TACA Has 7 Southern California Meeting Locations:
1.	Costa Mesa:	2nd Saturday of each month (info in item #1 for meeting topics and details)
2.	West Hills:	(the Valley, man) 1st Sunday of every month, 7-9 p.m. Location: Jumping Genius – 22750 Roscoe Blvd., West Hills (the corner of Roscoe Blvd. & Fallbrook Ave.) Info: Contact us
3.	San Diego:	4th Tuesday evening – 6:30- 8:00 p.m. Info: Contact us NEW LOCATION AS OF April 2005: Rancho Bernardo Community Presbyterian Church 17010 Pomerado Road, San Diego, CA 92128 - Rooms 22 A&B April 26, Charles Scott-- Special Needs Trusts May 24, Dr. Devin Houston -- Enzyme Protocol for Autism Spectrum Disorders
4.	Corona:	3rd Saturday – 1:30–4:30 p.m. NEW LOCATION AS OF 2/1/2005 : Autism Behavior Consultants 1880 Town & Country Road Building B-101  Norco, CA 92860. Located off the 15 Freeway (Take 2 nd street or 6 th street exit) off Hamner. For more information, please contact us May 21 Two Speakers: - Jack H. Anthony, Special Ed Attorney, on Special Education Law & Your family - Author Christina Adams offers TACA members the first look at her new book A Real Boy: A True Story of Autism, Early Intervention and Recovery (Berkley/Penguin, May 2005). She discusses the struggles and joys of the recovery process, how her son passed a kindergarten-readiness test with no sign of autism detected, and how a new doctor refused to believe he’d ever been diagnosed (see biography on Christina in section 2). June 18 Testing & Assessments – by Dr. Christine Majors - Dr. Majors is a Child Neuropsychologist specializing in autism and other disabilities. Her important discussion will review: - What is in a test and outside evaluations? Why are they important? Where should you start? And important observations about district and regional center testing.
5.	Torrance:	3rd Monday of each month at Whole Foods Market on PCH in Torrance Time: 6:30 - 9:00 p.m. For more info: Contact us
6.	Visalia:	3rd Wednesday of month Time: 6 p.m. "Happy Hour" with GFCF snacks and coffee - 6:30-8:30 p.m. Speaker Location: Kaweah Delta Multi-Service Center Auditorium, 402 W. Acequia, Visalia Information: Please contact Lynne Arnold Wednesday, April 20, 2005 The Truly Independent Evaluation by Mitchel Perlman, Ph.D., of San Diego, Clinical Forensic Psychologist. Dr. Perlman specializes in assessing children and teens with special needs. With cross-training in education, forensics, psychopharmacology and neuropsychology, Dr. Perlman has extensive expertise in detecting and/or explaining developmental aspects that have often been unnoticed or misunderstood. In many children who had been diagnosed with autism and mental retardation, for example, Dr. Perlman has found near-gifted to gifted intelligence and has been instrumental in guiding parents to the resources to unlock it. Wednesday, May 18, 2005 Classroom Competence - Monique Bekashus, MS, of Fresno, Program Director and Behaviorist at Behavior Intervention Association. Wednesday, June 15, 2005 Sensory Integration - Jennifer L. Hoffiz, of Pleasanton¹s Sensory Integration Center Wednesday, July 20, 2005 Working with the Regional Center: Your Rights Under the Lanterman Act - Enid Perez, Attorney; Kay Spencer, Advocate, of the Office of Client Rights.
7.	Santa Rosa:	(typically) 2ndTuesday of each month at Swain Center – 795 Farmers Lane, Suite 27, Santa Rosa – 7:00 - 8:30 p.m. For more info: contact us Speakers: May-Annie Osborn N.D. July-Julie Griffith Neurologist DAN! Dr. August-Devin Houston PhD HNI December- Lisa Ackerman (we hope!)

Article A: Atlanta Law Firm Charges To County Schools Top $1.7 Million

posted March 14, 2005 - Chattanoogan.com

An Atlanta law firm that specializes nationwide in special education cases has charged the Hamilton County Schools over $1.7 million on a single case that is still ongoing.

The bill thus far from the Charles Weatherly law firm in the Deal autism case is at $1,742,636. Total taxpayer cost of the lawsuit is over $2.3 million counting pay for expert witnesses.

County Commissioner Larry Henry said he was advised the case could have been settled initially for $150,000, though county school officials deny that.

The same Atlanta law firm billed the Ravenswood School District in San Jose, Calif., $2.1 million at a time when the district was going bankrupt, according to the San Jose Mercury News.

The newspaper said Ravenswood paid for first-class travel and food for the Atlanta firm.

The Mercury News wrote, "Even as the Ravenswood school district tumbled toward bankruptcy, its former leaders allowed an Atlanta law firm to rack up $2.1 million in bills in less than a year, including first-class plane tickets and meals at some of the Bay Area's priciest restaurants.

"A Mercury News review found that the Weatherly Law Firm, hired last year to defend Ravenswood in a special education lawsuit, charged the district serving the Peninsula's poorest children what amounts to $420 per student -- 5.5 percent of its annual budget. A new school board replaced the firm in December with county counsel charging $30,000 a year."

Hamilton County school officials have been asked by Chattanoogan.com for details of the Weatherly law firm billings to the Hamilton County Schools and those have not yet been made available.

Hamilton County School officials did release details of the some $600,000 that has been paid for "legal experts."

Those include:

• $1,052.50 expert witness fee Alisa Dror
• $40,269.58 expert witness fee Autism Partnership
• $188,747.50 expert witness fee Behavior Therapy
• $167,888.84 expert witness fee Dr. B.J. Freeman
• $12,900.00 expert witness fee Dr. Craig Kennedy
• $74,632.47 expert witness fee Dr. David Rostetter
• $50,850.00 expert witness fee Dr. Mitch Taubman
• $2,800.00 expert witness fee Dr. Peter Thomas
• $48,062.50 expert witness fee Dr. Ronald Leaf
• $1,844.20 expert witness fee Dr. Susan Speraw
• $1,586.00 expert witness fee Thomas Oakland

Expert Witness Total Expenses: $590,633.59

TRAVEL SUB TOTAL: $10,902.14

COURT REPORTING SUB TOTAL: $2,733.06
GRAND TOTAL: $604,268.79

The Hamilton County Schools spent overall on legal bills:

• Fiscal year ending June 30 2002: $411,209
• Fiscal year ending June 30 2003: $1,648,224
• Fiscal year ending June 30 2004: $398,009
• Fiscal year ending June 30 2005: $331,624

The county schools said $419,579 should be deducted from the 2003 amount and $302,277 from the 2004 amount for IBNR items. Officials said, "According to Generally Accepted Accounting Principles, we have to set aside reserve money for possible claims. This is referred to as IBNR. If the possibility of those claims goes away, then we have to decrease the amount of money in those reserves. This has an effect on legal expenses."

Legal payments were:

2002

• Chambliss, Bahner and Stophel $212,374
• Philip and Maureen Deal $12,872
• Weatherly law firm $165,993
• Leitner, Williams and Dooley $17,136
• Court Reporter Services $1,510
• All Others $1,322

2003

• Chambliss, Bahner and Stophel $165,405
• Philip and Maureen Deal $1,882
• Weatherly law firm $1,418,1863
• Leitner, Williams and Dooley $49,567
• Court Reporter Services $9,815
• All Others $3,367

2004

• Chambliss, Bahner and Stophel $133,650
• Weatherly law firm $79,043
• Leitner, Williams and Dooley $164,736
• Court Reporter Services $3,982
• All Others $16,597

2005

• Chambliss, Bahner and Stophel $94,890
• Weatherly law firm $79,414
• Leitner, Williams and Dooley $139,174
• Court Reporter Services $4,274
• All Others $13,871

In addition, attorney Ward Crutchfield is paid an annual salary of $53,985 as the school board attorney.

Scott Bennett, of the Leitner, Williams and Dooley firm, is listed as general counsel to the Hamilton County Schools staff.

The Mercury News also said of the Weatherly firm:
Former officials in the East Palo Alto-eastern Menlo Park district did little to check whether the time lawyers, paralegals and others spent on the lawsuit was appropriate. Nor did they question the roughly $135,000 in bills for travel and meals, including $40 room-service breakfasts for one and $468 of a $969 tab for a dinner for about 10 people.

Former Superintendent Charlie Mae Knight, who approved the bills, said she thought the firm's lead lawyer, Charles Weatherly, ``had been pretty frugal.''

"If he traveled first class, we didn't notice," she said.

In hiring the Weatherly firm, Ravenswood failed to require safeguards other public agencies often use, including setting a cap on expenses. The firm's contract did not get a mandatory county review before Knight signed it -- a lapse she blamed on a secretary. Had that review occurred, county lawyers say Ravenswood, which has a $38 million annual operating budget, probably would have been warned that the contract could bleed it dry.

Defending the charges

Weatherly, who is widely known for his work in special education law and has a national client base, had explanations for nearly all of the questionable charges involving travel and meals. But he said no one in Ravenswood had ever asked him about them before.

``We were constantly aware of costs, but the litigation was not going to stop,'' he said.

The charges included:

• $99,800 for air fare. At least 20 of 78 tickets were first-class, and 50 of them cost $1,000 or more.
• Round-trip tickets from Atlanta were as expensive as $2,584, and one-way tickets as much as $2,128.
• $14,917 for 250 meals, including at least 23 charges for room service and 49 meals of $100 or more.
• $2,629 at the Swissotel in Boston, where lawyers met with a special education expert. The rate during most of their stay was $349 a night per room.
• The firm's single biggest bill for meals was $468 of a $969 June 11 dinner at San Mateo's Kingfish, where the specialties of the house include the ``Full Throne," a $40 plate of ``oysters, Dungeness crab, prawns and ahi tartare.''

Weatherly said he only charged the district what he considered to be a reasonable amount for a meal that fed about 10 people, and he paid for his own alcohol. He said he normally does not charge a district more than $30 per person per meal.

Although the district paid the invoice that had the Kingfish receipt attached, Knight and two board members said they were not aware of the charge until the Mercury News brought it to their attention. Their reactions:

``If you tell me he had a $900 bill and he only billed the district $400, that's pretty generous,'' Knight said.

Lois Frontino, a board member who lost her seat in November, added, ``Well, geez, I wish I'd been there, too.'' She said she would ``review some of these things if we did it over.''

And Chester Palesoo, one of two current board members in office when the firm was hired, had this to say:

``What do I think? They need to eat. If they don't want McDonald's, they don't want McDonald's. That's the way it goes.''

Knight's 17 years as superintendent were marked by controversy, including allegations of cronyism and mismanagement. Reform school board candidates ousted some of her supporters in November, and she was put on paid administrative leave immediately after the new board took office. The board has made clear it cannot afford to buy out her $150,000-a-year contract, and she remains on leave.

Ravenswood hired Weatherly and his associates in February 2002 to prevent U.S. District Court Judge Thelton Henderson from ordering a state takeover for its special education failings.

In financial jeopardy

Now that the district has new leaders, a takeover is no longer under consideration in the case. But, after paying the Weatherly firm $2 million between March and November 2002, Ravenswood is teetering on the brink of a takeover for financial reasons.

Ironically, the district needs exactly $2 million a year to improve its special education program and get itself out of trouble with the judge.

``I think I'm going to be sick,'' said new board member Marcelino Lopez, when presented with a Mercury News review of all firm invoices from March 28, 2002, to Jan. 6.

