I Survived A Suicide Attempt Only To Find Out I Have Cancer

Welcome to my world!

I haven't blogged in a while.  Part of me is distracted by the cancer diagnosis.  Part of me just can't keep up with the bullshit of 2013 life.

I was diagnosed with breast cancer two days ago.  I am still trying to wrap my head around this. 

My daughter hasn't responded to any of my phone calls or texts in a year, even after I indicated I have cancer.  Draw your own conclusions.

Wild Couple - Mocking Bird?

These two remind me of me and my first husband.  I was Carly Simon, he was James Taylor.  I was the wild side, he was the cool dude.  This really is our song.




Keith and Melodi ...

Notice how James is looking lasciviously at Carly.  That is part of the relationship Keith and I had.  Add to that the fact that he played serious guitar and I sang as well.  We were this duo in our time ... sigh.  LOL

"Get Off!" - David Steinberg

Back in the day when the Smothers Brothers had their television show, David Steinberg was one of the regulars.  He also wrote a number of the skits.  In fact, it was his skit about Moses that got the Smothers Brothers show canceled.

David had a recurring routine, which my family mimicked on a regular basis.  For years, I have been looking for a You Tube video of David doing this routine.  The best I could find was his psychiatrist bit which incorporated the "get off" phenomena.  What is not known to the new viewer is what David was trying to "get off" his shoulder!  It was an invisible creature/being.  My cousins and other friends would occasionally break out into a "get off" moment without explaining to anyone what we were doing, much like David does in this skit.  It was weird, and it was funny to us.  To this day, if you say "get off" most in my family will grab their left shoulder and throw the invisible creature off ...

Zaire Screaming For Joy At Being Home!!!

UPDATE: July 4, 2012

It seems the video is not "available" to all people, even though I thought I put it on my "wall" and my "wall" is supposed to be "public." I really don't like these social media sites, and you'd think that I'd be an expert at Twitter and Facebook, but in all actuality, I hate them both. I only keep Facebook because that is how I can get quick photos posted by my daughter (and anything that she shares from the "father's" account), so at least I get to see precious pictures of my grandson.

Anyway, when my daughter sends me the videos, I can then upload them personally and put them on the site. For those of you that are already "friends" with my daughter on Facebook, then you can see these two cute videos.

PS I ... WILL have more to blog about regarding my grandson and the status of the custody battle. I find it a tad funny that the majority of the father's family have focused on "me" and not on the issues that relate to who should have custody, the father or the mother. Somehow, that side seems to think that calling me names (like "racist" and "anti-semite") will bolster the father's attempts to continue to maintain custody, when all it really does is make them look petty. I am not a party to this lawsuit. What I think and do is actually irrelevant to the Court, yet the father's lawyers, family and friends scour my blog to find anything they can to attempt to somehow discredit my daughter. I laugh at that because again, as I said, I am not a party ... it is not me seeking custody, and I am not relevant to this case. I thought it funny (ok, I am digressing a bit, but whatever) that at one of the evaluation sessions the father was all over the "your mother called me a dead beat dad," etc. I was proud that my daughter responded (in front of the evaluator) with a "well, you ARE a dead beat dad." Seems that phrase resonates with the father ... and he better get used to it, because a better definition of a dead bead dad could not be found outside of my post about him.
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Just watch this video over on my Facebook page, and you will understand how MUCH Zaire is glad to be home!

Check here to see how much fun the boys are having, and how much love is unspoken between them. Sigh ... It's hard when you know he doesn't want to live in Chicago.

"Lover Come Back"

My aunt, the drunk in the middle! LOL!

Trailer from the movie, "Lover Come Back." My aunt is one of the bunny dancers, last one on the left in the trailer. Still trying to see if I can find a full dance scene, though.

Watching The Dems Squirm Over Hillary Rosen's Comments About Ann Romney, Oh My!

UPDATE: 4/15/12: Since the piece below has been rocking the boat for both sides, and with the Dems joining the Rethugs by saying Hillary Rosen was out of bounds by making such a statement about Ann Romney, I bring you the following from Think Progress. As always, for every side of the mouth Mittens says something, there is always an equally opposite statement coming out of the other side of his mouth!

Romney and allies cried that Democrats had declared “war on moms” after a Democratic strategist said Romney’s wife hadn’t worked a day in her life. Romney’s camp said this meant Democrats don’t value stay at home moms and motherhood, while they believe that women who stay home are doing real work.

