Let's Get Honest! Absolutely Uncommon Analysis of Family & Conciliation Courts' Operations, Practices, & History

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Archive for the ‘Healthy Marriage Responsible Fatherhood (cat added 11/2011)’ Category

Smoking Cessation/Tobacco Control Litigation I See Is By Design Guaranteed, (Like Domestic Violence Prevention and Services) To Continue Incessantly. Meanwhile, a Wide Swath of Northern California Is Smoke-Filled and Lit Up, But Not by Tobacco. (October Local News and Blog Updates)

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Smoking Cessation/Tobacco Control Litigation I See Is By Design Guaranteed, (Like Domestic Violence Prevention and Services) To Continue Incessantly. Meanwhile, a Wide Swath of Northern Cali fornia Is Smoke-Filled and Lit Up, But Not by Tobacco. (October Local News and Blog Updates) (case-sensitive short-link ending “-7Lp”)


Post Technicalities: Tags may be added later. After over a week reviewing and supplementing this post, I’ve decided to “punt” (publish). It MIGHT also be split later, but the sections on exploring national DV networking over the years (from key organizations’ narratives) and “Health as an Asset,” an academy (“ABIS”) globally networking under the “Chatham House Rule” (basically, anonymity)(which brings the topic to the RIIA / Royal Institute of International Affairs in London and its historic intentions, as expressed in its founding documents) towards the bottom, which has a sequel, actually belong together. And this still IS “Domestic Violence Awareness Month,” for what that’s worth, in the USA..so I took a closer look at how certain organizations like to collaborate for a unified voice, and consequences of that collaboration, down the road a few decades….//LGH, Oct. 20, 2017


Or, you could call this “October Local & Posts-in-the-Pipeline Update” which is how it started out, attached to another post started earlier I’d hoped to publish with just a brief update.

As my About Holidays / Personal Backdrop” (posted Oct. 10)** says, I took a brief, about half-month, pause while handling (different kind of writing required) personal things and am now catching up on some of the posts already in the “pipeline” referencing, basically and most recently the themes of (a) Big Tobacco Litigation/Smoking Cessation Control (Public policy) Efforts and (b) The Problems with Problem-solving Courts (“Collaborative Justice”), which includes the development and implementation nationwide of family courts, too.  [** after next few reminder images…]


I wrote about an East Coast/West Coast connection involving one government sub-sector (Administrative Office of the Courts, under the Judicial Council of California, the ruling body of the Judicial Branch in the state) with an improperly named non-entity (it’s not its own legal business OR government entity) — the “Center for Court Innovation” in New York.  You will not find it registered under that name on CharitiesNYS.com or Business Entity search, and so far as I know, it’s not a trade name of some registered entity — because the EIN# associated with it, generally speaking, belongs to a private foundation, “Fund for the City of New York.”

Four logos show sponsorship (not membership) of the Executive Session for State Court Leaders” (click image to enlarge, for fine-print commentary) as I recall. Only 1 logo represents part of government (BJA is under the USDOJ) directly; the other 3 (including Harvard) count as “tax-exempt, privately controlled entities” even though the NCSC Board will have public officials on it. 

I talked about how organizations like the NCSC got involved and discovered yet two more (subsequent to “The California Story” published in 2005) 501©3s promoting the same “collaborative justice” concept, keying off the concept of drug courts:

Fund for City of New York is one-half (the Private) half of the Public/Private (agreement, project, collaboration — whoever it’s defined) comprising the “Center for Court Innovation”. Look at the affiliations of the Board members — former NY Attorney General, Designer of the World Trade Center, Adm. Judge of the City of NY…!

(There’s also a foundation to go with this one).

**(The rest of that title, the same link as just given above: “….Speaking Personally (Personal Backdrop to Post-PRWORA Social Policy towards Women Who ~Just Say No!~ to Abuse and Proceed in Misplaced Belief They can actually Exit it) [started Sept. 18, Publ. Oct. 9, 2017, see also Collaborative Justice post/page].”(ends “-7AD”)

The other “Collaborative Justice” non-profit showing clear judicial membership and sponsorship, as well as an MSW involved in “Children and Family Futures.”  I won’t say more on that in this post, just pointing out that the process seems never-ending:

CCJCF-related, image series labeled: “Search for CCJCF President turned up EARLY Annual Rpt (Final Draft) WITH EIN# attached and its Significant Others (Judge Lynn Duryees, Peggy Hora)”

[Image may be added here post-publication, can’t locate a certain annotated one just now. It may be on the bottom of the related page]

One post in the pipeline taken from part (b) above again (“Governance, the Final Frontier,” now in draft, full title further below) reminded me of how early (how long ago) I’d realized that the “powers that be” within the domestic violence field obtained, and maintained, control over the field with an agenda to “therapize” the nation’s language of crime and consequences under the health, social science, and behavioral modification treatment [“therapeutic jurisprudence” and other concepts] paradigm — while still claiming to be tough on crime and domestic violence. And that one of the ways of doing this to mimic popular, grassroots demand from multiple seemingly diverse platforms (organizations) was having already-established tax-exempt foundations first internally sponsor projects, then spin off the projects off into more 501©3s (nonprofits) which, while the names may be new, the world view, personnel, response to the problems and practice of letting philanthropists run government or organize with intent to run it, is not. In other words, by setting up interconnected nonprofits collectively run by people of, except perhaps subject/topic focus area, the same general persuasion, having been so persuaded possibly in part because alternate viewpoints or alternate solutions to the problem were out-funded, and out-maneuvered.    

[Phrases above in this color were added long after the original paragraph; it this is too much overexplaining, read around them.]


Both this post and the one whose title shows next, linked from the “Collaborative Justice/Problem-solving Courts” page, should be published today, Oct. 20, 2017, or within 48 hours of each other.  (That “today” date kept getting moved back as I continued adding to the top part of this post!) The one you’re reading now will be published first.

I’ll repeat that link near the bottom of this post.


VERY early on, assumptions about WHICH are the KEY POINTS IN (foundational to) any new field or regime (for the DV field, that treatments and interventions, such as batterers’ intervention, or supervised visitation, mandatory mediation, parent education, etc.) become foundational, basic for that new field or regime’s claims to even BEING a field of practice or a new profession or area of professional practice (example:  “fatherhood” or “domestic violence PREVENTION”). Assumptions and omissions of relevant information which might speak against that selection of points get “baked-into the infrastructure and system” (including to its literature and downloadable curricula, webinars, etc.) as entrenched positions, and continually a part of whatever solution is chosen.

This proprietary, linguistic control makes later protest by people harmed by such policies, even if among the classes the policies are allegedly representing in the first place — for example, survivors of domestic violence, and/or child abuse who, with full information up front might have made different choices in picking their court battles, or how and how hard to fight back once they were dragged into one — an even heavier burden and uphill battle.  The public is fed information leading (or at least encouraging) readers/viewers to believe (until personally involved) that “the experts are on it,” so where there’s evidence to the contrary, maybe it was just the family’s problem, or one of the family members.’  Or a rogue judge, or a local problem..

After all, don’t we hear about domestic violence on TV shows, sometimes in a movie, in ads, and after headlines involving recent roadkill, perhaps from experts on one of the major organizations’ comments?

A SHORT SECTION ON THIS, FOLLOWED BY MORE ON THE NETWORKS:

Who can even find the long-standing/oft-quoted SF Domestic Violence Consortium?  What does its spokesperson do for a living? Take tax-free donations (It’s not an incorporated entity, but its “Executive Director” maintains apparently a speed-dial on some local news media with each new domestic violence vitality — year after year — or otherwise disaster that has potential for making national news too.

Looking at this one, I also took a quick re-view of California’s registered and still active known major DV organizations, including (but not posted here) the “NNEDV.”  I also added a section in which one of the networked entities did us (belatedly) a courtesy summary of the networks themselves, nationally, that is. Recommendation?  Pretend this is a conversation, and just deal with its about 15,000 words as they come up.  When you see a new section coming up, so be it, and remember that some of the material that inspired a post may (in my writing style) still end up closer to the bottom, while what’s in between is, to say the least, “illuminating.”….
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Written by Let's Get Honest|She Looks It Up

October 20, 2017 at 7:47 pm

Posted in Checking Out a Nonprofit (HowTo), Domestic Violence vs Family Law, Fatal Assumptions, Healthy Marriage Responsible Fatherhood (cat added 11/2011), Organizations, Foundations, Associations NGO Hybrids, Train-the-Trainers Technical Assistance Grantees, warfare: strategic, Where (and why) DV Prevention meets Fatherhood Promotion

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Navigating My Blog: Table of Contents, Post Titles by Dates Published

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This page will be updated as I can.  I realized I am repeating by phone (and sometimes in post) information already blogged.   Hopefully these are good browsing, a list of subject matter in addition to the links on the sidebar, pages, and sidebar widgets with some chronological narratives.   This represents four-plus years of consistent research driven by an insatiable (so far) desire to know  “How could these things be?” and “What are the alternatives?”    Please feed the blogger; you will NOT find this information assembled elsewhere, and it should’ve been.

