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NASHVILLE, Tenn. — The state is warning parents delinquent on child support payments that they risk losing drivers licenses, professional licenses and hunting and fishing licenses if they don't pay. A news release from the Department of Human Services Tuesday says letters are being delivered to parents across the state behind at least $500 and haven't made a payment in more than 90 days. More than 7,000 licenses were revoked last year for failure to pay, and there are more than 20,000 licenses currently at risk. Professional licenses that could be revoked include those of registered nurses, real estate agents,...

"I couldn't believe that our son has to pay child support to his abuser."I've previously discussed cases where boys who have been statutorily raped by older women are forced to pay child support to their rapists. Here's a new one, from Ohio. From Boy's parents sue to get his baby from mom, 21 (Columbus Dispatch, 8/16/08): LANCASTER, Ohio --- A Pickerington couple and their son are fighting for custody of a baby born to a Lancaster woman charged with having unlawful sex with the boy, who was 15 at the time of conception. A paternity test shows that the teen...

Boy's parents sue to get his baby from mom, 21 Saturday, August 16, 2008 3:12 AM By Mary Beth Lane THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH LANCASTER, Ohio --- A Pickerington couple and their son are fighting for custody of a baby born to a Lancaster woman charged with having unlawful sex with the boy, who was 15 at the time of conception. A paternity test shows that the teen is the father of the baby born April 7 to Jane C. Crane, who was 19 when she became pregnant. Now, a judge has ordered him to pay $50 a month in child...

Fathers' rights activists have complained about arbitrarily high child support orders for almost two decades. Class action suits were filed, the fathers' rights movement grew, debates broke out in academic journals, a few social scientists demonstrated with calculations and documentation, some men have committed suicide because they were unable to support themselves, and a few serious investigative journalists analyzed in depth. Congress finally decided to act – with a flat luxury tax on child support income.

From Treasure Coast group seeks to abolish permanent alimony (www.tcpalm.com, 8/8/08): Dick Lindsey decided something needed to be done. Since his divorce in 1982, the Treasure Coast resident had paid more than $100,000 in alimony to ex-wife Barbara Lindsey while raising five of their children and not receiving child support. Meanwhile, Barbara Lindsey, who couldn't be reached for comment, had run for Florida lieutenant governor and held several government jobs. "She told the people she was capable of being the governor, but she told the court she couldn't take care of herself," said Lindsey, now 73. Fighting the court became...

"I'm a dad, not a wallet." What may prompt millions of non-custodial dads to say this phrase -- or at least think it? How is it that millions of children of divorce or separation may wonder why they can't see their beloved Dad, or sometimes Mom, more than 4 to 6 days a month, if that? These are just two of the important questions raised by Angelo Lobo, Producer and Director of the full-length documentary "Support System Down," which examines problems within the nation's child support system. Lobo's film "Support System Down" comes to the Ohmann Theatre in Lyons,...

ABC Radio news just announced Sen. John Edwards will admit to the affair with Rielle Hunter in an interview with the network, but insists the child is not his. We return you to your regularly-scheduled FReeping.

Another example of the way the child support system leads to the abuse/jailing of ordinary citizens. From British university lecturer thrown into crowded Brazilian jail for not paying ex-wife £20,000 child support (Daily Mail, 7/30/08): Martin Boyle is being held in a Sao Paulo prison over unpaid child support. A British university lecturer has been thrown into a rat-infested Brazilian prison over claims that he owes £20,000 in child support. Martin Boyle, 45, is in a cell with ten other inmates in Sao Paulo while his family in Britain face ever-increasing demands for cash. He flew to the South American...

"Men lie more, women lie bigger. A man's lie is, 'Where was I? Um, I was over at Tony's house.' A woman's lie is, 'That's your baby.'"--Comedian Chris Rock From DNA testing: One in five fathers wrongly identified by mothers in Child Support Agency claims (Guardian, 8/1/08): Nearly one in five paternity claims handled by the Child Support Agency end up showing the mother has deliberately or inadvertently misidentified the father, figures show. Since DNA paternity testing figures began to be collected in 1998-99, 4,854 paternity claims have turned out to be false after DNA testing. Under child support legislation...

