Child Custody

When Maine's highest court ruled two years ago that lesbians Marilyn Kirby and Ann Courtney could adopt the two children they had cared for since 2001, the man who has led the state battle against gay marriage for 25 years got a glimpse of the defeat now looming. "There's a sense people have -- a sense of inevitability -- and a tremendous sense of frustration because of the history of the gay rights fight in Maine," said Michael Heath, executive director of the Maine Family Policy Council.

A Chinese couple who fought for seven years to get their daughter back from foster care won a judge's approval Thursday to avoid deportation by leaving the United States voluntarily. Shaoqiang and Qin Luo He regained custody of 8-year-old Anna Mae in July on orders from the state Supreme Court. The high court overturned a Memphis judge who cleared the way in 2004 for an American couple, Jerry and Louise Baker, to adopt the child over her parents' objections.

It appeared at first that Marcia Harrigan and her 7-year-old daughter had died accidentally -- victims of a pounding surf that swept them into the sea as they hiked near Hearst Castle nearly a week ago. Now, however, investigators with the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff's Department suspect darker causes for the death of the 43-year-old Hermosa Beach real estate agent and her daughter, Gillian.

A judge ruled Friday evening that 416 children seized by authorities during a raid on a polygamous sect's compound are at risk of sexual abuse if they stay with the group and must remain in state care. Texas District Judge Barbara L.

Attorney Donna Broom had no idea what to expect when she threw her bags in her green Chevy Tahoe on Wednesday and set off on an eight-hour drive from Houston to San Angelo. She would miss her sons' baseball games that evening to represent a child seized from a polygamist compound. She did not know whether her client was a boy or a girl, a teenager or a baby.

Life in the Shadows is one in a series of occasional articles. -- On Friday nights, Michael Campo throws his clothes and homework into his backpack and waits at his mom's Long Beach apartment for the phone to ring. When it does, 10-year-old Michael runs downstairs and jumps into his dad's car. Thus begins the weekly ritual familiar to millions of American children in split families who bounce back and forth between mother and father.

Pop star Britney Spears must increase her child support payments to ex-husband Kevin Federline by $5,000 a month as part of a custody settlement agreed to Friday. Under the terms of the deal approved by Superior Court Commissioner Scott Gordon, Spears will pay a total of $20,000 a month to the former backup dancer. She will also pay his $250,000 legal bill from lawyer Mark Vincent Kaplan.

Six girls removed from an evangelical compound as part of an investigation into the possible sexual abuse of minors will remain in state custody for the near future, a state official said Tuesday. The Arkansas Department of Human Services had until Tuesday night to ask the court for permission to keep the children or return them to the Tony Alamo Christian Ministries compound. State and federal agents raided the compound Saturday looking for evidence that children were being molested.

The Tennessee Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that a Chinese immigrant couple should be reunited with their daughter almost eight years after she was placed in foster care with an American family. In a case that has prompted fierce debate about ethnic and cultural bias in the U.S. judicial system, the state high court unanimously overturned a 2004 decision by a Memphis judge who removed the parental rights of Jack and Casey He.

CARRIE Ann Lucas is confined to a wheelchair. She breathes with the aid of a ventilator. She cannot hear and can see only at close range. She begins most days about 4 a.m. with newspapers and e-mails. About 5:30, she wakes her three disabled daughters. She and an aide dress the two who use wheelchairs. The girls cannot feed themselves, so Lucas and the aide plug feeding tubes into their bellies. She pours cereal for the one daughter who can eat on her own.