U.S. Government Reminds Colleges: Don’t Punish Students Who Speak Up About Sexual Assault

U.S. Government Reminds Colleges: Don’t Punish Students Who Speak Up About Sexual Assault: Over the past several months, students and faculty on several college campuses have filed federal complaints with the U.S. Department of Education, alleging that their universities’ administrations have perpetrated rape culture by mishandling sexual assault cases. But university officials don’t always take those allegations very well. A University of North Carolina student was threatened with [...]/p

GOP Targets Women With Ads For Bill That Would Weaken Overtime Pay

GOP Targets Women With Ads For Bill That Would Weaken Overtime Pay: In a bid for women’s support and votes, the GOP launched an aggressive ad campaign on “mommy blogs” on Tuesday. The ads will tout its deceptively titled Working Families Flexibility Act that would weaken overtime pay laws: The banner ads will be featured on over 100 websites popular among women and geo-targeted to be viewed [...]/p

Swarthmore College Allegedly Underreported Sexual Assaults, Dissuaded Victims From Coming Forward

Swarthmore College Allegedly Underreported Sexual Assaults, Dissuaded Victims From Coming Forward: A group of Swarthmore students are filing a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education against their Philadelphia-area college, alleging the elite private institution has been mishandling the sexual crimes that occur on campus. The students say that Swarthmore has violated federal law by failing to accurately report sexual assault cases, as well as by [...]/p

VIEWPOINT: Why Birth Control Needs To Be Both Over The Counter And On Your Insurance Plan

VIEWPOINT: Why Birth Control Needs To Be Both Over The Counter And On Your Insurance Plan: In February, amidst the ongoing battle over religious employers and no co-pay contraception, the Obama administration quietly issued a set of frequently asked questions to shed light on how insurance companies should implement the health reform law’s new requirement to cover contraception with no cost sharing. The FAQ makes it crystal clear that insurers must [...]/p

When Your Boss Steals Your Wages: The Invisible Epidemic

When Your Boss Steals Your Wages: The Invisible Epidemic
"Who gets cheated?Women, minorities, immigrants, and workers at the bottom of the wage scale are hardest hit, but wage theft is thriving across the employment spectrum."

How State Lawmakers Are Working To Make Abortion Too Expensive For Low-Income Women

How State Lawmakers Are Working To Make Abortion Too Expensive For Low-Income Women: In the ongoing war on women’s reproductive rights, the mounting pile of state-level abortion restrictions are pulling some parts of the country back to a time before Roe v. Wade, when a woman’s abortion access was largely dependent on her privilege. Even though Roe still stands, it doesn’t necessarily do much to protect the economically [...]/p

Police Shut Down Protest Of NC GOP, Arrest 8 Members Of The Clergy And A Woman In A Wheelchair

Police Shut Down Protest Of NC GOP, Arrest 8 Members Of The Clergy And A Woman In A Wheelchair: North Carolina capitol police arrested 17 people yesterday after protesters gathered in front of the doors to the state senate chamber in an act of civil disobedience against the Republican-led state legislature’s agenda. The arrestees included eight members of the clergy, and a woman in a wheelchair that a spokesperson for The Advancement Project identified [...]/p

GOP War On Women Stigmatizing Patients While Closing Clinics

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Meet the Billionaire Bankrolling Austerity, As He Stands to Make Billions More From Privatization of Safety Net | Alternet

Meet the Billionaire Bankrolling Austerity, As He Stands to Make Billions More From Privatization of Safety Net | Alternet
"The motivation behind the world-wide economic con of austerity has been discovered. And, the source is none other than Pete Peterson – the debt-obsessed billionaire who stands to make billions off the privatization of our social safety net."

Long Hours Are Pushing Mothers Out Of Male-Dominated Jobs

Long Hours Are Pushing Mothers Out Of Male-Dominated Jobs: While progress was steadily made to integrate women into traditionally male jobs for many decades, in recent years the rate has slowed considerably. There are many factors that lead men and women to end up in different occupations, but a new study has found that one big reason, particularly when it comes to women with [...]/p

Justice Sandra Day O’Connor: Maybe Bush v. Gore Wasn't the Best Decision | Alternet

Justice Sandra Day O’Connor: Maybe Bush v. Gore Wasn't the Best Decision | Alternet
"Bush v. Gore demonstrates how justices who are determined to reach a certain result are capable of bending both the law and their own prior jurisprudence in order to achieve it."

Obama Speech To Planned Parenthood A First In US History

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Obama Stands Up For Women In Address To Planned Parenthood

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University Of Arizona Student Tells Women: ‘You Deserve Rape’

University Of Arizona Student Tells Women: ‘You Deserve Rape’: "In other sermons, Saxton has cursed people who are gay, have pre-marital sex, masturbate or have lustful thoughts. His Twitter account is rife with anti-Muslim sentiment, as well; last month he tweeted, “There will come a time when the sword will be put to the heathen"."

