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Foster Dad Who Abused Turpin Children Is Sentenced

California's Marcelino Olguin gets 7 years; kids had previously endured years of torture from parents

(Newser) - A California man was sentenced Friday to seven years in prison for abusing foster children he'd been assigned to care for in his home, including some who'd been previously tortured by their parents. Marcelino Olguin, 65, was handcuffed and led away by sheriff's deputies in a courtroom...

More Foster Parents Fight to Keep the Babies
New Shift in Fostering:
A Fight to Keep the Babies
LONGFORM
Oct 21, 2023 10:45 AM CDT

New Shift in Fostering: A Fight to Keep the Babies

ProPublica examines the issue, one that forces birth parents to wage long legal battles

(Newser) - What happens when foster parents don't want to give up the child in their care? ProPublica goes inside the personal struggles that families with children or grandchildren in foster care have had trying to get their loved ones back. While foster care has traditionally aimed to unite children back...

Parents Who Can't Stop Using, Kids Sent to Foster Care

The US foster system is overwhelmed because of the opioid epidemic

(Newser) - "I felt like I lost my mom to this pit that I couldn't pull her out of." That's how 20-year-old Brianna McLaughlin describes her mom, Kelly, after the former Head Start caseworker became addicted to OxyContin, then heroin, after neck surgery. As Julia Lurie details for...

Meet the Foster Dad Who Helps Children Die

The Libyan-born Muslim takes in the sickest kids

(Newser) - Several years after Mohamed Bzeek came to the US from Libya as a college student in 1978, the quiet, devout Muslim met a woman named Dawn who was a foster parent after being inspired by her grandparents, who had also been foster parents. The two married and began to foster...

Girl Yanked From Foster Family for Being 1/64th Native American

6-year-old Lexi has lived with the Pages for 4 years and considers them her family

(Newser) - A 6-year-old California girl whose birth parents were plagued by substance abuse and criminal infractions was taken in at age 2 by a foster family. But Alexandria (aka Lexi) is also 1/64th Choctaw Native American, which means where she ends up is dictated by 1978's Indian Child Welfare Act—...

'Swearing Toddler' Can Stay With Mom: Judge

ACLU cites racism in police handling of case

(Newser) - A toddler who attracted national attention for his swearing in an online video will stay with his mom—at 17, also a minor—after both were placed in custody. The two will be cared for in the same foster home, CNN reports, following an Omaha juvenile court judge’s ruling....

Police Find Boy Cuffed With Dead Chicken on Neck

Foster parents Dorian Lee Harper, Wanda Sue Larson arrested

(Newser) - A neighbor sums up the situation: "That's some sick people." An animal control deputy responding to concerns about a pig on the loose in Union County, NC, found something far more horrifying on Friday: a boy, 11, handcuffed to a porch, with a dead chicken wrapped around...

Newly-Orphaned Boy Seeks New Parents at Church

Davion Only takes action after learning of mother's death

(Newser) - Davion Navar Henry Only was born 15 years ago to a mother imprisoned for petty theft and drugs; he's spent his life in foster care, struggling with anger. In June, he looked up his mother online—and learned she'd died just weeks earlier. Now knowing she'd never...

Foster Mom Jailed for Spanking Kid With Spoon

Will be sentenced to 100 days behind bars

(Newser) - A wooden-spoon spanking is landing a Connecticut foster mom in jail for third-degree assault. Jami Littlefield, 51, will be sentenced to 100 days in prison and two years' probation after she pleaded guilty to hitting a 4-year-old girl with the utensil, the Day reports. The child was "acting out,...

Ohio Boy, 8, Taken From Mom Because He's Obese

Third-grader weighs more than 200 pounds

(Newser) - Last month, an 8-year-old Ohio boy was removed from his family home and placed in foster care—not because of physical abuse, but because the third-grader weighed more than 200 pounds. County case workers argued that the boy’s mother was engaging in medical neglect by not getting his weight...

Teen Girls Charged With Murdering Foster Mom

One was already on probation for battery charges

(Newser) - Two 15-year-old girls who went missing after their foster mother was killed have been apprehended and charged with murdering her, New Mexico authorities said yesterday. A search for the teens began after Evelyn Miranda, 53, who was specially trained to take in troubled youths, was found dead Wednesday morning of...

Teen Stowaway Survives Flight in Landing Gear

Russian foster kid ran away from Siberian home

(Newser) - A 17-year-old Russian ran away from his Siberian foster home in dramatic fashion today, crawling into the landing gear compartment of an Antonov An-24 turboprop plane. Wearing only a light coat, the boy survived a 50-minute flight in temperatures as low as -22 to the regional center of Irkutsk, the...

Our Foster Care System Bullies Gay Kids

Many are moved around, harassed, or even experience violence

(Newser) - Kenneth Jones should have been an easy foster kid to place: Decent grades, no criminal record, and he even liked doing chores. Just one problem: He’s gay. Mother Jones relays Kenneth’s story in a long piece exploring the problems the foster care system has: According to one study,...

Teen Pregnancy Rampant in Foster Homes

Nearly half of foster-care girls get knocked up by 19

(Newser) - Teen pregnancy is on the rise throughout the country, but in the foster-care system it’s a full-blown epidemic, Time reports. Nearly half of girls who spent time in the system become pregnant before turning 19, according to one University of Chicago study, and almost 25% had been pregnant more...

Cops Seek Missing Aunt of Chained Boy

Suspect lost custody of Calif. teen after felony child abuse charges

(Newser) - Police are hunting for the aunt of a boy who burst into a California health club shackled, bloodied, and pleading for help, the Sacramento Bee reports. Caren Ramirez is already wanted for a probation violation on felony child abuse charges, and neighbors say she’s recently visited the home of...

Couple Held After Tortured Boy Flees

Missing teen runs into Calif. gym chained, bruised

(Newser) - A California couple was arrested yesterday, the San Jose Mercury News reports, after a teen they’re accused of kidnapping stumbled into a gym, bloodied and burned, and asked employees to hide him. The 16-year-old also said he’d been tortured; police say he went missing from a Sacramento foster...

'Killer' Mom Stored Kids' Bodies in Freezer

Cops led to gruesome find by abused runaway

(Newser) - A Maryland woman is being held without bail after admitting she stored the corpses of her adopted 9- and-11-year old daughters in a basement freezer, WBAL TV reports. Police came to her house after a third daughter was found wandering the streets, covered in cuts and bruises. The woman has...

Foreign Adoption Getting Harder
Foreign Adoption
Getting Harder
Aug 14, 2008 3:44 PM CDT

Foreign Adoption Getting Harder

Could be boon for thousands in US foster care

(Newser) - Heightened awareness of child trafficking and improving economies abroad are making it harder for Americans to adopt foreign kids. US officials are taking a closer look at visa applications and discouraging adoptions from countries that don’t comply with a new international adoption agreement, USA Today reports. At the same...

Dad Caged Daughters While He Worked

Girls, 2 and 5, found locked in wire cage in father's truck

(Newser) - An Illinois father has confessed to keeping his two young daughters locked in a cage in his truck while he worked, the Chicago Tribune reports. The trash and scrap-metal collector told police that he kept the girls, ages 2 and 5, locked up because he couldn't find a babysitter—and...

Half of Sect's Teens Have Been Pregnant

Last of kids involved in polygamist case bused to foster homes

(Newser) - Of 53 girls between the ages of 14 and 17 taken from a polygamist sect in Texas, 31 have had children or are pregnant, the Houston Chronicle reports. Officials announced that the last of the 463 minors taken from the El Dorado ranch had been bused to foster homes after...

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