Tales Of The New Crown: Trump Made The Callout - Birx, Africa, AIDS, WHO, China, Michigan, But Refrained From The Tiny Humans

He is talking about shutting down state governors. 

Michigan is going into receivership.

Judges go through House Judiciary

Trump played a GM video. Do you know where GM headquarters is located? Detroit. Do you know about GM? Go to the search tool in the group or go to my blog.

Therapies - Food, Quality Housing, Education, Health Care....because it is going to take too long to get a vaccine to stop this.

Recess appointments. The Senate refuses to adjourn. Who controls the Senate.

He is using constitutional law. Who is an expert in constitutional law? He is announcing the standing army of generals of the district courts. This is bad ass. Any guesses whose expertise this is? #sayhisname

 He is talking about congress and its dereliction of duty. The smackdown is coming.

The insurance industry is about to crash. We are getting universal health.

This Brix Chick is sick. Wait for her stuff to come out. These people are not human. You will see what they do to children. Vile creatures.

They have no souls.

"We are winning alot of lawsuits getting our money back". He is talking about China being funded through WHO with US money,

He is talking about the bad things we do in Africa and AIDS. Then he said Dr. Birx is the expert in that research she ran. Then he said, "There, I just did the call out" and walked off the stage.

https://cepi.net/

UN Foundation grants $10M to CEPI for COVID-19 vaccine

Dynavax's stock rises 10% on expanded CEPI partnership

https://www.dynavax.com/

Dynavax and Clover Biopharmaceuticals Announce Research Collaboration to Evaluate Coronavirus (COVID-19) Vaccine Candidate with CpG 1018 Adjuvant

Dynavax Donates 10,000 Doses of HEPLISAV-B® [Hepatitis B Vaccine (Recombinant), Adjuvanted] Vaccine to Emergency Healthcare Providers and Hospital Staff to Protect Against Hepatitis B Infections Amidst COVID-19 Pandemic

Deborah L. Birx, M.D.

U.S. GLOBAL AIDS COORDINATOR & U.S. SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVE FOR GLOBAL HEALTH DIPLOMACY
THE UNITED STATES PRESIDENT’S EMERGENCY PLAN FOR AIDS RELIEF

The White House has appointed world-renowned global health official and physician Ambassador Deborah Birx to the Office of the Vice President to aid in the whole of government response to COVID-19 as the Coronavirus Response Coordinator.
For additional information regarding the response to COVID-19, please visit www.coronavirus.gov and https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/. 

Ambassador-at-Large, Deborah L. Birx, M.D., is the Coordinator of the United States Government Activities to Combat HIV/AIDS and U.S. Special Representative for Global Health Diplomacy. Ambassador Birx is a world-renowned medical expert and leader in the field of HIV/AIDS. Her three-decade-long career has focused on HIV/AIDS immunology, vaccine research, and global health. As the U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator, Ambassador Birx oversees the implementation of the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), the largest commitment by any nation to combat a single disease in history, as well as all U.S. Government engagement with the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. Serving as the U.S. Special Representative for Global Health Diplomacy, she aligns the U.S. Government’s diplomacy with foreign assistance programs that address global health challenges and accelerate progress toward: achieving an AIDS-free generation; ending preventable child and maternal deaths; and preventing, detecting, and responding to infectious disease threats.
In 1985, Ambassador Birx began her career with the Department of Defense (DoD) as a military-trained clinician in immunology, focusing on HIV/AIDS vaccine research. From 1985-1989, she served as an Assistant Chief of the Hospital Immunology Service at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. Through her professionalism and leadership in the field, she progressed to serve as the Director of the U.S. Military HIV Research Program (USMHRP) at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research from 1996-2005. Ambassador Birx helped lead one of the most influential HIV vaccine trials in history (known as RV 144 or the Thai trial), which provided the first supporting evidence of any vaccine’s potential effectiveness in preventing HIV infection. During this time, she also rose to the rank of Colonel, bringing together the Navy, Army, and Air Force in a new model of cooperation – increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of the U.S. Military’s HIV/AIDS efforts through inter- and intra-agency collaboration. Then known as Colonel Birx, she was awarded two prestigious U.S. Meritorious Service Medals and the Legion of Merit Award for her groundbreaking research, leadership, and management skills during her tenure at DOD. 

