Good morning Qcity! Thank goodness it’s Friday. What are your weekend plans? Be sure to check back for Toni’s picks in her weekly column “On the Town with Toni.”

It’s going to be a windy day in Charlotte. The weatherman says today we will see partly cloudy and winds at 15 to 25 mph with highs in the mid 70s. Tonight, expect clear skies with a low around 48°. Saturday and Sunday, expect sunny skies with highs in the low to mid 70s. 

Here’s what’s brewing in the news:

Broke and not in the mood

Fertility rates are down across the nation. The decline began in 2008, and the sour economy may be the blame, suggests new findings from the Pew Research Center. 

In the year 2007, there were more than 4.3 million births in the United States, marking a record high for the nation. Since then, rates have declined sharply, even as the U.S. population continues to grow. Preliminary data for 2009 indicates the number of births has dropped to 4.1 million - the lowest number since 2004.

The African-American birth rate declined by 2.4 percent between 2008 and 2009. Latino women experienced a sharper fall, with 6 percent fewer babies after the recession began. White women reflected the smallest change, reflecting a 1.6 percent decline.

Using indicators such as personal income, employment, and unemployment rates across the country, they found that states experiencing the largest economic declines in 2007 and 2008 were most likely to experience fertility declines from 2008 to 2009.

“A state-level look at fertility illustrates the strength of the correlation between lower birth rates and economic distress,” the Pew researchers report.
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More money, more problems

While a down economy may be leading more couples to have fewer children, those with more money are not necessarily experiencing bliss. Researchers from Brigham Young University have found that accumulating materialistic possessions can take a toll on couples’ happiness and stability. In a study, more than 1,700 married couples across the United States were asked how much value they placed on “having money and lots of things.” Couples who believe that money is important scored up to 15 points lower on marriage stability and other measures than those who believe it was not important. "Couples where both spouses are materialistic were worse off on nearly every measure we looked at," said the study’s lead author, Jason Carroll, a BYU professor of family life. "There is a pervasive pattern in the data of eroding communication, poor conflict resolution and low responsiveness to each other." (Read more)
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House passes controversial anti-abortion bill

The Republican-lead House of Representatives passed a bill on Thursday banning the use of federal funds for any healthcare plan providing abortion services. Democrats are calling the “Protect Life Act” bill “savage” to women and possibly deadly. Republicans argue that it was necessary to keep federal money from being used for abortions after the passage of the Affordable Care Act. The bill, which passed by a 251-172 mostly party line vote, would let health care providers refuse to perform an abortion if it violates their personal beliefs. House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi said in a press briefing, that this provision could result in a woman dying. “It could undermine the responsibility of hospitals to deal with women who come in a crisis situation where their lives and health are at risk,” she said. “It's just appalling." (Read more) 
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Great sex can cause memory loss?

A 54-year-old woman enters an emergency room at Georgetown University complaining of memory loss that, according to some scientists, can be brought on by having sex. The woman, whose case was reported in the September issue of The Journal of Emergency Medicine, was experiencing transient global amnesia, a rare condition in which memory suddenly, temporarily, disappears. 

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