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HOUSTON DAILY JOURNAL What are the chHds' rights in a questioned paternity case? Dear Jim: My friend’s husband recently passed. A woman claims he was the father of her baby. Does this child have any rights? Dear Reader: Your friend is twice suffering -■ first dealing with the loss of her husband and then this “other” woman trying to pile scandal onto her grief. Unfortunately, your friend could be headed into a potential legal quagmire. Over decades and centuries, the law has evolved with respect to protecting the rights of illegitimate chil dren. While they are not necessarily given rights equal to legitimate children, modern law generally favors legally “recognizing” fathers of illegitimate children; the law has come to frown on illegitimate children being discriminated against due to the circumstance of birth. When you are dealing with the death of any parent there are different rules for property transfers “out side” a will from those that have to pass through an estate first. As to each of these inqui ries the analysis differs. “Death” benefits or life insurance are common examples of property that “pass” outside a will; which means the payments are tax-free, not even subject to inheritance taxes. Death may be the trig gering event that transfers rights property, but only named beneficiaries receive their benefits, as opposed to heirs. Thus, when you purchase life insurance, you designate named beneficia ries and, when you die, only they receive any benefits, even to the exclusion of any your (other) legal heirs. What is environmental health? By CARLA D. COLEY Contributed The Environmental Health Section of the Houston County Health Department is a branch of the Division of Public Health and is part of the Department of Human Resources. We are based in each county health department and not only enforce rules and regulations, but pro vide many useful services to the public. As environmental health specialists, we help protect against environmental fac tors that may adversely impact human health or the ecological balances essential to long-term human health and environmental quality, whether in the natural or man-made environment. Environmentalists are referred to as “health inspectors” and to some we are known as sanitarians. By whatever name we are called, we provide primary prevention through a com bination of surveillance, education, enforcement, and assessment programs designed to identify, pre vent, and abate the envi ronmental conditions that adversely impact human health. We enforce rules and regulations of the mwx/ mMmum mm mum* '** mmmm mm mm mm mm mmmm mmmmmmmm mm mm mm mm imp mmmu 1820 Houston Lake Rd., Perry, GA 31069 (478) 224-7867 Sizes: sxlo up to 10x25 Fenced and Lighted • Insurance Available • Household Items • Large Commercial • Boats / RV's Units Regular & Climate Controlled Units Convenient Location 24-Hour Accessible Call About Our Move-In Specials Many of us have life insur ance policies. Since they specifically designate who receives benefits, illegiti mate chil dren will receive only what is stated in their father’s policy. But, when ' it comes to Jl Jim Rockefeller Columnist agO rockefellerlawcenter com more generic forms of com mon “death benefits,” like Social Security, any minor child is entitled to benefits. Here, rules are set by the policy or government pro gram, as opposed to state statute, and the legal status of the child may or may not be important - the text of the policy or program con trols. Broadly speaking, the father’s acknowledgment of paternity or a post-mortem DNA test may be all that is needed to qualify the minor child to benefits. Trusts are estate plan ning devices specifically cal culated to avoid inheritance and/or capital gains taxes for investments. Trust property (“corpus”) passes (again, outside the will) to specified individuals and/or a class of beneficiaries as defined by a trust. Whether a father’s ille gitimate child would receive any of this corpus is a mixed bag of the language to the trust document and state law. Most of us never accumu late enough wealth to use one and, if we do, we pay an estate planning attorney lots and lots of money to avoid legal confusion, where county and the State and provide a variety of servic es designed to protect the community from potential public and environmental health threats. There are four levels of Environmental Health Specialists that provide envi ronmental health services in the State of Georgia. Their position classifica tions vary according to levels of supervisory responsibil ity and programmatic activ ities. Environmentalists provide services that are broken into five different mandated programs: on site sewage (land use), wells, rabies, food service, tourist accommodations, and pub lic swimming pools. In addition, we provide other services such as inves tigating sources of lead poisoning in children with elevated blood leads, work ing complaints related to West Nile Virus, and help ing to provide safe food and shelter during natural and man-made disasters. There are other programs that may not be offered in all counties, but many larger health departments throughout the State may also provide services related to indoor air quality, radon