Article here. Excerpt:

'Jerusalem --- January 20, 2012 .... For many divorced fathers in Israel, the declaration yesterday by Israel Justice Minister Yaakov Neeman that divorced parents must now share custody of children, may have come too late. Neeman has accepted recommendations by the Schnit Committee that joint parental custody be ordered in divorce cases involving young children, which the law defines as those up to age 6. Until now, most divorced fathers became visitors, being limited to seeing their children only a few hours a week.

Link here. Excerpt:

'Circumcisions would again receive state funding under a proposal introduced by several Colorado lawmakers.

The bill would allow Medicaid to again cover circumcisions. The procedure was dropped from Medicaid last year as a money-saving move. Several states have stopped covering circumcisions amid concerns that they're not medically necessary. Colorado projected that it would save about $186,500 a year if it stopped covering circumcisions.'

Link here. Excerpt:

'Female American soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan have been involved in more combat than in prior wars and have the same post-traumatic stress disorder rate as men, a new study has found.

For the study, researchers looked at over 7,000 active-duty soldiers who served in the war zones and found that 4 percent of female soldiers reported killing, 9 percent reported witnessing killing, 31 percent reported exposure to death and 7 percent suffered a combat-related injury.
...
"If women are indeed being exposed to combat stressors at a higher rate than in prior eras, we have to be prepared to provide the services they need, and take into account the impact that these stressors can have on their mental health functioning," she said in a university news release.

"We also need to take a closer look at physical injury and its potential impact on women's psychological health," Maguen added.'

Petition here. Overall point of effort very well-taken. But something doesn't feel quite right. I signed the petition, but with a 'signing statement'. I include it as the first comment of the story. Petition excerpt:

'I once trusted the Birmingham Public Schools. I sent my children to school thinking they were safe and protected. I found out different.

My 17-year old-daughter Gloria was sprayed in the face with pepper spray by a Birmingham police officer assigned to protect students in the school.

She wasn’t being violent and she certainly wasn’t a threat to the officer. Gloria was upset because a boy had pushed her. While she was confronting the boy, the police officer grabbed her from behind, pulled out his canister of pepper spray, and sprayed her in the eyes, face, and mouth. My 15-year-old daughter Patrice saw her sister sprayed and ran to her side. As Patrice reached Gloria, the officer sprayed Gloria with a second burst of pepper spray. The second burst also hit Patrice in the face.

Article here. Excerpt:

"The Department for Work and Pensions on Friday outlined plans to force companies that offered “guaranteed minimum pensions” in the Nineties to reassess the different accrual rates for male and female members of the scheme and equalise overall benefits to avoid discrimination.

Under the law at the time, women could collect their state pension five years earlier than men, when they reached 60. Men could only start claiming their pension at 65.

This rule has never been updated for the guaranteed minimum pension scheme since, despite case law in 1990 which ruled it was unlawful to discriminate between men and women in relation to occupational pensions.

According to equality campaigners, this gives female members of the guaranteed minimum pension retiring today an unfair advantage as they can get hold of the benefits sooner than men.

The new rules outlined by the DWP on Friday would see men be able to claim payments at the age of 60."

Petition here. It's not an accident I posted this shortly after In Massachusetts, boys playing on girls teams causes a ruckus. Excerpt:

'On Thursday, October 6, 2011, Mina Johnson sat out of Southampton Academy's junior varsity football game because their opponent, Northeast Academy, threatened to forfeit if a girl played. At 5'2" and 170-pounds, Mina is a starting linebacker for the Southampton Academy Raiders. She is also an honor-roll student and is quite formidable on the football field, having sacked Rocky Mount’s quarterback four times during a 30-24 win on Sept. 22.

This petition was started by members of the U.S. women's national tackle football team to show support for Mina Johnson, her coach and team, and the multitude of girls and women who face discrimination in the sport of tackle football.

From SAVE:

We've all heard the stories. In relationships with violent partners, men hope for the safety of an abuse shelter, just to be told they aren't allowed inside. Abused men and lesbians reaching out for help, just to be told by DV advocates that they must have provoked their female partner.

Unfortunately, we have a long way to go before we are serving every domestic violence victim. But the news isn't all bad. There are hotlines, shelters, agencies and counseling centers that serve abuse victims who are GLBT and heterosexual men.

We are on a quest to find them. Will you help?

