What's impressive with Hit Parade is not what's absent but what's present, which is not only enough to make a case for Weller's strengths as a songwriter and restless rocker, but which helps explain the transitions in his career in a way that may be revelatory even for longtime fans. This means that there are great songs left behind - whether it's the Jam B-side "Tales from the Riverbank" or the soulful "Can You Heal Us (Holy Man)" from Wild Wood - but that's the nature of hits compilations: great songs get left behind. Given the great wealth of music that Weller made during these three decades, the compilers picked the simplest and best solution to whittling down his rich, complicated career to the basics: they picked the A-sides of all of his British singles. It's one of the great careers of the post-punk era, and the four-disc 2006 box set Hit Parade is the first attempt to tell it in its entirety, from the bright, brilliant early years of the Jam to his role as an elder statesman in the new millennium. That ornery side gave his music an edge and also gave it a riveting humanity that earned him a passionate, devoted audience who stuck with him through a roller coaster of ups and downs in his career, from his abrupt disbandment of the Jam to form the slick, soulful Style Council to his comeback as the trad-rocking Modfather in the '90s. From the outset, Weller was different - too tense, too difficult to fit into the crowd even when he was the most popular musician in Britain, as he was when he led the Jam at the turn of the '80s. Certainly, they rarely keep performing into middle age, but Paul Weller has never been ordinary. “We take lessons learned from cases such as this to make better decisions when we respond to child safety concerns.Teenage rock & rollers often don't last. “The abuse in this case occurred prior to October 2011, and our practice has improved significantly since then,” according to the DSHS statement provided by spokesman John Wiley.
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The children in the lawsuit were the adopted twins, a boy and girl, now 19, and three younger biological sons, 17, 15 and 13. Other complaints were closed following an investigation.Īfter the children were removed from the Weller home in October 2011, DSHS finally obtained Child Protective Services records on Sandra Weller from California and found reports of chronic physical abuse, corporal punishment, malnutrition and food deprivation, the lawsuit said. Some of the complaints were never investigated. However, the children were not removed from the Weller home until October 2011 when one of the twins left a note at her therapist’s office, stating that her parents were beating her with a wooden board and that the board was “literally covered in dried blood,” according to court documents. More than 30 other complaints about the children’s welfare were reported to the agency after that, including allegations that the children were not give enough food, that there was a padlock on the refrigerator at the home, and that Sandra Weller had threatened to kill one of the twins, according to court documents. “They were subjected to horrific criminal abuse at the hands of their parents, who are serving lengthy prison sentences.” “The Department of Social and Health Services settled this case because the standard of practice did not rise to the level needed to protect these children from harm,” DSHS officials said in a prepared statement.
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The lawsuit alleged that the state Department of Social and Health Services failed to adequately respond to dozens of complaints about the children’s welfare over an eight-year period or to investigate a history of Child Protective Services referrals involving Sandra Weller in California. The remaining $3.55 million of the settlement will be divided between the other three younger siblings, who are the Wellers’ biological children. Two adopted twins, who were routinely imprisoned, beaten and starved by the Wellers, each received $3.1 million. The Wellers were sentenced in Clark County Superior Court in March 2013 to 20 years in prison for multiple crimes related to the abuse. The state has agreed to pay a $9.75 million settlement to five siblings who were abused for years by their parents, Jeffrey and Sandra Weller, in their Vancouver home.