Free Republic

Connecticut child care providers will be unionized following a vote announced Tuesday. The providers voted 1,603-88 to join the union, according to Matt O'Connor, a spokesman for CSEA/SEIU Local 2001. The American Arbitration Association, a neutral group, on Tuesday counted the secret ballots that had been returned through U.S. mail. O'Connor noted that the union had been trying for six years to organize the providers who care for children in providers' private homes. Nationally, 15 states have similar unions. Overall, about 96 percent of the Connecticut workers are women, O'Connor said. There are about 4,000 providers, covering all 169 cities...

ST. PAUL, Minn.—A Ramsey County judge on Monday blocked a unionization vote by Minnesota child care workers that was to get under way this week, saying the issue must go through the state Legislature. Attorneys for the plaintiffs argued that the Democratic governor exceeded his powers with the executive order setting up the election. "If unionization of day care is to become the law of Minnesota, it must first be submitted to the lawmaking body of the state," Judge Dale Lindman said after hearing three hours of testimony. Lindman also said he was "bothered" that less than half of the...

The Senate Committee on Rules and Administration voted Thursday to file a "friend of the court" brief in support of a lawsuit seeking to stop an upcoming unionization election for in-home child care providers. The vote was 6-1 along party lines, with Republicans in favor and the lone Democrat in attendance, Richard Cohen of St. Paul, opposed. GOP senators argued that Gov. Mark Dayton, a Democrat, overstepped his legal authority in issuing an executive order for the election. Filing an amicus brief does not make the Senate a party to the suit but offers support for the complaint submitted Monday...

Dayton, a Democrat, ordered the election two weeks ago so that providers could vote on whether to be represented by a union in "meet and confer" talks with the state. The order allows in-home providers who participate in state-subsidized Child Care Assistance Programs to vote on whether to be represented by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) or the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), depending on where in the state their business is. Ballots are scheduled to be mailed Dec. 7 to about 4,300 of some 11,000 in-home providers in Minnesota. They would be counted Dec....

Minnesota lawmakers got some answers Monday about a vote to unionize in-home child care providers, but with just more than two weeks before ballots are mailed, key questions remain. Chief among those emerging from a House committee meeting: Will any agreements reached between state-subsidized providers and the state apply to those who don't receive subsidies, and if so, shouldn't those who don't receive subsidies be allowed to vote? Meanwhile, there is an effort in Ramsey County to block a budget allocation for a nonprofit group linked to the union organizing child care providers. Gov. Mark Dayton touched off the flurry...

Governor Dayton reportedly made a promise to union leaders to sign the executive order in exchange for their support in the last election. Greedy union bosses want to skim union dues from taxpayer-funded subsidies designed to help poor parents pay for childcare services. And childcare providers are just the beginning. In other states, family members caring for relatives with disabilities have also been forced to join a union.

GOP presidential hopeful Herman Cain drew applause and guffaws by referring to Nancy Pelosi as “Princess Nancy” during a debate last week. Her reaction? “Really, it’s another one of those clueless statements — clueless in that you don’t say something like that,” she said in a wide-ranging interview in her office. “I don’t know that he had any malicious intent, but it trivialized the fact that I was speaker of the House.” You can disagree with the House minority leader, of course, or spend at least $65 million running 161,203 ads against her, as Republicans did in the past election...

Gov. Mark Dayton on Tuesday ordered an election to allow Minnesota's in-home child care providers to vote on whether to unionize. But his executive order drew swift response from Republicans who vowed to sue to prevent the vote. "There is nothing in Minnesota law that provides the governor with the power to do the thing that he says he's going to do," said Sen. David Hann, R-Eden Prairie, who chairs the Senate health and human services committee. "And I think the real question for us is, what do you do with a governor who won't follow the law?" Dayton, a...

Take a minute and think about this new ad that will be splashed across bus shelters around the city next week, city officials told those gathered this morning for a press conference. The ad, which depicts a baby with a knife tucked beside him in an adult bed, is intended to shock those who pass by because the message is critical Minutes before city officials unveiled the new safe-sleep advertising campaign this morning, the medical examiner's office announced that a 7-week-old baby was found dead after co-sleeping with his or her mother. The infant, whose gender was not released,...

Minnesota ranks as the fifth least affordable state for prekindergarten child care, after New York, Montana, Massachusetts and Wisconsin. Minnesota is among the most expensive for child care partly because the industry is highly regulated by the state, according to Ann McCully, executive director of Minnesota Child Care. For example, Minnesota requires a lower ratio of staff to children than other states, which requires centers to spend more money on personnel. McCully said it can be difficult for centers to make a profit or simply break even.

