NCCPR news and commentary roundup, week ending June 15, 2025

● On the Maine Monitor Radio Hour, reporter Josh Keefe discusses his story about a mother who had to learn the rules of life in a child welfare surveillance state the hard way: Conform precisely to middle-class, white-picket-fence child-rearing norms or lose your child. I have a blog post about the case with a link to the original story. 

● The Iowa Capital Dispatch reports that a mother forced to endure the trauma of a needless investigation and then fight her way off a state blacklist of alleged child abusers, all because of what she says a false positive drug test when she gave birth, is suing the lab. 

In this week's edition of The Horror Stories go in All Directions: 

● KSDK-TV has story about a case in Illinois, in which a foster mother and a foster grandmother have been charged in the murder of one of their foster children, Mackenzi Felmlee. The story begins with this headline: “Foster mom laughed while teen lay dying at bottom of stairs, court evidence reveals.” And there were other videos: 

Another piece of evidence showed Felmlee standing in front of a wall, forced to repeat phrases. One phrase was, "I am a doof, I hate myself," as [the foster mother] recorded and yelled at Felmlee while hitting her with an object. 

Other videos showed Felmlee begging for food and water. 

More videos and pictures showed Felmlee's injuries and bruises from her face to her arm. 

Other disturbing videos and pictures showed Felmlee forced to wear a soiled diaper on her face. … 

Other foster children also said they were abused: 

A child who resided in the home from 2013-2015 also reported [the foster mother] and said they were getting hit and threatened.

They said, "He'd rather die in the cold than live there." 

The family of Felmlee’s birth mother issued a statement. Here are some excerpts:

Mackenzi’s mother fought for her. 

She begged the courts for a second chance. She got sober. She got stable. She did the work. She tried to reunite with her children. But her voice wasn’t heard. The system didn’t want to look back at a woman’s redemption it only saw her past. So instead of being returned to her mother, Mackenzi was placed in a home with multiple prior abuse complaints all ignored by Illinois DCFS. … 

Mackenzi should be alive. 

Her mother should have been given the chance to be her mother again. 

Now, all we have is truth and we will not let it be buried by lies. 

The foster mother and foster grandmother deny the charges. Their defense attorney pointed out that the Illinois “child welfare” agency determined that all of the abuse allegations against them were unfounded. 

● In New Mexico, scene of America’s worst foster-care panic in 2023, and where the Governor has just further ratcheted up that panic, all in the name of child safety, of course, Searchlight New Mexico reports that this happened. 

● And in Pennsylvania, Statecollege.com reports: 

A former Centre County resident was arrested Tuesday on charges that he repeatedly raped a foster child in his care over a period of more than two years in the State College area.