By law, Ravenswood must keep 3 percent of its budget in reserve, or $1.1 million. Reserves are now at 0.3 percent. If the district becomes insolvent, the state will probably take over.

As Ravenswood weighs laying off teachers, Weatherly continues charging it for time defending his own conduct. Henderson has launched a probe investigating, among other things, whether he racked up bills unnecessarily.

In addition to the $2 million paid between March and November 2002, Weatherly submitted $122,246 in bills the district's new leaders have not paid.

Of the total $2.1 million Weatherly has billed Ravenswood, $1.5 million was for hours clocked by lawyers and paralegals at rates of $50 to $295 an hour. Those rates are comparable to what other lawyers in his specialized field earn.

An additional $322,897 was charged for expert witness fees and their travel expenses. Then there was $17,356 for Federal Express and postage and $130,430 for photocopies and binding.

Weatherly's contract said the district would cover ``various out-of-pocket disbursements, including travel expenses.'' It made no mention of meals.

``We didn't get down to the details of saying you could only eat at Denny's,'' Knight said.

Many meals billed to Ravenswood -- where nearly every student is poor enough to qualify for free or reduced-price lunch -- included food for multiple attorneys, paralegals and experts, occasionally at some of the Bay Area's best restaurants.

Weatherly said room service was often necessary while he and his associates worked in their hotel suite, meeting with experts and others. While in the Bay Area, the lawyers stayed at a suite at the Burlingame Doubletree. Records show that tens of thousands of dollars were billed directly to Ravenswood, in addition to the firm's fees.

Other billing practices

Other lawyers handle expenses differently.

Pasadena lawyer Urrea Jones, who has represented Ravenswood on a variety of issues, including special education, pays for air fare himself.

Maree Sneed, a Washington, D.C., education lawyer who has represented San Francisco and Fresno schools, has high regard for Weatherly and said it makes sense that a district in Ravenswood's situation would have hired him. She said the districts she represents cover her travel and meals, often without setting caps, but she is vigilant about costs.

For instance, she said she has her secretary search for the lowest possible air fares. She takes flights with connections to save money and does not bill for travel time.

Weatherly, who often uses a travel agent, only flies non-stop on Delta, and does charge for travel time.

He said his air fare often was automatically upgraded to first-class because he flies so frequently. He flew first-class at least 14 times and coach six times. The paralegals always flew coach.

Weatherly blamed many of the pricey tickets on Ravenswood, saying the district would ask him and his associates to fly out at the last minute, and they did not stay for the weekend -- a requirement for many reduced-rate fares.

Other school districts, such as Knox County, Tenn., have faced criticism for paying Weatherly's high fees.

But they have vehemently argued that he actually saves taxpayers' money in the long run. His firm specializes in cases where children and their families claim districts should pay for expensive special education services or private school placements. The districts argue that paying for a special service once sets off a chain reaction, where other parents ask for the same thing.

Ravenswood's class-action lawsuit, filed in 1996 on behalf of disabled children, has been long and costly.

An earlier Mercury News review showed the district paid more than $425,000 to lawyers from 1999 to 2001.

But fees skyrocketed after Henderson held the district in contempt in August 2001 for failure to improve, and lawyers for children and the state asked him to order a takeover.

Last November, while the two sides were trying to settle the contempt charges, voters elected a new school board majority that vowed to reform special education. Just before the leadership change, Weatherly filed court papers including a proposed settlement -- despite the judge's order to wait for the new board to take action. Weatherly said it was important to show how much progress had been made.

Henderson blasted the move as politically charged, launching a disciplinary probe against Weatherly.

Among the concerns the judge cited: ``needless increase in the cost of litigation.''

Outstanding bills

The bills Ravenswood's new leaders have not paid include at least $12,543 for time Weatherly has spent defending himself and the partial cost of dinner at San Francisco's posh Gary Danko, a Mobil guide five-star restaurant requiring reservations two months in advance.

Although he said he paid for his own alcohol, the Ravenswood bills include a $27 bar tab. Weatherly acknowledged that submitting that bill was a mistake.

Ravenswood's new superintendent, Floyd Gonella, said he has no intention of recommending that the school board give the Weatherly firm another cent -- and will do whatever he can to get back money already paid.

``In 28 years as a superintendent, I have never experienced such outrageous costs,'' said Gonella, who previously served as superintendent of San Mateo County schools and the Jefferson high school district.

``The amount taken away from the little kids of Ravenswood is unconscionable.''

Editors comments: This story was reported in Atlanta however, similar stories are reported right here in our backyard.

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Article B: Walter’s World

Walter's World
For a severely autistic child, success is measured one step at a time
By ERIC ADLER The Kansas City Star
http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/living/11212111.htm

“The idea for Walter is quality of life, and dignity, for Walter to be the best he can be, for him to feel as comfortable as he can in his own skin.”

— Judy Becker, Walter's teacher

Photos by KEITH MYERS/The Kansas City Star Walter Martin waits for his turn on the tire swing at his school, Katherine Carpenter Elementary in Overland Park. “I'd love to know what's going on in his mind,” says Walter's father, Jeff Martin.

Photos by Keith Myers/The Kansas City Star Using his hands and mouth, Walter explores the feel of his dad's head as they share a moment at home. Jeff Martin leaves his hair and beard short because Walter loves the texture.

Keith Myers (/The Kansas City Star) Triumph. Under the watchful eye of teacher Judy Becker, Walter carries his lunch tray to his seat without mishap.

Walk 7 feet..

That's the goal.

If 8-year-old Walter Martin can make it, if he can pick up his white plastic lunch tray piled with spaghetti, grip it steadily in both hands and carry it 7 feet to the salad bar without splattering food all over the linoleum, that would be tremendous.

It would give Jeff Martin, Walter's dad, hope that perhaps one day — long after he and Laura Martin of Johnson County are gone and Walter is grown — their son will not be helpless. Even with severe autism, maybe Walter will somehow do what they literally pray he'll do.

“There you go, sugar cookie,” the lunch lady at Katherine Carpenter Elementary School says to Walter who, at 49 pounds, is muscle, skin and flag-pole thin. His hair is short as peach fuzz.

The lunch lady places the tray of spaghetti on the aluminum counter. Walter squeals, “Beeeeh! Beeeeh!”

He hops on his toes. He jerks his head up to the right over his shoulder. His eyes, expressive and brown, are alarmed or curious. His stare freezes on something somewhere up and away. What he sees, what he hears — what he thinks he sees or hears — nobody knows.

Like an infant, which Walter is in many ways (away from school he wears a diaper under his long pants), he will coo or babble. He'll scream in the high-pitched anguish of a baby. His face collapses. He flaps his hands as if his fingers are on fire. His forehead furrows. Then just as quickly, it evaporates. A beatific contentment settles over his face. Or he'll squeal in delight, mouth wide open, top teeth showing, eyebrows arched, his eyes like pool balls, his attention drawn to something far away.

Walter turns 9 in April. He hasn't said a real word since he was 17 months old.

Walter clasps both hands on the edges of his lunch tray. He slides it along the aluminum counter.

Earlier, Walter's autism teacher, Judy Becker, helped Walter rehearse using an empty tray. He dangled it and flipped it. He jumped with it in his hands. He nuzzled it to his chest before straightening and carrying the tray correctly.

“Good, Walter!” Becker encouraged him then.

Now the tray is off the counter. It's heaped with spaghetti. Becker steps back, but hovers close, ready to rescue it from crashing to the floor.

Walter takes a step.

Across Missouri, Kansas and the country, the number of children diagnosed with autism or one of its related brain disorders (Asperger's disorder, Rett's disorder, Childhood Disintegrative disorder) has ballooned beyond all experts' understanding.

In Missouri, the numbers are up close to 500 percent in the last 20 years. In Kansas, it's 900 percent, according to the U.S. Department of Education. Nationwide, they've risen tenfold. The American Academy of Pediatrics now estimates that one in 166 people has some form of autism — from the highest-functioning Asperger's in which children can be near geniuses in some areas, but have social problems — to the lowest-functioning disorder like Walter's.

The National Institutes of Health this year is pouring $99 million (compared to $22 million in 1977) into autism research. Knowledge has advanced regarding diagnosis, brain mapping, semi-helpful medications, plus occupational and speech therapies.

Theories on autism's cause abound: genetics, vaccines, environmental toxins. But the cause remains a mystery. A cure is unknown.

Left leg. Right leg. Two tiny steps from the lunch line. The tray remains balanced. Judy Becker hangs back, hoping Walter can do this on his own.

Every parent of a child with severe autism has heard the miracle stories.

A child trapped for years in his own autistic world swims with dolphins or is handed a computer keyboard or musical instrument. Something clicks or unlocks. Parents who have never heard their child's voice hear him sing, talk or write, “I love you.”

One Martin relative tells them frequently, “You'll be surprised. Someday, he'll snap out of it.”

And Jeff Martin used to think, yeah, Walter can beat this. He may never be 100 percent typical. But the Martins are smart, driven people. Laura, 41, is a lawyer. Jeff, also 41, is a landscape designer but stays at home full time because of Walter.

Their 12-year-old daughter, Grace, is gifted. The summer after third grade, she devoured 140 chapter books. She reads Shakespeare.

So the Martins thought if they dug in and did everything right, Walter could break through.

One, two, three more steps. Tray straight. Four feet to go. “Good, Walter!” Becker thinks.

Now the Martins know differently. Now they know that for children with the most severe autism, improvement comes one step, one inch, one tiny task at a time.

Three feet to go.

Jeff watches. His wife is the pragmatist and realist (she must be this way, she says, otherwise she cries). Jeff is the romantic. His voice is gentle. His manner is easy. He wears his graying hair short and his beard stubbly because Walter, like many other autistic children, loves the texture.

Some children with autism are so ultra-sensitive — to both touching and being touched — that they scream and struggle to break free from hugs. Some practically rip fabrics off their skin.

Walter isn't like this.

“I'm not sure what I would do if I couldn't at least hold my son,” Laura said.

Walter's face glows with peaceful calm when he strokes his dad's beard or pats his head. How can he so love textures yet be cut off from larger sensations?

Walter does not respond to pain. He once split his lip on a curb so deeply he needed multiple stitches. He never cried.

He once held a sharp single-edged razor inside his mouth. No tears, but also not a single cut.

Jeff calls this “Walter's divine halo,” an almost Zen-like state in which Walter is not hurt because he doesn't understand he can be hurt.

That frightens the Martins. They must guess: When is he in pain? When is he sick? One of the biggest killers of kids with autism is car accidents. They dash into traffic unafraid or unaware.

…11, 12, 13 steps. Walter's made it. He's made it to the salad bar. But the bar's foldable counter isn't locked in place. There's nowhere to rest the tray. Walter tilts his tray 10, 15, 20 degrees. Food begins to slide. Becker rushes over. She holds up the tray with one hand, clicks the counter into place with the other, and then helps Walter set down the tray.

Walter's reached this goal, but Becker decides to go further, to see if Walter can now make it to the cash register. Walter smiles, “beeeh! beeeh!,” and hops up and down.

***

Of the 200 students at Katherine Carpenter in Overland Park, about 25 have special needs. Walter is in a class with three other boys about his age, each with autism. Each has his own teacher and an IEP, an Individualized Education Program.

Typical students Walter's age learn multiplication, division, history. They perfect cursive writing. Walter's goals over 36 weeks:

1. To recognize his name in print.

2. To point to “communication” icons — little square drawings that represent activities such as play, work, snack that he prefers — then to take part in that activity.

