Officials pledge to toughen laws after 26-year-old childcare worker charged with abusing eight children under his care.
Australia has announced plans to tighten oversight of childcare facilities after a man in Melbourne was charged with dozens of sexual offences against children in his care.
The moves come after police in the southern state of Victoria announced on Tuesday that they had charged a 26-year-old childcare worker with more than 70 child sex offences, including rape.
The man, identified as Joshua Dale Brown, is accused of abusing eight victims, aged between five months and two years, at a childcare centre in Melbourne’s western suburbs.
Police have said they are also investigating evidence of abuse at a second childcare centre in the northwest of the city.
Authorities say the accused worked at 20 childcare facilities in total during an eight-year span that lasted until May.
Health authorities in Victoria have recommended that 1,200 children linked to facilities where the man worked be tested for infectious diseases as a precautionary measure.
On Wednesday, Australian Education Minister Jason Clare said he would press ahead with legislation to strip funding from childcare facilities that do not meet adequate safety standards and examine other potential measures, including strengthening background checks for those working with minors.
“Any Australian who heard the news from Victoria yesterday would be sickened by what they heard,” Clare said during a news conference in Sydney.
“And for every parent that is directly affected by this in Victoria, they would be frightened and they’d be angry.”
Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan said she would introduce a state register of childcare workers and ban personal devices at childcare centres from September.
Allan said her government would also commence an “urgent review” to examine options for improving safety in the sector, including potentially installing security cameras in childcare facilities.
“We will adopt every recommendation of the review and implement them as quickly as possible,” Allan said in a statement.
“Following yesterday, I know too many families are suffering unbearable pain and uncertainty. I cannot imagine what they are going through.”
The latest safety scare to engulf Australia’s childcare sector comes less than a year after a Queensland man pleaded guilty to sexually abusing dozens of girls at childcare centres in one of the worst paedophile cases in the country’s history.
Ashley Paul Griffith was sentenced to life in prison in November after admitting to more than 300 offences against 69 girls at daycare facilities in Brisbane and Italy.
Jurors have reached a verdict on four of five counts against music mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs, who is on trial in a New York federal courtroom, accused of racketeering, sex trafficking and transportation for prostitution.
The jury sent a note to the trial judge Tuesday afternoon stating they’d reached a verdict on several counts but were unable to reach a consensus on count one — racketeering. They will continue deliberating on that count in Manhattan starting Wednesday at 9 a.m.
Combs, 55, is charged under the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, commonly referred to as RICO, which requires a defendant to be part of an enterprise involved in at least two overt criminal acts out of 35 offenses listed by the government.
He is also charged on two counts each of sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion and transportation to engage in prostitution in connection with two women — his former girlfriend Casandra “Cassie” Ventura and a woman identified in court only as Jane, also a former girlfriend.
The jury has reached a unanimous verdict on the four counts tied to Ventura and Jane but not on the racketeering count. Their verdict is not yet known. As Tuesday’s deliberations concluded, Combs was seen praying in the courtroom and looking morose, according to the Associated Press.
The impending verdicts are the culmination of a celebrity legal drama that has generated global attention and offered a graphic and often violent glimpse into the life of one of the nation’s most powerful music figures and his near billion-dollar enterprise. Jurors heard from three women, two former girlfriends and a personal assistant, who described mob-family-style racketeering with coercion, kidnapping, threats and beatings done to cover up a pattern of sexual assaults, sex trafficking and prostitution over decades.
During the seven-week trial, prosecutors portrayed Combs and his associates as luring female victims, often under the pretense of a romantic relationship. Once he had gained their interest, Combs allegedly used force, threats of force, coercion and controlled substances to get them to engage in sex acts with male prostitutes while he occasionally watched in gatherings that Combs referred to as “freak-offs.”
On the stand, witnesses testified that Combs gave the women ketamine, ecstasy and GHB to “keep them obedient and compliant” during the performances.
Jurors deliberated for more than 12 hours before reaching verdicts on several of the counts against Combs.
