Article here. Excerpt:

'The Department of Education is defending a series of regulations it has imposed on American colleges and universities by claiming, in the face of substantial evidence, that they really aren’t regulations at all. Now, its defiance is setting up a potential clash with Congress.

Under the Obama administration, the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights (OCR) has used an 11-page “Dear Colleague” letter from 2011 to aggressively dictate how colleges handle sexual assault and sexual harassment on campus. The “Dear Colleague” letter draws authority from the federal Title IX law prohibiting sex discrimination in education, and lays down very specific requirements. For example, colleges are now required to adjudicate sexual assault allegations using a low “preponderance of the evidence” burden of proof and required to use a very broad definition of harassment.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'White male executives, long accustomed to their opinions becoming policy, may have the most to fear from artificial intelligence.

Seas of data analyzed by swift cognitive computing could make the gut instincts of the executives who dominate business obsolete, according to the lone woman on a five-person panel at the MIT Technology Conference at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology on Saturday.

“A lot of business is run by, no offense, smart white men,” said Amanda Kahlow, chief executive of the AI-driven marketing firm 6sense, as she turned to the four white men serving on the panel. “AI is going to take the ego out of the equation.”'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Even though I see the good, the bad and the ugly side of human behaviour on a daily basis, I am still a great believer in humanity. I refuse to buy into the belief that all people are bad or that the world is full of evil.  Momentarily today, however, that sentiment was tested.

I was alerted to a conversation in a Facebook group of over 50,000 people, in which people are free to vent their frustrations away. While venting can be a good exercise for all of us, sometimes it will lead to incredibly bad and damaging advice – not to mention inciting someone to commit an illegal and utterly immoral act.

A woman complaining about her relationship disputes over child custody with her ex partner had quite innocently asked for advice. However, the advice she got was quite simply frightening.

On legal advice I am not using the name of the person involved, however her profile indicates she works for the Department of Education and has studied Psychology.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Two outspoken opponents of contemporary feminism, British Breitbart.com technology editor Milo Yiannopoulos and American Enterprise Institute scholar Christina Hoff Sommers, spoke to a packed auditorium at the University of Minnesota Wednesday evening.

The Minnesota Republic, a conservative, student-run magazine at the U of M, invited Yiannopoulos to campus to debate a faculty member of the gender, women and sexuality studies department on the topic of feminism. When no professors agreed, the Minnesota Republic reached out to Hoff Sommers, whose speeches on college campuses often draw protesters.

“Part of our mission here is to encourage diverse political dialogue, so we think that a conservative viewpoint on feminism is kind of silenced on campus,” Minnesota Republic editor-in-chief Anders Koskinen said. “We felt that hosting Milo would be a good way to express a well-rounded campus political dialogue.”'

Article here. Excerpt:

'At a Democratic town hall in Las Vegas, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders declared himself not only a "strong feminist," but also an "honorary woman," a distinction given to him by feminist icon Gloria Steinem.

"I consider myself a strong feminist," Sanders told a young woman from the audience who asked the question. "And in fact, Gloria Steinem — everybody knows Gloria is one of the leading feminists in America -- made me an honorary woman many, many years ago."

"I don’t know exactly what that meant, but I accepted it when she came to campaign for me," Sanders added.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Many years ago when I was seven or eight, I happened to be using the urinal at the same time as my friend Samuel.

A cursory glance his way revealed that we had differences in the trouser department that I hadn't expected. Small boys aren't all the same, as it turns out, when they get stripped down.
...
Circumcision of women is now called genital mutilation. It has become verboten, a crime now at par with murder, perhaps the only traditional African practice that White people can confidently condemn without being called racists.
...
For men, circumcision is tolerated, expected, and in some countries celebrated.

If it is an international scandal that the prepuce of a woman is removed to satisfy religious and cultural views, why is it okay to do the same to boys?'

Article here. Excerpt:

'These claims are not backed by evidence. But still the alarms ring, playing into our usual assumptions that the impulse to protect is benevolent and, perhaps, that women are especially deserving of solicitude. The association between ‘‘protection’’ and women is deeply embedded in culture. The image of the domestic-violence victim who receives a protective order is female, though men have the same right to go to court. Shakespeare described God’s protection of the king, but over the centuries, writers from E. M. Forster to Norman Mailer to Jonathan Franzen have rhapsodized about the male impulse to shelter women. Once in a while, a female character voices vexation. ‘‘I won’t be protected,’’ Lucy protests to her irritating suitor in Forster’s ‘‘A Room With a View.’’ ‘‘I will choose for myself what is ladylike and right. To shield me is an insult.’’

From NCFM:

Today the 9th Circuit Court of Appeal reversed the lower court's dismissal of NCFM v. Selective Service and remanded the case back down with instructions that the case is "not unripe" for review (in other words, they revived NCFM's lawsuit), and also rejected the Department of Justice's argument that NCFM and James Lesmeister lack standing to sue.