From 2005-2014, Ambassador Birx served successfully as the Director of CDC’s Division of Global HIV/AIDS (DGHA), which is part of the agency’s Center for Global Health. As DGHA Director, she utilized her leadership ability, superior technical skills, and infectious passion to achieve tremendous public health impact. She successfully led the implementation of CDC’s PEPFAR programs around the world and managed an annual budget of more than $1.5 billion. Ambassador Birx was responsible for all of the agency’s global HIV/AIDS activities, including providing oversight to more than 400 staff at headquarters, over 1,500 staff in the field, and more than 45 country and regional offices in Africa, Asia, Caribbean, and Latin America. Recognized for her distinguished and dedicated commitment to building local capacity and strengthening quality laboratory health services and systems in Africa, in 2011, Ambassador Birx received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the African Society for Laboratory Medicine. In 2014, CDC honored her leadership in advancing the agency’s HIV/AIDS response with the highly prestigious William C. Watson, Jr. Medal of Excellence. 

Ambassador Birx has published over 220 manuscripts in peer-reviewed journals, authored nearly a dozen chapters in scientific publications, as well as developed and patented vaccines. She received her medical degree from the Hershey School of Medicine, Pennsylvania State University, and beginning in 1980 she trained in internal medicine and basic and clinical immunology at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center and the National Institutes of Health. Ambassador Birx is board certified in internal medicine, allergy and immunology, and diagnostic and clinical laboratory immunology.

Statement by Ambassador Deborah L. Birx and Dr. Angeli Achrekar on PEPFAR’s Decisive Action in the Context of COVID-19

Debbie Birx & Former Prince Harry, who may be
a whistleblower

Prince Harry and Sir Elton John at AIDS Conference

As well as spending time with the Sentebale volunteers and other young advocates, Prince Harry and Prince Seeiso attended official meetings with leaders at the conference, including Mark Dybul, CEO of The Global Fund, and Ambassador Deborah Brix, US Global AIDS Coordinator and Head of PEPFAR. 

The opening of Sentebale's Mamohato Children's Centre

To mark today's occasion @sentebale, we're releasing this very special letter from Mutsu to his friend, Prince Harry pic.twitter.com/D5oWhjhy5V

— Kensington Palace (@KensingtonRoyal) November 26, 2015

Is Harry doing Stinky Touch?

https://childrensradiofoundation.org/

Fighting HIV stigma, one radio broadcast at a time

The Breaking New Ground youth reporters use their radio shows to get their community talking about HIV.

https://www.guysandstthomas.nhs.uk/Home.aspx

Happy Child Welfare Propaganda Month!

international-aids-conference-in-durban/

GEN-AFRICA

Black people with HIV infection are at increased risk of kidney disease and the reasons for this are not well understood. We would like to examine the risk factors for this, especially the contribution of a person’s genetic makeup. Participants will provide blood and urine samples, to examine the relationship between genetics and kidney problems. We will be approaching potential participants in clinic. To take part, patients must have HIV infection and have been born (or have parents who were born) in sub-Saharan Africa or the Caribbean. 

This is the tramsposable model being implemented in Detroit

The HIV research team conduct a variety of drug trials and observational studies. These studies aim to improve our understanding of HIV and discover better treatments. It is up to you whether you want to take part in research and it will not affect your care in any way. A doctor or a research nurse will be very happy to give you more information and discuss your suitability for a trial. As many people are only seen every six months you may miss out on the chance to take part in some studies. If you want us to let you know about the latest studies, please contact us directly on 020 7188 2608/9 or email hw.research@gstt.nhs.uk. 

World class research facilities in the heart of London

Voting is beautiful, be beautiful ~ vote.©

The Psyoptic Of Michael Jackson - Stealin' Of Legacies - Do You Know Where The Congressional Black Servers Are?

https://www.michaeljacksonslegacy.org/

Michael Jackson gave to the Congressional Black Caucus, but there is no record of what they did with the money?

Do you know where the Congressional Black Caucus servers are?

If you do, I would strongly encourage you to call DC Capitol Police, or the FBI if you are out in District for summer recess.

Not one penny went to any civil rights organizations, scholarships or children's charities he set up?

His legacy was attacked but not diminished.

