Michigan CPS News Archive

Is snooping in your spouse's e-mail a crime?

by John Springer

A Michigan man who accessed his wife's e-mail account while she was allegedly carrying on an affair faces up to five years in prison when he goes on trial Feb. 7 on a charge he violated a state law typically used against hackers intent on making money or

The question for the judge or jurors who will hear the case isn't whether Clara Walker gave Leon Walker, 33, permission to inspect her Google e-mail; he admits she didn't know what he was up to until her e-mail messages became an issue in their divorce and child custody battle.

today.msnbc.msn.com

December 28, 2010

Walled Lake teacher arrested for alleged sexual contact with 8 year old - Detroit Crime

by Robert Brignall

Los Angeles police detectives say Mark Stephen Hubbard, who has taught for eight years at Hillcrest Christian School in suburban Granada Hills, was arrested Sunday. He was booked for investigation of multiple sex crimes and released on $100,000 bail.

Larry Dean Konyha, 54, is presently behind bars in lieu of $50,000 bond, and has been suspended from his job at the Walnut Creek Middle School in West Bloomfield. The charge does not involve one of Konyha's students, nor did the alleged conduct occur on school property. It involves a girl in Commerce Twp; Konyha also lives there and knew both the girl and her mother.

examiner.com

November 24, 2010

Father Sues School District Over Teacher Reading About Slavery

Mount Clemens -- The father of a black student has sued a Detroit-area school district claiming that his daughter was racially harassed by a fifth-grade teacher's reading aloud from a book about slavery.

The suit claims Jala Petree's teacher at Margaret Black Elementary School in Sterling Heights read excerpts from Julius Lester's "From Slave Ship to Freedom Road" that contain racial epithets and racist characterizations, The Macomb Daily reported.

CNS News

November 11, 2010

Calista Springer's grandmother files lawsuits against Centreville schools, Michigan Department of Human Services

by Kathy Jessup

A Southfield law firm has sued Michigan Department of Human Services officials, Centreville Public Schools and a school counselor alleging they failed to protect Calista Springer from parental abuse that ultimately led to her death in a 2008 house fire.

Springer was found chained to her bed in an upstairs room in her family's Centreville home following a February 2008 fire. She was 16. The court filings provide information from Michigan State Police records about abuse and neglect complaints Langdon says were filed by Calista Springer's family members, teachers, a mental-health worker, friends and adult acquaintances.

Kalamazoo Gazette

October 12, 2010

Legislation will bring clarity to the Indian Child Welfare Act if passed

by Brenda Austin

SAULT STE. MARIE, Mich. -- The Indian Child Welfare Act is a federal law that can at times be confusing to those it was designed to help - tribes, tribal children, their families and the state and tribal court systems.

Making ICWA easier to use and understand is the goal of a group of dedicated people - a special committee formed by the Michigan Supreme Court. This committee is charged with helping Indian children and families in child welfare cases, and with educating judges and child welfare practitioners about ICWA.

Indian Country Today

September 11, 2010

Michigan foster children describe struggles; 'Most people don't care about children,' one says

by Julie Mack

Her mother is a drug addict. Her father "wants to do his own thing." At a young age, Jazzi was sent to live with relatives, moving between households and never feeling a sense of belonging. There was emotional abuse, sexual abuse.

For 90 minutes Thursday, a dozen teenagers and young adults who have been in Michigan's foster-care system told their stories to a spellbound audience at Western Michigan University. The Kalamazoo Gazette is not printing their last names due to the nature of some of their stories.

Kalamazoo Gazette

July 30, 2010

Mother of Mich. boy slain by father sues state

STANTON, Mich. -- The mother of a 9-year-old boy killed by his abusive father in a 2007 murder-suicide is suing, claiming child welfare workers failed to remove him from his father's home despite a prosecutor's warnings.

Rebecca Jasinski, of Saginaw County, contends that her son, Nicholas Braman, could have been saved if the state had removed him from his father's home in Montcalm County, according to a lawsuit filed earlier this month in federal court in Grand Rapids. A watchdog inside the department, the Office of Children's Ombudsman, investigated and found that child welfare workers should have stepped in to help Nicholas as soon as they became aware of the abuse of siblings, the lawsuit contends.

Chicago Tribune

July 20, 2010

Couple Face Drug Charges

KALAMAZOO -- Harvest came early this year on March St. The KVET unit has busted up a marijuana growing operation in the Washington Square area on Kalamazoo's East Side.

They seized the equipment and approximately 100 small marijuana plants. A man and a woman were living there with their three children. Charges are pending and they may also face an investigation by Child Protective services.

WKZO

June 16, 2010

Goodrich, Quinn set June date

The engagement of Virginia Goodrich of Tuscon, Ariz., and Thomas Quinn, of Oro Valley, Ariz., is being announced.

The bride-elect is a homeschool graduate and graduated in 2007 from Hillsdale College in Hillsdale, Mich. She is employed by Healthy Families Arizona in Tuscon.

Hudson Hub Times

May 23, 2010

They're getting suspicious

Due to an increase in the number of homeschoolers in Texas, experts are getting suspicious about who is really homeschooling.

I've seen the similar dropout arguments made by legislators and educators in Michigan as well as in other states with "lax" regulation on homeschooling.

Spunky HomeSchool:

May 11, 2010

Child Starves as Foster Home Banks $

by Ann Mullen

All she wanted was help caring for her wheel-chair bound son Johnny. The state's answer was to put him in a foster care facility.

Johnny's mom would have preferred to have someone help her at home, but the state offers limited home-care services. A year after Johnny was in foster care, the 10-year-old boy starved to death. Our story exposes the state's financial incentive to keep kids in the foster care system.

WXYZ News 7

April 28, 2010

Three more lawsuits doomed to fail, three more bad child welfare systems likely to get worse

by Richard Wexlar

The group that so arrogantly calls itself "Children's Rights" has filed another one of its Mclawsuits against a state child welfare agency - this time in Massachusetts. And NCCPR's sources say that another such Mclawsuit, in Texas, is imminent.

Meanwhile a group which is unaffiliated with CR but has the same myopic outlook about how to fix child welfare systems, the National Center for Youth Law, has filed the same kind of suit in Nevada. All of these child welfare systems almost certainly are every bit as bad as CR and NCYL say they are.

NCCPR Child Welfare Blog

April 15, 2010

Stupak: Michigan's 1st District Benedict Arnold

by Carole C.J. Williams

Those who paid attention in history class will remember learning about Benedict Arnold, who purposefully sought and obtained command of West Point so he could surrender it to the British.

When his treasonous intention was discovered, he escaped to England and then led British forces into battle against American soldiers in Virginia and Connecticut. The 1st Congressional District of Michigan seems to have its own traitorous Benedict Arnold in the form of Rep. Bart Stupak...

News With Views

April 5, 2010