Free Republic

John Edwards, the Democrats' 2004 vice-presidential candidate and a potential Cabinet member for Barack Obama, tonight admitted that he had consistently lied about having an affair. Mr Edwards had been dogged by internet gossip, fuelled by anonymously sourced stories in the supermarket tabloid The National Enquirer, that he had an affair last year with Rielle Hunter, a film-maker, while running for president. It was also rumoured that he had fathered an illegitimate child in the relationship, an allegation he continued to deny in an interview with ABC News. In the interview Edwards confesses that he did have an affair with...

The birth certificate of a child who a tabloid newspaper claims is linked to former Sen. John Edwards doesn't identify a father. The certificate, obtained by The Charlotte Observer today, shows Frances Quinn Hunter was born Feb. 27, more than two months after an Edwards aide claimed to be the father. Andrew Young, a former Edwards campaign finance director, claimed paternity in a statement from his lawyer posted at the political blog mydd.com. The girl was born at Cottage Hospital in Santa Barbara, Calif., to Rielle Jaya James Druck, also known as Rielle Hunter. Hunter, 44, was a videographer on...

With in-vitro fertilization (IVF) becoming more and more popular, an increasing number of children are at risk of being separated from their fathers. Ireland’s High Court recently ruled against giving any parental rights to a father whose sperm was donated and used in an artificial insemination, which resulted in the birth of his son. The father, a homosexual, donated sperm to the mother and her female partner, who are a lesbian couple. On April 17 the Irish Times reported that Judge John Hedigan held that the lesbian couple could be regarded as a de facto couple with rights under the...

A SOUTH Australian father and daughter have revealed they are a couple, and have had a child together. John and Jenny Deaves reunited 30 years after Mr Deaves separated from Jenny's mother.

“It’s a private matter,” replied marketing man Gene Kolber when we asked about the paternity of his newborn granddaughter. His daughter, ESPN “Monday Night Football” reporter Suzy Kolber gave birth to a baby girl, Kellyn, in Connecticut yesterday.

Who needs Maury Povich when paternity tests are now available at Rite Aid, Meijer and other pharmacies for just $29.99? The Identigene DNA Paternity Test Collection Kit was first rolled out in Washington State, Oregon and California in November last year, according to Rite Aid spokeswoman Ashley Flower. The company continues to evaluate whether it should expand the kits to other states, she said. According to the Identigene's Web site, the tests compare genetic information obtained from cheek swabs collected from both the child and the father. The swabs are then sent to the company's laboratory along with a $119...

Carjacking Attempt by 11-Year-Old DEARBORN HEIGHTS, Mich. (AP) - An 11-year-old Detroit boy was charged Friday with wielding a hammer as he tried to steal a car from a man in a supermarket parking lot. The boy, one month shy of his 12th birthday, was charged with attempted carjacking and felonious assault. The man told police the boy approached him about 8 a.m. Thursday and demanded the keys to the man's car while the boy gestured with the hammer. The man refused and called police, who went to the parking lot in the Detroit suburb of Dearborn Heights and arrested...

'ENTOURAGE' OF STAR'S '2 DADS' By JIM RYAN May 27, 2007 -- The mom of "Entourage" star Adrian Grenier was living in a commune when she became pregnant with the TV heartthrob - resulting in years of confusion about the identity of his father. Brooklyn-bred Grenier, who stars as Vincent Chase in the HBO hit show, grew up without a father and with his mother's maiden name. A few years ago, he sat down with his mom to talk about his childhood and his absent dad. "It was a really wild time," Karesse Grenier tells Adrian in a documentary he...

A couple who sued a fertility clinic after the wife gave birth to a daughter whose skin they thought was too dark for her to be their child may proceed with their lawsuit, a judge has ruled. Thomas and Nancy Andrews, of Commack, N.Y., sued New York Medical Services for Reproductive Medicine, accusing the Manhattan clinic of medical malpractice and other offenses. They said the Park Avenue clinic botched the insemination of Nancy Andrews' eggs. The Andrewses' court papers say that on the advice of Dr. Martin Keltz, the couple agreed to in vitro fertilization of the eggs with Thomas...

"Wrong place at the wrong time." Who knew the wrong place to be on New Year's Eve was at a party welcoming in the new year? Who knew the wrong time to be murdered was now – when people are so callous about death that it's almost as if we're asking the victim, "Just what did you do to get yourself murdered?" There are many words to describe the senseless killing of Denver Broncos cornerback Darrent Williams. Unfortunate. Heartbreaking. Sad. But here's the one word we can't use in describing such a death: Unexpected. Over the past 12 months, three...

