BowWow’s got a secret that he’s finally ready to share — he’s a dad! The 24-year-old kid rapper turned actor turned ‘Dancing with the Stars‘ favorite revealed on his website that he is the father to a little girl. “For the past three years [I’ve] been battling life,” BowWow wrote on his website (via Us magazine). “I felt as if I had no purpose to live (Thinking selfishly) until God gave me the …
Heidi Pelkola goes through her basket of gifts as the Operation Showers of Appreciation threw a baby shower Saturday, July 30, 2011, at the Eastside Cannery for more than 100 new and expecting mothers who have deployed partners or are active-duty servicewomen.
Heidi Pelkola and her husband are getting ready for one of the biggest days of their lives.
But when that big day — the birth of their child — comes, Pelkola, who is five months pregnant, will be without her husband. A member of the Air Force, he is scheduled to deploy a month before the baby is due.
“It’s very difficult,” Pelkola said. “You just try to do the best you can to get through it and stay positive for him.”
Fortunately, Pelkola and other expectant mothers whose spouses and partners are in the armed services, have their military family to fall back on.
On Saturday, more than 125 women got together at the Eastside Cannery for a baby shower sponsored by Operation Showers of Appreciation, a nonprofit group that has helped 3,700 military families since 2006.
The women enjoyed lunch, gifts, massages and the chance to have professional photographs taken to send to spouses and partners serving around the world.
The event’s coordinator, Jody Shervanick, said that the organization tries to make things easier on moms left to care for children on their own.
“So many of these moms are going to unfortunately give birth alone, with no one in the hospital room with them [and] we want to support them,” Shervanick said.
So for the last month, she has collected donations at the Cannery, Rampart and Eastside Cannery casinos. Each mother-to-be received a laundry basket filled with gifts and one large item, such as a crib or a car seat.
“We forget that the entire family serves,” Shervanick said. “These spouses are serving as well, even though they don’t get the uniforms, they sacrifice a lot.”
Congratulations go out to Lauryn Hill. The singer welcomed her sixth child into the world on Saturday, a healthy baby boy that was born with his umbilical cord wrapped around his neck.
But all is well now, a source tells BlackCelebKids dot com: “Mother and baby are fine… Everyone is happy.”
Hill already has five children with Rohan Marley, joking at a concert in April that she’s “the most fertile woman in America.” (Sorry, Octomom) The new arrival joins siblings Zion David-Nesta, Selah, Joshua, John and Sarah.
Kate Hudson is a mom for the second time! The actress gave birth to a baby boy Saturday night, Us Weekly confirms. The “health baby boy,” whose name has not yet been released, was born in Los Angeles to Hudson and Muse rocker Matthew Bellamy. The new addition joins big brother, Ryder, 7, whose dad is Hudson’s ex-husband Chris Robinson. Hudson, who announced her engagement to Bellamy in …
There’s a new Baby Spice in the world! David Beckham and wife Victoria welcomed a baby girl to their brood Sunday morning, PEOPLE reports. The baby girl, whose name has not been revealed, was born at 7:55 a.m. this morning at Cedars-Sinai, weighing in at 7 lbs., 10 oz. No other details have been released, but one thing’s for sure: this little girl has some excited big brothers. …
CHICAGO (AP) — Illinois Rep. Joe Walsh, the tea party-backed Republican who squeaked into office last year by vowing to bring fiscal responsibility to Washington and who has been one of President Barack Obama’s most outspoken critics during the standoff over the debt ceiling, is being sued for more than $100,000 in unpaid child support, a newspaper reported.
The freshman congressman’s ex-wife, Laura Walsh, filed the claim against him in December as part of their divorce case, saying he owed $117,437 to her and their three children, the Chicago Sun-Timesreported in a story published Wednesday. She contends that Walsh loaned his own campaign $35,000 and took international vacations but said he couldn’t afford child support payments because he was between jobs or out of work.
“Joe personally loaned his campaign $35,000, which, given that he failed to make any child support payments to Laura because he `had no money’ is surprising,” Laura Walsh’s attorneys wrote in the motion. “Joe has paid himself back at least $14,200 for the loans he gave himself.”
