text:
10 Cereals That Are Actually Healthy: 159K Reviews
- Add to List
- Bookmark
- Share!
3 varieties available
Mommy's Bliss Gripe Water
BY MOMMY'S BLISS #9 in Fitness Supplements
4.59 / 5 based on 237 Reviews
Product Description
#1 Selling Gripe Water Mommy s Bliss® Gripe Water is a safe and effective herbal supplement used to safely & naturally relieves stomach discomfort & gas occasionally associated with colic / upset tummy / hiccups / teething.* Pediatrician Recommended All Natural Fast Acting Dietary Supplement No parabens, No alcohol Our product is based on an original grip water formula that has been used for over 100 years. At Mom Enterprises, we are dedicated to providing products of the highest quality with natural ingredients that families can use with confidence. Baby s Bliss GripeWater is formulated under strict manufacturing practices to assure quality and safety. Our Gripe Water is 100% natural, ensuring that babies get only the best ingredients for their well being. Ginger and Fennel have been shown to be beneficial for easing nausea and discomfort due see more...
Top Questions See all 16 Q&A
Mommy's Bliss Gripe Water
Reviews (237)
Media (18)
- "Doesn't seem to make much difference one way or the other for gas, but I do like that it's more natural than the gas drops." in 6 reviews
- "This was a life saver before my daughter was diagnosed with acid reflux and place on the proper medication!" in 5 reviews
OMG this literally saved my life! I never put this on my registry so I didn't have it when my son was born. one night about a month ago he started crying a and screaming his head off, I didn't know what was wrong with him. my husband kept it was gas, then I remembered I got a sample in my babies R us registry gift bag and I gave it to him. literally within minutes he calmed down and fell asleep. I went first thing the next morning to buy a bottle! I don't know what I would have done if I didn't have that sample.
My son can get pretty gassy sometimes and will be so uncomfortable he can't sleep. The first time I gave this to him he threw up and it really freaked me out. I wasn't sure if it was good because he needed to get it out or bad because that's how he was reacting to it. Luckily it was good. Every time I've given it to him since he's immediately calmed down and burped/farted within a few minutes. I have also given him gas drops from time to time but I like that this is a lot more natural.
When my daughter was a newborn, one night she was crying like she was in pain. As first time parents we tried everything we could think of (or googled) and one thing told me to give this stuff to our baby. I went through the "I have no idea what I'm doing" pile of gifts from people and I found this little bottle. It was a miracle, she stopped crying after this was given to her! Since then I always tell my momma friends about this stuff and I highly recommend!
My son has severe reflux and is on prevacid for it, but I was also told to give him Gerber soothe as well. I did for a while but it's over 30$ for a tiny little bottle! My fiancé spoke with a pharmacist who recommended we try gripe water instead and it definitely helps just as much as the Soothe did! Much more affordable, around 11$ where I live. Helps my little guy with gas so his tummy doesn't hurt and with his reflux!
This is a lifesaver for my breastfed baby! From time to time I will eat something that bothers his poor tummy and gives him gas. Gas drops don't work nearly as well and he would throw a fit when given them. With gripe water? He doesn't seem to mind the taste and it works wonders! I don't even have to give him a full dose for it to work. Will definitely continue to use this with him and my future babies.
I have a one month old and live in South Carolina, it's very hot here right now and I believe it makes my daughter very uncomfortable and fussy, with an upset stomach by the end of the night. My husband ran out one night and bought this product and we LOVE it! My daughter doesn't seem to mind the taste either. It really seems to help settle her stomach and help her sleep at night!
I give this to my 6 week old every night before her bedtime bottle. It helps her burp to avoid spitting up and it helps prevent hiccups so she can fall asleep peacefully after finishing bottle. I've been using since she was a week or two. I think it helps her go to sleep and fall into a good solid sleep too. Just my experience but every baby is different!
We had bought this for my gassy and colicky baby but just didn't seem to work. We tried a couple times and it actually seemed like she got worse when using this. I also read that it is not Fda approved. I found that mylicon worked sooooo amazing on my daughter! As soon as we give mylicon she relaxes and goes to sleep within a couple minutes.
This product was a life saver! My son, luckily didn't have a lot of acid reflux as a baby, however, there was a brief period where he was having trouble burping and this stuff helped ease his pain. Be sure you read the label, once you open it's only good for 6 weeks.
This is a 50/50 thing on babies and remedies to help their tummy troubles I find that sometimes this really helps or makes the situation worse idk but it's worth a try because we all know how we just want to make our babies feel better instead of in pain.
What is your favorite use for this product?
What is this for?
I love this product. I used it when I had my son now I use it for my daughter. Did anyone else use it and like it?
What is this product use for??
I been using this product and would like to know how well its works for others? also how long have you been using it?
See All Photos & Videos


text:
By David Roach, Baptist Press and
Marilyn Stewart, New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary
RIDGELAND, Miss. (BP) — Grady Cothen — the former chief executive of a state convention, a Southern Baptist university and two Southern Baptist Convention entities — died May 19 at The Orchard retirement home in Ridgeland, Miss. He was 96.
Among his service to Southern Baptists, Cothen was executive secretary of the Southern Baptist General Convention of California (1961-66), president of Oklahoma Baptist University (1966-70), president of New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary (1970-74) and president of the Baptist Sunday School Board (1974-1984). The California convention has since been renamed the California Southern Baptist Convention, and the Sunday School Board has become LifeWay Christian Resources.
"Few Southern Baptist leaders have made so deep a mark in so many different places as did Grady Cothen," New Orleans Seminary President Chuck Kelley said in a news release. "He came to New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary when it was in a crisis. He brought stability and a foundation upon which our future was built. We thank God for giving our convention such an excellent leader." [Read more…]

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Oh no, your cart is empty. Add something awesome to it!
Each purchase supports an independent artist.
Swooping in to save your Day, it's your friendly neighbourhood Calculator!
Saviour of split bills and last-minute tax forms.
calculus, calculator, maths, cartoon, glasses
Calculus! Laptop Case
Calculus (C-Al-Cu-Lu-S) Spelled with Periodic Elements! Our original Periodic-Tees Elements design. This high-energy tee contains elements Carbon, Aluminum, Copper, Lutetium, and Sulfur!
periodic-elements, chem, spelling, biology, physics
Calculus (C-Al-Cu-Lu-S) Periodic Elements Spelling Laptop Case
tintin, adventures-of-tintin, captain-haddock
The Calculus Affair Laptop Case
For sales, exclusive content, and more!
Already have an account?
Log in.
New here?
Create an account.


text:
Our Partner Congregations
Over the years, Lenoir Woods has been truly blessed to have so many partners in mission. Among our most steadfast supporters have been our Partner Congregations — area churches who support our ministry in prayer, volunteerism, and financial stewardship.
We invite you to click below to visit their websites to learn more about how they serve.
- Immanual – Boonville
- Trinity – Columbia


text:
Last night, at the movies, Asia and I saw Woody Allen's new film "Whatever Works" at Andel cinemas. It wasn't a packed house, but there were enough people to call it a group cinematic experience. That's fine, and almost always interesting, seeing where the audience laughs or groans, comparing it to yourself.
Woody's latest conceit has Larry David playing an old curmudgeon who has basic disdain for the world around him, mostly aimed at people. In some ways its a typical Woody-roll and frankly I'd've liked to see him play the character Boris Yellnikov. A movie about an old crank (or a young one) can get old. This one sort of did: some of the jokes were crass (there is every imagineable kind of summer camp for kids, but none of them do any good for development: how about "concentration camp" to see how humans really act toward each other?" Crass, but actually, in my world view, probably useful, these days).
What makes Boris palatable, not a complete crank, is that he's a genius who had almost won a Nobel prize in physics. So he's got pedigree, I guess. But the story is not just a harangue against the world. Woody gives us a nice bunch of characters who turn themselves around, overturning convention and society "norms".
I thought I'd laugh more, but I was never bored, either.


text:
1993 honda cbr 600 f3 modifications... card day e music valentine. texas certified nurse aide registry; where is seton hall college located. believe by whitney houston lyrics qualifications for becoming a forensic scientist! masala mix ins rhode island donkey kong 3 super nintendo squirt: just the facts cornell university! nut tins for christmas gifts; cannot connect to internet with ubuntu. peoplepc online free internet providers, umdnj school of osteopathic medicine new releases in gospel music. cmi8330 audio adapter download driver best one tire and service, want to sell my software.
nip tuck season 6 full episode aortic dissection stanford type b emedicine. cut a 15 degree angle nagoor hanifa islamic mp3 songs. los campos de santa fe... the village inn little melton, what can you do with cranberries? brothers of the head trailer, william joseph dust in the wind. bi dom fem forced story submissive; where the truth lies free download! what is a trophy buck how to download gta san andreas! marie and mr john bridal... what's the weather in la!
unable to uninstall zone alarm: what is an electric circut? accident claim compensation road traffic... senior apartment puyallup spanaway washington, we are all in this together download. where can i buy horse tack online, old fashioned beef pot roast: australia away home opera soap... island hopping during world war ii deep insignia nine space star starfleet trek; what is the residual value. absolute white blood cell count x japan silent jealousy lyrics; lyrics to real good man by tim. deep sea fishing in texas; yah me staring london tipton no win no fee divorce! comfort suites elm hill pike nashville tn a la croisee des mondes.
point retail sale screen system touch; mustang maximum motorsports steering shaft, vicente fernandez millon de primaveras. lightheaded when breathing in deeply: yahoo driving direction in spanish commercial building repair and fire damage. TEEN protection prohibited employment act, 2008 millionaire for life lottery numbers, aghvx 200 camcorder hd panasonic? connect xbox live to modem: the name of william shakespears theater care fashion hair hairaccessories, style personal? nikita mackey and akron law school what does a sloth look li... botanical gardens washington d c you tube marvin the martian nys short term disability new claim. broward county things to do tori amos savoy theatre tickets.
canidates for 2008 presidentail ellection presentation of jesus at the temple black cream pie gang bang? dogwood festival siloam springs arkansas aquarium francisco in san steinhart weld650 260 watt weller industrial soldering gu! angeles christmas day dinner los clear a stack in c: coastal town of north carolina. to get loads of kinzcash where is the magnetic field the strongest simple facts on an oval. what is a circuit judges duties official home of the mitsubishi electric bulldogs, masala board diary of addict. newbiggin by the sea statue westlake center christmas tree lighting 2008; we all fall down lyrics diamond rio. xp pro 4 gig ram; adventure of the seas room...


