Article here. Excerpt:

'ISHPEMING, Mich. - The country is suffering through economic crises and high unemployment rates that some have dubbed the "Great Recession."

While many are facing hardships, today's numbers don't compare with the Great Depression of the 1930s.

"By 1933, it's hard to believe but 45 percent of the people in the Upper Peninsula were on welfare," said local author Larry Chabot, who gave a presentation on his newest book "Saving Our Sons: How the Civilian Conservation Corps Rescued a Generation of Upper Michigan Men" recently at the Ishpeming Carnegie Public Library. "In this poverty atmosphere, the character of the people began to change."

As the nation began to see its young men living as hobos, riding the rail lines to wherever they could find food, and watched small-town banks closing, it became clear something had to be done.

"The picture became bleaker and bleaker and bleaker," Chabot said. "There were no social nets at that time."'

Story here. Excerpt:

'OSBORNE — An Osborne woman was charged with providing alcohol to her dance students from an Allegheny County school and indecently assaulting one of them.

Cassandra L. Sproch, 42, of 1433 Beaver Road, was charged Tuesday with indecent assault, child endangerment, corruption of minors, unlawful contact with a minor and providing alcohol to minors.

According to a complaint filed by Allegheny County police, Sproch was a part-time dance instructor at the Propel School in Homestead on Nov. 15, when the incident is alleged to have taken place at her home.

Police wrote that Sproch’s 14-year-old son asked Sproch to pick up three students, two males and one female, and around 6 p.m., all the juveniles were at Sproch’s house.

Sproch gave the males wine during dinner, her son told police, and got drunk on wine herself.

At one point, the boy told police, Sproch put her hand on a 15-year-old boy’s crotch, kissed him and offered him sex.

Story here. Excerpt:

'(ALBANY, Ore.) - Linn County detectives say an Albany female preschool teacher sent cell phone text messages with sexual content to a 14-year-old boy. Linn County Sheriff Tim Mueller says text messages were discovered by the boy's parents and reported on November 29.

"The woman is a preschool teacher at Central Valley Adventist Academy on Highway 34 near Tangent, the same school where the boy is an eighth grade student."

Mueller says the investigation has revealed that in addition to the text messages, the woman and boy had kissed and had other inappropriate contact both on and off school grounds.

On December 2, 34-year old Jenifer Stitzel, was arrested on two counts of third-degree sex abuse, a class A misdemeanor.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Movember is a month-long event that both celebrates the moustache and raises awareness on men's health issues.

"Movember is a fundraising effort throughout the month of November," said Ryan Morimura, Interfraternity Council public relations vice president. "It benefits men's health issues, specifically prostate cancer."

Morimura said throughout the month of November, men grow mustaches and when they are asked why he is growing a mustache, they can talk about Movember's fundraising efforts.

"The money goes to fund research to find better treatments and a cure for prostate cancer," Morimura said.

According to its Web site, the Movember Foundation is a not-for-profit organization. Beginning with the 2009 campaign, the money raised will be donated evenly between the Prostate Cancer Foundation and the Lance Armstrong Foundation.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'HIGH Peak looks set to have a female Labour candidate at the next election after the local party proposed an all-woman shortlist.

Constituency Chairman Alan Barrow said "At our meeting on Friday an overwhelming majority of members present favoured an all women shortlist."

"With several examples of high performing women locally including former Chapel County Councillor Anne Western who is now leader of the Labour group on the county council and the current Leader and Deputy Leader of the High Peak Borough Council's Labour group, it was an easy decision to reach," he said.

Buxton Councillor Caitlin Bisknell is the leader of the Labour Group on High Peak Borough Council while Jacqui Wilkinson from Glossop is the deputy leader.

Procedure Secretary Cllr Anthony McKeown, said: "Our local decision now goes to the national party for agreement and a timetable for the selection will then be put in place."

Story here. Excerpt:

'A motivational women-only cardiac rehabilitation program helped reduce symptoms of depression in women with coronary heart disease, a U.S. study has found.

Depression, which is more common in female heart disease patients than in males, can interfere with adoption of lifestyle changes meant to improve health and willingness to attend cardiac rehabilitation.

"Women often don't have the motivation to attend cardiac rehab, particularly if they're depressed," lead author Theresa Beckie, a professor at the University of South Florida's College of Nursing in Tampa, said in a news release from the American Heart Association.

Article here. Excerpt:

'Governor Deval Patrick of Massachusetts refused to appear at the Clover Club, an Irish American group of businessmen and community leaders in Boston over the weekend because it is a men-only club.

Deval was dead wrong.

I hope he will similarly cancel visits to the National Organization of Women for the same reason.

The club was founded in 1883 by Irish-American men as a dinner and card-playing venue. But it is now an organization of prominent business and civic leaders, and one that helps many groups.

Clearly, there are some men's clubs at which Patrick should not appear, but the Clover Club is not one of them.'

Blog post here. Excerpt:

'Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Should women have to register for the draft? Obama says yes.