But for every Romney action, there is an equal and opposite Romney reaction, and this morning, MSNBC’s Chris Hayes dug up a video of Romney from just January in which the Republican presidential candidate said he wanted to require women who receive welfare to work outside the home, even if their children are very young. He told a New Hampshire audience:

“I wanted to increase the work requirement,” said Romney. “I said, for instance, that even if you have a child 2 years of age, you need to go to work. And people said, ‘Well that’s heartless.’ And I said, ‘No, no, I’m willing to spend more giving day care to allow those parents to go back to work. It’ll cost the state more providing that daycare, but I want the individuals to have the dignity of work.”

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This caught my eye this morning. I have mostly stayed silent with respect to the Republican circus that has been the nominating process for the next candidate for president (all of them are ignorant pieces of shit, as far as I am concerned). I don't particularly care who wins the election this year. I will still sit it out and not vote. I am not a fan of Obama, and quite frankly, I could give two shits if the stupid people take over. To me, that just means we crash and burn a lot faster, and we all know that we can't rebuild until we break. This current trend of plugging the holes with our fingers (or putting our fingers in our ears) is not stopping the bleeding of this country, or the world, so I, for one, am on the side that takes us down as fast as possible.

With that in mind, I do have to come to the defense of Hilary Rosen, who has both the Democrats and Republicans all trying to get their underwear out of their asses.

President Obama’s top political advisers moved rapidly late Wednesday night to distance the president from a Democratic strategist and adviser to the Democratic National Committee who said Mitt Romney’s wife, Ann, had “never worked a day in her life.”

[snip]

And then, in a commentary on The Huffington Post, Ms. Rosen wrote a long defense of her comments, accusing critics of “faux anger” aimed at scoring political points.

“I don’t need lectures from the R.N.C. on supporting women and fighting to increase opportunities for women; I’ve been doing it my whole career,” Ms. Rosen wrote. “If they want to attack me and distract the public’s attention away from their nominee’s woeful record, it just demonstrates how much they just don’t get it.”

She added: “I have no judgements about women who work outside the home vs. women who work in the home raising a family. I admire women who can stay home and raise their kids full time. I even envy them sometimes. It is a wonderful luxury to have the choice. But let’s stipulate that it is NOT a choice that most women have in America today.”

Amen to that. I raised my daughter and worked. My daughter is a single mother who had been raising her son while attending college, but on welfare, food stamps, and pell grants, plus some scholarships (no help from the father, that's for sure). In my time, and in today's culture, women being able to stay at home and NOT work is an anomaly, not the norm. Well, unless you are the .01% like the Romney family, who can afford multiple cars, homes, boats, horses, and probably a lot of nannies. The rest of us 99% in America have to get by, raising a family with both parents working ... and in today's economy, with probably both parents on unemployment because the Romney's of this country "like firing people." I don't care if Mrs. Romney raised five kids or ten kids ... she did so with the kind of money monthly most of us will never see in a lifetime.

UPDATE: 4/13/12: I knew I knew the name "Hillary Rosen" but could not place where I knew it from. And although I concur with the comments and the intent of the comments she made, I realize now (thanks to an post over at AMERICAblog) that this is the same Hillary Rosen with the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) the group responsible for pushing the lawsuits against individual file sharers, the one who brought down the original Napster, and helped create the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) of which even I have had experience with by Blogger taking down a post of mine claiming it was in violation of the DMCA. I hate this woman! I am sure in by archives I have a lot of posts really badmouthing her.

Joan Kelly - U.S.S. Missouri And A Teenager's Crush

Back in 1953, my aunt was "crowned" Miss Welcome To Long Beach. (My mother was a regatta queen, but I will deal with that plus photos in another post!)

I received a rather interesting e-mail from an individual who was about 15 at the time, with an audio stream of a story this individual told about his youth, the U.S.S. Missouri, and my aunt. I turned it into a video.



Enjoy.

For more on "uncle Sid and aunt Joan" check out The Sticks And The Fedora.

