Portland, Oregon officials embrace green ideals to lure industry to town

Portland's politicians, flush with the success of landing Vestas Wind Systems last month, are pushing for a "green industry" strategy to convert the city's Birkenstocks-and-granola image into meat-and-potatoes jobs.

The city has been buffeted by bad economic news, from an 8 percent-plus unemployment rate to May Co.'s decision this month to pull Meier & Frank's administrative headquarters from Portland.

City leaders say part of the solution lies in uniting Oregon's environment-friendly culture with economic development, using Vestas to encourage a specialty in products and services that benefit the environment.

"We are the urban center for a sustainable economy, and Oregon is recognized as being one of the leading, if not the leading, sustainable state," said Mayor Vera Katz. "We have the credentials already."

Skeptics warn that the city government risks tilting at windmills when basic business problems should take center stage.

Industrial land is scarce -- Vestas took the biggest chunk left in the Portland area. Local taxes penalize entrepreneurs. And some of the same green regulations popular with environmentalists have given Oregon a reputation for overzealous environmental enforcement.

"City Hall interest is wonderful if you get them to deal with the issues that have created a perception that Portland is a harder place to do business than many other places in the country," said Marty Harris, the Portland Development Commission's economic development director.

Despite wariness from business leaders, the city's growing green-sector brain trust has clearly captured the City Council's ear, helping to accomplish a rare feat: unifying the left-leaning body behind an economic development push.

Katz and city Commissioners Dan Saltzman and Erik Sten say the city needs to look at nuts-and-bolts issues, too. But they have sent the development commission a letter serving notice that they expect the green strategy to be a serious part of an overall plan.

A blue-ribbon committee staffed by the development commission embarks this month on a five-month effort to evaluate 10 different industry groups, including sustainable industries and biotech.

Saltzman, who oversees the city's sustainable development bureau, says the first challenge to building green business "is getting the economic development types to really buy into this."

"We've always been the place willing to take on environmental issues," said Sten, who has helped update Portland's global warming strategy. "This is really about taking a whole other step and make environmental issues profitable for the city."

Vestas is expected to bring as many as 1,000 jobs to a new wind-turbine plant in North Portland, which will serve as the Danish company's U.S. headquarters.

The company's choice of Portland highlights the potential of local green manufacturing, though that sector has been limited so far. Perhaps the best example to date: Stormwater Management, a Portland company that makes filters to clean storm water before it runs into streams. The company, with 52 workers, has sales in Australia and a new office in Vancouver, B.C.

The Portland area does have a sizable contingent of engineers and architects focused on green building and environmental cleanup, adding those high-paid jobs at quadruple the national rate, according to a 1999 city study.

The area's green reputation has also persuaded environmental think tanks, including the U.S. Green Building Council and the International Sustainable Development Foundation, to set up headquarters in Portland. And "Team Oregon," a group of Portland-based consulting firms, is working to help Taiwan's government increase green practices.

IDC, an international industrial design and construction firm based in Portland, wants the Portland area to leverage its semiconductor manufacturing niche to become a center for production of solar photovoltaic cells, a process that uses many of the same skills required for making silicon wafers.

Century West Engineering, also based in Portland, has started a Center for Sustainable Engineering to develop green products, including an air compressor that uses less electricity and a new method of drawing energy from water flows that could cut the need for dams.

Now, many of those same engineers and green gurus are pushing the city and state to shore up green manufacturing and green product development.

"For the 20 years I've been here, Oregon's environmental and business communities have been very divisive," said Steven Straus, president of a Portland-based engineering firm, Glumac International. "Here's an opportunity they both can get behind 100 percent."

Despite Portland Harbor's listing as a Superfund site, the city and state have become green darlings through initiatives beginning with the Oregon Bottle Bill in the 1970s and including the urban growth boundary, the city's ban on polystyrene foam in restaurants and Portland's first-in-the-nation plan to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.

Portland increased garbage bills by 25 cents a month to support green building that does less damage to the environment, and the city is buying hybrid cars to set a green example.

Portland-area firms, including Nike and retailer Norm Thompson, are leading in making their buildings and manufacturing processes green, helping fuel the demand for engineers and architects.

Bill McDonough, a green business consultant whose clients include Ford and the city of Chicago, says Portland has a chance to take the U.S. lead.

