To those tireless, ever-ready heroes who give their all just to give themselves and their children a better shot at life.

To those dedicated single parents who spent (and still spend) countless nights watching over their young offspring while preparing for the next day’s two-three jobs.

To those pressured single-parent students who can manage to cram work, school and family care all into twenty-four short hours a day and still have time to do the dishes.

Happy Single Mother's Day!

Here’s to hoping that single moms get a special day dedicated all to their heroic, selfless efforts to raise your children alone!

Shawn Carter, better known as Jay-Z, offers scholarships to single mothers and select young people who generally have zero chance when it comes to college scholarships.

Applicants must have a GPA of at least 2.5 and must submit their online application to the Shawn Carter Scholarship Foundation no later than May 15, 2012.

If you're an under-served student in the US, you have a shot of winning a Jay-Z scholarship and yes, there's a catch! Whether or not you're awarded this scholarship largely hinges upon how you answer the following question, "What are your plans to give back to the community?"

According to a recent report in The New York Times, 16 states have actually cut welfare rolls since the recession began. Some have taken advantage of federal leeway to reduce time limits to as few as two years, tighten eligibility and reduce grants.

States that diverted federal welfare dollars to other programs when caseloads fell are not about to increase spending on public assistance in lean economic times.

As a result, on the national level, welfare rolls have barely budged, even as the number of the needy has grown. Recent statistics suggest as many as 4 million single mothers with children today are without jobs or public assistance.

Not surprisingly, families are resorting to desperate measures -- selling food stamps, shoplifting, trash-picking, returning to abusive boyfriends.

While millions of foreclosed homes languish on the market at lower and lower prices, new data supports the idea that renting out these foreclosed homes could be the long-sought solution to the housing crisis.

On Wednesday, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke penned a 26-page white paper, arguing that now is an unusually good time to convert foreclosed properties to rental units for three reasons:

1. demand for owner-occupied homes remains low,
2. demand for rental properties is rising,
3. and the problem of banks' continued hesitance to offer mortgages to everyday Americans means that the situation won't change anytime soon.

The federal government's recognition of the value of renting foreclosed homes is not entirely new. In August 2011, the Federal Housing Finance Agency requested proposals on how best to implement such a program.

Buy a pin for your wife or your mom or donate one back to the organization to bring a little joy to someone else’s mom.

Single Mothers Outreach, a Santa Clarita Valley charity that provides programs and resources for single parents, is selling custom-designed pins to honor moms for Mother’s Day.

Pins are $25 and are available at several fine SCV locations including Fresh Boutique in Old Town Newhall, La Via Bella at the Westfield Valencia Town Center, and though the Single Mothers Outreach website at www.SingleMothersOutreach.org.

The top budget official in the U.S. House of Representatives on March 20, 2012 released his latest proposal to hurt the American middle class - ignoring the will of the people, favoring the wealthy while ending Medicare as we know it.

It’s a recipe for repeating the mistakes of the Bush administration, during which middle-class incomes stagnated and only the privileged few enjoyed enormous gains.

Here are the top 10 problems with the new budget plan introduced by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan that has no respect for the middle class’s essential role as a key driver of economic growth.

Thanks to a program supported by the United Way of Larimer County, the WomenGive program provides child-care assistance for single mothers working toward college degrees.

Created six years ago by women who saw the lack of child care as a hindrance to single mothers trying to succeed, WomenGive has helped 52 women graduate from college.

"If I didn't have this, I'd probably be working, sending (Charlotte) to preschool and basically just breaking even," Rives, a single mother of a 4-year-old said. "I wouldn't be able to go to school. WomenGive is the essential piece for me being able to go to school."

Darcy McClure, a WomenGive founding member and United Way employee, said Rives is exactly the kind of woman the program's funds had in mind.