3. To identify his cup, plate and fork and to hand them to Becker when she asks for them.

4. To identify his plastic utensils and place them on his tray without help.

5. To carry his lunch tray first to the salad bar, then 3 feet more to the pay table; then 10 feet more to the utensil table, then the big move: To carry it 90-plus feet to his seat.

Jeff Martin laughs at an old thought he used to have. He cringes at another.

Not long after Walter was born, he thought his son might be “brilliant.” And years after he was diagnosed, there were hard moments when he thought it might have been better if Walter had been born with a terminal illness. “Because then you'd know there'd be an end to it,” he said.

Walter makes it to the cash register. He turns, and steps toward the utensil table just inside the gym door. Ten feet, 9 feet, 8 feet…“Good, Walter!” a lunch lady says.

***

Walter was born on April 15, 1996. He seemed perfect. Like most children with autism, he showed no early signs of the disorder.

The way he easily found and matched patterns, even in the weave of rugs, made Jeff and Laura think Walter might be gifted.

But one of autism's mysteries is how it rarely reveals itself until children are 18 months, even 2 years old. So it was with Walter.

The Martins never had lofty plans for their lives. They wanted to marry, have kids, live in a nice little house.

Jeff Martin's Air Force father — Maj. Walter W. Martin — died during the Vietnam War in Laos in 1969 when Jeff was 4.

“I always wanted to be the father that I wanted,” Jeff said.

They had Grace in 1993. Then Walter came. But at 18 months, he still didn't walk. He didn't talk. He almost never made eye contact. Doctors thought he might be deaf. Walter lives in his own world — a nearly 9-year-old boy who's mostly an infant. The care never ends: feeding, dressing, cleaning, watching. For a long time, when Walter erupted in rages or tantrums, he bit himself, others, chairs, anything.

Baby sitters? Forget it. Family trips? Forget airplanes.

Even now the Martins usually do split-duty. If Grace has a school event, one or the other parent goes. Walter can't be left alone. He often can't go along because of his distracting, unpredictable behavior.

He squeals. He yelps. He flaps his hands.

The Martins worry about neglecting their daughter. “She's like an only child with this sibling who takes all this time,” Jeff said.

People see Jeff and Laura together so infrequently, they often ask if they've divorced.

Harder still is the paucity of emotion. Children with severe autism are not like affectionate children with Down syndrome. Some never connect. Others, hardly. Hugs are rare. Kisses are rarer. The few times when Walter wraps his arms around his parents or lays his head in their laps, is like receiving gold.

“They (children with autism) can be hard kids to love at times,” Jeff said. “You don't get much back.”

The Martins own 40 acres on a family farm in Pittsburg, Kan. When Walter's there, he runs and runs. He smiles and coos. He loves to be in the back yard of his home. For long minutes, he'll lie back on the slide and stare into the clouds.

“I'd love to know what's going on in his mind,” Jeff said.

In their finished basement, the Martins have a treadmill, yoga ball and a “rocking board” Walter enjoys. Grace says her brother smiles at music, especially at Disney Sing-A-Long videos in which the lyrics scroll at the bottom of the screen. He watches the words.

Mesmerized, he often lies on a little patch of carpeting set high up along a bank of windows that allow light to pour into the basement. He'll stare at the sky forever.

Then there are his plastic fish. They're toddler's toys, pieces of colorful plastic bent into the shape of fish. The fish loop together to become a chain.

Just as Linus from “Peanuts” won't let go of his blanket, Walter loves to hold a single fish between his right thumb and forefinger. Then he twiddles it, twiddles it, twiddles it, twiddles it, on and on, rotating it between his fingers or clicking it on a table-top, staring at it, his eyes inches away.

The Martins have scores of the fish in their house as back-ups in case one is lost.

Walter plops his tray on the utensil table. Becker grabs the paper napkins. She hardly has time to drop them on the tray before Walter is off again, heading across the entire length of the basketball court, more than 90 feet — his biggest challenge yet.

***

Some nights, Jeff Martin has a dream about his boy. In it, Walter talks. His voice comes out of nowhere. Jeff is so excited, he runs looking for Laura to tell her, “Walter can talk!”

He no longer thinks the dream will come true. Now it's the “little things” that give him and Laura hope.

Walter recently learned to drink from a regular cup rather than a sippy cup. He can now identify his name in print.

When Becker points to a picture of a cup or plate or fork, Walter hands it to her. He's making connections. The hope is that someday maybe he will be able to string enough of these little pictures together to communicate.

At school and home, he now sits still in a chair, something he has never done before. He's learned that his backpack goes with him to school. Asked to get his shoes, he gets them. Bathroom “accidents” in class are now uncommon. Every Friday, Walter and his classmates go on an outing to someplace like Wal-Mart to get them used to being in the real world.

“He is learning,” Jeff said.

The Martins know their son will always need help. He will be in special, intense classes in the Shawnee Mission School District until he is 21. Their ultimate dream for him is he may one day be capable enough to live in a group home.

“A lot of the students I have now may look and act exactly the same when they're high school age,” Becker said. “The idea for Walter is quality of life, and dignity, for Walter to be the best he can be, for him to feel as comfortable as he can in his own skin.”

Walter's food tray plunks down on the table. He's made it. Not one morsel of food spilled on a two-minute trip more than 100 feet from where he started.

Tomorrow or next week or next month, the skill could vanish. It happens that way. The Martins and Walter's teachers might work for months on a single task. Walter masters it. Then it's gone.

But the mother of another child with autism once told the Martins something. Having a child with autism is a marathon, not a sprint.

“It's been a long journey,” Jeff Martin said. “We accept it will be life-long.”

To reach Eric Adler, features reporter, call (816) 234-4431 or send e-mail to eadler@kcstar.com.

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Article C: Diet gains focus in ADHD, autism

http://www.dailystar.com/dailystar/dailystar/66402.php


James S. Wood / Arizona Daily Star
Israel Martinez, 6, who has autism, has made progress on a new diet. His mother calls the changes "quick, remarkable."

Changed eating regimen appears to help children

By Carla McClain
ARIZONA DAILY STAR

Brandon had always been a handful at home. But when he started school, his problems spiraled out of control. 
Hyper. Disrupting the class. Unable to focus. Trouble learning to read. Trouble making friends. Teachers complaining. 
It went on four long years - through third grade. Finally, a year ago, a local doctor stepped in and changed Brandon's diet. Took him off sugar, chocolate, wheat cereal, anything with red dye. Added a daily multivitamin and omega-3 fatty acid (fish oil) supplements. 
Bingo. 
"The turnaround was tremendous," said his mother, Dellma Valles. "He's starting to sleep through the night; he's much more calm during the day. He's getting decent grades, and he's caught up in reading." 
Unlike so many kids with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) - the most common childhood psychiatric disorder in the nation - Brandon, now 9, has never had to take Ritalin or any psychoactive stimulant drug to curb his behavior. 
"What a blessing," his mother said. 
She is among a growing number of parents who, along with their doctors, are beginning to accept and benefit from nutritional treatment for today's exploding behavioral plagues of childhood - attention-deficit disorders and autism. 
For reasons not well understood, both problems have increased dramatically in the past decade. Attention-deficit problems affect 5 to 10 percent of children, and autism, a more severe brain-damaging syndrome, hits one of 166 U.S. kids, about 0.6 percent. 
Although special, sometimes extreme, diets long have been advocated for both problems, only recently has nutrition begun to reach mainstream treatment. And perhaps surprisingly, many dietary changes now recommended for attention deficit are similar to those used to lessen the effects of autism, which can emotionally detach a child from the world and cause lifelong problems. 
"There is so much wrong, so much shortfall in what children eat today that we have to pay close attention to what it's doing to them," said Dr. Dorothy Johnson, a Tucson behavioral pediatrician who specializes in the disorders. 
When faced with either problem in a child, Johnson immediately eliminates foods with artificial colorings, additive and preservatives, and strongly recommends cutting processed and refined foods. 
"That's not easy," she said. "But I tell parents to shop around the outside aisles of the grocery store, where the fresh foods are. I want to see every child eating a colorful plate of natural food." 
Johnson doesn't embrace all dietary changes proposed for the disorders, such as completely cutting wheat and dairy, and, in some cases, eggs, citrus, corn, nuts and soy. And she remains a strong advocate of the benefit of proven stimulant drugs for severe ADD and ADHD. 
But there are no drugs for autism, a complex neurological disorder that can cause devastating behavioral effects. Rachel Johnson saw almost all of them in her son, Israel Martinez, now 6, starting at 14 months. 
"He started regressing," she said. "He couldn't do a lot of the things he did before." 
By age 4, he had stopped talking, become disconnected from his mother, and defiant, prone to screaming fits. He also had terrible diarrhea. "It just seemed like he was in his own world," his mother said. "No one could reach him." 
With Israel all but unfit for school, Johnson took him to Dr. Sanford Newmark - a Tucson pediatrician trained in integrative medicine, combining mainstream and alternative treatment. Newmark also treated Brandon Valles. 
After a lengthy evaluation, he took Israel off all wheat and dairy - known as the gluten-free/casein-free diet. 
"One month of that, and he was a different child," Newmark said. "He was more awake, more interactive, his language improved, the repetitive behaviors stopped, and the diarrhea was over." 
Israel also started taking a multivitamin and zinc and omega-3 fatty acid supplements, in the form of fish oils. He can eat small amounts of wheat. 
"The changes were so quick and so remarkable," said his mother, who especially credited the omega-3. "He's a much calmer, happier child." 
Israel continues conventional treatment for autism - speech, occupational and behavioral therapies, which Newmark also advocates. 
"When you see kids with severe autism, the situation is quite terrible," he said. "It's so discouraging for the parents. But there is no cookie-cutter answer for these kids. Autism is a wide-spectrum disorder, and each child is different." 
Though many of the kids he's treated for ADD and autism have shown dramatic improvement, Newmark also has seen "nothing happen." 
"But I have the feeling that if I got to these children earlier, when they're only 1 or 2, it would be more successful." 
No one knows how many attention-deficit or autistic kids respond to diet changes. Estimates range from 20 to 60 percent. But there is little mention of nutritional therapies in treatments listed by the National Institutes of Mental Health or the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 
"You will find some doctors who tell you it's a waste of time, but others who say if you do nothing else, change the diet," said Maria Bardach, whose autistic daughter Marley, 10, went off wheat and dairy, eating only organic food, six years ago. 
That ended her diarrhea, constipation and repetitive hand movements. She became more animated. 
"With some kids, there are miracles. They are rare, but they happen," she said. "It's one intervention that's not harmful. It's actually very healthy for the whole family." 
Contact reporter Carla McClain at 806-7754 or at cmcclain@azstarnet.com. 

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Article D: Autism's echoes fill this home

http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2005-03-28-autistic-family_x.htm

By Sharon Jayson, USA TODAY

AUSTIN — There is a quiet irony in Jeanette and Patrick O'Donnell's house, where autism has taken hold of five of their six children.

		Five of Patrick and Jeanette O'Donnell's six kids are autistic.
		By H. Darr Beiser, USA TODAY

Though the brain disorder is most often associated with an inability to speak, autism has rendered this household anything but silent.

"You have to get used to the sound," Jeanette says of the crashes and pops that mean something is breaking or hitting the floor, usually propelled by small hands. The cacophony of seven older television sets, usually tuned to different channels, drones in the background, fed by a backyard satellite dish.

