistically.  That’s a planned language shift, necessary because periodically people start to catch up faster with what groups named after the prior AFCC-linguistic-labels have actually been doing.  Including with their money.

The Association for Conflict Resolution (ACR) is a professional organization enhancing the practice and public understanding of conflict resolution.

We are the nation’s largest professional association for mediators, arbitrators, educators and other conflict resolution practitioners. ACR works in a wide range of settings throughout the United States and around the world. . . .Our multicultural and multidisciplinary organization offers a broad umbrella under which all forms of dispute resolution practice find a home.

This group maintains a “special interest section” called ADR, which reads the typical fashion and like AFCC, and the ADR groups, seeks to promote their own interests and profession, including to judges and legislators:

ACR Court Section

The Court Section provides information and best practice information for resolution of court disputes ranging from small claims to family.

MISSION STATEMENT

The mission of this section is to foster and facilitate the development and implementation of quality court-annexed ADR programs throughout the country and to provide support to all individuals interested and involved in Court ADR programs such as Court ADR administrators, judges and dispute resolution practitioners working in a court setting by providing a forum that addresses issues concerning court-annexed ADR programs through information sharing, networking, identification of resources, development of model practices, and training programs.

Kind of a run-on, redundant sentence, much?  But of course let’s focus on COURT-annexed programs, because this is guaranteed income.  if not from the parents themselves (etc.) — from a federal program.  MUCH better chance of selling this as in the public’s interest.  But in reality – -it’s in the profession’s interest.

OBJECTIVES

  • To promote the development of court-annexed dispute resolution programs around the country, at all levels of court.
  • To serve as a clearinghouse of relevant information and resources for court administrators, dispute resolution practitioners, and judges.
  • To assist in educating the public, attorneys, judges, legislators and other constituencies about the value of court-annexed dispute resolution programs.
  • To provide a venue for communication and networking opportunities [[AWAY FROM THE PARTIES MOST AFFECTED BY THE PRACTICE!!]] among court ADR administrators, dispute resolution practitioners and judges.
  • To identify policy issues important to court-annexed programs and provide guidance/best practices with respect to those issues.

This organization wants to feed information direct to judges.  They want to be a “clearinghouse.”  They want to facilitate the communication with judges. Flattery will probably facilitate the process, accordingly AFCC’s Peter Salem gets a 2008 award from this group.   AFCC (which already does this – -not to mention has plenty of judges IN it and some running it, too) then proudly adds another credit to it’s director’s cap, which is a win-win situation for those involved.

The ACR “Family Mediation” special interest section looks all up and running, and has  avery detailed, neatly tabbed, web presence with the same types of activities the AFCC does — publication, training, conferences, budget, member committees, plus facebook page, etc.   And Marketing Mediation Training

So — let’s go to Virginia and look up the corporationSo — let’s go to Virginia and look up the corporation (it lists a virginia address).  OK, here we go:

SCC ID Business Entity Name Entity Type Entity Status
05660642 ASSOCIATION FOR CONFLICT RESOLUTION – VIRGINIACHAPTER, THE Corporation Terminated

(none with just the name alone — vs. “Virginia Chapter” — shows up.  Last registered agent, 2007.  Don’t see any filing history(i.e., annual reports) beyond the initial filing, and there are no “efiling” transactions registered.

The Association for Conflict Resolution -Virginia Chapter

SCC ID: 05660642
Business Entity Type: Corporation
Jurisdiction of Formation: VA
Date of Formation/Registration: 10/11/2001
Status: Terminated

A 990-finder (i.e., nationwide search for a nonprofit) search shows it in several states, as well as the same EIN in two states and name, in more than two.

Association for Conflict Resolution VA 2009 $336,780 990 51 23-7251385
Association for Conflict Resolution DC 2008 $503,647 990 21 23-7251385

same name, different states and separate EIN#s:

Association for Conflict Resolution TX 2008 $0 990ER 5 20-2124912
Association for Conflict Resolution MA 2007 $24,629 990EZ 13 04-3465101
Assoc…

After click on dropdown option just above orange section, more fields (like EIN#) and ZIP now display [“990 Finder Widget This (pretty precisely) dates URL redirect by FoundationCenter to Diff’t User Interface….]WHY IT MATTERS: Names are so often wrong on this database! Use EIN#, although occasionally even a filing entity will get it wrong by a # also.

New look and URL, click on dropdown just above orange section for more fields (like EIN#)!! [“990 Finder Widget This (pretty precisely) dates URL redirect by FoundationCenter to Diff’t User Interface. Must use DropDown menu to access other options (such as EIN#)]

{{2018 UPDATE:  NOTICE THE DIFFERENT EIN#s.  THIS TIME, I HADN’T CAUGHT UP TO JUST HOW OFTEN THE DATABASE  PROVIDER (nonprofit now called simply “Foundation Center”) search results get entity names wrong.  I don’t know how these odd results continue to show so often, and whether it’s a matter of software, or human error/data entry (unlikely…).  A letter should be written them; I just haven’t yet. (See nearby added images with orange-background captions):User interface field for this now looks different and to get to the (more accurate) EIN# searches requires use of a drop-down (“more fields”) indicator. Name search ONLY on this website can’t be trusted.  (“990finder.foundationcenter.org” which I’ve used for years, currently redirects to their new site..)Tbe Virginia one, above, “ACR EMBRACES AND ACKNOWLEDGES THE FULL SPECTRUM OF PEACEFUL CONFLICT RESOLUTION AND RECOGNIZES THE VALUE OF CROSS-DISCIPLINARY AND CROSS-CULTURAL CONNECTIONS TO ENHANCE CONFLICT CHOICES UNIVERSALLY.”(and with  just a few grants, over  700 volunteers, and 13 employees, has over $1 million of revenues yearly. Executive Director Douglas M. Kleine (address WDC) gets $95K salary (moderate) and I think — but don’t know without more checking– this is him, too:  Worked in HUD, Train the trainer activities, Virginia Legislature Congressional Agency (staff positions), plus Democratic Precinct caption.   Expert nonprofit management experience, highly placed.Here we go — the ACR wants to erect a National Peacemaker Museum and nominated Family Law Collaborative Professional Woody Mosten (who?) to chair that taskforce.  Maybe Futures without Violence (ca. 2010 formerly family violence prevention fund) was simply competing with this group for THE most grandiose, pretentious and let’s not forget, nonprofit,noble purpose around — and so practical, too!

Mission Statement (Approved June 29, 2009)

The National Peacemaker Museum Constellation will encourage peaceful conflict resolution between human beings in every corner of the world. It will honor those courageous and innovative individuals and institutions who work toward peace rather than conflict, foster harmony amongst humanity rather than division, and embrace the rich tapestry of human difference while building bridges upon our commonalities. The National Peacemaker Museum will challenge, inspire, educate, and enable visitors from around the world to be peacemakers themselves, to contribute as they can to the ability of the human race to solve our problems creatively and collaboratively, and to craft solutions that are fair, compassionate, and wise. National Peacemaker Museum will accomplish this mission through a diverse array of partnerships and outreach techniques, both virtual and tangible, in an ongoing effort to reach the full diversity of humanity, speaking in a way that each listening ear can hear.

The Association for Conflict Resolution (ACR) is supporting a coalition of organizations to establish a National Peacemaker Museum. In November 2007, ACR Immediate Past President, Marilyn S. McKnight established a Taskforce to launch this effort and appointed Forrest (Woody) Mosten to serve as Chair.

🙂  Just felt we should get a picture of some of the influence that our AFCC Board Member Judges (the US ones) wield, and some local feedback.

So what is this membership trade nonprofit private nonprofit group AFCC — with many of its influential members holding public office, like judgeships and county-level work such as custody evaluators, mediators, and of course Parenting Coordinators,  doing with this income?  . . . .

Besides inventing new terms and providing an on-going membership role model for how to form lots ‘n lots of nonprofits, while on public payroll or getting referral business from the courts, and lobbying legistors to do things like running Justice Initiatives to “Change the Culture of Custody“** (Pennsylvania) and trying to get states to mandate parenting coordination appointment — lots of it.  In Pennsylvania, they are Initiating, but I guess here, they are describing the “New Frontier” as if it just developed and showed up all by its wild-west lonesome, see 2012 AFCC-California Conference images for: “The New Frontier:  Exploring the Possibilities and Challenges of the Changed Landscape for Children and the Courts“***

[[**in which the AFCC is only directly cited a few times, but “parenting coordination” 14 times, “parent education” 10 times, “high-conflict” (with hyphen) 4 times, “high conflict” (no hyphen) 11 times, “dispute resolution” 63 times, a plug for a parent education “Kids First,” (used in 8 PA counties at the time, and already likely part of an FBI of investigation financial abuse in billing & multiple service referrals  by a GAL in one of those counties) and the first person mentioned in the “Chairman’s Introduction” just happens to be (now) President-elect of AFCC]] 

[[***Gee, who changed it?]][[check out item 12, presenter.  Same individual from ACFLS — yesterday– who declared that a few hours on-line would qualify someone to write a great appellate brief about domestic violence, and maybe even save a client’s life.  Tell that to Michelle Fournier’s son  when he grows up, without her.  Tell that to the relatives of the 7 other people that died as collateral damage in her “custody dispute” this past fall.  On the other hand, when the boy grows up, maybe he could do a speech on what such violence is like OFF-line….]]

Well, read on, to see some of the strategic planning from 2002-2007:

FIVE-YEAR REPORT

{{This is most of the first page of the report, for reference:}}

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

This report chronicles the development of AFCC for the fiscal years 2002-03 through 2006-07, the first five years of the current administration. It addresses AFCC initiatives and special projects, organization- al development, membership, conferences, resource development, publications, administration and finance, Web site, technology and collaborating organizations. Comparative data and narrative are offered to provide historical context.

AFCC Initiatives and Special Projects

Between 2002 and 2007, AFCC initiatives and special projects played a growing role in the day to day activities of the association. Eight special projects were initiated between 2002 and 2007, funded through a mix of contracts, small grants, the operating budgets of AFCC and its collaborating organizations and participating individuals and organizations.

(1) Connecticut Family Civil Intake Assessment Screen (2) Guidelines for Parenting Coordination (3) Court Services Task Force (4) Model Standards of Practice for Child Custody Evaluation (5) Family Law Education Reform (FLER) Project

(6) Educator’s Guide to Working with Separated and Divorcing Parents

(7) Domestic Violence and Family Courts Project (8) Developing Nations Libraries Project

The Family Law Education Reform Project and Domestic Violence and Family Court Project were anchored by the first two AFCC-sponsored conferences at the Johnson Foundation’s prestigious Wingspread Conference Center.

Organizational Development

AFCC completed three major projects in the area of organizational development:

• • •

A five-year strategic plan An organizational effectiveness project, funded by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation Identity branding

And from a little further in the report:

Web Site and Technology

• Redesigned Web site to enhance usability and member benefits.

Google grant increased average monthly Web visits from 16,500 to 42,700.

• The bi-monthly AFCC eNEWS debuted in February 2006 and now has more than 10,000 subscribers.

• Parenting Coordination Network (group email) implemented.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

And so on, and so forth. . .

Written by Let's Get Honest|She Looks It Up

December 12, 2011 at 9:29 pm

Posted in AFCC, Bush Influence & Appointees (Cat added 11/2011), Business Enterprise, Cast, Script, Characters, Scenery, Stage Directions, CRC Childrens Rights Council, Designer Families, Funding Fathers - literally, History of Family Court, Lackawanna County PA Corruption Protests, Organizations, Foundations, Associations NGO Hybrids, Parenting Coordination promotion, PhDs in Psychology-Psychiatry etc (& AFCC), Psychology & Law = an AFCC tactical lobbying unit

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Certifiably Irregular Behavior among Certified Specialist Associations, and other Dispensers of Training…

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Warning:

Warning: This article contains language that some will find offensive, but that others will find refreshingly honest.*

(*cite, and this quote again, below)

INSPIRATION FOR THIS POST:

WAS THE “ASSOCIATION OF CERTIFIED FAMILY LAW PROFESSIONALS.”

Entity Number Date Filed Status Entity Name Agent for Service of Process
C1955108 12/04/1995 ACTIVE ASSOCIATION OF CERTIFIED FAMILY LAW   SPECIALISTS, INC. LYNN MARIE PFEIFER

NOT JUST THE CONCEPT OF CERTIFYING A FAMILY LAW PROFESSIONAL TO START WITH, BUT THE CONCEPT OF A CERTIFIED SET OF ASSOCIATES THAT SEEM BELIEVE PSYCHOLOGY IS SCIENCE, AND CRIMINAL BEHAVIOR, ISN’T, WHICH INCLUDES A CRIMINAL DEGREE OF PROFIT FROM PROMOTING SPREADING THIS “COGNITIVE DISSONANCE” AMONG OTHERS, WHILE QUITE CONSCIOUS OF THE PROFIT IN SO DOING.

First, the public face — clearly this is a hot shot, and professionally alert group:

See?

Welcome, from the Association of Certified Family Law Specialists in California, an independent association of California attorneys who specialize in family law.

ACFLS was formed in 1980 following certification of the first group of Family Law Specialists under the “pilot” program, now a permanent program of the State Bar. ACFLS monitors administration by the State Bar of the specialization program, legislation and court rules, develops and promotes Family Law practice skills, and provides advanced educational programs for the bar, judiciary and public.

In the 28 years of ACFLS’ existence, membership has grown to 490 of the approximately 982 California Certified Family Law Specialists, 50% of those certified by the California State Bar Association. . . .

This means one’s chances of hiring an ACFLS member in California is approximately 1 out of 2; 50%. I wonder who certifies the other 50% of family law specialists?

Membership in ACFLS requires Certification by the Board of Legal Specialization of the State Bar of California, and payment of the annual dues. Members receive all ACFLS Newsletters, notices of meetings, are eligible to participate in ACFLS activities (including seminars at reduced cost), and are listed in the ACFLS Referral and Membership Directory published each year and on our web site: www.acfls.org.

It is the Mission of ACFLS to promote and preserve the Family Law Specialty. * * * To that end, the Association seeks to:

  1. Advance the knowledge of Family Law Specialists;
  2. Monitor legislation and proposals affecting the field of family law;
  3. Promote and encourage ethical practice among members of the bar and their clients; and
  4. Promote the specialty to the public and the family law bar.

**notice nothing is mentioned about the best interests of the children.   

They have monthly meetings and occasional regional conferences.  Attorneys know how to through nice conferences, and I’m sure these do too.  For qualifications (of membership) notice:

Because couples who split up also must deal with custody of their children, family law practitioners must also understand child development and other topics touching on emotional and psychological concerns of families.  Part of the certification requirement involves psychological and counseling education.

(which can get written off where? and is provided by whom?)

There is a link for attorneys on Domestic Violence issues — the website intro claims to have “culled the best.”  After the disclaimer, the site says:

Domestic Violence Sites on the Worldwide Web

By Leslie Ellen Shear

Any search engine will turn up thousands of Domestic Violence sites on the internet. I spent many hours culling some of the best. These web sites represent many different perspectives and resources on domestic violence. **(Please note that sites appear, disappear, change or move to new locations regularly. If the link doesn’t work, try searching for a key word or phrase from the description.

** OK, let me review this.  ON a page by an association of lawyers addressing lawyers whose work likely influences where children will live after domestic violence has been reported, Leslie Ellen Shear’ believes that a few hours on the web will sufficiently inform her to post a resource for — lawyers? (Some of who are abusers, or have been victims of this too, no doubt).  This was put up when?  A clear look at the link shows that she’s basically posted parts of references beginning with the letter “A” (with one or two exceptions).   Many links, yes, are inactive, or domain name has been sold.

Every web page needs a list of benefits to readers from plowing through it, right?  So the one on Domestic Violence for Attorneys from this great group, has 20 bulleted points (unprioritized and some of them ridiculous) — of which point# 17 reads “keep your client alive,” thankfully at least one or two higher priorities than “write a great appellate brief,”  and — naturally — right next to an ALMOST acknowledgement that some serious risk is involved, “prepare a competent defense to false or inflated allegations”  See?

  • Keep a client alive.
  • Prepare a competent defense to false or inflated allegations.
  • Write a great appellate brief.

fourth DV link is:

Access to Visitation Grant  (which redirects to the AOC courtsite, and a persistent person might be able to locate the information on this program).

It’s important, yes, to know about this grant program,which has profited some attorneys of fathers saying “false allegations,” and which, on the other hand, has made it possible for some children to be murdered through its premises, and financial incentives to ensure noncustodial parent contact, even if that noncustodial FATHER is in jail, and also supervised visitation (a tool useful in silencing mothers who report abuse, by forcing them to pay to see their kids).  Yes, I believe that any family law specialist, being psychologically trained in child development, should know about this grant system — but it belongs under “endorsing” domestic violence.

Other than that, what’s with this one?

A.P.A.R.T.  The website reads “parentalabductions.org”  the Banner reads “Wives’ Tales’ and it’s simply about single-parenting tips.

A big deal is made about the ACFLS role in the (if you’re from a custody case in California, this should ring a bell) Elkins Family Law Task Force.  I was a standby witness to how little value on actual parental feedback was desired during this task force; read who was on it, and concluded that a task for is a task force is a task force.  Parents are not considered “stakeholders” and a mothers’ group was contacted after the fathers’ group had already been heard.  One could show up and speak for maybe a minute in public, or submit comments on-line (which is not anonymous) while engaged in an active case.   However, their nicely laid-out newsletter goes into great detail on the AFCLS response to the Task Force Recommendations.  Predictably, which includes this:

(paragraph 1, to set the tone — and the time here, 2009):

ACFLS’s Board of Directors unanimously adopted the group’s Family Law Reform Committee’s Comments on the Elkins Family Law Task Force Draft Recommen­dations. The action came on December 5, 2009 at the last meeting of the 2009 Board of Directors, chaired by 2009 President Joseph J. Bell.

