Story here. Excerpt:

'Official government statistics reveal the staffrooms of 68 primary schools and nurseries in the region are populated solely by women.

They show the classrooms of some 17 primaries and one nursery school in the Telford and Wrekin area have no male teachers.

In the rest of the county, the children at a total of 51 primary schools are only taught by female staff.

Nationally, 4,226 schools in England – 3,340 primaries and 386 nurseries – have no male staff, according to the latest data for 2009.

This is despite a long-running government campaign to encourage men back into what is now seen as a female profession.

Men also tend to shun working with younger children over fears they will be accused of paedophilia.

It means many children have no regular contact with an adult man until they go to secondary school aged 11.

But experts say it is vital for boys – particularly those who may not have a father at home – to have positive role models as they grow up.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'As President Barack Obama closes in on picking a new federal consumer protection chief, critics’ arguments against liberal favorite Elizabeth Warren are getting louder.
...
But some of Warren’s supporters see a deeper problem at work against her — in their view, the Treasury Department is a stodgy old boys club poised to blackball Warren from getting the post, in part, because she's a woman.

Now, they’re trying to turn that argument on its head. The National Organization for Women, liberal activists and some lawmakers are trying to pressure Obama into choosing Warren, by arguing that Warren would provide much-needed balance to an economics team that they say is too male-dominated, like Wall Street itself.

Story here. Excerpt:

'The 42-year-old Livermore mother accused of sexually assaulting two teenage boys first made an advance at one of them when he was 14 and was dating her daughter of the same age, authorities said.

After the incident in December 2008, authorities said, Christine Hubbs sent sexual text messages to the boy and gave him cash, expensive gifts and cellular telephones to maintain contact with her.

The allegations, contained in a police affidavit, were revealed Monday as Hubbs appeared in an Alameda County courtroom in Pleasanton to face charges that have stunned her suburban city.

The mother of three was arraigned on 67 felony counts, including unlawful sex with a minor and exhibition of lewd material to a minor.

Wearing a jail-issue jumpsuit, she flashed a quick smile at her husband - who waved at her from the second row - but cried as the hearing wore on and a judge ordered her bail set at $4.3 million. She did not enter a plea.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'In the next 10 days getting on for half a million boys across the country will receive, from the school office or by text or in the traditional brown envelope, their GCSE or A-level results. In our secular culture it is about as close as most of them will get to a public rite of passage. The facts of the grades will invariably come accompanied by a sentence that many of the boys may well have spent much of their lives up to this point trying quite hard to avoid. The sentence, or a variant of it, will be delivered by a parent, or a teacher, or by a sly voice in their head: "So, son, what are you thinking of doing with the rest of your life?" Twenty-five years on, that question still can bring a cold sweat to the back of my neck, a rush of unfocused and competing possibilities, and the echo of a reflexive response: "Christ, I dunno. Don't ask me…"

Article here. Excerpt:

'It’s against important medical ethics and is unnecessary. There’s no medical reason for having it done, it’s painful for some days afterwards, and there’s a possibility of complications,” he tells The Foreigner.

Male circumcision is a Jewish and Muslim religious tradition that goes back thousands of years. He takes issue with the some of the physical beliefs surrounding it.

“The old tradition doesn’t use an anaesthetic. It’s argued the infant’s nerve system hasn’t developed by the time it’s performed on the eighth day, so it couldn’t feel pain. But this has been shown to be wrong. Infants do feel pain, they just can’t express it.”

Markestad, a specialist in children’s diseases, doesn’t believe banning the procedure is the answer, however. He claims this will lead to the practise disappearing underground, leading to boys suffering even more.'

Story here. Excerpt:

'ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) - Unhappy New York couples who want to get divorced fast will no longer have to persuade a court that they have been abused, abandoned or cuckolded to be released from their bonds.

Gov. David Paterson announced Sunday that he has signed a bill making New York the last state to enact some version of no-fault divorce, meaning that people trying to leave a marriage will be spared the painful task of attacking their estranged spouse in court.

Previously, under a system the governor called "outdated," New York judges could only grant a divorce quickly on grounds of cruelty, adultery, abandonment or imprisonment. In other words, somebody had to be blamed for the breakup.
...

The new measure requires only that one spouse swear under oath that a relationship has broken down for at least six months.

Article here. Excerpt:

'A new study presented at the annual convention of the American Psychological Association reveals that men who had positive relationships with their fathers are better equipped to deal with the stress of everyday life than men who did not remember their dads fondly.

"A big take-home message is that if there is a father present in a child’s life, he needs to know how important it is to be involved," said Melanie Mallers of California State University, Fullerton.

Researchers interviewed 912 men and women during an eight-day period about their psychological and emotional state that day. Participants also had to answer questions about their relationships with their mothers and fathers growing up, and how much attention their parents gave them.

The major finding of the study is that men who said they had bad relationships with their fathers in childhood were more likely to be distressed by the stressful incidents of daily life.

Article here. Excerpt:

'Watching superheroes beat up villains may not be the best image for boys to see if society wants to promote kinder, less stereotypical male behaviours, they claim.

