Article here. Excerpt:

'You may seek a modification in your existing Massachusetts child support order if it is inconsistent with the new 2013 Guidelines. Presumably, this will apply to all or almost all existing child support orders given the overall reductions that have been made.

Consider seeking a modification if any of the following factors may impact your child support.

1. Support guidelines were reduced, resulting in an average 11% decrease for one-child families and a 6% decrease for two child families.

2. A new formula was established for calculating support where parenting time is higher than the norm.

3. The court must now consider “availability of employment at the attributed income level.”

4. Orders for education costs for adult dependent children are not presumptive.'

An original essay submitted by a reader:

The Fair Child Support Act

Due to the ongoing discrepancies in county/state child support laws taking place across the United States, and the inability to bring fairness to the parents (which, are often primarily fathers) ordered to pay support thru the system, there is a great need for several changes to be implemented. Agree or not, the often biased decisions taking place throughout this system continue to be a major factor in the breakdown of the father-mother-child(ren) relationship. Being someone who was a former teen mother myself at one point, I offer a view many females and the child support system fails to consider. Too often, courts almost always side with a mother when the issue of support arises regardless of mitigating factors due to the fact no one speaks up for fathers' rights.

One major area for addressing unfair practices in child support cases is the immediate need to impose changes to laws that make the death of a child whom support is being paid a reason to eliminate the ongoing order. Nothing in life is as final as death and no parent should be expected to continue to pay past or ongoing support to a mother (or custodial parent) for a child who is not even alive anymore to benefit from it. This practice accounts to nothing more than being one of the most cruel and unjust forms of punishment designed by county/state/federal governments throughout America today. It is tragic enough that the parent of a deceased child will have to endure a lifetime of grief over the loss of their child, but to be forced by law to continue to pay a support order for that child is immoral and beyond reproach.

Article here. Excerpt:

'In 2000, Christina Hoff Sommers published The War Against Boys: How Misguided Feminism is Harming Our Young Men. Hoff Sommers was already known as a critic of late-20th-century feminism; her much-lauded and much-disparaged 1994 book Who Stole Feminism? had provoked charges that she was anti-women. In August, Hoff Sommers, now a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, updated and reissued her bestseller on boys with a new subtitle: How Misguided Policies Are Harming Our Young Men. Hoff Sommers makes the case that boys and girls are fundamentally different—and that ignoring the difference, in an effort to protect girls, amounts to a “war against boys.”
...
Q: The obvious counterpoint is that so many more men are CEOs of Fortune 500 companies and top politicians. How can we explain that top-tier divide?

Story here.

'An Ohio woman convicted of killing her baby daughter in a microwave oven wants a fourth trial because of errors made in her last trial, her lawyer said.

China Arnold, 33, was convicted three times of killing her 28-day-old daughter, Paris Talley -- in February 2008, September 2008 and May 2011.

She was sentenced to the death penalty on her first conviction and to life in prison on the subsequent two convictions.

Tuesday attorney Christopher Thompson requested a fourth trial in Ohio's Second District Court of Appeals because he said five errors were made in her case, the Dayton Daily News reported. He requested a trial without the chance of the death penalty.'

Story here. Excerpt:

'A group that sparked controversy after putting up posters that blasted false accusations of rape in Edmonton has turned its focus on Lise Gotell, the chair of women's and gender studies at the University of Alberta.

Men's Rights Edmonton have put up posters on the campus that show Gotell's face with the caption, "Theft isn't black. Bank fraud isn't Jewish. And rape isn't male.

"Just because you're paid to demonize men doesn't mean rape is gendered. Don't be that bigot," it adds.
...
In July, the group targeted the "Don't Be That Guy" campaign on sex assault awareness with a poster that was titled, "Don't Be That Girl."

"Just because you regret a one night stand doesn't mean it wasn't consensual," it read.

The group denied advocating or apologizing for rape at the time, saying that both rape and false accusations of rape are "abhorrent means of manipulation and power."

Men's Rights Edmonton also launched a Calgary chapter this month and wrote about "exciting times ahead of us."'

Article here. Excerpt:

'The 2008 financial crisis that devastated many Western economies also reaped a heavy toll in suicides among men, a study published on Tuesday suggests.

Health researchers analyzed data for suicides among people aged over 15 in 54 countries, comparing rates before and after the crash.

In 2009, there were 4,884 more suicides compared with the normal trend, they said.

Suicide numbers in 2009 were 4.2 percent higher in 27 European countries and 6.4 percent higher in 18 countries in the Caribbean and Latin America.

The benchmark is the suicide trend for 2000-2007, extrapolated to 2009.'

Press release here. Excerpt:

'WASHINGTON / September 18, 2013 – A report released today concludes prosecutor misconduct is widespread and ingrained in our nation’s criminal justice system. Only rarely does prosecutor misconduct result in the imposition of sanctions. The report, issued by the non-partisan Center for Prosecutor Integrity, calls for fundamental reform of the oversight policies for the nation’s 30,000 prosecutors.

