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This page contains an archive of the last 100 entries posted to ProgressNow.org Daily News Digest in the Marriage and Family Issues category. They are listed from newest to oldest. You can find older entries using the search box below.

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Marriage and Family Issues Archives

February 26, 2008

Shifts in Pregnancy and Work - New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/26/us/26census.html?ref=us...
As women have children later than ever and more work outside the home, they are also working longer into pregnancy and returning to work faster than they did four decades ago, the Census Bureau said Monday. The trend reflects a number of developments since the early 1960s, including more opportunities for pregnancy leave, paid and unpaid, and increased protections for pregnant women against job discrimination. In the early part of that decade, 44 percent continued to work during pregnancy; that rose to 67 percent among women who gave birth to their first child between 2001 and 2003. The share who quit work before or after giving birth dropped to 25 percent, from about 36 percent in the late 1980s. (Comparable data from the 1960s was not available.) Nearly half took paid leave. Fewer than 4 percent said they were fired from their jobs before or after giving birth.
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February 18, 2008

Violence haunts job for social workers - The Boston Globe

http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2008/02/18/violence_haunts_job_for_soc...
One social worker scans the street before leaving her office, checks the back seat of her car before getting in, and drives around in circles instead of heading straight home to make sure she is not being followed. Another looks for all the exits as soon as he enters a building, in case he needs to run for his life. "No matter how many safety precautions are in place, bad things can happen," said a Lynn social worker who has had to take children away from gun-wielding adults suspected of child abuse. This month's fatal stabbing of a Wilmington therapist, allegedly by a client in North Andover, thrust before the public eye the kinds of dangers that hundreds of social workers in Massachusetts encounter daily. They endure threats and physical violence, pay nighttime house calls to crack houses and scenes of recent shootings, usually working for meager paychecks. Some, in their effort to protect abused or neglected children, find themselves confronted by agitated and armed adults.
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February 13, 2008

Religion Joins Custody Cases, to Judges’ Unease - New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/13/us/13custody.html?ref=us...
Across the country, child-custody disputes in which religion is the flash point are increasing, part of a broader rise in custody conflicts over the last 30 years, lawyers, judges and mediators say. “There has definitely been an increase in conflict over religious issues,” said Ronald William Nelson, a Kansas family lawyer who is chairman of the custody committee of the American Bar Association’s family law section. “Part of that is there has been an increase of conflicts between parents across the board, and with parents looking for reasons to justify their own actions.” Another factor, he said, is the rise of intermarriage and greater willingness by Americans to convert. Nobody keeps track of who wins in these religious disputes, but lawyers say that judges are just as likely to rule in favor of the more religiously engaged parent as the other way around. That is because, for constitutional reasons, judges are reluctant to base their rulings primarily on the religious preferences of parents.
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January 24, 2008

Puerto Rico gov. allows referendum against gay marriage - USATODAY.com

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2008-01-23-referendum-puertorico_N.htm...
Puerto Rico's governor said Wednesday he would not block a referendum to toughen a ban on same-sex marriage in the U.S. island territory even though he believes the proposed constitutional amendment is unnecessary and divisive. Gov. Anibal Acevedo Vila told reporters he would sign the bill authorizing a May referendum if the measure gets the required two-thirds majority of votes in the island's House of Representatives. It has already passed in the Senate. Acevedo was asked about his support after the leaders of an association of 2,300 churches, the Pentecostal Brotherhood, said the governor told them in private that he would sign the bill. "I told them that the people need more agendas that unite them rather than divide them," Acevedo said. "But I also told them that if they have two-thirds of the legislature, well, I cannot get in the way."
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January 16, 2008

