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grrrly news 04/07

April 7, 2004 05:08 PM posted by lisa : track it (0)

Senate Passes Fetus Protection Bill
The Senate voted Thursday to make it a separate crime to harm a fetus during commission of a violent federal crime, a victory for those seeking to expand the legal rights of the unborn
The 61-38 vote on the Unborn Victims of Violence Act sends the legislation, after a five-year battle in Congress, to President Bush for his signature

School chiefs want to use alternative accountability systems
New Hampshire education officials have joined colleagues in 13 other states in asking the federal government to defer to state school accountability standards instead of requirements of the federal No Child Left Behind Act
In a letter Wednesday to U.S. Education Secretary Rod Paige, the state education leaders said they remain committed to school accountability but are concerned that a majority of schools will be found needing improvement under the federal law

Citing SJC ruling, judge dissolves gay civil union
In a decision built on the Supreme Judicial Court's historic rulings allowing gay marriage, a Massachusetts probate court judge has legally dissolved the union of a gay couple joined in a Vermont civil union two years ago.The ruling, apparently the first of its kind in Massachusetts and one of the first in the country, came from an Essex Probate and Family Court judge who found that the companion decisions by the SJC gave him the authority to end the civil union of two gay men.

University Can't Provide Abortion Records
The University of Michigan Health System, ordered by a federal judge to turn over records in a legal fight over the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act, said Thursday none of its records fall under the court mandate.
The statement came on the deadline set by U.S. District Judge Avern Cohn for the university to produce the documents so they could be passed on to a judge in New York who is hearing a lawsuit challenging the ban.

Doctors Question Evidence for Shaken-Baby Syndrome
Doctors called on Friday for a rethink of shaken-baby syndrome after researchers cast doubt on one of the symptoms used to identify it.
The syndrome results from violently shaking an infant and is recognized by bleeding around the brain and from the eye, along with brain damage. It made international headlines in 1997 when British nanny Louise Woodward was convicted of killing a baby boy in Massachusetts by shaking him violently

Study finds no abortion link to breast cancer
Having an abortion does not increase a woman's risk of contracting breast cancer later, according to the most comprehensive and definitive analysis conducted on the controversial issue, scientists said yesterday.
The conclusion was based on 53 studies involving 83,000 women in 16 countries. Researchers for the first time compared all studies according to the quality of their methodology: Better-designed studies found no link between abortion and breast cancer. Studies using weaker designs were inconsistent but on average found a link.

Get Bryant trial moving
A mother's plea that the judge speed up the trial of Kobe Bryant gives an alarming glimpse of the brutal harassment endured by the young woman who has accused the Los Angeles Lakers basketball star of rape.
The mother said in a letter to the court that her daughter has been "followed everywhere by the defense" and stalked and harassed by the public and the media - so much that she can't hold a job or stay in one place for long.

Feds investigate 'hate speech' incident at UNC-Chapel Hill
Federal authorities are investigating UNC-Chapel Hill after a February incident in which an English instructor singled out a conservative student for "hate speech."
The probe will analyze whether the teacher's actions amounted to harassment and whether the school reacted appropriately.

Soldier whose rape case was overturned files suit
former Fort Riley soldier whose 1982 rape conviction was overturned last April has filed a civil lawsuit against the Riley County Police Department.
Eddie James Lowery, of Clay County, Mo., alleges in his lawsuit filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Kansas City, Kan., that RCPD officers "decided to fabricate false evidence against an innocent man."

Courts to Hear 3 Abortion-Ban Challenges
historic legal battle over abortion begins in courtrooms coast to coast Monday as three federal judges take up requests to derail the first substantial congressional limitation on abortion since the Supreme Court's landmark Roe v. Wade decision.

Supreme Court upholds prenuptial contracts
A prenuptial contract can't be set aside simply because one spouse thought it was unfair when he or she signed it, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled Friday.
And when a couple gets legal advice before they sign such a contract, judges "should be reluctant to second-guess their initiative and arrangement," the court said in a 6-3 decision

Bill would let pharmacists avoid abortion issue in Ohio
Pharmacists who have a moral objection to abortion shouldn't have to dispense medicines like the morning-after pill and RU-486, according to a Republican lawmaker who wants to help them refuse such requests.
Rep. Keith Faber of Celina said state law already protects doctors who refuse to perform abortions from being fired, and he believes pharmacists deserve that same relief.

Protecting Children From Spam
One Michigan legislator is not denying the value of computers as a learning tool, but says children need to be protected from much that passes on the Internet

Women sue Hooters over secret tapes
Five women who say they were secretly videotaped naked or undressing while they applied for jobs at a Los Angeles area Hooters sued the restaurant chain Tuesday.

New crackdown on forced marriages and female circumcision
All would-be immigrants seeking residence in Norway will soon have to sign a declaration confirming that they understand that forced marriages and female circumcision are forbidden under Norwegian law. Officials hope the move will enhance human rights, especially for women.