(KMOV) -- A St. Charles County woman was arrested at a McDonald's on Highway 94 after leaving her children, ages 4 and 2, in a play area while she took heroin in the bathroom on Tuesday. According to police, Kelli Horton, 36, was charged with a possession of a controlled substance and unlawful use of drug paraphernalia. St. Charles County Sheriff's Department said Horton took her children to buy heroin in St. Louis, then drove to the McDonald's. Police said Horton left her children in a play area while she ingested two capsules of heroin in the bathroom. Police were...

Florida's privatization of child welfare services was supposed to be good for kids and taxpayers. But in the decade since the state began making private agencies responsible for the care of abused and neglected children, one cost has soared — the salaries of top employees. Child welfare executives throughout Florida are now making six-figure salaries, with some topping $200,000 — double what state employees used to be paid to do the same work. "They should not under any circumstances be paid these sorts of outrageous salaries,'' said state Sen. Ronda Storms, R-Valrico and chairwoman of the Committee on Children, Families...

<p>A Texas day care center is facing a state probe over allegations it took a group of 6-year-olds to see an R-rated movie.</p> <p>Patrick Crimmins, a spokesman for the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services, confirmed to Fox News Radio that Young Expressions Childcare in Bellmead is under investigation.</p>

A 7-month-old girl was found dead in Antioch after being left in her family's car overnight, police said today.Sofia Wisher of Antioch was pronounced dead after she was found in her car seat outside the In Shape Sports Club on Lone Tree Way shortly after 2 p.m. Sunday, authorities said.

Army chiefs face the nightmare prospect of having to consider their soldiers' childcare problems before giving them orders. The devastating blow follows a successful sex discrimination claim brought by a single mother. Tilern DeBique, 28, says she was forced to leave the Army because she was expected to be available for duty around the clock. She was formally disciplined when she failed to appear on parade because she had to look after her daughter. She was told the Army was a 'war-fighting machine' and 'unsuitable for a single mother who couldn't sort out her childcare arrangements'.

So what’s the biggest threat to religious liberty? According to J. Brent Walker, executive director of the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty, the answer is found in the strings attached to government funding of religious activity. Earlier this month, during a speech for the Jewish Anti-Defamation League, Walker said, “What the government funds, it always regulates. Government-sponsored religion is always bad for religion. How can we raise a prophetic fist with one hand and take government money with the other?” The truth of Walker’s statement was underscored just last week when the Washington State House of Representatives passed HB...

A seven-month-old girl miraculously survived alone for three days after one of her parents shot her in the chest - apparently as part of a bizarre murder-suicide pact blamed on global warming. The baby was discovered with a bullet casing in her chest and covered with blood by police in the Argentinean city of Goya, near the bodies of her parents and 2-year-old brother

Michelle Berry runs a day-care business out of her home in Flint, MI. She thought that she owned her own business, but Berry's been told she is now a government employee and union member. It's not voluntary. Suddenly, Berry and 40,000 other Michigan private day-care providers have learned that union dues are being taken out of the child-care subsidies the state sends them. The "union" is a creation of AFSCME, the government workers union, and the United Auto Workers. This racket means big money to AFSCME, which runs the union, writes the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, a free-market think...

Mothers screamed abuse at nursery paedophile Vanessa George yesterday as she began a prison sentence that could see her freed after only seven years. One called the punishment 'a joke' and stormed out of court in disgust. Another lunged towards the dock and threatened to kill her. The dramatic scenes came as George, 39, was given an indeterminate sentence for 'plumbing new depths of depravity' by abusing children in her care. ..... The scant detail she gave police may never enable them to identify which children she assaulted while looking after babies and toddlers at Little Ted's nursery in Plymouth....

Experts are warning child care centres to drastically limit the amount of time children spend watching television or ban TV altogether. Research by the Royal Melbourne Children's Hospital suggests children under the age of two should not watch any TV at all. The researchers have now written guidelines for the Federal Government as part of the Get Up and Grow guidelines to reduce childhood obesity. They are designed specifically for child care centres but also provide some advice for parents. Statistics show that four-month-old infants watch on average 44 minutes of TV each day and children under the age of...

