News In Brief

FREE OCEAN VIEWS INCLUDED

There are walks for hunger and bike-a-thons for AIDS treatment, and then there's what Jerry Rouleau undertook earlier this week to raise money for cancer research. The Hanover, N.H., resident set sail from Portsmouth, his state's only major outlet to the Atlantic, on a two-month cruise to Norfolk, Va., ... in a new two-story house. No misprint. The fully furnished dwelling even has a whirlpool tub and an attached three-car garage (with SUV inside). Paid tours will be offered at intermediate stops, and the home and its contents are to be auctioned off separately once the voyage is over. In case you're wondering, the whole thing rests on a barge.

Places where 'I'm a single mother' is heard most often

Children in four South Dakota counties and three in Mississippi are more likely than those living almost anywhere else in the US to live with single mothers, according to Census 2000 data. The Dakota counties are on - or border - American Indian reservations, many of which face such problems as alcoholism and unemployment rates as high as 80 percent. Counties with the highest percentage of households headed by single mothers:

Shannon, S.D. 21.4%

Todd, S.D. 20.5%

Bronx, N.Y. 19.2%

Sioux, N.D. 18.9%

Buffalo, S.D. 18.4%

Holmes, Miss. 18.1%

East Carroll Parish, La. 17.7%

Coahoma, Miss. 17.4%

Bullock, Ala. 17.3%

Leflore, Miss. 17.0%

- Associated Press

(c) Copyright 2001. The Christian Science Monitor