Here's another idiotic aspect of the child support system--demanding that incarcerated obligors continue to make child support payments even though we know they have no income and no ability to pay. Then, when they're released, they're several thousand dollars behind on child support (with interest on overdue payments added), and are subject to arrest or driven underground. This problem has now been recognized by the Justice Department and Hillary Clinton actually addressed it during her campaign--to learn more, see my co-authored column New Justice Department Report’s Recommendations Could Reduce Prisoner Recidivism (Chicago Sun-Times, 10/26/07). Usually the above scenario applies to...

[Note: If you or someone you love is faced with a divorce or needs help with child custody, child support, false accusations, Parental Alienation, or other family law or criminal law matters, ask Glenn for help by clicking here.]

AUGUSTA — Thousands of Mainers who were expecting a stimulus check from the federal government have gotten an unpleasant surprise. Instead of a check, they received a notice that the money has been seized by the state to pay overdue taxes or some other obligation, including child support. "As of this afternoon, we have a total of 1,137 stimulus refunds" that were seized, Jerome Gerard, acting executive director of Maine Revenue Services, the state’s tax agency, said Thursday. "That’s a total of $624,000 so far." Another state agency that benefits from the "offset" provisions of federal law is the support...

Five defendants were driving from Howard Circuit Court when deputies arrested them on charges of driving with suspended licenses because of delinquent child support payments, said the Howard’s Sheriff’s Office. “I think they were shocked,” said Lt. Charles Gable, sheriff’s office spokesman, referring to the arrests that occurred Friday and Monday. “We got all kinds of reactions; the first person we pulled over was like, ‘Wow.’ ” The defendants are John Porterfield, 43, of Columbia; Denee Powell, 43, of Silver Spring; Riko Johnson, 26, of Annapolis; Craig Myers, 44, of Highland; and Renard Whitehead, 41, of Bowie. The maximum sentence...

After embracing the dark side of reality television with its marriage-busting hit "The Moment of Truth," Fox's newest project taps the power of its unscripted division for the forces of good. The network has ordered a pilot from 3Ball Prods. in which an avenger of penniless single mothers hunts down deadbeat dads and forces them to pay child support. Jim Durham, director of the National Child Support Center, functions as a sort of "Dog the Bounty Hunter" for tracking deadbeats. In the pilot, a financially destitute mom is contrasted with her wealthy ex-husband, who is living the high life. Durham...

Parents owe $14,460 in case of mistaken paternity, judge saysJustice was also shortchanged, the judge said, because Mr. Samuels had been paying child support all of those years. Last month, Judge Roper ruled that Jamie Hope, the child's mother, and Oba Wallace, the child's biological father, would have to repay Mr. Samuels $14,460 in child support he had paid since 1997. Such an order is unusual, but not unique. "We have seen it happen before," said Sandra Jarrett of the state's Child Support Recovery Unit. Usually there is no intent to defraud, Ms. Jarrett said. Mothers who have had relationships...

An alleged Illinois deadbeat dad whose ex-wife says he owes more than $82,000 in unpaid child support is running as a candidate for Ward 47 Republican Committeeman in Chicago, MyFOXChicago reports. Marie Karlin said she has been trying to locate her ex-husband, Gary Karlin, after he disappeared 14 years ago. He paid her child support for a few months, but after he took off, Marie's parents had to help support her and her now 16-year-old daughter. Every few months, she would Google Gary's name to see if she could find him, and, last month, she was stunned to discover he...

