Article here. Excerpt:

'Kevin Yoachim of Hebrom spent Easter Sunday dinner with his two kids, both teens. But now, in the midst of divorce, he worries those dinners will be few and far in between.

"A lot of my friends have told me, you're going to have a really hard time getting custody," he said.

Two bills before state legislators would make child custody in Nebraska a 50-50 split, with some restrictions. LB423 would mandate a presumption that both parents are fit for joint legal and physical custody unless evidence proves otherwise.

LB589 states both parents should get equal custody unless there is a medical or legal reason why this should not happen.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Swampscott - Suicides among men in Massachusetts spiked by 28 percent in 2007, according to a Department of Public Health report issued Wednesday, April 8. The number of suicides among males rose to 159 in 2007 from 118 in 2006 and 153 in 2005. The increase occurred in white males between the ages of 25 and 44, according to the department, which said it would analyze the data to develop insights.

Suicides in women declined by 8 percent in 2007.

Meanwhile, death rates for cancer, heart disease, stroke and chronic respiratory diseases have declined between 13 and 31 percent between 2001 and 2007, according to the department. For women, the breast cancer death rate fell by 13 percent from 2006 to 2007, or “to their lowest level ever recorded.”'

Article here. Excerpt:

'In 2000 the Department of Justice published a compendium of domestic violence review with the incredibly biased title: "U.S. Domestic Violence Against Women Study." This was a review study compiling many different looks at this issue, mostly published by academics using crime statistics.

It consistently showed that a lot of domestic violence is actually unprovoked attacks by women on their male partner. The numbers are consistently between 25 percent and 40 percent.

In this study, men were twice as likely to be the victim of a knife attack (cue Bobbit) and almost twice as likely to be injured by "an object thrown with intent to harm."

Many jurisdictions report at least 25 percent of issued restraining orders are served on women. My knee-jerk reaction when first reading this was that these women must have just been protecting themselves against the evil males. But that's not what the data show.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'According to the National Institute of Mental Health, it is estimated that 6 million American men will be diagnosed with depressive disorder in any given year and many have suffered silently. Four times as many men as women commit suicide. These critical issues and others will be the subject of "Shattering Myths: Men, Boys, and Mental Health," the Eighth Annual Community Mental Health Conference presented by the Naomi Ruth Cohen Institute of Mental Health Education at The Chicago School of Professional Psychology.'

Story here. Excerpt:

'SAN FRANCISCO — Prosecutors said Monday they may include rape and molestation allegations in their murder charge against the woman suspected of killing an 8-year-old Northern California girl and putting her body in a suitcase.

Melissa Huckaby, a 28-year-old Sunday school teacher, was arrested Friday on suspicion of kidnapping and murdering Sandra Cantu.

Formal charges have not yet been filed, but San Joaquin County Deputy District Attorney Robert Himmelblau told The Associated Press that a murder charge against Huckaby could include the special circumstances of rape with a foreign object, lewd and lascivious conduct with a child and murder in the course of a kidnapping.

A conviction on any of the special circumstances would make Huckaby eligible for the death penalty or life in prison without parole, Himmelblau said. The district attorney's office has not determined whether it will seek the death penalty, he said.'

From an ACFC e-mail:

This just in from ACFC Advisor Dr. Jayne Major about the phenomenal success of her presentation on parental alienation at a recent Canadian Symposium on Parental Alienation. It seems the Canadians are ahead of most of the American legal profession on this issue. Many Canadian judges get it and have ruled appropriately to contain the disturbed parent...at least there have been some landmark cases. Go to http://www.cspas.ca/ and read about them.

Also read a summary of her presentation, The Macabre Dance of Family Law, which describes a three Tier mediation protocol for reform of family court practices. It begins with a presumption of 50-50 shared parenting to "level the playing field" and thus make real mediation possible, as opposed to the inherently inflammatory "winner-take-all" sole custody model that all too often is the spark that ignites conflict that then explodes out of control in our currently dysfunctional family law system.

Article here. Excerpt:

'(CNN) -- It began as horseplay, with two teenage stepbrothers chasing each other with blow guns and darts. But it soon escalated when one of the boys grabbed a knife.

The older teen, Michael Barton, 17, was dead by the time he reached the hospital, stabbed twice.The younger boy, Quantel Lotts, 14, would eventually become one of Missouri's youngest lifers.

Lotts was sentenced in Missouri's St. Francois County Circuit Court in 2002 to life in prison without parole for first-degree murder in his stepbrother's stabbing death.
...
Lotts is one of at least 73 U.S. inmates -- most of them minorities -- who were sentenced to spend the rest of their lives in prison for crimes committed when they were 13 or 14, according to the Equal Justice Initiative, a nonprofit organization in Alabama that defends indigent defendants and prisoners.
...
At the time of the crime, Tammy Lotts said she left her children for several days with her husband to get high on crack cocaine.'

Story here. Excerpt:

'A Quebec father who was taken to court by his 12-year-old daughter after he grounded her in June 2008 has lost his appeal.

Quebec Superior Court rejected the Gatineau father's appeal of a lower court ruling that said his punishment was too severe for the wrongs he said his daughter committed.

The father is "flabbergasted," his lawyer Kim Beaudoin told CBC News.

In its ruling, issued Monday, the province's court of appeal declared the girl was caught up in a "very rare" set of circumstances, and her father didn't have sufficient grounds to contest the court's earlier decision.

