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As heard on Radio or TV - California Bill AB2034 - Casey Kasem - Elder Abuse Awareness - Kasem Cares - Kasem Cares Foundation - Kerri Kasem - News - What you should know

New Day Washington: Kerri Kasem’s mission to help families fight elder abuse

“A harrowing ordeal that played out in the media, has inspired one woman to help others avoid the heartbreak she endured. Many viewers may remember Kerri Kasem’s battle to visit her father, radio icon Casey Kasem during his final months– she says, only to be rebuffed by his wife, who moved him from state to state, including here in Washington, before he passed away in June. Kerri is promoting a bill to help others in her situation get the rights they need to visit and tend to an ailing parent. Kerri shared more about the legislation, as well as how her Kasem Cares Foundation, is working to help families facing similar situations.”

As heard on Radio or TV - Casey Kasem - Elder Abuse - Elder Abuse Awareness - Kasem Cares - Kasem Cares Foundation - Kerri Kasem - News - What you should know

KOMO 4 Seattle: Daughter of Casey Kasem breaks her silence about dad’s death

SEATTLE — The daughter of the legendary Casey Kasem, host of “American Top 40” radio and TV show, is breaking her silence about the death of her famous father following a very public national drama played out near Seattle last year.

In her first full interview about it, Kerri Kasem explained how her famous father was kept from his family by his second wife, and the legal battle to get him back – even though it was too late to save his life.

“The doctor said, quote, ‘what was done to this man was inhumane’,” she said.

She warns it is the same nightmare that thousands of families face every year. And, she said, she intends to do something about it.

Casey Kasem was a friend of an entire generation, and Kerri said she is “so proud of my dad!”

Kerri Kasem says her famous dad, despite a divorce, was always there for his kids even at the height of his career. But Kerri accuses his second wife Jean Kasem of isolating him in his ailing years, eventually taking him to a tiny house near Bremerton despite his grave condition.

“Adult children don’t have the rights to ask for visitation to an ailing parent,” she said. “The only people that can give visitation is a spouse, a guardian, a conservator. And if any of those people say no, sorry – you’re never going to see your dad or mom again.”

Casey Kasem - Kasem Cares - Visitation Bill - What you should know

El Paso Times – Visitation Rights in Texas

El Paso Times Reporter did a great article on exactly what Kerri is doing – to get people to realize the importance of being proactive instead of reactive.

Fighting for dignity: Daughter of late famed radio personality pushes for visitation rights in Texas

By Victor R. Martinez / El Paso Times /
Texas House Bill 2665 — which partly states that if death is imminent, an emergency hearing must be held within 10 days — was approved by the House on May 8.

The bill also would require guardians to notify adult children of significant changes in their ailing parent’s health and of funeral arrangements after death.

“It was an awful situation, but it’s one I’ve seen before (without the same media attention) as an attorney,” Moody said in a statement to the El Paso Times in April. “No child should suffer the heartbreak of having a parent kept from them.”

He added, “The current law not only makes it possible for the guardian of an incapacitated adult to stand between that person and their children, it doesn’t provide any legal way for children to fight back.”

Kasem’s plight began in late 2013 when Casey Kasem’s second wife, Jean Kasem, allegedly prevented his children from seeing their father. He died in June 2014.

“My father told the court over and over again that he wanted to see his kids, and the court had no ability to rule on visitation,” Kasem said. “This bill would allow the judge to rule on visitation, it’s as simple as that.”

If passed by the Senate and signed by the governor, Texas would be the second state to have such legislation.

Dinah Street, Joe Moody, Kerri Kasem and other supportive citizens testifying before a senate committee on behalf of the “Visitation Bill”.
You can watch video at the 12 min 40 second mark, the VISITATION BILL being discussed before the Texas committee in Austin: (Kerri Kasem and Dinah Street speak at 14:56): http://tlcsenate.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php

Casey Kasem - Kasem Cares - Kerri Kasem - Visitation Bill

Iowa Governor Signs the Nation’s First Visitation Bill – Kerri Kasem, Kasem Cares Foundation

http://www.KasemCaresFoundation.org

Kasem Cares Foundation – Governor signs the Visitation Bill – Kerri Kasem

(DES MOINES) – Iowa Gov. Terry E. Branstad today announced that he will sign Senate File 306 on Friday, April 24, 2015, at 3 p.m. in the Governor’s Formal Office. Senate File 306 is an act relating to communication and visitation between an adult ward and another person.