Riffing Off Of Rix's Post

I think I believed in Santa until I was about seven years old. I totally remember "hearing" the bells and sled and hooves on my roof one night! I also remember one night constantly getting out of bed to check out if Santa had come (only to find out later my mom was pissed off because she was trying to "assemble" two bikes for my sister and me, and I kept interrupting her!). After the last of the little ones in my family were over Santa, we didn't celebrate Christmas (as we were not really Christians, hence the religious part of Christmas was not what we adults or older children were into). Also, my mom did the decoration thing to the max. Way over the top for me. Even in her old age, she still hired someone to set up all of her decorations ... plastic sleigh with Santa and reindeer, lights everywhere, tree way over decorated, the whole shebang.

Like Bob, I too, had a mom that imbibed a bit too much. Actually, my mom was a complete drunk, and there were several Christmas occasions when I was older, but there were still some little ones, that my mom completely ruined the entire evening. Once she tipped over the tree. Once she never even bought a tree (when she got mad, she got mad). Once she pee'd in the refrigerator vegetable drawer .... both my sister and I never ate anything stored in that drawer again!

I was glad when I left that house and moved in with my aunt, uncle and cousins. No more drunks and no more beatings that usually accompany the drunken episodes.

But, somewhere when I was in my 30's, I re-discovered Christmas. Not in the religious sense, but it was born when my ex was fighting me for custody over my then 7 year old daughter, and claiming "Christmas" and my lack of doing anything during this time was somehow evidence I was a bad parent. So, I went out and got a tree and silly me, bought my first ever ornaments and lights. Man that was a costly adventure, close to $1,000 back then. But, since I actually LOVE CHRISTMAS music, it was an excuse to play songs, FINALLY! And, I found out that when I took the religion out of the holiday, I actually enjoyed it more as an adult.

I had one interesting holiday when I lived in Portland during the divorce period, and my daughter was 2 or 3 (the fight when she was 7 was his second attempt to get custody), and we were so poor we made all our own ornaments, and we actually cut our own tree from a local tree farm. Maybe next year, I will scan some of my Christmas pictures over the years.

I think my saddest Christmas was when my sister and I were sent to live with my grandparents for a year when we were 5 and 6 respectively (I was older), and we didn't see my mom for a year. She came to Baltimore, where we were living, for Christmas (bringing my baby cousin, Kelly, who was barely six months old) and stayed for a week. I cried for days when she left.

But, that was when I grew up when I should not have had to. I realized I didn't have a mom that was capable of taking care of me, and I had to take care of myself. Harsh reality at such an early age.

Anyway ... I am sure I will end this evening with some more posts that are more upbeat!!!!

Living In L.A., And Proof Of It Too!

As you can see by the picture, Zaire's name is carved out on the sidewalk next to my apartment. He put his signature there a few years ago, and I like this picture I took of him while he was here for a few days. This is where he belongs, right next to his name!

I have some other really fun pictures I will post later. Having him here with me for a couple of days was awesome. It's funny when he's not being stared down by DBD, how freely the youngster let's fly with what's real for him. Lot's of interesting things came out of his mouth. Veeeeerrrrryyyyy, very interesting (don't make me finish this off with the "Laugh In" follow up line - but "stupid")!

Zaire's been back in Chicago for about three days now, and DBD still won't let him answer his new cell phone or use his new computer that I provided (and for which there is independent internet that I am paying for monthly). Wonder what the "new" excuse will be this time around? Oh well, sooner or later, DBD is going to be forced to have to allow Zaire to communicate with our FAMILY, and not be controlled. At least I am keeping my text messages to the cell phone saved and my SMS messages to his Skype account saved, so that I can prove that I called him and texted him and left Skype open every fucking day. Court will be a bitch for one particular party, and even if we don't totally prevail (but I am rather confident that in the end, we will), DBD will be dragged over the coals by Hiz Honor, Da Judge! Can't wait to hear the excuses when that time comes.

Having Fun In Carlsbad With Grandson!

Mercedes and Zaire at beach.


Partial family portrait.


Zaire and the "boys."


Some of us hanging out at Kel's house.


Ok, Grandma in the pool LOL!


Grandma and Zaire in pool!


Mercedes and Zaire in pool.


Picture of plumeria tree Kel has in her back yard!

Video of family at pool in Carlsbad.



Zaire skateboarding.



Zaire in Gia's home recording studio listening to a demo.



We all had a great time. I would take a picture of my lobster colored self, but I am already scaring people on the street, I am so red from all that sun and no sunscreen!!!!!

Enjoy!

Leslie & Kelly (and John, duh) ... At The Movies

I am enjoying this "reunion" of sorts, with old videos that have been posted on YouTube.

