Migration Category: news-1-5000-national

The day after a Virginia Assembly Education and Health Committee dropped a bill requiring parental notification of an abortion given to a minor, Gov. George Allen sent the Virginia Senate a very similar bill Tuesday. Acting on behalf of Allen, Sen. Mark L. Earley (R-Chesapeake) introduced the bill and asked the Rules Committee to send it to the Courts of Justice Committee in order to avoid the health committee, which has routinely killed such legislation. Supporters are optimistic that the panel will clear the bill for a vote in the full Senate, and that it has a good chance for approval once there. The bill would continue onto the House of Delegates, which has approved a similar bill.

Abortion rights advocates say that the new bill could harm girls fearing retribution from their parents. The legislation could become the most significant win for antiabortion forces in Virginia since abortion was legalized in 1973. Twenty-nine states already have laws requiring parental consent or notification when a teenager seeks an abortion.

Doug Golden, the grandfather of one of the suspects charged with the fatal shootings of four female students and a teacher, and with seriously injuring 10 females at an Arkansas school, said that his grandson probably used the scope on one of the guns to target females. “They were selected because of their sex or who they were. It was not a random shooting where you just shoot out there, because if that had been true, he would have shot as many boys as there were girls,” he said during an ABC interview. Golden also acknowledged that guns taken from his house did match those used in the crime.

According to an Associated Press article, the Arkansas massacre was the third fatal school shooting in the U.S. in five months. Last October, two students were killed in Pearl, Mississippi. In December, a boy shot into a crowd at a high school prayer circle in West Paducah, Kentucky; three students were killed and five were wounded. All of the victims in the shootings were female.

Dr. Sabine Hack, a psychiatrist NYU Child Study Center, commented on the shootings. She said, “Some mental health professionals also suggested that the school shooting, in which girls have been the main victims, reflected a trickling down to younger ages of the sex patterns that lead many men to stalk and kill their ex-wives or girlfriends.”

Andrew Golden, 11, and Mitchell Johnson, 13, have been charged with five counts of murder and 10 counts of battery. They are being held by authorities until an April 29 hearing. Classmates of the boys have stated that Johnson’s girlfriend had recently broken up with him and that Johnson had said “he had a lot of killing to do.” Doug Golden said that a 30.06 rifle, a .44-caliber Magnum with scopes, a WWII .33-caliber carbine, a .38-caliber Smith and Wesson revolver and a .22-caliber Magnum two-barrel Derringer were all missing from his Jonesboro home. The white van that was loaded with guns and ammunition and was found parked a half-mile away from the school had been taken from the Johnson’s home.

The College Initiative is a project of V-Day, an organization working to stop violence against women. The V-Day College Initiative debuted in 1999. It followed the event that launched the V-Day movement, the critically-acclaimed celebrity benefit performance of Eve Ensler’s Obie Award-winning play, “The Vagina Monologues,” at the 2,000-seat Hammerstein Ballroom Theatre in New York City on Valentine’s Day 1998. The sold-out house was treated to performances of the monologues by Glenn Close, Susan Sarandon, Whoopi Goldberg, Calista Flockhart, Hazelle Goodman, Gloria Steinem and Ms. Ensler herself, among many wonderful others. V-Day 1998 was a huge success but was limited in reach in that it was only accessible to a specific, local audience. The V-Day College Initiative was conceived to bring the message of V-Day to a larger audience at a grassroots level. The goal of the Initiative was and still is not only to spread the V-Day message far and wide but to do so by empowering young people, the leaders, shapers and messengers of the future.

For the V-Day 1999 College Initiative, colleges and universities nationwide were invited to mount productions of “The Vagina Monologues” at their schools on Valentine’s Day V-Day – 1999. Over 65 schools in the United States and Canada participated and more than 20,000 people were exposed to V-Day via the College Initiative. For the V-Day 2000 College Initiative, 150 schools worldwide participated, from San Francisco State University in California to Friedrich Schiller Universitat in Germany. Based on figures reported by the participating schools, it is estimated that about 65,000 people attended V-Day 2000 College Initiative events and that, through these events, more than 15 million people were exposed to V-Day around the world. The goal for the V-Day 2001 College Initiative is to get even more schools involved worldwide than in the two preceding years put together. In the first two months of the 2001 Initiative, almost as many schools signed up to participate as participated in the entire 1999 Initiative.

Read a Letter from the V-Day 20001 College Initiative Director.

