Transplanting neurons recovers brain function
29.11.2011
A new technique used in mice, is yet to be perfected, but it is hoped that it can be used in the treatment of diseases affecting the brain...
by Alessandro Greco
Diseases that affect the brain compromise the quality of life for millions of people around the world. A new survey released on Thursday (24th) in the journal Science showed that the mammalian brain accepts repairs in adulthood longer than previously thought.
Researchers at Harvard University, Massachusetts General Hospital and Beth Israel Medical Center, deployed neurons from mouse embryos in adult animals that had a brain defect, failure to respond to the hormone leptin, which is responsible for regulating metabolism and weight control in many mammals, including mice and humans.
As a result, the adult mice who were morbidly obese and lacked leptin lost weight and began to have a normal metabolism. "What we did here was a system to reconnect the brain circuit that usually does not regenerate naturally and that was substantially restored its normal function," said Jeffrey Mackler, at Harvard Magazine, available as a podcast.
Apparently, what happened in the hypothalamus of adult mice - where the neurons were inserted - was that these were differentiated into four different types of neurons that formed connections and restored the ability to process the signal of leptin.
Although not a practical means to treat obesity, the study provides evidence that this type of transplant can help restore function in brain regions that control complex mechanisms - the hypothalamus, for example, which manages emotions, sexual behavior, body temperature and thirst, among others.
The results also showed researchers that, in theory, there is the possibility of applying similar techniques to other neurological and psychiatric diseases. "Our next step is to ask questions parallel to other parts of the brain and spinal cord, related to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and spinal cord trauma. The question is: in these cases, can we reconstruct the circuit in the brain of a mammal? "I guess so," said Mackler.
Translated from the Portuguese version by:
Lisa Karpova
Pravda.Ru
Please read complete article at link below:
http://english.pravda.ru/science/tech/29-11-2011/119765-Transplanting_neurons_recovers_brain_function-0/
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Study: Doctors’ financial ties can lead to needless MRIs
Study: Doctors’ financial ties can lead to needless MRIs
Associated Press
Last Modified: Nov 30, 2011 04:46PM
If your doctor owns an MRI machine, you’re more likely to get scans you might not need, a study suggests.
Researchers analyzed reports on 500 MRI scans done for lower back pain that had been sent for review to Duke University. Of the scans with normal results, 106 were ordered by orthopedic surgeons who owned the machines, versus 57 by doctors without financial ties.
The results suggest that some doctors who own MRI scanners use them excessively on patients who probably don’t need them to help pay for the expensive equipment and make a profit, said study co-author Dr. Ramsey Kilani, a radiology instructor at Duke University who presented his results at this week’s Radiological Society of North America meeting at McCormick Place.
“Once you own a scanner, you have an incentive to run it 24 hours a day,” Kilani said.
Kilani declined to identify the city or the two orthopedic offices involved in the study but said similar results likely would be found in other cities.
Please read complete article at link below:
http://newssun.suntimes.com/lifestyles/9160504-423/study-doctors-financial-ties-can-lead-to-needless-mris.html
Movers, deputies refuse to evict 103-year-old woman
Movers, deputies refuse to evict 103-year-old woman
Movers and sheriff's deputies refused to evict 103-year-old from her home Tuesday.By Ryan Young
ATLANTA, Ga. —
A 103-year-old woman and her 83-year-old daughter were just moments from being evicted from their home Tuesday, when sheriff's deputies and the moving company hired by the bank decided not to go through with the action.
Channel 2's Ryan Young was there when the family started thanking God for the miracle. At just three weeks shy of her 104th birthday, Vinia Hall has shared her home on Penelope Road in Northwest Atlanta with her daughter for 53 years.
"I love it. It's a mansion," Hall said about her house.
Fulton County sheriff's deputies and movers showed up at Hall's home Tuesday after Deutsche Bank planned to kick the two women out. The moving company and the deputies took one look at Lee and decided that would not happen.
"I saw the sheriffs, who came to put them out, take off and leave. I gave all glory to God," community activist Michael Langford said.
"This family has been waging a war against Deutsche Bank," community activist Derrick Boezeman said.
Channel 2's Ryan Young asked Hall is she was worried about being kicked out of the home.
"No, I knew that they know what they were doing. God don't let them do wrong," Hall said. The house and case have been in the court system for years. Possible eviction seemed too much for Hall's daughter Tuesday. She was rushed to the hospital.
"Please don't come in and disturb me no more. When I'm gone you all can come back and do whatever they want to," Hall said.
For now, Hall remains in the home. State Senator Vincent Fort told Young on Wednesday that the loan is held by Deustche Bank but is being serviced locally by Chase. Family members said they had enough money to pay the loan, but were having a difficult time getting Chase to accept a payment.
Stay with Channel 2 Action News and WSBTV.com for updates on this developing story.
Please read complete article and view video at link below:
http://www.wsbtv.com/news/news/movers-sheriffs-deputies-refuse-evict-103-year-old/nFp4Q/
Mary Sykes - demand for Mary Sykes to be produced in open Court
Mary Sykes - demand for Mary Sykes to be produced in open Court
I understand that certain friends and family members have a pro se matter in the Federal Court pending that involves Mary Sykes. A proceeding is scheduled for tomorrow. In my opinion it is important that Mary Sykes be in Court tomorrow.
There is no basis for Mary Sykes' continued isolation from her family, her friends, and in particular her siblings and her younger daughter. That said, I understand that yesterday there was a temporary break - Mary Sykes had a visit yesterday with her siblings. Cousin Debbie was allowed by Mr. STern to visit out of the plenary guardian's presence. It is always interesting that some type of lawsuit or other extreme measure has to occur for Mary to be freed from her isolation.
As you are aware from my prior e-mails, the Judges' clerk requested that I be in Court for the hearing. The clerk discussed with me my appointment as a guardian ad litem for Mary. So that the Court has as many facts as possible before it, and we can avoid the unpleasantness that has occurred in the past:
Demand is made that you produce in open Court Mary Sykes so that the Court can observe her and make its own determinations.
It has been contended by a number of family member that Mary has expressed and continues to express her desire to rid herself of the yolk of her older daughter being her plenary guardian. It has been reported that Mary desires to be part of her church, her garden club, and live in her own home. Mary should be given the opportunity to express her desires, rather than have the Court rely upon representations of 'outsiders' who are now being accused of very serious miscreant matters.
At some time in the future there must be a discussion of the true facts concerning the numerous trips to the emergency room that Mary has endured and the circumstances. The December 2010 events are most disturbing. Mary's presence in open Court and free to express herself will do a great deal to shine light on what, if anything, has been going on.
There were some positives that were communicated to me, to wit: Mary actually was allowed to see her siblings, and was allowed to talk on the telephone to her daughter. It was reported to me that Mary regained the 10% of her body weight that she lost during the admitted guardian neglect scenario of December 2010. It was also reported that Mary was articulate and is reasonably together.
When Mary is brought to Court tomorrow please make certain that she has her hearing aids, and that no drugs are administered that will impead her ability to communicate.
Ken Ditkowsky
www.ditkowskylawoffice.com
Minidoka National Historical Site
Community Preservation
HISTORICAL PRESERVATION
Minidoka National Historical Site
During World War II, over 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry were forcibly interned in remote, military-style camps set up by the U.S. government. Minidoka was one of the ten Japanese internment camps operating in World War II under Executive Order 9066, located in Jerome County, Idaho in a remote high desert area. The concentration camp site was established as a national historical monument in 2001 and as a national historical site in 2008.
Recently, there have been plans to run power lines through this historic site. While JACL recognizes that a power line could bring much needed energy to the citizens of Idaho and Nevada, we also advocate caution when dealing with such a historic site. JACL urges Secretary Ken Salazar of the United States Department of Interior and members of Congress to revise plans for the power line. The Minidoka National Historic Site serves not only as a historical landmark but as a crucial reminder to all Americans of how fragile our Constitution can be in times of crisis, and that we must be vigilant and true to the principles of our nation so that this episode is never repeated.
Wakamatsu Preservation Act
In 1869, seven Japanese citizens sailed to California to found the Wakamatsu Tea and Silk Colony. This site is recognized by the state of California and the JACL as the first Japanese settlement in the United States. It is considered the location that brought together Japanese and American cultures, and established California as the gateway for Pacific immigration into the U.S.
On May 19, 2010, the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources held a hearing on S. 1596, the Gold-Hill Wakamatsu Preservation Act. The act aims to preserve the location of the first Japanese American settlement. What makes this act even more pressing is that the Veerkamp family, which has maintained the land since 1875, wants to sell it. JACL believes federal acquisition of the land would help preserve this important landmark.
Please read complete article at link below:
http://www.jacl.org/public_policy/community.htm
KawamotoDragon.com
HISTORICAL PRESERVATION
Minidoka National Historical Site
During World War II, over 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry were forcibly interned in remote, military-style camps set up by the U.S. government. Minidoka was one of the ten Japanese internment camps operating in World War II under Executive Order 9066, located in Jerome County, Idaho in a remote high desert area. The concentration camp site was established as a national historical monument in 2001 and as a national historical site in 2008.
Recently, there have been plans to run power lines through this historic site. While JACL recognizes that a power line could bring much needed energy to the citizens of Idaho and Nevada, we also advocate caution when dealing with such a historic site. JACL urges Secretary Ken Salazar of the United States Department of Interior and members of Congress to revise plans for the power line. The Minidoka National Historic Site serves not only as a historical landmark but as a crucial reminder to all Americans of how fragile our Constitution can be in times of crisis, and that we must be vigilant and true to the principles of our nation so that this episode is never repeated.
Wakamatsu Preservation Act
In 1869, seven Japanese citizens sailed to California to found the Wakamatsu Tea and Silk Colony. This site is recognized by the state of California and the JACL as the first Japanese settlement in the United States. It is considered the location that brought together Japanese and American cultures, and established California as the gateway for Pacific immigration into the U.S.
On May 19, 2010, the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources held a hearing on S. 1596, the Gold-Hill Wakamatsu Preservation Act. The act aims to preserve the location of the first Japanese American settlement. What makes this act even more pressing is that the Veerkamp family, which has maintained the land since 1875, wants to sell it. JACL believes federal acquisition of the land would help preserve this important landmark.
Please read complete article at link below:
http://www.jacl.org/public_policy/community.htm
KawamotoDragon.com
Lake Forest school board votes for independent audit in principal sexting case
Read more about Lake County, IL corruption and coverup
Lake Forest school board votes for independent audit in principal sexting case
By Sue Ter Maat
Tribune reporter
9:16 PM CST, November 29, 2011
The board of Lake Forest School District 67 voted unanimously tonight for an independent review of how a previous board handled a middle school principal who had pleaded guilty to phone harassment of a 22-year-old school intern.
The board hired Chicago-based attorney Ronald S. Safer, who will go over court records for a public report that will be handed to a school board subcommittee by mid-January, said John Julian, the board’s vice president.
“We want to give every indication that this is above board,” Julian said about the hiring of Safer. “We are trying to address all of the concerns of the community.”
Deer Path Middle School Principal John Steinert, 40, resigned earlier this month after the Tribune revealed that he had pleaded guilty in 2009 to a misdemeanor harassment charge for using his work cellphone to send a lewd photograph and texts to a 22-year-old college intern he met through his job.
Since the details emerged, many parents have expressed anger at how Lake Forest School District 67 handled the incident, and some parents have called for the resignation of Superintendent Harry Griffith and school board members.
Julian and three current board members who were not on the board at the time of the principal's reprimand will form the subcommittee. Julian added that he didn't know how much the district would pay Safer for his services.
This group will decide whether there was any wrongdoing by former board members, based on Safer's report. They are also tasked with determining whether the board's policies were followed and whether the board needs to change those policies, Julian said.
The board had considered forming two community task forces that would have reviewed the matter, but the board decided to go in this direction before forming any task forces, board President Julia Wold said.
Before the board's votes, residents offered a mixed bag of comments, with some asking for the board to resign and others praising the superintendent and board.
Four residents asked the community to give those who were involved the benefit of the doubt.
“I have known him (Griffith) for over a decade,” said Scott Phelps, a Lake Forest resident and parent. “He has always had the best intentions for the district. I admire him. I am a big fan of Dr. Griffith.”
But four other residents were not so charitable during a community forum earlier in the day. Bob Ely told the board that they had “embarrassed the community and the district,” so badly that the only honorable move was to leave immediately.
None of the board members or Griffith indicated that they would step down.
In previous meetings, Griffith had said he will not resign before his scheduled retirement next summer. The district is currently looking for his replacement in a nationwide search.
Griffith has said that the district conducted its own investigation and disciplined Steinert at the time but only saw a version of the police report in which the lurid nature of the texts was blacked out. Griffith confirmed the district did not interview the intern during theinternal investigaion, and Steinert, who only told district officials that he’d been flirting, had his salary temporarily frozen but was given a bonus within a year.
Please read complete article at link below:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chi-lake-forest-school-board-votes-for-independent-audit-in-principal-sexting-case-20111129,0,4133595.story
Lake Forest school board votes for independent audit in principal sexting case
By Sue Ter Maat
Tribune reporter
9:16 PM CST, November 29, 2011
The board of Lake Forest School District 67 voted unanimously tonight for an independent review of how a previous board handled a middle school principal who had pleaded guilty to phone harassment of a 22-year-old school intern.
The board hired Chicago-based attorney Ronald S. Safer, who will go over court records for a public report that will be handed to a school board subcommittee by mid-January, said John Julian, the board’s vice president.
“We want to give every indication that this is above board,” Julian said about the hiring of Safer. “We are trying to address all of the concerns of the community.”
Deer Path Middle School Principal John Steinert, 40, resigned earlier this month after the Tribune revealed that he had pleaded guilty in 2009 to a misdemeanor harassment charge for using his work cellphone to send a lewd photograph and texts to a 22-year-old college intern he met through his job.
Since the details emerged, many parents have expressed anger at how Lake Forest School District 67 handled the incident, and some parents have called for the resignation of Superintendent Harry Griffith and school board members.
Julian and three current board members who were not on the board at the time of the principal's reprimand will form the subcommittee. Julian added that he didn't know how much the district would pay Safer for his services.
This group will decide whether there was any wrongdoing by former board members, based on Safer's report. They are also tasked with determining whether the board's policies were followed and whether the board needs to change those policies, Julian said.
The board had considered forming two community task forces that would have reviewed the matter, but the board decided to go in this direction before forming any task forces, board President Julia Wold said.
Before the board's votes, residents offered a mixed bag of comments, with some asking for the board to resign and others praising the superintendent and board.
Four residents asked the community to give those who were involved the benefit of the doubt.
“I have known him (Griffith) for over a decade,” said Scott Phelps, a Lake Forest resident and parent. “He has always had the best intentions for the district. I admire him. I am a big fan of Dr. Griffith.”
But four other residents were not so charitable during a community forum earlier in the day. Bob Ely told the board that they had “embarrassed the community and the district,” so badly that the only honorable move was to leave immediately.
None of the board members or Griffith indicated that they would step down.
In previous meetings, Griffith had said he will not resign before his scheduled retirement next summer. The district is currently looking for his replacement in a nationwide search.
Griffith has said that the district conducted its own investigation and disciplined Steinert at the time but only saw a version of the police report in which the lurid nature of the texts was blacked out. Griffith confirmed the district did not interview the intern during theinternal investigaion, and Steinert, who only told district officials that he’d been flirting, had his salary temporarily frozen but was given a bonus within a year.
Please read complete article at link below:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chi-lake-forest-school-board-votes-for-independent-audit-in-principal-sexting-case-20111129,0,4133595.story
Charity for Japan Earthquake and Tsunami
Charity for Japan Earthquake and Tsunami
NHK, Central Community Chest of Japan (CCCJ), The Japanese Red Cross Society (JRCS) and NHK Public Welfare Organization have organized a charity for the victims of the recent earthquake and tsunami in northern Japan.
