Single Parents

A single parent with two small children must earn $40,870 annually without government or private assistance to meet basic living expenses in Los Angeles County, according to a report released Monday by a statewide coalition of family public advocacy groups. The parent with a preschooler and a school-age child must earn a minimum of $19.65 an hour to make ends meet, according to Californians for Family Economic Self-Sufficiency.

Women of America, beware: George W. Bush wants your vote, and on Monday he went straight to the maternity ward to get it. Bush kicked off a six-day campaign swing here Monday to showcase how his proposals would affect families from birth to death. In what his staff described as the "metaphor of life" tour, Bush took aim straight at female voters, who favor his Democratic opponent Al Gore by more than a dozen percentage points.

Travis Butler, 9, terrified of being sent to foster care, tells no one. In Massachusetts, 7-year-old Lydia Hanson tells her teacher and gets scolded. In Oklahoma, 4-year-old Karina Pistorio does as she's been taught: Never go outside, never answer the phone. In Michigan, Ahmad Washington, with the magical faith of a 6-year-old, thinks his mother will wake up. Bobby Corbett Jr., only 3 and with the IQ of an infant, is trapped inside a trailer in the North Carolina backwoods.

Q: I notice you, like most personal finance planners, discourage people from filing for bankruptcy. Are there any situations where you think it's appropriate? I am 30 years old, earn about $45,000 a year and have more than $30,000 in credit card debt in addition to $9,000 in student loans. Some of the debt is the result of a gambling problem I had for a time, but the vast majority was accumulated this last year and a half as a result of a divorce and custody battle.

Debbie Vickers is a banquet waitress and a single mom. She's on course this year, but only if all goes well, to earn $22,000. She did not finish high school but has earned an advanced degree in the fine art of making do. Her diploma is etched in the lines of her face. She is 35. This is her first real job. Debbie Vickers and women like her are poster parents for a tax cut--$483 billion over five years--proposed by Texas Gov. George W.

Most 14-year-old girls were probably giggling about boys or attacking algebra problems when Becky McGraw gave birth to her son 10 years ago. But the single mother, now 24, was indistinguishable from her peers Saturday as she beamed with accomplishment in a cap and gown at Cal State Fullerton's 41st commencement ceremony. The day was more than a rite of passage into adulthood for McGraw, who has already seen her share of what the "real world" has to offer.

The worst moment for Lynn Airrington may have come when a judge appointed a Santa Monica lawyer as the legal advocate for her 6-year-old daughter, Heather. For two years, she had been fighting a lawsuit brought by her ex-husband's parents, who wanted to take Heather for one weekend a month. The lawyer, known as a "minor's counsel," said that her fee was $5,000, half of which must be paid by the struggling single mother. "I'm her mother. A fit parent. Why can't I speak for my daughter?"

It was a jolt: an unexpected announcement by one of the city's most acclaimed citizens. A bit of shock therapy for the body politic, perhaps. At the very least, it drove home an unpleasant fact of life: Even in boom times, there are growing numbers of homeless families in San Diego desperately searching each night for shelter. The jolt came last week when Catholic Msgr.

On the new CBS drama "Family Law," 40-ish attorney Lynn Holt (Kathleen Quinlan) juggles a sick son, a nanny with the flu, an important trial and a soon-to-be ex-husband too busy to get involved. Meanwhile, on NBC's sophomore sitcom "Jesse," the title character's young single mom (Christina Applegate) is so exhausted from running between nursing school and a job that she forgets to pick up her 11-year-old from school.

The House of Representatives, seeking to reverse decades of surging out-of-wedlock births, on Wednesday approved a $160-million effort aimed at boosting marriage among the nation's poor by teaching fathers who are absent from their children's homes to uphold their parental responsibilities. Urged to "make dads count," lawmakers swept aside objections from the National Organization for Women and civil libertarians and passed the measure on a broadly bipartisan vote of 328 to 93. Rep. Nancy L.