Story here. Excerpt:

'As Vickie L. Kubin left a Washington County magistrate's office in chains Thursday before her expected release later in the day, her husband, Mark, said, "See you in a bit."

It was a calm contrast to June 3, the last time they were together.

At that time, they were involved in an argument at their home at 105 Fox Stop Road in Fallowfield Township, and Vickie Kubin 35, shot her husband in the side of the head, according to an affidavit of probable cause.

Minutes before she was to face a preliminary hearing before Magisterial District Judge Larry Hopkins in Charleroi yesterday, attorneys for both sides reached a tentative agreement that likely will involve 12 to 23 months of probation, but no prison time. The agreement requires Common Pleas Court approval.

Charges of criminal attempt to commit homicide and aggravated assault filed last week were dropped. Kubin waived her right to a preliminary hearing on charges of recklessly endangering another person and simple assault.'

Story here. Excerpt:

'Labour MP Caroline Flint has been criticised for her attack on Gordon Brown's style of government and his treatment of female ministers.

Ms Flint resigned as Europe minister on Friday, claiming he operated a "two-tier" government via an "inner" circle.

Senior female figures were regarded as "little more than window dressing" by the prime minister, Ms Flint argued.

Fellow MP Geraldine Smith said Ms Flint would "regret" her comments, saying she should have thought twice about them.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'A pair of Indiana brothers, Joel and Aaron Longanecker, have convinced more than a quarter-million males to promise to "stand up and do manly things" on June 15 in observance of their proposed new holiday -- National Man Day.

Their National Man Day page on Facebook urges men across the country to take time to get in touch with their masculine sides on Monday. Suggested activities include playing football, camping, hunting, eating 18-ounce steaks, blowing things up, shooting guns, punching each other for no reason, pumping some iron or "watching every Rambo movie from beginning to end. Straight through!"

The purpose of the proposed holiday, according to the National Man Day page, is to acknowledge that the time has arrived "to take back the crown of masculinity."

Article here. Excerpt:

Story here.

'A Lake Arthur woman who admitted to filing a false report about being raped in the Jennings VFW parking lot – and also admittedly filed a false report for an armed robbery in Lake Arthur – will now face charges from the Jeff Davis Parish District Attorney’s Office.

Cassidy said Jenny Thibodeaux, 42, of Lake Arthur, will face two charges of filing a false report and an additional charge of theft. On Nov. 18, 2008, Thibodeaux claimed she was raped in the field alongside the VFW on U.S. 90 by an unidentified assailant wearing dark clothes, gloves and a ski mask. She claimed she was attacked as she exited her vehicle to play bingo at the hall. She told police that the attacker fled in a white van. A woman on a cigarette break allegedly found Thibodeaux partially clothed and screaming for help, according to Jennings police.'

Story here. Excerpt:

'LAPEER -- A young woman who claimed she was sexually assaulted by a police impostor was arrested and charged with fabricating the rape.

Bethany Anne Montgomery, 22, of North Branch, was arraigned Thursday by District Court Magistrate Mike Delling on two counts of false reports of a felony, one for allegedly inventing the attack, and the other for a home burglary she reported. Montgomery is also facing unrelated charges for writing bad checks.

"We made an arrest, but it wasn't a rouge cop," said Lapeer County Sheriff's Sgt. Jason Parks. "Miss Montgomery owes this entire community an apology. What she did was wrong. She frightened many people and victimized our community. This is very disturbing."'

Article here. Excerpt:

'When Steve Saltarelli started a student group called Men in Power at the University of Chicago, he intended it to "spread awareness and promote understanding of issues and challenges facing men today." But from the explosive reactions to its formation, you would have thought he was suggesting women return to greeting their master at the door with slippers in hand.

The Chicago Tribune's feature story on the group was quickly blogged across the Internet, with many echoes of the female student who said, "It's like starting 'White Men in Business' -- there's not really any purpose." Or, more derisively, the blogger who told men, "You've ruled the world for far too long, now you cry fowl! Booo, hooey!"
...

