Battles over Jackson's kids, assets may loom

Michael Jackson's three kids are with the singer's mother and "are doing fine," a lawyer for the Jackson family said Friday.

"They are in the care of a nanny," Brian Oxman told Us Weekly.

"Mrs. Jackson will care for them and I'm sure there will be all kinds of discussions that will take place about the kids."

The three kids - Prince Michael, 12, Paris, 11 and Prince Michael II, 7 - were often hidden behind masks by their oddball dad.

The two older children were born during Jackson's brief marriage to Debbie Rowe, while Prince Michael II was delivered by a surrogate mother Jackson never met.

While the kids are now with Katherine Jackson, a 79-year-old mother of 10, Rowe may be poised to fight for custody of the older two.

It's been widely reported she gave up her parental rights, but TMZ.com said she never completed that process under California law.

As a result, she's still the legally recognized mother and could take custody of Prince Michael and Paris unless a court determines it would be "detrimental to the children."

In general, Jackson's children were kept out of the spotlight that followed him everywhere.

But in 2002, Prince Michael II, also known as Blanket, was famously dangled off a hotel balcony by his pop as as onlookers below screamed.

Jackson later admitted the baby-dangling stunt was "a terrible mistake" and that he "got caught up in the excitement of the moment."

Oxman said the three children are "well-trained, well educated and extraordinarily talented. They get to play with their cousins and their nieces and their nephews. They are just smarter than smart can be."

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/2009/06/26/2009-06-26_michael_jacksons_three_kids_.html#ixzz0JYrXpxD8&D

Read More......

Call to ban child-in-car smoking

Adults should be banned from smoking in cars when children are passengers, the new head of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health has said.

In a BBC News website Scrubbing Up column, Professor Terence Stephenson, said children deserved protection.

"You can't inflict this on your colleagues any more. Why should we treat our children's health as a lower priority?" he said.

A Department of Health spokesman said it would review smoking laws next year.

Read Professor Stephenson's column here

Professor Stephenson, who recently took over as head of the college, said children should not have to breathe in their parents' cigarette smoke.

"Why on earth would you light up in your car whilst your children are sitting happily in the back?

"On the assumption that you wouldn't pass the packet round and invite the kids to light up, why make them breathe tobacco smoke at all?"

He said the Canadian province of New Brunswick, California, South Australia and Cyprus had already introduced such legislation successfully.

And Professor Stephenson said second-hand smoke had been linked to chest infections, asthma and ear problems in children.

'Impractical suggestion'

Deborah Arnott, chief executive of the anti-smoking charity Action on Smoking and Health (ASH), backed a complete ban on smoking in vehicles.


"Smoking just one cigarette, even with the window open, creates a greater concentration of second-hand smoke than a whole evening's smoking in a pub or a bar.

"That's not just bad for children but for adults too, especially those who already have heart or lung diseases."

And a spokeswoman for the road safety charity, Brake, said smoking while driving meant people were not concentrating on the road.

"All that can add up to not having proper control of your vehicle or dangerous driving."

She said it might be useful to have a law banning smoking in the same way there was in force regarding using hand-held mobile phones.

But Neil Rafferty, Scottish spokesman for Forest, the pro-smokers' rights group, said: "We don't think that children should be exposed to smoke in a car but a ban would be a waste of police and court time.

"Would it be OK if you opened the sunroof or a window while smoking? It's an impractical suggestion.

"People like those at the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health should be more realistic about what is possible."

A Department of Health spokesman said it would look at whether current anti-smoking laws needed to be extended.

He added: "We would always strongly recommend that people do not smoke in cars, especially those used to transport children."
Read More......