Families

Past Todd's Body Shop and a crab shack, across from a field of wheat on Route 291, hangs a modest sign for Frank B. Rhodes Jr., furniture maker since 1983. Enter the metal warehouse he uses for his office, showroom and woodworking shop, and there's nothing to let visitors know that the Eastern Shore 50-year-old is one of the few remaining heirs of Walter P. Chrysler, the founder of the auto company that is now struggling to survive.

In the elite circles of private schools in Washington, D.C., globe-trotting vacations are common, but it is hard to imagine that many schoolmates of Malia and Sasha Obama will be able to rival their summer adventures. Although the White House zealously guards many of the details of the Obamas' private family time, the public caught a glimpse Sunday of the girls' sightseeing tour of the Grand Canyon, and a day earlier, of their visit to Yellowstone National Park. Earlier this summer, photographers captured visits by the first daughters to the Eiffel Tower and the Pompidou Center in Paris, a slave dungeon in Ghana, and the Kremlin in Moscow.

To mark the 20th anniversary of the Fair Housing Amendments Act, here are some reminders for families with kids: Families may not be denied housing because they have a child. Families may not be restricted to one area of a building or complex, such as on lower floors. Families may not be evicted because they have a child. Rules cannot unfairly target children, such as forbidding them from a common area that adults use. Ads may not state that children are not allowed, except for seniors-only housing.

She was acting by the time she was 3 years old. Was there ever a question that Drew Barrymore wouldn't go into the family business? Actually, it's more like a dynasty. Members of her family were performers before the American Revolutionary War. Her Oscar-winning great-aunt was Ethel Barrymore. Academy Award-winning Lionel Barrymore was her great-uncle. Her grandfather was none other than movie and stage great John Barrymore -- a.k.a. the Great Profile.

Rocking an infant nephew in her arms, Mary Poloai stood outside the main entrance of the imposing Samoan Congregational Christian Church in Carson on Wednesday staring up at the sky and fighting back tears. "I'm so sad that I can't think straight," said Poloai, 58, one of more than 100 people who gathered at a special prayer service for victims of the earthquake and tsunami that devastated Samoa and American Samoa early Tuesday. "They still haven't found my mother's sisters," she said.

A Lodi woman pleaded not guilty Friday to charges that she assisted in the suicide of her brother, a blues guitarist who was well-known in the Central Valley. Jimmy Hartley, 45, had been crippled by a series of strokes and other health problems. In constant pain, he had pleaded with his sister for help in killing himself for nearly a year, according to Randy Thomas, June Hartley's attorney.

The man believed to be responsible for killing his wife, five children and himself in Wilmington had been fired from his hospital job along with his wife for allegedly forging a supervisor's signature on a child-care application, according to Kaiser Permanente officials.

Although Erla Feinberg's final act might have disappointed most of her grandchildren, it carried out her late husband's dying wish in a way that held up in court. In a unanimous decision, the Illinois Supreme Court this week ruled that Max Feinberg and his wife could legally disinherit any grandchildren who married outside the Jewish faith as long as the method of doing so did not encourage divorce. "Although those plans might be offensive to individual family members or to outside observers, Max and Erla were free to distribute their bounty as they saw fit and to favor grandchildren of whose life choices they approved," Justice Rita Garman wrote.

A woman stabbed her two young daughters, critically wounding one, before trying to kill herself Wednesday morning while staying at a relative's Westminster home, police said. Thuy Le, 38, and her 3- and 5-year-old daughters were spending the night at her cousin's quaint, one-story home on Starsia Street, police said. Le and the girls slept on a spare mattress in the living room, said her cousin, Toan Pham, 51. Shortly before 6:30 a.m. Wednesday, Pham said he was awoken by children screaming.

Clearing the way to move forward with its two planned films of "The Hobbit," Warner Bros. resolved a nasty legal battle with the heirs of J.R.R. Tolkien over profit from the "Lord of the Rings" films. Last year, two of Tolkien's children, Christopher, 84, and Priscilla, 80, sued New Line, now a unit of Warner Bros., for an estimated $150 million that they claimed was owed from the three "Lord of the Rings" movies, which amassed $2.96 billion at the worldwide box office and at least $3 billion in DVD and other ancillary sales, according to the lawsuit.