"We have to have TV on all the time," Jeanette, 44, says. "It's a stimulant."

It's rare to have so many children with the disorder. A database operated by the non-profit advocacy group Cure Autism Now says the O'Donnells are one of only three known U.S. families with five autistic children. Fourteen other families have four.

"People say, 'How do you do it?' " Jeanette says. "We weren't really given a choice. It would be the same if we had diabetic children or a child who had cancer."

"We're not big into self-pity," adds Patrick, 39, a print room supervisor for an insurance management company.

A glimpse into the O'Donnells' modest four-bedroom home is more than a look at the faded furniture they either inherited or bought at garage sales: It's a peek at a family on the verge of overload.

"You get stressed," Jeanette says. "Sometimes I go, 'Oh, my God, I can't take another minute.' "

Living with autism has meant adjusting to diagnoses spanning a spectrum of baffling symptoms. Jeanette provides almost non-stop prodding, with reminders about basic grooming, and caters to the rigid routines and personal quirks characteristic of the disorder:

• Caitlin, the oldest at 14, has classic autism, the most severe form. She has a high-pitched scream and has difficulty being around others.

• The next oldest, Deirdre, 10, has Asperger syndrome, the mildest form. She converses about subjects like Greek mythology but is socially awkward.

• Erin, 8, has some signs of classic autism as well as a sensitivity to sight and sound. Her diagnosis: "Pervasive developmental disorder not otherwise specified."

• Patrick, 5, is in pre-kindergarten part time and also attends preschool for children with disabilities. He has the same diagnosis as Erin.

• Kiernan, 4, also is in preschool for disabled children. Diagnosed with severe autism, he rocks back and forth and is never far from a TV.

Meaghan, 7, is the only child not diagnosed with autism. She loves to draw and often helps her parents with the others.

"It kind of upset her that she was different," Jeanette says. "I said, 'That just makes you a special child in this home. You don't want autism.' "

A silent epidemic

Autism can transform a loving toddler into a detached and uncommunicative child. Researchers aren't sure of its causes and say there is no cure. But numbers are increasing dramatically. A decade ago, one in every 2,500 U.S. children had autism; now it's one in 166, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says.

The Autism Society of America, an advocacy group, says the number of Americans with autism could rise from 1.5 million to 4 million in the next decade.

Researchers are studying a number of possible causes and contributing factors, including the role of genetics and childhood vaccines. Scientists now believe there is a strong genetic link, but exactly which genes and how abnormalities occur is still a mystery. The O'Donnells say doctors told them in 1993, when Caitlin was diagnosed, that it was not hereditary.

They had already had four kids by the time a second child, Erin, was diagnosed in 1999. Jeanette says the three youngest were conceived while she was using a low-dose birth control pill.

"When autism comes into a family's home, it dominates the house and puts the family in a crisis situation," says Lee Grossman, president of the Autism Society.

Patrick umpires softball two nights a week to help stretch their single income. The family gets state and federal financial assistance totaling about $2,500 a month, which also includes respite-care money for a babysitter.

There is little couple time in this busy household, Patrick acknowledges. "Our quiet time is 10:15 p.m. to 10:25 p.m., when you pass out on the bed talking to me," he says, glancing over at his wife.

But they believe all their efforts make a difference. After years of speech therapy, all the O'Donnell children but 4-year-old Kiernan speak, though some haltingly. Caitlin stopped saying words at 15 months and didn't talk again until she was almost 8. Doctors say Kiernan also could have mental retardation, though it's hard to determine because he is non-verbal.

Caitlin, a middle-schooler in both regular and special-ed classes, has a full-time attendant, provided by the school district to keep her from running away from classmates. At home, she's usually in her pink bedroom with Barbie curtains, at the computer, playing video games or watching TV, even eating her meals there.

At home, they let go

The house may look disheveled and sound like a war zone, but Jeanette wants it to be the one place the kids can relax and be themselves after struggling to control their behavior all day at school. "Sometimes they go nuts here. They draw on the walls. They break the furniture. They've got to have somewhere they can let go."

A yelp from upstairs turns into crying, as Jeanette meets Caitlin at the foot of the stairs. "Honey, what happened?" she asks.

Caitlin holds out her hand, wailing, "My fingers."

"You shut the door on it?" Jeanette asks as she soothes her. "You'll be all right."

"She's hypersensitive. She is a little dramatic. She can't help it," Jeanette says.

Autism has not affected the kids' motor skills. All but Patrick, 5, walked by 10 months; he walked three months later. But some of them often walk on tiptoe.

"They don't like to touch the carpeting," Jeanette says, explaining their sensory sensitivities.

Erin likes only tight-fitting clothing; Caitlin, when she was younger, and now Kiernan, shed their clothes at home. Kiernan, at 4, walks around in a shirt and diaper most of the time. Deirdre is sensitive to the textures of certain foods.

Sometimes the quirks are more disruptive — and dangerous.

Kiernan is most often the crash culprit. He climbs up onto cabinets and breaks glasses. He knocks over the file cabinet in the garage turned playroom. He pushed over the floor lamp in the den and shattered a TV by knocking it off a table.

Just recently, he broke his right arm when he was climbing onto a vacuum cleaner box 18 inches off the ground. Lack of impulse control is another symptom of the disorder.

"He's got a big body, but he's only 10 months in his brain," Jeanette says.

Deirdre wasn't diagnosed until last year, at age 9. "We went all these years and didn't know she had it," Jeanette says. "We were so used to a certain kind" of autism.

Jeanette and Patrick's lives are far different from what they had imagined when they met in 1989 in an elevator in Manhattan on the way to the same New Year's Eve party. They moved back to Austin, Jeanette's hometown, when her father was dying; Caitlin was 11 months old. She wasn't diagnosed until she was 21/2, after months of doctors saying her constant crying was because of colic.

"We did everything we knew how," Patrick says. "We were raised to believe doctors knew best. We weren't doctors, but after dealing with some ... we realized they had less of a clue than we did."

The diagnosis was sobering. "The norm is, you get really mad that your kid has it," Jeanette says. "Then you get depressed because you've been cheated."

Keeping calm day by day

Patrick acknowledges that it is tough to parent such children. "Jeanette has said I'm one of the most calm people she's been around, but I have a lot of frustration and anger underneath. I have seven people who depend on me for whatever they depend on me for, and I can't let the frustration or the anger spill over."

Playing softball twice a week with pals works off his frustration, he says. "I get to hit a 12-inch-round ball instead of hitting an 18-inch-round head."

Jeanette's mom sometimes helps with the kids, and babysitter Michele Pollard, 30, has provided some relief for the past 10 years. Paid largely from state respite-care funds, Pollard takes some of them to bowl, play miniature golf or the children's museum to improve social skills.

Jeanette, whose degree was in agricultural education, helped pay for college by working with autistic teenage girls; until two years ago, she operated an in-home day-care center to boost the family income. Now she volunteers mornings at the elementary school, where she retreats to the quiet copier room to photocopy paperwork for teachers while her kids are in class. "I've had six kids in that school, and I think I kind of owe them," she says.

Having six children — even without autism — can be a handful. But having five with autism has meant learning how to become their advocate and fighting for them.

"They're here to teach me something, I'm sure," Jeanette says.

Article A: New book just released “EVIDENCE OF HARM”

MERCURY IN VACCINES AND THE AUTISM EPIDEMIC
A MEDICAL CONTROVERSY
David Kirby

Did mercury in vaccines cause an epidemic of autism, ADD, ADHD, speech delay and other childhood disorders? EVIDENCE OF HARM: MERCURY IN VACCINES AND THE AUTISM EPIDEMIC: A MEDICAL CONTROVERSY (St. Martin's Press, April 2005, $26.95 Hardcover, ISBN: 0-312-32544-0), by New York Times contributor DAVID KIRBY, is a disturbing, important book that examines both sides of this brewing controversy-the personal stories of the affected families and the unfolding political drama in the courts and halls of Congress.

EVIDENCE OF HARM is essentially the story of a handful of parents with autistic children who, upon learning that their kids received levels of mercury in their vaccines that far exceeded Federal safety limits, set out to take on Big Business, Big Science and Big Government with a radical new theory on the cause. These parents have uncovered compelling evidence that vaccine mercury, in the form of the preservative Thimerosal, could very well have played a role in the disease, and their medical, scientific, legal, and political allies are getting closer to establishing their claim.

In November 2002, KIRBY was researching alternative autism treatments on spec for a women's magazine when he came across the Thimerosal theory. He thought it was interesting, but a little far-fetched. One week later, the House of Representatives passed the Homeland Security Act, which included a secret and scandalous rider immunizing Eli Lilly and Co. from liability for any damage caused by Thimerosal in vaccines. The journalist in KIRBY knew that something was fishy here. If Thimerosal were harmless, as government and drug industry leaders insisted (while also moving to phase it out of pediatric vaccines), then why was the cloak-and-dagger provision inserted anonymously in the middle of the night?

By most assessments, autism is now epidemic in the United States. In the 1990's reported autism cases among American children began spiking, from about 1 in 10,000 children in 1987 to a shocking 1 in 166 today.  In this period, new shots containing Thimerosal were added to the nation's already crowded vaccination schedule. In 1999, the FDA announced that children were being exposed to mercury at very young ages at levels far exceeding federal regulations, but the public health establishment failed to take parental concerns about the impact seriously.

EVIDENCE OF HARM explores both sides of this issue, which has pitted families and their allies against the federal government, public health agencies, medical academies, and powerful pharmaceutical giants.  It examines:

• STORY OF THIMEROSAL: a mercury-based additive approved by the FDA in the 1930's as a vaccine preservative and NEVER SUBSEQUENTLY TESTED BY THE AGENCY
• INCREASE IN REPORTED AUTISM CASES and apparent parallels to the increase in number and frequency of Thimerosal-containing vaccinations in the 1990s.
• PRIVATE MEETING AT WHICH FDA, CDC, MEDICAL AND PHARMACEUTICAL COMPANY REPRESENTATIVES DISCUSSED DATA ON NEUROLOGICAL CHILDHOOD DISORDERS RELATED TO MERCURY IN VACCINES
• MYSTERIOUS RIDER TO THE 2002 HOMELAND SECURITY BILL, which would free drug companies of liability in lawsuits regarding Thimerosal
• STATE AND FEDERAL LAWSUITS FILED BY FAMILIES against the drug makers seeking compensation for the lifelong care of their ill children
• NEW BIOLOGICAL RESEARCH INDICATING A LINK BETWEEN THIMEROSAL EXPOSURE AND NEUROLOGICAL DISORDERS VS. GOVERNMENT-SPONSORED EPIDEMIOLOGICAL DATA WHICH FAILS TO SHOW A LINK
• PRELIMINARY FEDERAL INVESTIGATIONS currently underway into allegations of fraud, malfeasance, and conflict of interest at pharmaceutical companies and among officials at the FDA and CDC
• Recently discovered CDC DATA SHOWING A SHOCKINGLY HIGH CORRELATION BETWEEN THIMEROSAL EXPOSURE AND AUTISM, ADD and other childhood disorders
  
  DAVID KIRBY has been a contributor to The New York Times for seven years, where he covers science and health, among other subjects, and has been a writer for over fifteen years.  He lives in Brooklyn, New York.
  
