Story here. Excerpt:

'TRENTON — New Jersey’s government has councils to address a wide array of issues, from government records and local mandates to clean water and the Highlands region.

But a South Jersey legislator feels an important concern is being overlooked, so he’s proposed a council to promote responsible fatherhood.

“Twenty-four million kids under 18 live in homes absent a biological father,” says Assemblyman Troy Singleton, D-Burlington, who notes the proposed panel could identify “needs and priorities relating to fatherhood programs in the state.” The 21-member council also would work to attract federal grants and raise awareness of the impact of absentee fathers, he said.
...
“Getting them to understand the commitment is a challenge,” says Liss, who cites the club’s own Passport to Manhood weekly program for boys 13 through 18. “We get them to understand you have to make responsible decisions. They have to understand the ramifications of fatherhood.”'

Obesity is now a major health problem not just in the developed world but also in the less-developed world. Reasons are simple: People are getting less exercise by working or working out than ever before. And, people are eating more than they used to by calories per person, and the calories are more likely to come from low-nutrient or out-and-out bad-for-you sources, like soda and processed foods. The stats on developed world obesity are unbelievable, but believe it. Look at this chart for the US. The numbers are very similar in other western countries as well. Notice how the numbers climb for both sexes as people get older. But the real story is how it kills people prematurely. Look at this. Excerpt:

'Recent work commissioned by the Taskforce indicates that if current trends in overweight and obesity continue, there will be approximately 1.75 million deaths at ages 20+ years and 10.3 million premature years of life lost (PYLL) at ages 20–74 years caused by overweight/obesity in Australia in 2011 to 2050. Each Australian aged 20–74 years who dies from overweight/obesity in 2011 to 2050 will lose, on average, 12 years of life before the age of 75 years.'

There's no reason to believe the facts around Australian premature deaths don't hold true for other developed countries' populations. 12 years of life lost due to being obese or overweight. That's incredible.

Article here. Excerpt:

'NEW YORK (AP) -- Friends and relatives of Yoselyn Ortega, the New York City nanny accused of stabbing two young children to death, said she appeared to be struggling emotionally and financially recently. Few, though, could offer any explanation for what might have caused her to attack the children.
...
"Apparently over the last month she was not herself," said police department spokesman Paul Browne.'

"She snapped," "She was not herself," etc.  Well yes, obviously.  She was obviously quite "disturbed," enough to murder two children and attempt to kill herself.  Makes no difference though.  But wait, it may just indeed make a difference because she's a... she.

Link here. Excerpt:

'Former Labor prime minister Kevin Rudd wrote his own version of what happened when he was dumped by his party for one-term MP Maxine McKew's book about her time in politics, "Tales From The Political Trenches".

Rudd said that he felt "betrayed" by then Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard and losing the top job was exacerbated by the fact that he had supported her ambitions.

"I too wanted to see a female prime minister. So given all of that, I was stunned when the coup occurred," he wrote.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'The nonsensical “war on women” charge against Republicans has gone too far and may have backfired. An Associated Press-GfK Group poll last week found that women, long Obama’s strongest asset in his re-election bid, have come to favor Republican Mitt Romney 49 percent to 45 percent. If true, it may prove disastrous for President Barack Obama. An ABC/Washington Post daily tracking poll had conflicting results, indicating Obama may still have a commanding lead with women.

Regardless, all reliable data indicate a decline in his support among women.

In a pathetic effort to jump start the “war on women,” the Obama for America campaign this week released the most tasteless and insulting ad of the election season, and that’s saying something.
...
Most American women are perfectly capable of managing their reproductive choices without assistance from the president. Most have a vast assortment of interests and concerns beyond their sex lives, but we seldom hear that from the president.

Video here. Transcript:

'PIERS MORGAN, HOST: You called me in the break a sexist, misogynist pig.

ANN COULTER: Yes.

MORGAN: Can you explain why?

COULTER: Yes.

MORGAN: What have I said that's been remotely sexist.

COULTER: “Calm down.” Oh, it is the conservative female obligation to…

MORGAN: You were hyperventilating.

COULTER: ..I'm not hyperventilating. I'm disagreeing with you, which apparently is insulting your teeny, tiny, male ego. It is the most insulting, condescending, sexist thing to say to a female - generally conservative - who disagrees with you. No, it's my obligation to back down and accept your point, and if I don't, “You're not being calm...'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Since the 1980s, women have largely contributed to the jump in college enrollment, a trend also witnessed at ISU. But some of ISU faculty members wonder if the men are being left behind.

Associate professor of history Daniel Clark said while the surge in college female enrollment is positive, it sheds light on a troubling phenomena in male academia: less men are going to college.

“The college degree is not a worthwhile possibility to men,” he said, adding that college was always an option for men, but never instilled by American culture to be a necessity.”

Lisa Phillips, assistant professor of history, acknowledged that “there wasn’t enough research” on the behavioral studies, but agreed with Clark.

