Names and faces

NEW YORK (AP) -- "Crossing Over" host John Edward is a new father.

Edward's wife, Sandra, gave birth to a boy, Justin, in New York City on Wednesday. The boy weighs 10 pounds and is 22 inches long, said Edward's publicist, Jill Fritzo.

Edward's syndicated "Crossing Over" show is now in its second season.

Justin is the first child for the 32-year-old Edward and his 31-year-old wife. The couple lives in New York.

On the Net:

Official John Edward Web site: http://www.johnedward.net/index2.htm

Erik Menendez wants new trial

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Erik Menendez, serving a life sentence for the murder of his wealthy parents, wants a new trial that would allow him to include claims he was abused.

Menendez, 31, has filed a motion in federal court to have his conviction overturned, he told Barbara Walters in an interview airing Friday on the ABC news magazine "20/20."

"I didn't receive a fair trial," Menendez said in the telephone interview from a Sacramento prison. "All I wanted was for the jury to hear all of the evidence."

In 1996, Menendez and older brother, Lyle, 34, were convicted of first-degree murder in the 1989 shooting deaths of Kitty and Jose Menendez in their Beverly Hills home.

The brothers' first trial ended with a hung jury. In the second trial, the judge threw out much of the defense case alleging that the father, an entertainment industry executive, sexually abused Erik.

Erik Menendez told Walters he remains remorseful about the murders.

"I'll punish myself for the rest of my life. I hate myself," he said. "I wish to God I could throw myself down on my knees and beg that we could go back in time, that I could change what I did. I killed them and I love them."

His wife, Tammi, whom he married three years ago in a prison ceremony, said she is selling her house to raise money for Menendez's court challenges. The Menendez family fortune, estimated at $14 million, was gone by the time the first trial took place, Erik Menendez said.

Lynne Cheney writing book

NEW YORK (AP) -- Lynne Cheney, wife of Vice President Dick Cheney, is writing a second children's book.

"A Is for Abigail Adams," scheduled for publication next fall, is a follow-up to her best-selling "America: A Patriotic Primer."

Her new book will highlight the achievements of women in American history.

"One of the noteworthy scholarly achievements of the last quarter-century has been the recovery of women's history," Cheney said in a statement issued this week by her publisher, Simon & Schuster.

"We are now aware of female accomplishment in a way we have not been before, and this book will be a way to introduce the stories of many women -- from Abigail Adams to Babe Didrickson Zaharias -- to elementary school children and their families."