It is an American tradition when it comes to stealin' legacies, under the law of the chattels.

If they can use child welfare NGOs for stealin' the children, the land and the votes, well, why not Raymone Bain?

She is calling for a boycott if HBO does not stop promoting its propaganda about Michael Jackson.

I know the Michael Jackson sex scandal strategically broke out at the same time of the largest settlement in U.S. history on copyright theft with the original writer of the Terminator.

We all knew it was a cover op because the media buried the story.

The ruling is, below.

Very few know of the fight of Works For Hire.

Raymone Bain's press conference reportedly centers around a mandate made by the late pop star in 2006, three years before his death. No further details have been released other than that the mandate has to do with preserving the controversial star's legacy.

As the Celestial Goddess of the Woodshed, I am calling this Operation Stealin' - #coloredrevolution for the following reasons:

• The press conference was empty;
• Michael Jackson has never used the african american label;
• She advocated a boycott with no other organizational or individual support;
• Jesse Jackson does not like me and I do not like Jesse Jackson;
• The website is cheezy; 
• The foundation has pictures of Haiti shacks and Sponsor a Child on the same page; 
• It is registered in the UK; 
• It is a foreign corporation, just like the foreign corporations that stole his money; 
• Michael Jackson would never approve of anything this tacky; 
• His family was not there; 
• She used a cut out of Michael Jackson;
• She dropped Trump's name;
• She stated that Michael Jackson was working on bringing HIV drugs to Haiti and Africa, which is probably CHAI;
• I smell Her Flatulent Boviness because she talked about how much he gave to the Congressional Black Caucus;
• And Raymone Bain previously sued Michael Jackson's estate for $44,000,000 and lost.

For these reasons alone, I am calling this stealin'  and a #coloredrevolution.

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Raymone+Bain

Michael Jackson's Former Publicist Raymone Bain: There Was No Intervention

Raymone Bain, the former longtime publicist for Michael Jackson, has said there is no truth to rumors that have surfaced in the media since the pop star's death, claiming that members of the Jackson family staged a failed intervention for the pop star in 2007.

"It is not true," Raymone told Access Hollywood'sBilly Bush in a new interview.

Raymone, who filed suit against the King of Pop earlier this year for $44 million over claims he failed to pay her for her publicity services and more, said a meeting with the family took place in 2007, but it was business related.

"I recall in February, there was a meeting with Mr. Jackson and his sisters and brothers about a concert," she recounted. "There was a concert promoter who accompanied them there. That is the meeting that I… am aware of… I know nothing else about any other intervention."

Raymone also shot down rumors that Michael's family members – including his mother Katherine – were shut out of the pop star's life after the alleged intervention, telling Billy the family were always involved in Michael's life.

"During the time that I represented Michael Jackson, he had communications all of the time with his mother and his family," she said. "I don't know of a time when Michael Jackson did not have access to his mother — under my watch. I cannot speak for last year and prior to or after my tenure with Mr. Jackson. But I do know that he loved his mother, he loved his father, he loved his sisters and brothers unconditionally. And Mrs. Jackson and his family had access to Michael Jackson."

Matrix and Terminator copyr... by Daniel Ballard on Scribd

Voting is beautiful, be beautiful ~ vote.©

Conyers Applauds Renewal of HOPWA grant to Cass Community Social Services

(DETROIT) – Today, Congressman John Conyers, Jr. (D-Mich.) issued the following statement applauding the renewal of a $1,350,000 Housing Opportunities for Persons with AIDS (HOPWA) grant to Cass Community Social Services (CCSS) from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.  The grant will help CCSS to continue to provide housing for chronically homeless individuals at the Cass House facility, which also provides educational and substance abuse counseling opportunities.

U.S. Representative
John Conyers, Jr.

“Cass Community Social Services provides invaluable services and opportunities to the Wayne County community,” said Conyers.  “The Cass House, which offers housing, educational support, and substance abuse counseling to individuals with HIV/AIDS, supplies a vital service to homeless individuals with HIV/AIDS.  I commend the efforts of the staff of Cass Community Services on their work to improve the lives of the homeless.”

The grant is a part of the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Housing Opportunities for Persons with AIDS program.  Organizations that receive HOPWA grants are encouraged to partner with local non-profit organizations, and develop community-wide strategies.  The purpose of the program is to provide housing assistance and related supportive services.  Grant funds may be used to cover housing, social services, program planning, and development costs.