"Of all the places I go, Portland seems to be the one that has the ability to do something really inspiring," McDonough said. "You've got a whole series of things that have happened here over time that aren't happening elsewhere."

But other areas appear to be pulling even on green policies -- and a desire to capitalize on them. Last year, San Francisco's voters approved issuing $100 million in revenue bonds to develop and purchase solar and wind power for city government use.

Chicago Mayor Richard Daley wants his town to be the country's center for green technology. Virginia offers a solar manufacturing grant that has helped draw two plants since 1998. And last month, Michigan announced that it wants to keep auto manufacturing jobs in the state by helping automakers transition to emissions-free cars.

It's not clear what Oregon's potential is to develop green industry. The sector is tough to define, and Oregon lacks a research university at the level of Stanford or the University of Washington to help attract and train entrepreneurs.

"I don't know how much (a green industry push) affects our ability to compete in the free world," said Bob Butler, an industrial property broker. "But Portland is not on the short list for Fortune 500 companies, and it's not on the long list normally. Maybe it would do well to put us on somebody's list."

A recent study commissioned by the development commission and agencies in Washington and Canada concluded that the Pacific Northwest is poised to build a niche in clean energy, such as wind and solar power, listing 26 companies in the area.

But the study listed only four Oregon companies, including PacifiCorp and a subsidiary of Idaho Power.

Assessments of the potential green industry market are also mixed. Boosters cite western Europe's embracing tougher environmental standards to combat global warming and to compel companies to generate less waste.

The study done partly for Portland's development commission concluded the market for clean energy is expected to average $180 billion a year during the next 20 years, about twice the size of the aircraft industry.

If the Northwest captured 3.5 percent of that market, it would bring 32,000 jobs by 2020, the study said.

But critics say green solutions have been extolled prematurely before. In a recent study, researchers from the libertarian Cato Institute concluded that alternative energy will account for only 2.8 percent of U.S. energy use by 2020, up from 2 percent now.

It's also not clear how much value green businesses put on being in green places. Vestas chief executive Johannes Poulsen, cited access to transportation and proximity to Northwest projects using Vestas turbines. The city's green reputation "wasn't a deciding factor," he said.

Katz and some economic development officials insist softer issues are important.

In visits, Vestas officials praised the city's bike paths and even its weather, Katz said, adding that the city and state need to talk up the fact that workers like living here.

Beyond marketing, green business boosters want to see Oregon government buy green more often, even if it means higher costs. Others envision an all-out pursuit of green industry, akin to the state's pursuit of high-tech firms with tax and development incentives.

Katz and others who visited Austin, Texas, last year came away thinking Austin's techniques for promoting high-tech, from hefty endowments for research professors to reduced utility rates and rents, could work in Oregon as well.

Rick Schulberg, head of the International Sustainable Development Foundation, acknowledged that focusing on an emerging industry would frustrate many businesspeople. But Schulberg, who worked in economic development under former Gov. Neil Goldschmidt, said business should see the glass half-full.

"The City Council is going to bump into the exact same problems talking about developing a green economy as they would talking about the economy in general," Schulberg said. "It's a great way to get the city paying attention to the ball, even if it's not your ball that gets them in the game."

You can reach Scott Learn at 503-221-8564 or by e-mail at scottlearn@news.oregonian.com.

brinksmanship using handguns.

The problem with your analysis is that there have been allegations that Oregon is confiscating children so they can be placed in foster homes and then used for child pornography. The photos of the Christine children taken by the state were called pornography by a judge. It would be abnormal for a parent NOT to react strongly. If your children are confiscated for child pornography, can you really over-react?

http://www.avoiceforchildren.com/documents/sept-2-1998/address_to_senate_oversight.html

Address to Senate Government Oversight Committee on Due Process

September 2, 1998

I am Pamela Gaston, with my husband, Will Gaston, from Mt. Angel, Oregon and I come before this committee speaking as a Voice For Children, speaking for "we the people", the state of Oregon, ex rel, to address what we are experiencing in the courts and to submit suggestions as to changes that must occur to insure that our Constitutional Right to due process is upheld. Article 14, Sec 1 of the US Constitution states: "no citizen shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty or property without due process of law, nor any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws". A law that is made that is repugnant to the Constitution is null and void and no law at all. A lawful court is a place to make a record - an adversary system with a neutral judge to a jury decision in all criminal cases inviolate and in all civil cases over $20 value. we have learned that EVERY child taken from their family in the state of Oregon is taken without a trial by jury and no court of evidence. Rarely is anyone charged with anything, although parents are constantly threatened that a grand jury will be charging them with something, usually sex abuse, if they do not cooperate with CSD and will never see their children again if they do not cooperate.

