Article here. Excerpt:

'CHARLESTON - In addition to the White House, the road to reforming a federal anti-domestic violence law ran through Charleston as a dinner featuring a delegate for Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama was held the same day Obama's running mate, and the chief architect of the law, was in town for a campaign stop.
...
However, later that evening at a domestic violence awareness dinner held at the Marriott, General Parker, a Peoria, Ill., boilermaker, who was elected to serve as a delegate for Obama to this year's Democratic National Convention, said despite its good intentions, VAWA's impact has been the break-up of families.

Story here. Excerpt:

'SCOTT COUNTY, MS (WLBT) - A bouquet of flowers covered little Austin Watkins' tiny white casket. The child's life was drastically cut short just days before his fifth birthday.

Authorities say little Austin, who weighed a mere 19 pounds, was starved to death.

"It looked like just skin over bones, it was just a terrible sight. Over my years of coroner I've never seen anything like it," said Joe Bradford, Scott County Coroner.

The child had been living in a trailer home near Ludlow with his grandmother, 43-year-old Janice Mowdy, and his 23-year-old aunt, Stephanie Bell.

Both women have been charged with murder and felony child abuse.'

Story here.

'(KSL News) A Utah County woman accused of abusing two children in her care by starving them and making them sleep in a bathtub wants to get out of jail.

Lawyers for Mary Heath yesterday requested her bail be lowered from $50,000 to $10,000. A judge will hear arguments on the motion next week.

Heath was arrested last month after her 9-year-old niece was found wandering her Eagle Mountain neighborhood wearing nothing but underwear. Police then went into Heath's home and found the girl's 8-year-old brother locked in a bathroom and almost starved to death.'

Story here. Excerpt:

'Within two months after Catherina Voss' Navy husband was murdered by a hit man she admitted hiring, she plowed through a $100,000 death benefit on jewelry, trips and other items she shared with her boyfriend.
...
Voss admitted her actions in federal court in Newport News after agreeing to testify against her boyfriend, Michael Draven, and David Runyon, who is accused of being the hired gunman. Prosecutors dropped plans to pursue the death penalty against her.

On Friday, Voss was sentenced instead to four life prison terms plus 20 additional years. She pleaded guilty to murder, conspiracy to commit murder for hire, and related charges.'

Story here. Excerpt:

'WARREN -- The Detroit Police Department is investigating allegations that a female school teacher had a sexual relationship with a male student last year.
...
The Warren teacher is alleged to have engaged in a six-month relationship with a male student, who was 16 years old at the time of the incident last year when the school was located in Roseville. The sexual encounters occurred in Detroit, which is where the student resides, Superintendent Charles Meredith said.
...
The Warren charter school incident follows a string of others involving female teachers in Metro Detroit.

A former Roseville High School French teacher was sentenced in Macomb Circuit Court this summer to three years' probation for allegedly having sex with her teenage classroom aide. Janelle Batkins, who pleaded no contest in May to two counts of second-degree criminal sexual conduct, was also ordered to register as a sex offender, complete 240 hours of community service and continue counseling.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'A 40-year drift away from single sex schooling has sacrificed girls' education in order to give struggling teenage boys a "wake-up call", according to one of the country's leading girls' school heads.

Vicky Tuck, head of Cheltenham Ladies' College, who will open the annual girls' school conference in Winchester, Hampshire, on Monday, said that boys' schools are increasingly going co-educational because they are struggling to recruit and to boost exam results.

She said girls are being used to improve their male classmates' education and are losing out on a focused women-only school life.'

Domestic Violence Treatment for Abusive Women: A Treatment Manual, by Ellen Bowen, was just made available for pre-order. Description:

'Recognizing that women can be as abusive in their intimate partnerships as men, this book provides the clinician with comprehensive information to understand the characteristics and treatment implications for women's domestic violence. It offers guidance for conducting group treatment of abusive women.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'When Guy Ritchie met his children at the airport this week, he reportedly didn't just receive hugs and kisses. He also got a list from Madonna's PA of do's and don'ts for the kids during their stay...

...why does he need a list of the responsibilities he fulfilled before then?

It's not just an academic celebrity question. Most couples I know have tension in their relationships when dad takes over and mums tries to stage direct from the wings. "They don't eat their spaghetti like that" or "That's not how she does her hair for school" or even "You're folding the towels wrong". Almost every dad I know has experienced it and every mum I know has guiltily admitted interfering, even though she knows it sets her partner's teeth on edge and that the kids will be fine even if dad does it a different way.'

To the fans of Mensactivism.org,

My name is Joe Soltys. I have started a new live internet radio show dedicated to discussing and debating men and father issues, gender issues, and sexual poitics.

