News from the US ...

LOCAL legislators in Massachusetts are sponsoring new legislation to aid families with adopted children.

The bill will insert language into the state's General Law that will allow mental health professionals to attain, after intensive special training earning continuing education credits, certification as "adoption specialists".

Designed to help families easily locate appropriate and effective professionals, one sponsor says, "It is important that we have the right services available to the child and these families to handle this transition and to give these children a solid footing upon which to grow and develop.”

IN ANOTHER attempt to stuff adoption and abortion into the same jelly jar, this article from the news arm of "Focus on Family", an organization that promotes abstinence over birth control and and 'intelligent design' over evolution, is headlined, "Planned Parenthood Reports Zero Adoption Referrals".

Given the climate that surrounds the abortion issue, I am more than a little uncomfortable when adoption is tethered alongside.

'BASTARD NATION: The Adoptee Rights Organization' has announced the addition of a MySpace page to their portfolio. Not a replacement for the web page, founder Marley Greiner assures, it's "an enhancement".

A FLORIDA appeals court is is dealing with an adoption case involving fathers' putative rights in which termination of rights was assumed with failure to register.

The child, adopted at birth, is now two-years-old.

Here's an op ed piece on the case.

FOR A LOOK at the Ethiopian adoption program in America, this report features many families who have made the journey and offers information of interest.

AND I CAN'T leave without sharing one more item ...

I'd love to insert a link to this story out of Las Vegas that's circulating around web groups, but since I can't, I'll quote you the opening paragraphs:

A strange loophole has allowed Brian Shelton and Kimberly Weston to get married. They were wed at one of the chapels along the strip in Las Vegas, declaring their undying love for one another, like any other couple who marries.

The 17 year gap in their ages is enough by itself to give many conservatives pause, but it is not this fact which has them up in arms. The couple are biologically mother and son, a fact which has the local authorities and Christian activist groups at odds with each other.

The legal loophole that allowed them to marry is adoption. According to all laws, both state and federal, the two are actually complete strangers. Indeed, up until two years ago, they were literally complete strangers, not simply legally so.

Going on to cite the Evelyn Bennett case, toss in Angelina Jolie's name ... of course ... and:

In many cases, documents are signed while under the influence of powerful psychotropic drugs, yet this is not considered coercion or duress. But the woman is not considered "in her right mind" for decisions such as sterilization.

Says Kimberly of the adoption of her son, "I was deemed unfit because I was young and poor. I was too young and too poor to afford to hire an attorney to fight the adoption, so I lost my son.

Gripping stuff, heh? Yeah ... and phony as a three dollar bill, apparently. CNN, listed as the "source" has nothing and those who've been posting the story are now shouting, "I've been conned!"

Some stoop low, you know. Do we know anyone capable of such shenanigans?