JANUARY 17, 2000 VOLUME 7, NUMBER 29 Should grandparents have the right to enforced visitation with their grandchildren? Does the U.S. Constitution permit states to impose grandparent visitation on parents? Does state law adequately protect both the interests of families and the well-being of grandchildren? These are the questions posed by the U.S. Supreme Court…
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JANUARY 10, 2000 VOLUME 7, NUMBER 28 Jerry Cantrell lived in Tennessee and owned property there and in Kentucky. Mr. Cantrell was single, but had five adult children from a former marriage. In 1994, he saw Analyn Rojo’s picture in a mail-order bride magazine, and he got in touch with Ms. Rojo. They arranged to…
JANUARY 3, 2000 VOLUME 7, NUMBER 27 Velma Buchanan was a resident of Country Care Nursing Home in La Vernia, Texas. Shortly before her death, she was the victim of a sexual assault. Her assailant was identified as sixteen-year-old Travis Moorhead, an unlicensed nurse’s aide at Country Care. Ms. Buchanan’s sister Charlotte Alexander brought a…
DECEMBER 27, 1999 VOLUME 7, NUMBER 26 Gilbert Levy, like many Medicare beneficiaries, was attracted by the promise of HMO coverage for his Medicare benefits. The California man shopped carefully, and only signed up with PacifiCare Health Systems after he was sure that he would be able to choose his own primary care physician, and…
DECEMBER 20, 1999 VOLUME 7, NUMBER 25 On December 14, 1999, President Clinton signed the Foster Care Independence Act of 1999. While most of the new federal legislation deals with foster care programs, it also changes the law and practice regarding so-called “Special Needs” trusts. The Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program, administered by but separate…
DECEMBER 13, 1999 VOLUME 7, NUMBER 24 Ruth M. Leibig was an active and self-sufficient 78-year-old, living in a senior complex operated by Somerville Senior Citizens Housing, Inc., a non-profit organization, in New Jersey. On May 16, 1994, she was found in her bathtub. Her arm had wedged behind the “grab bar” installed in the…
DECEMBER 6, 1999 VOLUME 7, NUMBER 23 In 1998, Gertrude Hoener signed a bank card giving Ronald Hoener power of attorney over her accounts at People’s Bank of Pratt, Kansas. By the time she died in 1995, he had written checks to himself for $140,000 and had liquidated over $250,000 in certificates of deposit held…
NOVEMBER 29, 1999 VOLUME 7, NUMBER 22 Homer Cone suffered from dementia. As a result, he was placed in a nursing home in Missouri, run by national nursing home chain Beverly Enterprises. Apparently because of his confusion, he wandered out of the nursing home one winter day, got lost and died of hypothermia. Mr. Cone’s…
NOVEMBER 22, 1999 VOLUME 7, NUMBER 21 Kenneth A. Kaneb, like many northern retirees, spent his winters in Florida. Although he lived alone after his wife’s death, he owned the family home in Massachusetts and a second home, a condominium, in Florida. In 1993, at the age of eighty five, Mr. Kaneb found that he…
NOVEMBER 15, 1999 VOLUME 7, NUMBER 20 Ballard Creek Community, an assisted living facility in Huxley, Iowa, is operated by a religious organization called Madrid Home for the Aging. Ballard Creek is a new development, and its current residents are mostly financially secure. Can such a facility qualify for a property tax exemption as a…