Family Interest

This week, we take a look at something spooky for Halloween, something cool to help kids appreciate the nation's history during this election season and something fun and entertaining for the little guys. Plus a couple of summer favorites in the theater move to DVD. ...

Carol and Jonathan Green watched their neighbors lose their home. Carol, a stay-at-home mom, has gone back to work. Jonathan, a teacher, is going to school at night so he can get a second job as a part-time professor teaching students of education. ...

Middle-income families will spend 4,060 on feeding, housing and schooling a baby born in 2007 until his or her 18th birthday, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture – a number that doesn't include designer clothes and the latest gizmos. ...

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I got an e-mail recently and, probably because it made me feel guilty, I put it aside. The subject? Well, it was right there in the subject line of the message: 81% of Couples Fight About Household Junk. Of course, what my husband, Randy, thinks is junk isn't necessarily what I think is junk. ...

Here are two new children's books that could be Halloween treats: “Queen of Halloween” (HarperCollins, .99, ages 4 to 8), written and illustrated by Mary Engelbreit. ...

Rick Kahler, a financial planner who links psychology with financial planning, offers the following suggestions for parents to help kids get through mom and dad's tough economic times without creating unreasonable fears. ...

Our financial adviser, “Wally,” who has managed our finances for a number of years, sent us a letter asking us to donate to a charity he is starting. ...

Credit counselors and therapists are urging families to seek the help they need to deal with the current financial crisis. ...

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Last week we asked for your views of the controversial 0 billion bailout of troubled financial institutions. You definitely think the federal government should stay out of private enterprise. ...

I am just in eighth grade and don't pay a lot of attention to the stock market and the economy, but my parents sure do. My father is a stockbroker and my mother is a teacher. While they never talked about money often before, recently it seems that is all they discuss. ...

The method is far from scientific, but Halloween stores are predicting the winner in the presidential election, and there's no exit polling needed – only political mask sales. ...

20: That's the percentage of residents in California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas who spoke Spanish at home in 2007, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. ...

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The U.N. children's agency says it has failed to reach millions of the world's neediest boys and girls in slums and remote countryside and is shifting to a strategy of getting critical health care services to the poorest of the poor.

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Police have accused a high school teacher of holding teenagers at gunpoint after he found them ghost-hunting in a Tennessee graveyard.

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The Cat in the Hat is back - again - with his red bow tie and rave-ready stripey soft topper.

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A boy has found a pipe bomb lying in his primary school playground in Northern Ireland.

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Cheryl Cole has revealed she is moving on from her divorce from footballer husband Ashley, and is grateful they had not started a family before they split.

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Forty percent of New York schoolchildren are either overweight or obese. That's about a quarter of a million children according to a study by the city's Departments of Health and Education.

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Joe Jackson speaks with the media in front of the Jackson compound on June 29, 2009 in Encino, California.

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Joseph Nee, the son of a Boston police officer and 18 at the time of the crime, was convicted of conspiracy to commit murder and served nine months in prison.

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Most voters believe that the Government is right to raise taxes and cut spending to bring down Britain's state deficit, according to a new survey.

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Safety advocates are urging Congress and regulators to force carmakers to install warning systems that would prevent distracted parents from leaving children in cars, preventing heatstroke deaths.

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As children head back to school, parents can help make sure their little ones stay healthy and happy all year, an expert suggests.

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A state appeals court has upheld a temporary ban on a Shasta County school district's policy of drug testing students in extracurricular activities.

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A special basketball tournament in Minneapolis is helping Somali youth and young adults to get connected - and get involved in something positive.

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A bacteria outbreak in Kanawha County is causing concern in the community. Officials at the Kanawha-Charleston Health Department are taking precautions after four cases of Shigella, an intestinal infection, are confirmed.

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"She'll need them," her mother says. "I don't think so," her dad counters. Ariana, meanwhile, walks dreamily through the store, offering no opinion on this particular decision.

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