The show will be broadcast live by BlogTalkRadio.com on Sunday mornings and is titled “An Hour With Joe Soltys".

Listeners can voice their opinions during each show by way of a listener phone number, or by way of a live chat room that will be available to my listeners for the duration of the show.

If you cannot listen to the show on Sunday mornings, within an hour of each completed show, a recorded copy will be archived and available at BlogTalkRadio for those who missed the live show.

This Sunday’s topic will be: Should women be forced to sign up for Selective Service, and should they be forced onto the front lines of combat in the name of gender equality?

So stop by, listen to the show, and tell me what you think.

Video report here regarding the firing of Sam(antha) Mason, a popular (former) BBC radio personality. Caption: "A guy with a turban is going to freak her [daughter] out. She's not used to Asians." She also said she would prefer a female driver, too.

The commentary that follows includes a debate among the commentators (all female) that includes speculation that the BBC's actions are not entirely justified or legally defensible, and then goes on to discuss whether or not it would have been less offensive and even a far-more valid concern if she had only asked that the driver be female. They seemed to be in agreement on that point.

They also compared her case to Don Imus' and said the difference between him and her was that Imus said what he did on the air and she did not. They close with the speculation that the taxi company had done her wrong by releasing the tape to the BBC. There is a related print story here.

And so it goes.

Story here. There'll be a line forming by the end of the day. You can be sure most of the dumpees will be boys, too. Excerpt:

'OMAHA, Neb. – A 5-year-old boy has been dropped off at an Omaha, Neb., hospital only a day before the state Legislature begins a meeting to change the state's safe-haven law.

The state Department of Health and Human Services said Friday the boy was left at Immanuel Medical Center about 9 p.m. Thursday. He's from Sarpy County near Omaha.

Nebraska's safe-haven law was intended to protect unwanted newborns from being abandoned, but unlike similar laws in other states, Nebraska's doesn't include an age limit.'

In chicken-egg factories, only female chicks are kept. The males are ground up in large garbage disposal-type units right after they are born. Looks like we may be headed toward that one day if the boy-hating continues to flourish as it is.

Story here. Excerpt:

'The mother accused of killing her two young sons had previously tried to abandon the older boy, it was revealed today.

Jael Mullings dumped two-year-old Romario - with a note attached to him - at the A&E department of a hospital near her home in June 2007. Then in November she left the boy at a doctor's surgery.

Social workers had been monitoring the family, but closed their file on Ms Mullings, judging that the mother was capable of caring for her children with the support of 'other agencies'. Today, an investigation into that decision was under way.'

Story here. Excerpt:

'For 114 years, the Broad Plain Boys' Club has been keeping youngsters occupied and out of trouble.

Its leaders run sports sessions for boys aged between seven and 25 to improve self-discipline and confidence - and twice a week girls are welcomed too.

But it seems that for officials at the town hall, that's not good enough.

So they have told its leaders that they must change it to something more politically correct, such as the Working With Young People Club, and invite more girls in - or face losing the £11,600-a-year funding.

Dennis Stinchcombe, who has been in charge of the club, in Easton, Bristol, for 33 years, said the decision could force the club to close.

'They want us to drop the name Broad Plain Boys' Club, no matter that we have had that name for more than 100 years', he said.

'It will cost thousands to change the name. We would have to get new letterheads and change all the equipment with the name on it.

Story here. Hurry, you have only a few days left to abandon your troublesome teenagers and just walk off! Excerpt:

'LINCOLN, Neb. – The mother was running out of more than patience when she abandoned her 18-year-old daughter at a hospital over the weekend under Nebraska's safe-haven law. She was also running out of time: She knew that state lawmakers would soon meet in a special session to amend the ill-fated law so that it would apply to newborns only.
...
The safe-haven law was intended to save "Dumpster babies" by allowing desperate young mothers to abandon their newborns at a hospital without fear of prosecution. But lawmakers could not agree on an age limit, and the law as passed uses only the word "child."

All states have safe-haven laws, but in every state but Nebraska, the law applies to infants only.

Authier said her group and others had warned senators after the law passed early this year that there could be problems, but the lawmakers did not believe it.'

Story here. Excerpt:

'There's increasing chatter in political circles that the Obama camp is not overly happy with the usual suspects for secretary of state these days and that the field might be expanding somewhat beyond Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), Gov. Bill Richardson (D-N.M.), Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) and maybe former Democratic senator Sam Nunn of Georgia.

There's talk, indeed, that Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) may now be under consideration for the post. Her office referred any questions to the Obama transition; Obama spokesman Tommy Vietor declined to comment.'

Note to Obama: Please, just don't do it.