August 24, 2010The ABA Journal reports on dress codes for courtrooms and bans on: pajamas, saggy pants, exposed undergarments, bare feet, curlers, gang clothes, muscle shirts, tank tops, halters, bare midriffs, miniskirts (hemlines more than 4 inches above the knee),
excessive, uncovered body piercings and tattoos, flip-flops, T-shirts with inappropriate messages and clown suits.
Debra Cassens Weiss writes (excerpt):
The [...]
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July 23, 2010The Grand Rapids Press notes the passing of attorney Bob Dugan.
Heidi Fenton writes (excerpt):
Robert Dugan loved being involved with his community, a trait he built on for decades since signing onto the downtown law firm Rhoades McKee in the 1970s.
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He noted that Mr. Dugan’s compassion for clients and for the community as a whole will [...]
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June 16, 2010USA Today shows how “non-resident” dads who don’t live with their children are staying involved with them. Half of all children will spend part of their lives living apart from their fathers.
Sharon Jayson writes (excerpt):
“The point isn’t what fathers do; it’s whether the kid thinks or believes the father cares about them,” says Philip Cowan, [...]
Posted in Families/Children, General, Relationships No Comments »
June 11, 2010The Love and Logic Institute issued its weekly email newsletter with help for stepparents feeling the need to discipline stepchildren. The four tips flow from the Love and Logic consultant style of parenting (fully documented in the many resources available at and through the website).
Dr. Charles Fay writes (excerpt) that consultant parents and [...]
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June 10, 2010CNNasked if your marriage was making you sick and then provided tips for getting better.
Elizabeth Cohen writes (excerpt):
1. Argue well ["What really matters is the quality of your arguments."]
2. Your spouse is annoying — accept it! ["[W]hen people get along, they just accept something annoying about their partner. They don’t try to alter it . [...]
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July 3, 2009The New York Times adds a little context to the looming custody issues following Michael Jackson’s death and the apparent change of heart by Debbie Rowe toward 12-year-old Michael Joseph Jackson Jr. and 11-year-old Paris Michael Katherine Jackson, 11. [An unidentified surrogate mother gave birth to 7-year-old Prince Michael Jackson II.]
Jonathan Glater and Liz Robbins [...]
Posted in General, Law: Cases/Statutes, Something Different No Comments »
June 21, 2009Parade Magazine shares some fatherly advice from our President.
President Barack Obama writes (excerpt):
. . . When we work hard, treat others with respect, spend within our means, and contribute to our communities, those are the lessons our children learn. And that is what so many fathers are doing every day—coaching soccer and Little League, [...]
Posted in Families/Children, General 1 Comment »
June 9, 2009CNN shows us the difference between controlling the outcome and controlling how we face the outcome.
Peter Bregman writes (excerpt):
So here’s the good news: You can change your results by changing your mind-set. When Dweck trained children to view themselves as capable of growing their intelligence, they worked harder, more persistently, and with greater success on [...]
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June 2, 2009The Grand Rapids Press reports on the passing of Judge Michael Smolenski, 64, who died from a rare neurological disease.
Nardy Baeza Bickel writes (excerpt):
Rretired Michigan Appeals Court Judge Michael Smolenski passed away Saturday night after battling a rare neurological disease in recent years and five months after voluntarily retiring because of his debilitating condition.
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Sara Smolenski [...]
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August 15, 2008The New York Times reminds us that trial is inherently uncertain, a gamble that often does not payoff. The study to be published in September’s Journal of Empirical Legal Studies showed that 61 percent of plaintiffs who rejected settlement offers got less at trial and 24 percent of defendants who rejected offers paid more, [...]
Posted in General, Persuasion/Advocacy, The Practice No Comments »
April 23, 2008I keep finding news of males acting out sexually and violently. It seems that guys get bad news for such behavior. The news gets degendered and reported as criminal behavior by offenders. Men aren’t born to commit such acts, but the male socialization process conditions men for this type of acting out. Unfortunately, a great number [...]
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October 10, 2007 Obituary for Judge Stephen Karr
Judge Stephen W. Karr, died on September 28, 2007. He was born on the Island of Samos, Greece on June 20, 1919, and emigrated to the United States with his parents, William and Angeline Karr, at the age of 13 months. He graduated from the University of Michigan Literary College [...]
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August 22, 2007The Grand Rapids Press reports on the death of Leontyne “Tina” Partee-Elder, a lawyer with “’such a big heart.’”
Barton Deiters writes (excerpt):
As an attorney, Leontyne “Tina” Partee-Elder represented some of the most hardened criminal offenders in the system.
But the man she feared enough to seek a restraining order against was her estranged husband.
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“She was just [...]
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August 1, 2007In July 2007, the Grand Rapids, Michigan community was witness to four lives lost due to domestic violence. Three murders and one suicide asked families, schools, churches, neighborhoods, and the community at large to make sense of the violence around them.
Historically, we have tried to convince ourselves that domestic violence is a family problem, a [...]
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April 28, 2007The AP/New York Times peeks into the divorce proceedings involving the former Governor of New Jersey. The short piece illustrates common themes, including:
–judges want parents to use “common sense”
–judges want parents to facilitate age-appropriate activities
–judges want parents to minimize the potential effects of the proceedings and the parental conflict on the child
–judges focus primarily [...]
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April 23, 2007This was a young man drowning in lonliness, despair, and powerlessness. He didn’t want to face another day of this misery, so he escaped in a morbid and violent hyper-masculine fantasy. This fantasy came to fruition on a dreadful day for 32 people at Virginia Tech. Many people are trying to make sense of this [...]
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March 8, 2007It was a warm, sunny evening. I felt safely enveloped by the cozy surroundings of Empire along the Lake Michigan shoreline. Escaping to the Leelanau Peninsula; a pilgrimage my wife Stephanie and I take often, since honeymooning there some 19 years ago. As we walked to the lake, we noticed a group of young people [...]
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November 30, 2006As a psychologist, I’ve done hundreds of assessments for men who batter. When I determine after careful discernment of the data presented that a particular man has a problem with abusive behavior, one personality factor speaks loudly. Men who batter lack empathy. A close friend of mine who was raped once said, “If he knew what he [...]
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November 30, 2006 Posted in General No Comments »
September 17, 2006The 2006-2007 Officers of the State Bar of Michigan’s Family Law Section are:
David Sarnacki, Chair
Karen Sendelbach, Chair-elect
Carlo Martina, Treasurer
Barbara Kelly, Corresponding Secretary
Amy Yu, Recording Secretary
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