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Five defendants were driving from Howard Circuit Court when deputies arrested them on charges of driving with suspended licenses because of delinquent child support payments, said the Howard’s Sheriff’s Office. “I think they were shocked,” said Lt. Charles Gable, sheriff’s office spokesman, referring to the arrests that occurred Friday and Monday. “We got all kinds of reactions; the first person we pulled over was like, ‘Wow.’ ” The defendants are John Porterfield, 43, of Columbia; Denee Powell, 43, of Silver Spring; Riko Johnson, 26, of Annapolis; Craig Myers, 44, of Highland; and Renard Whitehead, 41, of Bowie. The maximum sentence...

April 14, 2008, 6:00 a.m. The Hispanic Family: The Case for National ActionLooking at and for honest numbers. By Heather Mac Donald Those of us who have documented the growing underclass culture among second- and third-generation Hispanic Americans have grown accustomed to being called bigoted “xenophobes� by open-borders conservatives. For some reason, these same conservatives don’t object to anyone decrying the consequences of black illegitimacy rates, or the toll of black gang culture on community life. But point out the high Hispanic illegitimacy and school drop-out rates, or the march of ever-younger Hispanics into gangs, and you can be...

About six months after my son was born, he and I were sitting on a blanket at the park with a close friend and her daughter. It was a sunny summer weekend, and other parents and their kids picnicked nearby—mothers munching berries and lounging on the grass, fathers tossing balls with their giddy toddlers. My friend and I, who, in fits of self-empowerment, had conceived our babies with donor sperm because we hadn’t met Mr. Right yet, surveyed the idyllic scene. “Ah, this is the dream,” I said, and we nodded in silence for a minute, then burst out laughing....

Background: Newsweek magazine writer Lorraine Ali briefly quotes from my co-authored column Rise in Out-of-Wedlock Births Is Bad News for America’s Kids (Washington Times, 12/4/06) in her new piece Knocking Yourself Up--Some women laugh about turkey basters replacing Mr. Right. The ongoing debate over going it alone (Newsweek, 11/5/07). The piece centers around Louise Sloan, author of the new guidebook Knock Yourself Up: A Tell-All Guide to Becoming a Single Mom. Sloan now has a fatherless 16-month-old son. The piece favors women who decide to have fatherless children. To learn more, click here.In the article, Ali writes "Sloan found herself...

MOST women who freeze their eggs to preserve their fertility would consider using them to become single mothers, according to research in the United States.A study of patients who have had their eggs frozen at an IVF clinic in New York suggests that 80 per cent would think about having them fertilised with donor sperm if they failed to find a suitable partner. Many of the women, all of whom were childless and single, said that they had decided to keep some of their eggs on ice to “take the pressure off” their search for a man to father their...

by Mark Finkelstein August 10, 2006 - 10:47 Keith Olbermann's regular media critic guest, Michael Musto of the Village Voice, called Ann Coulter a 'bastard' on last night's Countdown. The topic was the news that Vanity Fair has picked celeb photographer Annie Liebovitz to snap the first pics of Suri, newborn daughter of Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes. There is controversy as to whether Suri actually exists, given that, months after her announced birth, there have been no photos or viewings of the child. Musto is clearly a skeptic on the subject. When Olbermann asked him what we should expect...

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...

“American Idol”: Who’s Your (Baby)Daddy? April 6, 2005 By Debbie Schlussel Being an unwed teen mother is “a badge of honor,” right? That was the scheduled message of this week’s “American Idol,” courtesy of Fantasia Barrino. Barrino—the young unwed, single mother who won last season’s “AI”— was set to showcase her biggest song, “Baby Mama,” according to weeks of press reports. Fortunately, at the last minute, she performed another song. “Baby Mama” couldn’t send a worse message to young American girls—and boys—that watch the show in droves. Barrino sings that being a “Baby Mama”— an unwed, single mother—is a good...

Patricia Ireland just said that she grew up as a Christian in Indiana and asked that (paraphrase) "if there was a real problem with lesbians and gays, why didn't Jesus say anything about it?"

Children of married parents do better in lifeBy Sarah Womack, Social Affairs Correspondent (Filed: 12/12/2003) Children born out of wedlock suffer financially, according to an official study released yesterday.The study of 18,500 babies shows that married parents are less likely to claim income support.They are also more likely to own a property and live on an income of at least £20,000 a year.The survey found that 60 per cent of parents who had children in 2000-2002 were married, 25 per cent were co-habiting and 15 per cent were not married or living together.Only 7.8 per cent of married couples...

<p>LONDON - Children growing up in single-parent families are twice as likely as their counterparts to develop serious psychiatric illnesses and addictions later in life, according to an important new study.</p> <p>Researchers have for years debated whether children from such homes bounce back or whether they are more likely than those whose parents stay together to develop serious emotional problems.</p>

Shelters Seek to Oust Families Who Keep Rejecting Housing Sara Kelly, a lively, articulate mother of six, was explaining why she and her family have stayed in a homeless shelter for more than a year instead of moving to an apartment. It's hard to find a three-bedroom apartment she can afford. Landlords don't like single mothers, teenage boys and homeless people, and they lie about making repairs. She does not want a neighborhood that is "druggy." She must live near a hospital because two of her children have asthma. "I am choosy about where I live," said Ms. Kelly, who...