Thread: DAVEYONE'S *focus group* All welcome.....

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Fathers & Families Shared Parenting Bill to Be Heard
Fathers & Families' Shared Parenting Bill HB 1400 will be heard this coming Thursday (9/17). Massachusetts is one of the worst states in the country for Shared Parenting and for fathers, but Fathers & Families has nevertheless made considerable progress there. This includes:
Over one-quarter of the Massachusetts Legislature has expressed clear, public support for Fathers & Families' Shared Parenting Bill, many of them signing on as co-sponsors.
Fathers & Families gathered thousands of signatures to place shared parenting on the 2004 Massachusetts ballot and led a successful campaign for its passage, winning 86% of the vote.
Fathers & Families persuaded the Boston Globe to become first major newspaper in the United States to endorse Shared Parenting in principle in an editorial (Feb 23, 2008).
Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick told the Legislature that if they pass Fathers & Families' Shared Parenting, he will sign it.
Fathers & Families recently met with Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick concerning Shared Parenting and related topics.
Fathers & Families pushed "Shared Parenting" to the number one issue on the Massachusetts Governor's website for citizen input.
Fathers & Families ignited a debate in the Massachusetts Democratic Party over Shared Parenting, leading to a spirited, 40 minute debate on the floor of the 2009 Massachusetts Democratic Party Convention and winning 40% of the Convention's vote.
Many of our members have expressed interest in attending the September 17 hearing. Fathers & Families will be well represented at the hearing, but this is not the place for a mass turnout.
The bill will not be voted on for a few months--in the interim period we will launch a legislative education campaign. We will want your participation in this campaign and will be releasing the details on how you can participate in coming weeks. Save your time and energy for the post-hearing campaign!
Ned Holstein, M.D., M.S.
Founder and Chair of the Board
Glenn Sacks, MA
Executive Director


Private Child Support Collection Firm Accused of Scamming Innocent Fathers
"[Private child support collection] companies often inflate child support debts by charging unauthorized interest on decades-old debts and extort payments that the companies know that parents do not owe. They undermine regular payments being made by the parents and sabotage these parents' often tenuous toe-hold in the mainstream economy."--The Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP)
Private child support collection companies are one of the more noxious plagues afflicting divorced parents. In 2008, Fathers & Families led a successful campaign against Fox, which planned to air Bad Dads, a show which would glorify the role of private child support collectors. Fox dropped the show in the wake of our protests, which made 300 newspapers.
In April of this year, Lifetime announced plans to air the same show, rechristened Deadbeat Dads. Again Fathers & Families led a highly-publicized campaign against the show. Our Lifetime campaign was apparently successful--we had been told that Lifetime planned to begin airing the show in late July or early August, and it's now mid-September. To learn more, see our campaign page here.
As we noted during the campaign, private child support collection agencies often manhandle fathers and exploit and deceive custodial mothers. In fact, women's advocates, including the National Organization for Women, have repeatedly condemned these agencies for mistreating women.
Apparently we can now add Child Support Services of Atlanta to the list. From the Courthouse News Service (9/9/09):
Child Support Services of Atlanta used the U.S. mail to wantonly mislead parents into believing it is a state agency and persuade them to send it child support payments, which its owner Stuart Clay Cole stole for himself, the Post Office claims. The federal complaint claims Cole's company has offices in Georgia and 12 other states, and used threats and intimidation to get money from noncustodial parents.
Child Support Services charged its victims excessive fees and failed to abide by its own "rules," refusing to allow parents to cancel contracts, the Postal Service says.
The Post Office seeks a restraining order and injunction authorizing it to seize mail sent to any of the defendants' addresses.
The Post Office says Child Support Services of Atlanta does business under "various names which include Child Support as a part of the name," in Georgia, Nevada, Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, Illinois, New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware and California."
Child Support Services used a variety of methods for the scam, including Internet and directory assistance listings that appear to link it to legitimate government child support collection agencies, the Post Office says.
Most of its offices are in capital cities, reinforcing the appearance of affiliation with state entities.
The company is accused of identifying potential victims through public records, then subjecting them to barrages of telemarketing and mail solicitations. Many victims were not under court order to pay child support, but Child Support Services used threats of arrest, license suspensions and wage garnishments to get their money, the Post Office says.
In some instances, Child Support Services "committed explicit fraud by forging correspondence to state child support collection entities to indicate the correspondence was sent by a person being served by the state entity and to direct the state entity to close its file to allow CSS to then serve the custodial parent whose signature it forged," according to the complaint.
Victims were told to send their payments to local offices of Child Support Services by mail; these payments were funneled to the company's Georgia office, the complaint states.


Action Alert
Action Alert: Does Esquire Magazine Believe Fathers Don't Care for Their Children?
Apparently the men's magazine Esquire believes that fathers don't care for their children, or are not involved in their care. In Esquire's new piece The Real Worst-Case Scenario for Swine Flu 2.0, Esquire contributing editor Thomas P.M. Barnett repeatedly refers specifically and only to "moms" when discussing the flu's possible harm to children. Barnett writes:
Could a new wave of the H1N1 virus become as radioactive for Obama as Katrina was for Bush?...An in-depth assessment of the risks to moms and politicians across the country...
[T]he next wave of the H1N1 virus ("swine flu,") is going to be a big deal...most young people recover within a few days without requiring medical treatment beyond what a caring mom would instinctively muster...Just how difficult could things get for moms and Obama alike?
Apparently only moms care about their kids--there's no reference at all to "dads" or "fathers", and only one reference to "parents."
Please write Esquire Magazine at esquireeditor@hearstcorp.com and call them at 212-649-4020 and ask them to change "moms" to "moms and dads" or "parents" in the web version of the piece.
We live in a culture which degrades and disregards fathers, and an important part of making political change is changing the culture. I'd be surprised to see such a thoughtless dismissal of fathers even in an article in the mainstream media--it's even more surprising in a men's magazine.
Thanks to Fathers & Families supporter Brian Sawyer for the information.



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Glenn Sacks, MA
Executive Director, Fathers & Families
Ned Holstein, M.D., M.S.
Founder, Chairman of the Board, Fathers & Families


What's Happening
Tila Tequila's DV Charges Against NFL's Merriman Dropped, Tequila Plans Civil Suit
Husband Asked to Pay More Alimony--35 years After His Divorce
Minnesota Holds Some Child Support Funds up to Six Months
Utah Passes Law Prohibiting Custody Change due to Military Deployment; More States to Follow?
Amanda Marcotte Swings at Divorce - And Misses
Salon.com: Fathers Just Resentful Children
In Maine, Arrests of Women for DV Still on the Rise



My father didn't tell me how to live; he lived, and let me watch him do it.
--Clarence Budington Kelland,
author


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