Forsyth County must do a better job of collecting child-support payments, because when those payments aren’t collected, children can suffer. And, as their parents turn to social-service agencies for help, the costs are eventually passed on to the rest of us.

Forsyth leaves millions of dollars that is owed to custodial parents uncollected each year, Blair Goldstein reported in Sunday’s Journal. The county’s social services department is supposed to step in when a parent has trouble collecting court-ordered support. So far this year, the county DSS has collected just 61 percent of the support payments owed each month. That’s less than the collection goal of 71 percent set by the state. And that makes Forsyth the urban county with the worst collection rate other than Mecklenburg.

That has got to change.

A study finds that infidelity can be a form of emotional violence that leaves betrayed partners with the same symptoms as an abusive partnership. Finding out the facts and acting on the cheating early may help the healing process.

A study conducted by Monash University in Melbourne, Australia finds that infidelity may have more in common with physical and psychological abuse than anyone has previously thought. The study conducted interviews with men and women affected by extramarital affairs and found that unfaithful partners share many of the same characteristics as abusive partners: they show little regard for their betrayed partner, and they experience the same guilt and remorse as abusers do after their cheating. Betrayed partners display many of the same characteristics as abused persons, the study concluded. Betrayed spouses may experience anxiety, an inaccurate perception of reality, depression, and poor self-esteem.
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Texas Association of Licensed Investigators (TALI)

Super Conference
July 25-28, 2007
Omni Mandalay Hotel
Dallas, TX
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Remember in Scream when the killer kept calling Neve Campbell and threatening her with a deep gurgly voice? Well now you can do that to your friends!

In what seems like a lawsuit waiting to happen, a company has released a new calling card, SpoofCard, that lets you fake a Caller ID, change your voice, and record your crank calls. To cover their asses, the company has made it impossible to dial 911 or toll free numbers using the calling card.
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Illegal city brothels will proliferate in Melbourne’s city centre, according to the owners of legal brothels, unless the State Government cracks down on their operators.

The warning came after the Melbourne City Council last night decided against resuming its former policy of paying private investigators to have sex in illegal brothels, to gather evidence of a breach of planning rules.

Instead, Lord Mayor John So will join with the Municipal Association of Victoria to put pressure on the State Government’s Consumer Affairs Department to do more about illegal brothels.
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Spouse Busters is here.

One of the newest businesses in Australia is going to spring cheating partners in the act.

In an Australian first, Spouse Busters, a team of private investigators has set up business with the mission of outing cheating partners.
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The North Carolina-based private investigation firm hired by city officials to investigate police Chief Ervin Portis is getting licensed in Michigan.

Jackson City Manager William Ross said he expects Risk Management Association Inc. of Raleigh, N.C., to have a Michigan license within a few days.

Last month, the Michigan Council of Private Investigators questioned whether Risk Management could conduct the probe without being licensed in Michigan, as the law says it must.

Newly retired city police Sgt. Scott Rogers in April met with City Council members to discuss what was called a “hostile work environment” and “abuse of power” by Portis.
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Texan woman accuses trade body of ‘extortion’

The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is being sued by a grandmother from Texas after the organisation claimed that the woman was sharing files illegally.

Rhonda Crain, from Beaumont, East Texas, was accused of downloading over 500 files and threatened with a fine of $150,000 for each file.

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Britney Spears and mom continue to battle and it appears it Brit may be in for the long haul. Star Magazine has a report set for this week’s publication that details that for months, Britney has been not-so-secretly seething at her mom, Lynne Spears. Lynne has forged a tight bond with the ex-hubby, Kevin Federline, and had insisted that Brit enter rehab earlier this year.

The magazine reports that now Britney is so furious that the singer has taken the feud to the next level with an extensive revenge plot that includes hiring a private investigator to dig up dirt on her mom, drawing up legal papers to prevent Lynne from seeing her two young grandsons - and even waging a fierce battle for the loyalty of her 16-year-old sister, Jamie Lynn!

Brit wrote and delivered a poem to Lynne called, “Dear Momma” in which, says a source, “she told Lynne that she didn’t have a mom anymore and she couldn’t imagine a mother doing what she did to her child.”

The showdown officially began on June 28 when Brit arrived on the Valencia, California, on the set of Jamie Lynn’s TV show, Zoey 101.  She quickly found the startled Lynne, and coldly gave her a package filled with legal documents and a CD.  “Britney said, ‘Here Momma, I just wanted to see your face,’” says a source.  “Then she got into her car and drove off.  Lynne went into the trailer and broke down in tears.”

The CD in the package was of recordings of phone conversations Lynne had with Kevin and others regarding Brit’s well-being - which she obtained with the help of a private investigator, says a source!

A source claims in one conversation, Lynne made arrangements to meet up with Kevin and the kids, and is then heard saying, “I have to be careful that Britney doesn’t find out!” In another call, referring to the couple’s ongoing custody and financial battles, “Kevin told Lynne that he had everything under control,” adds the source.  “He was just going to let Britney hang herself in court.”

Britney also presented Lynne with a copy of a legal motion to keep her away from grandson, Sean Preston, and Jayden James.  The papers contain allegations that at Lynne abuses prescription drugs and abuses her grandsons when she is with them!” says the source, noting that the charge of “child abuse” in the motion refers specifically to Lynne speaking negatively about Britney in front of the tykes.

As a final blow, Brit cut Lynne out of her will - covering an estimated $100 million fortune and now “is leaving all of her property and personal belongings to Jamie Lynn until her boys are of age,” says a source.  “Britney is using her money to win over her sister, but Jamie loves her mom and her sister, and doesn’t know what to do!”

Britney, the Star Magazine source adds, “thinks that everyone sits at Kevin’s house and has one big laugh at her expense.  She wants to put an end to this by humiliating her mother publicly.  Lynne loves both Brit and Kevin, and is afraid if she doesn’t agree to Britney’s demands, she may never have a relationship with her grandsons or her daughter.”

The National Ledger

Bail News Roundup - June 30, 2007

In this edition of the Bail News Roundup, we found that new proposed legislation in Canada could affect bail and law enforcement officials working on this side of the border. This past week, the AboutBail.com staff was also debating a new idea for immigration laws - do you think that the Orlando Sentinel writer who proposes bonds for all immigrants is onto something? This week, the stories that got us thinking were:

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• Group for Private Investigators
• Group for Process Servers