(many ACFLS members were on this task force, as it says):

Since the formation of the Elkins Family Law Task Force, ACFLS has been proactive in contributing to the develop- ment of recommendations for reform of California’s family courts. Diane Wasznicky (2010 ACFLS President-Elect) chairs the Family Law Reform committee. Members are David Borges (Ex-Officio Director, Central Coast), Sharon Bryan (former Past President), Vivian Holley (Director at Large, North), Frieda Gordon (Director at Large, South), Michelene Insalaco (Director-Elect, North), Lynette Berg Robe (Legislative Coordinator) and Leslie Ellen Shear  {{WHOSE suggested Domestic Violence links on the ACFLS site I just reviewed; unbelievable that an adult would take the intro — or the set of links — seriously.  It shouldn’t pass a 12th grade essay standard, or even 10th!}}

On page 16, they get down to recommending co-parenting education (can’t miss that, can we?):

Parties to contested custody disputes should receive education about parenting plans and co-parenting. Every county should offer the following FCS services in contested custody- visitation cases:

1. Confidential mediation of custody disputes–including cases in which there is no family law action pending.**

**not to get boringly monotonous, but there’s potential for double-billing around access/vistation grants, county-appointed & paid mediators, and possibly even charging non-indigent parents for this.  Of course it should be offered in every county.  That’s standard AFCC (who are a mediator-promoting group if anyone is….). . … And it’s also been shown repeatedly that domestic violence advocates — earlier, when the word “grassroots” meant something — FOUGHT AGAINST forcing mediation on DV victims.  See Barbara J. Hart writings from the 1990s on this.  Having been through that gauntlet — I have to agree.  There aren’t enough options once a crooked mediator (or a lying one) (or one breaking rules of court) gets that recommendation in.

The next paragraph is utterly ridiculous, as applied in real situations:

2. Same-day emergency screenings for high risk cases.

3. Prompt,brief assessments with recommendations for cases or issues that are not resolved in mediation.

MAYBE this would be tenable IF FIRST — all cases involving abuse and violence were completely removed from the family law jurisdiction, and either handled in criminal court — where they belong, and should be PROSECUTED, after which assuming the abuse really did take place, there should be NO joint legal custody, no overnight visitations, and there should be prompt prosecution of any and ALL violations of court orders by the offending parent, in the criminal venue, not the civil and not the “family.”

This is not going to happen — because this family law exists primarily to defuse and derail people seeking to protect children, or themselves, from physical molestation, violence, threats, and severe destruction that by a stranger would likely lead to jail time.

I had my children stolen and held truant during an UNsupervised visitation — after I’d requested this and been turned down (being female) because “there’s no money” for it (meaning, in our parents).  years later, absent my kids, I learn about the A/V grants stream (and that one of my judges was on the Kids Turn board, too).  Now that it was clear to their father that he was above the law, but could attempt to throw it at me, I had to go again to the same mediator — or not get in front of a judge to get the kids back, knowing that police wouldn’t either.  Basically, nobody gives a damn if a potential program fund could be called into play somehow.

In the subsequent YEAR, after first permanently eliminating child support for our kids (My income was trashed, and his current obligations ceased — within 30 days, and no action on arrears for over a year, and the arrears was significant to the family), the court managed to recommend counseling for the children (both of who said they weren’t interested), which was a friend of a friend of one of the parties who stole them.  Then a court-appointed attorney was called in after yet more noncompliance by the father and complete cessation of visitation, holiday times together, and even phone calls — add a little stalking in there — and we’ve got some serious situations at hand.  This attorney’s apparent role (other than getting paid) was to finish putting the nail in the coffin of my ability to get legal protection in any form, or retain a relationship with my children, having asked the court to state its reasons for switching custody and having that question first mocked, then derailed (never answered).

In other words, zero legal or factual basis was ever stated for switching custody, and I was not given an opportunity in court to cross-examine the father on his allegations, to counter them in writing, and being in a state of shock a few months later, unable to speak (in pro per — what else?) in the matter, my kids lost their mother and all I had to offer them, and had been.  Shortly after, they lost their father too (it happens) in the household, meaning not one legal safeguard to their lives (or mine) existed.

In situations like this — and believe me, they are common — no one needs a damn co-parenting education class.  Co-parenting and joint custody have often been tried.  People who separate from abuse are trying before separation to co-parent with criminal behavior.  So why let them out, then force them back in just to please the court and someone who couldn’t get business in a free, competitive market otherwise?

(I’m sure you feel my heat in the matter . . . . ) ACFLS newsletter continues:

In other words, after co-parenting education, the parties in each contested custody-visitation case should go on to confidential parenting plan mediation. Where the parties fail to resolve all or some issues, they should move on to a brief assessment and recommendations by a different FCS staff member before the matter is adjudicated. Same-day screen- ing should be available for emergencies – such as safety or abduction risk issues.

Waiting times for appointments for mediation and brief assessments need to be very short – the long delays at this stage of custody cases are damaging to children and destabilizing to families.

(hypocrites!  The long delays free up more grants, and justify not disbursing collected child support, too.  Long delays are what the courts feed off!)

Mediators are not engaged in a systematic process of gathering and assessing data for the purposes of making recommendations. Either they compromise mediation or their recommendations are an afterthought. Mediating parents behave differently when they think their bargaining will influence a recommendation.. . .

and of course, market expansion into downloadable modules assembled by existing family court nonprofits is desirable:

It may be helpful for the Center for Families, Children and the Courts to develop a uniform curriculum for the co- parenting education programs, and to make on line classes available. Many parents cannot afford childcare or time off work for these programs. Others are out of state or out of the country. It would be helpful to offer these programs in many languages. The programs could also have various modules addressing children of different ages, long-distance parenting and relocation issues, domestic violence and child abuse, and special needs children. * * *

If domestic violence and child abuse issues impact on “Parenting!” can be handled in downloadable curricula, then why is California paying ONE nonprofit contracting out of Sacramento over $6 million a year for all kinds of counseling and interventions for victims of child abuse, trauma, and for sex addicts, drunks, and victims of crimes?  See Terra Nova Counseling (meaning — see their tax returns and charitable registry page, which shows this).

I wonder what Marcia Fay might have to say about that one.

(* * *In case you didn’t get it, that was the ACFLS’ plug for more Kids Turn stuff, since Gov. Gray Davis vetoed legislating this a few years earlier, which I blogged in “Kicking Salesmanship Up a Notch” post.  It’s interesting how many visitors to this site are following “Let’s Get Honest about Kids’ Turn and Judges’ Profits” yet still miss the follow up post there…

OK — so I added this intro on 12/8/2011 before posting what I wrote probably last week:

Here’s where the proof hits the proselytizing:

Statement:  ACFLS was formed in 1980

Actuality:

Entity Number Date Filed Status Entity Name Agent for Service of Process
C1955108 12/04/1995 ACTIVE ASSOCIATION OF CERTIFIED FAMILY LAW   SPECIALISTS, INC. LYNN MARIE PFEIFER

It’s the same group.  Here’s a nice letterhead, with board members all along the left side, of ACFLS wish to get involved (i guess) with a certain marriage case:   http://www.acfls.org/uploads/files/ACFLS_ltr_to_JaffeClemens-4.pdf, “In re marriage of Valli” (August, 2011).  They are writing to rally to (addressees) who had some objections to writing by (see above) Leslie Ellen Shear who is head of the Amicus Brief Committee of this wonderful group).

OK, so now I’m really curious how anyone with a legal mind could’ve in their right minds put up that webpage suggesting that a few hours on-line (apparently going alphabetically on “Abuse” and not getting past the letter “A”) would qualify someone to write a great appellate brief, protect innocents against false allegations of domestic violence, (above that,) draft a supervised visitation plan, educate one’s experts — and “oh, yeah, I better include this for appearance’ sake”) “Save your client’s life.”

This is a section of what turns out to be a Super Attorney’s Bio, the same person, from the site with url “custodymatters.com

Selected as One of Los Angeles Magazine L.A.’s SuperLawyers (2004-2011)

PRACTICE EMPHASIS

Family Law Trial Court Proceedings

Representation and consultation in complex child custody, complex parentage and assisted reproduction, interstate and international jurisdiction (including Hague Abduction Convention and UCCJEA) cases.

Representation of children in family court by court appointment.

Consensual Dispute Resolution

Trained in mediation, parenting plan coordination (child custody special master), collaborative family law.

 Why doesn’t this next part surprise me — at all?
  • Association of Certified Family Law Specialists (ACFLS). Current Past President; President 2010; various board positions including Newsletter Editor, Technology Coordinator and Secretary from 1997). Author of many ACFLS amicus curiae briefs, current co-chair of Amicus Committee.
  • Editorial Board and contributor, Journal of Child Custody, published by Taylor and Francis.
  • Association of Family and Conciliation Courts (AFCC),** Past Board Member, California Chapter, director at large, co-chair 2001 Statewide Conference, steering committee 2003 Statewide Conference, frequent speaker at state and international conferences. Contributor to Family Court Review.
** File under “walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, certain things (like evidence of DV) roll right off its back, probably is a duck”
  • Fellow, International Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers.
  • Faculty member, 1981 Vallambrosa Retreat: Mediation of Child Custody and Visitation Disputes (trained statewide court staff mediators for California Courts following enactment of mandatory custody mediation legislation)
Which probably explains (i live in California) why my mediator, under such auspicious culture of mandated mediation and calling serious issues “disputes” — consistently ignored court-order-breaking and otherwise felony behavior by the father of my children, and countless others.  He was employed over the span of my entire case, and when I requested a less biased one (post-abduction) none was available, so it was either forget seeing your kids again (while they were MIA) or go to this dude, again.
ANYHOW — I just showed you — this group incorporated in 1995.  That means that unless they had some other corporate identity, their own website has falsified the record by FIFTEEN YEARS, aka, lied.    And the head of the Amicus Brief Committee of ACFLS, Ms. Shear — is considered by her colleagues a Super Attorney (does this mean, excellent and articulate liar? Wouldn’t be the first one I know (which comment I put in for said attorney), and by me, a person who doesn’t know squat about domestic violence, but considers such knowledge good enough to advise attorneys on it on-line.  Another Super Attorney (Jennifer Jackson) out of SF area came up, apparently, with the concept for kids turn and helped a family law judge set it up, too, in the late 1980s)

Is this personal (except the one I said I know?) — NO.  But I see what product they are putting out regarding situations I’ve lived and know others who have also lived.  Obviously, it’s a matter of viewpoint!   This is why (a long time ago) i contrasted the court’s opinion of a judge I didn’t even know (The Hon. Slabach) with the “Silenced Mamas” (see poormagazine.com) feedback on the same judge.  (That’s how I habitually get in trouble on this blog, but that’s what blogs are for, i.e., airing differing points of view).

How about we go take a look at their registration as a nonprofit — after all this is a membership organization set up by people already working in, and sometimes FOR the courts, and messing with other people’s custody matters through Amicus Briefs (remind me to read  in re:  Valli and what the ACFLS objected to, in said letter I linked to above).

(AFCC & proud of it on Ms. Shear’s website):  work includes:

Ohmer v. Superior Court (1983, 2nd District) 148 Cal.App.3d 661 Child custody evaluations, due process. Validity of former Los Angeles Superior Court policy barring custody litigants from cross-examining child custody investigators, and prohibiting custody litigants from obtaining and presenting evidence of investigator’s lack of mental health education and training. Affirmed. (Appellant)

That sounds like an interesting one…  Here (2008) is more evidence of pushing Parenting Coordination.  Like my post says, these people are pretty pushy:

In Search of Statutory Authority for Parenting Coordinator Orders in California: Using a Grass- roots, Hybrid Model Without an Enabling Statute, 5 Journal of Child Custody 88 (2008)

A few years into a custody dispute, and most mothers couldn’t afford to keep current with this journal, if they even know enough to do so, in their own best interests of knowing what they’re up against…  This is recent, cited all over, and I recommend MOMS read it!  Obviously it’s not displayed in proper format below — see that link.  Randy Rand v. Board of Psychology and the other attorney involved in the brief is Stephen Temko from San Diego.

CASE NO. C064475 SUPERIOR COURT CASE NO. 34-3009-80000359

IN THE COURT OF APPEAL FOR THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA THIRD APPELLATE DISTRICT

__________________

RANDY RAND, ED.D. Plaintiff and Appellant, v. BOARD OF PSYCHOLOGY, Defendant and Respondent. __________________

BRIEF OF AMICUS CURIAE ASSOCIATION OF CERTIFIED FAMILY LAW SPECIALISTS __________________

LESLIE ELLEN SHEAR, CFLS,* CALS* SBN 72623 16133 Ventura Boulevard, Floor 7 Encino, CA 91436-2403

Telephone: 818-501-3691 Facsimile: 818-501-3692 lescfls@earthlink.net

STEPHEN TEMKO, CFLS,* CALS* SBN 67785 1620 Fifth Avenue, Suite 800 San Diego, CA 92101-2792 Telephone: 858-274-3538 Facsimile: 619-238-0851

Attorneys for Amicus *State Bar of California, Board of Legal Specialization

Curiae ACFLS

Paragraph from the amicus brief shows that FIRST parenting coordinators are appointed, then a clamor to legitimize it occurs.  Sounds (at first look) like the amicus wants only professionals already licensed somewhere else in on the show — but in classic “we want to have our cake and eat it too behavior), they don’t want those professional boards to have disciplinary power (What, are there some NON-AFCC or CRC powerhouses on any of those associations?) because ‘parenting coordination’ is quasi judicial and the best entity to discipline them would be — like, the family court that appointed them (sure, THAT”S a bias-free basis for some real ethical accountability! )  SO we’d best read this one all of it — and I do mean “we.”

“California has failed to adopt legislation and court rules governing parenting coordination despite the growing use of these service models in our family courts.** This leaves parents, parenting coordinators, courts, and licensing boards without clear directives about what practices are required or prohibited.”

**perhaps even California, in heart, agrees with Gov Jeb Bush of Florida’s (2004) objections to the practice of parenting coordination.  I know I sure do!  I read that PCANH handbook, apparentl lifted from Indiana practice?  (nice touch throwing the word “parents” in that sentence about “lacking clear directives!” as if that was the concern!

(the site I chose to post the link from was Matthew Sullivan, Ph.D.’s site called (appropriately) “californiaparentingcoordinator.com”  (got the message yet?) and says of him:

Matthew Sullivan, Ph.D. is a clinical psychologist (California Lic. # PSY10214) in private practice in Palo Alto, California, who specializes in forensic** child and family psychology. He has been in private practice in Palo Alto for 20 years, specializing in Forensic Family psychology.

He is a pioneer in the field of Parenting Coordination, which he helped develop in Santa Clara County more than 15 years ago,*** and has led the development of Parenting Coordination across the U.S. He is one of the most experienced Parent Coordinators (called Special Master in California) in the country. Some of the other roles he serves for families going through divorce include:

 **Child psychologists are frustrated child psychiatrists, some of who are probably frustrated MD’s.  They love to throw around the word “forensic” to lend credibility.
***Since he helped develop the field, he might want to rethink posting Ms. Shear’s amicus which states the field basically emerged.
{{Like most AFCC material does when describing some program AFCC has devised and wants legislated & mandated for VERY potentially high-conflict case (i.e., cases where someone — possibly a mediator trained b the sam people — made a really bad custody recommendation, which was enacted, and is having consequences, such as the other parent protesting it.  Voila! !  We have high-conflict, so we get to do parent coordinators, and maybe even some federal grant streams, too!)}}

OK, now that the very active ACFLS cannot ? show its origination, as claimed, in 1980 as a legitimate California corporation, but rather it was incorporated in 1995 (at least the one with “, Inc.” after its name is the only one I could find on SOS site) here’s the Charitable Registration:

From the California Office of Attorney General (Charitable Registry Search Site) — YES !  ACFLS DOES exist and at first glance, it’s charitable status is labeled “Current”:
Organization Name Registration Number Record Type Registration Status City State Registration Type Record Type
ASSOCIATION OF CERTIFIED FAMILY LAW SPECIALISTS, INC. EX548531 Charity Exempt – Active SAN RAFAEL CA Charity Registration Charity
1
which is odd – because if one the looks inside — no EIN# has been assigned yet, it has never filed any IRS or RRF reports (annual requirement for CA nonprofits and for corporations too, for that matter).  Allegedly, per this record, their charitable status was issued in 1990 (10 years after they claim they started, and 5 years before the Secretary of State admitted that they did). (or perhaps this is just the boilerplate charitable registry BLANK format?).
They have NO EIN# and apparently ever bothered to register — NO founding documents are viewable – and obviously if the association is charging its (ATTORNEY) members any dues, they aren’t producing (all 490 members, all those nice monthly meetings and annual regional conferences involving hotels, golf, etc.) any income worht reporting? And though they are actually selling stuff from their blog — they aren’t producing program service revenue enough to require reporting to the IRS?
Yes — and I have some land under the Brooklyn Bridge I wish to sell, also.
Full Name: ASSOCIATION OF CERTIFIED FAMILY LAW SPECIALISTS, INC. FEIN:
Type: Mutual Benefit Corporate or Organization Number: 1955108
Registration Number: EX548531
Record Type: Charity Registration Type: Charity Registration
Issue Date: 12/31/1990 Renewal Due Date: 5/15/1991
Registration Status: Exempt – Active Date This Status:
Date of Last Renewal:
Address Information
Address Line 1: 15 CORRILLO DRIVE Phone:
Address Line 2:
Address Line 3:
Address Line 4: SAN RAFAEL CA 94903
Annual Renewal Information
Related Documents
No Related Documents
Prerequisite Information
No Prerequisite Information

Look it up yourself — here’s the link for the search fields.  Just type in the organization name, or whatever part of it fits:

CHECKING with  my trusty 990-finder, I find out that there IS an EIN# and income — but apparently not one of the Attorney General’s Office seems to have noticed, even though we can hardly say that the Attorney General’s Office is unfamiliar with the family law field.  After all, former Attorney General Bill Lockyer had a wife (about half his age?) from the L.A. area working as Exec. Dir. of the Alameda County Family Justice Law Center, annointed by a republican gov. in 2006, and this leadership was ceded to another family law professional.  San Francisco just went through a crisis and multiple courtroom shutdowns.  I feel it safe to say that PROBABLY the head of the criminal justice system in California — which is supposed to protect taxpayers from financial scam artists — knows about this organization, and that it ain’t reporting to them.   (or, they aren’t posting what it did).

What is a reasonably logical person to assume but that the OAG’s office is getting a cut on the undocumented funds, at the expense of Californians Right To KNow, Fair Political Practices (it would seem) transparency — and our state’s budget!