U.S. experiences baby boomlet in 2006 - Los Angeles Times

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-babies16jan16,1,7593245.sto...
Bucking the trend in many other wealthy industrialized nations, the United States seems to be experiencing a baby boomlet, reporting the largest number of children born in 45 years. The nearly 4.3 million births in 2006 were mostly due to a bigger population, especially a growing number of Latinos. That group accounted for nearly one-quarter of all U.S. births. But non-Latino white women and other racial and ethnic groups were having more babies too. An Associated Press review of births dating to 1909 found the total in the U.S. was the highest since 1961, near the end of the baby boom. An examination of global data also shows that the United States has a higher fertility rate than every country in continental Europe, as well as Australia, Canada and Japan. Fertility levels in those countries have been lower than the U.S. rate for several years, although some are on the rise, most notably in France. Experts believe there is a mix of reasons: a decline in contraceptive use, a drop in access to abortion, poor education and poverty.
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January 8, 2008

Spouses Ring In for a New Year Split - washingtonpost.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/07/AR2008010703043....
Thousands of Britons called their divorce lawyers or marriage counselors Monday, a day widely referred to here as D-Day because of the large number of people filing for divorce after spending long periods of time with spouses over the holidays. Many British divorce lawyers said that in recent years they have noticed that their busiest day of the year is the Monday of the first full week back to work after New Year's. "Our telephones have not stopped all day," said James Stewart, a partner at Manches, Britain's largest family law firm. "Couples are very reluctant to consider the possibility of divorce in the lead-up to Christmas -- it's a terribly important time of year here. No one wants to give their husband or wife a proverbial bloody nose during the holidays."
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Officials Violating 'One-Child' Policy Forced Out in China - washingtonpost.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/07/AR2008010701062....
Officials in Hubei province have expelled 500 people from the Communist Party for violating China's "one-child" family planning policy, state media reports said Monday. Of the 93,084 people who had more children than allowed last year, 1,678 were officials or party members, the New China News Agency reported. Among the violators were seven national or local legislators and political advisers, all of whom were stripped of their political status. Another 395 offenders lost their jobs. China's family planning officials, worried about a baby boom that could further strain the country's resources, have been trying to crack down on parents who have more children than they are permitted under the law.
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January 7, 2008

Demographic Crisis, Robotic Cure? - washingtonpost.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/06/AR2008010602023....
With a surfeit of the old and a shortage of the young, Japan is on course for a population collapse unlike any in human history. What ails this prosperous nation could be treated with babies and immigrants. Yet many young women here do not want children, and the Japanese will not tolerate a lot of immigrants. So government and industry are marching into the depopulated future with the help of robots -- some with wheels, some with legs, some that you can wear like an overcoat with muscles. A small army of these machines, which has attracted huge and appreciative crowds, is on display this winter at the Great Robot Exhibition in Tokyo's National Museum of Nature and Science.
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January 4, 2008

Chinese couple OKd for voluntary departure, not deportation - Los Angeles Times

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-custody4jan04,1,1653707.sto...
A Chinese couple who fought for seven years to get their daughter back from foster care won a judge's approval Thursday to avoid deportation by leaving the United States voluntarily. Shaoqiang and Qin Luo He regained custody of 8-year-old Anna Mae in July on orders from the state Supreme Court. The high court overturned a Memphis judge who cleared the way in 2004 for an American couple, Jerry and Louise Baker, to adopt the child over her parents' objections. The Hes said they plan to return to China next month with Anna and their two younger children, Andy, 7, and Avita, 5. All three children were born in the United States. Immigration Judge Lawrence Burman agreed to the voluntary departure and set a deadline of May 2 for the Hes to leave or be deported. Deportation would put a 10-year ban on any request to reenter the United States.
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January 2, 2008

