From Abusegate Bob:

Domestic violence laws are bad for men because they strip due process protections from the falsely-accused, deny services to male victims, and stereotype men as batterers. Some say the effect of our nation's DV laws is to turn men into a new social under-class.

Since 2008, a dedicated group of men and women has been working on Capitol Hill to educate lawmakers about the harmful effects of DV laws. Three times, this group has succeeded in blocking bad bills from being passed:

2008: International Violence Against Women (I-VAWA) Act
2008: National Domestic Violence Volunteer Act
2009: Security and Financial Empowerment (SAFE) Act

But it's not enough to stop bad bills from becoming law. Now, we need to reform the existing laws, especially the Violence Against Women Act, so they are effective, inclusive, and respectful of civil rights.

On May 6-7, we will take our campaign to a new level. WE WILL WORK A MIRACLE.

Register here. Just do it.

Announcement here. Excerpt:

'Date: Saturday, April 10, 2010
Time: 9:00am – 4:00pm
Location: CARFAX TOWER, OXFORDSHIRE
City/Town: Oxford, United Kingdom
...
NEW FATHERS 4 JUSTICE has a protest in the run up to the General election will be going to do a demo on our battle bus (open top double-decker bus). We will be targeting David Cameron (the likely new PM) in the run up to the election.

The bus is will be decorated with our banners and slogans and will be making 3 points of call:

1.OXFORD TOWN CENTRE
2.WITNEY OFFICE (David Cameron’s constituency)
3.DAVID CAMERON’S HOUSE

Spread the word.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Poor, poor Tim Pawlenty. The earnest Minnesota governor brought his best zingers and one-liners to the Minneapolis Convention Center on Wednesday, but he got his biggest applause at the GOP fundraiser only when he introduced Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann. The two brightest stars of the conservative movement were headliners for the event to raise cash for Bachmann's re-election campaign. On the charisma scale, he was chalk to their napalm.

Via an ACFC release:

This Saturday, April 10th, there will be a rally in Chicago coinciding with the next meeting of the Illinois Family Law Study Committee. Awareness and the list of supporting organizations continues to grow. All are welcome to attend. Click here for details.

From Abusegate Bob:

Last Friday, Susan B. Carbon took over as director of the DoJ Office of Violence Against Women. As we work to reform VAWA and the Family Violence Prevention and Services Act (which funds abuse shelters and state DV coalitions), it’s important that the OVW understand and support the need for reform.

So I’d like to encourage your group to send a one-page welcome letter to her. The letter should outline your organization’s work to stop domestic violence, offer to work with the OVW in its continued efforts, and be polite and constructive in tone.

You may also want to include a paragraph to this effect (change the exact wording so it doesn’t sound canned):

Research shows men and women are approximately likely to abuse. The 2000 NIJ-CDC survey found approximately 1.3 million women and 835,000 men are physically assaulted by an intimate partner annually in the United States. More recent CDC studies have found women are more likely to be the perpetrators of abuse:

1. Among young adults, 71% of perpetrators in one-way abuse are female: Daniel Whitaker et al. Differences in Frequency of Violence and Reported Injury Between Relationships With Reciprocal and Nonreciprocal Intimate Partner Violence American Journal of Public Health, May 2007.
2. Teenage girls are substantially more likely to initiate physical aggression than teenage boys: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Youth Risk Factors. Behavioral Surveillance—United States, 2007. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Review 2008; 57.

Article here. Excerpt:

'HADLEY, Mass. - Lawyers for three teenage girls accused of participating in the bullying of a 15-year-old girl who committed suicide entered not guilty pleas Thursday on their behalf to charges including civil rights violations and criminal harassment.

Ashley Longe, Sharon Chanon Velazquez and Flannery Mullins, all 16, did not appear in Franklin-Hampshire Juvenile Court for their arraignments.

A judge ordered them to have no contact with the family of Phoebe Prince, a South Hadley High School freshman who hanged herself in January after what prosecutors called an "unrelenting" three-month bullying campaign by six teenagers. Prosecutors say Prince was targeted after she briefly dated a popular boy.
...
Mullins, Velazquez and Longe are charged as youthful offenders with civil rights violations resulting in injury. Mullins and Velazquez are also charged with stalking.

Article here. Excerpt:

'In a place where women have few rights, it seems improbable women would plead for men's advancement too. But, it's happening in Afghanistan.

Not for the reasons you might think, but because many Afghan women realize without the support of fathers, brothers and uncles, they will remain second-class citizens.

For years, the United States has developed and funded special "women's only" programs to help women start their own small businesses.

And while those efforts have been greatly appreciated, some global women's groups wonder if these programs are as effective as they could be when it comes to achieving equality in a patriarchal society.

More disturbingly, some other women's groups say these efforts, if not done well, may actually endanger women.

