Reported Sexual Assaults in Military Skyrocket As Air Force Chief of Ending Assault Charged With Sexual Battery

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Esmeralda Garcia, a health care assistant at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Edinburg, speaks with a client, Adriana Olvera. Eddie Seal for The New York Times

Great news for the poor women of Texas! The New York Times reports that legislators on both sides of the aisle are quietly working to restore financing for women’s health services in the state.The story reports that Dems aren’t falling on their sword for Planned Parenthood — a statement we find misleading, because the PP issue is already taken care of through the recent funding of a Texas women’s health coalition, of which Planned Parenthood is a key member.

“The major difference is we’re not fighting about it. We’re just doing what’s right for women and the state,” State Representative Sarah Davis, Republican of West University Place, said last month at a Texas Tribune symposium on health care.

While Davis is opposed to abortion, she is even more opposed to politicians interfering with the doctor/patient relationship. The Republican woman has emerged as the chief architect of a plan to restore the devastating cuts to poor women’s health services, including access to contraception.

As poor women in particular have suffered at the hands of the Republican War on Women in Texas, the tide may be turning. Further denying women abortion rights is in a holding pattern, with NONE of the 24 abortion-related bills filed reaching the House or Senate floor.

Military Assault Skyrocket

Responding angrily Tuesday to a new report on the steep rise of sexual assault in the military, New York Democrat Senator Kirsten Gillibrand cold barely contain her anger at Air Force Secretary Michael Conley. The Pentagon says that in 2012 alone, 26,000 members of the military were sexually assaulted, a 35 percent rise since 2011.

Next week Gillibrand will introduce a bill that removes decision-making on sexual assault cases from the chain of command, says Glen Caplin, the senator’s communications director.

“You have an enormous gap between the number of sex assaults that are occurring and the number of sex assaults that are being reported,” Caplin said. According to the Department of Defense, 47 percent of servicemembers said they didn’t report sexual assaults and harassment for fear of retaliation.

Presently, the military operates under a code called “convening authority”, giving military commanders the power to overturn court-martial decisions, including those dealing with rape.

Gillibrand’s bill would apply Secretary of Defence Chuck Hagel’s recent suggestion that “convening authority” be eliminated, by amending the Uniform Military Code of Justice’s Article 60 so so that “convening authorities” cannot set aside convictions or change guilty ones. Her bill would also add independent prosecutors who decide whether a case warrants a court-martial, but reserve commanders’ convening authority for the cases that aren’t moved forward in this new process.

Sens. Patty Murray D-Wash and Kelly Ayotte R-NH introduced legislation to amend Pentagon policies while creating new laws to help victims.

“Murray and Ayotte’s bill, the Combating Military Sexual Assault Act, would guarantee victims access to an advocacy lawyer to guide them through the reporting, investigation and criminal law process following an allegation,” writes the Air Force Times.

Air Force Chief Charged

Lt. Col. Jeffrey Krusinski, charged with sexual battery.The Air Force officer in charge of the the branch’s Sexual Assault Prevention and Response unit was charged with a misdemeanor offence of groping a woman in a parking lot on May 6, 2013. The misdemeanor sexual battery charge alleges that Lt. Col. Jeffrey Krusinski was drunk and grabbed a woman’s breast and buttocks. The woman fought back before calling police.

Responding to the news, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said “We’re all outraged and disgusted over these very troubling allegations.”

Hagel said he would hold military commanders accountable “at every level,” improve the treatment of assault victims and conduct regular inspections of military workplaces to guard against “materials that create a degrading and offensive work environment,” writes Bloomberg.

The Air Force is “still reeling” from the convictions of at least five military instructors in sexual assault or unprofessional relationships with trainees or students at San Antonio’s Lackland Air Force Base.

Krusinski, who has served in his post since February, posted a $5,000 bond and was removed from his job pending an investigation.

GOP Ices Sanford Campaign | Judge Keeps Jackson Abortion Clinic Open | Teen Sex Primarily Uses Contraception

1. GOP ices Sanford Campaign. The House GOP’s campaign committee announced Wednesday that it will no longer have any involvement in the comeback bid for Congress from former South Carolina governor Mark Sanford.

The decision comes after yesterday’s news that Jenny Sanford, the former governor’s ex-wife, has accused him of trespassing at her home more than once and in violation of their divorce settlement. The couple is due in court two days after a special House election on May 7 between Sanford and Democratic challenger Elizabeth Colbert Busch. Busch is a businesswoman and older sister of comedian Stephen Colbert, who is helping her campaign.

