Some people are not biologically able to have children. But for them science has made excellent advances, such as gestational surrogacy.

In a gestational surrogacy, an embryo is transferred to the woman who agrees to gestate the baby, the gestational carrier. The baby has no genetic material from the carrier. Here is where it gets confusing: The gametes can come from either of the intended parents (or both), or from an egg donor or a sperm donor, or both.

It is important to create parenting presumptions in law so that the intended parents are the legal parents. Texas is one of the states that has taken steps to legally clarify gestational surrogacy.

How does an asbestos lawsuit lead to paternity issues? It is not as far-fetched as you might think, reports the Southeast Texas Record.

Turns out that in 1998, after the death of her husband Claude Franklin, his widow, Mary Ann Franklin, joined in a class-action lawsuit against a number of oil and chemical companies.

The lawsuit alleged that companies such as Mobil Oil and DuPont exposed their workers to asbestos and that Claude Franklin died as a result of cancer in 1999, which was believed to be directly due to the asbestos.

After comedian Tracy Morgan, star of the NBC show 30 Rock, was hospitalized with an illness, his estranged mother, Alicia, sought to try and get in touch with him, reports the Houston Chronicle.

Tracy Morgan apparently lost consciousness at the Sundance Film Festival in Utah and was taken to a hospital. It was then that his mother learned about the episode and tried to contact the hospital, where no information was provided to her.

It has been reported that Texas has the highest number of child abuse fatalities in America and nearly every week on this blog a story about child abuse, child neglect, or child exploitation is discussed.

In the face of statistics like these, it is heartening to see a federal defending childhood initiative that is aiming to tackle violence against children. It is called the Attorney General's National Task Force on Children Exposed to Violence and it was launched towards the end of 2011.

As more and more teenagers get smartphones for birthdays and for Christmas, it becomes increasingly important for parents to protect children from pornography and other online dangers, reports The New York Times.

Making devices your child uses pornography-proof is particularly difficult in the age of "apps" or applications, which can be downloaded at any time and hidden very easily.

Turns out that new grandparents vaccines are necessary before the elderly interact with infant grandchildren, reports the Boston Globe.

New grandparents need to get vaccinated against pertussis (also called whooping cough) in order to protect babies less than six months old. This is because children less than six months can’t receive the whooping cough vaccine themselves.

The recommendation comes down from the American Academy of Pediatrics, reports the Globe. As a result of the recommendation, anyone that is over age 65 and caring for a baby needs to receive the so called Tdap vaccine — tetanus-diptheria-acellular pertussis. (Try saying that even slightly faster).

An earlier story that this blog covered, about the Texas judge, William Adams, who had apparently beaten his daughter on video, may have a resolution.

It turns out that the Texas Supreme Court suspended Judge William Adams from his position, reports The Stir.

The Hillary Adams beating was chronicled in a video dated 2004 and which was uploaded to Youtube. It went viral.

There are many military bases in Texas, with nearly 200,000 total personnel spread across the state.

And, obviously, many of the personnel go through the same family difficulties as the rest of the citizenry, including divorce. In fact, it turns out that the military divorce rate has been steadily increasing, reports Military.com News. Much of the increase is a result of long deployments.

Still, on the whole the numbers are not that bad, reports the article:

For most people ivy is green, but Houston's Beyonce and Brooklyn rapper Jay-Z are not most people and have blue ivy, specifically, in the form of their new baby-daughter, who will be called Blue Ivy Carter, reports the New York Daily News.

Blue Ivy Carter came into the world in New York's Lenox Hill Hospital, which is located in Manhattan's Upper East Side. Beyonce checked into the hotel under the name Ingrid Jackson (because Beyonce really looks like an Ingrid, or because the name Sasha Fierce was already taken).

Celebrity divorces can be dramatic and actor Terrence Howard is no exception.

The actor was ordered to stay 100 yards away from soon-to-be ex-wife Michelle Howard (Michelle Ghent,) as she took out a restraining order against Terrence Howard, reports the Contra Costa Times.

Michelle Ghent alleged that Terrence had been abusive to her in marriage and more recently via text messages. Howard denied her allegations in his sworn reply. Howard further claimed that Michelle Ghent had threatened to ruin his reputation and career.