ORGANIZATION NAME

STATE

YEAR

TOTAL ASSETS

FORM

PAGES

EIN

Association of Certified Family Law Specialists CA 2009 $107,507 990 17 94-3238376
Association of Certified Family Law Specialists CA 2008 $122,073 990 20 94-3238376
Association of Certified Family Law Specialists CA 2007 $158,102 990 19 94-3238376
Association of Certified Family Law Specialists CA 2006 $142,503 990 20 94-3238376
Association of Certified Family Law Specialists CA 2005 $93,608 990 16 94-3238376
Association of Certified Family Law Specialists CA 2004 $127,804 990 15 94-3238376
Association of Certified Family Law Specialists CA 2003 $76,425 990 16 94-3238376
Association of Certified Family Law Specialists CA 2002 $65,302 990 17 94-3238376

2009 IRS reads (probably like the rest) program purpose — why it’s tax exempt and for “PUBLIC” benefit:

“To Promote and Preserve the Family Law Speciality”

There are 20 people on the board of directors, NONE takes any money for this.  How charitable!

Educational Seminars revenue $138K; Membership dues:  $130K.

They are going to HAVE to lie, steal, and cheat to keep promoting this BS — especially with Ms. Shear in charge of education professionals on how to ignore signs of imminent lethality with a few hours of on-line research.  (too busy writing Amicus for other people’s custody disputes, I guess).  California just this past fall had an 8-person massacre after a father given 56% custody was angry he didn’t get 100% fast enough.  An AFCC professional was on his case at the time of his 2007 divorce.  4 years later, Mom dead and 7 other people also.  “Typical Divorce Case” says the family law professional, when interviewed on this.  This followed hard on the heels of an Attorney General employee having her own child (gave birth around age 44, it seemed) abducted and murdered in a murder-suicide by the father.  We also have families going homeless around custody cases (i know some) and in general, it’s one _ _ _ _ ing disgrace.

SO is this organization retaining any credibility and quite frankly, even during the economic crisis (like this arm of teh courts didn’t contribute to it?) it also reflects on the credibility of the Attorney General’s Office as well — at least as to Charitable Trusts.  I am thankful they seem to be getting on some organizations, but I sure can’t figure out how they determine who to let slide — and who to nail.  Unless, that is, there is some money greasing the decsisions — which I think is not an unfair speculation, although of course (at this point) it IS speculation, I admit.

Readers have any other speculations — or hard data — on why the ACFLS is held to ZERO standard within its state of origin, while pompously throwing its weight around, and citing itself as if this is a reputable organization serving the public by promoting and preserving the practice of family law — and pushing parenting coordinators on us — even as the FBI rushes into jurisdiction in Pennsylvania to investigate a racketeering type of setup (possibly) involving one of the parent coordinator trainers!   

Now that I have that off my chest, what’s below is related setups that I’d planned to accompany this one, in particular.

I don’t know how much more evidence – at this point — anyone would need that just because an organization has been around, and has good PR, doesn’t mean it’s legitimate.  Or that the AFCC in particular, has a membership PRONE to forming nonprofits (membership associations especially) and engaging in tax-evasion and tax-reporting-evasion within their local states.

Cf.  Ann Marie Termini lists “Cooperative Parenting Institute” on her linkedin Profile and wherever else possible; so presumably does Susan Boyan, still (out of Georgia).   So what state does it exist in, again?  The parents in Scranton, PA deserve an answer, pending the FBI decision whether to finish their investigation — or shelve it — regarding some of the practices in Lackawanna County (which, FYI, is geographically right next to the infamous Luzerne County and in the state of the Penn State Sandusky scandal, with potential involvement of the charity “The Second Mile.”

I want to let these Preserve and Promote the Family Law Profession People in on a secret — apparently to them, it’s obvious to others:

  • MOST parents are not abusive, and care about their kids more than you do.
  • And if you were’t heating up the conflict (while insisting that your presence is actually intended to help dissipate conflict), probably more of those ids would be alive today — and those abusive parents could’ve been prosecuted as criminals BEFORE the offed their kids, their exes, bystanders, and occasionally a responding police officer.
  • And most mothers reporting abuse by the Dads, or kids reporting — are not lying.  They do not need “responsible motherhood” programs to behave as responsible mothers, even under the extreme conditions put upon them by institutions, advocacy groups (who don’t reveal their own funding comes from welfare diversionary programs, when dealing with mothers forced onto welfare somehow), etc.
  • There is an innate biological bond, particularly when mothers get to also nurse their kids and give birth to them, even in some pretty hostile environments.
  • And the profession that out of two parents, one who complies with court orders, and the other who doesn’t, or one with a criminal record — or criminal behaviors in evidence — and the other NOT — you are actually more concerned about the kids because you talk about “family” while she talks about SAFETY — is offensive.

+ + + + + + +

I have a question.  In fact, several questions:

Have you, has a family member or friend, been operated on recently?  Was your doctor officially vetted by the hospital, and is his or her degree valid?

Is the institution from which your doctor graduated, or was, it a real institution?

When they are Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Columbia, Cornell, UCBerkeley, Stanford, etc. — there aren’t that many questions whether or not the schools actually exist, and are “accredited,” for what it’s worth (and it is worth something, as to colleges!).  The only question becomes, did your particular professional actually go there, and has the school not, to date, disowned or otherwise dishonorably discharged them.

Generally, we expect more of Medical Doctors, although this is sometimes not delivered.  See “California prison doctors get millions while not working“, Associated Press article posted 11/29/2011.  Who wants to actually think about a government paying anyone over $226K per year to sort mail while figuring out whether this person was mal-practicing or not?  Not a thought good for the average digestive system, or blood pressure, probably….

At least 30 physicians and mental health professionals collected an estimated $8.7 million since 2006 as they went through a lengthy appeals process to determine whether they should be fired or reinstated, the Los Angeles Times (http://lat.ms/vOJLlY ) reported Monday. The newspaper cited records from a court-ordered receiver now in charge of the state prison system.

Doctors who were alleged by colleagues to have committed negligence or misconduct — in some cases involving patient deaths — received their full six-figure salaries, even though they were not allowed to treat prisoners. Some did menial work [like, sorting mail…]

Sounds like a lose-lose proposition to me, either the original system, or attempting to “clean up” the systems.

But what is it about the fields of family law and psychologists that attracts people who LOVE to form nonprofit, trade-promoting, dues-paying (membership) associations which:

  • don’t even file tax returns, especially with the state they are registered in, after getting tax-exempt status?  or, alternately
  • don’t file period, and/or
  • cite each others names proudly on websites and on biographies in long strings of apparent officialdom before ording one parent into a situation doomed to bankruptcy, another child to go live with a molester he or she has already reported on, extort fathers into starting a custody battle they didn’t want — or, if they are in arrears somehow — into participating in some ridiculous (psychoeducational) program, typically in 6 to 10 sessions that someone pays for,  no one would otherwise take if there were an alternate choice besides going back to jail?[FN1]  Before adjusting upward or compromising downward child support for a noncustodial parent without notifying the custodial one of the discussion (or programssssssszzsss, plural) that led to this backroom deal?  and/or
  • hold conferences to figure out how to expand their profession, which profession exists at all over public distress and at public expense, i.e,. those who practice are already on state (judges) or county (county commissioners, family law commissioners, child support commissioners — and ANYONE among the support structure of the entire local child support agency, including attorneys, directors, specialists, clerks, data entry people (presumably) and office staff for derailing parents who want a direct answer about their own case.  This also includes court transcriptionists, court clerks, etc.
  •  Bill attendance at these conference, and travel to/from them (wherever possible) to their current employer, usually a county or county-level court  [FN2])
How is it that people who graduated from an institute that gave a degree to an imaginary cat can actually be practing and making custody recommendations for young children?  This literally is true, and a lot more than one thinks.  Surely Dr. Doyne must be a qualified professional (WHAT profession was it, again?) because he got a degree from this place.  However at least one man (see Request to file Amicus Brief in Tadros v. Doyne) decided to challenge (see Tadros v. Doyne; in fact this link summarizes and actually shows the “Specialty Diplomate” and how both the person who issued it, and the court, are retaliating against this M.D. for reporting it!  Many mothers and fathers know already about the “Zoe the Cat” fiasco, but still the custody mill (and other association-certification-mills) continue, one of which I found recently, hence today’s post.)  How can one be silent in the face of material like this?
(1). . .
for $350 dollars, Robert O’Block, who honored a Specialty Diplomate to a house  cat named Zoe (which states on the certificate Zoe has a PhD), and who also granted a Specialty Diplomate to Custody Evaluator Stephen Doyne, is threatening to sue the co-founders of California Coalition for Families and Children (CCFC) with a defamation lawsuit seeking penalties of 1,000,000 Dollars. Robert O’Block is seeking to shutdown The Public Court for exposing the truth about the “cat credentialed?”

If Dr. Tadros and CCFC do not keep quiet or “shut down” public exposure about Zoe the Cat getting a PhD and Diploma, they will be sued for this huge sum of money?

To the solid fact that Zoe the Cat is Dr. Tadros’s best witness, he is left with no other choice than to pursue the timely filing against Robert O’Block’s owner of the ACFE, who according to Professor carol Henderson issued a house Cat with “Diplomate (and Phd)” certificate, (read below) with the filing of Tadros MD vs. American College of Forensic Examiners International (ACFEI), dated January 10, 2011…

(2) . . .Well, here, from, the News Article on Doctor Doyne, but “thepubliccourt.com” is informative*

Custody Evaluator’s Credentials Questioned In Lawsuit

Dr. Stephen Doyne Has Been Involved In 3,000 To 4,000 San Diego Custody Cases

Lauren Reynolds
10News I-Team Reporter
POSTED: 7:10 pm PDT July 7, 2009
SAN DIEGO — Dr. Stephen Doyne, PhD, is widely used in the San Diego Family Court as a custody evaluator. His job is to advise the court on where children of divorce should live, which parent is more fit. The evaluations can be costly, both in emotion and dollars. Clients told the 10 News I-Team they paid Doyne between $5,000 and $30,000.  (That’s per evaluation — do the math)
“A child custody evaluator has tremendous power and influence,” said Marc Angelucci. He’s an attorney representing Dr. Emad Tadros in a civil lawsuit against Dr. Doyne alleging fraud and negligence. . . .
Dr. Doyne is one of a dozen custody evaluators repeatedly used by San Diego Family Court. The court had no response to the allegations against Dr. Doyne. The court also clarified that it does not verify the professional licenses or the resumes of the custody evaluators.

Apparently, per this article, he also falsely claimed to be an adjunct professor at UCSD (University of California, San Diego).  Reminds me of this Sandra Brown, M.A. (Liberty University) I was looking up recently, and her “IRHPE” (Institute for Relational Harm and Pathology Education”), not to mention the “Relationship Training Institute,” also (coincidentally) at San Diego where she was listed as a Guest Lecturer (to my recall), this RTI being a business which takes business from the courts, also.  Speaking of which, …

The “Relationship Training Institute” (EIN# 470942805), which you can (and should) look up on the California Attorney General’s site (http://ag.ca.gov/charities/, and select “Registry” on left side) where charitable organizations are required to register and then file ANNUALLY, and where one can look up their EIN#s) — registered here in 2006 (File issued date) and from the IRS, evidently it’s clear it showed assets of $1.5K and Revenue of $90K in 2005, and by 2010, assets of $13,569 & revenue of $271K.  In 2011, their assets went down by over $4K, but their revenue went up to $291K — and finally, in August 2011, the OAG decided to slap them on the wrist (who knows why), with a letter saying, you didn’t file your fee.

However, in the section where EVERY charity required to register under state law is to file 3 things (that I know of) (two of which the public should be able to look at, right here):  (1) a State return (RRF), (2) a copy of their IRS 990 return which the OAG can upload, and (3) a ‘Schedule B”* which lists their contributors’ names and addresses.  This is also to come with (4) an annual fee, which varies by size of the group.

(*which public doesn’t see, but the OAG, whose purpose here is to prevent Californians from being scammed by tax-exempt organizations and false fundraisers, i.e., professionally organized thieves, public financial predators, and money launderers, etc.  SPeaking of which, did I mention that a previous attorney general (Bill Lockyer) had his (3rd) wife installed, on pay from the DAs office, as the CEO of the “Alameda County Family Justice Center” — an idea from San Diego City Attorney’s Office  Casey Gwinn plus the DV Council, Gael Strack, J.D. (as I recall) — which, somehow in the process of hiring the first CEO, got the slated salary moved from $65K to $90K, and the appointment process of which looks a little slimy (thank you, investigator Steve White, aka boatbrain or similar quirky username).  Nevertheless, we hope and expect the OAG to keep a lid on these things for our (public’s) sake.   They even went after the San Diego based Kid’s Turn for its charitable status, right? 

Organizations larger than the RTI have been noticed by the same OAG for failing to file fees and schedule B of contributors. The far larger Futures Without Violence (formerly, like until 2010, Family Violence Prevention Fund, EIN# 943110973) received one notice in 2010:

1. The $225 renewal fee was not received. Please send a check in that amount, payable to “Attorney General’s Registry of Charitable Trusts”.

and another, August 2011, under separate cover, in stern terms, this time writing reflecting the corporation’s name change:

RE: IRS Form 990, Schedule B, Schedule of Contributors

We have received the IRS Form 990, 990-EZ or 990-PF submitted by the above-named organization for filing with the Registry of Charitable Trusts (Registry) for the fiscal year ending 12/31/10. The filing is incomplete because the copy of Schedule B, Schedule of Contributors, does not include the names and addresses of contributors.

The copy of the IRS Form 990, 990-EZ or 990-PF, including all attachments, filed with the Registry must be identical to the document filed by the organization with the Internal Revenue Service. The Registry retains Schedule B as a confidential record for IRS Form 990 and 990-EZ filers.

Within 30 days of the date of this letter, please submit a complete copy of Schedule B, Schedule of

Contributors, for the fiscal year noted above, as filed with the Internal Revenue Service

Futures Without Violence, now ensconced at the San Francisco Praesidio (a high-profile address to locals and international visitors), does big business:  In 2010, per information the California OAG apparently gets from the IRS (as opposed to the organization), it reads:

Fiscal Begin: 01-JAN-10
Fiscal End: 31-DEC-10
Total Assets: $36,603,585.00
Gross Annual Revenue: $17,118,149.00
RRF Received: 14-JUN-11
Returned Date:
990 Attached: Y
Status: Rejected

I would ask too.  2010 is an increase in ASSETS of roughly $5.5 (million) and in INCOME of $10.5 million.  As Dolly Parton quipped once (possibly in a movie), “it takes a lot of money to look like this!”    Yet FVPF has been fairly regular in filing — up til 2008, anyhow.   Its primary program purpose, as of the last available 990, reads:

Significant activities: TO PIONEER NEW STRATEGIES TO END VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND CHILDREN AT HOME AND ABROAD.

“FUTURES WITHOUT VIOLENCE” SETS ITS EYES “Abroad”

And well it might — having continued to ignore a steady stream of violence against women, and children (including some that results in deaths, a relentless litany, the background to their wonderful conferences and PR campaigns, and training institutes about “Fatherhood” as  tool practitioners can wield against family violence.  Sure, OK.  So, MOTHERS lveaing abusive relationships safely (and this group helped get VAWA enacted in 1994), still can’t — because of family court in USA is trending towards sharia law, at least in its “logic” and priorities.

Speaking of “Going Abroad”. . . .literally and allegorically

(I warned you at the top of this post…we are going to talk about defecation, and allegorically, why some nonprofits constantly need to shift localities, names and WHERE they are p*ssing on people’s due process rights, and covering up evidence of this in the family law system, lest they step on the wrong local toes, or bite the han)

The phrase “going abroad” in previous times meant going to take a whizz outside the camp, or home, where one eats and sleeps, so as not to pollute it.  When encased in a wood shelter over a large pit, with or without a porcelain chair, this progressed to the “Outhouses,” topic of many comedies and eventually we progressed to indoor plumbing, which can then get backed up and require a plumber to fix.   The practice of sitting UP to do this, I gather another Western creation, has helped create health problems too, per some.

I’m late reporting this – as it seems November 19th was “World Toilet Day” according to an article, “What would you Do without a Loo?” and another historical discussion points out that civilization and the development of sanitation go together; Rome, for example, could not ignore the problem.

The Medieval Ages (plus emergence of Fundamentalist RC theories related to original sin, and the nobility of suffering, including if necessary in filth, had their impact).  I hope you scan that — it’s a quick read.   “The massive deaths by reason of the plagues had some people rethinking hygiene” (year 1210) . . .”Since the 1820s there have been no fundamental changes.” (parallel — when was the last time any change in what to do about death-causing domestic violence actually surfaced, i.e., that wasn’t “treatment, intervention, publication, and training”?)

Meanwhile, it’s just as healthy not to use “the throne.”  In Fact, Bill Gates is working on re-inventing the toilet (how did my thinking go here?  It’s easy — the phrase “going abroad” — and I believe it’s necessary to use symbols and one systems of meaning to understand another, although if one gets STUCK in a symbol system (i.e., DV as a sickness, conflict as bad, professionals as actually helpful, etc.) the society and its process of observation, labeling, and logic (reasoning) can get, well, “constipated.”  So, I have a little fun connecting the absurdly different (a highly respected organization with an annual revenue of around $36 million and lofty claims to basic human functions that MUST be needed, and if not heeded with sanitation (and sense) can wipe out a civilization, i.e., plague.   Or, for example, we are told that the early settlers in the US didn’t wash in the ocean, and didn’t dig for clams or catch much fish — yet certainly that would’ve fed them and cleansed them.

Bill Gates Seeks to Reinvent the Toilet

Analysis by Nic Halverson
Tue Aug 16, 2011 09:11 AM ET

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation recently launched a “Reinvent the Toilet” competition and have already awarded $3 million to researchers at eight universities to redesign the porcelain throne. The challenge? Develop an economical toilet that is doesn’t need to be connected to a sewer system, or to any water or electricity grid.

