6632 Telegraph Rd, Ste 110
Bloomfield Hills, MI 48301
248-559-DADS
info@dadsofmichigan.org

DADS NEWSLETTER

Please find attached a brief report of some of the many activities going on around the state and country. We would like to applaud the work of Darrick Scott-Farnsworth for his Walmart fund raising effort in Battle Creek, MI. There is a lot more to report so check the DADS web site Message Forum for the latest news.

MICHIGAN EQUAL PARENTS WEEK & NATIONAL PUBLIC OBSERVANCE
A weeklong international event sponsored by the Children's Rights Council
LANSING, MI - DADS OF MICHIGAN will sponsor observance of Equal Parents Week (EPW), September 26 - October 2, 2005. Equal Parents Week brings attention to the need for both parents to share their parental rights and responsibilities equally, the right of children to be raised and nurtured by both parents, and the right of families to exist and function as a family. These are civil and human rights inherent and inalienable to all families. Our recent national tragedies further highlight the importance of parents and family. Public and home candlelight vigils observing EPW and the terrorism victims will also take place on September 29 across the nation and world.

DADS Monthly Meeting, Tuesday, October 4, 2005

Location
THE BIRMINGHAM COMMUNITY HOUSE
380 South Bates Street
BIRMINGHAM, MI 48009
Located in Downtown Birmingham, call for directions-248-644-5832.

Guest speaker:	ROBERT AGASINSKI, Director Attorney Grievance Commission - State of Michigan
Agenda:	5:30 - 6:30 Counsel Session
	7:00 - 7:30 Dads Presentation
	7:30 - 9:00 Guest Speaker, Robert Agasinki
	9:00 - 9:30 Legal roundtable with various legal counsel

FOR INFORMATION, CALL
248-559-DADS OR 248-766-4484
To host a meeting in your area, contact the DADS of Michigan business office, 248-559-3237.


KRights Radio – Military and Family Issues, CDR James Semerad
A conversation with State Rep. Rick Jones on house bill 5100 which will protect military personnel from losing custody or parenting rights because they were deployed overseas. Check the web broadcast at Military and Family Issues http://krightsradio.com/content/Denver/military2air.mp3

Michigan Legislative Update
Jim Semerad and Narinder Singh attended the Family and Children Services committee meeting on September 27 in Lansing to support HB 5100. Jim Semerad, Chairman of DoM PAC testified and provided written testimony at the hearing. The Michigan Bar Association’s Family Law Section opposed the bill. The bill passed unanimously out of committee.

Later that day, visits to many Legislator offices was completed. Representative Hoogendyk will take the Equal Parents Week proclamation to the house to obtain the Michigan Legislators support.

The equal parents bill has completed it’s second review and update by the Michigan legislative review board (LSB). Legislators were approached to sponsor the bill. Please contact your legislators today and ask for support of this bill.

Family law
Updated Bills or Resolutions:

• HB 5100 of 2005
  Family law; parental rights; military parental custody rights; clarify. Amends secs. 2, 5 & 7 of 1970 PA 91 (MCL 722.22 et seq.).

Subscribe to the Michigan Legislature Update. If you wish to change your notification settings or subscribe, please login at the Michigan Legislature Website http://www.legislature.mi.gov/ and visit the Notify page.

Strict Liability Law
750.165 Refusing to support wife or children as required by court order; violation as felony; penalty; exception; cash bond; suspension of sentence; bond; "state disbursement unit" or "SDU" defined.
Sec. 165.

(1) If the court orders an individual to pay support for the individual's former or current spouse, or for a child of the individual, and the individual does not pay the support in the amount or at the time stated in the order, the individual is guilty of a felony punishable by imprisonment for not more than 4 years or by a fine of not more than $2,000.00, or both.

(2) This section does not apply unless the individual ordered to pay support appeared in, or received notice by personal service of, the action in which the support order was issued.

(3) Unless the individual deposits a cash bond of not less than $500.00 or 25% of the arrearage, whichever is greater, upon arrest for a violation of this section, the individual shall remain in custody until the arraignment.

If the individual remains in custody, the court shall address the amount of the cash bond at the arraignment and at the preliminary examination and, except for good cause shown on the record, shall order the bond to be continued at not less than $500.00 or 25% of the arrearage, whichever is greater. At the court's discretion, the court may set the cash bond at an amount not more than 100% of the arrearage and add to that amount the amount of the costs that the court may require under section 31(3) of the support and parenting time enforcement act, 1982 PA 295, MCL 552.631. The court shall specify that the cash bond amount be entered into the L.E.I.N. If a bench warrant under section 31 of the support and parenting time enforcement act, 1982 PA 295, MCL 552.631, is outstanding for an individual when the individual is arrested for a violation of this section, the court shall notify the court handling the civil support case under the support and parenting time enforcement act, 1982 PA 295, MCL 552.601 to 552.650, that the bench warrant may be recalled.

