Article here. Excerpt:

'A jury of six women, five of them white and the other a minority, was picked Thursday to decide the second-degree murder trial of George Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch volunteer who says he shot an unarmed black teenager, Trayvon Martin, in self-defense.

Prosecutors have said Zimmerman, 29, racially profiled the 17-year-old Martin as he walked back from a convenience store on Feb. 26, 2012, in the rain, wearing a dark hooded shirt. Zimmerman identifies himself as Hispanic.

The race and ethnicity of the minority chosen for the jury was not immediately available.'

Story here. Excerpt:

'School officials in Calvert County, Maryland have denied a request to expunge the suspension of the kindergartener who brought a plastic cap gun on a school bus last month and then wet his pants during a subsequent interrogation.

The refusal came in the form of a letter dated Friday, reports The Washington Post. The letter stated that the five-year-old “did bring a cap gun in his book bag.” It also charged that some other children were frightened and told school officials that they couldn’t discern if the orange-tipped cowboy-style gun was real or fake.
...
School officials considered — and denied — the request to eradicate the punishment separately.

The boy’s mother (an otherwise unidentified teacher in Calvert County) expressed frustration that a seemingly serious offense for a look-alike gun will now be part of her son’s permanent record.'

Over-criminalization is a hot-topic in America. And for good reason. Last week we told you about the Center for Prosecutor Integrity's recent survey on the criminal justice system, where two-fifths (42.8%) of the respondents said they believe that prosecutor misconduct is widespread.

We learned that 71.4% believe most cases of prosecutor misconduct are kept hidden from the public. And 73.5% believe prosecutors who commit misconduct are almost never punished. Now it's time to do something about that.

Contact your state lawmakers* today, and ask that they put effort towards ending over-prosecution.

Thank you for joining our efforts to restore confidence in America's criminal justice system.

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

Article here. Excerpt:

'Lulu’s founder, Alexandra Chong, says that the service is simply the natural extension of women’s longstanding desire to see if a guy is everything he’s purporting to be. And while some may consider that a worthy goal, the site’s methods should draw serious scrutiny from anyone remotely concerned with their digital privacy.

Men, whose Facebook profiles provide the foundational content for the site, are explicitly banned from the app. Furthermore, they are not notified when their information is captured, nor when their profiles are viewed, saved, or reviewed. In fact, the only way a man can have his information removed from the site is to email his Facebook profile name to privacy@onlulu.com or to download a separate app (conveniently also made by Lulu) and then deactivate his own profile.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Had a shocker in the bedroom but keen to keep it under wraps? Had a date from hell but happy to forget?

Well, guys, the worst has come…in the form of a new app called Lulu.

Allowing women to anonymously and publicly rate former boyfriends, the app is banned for males and is taking the world by storm.
...
And to make matters worse for the male population, any romantic and sexual value ratings are linked to the man’s Facebook account – allowing only women to access it.

With over 200,000 users as of April, the guy-bashing app allows women to add guys to the database, along with photos and hashtags of the male in question.

But with tags such as #smokeslikeachimney, is the app sexist?

“If there was a man’s version of Lulu, women would absolutely not stand for it,” said one review, describing the app degrading to both men and women.'

Story here. Excerpt:

'A Madison woman will spend the next 13 years in jail for killing her son in 2011.

A judge admonished Maria Castillo-Dominguez in court Monday for changing her story about her son's injuries too often.

Castillo-Dominguez was sentenced to 13 years in prison, and three years' probation, for the death of Luis Angel.

Castillo-Dominguez took her son to the hospital in June 2011 and said the child fell from a swing and hit his head.

She later told police she pushed the boy.

But doctors said his brain swelling and injuries were consistent with being thrown against a wall.

"You were frustrated and I have a good, great deal of sympathy for you," said Judge Julie Genovese in court Monday. "I know it must be very difficult to come to foreign country, you don't know the language, where you're work at minimum wage job. I believe you were victim of domestic violence."'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Dr. Stevenson’s diverse research touches both policy and daily life, and has been widely cited in the news media. While she has written prolifically on a number of subjects, Dr. Stevenson is perhaps best known for her work on the impact of public policy on labor markets, marriage and divorce, women and families, and happiness and well-being.
...
Furthermore, we cited her research when she found that girls’ participation in sports led to increased college attendance and higher wages, as a result of Title IX, which bans sex discrimination against girls and boys in all programs at schools around the country.