NEW YORK (AP)-Congratulations! You are the Time magazine "Person of the Year."The annual honor for 2006 went to each and every one of us, as Time cited the shift from institutions to individuals-citizens of the new digital democracy, as the magazine put it. The winners this year were anyone using or creating content on the World Wide Web.

Mary Cheney’s pregnancy poses problems not just for her child, but also for all Americans. Her action repudiates traditional values and sets an appalling example for young people at a time when father absence is the most pressing social problem facing the nation. With 37 percent of American children born to fatherless families, Mary Cheney is contributing to a trend that is detrimental to all Americans who will live with the ramifications of millions of children whose anger and frustration at not knowing their father will be felt in the public schools and communities of our nation. Mary Cheney is...

December 5, 2006 - In a shocking display of parenting prowess, a Rock Hill, S.C. woman reportedly called police and had them arrest her son after he was caught opening a Christmas present early. After receiving the call, police arrested the boy and charged him with petty larceny. The Rock Hill Herald reported that the child's great-grandmother had warned him repeatedly about opening his present early, protestations that he apparently ignored. The present in question was a Game Boy Advance. "He took it without permission. He wanted it. He just took it," the 63-year-old great-grandmother told the Herald. When the...

Cipel: McGreevey assaulted me The onetime aide said he wanted to clear the record: The former governor made an advance he rejected. By John Shiffman Inquirer Staff Writer In his new book, Jim McGreevey vividly recalls his first, magical kiss with Golan Cipel. Cipel does not remember the 2001 encounter so fondly. The former aide calls it a failed sexual assault that followed shots of Jagermeister. After he pushed New Jersey's governor away, Cipel said, he asked McGreevey why he assumed he was gay. "And McGreevey said, 'Everybody is a little gay,' " Cipel recalled yesterday in his first extended...

A PERTH mother whose baby was seriously injured when put in a clothes dryer says the ordeal has wrecked her life. Speaking publicly for the first time, Marnie Jowett has told New Idea magazine it will be a long time before she can trust anyone again, after her boyfriend put 14-month-old Mya Jade Jeffrey in the dryer, turned it on and left her spinning for about two minutes on May 25. Samuel Marc Barnes Siddall, 21, was last week sentenced to eight months in jail after pleading guilty to causing grievous bodily harm. Ms Jowett left Mya in Siddall's care...

By The Universe's Rome Correspondent Gerry O'Connell: Fidel Castro, Cuba's revolutionary leader, once asked two of Brazil’s most well-known liberation theologians to be with him when he died. The relationship between the Holy See and Communist Cuba has thawed in recent years and new reports in the Italian press suggested Castro had regained an interest in his Catholic faith. He attended a Catholic school and has been described in the past as being a religious child. Italian daily Corriere delle Sera reported that some years ago Castro had asked Frs Frei Betto and Leonardo Boff to be at his bedside...

The new McMahons DVD features commentary from Stephanie McMahon where she says that she had to nix potential incest angles. According to her, Vince wanted himself to be revealed as the father of her baby and when she said no, he pushed for Shane to be revealed as the father. She turned that idea down also. She also said no to Vince's idea that her wedding to Triple H be aired on PPV. Credit: PWInsider.com

NEDERLAND, Colo. - Michelle Jorgenson thought it was odd that her 8-year-old daughter Cheyenne — conceived with sperm from a mystery man known to Jorgenson only as Donor 3066 — was extremely sensitive to sound and walked on her toes. Jorgenson started checking on the Internet and soon learned of at least six other children around the country who were fathered by 3066. And of those seven, she discovered to her alarm, two have autism, and two others, Cheyenne included, show signs of a sensory disorder tied closely to autism. The children's mothers located one another beginning a year ago...

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY No matter how you cut it, being a father, or what now constitutes a Father is getting a whole lot fuzzier, and a lot less difficult.. They, my 5 kids, and 5 grand kids call me, Dad, daddy, old man, pa, papa, pop, and even Father, when I am needed most in my role of family patriarch.. Dad, is the rank, position, title, no matter which you choose, they all are music to my ears.. Everything about being a dad has been the only truly redeeming factor of my existence thus far. However, apparently not everyone sees...

MARION, May. 31 (UPI) — The alleged love child of U.S. President Warren G. Harding has died, leaving the mystery unsolved as descendents on either side ask to be left alone. Elizabeth Ann Blaesing died last November and her children reportedly tried to keep the death out of the limelight. She was 86.