The family's legal wrangling started with a dispute over the girl's internet use.

She had been living with her father after her parents split up when he grounded her in 2008 for defying his order to stay off the internet. The father caught her chatting on websites he had blocked, and alleged his daughter was posting "inappropriate pictures" of herself online.'

Story here. Excerpt:

'CHICAGO -- The father of a 15-year-old boy has filed a negligence lawsuit against a Northwest Side school for troubled youth after a female teacher allegedly drank and had sex with his son on several occasions.

Linda Pithyou, 29, of 3723 W. Devon Ave., was formally charged March 13 with two counts of criminal sexual assault and four counts of aggravated sexual abuse, Cook County State’s Attorney’s office spokesman Tandra Simonton said.

The boy’s father filed the suit Friday in Cook County Circuit Court against Lawrence Hall Youth Services, where the alleged abuse occurred. The boy and his father are listed a John Doe and Richard Doe in the suit.

Pithyou, a teacher at Lawrence Hall, allegedly drank alcohol, smoked marijuana and engaged in oral sex and sexual intercourse with the boy approximately four times a week at various locations in a car, occasionally with her 16-month-old son in the back seat, according to prosecutors and the suit.'

Story here. Excerpt:

Real Housewives of New York City newcomer Kelly Killoren Bensimon faced a judge this morning for allegedly assaulting her ex, Nick Stefanov.

The reality star, 40, was arrested earlier this month for reportedly punching her 30-year-old beau in the face, causing lacerations below his left eye and "substantial pain," according to the complaint he filed with police. She could face up to a year in jail if convicted.

I can't believe the guy went to the police," Hayes told New York's Daily News. "It is very, very mean-spirited. It's not like she's in his apartment. He's in her apartment."

"I don't even know if I qualify him as lover. How about a jilted moron?" he continued to Extra.
...
"If he doesn't show up from now until then, they'll dismiss the case. It's not a real case," Hayes told Extra. "He just wants to make her life uncomfortable."

"I'm devastated my girls and I have to go through something like this," Bensimon told the Daily News. "They don't need to be exposed to something like this.

Story here.

'Police arrested an Akron woman Wednesday night after she allegedly stabbed her husband during an argument.

Tanika Kirk, 33, of Crestview Avenue, was charged with felonious assault, domestic violence and obstructing official business after she used a kitchen knife to stab her husband, Marcus Kirk, 22, in the back and his side, police said.

Officers said the suspect lied to them about the incident.

The victim was taken to the hospital and treated for what police said are not life-threatening injuries.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Administration for Children & Families estimated that in 2006, four children died each day as a result of maltreatment. More than 1,500 children died that year out of the 905,000 who were confirmed victims of maltreatment. More than three-quarters (78 percent) of children who were killed were younger than 4 years of age; 12 percent were 4-7 years of age; 5 percent were 8-11 years of age; and 5 percent were 12-17 years of age.
...
• Six in ten (61 percent) alleged perpetrators of child maltreatment were mother or father figures, with the majority being mother figures (39 percent). Other relatives comprised 14 percent of alleged perpetrators. Paramours of the caretaking parent or other non-related adults accounted for 16 percent of all cases.'

From Jeremy S.: Remember all this: Girl Missing, Homes of 2 Men Searched? They even towed the cars of the two suspect men and wasted valuable time and resources looking for a male suspect. Maybe even two. This is what they got: Calif. Sunday school teacher booked in child death. Excerpt:

'TRACY, Calif. -A California Sunday school teacher was arrested on suspicion of kidnapping and killing an 8-year-old girl whose body was stuffed into a suitcase found in an irrigation pond.

Melissa Huckaby, 28, was arrested at 11:55 p.m., about five hours after she drove herself to the station at the request of police, according to Tracy Police Sgt. Tony Sheneman.

"She gave enough information to us during the course of the interview that probable cause was there to arrest her," said Sheneman.

Article here. Excerpt:

'The patriarchy works in mysterious ways in society, from the big things like women getting paid 75 cents on the dollar to how we construct our language. In public discourse on violence, especially in journalism, men are often left out of the equation altogether, as if the violence women are subjected to is without a male perpetrator.

By using the passive voice when writing news stories, the blame is shifted from the men commiting this violence to the women targeted. We talk about violence against women instead of violence by men. By situating the terms of the discourse like this, we are ignoring that men are the ones raping and abusing women. Instead, women are continually portrayed as victims at the hands of a vague male entity. We should be talking about it as men being violent toward their girlfriends, wives, friends and family and working to eradicate this violence.

Story here. Excerpt:

"Last month, four students were expelled and three others suspended. South African media at the time said they were accused of trying to force students into relationships and to engage in sexual contact.

Winfrey herself hasn't given details of the misconduct. But she said in the newspaper interview that it was 'insulting' that the family of one of the expelled girls had complained to the press even though she had been warned before about her behavior.
...
'The majority of girls are thriving, really fulfilling the dream and vision I had,' Winfrey told the newspaper. 'They really have exceeded any expectations I had for them.'

'In spite of everything that's happened, what keeps me inspired and hopeful is the heart of every girl, because they are wonderful, they are magnificent.'"

I truly wonder whether or not Oprah would've said that if the students were *boys* -- just a thought.