If you wish to make your donation to be distributed directly among the affected population of the disaster, please see the following website of The Japanese Red Cross Society.
JAPANESE RED CROSS SOCIETY - Japan Earthquake and Tsunami Donation
http://www.jrc.or.jp/eq-japan2011/index.html
Thank you very much for your kind thoughts.
http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/info/info01.html
KawamotoDragon.com
NHK, Central Community Chest of Japan (CCCJ), The Japanese Red Cross Society (JRCS) and NHK Public Welfare Organization have organized a charity for the victims of the recent earthquake and tsunami in northern Japan.
If you wish to make your donation to be distributed directly among the affected population of the disaster, please see the following website of The Japanese Red Cross Society.
JAPANESE RED CROSS SOCIETY - Japan Earthquake and Tsunami Donation
http://www.jrc.or.jp/eq-japan2011/index.html
Thank you very much for your kind thoughts.
http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/info/info01.html
KawamotoDragon.com
When Family Abets The Heartbreak of Guardian Abuse
When Family Abets The Heartbreak of Guardian Abuse
by Jim Fargiano
Spoken Words of Spirit inc.
My approach to this seventh article was forced into a different direction. For those of you who may not know what I do, I received a rather unexpected “calling” to be able to communicate with the other side. In the past eighteen years, I have found that it makes little difference when it comes to my personal thoughts about my life path. While I have been helping people in innumerable ways during this time, either through communication with their loved ones, or by sharing the many motivational and inspirational words that come from a Higher Source, when I am sent on a varied excursion, I try to follow the call. This is what has led me to the harsh, emotional world of law guardian abuse. It poses a problem for me because I want to expect that all people are intrinsically good, yet I am finding that a select few are proving to the world that they obviously are not.
Recently, I met Diane at the home of her now deceased mother, Dorothy, to help her move out the treadmill Diane bought and gave her Mom to use when she was still healthy enough to do so. A good friend of mine took the hour-plus ride to help me. The courts approved Diane as temporary executrix of her loving mother’s estate. Since both of Diane’s parents felt that out of their three children, she was the only one they could trust to give power of attorney, healthcare proxy and ultimately the executrix position, automatically one would have to assume that the eldest and youngest sibling did not warrant that respect. While I have had to write the previous articles based on witness statements, court transcripts, e-mails and comments to my writings, much of the information had been given to me by Diane. Until I started researching what she was telling me, I had to trust that everything she told me contained no falsehoods, regardless of how unbelievable some of what she shared was. While I never had reason to doubt her, seeing things in written words only validated her truthful demeanor and approach. It is remarkable to see that family members who are supposed to love their mother could team up with a seemingly corrupt judge, law guardian, healthcare manager and even Dorothy’s court appointed attorney to propagate, extend and expand the abuse.
What should have been a simple project and favor for Diane, turned into a wasted day of everyone’s time. While my friend and I were in the basement trying to figure out the easiest way to hoist a very heavy piece of exercise equipment up a tight flight of stairs, Diane’s brother stormed into the house. To ask for simple pleasantries was immediately out of the picture, as his attitude was as nasty and narrow-minded as some of the e-mails and comments he had sent me. I said hello to him when he came downstairs, and he started asking what we were doing, even though he had already been told upstairs. I have learned that the best way to see the true demeanor of a person is to let them speak. Virtually every word that came out of his mouth was either antagonistic or a straight out lie
Please read complete article that is continued at link below:
http://jfargiano.wrytestuff.com/swa792259-When-Family-Abets-The-Heartbreak-Of-Guardian-Abuse.htm
by Jim Fargiano
Spoken Words of Spirit inc.
My approach to this seventh article was forced into a different direction. For those of you who may not know what I do, I received a rather unexpected “calling” to be able to communicate with the other side. In the past eighteen years, I have found that it makes little difference when it comes to my personal thoughts about my life path. While I have been helping people in innumerable ways during this time, either through communication with their loved ones, or by sharing the many motivational and inspirational words that come from a Higher Source, when I am sent on a varied excursion, I try to follow the call. This is what has led me to the harsh, emotional world of law guardian abuse. It poses a problem for me because I want to expect that all people are intrinsically good, yet I am finding that a select few are proving to the world that they obviously are not.
Recently, I met Diane at the home of her now deceased mother, Dorothy, to help her move out the treadmill Diane bought and gave her Mom to use when she was still healthy enough to do so. A good friend of mine took the hour-plus ride to help me. The courts approved Diane as temporary executrix of her loving mother’s estate. Since both of Diane’s parents felt that out of their three children, she was the only one they could trust to give power of attorney, healthcare proxy and ultimately the executrix position, automatically one would have to assume that the eldest and youngest sibling did not warrant that respect. While I have had to write the previous articles based on witness statements, court transcripts, e-mails and comments to my writings, much of the information had been given to me by Diane. Until I started researching what she was telling me, I had to trust that everything she told me contained no falsehoods, regardless of how unbelievable some of what she shared was. While I never had reason to doubt her, seeing things in written words only validated her truthful demeanor and approach. It is remarkable to see that family members who are supposed to love their mother could team up with a seemingly corrupt judge, law guardian, healthcare manager and even Dorothy’s court appointed attorney to propagate, extend and expand the abuse.
What should have been a simple project and favor for Diane, turned into a wasted day of everyone’s time. While my friend and I were in the basement trying to figure out the easiest way to hoist a very heavy piece of exercise equipment up a tight flight of stairs, Diane’s brother stormed into the house. To ask for simple pleasantries was immediately out of the picture, as his attitude was as nasty and narrow-minded as some of the e-mails and comments he had sent me. I said hello to him when he came downstairs, and he started asking what we were doing, even though he had already been told upstairs. I have learned that the best way to see the true demeanor of a person is to let them speak. Virtually every word that came out of his mouth was either antagonistic or a straight out lie
Please read complete article that is continued at link below:
http://jfargiano.wrytestuff.com/swa792259-When-Family-Abets-The-Heartbreak-Of-Guardian-Abuse.htm
Idaho lawyer honored for landmark rights case
Idaho lawyer honored for landmark rights case
By: JOHN MILLER
11/23/11 11:35 AM
Associated Press
FILE - In this March 6, 2011 file photo, Allen Derr, right, who 70 years ago served in the Idaho House as a legislative page when he was just 13, speaks with the latest class of pages in Boise, Idaho. Derr is being honored for his role as the lawyer for Sally Reed, a woman whose 1971 victory in the U.S. Supreme Court marked the first time that justices struck down any law or government policy on grounds that it violated the rights of women to equal protection under the Constitution. Tuesday marOn an April morning in 1968, Sally Reed walked through the doors of a law office just north of Boise's downtown and into the history of women's gradually expanding civil rights.
Lawyer Allen Derr took Reed's bitter fight with her estranged husband over whether she should be appointed to oversee her dead son's estate to the U.S. Supreme Court. Four decades later, Derr is being celebrated for helping her cement into legal tradition what people now take for granted: States can't discriminate against people based on their gender.
"When she came to me, she'd just been turned down by the probate court, in a very short, one-page decision," Derr, who at 83 still practices in Boise, told The Associated Press. "She was hurt and outraged."
Tuesday was the 40th anniversary of the Supreme Court's Nov. 22, 1971, decision in Reed v. Reed, and Derr is racking up the accolades. The University of Idaho, his alma mater, is recognizing him next week, and he appeared at the National Press Club in Washington last week alongside the lawyer who wrote Reed's legal brief, current Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
It's a story that began with family tragedy: Richard Reed, just 16, turned his father's rifle on himself in March 1967. He had no will.
Still grieving, Sally Reed and Cecil Reed filed separate petitions to oversee his small estate of less than $1,000. The county probate court was quick and efficient: The dead man's father, it concluded, won out because he was a man.
If more than one person claimed to be equally entitled, "males must be preferred to females, and relatives of the whole to those of the half blood," according to an 1864 Idaho law.
Derr, who recalls Reed as a farm girl who was accompanied by two female friends for moral support when she arrived at his door, won his appeal to Idaho's 4th District Court.
But its decision was overturned when Cecil Reed appealed to the Idaho Supreme Court, whose justices found the Idaho Legislature more than a century ago had "concluded that in general men are better qualified to act as an administrator than are women" and that "nature itself had established the distinction."
Ginsburg, at the time a Rutgers University law professor and American Civil Liberties Union volunteer, didn't immediately return a call from the AP on Wednesday.
But after the U.S. Supreme Court took up Reed's case, Ginsburg led others writing the brief that accompanied Derr's basic argument: That the Constitution's 14th Amendment forbade such discrimination.
In their 7-0 decision, Supreme Court justices including Chief Justice Warren E. Burger and Thurgood Marshall agreed, writing that to "give a mandatory preference to members of either sex over members of the other ... is to make the very kind of arbitrary legislative choice forbidden by the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment."
"It was the first case where the Supreme Court ever struck down any law or government policy on grounds that it violated the rights of women to equal protection under the Constitution," Marcia Greenberger, co-president of the National Women's Law Center in Washington, D.C., told the AP on Wednesday. "Its legacy is a string of cases over the last forty years that changed the landscape for both men and women, opening up equal opportunities for education, employment, credit, government benefits — and the list goes on."
Reed v. Reed, for instance, laid the foundations for the 1996 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that it was unconstitutional for the Virginia Military Institute, a school supported by public funds, to exclude women.
Ginsburg wrote that decision.
Historians Alan Brinkley and James McPherson included the Reed v. Reed decision in their 2001 book "Days of Destiny," a profile of 31 uncelebrated days that changed the course of history, though Derr points out the celebrations have since begun in earnest.
In August, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals featured his victory in its annual conference, in a presentation entitled "Where Did the Constitutional Law of Gender Discrimination Come From, and Where has it Taken Us?"
Derr remembers Sally Reed as an unassuming but persistent woman who never sought the limelight. When she died in 2002 at the age of 93, he said, 12 people including him and his wife attended her funeral.
She'd outlived nearly all of her friends.
Reed was simply a woman dismayed that a law predating Idaho's 1890 statehood by 26 years could deny her a chance to administer her dead son's legacy just because she was a woman.
"This wasn't a test case. I didn't know her before she came to my office," Derr said. "I've always considered I was just doing my job. But it's true: All of the stars were lined up. A fortunate accident at a time and a place."
Read more at the Washington Examiner:
http://washingtonexaminer.com/news/2011/11/idaho-lawyer-honored-landmark-rights-case#ixzz1fC1XoYyP
Please read complete article at link below:
http://washingtonexaminer.com/news/2011/11/idaho-lawyer-honored-landmark-rights-case
Man accidentally gives away life savings hidden away in donated suit
Man accidentally gives away life savings hidden away in donated suit
Updated 11-30-2011
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chi-elderly-man-says-he-hid-life-savings-in-suit-donated-to-goodwill-20111130,0,2526363.story
.By Eric Pfeiffer
.PostsRSS .By Eric Pfeiffer
There's a cynical old saying that "no good deed goes unpunished." That adage has proved true for an elderly Illinois man who accidentally gave away his entire life savings when making a clothing donation to his local Goodwill.
The 80-year-old man, who didn't trust banks, had kept his life savings of $13,000 sewn inside the lining of one of his suits. He is currently appealing for the money's return so that he can care for his wife, who has Stage 4 cancer.
Please read complete article at link below:
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/man-accidentally-gives-away-life-savings-hidden-away-165333331.html
Editor's note: Very sad, but true activity with many old folks. According to Cook County Probate Court records, Mary Sykes stashed cash in a mattress. That money along with numerous gold coins has yet to be accounted for. Lucius Verenus, Schoolmaster, ProbateSharks.com
Updated 11-30-2011
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chi-elderly-man-says-he-hid-life-savings-in-suit-donated-to-goodwill-20111130,0,2526363.story
.By Eric Pfeiffer
.PostsRSS .By Eric Pfeiffer
There's a cynical old saying that "no good deed goes unpunished." That adage has proved true for an elderly Illinois man who accidentally gave away his entire life savings when making a clothing donation to his local Goodwill.
The 80-year-old man, who didn't trust banks, had kept his life savings of $13,000 sewn inside the lining of one of his suits. He is currently appealing for the money's return so that he can care for his wife, who has Stage 4 cancer.
Please read complete article at link below:
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/man-accidentally-gives-away-life-savings-hidden-away-165333331.html
Editor's note: Very sad, but true activity with many old folks. According to Cook County Probate Court records, Mary Sykes stashed cash in a mattress. That money along with numerous gold coins has yet to be accounted for. Lucius Verenus, Schoolmaster, ProbateSharks.com
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
To Kill a Messenger -- for Reporting a Corrupt Judge
To Kill a Messenger -- for Reporting a Corrupt Judge
http://DougSchafer.com
(Click on any underlined words to link to the document or other source material.)
On April 17, 2003, a 9-judge panel of the Washington State Supreme Court figuratively killed this messenger, then 24-year lawyer Doug Schafer, for having reported too much illuminating information in 1996 about a very corrupt judge. Click here for the court's misguided published ruling. What's more, the court's black-robed lawyers dishonestly and maliciously maligned me with their many fabricated untrue "facts" and suspended my law license for 6 months. Click here for my statement observing that the court's ruling destroys public confidence in our judicial system because it ranks lawyer-client secrecy as more important than judicial system integrity.
The irony is that the author of the majority opinion, Justice Bobbe J. Bridge (who admitted March 26, 2003 to needing treatment for her alcoholism and "mental health issues"), for many years (until after her February 2003 DUI and hit-and-run arrest made international headlines) chaired our state judiciary's Public Trust and Confidence Committee! (Here's my recent message to the members of that committee.) Legal and ethics scholars are now writing about "Schafer's Dilemma" and expressing belated support for my reporting of the corrupt judge notwithstanding client confidentiality issues.
I filed a timely Motion to Reconsider with a Supplement pointing out some of the outrageous ethical, factual, legal, and judgmental mistakes infecting the court's ruling, but those 9 black-robed lawyers simply denied my motion with a one-sentence Order -- "motion denied" -- on June 23, 2003. As sages have long observed, "Absolute power corrupts absolutely!" I also had formally requested public records of certain judges' past vacation schedules to probe the tainting relationship between Justice pro tem Karen Seinfeld (from Pierce County) and corrupt former Pierce County Superior Court judge Grant "Cadillac" Anderson's friends and defenders, but my requests were flatly denied.
News coverage: Associated Press Tacoma's News Tribune New York Lawyer National Law Journal
New York Times (alt) (my correction to NYT) (to ABA Cheek Task Force) (NYT lawyers' malicious motive)
My pleas that NY Times lawyers correct their falsehoods: (e-mails) (faxed documents)
Corrections to take-offs from the NY Times hit piece: Scripps Howard News Service WV Gazette
South Sound Business Examiner (Tacoma-Olympia) 5/12/03 story on me and other "Victims of the System."
Well-wishers: Law Prof. Susan Koniak Law Prof. Tony D'Amato Bus. Ethics Prof. LaRue Hosmer (with link to his law journal article)
Letters to Editors: SeaTimes 4/19 TNT 4/22 TNT 4/27 TNT 5/7
Editorials: News Tribune Boston Herald
My Letter to My Clients and Friends My Press Release of May 8, 2003. My exchanges with Bar officials on the Public Notice of Discipline.