(4) The court may suspend the sentence of an individual convicted under this section if the individual files with the court a bond in the amount and with the sureties the court requires. At a minimum, the bond must be conditioned on the individual's compliance with the support order. If the court suspends a sentence under this subsection and the individual does not comply with the support order or another condition on the bond, the court may order the individual to appear and show cause why the court should not impose the sentence and enforce the bond. After the hearing, the court may enforce the bond or impose the sentence, or both, or may permit the filing of a new bond and again suspend the sentence. The court shall order a support amount enforced under this section to be paid to the clerk or friend of the court or to the state disbursement unit.

(5) As used in this section, "state disbursement unit" or "SDU" means the entity established in section 6 of the office of child support act, 1971 PA 174, MCL 400.236.

VAWA Update
Please see the DADS message board under VAWA for the full text and list of email addresses and contact information for Congress

The Time to Act is Now - Contact House and Senate Offices!

Your Senators and Representative need to get something today!

Email - Fax - Call - all or any will do. Faxes are best for the home offices.

Below is the sample text and the list of the home offices for the members of the Senate Judiciary Committee Some and some have emails addresses, but most do not.

First: Send this to your own Representative and Senators via the RightMarch.com Mail System at: http://capwiz.com/sicminc/dbq/officials/

Second: Email this to the address list in the DADS message board under VAWA.

Then: Fax the your letter or the sample below to as many home offices of the Senate Judiciary Committee members as you can. Call them as well.

Also: Continue to hammer at the House Sponsor list, they need to here a lot more.

IMPORTANT:
Make sure what you sent has a subject line (i.e. Re: or Subject:) that states your position. Sometimes that's all they read.

=============================================================
SAMPLE TEXT to Senate and Reps.
=============================================================

Subject: or Re:

I oppose the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA). Please VOTE NO on VAWA. VAWA punishes the innocent and frees the guilty.

Email Body:

I oppose the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA). Please VOTE NO on VAWA or any other attempt to reauthorize it. Help restore morals, values, and dignity to the daily lives of American families and our children.

Renewal of this law will expand the level of civil rights violations unequaled since the abolition of slavery.

VAWA punishes the innocent and frees the guilty. Nothing in VAWA 2005 or HR 3402 will change this. If anything it is going to make it worse. HR 3402, the draft of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) reauthorization is an unconstitutional travesty. A system of Justice hanging on bare threads of morality and truth cannot withstand the influences of the rage and spite that plague our society today.

Again I ask you to please VOTE NO on VAWA or any other attempt to reauthorize the "Violence Against Women Act" (VAWA), it is not in the best interest of America, our children, or families.

VAWA has promoted, funded, or mandated:

• Mandatory arrests without a warrant, often based on nothing more than hearsay;
• A standard under which the accused is guilty until proven innocent and mere allegations now suffice as proof;
• Forced citizens from their homes and children with nothing more than the clothes on their back without any pretense of due process;
• Endorsed searches of homes without a warrant;
• Allowed seizures of property without redress;
• Denied defendants the assistance of counsel, the right to confront their accuser and obtain witnesses in their defense;
• Punishment and imprisonment that occurs before a trial or without one;
• Invoked public censure for crimes men have not committed.
  

The needed reforms are:

• Domestic violence is a state matter. Existing Federal laws should be repealed or allowed to expire.
• Domestic violence laws must be gender neutral in all respects and practice.
• Domestic violence and abuse laws must not violate the rights to due process and equal protection under the law.
• False allegations of domestic violence and suborning perjury must be dealt with as criminal acts.
• Domestic violence laws at all levels of government must exist solely in the criminal codes.

Please VOTE NO on VAWA for the good of all Americans. Renewal of this law will expand a level of civil rights violations unequaled since the abolition of slavery. The rework suggested in VAWA 2005 only promises to provide more funding to the current fraud-ridden system riddled with advocacy research studies and government propaganda.

Our domestic violence laws and their operation throughout the country need reviewing under the highest level of scrutiny possible. Qualified scientists must conduct a comprehensive, well-funded study of domestic violence rather than ideologues in order to establish how pervasive this problem is and what methods are most effective in reducing it.

Yours truly,
Your Name
Street Address
City, State,Zip Code +4
Phone Number with area code

"Equal Protection Under the Law is True Equality"

Dads of Michigan (www.dadsofmichigan.org) and Moms of Michigan are volunteer responsible fatherhood education organizations for fathers and mothers respectively. They instruct on the importance of involved biological dads to the successful development of their children. Dads of Michigan PAC is an independent volunteer political advocacy group dedicated to legislation keeping both biological parents actively engaged in the lives of their children despite divorce and custody, in most instances. They believe men and women should be viewed equally under the law and their credo is: “fathers are responsible parents too...because the best parent is both parents.” Dads of Michigan, the Michigan affiliate of the American Coalition for Fathers and Children, is also the developer of the Moms and Dads University of responsible education for teenage, divorced, and unmarried parents. This educational series employs several unique features designed to either directly or indirectly benefit nearly 2 million men, women between the ages 13-44, and just under one-half million children each year in Michigan. For more information, please contact us at (248) 559 DADS (3237).

"your individual child custody situation will not
easily change until it changes for us all"