Florida's Supreme Court decided last Thursday that a man must pay more than a year's worth of alimony to the estate of his dead ex-wife. Apparently the woman died after the divorce was finalized but at the time both parties were appealing parts of the final judgment. Since the man had not paid the alimony between the time the divorce was finalized and his ex-wife's death (due to the appeal), he argued that since she was now dead he shouldn't have to pay her the money. The court disagreed, in its time-honored trend of sticking with legal technicalities rather than common sense. ABCnews has the article here.

The UK Times reports that the Defence Ministry in England is preparing field trials for mixed-gender infantry units to determine whether women should be allowed in combat positions in the military. Read the article here. The main reason this is being done is to give women better opportunities to compete for senior positions in the military, but this would also help to balance the rights and responsibilities women have in the armed forces. Considering this is a controversial topic, why not discuss it in our comment boards? Click "Read More" to enter the comment board for this article, and read our tutorial if you need help posting comments. What do you think, would this be a step forward or backward for the men's movement?

Today The Nando Times printed this story which outlines a domestic violence research survey done by a Justice Department agency and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Their numbers suggest that 25% of women and 7% of men are raped or assaulted by an intimate partner. Despite the fact that these findings are not in line with family studies findings (ie, Straus, et al), there is an important acknowledgement in the report that "Violence among intimates involves relationships and factors that are too complex to be captured by a single research approach," and that men under-report DV more so than women.

Cathy Young has written another, shorter review of Christina Hoff Sommers' book The War Against Boys for Jewish World Review. Read the article here. The other, longer review that I made reference to above is the Salon review, which can still be found here. I like the fact that Cathy Young is somewhat critical of the book but still recognizes its importance.

This New York Times article talks about the reasons that people divorce. It shatters misconceptions such as men initiating divorce most often or women leaving primarily to escape abusive relationships, and reveals the deepest link: child custody laws. The author discovered that women initiate divorce more often than men do because they don't fear they will lose their children in the divorce.

A woman from California gave her 10 year old son to someone she met on the internet because she "could no longer cope with his misbehavior." A police officer involved in the case is quoted as saying that the problems were "really typical 10-year-old stuff." Now that normal behavior of boys is becoming inconvenient for modern parents, and drugs like Ritalin are so popular to tranquilize them with, should it be a surprise that some people are just not willing to deal with boys at all? Click here for the Associated Press story.

US News has another great column by John Leo, where he talks about the crisis we face regarding young boys and education. He makes references to the research in Christina Hoff-Sommers' latest book, The War Against Boys, and talks about recent events such as the new sexual harassment guidelines set up in the Manhattan Chelsea school district, which apply to kids as young as 4. As usual, Leo puts out another great pro-male article.

ninemsn news from Australia printed this story that a female social worker, 46, had sex with one of her 15 year old clients, and when they were caught on one occasion, later filed a false claim of sexual assault. Kind of a sick irony, considering it was the boy who was raped by definition in this circumstance.

I'm proud to announce the second feature article posted to The Men's Activism News Network (really the first since my major public announcement). Ronald Burke has written an excellent essay on the topic of male reproductive rights, focusing on the Constitutional issue of equal protection. Click "Read More..." below to read the entire essay. And feel free to send me any essays you've written for future features!

No, this article has nothing to do with relationship or sex tips for men. It's an intro to a USA Today article by Gregg Zoroya, which looks at male roles in some recent movies that have received positive responses from women. It talks about what women find admirable and attractive in these portrayals of masculinity. It sounds to me like women want some pretty idealistic and selfless men. Could they perhaps be expecting more of men than of themselves?

The State Council of France has revoked the license required for the new movie "Rape Me" to be shown in French theaters. The plot is described as "a kind of hard-core 'Thelma and Louise' in which two young women very graphically sleep and murder their way across France." The decision to revoke the film's license was made after family-values campaigners lobbied the State Council and complained that the film was inappropriate for minors 16-18, while the film was only rated for children over 16. ABCnews has the report here.

Sportserver printed this article which says that Fred Lane's wife, who fatally shot him just a few days ago, had also fired a gun in their home two weeks before the incident, and that Lane's father told him to "get the hell out of there now". The article also discusses other disputes that Lane and his wife had been having. This is certainly a tragedy that sheds light on the complexity of domestic violence.

According to this Associated Press story, President Clinton has commuted the sentences of 4 women convicted and doing time for drug crimes. The reason for doing so: the women received much harsher sentences than the men which were also involved. Now, it does seem to be true that in this case these women were given unfair sentences (by comparison to the men's sentences), but you can almost feel an uprising of a new feminist myth: that women receive harsher punishment than men for the same crimes. Please do what you can to head off this myth as soon as possible; efforts made now will make a much bigger impact than if we let it slide for awhile.

In a bizarre bit of news, a female student has admitted in court to holding Germaine Greer (a well-known feminist) captive in Greer's home and harassing her. The punishment? Two years of probation. I don't think I need to raise the obvious question: what would have happened if the student were male? I'll leave that to your own imagination. An ABCnews report of the court verdict can be found here.

Edward Bartlett from Men's Health America has drawn up an action plan to get Rep. Randy Cunningham's Men's Health Act of 2000 passed. Click "Read More..." below to read the action plan and find out how to sign up to receive action updates via e-mail. As Ed puts it, It's incredibly important that we get this bill passed, for one simple reason: Men Deserve to Live.