On April 29, 2003, the ABA [Jim Cheek] Task Force on Corporate Responsibility issued its final report (click here for an excerpt) joining the ranks of every other responsible body (e.g., ABA Ethics 2000 Commission, Conference of Chief Justices) that has considered the matter by recommending that the ABA's model ethics rules for lawyers be changed at the ABA convention in early August 2003 (click here for the convention-packet report) to once again allow lawyers to reveal client information in order to prevent a fraud or a crime, or to rectify past fraud or crime in furtherance of which the client used the lawyer's services. This applies to all clients -- corporate and human ones. With strong support by the ABA leadership, the ABA House of Delegates on August 11, 2003, approved this change to the ABA's1983 model ethics rules for lawyers. [Click here for a news report (AP 8/11/03).] The change essentially will restore the traditional public-interest exceptions to client confidentiality that existed in the ABA's 1908 and 1969 ethics codes (and in Washington state's lawyer ethics code until 1985).
On the need for federalization of lawyer ethics rules and enforcement, see http://EvergreenEthics.com/SEC/ with my two comment letters to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on its proposed lawyer ethics rules.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Washington State Supreme Court in April 2003 ruled against my appeal of the State Bar Disciplinary Board's recommendation that the Court suspend my lawyer license for disclosing a client's secret in Feb.1996 when I reported a corrupt judge who the Court finally removed in Sept.1999. Posted here are the details about the corrupt judge's case and the case against me for reporting him, including my Opening Brief (and its Appendix), the state bar's Answering Brief (that it refused to provide in electronic format), my Reply Brief and some journal articles cited in my briefs. I occasionally supplement the briefs with Statements of Additional Authorities, and here post the First, Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth , Seventh, and Eighth of those statements. The State Supreme Court hearing held May 7, 2002, may be listened to on-line anytime (click here) with RealPlayer thanks to TVW. For news stories on that hearing, click here (Seattle Weekly), here (AP) and here (Tribune). Many documents posted here are in PDF format, that requires the free Adobe Acrobat Reader, available from www.adobe.com.
Doug Schafer, idealistic lawyer in Tacoma, Washington.
Related websites: http://EvergreenEthics.com http://Doug4Justice.org
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jump-to Links: Click on any of these website headings to jump to its contents:
Introduction.
Overview of the "pattern of dishonest behavior" by former Judge Anderson and his colleagues.
The Public Judicial Disciplinary Case leading to Judge Anderson's removal; but see Ineffective Bar Discipline.
News clippings about Judge Anderson's corrupt conduct.
Legislative interest in Constitutionally recalling Judge Anderson; My call for Legislative overhaul of the lawyer and judge disciplinary systems.
Financial fraud, insurance fraud, and criminal activities of Anderson and friends that were not publicly exposed.
Judge Anderson and law partner David Tuell's "shopping" of Pacific Lanes; Local Bar's Cover-ups.
Liquor and Gambling Licensing Law Crimes.
The State Bar's disciplinary case against me, lawyer Doug Schafer, the whistle blower.
Washington State Supreme Court's Rules of Professional Conduct for lawyers.
The evolving ethics of the legal profession -- important current developments.
My national agenda for reform of lawyer and judicial ethics.
My Frequently Asked Questions page.
Selected media coverage of these issues.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Introduction.
I, Douglas A. Schafer, a solo lawyer in Tacoma, Washington, have been charged with misconduct by Washington State Bar officials who recommended in May 2001 that the Washington State Supreme Court suspend my law license for a yearfor having disclosed my former client Bill Hamilton's secrets when I reported in Feb.1996 documented evidence of corrupt conduct by Pierce County Superior Court Judge Grant L. Anderson involving my former client. It took 3 1/2 years before Judge Anderson was finally removed by the Washington State Supreme Court in Sept. 1999. The Court concluded that his acts "clearly exhibit a pattern of dishonest behavior unbecoming of a judge." Among other things (discussed below), the Supreme Court found that Judge Anderson secretly accepted from Hamilton $31,000 in payments on his new Cadillac and coincidentally reduced by $92,000 Hamilton's purchase money debt for a bowling center that Anderson had sold to him, on the eve of become a judge, from a deceased client's estate of which Anderson was the executor. The State Bar had found nothing wrong with that for over 4 years -- and on March 15, 2000, the Bar cut a deal with former judge Anderson for merely a 2-year suspension of his license to practice law, which they justify only by covering up the full extent of his fraudulent misconduct! (That is exposed below.)
In Feb. 1996, I reported to disciplinary and law enforcement authorities, among other things, that Hamilton had told me in 1992 that he needed a corporation formed quickly because he was buying a bowling center from an estate that his lawyer-friend (Anderson) had been "milking" for over three years, that the friend was closing the estate quickly to become a judge so there was not time for an appraisal, that the friend was giving him a good deal and he intended to repay the friend later in some way for it. I then told Hamilton that I didn't want to hear about it; I simply formed his one-owner corporation (a routine $300 task). I waited for the three-year statute of limitations to lapse on whatever Hamilton may have done, then investigated that estate myself and reported the obvious and overwhelming evidence of Anderson's self-dealing and other grave misconduct to the authorities. (See Exhibits 1 and 2 to my Answer, below.)
This website is to post links and copies of documents that relate to the Judge's case and to the Bar staff's disciplinary case against me. My hope is that this case will inspire public discussion about the proper role of lawyers within our society and our legal-judicial system: Should lawyers be society's "guardians of our law and justice system" or simply "hired-gun mercenaries" for their clients, even corrupt ones? For example, if a victorious client credibly boasts to his or her lawyer of having bribed the judge, shouldn't the lawyer report the corrupt judge to appropriate authorities? And shouldn't the lawyer report the judge even over the objection of the bribe-paying client? If our society declares that a lawyer must silently tolerate a judge who he or she knows to be corrupt, then the lawyer will only be able to serve future clients before that judge by acquiescing in the tolerated corruption--paying the judge's bribes (or associating the judge's friends as co-counsel). If we acquiese in a corrupt "justice" system, then winning for the client at any cost becomes the only goal. Law and justice? What law and justice?
I contend that I was used as a tool by Mr. Hamilton to achieve his lawless goals, so under the well-established crime-fraud exception his comments to me were not made in a "professional relationship" that the law treats as confidential. (See my letter of 12/7/99 arguing this to Hearing Officer Mills.) Further, I feel that the highest duty of a lawyer as an "officer of the court" is to preserve or restore integrity in our judicial system (it's not owned by judges or lawyers, it belongs to all of us).
Please read complete article at link below:
http://www.dougschafer.com/
Editor's note: This Shark has found another "Man for All Seasons". Lucius Verenus, Schoolmaster, ProbateSharks.com
http://DougSchafer.com
(Click on any underlined words to link to the document or other source material.)
On April 17, 2003, a 9-judge panel of the Washington State Supreme Court figuratively killed this messenger, then 24-year lawyer Doug Schafer, for having reported too much illuminating information in 1996 about a very corrupt judge. Click here for the court's misguided published ruling. What's more, the court's black-robed lawyers dishonestly and maliciously maligned me with their many fabricated untrue "facts" and suspended my law license for 6 months. Click here for my statement observing that the court's ruling destroys public confidence in our judicial system because it ranks lawyer-client secrecy as more important than judicial system integrity.
The irony is that the author of the majority opinion, Justice Bobbe J. Bridge (who admitted March 26, 2003 to needing treatment for her alcoholism and "mental health issues"), for many years (until after her February 2003 DUI and hit-and-run arrest made international headlines) chaired our state judiciary's Public Trust and Confidence Committee! (Here's my recent message to the members of that committee.) Legal and ethics scholars are now writing about "Schafer's Dilemma" and expressing belated support for my reporting of the corrupt judge notwithstanding client confidentiality issues.
I filed a timely Motion to Reconsider with a Supplement pointing out some of the outrageous ethical, factual, legal, and judgmental mistakes infecting the court's ruling, but those 9 black-robed lawyers simply denied my motion with a one-sentence Order -- "motion denied" -- on June 23, 2003. As sages have long observed, "Absolute power corrupts absolutely!" I also had formally requested public records of certain judges' past vacation schedules to probe the tainting relationship between Justice pro tem Karen Seinfeld (from Pierce County) and corrupt former Pierce County Superior Court judge Grant "Cadillac" Anderson's friends and defenders, but my requests were flatly denied.
News coverage: Associated Press Tacoma's News Tribune New York Lawyer National Law Journal
New York Times (alt) (my correction to NYT) (to ABA Cheek Task Force) (NYT lawyers' malicious motive)
My pleas that NY Times lawyers correct their falsehoods: (e-mails) (faxed documents)
Corrections to take-offs from the NY Times hit piece: Scripps Howard News Service WV Gazette
South Sound Business Examiner (Tacoma-Olympia) 5/12/03 story on me and other "Victims of the System."
Well-wishers: Law Prof. Susan Koniak Law Prof. Tony D'Amato Bus. Ethics Prof. LaRue Hosmer (with link to his law journal article)
Letters to Editors: SeaTimes 4/19 TNT 4/22 TNT 4/27 TNT 5/7
Editorials: News Tribune Boston Herald
My Letter to My Clients and Friends My Press Release of May 8, 2003. My exchanges with Bar officials on the Public Notice of Discipline.
On April 29, 2003, the ABA [Jim Cheek] Task Force on Corporate Responsibility issued its final report (click here for an excerpt) joining the ranks of every other responsible body (e.g., ABA Ethics 2000 Commission, Conference of Chief Justices) that has considered the matter by recommending that the ABA's model ethics rules for lawyers be changed at the ABA convention in early August 2003 (click here for the convention-packet report) to once again allow lawyers to reveal client information in order to prevent a fraud or a crime, or to rectify past fraud or crime in furtherance of which the client used the lawyer's services. This applies to all clients -- corporate and human ones. With strong support by the ABA leadership, the ABA House of Delegates on August 11, 2003, approved this change to the ABA's1983 model ethics rules for lawyers. [Click here for a news report (AP 8/11/03).] The change essentially will restore the traditional public-interest exceptions to client confidentiality that existed in the ABA's 1908 and 1969 ethics codes (and in Washington state's lawyer ethics code until 1985).
On the need for federalization of lawyer ethics rules and enforcement, see http://EvergreenEthics.com/SEC/ with my two comment letters to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on its proposed lawyer ethics rules.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Washington State Supreme Court in April 2003 ruled against my appeal of the State Bar Disciplinary Board's recommendation that the Court suspend my lawyer license for disclosing a client's secret in Feb.1996 when I reported a corrupt judge who the Court finally removed in Sept.1999. Posted here are the details about the corrupt judge's case and the case against me for reporting him, including my Opening Brief (and its Appendix), the state bar's Answering Brief (that it refused to provide in electronic format), my Reply Brief and some journal articles cited in my briefs. I occasionally supplement the briefs with Statements of Additional Authorities, and here post the First, Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth , Seventh, and Eighth of those statements. The State Supreme Court hearing held May 7, 2002, may be listened to on-line anytime (click here) with RealPlayer thanks to TVW. For news stories on that hearing, click here (Seattle Weekly), here (AP) and here (Tribune). Many documents posted here are in PDF format, that requires the free Adobe Acrobat Reader, available from www.adobe.com.
Doug Schafer, idealistic lawyer in Tacoma, Washington.
Related websites: http://EvergreenEthics.com http://Doug4Justice.org
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jump-to Links: Click on any of these website headings to jump to its contents:
Introduction.
Overview of the "pattern of dishonest behavior" by former Judge Anderson and his colleagues.
The Public Judicial Disciplinary Case leading to Judge Anderson's removal; but see Ineffective Bar Discipline.
News clippings about Judge Anderson's corrupt conduct.
Legislative interest in Constitutionally recalling Judge Anderson; My call for Legislative overhaul of the lawyer and judge disciplinary systems.
Financial fraud, insurance fraud, and criminal activities of Anderson and friends that were not publicly exposed.
Judge Anderson and law partner David Tuell's "shopping" of Pacific Lanes; Local Bar's Cover-ups.
Liquor and Gambling Licensing Law Crimes.
The State Bar's disciplinary case against me, lawyer Doug Schafer, the whistle blower.
Washington State Supreme Court's Rules of Professional Conduct for lawyers.
The evolving ethics of the legal profession -- important current developments.
My national agenda for reform of lawyer and judicial ethics.
My Frequently Asked Questions page.
Selected media coverage of these issues.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Introduction.
I, Douglas A. Schafer, a solo lawyer in Tacoma, Washington, have been charged with misconduct by Washington State Bar officials who recommended in May 2001 that the Washington State Supreme Court suspend my law license for a yearfor having disclosed my former client Bill Hamilton's secrets when I reported in Feb.1996 documented evidence of corrupt conduct by Pierce County Superior Court Judge Grant L. Anderson involving my former client. It took 3 1/2 years before Judge Anderson was finally removed by the Washington State Supreme Court in Sept. 1999. The Court concluded that his acts "clearly exhibit a pattern of dishonest behavior unbecoming of a judge." Among other things (discussed below), the Supreme Court found that Judge Anderson secretly accepted from Hamilton $31,000 in payments on his new Cadillac and coincidentally reduced by $92,000 Hamilton's purchase money debt for a bowling center that Anderson had sold to him, on the eve of become a judge, from a deceased client's estate of which Anderson was the executor. The State Bar had found nothing wrong with that for over 4 years -- and on March 15, 2000, the Bar cut a deal with former judge Anderson for merely a 2-year suspension of his license to practice law, which they justify only by covering up the full extent of his fraudulent misconduct! (That is exposed below.)
In Feb. 1996, I reported to disciplinary and law enforcement authorities, among other things, that Hamilton had told me in 1992 that he needed a corporation formed quickly because he was buying a bowling center from an estate that his lawyer-friend (Anderson) had been "milking" for over three years, that the friend was closing the estate quickly to become a judge so there was not time for an appraisal, that the friend was giving him a good deal and he intended to repay the friend later in some way for it. I then told Hamilton that I didn't want to hear about it; I simply formed his one-owner corporation (a routine $300 task). I waited for the three-year statute of limitations to lapse on whatever Hamilton may have done, then investigated that estate myself and reported the obvious and overwhelming evidence of Anderson's self-dealing and other grave misconduct to the authorities. (See Exhibits 1 and 2 to my Answer, below.)
This website is to post links and copies of documents that relate to the Judge's case and to the Bar staff's disciplinary case against me. My hope is that this case will inspire public discussion about the proper role of lawyers within our society and our legal-judicial system: Should lawyers be society's "guardians of our law and justice system" or simply "hired-gun mercenaries" for their clients, even corrupt ones? For example, if a victorious client credibly boasts to his or her lawyer of having bribed the judge, shouldn't the lawyer report the corrupt judge to appropriate authorities? And shouldn't the lawyer report the judge even over the objection of the bribe-paying client? If our society declares that a lawyer must silently tolerate a judge who he or she knows to be corrupt, then the lawyer will only be able to serve future clients before that judge by acquiescing in the tolerated corruption--paying the judge's bribes (or associating the judge's friends as co-counsel). If we acquiese in a corrupt "justice" system, then winning for the client at any cost becomes the only goal. Law and justice? What law and justice?
I contend that I was used as a tool by Mr. Hamilton to achieve his lawless goals, so under the well-established crime-fraud exception his comments to me were not made in a "professional relationship" that the law treats as confidential. (See my letter of 12/7/99 arguing this to Hearing Officer Mills.) Further, I feel that the highest duty of a lawyer as an "officer of the court" is to preserve or restore integrity in our judicial system (it's not owned by judges or lawyers, it belongs to all of us).
Please read complete article at link below:
http://www.dougschafer.com/
Editor's note: This Shark has found another "Man for All Seasons". Lucius Verenus, Schoolmaster, ProbateSharks.com
Pauper v. Probate: How Will History Judge You? (Summation)
New post on Impeachrandykennedy's Blog
Pauper v. Probate: How Will History Judge You? (Summation)
by Danny Tate
"Pauper"
Pauper v. Probate
(The Biggest Business in the World)
In the First Court of Public Opinion
Pauper Case No. : PD1 (Public Domain)
v.
