Grandparents

Khadijah Williams stepped into chemistry class and instantly tuned out the commotion. She walked past students laughing, gossiping, napping and combing one another's hair. Past a cellphone blaring rap songs. And past a substitute teacher sitting in a near-daze. Quietly, the 18-year-old settled into an empty table, flipped open her physics book and focused. Nothing mattered now except homework. "No wonder you're going to Harvard," a girl teased her. Around here, Khadijah is known as "Harvard girl," the "smart girl" and the girl with the contagious smile who landed at Jefferson High School only 18 months ago. What students don't know is that she is also a homeless girl.

Two families, both loving and stable, are vying to adopt a 4-year-old girl with strawberry blond hair and large blue eyes. One is certain to be broken-hearted. The tug of war began in May 2011, when Los Angeles County child protection authorities took the girl away from her drug-addicted mother and placed her in a foster home. Five weeks later, her paternal grandparents found out and moved to get her back. But the Los Angeles Department of Children and Family Services sat on the couple's paperwork for nearly a year, according to a claim they have filed against the county.

A 13-year-old boy who reportedly became enraged after his grandparents called his mother a “whore” shot and killed the couple in their home in Pennsylvania and was being held without bond Tuesday on murder charges, police said. The shooting occurred Sunday afternoon in Sandycreek Township, a town about 70 miles north of Pittsburgh, and left George Fross, 69, and his wife Dorothy Fross, 67, dead. Police found the bodies Monday night after relatives became concerned they could not reach the couple and phoned police, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported.

Jenna Bush Hager and her husband Henry have made George W. Bush and his wife, Laura, grandparents. "Laura and I are thrilled to announce the birth of our grandchild, Margaret Laura 'Mila' Hager," the former president announced Sunday on Facebook . Little Mila, who was named after her grandmothers, was born at 8:43 p.m. Saturday in New York City, he said. She was 6 pounds, 15 ounces and a 19¼ inches long, "Today" said after receiving an email from the new dad saying both of his girls were "healthy and well.

There are tattoos - like everywhere but on Betty White , I think - and then there are tattoos . Matt Kemp already had his share, but now he has one that you're not going to find at your local ink shop. Kemp has had a tattoo added of grandparents Doris and Vernon Mukes that takes up his entire left pectoral. The tribute is not only huge, but artistically, pretty impressive. It's not known how Doris feels about the new tat. She complained to Sports Illustrated in 2011 that she was less than thrilled with Kemp's skin artwork.

A man from Washington state is wanted for killing his grandparents sometime over the weekend after coming home from prison and may be looking for gun shows to get a weapon, officials said. The King County Sheriff's Office is looking for Michael "Chad" Boysen, 26, who had just served a nine-month sentence for a burglary conviction. Local media identified the victims as Robert and Norma Taylor, both in their 80s. Their car, a red Chrysler, was missing after their bodies were discovered at their Renton home on Saturday, and Boysen, who had been released from prison on Friday, was identified as the prime suspect.

They are the unsung heroes for countless high school athletes. They show up to games day or night. They offer unconditional support in good and bad times. When mom or dad is angry, they are the ones called upon to be arbitrators of common sense. Yes, grandparents make invaluable contributions, so let me tell the story of shotputter Naomi Grant of Fullerton Troy. When Grant was 5 months old, her mother, Vida Owens, died after suffering an infection. Her grandparents, David and Claudette Owens, took over as parents.

The Iowa Supreme Court on Wednesday struck down a state law guaranteeing visitation rights to grandparents as an unconstitutional intrusion on parents' rights. The court said it's unconstitutional for judges to question a parent's decisions unless the child is in danger. The ruling prevents the state from intervening in the case of Arnie and Lucille Lamberts, who wanted visitation with their granddaughter.

Next to the love of their parents, the grandparent-grandchild bond is the most emotionally powerful relationship children have, experts say in a recent Mayo Clinic Health Letter. Three-quarters of all Americans over 65 are grandparents, and it's projected that half of today's grandparents will someday be great-grandparents. There is little to guide grandparents on how to create positive relationships with their grandchildren, experts note. Even so, most do a great job.

My mother married my father, a violent and abusive man, when she was 17 — a week after she graduated from high school. We fled from him when I was 5, showing up at my grandparents' house during a thunderstorm. The memory of that night comes to me in flashes. I remember feeling scared and confused. We stood in their living room right by the front door, and I didn't realize that I was trembling until my grandmother wrapped her steady arms around me. In the months that followed, while my mother went to vocational school to learn a trade to support us, my grandparents stepped up to the plate.