Join the V-Day 2001 College Initiative. There is NO COST to participate in this rewarding and important project.

Thirty-three million people reside in the state of California, and according to the United States Census Bureau, the percentage of white residents in the state dropped to 49.9 percent at some point in 1999. While white residents left the state or died, resulting in a loss of majority status, the populations of Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander have each grown more than 35 percent in the last 10 years. The black population of California also rose, but less significantly. Growth of the minority populations can be attributed to immigrants settling in California, raising children and supporting the booming local economy.

The increase of minorities in the state has effected politics as well. Democrats lead the state and according to the Washington Post, are seen as more “immigrant-friendly.” Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante (D), California’s highest-ranking Latino official, said, “It is my hope that we can see our state’s diversity as a cause for celebration and not consternation.”

Production of Louisiana state license plates with the phrase “choose life” have been blocked by Federal District Judge Stanwood Richardson Duval Jr. Judge Duval ruled that the state was violating free speech provisions of the Constitution by producing license plates expressing only one side of the abortion debate. Louisiana lawmakers had passed a bill that would use taxpayer dollars to pay for the production and distribution of the plates. Proceeds from the sale of the specialty plates would have gone to anti-abortion groups. Judge Duval’s ruling is temporary pending a trial.

For the first time in the history of the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America union, 35,000 members strong, the organization has endorsed a presidential candidate who is not a Democrat. Ralph Nader, Green Party presidential nominee, secured the UE’s endorsement, becoming only the fifth person ever to be backed by the Union. The UE previously endorsed only Franklin Roosevelt, Lyndon Johnson, George McGovern and Michale Dukakis. Nader spokeswoman Laura Jones said, “We’re very excited about the endorsement…there is growing enthusiasm among workers and union members…for this campaign.”

Federal District Judge William Rea ruled yesterday that anti-racketeering laws can be used in a current case against the Los Angeles Police Department and officers accused of corrupt acts in the continually unfolding Rampart Division police scandal. The court’s ruling will allow the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) law to be used in a case in which plaintiffs are accusing LAPD officers of beating and false arrests, and arguing that the LAPD knew of and condoned these actions. Applying this statute to the case would treat the LAPD as a “criminal enterprise” that conspired to bring false drug charges, plant false evidence and brutalize citizens. Since the scandal erupted, over 100 criminal cases have been overturned. The LAPD has also been previously accused of systematically covering up brutality by officers toward their wives and girlfriends.

Chief Penny Harrington, Director of the Feminist Majority Foundation’s National Center for Women and Policing, urged that, as this case moves forward, the courts examine the role of gender in police brutality. The Center’s research shows that women officers are involved in excessive force and brutality at rates substantially below male officers. In its 1992 examination of the LAPD, the Christopher Commission found that ongoing sexism and discrimination against women in the LAPD contributed to the climate of excessive use of force among officers.

As Republican presidential candidate George W. Bush touts a commitment to ensuring that all American children receive adequate health care, a Federal Judge ruled on Aug. 14 that Texas has failed to uphold a 1996 consent decree to increase access to and improve health care for Medicaid patients in the state. The class action lawsuit was filed in 1993 on behalf of the 1.5 million Texas children eligible for Medicaid. Plaintiffs recently argued that, despite the 1996 consent decree, the state has failed to improve its health care system for the poor. The focus of the ruling was the Early Periodic Screening, Diagnosis and Treatment Program, designed to provide early health care for poor children to curb later health problems. Plaintiffs in the case argue that Texas does not educate indigent families about available treatments and did not provide transportation to see doctors. Prosecution lawyer Susan Zinn commented that lawmakers, including Gov. Bush, have contributed to the inadequacy by promoting and implementing tax cuts, taking money away from the health care system.

In 1974, Harvard Business School professors Anne Jardim and Margaret Hennig founded the Graduate School of Management at Simmons College, a business school that broke away from what they recognized as a male-dominated environment that antagonized female students and professors. Still the world’s only all-female MBA program, Simmons offers a feminist perspective on corporate skills, a supportive environment for women students, and flexible schedules that allow non-traditional students to earn degrees.