The governor will be joined by Kerri Kasem, daughter of Casey Kasem, who lobbied for the bill after her late father was moved from his nursing home in California, first to Nevada and then to Washington without his children’s knowledge or consent. Kerri Kasem began lobbying lawmakers in states across the country for legislation that would prevent similar instances. Iowa will become the first state to enact such a bill.

As heard on Radio or TV - California Bill AB2034 - Casey Kasem - News - Uncategorized

Kerri’s Crusade (Beverly Hills Weekly, December 18-24, 2014)

TV/Radio Personality Kerri Kasem discusses her fight to allow adult children to visit ailing parents

By Mina Riazi

Kerri Kasem is the daughter of late radio broadcaster Casey Kasem.

You and your brother Mike both attended Beverly High?
My brother Mike, my sister Julie and myself—we all attended Hawthorne. My brother and I both went to Beverly [High] for a short time, we did not graduate Beverly. We went to private schools after that.

Tell us about your crusade to pass AB2034, which would protect the right of children to visit ailing parents.
The bill AB2034 is dubbed the visitation bill, which Assemblyman Mike Gatto has taken on, authored, and really been a great advocate for. What it would allow a judge to do is just rule on visitation because right now there’s a gap—you have to have a conservatorship or a durable power of health to actually get into the court and fight to make decisions for your loved ones and fight to see them. And that can cost upwards of $100,000 to $300,000 with no guarantee that you’ll ever see your ailing parent again. What this bill would do is just allow a judge to rule on visitation. So, like in my case, my father said loud and clear to the court, “I want to see my children.” Judge Leslie Green said, “Do you hear that? Casey wants to see his kids, now go figure it out.”

“Now go figure it out” is the worst thing you can say to people who have spent six months trying to see their father because their stepmom, his wife, would not let us see him. So we’ve tried to figure it out, judge, we’ve done everything we could— it’s not going to happen. My stepmother has lied to the press saying we’re estranged, that we borrowed money, that we’re not good kids.

So there was no ability for the judge to rule on visitation or not, even though my dad said, “I want to see my children.” She could not rule on it. Instead, we had this mediation back and forth, my stepmother said if you drop your entire case and the conservatorship bid I will let you see your father, once a month, for an hour, with a guard in the room, and you are not allowed to bring a phone, camera, computer, you can sit with him one at a time—you are not allowed to all go in together.

So my sister and brother decided that they wanted to sign that. And I said, there’s no way in hell I’m going to sign anything like that and I continued to fight and I eventually won conservatorship.

So instead of going through all that mess, a judge, with AB2034, the visitation bill, would say “Hey, you know what, we think these kids deserve visitation or we don’t.” So at least she would be able to decide because right now she cannot adjudicate on any of that. There’s nothing in the law books that allows her to.

How did you find Assemblymember Mike Gatto (D-Glendale) to sponsor it?
Mike Gatto’s office called me and they eventually took the bill on. Gatto said that through my advocacy—I was all over radio, I was all over TV saying we’ve got to do something about this and he said he’s going to help me. And he took the bill on. He worked with my lawyer, who’s the one who won me the conservatorship, he worked with my stepfather, who’s a lawyer and a lobbyist up in Sacramento. So my stepdad is my lobbyist. We really did what we could for this bill and I think it’s going to be passed this year.

What advice do you have for other families in a similar situation?
Advice I give to people who think they might be in a situation like this or don’t get along with family members or don’t get along with—whether it’s your mom or dad or second wife or second husband, whatever it may be—is please, get your estate plans. It may not protect you completely but at least it will get you through the door in court. And then it could be fought there.

Now this is where my bill would come in—at this point, instead of spending the hundreds of thousands of dollars going back and forth or not even getting to court because you don’t have that money, you could ask a judge for visitation and explain what’s going on. So, what I would do is please get your estate plan, your will, get your durable power and video tape all of it.

