$509K Federal Safe-Sex Study Will Text Gay-Lingo to Meth Addicts

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

A $509,840 grant by the National Institutes of Health will pay for a study that will send text messages in “gay lingo” to methamphetamine addicts to try to persuade them to use fewer drugs and more condoms. The study began in February.

Lead researcher Dr. Cathy Reback of the Baltimore-based Friends Research Institute, Inc., told CNSNews.com how she and her team of health educators will spend the next four years and over half a million dollars encouraging gay meth addicts to cut down on unprotected sex by periodically sending them “gay-specific” text messages.

“We did a pilot about four, five years ago with 52 out-of-treatment MSM (males who have sex with males),” Dr. Reback explained. “And we sent them text messages that were gay specific – used gay lingo – and made references to the connection between high-risk sex and methamphetamine use among MSM.”

The current study, she added, will test the effectiveness of using text messages to alter gay meth addicts’ behavior.

“So what I wanted to do with this text messaging intervention was to optimize the opportunity to get these guys [to have safer sex] by sending text messages as opposed to ‘Come into my brick and mortar site that’s ten miles from your house, and come for a group [session].’ I mean – you know – okay maybe!” Dr. Reback explained.

Read more from this story HERE.

Special Ops General Concerned with ‘Culture, Social Behavior’ Aspects of Women in Combat

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Photo Credit: Fort Wainwright Public Affairs Office

Photo Credit: Fort Wainwright Public Affairs Office

As the Defense Department rolled out its plans today to integrate women into combat roles, a director at U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM) expressed the loudest skepticism from military leaders yet that the administration’s Jan. 1, 2016, goal would go off without a hitch.

…Maj. Gen. Bennet Sacolick, director of force management and development at SOCOM, told reporters at the Pentagon today that he’s making no guarantees.

“We have some genuine concerns that must be addressed prior to making an informed recommendation to the secretary of defense, a recommendation which complies with the chairman’s guiding principles of preserving unit readiness, cohesion, and morale,” Sacolick said.

“Of particular concern is our mission set, which predominantly requires our forces to operate in small, self-contained teams, many of which are in austere, geographically isolated, politically sensitive environments for extended periods of time. This complexity requires a unique assessment predicated upon detailed analysis, ultimately providing a single, clear, consistent procedure for execution throughout the SOCOM enterprise”…

“Their concerns are, you know, once again, that you got a 12-men ODA [the primary operational element of a Special Forces company] and an isolated case, how is that — what are the implications there?” he said of the reaction from men in the field. “There’s all those things that we’re concerned about, probably more so than the actual standards in our qualification courses…culture, social behavior. Those aspects of ultimate integration.”

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US Marriage Rate at Lowest Point in Over a Century

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Photo Credit: Mike Kemp, Getty Images/Rubberbal

Photo Credit: Mike Kemp, Getty Images/Rubberbal

The marriage rate is at its lowest point in more than a century, and the number of marriages across the USA fell more than 5% during the recession. But a new analysis projects that pent-up demand and the large population of marriage-eligible Millennials, ages 18-34, means more will be headed to the altar over the next two years.

Cultural changes about whether and when to marry, the fact that two-thirds of first marriages are preceded by cohabitation and the recession’s financial fallout — including unemployment and underemployment — fueled the wedding decline. Projections from the private company Demographic Intelligence of Charlottesville, Va., says the signs are right for a temporary boost in weddings.

The company projects a 4% increase in the number of weddings since 2009, reaching 2.168 million this year; 2.189 million in 2014. Depending on the economic recovery, the report projects a continuing increase to 2.208 million in 2015.

Although it finds marriage numbers are stagnant or declining among those with a high school education or less, younger Americans, and the less affluent, numbers are rising among women ages 25-34, the college-educated and the affluent, which is where “short-term increases in weddings will be concentrated,” says this analysis, released exclusively to USA TODAY. It’s based on a variety of measures, including unemployment and consumer confidence, which reflect the relationship between financial security and the transition to marriage.

“Declines in weddings are likely to set in towards the end of the decade, even though the number of young adults is increasing, because of the nation’s ongoing retreat from marriage,” the report notes.

Photo Credit: National Center for Health Statistics, U.S. Census Bureau

Photo Credit: National Center for Health Statistics, U.S. Census Bureau

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Which Bathroom Should Transgendered Students Use?

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Photo Credit: Daily Caller

Photo Credit: Daily Caller

By Robby Soave. Maine’s highest court will soon decide which restroom Nicole Maines, a 15-year-old transgendered student, should use.

Last week the state supreme court heard oral arguments about whether a school district violated her civil rights when it forbid her from using the girl’s restroom. She was in fifth grade at the time.

