Article here. Excerpt:

'Senate Bill 291 would allow victims of domestic violence to be awarded exemplary, also called punitive, damages. Under current Louisiana law, punitive damages -- meant to punish and deter the offender -- are awarded only in drunk driving cases that result in an injury and in statutory rape cases.

The damages recipient would have to prove the actions of the perpetrator represented "a wanton and reckless disregard for the rights and safety of a family or household member" and also resulted in "serious" physical injury and/or "severe" mental injury.

PRESS RELEASE

Contact: Teri Stoddard
Telephone: 301-801-0608
Email: teristoddard-at-saveservices.org

WASHINGTON / April 1, 2014 – SAVE, a victim-advocacy organization, is charging the “affirmative consent” policy being proposed by the U.S. Department of Education, and being considered by legislators in several states around the country, will not help victims. Instead, the unproven policy is likely to end up harming rape victims, SAVE says.

Recently the Department of Education (DED) proposed a new regulation mandating “affirmative, unambiguous, and voluntary” consent between college students desiring to engage in sexual relations: http://www2.ed.gov/policy/highered/reg/hearulemaking/2012/vawa-2draftregs.doc

“Affirmative consent” means both parties would need to give their explicit, verbal consent at every step in the process of engaging in sex, according to a bill recently introduced in California: http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201320140SB967

SAVE urgently requests policymakers to consider the reality of a serial rapist in search of a victim:

First, there is no plausible reason to suppose that a legal requirement for “affirmative, unambiguous, and voluntary” consent would in way thwart the assailant.

Next, affirmative consent policies would dramatically expand definitions of sexual assault, resulting in many more persons demanding services. So rape victims will find it more difficult to get help.

Article here. Excerpt:

'Campaigns targeting young women to warn and protect them against unwanted sexual encounters are prevalent, and often a hot topic for parents raising girls. As these campaigns educate teens and young adults about sexual aggressors, boys and men are most often framed as the perpetrators.

However, a report published last week in the journal “Psychology of Men & Masculinity” sheds light on the pressures that young men also face when it comes to sexual relationships. According to the report, 43 percent of high school boys and college-aged men reported having an unwanted sexual experiences, with females as the lead perpetrators in sexual coercion.

Article here. Excerpt:

'TV sitcom king Chuck Lorre [link added] has a message for men everywhere. He wants them to know that their "tribal blooddrenched reign is over" because women now have access to the birth control pill.

This message was delivered to America on the "vanity card" that appeared at the end of the March 31 episode of his Anna Faris sitcom vehicle, Mom on CBS.

A "vanity card" is a message Lorre places at the end of each episode of his various sitcoms, a practice he has indulged since the 1990s. Some are meant to be humorous quips, but most are filled with Lorre's personal political commentary and meant to decry the actions and ideas of those he opposes.

At the end of Mom, Lorre wanted to express his prosaic Hollywood hate for men, his celebration that their "reign" was over, and his 100 percent support of women and their access to contraception.

You can't make this stuff up. Excerpt:

'Global warming isn't just going to melt the Arctic and flood our cities—it's also going to make Americans more likely to kill each other.

That's the conclusion of a controversial new study that uses historic crime and temperature data to show that hotter weather leads to more murders, more rapes, more robberies, more assaults, and more property crimes.

"Looking at the past, we see a strong relationship between temperature and crime," says study author Matthew Ranson, an economist with the policy consulting firm Abt Associates. "We think that is likely to continue in the future."

Just how much more crime can we expect? Using the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's warming projections, Ranson calculated that from 2010 to 2099, climate change will "cause" an additional "22,000 murders, 180,000 cases of rape, 1.2 million aggravated assaults, 2.3 million simple assaults, 260,000 robberies, 1.3 million burglaries, 2.2 million cases of larceny, and 580,000 cases of vehicle theft" in the United States.'

Story here. Excerpt:

'The Texas woman who allegedly stabbed her boyfriend with her stiletto heel at least 25 times was defending herself from yet another instance of abuse at the hands of the man she is accused of murdering, her attorney said at her trial's opening arguments today.