What they are illegally using to call evidence is uncontested hearsay allegations in every instance that in a jury proceeding would be testimony thrown out. And so there are no jury trials, only the biased decisions of judged acting beyond their jurisdiction violating their oaths of office and the public trust of committing treason against innocent citizens. Without due process of law, the system has become a rendering process that breaks down and tears apart everything that gets sucked into it. The compelled contracts of services like mental health exams and treatment ordered by judges are being used to render innocent people vulnerable by state doctors writing reports that say whatever a judge wants it to say - we have heard caseworkers state that if they get a report they do not "like" they keep making a person take more exams until they get what they want and then discard the previous exams...All of the cards are stacked in the state's favor.

We have found that the courts today are not a place of truth or credible evidence. We have found that when a person attempts to speak the truth they are shut down and if they have an attorney, the attorney will tell them not to speak and will not speak for them. We have found that police, caseworker and counselor reports are entered as "evidence" with no scrutiny or testimony as to the veracity of the statements in them.

The families know they are absolute lies, yet are not "allowed" to state this on the record, and are threatened and arrested when trying to demand this right to a fair hearing and for insisting on representing themselves in court and scared to death as the state has already kidnapped their children without due process and is already terrorizing them.

We are experiencing that the agencies are using illegally compelled contracts as sentencing, foster care as imprisonment and incarceration, they are drugging and using mind behavior modification techniques to control the children after terrorizing them which happens when they are traumatized from the act of being ripped from their families. They force them into "anger management programs and treatment" if they cry out about their abuse and they are routinely sexually abused by caseworkers and counselors and foster parents who suborn perjury for disclosures of any kind to parental rights. These compelled contracts that everyone is sentenced to are the cash cow for this beaurocracy and they call our children a "commodity" and President Clinton's newest fast track adoption grants a "bounty" their words, for more children each year than they can process. Their newest programs, the prenatal/infant "help" services and the children's insurance are nothing more than ways for this agency to access the homes of innocent pregnant women who are being offered these "services" only to find that they have been assessing the family and the "services" are not voluntary if you do not cooperate with the state to take these services which you will pay for or the state will pay for you, they take the child when it is born. The infants are worth the most money in the fast track programs and in the black market, which is also now a matter of public knowledge that this exists with corrupted caseworkers who have access to the babies, even Good Housekeeping in March 1996 did an expose on this thriving black market adoption and child selling in Oregon. They are increasingly taking the infants off the breast in the hospital if the woman has had any kind of previous involvement with CSD. All we say is court testimony that is undisputed and confessed to under oath in these matters by named agents of the state.

We have found that there are two records being made, and the courts are using the fraudulent counterfeit records that are generated to build a chain of "evidence" against people then prevail in taking their children, and the courts are blocking the TRUE RECORD from being made.

We have learned that these agencies hide behind their belief that confidentiality protects them from public knowledge and it is now a matter of public record that foster care and caseworker abuse of children is rarely reported. That the records - the statistics Kay Toran and other agents of Child Services bring to the Legislature and the newspapers are skewered, often conflicting figures, yet moneys are appropriated to further their agendas without ever questioning whose interests are furthered by these reports being upheld as truth. The whole Oregon Shines Benchmarks goals program is based on this counterfeit record of lies an deception being upheld in the courts without allowing intent or motive to be exposed.

We have found that there is no grievance process or overseer accountability or access to any authority to intervene when we are abused by agents of the state. We have seen that our petitions are being ignored by Chief Justice Wallace Carson who is turning a deaf ear to the families praying for justice and every authority who has taken an oath of office to uphold the constitution in their lawful duties have breached their oaths and failed to act to stop this destruction of innocent and vulnerable people. In fact, Wallace Carson has been for over a year personally assigning the senior judges from out of county to come in and "cut and shred" us in court, to insure that the state prevails.