Walsh, in a prepared statement, characterized that the story as a political “hit piece,” and suggested it was no accident that the paper would run the story about a marriage that ended eight years ago and a court case filed nearly eight months ago, just as lawmakers are in the middle of contentious debate over the debt ceiling.
“I am the tip of the spear in this current debate, and I will be attacked,” he wrote in a statement issued Thursday morning.
Walsh, whose campaign was marked by allegations of financial mismanagement, said he thought he and his ex-wife were coming to an agreement on the money owed, according to a February court filing. And in the statement, he said he has been “trying to resolve this issue since January in a court of law …”
The statement does not include any mention of the report that he owed $117,437, saying only that he has “always given everything I have to meet my financial obligations to my children…”
Nor does Walsh, whose website includes a video in which he accuses Obama of spending money “like a drunken sailor for three years,” address allegations made by his ex-wife that at the time Walsh was not keeping up with his child support he took two international vacations with his girlfriend.
Walsh’s attorney, R. Steven Polachek, denied that the congressman owed $117,437 in back child support and interest and said the amount was much less.
“I dispute that he owes the child support that she’s claiming or anywhere near that amount,” Polachek told the paper. “Joe Walsh hasn’t been a big-time wage-earner politician until recently – he’s had no more problems with child support than any other average guy.”
Joe and Laura Walsh were married for 15 years when she filed for divorce in 2002. He has since remarried.
Walsh, 49, unexpectedly captured his northeastern Illinois district last year by a slim margin, campaigning on a promise to reign in government spending and promoting his conservative values, among other things. He has recently gained notoriety for speaking out against the president and accusing him of lying about the impact of not raising the national debt ceiling.
“President Obama, quit lying,” he said in a video posted online this month. In it he also asks Obama, “Have you no shame, sir?”
Walsh said there is “plenty of money” to pay debt and cover Social Security even if the limit isn’t raised, and that Obama won’t get congressional approval to increase the $14.3 trillion debt limit unless the Democratic president backs a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution, which Obama opposes. Obama says the country will default if Congress doesn’t raise the ceiling by Aug. 2.
The congressman’s alleged financial problems made headlines while he was campaigning last year, when former campaign field director Richard Cape claimed he would “spend, spend, spend uncontrollably.” His campaign manager quit and sued for $20,000 in nonpayment, and two other staffers who quit accused him of not properly disclosing a 2008 home foreclosure and traffic citations to the public, taking their grievances public. Walsh also bounced checks, including one to a Republican fundraiser.
A Walsh spokesman at the time called it a smear campaign by disgruntled workers and said the congressman had learned from his financial struggles, including the foreclosure.
The Chicago City Council approved, without debate, a more strict citywide curfew for children 12 years of age or younger Thursday.
Unsupervised minors aged 12 and younger will now need to be in their homes by 8:30 p.m. on weekdays and by 9 p.m. on the weekends in order to avoid a fine of up to $500 or community service. Three offenses within a one-year period will be subjected to a $1,500 fine in addition to community service, according to a statement from Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who, along with Chicago Police Department Superintendent Garry McCarthy, was a strong proponent of the ordinance.
“I advocated for curfew laws while serving President Clinton because I believe the safest place for a child is at home,” Emanuel said. “I commend the aldermen for getting this ordinance passed. This is another tool that will help fight crime and help children from becoming victims of crime.”
Minors aged 12 to 16 will be required to continue to adhere to the existing curfew of being indoors by 10 p.m. on weekdays and by 11 p.m. on weekends, according to the statement.
Alderman Toni Foulkes (15th) was among a group of three aldermen who proposed the changes to the city’s curfew law earlier this month. Foulkes told the Chicago Defender that the existing law had given kids “too much leeway.”
“A 5-year-old has the same ordinance as a 17-year-old,” Foulkes told the Defender. “It’s basically just to protect those children.”
The city points to studies indicating that other cities — like San Antonio, Tex., and Detroit, Mich. — who instituted similarly strengthened curfew laws saw a reduction in both youth violence and arrests.
It should be pointed out that none of those cities, however, are as large and were likely not anywhere near as budget-strained or short on police manpower at the time they were evaluated — 1997 in the case of the San Antonio study — as Chicago is today. Other studies, such as one of California crime data in 1998, have shown that stricter curfews did not lead to a reduction in youth-involved crime.
