Article here. Excerpt:

'JUSTICE REPORTER — A study of alienated children has found that mothers were significantly more likely to be the parent who emotionally poisoned their children than were fathers.

Toronto family lawyer Gene Colman told a Toronto symposium yesterday that of 74 court rulings that found parental alienation since 1987, the mother was the alienator in 50 cases. The father was the alienating parent in 24.

"I'm not trying to dump on moms," Mr. Colman told about 150 psychologists, family lawyers, mediators and activist parents. "I'm just saying, that is what the data reveal."

In parental alienation syndrome, an estranged parent systematically brainwashes a child into hating the other parent. The profile of the syndrome escalated over the past year, after three Ontario judges ordered that children be removed from an alienating parent and taken to U.S. clinics for deprogramming therapy.'

Story here. Excerpt:

'The Baby P killing reveals the child abuse industry at its most cynical. The Soviet-style ineptitude revealed daily is the product not of poor training or underfunding but of the logic inherent in bureaucratic politics.

We have long known what causes child abuse and why children like Baby P die. The vast preponderance of child abuse and child deaths occurs in single-parent homes. Very little abuse takes place in married, twoparent families. London’s Family Education Trust long ago demonstrated that children are up to 33 times more likely to suffer serious abuse and 73 times more likely to suffer fatal abuse in the home of a mother with a live-in boyfriend or stepfather than in an intact family.

You and I have our hands full - but I received a letter today from William Hetherington...do you remember him? In a hesaid/shesaid story, William and his wife were in the process of a divorce. She wanted the divorce, he did not. They had two children. She got involved with her boss.

William convinced her to attend marriage counseling, and in time she hinted reconciliation. She invited him to dinner in their home...sent the children to grandma's house. He arrived to find music, candles, flowers, etc. Soon in bed together; and then she jumped up, ran outside screaming that he had raped her. Michigan's first spousal rape case. Police arrived. She said he stuffed a rubber ball in her mouth, but no ball was ever found. He was arrested. Next day, she emptied bank accounts. He had no money for attorney, was denied public defender - because he allegedly had assets.

Story here. Excerpt:

'SASKATOON — A Saskatchewan judge slammed the Norwegian government last month for providing new passports to help a woman flee Canada with two children in the midst of a nasty, transatlantic custody battle.

“The Norwegian government played a pivotal role in the breach of orders of this court. (They) could not have left Canada without its assistance,” Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Geoff Dufour remarked in a Feb. 19 written decision obtained recently by the Saskatoon StarPhoenix.'

From Marc A.: In this article, Sociology professor Scott Coltrane is quoted saying men have not added enough stress to their lives until the past decade and that they now are no longer "off the hook" as they are expected to do more childraising and housework. How ironic that all these lazy, stress-free men have for decades climbed in Coltrane's sewers, collected his garbage and fixed his streets so he can get to his cushy job and talk about how lazy and stress-free men have been.

You can send a letter to the editor at letters-at-usatoday.com and editor-at-usatoday.com and you can email Coltrane directly at coltrane-at-uoregon.edu.

Story here. Excerpt:

'A 34-year-old Bolton, Toronto, mother has been charged in the slaying of her 18-month old child. The toddler's body was found earlier today in a car parked in an underground garage of the Mississauga Executive Centre located directly across from Square One Shopping Centre.
...
The woman is to appear later this afternoon in a Brampton courtroom. She will be charged with first-degree murder. The boy's body was discovered just before 8 a.m. after the accused called police, telling them where to locate her dead child, police say.

The woman was under investigation by the Children's Aid Society.

Police won't confirm a report that the child protection agency was about to take the deceased child and her two other children.'

A letter (.pdf file) has been sent by the National Coalition For Men (NCFM) to the District Attorney of San Diego. The letter addresses a new training video (funded by taxpayers) that is being used to train police.

"The new training video, Domestic Violence: You Make the Difference that your office funded is seriously flawed. Much information in the new video is not scientifically derived or evidence based, and cannot be construed as a best practice."

Article here. Excerpt:

'New data from a large federal study have reignited a debate over the effectiveness of long-term drug treatment of children with hyperactivity or attention-deficit disorder, and have drawn accusations that some members of the research team have sought to play down evidence that medications do little good beyond 24 months.

The study also indicated that long-term use of the drugs can stunt children's growth.
...
One principal scientist in the study, psychologist William Pelham, said that the most obvious interpretation of the data is that the medications are useful in the short term but ineffective over longer periods but added that his colleagues had repeatedly sought to explain away evidence that challenged the long-term usefulness of medication. When their explanations failed to hold up, they reached for new ones, Pelham said.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'While the recent Mira Road rape cases have brought to light sexual crimes against girls in society, the fact is that boys are even more victimised than girls.

