What Happened to the Presumption of Innocence?

The DV industry is telling Congress that the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) must be reauthorized during the lame duck session. We need to make sure they hear our message that VAWA should not be reauthorized unless it respects the presumption of innocence.

Learn more: http://www.saveservices.org/camp/presumed-innocent/

Let's take action!

Call both of your Senators and your Representative at 1-202-224-3121.

You can also find your Senators' phone numbers here: http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm and your Representative's phone number here: http://www.house.gov/representatives/find/

Even if you called last time, call again today. Just say, "Don't pass the Violence Against Women Act until the presumption of innocence is restored!"

Call now. Call later. Call often.

Or call once.

Article here. Excerpt:

'The holiday season is ripe with opportunity for family disputes and blow-ups. (As Beverly D'Angelo says in National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, "It's Christmas. We're all miserable.") Now, a new study may help your understand how best to handle your relationship with your in-laws.

The marriages of men who are closer to their in-laws are 20 percent less likely to end in divorce, according to a study conducted by Dr. Terri Orbuch, a psychologist and research professor at the University of Michigan's Institute for Social Research and author of Finding Love Again: 6 Steps to a New and Happy Relationship. The story of her findings in regards to in-laws recently appeared in The Wall Street Journal.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'GOVERNMENT is considering making neo-natal male circumcision compulsory as a long-term strategy for HIV prevention.

In an interview yesterday, Aids and Tuberculosis Unit national director in the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare Dr Owen Mugurungi said infant circumcision was more sustainable than adult circumcision.

He said the ministry was still following due process for the feasibility and acceptability studies for its introduction.

Dr Mugurungi, however, said they were carrying out research on the implications of infant circumcision.

"We have received a lot of inquiries from young couples who wanted their children to be circumcised. We are following due processes for the feasibility and acceptability studies.

"There are people who are advocating infant circumcision and there are some who are against it. We do not want to force anyone and that is why we want to carry out research," he said.'

Story here. Excerpt:

'A 24-year-old woman was arrested yesterday for attacking her boyfriend after he climaxed and she did not, a police report alleges.

Raquel Gonzalez lives in Bradenton, Florida with her boyfriend, Esric Davis, 30. Apparently, the two were engaged in intercourse.

When he finished and she did not, Gonzalez allegedly started punching and scratching him around the nose and eyes.
...

The violent post-coital attack allegedly occurred after Davis reached orgasm, but Gonzalez did not. Apparently outraged, she then ‘began hitting and scratching (Davis), causing scratches near his eyes and nose,’ the police report read.

She was arrested yesterday afternoon and charged with felony domestic battery, and remains in the Manatee County jail.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'WASHINGTON — Marine Corps Pvt. Lazzaric T. Caldwell slit his wrists and spurred a legal debate that’s consuming the Pentagon, as well as the nation’s top military appeals court.

On Tuesday, the court wrestled with the wisdom of prosecuting Caldwell after his January 2010 suicide attempt. Though Caldwell pleaded guilty, he and his attorneys now question his original plea and the broader military law that makes “self-injury” a potential criminal offense.

The questions resonate amid what Pentagon leaders have called an “epidemic” of military suicides.

“If suicide is indeed the worst enemy the armed forces have,” Senior Judge Walter T. Cox III said, “then why should we criminalize it when it fails?”'

Link here. Excerpt:

'Yorke & Lower North Health Service, Clare
Indicative Total Remuneration: $74,997 - $86,710 (pro rata) - Temp P/T (15 hrs p/wk) - AHP2

Article here. Excerpt:

'A new Bill passed on Wednesday now gives men the opportunity to take women to court for child maintenance (child support).

The sole female parliamentarian, Minister of Social Services and Gender Affairs, Hon. Marcella Liburd introduced and led the debate on The Maintenance of Children Bill, 2012.

The 33-section Bill states that if a father/male has guardianship/sole custody of a child, he can take the same legal action previously only available to mothers/females, and apply to the court for financial support from the child’s mother/female guardian. It replaces an Act passed in 1920.

“I want to say that unlike what is said out there, mothers can indeed be asked to maintain their children because there situations where the children are in the physical custody of their father or the father’s family,” Minister Liburd said.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Say you married your high school sweetheart, and he or she stayed home to raise the kids. Now 20 years later, you've grown apart and gotten divorced.