12 Programs Congress Refuses To Save From Automatic Spending Cuts

12 Programs Congress Refuses To Save From Automatic Spending Cuts: After thousands of flight delays across the country this week, the United States Senate voted Thursday night to give the Federal Aviation Administration the flexibility to keep the nation’s airports running smoothly. The delays were caused by the furlough of air traffic controllers, who were rotating off the job because of sequestration’s automatic budget cuts [...]/p

Jackass of the Day: Arizona University Student Sermonizes With Sign Saying "You Deserve Rape" | Alternet

Jackass of the Day: Arizona University Student Sermonizes With Sign Saying "You Deserve Rape" | Alternet
"Dean Saxton, a junior, stirred controversy Tuesday for manically sermonizing in a campus square whilst wielding a sign emblazoned, “You Deserve Rape,” reports the  Arizona Daily Wildcat, AU’s campus newspaper."

How An Excel Spreadsheet Error Hurt The Economy

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Soon, There May Be Fewer Doctors Receiving Birth Control Training, And That’s A Big Problem

Soon, There May Be Fewer Doctors Receiving Birth Control Training, And That’s A Big Problem: Thursday marks the last day to comment on a new curriculum for training medical professionals proposed by The Family Medicine Committee of the Accreditation Council of Graduate Medical Education (ACGME), a group that most Americans have likely never heard of before. But it’s an obscure issue with huge implications. Thursday’s deadline is important because it [...]/p

50 Reasons You Despised George W. Bush's Presidency: A Reminder on the Day of His Presidential Library Dedication | Alternet

50 Reasons You Despised George W. Bush's Presidency: A Reminder on the Day of His Presidential Library Dedication | Alternet
"Amazingly, the Bush library seeks to ask visitors "What would you have done?" if you were in this president’s shoes. The ex-president’s defenders are betting that the public will reconsider their judgments after a hefty dose of historical amnesia. Bush has been absent from political debates in recent years, instead making millions in private speeches."

New Mexico GOP Official Calls 19-Year-Old ‘A Radical Bitch’

New Mexico GOP Official Calls 19-Year-Old ‘A Radical Bitch’: Steve Kush, executive director of the Bernalillo County Republican Party in New Mexico, took to Twitter on Tuesday to verbally abuse a 19-year-old Working America volunteer who testified in favor of raising the minimum wage. Bernalillo County, the largest county in New Mexico, was considering a proposal to increase the county minimum wage from $7.50 [...]/p

How To Help The Middle Class Without Spending Government Money

How To Help The Middle Class Without Spending Government Money: The middle class has been shrinking since the recession as most of the country’s wealth has traveled upward. But any policy aimed at helping working families that also comes with a hefty price tag has little chance of passing through Congress and becoming law. That doesn’t mean there’s no hope for trying to bolster the [...]/p

Megachurch Pastor Preaches for Women to Submit: 'You're a Nag' Like Chinese Water Torture

Megachurch Pastor Preaches for Women to Submit: 'You're a Nag' Like Chinese Water Torture
"The founding pastor of a Washington state megachurch on Sunday told female parishioners that God wanted them to submit to their husbands and that they shouldn't be a "nag," likening them to Chinese water torture."

Conservative Group Photoshops Out Minorities In Mailer Opposing Pro-Voting Legislation

Conservative Group Photoshops Out Minorities In Mailer Opposing Pro-Voting Legislation: A conservative group connected to Colorado’s Secretary of State has been sending political mailers — including a picture of a darker-skinned woman whose face was digitally removed and replaced with a white woman’s face — in an attempt to oppose a landmark voting bill that may soon become law. Colorado is currently considering a major [...]/p

Republicans Too Busy Ranting on Fox News to Actually Write Any Bills | Alternet

Republicans Too Busy Ranting on Fox News to Actually Write Any Bills | Alternet
"Has the party become "post-policy"? The modern GOP simply have given up on and lost the capacity for developing policy ideas."

Kansas Governor Writes 'JESUS Mary' on Notes for Anti-Abortion Bill | Common Dreams

Kansas Governor Writes 'JESUS Mary' on Notes for Anti-Abortion Bill | Common Dreams
"Next to the extreme anti-abortion bill Kansas Governor Sam Brownback (R) signed into lawon Friday were notes on which he wrote JESUS + Mary at the top and further down that it was a bill that would create "a culture of life," an Associated Press photo reveals."

