Round 2 of Battle Against Unrestricted Move-Aways Begins!

[Brent]

from Glenn Sacks.....

On yesterday evening's broadcast I announced round 2 of our His Side listener campaign against an attempt by Senate President John Burton to sneak a "stealth" bill through the legislature to destroy the California Supreme Court's recent LaMusga decision. Burton's bill gives custodial parents the right to move children wherever they want, whenever they want.

Last week over 300 His Side listeners--supporters of the newly formed Alliance for Children Concerned About Move-Aways (//www.ACCAMA.org)--bombarded Burton's office with calls, faxes and e-mails. See Talk Radio Campaign Blocks CA. Senate Leader's 'Stealth' Family Law Bill (MND Newswire, 7/14/04) for more details.

As I mentioned last night, while even Sacramento insiders are a little unsure as to Burton's next move, it appears that he has placed the anti-LaMusga bill into a gutted and amended version of SB 730, a labor-related bill which was introduced last fall. By proceeding in this manner Burton evidently hopes he can destroy the LaMusga decision without putting the bill to the public scrutiny and debate it merits. This bill must be stopped--children love, want and need both parents.

How to Take Action

We have been informed that the next place the bill will be deliberated upon is the Assembly Judiciary Committee, and we have been advised to direct ACCAMA supporters to call, fax and [a href=http://www.accama.org/#send_letter]E-mail[/a] all ten members of the Judiciary Committee. Including your name, address, phone number, and email helps authenticate your correspondence.

Explain that you oppose SB 730 and any other bill designed to weaken or abrogate the LaMusga decision, and that you are opposed to unrestricted move-aways. Be polite, but let the committee members know EXACTLY how you feel. Please note that because of the secretive nature of Burton's plans, it is possible that some Assembly staffers may not yet know about the anti-LaMusga bill or the gutting and amending of SB 730.

[a href=http://www.accama.org/take_action2.php]To Take Action, click here[/a].

One piece of good news--details are sketchy, but it appears that Burton has removed from the bill the stipulation that custodial parents can move without a court order.

For background information on LaMusga, I suggest you browse the ACCAMA site's information page and also see my column "Is a Pool More Important than a Dad?" (San Francisco Chronicle, 5/4/04) (co-authored by family law attorney Jeff Leving). I've written several newspaper columns and done three radio shows on the move-away issue--they are all available at HisSide.com.

Our campaign made the pages of Don Barrett's //www.LARadio.com, the place where everybody in the Los Angeles radio industry goes for information.

Some of you may recall the story of Francis Borgia, the Kentucky man who earlier this year carried a razor blade through metal detectors and slit his throat after being sentenced to two years in prison for failing to pay $7,000 in child support. I discussed the case briefly in my column about a Kentucky judge's "Vasectomy or Jail" offer for father behind in their child support--It's Child Support Guidelines that Need Surgery, Not 'Deadbeat Dads' (Cincinnati Post, Kentucky Post, 5/12/04) (co-authored by family law attorney Jeff Leving) and also during our March 7 broadcast--Michigan Fathers Under Siege. During that broadcast I speculated that Borgia was not a genuine deadbeat but instead one of the hundreds of thousands of low-income men who have been turned into deadbeats by our family court system. I said:

"This man is either mentally ill or he doesn't have the money. If he's willing to slit his own throat to avoid jail, don't you think if he had the money he'd pay it? Don't you think he'd crack open the moneybags, and hand over the Krugerrands and sell the Porsche and the Beemer? This man is so afraid of jail he'd commit suicide rather than go, and he's going to jail because he can't pay a lousy $7,000--isn't this evidence that he never had the money to begin with?"

It looks as if I was right. In a new article in the Paducah Sun, Borgia says he fell behind on child support became he "has never been able to make as much money as he did in a former job as a dealer for Players casino and then later Harrah's casino in Metropolis, Ill." When arrested and jailed this rich, high-living playboy was employed as a carpet cleaner in Paducah. Like so many fathers, he evidently was turned into a deadbeat because he could not get a downward modification in his support. He says he had never been in trouble with the law and had whittled the child support arrearage down from as high as $15,000 at one point. He told the newspaper "I couldn't quite understand why I was treated so harshly" and "I'm not a deadbeat dad. I'm a broke dad."

Last week Mike McCormick, Executive Director of the American Coalition for Fathers and Children, discussed child support enforcement with Ben Merens, who hosts the afternoon drive time show on Wisconsin Public Radio. For audio, click on Listen.

I was quoted by Fox News columnist Wendy McElroy in her new column Paternity: Innocence Is Now a Defense (7/14/04). The article concerns a topic I've covered both in newspaper columns and on the radio--innocent men being compelled to pay for children who are not theirs, and who they often have never even met.

[MYSONSDAD]

Letters sent....

'Children Learn what they Live'