Center for Parental Responsibility (CPR)
WEEKLY UPDATE NEWSLETTER (A Few Highlights): Friday February 11, 2005
 Website: cpr-mn.org       Email contact: info@cpr-mn.org   Voicemail: 651/490-9277
For: non-custodial parents (moms and dads), grandparents, second spouses, and other citizens interested in family law justice and reform to help remove the obstacles and bias that prevent both parents from being fully and equally involved in the lives of their children.
 
No Parent Left Behind: To protect our children’s future we need to stop alienating parents today!

“If it is to be, it’s up to me!” - Your input and participation is needed for reform
 
PLEASE forward this email to anyone you know who is interested in family law reform!


 

  1. NEW, MARK YOUR CALENDAR – Sunday  February 20, 2005 CPR General Public Educational Meeting from 5pm-8pm at William Mitchell Law School – WE HOPE TO SEE YOU AT THE MEETING! EVERYONE INVITED – NO CHARGE.
    1. TOPIC: “Deprivation (of time) to Abduction (of child); it’s all parental alienation!”
    2. HONORED GUEST SPEAKERS: Ed Wunsch, Private Investigator; Jeff Stender, Law Enforcement; Rick Stebbins, Private Attorney, and possibly Maggie Murphy, City Prosecutor.
    3. Find out what you can do to protect your relationship with your children; who is enforcing parenting time schedules; how are custodial parents being held accountable?
    4. See website: cpr-mn.org, for more details.
    5. BRING: brief and concise questions (see CPR Rules of Engagement), and if you can, something for the food table to share.


 

  1. NEW, VALENTINE’S DAY PROTEST conducted by Fathers-for-Justice (F4J, fathers-4-justice.org) on Monday February 14, 2005 at 11:15am. The theme is “heartbreak of family courts.” Fathers for Justice started in England (remember Batman) and is now fully operational in the United States, with US HQ in Minnesota!
    1. Where and when:  11:15a.m. at The Ramsey County Courthouse, 50 W. Kellogg (St.Paul), 12:30p.m. at WCCO on Nicollet Mall, then to Government Center in Mpls.
    2. MEET: For those that want to meet and drive together, the group will meet in the parking lot of Rainbow Foods on University and Snelling in St. Paul at 11a.m.
    3. Costumes: dressing as Elvis (heartbreak) and judges.  Extra costumes for those that need them.  Please come in costume if you can.
    4. Why: media event – peaceful, non-violent, lawful, fun/playful protest to draw attention to the plight of fathers and need for joint physical custody. The Pioneer Press showed a picture of the Santa protest in December.
    5. YOUR ACTION ITEM: RSVP please by emailing kimberlylinnea@yahoo.com , or Jamil at info@F4j.us <mailto:jamil@F4j.us>  as soon as possible so that they know how many vans to rent, etc.


 

  1. NEW, IMPORTANT LEGISLATIVE SENATE HEARING – Thursday February 17, 2005, 12 noon. This is an “overview” hearing and no testimony will be allowed, but we want a BIG turnout. Please mark your calendars. See below for details on what bills will be discussed. You will want to review the bills ahead of time, and these bills can be found on the internet at, http://www.revisor.leg.state.mn.us/revisor/pages/search_status/status_search.php?body=House, just enter in the bill number.
    1. Where: Room 112 at the Capitol – St. Paul. Parking can be challenging so plan for plenty of time. Bring plenty of quarters for the meters on the streets, or park in the lot across the southeast corner of the Capitol, across from the justice center.
    2. YOUR ACTION ITEM: Please attend. It is important to attend because legislators respond to the public – if you don’t show up, it is assumed you don’t care, and the opposition will likely get their way – you don’t want that. This hearing will allow you an opportunity to observe the process of what legislators talk about when they consider a bill. These types of public hearings don’t occur very often, with no testimony and no voting, just “overview.” We are not sure who will be providing the overviews.
    3. What: all current family law legislation introduced in the Senate will be discussed

