Civil Rights Lawyers filed a formal complaint with the U.S. Department of Education on March 19, alleging that the University of California, having abolished affirmative action in graduate admissions, discriminates against women and people of color. The complaint claims that criteria favoring whites and men are still considered in UC’s graduate admissions, a violation of […]
Aberdeen Proving Ground’s Capt. Derrick Robertson pleaded guilty and was sentenced on March 20 to only four months in prison on charges of adultery, sodomy, conduct unbecoming an officer and failing to obey a general lawful order. Roberston admitted to having sex with a 20-year-old female private under his command who came to him seeking […]
On CBS’ “60 Minutes,” to air Sunday, March 23, two male cadets at South Carolina’s the Citadel military college said that they reported incidents of hazing suffered by former cadet Jeanie Mentavlos to their tactical officer and that they were told to keep quiet about the abuses. Mentavlos and Kim Messer, two of the first […]
A New York Times editorial urges members of Congress to support the law that prohibits anyone convicted of domestic violence from purchasing a gun, and reject two bills that would gut that law. The law has come under attack from police organizations because it does not exempt police officers from the gun ban. The New […]
After her “brief and gentle” confirmation hearing on March 18, propects for Alexis Herman’s approval for Secretary of Labor look promising. Herman, who would be the highest-ranking African-American woman in the administration, is a strong supporter of women’s rights and minority issues, and was the youngest person ever to head the Dept. of Labor’s Women’s […]
The extremist Islamic group controlling much of Afghanistan, the Taleban, ordered Kabul residents to paint their windows opaque so neighbors would not see women’s faces inside the homes. “The face of a woman is a source of corruption for men who are not related to them,” said a Taleban official. Women continue to be harassed […]
A bill to ban discrimination against lesbian and gay students has for the first time passed a California Assembly committee. The bill was introduced by the California legislature’s first openly gay member, Assemblywoman Sheila Kuehl (D-Santa Monica). Currently in California students cannot be discriminated on the basis of race, religion, education, national origin or disability. […]
District of Columbia Police Inspector Adrian D. Barnes has resigned amid findings that he was convicted in the early 1990s of abusing his wife. D.C. Police Chief Larry Soulsby said the recently-promoted high-ranking official did not report serving a year’s probation for domestic violence. Officers in the department said that Barnes’ domestic abuse charge was […]
Texan Linda Finch took off March 17 on the first leg of her flight to recreate Amelia Earhart’s attempted around-the-world flight at the equator. Finch will fly a restored, modernized version of the same airplane Earhart used: a Lockheed Electra 10-E. Finch, a millionaire businesswoman who owns nursing homes, found the plane in Wisconsin, had […]
Following the distribution of white supremacist and anti-homosexual hate mail in student mailboxes at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government, faculty and students conducted a “teach in” on March 17 to condemn the acts of bigotry and intimidation. Two separate fliers from a group whose name contains a slur against gays and lesbians; the first […]
In a 6 – 3 decision, the United States Supreme Court has allowed a California state order requiring anti-abortion protesters to keep across a four-lane road from a California abortion clinic. Christine Williams and Citizens for Life had challenged the 1991 permanent injunction, but the California Supreme Court let it stand. The U.S. Supreme Court […]
Publishers have noticed that within the past five years, women have increasingly out bought men at bookstores. A 1994 Gallup Poll found that women made up 59 percent of the fiction bookbuyers and 53 percent of the nonfiction book buyers. Further, women are demanding that books they read contain strong female characters. As a result, […]
In 1993 a District of Columbia Superior Court jury award Howard University’s female basketball coach, Sanya Tyler, $2.4 million in a discrimination suit against the university. Tyler had sued because the university failed to treat women’s and men’s teams equally as mandated by Title IX, federal legislation mandating sex equity in sports. The jury found […]
East Second Round: North Carolina 81, Michigan State 71; Alabama 61, St. Joseph’s 52 West Second Round: Virginia 65, Utah 46; Georgia 80, Arizona 74 Mideast Second Round: Old Dominion 69, Purdue 65; La. Tech 74, Auburn 48 Midwest Second Round: Colorado 66, S.F. Austin 57; Illinois 85, Duke 67
Actress Gail Davis, who portrayed the “gun-toting, pigtailed rancher” Annie Oakley in the popular 1950s show has died of cancer at age 71. In 1994 Davis, who created the first western to star a female, Annie Oakley, and who starred in many Gene Autry Westerns, received a “Golden Boot” award for her contributions to Westerns. […]
The Department of Education has released guidelines to all schools and colleges on what constitutes sexual harassment. The department called on school officials to use “judgment and common sense” when fighting harassment. The guidelines say that, “In order to give rise to a complaint, sexual harassment must be sufficiently severe, persistent or pervasive that it […]
A law banning the use of Rohypnol, the so-called “rape drug”, has passed both Houses of the Florida Legislature. The drug is slipped into the drinks of unsuspecting sex-crime victims who become unable to resist an attack and often black out. Governor Lawton Chiles is expected to sign the bill because the drug, a sedative […]
A three-member state appeals panel sitting in New Jersey unanimously has ruled that Rutgers University does not have to provide health benefits to domestic partners. The panel concluded that the state is only mandated to provide benefits to spouses of state employees under a law established in 1961. The law, however, does not cover live-in […]
Operation Rescue anti-abortion activists have been picketing four high schools in California. Groups of three to twelve people have been picketing outside schools in the San Juan Unified School District. The protesters were part of a national campaign aimed at young people. But, so far, the tactic is backfiring. Shelley Benvenuti, a 16-year-old junior at […]
The Peruvian Legislature moved on March 12th to pass a law which would strike down a a penal code section allowing men who rape women to escape punishment by marrying their victims. The law also allowed men involved in a gang rape to go free if one of the men married the woman. “It was […]