The Rightwing Donors Who Fuel America's Culture Wars | Common Dreams

The Rightwing Donors Who Fuel America's Culture Wars | Common Dreams
"Alabama, Tennessee, North Dakota, and Mississippi are among the latest to impose unprecedented restrictions on women's access to abortionservices. All told, in the first three months of this year, 694 provisions related to reproductive health have come before state legislatures, more than half of them involving abortion restrictions."

Michigan High School Chooses To Protect Star Basketball Player Instead Of His Rape Victims

Michigan High School Chooses To Protect Star Basketball Player Instead Of His Rape Victims: The National Women’s Law Center is joining forces with a Michigan-area law firm to file a complaint on behalf of a young woman who was sexually assaulted by one of her high school’s star basketball players. As RH Reality Check reports, the complaint alleges that high school administrators did nothing to help advocate for the [...]/p

Steubenville Football Coach Gets Contract Extension After Involvement In Rape Scandal

Steubenville Football Coach Gets Contract Extension After Involvement In Rape Scandal: Reno Saccocia has been the head football coach at Steubenville High School since 1983. He has won 311 football games, made 23 appearances in the state playoffs, and captured three Ohio state championships. That, apparently, is all that matters to the school board that covers the high school, because it just gave Saccocia — who [...]/p

Kansas Governor Approves Sweeping Anti-Abortion Law, Writes ‘JESUS Mary’ In His Notes On The Bill

Kansas Governor Approves Sweeping Anti-Abortion Law, Writes ‘JESUS Mary’ In His Notes On The Bill: Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback (R) has signed a stringent anti-abortion bill that blocks tax breaks for abortion providers, requires doctors to tell women about the disputed link between abortion and breast cancer, and defines life as beginning at conception in the state constitution. However, despite the fact that the omnibus legislation is 70 pages long, [...]/p

Sen. Flake Lied To Shooting Victim's Mother -- In Writing

Sen. Flake Lied To Shooting Victim's Mother -- In Writing
"So Sen. Jeff "Empty Suit, Empty Soul" Flake, Scott Brown 2.0, is such a mewling little coward, he tells the mother of a mass shooting victim he, like her, supports expanding background checks -- then votes to kill the bill."

Senator Told Shooting Victim’s Mother He Supported Background Checks, Then Voted Against Them

Senator Told Shooting Victim’s Mother He Supported Background Checks, Then Voted Against Them: Shortly before the a crucial Senate vote to expand background checks in gun transactions, Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) sent a letter to the mother of a shooting victim claiming that he was “truly sorry” for her son’s death and that “strengthening background checks is something we agree on.” A few days later, he voted to [...]/p

Plan B Ruling: Fox and Family Research Council Seize Opportunity to Spread Misinformation

Plan B Ruling: Fox and Family Research Council Seize Opportunity to Spread Misinformation
"The Fox News response to the recent Plan B ruling provides a graphic example of how the channel uses what it calls "fair and balanced" reporting to create false perceptions."

Why An Anti-Birth Control CEO’s Big Mouth May Force His Lawyers To Toss Him Under The Bus

Why An Anti-Birth Control CEO’s Big Mouth May Force His Lawyers To Toss Him Under The Bus: As ThinkProgress explained on Monday, the CEO of a company challenging the Obama Administration’s rules promoting access to birth control made statements to the press which could destroy the basis of this case. Since then, the CEO went even further in undercutting the basis of his case. Indeed, the CEO’s most recent statements are so [...]/p

Did a Spreadsheet Error Cost You Your Job? | Common Dreams

Did a Spreadsheet Error Cost You Your Job? | Common Dreams
"Did an Excel error cost you your job? This is what people around the world should be asking after researchers at the University of Massachusetts uncovered a serious calculationmistake. The mistake was in an enormously influential paper by Carmen Reinhart and Ken Rogoff, two prominent economists, which purports to show that high levels of government debt lead to slow economic growth. This paper has been widely cited by political figures around the world who have been pushing the case for cutting back government spending and raising taxes. House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan famously cited Reinhart and Rogoff when he laid out his budget earlier this year. So have many of the politicians now pushing for cuts in Social Security and Medicare."