.S. Isolated on Family Planning, Women's Rights
The world's rising disapproval of US foreign policy stems in part from opposition to the war in Iraq and the "with us or against us" tone of the world's only superpower. But beneath the focus on geopolitics, such hot-button social issues as family planning and women's reproductive rights are also demonstrating America's shifting stature in the world--especially as the Bush administration seeks to placate its socially conservative base

A difference for women
Washington yesterday, some American diplomats testified to what they did and did not know about the men who operated in the shadows of Afghanistan under the Taliban.
Far from the foreign policy debates and beyond the search for Osama bin Laden, there are women like Arezo Kohistani, Mahbuba Babrakzai, and Nadima Sahar. They are three of 11 young women studying in the United States this year because of the determination of one American woman to help educate a new generation of female leaders for Afghanistan.

Eroding the rights of pregnant women
MELISSA ANN Rowland's life is not a pretty picture. Even her supporters will tell you that
She's not the vision of a soccer mom," says one, with classic understatement. Even the photo that went around the world on the March day the Utah woman was formally accused of murdering her twin son by refusing a Caesarean section gave new meaning to the phrase "mug shot."
Rowland was born to a retarded mother, adopted as a baby, admitted to a mental hospital at 12 with "oppositional defiance disorder." She has a history of mental illness, illegal drug use, and accusations of child abuse and . . . well, you get the picture. Not a pretty one

Homeschooling Report Misses Mark
Five murder cases, cited by “CBS Evening News” Oct. 13 and Oct. 14 to prove that homeschooling parents use the educational alternative to hide child abuse, showed instead that other factors were responsible for the family tragedies.

The network reported that there was a “dark side of homeschooling,” in which parents exploited allegedly lax homeschooling laws to hide the abuse, and even murder, of their children. The first night’s segment focused on the case of Nissa and Kent Warren in Johnston County, whose 14-year-old son Brandon committed suicide after he shot to death his half-sister and brother in 2001. Reporter Vince Gonzales asked Johnston County District Attorney Tom Lock whether the family’s trailer is “a location where you expect somebody could be learning lessons?"

Where are the schoolgirl mothers?
Judging by the UK press coverage over the past week, you'd think 14- and 15-year-olds across Britain were popping out babies like there is no tomorrow

Prenatal Politics
Leave it to this Congress to turn protecting motherhood into a political issue.
If it were not for a zealous anti-abortion leadership, the Senate could pass a bill 100-0 that punishes criminals and addresses women’s losses, without entangling it in the debate over abortion rights. Instead, we’ve seen a divisive political struggle, scheduled for the goal of maximum political theater.

The Princess Paradox
Hollywood's newest Cinderella stories seek to inject some feminist messages into the age-old fantasy. But can you really wear your tiara while spurning it too

Thoroughly Marvelous Millie
“Mildred “Millie” McWilliams Jeffrey retired this week,” the Detroit News reported. Actually Millie Jeffrey passed away on Wednesday, but since she told the paper in 2000 when President Clinton presented her with the Medal of Freedom that she’d retire “when she died” the words were sadly accurate.

Millie was a 93-year-old dynamo and until a few months ago was still flying back and forth from her home in Detroit to Washington D.C. and points east and west to stir the pot, foment change and warm our hearts.

Bashing boys is, like, not OK
The T-shirts say things like "Boys are stupid, throw rocks at them" or "Boys are goobers... drop anvils on their heads" and feature cartoon-figure boys on the run. There are accessories to go with them, too: "Boys are smelly" lip balm or "Boys lie - make them cry" bubble gum.
Cute? Funny? Or rather, as radio talk show host and self-proclaimed men's rights activist Glenn Sacks sees it, a blatant example of misandry.

Piercing ban hits nerve
The sponsor of a bill that would ban the mutilation of female genitalia says she will seek today to remove from the measure the unrelated issue of piercing.
Sen. Renee Unterman (R-Loganville), who sponsored the original bill on mutilation, said she will disagree with a House amendment that would make it illegal for women voluntarily to pierce their genitalia.

'Sex Week' and Porn Thesis Get Top 'Politically Correct' Award
What college takes the top award for the most shocking example of political correctness in higher education? According to the Collegiate Network's 7th annual Campus Outrage Awards, also known as the "Polly Awards," two schools are tied for first place

High court overturns adoption of Internet twins
Tranda Wecker said she "dropped to her knees and just thanked God" after a court ruling that gives her a chance to reunite with her twin girls, whose two adoptions over the Internet sparked an international uproar.

'Morning-after' pill delayed
A scientific advisory panel's overwhelming vote three months ago endorsing over-the-counter sales of the "morning after" pill left family planning groups confident of the Food and Drug Administration's approval.
But the FDA unexpectedly delayed its decision after 49 conservative members of Congress wrote President Bush objecting to the panel's conclusion and urging that sales of the emergency contraceptive be restricted to prescription holders

Mother acquitted by reason of insanity in sons' deaths
housewife acquitted of the bludgeoning deaths of two of her children and serious injury of another has a hearing Tuesday regarding her transfer to a maximum security hospital.
Jurors deliberated seven hours Saturday before returning a not-guilty by reason of insanity verdict in Deanna Laney's trial for capital murder and serious injury to a child.

