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What would you do if a caseworker from the state Department of Child Protective Services knocked on your door to investigate a complaint? Political activist Chuck Muth recently faced that dilemma, and he joins us to share the story.
VINE, short for Victims Information and Notification Everyday, is an anonymous and automated telephone service that lets victims of crime know when a particular perpetrator is released from jail. In Southern Nevada, if you want to know when someone's getting out of the Clark County Detention Center, you call in and sign up. ...
Soon they might feel more empowered. A secondary VINE program, one that will let victims of domestic violence know when the restraining orders they file are served, is being paid for with a $309,000 grant from the Justice Department.
Another chance to hear our recent conversation about teen-age prostitution in the Las Vegas Valley. We'll talk with a young girl who recently walked the Strip in search of johns, and she tells us what life is like for a 16-year-old with a pimp in Las Vegas.
Though Gov. Jim Gibbons has committed to protecting Nevada's child welfare budget from the 8 percent possible cuts faced by other state entities, federal revenue sources are now in doubt.
Nevada may lose its share of Medicaid funding that pays for services to severely emotionally disturbed children, said Nevada Health and Human Services Director Mike Willden. That funding is roughly $8 million. And federal resources that help pay for foster care costs are hemmed in by requirements that prevent Nevada from recovering all the money it's eligible to receive.
Comments from the Webmaster
Lisa Kim Bach is a horrible reporter and as usual has failed to
look below the surface of anything. We didn't attend this roundtable-slash-publicity event
ourselves (although we did go to the last one).
We suspect that there is a lot more going on here than
meets the eye.
As usual, Bach reported on what was said at the event and nothing
more.
In particular,
Bach failed to ask the questions of why federal funding is
at risk and how serious the threat really is.
So far this year, Clark County Family Services has investigated six reports of child abuse that involve allegations of shaking. In 2006, the department handled 12 abuse cases involving allegations of shaking.
The Clark County coroner's office doesn't use the term shaken baby syndrome as a cause of death, said spokeswoman Samantha Charles. Those fatalities are usually classified as blunt force traumas to the head or inflicted abusive injuries.
Between 2003 and 2006, the coroner's office reported 18 such homicides of babies ages 1 year and younger. That number would include any deaths caused by shaking, Charles said.
The Alibi Network, an Illinois company that specializes in its namesake - alibis - armed Mary with a fake airplane itinerary, fake hotel reservations and a fake hotel answering service; when her husband phoned Mary's fake room in Los Angeles, the call was routed to her real cell phone in Las Vegas. Three months later, Mary doesn't want her name printed in the paper. She's planning on using the Alibi Network again.
...
"If there was no demand, we'd have no company," DeMarco said. "We didn't invent lying. We didn't invent infidelity. We just found a niche in an existing market."
Some of the same problems that led the Clark County Department of Family Services to declare a crisis still exist one year later. The information came out during a meeting meant to look for ways to speed up changes to protect children.
Until new hires are put into place, a new policy manual is finished and until a data management system is installed, DFS Director Tom Morton says the problems that led to the crisis are still evident. He says it will be another year until the system is fully fixed. ...
Morton was able to cut the amount of at-risk children living at Child Haven, the county's emergency shelter. There were 230 at-risk children there last June, but that number has now been reduced to 72. More children are with relatives and the county added foster families through aggressive recruitment.
...
Even that raises concerns with Dr. Neha Mehta. "Right now there is not a guarantee that children who are placed in foster homes are going to be visited regularly," she stated.
Child Protective Services removed four children from a home after an infant died. Medical crews were called to try and help after the an 11-day-old baby stopped breathing.
While the child died from a medical condition, authorities who were in the home took four other children because they determined the home was in deplorable conditions.
In October, Morton suspended the exam function of the Sexual Abuse Investigative Team, which opened in 1990 to offer a child-sensitive approach to juvenile victims who may have been raped or assaulted.
The decision was made because of insufficient staffing issues and prompted backlash from community child advocates and donors who had financially supported the $1 million construction of the center that houses the team, called SAINT.
Morton said that with Winston's help, he hopes to see the exam portion of SAINT restarted in early January, or sooner if possible. The county is now negotiating with the Children's Healthcare Network to operate the exam portion of the program.
Every Wednesday morning Judge William Voy presides over a calendar with nothing but prostitution arrests. The team in the courtroom is committed to treating the girls as victims. But the goal often falls short because of a lack of available resources.
Colleen Witt is a social worker with the public defender's office. She says before she can help the girls she must first reach them.
"I say to my clients what was it, what were the magical words that this pimp told you? Did they tell you you were going to have to work the track, that you were going to have sex with strange men, that you were going to have to turn over your money and that if you didn't they were going to beat you or rape you? No. I wasn't told that, I was told he was going to take care of me," Witt said.
Gov. Jim Gibbons said Tuesday he will exempt child welfare and juvenile justice programs from $285 million in proposed state budget cuts.
"I thought it was understood they would be spared from cuts," said Gibbons when asked whether children's programs still faced the ax.
"Education (kindergarten through 12th grade), public safety, corrections and children's programs will not be cut. We will have to make steeper cuts in other state agencies."
If Gibbons made that commitment to legislators and local government leaders during budget talks last week, Clark County Commission Chairman Rory Reid missed it. During the meeting, Reid unsuccessfully pressed Gibbons for a promise to preserve the $3.6 million in county child welfare and juvenile justice budgets up for cuts. ...