One of the questions I ask on this page (middle) is also, “What alternatives do you, plural, want?  Is this really what you want done with your tax dollars?”   With some visuals.

Last Dozen Posts Published  (In Reverse Chrono Order) (from the sidebar; the sidebar content obviously changes with time).

BELOW, in REVERSE CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE FORM, picking up from the Dec. 24, 2013 one above:

A table of post titles going so far back to December 2012 (blog dates from 2009), in reverse chrono order, being assembled as of February 2014.  I’ll add links as I can, however this has to be done from the Admin. site one post, one paste, one row/hyperlink at a time.   Meanwhile, you can look up any post by its date through “Archives” til then.  The titles are statements in themselves of a developing understanding of the field.

“Please Feed the Blogger” Notice:

Also, “please feed the blogger.”  Any idea how much time it takes to research and put up a post?

Below is a section from the sidebar explaining why this blog, and that I’ve been exploring pretty much new and original material/territory* — including what has happened since those who first “dropped the ball” on reporting the HHS grants factor (around 1999-2002) as it affects the courts, and who, specifically dropped it.    This blog is far from book format or indexed, but it’s a very good set of footprints, and with basic commonsense tools plus “show and tell” on lookups, involved.  The information has been picked up and is being brought up, from what I can tell, in re: mid-term Congressional election platforms in two different states.  

* (with exception of the CAFR material, which has good teachers already explaining it well, although I also blogged and continue to tie its huge significance into the family court matters.  CAFRs speak to who is government.  Courts are part of  government).

I am also seeking to get some specific “consciousness-raising” funds eliminated in my own state of California, after having seen just what programs they go to, and having been an eyewitness long term of what “help” consists of (i.e., PR campaigns, technical assistance and training, website constructions, and tax writeoffs, etc.)  This is definitely a real “public interest blog”


These tasks are guaranteed not to make one friends in high places, or among those in authority over the various programs I believe should be defunded.  Much of my blog is politically incorrect, including among the arrogant (in my opinion) “save the world” Baby Boomers expert at promoting world utopia (along with “Pay no attention to our operating structures” which I do anyhow, and report on).  Some of these, it seems, learned in the 1960s, somehow, that being able to change laws then, they are apparently beyond and above the law now.    I disagree, and talk about the consequences of being distracted by “cause” rhetoric.

The same people and their multi-faceted, not-quite-filing nonprofit groups already have their eyes on desired system changes, and the parts slated for elimination are THE parts protecting due process, fiscal accountability to government, and despite all the talks of equality, simply fair play, financially. All people should learn how to understand the basic operating systems of (1) government and (2) self-appointed systems change agent and figure out how these are funded.

Pls. Feed the Blogger in re: About to go Public notice

FYI, I’m about to go public (not on this forum) with my case, naming names, putting it in chronological order, for protection of certain family members, because I am not in safe situation currently. I am in solidarity with anyone who has been put homeless, or nearly homeless year after year by this system WITHOUT having abused others or perpetrated crimes on others, and with people who have lost their children (but not their minds) through the courts, without due process and without legitimate cause.  (Obviously, there are still legitimate reasons for being prevented from contact with one’s children. Unfortunately the most obvious ones in human terms don’t seem to hold much weight in “conciliation” courts with a mind of their own and purposes of their own, like ordering services and centralizing operations).

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How NY’s OTDA [social services agency] runs even more fatherhood (and DV) funding through FFFS alternate circuitry. [Publ. Jan 15, 2014, format update May 31, 2020].

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How NY’s OTDA [social services agency] runs even more fatherhood (and DV) funding through FFFS alternate circuitry. [Publ. Jan 15, 2014, format update May 31, 2020]. (short-link ends “-23A,” about 6,500 words) Other than adding this title protocol, not edited the post since //LGH May 31, 2020)

From a pre-Thanksgiving draft (and in not much beyond draft shape) I simply want to illustrate how “Follow the money” is almost impossible when it comes to the entrenched systems of Fatherhood, yes, also Domestic Violence prevention categories.


Some things you can’t see without even reading some detailed Administrative Memorandum offering more perks through, as in this example, “Flexible Funds for Family Services.” [FFFS].

I provided about half a post’s worth of intro, so if you want the original (and more picturesque part) scroll down at least to the first set of quotes, in tables with a rich brown background.

This post  relates to the “fatherhood.gov” a.k.a. “the National Responsible Fatherhood Resource Center and an Albany, New York street address on the contact page?  and who that relates to.

The fatherhood field and the supposedly contrary field (domestic violence) since 1996 have been funded through the federal government.

I did the best I could with formatting and hope the post further enlightens us ALL to (wake up and smell the coffee)….and make a New Year’s Resolution to start better comprehending “government” and how it’s funded.  While I’m not the expert, I have identified some tools NOT taught in most schools or reported in the local mainstream media.  Demonstrating how I use these tools isn’t to drown anyone with details, but to demonstrate certain concepts so  others (that’s YOU) can make a more informed decision of where you stand regarding, well, what’s to do with your future TIME and LIFE. Read the rest of this entry »

HHS Grants Database “http://TAGGS.hhs.GOV status” is suddenly inaccessible [2wks in Dec.2013]

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2014 February 18 — an update on the nonresponse to HHS grants database going down may help us understand what it means to young people, and their parents, when the mainstream public engages in a universal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” on their own governments operations; after a long day at work and with their family (if they’re lucky) at home, time to “unwind” with mainstream MEDIA information. The problem with this (and I do understand the need to detach and tune out by tuning in some nonsense or entertainment, believe me!) is that we NEVER get around to reading our own government’s operational “annual reports.” If we were invested DIRECTLY in a business, would we not do that? If we were contributing, say, to a nonprofit, might we not occasionally take a look at their tax returns and, as it applies, annual reports also? Let’s try this another way– if we were invested as private shareholders managing our own stuff (or, hiring a trader to) — might we not from time to time read the shareholders’ reports and SEC filings? Or want to get at least a sense of what we’re getting for the money?


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Spelling It Out Again, Basic Players, Basic Blueprints [yawn…][well, we’d better not, actually…] (Publ. Oct. 28, 2012)

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Spelling It Out Again, Basic Players, Basic Blueprints [yawn…][well, we’d better not, actually…]

(Published Oct. 28, 2012; about 12,700 words.  Case-sensitive, WordPress-generated short-link ends “-1cD”).  This information and minor (readability) format changes added June 22, 2019 on realizing the post needed a “Read-more” link, when it came up in a blog search of a specific term “Saddleback,” among about seven other posts.  //LGH

 

MDRC (1974ff), TANF (1996ff), Gov Leavitt (1998ff), Gov Keating + Wade Horn (2000ff)

Actually, don’t yawn — because this is an infinitely expanding program until the US goes bust, which it is probably just speeding up.  At which time program engineers (*including a few former US Governors, and such) plus funders (Federal Government + Major Foundations built by corporate wealth), and a variety of religious leaders who also are being enriched by this (including those that are already on the Forbes list, like David Green of “Hobby Lobby” was, as I pointed out recently, who gave (literally, a donation) over 150 acres to Saddleback Church/Rick Warren, who is already marketing HIS wares through the church and trademarks on it, too.  These are Purpose-Driven Programs, I’m just deducing some of the Purposes by observing their Practices.)…and of course the gatekeepers such as the lawyers, judges, mediators, custody evaluators and so forth . . . will be able to afford THEIR exit plans in their retirement years, potentially.  They are already internationally connected and doing business, in many cases (whether through travel, having corporations registered overseas, or simply the internet).

Heck, the US Government is investing internationally for sure, and I’ll bet that every single state’s public employee pension plan (CALPers, New York States’ Pension Plan, Pennsylvania’s — probably every single one – and you can find them on their CAFRs and look) — probably also  is investing in multiple currencies and countries, playing one against the other, plus in various corporations.


But I believe there is likely to be a continental lockdown, which may explain perhaps why so many are in privatized lockUPs..  

The number one feature I notice is treating the human population like a material resource, which (from that point of view) it is — if they are poor, because of prior policies set up (by the same crowd) — exploit it.  If they are divorcing — exploit that, too.

Then sell it to them (because any good businessperson is adept at getting other to fund its startups, and of course many things are also tax write-offs) and have their income taxes pay for it, and the income taxes of the middle classes’s taxes who hasn’t caught onto this yet because they’re working 9 to 5, detoxing from work part of their time off, and stressing out about the future while at work, etc.

