Article here. Excerpt:

'Kansas Department for Children and Families announced the creation of the Child Support Savings Initiative. It will encourage parents who owe child support to pay into education savings accounts for their children.

For every dollar put into an account, the state will reduce the parent's debt obligation by $2. Kansas welfare officials said they will use more than $600,000 in grants from two foundations to launch it: W.K. Kellogg Foundation and the Annie E. Casey Foundation.

Texas is the only other state, which National Parents Organization knows of, that has anything at all like this. In Texas, the Child Support for College, CS4C, is a pilot program of the Texas Office of the Attorney General and other partners aimed at linking child support customers to financial coaching institutions. The goal is to promote parent savings for their child’s future college education; but, Texas does not provide the match as is being tested in Kansas.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'If you believe statistics mouthed by your president, and if you still define rape as it has been traditionally defined -- sexual intercourse without consent, usually using force -- our universities have become some of the most dangerous places in the world.

The argument of the White House and a multitude of others, you see, is that the male students are raping an astonishing 20 percent of the female students. In an online article, Heather Mac Donald, a fellow at the Manhattan Institute, cannot help facetiously wondering how mothers can bear to "send their daughters off to a crime scene of such magnitude, unmatched even in the most brutal African tribal wars."

Article here. Excerpt:

'From terrorism to natural disasters, the standard reporting on casualties is often like this by Morning Edition host Steve Inskeep:

"First, we go to Gaza," recited Inskeep. "The health ministry there says more than 500 people have been killed – many of them women and children."

Why, Larry Kalikow of Warrington, Penn, wrote, were women's lives being singled out?

"Are NPR reporters specially trained to promote such flagrant sexism?" he asked. "When will NPR and its news journalists and reporters finally accept the egalitarian principle that all human lives are equally precious, and that the loss of men's lives is no less tragic than the loss of women's lives?"'

Story here. Excerpt:

'A Georgia boy ended up with a suspension after he brought a toy to school as part of an assignment that his teacher handed out.

Ramsey McDonald's teacher asked fourth graders at Miller Elementary School to bring in their most beloved toys so that they could talk about them.

The youngster told his dad that he was going to bring in his iPad and some other toys.
...
"They told me my son brought a weapon to school and they asked me if I was aware," McDonald told WMAZ. "I asked them what it was and they said it was a plastic Nerf gun."

The boy ended up with a three-day in-school suspension for bringing the toy to class.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'When I saw that Michelle Obama joked at the US-Africa Leaders Summit this week that “women are smarter than men”, I prepared myself for backlash. And – what do you know? – Politico wrote that the First Lady had “engaged in a battle of the sexes”, anti-feminist author and Fox News contributor Suzanne Venker called it a “sexist and elitist display”, and the headline at Business Standard read “Michelle Obama claims women are smarter than men”. As if it were a serious assertion rather than a joking aside!
...
But when the First Lady made the quip – at an event with former first lady Laura Bush, while addressing the spouses of African leaders – it wasn’t a humorless dig at men. It was a light-hearted moment of girl-power on the outskirts of a conference for heads of state that is incredibly male-dominated.

Story here. Excerpt:

'A former University of Massachusetts Amherst student who said he was expelled last fall over allegations he sexually assaulted a female student is suing the school, saying administrators unfairly and mistakenly found him responsible and discriminated against him because he is a man.
...
During a night of drinking, playing card games, and dancing with friends, the two students became friendly and flirted, and she later invited him to her room to have sex, the lawsuit said. They had consensual sex and the female student at no point showed signs of intoxication, according to the suit.

The next day, the female student could not remember what had happened, according to the lawsuit. At her roommate’s urging, the female student went to the campus health center for an evaluation. The following day, she filed a complaint with the dean of students’ office.

In her written complaint, she never called what happened harassment, assault, or rape, according to the lawsuit.

Three days later, the university told the male student he was under investigation for threatening behavior, sexual harassment, sexual misconduct, and violating community living standards, the lawsuit said.

He was immediately ordered to move off campus and was barred from the premises except to attend classes, the lawsuit said.

Two months later, the university held a disciplinary hearing, the lawsuit said. But the male student had not been given copies of case documents beforehand, key pieces of evidence were not presented during the hearing, the male student was repeatedly interrupted, and questions he had were ignored, the suit said.

Article here. Excerpt:

'Most of us remember Brian Banks, the football player who was falsely accused of rape at 16 and spent five years in prison. And even when he was released, he had to register as a sex offender and had trouble finding work.

After his exoneration, at 26, Banks decided to release a documentary describing what his life had been like for the past ten years. And he started a Kickstarter to help raise funds for the project. He ended up earning $47,000.

After two years the film is not complete because it grew far beyond Banks’ own expectations. He shared that initially he thought it would be a small project but as more and more people learned about his story, they wanted to help him. First he was trying out for NFL teams, eventually joining the Atlanta Falcons for training camp. He would go on to play in four games during last year’s NFL season.

