U.S.: Vasectomy Rates Up Sharply

Article here. Excerpt:

'FRIDAY, March 20 (HealthDay News) -- Doctors around the United States are reporting a sharp increase in the number of vasectomies performed since the economy soured last year, with one noting that many of his clients are from the beleaguered financial industry.

Their best guess is that the trend is due both to a decreased desire to have children because of the expense involved, and an increased desire to get such medical procedures done before their jobs -- and health insurance -- disappear.

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India: Jaipur men victim of false dowry cases

Story here. Excerpt:

"Two cases of dowry harassment and domestic violence are registered everyday with three Woman Police Stations in the city. Thirty alleged dowry deaths were reported in the district in 2008. Amid hue and cry by the NGOs and other social organizations over the alleged misuse of sections related to dowry harassment and domestic violence, there is another aspect which goes unnoticed most of the times. There are many people who have to suffer at a very young age due to such cases. Their career is ruined and they are left with no other option but to suffer from delayed judgments and biased police investigation.
...
In most of the cases, the FIRs are lodged by giving distorted facts and police either act lethargically or adopt a biased attitude which cost dear to the groom and his family," Ashwani added."

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Mom says LA toddler found dead not kidnap victim

Story here. Excerpt:

'PALMDALE, Calif. (Map, News) - A woman who reported her 18-month-old daughter missing now says the child died accidentally and that she dumped the body near a freeway, authorities said Friday.

Stacey Barker, 24, told detectives that when her daughter Emma Leigh died, she panicked and believed she would be blamed, Los Angeles County sheriff's Sgt. Diane Hecht said.

A body found Thursday in Sylmar, a few blocks from Interstate 5, was identified by coroner's officials as Emma. The cause of death was not immediately determined.

Barker initially told investigators that she was knocked unconscious by someone while putting Emma into her car in Lancaster on Wednesday. She said Emma was gone when she awoke partially clad hours later in another city.'

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Transgender wife gets 4 years for husband's death

Story here. Excerpt:

'CHARDON, Ohio — A transgender woman has been sentenced in Ohio to four years in prison for killing her frail husband by forcing him to exercise.

Forty-one-year-old Chris Mason was sentenced Friday in Geauga (GEE'-aw-guh) County Common Pleas Court for reckless homicide in the death of 73-year-old James Mason. She pleaded guilty earlier and could have gotten five years at sentencing.

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MSNBC: Want to be a dude? Movies will teach you how

Article here. Excerpt:

'2. Pepper your everyday speech with references to flatulence, diarrhea, sex acts, vomit and menstruation. If you can work them all into a sentence used in the presence of your mom or, better yet, your best friend’s mom, all the better. Extra points if you can spread this frosting on the cake of an expensive college education. The “Adventureland” twentysomethings toss around Nikolai Gogol and Virgil as often as they do bags of weed.
...
5. Use so much convoluted, idiomatic slang-intensive speech that even you don’t understand. Rather than leaving it behind in the hermetically sealed teenage world, the New Dude carries it well into adulthood and trades it for credibility with other men. “I Love You, Man” takes a daring approach to this rule by mocking the practice (See the ad campaign’s “Pop a squiznot” posters) but it will most likely endure anyway.'

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Woman charged in fake rape report

Story here.

'OXFORD TWP. – A 23-year-old College Corner woman now faces a misdemeanor charge after police said she concocted a story about being kidnapped and raped earlier this week.

Jacqulyn Harrison could spend up to six months in jail if she is convicted on a charge of making a false alarm.

On Wednesday, Harrison reported to police that she was forced into a black vehicle earlier in the day while walking along U.S. 27 near College Corner around 1:30 a.m.

She said a man took her to a field where she was repeatedly raped and forced to take drugs. She told police the suspect stole her money and then dropped her off back near U.S. 27.

Harrison gave police a detailed description of a suspect and his vehicle, right down to his white “Air Force” brand tennis shoes.

The incident never occurred, Oxford Township police said today.'

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The Teen Rape Double Standard

Article here. Excerpt:

'After a 17-year-old boy had sex with his 14-year-old girlfriend, he was charged with a felony for statutory rape. When a 17-year-old girl in the same town commited the same crime, she was charged with far less. Was the boy the victim of gender bias?

Alan Jepsen was playing videogames at his home in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, when the cops came knocking on his door. He was handcuffed in front of his sister and thrown in jail. In the words of his attorney, Jeffrey Purnell, “This child, this 17-year-old high-school kid, had to spend a week in jail—they locked him up and they put him in jail with grown-ups.”

His crime: Having sex with his 14-year-old girlfriend. And, perhaps, being a boy.'

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Rudov Radio Interview Points Up Double-Standards in DV

Listen to the interview here. Clicking this link launches your Media Player and the show streams. I tried saving the link file down and running it from my hard drive but that doesn't work.

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Reports: Woman gave birth, left baby on plane

Story here. Excerpt:

'WELLINGTON, New Zealand – A woman who secretly gave birth on a flight from Samoa to New Zealand may face criminal charges after her baby was found alive in the plane's bathroom, police and media reports said Friday.

