Story here. Excerpt;

'CHICAGO — A man who says Chicago police tortured him until he confessed to a rape he didn’t commit was expected to walk out of an Illinois prison Wednesday after 30 years behind bars.

Stanley Wrice’s release from the Pontiac Correctional Center comes after Cook County Judge Richard Walsh overturned Wrice’s conviction Tuesday, saying officers lied about how they treated him.

Story here. Excerpt:

'Battered women are morally entitled to kill their abusive partners, even those who are passed out or asleep, says a respected University of Ottawa law professor.

Prof. Elizabeth Sheehy raises the provocative idea in her new book, eight years in the making, called Defending Battered Women on Trial. It will be published Dec. 15 by UBC Press.

"Why should women live in anticipatory dread and hypervigilence?" she writes in the book's concluding chapter. Would it not be just, Sheehy asks, "to shift the risk of death to those men whose aggressions have created such dehumanizing fear in their female partners?"
...
Sheehy likened women in abusive relationships to prisoners of war. "We would never say of a prisoner of war that it's not just that she or he kill their captor to escape. It is just to kill to escape that kind of enslavement."

Article here. Excerpt;

'Female scientists are more receptive of abstract artworks than their male counterparts, suggesting that they are likely to be open to a more ‘anarchic, creative and radical’ approach to science, according to new research released today.

How Scientists Look At Art’, a study conducted by University of Reading and commissioned by Bayer to mark its 150th anniversary, suggests that women may bring added creativity and a more challenging approach to science, adding weight to the ongoing, global drive to encourage more women to enter the profession.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Women entrepreneurs tend to treat their employees better and give back to their communities, said Joy Anderson, President and Founder of Criterion Institute, which helps shape emerging financial markets and movements.
...
In general, women entrepreneurs are more altruistic and empathetic. Combined with their rising success, it’s likely that small- and mid-sized company social responsibility efforts will increase and take on new forms,d which may well change the way we all think about business responsibility.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'It's well-known that what a mother eats before and during pregnancy can affect fetal development, but research now suggests that a father's diet prior to conception may also play a critical role in a newborn's health.
...
But the way that a father's diet can influence the health and development of offspring has received little attention, said Sarah Kimmins, a specialist in reproductive biology at McGill University who led a study looking at the effects of paternal folate levels.
...
In a study of mice published in the journal Nature Communications, researchers found that a low-folate diet in males was linked to an increased rate of birth defects among their pups, compared to the rate among pups whose fathers were fed a folate-sufficient diet.

"When we looked at the offspring, when we looked at the fetuses, we were really quite shocked that we saw the birth defects," Kimmins said Tuesday from Montreal.

Article here. Excerpt:

'Young American women are increasingly likely to receive pay nearly equal to their male counterparts, with earnings at 93 percent of men, a new study finds. Still, those women remain as pessimistic as their mothers and grandmothers regarding gender equality.

A report for release Wednesday by the Pew Research Center paints a mixed picture.

While women under 32 now have higher rates of college completion than men that age, the analysis of census and labor data shows their hourly earnings will slip further behind by the women’s mid-30s, if the experience of the past three decades is a guide.

At a recent dinner for Hillary Clinton, Sheryl Sandberg said the following:

“When you give money to men, they spend it on whiskey and themselves…when you give to women, they spend it on their children."

See here.

So I wrote the following to leanin.org:

----

To: info@leanin.org
Cc: partners@leanin.org

'“When you give money to men, they spend it on whiskey and themselves…when you give to women, they spend it on their children,” said Sandberg at the gala.'

Is she really that nasty?

----

And then I received this response:

----

From: Andrea Saul

Hi Thomas,

Thanks for pointing this out — she was quoting an old saying from the World Bank (she didn't say it was true) and the context wasn't included. I've asked ABC to correct it.

Best regards,

Andrea

----

So I followed up with:

----

Her request for help is here. Excerpt:

'“Help! I’m asking for the help of the public! I am a mother to a baby. The Rabbinical Court is forcing me to cut my year old son against my will (circumcise him) while subjecting me to heavy financial sanctions daily!

After my exposure to the information regarding circumcision, I refuse to mutilate my baby. I don’t have the right and I do not agree! He was born whole and he will stay whole! His integrity is his full right! The Religious Court has no right to do that! No one in the whole world is authorized to force me to mutilate my son, to cut his penis!

Article here. Excerpt:

'A year ago 19-year old Preston King was a light-hearted young Southern California man in love with his high school sweetheart. Her pregnancy changed their lives dramatically.

As the birth date approached, King was shocked to learn that the mother planned to give the baby up for adoption, whether or not he agreed to it. The adoptive couple had already been selected by the mother, and King was invited by an adoption agency – via text message – to meet them. King immediately petitioned the Orange County courthouse for paternity testing, and in the weeks leading to the birth, went to court several times to claim his paternal rights.

In spite of his best efforts, though, King was not allowed to sign a declaration affirming his fatherhood and was denied the right to paternal mention on the birth certificate. After King spent a mere 15 minutes alone with his baby, born September 7, the infant went home with his adoptive parents.
...
Observers of the family law system in Canada will be reminded of the quite similar 2007 case of Hendricks vs Swan in Saskatchewan. Saskatoon dad Adam Hendricks was in the same position as King. He was a willing father, whose girlfriend unilaterally adopted their baby out to well-off strangers.