And then, support my bill. Get out there— you can do what I’m doing, too. It doesn’t just have to be me. Call me up, write me at www.kasemcaresfoundation.org, find me anywhere on social media. And I will get this bill started in your state. I’m one person and I need help. I’ve had many people call me and say “Hey I know this assemblymember, I know this senator” and that’s why it’s in five different states. Also, donate—it’s so important.

Since day one, since we were very little kids, [my stepmother] has made it very clear that we’re not part of her family. Very clear. We were not invited to the wedding, in fact, there were times when we were all together—my brother, my sister, me, my father and her–and [my father] would walk out of the room, he’d walked back in, and she’d tell him that we’d done something to her. And I remember one time my father smacked my brother because of something Jean said he had done to her, and he hadn’t. So this is what we’re dealing with.

When I was a kid I had a sleepy toy that I slept with, it was a penguin, and he got chewed up by my dog. And we saw my dad every Friday, Saturday and Sunday; we were with my mom on the weekdays. [My stepmother] said leave him with me, I love to sew, I’ll fix your penguin right up, just leave him. And it’s like living my sleepy toy, my blanket, my safety blanket with her. I wanted her to like me so bad that I left it. She had thrown it to her dogs when I came back and I said, “Dad, my penguin!” The memory burned into my brain. That’s what we’re dealing with—I was eight years old. This has been around for a long time—this is 34 years of it. And I’m done. And justice is going to be served, it will be served, one way or another.

Tell us about your Kasem Cares foundation.
The Kasem Cares Foundation is just here to support the visitation bill and in California AB2034— just to really push it so we can get into all 50 states. It’s so important that children and siblings get to see their loved ones before they die. And not everybody is going to deserve that. We know that there are bad seeds out there and there might be kids that are toxic. But for the most part, especially if someone’s dying, even if you didn’t have a great relationship, you want to say bye, you want to say sorry, you want to make amends, whatever it may be. So to stop that and to let that person die thinking you never wanted to see them again is horrific for the person dying and for the person that lives. You’ll regret that for the rest of your life.

We hold little fundraisers around Los Angeles and Orange County and people have contacted me that they want to get this bill started and they’re raising funds as well and now we have the bill in five different states. And there are little fundraisers going and if there’s a fundraiser and you want to donate there’s a guy here—fantastic, generous man—who does these Harley rides. Whether it’s a ride from here to Santa Barbara or Camarillo—he’s done events like that for us and part of the proceeds and tickets go to Kasem Cares foundation.

Another woman, this last weekend, did an event where part of the tickets went to the Kasem Cares Foundation, it was a fashion show. So people have raised money that way which is so helpful.

We’ve had people for their birthday, instead of a birthday gift, ask to please give to the Kasem Cares Foundation. We have a lady who does car rides—you can get in a real Nascar. And anytime people bought tickets they gave to us as well.

“There was no ability for the judge to rule on visitation or not, even though my dad said, “I want to see my children.” She could not rule on it.” –TV/Radio Personality Kerri Kasem

Aside from being an activist and a TV and radio personality, you also own a vapor store in Beverly Hills. Tell us about that.
The vapor that I sell here is different from the disposable e-cigarettes. A lot of the disposable e-cigarettes have liquid made in China, which has got a lot of chemicals in it that are not good for you. We have an organic store here. In fact, Dr. Joel Nitzkin, Chair of the Tobacco Control Task Force for the American Association of Public Health Physicians concluded that, “If we all get tobacco smokers to switch from regular cigarettes to electronic cigarettes we would eventually reduce that death toll from 400,000 a year to less than 4000 a year, maybe as low as 400 a year.”

People aren’t talking about the real studies that are coming out. Look at the Drexel University study where it says that there’s no such thing as secondhand vapor. Look at the Oxford University study where they took 9,000 people and during that year people who switched from tobacco to vapor, their cardiovascular systems and their lungs were healing.

So look at the good studies—look at the real studies. Don’t listen to the propaganda and the tobacco lobbyists—they’re killing people and they want to keep killing people. Both of my grandmothers died of smoking, lung cancer. And my boyfriend was a smoker for five years and this is the only thing to get him off of it. So, while putting nothing in your lungs is best, this can save your life. And for anybody who’s against it: shame on them for not doing their research and listening to the tobacco companies and the tobacco lobbyists. Shame on the politicians for not doing their research.