Tucson Victim's Mother: We're 'Not Defeated'

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Senate Ignores Americans, Chooses Doing Nothing On Guns

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High Schooler Protests ‘Slut-Shaming’ Abstinence Assembly Despite Alleged Threats From Her Principal

High Schooler Protests ‘Slut-Shaming’ Abstinence Assembly Despite Alleged Threats From Her Principal: A West Virginia high school student is filing an injunction against her principal, who she claims is threatening to punish her for speaking out against an factually inaccurate abstinence assembly at her school. Katelyn Campbell, who is the student body vice president at George Washington High School, alleges her principal threatened to call the college [...]/p

Top Iowa Elections Official: Pass Voter ID So The GOP Can Kill Abortion Rights And Marriage Equality

Top Iowa Elections Official: Pass Voter ID So The GOP Can Kill Abortion Rights And Marriage Equality: At a social conservatives’ conference this week, Iowa’s Secretary of State argued that Republicans need to pass voter ID in order to advance their top policy goals, including banning abortion and same-sex marriage. Matt Schultz (R), elected in the Tea Party wave of 2010, spoke at length about his support for implementing voter ID in [...]/p

North Dakota, Home To Nation’s Strictest Abortion Law, Approves Yet Another Ban For Good Measure

North Dakota, Home To Nation’s Strictest Abortion Law, Approves Yet Another Ban For Good Measure: Last month, North Dakota enacted the most stringent abortion restriction in the nation: a radical “fetal heartbeat” ban to criminalize all abortion services after just six weeks of pregnancy. Women’s health advocates are preparing to fight the unconstitutional law in court, and North Dakota has already requested a $400,000 budget increase to fund those legal [...]/p

New Hampshire Lawmaker Calls All Women ‘Vaginas’

New Hampshire Lawmaker Calls All Women ‘Vaginas’: New Hampshire State Rep. Peter Hansen (R) sparked a firestorm in the state house after he sent a recent email to an internal house listserv that referred to women as “vaginas.” Hansen was defending the state’s “stand your ground” bill, which one lawmaker had challenged with stories about how retreating from a confrontational situation is [...]/p

Accused Rapists Scribbled Messages All Over 15-Year-Old Audrie Pott’s Unconscious Body

Accused Rapists Scribbled Messages All Over 15-Year-Old Audrie Pott’s Unconscious Body: In an emotional press conference on Monday, Lisa Pott, whose stepdaughter Audrie killed herself last fall after allegedly being raped, read a series of Audrie’s Facebook messages sent shortly before her suicide: “My life is ruined. I can’t do anything to fix it. I just want this to go away. My life is over. The [...]/p

How A Right-Wing CEO’s Big Mouth Could Kill His Attack On Birth Control

How A Right-Wing CEO’s Big Mouth Could Kill His Attack On Birth Control: pEden Foods is one of several for-profit corporations challenging Obama Administration rules requiring most employer-provided health plans to cover birth control, on the questionable legal theory that Eden is immune to these rules because its owner has religious objections to birth control. According to Eden’s legal complaint, Eden’s owner “Michael Potter holds religious beliefs that [...]/p

North Dakota Lawmaker: Banning Abortion Will Help Women ‘Realize’ They Don’t Want One After All

North Dakota Lawmaker: Banning Abortion Will Help Women ‘Realize’ They Don’t Want One After All: Rep. Bette Grande, one of the primary backers of North Dakota’s new unconstitutional abortion ban, is no stranger to anti-choice efforts to coerce women out of their decision to terminate a pregnancy. Four years ago, she spearheaded the state’s forced ultrasound law. Since then, she says young women have told her they decided not to [...]/p

How Right-Wingers in Congress Came to Represent a Whole Different Country | Alternet

How Right-Wingers in Congress Came to Represent a Whole Different Country | Alternet
"With an assist from some long-term demographic trends, House Republicans have redistricted, propagandized and policed themselves into another country.

As a result, they have become unmoored from the political incentives that typically drive law-makers' decision-making process. Public opinion no longer sways them, and that is creating a potentially insurmountable problem for the party establishment's efforts to broaden the GOP's appeal beyond angry old white people."

Middle Out Economics 101

Everything We Know About What's Happened Under Sequestration

Everything We Know About What's Happened Under Sequestration
"Children in Indiana have been cut from the federally funded Head Start preschool program. Last week, the White Houseannounced furloughs for480 staffers in the Office of Management and Budget. And cuts to Medicare have forced cancer clinics to turn away thousands of patients who are being treated with drugs the clinics can no longer afford.

We’ve taken a look at what’s actually happened in the six weeks since sequestration took effect."

Sen. Warren and End of the Minimum Wage Debate

Virginia Abortion Rights Undermined By TRAP Tricks

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Senator Elizabeth Warren's opening statement and Q&A at the April 11, 2013 Senate Banking Committee

BREAKING: Virginia Board Of Health Passes Regulations Meant To Shut Down Abortion Clinics

BREAKING: Virginia Board Of Health Passes Regulations Meant To Shut Down Abortion Clinics: The Virginia Board of Health voted 11-2 on Friday “to require abortion clinics to meet strict, hospital-style building codes” that many women’s health advocates say will put abortion providers out of business and prevent women from accessing essential medical services. Pending final approval by conservative state Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli (R) and Gov. Bob McDonnell [...]/p

Republicans Push 700 New Laws to Regulate Women's Bodies | Alternet

Republicans Push 700 New Laws to Regulate Women's Bodies | Alternet
"In the first quarter of 2013, states have proposed 694 provisions related to a woman’s body, how she gets pregnant, or how she chooses to end that pregnancy."

