| Adding blessings
But mostly, the couple's lives revolve around caring for their kids. "People ask us 'How do you do it?,'" Carrie says. "Well, this is what we started out with as parents. To us, this is normal. We're just Mom and Dad and that's it. ... This is what we were meant to do." from China with love Early in their marriage, Rick Temple, a lawyer, and his wife, Sheila, discussed adopting "someday" after having their two biological sons. (Weston, now 21, is a student at Missouri State University, and Kyler, 18, is a senior at Kickapoo High School.) When the boys were 14 and 11, the couple contacted an international agency, intending to adopt a healthy infant or toddler from China. But while researching the process online, Sheila discovered a little girl whose heart defect had been surgically mended in China with help from a nonprofit U.S.
L.A. grand jury issues subpoenas in Web suicide case
Cyber-bullying has become an increasingly creepy reality, with the anonymity of video games, message boards and other online forums offering an outlet for cruel taunts.
Former federal prosecutor Brian C. Lysaght said such a prosecution would be "not as much of a reach as it might appear at first glance." In recent years, he said, Congress has passed a series of statutes that make criminal conduct involving the Internet federal offenses.
Still, it could be difficult to draw the line between constitutionally protected free speech and conduct that is illegal.
Laurie Levenson, a professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, said the idea of using a fraud charge to tackle the unusual case was "an interesting and novel approach."
"But I doubt it's really going to lead to the type of punishment people really want to see, which is this woman being held responsible for this girl's death," she said.
Three matchmakers try to help, but Mr. Wrong leads her to Mr. Wow
Lisa Ronis is sitting in a coffee shop with her French hound, Stella, leaving a sparkling message: "I've found the man for you. His name is John. He's hilarious, sexy, and I've given him your number. Let's chat!" For most people this would be a social call, but Ronis is hard at work. She is a professional matchmaker, a member of a booming nationwide industry. There are more than 1,000 private matchmakers in the United States today, according to Marketdata Enterprises, a research group in Florida. And there's even a school to train them: The Matchmaking Institute in New York City molds novice meddlers into professional love brokers. "It's all about efficiency," says Rachel Greenwald, a professional matchmaker in Colorado. "If, say, you're a busy executive, a third-party setup saves you the time it takes to slog through all the dating arenas — spending hours at a crowded party only to go home having met no one." Since it's one thing to hear about the wonders of matchmaking from those who sell the service and quite another to experience it yourself, I decided to test the viability of this venerable institution by asking three matchmakers to work their magic on me.
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