and asbestos, and inspec tion of tattoo and body art studios. Perry Parkway an unaccounted for illegiti mate child may, or may not, be entitled to benefits from some of the father’s trust. Things become much trickier with respect to the “estate” of the deceased. Whether a father dies with or without a will (called “intestate”), the father’s left over property (and debts) has to be “probated” to determine who receives what. Each state’s law gov erns this distribution. For instance, in some states, a surviving spouse might automatically and/or minimally receive some of the estate. Consequently, while the specifics of the will often are important, so is the law of each state. Frankly, this is such a tangled legal thicket, I cannot describe all possible scenarios in a single column! The best I can state is that an illegitimate child may still have some rights and the father should have had a will carefully drawn, to account for such a pos sibility. My hope for your friend is that none of this matters and that she can just move on with her life. She probably deserves better than this. Warner Robins attorney Jim Rockefeller is the former Houston County Chief Assistant District Attorney, and a for mer Florida Assistant State Attorney. Owner of Rockefeller Law Center, Jim has been in private practice since 2000. E-mail him at ajr@rockefellerlawcenter. com. Visit www.rockefeller lawcenter.com for past col umns and Frequently Asked Questions. We also work with the public regarding general nuisance complaints and provide educational mate rials and guidance when appropriate. Many times, we will serve as a referral source when the complaint does not fall under our pur view of services. Several years ago, the National Sanitation Foundation International published an aphorism regarding environmental health and sanitation that reads, “Sanitation is a way of life. It is the quality of living that is expressed in the clean home, the clean farm, the clean business and industry, the clean neigh borhood, the clean commu nity. Being a way of life, it must come from within the people; it is nourished by knowledge and grows as an obligation and an ideal in human relations.” As environmentalists, we hope that we can foster this ideal through our involve ment in the community and through education and, when necessary, enforce ment. Over the course of the next several months, we will be providing informa tion regarding our list of services and offering educa tional information through See HEALTH, page jA THINKING of a POOL? FREE ; Installation!: Caribbean Pools only | The Caribbean ENJOY THIS HUGE POOL! THE Mariner Family-Size Pool j 31 xl9’ o.d. Ho. Lk. Rd. Hwy. 127^ Homeowners Only! Call Now! 1 -888-224-2217| www.oools-dlmmondindumtrlttm.com | 47682 LOCAL BIOS password can be cleared bear TechnoFiles: I recently bought a used computer at a yard sale add need to clear the sys tem password when you fii l st turn it on. This isn’t the Windows password, but the one that comes u|i before the computer even boots. Any sugges tions? - Bootless bear Bootless: It sounds like you need to clear the BIOS password before you can get in and affect any changes. There are a couple of ways to try to do this. One is through software and the other is to open the case and locate sohie jumpers. Since there’s always the risk of knocking soinething loose whenever you get inside the case, I suggest you try the software solution first. You can download a utility called “PC BIOS Security arid Maintenance Toolkit”. You’ll have to do this on a working computer, of course, arid depending on how old your yard sale find is you’ll have to copy the files onto a flclppy disk or a USB drive. Do a Google search on the utility’s name, save it to your hard drive and follow the directions. It should clear the BIOS password, which you can then choose to set a new one or simply don’t bother with it. Getting inside the case isn’t all that bad. You’ll nOed to look for jumpers ori the system board that reset/clear the BIOS pass- What is your desired outcome for today? lam on the phone daily, conducting coaching calls with clients. It doesn’t take them long to learn that early in the conversation, I will say, “What is your desired outcome for today’s call?” May I suggest that you start using that question with those you influence? I have a client who com plained that “People are always interrupting me. They knock on my door and ask if I have a minute to talk. Believe me, it often takes longer than a minute! Tkey often ramble, not clear about what they want. How cdn I break them of this habit?” This person has a heart to help! I know his motive is honorable. With the advice I offered, he is now more helpful tkan ever, AND he reduced the length (and number) of interruptions! I suggested that ke answer the “Can I have a minute?” question with this response: “Sure, what is your desired outcome?” Not allowing the conversa tion to start without a clear response was a hard change fdr him to make. Some of those he serves gave him a hard time about it, asking what had gotten into him. I suggested he say, “Oh, I’m just working on using niy time better. I find that if I’m real clear on the out come I want to achieve, I stay focused in my actions. Sb, what do you want to accomplish?” Very