Please use a phone book or internet search engine to locate the DV providers in your area (county or state, depending on the size and your dedication). Then call them and ask the following questions:

Article here. Excerpt:

'FRANKLIN, Mass. - When Will Higgins won the South sectional 50-meter freestyle in Massachusetts in November, there was mixed joy among his Norwood Senior High teammates.

He broke the meet record in a blistering 23.96 seconds, moving on to the state swimming and diving championships. The win also helped spur his team to an eighth-place finish in the section tournament.

But because Higgins is a boy, his record win sparked increasing attention and criticism from a national audience in what has become a local epidemic: Boys playing on girls teams.

Article here. Excerpt:

'April marks the 40th anniversary of Title IX, legislation passed to ensure educational institutions do not discriminate on the basis of gender. That's why the American Association of University Women recently held a "Tweet-Up" with Education Secretary Arne Duncan.

Four decades after the law passed, Secretary Duncan seems to remain largely ignorant of the serious ramifications of this legislation, which, in effect, has helped institutionalize gender inequality, quotas and preferences. During the Tweet-up Duncan wrote, "Contrary to conventional wisdom, since 1972 access to men's sports has not been diminished." He added, "T9 requires schools to offer equal athletic opps for men & women. It doesn't require schools to eliminate any teams."

Well, not exactly, Mr. Secretary.

Thread title is from the OIG mailing-list email:

Link here. Excerpt:

Letter here.

'Apparently during the chaos of the evacuation of the Costa Concordia in Costa de Giglio, Italy, a crew member shouted, "Women and children first!"

Now I can agree that women with children should be given priority in this situation, but how about men with children? Also, why should all women be given priority over all men? If this is, in fact, a maritime rule or law, it seems outdated.

Are all women more important to save than all men?'

Story here. Excerpt:

'GRAND RAPIDS — Nearly 50 Grand Rapids Community College football players, along with coaches and athletic director Charlie Wells, gathered Monday afternoon to listen to the devastating news of the program’s fate.

After 80 years, the football program will not exist.
...
Ender cited impending changes to the conference schedule requiring out-of-state travel, the departure of former head coach Tony Annese to Ferris State University and concerns on Title IX compliance as reasons behind the move.
...

GRCC is the fourth school in the Midwest Football Conference to drop its football program in the past five years.

In November, Joliet (Ill.) Junior College eliminated its program.

They cited two primary factors similar to GRCC — the high costs associated with operating the program and the need to balance gender equality among sports offered at the college because of Title IX requirements.'

This time Ask Amy got it right in Husband faces wife's fraud over in vitro embryos (1/17/12). She wanted another child so she forged his name on the papers and had the embryo implanted. There is no way that wife can use the "it was an accident" excuse. It will be interesting to see what happens to the birth rate -- and that excuse--when Vasalgel is approved (it's essentially a completely reversible vasectomy). Excerpt:

'Dear Amy:
...
I wasn't ready to have another child at that time and told her so.

Unfortunately, my wife forged my signature on the clinic paperwork for the embryo transfers and never told me.

I only found out by contacting the fertility center after the fact.

I've tried numerous times to get her to go to marriage counseling to talk about this and other problems, but she won't go because she feels that whatever problems we have are my fault.
...
Dear Sad: Your wife's selfishness is truly shocking.

Article here. Except:

'When men think they outnumber women, they borrow more, save less and make more impulse purchases, according to a study published last week by the University of Minnesota's Carlson School of Management.

University researchers asked groups of men to read news articles suggesting that their local population had either more men or women. They were then asked to indicate how much money they would save each month from a paycheck, as well as how much they would borrow on credit cards for purchases.

When the articles suggested there was a surplus of men, the savings rate fell 42%, and the men were willing to borrow 84% more each month.

The study also found real-life evidence of this behavior. In Columbus, Ga., where there are 1.18 single men for every single woman, the average consumer debt was $3,479 higher than it was 100 miles away in Macon, Ga., where there were 0.78 single men for every woman.'

Article here. Excerpt:

"Investors are gambling on bitter divorce battles between women and their rich husbands in return for a share of the spoils, it has emerged.

Venture capitalists, hedge funds and high-end lenders are putting up money to women who want to fight their husbands in court.

In return, the investors take a chunk of the court payouts.

According to The Sunday Times, one company now has loans out to more than 100 'high net worth' spouses - it charges about 20 per cent interest for up-front divorce financing.