Story here. Excerpt:

'Madonna is using child abduction laws in an attempt to force ex-husband Guy Ritchie to return their 15-year-old son to her in New York.

The singer, 57, is using the Hague Convention to bring to an end the bitter custody battle over Rocco.

The teenager is living with the Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels director in London and has so far ignored his mum’s requests to go home.

Now Madge has launched a case against the film producer, 47, at the family division of the High Court under the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction.

She has also brought a case at the Family Court in New York.

But sitting in the High Court in London yesterday Mr Justice MacDonald told the couple to sort out the problem themselves.

He said it was his “fervent hope” that the singer and film producer could have discussions and reach an “amicable resolution” without further use of the courts.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'But others expressed less positive views about the affirmative consent bill. Wilton, Connecticut resident Shelley Dempsey spoke against the bill after being introduced by her representative, Rep. Gail Lavielle GRD ’81, R-Wilton.

Dempsey, an attorney involved with due-process advocacy group Families Advocating for Campus Equality, said a false accusation of sexual assault against her son, then a Bucknell University student, led to his suspension from the university. He was ultimately reinstated after he was cleared of the charge. She said his situation was only one among many and that the affirmative consent legislation would shift the legal balance away from the accused.

Story here. Charges against the father who turned in a pregnant mom for drug abuse have now been dropped. He had been charged for felony child abuse for not preventing the mother from using drugs. However, no charges will be made against the mother, even though she used drugs while pregnant. Excerpt:

'KTOE News asked Blue Earth County Attorney Pat McDermott about Felony charges filed Friday against 41-year old Daniel Gerald Sturdivant after his newborn baby tested positive for amphetamines and opiates.

McDermott says he reviewed the case and dismissed the charges against Sturdivant. McDermott says his office has also declined charges against the mother of the infant.

Blue Earth County Human Services Child Protection officials are working with the family.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Greek life’s strong systemic adherence to traditional gender roles can make feminism a difficult topic to approach, some University of Minnesota greek students said.

At a Wednesday discussion called, “Feminism is for Everyone,” students explored their definitions of gender equity and dispelled common misconceptions about feminism to help promote it in an academic and social setting, said Jackson Ridl, a men’s engagement student staff member for the Aurora Center.
...
Both women and male peers can help police masculinity in order to lessen the pressure of these societal and greek system expectations in romantic relationships and power structures, Kolb said.

Male allies serve an important role of furthering feminism’s mainstream acceptance and presenting it as a universal discussion instead of a campaign against men, said Zack Gill, a graduate student in school counseling.

“Gender inequality is a man’s problem to change,” he said.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'According to the Institute of Women's Policy Research, women in America won't be paid as much as men for the same work for another 100 or so years. But thanks to a new app, we can even the playing field soon. That is, when we go out to eat.

The app, called Equitable, is designed to split group restaurant bills based on gender and racial wage gaps. So if you're a white man brunching with a black woman and a Latina, be prepared to pay a little extra for that avocado toast. Hey, it's not our fault! It's the patriarchy.

According to the app's website, "EquiTable helps you avoid the entrenched discrimination that exists in our society. It doesn't split the bill equally -- it splits it equitably. You pay what you should to balance out the wage gap."

The app uses Bureau of Labor Statistics data in order to calculate who should pay what at the end of dinner or brunch, ensuring that those with less privilege (anyone whose not white and male, basically) pay less to eat.

Article here. Excerpt:

'Despite her many recent successes, actress and comedian Tina Fey argues in a recent interview that now is a “terrible time” for women in comedy.
...
Added the Whiskey Tango Foxtrot star: “If you were to really look at it, the boys are still getting more money for a lot of garbage, while the ladies are hustling and doing amazing work for less.”'

Link here. Excerpt:

'Coexist, where 24 of the 31 staff are women, is no ordinary company. It manages Hamilton House in the city’s bohemian Stokes Croft quarter, running the space for artists, activists and community organisations. There is a restaurant called The Canteen, and Banksy’s Mild Mild West mural showing a teddy bear throwing a petrol bomb at riot police greets visitors.

Baxter said: “There is a misconception that taking time off makes a business unproductive – actually it is about synchronising work with the natural cycles of the body.

“For women, one of these is their menstrual cycles. Naturally, when women are having their periods they are in a winter state, when they need to regroup, keep warm and nourish their bodies.

The spring section of the cycle immediately after a period is a time when women are actually three times as productive as usual.
...
Baxter and her team plan to formulate the policy as part of a seminar at Hamilton House on 15 March called Pioneering Period Policy: Valuing Natural Cycles in the Workplace.

The seminar’s leader, Alexandra Pope, believes “cycle awareness” helps both men and women become more productive at work.

Pope, who describes herself as a women’s leadership coach and educator in the “field of menstruality”, said: “In the past any proposal to allow women to, for example, have time off at menstruation has been derided by men and women alike. In this context menstruation is seen as a liability or a problem. Or as women getting special treatment.