  Evidence of Harm   http://www.evidenceofharm.com/booktour.htm
  
  Amazon.com: All Products Search Results: evidence of harm http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-form/103-9335245-5059067

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Article B: Autism, ADD, ADHD - Vaccine Related

By: Evelyn Pringle <e.pringle@sbcglobal.net>
http://www.independentmedia.tv/group.cfm?ffield=media_producer&fvalue=Evelyn%20Pringle>

Independent Media TV
< http://www.independent-media.tv/Independent%20Media%20TV>
http://www.independent- media.tv/item.cfm?fmedia_id=10502&fcategory_desc=Under%20Reported

According to the most recent estimates by the CDC, about 1 in 150 children in the US suffers from an autistic disorder. Recent studies have shown that exposure to mercury in childhood vaccines, not only causes autism but can also result in immune, sensory, neurological, motor, and behavioral dysfunctions similar to traits associated with autism.

Thimerosal is a vaccine preservative that was developed in the 1930s by Eli Lilly, and has been regularly used in vaccines ever since. It contains 49.5% mercury. The amount of mercury considered safe for adults, by the EPA is 0.1 microgram per kilogram of weight.

As a neurotoxin, thimerosal, has been linked to the depletion of the protective anti-oxidant, glutathione, which helps rid the body of mercury. People with autism seem to be more susceptible to this effect and most have low levels of glutathione. Therefore, their bodies have difficulty excreting mercury.

In 1999, many drug companies claimed they were reducing the amount of thimerosal in vaccines. Some companies even provided product inserts that claimed that only a trace amount of mercury still existed in the final product. Others claimed to be producing vaccines that were completely mercury-free.

A few months ago the group, Health Advocacy in the Public Interest (HAPI), sent four separate vials of different vaccines to be tested for mercury content by Doctor's Data, an independent lab, which specializes in heavy metal testing.

The testing revealed that all four of the vials contained mercury, despite the claim by 2 companies that their vaccines were completely mercury-free. According to HAPI, all four vaccines also contained aluminum which greatly increases the toxicity of mercury in causing neuronal death in the brain.

In fact, during further investigation of the matter, HAPI discovered that mercury-based thimerosal was still being used to produce most vaccines. The drug makers claimed that after production, they use a process to filter the preservative out of the final vaccines.

However, Scientist, Boyd Haley, PhD, who is the Chemistry Department Chair at the University of Kentucky, told HAPI that its not possible to filter out all of the thimerosal because mercury binds to the antigenic protein in the vaccine and therefore, cannot be completely filtered out 100%.

We are not going to see a drastic decline in autism due to the fact that we have been misled about when thimerosal was actually eliminated from vaccines. Because the FDA has never ordered drug makers to recall all the vaccines previously manufactured and shipped to health care providers, to this very day, several different mercury-containing vaccines remain in the inventories of health care facilities, and some have an expiration date as late as September, 2005.

In addition, pregnant women and their unborn infants, are still being injected with thimerosal in flu vaccines, and a shot to combat the RH negative factor. The FDA and CDC have ignored the tremendous amount of scientific evidence of injury from these vaccines discovered by all the various studies, and have continued to recommend flu vaccines for pregnant women and certain children.

Most flu vaccines recommended for pregnant women contain 25 micrograms of mercury. Which means a fetus, through the vaccination of its mother, receives a dose of mercury that exceeds the Federal guidelines by several hundred-fold.

Experts Weigh In
To what degree of scientific certainty can the epidemic of autism be blamed on mercury in childhood vaccines? David Ayoub, MD, answered this question for Independent Media TV, ?I can state that the certainty of the science supporting mercury as a major cause of autism is probably more overpowering than the science behind any other disease process that I studied dating back to medical school,? he said.

In 2002, the research team of David and Mark Geier, released a study based on tens of millions of doses of vaccines given to children in the US during the 1990s, that presented the first epidemiologic evidence that associated the increase in thimerosal from vaccines with neurodevelopmental disorders.

Specifically, the Geier's analysis of the Federal government's Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System (VAERS) database showed statistical increases in the incidence rate of autism, mental retardation, and speech disorders in children receiving thimerosal- containing diphtheria, tetanus, and acellular pertussis (DTaP) vaccines, when compared with those who received thimerosal-free DTaP vaccines. The VAERS database has only been maintained by the CDC since 1990.

According to the Geiers, the usual course of DTaP vaccine consists of primary immunizations administered at 2, 4, and 6 months, followed up by booster doses at 18 months and at 5 years.

Using the database, the Geiers determined that there were a total of 6575 adverse reaction reports after thimerosal-vaccines, compared to only 1516 adverse reactions reported after thimerosal-free vaccines.

Lisa Blakemore-Brown, a Psychologist in the UK, also maintains that thimerosal is the cause of autism, and suspects it is also the culprit involved in a wide variety of other health problems showing up in children these days.

"The epidemic of health and developmental problems in so called advanced countries is now undeniable," Blakemore reports, "1 in 10 children suffer from gastrointestinal disorders, 1 in 4 have asthma."

According to Blakemore, the current autism epidemic did not occur earlier because children "were given single vaccines with single amounts of mercury,? she says, ?but with the introduction of triple vaccines the amount of mercury contained within the preservative was multiplied and the cumulative effects are only just now being discovered by the public," she adds.

Thimerosal is now also being blamed for Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) and Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity (ADHD), which affect millions of children and their families. Currently statistics suggest that as many as 10% of the school- aged children have ADD and another 20% exhibit symptoms of ADHD.

Since they believe vaccines may have caused these disorders, many parents have come to resent the fact that the pharmaceutical industry is now raking in huge profits from the sale of drugs to treat these disorders by the same drug companies that caused the injury in the first place. Number Of Vaccines Too High

The number of vaccinations given to children before the age 2, has nearly tripled since 1988, according the CDC, which currently recommends vaccination against 12 diseases. Because some vaccines must be given more than once, children get as many as 23 shots by the age of 2.

Under the CDC immunization schedule, here are the vaccines recommended for children before two years of age.

Birth-6 months: Hepatitis B: 2 doses; Diphtheria, Pertussis (DPT), Tetanus: 3 doses; Haemophilus influenzae type B (Hib): 3 doses; Inactivated poliovirus: 2 doses; Measles, mumps, rubella (MMR): not recommended; Varicella: not recommended; Pneumococcal conjugate: 3 doses. Total 13 doses

12-24 months: Hepatitis B: 1 dose; Diphtheria, Pertussis (DPT), Tetanus: 1 dose; Haemophilus influenzae type B (Hib): 1 dose; Inactivated poliovirus: 1 dose; Measles, mumps, rubella (MMR): 1 dose; Varicella: 1 dose; Pneumococcal conjugate: 1 dose; Pneumococcal polysaccharide*: 1 dose; and Influenza: 1 dose Hepatitis A*: 1 dose; Total 10 doses

* Vaccines recommended in selected states and regions and for certain high-risk groups.

The worst example of an unnecessary vaccine being sold to boost drug company profits, is the injection of Hepatitis B into newborns to an adult lifestyle disease contracted through sex and sharing needles with drug addicts. Plain and simple, the industry needed a market for a new vaccine so they got together with their cronies in the FDA and CDC and hatched a scheme to target nation's infants using the Federal immunization program.

Prior to the introduction of the vaccine, Hepatitis B among children was almost unheard of. According to the Guide to Clinical Preventive Services, in 1986, there were only 279 cases reported in children under the age of 14.

Even in adults, the incidence rate of Hepatitis B has always been low. In 1991, for instance, there were only 18,003 cases within a total population of approximately 248 million people.

Dr Jay Gordon is a pediatrician who was named CBS TV's Medical Consultant for Children's programming and also worked for 5 years on ABC, as the on-air medical correspondent. He has appeared on "Good Morning America" to discuss vaccinations.

On his website, Gordon says, "I also don't like the financial ties that vaccine researchers have to the manufacturers because some of these same experts help make the official decisions about which shots will be approved and/or required."

He is concerned about the needless vaccines being given to children. “The diseases against which we vaccinate used to be much more common,” Gordon says, ‘but we are now down to an average of one case of diphtheria (the "D" of the DPT) per year in the US, a few thousand cases of Pertussis ("P"), and 30 or so cases of Tetanus each year,” he explains.

” We have not had a case of "wild" polio in America since 1979 and the entire Western Hemisphere has been free of the disease for some years,” Gordon adds. He claims “it's highly unlikely that a young child would contract hepatitis B; there are only a few dozen cases of tetanus in this country each year.”

"In my opinion, we vaccinate in an unscientific and potentially dangerous way," Gordon says. He believes it would be better to vaccinate children later and slower, ?The expedient and economically superior method, doesn't serve our babies well,? he warns. In my day, we got a few vaccines. And my children (now 33 & 36) got a few during their school years. Due to the fact that no one from those two generations ever got the 3 dozen vaccines currently mandated, one question keep rolling around in my mind. If three dozen vaccines are really necessary to fight off these highly-contagious diseases, in the 54 years that I've been on this earth, why have I never met a single unvaccinated person who caught one?

Evelyn Pringle e.pringle@sbcglobal.net Miamisburg OH
(Evelyn Pringle is a columnist for Independent Media TV and an investigative journalist focused on exposing government corruption)

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Article C: A Dragon By the Tail

http://www.byronchild.com/vacc.htm

On January 24, 2005 -- the same day the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI) announced the receipt of $750 million for its historic world vaccination campaign -- seven US Senators introduced Senate Bill 3 . The bill is an unprecedented act giving comprehensive liability protections to vaccine manufacturers, restricting Freedom of Information Acts on drug/vaccine safety, and pre-empting states' rights to ban mercury from children's vaccines, all under the bill's official title: "Protecting America in the War on Terror Act of 2005".

Meanwhile in Texas, after receiving an internal transcript that allegedly proves the Institutes of Medicine's report denying a link between childhood vaccines and autism last year was "predetermined", a US District Court judge has ordered the worlds' "big five" vaccine manufacturers to "produce any and all documents relating to payments made to, or stock ownership" by the seventeen members of the IOM's Immunization and Safety Review Committee.

A court document submitting the IOM's leaked transcript as an exhibit in the first civil juried lawsuit against the vaccine manufacturers states the transcript proves the IOM committee, "predetermined the necessity of not finding causality between vaccines and autism and/or neurological injury" in its official reports on the issue.

Judge T. John Ward also ordered the vaccine manufacturers to produce all communications with "members of the World Health Organization, the Center for Disease Control, the Food and Drug Administration, the Institute of Medicine, the Brighton Collaboration, or the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization relating to the issue whether the thimerosal contained in pediatric vaccines causes autism or other neurological disorders."

When the defendant's legal counsel balked at the amount of expense involved in producing such extensive documentation for the court, Judge Ward reassured the defense that the useful for both defendants and plaintiffs of the more than 300 pending lawsuits " involving claims related to the use of thimerosal in pediatric vaccines" waiting to be tried in the US.

Vaccine manufacturers Aventis Pasteur, Merck, GlaxoSmithKline, Wyeth and Eli Lilly and Co. are cited as defendants in the lawsuit brought by the parents of a child who developed autism after receiving mandatory routine childhood immunizations.

• The same IOM reports denying a link between vaccines and the country's autism epidemic have been used:
• to endorse standardized case definitions for Adverse Events Following Immunizations for "global dissemination";
• as justification for Senate Bill 3's sweeping provisions and protections;
• as a cause for no further federal monies to be spent on research of the potential vaccine/autism link;
• as a reason to silence media inquiries into vaccine safety issues;
• and as a defense for dismissing over 4,500 petitions for vaccine injuries in a federal court.