A recent article in the New York Times examined how Simmons’ program has managed to thrive for so long. Last year Simmons’ MBA program applicants increased 25 percent, while more prominent schools did not experience increases. The program’s unique approach might contribute to its popularity. Founded on the notion that women and men have drastically different management styles, Simmons has evolved as women have made major accomplishments in combating sexism. Simmons students gain basic corporate skills and hone their own unique leadership styles. While founders Jardim and Hennig highlighted a particularly “female” management style and taught women how to cope in a environment that traditionally excluded them, Simmons professors today have a different perspective on a woman’s role in the corporate sphere. Professors argue that it is possible to balance work and family, a concern commonly attributed to women, but the program does not assume that women leaders in the business world act as the nurturing counterparts of their cut-throat male colleagues. By encouraging more women to break stereotypes in the business world and to forge new styles of management, Simmons is providing new role models for future female MBAs.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) withdrew its invitation to two Afghan representatives to observe the upcoming summer games in Sydney. After receiving the offer last week, Taliban officials claimed the invitation amounted to official recognition of its regime by the IOC. The IOC rescinded the offer on Aug. 24, saying the Taliban misinterpreted the offer„the invitation to observe the games was not intended as an official recognition of the terrorist Taliban regime. Afghanistan’s National Olympic Committee was suspended last October because of the Taliban’s decrees, including their ban on women athletes and their requirement that male athletes wear long beards.

Toys sold with McDonald’s children’s meals in Hong-Kong are packaged at a Chinese plant that uses child labor, the Associated Press reported. Adolescents as young as 14 years old, illegally employed at City Toys Ltd., work 16-hour days for just three dollars„a sum that could not buy one meal at a Hong Kong McDonald’s restaurant. At City Toys’ Shenzhen factory complex, 16 workers sleep in a single room on wooden beds with no mattresses. City Toys is a subsidiary of the Hong-Kong-based Pleasure Tech Holdings Ltd., a McDonald’s supplier. McDonald’s representatives say the company has a strict labor rights code, and has independent auditing firms conducting periodic, unannounced inspections on its suppliers’ facilities. The restaurant chain says it will discontinue association with any factory that does not comply with its regulations.

On Aug. 24, Cathy L. Lanier became the only woman head of a police district in Washington DC. Commander Lanier now heads one of the capital city’s most diverse and populous police districts„and the only district that saw an increase in crime over the past year. Only hours after her appointment, Lanier posted her mission statement on the Fourth District website, voicing her commitment to community policing, neighborhood partnerships, and cooperative crime prevention. Last month, she represented the department on her day off to meet with residents who rallied to scrutinize the area’s open-air drug markets. The Feminist Majority Foundation’s National Center for Women & Policing advocates community policing, and has published research demonstrating that women officers are less likely to use excessive force than men and are more responsive to domestic violence calls.

Anti-Abortion groups are opposing regulations announced on Wednesday by the Clinton administration regarding guidelines for stem cell research. They say the federally funded research goes against a 1996 law that prohibits federal funds from supporting research that involves the death or injury to human embryos. However, the Clinton Administration guidelines allow for federal research to be performed on fertility clinics’ surplus embryos.

The regulations are drawing praise from 25 medical researchers, ranging from the American Medical Association to the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research. Supporters are saying that the potential of stem cell research is incredible and could lead to major medical breakthroughs including restoring function to damaged heart, brain and spinal cord cells and curing diabetes and cancer.

A federal appeals court granted asylum to a cross-dressing Mexican gay man who, because of his sexuality, was persecuted by his family, school officials and police. The man, Geovanni Hernandez-Montiel, applied for asylum in 1995, but was denied. During his appeal, a Latin American History expert testified that Mexican police and citizens do heavily persecute gay men with female sexuality identities, and that Hernandez-Montiel would definitely face discrimination and harassment if he was deported to Mexico. The decision by the federal court to grant asylum to persecuted gay men broadened the circumstances of persecution that will be considered during asylum hearings in the future.

A lesbian couple was asked to leave Dodger Stadium because they were kissing during the baseball game. Spectators sitting near the couple, unresponsive to straight couples who were also kissing, complained to security guards, who told them to leave immediately. Their attorney, Bernie Bernheim, was preparing to file a civil rights lawsuit against the Dodgers, but received a prompt response acknowledging that the couple should not have been forced to leave the stadium. The Dodgers issued a public apology in a press conference on Aug. 23, offered the couple dugout seats to a future game, and announced that they will provide 5,000 complimentary tickets to gay and lesbian groups. The couple dropped their lawsuit, and Bernheim called the Dodgers’ response “admirable.”

