Article here. Excerpt:

'THIS week Maria Shriver brings together a star-studded cast of celebrities, from Hillary Rodham Clinton to Beyoncé, to call attention to the economic plight of American women and demand that women’s needs be put “at the center of policy making.

But is this really the time to focus on women? For nearly four decades, feminists have decried “the feminization of poverty.” However, since the 1980s there has been a defeminization of poverty, as a growing proportion of men have fallen on hard times. In recent years men have experienced especially significant losses in income and job security.

Although women are still more likely to be poor than men, on average women’s income and labor-force participation have been rising since the 1970s. By contrast, between 1970 and 2010 the median earnings of men fell by 19 percent, and those of men with just a high school diploma by a stunning 41 percent. And while women have regained all the jobs they lost during the recession, men have regained just 75 percent.

Since about 1980 the percentage of men and women in middle-skill jobs has declined. But for women, nearly all of that decline was because of increased representation in higher-skill jobs. Women’s employment in low-skill jobs increased by just 1 percent. By contrast, for men, half the decline in middle-skill jobs was a result of increases in low-skill jobs.

The most urgent issue facing working Americans today is not the glass ceiling. It is the sinking floor. So wouldn’t it make more sense to focus on gender-neutral economic policies?
...

Story here. Excerpt:

'Just a few minutes before he arrived in court Wednesday for the trial of a woman accused of starving him nearly to death, the state laid out evidence against her. A Titusville investigator held up the tiny Spiderman pajamas he was wearing when he was found — boys size 8. Prosecutors showed photos of how he looked at the time. Intense light blue eyes. Gaunt cheeks. Skeletal ribs.
...
He spoke softly as he recounted his time with Sharon Glass, who faces multiple felony charges, including aggravated child abuse. Police said she and Michael Marshall were caregivers for the boy and other children. Marshall is in jail awaiting trial on similar charges.

On the stand, the boy gave short answers to the prosecutor’s questions. He first met Glass in 2009, when he was in the third grade. She was dating Marshall, his father. Soon, they were living together. Soon, he called her “mom.”

Soon, he started getting in trouble.

Article here. Excerpt:

'A father's rights group is backing a bill that would place a limit on how much money a divorced father would have to pay in child support.

The limit on child support would prevent courts from calculating a parent’s monthly payments on any income above $150,000.

Steve Blake of the group Dads of Wisconsin says the original purpose of child support laws was to make sure that kids don't end up on welfare – that “they're not on the dole and they're still being fed, clothed, housed healthy, [and] go to school.”

“Beyond that, redistributing wealth from one parent to another is not really a state function,” says Blake.

But Blake says he's less concerned with the financial issues in the bill than he is about another provision in the bill, one that would require judges to make it a priority to allow each parent equal time when placement decisions are made.

Article here. Excerpt:

'The legal adviser to the rabbinical court submitted Thursday its ruling on the appeal by a mother who is opposed to having her son circumcised. “On the altar of the petitioner’s right to freedom of religion, she is suggesting that she will ignore the irreversible psychological damage that is liable to be caused to the child due to his being an exception in the society of the children around him...'

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Article here. Excerpt:

'Gyms and weight rooms haven’t always been the most welcoming, comfortable place for women.

But over the last 30 years, health clubs worldwide introduced women’s-only section to cater to their expanding clientele and induce new members to adopt a healthier lifestyle that included weights and treadmills.

But now a West End Fitness World is eliminating the section used exclusively by women to accommodate the neighbourhood’s gay, male demographic and because clients have complained the gym should be completely co-ed.
...
In an angry rant she posted Wednesday on her blog Tank’s Travels, Tankard said Fitness World was deceiving the female members who’d bought passes in order to use the women’s-only section.
...
“Lots of women don’t want to work out in the company of men, their sweat and their grunting,” she wrote. “Sorry guys, you’re not always the best workout partners.”

Article here. Excerpt:

'Professor Kenedy of York University in Toronto, Canada has been researching the fathers' rights, mens' rights, and shared parenting movement since 1990. He has written a book, academic articles, and presented various academic papers (see references below) on these social movements. He is working on a new book about the global fathers' rights, men's rights, and shared parenting movements and is interested in interviewing fathers, mothers, grandparents, adult children, and others who have been through separations and divorces. He would especially like to interview those who have been through the family law system and discuss the impact it had on them such as mental health, physical health, or other issues/consequences.
...
He will be in San Diego from Feb 16-18, 2014 and in Los Angeles from Feb 19-24, 2014. If you are interested in being interviewed for his book please e-mail him at rkenedy-at-yorku.ca.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'One in three separated mothers think their children’s fathers should have no say in their upbringing, according to a report yesterday.

It found that 32 per cent of separated mothers thought that they alone had the right to make decisions about their children’s future.

The high proportion found by a survey implies that more than one in 10 of all the families in the country include mothers who do not want the fathers of their children to have a say over the future of their children.

The findings were revealed in a survey carried out for the counselling group Relate.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Ronald Goldman, Ph.D., Executive Director of the Circumcision Resource Center, a nonprofit educational organization in Boston, has been invited by the Council of Europe to participate in an interdisciplinary dialogue about circumcision at a meeting in France on January 28.

