Teen sues mom in bid to ID dad – 04/28/06 – The Detroit News
MOUNT CLEMENS — A 17-year-old is suing his mother in Macomb County Circuit Court to force her to reveal the identity of his biological father.

Two years ago, the teen — identified as “Minor J” in court filings — learned that the man who helped raise him wasn’t his real father. Now, with help from that man, who is his legal father, he’s involved in a lawsuit that could help determine what rights children have to know the identity of their parents. (more…)

cbs4denver.com – Critics: Colorado Cases Need More Accessibility

(AP) COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. The days of being able to walk into the El Paso County courthouse, pull a case file and read it are long gone.

Those court cases, public records created with taxpayer money, are no longer readily available to members of the public unless they are parties to the case.
(more…)

Custody rights bill for fathers dead in Assembly
Custody rights bill for fathers dead in Assembly
Supporters say bill would balance system they say favors mothers

By JAY GALLAGHER and CARA MATTHEWS
Albany Bureau

ALBANY — An Assembly panel Tuesday killed for the year a proposal to give fathers greater custody rights in divorce proceedings.

By a 12-4 vote, the Assembly Children and Families Committee scuttled a contentious plan that would have made courts presume that shared parenting of children is the best arrangement for divorcing couples and their children, if there was no accusation that it would harm the children. (more…)

South Bend Tribune
VOICE OF THE PEOPLE

Civil rights for noncustodial parents is a “total joke” to Janet Stephens (Voice, March 19) but not to more than 311,000 families with Indiana child support cases.
It is not a joke to journalist Glenn Sacks (www.glennsacks.com), who responded to my campaign platform of non-custodial parents’ rights, saying he gets thousands of letters from fathers with such stories as David Snyder’s. (more…)

Note from ANCPR: The comment below by Republican Shirley Bowler, should put to rest any idea that the Republican party is any friend of parent’s rights.  THis article pretty much illustrates what the prevailing opinion is in the western world concerning children and parents of divorce – the judge is the only one with the power to dictate time with the child.  Once that is done, it is the power of the custodial parent.

2theadvocate.com | News | Panel debates fathers’ child-custody rights
A House committee Monday narrowly approved legislation that its promoter says would remove an angle some divorced fathers use to lower child-support payments.

Rep. Shirley Bowler, R-River Ridge, said some fathers have used a misinterpretation over the meaning of “joint custody” to argue that they deserve more time with their children and therefore should pay less child support. (more…)

Press Release: Families Need Fathers: Parental alienation awareness day

Mon, 24 Apr 2006

25 April is the first international PA awareness day. It is being observed in 20 countries.

“Parental alienation syndrome” is the brain washing of a child by one parent against the other. It is one of the saddest, and commonest manifestations of family break-down.

The manipulation of children by one parent, with the intention that they reject the other parent, is a type of psychological violence which qualifies as abuse. (more…)

Legislate for children of divorced parents — Page 1 — TimesUnion.com
First published: Monday, April 24, 2006

The March 28 opinion column by Marcia Pappas states that the “Legislature is considering the worst custody bill that NOW-NY had ever seen.” I disagree. It is a bill that is needed for the future of the children of divorced families.

It is not “a deceitful attempt to redefine visitation as shared parenting,” it is a way for fathers to be able to be involved in their children’s lives and not just a paycheck. Many fathers are routinely denied visitation. There is no recourse in the law. This is fact. I know, I am a stepmother. I’ve lived it for the past 10 years. (more…)

HUMAN EVENTS ONLINE – Which Party Will Win the Parents’ Vote? by Stephen Baskerville

Social & Domestic Issues

by Stephen Baskerville
Posted Apr 24, 2006

With Republicans facing the “too long in power” syndrome and the Democrats licking their chops each time their opponents shoot themselves in the foot, the GOP has an opportunity to regain the moral and electoral high ground and to do so in a way that demonstrates both a commitment to traditional conservatism and an ability to adapt.

The Republican renewal in the last election was occasioned by the assault on marriage.  Marriage and the family have become issues of electoral salience for Americans, and beyond habitual Republican voters.

Gay marriage did not emerge from nowhere.  It grew directly out of changes in family law over decades, whose consequences are only now becoming apparent.  The most serious fallout is the decline of fatherhood, about which we have heard so much but whose full implications we have yet to understand.

While the devastating social effects of fatherless children are now well known, we are only beginning to see the political impact of childless fathers.  For what the policy wonks have told us is fathers abandoning their children is in reality a tyranny of courts and government bureaucracies confiscating vast numbers of children from their fathers.  What officials call “deadbeat dads” are more likely plundered pops: solvent and responsible citizens who are being looted by extortionate child support, coerced attorneys’ fees, and other government expropriations that — despite claims of it all being “for the children” –
border on thievery.  (more…)

South Bend Tribune

Local case highlights delicate balancing act of mother, prisoner father and kids’ rights.

By PATRICK M. O’CONNELL
Tribune Staff Writer

In a quiet, unwavering tone, Kim Linetty chronicles the events of the day nearly four years ago in step-by-step clarity.

She details the multiple phone calls to police, her screams to neighbors and the swelling sense of dread that something horrible was about to happen to her.

Then Linetty tells of the attack — how he wrestled her to the ground, punched her in the head, pulled down her pants and raped her, covering her mouth and threatening death during the assault. (more…)