Visitation Rights

Kevin Federline agreed to give ex-wife Britney Spears visitation rights with their two young sons, his lawyer said Friday. Federline attorney Mark Vincent Kaplan said in a statement that the former couple have agreed to a modification of a court order that had stripped Spears of her visitation rights. The statement did not provide more details. A court commissioner gave Kevin Federline sole physical and legal custody of their two little boys and suspended the pop star's visitation rights on Jan. 4. Spears has not been allowed to see sons Jayden James, 1, and Sean Preston, 2, since an incident at her home that led to the first of her two hospitalizations in a psychiatric facility this year.

Mitt Romney, who fought the legalization of same-sex marriage when he was governor of Massachusetts , said Wednesday that his stand on that “tender and sensitive topic” had not changed. “I have the same view that I've had since running for office,” the presumptive Republican nominee for president told reporters at a campaign stop in Oklahoma City. Romney spoke hours after President Obama announced his support for same-sex marriage, a move that could have a significant influence on some voters in Virginia, Iowa and other presidential battleground states in November.

Abbie Dorn sat in her high-backed wheelchair, a white board resting across her lap, head tilted a little to the left. Arrayed on the board in front of the silent 34-year-old on this Thursday afternoon in early December were small sheets of paper, each printed with a single word. Happy. Sad. Scared. Anxious. Excited. "Abbie," prompted speech-language pathologist Sarah Gerace, "how do you feel about your children coming to visit?" The motionless woman cast her eyes to the word "happy.

Abbie Dorn sat in her high-backed wheelchair, a white board resting across her lap, head tilted a little to the left. Arrayed on the board in front of the silent 34-year-old on this Thursday afternoon in early December were small sheets of paper, each printed with a single word. Happy. Sad. Scared. Anxious. Excited. "Abbie," prompted speech-language pathologist Sarah Gerace, "how do you feel about your children coming to visit?" The motionless woman cast her eyes to the word "happy.

Spring in the Mojave Desert begins low on the desert floor with brilliant yellow tidy tips and blue and white lupine blooms pushing up along Route 14 between Lancaster and the foothills of Tehachapi. Beautiful scenery, yes; and, under different circumstances, a very pleasant drive. But Paul and Wendy--formerly Mr. and Mrs.--Burgess have had quite enough of this ride. Or at least what it symbolizes.

A potentially precedent-setting palimony suit filed against actor-director Clint Eastwood by his former longtime live-in girlfriend, Sondra Locke, was heard behind closed doors Wednesday. The pair hired a private judge to hear the case and attorneys refused to disclose the identity of the judge or the location of the proceeding. All legal documents in the case have been ordered sealed. In her lawsuit filed April 26, Locke claimed that Eastwood locked her out of their Bel-Air mansion, placed her belongings in storage and refused to allow her visitation rights with her pet parrot.

President Obama late Thursday ordered most hospitals across the country to grant the same visitation rights to gay and lesbian partners as they do to heterosexual married couples. In a memo to his Health and Human Services agency, Obama ordered the secretary to make sure all hospitals getting Medicare and Medicaid money are honoring all patients' advance directives, including those designating who gets family visitation privileges. The order also requires that documents granting power of attorney and healthcare proxies be honored, regardless of sexual orientation.

President Obama late Thursday ordered most hospitals in the country to grant the same visitation rights to gay and lesbian partners that they do to married heterosexual couples. In a memo to his Health and Human Services agency, Obama ordered the secretary to ensure that all hospitals getting Medicare and Medicaid money honor all patients' advance directives, including those designating who gets family visitation privileges. The order also requires that documents granting power of attorney and healthcare proxies be honored, regardless of sexual orientation.

A woman whose daughter was killed in a car wreck isn't entitled to visitation rights with her grandchild, Florida's Supreme Court ruled. The decision was the court's fifth since 1996 striking down laws allowing grandparents to seek court-ordered visitation. In different cases, the court has ruled that various provisions violate parents' rights to raise their children without interference from grandparents or the state.

A Mexican immigrant mother who was once told to learn English or risk losing her child was granted temporary visitation rights Tuesday. Wilson County Circuit Court Judge Clara Byrd approved a settlement giving custody of Felipa Barrera's daughter Linda, 11, to the child's father but allowed the mother visitation. The judge will review the case in October to see if the child is doing well at her father's home, where she is set to move July 24. Both parents live in Lebanon.

'I've been willing to take big cuts in what I used to earn and it hasn't helped.' Name: Byron Gamble Age: 31 Education: Some college City: Los Angeles Former occupation: FedEx delivery driver Unemployed since: October 2009 Former salary: $50,000 a year Current income: $45 to $75 per game as a referee for youth football games Family: Married, four children How life's changed: Unable to afford housing, his...

A Los Angeles County Superior Court judge ruled Tuesday that the parents of a woman who communicates largely by blinking have the legal right to fight on her behalf so that she can see her 3-year-old triplets. Abbie Dorn 34, was left unable to move or speak because of a series of medical mishaps while giving birth to the children at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in 2006. She now lives in South Carolina with her parents. Abbie and her husband, Dan, eventually divorced in a proceeding that left decisions over custody, visitation, property and child support until later.

President Obama late Thursday ordered most hospitals in the country to grant the same visitation rights to gay and lesbian partners that they do to married heterosexual couples. In a memo to his Health and Human Services agency, Obama ordered the secretary to ensure that all hospitals getting Medicare and Medicaid money honor all patients' advance directives, including those designating who gets family visitation privileges. The order also requires that documents granting power of attorney and healthcare proxies be honored, regardless of sexual orientation.

President Obama late Thursday ordered most hospitals across the country to grant the same visitation rights to gay and lesbian partners as they do to heterosexual married couples. In a memo to his Health and Human Services agency, Obama ordered the secretary to make sure all hospitals getting Medicare and Medicaid money are honoring all patients' advance directives, including those designating who gets family visitation privileges. The order also requires that documents granting power of attorney and healthcare proxies be honored, regardless of sexual orientation.

Abbie Dorn lies in a hospital bed in her parents' home on the South Carolina coast. A halo of dark curls frames her pale face. The pump for her feeding tube clicks softly in the quiet room. Yaakov Cohen, her older brother, settles into a folding chair by her side and begins to read. The subject is accounting. Interest payable. Bonds issued at a discount. Five-year amortization schedules. Abbie begins to cry. Yaakov smooths her forehead, "I know this is a little boring, Abs." She calms.

The silence of their home in Brea was crushing after their son's death. Gilbert and Irene Reyes moved about inertly, hearing only echoes. They took their turns in Alex's room. They buried their noses in his shirts, looked through his checkbook, clasped the "Toy Story" doll he'd bought for his baby son, Drew. Their only fragment of joy came on weekends, when they picked up Drew from his mother. The 21-month-old teetered around their living room on his bowlegs, shrieking in amusement, brimming with things to say and no way to say them.

It looked to be a friendly forum. Six of the nine Supreme Court justices are grandparents, and another, Clarence Thomas, was raised by his grandparents in Georgia. Yet the concept of "grandparents' rights" seemed to have little or no support Wednesday when the issue came before the high court for the first time.

Michael Jackson's mother will retain custody of his children, and the biological mother of the two elder children will visit and maintain her legal parental rights under an agreement reached by both sides, lawyers said Thursday. Katherine Jackson, 79, the late pop icon's mother, and Deborah Rowe, 50, who bore Jackson's two older children, also agreed to mutually hire a child psychologist to advise them on how, when and where Rowe's visits should take place, lawyers for Jackson and Rowe said.