Link here. Excerpt:

'Catherine M. Russell
Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women's Issues
National Democratic Institute (NDI) Offices
...
Let me commend specifically the important work that you are doing in the hard places. To IRI, thank you for the work you have done with your Women’s Democracy Network — to build the capacity of Syrian women in negotiation, leadership, advocacy, and other skills at this critical time for their country.

To NDI, thank you for the work you are doing in Afghanistan to help Afghan women be competitive in the upcoming elections -- through women’s campaign schools, one-on-one consultations with women candidates and developing policy working groups.

Article here. Excerpt:

'The Nebraska Supreme Court prohibits Nebraska State Bar Association from using mandatory dues for anything other than regulation of the legal profession. Thus it may not use mandatory dues for lobbying. Regulation of the profession is defined as:

Article here. Excerpt:

'The number of parental child abduction cases has more than doubled in the last decade, new figures from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) suggest.

The FCO and charity Reunite say almost two children a day on average are taken out of the UK against a court order or without the consent of one parent.

There were 272 new parental child abduction and international custody cases in 2003-04, and 580 in 2012-13.

The FCO has released what is calls a "hard-hitting" film on the subject.

The film, Caught in the Middle, has been published on YouTube as part of a pre-Christmas awareness campaign to encourage parents to consider the "lasting damage" such abductions can do to children and families.

Sorry, this is the only online image that I was able to find. It was published across the nation today and the the Mankato Free Press. You'll know which cartoon when you see it.

Article here. Excerpt:

'A judge dismissed charges Monday against adventurer Aron Ralston, who was jailed after a domestic dispute in Denver.

"In an evaluation of the case, we determined there was no likelihood of conviction," said Melissa Drazen-Smith, assistant director of prosecution for the Denver city attorney's office.

Prosecutors are proceeding with similar charges against Ralston's girlfriend, Vita Shannon, who was arrested with him late Saturday at her home in Denver."
...
"Ralston told police that Shannon hit him twice in the back of the head with her fists during an argument. Shannon told police Ralston shoved her on the shoulder as he left her home, according to the reports. Police noted that the couple's infant daughter was present during the fight.

In April 2003, Ralston was descending a slot canyon when a boulder he was climbing on dislodged, crushing and trapping his right hand against the canyon wall. After five days, he broke his arm and amputated the limb.'

Story here. Excerpt:

'DENVER, CO -- The mother of a girl involved in the case of a 6-year-old Colorado boy suspended for giving a classmate unwanted kisses says the school did the right thing.

The girl's mother, Jade Masters-Ownbey, told the Canon City Daily Record on Wednesday that the school district did a "great job" protecting her daughter from repeated harassment from the boy.
...
The boy's mother, Jennifer Saunders, insists the punishment was too harsh.

"He is 6 years old, and that is absolutely ridiculous for him to have 'sexual harassment' on his record, even it is (only on the district's) record," she said.'

Story here. Excerpt:

'Hunter Yelton, the six-year-old boy who’s being portrayed as a “hopeless romantic” and “young Casanova” after his recent school suspension, will no longer have the offense of sexual harassment on his permanent record. Following negative press surrounding his two-day suspension from Lincoln School of Science and Technology in Colorado, the school reduced the offense on Hunter’s permanent record from “sexual harassment” to “misconduct” Thursday. Hunter’s seemingly innocuous crime? Kissing one of his classmates on the hand.

Jade Masters-Ownbey, the mother of the young girl Hunter kissed, felt his original punishment was appropriate. After all, this wasn’t the first time Hunter had been reprimanded for violating his school’s sexual harassment policy: he apparently had a history of pursuing this same girl, and had previously kissed her on the cheek. But Hunter’s mother, Jennifer Saunders, thought the school’s punishment was too harsh.

Story here.

'WINDSOR, Colo. - A Fort Collins woman who told police that a former co-worker drugged and kidnapped her from a Windsor parking lot in November now faces charges of lying to police.

Katherine Bennett, 20, accused Dustin Toth of luring her to a Safeway parking lot by saying he needed a friend to talk to about his upcoming deployment.

Bennett said when she got in Toth's car, Toth pulled a knife and threatened her.

However, the Coloradoan reports that Toth has been cleared of all charges and Bennett was arrested on a charge of attempting to influence a public official.

Bennett's arrest affidavit highlights says she changed her story many times and made claims that police later found to be untrue.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'His action was 100% innocent. He is 6 year old kid, what else you want to know. The way school over reacted was that necessary, is that a mature decision, this is what we expect from schools & there teachers. Do we see the true values of carring, love and compassion that teachers should have.'

Please, think and decide. Your action and support will help.

Article here. Excerpt:

Story here. Excerpt:

'A father yesterday spoke of his anguish over an extraordinary £100,000 12-year court battle for the right to see his daughter.

The man, described as ‘irreproachable’ by a senior judge, has endured years of legal fighting with his ex-partner, who has refused to allow contact between him and their 14-year-old daughter.

Incredibly, the family courts have made 82 orders that he be allowed to see the girl, known only as M. But none was enforced by a system which senior judges agreed had ‘failed the whole family’.

‘My relationship with my daughter is slipping away,’ the man said. ‘Her childhood is disappearing.’

The Court of Appeal three months ago ordered that the case be resolved, saying the teenager’s childhood had been ‘irredeemably marred’ by years of litigation.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Iceland takes over the Presidency of the Nordic Council of Ministers from next year, during which time the Council will focus on labour market issues, men and masculinity as well as ways of removing border obstacles between the Nordic countries.

The June 2014 conference on masculinity and the study of masculinity in the Nordic region should also be interesting. Two renowned masculinity and gender researches will deliver the conference keynote speeches; the Australian Professor Raewyn Connell from the University of Sydney and the American Professor Michael Kimmel from the State University of New York.'

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Wikipedia on Raewyn Connell and also on Michael Kimmel.

Story here. Excerpt:

'This has to hurt: more and more older boys are getting circumcised in Florida.

After Florida terminated Medicaid funding for infant circumcision, circumcision costs to the state have skyrocketed to more than double previous levels.
...
Florida is among 18 states that ceased Medicaid funding for infant circumcision after a 1999 report by the American Academy of Pediatrics declared the procedure may not be medically necessary.

Now, Medicaid coverage is available in Florida only for older males for whom the procedure is deemed medically imperative, such as those who have suffered repeated infections.

But the procedure is far more cost-effective on babies, according to Dr. Islam. “The benefits are that the child does not have to undergo general anesthesia, there is much less cost to public monies, it’s safer for the kids to get it done and that’s the right age, as well,” Islam said in a statement.'

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."