Probate Court Filed: November 8, 2011
Judge "We, the People", presiding
How Will History Judge You?
Our days are numbered, whether you believe by destiny or happenstance, and with this in mind I'm compelled to write these words.
My Summation, or Closing Argument, must come in the middle of this trial, Pauper v. Probate, for tomorrow may never offer me the opportunity to ask you this question and answer it for myself.
How will History judge you?
Whether you are informed or uninformed as to this case, the insiders point of view, or the outsider who just walked in, these words are for both, for we should all answer to ourselves how History will sum up our lives, our actions, our deeds, but least of all our accomplishments.
Accomplishments are like trophies we set up in the foyer of our minds as landmarks of what was deemed important by worldly standards, but it's our deeds, truly indeed, that must be measured and weighed, for whether they amount to shame or glory, they both are intended to be kept in the secret closets of our souls. For if a deed is of shame, we would all tend to hide it in a closet, yet if a deed is for Glory, it too should be held secret in a closet, displayed only by the eyes of eternity and the greatness of knowing it was done for heaven's sake and not the admiration of man.
I've spent my prime creating music and authoring lyrics for public consumption, yet there was always spiritual guideposts in place, though judged by some to be music considered the devil's and the lyrics profane, while others have proclaimed some certain song their "all-time favorite". I'll let history sort that out.
Today, I am unable to consider either, for in effect, I've been exiled from music professionally for the last five years, but the radio stays on at all hours in my mind, and I've written almost a hundred hours of music, documented only on cassette tapes recorded on a cheap cassette recorder from Wal-Mart, composed as if it would never be heard, and it may never, but I consider it my Opus. And what makes it even more beautiful and important is that all of these cassettes drowned in the Nashville flood of 2010, and I truly have no idea if these compositions could or will ever be recreated. But to create music as if it would never be heard was like giving away an entire fortune to a pauper in the back alley while no one watched.
It was a year into this "creation" before I could bring myself to listen back, for I wondered if it was just the rantings and ramblings of a mad man, or truly the beauty it seemed as the stream of consciousness swept through.
Riding the train down the coast of California for the first time, I pulled out one of these cassettes from a bag I carried them, a cheap bag that offered no protection from the elements, put on some cheap earphones, and hit "play".
For the first time in my life, music that I created brought me to tears and moved my soul in a way that reminded me of walking the aisle at summer youth camp when I "surrendered" to the ministry at sixteen, yet more primal and physical even, and far more spiritual. It was glorious, and that moment, while no one else on the train had a clue, was the best concert I've ever been to…
and no one applauded,
but my soul shouted, "Bravo!".
I wish a moment like this in your life to every reader, for it defined what life is truly all about: whatever greatness lies within, do it without consideration of ever being considered, and watch the heavens open.
Unless something miraculous were to change, I will never be considered for any Hall of Fame. My musical career will most likely fade faster than green grass could grow over my grave. But if the lights were to go out tonight, and I'm hoping they don't, but if they did, I am at peace with my contribution to the world of music, and I won't pretend to blame it on God.
To the legal minds who come here looking for evidence or those that come for the spectacle, ask yourself how you'd live out your greatness if your greatness were never considered.
Answer to yourself, how will history judge you.
If the lights were to go out tonight, and if there were a god we all had to stand before while our lives were replayed on some panoramic screen, with the angels of heaven and hell observing, would you be proud, or at least content, with your contribution?
Did you give, or did you take? Were you talking the "high road" while walking the low?
Were you proclaiming justice while disclaiming your duty to your oath? When truth came calling, did you answer with a lie? When your higher self was screaming for attention, did you turn a deaf ear and a blind eye?
I walk the road before me, and it has led me through the valley of the shadow of death, but I truly fear no evil, not anymore. I have faced the gun, more than once, and often wished the bullet had been dispensed in lieu of the life of exile wrought from being "conserved", for I would wish these years of conservation on no one, except for those that perpetrated the crime.
Yet, my personal summation would never have occurred so gloriously without these years of darkness, and for that, I thank my persecutors, but know that I will continue to prosecute until justice is served, and in the hope this never happens to any person again.
I do not fight this fight for myself. I fight it for the father of my children. And though I have committed the last few pages to exposing the instigator of this evil, I must also acknowledge that this same evil wrought the greatest love of my human life, my daughters.
It would be hypocritical to pronounce that I am free of despise and resentment, but I'm almost there, and I've reached almost a point of pity for my persecutors, for I now know what Christ meant when He put forth from the cross, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do".
I regret my first cigarette at eight years old more than my last hit of "crack" at 8 a.m., and history will prove this "conservatorship cum criminal" prosecution along the lines of the holocaust, truly. The patients have taken over the asylum. The crooks and liars are wearing black robes and populating democracies' benches. It's beyond absurd, its absolute tyranny times ten thousand.
The mother of my children, to her credit, tries very hard to be a good mother, though many of her efforts are misguided, and many to the point of pure evil, but I also pity her for she did not have a great father like I did, though I wonder if her hatred for her own father was embedded in her by her mother, as she tries to embed hatred for me in our daughters, but my love for my daughters is undeniable, and anyone that has witnessed our love will testify. And as the mother of my children, I must say thank you, but as the perpetrator of evil, I can only do what my conscience requires.
In the psychotic world of psychotherapy, there was also a golden fleece, when one of the "crazies" who practices psychotherapy told me, "Your daughters need to know you fought for them", and fight for them I do. It's the only way I know and I will never stop fighting for their lives and love, and seeking to protect them.
Even though I continue to despise their mother for perpetrating this egregious chapter of my life, for the love of my children, I do not want them to wake up one day hating their mother, the same way their mother attempts to make them hate me, the same way she hates her father, the same way her mother must have attempted to make her hate her father; and it is for that I pity her. At the same time, I revere her for giving me the greatest loves of my life, my daughters.
In closing, do you think I would ask for this? Do you think I would commit my life to creating music, just to leave the world known as a "crack-head" and a "pauper"?
Hell, no!
But this is the battle I've been involuntarily thrust into, and to walk away defeated, to walk away letting the bad guys win, to turn my back on those that suffer without a voice, it's just not in me. I'm wired to win. I'm wired to fight for those who are too weak to fight for themselves.
We, as Americans, as civilians of the planet Earth, are at a place and time in history like no other. Tyranny has arisen within democracy, and "we, the people…" are shut out, locked out, snuffed out of consideration in the pursuit of life, liberty and happiness.
While there is breath in me, I will fight the good fight, I will run the race, I will finish the course, and I will….
…keep the faith.
Danny Tate
November 30, 2011 at 2:13 am
Tags: Adam Dread, Attorney General of Tennessee, Chief Justice, Child Support Services, Christina Norris, COJ, Congressman Mike Turner, Conservatorship, Cornielia Clark, Crooks and Liars, Danny Tate, Daphne Davidson (Houck), David Callahan III, David E. Tate/Signet Pen and T-Shirts, Depart of Child Services, Dr. Peter Martin, Fifth Third Bank Probate Co-Conspirators, Governor Phil Bredesen, Guardian Abu se, Guardians, Jeannan Stuart, Judge Randy Kennedy, Michael Castellarin, Nashville, Probate Court, Robert E. Cooper, Senator Mae Beavers, Tennessee Attorney General, Tennessee Governor Haslam, Tennessee Supreme Court of the Judiciary, The Board of Professional Responsibility, The Nashville Bar, The Nashville Scene, The State of Tennessee, Tim Discenza, TN, TN Supreme Court, Vanderbilt Psychiatric Hospital, WSMV/Channel 4/Nashville
URL: http://wp.me/p14NJl-gi
Pauper v. Probate: How Will History Judge You? (Summation)
by Danny Tate
"Pauper"
Pauper v. Probate
(The Biggest Business in the World)
In the First Court of Public Opinion
Pauper Case No. : PD1 (Public Domain)
v.
Probate Court Filed: November 8, 2011
Judge "We, the People", presiding
How Will History Judge You?
Our days are numbered, whether you believe by destiny or happenstance, and with this in mind I'm compelled to write these words.
My Summation, or Closing Argument, must come in the middle of this trial, Pauper v. Probate, for tomorrow may never offer me the opportunity to ask you this question and answer it for myself.
How will History judge you?
Whether you are informed or uninformed as to this case, the insiders point of view, or the outsider who just walked in, these words are for both, for we should all answer to ourselves how History will sum up our lives, our actions, our deeds, but least of all our accomplishments.
Accomplishments are like trophies we set up in the foyer of our minds as landmarks of what was deemed important by worldly standards, but it's our deeds, truly indeed, that must be measured and weighed, for whether they amount to shame or glory, they both are intended to be kept in the secret closets of our souls. For if a deed is of shame, we would all tend to hide it in a closet, yet if a deed is for Glory, it too should be held secret in a closet, displayed only by the eyes of eternity and the greatness of knowing it was done for heaven's sake and not the admiration of man.
I've spent my prime creating music and authoring lyrics for public consumption, yet there was always spiritual guideposts in place, though judged by some to be music considered the devil's and the lyrics profane, while others have proclaimed some certain song their "all-time favorite". I'll let history sort that out.
Today, I am unable to consider either, for in effect, I've been exiled from music professionally for the last five years, but the radio stays on at all hours in my mind, and I've written almost a hundred hours of music, documented only on cassette tapes recorded on a cheap cassette recorder from Wal-Mart, composed as if it would never be heard, and it may never, but I consider it my Opus. And what makes it even more beautiful and important is that all of these cassettes drowned in the Nashville flood of 2010, and I truly have no idea if these compositions could or will ever be recreated. But to create music as if it would never be heard was like giving away an entire fortune to a pauper in the back alley while no one watched.
It was a year into this "creation" before I could bring myself to listen back, for I wondered if it was just the rantings and ramblings of a mad man, or truly the beauty it seemed as the stream of consciousness swept through.
Riding the train down the coast of California for the first time, I pulled out one of these cassettes from a bag I carried them, a cheap bag that offered no protection from the elements, put on some cheap earphones, and hit "play".
For the first time in my life, music that I created brought me to tears and moved my soul in a way that reminded me of walking the aisle at summer youth camp when I "surrendered" to the ministry at sixteen, yet more primal and physical even, and far more spiritual. It was glorious, and that moment, while no one else on the train had a clue, was the best concert I've ever been to…
and no one applauded,
but my soul shouted, "Bravo!".
I wish a moment like this in your life to every reader, for it defined what life is truly all about: whatever greatness lies within, do it without consideration of ever being considered, and watch the heavens open.
Unless something miraculous were to change, I will never be considered for any Hall of Fame. My musical career will most likely fade faster than green grass could grow over my grave. But if the lights were to go out tonight, and I'm hoping they don't, but if they did, I am at peace with my contribution to the world of music, and I won't pretend to blame it on God.
To the legal minds who come here looking for evidence or those that come for the spectacle, ask yourself how you'd live out your greatness if your greatness were never considered.
Answer to yourself, how will history judge you.
If the lights were to go out tonight, and if there were a god we all had to stand before while our lives were replayed on some panoramic screen, with the angels of heaven and hell observing, would you be proud, or at least content, with your contribution?
Did you give, or did you take? Were you talking the "high road" while walking the low?
Were you proclaiming justice while disclaiming your duty to your oath? When truth came calling, did you answer with a lie? When your higher self was screaming for attention, did you turn a deaf ear and a blind eye?
I walk the road before me, and it has led me through the valley of the shadow of death, but I truly fear no evil, not anymore. I have faced the gun, more than once, and often wished the bullet had been dispensed in lieu of the life of exile wrought from being "conserved", for I would wish these years of conservation on no one, except for those that perpetrated the crime.
Yet, my personal summation would never have occurred so gloriously without these years of darkness, and for that, I thank my persecutors, but know that I will continue to prosecute until justice is served, and in the hope this never happens to any person again.
I do not fight this fight for myself. I fight it for the father of my children. And though I have committed the last few pages to exposing the instigator of this evil, I must also acknowledge that this same evil wrought the greatest love of my human life, my daughters.
It would be hypocritical to pronounce that I am free of despise and resentment, but I'm almost there, and I've reached almost a point of pity for my persecutors, for I now know what Christ meant when He put forth from the cross, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do".
I regret my first cigarette at eight years old more than my last hit of "crack" at 8 a.m., and history will prove this "conservatorship cum criminal" prosecution along the lines of the holocaust, truly. The patients have taken over the asylum. The crooks and liars are wearing black robes and populating democracies' benches. It's beyond absurd, its absolute tyranny times ten thousand.
The mother of my children, to her credit, tries very hard to be a good mother, though many of her efforts are misguided, and many to the point of pure evil, but I also pity her for she did not have a great father like I did, though I wonder if her hatred for her own father was embedded in her by her mother, as she tries to embed hatred for me in our daughters, but my love for my daughters is undeniable, and anyone that has witnessed our love will testify. And as the mother of my children, I must say thank you, but as the perpetrator of evil, I can only do what my conscience requires.
In the psychotic world of psychotherapy, there was also a golden fleece, when one of the "crazies" who practices psychotherapy told me, "Your daughters need to know you fought for them", and fight for them I do. It's the only way I know and I will never stop fighting for their lives and love, and seeking to protect them.
Even though I continue to despise their mother for perpetrating this egregious chapter of my life, for the love of my children, I do not want them to wake up one day hating their mother, the same way their mother attempts to make them hate me, the same way she hates her father, the same way her mother must have attempted to make her hate her father; and it is for that I pity her. At the same time, I revere her for giving me the greatest loves of my life, my daughters.
In closing, do you think I would ask for this? Do you think I would commit my life to creating music, just to leave the world known as a "crack-head" and a "pauper"?
Hell, no!
But this is the battle I've been involuntarily thrust into, and to walk away defeated, to walk away letting the bad guys win, to turn my back on those that suffer without a voice, it's just not in me. I'm wired to win. I'm wired to fight for those who are too weak to fight for themselves.
We, as Americans, as civilians of the planet Earth, are at a place and time in history like no other. Tyranny has arisen within democracy, and "we, the people…" are shut out, locked out, snuffed out of consideration in the pursuit of life, liberty and happiness.
While there is breath in me, I will fight the good fight, I will run the race, I will finish the course, and I will….
…keep the faith.
Danny Tate
November 30, 2011 at 2:13 am
Tags: Adam Dread, Attorney General of Tennessee, Chief Justice, Child Support Services, Christina Norris, COJ, Congressman Mike Turner, Conservatorship, Cornielia Clark, Crooks and Liars, Danny Tate, Daphne Davidson (Houck), David Callahan III, David E. Tate/Signet Pen and T-Shirts, Depart of Child Services, Dr. Peter Martin, Fifth Third Bank Probate Co-Conspirators, Governor Phil Bredesen, Guardian Abu se, Guardians, Jeannan Stuart, Judge Randy Kennedy, Michael Castellarin, Nashville, Probate Court, Robert E. Cooper, Senator Mae Beavers, Tennessee Attorney General, Tennessee Governor Haslam, Tennessee Supreme Court of the Judiciary, The Board of Professional Responsibility, The Nashville Bar, The Nashville Scene, The State of Tennessee, Tim Discenza, TN, TN Supreme Court, Vanderbilt Psychiatric Hospital, WSMV/Channel 4/Nashville
URL: http://wp.me/p14NJl-gi
Griffith’s tarnished image will follow him into retirement,Time for Griffith, District 67 Board to go
Two hard hitting articles on Lake County, IL Corruption
Griffith’s tarnished image will follow him into retirement
Last Modified: Nov 28, 2011 01:14PM
At a special meeting of the Lake Forest School District 67 Board of Education meeting Nov. 20 to deal with the scandal involving Deer Path Middle School Principal John Steinert, there was an angry tone to the questioning. Superintendent Harry Griffith, while taking notes, kept his eyes averted downwards most of the time.