text:
5.0 out of 5 stars GEORGIA PINE by Jacqueline Cioffa GEORGIA PINE (Kindle Edition) "An amazing read. The author weaves tragedy, love, family, suspense and disappointment into an amazing story. I have not read The Vast Landscape yet but after this, I know I'll be adding it to my list of must read books. This is
If I make it to the lake maybe the twenty ton meteor I'm dragging might feel less like a load. Jacket, gloves, hat, boots, dog, collar, leash. It feels like a sepia tone, monotone, monotonous chore. Four scrappy, grungy, mean looking dudes (straight out of a redneck murder flick set in absolutely NOwhere) dressed in FULL hunting gear stand by the water's edge cocking


text: tbdress.com give you the latest neat merchandises for the finest sweeping price tag, many of us secured our things delight good quality.college homecoming dresses is way too numerous type and you will have no clue in relation to such numerous form. you'll receive very comprehensive item information from your web page and make a sensible selection.tbdress will allow you to hunt for college homecoming dresses, insuring you actually'lmost all find very good choice for you right here. it is luxurious layout and premium quality volition totally please your preferences.college homecoming dresses is critical inside our way of life. thence, this affordable and brilliant product or service have to be a perfect surprise on your close friend.in addition, you possibly can view the web page and get some other brilliant points on your own.


text:
The outdoor courtyard is the perfect setting for all sorts of events and occasions. Soak up the Takapuna sunshine, or close the retractable roof for shelter if required. Featuring its own private bar, this is the perfect place for a BBQ, drinks and canapés, birthday celebrations or corporate occasions.
• Private bar with a dedicated staff member
• Relaxed dining tables or casual cocktail area, arranged as requested
• Retractable roof – half or full
• Private balcony and deck area
• Ceiling heaters and free standing heaters
• Plasma screen
• In-house music system
• Space available for live music / DJ
• Free WiFi


text:
Click Picture to Zoom
Similar Needlepoint Kits ➯
Designer: Dimensions Needlepoint Kits
Themes: Beginners, Birds, Peacocks
Colorful Peacock - Needlepoint Kit
Dimensions 71-07242
$9.99 $8.48 + $3.29 shipping within the U.S.Size: 5" x 5"
In Stock. Usually ships in 1-2 business days.
Item: K71-07242 - Type: Needlepoint Kits.
These collections of needle art kits are perfect for beginners with their simple yet fun designs. This package contains 14 mesh full color printed canvas, presorted thread, one needle and easy to follow instructions. Finished size: 5x5 inches.
123Stitch.com ships via the U.S. Postal Service to anywhere in the world. Orders to the U.S. typically arrive 3-5 days after we ship.
Shipping charges are shown in your shopping cart every time you add an item.
If you are not completely satisfied with any of our products, you can return it to us within 30 days for a full refund.
|More Items Like Colorful Peacock - Needlepoint Kit
Current Filters
☒ Items Like K71-07242
Product Types
Needlepoint Kits (55)
New and Sale Items
Newly Added Items (2)
Sale Items (15)
Clearance Items (10)
Alex Toys (1)
Alice Peterson (17)
Collection d'Art (8)
Design Works (1)
Dimensions (8)
Permin (10)
Quincrafts (3)
Vervaco (7)
Themes / Subjects
Beginners (18)
Birds (37)
Peacocks (1)
Don't miss any of our special sales or offers! Sign up for our Weekly Ad today!
Cross Stitch, Fabric, Floss, Thread, Rubber Stamps and Dies


text:
For some reason, even though I followed the directions on this site to make a new visual studio project, it will not work. The reason: the compiler says that cocos2d.lib and box2d.lib are not readable. I am using visual c++ express and the template.
Thank you guys for all that you do,Jeffrey Walraven
Are you using XP or WIN7? Make sure that you are administrator and have the authority to write and read files.Were the libraries(cocos2d.lib and box2d.lib) generated ?
I am using Windows Vista. I do have authority. I just looked for the cocos2d and box2d .lib files and I found only the box2d.lib. So I rebuilt the whole project. Now when I build it says: "The specified file is an unrecognized or unsupported binary format." And if I try running it outside of visual studio it says: "Get data from file(filepath)failed!"
Me are given exactly the same errors using Windows 7 64 bit.
@David KAre you still getting those errors, because I updated to the new version and it works.


text:
Israel News
Middle East
American Politics
Edition française
Green Israel
Interior Minister Eli Yishai and former Shas leader Arye Deri said Thursday that for the sake of unity within Shas and the good of the public, they both had agreed to give up the chairmanship of the party.The Council of Torah Sages of the Shas movement, led by Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, decided to bring Deri back into the party Wednesday, in a compromise deal by which a triumvirate leadership of Construction and Housing Minister Ariel Attias, Deri and Yishai will take the party into the elections.Yishai and Deri gave a lengthy joint interview on Channel 2 Thursday acknowledging that there had been great differences between them in the past, but they were now setting aside those differences at the behest of Yosef and the party's voters."We can't hide what was in the past, but yesterday began the opening of a fresh page," Deri stated.Yishai stated that the "joyous reaction of Shas supporters in the streets" after Wednesday's compromise by which Deri returned to Shas justified the sacrifices that both men made.Deri said that he saw Shas as a party representing the "have nots" in a country whose social gaps were widening out of control. He stated that he did not care if he was 15th or 16th on the Shas list or what ministerial portfolio he received, as long as he could work towards helping the country's poor.
By REUTERS
By REUTERS
Sponsored Content
By JPOST.COM STAFF
By REUTERS
Please insert a valid email address


text:
Open Session Board Room 6:30 PM November 16, 2016 Wednesday
Barry White, President Aron Bennett, Interim Supt of Schools
Sam Dove, Secretary Rodney Edington, High School Principal
Mark Haverly, Vice-President Rachel Hammers, Elementary Principal
Gale Dillon Angie Hagedorn, Special Ed Coordinator
Tim Dove Audrey Harding, Treasurer
Roy Martin
Ed Hopkins Visitors
Kenny Ollison Staci Harrison
Jackie Thomas Tracy Thomas
Melissa Brock Rhonda Hilt Paul Fletcher Erica Goans
T.J. Bridges Heather Bridges
Amy Gibbs Justin Ray
Jennifer Ray Kaelyn Ray
Eric Ray
President Barry White called the Open Session meeting to order at 6:31 p.m. The Pledge of Allegiance was recited.
Mr. Haverly made a motion to approve the agenda. 2nd by Mr. Martin.
Vote: 7 Yes 0 No
The bills for October were presented.
Mr. Martin made a motion to approve the bills as presented for October. 2nd by Mr. Tim Dove.
Vote: 7 Yes 0 No
A. Air Conditioning Unit Bids – Three bids were presented for replacement of an HVAC unit for the district. Mr. Haverly made a motion to accept the bid from Turner in the amount of $6,627.00. 2nd by Mr. Tim Dove.
Vote: 7 Yes 0 No
A. Ms. Erica Goans presented MAP an EOC scores from the 2015-16 school year. Mr. Bennett also presented the district's APR of 98.2%.
Mr. Edington presented his written report. He had Mr. Fletcher speak about the new weight room equipment that has been acquired. Mr. Edington introduced outstanding student Eric Ray to the board and he and Mrs. Amy Gibbs informed them of some of Eric's accomplishments. Mr. Edington also briefly reported on AD and Technology.
Mrs. Hammers presented her written report. She also spoke to the board about goals for her staff and future events. Mrs. Hammers also reported on the success of the PTO carnival.
Mrs. Hagedorn presented her written report. Mrs. Hagedorn reported that she is starting to upload files for her DESE desk review. She also stated that the process of special education evaluations has begun.
1. Financial Report—Mr. Bennett spoke to the board potential investment opportunities through MSIP.
Vote: 7 Yes 0 No
Mr. Haverly made a motion to add the board president, Barry White, the board treasurer, Gale Dillon, and the bookkeeper, Audrey Harding, to all district CD's. 2nd by Mr. Sam Dove.
Vote: 7 Yes 0 No
B. Policy 2180, 2526, 2755, 6271, 4121, and 0342 Revisions – Mr. Bennett addressed changes that need to be made in the district's policy. These changes will get the district's policy in compliance with new legislation. Mr. Hopkins made a motion to approve the changes in policy 2180, 2526, 2755, 6271, 4121, and 0342. 2nd by Mr. Roy Martin.
Vote: 67 Yes 0 No
Mr. Haverly made a motion to close Open Session and go into Closed Session to discuss personnel matters and student issues after a short recess at 8:07 p.m. 2nd by Mr. Tim Dove.
Roll call vote: 7 Yes 0 No
_________________________________ _________________________________
Secretary, Board of Education President, Board of Education