quickly, my friend realized that many inter rupters are not clear on what they want to achieve. The question stumped sev eral of them. They stam mered and wanted to get on with their question, but my friend would not let them proceed until they identified FREE “Pool Party" A $l5O Value Caribbean Pools only *895 3 Great Reasons io NO MONEY DOWN! Caribbean Pools only Fra* Home Survey! Diu men t! Industries mm IL Y ~:if Jason and Tlina Ashford TechoFiles word. Unfortunately these jumpers are rarely labeled, so you might want to try to find a schematic of your sys tem board on the Internet. Look for a manufacturer’s name and model number, something like ASUS, Intel or Mach Speed followed by a series of alphanumeric char acters. If you can’t locate a schematic of your board, you might try the following locations: Near the edge of the system board, close to the CMOS battery, or by the processor are common loca tions. Once you locate the jump ers, you either need to remove the jumper cover if one is one, or short the two pins if there is no cover present. You can buy a jumper cover or simply use a flathead screw to create a bridge between the pins while you boot the computer - not for the faint of heart, but it works. Once the pass word is clear, you can leave the jumper in the state you found it. Good luck! -Tina Dear TechnoFiles: I have three grandsons, and they are pretty hard what outcome they sought. Most folks now start think- ing about their answer to the ques tion before they knock on his door. With those who don’t catch on so quickly, he is patient and he Dennis Hooper Leaders Building Leaders asks them to sit down and think. He helps them find their own answer by asking a few additional questions. “What is it that you want to be different after we fin ish talking? Whatever that is, that’s ‘your desired out come’ of this conversation. Maybe you want to obtain some information. Maybe you want to explore the advantages of options you’re considering. Maybe you need a decision from me, so you can take the next step in a project you’re handling.” With that kind of nurtur ing dialogue, folks quickly learn what he means by “What is your desired out come?” Assessing Your Leadership Skills -SBS/person ; •' J I J '' POWDERED INFANT FORMULA MAY CAUSE SERIOUS ILLNESS OR DEATH IN INFANTS A recent study concluded that powdered infant formula may be linked to serious illness or death in premature or low birth weight infants. The infants are typically diagnosed with: BRAIN DAMAGE • SEPSIS * MENINGITIS SALMONELLA • HYDROCEPHALUS. If your infant child has been diagnosed with any of the above illnesses, you may have a claim. For a FREE consultation contact: SAUNDRA M. DAVIS, ESQ. Attorney at Law 1-877-943-9388 No representation is made that the quality of the legal services to be performed is greater than the quality of legal services performed by other lawyers. SATURDAY, MAY ft 2007 on DVD’s. Several times, the DVD’s they’ve gotten for Christmas have got ten scratched or broken, despite my best efforts to keep them in their boxes. I have a new computer with a DVD burner and I’m wondering what’s the best way I can copy their DVD’s so I can keep the originals safely locked away from little hands? E.J. in Perry. Dear E.J.: Copying DVD’s is a little more com plicated both from a techni cal perspective and a legal perspective. Legally, the Motion Picture Association of America would surely argue that despite having purchased the DVD, you don’t have the right to make copies- even for your own use. To that end, all DVD’s are encrypted preventing casual copying without some serious software. Even if you copy the disk, the file sizes are such that the files will not fit on a standard DVD without reprocessing and compressing the out put to fit on a small capac ity disk. Programs such as AnyDVD by slysoft.com will decrypt the DVD, and pro grams like Ahead’s Nero at www.mero.com will burn the DVD after compressing the files, but it’s not a task for a beginner. So, as much as I hate to admit it, the short and easy answer is protect those DVD’s because copy ing them is a bit harder than you’d think. -Jason My friend has reported an interesting and benefi cial side effect of asking this question. He finds that as he starts on a new task, he asks himself the same question. “What is my desired out come in the next ten min utes?” He used to get dis tracted just by looking for something in a file, for example. He’d read some thing there that reminded him that he should make a phone call. He’d make the phone call, and that would lead to something else. He found himself doing things he never intended, which resulted in delaying the objective he initially had in mind! This is a very simple yet intentional change you can make! Try it for a week, and if you find it to be help ful, continue it for a month. When you make those unex pected interruptions more effective, you’ll want to make “What is your desired outcome?” a habit! Dennis Hooper helps lead ers serve their organiza tions better. Send your ques tions and ideas to Dennis at dhooper2@juno.com, or call him at 478-988-0237. F. Dennis Hooper Certified Leadership Development Coach Building leaders and organizations of excellence (478) 988-0237 5A 47200 dhooper2(fl)juno.com || 48081