Voting is beautiful, be beautiful ~ vote.©

Interview with the Children's Administration CPS

Five Former Executives Indicted on Health Care Fraud Charges

Five Former Executives Indicted on Health Care Fraud Charges


TAMPA, FL—United States Attorney Robert E. O'Neill announces the return by a grand jury of an indictment charging five former executives of WellCare Health Plans, Inc. ("WellCare") with conspiracy to commit Medicaid fraud, false statements, and other related charges. Specifically, the indictment charges Todd S. Farha (42, Tampa), former chief executive officer; Thaddeus M.S. Bereday (45, Tampa), former general counsel; Paul L. Behrens (49, Odessa), former chief financial officer; William L. Kale (61, Oldsmar), former vice president of Harmony Behavioral Health, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of WellCare; and Peter E. Clay, (54, Wellesley, Massachusetts), former vice president of Medical Economics. The maximum penalty for each health care fraud count is up to 10 years’ imprisonment. The maximum term of imprisonment for each of the other counts is up to five years.
According to the indictment, beginning in July 2003 and continuing until October 24, 2007, the defendants, all former executives of WellCare, conspired to engage and engaged in a scheme to defraud the Florida Medicaid program by making false and fraudulent statements relating to expenditure information for behavioral health care services. WellCare operates health maintenance organizations ("HMOs") in several states targeted to government-sponsored health care benefit programs such as Medicaid. Two WellCare HMOs (StayWell and Healthease) operating in Florida, contracted with the Agency for Health Care Administration ("AHCA"), the Florida agency which administers the Medicaid program, to provide Florida Medicaid program recipients with an array of services, including behavioral health services. In 2002, Florida enacted a statute which required Florida Medicaid HMOs to expend 80 percent of the Medicaid premium paid for certain behavioral health services upon the provision of those services. If the HMO expended less than 80 percent of the premium, the difference was required to be returned to AHCA. The indictment alleges, in detail, the ways in which the defendants falsely and fraudulently schemed to submit inflated expenditure information in the company's annual reports and certifications to AHCA in order to reduce the WellCare HMOs' contractual payback obligations for behavioral health care services.
On May 5, 2009 the United States filed charges in an information and deferred prosecution agreement against WellCare. Pursuant to that deferred prosecution agreement, WellCare was required to pay $40 million in restitution, forfeit another $40 million to the United States, and cooperate with the government's criminal investigation. On that same day, an information and plea agreement for co-conspirator Gregory West were unsealed. In the plea agreement, West, a former employee of WellCare, admitted his participation in the scheme to defraud the Medicaid program.
An indictment is merely a formal charge that a defendant has committed a violation of the federal criminal laws, and every defendant is presumed innocent unless, and until, proven guilty.
This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services- Office of Inspector General, and the Florida Attorney General's Medicaid Fraud Control Unit. It will be prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Jay Trezevant and Cherie Krigsman.
As the charging documents against WellCare reveal, the ongoing investigation does not directly concern WellCare's delivery of health care services to any person.

National Coalition for Child Welfare Fraud Exposure

National Coalition for Child Welfare Fraud Exposure

 0digg

I have started a facebook group.

National Coalition for Child Welfare Fraud Exposure

"An international group of legal, health care and child welfare experts dedicated to the exposure of fraud, waste, fabrications, misdirection, exaggerations, and intentional lies in Child Welfare. This will be an open and public group for information sharing, coordination and discussion.


Anybody dedicated to the cause is welcome to join.


And now I can give myself a catchy title.


LK
Executive Director of the NCCWFE
National Coalition for Child Welfare Fraud Exposure

Baby LK Report For January 23rd 2011 - The Octomom's Fetish

Baby LK recaps the week in news for the child protection industry.

Foster Care Movie of the Year

As this is the holiday season, I wish for everyone to start the new year with a new vision.  That vision is a look into the world of child welfare fraud.

The best part was this was not even a licensed foster family and did not receive any foster care placement payments.

How can anyone promote a system that does this to other humans, particularly children.  The next time you walk drive down a street and see a youth walking the street, poorly clothed, stop and think: is that child a tax-paid product of foster care?

