Article here. Excerpt:

'THE US government has allocated an extra $10m for male circumcision in South Africa, highlighting the change it has made to funding programmes that are expected to have a long-term effect on the progression of the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

The additional money comes as the US is cutting back support to South Africa’s HIV/AIDS programmes, moving money away from nongovernmental organisations that have provided services such as treatment, and shifting the funds to technical support.

The baseline funding from the US President’s Emergency Programme for Aids Relief (Pepfar) for South Africa for fiscal year 2013 was $520m, of which $36m was for male circumcision. The new money brings total US support for male circumcision in South Africa to $46m this year.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Labour is poised to introduce new party rules to ensure half of its elected MPs are women by 2017 and would allow individual electorates to run "women only" candidate selections.

The proposed rule changes, to be decided at the party's annual conference in November, would force the party's list selection committee to ensure caucus would be 45 per cent woman in 2014 and 50 per cent by 2017.

In putting the list together the moderating committee would also have to take into account the electorate MPs that were likely to be elected, to ensure that balance.

A local electorate committee would be able to request that the NZ Council decide "only women may nominate for the position of Labour candidate for their electorate".'

Story here. Excerpt:

'Swedish police have arrested a 36-year-old woman in connection with the illegal circumcision of two young boys in the town of Eksjo, authorities said.

Police spokesman Goran Gunnarsson told the Swedish news agency TT that police received a call from someone who heard the boys screaming.
...
Charges against her include suspicion of aggravated assault since it is illegal to perform a circumcision in Sweden without supervision by a medical professional.'

Article here. Drug overdose deaths are increasing at a faster rate for women than men. But men continue to die in larger numbers. Apparently, now is the time to take action because it's now a "women's issue." Excerpt:

'Prescription painkiller addiction has long been seen as mainly a man’s problem, but a new analysis of federal data released Tuesday shows that in recent years the death rate has risen far faster among women.

Fatal overdoses from prescription pain pills increased fivefold among women from 1999 to 2010, the most recent year for which the federal government has final data. The rate among men tripled over the same period, according to the analysis, which was conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

More women die from drug overdoses than from cervical cancer or car accidents. Four times as many died over the last 10 years from drug overdoses than from homicides. And while the absolute number of overdose deaths is still higher for men, women are catching up.'

Story here. Excerpt:

'REDLANDS, CALIF. – A Southern California high school teacher was arrested on unlawful sex charges two weeks after she gave birth to a baby that was allegedly fathered by a student, Redlands police said Tuesday.

Laura Elizabeth Whitehurst, 28, was arrested Monday night for allegedly having unlawful sex with a 16-year-old, Redlands police spokesman Carl Baker. She was the boy's adviser.

Officials at Citrus Valley High School in Redlands contacted police on Monday, acting on a tip from the boy's mother.

The sexual relationship began last summer and continued for nearly a year, police said. The boy is now 17.'

Last week we told you about Senator McCain challenging the recent DOJ Sexual Harassment settlement with the University of Montana. Thank you for urging your senators to join with Sen. McCain to restore free speech on campus. We appreciate every single call.

Today, let's take it one more step. Sen. McCain has asked the feds: "To what extent does the broad nature of the new and judicially untested 'unwelcome conduct of a sexual nature" standard, increase the risk of a wrongful conviction?'

DEMAND that the Dept. of Education's Asst. Secretary Seth Galanter answer Sen. McCain's question!

EMAIL him NOW: seth.galanter-at-ed.gov

Happy 4th of July!

Teri Stoddard, Program Director
Stop Abusive and Violent Environments
www.saveservices.org

Presentation here. Caption:

'Nineteen firefighters died while fighting the Yarnell Hill fire, located northwest of Phoenix, Arizona, on Sunday, June 30. The fire started on Friday, June 28, and spread to more than 6,000 acres in two days. Learn more about the fallen firefighters.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'The family courts and laws are set up in such a way that makes it very easy for a mother to collect child support, and very difficult for a man to avoid it. If a couple was married, the default law is that the man will be required to pay child support for any child born while they were married. In order for a man who isn't the father to escape this outcome, he must obtain a paternity test and take a series of legal steps in court. Most states only allow a short window of time for a man to do this. If a man is not aware of the child, which he may not be if his wife or former wife doesn't notify him of the child right away, he loses all chance to fight the child support, and will be on the hook for hundreds of thousands of dollars for the next 18 years until the child becomes an adult.

