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It’s no secret that student debt can challenge millennials looking to start careers and launch into young adulthood. Increasingly, however, college loans are also making it harder for their parents to wind down their working lives. Take Harlan Crider, of Elverson, Pa.: He’s 79, and he’s still putting in about 40 hours a week doing property assessments. He’d rather retire, but he owes $400 a month on loans he took out to help pay for his son’s college. Stories like Crider’s are becoming more common as families seek ways to finance school amid rising college costs and federal loan limits...

The child who was attacked by a pit bull this week remained hospitalized in critical condition as her father was making his way home from Iraq to be with her late this week, according to the girl's family. The fate of 6-year-old Isis Krieger, in critical care(snip) "They're still giving her all her fluids and she's been twitching and stuff like that," said Wanda Injasoulian, Isis' great-grandmother. "Her little heart's beating really good, so there's no telling...(snip) The attack by Dozer on Tuesday at Isis' East Anchorage home was not the dog's first, but it was the worst --

A 13-year-old boy suffocated to death after his parents left him trapped in their car for more than 12 hours on the Caribbean island of Guadeloupe. The French teenager had tried desperately escape from the locked vehicle, where he had been left after his parents spent an evening with friends. When they returned to their holiday villa at night, they went inside to bed leaving their son asleep in the car. His body was discovered slumped on the back seat of the high-security 4x4 vehicle, parked in full sunshine, when his parents woke up at 10am the following morning. Temperatures...

For school officials in Haverford Township, the challenge was daunting: What do you do when a 9-year-old student, with the full support of his parents, decides that he is no longer a boy and instead is a girl? Parents of a third-grade student at Chatham Park Elementary School approached the administration on April 16 to ask for help in making a "social transition" for their child. (Excerpt) Full story: http://www.philly.com/inquirer/local/pa/chester/20080503_School_challenge__Transgender_student_is_age_9.html The Haverford School District consulted experts on transgender children, then sent letters to parents advising them that the guidance counselor would meet with the school's 100 third-grade students to explain...

CERES, Calif. -- A Ceres toddler accidentally shot herself to death Wednesday using a handgun she found in her home, police say. Authorities said they received a call at 7:42 a.m. reporting a shooting at a home on Ninth Street. The 2-year-old girl, who was not immediately identified, was pronounced dead at Memorial Medical Center in Modesto. Police said the girl's parents were being questioned by investigators. "There's really nothing to make us believe at this point that they're not telling us the true story, but we certainly have an obligation to either substantiate that or not support it by...

The latest Sacramento resident to be questioned by federal agents in possible threats against President Bush is a 14-year-old girl with a heart on her backpack and braces on her teeth, a freckle-nosed adolescent who is passionate about liberal politics and cute movie stars. Her name is Julia Wilson, and she learned a vivid civics lesson Wednesday when two Secret Service agents pulled her out of biology class at McClatchy High School to ask about comments and images she posted on MySpace.

SEATTLE - An ailing 9-month-old baby had surgery Friday to insert a catheter that will allow for future kidney dialysis. His mother had tried desperately to prevent the surgery, seeking to pursue alternative natural treatments. Earlier Friday, a Tacoma judge refused Tina Carlsen's request to block the surgery. Carlsen, 34, of Sumner, spent five days in jail after she took her son, Riley Rogers, out of a Seattle hospital on June 22, prompting a two-day statewide Amber Alert.

At least one girl was seriously injured Tuesday as hundreds of students from Dallas and other area school districts again converged on Dallas City Hall. By midday, buses were arriving to pick up the protesters and return them to school. Witnesses said an 18-year-old Spruce High School student's hand was severed when a van of students in which she was riding rolled over at an intersection... ... Meanwhile, hundreds of students streamed off trains at Union Station and marched up Young Street in downtown Dallas, whooping and hollering, waving the Mexican flag and chanting “Si, se puede,” meaning “Yes, we...

TULSA, Okla. (AP) - Police say a baby left in a hot car in Tulsa for more than two hours Friday afternoon has died. Police say the 9-week-old girl died about midnight Saturday night. The baby was left in the car after the family say they returned from running errands. Each parent thought the other had taken the baby out of the car.

A teacher in Vanuatu says he twice warned the family of the New Zealand girl killed by a shark not to get into the water. Lapen Tilison told the Weekend Herald from Atchin Island that he always warned visiting yachties to stay out of the water where 7-year-old Alysha Webster of Coromandel Peninsula was fatally bitten. Mr Tilison had paddled out in a canoe to Alysha's parents' yacht just after it pulled into the attractive white, sandy bay where he lived, shortly before lunchtime on Wednesday. "They had just dropped the anchor and jumped in for a swim," he said....

