Tennessee bill would split child custody
By Gary Reese
March 16, 2010 — A bill that would evenly split child custody in contentious divorce cases is drawing national attention to Tennessee and dividing groups along gender lines. On one side is a powerful alliance of women's groups, some judges and the Tennessee Bar Association, who say the change would make divorces tougher to settle and give abusive ex-husbands leverage they shouldn't have. Spending half of the time with each parent will also impose impractical schedules on kids, they say.On the other is a bevy of fathers-rights groups who say children are being deprived of full relationships with both parents. Courts have for far too long ignored laws calling for custody decisions to be made in the best interest of children, they say, and judges are overly influenced by notions about the mother-and-child bond. --An Oklahoma Republican state lawmaker says he is responsible for moving a portrait of Democratic President Barack Obama that hangs in the state House chamber. Rep. Lewis Moore of Arcadia issued a statement Tuesday in which he says he swapped Obama’s portrait with a portrait of Democratic Gov. Brad Henry that also hangs in the chamber. Moore says his opposition to Obama's health care overhaul bill was his sole motivation for moving the photo. --Alabama state lawmakers have yet to pass state budgets for next year, budgets that may not have enough money to prevent thousands of layoffs, especially among teachers and other public school employees. Lawmakers also have yet to deliver their final decisions on bills about electronic bingo, the state's Prepaid Affordable College Tuition program (PACT) and a $1 billion road-building plan, even though most of this year's regular legislative session has passed. --The latest Public Policy Polling numbers show that North Carolina Secretary of State Elaine Marshall is still leading in polling for the Democratic U.S. Senate primary, but that Kenneth Lewis and Cal Cunningham are making gains on her lead in the contest to challenge what will surely be Republican U.S. Sen. Richard Burr's first Senate reelection bid. Burr has challengers, but he's not likely to be engineered out of the GOP primary. --Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell is claiming an 80 percent success rate in his first legislative session. But as he dismissed the legislators Sunday, McDonnell repeated that he is not through with them yet. If he can find a consensus beforehand, McDonnell said, he will call the legislators back to Richmond this year to address transportation. --Reductions in health care costs account for more than half the savings envisioned by a citizen’s task force appointed by Georgia Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle to find ways to trim the state budget. Overall, the task force indentified some $3.1 billion that could be saved through the implementation of the 50 recommendations contained in its report. However, Cagle acknowledged the report contains “many recommendations that obviously are very viable, and some that are going to be politically unviable.” (See InsiderAdvantageGeorgia.) |