Instapundit gives lukewarm agreement -- "we should probably include women, too. Seems only fair" -- and links to this report:

But the two presidential candidates disagree on a key foundation of any future draft: Mr. Obama supports a requirement for both men and women to register with the Selective Service, while Mr. McCain doesn't think women should have to register....

Both Congress and the Supreme Court have exempted women from registration because of the combat rules.

The Supreme Court hasn't exempted women, it has accepted the exemption of women.
...

Article here. Excerpt:

'It's a dire time for the stronger sex. Men are in the firing line of sexism, too, so please stop the ‘dorking down’
...
But I’m not thinking these things. Faking it, like multitasking, must be another of those many things men aren’t very good at. Janice Turner writes with the bracing clarity of the true campaigner. I can’t fake the same kind of campaigning zeal for masculism — not least because I had to look it up.

To put it mildly, the male version of feminism has not got much traction in popular culture. You will find one or two male writers who do have that zeal. But they don’t speak for men. Most don’t know what masculism is either, and really don’t care.

So what do I really think? I think if female journalism students are brighter and more motivated than boys, so be it. I’m not going to call for quotas. If my finance director wants to tease me — I’ll treat it as harmless banter, more or less.

Story here.

'A man was reportedly stabbed three times today by his wife.

Eddie Zaragoza, 28, was at his home in the 3500 block of Valdez Drive around 5:15 a.m. when he received two stab wounds to his left upper back and one to his lower back, according to a police report.

Witnesses said they were outside Zaragoza's house smoking when he reportedly stumbled outside and said he had been stabbed. They took Zaragoza to Broadlawns Medical Center, where his injuries were listed as serious, police said.

Police spoke to Zaragoza at the hospital. He said he and his wife got into a fight about her going out to bars and clubs.

He told police that his wife got angry and reportedly punched him in the face, and he pushed her back.

Zaragoza told police he did not remember exactly what happened next except that she stabbed him.

Zaragoza did not want to press charges, but police requested a warrant for domestic assault with intent for his wife.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Teenage boys who are heavily into sport get new respect in a Swedish study that found physically active teenagers tend to be smarter than their couch-potato counterparts.

Researchers from the Institute of Medicine at the University of Gothenburg set out to see if aerobic or cardiovascular fitness and muscle strength were associated with brain power and future socioeconomic status.

They analysed a physical and intelligence snapshot taken of 1.2 million Swedish men born between 1950 and 1976 when they reported for mandatory military duty at age 18.

They also assessed genetic and family influences by looking at the scores of brothers and twins and, over time, the association between all initial scores and measures of success at midlife, including education level and occupation.

The researchers, led by Dr H Georg Kuhn, said the results showed a strong positive link between cardiovascular fitness and smarts but not between muscle strength and intelligence measures.'

Story here.

'A female teacher at a regional NSW school has been charged with having sex with a 16-year-old male student, police say.

Police at Dubbo, in the state's central west, charged the 24-year-old woman on November 18 with having sexual intercourse with a person under her care.

"Police ... were alerted to an allegation of an inappropriate relationship between a teacher and pupil at a district high school," police said in a statement on Wednesday.

The woman has been granted bail and is due to face Dubbo Local Court on January 12.'

Story here.

'A WOMAN from Salisbury has appeared at Southampton Crown Court accused of making a false allegation of rape.

Gemma Mann, 24, is charged with attempting to pervert the course of justice by claiming her sister had been raped.

Mann, of St Clements Way, Bishopdown, who does not have a sister, had bail extended to January 29.

Police mounted a full-scale operation with volunteer search groups at the Royal Victoria Country Park in Netley last month.'

---
Ed. note: This is an update on this story.

Article here. Excerpt:

'Chastising men's rights groups for using the Tiger Woods story to promote awareness of men as victims of domestic violence, Rosin dismisses the female abuser as a myth unsupported by "sociological research." Never mind that some of the most prominent sociologists specializing in domestic violence research, such as Murray Straus of the University of New Hampshire, have written extensively about abuse as a two-way street (though recognizing that male violence poses a higher risk of harm).

Article here. Excerpt:

'DOMESTIC abuse – there's no excuse. No excuse, that is, to continue to peddle the myth that only females are victims of this criminal behaviour.

Last Wednesday, the BBC announced schoolchildren in England and Wales will receive compulsory lessons about domestic violence in an effort to reduce attacks on women and girls.

Clearly unaware of the irony, the newsreader's next item referred to the recapture of Jane Andrews, the former royal aide who is serving a minimum of 12 years for the beating and stabbing to death the man who refused to marry her.
...
Let's be clear: women are far more likely to be victims of domestic violence than men. However, the number of males who are abused by female partners is significant and growing. In Scotland, police reports where men have been harmed by female partners has increased 110 per cent since 1999-2000. In 2007, Strathclyde police reported that more than 3,000 incidents involved violence by females on males, compared to more than 20,000 incidents of male-on-female violence.