Benford Standley, CFO and Board Chair of Dreamcatchers for Abused Children, surprised us this evening with an amazing and heartfelt gesture. Benford helped produce a tribune film clip for Bruce Ricker. They put a DREAMCATCHERS FOR ABUSED CHILDREN ANNOUNCEMENT at the end of the Bruce Ricker Tribue Reel asking that donations be made to our organization in his memory. Bruce was very close working with Clint Eastwood for over 30 years on many projects, and was a big fan of Benford’s annual Paso Robles Film Festival and State and Fate of the Children — and the gesture of Benford’s work with Dreamcatchers and for the concerns of children and youth.

We all know how wonderful computers and the internet are, but with that come dangers, especially with our children. View some of the shocking statistics regarding child computer and internet usage below. Is it time to start controlling and monitoring your children’s computer use? We think so!

A mother who says she hated her baby son from the day he was born left him to drown in the bath, investigators say. Neha Patel of Lakeland, Florida, allegedly slapped one-year-old Ishan, then purposefully left him alone in a hall-full bathtub. Returning 10 minutes later to find the infant unconscious, she refused to do CPR even though she knew what to do, the sheriffs office said.

An American mother and her boyfriend were charged yesterday in the fatal beating of a toddler whose injuries initially were blamed on a hit-and-run accident. Online court records of Morgan County in Missouri show that 21-year-old Thomas Presley and 25-year-old Jamie Ann Litton face one count of second-degree murder in the death of 3-year-old Blake Litton. Litton also faces two counts of endangering the welfare of a child.

ABBEVILLE, S.C. — The Abbeville police chief says a 4-month-old is lucky to be alive after being abused for his entire life.Police say they were called a home on Tuesday afternoon about a possible child abuse case.Officers say a Department of Social Services worker told them the child was taken to Abbeville Hospital for a swollen leg.

GREENWOOD COUNTY, S.C. — A 50-year-old Greenwood man is accused of raping a 13-year-old boy in a stairwell at a church and forcing the boy to perform sex acts on him.Greenwood police said that the boy was in a parking lot near a playground when he was approached by Gregory Jerome Thomas. The boy said Thomas touched him on the face and said, “I like your type.” He said Thomas asked if he was gay, and when the boy answered no, Thomas said he was going to have sex with him.

Grant Lavelle Hudson, III, a convicted sex offender, is currently wanted in Santa Rosa, California, on a felony arrest warrant issued on October 28, 2003. Grant is charged with nine counts of lewd and lascivious acts with a child under fourteen years of age, two counts of lewd and lascivious acts with a child who was 14/15 years old, and two counts of lewd and lascivious acts with a child under fourteen years of age by the use of force, violence, duress, menace, and threat of bodily harm. These charges stem from Hudson’s alleged sexual molestation of a young female family member which occurred over a period of approximately eight years. Hudson has also been charged with failure to register as a sex offender. A federal arrest warrant charging Hudson with unlawful flight to avoid prosecution was issued on March 31, 2006, in the United States District Court, Northern District of California, San Francisco, California.

Abuse during childhood can change the structure and function of a brain, and increase the risk of everything from anxiety to suicide. “These changes are not limited to physical and sexual abuse; there’s growing evidence that even verbal assault can alter the way a developing brain is wired,” says Martin Teicher, associate professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. The ominous effects are tied to reduction in the size of sensitive areas of the brain and to abnormal brain waves that mimic epilepsy.

COMMERCE CITY, CO– A 60-year-old Commerce City woman faces a charge of child abuse resulting in death for allegedly killing her four-year-old grandson. Doris Becky Trujillo was arrested Friday – the same day Gabriel Trujillo passed away from his injuries. According to Commerce City Police, emergency responders were called to the 6400 block of Siegal Court at about 2:00 p.m. Tuesday on a report that a child had fallen.

‘I didn’t have, like, the intention of killing a kid,’ Ryan Brunn told police after he pleaded guilty to molesting a girl, slashing her throat and dumping her body in a trash bin. In a candid, three-hour interview, Brunn went into detail about how and why he lured the girl to an empty apartment — and when he made the decision to kill her. Convicted child killers don’t often agree to such frank interviews with police, and in this case, Brunn gave them a glimpse into the mind of a murderer.

A senior Chamber of Commerce figure and former RAF police officer raped a schoolgirl while his wife lay on the bed watching, a court heard today. Derek Chartres, 59, allegedly watched pornography and engaged in sex acts in front of schoolgirls and is also accused of raping a girl under 16. The former Chamber of Commerce president is accused of a string of sex acts against two girls, while his wife Pearl, 51, denies aiding and abetting the rape after she allegedly lay on the bed and watched.

A Kentucky woman has pleaded guilty but mentally ill to killing an expectant mother and ripping her baby from her body’s womb last year. Kathy Coy of Morgantown entered the plea on murder, capital kidnapping and kidnapping on Friday morning while family and friends of the victim, 21-year-old Jamie Stice, looked on, wearing pink ribbons. Ms Stice’s baby boy named Isaiah survived the attack although he was born prematurely in a violent attack on his mother. He’s now learning to walk, beginning to talk and bears a bittersweet resemblance to the slain woman.

An elementary school teacher has been jailed for 40 years for having sex with a 14-year-old student. Shannon Alicia Schmieder, 39, was told she will have to serve 20 years – by far the toughest sentence ever handed out by a U.S. court to an educator accused of underage sex. Legal experts said the jail term was the same for manslaughter and other serious crimes. The 39-year-old knew the boy since he was born and was at one stage like a mother-figure to him, according to his family.

LUCERNE VALLEY, CA– Sheriff’s deputies arrested a man Thursday night after he allegedly beat his girlfriend’s 2-year-old son to death in a remote area of Lucerne Valley. Dispatchers received a call about 10:05 p.m. of a child who had been assaulted and was not breathing at a home in the 9200 block of Anza Trail. Deputies arrived to find paramedics administering CPR to 2-year-old Damian Negrete, according to a news release issued by the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department.