Is it possible that a closed meeting transcript alleged as proof of a ploy to ignore vaccine risks, a near billion dollar grant for a global vaccination campaign, emerging lawsuits for vaccine injuries and a sweeping federal bill to protect vaccine manufacturers are unrelated? Is it possible that in spite of US Congressional hearings and reports citing widespread conflicts of interest between federal policy makers and the vaccine industry that Senate Bill 3 will defy the US Constitution's provisions for state and civil rights in order to shield vaccine manufacturers from liability?

And finally, how will a world vaccine policy influenced by allegedly "predetermined" safety reports implemented through a global alliance of international governments and vaccine manufacturers with a fund of billions headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, support or protect the health and human rights of targeted Third-World country peoples? History of the IOM's Immunization and Safety Review Committee Insight to these questions may lie in the pivotal year of 1999, a year preceded by a decade of declining vaccine sales, major breakups within the manufacturing industry, increased requirements for routine childhood vaccines, a growing autism epidemic, and researchers and media reports questioning the safety of vaccines and their possible link to autism.

In 1999, as a US Congressional Government Reform Committee initiated an investigation into the rampant conflicts of interest between federal vaccine policy makers and manufacturers, a global rescue effort of the sinking vaccine industry began with the formation of GAVI.

Originally funded by Microsoft billionaire Bill Gates through his Seattle-based Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, GAVI's partnership of international governments and vaccine manufacturers salvaged lagging sales through an overhauled world vaccination campaign that placed GAVI, headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, at the center of the reorganized alliance.

Also formed in 1999 were the international Brighton Collaboration and the WHO Global Advisory Committee on Vaccine Safety.

Brighton's sole purpose was to create standardized case definitions for Adverse Events Following Immunizations for "global dissemination". Brighton's steering committee members currently hail from the US FDA, CDC, and Aventis Pasteur, a vaccine manufacturer and federal lawsuit defendant. Brighton's website does not include autism among its listed adverse events.

The WHO Global Advisory Committee on Vaccine Safety has " concluded that there is currently no evidence of mercury toxicity in infants, children, or adults exposed to thimerosal in vaccines" and "that current WHO immunization policy with respect to thimerosal containing vaccines should not be changed."

The Brighton Collaboration has been cited as being "fraught with pitfalls and merges regulators and the regulated into an indistinguishable group."

" I am very concerned about the development of the Brighton Collaboration," stated US Congressional Representative Dave Weldon, MD, (R-FL) at an Autism One Conference in May 2004. "Particularly troubling is the fact that serving on the panels defining what constitutes an adverse reaction to a vaccine, are vaccine manufacturers. What is even worse is the fact that some of these committees are chaired by vaccine manufacturers. It is totally inappropriate for a manufacturer of vaccines to be put in the position of determining what is and is not an adverse reaction to their product. Do we allow GM, Ford and Chrysler to define the safety of their automobiles?"

In 1999, w with GAVI's international partnership and Bill Gates' billions on the way to rescue the industry, the CDC hired the IOM's Immunizations and Safety Review Committee to examine multiple "vaccine safety challenges".

In its public report, the CDC specifically sited a 1998 British Lancet study recommending more research into a potential link between the Measles, Mumps, Rubella (MMR) vaccine and autism, negative press, public information vaccine conferences, the Rotavirus vaccine recall and seven congressional hearings questioning vaccine safety as impetus to employ the IOM.

However, the CDC's ability to objectively and fairly evaluate vaccine risks has been denounced by a three year long US congressional investigation: "To date, studies conducted or funded by the CDC that purportedly dispute any correlation between autism and vaccine injury have been of poor design, under-powered, and fatally flawed. The CDC's rush to support and promote such research is reflective of a philosophical conflict in looking fairly at emerging theories and clinical data related to adverse reactions from vaccinations.

"The CDC in general and the National Immunization Program in particular are conflicted in their duties to monitor the safety of vaccines, while also charged with the responsibility of purchasing vaccines for resale as well as promoting increased immunization rates," states the congressional report. (View the report at http://www.nomercury.org/science/documents/GRC_6-15-00.pdf ) "They serve as their own watchdog -- neither common nor desirable when seeking unbiased research," Weldon has stated in describing the CDC. "An association between vaccines and autism would force CDC officials to admit that their policies irreparably damaged thousands of children. Who among us would easily accept such a conclusion about ourselves? Yet, this is what the CDC is asked to do," Weldon said.

When byronchild asked CDC spokesperson Curtis Allen for a copy of the contract that would detail the agreement between the IOM and the CDC, Allen stated that the contract would be available only in a heavily "redacted" or blacked-out format.

The IOM stated "no comment" to byronchild about the leaked transcript or its use in the pending civil court case.

The Transcript of the First Organizational Meeting of the IOM Committee On January 11, 2001, the IOM's Immunization and Safety Review committee members gathered for its first organizational meeting in Washington, DC. It is this meeting's transcript that has been submitted as an exhibit by Waters and Kraus, a Dallas, Texas law firm.

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Article D: Possible Mercury, Autism Connection Found in Study

Texas school districts with the highest level of the toxic metal had the highest rate of the disorder, researchers say.

By Thomas H. Maugh II
LA Times Staff Writer
http://www.latimes.com/news/science/la-sci-autism17mar17,1,1770760.story

Texas researchers have found a possible link between autism and mercury in the air and water.

Studying individual school districts in Texas, the epidemiologists found that those districts with the highest levels of mercury in the environment also had the highest rates of special education students and autism diagnoses.

The study does not prove that mercury causes autism, cautioned the lead author, Raymond F. Palmer of the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio, but it provides a "provocative" clue that should be further investigated.

"Mercury is a known neurotoxin," said Dr. Isaac Pessah of UC Davis' MIND Institute, who was not involved in the study. "It's rather intriguing that the correlation is so positive," meaning that there was a strong, direct relationship between mercury and autism levels. "It makes one worry."
California has the highest environmental burden of mercury of any state in the country, and it also has what appears to be the highest rate of autism as well -- although some critics attribute this perceived high rate to enhanced surveillance associated with the state's special education program.

Autism is a severe developmental disorder in which children seem isolated from the world around them. There is a broad spectrum of symptoms, but the disorder is marked by poor language skills and an inability to handle social relations.

The incidence of autism has grown dramatically over the last two decades, from about one in every 2,000 children to as high as one in every 166. Researchers have been hard-pressed to explain the increase, but many believe mercury to be the culprit.

The purported link between autism and mercury has been a subject of intense debate. In the past it has centered primarily on the mercury-containing preservative thimerosal, which was once widely used in vaccines.

Many parents have argued that thimerosal causes autism because their children seemed to develop the neurological disorder shortly after they received childhood vaccinations.

That link has been largely discredited, and researchers are beginning to look at the potential effects of the metal from other sources.

Mercury is routinely released from power plants burning fossil fuels, and it spreads widely in air and water. Much of the fish consumed in some regions is contaminated with mercury. In California, gold mining was a big mercury source, and there are many mercury hot spots near mines and downstream, such as in Clear Lake.

In the new study, Palmer and his colleagues used Environmental Protection Agency data about the release of mercury in 2001 in Texas' 254 counties and correlated that with the number of special education cases and autism diagnoses in the 1,200 school districts. Texas is fourth in the amount of mercury released into the environment annually, trailing California, Oregon and West Virginia.

The study, which will appear in the journal Health & Place, found that for every 1,000 pounds of mercury released into the environment, there was a 43% increase in special education services and a 61% increase in the autism rate.

The exception to the rule was Brewster County, which had a high autism rate but did not report significant mercury levels to the EPA. When Palmer investigated, however, he found that the county had been home to one of the largest mercury mines in the nation.

"Perhaps [the mercury] just stays in the environment forever. We don't know," Palmer said.

More work will be required to determine whether mercury is the agent that causes the disorder. Palmer is expanding his studies to look for historical correlations -- attempting to determine, for example, if increases in the rate of autism over time can be associated with increases in mercury release.

Dr. Irva Hertz-Picciatto and her colleagues at the MIND Institute, meanwhile, have begun a potentially more definitive study in which they are measuring the levels of mercury and other toxic metals, such as cadmium and lead, in children with autism to see if they are higher than in healthy children. Results will be available in a couple of years.

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Article E: Burton & the New Vaccine Bill

MEDIA ADVISORY

OFFICE OF CONGRESSMAN DAN BURTON FIFTH DISTRICT, INDIANA
2185 Rayburn House Office Building Washington, D.C. 20515
(202)-225-2276      FAX (202)-225-0016

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

REP. BURTON INTRODUCES NATIONAL VACCINE INJURY COMPENSATION PROGRAM IMPROVEMENT ACT OF 2005

Washington, D.C. - Congressman Dan Burton (R-IN-5), formally introduced the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program Improvement Act of 2005 (H.R. 1349) in the U.S. House of Representatives last night.

"The Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP) was designed back in 1988 to be a non-adversarial alternative to civil litigation," stated Congressman Burton.  "Seventeen years later, the reality is that the system has become quite litigious and there are some serious problems with the program.  I am re-introducing this important legislation to address the fairness and accessibility issues vaccine-injured families are facing."

Continued Congressman Burton, "Specifically, my legislation seeks to amend the current VICP rules by extending the statute of limitations, increasing the base amount of funding available to those injured, and providing a critical two-year look back provision for families who previously missed the filing deadlines."

The National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program Improvement Act of 2005 (H.R. 1349) is tri-partisan legislation - currently with a dozen co-sponsors - that builds upon recommendations to improve the VICP as outlined by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC's) Advisory Commission on Childhood Vaccines.  The bill seeks to:

·        Extend the statute of limitations for seeking compensation to six years from the date of injury.  Under current law, families must file within two years of a child's death or three years of a child's injury.
·        Provide a one-time, two-year period for families with post-1988 injuries to file a petition if they were previously excluded from doing so because they missed the statute of limitations.
·        Allow for the payment of interim attorney's fees and legal costs while a petition is being adjudicated.  The costs of assembling the necessary medical records and obtaining expert witnesses are substantial. Under current law, these costs, as well as attorney's fees, are not reimbursed until a case is fully resolved, which oftentimes takes three to seven years.  Some cases have taken ten years to resolve and for reimbursements to be made.
·        Increase compensation for future lost earnings for injured children.  Under current law, compensation is based on the average weekly earnings of full and part-time workers as determined by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.  This bill would specify that only full-time workers should be used in the calculation.
·        Increase the level of compensation to a family after a vaccine-related death from $250,000 to $300,000.  The death benefit has remained unchanged since the program's inception fifteen years ago.
·        Allow for families of vaccine-injured children to be compensated for the costs of family counseling.
·        Create and maintain a guardianship to administer the funds.

During his tenure as Chairman of the House Committee on Government Reform (1997-2002) and the Subcommittee on Human Rights & Wellness (2003-2004), Congressman Burton held no fewer than 20 hearings to examine the possible correlation between mercury-containing vaccines and the increasing incidents of autism.  Despite the growing body of evidence suggesting such an association is real, many in our Federal health agencies continue to dispute this conclusion.  Scientific evidence aside, the numbers simply do not lie.

Although autism used to be a rare disease affecting only 1 out of every 10,000 individuals, it now afflicts 1.5 million Americans nationwide. Furthermore, autism is not a fatal disease.  Therefore, the families of autistic individuals are facing high-priced medical care for years to come with little to no assistance.

