California Men’s Centers, San Diego

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

Today we'd like you to call your own senators and ask them to support Sen. Grassley's amendment instead of Sen. Leahy's VAWA. Locate your senators' phone numbers here

Please, call your senators right now!

We are on a roll! The ride is fabulous, isn't it?

Sincerely,

Teri Stoddard, Program Director
Stop Abusive and Violent Environments
www.saveservices.org

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.

Cornyn and the other Republicans on the committee tried to play down their opposition by pointing out that they supported an alternative of the bill. This "more fiscally responsible" alternative included things like shutting down the Office of Violence Against Women. And the version that did pass - they one they thought was too expensive - is already $135 million cheaper than the 2005 version. As with many other issues, this is the first time it's gotten really partisan. VAWA was passed in 1994 and has been reauthorized twice with bipartisan support.'

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.'

ArticlE here. Excerpt:

'Last week, the Obama Administration launched the Equal Pay App Challenge. We're inviting software developers to help women ensure that they're being paid fairly -- which in turn will help restore an economy where everyone gets a fair shot, everyone does their fair share, and everyone plays by the same rules.

Right now, if you're a woman in the workforce, it can be surprisingly difficult to answer basic questions about equal pay: what's the typical salary for someone in your position? Should you be asking for more at the negotiating table? What are your fundamental legal rights?

When the Equal Pay App Challenge is over, you'll have information that helps you answer these questions, available right on your smartphone or computer. We believe that the same types of innovations that help you find movie times or get a great deal at a restaurant can help you protect your rights in the workforce.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'This year marks the 100th anniversary of Japan’s first women-only trains. The idea, back in 1912, was to spare young women the indignity of being ogled by admiring men.

Over the course of the century Japan’s women-only trains were discontinued and resurrected several times until they were at last fully restored in late 2000. At that time, the term sekuhara – ‘sexual harassment’ – had become a bit of buzzword in the Japanese media, as stories of just how often most women were subjected to public groping began to receive more attention.
...
Japan is not the only country to offer women-only transportation. Cities in Indonesia, India, Brazil, and Russia operate similar programs, while women-only buses have gained popularity in cities in Guatemala, Mexico, and most recently, Pakistan.
...
Some Japanese men don’t believe that women-only trains solve the groping problem. A few have even banded together to oppose the trains, claiming they aren’t effective and smack of gender discrimination (against men) to boot.

"We think women-only cars came about more for political reasons than protecting women from gropers," says Hiroshi Fukuyama, a 41-year-old office worker in Tokyo who heads an opposition group to women-only trains that boasts about 300 members. What these cars really accomplish, he says, is helping politicians curry favor with voters and the train companies sell ads targeting women.

In fact, some of the women I spoke to confessed that their main reason for riding them was comfort – they tend to be less crowded and less smelly.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Just in time for Valentine's Day, a Florida judge ruled on Tuesday that a man involved in a scuffle with his wife treat her to an evening at a local bowling alley and a romantic meal at Red Lobster.

Judge John Hurley ordered that Joseph Bray, 47 and his wife Sonja, 39, also visit a marriage counselor.

Hurley handed down this ruling instead of setting bond or slapping Bray with a prison sentence after he deemed domestic violence charges leveled by Bray's wife to be "very, very minor."

According to Bray's arrest affidavit, Bray and his wife got embroiled in a spat after he failed to wish her a happy birthday. Bray's wife claims that her husband shoved her against a sofa and grabbed her neck.

The judge, citing Bray's otherwise clean record and the incident's apparent lack of serious violence, did not consider Bray's behavior a major offense. However, Bray must follow the stipulations of Hurley's ruling very closely if he wants to avoid potential jail time.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'In a period where women are haemorrhaging from the workforce, and when state welfare, elder care and childcare provisions are under attack, the wider social purpose of schooling – and the importance of the feminist lens in public policy and decision-making – are hoving into view.

As a group, women rely more upon the state to mitigate the disproportionate burden of care placed upon them, yet the government appears to be turning back the clock on women's equality, setting in motion a resurgence of feminist protest.
...
We have serious work to do to shift the norms. Teaching about gender is increasingly looked to as a way to make progress in a global culture that continues to uphold men and boys' entitlement to control women and girls.
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The government's target is that 50% of new appointments to public boards should be held by women by 2015. While getting more female representation at senior levels of the public sector is a laudable goal, as is the goal of 25% female representation on corporate boards by 2015, I would also add to our list of demands that women and gender studies must be included in the national curriculum by that date.'