Story here. Excerpt:

'A marriage gone cold and a lust for money led to a murder-for-hire plot that left a well-respected Folsom area paramedic dead, and his wife and an accomplice behind bars, authorities said Monday.

The plot, apparently in the works for months, culminated in the strangling of Mario Scramuzza Jr., 48, Friday night. St. Tammany Parish sheriff's deputies began to investigate the case Saturday morning. By Monday, the victim's wife, Gina Scramuzza, 41, and Carlos A. Rodriguez, 38, of Kenner were booked with first-degree murder.
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The plot unraveled almost immediately, when deputies noticed inconsistencies in Gina Scramuzza's story and demeanor, Detective Sgt. George Cox said.

"She didn't act like a grieving widow," he said. During a weekend interrogation, she confessed to the killing and fingered Rodriguez as her accomplice, he said.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'A VICTIM of domestic abuse has welcomed proposals that would give police powers to warn women if new partners have violent histories.

Abusive partners could be placed on a register and monitored by police if a new Government plan gets the go-ahead.
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“At least we would know about it. I think we should name and shame them.”

Home Secretary Jacqui Smith has asked Wiltshire Police chief constable Brian Moore to consider what powers police need to crack down on wife beaters.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'A consultation to tackle violence against women in England and Wales has been announced by ministers.

It will consider applying more powers against those convicted of domestic violence, and better ways to pass information between police forces.

Ministers are also considering giving police the right to ban offenders from the family home for a fortnight.
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Ms Smith has called for a national debate on the issue and has asked police to report back on the powers they need to get a grip on the problem.

She said the consultation may also consider sharing information on those convicted with women going into relationships.
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Home Secretary Jacqui Smith told the BBC: "Any violence against women, inside the home, or outside the home, is unacceptable.
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The latest Home Office figures for 2007/8 show 2.2% of women of any age said their partner used minor or severe force against them over the last year. The figure for men was slightly lower at 2.0%.'

Story here. Excerpt:

'TAMPA, Fla. (AP) - Authorities say the girlfriend of Tampa Bay Buccaneers linebacker Geno Hayes stabbed him in the head and in the neck.

A Hillsborough County Sheriff's spokeswoman says Hayes was taken to a hospital by a friend Saturday. The 21-year-old former Florida State player was treated and later released.

Deputies arrested 19-year-old Shevelle Bagley on Saturday afternoon. The sheriff's spokeswoman says Hayes and Bagley got into an argument, which led to Bagley grabbing a pair of scissors and stabbing Hayes in the head. He managed to get the scissors away from her, but authorities say she then grabbed a knife and stabbed him in the neck.

Bagley was charged with aggravated battery with a deadly weapon. Jail records show she was released Sunday on $25,000 bail.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'And another member of the “nurturing, compassionate, never-violent” sex defies the ideological feminist stereotype (while an unconstitutional Violence Against Women Act was passed in the U.S. to protect her!):

“Pop star Rihanna hit boyfriend Chris Brown, slapping him 'numerous times' before he allegedly beat her and left her with serious facial injuries, according to reports. ...Rihanna was the first one to lash out at Brown — after seeing a text message from another woman — and continued to fight him as he punched her....”

Story here. Excerpt:

'PORTSMOUTH — When Britta Osberg’s ex-boyfriend asked her to return a ring, she punched him in the face twice, leaving the ring's imprint on his cheek, police allege.

Based on those allegations, Osberg, 19, of 110 Perkins Road, Rye, is scheduled to be arraigned in Portsmouth District Court Monday on two class A misdemeanor counts of simple assault.
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According to an affidavit by Officer Eric Kinsman, the alleged victim told police he went to a city gas station to retrieve the ring from Osberg, she refused to return it and they began to argue. During the argument, Osberg is alleged to have twice punched her ex in the face.'

Part of DaddyBlog, a running list of mothers who kill their children: Mothers Who Kill Their Children by Microwaving, Stabbing, Drowning, etc.

Article here. Excerpt:

'A not so well-known fact is that there are thousands of men who suffer from physical or verbal abuse from their wives, but they have to keep their suffering private, because of the social stigma attached to reporting it.

Via Marc A. Article here. Excerpt:

'Conversation should start young because abusive relationships can, she warns. Dating violence is shockingly common among teenagers. According to the Family Violence and Prevention Fund: One in five female high school students reports being physically and or sexually abused by a date...'