New Hampshire celebrates civil unions -- chicagotribune.com

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-samesexjan02,1,905171.story?c...
New Hampshire became the fourth state to allow civil unions of same-sex couples Tuesday. Just after midnight, the first 40 or so couples held ceremonies at the Statehouse. Smaller ceremonies took place in other parts of the state throughout the day. By the afternoon, 11 couples, including Gogan and Raynes, were committed at the South Church Unitarian Universalist Church in Portsmouth. The Unitarian church celebration included members of the congregation, elected leaders, and others who supported the legislation. Congregants prayed and listened to speeches in the 184-year-old sanctuary upstairs while Julie Slayton Frank, a church administrator and justice of the peace, performed two-minute ceremonies in the small church library downstairs, lit by soft overhead bulbs and three candles. Participants, friends, and family members gathered afterward for cake and punch in the main room of the church basement, decorated with rainbow crepe paper and streamers. "With all the hoopla around civil unions, the mechanics of it are pretty simple," Frank said.
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Same-Sex Divorce Challenges the Legal System - washingtonpost.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/01/AR2008010101734....
When her three-year-old marriage broke up, the 44-year-old doctor assumed she and her ex would split their property and jointly parent their two children. Her stay-at-home spouse wanted sole custody and the right to move the children out of Massachusetts. In pretrial motions, both parents made the same argument to a judge: The children should be with me; I'm their mother. For years, family court judges leaned toward a maternal preference when it came to custody disputes. But what to do when both parents are women, or neither is? Judges in Massachusetts have been grappling with that question since gay and lesbian couples began filing for divorce in 2004, seven months after the state Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage. Nearly 10,000 gay and lesbian couples married after the ruling. Massachusetts does not keep records on the number who have divorced, but lawyers who specialize in family cases say it is in the dozens. Those who choose to end their marriages soon discover that the trauma of divorce is compounded by legal and financial difficulties that heterosexual couples generally are spared.
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December 21, 2007

U.S. Fertility Rate Hits 35-Year High, Stabilizing Population - washingtonpost.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/20/AR2007122002725....
For the first time in 35 years, the U.S. fertility rate has climbed high enough to sustain a stable population, solidifying the nation's unique status among industrialized countries. The overall fertility rate increased 2 percent between 2005 and 2006, nudging the average number of babies being born to each woman to 2.1, according to the latest federal statistics. That marks the first time since 1971 that the rate has reached a crucial benchmark of population growth: the ability of each generation to replace itself. "It's been quite a long time since we've had a rate this high," said Stephanie J. Ventura of the National Center for Health Statistics. "It's a milestone." While the rising fertility rate was unwelcome news to some environmentalists, the "replacement rate" is generally considered desirable by demographers and sociologists because it means a country is producing enough young people to replace and support aging workers without population growth being so high it taxes national resources.
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December 20, 2007

Fertility rate in USA on upswing - USATODAY.com

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-12-19-fertility_N.htm...
The fertility rate among Americans has climbed to its highest level since 1971, setting the country apart from most industrialized nations that are struggling with low birthrates and aging populations. The fertility rate hit 2.1 in 2006, according to preliminary estimates released by the National Center for Health Statistics. It's a milestone: the first time since shortly after the baby boom ended that the nation has reached the rate of births needed for a generation to replace itself, an average 2.1 per woman. "What matters is that the U.S. is probably one of very few industrialized countries that have a fertility rate close to or at replacement level," says Jos� Antonio Ortega, head of the fertility section at the United Nations' Population Division. A high fertility rate is important to industrialized nations. When birthrates are low, there are fewer people to fill jobs and support the elderly. Fertility in the USA went up in every age group from 2005 to 2006, the biggest jump coming among those 20 to 24 years old. The U.S. population topped 300 million last year, and the Census Bureau projects growth to 400 million by around 2040. Developed countries in Europe and Asia have launched several government initiatives to encourage more births, from financial bonuses and extended family leaves to subsidized child care. The wide availability of birth control options and more career opportunities for women have caused fertility rates to hit low levels in Japan, South Korea, Italy, Germany and Russia. France, renowned for its family friendly policies, remains the exception with a fertility rate of 2.
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December 19, 2007

The Denver Post - Divorcing couples breaking away from adversarial methods

http://www.denverpost.com/breakingnews/ci_7755291...
EW YORK — Collaborative divorce. The term sounds like an oxymoron in a culture steeped in high-cost, high-conflict breakups. Yet many couples are embracing the approach, recently endorsed by the American Bar Association, as part of a broader quest to find more civilized, efficient ways to end a marriage. Do-it-your- self divorces and mediation also are popular options. Lawyers, by the thousands, want to be part of the trend. "Most of us had that moment where we realize the adversarial process is so damaging for our clients — and there's a recognition that we can do better," said Talia Katz, a former divorce lawyer who is with the International Academy of Collaborative Professionals. Katz said the academy, just 8 years old, now has 3,000 members, mostly lawyers but also financial planners and other professionals. She estimates that 20,000 attorneys have received training in collaborative law, and groups promoting the practice are active nationwide. In contrast to mediation, in which divorcing couples entrust a resolution to a single neutral mediator, collaborative divorce involves the use of attorneys for each party, often joined by other expert consultants. But the lawyers, instead of sparring, pledge from the outset to work together in crafting an outcome that is fair to all.
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December 17, 2007