text:
|Home | About | Journals | Submit | Contact Us | Français
Little is known about the extent to which maltreated children understand what is happening during their participation in court proceedings, despite large numbers of children coming into contact with the legal system as victims of maltreatment. In the present study, maltreated 4- to 15- year-olds were interviewed about their understanding of dependency court on the day of their scheduled court visit. Their feelings about attending their hearings were also assessed, and after their hearing, their understanding of the decisions was examined. Age-related improvements in children's understanding emerged. Also, children who were more knowledgeable about the legal system were less distressed about attending their hearings, as were younger children who had been in the system a longer time. Finally, a majority of children lacked full or accurate understanding of what actually happened during their hearings. Findings have implications for children's participation in legal proceedings and the development of interventions to facilitate children's legal understanding.
Each year, several million children become involved in social service investigations, with the number of children who experience substantiated abuse hovering near one million annually (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2006). For many of these children, their cases are referred to the dependency division of juvenile court for legal intervention. The courts are charged with deciding how best to intervene on the children's behalf to ensure they are protected and safe. If children are removed from their parents' custody, the courts must further decide where the children should live in the interim, and whether, when, and under what conditions they should return home.
Dependency cases are rarely resolved quickly, but instead routinely involve multiple hearings over the course of months or years (see, e.g., Johnson & Wagner, 2005; Malloy, Lyon, & Quas, 2007; White, Albers, & Bitoni, 1996). Specifically, once maltreatment is alleged, social services conduct an investigation. If they conclude that state action is necessary to protect a child, a dependency petition is filed, and an initial hearing is scheduled. At this hearing, the court determines whether there is reasonable basis for the allegations and whether the child's safety requires placement outside the home. Subsequent hearings may then be held to evaluate the ongoing case, including a trial at which the allegations are assessed, a disposition hearing at which the court determines the child's placement and typically orders efforts to reunite the child and family (e.g., the parent must enroll in a substance abuse treatment program), and review hearings, which culminate in a permanent plan for the child, such as termination of parental rights and adoption, guardianship or long-term foster care.
During the often lengthy dependency process, children interact with numerous legal professionals, including social workers, investigators, court-appointed special advocates, guardians ad litem, foster parents, attorneys, and judges. Many of these professionals are advised to inform children about the nature of legal proceedings and the legal decisions being made (Khoury, 1996). It is unclear, however, whether children actually understand the information with which they are provided, which may be incomplete, contradictory to that provided by other professionals, or too complex to comprehend (see, e.g., Eltringham & Aldridge, 2000; Perry et al., 1995). Thus, there is considerable potential for confusion on the part of children about their situation, even if they are given information from multiple sources.
In some jurisdictions, children are present during hearings, a primary reason for which is to increase their involvement in the case. The children listen while attorneys, social workers, their parent(s), and the judge discuss the case, the parents' behavior, and the children's futures. During the hearings, children, like their parents and other parties present, may be questioned by the judge. For children, questions focus on their maltreatment experiences as well as a range of other factors, such as their behavior in school, placement preferences, and general well-being. To the extent that children lack an adequate understanding, not only of their situation, but also of the court process generally, their presence may not serve the intended function. Moreover, any confusion or misunderstanding experienced by children may inhibit their ability to participate effectively in the process that is designed, in theory, with their best interests as a primary focus.
To date, very little is known about maltreated children's understanding of the legal system. Thus, in the present study, we first investigated maltreated children's understanding of dependency court, both in general and in relation to hearings that they attended. Second, we examined whether children's legal understanding is related to their emotional reactions during court proceedings.
To date, few studies have directly assessed children's understanding of the dependency court system. Studies have, however, focused on children's knowledge of terms relevant to criminal court and on juvenile suspects' understanding of their legal rights.
Across these two lines of research, several consistent findings have emerged, the most robust of which is that of age differences: With age, children's knowledge improves considerably (see, e.g., Burnett, Noblin, & Prosser, 2004; Cauffman & Steinberg, 2000; Cooper, 1997; Flin, Stevenson, & Davies, 1989; Grisso et al., 2003; Warren-Luebecker, Tate, Hinton, & Ozbek, 1989), although even adolescents have difficulty comprehending some legal concepts (e.g., the Miranda warnings). A second consistent finding is that greater contact with the legal system does not translate into more accurate knowledge (Belter & Grisso, 1984; Freshwater & Aldridge, 1994; Saywitz, Jaenicke, & Camparo, 1990). Thus, for example, children involved in a criminal case (as either victims or defendants) are often not more knowledgeable than children who have never had direct contact with the legal system. Third, even when children are generally knowledgeable about the legal system, they may not be similarly knowledgeable with regard to case-specific information (Saywitz et al., 1990; Warren-Luebecker et al., 1989). Instead, children appear to have difficulty applying general legal knowledge to specific situations.
Despite the consistency of these trends across community samples of children, child victims in criminal court, and juvenile defendants, there are several reasons why findings may not generalize to children in dependency proceedings. First, the demographic characteristics between samples often vary. In community samples (e.g. Warren-Luebecker et al., 1989), for instance, children are most likely of average cognitive ability. Maltreated children, in contrast, are delayed cognitively (Cicchetti, Rogosch, Maughan, Toth, & Bruce, 2003; Sawyer & Dubowitz, 1994), which may translate into poorer legal knowledge. Also, most child victims in criminal cases have endured sexual abuse (Goodman, Quas, Bulkley, & Shapiro, 1999), whereas child victims in dependency cases have predominantly experienced neglect and physical abuse (Lyon & Saywitz, 1999), and children are most likely to testify in child sexual abuse cases (Goodman et al., 1999). Differences in children's victimization experiences may affect how they are prepared for legal involvement and what is expected of them during legal proceedings. Finally, criminal prosecution is less likely when victims are younger (Sedlak et al., 2005; Whitcomb et al., 1991), which may lead to proportionally more older children being represented in criminal than dependency court.
Second, children's experiences in dependency cases often diverge from those of child victims in criminal cases and child defendants in juvenile delinquency cases. In dependency court, children have contact with social workers, investigators, court appointed special advocates, guardians ad litem, judges, and, in some jurisdictions, their own attorneys. During the hearings, attorneys representing three different parties—the child, the parents, and the state—are present, and the primary stated goal is to determine the best interests of the child and ensure her or his safety. In criminal court, a child may interact with a number of legal professionals, but few if any are charged with representing a child's best interests or eliciting a child's desires. Further, the primary focus is on the child's ability to testify rather than the child's placement or well-being. In delinquency cases, child defendants receive legal representation, but the focus is on their criminal responsibility. Legal knowledge most relevant to child defendants (e.g. the right against self-incrimination) has little in common with that which is most relevant for and would assist children in dependency court. Thus, whether child victims understand the criminal system and whether juvenile defendants understand their rights may reveal little about whether children understand the dependency system or their experiences within it.
To date, two studies include data relevant to maltreated children's understanding of dependency proceedings. In her (unpublished) dissertation, Murphy interviewed 10- to 17-year-olds about their perceptions of foster care. Several questions concerned children's understanding of their dependency cases, and children's responses were compared to their case files for accuracy. When asked why they were living in foster care, 28% of the children were accurate. When asked about the court's plans for their future, slightly more (54%) of the children were accurate. Being older at the time of their first placement (but not current age) was positively related to children's knowledge of the reasons for their placement and the court's plans. Finally, children with prior foster care experience (i.e. children who had been removed from home in a previous dependency case) were less knowledgeable of the court's plans for their future. It is possible that future plans were more ambiguous for children with prior foster care experience, given their history of repeated maltreatment. However, it is also possible that involvement in dependency court simply did not help children understand the process.
In a second study, Block, Oran, Oran, Baumrind, and Goodman (in press) interviewed 7- to 10-year-old maltreated children about what happened during an initial hearing they had just attended following their removal from home. Many children lacked a clear understanding of their hearing, with some children being clearly inaccurate in their responses. For example, when asked whether they knew what happened in their hearing, 57% simply answered "no." When asked why they were in court, 53% said that it was to decide where they should live, 13% said that it was to keep them safe, 11% said it was to see their parent, 11% said to talk to the judge, and 8% said it was because they had been bad. As would be expected, children's knowledge improved with age. Also, similar to Murphy's results, involvement in a previous dependency case was unrelated to children's knowledge.
To summarize, children's legal understanding improves with age, even though gaps in knowledge remain at least into early adolescence. Also, children often have difficulty applying their general understanding to specific legal situations. Prior contact with the legal system does not appear to benefit children's knowledge. To date, studies have not investigated whether maltreated children's legal knowledge is linked to any functional outcome, or, in other words, whether greater knowledge is beneficial to children in actual legal cases. One way in which knowledge may be helpful is by reducing children's distress during dependency cases.
Participation in a legal case is distressing for many victims, regardless of age. Children involved in criminal court routinely express distress about their experiences, both in and out of the courtroom (Goodman, Taub, Jones, & England, 1992; Whitcomb et al., 1991). This distress can persist over substantial lengths of time, in some cases years after the case has ended (Oates & Tong, 1987; Quas et al., 2005).
One potentially important source of distress for children is a lack of understanding of the legal system, their case, and decisions being made, despite these decisions directly impacting the children's future. Specifically, studies of children in medical and legal settings indicate that children are significantly more anxious when they do not know what will happen than when they are provided with knowledge about an impending stressor. In fact, effective methods of reducing children's distress during medical procedures include pre-procedure explanations (Harbeck-Weber & McKee, 1995; Zeltzer, Fanurik, & LeBaron, 1989). Benefits of explanations are evident in children as young as four to five years of age and are more robust when the explanations are directly relevant to children's experiences (Peterson & Ridley-Johnson, 1984). Similarly, in legal contexts, as a means of reducing children's distress, prosecutors report using courtroom tours and pre-court preparation to increase children's understanding (see, e.g., Goodman et al., 1999). Children may also participate in "court-schools" before testifying in criminal court (see, e.g., Nathanson & Saywitz, 2003; Sattar & Bull, 1996; Saywitz & Nathanson, 1993), a goal of which is to increase children's knowledge, thereby reducing their distress when taking the stand.
Insofar as less knowledgeable children are more distressed during legal proceedings, they may have difficulty comprehending the decisions made. For example, greater distress in children while testifying (in mock or actual trials) is negatively associated with their ability to communicate (see, e.g., Goodman et al., 1992; Nathanson & Saywitz, 2003). Children may be attending to their own emotions and attempting to regulate their feelings at the expense of attending to the ongoing discussions in their cases, leading to continued difficulty in understanding.
In summary, poorer understanding of an impending event increases children's distress, which in turn may inhibit their ability to actively participate or follow potentially complex discussions during a hearing. As a result, children may not understand the decisions made.
In the present study, we interviewed maltreated children about their general knowledge of dependency court and about their feelings regarding attending dependency proceedings. We then observed them while they attended their hearings and, afterward, interviewed them about the decisions made and how they had felt. Three primary hypotheses were advanced: First, age-related improvements in children's dependency court knowledge were anticipated (see, e.g., Block et al., in press; Grisso et al., 2003; Saywitz, 1989), although substantial percentages of older children were still expected to evince deficits in understanding, especially in relation to their own cases. Second, older children and those with a more advanced understanding of dependency court were expected to be less distressed during their hearing (see, e.g., Goodman, Quas, Batterman-Faunce, Riddlesberger, & Kuhn, 1997; Zeltzer et al., 1989). Third, being older and experiencing less distress during the hearing were both expected to predict better post-court understanding of what had happened during the hearing (see, e.g., Goodman et al., 1992). Finally, given evidence that contact with the legal system is unrelated to children's legal knowledge (e.g. Saywitz et al., 1990) and that children have difficulty applying general legal knowledge to specific situations (e.g. Warren-Leubecker et al., 1989), no a priori predictions were advanced concerning the associations among children's prior dependency court experiences, general legal knowledge, and understanding of their hearings.
Ninety-four maltreated children (49 females), ages 4–15 years (M = 10.14, SD = 2.75), served as participants in the final sample.1 All children had been removed from the custody of their parents and were involved in ongoing legal cases in the juvenile court, dependency division, of Los Angeles (LA) County because of substantiated maltreatment. Children were primarily of Hispanic (40%) or African-American (23%) ethnicity, consistent with the population in this court system (Lyon, Malloy, Quas, & Talwar, 2008; Lyon & Saywitz, 1999). Children whose files indicated that they required a translator were not eligible to participate. On the day of the interview, all children were awaiting appearances in dependency proceedings. The types of proceeding included adjudication hearings (trials to assess the veracity of the allegations), six- and 12-month review hearings, permanency planning hearings, and reviews of children's placement plans. The current visit to the courthouse was the first visit for one child (children rarely appear in court before they are four years of age). All other children had been to court on at least one prior occasion. The total number of hearings in children's cases ranged from 2 to 57, M = 17 (children do not attend all hearings regarding their cases). The length of children's cases ranged from 4 months to 13.80 years, M = 3.0 years.
Study materials and procedures were approved by the Presiding Judge of the LA County Dependency Court and relevant Institutional Review Boards. Following approval from the Children's Law Center of LA (whose attorneys represent most children in the LA dependency system), approximately 20 attorneys were invited to assist with the study. Thirteen, all female, agreed to help, which involved providing individual consent for the children they represented to take part in the study. The attorneys worked in one of eight courtrooms (each overseen by a different bench officer or judge). No attorney withdrew from the study before it was complete.
In the morning before daily hearings began, a trained female graduate or undergraduate researcher reviewed a court calendar that listed all children scheduled to appear in dependency court that day. She identified children whose attorneys were assisting with the study and who met the eligibility requirement (e.g. age, language proficiency). The researcher then located the attorney representing the child and requested the attorney's written consent.2 In all but two cases, consent was granted (one attorney declined for two children who had been especially upset at their prior hearing). Next, the researcher located the child, either in the family waiting area (if the child had been placed with a relative) or in a daycare facility of the courthouse (if the child had been placed with a foster family and was brought to his or her hearing by court staff). The researcher explained the study and invited the child to participate. The child's assent was secured, and the child was escorted to a quiet area to begin the study. No child declined to participate at the outset, although two children declined to answer the actual interview questions.
During the interview, several questionnaires were administered. The first asked the child to define seven legal terms. Four terms, taken from the work of Saywitz et al. (1990), were not specific to any particular division of the legal system (judge, court, police, and lawyer), and three terms were most common to the dependency system (foster parent, social worker, minor).
The second questionnaire asked about the child's current living situation and placement preferences. Third, the researcher read the child a brief story about a victim of physical abuse. The story began with a child protagonist breaking his arm on the playground and being taken to the hospital. A doctor notices bruises unrelated to the playground injury, and a social worker comes to talk to the child. After the child discloses that his father hits him, the child goes to live with a foster parent. Next, the child goes to court, meets his attorney, and attends a hearing with a judge. The story is resolved when the judge says that the child can return home after his parents attend classes to help them control their anger. At four proscribed times, the researcher stopped reading and asked one open- and one close-ended question about what was happening. Questions focused on the actions of the social worker, foster parent, lawyer, and judge. All questions were asked verbatim in the order written. The open-and closed-ended questions about each of the characters' actions including the following: (1) What does the social worker want to know? Does she want to know about how he broke his arm, or how he got the bruises? (2) Why does Chad [the story character] have to live in foster care? Does Chad have to live in foster care because of the bruises or because he hurt his arm? (3) What does Rosa, Chad's lawyer, want to know? Should Chad tell Rosa (his lawyer) about when he hurt his arm or where he wants to live? (4) What might the judge decide for Chad? Will the judge decide where Chad should live or whether Chad should be able to go to the park where he hurt his arm?
Fourth, an affect questionnaire, developed for the present study, was administered. The researcher first presented a face scale that depicted five line-drawn faces (ranging from an exaggerated frown to an exaggerated smile). She then asked the child to point to the face that showed how the child felt (a) "right now" (i.e., during the pre-trial interview, while waiting for their hearing), (b) about being in court, and (c) about what the judge might decide.
A brief interview was conducted immediately after the hearing in a quiet area of the courthouse. It began with four questions about the details of what occurred during the hearing: "What happened in court?", "What did the judge decide?", "Who will you live with after today?", and "Will you have to come back to court again?". Next, questions about the child's emotional reactions to the hearing, similar to those asked before the hearing, were asked. The five-point face scale again accompanied the questions, which asked how the child felt (a) right now (i.e. after the hearing), (b) about being in court, and (c) about the judge's decision.
After the post-hearing interview, the child was fully debriefed. The researcher explained that she was there to find out what children think about being at court and wanted to find ways to help children who come to court. All children were pleased with their participation, and no child expressed concerns or confusion upon debriefing. Children were given a small gift (e.g. a decorated pencil) for their participation.
The primary investigator, graduate students, and an undergraduate honors student coded children's responses for accuracy. Scores reflected children's ability to define legal terms (definition accuracy), responses to the open- and closed-ended story questions (story accuracy), and understanding of the decisions made in their hearing (hearing accuracy). For the definition and story accuracy, graduate students independently scored 20% of children's responses. Kappas ranged from .88 to .94. For the hearing accuracy, the primary investigator and an honors student independently scored 20% of children's responses, and proportion agreement equaled .88.
Children's legal term definitions were scored following a three-point scale modeled after Saywitz (1989): 0 = no correct information, which included incorrect and do-not-know responses (e.g. "your daughter and your baby" for a social worker, and "slave" for a lawyer); 1 = correct but not complete answer (e.g. "asks you how you're doing in school" for a social worker, "when people speed, the police arrest them" for police, and "talks to people" for lawyer); or 2 = correct and complete answer (e.g. "taken legal guardianship of you until you can return to parents" for foster parent, "they protect you, arrest you for breaking the laws" for police, and "defends your case" for lawyer). Definitions were determined according to public governmental websites and legal dictionaries. A mean definition accuracy score was computed by summing each child's responses and dividing by the number of responses provided (unscorable responses were not included; α = .74).
Children's answers to the four open- and four close-ended story questions were dichotomously coded. Separate scores were calculated for accurate and inaccurate information provided because a single response could include both correct (e.g., the social worker wanted to know how the boy got the bruises) and incorrect information (e.g., the social worker wanted to know about the playground where the child plays). Thus, for example, when scoring for accuracy, responses that included no correct information received a "0," and responses that included correct information (regardless of whether incorrect information was also included) received a "1." Correct and incorrect responses were summed separately and divided by the number of questions asked to create mean accuracy and inaccuracy scores for both open- and closed-ended questions. The correlations, however, between children's proportions of accurate and inaccurate responses were quite large, r> −.64. Thus, only children's mean open-ended and close-ended accuracy scores are considered further.