MIDDLEVILLE (WZZM)- A West Michigan woman says the state is threatening her with fines and possibly jail time for babysitting her neighbors' children. Lisa Snyder of Middleville says her neighborhood school bus stop is right in front of her home. It arrives after her neighbors need to be at work, so she watches three of their children for 15-40 minutes until the bus comes. The Department of Human Services received a complaint that Snyder was operating an illegal child care home. DHS contacted Snyder and told her to get licensed, stop watching her neighbors' kids, or face the consequences. "That...

Supervisors suggest putting unemployed parents to work caring for their own children as part of proposed changes to CalWorks and other state government aid programs. With steep state budget cuts under debate in Sacramento, Los Angeles County supervisors voted Tuesday to push for changes to CalWorks and other government aid programs they said would save nearly $270 million. Included in their suggestions is a novel proposal: Put unemployed parents to work caring for their own children. "What we're saying is do not cut Welfare to Work outright: Target the cuts to the people who are the most expensive," said Miguel...

First lady Michelle Obama says everyone should have what she has: a chief of staff and a personal assistant. Speaking Thursday in support of sick days with pay and flexible work schedules, Mrs. Obama said that, as challenging as her new life may sometimes seem, hers is a "very blessed situation, because I have what most families don't have" -- support from her mother and a staff. "Everyone should have a chief of staff and a set of personal assistants," she said at a meeting of Corporate Voices for Working Families, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that works to develop and...

Children looked after by grandparents 'are naughtier than those who spend day in nursery' Research says children looked after by their grandparents are less likely to be ready for school Young children looked after by grandparents are more likely to be badly behaved than those sent to nursery, a study claims today. They tended to have wider vocabularies, but were also more likely to show 'problem behaviour' and find it harder to get on with other children, said researchers. They were also less likely to be ready for school, according to the study by the Institute of Education, a University...

Mayor Nutter said yesterday that five of the 11 library branches once scheduled to close permanently on Thursday are instead on track to be taken over by private foundations, wealthy individuals, companies, and community development corporations. ( ... ) "Libraries are much more than repositories for books. We know this," said Nutter, who ordered 11 of 54 branches closed as part of a larger plan to address a $1 billion five-year budget gap. "They are the absolute complete nexus of community life." Nutter made his remarks at a City Hall news conference where he was loudly heckled by dozens of...

"When it comes to caring for children, Sweden ranks highest among the world’s wealthy countries, according to a new report from the United Nations children’s organization, Unicef."

FOB DELTA — Obstetricians and midwives at the al Zahara Hospital in al Kut received maternal and child care training from hospital staff and Coalition forces, Nov. 26. Eighty-seven students attended the lecture, which covered topics on maternal health, child care and treatment for choking, taught by Dr. Halam Turki, an Iraqi-American obstetrics and gynecological surgeon. The Wasit director general for health; Company C, 589th Brigade Support Battalion, 41st Fires Brigade; and the 304th Civil Affairs Bde., of Philadelphia; sponsored the training. The training is part of the ongoing Operation Gunner Med, to improve the state of health care in...

ROCKFORD, Ill. – The nation's economic troubles play out one family at a time at the New Horizons Learning Center in this struggling city two hours northwest of Chicago. Some parents have been laid off and must pull their children out of the day care center until they can find a job. Others' employment hours have been cut, so they reduce their kids' attendance to a few days a week. Financial strains prompt one mother to pay with a postdated check. Another chooses to work in the middle of the night — after putting her kids to bed — because...

I was perusing the Kids and Parenting section of MSNBC and found an article entitled: Drinking water can hurt babies under 6 months. According to Johns Hopkins Children's Center in Baltimore, MD. "Babies younger than six months old should never be given water to drink [because] consuming too much water can put babies at risk of a potentially life-threatening condition known as water intoxication."

LEAD: Ten years after the U.S. started talking about ''family values,'' many wonder why we are still unable to provide decent education, health care and opportunity for all of our children.... ... At this pivotal moment, much can be learned by comparing America's child care system to France's.... ...What we saw was a coordinated, comprehensive system, supported across the political spectrum, that links day care, early education and health care - and is accessible to virtually every child... We found sharp contrasts between the French and U.S. child care systems....In France, mandated paid parental leave for child birth and adoption...

I hope I didn't screw up my first attempt at a Vanity Post. My daughter attends a private school. She is 19 months old and has been there close to a year now. She is a bit more advanced than kids her age, yet she has remained within her age group. She was to be moved up to a new class last month. She doest use sippy cup, and she is also letting her teachers know she has to use the bathroom, but they cannot take the time away to sit her down because two teachers have to be in...