MAKE SURE the Middle Class believes that the real problems are the shiftless poor, the fertile female African Americans or anyone else with dark skin, or heck any color female skin, and things like DIVORCE. ANYTHING but the bottom-line reality….  

Then go about to help the other side of the equation…. based on some profile.

Hopefully  people who read the last few posts (sorry, I don’t have any gold stars or discount coupons for the effort!) will start to understand that something less than above-board (at some levels) and “in-your-face” (at other levels) is going on involving:


  • Religious beliefs held in common by at least Mormons, Catholics & Evangelicals
  • Certain of the 50 United States well-knowon for their Mormon, or Evangelical roots (Utah, Oklahoma, specifically)
  • Certain individuals in responsible positions at the top-of-state level, whether Governor (Keating OK; Leavitt:  Utah; and a family divorce lawyer also serving as a Utah State Rep and on its Judiciary Committee, proposing legislation and getting it passed…)
  • Federal Grants to the States from HHS involving Welfare Funding.
  • Family Lawyers and Related Industries — Seeing as to get legally divorced, one often utilizes a lawyer — or at a minimum, walks into some sort of family courts to get that divorce — there is also a marketing element in the marriage promotion business by family lawyers, which capitalizes on the HHS grants and their influence in the legislature to mandate or promote purchasing of services, seminars, books, and classes by the same.I have (now) a sky-blue-background “rant” (about three inches of vertical space? or so) at the top of “Christianity and Its Sects in the Statehouse” in which I completely derailed into a NHMRC (National Healthy Marriage Resource Center) website and gave a short, but detailed reference to what money is supporting that operation — and the products, services, and goods that the FOUNDATIONS supporting MDRC (look it up) in promoting and dissemination, essentially “fatherhood” promotion, even though HHS is already granting corporations quite a bit to set up shop in this field.  MDRC was formed in 1974, I have posted on it, and a very old (why can’t such a wealthy firm update their own website with a better diagram for the public?) — pie chart, 2010, showing the main sources of its funding.
    • Another way to call that what is is, would simply be AFCC, NACC, CRC, and friends.

The sky-blue rant at the top of my Oct. 21 post “Christianity and Its Sects” shows how a visit to a federally-funded site which spins off business to the Oklahoma Marriage Initiative PR Firm (Public Strategies Inc.) and friends — then links to a nice MDRC program evaluation, which spins off money to its subcontractors, and you can follow who is supporting this from the acknowledgement in the front of the report.  Not to mention the number of the federal HHS contract used to do the study.  In short, the people getting the most employment profit from this do NOT appear to be the poor, but those studying them.

I think I have more than demonstrated that the public access database TAGGS.hhs.gov isn’t going to help us study where the bulk of the HHS money is going in any efficient or meaningful way.  I say that after three years of scrutiny, mostly showing screwups in the basic design, not just data entry and a whole lot of them seem like MORE than accidental.

I also find groups that don’t file taxes with their chief personnel (CEOs, who got over $100k salary from apparently the original HHS) then being further promoted to more responsibility — i.e., I”m talking about for example, Mrs. Charles Ballard, commonly known as Frances Ballard, sitting on the board of WIFI (Women in Fatherhood Inc.) AND being somehow involved in the administration of the “national responsible fatherhood clearinghouse” which it assures us, is funded by the US Government.  So how can a person be an “Executive Director” of what looks like a government-supported website unless he or she is a government employee?

I haven’t figured that one out yet.  Maybe you can: The first title given in her description is ED of the NRFC — which is a website!  She is doing this while also on the board of WIFI — so on HER tax return (assuming there is one) where’s the income coming from and reported as? I also note that while wifi is not a D.C. organization, most likely the clearinghouse (being a website), IS:

Frances Ballard is the Executive Director for the National Responsible Fatherhood Clearinghouse (NRFC). In her role she is responsible for the strategic direction and leadership for activities regarding the NRFC, including the coordination of the media campaign, clearinghouse and Web site, Training and Technical Assistance (T & TA) to responsible fatherhood demonstration sites, and building relationships and partnerships for NRFC

This site is, literally, steering and setting national federal policy.  Was Ms. Ballard somehow elected as a public official, or was this website voted into existence and then privately contracted out to her?  I notice that the WIFI link has a direct link at its bottom to “childtrends.org” which is an Annie E. Casey foundation “thang.” This is certainly ALL about the children, that’s why no one need to explain to the adults– their parents — where their inheritances (or household incomes) went, or is going in the future, except out the door and from there, who knows?

This website has a *.gov address.

So, what does it mean to have an “executive director” — is that person an employee or a contractor — it should be one or the other.  To be an “Executive Director” of a *.gov site is a very interesting job title.  Is that not an accurate job title?

[next section in different background color is a quote.  Not sure why I didn’t use the “quote” function originally…//LGH comment added June 22, 2019 during post format quasi-cleanup]

Who are we?
The National Responsible Fatherhood Clearinghouse is an Office of Family Assistance (OFA) funded national resource for fathers, practitioners, programs/Federal grantees, states, and the public at-large who are serving or interested in supporting strong fathers and families.


The National Responsible Fatherhood Clearinghouse (NRFC) is a resource of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Administration for Children and Families’ (ACF) Office of Family Assistance (OFA).

The Claims Resolution Act of 2010 (CRA) re-authorized funding for the National Responsible Fatherhood Clearinghouse (NRFC). The NRFC was initially funded through the Deficit Reduction Act (2005) for “the development, promotion, and distribution of a media campaign to encourage the appropriate involvement of parents in the life of any child and specifically the issue of responsible fatherhood, and the development of a national clearinghouse to assist States and communities in efforts to promote and support marriage and responsible fatherhood.”


Contact Us information:

Mailing address
National Responsible Fatherhood Clearinghouse
307A Consaul Road
Albany, New York 12205

Federal Contact
Lisa Washington-Thomas
Branch Chief, TANF Technical Assistance
Office of Family Assistance
lwashington-thomas@acf.hhs.gov
(202) 401-5141
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What It’s Still About….(… in Summer 2013)

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(Post title changed to remove “Election Year Update 2012.” The message is still appropriate now….Also in reviewing this post (and adding some quotes) I’m temporarily moving the “more” link further down the page, (in other words, the “abstract” is almost post-length) to call attention to the material.)


[This post is “sticky” and stays on top.  New posts are beneath . ..Some additions, March 2013…(As I learn more, it shows up on the blog). ~ Or see “The Last Seven Let’s Get Honest Posts” links, on sidebar ~ better yet, See also my other blog Cold,Hard.Fact$]; 


This blog has VALUABLE INSIGHT on the family courts money trail (a trail of tears), and about many crisis intervention groups who are in on it (and hence, won’t blog it), and from some of whom I sought help, solace, or actionable information — and got NONE.  


Question: WHY would any group which truly wants to save lives withhold relevant information, tools to find that information, and prior ground-breaking conversations about that information — in the amounts of billions of dollars of federal incentives to the statesaffecting — custody outcomes (as to the child support system, HHS/OCSE) while feeding less helpful information to their clients?Another Question: You should also ask why — where is that money coming from, and why does our government always want to raise taxes when they can’t keep track of what they already collected (MUCH more than is commonly realized) and when a lot of that is simply fed to fraudulent or evanescent corporations that don’t stay registered at the state level?

When it’s a matter of eminent domain and someone gets sued over bribery, then it makes headlines and people get indignant. Daily News 2001, Los Angeles Area.

COURT MAY RECEIVE CLOSE AUDIT. 2001. Similarly, and around the same years, other people were asking questions about “court-connected” funds of a different sort. 2002, this one, there was a series of articles:‘SLUSH FUND’ PROBE POSSIBLE KUEHL MAY ASK FOR INQUIRY INTO JUDGES’ PROCEEDS.[one has to actually read these – I’m not outlining them for those who won’t….]
This one in PARTICULAR shows that in 1999ff Marv Bryer and others were doing what I do now — reading tax returns, looking at the fronts of checks, looking at the BACKS of checks, and noticing that what’s written out to ONE fund sometimes gets deposited into another, which fund happens to be a private judges’ association.

Here’s a yet more detailed one (best: read the series; see “related articles”):

GILDING THE GAVEL? SUPERIOR COURT PAYMENTS DEPOSITED IN JUDGES’ PRIVATE ‘COFFEE’ FUND.

(Now that you’ve read it, naturally, with attention…..)