Healthcare Districts, Associations of Healthcare Districts and their Watchdogs:

This blog is not about water, healthcare, or for that matter school boards.  However it IS about use of taxes.  I got derailed into matters of “Water” simply by comparing one Domestic Violence Funds proposition that we (taxpayers) collectively support its $36million plans to create Futures Without Violence Abroad to the practice of pissing outside one’s home area, which of course (how my mind works sometimes) got me on just how complex it becomes when people are crowded together so closely that there IS no backyard to go piss in, at least not for years on end, and thus the community pools its funds to elect people to take care of their shit (literally).  I believe that assaults and violence could (generically speaking) be lumped in that category, as the (stuff) of overcrowding and too many people codependent on others to protect them, feed them, educate their young (handle their money), regulate their parenting practices (?) and in general, nurse them from womb to tomb.   Perhaps that model is a little over-rated, as this example I hope proves.

SUPPOSE BILL GATES DEVELOPS SUCH A TOILET THAT COULD BE USED IN URBAN AREAS TOO?  HOW MANY OF THE PEOPLE AND GROUPS BELOW WOULD BE OUT OF A JOB?

AND WHAT WAS THAT ABOUT THE ROMAN EMPIRE’S FALL HAVING SOMETHING TO DO WITH LEAD IN THE PIPES? ….

I mean, why the chair portion?   Consider how complicated it gets; from a travel article:

 How to Use a Squat Toilet (Frank Burres in Worldhum, 9/25/06)

“Warning: This article contains language that some will find offensive, but that others will find refreshingly honest”

Background: Squatting is an ancient practice, but knowledge of it has recently been lost in the West. The flush toilet wasn’t even invented until 1596. And toilet paper didn’t become popular until the 1900s. According to the Toilet Paper Encyclopedia, pre-TP, humans used corn cobs, Sears Roebuck catalogs, mussel shells, newspaper, leaves, sand, hayballs, gompf sticks and the end of old anchor cables on ships. Ouch!

But the good folks at the TPE seem blissfully unaware that most of the world’s people still use neither toilet paper, nor western sit-down crappers. Nor do they use corn cobs, gompf sticks or anchor cables. Because, while most of us in North America and Europe sit, people on just about every other continent squat, using water and their left hand. In much of Africa and Asia you can be hard-pressed to find anything else besides the squatter.

Beginning Squatting: I called Doug Lansky, a traveler and travel writer who knows the hardships of squatting. “It’s difficult,” said Lansky, who edited a book called, There’s No Toilet Paper on the Road Less Traveled.

I wish Bill Gates well in his exploration of alternates to the water systems that make the economy go whirr and hum, some of which so reduce people’s self-reliance (and thinking about the basics of life) that they willingly allow commissions associations, agencies and task forces to try and keep up with the agencies (and commissions) to take their hard-earned (or, easily earned) income (taxes) and, such that they need a “Local Agency Formation Commission”  (I kid you not) to study whether to dissolve another agency — which no longer has a hospital, but is still collecting funds.  I cannot find this particular agency (maybe it’s been dissolved?) as a corporation or trust anywhere in the state — and the attorney which was hired to determine whether to dissolve the nonexisting entity — who was in 2010 head of an Association of (such) Agencies — which does not exist as either a corporation or charity in California, meaning, if anyone is getting paid for this association of (unregistered entitites),  it’s not reporting to the public without a FOIA request, WTF (that’s an acronym for an expletive) it’s doing, financially.

Association of California Healthcare Districts — and where is this “Mt. Diablo Healthcare District to start with?  I don’t know (I don’t see it registered as nonprofit or corporation), but here comes a news reporter to inform us that the attorney hired to decide whether to dissolve it doesn’t follow the rules either.  So rules were changed accomodate his inability to handle a $5,000 services cap.  Weird:

Mt. Diablo Health Care District lawyer billed beyond board limit

By Lisa Vorderbrueggen
Contra Costa Times

Posted: 11/28/2011 04:15:57 PM PST

An outside attorney hired to help save an imperiled Contra Costa public health district billed the agency nearly three times more than what was authorized.**

Heavily censored invoices obtained through the California Public Records Act show Sacramento lawyer Ralph Ferguson billed the district for 52.3 hours totaling $14,000 in September and October. The district capped his pay at $5,000 when it hired him.

It’s the latest development in the increasing scrutiny of the Mt. Diablo Health Care District, an agency that lost its hospital 15 years ago but has continued to collect and spend hundreds of thousands of tax dollars. Roughly 200,000 residents in Concord, Martinez, Clyde, Pacheco and portions of Lafayette and Pleasant Hill live in the district.

It hired Ferguson three months ago as its liaison with the Contra Costa Local Agency Formation Commission, which is studying whether to dissolve the agency.

**Note:   He’s an attorney.  So this surprises us, why?  Same reporter, earlier this month (11/5/2011), in “Riding in to Rescue a Flailing Agency

The lawyer behind the strategy to rescue the ailing Mt. Diablo Health Care District will be remembered as a visionary or an opportunist.

Ralph Ferguson, the former chief of the Association of California Healthcare Districts and Mt. Diablo’s new attorney, believes the embattled public agency could model itself after the successful Beach Cities or Camarillo health care districts.

By way of background, a regulatory agency could dissolve the taxpayer-funded Central Contra Costa health care district. It has been criticized by four grand juries and others for its failure to do little more than pay its overhead and keep up the health insurance for a current and a former board member.**

Like Mt. Diablo, two Southern California districts no longer operate hospitals.

**perhaps this is what many agencies are for to start with?  Remember the Phoebe Factoids and the problems with Georgia’s chain of nonprofit hospitals, that stiffed uninsured parents and kept huge profits offshore?  Then apparently had enough clout to personally threaten the family of two men reporting on this?

This Commission to control Agencies and “Special Districts” really does exist, and has authority and a staff.  This authority seems to relate largely to taxes, incorporation, annexing or detaching land to one city or another, and things that relate to things we need — like water, schooling, healthcare, and such.  Authority:

▪ Annex land to cities or special districts,

▪ Detach land from cities or special districts,

▪ Consolidate two or more cities or two or more special districts,

Form new special districts and incorporate new cities,

Dissolve special districts and disincorporate cities, — WOW.  And the commission has six people. Only.

▪ Merge cities and special districts,

▪ Allow cities or special districts to provide services outside of their boundaries.

I hope that the term “SPECIAL DISTRICT” is required, by law, to be taught in all K-12 Special Unified School Districts so that, as adults, they can know who helps determine what low-income jobs  global marketplace their education is preparing most of them for, which will increase their odds of becoming part of the welfare caseload (or target in a drive-by- shooting) they will be able to work at, decrease their odds of giving those who know what a special district is — and how to obtain control over it — and cities.  After all, their JOBS provide tax income for these people to hire pricey lawyers to investigate waste of their own taxes. . .

I don’t know any individual that has the time to write “FOIA’s” (Freedom Of Information Act letters, requesting, obviously, information) – for every entity that is affecting that indivual’s personal, well, — Freedom.  Do you?

So JUST PERHAPS if a Bill Gates and friends can figure out that the rest of the west never needed the white throne, either (toilets) — we might be able to figure, as much of the non-Western, Pre-AFCC world, in fact Pre-1913 world  — how to live life without a parenting class. And that would put enough administrative and bureaucratic educators, and real estate, out of work to make OCCUPY THIS look like a children’s birthday party.

Why?  Because once people develop the habit of thinking, non-drug-induced, about HOW their world is run, the habit is catching, and many more taken-for-granteds will topple.

Put that next to a recent news article with the title “Agency in hot water over fees.”  This turns out not to actually be attorney-exaggarated fees on a Health Care District, not about water — however this one, “An End to Padded Water Bills  (Metropolitan Times, Los Angeles, 2009) IS.  This 2010 notice by “Californians Aware” on ” Subject: Notice of Strict Enforcement Concerning Certain Common Brown Act Violations is addressed to people at four different associations involved in basic business of — living — in California.  It is from another association, “Californians Aware” — the Center for Public Forum Rights.”

  • League of California Cities
  • Association of California Water Agencies
  • California School Boards Association
  • California State Association of Counties, and
  • Association of California Healthcare Districts, Ralph Ferguson, Executive Director (see next)
ACHD
In a very well-fleshed-out-website, the group’s (or lack of a better word reflecting their tax & incorporation status)  mission is stated:  “The Association of California Healthcare Districts serves and advances the diverse needs of all California Healthcare Districts through advocacy, education and member driven services. “

The “Association of California Healthcare Districts, INC.” is “Not Registered” as a California Charity (or corporation, that I can see) and “Ralph Ferguson” is the attorney in question mention as overbilling (etc.) in the article “Agency in hot water over fees” I linked to, above.  Go figure!

Organization Name Registration Number Record Type Registration Status City State Registration Type Record Type
ASSOCIATION OF CALIFORNIA HEALTHCARE DISTRICTS, INC. Charity Not Registered RANCHO CORDOVA CA Charity Registration Charity
1

The Secretary of State Site shows zero listing for the same Association.  IN fact, when I searched on only the words “healthcare District” there only 3 local ones showed, one o whose corporate status had been suspended.  If so, why a need for an Association of Healthcare Districts to start with?  Either have them — and force them to expose their corporate status– or don’t have them, at all, and quit playing games with the public.  I believe (?) the word “District” here means a region of people/residents who can be sold on the idea of accepting a tax to support, er, “Healthcare.”

Which of course, have been the topic of some scandal as to use.

Entity Number Date Filed Status Entity Name Agent for Service of Process
C1993854 11/05/1996 ACTIVE BEAR VALLEY COMMUNITY HEALTHCARE DISTRICT FOUNDATION HELEN WALSH
C2439485 03/11/2004 SUSPENDED HEALTHCARE DISTRICT INSURANCE AND MARKETING SERVICES, INC. JAMES L. BEYERS
C2858426 02/21/2006 ACTIVE THE CLOVERDALE HEALTHCARE DISTRICT FOUNDATION JAMES F DEMARTINI

While the phrase “healthcare district” on a charitable registry search produces zero results, which leads me to speculate that this multiple field search site does not have the ability to search phrases in the middle of the group’s name – unlike other states’ corporate searches.  For such a large state, California has a lousy corporation search website!

So I looked up “Bear Valley Community” on the OAG (Charity) site and find SIX charities (and one raffle) beginning with those three phrases.  TWO of the sex are not registered, but our 1996 one (above) is.  One of the “not registered” charities is “Bear Valley Community Hospital.”  If I lived in Bear Valley, California — I’d get on this quick.  The BVHC District tax return of 2002 lists $13K of government funding, of 2004, $26 of public (but no government) and apparently the charitable registration didn’t start until 2006.  Since I’m a nice person, I”ll list what Bear Valley Community anythings are still around (the church — active as a charity — is no longer active as a corporation, but they began in 1946.  Besides (see row one, below).

Entity Number Date Filed Status Entity Name Agent for Service of Process
C1137770 03/24/1983 ACTIVE BEAR VALLEY CENTER FOR SPIRITUAL ENRICHMENT, A RELIGIOUS SCIENCE COMMUNITY CAROLYN DAWLEY
C0208456 08/02/1946 SUSPENDED BEAR VALLEY COMMUNITY CHURCH DONALD FOOR
C2233852 05/08/2000 SUSPENDED BEAR VALLEY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION TERRY WOODROW
C1993854 11/05/1996 ACTIVE BEAR VALLEY COMMUNITY HEALTHCARE DISTRICT FOUNDATION HELEN WALSH
C1287435 09/30/1985 ACTIVE BEAR VALLEY COMMUNITY HOSPITAL AUXILIARY DOROTHEA SCHWAIGER
C0306083 07/07/1955 DISSOLVED BEAR VALLEY COMMUNITY HOSPITAL FUND, INC.
C1604740 01/19/1988 SUSPENDED BEAR VALLEY COMMUNITY HOSPITAL, INC. VI COLUNGA
C0482507 12/16/1964 ACTIVE BEAR VALLEY COMMUNITY NURSERY SCHOOL AMY PREY
C3189110 01/30/2009 ACTIVE BEAR VALLEY SPRINGS COMMUNITY RECREATION FACILITIES FOUNDATION MARGARET WANGLER
C1764347 05/30/1995 ACTIVE BIG BEAR VALLEY COMMUNITY ARTS THEATER SOCIETY KAREN SARGENT RACHELS
1 2

Bear Valley appears to be a Ski Resort area.  Cloverdale has a multitude of corporations, this is only a sample.  Notice the “Status” column:

Entity Number Date Filed Status Entity Name Agent for Service of Process
C0978805 03/28/1980 SUSPENDED CLOVERDALE BOOSTERS ASSOCIATION, INC. DONALD SATO
C0175845 06/02/1938 SUSPENDED CLOVERDALE BRIDGE CLUB
C0412712 04/18/1961 ACTIVE CLOVERDALE CABANA CLUB NOE LONGORIA
C1602586 12/18/1987 ACTIVE CLOVERDALE CABINETS, INC. ARNOLD M. HAUG
C3098377 05/05/2008 ACTIVE CLOVERDALE CANINE ALLIANCE, INC. MICHAEL P CAMPBELL
C1235613 01/11/1984 SURRENDER CLOVERDALE CASTINGS INC. C T CORPORATION SYSTEM
C0576616 07/31/1969 SUSPENDED CLOVERDALE CB-ERS
C0767052 04/02/1976 SUSPENDED CLOVERDALE CHAPTER #2430 OF AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF RETIRED PERSONS, INC. DIANA TREANKLE
C0772429 06/24/1976 DISSOLVED CLOVERDALE CHILDREN’S CENTER, INCORPORATED
C1934975 05/15/1995 SUSPENDED CLOVERDALE CHRISTIAN FELLOWSHIP JACK REGO

Cloverdale is in Sonoma County (California Coast, wine country) and in 2010 had a population of 8,618 in 2010, and is in California’s 1st Congressional District (FYI)

Cloverdale is located in the northern portion of Sonoma County, and is the farthest city north in the San Francisco Bay Area, about 85 miles (135 km) north of San FranciscoU.S. 101 runs through the town, as does State Route 128.

The city has a total area of 2.6 square miles (6.7 km2), all of it land.

Cloverdale is located in the Wine Country, being part of the Alexander Valley AVA.

(Thank you, Wikipedia) 

That’s a whole lotta business for a population of 8,000….

Californians Aware:  The Center for Public Forum Rights (who warned the above 4 association heads (at least one of who is an attorney) to mind their legal compliance on the Brown Act as to closed-door meetings) registered as a corporation in 2004, which indicates they filed articles of incorporation and paid a fee, and have a board of directors of at least one person.  THey probably even have a bank account.

Entity Number Date Filed Status Entity Name Agent for Service of Process
C2646702 04/16/2004 ACTIVE CALIFORNIANS AWARE: THE CENTER FOR PUBLIC FORUM RIGHTS EMILY KATHLEEN FRANCKE

They even dutifully filed with the IRS for years 2004, 2005, 2006, and 2007, with a VERY modest budget (under $50K) and then stopped filing, meaning as of 8/23/2010, they are Delinquent as a charity.  However, their letter to the 4 association heads was written in November, 2010.  They do not appear to ever have sent anything to the OAG at all (either IRS return or RRF):

ull Name: CALIFORNIANS AWARE: THE CENTER FOR PUBLIC FORUM RIGHTS FEIN: 201008855
Type: Public Benefit Corporate or Organization Number: 2646702
Registration Number: 125817
Record Type: Charity Registration Type: Charity Registration
Issue Date: 12/31/2006 Renewal Due Date: 5/14/2008
Registration Status: Delinquent Date This Status: 8/23/2010

They apparently lost a leader very recently, but are still collecting donations — possibly illegally — from their website, not that this would put them in different company than groups they are reporting on, who financially I’m sure leave this group in the dust.  The foundation number shows no (none whatever) returns under this EIN# above, but the California OAG has information from somewhere that is posted.  Then again, neither does the “Association of California Healthcare Districts” show its face — at all under this name, on the foundation finder.  How could it, without even an EIN# to go on?

Notice: The IRS has announced processing errors on electronically filed Forms 990 for filing years 2007-2009. Learn more»

Search criteria: ( Name: association of california healthcare districts State: CA )
0 matching documents retrieved (0 displayed)

Be that as that may, their board of directors is scheduled to meet this week, December 2, 2011.

The Brown Act in California deals with closed-door meetings on actions of public interest.

Perhaps in this case, the term applies.  Futures WIthout Violence has outgrown its britches, and I will not cease reporting on this.

(They’d better go abroad, because word is getting out — principally from me, that I can see — is that media campaigns don’t result in character transformations, and failing to report on the family court scams, and DV organization sell-outs is still getting families killed.  Last one — in the same general locality as this group — is a recent headline — a San Jose Policeman and his wife, apparent murder-suicide, and they have two teenagers. (Not sure about this incident, it looks almost staged from the reporting, and the word “apparently” shows up a lot.  I also note it was a second marriage (or, he had a stepson).  San Jose is not too far from San Francisco, however in the Bay Area there are drive-by-shootings hitting young people (recently a one-year old child) and in more than one neighborhood.  I believe that a $36 million annual revenue, even after subtracting several salaries over $100 million and Esta Soler’s of over $200 million (per year) should demand — not just suggest — some proof of effectiveness before getting one more cent — and this every five years at a minimum.  FVPF (FVW) claims to have begun in 1980.  If the Washington, D.C. corporations search bears this out, then it did — but in SF at least, it only began in 1989, meaning, a company that (now) specializes in media based campaigns and trainings, has been lying in its own self-descriptions.  1980 v. 1989 = nine years’ difference in reporting incorporation is not a minor issue, and I hope my suspicions on that one prove wrong.

Entity Number Date Filed Status Entity Name Agent for Service of Process
C2583174 05/17/2004 ACTIVE RELATIONSHIP TRAINING INSTITUTE DAVID B WEXLER

 Surely Relationship Training Institute (which falls under this category) also has to — but not one RRF or IRS hyperlink has been uploaded to the public website for it) while – there is not one single RFI filing from 2006 – 2011.   And the OAG somehow, hasn’t commented on this, and the charitable status remains labeled “Current.”  I figure this means someone is receiving money somewhere, and the “slap you on your wrist” letter may have indicated said someones wasn’t paid their (kickback, or payoff) this time.  Whether this is instinct, speculation, or error will not be known until other facts are known.