Article here. Excerpt:

'Last week when I attended the graduation ceremonies for a local high school, ironically designated as a "National School of Excellence," I noted a distressing fact: the ceremony was dominated by females. In a significant omission, the male student body president, a senior, was not identified in the program, nor did he have a role in the ceremony. Instead, six senior girls were prominently listed in the program, marched in with the school dignitaries and participated in the ceremony.

Article here. Google the text of the first para. below and click the first hit link in order to bypass the login challenge. Excerpt:

'ALBY Schultz has used his valedictory speech to urge the incoming government to hold a parliamentary inquiry into what he believes is an "endemic" anti-male culture at the Child Support Agency.

Mr Schultz, the member for the NSW seat of Hume to the ACT's north, was one of three Liberal MPs in the lower house to give their outgoing speeches yesterday along with South Australian MP Patrick Secker and NSW MP Joanna Gash.
...
In a damning swipe at the Child Support Agency, Mr Schultz accused it of denying men natural justice and of covering up male suicide rates. He said the culture of "gender bias" at the agency was endemic and should be exposed under the protection of a parliamentary inquiry.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'How did society reach the point where, a lawsuit filed this week alleged, a man working at the desk of Planet Fitness on Bay Shore, Long Island was too afraid of repercussions to enter the ladies’ room to administer CPR to a dying woman? “He said he didn’t know what to do and that he wasn’t allowed to go into the ladies’ bathroom,” a witness said in an affidavit.
...

In Illinois, 28-year-old Fitzroy Barnaby was convicted of “unlawful restraint of a minor,” a sex crime, and placed on a sex-offender registry after he grabbed the arm of an 14-year-old girl to lecture her on not dashing into the street in front of a moving car, as she had just done. On a blog called Parent Dish, a reader said he stopped coaching girls soccer after an 8-year-old player told him, “I don’t have to listen to you. I can get you in trouble just by telling people you touched me.” In England, a man passing by 2-year-old Abigail Rae, who later drowned, declined to help guide her to safety because he feared being labeled a pervert.
...
... Tired of being labeled defective women, wary of the financial traps of marriage and fatherhood, hammered by the disappearance of construction and manufacturing jobs, disgusted by the presumption that their sexuality is a scary disease, men are shrugging and turning away.

The rules of the game have tilted against men in every field this side of coal mining (black lung being one of the few male privileges the ladies are happy to cede). Family courts hold men financially liable even for children conceived by women who falsely claimed to be using birth control, while at colleges the presumption of innocence has been withdrawn from men accused of sexual misbehavior.

Article here. Excerpt:

'Last week, Francis Maude and I hosted a networking event in Whitehall to encourage more senior women to take up roles on public boards, following a report published by the Cabinet Office. The report revealed that 37% of new public appointments made by Whitehall departments in 2012 to 2013 were women. This is the first year that the government has published its own statistics on the gender diversity of public appointments, and these figures are set against an aspiration that 50% of new public appointments be female by 2015.
...
One area where I am especially keen to see progress is in the sports sector. Both Sport England and many sporting Governing Bodies will be recruiting new board members in the next 18 months and our expectation is that by 2017, at least a quarter of board members on National Governing Bodies will be female.'

---
UK: Women 'fared better than men' in jobs since recession

Article here. Excerpt:

'Women's sport is being held back by old-fashioned television coverage and “ridiculous” men-only sporting clubs, warned Harriet Harman.

She also slammed the inequality in funding for male and female sports and demanded equal prize money for men and women in sporting competitions.

The rallying cry from the Shadow Culture, Media and Sport Secretary came as British tennis hopeful Laura Robson tries to smash her way into the quarter-finals at Wimbledon today.

Ms Harman insisted that “woeful” broadcasting of female sports is holding back girls from doing sports at school and damaging the UK’s chances of producing the next generation of Olympic heroines, such as gold medallist Jessica Ennis.
...
Ms Harman also said it is time to end the antiquated loophole that allows men-only sports clubs, like Muirfield golf course.

She fumed: “We have clubs where women are only allowed in the company of a man. It is ridiculous and has absolutely no place in the 21st century.”'

Article here. Excerpt:

The thing that worries me most about raising a boy — the thing I seriously give the most thought to — is how to make sure he doesn’t end up being a dick.

Article here. Excerpt:

'On Sunday, a stunned audience sat in silence as Doris Kearns Goodwin turned the keynote address at the opening ceremony for the 150th anniverary of the Battle of Gettysburg into a political lecture focusing on women's and gay rights.

Missing from much of her keynote: Gettysburg.