Story here. Excerpt:

'BEIJING – Dubbed the "godmother" of the Chinese underworld, she was notorious for her toughness and a lavish lifestyle that reportedly included luxury villas and a stable of 16 young lovers.

Her criminal reign ended Tuesday when Xie Caiping, 46, was sentenced to 18 years in prison for running illegal casinos and bribing government officials. Her trial was one of a series of gang prosecutions in the southwestern city of Chongqing that have featured lurid testimony about sex, corruption and the violent underworld.

Story here. Excerpt:

'It sounds like the sort of romantic-mystery potboiler that keeps readers on the edge of their summer beach chairs: A strikingly pretty Florida housewife with a handsome husband and two beautiful young daughters is kidnapped, sexually assaulted, and held for $50,000 ransom.

Or was she?

Prosecutors contend the strange case of 37-year-old Quinn Gray, who claims she was abducted and held for four days in hellish captivity, is a cleverly planned ruse. They claim her supposed abductor, a 25-year-old Bosnian immigrant, was actually her lover, and that the pair plotted to extort cash from Quinn’s well-heeled husband, Reid.

Quinn Gray and her alleged lover, Jasmin Osmanovic, are charged with extortion. But two of her lawyers appeared on TODAY Tuesday to say that Gray, who has a history of mental illness, is a terrorized victim, not a scheming co-conspirator. The case has set the community around Jacksonville, Fla., abuzz.'

Video report here. This is some funny stuff! Fox's Greg Gutfeld does a brief monologue on gender studies.

Quote:

"Because gender studies doesn't help you do anything else but teach gender studies, no wonder tenor is so vital."

Story here. Excerpt:

'HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) - CBS sportscaster Jim Nantz must pay $916,000 yearly in alimony and child support to his ex-wife and give up their Connecticut home under terms of a newly issued divorce decree.

The ruling, made Monday in Bridgeport Superior Court, dissolves the 26-year marriage of Nantz and Ann-Lorraine "Lorrie" Carlsen Nantz. It comes after both testified about the breakdown of their marriage; Judge Howard Owens concluded neither was at fault.
...
Owens noted that the couple didn't share the same interests in Nantz's television career, which required frequent travel as the network's primary commentator for college football, golf and basketball, as well as appearances at charity events.

"In fairness, for most of the years he prioritized his family obligation and put his wife and daughter Caroline first. As frequently happens in marriages of lengthy duration, the parties do not have the same interest and ardor for their spouses' endeavors," the judge wrote in his decision.

Humbly ;) announcing that yours truly is scheduled to be interviewed on The Jim Engster Show tomorrow, Nov. 4 at 9:40 AM US Central Time.

There is no particular topical agenda for the interview, which will probably be pretty brief, other than mens' and fathers' rights issues in general. But tune in/download the podcast later anyway, it could be fun. :)

Article here. Excerpt:

'A group of 50 mental health experts from 10 countries are part of an effort to add Parental Alienation to the 2012 edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, the American Psychiatric Association’s “bible” of diagnoses. According to psychiatrist William Bernet, this “would spur insurance coverage, stimulate more systematic research, lend credence to a charge of parental alienation in court, and raise the odds that children would get timely treatment.”

Few family law cases are as heartbreaking as those involving Parental Alienation. In PA cases, one parent has turned his or her children against the other parent, destroying the loving bonds the children and the target parent once enjoyed.

Numerous misguided feminist groups oppose recognition of Parental Alienation in court or in DSM. Some of these opponents raise legitimate concerns. For example, Janet Johnston, a feminist-oriented clinical sociologist/justice studies professor, fears that PAS could be invoked by an abusive parent to gain rights to a child.'

Story here. Excerpt:

'Tasmania's Legislative Council has voted unanimously to make the legal recognition of lesbian co-mothers retrospective to 2003.

The vote followed the unanimous acceptance to legally recognise two mothers on a birth certificate.

The law was originally rejected in 2003 when gay and lesbian couples were first recognised in Tasmanian law.

Rodney Croome from the Tasmanian Gay and Lesbian Rights Group said it is an important step forward.
...
"Rather than go through the costly process, the drawn-out process of applying for adoption and doing it that way, and going through the Family Court, they will now be able to make the application to the registrar and if they can satisfy the register of their significant relationship, then it will be a fairly easy process for them to be included," he said.'

On October 6th, the New Jersey Supreme Court announced it would hear the Crespo appeal. Crespo is the case that, among other things, challenges the constitutionality of Protective Orders issued under the "Preponderance of the Evidence" standard of proof, which is among the lowest of all legal standards of proof in the U.S. A lower court judge ruled that "Preponderance of the Evidence" is not sufficient to remove a person from their home and deny them access to their children. The appeals court overturned the decision. But New Jersey attorney David Heleniak has convinced the N.J. Supreme Court to review the case. According to Heleniak, a victory in the New Jersey high court could have ripple effects across the country.

