Presentation here. Greg obviously put a lot of effort into putting this together. Good work, Greg!

Story here. Excerpt:

"David Cameron today attacked ministers' failure to protect the family after it emerged that couples with children can become more than £5,000 a year better off if they split up or choose to live apart.

A study by the Civitas think-tank shows how millions of working families are missing out on the benefits paid to single parents.

Today the Conservative leader said the report exposed the 'madness' of Government benefits policy and its failure to protect the family."

From Glenn Sacks; article here. Excerpt:

'Fathers & Families Files Lawsuit to Stop New Massachusetts Child Support Guidelines

Several years ago Fathers & Families scored a major victory in Massachusetts, getting child support obligations reduced by an average of 15%. This victory has saved Massachusetts noncustodial parents over $1 billion since 2001.

Unfortunately, now noncustodial parents are under attack, as child support guidelines are being greatly increased.

Fathers and Families has filed suit in Federal District Court in Boston to stop the scheduled January 1 implementation of new Child Support Guidelines. The suit seeks a temporary injunction halting the use of the new guidelines until a full hearing can be held. It will be heard before Judge D.P. Woodlock on Monday, January 5 at 10 AM in courtroom 1.'

Story here. Excerpt:

'When an Oklahoma man’s ex-wife told him she was pregnant, he asked if he was the father.

"She said, ‘Yeah, 100 percent sure you’re the dad,’ so I didn’t question it past that,” the man said.

But that man, who asked to remain anonymous because of pending litigation, says testing shows otherwise. He provided The Oklahoman with a copy of genetic test results dated Nov. 10 from Identigene showing he is not the father. State law, though, compels him to continue paying child support even though he’s not a biological parent — and there are more like him.

Nearly 25 percent of about 3,000 paternity tests conducted by the state Department of Human Services from July 2007 through June ruled out the supposed father as the biological parent. Nationally, that number reaches nearly 30 percent, according to the American Association of Blood Banks.'

Story here. Excerpt:

'His wife stabbed him about 5 years ago. While Leanne Putnam was awaiting her days in court for felony assault, she was awarded sole custody of their 3 children, allegedly by Rockville Superior Court Judge Jonathan J. Kaplan in Connecticut. Abuse of Fathers and their children in courts is not uncommon.

Chris Kennedy then lodged complaints against Judge Kaplan and other judges. The retaliation began, where he would have less, to no access, to his own children. His saga has been going on for about 5 years. After Chris lodged complaints, the charges were dropped against his ex-wife, and Chris Kennedy became the target of an out of control Judge, Jonathan J. Kaplan. Complaints Chris had lodged were put in his “secret, sealed folder” for other judges to see and to likewise help retaliate.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Though the stigma is lessening, men are still far more likely than women to let their depression go untreated. Blame it on Rambo, Brando, or the lure of the martini, but many guys still aren't getting the help they need.

As the traditionally stressful, dark days of winter set in, here are some signs that the guy you love might be suffering from more than a loss in fantasy football.

1. Substance use: Has he been drinking more beer than a pledging freshman? Has his usual dinner cocktail spawned into three? Often, an increase in substance use -- and this includes cigarettes, recreational drugs, and caffeine -- can be a desperate attempt to self-medicate or cover up unpleasant feelings that are gnawing at him.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'The mendacity is especially glaring regarding fathers. "Changes in child-support laws, and a push by fathers for equal time, are transforming the way this generation of ex-spouses raise [sic] their children," claims the carefully worded headline. Yet, Newsweek provides no evidence of any such changes; in fact, it concedes that "Most often, children still end up living primarily with the mother" and that "moms are the official primary residential parent after a divorce in five out of six cases, a number that hasn't changed much since the mid-'90s."

One divorce lawyer claims that "most states have provisions that say gender can't be the determining factor in deciding who is going to be the primary custodial parent," but he does not tell us that such provisions are ignored.

Story here. Excerpt:

'Three young girls were found home alone and apparently abandoned on Christmas Eve, it emerged yesterday. The youngsters had been left with no presents to open and no tree to cheer them up.

While police officers tracked down and arrested their mother on suspicion of neglect, their colleagues organised a whip-round and dashed to the shops before they closed for Christmas to buy some last minute gifts for the girls.

The incident happened in Gorton – the tough district of South Manchester which originally formed the backdrop of the Channel 4 comedy series Shameless.'

