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SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO -- The boyfriend of San Francisco's planning director pleaded no contest today to misdemeanor driving under the influence after he trashed the city's historic fire chief's home, drove away drunk and was pulled over in San Mateo County. Lance Farber, 48, was not present in court in South San Francisco and entered the plea through his attorney, San Mateo County prosecutors said. Farber was sentenced to three years' probation and two days in jail, one of which he has already served, Assistant District Attorney Morley Pitt said. Farber was also ordered to complete a first-offender DUI program,...

Violence seems to have surrounded both the birth and death of 1-year-old Jessica Perez. Her mother, Charity Van Leeuwen, says ex-husband Peter Perez treated her much like a prisoner during her pregnancy - forcing her to stay inside a home with black curtains and heavily tinted windows and threatening her with what he would do to her if she reported any abuse to police. One of the few times she says she was allowed outside was for the birth of her daughter. But even then she and her family claim Perez came to her hospital room with a gun and...

Former Seattle planning department head John Rahaim's boyfriend allegedly vandalized an historic publicly-owned mansion in San Francisco -- and set fire to a bed there, the San Francisco Chronicle reports.

'The Day She Died, She Knew She Couldn't Talk To Police,' Mom SaysDELAND, Fla. -- A Central Florida woman whose 17-year-old daughter was killed in a murder-suicide apparently committed by her ex-boyfriend said the teen was told by police to stop calling for help or she'd be arrested. Police said Clay Coffner shot his estranged girlfriend, Natasha Hall, in the head outside her DeLand home Friday before turning the gun on himself. Hall's mother, Sherry, said her daughter was concerned about Coffner and informed police. In fact, Hall said her daughter called police so much that on Jan. 15 they...

by Steven ErteltLifeNews.com EditorAugust 31, 2007Wellington, New Zealand (LifeNews.com) -- The leading pro-life group in New Zealand is calling on that nation's parliament to draft legislation to make it illegal for people or groups to pressure or coerce a woman into having an abortion. The measure is similar to legislation some states in the United States have considered.Right to Life New Zealand cites the bill the Michigan legislature approved as evidence that this kind of legislation is not without precedent.The group says it is "trying to establish procedures to make sure that a woman is not intimidated into an abortion...

BENTONVILLE, Ark. — A man accused of shooting and paralyzing his daughter's boyfriend has been charged with first-degree battery and a terroristic act. ... Authorities say Reed came home and found Guzman hiding in the closet of his 17-year-old daughter's bedroom. Police said Reed beat Guzman with a pool stick, then left the room to retrieve a gun. Guzman and his girlfriend blocked the bedroom door with a dresser, and Reed began shooting through the door, police said.

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Young Miss Portman wishes to teach her future children a lesson in Judaism, but is meanwhile unable to find a Jewish hubby Can't stop making headlines: On Sunday Ynetnews reported that Natalie Portman is about to appear fully naked in her new feature film, and on Monday ContactMusic reports she is keen to teach her future children about her Jewish religion, even though she is still struggling to meet the right Jewish man. The Israeli-born star immigrated to the United States when she was a 3-year-old toddler. But sadly for Portman, she discovered that her interest in the ancient religion...

Randi Anderson knew she was on her own the day her son was born 22 months ago when she drove herself to the hospital. Long before Anderson pulled up to Swedish Medical Center, her film-school boyfriend was gone. Twenty hours after she arrived at the hospital, she joined the growing ranks of single mothers. It is a group that often feels isolated, suffers higher-than-normal rates of depression and believes it carries a stigma in a culture that celebrates marriage. "I certainly feel like it's written across my face," Anderson, 34, said. "We've been told it's not OK to be a...

Some women still party as if invulnerable It's midnight at Pravda, a trendy Manhattan bar where graduate students from nearby New York University are jammed into leather booths. A group chants, ''Another vodka! Another vodka!" A young woman named Jovana is in the corner, kissing a young man she met hours earlier. Days after the brutal rape and murder of a 24-year-old graduate student from Boston who had been drinking at a bar two blocks away, the scene is notable for an absence of fear. ''It happens here," Barbara Klen, a 24-year-old NYU student, said of the slaying. ''It happens...

Women working full-time are 29 per cent more likely to get divorced than those who stay at home and raise children. Research to be published this week in the European Sociological Review finds that the probability of divorce is in direct correlation to the number of hours a woman worked. Marilyn Stowe, a female divorce lawyer, suggested that working women had the economic freedom to consider life beyond marriage. She added that they had greater confidence in their ability to make new friends and find new partners. "You suggest going out to work to a woman who has been at...

