There are really only eight men in the rotation right now for the Nuggets, who really have yet to find traction this season. This has been a year clouded with all sorts of problems, as HC George Karl is threatening to walk away from the team, F Carmelo Anthony still wants to get traded, and big men F Kenyon Martin and F Chris Andersen have still yet to suit up this season. Still, ‘Melo and company are putting points on the board at a great clip, mostly thanks to how well Anthony has played in spite of all of this controversy with his wanting out of the Rockies. The former member of the Syracuse Orange is averaging 24.6 points per game and 9.4 rebounds per game this season, and he has the third best shooting percentage on the team amongst qualified shooters at 47.9 percent. Defense, once again, is option for Denver, as it has had some decent games and some horrible ones, but few good ones. The squad is allowing 104.5 points per game, ranking it just No. 22 in the NBA, and it is letting teams shoot a stellar 46.2 percent from the field.
The Blazers have to be thrilled to be coming home after three games on the road, but all of the talk is about injuries on this squad. Yesterday, the news broke that C Greg Oden was going to have micro fracture surgery again in his knee and will miss the entire season, while there is still speculation whether or not G Brandon Roy, the heart and soul of the squad, will be missing any time with his knee injury. C Marcus Camby and C Joel Przybilla are both listed as questionable for Thursday’s crucial tilt as well. The good news is that there are plenty of scoring options to pick up where Roy left off. F LaMarcus Aldridge, F Nicolas Batum, and G Andre Miller are all more than capable of scoring 25 in a given night, while in the one game that Roy missed, G Wesley Matthews stepped up and netted 30 in what probably amounted to be the best game in his career. The key is going to be slowing the tempo down, as Portland just cannot play at Denver’s pace. This is still one of the best defensive teams in the half court game in the Western Conference, and that must show on Thursday night to win.
Denver picked up the one and only victory on the road in the four games between these teams last year, and we tend to believe that the same thing is coming on Thursday. There are still really too many question marks out there to figure out whether we want to back up the truck on the Nuggets or not, but even if Roy and Camby do play and are limited just in the slightest bit, we think that the visitors can take advantage and steal one here at the Rose Garden.
New child-support rules gain ground; A House committee approved a bill to change the formula for determining payments, but heard several criticisms of it.(NEWS)
Star Tribune (Minneapolis, MN) March 27, 2003 | Hopfensperger, Hean Byline: Hean Hopfensperger; Staff Writer Minnesota’s child support system, which sets payments for more than 260,000 children, would undergo a major shake-up under a bill approved by a House committee Wednesday.
The formula for determining child support would be revamped. And the income of both parents would be considered when courts award payment; currently, only the income of the parent without custody is considered.
Likewise, the custodial parent, typically the mother, could be required to make monthly reports on how she spends her child support payment.
The bill’s chief author, Rep. Steve Smith, R-Mound, said it is designed to improve child support collections. It is based in part on recommendations made by the state Department of Human Services two years ago.
But the bill was criticized on several fronts Wednesday at a House Health and Human Services Policy Committee hearing. A fathers’ rights group wanted a different child support formula.
A family law attorney opposed any documentation of child support spending. And a mother worried about how it would affect her payments.
“Now that I’m finishing college and will get a job, does that mean my ex-husband can take me to court and get a lower payment?” asked Cheryl Johnson, a mother from Maplewood.
The 179-page bill would make several major changes to child support rules, including:
- Reducing the amount of child support that low-income parents must pay. see here child support md
- Basing child support on gross rather than net earnings, in order to prevent noncustodial parents from exempting portions of their income.
- Allowing courts to order a parent receiving child support to document how the money is spent if a parent paying it suspects that it isn’t being used properly.
- Allowing judges to reduce child support if the child spends between 33 percent and 45 percent of his or her overnights with the noncustodial parent.
- Setting new support standards in joint-custody arrangements.
- Basing the size of the child support grant on typical family expenditures estimated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).
Some ups and downs Some child support payments would go up and some down under the new formula, said Wayland Campbell, who oversees the state Human Services Department’s child support division.
For example, according to the department’s calculations:
- A noncustodial parent earning $33,000 a year would see child support payments drop from $525 a month to $408 if the other parent earned $19,000 a year.
- A noncustodial parent earning $10,000 a year would see the payment drop from $151 a month to $50 if the other parent earned $8,000.
- A custodial parent earning $75,000 a year would see a drop in support from $584 a month to $363 if the noncustodial parent earned $38,000.
The new guidelines were designed to be more equitable to both parents. But Bob Carrillo, representing R-Kids, a fathers’ rights group, said they amounted to little more than “slapping a new paint job on a rusted old Chevy.” The guidelines were arbitrarily calculated by the USDA, based on projected expenses for two-income families, charged Tim Kinley of Maplewood, who testified at the hearing. They don’t take into consideration what noncustodial parents spend when their child is with them.
Johnson, meanwhile, worried that the size of her child support check could be reduced. She says she’s already struggling to make ends meet.
“Even when I get a new job I probably won’t be able to work full time, because I need to be available to my daughter when she’s sick or needs child care after school.” Point of contention In the past, however, fathers’ rights groups have supported reductions in child support linked to parenting time, as well as the concept of requiring parents receiving support to document how they spend their money.
Those two provisions were criticized by Mary Louise Klas, a retired Ramsey County district judge and longtime member of state child support task forces. They would aggravate the huge power struggles that plague so many child support cases, she said. childsupportmd.net child support md
“There would be nothing more powerful in a batterer’s quiver than bringing his spouse to court to explain expenses,” Klas said.
A Senate version of the bill, approved by a committee on Tuesday, was stripped of the provision that would allow courts to order some parents to document their expenses.
“We felt it would open up a floodgate of litigation,” said Mike Dittberner, a spokesman for the Minnesota chapter of the Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers.
The Senate also stripped the bill of a provision requiring a six-month review of child support and parenting time and of a provision linking a reduction in child support to expanded parenting time by the noncustodial parent.
Both Dittberner’s group and the Family Law Section of the Minnesota State Bar Association said they would not oppose the bill if those provisions were removed, spokesmen said.
The Human Services Department has not taken a position on the bill.
The House bill now moves to the House Civil Law Committee. The Senate version was rolled into the omnibus family law bill, which will be heard in the Judiciary Committee in early April.
Jean Hopfensperger is at hopfen@startribune.com.
AT A GLANCE Child support bill The formula for determining child support in Minnesota, as well as other child support changes, are part of a bill making its way through the Legislature.
Highlights: The income of both parents, not just the noncustodial parents, would be considered when determining support. Support would be based on gross, not net, earnings. Courts could order a parent receiving child support to document how the money was spent. Support could be reduced if a child spends a certain amount of time with noncustodial parent.
Status: The House version (HF110) has moved to the Civil Law Committee. The Senate version (SF751) was stripped of the most controversial provisions and will be heard in the Senate Judiciary Committee in early April.
Hopfensperger, Hean
