Sometimes families don't fight each other for custody of children, they fight the government to keep their families together.
At least, that has been the case for Hope Kerezeki and her family, who came to the U.S. from South Africa with a history going back to the Rwandan genocide in the 90's, reports Atlanta Journal Constitution.
The 2010 census data is out.
And one of the fascinating things learned about Georgia is that there are close to 30,000 same-sex couples living together in Georgia, reports the Georgia Voice.
The way that the census takers came to compile this information is interesting, given that the census did not ask respondents to indicate their sexual orientation.
Here’s how the information came out.
The next season of The Real Housewives of Atlanta is slated to begin soon and Georgia folk are already talking about some of the changes forthcoming.
The biggest news, as reported by the Atlanta Journal Constitution, is that the self-made businesswoman and fashion stylist Marlo Hampton is most likely going to be joining the cast.
Talk about a strange set of facts.
A woman went missing for a couple of days and in that time her husband filed for divorce, alimony and sole custody of the two children. Then, a few days later she was discovered dead not far from the house and the husband became a suspect in her killing. Now, the dead wife's parents have filed for custody of the two children, ages 12 and 9.
The case of the dead forty four year old Atlanta wife and mother, Nique Leili, as reported by the Atlanta Journal Constitution, now includes what is sure to be a confrontational and emotional custody problem.
In a major case to come down from the Ohio Supreme Court, reports Human Rights Campaign, it was ruled that a woman named Michelle Hobbs, who financially and emotionally helped her same-sex partner, Kelly Mullen, become pregnant and give birth through the in vitro process, could not be recognized as a co-parent after the relationship between the women broke down.
The court reached its position even though, noted the ABA Journal, Hobbs had a ceremonial birth certificate with her name on it, was named guardian if something should happen to the same-sex biological mother, and had various kinds of power of attorney authority.
Because Georgia does not recognize same-sex marriages, but many gay and lesbian couples continue to bring children into this world, this issue has bearing on our state.
Until recently, Georgia was one of twelve states that did not provide legal protections to divorced military parents, so that when soldiers went away for deployment, they often lost their parental and visitation rights, reports Geogia Public Broadcast.
This constant "disenfranchisement" -- as Macon's 13WMAZ described it -- was recently put to a stop by the Military Rights Act.
Governor Nathan Deal signed the bill into law on May 11. The bill was originally Senate Bill SB 112 and House Bill HB 282.
The battle with issues of weight and health, particularly obesity, is usually associated with older Americans, or is often connected to long-standing medical conditions.
However, as obesity continues to grow in America, the timeline for the battle with excessive weight is reaching into childhood and the discussion now focuses on overweight kids. This is not just a burgeoning social issue; but has the likelihood of becoming a controversial legal one.
Recently, a provocative series of articles and commentary, coming from American and British experts, has started to argue that the state might need to intervene where the parents cannot control their children's weight. And, reports the Associated Press, these experts argue it might be better for the most extreme cases among these overweight kids to be placed in temporary foster care than to stay with parents or to undergo surgical procedures.
Residents of north Fulton County specifically, and metro Atlanta in general, were recently struck by the tragic news of a murder-suicide involving the Mickens family, who were in the midst of a divorce involving two children, ages seven and five.
The wife, Irene Mickens, aged 40, had filed for divorce from her husband, Jamal Mickens, last November, reports the Atlanta Journal Constitution. But sometime this Tuesday night, under the pretext of an ill child, Jamal called Irene to their apartment, where he allegedly turned a 9 mm against her, and then himself. According to WSBTV, Jamal Mickens had dropped the children at his sister’s house in McDonough before the shooting.
There is nothing that is better news in the world of family law than the celebration of a long term and thriving marriage. Georgia residents can be proud, no matter what their political stripe, of native son former President Jimmy Carter and his wife Rosalynn, who celebrate an amazing milestone on July 7, 2011: their 65th wedding anniversary.
The couple has been “loyal to each other” and communicative, that is how their marriage has survived the stress of Navy postings, political campaigns, the White House and more, reports the Associated Press. The former president and first lady also say they live by the old prescription of trying not to go to bed mad at each other.
NFL wide receiver Terrell Owens is supposed to be paying $5,000 a month in child support based on a 2007 court order. However, the pro football player has been accused of skipping his payments and will now have to answer to his a petition for child support, which was filed on June 20.
The Associated Press reports that Melanie Paige Smith, the mother of Owens’ child, filed the court papers in Fulton County Superior Court after Owens allegedly refused to pay the full amount of child support for June 2011. Smith is now also asking Owens to pay for her attorney fees and costs that she has incurred in trying to enforce the 2007 child support order.