There is a growing European debate about circumcision. In October the Council of Europe, an organization of 47 member States, overwhelmingly passed a non-binding resolution that called circumcision, among other procedures, a violation of the physical integrity of children according to established human rights standards. Circumcision is uncommon in Europe except among Jews and Muslims.

Press release here. Excerpt:

'WASHINGTON / January 6, 2014 – A leading victim-advocacy organization is advising lawmakers to be wary of claims made by domestic violence groups seeking to enact new laws. Stop Abusive and Violent Environments – SAVE — is issuing the warning after the Washington Post’s Fact Checker reported that a claim made by U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder turned out to be based on a false statement made by a leading domestic violence researcher.

In 2009, Holder made the startling claim that “intimate partner homicide is the leading cause of death for African-American women ages 15 to 45.” Holder’s statement was taken word-for-word from a 2003 study published by Jacquelyn Campbell, a well-known researcher at the Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing.

Article here. Excerpt:

'National Parents Organization is proud to announce our launching of Parent to Parent, where Parents of all types, and other family members, can go to discuss issues and seek resources. In the discussion groups you can expect to find other Parents, and other family members, that have gone through the same situation or know others that have. This is a safe, friendly resource to parents, from other parents, from other family members, that is monitored and promoted by National Parents Organization.

Our first major topic is Divorce Corp. See the movie. Wear your National Parents Organization label to the showing. Post your review to Parent to Parent.

Divorce Corp., the groundbreaking expose of the US Family Law System, premieres in theaters, January 10, 2014. It is the documentary about family law that you have been seeking.'

Story here. Excerpt:

'A married mother of four who works at a Massachusetts middle school cafeteria has been charged with raping a teen.

Janelle Foley, 36, allegedly repeatedly had sex with her friend's 15-year-old son during the winter vacation.

She's also under investigation for allegedly having sex with a second victim, who is understood to be a juvenile relative of hers.

The food service staffer, who works at Chapman Middle School in Weymouth, was arrested at her home on Wednesday night.
...
But Foley's attorney, William Sullivan, argued that the lifelong Weymouth resident, who has four children between 7 and 15 years old, was not a flight risk.

He also said Foley had substance abuse and depression issues that could have resulted in the "lapse in judgment."

The judge ordered that Foley be held on $5,000 cash bail with GPS monitoring and that she must undergo mental health counseling.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Despite skinny jeans, mocha latte and Chris Hayes, U.S. males still haven’t been adequately feminized. The tragic result: continued bloodshed in American society.

That’s the gist of a new documentary called “The Mask You Live In,” by feminist filmmaker Jennifer Siebel Newsom. The focus of “The Mask” is the male population’s place in and relationship to American culture. Predictably, judging from the trailer and the film’s enthusiastic reception in left-leaning media, traditional masculinity is a leading cause of murder and mayhem.
...
The film also sites Michael Kimmel, left-wing author of “Angry White Men,” the latest in a long line of “scholarly” works that seeks to explain why white guys tend to be conservatives and why they’re prone to the kind of bigotry and violence they rarely end up actually being guilty of.'

Story here. Excerpt:

'A city cop with eight years of service has been charged with impaired driving while off-duty.
...
Const. Kelly Fradley has been charged with impaired operation of a motor vehicle and impaired operation of a motor vehicle with a blood alcohol content over 80 mg%.
...
Fradley isn't the only Edmonton police officer to face such a charge.

In 2010, Sgt. Cheryl Wallin was charged with impaired driving and operating a vehicle with a blood alcohol level over the legal limit.
...
Wallin was suspended without pay to the tune of $4,000 and granted an absolute discharge, thus ending up with no criminal record.'

Press release here. Excerpt:

'WASHINGTON / January 8, 2014 – Today the non-profit Center for Prosecutor Integrity (CPI) announces the launching of the new Registry of Prosecutorial Misconduct. The unveiling comes three days after a New York Times’ editorial charged ethical violations by prosecutors have become “rampant” across the nation: http://nyti.ms/1hu7K7V

The Registry is the first publicly available national online database to catalog judicial or legal disciplinary committee findings of prosecutorial misconduct. The Registry of Prosecutorial Misconduct will allow lawmakers, researchers, legal organizations, criminal justice reform groups, and others to identify common types of misconduct, assess trends, and compare jurisdictions.

Article here (.pdf file), p. 7 of the file. Excerpt:

'Growing up Jewish, I assumed that circumcision was not only harmless, but also essential and beneficial. Only after I had witnessed a few of these events, did these lifelong assumptions and beliefs become shaky. More than anything, it was the raw terror, shrieking pain and inconsolable cries of the babies struggling against the hands of a loving relative restraining their otherwise flailing limbs for this "sacred" event, which shattered my equanimity about the holiness and necessity of circumcision.

But it would be many years, nearly a decade, before I would dare to explore the long-term consequences of the anatomical, physiological, psychological and sexual damage that circumcision invariably affects. These revelations were unveiled at the Second International Symposium on Circumcision, which I attended in 1991 in San Francisco. From that point forward I began to write, determined to expose circumcision, both religious and medical, for the scandalous human rights violation it inflicts and fraudulent religious obligation it is purported to be.