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How to get No-Holds-Barred HHS Grants Info from TAGGS, and a Few Things to Do With It…

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Notes from 2014 Year-end on this October 5, 2012 post:


1. This post has charts and tables in it, run before I had the technical know-how to limit the right-hand-margin.


2. I acknowledge the post is unconscionably long — 17,000 words, including this intro.


3. That said, The TAGGS database does not copy well to wordpress, and is not public-user-friendly. It does not lend to us running flexible reports or sorts, as database ought to, although it’s funded apparently with public dollars. Much later, I learned (this is “as I recall” in a 600++ post blog) the software provider was later taken over by an international (Canada?) based firm, but previous to this had been sued by states or state agencies for failures regarding their performance problems. I have worked with databases before, and know that this level of dysfunction in critical issues would not fly, in small, medium, or very large corporations. It’s so bad, I even started a blog in October 2013 intending to simply print out ALL recipients (unsorted). HHS Giveaways, Government Shutdowns.


HOWEVER, it was my work on grants using this database, and then checking out grantees, which developed my understanding of at least the marriage/fatherhood funding, and what a major problem we have in the country when the average citizens DO NOT understand government fiscal accounting, as we are not intended to. I believe that if we did, there would be a major rebellion over taxation in no way limited to political fringe or other labels, such as “Tea Party.” I encourage people to get involved and get a sense of just who IS getting HHS grants. Run some reports, scan the contents, notice oddities; notice who gets the big ones, or how many 1-time grantees, for example, may get a $50,000 “compassion capital” grant, then (checked at the state registration level) the group gets administratively dissolved, i.e., “take the money and run.” Continuing this practice rewards bad behavior, and allows grants fraud and theft of public money.
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HHS Grants Database (TAGGS.HHS.gov) isn’t “Close enough for Jazz.” [Publ. Sept. 30, 2012; Formatted Aug. 2, 2022]

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Post updated (for clarity and to add title link and a few borders, not much more) 8/2/2022…

[About 9,500 words.  Like most of my posts, that includes many quotations…  Because I’m also discussing a federal database, it also includes blocks of text (tables) which show definitions of various fields or pieces of data in it.

What I have to say, the “tell” in “Show and Tell,” isn’t the largest part of this post.  Look at what’s shown, much of it become self-evident, (I believe!)

I’m showing (and telling) how HHS, the US agency in place to help Humans be Healthy, isn’t Helping us Track its Grants well enough. [“TAGGS.HHS.gov” ]

Data elements that the users should be able to sort on aren’t even menu choices... and of the fields they CAN sort on, those aren’t always even entered filled in.

I pick on a few examples, including an abstinence/healthy marriage grantee, of course]


Post Title:

HHS Grants Database (TAGGS.HHS.gov) isn’t “Close enough for Jazz.” [Publ. Sept. 30, 2012; Formatted Aug. 2, 2022] (short-link ends “-19Y”)

 

HHS Data Quality in the TAGGS Database

Accessible Data for the Public

Business is Business — and some VERY sophisticated software is available to those doing business with the US Government and those whose functional engineering projects, or fundraising, depends on excellent and relevant, reliable software. At the bottom of the last post, I also clearly showed how fortunes are being made in the field of software platforms to government (and elsewhere), i.e., a prosperous Private Equity Firm in SF investing in several software companies (sometimes, at once) is doing VERY well; they also became the majority shareholder in BlackBaud, Inc. — which provides software Cloudfund raising to nonprofits, including our Minnesota Technical Assistance and Training provider to OVW Grantees (and if anyone else can afford to attend, like a battered woman), Duluth Domestic Abuse Intervention Programs, Inc.(“DAIP”)

[2022 Correction.  I used to get what the “D” stood for in “DAIP” (website, “TheDuluthModel.org”) mixed up.
The correct word is “Domestic” as in “Domestic Abuse” — but it was and is in Duluth, Minnesota.
Blackbaud is an international company whose founder was from the United Kingdom and answered an ad from a New York City school for a software design.  Tony Bakker is majority owner of a Charleston South Carolina soccer team, a real estate investor and “restaurateur,” after buying and restoring a 1760 property in Charleston, sold it for $7.6 million, having found a $5 million property on the waterfront they just couldn’t turn down.
And think about it — HHS and DOJ (Department of Justice) funding to train people how to work with people that batter, people that are being battered, and how to provide supervised visitation services, and to an organization promoting that Community Collective Response (“Coordinated Community Response”) will help stop evil behavior in a community.
In studying further how to do this, one of its sub-projects, the Battered Women’s Justice Project (BWJP) also chose to “collectively” associate with the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts (“AFCC”), an organization of dubious origins in Southern Los Angeles (according to some), which has sought to UNdo the concept of criminal law and replace it with the language of behavioral science, and which promotes a psychological terminology as a legal technique to re-frame children saying “no” to abuse as parental alienation, and which believes that “CONFLICT,” if high, is bad.
They have no conflict, however, with centralized control if it includes them, or includes taking grants to expand their technical capacities or web presence.
MEANWHILE — if the public is expecting representative government still, at this late date — this is what they get:
A database of HHS grants which is incomplete, inaccurate, where entries are inconsistently entered below the level of what basic support staff [in most clerical positions or offices] would accept — and in which one CANNOT sort on the most relevant fields in Advanced Search format.
I have almost never run across someone even LOOKING at this database as a layperson because they were curious about the Department of Health and Human Services’ (US HHS’s) use of its funds (and I’ve talked and corresponded with hundreds of heads of households involved in the courts; funds to the courts are recorded in here! ) who even looks at TAGGS.HHS.GOV unless they got this habit from my blog, or people who associate with Liz Richards’ “national association for family court justice” (website NAFCJ.net) from which I got the idea to look it up (and just kept going….).

Some of these fields are below.  Fiscal Year is shown — but
Appropriation Fiscal Year Fiscal Year of the appropriation used to fund this action. Note: An appropriation is a statute made available by Congress that provides the authority to incur financial obligations and to make payments associated with DHHS grant programs.
Appropriation Number Treasury account code identifying the appropriation used to fund this action. Note: An appropriation is a statute made available by Congress that provides the authority to incur financial obligations and to make payments associated with DHHS grant programs.
Appropriation Title Full title of an appropriation. Note: An appropriation is a statute made available by Congress that provides the authority to incur financial obligations and to make payments associated with DHHS grant programs.
Authorization Legal authority cited in the Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) upon which an HHS program is based (acts, amendments to acts, Public Law numbers, titles, sections, Statute Codes, citations to the US Code, Executive Orders, Presidential Reorganization Plans, and Memoranda from an agency head).

The matters in blue remind us that spending isn’t supposed to happen without authorization and appropriation.  Yet look at the “Advanced Search” page and see if you can find those fields.

There’s one link to “Advanced Search” (explore on your own time), and several shortcuts to other menu items, and some pre-planned reports. Yet I found in a general search, there are plenty of grants missing codes — DUNS code, some missing a CFDA Code (plenty missing a principal investigator; do not yet know if these are specifically block grants only).  Of the principal investigators there really ought to be a first name, last name designation [as a separate field] and no title entered unless there’s a designated field “Title.”  that’s BASIC data design, omitted here..

Therefore Principal Investigator’s given names who happen to be M.D. or Ph.D. and could be called “Doctor” properly, would show up alphabetized under “D” not their names. In addition, that could be entered before or after a given name.
http://taggs.hhs.gov/AdvancedSearch.cfm
Any feedback on how someone may get to this data via the public access site?

I see many fields described which do not show up on “Advanced Search” options — please let me know.  For example, nothing should be paid out which Congress, Executive Order, or some other authority has no

awarded, right?  But we cannot search on it.  You can do only these types of searches & run some pre-formatted reports:”
[[I am re-reading this post and plan to re-publicize it, however, the content — those fields listed — date to 2012, not 2022]]

HHS — Contracts Awarded 8/30/2012 = $156 million. Just for today, August 30, 2012, that is.

with 2 comments

Our relationship to “government” needs to be looked at.  Particularly, why so many people put up with it and haven’t figured out something better than putting lawyers and judges in charge of the place, as facilitated by a Congress which has plenty of people who used to be lawyers in it, no doubt.


 

A glance at this post should clarify that, by and large, we don’t know what the US Government (I mean, “federal”) is doing — although who’s helping fund it?  Wake the hell up and start looking up some CAFR‘s – -it’s the worlds largest contractor, and there are these other issues about Jurisdiction which keep cropping up also.  You cannot SUE this government, really (11th Amendment) unless it consents to.  while we had this Constitution, it appears to me that under Bankruptcy (which the US has never been out of, to date, to my awareness) it no longer applies.  If it did, and one engaged in commerce with the USA (which it’s almost impossible not to), you just became a contractor (u.S. Citizen = no unalienable rights) and shareholder in that thing in Washington, D.C.

