Article here. Excerpt:

'UVU* has been selected to receive a grant to increase female performance and participation in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) fields as part of a statewide initiative.

Susan Thackeray, director of Career and Technical Education, is a Utah leader in promoting gender equality in STEM. Her determination led to the reception of the grant.

The grant includes a 3-year funded research project to analyze why women at UVU are not as involved in STEM as men.
...
Last year 392 men pursued degrees in a STEM, compared to 305 women. More than 230 of those women were accounted for in a health related program.

Students and faculty are urged to support women who are interested in studying STEM subjects in all phases of life.'

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*Utah Valley University

Article here. Excerpt:

'It's been a windfall week for boys, those too-oft overlooked stakeholders in American education.

First I found "Boys Have Deep Emotional Lives," an article in The Atlantic about "mean girls" expert Rosalind Wiseman's latest book, "Masterminds and Wingmen: Helping Our Boys Cope with Schoolyard Power, Locker-Room Tests, Girlfriends, and the New Rules of Boy World."
...
For the mom of two very young men — ages 12 and 14-but-thinks-he's-going-on-21 — this was a jackpot on a topic I agonize over every day: What will become of my boys? And one that seems to usually be far off anyone's radar because, as the cliché goes, it's already a man's world so what's there to worry about?

Article here. Excerpt:

'That appeared to be the theme of former President Bill Clinton’s opening discussion for the Clinton Global Initiative’s 2013 Annual Meeting. The 42nd president of the United States moderated a discussion in which participants took several opportunities to bash widespread male authority and drop not-so-subtle hints that his wife should run for the White House in 2016.

Article here. Excerpt:

'The White House on Wednesday released a report on the costs of Obamacare for most Americans, heralding its interpretation that 95 percent of the nation will be able to buy health insurance premiums below “earlier projections.”

But note the words “earlier projections.” That doesn’t mean that the insurance Americans will have to buy, or be fined, under Obamacare will be cheaper than what they pay today, before Obamacare kicks in.

We know this because at the same time the White House was releasing its broad study, Tennessee Sen. Lamar Alexander released his analysis of the report's portion on his state. He found that Obamacare will cost far more than what many of his constituents are paying today, some by as much as 190 percent.

From his release:

— Today, a 27-year-old man in Memphis can buy a plan for as low as $41 a month. On the exchange, the lowest state average is $119 a month — a 190 percent increase.

Article here. Excerpt:

'Universities are supposed to be safe places to debate controversial ideas but school administrators and students leaders would sometimes prefer instead to enforce their own points of view, even if it means silencing others.
...
One can bet where the Calgary-based Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms would stand. They want controversial speech protected. According to their 2013 Campus Freedom Index, released Tuesday, 23 of the 45 universities graded this year have failed to stop censorship. Each administration and student union was assigned two A to F letter grades, one based on policies and the other on practices. Their conclusion: “Our country’s institutions of higher education have failed in their promise to uphold the sanctity of free speech in its most cherished and necessary form: the discussion of controversial ideas, frank and spirited debate, and the pursuit of truth.”

Press release here. Excerpt:

'The Canadian Association for Equality (CAFE) received overwhelming financial support after their affiliate group, the University of Toronto Men's Issues Awareness Society, was mandated by the University of Toronto administration to pay $964 for campus police or have their Friday event cancelled. At previous events rioters committed illegal acts including pulling fire alarms and blocking exit doors.

"The Miles Groth 'Men's Centre' lecture will proceed, thanks to support from the men and women who donated," said Malcolm Johnston, CAFE Spokesperson. "Rewarding law-breaking rioters by cancelling events will only lead to increased censorship and make U of T a more dangerous place."'

Article here. Excerpt:

'There is no "war on women" as the Democratic Party has argued, said liberal columnist Kirsten Powers, in a debate about "Mad Women" and "the battle of the sexes." While the other liberal panelist disagreed, the conservatives argued that there is an under-reported "war on men."

"I will concede there is no war on women as presented by the Democratic Party," Powers, a columnist for the Daily Beast and a contributor for Fox News, admitted, at a Washington, D.C. event hosted by the Independent Women's Forum and National Review. Groups like Planned Parenthood are "abortion rights groups, not women's groups," she said.'

...
About Kirsten Powers here.