A text message from a virtual stranger saying 'I want to have sex with you tonight' might, on occasion, be considered a compliment. When it comes from the nanny you just hired to look after your eight-month-old baby, it's bad news. Being a nervous first-time mother, I had done my homework to find Carole. I had interviewed her twice at length and spoken to her previous employer. As much as it upset me to leave my baby to go back to work, we needed the money - but at least I thought I had done everything to make sure Lily...

A new study finds that children who received better quality child care before kindergarten had better vocabulary scores later on than those who received lower quality child care. The study also finds that children who remained in child care longer were more likely to have behavior problems in the sixth grade. Researchers say the effect of child care quality is consistent with other evidence showing that early experiences matter to a child's language development. But, they say, parenting is a much more important predictor of a child's development. The report appears in the current issue of Child Development. It tracked...

A much-anticipated report from the largest and longest-running study of American child care has found that keeping a preschooler in a day care center for a year or more increased the likelihood that the child would become disruptive in class ? and that the effect persisted through the sixth grade. The finding held up regardless of the child's sex or family income, and regardless of the quality of the day care center. With more than 2 million U.S. preschoolers attending day care, the increased disruptiveness very likely contributes to the load on teachers who must manage large classrooms, the authors...

How nurseries 'still breed aggression' By Sarah Womack, Social Affairs Correspondent  Last Updated: 1:15am BST 26/03/2007     Children who spend a lot of time in nursery are more likely to be aggressive and disobedient throughout primary school - no matter how excellent the nursery, according to study published today.Primary school teachers are more likely to say that such children - even at the age of 11 - are still "getting into fights" or "arguing a lot".The findings, from a continuing study of nearly 1,400 children, reignite the debate about whether working women damage their children's health by putting them...

Question One has gained the lion’s share of attention when it comes to the ballot questions (however misleading some of that attention might have been). Understandable, since Questions Two and Three can’t exactly be boiled down to the “wine=good” vs. “wine=bad” talking points. Nevertheless voters will be asked to weigh in on all three initiatives on the statewide ballot tomorrow, and so we offer a recap of the Herald’s views: Question One would allow more grocery stores to sell wine, subject to approval of local licensing authorities. The dire warnings of opponents - including the powerful liquor lobby and the...

BALLOT QUESTION #1 An Initiative Petition for a Law This proposed law would allow local licensing authorities to issue licenses for food stores to sell wine. The proposed law defines a “food store” as a retail vendor, such as a grocery store, supermarket, shop, club, outlet, or warehouse-type seller, that sells food to consumers to be eaten elsewhere (which must include meat, poultry, dairy products, eggs, fresh fruit and produce, and other specified items), and that may sell other items usually found in grocery stores. Holders of licenses to sell wine at food stores could sell wine either on its...

Gov. Schwarzenegger signed legislation Thursday that is intended to give parents and guardians more information about potential problems at licensed child-care facilities. The bill by Assemblyman John J. Benoit, R-Bermuda Dunes, stemmed from the March 2004 drowning of Aryanna Sanchez in an above-ground spa at a Riverside day-care center. A social worker had cited the center's husband-wife operators at least once for leaving the spa uncovered. But Aryanna's mother, Anita Aguilar, never knew of the violation. Under AB 633, child-care centers are required to make available investigative reports and other paperwork, including evidence of the state's intent to pull a...

In the name of the fatherhttp://scotlandonsunday.scotsman.com/opinion.cfm?id=1033732006 http://tinyurl.com/ozefu DANI GARAVELLI Sun 16 Jul 2006 ONCE upon a time, I believed it didn't matter a whit whether a baby was born into a family with one parent or two. Or with two mothers or two fathers rather than a mother and a father. Why should it? What was important was not the number or gender of the parents, but whether or not they were loving and attentive. That was, of course, before I had any of my own. Now I realise that bringing up children is a challenge even for two well-meaning...

Homeschoolers believe that parents generally provide the best care for children, so when the Wyoming legislature started working on a "Quality Child Care Initiative" this year, homeschoolers got involved. The legislators made quite a few changes as they tried to find some compromise between people who put parents first and those who see the government as the answer to everything. The new law established a "Legislative Oversight Committee" to oversee progress. The Governor appointed a joint task force of the Department of Family Services and the Department of Workforce to make some initial assessments. On Friday, April 28, the Legislative...

According to a recent study by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, it costs a middle-income family $250,000 to raise a child from birth to age 17. And that doesn't include the cost of a college education. In the first year alone, the costs of a baby can reach between $9,000 and $11,000, and most new and expectant parents don't realize the size of the financial burden they are taking on. "Most people are more focused on the schedule disruptions and the exhaustion they will be facing," says Brette McWhorter Sember, a retired lawyer and author of "Your Practical Pregnancy Planner:...