WOMEN IN PARTICULAR should be cautious about citizenship.  A woman in our area called police for help “domestic dispute” which ended up in a vigorous chase, the other day, the guy fled.  They didn’t know an toddler was in the car.  He was killed in a hail of gunfire, after which it was reported that this was actually a woman’s BROTHER, not the perp, and he had been I think helping her get his niece (her child) away from the aggressor.  Now, he’s dead.  Did I mention, he’s also Hispanic? (Wikipedia informal list of people, mostly men, some during domestic disputes, killed by officers.  It’s a very very long list…)

Or you could go to a divorce, and have a judge over the domestic violence court (long-term presiding) and the judge tell your young self, a mother (about 23 yrs old, this one), to “go work it out” and no restraining order.  Finally they were in judge’s chambers, and the judge informed the father (a Marine) he would have to pay child support.  The young man (age 29) stepped outside the door, walked back in again, and cold-cocked the mother of his kids, knocking her unconscious immediately on the floor, some black eyes, a broken jaw.  He was finally tasered into submission, and THEN the judge believed that the guy was dangerous.  That apparently didn’t stop him from assigning shared parenting, though (along with jail and $1million bail).  THAT is our country (and it was in 2011 Florida:  (see comments for links to the story, another blog “AmericanAmnesia

MOVIN’ ON . . . .

I mentioned FEDMINE.com to an acquaintance the other day, and have on the blog before.  Its access is more timely (and probably far more accurate) than what is given the average person who looks things up on some free site which isn’t even proofread, but is designed for public consumption, like, say, “http://TAGGS.hhs.gov

It think this figure is worth posting, without too much commentary.  Per FEDMINE.com, the top agency obtaining contracts today was — hardly surprising — HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES.

WITHOUT HUMANS THERE WOULD BE NO MONEY TO FUND THESE STUDIES SO WHAT, PRECISELY, ABOUT HUMANS IS SO FASCINATING THAT THIS AMOUNT OF MONEY, ON A GIVEN DAY, WOULD BE DEDICATED TO A BUREAUCRACY STUDYING THEM?

ALSO, SEE HIGHLIGHTS FOR SOME ONES SIGNIFICANT (at least that I’m aware of) in this Family Law Field.

If you see I have linked the company name (other links probably not valid) there may be a brief description if you hover the cursor.

COMPANY NAME POSTED TODAY
08/30/2012
YTD FOR AGENCY
049508120  –  WESTAT INCORPORATED 230,376 9,710,743
019121586  –  DELOITTE CONSULTING L.L.P. 1,593,527 32,298,506
072654999  –  VANTAGE HUMAN RESOURCE SERVICES INCORPORATED 511,792 511,792
091500090  –  JOHN SNOW, INCORPORATED (out of all of them, this one actually seems involved in HEALTH.  Founded 1978, internationally 106 offices, see “In Memoriam” link) 626,838 5,654,941
021873740  –  HUMAN TECHNOLOGY, INC 511,792 547,006
009399247  –  UNIVERSITY SYSTEM OF MARYLAND 85,082 122,852
623214020  –  CONCEPT SYSTEMS INCORPORATED (3796) -4,941 -8,221
947300372  –  CLIFTON GUNDERSON LLP -102,382 -102,382
152149191  –  MC DONALD WALTER R AND ASSOCIATES INCORPORATED 0 2,789,442
825229318  –  MCKINSEY&COMPANY, INC. WASHINGTON D.C.

1920s | 1930s | 1940s | 1950s | 1960s | 1970s | 1980s | 1990s | 2000s
 (check out the firm history/mgmt consulting; 1959 London office, etc.  2nd leader (1st died early) was Harvard MBA…
631,181 9,499,045
154308522  –  MATHEMATICA POLICY RESEARCH INC 364,999 14,398,928
088656512  –  IMPAQ INTERNATIONAL LLC(founded 2001 by a couple with govt background, Social Science Research, in MD. He’s economist,she’s History/Educ, he used to work for “Abt”) 415,623 5,197,316
146014373  –  ARSERVICES, LTD 650,102 650,102
183818145  –  CAPITAL CONSULTING CORP 64,557 961,723
197325277  –  LEWIN GROUP, INC., THE**(link is to someone from this group presenting at a 2007 AFCC conference.  Since 1970, they are Health and Human Services consultant; you can look it up). 630,811 4,396,810
127687093  –  CHILD TRENDS INC 1,011,927 1,686,523
072648579  –  ICF INCORPORATED, L.L.C. {{see below}} 500,000 13,942,449
622811847  –  STRATEGIC HEALTH SOLUTIONS, L.L.C. [woman-owned, Omaha, services Medicare & Medicaid] 3,198,739 8,861,059
127149784  –  HEALTHCARE MANAGEMENT SOLUTIONS, LLC 1,281,472 3,970,432
929125818  –  C2C SOLUTIONS INC 6,323,200 18,091,004
611835203  –  TEYA TECHNOLOGIES, LLC 178,013 894,928
781844808  –  SEAMON CORPORATION 197,200 885,831
143208069  –  FRONTLINE HEALTHCARE WORKERS SAFETY FOUNDATION, LTD 81,697 245,090
803935261  –  PROFESSIONAL TESTING, INC. 363,302 361,395
136201493  –  CONSUMMATE COMPUTER CONSULTANTS SYSTEMS LLC -56,190 0
929219772  –  CONTRACT SUPPORT SOLUTIONS INC. -32,171 164,690
175291061  –  THE KEVRIC COMPANY INC 100,871 2,428,892

(I will kind of color-code by background color.  Obviously I am scanning here; the main point is — how little most of us realize, how large is the US Federal Government.  See recent posts on CAFR and USA, Inc. & Bankruptcies, etc.  If you are not a “scanner” this post will probably drive you crazy…)

Not starting with the largest one in “the Lewin Group,” but it does run close to the subject matter of this blog — the marriage/fatherhood movement through federal funding:

THE LEWIN GROUP

(FROM USASPENDING.GOV — THEY GOT (FROM ABOUT 2000 forward I think on this database):

Ranked by $$, the largest shows up as about $4+million (in 2005), “Marijuana Cultivation Study.”  They seem to have plenty in the $2 and $3 million ranges as well.  Fairfax, VA -close to the source, right).

Total Dollars:
$172,544,874
Transactions: 1 to 25 of 740 (most are contracts,only 1 is a grant.
That’s a lot of money…Also most (677) are HHS).
Their founder, Lawrence Lewin just died this past may (age 74); he was Princeton, Harvard MBA, and Marines..– this obit shows his influence and Medicaid connections; another Washington Post 2009 article ties the group as very influential in Affordable Care, and some possible”dirt” (Scandal) related to the United Healthcare (or someone) that bought it in 2007. As part of Ingenix owned by “UnitedHealth” it is a consulting firm owned by one of the largest insurers around that got in trouble with NY Attorney General and the AMA for shifting costs to consumers with skewed data.  not The Lewin Group, but the group it was part of since it got bought.  Apparently Republicans like it?:
Lewin Group, Insurer-Owned Consulting Firm, Often Cited in Health Reform Debate
By David S. HilzenrathWashington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, July 23, 2009

The political battle over health-care reform is waged largely with numbers, and few number-crunchers have shaped the debate as much as the Lewin Group, a consulting firm whose research has been widely cited by opponents of a public insurance option.To Rep. Eric Cantor (Va.), the House Republican whip, it is “the nonpartisan Lewin Group.” To Republicans on the House Ways and Means Committee, it is an “independent research firm.” To Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (Utah), the second-ranking Republican on the pivotal Finance Committee, it is “well known as one of the most nonpartisan groups in the country.”Generally left unsaid amid all the citations is that the Lewin Group is wholly owned by UnitedHealth Group, one of the nation’s largest insurers.

An Evaluability Assessment of Responsible Fatherhood Programs

August 1997

DHHS, Office of the Assistant Secretaryf or Planning and Evaluation (ASPE)

Analysis of site visits to five newly formed responsible fatherhood programs find a series of steps can be taken to improve their viability and evaluability. Program managers can develop core definitions of what constitutes a responsible fatherhood program; conduct process evaluations to define program objectives, activities and best practices; building basic MIS capacity; and stabilizing and enhancing funding.

(This one combines what looks like an HHS? grant to the Lewin group (97FM0122) with an HHS Contract to . . . . combined with a Ford Foundation Grant headed up by Ronald Mincy, wich name is significant (look it up).  Lewin were simply the enablers and to make it look (or be) more scientific and respectable.  This being only 1997, it shows just how much intention and planning to completely continue expanding “FATHERHOOD” as a field (regardless of results) was made — and this of course depended on major foundations like FORD working with WELFARE money.  FYI, Ford Foundation are not the good guys here in the US …)

This gives me a very squirrely feeling (esp. knowing that by 1998 somehow Congress passed a “fatherhood resolution.”)