Ana Trujillo, 45, is on trial in the death of her on-again, off-again boyfriend, Dr. Alf Stefan Andersson.

The prosecution today told jurors of the couple's contentious relationship in which Trujillo had a history of being angry with Andersson

Prosecutors have alleged that the Houston woman stabbed her already injured boyfriend to death last year by sitting on him and striking him in the face at least 25 times with her stiletto heel.
...
Trujillo, a mother of two who’s out on bail, has pleaded not guilty. She was acting in self-defense, her attorney, Jack Carroll, said.

Article here. Excerpt:

'Lt. Col. (Ret.) Dar Place was two feet away when his friend and fellow soldier took his own life during the Gulf War. Two decades later, like so many other veterans, Place is still haunted by the plague of suicide in the military.

“I personally saw my driver after Desert Storm in his tank put a gun underneath his mouth and pull the trigger, while I was no further away from him than I am from you right now,” Place told the Washington Free Beacon at the National Mall in Washington, D.C., on Thursday. He was one of the dozens of activists with Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA) who planted thousands of flags to honor veterans who had killed themselves.

Article here. Excerpt:

'A woman now faces charges after deputies say she admitted to making a false rape claim.

The Sullivan County Sheriff's Office tells us they received a report of a rape Wednesday on Poplar Grove road in Kingsport.

Deputies say when they arrived Amanda Rowland told them someone came into her home while she was taking a shower and raped her.
...
During the investigation detectives traced the text messages back to Amanda Rowland and she admitted the report was false.

Amanda Rowland is charged with Filing a Felony False Report and Tampering With/Fabricating Evidence.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Get it in gear, fellas.

Milliennial women are doing a nice job of getting their careers started. New figures released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics show 32% of women at the age of 27 have a bachelor’s degree. Another 38% have spent some time in college — including women still in school — bringing the total portion of 27-year-old women with college experience to 70%.

Guys must be stuck in front of the Xbox, because their numbers are lower in every category. Just 24% of 27-year-old men have a bachelor’s degree. Another 37% have some college education, bringing the total to 61% — nine percentage points lower than women at the same age.

You might think men catch up a bit later in life, as they finally mature. Sorry, no. Women now earn 60% of the master’s degrees conferred by universities, and 52% of the doctorates. Those gaps are projected to widen during the next 10 years. Women have been outperforming men in education for more than a decade, a trend only expected to intensify.
...
College-educated men seem to be doing just fine, with a 3.6% unemployment rate and many of the top positions at America's best firms. And in some skilled trades dominated by men, such as welding, plumbing and high-tech manufacturing, there are even reports of jobs that can't be filled for lack of qualified workers.

Still, men suffered more than women during the recession, largely because they're overrepresented in two lower-skilled professions that got clobbered the most: manufacturing and construction. Women are more prevalent in industries that are recession-resistant — and tend to require more training in the first place — such as education and healthcare.

Article here. Excerpt:

'The Twitter hashtag #killallmen, which started trending last May, has finally reached conspiracy theorist Alex Jones. His site, InfoWars, ran a story Monday about how "feminists have misappropriated the women’s rights movement into an excuse for hating men." This taps into men's rights activists' beliefs that misandry exists and feminists actually wish to be violent towards men.
...
Not all feminists employ the hashtag, and some say it only serves to feed the MRA trolls. They're right. MRAs will never get the joke, because they think women commit widespread, systemic injustices against men in the same way that men do against women. A bloodthirsty feminist murdering a guy for asking her for her phone number sounds about right to these guys.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'It is arguably the only game in town these days, if the hype about male circumcision is anything to go by. It has involved Government, celebrities, media and money. Stars such as musician Jah Prayzah, Suluman Chimbetu, Albert Nyathi, Winky D, Fungisai Zvakavapano-Mashavave, among others, have been roped in to sell the concept while footballer Hardlife Zvirekwi also went under the knife recently.

They are keen to make the idea of going under the knife sexy.

