Sick foster child 'abandoned by the state'

Orkney Islands Council has been criticised for stopping payments to the foster parents of a seriously ill six-year-old boy. At the High Court in London, a judge said the decision was a triumph for budgets but a catastrophe for carers. The boy, whose identity is protected by law, is from Orkney but now lives with his carers in Cambridgeshire. The judge said the boy, who has serious heart problems, had been disowned by the state in its local authority form. The boy, Child I, was born with a heart condition on Orkney in August 2003 but his parents were unable to look after him and he is now cared for by a couple in Cambridgeshire. At first Orkney Islands Council offered the foster parents financial assistance but now say that will be withdrawn and Cambridgeshire County Council should take over, but the judge said they had "adamantly refused to become involved". In a statement lodged on their behalf, Orkney Isles Council (OIC) stated: "It is the view of OIC that 'I' has been habitually resident in England since 2005. The responsibility and rights of his parents are likely to be governed by English law." In his judgment Mr Justice Hedley said: "If this position is justifiable legally (as to which I am not convinced) it is of course a huge triumph for OIC's budget manager but a complete catastrophe for any foster parent unwise enough to rely on the word of this local authority." The judge also noted a long-running dispute between the foster couple, Mr and Mrs O, and Cambridgeshire County Council over child I's education. He added: "They could be forgiven for feeling abandoned to care for a child disowned by the state in its local authority form and they could be forgiven too if the thought ever entered their minds as to why they had taken on this child in the first place." 'Poison fruit' At one stage the judge said he was so shocked by the case that he had adjourned proceedings to ensure no "wholly improper judicial observations" escaped his lips. He added that the couple had been "stuck with the poison fruit of these two local authorities' dispute". He said: "This judgment has been reserved not because the issues are difficult (they are not) but because I did not trust myself to express my views in a temperate manner." The couple needed an official report to apply in the High Court for a Special Guardianship Order (SGO) and both Orkney and Cambridgeshire had refused to fund this. Mr Justice Hedley said when the application was made to him for an SGO there was no report, the child was ill again and the couple were dividing their time between hospital, their other three children and their business. The judge ordered Cambridgeshire to provide the report. He said that might provide "some slight relief" to the couple but did not help with their main concerns over continuing financial support. In an unusual move, the judge has made his comments public and ordered that copies were sent to government ministers in London and Edinburgh. A spokesman for Cambridgeshire County Council said: "We are well aware of this family's predicament and we will support them in every way we can. "But as the judge's ruling makes clear, there was a legal issue here which needed to be resolved and he has referred this issue to the English and Scottish governments for their consideration." He added the council shared the judge's "disappointment" that Orkney Island Council "reneged on its commitment to fund this family", which was made in 2008. Orkney Islands Council said: "The Hon Justice Hedley ruled that the responsibility for carrying out the assessment rests with Cambridgeshire County Council. "This was and remains the position taken by Orkney Islands Council from the outset."

The Most Epic Christmas Decoration Idea You'll See Today

"Good news is that I truly out did myself this year with my Christmas decorations. The bad news is that I had to take him down after 2 days. I had more people come screaming up to my house than ever.Great stories. But two things made me take it down. First,the cops advised me that it would cause traffic accidents as they almost wrecked when they drove by. Second,a 55 year old lady grabbed the 75 pound ladder almost killed herself putting it against my house and didn't realize it was fake until she climbed to the top (she was not happy). By the way, she was one of many people who attempted to do that. My yard couldn't take it either. I have more than a few tire tracks where people literally drove up my yard."-----MERRY CHRISTMAS,i love you baby...max is sure to get a laugh out of this!