"Women are put at greater risk of violence when they must return home to frustrated, unemployed husbands who don't understand why their wives are getting training and credit and they are not," says Ritu Sharma, president of Women Thrive Worldwide.

Story here. Excerpt:

'March 27, 2010, (Sawf News) - Sandra Bullock is reportedly consulting top family lawyers in Los Angeles to explore options for joint custody of Jesse James' six-year-old daughter Sunny, a source tells UK's Sunday Mirror.

However, Sandra has been cautioned that she faces an uphill legal battle; being a step-mother her rights are limited. Sandra's best hope is that Jesse agrees to joint custody.

Sandra, who married Jesse in July 2005, brought up Sunny as her own daughter.

In November 2009, she and Jesse fought a legal battle to wrest custody of Sunny from her biological mother and Jesse's former wife, porn star Janine Lindemulder.

"Sandra and Sunny have a special bond. She raised her since before she could walk. She did everything for that girl and now it looks as if she's going to have to fight even for visitation rights. It's heartbreaking," the source tells Mirror.'

Article here. Excerpt:

Article here. Excerpt:

'The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights released a series of recommendations on Title IX policy Thursday aimed at what it called an "unnecessary reduction of men's athletic opportunities."

The commission recommended that schools use a model survey offered by the Department of Education in 2005, calling it "the best possible method" for measuring women's interest and abilities. The survey is one of three ways schools can meet the participation requirements of Title IX, the law that bans sex discrimination at schools receiving federal funds.

That model survey was blasted by women's groups when it was introduced. The NCAA asked member schools not to use it. Few have. Daniel Cohen, an attorney who was a panelist before the commission, said he knows of several schools that have used it, though he declined to name them.

Article here. Excerpt:

'The national championship game this week did not speak especially well of women's college basketball. Two excellent teams played mostly ugly hoops and the better team came back to win.
...
The empty seats, row after row and section after section, in the regular season yell out a message heard by some but acknowledged by none. That same message is acutely visible, if we care to look, in the shallow pool of talent and overall quality disparity.

Women's college basketball eventually must face the big boss of sports: money.
...
That's the case for now, as dictated by the 1972 enactment of Title IX, which bans sex discrimination in educational programs receiving federal money. It's fair and necessary to grant such equality, though it usually is enforced only as it relates to sports. Title IX didn't kill sexism, but it resulted in a reasonably level playing field.

Story here. Excerpt:

'SALT LAKE CITY — A Salt Lake City woman is suing Meadow Lark Elementary School, alleging that her son's special education teacher put the boy's hand in "scalding water" and burned him.

Maria Gutierrez's son, who has cerebral palsy and is confined to a wheelchair, was in Erin Robinson's class when she was teaching students the difference between hot and cold water and allegedly stuck the boy's hand in scalding water, according to the lawsuit filed Monday in 3rd District Court'

Article here. Excerpt:

'It’s no new revelation that boys lag behind girls in reading levels and comprehension. Study after study has found this to be the case. The newest study, which the Center on Education Policy just released, found that while girls have made ground on boys in math, boys still fall behind girls in reading. An excerpt of findings from the report:

In reading, girls outperformed boys in 2008 at the elementary, middle, and high school levels. Higher percentages of girls than boys scored at or above the proficient level on state reading tests at grade 4, grade 8, and high school; in some states, these gaps exceeded 10 percentage points.

Article here. Excerpt:

'Apparently “Omega males are the lowest of the low on the guy food chain; they’re the type of men who shirk responsibility, refuse to grow up and generally avoid participating in the real world,” found Moore, based on an article written by author Jessica Grose from Slate.com.
...
The majority of men are nothing like an Omega Male. Sure the financial crisis meant that men who defined themselves on fast cars and fancy dinners have had to redefine their masculinity on their actions not their job title alone. But Peter Pan – well he’s been around forever (he just wears a cardigan now) and Wendy - she always left him.

And anyway, the recession wouldn’t have caused his masculine decline– because Peter didn’t want a job to begin with…

In truth: while there may be men who would love to sit around, contemplate writing a novel, smoke pot, strum a guitar and give the proverbial finger to the man - these blokes find it very hard to find love off-screen.

Story here. Excerpt:

'LANDER -- Fremont County authorities say a 25-year-old Casper woman admitted to lying about a rape claim in order to get out of a drunk-driving charge.

The Fremont County sheriff's office says Helen Witt came clean after investigators couldn't make her story from last summer match up.

Witt originally told law enforcement she was raped by two men on the Fourth of July in Boysen State Park. She said the two men drug her from her car and sexually assaulted her on a dirt road near the Cottonwood Bay area of the park.
...
Authorities say Witt has apologized for filing the false report.

Investigators spent hours on the case involving several agencies in addition to the sheriff's office: the Boysen State Park Rangers, the Fremont County Ambulance Service and the Fremont County attorney’s office.'