The cuts would have meant that 59 of the 85 new child welfare positions approved by the Legislature this year would not be funded. At the meeting, Reid reasoned that because public education was to be spared from cuts, child welfare programs should be spared, too.
In all, 33 families officially adopted 40 children Wednesday. The event is expected to bring the total number of Clark County children adopted this year to more than 300 -- with hundreds more just waiting for a permanent family of their own.
Las Vegas police on Sunday arrested Manuel Esquer-Anaya at the home he was sharing with the victim's mother in the 1400 block of Reno Avenue, near Tropicana Avenue and Maryland Parkway.
He is charged with one count of murder by child abuse and two counts of child abuse with substantial bodily harm in the death of Julian Rodriguez.
...
Julian's family didn't have any prior contact with the Department of Family Services.
The issue boiled over last week, when county commissioners delayed the renewal of a contract with the state on the provision of child welfare services. Commissioners Reid, Tom Collins, Chip Maxfield and Chris Giunchigliani questioned how they could approve a new contract at a time when state budget cuts are looming.
The battle for custody of a 7-year-old boy took an unexpected turn last week when a Family Court judge discovered a procedural error that had gone unnoticed since the case began in 2000.
Judge Cynthia "Dianne" Steel said the error meant the guardianship that was granted to the child's grandparents shortly after his birth is defective and should be set aside.
A $350,000 grant from the Nevada Women's Philanthropy will enable Girls and Boys Town to build a siblings home: a 5,000-square-foot house that, like all the residential properties on the foster care campus, will house nine children full time under the care of a married couple who also live in the house.
Here, sibling groups from one or more families can live together in a co-ed and age-diverse environment, which is an exception to the rule in the foster care system, Waite said.
"If they've been abusing substances or involved in the criminal justice system, they're certainly going to have some sort of family or health issues," she said. (Approximately 60 percent of Bridge's clients are ordered, or strongly recommended, to it by the Department of Family Services, Child Protective Services or a criminal court.)
Formed in 1971 by a group of substance abuse clinicians, Bridge Counseling Associates also operates separate programs for adolescents, those with AIDS and pregnant women.
Services are provided by 30 full-time and 30 part-time therapists at 1701 W. Charleston Blvd., Suite 400. The cost per visit is based on the client's income and ability to pay.
"All of our services focus around preserving families," Harris said, adding that the organization also works closely with children and families in the foster-care system. ...
About 70 percent of the agency's $3 million annual budget comes from federal, state and local government grants, 30 percent from private donations and client fees. (Court-ordered clients are required to pay for a portion of the services.)
CARSON CITY -- The Nevada Supreme Court has notified Gov. Jim Gibbons that it is returning to the state general fund far more than the 5 percent spending reduction that might be sought by the governor.
Chief Justice Bill Maupin released a letter Thursday in which he told the governor that the court in September returned $2.5 million, or about 24 percent of its general fund appropriation of $10.5 million.
As an independent branch of government, the court system is not legally required to follow Gibbons' budget cutting requests. However, Maupin said the judiciary "has assisted, and will continue to assist the state in addressing the projected revenue shortfall."
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11/27/07:
State may lose funds: Federal Medicaid money in jeopardy
(Las Vegas Review-Journal/Lisa Kim Bach)
Entities:
Lisa Kim Bach (more poor reporting by),
Tom Morton (quoted),
Jon Porter (event organizer),
Michael Willden (quoted) 
11/26/07:
SHAKEN BABY SYNDROME: Grandmother turns pain into action: Woman's nonprofits work to raise awareness
(Las Vegas Review-Journal/Lisa Kim Bach)
Entities:
Lisa Teele (quoted),
Jessica Murphy (quoted) 
11/26/07:
Crisis Over Clark County's At-Risk Children Still Persists
(KLAS-TV/Edward Lawrence)
Entities:
Tom Morton (quoted),
Ed Cotton (quoted),
Neha Mehta (quoted) 
11/14/07:
BUDGET CUTTING: Gibbons stays ax for some: Children's programs will escape chopped funding, governor says
(Las Vegas Review-Journal/Ed Vogel & Lisa Kim Bach)
Entities:
Jim Gibbons (action by),
reid (quoted),
DFS (regarding funding for),
Michael Willden (mentioned),
Tom Morton (quoted),
Donna Coleman (quoted) 
11/14/07:
Emotional Outcome as 40 Kids Find Families on Adoption Day
(KLAS-TV/Alyson McCarthy)
Entities:
adoption (subject),
Nicholas Del Vecchio (mentioned and pictured) 
11/14/07:
Man charged in death of girlfriend's son: Infant boy had been left in care of boyfriend
(Las Vegas Review-Journal)
11/13/07:
FATHER NOTIFICATION: Custody case takes a twist: Procedural error postpones judge's decision on 7-year-old
(Las Vegas Review-Journal/Carri Geer Thevenot)
Entities:
Dianne Steel (actions by) 
11/12/07:
In foster care, siblings separated or left waiting: Grant will finance home for brothers, sisters
(Las Vegas Sun/Abigail Goldman)
Entities:
Girls and Boys Town of Nevada (subject),
Christine Skorupski (quoted) 