£850bn bill to rescue British banks

The total public sector support for Britain's banks runs to £850 billion - with the final cost of the financial rescue unlikely to be known for years, a report by the public spending watchdog has revealed. The National Audit Office (NAO) also said the cost of financial advice to the Treasury since September 2007 is expected to balloon to £107 million by next April. Credit Suisse is expected to earn up to £15.4 million in fees for emergency advice to the Government on the banking crisis, according to the NAO report. The investment bank is being paid up to £300,000-a-month to provide financial advice to the Treasury as one of a raft of consultants drafted in amid the crisis. The NAO report found the Treasury was "justified" in using unprecedented sums of taxpayer cash on bank rescue measures to protect the wider financial system. But it criticised the Treasury for hiring advisers on expensive contracts for up to a year that included undefined success fees. Credit Suisse and its fellow investment bank Deutsche Bank were brought in on contracts paying £200,000 a month each for a year - as well as a potential further £5.8 million in success fees. Credit Suisse was also hired on another contract to advise on the toxic asset protection scheme, which increased to £300,000 a month from June, with a potential £3 million success fee. Its total fees could reach £15.4 million by next April. The NAO was highly critical of the lengthy contracts and the failure to include a definition of "success", although it stressed that just under £100 million of adviser costs will be refunded, largely from part-nationalised Lloyds Banking Group and Royal Bank of Scotland in return for state support. The report also reveals little was known about the scale of the problems at Royal Bank of Scotland before it was bailed out with vast sums of taxpayer cash. The NAO discovered the Government believed RBS's capital position was "reasonably strong" just days before RBS was given covert emergency support from the Bank of England. This funding - which peaked at £36.6 billion for RBS - was only made public for the first time late last month. The NAO report confirms a mammoth £131 billion is expected in total taxpayer outlay on bank bailouts by the end of this year, including last year's Northern Rock nationalisation. The total public sector support - including borrowing guarantees and liquidity support from the Bank, as well as savings depositor protection - runs to £850 billion.(my view)-And they say people who kill people or attack us are terrorists(which they are) and so are all the governments are TERRORISTS

Suprised Kitty

5 security threats to watch out for in 2010

SINGAPORE--Everyday Internet users will be a key target for cybercriminals looking to get people to download their malware, while the proliferation of social sites such as Facebook and Twitter will lead to an increase of possible fraud cases, reported Symantec. At a media gathering Wednesday, the security vendor released a report outlining security threats enterprises and consumers should be mindful of in 2010. Of these, the security risk faced by everyday Internet users is likely to increase as criminals look to trick people into downloading malware through means such as an innocent-looking URL link or videos and pictures from unknown sources. "[Users] could be opening themselves up to identity theft and other types of cybercrime," Symantec said in the report, adding that the number of attempted attacks using social engineering "is sure to increase" next year. Also, as the popularity of Apple products continue to grow, Mac and iPhone users--two of the most popular products by Apple--should look to protect the content they place on their devices as "more attackers will devote time to create malware to exploit these devices", according to the report. With the increased use of smartphones, mobile security will also be an area of concern, added Symantec. On the burgeoning social networking scene and the opportunities this affords cybercriminals, Symantec noted that continuing "unprecedented growth" of social sites will elicit a corresponding growth in fraud attempts. Shortened URLs are another key area for security, as the links may direct people to undesirable sites filled with malware, said David Hall, regional product manager, consumer products and solutions, Symantec Asia-Pacific, at the gathering. Condensed URLs are popular on social networking sites and in particular, Twitter and Facebook, so users of these platforms should avoid clicking on URLs sent by unknown users. Such links are likely to be created by phishers peddling links to malicious sites, said Symantec. "Scareware" or fake antivirus software are also expected to make a bigger presence next year, the security firm said. In such scenarios, users are tricked by scareware promoters into downloading the fake application, which could then lead to sensitive information being compromised. Computers may even be "hijacked" or rendered useless by cybercriminals, who control the machines until the owners pay a ransom fee. A look back at 2009 Scareware is, incidentally, one of 2009's top security concerns, according to Symantec's report. Another security headliner this year was the Conficker worm, which allowed its creators to remotely install software on computers globally. Though detected in November 2008, the worm started infecting computers in March and April 2009. In addition, events such as the deaths of actor Patrick Swayze and pop icon Michael Jackson, as well as the inauguration of America's first African-American president Barack Obama, saw significant spikes in search queries. Cybercriminals latched on the respective opportunities to release their spam and malware onto the Web to trick unsuspecting users, said Symantec. The company also reported more than 40 trillion spam messages in the past 12 months, with some of the popular subjects including festive occasions, cheap car discounts and fake Twitter invitations.