Like fathers, like son - Los Angeles Times

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-gaydad17dec17,1,4311837.sto...
A gay couple succeed in becoming fathers of a baby boy. Their quest for a child was chronicled in a Los Angeles Times series last year.
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December 13, 2007

Midnight Civil Unions Planned in N.H. -- chicagotribune.com

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/sns-ap-civil-unions,1,1845819.sto...
Same-sex couples plan to celebrate New Hampshire's new civil unions law by holding a group ceremony the minute the law takes effect Jan. 1, organizers said Wednesday. Democratic state Rep. Gail Morrison and Jen Major said the event is to take place just after midnight on the Statehouse steps. Both are former board members of the New Hampshire Freedom to Marry Coalition and said they plan to get civil unions with their own partners that night. "My partner and I have been talking about wanting to do it the minute it was possible, and where else do you celebrate those state accomplishments?" said Morrison. "It's a combination of very private dedication to one another, but within the context of a historic state event, so the Statehouse steps seemed absolutely the perfect place to be."
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Guardianship abuses get Senate attention - Los Angeles Times

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-guardian13dec13,1,5606501.s...
Lawmakers and advocacy groups will recommend ways to strengthen oversight of a system that has led to elder abuse. They look to pioneering local programs as models for national action.
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December 6, 2007

Teenage Birth Rate Rises for First Time Since ’91 - New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/06/health/06birth.html?ref=washington...
The birth rate among teenagers 15 to 19 in the United States rose 3 percent in 2006, according to a report issued Wednesday, the first such increase since 1991. The finding surprised scholars and fueled a debate about whether the Bush administration’s abstinence-only sexual education efforts are working.
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Teen Birth Rate Rises in U.S., Reversing a 14-Year Decline - washingtonpost.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/05/AR2007120501208....
After falling steadily for more than a decade, the birth rate for American teenagers jumped last year, federal health officials reported yesterday, a sharp reversal in what has been one of the nation's most celebrated social and public health successes. The birth rate rose by 3 percent between 2005 and 2006 among 15-to-19-year-old girls, after plummeting 34 percent between 1991 and 2005, the National Center for Health Statistics reported.
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December 4, 2007

Divorce Found to Harm The Environment With Higher Energy, Water Use - washingtonpost.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/03/AR2007120301797....
Divorce is not just a family matter. It exacts a serious toll on the environment by boosting the energy and water consumption of those who used to live together, according to a study by two Michigan State University researchers. The analysis found that cohabiting couples and families around the globe use resources more efficiently than households that have split up. The researchers calculated that in 2005, divorced American households used between 42 and 61 percent more resources per person than before they separated, spending 46 percent more per person on electricity and 56 percent more on water. Their paper, published yesterday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, also found that if the divorced couples had stayed together in 2005, the United States would have saved 73 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity and 627 billion gallons of water in that year alone. Married households use energy and water more efficiently than divorced ones because they share these resources -- including lighting and heating -- among more people, said Jianguo Liu, one of the paper's co-authors. Moreover, the divorced households they surveyed between 1998 and 2002 used up more space, occupying between 33 and 95 percent more rooms per person than in married households.
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November 26, 2007

Rite Aid Stores in West Selling a Paternity Test Kit - New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/26/business/26gene.html?ref=business...
Genetic testing is now available at the drugstore. A company called Sorenson Genomics has started selling a paternity test kit through Rite Aid stores in California, Oregon and Washington. It appears to be the first time a DNA test is being sold through a major pharmacy chain. The move into the pharmacy is another in the spread of genetic testing directly to consumers. Many genetic tests, for health and diet advice, ancestry and paternity, are already available directly to consumers through the Internet. But Sorenson hopes the corner drugstore will appeal to different customers, including those who do not want to wait three or five days for a kit to arrive in the mail after ordering it over the Internet. “There is a curiosity and a need to know that can be provided discreetly, conveniently and affordably at retail,” said Douglas R. Fogg, chief operating officer of Sorenson Genomics. The company’s slogan: “For questions only DNA can answer.”
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November 21, 2007

