(CBS NEWS) 4 March 2008:

In a new book, “Little White Lies; Deep Dark Secrets” the author, Susan Shapiro Barash, makes the claim that women lie more than men do. Her explanation is that it’s a purely social thing, that women will lie rather than hurt someone’s feelings. For example, half of those surveyed admitted lying about how much they liked being a mother.

The thesis seems a touch flawed as it appears that she accepted that men were telling the truth when stating that yes, that looks good on you or that no, your fanny does not look big in that.

Especially when her conclusion is that while women lie more than men they are also better at it.

(CINCINNATI ENQUIRER) 31 January 2008:

While most 10-year-olds are going to school and Hannah Montana concerts, one 10-year-old girl was giving birth on November 4 in Ohio. The father is her mother’s 40-year-old boyfriend. The baby’s birth stunned social workers and they are trying to figure out how to deal with the situation. The father of the infant is in jail, accused of child molestation. Ya think?

(CNN.COM) 16 May 2007:

Suicide is the second leading cause of death for Asian-American woman age 15-24. That is the highest suicide rate among women of any ethnicity or race for that age group.  Assistant professor of Asian-American studies at California State University Fullerton Eliza Noh began researching this trend after losing a sister to suicide.  In the Asian-American culture, asserts Noh, there is a “model minority” pressure to be the perfect student, daughter, wife, and mother. This is one of the top contributors to the higher suicide rate among this group.

(TMZ.com) 20 April 2007:

Hot headed actor Alec Baldwin has expressed regret for the telephone tirade directed at his 11-year old daughter in which he called her a “rude, thoughtless little pig,” and threatened to straighten her out.  He also told her she didn’t have the “brains or decency of a human being.”

The question remains:  How did the media get a copy of the answering machine tape that contained his tirade?  The larger question, however, should be: why do parents, both mothers and fathers, make the offspring from their failed union suffer so much?

Baldwin and his ex-wife, Oscar winning actress Kim Basinger, have been in a protracted  custody dispute since their 2001 split.

(MSN.COM) 6 April 2007:

Tori Spelling, who recently gave birth to her first child, says she began reconciling with her mother, Candy, in the last weeks of her pregnancy.

“It was mutual,” the 33-year-old actress tells Us Weekly in its April 16 issue. “We both reached out at the same time by phone in the weeks before I had Liam.”

Their 9-month estrangement was juicy gossip in the tabloids, with mother and daughter sitting apart during a tribute to famed TV producer Aaron Spelling at the Emmy Awards last August.

Candy Spelling was in the delivery room when Tori Spelling gave birth to 6-pound, 6-ounce Liam Aaron McDermott by Caesarean section at a Los Angeles hospital last month.

“When she walked through that hospital door when I was in labor, it was like I had just seen her yesterday,” Spelling says. “We both started to cry and hug, and I said, `I love you, Mommy,’ and she said, `I love you.’ That was it. I wish my dad got to see it, but I think he is looking down on us.”

(SACRAMENTO BEE) 9 March 2007:

California resident Renee Honnold reportedly drove her son to a fight with another child and then reportedly cheered her son on as he pounded his smaller opponent. She also allegedly told another mother to mind her own business as that woman attempted to break up the fight — all the action being caught on video by another student. Police took the video as evidence.

Folsom police arrested Renee Ann Honnold, 37, at her home on March 8. Honnold was booked into Sacramento County jail on suspicion of endangering the life or health of a child and criminal conspiracy, both felonies. She also was booked on suspicion of contributing to the delinquency of a minor, a misdemeanor. Her son was cited on suspicion of misdemeanor battery.

Both boys have been suspended from school for five days, said Officer Kurt Knudsen, spokesman for the Folsom Police Department.

“In my eight years I have never seen anything like this,” Knudsen said.

(REUTERS) 2 March 2007:

Isn’t that what mom always says to a naughty child? With grown men other techniques might need to be used.  Fred Gregor, in Berlin, Germany, was protesting against his 15 month jail sentence for fraud and demanding a new trial, by squatting in a tiny homemade cubicle atop a TV antena 75 feet up in the air.  His wife at first supported him but after ten days decided enough was enough and that Gregor should come down. The former stripper and mother of their five children convinced him to return to earth by sending up to him, in his lunchbox, a topless photo of herself.

(NIDCR.NIH.GOV) 3 January 2007:

Scientists supported by the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR), part of the National Institutes of Health, report that women who smoke during pregnancy and carry a fetus whose DNA lacks both copies of a gene involved in detoxifying cigarette smoke substantially increase their baby’s chances of being born with a cleft lip and/or palate.

According to the scientists, about a quarter of babies of European ancestry and possibly up to 60 percent of those of Asian ancestry lack both copies of the gene called GSTT1. Based on their data, published in the January issue of the “American Journal of Human Genetics”, the scientists calculated that if a pregnant woman smokes 15 cigarettes or more per day, the chances of her GSTT1-lacking fetus developing a cleft increase nearly 20 fold. Globally, about 12 million women each year smoke through their pregnancies.

(CNN.COM) 2 October 2006:

Children in deep sleep awoke to recordings of their mothers’ voices — calling them by name and ordering them out of their bedrooms — even if they slept through the beeping sound a smoke alarm makes, according to a small study.

The study of 24 children ages 6 to 12 found that 23 awoke to the recorded voice of their mother saying “(Child’s first name)! (Child’s first name)! Wake up! Get out of bed! Leave the room!” Fourteen of the children also awoke to the traditional tone alarm. One child didn’t wake up to either.

(REUTERS) 1 October 2006

Matricide is both an unusual and heinous crime but there are some circumstances when it cannot be prosecuted, nor even the perpetrator arrested or charged. That’s the curious situation in Brazil after Adrianno Oliveira confessed to killing his real estate mogul mother, Marisa. Or rather, to hiring hit men to do it for him when he thought that she and her new boyfriend were spending his inheritance.

He cannot be arrested because in Brazil no one, unless they are actually caught red handed, can’t be arrested in the five days before and two days after an election.  This is to stop heavy handed attempts to get people to change their voting intentions. Does he get off scot free then? No, police say he will be arrested next week, after all the elections are over.