The racketeering charge alleged Combs’ Bad Boy Entertainment was like a mob family and criminal enterprise that threatened and abused women and utilized members of his enterprise to engage in a litany of crimes over the years including kidnapping, sex trafficking, bribery, arson, forced labor and obstruction of justice.
Though RICO cases are more typically associated with the mafia, street gangs or drug cartels, any loose association of two or more people is enough, like Combs’ entourage, said former federal prosecutor Neama Rahami. Prosecutors during the trial aimed to demonstrate a pattern of racketeering or two or more RICO predicate acts that occurred over 10 years. That’s why the evidence of bribery, kidnapping, obstruction, witness tampering and prostitution became key to the case.
Key to the government’s case was the testimony of three women: Combs’ onetime lover Ventura, whose 2023 lawsuit set off the unraveling of Combs’ enterprise and reputation; his most recent ex-girfriend, Jane; and his former assistant, only identified in court as Mia.
In the trial, Ventura testified she felt “trapped” in a cycle of physical and sexual abuse by Combs, and that the relationship involved years of beatings, sexual blackmail and a rape.
She claimed Combs threatened to leak videos of her sexual encounters with numerous male sex workers while drug-intoxicated and covered with baby oil as he watched and orchestrated the freak-offs.
One of those freak-offs led to an infamous hotel beating that was captured on hotel security cameras. Video footage from that March 2016 night shows Combs punching and kicking Ventura as she cowers and tries to protect herself in front of an L.A. hotel elevator bank. He then drags her down the hall by her hooded sweatshirt toward their hotel room.
A second angle from another camera captures Combs throwing a vase toward her. She suffered bruising to her eye, a fat lip and a bruise that prosecutors showed was still visible during a movie premiere two days later, where she wore sunglasses and heavy makeup on the red carpet.
In closing arguments, Assistant U.S. Atty. Christy Slavik told jurors Combs “counted on silence and shame” to enable and prolong his abuse and used a “small army” of employees to harm women and cover it up, according to the Associated Press.
Combs, he said, “doesn’t take no for an answer.”
When it came time for Combs’ defense team to present their case, they opted to move straight to closing arguments without presenting a witness. Rahami, the former federal prosecutor, said the defense expected jurors would question why those on the stand did not report the behavior to authorities at the time it was occurring and, in some cases, chose to stay in Combs’ orbit.
Marc Agnifilo, one of Combs’ lawyers, told jurors in closing that federal prosecutors “exaggerated” their case and sought to turn the hip-hop mogul’s swinger lifestyle into the most serious of federal offenses — racketeering and sex trafficking, without the evidence to back it up. In reality, Combs has a drug problem and his relationship with Ventura was a “modern love story” where the mogul “owns the domestic violence” that was revealed in the trial, Agnifilo said.
DES MOINES — Iowa became the first state to remove gender identity from its civil rights code under a law that took effect Tuesday, meaning transgender and nonbinary residents are no longer protected from discrimination in their job, housing and other aspects of life.
The law also explicitly defines female and male based on reproductive organs at birth and removes the ability for people to change the sex designation on their birth certificate.
An unprecedented take-back of legal rights after nearly two decades in Iowa code leaves transgender, nonbinary and potentially even intersex Iowans more vulnerable now than they were before. It’s a governing doctrine now widely adopted by President Trump and Republican-led states despite the mainstream medical view that sex and gender are better understood as a spectrum than as an either-or definition.
When Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds signed Iowa’s new law, she said the state’s previous civil rights code “blurred the biological line between the sexes.”
“It’s common sense to acknowledge the obvious biological differences between men and women. In fact, it’s necessary to secure genuine equal protection for women and girls,” she said in a video statement.
Also taking effect Tuesday are provisions in the state’s health and human services budget that say Medicaid recipients are no longer covered for gender-affirming surgery or hormone therapy.