Maurice R. Greenberg, who built American International Group Inc. into the world's largest insurer before his ouster in 2005, has re-emerged as one of the prime forces behind Grandparents.com, a social networking site for seniors that aims to sell them insurance. Greenberg, 87, is personally directing the website's efforts to establish deals with insurers to offer health, auto, home and life coverage, Grandparents said in a statement. The New York company competes with services offered by the nonprofit AARP.

Police have surrounded a hotel on the Oregon coast where a man accused of killing his grandparents is holed up.  Michael Boysen, 26, of Washington state is suspected of killing Robert and Norma Taylor, both in their 80s, after he got out of prison for burglary. Officials believe he killed the Taylors at their home and fled with their car.  The WestShore Oceanfront Suites overlooks the Pacific Ocean in sleepy Lincoln City, Ore. A property manager at the hotel saw Boysen's face on a TV broadcast about the killings and realized the man was staying at the hotel -- and under his own name.

A man from Washington state is wanted for killing his grandparents sometime over the weekend after coming home from prison and may be looking for gun shows to get a weapon, officials said. The King County Sheriff's Office is looking for Michael "Chad" Boysen, 26, who had just served a nine-month sentence for a burglary conviction. Local media identified the victims as Robert and Norma Taylor, both in their 80s. Their car, a red Chrysler, was missing after their bodies were discovered at their Renton home on Saturday, and Boysen, who had been released from prison on Friday, was identified as the prime suspect.

There are tattoos - like everywhere but on Betty White , I think - and then there are tattoos . Matt Kemp already had his share, but now he has one that you're not going to find at your local ink shop. Kemp has had a tattoo added of grandparents Doris and Vernon Mukes that takes up his entire left pectoral. The tribute is not only huge, but artistically, pretty impressive. It's not known how Doris feels about the new tat. She complained to Sports Illustrated in 2011 that she was less than thrilled with Kemp's skin artwork.

In 1994, a boy vanished from LaGrange County, Ind., allegedly whisked away by his paternal grandparents, who worried where a court might place their grandson. Authorities at the time issued arrest warrants for the grandparents, and descriptions of 5-year-old Richard Wayne Landers Jr. landed in missing-children databases. Charges were filed. But in 2008, Indiana authorities dropped the charges against Landers' grandparents after failing to locate them or the now-grown boy. Last fall, Landers reappeared -- alive, married and living in rural Browerville, Minn.

Each day at 5 a.m., Denise Peace rises and begins the task of waking and feeding five grandchildren, ages 2 to 17, and shepherding them out the door of her cramped but miraculously neat apartment in Brooklyn. The 5-year-old needs to be on his school bus by 6:26. The eldest has to catch a 7 a.m. train. The 4-year-old must be walked to school in time for the 8:10 bell. The 2-year-old plays while Peace prepares the 3-year-old for day care. In the early afternoon, she reverses the drill, fetching children from bus stops and schools and getting them home for dinner, baths and bed. Peace collapses about 9 p.m. "Then I just start all over again," the 56-year-old said of the moment when her alarm sounds the next morning.

In 1994, a boy vanished from LaGrange County, Ind., allegedly whisked away by his paternal grandparents, who worried where a court might place their grandson. Authorities at the time issued arrest warrants for the grandparents, and descriptions of 5-year-old Richard Wayne Landers Jr. landed in missing-children databases. Charges were filed. But in 2008, Indiana authorities dropped the charges against Landers' grandparents after failing to locate them or the now-grown boy. Last fall, Landers reappeared -- alive, married and living in rural Browerville, Minn.

I am, once again, appalled to read another article about grandparents rearing grandchildren. Not only have these grandparents raised one generation of dysfunctional children, but they are being permitted to raise yet another. Perhaps these grandparents should take a cold, hard look at the fact they failed miserably as parents. It is not a result of the "epidemic of the drug culture" but rather the grandparents' inability to raise self-respecting, independent, responsible children.

Here is a roundup of alleged cons, frauds and schemes to watch out for. Grandparent scam -- This scheme has been highlighted before in this space, but it's so common it's worth sounding the alarm again. There have been numerous reports about bad people trying to trick older Americans into giving them money by calling and pretending to be relatives, often grandchildren, who are in desperate need of money because of a fabricated emergency. In some cases, it can be for bail or to repair a car. Consumer advocates caution that anyone who receives such a call should ask questions that an imposter would not be able to answer correctly -- the date of their mother's birthday or the city they were born in, for instance.

There's something shambling and unassuming about "The Flat," a home-movie quality to much of its footage. But it's not just any home that's being examined, and that makes all the difference. Israel's top-grossing documentary of last year as well as the winner of that country's best documentary award, "The Flat" succeeds by being wide-ranging as well as particular. It tells an out-of-the-ordinary personal story and examines broad historical issues of societal memory and selective amnesia, of what is hidden between generations and what is revealed.