Organic Eden Foods’ Secretive Right-Wing Agenda | Alternet

Organic Eden Foods’ Secretive Right-Wing Agenda | Alternet
"The slogan for Eden Foods, which describes itself as the “oldest natural and organic food company in North America,” is “creation and maintenance of purity in food.” Its CEO and founder, Michael Potter, has been prominent in debates over labeling of organic food and GMOs. But the company has been quietly seeking in court another form of purity — to Catholic doctrine about sex being solely for procreation. That goes not just for Potter, but for all 128 of his employees."

Elizabeth Warren Tears Into Federal Regulators For Shielding Big Banks

Elizabeth Warren Tears Into Federal Regulators For Shielding Big Banks: Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) embarrassed government regulators during a Senate Banking Committee hearing on Thursday morning as she demanded to know why they won’t reveal how frequently big banks illegally foreclosed on homeowners. In January, regulators abandoned a case-by-case review of foreclosure fraud conducted by some of the nation’s largest banks in favor of a [...]/p

Sen. Warren, Rep. Cummings Seek Docs To ID Mortgage Servicers

Sen. Warren, Rep. Cummings Seek Docs To ID Mortgage Servicers
"Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Rep. Elijah E. Cummings sent a letter to Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke and Comptroller Thomas Curry, challenging a decision by agency staff not to supply documents related to violations of federal and state law by mortgage servicing companies. This is why we wanted her, and by gum, it's good to have her!"

In Just Three Months, States Proposed An Astonishing 694 Provisions About Reproduction

In Just Three Months, States Proposed An Astonishing 694 Provisions About Reproduction: In the first quarter of 2013, states have proposed 694 provisions related to a woman’s body, how she gets pregnant, or how she chooses to end that pregnancy. A new report released on Thursday by the Guttmacher Institute takes a comprehensive look at how the War on Women has continued past the election cycle and [...]/p

Democrats Try To Force Republicans To Allow Vote On Pay Equity

Democrats Try To Force Republicans To Allow Vote On Pay Equity: Last summer, Republican senators filibustered the Paycheck Fairness Act, which would have bolstered protections for women who are discriminated against in their paychecks and increased salary transparency to let women find out if they were being paid less than their male colleagues. The bill was filed again this year by Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), with [...]/p

The Southern State Fast Becoming Ayn Rand's Vision of Paradise | Alternet

The Southern State Fast Becoming Ayn Rand's Vision of Paradise | Alternet
"As you would expect, this translates into hard times for its public school systems, which rank 48th in school revenues per student and 45th in teacher salaries. The failure to invest in education also corresponds with poverty: the state has the 40th worst poverty rate (15%) and the 13th highest state percentage of poor children (26%). 

Employment opportunities also are extremely poor for the poor. Only 25% have full-time jobs, 45% are employed part-time, and a whopping 30% have no jobs at all. So what do you do with all those low-income folks who don't have decent jobs? You put a good number of them in jail. In fact, only Louisiana, Georgia and New Mexico have  higher jail incarceration rates."

'There Are Now States Where It's Not Safe to Be a Woman' | Common Dreams

'There Are Now States Where It's Not Safe to Be a Woman' | Common Dreams
"Chalk another one up for the extremists. Three weeks after Arkansas’ legislature overrode a veto and prohibited most second trimester abortions, North Dakota’s Governor signed into law a ban that kicks in just six weeks after conception. As the Associated Press noted, both sides recognize the laws for what they are: “an unprecedented frontal assault” on the Supreme Court’s landmark ruling in Roe v. Wade."

Arkansas Republicans Vote To Eliminate Sex Ed Program In Public High Schools

Arkansas Republicans Vote To Eliminate Sex Ed Program In Public High Schools: Abortion opponents in Arkansas are currently focused on targeting Planned Parenthood, apparently unconcerned about the fact that their crusade could actually have much broader consequences in areas unrelated to abortion care. On Tuesday, the state Senate voted to strip funding from the women’s health organization, advancing a measure that would effectively kill a comprehensive sex [...]/p

On Abortion, the GOP Tacks Right

On Abortion, the GOP Tacks Right
"Similarly, Kansas’s rigid changes to the tax code or the requirement that abortion material provide false information to patients could also catch fire around the country. What’s started in a handful of places isn’t likely to stay within state lines."