A national movement
Iowa’s state Capitol filled with protesters as the law went through the Republican-controlled Legislature and to Reynolds’ desk in just one week in February. Iowa Republicans said laws passed in recent years to restrict transgender students’ use of bathrooms and locker rooms, and their participation on sports teams, could not coexist with a civil rights code that includes gender identity protections.
About two dozen other states and the Trump administration have advanced restrictions on transgender people. Republicans say such laws and executive actions protect spaces for women, rejecting the idea that people can transition to another gender. Many face court challenges.
About two-thirds of U.S. adults believe that whether a person is a man or woman is determined by biological characteristics at birth, an Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll conducted in May found. But there’s less consensus on policies that target transgender and nonbinary people.
Transgender people say those kinds of policies deny their existence and capitalize on prejudice for political gain.
In a major setback for transgender rights nationwide, the U.S. Supreme Court last month upheld Tennessee’s ban on puberty blockers and hormone treatments for transgender minors. The court’s conservative majority said it doesn’t violate the Constitution’s equal protection clause, which requires the government to treat similarly situated people the same.
Not every state includes gender identity in their civil rights code, but Iowa was the first to remove nondiscrimination protections based on gender identity, according to the Movement Advancement Project, an LGBTQ+ rights think tank.
Incidents of discrimination in Iowa, before and after July 1
Iowans will still have time to file a complaint with the state Office of Civil Rights about discrimination based on gender identity that occurred before the law took effect.
State law requires a complaint to be submitted within 300 days after the most recent incident of alleged discrimination. That means people have until April 27 to file a complaint about discrimination based on gender identity, according to Kristen Stiffler, the office’s executive director.
Sixty-five such complaints were filed and accepted for investigation from July 2023 through the end of June 2024, according to Stiffler. Forty-three were filed and accepted from July 1, 2024, through June 19 of this year.
Iowa state Rep. Aime Wichtendahl, a Democrat and the state’s first openly transgender lawmaker, fears the law will lead to an increase in discrimination for transgender Iowans.
“Anytime someone has to check your ID and they see that the gender marker doesn’t match the appearance, then that opens up hostility, discrimination as possibilities,” Wichtendahl said, naming examples such as applying for a job, going through the airport, buying beer or getting pulled over in a traffic stop. “That instantly outs you. That instantly puts you on the spot.”
About half of U.S. states include gender identity in their civil rights code to protect against discrimination in housing and public places, such as stores or restaurants, according to the Movement Advancement Project. Some additional states do not explicitly protect against such discrimination, but it is included in legal interpretations of statutes.
Five years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled LGBTQ+ people are protected by a landmark federal civil rights law that prohibits sex discrimination in the workplace. But Iowa’s Supreme Court has expressly rejected the argument that discrimination based on sex includes discrimination based on gender identity.
Changing Iowa birth certificates before the law took effect
The months between when the bill was signed into law and when it took effect gave transgender Iowans time to pursue amended birth certificates before that option was eliminated.
Keenan Crow, with LGBTQ+ advocacy group One Iowa, said the group has long co-sponsored legal clinics to assist with that process.
“The last one that we had was by far the biggest,” Crow said.
Iowa’s Department of Transportation still has a process by which people can change the gender designation on their license or identification card, but has proposed administrative rules to eliminate that option.
Wichtendahl also said she has talked to some families who are looking to move out of state as a result of the new law.
“It’s heartbreaking because this is people’s lives we’re talking about,” Wichtendahl added. “These are families that have trans loved ones and it’s keeping their loved ones away, it’s putting their loved ones into uncertain future, putting their health and safety at risk.”
Fat Joe calls out what he says are ‘disgusting lies’ nearly a week after his former hype man sued him for alleged coercion, intimidation and sex with minors.
PUERTO PLATA, Dominican Republic — Wander Franco, the suspended Tampa Bay Rays shortstop charged in a sexual abuse case, was found guilty on Thursday but received a two-year suspended sentence.
Franco was arrested last year after being accused of having a four-month relationship with a girl who was 14 at the time, and of transferring thousands of dollars to her mother to consent to the illegal relationship.