It occurs to me I haven't written anything humorous for a while. For a season, my life revolved around court dates in Pittsburgh to obtain PFA's (Protection from Abuse) from my ex-boyfriend. There's not anything really fun to write about that whole matter... but at least I have some closure now. In order for my ex to sign a temporary six-month PFA, he wanted three conditions. 1) A picture of my cats (I say mine because they were pooping in litter boxes in my apartment long before he began stinking up my bathroom)

Fourteen-year-old Kara Borden saw her boyfriend kill her father and then fled the scene with the 18-year-old to "get as far away as possible, get married and start a new life," Pennsylvania prosecutors allege in newly filed court papers. The girl's mother was also slain. The documents state that the suspect, David Ludwig, told a detective: "It was an intentional murder. I intended to shoot them, and I did."

EAGLE, Idaho — An Idaho man has been arrested and accused of attempting to kidnap his daughter's boyfriend because he didn't like the couple dating. Paul David Thomas, 49, has been charged with felony kidnapping and aggravated assault. He was being held in the Ada County jail on $20,000 bond. He could face up to 25 years in prison if convicted on the kidnapping charge. Sheriff's investigators say Thomas allegedly grabbed the 18-year-old boyfriend in front of Eagle High School west of Boise during the school's lunch hour Wednesday and forced the young man, whose name was not released, into...

ELKHART -- Police believe a 13-month-old girl who suffered a fractured skull Thursday may be the victim of child abuse. The baby was taken to Elkhart General Hospital late Thursday night, police said, but because of the severity of her injury, she was then taken to Memorial Hospital in South Bend. She remained there Friday in stable condition, according to police. Her mother's 17-year-old live-in boyfriend has been arrested in connection with the injury and remains in the Elkhart County Juvenile Detention Center, police said. He is not the biological father of the infant, according to police. "I think it's...

<p>TRENTON -- Gov. McGreevey relied on exaggerated anti-terrorism credentials to justify hiring a 33-year-old Israeli national, Golan Cipel, as a highly paid adviser, a Gannett New Jersey investigation revealed.</p> <p>The overstated credentials of Cipel, a low-level officer in the Israeli reserves who worked in public relations at the Israeli Consulate in New York, add to a series of questions that have been raised since McGreevey hired the Israeli citizen early this year for a $110,000-a-year post in the governor's office.</p>

SPENCER (AP) -- A Kanawha County woman and her former boyfriend were arrested after she allegedly allowed him to have sexual contact with her daughter in exchange for money, State Police said. Marsha Kay Nichols, 31, of Elkview was charged Friday in Roane County Magistrate Court with three felony counts of extortion or attempted extortion and two felony counts of allowing sexual abuse to be inflicted upon a child. Bruce Stover, 42, was charged with five counts of third-degree sexual assault. State Police Sgt. J.E. Elmore in Spencer said when the pair broke up, Stover allegedly began an affair with...

Leon Johnson's efforts to ban his 16-year-old daughter's boyfriend from their home may have led to a violent argument that left Johnson dead and his daughter in custody, police said. As Johnson came home about 7 p.m. Monday, police said, the boyfriend ran from the house. Johnson then confronted his daughter, who denied the boyfriend had been there. Moments later, Johnson, 50, called 911, saying his daughter had shot him. Officers found Johnson dead in the hallway of his home near Paradise and Airport. He had been shot once. Johnson's daughter fled, police said, but relatives returned her to the...

I have some bad news to report. My daughter is happy at college. Make that very happy. I should be very happy for her, but I am not. In fact, I'm downright depressed. When my wife and I loaded up the car with all her worldly possessions back in September to start her freshman year, she was nervous and we were sad. We told her we'd write and call. She told us she would write and call. We did. And she did. A lot in the beginning. A lot less now. There was a time when I e-mailed her every...

A Muslim businessman was jailed for life for murdering his daughter's Christian boyfriend to stop them marrying. The killing was the latest in a series of so-called "honour killings". Mustaq Ahmed, 40, killed Albanian Rexhap Hasani, 22, after realising he would not be able to break up his relationship with his 16-year-old daughter Sadhia. Mr Hasani was lured to Mr Ahmed's dress factory in Seven Kings, east London, where he died from asphyxia after being tied, gagged and beaten up, the Old Bailey heard. Ahmed, of Hulse Avenue, Barking, east London, was found guilty of murdering Mr Hasani in October,...

INDIAN ISLAND — The family of a Penobscot Indian wants the woman who dug up the ashes from his grave on the first anniversary of his death to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Doreen Neptune, 53, wanted to participate in a seance to mark the anniversary of the death of her boyfriend Johnny Love, Neptune's daughter, Greta, suggested. Greta Neptune said her mother is being treated at Acadia Hospital, a psychiatric hospital in Bangor. "I can't tell why it was done because I can't remember doing it," Doreen Neptune told the Bangor Daily News on Tuesday....

<p>A Ouachita Parish grand jury returned indictments accusing a Monroe mother and her boyfriend with second-degree murder in connection with the April death of her 5-month-old baby.</p> <p>Assistant District Attorney Stephen Sylvester said the true bills for Jessica Tensley, 20, and Kevin Falcon, 28, also of Monroe, were filed into court records Wednesday morning, and warrants for both were issued.</p>