Unlike the comic heroes of the past who often held ordinary day jobs and believed in social justice, the new breed of Hollywood superheroes are aggressive, sarcastic and rarely speak about the virtue of doing good for humanity. Dr Sharon Lamb, of the University of Massachusetts, said that modern depictions of superheroes like Iron Man are often playboy millionaires who are only ruled by selfish goals.
'''
"There is a big difference in the movie superhero of today and the comic book superhero of yesterday," Dr Lamb told the annual Convention of the American Psychological Association.

"Today's superhero is too much like an action hero who participates in non-stop violence; he's aggressive, sarcastic and rarely speaks to the virtue of doing good for humanity.

Article here. Excerpt:

"It is the mainstay of countless magazine and newspaper features. Differences between male and female abilities – from map reading to multi-tasking and from parking to expressing emotion – can be traced to variations in the hard-wiring of their brains at birth, it is claimed.
...
In fact, there are no major neurological differences between the sexes, says Cordelia Fine in her book Delusions of Gender, which will be published by Icon next month. There may be slight variations in the brains of women and men, added Fine, a researcher at Melbourne University, but the wiring is soft, not hard. "It is flexible, malleable and changeable," she said.

Story here. Excerpt:

' SAN FRANCISCO — A Mexican woman who claimed she was beaten and raped for decades by her common-law husband has won the right to stay in the United States in a case that experts say makes clear that domestic violence is valid grounds for asylum.

The Department of Homeland Security found that the case of the woman known only as L.R. met the stringent standard necessary to win asylum. An immigration judge found in her favor on Aug. 4, and the decision was announced this week by her attorneys.

"The point has been made, very loud and clear, that cases such as these involving domestic violence, and even more broadly, gender-based violence against women, are valid cases," said Karen Musalo, L.R.'s attorney and the head of Hastings Law School's Center for Gender and Refugee Studies at the University of California. The name of the applicant was withheld to protect her privacy.

Article here. My jaw dropped. Was this the same Liz Jones who is consistently bashing men in the Femail section now having a go at her own gender? I thought it was too good not to share. Excerpt:

'Yet another bit of woman bashing took place last week. According to a survey of 3,000 employees, women bosses are incapable of leaving their personal lives at home and are eager to bitch about colleagues behind their backs.

Yet men, on the other hand, according to research commissioned by the recruitment firm UKJobs.net, never bring their personal lives to work (I can confirm this. I sat opposite a man for three years and only realised his wife had just given birth to their fourth child when one day he stood up, then keeled over, exactly like a felled tree).

Most tellingly, the survey found men in the workplace are simply not as moody.
...

Article here. Excerpt:

'NEW YORK – Katrina Clark and Lindsay Greenawalt have much in common. Bright women in their 20s, raised by single mothers, keenly curious about the men whose donated sperm helped give them life. Clark's search for her father succeeded after only a month, though with a bittersweet aftermath. Greenawalt is still searching, seven years after she started — persisting despite doubts and frustrations.
...
"I've dreamt of you since I was a little girl," Greenawalt wrote to her unknown dad in a Father's Day blog posting in June. "There are so many things I want to know about you."
...
Since 2008, Greenawalt, 25, has been chronicling her quest on a blog, "Confessions of a Cryokid." One of the most wrenching entries came last Thanksgiving, when she addressed the oft-repeated refrain that donor-conceived children ought to be grateful they were born.

Story here. Excerpt:

'PLEASANT RIDGE, KAN - A high school teacher from Lansing accused of having sex with a student admitted her mistake on Friday and entered a plea to avoid a trial.

While Shannon Young plead guilty to having a sexual relationship with a student at her school, the young man's parents aren't pleased with the sentence she's expected to get because it doesn't involve jail time.

Young, 36, was an English teacher and a volleyball coach at Pleasant Ridge High School in Easton, Kansas during the 2009-2010 school year.
...
"If this was not a consensual relationship, this case would have been charged differently. The only thing that made it illegal was Ms. Young's status as a teacher," Young's lawyer Debra Snider said. "Otherwise, this would not have been an illegal set of actions at all."

Story here. Excerpt:

'When Mike Obrock got home Wednesday morning after a night on the town with Donna F. Miller, police said, he had a message on his answering machine from her, saying she had a wonderful time and asking why he didn't love her.

Maybe it was because -- according to court documents -- she punched him in the mouth and hit him with her crutch when he tried to drop her off in the parking lot of the Camp Hill Shopping Center. Or perhaps it was because of the false report police said Miller filed claiming she had been raped.

Miller, 50, of the 400 block of Hiltonhead Avenue, was arrested yesterday morning by Camp Hill police and charged with resisting arrest, false alarms to a public safety agency, fictitious reports and false reports to police. She was arraigned in front of District Judge Richard S. Dougherty and committed to Cumberland County Prison in lieu of $7,500 bail, court documents state.'

Story here. Excerpt:

'Police have warned that malicious reports of false rapes will not be tolerated after a woman was jailed for 15 months after lying to detectives.

Cheryl Moss, 26, falsely claimed that a 19-year-old man had raped her in an alleyway near St Peter's Road, Bournemouth, in November 2009.

Moss pleaded guilty to perverting the course of justice and was sentenced last week at Bournemouth Crown Court.

Dorset Police said the investigation used valuable time and resources.

Despite being shown CCTV footage of the man the mother of four had been with all night and that sex had been consensual, Moss maintained her allegations were true.'