We are seeing how all of the children, without exception, are being kidnapped on the word of the CSD only, and we have established testimony now from presiding Judge Paul Lipscomb, District Attorney Dale Penn and Family Court DA William Howell that there is never once a jury involved in the taking of children and the destruction of families. These men stated that their only "boss" is the voting booth and that they are inaccountable to anyone but themselves. Dale Penn testified that encouraging child sex abuse and the filming of a 6 year old girl stripping, dancing naked and encouraged to perform sexual manipulations was not pornography and that he participated in the sealing up of said videotape. And now the state has awarded in yet another sham proceeding - a jury trial we were ordered out of and not allowed to defend ourselves, to the foster mother/pornographer $500,000 against us for printing the truth in her own words in her confessions. Where is our Governors pardon from this sentence of family destruction? This governor has known fully of our situation for 1 1/2 years and has done nothing, and all those responsible have allowed this retaliation to escalate. These men who are personally responsible for handling of Marion county cases, stated that even when you are found not guilty in a jury trial that it does not mean the case is over, in and fact no one is ever innocent.

Lipscomb stated that he has made a singular decision to ban someone from the courthouse permanently without hearing, without charges or lawful order and absolutely without due process on his own authority and that they are keeping a black list of people who are being followed and their pictures put on the walls and these people do now know they are being singled out upon entering the courthouse. I am the one he has permanently banned and for just walking into the courthouse I was maced and arrested and now face jail time because Mr. Lipscomb wants me to stop telling what I have discovered, and believes himself to be without overseer in blatantly violating our constitutional rights. We witness behaviors in the courtrooms and especially of the judges that are utterly unbelievable and all of the people have learned to stop saying "how can they do that" - "they" do! The head Sheriff Dave McMullen testified that he is not a peace officer but is in fact an enforcer. His boss Raul Ramirez refused to testify. The extreme arrogance and lack of accountability by adults in positions of authority is what our children and families confront once caught in the system. What can we expect from our youth when they rage violently because no one will listen to what is right and only force control tactics? And when for the least of reasons they encounter this insane system and are assessed by trained people and paraded like slaves with their vital statistics in the newspapers, all labeled special needs because the system gets more money for special needs, we the people are testifying that to experience what we are living is enough that people commit suicide and children don't stand a chance to the practiced and polished methods of deception these agents of the state are using. It is nothing short of PURE EVIL what is happening to our children.

We are witnessing criminal activity against our families and children and experiencing intense retaliation and retribution from the state and we are seeing the state attempt to stop newspapers, protests and TV shows that speak the truth about what is happening. We have seen a judge order that my husband could not pray with his daughter. As a matter of public record a jury has established that in fact judges are conspiring with attorneys, police, sheriffs, caseworkers and other state agents to strip our citizens of their children, their lands, their freedom in sham proceedings without juries and absolutely without due process. In the event a person gets a jury trial, judges illegally instruct juries to find defendants guilty and do not permit motive or intent or truth to come in.

We hear judges say that "facts are not an issue" and "you will not prevail if you persist in declaring your innocence" and in fact will not allow the words "innocence" or "due process" or any reading of law to be stated on the record. We are told that even if we miraculously prevail in a termination of parental rights hearing (no jury) that to appeal would be difficult, at best, and that even if you win the children will not be returned home, but SCF will "begin" to "implement" a service agreement to "work toward" reconciliation, and that most likely they will then say that you do not have the skills to deal with the emotional needs of the children, now that they have destroyed them. It is a viscious circle designed to prevail at all costs and it is a matter of public record that the abuse they are suffering at the hands of the state is far worse than any of the allegations on which they are seizing our children.

Where is God in all of this? Where is the moral foundations and natural rights of sovereign citizens of the Republic that the Constitution was created to insure? Are we not innocent until proven guilty? We are being sentenced to family destruction and rendered guilty and never allowed to be proven innocent! Where is the state's burden of proof of guilt or conviction beyond a reasonable doubt in the taking of children?

There are some immediate steps that need to be made to intervene and halt the terrorism being currently enacted on atleast 2/3 of 6,000 children in the system right now. We must pass the Family Protection Amendment and incorporate it into all future legislation by reestablishing trial by jury into the taking of children and requiring charging someone with a crime and evidence of a crime in order to take children from their homes. When there is legitimate child abuse there is a crime and there is evidence and charges and this is what due process is all about. We must immediately demand that no fraudulent documents can be admissible in court - no unsigned, unentered, unfounded reports or judges orders - something as simple as this will change the whole game as we have learned the key to the abuse is in the records they are making against us. Even when you get confidentiality waivers and read peoples casefiles, it is all the same lies, and you as overseers will never see it, and since the people cannot and their attorneys will not put the truth in the record, you are only seeing what the court and SCF wants you to see as with their skewered statistics...Attorneys will not contest these documents as it would require them to challenge a judge and risk contempt for "irritating the court" for which they get disbarred. Even if you appeal, only the records go up and are seen if you have not spoken the truth on the record, the higher court does not see it either.

