Free Republic

A California couple told they were having a girl got the shock of their life when surprise ... it was a boy! “I had been up for 24 hours and I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me,” Kyle Williams, the proud, but confused father, told ABC News. Danielle Williams had a sonogram back in October 2014, 20 weeks into her pregnancy, her husband told ABC News. The technician informed them they would be adding a second daughter to their family and they were thrilled.

DAYTON -- Imagine never knowing who your biological parents are, or where you came from. That is the reality for 400K people born in Ohio from the mid 1960's until 1996. Their birth records have been sealed, until this Friday. The law originally passed in 1963 was designed to give birth parents some protection, and it was heavily supported by the adoptive parents. But fast forward 50 years, and attitudes have changed. "I've always known that I was adopted... and I've always known that I wanted to find my birth parents," said Beth Miller who described her childhood as ordinary...

Dear Justice Kennedy,June is nigh, and with it will comes your ruling on the most contentious political issue of our time: marriage.I write because I am one of many children with gay parents who believe we should protect marriage. I believe you were right when, during the Proposition 8 deliberations, you said “the voice of those children [of same-sex parents] is important.” I’d like to explain why I think redefining marriage would actually serve to strip these children of their most fundamental rights.It’s very difficult to speak about this subject, because I love my mom. Most of us children...

California's measles outbreak has climbed to 91 confirmed cases, prompting a vicious attack from USA Today contributor Alex Berezow against "anti-vaxxers." He blames them for the epidemic that CDC officials say was introduced at the Disneyland theme park by a person infected with measles overseas. Berezow's knee-jerk reaction is to declare, "Parents who do not vaccinate their children should go to jail." He erroneously maintains that measles could not spread in a fully vaccinated society and discredits as "ludicrous" concerns regarding the safety and effectiveness of vaccines. Claiming there is a "mountain of data" proving otherwise, his one and only...

It was a one-mile walk home from a Silver Spring park on Georgia Avenue on a Saturday afternoon. But what the parents saw as a moment of independence for their 10-year-old son and 6-year-old daughter, they say authorities viewed much differently. Danielle and Alexander Meitiv say they are being investigated for neglect for the Dec. 20 trek — in a case they say reflects a clash of ideas about how safe the world is and whether parents are free to make their own choices about raising their children. “We wouldn’t have let them do it if we didn’t think they...

FAYETTEVILLE (WTVD) -- The parents of two teens involved in a Fayetteville store burglary have turned their sons in to police after seeing the surveillance footage on ABC11. Police said Thursday that the parents of 14- and 16-year-old brothers returned home from Watch Night Service, had recorded the evening news, and recognized their sons in the surveillance. "I'm just glad the parents decided to do the right thing," said Jesse Hill, the co-owner of Tech Boyz, who provided the surveillance video to ABC11. The video, which aired on New Year's Eve, showed five teens breaking into the store at 2126...

**SNIP** The children, most of them less than 7 years old, were ferried to the city's police stations, where they had to spend the night. At one crowded city beach, 35 children were handed in, according to authorities. South African's reacted with shock on social media. "I am battling to understand, how do you lose a child on a beach? And you still go home? It is sad," tweeted one Cape Town resident with the Twitter handle WaMputhi. "If I travelled with a child, I will not leave without him/her even if it means no sleep searching," he added in...

For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. Thus, no matter how full-throated the endorsements of Common Core by such worthies as former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, the parents go marching on. “Colorado Springs School District 11 struck a blow against the Common Core by voting to remove the majority of its students from the new, mandatory standardized tests,” Chris Neal wrote in School Reform News this month. “District 11, which has nearly 30, 000 students, announced it plans to randomly test the minimum number of students needed to meet the federal requirement, allowing the rest to opt...

For years, teachers’ unions, and the politicians they support, have been equating caring for children with public school funding. Apparently, parents do not agree. The American Enterprise Institute (AEI) released a new report which recounted the results of a poll taken by the group Stand for Children which found that the main issues that parents are concerned about are strong teachers and principals, curriculum and standards, charter schools, pre-Kindergarten and early learning, and equity in education. The issues that are of lower concern to parents? School funding, it turns out, is number 10. Moreover, in the survey, “parents were given...