Thousands Rally To Protest Sequestration Cuts To Medical Research Programs

Thousands Rally To Protest Sequestration Cuts To Medical Research Programs: Thousands of researchers, patients, doctors, scientists, and advocates gathered rallied outside of Carnegie Library in Washington DC to protest sequestration cuts towards medical research. Organizers estimated that the Rally for Medical Research, protesting budget cuts to the National Institutes of Health, had around 10,000 attendees. “When [Congress] sees a grassroots movement rising up from doctors, [...]/p

The 10 Jobs With The Biggest Gender Wage Gap

The 10 Jobs With The Biggest Gender Wage Gap: Today is Equal Pay Day, the day of the year when the typical woman worker finally catches up to the wages the average male worker made last year. Women make 77 cents for every dollar earned by men, and though that gap has shrunk since President John F. Kennedy signed the Equal Pay Act in [...]/p

Rape Culture Claims Another Victim: Teen Ends Life After Photo Of Her Alleged Gang Rape Goes Viral

Rape Culture Claims Another Victim: Teen Ends Life After Photo Of Her Alleged Gang Rape Goes Viral: Seventeen months ago a Canadian teen was allegedly gang-raped by four of her peers and the photo evidence of the rape spread across her community. But unlike the situation that unfolded in Steubenville, where the victim was at least given the comfort of knowing her assailants received some measure of punishment (even if the media [...]/p

Rosie The Riveter On A Wind Turbine: Women And The Growing Green Economy

Rosie The Riveter On A Wind Turbine: Women And The Growing Green Economy: By Mari Hernandez and Rebecca Lefton In March, the Bureau of Labor Services released its green jobs report, which reported a total of 3.4 million jobs associated with the production of green goods and services in 2011 – up from 3.1 million green jobs in 2010. Growing at a rate four times faster than all [...]/p

Americans In All 50 States Speak Up In Support Of Obamacare’s Birth Control Provision

Americans In All 50 States Speak Up In Support Of Obamacare’s Birth Control Provision: The comment period for Obamacare’s birth control provision came to a close on Monday. According to a recent Sunlight Foundation analysis, that regulation — which seeks to help eliminate the gender-based disparity in health costs by requiring insurance companies to cover contraceptive services without a co-pay — was Obamacare’s most controversial provision, as more comments [...]/p

60 Minutes Talks To Sandy Hook Parents

60 Minutes Talks To Sandy Hook Parents
"If you don't at least get a lump in your throat at the raw pain and grief of these parents of the victims of the Sandy Hook shootings, you don't have a heart."

How One Multi-Millionaire Is Turning North Carolina Into A Tea Party Utopia

How One Multi-Millionaire Is Turning North Carolina Into A Tea Party Utopia: Shutting Down Abortion Clinics: Another bill in the state senate would add new restrictions to abortion clinics in an attempt to force them to close their doors. Among other things, the bill requires doctors to have admitting privileges in a hospital located within 30 miles of the clinic, an unnecessary restriction that serves little purpose other than to limit the pool of doctors available to clinics.

Kansas Is Poised To Become The Latest State To Define Life At Conception

Kansas Is Poised To Become The Latest State To Define Life At Conception: Last week, Dr. George Tiller’s former abortion clinic re-opened its doors to the Kansas public, a huge victory for the women in Wichita who haven’t had access to a nearby clinic since Tiller’s murder in 2009. One the heels of that step forward, however, the state’s anti-abortion lawmakers are working hard to pull Kansas yet [...]/p

Morning Joe Host Blasts GOP For Putting ‘Rapists’ Rights Over Parents’ Rights’ In Gun Debate

Morning Joe Host Blasts GOP For Putting ‘Rapists’ Rights Over Parents’ Rights’ In Gun Debate: Former Republican Congressman Joe Scarborough tore into the growing number of conservative senators who have pledged to filibuster a comprehensive gun safety bill without reading the proposal. The 13 senators — including likely 2016 presidential candidates Marco Rubio and Rand Paul — will win support “from a segment of your voting population,” Scarborough reasoned, but [...]/p

The Escalating War on Women

GOP Lost Without Bedroom Intrusion Agenda

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Report: Ohio Is Illegally Throwing Poor People In Jail For Owing Money

Report: Ohio Is Illegally Throwing Poor People In Jail For Owing Money: The Americans Civil Liberties Union on Friday revealed that courts in Ohio are illegally throwing poor people in jail for being unable to pay off a debt. In a report titled, “The Outskirts of Hope,” (PDF) the ACLU shines a light on a harrowing “debtors’ prison” system in Ohio — one that violates both the [...]/p

Tennessee Clergy Speak Out Against Bill To Cut Welfare For Children Who Get Poor Grades