This is a true face of foster care.

Happy Holidays.

Blind Sided By Medicaid Fraud

I recently saw the the movie the blind side about this woman who takes in this young man, gives him a family and turns him out to his fullest potential to become a professional football player.


After the movie, I had a talk with some young boys to get their reactions and feedback.  The main point of the movie these boys focused on was the fact that no matter what happened after child protective services took him away from his mother, he was a "runner" who always found his way back to his mother.  These kids were not inspired by the professional football portion of the story, per say, they were inspired about remembering where you came from.


The boys started discussing ways they would keep in touch with their families if they were ever taken by child protective services.  It was amazing the brilliance they all possessed as the boys spoke of emails, Youtube videos, Playstation 3, Xbox 360, Twitter, Facebook, and many other social networking avenues.


It seems current removal policies of foster care and adoption have been blind sided with technology.





Now, this is my reaction to the movie.  I saw a mother and kids, screaming and crying in a child protection removal in the movie yet I did not see anyone even flinch at the scene. 


Witnessing the scene where Sandra Bullock goes into the child welfare office and no one is really working, she sees the case worker who has incomplete files and has no idea of the whereabouts of the young man.  I saw, in a major motion picture Medicaid fraud.  How can a child protection agency collect funding to manage a case when the child is homeless?


I saw a child welfare case where services nor resources were ever given to the mother, yet they were claimed to have been rendered.


I saw a child who was under the care of the state make a statement that he never had a bed before.
Blind Sided By Medicaid Fraud

I saw the results of separate sibling placements when the young man met his brother in the restaurant scene after many, many years, not knowing his whereabouts.

I saw how it was perceived as such an oddity for a person who wanted to assume the legal role of parent ask to meet the birth parent before an adoption.

I saw the public attitudes of indifference to altruism and human compassion to youth aging out of foster care during the NCAA investigation.

I realized there was a secondary story line, and it "blind sided" the public by exposing the child welfare system for what it is!

Bravissimo, to Michael Lewis and all the cast, crew and directors for bringing Medicaid Fraud in Child Welfare to the big screen.

Standing ovation to Sandra Bullock in one of her best performances, and for taking on such a controversial, underlying storyline.  Reminds me of Natalie Wood's roles.

Some doctors handing out prescriptions to kids for potent medications

The Star Telegram – Dec 12, 2010

By Darren Barbee

The boy, 20 months old, is a maelstrom of tears and self-abusive behavior. Simply holding him sets off hours of crying, banging of his head or biting himself. His mother used drugs during her pregnancy. Clinical notes recommend he receive potent antipsychotic medication, one for adults suffering bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. —State medical records

With little oversight and apparent carte blanche, a relative handful of Texas physicians wrote $47 million worth of Medicaid prescriptions for powerful antipsychotic and anti-anxiety drugs over the past two years, according to a Star-Telegram analysis.

The top five doctors alone wrote $18 million worth.

Most of the drugs have gone to children and adolescents, although prescribing the drugs to children, such as a toddler, is considered “off-label” — uses not approved by the federal Food and Drug Administration.

Now the state’s Medicaid program is among others under scrutiny, after Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, began investigating the use of mental-health drugs this year. Grassley, the ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, told federal health officials to keep a better watch on top prescribers. His conclusion: Either some physicians have specialized expertise or the number of prescriptions suggests “overutilization or even health care fraud,” according to an October letter sent to the Health and Human Services Department.

Some advocates are concerned that the drugs are unsafe for children, who make up nearly 75 percent of Texas Medicaid’s 3.2 million recipients. In a 16-state study, Texas had the maximum rate of prescribing multiple mental-health drugs to youths in foster care. Although the number of prescriptions had dropped 19 percent by 2007, Texas was still tops, according to the June study.

John Breeding, a psychologist concerned that the drugs may cause permanent neurological and metabolic damage, told the state, “That so many of our very young children, younger than 4 or even 3 years old, are being given these drugs is so very sad and upsetting.”

And some doctors churn out prescriptions for children and others at an alarming rate. Antipsychotic drugs prescribed to children under 6 grew by 20 percent from 2007 to 2009, according to a November report by the Texas Health and Human Services Commission.

About 1.7 percent of children on Medicaid received antipsychotic drugs in fiscal 2009, state officials said.

