A white rural Pittsburgh area family with a black adopted son are
victims of a hate crime as someone set ablaze a large wooden cross in their backyard.

Joe Walbeck said he woke up early Sunday morning to discover the burnt 6-foot-tall cross hours after his son, Shaquille, high school football team lost a game in the state playoffs.

The Walbecks live in Indiana County, a farming and coal-mining community  approximately an hour east of Pittsburgh.  It is unknown if the football game was  inspiration for the racially-charged incident.

Pennsylvania State Police officials said they have not investigated a cross burning in the area for years. The vandals face charges ranging from trespass to ethnic intimidation.

In somewhat of a surprise decision, Malawi’s High Court has refused to allow pop star Madonna to adopt a four-year-old girl from the nation. The court cited a law that said people who wish to adopt must have been a resident of the nation for at least a year. And in her ruling, the judge spoke out against celebrity adoptions, fearing they could lead to child trafficking, reports Reuters. “Anyone could come to Malawi and quickly arrange for an adoption that might have grave consequences on the very children that the law seeks to protect,” Judge Esimie Chombo said during her ruling.  Read more.

Entertainer says she’ll likely adopt in U.S. 

Rapper and actress Queen Latifah is ready to adopt her first child, according to the National Enquirer. The Queen has stated that her plans to start a family would “happen eventually,” but the magazine reports that she and her physical trainer are hoping to adopt a child together by Christmas. “I can understand why people go outside the U.S. ,” she says. “You can adopt someone here, and the birth parents have three years to come back and get that child. That’s terrifying. (American children) can use just as much assistance as someone from around the world. I want to do something here.” “Big ‘Tif” hasn’t confirmed the plans for an ‘08 adoption, nor has she confirmed a relationship with her female trainer.