This is a victory for the plaintiffs, but it only revives the lawsuit after the lower court dismissed it.

Article here. Excerpt:

'Jason Casares, the associate dean of students and deputy Title IX coordinator at Indiana University's flagship campus in Bloomington, has built a reputation as an expert on college sexual assault. He's well known enough among his peers to have been voted president, in November 2014, of the Association for Student Conduct Administration, a professional group of around 2,700 college officials. Last year, he helped write the curriculum for the group's training program for campus rape investigators.

For the ASCA's annual conference this month, Casares had planned to teach seminars on Title IX and on using a "trauma-informed approach" in sexual misconduct investigations. Then, during the conference keynote on February 3, ASCA board member Jill Creighton circulated a letter accusing him of sexual assault.

Article here. Excerpt:

'The Education Department is standing by its controversial guidance to colleges on sexual harassment and sexual assault in response to questions raised by a prominent Senate critic.

Catherine E. Lhamon, the department’s assistant secretary for civil rights, defended her agency’s actions in a letter on Wednesday to Sen. James Lankford, who, as head of the Senate’s subcommittee on regulatory affairs and federal management, had accused the department of overreach in pressuring colleges to fight sexual discrimination to comply with the gender-equity law known as Title IX.
...
In a letter last month to John B. King Jr., the Education Department’s acting secretary, Senator Lankford argued that the agency’s "Dear Colleague" letters offering colleges guidance on how to comply with Title IX’s ban on sexual discrimination "are not merely interpretive, but alter the regulatory and legal landscape in fundamental ways."

Story here. Excerpt:

'A Trinity Washington University graduate student is recovering after a group of teenage girls attacked her, according to school officials.

The school's president is speaking out and said violence involving young people across the city has to stop. 
...
“We've been seeing it on Metro – several horrible stories about gangs of young kids on Metro terrorizing people,” said McGuire. “Elsewhere in the city, be aware of your surroundings. If you see a group of young people, unfortunately you have to be aware that maybe you need to protect yourself and we wish it weren’t that way.

“We are especially upset that it’s girls. We do women’s education here at Trinity. We want girls to grow up healthy and strong, so we would like to reach out to the school if we can find out what school to maybe help the school with some programs for those girls.”'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Young Jewish parents in the USA are bucking historical trends on this questionable surgery. Articles about or mentioning Jewish opposition to circumcision have appeared recently in a variety of Jewish papers, websites, and blogs including the Jewish Daily Forward, JewSchool, Jweekly, TheJC.com,Jewish Journal, Jewish Business News(Israel) and Ynet Jewish World.

Young Jewish parents are working with supportive Jewish clergy to create ritual alternatives.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Students at Rutgers University were so traumatised by Breitbart Tech editor Milo Yiannopoulos’ visit to their campus that they had to hold a group therapy session, campus newspaper The Daily Targum reports.

According to the paper, students and faculty members held a wound-licking gathering at a cultural center on campus, where students described “feeling scared, hurt, and discriminated against.”

“A variety of different organizations and departments were present to listen, answer questions and show support” to the apparently weak and vulnerable students, who just a few days prior had disrupted Yiannopoulos’ event by smearing fake blood on their faces and chanting protest slogans.
...
“It is upsetting that my mental health is not cared about by the University,” said one student at the event. “I do not know what else to do for us to be heard for us to be cared about. I deserve an apology, everyone in this room deserves an apology.”

Article here. Excerpt:

'Milo Yiannopoulos attended the University of Minnesota on Wednesday to deliver a joint-talk with American Enterprise Institute scholar Christina Hoff Sommers, during which he dispelled the gender pay gap myth, debated sexual consent on campuses, and was protested by a group of the misinformed armed with air-horn sirens. Yiannopoulos also declared during the speech that third-wave feminists were waging war against working-class men.

Story here. Excerpt:

'A domestic violence project director accused of harassing the president of the Beaverton Area Chamber of Commerce has resigned, officials said Thursday.

Tanya Curtis Richards, 58, had been leading the effort to open the Family Justice Center of Washington County, which would offer services and resources for victims of domestic violence in one location. She voluntarily stepped down as project director, said Hillsboro Police Chief Lee Dobrowolski, who serves as chairman of the center's board.
...
Richards had been pursuing a friendship with the Beaverton chamber leader, Lorraine Clarno, and contacted her repeatedly from April 2014 until Jan. 28 of this year, said Officer Mike Rowe, a Beaverton Police spokesman.

Clarno didn't want any contact with her, he said, and asked Beaverton Police Chief Geoff Spalding to tell Richards to stop. The chief did so in a meeting Nov. 25.