In case you missed it, article here. Well, I have to admit, I called it wrong. I had her for sure not running. Maybe she will for a time and then drop out after more cash flows into the Clinton Coffers, I dunno. Under normal conditions I might say, "Just sit back and watch the fun," but the stakes are too high. Resistance is *far* from futile. We're stuck, for all practical purposes, with one of two candidates now: The Hildebeast and whoever gets the GOP nod since the Demo party result is a foregone conclusion. If ever there was a time to be politically active during an election year, 2015-2016 is it. Excerpt:

'Ending two years of speculation and coy denials, Hillary Rodham Clinton announced on Sunday that she would seek the presidency for a second time, immediately establishing herself as the likely 2016 Democratic nominee.

“I’m running for president,” she said with a smile near the end of a two-minute video released just after 3 p.m.

“Everyday Americans need a champion. And I want to be that champion,” Mrs. Clinton said. “So I’m hitting the road to earn your vote — because it’s your time. And I hope you’ll join me on this journey.”

The announcement came minutes after emails from John D. Podesta, Mrs. Clinton’s campaign chairman, alerting donors and longtime Clinton associates to her candidacy.

Mr. Podesta said that Mrs. Clinton would meet soon with voters in Iowa and host a formal kickoff event some time next month.

Story here. Excerpt:

'A Vancouver Island teacher who was falsely accused of raping and torturing a student is seeking compensation after the girl's claims were found to be based on a popular TV crime show.
...
Barber was arrested, then suspended. But charges were never laid due to a lack of evidence.

The Qualicum school district hired lawyer Marli Rusen to look into the case. Her 2013 investigation supported the student's allegations, and recommended that Barber be banned from the school district altogether. Soon after, Barber was fired.

The longtime teacher with a spotless record fought for his job. Ultimately, an arbitration hearing uncovered that all of the student's claims were lifted from the TV show "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit." The girl testified that she had watched every episode of the drama at least three times, and some as many as 10 times.
...
The student responded that the similarities between her stories and the show was just a coincidence.

Article here. Excerpt:

'On the main campus of Pennsylvania State University, the editors of The Daily Collegian published a 433-word editorial arguing that Rolling Stone’s fabricated, completely retracted article, “A Rape on Campus” demonstrates that “false accusations” of rape “are extremely unlikely.”

In the bizarre, unsigned Thursday op-ed, The Daily Collegian laments the fact that the Phi Kappa Psi chapter at the University of Virginia is now suing over damages caused by the Nov. 19 article by disgraced journalist Sabrina Rubin Erdely.
...
"The most important thing to come out of this failed journalism is the concept that sexual assault is a huge problem on college campuses, and false accusations are extremely unlikely,” the editors of The Daily Collegian declare. “We cannot let this situation hurt and set back sexual assault reporting and investigating.”
...
“While we understand the fraternity may have a right to legal action, we don’t support its decision to pursue a case,” they lecture.

“With all of the media covering of this case, it has become general knowledge the fraternity’s name has been cleared and the article has been retracted.”
...
Notably, Erdely did not apologize to Phi Kappa Psi.

Story here. A good review of the South Carolina child support system. Excerpt:

'But Scott, who was killed on Saturday by police officer Michael Slager in North Charleston, South Carolina, had also long struggled to pay child support. In 2008, he went to jail for a full six months after falling behind by $6,800 in child support payments, according to The Associated Press. Scott spent one night in jail in both 2011 and 2012, again because he owed thousands in child support. At the time of Scott’s death, there was a warrant out for his arrest due to failure to make child support payments. (Scott also had a history of convictions and arrests for other offenses, according to The Post And Courier, a Charleston paper.)

The knowledge of the arrest warrant for failed payments is likely what spurred Scott to run from Slager on Saturday during a traffic stop over a broken taillight.
...
In 2009, Patterson conducted a survey of 33 county jails in South Carolina, which found that one out of every eight inmates -- or 13.2 percent of the inmate population -- was behind bars for contempt of civil court after falling behind on child support payments. In Charleston County, where Walter owed his back payments on child support, Patterson’s survey found that over 15 percent of inmates had been imprisoned for not paying child support. In a handful of the other counties studied, the figure was as high as 20 percent.

Patterson told The Huffington Post in an interview that most states are more forgiving than South Carolina when it comes to child support payments. In general, there is no set number of days after which the debtor automatically goes to a contempt hearing.

Letter here.

'Congress should cut the budget of the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights, where I used to work. Contrary to Howard Kallem’s argument, it needs no budget increase (Letter to the Editor, “Office for Civil Rights Needs More Resources,” April 2).

Kallem cited the fact that more complaints have been filed at OCR recently. But that includes many copycat complaints that cost little to investigate. On March 18, The Washington Post quoted OCR’s head admitting that just “two individuals were responsible for filing more than 1,700 of those allegations.”

Three new book reviews from the executive director of Attorneys for the Rights of the Child, J. Steven Svoboda. I look forward to his book reviews. These cover the following:

Pleading here. Excerpt:

Article here. Excerpt:

'Mr. McLeod, 24 years old, is suing Duke for his diploma, arguing the university unjustly made him an example to show a get-tough approach. “I believe that I’m wrongfully accused,” he says. “I believe that it was an unfair process and I believe I had something I earned taken away from me.”