But on ca. page 110 of this report (link is the title) you see a list of “Experts Consulted” (Two are from Child Trends, the others are also significant).  Johns Hopkins involved also.  The whole thing makes me a little ill, given the impact of this trend on my life, personally, and my (DAUGHTERS’, not son’s) futures! ! !  I made it pink just for “spite,” given the subject matter is the opposite gender…

***II. Purpose of this Report

The increased interest in programs that promote responsible fatherhood and the limited information currently available on the services provided and effectiveness of these programs has generated interest in the systematic evaluation of responsible fatherhood programs. For this reason, the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE) in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Ford Foundation funded The Lewin Group and Johns Hopkins University to conduct an evaluability assessment of responsible fatherhood programs.

Fatherhood programs and emphasis on male parenting are relatively recent phenomena in the social service sector. Many of the programs currently in place are either very new or, if established, have been experimenting with new interventions or changing the program focus over time to meet the interests and objectives of funders. It is generally the case that fatherhood programs have not adequately documented their performance. This may be because of limited resources, a lack of experience with methods of measuring performance, or simply because the focus of program staff has been on serving fathers rather than proving that methods are effective. While program staff may believe that their activities are helping fathers and resulting in positive impacts on society, others, particularly funders, may be skeptical of evidence of program effectiveness that is limited to anecdotes.

Evaluations of responsible fatherhood programs can serve two important functions:

• provide information to outside agencies and organizations regarding the objectives and the effectiveness of their interventions, which may be used to attract and justify fundingfrom these outside sources; and• provide information to program staff that may be used to modify program design to more efficiently and effectively serve the fathers who use their services.

{{Interesting how “ATTRACT AND JUSTIFY FUNDING” COMES FIRST… AND IT DOESN’T EVEN SAY, HELP THE PROGRAMS REACH THEIR STATED SERVCE, BUT “PROVIDE INFORMATION TO PROGRAM STAFF.”}}

Systematic evaluation of fatherhood program outcomes is crucial to both program design and funding. Conducting rigorous evaluations using standard scientific methods . . .[[will provide continued income for the Lewin Group, the Fatherhood practitioners and organizations, and many other people, not including the children that these program are supposed to help by encouraging and enabling their Daddies to “man up” and support their offspring]]


Some of these groups hang together at times.

 the Lewin Group at a 2007 AFCC conference:42. Healthy Marriage Projects: The Influence of Marriage on Child Support Enforcement

The Administration for Children and Families’ top goal in the last few years has been to encourage marriage for unwed low income families through marriage education, community outreach and demonstrations. This panel will discuss the status of Community Healthy Marriage Projects being financed by the Office of Child Support Enforcement, “Building Strong Families” marriage demonstrations being financed by the Administration of Children and Families and the importance of former marriage status or unmarried status on subsequent child support enforcement out- comes.

  • Barbara Devaney, Ph.D., Mathematica, Washington, D.C.
  • Michael Fishman, Ph.D., Lewin Group, Falls Church, VA
  • Hillard Pouncy, Ph.D., Princeton University, Princeton, NJ
  • Moderator: David Arnaudo, Office of Child Support Enforcement, Washington, D.C.  (a.k.a. HHS/OCSE)

(this presentation for sale — only $15.00)

One reason they may be interested to conference at AFCC — AFCC has judges.  Some Family Law judges get to mandate parenting education, etc.  Dr. Fishman is now with MEF, and his bio shows a close connection to welfare matters, and HHS.  I’m sure the personal connections didn’t hurt either.  He has a masters in “organizational psychology”  which is probably the way to go if you want a government career these days, and an MPA from USC..  Hardly suprising, the new company is also into (among other things) and is in Alexandria, VA.

Marriage and relationship education

State Policies to Promote Marriage
This report inventories state policies directly focused on promoting or supporting marriage. Using secondary data sources, the authors compiled information across states documenting the presence of marriage-related activities in a variety of areas such as campaigns and commissions; divorce laws and procedures; marriage and relationship preparation and education; tax and transfer policies; marriage support and promotion programs.

  • State Policies to Promote Marriage, Karen N. Gardiner, Michael E. Fishman, Plamen Nikolov, Asaph Glosser, and Stephanie Laud. With the assistance of Theodora Ooms, September, 2002

I googled “The Lewin Group, AFCC, Fatherhood” but apparently I’m one of the few people catching on to it, per Google anyhow.  One association with the Abstinence Group, “WAIT” (Joneen Krauth — plenty on that on this blog too, I actually looked up their corporate records history in Colorado.  What a group — associated with NARME, etc.  What a racket, too!):  This showed up under “pipl.”  The site AAHMI is African American Healthy Marriage Initiative which is, by any other name, HHS…  Basically…  DNR if this was at Hampton Univ. or where.

The Lewin Group is pleased to share these materials developed for the Joneen Krauth RN, BSN — NEW. Executive Director of The Abstinence and [ Speakers List – www.aahmi.net ]

Title, logo, and menu

“Reference in this web site to any specific commercial product, process, service, manufacturer, organization, or company does not constitute its endorsement or recommendation by the U.S. Government, the Department of Health and Human Services, or the Administration for Children and Families (ACF). ACF is not responsible for the contents of any “off-site” web page referenced from this server or from private, third-party, pop-up, or browser-integrated software or applications.”

NOTE:  A long while ago, I remember this particular AAHMI and some closely associated nonprofits I was looking up, was one key to understanding just how much the HHS is reaching out with money to set up “mouthpiece” nonprofits or groups (including with key speakers) around the country.  I figure HHS at this point is about as criminally-run a US Dept. as HUD is alleged to be, by someone who knows well enough as she used to be near its top.(C.A. Fitts, late 1980/1990s).

[[2016 updated material from LewinGroup.com]]

Viewed at “lewin.com” 4/11/2016 during blog update

(Their “About Us” page, main content):

The Lewin Group is a premier national health care and human services consulting firm. We understand the industry and provide our clients with high-quality products and insightful support.

Why Choose The Lewin Group?

Proven History

We have nearly 50 years’ experience finding answers and solving problems for leading organizations in the public, nonprofit, and private sectors.

Objective Viewpoint

The Lewin Group is committed to independence and integrity in our work. We combine professional expertise with extensive knowledge and a rigorous approach to analyzing and solving problems to deliver value to each of our clients and to the larger community as well.

Real-World Experience

Our strategic and analytical services help clients:

  • Improve policy and expand knowledge of health care and human services systems
  • Enact, run, and evaluate programs to enhance delivery and financing of health care and human services
  • Deal with shifts in health care practice, technology, and regulation
  • Optimize performance, quality, coverage, and health outcomes
  • Create strategies for institutions, communities, governments, and people to make health care and human services systems more effective
Who We Are

The Lewin Group employs more than 140 consultants drawn from industry, government, academia, and the health professions. Many are national authorities whose strategies for health and human services system improvements come from their personal experience with imperatives for change. The Lewin Group is an Optum company, a wholly owned subsidiary of UnitedHealth Group. We’re editorially independent, but through partnerships with Optum, we can tap into a vast body of data and resources. Optum is an analytics, technology, and consulting services firm that enables better decisions throughout the health system.

The Lewin Group provides its clients with the very best expert and impartial health care and human services policy research and consulting services.

 Learn about our independence
 Meet the leadership team

OTHER 2016 observations on The Lewin Group: Street address:  3130 Fairview Park Drive #500, Falls Church, VA — is right near “Acentia, a Maximus Company” which is same street address #800.  Maximus, we may remember, contractor to manage child support, Medicaid, other health-care related record-keeping, collections & distributions in a number of states (and at least one other country).

(3130 Fairview Dr #800, Falls Church, VA. Viewed 4/11/2016 during blog update)

Acentia, a MAXIMUS Company, is a premier employer who provides software, information technology, and management solutions that produce successful programs of national significance, while consistently demonstrating a partnership of trust and value to our federal customers and the American taxpayer.


[Holistic Data Analytics….]

Centers of Excellence” (options:  Analytics / Cloud / Mobility)

“Acentia offers a holistic approach to Big Data and Analytics. Traditional analytics can tell you what happened and why, but leading organizations are using predictive analytics to understand what could happen and prescriptive analytics to choose the next best action.”

…..


 ICF INTERNATIONAL, LLC

(SEE LINK in chart above; Wikipedia gives the history. Started in 1969 by a former Tuskeegee Airman as inner city venture capital, but it changed direction, bought and sold various companies and now is like, LARGE).

I blogged earlier (ca. 2011)

Recipient Name City State ZIP Code County DUNS Number Sum of Awards
I C F, INC  FAIRFAX VA 22031-6050 FAIRFAX 072648579 $ 2,477,256
Award Title Sum of Actions
2011 ACF I C F, INC NATIONAL RESOURCE CENTER FOR STRATEGIES TO PROMOTE HEALTHY MARRIAGE $ 1,500,000

(NRCSPHM — what did you think it sood for?  🙂  )

(PJ Media — Dr. Phyllis Chesler writes or wrote on there — was kind enough to print my comments here; the 2nd comment mentions ICF).