And according to a recent Center for Prosecutor Integrity survey, 43% of persons nationwide believe prosecutorial misconduct is widespread: http://www.saveservices.org/prosecutors/survey/

Prosecutor misconduct takes many forms, including charging a suspect with more crimes than warranted, concealing evidence, coercing witnesses, and making misleading statements to the jury.'

Ad here. Wouldn't be the first time Allstate had "gender issues". Search MANN for "Allstate" to see. Contact info is here.

Article here. Excerpt:

'A controversial professor who critics say is a feminist ideologue is instructing cadets at the United States Air Force Academy this year on gender issues as the military attempts to curb sexual assault.

Dr. Chris Kilmartin, a psychology professor at the University of Mary Washington, has described violence as “a men’s issue,” called abuse by men “the single most serious health problem for women in the United States,” and said the sexes are not “opposite.” Critics say he has embellished statistics to support his teachings.
...
Christina Hoff Sommers, resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) and former philosophy professor, said in an email that Kilmartin’s focus on the purported violent attributes of men is misplaced.

“[Healthy young men] assert their masculinity in ways that require physical and intellectual skills and self-discipline. In American society, the overwhelming majority of healthy, normal young men don’t batter, rape, or terrorize women; they respect them and treat them as friends,” she said.

Translated article here. Excerpt:

'Against this background, the Government has decided to grant a request from the Swedish Women's Lobby for financial support for the implementation of a Nordic Conference on Women, Nordic Forum Malmö 2014 new actions on women's rights. The conference takes place in Malmo 24:15 June 2014. The government grants a subsidy for 2012 of up to 1 000 000, for 2013 more than 2 500 000 and in 2014 more than 6.5 million crowns.

Nordic Forum is a joint initiative of the Nordic women's movement for the realization of the document adopted by the UN in 1995 at the World Congress on Women's Rights in Beijing. The conference is planned include lectures, seminars and workshops aimed at a wide audience, such as women's organizations, politicians, government agencies, the public and other interested organizations.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'From the Keen-Sense-of-the-Obvious Department: The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have been hard on military marriages. The risk of divorce rises in direct relation to the length of time troops have spent deployed to combat zones, according to a new Rand Corp. study.

The results should come as no surprise, but the specifics of the study are interesting. Deployments most negatively affect women in the military. They face a greater chance of divorce than men. The study did not look at why.

Among couples married before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, those who experienced 12-month deployments to war zones were 28 percent more likely to become divorced within three years of marriage as compared with peers who experienced similar deployment before the wars began.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'The revised policy, which combines the pre-existing sexual assault and harassment policies, defines consent as a “knowing, voluntary and affirmatively communicated willingness to participate in a particular sexual activity or behavior.”

It goes on to clarify that consent must be given while the consenting party has the “ability and capacity to exercise free will and make a rational, reasonable judgment,” which officials said means consent cannot be given while one party is highly intoxicated.

“Students are going to have to engage in direct conversation with sexual partners for every act,” said Resident Life Associate Director Steve Petkas, who serves as the interim Title IX director. “Past sexual encounters or one set of sexual behaviors does not imply acceptance going forward. They have to communicate — and frankly, that’s what adults do.”'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Howard Kallem believes that UNC must build a response system for sexual harassment charges.

Kallem, a candidate for the University’s Title IX position and the chief regional attorney for the Office for Civil Rights in the U.S. Department of Education, spoke at a public forum Friday about his platform for the position.

“I think it’s important to have a procedure in place to give the accused the opportunity to state their case,” Kallem said.

A forum with a third candidate was planned to be held this Wednesday, but it was cancelled after the candidate withdrew.

Kallem said it is essential to maintain neutrality when investigating any case, and no judgment should be made until the truth is revealed.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'WASHINGTON — Facing strident opposition from women’s groups and fellow Democrats, Obama administration economic confidante Lawrence H. Summers removed his name from consideration to the head the Federal Reserve, the White House said late Sunday.
...
Until Sunday, he appeared to have support from the one person who mattered most, Obama. That support cost Obama politically, as women’s groups, especially the National Organization for Women, were furious that he appeared ready to pass over an accomplished woman, current Fed Vice Chairman Janet Yellen.

“On absolute facts and merits, she is better than any of the men,” Terry O’Neill, president of the National Organization for Women, told McClatchy just days before Summers withdrew. “For the president to pass her by is exactly what women’s organizations have been struggling against for decades. How dare he hold himself up as a proponent of women’s rights then slam a glass ceiling on Janet Yellen’s head?”'

Article here. Excerpt:

'KATHRYN JEAN LOPEZ: What’s the war on boys?

CHRISTINA HOFF SOMMERS: It’s more like a war of attrition. No one wakes up in the morning thinking, “What horrible thing can I do to boys today?” But boys and young men have been massively neglected. Women in the U.S. today earn 62 percent of associate’s degrees, 57 percent of bachelor’s degrees, 60 percent of master’s degrees, and 52 percent of doctorates. When an education-policy analyst looked at current trends in higher education he quipped, only half in jest, “The last male will graduate from college in 2068.”
...
LOPEZ: This has been a theme of yours for a while. Has it gotten better or worse?