[My Favorite Headache]

By the way welcome to Free Republic. I see it is your first day here.

[Ragtime Cowgirl]

This is a full-blown DNC "politics of personal destruction" campaign against Jeb Bush. Last week AP printed a complete DNC PR piece on the fact that Florida's missing children count went up in June (school's out, AP).

The press didn't bother to check similar stats in other states....Florida's won awards for their work and Jeb's One Florida education plan was so successful in helping the kids learn, the DNC's desperate.

Fact is, the problem with state childcare is that states can't do the job of parents, never will...and the Dems. have worked so successfully at reinventing and undermining families (including "no-fault" divorce laws Reno wrote pre-Clinton years in Fla.) that we have a national problem.

At any rate, using the kids and the tragedy of these cases to smear Jeb is low...even for AP and the Democrats.

Some real facts on missing children in America, and problems with state agencies an be found here:

The National Incidence Studies of Missing, Abducted, Runaway and Thrownaway Children (NISMART): estimates that one out of every seven children will run away between the ages of 10 and 18. Nationally, 450,000 run away from home each year and 13,000 run away from juvenile facilities. Fortunately, one-half of all runaways return home within two days.
www.missingkids.com, NCMEC, a private, 501(c) (3) nonprofit organization, works in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Justice. It is the national resource center and clearinghouse on missing and exploited child cases.
DOJ-California, Missing Children
www.800usakids.org

2001: Florida's Lowest Crime Rate in 29 Years, check out the higher rates of family squabbles and drug busts...for kids and adults.

Finally, from Florida's police:

Alberto Millian, PBA Director of Political Affairs and a former prosecutor, said many local officers feel betrayed by Reno's actions.

"She's not liked by law enforcement," he said. "As a local prosecutor she presided over an explosion of crime down here. Drug trafficking increased, she was soft on public corruption and generally made it harder for law enforcement to do their jobs," Millian said.

"Janet Reno's legacy has been one of politicizing the law enforcement process to serve either her political constituencies, her friends or alliances or her agenda. That's not a good law enforcement official," he added.
From: Men in Blue Seeing Red Over Reno. CNSNews.com, Dec. 12, 2001

[Ice Wolf]

Thank ye for the welcome, MFH. One of my old friends from 'way back told me about this site.

IMHO:
DCF is horribly understaffed and underpaid. Each caseworker has an average of 50 cases to handle. Each direct supervisor manages 5 to 6 caseworkers. That's an incredibly heavy load, and it is understandable that things fall through the cracks.

That doesn't make it right.

As it happens, my wife is handling the prosecution of the child's mother for violating parole. As of this morning, she is not going to be charged with anything more in connection with this crime. Evidently, the woman is being perceived as a victim because her child was beaten to death - never mind that she is the one who put him in that situation!

And that is a real tragedy.

IceWolf