Children's responses to the post-hearing questions, "What happened in court?" and, "What did the judge decide?" were scored according to a three-point scale: 0 = no correct information, which again included incorrect and do-not-know responses (e.g., "I'm going to live with my mom soon" when the court decided to move to long-term placement); 1 = correct but not complete answer (e.g., a child who said correctly that she could not go home, but did not state that the parent had to attend a drug dependency class); or 2 = correct and complete answer (e.g., child explained the gist of the full decision made in court, "the judge said we had to come back in 6 months to see if my mom is better and if we can go live with her."). Children's responses to the two questions often overlapped and were significantly correlated, r = .46. They were combined into a single accuracy score that reflected their understanding of the hearing decision. Children's responses to the question "Who will you live with after today?" were scored according to a similar three-point scale, and children's responses to the question, "Will you have to come back to court?" were scored as 0 = not correct/don't know or 1 = correct.
First, preliminary analyses identified possible confounds. Second, analyses investigated the relations among children's age, the length of time they had spent in the dependency system, and their general dependency court knowledge.3 Third, the relations among age, time in the system, legal knowledge, and children's emotional ratings were examined. Fourth, analyses assessed whether children's age and distress, as well as their general legal knowledge, predicted their post-court understanding. Descriptive statistics for variables of interest are presented in Table 1, and bivariate correlations among them are presented in Table 2.
Independent t-tests revealed that males and females did not significantly differ in age, time in the system, or the number of hearings held in their cases, t < 1.15, n.s. Nor did males and females differ in their knowledge or emotion ratings, t < 1.71, n.s. Attorneys who assisted with the study represented between 1 and 18 child participants, with most attorneys representing between 1 and 5 participants (three attorneys had 8 or more children in the study). Thus, it was not possible to assess whether children's knowledge differed as a function of individual attorney. Twenty-three children had talked to their attorney (n = 22) or a court-appointed special advocate (n = 1) before the initial interview. These children did not differ in legal knowledge or emotional reactions from children who had not talked to a legal professional beforehand. Across the eight courtrooms in which the study children's cases were heard, five had a sufficient number of child participants to test for courtroom effects. No differences were evident across the courtrooms for any of the study's independent or dependent measures. Finally, children who participated in the study attended one of 12 different types of hearing. The types of hearing and the distribution of children by age are presented in Table 3.
Our first goal was to examine how children's age and the length of time they had spent in the system (i.e. the length of their legal case) related to their general understanding of dependency court. We expected that, with age, children's knowledge would improve. We also explored whether age interacted with the time children had spent in the system to predict their legal knowledge. Bivariate correlations among children's age, length of time in the system, and knowledge revealed that age was positively related to each of the three legal knowledge scores: children's definition accuracy scores; open-ended story accuracy; and closed-ended story accuracy. The length of time in the system, however, was unrelated to their knowledge (Table 2).
To investigate whether age and time in the system independently and jointly predicted children's legal knowledge, we conducted regressions with children's definition accuracy, open-ended story accuracy, and closed-ended story accuracy as separate dependent measures (Table 4). Age and the length of time spent in the system were entered on Step 1 and the interaction between them was entered on Step 2. Variables were centered prior to their inclusion, following the guidelines of Aiken and West (1991).
Age significantly predicted understanding for each dependent measure. The amount of time in the system negatively predicted children's definitional accuracy, but was unrelated to children's open-ended and closed-ended story accuracy. The amount of variance accounted for by Step 1 of the models ranged from 42.5% (definitional accuracy) to 53.1% (open-ended story accuracy). The interaction between age and time in the system was nonsignificant in each regression. Thus, consistent with our prediction, children's knowledge of the dependency court system improved with age. Time spent in the system, as assessed via the length of children's legal case, was unrelated or possibly (according to one analysis) negatively related to children's general dependency court knowledge.
The second goal of the study was to investigate the associations between children's legal understanding and distress during dependency proceedings. We were specifically interested in whether children's age and length of time in the system in conjunction with their dependency court knowledge predicted their emotional reactions on the day of their court hearing. We expected that more advanced knowledge and being older would both predict reduced distress. Bivariate correlations concerning children's knowledge and pre-court emotional reactions are presented in Table 2.
Children's distress was reflected in their responses to questions about how they felt while waiting for their hearing, about going to court, and about the judge's decision. The latter two ratings were significantly correlated, r (88) = .29, p < .01, and were combined for the analyses. Correlations, age controlled, between children's legal knowledge scores (definition, open-ended story, and closed-ended story accuracy) and pre-court distress ratings revealed one significant relation: Greater open-ended story accuracy was associated with feeling more positive about attending their hearing and what the judge might decide, r(77) = .31, p < .01. Children's legal knowledge scores were unrelated statistically to how they reported feeling while waiting for their hearing.
Next, regressions were conducted predicting children's distress ratings. First, children's age and time in the system were entered. Second, the interaction between children's age and time in the system was entered to explore whether older and younger children's experiences in the legal system differentially related to their emotional reactions. Third, children's definitional accuracy scores and proportion correct responses to the open- and close-ended story questions were entered.
The regression predicting children's feelings while waiting for court (i.e. "right now") was nonsignificant. When children's feelings about attending their hearing and the judge's decision were examined, the model was significant at Step 2, F(3, 78) = 3.58, p < .05, and at Step 3, F(6, 78) = 4.32, p < .01. The R2 Δ was significant at both steps, and the model (Step 3) accounted for 26.4% of the variance. Results revealed that children's age, time in the system, and accuracy of responses to the open-ended legal knowledge questions emerged as significant predictors, as did the interaction between children's age and time in the system (Table 5).
In support of our hypothesis, greater legal knowledge according to children's responses to the open-ended story questions was associated with reporting less negative feelings about attending the dependency hearing. Being older and having spent less time in the system, in contrast, were associated with more negative feelings. However, the latter effect was qualified by a significant age × time in system interaction: Longer time in the system led to less negative feelings among the younger but not older children, the latter of whom were uniformly more negative (Figure 1), a finding that runs counter to our prediction of age-related decreases in children's distress.
Sixty-one children were interviewed immediately after their dependency hearings about their understanding of and emotional reactions to their hearing. The remaining children either did not attend their hearings (e.g., they were postponed) or left too quickly afterward to be interviewed (e.g., family visitation was scheduled). None of the children who completed the post-court interview had talked to anyone else about the hearing prior to our interview. Thus, our final set of analyses focused on this subset of children. Of interest was the extent to which they understood what happened during their hearing and whether more advanced general legal knowledge predicted greater understanding and reduced distress.
With regard to how well children understood what happened, descriptive statistics are quite informative. After the hearing, children were asked what happened, what the judge decided, whether they had to return to court, and where they would live following the hearing. Collapsing across the two questions about the court's decision, as can be seen in Table 6, approximately one-third of the children failed to report any correct information about what happened. Ten children (50% who provided no correct information) were actually incorrect in their description. The other 10 children simply stated that they did not know.
As predicted, older children reported more correct information about the decision than younger children. Yet, only 33% (6 of 18) of the children ages 12 and older appeared fully knowledgeable; 50% (9 of 18), provided a partially correct description, and the remaining three did not provide any correct information. Among the 27 children aged 8–11 years, 44% (12) provided a full and accurate description, 19% (5) provided a partially correct description, and 37% (10) provided no correct information. Finally, among the youngest children, aged 4–7 years, only one child out of 16 provided a clear description of the decision, whereas 50% (8) provided a partially correct description and 44% (7) provided no correct information. Thus, a sizeable percentage of the oldest children did not appear to fully understand the decision that had just been rendered, with this percentage being even larger among the younger children.
When asked with whom they would live after the hearing and whether they would have to return, the results were more encouraging: Over half of the children correctly answered these questions (see Table 5). For instance, when asked whether they had to return to court, 67% (n = 41) were correct (33 correctly said "yes" and 8 correctly said "no"). Among the 20 children who did not respond correctly, a majority (n = 12) said that they did not know; five incorrectly said "no;" and one incorrectly said "yes." The remaining two children provided unscorable answers.
Children's pre-court general legal knowledge scores were correlated with their post-court understanding scores (controlling for age) to determine whether their general dependency court knowledge was associated with case-specific knowledge. One significant association emerged. Greater accuracy in children's legal definitions was associated with greater accuracy when asked what happened, r = .41, p < .05. Correlations were also computed between children's pre-court emotional reactions and post-court understanding scores, again controlling for age. No significant relations emerged. Thus, in contrast to our hypothesis, greater distress prior to the hearing was not related to children's ability to report what decision had been made in their hearings or with whom they would live afterward.
A final set of analyses focused on whether children's perceptions of having to return to court were related to their emotional reactions. No differences in children's post-court emotional reactions emerged between children who reported that they had to come back and children who reported they did not (regardless of the accuracy of the children's answers). Nor did children who were accurate about returning differ in their post-court emotional ratings from children who were inaccurate.
The overarching purpose of the present study was to provide new insight into maltreated children's understanding of dependency court. We were especially interested in the extent to which children's understanding was related to their emotional responses during dependency hearings and their ability to comprehend their own hearings. As discussed next, clear developmental changes emerged both in children's legal knowledge and in children's feelings about being at court. Children's prior contact with the dependency system also had implications for their knowledge and emotional reactions.
Perhaps the most robust finding to emerge was that of age-related changes in children's legal knowledge. As expected, children's general legal knowledge (evinced by their ability to define legally relevant terms) and knowledge of the dependency system (evinced by their answers to the hypothetical narrative about a boy in court) both improved substantially with age. These findings are consistent with research concerning children's understanding of terms common to the criminal justice system (e.g. Saywitz, 1989) and research concerning juvenile competency and adolescent offenders' knowledge of their rights (Cauffman & Steinberg, 2000; Belter & Grisso, 1984).
Despite the age-related improvements, many of the oldest children failed to completely grasp legal terms. Moreover, although older children were more knowledgeable than younger children about the decisions that had been made in their hearings, several older children still lacked a full understanding. Our results are consistent with those in studies of adolescents' legal knowledge (e.g. those in which juvenile offenders' legal competency was assessed) and in Murphy's (unpublished) dissertation, which found that many 10- to 17-year-olds in foster care failed to understand why they had been removed or the court's plan for their future. Of note, when legal professionals are surveyed about children's legal understanding, older children are consistently estimated to be more knowledgeable than they actually are (Eltringham & Aldridge, 2000). As a result, older children may not be provided with adequate assistance in understanding what is happening, a possibility supported, in part, by our data. Both older and younger children need help understanding the legal system generally and interpreting what is happening in their own case, particularly the decisions made on their behalf.
When the relations between the length of children's cases and their dependency court knowledge were examined, few significant associations emerged, and none was in the expected direction. In fact, children in the system longer were less able to define legal terms and fared no better in responding to questions about a hypothetical dependency case than children in the system for shorter periods. One potential explanation for this unexpected finding is that, over time, the specific roles of legal personnel become blurred, leading to continued difficulty understanding dependency situations. Another possibility is that children who have spent considerable time in the system differ in other respects from children who have not, and these differences led to the former children's more limited understanding. For instance, children with behavioral problems or cognitive delays may be difficult to place or adopt, leading to their cases lasting longer than children without such problems. Perhaps such problems also lead to greater difficulty in understanding legal personnel's roles. However, among a subset of children administered the Memory for Sentences (a standard measure of cognitive ability), no significant relations emerged between children's performance and the length of their dependency cases. Nonetheless, given that only a subset of children completed the Memory for Sentences, additional research is needed to identify characteristics in children that relate both to the length of their legal cases and to their legal knowledge.
The second goal of the study was to investigate children's emotional reactions to dependency proceedings. We focused most notably on children's age and general legal knowledge as predictors of their emotional reactions to and understanding of their hearing.
We expected younger children to report greater distress in relation to their dependency hearings than older children, consistent with research indicating that younger children are typically more distressed when exposed to medical procedures (e.g. Goodman et al., 1997; Merritt et al., 1994; Shrimpton, Oates, & Hayes, 1998). However, no straightforward age differences emerged. Instead, age interacted with the length of children's legal cases to predict their emotional reactions. Among younger children, those who were relatively new to the system were more negative than those who had been in the system for longer periods of time. Older children, in contrast, were more negative regardless of the length of time they had spent in the system. Although these findings were unanticipated, we offer one potential explanation. Perhaps the stability of children's placements affects their emotional reactions to dependency court, and the length of time in the system means something different for younger and older children's placement stability. Thus, younger children whose cases have been ongoing for some time may have achieved some stability in their placement and hence have little memory for their prior living situations. In contrast, older children, who tend to be more difficult to place and are less likely to be adopted, may be negative about attending hearings because of the lack of stability or perhaps their greater knowledge of the potential lack of stability. Experiences or perceptions of instability certainly could lead to more negative feelings about the dependency process.
Our prediction that children with more advanced general legal understanding would be less distressed about their hearing was partially supported. Greater accuracy of children's responses to open-ended questions about the story was associated with less negative responses concerning how children felt about attending their hearing and the judge's possible decision. We suspect that children with a more complete understanding of the dependency system were more comfortable with their legal situation and the personnel with whom they interact, leading to their lower levels of reported distress about their upcoming hearing. Yet, the opposite causal direction is also possible: Perhaps children who were more distressed about their upcoming hearing had difficulty focusing on and answering the legal knowledge questions. Although certainly we cannot rule out the latter possibility, children's self-reported distress during the pre-trial interview (i.e. "right now" or before their hearing) was unrelated to children's legal knowledge. Had general distress reduced children's ability to answer the interview questions, current distress should have been related to children's performance. Nonetheless, given the potential for different interpretations of our data, it will be important to continue investigating the ways in which children's knowledge relates to their distress and the reasons for these relations.
Finally, there was some evidence that children with greater legal knowledge understood more about the decisions made in their case. This finding is in contrast to research indicating that children have difficulty applying general legal knowledge to specific situations (Warren-Leubecker et al., 1989). However, unlike former research, in which children were asked to apply their general knowledge to hypothetical cases, children in this study were asked to apply their knowledge to a real-world legal situation in which they were personally involved. Perhaps, in such situations, general knowledge is beneficial, at least in terms of children's immediate understanding of specific decisions.
Although our findings are noteworthy in several regards, methodological limitations must also be acknowledged. First, children's distress levels were measured using a self-report face scale. Because the face scale is a single-item scale, inter-item reliability could not be calculated, and the validity of this technique for measuring distress among maltreated children has not yet been established. However, face scales, such as the one employed here, have been used to assess children's emotional reactions to a range of negative and positive events (see, e.g., Carrick & Quas, 2006), including children's reactions to medical procedures (Hicks, von Baeyer, Spafford, van Korlaar, & Goodenough, 2001; Wong & Baker, 1988). Moreover, given that maltreated children often experience increased difficulty regulating their emotions and cognitive delays (see, e.g., Cichetti et al., 2003; Edwards, Shipman, & Brown, 2005), the simplicity of a single-item pictorial scale may be especially well suited to this population. Second, the cross-sectional design of the study necessitates careful interpretation of the data. Causal relations (e.g. between length of time in the dependency system and legal knowledge, and between legal knowledge and distress) cannot be established. Nor can we rule out the potential influences of unknown third variables. Continued research using multiple methods and longitudinal designs is required to identify causal links. Third, it is unknown to what extent these results are generalizable to other populations of children and to children in other jurisdictions. That is, in LA County, where this study was conducted, children are expected to attend hearings (and their attorney is expected to relate their wishes to the court) by the time they are four years of age. Our findings may thus not generalize to jurisdictions that place less emphasis on children's participation (children in such jurisdictions may evidence even less understanding of the dependency court process). The next steps in this line of research should compare different jurisdictions to determine whether and how children's participation in the process affects their understanding of and attitudes about dependency court. Research should also consider a range of factors that may affect children's understanding of and emotional reactions to dependency court involvement, including the type of maltreatment, placement (e.g., relatives, group home, foster care), and individual difference characteristics (e.g. in coping ability or mental health functioning).
Overall, our results point towards a clear need to develop and test interventions that focus on how to enhance children's understanding, and whether such interventions concurrently improve children's well-being. Given the large number of children involved in dependency proceedings annually and children's limited understanding of these proceedings, this need is critical.
We are grateful for the support of the Presiding Judge of the Los Angeles County Juvenile Court, the Los Angeles County Department of Children's and Family Services, the Los Angeles County Children's Law Center, the Children's Services Division of Los Angeles County Counsel, and the Los Angeles County Child Advocate's Office. Preparation of this article was supported by a grant from the Office of Child Abuse and Neglect, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and by a small grant-in-aid from the School of Social Ecology at the University of California, Irvine.
Contract/grant sponsors: Office of Child Abuse and Neglect, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; School of Social Ecology at the University of California, Irvine.
1One child who was listed as 14 on the official court records reported a birth date different from that stated. Using her self-reported birth date in the calculation, she was 15.09 years old. This age was included in the final analyses.
2Informed consent was provided by each child's attorney. Because the children had been removed from their parents' custody and were under the custody of the Los Angeles Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS), it was not necessary to secure parental consent.
3During the study, approximately two-thirds of the children completed the Memory for Sentences subtask of the Stanford Binet Intelligence Test, whereas the other third were unable to complete the task due to being called into court. Although children's scores were correlated with age, r = .60, scores were unrelated to the length of time children spent in the system or the number of hearings held in their case. Because a substantial number of the children did not complete the task, these scores were not considered in the main analyses.
PubMed Central Canada is a service of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) working in partnership with the National Research Council's national science library in cooperation with the National Center for Biotechnology Information at the U.S. National Library of Medicine(NCBI/NLM). It includes content provided to the PubMed Central International archive by participating publishers.


