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Friends,

1. Republic Article Run Date: Below is a message from the Arizona Republic reporter who has been working on the story about Sarah. While the article is now slated to run tomorrow, Thursday, March 27, you will see that we've lost substantial space and positioning due to the war. At this point, I hope that the other media reporters, particularly those who originally wrote about or broadcast the story, will jump on the bandwagon to get us some follow-through coverage.

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2. County Attorney's Kid Safety Report and Our Efforts: On a positive note, Maricopa County Attorney Rick Romley's office just released a report stating that the primary goal of state child welfare efforts should not be to keep families together but rather that the safety of the children should come first and foremost. Among the report's suggestions is forcing Child Protective Services to open its records except in cases where doing so would imperil a child's welfare. As CPS has thus far refused to open Sarah's records, this is a much-welcomed recommendation. However, the report does not mention creating standards and protocols for psychological abuse and dangers.

Again, our goal is to prove that health care professionals advised CPS that Erica psychologically abused Sarah and that such abuse posed a threat to Sarah's safety. However, CPS lacked the tools and standards necessary to recognize and heed warnings, resulting in Sarah's death. The result of our successful effort would be the creation of CPS standards and protocols for protecting children imperiled by psychologically unstable caretakers.

3. Gearing up for a Letter Writing/Phone Campaign: On the momentum of the County Attorney report and the article about Sarah, I will likely outline a plan for a letter writing and/or telephone call campaign to the County Attorney, CPS, the governor and Valley legislators, copying the media. The more folks we have on board, the more effective we will be.

4. We need more Action Update Members: Since our last update, 8 new constituents have opted-in to the Sarah Stevens Action Update. We welcome these new members with gratitude and urge you in turn to get more folks on board. We need many more Samaritans to join this grass roots effort to right a wrong and make a difference for others. While our own lives are busy enough and the war vexes us 24/7, we still need to care for our community. Everyone, please share Sarah's story, the Action Updates, and this email address with as many folks as possible. But to be part of this list, THEY MUST OPT-IN. We are all fortunate to live in a democracy where we can unite our voices to create meaningful change. Please urge others to join us in this effort.

Yours in truth and action,
Ellen Nusbaum

*HOW TO OPT-IN TO THE SARAH STEVENS ACTION UPDATE! Urge anyone who cares about protecting at-risk children (or anyone who new Erica and Sarah) to please email me at this address to opt-in to the Sarah Stevens Action Update email newsletter. All one must do is email [email protected] with OPT-IN in the subject line. We urge all members to recruit at least two people to the list so that we can begin to build a formidable grass roots effort and actually make a difference.

**Email us at [email protected] for back installments of the Sarah Stevens Action Update.