The couple divorced in 2010 after Mark Sanford admitted to having an extramarital affair with a woman in Argentina. The then governor disappeared for days, leaving his wife, staff and voters clueless as to his whereabouts. Sanford is now engaged to Maria Belen Chapur. Jenny Sanford has custody of the couple four sons.

“I am doing my best not to get in the way of his race,” Jenny Sanford told the AP this week about her ex-husband’s race. “I want him to sink or swim on his own. For the sake of my children, I’m trying my best not to get in the way, but he makes things difficult for me when he does things like trespassing.”

2. Judge keeps Jackson abortion clinic open. The Jackson Free Press reports that a celebratory mood turned quickly to panic yesterday at the Jackson Women’s Health Organization “when a young bearded man wearing a military-style waist pack entered the abortion clinic unescorted and without an appointment.” After putting his hands in the air, proclaiming that he was unarmed, a police officer escorted him out of the clinic.

On Monday, U.S. District Judge Daniel P. Jordan III halted a process that seemed likely to close JWHO, making Mississippi the first state without an abortion clinic. Jordan ruled that the state cannot close the clinic before the conclusion of a pending federal lawsuit over a 2012 state law requiring all abortion doctors to obtain admitting privileges from a local hospital.

The Republican-appointed judge Jordan said that Mississippi was attempting to create a patchwork of law in which constitutional women’s rights apply in some states and not others. JWHO is owned by Diane Derzis, who finds herself engaged in a similar lawsuit in the state of Alabama.

Leslie Hanks, a pro-life demonstrator from Colorado, says she recently helped put Personhood on the ballot for the fourth time in Mississippi.

3. CA Gay Conversion Ban in Court. The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit is hearing arguments for and against a new California law banning gay ‘conversion therapy’ for minors. The new law which is the first of its kind in America, bars licensed therapists from trying to change the sexual orientation of people under the age of 18.

A small group of therapists — frequently conservative Christians — challenge scientists, arguing that reparative therapy intervenes where gender confusion is caused by childhood trauma, resulting in reshaping one’s sexual orientation.

Large numbers of gay men say they suffered deep harm over reparative counseling that left them guilt-ridden and anguished.

The lawsuits to be argued on Wednesday were brought by two conservative legal groups, the Pacific Justice Institute, based in Sacramento, and Liberty Counsel, which is affiliated with Liberty University in Virginia, reports the New York Times.

The state of California’s brief argues that the law “prohibits licensed mental health professionals from treating children and teenagers with a discredited, ineffective, and unsafe therapy in a misguided effort to change their sexual orientation.” 

Similar bills have been introduced in New Jersey and Massachusetts.

4. Women = ‘vaginas’. New Hampshire state rep Peter Hansen is under severe criticism after referring to women as ‘vaginas’in an email sent on New Hampshire House internal email. Hansen was arguing with Republican Rep Steve Vaillancourt, who defended retreating from violence, rather than confronting the force with force. Hansen said that his colleague hadn’t considered the case of women and children. Choosing not to use those words, Hansen initially wrote:

‘What could possibly be missing from those factual tales of successful retreat in VT, Germany, and the bowels of Amsterdam? Why children and vagina’s [sic] of course,’ he wrote. 

The comments were imemdiately picked up by Democrat State Rep Rick Walrous, who wrote: ‘Are you really using ‘vaginas’ as a crude catch-all for women? Really? he wrote.

‘Please think before you send out such offensive language on the legislative listserve.’

Local political blogger Susan the Bruce reported the exchange adding ‘That the representative chose to describe women as ‘vagina’s’ is certainly an affront to half the population. That he failed to properly pluralize the word adds insult to idiocy.’

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5. Teen Sex Survey. “Policymakers and the media often sensationalize teen sexual behavior, suggesting that adolescents as young as 10 or 11 are increasingly sexually active,” writes lead author Lawrence Finer, about his new study of sexual activity in America’s youngest adolescents. “But the data just don’t support that concern. Rather, we are seeing teens waiting longer to have sex, using contraceptives more frequently when they start having sex, and being less likely to become pregnant than their peers of past decades.”

Among adolescents were did report having sex said that it was coerced. Sixty-two percent of females who had sex by age 10 said it was coerced, as did 50% of those who experienced sex by age 11.

