About Brian-Admin

Editor - Health Impact News

Texas Judge: CPS Still Unconstitutional – Foster Care Sexual and Physical Abuse Still the Norm

Two years ago (January 2016) Health Impact News reported that U.S. District Judge Janis Graham Jack had ruled against the State of Texas stating that the foster care system, named in a class action lawsuit on behalf of Texas foster children, was unconstitutional. In her 255 page ruling, Judge Jack wrote: "Texas’ PMC (Permanent Managing Conservatorship) children have been shuttled throughout a system where rape, abuse, psychotropic medication, and instability are the norm." The judge was very clear that the existing Texas "Child Protection Services" and foster care system needed to be abolished, and a new one formed with real reforms. We also reported how the State of Texas, rather than comply with the judge's order and make changes to protect Texas children, instead fought back to keep the status quo, as Governor Greg Abbott's Attorney General, Ken Paxton, chose to fight the decision rather than implement the reforms the court was requiring. Today, more than 2 years later, it appears that almost nothing has changed in Texas in terms of protecting abused children (even though the State legislature has passed some very nominal reforms), and Judge Jack has ruled again, and ordered Texas officials to adopt almost 100 changes in the Texas foster care system. Once again, the State of Texas, through State Attorney General Ken Paxton, is resisting these changes.

“Broken Brain” FREE Replay Weekend: Online Series on Holistic Mental Health

NY Times Bestselling author Dr. Mark Hyman's online docuseries called "Broken Brain" just completed, and was a HUGE success! Many people emailed us to thank us for offering this docuseries on holistic mental health. Due to overwhelming demand, Dr. Hyman's team has decided to present a FULL encore screening of Broken Brain for FREE this weekend. For the next two days, starting at 6:00 AM ET Sharp on Saturday, January 27th ALL the episodes are available for you to watch. You can see them all, 100% FREE, until the bell tolls Midnight ET on Sunday, the 28th of January.

9th Circuit Court Upholds Parents’ Constitutional Rights: Rules Against Arizona Social Workers Removing Children without a Warrant

In what is seen as a victory for parental rights, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled in favor of Arizona parents who had their 3 children removed from their home simply because they had taken photos of them after a bath when they were laying on a towel naked. They went to develop the photos at a Walmart, and an employee reported them to the police who were called in to investigate. The police investigation was extensive, including medical and forensic exams of the children looking for sexual abuse, as well as obtaining a warrant to search the family's home, where police "seized all the evidence that might be relevant to a child pornography investigation: computers, printers, photographs, cell phones, undeveloped film, floppy discs, DVDs, CDs, VHS tapes, and cameras." Police found no evidence of wrongdoing, so no charges were filed against the parents, and the children were returned home. However, Arizona social workers with a participating police detective decided to remove the young children from the home anyway, even without a court issued warrant. The children ended up in foster homes, but then later placed with their grandparents, and eventually returned home. The family sued the police detective and settled out of court, but Arizona courts ruled against the family suing the social workers citing state "Qualified Immunity" laws for social workers. The 9th Circuit disagreed, ruling that social workers are not above the law, and cannot violate the 4th and 14th Amendments, and that the courts have consistently ruled that families have a “well-elaborated constitutional right to live together without governmental interference.”

56 Year Old Man Enters Hospital with Shoulder Pain – Dies 6 Weeks Later After Developing Infection in Hospital

The following is a true story that is, unfortunately, typical of the dangers in being admitted into hospitals today in the U.S. Carl was a fighter, a survivor. Nothing was handed to him in life. When he was 15, both his father and mother walked out on him and his younger brother, leaving Carl alone to raise his sibling. Somehow, the two of them managed to earn enough money to keep paying the mortgage and save the family home. Carl was a handyman, seemingly able to fix anything. He went on to become a master plumber. He was a tall man (over 6 feet tall), and always seemed to turn up anytime someone was in need and could benefit from his services. When Carl started experiencing shoulder pain in his rotator cuff, one of his friends eventually convinced him to go have it checked out. Carl was not one to visit doctors or seek medical care, and he would have rather endured the shoulder pain than ask for pain medication. But his friend was insistent, so for her sake he begrudgingly agreed to be taken to the hospital, as he had been lying in bed with pain for so many days, that now his hip was starting to bother him also. Tragically, after the hospital admitted him, he soon developed pneumonia, and a Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infection. 6 weeks later he was dead. Carl's friends watched their friend who entered the hospital system due to chronic shoulder pain be tortured and killed by the hospital, and they were powerless to do anything about it.

