Story here. Excerpt:

'Montana residents are fuming and on a campaign to oust a state judge who ruled that a teacher who raped a 14-year-old girl — who subsequently killed herself — deserves only 30 days behind bars.

What made the sentence more shocking to many was District Judge Todd Baugh’s remarks in court: He said that even though the girl, Cherice “Cherry” Morales, was decades younger than her attacker, Stacey Dean Rambold, 54, and obviously troubled, taped police interviews showed she was “as much in control of the situation” as Rambold. The judge also said the girl was “older than her chronological age.”
...
Meanwhile, Montanans have been sending protesters to his courthouse in Billings. The Montana National Organization for Women also has asked the state to step in and force a longer jail sentence for Rambold.'

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Female Teacher Molests 13 Year Old Student, No Jail Time

Article here. Excerpt:

'According to new Census data, more American men are living alone than ever before -- and the rising divorce rate could be to blame.

The Census data shows that the number of men between the ages of 15 and 64 who are the head of a one-person household has risen considerably since 1970. In 1970, 23 percent of men who fell within the 15-64 age range lived in a one-person household, compared to 34 percent who do today.
...
However, there was no increase in the number of women living in single person households, or men over the age of 65 who are the heads of single-person households. The Census report indicates that this could be because children are more likely to live with their mothers after a divorce, leaving more fathers living completely alone post-split.'

Story here. Excerpt:

'Police in northern China launched a massive search Wednesday for a woman accused of gouging out the eyes of a 6-year-old boy.

Authorities in the city of Linfen in Shanxi province offered a 100,000 yuan ($16,000) reward for the woman's capture.

Police did not say if they had identified a suspect, and the boy said only that the woman spoke with an accent from outside the area. State media said the boy was recovering in a hospital, but had lost his sight permanently following the brutal ordeal Saturday.
...
State media previously had raised the possibility that the boy's corneas were taken for sale because of a donor shortage in China.

A news report on a provincial TV channel showed the boy writhing in pain on a hospital trolley, with bandages around his head, and his parents, both farmers, crying.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Cuccinelli is not specifically, openly pro-fathers’ rights (and to be clear, the No. 1 “fathers’ rights” issue is wanting to pay less child support). His support for their agenda is honestly more about his opposition to legal divorce, something else he doesn’t talk about much anymore.

“If you are sued for divorce in Virginia, there’s virtually nothing you can do to stop it,” Cuccinelli said in 2008 to the Family Foundation, a socially conservative Richmond-based advocacy group. “This law has everything to do with the breakdown of the family. The state says marriage is so unimportant that if you just separate for a few months, you can basically nullify the marriage. What we’re trying to do is essentially repeal no-fault divorce when there are children involved.”

Article here. Excerpt:

'Two weeks after he was sworn in as Virginia attorney general, Ken Cuccinelli II went to court one last time as a private-practice lawyer.

Fellow lawyers viewed the appearance at the Fairfax County Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court in January 2010 as unusual because attorneys general almost never handle private cases. At the time, Cuccinelli’s deputy told The Washington Post that the case involved “some sensitive issues and some child witnesses, and the client wanted some sensitivity, and he wanted Ken Cuccinelli, so he finished out that matter.”

Cuccinelli’s office didn’t say so then, but the client was Ron M. Grignol Jr., a former House of Delegates candidate embroiled in a custody dispute with his ex-wife.

Article here. Excerpt:

'National Parents Organization of Connecticut is seeking volunteers to respond to Connecticut’s Department of Social Services proposed amendments to the child support guidelines. We need volunteers to attend the hearings and help get other members to attend the hearings.
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The Connecticut Executive Committee is writing National Parents Organization of Connecticut’s formal response representing our views and recommendations. It will be posted on the website when it is competed.

From our experience in Massachusetts, we have learned that attendance is important.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Women represented 27 percent of workers in science and engineering jobs in 2010, according to the National Science Foundation. And while women are either equally represented or surpass men in obtaining undergraduate or advanced degrees in the social or biosciences, women still lag behind men in the physical sciences and mathematics. In computer science and engineering, women represent less than 30 percent of those seeking degrees, according to the foundation.

Article here. Excerpt:

'The Men’s Project is an internship and educational outreach program at the UA that aims to address issues specific to college men. Started last spring by the Women’s Resource Center Program Director, Krista Millay, and two undergraduate student interns, it seeks to become a resource for those who are generally ignored in diversity-oriented college programming: men.

