January 2011

Help Kelley Williams-Bolar, Mother Jailed For Sending Children to “Wrong” School

by Cara January 26, 2011

Yesterday, I wrote about the horrific case of Kelley Williams-Bolar (pictured left), a woman who has been jailed for ten days and slapped with a felony record — which will prevent her from obtaining her teacher’s license — for sending her children to a school district other than the one they lived in. My analysis [...]

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Mother Jailed For Sending Her Children to the “Wrong” School

by Cara January 25, 2011

Last week, a woman was sent to jail for ten days, placed on two years probation, and ordered to complete 80 hours of community service for a felony conviction. Her crime was fudging documents so that she could send her two daughters to the “wrong” school district, in the richer Akron, Ohio suburb where her [...]

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Berkeley Considers Some Trans-Specific Health Care Benefits; Outrage Ensues

by Cara January 20, 2011

Berkeley, California has recently been considering beginning to provide some benefits to its trans employees for sex reassignment/affirmation surgery. It’s unclear precisely which procedures would be covered under such a plan, since all news reports merely use the outdated and offensive term “sex change” to describe what is being considered.1 A vote on the very [...]

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Rape Suspect Cross-Examines Accuser, Then Asks For Public Defender

by Cara January 17, 2011

Trigger Warning for descriptions of sexual violence and being confronted by one’s rapist Just a couple months ago, I wrote about how a case in which an alleged rapist defended himself, and therefore cross-examined his own accusers, ended in a threat of suicide from one of the alleged victims. In a follow-up, I noted the [...]

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“This Is a Maid”: Which Rape Accusers Are Worth Listening To?

by Cara January 14, 2011

Trigger Warning for rape apologism, brief descriptions of sexual violence Former pro-baseball player Lenny Dykstra (left) was recently accused by a woman, his former housekeeper, of repeated sexual assault. According to the woman’s claim, Dykstra forced her to perform oral sex on him every Saturday. Earlier this week, prosecutors declined to file charges, apparently citing [...]

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One Year Later, Sexual Violence Remains an Epidemic in Haiti’s Camps

by Cara January 13, 2011

Trigger Warning for descriptions/discussions of sexual violence Yesterday was the one year anniversary of the 2010 earthquake that devastated Haiti. In the wake of this milestone, much reporting has appeared on the current status of the earthquake recovery, and how it is sorely lagging behind everyone’s hopes, as well as what the expectations would be [...]

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States Force Ex-Offenders to Pay “User Fees” For Their Own Incarceration

by Cara January 10, 2011

Last week, Adam Sewer published a great article at the American Prospect about the trend of making former prisoners literally pay for their own incarceration, with “user fees” being imposed as a condition of parole. It was a practice that I was unaware of, and one that I imagine many readers who do not have [...]

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Book Review: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

by Cara January 5, 2011

Trigger Warning for sometimes graphic descriptions of human experimentation and medical research on non-consenting individuals There’s a photo on my wall of a woman I’ve never met, its left corner torn and patched together with tape. She looks straight into the camera and smiles, hands on hips, dress suit neatly pressed, lips painted deep red. [...]

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Study Finds 10% of Teens Who Say They’ve Never Had Intercourse Test Positive for STDs

by Cara January 4, 2011

A new study purports to show a disturbing discrepancy between the number of teens who say they’ve “had sex” with those who test positive for STDs. Of those who supposedly said they’d been abstinent, 10% tested positive for at least one of the three common STDs (chlamydia, gonorrhea, and trichomoniasis). As such, researchers and journalists [...]

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