A majority of both men and women in America think that Vice President Al Gore and Texas Governor George W. Bush are not spending adequate time addressing their positions on women’s health care policy issues, according to a recent survey of over 1,000 voting-age individuals by the Kaiser Family Foundation and Self magazine. Voters want the candidates to focus more attention on abortion, contraception, improved access to ob/gyn care, and other issues affecting women’s health and reproductive care. 45% of women and 43% of men say they will prioritize abortion rights when going to the polls. Overall, 42% of respondents say Gore would do better than Bush on women’s health issues, compared with 31% who said Bush would perform better. Among women, 40% believe Gore will do the better job, and 28% said Bush.

Saudi Arabia has agreed to support some portions of the United Nations law on women’s rights known as CEDAW (Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women). CEDAW is the first convention to comprehensively address women’s rights within political, cultural, economic, social, and family life. The United Nations adopted CEDAW in 1979. While the Saudi government has agreed to support some measures of the Convention, they refuse to follow any part of the Convention that is in opposition to Islamic law. A Saudi cabinet statement said the country would not follow rules of the Convention that gave women “equal rights with men with respect to the nationality of their children.” As of June 2000, 165 countries have ratified the Convention despite the U.S. failure to ratify. CEDAW is being blocked by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chair, Sen. Jesse Helms (R – North Carolina). Go to our Take Action Center for more information on this issue.

For women, power is an absolute dimension of physical health, says Dr. Nancy Padian, Director of Research at the AIDS Research Institute at the University of California at San Francisco (UCSF). Padian, an expert on the heterosexual transmission of AIDS, has been conducting research in Harare, Zimbabwe for the past seven years in an attempt to help Zimbabwean health workers find new solutions to the massive AIDS epidemic in southern Africa. The United Nations High Commission for Human Rights estimates that, by 2005, more people in sub-Saharan Africa will have died from AIDS than all the people killed in both World Wars combined. Through UCSF and the University of Zimbabwe, Padian conducts research on the effects of contraception in preventing HIV in Zimbabwean women, and has worked to build women’s negotiating skills to overcome cultural barriers to condom use.

Condoms have been the primary methods of AIDS prevention in Africa, and the Alan Guttmacher Institute (AGI) reports that consistent condom use is as much as 87% effective in preventing the heterosexual transmission of HIV. Access to condoms and other methods of STD prevention is poor in Africa, although numerous studies and programs have been conducted in an effort to improve both access to and use of condoms in the region. Padian’s studies focused on a group of women who regularly visited two family planning clinics in Harare, 30-40% of whom are infected with HIV. In one study, Padian and her group of researchers worked with uninfected women to convince their male partners to use condoms by teaching the women negotiating strategies and finding culturally appropriate ways to overcome cultural obstacles to condom use. Over half of these women were able to convince their partners to use condoms. A 1998 study published in AGI’s Family Planning Perspectives argued that gender inequity in sub-Saharan Africa was too acute to make programs like Padian’s effective, and showed that condom use among men was higher among those who were better educated and who had improved access to condoms.

LEARN MORE Click here to read women’s narratives about barriers or successes in accessing reproductive health and family planning services.

The Clinton administration will release guidelines later today that will enable federally funded scientists to conduct research using stem cells, harvested from human embryos, despite the persistent opposition of anti-abortion activists. The guidelines will specify that research must only be done on cells, not on embryos, and that no federal funds can be used to destroy the embryos in order to obtain the cells. Privately funded researchers will harvest the cells, and no embryo donors will receive payment. A review committee of scientists and ethicists will be formed to monitor the research. Stem cells, harvested during the first week in embryo development, could be revolutionary in treating many diseases, including Alzheimers, which disproportionately affects women.

Finally, the media is recognizing the incredible trend occurring among women in America and around the world: the percentage of women choosing not to get married has reached 40%. This number was actually determined after the 1995 census, showing that 43 million women in America are choosing not to get married. These women are impacting society and changing attitudes about single life and unmarried women. Women’s outlook on marriage has changed. Rather than thinking of “single-hood” as a time of instability, women are deciding not to hastily jump into marriages, or not to get married at all. Four million of these 43 million single women are living with gay or straight partners.

Women’s decision to stay single crosses all class lines, with single mothers and lower income women deciding to remain unmarried, focusing on education and self-sufficiency, rather than relying on a husband to relieve financial or decision making responsibilities. More single women are also deciding to have children via sperm banks and adoption agencies. According to the TIME/CNN poll, 61% of single women 18 – 49 said they would consider raising a child on their own.

In spite of the media’s revelation that a tremendous population of Americans are single, politicians continue to use pitches directed at working families-a new tactic that could alienate the women and men who do not identify with that demographic.