Contraceptive use is common among teens, according to the study, with use among girls as young as 15 similar to that of older teens. More than 80% of 16-year-olds used a method at first sex. A year after having first sex, 95% of those teens had used contraceptives. via Guttmacher Institute

Related: 2008 State-Level Teen Pregnancy Data Now Available. (Yes, 5 yrs. later)

Scarlett Johansson Smolders, Lensed By Txema Yeste for Marie Claire May 2013

Helena Christensen’s Jaw-Dropping Beauty By Xavi Gordo For Elle Spain May 2013

Serena Williams Aces Body Confidence in Beach Shoot & Readers Agree

PA's Allyson Schwartz Posed for Democratic Governor's Run in 2014 | Senator Elizabeth Warren Is Hardly Quiet

1.’Girl Rising’ set for release on March 7. This special film advocates for the education of girls around the world, and especially in developing countries. Tina Brown speaks of the film, shown at A Daily Beast screening last week. 

Tom Yellin, a journalist by training and the executive producer of the 10x10 organization and Girl Rising, spoke about the delicate balance journalists must have when engaging in advocacy.

“The facts that support this issue are overwhelming,” he said, adding that 66 million girls around the world are out of school.

This is the same message Malala Yousafzai, the young Pakistani girl shot on her school bus by the Taliban, now speaks to us.  Nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize, Malala has survived and is now asking the world to educate our girls. 

2. Next PA governor US Rep Allyson Schwartz? Reliable buzz is that five-term US Rep Allyson Schwartz (D) is nearly certain to run for governor next year in Pennsylvania.  

According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, a recent poll for the Democratic Governors Association found that Schwartz would start ahead of current governor Corbett by 8 percentage points - 50 percent to 42 percent - with 9 percent of likely voters undecided. After pollsters read positive statements about each person, Schwartz’s lead increased to 21 percentage points.

Schwartz has a long history of house votes in support of both abortion rights and gun-control measures, making them strong themes of her 2000 statewide Democratic primary run for the US Senate. She ran a women’s clinic before entering politics. Readers can review Schwartz’s record here. Should Schwartz enter the PA Democratic primary, AOC will be working vigorously on her behalf. 

3. Chimpanzee Study on short-term memory. Flash numbers 1 to 9 on a screen in random order and ask humans to remember it. We can’t. In this area of brain skills, apes may be smarter than humans. A Japanese researcher Tetsuro Matsuzawa concludes that six out of eight chimpanzees remembered the sequence precisely. 

For chimps this amazing short-term memory — or working memory — helps the animals navigate the branches of huge trees to feed or respond quickly to threats of danger in the wild. via Huff Po

4. Senator Elizabeth Warren is quiet? Many people were impressed by Warren’s artful grilling of negligent bank regulators last week, winning her accolades among progressives about her very first committee hearing. So why did Politico call Warren a “silent senator” who refuses to speak out on controversial issues? Salon takes up the question. 

5. New York governor Andrew Cuomo is putting the finishing touches on new legislation that would guarantee women in New York the right to late-term abortions when the fetus is not viable or their own health is in danger. A present law restrictions abortions after 24 weeks of pregnancy only if the mother’s life is at risk. 

The Cuomo proposals also allow licensed health care practitioners, not only physicians, to perform abortions, writes The New York Times. It seeks to remove abortion from the state’s penal law and regulate it through New York’s public health law. The Cuomo legislation also seeks to make abortion legal, no matter that a future supreme court might decide.

Seven states have laws guaranteeing abortion rights as a backup to Roe including California, Connecticut, Maryland and Hawaii.

Governor Cuomo’s proposal is part of his 10-point package called the Women’s Equality Act that also includes equal pay and anti-discrimination provisions. 

6. GlamTribale at Building Character in Lancaster. AOC is thrilled to announce that we’re moving our Lancaster location to the 10-year-old, 10,000 sq ft. Building Character location in Lancaster, PA. 

The flourishing artisan market at 342 N. Queen Street is open daily with easy parking on Queen Street or in the back plaza. We will have two shops in the facility — a small space for our lower-priced Tribale2 collection, as well as GlamTribale. 

As part of our expanding collection of home and gift products, we will introduce a home fragrance potpourri collection in our own ceramic containers, inspired by our great-selling coaster collection. See our Carversville Coaster gift set 4/$25.