I profiled this company before, particularly when TAGGS.hhs.gov decided to bastardize its name on the database.  It’s in Fairfax VA with background in Defense, Energy and in 1988 it acquired a division of Kaiser (engineering) and got REALLY large.  It’s currently #64 of Forbes top 100 companies, is traded on the NYSE, and etc.   HHS hired to to do even more (stuff) to promote marriage, whch is the acronym.  ON this blog somewhere, no doubt:

http://www.acf.hhs.gov/news/press/2011/Grantawards2011.html

ICF Incorporated, LLC (NRCSPHM) Fairfax
VA
$1,500,000
Icf Incorporated, L.L.C. is a general contractor in Fairfax, VA. In the top 10% of 15,898 Northern Virginia contractors.

Summarizing Faith-Based, Marriage-Promoting, Change-Agents and Slush Funds…

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CROOKS.

Your Money, Their Tax Exemption,

Your Kids Gone (or Abused) courtesy

Your Government.  Your President(s) Promoting it, Too,

Clinton, Bush, Obama, ….???

Name me one that didn’t promote faith, marriage and fatherhood.

Or have a background involving some real estate deals pre-Presidency.

I’ve been looking (too long, probably) at what these organizations do, how they behave, and what the pattern is.  Unilaterally, it’s sickening (i.e., it’s corrupt).  I believe that collectively this is the “air we breathe” and that it gets back to the money system — a dual class cartel being created and expanded, where those closest to the “Court” may save or prosper their own asses — but it will be at the expense of ethics, truth, and others.  This will lead to more bloodshed, as some are going to resist by non-economic means.

All of this may sound complex (particularly as I don’t present it visually in the best manner — I’d be better in a Q&A, or live; and don’t have graphics skills).  But as to concepts, it isn’t.  If you can think conceptually (and surviving depends on more of it these days) — you can understand these concepts.  The thing is, most people’s lives don’t require analyzing so much of their government from top to bottom, while not being IN it or ON it.  Those of us who got so marginalized and don’t like fake answers (hard truths are OK, “Placebo” truths are not) — have been doing so.

THINGS FLOW:  Electricity, water, air (lava, sometimes), sap, blood, lymph (with help), sewage, OK, MILK, semen, right?– and money.

AND – information / IDEAS — in the form of words, sounds, images, smells — almost anything that involves one of the five senses.  This is your:  face to face, and technology over the decades:  Paper (Gutenberg), Radio, Telegraph, and now, The Internet — Social Media — the web.  . .  . . Etc.

(Some — many — also assert that spirit exists, and as such, it’s been compared to:  wind, fire, and water. (“Earth, Wind and Fire?”)

THINGS FLOW — and they flow GEOGRAPHICALLy and CHRONOLOGICALLY.  MONEY FLOWS.   

In a sense, property ownership ALSO “flows” — from one owner to another.

THINGS FLOW — and when they do, there are conduits, surfaces, or carriers (irrigation systems, etc.) through which they flow.  Or seep.  Or, are transmitted.

Extended illustration that WHAT flows, matters.  Maybe some things shouldn’t be:

As they flow, and over time, they sometimes are themselves transformed (water) or transform (give life — or death) to — other things.  Right now in Pennsylvania, there’s the issue of SHALE (“fracking”) which forcibly injects a mixture of liquids (carrying pollutants) to get the desired oil out, I guess.   (see link) Here’s a description which proves that, if you flush something out that wasn’t meant to be flushed — there is a resulting flow of crap, which has to be hauled away.  I seems that presently the Governor of PA (Corbett) is appealing municipalities protests of an unconstitutional (and so ruled, by the Supreme Court of PA) restriction on local municipalities to protest zoning that would — enable this fracking, I think.  What did the GOV do?  Well, the apparatus was already set — there were states’ attorneys, and a (centralized development agency), the OECD, over which he appointed a crony (“walker”) (or, at least donor to his campaign, and with a financial interests in defeating this Ruled-Unconstitutional act.  Power at work…).

Now, what to do with it?  This is about FLOW and just an illustration.  A large one, of course:

Flowback and Brine Treatment in Pennsylvania

Someone may try to convince you that using 6-million gallons of water for fracing one gas well doesn’t amount to a massive amount of water. Even if they are successful in making that argument, the next topic becomes flowback or brineWhat do you do with the crap that comes back out of the ground?

Gas drilling wastewater receives no treatment to remove frac fluids or chlorides, only dilution with treated sewage from this McKeesport Municipal Authority.
The Municipal Authority of McKeesport accepts 80,000 gallons per day, which is then mixed with treated sewage and dumped into the Monongahela River upstream from Pittsburgh. Hawg Hauling is part of Chesapeake Energy.

Somewhere between 20% and 40% of the water used for hydro-fracing a gas well returns to the surface as flowback, and later as produced water. In addition to the frac fluids added by the gas drilling companies, this water picks up other contaminants from deep in the Earth (~ 7,000 feet deep) with one of the most notable ingredients being salt.

Let’s talk about what’s in it: (from same site — just browse…)

These fluids contain sodium and calcium salts, barium, oil, strontium, iron, numerous heavy metals, soap, radiation and other components. This fluid combination becomes brine wastewater, and tanker trucks hauling it are labeled with RESIDUAL WASTE placard. Treated brine is also sold for deicing and other applications that utilize calcium chloride, often being applied to roadways.

RESIDUAL WASTE placard

((FRom A DIFFERENT SOURCE, same forum though, posted Mon July 9, 2012 11:09pm Link provided there was broken..):

“These first four categories represent effects that would likely be expressed upon immediate exposure, such as eye and skin irritation, nausea and/or vomiting, asthma, coughing, sore throat, flu-like symptoms, tingling, dizziness, headaches,weakness, fainting, numbness in extremities, and convulsions…”…”Health categories that reflect chronic and long-term organ and system damage comprise the middle portion of Figure 2.

These include the nervous system (52%), immune system (40%), kidney (40%), and the cardiovascular system and blood (46%). More than 25% of the chemicals can cause cancer and mutations. Notably, 37% of the chemicals can affect the endocrine system that encompasses multiple organ systems including those critical for normal reproduction and development. The category of other is more common, and includes effects on weight, teeth, and bone and the ability of a chemical to cause death. More than 40% of the chemicals have been found to have ecological effects, indicating that they can harm aquatic

Brine wastewater is difficult and expensive to treat, one of the same reasons we aren’t using much ocean water for agriculture and residential applications. The saltiness of this wastewater creates high levels of TDS (total dissoved solids). Incomplete processing of this brine wastewater, especially when dumped into rivers used for drinking water, creates a high TDS situation that causes drinking water treatment plants problems, likeTrihalomethanes. High TDS water reacts with chlorine when it is processed creating these TTHM’s.

about which, per the EPA

Trihalomethanes (THM) are a group of four chemicals that are formed (along with other disinfection byproducts) when chlorine or other disinfectants used to control microbial contaminants in drinking water react with naturally occurring organic and inorganic matter in water. The trihalomethanes are chloroform, bromodi/chloromethane, dibromo/chloromethane, and bromoform (I inserted the “/”s)

That’s sweet, disinfecting with chlorine and other agents creates Chloroform, something used to kill butterflies and sometimes aid in a kidnapping.   

BACK TO TOPIC ABOUT THE FLOW OF IDEAS —

AND WITH THEM, MONEY.  SUCH AS IT IS….

ANOTHER THING THAT SEEMS TO “FLOW” (WITH CERTAIN “CARRIER” ITEMS) IS — POWER.  AND THAT’S WHAT WE NEED TO BE MOST CONCERNED ABOUT, BECAUSE THAT POWER INCLUDES THE POWER TO INCARCERATE, THE THUMBS-UP OR THUMBS-DOWN POWER OF LIFE AND DEATH OVER PEOPLE, OR GROUPS OF PEOPLE.

SOME PEOPLE are just REAL INTENT in consolidating power, and have developed many ways to do so.

In my quest to see why I couldn’t even break a lousy individual (batterer husband) — or my own family off me, I came to understand more and more of these matters affecting the courts, and to understand (I believe) the courts for what they are — gateways to the flow of power DOWNWARDS and not for the right reasons.  I’ve seen enough, and while knowledge is power, it is the delivery system which really counts (which those holding power certainly know) — as well as the MAINTENANCE OF MYTH:

When it comes to MAINTENANCE OF MYtH — there’s nothing like religion + internet.  When it comes to hiding assets, there’s nothing like nonprofits and the internet — and pre-existing institutions.  When it comes to DISTRACTION — there’s nothing like trapping people’s time in a SINGLE system (with captive, so to speak) audiences — rather than understanding how systems interact with each other.