This was always on of my favorite songs. I participated in this video which was shot in our home area back in the 1980's in the San Dieguito area (Leucadia, Encinitas, Cardiff, etc.) at a local theater (name escapes me for now). I am in the beginning of the video where they are at the theater, (the one holding the baby, who is my DAUGHTER, MERCEDES)!

I always loved this song. It was a novelty piece, but fun, nonetheless.

Leslie and Kelly - In America

Ok, so I am definitely enjoying me some family videos! Seems SOMEONE has figured out how to digitize the old analog shit and put it on YouTube (I am thinking it is Gia that has the skills, but I may be wrong).

Circa the 1980's, but sheesh, considering that their mother would move to China later on in life, this is sort of eerie!

Enjoy my cousins, Leslie and Kelly!

Come Back To Me - Leslie, Kelly & John Ford Colley

Wow. I am tripping finding this video. First off, that IS the house we all lived at (well, I stayed there for a while, but I had my own place a few blocks up).

I have no clue who did this video .. it is the first that I have seen. But that was the single released from their one and only album produced by Herb Alpert on A&M records, back in the day.

Ah, memories, eh?

"A Flea In Her Ear" Starring Aria Bruss

A Flea in Her Ear

Written by Georges Feydeau - Translated by Barnett Shaw

Directed by Doug Kaback

Produced by Samara Friedman and Selga Sanders

Feydeau’s iconic comedy comes to life at the Edgemar Center for the Arts for two weeks only. Monsieur Chandel is unable to “rise to the occasion” and his wife Yvonne is certain he is cheating on her. So begins the manic madness of mistaken identities, drunken brawling, rotating beds and the most notorious hotel in France (with a name you won’t forget). Don’t miss what has often been referred to as the “definitive French Sex Farce”, A Flea in her Ear.

The show is being directed by Doug Kaback with Samara Friedman and Selga Sanders serving as Producers. The Stage Manager is Jennifer Schwartz. The “Flea-bitten” players include: Bryan Bertone, Aria Bruss, Paul Buxton, Josh Fishbein, Samara Friedman, Mark Gadbois, Damon Lira, Chris Lohr, Chi Chi Navarro, Scott Roberts, Selga Sanders, Paul Stroili, Theresa Tilly, Clare Trautvetter and Marie Wilson.

I will be attending closing night, June 12, watching my cousin's oldest perform.

Leslie & Kelly - Don't Come Around The Neighborhood

The "girls" circa the 1980's.

Man, The Year Goes By Fast

Tuesday marks the third anniversary of my uncle Sid's death. This year, I will be putting up music (and Joan's dancing courtesy of YouTube) on his blog, including a new comer to the industry, Kelsey Bulkin. You go girl! I even paid for the song just to be able to play it (grins).

Made In Heights - All The Places

My Pictures And Video Of Ruby Summer At Hollywood Renaissance Hotel

Simon and Nick, from work, and Nicks wife, Georgiana.

Hana (from work) and Hani (from Good Neighbors)

Manly feeding frenzy - Jerry and some others I do not know.


Aria.

Chrissy (my friend who skated in the Swayze film "Skatetown U.S.A. with me), and Gia.


The groupies, already!


Summer.

Their performance of "Mermaids and Poets" - sorry for the cell phone quality, but you can scroll down a few posts and view a better video!



It was great to be surrounded by friends, family and even co-workers the night following "le tragic" event. The girls even have "groupies" if you can believe it, dressing up like them! I had a blast, my friends had a blast, my co-workers had a blast, and I enjoyed the love projected by my very talented family.

Say Good Bye While You Can To My Grandson

I know my readers have been wondering how things went at the "trial" regarding my grandson. I have a lot to say about that.

First off, at about 4:00 p.m. the day before trial, we get notice that the dead beat dad's, dead beat dad, (with the supposed connections to a famous person, why that would even matter) hired a law firm in Chicago as well as a law firm in Los Angeles. Basically, we got Johnny Cochran'd at trial. Bottom line, for now (because we have to return in 30 days), my grandson is forced to move to Chicago to live with the dead beat dad. What makes this decision even more egregious is that the dead beat dad's family live HERE! So, not only is he taking his child away from the child's mother and grandmother, he's also taking the child away from his own mother and the rest of his family. Nice work there, idiot.

