Mother, son fight for ‘right’ to incestuous relationship
CLOVIS, N.M. (BP) -- A mother and adult son charged with incest in New Mexico are going public with their relationship, saying they are willing to go to jail to fight for the "right" to be together. The mother, Monica Mares, 36, and her son, Caleb Peterson, 19, met again last year after nearly 18 years apart. Another family adopted Peterson soon after Mares gave birth to him. Their relationship soon turned romantic, according to the couple, and Peterson started living with Mares and her two youngest children, ages 5 and 6, in Clovis, N.M.
International adoptions continue to decline
ASHEVILLE, N.C. (BP) -- The number of children adopted internationally by Americans fell 12 percent last year to the lowest number since 1981, according to new U.S. State Department figures. Americans adopted 5,648 children during fiscal year 2015, down from an all-time high of 22,884 in 2004. Since 2004, intercountry adoptions to the United States have fallen every year.
Utah could declare porn a health crisis
ASHEVILLE, N.C. (BP) -- A resolution declaring pornography a public health crisis landed on Utah Gov. Gary Herbert's desk in mid-March after unanimously passing the state House and Senate. The bill, Senate Concurrent Resolution 9 (SCR9), marks the first time a state has called pornography a "public health crisis," language more often used for smoking, drunk driving, and epidemics like Ebola. Although the non-binding resolution does not change law, experts ay the bill is part of a concerted effort to start framing the issue as not merely a "moral" ...
Chicago school to allow boy in girls’ locker room
CHICAGO (BP) -- A suburban Chicago school district will allow a transgender student access to the girl's locker room, under a contentious agreement reached Dec. 7 during an emergency school board meeting. The decision to comply with government demands for inclusivity comes after months of back and forth between school officials and the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights. The OCR found the district violated federal sexual anti-discrimination laws with its policy restricting a biologically male transgender student's access to female locker ...
‘Porn Free WiFi’ campaign keeps eye on McDonald’s, Starbucks
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (BP) -- Despite nearly 25,000 supporters, a public campaign asking McDonald's and Starbucks to install anti-pornography filters on their in-store free WiFi networks has so far been unsuccessful. The "Porn Free WiFi" campaign, organized by the Internet safety group Enough is Enough (EIE), is urging the fast-food and coffee giants to implement Internet filters in their U.S. stores to stop customers from accessing or distributing child pornography and graphic adult pornography via their free Internet connections.