Foreign adoptions from China fall - USATODAY.com

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2007-11-20-chinaadopt_N.htm...
BEIJING — Chinese couples are adopting in growing numbers, a trend that could eventually sever the pipeline that has sent up to 75,000 Chinese orphans, mostly girls, to new homes in the USA since 1992. Researchers in China say local data and anecdotal evidence show what sketchy national statistics don't: that record numbers of Chinese are adopting. Foreign adoptions are an embarrassment to the government, says Pi Yijun, a scholar at the China University of Politics and Law. "Even researchers do not get the national figures, only local numbers. (The government) strictly controls data like this, and the total number of adoptions is very secret."
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November 19, 2007

Abuse risk seen worse as families change - USATODAY.com

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-11-19-child-abuse_N.htm...
NEW YORK — Six-year-old Oscar Jimenez Jr. was beaten to death in California, then buried under fertilizer and cement. Two-year-old Devon Shackleford was drowned in an Arizona swimming pool. Jayden Cangro, also 2, died after being thrown across a room in Utah. In each case, as in many others every year, the alleged or convicted perpetrator had been the boyfriend of the child's mother — men thrust into father-like roles which they tragically failed to embrace. Every case is different, every family is different. Some single mothers bring men into their lives who lovingly help raise children when the biological father is gone for good. Nonetheless, many scholars and front-line caseworkers interviewed by the Associated Press see the abusive-boyfriend syndrome as part of a broader trend that deeply worries them. They note an ever-increasing share of America's children grow up in homes without both biological parents, and say the risk of child abuse is markedly higher in the non-traditional family structures.
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November 12, 2007

Taking U.S. pulse on paid sick leave - USATODAY.com

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-11-11-Sickleave_N.htm...
Natalie Ferrell-Albright was a bank teller when her daughter had a severe asthma attack. When she called work to say her daughter had to go to the hospital, the Cincinnati woman was told her sick days applied only to her, not her children. The single mom did what she had to do and took her daughter to the hospital, but the incident still rankles her five years later. "I know too many people who are forced to choose between their health or their family and a paycheck," says Ferrell-Albright, 53, who has since left her bank job. Ferrell-Albright is on one side of an emerging debate as an effort to make paid sick leave a right for every worker gains ground in state legislatures and Congress. Proposals have been introduced in Ohio and at least 12 other states, and work is underway to put the issue on the ballot in several states next November. Congress has started holding hearings on the issue. Democratic presidential front-runners Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama have spoken out in favor of the idea. On the other side of the issue is Mike Kovach, 52, of Youngstown, Ohio, who has built a successful 80-employee business repairing heavy industrial equipment in a shrinking regional economy.
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States urged to let adult adoptees see their birth records - USATODAY.com

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-11-12-adoptees-birthrecords_N.htm...
NEW YORK (AP) — It's among the most divisive questions in the realm of adoption: Should adult adoptees have access to their birth records, and thus be able to learn the identity of their birth parents? In a comprehensive report being released Monday, a leading adoption institute says the answer is "Yes" and urges the rest of America to follow the path of the eight states that allow such access to all adults who were adopted. "States' experiences in providing this information make clear that there are minimal, if any, negative repercussions," said the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute. "Outcomes appear to have been overwhelmingly positive for adult adopted persons and birthparents alike." Opponents of open access argue that unsealing birth records violates the privacy that birthmothers expected when they opted to give up their babies. They raise the specter of birthparents forced into unwanted relationships with grown children who have tracked them down.
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November 7, 2007