Article here. Excerpt:

'Beacon Hill lawmakers are supposed to approve public-safety laws protecting the state's citizens -- not laws making it easier for suspected criminals to evade exposure.

Yet early Friday morning, in the 11th-hour rush to end the two-year legislative session, lawmakers held their noses and passed a domestic-violence law that shields the identities of accused abusers. Once Gov. Deval Patrick signs the law, the names of suspected abusers won't be made public on police arrest logs as is now the practice.

While most lawmakers said they opposed eliminating the public's right to know, they didn't want to gut a bill toughening penalties against repeat offenders.

Story here. Excerpt:

'TMZ reports that the ex-Da Band singer was arrested on domestic violence charges following a fight with her husband Tony on July 21. The married couple was reportedly brawling outside of the house while she was allegedly drunk around 3:45am and now, she's landed a spot in jail for the next 93 days.

This isn't the first time Stokes ruffled feathers with the law. She stabbed her husband in 2009 and was sentenced to three years probation in a plea deal.'

Story here. Excerpt:

'A Gastonia man was falsely accused of tying up and raping a woman three times, a prosecutor said Tuesday. Justin Michael Gowan spent nearly a year in jail awaiting trial on charges of rape, kidnapping, assault by strangulation and assault with a deadly weapon.
...
False accusation: Bogle commended Stockwell on researching the case and questioning the allegations. He said Gowan’s accuser had made similar claims about other men in the past.

“She has a history of creating a crisis and utilizing it as a mechanism for change,” he said.

Social workers have since taken the woman’s children, and Gowan’s child is living in Georgia with his mother, Bogle said.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Senator Claire McCaskill, Democrat of Missouri, and seven co-sponsors have introduced a truly appalling bill in the Senate. It could have been written, and perhaps basically was, by the most rabidly misandrist feminists. (Misandrist is the little-used antonym of misogynist. It deserves wider circulation.)

It is intended to stop the supposed “epidemic” of sexual assault on American college campuses, requiring colleges to handle accusations of such assaults in certain ways. But it gives away its bias by consistently calling accusers in campus sexual assault cases “victims,” while the accused are just called the accused. That, of course, begs the question as to whether there actually was a sexual assault in the first place.

Any sexual violence of any kind is unacceptable. But when it comes to much of what falls under the purview of this bill, categorizing some conduct is not so easy. Was it a sexual assault or nothing more than a clumsy, unwelcome pass? Was it a morning-after regret? Because many campus sexual assault accusations turn out to be he said/she said cases, false accusations face little downside risk.
...

Article here. Excerpt:

'Examiner: Will there be “support services” for the accused?

Will there be someone on campus providing them with information on what they can do to provide for their own defense? Will they be informed of their rights, and will those rights be under the law (due process) or under campus rules?

Gerber: There have been recommendations made to change or codify college disciplinary proceedings in ways that would have implications for due process rights, but this bill does not contain mandates about how colleges should conduct their internal disciplinary proceedings.

In developing the bill, Sen. Grassley and others prevailed in the view that the focus should be on sexual assault as a crime rather than a college disciplinary matter.'

Story here. Excerpt:

'First Lady Michelle Obama shared some thoughts about women versus men during a conversation with former First Lady Laura Bush at the U.S Africa Leaders Summit in Washington D.C.

Obama explained that as First Lady it was important to remember to use the position to highlight their personal interests.

“We can’t waste this spotlight, it is temporary and life is short and change is needed and women are smarter than men. And the men can’t complain because you’re outnumbered today,” she said as the audience laughed. '

The Campus Accountability and Safety Act (CASA) was introduced last week by Sen. Claire McCaskill. See SAVE's Summary and Analysis.

CASA calls on colleges to "advise the victim of both the victim's rights and the institution's responsibilities regarding orders of protection, no contact orders, restraining orders, or similar lawful orders issued by the institution or a criminal, civil, or tribal court."

Ashe Schow of the Washington Examiner asked the bill's sponsors:

Press release here. Excerpt:

'WASHINGTON / August 5, 2014 – Today Stop Abusive and Violent Environments (SAVE) is announcing its opposition to the Campus Accountability and Safety Act. The CASA bill was introduced last week by Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri.

By limiting the involvement of the criminal justice system, the bill would make it harder for thorough investigations to be completed, fair trials to be conducted, and appropriate sanctions to be imposed. The bill impairs the deployment of criminal justice resources in three ways:

1. The Act would not require campus rapes to be reported to law enforcement, thus thwarting the ability of trained investigators to collect evidence.

2. Campus security programs do not possess the legal authority to search FBI DNA and fingerprint databases. A match can prevent a future rape, and allow a previous crime to be solved, as well.