I certainly don’t buy that no one in the criminal branch of California Government (with the Attorney General being the top) knows about this group, for one, on their “About Us” page (including the “Guest Faculty list with Sandra Brown, M.A. (Christian “Liberty University” with on-line degree programs) and no known bachelor’s degree, plus CEO of her group whose corporate and charitable (if any) identity isn’t know either), not to mention  “Brian Erickson, Esq., San Diego City Attorney’s Office )(do a FOIA, get the payroll and reimbursements!), says:

The Relationship Training Institute is approved by the San Diego County Probation Department to provide clinical training for all authorized county domestic violence treatment programs for court-ordered offenders.

and it (RTI) is running certification programs for “Domestic Violence Providers,” probably receiving some help (whether as direct or subgrantee) from an OVW STOP program grant:

The STOP Program: Understanding & Treating Domestic Violence
40-HOUR DOMESTIC VIOLENCE TREATMENT PROVIDER CERTIFICATION COURSE

May 3,4,5 & 11,12, 2012

 Domestic violence is not a crime, but a disease that can be treated.  Sounds like the AFCC plan to transform language is indeed working….)

So, it just seems odd that this group doing quite a bit of business with the California legal and judicial systems (cf.  “court-ordered” “Probation”) has somehow escaped the OAG’s radar as to filing its annual statewide returns. Unlike many sites, I don’t see any claim of when they started (“ask me no questions, I will tell you no lies”), but from the registration site it’s been fully 4 years, from the Secretary of state site (above), fully let’s say 6 (allowing for the 2011 year to end) of its not doing anything.  Does this make you go hmmm? in context?  (it should).

I think I know “what is it” about this — it’s simply that the profits from these practice are pretty hard to profile (trace).

I’ve heard it said (NOYB where) that a psychiatrist is a would-be physician, in other words, the field has a bit of an inferiority complex, even though they can indeed prescribe medications.  And psychologists are would-be psychiatrists, there is a professional jealousy, hierarchy and wish for glory.  I think the evidence supports this characterization, don’t you?  They like to pronounce, but without enough trade promotion, who’s going to give a hoot about what they say?

When psychologists begin to rule a nation – which FYI has already happened — it’s just about gone.  Not much difference from when religion does, which I think is my point in the ridiculous term “faith-based” with which we are now drenched in the field of social service, thanks to President Bush, President Clinton, and a while back (like 1994), Congress slipping up and letting a single HHS grant go to jumpstart the National Fatherhood Initiative, which story EVERy parent (male or female) should know in detail.  This now has morphed and multiplied to HHS funding groups with six-letter acronyms (and only one vowell, or none) like:

NRFCBI

GOFBCI

NCJFCJ

or 5-letter ones such as I’m going to profile today

ACFLS (“Inc.”)

Respectively, “National Responsible Fatherhood Capacity Building Initiative” (translation, more HHS funds and a Certfication College), Governor’s Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives (this is in Ohio; translations — grabs more HHS money, in the form of TANF funds, for starters), National Center for Family and Juvenile Court Judges (HHS and DOJ supported, in Reno, NV), and the Association of Certified Family Law Specialists (as opposed to what kind of Family Law Specialists?) based in California.

Here’s a glimpse at the purpose and method of the “NRFCBI” — think Wade Horn, Don Eberly, Don Blankenhorn, Institute for American Values (another nonprofit), etc.  Thanks to the web and well-trained trainers fo trainers (and not a few on the Congressional Legislative Task forces of NFI, see its site), one can simultaneously be meeting behind closed doors with a new Governor or head of the Social Rehabilitation Services for an entire state — and be training others, and get a whole dang lot of this soaking up public funds to do it.

About NRFCBI

In partnership with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Family Assistance,National Fatherhood Initiative (NFI) has designed the National Responsible Fatherhood Capacity-Building Initiative (NRFCBI) to aid grassroots and community-based organizations through a series of capacity-building grants.

These grants will empower community-based organizations by:

  • developing each recipient’s organizational infrastructure
  • enhancing its leadership; introducing sub-awardees to new programming recommendations, and
  • improving each awardee’s connections in the community-at-large

Ultimately, the NRFCBI aims to strategically improve sub-awardees’ capacity to provide services to local fathers and families.**

The NRFCBI was developed with funds and support from the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Family Assistance. Each awardee receives a one-time $25,000 award to strengthen fathers and families in communities throughout the United States.

** local mothers — including those dealing with said fathers, to their risk — can go jump in a lake.  Particularly if they hope to actually get the access visitation local sub-grantee, which allegedly is for noncustodial parents (not exclusively men) when there are problems with — access and visitation.

What — really, when you examine it, IS this National Responsible Fatherhood Capacity-Building Initiative?  If you had to explain it to an alien, new to earth, new to the financial system, barely understanding the Internet, and someone who thinks instead in more concrete (versus “virtual” wordy) terms — what would you say?

Let’s try:

And most of these are “nonprofits,” which of itself means ??

Think about it:  Tax-Exempt = an IRS Perk that lets others pick up the “Social Services” 

Tax-exempt status implies (this isn’t actually true, but the theory goes) one is providing a legitimate public service, so this group should be exempt from the indentured service the people they serve (theoretically), that actually results things the public can use — cars, food, steel, paved roads, clothes — things that wage-earners labor at for their business employer, some of which the public actually needs (like homes to live in).  (I omitted the public school system in their intentionally).

Most of my close look at family law fields comes down to the same point:

The presence of the IRS and the accumulation of wealth, per capita (unless people know or figure out how to become tax-exempt or work under the table, which we know happens) — has enabled more inflated programs, initiatives, institutes, centers and for that matter has simply centralized wealth in the wrong hands — in the hands of people with global aspirations, historic to their family (Bush) and associations (Project for a New American Century, Family Research Center, etc.).  Billionaires and millionaires with apparently time on their hands (boredom – “let’s go find someone else to abuse,” and “play dominoes with countries”) and worlds to change, or as it may be starve into oblivion, attack without cause (Iraq), colonize — although supposedly the USA was “independent” of the empire on which the Sun never set, or simply blow off the face of the globe.

No wonder at the individual and family level, such societies have trouble with so many people who do this at the local and family level.  Perhaps it’s the “trickle-down” effect.  The wealth didn’t trickle down, but after enough decades of abuse and deprivation of rights, angry crowds assemble, without sufficient outlets, and they explode — or go home and kick the wife.  Or husband.  Or child.

One guy in France recently, just murdered his three-year-old son in a washing machine, allegedly for misbehavior (he was THREE!) at pre-school.  He was 33.  The mother, of seven (age 25), tried to cover for him.  The neighbors knew of prior abuse in fact the five-year old sister of the three-year old knew, and reported (probably at the same time).  I cannot pardon this mother for lying — but I sure do wonder what conditions had her marrying at age 19 (married to get away from abuse at home) and having one child a year, approximately, with the bastard.  Now the surviving six are going to be in foster care.  I sure hope THAT Grandma won’t put up a fight for custody, after no reporting in time to save her grandson’s life.

I cannot give an answer articles like this (as a mother, I tried), but I sure did notice that the AMERICAN article, reporting on this — had 89 comments, and the summary made no mention of where was the mother.  Only 1 in 10 comments (about 8-9 maximum) even mentioned the mother which (to me, not having read all the links) for all I know was not in the picture.  She wasn’t in the reporter’s picture.  Those who mentioned the mother verbally crucified her along with the Dad.  Others debated contraception and abortion.  A Dad or two got on to say, hey, c’mon, we’re not all bad!  And I couldn’t do a 1500 word response, because more than 1500 word circumstances led to this situation.

What good did the preschool do?  Did it have any concept of abuse going on of a little kid at home, or were traumatized, or acting-out little kids so normal to them, or shut-down emotionally ones — who knows?  Perhaps — barring families like this — preschool just isn’t an appropriate place for three-year olds; maybe they need to be taken care of by the Moms, not by the state, or parochial schools, or daycare centers.   Maybe if there weren’t such a push for early childhood systems (YES< I know this was France, not the USA, but think about it), there’d be more money for other social services — like FOOD — to help support even married or cohabiting mothers while they take care of their children.

What really bothers me was a comment from a woman in Atlanta, Georgia — “don’t they have children’s services in France?”

Don’t they have awake citizens in Georgia?  So many problem situations lead back to there, including people who began in GEorgia and now are so problemmatic in (Scranton), PA area that some parents who began reporting, and getting payment records from one of the dynamic duo of parent coordinators (Boyan, Termini — Boyan was the Georgia connection, but both are among professionals recommended — from Kentucky Courts — in:

  1. Active Parenting Publishers

    www.activeparenting.com/

    Active Parenting programs are built to help educators create successful parent  Active Parenting Publishers has provided award-winning, video-based parenting classes for helping professionals since 1983. Kennesaw, GA 30144-7808 

These professionals (on that roster and others), one of them was so “helpful” that between her, a local judge and a local GAL, apparently, the FBI went and raided the courthouse, walking out with evidence — before a man who’d filed a lawsuit against inappropriate use of public funds could complete the lawsuit.  The thread is here:

http://scrantonpoliticaltimes.activeboard.com/t45346544/family-courts-co-parenting-coordinator-ann-marie-termini-vs-/?page=4

These parents and activists banded together on a forum, and have posted things such as a questionable professional’s contracts, payment vouchers, and made connections, for example (one post) Oct. 4th, from user “Toss Ross” (meaning — see below) — noticed (from the payments posted, presumably):

Is this just a coincidence or was there a natural huge spike in Termini’s income with the county?

January of 2008 is $2,320.00 total for her services.

January of 2009 is $3,220.00

January of 2010 is $4,110.00

January of 2011 is a huge increase to $7,050.00

Isn’t 2008 when Chet started appointing cases like crazy to Ross?

And all of a sudden Termini sees over 300% increase in business since Ross got all those case?  Did Termini get all of Ross’ cases.  Wow, if that’s the case Termini sure got lucky.

Coincidence?  I think not Mr. Fed.  I think not.

How about LiBassi? Did he get lucky, too?  Thank you, Mr. P.  What a treasure of information. I hope the investigators note the luck and the coincidences.

Ross is the GAL, and Termini the Parenting Coordinator.  He noticed a payment spike in 2008.  Well (coincidence?) in Georgia in 2008 a Boyan-Termini Business lost its incorporation status (National Association of Parent Coordinators), etc.

not here (note:  “0 comments”)

FBI searches Lackawanna County (Pennsylvania) court administrator’s office

BY BORYS KRAWCZENIUK (STAFF WRITER)
Published: November 15, 2011

FBI agents executed a search warrant on Lackawanna County Court Administrator Ron Mackay’s office Monday afternoon as part of an investigation into a program that provides lawyers for children in family court cases.

Mackay declined to answer questions about the visit and answered “no” when asked if he would provide Times-Shamrock newspapers a copy of the search warrant.

The visit lasted less than an hour. . .

A source familiar with the visit told the newspaper the search warrant was related to the county’s guardian ad litem system.

The FBI has been investigating the county’s guardian ad litem system, which is in the hands of one lawyer, attorney Danielle Ross. The county court sometimes appoints a guardian ad litem to represent the interests of children in family court disputes between parents, often in cases of divorce or when custody is at stake.

Late last month, agents served subpoenas at the county courthouse and administration building as part of their investigation. In September, a federal grand jury subpoena ordered County Controller Ken McDowell to produce all bills, invoices, receipts and statements for every case assigned to Ross.

Read more: http://citizensvoice.com/news/fbi-searches-lackawanna-county-court-administrator-s-office-1.1232501#ixzz1fzQiFd1s

As we have been talking about groups which are not filing consistently with the State (of California, mostly) for their Charitable Returns — or not doing so correctly — while doing sometimes (Futures without Violence) mega-business within the state — it seems appropriate to remind us about the strange financial relationship between KIDS TURN (SF) and the SFTC:

As below:

Record
Date Document Doc Type E/R Name
Show Name Detail Show APN Detail 12/14/2010 J099605-00 NOTICE LIEN R KIDS TURN
Show Name Detail Show APN Detail 12/14/2010 J098917-00 NOTICE LIEN R KIDS TURN
Show Name Detail Show APN Detail 12/11/2009 I887047-00 NOTICE LIEN R KIDS TURN
Show Name Detail Show APN Detail 01/27/2004 H647258-00 NOTICE LIEN R KIDS TUR

 

 

You can see the four dates.  Every single one of them shows that “SFTC” actually has a LIEN on Kids Turn, meaning (apparently) that at some point in time, the nonprofit Kids Turn RECEIVED some money (or other thing that would be due back) from the SF Courts.  They now owe this to the courts, creating a Recorded Lien (?).    This has happened in 2004, 2009 and twice in one day in 2010, generally around the end or beginning of a year (Dec/January).  Was this for tax reporting purposes as well?
A BIG — very big — stink was made in California about Judges — who are to be paid by the state — receiving payment from the states, and not counties.  Legislation was passed to retroactively immunize the state of California’s Judges from prosecution for this (after Richard Fine casework) let the entire judicial system have to be shutdown.  Then they got back to disbarring the honest man, and throwing him in jail improperly, not to mention somewhere in there cutting off his legitimately earned fees as an attorney.  We should review this from time to time as a reminder of JUST who one is dealing with in the august legislators and judicial authorities of the state with the largest court system in the country, and which is looked to as a model.  I fear that Big Brother in this case has been setting a lousy example, and I cannot hold common Californians responsible for having high-conflict families, either, or being “flawed,” problemmatic, or most recently, having multiple personality problems troubling the court professionals (Bill Eddy High Conflict Institute language, etc.) as we are so often described in AFCC conferences.
KT was founded and “board-ed” as we know by judges, attorneys, and supported by foundations, donations, and of course some of the attorneys and judges on the board at times no doubt also contributed to Kids’ Turn) — which is a parent education model that tried to get iits name — SPECIFICALLY — written into California Law as THE standard, and which model has been followed in other states.
OK, let’s do a hypothetical situation here.  Again, I’m speculating — which so far, is not seditious, it’s simply expressive and cogitational.  I do not believe this is prohibited activity (other than we’ve already discerned that reporting criminal activity against one’s self or one’s kids, including kidnapping, assault, battery, molestation, stalking or other threats — is a self-defeating in the family law forum.   The ROI is just not worth it!  You will be labled and ordered into parenting services, and have another court professional assigned to your high-conflict-parent self.
But let’s just suppose:   At any given time (given the rotating board membership of Kids’ Turn), let’s suppose that a presiding judge, commissioner, or other person is ALSO involved in litigation on a specific case, and a parent, or a parent’s business, makes a nice fat donation to Kids’ Turn at the time.  Money is clearly changing hands between this group and the courts (not to mention, it also showed up as a nonprofit vendor in the City and County of SF 2007, 2008 & 2009) — wouldn’t that compromise the integrity of any ruling?
And because the general public doesn’t have access to the list of contributors in any timely fashion (the OAG does), unless the ruling judges were scrupulously honest (something they don’t exactly have a reputation for) how could any parent wishing to check impartiality, once aware of this particular financial relationship, protect his or her custody case?  Without access to the information.  As we can see below — (I think it was San Francisco) one of the groups had had its corporate license suspended, but now is reinstated (after I reported….):
Entity Number Date Filed Status Entity Name Agent for Service of Process
C1657442 12/29/1989 ACTIVE KID’S TURN CLAIRE BARNES
C1970774 06/05/1996 ACTIVE KID’S TURN, SAN DIEGO JAMES REYNOLDS DAVIS
Here’s the previous version, as I blogged Aug 31, 2011 in “Chasing Down Charitable & Corporate Registrations for (more) Court-Connected Nonprofits”:
Entity Number Date Filed Status Entity Name Agent for Service of Process
C1657442 12/29/1989 SUSPENDED KID’S TURN CLAIRE BARNES
C1970774 06/05/1996 ACTIVE KID’S TURN, SAN DIEGO JAMES REYNOLDS DAVIS

 

Meanwhile, in Pennsylvania (which is working on also passing a Faith-based initiative; I hope the bill stalls in suspended animation) civil rules of procedure were amended to specify REQUIRED use of “Kids First” (a fictitious name registered to Chet Muklewicz) a Kids’ Turn knockoff (same idea, same setup basically, different name); only this time, some of the locals caught on, reported, and in comes the FBI.  Believe me, I’ll teach them everything I know in the noble effort.  These are some seriously “high-conflict” parents (they have a serious conflict with court corruption) and may they never settle down, at least in that regard.

The forum was even shut down inappropriately without notice to the moderators, but the resulting suit pulled in the ACLU and up they went again

 

TIt’s self-evident that (given how simple it is to incorporate) the average “consumer” (litigant or “client” of any Family Court Services setup — even if they become aware of their local professionals’ addicition to forming nonprofits, & related for-profits marketing what the nonprofit sells, and memership associations to sell franchise opportunities for the same — while taking public funds as county employees, or contractors (etc.) — there is no way to keep up.

Nor should we have to — or be forced to spend the valuable ours of our lives as parents — or anyone else — tracking down crooked behavior on behalf of our own government that can’t (or doesn’t) keep up with it!

 

Just as certain parties wish to legislate their pet parent education (or abstinence education, for that matter) into mandated status — I believe that anyone who disagrees with this better think about how to get some legislating that starts with “JUST SAY NO!” to allowing ANY court employees or County employees staffing the courts, to form, be employed by, or be on the boards of, ANY nonprofit to which the court, jails, or county — will defer business.

The kazillions of diversionary programs presume that the US population has simply become unmanageable, riotous, incapable of monitoring themselves, dangerously volatile, horrible to children (universally, judging by how popular the foster care and adoption industries are) and in general incompetent idiots incapable of managing themselves or their neighborhoods.

 

I do not share this view.  Yeah, it applies often enough — but I have a problem with the parties stating this so often having been the ones riding herd for decade after decade anyhow — so this should be taken into account.  Starting with the public education system.  Talk about handing over one’s children to the current Administration the moment they go through the doors, and/or metal detectors.   No sir!   This is an institution that doesn’t handle competition very well, and the more centralized it gets, the less freedom the US has, and we’re pretty far down the fascist road already (referring to centralizing control and setting policy without going through Congress).  The more it fails, the more money it demands to compensate.

Taken as a whole, it is quite similar to the family court system, which people universally like to say is “broken” –but it seems to be working according to plan from what I can tell.  It’s the PLAN I have issues with — and which needs to be changed, if it cannot be tolerated by the public any longer.