Concluded Congressman Burton, "By enacting these common-sense reforms, we can make sure the VICP operates as it was intended to, as a flexible, non-adversarial system that handles claims in an efficient and generous manner so as to avoid the need for civil litigation.  I believe creating a stronger VICP is a win-win solution for everyone involved.  The families of those afflicted with vaccine injuries will have a fair and user-friendly venue to seek some means of restitution, and pharmaceutical companies will no longer be under the shadow of the threat of costly and potentially industry-crippling class-action lawsuits.  Embracing this solution would be good for the industry as well as society."

"The National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program has helped thousands of Americans who have suffered injuries from vaccines, however, there are many families and individuals that continue to suffer unnecessarily," said Congressman Frank Pallone, Jr., the lead Democratic co-sponsor.  "I am proud to support this legislation because it will improve the current system and ensure fair and timely recourse for the devastating events that can result from vaccinations."

The Department of Health and Human Services, upon reviewing the recommendations of the CDC's Advisory Commission on Childhood Vaccines, submitted suggested legislation in 1999, which the Bush administration has since endorsed.  H.R. 1349 incorporates most of these recommendations, as well as other recommendations that were put forth during the course of Congressman Burton's six year investigation.

For more information regarding Congressman Burton's legislative and investigative efforts on Federal vaccine policy, please visit the designated healthcare page on his website at www.house.gov/burton/wellness.


Nick Mutton Press Secretary
Congressman Dan Burton (R-IN-5)
2185 Rayburn HOB Washington, DC 20515
202.225.2276 – office 202.225.0016 – fax 202.225.9560 – www.house.gov/burton

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Article F: “The Mercury Calculator”

NATIONAL VACCINE INFORMATION CENTER ANNOUNCES
“THE MERCURY CALCULATOR”

      Do you have a child who you suspect is vaccine injured because of exposure to the mercury preservative Thimerosal in vaccines? Are you taking your child in for routine vaccinations and want to know how much mercury he or she will be injected with? Are you thinking about getting a vaccine yourself and wonder about the mercury content?  Now you can check it out with The Mercury Calculator on the National Vaccine Information Center’s award winning website, www.NVIC.org

 
      NVIC’s Mercury Calculator is quick and easy to use. Vaccines in use today as well as those sold in the past, listed by vaccine type and manufacturer’s name. Users just enter a weight and click on the vaccines which were/are to be give. The total mercury load is automatically calculated to reveal how many times it is over the allowable Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) “safe” limits for mercury exposure.
 
   For example, in 1980, a 10 pound two month old infant given the CDC and AAP recommended whole cell DPT could have gotten 55 times the EPA limit for daily mercury exposure, while a 25 pound two year old given DPT could have been subjected to 22 times the EPA limit for daily mercury exposure.
 
  In 1995, a 10 pound two month old infant who got the CDC and AAP recommended DPT and HIB vaccines could have been 110 times over the EPA limit and an 18 pound six month old given the recommended DPT, HIB, and Hep B vaccines could have been 76 times over the EPA limit, depending upon the manufacturers of the vaccines.
 
  Ten years later, in 2005, a 10 pound two month old baby who receives the recommended DTaP, HIB, IPV, and pneumococcal vaccines may or may not be at all over the EPA limit for single mercury exposure, depending upon the manufacturers, while an 18 pound six month old who got these vaccines as well as a dose of flu vaccine, could be 31 times over the EPA limit.
 
   An 125 pound teenager or adult who gets a recommended flu and meningococcal vaccination, could be 4-8 times over the EPA limit for a single mercury exposure, depending upon the manufacturers. A teen or adult who got a mercury-containing flu vaccine would have to weigh 551 pounds to be under the EPA limit for a single mercury exposure.
 
    Mercury is a known neuro-toxin that has been proven to cause brain damage in the developing fetus as well as to children and adults exposed to it. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has developed guidelines for limiting mercury exposures to humans from many different sources, including air and water pollution; contaminated foods, such as tuna; as well as in products sold over-the-counter, such as contact lens solution. In 1999, the EPA and Food and Drug Administration (FDA) directed the vaccine manufacturers to remove mercury from childhood vaccines.
 
   Since 1999, vaccine manufacturers have been reducing the amount of mercury preservatives in killed bacterial vaccines (live virus vaccines such as MMR and chicken pox do not contain thimerosal) and some now only contain trace amounts, depending upon the vaccine manufacturer, type of vaccine and whether the vaccine is being packaged in multi-dose or single-dose vials. Single-dose vials of killed bacterial vaccines usually only contain trace amounts of mercury.
 
   The mercury-based preservative, Thimerosal, has been used in killed bacterial vaccines since the 1930’s without adequate testing for toxicity. In the past two decades, as the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) have added many more vaccines containing Thimerosal to the routine vaccination schedule for all children and states have mandated these vaccines, children have been exposed to much higher levels of mercury through vaccination. During this same time period, childhood developmental disabilities have dramatically increased to the point where today the CDC estimates 1 in 6 American children is developmentally delayed with a diagnosis of autism, learning disabilities, attention problems or other learning or behavioral problems. The CDC estimates that 1 in 166 American children has been diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder. Clinical and scientific evidence is now emerging which is linking mercury-containing vaccines to the regressive type of autism in some children.
    The National Vaccine Information Center is a non-profit, educational organization founded by parents of vaccine injured children in 1982. NVIC is dedicated to the prevention of vaccine injuries and deaths through public education and defending the right of all citizens to make informed, voluntary vaccination decisions. Accessing The Mercury Calculator at NVIC’s website, www.NVIC.org , will also provide users with the opportunity to report a vaccine reaction to NVIC’s Vaccine Reaction Registry and receive assistance about how to report a vaccine reaction to the federal Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS).

6. TACA Survey Update

Only 135 surveys have been collected since August 2004 at the TACA meetings. We would like to hear from you regarding WHAT YOU WANT TO HEAR, what is important to you and your family.

Below is a summary grouped by topic and highest priority of the surveys collected to date. Please be sure to let us know what you want to hear about in 2005. To request your free survey form, please contact us

7. TACA Mom Still In Need - Please Read

A TACA family is in great need. If you can help – please help!

Our very own Ruthie Daniels is a 36 yr old TACA single mom diagnosed with Hodgkin's Lymphoma. She is undergoing chemotherapy and needs your help. Ruthie will have to complete 6 months of chemo and will need help during this time. She is a single mom with 2 boys, one with autism (Noah) and one with ADHD.

Ruthie's needs are as follows:

• • THE BIGGEST NEED IS ONE-ON-ONE BABYSITTING: Anyone who lives in South Orange County and could take Noah to the park or watch him for a couple of hours between 2:30-4:30 Monday - Friday. One-on-one babysitting is recommended for Noah.
  • THERAPY HELP: If anyone knows a therapist trained in RDI methodology, she will be losing her therapist. $20 an hour is the most she can pay, 4 to 6 hours per week at her home.
  • RUNNING ERRANDS: Ruthie needs help with grocery shopping and errands and to the pharmacy.
  • COOKING: LOTS OF COOKING AND FOOD DROP OFF IN PROGRESS! A big thank you to all for helping with this!!
  • CONTACT INFO: Ruthie lives Laguna Niguel. Her number is 949-347-8532. Please do not call late -- she is very tired..

THANK YOU FOR ANYTHING YOU CAN DO TO HELP!

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9. Upcoming Fee-based Conferences & Seminars
in Southern California

One day workshops for caregivers of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders are offered by *S*P*I*R*I*T* (Supporting Parents in Reinforcement, Intervention and Techniques) in four locations - Manhattan Beach, Pasadena, Santa Monica and Northridge.  Topics include characteristics of children with autism spectrum disorders; chronological and developmental ages; Piaget's cognitive development and Kohlberg's moral development; diagnosis, assessment and recovery; developing a family vision and plan; changes to parents behavior and approach; behavior management, functional analysis of behavior and task analysis; and other interventions.  A hosted lunch features a video of four young adults discussing growing up with autism.  The presenters, Jeanne LaPorte, R.N. and Peggy Main, L.C.S.W., have more than 30 years professional and personal experience working with individuals and families at UCLA and in private practice.  Both are parents of special needs children, one a 28-year-old with autism.  The workshop is $75 and is Regional Center vendored (vendor number PL05787.)

Dates and locations are: April 16, Northridge; May 21, Santa Monica; June 11, Pasadena and July 9, Manhattan Beach.   Please contact Jeanne or Peggy at 818-749-1401 or 888-421-6121 (toll free) for more information or to reserve a space.  Flyers and brochures are available.

*S*P*I*R*I*T also does a no-charge 45-minute presentation for support groups entitled "In Praise of Parents."

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Children's Hospital of San Diego and The Autism Tree Project Foundation present:

Initial Evaluation and Diagnosis of Autistic Spectrum Disorders: Course and Demonstration

• Saturday, April 23, 2005
• Registration at 7:30 a.m. Conference Time: 8:00 a.m. - 4:45 p.m.
• Location: CHSD, MOB 113 3030 Children’s Way, San Diego, CA 92123
• This course is approved for 6.75 hours in Category 1 CME or Category 1 CMA credit.
• Speaker DORIS TRAUNER, MD Professor and Chief Division of Pediatric Neurology UCSD School of Medicine
• Dr. Trauner and the panel will present two sessions:
  • An Approach to the Evaluation and Diagnosis of Children with Autistic Spectrum Disorders (ASD)
  • A Demonstration of the Office Evaluation of Children with ASD, With Live Patients
• Registration $50.00 (Continental breakfast and Lunch provided)
• No refunds after April 1st, 2005.

REGISTRATION

Name: _______________________________________________________

Address: _____________________________________________________

City, State, Zip: ________________________________________________

Phone#: __________________ E-mail address: ______________________

Please make registration checks payable to: Children's Hospital

Fax Visa or MasterCard information below and fax to CAlC @ (858) 966-7930:

# of people attending _____ Type of CME's/CPD's/MCEP's needed __________

Total to be charged: $ _____ Name as it appears on Credit Card: ____________

Credit Card Number: ____________ Exp. Date: _______ Card Code: _____

Address & Zip code on credit card bill: _________________________________

Mail Registration Form to:

Children's Autism Course, 8010 Frost Street, Suite 502, San Diego, CA 92123

For more information, please call Dayna Hoff at the Children's Autism Tree Project Foundation (619) 980-8614

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PEDAL 4 A CURE LAUNCHES ON APRIL 17 th IN NEWPORT BEACH : While most families are thinking about where to go for their spring and summer vacations, Jeff Spaetzel and Adam Dabrowski are going to be "Pedaling for a Cure" by riding their bicycles from Los Angeles, CA to Chicago, IL. The ride will coincide with National Autism Awareness month. Amber, Spaetzel's eight-year old daughter who was diagnosed with autism in December 2000, is the inspiration behind the ride. The duo hope to raise $100,000 to help find a cure for autism and to date have raised over $25,000.

Spaetzel and Dabrowski invite the public to attend the send-off ceremony scheduled to begin at 10am at the Newport Beach Pier in Newport Beach, California on Sunday, April 17th. Newport Beach Mayor Steve Bromberg will conduct the official send-off ceremony. From there, the riders will make their way to Riverside, where Riverside Mayor Loveridge will welcome the riders into town at the 42nd Street Bagel shop between 1 pm-2 pm.