Along with a fair distribution of your lifetime savings, you'd probably agree that it's fair to pay alimony for a good number of years to help your former spouse find his or her way in the next chapter of life.

But should you be forced to pay alimony for the rest of your life?

Current law says a judge can make you pay alimony until you die, or until your former spouse remarries, something exes have been known to delay so as not to end the alimony gravy train.

As it stands, "permanent alimony" amounts to a life sentence. It is an outdated law that should be changed in the next session of the Florida Legislature.'

Link here. Excerpt:

'A Swedish woman who allegedly committed acts of necrophilia on a skeleton has been revealed as the same woman who sparked outrage in Australia in 2010 after publishing photos of a murdered Queensland teenager on her website.

The woman, whose identity has been supressed in Swedish media, is facing trial after human bones, body bags and disturbing images were allegedly found in her Gothenburg apartment.

Photos released to the media showed the 32-year-old caressing and licking the cranium of a yellowing skull.

In 2010 the woman made headlines after she posted three images of slain 12-year-old Goodna schoolgirl Leanne Holland on her now-defunct “gore” website ViralDeath.com.

Although it was later revealed the Holland images were lifted from a 2002 textbook, it drew widespread outrage from Australian authorities and led to an investigation by the Crime and Misconduct Commission.'

Article here. Excerpt:

Article here. Excerpt:

'As the wife of a Canberra construction worker, I have every hope that the ACT government inquiry into safety in the building industry will be successful in identifying causes and proposing implementable solutions. As someone who has worked in the health sector, however, I am not optimistic.

There is no simple or single underlying cause of the cavalier attitude towards occupational health and safety which is evident on many construction sites, and it will be the job of the inquiry to uncover as many of these causes as possible. While some attention has been given to issues such as the quality of training and workers being pushed to meet cost and time deadlines, the one aspect of the current culture which has remained unrecognised is gender.

Article here. Excerpt:

'This week on campus, a number of movements picketed and soapboxed to prevent sexual assault. And don’t get me wrong; that’s a very good thing. Rape and sexual assault are some of the more heinous and damaging crimes that human beings can enact upon one another. My problem is not with groups determined to prevent these crimes, but with the nature of these groups.
...
A glance at the White Ribbon Campaign’s website reveals some dynamic logos and the words: “What Does It Mean to Be A Man Today? It’s Time For A New Vision of the Perfect Man.” The White Ribbon Campaign further promises to educate men about how they can further prevent gender-based violence, a trait seemingly limited to their barbaric sex.

That’s my main problem here. Last I checked, our society was striving for an egalitarian approach, not a sexist one. The vision was that men and women are equal, and must be treated equally … so then why does no one care about men?'

Article here. Excerpt:

'A first lieutenant in the U.S. Marine Corps, a captain in the Marine Corps Reserves, a staff sergeant in the U.S. Army Reserves and a major in the U.S. Air National Guard filed suit Tuesday against the Department of Defense, challenging its rules restricting women in combat under the Fifth Amendment.

Link here. Excerpt:

'The 52-year-old woman, who cannot be named to protect the victim's identity, pleaded guilty in the Victorian County Court on Tuesday to repeatedly having sex with the teen over a four-year period.
...
After one sexual encounter the teenager vomited in the bathroom for half an hour.

"I'd never had sex before this and I felt sick to the bottom of my stomach," the boy said in a police statement that was read out in court.

The sexual relationship began in 2002 when the victim was aged 13 and the woman was 41.

Article here. Excerpt:

'Solicitors specialising in divorce and child contact say they have noted a marked rise in allegations of one parents exerting undue influence on children to try to turn them against the other.

New mobile phones, computer games, designer clothes and even exotic holidays have been deployed in attempts to win children’s loyalty.

In other cases parents have openly resorted to trying to blacken their former partner’s name in the children’s eyes.

Naomi McGloin, a solicitor at Pannone, said allegations of “brainwashing” had become an increasingly common feature of acrimonious separations in her experience.

Parents desperate to keep their children have attempted to exploit a requirement on the courts to take a child’s feelings into consideration in determining where they should live.'