Article here. Excerpt:

'For some ex-couples, the economy has made child support, alimony and other financial terms of divorce even harder to bear. And these fresh battles are adding urgency to an acrimonious debate over alimony reform in New Jersey.

Take Lynn Sebold, a 49-year-old mother of two teenage girls who earned six figures and owned a four-bedroom home in the Basking Ridge section of Bernards with her husband.
...
Sebold lost her well-paying sales job in 2011, and for the next 10 months she searched “diligently” for a job, she said. Last March she found one, but for almost half of what she had previously earned.

Article here. Excerpt:

'A father-of-three has set up a group for fellow dads to take part in activity sessions with their children. 

Lee Emmanuel, 26, has launched the Single Dads Society which will meet every month in Cricklewood.

Mr Emmanuel, who is studying health and social care at the College of North West London, said: “There’s nothing for men to do in the area with their children. When you go to soft play there are always a lot of women there and no men and it can be off-putting.

“The society will be a chance for dads to network with one another, make new friends as well as engage with their kids, have fun and learn new skills.”'

Article here. Excerpt:

'CRESTVIEW — The days of a Florida ex-spouse potentially paying alimony even after death may end if reform bills working their way through the Legislature make it to the governor's desk.

"What we are talking about is trying to put fairness into the law," John Fromularo, Northwest Florida representative of Florida Alimony Reform, said while speaking to the Crestview Area Chamber of Commerce Government Issues Committee.

Alimony types include "bridge the gap," which helps the ex-spouse during a transition from being married to single; durational, from two years to the marriage's length; rehabilitative, paid until an ex-spouse is self-supporting; and permanent, Fromularo said.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Great news!  Jeff Chafin won his case before the United States Supreme Court.  He won unanimously; every single justice voted for him.

Remember Jeff Chafin?  For a refresher on his case, go to my first post on him here (Fathers and Families, 11/3/11).  Here’s the Supreme Court’s opinion.

Article here. Excerpt:

'THE hapless, bumbling father is a stock character in product marketing. He makes breakfast for dinner and is incapable of handling, or sometimes even noticing, a soggy diaper. He tries desperately to hide the crumb-strewn, dirt-streaked evidence of his poor parenting before the mother gets home.

This is an image that many fathers who attended the Dad 2.0 Summit — a meeting of so-called daddy bloggers and the marketers who want to reach them — have come to revile. They are proud to be involved in domestic life and do not want to serve as the comic foil to the supercompetent mother.

In the past, consumer-product marketers weren’t all that concerned with what fathers thought — women, after all, make the majority of purchasing decisions for households. But men are catching up: In 2012 men spent an average of $36.26 at the grocery store per trip, compared with $27.49 in 2004, according to data from Nielsen. Companies see an opportunity to reach a new demographic.'

A little birdie told us that the House is expected to vote on the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) on Wednesday, Feb. 27 or Thursday, Feb. 28.  
 
We hope you'll be able to watch. Live proceedings are available on http://www.house.gov/.

Look for "Watch HouseLive."  
 
Then visit our Facebook page and share your observations. Or tweet your thoughts to @saveservicesorg.
 

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

Article here. Excerpt:

'The more I read, the more bizarre it got.

Story here. It's good to be the CEO... Excerpt:

'Last week, Yahoo! CEO Marissa Mayer instituted a new company policy: As of June, employees may no longer work remotely from home...
...
Not that it’s a problem for Mayer, who personally paid to have a nursery installed next to her office. “I wonder what would happen if my wife brought our kids and nanny to work and set em up in the cube next door?,” a husband of an employee losing work-from-home privileges told Swisher. Another scolded, “When a working mother is standing behind this, you know we are a long way from a culture that will honor the thankless sacrifices that women too often make.”'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Welcome to the scorched-earth phase of the Democrats’ “war on women” campaign, and the beginning of a ruthless offensive to hold their Senate majority, and possibly to retake the House, in 2014.