In Foster Care Reckoning, Vows of Help and Vigilance - New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/07/nyregion/07foster.html?hp...
John B. Mattingly became New York City’s child welfare commissioner aiming to bring accountability to the dozens of private agencies the city paid hundreds of millions of dollars each year to care for foster children. Mr. Mattingly also brought to the job a long history as an ardent supporter of the idea that endangered children would fare best if the people in the neighborhoods they came from were involved in their care and protection. And so in the spring of 2005, Mr. Mattingly found himself faced with a delicate and complex challenge. Evidence of fraud, mismanagement and the mistreatment of children had led him to end contracts with two of the city’s largest neighborhood-based, minority-run foster care agencies. Those, he acknowledged, were the easy calls.
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November 6, 2007

With Brothel Plans Delayed, a Madame Does Laundry - New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/06/us/06fleiss.html?ref=us...
By JENNIFER STEINHAUER Published: November 6, 2007 PAHRUMP, Nev. — Sex is the commodity that Heidi Fleiss says she knows best, but for now she is settling for fabric softener. Since her release from prison after serving a three-year sentence on tax-evasion, money-laundering and pandering charges, Ms. Fleiss, once known as the Hollywood Madam, has made a go as retailer, author and promoter for a publicly traded sex business in Australia. Now Ms. Fleiss, whose Los Angeles prostitution ring served wealthy denizens of Hollywood and high finance, said she planned to open a brothel here in Nye County, one of several counties in Nevada that permit prostitution. Her brothel, she said, would offer a twist: she would have only male prostitutes, serving a female customer base. Ms. Fleiss also plans to take over a massage parlor attached to a strip club. But these professional goals have been stymied by legal issues surrounding another brothel owner, and the matter of a license application that she has yet to complete.
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October 30, 2007

Blue or Pink States - washingtonpost.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/29/AR2007102901919....
Off years are a sacred time for political people, the temporal equivalent of having one's BlackBerry on vibrate. They are a time for rest and renewal, for creating the tiny creatures who will grow up to be the campaign aides and reporters and pollsters and strategists who will ensure that bales of hay continue to fulfill their destiny as stage props, and that diners in Manchester, N.H., remain cliches of small-town America. Some people don't quite get it. "People say sort of coyly, 'So are you going to have another one? When are you going to have another one?' " says Luiza Savage, 32, Washington correspondent for the Canadian newsweekly Maclean's, who has a toddler with her husband, who also covers politics. "And I say, 'After the next election.' And they laugh, and I say, 'No, really. After the next election.' "
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October 9, 2007

Oregon gay rights law to move forward - Los Angeles Times

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-gayrights9oct09,1,593681.st...
Opponents of Oregon's new same-sex domestic partnership law failed to turn in enough valid signatures to block the measure and put it on a state ballot, clearing the way for it to take effect next year, state elections officials said Monday. Oregon will join eight other states -- California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Maine, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Vermont and Washington -- that have approved partnership rights in some form for same-sex couples. Massachusetts allows same-sex couples to marry. The Oregon measure includes benefits related to inheritance rights; child rearing and custody; joint state tax filings; joint health, auto and homeowners insurance policies; and hospital visitation rights. The law does not affect federal benefits for married couples, including Social Security and joint filing of federal tax returns.
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October 5, 2007

M.B.A. Programs Pay Off for Women Seeking a Return to Wall Street - New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/05/business/05works.html?ref=business...
By ELLEN ROSEN Published: October 5, 2007 Efforts on Wall Street to re-engage women who are trying to return to the work force, many of whom left for family obligations, have started to yield results. During the last few years, some of the nation’s premier business schools began to address that demographic group with executive M.B.A. programs. Of those, perhaps the most encompassing is the annual program started last fall by the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth, with a curriculum that combined academics and career opportunities. With a median age of 47 and an average of eight years out of the work force, 41 students — 35 women and 6 men — participated in the first Tuck program, known as Back in Business. Of those, slightly more than half have found high-level and often high-paying work, according to the program’s director, Anant Sundaram. He said that of those, “one or two ended up with consumer products companies, four with nonprofit organizations and a dozen with banks or financial services firms.” Three others returned to their own businesses, one went on to graduate school and another “had great offers but has postponed getting back into the work force.”
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September 27, 2007