"In our experience, we found that boys were more sexually abused than girls. And they were even more reluctant to report it than girls," said Pooja Taparia, founder-CEO, Arpan, a non-governmental organisation (NGO) which works to prevent child sexual abuse and heal those who have been affected by it.
...
"The truth is boys are as much at risk as girls, and so protecting only girls is not enough," said a child rights activist Pranay Veer.

The second myth is child sexual abuse is prevalent only in the lower class.
...
According to a national survey, 50% of the offenders are known to the victim.'

Story here. Excerpt:

'There will be no more time behind bars for a local woman who stabbed herself in an effort to have her daughter's father charged.

Janet Laforge was able to convince both the Crown and the judge Monday that she deserves a chance to turn her life around.

The 38-year-old woman pleaded guilty in February to attempting to commit public mischief by causing police to begin an investigation into the false allegation.

She also was convicted of three other offences, including assault and two counts of breach of a recognizance, stemming from the Jan. 11 incident.

As well, Laforge pleaded guilty to possession of stolen property and three counts of possession of stolen credit cards.

These charges were in connection with a Dec. 11 shopping spree where she made purchases with credit cards stolen from another woman's purse.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'One in four children in Wales have no contact with their biological father, a children's charity suggests.

In a poll of young people from the year 7-11 school age group, 24%, when asked, said they 'don't see' their father.

More than a quarter of 15-year-olds asked said they had tried cannabis, with the figure higher among those who did not feel close to their father.

Catch22, which commissioned the survey, said it underlined the importance of a good father child relationship.

The findings form a preliminary part of a report, Growing up with Dad, based on research carried out by Catch22, a charity that helps young people out of difficult situations.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'The quest to find a man, not a boy, plagues most women today. We women find ourselves sitting and pondering where the elusive man has gone, and why he has been replaced with these obviously cheap knockoffs the same quality of a swap meet Gucci bag.

Well, the pondering is over and our question answered. The cherished Y chromosome is losing its genes from generation to generation. Women can let out that sigh of relief - It's down to genetics. They might not be that into us, but it's because genetically they aren't that into themselves.
...
Every guy should give a hand to that, not because they are saved from disappearance, but because, at their current state, it's the only real loving they should get. So, as the hunt for the real man continues, women can stop settling for some half mutated loser, but comb through looking for that one man who escaped his genetic disposition, and learned a thing or two from his mother.'

Story here. Excerpt:

'LEONARDTOWN, Md. -- A sheriff's deputy who went to a home to perform a welfare check found himself in the line of fire Friday, according to the St. Mary's County Sheriff's Office.

The deputy made contact with 35-year-old Nancy Martha Ahearn at a Leonardtown residence when he saw an 18-month-old boy pull a bookshelf onto himself, authorities said.

When the deputy went to assist the child, Ahearn went to a closet to get a handgun, according to the sheriff's office. She pointed it at the deputy, who sought cover, and fired.

Ahearn only managed to successfully fire one shot, authorities said, and the deputy was able to disarm her.

Ahearn was taken to St. Mary's Hospital for evaluation. She was charged Wednesday with attempted murder and first-degree assault.'

Story here. Excerpt:

'A woman whose first murder trial ended up in a hung jury was convicted Monday of killing her husband by the second jury to hear her case.

Grace Pianka, 51, was found guilty of second-degree murder in Maricopa County Superior Court. She faces up to 22 years in prison when she is sentenced May 29.

Pianka was charged in the April 15, 2006, shooting death of her husband, Adam Kostewicz.
Her first trial ended in a hung jury last August.
...
The jurors would not comment on the case, but all affirmed their guilty votes when individually polled after the verdict was read in the courtroom of Judge Warren Granville.

Pianka faced a presumptive prison term of 10 to 16 years for the crime. However, Granville ruled that aggravating circumstances - the fact that a gun was used in the crime - meant that the prison term could be stretched to as much as 22 years.'

Story here. Excerpt:

'A Lawrenceville woman has been charged with stabbing her boyfriend with scissors early yesterday during an argument over their car.

Charges against Sherrse A. Gaines include aggravated assault and domestic violence, police said.

Ms. Gaines, 25, answered the door, her arms and face bloody, when police responded to a call at their residence in the 5200 block of Wickliff Street around 4 a.m.

Police said the boyfriend was seen on the stairs with a large, open wound of the chest, and officers immediately summoned an ambulance.

The victim told police that during the argument, Ms. Gaines began punching and scratching him before she brandished the scissors and began lashing at him, striking him in the face and chest.'