Hello, fellow white people! Yeeeeeehaawwwwww! What in tarnation is all this jibber jabber I hear about the Iraqi war going anything but one hundred percent perfectly?! I tell ya what that is: COMMIE talk! These Un-American libs (which include minorities, women, and other minorities, such as blacks and homosexual gay queers!) the war has turned into a black hole with no "forseeable" (whatever in tarnation that big word means) end in sight. To this I say, shut your damn mouth! The only opinions that should be expressed are those that are in total agreement with our distinguished president, Dick Cheney,...

All my life, I believed in Republican values -- individual responsibility and limited government. Then it happened; I found myself with a small child, unemployed and disabled. I turned to my church, and after years of regular tithes, suddenly I just wasn't their problem. My Republican friends? I was now a pariah to them. My only relief was to turn to government assistance for housing, food, and other needs and I was able to survive with dignity. So chalk me up as one who no longer drinks the GOP koolaid.

Katie Holmes and Tom Cruise have welcomed their first child together, two inside sources have told PEOPLE. No other details are immediately available. In late October, barely six months into their romance, an ecstatic Cruise and Holmes revealed that they were expectant parents. Cruise, 43, and Holmes, 27, had made no secret of their desire to start a family together: When asked by PEOPLE last June if they were planning to have children, Holmes smiled and said simply, "Yes." Friends of the Toledo, Ohio-bred Holmes called her perfectly suited to her upcoming role. "She almost seems born for motherhood," said...

Katie Holmes Called 'Stepford Wife' -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- By Susan Hatch Apr 7, 2006 It was only a matter of time. The fabulous Katie Holmes has been dubbed as behaving like a 'Stepford wife.' She has been quite odd since this whole - I wanna marry my dream guy Tom Cruise thing stated. Katie Accused: Stepford Wife Now here come the brainwashing hints. Who better to deliver the story than Page Six. The gossip column asks - What's up with Katie Holmes? *** The once vivacious actress is like a "Stepford" wife ever since she hooked up with Tom Cruise and Scientology....

He was a family favourite, a harmless if over-the-top entertainer. Now he is a pariah who will spend the next few months in a filthy jail WANNA be in my gang? Gary Glitter sang in the 1970s, as thousands of children chanted their agreement. Yesterday, the once-adored glam rock star began a three-year prison sentence in Vietnam for molesting two underage girls, his glitter utterly tarnished by sordid sex crimes against children. Today that invitation to join Glitter’s gang seems to carry grim sexual overtones. In the annals of celebrity scandal, there has never been anything quite like Glitter’s passage...

"I can tell you the main reason behind all our woes — it is America." The New York Times reporter is quoting the complaint of a clothing merchant in a Sunni stronghold in Iraq. "Everything that is going on between Sunni and Shiites, the troublemaker in the middle is America." One can't doubt that the American objective in Iraq has failed. The same edition of the paper quotes a fellow of the American Enterprise Institute. Mr. Reuel Marc Gerecht backed the American intervention. He now speaks of the bombing of the especially sacred Shiite mosque in Samara and what that...

You people are a genuine menace. I think I'll be calling my congressman to see what can be done to shut this place down.

Ted Kennedy's alleged love child, Christopher Allen, appears to have corroborated The National Enquirer's claim that he's the son of the senator. The tab was unable to get the 21-year-old to talk last week, but he told us in an E-mail: "It is kinda shocking to finally find out who my real father is." Asked about the photo Wonkette.com posted of him, he said, "I don't remember taking a picture but then again, I have the classic Kennedy drinking problem." Sen. Kennedy's office has branded the Enquirer story "irresponsible fiction." …

18-year-old Lakeisha Adams was arrested by Bogalusa Police Tuesdayafter they discovered her 3-month-old son dead in her home.Adams reportedly confessed to putting the infant in the dryer and turning it on. People who know the mother accused of burning her baby to death in a clothes dryer say she has a past that includes violence. But they also say she can turn it off like a switch. 18-year-old Lakeisha Adams was arrested by Bogalusa Police Tuesday after they discovered her 3-month-old son dead in her home. Adams reportedly confessed to putting the infant in the dryer and turning it...