Fewer seniors live in nursing homes - USATODAY.com

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/census/2007-09-27-nursing-homes_N.htm...
Despite the graying of the nation, the percentage of elderly living in nursing homes has declined, according to Census data released today. The downturn reflects the improved health of seniors and more choices of care for the elderly. About 7.4% of Americans aged 75 and older lived in nursing homes in 2006, compared with 8.1% in 2000 and 10.2% in 1990. "The upper-income white population has other options than nursing homes," says William Frey, demographer at the Brookings Institution. "They're moving to assisted living or their well-off, baby boomer children are taking care of them in other ways."
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Polygamy remains at large in Utah - Los Angeles Times

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-polygamy27sep27,1,3486421.s...
In 1953, the state of Arizona broke up a 385-person polygamous enclave that straddled its border with Utah, arresting all the men and placing the children with foster families. A judge eventually ruled the action illegal, and members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints returned to their homes. Now, 54 years later, the community numbers about 10,000. The conviction this week of church leader Warren Jeffs as an accomplice to rape was the most significant blow to the insular sect in decades. In November, Jeffs could be sentenced to life in prison. But several observers believe that even without the physical presence of the man it believes is a prophet, the FLDS could be as resistant to pressure to conform to state laws as it was in the 1950s. And that, in Utah, plural marriage is not going away.
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September 20, 2007

In the US, fewer reach their silver anniversary - The Boston Globe

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2007/09/20/in_the_us_fewer_reach_thei...
By Sam Roberts, New York Times News Service | September 20, 2007 NEW YORK - Don't stock up on silver anniversary cards. More than half the Americans who might have celebrated their 25th wedding anniversaries since 2000 were either divorced, separated, or widowed, according to a US Census survey released yesterday. For the first time since at least World War II, married people had a less than even chance of still being married 25 years later. The survey by the Census Bureau, taken in 2004, confirmed that most Americans eventually marry, but they are marrying later and are slightly more likely to marry more than once.
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September 19, 2007

Md. Ban On Gay Marriage Is Upheld - washingtonpost.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/18/AR2007091802177....
Maryland's highest court yesterday upheld a 34-year-old state law banning same-sex marriage, rejecting an attempt by 19 gay men and lesbians to win the right to marry. In reversing a lower court's decision, the divided Court of Appeals ruled that limiting marriage to a man and a woman does not discriminate against gay couples or deny them constitutional rights. Although the judges acknowledged that gay men and lesbians have been targets of discrimination, they said the prohibition on same-sex marriage promotes the state's interest in heterosexual marriage as a means of having and protecting children.
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September 13, 2007

Gay Gov.'s Wife Wants Support Increase -- chicagotribune.com

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/sns-ap-gay-governor-divorce,1,246...
The estranged wife of the nation's first openly gay governor wants a judge to increase her monthly support nearly fourfold to $4,000 so she can live a lifestyle closer to that of New Jersey's first lady. Dina Matos McGreevey said she and the couple's 5-year-old daughter live in a modest 3-bedroom house while her husband, Jim McGreevey, and his male partner live in a lavish 17-room mansion with gardens, according to court papers. "In total, I need $11,162 per month to meet my expenses," she told the judge. "This lifestyle by no means approximates the lifestyle which plaintiff enjoys, much less the lifestyle we enjoyed while plaintiff was governor."
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August 30, 2007

Tapping Into The Secrets Of the Stall - washingtonpost.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/29/AR2007082902435....
While the Craig case has created another political scandal, with two Republican senators yesterday calling for his resignation, it has also pulled back the curtain on a sexual practice that takes place furtively, in the most public of places, and on the police stings designed to rout it. Internet message boards on "cruising" are constantly abuzz with come-ons written by those seeking partners for anonymous bathroom sex. The boards also bristle with warnings about locations where law enforcement is cracking down. Therapists also hear plenty about this world in the torment of their patients -- both married and gay men and those who eschew the word "gay" and describe themselves as "men who have sex with other men." Whatever they call themselves, they are often driven by a craving, much like that which drives a drug addict, said Fred Berlin of the National Institute for the Study, Prevention and Treatment of Sexual Trauma at Johns Hopkins University.
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August 27, 2007