Teen who posted own photo charged with child porn
State police have charged a 15-year-old Latrobe girl with child pornography for taking photos of herself and posting them on the Internet.
Police said the girl, whose identity they withheld, photographed herself in various states of undress and performing a variety of sexual acts. She then sent the photos to people she met in chat rooms.

Man fighting to run for committeewoman
Christian Tompras claims he can't get a seat on Chesterfield Township Republican Committee because he's a man
Tompras filed paperwork to run for committeewoman on the Aug. 3 ballot by Tuesday's deadline.
But his papers were rejected because state law mandates that only a woman can run for the post

Doctor: Aborted fetuses feel pain
type of abortion banned under a new federal law would cause "severe and excruciating" pain to 20-week-old fetuses, a medical expert testified Tuesday in one of three trials across the country testing the law's constitutionality.
"I believe the fetus is conscious," said Dr. Kanwaljeet "Sonny" Anand, a pediatrician at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. He took the stand as a witness for the government, which is defending the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act.

'Spin Sisters' Reveals Phony Feminist Hype of Media Princesses
It’s dangerous to be a woman. From the contents of a handbag to Krispy Kreme doughnuts to deadly molds, there is just no end to the threats.
If you don’t believe it, just pick up a copy of Glamour, Cosmopolitan or nearly any woman’s magazine, or turn on Barbara, Katie or Diane (as in Walters, Couric or Sawyer).
As Good Housekeeping recently declared, “just making it to midnight without a major catastrophe is an accomplishment.”

Iraqi Women Realize New Rights Amid Security Concerns
Exceptional women in Iraq are pursuing newfound rights and freedoms and even getting husbands to help out with housework. But despite legal gains and new advocacy organizations, many women remain limited by poverty, tradition and security concerns

Women's Rights Will Benefit All Saudis
Women's rights to work, vote, travel and drive will be on the table when Saudi Arabia holds a national conference on the status of women this month. Lifting these restrictions is not only good for women; it points the country in the right direction.

In France, Network Assists Hard-Pressed Women
Some are called the Blue Hands, because that's what the blue dye at a Levi's factory gave them before they were laid off. Others are drop-outs or displaced homemakers. All are women who need work. Now a French organization has formed to help them

Marriage Rates Rise for Educated Women
A new analysis of U.S. census data indicates that--despite cultural messages to the contrary--the success gap, in which better educated women marry less, is actually shrinking

Harvard Has New Majority; CVS Rejects Pill Script
For the first time in Harvard University's history, more women than men have been admitted for this year's fall incoming class.
The Associated Press has reported that 1,016 women were accepted from an application pool of 19,750, just surpassing that of 1,013 men. William R. Fitzsimmons, Harvard's dean of admissions and financial aid, says that the university has been trying to raise the number of women on campus for decades, searching and recruiting talented women around the world.
A pharmacist at a CVS pharmacy outlet in a Fort Worth, Texas, suburb refused to fill a prescription for birth control pills this week, claiming to be morally opposed to contraception.
The pharmacy's customer, 32-year-old school teacher Julee Lacey, told the Dallas Morning News that the pharmacist at the North Richland Hills pharmacy refused to fill her prescription saying, "I'm sorry, but I personally do not believe in birth control, so I will not fill your prescription." When pressed, the pharmacist told Lacey that the pill causes cancer

New York Recruits Women for 9/11 Hardhat Jobs
More than $10 billion dollars is slated to repair the damage in lower Manhattan wrought by the attack of Sept. 11, 2001. With worker shortages in the construction trades, organizations are reaching out to women for the highly paid jobs.

Sexual Assault Team Tackles Ultra-Urban Bronx
This month, a mobile sexual-assault response team will open in The Bronx. The program adds New York to the growing list of cities that is trying to reach rape victims faster and deliver a full range of medical and advocacy services under one roof

Gender Studies Matters and Thrives
In a culture saturated with media messages that undermine women, Sheila Gibbons says college gender studies courses offer vital training in critical thinking and intellectual self-defense

Kuhn Launches Fight Against Ageism
It started, like so many women's insurrections, over a food-laden table.
Sixty-five-year-old Maggie Kuhn was having lunch in Philadelphia in April 1970 with five female friends who, like her, faced mandatory retirement from their jobs. All were progressives and social activists.
Kuhn, freed by family money of the need to earn a living and determinedly unmarried, was with the Presbyterian Church's Council on Church and Race. Previously, she had worked to bring better working conditions and education to working-class women through the Young Women's Christian Association. Not surprisingly, given her background, Kuhn wanted to "get out there and do something" about forced retirement, other forms of discrimination against older American and broader social issues.

Douglas Subverts Sexism by Making It Funny
Susan Douglas has made a career out of monitoring the media's portrayal of women. In her latest book, "The Mommy Myth," Douglas takes on what she calls the "new momism," or the perfectionist rendering of motherhood

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