Maines is biologically male but has identified as female since she was very young. As such, she wished to use the girl’s restroom. State law, however, mandates that boys and girls use separate facilities. Her school told her to use the staff restroom instead.

These requirements violate the Maine Human Rights Act, which bars gender discrimination in schools, claim the Maines family and their supporters, including the Maine Human Rights Commission and various LGBT groups. Read more from this story HERE.

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Will California Let Boys Use Girls Locker Rooms?

By Todd Starnes. Should boys who think they are girls be allowed to use the locker rooms and bathrooms of their choice?

That’s the issue facing California lawmakers as they consider Assembly Bill 1266 – legislation that would require all public schools to allow students to access to facilities consistent with their gender identity.

“AB 1266 forces San Francisco values on all California schools,” said Karen England, executive director of the Capitol Resource Institute. “This is a very radical idea. You’re going to have first-grade boys going to the restroom next to first-grade girls without any supervision.”

England said the bill would allow students of any gender to access public school bathrooms and locker rooms of their choice. It would also students to participate in sports activities based on “that student’s assertion that he or she identifies as having a different private sense of their own gender regardless of their biological gender at birth.”

San Francisco Assemblyman Tom Ammiano said his bill simply clarifies existing non-discrimination provisions in the education code. He said districts must offer transgender students equal access to programs and facilities based on their gender identity. Read more from this story HERE.

Bloomberg Calls Same-Sex Marriage the ‘Civil Rights Issue of Our Time’

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

Speaking at Stanford University’s commencement on Sunday, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg not only compared the push to legalize same-sex marriage to Martin Luther King’s civil rights movement but said he believed all 50 states will eventually legalize gay marriage.

Bloomberg spoke about two upcoming Supreme Court rulings on the Federal Defense of Marriage Act and California’s Prop. 8, a measure that prohibited same-sex marriage by ballot initiative.

“Marriage equality is the civil rights issue of our time–and I believe that it will become the law of the land in all 50 states if not in my lifetime, certainly in yours,” Bloomberg said. “No matter how the Supreme Court rules in these two cases, there is no doubt in my mind that both laws will soon be history. It is not a question of if; only a question of when.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Where is Daddy?

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Photo Credit: Matthew Bietz

Photo Credit: Matthew Bietz

By Trevor Thomas. On this Father’s Day, we celebrate a dying role. With all of the problems currently plaguing our culture — crime, violence, promiscuity, poverty, divorce, drug abuse, and so on — the one thing that we as a nation could do to remedy such things most quickly would be to return fathers to their families.

You’ve almost certainly heard the sad statistics when it comes to fatherhood in America. However, the stats continue to shock: as a recent Drudge headline noted, 60% of all families in Richmond, VA are led by single parents, with the vast majority being fatherless. For black families in Richmond, a staggering 84% are led by single parents.

The numbers are similar in dozens of large cities (pop. 50,000+) all across America. From Savannah to Atlanta; Washington, D.C.; Philadelphia; Baltimore; Hartford; Buffalo; Cleveland; Cincinnati; St. Louis; Milwaukee; and Detroit, more than half of all families are led by single parents, with the numbers for minorities — especially blacks — being significantly higher.

The demographics have been trending this way for decades. This demands an answer to the question: why? Why are so many American dads not married to and in the home with the mothers of their children?

There are two scenarios to consider: the dads who divorce and the dads who never marry. Increasingly, the latter is more common. In December of 2011, Pew Research revealed that, according to U.S. Census data, “[b]arely half of all adults in the United States — a record low — are currently married, and the median age at first marriage has never been higher for brides (26.5 years) and grooms (28.7)[.] … In 1960, 72% of all adults ages 18 and older were married; today just 51% are.” Read more from this story HERE.

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Remember the Wonder of Men

By Karin Agness. This Sunday, one group of kids across the country will be giving their fathers ties, sports gear, homemade art, or some other tokens to express their appreciation on Father’s Day. Unfortunately, there will be another group of kids for whom the holiday is a painful reminder that they don’t have a relationship with their fathers.

Why do a growing portion of kids in America have no active father in their lives to celebrate this weekend?

According to Dr. Helen Smith in her new book, Men on Strike: Why Men are Boycotting Marriage, Fatherhood, and the American Dream — and Why it Matters, one reason is that society is stacking the deck against men, causing many to go “on strike” from traditional responsibilities. These men aren’t just lazy, but instead are making choices based on incentives.

Smith writes, “Most men are not acting irresponsibly because they are immature or because they want to harm women; they are acting rationally in response to the lack of incentives today’s society offers them to be responsible fathers, husbands and providers.”