Parent involvement key to keeping kids safe online. These days, kids let their fingers do the talking, instant messaging or texting their "BFF's" at any time of the day or night. BFF is "best friend forever" in Internet shorthand. ... Do you know what "POS" means in kid lingo? That's "parent over shoulder." Don't worry, the three dads we asked didn't know either. We stumped another mom with "ASL." That's "age-sex-location," a phrase swapped liberally throughout the Internet when strangers meet.

A 13-year-old boy who had been missing for four years was found by police hidden behind a false wall in a home in Jonesboro, Georgia.... Five people at the home were arrested, including the boy's father and stepmother. They have been charged with false imprisonment, cruelty to children and obstruction, the Journal-Constitution reported. The boy's mother, who lives out of state, was traveling to Georgia to be reunited with her son, police said.

MEMPHIS, TN (WMC) - A 12-year-old girl was saved from prostitution by her own father. The man accused of pimping her out is behind bars on rape of a child and trafficking charges. According to police, the young girl was forced into prostitution. And when her dad figured out where she was, he went after her alleged pimp with a baseball bat. Brian Jones is now locked up on a $200,000 bond, accused of holding a 12-year-old girl against her will.

Plague Journal (Children of the Last Days)Paperback– March 1, 2003 by Michael D. O'Brien In this book, the author spins “a story" about a newspaper editor who "is uncooperative" with the educational authorities, is quickly declared a child abuser, becomes a fugitive, witnesses the extra-judicial killing of a young Vietnamese man who assists him, his life generally falling apart. Either the common patterns of provocation and over-reaction seen in the news are a bizarre coincidence, or a protocol for dealing with uncooperative parents has been developed and distributed widely in training institutes for educational administrators. What is needed is...

Looking for suggestions and/or advice dealing with parents with dementia and making mostly bad decisions.

All too often, instead of being the keepers of the law, state bar associations flagrantly violate the law instead. They get away with this because they are controlled by powerful judges and affluent left-wing attorneys. Most often, people are too terrified to take on the rich and well connected, fearing they could be easily decimated by (ab)using the legal system. The debate about Measure 6, on the ballot this fall in North Dakota, is a recent example. Measure 6 would establish approximately 50/50 shared parenting as the default when parents with children split up, unless a court finds that one...

Hey all, September's been a difficult month. I lost my Gus on the 6th, almost 14. Had been nursing him through since December, last few months were pretty busy taking care of him. Anyway, his roomie Dex had been of food/water and I took him in and he's anemic. They sent the blood away to determine if the anemia is due to something acute, like internal bleed/ulcer , or more chronic anemia, like kidney/liver/bone marrow kind of issue. He's also a "senior" animal so all i really ask is that we can find out what the cause is so we...

The families of two journalists beheaded by Islamic State jihadists were both warned by US government officials they could face prosecution if they raised a ransom for their release. The recent executions of James Foley and Steven Sotloff by Islamic State (IS) extremists triggered worldwide revulsion and Washington has since declared it is at war with the radicals. The United States has a policy of never paying ransoms, contending that doing so would endanger Americans all over the world. Late Friday, a spokesman for Sotloff's family said the murdered journalist's parents were told by a White House counterterrorism official last...

The parents of murdered journalist Steven Sotloff were told by a White House counterterrorism official at a meeting last May that they could face criminal prosecution if they paid ransom to try to free their son, a spokesman for the family told Yahoo News Friday night. "The family felt completely and utterly helpless when they heard this," said Barak Barfi, a friend of Sotloff who is serving as a spokesman for his family. "The Sotloffs felt there was nothing they could do to get Steve out."

An overwhelming majority of parents — including most Republicans — back federal school nutrition standards, a new poll found. The findings released Monday by The Pew Charitable Trusts, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the American Heart Association stand in stark contrast to a partisan spat in Congress over the Agriculture Department’s regulations. More than seven in ten parents back national standards for both snacks and meals in schools. The poll found that 75 percent of parents believe salt should be limited in meals and 91 percent support requirements that schools include a serving of fruits. When broken down along...

Students can wave goodbye to being driven to university by embarrassing parents in an overloaded car – and pay to arrive in style instead. Launching on Monday, The Very Important Fresher package offers those with the budget the option to travel to campus by helicopter, private jet, Ferrari or Aston Martin. Other luxury options include a Rolls Royce Phantom, Mclaren P1 – and even a horse and carriage - which will set buyers back up to £25,000.