Harper Backs MPs Depiction of Liberal Day Care Plan as "Soviet Style" By John-Henry Westen OTTAWA, April 12, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Liberal MP Omar Alghabra (Mississauga-Erindale) was incensed in the House of Commons yesterday that Conservative MP Cheryl Gallant had compared the Liberal day care plan to "Soviet style" day care. "Mr. Speaker, yesterday the Conservative member for Renfrew-Nipissing-Pembroke said that the Quebec model of child care, adopted by the former government, was a soviet style child care," protested Alghabra. He demanded Prime Minister Harper apologize for the remarks. Gallant on April 10, said in the Commons, "It has...

Tories offer child care payment $1,200 for each child under six Allan Woods, CanWest News Service (via National Post) December 5, 2005 OTTAWA -- A Conservative government would scrap child-care agreements the Liberals have signed with 10 provinces and bring in a system of $1,200-per-child payment for families with preschoolers coupled with a $250-million tax credit for businesses and employers to create 125,000 new child care spaces over five years, Stephen Harper said Monday. Families with children younger than six would receive a $100 payment each month to use as they see fit, Harper said, contrasting it with the...

Our 2-year-old has a new bedtime routine. "Noda," she says pleadingly. "Wanna go downstairs and watch Noda." "Noda," I'm almost embarrassed to admit, is Yoda. As in "Star Wars." As in funny little green Jedi master. "We can't watch Noda now," I tell her in my soothing, all-knowing mom voice. "Noda's sleeping. You need to sleep, too." During the day, we frequently talk about Yoda. As in, about once every 15 minutes. She imitates Yoda, using a squeaky high-pitched voice. When she sits down at her art table to color, she immediately hands me a crayon and orders me to...

Official: babies do best with motherYvonne RobertsSunday October 2, 2005ObserverOne of the longest and most detailed studies of UK childcare has concluded that young children who are looked after by their mothers do significantly better in developmental tests than those cared for in nurseries, by childminders or relatives. The study on children from birth to three will reignite the controversy over the best way to bring up young children. It found babies and toddlers fared worst when they were given group nursery care. Those cared for by friends or grandparents or other relatives did a little better while those looked...

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. Ten years after the U.S. started talking about "family values," many wonder why we are still unable to provide decent education, health care and opportunity for all of our children. Recently, I joined a study team of child care professionals who spent two weeks in France, under the auspices of the French-American Foundation. What we saw was a coordinated, comprehensive system, supported across the political spectrum, that links day care, early education and healthcare - and is accessible to virtually every child. In France, virtually all home-based day care providers are licensed, receive benefits including social...

One evening, after watching Homer Simpson wreck the family car at a monster-truck rally and plunge on a skateboard into Springfield Gorge, my 6-year-old son asked me, "Why are dads on TV so dumb?" Having grown up with the omniscient fathers on "Leave It to Beaver" and "My Three Sons," I wanted to give a bemused yet authoritative answer, chuckling wisely as I explained the ways of the world. But this question left me feeling more like Homer Simpson. Where did we fathers go wrong? We spend twice as much time with our kids as we did two decades ago,...

LITTLE ROCK, Arkansas (AP) -- A 3-year-old boy died after being left in a day-care van for hours while the temperature was in the 90s, and the driver was charged with manslaughter, police said Tuesday.

Do you work long hours? Are your kids spending more time with their grandparents or the at the babysitter's than with you? Well, according to a Bristol University study, children aged below two years, who are left under the care of their grandparents or close family friends, are not likely to flourish at school. On the other hand, children left with paid carers are more likely to come out with flying colours in future. Researchers examined 7,000 children born in the Avon district in 1991 and 1992 from birth until they were seven years old. The 'significant' detrimental effects when...

“Man and Woman”, “Wife”, “Husband”, “Widow”, “Widower” Banished From all Ontario Law Terms, when referring to spouses, are banned from all government programs, services, documentsToronto, February 25, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) – With the obscenely rapid, three-day introduction and passage of its same-sex “marriage” Bill 171, the Ontario government has advanced a revolutionary change in the way all laws and government programs and institutions refer to marriage and married persons. Everything referring to spouses must now be gender neutral. No longer can a married couple be referred to as “husband and wife” or “man and woman”. The terms “Widow” and “widower” are...