Article here. Excerpt:

'Large New York hotels plan to equip their housekeepers and staff with portable alarms so they get help quickly in case of trouble, officials said Wednesday.

Any staff member who must enter guests rooms, such as maids, waiters and mini-bar attendants, will be given the "panic buttons" within the next year, said Lisa Linden, spokeswoman for the Hotel Association of New York.

She declined to link the electronic alarms to the case of French politician Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the former International Monetary Fund chief who was accused of sexually assaulting maid, Nafissatou Diallo, at the Sofitel in New York in May. The charges against him were eventually dropped.

"It has been under discussion for some time," Linden said.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'In 2010, the New York City Department of Education was slapped with a lawsuit for its failure to comply with Title IX regulations and provide equal athletic opportunities for girls and boys in New York City high schools. In an attempt to correct this imbalance, the Department of Education has put an embargo on the creation of new boys’ teams altogether — effectively discriminating against boys in new schools and continuing to disparage girls in existing schools.

In New York City there is nearly an 8 percent difference between the number of girls who are enrolled in the district and the number of female student-athletes. If this gap were closed, it would allow an additional 17,000 girls to participate in a sport. In order to close it, the DOE is relying on new schools to establish a better balance. By granting solely girls’ teams in new schools, and denying opportunities for boys, the administration hopes the imbalance will work itself out over time.'

Article here. Excerpt:

Story here. Excerpt:

'A mother allegedly slashed her nine-month-old baby’s throat just months after telling a pastor she could be possessed and might hurt the girl.

Bradie Simpson, 39, of Camdenton, Missouri, was found in woods 225ft from her home as she held the baby covered in blood with a neck wound.

It comes months after the body of her ex-boyfriend, the baby’s father, was found in the same woods last September, reported ABC affiliate KSPR.'

From a reader via email:

Maine's Governor has a new PSA* in his campaign for insane laws against men. This was unveiled this week with his repeated statements to the press (and by the press) that men are mostly responsible for DV and it is women and children who are the victims. Contact form is here.

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*Use Internet Explorer to view. Firefox didn't work, at least not for me.

Article here. Excerpt:

'Janet Howell, a Democratic state senator in Virginia, does not want females who are thinking of an abortion to look at an ultrasound first. We know why this legislation was proposed and why she opposes it: The ultrasound is the biggest deterrent to abortion. A woman or girl not really happy with the choice of abortion surely is going to think twice again and likely walk out.

Rather than debate the actual question — should government participate in a medical decision no matter how odious it is? — Missus Howell decided to be clever and mock men by offering an amendment to require a rectal exam for men before they receive a prescription for Viagra.
...

Prescribing a medication is not a medical procedure. And I am sure that any responsible doctor would not prescribe such medication without first examining the patient, doing a family history and the like.

Article here. Excerpt:

'Under plans unveiled by the Government on Monday, the law would be changed to stress the importance of children having contact with both parents.

Similar changes in Australia led to delays in resolving custody disputes, Mr Clarke cautioned, adding that there were "dangers" associated with doing so.

The move, confirming a report in Friday's The Daily Telegraph, will mean that children are for the first time to be given the legal right to have a proper relationship with both their parents after a divorce. stops short of the guarantee of equal access demanded by some fathers' rights groups.

Article here. Excerpt:

'Almost five years ago, he and his longtime girlfriend, Carie Terry, were living in Denver when they found out they were expecting a baby. He says they had talked about getting married.

"It was probably the happiest day of my life, finding out I would be a dad," he said.

Manzanares says at that point they were not even considering adoption.

He says that changed a few weeks later.

"She came back from her church service and stated to me that she would have to adopt this child to a Mormon family," Manzanares said.

He says she wanted the child raised in a two-parent, Mormon home.

The conversation about adoption ended the relationship and began Manzanares's legal fight to be a father.

"I stated from that day on that there was no way I'll allow my daughter to be adopted. I will fight for her no matter what," he said.

He filed a paternity action in Colorado District Court before his daughter's birth. Colorado established him as the father.'