Same-Sex And Worried About Retirement - washingtonpost.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/25/AR2007082500212....
Unmarried couples lack the automatic legal protections that kick in when one member of a married couple dies. And they lack other advantages in planning for financial security in retirement that are taken for granted by most couples. But marriage is a solution that is unavailable to Hausman and Bergsrud. They live in Virginia, where marriage is prohibited for same-sex couples, as it is in most of the United States. Together they make a decent income that has allowed them to save for retirement, and they have little debt. But they worry whether they have done everything they need to do to ensure that one won't be left with too few assets after the other dies. Compounding their worries is a Virginia law that prohibits civil unions or other marriage-like contracts between same-sex partners. The law is being challenged, but as long as it's on the books Hausman says he worries that the wills and powers of attorney, and other measures they have taken to protect each other, could be ruled null and void.
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August 15, 2007

Passports get costly for deadbeat parents -- chicagotribune.com

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-passports_15aug15,1,2980555.s...
New passport requirements that have complicated travel this summer also have uncovered child support scofflaws and forced them to pay millions. The State Department denies passports to non-custodial parents who owe more than $2,500 in child support. Once the parents make good on their debts, they can reapply. Now that millions of additional travelers need passports to fly back from Mexico, Canada, the Caribbean and South America, collections under the Passport Denial Program are on pace to about double this year, federal officials say. In all, states have reported collecting at least $22.5 million through the program thus far in 2007. The money is forwarded to the parent to whom it is owed.
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August 10, 2007

Report blasts NYC child welfare agency - USATODAY.com

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-08-09-nyc-welfare_N.htm...
The city issued a damning report on its child welfare agency on Thursday, calling for changes in the way caseworkers look into abuse and neglect allegations after 10 children died during or after bungled investigations. The city's Department of Investigation said it probed the deaths of 11 children and one who nearly drowned in an eight-month stretch beginning in October 2005. DOI said that in all the cases, the Administration for Children's Services was either investigating the parents or had completed its findings. "In all but one of these cases, DOI has found that the investigations conducted by ACS were substantially inadequate and incomplete," the 141-page report said.
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August 3, 2007

Doctors accused of using faith to violate gay bias laws - USATODAY.com

http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2007-08-02-doctors-side_N.htm...
When does the freedom to practice religion become discrimination? The California Supreme Court is being asked to answer that question when it hears a legal dispute between a lesbian mom and two doctors who refused to artificially inseminate her for religious reasons. The first-of-its-kind case is shaping up as one of the most controversial before the court in years. The court has not set a date to hear the case, but more than 40 groups already have filed briefs asking to be heard.
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July 26, 2007

Domestic Violence Law Exception Rejected - New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/26/us/26ohio.html?ref=us...
Ohio’s domestic violence laws do not conflict with its ban on same-sex marriage, the State Supreme Court ruled Wednesday. In a 6-to-1 decision, justices rejected an argument that the domestic violence law was unenforceable in cases involving unmarried couples because it refers to them as living together “as a spouse.” Chief Justice Thomas J. Moyer wrote that lawmakers included many groups under the domestic violence law, and that describing people’s living arrangements was not the same as creating a law approximating marriage.
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July 24, 2007

Wash. gay couples line up for new rights - USATODAY.com

http://www.usatoday.com/news/offbeat/2007-07-23-gay-rights_N.htm...
Dozens of gay and lesbian couples lined up to register as domestic partners Monday as a new Washington state law went into effect. The secretary of state's office registered the first couple shortly after opening its doors at 8 a.m. A crowd of about 100 gathered outside the building counting down the minutes, then sent up a cheer as the doors were opened. Couples that register as domestic partners get enhanced rights including hospital visitation, the ability to authorize autopsies and organ donations, and the ability to inherit in the absence of a will. They won't get all the rights that traditionally married couples have, though, and the state's registry is not the same as civil unions offered to gay couples in other states. In order to register, couples must share a home, not be married or in a domestic relationship with someone else, and be at least 18.
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