I really feel like I found the light in something that was tragic in a situation that would bring most people down to their knees and just break their spirits. I found the light and I found something that was good and that was helping people through my situation. And that’s something my father would have done—he would have turned something terrible and said ok, let’s find something good about this. What can we do to fix this and make this better? And I think I’ve done that for a lot of people in my situation.

Watch Kerri Kasem’s Beverly Hills View interview: Air dates on Channel 10: Monday, January 12 at 4:30 pm Tuesday, January 13 at 6:30 pm Wednesday, January 14 at 7:30 pm Thursday, January 15 at 10:30 pm Friday, January 16 at 2:30 pm

Beverly Hills View – Kerri Kasem from Beverly Hills Television on Vimeo.

Casey Kasem - Community - Kerri Kasem - Keynote Speaker - News - What you should know

Sold Out OC Business Luncheon Hears Kerri Kasem Speak

Kerri Kasem was the keynote speaker at RBN in Mission Viejo, California.

Topics shared with 150 attendees included:

  • How to correctly plan your estate
  • Avoiding the time and expense to get a conservatorship
  • Why you need a durable power of attorney
  • The benefits of a health care directive
  • The personal cost of improper planning
  • Heart-breaking lessons concerning life-and-death decisions

She spoke about her personal story and the ordeal of her father, Casey Kasem, and why she decided to go public in 2013 to help other families from going through similar pain or difficult ordeals.

If you are remarried (or married for the first time whether you are in a  good relationship or not) there are things you should do to protect your children.  “It’s so important.  I started the Kasem Cares Foundation to promote basic family rights legislation that is currently not in the law.  Existing law does not allow a judge to rule on visitation because the judge has no jurisdiction.”

Kerri will be in Sacramento the week of August 11th to continue pushing the Visitation Bill AB2034 through the California assembly.

Kerri spoke alongside speaker and estate planning attorney, Naz Barouti of the Barouti Law Corporation with offices in Los Angeles, San Diego, and Orange Counties.  Naz offers a free guide: “Understanding Living Trusts: How to Avoid Probate, Save Taxes & More” and spoke about her mission to help others get correct guidance when planning their will, trust and estate.

Casey Kasem - Community - Kerri Kasem - Keynote Speaker - News

Kerri Kasem and Julie Kasem Talking About The Right to Ask Where Your Parent is Buried

Access Hollywood talks with Kerri and Julie Kasem.  It’s been a month since radio legend Casey Kasem passed away (Father’s Day) at the age of 82, but the whereabouts of his body remains a mystery.  Here Kerri and Julie Kasem share more information on the family updates and The Kasem Cares Foundation:

“When the legislation bill passes — Visitation Bill AB 2034 that assemblyman Mike Grotto is authoring —  when that passes, in January 2015, we will have the right to ask for where my father is buried,” says Kasem.

That is part of the bill:

  • To know where your loved one is buried.
  • To know when your loved one is in the hospital.
  • To have visitation if your parent wanted it.

So if anyone is in a similar position, write me.  We can help you and get this bill passed in every single state so this does not happen to anyone else.

It is so important to me that people get the right help while they are alive, well and healthy, I am speaking on August 6, 2014 in Orange County. More information to attend this talk: click here.

Casey Kasem - Kerri Kasem - News - What you should know

Protecting Your Family Estate Planning Attorney Speaks with Kerri Kasem on KABC

Kelly Rooney and Kimmy Rooney discussing being blocked from an ailing parent. July 28, 2014


Radio personality and recent family law advocate Kerri Kasem discusses recent activities regarding the passage of Visitation Bill AB 2034, her late father Casey Kasem, her step-mother Jean Kasem’s vitriolic behavior, and keeping a clear head about it all.

Family law attorney and radio host, Naz Barouti interviewed Kerri on the radio show “Protecting Your Family” which airs weekly in Southern California on KABC.

Kasem is continuing her advocacy of family rights by taking her cause nationwide and publicly speaking about her experiences.