Texas senator becomes mother all over again

DALLAS -- For the second time in four months, Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchinson is a new mother.

The Texas Republican and her husband, Ray Hutchison, adopted 3-month-old Houston Taylor Hutchison about a month ago, spokeswoman Lisette McSoud Mondello said Thursday.

In August, the Hutchisons adopted Katherine Bailey, now about 7 months old.

The boy is named after the senator's great-great-grandfather, Charles S. Taylor, and his good friend Sam Houston.

Hutchison is one of 162 members of the Congressional Coalition on Adoption, which promotes adoption-related issues and policy. At least 15 have adopted children.

The 58-year-old is sponsoring legislation that would make U.S. citizenship automatic for children in custody of an American parent working abroad for the U.S. military or government. The legislation is pending in the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Ray Hutchison, a 68-year-old Dallas bond attorney, has two grown daughters from a previous marriage.

'Poltically Incorrect' might not stay around

NEW YORK -- Bill Maher said he expects that his late-night talk show won't be around much longer.

The opinionated host of ABC's "Politically Incorrect" said his criticism of the U.S. military after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks has hurt his relationship with the network.

"Could we keep working together? Yeah, but there'd still be that tension and that conflict," Maher told Talk magazine for its December/January issue.

"They're not going to change and I'm not going to change. ... After this whole thing I'm not expecting to be here after my contract runs out in 2002 -- if we make it that long."

On his Sept. 17 show, Maher said: "We have been the cowards, lobbing cruise missiles from 2,000 miles away. That's cowardly. Staying in the airplane when it hits the building -- say what you want about that, it's not cowardly."

Maher's words prompted Sears and FedEx to pull their ads from the show.

--From wire reports