What do these two cases tell us about the prevailing culture as filtered through the family law system? That mothers count in a child’s life and fathers don’t.

As the Hendricks and King cases make clear, our misandric family law systems routinely assign more importance to mothers over fathers. Yet decades of research unequivocally prove that children want to love and be loved equally by both their parents. These travesties of gender injustice must end. Equal parenting is equal gender justice.'

Story here. Excerpt:

'Book a room on the 11th floor of the Hamilton Crowne Plaza here, and you'll get special bath salts and body products, a magnifying mirror, nail polish, nail files and a curling iron.

In other words, you'll get pretty much anything you need to pamper yourself.

They're not exactly the types of amenities that men would go for, but that's the point.

The Hamilton Crowne Plaza is one of a small, but growing number of hotels offering floors dedicated to female travelers. These hotels are particularly trying to appeal to female business travelers, who are moving up the career ladder and hitting the road more often.

Story here. Excerpt:

'The suspension of a 6-year-old boy for kissing a girl at school is raising questions about whether the peck should be considered sexual harassment.

The boy's mother said officials at Lincoln School of Science and Technology in Canon City, a southern Colorado city of 16,000, are over-reacting. Jennifer Saunders said her son was suspended once before for kissing the girl and had other disciplinary problems, and she was surprised to find out that he would be forced out of school again for several days.

First grader Hunter Yelton told KRDO-TV (http://tinyurl.com/lyhxh7l) that he has a crush on a girl at school and she likes him back.

"It was during class, yeah. We were doing reading group, and I leaned over and kissed her on the hand. That's what happened," he said.

Story here. So if a bakery has to make wedding cakes for gay couples (i.e., they can't discriminate even in a private transaction based on sexual orientation), then tell me, how is it gyms, bars, hotels, etc., can discriminate based on gender? If "being gay" isn't a choice but an indelible characteristic of a person, isn't also a person's sex? Would we today expect a gay person to deny their sexuality to avoid "offending" others' sensibilities? Obviously, based on this ruling, no. So why does the law still support gender discrimination in situations arguably more significant in an ongoing sense, like access to hotel rooms, gyms, etc.? I am sure the baker had the same argument today's feminists who support single-sex facilities and women-only goodies do: gay couples can always go to another bakery, while feminists say men can always go to a different gym. Excerpt:

'DENVER (AP/CBS4) – A baker who refused to make a wedding cake for a same-sex ceremony must serve gay couples despite his religious beliefs or face fines, a judge said Friday.

The order from administrative law judge Robert N. Spencer said Masterpiece Cakeshop in suburban Denver discriminated against a couple “because of their sexual orientation by refusing to sell them a wedding cake for their same-sex marriage.”

The order says the cake-maker must “cease and desist from discriminating” against gay couples. Although the judge did not impose fines in this case, the business will face penalties if it continues to turn away gay couples who want to buy cakes.
...
“At first blush, it may seem reasonable that a private business should be able to refuse service to anyone it chooses,” Judge Spencer said in his written order. “This view, however, fails to take into account the cost to society and the hurt caused to persons who are denied service simply because of who they are.”
...

Video here. Caption:

'"We teach boys how to wear the skin of a man, but we also teach them how to raise that skin like a flag and draw blood for it."

Two-time National Poetry Slam champion Guante, performing at Madame in Minneapolis.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Earlier this fall, the seventh annual Global Gender Gap Report — an index of states that have best addressed gender inequality — ranked Canada 20, behind countries such as South Africa, Nicaragua and Cuba. Wage inequality and political empowerment for women were particular sore points, with Canada ranking 35 and 41, respectively.

To those areas of concern should be added another: entrepreneurship. The “entrepreneurship gap” between women and men in Canada is nothing short of “striking,” according to a report from TD Bank showing Canadian women are only about half as likely as men to start their own business. This is despite the fact they make up half of the workforce and more than half of post-secondary students.
...
Or you can blame it on the obstacles to building a culture of entrepreneurialism among women: A recent Global Entrepreneurship Monitor report, found more than half of women doubt their abilities to start a business (despite that “women are rated higher in 12 of the 16 competencies that go into outstanding leadership,” according to a 2012 Harvard Business Review study.)

Or there’s the “old boys’ club” argument: In the startup world, it’s impossible to connect with the right mentors, advisors and investors without a strong network. If women are unable to tap into that male-dominated ecosystem, then they’re at a marked disadvantage.

But closer to home, I see a slightly different issue in play. I’d like to think HootSuite, for instance, is anything but a stodgy old boys’ club. As a social media company, the heart of our business is building relationships. Our employees are by and large young, progressive and open-minded.
...

Story here. Excerpt:

'Wisconsin's ultra-liberal capital city is a place where just about anything goes, from street parties to naked bike rides. But city officials say a business is pushing even Madison's boundaries by offering, of all things, hugs.

For $60, customers at the Snuggle House can spend an hour hugging, cuddling and spooning with professional snugglers.

Snugglers contend touching helps relieve stress. But Madison officials suspect the business is a front for prostitution and, if it's not, fear snuggling could lead to sexual assault. Not buying the message that the business is all warm and fuzzy, police have talked openly about conducting a sting operation at the business, and city attorneys are drafting a new ordinance to regulate snuggling.

"There's no way that (sexual assault) will not happen," assistant city attorney Jennifer Zilavy said. "No offense to men, but I don't know any man who wants to just snuggle."