On a hot Saturday night last June, Don Brunner arrived home with his wife and took off the last suit and tie he'd ever wear, knowing that the life he had always led was about to end. The next morning, the New Milford plumber glanced one last time in the mirror and emerged from their split level - still very much a father and husband, but no longer a man. This is a story about a family that could have spun apart, but instead pulled together. It's a story about a stunned New Jersey town that could have spurned a...

Acclaimed director Woody Allen loves the paternal feelings he has towards his young wife Soon-Yi Previn, and insists the massive age gap between them defuses any conflict in their marriage. The 69-year-old sparked an international scandal when he split up with his long-term partner Mia Farrow in 1992 after falling for her adopted daughter. Allen later married Previn, 35, and the couple have two children. Yet, the Manhattan filmmaker is unabashed when he admits that his relationship with Previn is paternal and he enjoys the power his successful life gives him in their relationship. He says, "(Our marriage) has a...

WASHINGTON - Nearly 1.5 million babies, a record, were born to unmarried women in the United States last year, the government reported Friday. And it isn't just teenagers any more. ADVERTISEMENT [0] "People have the impression that teens and unmarried mothers are synonymous," said Stephanie Ventura of the National Center for Health Statistics. But last year teens accounted for just 24 percent of unwed births, down from 50 percent in 1970, she commented. The increases in unmarried births have been among women in their 20s, she said, particularly those 25 to 29.

Bottom of 2nd, 1-0 Astro lead, good game with baserunners and a great tag out at the plate by the Cardinal catcher.

The South leads the nation in unwed births, which often ensure a lifetime of poverty for mother, child Southern states, including Georgia, often style themselves as the last bastions of traditional family values that other parts of the country abandoned long ago. Supposedly, this is still the kind of place where Mom, Dad and the kids traipse to church on Sunday and then show up at Grandmom's for chicken dinner. Unfortunately, the reality's a little different. According to a new U.S. Census Bureau report — the first to offer a state-by-state look at links between marriage, fertility and other characteristics...

Last spring, when her obstetrician suggested an ultrasound test to see if she was carrying more than one baby, Jennell Dickens prayed that she wasn't carrying twins. When an ultrasound technician examined her belly, counting two, three and four heartbeats, she steeled herself for quadruplets. That was before a radiologist entered the room and found another heartbeat. Dickens cried for two months. Yesterday, she was the picture of composure, smiling and laughing at the University of Maryland Medical Center just two days after delivering four girls and a boy 10 weeks early. They weighed a combined 11 pounds, 14 ounces....

File this under completely unsubstantiated, be we just heard the most delicious rumor that would be criminal not to repeat. Could (CNN Anchor) Anderson Cooper be a father? Possibly so!Someone we met yesterday swore up and down that Coop has just pulled a David Crosby.'Anderson is the sperm donor for Camryn Manheim's son,' said our new acquaintence. 'They signed an agreement that he would have nothing to do with the baby's life, but he is the father.

A 17-year-old youth walked into an Italian restaurant in Burlington, N.J., to order two large pizzas. Emblazoned on his white T-shirt was a large yellow smiley face with the tip of a cat's tail protruding from of the smiley's mouth. Beneath the design was an explicitly depraved, three-word sentence that would offend almost any woman. "I will not take your order so long as you are wearing that shirt," the counter woman told the customer. "Get your mind out of the gutter," the youth shouted at her. "Get that shirt out of my store," the woman yelled. "Does your mother...

65 Girls At Canton, Ohio HS PregnantThe Canton Repository reported recently that 65 of 490 female students at Timken High School are pregnant. The article reported that some would say that movies, TV, videogames, lazy parents and lax discipline may all be to blame.

Up to one in 25 dads could unknowingly be raising another man's child, UK health researchers estimate. Increasing use of genetic testing for medical and legal reasons means more couples are discovering the biological proof of who fathered the child. The Liverpool John Moores University team reached its estimate based on research findings published between 1950 and 2004. The study appears in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health. Biological father Professor Mark Bellis and his team said that the implications of so-called paternal discrepancy were huge and largely ignored, even though the incidence was increasing. In the US, the...

Following on the heels of Al Sharpton's criticism of the Democratic Party, Jesse Jackson Friday turned up the rhetorical heat, blaming the party for its "weak, fuzzy ideology." Jackson faulted the Democrats for supporting the NAFTA and CAFTA international trade deals as well as the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, which contained a provision imposing life sentences for people convicted of three violent crimes. Jackson warned black voters to avoid becoming pawns "in the struggle [over] our dignity and our identity. "We must have a commitment to a political order that makes sense for our constituency,"...