 

 

Written by Let's Get Honest|She Looks It Up

December 8, 2011 at 8:32 pm

Posted in AFCC, Business Enterprise, Cast, Script, Characters, Scenery, Stage Directions, Lackawanna County PA Corruption Protests, Mandatory Mediation, Organizations, Foundations, Associations NGO Hybrids, Parent Education promotion, Parent Education promotion, Parenting Coordination promotion, Psychology & Law = an AFCC tactical lobbying unit, Vocabulary Lessons, Who's Who (bio snapshots)

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OFBNP 2010 Regurgitations — although it took 176 glossy pages to repeat them.

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I don’t see enough talk about this topic, so I will:

We began this century and millennium with at stealth President, the son of another one, and it seems clear from the behaviors of several of the “faith-based” groups that special privileges were not just expected, but anticipated.  Just a reminder —

Government Transformation By Presidential Decree

Executive Orders Disposition Tables

George W. Bush – 2001


Executive Order 13198
Agency Responsibilities With Respect to Faith-Based and Community Initiatives

  • Signed:   January 29, 2001
  • Federal Register page and date:   66 FR 8497, January 31, 2001
  • See: EO 13559, November 17, 2010

Executive Order 13199
Establishment of White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives

  • Signed:   January 29, 2001
  • Federal Register page and date:   66 FR 8499, January 31, 2001
  • Amended by: EO 13498, February 5, 2009
  • See: EO 13559, November 17, 2010
  • _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
We are also led to believe that Republicans and Democrats are radically different from each other in the most critical areas of policy.
Well, they are in some respects — but not in their casual dismissal of due process, and in the exaltation — by decree, NOT vote — of religion as yet another way to (A) collect money in the name of God, and (B) dominate & control women in the name of God.  I suspect this is to also make it easier to (C) wage war in the name of God when another country interferes with someone’s economic interest who is involved in (A) and probably also (B).  I say this because it takes 9 months to even kick out a baby, and much more to raise one; it often radically changes a woman’s body and relationship with everyone she knows (and larger society).
And without extensive training and propaganda (and with alternatives), no woman in her right mind would be having babies to replenish the supply of human disposables in war.  In other words, for cannon fodder.
Did Obama distinguish himself or distance himself from GWB’s first two aggressions as President?
No — he just tried to reframe it to spin the same theme as his own. In the inauguration speech of 2008, he did not mention women even!
The words are continually “we” “us” “our” (understandable for the occasion).  Back at the drawing board, there is no “we” — because if there is a father-crisis in the land, all equity, due process, and the concept that it’s the MEANS — not the END  which this country was to stand for.  Justice is a process, not the outcome of the process.  Tip the scale, institute a system of bribes and perks – for either litigants or court-connected players (judges, mediators, evaluators ,etc.) — and it is gone.
From 2008 Obama Inauguration Speech: . . .

On this day, we gather because we have chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord.

On this day, we come to proclaim an end to the petty grievances and false promises, the recriminations and worn-out dogmas that for far too long have strangled our politics.

We remain a young nation, but in the words of Scripture, the time has come to set aside childish things. The time has come to reaffirm our enduring spirit; to choose our better history; to carry forward that precious gift, that noble idea, passed on from generation to generation: the God-given promise that all are equal, all are free, and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness.

In the words of Scripture (the book of Acts/Peter), “I perceive that God is no respecter of persons.” (rank/status)  In the words of Scripture (Gal 5:1), “Stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made you free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.”
The better history of this country included fleeing bloodshed from religious violence — recent, centuries of it, in England and Ireland, also Scotland and other European places.   One particular type of religious bloodshed — from Oliver Cromwell — had actually resulted in the beginning of the Irish slave trade, as part of dominating Ireland, before I heard even the African slave trade to the Americas.  (search this post).   It also included religion-based property damage (Joseph Priestley’s laboratory destroyed), book bannings and burnings to prevent the spread of knowledge (i.e., heresy) among people, and burnings of people also who translated the “Book” into many different languages.  There is no question that some of these people influenced at least Thomas Jefferson, and they sought toleration, not sectarianism.
They brought some of this with them, there were the Salem witch trials (notice:  women),  and exiles of the unorthodox.   Women helped populate this country — referring to the immigrants, as it was no blank slate! — as well as settle and build it, whether as slaves or as wives, or otherwise (I’m thinking of mining camps, frontier towns).  And yet since the mid 1990s, the nonmarried fertility rate has threatened the powers that be, resulting in backlash grants and nonprofits (which National Fatherhood Initiative is) and backlash Executive Orders seeking the help of the faith-based organizations to:
1.  Help clean up some of the mess the government, and they, have created, and
2.  Get paid — not taxed — to do this, leaving others to pick up the slack.
This document was forwarded to me (it’s from 2010) — and I’m linking to it.  A brief electronic search of its contents shows that these words occur in the following ratios:
  • fatherhood:  “more than 100”
  • motherhood   never — of course.
  • If there is no motherhood in the vocabulary, it must not exist — or not be worth a mention in “faith-based” circles.  Perhaps we should also question whether “fatherhood” truly exists just because it’s talked about more?
  • fathers:   “more than 100” (consider — that’s more than 200 root words, “father”
  • mothers:  17 matches (in 176 pages)
  • mother, singular:  18 meaning only ONCE did the word occur as an individual
  • Occurrences of a hyphenated “father-” word, which indicates recent jargon specific to the field, the grants-based field, as in (from page 37) the heading “Key Data on Father-Absence in America” (bold print, caption)
  • Usages of the very few words “mother” in the text are significant (more, below);
HERE WE GO:
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

President’s Advisory Council

on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships

A New Era of Partnerships:

Report of Recommendations to the President

http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/microsites/ofbnp-council-final-report.pdf

Publication of this document was coordinated by the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships with support from the Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Special thanks to Joshua DuBois, Executive Director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships and Mara Vanderslice, Deputy Director and Coordinator of the President’s Advisory Council.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Joshua DuBois is well known; who is Ms. Vanderslice?  Well, here’s one profile:

Mara Vanderslice

Mara Vanderslice is the Deputy Director and Senior Policy Advisor to the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships.  She is also the Coordinator for the President’s Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, the first of its kind Advisory group made up of diverse religious and community leaders that provide advice to the President on how to form better partnerships between government and faith-based and neighborhood organizations.  Ms. Vanderslice facilitates the White House’s interagency working group on Religion and Global Affairs, which seeks to promote inter-religious cooperation and engagement in the U.S. Government’s work abroad.

Prior to serving at the White House, Ms. Vanderslice has been engaged at the intersection of faith and politics for many years, working with dozens of candidates and public officials on religious affairs.  She has more than 10 years of experience working with faith-based non-profits on issues from hunger and welfare reform to international development and debt relief for the world’s poorest countries.  Her work on faith and public life has been profiled in TIME magazine, the NY Times and Christianity Today; she has appeared as a guest on CNN, NPR and Comedy Central’s Colbert Report.  Ms. Vanderslice has a bachelor’s degree from Earlham College, a small Christian college in Richmond, IN.

Home

(Quaker:  The School of Religion was accredited in 1969:  The college was founded after Quaker Migration, particularly from NC, and it says has around 1,200 students.  In the late 1990s, it had $40 million of renovations/expansions, etc.  http://www.earlham.edu/about/history

History

The School of Religion, a long-time dream of some Friends, was opened on an experimental basis by Earlham College in the autumn of 1960.  . . .The Earlham School of Religion was accredited in 1969 by the Association of Theological Schools in the United States and Canada (ATS) and by the North Central Association through affiliation with Earlham College.

Interesting to me, because one of the KS secret meetings with marriage-mongers happened at a Friends campus as well.

Indiana moreover, is known for its strong fatherhood movement from Sen. Evan Bayh, among other things (such as being an early center of one of the largest KKK groups around; and today has a strong and prospering fatherhood center taking government support of many sorts, etc.  IN otherwords, that a woman from a small college in Indiana was chosen for this post is quite interesting.

Wow — I just looked at the Speakers’ List on this Global Interfaith Forum where Ms. Vanderslice spoke.

There are 26 speakers — and only 4 women.  Of these, there’s Mara Vanderslice above — the others were hardly like to challenge the status quo here; the pastor’s wife, and two Islamic women, both with heads covered; one young, one older.  The other woman without a head covering identifies as Christian, in fact Southern Baptist –

Not one Catholic, Jewish, or non-tow-the-line Christian woman in there.  And from what I just saw, no African-Americans either.  Here’s Vicky Scott — one of the four:

Vicky Scott is the Vice President of Mainframe Hosting Product Management and Architecture for Fidelity Investments. During her seventeen year career at Fidelity, Ms. Scott has held numerous technology and business leadership roles. Prior to Fidelity, she worked at Electronic Data Systems and Cities Service Oil

Company.  Ms. Scott holds a BS in Mathematics and a BA in Business Administration from Oklahoma Baptist University and an MBA from Southern Methodist University.

Ms. Scott is a key lay leader at Northwood Church in Keller, Texas.  She is the founder and leader of Northwood’s Career Women’s Network.  She is also actively involved in Northwood’s work in Vietnam.

Ms. Scott leads two trips to Vietnam each year, focusing on poverty alleviation and community development. She also partners with the Hanoi Young Business Association and the Hanoi Network of Entrepreneurial Women to promote corporate social responsibility in Vietnam.

This speaker series was hosted at “Northwood Church.”  Therefore, no non-Northword Christian women (no Jewish women, no African-American women, or Asian women )were allowed to speak — nor any Jewish women.  Probably if they had, some of the other speakers might’ve bailed out.

While this is in Texas and based at a church; it falls under free speech for sure, the grandiose title “Global Interfaith” shows us by speaker choice that while something may be indeed Global — it’s hardly representative, especially of the United States!

To be Faith-based IS to be Fatherhood Promoting and Male-Dominant; it is PER SE not representative.  This is clear from the text, the mandate from the President at the beginning of the text to explore “fatherhood” (why not?  It’s a guaranteed money-maker….).

From the text:

CORE CONCEPTs

A single overarching conviction shaped our deliberations: Responsible, engaged fathers are critical to the financial, emotional, intellectual, and spiritual well-being of children, and therefore to the strength and health of American families and communities.  Fathers are not just nice to have around, they are profoundly valuable and often irreplaceable in the lives of their children.

Notice it says “conviction” (belief) — not observation.   For religious that call God “Father” of course fathers are going to be critical to the “spiritual well-being of children” — it’s a circular reasoning!  Also see my article on foster care and adoption incentives.  And the Franklin Cover-up.  What about the children trafficked needlessly into the foster care system, in part because some other sector of society may have removed a good parent, including a mother, or indirectly led to the destruction.

A look at this text (I may just even print the whole thing out for review) shows that where the words “mother” do occur, rarely are (we) doing anything — which is typical in other language-dominance-rhetoric in this field.

Here are the Council Members.  Notice the titles and institutions (or organizations) cited:

Diane Baillargeon, President and CEO, Seedco

SEEDCO is an organization working with faith-based nonprofits and low-income communities.  Here’s press release on her appointment

Anju Bhargava, President, Asian Indian Women in America Founder, Hindu American Seva Charities

Bishop Charles Blake, Presiding Bishop, Church of God in Christ

Noel Castellanos, CEO, Christian Community Development Association, HHS Grantee (ties to the Meier Clinics?) — purpose is evangelism.  It is directly listed on ACF/HHS site

Christian Community Development Associationexit disclaimer
Christian Community Development Association exists to develop a strong fellowship of those involved in Christian community development. We desire to support and encourage existing Christian community developers and their ministries and help to establish new ones.

Dr . Arturo Chávez, President and CEO; Mexican American Catholic College

(The Reverend Canon Peg Chemberlin, President, National Council of Churches; Executive Director, Minnesota Council of Churches

Fred Davie, Senior Director, The Arcus Foundation

(WHO?  “Specifically, the Arcus Foundation works to advnace LGBT equality and protect the great apes“)  (i’m assuming there’s a connection in there somewhere?)  Founder Jon Stryker, in interview:

(Founder of the Arcus Foundation — #375 of Forbes top 400, etc. Divorced, 2 children)

About the time that I started the Arcus Foundation, in 2000, I was also coming out as a gay man. I quickly realized that there was very little funding for LGBT communities, and that LGBT rights was a niche that was not only personally important to me, but also an area where I could have a big impact as a donor.”   

WikipediaJon Lloyd Stryker (born ca. 1958) is an American architectphilanthropist and activist for social and environmental causes. He is a billionaire stockholder and heir to the Stryker Corporation medical supply company fortunes of grandfather Homer Stryker alongside sisters Pat and Ronda. In 2010, his net worth was estimated at $1.2 billion.[1]

 Nathan J . Diament, Director of Public Policy, Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America

Dr . Joel C . Hunter, Senior Pastor, Northland, A Church Distributed*

See Wikipedia article (essentially a tribute to Hunter, but informative).  Delivered a pre-inaugural blessing to Obama, addressed 2008 DNC campaign, etc.):

Joel Carl Hunter (born April 18, 1948 in Shelby, Ohio), is the senior pastor of Northland, A Church Distributed, a congregation of 15,000 that worships at four sites in Central Florida and at more than 1,000 sites worldwide via interactive webcast, iPhone, and Facebook. He is the author of numerous books, including A New Kind of Conservative (Regal 2008), Church Distributed (Distributed Press 2008) and Inner State 80: Your Journey on the High Way (Higher Life 2009). A leading[citation needed]evangelical voice for compassion issues, Hunter accepted the presidency of the Christian Coalition in 2006, and then resigned before formally acting in that role because the CC board felt that a broadening of agenda to include topics like poverty, justice and other compassion issues would alienate its base.[1] He delivered the closing benediction on the final day of the 2008 Democratic National Convention,[2] prayed with Senator Obama on the day of the 2008 presidential election[2] and offered a blessing for President-elect Obama at the Pre-Inaugural Worship Service at St. John’s Church on January 22, 2009.[3]On February 5, 2009, he was appointed to the President’s Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, which is purposed to advise Obama on substantive policy issues.[4]

Harry Knox, Director, Religion and Faith Program Human Rights Campaign Foundation

Bishop Vashti Murphy McKenzie, Bishop, Thirteenth Episcopal District, African Methodist Episcopal Church

Dalia Mogahed, Senior Analyst and Executive Director, The Center for Muslim Studies, Gallup

The Reverend Otis Moss, Jr ., Pastor Emeritus, Oliviet Institutional Baptist Church

Dr . Frank Page, Vice-President of Evangelization, North American Mission Board; and Past President of the Southern Baptist Convention

Dr . Eboo Patel, Founder and Executive Director, Interfaith Youth Core

Anthony R . Picarello, Jr ., General Counsel, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops

Nancy Ratzan, President, National Council of Jewish Women

Melissa Rogers, Council Chair, Director, Center for Religion and Public Affairs of the Wake Forest University Divinity School

Rabbi David saperstein, Director and Counsel, Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism

The Reverend William J . shaw, President, National Baptist Convention, USA, Inc.

The Reverend Larry J . snyder, President and CEO, Catholic Charities USA

Richard E . stearns, President, World Vision United States

Judith Vredenburgh, Immediate Past President and CEO, Big Brothers Big Sisters of America

Jim Wallis, President and CEO, Sojourners

The Reverend Dr . sharon E . Watkins, General Minister and President, Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in US and Canada.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

I do not know how many of the above have received already HHS money to promote responsible fatherhood.  Take for example, Seedco.  One would think, being a business, it would operate with contracts — yet it is getting grants:

SEEDCO:

In Feb, 2010, Barbara Gunn became a new CEO, while Baillargeon stayed on as the above (White House Advisory Council) position, and influential in Seedco policy.  Perhaps this helped with obtaining the 2011 grant — no conflict of interest there, certainly . . . .

Barbara Dwyer Gunn has been named President and Chief Executive Officer of the Structured Employment and Economic Development Corporation (Seedco), the New York City-based national nonprofit organization.

Gunn will join Seedco on April 1, 2010, succeeding Diane Baillargeon, who announced last year that she would step down as Seedco’s President and CEO after 12 years at the organization.

Diane Baillargeon has been with Seedco since 1998 and served as chief executive since 2005. She will remain actively involved with Seedco as a senior policy fellow, continuing to play an important role in shaping and developing the organization’s respected policy work. She will also continue to serve in President Obama’s Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships.

Of course this is not any conflict of interest….

WHAT’S NEW AT SEEDCO

Positive outcomes found for NY Fatherhood Pilot Programs

Participants in New York State’s Strengthening Families through Stronger Fathers Initiative had higher wages, rates of employment, and rates of child support payment than non-participants, the final impact report shows. Seedco operated one of the successful pilots in NYC

From a Report we see this was aimed at noncustodial “parents (mostly fathers)” behind in child support.  In other words, diverting money from TANF for the prior 15 years was not working well enough, more serious interventions had to happen….

Strengthening Families through Stronger Fathers” report from (The Urban Institute, including Elaine Sorenson, profiled before on blog):

The Intervention

The Strengthening Families Through Stronger Fathers Initiative included a pilot program to test the effectiveness of providing employment and other support services to low-income parents behind in their child support. OTDA contracted with five large, well-established organizations to provide the services. These organizations operated in four cities: Buffalo, Jamestown, Syracuse, and New York City.

Seedco Receives Major Funding for Responsible Fatherhood Initiative

Program to help low-income fathers enter and succeed in the workplace

Oct 20, 2011

Seedco has been awarded a $2.5 million Pathways to Responsible Fatherhood grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services/Administration for Children and Families to help low-income fathers in New York City enter and succeed in the workforce while developing closer relationships with their children.

The barriers preventing fathers from having meaningful relationships with their children are often economic. Participants in the Pathways to Responsible Fatherhood program will have access to job preparation and placement assistance, help with career advancement, and parenting classes and support.

Partners in the project include St. Nicholas Neighborhood Preservation Corporation (St. Nicks), BronxWorks, Northern Manhattan Improvement Corporation (NMIC), and the Upper Manhattan Workforce1 Career Center.

The program will launch in January 2012 and serve approximately 800 fathers each year.

