Story here. Excerpt:

'A former security assistant at a Virginia school conspired with a 15-year-old student with whom she had a sexual relationship to kill her husband, police said Thursday.

Patience Justine Perez, 22, was charged in Norfolk on Tuesday in connection with the murder scheme.

Perez also faces multiple charges of taking indecent liberties with a child by a person in a custodial or supervisory relationship, and a charge of using a communications system to facilitate certain crimes against children.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic — Three women were paid to falsely claim in videotaped interviews that they had sex for money with a U.S. senator in the Dominican Republic, a spokesman for the police said Monday.

The women, whose claims generated media attention in the United States, were hired by a Dominican attorney to make the videotaped statements, spokesman Maximo Baez told reporters. Two of the women received about $425 and the other was paid about $300, he said.

Authorities are seeking to interrogate the attorney, Melanio Figueroa, about the payments and have not determined his motive or whether he was in turn paid by someone else to set up the interviews, Baez said.'

Story here. Excerpt:

'PHOENIX -- Jodi Arias' psychologist diagnosed her with a form of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), to explain her memory problems.

Arias claims she shot her ex-lover, Travis Alexander, in self defense in 2008, but cannot remember stabbing him 27 times, slitting his throat, or dragging him into the shower.
...
Twitter and blogs are full of veterans who are suffering from PTSD, claiming Arias diagnosis is "nauseating" and "offensive."

"It's insulting if someone's using it as an excuse," Iraq War Veteran Steve Crowley told 3TV.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Where have all the feminist men gone? Every gender studies course I took in college was made up of a diverse crowd of women. Almost every sexuality, race, and age group seemed to be represented, yet even at a small liberal arts school we were lucky if there were two men in the class. This continues to perplex me.

When I speak to my male friends about whether they consider themselves feminists many often say yes. Behind closed doors men will candidly speak about their pro-women opinions, their comfort with and attraction to women who are bossy or challenging, and how they abhor other men who seek to limit female power. But do these men blog, take classes, attend rallies, or otherwise make public their opinions when it comes to gender issues? Of course there are always exceptions, but my experience has typically been: no they do not. This makes me certain that there still remains a strong taboo against those who occupy male bodies voicing support for women and opinions on their complex experiences in this country.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'The coaches of the baseball and mens soccer teams at Towson University weren't allowed to ask questions Friday, as the school's president announced the elimination of those two programs.

In interviews with WBAL Radio, baseball coach Mike Gottlieb and soccer coach Frank Olszewski outlined how they weren't allowed to attend the players-only meeting with president Maravene Loeschke.

Article here. Excerpt:

'The number of men seeking help after being sexually abused has soared – and victims’ groups fear the effects of the Jimmy Savile scandal will push the numbers even higher.

A counselling service for male victims of sexual assault said the number of men it helps has more than trebled in the last five years.

And Brighton-based Mankind said it expects more to come forward following the Savile revelations.

The organisation is one of only a handful of organisations helping male victims of sexual violence in Britain but it has been snubbed by the Government for support.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'If you're a feminist you've probably seen this. You may have even repeated it: verbally, on your blog, on a flyer, on Twitter, in your book or an academic article. It goes something like this:

"While women represent half the global population and one-third of the labor force, they receive only one-tenth of the world income and own less than one percent of world property. They are also responsible for two-thirds of all working hours."

IMDB entry here. Excerpt:

'A teacher lives a lonely life, all the while struggling over his son's custody. His life slowly gets better as he finds love and receives good news from his son, but his new luck is about to be brutally shattered by an innocent little lie.'

Trailer on YouTube here.

Article here. Excerpt:

'Following in the footsteps of many other universities that have been struggling financially, Towson University president Maravene Loeschke announced on Friday morning that the school would no longer have a baseball or men’s soccer team. The decision came as a surprise to many athletes who were given only a mere hour’s notice of the speech to be given by Loeschke concerning the sports cuts.

The Baltimore Sun‘s description of the whole scene is rather outrageous. Apparently Loeschke was escorted by “several police officers” to the meeting with both teams, which lasted only a few minutes according to players present. And, as Loeschke left, an additional 10 officers proceeded to surround her.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'In terms of Title IX, it is imperative that our female athletes receive the level of support required by federal law. Unfortunately, providing equitable opportunity for female athletes is far too often ignored or deemed "something you can get around or solve later." Towson University will not take that position. Furthermore, Towson's historic practice to add a women's sports team every five years until substantial proportionality is achieved has not kept pace with the changing demographics of our undergraduate population. Therefore, Towson's approach to address Title IX requirements was the most viable, long-term method to achieve gender equity compliance with federal law.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'What should schools do? The authors debunk the notion that boys’ underperformance in school is caused by a "feminized" learning environment that needs to be made more boy-friendly. Making curriculum, teachers, or classroom more "masculine" is not the answer, they show. In fact, boys do better in school in classrooms that have more girls and that emphasize extracurricular activities such as music and art as well as holding both girls and boys to high academic standards. But boys do need to learn how much today's economy rewards academic achievement rather than traditionally masculine blue-collar work.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'The consequences of unfair sexual misconduct procedures are monumental and life-altering. Students who are found guilty can be made into pariahs, kicked out of their residences, expelled from their colleges, and forced to explain marked transcripts to graduate institutions and employers for the rest of their lives. When these defendants have not committed any wrongdoing, such punishments are a travesty of justice. While The Huffington Post has done admirable work in highlighting the significant problem of inadequate university responses to claims of sexual violence, its coverage has failed to explore the issues of due process and procedural safeguards for accused students that reform must also address.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Towson University won't support its baseball program. For the team, the feeling is mutual.

On Mar. 8, during a hastily called conference with players from both teams, Towson president Maravene Loeschke announced that the school, following the recommendation of athletic director Mike Waddell, would be cutting both its baseball and men's soccer programs as a cost-saving measure.

In response, the baseball program – currently 8-7, 1-2 in Colonial Athletic Association play – has chosen to wear strips of black tape over the "Towson" logo on the front of its jerseys, a symbolic gesture meant to display its displeasure over the school's decision.

"We don't support Towson," catcher Zach Fisher told Baltimore's ABC affiliate (video above), "so we don't wear something that says Towson."'

Article here.

'Women are three times as likely to admit hitting a romantic partner, according to a study of young adults ages 15 to 22. In results released today, 14% of women said they'd struck a partner — compared with 5% of men.

But when the researchers, commissioned by the NO MORE anti-domestic violence campaign, asked young people why they'd lashed out, almost 60% of all respondents said their partner had hit them first. Given this, it's possible that young women are just more likely to admit to hitting a partner than men were. The study doesn't report the sexual orientation of the young people surveyed, so it's not clear if the women who reported hitting were exclusively hitting men — domestic violence can be an issue in lesbian relationships too, with one study finding that half of lesbian women experienced domestic violence at some point in their lives.

Article here. Excerpt:

'A glossy American couple fight over an alleged infidelity, and at one point the hunk involved says something unacceptable in a pique of anger.

Our heroine responds with a slap, right across the face, and the argument ends there.

We've seen Meg Ryan do it, Jennifer Aniston do it, and the most recent example of a whack across the chops I saw was in hipster-com Girls, where friends Elijah (Andrew Rannells) and Marnie (Allison Williams) trade insults over his sexuality before he calls her a bitch and she slaps him, hard.
...
In short, pop culture gives the impression it is cute, or empowering, or even sexy when women hit men. The scene reversed would carry a single connotation of misogyny and out-of-control male aggression, but here we are expected to laugh, or even to be turned on by these characters' resort to the grim shortcut of violence to deal with problems.