From Marc A.: Anderson Cooper of CNN is relentlessly spreading the gender pay gap myth over and over. Please post a comment on his latest one here ("Breaking into the boys club"). And, email him at anderson.cooper-at-turner.com. We need to bombard him with posts and emails. Here is some info if you need it:

The Department of Labor recently funded this study (.pdf file) titled "An Analysis of the Reason for the Disparity in Wages Between Men and Women" and provided a forward, which found the pay gap is a result of choices such as longer hours, flexibility, etc., not discrimination.

Via Marc A.: All right, who put acid in my coffee? I actually see the NY Times printing a male-positive article and acknowledging maternal gatekeeping as a factor in the shortage of father involvement. No way. What's next, acknowledging the actual number of male DV victims? Excerpt:

'Uninvolved fathers have long been accused of lacking motivation. But research shows that many societal obstacles conspire against them. Even as more fathers are changing diapers, dropping the children off at school and coaching soccer, they are often pushed aside in ways large and small.

“The walls in family resource centers are pink, there are women’s magazines in the waiting room, the mother’s name is on the files, and the home visitor asks for the mother if the father answers the door,” said Philip A. Cowan, an emeritus professor of psychology at the University of California, Berkeley, who along with his wife, Carolyn Pape Cowan, has conducted decades of research on families. “It’s like fathers are not there.” '

Story here. It took 6 years and is only a million dollars (lawyers will probably get most) in restitution but it is still a win. I think the main issue here is that a man actually decided to fight back against the ingrained misandry of this society and won! I doubt he will be on Larry King Live or Oprah. Excerpt:

'LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Lawry's, a California-based chain of high-end steakhouses, has agreed to pay more than $1 million to settle a sex-discrimination lawsuit that claimed it only hired women to wait on tables.

...Under the EEOC consent decree, Lawry's has agreed to actively promote the hiring of men into server position among other remedies.

The EEOC launched an investigation into the case after a male employee at Lawry's sued the chain in March 2003, arguing that he was denied a job as a server because of his sex.
...
However, since the complaint, the company "undertook substantial efforts to remedy the matter."

Story here. Excerpt:

'The image of young women in a hot, dusty combat zone toting automatic weapons is still startling to some.

But right now there are 10,000 women serving in Iraq, more than 4,000 in Afghanistan. They have been fighting and dying next to their male comrades since the wars began.

"I can't help but think most Americans think women aren't in combat," says Specialist Ashley Pullen who was awarded a Bronze Star for valor in 2005 for her heroic action in Iraq where she served with a military police unit. "We're here and we're right up with the guys."
...
Nevertheless, women serving in support positions on and off the frontlines, where war is waged on street corners and in markets, are often at equal risk. There have been 103 women who have been killed in Iraq and 15 others in Afghanistan.'

Story here. Excerpt:

'A New Jersey mother whose inability to understand English apparently misled her to believe that her children would be taken away stabbed her 8-year-old son with a steak knife, then tried to kill herself, police said.

Elida Marroquin was charged with attempted murder, aggravated assault, child endangerment and weapons offenses following Saturday's incident at the family's home in Bergenfield. Bail was set at $500,000, and both she and the child were expected to recover from their wounds.
...
Authorities said the 37-year-old married mother of three, who does not read English well, grew stressful and mistakenly feared she would lose custody of her children after receiving several letters from their school in recent weeks.
...
She and her son were taken to Hackensack University Medical Center, where doctors removed the boy's gall bladder and treated his mother for a puncture wound to the neck. Both remained hospitalized on Sunday, and the mother will soon undergo a psychiatric evaluation.'

Story here. Excerpt:

'London, England (CNN) -- A baby born with a severe birth defect put its parents on opposing sides in a British court Monday over whether to switch off the child's life support.

The mother sides with doctors and favors disconnecting the baby's respirator. The father took the case to the High Court in London to stop them.
...
The father took the case to court to stop them.

He says the baby can play and recognize its parents. His lawyers plan to show videos of the baby in court to demonstrate he responds to the world around himself.
...
The Mayo Clinic, one of the leading hospitals in the United States, says on its Web site that "different forms of CMS vary widely in their symptoms, from mild to severely disabling. With accurate diagnosis and appropriate therapy, even potentially fatal forms can usually be treated successfully."'

Read the article here. The same old dribble written by a woman whose mother is one of the newspapers editors. Excerpt:

'According to the University of Alberta, the salaries of recent female business graduates narrowly exceeded those of their male counterparts for the first time. In the U.S., a recent study called the Shriver Report found that half the American work force is now composed of women.
...
Despite working harder and in greater numbers than ever before, women are still earning less than men in the same jobs over all and taking most of the responsibility for housework and child care.

In essence, the plight of women is like that old morale-boosting management trick: the no-compensation promotion (also known as the non-raise raise). It's all very flattering until you realize that you have just taken on twice as much work and responsibility for no extra pay or respect.
...