Police are inquiring into "the alleged ... abandonment of the child by the mother" after the flight landed in New Zealand on Thursday, police communications manager Ana-Mari Gates-Bowey said. "A likelihood of this investigation is a criminal prosecution."

Media reports said the mother left the baby in a bathroom waste bin on the Pacific Blue plane carrying 150 passengers; others said she was spotted with bloodied clothes in an immigration line. Police have declined comment on the reports.

Gates-Bowey said late Thursday the woman had undergone surgery at Auckland's Middlemore Hospital and was later reunited with her baby. Its gender has not been disclosed.'

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Pro-Joint Parenting Story

Article here. The author debates the pros and cons of shared parenting with a child that has been with his mother for 9 of 11 years. Excerpt:

'Post-divorce child custody arrangements fall commonly into two models. There is the primary residence model, wherein children sleep, eat and live primarily in one house with one parent. For reasons of prejudice, the primary residence most often belongs to the mother. Then there is the two-residence model, wherein the children split time in what are essentially two lives, two homes and possibly two neighborhoods.

Both models make deals with the devil as it were.

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'Project Runway' Finalist Faces Assault Charges

Story here. Excerpt:

'Kenley Collins, the catty, batty finalist on "Project Runway," really let the fur fly when she assaulted her now ex-fiancé with their pet feline in their Williamsburg apartment, authorities said yesterday.

The fashion designer, 26, was charged with assault and criminal possession of a weapon the weapon being the cat itself for her crazed attack on Zak Penley, 28, prosecutors said.

"It was a miscommunication," Kenley told The Post after getting released without bail from Brooklyn Supreme Court yesterday morning. "Fights happen, and that's that.

According to sources, the fur began to fly at 7 a.m. when Collins cocked her arm and threw one of the couple's two cats Arlo or Sandra at Penley, who was sleeping at the time.

She then threw her laptop as he fell and crawled on the floor, cops said. She also allegedly slammed a door on his head.

As Penley dialed 911, Collins threw three apples at him and doused him with water, cops said.

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Tutor charged with endangering welfare of a child

Story here. Excerpt:

'IRONDEQUOIT — Police have arrested a woman who tutored children at Bishop Kearney High School on charges of having inappropriate sexual contact with three students.

Lisa K. Marshall, 37, of Lakebreeze Park, Irondequoit, was charged Wednesday with three counts of endangering the welfare of a child and one count of third-degree sexual abuse. She was later arraigned in Irondequoit Town Court, police said.

Marshall was employed by Monroe County Board of Cooperative Educational Services District 1 and was assigned to work with students at Kearney during the school day, according to BOCES spokesman John Walker.

Police said Marshall propositioned a 15-year-old male student at her home in February, requesting that the teen have sex with her. Marshall had picked the student up at his home and brought him to her home, ostensibly to have him help her create a MySpace page.'

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Fathers' rights activist banned from Facebook as "offensive"

Ron Lasorsa, operator of http://www.restrainingorder911.com/, claims he was banned from Facebook for "offensive material". His blog video report here. Content warning: some graphic language but nothing to get too worked up about. I'd rate it as PG-13 based on today's standards, but use headphones if you are at work or some place where there are younger kids nearby.

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Wife divorcing ex-CEO: $43 million not enough

Story here. Excerpt:

'HARTFORD, Conn. - A 36-year-old Swedish countess divorcing a former CEO says she cannot live on $43 million.

Marie Douglas-David, a former investment banker, says she has no income and needs her 67-year-old husband, George David, to pay her more than $53,000 a week — more than most U.S. households make in a year — to cover her expenses.

David stepped down last year as chief executive at Hartford-based United Technologies Corp. but is still chairman of the board and has an estimated net worth of $329 million. He and his wife accuse each other of extramarital affairs. Their divorce trial started Wednesday.
...
Douglas-David has filed court papers showing she has more than $53,800 in weekly expenses, including for maintaining a Park Avenue apartment and three residences in Sweden. Her weekly expenses also include $700 for limousine service, $4,500 for clothes, $1,000 for hair and skin treatments, $1,500 for restaurants and entertainment, and $8,000 for travel.

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Fathers 4 Justice Pair Arrested At Heathrow

Story here. Excerpt:

'The pair belong to an offshoot of Fathers 4 Justice, a spokesman for the campaign group said.

BAA confirmed two people were held after attempting to gain "unlawful access" at Heathrow shortly after 10am.

They were "quickly apprehended and arrested and are now in police custody", the airport operator said.
...
"This was a misguided and ultimately unsuccessful attempt to disrupt the travel plans of thousands of Heathrow's passengers, and we condemn the actions of those involved unreservedly."

The founder of Fathers 4 Justice suggested there could be further protests in coming months as fathers sought to "take the mantle back" from anti-airport expansion activists Plane Stupid.

Matt O'Connor said: "We suspended direct action campaigning in September last year, but we obviously understand that there are many frustrated fathers out there who want to engage in direct action.

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