District 67 President Julia Wold appeared to be flustered with little of worth to say, either not willing or unable to address questions that pertained to Griffith.
Following are several of the pointed questions and comments directed to District 67 Board members and Griffith:
1. Julia Wold was asked if Harry Griffith shouldn’t be answering the questions posed, as many dealt with the superintendent’s fitness to remain in his position?
2. When asked if Superintendent Griffith would be investigated, Wold suggested that it would be taken under advisement.
3. Insistence for a response to question two led to another inquiry dealing with the same issue, whether or not there would be an investigation into Griffith’s involvement which the questioner perceived as a coverup? Answer by Ms. Wold: “Will discuss with the rest of the board.”
4. Following, a citizen asked when a response to question three could be expected?
5. Upon receiving a non-answer, the next questioner inquired whether the board had ever requested the resignation of Harry Griffith in its closed Executive Session?
6. One extremely angry citizen spoke of Superintendent’s Griffith’s unbelievable parachute of benefits when he retires at the end of this year: Five years of free medical care; gift of a car that Griffith now uses paid for by Districts 67 and 115, and house mortgage payments continuing? The citizen then said of the superintendent: “Harry Griffith has bamboozled the taxpayers for two years in a total coverup. Is this how my tax dollars are being spent?”
7. Another upright Lake Forest citizen compared the Lake Forest situation to the current Penn State scandal where both involved were fired, the coach and the one who covered up an incident that might have prevented more sordid behavior from escalating.
8. The board was then reminded that had the Steinert incident been treated differently two years ago and rectified, none of this would be happening today.
9. The idea of a task force being formed was ridiculed. Retorted one questioner: “You mean those who erred (the board) will decide who will be on the Task Force!”
10. Another citizen thought too much time was being spent by the board to correct school policies through the proposed establishment of a task force, etc., to deal with future issues that might present themselves, with not enough thought being given to dealing with the issue at hand.
11. By far this was the most potent remark of the evening: “I don’t think we need a task force; we need leadership. A true leader would have done more in 2009. A true leader would resign now. The board should have asked for Harry Griffith’s resignation at its closed executive session.”
12. Julia Wold refused to comment whether the board had asked for Superintendent Griffith’s resignation.
13. As to the admission that three of the present board members were on the board back in 2009 and were aware of the Steinert situation but didn’t act at the time, all three were asked if they planned to resign? Julia Wold answered “no.”
14. The last order of business was that the resignation of John Steinert was accepted.
Was there no curiosity by Superintendent Griffith to find out the nature of the redacted information in the police report? After all, Steinert WAS ARRESTED back in 2009.
All in all, this is the first time Superintendent Griffith has come under fire. He will have to defend himself, if he is able to. Without doubt Griffith’s image is now tarnished, and this image will follow him into his retirement.
Nancy J. Thorner, Lake Bluff
Please read complete article at link below:
http://lakeforest.suntimes.com/opinions/letters/9028894-474/griffiths-tarnished-image-will-follow-him-into-retirement.html
Time for Griffith, District 67 Board to go
Last Modified: Nov 28, 2011 01:14PM
“There is no higher authority.”
At the Nov. 22 meeting featuring the District 67 Board and District 67 Superintednent Harry Griffith, along with the community of concerned Lake Forest citizens, we heard those words from the Superintendent -- and that says it all.
His statement was in response to the question: Are there now, or likely to be, investigations into the performance of the Board of Education, or the superintendent?
Griffith further ignited the already-emotional gathering of Deer Path Middle School parents and taxpayers by answering NO (emphasis intended) to the question, “Are you going to resign?”
That night was my first in-person exposure to Griffith, and what an experience. This man is aloof, mechanical, detached and void of passion. Surreal describes his performance rather well.
Tragically, these are the characteristics that guided Griffith’s thinking process when the John Steinert complaint first surfaced in 2009. Put the administration’s methodical process in motion. Bring in the tech guy for the phone, the human resources guy for the series of interviews with Steinert, the lawyer and then notify the Board of Education, conduct a brief internal investigation. Conclusion; Steinert is a good man and a good principal. Problem solved; bring on next matter.
Where is the passion for your role as Superintendent; first keep the children safe from those who wish to do harm from the outside and from within? Second, create an environment for learning; third serve your constituents, the parents and tax payers. The detachment and dispassionate qualities this Superintendent possesses are incompatible with a good school district, and there is now evidence to prove it.
We learn that behavior by Steinert was grounds for dismissal, even with the heavily redacted police report. We are told that a new applicant with a “a class B misdemeanor of telephone harassment,” the Steinert charge, would not be hired. Double standard: It’s OK if you’re an incumbent, but not OK if you want a job.
Sorry, it is not OK in either case.
And, where is the internal alarm about the heavy redaction? A normally emotional and passionate administrator would want to know what exactly was redacted. We also know that the FOIA request form includes a provision for appeal to view the redacted parts. If there was concern, that appeal would have been made.
What we all saw at the Nov. 21 meeting was admission of oversight and lack of compulson to gather all the facts. We had an apology of sorts, especially the part where Griffith wished this had never happened! What is missing is the profound remorse that would be the normal response.
Successful education is a business of passion for learning and compassion for the student body. Sure, teaching skills and subject knowledge are necessary, but it is passion that must prevail. At the meeting we saw passion and emotion. Only problem: It was from the attendees and parents, not the Superintendent or the District 67 President. That’s a problem, and has been there far too long.
When the Steinert story broke the knee-jerk reaction was; this was a coverup. As the tale develops, that is giving too much credit to those involved. This was a display of willful neglect and irresponsible behavior.
This Board and Superintendent displayed alarming naivety and astonishing poor judgment. Furthermore, the Superintendent has shown such impressive manipulative skills that he captured control of the board and they have become his puppets. How, therefore, can the community allow any of those board members remain in office, and more troubling, select Harry’s replacement?
It is clear both the Superintendent and board members sitting at the time of the Steinert revelation should show the dignity of resigning immediately. The facts are clear; this was fatal malfeasance and dereliction of responsibilities, you let down our children, their parents and the community. It is now past the time for you to go!
Al Boese, Lake Bluff
Please read complete article at link below:
http://lakeforest.suntimes.com/opinions/letters/9031199-474/time-for-griffith-district-67-board-to-go.html
Griffith’s tarnished image will follow him into retirement
Last Modified: Nov 28, 2011 01:14PM
At a special meeting of the Lake Forest School District 67 Board of Education meeting Nov. 20 to deal with the scandal involving Deer Path Middle School Principal John Steinert, there was an angry tone to the questioning. Superintendent Harry Griffith, while taking notes, kept his eyes averted downwards most of the time.
District 67 President Julia Wold appeared to be flustered with little of worth to say, either not willing or unable to address questions that pertained to Griffith.
Following are several of the pointed questions and comments directed to District 67 Board members and Griffith:
1. Julia Wold was asked if Harry Griffith shouldn’t be answering the questions posed, as many dealt with the superintendent’s fitness to remain in his position?
2. When asked if Superintendent Griffith would be investigated, Wold suggested that it would be taken under advisement.
3. Insistence for a response to question two led to another inquiry dealing with the same issue, whether or not there would be an investigation into Griffith’s involvement which the questioner perceived as a coverup? Answer by Ms. Wold: “Will discuss with the rest of the board.”
4. Following, a citizen asked when a response to question three could be expected?
5. Upon receiving a non-answer, the next questioner inquired whether the board had ever requested the resignation of Harry Griffith in its closed Executive Session?
6. One extremely angry citizen spoke of Superintendent’s Griffith’s unbelievable parachute of benefits when he retires at the end of this year: Five years of free medical care; gift of a car that Griffith now uses paid for by Districts 67 and 115, and house mortgage payments continuing? The citizen then said of the superintendent: “Harry Griffith has bamboozled the taxpayers for two years in a total coverup. Is this how my tax dollars are being spent?”
7. Another upright Lake Forest citizen compared the Lake Forest situation to the current Penn State scandal where both involved were fired, the coach and the one who covered up an incident that might have prevented more sordid behavior from escalating.
8. The board was then reminded that had the Steinert incident been treated differently two years ago and rectified, none of this would be happening today.
9. The idea of a task force being formed was ridiculed. Retorted one questioner: “You mean those who erred (the board) will decide who will be on the Task Force!”
10. Another citizen thought too much time was being spent by the board to correct school policies through the proposed establishment of a task force, etc., to deal with future issues that might present themselves, with not enough thought being given to dealing with the issue at hand.
11. By far this was the most potent remark of the evening: “I don’t think we need a task force; we need leadership. A true leader would have done more in 2009. A true leader would resign now. The board should have asked for Harry Griffith’s resignation at its closed executive session.”
12. Julia Wold refused to comment whether the board had asked for Superintendent Griffith’s resignation.
13. As to the admission that three of the present board members were on the board back in 2009 and were aware of the Steinert situation but didn’t act at the time, all three were asked if they planned to resign? Julia Wold answered “no.”
14. The last order of business was that the resignation of John Steinert was accepted.
Was there no curiosity by Superintendent Griffith to find out the nature of the redacted information in the police report? After all, Steinert WAS ARRESTED back in 2009.
All in all, this is the first time Superintendent Griffith has come under fire. He will have to defend himself, if he is able to. Without doubt Griffith’s image is now tarnished, and this image will follow him into his retirement.
Nancy J. Thorner, Lake Bluff
Please read complete article at link below:
http://lakeforest.suntimes.com/opinions/letters/9028894-474/griffiths-tarnished-image-will-follow-him-into-retirement.html
Time for Griffith, District 67 Board to go
Last Modified: Nov 28, 2011 01:14PM
“There is no higher authority.”
At the Nov. 22 meeting featuring the District 67 Board and District 67 Superintednent Harry Griffith, along with the community of concerned Lake Forest citizens, we heard those words from the Superintendent -- and that says it all.
His statement was in response to the question: Are there now, or likely to be, investigations into the performance of the Board of Education, or the superintendent?
Griffith further ignited the already-emotional gathering of Deer Path Middle School parents and taxpayers by answering NO (emphasis intended) to the question, “Are you going to resign?”
That night was my first in-person exposure to Griffith, and what an experience. This man is aloof, mechanical, detached and void of passion. Surreal describes his performance rather well.
Tragically, these are the characteristics that guided Griffith’s thinking process when the John Steinert complaint first surfaced in 2009. Put the administration’s methodical process in motion. Bring in the tech guy for the phone, the human resources guy for the series of interviews with Steinert, the lawyer and then notify the Board of Education, conduct a brief internal investigation. Conclusion; Steinert is a good man and a good principal. Problem solved; bring on next matter.
Where is the passion for your role as Superintendent; first keep the children safe from those who wish to do harm from the outside and from within? Second, create an environment for learning; third serve your constituents, the parents and tax payers. The detachment and dispassionate qualities this Superintendent possesses are incompatible with a good school district, and there is now evidence to prove it.
We learn that behavior by Steinert was grounds for dismissal, even with the heavily redacted police report. We are told that a new applicant with a “a class B misdemeanor of telephone harassment,” the Steinert charge, would not be hired. Double standard: It’s OK if you’re an incumbent, but not OK if you want a job.
Sorry, it is not OK in either case.
And, where is the internal alarm about the heavy redaction? A normally emotional and passionate administrator would want to know what exactly was redacted. We also know that the FOIA request form includes a provision for appeal to view the redacted parts. If there was concern, that appeal would have been made.
What we all saw at the Nov. 21 meeting was admission of oversight and lack of compulson to gather all the facts. We had an apology of sorts, especially the part where Griffith wished this had never happened! What is missing is the profound remorse that would be the normal response.
Successful education is a business of passion for learning and compassion for the student body. Sure, teaching skills and subject knowledge are necessary, but it is passion that must prevail. At the meeting we saw passion and emotion. Only problem: It was from the attendees and parents, not the Superintendent or the District 67 President. That’s a problem, and has been there far too long.
When the Steinert story broke the knee-jerk reaction was; this was a coverup. As the tale develops, that is giving too much credit to those involved. This was a display of willful neglect and irresponsible behavior.
This Board and Superintendent displayed alarming naivety and astonishing poor judgment. Furthermore, the Superintendent has shown such impressive manipulative skills that he captured control of the board and they have become his puppets. How, therefore, can the community allow any of those board members remain in office, and more troubling, select Harry’s replacement?
It is clear both the Superintendent and board members sitting at the time of the Steinert revelation should show the dignity of resigning immediately. The facts are clear; this was fatal malfeasance and dereliction of responsibilities, you let down our children, their parents and the community. It is now past the time for you to go!
Al Boese, Lake Bluff
Please read complete article at link below:
http://lakeforest.suntimes.com/opinions/letters/9031199-474/time-for-griffith-district-67-board-to-go.html
Judge approves estate’s sale of stock to Davlin’s brother
Wednesday, November 23,2011
All in the family
Judge approves estate’s sale of stock to Davlin’s brother
By Bruce Rushton
Another chapter in the tragedy of Tim Davlin, the former Springfield mayor who committed suicide nearly a year ago, was written Nov. 16 when a judge approved the sale of Mid-West Truckers Association stock purchased by the late mayor, apparently with stolen funds.
Sangamon County Circuit Court Judge Pete Cavanagh approved an offer by Michael Davlin, the late mayor’s brother, to buy the stock for $203,750, the same amount the mayor had paid in 2004. Michael Davlin is executor of Davlin’s estate, and so attorney Gordon Gates was called in to act in his stead to evaluate whether the sale was in the estate’s best interests.
“It’s a good deal,” Gates said. “It’s the best price the estate is going to get.”
The late mayor purchased the truckers association stock with substantial strings. Transfer was restricted by a shareholders agreement which is not a public record. Furthermore, while other stock paid “substantial dividends,” the stock purchased by the late mayor wasn’t supposed to pay dividends until 2013, under terms of a 2004 purchase agreement that deemed the purchase an investment made at arm’s length and at fair-market value.
According to a court order approving the sale, other shareholders had first rights to purchase the stock at a price set in a 2006 shareholders agreement. Gates said that the price set in the agreement was substantially lower than the price paid by Michael Davlin. Shareholders waived their purchase rights, according to the order signed by Cavanagh.
Don Tracy, attorney for the truckers association, said in an interview that the deal was about more than money for shareholders who waived their rights.
The late mayor’s father, who died in 1998, helped found the association in the 1960s. As the association’s original shareholders died, ownership rights accrued to surviving shareholders, Tracy said. Rather than have the company eventually owned by the last surviving founder, shareholders wanted to keep the business held by a small group of families, as it had always been, so they made provisions for the late mayor and children of other founding shareholders to buy in, he said.
“If the shareholders had wanted to do the selfish thing, they would not have allowed the sale (to Michael Davlin),” Tracy said. “Allowing this to go through was a selfless thing, and it was a matter of keeping it in the family.”
Tracy called the association “a good business.” The organization sponsors truck shows and also provides drug-testing services and lobbies government. The association represents 3,000 trucking companies and 120,000 drivers in 16 states, according to its website.
Proceeds from the sale will go to Catholic Charities of Springfield, which earlier this month agreed to a $250,000 settlement with the late mayor’s estate to settle a claim of $340,000. The latter sum was due from the estate of Margaret Ettelbrick, a Davlin cousin who died in 2003. After the mayor, executor for Ettelbrick’s estate, shot himself on Dec. 14 of last year, Kevin McDermott, Sangamon County public administrator, determined that Davlin had used estate funds to purchase the stock for himself. McDermott also found that Davlin had written more than $85,000 in checks to himself and sold Ettelbrick’s house for more than $46,000 less than its fair-market value. The purchaser was a Davlin relative.
