Article here. Excerpt:

'In an editorial this week, The Boston Globe called on the legislature and the Governor to convene a Shared Parenting Task Force. This could prove to be a breakthrough on shared parenting in Massachusetts, and then, like marriage equality, in the rest of the country. It is the first time The Boston Globe has taken a stand on a Task Force for shared parenting. The Boston Globe said there is “a genuine need to examine the workings of family courts,” Also, “It’s time to break the contentious impasse [on this issue].”

This editorial will increase the pressure that Fathers and Families has been bringing behind the scenes for the Legislature to act. The Globe’s editorial is a direct result of YOUR past activism and support, as well as the activism of some who are outside of Fathers and Families.'

Latest email blast from Gov. Cuomo contained this. Excerpt:

'Dear Fellow New Yorker,

Women’s history in the Empire State goes hand in hand with New York’s history as a progressive leader. From education to health care to civil equality, women have been a driving force behind almost every reform movement in our state.

This past week, in honor of Women’s History Month, Governor Cuomo opened a new exhibit at the State Capitol honoring the remarkable women who have led New York and the nation. Explore our online exhibit featuring these women’s stories by clicking below:

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In case you haven’t been following it, there has been a boatload of articles by female columnists criticizing the Violence Against Women Act. All of these articles were published in the past week:

1. Wendy Kaminer, The Atlantic: What’s Wrong with the Violence Against Women Act? http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2012/03/whats-wrong-with-the-violence-against-women-act/254678/
2. Abby Schachter, New York Post: The 'I Lied to the Police and Got Him Thrown in Jail' Act. http://www.nypost.com/p/blogs/capitol/the_lied_jail_the_police_and_got_s2zheEr5zwQ1CXY3cbgGCP
   

Article here. Excerpt:

'Despite the sounds of moaning in pain, the men of WKU were all smiles after walking a mile around campus in high heels.

The “Walk a Mile in Her Shoes” event occurred Wednesday morning by the Interfraternity Council to raise awareness for sexual abuse and violence against women, said Bowling Green sophomore Phil Korba, IFC’s activities chair.

“The event is to raise awareness for sexual assault and show women we care,” he said.
...
The walkers paid an entrance fee, which added to donations and sponsorships to raise money for Hope Harbor, a non-profit organization that offers support for women who have faced sexual abuse.
...
Hartzell and the other event coordinators urged the men to attend “Take Back the Night,” which is a community-wide walk around Bowling Green to increase awareness about and prevention of violence against women, children, and families.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Gangs of women in Zimbabwe have been picking up male travellers to have sexual intercourse and harvest their sperm, according to reports.

Susan Dhliwayo claims she pulled her car over recently to pick up a group of male hitchhikers and they refused to get in, because they feared they were going to be raped.

"Now, men fear women. They said: 'we can't go with you because we don't trust you'," 19-year-old Miss Dhliwayo recounted.

Local media have reported victims of the highway prowlers being drugged, subdued at gun or knife point – even with a live snake in one case – given a sexual stimulant and forced into repeated sex before being dumped on the roadside.

The sperm hunters first surfaced in the local press in 2009 but police have only arrested three women, found with a plastic bag of 31 used condoms in October. The attacks have continued since they were nabbed for allegedly violating 17 men.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'A Spanish businesswoman killed her workmate and then injected the semen of male prostitutes into her mouth and vagina to make it look as if she had been raped and murdered.

María Ángeles Molina was jailed for 22 years yesterday for the grisly crime committed to cover up identify theft and plot to steal €1million in an insurance scame.

The killer, known as Angie, lured her friend Ana Páez to a Barcelona apartment she had fraudulently rented in her victim's name just three days before.
...
To make it look like her victim had been raped, Molina then injected the semen, which she had obtained from a brothel.

The elaborate cover-up came after Molina had stolen Páez's identity and used it to take out bank loans and insurance policies worth €1million in her name.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'In September 2011, a two-week-old baby boy unnecessarily died. The cause of death: Disseminated Herpes Simplex Virus Type 1, complicating ritual circumcision with oral suction. The Orthodox Jewish circumcision process called “metzitzah b’peh” is otherwise known as “oral suction,” or the suctioning of blood from the circumcision wound directly by mouth.

Unfortunately, last year isn’t the first time that this particular rabbi, Yitzchok Fischer, caused the death of a child. The same thing happened in 2004, and that same year three other babies were determined to have contracted herpes from Fischer. While Herpes Simplex Virus 1 is usually harmless in adults and manifests itself only as uncomfortable cold sores, because of the virus’ association with the nervous system, it poses significant health threats to newborns and can result in brain damage, and sometimes, death.

