children

It's just like being a teenager, except your parents are the police! And instead of grounding, they can put you in jail! Curfews are popping up in tons of places, aimed at controlling crime. With goals similar to the police checkpoints in Washington DC, the newest towns getting an early bedtime: Helena, Arkansas and Hartford, Connecticut.

Sparked by violence, Helena, AR has implemented a 24-hour curfew in a troubled neighborhood, questioning all passers by. The city council voted unanimously to allow police to expand the program to any area of the city, despite ACLU claims that the police action is unconstitutional. The patrols have resulted in 32 arrests since they locked down the 10-block radius. The council acknowledges the hardship of the curfew but says those living in the city want the random and drug-fueled shootings to stop, regardless of what it takes.

To see what's happening in Hartford, and whether it actually works, read more

In the story about children mining gold in Africa, lots of you were interested in making sure your baubles and bling had no part of the sad practice of exploiting children to extract the precious metal. I am not afraid to be servicey so I found this brand that answers that accessory predicament.

It's called Love, Earth and it's a pilot project that's a collaboration of companies in the jewelry supply chain. Not just committed to protecting kids, the brand produces pieces that can be traced back to the ecologically-sustainable mine it cam from. Since every single gold ring made produces 20 tons of mining waste, and the processing makes thousands of gallons of cyanide, they've gone ultraresponsible and transparent, allowing you to track the entire history of the piece.

Want to know where to find the line? You may be surprised. . . To find out, read more

The angelic-faced cherub singing with a voice from heaven during the opening ceremony of the Olympics really only had one piece of that puzzle: Lin Miaoke, the 9-year-old who was featured performing "Ode to the Motherland" while fireworks flared and 1 billion people watched was pulling one of the oldest tricks in the book. She was lip-synching the song.

And not just to ensure a flawless performance in case nerves or the wires interfered with her singing — she lip-dubbed because she was cuter than the girl who owned the voice. Under pressure from the highest levels of the Communist Party, the ceremony's production team was sent on the ultimate star search: to find the perfect face and voice to represent China. Unable to find the whole package, they pulled a C+C Music Factory swapperoo: Lin Miaoke performed to 7-year-old Yang Peiyi's voice (pictured below). To see why this happened, read more

Africa: a continent of untold riches in gold and diamonds, contrasted with shocking poverty of citizens living on the surface just above the treasure trove. Veins of gold run through the earth demanding to be mined — a job dangerous enough for adults, but savagely brutal when you're four years old.

The AP conducted a yearlong study of six African gold mines and found more than 150 child miners to interview, tracking the gold from kid to ring. The United Nation's labor agency estimates that there are 100,000 to 250,000 child miners in West Africa alone. One of these, a 12-year-old miner (who is less than four feet tall) was lured to the trade after his village's only teacher left, and the global price of gold spiked. He and two friends hiked with their recruiter for 100 miles, to the mine where the boys live, sleeping on mattresses crammed between adults. It's not just boys lured into the trade; girls also start as young as four and can be working full-time by the age of 10.

To see how the children mine, read more

As we all know, not all marriages end happily ever after. But after you divorce and start dating again, factoring your kids into the equation is an extremely important step that needs to be carefully thought out. As we've seen in Hollywood, it can be done flawlessly (the Moore/Willis kids for example), but we've also seen the opposite: single parents who introduce their kids too soon, only to have the relationship fail (Kate Hudson and Lance Armstrong, to name a few). Since children can get attached easily, it seems reasonable to wait until your relationship has hit a certain level of commitment before exchanging introductions, but when is too soon? And when is too late? If you have kids, they are no doubt your number one priority, so tell me, when do you think children should come into play when starting a new relationship?

Pacific Coast News Online

When you reach a certain age, it's only human to think more seriously about your future in relation to the dating game. If getting married and having kids is of interest to you, many women are of the mindset that time is of the essence. Sure, dating is fun, but if there's no real connection, is there a point of going through the motions with someone you don't inevitably see yourself with? Though I believe you learn from each experience, I completely understand that mentality — you don't want to miss out on meeting Mr. Right when you're wasting time dating Mr. Right Now! I curious to know what you all think on this issue, so do tell, when you reach a certain age, is dating for fun no longer of interest to you?

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It seems like there is always a new excuse to treat yourself, and the new trend for expecting couples is to go on a baby-moon — you know, the last time to vacation with your honey before the baby comes! I'm all for living the good life and spending quality time to romance your special someone, but a baby-moon just seems like an excuse to go on an extravagant vacation. Though I'm not a mom myself, I do understand how a couples relationship, and life for that matter, completely changes after a baby. It's not as easy to get alone time with one another and oftentimes sleep is more important than sex, so perhaps getting in one last vacation makes sense after all. Every couple is different, as is every pregnancy, so tell me, do you think going on a baby-moon is a do or a don't?

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The more things change, the more they stay the same, huh? This week in history, waaaayyy back in 1980, then-presidential candidate Ronald Reagan's children were featured in People magazine — fast-forward to 2008, and while Obama is in Israel meeting with top Israeli and Palestinian leaders on his plans for containing the nuclear threat from Iran and building peace in the Middle East, his daughters are getting their time in the mag.

In the Reagan kids' profile (which has a hilariously vintage feel) daughter Patti scandalously admitted to the question of whether she would vote for her dad, "gee, uh, I don't know — maybe I wouldn't vote for anybody. I'm really kind of antipolitical. I just get the newspaper and turn to the comics." Gee? Too good. In the profile, Patti, 27, was living at home "until I can find a new apartment."

Michael on the other hand was fully engaged as a campaigner for his dad, despite that his age (35) made his dad look ancient — and scandalous with his blended family. He said, "I suppose it makes Dad look old, having older children. Headquarters may feel it's embarrassing if Maureen and I are in the forefront, and the real kids [the two by Nancy] are not. Sometimes I've felt like I was fighting to volunteer."

And this! After talking about Ron's love of ballet, the piece included the quote from dad, "he's all man—we made sure of that," and the article goes on to say, "in fact, young Reagan seems thoroughly heterosexual." Oh, 1980. You're so cute!

All in all, it's kind of a shock to see how unmuzzled the kids were during the campaign — not produced in the least.

Though the Obama girls are decidedly younger than their Reagan predecessors, they gave out the goods, too. To see what they said, read more