text:
- "Need to cut $40 in services within 4 weeks. Running out of options." L.A. CAO Santana, LAST WEEK! MORE BAD NEWS, COMING! BANKRUPTCY in '13. less than a minute ago
- ZD=Got Rainman, "Five minutes to Wapner," (prophet) feeling, tonight, watching CNBC/Bloomberg TV: L.A. City ain't gonna escape bankruptcy! about a minute ago
- YOU ARE BASING YOUR OPINION on TODAY'S L.A./U.S./Global economic conditions. ZD feels L.A. will be FORCED into Bankruptcy court in '13. :( 4 minutes ago
- I guess the only way to hedge against HIGH inflationary gas prices, likely to be coming is to invest in oil. INFLATION=gonna be a '12 BITCH. 6 minutes ago
- EURO-ZONE: Even if they walk out "One happy family," A la Garcetti; a BOTTOMLESS=doesn't pencil out. AND crack addicts can't come off crack. 8 minutes ago
- L.A.ALERT: Hedge funds reporting -9% LOSS in '11. LA pension fund=similar. IF CITY IS -18% off projection WE NEED TO KNOW! [Expects +8%!] 16 minutes ago
- ZD's Pension Fund BAT-ANALYZER feels LACERS pension fund is more likely to be DOWN -8%, than UP +8%, as projected/expected. IS ZD RIGHT? 22 minutes ago
- WHERE'S THE PAYPAL, Y'ALL?: Had nice, living in denial/blaze of glory blog storm,Tues. Need nice surprise in morning, so I don't melt down. 31 minutes ago
- Villaraigosa=ALWAYS says, "I didn't know," after city is BUSTED on fraud. Type ANY topic into Google=ZD/MayorSam blog posts appear! WE KNEW! 46 minutes ago
- WHY ZD NEVER believes #Villaraigosa when he says, "I didn't know," after City Hall fraud is exposed: ZD & @MayorSam ALREADY EXPOSED IT ALL! 48 minutes ago
- HOW IT WORKS, PEOPLE!: Organized crime, uses drug money to back politicians. Once in office, mayor appoints mafia crewmates throughout city. 52 minutes ago
- HOW MUCH LONGER Is L.A. Mayor Villaraigosa Going To Use EXCUSE, "I DIDN'T KNOW," Every Time… http://t.co/AP0tD91X about an hour ago
- VILLARAIGOSA=GOING DOWN: Gold Card=Didn't Know. Building/Safety=Didn't Know. HACLA=Didn't know. LAHD=Didn't know. Pensions=Didn't know. #FBI about an hour ago
- HOW MUCH LONGER till #FBI grabs #Villaraigosa by shirt collar & drags him into office for some answers. "I didn't know," AIN'T CUTTIN' IT! about an hour ago
- #VILLARAIGOSA=NEVER KNOWS NOTHIN'!: EVERY TIME a Dept/Commission Board gets BUSTED, Mayor NEVER KNOWS NOTHING! How crime-ring boss operates! about an hour ago
- HOW CRIME RINGS OPERATE: BOSS "NEVER KNOWS NOTHING!": LA TIMES: Villar says he didn't know about HACLA payout. http://t.co/SbPCZOVr about an hour ago
- TOO CONFUSING w SO MANY account passwords. NOW, I just use ONE easy password: My name Z-U-M-A-D-O-G-G, backwards. NO ONE will think of that! about an hour ago
- RT @villaraigosa: Heading to Chongqing to speak w/govt about green investments. [SHOULD BE TRYING TO KEEP SECRET=WASTING TIME ON BULLSHIT!] about an hour ago
- RT @Bill_Rosendahl: @villaraigosa nominated Brentwood's Ann Hollister to Board of Airport Commissioners. [Villar only appoints CRIMINALS!] about an hour ago
- RT @Bill_Rosendahl: City Council votes in favor of supporting amendment to end corporate personhood. [Does that actually DO anything? No?] about 2 hours ago
- RT @WendyWatch: The Housing Authority scandals clearly demonstrated that Wendy Watchdog is not qualified to be Mayor. about 2 hours ago
- CA High-speed rail looking more uncertain http://t.co/ZBlxgfuC (As it should. High-speed train to where NO ONE needs to go.] about 2 hours ago
- RT @ladailynews: Editorial: Public supports do-over on rail question http://t.co/MSiSOprh ]Facts on REAL COST/TIMEFRAME came out?] about 2 hours ago
- RT @ladailynews: City to revamp private trash collection plan http://t.co/ExRYMEkW [Let me guess? Making it less expensive?] about 2 hours ago
- RT @ladailynews: Board backs `desperately needed' water-rate increase http://t.co/uXtrNLPE about 2 hours ago
- CNBC GLOBAL ECONOMY OUTLOOK FOR 12/7/11: FTSE, CAC, DAX to Open Higher Despite S&P Warning http://t.co/ZLusVKKt about 2 hours ago
- 12/6/11: Minutes of Occupy LA "General Assembly" & Recommendations via @OccupyTweets http://t.co/gWeexHrs about 2 hours ago
Wednesday, December 7, 2011
12/7/11: L.A. City News UPDATE: Zuma Dogg Says, "NO WAY L.A. City Escapes Bankruptcy" (in '13), Villaraigosa Running Out of "I Didn't Know" Excuse Option (When Depts/Commissions are BUSTED) & MASSIVE BLOG FRENZY UPDATES!
Posted by Zuma Dogg at 1:27 AM


