Article here. Excerpt:

'Oftentimes teenagers are stereotyped as being impolite and self-centered. Dana Lyman of Highland disagrees. She is impressed by the young men who share her daughter's bus stop. Without any of suggestion from parents or the bus driver, these young men step aside every morning and afternoon before boarding the bus so the girls can get on first.

The polite gesture of these Timberline Middle School students began about two weeks after the school year began.

"As the students were getting on the bus Isaac Emerson put up his hand and said, 'come on guys, let the girls go first' and the boys agreed," she said. "That morning set the standard which holds to this day."

She added, "It's really windy up here sometimes. But, it doesn't matter if it's windy or snowy, they consistently show kindness and respect by letting the girls go first."

To Isaac this is something that doesn't require much forethought or planning. It comes naturally.

Article here. Excerpt:

'Decades on such notions evidently continue to result in women being treated less harshly by the criminal justice system. Jeffries wrote, "In New Zealand ... women are less likely than men to be ... sentenced to imprisonment" and "[o]nce imprisoned, NZ women receive shorter terms than men."

This was fascinating. I'd never considered the possibility that gender biases would be so deeply entrenched within our justice system.

Those who reject the "chivalry thesis" make claims that women's law-breaking tends to be less serious than that of men, hence the comparably lighter sentences. But a 1999 study using a Ministry of Justice database "[w]ith all independent variables controlled" confirmed "that men were more likely than women to be imprisoned."

Article here.

'The state is broke. As the governor has said, California needs to focus on core functions like education. As we seriously contemplates trimming three weeks off the school year, even the Commission on the Status of Women's annual budget, a paltry $465 thousand dollars, becomes a luxury the state can no longer afford.

There are plenty of private groups that do what the commission does. The National Organization of Women, The California Budget Project, the American Association of University Women, and more. They aren't going away.

Unlike 1965, when the commission was established, women are a significant presence in commerce today. They now make up more than a quarter of the Legislature. California has a woman Attorney General.

Article here. Excerpt:

'Sure, she’s got roots in activism for immigrants and tenants, the same circles in which Mayor Ed Lee got his political start. She’s popular in the progressive District 5 and is widely expected to win her seat in her own right in the November election. And yes, she was supportive of Lee during his mayoral campaign.

But there’s another reason Lee chose Christina Olague to fill the supervisorial seat left open when Ross Mirkarimi became sheriff.

She’s a she.

Gender, Lee told The Chronicle’s editorial board this week, was a big consideration of his — and three of the four finalists were women. But it wasn’t a factor only because a scant three of the 11 supervisors were women before Olague’s appointment.'

It's interesting to hear "Women and children first" from the crew in the lifeboats after all the emphasis on so-called "equality" for women over the last few decades. This is reminiscent of the Titanic, almost exactly 100 years ago. Story here. Excerpt:

'"I felt like the disaster itself was manageable," Smith added, referring to the grounding and tilting of the ship, "but I felt like the crew was going to kill us."

The worst part came when a lifeboat crew member told everyone, "Women and children first," Smith said. "All these families who were clinging to each other had to be separated," he added.

After helping passengers, some crew members jumped overboard and swam ashore.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Taxpayers are forking out thousands of pounds a year on DNA paternity tests after mothers seeking maintenance wrongly identified the father of their child.

Last year, around £100,000 went on tests which turned out to be the wrong man because the mother has slept with so many men that she has no idea who the father actually is.

Another £250,000 was lost by the Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission when men demanded a DNA test to prove they were not the father - but then it turned out that they were, and they nevertheless refused to pay for the test.

However, the organisation did manage to recoup £160,000 from men whose paternity was proved by the tests.

In some cases, the taxpayer pays for multiple tests when the mother is unable to identify one man as the father. There is no limit to the number of tests a person can ask for.

Story here. Excerpt:

'The woman who met a soldier on a dating website before he was killed on their date, has been arrested on charges of felony murder, according to the Marion County Sheriff's Office.

Lavar Watson's friends told Local 6 he was in the US Army for 3 years and served two tours in Iraq. Watson met Ashley Levelle on plentyoffish.com, a dating website, and was meeting her for a date.
...
Levelle told deputies that Roopnarine shot Watson inside her car and forced her to help him move the body, which was found on the side of a road, the Sheriff's Office said.

Roopnarine told authorities that Levelle planned a scheme to rob Watson and shot him first.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'When the Office of Child Support Enforcement tells us that 63% of those behind on paying their support obligations are the poorest of the poor – those who report earnings of less than $10,000 – it comes as no surprise. Of course it’s the poor who fall behind and who can’t afford a lawyer to go to court to try to modify the order. In fact, that’s so much to be expected that it’s a surprise when the guy fighting for his life was once pretty well off and who has the education to fight the system.