Now, to correct the record, it wasn't dead beat dad reading my blog – it was the attorneys (which, by the way, I know cost a boatload, so way to go dead beat dad's dead beat dad). And as to why I call the father's father a dead beat, is because I know his ex is STILL trying to the get her back child support from him! This is a very dysfunctional family, and I will leave it at that.

As an aside to my readers, whom I believe know my politics since my blog has been up and running close to six years now, one of the attorneys for the "other side" actually told my set of attorneys that I was an anti-Semite, and that I was using my grandson and his image to promote pro PLO positions! Ok, stop laughing, he really did say that. And one of the other goons posing as an attorney actually did a little chest pumping and lunged at me when I told him "it's not over yet," with a "what did you say" as if he was going to jump over the counter and punch me. Fine specimens of what we in the legal profession call assholes.

So, here's the situation. Dead beat dad (who, by the way, works a graveyard shift job, so his hours are roughly 7 pm to 3 am) and who's never parented on any real level before, and is barely an adult himself (despite his age) is now going to have to be a father, and not just a once a year, one week gig father, but a 24/7 father, to what will probably end up being a very unhappy and angry eight year old. Plus, given his work hours, it's a pretty good assumption that my grandson will be "cared" for by babysitters most of the time. Again, this will not make dead beat dad's child love him ... in fact, it will only foster more resentment, first at being taken away from the only home he has known for eight years to go to that gawd awful place known as Chicago (sorry to my Chicago readers, but you already know it just does not match up to what's happening in sunny California), but he isn't even going to have real time interactions with his own father. Not when the guy is getting home at about 4 am (he has no car, so give him time to walk or use whatever transit is available at that hour to get home from work), and he won't be able to just go to sleep because he'll have to be up to get his child off and ready to go to school (which will be the third school the poor kid will be attending this year). I sure hope that he's not left back and will have to repeat third grade thanks to the vengeful actions of his dead beat dad. Then there's the getting the child home from school, dinner, homework, etc. But with his job hours, there's no way dead beat dad will be putting his kid to bed before he leaves for work (face it, an eight year old does not go to bed at 6 pm, right?), so the big elephant in the room is who IS going to be parenting my grandson? It most certainly will not be the kid's father – even dragging him to Chicago, he SIMPLY DOES NOT HAVE THE TIME TO BE A PARENT.

Just a note, though, I am stepping up the game a bit, but since all the lawyers seem to be interested in what I have to say, and have been quote reading unquote my blog (but obviously not able to comprehend the posts) I'll keep it close to my chest and won't reveal all my options.

What I do find quite interesting are the parallels between my custody situation with my daughter and her father (we shared her equally, two years with one parent with liberal visitation and two years with the other parent with liberal visitation) is that when she turned a certain age, she simply said she was no longer going back to live with her father. I don't give my grandson half as long as my daughter took to decide she didn't want to live with her father, for him to make the same decision. I am pretty sure dead beat dad has so few social skills and even fewer parenting skills, that I wouldn't be surprised to hear that my grandson tells someone at his school that his father got mad at him because he couldn't get his homework right, and hit him. Payback can be dirty.

I feel bad for my grandson. The ill will in that family generated toward me is intense, so much so that when I brought the computer for him to play with while in court, the dead beat dad had to come and tower over this little boy and make a scene, such that my grandson lowered his eyes and told me, "I'm sorry grandma, but I can't play with the computer." What a douchebag to manipulate a little child like that. But I know my grandson, and he can be a pain in the ass in his own right, so let him be the dead beat dad's worst parental nightmare.

For my daughter, she's got a year and a half to go to finish her college, so she's going to be able to study full time and be single and not have to be bothered with the parenting for the time being. She'll be putting her son's stuff in storage for now so as not to get caught up in sadness from time to time, and will focus on her education. For me, I will box up my grandson's belongings and store them as well (except I have plenty of closets in my house so I don't need to store them somewhere else). I'll concentrate on my Santa's Elves non-profit project, and I am now throwing myself head on into Assemblyman Feuer's bill to try to fix the travesty that is known as the dependency court here in California. Turn shit into shinola, as they say. Plus, I will probably be running a campaign for a friend of mine that is planning a run for a city council seat here in Los Angeles.

On a good note, the day after the trial, my cousin's daughters, Ruby and Summer, performed at the Hollywood Renaissance Hotel, and there was just so much family and so much love and so much show business that it brightened up what was a lousy day prior. I will post what few photos and the one video I had the time to take with my new droid phone (a little better than my prior phone, but actually, nothing really beats a real camera!)