It turns out our dossier on Hillary Clinton's brother, Anthony Rodham, was incomplete. As per today's New York Post, the youngest Rodham sibling allegedly owes ex-wife Nicole Boxer (daughter of Democratic California Senator Barbara Boxer) $75,000 in child support and $55,000 in alimony, despite having been ordered by a judge to pay up earlier this year. Deadbeat dad Anthony, who remarried in 2005 and now lives in a "fancy Washington townhouse," has quite the track record. In addition to the "Pardongate" fiasco we alluded to, the former insurance salesman was attacked at his family cottage in the Berkshires by a...

A man who was kind enough to donate his sperm to a lesbian couple has now--18 years later--been stabbed in the back and hit up for child support. According to the New York Post: "A sperm donor who sent gifts signed 'Dad' to his biological son has been slapped with a child-support order, 18 years after helping his friend get pregnant. "The Nassau County man donated his sperm to a work colleague, and included his name on the child's birth certificate, saying it would give the boy an identity, courts documents revealed. "He then blurred the lines between donor and...

WESTBURY, LI (1010 WINS) -- A sperm donor may have to pay child support after the mother's lawyer argued that the man has sent birthday cards and otherwise acted like a father to the teenage child, the donor's lawyer said. A Nassau County Family Court judge recently blocked the man from seeking a paternity test. The man's lawyer, Deborah Kelly, says the Nov. 16 ruling sets the stage for a magistrate to determine how much her client may owe in support. The parties in the case are listed anonymously. The man, a doctor, donated sperm to a hospital resident and...

Court says sperm donor liable for child support BY SOPHIA CHANG sophia.chang@newsday.com December 1, 2007 A Nassau County man who said he donated sperm to a female co-worker as a friendly gesture -- and then sent presents and cards to the child over the years -- is legally considered the father and may have to pay child support for the college-bound teenager, according to a judge's ruling. Still, he took the unusual step of allowing his name to appear on the child's birth certificate because he thought it was in the child's "best interests that he would have an identity...

Former professional basketball player Jason Caffey had two children with his wife, and at least six other children with women in metro Atlanta, Alabama, Louisiana and Illinois. Professional football player Travis Henry, a Denver Broncos running back with a $25 million contract, has nine children by nine women in four Southern states, including a Lithonia boy fathered out of wedlock three years ago. Caffey, who earned as much as $5 million a season in a 10-year NBA career with the Chicago Bulls, Golden State Warriors and Milwaukee Bucks, filed for bankruptcy in Alabama in August. His wife, who lives in...

The article below is illustrative of the problems with the child support system in many ways:1) I've often made the point that when we jail or threaten to jail child support debtors and they pay money to stay out of jail, this money often is not theirs but instead money they've borrowed from their family and friends. Yet inevitably whatever chest-thumping/publicity-seeking DA who's behind the latest crackdown will tell you, "See? The deadbeats have the money and the threat of jail makes them pay!"In this article, a judge is admitting that threatening to jail people means they borrow money from...

"You've never heard complaints about paying child support until it's a woman who has to pay it."--Seattle Family Law Attorney Lisa Scott "The only way to abolish alimony is to make women pay it."--Tom Leykis, nationally-syndicated talk show host.When men work hard to support their families, they're often accused of victimizing their poor wives who have to stay at home, chained to their children. The National Organization for Women and other feminist groups often argue that these men don't deserve joint custody after divorce because they "never took primary responsibility for raising their kids while they were married." When divorce...

Williams, serving a suspension since the start of the 2006 NFL season for violating the league's substance-abuse policy, is not subject to a reduction in financial responsibility as a result of self-induced changes in income or job status, according to Florida law.

My new co-authored column, Passport Rules Unfair to Child Support Debtors (San Antonio Express-News, 9/8/07), criticizes the new child support/passport rules which are so overwhelmingly popular among the editorial boards of our nation's newspapers. The column is a response to the Express-News' recent editorial “Federal law catching up with deadbeat parents” (8/23/07). I commend the paper for its willingness to publish such criticism. Passport Rules Unfair to Child Support Debtors By Jeffery M. Leving and Glenn Sacks San Antonio Express-News (9/8/07) The San Antonio Express-News' recent editorial “Federal law catching up with deadbeat parents” (8/23/07) presents a one-sided view of...