Article here. Excerpt:

'There was a time in our country when a woman had gallant men riding in to defend her honor. Since the failed feminist movement has destroyed these pedestals of virtue and reduced women to nothing more than dim reflections of the boorish men they seek to emulate, it is no surprise that chivalry has experienced societal obsolescence.
...
Men have denigrated women to the point where two men think that their anatomy is the equivalent of a woman's and choose that option to the real thing because women, in their eyes, are not worthy of intimacy. Two percent of the population, claiming to be the victims of societal victimization, are the ones who have the power to punish women, like Carrie Prejean, who express a different opinion.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'They are charged with the most essential of duties: protecting vulnerable children from abuse and neglect. They will intervene in the lives of roughly 200,000 Canadian children this year.

For most of us, they are generally unseen, save for occasional mentions in news reports, when they rescue children from misery. Or, as sometimes happens, deliver it.

Canada's child-welfare agencies, says University of Manitoba social work professor Brad McKenzie, have among the broadest intervention powers in the Western world.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'A hardline feminist has been chosen as the Government's new chief spokesman on families.

Dr Katherine Rake, who wants to see men bring up babies, will head the Family and Parenting Institute, a heavily state-financed organisation set up by Labour to speak for parents and children.'
...
'It has complained that women will never achieve equality with men at work without 'challenging the traditional roles of homemaker and breadwinner'.

Fawcett has also condemned Tory plans to give tax breaks to married couples, complaining that 'it penalises all those children living with unmarried parents or with one parent'.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'June 12, 2009 · On Father's Day, June 21, hundreds of Marines from Camp Lejeune in North Carolina will have been away from home for nearly a month. While the Marines are in Afghanistan, their children are learning to get along without their dads. NPR is following the deployment of the 2nd Battalion, 8th Regiment, a unit of more than 800 Marines known as "America's Battalion." On the home front, the families of those deployed are coping with their absence.

American flags dot the street that leads to the home of Marine Sgt. Major Bob Breedan, the 2nd Battalion's top enlisted man. Breedan talked with NPR before his unit deployed to Afghanistan.

He said he has missed almost every milestone in his daughter's life. His wife Barbara didn't miss a thing.'

Via Marc A.: Story here. Excerpt:

'NAIROBI, Kenya, Jun 12 - Kenyan men were crying foul on Friday for what they termed as ‘discrimination’ in the Budget delivered by Finance Minister Uhuru Kenyatta on Thursday.

An organisation championing men’s rights said men were the biggest losers because their commodities were not zero-rated as was the case for those used by women.

“We were the biggest losers. Women were the winners because their cosmetics and jewelry were zero-rated,” Nderitu Njoka, chairman of the Maendeleo ya Wanaume told Capital News.'

Ed. note: Please forgive my ignorance of the workings of the government in Kenya or the role this budget plays in determining things like tax levels, etc. Can someone from Kenya or knowledgeable about the Kenyan budget/government process help me put this story into better context?

Article here. Excerpt:

'Here come the stats police.

Mobilized by distressingly low levels of public trust in official statistics, the U.K. government is embarking on a daring, and possibly unique, experiment. With broad support, Parliament in 2007 approved the formation of the U.K. Statistics Authority, a group with the budget, authority and independence to question other government agencies on the numbers they release to the public.

After its formation last year, the authority got off to a slow start, but it has already taken to task other government agencies for presenting data in a misleading way. Now, it is gearing up for audits on hot-button topics, such as crime statistics and education test scores, whose reliability has come into question.'

Article here. Note the stats:

'Female public servants make disability claims at roughly twice the rate of men. In 2008, women, who represent 54.4 per cent of the workforce, filed more than 70 per cent of all claims -- up from two-thirds in 2007.'

Note the excuse:
'"That likely reflects the fact that women face more pressures outside the office, Gordon said.

"It's a pretty well-known fact that women tend to be the main people who give home care, and they're trying to work to support the family as well. And there's a lot of single mothers who work."'

There is comments section below, let's get our voices heard.

Story here. The media could not have a more winning formula for sensationalism and luridness. Excerpt:

'Amanda Knox is a riddle. The expatriate American student has been the mysterious, ambivalent Mona Lisa face plastered across television, websites and newspapers since a few days after Halloween 2007. According to Italian authorities and their partisans in the blogosphere where her case has been strenuously debated, behind her beatific smile lies a psycho hedonist capable of depraved murder. But family and friends insist she's just a granola-crunching athlete and honor student from Seattle who has, through bad luck, become the poster child for the perils that await American girls caught up in the dark side of Italy.'

As always, if Amanda had been Adam, would the article be written the way it is? Would there be so much 'controversy' in the case. No.