James “Bud” Potter, lawyer for the late mayor’s estate, could not be reached for comment. But it appears that Davlin’s heirs, which include his four adult children, may end up with some money.
Ettlebrick’s estate was the only claimant against the estate of the late mayor, whose house was sold last summer for nearly $270,000. The Internal Revenue Service, which had put a lien of nearly $90,000 on the mayor’s property last year, was presumably paid from sale proceeds, given that the IRS did not file a claim against the mayor’s estate. Davlin purchased the home in 2004 without a mortgage.
Once the IRS was paid, proceeds from the home sale would have totaled roughly $180,000. Patrick “Tim” Timoney, the late mayor’s lawyer, told Illinois State Police investigators shortly after the mayor’s death that Davlin’s estate was due an amount equaling one year’s salary, about $120,000, from the Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund, plus approximately $50,000 in contributions that Davlin made to his retirement plan. The math works out to around $300,000 left in the estate after Catholic Charities and the IRS are satisfied.
Please read complete article at link below:
http://www.illinoistimes.com/Springfield/article-9345-all-in-the-family.html
Editor's note: Will someone explain to this uninformed shark how stolen funds are part of his estate? Lucius Verenus, Schoolmaster, ProbateSharks.com
All in the family
Judge approves estate’s sale of stock to Davlin’s brother
By Bruce Rushton
Another chapter in the tragedy of Tim Davlin, the former Springfield mayor who committed suicide nearly a year ago, was written Nov. 16 when a judge approved the sale of Mid-West Truckers Association stock purchased by the late mayor, apparently with stolen funds.
Sangamon County Circuit Court Judge Pete Cavanagh approved an offer by Michael Davlin, the late mayor’s brother, to buy the stock for $203,750, the same amount the mayor had paid in 2004. Michael Davlin is executor of Davlin’s estate, and so attorney Gordon Gates was called in to act in his stead to evaluate whether the sale was in the estate’s best interests.
“It’s a good deal,” Gates said. “It’s the best price the estate is going to get.”
The late mayor purchased the truckers association stock with substantial strings. Transfer was restricted by a shareholders agreement which is not a public record. Furthermore, while other stock paid “substantial dividends,” the stock purchased by the late mayor wasn’t supposed to pay dividends until 2013, under terms of a 2004 purchase agreement that deemed the purchase an investment made at arm’s length and at fair-market value.
According to a court order approving the sale, other shareholders had first rights to purchase the stock at a price set in a 2006 shareholders agreement. Gates said that the price set in the agreement was substantially lower than the price paid by Michael Davlin. Shareholders waived their purchase rights, according to the order signed by Cavanagh.
Don Tracy, attorney for the truckers association, said in an interview that the deal was about more than money for shareholders who waived their rights.
The late mayor’s father, who died in 1998, helped found the association in the 1960s. As the association’s original shareholders died, ownership rights accrued to surviving shareholders, Tracy said. Rather than have the company eventually owned by the last surviving founder, shareholders wanted to keep the business held by a small group of families, as it had always been, so they made provisions for the late mayor and children of other founding shareholders to buy in, he said.
“If the shareholders had wanted to do the selfish thing, they would not have allowed the sale (to Michael Davlin),” Tracy said. “Allowing this to go through was a selfless thing, and it was a matter of keeping it in the family.”
Tracy called the association “a good business.” The organization sponsors truck shows and also provides drug-testing services and lobbies government. The association represents 3,000 trucking companies and 120,000 drivers in 16 states, according to its website.
Proceeds from the sale will go to Catholic Charities of Springfield, which earlier this month agreed to a $250,000 settlement with the late mayor’s estate to settle a claim of $340,000. The latter sum was due from the estate of Margaret Ettelbrick, a Davlin cousin who died in 2003. After the mayor, executor for Ettelbrick’s estate, shot himself on Dec. 14 of last year, Kevin McDermott, Sangamon County public administrator, determined that Davlin had used estate funds to purchase the stock for himself. McDermott also found that Davlin had written more than $85,000 in checks to himself and sold Ettelbrick’s house for more than $46,000 less than its fair-market value. The purchaser was a Davlin relative.
James “Bud” Potter, lawyer for the late mayor’s estate, could not be reached for comment. But it appears that Davlin’s heirs, which include his four adult children, may end up with some money.
Ettlebrick’s estate was the only claimant against the estate of the late mayor, whose house was sold last summer for nearly $270,000. The Internal Revenue Service, which had put a lien of nearly $90,000 on the mayor’s property last year, was presumably paid from sale proceeds, given that the IRS did not file a claim against the mayor’s estate. Davlin purchased the home in 2004 without a mortgage.
Once the IRS was paid, proceeds from the home sale would have totaled roughly $180,000. Patrick “Tim” Timoney, the late mayor’s lawyer, told Illinois State Police investigators shortly after the mayor’s death that Davlin’s estate was due an amount equaling one year’s salary, about $120,000, from the Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund, plus approximately $50,000 in contributions that Davlin made to his retirement plan. The math works out to around $300,000 left in the estate after Catholic Charities and the IRS are satisfied.
Please read complete article at link below:
http://www.illinoistimes.com/Springfield/article-9345-all-in-the-family.html
Editor's note: Will someone explain to this uninformed shark how stolen funds are part of his estate? Lucius Verenus, Schoolmaster, ProbateSharks.com
Clear evidence suggests Thai personnel killed Japanese cameraman
Clear evidence suggests Thai personnel killed Japanese cameraman
BANGKOK, Nov. 29, Kyodo
The Thai government told the Japanese ambassador in Bangkok on Tuesday that ''clear evidence'' indicates the death of a television cameraman from Japan during political unrest in Bangkok in April 2010 was caused by Thai personnel.
Hiroyuki Muramoto, who was working for the British news agency Reuters, died from bullet wounds during a violent antigovernment demonstration in central Bangkok on April 10, 2010.
Deputy Prime Minister Chalerm Yubamrung told the ambassador at Government House that ''after the investigation from eyewitnesses and forensic evidence, it is very clear that the death of Japanese cameraman was the act of the state personnel.''
Please read complete article at article below:
http://english.kyodonews.jp/news/2011/11/128812.html
KawamotoDragon.com
BANGKOK, Nov. 29, Kyodo
The Thai government told the Japanese ambassador in Bangkok on Tuesday that ''clear evidence'' indicates the death of a television cameraman from Japan during political unrest in Bangkok in April 2010 was caused by Thai personnel.
Hiroyuki Muramoto, who was working for the British news agency Reuters, died from bullet wounds during a violent antigovernment demonstration in central Bangkok on April 10, 2010.
Deputy Prime Minister Chalerm Yubamrung told the ambassador at Government House that ''after the investigation from eyewitnesses and forensic evidence, it is very clear that the death of Japanese cameraman was the act of the state personnel.''
Please read complete article at article below:
http://english.kyodonews.jp/news/2011/11/128812.html
KawamotoDragon.com
New York City Filing: Heiress Signed Two Wills, One Leaves Nothing to Relatives
New York City Filing: Heiress Signed Two Wills, One Leaves Nothing to Relatives
Published November 28, 2011
Associated Press
A newly publicized will by an heiress to a Montana copper mining fortune leaves most of her $400 million estate to her family, while a will signed just weeks later left nothing to relatives.
The childless Huguette Clark died in May at age 104 -- a last breath of New York's Gilded Age that produced the Rockefellers, Astors and Vanderbilts.
Her relatives brought the new will to light on Monday: They filed court papers asking a Surrogate's Court judge to involve them in proceedings about how her money was spent -- and by whom -- while she was alive.
Clark's relatives accuse her co-executors, attorney Wallace Bock and accountant Irving Kamsler, of plundering her fortune. The two were among the few who for years had access to the reclusive Clark in her Manhattan hospital room. Clark had left her 42-room Manhattan home -- the largest residence on Fifth Avenue -- decades earlier, choosing to live undisturbed at the hospital.
A court-ordered accounting of the Paris-born heiress' finances as overseen by Bock and Kamsler in the last 15 years of her life is "a chilling report of the mishandling, misappropriation and mismanagement" of her assets, the relatives' lawyer, John R. Morken, wrote in papers filed Monday.
While Clark was confined to a hospital room, her spending amounted to about $1 million each month, Morken said, citing the figures.
Monday's filing included a will signed in March 2005, about six weeks before another will that Bock and Kamsler filed shortly after Clark's death.
The March 2005 will benefits 21 relatives on the side of Clark's father, U.S. Sen. William A. Clark, who represented Montana after building one of America's largest fortunes mining copper, building railroads and founding Las Vegas. Nevada's Clark County is named for him. His wealth vied with that of the Rockefellers.
A will signed in April 2005, by contrast, gives Clark's family nothing and leaves her money mainly to charity and her nurse.
Morken writes that beyond any financial interest, the relatives are concerned about their heritage -- and "that a very significant member of their family should have fallen victim, it appears, to the greed of persons who had put themselves in a position of trust with their great-aunt."
No criminal charges have been filed against Bock or Kamsler, and both have denied any wrongdoing in their dealings with Clark. Bock "always acted consistent with her wishes and carried them out to the letter," his lawyer, Robert J. Anello, said Monday.
Kamsler, his lawyer and an attorney for the Clark estate didn't immediately return phone calls Monday.
The Manhattan district attorney's office has been looking into how Clark's affairs were managed in the past two decades, people familiar with the probe have said. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the matter. A spokeswoman for the district attorney's office did not immediately respond Monday to an inquiry about Clark.
State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman's office also is keeping an eye on the Clark estate as part of its oversight role over estates and the execution of them.
It's not the first time the handling of Clark's finances -- and her life -- has come into question.
The April 2005 will showed she was leaving $34 million to her longtime private nurse and about $300 million to the arts. The fortune includes a prized Claude Monet water-lily painting not seen by the public since 1925; she gave it to Washington's Corcoran Gallery of Art.
In that will, Clark left instructions for the creation of a foundation "for the primary purpose of fostering and promoting the arts" -- based at her 24-acre oceanfront estate in Santa Barbara, Calif., which would be converted into a museum. Bock and Kamsler would oversee the foundation; they also were left $500,000 apiece.
The Santa Barbara estate was where Clark spent her youth, but she had not been back since 1963, when her mother died.
Clark was married briefly in her 20s to a poor bank clerk studying law. They parted ways after only nine months.
After her mother's death, her once lively life amid New York's cultured world -- with forays to Europe -- became more solitary, and she rarely ventured from her Fifth Avenue home.
Please read complete article at link below:
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/11/28/new-york-city-filing-heiress-signed-two-wills-one-leaves-nothing-to-relatives/
About six months before Clark's death, three of her relatives asked a Manhattan judge to appoint a guardian for her. Citing news reports and other information, they accused Bock and Kamsler of
Elderly man repays money he stole from Sears 60 years ago
Elderly man repays money he stole from Sears 60 years ago
By Linda Brill, KING5
An elderly man who confessed to stealing money from a Sears store in the 1940s gave the money back on Monday - with interest.
The man hand-delivered an envelope addressed to "Sears manager" to a customer service counter on the second floor of the store in downtown Seattle at about 10 a.m. (1 p.m. ET)
An envelope containing $100 in cash and a handwritten note that was handed in at a Sears store in Seattle.
Inside the envelope was a note and a $100 bill.
The note read: "During the late [forties] I stole some money from the cash register in the amount of $20-$30 ... I want to pay you back this money in the amount of $100 to put in your theft account."
"I think his conscience has been bothering him for the past 60 years," said Sears manager Gary Lorentson.
"That is heartwarming," said one customer, "awesome."
"It must have made him feel good inside to do that," said another.
Store security cameras caught the elderly man on video, but Sears won't release it, and they don't know who he is.
The store plans to put the money toward helping needy families during they holiday season
Please read complete article at link below:
http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/11/29/9086913-60-years-on-elderly-man-with-conscience-repays-store-100
By Linda Brill, KING5
An elderly man who confessed to stealing money from a Sears store in the 1940s gave the money back on Monday - with interest.
The man hand-delivered an envelope addressed to "Sears manager" to a customer service counter on the second floor of the store in downtown Seattle at about 10 a.m. (1 p.m. ET)
An envelope containing $100 in cash and a handwritten note that was handed in at a Sears store in Seattle.
Inside the envelope was a note and a $100 bill.
The note read: "During the late [forties] I stole some money from the cash register in the amount of $20-$30 ... I want to pay you back this money in the amount of $100 to put in your theft account."
"I think his conscience has been bothering him for the past 60 years," said Sears manager Gary Lorentson.
"That is heartwarming," said one customer, "awesome."
"It must have made him feel good inside to do that," said another.
Store security cameras caught the elderly man on video, but Sears won't release it, and they don't know who he is.
The store plans to put the money toward helping needy families during they holiday season
Please read complete article at link below:
http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/11/29/9086913-60-years-on-elderly-man-with-conscience-repays-store-100
Pauper v. Probate: JUDICIAL RETRIBUTION AND USING CHILDREN AS PAWNS (Part 2)
New post on Impeachrandykennedy's Blog
Pauper v. Probate: JUDICIAL RETRIBUTION AND USING CHILDREN AS PAWNS (Part 2)
by Danny Tate
"Your "inherent rights" are mine, sayeth me"
In the First Court of Public Opinion
Pauper Case No. : PD1
v.
Probate Court Filed: November 8, 2011
(The Biggest Business in the World)
Judge "We, the People", presiding
JUDICIAL RETRIBUTION
AND
USING CHILDREN AS PAWNS
(part 2)
“When governments fear the people, there is liberty. When the people fear the government, there is tyranny. The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.” — Thomas Jefferson
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Introduction
This series is important for the jurors in the court of public opinion to take into consideration, for it comes at the back end of The Conservatorship of John Daniel Tate, but exposes not only abuse of power by sitting judges, but an egregious action using children as pawns to act out judicial retribution.
Patrick McHale and Timothy Discenza, TN Court of the Judiciary, have been informed, as has Senator Mae Beavers, Chair of the TN Senate Judiciary Committee, and they have yet to act. In the mean time, children are being harmed unchecked by judges drunk on the power of their robes and incompetent to sit on a bench, much less qualified to possess a license to practice law.
Both Judge Randy Kennedy and Judge Phillip Smith, obvious parties in this egregious action, were appointed to the bench by former Governor Phil Bredesen, whose last year in office Tennessee achieved the notorious ranking of #1 Most Corrupt State in the USA, a notorious ranking that was ignored byTennessee's mainstream press.
We're #1, we're #1, we're #1 Most Corrupt State in the USA for 2010, the year I left office and the mess I left ya'll in. Your welcome.
We will continue where we left off in the last post. Using documents from the case file in The Conservatorship of John Daniel Tate and The Divorce of John Daniel Tate v. Katerina Kaz0kos Tate, we will prove with clear and convincing evidence that, at the least, both of the aforementioned judges are incompetent and abuse their authority, but are perpetrators of public corruption, and use children as pawns to act out their judicial retribution.
Another former Governor Phil Bredesen "appointee"!!!