Story here. Excerpt:

'State Senator Constance Johnson of Oklahoma City has served Oklahoma’s 48th Senate District since 2005, but it was yesterday’s introduction of Senate Bill 1433 that really pushed her over the edge. The bill sought to define human life as beginning at the moment of conception, before it’s even implanted in the womb, and offers full legal protection to those tiny multicelled lumps. In the words of the bill, “the unborn child at every stage of development (has) all the rights, privileges, and immunities available to other persons, citizens, and residents of this state.”

Johnson submitted an amendment of her own to the bill, which would have added the language,

However, any action in which a man ejaculates or otherwise deposits semen anywhere but in a woman’s vagina shall be interpreted and construed as an action against an unborn child.'

Story here. Excerpt:

'JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — A Missouri teenager who had described the slaying of a young neighbor girl as an "ahmazing" thrill made an emotional apology Wednesday to the girl's family and was sentenced to a potential lifetime in prison.

Moments before her sentence was imposed, 18-year-old Alyssa Bustamante rose from her chair — with shackles linking her ankles and holding her hands to her waist — and turned to face the family of 9-year-old Elizabeth Olten, whom she confessed to killing in October 2009.
...
Cole County Circuit Judge Pat Joyce then sentenced Bustamante to the maximum possible sentence for second-degree murder — life in prison with the possibility of parole. She ordered the teenager to serve a consecutive 30-year term for armed criminal action, a charge resulting from her use of a knife to slit the throat and stab Elizabeth after she had strangled her into unconsciousness.'

In case you missed it, the ad can be seen on YouTube here.

Ways to contact Dannon are here. Feel free to let them know what you think of their sense of "humor" as well as whether or not you are inclined to buy their products now that you see how little respect they have for men's rights to be un-assaulted by wives and sweethearts, even if such men have a predilection for teasing ways to spoon-feed their female companions. Ask them if we would ever see the same thing happen in their ad but with the sexes were reversed? And if so, OK, then when can we expect to see that air and will it air with as great an audience as the Super Bowl had?

Last Thursday the Senate Judiciary Committee voted Sen. Leahy's version of the Violence Against Women Act out of committee with ten votes for and eight against. This was after Sen. Charles Grassley unsuccessfully proposed an amendment that would have added accountability and other improvements.

Your calls are the reason eight senators voted against VAWA last week. High fives all around!!!!!

While the DV industry is drumming up support for the passage of Leahy's VAWA, we can still take steps to stop their mismanagement of funds, insure the distribution of accurate information, end acts of discrimination, and more.

Sen. Grassley's amendment incorporates many of the provisions of SAVE's Partner Violence Reduction Act: http://www.judiciary.senate.gov/legislation/upload/EAS12031-Grassley-Sub.pdf

Link here. Excerpt:

'By Christopher Bates, M.P.A., Executive Director, Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS, and Senior Advisor to the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Health, Infectious Diseases, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

The Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS (PACHA) will convene February 28 and 29 in Washington, DC. Among the many items on the agenda for the 45th meeting of the PACHA, two are of particular note:

* A conversation with Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius on a variety of issues, including the implementation of the National HIV/AIDS Strategy across HHS.
* PACHA will devote much of the first day of this meeting to an examination of the state of HIV/AIDS among women and girls in the U.S. and the nation’s response. A number of speakers have been invited to address PACHA on issues including HIV/AIDS research, prevention, and access to care and treatment.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Some of you may remember the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) as a major Biden initiative from before he was cool (and by cool I mean Vice President). The National Organization for Women called it "the greatest breakthrough in civil rights for women in nearly two decades." Phyllis Schlafley called it proof "that the feminists control the Democratic Party." So you can guess where John Cornyn stands.
Last week, VAWA came up in the Senate Judiciary Committee for reauthorization. And while the Democrats on the committee voted it to the floor unanimously, Cornyn joined his Republican brethren in doing just the opposite. Fortunately, despite their best efforts, it's still moving on to a full floor vote.

Article here. Excerpt:

'Fair Work Australia's decision on equal pay for community sector workers is a step forward for all Australian women, the Australian Services Union says.

Some 150,000 community sector workers, mostly women, have been awarded a pay rise by the industrial umpire in a landmark test case.

"We said we wanted to put a dent on the 18 per cent gender pay gap between men and women in Australia," ASU NSW and ACT branch secretary Sally McManus told reporters in Sydney today.'