I ran across this blog the other day and was pleasantly surprised. Spencer Evans has taken the time to write about Arizona’s Confidential Intermediary Program. Mr. Evans is an Arizona attorney whose legal services are focused in the areas of trusts and estates, business law and adoptions. Visit his website for more information.

Thanks for helping to increase awareness of the program and the services offered by confidential intermediaries.

So many people are not aware that this program is in existence, much less recognize the hard work and dedication of Arizona’s CIs.

The IRS has announced an increase in the standard mileage rates for the final six months of 2008. The new rate for business miles is 58.5 for the period from 1 July 2008 through 31 December 2008.

The previous rate of 50.5 cents per mile should be used for mileage driven from 1 January 2008 through 30 June 2008.

Here’s a link to the IRS website for additional information.

For all you Arizona CIs, here is an interesting article published by AAA calculating the costs to drive your car. If you are driving a medium-sized sedan 15,000 miles per year, the cost to drive that vehicle is 55.2 cents, according to the AAA report.

AAA has been publishing this report since 1950, when it the annual cost of driving 10,000 miles annually was 9 cents per mile. But, hey, gasoline was selling for 27 cents per gallon.

Read the 2008 edition of “Your Driving Costs“.

By Ben Winslow
Deseret Morning News

Published: Wednesday, March 12, 2008 12:26 a.m. MDT

FARMINGTON — An Ogden woman who has apparently made a career of finding and reuniting adopted children with their birth parents now stands accused of pilfering hundreds of sealed adoption records from the 2nd District Courthouse. Davis County prosecutors have charged Jill Ekstrom with 21 counts of altering public records, a class A misdemeanor. Originally, Ekstrom, 43, was charged with one count of second-degree felony theft, but prosecutors later amended the charges.

“How do I put a value on somebody’s privacy?” deputy Davis County attorney Rick Westmoreland said Tuesday. “There’s a reason those records are sealed.”

Read the rest of the story here

From The Norman Transcript

Court rules cut off online access to records

RON JENKINS
Associated Press

The Oklahoma Supreme Court has adopted rules cutting off public access to court records now available on the Internet.

When the rules go into effect on June 10, online access to court documents in the Supreme Court and district courts would be limited to court dockets only.

The full story:  The Norman Transcript

The Arizona Department of Public Safety has updated the Licensing Unit Information website.

If you are unsure of the license status of an individual who claims to be licensed in Arizona as a private investigator, you can check their license status on this site.

http://webapps.azdps.gov/public_inq/sgrd/ShowLicenseStatus.action

HB2212 creates the Sibling Information Exchange Program.

Governer Janet Napolitano signed HB 2212 on 16 April 2007 which becomes effective on 1 January 2008, establishing the Sibling Information Exchange Program.

Children who become wards of the court in dependency hearings are often separated from their siblings and loose contact with one another. If parental rights are terminated, some of these children are adopted, while others remain in foster care. Placement information is confidential, and as a result, a dependent child has no means of staying in touch with siblings or later, making contact.

The Sibling Information Exchange Program will facilitate contact between a former dependent child and their siblings.

Individuals who are eligible to participate in the program are:

* An adult who is a former dependent child

* The adoptive parent, guardian or biological parent of a juvenile who is a former dependent child.

* The adult sibling of a former dependent child.

The program will be administered by the Arizona Supreme Court, Administrative Office of the Courts, Certification and Licensing Division.

“The Arizona Supreme Court, Administrative Office of the Courts is seeking public comment on revisions to the Arizona Code of Judicial Administration § 7-201: General Requirements and § 7-203: Confidential Intermediary as proposed by the Administrative Office of the Courts and the Certification and Licensing Division.”

Click this link to read the proposed changes and submit a comment. Anyone may comment.

Join me at Scottsdale Community College for a two-hour seminar and learn how you can reduce your risk of identity theft.

Register Online SCC Continuing Education
For more information or to register, call 480-423-6321

“Stop Hiding Your Key Under the Flowerpot”

Monday, March 5, 2007 — 7:15 - 9:15 PM
Section: 8307
SCC Campus
Class Location: Room SS123

How to Protect Your Private Information

Your life is an open book online. It doesn’t have to be.

By MICHAEL TOTTY
January 29, 2007; Page R1

My quote may be at the bottom of the article, but it’s there!

Students in my identity theft classes are always surprised at the amount of information that can be found about them online.

This article gives suggestions about removing information that is available online, but I believe it would be easier to push a car up-hill with a rope.

I ran across this article on NPR and can see the legal, moral, ethical and societal issues popping up now. Remember Baby M?

Adoption Agency Offers Up Embryos to Couples
by Joe Palca

All Things Considered, January 8, 2007 · A company in San Antonio, Texas, is creating what it says is the world’s first embryo bank. The embryos in the bank will not be used for research. Instead, they’ll be available to infertile couples who wish to have a child. Even so, the very notion of an embryo bank raises some difficult legal and ethical questions.

Read the story here.

I installed the WordPress software on December 26, 2006 and I am just getting around to my first post. I have been dragging my feet, even though family, friends and associates have encouraged this endeavor.  Blogs are all the buzz for marketing, everyone wants to see their own words in print, business coaches say, “If you have a business, you need a blog.”, it’ll be fun, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.

OK, I’ll give it a whirl.