Story here. Summary:

'A school In Virginia Beach is attempting to extend its policies into student’s homes. Two 7th graders were suspended for playing with toy guns on their own property. A school committee voted to suspend one of the students, Khalid Caraballo, for an entire year.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'INDIANAPOLIS | A Hoosier woman giving birth following a rape could face a lifetime of further attacks in court if the rapist-father tries to assert parental rights because of the way Indiana law is structured.

Indiana is among 31 states lacking specific laws barring rapists from claiming child custody and visitation options available to fathers.
...
Charbonneau said most rapes are not reported to police, and if a victim gives birth to the child, she shouldn't have to spend the next 21 years "looking over her shoulder wondering if the rapist is going to claim his rights."

Under his 2012 plan, such a victim would have to show a judge by clear and convincing evidence that the child was conceived by rape for the judge to terminate the parental rights of the rapist.

Story here. Excerpt:

'Missouri sheriff’s detectives busted a grandma accused of kidnapping her grandson 13 years ago.

Sandy Hatte, 60, snatched the baby boy in Florida while his father was at work, authorities said.

That was in 2000 and detectives say Hatte has been on the run ever since.
...
Relatives had hired a private investigator to track the wiley grandmother, but she stayed a step ahead until the school official thought something seemed odd.

Detective Eric Menconi said the father and son seemed to get along well, despite being separated for almost all of the boy’s life.

“It was a good reunion,” Menconi said. “You could tell within the first three minutes they hit it off pretty well. Since then I’ve been on the phone with the dad and from what I’m understanding it’s going very well. He’s adjusting.”

Hatte remains in the Livingston County Jail on a charge of child abduction. Her bail is $250,000.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'In a Tuesday interview with Salon, National Organization of Women President Terri O’Neill blasted the White House’s approach to choosing a replacement for Federal Reserve Chair Ben Bernanke. “The signals I’m seeing from the White House is that his advisors – and he tends to agree with them – that they are still looking for someone other than Janet Yellen,” O’Neill told Salon. “And to me that’s just pure sexist.” NOW endorsed Obama for president last July.

Link here. Excerpt:

'Women are the fastest-growing segment of the U.S. veteran population, making breast cancer screening a crucial public health issue for the Veterans Health Administration (VHA).

As the agency has worked to expand mammogram screening, the need for other diagnostic tests and treatments has also grown, and a new study that looked at how well women's follow-up needs have been met suggests that more resources are likely required.

Article here. Excerpt:

'Although he stood next to speakers claiming the opposite, Bill de Blasio [link added] insists his position has not changed on the city’s controversial regulation of a ritual circumcision practice.

At a gigantic get-out-the vote rally in Williamsburg’s Hasidic community last night, where leaders vowed to deliver 10,000 votes for his front-running mayoral campaign, two community leaders declared that Mr. de Blasio was set to eliminate the consent forms required for metzitzah b’peh, a practice involving a mohel sucking blood from the wound, which the city’s health department says can spread disease.

According to video of the event posted Sunday night, one leader said Mr. de Blasio was “the first one in politics to come to our defense on the issue of metzitzah b’peh. And he’s the only candidate that recommitted himself now to guarantee that we as Orthodox Jews can practice [it] without compromise.”'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Citing freedom of religion, Councilman David Greenfield has introduced legislation prohibiting the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene and the Board of Health from taking any formal action against the controversial practice of metzitzah b’peh.

The legislation, introduced at the Sept. 12 City Council meeting, has since been referred to the Health Committee for hearings. It addresses the Board of Health's requirement last year that mohelim obtain written consent from parents before performing the oral suction practice, which has been linked to dangerous infection.

“This is one of the most outrageous examples of government intruding into the ability of residents to freely practice their religion without restrictions based on questionable findings," said Greenfield, a Democrat, in his remarks, which were forwarded to the press.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Gender-based biases are not a one-way street. If women are still stigmatized more for sleeping around, men are stigmatized more for not having enough sex -- even by some feminists whose choice insult for sexist men is to imply sexual deprivation. Women may experience more disapproval for delegating child care; men, for failing to be providers. We can endlessly debate whether these norms are rooted in nature or culture and whether they are valuable or harmful (or some mix of both). The fact remains that such double standards are not only perpetuated by men and women alike but, in this day and age, at least as likely to be favorable to women as to men.