                                             i.     SF630 (Sen Neuville) – marriage dissolution, child support guideline changes, custody provision changes, and other family law re-codification. CPR brief: Our analysis shows that even though this “income shares” model uses both parents income, the majority of cases will stay the same or increase if you have more than one child. The bill looks like more government intrusion and oppression and financial devastation against the NCP. It includes a presumption of 30% custody, but what does it mean? This bill would continue to allow the current imputing of the NCP income, but it would also impute the custodial parents income – but based on the formula, it appears that when the custodial parents income is imputed, in some cases that will mean HIGHER child support for the NCP. With this bill, ALL NCPS WILL BE ASSESSED AND ADDITIONAL 10% FEE FOR BEING (involuntarily) IN THE IV-D PROGRAM. This means your support will automatically increase by 10% and the money will go to the state.
                                           ii.     SF 563 (Sen Marty) Disallowing sex offenders from becoming custodians of unrelated children
                                          iii.     SF 644 (Sen Betzold) Changing certain procedures for removal of a child's residence from Minnesota. CPR brief: this appears to be beneficial for children to protect the relationship with the NCP, who previously had no input.
                                          iv.     SF 751 (Sen Betzold) A bill for an act relating to paternity; changing certain presumptions
                                            v.     SF 604 (Sen Wiger) Child custody presumptions, requirements and procedure modifications. CPR brief: This appears on its face to rob children of their parents with a mere accusation that child’s safety in question, without any evidence, creating a presumption of guilty until proven innocent. GALs would have to be learned in the law.

 

  1. NEW, Title IV-D “eligibility” bill (HF530 – public welfare) will clarify IV-D program limitations to determine what support cases will be under the jurisdiction of the government and what cases will remain private. Title IV-D is the government child support enforcement and collections program for deadbeats and families on welfare or at risk of welfare. If you receive a monthly statement from the Minnesota Payment Center, YOU ARE a IV-D case. If you are IV-D case without a compelling state pecuniary interest, you have probably experienced the unnecessary oppression, unfairness, and one-sided orders and hearings.
    1. Fewer people in the Title IV-D program means you will no longer be fighting the county, your constitutional rights (due process, privacy, equal protection) will be better protected outside the IV-D system, and without IV-D you will have the opportunity to handle the litigation on a more level playing field, and you will be dealing with the other parent, not against the full weight of an entire government bureaucracy.
    2. This could save Minnesota $100 million a year and help reduce the deficit and protect programs for the poor and needy.
    3. YOUR ACTION ITEM: Ask for LEN’s (Legislative Education Notices) to help understand the issue more. See website. LENs are pre-printed informational letters that can be signed by you and provided to your legislators. When you mail an LEN (preferably to your legislators home), it is also effective to write your story of bias and exclusion due to the unfair Minnesota Laws and court system bias.


 

  1. NEW, a bill to create a presumption of joint physical custody was introduced last week in the House by Rep. Tim Mahoney, HF 779. A significant aspect of this bill is that “joint physical” does not necessarily mean 50/50 time – this is a good thing since 50/50 may not always be practical and it is the 50/50 time that causes the most controversy … but it provides for the option and presumption that both parents will be involved, which we know is best for children.
    1. See bill at http://www.revisor.leg.state.mn.us/bin/bldbill.php?bill=H0779.0&session=ls84 <http://www.revisor.leg.state.mn.us/bin/bldbill.php?bill=H0779.0&amp;session=ls84> , or on the website.
    2. YOUR ACTION ITEM: If you can support this bill, we need parents to come forward to testify who have had a good experience with joint physical custody working effectively for their family, explaining how it works logistically and the positive impact on children. If you want assistance, please ask, we can help prepare you to testify. Testimony need not last more than 2-5 minutes each. It must not just be focused on the problem, but also the solution.
    3. YOUR ACTION ITEM: We need professionals (child psychologists, attorneys, custody evaluators, GALs, etc) who can speak as experts and testify on how joint physical custody can work. If you know of anyone who might be willing to testify, please let us know at info@cpr-mn.org or 651/490-9277.
    4. A hearing could come up fast. You would need to be available during the day for a hearing.


 

  1. NEW, newspaper MEDIA SUPPORT FOR OUR CAUSE (i.e. equal responsibility, support, and involvement of both parents, as well elimination of the bias against one parent to benefit the other). St. Paul Pioneer Press columnist, Mark Yost, wrote an article called “The debate over joint physical custody,” in the newspaper on February 1, 2005. Mark will be writing a regular column every two weeks called “Family Matters.” His column will provide regular exposure on the issues families (especially NCPs) face after divorce. Be on the look out for the column in the Pioneer Press every 2 weeks. How many have you said “if people knew my story and these things were in the paper, things would change in a hurry!” Well, now is your chance. We finally have a local sympathetic newspaper columnist willing to expose the truth.
    1. YOUR ACTION ITEM: See website, cpr-mn.org, to access his first article article.
    2. YOUR ACTION ITEM: Please email Mark (myost@pioneerpress.com), as well as the editor, Art Coulson, as well as the publisher, Par Ridder, and letters to the editor (letters@pioneerpress.com ), to show your support of his effort to write about what is really happening in the life of Minnesota non-custodial parents and the impact on the children. Share your stories with him – focus on your “real emotions” – i.e. hurt and pain, not anger.  