Tennessee Clergy Speak Out Against Bill To Cut Welfare For Children Who Get Poor Grades: As Tennessee prepares to consider two bills to reduce welfare assistance for needy families whose children are not doing well in school, a Change.org petition has popped up to fight the measure. The petition was started by Clergy for Justice, a Tennesse-based organization of clergy that has previously advocated for causes including immigration reform, health [...]/p

Nevada Lawmaker Gets Death Threats After Revealing Her Abortion at Sex Ed Talk

Nevada Lawmaker Gets Death Threats After Revealing Her Abortion at Sex Ed Talk
"The life of a Latina assemblywoman in Nevada has been threatened after she used a story about her own personal abortion experience at age 16 to make a point about the importance of sex education."

Defying Extremist Threats, Clinic Reopens With Community Support

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In Kansas, Legalizing Switchblades Is Less Controversial Than Protecting Women’s Health

In Kansas, Legalizing Switchblades Is Less Controversial Than Protecting Women’s Health: The Wichita Eagle reports that a bill to legalize switchblade and stiletto knives passed the Kansas Senate on Wednesday “[w]ith little discussion and no dissent.” If passed by the state House and signed into law, it would remove the knives from the state’s banned weapons list — although under a 1958 federal law, the manufacture, [...]/p

Judge Rules Emergency Contraception Should Be Available To All Women Over The Counter

Judge Rules Emergency Contraception Should Be Available To All Women Over The Counter: In a victory for birth control access, a U.S. federal judge has ordered the Food and Drug Administration to remove the current restrictions on the morning after pill, commonly known as “Plan B.” Even though the FDA initially recommended that Plan B should be available without a prescription for women of all ages, the Obama [...]/p

How The Right Wing Manufactured A Fake Controversy Over Planned Parenthood’s ‘Infanticide’

How The Right Wing Manufactured A Fake Controversy Over Planned Parenthood’s ‘Infanticide’: On Wednesday, RNC Chairman Reince Priebus published an editorial lambasting the mainstream media for “covering up” Planned Parenthood’s “support for infanticide.” According to Priebus, the national women’s health organization — in addition to providing contraceptive services, STD testing, cancer screenings, and reproductive care for millions of women across the country — is also in the [...]/p

War On Women Advances Despite Legal Protections

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Nevada Lawmaker Receives Death Threats After Talking About Her Abortion

Nevada Lawmaker Receives Death Threats After Talking About Her Abortion: Nevada, which has one of the highest rates of unintended teen pregnancy in the nation, is considering updating its abstinence-only education policy to require more comprehensive sexual health instruction in public schools. This week, in a debate over that proposed legislation, Nevada Assemblywomen Lucy Flores (D) testified in favor of the bill, sharing her own [...]/p

Georgia Students Want To Hold The First Integrated Prom In Their High School’s History

Georgia Students Want To Hold The First Integrated Prom In Their High School’s History: Four students at Wilcox County High School in Georgia want to attend prom together — but under the current setup, they won’t be allowed to unless they throw their own. Wilcox County High School’s proms are still segregated by race, meaning Stephanie Sinnot, Mareshia Rucker, Quanesha Wallace, and Keela Bloodworth — half of whom are [...]/p

VIDEO: The Pain From Sequestration As Told By Local News

VIDEO: The Pain From Sequestration As Told By Local News: The automatic spending cuts that went into effect at the start of March are spread out over a host of domestic programs and are having a real impact on communities across the country. Sequestration is cutting jobs, shutting down essential services, and hurting state economies. And while the consequences of the reductions are not leading [...]/p

Arkansas GOP Prioritizes Targeting Planned Parenthood Over Funding Rape Crisis Centers

Arkansas GOP Prioritizes Targeting Planned Parenthood Over Funding Rape Crisis Centers: So far this session, Arkansas Republicans have already pushed through some of the most restrictive abortion bans in the country. But state lawmakers aren’t finished with their attacks on reproductive rights. Now, the Arkansas legislature is attempting to strip funding from Planned Parenthood — and, intent on attacking the women’s health organization, Republicans are advancing [...]/p

How South Carolina Republicans Belittle Elizabeth Colbert Busch

How South Carolina Republicans Belittle Elizabeth Colbert Busch: Former South Carolina Governor and current Republican nominee for Congress Mark Sanford has his work cut out for him if he wants to win the special election on May 7th, his first attempt at staging a political comeback after being forced to resign his governorship following a very public affair. But that didn’t stop one [...]/p

