A Texas surgeon (Mother) has been ordered to produce her eight year old Daughter in a Texas court.

The Mother is feared to have left the country with the Daughter.

Mother is now wanted on a state charge of interference with child custody and a federal charge of unlawful flight to avoid prosecution.

The Court awarded the child’s father (Father), a veterinarian, legal fees and investigation expenses to help him to locate and return Daughter to the US.

Since the couple divorced, Father moved around in an effort to keep up with his ex so he could be near Daughter.

Until Mother said she wanted to move to Mexico or Costa Rica.

Once Daughter is located, Father plans to file papers in the country where she is found to secure her return to the US.

In the meantime, the Texas Court has awarded Father sole custody of Daughter … and prohibited contact with Mother pending further order of the Court.

Read more in this San Antonio [TX] Express-News article: Fugitive Boerne mom ordered to bring back daughter and this San Antonio WOAI TV news article: Update: Father given legal custody of missing daughter.

As Father’s Day approaches, a pro-marriage nonprofit association encourages fathers and children alike to look beyond parental alienation or past hurts and reach out for understanding and reconciliation at this time.

They have even written some sample overtures for use between fathers and children, to facilitate the process.

They correctly remind that good fathers are sometimes separated from their own children, wrongly, either by the courts, or their children’s mothers alone.

Read more in this Christian News Wire article: This Father’s Day, Give the Gift of Reconciliation.

The Florida Highway Patrol (FHP) pulled over a Florida driver recently.

And hit pay dirt for two Massachusetts mothers.

FHP “ran him” and found a Massachusetts warrant out for the man’s arrest.

The man took off from Massachusetts, leaving behind two children from two different relationships, for whom he has allegedly paid no support for six years.

The man reportedly owes $125,000 to one of the mothers and $77,000 to the other one.

A Massachusetts judge recently sentenced the man to six months’ confinement.

And, of course, again ordered him to pay the support he owes the mothers of his children.

Read more in this Taunton [MA] Gazette article: State’s top deadbeat dad to serve six months.

A child welfare agency is breathing down their necks, threatening to remove their children.

They aren’t beating or starving their children.

Or leaving them unattended.

Why then?

The agency calls it medical neglect.

In one recent high profile case, hardly the first such case, the family refuses conventional medical treatment for religious reasons.

The child has cancer. A kind with an excellent prognosis with chemotherapy.

But the family’s religion frowns upon such treatment, preferring alternative, natural treatments.

And the boy and his mother go on the run … for a time.

When the boy’s condition worsens, they give in to the necessity of conventional treatment.

And the boy is allowed to stay with his parents.

In a second, lower profile case, a 14 year old child is obese, on the magnitude of 555 pounds.

To avoid a court hearing, this mother and son also go on the run.

And the mother is arrested for custodial interference.

Of course, it isn’t healthy for a child – or adult – to weigh over 500 pounds.

But is the child neglected? Should the child be removed from his or her family?

Are you following your pediatrician’s recommendations?

To the letter?

Is your child’s other parent keeping track?

Read more in this NewsWeek article: What Makes a Parent Negligent?

Israeli Husband and Wife divorce.

Husband was unfaithful to Wife.

Husband is ordered to pay Wife alimony.

Fast forward six years.

Husband returns to court.

With videotape.

Of Wife and another man having sexual relations.

Prior to entry of the divorce.

Wife challenges videotape, of course.

But police authenticate it.

And, because of Wife’s unfaithfulness, the Rabbinic Court revokes Wife’s alimony.

Read more in this Jerusalem Post article: Rabbinic judges revoke alimony after husband proves wife cheated, too.

Imagine.

Woman gets injunction for protection against domestic violence, or order of protection, against her ex-husband (Abuser).

Woman moves away to another city in the hopes of avoiding Abuser altogether.

Woman remarries and begins new life.

Abuser contacts police.

Abuser tells police that he has papers for Woman, but needs Woman’s address to get papers to her.

Police officer (Officer) locates Woman’s address in motor vehicle records …

Officer reportedly gives Woman’s address to Abuser.