As we speak, I have been accumulating layers (weaving, as it were) of understanding of various threads.  ALL of those threads lead to distribution of money and bring up the question of the IRS.  This brings up the question of whose bright idea it, and the Federal Reserve, and so many other coordinated things that they absolutely do comprise a FABRIC with a certain MODEL that is being (has been) stretched over the U.S. over time.

The CORE of this model is — I’m sure of it now — ECONOMIC

It is the centralization of wealth (as opposed to “money”)

with frightening systems of control, destruction, incarceration, potential forced psychiatric drugging, or simply peddling of narcotics (in addition to the drugging of kids in foster care — or schools — to control them, as well as the elderly, as well as the mentally unstable, as well as the . . . (get it?)  )

we have become also accustomed (too many of us) to believe that DOLLARS are MONEY —

when Dollars are NOT real money– Dollars are Debt-Notes.  

They might as well be play-dough.

And too many legislators have a dual allegiance — one of which is in the Vatican.

The others which say they aren’t Catholic have forgotten that George W. Bush has been called a better Catholic the John F. Kennedy.  JFK actually had a fight with his conscience where faith fought his oath as President of the United States to uphold and defend the Constitution.

I don’t think the former Presidential contestant, Rick Santorum (nor, Michelle Bachmann)

would have had such troubling thoughts as a conscience of the law of the land might give.

They do seem to center geographically on Washington, D.C. (and historically so), with of course hot spots in various states where certain (nonprofit trade associations) have coalesced.  Like, Denver, or Chicago — or some in California (Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco).  In the middle of the country, Minnesota (out of all places) has been a hotspot of “DV” activity.   Wisconsin seems to have been a test state almost, for welfare reform (Tommy Thompson, etc.) and is the home state of this “AFCC” I keep talking about. . . . . .  Indiana, Kansas, Oklahoma are — well, what they are (very “fatherhood” friendly).  Don’t ask me why NY comes to mind in this area — but it doesn’t.

LET’s CHANGE GEARS:

This blog has been “FAMILY COURT” focused (for its duration).  However, as I kept pulling strands like this — ON MARRIAGE AND FAITH-BASED GRANTEES, SET UP BY HHS COMPASSION GRANTS, MARKETING MATERIALS FROM “SMARTMARRIAGE.COM” CONFERENCEES, DIVERTING FUNDS FROM WELFARE (NEEDY, OFTEN SINGLE-MOTHER HOUSEHOLDS) TO END UP IN PROGRAM HANDS, AS THE “LOW-INCOME” POPULATION STAY THAT WAY — BUT AT LEAST HAVE THE PRIVILEGE OF BECOMING PART OF A SOCIAL SCIENCE ENGINEERING TEST RUN, IN ASSOCIATION WITH COGNITIVE BEHAVIORAL MODIFICATION INSTITUTES ACROSS THE UNIVERSITY “CENTERS OF EXCELLENCE” LAND, INCLUDING IN GEORGIA, DENVER, AND ELSEWHERE: **

. . . . I kept running smack into the problem that, the problem is the dual class system set up by Nonprofit status, to start with.  Nonprofits form boards, have salaries paid, either do (which = prosperity) sell out to HHS policy (which is itself blended with corporate wealth, see GWBush, already) — or go the private foundation route (i.e., PRIVATE wealth) — and from that platform, go about attempting to restructure the entire PUBLIC institution infrastructure, for its own good (as defined by the privately-founded wealth) etc.   Roughly speaking, this might be called — and was exemplified by, the Robert Rectors (Heritage Foundation — i.e., just let us BE the United States Government, after all, we already know how to run things) versus the Peter Edelmans (Georgetown Law, and with the proven track record in Civil Rights, and in association with Children’s Defense Fund, see (his wife), Marian Wright Edelman, who are — let us FIX the United States Government — and by the way, we are taking private wealth.

What about people whose goal is NOT world change (“OUR version, for everyone — not THEIR version, for everyone), but, supporting ourselves and our families, staying active in our communities, and having time left to sleep — plus food to eat?   Suppose we are happy within normal spheres of endeavor — we may want to travel some around the globe, but are not invested in owning and running it?

If I had to go to dinner with one of the two, I’d pick the Edelmans any day, but I do not endorse either of their policies; both are “change agents” and believe that their collective personal vision should be inflicted on future generations, whereas, I’m a single mother (or was), and have daughters — and just don’t happen to agree.   Why?  Because there’s such a thing as too much “SYSTEM.”  Whoever runs a system for the nation, controls the nation — and a lot of its funding.  And the public school system is similar to the family law system.  They’re both here, feed on each other, and put IDEAS (not just people) in boxes, demand payment from someone else for doing this, but when it comes to FENCES (regulations on the administrators of the system), then the parents and nonparents supporting these systems — are FENCED out. See “metal detectors” and “lockdown.”  I cannot think of a more overt collective attack on this country than those two systems, combined, have done to its children — and with the children, the parents who actually DO care about them, but must fight the government for access to their own kids, or a relationship with them.

In short, I don’t believe in nationwide SYSTEMS, period, except where absolutely essential.  I say that having (sort of) survived an abusive “nuclear family” system and am still reeling from the extended family (plus friends) GANG simply because my children were wonderful (and irresistible), and, can you spell, “the love of money”?   I believe this is what middle-aged people (both genders) do when their own (professionally OK, or even successful) lives are simply boring, unrewarding, or meaningless.

(SO, that long link above link is to a topic on Scranton PT which has a recent dredging of the marriage- and faith-based shell corps (and resulting headlines about their various frauds) AND shows how a major community change initiative by Saul Alinsky (Industrial Areas Foundation — now based out of Grace Episcopal in Chicago) (a) worked and (b) morphed from “using” the access to people that churches represented, to strengthening churches AS institutions and centers for receiving (federal) grants to change communities.  It seems the HHS was fine with that — and somehow money is getting lost in the process.

CHURCHES COMMUNITY CHANGE AGENTS WITH CONTROL-CENTRAL:

A few of the posts (on that topic & forum) also uncovered in the process a COPYCAT of the Industrial Areas Foundation adapted to Christianity — or at least the veneer of churchianity — apparently some woman was overly impressed by some man who (it turned out) had himself been through PICO training.  What “PICO” is appears to be a recruiting process — an organization trawls locally for leadership material and then recruits them into separate membership which becomes a “change agent” and then that local leaders goes forth and conquers. . . . . . . .  I guess this is an alternative to normal judicial & legislative processes, perhaps….  (A SAMPLE COMMENT)

Here’s re: PICO, allegedly modeled after Saul Alinksy ideas and around neighborhood organizing.  Apparently neighborhoods now being more fractured, they headed for the churches (ca. 1980s). Interesting and relevant from wikipedia.  PICO (Pacific Institute for Community Organizing) started in Oakland, CA  1972, by a Jesuit priest, John Bauman

Spoiler
PICO National Network provides training and consultation and develops national strategy for its affiliated congregation-based community organizations. As of 2007 PICO had 53 local and regional affiliates, representing 150 cities in 17 states, with 1000 member institutions claiming to represent a million people.[1] It is also involved with organizing and training efforts in six countries of Central America and Rwanda in Africa

PICO conducts six-day national leadership development seminars four times a year, teaching the theory and practice of congregation-based organizing. Each year an additional seminar is presented in Spanish. Local affiliates also provide members and leaders with training on building and sustaining strong organizations, identifying potential leaders through one-on-one relational meetings, researching community issues, developing budgets, and working with public officials.[11]

PICO leader attracted to ideas of Saul Alinksy, i.e. incl.  Alinsky’s tactics were often unorthodox. In Rules for Radicals Alinsky wrote, “[t]he job of the organizer is to maneuver and bait the establishment so that it will publicly attack him as a ‘dangerous enemy.'” According to Alinsky, “the hysterical instant reaction of the establishment [will] not only validate [the organizer’s] credentials of competency but also ensure automatic popular invitation.”[8]

PICO is basically community organizing to solve the world’s (i.e., it mentions urban, suburban and rural) projects — with connections to Central America and Rwanda…

In PICO’s congregation-community model, congregations of all denominations and faiths serve as the institutional base for community organizations. Rather than bring people together simply based on common issues like housing or education, the faith-based or broad-based organizing model makes values and relationships the glue that holds organizations together.

PICO National Network - Unlocking the Power of People

PICO builds community organizations based on religious congregations, schools and community centers, which are often the only stable civic gathering places in many neighborhoods

REGARDING the North County Sponsoring Committee (aka Faith Works) — it’s basically a PICO affiliate.

FROM 2002 return, its nonprofit purpose is to provide leadership training:

To strengthen North San Diego County families and communities by assisting religious congregations and other community groups in the development of leadership that is educated and organized for effective participation in civic life

No officers paid yet, and no employees.  Largest expense under “other” includes PICO consulting fee:  $14,675, plus training fees and training mileage:

This is fascinating — but mostly in its context, which I realize you are not, just now.