Among other things she cites one-sided stats on dating violence.

You can post a reply and can send a letter to letters-at-nytimes.com

Some stats on dating violence and DV:

A recent 32-nation study on dating violence by the University of New Hampshire found women are as violent and controlling as men in relationships worldwide.

In 2006, the University of Florida recently reported that women are more likely than men to “stalk, attack and abuse” their partners.

Story here. Excerpt:

'Two Bountiful Junior High School teachers are accused of sexually assaulting the same 13-year-old student, after their separate relationships with him spiraled from personal conversations to the exchange of sexual text messages and phone sex, authorities said.

On Friday, the Davis County Attorney's Office filed first-degree felony charges of rape and sodomy on a child against Linda R. Nef, 46, and Valynne Bowers, 39.

Nef, a Utah studies teacher and cheerleading adviser, and Bowers, who teaches math, each confessed to having sex with the student, said Bountiful Police Lt. Randy Pickett. Until recently, the two teachers did not know about each other's relationship with the same boy, Pickett said.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Hartland Township Clerk Ann Ulrich played the "sexist" card at a meeting of the Hartland Township Board of Trustees last month, complaining that a male maintenance worker was hired in at a higher rate than a female worker doing the same job.

After the board approved hiring Dennis Goodwin for $12 an hour and Virginia Toor for $11.50 an hour, Ulrich said, "The explanation does just not warrant it. This looks sexist."
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The explanation Township Manager James Wickman gave Ulrich and the board was that Goodwin had more experience and better qualifications than Or; therefore, according to township hiring policies, he should get a better offer. Also, Goodwin is intended to be the primary maintenance worker, while Or is considered a substitute in the event Goodwin is unable to come to work. According to resumes submitted to the township, Goodwin lists some 32 years of maintenance experience while Or has 12 years in the field.'

Story here. Excerpt:

"As a 31-year-old woman, she might be expected to have developed a more mature attitude to pregnancy and childbearing. The reality is anything but. Because Angelica, who claims to be 'addicted to having babies', readily admits to tricking three hapless men in succession into fathering half her brood of illegitimate daughters.

A former model, she now lives in a luxurious house in Hertfordshire with her lawyer partner. And so thrilled is she by her family so far that she is planning to expand it even further, this time by IVF so that she can select a male embryo.
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Defiantly, she says: 'I'll tell them I wanted a baby, but that I didn't tell their fathers I was trying to get pregnant. When they realise that I was prepared to lie to conceive them, they'll know they were really wanted and much-loved babies.'"

Article here. Excerpt:

'MANILA, Philippines—For a woman chief of police like Superintendent Lailene Amparo, duking it out in a man’s world like the national police force is not as hard as it seems.

In fact, she said, what policemen can do, policewomen can do better.
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“Eventually they got used to having a woman police chief,” Amparo said in an interview after the weekly media forum at Camp Crame on Friday.
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Amparo’s advice to other women who want to venture into the man’s world: “If men can do it, women can do it too. Sometimes even better.”

Article here. Excerpt:

'The feminist planner, researcher and activist, who is a founding member of Toronto Women's City Alliance and the author of a recent UN-HABITAT publication on gender and local government, will speak at the city's International Women's Day Celebration in council chambers March 9.

Khosla, who works internationally and lives between Toronto and Vancouver, says administrators in charge of Toronto's skating arenas allotted ice time for hockey players based on who had held slots in the past.
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Decisions about infrastructure, sports and recreation, public transit, public toilets and neighbourhood design would better suit women, seniors and multicultural groups if they were considered through a gender lens, Khosla says, who cited the example of better lighting around bus stops.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Interestingly, however, there's something all these groups studiously avoid talking about. These U.S. education numbers look bad primarily because the schools are failing boys. For the most part, those awful high school graduation numbers are driven by boys, not girls (32 percent of boys drop out, compared to 25 percent of girls). And the lackluster college graduation rates are due primarily to men floundering in college (men earn about 42 percent of four-year degrees). Given that men are far more likely to major in math and science – a special worry for the technical industries -- the chamber should be particularly concerned about men falling behind.

But the gender angle never gets mentioned. Popular, well-thought-out solutions, which include strengthening the high school curriculum, building better after-school programs and making college more affordable, skirt the obvious solution of reaching out to failing boys specifically. As for MDRC's 15-point plan – gender didn't get a mention.'