By NANCY HICKS / Lincoln Journal Star
Sunday, Jun 22, 2008 - 12:16:10 am CDT
The state is changing the way services are provided to troubled families by dramatically reducing the number of contracts it has with agencies to provide services and making a few private agencies responsible for keeping families together.
Instead of [...]

By The Associated Press
Thursday, Jun 19, 2008 - 09:23:00 am CDT
GRAND ISLAND— The Hall County prosecutor says he can’t file child-abuse charges against the mother of a newborn who tested positive for meth.
Hall County Attorney Mark Young says Nebraska law doesn’t consider injury to a fetus to be child abuse.
Young says [...]

BY MARGARET REIST / Lincoln Journal Star
Wednesday, Jun 18, 2008 - 12:18:32 am CDT
The numbers tell part of the  story at 6601 Pioneers Boulevard.
It’s a story of children in crisis, of 382 young people who stayed at  Cedars Youth Services emergency shelter last year and of the more than 1,300 cases [...]

By JOHN LINDENBERGER
Published: Sunday, June 1, 2008 4:17 AM CDT
The North Platte Telegraph
Officials from the University of Nebraska Public Policy Center are currently looking for feedback from Nebraska residents about the effectiveness of substance abuse services throughout the state.
The assessment, which is being conducted for the Nebraska Division of Behavioral Health, includes a survey as [...]

Published Tuesday May 27, 2008
BY ERIN GRACE
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER
“Colorblind” federal adoption legislation passed more than a decade ago was supposed to reduce the number of black children in foster care and smooth the path to their adoption.
That hasn’t happened, an adoption advocacy group contends.
In a report released today, the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute said [...]

By JoANNE YOUNG / Lincoln Journal Star
Monday, May 26, 2008 - 06:01:54 pm CDT
Aaron Weaver remembers his last visit — at age 6 — with his biological mother.
Even with the reassurance of his soon-to-be adoptive mother, he dreaded seeing the woman who as a young child made him fear nearly all women.
For six years, his [...]

By Mark Coddington
The Grand Island Independent
Posted May 25, 2008 @ 10:47 PM

AURORA —

No one bargain-shops like Sondra Moellenberndt.
She’s constantly on the lookout, patrolling Goodwills and garage sales for the next jackpot.
Like the time she filled the entire back seat and trunk of her car with new Old Navy backpacks, all for less [...]

Published Saturday May 24, 2008
BY MARTHA STODDARD
WORLD-HERALD BUREAU
LINCOLN — A child welfare worker who wrongfully talked a Kimball, Neb., man into giving up his daughter for adoption must pay damages to the girl, the Nebraska Supreme Court ruled Friday.
The high court agreed with the Kimball County District Court that Kelly Case, a caseworker for the [...]

Published Friday May 23, 2008
BY JUDITH NYGREN
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER
Allegations that the state might be the victim of financial fraud led state and federal investigators to search the Omaha offices of SIGMA Treatment Foster Care Friday.
The Department of Health and Human Services received a tip several weeks ago about possible financial improprieties involving SIGMA.
The Nebraska State [...]

BY ERIN GRACE
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER
Published Sunday May 18, 2008
The call came two days before Christmas at 2:44 p.m.
Could the Bryants come pick up their new baby? Today? At 4:15?
Good one, thought 46-year-old Connie Bryant, a banker heading back to Omaha after a holiday party in Lincoln. She and co-workers had shared a great meal and [...]