Although college males are not a traditionally marginalized group, Alex Karaman, a graduate assistant for the Women’s Resource Center who specifically oversees The Men’s Project, explains why this group is important.

“On one hand, men are afforded many advantages in our society, from higher pay to greater presence in political offices,” he said. “On the other hand, when discussing identity-based programming, men can be left out of the equation. Research focuses heavily on traditionally marginalized university communities: young women, students of color, low-income students, and international students.”

Article here. Excerpt:

'Girls have been academically outperforming boys for years and the growing achievement disparity is an "elephant in the room" which should be causing concern, some principals say.
...
The 10 per cent disparity in level 3 achievement nationally stretches to 27 per cent in co-educational secondary schools in the Nelson region.
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Mr Ching said Waimea had introduced programmes to address the achievement gap and improve boys' attitudes, including a junior boys' literacy programme - with senior male students volunteering as tutors.
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Mr Ching said the big issue in the 1980s was proving that "girls can do anything", and noone had thought twice about promoting that ideal. Now boys were the ones lagging behind.

"If we want to make a change we have to look at opportunities that will promote the performance of boys, without disadvantaging girls in any way," he said.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'The increasing number of boys playing on girls' high school teams has altered the competitive balance of some sports, according to recent court filings by the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association.

But this week, a Commonwealth Court judge declined to modify a 38-year-old injunction that barred the PIAA from engaging in gender discrimination.

Instead, Judge B. Kevin Brobson said if the PIAA wanted to ban boys from participating in girls' sports and vice versa, it should establish such a policy.

"Only then, if that policy is challenged in a court of law, may its constitutionality be evaluated," Brobson wrote.'

Article here. Excerpt:

Link here. Excerpt:

'After more than 20 years in the profession, a "huge need to feel love" caused a teacher to turn to a teenage student for sex.

The 51-year-old known only as EP sobbed as she told Sydney's District Court on Thursday why she began having sex with the 15-year-old boy.

Following the breakdown of an unhappy marriage in 2006, the woman said she became depressed and suicidal.

"I felt that the last eight years of my marriage that my husband didn't love who I was and just liked me being around as a housewife," she told her sentence hearing.
...
In a victim impact statement read to court, the now 20-year-old man said the experience with his former teacher continued to affect him.

"When I was 15 she made me feel excited and powerful but as I matured I felt ashamed, angry, guilty and confused."'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Randye Hoder has a great piece for Slate on the persistence of gender norms in who pays for dinner that included this amusing factoid: "The study, which surveyed more than 17,000 unmarried heterosexual men and women, found that 84 percent of men and 58 percent of women said men pay for most dating expenses, even after the relationship has been cooking for a while."

Apparently a handful of stingy men are dating a disproportionately large share of American women, thus reconciling the apparent mismatch in those numbers. Either that or someone is misremembering. OK, realistically the misremembering is more likely. But the math does work. You can imagine a handful of attractive, charming men who go out with a lot of women who them dump them swiftly when it becomes apparent that they refuse to pay for dates.'

We are happy to report that Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) has stopped using their offensive and gender-biased Hot Shot Bites ad, the video that shows a woman slapping a man across the face.

The commercials are no longer running on TV, and when you try to watch the online version you get a 'restricted access' message. It looks to us like KFC might be a little bit embarrassed about their poor choice of advertising.

We want to thank each and every one of you who made phone calls, sent emails, signed the petition, visited KFC restaurants, and commented on the KFC Facebook page. You rock!

But, our work is not done. We believe that KFC needs to apologize. We think they should acknowledge their mistake, and make a good-will effort on behalf of domestic violence victims.

Story here. Excerpt:

'GERMANTOWN, Md. (WJZ) — A Frostburg University football player died during the 2011 preseason. Now his family is blaming what they call the “utter incompetence” of the coaching staff. They have filed a lawsuit against the coaches, the NCAA and the helmet manufacturer.

Derek Sheely’s family says their son was participating in a dangerous drill when he collapsed on the sidelines and never regained consciousness.
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It was on the football field where the 22-year-old collapsed. According to a lawsuit, Sheely was bleeding from the head and told his coach he didn’t feel right. Witnesses say the coach told him, “Stop your bitching and moaning and quit acting like a [expletive] and get back out there.” Sheely fell unconscious moments later and never woke up.
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Derek Sheely’s family has started a foundation in his name to help raise awareness about the danger of concussions.

The Maryland State Department of Education has recommended limiting football hitting drills to two practices per week.'