I plan to write my grandson every day. Maybe a card one day, a letter another day, a package with a goodie another day, etc. But each and every day he is away, I will be sending him something, so I will know he will always be wanting to check the mailbox because grandma sent him mail. I don't know what I will do with his blog. It will be up, but it will stay dark until he tells me he has something to say, or writes me and tells me to put this or that on his blog.

I want to thank all of you that have followed this story and have sent me so many wonderful and uplifting comments and notes.

Note to attorneys: Keep up the reading of my blog, and be sure to charge Joe a lot of money for having to read everything. It makes me happy to know you're learning about ME, which of course, has nothing to do with your client, the child, or my daughter! I am not the one charged with anything, and I was not on trial, so if Joe wants to pay for you to sit all day and read my blog, have at it. You might actually get an education on how the real world operates, and maybe even learn a thing or two about politics (and music, and dance, oh and sports too -- none of you looked like you could shoot a round of hoops, or hit the rink and slap a puck around, HA HA!)

Just a little video taken in 2008 with my grandson singing to Sugarland's "All I Want To Do" YouTube video from the ACMA awards. It's cute, but then again, he was only six and still couldn't sing!

Ruby Summer To Perform At Renaissance Hollywood's Lobby Bar 2/24/11

Come see the girls performing live this Thursday, February 24, 2011, no cover! Hope to see you all there.

Ruby Summer EPK from Ruby Summer on Vimeo.

• 1755 NORTH HIGHLAND AVENUE
• HOLLYWOOD, CALIFORNIA 9002

I'm With Assemblyman Feuer In Pressing For Open Hearings In Dependency Court

Opening the state's dependency courts is an idea that has been gaining momentum in recent years. Michael Nash, the presiding judge of Los Angeles County Juvenile Court, is a stalwart supporter, and the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services, which once opposed it, now favors it as well. Public employee unions, whose members might be subjected to greater scrutiny, remain wary, but they should come to see that public proceedings will help instill public confidence. Witness the case of police officers who once flinched at putting cameras in patrol cars: Today, those cameras are widely regarded as protecting good officers from false accusations. So too would open proceedings protect those social workers who deserve it.

Feuer has devoted himself to finding solutions to problems that can be addressed without new spending; the state's finances make that imperative. He's succeeded with this bill, which involves no cost to taxpayers. "Opening these proceedings to public scrutiny," he said this week, "will promote needed reforms and help safeguard children by making everyone in the system more accountable." That is true and overdue.

He gets my vote on this issue. As someone who has recently been subjected to the "dependency courts" and how they operate, it is a conundrum when compared to other aspects of the legal profession. Everything is out in the open, except in dependency courts, where shrouding everything in secrecy prohibits even cursory reviews of the propriety of DCFS' actions! My case alone has so many mistakes it makes my head spin. And as for accountability, there is none, unless (as many have urged me to do) I file suit against the agency for the poor management of the case.

From my own experience, Los Angeles County DCFS workers are not held accountable in any fashion, rightly or wrongly. The autonomy afforded these workers makes many of the ones I came into contact with act like lords over a kingdom, and we are their serfs. They even go so far as to prod you to just lie and admit to an abuse that did not occur, they try to force you to take their appointed attorney (kind of like a public defender in a criminal action), and in my case I was actually told by one social worker that it would go a long way in my daughter's case if I just simply convinced her to accept the charges. When we said no, and told them we had our own lawyers, their prejudice against me was obvious. I was denied, without proper cause, the ability to take my grandson home, even though the eventual family (after they placed the kid into a non-English speaking foster home for a week) that was appointed as the temporary home pending trial, was in a weaker position than I with regard to the requirements for such placement. Even with regard to visitation, I have been thwarted at every angle from being allowed to have visits. It is as if my grandson dropped off the face of the earth because the host family has refused to allow me to even call my grandson to talk with him. And here, I'm not even the accused! I've not been charged with anything! On the other hand, the presumptive father who has had very little to do with the child in question, was given "temporary custody" in order to make decisions on behalf of the child, and this despite the fact that HE is also an accused in this action. It boggles the mind how these people can get away with such atrocities, and I applaud assemblyman Feuer in his quest to open up dependency court hearings to the public.

Read the article in full. It's short, but to the point.