18 Year Old Wrongly Convicted of Shaken Baby Syndrome Set Free After Serving 17 Years in Prison

Thanks to new scientific knowledge about Shaken Baby Syndrome, a man wrongfully convicted in 2002 of killing his 4-month-old daughter has had his conviction reversed after spending nearly 17 years in prison. The San Francisco law firm Keker, Van Nest & Peters and the Northern California Innocence Project (NCIP) at Santa Clara University School of Law brought forth the new evidence, which reflects updated knowledge about the causes of Shaken Baby Syndrome and the risk of parents improperly being charged with murder in cases of household accidents. The California Superior Court of Sacramento reversed Zavion Johnson’s murder conviction, which occurred when he was 18 years old. In what he has always claimed was a tragic accident, Johnson’s daughter, Nadia, slipped from his arms and fell in the bathtub while Johnson was bathing her. She later died from internal injuries. Despite 15 witnesses including Nadia’s mother, testifying that Johnson was a loving, caring father, medical experts at the time cited the then-medical consensus that the only possible explanation for Nadia’s injuries and death involved Shaken Baby Syndrome. Jurors called the medical evidence “overwhelming,” and sentenced him to life in prison, even though, as one juror recollected, they “felt that Zavion Johnson was a good young man, very loving to his girlfriend and their baby girl, and that it would seem horribly out of character for him to murder his baby.” The juror went on the say, “without that evidence, we certainly would not have convicted Zavion Johnson.” Using modern science, medical experts, including the original pathologist that testified at Johnson’s trial, have since reviewed the case. The experts agree that Nadia’s injuries are consistent with the fall originally described by Johnson 17 years ago and they can no longer say it was abuse.

Michelle Malkin Investigates Show Gives Terri LaPoint “Bulldog” Award for Medical Kidnapping

Michelle Malkin, from Michelle Malkin Investigates, gives the "Bulldog" award to Terri LaPoint of Medicalkidnapping.com

Baby of Idaho Disabled Mom Seized when Parents Claim Religious Exemption to Vaccines

Something unconscionable has happened in North Idaho this last week. We were notified by the daugther of a local pastor here in Kootenai County regarding a woman of his congregation, Diamond Mehlhoff, who gave birth in Kootenai County @ KMC on Monday November 20th via C section. On Wednesday November 22nd, after the parents refused vaccination for the baby, the state became involved and took this beautiful baby, Elijah, from his loving parents, claiming the mother to be unfit due to a diagnosis of cerebral palsy (a non progressive movement disorder). Their court hearing is tomorrow, Monday 27th at 8am @ 205 N 4th Street Coeur D Alene ID 83814 in the Juvenile Justice Center. They are asking anyone available to please come support them.

Medical Kidnapping of Seniors: A $273 BILLION Industry

How the Elderly Lose Their Rights: Guardians can sell the assets and control the lives of senior citizens without their consent—and reap a profit from it. In the United States, a million and a half adults are under the care of guardians, either family members or professionals, who control some two hundred and seventy-three billion dollars in assets, according to an auditor for the guardianship fraud program in Palm Beach County. Little is known about the outcome of these arrangements, because states do not keep complete figures on guardianship cases—statutes vary widely—and, in most jurisdictions, the court records are sealed. A Government Accountability report from 2010 said, “We could not locate a single Web site, federal agency, state or local entity, or any other organization that compiles comprehensive information on this issue.” A study published this year by the American Bar Association found that “an unknown number of adults languish under guardianship” when they no longer need it, or never did. The authors wrote that “guardianship is generally “permanent, leaving no way out—‘until death do us part.’ ”

The REAL Foster Care Housing Crisis: Too Many Foster Children, NOT Too Few Foster Homes

Thousands of children are trapped in foster care because their parents don’t have adequate housing. That is the REAL Foster Care housing crisis. Yes, there is a disconnect between the number of foster parents and the number of foster children. But that’s not because we have too few foster parents. It’s because we have too many foster children. The REAL foster care housing crisis is part of the biggest problem in American child welfare – the confusion of poverty with “neglect” and the racial bias that goes with it.

Mississippi Judge Resigns After Barring Mother from Seeing her Baby for 14 Months over Unpaid Court Fees

Pearl's Youth Court judge has resigned and the city's Youth Court has been permanently closed after the judge was accused of prohibiting a mother from contact with her 4-month-old child for 14 months until she paid court-imposed fees. The Roderick and Solange MacArthur Justice Center at the University of Mississippi School of Law filed a complaint on behalf of their client, calling for Pearl Youth Court Judge John Shirley to be fired. “As a civil rights lawyer in Mississippi, I am no stranger to injustice, but for a judge to prohibit an impoverished mother from having any contact with her baby until monetary payments are made is shocking and repugnant. Such orders are tantamount to judicial kidnapping,” Johnson said. “As a Mississippian with deep roots in this state that I love, I am deeply troubled by the many ways in which poor Mississippians, especially African Americans, are victimized by Mississippi’s legal system,” Johnson said. “We have litigated matters involving excessive bail, illegal jailing of misdemeanor offenders for unpaid fines and the refusal to provide poor criminal defendants with counsel, and now we see that not even the right to raise one’s children is beyond the reach of the injustice that befalls poor Mississippians."