“There’s a gap that’s developed academically,” Phillips said. “Studiousness has become gendered.”'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Why are fewer men choosing to work? For that, we turn to the Census Bureau's 2012 Statistical Abstract. The participation rate is lower for single men than for married men, and marriage rates in the US have been falling for decades, so we'd expect a modest decline from that. Looking by age bucket, it's been pretty steady for single and married men for everyone over the age of 25 since the start of the Great Recession.

Article here. Excerpt:

'President Barack Obama is straining to woo women voters to support him for reelection in spite of his sketchy record when it comes to issues affecting females.

Obama was asked during this week’s debate how he would “rectify the inequalities in the workplace, specifically regarding females making only 72 percent of what their male counterparts earn?”

The president claimed to have “fixed” that problem with the first bill he signed into law – the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act.
...
Then there’s Julia, the fictitious character created by the Obama campaign that leads voters though an informational graphic on everything Obama has done to help women.

Julia’s life begins with the head start program for all children, that actually began under former President Lyndon Johnson, to Pell grants, also created by Johnson, to Obamacare, that will cost thousands of dollars more each year in insurance premiums, but includes “free” birth control.

Story here. Excerpt:

'GRUNDY CENTER, Iowa (AP) — A trial is set for next year in an Iowa man's paternity fraud lawsuit against his former girlfriend.

Joseph Dier, of Grundy Center, seeks to recover money he spent supporting a daughter born in 2009 who turned out not to be his. Dier claims Cassandra Jo Peters enticed him into believing he was the father to get money and that he supported them for more than two years.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'NEW ORLEANS — Pediatricians gathered here for the American Academy of Pediatrics convention were greeted by protesters urging the medical group to rethink its position on an issue that makes most people squirm: the circumcision of newborn boys.

And although the American Academy of Pediatrics doesn’t recommend routine removal of infants’ foreskins — that has been its stance since 1999 — its report, released two months ago, does cite literature saying that the procedure can prevent urinary-tract infections, cancer of the penis and sexually transmitted diseases, including AIDS.

Such benefits, the report says, justify its coverage by private insurance and Medicaid. But opponents, who call themselves “intactivists,” go beyond mere opposition to the circumcision of healthy infants.

Story here. Excerpt:

'A woman needed to leave her abusive home in Kansas City earlier this year, but didn’t want to leave her dog behind.

She couldn’t find a domestic violence shelter that accepted pets, so she lived on the streets.

That’s where she likely would have remained, if not for the opening of a pet shelter at the Rose Brooks shelter four months ago. Since then, she and many other women have been able to escape abusers without losing their pets.

Rose Brooks is the only domestic violence shelter in the region — and among just a few across the country — to have a stand-alone pet shelter. It even hired a pet shelter advocate to oversee operations.

The shelter, called Paws Place, has four large “state-of-the art” kennels built to lower stress and prevent the spread of disease. Each kennel, which is like a small room, is filled with homemade pillows, cozy blankets and chewy toys.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'As Germany fails to close the gender gap in the workplace, and a debate continues about whether quotas should be introduced to improve the mix of people working at the top levels of industry in the country, the figures generally show men way ahead of women.

Yet Schröder hosted a conference in Berlin on Wednesday to talk about what could be done to help men. She told how the share of kindergarten teachers who are male in Germany had risen from 2.4 to 2.9 percent. Yet she was put to shame by the 10 percent of Norwegian kindergarten teachers who are men.

Men are stuck in clichéd roles just as women are, she said – and pointed to the “Boys’ Day” she has set up to encourage boys to go and spend a day in a traditionally female work place.

Article here. Excerpt:

'The Army officer who came to my office was worried. His relationship with his ex-wife, the mother of his child, was rocky to say the least. He had his orders deploying him to Afghanistan for at least a year. Was there anything he could do to make sure he could stay in touch with his son?

Because of Fathers and Families of Ohio’s work on military custody issues, Ohio is one of 36 states protecting our service members’ custody. As a result, the Ohio legislature and Governor John Kasich created a series of laws to protect Ohio service members deployed and on active duty in 2011. These laws effectively address the four biggest problems deployed service members face when trying to stay in contact with their children:'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Modern academia has gone astray and identity studies programs are in large part the culprit, argues author and poet Bruce Bawer in his new book ”The Victims’ Revolution: The Rise of Identity Studies and the Closing of the Liberal Mind.”

“Identity studies sum up everything that’s wrong with the humanities today,” Bawer told The Daily Caller. “They’re about nothing other than group identity, group oppression, and group grievance. Instead of engaging in objective scholarly study of, say, black American history or women’s literature, these departments are boosters for everything having to do with the group in question. It’s all slogans. Kids don’t learn anything other than to think of themselves as having been wronged by capitalism, by the West, by America, by white men.”

Bawer says that this has consequences beyond the classroom.