Some children are overmedicated: One area doctor routinely prescribes five potent mental-health drugs simultaneously, said one of the state’s top prescribers. He said he tries to scale back the number of drugs the children are on.

Some experts believe that medication has pushed aside talk therapy, which might be effective and reduce medication needs.

“I do think that a lot of people receive medication without any therapy,” said Tami Mark, a researcher with Thomson Reuters in Washington, D.C. “Most of the literature suggests that therapy is effective and can improve the effectiveness of the medication. So it’s better to get both.”

Top prescribers

The child, 31/2, suffers from shaken baby syndrome. When stressed, he pulls at his ventilator hoses and tracheotomy tube so much that his hands must be tied to the bed. He is prescribed antipsychotics because other sedatives could suppress the breathing centers of the brain.

Grassley asked Texas and other states for the top 10 prescribers who billed Medicaid for certain drugs. The Star-Telegram used prescriber numbers to identify the doctors, then sorted and tallied the drugs they were prescribing. Also reviewed was information on other mental-health drugs that have cost taxpayers about $1.3 billion during the past five years.

The analysis and research found:

In the past two years, 72 Medicaid providers wrote 186,992 prescriptions, an average of 2,597 each.

The state’s top prescriber, child psychiatrist G.K. Ravichandran of Houston’s Shamrock Psychiatric clinic wrote 27,000 scripts for the anti-anxiety drug Xanax in the past two years. The next-closest physician wrote 6,300.

Under his license, 44,138 prescriptions for antipsychotic drugs were written, at a cost to Medicaid of $6.4 million.

Ravichandran did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

Dr. Fernando Siles, a child psychiatrist in Greenville, is the second most prolific Medicaid prescriber. He sees children from across North Texas, including Tarrant County.

In the past two years, Siles’ medical license was used to write 13,601 antipsychotic prescriptions at a cost of $4.6 million.

Siles, who treats solely Medicaid recipients, some as young as 3, has three nurse practitioners who also write prescriptions under his license, he said.

Many children referred to him are already on multiple antipsychotic drugs, and he tries to cut back, he said. “Fifty percent of the medications I prescribe, I did not start them on the medicine,” he said. “They came from other doctors.”

There may be other physicians who are also prescribing high volumes of antipsychotic drugs but aren’t as easily detected, state officials say.

Some physicians use a clinic to hide the volume of their prescribing, said Stephanie Goodman, spokeswoman for the Texas Health and Human Services Commission, which oversees Medicaid.

“To be quite honest, we feel like single doctors have started to bill under clinics to maybe hide that, to make it look like it’s not a single doctor prescribing all these,” she said.

State sanctions

The 13-year-old girl suffered depression and post traumatic stress disorder. She cut her arms and stomach. Her stepfather molested her, and then beat her when she refused to have sex. She cannot sleep at night for the nightmares of being locked in a closet. Prescribed an antipsychotic off label, she begins to have fewer flashbacks and nightmares.

Another top prescriber, Dr. Adolphus Lewis of Fort Worth, is a family physician who also treats the elderly. In one year ending in 1994, he wrote 61 prescriptions for one male patient, including enough Vicodin and Valium to pop seven pills a day.

The state medical board accused Lewis of prescribing “medically excessive” numbers of pills to a woman who later died, court documents show. Her death, which was due to respiratory failure, implicated three drugs, including two that Lewis previously prescribed, according to the documents.

Lewis did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

About 40 percent of the 72 top Medicaid prescribers among certain antipsychotic drugs have been disciplined by the state medical board. By comparison, last year the state disciplined less than 1 percent of the state’s 62,521 doctors.

In 2002, the Texas Medical Board restricted Ravichandran’s license for five years for “unprofessional or dishonorable conduct that is likely to deceive or defraud the public or injury the public.” The restriction, which was not related to prescriptions, was lifted within three years.

Baby LK Report For December 12th 2010

Baby LK recaps the week in news for the child protection industry, featuring none other than Michigan.

Helping kids understand that it's not child molestation if the government does it

Helping kids understand that it's not child molestation if the government does it

Lawsuit against Deval Patrick, Health and Human Services secretary, Department of Children and Families commissioner takes aim at foster care system

File photo by Mark M. Murray / The RepublicanU.S. District Court Judge Michael A. Ponsor

SPRINGFIELD - The state’s foster care system is a wrenching cycle of neglect, abuse and mismanagement for many children, according to a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court. 

