Story here. Excerpt:

'The local agency dedicated to eradicating domestic violence has chosen a name that better reflects its mission and services, according to Executive Director Candace Waldron.

Help for Abused Women and their Children is now Healing Abuse Working for Change. HAWC is also launching a new logo design contest with a $1,000 cash prize.

"We want to be sure we're responsive to all communities where domestic abuse might occur," Waldron said. "After 30 years of doing work, it's become clear that it's really the behavior of controlling and abusive persons that needs to be addressed, and it affects different genders."

The nonprofit agency was founded by a handful of Salem women in 1978. Over the years, it has grown to serve men affected by domestic violence, as well as women.

"I think our name, frankly, has been somewhat of a barrier in having men contact us," Waldron said.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'This study purports to disprove the notion that there's a boy crisis in education. It's by Sarah Mead courtesy of a self-described "think tank" called the Education Sector. From what I can gather, it pretty accurately represents the response by those in the educational system who want to ignore the obvious problems boys have in school.

Story here. Excerpt:

'Another elementary school teacher is being accused of molesting a former student. This time it's happened at Rosa Parks Elementary School in City Heights. The teacher, 35-year old Adrienne Feistel, is accused of molesting a 13-year-old boy she befriended. The molestation allegedly occurred while the boy was in 7th grade. Feistel's neighbors are in disbelief.
...
Authorities say the crime was reported by the teenage boy when police were interviewing him about an unrelated incident, a confrontation between the boy's mother and sister. Neighbors tell San Diego Six News that Feistel moved out of the neighborhood last October and is separated from her husband who is a San Diego Sheriff's Department Deputy.

Those same neighbors are trying to come to grips with the allegations.

"Surprised and shocked. It doesn't seem like something she would do." says the unidentified neighbor.

Article here. Excerpt:

'Is it too much to hope that men falsely accused of rape by drunken women might one day be treated with ordinary courtesy and remain anonymous until proven guilty? Last week it took a jury a mere 45 minutes to throw out an accusation made by a woman in her forties, whom we must, maddeningly — because she is automatically guaranteed anonymity – refer to as Miss X, against Peter Bacon, a 26-year-old student and chef from Canterbury, Kent.

After an evening at the woman’s house, during which Miss X, Bacon and a friend had drunk at least five bottles of wine, Bacon and Miss X retired to bed and had sex. Next morning Miss X, a solicitor, was so hungover she did not even remember what had happened, then claimed Bacon had raped her because she was too drunk to have consented to sex. The way Bacon tells it, Miss X was “giving me the come-on”. When they started kissing, “she did not say no. There was never any indication of her saying, ‘What are you doing?’ She had plenty of time to say, ‘Oi!’,” he told the jury.'

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.'