Fraternal Order of Police President Mike Shields seemed to express a fair degree of skepticism regarding whether the ordinance would have much of an impact beyond symbolism, the Chicago Sun-Times reports.
“It’s not going to be enforceable,” Shields told the Sun-Times. “If we can’t enforce laws to curb street violence because of manpower issues, how can we enforce [and even stricter] curfew law?”
Alderman Anthony Beale (9th Ward), former Police Committee Chairman, also was previously not a fan of the ordinance, though he joined his colleagues in approving it Thursday, which he said could “penalize our children for enjoying the summer months,” according to the Sun-Times.
The new curfew law goes into effect Sept. 18.
A Chicago man was arrested early Thursday after calling police to report that three men had entered his apartment, located just west of DePaul University‘s Lincoln Park campus, and robbed him of two pounds of marijuana, in addition to his laptop.
According to the Chicago Sun-Times, Max Fleck, 20, of the 1500 block of West Fullerton Avenue,contacted police around 12:40 a.m. to report that he and a 19-year-old male companion had been robbed. Fleck was reportedly hit in the face while his companion was struck in the head with a bottle by the individuals who robbed them.
When police arrived, they found narcotics in his apartment and arrested him on four separate charges — two felony counts of possession of a controlled substance and two counts of possession of cannabis, the Sun-Times reported.
According to the Chicago Tribune, Fleck and his friend had invited one of the three men who made off with the weed and a laptop into their apartment earlier in the evening. Fleck reportedly declined medical attention after paramedics arrived and was due in bond court later Thursday.
Jordan Cardella wanted to win back his girlfriend. So, to gain her sympathy, he hatched a plan to have a friend shoot him in the back.
Surprise, surprise … his plan backfired.
In what Wisconsin prosecutors called “the most phenomenally stupid” case they had ever seen, two Wisconsin men pleaded guilty to felony weapons charges, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports.
According to the complaint, last January Cardella asked his friend Anthony Woodall to “shoot him in the back three times,” but Woodall refused. Instead, he referred Cardella to Michael Wezykl, who agreed to carry out the bizarre hit in exchange for money or pills.
Cardella would have shot himself, but being a convicted felon, he didn’t want to touch a gun, according to CBS.
After retrieving the firearm from Wezyk’s home, the trio made their way to a nearby park. The complaint says that, “Wezyk then shot Cardella in the arm, and Cardella immediately slumped over. He asked to be shot again, but Wezyk stated, ‘I’m done.'”
So Cardella never did receive the three wounds he thought would be necessary to find pity from his former girlfriend.
“Sorry to bring something so stupid into your courtroom,” Wezyk later told Circuit Judge Rebecca Dallet, according to the Journal Sentinel.
Wezyk, 24, and Woodall, 20, must each serve two years probation and 100 hours of community service.
The good news for Cardella is that the charges against him were dropped, so he’ll only have to live with a shameful scar story.
The bad news? His ex never visited him.
Police in Virginia are trying to track down a man believed to have slashed at least five women on the butt.
A few days ago, an 18-year-old woman was shopping at Forever 21 in Fairfax, Virginia when she felt a sharp pain on her rear end, report from NBC Washington. She told police she thought at first that she had been struck with a clothes hanger. Only after further inspection did she realize she had been cut through her shorts with a box cutter or razor.
According to the victims, the attack usually occurs after a distraction, such as clothes falling off a rack. Afterward, the attacker calmly walks away without drawing attention to himself.
Lucy Caldwell of the Fairfax County Police told the station that one reason for the perpetrator’s success could be because of the rarity of the crime.
“Because it’s such an unusual thing, no one would ever expect something like that to occur,” she said. “They may be walking along and put their hand to their backside and feel it.”
Gregg McCrary, a former FBI profiler, told the News & Messenger that although the women are not seriously harmed, the violence could escalate if he is not caught.
“The dangerous thing here is he’s actually hurting women,” he told the publication. “He’s already crossed that threshold into physical contact. But this is a good news-bad news situation. He’ll just keep doing this until he’s caught and by keeping on doing this, he’ll caught.”
NBC Washington gave a detailed description of the suspect:
“According to Fairfax police, the suspect is desribed as Hispanic, in his late 20’s, approximately 5’6” in height, and heavy-set.”
WATCH the video from NBC Washington:
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