"Circumcision, like any operation, is painful but the pain is bearable. I was circumcised on a Monday and on Thursday the same week I presented at my shows as usual," says Jah Prayzah.

"I got circumcised because it is good for me by preventing sexually transmitted diseases and for my wife because it reduces her chances of contracting cervical cancer."

Zvirekwi said: "Having been informed through the media and other celebrities like Winky D, male circumcision is a good thing to prevent cervical cancer and HIV."'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Google the phrase “girl power” and you’ll read about empowerment, confidence and strengthening relationships.

Search “boy power” and you’re likely to find information about a recliner, a superhero comic or hip-hop radio show.

More parents are looking for ways to raise emotionally strong boys. Some say boys are forgotten in the push for girl power.

“I think we need to keep things balanced,” said Rachel Gillen, a Fargo mother of two daughters and one son. “As long as we’re emphasizing girls being able to do anything, which is a great thing to emphasize, I think we do need to remember that the boys need to hear the same thing about themselves.”'

Article here. Excerpt:

'At 27 years of age, 28 percent of individuals had received their bachelor’s degree while 38 percent had attended some college or received an associate’s degree. Eighteen percent of 27 year-olds had a high school diploma and no further schooling, and 7 percent had earned a General Educational Development(GED) credential and no further schooling.

Women were more likely than men to have received a bachelor’s degree. Thirty-two percent of women had earned a bachelor’s degree, compared with 24 percent of men. In total, 70 percent of women had either attended some college or received a bachelor’s degree, compared to 61 percent of men. In addition to being more likely to attend college, women were more likely to have finished their college degree. Of the 70 percent of women who started college, 46 percent completed their bachelor’s degree by age 27. In comparison, of the 61 percent of men who started college, 39 percent had completed their bachelor’s degree.

At age 27, there was a large difference in educational attainment among racial and ethnic groups. Non-Hispanic blacks and Hispanics were more likely than whites not to have obtained a high school diploma. In comparison, whites were more than twice as likely as blacks or Hispanics to have received their bachelor’s degree by this age. Thirty-three percent of whites had received their bachelor’s degree at age 27, compared with 15 percent of blacks or Hispanics. Among those who had attended college, whites were more likely than blacks or Hispanics to have received a bachelor’s degree. Just over one-quarter of blacks and Hispanics who had attended college had received a bachelor’s degree by age 27, compared to nearly one-half of whites.
...

Article here. Excerpt:

'Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen said Tuesday that America’s economic progress over the past century has been fueled in large part by the advent of women in the workforce.

Yellen is the first female to lead the central bank in its 100-year history, and her speech marked one of the few times over her four-decade career that she has directly addressed the status of women in the workplace. She spoke at a celebration in honor of Women's History Month on Capitol Hill hosted by House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi. Guests included Christine Lagarde, managing director of the International Monetary Fund, and California Rep. Maxine Waters.

“It is no coincidence that America’s great success in the past century came as women steadily increased their participation in every aspect of society,” Yellen said, according to prepared copy of her statement.

The growing number of women in the labor force, particularly after 1970, contributed to the growing wealth enjoyed by American households. Women accounted for about 47 percent of the labor force in 2012, but full-time working females still only make about 77 cents for every dollar men make. Yellen also acknowledged the glass ceiling many women face in government, business and academia -- even in her own field of economics.
...

Story here. Excerpt:

'MONTREAL - The two teenage girls who posted to Facebook a video of themselves pummelling a young man will face criminal charges.

The video of the attack in the Montreal suburb of Beloeil, Que. generated thousands of Facebook hits this week.

The video shows a girl walking up to the smaller boy behind a shopping mall.

She says: "You said that on the telephone?" to which the boy replies: "When did I say that?"

The girl shoves the boy, spits on him, pushes him to the ground and starts punching him while another girl, who is filming the attack, giggles and laughs.

The boy says "I didn't say anything" and gets up. The girl switches places with her female friend and keeps filming while the second girl punches the boy. The girls then switch places again.

The girl who films the beating can be heard telling her friend: "Bust him in the mouth! I want to see him bleeding."