We must immediately stop all funding coming straight from Federal funds and require ALL moneys for programs and services to have to come through the legislature and the general fund. We must stop the Federal financing of this kind of abuse. We must immediately put an end to the compelled contracts being used as ransom, contracts signed under duress which invalidates all signatures, yet this is how they fuel their rendering machine. We have heard Kay Toran state that "services are not voluntary" and as we see, they are sentences. We must separate the different parts of the child services agency to reestablish accountability and create an overseer capability that does not exist right now. We must sever the arms of this beast to remove this opportunity for extreme corruption - they take the children, they run the foster care programs, they run the medical and investigative areas, they control every adoption, even private agencies, in the state, and they run the courts to serve in their own best interest, and monetary growth has spawned a sex abuse industry funding huge sums of tax dollars under the pretense of protecting everyone but in fact this agency has become the "Family Police" and are reaping obscene financial rewards. According to Title 18, USC 42 Civil Code, to move one group of people out of their families, homes, culture race and religion is to commit GENOCIDE and all who are allowing this to happen are guilty of this crime against innocent Oregonians.

We have spoken, we have prayed, we have made every attempt to find our due process in a lawful way, and no one is acting in our behalf! What are we to do? No book could hold the truth of the extent of this destruction. There is no more heinous crime than to destroy a child and the circle of life of a family body for all time! As you take your time to think about these things and our children and families continue being abused, ask yourself "What will you do when you are accused?" as that is all it takes to begin the rendering process. What will you do when it is your child or grandchild who is illegally taken and held on lies and tortured and drugged and sexually abused? Will you do less than we the people who will not take this destruction any longer? The Constitution states we have the responsibility to overthrow any in authority who would subvert the constitution, and that to subvert the constitution is treason. Where is our guaranteed equal protection of the laws? What are we setting up for posterity? The blood of our innocence is on your heads and the morals and accountability to act is in your hands.

Pamela K. Gaston, A Voice For Children

It is difficult to determine whether you are really as naive as you pretend or whether you are one of the team of cultural communists taking over the nation and FreeRepublic.

>The Christines would have done better to stick to non-violent ways to make their point, and to get their way.

When they come for you and your children, do make sure that you don't protest a peep. Just jump in the truck and go where they take you. Wave goodbye to your kids as they leave in another direction. Don't be violent. Don't resist. After all, "The government is here to help you." Right? </sarcasm>

View for sale: $30,000 New owner of a lake fences it off when homeowners wouldn't pay.

Your lack of clear thinking is consistent with the situation at the above link. I see a pink fence in your future...with sparkles in the paint...or one of chainlink or razor wire with guards and a tower. And don't protest that they can't do this to you or it can't happen. It IS happening!

On a related issue: DSS Dirty Tricks -- IF YOU HAVE KIDS READ THIS !!!!!

They Want Your Kids
The first DSS dirty trick is making you think they would NEVER use dirty tricks to take your children. Beneath the nice exterior of your friendly DSS agent is a person whose job is to take children - your children. DSS takes children from about 25% of the families for which they provide services, and that percentage is on the increase.

They Only Want to "Help" You
DSS is there to help you, right? Wrong. Former Speaker of the House Jim Wright, a Texan, was a master at "helping" his opponents. He would say, when he was trying to twist the arms of his colleagues, "Ah only want to Hep yew." When he was "heppin' yew", that's when you had to be the most careful. It is the same with the DSS.
Some DSS agents want to help families, and some don't. However, the system itself rarely does. Most DSS agents don't know or respect the restrictions in the law against taking children, and no one holds them accountable. Even judges cannot reign them in. So they do as they please, not what the law allows or requires. They have managed to form their own secret police, just like in Communist countries.
Many people ask the DSS for "voluntary services", only to find out too late that asking for help brings the whole DSS down on them. That is literally asking to have your children taken.