Here it is, and the grant is even named after SEEDCO, who I heard has operations in at least six states.
Recipient Name City State ZIP Code County DUNS Number Sum of Awards
Structured Employment Econ Dev Corp (SEEDCO)  NEW YORK NY 10010 NEW YORK 611634247 $ 2,500,000
FY Award Number Award Title Budget Year of Support Award Code Agency Action Issue Date DUNS Number Amount This Action
2011 90FK0040  SEEDCO’S PATHWAYS TO RESPONSIBLE FATHERHOOD PROGRAM 1 00 ACF 09-26-2011 611634247 $ 2,500,000 
Fiscal Year 2011 Total: $ 2,500,000
For last name of investigator “Suzette”– Contact Seedco, or HHS and find out — see database malfunction, or otherwise dig it out onesself.
Fiscal Year Program Office Grantee Address City Grantee Class Grantee Type Award Number Action Issue Date Award Class Award Activity Type Award Action Type Principal Investigator Sum of Actions
2011 OFA 915 Broadway 17th Floor NEW YORK Non-Profit Private Non-Government Organizations Other Special Interest Organization  90FK0040 09/26/2011 DISCRETIONARY DEMONSTRATION NEW SUZETTE SUZETTE  $ 2,500,000
The fact is, faith-based groups were losing ground and realized they needed to band together, regroup — and put a new spin on the old themes to survive.  Among the workers are many people doing good deeds (as are many non-believers).  But basically the belief set, if it bears the label “Christian” is going to entail some form of this, as found on “DeVos Urban Leadership” site 9which also profiles Noel Castellanos, above.  The DeVos name alone would be cause for concern, DeVos -Bush-Amway-Prince – Blackwater (i.e.,killing Iraqi civillians):  These links keep expiring, so I’ll post what’s up (viewable if you hover cursor) at this site.
In part:
WASHINGTON — Blackwater USA owner Erik Prince downplayed his wealthy Michigan family’s Republican roots as an explanation for the controversial security company’s success, telling a congressional panel Tuesday that he considers the firm nonpartisan despite his family’s strong GOP pedigree.

Prince, a Holland native, said neither he nor anyone in his family approached the White House or the former Republican majority in Congress for help to get a contract for his company’s services in Iraq.

His firm and its employees — hired by the State Department to protect diplomats and others — are under scrutiny for allegations they killed Iraqi citizens with little accountability or review of their actions.

Prince, 38, is the son of the late Edgar Prince, a wealthy industrialist, and the brother of Betsy DeVos, former chairwoman of the Michigan Republican Party and wife of Dick DeVos, whose family cofounded Amway. DeVos lost the governor’s race to Democrat Jennifer Granholm last year.

A report prepared by the Democratic majority on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee before Prince’s testimony noted his sister’s and brother-in-law’s GOP links; the fact that Prince was a White House intern for President George W. Bush’s father, and Prince’s $225,000 in political contributions, mainly to Republican causes

Let’s talk about “Family Values” — THIS Family’s Values:

All in the (Crime) Family: Bush & Blackwater

29th October 2007 | Business NewsGeneral NewsWar / Terrorism News

Like a cancer, private mercenary firm spreads influence in local communities. When the private military company Blackwater USA, a firm tied to the Bush family through marriage and to right-wing extremist and racist groups through politics and money, established its headquarters in Moyock, North Carolina in an former military reservation in the Great Dismal Swamp, just south of the Virginia border, practically no one noticed.

Blackwater was founded in 1997 by Erik Prince, a former US Navy SEAL and right-wing fundamentalist Christian from Michigan. Prince’s father is Edgard Prince, who founded the Family Research Council with Gary Bauer. Erik Prince’s sister is Betty DeVos, who is married to Dick DeVos, the son of Amway co-founder and Mormon bigwig Richard DeVos.

Mormon.  That’s reassuring (hint:  I’m female):

The General Counsel for Erik Prince’s Blackwater parent company, the Prince Group, is Joseph Schmitz, the Pentagon’s former Inspector General. Schmitz’s brother, John Schmitz, Jr. deputy counsel to George H. W. Bush and who is married to the sister of Columba Bush, Jeb Bush’s wife.

The father of John and Joseph was extreme right-wing Republican Congressman John Schmitz, Sr. Their sister is Mary Kay Letourneau, a former Washington State schoolteacher jailed for having sex with a thirteen year old American Samoan student who she later married.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Kay_Letourneau

Safely ensconced in North Carolina and flush with money as a result of Pentagon contracts ensured by Joseph Schmitz and the Bush family, Blackwater began to expand nationally. Using stealth and guile, the company targeted small communities in order to establish regional military training centers.

http://www.oregontruthalliance.org/?q=node/344  (link now defunct/misdirects to an insurance ad)

Do we really want people associated with DeVos enterprises (or even institutes) helping form MORE right-wing partnerships?

DeVos family tied to war profiteer

Ruth Johnson and Dick DeVos / AP Photo
By Bankole Thompson
The Michigan Citizen

DETROIT — In the name of securing Iraq, Blackwater USA has reaped billions of U.S. tax dollars.

The company has Michigan ties.

Billionaire GOP gubernatorial candidate Dick DeVos is connected to the North Carolina based war profiteering security group. Blackwater CEO Erik Prince is the brother of DeVos’ wife, Betsy, the former head of the Michigan Republican Party.

Blackwater’s success in procuring federal contracts could well be explained by major league contributions and family connections to the GOP,” Jerry Scahill wrote in the Nation magazine Sept. 22, 2005 in an article titled, “Blackwater Down.”

According to election records, Blackwater’s CEO and co-founder, billionaire Erik Prince has given tens of thousands to Republicans, including more than $80,000 to the Republican National Committee the month before Bush’s victory in 2000.

At the start of the Iraq war, Blackwater won a lucrative $21 million contract with the Pentagon to provide security to the Coalition Provisional Authority then headed by Paul Bremer and other high-level U.S. officials.

Media reports indicate since then that the company’s profit in war contracts has grown by 600 percent.

if Bush owed his election part to right-wing conservatives and billionaire’s support of Republicans — not to mention a contested election in FLORIDA in 2000, a state in which the Governor — Bush’s brother, Jeb — whose sister in law (his wife’s sister) is married to a major Pentagon tie from the George H.W. Bush (i.e., the senior Bush) administration.
How many people associate “Faith-based” with DeVos — with Blackwater?  Well, it’s about time to figure that out.
Again, backing up to the “Christians” within the White House Office of (Evangelism through Proselytizing) Office, this is a typical statement of beliefs:

Statement of Faith:

  • We believe the Bible to be the inspired, the only infallible, authoritative, inerrant Word of God.*
  • We believe in one God, eternally existing in three persons–Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
  • We believe in the divinity of Jesus, in his virgin birth, in his sinless life, in his miracles, in his atoning death on the cross, in his bodily resurrection, in his ascension to the right hand of God, and his personal return in power and glory.
  • We believe that all people were created in the image of God, but because of sin, have been alienated from God. Only through faith in Christ alone can that alienation be removed.**
  • We believe that Jesus Christ is the Head of the Church, which is composed of all believers, both the living and the dead.
  • We believe in the present ministry of the Holy Spirit by whose indwelling the Christian is enabled to live a godly life. ##
  • We believe in the resurrection of both the saved and the lost; they that are saved unto the resurrection of life and they that are lost unto the resurrection of condemnation.
(* WHICH Bible?  Ever read an NIV?
**Perhaps this is how another group go the concept of “PARENTAL (Father) ALIENATION” or borrowed it for their own purposes?)
Sentence one contradicts Sentence 2 — this Triune belief was not proved conclusively by scripture and hence had to be enforced by force.  It’s more than just “part of the landscape” but part of history — and turning points in it.  One book on this that explained the Shutdown of Dialogue (within the faith and within the heartily debating pagans at the time) is  short, good read:
“AD 381   The Dawn of the Monotheistic State.”  (Or, see Wikipedia’s clumsy attempt to characterize)

The First Council of Constantinople is recognized as the Second Ecumenical Council by the Assyrian Church of the East, the Oriental Orthodox, the Eastern Orthodox, the Roman Catholics, the Old Catholics, and a number of other Western Christian groups. It was the first Ecumenical Council held in Constantinople and was called by Theodosius I in 381.[1][2] The council confirmed the Nicene Creed and dealt with other matters such as the Arian controversy as it met in the church of Hagia Irene from May to July 381.

Pope Damasus I either was not invited or declined to attend, so this council is sometimes called the “unecumenical” council. However, it was affirmed as ecumenical at the Council of Chalcedon in 451. …

Geopolitical context

Theodosius’ strong commitment to Nicene Christianity involved a calculated risk because Constantinople, the imperial capital of the Eastern Empire, was solidly Arian. To complicate matters, the two leading factions of Nicene Christianity in the East, the Alexandrians and the supporters of Meletius in Antioch, were “bitterly divided … almost to the point of complete animosity.”[5]

 A review of the book (there are other similar books; this one is short enough!) explains the importance of this turning point.  To those who don’t believe in God, it may seem (pun unintended), “Immaterial”  -but historically it was very MUCh about material matters — status, position and control of wealth & influence.

A.D. 381 by Charles Freeman

A.D. 381 provides compelling look at change in reason
STEVEN E. ALFORD
Published 05:30 a.m., Sunday, April 19, 2009

In two books, The Closing of the Western Mindand A.D. 381: Heretics, Pagans, and the Dawn of the Monotheistic State, Charles Freeman has sought to trace the process through which the West abandoned the Greek ideal of free, rational inquiry, replacing it with the assumption that orthodox Christianity was the only avenue for discovering truths about the world.

With this transition, credulity replaced reason and blind adherence to orthodoxy replaced open speculation about the nature of spiritual and earthly life. The Closing of the Western Mind focused on the broad thesis that the Greek rationalist tradition had been destroyed by the politicization of theChristian church by the state, while A.D. 381 focuses “more closely on the important transitions that took place in the relationship between Church and state in the last thirty years of the fourth century.”

A.D. 381 ranges from an introductory chapter outlining Platonic and Aristotelian approaches to the world, to a chapter demonstrating how Augustine codified a religious doctrine for the Catholic church that strongly emphasized human unworthiness of God’s grace—a position at odds with those of any number of previous Christian theologians—and ends with an analysis of how Aquinas revivified the relation between Church doctrine and the free exercise of reason . . .

“There can have been few more important moments in the history of European thought.

Let me continue to emphasize — the tradition this thought comes from is that of a shutdown of free debate over 1500 years old!  As then, so now — there are schism after schisms within church.  However, now that power has begun to wane (?) — somehow, around the time of Bush election (see DeVOS connections!) — it is conceived that now faith-based groups (a meaningless word of itself) are playing the victim; they have been discriminated against throughout almost a century (?) and now deserve special status, including the right to dismantle built-in Constitutional safeguards against a theocracy — in the name of “working together.”
Here is another excerpt:

Freeman’s important point is that the establishment of orthodox belief was engineered not by the Church, but by the state, and that enforcing belief with secular power was the beginning of the end of free inquiry in the empire. Ten years later, “Theodosius issued the first of the series of laws against paganism” and once the state “had decided to intervene in support of orthodoxy and in opposition to heresy, the outcome was an authoritarianism based on irrational principles, which presided over the demise of ancient traditions of reasoned debate.”

We are more than there already, and the benign tolerance by (all of us) to “faith-based initiatives” — failling to recognize they are at odds with the best principles behind this country, and they are essentially yet another way of promoting fatherhood programs in an economy which is cutting basic services .

People that are willing to partake in this have taken leave of their sense of reason and justice — for the sake of access to patronage.  None of the people in the above council, having been charged with the President to find more ways to talk about Fatherhood, appears to have rocked that boat at all.  Yet look at the discrepancy in language in this 176-pager, above, in year 2010!

Freeman then outlines Augustine’s complicity in this suppression, noting that his “lasting contribution to political thought lies in 

his justification of authoritarian regimes that see virtue in order per se, rather than any abstract ideals such as justice or the defense of human rights, or even in the teachings of Jesus themselves.”

##Another statement (from DeVosUrbanLeadership, linking to a person on the White House Council):
_ _ We believe in the present ministry of the Holy Spirit by whose indwelling the Christian is enabled to live a godly life. ##
One doesn’t need to read too far in the book of Acts (traditionally often thought of as the beginning of the Christianity with the Day of Pentecost.  Surely Joshua DuBois would believe something similar as a Pentecostal?) — to realize that Jesus (ascending into heaven, in the account) characterized the holy spirit as something enabling a witness, and being “endued with power from on high.”
Acts 1:
 4And, being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith he, ye have heard of me. 5For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence.
and in the same chapter:

But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.

It doesn’t say that their witness is their ethics — the next chapters clearly talk about demonstrations in the area of supernatural (which is not the province of HHS grants or “capacity building!”).  The next few chapters detail some of this and the crowd’s responses to seeing or hearing something unique, strange, and otherwise a sign of God, from supernatural to natural.  Elsewhere in the Bible it is referred to a token of an inheritance to come, namely eternal life.
What difference does it make if faith-based groups don’t agree on this and don’t concur?
A lot — because
(#1) it means one is dealing with people who cannot be rational, or honest, about their own scriptures — how rational are they going to be about their own Constitution, of human origin?
(#2) it means dealing with people whose practice of religion was not established by BURDEN OF PROOF (reason), or in FREE DEBATE — but under state coercion for at least 1500 years — and that’s only dealing with Christianity.
(#3) it means dealing with people whose faith includes seeking status and special privileges within the state — which faith-based organizational ALREADY have because they are tax-exempt, and sometimes incredibly wealthy.
(#4) it means in groups who may talk tolerance, but in critical issues, they are not.
(#5) among some of the groups, women could not hold priesthood, priests could not marry, sex was considered evil and dirty, and mature women, including mothers, were characterized and/or mocked as “Crones,” yet how many priests, forbidden to marry, and commanded to celibacy, ended up engaging in sex instead with each other — or with the youngsters in their charge.
TO THIS DAY! (See Project Pierre-Toussaint, recent post, re:  Haiti school for boys)….
(#6) Rather than openly confessing and repenting when this is found in their midst — as scriptures, and the heart of the faith, entails — the communities then cover up, failing to here even complaints from their own, switch jurisdictions of priests, and continue taking money from their parishioners, who then help raise extra funds to pay for lawsuit settlements, or otherwise help buffer some of the costs.
(#7) Despite terrific works of art, public monuments, beautiful music and literature, and more — and in the 1500s/1600s, the spread of literacy throughout England which came with the commissioning of the Bible and installing one in every church (after which the next monarch had them removed) — this also helped spread the means to challenge the authority of the Catholic Church — the ability to challenge authority on which any liberty has to rest — when it comes to the matters of JUSTICE — there has to be some reasoned debate, and debate about the principle causes — not theological vagaries.

If reason just left the room, then so did hope of justice with it.    There should NO quarter be given to mixing the already existing “fatherhood initiatives” with more “faith-based initiatives” in the name of anything — whatsoever!

I have seen more than I can report here, but again call to witness how many Governor’s Offices (U.S. States) are beginning to install the Office of Faith-Based somewhere in the Executive Branch — some after they already have a Fatherhood Commission.  Oklahoma’s story pretty much sets the pattern, but one can read in Ohio, Florida, and now Kansas — similar things happening.  Travesties in the financial, openness, and use of public funds categories, with coverups, and out of state rescuers from the Bush-HHS-Faith-based field to welcome with warm arms someone who fled the last geography before they got tarred and feathered, and properly so!
FYI — I lost an entire post yesterday (my fault for not assembling it out of reach of hacking or viruses on the input computer) — but the same pattern continues — failure to stay incorporated, or to file taxes properly with the state, audits of misbehaviors for the institutes in question — and they keep getting funded anyhow.
We do not need to go 50 more miles down this primrose path, specially given who is paying for the flowers being strewn along it for those on the take.
LOOK ‘EM UP — SCANDAL AND PROTESTS FOLLOW:
OHIO — Governor’s Office of Faith-based and Community Initiatives:  Sisterhen, WeCare Scandal, I blogged it too.
KANSAS — Siedlicki closed-door meetings outed, now they are having town halls with the Heritage Foundation, considering how to eliminate no-fault divorce, telling women to marry their way out of poverty (some women were driven their by marriage!) and more.   I blogged this and there’s more.
OKLAHOMA — Key figure was Bush appointee, after OK, he went to FL and then back to HHS, from what I can tell:
This was great news for the woman running the SmartMarriages conference and FOR-profit “LLC” for marriage educators:  the good news was broadcast on a listsever by  “Diane” (Diane Sollee, presumably) in 2000:
from: Smart Marriages

This is almost too good to be true.  But it's true!! More info to follow
and a piece will appear in USA Today on Thursday.   -diane  

Governor Frank Keating Challenges Nation to Tackle Divorce Rate Oklahoma Commits $10 Million to Address the Problem

For Immediate Release:
March 21, 2000					

	Washington DC ­ Governor Frank Keating is increasing Oklahoma¹s stakes
in the battle to reduce its divorce rate by making a significant
financial commitment to address the problem.  Jerry Regier,** Oklahoma Cabinet Secretary for Health and Human Services, was in Washington DC
today to announce that Governor Keating is now the first governor in the
country to set aside $10 million dollars in TANF (Temporary Assistance
For Needy Families) funds to be used to strengthen marriages and reduce
the divorce rate.
Perhaps the headline should, more accurately “OKLAHOMA’s GOVERNOR (not the whole state) DIVERTS $10 MILLION FROM NEEDY FAMILIES TO MARRIAGE PROMOTION” or more simply, “Oklahoma STEALS $10 million to push Marriage instead of Provide Food for Families.”
FLORIDA (article from democratic underground rejoices that Regier finally resigned and quoted some of the views he supports, and in front of whom):
Beliefs or no beliefs (though they contain objectionable declarations), the resignation was over matters of dishonesty surrounding contracts (I blogged earlier)
Fla. Child-Protection Agency Chief (Jerry Regier) Quits (WOO HOO!!!) (posted August 3, 2004) in Discussion board by “Khephra”
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — The chief of Florida’s troubled child-protection agency resigned Monday after becoming mired in controversy in recent months over the department’s dealings with contractors. 

Jerry Regier, secretary of the Department of Children & Families, offered his resignation during a meeting with Gov. Jeb Bush.

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/wire/sns…

Excerpts of Regier’s views in family-life essay

When Jerry Regier was president of the Family Research Council in the late 1980s, he and Dr. George Rekers coauthored an essay entitled The Christian World View of the Family.

The essay was published by the Coalition on Revival, a coalition of evangelical leaders, as one of 17 ”World View Documents” detailing what it called “comprehensive biblical principles of how to apply the truth of the Bible to all spheres of life and ministry.”

snip………..