Now armed with Woman’s address, Abuser allegedly sends Woman a note via a taxi to her home.

Abuser also allegedly makes threatening phone calls to Woman’s home.

All possible only because Officer gave out Woman’s address, to which Officer has access, for police business as a police officer, through motor vehicles records.

Woman and her husband sue Officer for allegedly handing Woman’s address over to Abuser.

Officer is found guilty of violating the Driver’s Privacy Protection Act.

Case is settled for $337,000, plus Woman’s attorney’s fees.

Officer is still on the police force.

But he was reprimanded for giving Woman’s address to Abuser, and possibly jeopardizing Woman’s life.

Imagine.

Read more in this [Janesville, WI] WCLO 1230AM news article: Lawsuit against Evansville police officer settled for $337,500.

Minnesota Boy removed from parents’ home and placed in foster care on a child welfare agency petition alleging that Boy needed protection or services.

Over two years later, still no resolution to Boy’s case.

Boy’s parents have had only supervised visitation with Boy since case began two years ago.

Why?

Boy’s parents’ first child died a death that was ruled a homicide.

But neither parent was ever charged in the death.

No one was charged in the death.

Reportedly because there was insufficient evidence as to which parent, or whether both parents acting together, were the aggressor. Or whether a third party was involved.

At a trial to terminate Boy’s parents’ parental rights, the court did in fact terminate their rights.

On appeal, the intermediate level appellate court reversed the termination due to insufficient evidence.

The Boy’s parents are now seeking his immediate return from foster care.

But the file has to come back from the appeals court first.

Then there is the hair-splitting question of whether the child protection investigation remains open, despite the reversal and closing of the termination of parental rights case.

Arguably an end run around the appeals court. Arguably not.

Read more in this St Cloud [MN] Times article: Custody of boy remains in limbo.

The Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction, which determines which country has jurisdiction in international child custody disputes, appears to be enjoying something of a resurgence.

Two long holdouts against entering the Convention are reportedly … considering signing it.

Carefully …

First, there is Japan – where, even among Japanese couples, the parent awarded primary custody is, in essence, the sole parent and the other parent is shut out of their child’s life and parental kidnapping is a rejected concept.

More and more children of mixed Japanese heritage are being denied any access whatsoever to one of their parents where there is an international child custody dispute.

Then, there is Russia. From which country a Finnish diplomat recently allegedly removed a five year old boy of dual Russian / Finnish citizenship, illegally according to the Russian view.

Read more in

• this [Singapore] AsiaOne article: Japan urged to sign accord against parental abductions
• this Japan Times article: Japan’s allies urge government to sign Hague convention on child abduction
• this [Russian] RIA Novosti article: Russia demands Finland clarify diplomat’s role in boy’s departure

Pension plans can be complicated things. Documented in thick manuals filled with arcane rules.

In the case of Continental Airlines’ pension plan, one such rule permits divorced, retired spouses to collect retirement benefits attributable to pilots still in active service.

Such pension benefits can amount to lump sums on the order of $1 million per spouse.

Continental alleges that nine of its pilots fraudulently divorced their spouses so that their spouses could collect their pension benefits early … and then, after receiving their benefits, each couple reportedly remarried.

The airline has sued the nine pilots.

Read more in this Oklahoman article: Pilot divorces spur lawsuit.

A bakery in neighboring Broward County, Florida recently added a new treat to its menu: divorce cakes.

Divorce cakes help to “celebrate” – what else? – divorce.

Ironically, divorce cakes taste the same as wedding cakes.

But they look a little different.

The happy bride and groom atop the cake are substituted with the customer’s choice of:

• a man and woman on separated sections of cake
• a prison cell and the proverbial ball and chain – with the chain broken
• a man taken out with the trash by the wife
• a man sitting on a street curb
• a woman about to push a man down a waterfall and
• the “broken marriage” cemetery, filled with tombstones and an open casket containing a ring.

Some folks actually believe that eating a divorce cake provides more closure than a divorce trial or uncontested final divorce hearing.

Read more in this Orlando [FL] Sentinel article by way of [Hilton Head SC] Island Packet: Divorce cakes help sweeten bakery’s business.