Article here. Excerpt:

'First, the reference to the "prompt and equitable" standard. This is new language, replacing the "preponderance of the evidence" requirement seen in an earlier version of the bill last fall. Our press release from last October voiced alarm about codifying the preponderance of the evidence standard, and we were pleased when Senator Patrick Leahy’s office removed that provision from the bill.

Unfortunately, by replacing the explicit "preponderance of the evidence" requirement with a mandate that university procedures for sexual assault cases must "provide a prompt and equitable investigation and resolution," the bill’s authors have reintroduced the problem.

To be clear, FIRE obviously does want campus disciplinary procedures to be prompt and equitable. Justice, no matter the venue, should always be prompt and equitable; indeed, it’s hard to imagine a just result that isn’t prompt and equitable.

Article here. Excerpt:

'Georgetown Law student Sandra Fluke said on Tuesday that candidates running for office should have to pass a pro-woman litmus test in order to get elected.

Fluke, an advocate for the Obama administration’s plan to force health insurers to cover birth control, was on Capitol Hill for a forum on “Opportunities and Challenges for a New Generation of Women,” in celebration of Women’s History Month.

“There should be a litmus test that they be pro-women so our votes have to include that requirement at least,” Fluke said. “And it should be a litmus test that applies to male candidates as well.”

She also spoke about the possibility of running for office in the future:

“Numerous American women have actually written to me in the last few weeks saying that I should run for office, and maybe someday I will.”'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Two Jewish infants in New Jersey were recently infected with — but survived — a herpes virus attributed to their ritual circumcisers’ use of an oral suctioning technique that is said to have caused the death of an infant in New York in September.

Dr. Margaret Fisher, chair of pediatrics at Monmouth Medical Center, told the Forward that a newborn boy was admitted to the center within the past month, infected with the virus, known as HSV-1, within days of his circumcision. The other case “was in the last year or two,” said Fisher, a pediatric infectious disease specialist. Both boys had herpes lesions on their genitals but “extremely mild cases,” she said, and both were successfully treated for 10 days with intravenous anti-viral medication.'

Story here. Excerpt:

'The New York City Department of Health received a report within the last week of an infant with symptoms of neonatal herpes and the case is currently under investigation, The Jewish Week has learned. (By law, such reports must be made within 24 hours of a diagnosis).

While the health department could not confirm where the report came from or whether it involved the circumcision ritual metzitzah b'peh, a source in the medical community told The Jewish Week that a suspected case of neonatal herpes related to metzitzah b'peh, or oral suction, has been treated at Maimonides Hospital within the past week.
...
This case comes on the heels of revelations that four other infants who had undergone the controversial circumcision rite of metzitzah b'peh were treated for neonatal herpes, two in Rockland County in 2009 and two more recently in New Jersey.'

U.S. News & World Report has taken note of the controversy around the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act - VAWA - (s.1925), making it the focus of Debate Club. Debate Club brings in the best arguments and lets readers decide which is the most persuasive. They ask: Should the Violence Against Women Act Be Reauthorized?

As of this writing, the entry in first place is: "NO: Violence Against Women Act Is a Totalitarian Violation of Democracy" by Laura Wood. In second place is "NO: The Violence Against Women Act Should Outrage Decent People" by Janice Shaw Crouse. Following that are a few entries supporting the reauthorization.

Story here. Excerpt:

'A New York City schoolteacher from Bay Shore will be sentenced to probation and have to register as a sex offender after admitting Tuesday to having sexual relations with a 16-year-old male student a year ago, prosecutors said.

Tara Driscoll, 33, of 17 Anna St., pleaded guilty to misdemeanor sexual misconduct. She will be sentenced to six years' probation and must give up her teacher's license...'

Article here. Excerpt:

'It's a truism in feminist circles that no one hates men more than anti-feminists, and it's a truism two recent items from the notoriously anti-feminist conservative rag Daily Mail demonstrate neatly. The Daily Mail has a tendency to portray men as hapless dogs who, being more beast than human, can no more be expected to respect women's rights than Sparky can be taught to use the toilet. (Cats, on the other hand....) Unfortunately, other outlets tend to pick up the Daily Mail's man-bashing anti-feminism as if it's light-hearted fluff, and these two stories are no different.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'It’s a generational shift that’s been a long time coming. For a brief chapter in the history of gender relations—what’s rightly been called the Leave it to Beaver era—dapper, chipper men provided for their effervescent, vacuum-pushing wives in a suburban Elysium of sparkling appliances and gas-guzzling, American-made cars. That time has passed, and good riddance, many say. Perhaps the largest single engine of change in American culture over the last fifty years has been the liberation of women, and now, as another wave of educated, professional females enter the workforce, we’re bound for a whole new set of adjustments and anxieties.'