David Salazar was jailed for not paying child support - for a girl that isn't his biological daughter. The Missouri Supreme Court heard Mr. Salazar's case Tuesday, and its decision could have sweeping impact on child support cases throughout the state. Mr. Salazar, a former Buchanan County resident, was found guilty and jailed for 28 days for failing to pay child support for a 5-year-old girl whom no one argues is his biological daughter. Even the girl's mother, Shannon McClure, says Mr. Salazar isn't the father. But under current Missouri statute none of that matters. If a man is married...

Reflecting the weakness of the fatherhood movement, fathers' issues haven't been much of a part of the current presidential election yet. However, as I've reported on this blog, several candidates have made statements on fathers and child support, including Republican candidate John McCain and Democratic candidates Barack Obama, John Edwards, and Bill Richardson. Of the four, McCain, Edwards and Richardson have been negative or largely negative, while Obama has said some positive things as well as some negative things. Their statements are briefly encapsulated below. John McCainIn March, Republican presidential candidate John McCain was asked about fathers' concerns over family...

Now that millions of additional travelers need passports to fly back from Mexico, Canada, the Caribbean and South America, collections under the Passport Denial Program are on pace to about double this year, federal officials told The Associated Press.

It's the lie that never dies--child support collects $4 for every $1 spent on enforcement, so enforcement efforts should be stepped up. The latest to push this is Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards, as part of his new "Initiative to Strengthen Families" [http://campaignsandelections.com/nh/releases/index.cfm?ID=2156]. No, I'm not accusing him of being deceitful--he may well not know the truth about the issue. In my co-authored column "Federal Child Support Enforcement Cuts Will Hurt Bureaucrats, not Children" (Las Vegas Review-Journal & others, 12/17/05) [http://www.glennsacks.com/federal_child_support.htm], I explained: "It is true that federal figures show that over $20 billion in child support is collected nationwide...

A former Morris County man who learned 30 years after his son was born that the child was not his cannot recoup $110,000 spent in child support from the biological father, the New Jersey Supreme Court ruled yesterday. The 7-0 decision overturned an appellate court ruling in 2005 and found there is no exception in the New Jersey Parentage Act to extend the deadline in a paternity case beyond the child's 23rd birthday. "The Legislature evidently knew what has been known since time immemorial -- that children would be born of adulterous relationships and that the true identity of the...

HARTFORD, Conn. -- The state Supreme Court ruled Monday that a law designed to give children of unwed parents the same rights as those born to married parents applies to all child support cases, even those decided before the statute took effect in 2004. State Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said the decision will result in millions of dollars in additional support for children and is a victory for taxpayers, who often bear the burden for providing food, clothing and other necessities through welfare. The law extended the obligation of unmarried parents to pay court-ordered support for their children from when...

Milwaukee Brewers star first baseman Prince Fielder, 23, will start in the All-Star game tonight, and is leading the National League in homeruns. There are inevitable comparisons between Prince Fielder and his father Cecil, who led the majors in RBI three seasons in a row for the Detroit Tigers during the 1990s. Both Fielders are/were fat, slow, power-hitting first basemen, and both were visibly close during Cecil's career. During Cecil's career with the Tigers, he was widely seen as a doting family man, and Prince was often with his father in the clubhouse or at batting practice. As Prince began...

The war on so-called "deadbeat dads" is often really just a war on low-income men who are unable to pay the money the deeply-flawed child support system demands. Roughly 100,000 men are jailed each year for alleged nonpayment of child support. In many cases this amounts to debtors prison--men being jailed because they are unable to pay.MND article related to article in Tennessean.com:Click here for Tennessean article.