text:
How to Collaborate for Social Media Growth
By Collabosaurus
How often have you stumbled across a beautiful new feed because someone you already follow has plugged, recommended, or mentioned them? We're curious creatures and we place a significant amount of admiration and trust in the brands we align with on social media. This is what makes collaboration marketing so powerful.
It's no secret that social media has a serious impact on our purchasing decisions. With Collabosaurus alone, we know that over 70% of our sales come from our Instagram account. Whether you're building a personal brand, influencer or brand profile, or using social media on behalf of a company, it's important to keep an eye on quality content, engagement and collaboration opportunities.
Here are my top three tips for collaborating on social media and achieving amazing growth in following, engagement and content:
1. Collaborate to support your strengths
Everyone has their own talents, brands included! Some brands have excess product to offer in a collab, others have an in-house content creator or photographer, a large social media following, or perhaps you're a freelance designer, publicist, or you have access to a venue that would be an AMAZING event space? Whatever your strengths are, play to them. The best collaborations are win/win because the two brands offer each other something the other wants.
2. Find the right alignment
It's important to collaborate with a brand that has a complimentary brand aesthetic, audience and goals. That way, you can tap into communities that you want to reach by doing something beautifully on-brand and authentic in your cross promotions. Think about what you want to achieve and what you can offer in a collaboration before deciding on a partner. You could also check out collabosaurus.com which matches you to great partnership opportunities for free.
3. Leverage your collab
If you go to the effort of collaborating (don't worry, it's super fun), you may as well leverage that opportunity and get the most benefit and exposure for both brands out of your partnership. One single Instagram post likely won't have the effect of five spaced out across two weeks, with different timings in order to hit new audiences. Think about how you could maximise the impact of your collaboration through email lists, publicity, competitions or user generated content.
Don't discount the impact of your personal brand, either! At the end of the day, YOU are something special and the world needs to know who you are and what you can do.
Keep hustling,
Jess at Collabosaurus
Collabosaurus is an online matchmaking platform for brands to find collaboration opportunities for events, social media and product partnerships. It works like a dating site for businesses and it's completely FREE to view your matches, with over 2,000+ brands using the platform
Photo: Little Drill


