Atlanta: U.S. birthrate increasing

American women, encouraged by a decadelong economic boom, are having more children than at any other time in the past three decades 2.1 on average in a lifetime, the government said Tuesday.

For the first time since 1971, women are producing enough children to offset deaths in the United States, the National Center for Health Statistics said.

The center reported 4,058,814 births in 2000, the latest year for which figures were available up 2.5 percent from 1999.

The report showed increases in the birth rate in 2000 among women of all age groups except teen-agers. Births to 15- to 19-year-olds dropped to 48.5 for every 1,000 women, an all-time low. The teen birth rate was 49.6 in 1999.

California: Victims inspect damage wrought by wildfire

As firefighters got close Tuesday to gaining control of a fierce blaze that had already destroyed 34 homes, victims surveyed the reminders of its haphazard path of destruction.

An American flag flew untouched outside one destroyed home in Fallbrook; in the rubble of another, a small statue of the Virgin Mary lay unscathed.

Fierce Santa Ana winds this weekend pushed the fire through Fallbrook, about 40 miles north of San Diego. It destroyed 34 homes, 20 vehicles, one motor home and two fire engines, the California Department of Forestry said.

By Tuesday the fire, which has blackened more than 5,000 acres, was 90 percent contained, said department spokeswoman Roxanne Provaznik.

More than 500 firefighters remained on the line, aided by 11 helicopters. But those numbers were expected to shrink as the fire burned uninhabited areas of the Camp Pendleton Marine Corps Base, with no immediate threat to people or structures.

Virginia: Bill would give schools ‘In God We Trust’ signs

The state Senate passed legislation Tuesday requiring public schools to post signs reading, “In God We Trust.”

The bill’s sponsor, Republican Sen. Nick Rerras, said the national motto offers a much-needed expression of hope in an era of terrorism and weakening moral values.

The bill passed 30-10, and a similar bill has passed the state’s House of Delegates. The two Legislative branches still need to consider each others’ bills.

Senate Democratic Leader Richard L. Saslaw was the only senator who spoke against the bill, saying it trivialized the word “God.” He said the moral decline Rerras described has occurred largely in the years since Congress made “In God We Trust” the national motto in 1956. The motto’s inclusion on coins and currency hasn’t helped, he said.

Georgia: Fake cancer victim returns donations

A woman who pretended to have cancer has returned $6,436 in donations she received from friends and others.

Tina M. English, 34, was ordered to return the money after pleading guilty last month to two felony counts of theft by deception. She was also sentenced to four years of probation.

English, of Gainesville, shaved her head to look like she was receiving chemotherapy and used a wheelchair, prosecutors said. The crimes were committed in November and December 1998. Her husband and their three children did not know the truth.

English, who was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, received $6,436, partly from a yard sale held for her. A concert also was held to raise money for her medical bills. She told the court the money was not spent.

English also received more than $10,000 from residents of Gwinnett County, where felony theft charges are pending.