Franco, now 24, also faced charges of sexual and commercial exploitation against a minor, and human trafficking.
Judge Jakayra Veras García said Franco made a bad decision as she addressed him during the ruling.
“Look at us, Wander,” she said. “Do not approach minors for sexual purposes. If you don’t like people very close to your age, you have to wait your time.”
Prosecutors had requested a five-year prison sentence against Franco and a 10-year sentence against the girl’s mother, who was found guilty and will serve the full term.
“Apparently she was the one who thought she was handling the bat in the big leagues,” Veras said of the mother and her request that Franco pay for her daughter’s schooling and other expenses.
Before the three judges issued their unanimous ruling, Veras orally reviewed the copious amount of evidence that prosecutors presented during trial, including certain testimony from 31 witnesses.
“This is a somewhat complex process,” Veras said.
More than an hour into her presentation, Veras said: “The court has understood that this minor was manipulated.”
As the judge continued her review, Franco looked ahead expressionless, leaning forward at times.
Franco, who was once the team’s star shortstop, had signed a $182 million, 11-year contract through 2032 in November 2021 but saw his career abruptly halted in August 2023 after authorities in the Dominican Republic announced they were investigating him for an alleged relationship with a minor. Franco was 22 at the time.
In January 2024, authorities arrested Franco in the Dominican Republic. Six months later, Tampa Bay placed him on the restricted list, which cut off the pay he had been receiving while on administrative leave.
He was placed on that list because he has not been able to report to the team and would need a new U.S. visa to do so.
While Franco awaited trial on conditional release, he was arrested again in November last year following what Dominican authorities called an altercation over a woman’s attention. He was charged with illegally carrying a semiautomatic Glock 19 that police said was registered to his uncle.
That case is still pending in court.
After the ruling, Major League Baseball issued a brief statement noting it had collectively bargained a joint domestic violence, sexual assault and child abuse policy “that reflects our commitment to these issues.”
“We are aware of today’s verdict in the Wander Franco trial and will conclude our investigation at the appropriate time,” MLB said.
Adames writes for the Associated Press. Associated Press writers Dánica Coto in San Juan, Puerto Rico and Ron Blum in New York contributed.
Sabrina Carpenter divided fans earlier this month with her choice of cover art for her forthcoming album, “Man’s Best Friend.” Playing on the title, she poses on all fours like a dog while a faceless man pulls her hair.
While some interpreted the cover as cheeky and ironic — especially given the themes of the album’s first single, “Manchild” — others accused the former Disney Channel star of promoting sexist stereotypes and setting women‘s rights back decades.
Carpenter has addressed criticism by releasing an alternative cover “approved by God,” the singer revealed Wednesday on Instagram.
The black-and-white image seemingly channels Marilyn Monroe as the singer, dressed in an elegant beaded gown, leans against a man in a suit. Carpenter is front and center while the man‘s face is partially hidden.
This isn’t the first time Carpenter has ruffled some feathers.
In 2023, she received backlash from the Catholic Church after she filmed parts of her “Feather” music video at the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary Church. The Diocese of Brooklyn said it was “appalled” by the nature of the video and the priest who allowed her to film there was removed from his administrative duties.
When asked about the incident in an interview with Variety, Carpenter responded, “Jesus was a carpenter.” She doubled down during her Coachella debut in 2024, wearing a shirt with the same phrase.
The singer has also raised eyebrows on her Short n’ Sweet Tour, which returns to North America this fall. During her sultry performance of “Juno,” she acts out a different sex position every night.
Carpenter addressed the criticism that she’s shaped her entire brand around sex in her June cover story with Rolling Stone.
“It’s always funny to me when people complain,” she said. “They’re like, ‘All she does is sing about this.’ But those are the songs that you’ve made popular. Clearly you love sex. You’re obsessed with it. It’s in my show. There’s so many more moments than the ‘Juno’ positions, but those are the ones you post every night and comment on. I can’t control that.”
In a since-deleted post, an X user shared the first “Man’s Best Friend” cover and asked, “Does she have a personality outside of sex?” Carpenter responded, “Girl yes and it is goooooood.”