Democrats have nearly perfected the following exercise in cynical electioneering: 1) introduce legislation; 2) title it something that appeals to the vast majority of Americans who have no interest in learning what is actually in the bill, e.g., the “Violence Against Women Act”; 3) make sure it is sufficiently noxious to the GOP that few Republicans will support it; 4) vote, and await headlines such as “[GOP Lawmaker] Votes No On Violence Against Women Act”; 5) clip and use headline in 30-second campaign ad; and 6) repeat.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Richard Wamai and Ronald Goldman go head to head.
...
Richard

Why would so many human cultures, historically dominated by males, have for thousands of years removed a piece of skin that wraps around the end of the penis if doing so caused harm or impeded sexual enjoyment?
...
Ronald
...
Circumcision removes about a third of the erogenous tissue on the penile shaft, including several kinds of specialized nerves, resulting in thickening and progressive desensitization of exposed erogenous tissue. The adult foreskin is a double-layer movable sleeve of approximately 75 square centimetres. It protects the penile head, enhances sexual pleasure, and facilitates intercourse. Circumcised men are more likely to have erectile dysfunction, orgasm difficulties and premature ejaculation. Female partners have more problems with sexual function, fulfilment and painful intercourse. Conflicting studies on sexual effects of circumcision leave the burden of proof on those who advocate circumcision.

Article here. Excerpt:

'It was May of 2002 when teacher Pamela Diehl-Moore stood before a judge in Bergen County expecting to receive a prison term for having sex with a 13-year-old male student in her home.

She admitted the crime, and agreed to serve at least three years. But Judge Bruce Gaeta had a different idea. He threw out the plea and sentenced her to probation.

“I really don’t see the harm that was done here,” he said. “It’s just something between two people that clicked beyond the teacher-student relationship. ... Maybe it was a way for him, once this happened, to satisfy his sexual needs.”'

Article here. Excerpt:

'A female teacher from West Orange, Erica DePalo admitted having sex with a 15-year-old male student, and was sentenced to probation with no jail time. Superintendent James O’Neill calls the leniency outrageous.

I’m working on a story about this, and want to know what people think. Would a male teacher having sex with a 15-year-old girl be treated differently? Is there a difference?

Prosecutors say the family was satisified with this sentence. Is that because they feel the boy was not damaged? Or maybe that he was traumatized and wanted to avoid testifying in court? Not clear yet.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'At a recent press conference, Rawlings said, “We want to make it known that any violent act toward a woman will not be tolerated by the men in the city … in the past this has been viewed as a women’s issue, but it ain’t. It’s our problem.”

It’s refreshing to see a male public official using his position to call attention to our society’s frustrating tendency to shift blame (and possible solution) from the perpetrators to the victims.

To that end, Rawlings has organized a rally for his new “Men Against Abuse” campaign, whose goal is to remove the aura of cultural acceptance around domestic violence. Rawlings expects at least 10,000 men to attend the rally in March.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Harriet Harman has written to leading broadcasters asking about the number of older women employed within their organisations, the Labour Party said on Sunday.

The move is part of the Commission on Older Women's work on females in the media and public life, which Harman chairs. The shadow deputy prime minister who doubles as shadow culture secretary said there needed to be "more change" especially in relation to "this combination of ageism and sexism" faced by older women.

Speaking on Sky News's Murnaghan programme, she said: "I think that there is a lack of recognition that actually women's value is not just during their reproductive years or just what they look like.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Lately our communities have been bombarded with a United Nations (U.N.) claim that “One In Three Women On The Planet Will Be Raped Or Beaten In Her Lifetime.” The U.N. fails to cite any sources for this claim and the latest UN report, Prevention of violence against women and girls. The report of the Secretary-GeneralE/CN.6/2013/4 on violence against women provided by a UN media officer when asked for such does not make the “one in three” claim.

By extrapolation of this “lifetime” figure, Eve Ensler, founder of the Vagina Monologues, assumes that, worldwide, one billion women have been raped or beaten. Consequently, this year’s V-Day theme is "One Billion Rising."
...
To state that 1 billion women - one in three worldwide – will be beaten or raped in their lifetime (presumably by a man) is statistically quite incorrect. Why then make such an outlandish claim, if not to smear the character of men and boys as inherently violent and abusive?'