The Law Requires Them to Try to Unite Families
The law says that DSS must try to unite families, not destroy them. Specifically, Massachusetts General Laws, Chapter 119, Section 1 says: "It is hereby declared to be the policy of this Commonwealth to direct its efforts, first, to the strengthening and encouragement of family life for the protection and care of children . . ." They talk about help, and stabilizing intact families, and therapy, but it's all a cruel lie. They really want to take your kids.
So, their first dirty trick is to say they want to help you. Don't fall for it. They will offer "services", and home visits, and nice chats about your life and the bad things your spouse did. Don't do it. Shut up. They do not want to help you. Be pleasant, but firm. As explained in the next section, if you talk, or accept their ‘services', you may never see your children again.

Play by the Rules - Lose Your Children.
Can This Be Happening in America?
If you foolishly think that DSS will play by the rules, then they will exploit your weakness, and take your children. If you play by the rules, they will exploit that, and take your children. But if you know how the game is played, you may have a chance to keep your children, or get them back after they are taken. The secret police can be outsmarted.
You will likely ask yourself, "How can this be happening in America?" It is happening, and it is because politicians have been willing to compromise liberty and family rights for support from radical Marxists and feminists who demanded these laws. While no one was watching, these people stole our American System of law and due process, and family rights, and liberty, and quietly substituted this new nightmare of a secret police system that you are now dealing with.
People assume that they will get justice in our courts. No longer. It's gone. The old America that respected family privacy is gone. A new Soviet-style system has taken its place. The sooner you acknowledge that horrible reality, the sooner you stop believing that the old system just HAS to give you justice, the sooner you can start fighting back in an effective manner. ... Click here for the rest it: DSS Dirty Tricks

Loving Family Separated at Christmas

The Times Examiner, Greenville, SC, 2001

It is the fear of every parent who home schools or who practices Biblical discipline: a knock on the door, then a uniformed police officer and a DSS social worker outside asking to come in and to see your children.

That happened to Bill and Debbie Rettew in Greer on November 8, only there were more than a couple of people on their doorstep and they were there to do more than interview the children. Fifteen children were taken from the Rettews on that day, and the reason has yet to be given.

The Rettews are under a gag order from Family Court Judge Amy Sutherland that prohibits them from speaking about the children and what may or may not have happened, but there has been an overwhelming reaction from friends and supporters who know the whole family and who are not bound by a gag order:

“They are kind, loving parents who put the children’s needs first.”

“I have been amazed with the obvious rapport they have with their special children. Never have I seen them do anything that would not be in the best interest of their family.”

“They are totally devoted in sacrificial care of these children.”

“We have never seen anything but love and affection given to the children.”

“The children are always beautifully dressed and well-behaved. What a lovely sight to see them all file into a pew at church! You’ve never seen prouder parents or happier children.”

“Mr. and Mrs. Rettew are, in my opinion, model parents.”

“To the Rettews, taking care of these children is a sacred ministry and motivated by love.”

“Many times we have stopped by their home unannounced and I never cease to be amazed at how orderly everything is.”

“The Rettew family is an amazing example of godly concern and sincere compassion for children with varying and multiple needs.”

The issue has also been raised of how these special children will fare during the Christmas season after being forced to leave their loving home and to stay in unfamiliar surroundings:

“Please consider the damage that will be done to these precious children if they are removed from their home, a place of security and love, especially right here at Christmas.”

“Separation from family and disruption of routine are the worst enemies of inner peace for disabled and special needs children.”

“It has been a very traumatic experience for the children to be removed from this positive environment.”

In the coming weeks, much more information will be forthcoming about the Rettew family as their case develops in court. The Times Examiner will stay abreast of those developments and keep readers apprised.

Not knowing what charges, if any, the Rettews are facing, onlookers can focus on only the process by which their children were forcibly removed from their home and how they are being kept away now.

While there is a legitimate need for authoritative intervention when children are truly abused, no agency should have the power to trample on the equally legitimate Constitutional rights of parents and of the children living peacefully in their home.

There is a move underway currently to revamp existing state laws all across the nation to hold social workers accountable to the same Fourth Amendment standards as police and to require a warrant, based on probable cause, before any social worker can forcibly enter a home.

While a warrant was obtained in the Rettew case, the fact that its “probable cause” has been concealed from the public, and the shockingly disruptive way in which it was carried out, illustrates further that these reforms are overdue.

This child snatching is going on in other places, too.

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