His case is part of a broad and rapid change in how U.S. colleges and universities deal with sexual-assault allegations. Campuses have rewritten policies to lower the burden of proof for finding a student culpable of assault, increasing penalties—sometimes recommending expulsion. In the process, schools find themselves in legal minefields as they try to balance the rights of accuser and accused.

Mr. McLeod’s suit is one of more than 30 that men have brought against U.S. campuses since January 2014 alleging due-process violations in sexual-assault cases, says A Voice for Male Students, an advocacy group.'

Link here. Excerpt:

'Chemicals that can cause adverse health effects are used in many settings, including manufacturing industries, water treatment facilities, food processing plants, schools, and homes. Because of this, chemicals are involved in tens of thousands of emergency incidents each year and lead to thousands of personal injuries and hundreds of deaths. In addition to physical injuries, persons exposed to chemical releases can experience long-lasting mental health effects (1–3), and communities where incidents occur can be strained (4).
...
The sex of 12,611 injured persons was known; 8,096 (64%) were male and 4,515 (36%) were female. The majority of responders (91%) and employees (70%) of the responsible party were male. More members of the general public who were injured in chemical incidents were male (54%), whereas more students injured at school were female (58%). The mean age was similar for employees (37 years), responders (36 years), and the general public (34 years). Students exposed at school were an average age of 13 years.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Forget Madonna, Marilyn, Liz and Oprah. While it may be a testament to those icons’ power and fame that they can be recognized simply by their first names, it’s apparently a sexist degradation to Hillary (does she still use “Rodham”?) Clinton to presume the same standard should apply to the former first lady.

Don’t let the fact fool you that there’s literally a “Ready for Hillary” PAC, either. The pros get to call this their way; the antis, not so much. If you don’t have anything nice to say about Hillary … Clinton … don’t say you weren’t warned if her supporters start calling out your overt sexism the next time you forget to use her full name.

“[S]ome Americans, mostly women, don’t think the former secretary of state, U.S. senator from New York and first lady should be called by just her first name,” McClatchy reported Tuesday in a story that made liberal use of the “some people say” journalistic device.'

Video here. Right on target. Description:

'Manhattan Institute Fellow Heather MacDonald on the magazine's errant reporting on an alleged rape, elite opinion and statistics.'

Story here.

'One of two former high school teachers accused of having sex with a 16-year-old student has agreed to a plea deal that will allow her to avoid prison time or having to register as a sex offender.

The deal was announced in Hahnville at a Thursday hearing in the case of 32-year-old Shelley Dufresne (doo-FRAIN'). The deal avoids a May 20 trial.

The New Orleans Advocate reports that Dufresne pleaded guilty to one felony count of obscenity. She received a $1,000 fine, but a three-year prison sentence was deferred on the condition that she complete 90 days of mental health treatment.'

She and another former teacher at the school have been arrested, but not yet formally charged, in a Jefferson Parish case involving the same student.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'If you hug your boyfriend and as a result your clothed body (including your breasts) touches him, you could be accused of “sexual assault” through “sexual contact” under the University of Virginia’s broad new “sexual assault” policy adopted to appease the Office for Civil Rights, where I used to work (assuming you do it without explicitly agreeing on the details of the hug). Because U.Va. lumps together touching, “however slight,” and intercourse when it comes to sexual assault, requiring “affirmative” consent for both.  (“Affirmative consent” is a misleading term, and does not include many forms of consent that occur in the real world, and are recognized by the courts, as I explain at this link. The new policy further warns that “Relying solely on non-verbal  communication before or during sexual activity can lead to misunderstanding and may result in a violation of this Policy.” Portions of U.Va.’s policy are reprinted below.).

This is an outrageous violation of students’ privacy rights.

Article here. Good for him. He's moving on to sue the bejeesus out of the Jane Does, too. Excerpt:

'Congratulations to Professor Dershowitz and Kendall Coffey on the good news. As noted Miami defense lawyer and former Dershowitz student David O. Markus told the AP, “Judge Marra saw through all the noise and correctly found that this is a court of law, not a tabloid which prints first and looks for evidence later. These absurd allegations have no place in our legal system.”

This isn’t the end of all Epstein-related litigation for Professor Dershowitz. He’s still a defendant in that libel action filed against him by Paul Cassell and Bradley Edwards, counsel to Jane Doe #3 aka Virginia Roberts. But Professor Dershowitz might actually welcome the continuation of that case. With his involvement in the Jane Doe case now over, the defamation case may be the best avenue for completely disproving the allegations against him.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'From the Duke lacrosse team, the Columbia mattress girl and the University of Virginia, the left has not been able to produce one actual rape on a college campus. It’s beginning to look as if the rape of the Sabine women never happened, either. Someone’s going to have to go back and investigate.

The big finale to the latest college rape fable, Rolling Stone’s whimsical “A Rape on Campus,” about a fraternity gang rape at the University of Virginia that never happened, is the Columbia Journalism Review’s “investigation” of the story, released Sunday night. It’s more of a house of mirrors than a finale, inasmuch as CJR’s report is so preposterous that it demands its own investigation.

The CJR treats “reporting” as if it is some sort of learned craft, requiring years of study, as opposed to basic common sense. For example, if someone has an incredible story that he’s dying for you to publicize, but loses interest every time you try to confirm any of the facts, a normal person would say: Oh, that’s because it’s probably a lie.