“The purpose of this policy initiative is to create a positive approach to menstruation and the menstrual cycle that empowers women and men and supports the effectiveness and wellbeing of the organisation. To restore the menstrual cycle as the asset it is.”

Article here. Excerpt:

'It's not brave to "speak out" on a topic that the media loves and will defend one on. It is brave to stand up for the truth despite what the media and activists claim is true.

That is the case of Toni Airaksinen, a Barnard College sophomore who penned an essay for the Columbia Spectator dismantling the claim that colleges across the country are fostering a "rape culture."

Airaksinen spends her essay informing readers how a study purporting to show that one-in-five women will be sexually assaulted while in college is misleading. For starters, the study — from the Association of American Universities — uses a "ridiculously wide definition of sexual assault," according to Airaksinen. This definition includes "everything from penetration to unwanted groping," she writes.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'The University of Texas at Austin has been sued for allegedly wrongly seeking to expel a male student over accusations that he sexually assaulted a non-UT student in her off-campus apartment.

No criminal charges were ever filed against the male student over the alleged assault. The alleged victim herself never filed an official complaint with campus or city police officers, according to the lawsuit.

But the University of Texas at Austin has recommended that the 21-year-old male student, who is one semester away from earning a degree in physics, be expelled for violating the institutional rules of the college, the suit states.

The attorney for the male student has asked a judge to stop UT-Austin from holding a planned disciplinary hearing at which Title IX investigators for the school have recommended his expulsion.

Court documents state the male student has not been afforded his Constitutional due process rights and that the allegations in question do not constitute sexual assault, among other protestations lodged by the plaintiff’s attorney.'

Articel here. Excerpt:

'We knew the Oscars would be filled with propaganda, but before the awards show even started, singer Lady Gaga pushed a debunked statistic to scare viewers and make her appearance more powerful.

Gaga was there to perform her Oscar-nominated song called "Til It Happens to You," which appeared in the film "The Hunting Ground," which features still more dubious statistics and accusations of campus sexual assault.

"It's such an important song for me," Gaga said prior to the awards show. "One in five women will be raped before they finish college."

No, they won't.'

Story here. Drugs were found in the baby's system because mom was doing drugs during pregnancy. Dad tried to prevent her from using drugs. But now he is charged. Excerpt:

'A man was charged on Friday after his newborn tested positive for drug exposure in December.

Article here. Excerpt:

'C.D. Mock, a former head wrestling coach at the University of North Carolina, also shared his story and said he was there to represent the accused.

“Where does consent start and where does it end? I don’t know,” said Mock. “Let’s remember we are dealing with young people, many of whom are very inexperienced, there’s alcohol around without supervision.”

Mock has become a loud and vocal critic of the effectiveness of what some call the “Consent Movement” after his son was accused of sexual assault in his junior year of college. He explained that ever since the government cracked down on schools that did not comply with a federal mandate to more seriously address sexual assault complaints, that he believed over-correcting had been done in favor of accusers.

“We need to make sure that the solutions that we come up with are fair solutions to everyone. If we’re swinging the pendulum too far in one direction," Mock cautioned, “We’re in dangerous territory.”'

Story here. Most of the enslaved are men. They leave this fact out, perhaps because if they keep the enslaved people's gender identity neutral, they will not trigger the "it's just men" response so many people have. Excerpt:

'Last year, the Guardian shed light on an uncomfortable — and unfortunate — truth about much of the shrimp sold in North America, Europe, Japan and elsewhere around the world. A six-month-long investigation revealed that torture, wage-theft, beatings and various other illegal practices were a reality in the production chain of the world's largest supplier.

"If you buy prawns or shrimp from Thailand, you will be buying the produce of slave labor," Aidan McQuade, director of Anti-Slavery International, told the Guardian at the time. And many countries do, including the United States, which imports about half of the shrimp Thailand harvests.

Article here. Excerpt:

'New York City authorities are dropping sexual assault charges against five teenagers after their accuser recanted her story.

The woman initially told police she was gang raped at gunpoint in a Brooklyn park on 7 January.

Police arrested five teens, but parts of the woman's story began to come under scrutiny as more details emerged.

Her father was said to have been chased off by the suspects, but it took him nearly 30 minutes to alert police.

The teenagers said the encounter was consensual. They told police when they entered the park they saw the woman and her father engaged in a sex act.

Prosecutor Kenneth Thompson said the 18-year-old woman provided "multiple inconsistent accounts" when detectives questioned her.'

Story here. Excerpt:

'Hillary Clinton dropped into a bar with her entourage and found herself crashing a bachelor party, a situation that turned into a photo op for the Democratic candidate for president.

Joe Schreck and his groomsmen were having a round of Bloody Marys to celebrate his upcoming wedding when Clinton and her campaign staff descended on Saffron, a café and bar in Charleston, South Carolina, reports the Washington Post.

“I love having men at my feet,” Clinton said, as her personal photographer, Barb Kinney, suggested some of the groomsmen kneel around Clinton for a photo.'