Article here. Excerpt:

'There's no question that Title IX has been abused - see any of the hundreds of men's sports teams that have been disbanded as a result of the landmark law as examples. Title IX was supposed to provide opportunity to women, not take it away from men - but the way various federal agencies interpret Title IX, as a de facto quota system, has had a huge impact on men's sports, mainly at the collegiate level.

It's neither the fault of athletes nor educators that spectator interest level just isn't there for women's sports. An easy comparison is the NBA and its sister league, the WNBA. The male team that has the worst attendance still draws nearly twice as many fans as the WNBA's league average, which has dropped steadily since the women's game came into being in 1999.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'When tennis legend Jimmy Connors released his memoir last month, one revelation fixated the media: Connors' disclosure that nearly 40 years ago, his then-fiancée, fellow tennis great Chris Evert, had had an abortion. Reaction was swift and negative. Evert issued a short statement expressing extreme disappointment that her former partner had revealed such a "private matter. " Writing here, Jessica Luther criticized Connors, arguing that this "was not his story to tell."

Article here. Excerpt:

'I’m not on strike and I refuse to be fired so I guess that makes me Dagney Taggart, which is an odd way to open a review about a book that concerns men’s rights.

If you haven’t heard the story yet, I’m sure you’ve heard several like it. In this particular incident, while at school, a 13 year old boy intervened when one classmate pulled a knife on another. He tackled the aggressor, who already had his victim in a head lock, possibly saving the other boy from serious injury or worse. He showed quick thinking, resolve, courage, and demonstrated an ethical code that placed the life of another on a par with his own.

Article here. Excerpt:

'Gender equality, now wouldn’t that be a fine thing? Well that’s what feminists for the past two centuries have been saying. Women across the world have been protesting, demonstrating, shouting and striking in the name of gender equality, but apparently we’ve been doing a rather bad job of it.

Story here. Excerpt:

'Johannesburg - Two Eastern Cape boys who underwent an illegal circumcision were hospitalised on Sunday, the provincial health department said.

"A team of police and health officials responded to [a call from] one of the villages, Mkhantatho, and rescued two boys," spokesman Sizwe Kupelo said.

"The boys were suffering from dehydration and hallucinations."
...
Parents notified the department of 12 other boys, between the ages of 12 and 13, who had received illegal circumcisions in Sicambeni.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Among young people, circumcision has actually become “fashionable.” Thanks to the Internet and television, they learned that in neighboring countries like the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda, circumcision was often a tradition, and not only for Muslims. For these young people, circumcision has become a sign of cleanliness.

And for those who do not follow fashion, life can become complicated. “I decided to pay 50,000 Rwanda Francs ($80) to get circumcised. I couldn’t stand being insulted by other students anymore. They called me a good-for-nothing, a kafiri (‘uncircumcised’) or a bottleneck (referring to a non-circumcised male organ),” says François.

Three of his friends also admit they went through a similar experience. “Rwandese society still accepts uncircumcised men, but in some districts, they are sometimes frowned upon. And it’s even worse in high school, where they are discriminated against,” reveals Gaspard.

Story here.

'A Rochester woman is being accused of first-degree domestic violence after allegedly stabbing her husband in the shoulder during an argument Monday night, according to a Thurston County Sheriff's Office news release.

Deputies arrived to the 7700 block of 196th Lane Southwest at 9 p.m. to find a 42-year-old man being treated by medical personnel.

He told deputies he was wounded after falling on the bricks, but "evidence at the scene and the statements made by witnesses did not support this," the release said.

Further investigation showed the husband and wife were having an argument in the kitchen that resulted in the wife allegedly stabbing her husband in the right shoulder.

He was taken to Providence Centralia Hospital for treatment.'

Story here. Excerpt:

(CNN) -- Getting children to take a nap can be hard. Getting them to eat pancakes is not nearly as difficult.

Police in Westerville, Ohio, say a 37-year-old mother operating a day care out of her home hit upon a plan -- she allegedly crushed medications that cause drowsiness and put them in the pancakes.

Tammy Eppley has been charged with six counts of child endangerment. Her first court date is July 12.

Eppley, who runs the Caterpillar Clubhouse, cared for six children -- including one of her own -- between the ages of 2 and 5, police said.
"This is mortifying. I'm a very private person and I'm very protective of my children and the children in my care," she said.
...
Investigators believe she used medications such as the allergy medicine Benadryl and supplements like melatonin to get the children to go to sleep, according to a statement from the Westerville Police.'