The $25,000 a month in child support and household expenses that rapper 50 Cent pays to the mother of his 10-year-old son is not enough, says the boy's mother, Shaniqua Tompkins. The rapper is "worth tens and tens of millions of dollars," said her attorney, Raoul Felder. The parents of young Marquise Jackson are wrangling over the issue in family court in this Long Island community, where 50 Cent arrived Friday in an armored SUV equipped with a satellite dish. 50 Cent no longer needs to worry about the choice he famously expressed on a 2004 album _ "Get Rich...

A California Court of Appeals ruled that Taron Grant James who was forced to make child support payments based on a paternity judgment later proven fraudulent is not entitled to reimbursement. James was named as father on the birth certificate of a child born to Tami Burton in 1992—even though he couldn’t have been the father since he was deployed in the Gulf War during the time of conception. Ultimately, with the assistance of California authorities, Burton was able to bilk James out of $12,000, damage his credit rating, and put him through years of legal hassles. Writing for the...

LOS ANGELES—A Torrance man cannot be reimbursed for thousands of dollars he was forced to pay to support a child he did not father, an appeals court ruled. State laws do not allow Taron James to demand repayment of the money he supplied before a DNA test confirmed that the child of a former girlfriend was someone else's, the state 2nd District Court of Appeal said in a ruling published Tuesday. James, 38, said he will appeal to the state Supreme Court. James said he has been in "financial hell" since the case began. "The fight is to keep this...

The Taron James paternity fraud case is one of the most egregious examples of the abuses the child support enforcement system visits upon men. In my co-authored column Defrauded Veterans Have Mixed Emotions on Veterans Day (Daily Breeze [Los Angeles], 11/11/03)[http://www.glennsacks.com/veteran_feels_mixed.htm], I wrote: "For Torrance photographer Taron James, a decorated veteran of Operation Northern Watch, Veterans Day always brings mixed emotions. "James enlisted in the Navy at age 20 in the days leading up to the first Persian Gulf War, and carried out hazardous reconnaissance missions behind Iraqi lines in the war's aftermath. "He earned four service medals and three...

The Texas Supreme Court is currently considering the legal briefs in the highly publicized Roman v. Roman frozen embryo case, in which Augusta Roman seeks to implant the embryos created during her six-year marriage to Randy Roman. Randy Roman is trying to prevent this, and won a unanimous decision in the Texas First District Court of Appeal in February. Because this is a new, cutting-edge area of the law, and one which has received little judicial attention in Texas, it appears likely that the Texas Supreme Court will hear the case. Though Augusta Roman says she will raise the child...

Anne Heche's recently announced divorce/custody settlement with her estranged husband, Coley Laffoon, has some of the marks of the types of custody decisions which I and the fathers' rights movement have often criticized. According to the Entertainment Television story "Anne Heche's Hubby Gets Custody, Cash" (6/11/07): "Anne Heche has to pay up, in more ways than one. "A Los Angeles Superior Court judge awarded the actress' estranged husband, Coley Laffoon, primary physical custody of their five-year-old son, Homer, and an unspecified amount of child support. "Heche, who's headed back to Vancouver next month to start shooting the second season of...

Stupid Men June 7, 2007 at 6:04 pm · Filed under Sex & Relationships, Mating, Marriage & Divorce, Feminism, Child Support & Custody, Vox Populi I’m going to give you the highlights of a very unfunny joke. A man is married for 8 years, and comes home one night to “the talk.” The one about the relationship, about the need for space, (I have a boyfriend, and it’s getting to hard to cover it up) – a lot of us know the drill. So, he agrees to move out “for a while” to “work on the relationship.” Fast forward a...

Regular Session, 2007 HOUSE BILL NO. 249 BY REPRESENTATIVE MCVEA CHILDREN/SUPPORT: Provides for the extension of child support past the age of majority AN ACT 1 To enact Civil Code Article 230(B)(3) and R.S. 9:315.6(3) and 315.22(E), relative to child support; to provide for continued support for a major child in certain higher education programs; and to provide for related matters. Be it enacted by the Legislature of Louisiana: Section 1. Civil Code Article 230(B)(3) is hereby enacted to read as follows: 6 Art. 230. Scope of alimentary obligation 7 * * * 8 B. 9 * * * 10...