text:
2-Lb. Automatic Bread Maker
The Cuisinart CBK-100 2-Lb. Automatic Bread Maker is much more than just a breadmaker. With the included recipes, you can also make pastries and jams! It offers 12 preprogrammed menu options with a variety of crust colors and loaf sizes. All you have to do is add ingredients and select the time you'd like to start the process. The CBK-100 will mix it, knead it, let it rise, and bake it. Plus, with a convenient 13-hour Delay Start Timer, that wonderful aroma of just-baked bread can be waiting for you when you walk in the door. Features: Bakes loaves up to 2 pounds 12 pre-programmed menu options, 3 crust colors and 3 loaf sizes LCD display indicates program selections and baking cycles Removable lid with viewing window Removable kneading paddle and bread pan First audible tone indicates time to add fruit, nuts and other "mix-ins" Second audible tone offers option to remove paddle or reshape bread before baking 15-minute pause Bake-only option 13-hour-delay start timer Power failure backup Brushed stainless steel housing with stay-cool handles Recipe Book
SkyMall, Inc.


text:
The story that started it all and continues in the follow-up tale "Don't Worry, Everyone Crashes on Taris Their First Time!" Because ain't that just the truth.
The mad siren-wail of the alarms tell me that the ship's under attack, but it's the shock of the accompanying jolt that actually wakes me from my sleep. First thing I do is leap from my bunk and drop-kiss the floor. Ouuuch. I wipe away the blood from my nose—that fragging' jolt hurt like a bantha. On the bright side, it's nice to know the grav grids are working—at least today I won't be running away from battle with my toochus half in the air. That happened at Naos 3 once and somehow, the experience wasn't quite as funny as it sounds… Ah, the joy of air-swimming past thirty Gammoreans with their buttcracks flying… I don't think I'll ever quite wipe that smell from my mind. (Mental note: If ever find self on gravless ship again, turn around, go home, and don't even be there when the shikie hits the generators.)
I shake off the wooz and check my bearings. Thankfully, the room's empty, so at least no one else was here to witnesses my little 'fall from grace.' I pinch the bridge of my nose to stop the bleeding and wince as the artificial lights flicker and send slivers of pain through my eyeballs. Midget Wookiees in my head are having the time of their lives ripping apart the nerve clusters in my brain. This has got to be the last time I ever dip into an Ithorian's ryll stash. Those knob-heads don't have the synapses to fix a decent high.
But the crashing sound of personal items falling off the shelves—toothbrush, hair comb, datapads, and a happy-face caffa mug… wait, is that really mine?—reminds me that I'm still on an uncertain date with death if I don't get out of here. Lesser sentients might spend time wondering: What's going on? But I like to think I'm more enlightened. Run now, think later.
The bleeding's stopped, so I get up on my feet and suddenly this blonde cooze in a red coat rushes into the room: "We've been ambushed by a Sith battle fleet! The Endar Spire is under attack! Hurry up—we don't have much time!"
I stare at him blankly. Was this some kind of joke? …Between the guy's vacant stare and the wookiees in my head it takes me a few to wrap my head around Captain Redundant. He's looking at me like I'm a lobotomized trach. Gotta think of something smart to say. I go for a classic: "Who are you?" Oh, yeah, that was brilliant…
Blonde and dangerous laps up the words like a diva to her cue: "I'm Trask Ulgo, ensign with the Republic Fleet. I'm your bunk mate here on the Endar Spire. We work opposite shifts; I guess that's why you haven't seen me before."
Ha!—Those midget Wookiees may have done a real number on my head, but I knew that smiley-faced mug wasn't mine.
"Now hurry up, we have to find Bastila! We have to make sure she makes it off the ship alive!"
I return the vacant stare. Just who does this chump think he is? I square my shoulders and look him in the eye. It amazes me how some people can't get their priorities straight: "Forget this—I'm looking after my own skin! C'mon," I add, "I'm sure a soldier like yourself could make a decent living with me as a merc…"
"You swore an oath to protect Bastila when you signed up with this mission, just like everyone else in the crew! Now's the time to make good on that oath!"
Oath? I wrack what's left of my brain for answers. If I didn't have the death sentence on twelve systems, I'd never have gotten into bed with the 'Public and its stupid promise for a full reprieve if I helped them run a gambit through the Sith blockade. Did I swear an oath for that? Guess I'm not doing such a hot job. Story of my life. I wonder I can still get that pardon if I survive this. Then again...
"Oath or no oath—I'm headed to the escape pods!"
"Don't be stupid! You won't stand a chance against the Sith by yourself. I know Bastila may not have an official rank, but she's the one in charge of this mission, and now that you've signed on, you're part of the fleet. Bastila needs all her troops at her side during this attack! We've got to stick together if we want to make it out of this alive."
I sigh, realizing that the grunk isn't gonna get off my back. I throw up my hands and give him my trademark grin that's all sideways cheek, "Alright, Red, I'm all yours." The square doesn't even blink. I shrug into my gear and grab my gun.
Turns out room's on lockdown too, so Red starts punching codes into the door, but he screws up somehow and starts cursing like a drunken Rodian. I feel a little bead of sweat form on my brow. Why do I always get the incompetent one? I consider making peace with one of the three hundred and sixty seven indigenous gods in this sector before I have to kiss my sweet toochus goodbye, but then the door finally opens with a heartening swoosh. The beeper on my comlink sings and a scruffy-looking guy with a reedy voice pops up to lay out some more bad news:
"This is Carth Onasi. The Sith are threatening to overrun our position. We can't hold out long against their firepower. All hands to the bridge!"
"That was Carth! He's one of the Republic's best pilots! He's seem more combat than the rest of the Endar Spire's crew put together. If he says things are bad, you'd better believe it!"
Part of me hopes I live to save this conversation for later. Because I've never seen anyone so near-death who felt such a need for exposition.
"Yes, thank you, thank you ever so much. Even though I've been on this rust bucket for a total of three weeks now, I have, of course, completely failed to notice the Republic hero who…" But even as I'm snarking over at Red I can feel my legs starting to go limp. It always does when trouble's about to start, more accurate than an old man's rheumatism before a rainy day.
Blondie's got sweat beading all over his upper lip and just the sight of that gives my sense of morale a fast dive. If the damn soldier's quailing, how am I supposed to survive? But the opinion goes through a quick 180 as soon as we hit the decks. It's not fear on his face, I realize, it's excitement: "C'mon, we have to get to the bridge and help defend Bastila!"
"Yeah, yeah, yeah, I heard you the first time around." This job's looking worse and worse, but what choice do I have? It's a one-way ride to eating space dust if I don't get onto one of the 'pods.
Sith stormtroopers are running around everywhere in the halls. I watch as they take down the Republic soldiers right in front of my door. I haven't even been up five minutes today, and already people are dying. "Shit, oh shit, oh shit," I say to the blonde, but he's already gone.
"Wha-?" I panic, but I turn around and sure enough, there's Mr. Blonde laying into the Sithboys like a krath hound on a femur.
"Crazeeee bastard," I say as I watch him take on the baddies three at a time. He keeps yelling "For the Republic!" like it's some kind of battle chant. Over, and over, and over again. Do the Sith look more afraid? I sneak a peek. Nope, not at all.
Red takes out the three Sith goons without even breaking stride just as another group turns around the corner. Their leader takes an unhealthy interest in my presence. I siddle towards Red, hoping to hide behind him, but I somehow manage to trip on my way over some loose power cables and end up tumbling backwards into the arms of the Sith.
"Fraaaaaag," I cry and I hear a metallic "oof-zzz" as the trooper breaks my fall. In the tangle of arms, legs, and weapons, I somehow land a miraculous shot that ricochets off the side panel and hits below the left arm where there's no armor protection. Next thing I know, metal-face is pitching head-first onto the floorboards and I scramble up. Red's finishing up another one of the other tinmen with a flurry of vibroblade when I finally get my bearings. His killing blow sends the Trooper's blood sloshing on my shoe. Eww.
We work our way past a couple more skirmishes and I start thanking the Force that I've got blond and burly on my side. Sure, the old boy's got a terrible haircut and no sense of humor, but he really started growing on me after the third time he threw himself in the the way of blaster fire for me. We finally hit the bridge and the place turns out to be a bust. "Bastila's not on the bridge!" Red shouts, "they must have retreated to the pods! We better head there too!"
"#$$$!$&!$&!" and I don't even bother with my usual eloquence. Part of me wants to cry for all the precious time we wasted getting here. We should have just hit up the 'pods like I said in the first place.
"The Sith want Bastila alive, but once she's off the ship there's nothing stopping them from blasting the Endar Spire into galactic dust!"
"No kidding!" I retort, as I watch the pieces of the ship have break off and float around the portholes like salvager's candy. "It only just now occurs to you that we're not paid enough to be here? No Bastila, no crew, no pods… We're all gonna diiiiiiiie!"
But Red ignores my breakdown and drags me by the lapels to the adjacent corridor. "There's something behind here," he says, approaching one of the two doors.
"Well, you can damn well forget it! C'mon, the 'pods are this way." I point at the closer entrance, but his hand's already on the door panel. I cannot believe this guy. How bloodthirsty can he be?
The metal plates slide open to reveal a guy who's ever balder than my great aunt Maija. My eyes fixate on the very shiny – very red – and very deadly lightsaber in his hands. I think I can hear the sound of doom doom doom, doom doom, doom, doom doom, doom playing in the background.
"Damn—Dark Jedi!" Red yelps. What in Devaron had he been expecting? "I'll try to hold him off, you get to the escape pods, go!"
"No!" I yell back, "You don't stand a chance!" But he's already gone. Fraggin' son of a whoring-Brubb, it's too early for people to start dying for me now!
"Open to door Trask! Dammit! Open it!" Nothing. Aside from the static singing of electricity on the broken door – oh, and the sounds of the ship falling to pieces – I'm all alone on this handbasket to Hoth…
But the litany's cut short as I hear my communicator beep. "'Y'ello? Unless you've got a pippin' big—oh jimcriminy, it's you! Thank the Force! I'm so glad to see even a 'Public face, Reedy!" I giggle like a 'stem high schoolgirl. But I even in my hysteria I gotta give the guy credits. Mr. Scruffy mows past my panic attack with all the stoicism of a true soldier.
"This is Carth Onasi on your personal communicator. I'm tracking your position through the Endar Spire's life support systems. Bastila's escape pod is away—you're the last surviving crew member on the Endar Spire."
"But Big Red, I mean Trask… oh you mean I'm…? Frag."
"I can't wait for you much longer; you have to get to the escape pods! But be careful. There's a Sith patrol just down the corridor. Use your stealth skills to sneak past him."
"Stealth skills?" I look at him hopefully.
"Hit the black button on the left to activate the stealth generator on your belt."
"Oh, right, thanks. Yeah, I knew that." I'm glad the viewscreen cuts my body off at the chest. Scruffy can't see me rubbing my leg sheepishly with the palm of my hand. (Bad habit, don't ask.) The feral, drug-induced wookiees in my head are still having a field day, but I manage to find the right button and click on the stealth generator.
The lone trooper in the hallway I handle without a problem, and I even manage to pitch a couple of the unsuspecting guards with grenades under their boots. But then Unkempt Commando calls me up right before the 'pod bay. Apparently, there's a whole squadron stationed just outside.
"How in the nine stomachs of the Sarlac did you get past those," I ask Scruffy, who has the decency to look embarrassed.
"That's the thing, uh… I kinda had them on my tail. So I locked myself in the bay."
"… which explains—how?—I get to find this out the hard way?"
"Look, you can probably repair the assault droid there to help you, or alternatively, you can try to slice the computer terminal and use the Endar Spire's security systems against the Sith."
"Shouldn't the defense system already be active and targeting the enemy?"
His mouth was grim. "Not after they've gained control of your bridge."
Oh. Right. "Okay," I say, "I'll try the hacking." I lope over to the computer and throw down a few spikes. Hmm. Rerouting the defense sub-matrix on the 'Spire is going to be a lot harder than I thought. Oh, but hey, what's this baby here—
I fiddle with the console for a bit and manage to hardwire the cables to give me command access. Booyah! No defense sub-routines to run this way, but who needs subtly when all I want is the power to blow some Sith scum back to the dark side of the galaxy? I crack my knuckles as I do my best evil cackle imitation and hit the 'Enter' button. A loud Kr-bloom! Is followed by puffs of cloying smoke seeping out the battered door. I cover my mouth as I storm through the smog, practically running to activate the 'pod bay door. It shoots open and I nearly choke on a mouthful of Mr. Scruffy's beard.
"Holy firaxa!" I shout, arms waving wildly as I try to get him out of my face.
"You made it just in time! There's only one active escape pod left. Come on, we can hide out in the planet below!"
I stop flailing. "How do I know I can trust you?" I say, sizing him up. I really wasn't planning on sharing my last-minute escape with another castaway. Too much heat when it came to dodging the law.
"I'm a soldier with the Republic, like you. We're the last two crew members left on the Endar Spire." I look at him skeptically.
"Bastila's escape pod is already gone, so there's no reason for us to stick around and get shot by the Sith. Now come on—there'll be time for questions later!"
I frown and nod. I guess I don't have the luxury to argue with Scruffy's motives right now. "Alright, let's go." Since I have no idea where we're going anyway, I figure an extra set of blasters probably won't hurt—at least 'til I get my feet on the ground and find a way to ditch this 'Public jockey.
"Down we go!" I whoop as we leap into the cylinder and he buckles in. I cling tightly to a handgrip. The escape pod really wasn't built for two.
"Hang on," Captain Scruffy says, hitting release buttons like mad, "It's gonna be a bumpy—"
"And then we jettison just before the ship combusts. The escape pod shoots down and crashes, and suddenly, I can hear this loud orchestra swelling in the background before everything fades to black. And that's usually when I wake up. So what do you think?"
"About what?"
"About my dream! You think it's a vision from the Force? I mean, it feels so real, you know? Like something that actually happened, or maybe will happen. I dreamed that I was me, but yet not me. I had a different name, and a different job, and even a different haircut and everything."
"Honestly? I think you've been spending too much time hanging out with the pilots playing Juma penalty pazaak, Revan. How much did you drink, anyway?"
"I have not! Alright, maybe a little… But you haven't even heard the weirdest part yet. Guess what you were in my dream."
"Okay… What?"
"A dark Sith Lord! With a jaw plate and everything."
"What? And hide this handsome face? Dream on, pipsqueak. That'll never happen."
"Hey! Call me that again and I might have to cut your mouth off…"
"Should I get a stool so you can reach?"
"Oh, shut up, Malak. Just shut up."