That looks to be the case described in OC Judge Reversed For Cruel Treatment of Ex-Husband in Child Support Case (OC Weekly, 12/30/11).

Article here. Excerpt:

'In the United States, women make up only 16.9% of our national legislature (i.e., Congress). That places us 91st in the world. In a new report, Jennifer Lawless and Richard Fox conclude that there are seven big reasons why women continue to lag so far behind men in the political world:

1. Women are substantially more likely than men to perceive the electoral environment as highly competitive and biased against female candidates.
2. Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin’s candidacies aggravated women’s perceptions of gender bias in the electoral arena.
3. Women are much less likely than men to think they are qualified to run for office.
4. Female potential candidates are less competitive, less confident, and more risk averse than their male counterparts.
5. Women react more negatively than men to many aspects of modern campaigns.
6. Women are less likely than men to receive the suggestion to run for office—from anyone.
7. Women are still responsible for the majority of childcare and household tasks.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Although the women got the worst of the confrontation — Ms. Darbeau was hospitalized for several days with a broken skull and arm; Ms. Edwards had many cuts and bruises — a grand jury indicted them and dropped assault charges against the employee, Rayon McIntosh, who argued self-defense.

The lawyer for Ms. Darbeau, 24, and Ms. Edwards, 25, called the charges against his clients a travesty.

“The only person that uses the weapon, the only person that uses criminal force in the case is basically off the hook,” the lawyer, Harold C. Baker III, said. “And the people who got beaten to within an inch of their life are under indictment. In my opinion, that’s not consistent with justice.”

Yet Mr. Baker’s clients have not engendered much sympathy.

The cellphone video shows one of the women striking Mr. McIntosh first, and then jumping over the counter to go after him. Mr. McIntosh grabbed a thin rod used to clean the griddle and delivered a dozen or so blows, some while the women were on the ground.

Article here.

'Carol Pucci of the Seattle Times points out that JWT, a New York firm specializing in travel trends, expects more women-only floors to be opening in hotels around the globe, the result of more women traveling alone and wanting more security.

She reports the Georgian Court in Vancouver, British Columbia, has 18 rooms on the 10th floor set aside for female guests and may add more. Not only do especially women business travelers feel more secure, but the rooms are outfitted with other amenities, such as curling irons, nail polish and yoga mats.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Suspect Catherine Kieu Becker, now unofficially known as the new Lorena Bobbitt, was grand-jury slapped with an indictment for alleged penis cutting so harsh that it could get her life in prison if she's convicted.

While we sometimes wonder if the justice system treats the ladies with kid gloves (especially when it comes to their own domestic violence and claims for alimony), this here case of a pared-down pecker is being messaged with the utmost of due diligence.

Men everywhere can exhale:

Our sister publication OC Weekly notes that Bobbitt Becker was handed an indictment charging the 48-year-old with "one felony count of torture, one felony count of aggravated mayhem, and a sentencing enhancement for the personal use of a knife."

Article here. Excerpt:

"'Women,' said Stephen Hawking, when asked on his 70th birthday, what he thought about most. 'They are a complete mystery.'

Quite so: and you know, sometimes I'm really surprised when I sail right into a columnar uproar. But not today: today is Balaclava.

Article here. Excerpt:

'City Council Speaker Christine Quinn and other city officials blasted a Hunter College women's group that booted the NYPD’s top sex and hate crimes official from a panel on sexual harassment against women in the subway system.

Deputy Chief Michael Osgood, the commander of the NYPD’s Special Victims Division and its Hate Crimes Task Force, was dumped from the panel just a day before the Dec. 5 event, which also included experts from the Manhattan Borough President’s office, the National Organization for Women, Hollaback! and John Jay College of Criminal Justice.

Osgood’s ouster was the result of a complaint by the Hunter Women’s Rights Coalition that the NYPD was a violent organization whose members rape women and brutalize New Yorkers, DNAinfo reported last week.
...

Article here.

'ONEIDA - State Police in Oneida arrested Katalyn Fura, 17, of Oneida, Keith Drummond, 22, of Canastota, following an investigation into an alleged rape. Fura had reported to school officials Friday morning that she had been raped over Christmas break.

School officials contacted police and notified them of the allegation. State Police in Oneida interviewed both Fura and Drummond who provided inconsistent accounts of Fura being forcibly raped somewhere in Canastota. Further investigation revealed that the allegation was fabricated to target a male subject that both Fura and Drummond were upset with.

Fura was charged with two misdemeanors for providing a false written statement and falsely reporting an incident and was released on appearance tickets. Drummond was charged with the misdemeanor of providing a false written statement and also released on an appearance ticket. The tickets are returnable in Oneida city court.'