A New York-based child welfare advocacy group and a Boston law firm are suing Gov. Deval L. Patrick, Health and Human Services Secretary Judyann Bigby and Angelo McClain, the commissioner of the Department of Children and Families, on behalf of six children who allegedly suffered a host of horrors while in state custody. 

Four of the six are from Hampden, Hampshire and Franklin counties while two are from eastern Massachusetts, according to the complaint. The lawsuit fleshes out each plaintiff’s personal story and shines a light on a foster care system their lawyers say is broken. However, lawyers for the state argue that although the system has yielded undeniable heartache for the six plaintiffs, there is no link to widespread flawed policies. 

SHORT INTERMISSION FOR SOME SERIOUS ROFLMAO TO THAT LAST STATEMENT.

Moreover, lawyers for Patrick and his codefendants say the tragic and delicate world of reuniting families and finding new ones for neglected or abused children is the purview of the state juvenile courts. 

Both sides made arguments before U.S. District Judge Michael A. Ponsor on Thursday, with state attorneys moving to dismiss the case and plaintiffs’ lawyers seeking to advance it as a class-action lawsuit, which would allow new plaintiffs to be added. 

The lead plaintiff, 9-year-old “Connor B.,” went into foster care at age 6, according to the complaint. He has been moved six times to seven different placements – including to his first foster home where he was sexually abused multiple times by a 17-year-old boy previously known to be sexually aggressive. Since then, the boy has bounced around in various placements, including a locked psychiatric facility and a group home. 

“Connor’s future remains uncertain. His current foster parents have indicated they do not plan to adopt him,” the complaint states. 

Another plaintiff, “Adam S.,” 16, of Franklin County has lived nearly half his life in foster care after he was removed from his mother’s home and was adopted by a couple who physically abused him and his two adoptive sisters, according to the lawsuit. He, too, was transferred from hospital settings to foster homes and other facilities, including a residential treatment facility, where he was brutally beaten by a group of older residents, the complaint says. 

At 16, he has no prospects for a permanent family. 

Children’s Rights has brought about a dozen similar lawsuits against state-based child welfare departments coast-to-coast, largely with successful results, an attorney with the agency said. 

“The goal is to see that systemic ills are fixed .¤.¤. We’d rather not see lawyers fight but come to the table and solve these problems. We’re hoping to get there a lot sooner than later until such time there’s a system here these children deserve,” said Sara M. Bartosz. 

In addition to highlighting six children’s cases, the complaint alleges that according to federal statistics supplied by each state’s child welfare system: 

• Massachusetts ranked fourth among 47 states for children who are abused and neglected while in its care;
• It ranked eighth for children shuffled between five or more different foster homes while in state care;
• It ranked the 13th worst on timeliness of adoptions;
• Approximately 900 children “age out” of foster care every year with no permanent family and are ill-prepared to live independently as adults; and
• One in six children reunified with their families returns to foster care due to further abuse or neglect.

However, lawyers for the state told Ponsor the data asserted in the complaint was at best flawed, and at worst, dishonest. Robert Quinan Jr., of the state attorney General’s office, also took issue with the plaintiff’s lawyers’ contention that DCF social workers had caseloads of 50 to 70 families. 

“That’s simply a lie,” he told Ponsor, arguing that social workers for the department carry an average caseload of 15.7 families. 

Plaintiffs’ lawyers are looking for injunctive relief in the federal courts that may include hiring more social workers, better monitoring of the safety of children in state care, improved case planning and higher reimbursement rates for foster parents. 

Amy Spector, another lawyer defending the state’s interest, said the defendants all care deeply about children but that litigation may be a misguided way to protect them. 

“What is the best way to achieve a goal that everybody shares? To make a child’s life better,” she told Ponsor. 

Erik S. Pitchal, a child welfare expert and professor at Suffolk University Law School, said that such lawsuits are typically successful for a number of reasons. 

“The system is hidden by this veil, and this type of litigation brings public attention and scrutiny and therefore the attention of government officials,” Pitchal said. “The federal courts are traditionally the place that you go when you don’t have political power but you have legal rights.”