Statement of the Facts
(continued from Part 1)
A. FINAL DIVORCE DECREE (FIRST PAGE ANNOTATED)
4. John Daniel Tate aka Danny Tate, nomen conservandum (Latin, "a name which should be conserved") still without control of his assets, substantiated by 2. (B), and having been adjudicated a "pauper" by Judge Randy Kennedy, 7th Circuit Court, Davidson County, Nashville, TN, the same court charged with "conserving" same assets, using Order Allowing Filing on Pauper's Oath, and Affidavit of Indigency, files a Petition to Modify Child Support
A. ORDER ALLOWING FILING ON PAUPER'S OATH
B. AFFIDAVIT OF INDIGENCY (ANNOTATED)
C. PETITION TO MODIFY (CERT. MAIL) (Annotated) OF P1-CHILD SUPPORT R1
D. DANNY TATE'S ORDER TO PROCEED ON APPEAL AS A POOR PERSON
Katerina Kazokos Tate
5. This testimony (annotated) proves that Katerina Kazokos Tate's entire testimony was "coached" and/or perjured.
A. KATERINA TATE'S ENTIRE TESTIMONY FROM JAN. 7, 2008 (ANNOTATED)
B.ITEMS REMOVED FROM DANNY TATE'S SAFE (ANNOTATED) On November 14, 2007, proof Katerina Kazokos Tate and David E. Tate broke into my safe and she was allowed to remove anything and everything she wanted, almost two years after division of property took place in Divorce, and my brother presented the detailed inventory of "things Katerina took" in Katerina Kazokos Tate's handwriting, and this is in the case file!!! I was involuntarily committed on November 14, 2007, without a Motion before the court for Involuntary Commitment. Also, the doctors reports from this involuntary commitment were N EVER entered in the record. We'll address that in another series.
C.KATERINA KAZOKOS TATE-ASSAULT CHARGES WHILE PREGNANT
[Katerina Kazokos Tate-altercation with another woman while seven months pregnant with first child]
D. PETITION TO SUSPEND FATHER'S PARENTING TIME (ANNOTATED)
Danny Tate with his daughters, Daniella and Isabelle
Danny Tate
November 29, 2011 at 4:09 am
Tags: Adam Dread, Attorney General of Tennessee, Chief Justice, Child Support Services, Christina Norris, COJ, Congressman Mike Turner, Conservatorship, Cornielia Clark, Crooks and Liars, Daphne Davidson (Houck), David Callahan III, David E. Tate/Signet Pen and T-Shirts, Depart of Child Services, Dr. Peter Martin, Dr. William Kenner, Fifth Third Bank Probate Co-Conspirators, Governor Phil Bredesen, Guardian Abuse, Guardians, Jeannan Stuart, Judge Phillip Smith, Judge Randy Kennedy, Tennessee Governor Haslam, Tennessee Legislature, Tennessee Supreme Court of the Judiciary, The Board of Professional Responsibility, The Nashville Bar, The Nashville Scene, TN Supreme Court, Vanderbilt Psychiatric Hospital, WSMV/Channel 4/Nashville
URL: http://wp.me/p14NJl-fA
Pauper v. Probate: JUDICIAL RETRIBUTION AND USING CHILDREN AS PAWNS (Part 2)
by Danny Tate
"Your "inherent rights" are mine, sayeth me"
In the First Court of Public Opinion
Pauper Case No. : PD1
v.
Probate Court Filed: November 8, 2011
(The Biggest Business in the World)
Judge "We, the People", presiding
JUDICIAL RETRIBUTION
AND
USING CHILDREN AS PAWNS
(part 2)
“When governments fear the people, there is liberty. When the people fear the government, there is tyranny. The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.” — Thomas Jefferson
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Introduction
This series is important for the jurors in the court of public opinion to take into consideration, for it comes at the back end of The Conservatorship of John Daniel Tate, but exposes not only abuse of power by sitting judges, but an egregious action using children as pawns to act out judicial retribution.
Patrick McHale and Timothy Discenza, TN Court of the Judiciary, have been informed, as has Senator Mae Beavers, Chair of the TN Senate Judiciary Committee, and they have yet to act. In the mean time, children are being harmed unchecked by judges drunk on the power of their robes and incompetent to sit on a bench, much less qualified to possess a license to practice law.
Both Judge Randy Kennedy and Judge Phillip Smith, obvious parties in this egregious action, were appointed to the bench by former Governor Phil Bredesen, whose last year in office Tennessee achieved the notorious ranking of #1 Most Corrupt State in the USA, a notorious ranking that was ignored byTennessee's mainstream press.
We're #1, we're #1, we're #1 Most Corrupt State in the USA for 2010, the year I left office and the mess I left ya'll in. Your welcome.
We will continue where we left off in the last post. Using documents from the case file in The Conservatorship of John Daniel Tate and The Divorce of John Daniel Tate v. Katerina Kaz0kos Tate, we will prove with clear and convincing evidence that, at the least, both of the aforementioned judges are incompetent and abuse their authority, but are perpetrators of public corruption, and use children as pawns to act out their judicial retribution.
Another former Governor Phil Bredesen "appointee"!!!
Statement of the Facts
(continued from Part 1)
A. FINAL DIVORCE DECREE (FIRST PAGE ANNOTATED)
4. John Daniel Tate aka Danny Tate, nomen conservandum (Latin, "a name which should be conserved") still without control of his assets, substantiated by 2. (B), and having been adjudicated a "pauper" by Judge Randy Kennedy, 7th Circuit Court, Davidson County, Nashville, TN, the same court charged with "conserving" same assets, using Order Allowing Filing on Pauper's Oath, and Affidavit of Indigency, files a Petition to Modify Child Support
A. ORDER ALLOWING FILING ON PAUPER'S OATH
B. AFFIDAVIT OF INDIGENCY (ANNOTATED)
C. PETITION TO MODIFY (CERT. MAIL) (Annotated) OF P1-CHILD SUPPORT R1
D. DANNY TATE'S ORDER TO PROCEED ON APPEAL AS A POOR PERSON
Katerina Kazokos Tate
5. This testimony (annotated) proves that Katerina Kazokos Tate's entire testimony was "coached" and/or perjured.
A. KATERINA TATE'S ENTIRE TESTIMONY FROM JAN. 7, 2008 (ANNOTATED)
B.ITEMS REMOVED FROM DANNY TATE'S SAFE (ANNOTATED) On November 14, 2007, proof Katerina Kazokos Tate and David E. Tate broke into my safe and she was allowed to remove anything and everything she wanted, almost two years after division of property took place in Divorce, and my brother presented the detailed inventory of "things Katerina took" in Katerina Kazokos Tate's handwriting, and this is in the case file!!! I was involuntarily committed on November 14, 2007, without a Motion before the court for Involuntary Commitment. Also, the doctors reports from this involuntary commitment were N EVER entered in the record. We'll address that in another series.
C.KATERINA KAZOKOS TATE-ASSAULT CHARGES WHILE PREGNANT
[Katerina Kazokos Tate-altercation with another woman while seven months pregnant with first child]
D. PETITION TO SUSPEND FATHER'S PARENTING TIME (ANNOTATED)
Danny Tate with his daughters, Daniella and Isabelle
Danny Tate
November 29, 2011 at 4:09 am
Tags: Adam Dread, Attorney General of Tennessee, Chief Justice, Child Support Services, Christina Norris, COJ, Congressman Mike Turner, Conservatorship, Cornielia Clark, Crooks and Liars, Daphne Davidson (Houck), David Callahan III, David E. Tate/Signet Pen and T-Shirts, Depart of Child Services, Dr. Peter Martin, Dr. William Kenner, Fifth Third Bank Probate Co-Conspirators, Governor Phil Bredesen, Guardian Abuse, Guardians, Jeannan Stuart, Judge Phillip Smith, Judge Randy Kennedy, Tennessee Governor Haslam, Tennessee Legislature, Tennessee Supreme Court of the Judiciary, The Board of Professional Responsibility, The Nashville Bar, The Nashville Scene, TN Supreme Court, Vanderbilt Psychiatric Hospital, WSMV/Channel 4/Nashville
URL: http://wp.me/p14NJl-fA
Monday, November 28, 2011
Plan on growing old and grey in Germany?
The ins and outs of pensions
Published: 25 Nov 11 11:09 CET
Online: http://www.thelocal.de/lifestyle/20111125-39111.html
Plan on growing old and grey in Germany?
Joe Morgan explains why you shouldn’t rely solely on a state pension for your golden years.
Discussing how you will support yourself financially in the grey years of retirement may not be the most enthralling topic of conversation at a dinner party, but private pensions saving is becoming increasingly important.
German residents are having to take a much more proactive approach to pensions savings, as the role of the state in funding retirement plans recedes.
This is in part a response to the ageing demographics of the country. Germany has one of the lowest birth rates in Europe, with the proportion of its population aged over 65 set to almost double to 30 percent by 2035. As a consequence, the retirement age in Germany is being raised from 63 to 67, in a phased process from 2012 to 2029.
A recent important trend in the pensions landscape in Germany is a migration from defined benefits schemes, where a pension is determined by a set formula rather than investment returns, to defined contribution schemes, where responsibility for ensuring an adequate retirement shifts to individuals having their income directly linked to investment returns.
“The trend towards defined contributions is very strong,” said Nikolaus Schmidt-Narischkin, managing director, head of fiduciary distribution pension solutions at DB Advisors, the institutional asset management arm of Deutsche Bank in Frankfurt.
“The government is providing incentives to these schemes in the form of early retirement options and so-called ‘flex-time’ models offering the employee the option to save parts of his or her bonus or part of his or her base salary, left over vacation days, stuff like that. Invest that and use it for early retirement.”
Employees in Germany have the option of saving for a pension in an occupational scheme, which is organised by a company and financed by its employees. The maximum annual contribution members of such schemes can make is €2,640 (set to be increased to €2,688 in 2012).
Alternatively, pension savers can pay contributions into a private scheme, which falls under the so-called Riester- Rente legislation, and requires employees to make pension contributions from their net income. Additional state top-ups are available to members of such schemes, depending upon factors such as the number of children they have.
The newer Rürup-Rente scheme is another option available to everyone, though for tax reasons it is primarily taken out by the self-employed. Members of a Rürup-Rente scheme can pay into the plan a maximum of €20,000 per year if they are single or €40,000 per year if they are married. In 2011, members could write off 72 percent of their annual contribution against their income. This percentage amount then increases by two percentage points each year until reaching 100 percent.
Leading pension providers funding private Riester-Rente plans include Allianz, the global insurance company, DWS, Deutsche Bank’s retail asset management arm, R+V Versicherung and Union Investment Asset Management.
“The most efficient way to save for a pension is with an occupational corporate scheme. This is because some unions will have negotiated in a collective bargaining arrangement which provides members with an extra top-up,” said Martin Katheder, director, head of pensions markets at Allianz Global Investors in Munich.
He gave the example of an occupational scheme member paying €100 into their pension pot each month. “In the metals and electronics industry, he or she will have the right to apply for an additional annual employer contribution of €320, which will equate to an annual pension contribution of €1,520. In addition, scheme members can obtain an approximately €600 tax and social security tax break for the €1,200 paid into the scheme each year,” he said.
“My advice to people is that they should check if they have used up all the tax incentives for saving for a pension which are available to them from the state,” said Katheder.
Meanwhile, the current low interest rate environment in the eurozone has resulted in the Finance Ministry in Germany in February 2011 decreasing the life insurance guaranteed interest rate (GIR) – the maximum interest rate insurers are allowed to promise as legally binding while selling their policies – from 2.25 percent to 1.75 percent.
Dr. Sabine Horstmann, a project manager at the GVG group in Cologne, which represents stakeholders including bodies from the insurance sector and health service on social policy issues, said this reduction in the interest rate has become a contentious issue in Germany. “A lower GIR makes life insurance and pension policies less attractive for consumers. The New GIR will be effective from January 2012 onwards.
Going by the bulky moniker the Familienpflegezeitgesetz, new legislation coming into force January 2012 will provide the voluntary option of providing employees with the choice of reducing their working hours to organise the long-term care of an elderly family members. “The legislation will allow employees to have a reduced working week of 15 hours, while still obtaining half of their salary. This will be compensated by a lower salary when they return to full-time work,” said Horstmann.
But the German pension industry is still in the process of creating offerings that meet the requirements of the Familienpflegezeitgesetz rules, as well as the growth of defined contribution schemes which have compulsory long-term care insurance components.
Please read complete article at link below:
http://www.thelocal.de/lifestyle/20111125-39111.html
Published: 25 Nov 11 11:09 CET
Online: http://www.thelocal.de/lifestyle/20111125-39111.html
Plan on growing old and grey in Germany?
Joe Morgan explains why you shouldn’t rely solely on a state pension for your golden years.
Discussing how you will support yourself financially in the grey years of retirement may not be the most enthralling topic of conversation at a dinner party, but private pensions saving is becoming increasingly important.
German residents are having to take a much more proactive approach to pensions savings, as the role of the state in funding retirement plans recedes.
This is in part a response to the ageing demographics of the country. Germany has one of the lowest birth rates in Europe, with the proportion of its population aged over 65 set to almost double to 30 percent by 2035. As a consequence, the retirement age in Germany is being raised from 63 to 67, in a phased process from 2012 to 2029.
A recent important trend in the pensions landscape in Germany is a migration from defined benefits schemes, where a pension is determined by a set formula rather than investment returns, to defined contribution schemes, where responsibility for ensuring an adequate retirement shifts to individuals having their income directly linked to investment returns.
“The trend towards defined contributions is very strong,” said Nikolaus Schmidt-Narischkin, managing director, head of fiduciary distribution pension solutions at DB Advisors, the institutional asset management arm of Deutsche Bank in Frankfurt.
“The government is providing incentives to these schemes in the form of early retirement options and so-called ‘flex-time’ models offering the employee the option to save parts of his or her bonus or part of his or her base salary, left over vacation days, stuff like that. Invest that and use it for early retirement.”
Employees in Germany have the option of saving for a pension in an occupational scheme, which is organised by a company and financed by its employees. The maximum annual contribution members of such schemes can make is €2,640 (set to be increased to €2,688 in 2012).
Alternatively, pension savers can pay contributions into a private scheme, which falls under the so-called Riester- Rente legislation, and requires employees to make pension contributions from their net income. Additional state top-ups are available to members of such schemes, depending upon factors such as the number of children they have.
The newer Rürup-Rente scheme is another option available to everyone, though for tax reasons it is primarily taken out by the self-employed. Members of a Rürup-Rente scheme can pay into the plan a maximum of €20,000 per year if they are single or €40,000 per year if they are married. In 2011, members could write off 72 percent of their annual contribution against their income. This percentage amount then increases by two percentage points each year until reaching 100 percent.
Leading pension providers funding private Riester-Rente plans include Allianz, the global insurance company, DWS, Deutsche Bank’s retail asset management arm, R+V Versicherung and Union Investment Asset Management.
“The most efficient way to save for a pension is with an occupational corporate scheme. This is because some unions will have negotiated in a collective bargaining arrangement which provides members with an extra top-up,” said Martin Katheder, director, head of pensions markets at Allianz Global Investors in Munich.
He gave the example of an occupational scheme member paying €100 into their pension pot each month. “In the metals and electronics industry, he or she will have the right to apply for an additional annual employer contribution of €320, which will equate to an annual pension contribution of €1,520. In addition, scheme members can obtain an approximately €600 tax and social security tax break for the €1,200 paid into the scheme each year,” he said.
“My advice to people is that they should check if they have used up all the tax incentives for saving for a pension which are available to them from the state,” said Katheder.
Meanwhile, the current low interest rate environment in the eurozone has resulted in the Finance Ministry in Germany in February 2011 decreasing the life insurance guaranteed interest rate (GIR) – the maximum interest rate insurers are allowed to promise as legally binding while selling their policies – from 2.25 percent to 1.75 percent.
Dr. Sabine Horstmann, a project manager at the GVG group in Cologne, which represents stakeholders including bodies from the insurance sector and health service on social policy issues, said this reduction in the interest rate has become a contentious issue in Germany. “A lower GIR makes life insurance and pension policies less attractive for consumers. The New GIR will be effective from January 2012 onwards.
Going by the bulky moniker the Familienpflegezeitgesetz, new legislation coming into force January 2012 will provide the voluntary option of providing employees with the choice of reducing their working hours to organise the long-term care of an elderly family members. “The legislation will allow employees to have a reduced working week of 15 hours, while still obtaining half of their salary. This will be compensated by a lower salary when they return to full-time work,” said Horstmann.