“We deny that the Bible countenances any other definition of the family, such as the sharing of a household by homosexual partners, and that society’s laws should be modified in any way to broaden the definition of family or marriage beyond the Biblically understood definition of heterosexual marriage, blood relations and adoption.”

• • •

‘We deny that premarital and extramarital sexual relationships, promiscuity, adultery, homosexuality, bestiality, exhibitionism, pornography, adult-child sexual relations, prostitution, sex-act entertainment, masturbation and other sexual deviations should be sanctioned or accepted as `normal’ or legal, even if done alone or by consenting partners . . .”

{{HYPOCRITES!   So how come it’s often leading evangelical (males, if I may add) getting caught cheating on their wives, with their pants down, including with adolescent young men?}}
• • •

We affirm that a man’s authority as head of his wife is delegated to him by God; that this means that his legitimate authority over his wife is limited by what God’s Word allows him; and that all authority is established by God and no one and no social institution has the right to exert any authority contrary to God’s laws or the bounds God has set for the man’s office in the family. . .”

More Jerry Regier in Florida as head of DCF — and how he got there less than 2 days after the former head resigned (as recommended by Catholic-educated Gov. Keating in a Jeb Bush administration), in which a Broward County judge (it says) resigned over scandal of a 5-year old who disappeared while in foster care, along with others.  Read this 2002 article.
When one endorses and votes for, accepts (including by silence) ongoing Offices of Faith-Based & Community Partnerships nationwide, THIS is typical of what one is endorsing, voting for, and accepting by silence.  Count me Out of the silence part!
Florida Department of Children and Families new head: It’s OK to leave bruises or welts 
By CAROL MARBIN MILLER, LESLEY CLARK AND PETER WALLSTEN
Miami Herald, August 16, 2002

TALLAHASSEE – The man named Thursday by Gov. Jeb Bush to head Florida’s notoriously inept child welfare agency is an evangelical Christian who views spanking that causes ”bruises or welts” as acceptable punishment.The revelation did not come to Bush’s attention until hours after the governor introduced Jerry Regier, a former Oklahoma Cabinet secretary and aide to Bush’s father, as the new chief of the state’s Department of Children and Families.

Regier, 57, was named less than 48 hours after the resignation of DCF Secretary Kathleen A. Kearney. He takes over an agency that has been embroiled in scandal since 5-year-old Rilya Wilson disappeared.

In a 1989 essay entitled The Christian World View of the Family, Regier and co-author George Rekers railed against abortion and gay couples forming families, and emphasized that husbands have “final say in any family dispute.”

And the essay declares that ”biblical spanking” that leads to “temporary and superficial bruises or welts do not constitute child abuse.”

The essay also said Christians should not marry non-Christians, that divorce is acceptable only when there is adultery or desertion(*1*) and that wives should view working outside the home as ”bondage.” (*2*)  The ”radical feminist movement,” the essay adds, “has damaged the morale of many women and convinced men to relinquish their biblical authority in the home.”

(*1*)  “Moses allowed . . . . . For the hardness of your hearts,” says Jesus.   It does site adultery as cause for divorce — which was discouraged by the practice of stoning adulterers, under the law!  Obviously, to do this, would deplete America of many Congressional leaders (and pastors) hence it’s an unenforceable declaration.  However, that’s what the group wishes for.
(*2*)  That’s pretty ridiculous — see Proverbs 31, held up as a model:

13She seeketh wool, and flax, and worketh willingly with her hands.

14She is like the merchants’ ships; she bringeth her food from afar.

15She riseth also while it is yet night, and giveth meat to her household, and a portion to her maidens.

16She considereth a field, and buyeth it: with the fruit of her hands she planteth a vineyard.

17She girdeth her loins with strength, and strengtheneth her arms.

18She perceiveth that her merchandise is good: her candle goeth not out by night.

19She layeth her hands to the spindle, and her hands hold the distaff.

20She stretcheth out her hand to the poor; yea, she reacheth forth her hands to the needy.

21She is not afraid of the snow for her household: for all her household are clothed with scarlet.

22She maketh herself coverings of tapestry; her clothing is silk and purple.

While this is someone IN a household (and not sleeping much — few things change!) it’s clear she is buying and selling, and running her own household, including managing servants.   However, in the same proverbs, it says kings shouldn’t be given to strong drink (or whoring) either.  So let’s apply both equally!
From 2002 article on this man Regier:

Regier ”could be of immense help to you.” Keating noted he called in Regier during a ”similar crisis” in Oklahoma, asking him to root out phantom employees on the health department payroll.

Regier, who will be paid $150,000 a year, will take over a staff of more than 25,000 employees statewide who oversee more than 45,000 children, most of whom have been abused or neglected by their parents. He said his first task will be to meet with agency employees.

He will work with a budget of $844 million, a significant reduction from the $1.2 billion at his disposal in Oklahoma.

Regier steps into the shoes of former Broward judge Kearney, who resigned Tuesday after more than three months of turmoil, beginning with the April announcement that 5-year-old Rilya had disappeared from Florida’s foster care system.

In subsequent days, the agency faced down serious allegations that several children — from Miramar, Lakeland, Fort Myers, Riviera Beach and Crestview — already known to be at risk, died from abuse or neglect.

Regier described by Oklahoman Democrat with 54 years of service:  “Good at fighting problems that don’t exist.”
http://www.nospank.net/n-j39.htm (title, above, I am quoting sections to comment on):

”The best way I’ve heard him described is that he considers himself a self-made man — and he worships his maker,” said Democratic Sen. Gene Stipe, dean of the Oklahoma Senate with 54 years of service. “He’ll be extremely partisan, you can expect that. He will really champion all the right-wing causes.”

Though Regier boasted he had saved taxpayers more than $1 million by rooting out patronage and corruption in Oklahoma’s health department, Stipe said Regier ”busted” his budget at the state’s Office of Juvenile Affairs, a position he held before taking over at the department of health.

Leist, a Democratic state House member, said Regier’s $10-million effort to curb divorce — which used unspent welfare dollars primarily intended for poor people — did little to improve the welfare of troubled families.

”It stunk,” Leist said of Regier’s Marriage Initiative, which was warmly embraced by Keating, and much of conservative Washington. Contrary to Regier and Keating’s proclamations, Leist said, Oklahoma’s divorce rate was lower than surrounding states.

”He’s good at fighting problems that don’t exist,” Stipe said.

By CAROL MARBIN MILLER, LESLEY CLARK AND PETER WALLSTEN
Miami Herald, August 16, 2002  ((…Miami Herald staff writers Steve Rothaus, Jay Weaver, Oscar Corral and Tyler Bridges contributed to this report.)) 

Mr. Regier, “Bless him…” (sarcasm intentional) in 2009 moved from HHS to Chief Operating Officer/Senior Consultant at “Calvin Edwards & Company,”
I have just demonstrated to you WHERE, in part, men get the idea that it’s OK to batter women into submission in this time — NOW — and any feminist or Congress that takes this right away from them is going against Nature, nay, against God.
Have you heard enough?  OK now, I suspect middle school and elementary classroom education had better improve drastically — right now — or else, if this crowd gets its ways, all young men in public schools will have to hear their lessons standing up with both hands on the desk, to be taught that human bodily functions are unnatural and they should feel guilty about having any, and by now probably the young women too.   Or perhaps, someone should design burqa for evangelical women?
If this argument is getting a little ridiculous — it started out this way.  It’s not argument, it’s “conviction,” rhetoric, and paid-for propaganda.
“Over 100”  to “Only 18” — the Faith-based is a Fatherhood Group.  Too many of the Fatherhood-promoting Grants recipients don’t handle their corporations (and presumably their money, either) honestly.   
Very few people are consistently honest, especially in high places, it would seem.  This is why iot’s important that those at the top of Government AND State (which are already far too inbred) not be rewarded — or even complimented — for figuring out how to “Collaborate” — with each others, out of the earshot of the people most affected by their decisions — women, and children, and by that I do NOT only mean women of some prominence in repressive religions.

Report of Recommendations to the President

http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/microsites/ofbnp-council-final-report.pdf

Check it out.

Written by Let's Get Honest|She Looks It Up

December 6, 2011 at 2:59 pm

Incorporating & Supporting Fatherhood ? I suggest (per track record) the concept be: Suspended, Forfeited, & Dissolved; Guess Why!

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I just discovered the National Latino Fatherhood & Family Institute, which had launched a California Fatherhood Initiative.

I’m a Californian (a female) and I’ve had enough of this!

Here’s why — see the Status column, and also note the dates; compare with the agents column.  Do the math:

Entity Number Date Filed Status Entity Name Agent for Service of Process
C2214941 04/07/2000 SUSPENDED SOCIETY FOR THE PROPAGATION OF THE BROTHERHOOD OF MAN AND THE FATHERHOOD OF GOD, INC. FRANCISCO ROCES
C2270051 10/26/2000 SUSPENDED THE DO-RIGHT FATHERHOOD PROGRAM DEREK MORGAN
C1923243 07/13/1995 FORFEITED THE INSTITUTE FOR RESPONSIBLE FATHERHOOD AND FAMILY REVITALIZATION SAM COLLINS
C2334217 02/16/2001 SUSPENDED THE URBAN FATHERHOOD PROJECT KELLY T SMITH
C2677661 10/08/2004 SUSPENDED THE URBAN FATHERHOOD PROJECT JAMES E JENNINGS JR
C3330049 10/29/2010 ACTIVE URBAN FATHERHOOD NETWORK FOUNDATION, INC. JAMES EARL JENNINGS JR

2001 — The Urban Fatherhood Project formed by Kelly T. Smith/  Suspended.  My great state (unlike some others) neglects to tell us when.

2004 — Organization by same name, but different registered agent  / Suspended.   Finally James Earl Jennings, Jr., trying again, has an active (as of one year in duration, soon to be two) group.  See it?

Here’s page 1 of the 2 pages showing “Fatherhood” in the title from California Secretary of State, and on the bottom row is James Earl Jennings name, again propagaint The Urban Fatherhood Project — and it go suspended.  Thus, approximately every two years he is incorporating.

If these are nonprofits, what are the odds that any of them filed properly, or are still collecting somewhere out on the web from innocents who aren’t aware they can look these things up?

Entity Number Date Filed Status Entity Name Agent for Service of Process
C2234012 05/11/2000 SUSPENDED CALIFORNIA FATHERHOOD INITIATIVE, INC. ** RESIGNED ON 08/19/2005
C1281332 07/12/1985 SUSPENDED COALITION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT AND PROTECTION OF FATHERHOOD STEVEN W SLATEN
C2248280 08/27/2001 SUSPENDED FATHERHOOD 101 OF ORANGE COUNTY, INC. GENE KENT
C2009533 04/28/1997 SUSPENDED FATHERHOOD COALITION JIM WOODWARD
C2952824 02/13/2008 ACTIVE FATHERHOOD INSTITUTE THEOTIS DICKERSON
C2629037 11/08/2004 SUSPENDED FATHERHOOD PROJECT – NEXT GENERATION (FP-NG) CHRIS GRIER
C3422164 10/21/2011 ACTIVE MEN’S ROLE FATHERHOOD DEVELOPMENT, INC. LEGALZOOM.COM, INC.
C3109459 06/22/2009 ACTIVE NATIONAL FORUM ON FATHERHOOD INITIATIVES, INC. EDDIE C WELBON
C2187362 02/24/2000 SUSPENDED PROJECT FATHERHOOD DEVELOPMENT, INC. SANDY ENGLISH
C2889297 07/24/2006 SUSPENDED SAN FRANCISCAN’S FOR THE IMPROVEMENT OF THE URBAN FATHERHOOD PROJECT, INC. JAMES JENNING JR

I was actually looking for the National Latino Fatherhood and Family Institute (which doesn’t show up here, may be a trade name, but has an area code# associated with California / San Jose area).

National Latino Fatherhood and Family Institute
Tel. (408) 657-8215

The California Fatherhood Initiative:

Tel. (408) 657-8215

National Compadres Network :

Tel. (213) 325-1699

A search of the word “fatherhood” (only  – and no other word at all) shows an entirely different cast of characters — none of which are current on anything!  And it would appear (given the difference) that the organizations below didn’t register as corporations either, like they should:

 

This is from the Attorney General’s (Registry of Charitable Trusts) Site.

Organization Name Registration Number Record Type Registration Status City State Registration Type Record Type
FATHERHOOD 101 OF ORANGE COUNTY, INC. Charity Not Registered SANTA ANA CA Charity Registration Charity
FATHERHOOD COALITION 106783 Charity Delinquent SANTA BARBARA CA Charity Registration Charity
FATHERHOOD INSTITUTE Charity Not Registered DUBLIN CA Charity Registration Charity
FATHERHOOD PROJECT – NEXT GENERATION (FP-NG) Charity Not Registered WEST SACRAMENTO CA Charity Registration Charity
1

DUBLIN, California (for those not in the area) is a very well to do, small, town in Northern California outside the Bay Area.  It probably has any number of family law professionals still living there, and formerly the well-known Parental Alienation Promoter, Philip Stahl, Ph.D. (AFCC, etc. now in AZ last I heard) used to live here, as I recall — or nearby).

What gets more interesting is some of those “not registered” actually have EIN#s (which makes no sense to me).

The Fatherhood Coalition has been around since (per its articles of Incorporation) 1996 ! ! ! ! (timed to welfare reform, much?) and the list of Board of Directors is extensive and contains an M.Div and a number of what look like public employees at agencies, too.  Here’s the link:

Full Name: FATHERHOOD COALITION FEIN: 330737532
Type: Public Benefit Corporate or Organization Number: 2009533
Registration Number: 106783
Record Type: Charity Registration Type: Charity Registration
Issue Date: 12/31/1990 Renewal Due Date: 11/10/2003
Registration Status: Delinquent Date This Status:
Date of Last Renewal:
Address Information
Address Line 1: 2020 ALAMEDA PADRE SERRA Phone:
Address Line 2:
Address Line 3:
Address Line 4: SANTA BARBARA CA 93103
Annual Renewal Information
Related Documents
0031B823 Founding Documents
Prerequisite Information
No Prerequisite Information

FIVE: The names and addresses of the persons appointed to act as the initial Directors of this corporation are:

  • Name Devlin Crose, MA, Graduate Student
  • Gordon Dalbey, M.Div. M.A., Author
  • Elizabeth Herron, M.A.
  • Jennifer Kincheloe-Owen
  • Aaron Kipnis, Ph.D. Scott McCann, Ph.D.,
  • Steve Murray
  • Nathan O’Hara, Ph.D.
  • Joyce Ruiz
  • Hector Sanches-Flores
  • Jim Woodward  (of “Woodward Research Associates”)

Among the entities (i.e., not just a Santa Barbara PO Box) of the original directors (Stamped at CA OAG as April 1997) are:

Santa Barbara Regional Health Authority 720-B Santa Barbara Street Santa Barbara, CA 93101-2244

Planned Parenthood

Santa Barbara County Family Program

and several from “Klein Bottle.”  ??

Nathan O’Hara, Ph.D. is into Hypnosis for Weight Loss:

Nathan O’Hara is Director of the Hypnosis Center of Ventura County, and
also of the 
Alive Institute of Therapeutic Massage.  Trained in
hypnotherapy at the University of Houston (1975-76), Dr. O’Hara’s
background also includes a Ph.D. from the University of California, 10 
years with Santa Barbara County Health Department, 10 years with 
Planned Parenthood, and several more years as a public school teacher and 
administrator.  His passions include his wife Lucy, natural healing arts,
music, and the outdoors

Gordon Dalby is big in the Men’s Movement, “Healing the father wound.

In my ministry, I want men to experience the healing and freedom when you get real with yourself, with God, and with other men. That’s how we discover not only Whose we are, but the manhood we’re created for and the power to walk it out.- Gordon Dalbey
Is the Men’s Movement Dead?” – Read Gordon’s current Newsletter
Healing the Father-Wound” – Gordon Dalbey video Interview
Hippies, Fathers, and Forgiveness” – Read Gordon’s recent Article
Broken by Religion” – Podcast interview

He’s a Focus on the Father Speaker, which is enough for me to say, “Enough!”

Gordon Dalbey was our main speaker at the Tribes 2009 Men’s Retreat

Gordon Dalbey’s Website – AbbaFather.com

Note the URL:
http://tribesmenswork.com/2010/08/18/gordon-dalbey/

In 1988, Gordon Dalbey’s first book Healing the Masculine Soul pioneered the growing Christian men’s movement, by calling men to a godly strength—neither the traditional violent, loner male nor the “counterculture” peace-and-love male. His unique focus has stirred men of all ages, races, and position. His groundbreaking 1991 Focus on the Family radio interviews drew a listener response in the top 10% of the show’s history, and were re-broadcast in 1998, 2003, and 2008 as “classics.”

Gordon’s second book, Sons of the Father, offers healing for the father-wound, which cripples men today as husbands, fathers, workers, an friends.

Fight Like a Man, his third book, shows how the unmet longing for Dad and a father’s manly guidance stirs deep shame in a man, and how Father God transforms us with His truth and grace into warriors for His Kingdom.

No Small Snakes, his most recent book, is the story of how Gordon first met and learned to overcome evil spirits in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Why would he be doing business (given the belief in overcoming evil spirits) with a person who specialized in hypnosis, which for the Christian is not acceptable (i.e., it’s characterized as under the influence of “familiar spirits” or the occult, basically).

This post was just “slapped up here” — but then again, many of the corporations above also seem to have been.  This bears further scrutiny, and at some point in time, we are going to have to start just saying No! to the IRS also, if it continues taking money through wage garnishment and threat of incarceration for noncompliance which then is NOT taken from groups like this, who are completely out of compliance with basic corporations law and common sense.

Readers, Give me a break on any inaccuracies in THIS post — I’ll be back, but I felt it worth showing.

The presence of the Fatherhood movement with major (million-$$) incentives — attracts frivolous filings of religious ramblings supposedly for public benefit.   Women don’t even know about this, half the time! when in a custody battle, or battling to keep their children (as a single mother) from being fostered out, without cause, against their will for sheer issues like poverty.

! ! !

(Try this in YOUR state and see what comes up!)

Written by Let's Get Honest|She Looks It Up

December 4, 2011 at 5:28 pm