Smith argues that feminism has gone too far, creating a feminized world of female privilege, where men no longer are treated as equals. She cites examples of men opting out of college, marriage, and fatherhood. Read more from this story HERE.

US Medicine Facing Crisis: Only 25% of New Doctors Becoming Primary Care Physicians, Rural Areas Face Severe Shortages (+video)

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photo credit: jillk61

Despite a shortage of U.S. primary care doctors, less than 25 percent of new doctors go into this field, and fewer still work in rural areas, researchers say.

Lead study author Dr. Candice Chen, an assistant research professor of the George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services, said the study also found only 4.8 percent of the new primary care physicians set up shop in rural areas.

“If residency programs do not ramp up the training of these physicians the shortage in primary care, especially in remote areas, will get worse,” Chen said in a statement. “The study’s findings raise questions about whether federally funded graduate medical education institutions are meeting the nation’s need for more primary care physicians.”

Read more from this story HERE.

If Late-Term Abortions Are Sacred Ground to Pelosi, She’s Like Kermit Gosnell (+video)

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Photo Credit: Life News

No matter how frustrating things are on Capitol Hill, we can all be grateful for one thing: Nancy Pelosi is no longer in charge.

Regardless of the GOP’s flaws, the former Speaker reminded pro-lifers how much worse the leadership could be. During a press conference Thursday, the House Minority Leader picked a fight with the men on the Judiciary Committee for passing Rep. Trent Franks’s (R-Ariz.) bill onto the House floor.

First, Pelosi accused them of sexism — “All the people who voted for the bill were men,” she insisted. (Only because there are no Republican women on the committee!) Then, she took aim at the legislation, Franks’s Pain Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, for somehow “disrespecting” the “health and safety of American women.”

That’s interesting, since studies show that late-term abortions — which this measure bans — are actually more dangerous to mothers. Complications, like uterine perforations, are much more common in late-term abortions because the baby is so much bigger. Far from “disrespecting” women, this bill protects them! Families like Jennifer Morbelli’s, who is still mourning the loss of the bright kindergarten teacher, wish a law like Franks’s had been in place when their daughter was pregnant. Jennifer died in February of complications to a late-term abortion, and her parents, who say they “wake up every day in the valley of darkness and pain,” are shattered.

John McCormack of the Weekly Standard pushed Rep. Pelosi to explain. Responding to the topic that she raised, McCormack asked the former Speaker about the “moral difference” between late-term abortions and the gruesome newborn killings of Kermit Gosnell. With an air of complete disgust, she fired back, “You’re probably enjoying that question a lot, I can see you savoring it. Let me just tell you this,” she said, seething, “What was done in Philadelphia was reprehensible and everybody condemned it. For them to decide to disrespect a judgment a woman makes about her reproductive health is reprehensible. Next question.”

Read more from this story HERE.

House Adds Rape Exception to Abortion Ban Bill

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Photo Credit: M.Scott Mahaskey

Rep. Trent Franks’s (R-Ariz.) bill to ban abortions after 20 weeks nationwide now includes an exception for rape and incest after his remarks about rape and pregnancy created an uproar.

And it’s not Franks’s bill anymore — or more precisely, he won’t be managing his own bill when it goes to the House floor Tuesday. He’s being replaced with a high-profile House GOP woman…

Franks caused a stir Wednesday when during a House Judiciary markup of the bill, he said that “the incidence of rape resulting in pregnancy are very low” when stating his opposition to a Democratic amendment that would have allowed abortions in the case of rape and incest.

The GOP change to the bill on rape includes a requirement that the rape or the incest had been reported to the appropriate legal authorities. The Democrats’ amendment had not included such language…

Democrats said Franks’s rape comment was reminiscent of Republican Todd Akin’s quote regarding “legitimate rape” during his failed Senate campaign last year.

Read more from this story HERE.

New Video: Abortion Doctor Compares Death Injection to ‘Flu Shot’

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Photo Credit: YouTube

The latest investigative video from the anti-abortion group Live Action unveiled Thursday shows an Albuquerque, New Mexico abortion doctor comparing the injection used to kill a fetus to a flu shot.

The shocking video provided to Secrets features recordings from Dr. Carmen Landau, of Southwest Women’s Options in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and a counselor employed at the same facility.

In the video, the fifth in a series meant to draw attention to the disturbing procedures at abortion clinics highlighted by the recent Philadelphia murder trial of Dr. Kermit Gosnell, Landau tells the investigator acting at a women seeking an abortion that the injection that will kill her baby is “like any shot, you know, like a flu shot, or a vaccine, really.” It comes as 6:20 in the video.

Read more from this story HERE.