Article here. Excerpt:

'During 21 years of practising matrimonial law, I've learned that no matter how convincing the story my client tells while sitting across the desk from me, the picture will change when I hear the other spouse's version of the same events. Sometimes the change will be slight, sometimes enormous. Occasionally I can hardly believe that both people are describing the same incidents.
...
Readers, get used to this. We can expect to see many more female criminals getting off with a slap on the hand in future. Recent legal developments both in Canada and abroad have increased the scope for pleading "battered wife syndrome." And criminally inclined women, like anyone else, respond to incentives. They take advantage of opportunities. The more excuses we give them to commit crimes when the proper and rational course of action would be to walk away, the more of them will commit crimes instead of walking away.'

Story here. Excerpt:

'Male delegates at the Gender and Media Southern Africa (Gemsa) regional conference have described the newly elected committee for the grouping as a “women’s club” after elections for the organisation’s office bearers saw no male in the executive committee.
...
“Gemsa’s motto is ‘making every voice count and counting what it does’, but how could that be achieved when men’s voices are missing in the Executive Committee. These women would have problems to attract men to champion gender advocacy because the committee would be treated as a ‘women’s club’,” said Mita.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'The Democratic Platform Committee adopted a very strong platform for women this weekend in Pittsburgh. They recommitted that the Democratic Party support the passage of the Equal Rights Amendment, enforcement of Title IX, ratification of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), reinstatement of United Nations Population Fund funding, and repeal of the global gag rule.'

From Marc A.: We need responses to this piece that criticizes the NH Commission on the Status of Men. Write to the editor at letter-at-boston.com
and copy the author at beam@globe.com, or use the form letter here. Letters must be 200 words or less. Excerpt:

'Who knew? New Hampshire claims to be the only state that has a Commission on the Status of Men. Lots of states have commissions fretting about women, says Dr. Joseph Mastromarino, but only the Granite State has the CSM. You can read its mission statement on the Web at www.nh.gov/csm. The commission is an outgrowth of the "men's rights" movement, which has lobbied for more equitable treatment of fathers in family court, among many other issues.

The last three weeks we've turned up the heat on the American Bar Association, which continues to profit from sales of its flawed fact sheet, 10 Myths about Custody and Domestic Violence and How to Counter Them (.pdf file). This publication was produced by the ABA Commission on Domestic Violence.

1. We've asked you to (politely) express your extreme displeasure to the ABA President, William Neukom: abapresident-at-abanet.org
2. We requested you contact your Representative to say "Say 'No!' to H.R. 6088," a bill that would further enrich the ABA's pockets to batter the truth about child custody.
3. Then we invited you to communicate your concerns to the ABA Section of Family Law: familylaw-at-abanet.org

BUT THE ABA STILL DOESN'T GET IT.

So are we going to give up and let the ABA continue in its ways, and allow make-believe statistics and defamatory gender stereotypes to break up more families?

Story here. Excerpt:

'MUSCATINE, Iowa — A Muscatine woman has won $1.5 million in a lawsuit she filed against a man she claims infected her with a sexually transmitted disease.

Karly Rossiter filed the lawsuit against Alan Evans, of Muscatine, claiming he told her he was free of any sexually transmitted diseases before they began dating in December 2004. A few days after they had sex, Evans asked Rossiter if she had been tested for the human papilloma virus, which causes genital warts.'

Story here. Excerpt:

'A toddler whose remains were found inside a suitcase in Philadelphia in the spring was starved to death by members of a religious cult, including his mother, in part because he refused to say "amen" after meals, police said.
...
Ramkissoon, 21, was being held Monday in the psychiatric ward of Baltimore's Central Booking and Intake Center, and a bail review was postponed until Tuesday. Her public defender declined comment.

...
Ramkissoon's family said she should not be held responsible for her son's death.
...
Ramkissoon's mother, Seeta Khadan-Newton, told The (Baltimore) Sun on Sunday that it wasn't her daughter's decision not to feed the boy.

"My daughter was a victim, just like my grandson," Khadan-Newton said. "Somebody made that decision to not feed that child, and my daughter had to follow instructions.".'

Story here. Excerpt:

'Jury selection began Monday for the retrial of a woman accused of killing her month-old daughter by burning her in a microwave oven.
...
Her retrial in Montgomery County Common Pleas Court comes six months after a judge declared a mistrial in her initial trial, saying new evidence had surfaced to bolster Arnold's innocence claim.'

Story here. Excerpt:

'Timothy Cole quarreled with a wedding guest at a party Friday after wedding his ex-wife in Batavia, police said.

Officers knew the 45-year-old Cole from previous arrests and realized his bride had an order of protection against him. Cole was charged with first-degree criminal contempt, a felony, and ordered jailed without bail.'

Story here. Excerpt:

'Mr. Clinton says some current prevention approaches must continue, such as condom use, substitution therapy for injection drug users and increasing male circumcision, which studies show can reduce HIV infection.

Although the HIV/AIDS epidemic is over 25 years old, he says much ignorance remains. And that can cost lives.'

Article here. Excerpt:

"Getting married doesn't improve one's health as much as it used to, according to a new study.

Married people have historically reported better health than their never-married peers. It has generally been accepted that marriage provides social, psychological, and financial resources that improve overall health. But a new study, published in the September issue of the Journal of Health and Social Behavior, suggests the gap is narrowing, particularly for men."

Article here. Excerpt:

'The Government introduced a bill on 25 June 2008 which, if passed, will amend the Family Law Act to allow disputes in relation to property and financial matters between couples to be resolved or determined by the Family Court.'

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Ed. note: The link is to the announcement converted from PDF to HTML. The original PDF-format announcement is here.

Article here. Excerpt:

Article here. Excerpt:

'Oceanside by far had the highest rate of domestic violence in San Diego County last year, and the Police Department suspects the main reason may be because verbal fights are included in the statistics. Other departments don't do that.

The city's No. 1 ranking surprised police Sgt. Aaron Doyle, who helps manage Oceanside's domestic violence investigations.

There were 40 domestic violence incidents reported per 1,000 households in Oceanside, compared with four in Del Mar, which ranked the lowest, according to 2007 statistics from the San Diego Association of Governments.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Despite the fact that divorce is rarely triggered by violence or abuse, the incentives to allege that a man is abusive and out of control are undeniable. They tap into age-old stereotypes about men and ensure that Mom becomes the primary custodian. Even without abuse allegations, simple rules of physics (one child cannot be split into two and two cannot be split into four) make it likely that many good fathers will be downgraded from full-time dads to alternating-weekend carpool dads. They will be asked to pay at least a third of their salaries in child support for that privilege. Simple rules of modern life make it likely that an ex-wife will someday decide that a job or new husband demands a move to a faraway state. At which point the alternating-weekend-carpool dad is again demoted, to a Thanksgivings-if-you're-lucky dad.'