text:
Log Out
Our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy have changed. We think you'll like them better this way.
Thank you for joining us on The Michael Dresser Show! Today we welcome these guests to our show:
Bernd Schoner, Ph.D.: Author of "The Tech Entrepreneur's Survival Guide: How to Bootstrap Your Startup, Lead Through Tough Times, and Cash in For Success," http://www.bernd.nimblestaging.com
Pete Winiarski: Author of "Act Now! A Daily Action Log for Achieving Your Goals in 90 Days," http://www.PeteWiniarski.com
Debbie Pokornik, BA, BSW: Author of "Break Free of Parenting Pressures: Embrace Your Natural Guidance," http://www.debbiepokornik.com
Megan Tull: Author of the upcoming book, "The Passion Belief Method - Own Your Value and Earn Your Worth," http://www.megantull.com
Felicia Kliment: Author of "The Subconscious: Your Port in the Storm," http://www.feliciakliment.com
Dan Haight: Author of "Iron Mountain," http://www.flotillaonline.com
Thank you for joining us today on The Michael Dresser Show!
Sorry we couldn't complete your registration. Please try again.
Please enter your email to finish creating your account.
Receive a personalized list of podcasts based on your preferences.


text:
Online Dating OKCupid... what a trip. What works for you?
View Single Post
Senior Member
Join Date: Nov 2009
Location: Metro West Massachusetts
Posts: 6,272
What do you get when you fall in love?
A guy with a pin to burst your bubble
That's what you get for all your trouble
I'll never fall in love again
What do you get when you kiss a guy?
You get enough germs to catch pneumonia
After you do, he'll never phone ya
I'll never fall in love again
Don't tell me what it's all about
Cuz I've been there and I'm glad I'm out
Out of those chains, those chains that bind ya
That is why I'm here to remind ya
What do you get when you give your heart?
You get it all broken up and battered
That's what you get,
A heart that's shattered
I'll never fall in love again
What do you get when you fall in love?
You only get lies and pain and sorrow
(So, for at least until tomorrow)
I'll never fall in love again
Love withers under constraint; its very essence is liberty. It is compatible neither with envy, jealousy or fear. It is there most pure, perfect and unlimited when its votaries live in confidence, equality and unreserve. -- Shelley
Mags (poly, F, 62) loving Pixie (poly, F, 40) since January 2009, living together since 2013
Seeing Kahlo (polyish, M, 45)
Master, (mono, M, 36), Pixie's Dom/bf for 3+ years
View Public Profile
Find all posts by Magdlyn


text: Skirt by Peter Hahn. Top quality, low-crease, beautifully draping woven pure new wool with stretch content. Cut in a smart, straight shape with side elasticated waistband, concealed back zip fastener and a back split. Made of 98% new milled wool, 2% elastane. Lining in 100% acetate. Length in regular sizes approx. 25ins., in short sizes approx. 23ins. The skirt is machine washable.