Brandon Singleton was 8 when he first saw the movie "Clueless," and it changed his life. He was entranced by the paradise of teenage consumption that the 1995 film portrayed, a Hollywood world of valet parking and designer duds. So when he entered Suitland High School in Prince George's County four years ago, he was determined to make it his reality. Now 17, he wears Armani sunglasses inside his mother's modest townhome on a recent afternoon as he rattles off a list of his favorite designer brands: Dolce & Gabbana, Coach and "a little Burberry here and there." His first...

CHICAGO - Children who watched a lot of TV with sexual content were about twice as likely to start having intercourse during the subsequent year as those with little exposure to televised sex, researchers found. High exposure to TV sex among those age 12 to 17 also was linked with a lower but still substantially increased risk of starting non-intercourse behavior, including passionate kissing and oral sex, the researchers found. Even shows that only refer to sex but don't depict it had the effect, they found. "Exposure to TV that included only talk about sex was associated with the same...

By Joe Kovacs © 2004 WorldNetDaily.com If you attend a Halloween event this year, don't be surprised if you run into a child dressed as a pimp or prostitute, as a California company is selling "Child Pimp & Ho Costumes." Los Angeles-based Brands On Sale began selling the $40- $60 outfits for children last year, but the company says there wasn't much publicity originally. Now, the items are a hot topic with word spreading on the Internet. "I am completely appalled that people would expose children to this disgusting sin by selling or even buying these costumes. It just makes...

Ridgewood officials defend teachers' decisions to remove yearbook messages (06/24/04) RIDGEWOOD - Administrators in the Ridgewood School District are defending teachers' decisions to remove certain messages from the yearbooks of seventh-graders. Officials say the teachers found vulgar, sexually explicit messages written in Benjamin Franklin Middle School yearbooks. More than 60 students had their yearbooks inspected and teachers used "white out" to erase the pear writings that they found offensive. While Superintendent John Porter Jr. says teachers were within their rights in making judgment calls on behalf of parents, some adults disagreed. They say the teachers overstepped their boundaries. A...

Row over Kidman's film romp with youngster 10:31 BST, Sunday 13th June 2004 -- by Neil Wilkes Nicole Kidman has been caught up in a row over a new film which features her kissing a ten-year-old boy while naked. In the movie, called Birth, Kidman plays a widow who believes the boy to be a reincarnation of her husband. Two scenes in particular have come under fire; in both, Kidman and the boy - Canadian child actor Cameron Bright - are "completely naked and caressing each other." In one of them, there is a close-up of " a very passionate...

COMMENTARY Teen party video raises moral, ethical questions By Mary McCarty Dayton Daily News "Did she do the right thing?" After all the buzz surrounding the infamous Bellbrook videotape — which recorded underage drinking and drug use during a five-day series of parties in November — it boils down to this one question. Nearly everybody agrees that drinking and drug use are a problem at Bellbrook High School, as they are at nearly every American high school. Nearly everybody agrees that it's not a new problem. What's different about this case, what has made it the talk of the town...

A 9-year-old boy's kick to a waiter's crotch cost his parents $15,000. The waiter, then 26, filed a lawsuit against the boy and his parents, claiming the kick caused him great pain and that sex will never be the same, according to the suit. The waiter, who asked not to be named to spare him further embarrassment, was at the boy's upscale Buckhead home April 10, 1999, setting up for a wedding reception. He claims the homeowners left their two boys unattended to dash off to the wedding. The boy and his younger brother were running around wildly and the...

BARTOW, Fla. (AP) - Paula Burcham ran the kind of day care working mothers dream about. Her house was immaculate, the meals for the children were home cooked. Kids would line up to get a hug from "Mama Paula." But the families who trusted Burcham didn't know she was giving over-the-counter medicines to their children without their permission. Now they suspect she was using the drugs to sedate cranky little ones. On August 15, Burcham was sentenced to eight years in prison for giving a 3 1/2-month-old girl a lethal dose of Benadryl to quiet her. And in the 20...

No charges are likely in mauling of infant Parents' pet pit bull killed 2-week-old boy in Brooklyn rowhouse -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- By Del Quentin Wilber Sun Staff Originally published August 10, 2003 Authorities are not expected to file charges against the parents of a 2-week-old infant who was killed by the family's pit bull Friday afternoon, according to Baltimore police officials, who said the death appears to be an accident. Terry Allen Jr. was bitten to death by his parents' pit bull, "Jigga," about 3:15 p.m. Friday in the 4200 block of Audrey Ave. in Brooklyn, police said. Terry suffered dozens of...

Brooklyn infant is killed in home by family pit bull Parents had stepped out on porch; police shoot dog -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- By Jessica Valdez and Alec MacGillis Sun Staff Originally published August 9, 2003 A 2-week-old Brooklyn infant was killed yesterday by his family's pit bull after the baby's parents stepped outside and left him alone in their house with the dog, police said. Responding to the incident at 3:15 p.m. in the 4200 block of Audrey Ave., police found the dog loose in the street and shot it, firing multiple times to make sure it was dead, witnesses said. The...