I’ve been bitching and griping a bit here about my recent DUI arrest. All my fault, but there it was. Let’s talk a little bit about jail. I got to spend five days in the county jail, so I think I am qualified to have an opinion. Overall, it was not all that bad. Most of the people were pretty nice. Inmates, guards, etc. There were some jerks, but not more than anywhere else. You definitely do mind your manners. The jail where I was had three “holding cells”. There was one for the normal boys, most of us who...

June 18, 2005 THE WORLD No. 2 in Al Qaeda Scorns 'Crusader' Ayman Zawahiri calls for armed struggle against the U.S. in a tape broadcast on Al Jazeera. From Associated Press CAIRO — Al Qaeda's No. 2 leader released a new video, broadcast on Al Jazeera television Friday, in which he disparaged the U.S. concept of reform in the Middle East and said armed jihad was the only way to bring change in the Islamic world. The message from Ayman Zawahiri was part of his first video appearance since February. "The removal of the crusader and Jewish invaders won't occur...

Why are Charlotte's black students suspended more often than whites? It's a hard-to-answer question, say Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools officials. But they want to look deeper, they say. An Observer investigation found black students were nearly four times more likely to be suspended than whites in the 2003-04 school year. Overall, CMS suspended 8 percent of white students, and 30 percent of black students. Such disparities also exist nationally and suggest a culture clash in schools, experts say. "It's a very difficult issue, and it's uncomfortable for folks," says assistant superintendent Susan Agruso. "Part of it may be related to culture. Part...

Dallas Police Locate Mother Of Girl Found Wandering Near Apartments DALLAS -- Dallas police are investigating after a young girl was found Thursday morning wandering near an apartment complex wearing only a T-shirt. A resident found the girl and called 911. Police located the child's mother at Regal Springs Apartments in the 13000 block of Audelia Road, where the family lives. The mother left Regal Springs Apartments at about 9 a.m. without any comment. The child is in the custody of Child Protective Services. Police have not said whether the mother will face charges.

NEWARK, N.J. -- From the moment they held hands, pledged their love and signed documents in New York registering themselves as domestic partners, Kimberly Robinson and Jeanne LoCicero considered themselves a family. And when they decided to have a baby through artificial insemination, the Essex County couple wanted the courts to consider them one as well. On Wednesday, they got their wish. In a first-of-its kind ruling in New Jersey, a judge granted LoCicero full co-parenting rights to the baby Robinson bore, without having to go through lengthy adoption proceedings. Thus, they will both be listed as parents on the...

Lionel Tate (search), the youngest person in modern U.S. history to be sentenced to life in prison (search), has been arrested after a pizza delivery man said the teenager pointed a gun at him. Tate, now 18, was being held early Tuesday at the Broward County Jail (search) on charges of armed robbery and armed burglary with battery. He was serving probation following his release on a guilty plea to second-degree murder in the beating death of a 6-year-old family friend when he was 12.

Sisters pregnant at 12, 14 and 16. So what does their mother do? She blames the school Three sisters have each had children while still at school, the youngest at the age of 12. Jemma, Jade and Natasha Williams, who receive benefits totalling more than £31,000 a year, are raising their babies alone after they became pregnant within three months of each other. The sisters, aged 12, 14 and 16 when they gave birth, live in Derby with their twice-divorced mother, who holds the education system responsible for their plight. "I blame the schools - sex education for young girls...

The same day in May 1999 that Kweisi Mfume abruptly announced that he would not be a candidate for mayor, an internal investigative memo was sent to top officers of the NAACP describing allegations of Mfume's mistreatment of female subordinates at the organization's Baltimore headquarters. For the next five years, the civil rights organization - still recovering from the 1994 sex scandal under former Executive Director Benjamin F. Chavis - kept that memo secret and did nothing more, even as Mfume refused to answer any questions from the board's lawyers about the allegations. But in an internal report last year,...

BOSS BLOWS UP AFTER 4TH STRAIGHT LOSS BY GEORGE KING April 18, 2005 -- BALTIMORE - One dozen games into the season George Steinbrenner has had it with his high-priced and underachieving Yankees. Shortly after yesterday's 8-4 loss to the Orioles in front of a sun-splashed Camden Yards crowd of 47,883 that stretched the Yankees' losing streak to four, The Boss cried uncle. "Enough is enough," Steinbrenner said in a statement. "I am bitterly disappointed, as I am sure all Yankee fans are, by the lack of performance by our team. http://www.nypost.com/sports/sports.shtml