But the German pension industry is still in the process of creating offerings that meet the requirements of the Familienpflegezeitgesetz rules, as well as the growth of defined contribution schemes which have compulsory long-term care insurance components.
Please read complete article at link below:
http://www.thelocal.de/lifestyle/20111125-39111.html
Woman's death raises questions about nursing home medical records
Woman's death raises questions about nursing home medical records
By Marjie Lundstrom
mlundstrom@sacbee.com
By Marjie Lundstrom
Last modified: 2011-10-01T19:57:21Z
Published: Monday, Sep. 19, 2011 - 12:37 am
Page 1A
Last Modified: Saturday, Oct. 1, 2011 - 12:57 pm
.
THE SERIES
Sunday: The practice of nursing homes altering patients' medical records masks serious conditions and covers up care not given. A Bee review of nearly 150 cases of alleged chart falsification in California reveals how the practice puts patients at risk and sometimes leads to death.
Today: Don Esco sought skilled nursing care at a Placerville facility for Johnnie, his wife of nearly 61 years, when she was recuperating from a bout with pneumonia. She died 13 days later. Esco sued, alleging that the medical charts lied about Johnnie's treatment.
Don Esco first laid eyes on his future bride, Johnnie, when they were both 14, a chance meeting aboard a streetcar bound for Santa Monica beach.
It was the summer of 1944, and Esco was about to fall hard for the spirited, 5-foot-4-inch girl with blond hair and blue eyes, the youngest of 15 kids.
"The minute I saw her, I said to myself, 'That's the gal for me,' " said Esco, now 81.
"I've never looked at another woman."
After nearly 61 years of marriage, Esco's Texas-born dream girl – nicknamed "Sunshine" – died after a 13-day stay at the El Dorado Care Center in Placerville. Recuperating from a bout with pneumonia, Johnnie Esco, 77, was expected to return home with her husband after some rest and skilled-nursing care.
Don Esco buried his wife instead.
The nursing home and its former owner, Horizon West Healthcare Inc. – a Rocklin-based company with a history of licensing violations and run-ins with regulators – would soon be at the center of another legal storm.
Johnnie Esco's death on March 7, 2008, led to a contentious civil lawsuit, investigations by California's Department of Justice and Department of Public Health – and the exhumation of her body from Arlington National Cemetery.
Last week, amid inquiries from The Bee, the state Department of Justice reopened its criminal investigation into Johnnie Esco's treatment at the facility.
The case also raised questions about an aspect of nursing home care that many patients and families take for granted: the integrity of medical records.
"They were just penciling in what they wanted to," said Esco, who obtained his wife's medical records after her death.
He summed up his findings during the lawsuit in one word: "Fabrications."
Esco's suspicions about his wife's care at El Dorado Care Center mushroomed into a broad lawsuit filed in 2009 against the facility and its owner, alleging elder abuse, wrongful death and fraud. An integral aspect of the suit, filed by Esco and his three grown children, accused the facility of falsifying, altering and improperly handling the woman's medical charts as far back as her day of admission.
"It's really one of the most egregious cases I've ever handled," said the family's Sacramento attorney, Lesley Ann Clement.
"It's one of the worst types of elder abuse cases because it's not so obvious on its face," she said. "You really had to dig down."
For Clement, digging down meant digging through records, which she says revealed "a high degree of deception" at the Placerville facility.
Clement and other attorneys who sue nursing homes say that falsifying patient records is remarkably common, yet rarely punished by licensing authorities or state and local prosecutors.
Industry representatives say these allegations of fraud are unwarranted and unfair, given the reams of paperwork facilities churn out to meet Medicare and other regulatory demands.
Michael J. LeVangie, the attorney who represented El Dorado Care Center, maintained in court papers that there was "simply no evidence that EDCC did or failed to do anything that caused or contributed to any injury to Mrs. Esco."
Horizon West Healthcare Inc. settled the lawsuit in March 2010 for a confidential amount, then sold its 27 nursing homes this year to a San Marcos-based chain. LeVangie told The Bee he could not comment on specific cases, but said falsification is an "exaggerated issue" among plaintiffs' attorneys.
"It's a normal manner of attack," he said.
Don Esco knew nothing about the El Dorado Care Center or its owner when he agreed in early 2008 to place his wife, Johnnie, in temporary care.
On Feb. 22, 2008, Esco and his daughter, Judy Eyolfson, a registered nurse, took Johnnie to the nursing home. According to the short-term plan, she would recuperate at the Placerville nursing home for about a month, then return to the couple's three-bedroom home near the Cameron Park Country Club.
"If I'd taken her home and taken care of her myself, I think she would still be here," Esco would say later.
"That woman I loved dearly."
Trusting their care
Before its sale this year, the El Dorado Care Center billed itself as having "some of the finest health care services available" in the county, according to a consumer website of nursing homes.
"All (staff) are committed to providing compassionate, respectful care and service to our patients and their families," the facility's self-description read.
Staff members told a different story in recorded depositions for the lawsuit.
For one thing, "charting" was not always done with precision or care, several staff members conceded.
Naomi Williams, a certified nurse assistant who helped care for Johnnie, admitted in a deposition that she was so busy she sometimes didn't have time to fill in patients' charts. Williams testified that she suspected at least one CNA of routinely "rote charting"– hurriedly filling in boxes identical to the previous day's shift, according to a transcript of Williams' interview.
Another CNA who had helped care for Johnnie Esco, Christina Ferris, said she became concerned that workers were rote charting "because they're lazy," according to her deposition. She said she shared her concerns with a supervisor.
Both Ferris and Williams, along with a third nurse assistant, testified that someone else's handwriting appeared on their paperwork during shifts when they were assigned to Johnnie Esco as she lay critically ill.
Williams agreed to to be interviewed by The Bee but then could not be reached; Ferris could not be reached.
Don Esco said he had no reason to poke through the medical charts as he visited his wife daily, doting on her.
Diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease, Johnnie Esco had been declining in recent years and experienced a number of other medical setbacks, including lung cancer.
Don Esco was used to the rigors of providing around-the-clock care. A retired Air Force veteran who enlisted in the Army Air Corps at age 15, he quit a successful job in the hotel business in 1977 to care for his wife after she suffered a massive heart attack.
She eventually rebounded. But her dementia diagnosis later signaled a new round of intensive home care.
Seated at his dining room table in Cameron Park, where he completes a daily crossword puzzle, Don Esco's eyes moistened as he recalled his "storybook marriage." Despite his own diagnosis of Parkinson's disease, which causes his hands to tremble, he still moves assuredly about his house and yard with a cane gripped in his left hand.
For 22 years, the Escos and their three children had bounced around the world, living on various military bases. Johnnie was a stay-at-home mom who enjoyed bowling, gardening and crafts.
In 1986, they bought a new home, where Johnnie coaxed her husband into building her a wishing well in the spacious backyard, and planting redwood trees to remind her of Lake Tahoe.
By February 2008, she was not the same vivacious woman who had skipped off to Arizona at age 16 to marry the lanky kid she'd met on a Los Angeles streetcar.
As her full-time caregiver, Don Esco had devised intricate cardboard charts to keep track of her medications.
Esco knew the panoply of drugs caused debilitating side effects in Johnnie, particularly constipation, which – left unmanaged – can result in fecal impaction. The condition is life-threatening in elderly or bedridden patients as fecal matter backs up, threatening bowel obstruction or a ruptured colon and infection.
Johnnie Esco's chronic constipation flared again while she was hospitalized in Placerville in February 2008 for pneumonia, and a resulting fecal impaction there was successfully managed, court records show.
This time, though, the couple's mutual doctor advised that Johnnie should not go home immediately after discharge from Marshall Medical Center. The family physician recommended a respite for both of them, Don Esco recalled.
El Dorado Care Center, which has been renamed Western Slope Health Center since its sale, was a short walk from the hilltop hospital where Johnnie had been treated. A white, low-slung facility tucked among pine trees, it was only about a 20-minute drive from the Escos' home.
Don Esco agreed to the temporary arrangement.
A document scribbled on the first day would soon come under intense scrutiny.
Her condition declines
With her soft Southern drawl and winning smile, Johnnie Esco settled into Room 320B at the nursing home on Feb. 22, 2008, a Friday afternoon. A grandmother and great-grandmother to 14 children, her 78th birthday was four weeks away.
Christina Ferris, the CNA who expressed concerns over sloppy charting practices, found her new patient to be "just enjoyable," according to her deposition.
"I remember she liked her (country) music, and she would dance with me," Ferris testified, recalling how Johnnie was "always smiling."
Over the next 13 days, though, Johnnie Esco's demeanor and condition declined, according to the lawsuit.
Clement, the family's attorney, said she traced suspicious and irregular charting back to Johnnie's admission. The lawsuit and supporting court documents describe the following scenario:
The hospital sent the nursing home its records of Johnnie's weeklong stay at Marshall Medical Center, including a notation of the fecal impaction that required intervention. A physician ordered that Johnnie be checked on every shift for possible constipation, and that she receive milk of magnesia daily, as needed.
The family supplied its own typewritten list of medications, which included a laxative and stool softener.
Inexplicably, Clement told The Bee, the nurse who assessed Johnnie Esco upon admission that Friday indicated: No history of constipation or laxative use.
"That (nursing) assessment just never occurred," Clement said in an interview, repeating the allegations in the lawsuit. "They didn't talk to the family, they didn't get her history.
"It's just paper compliance. … They were checking these boxes and going on."
The nursing home argued in court papers that Johnnie Esco arrived at the facility with numerous ailments, and that the facility received "only routine bowel care orders."
LeVangie, the facility's attorney, asserted in court papers that El Dorado Care Center "created appropriate care plans regarding Mrs. Esco and her various serious underlying medical conditions."
"There is simply no evidence of egregious behavior," LeVangie stated in a 2010 filing, before the company agreed to settle. "She was being regularly monitored and assessed by the EDCC staff as well as her physician, and her husband and family were regularly present."
Even without an accurate assessment that first day, Don Esco made sure that the nursing home knew his concerns. Esco said he visited his wife daily for four to five hours, constantly quizzing the workers on duty.
Every day, he said, he asked if his wife had had a bowel movement. And every day, he said, they assured him that "everything was fine."
"They always gave me the answer I wanted to hear," he said.
Things weren't fine, according to the lawsuit.
Johnnie's chart revealed she did not have a bowel movement for five consecutive days, yet the chart also indicated a "zero" for constipation on those same days, the facility's records show.
On Feb. 28, her attending physician, Dr. Bradley Barnhill, visited the care facility and found Johnnie to be constipated and her abdomen "protuberant," or abnormally distended, according to the records. He wrote orders for a "bowel program," including laxatives and other treatments, and went to the nurses station to flag the new orders, records show.
When Clement examined the daily nursing notes for the lawsuit, she said, the section prompting nurses to evaluate a patient's "abdominal distention" was blank on the very shift after Barnhill's departure.
Clement said she also found that the laxative was given sporadically, or so the records reflected.
The facility's staff had trouble explaining their own records.
For instance, on the day before Johnnie Esco's death, the charting on the morning shift reflected an "Xlg," or extra large, bowel movement, the facility's records show.
Yet the nursing home's own workers, along with other medical experts, would later testify that having normal bowel movements was highly unlikely given the severity of Johnnie's condition, the depositions reveal.
Clement also alleged critical notations in several places in the charts were overwritten – without any explanation for why the entry was changed. On one document, two days before Johnnie's death, a temperature reading that appears to be 102 is scribbled out and replaced with the number 98.8.
That was the day a doctor ordered Johnnie Esco sent to a hospital. The nursing home did not send her until the following evening.
"These people, day after day, checking their friggin' boxes. Nobody looked at her," said Clement.
On Johnnie's last two days at El Dorado Care Center, family members recall that she was bedridden and unresponsive. Ferris, the CNA, described her patient as being "out of it," according to her videotaped deposition.
In that time period, El Dorado Care Center billed Medicare for 170 minutes of physical therapy for Johnnie Esco, plus 65 minutes of occupational therapy.
Investigation is reopened
Johnnie Esco died on March 7, 2008, at Marshall Medical Center. She was 16 days shy of her 78th birthday.
Paramedics, summoned the night before at Don Esco's insistence, found Johnnie's abdomen distended and "rigid," with pain upon touch, according to the paramedics' report.
But the nursing home's pain charting told a different story. According to the lawsuit, the staff initially failed to document pain at all. In the last week, it documented her pain daily as zero – which Clement contends "was almost certainly false."
At the hospital, emergency workers determined that Johnnie had a bowel obstruction as well as a blood clot in her left leg. The fecal impaction was so severe her rectum had dilated to 10 centimeters, or about 4 inches. A CT scan revealed undigested pills in her colon.
Hospital staff also documented injuries that Don Esco had found two days earlier: bruises along his wife's chin, jaw line and chest; bruising around the circumference of her right wrist; and a wound on her right pinkie finger.
By the time Johnnie reached the hospital on the evening of March 6, her condition was dire. Doctors told family members that surgery was the only recourse for a severe bowel obstruction but, in her weakened state, the risk of complications was high, court records show.
If she survived, Don Esco said, Johnnie stood little chance of having a decent quality of life.
The family decided to give her comfort care only. She died less than 17 hours later at 11:04 a.m. on March 7, 2008.
Dr. Barnhill, who did not perform an autopsy, surmised that the cause of death was a pulmonary embolism, or blood clot in the lung, a known complication for immobile or bedridden patients. In his opinion, the bowel problem was a "major contributing factor" in her precipitous decline.
The exhumation of Johnnie Esco's body from Arlington National Cemetery in September 2009 confirmed Barnhill's findings.
In 2009, the California Department of Public Health fined the El Dorado Care Center $1,000 for failing to investigate or report suspected elder abuse, and issued the nursing home a Class B citation. The department also fined the facility $18,000 for violating federal standards of patient care.
The state Department of Justice, through the Bureau of Medi-Cal Fraud and Elder Abuse, conducted its own criminal investigation in 2008. Lynda Gledhill, spokeswoman for the attorney general, said the case was referred to the El Dorado County district attorney. No charges were filed.
Gledhill told The Bee last week that the Department of Justice was reopening its investigation.
Horizon West Healthcare Inc. remains under criminal investigation by the state after the Justice Department and the El Dorado County Sheriff's Department raided its headquarters in Rocklin last May. Gledhill said she could not provide any details about the nature of that probe.
Don Esco said he finds little peace in the court settlement. (Although confidential, a document on the Superior Court's website revealed the amount to be $2.9 million.)
Today, Esco volunteers to help Carole Herman and her Sacramento-based Foundation Aiding the Elderly, which advocates nationwide for elderly patients' rights. Earlier this year, he went to Washington, D.C., to lobby for nursing home reform.
"I've got one purpose in life, and that's to do what I can to eliminate the pain and suffering in nursing homes and make sure the guilty parties are punished," he said.
More than three years after Johnnie's death, he cannot bring himself to move back into the master bedroom he shared with her. He sleeps alone in the study.
Read more: http://www.sacbee.com/2011/09/19/3920577/womans-death-raises-questions.html#ixzz1f3SqL9C2
Please read complete article at link below:
http://www.sacbee.com/2011/09/19/3920577/womans-death-raises-questions.html#storylink=scinlineshare
Editor's note: Alice R. Gore, a 99 year old disabled ward, was placed in a similar institution as above by Judge Lynne Kawamoto of the Probate Court of Cook County. When Alice's daughter complained to authorities about the conditions at the nursing home, Judge Kawamoto took immediate action...by punishing Alice's daughter, removing her guardianship and limiting her visitation. Lucius Verenus, Schoolmaster, ProbateSharks.com
KawamotoDragon.com
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