The Obama family will begin their sixth holiday of the year today, an 11-day sojourn in Marthas Vineyard, the island destination of the wealthy and well-connected American elite. President Barack Obama will be accompanied by his wife Michelle and daughters Malia, 12, and Sasha, nine, and are expected to stay at the historic Blue Heron Farm in Chilmark. Bill Burton, the deputy White House press secretary, said that the president was “going to spend a little time recharging his batteries” at the Massachusetts island ahead of the November midterm elections. (Telegraph)

South African police have confirmed to the BBC that they are investigating a possible syndicate that has been hiring out children from creches to beggars. It follows a general crackdown on the use of children to beg in the capital, Pretoria. Twenty children were taken into care after an operation on Friday; 13 have since been returned to their families. Police said they wanted to see if it was linked to a similar case reported in Johannesburg in May. An investigation by Johannesburg’s 702 Talk Radio found that some parents and child-minders were renting out babies to beggars for about 20 rand (about $3; £2) a day. Begging is common at busy intersections in towns and cities across South Africa. The BBC’s Pumza Fihlani in Johannesburg says beggars carry babies or use children to garner sympathy and larger donations from motorists. Police in Pretoria said that seven of the children still in protective custody were babies under the age of one.  (BBC NEWS)

(CNN) — There are 96 million people in the United States who have no spouse. That means 43 percent of all Americans over the age of 18 are single, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. “Single” is defined as adults who have never been married, are divorced or are widowed in the bureau’s America’s Families and Living Arrangements survey of 2009. Of the singletons, 61 percent of them have never said “I do.” Twenty-four percent are divorced and 15 percent are widowed. An increasing number of these single Americans — more than 31 million — are living alone, according to the census. They make up 27 percent of all households, up from 17 percent in 1970. About 46 percent of all households nationwide are maintained by a single person. That adds up to 52 million singles. And 11.6 million single parents — mostly mothers — were living with their children in 2009. The census reported 9.9 million single mothers and 1.7 million single fathers lived with their kids. Seventeen percent of singles were 65 years or older in 2009. Some 766,000 single grandparents were caring for their grandchildren in 2008. In over 6 million households in 2008, single people were living together without benefit of marriage. Only about half a million were same-sex couples and 38 percent of those had at least one biological child of either partner living with them. More than half of the unmarried Americans are women. And for every 100 single women, there are 88 unmarried men available There were 904 dating services available as of 2002, employing nearly 4,300 people to help the single folks find each other and the companies collected $489 million that year.

President Barack Obama, fresh from an appearance in Ohio, stepped off Air Force One in Miami Wednesday and arrived to a cheering partisan crowd at the Fontainebleu in Miami Beach to attend a fundraiser for Florida Democrats.”Hello Florida. Hello Miami,” he said. “It’s good to be back.’ “You were with me when I was up and you were with me when I was down,” he said. Obama went on to praise Florida CEO Alex Sink, saying she will be the “economic ambassador to the state” and Kendrick Meek who “will be a champion for middle-class families.”’ Sink is running for governor and Meek is in a tight race with Jeff Greene for the Democratic Senate nomination. Obama did not mention Greene’s name during his opening remarks. Obama went on to talk about the economy and creating new jobs in the United States.`We’ve got to start making things in the United States,” he said. And he bashed Republicans, saying they have refused to compromise on critical legislation.`Remember our campaign slogan was `Yes We Can,” he said. “Well, there slogan is No We Can’t.” Earlier, on the tarmac at Miami International Airport, he was met by Meek, former Florida Governor Bob Graham and wife Adele and Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Shultz. The president, who ends a day of fundraising appearances across the country here, landed shortly before 5 p.m., just as rush-hour traffic along the nearby Dolphin Expressway or State Road 112 are in full swing. (Miami Herald)

MIAMI (AP) – Dwyane Wade knows what he’s going to hear for the next few days. It’s the same question he’s been getting for the past few weeks. “So, why didn’t you pick the Bulls?” Hey, when you’re a native son of Chicago and you rebuke the advances of your hometown team, that’s a fair question. And the newly re-signed Miami Heat guard fully expects to be on the receiving end of it often between now and Sunday, while hosting a number of charity-themed events to help underprivileged kids. “I expect to hear that for a while,” Wade told The Associated Press on Wednesday from Chicago, where his Wade’s World Foundation will hold events involving more than 1,000 children this weekend. “But kids are fans of the game of basketball and fans of certain players as well. They think it’s cool in a way. It’s moreso the adults who don’t understand why you didn’t choose their cities.”

TMZ has learned … the U.S. Secret Service just closed in on a woman accused of operating a serious  credit card scheme … and many of the alleged victims are major Hollywood mega-stars. According to an affidavit filed in United States District Court, a witness claims Jennifer Aniston, Cher, Liv Tyler, Melanie Griffith, Anne Hathaway and Scott Speedman were all violated — or at least their credit cards were — by a woman who ran a swanky salon in Beverly Hills called the Chez Gabriela Studio. According to court documents, Maria Gabriella Perez is accused of ripping off the credit card information from her ultra-wealthy clients … and “fraudulently [charging] approximately $280,000 worth of charges in a one year period.” According to the docs — Perez swindled $214,000 from Liv Tyler alone.

Brittany Murphy‘s mother told investigators that she shared a bed with her daughter’s husband Simon Monjack after Brittany passed away … this according to sources close to the investigation.The L.A. Coroner’s Office just released their report on Simon Monjack’s death. In the report, the investigator documents an exchange with a person whose name has been withheld — but whom law enforcement sources have identified as Brittany’s mother, Sharon Murphy  According to the report, the investigator and the unnamed person (Sharon) were going through the master bedroom in the Hollywood hills home that Simon shared with Brittany … when (Sharon) pointed to one side of Simon’s bed and identified it as “her side of the bed.” Sharon also told the investigator that certain prescriptions in the nightstand — bearing the names Sharon Murphy and Sharon Monjack — were also hers. The report doesn’t suggest sexual contact between the two. (TMZ)