GOP Pitches ‘Family-Friendly’ Policy That Would Weaken Overtime Pay

GOP Pitches ‘Family-Friendly’ Policy That Would Weaken Overtime Pay: House Republicans are planning to consider legislation that would weaken rules requiring businesses to pay workers when they work more than 40 hours in a week. Instead of allowing workers to make increased wages for working overtime, the legislation would give employers the option of providing workers with “comp time,” or more time off of [...]/p

Family Planning Clinics Are Essential Health Care Providers, But They’re Under Attack

Family Planning Clinics Are Essential Health Care Providers, But They’re Under Attack: In states across the country, women rely on publicly-funded family planning clinics — such as their local Planned Parenthood affiliates — for their primary care needs. In fact, according to the Guttmacher Institute, women choose to go to family planning clinics even when other health care providers are available in their community, largely because some [...]/p

President Obama Announces Bipartisan Brain Initiative

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Mike Huckabee: Obama May Be Planning To Grab Guns And Launch A Nazi-Like Dictatorship

Mike Huckabee: Obama May Be Planning To Grab Guns And Launch A Nazi-Like Dictatorship: Since calls for stricter gun regulation have increased after the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre, the gun lobby has deployed the Nazi comparison frequently. However, under Nazi rule, gun laws were actually relaxed. While Jews were banned from owning any weapons, the legal age to own a gun was lowered, while rifle and shotgun possession was deregulated. Experts say gun policy had little effect on Nazi power either way.

Even with no evidence to back up the confiscation conspiracy, gun advocates and Republican lawmakers have embraced rhetoric comparing President Obama to Hitler and Stalin. Meanwhile, 92 percent of the public supports mandatory background checks for all gun purchases, including overwhelming majorities of gun owners and NRA members.

Zina's Story

Ken Cuccinelli’s Legal Appeal And How He Helped Undermine Virginia’s Protections Against Adult Sex With Minors

Ken Cuccinelli’s Legal Appeal And How He Helped Undermine Virginia’s Protections Against Adult Sex With Minors: Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli II (R) filed an appeal last week after a federal appeals court struck down Virginia’s sodomy law as unconstitutional. Virginia prosecutors had charged a 47-year-old man with soliciting oral sex from a 17-year-old girl — a felony under the disputed law. But whether or not Cuccinelli’s appeal succeeds, his vote [...]/p

If Election Were Held Today, Democrats Would Win House In A Landslide — And Only Win A 5 Seat Majority

If Election Were Held Today, Democrats Would Win House In A Landslide — And Only Win A 5 Seat Majority: According to a Quinnipiac poll released today, if the election were held today 43 percent of the electorate would support a Democratic U.S. House candidate, as opposed to just 35 percent who would back a Republican. That 8 point lead for Democrats is significantly more than the GOP’s margin of victory during the 2010 Republican [...]/p

Seven States Working Hard To Shut Down Abortion Clinics

Seven States Working Hard To Shut Down Abortion Clinics: Abortion opponents are chipping away at reproductive rights from all angles — and one particularly insidious attack on women’s health is currently advancing in states across the country. Under the guise of “protecting women’s safety,” Republican lawmakers are successfully pushing unnecessary, complicated restrictions on abortion clinics that will ultimately force them to close their doors. [...]/p

How 'Pro-Life' Legislation Is Putting Women in Jail | Common Dreams

How 'Pro-Life' Legislation Is Putting Women in Jail | Common Dreams
"The cases documented in our study, as well as recent cases, make clear that, 40 years after Roe v. Wade was decided, far more is at stake than abortion or women's reproductive rights."

University of North Carolina Faces Backlash For Its Mistreatment Of Sexual Assault Victims

University of North Carolina Faces Backlash For Its Mistreatment Of Sexual Assault Victims: To mark the start of Sexual Assault Awareness Month, the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill student paper has a message for their university over its disciplinary system, which handles sexual assault with the seriousness of a minor infraction. Since the school received national attention for threatening to expel a college sophomore who spoke publicly about [...]/p

PERRspectives: GOP Fights to Keep Texas Health Care Among Nation's Worst

PERRspectives: GOP Fights to Keep Texas Health Care Among Nation's Worst
"As it turns out, Texas is a role model only in the sense of being a horrible example to be avoided at all costs. As the numbers show, by almost every objective measure the Texas health care system ranks among the very worst in the nation."

Which States Are Best For Women's Health

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Kansas Republicans Mock Rape Exceptions For Abortion Restrictions As ‘Little Gotcha Amendments’

Kansas Republicans Mock Rape Exceptions For Abortion Restrictions As ‘Little Gotcha Amendments’: The Kansas legislature is advancing an omnibus abortion bill that would, among other things, define life as beginning at conception in the state constitution and place unnecessary restrictions on abortion providers in the state. HB 2253 has already passed the House, and looks poised to gain enough support to sail through the Senate — but [...]/p