 

  1. NEW, television MEDIA PROGRAMMING COMPLETE. With volunteer help we have created a 30 second public service announcement for Cable TV Channel 6, and multiple documentaries. More programming and longer programming underway.
    1. YOUR ACTION ITEM: If you want a copy of the 30 second spot to play on your local cable TV, please contact info@cpr-mn.org

 

  1. NEW, if you miss a Sunday night meeting, most of the education meetings are available on videotape, with a suggested donation of $15 for paid members and $20 for non-paid members.
    1. ACTION ITEM: Contact us at info@cpr-mn.org for a videotape to hear past speakers if you missed the Sunday monthly meetings.

 

  1. NEW, article by Dr Stephen Baskerville, “The federal propaganda machine,” February 2, 2005, WorldNetDaily, http://www.wnd.com/news/printer-friendly.asp?ARTICLE_ID=42657


 

SPECIAL NOTE regarding the weekly update:

ADDITIONALLY ---- IF YOU WANT TO GET INVOLVED IN FAMILY LAW REFORM AND HELPING OTHER NON CUSTODIAL PARENTS, AND WE HAVE NOT APPROACHED YOU OR FOLLOWED THROUGH WITH YOU TO CONNECT YOU WITH OUR ORGANIZATION AND OUR VARIOUS VOLUNTEER ACTIVITIES, PLEASE, PLEASE EMAIL US AT cpr-mn.org and TELL US AGAIN HOW, SPECIFICALLY, YOU MIGHT WANT TO GET INVOLVED. WE ARE A 100% VOLUNTEER ORGANIZATION AND WE NEED STRONG LEADERS WILLING TO TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR COMMITTEES AND OTHER VOLUNTEERS, AND WE NEED THOSE WILLING TO COMPLETE SPECIFIC DUTIES ON A REGULAR BASIS. LET US KNOW HOW YOU WANT TO HELP.
AS A NON-PROFIT ORGANIZATION WITH NO PAID STAFF, WE NEED YOUR HELP TO CONTINUE TO PROVIDE SERVICES TO MEMBERS. IF YOU CAN’T HELP BY SHARING YOUR TIME/TALENTS, WE ALSO ACCEPT YOUR TAX-DEDUCTIBLE FINANCIAL DONATIONS AT ANY TIME.


SPREAD THE WORD: PLEASE FORWARD THIS EMAIL ALONG TO ANY NON-CUSTODIAL PARENT or ANYONE else who is concerned for the non-custodial parent, and the negative impact on the children that comes from bad discriminatory legislation, nasty case workers who treat you like a criminal, and unfair & bias judicial practice impressed upon the fractured family. Those interested and affected include: children of divorce or out-of-wedlock birth, non-custodial parents, second wife, grandparents, girlfriends, employers, etc).
WE NEED NAMES: WE are EAGER to add the names to our email list of all citizens who are AFFECTED OR INTERESTED IN HELPING TO REFORM FAMILY LAW AND ANY NON-CUSTODIAL PARENT NEEDING ASSISTANCE IN THEIR FAMILY LAW CASE. We do the best we can to help with the limited volunteer resources we have. CPR does not provide legal advice, but rather information that can help guide you to better outcomes as you battle the bias of the government system.
Please forward names to CPR of other citizens interested in these issues. We want to add them to our list to keep people informed and show legislators there is a LONG list of effected and interested people in Minnesota. Without your support and involvement, no change will occur.
 
WE NEED HELP: WE WELCOME YOUR PARTICIPATION AND WE NEED ALL INTERESTED NAMES so AS A GROUP OF CONCERNED CITIZENS we can ORGANIZE AND MOBILIZE (like Martin Luther King Jr did!) to prove to legislators that these family law issues matter to their constituents, and TO ACHIEVE THE GRASS ROOTS PUSH needed to DRIVE the MUCH NEEDED Family Law REFORM to encourage EQUAL PROTECTION for both parents and their children, because parents maKe the best decisions for their children, NOT the government.
ADDITIONAL NOTE to unsubscribe: You are receiving this email from CPR-MN because you have indicated interest in the group, or have attended a like-function where someone met you and thought you would be interested. If you would like to discontinue receiving these emails, please reply with "unsubscribe" in the email subject and your name will be removed from our list immediately. CPR-MN holds their membership information as very private information and will only use information for internal and informational purposes.