The CDC is 2-3 years late in releasing this data. 2004 numbers show increase in male suicides. Males........... 25,566 Females......... 6,873 -------- 2003............ 25,203

Group Protests Outside Pizza Place Posted By: Deb Silverman Protesters were outside a Hamilton Pizza Parlor because the owner's working to help track down deadbeat parents. Members of the national group "Fathers for Justice," are picketing outside Karen's Pizza on Eaton Avenue. This is one of three Butler County Pizza Parlors putting the County's most wanted deadbeat parents on pizza boxes. The unique effort by the Butler County Child Enforcement Agency recently made national news. "What's happening is the kids are seeing this on the boxes it's awful," said John Fowler from Fathers for Justice. "We don't humiliate people that...

CINCINNATI (AP) - Customers at some suburban pizza parlors are getting something extra with their pepperoni and mushrooms - wanted posters for parents accused of failing to pay child support. The idea came to Cynthia Brown, executive director of the Butler County Child Enforcement Agency, while she was ordering pizza. "It suddenly dawned on me that most people running from the law don't eat out, they order pizza," said Brown, whose county is north of Cincinnati. Enforcement agencies across the country use a variety of methods to locate support scofflaws and collect past-due payments. Virginia has issued subpoenas to cellular...

SB 56, the new Colorado paternity fraud bill, addresses the dilemma faced by men who discover that the children they are paying child support for are not biologically theirs. The bill would allow “duped dads” to terminate their support obligations by utilizing DNA evidence. In a recent Rocky Mountain News column, Editorial Page Editor Vincent Carroll labels these men “the picky type whose parental love depends on a genetic link” and says they seek to throw their nonbiological children “overboard with a minimum of fuss.” Carroll does have a point--SB 56 allows the duped dad to sever financial ties between...

BAGHDAD - Fatima Ali was a 24-year-old divorcee with no high school diploma and no job. Shawket al-Rubae was a 34-year-old Shiite sheik with a pregnant wife who, he said, could not have sex with him. Ali wanted someone to take care of her. Rubae wanted a companion. They met one afternoon in May at the house he shares with his wife, in the room where he accepts visitors seeking his religious counsel. He had a proposal. Would Ali be his temporary wife? He would pay her 5,000 Iraqi dinars upfront — about $4 — in addition to her monthly...

At last count, Florida attorney Willie Gary raked in roughly $1 million a month. Featured on the TV show "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous," the 59-year-old lives in a sprawling, $6 million waterfront home in Stuart, Fla. His law firm, which recently employed former Atlanta Mayor Bill Campbell, has three posh offices and owns two jets, including a 32-passenger Boeing 737 outfitted with an 18-karat gold sink and a $1.2 million sound system. But just how much money is too much money to pay in child support? Atlanta resident Diana Gowins — the mother of twins fathered by Gary...

The television station shows three general laborers, three construction laborers, a landscaper, a salesman and two tradesmen, most of them Latino men with dour expressions on their faces. Are they the featured men in a report about hard times for blue-collar workers in the state of Texas? The hopefuls for a local job training program? No—they are Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott’s “Top 10 Most Wanted Child Support Evaders.” The 10 men collectively owe nearly $700,000 in back child support. Not one appears to have an education, and the big wage earner in the group is a plumber. Abbott says...

LITTLE ROCK Even though a paternity test ruled out Anthony L- Parker as the father of a child in a child-support dispute, the Arkansas Supreme Court ruled today he still has to pay support owed the mother before he took the test. The opinion, written by Associate Justice Donald L- Corbin, says state law and prior court cases make it clear that an "acknowledged father" cannot be relieved of past-due child support. Associate Justice Robert L. Brown wrote in a dissent that the opinion reached "a grossly unfair result." In her original ruling, McGowan wrote that forcing Parker to pay...

A German doctor has been ordered to pay child support to a patient who got pregnant with a contraceptive implant...