MUM Becky Bouzguanda feeds her family-of-four pasta and frozen vegetables every day after a seven-week wait for Universal Credit means she has just £12.50 a week - or £1.80 a day - to buy food. The 32-year-old mum-of-two from Croydon, South London, used to earn £80-a-week working eight hours as a waitress, but has been unable to return after having her second child because she can’t afford to pay for childcare upfront. Under Universal Credit rules parents now pay for childcare upfront, then reclaim the cost from the government. Becky says this has effectively banned her from going back to work, as she'll never be able to scrape together the £1,000 she'll need to pay nursery fees for Mahdi, four, and Alfie, 18 months. Her husband Mohammed has a job a kitchen assistant at a restaurant, but is on a zero hours contract and is currently only being offered only two shifts a week. The family are among the millions of parents who are entitled to claim back 85 per cent … [Read more...] about Universal Credit 7-week delay left me with just £1.80 a day to feed my family
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Sheriff: “The will of a 13-year-old girl is what broke this case”
Jayme Closs stunned the world by escaping the horrors of her captivity in northern Wisconsin. Real questions remain, but today the answers began trickling in. "We're still in the active … stages of the investigation. We're still serving the search warrant -- actively. We were there throughout the night. We're finishing that today," said Sheriff Chris Fitzgerald, who led the nearly three-month investigation into the disappearance of Jayme Closs from her Barron County, Wisconsin, home. Under arrest is 21-year-old Jake Thomas Patterson who allegedly murdered Jayme's parents Denise and James Closs and abducted Jayme -- a teenager whose life revolved around ice skating, volleyball and her dog, Molly. "The will of a 13-year-old girl is what broke this case," said Sheriff Fitzgerald told "48 Hours" correspondent Peter Van Sant. It was late Thursday afternoon that Jayme escaped from a rural, isolated house in the town of Gordon, 77 miles north of Jayme's home. Authorities believe Jake … [Read more...] about Sheriff: “The will of a 13-year-old girl is what broke this case”
Foster grandparents volunteer and share their love at schools
Our series A More Perfect Union aims to show that what unites us as Americans is far greater than what divides us. Millions of students across the country will return to school this week after the holidays. So we're looking at a program that brings a special kind of love and encouragement into classrooms that need it. As the day begins at Excel Public School in southeast Washington, there are a few mature faces among the young girls rushing to class. Wearing blue aprons and serving up hugs are six foster grandmothers working alongside the school's teachers to help students succeed, reports CBS News correspondent Jan Crawford. At the school and thousands of other locations across the country, more than 20,000 seniors are volunteering every day as foster grandparents. A More Perfect Union: Submit your story Inside Dr. Smith's first grade class is grandma Margie Dixon. "It gives me a lot of energy just to be with them," Dixon said. Principal Tania Pritchard said she'd love a … [Read more...] about Foster grandparents volunteer and share their love at schools
A year in review: ‘The toughest year’
Children torn from their parents, refugees turned away, tear gas fired on asylum-seekers, and a president who says he's making good on promises to protect the nation's borders. In a breathless 2018, they were just a handful of headlines on immigration, one of the year's most dominant issues. Combined with a relentless stream of administrative memos and changes in regulation and enforcement, it represented a government bombardment on virtually every type of immigration — a bold follow-up to the opening salvo of President Donald Trump's first year in office. For those who champion Trump and believe that cracking down on immigration translates to better lives for Americans, it has been a year of fulfillment of campaign promises. For those who've watched in horror, it harkened back to other points in the country's history, when fear of new arrivals led the U.S. to refuse entry to various groups and when open discrimination of certain ethnicities prevailed. "This is our generation's … [Read more...] about A year in review: ‘The toughest year’
2018 news year in review: Stories across United States that moved us
Editors USA TODAY Published 11:55 AM EST Dec 22, 2018 In 2018, the eyes of the nation were again fixed on President Donald Trump, whose second year in office was no less remarkable than his first. It was a year that saw the president open up trade wars, meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, spar with the press and defend hush money payments to women he allegedly had affairs with, all while new revelations and indictments poured out of special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian election meddling. Policies and politics divided us. We found ourselves embroiled in a fierce immigration debate. Trump's Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh ascended to the high court despite sexual assault allegations from Christine Blasey Ford. Nature humbled us. California burned as the Camp Fire became the most destructive in state history. Hurricane winds and floods battered the Carolinas. But other stories made us proud. Team USA brought home 23 Olympic … [Read more...] about 2018 news year in review: Stories across United States that moved us