Spaetzel and Dabrowski are staying with families who have children with an autism spectrum disorder, police stations or fire departments along their route between Los Angeles and Chicago. If you would like to help, host families are still needed in the Palm Desert /Palm Springs/Coachella Valley/ Indio area as well as Clinton and Des Moines, IA. Click on the following link for more information:

http://www.pedal4acure.org/Sponsorarider.asp

The ride will wrap-up the Cure Autism Now Walk on May 22 at Soldier Field in Chicago and will pass through more than 28 cities and nine states including: Southern California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri, Iowa and Illinois. The ride is very symbolic to those raising a loved one with an Autism Spectrum Disorder. The $100,000 vision represents the financial burden autism puts on families, the 2,400 mile ride represents the distances many families travel to get help, and only two riders as opposed to a group represent the isolation and lack of support for those with autism.

Spaetzel and Dabrowski invite everyone to check out their website and track the ride at http://www.pedal4acure.org The duo also invite everyone to sign their guestbook at http://www.pedal4acure.org/guestbook.htm with thoughts and well- wishes to help them through the tough days ahead.

For those who may be interested in helping this cause, virtual mile markers can be purchased and dedicated to a loved one for as little as $10. Email notifications will be sent out as the mile marker(s) are passed. Both riders are covering all the expenses out-of-pocket to ensure 100% of the proceeds go to Cure Autism Now.

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Mark your calendars! You won’t want to miss two very special public service forums on Autistic Spectrum Disorder, April 19th & 21st at the Laguna Cliffs Marriott Resort & Spa, Dana Point, in the Lantern Bay Room.

Presented by Dr. Mary Joann Lang, founder of Beacon Day School for Children with Autistic Spectrum Disorder in Huntington Beach, the FREE sessions provide attendees with information they can truly use:

Tuesday,April 19 th, 6:30 – 8:30 pm
“How to Link Assessment to Intervention” – In this session, Dr. Lang shows attendees how to use ASD assessment findings to develop effective intervention strategies.

Thursday, April 21 st, 6:30 – 8:30 pm
“How to Effectively Integrate School and Family Support Systems, Including Parent and Sibling Support” – In this session, Dr. Lang walks attendees through the process of effectively integrating school and family support systems to provide the most benefit to ASD individuals.

Open to parents, family members and professionals involved in the care and treatment of ASD children and adolescents, these information forums are the first in an ongoing series to be hosted by Beacon Day School and the Laguna Cliffs Marriott Resort & Spa in order to build greater Autism Awareness.

Limited seating. Please RSVP to Beacon Day School at 949.477.2144.

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Los Angeles , CA , April 30 - May 1, 2005 ( 9 am - 4 pm) 2-day Workshop: "Going to the Heart of Autism" Introduction to the RDI™ Program for Parents and Professionals (CE Credits).

• Where: Pasadena Child Development Center 620 N. Lake Ave. Pasadena, CA 91101

Overview:
Based on the latest scientific research, discover how people with Autism, Aspergers and NLD can learn to communicate reciprocally, be genuinely interested in others, and not just tolerate, but enjoy change, transition and going with the flow.
The goal of the RDI™ Program is for each person on the spectrum (whether they are considered "low" functioning or "high" functioning) to be excited about expanding their world, rather than to be afraid of it.
http://www.rdiconnect.com/workshops/LosAngelesCA/

Who Should Attend?
If you are… a family member, any professional who works with people on the autism spectrum, a researcher, educator, or a person on the spectrum, you can gain new insight from attending this two day workshop.
Continuing Education Credits for Professionals:
Certified Case Managers, Psychologists, Certified Counselors, SLPs, Social Workers & other professionals: Please contact houser@rdiconnect.com for information about CE Credits.

What will the 2-day workshop cover?
• The core deficits of autism based on the latest research.
• Research results on the quality of life for people on the autism spectrum.
• The developmental path unique to people on the spectrum: including the concepts of absolute vs. relative thinking, imperative vs. declarative communications, episodic memory, and more...
• The basic principles of the RDI™ Program.
• Video clips of parents and children and clips from the first two years in the life of a child with autism
• Research on the effectiveness of the RDI™ Program
• and much more.

FOR MORE INFO http://www.rdiconnect.com/workshops/LosAngelesCA

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REMINDER: Next monthly meeting of the ORCO SPED RELIANCE TASK FORCE is
Monday, May 2, at 7pm, at ST JOSEPH’S HOSPITAL, Orange, in ANNEX RM 7.

At the last meeting of the RELIANCE TASK FORCE, we learned that several members were not receiving the frequent emails from RELIANCE.

So we are writing to you, using your direct email address, to see if you will let us know, by return mail, whether or not you are receiving these routine e-mailings.

If you have already replied, our apologies, for contacting you again--but, please respond again.

Once we have canvassed everyone, we will then set about the task of trying to determine where the problem is. At this writing, there does not seem to be any clear pathway to finding out.

If anyone has expertise in LISTSERVs, please let us know so that you can help us determine where the problem is.

Thx & Have a Great Day,
ronlackey@dreamteamnetwork.org
office 949-388-2870

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Autism Society of America, Los Angeles Presents “Working Together for Autism”

A conference on the latest in education, speech, social, biomedical and life issues.

• Dates: May 20-21, 2005
• Location: Los Angeles Airport Marriott Hotel, 5855 West Century Boulevard, Los Angeles, California 90045
• Who should attend: For Parents, Teachers, Other Professionals, and Individuals on the Spectrum  
• Speakers include: Eustacia Cutler (Mother of Temple Grandin), BJ Freeman, Jed Baker, Bill Frea, Joan Green, James Adams, Jacquelyn McCandless, Barbara Doyle, Sarah Spence, M.D, Ph.D., and Claire Lajonchere

REGISTRATION: Go to _______(preferred) or send in form below

Name_________________________________ Email: ___________________________________

Address_________________________________________________________________________

City________________________ State____ Zip___________ Phone_________________________

Parent Friday $90____ Saturday $90 ____ Both Days $165____

Spouse Friday $70____ Saturday $70 ____ Both Days $130____

People on autism spectrum: Friday $20 ___ Saturday $20 ____ Both Days $35_____

Financial aid is available for families . Contact your Regional Center, www.dds.cahwnet.gov/rc/rclist.cfm.
If they cannot help, low-income families may mail in a copy of their income tax return to the address below with this form.

DEADLINE: May 8, 2005Late Registration Fee: $15 if postmarked after May 8, 2005.

Purchase Orders: add $15 processing fee.

Checks: Make payable to Autism Conferences. Visa/Master card Number:_____________________

Exp. Date________ Amount:___________ Signature________________________

Mail to: Autism Conferences, 1340 E. Vinedo Ln., Tempe, AZ 85284 (Note: This is the conference organizer for ASA-LA).

Web site: www.asalosangeles.org

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The Amazing Autism One Conference is Back!

www.autismone.org – At the O’Hare Chicago Marriott

May 26-29, 2005 . Over 100 speakers – the “who’s who” in Autism with the following four tracks to choose from:

The most comprehensive conference on autism ever assembled now offers greater focus to help you address specific needs, shorten your learning curve, and bring you quickly up to speed.

Most Comprehensive

Questions and answers do not stop at the boundary of a discipline.

Multivariate in presentation and cure autism bows to the collective weight of doctors working with therapists working with educators working with parents working to recover their children.

Our children benefit from an inter-disciplinary approach. Autism One 2005 is proud to feature over 100 of the leading experts presenting in four tracks to help you make the best decisions:

1. Biomedical Treatments
2. Behavior / Communication / Education Therapies
3. Complementary and Alternative Medicine
4. Government / Legal / Personal Issues

Greater Focus - This year we are introducing a number of important changes to provide what we are calling a "lived experience." Conferences have a tendency to talk at you. That's not good enough. Real learning occurs at a deeper level; a level that combines the abstract with the practical.

Initiatives include:

1. The Mentor Program: You may request a mentor. Mentors are fellow- parents with recovered children or children well on their way to recovery.
2. Three Mini-Tracks: 1. Parents New to the diagnosis; 2. Puberty, Adolescence and Adulthood; and 3. Environmental Medicine/Issues are available.
3. Pre-Conference Day, GFCF and SCD - Culinary Delight: The Pre- Conference day is devoted to hands-on cooking to take the mystery out of gluten- casein-free, and specific carbohydrate diets.
4. Gluten/Casein free items on breakfast, lunch, and dinner menus:
   Menu options will include gluten- and casein-free for breakfast,
   lunch, and dinner. Have a taste, it's good.

A partial list of topics, by track, include:

1. Track - Biomedical Treatments
Autoimmune factors / treatments
Biochemistry of autism
Casein- gluten-free diet
Chelation - many forms of
Dental care
Diagnosis
Enzymes
Essential fatty acids
Food / nutrition / diet / vitamins / minerals / organic foods Environmental medicine / toxins IVIG, transfer factors, IV glutathione, Neurological testing, findings, treatments, Phenol sulfur transferase deficiency, Ongoing research, Vaccinations

2. Track - Behavior / Communication / Education Therapies
Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA), Auditory Integration, Computers as learning tools, Greenspan / Floor time, Home schooling, Music therapy, Occupational Therapy, Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS), Pivotal Response Training (PVT), Psychological counseling, testing, Puberty and beyond, Relationship Development Intervention (RDI), Supra-Modal Integrative Learning Experience (SMILE), Sensory Integration, Verbal Behavior, Vision Therapy

3. Track - Complementary and Alternative Medicine
Ayurveda Medicine, Chiropractic, Detoxification, Environmental medicine, Homeopathy, Naturopathic Medicine, Hyperbaric oxygen treatment, Mother's milk, Neurofeedback, Neural organization technique, Orthomolecular Medicine, Raw milk, Specific Carbohydrate Diet (SCD), Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM)

4. Track - Government / Legal / Personal Issues
Adolescence, Adult services, Autism - the law and you, Counseling - coping and communication for parents, Dealing with insurance companies, Estate Planning, How to be your own best advocate, Individual Evaluation Plans (IEPs), Legislative action, Obtaining government services, Puberty, School systems, Vaccines - the law and you

Autism One is a 501(3)(c), non-profit, charity organization, started by a small group of parents of children with autism. Parents are and must remain the driving force of our community, the stakes are too high and the issues too scarce to delegate to outside interests.

If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact me. Thank you and we'll see you in May.

My Best,
Edmund Arranga
714.680.0792
http://AutismOne.org
earranga@autismone.org

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Great Plains Labs – Latest in Autism Treatments Anaheim , CA on June 18-19, 2005. For more info: www.greatplainslaboratory.com

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The SURFERS HEALING SURFCAMP dates are posted on our website www.surfershealing.org . Please fill out application and e-mail it to jennifer@surfershealing.org or fax it to 949-728-1200. Thanks and we can't wait for summer.

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DEFEAT AUTISM NOW! : October 2005 Long Beach –OR- Los Angeles conferences. The web conference also includes the Recovered Autistic Children event.  To learn more about the DAN! web conference and to subscribe, visit: www.ARIWebConference.com or www.danconference.com

These newsletters get longer & longer! Does that mean I have a lot to say? Absolutely not – that means there is just so much more news. The problem for me is figuring out how much I can fit into an Enews and unfortunately what gets deleted! That is the hardest part.

I hope you enjoy the Enews this time around. There is a lot of great information coming out on possible links to Autism. I have even more articles saved for the next Enews!

PLEASE: Stay tuned in the next few days on HOW YOU CAN HELP TACA sustain our ever growing group and efforts!

I hope all is well with your family. All is going well in the Ackerman household and I will have a new Jeff update soon.

Hugs, thanks, and be SAFE,
Lisa A Jeff's mom

And Editor: Kim Palmer (thanks Kim!)