Nice change! Article in "Marie Claire" here. Excerpt:

'According to a Penn professor who studies these things, every American man has about a 28 percent chance of being struck by a woman at some point in his life (in related news, the number of girls ages 10 to 17 arrested for aggravated assault has doubled in the last 20 years). And yet no one seems to take the phenomenon that seriously. Maybe it's because men, generally speaking, are bigger and stronger, and we assume there's a real limit to the physical damage women could actually inflict. We don't picture these scuffles resulting in bloody noses and black eyes or a trip to the station house. Furthermore, pop culture has made the idea of a pretty girl whaling on a guy a wacky comedy staple — Angelina Jolie smashing wine bottles over Brad Pitt's head in Mr. & Mrs. Smith and Cameron Diaz coldcocking Edward Burns in The Holiday were both played for laughs. But the reality of getting hit by your girlfriend isn't so sexy or hilarious.'

Story here. This is one to keep an eye on. The issue here is equal treatment under the law. Had the father been the mother, would she be facing these charges? I doubt it. Still, there strikes me as being a strong element of negligence here, unless there are salient facts missing from the story. I am curious to know the more of the circumstances around events. If I get wind of updates or "new news", I'll post, and feel free to submit if you spot anything. Excerpt:

'A father charged with the hypothermic death of his daughter cried and banged his head against a table Monday in a Shoshone courtroom after a judge read out each charge against him.

Robert E. Aragon, 55, is accused of felony injury to a child and second-degree murder, after two of his children tried to walk nearly 10 miles on their own through feet of snow and freezing temperatures on Christmas to see their mom.

Aragon's family says he's a loving father who shouldn't be in jail for the tragedy.
...

Story here. Excerpt:

'Police in Delaware have arrested a woman they say had sex with her teenage daughter's friend.

38-year-old Juli Faunce, a resident of the unit block of Commonwealth Avenue in the Overlook Colony Apartments, has been charged with four counts of rape in the 3rd degree.
...
Police say Faunce had sex with the boy on at least two occasions in November while he was "staying the night" in her apartment.

Faunce later learned that her daughter had also engaged in a sexual relationship with the boy. She called police Sunday to report the teen had forced himself on her daughter, because they say she was unhappy with the news of her daughter's new relationship.

Faunce has been arraigned and released on $40,000 bail. She was ordered to have no contact with the victim and also ordered to not have any teenage boys in her home for any period of time.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'The Local Government Association (LGA) has said that at at least 15 per cent of those in operational roles should be female.

That means they will fill one of the five or six places for crew on each engine.

The LGA said an increased number of firewomen is necessary "to meet the needs of local people".

But critics warned that political correctness was being put above the ability to save lives.

Susie Squire, of the Taxpayers' Alliance, said: "Introducing this sort of quota to the fire service is a big mistake.

"If ever there was a job that should be awarded on merit and physical fitness, it is that of a firefighter.'

The Los Angeles Times reports today: Arsenic levels too high in Kern Valley State Prison's drinking water. Excerpt:

"At the California Institution for Women in Chino, the state has been buying bottled water for prisoners for five years -- at a current annual cost of $480,000 -- because of nitrate levels that violate federal standards in the water supply to the facility and to the nearby California Institution for Men.

Chino-area municipalities have built systems to filter their own water, and the state hopes to complete a similar project a year from now for both the women's and men's prisons."

Fred and I discussed the APA's DSM-III on episodes of Face Up To Fred that dealt with Parental Alienation.

It's too bad this L.A. Times article (DSM psychiatry manual's secrecy criticized) doesn't address the "gender politics" that goes into some of the DSM's conclusions (in my opinion). Excerpt:

"...the issue carries real weight for parents desperate to address children's difficult behavior or people in distress over their mental state. It also speaks to citizens' concerns over news accounts of an overmedicated America and of the troubling financial links between some psychiatric researchers and the pharmaceutical industry."
...
"Darrel Regier, who heads the APA's research arm, said the critics are failing to recognize progress in the field. 'The field of psychiatry has gone from an ideology to a scientific pursuit,' he said."
...
"Some critics suspect that a quest for profits has encouraged the field to create mental illnesses out of personality quirks."

Article here. Excerpt:

'A Canadian man is urging others who may have slept with his Thai stripper ex-wife to get tested for the HIV virus after she passed it on to him, according to a report in the Toronto Sun.

"I know there were other men she slept with," Percy Whiteman told the Sun on Sunday. "I am lucky that I was able to find out early."

Whiteman said learned her HIV status when she fell ill in 2004. She was convicted of criminal negligence causing bodily harm for infecting Whiteman with HIV and was sentenced to three years in jail in August 2007, the Sun reported.

Imkhong came to Canada in 1995 and was a dancer at the Zanzibar Tavern in Toronto until 2004. She married Whiteman in 1997. "She should have been deported a long time ago for what she's done to others," Whiteman told the Sun. "I don't think justice was fully served."'