Among those who came to Carpenter’s defense of the original album art was “You’re So Vain” singer Carly Simon, who received backlash for the cover of her 1975 album, “Playing Possum.”
“She’s not doing anything outrageous,” Simon told Rolling Stone. “It seems tame. There have been far flashier covers than hers. One of the most startling covers I’ve ever seen was [the Rolling Stones’] ‘Sticky Fingers.’ That was out there in terms of sexual attitude. So I don’t know why she’s getting such flak.”
“Man’s Best Friend” will be released Aug. 29, a little over a year after Carpenter’s last project, “Short n’ Sweet.” Signed editions and copies with the alternative cover are available for preorder on her website.
With a rifle pressed to his temple, Barry was told he had ten seconds to admit he was a spy.
As the grim countdown began, the New Yorker wrestled with the dilemma of either being perceived as a traitor to his country or leaving his kids fatherless.
“On the count of five I relented,” Barry told me.
“I signed the false confession, distraught and completely ashamed.”
Trump’s shock Iran strikes take us to brink of global conflict and will strengthen Axis of Evil alliance, experts warn
Barry would eventually return to his loved ones in the US after 444 days in captivity.
Britons are high-value hostages for the regime.
Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was detained in Iran for six years on trumped-up charges of plotting to topple the Iranian government.
She was finally released when Britain paid a £400million outstanding debt to Iran.
I would eventually get out — more on how later — after staying with an extraordinarily kind Iranian man who put me up in his apartment and tempered my nerves with some rocket-fuel home brew.
Today — with Iran’s tyrannical regime in Israeli and US crosshairs — I cast my mind back to the welcoming people I met while travelling this ancient land.
These folk loathe rule by the hardline ayatollahs and long for a time less than 50 years ago when women wore miniskirts in capital Tehran, the hair bouncing on their shoulders.
I had arrived in Iran — successor state of the Persian Empire — in 2012 with the idea of travelling from Tehran to Persepolis, a millennia-old desert ruin once the centrepiece of its civilisation.
On the way I’d talk to ordinary people to try and understand what made this land tick.
Did they really think Britain was the cursed Little Satan?
‘GREAT SATAN’
On landing in Tehran — a high-rise city of 9.8million shrouded by mountains — fleets of white taxis honked their way through the city’s awful traffic.
In the pollution-choked centre, I was struck by the number of women walking around with white plasters on their noses.
Tehran has been called the nose job capital of the world.
Women here also face a daily battle over what they can wear in public, with checks made by the dreaded Basij militia network.
Yet many were wearing their head scarves pulled back to reveal dyed blonde hair, while their overcoats were colourful and figure-hugging.
Since the 1979 Iranian revolution, when the Shah — or king — Mohammad Reza Pahlavi was toppled and replaced by hardline cleric Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, Islamic dress has been strictly enforced.
Alcohol was banned, protests stifled and unmarried couples prevented from meeting in public.
Today, the internet is censored and the regime attempts to scramble satellite TV signals.
Near the Taleghani Metro station is the old American embassy — known here as “the nest of spies” — its walls daubed with murals and slogans decrying the so-called Great Satan.
Months after the revolution, students stormed the embassy compound and took 66 Americans hostage.
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Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was detained in Iran for six years on trumped-up charges of plotting to topple the Iranian governmentCredit: AFP
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US embassy worker Barry Rosen was held hostage for 444 days in 1979Credit: AP:Associated Press
In Palestine Square — in the heart of Tehran — beats a Doomsday Clock predicting Israel’s end by the year 2040. The regime put it there in 2017.
It helps explain why Israel launched a pre-emptive strike against Iran’s nuclear sites, senior nuclear scientists and top brass last week.
Nearby, I visited the British embassy compound, its gateway overlooked by lion and unicorn statues.
Around six months before my visit, diplomats had fled as a frenzied mob of Iran- ian “students” storm- ed the building and ransacked offices.
It would remain shuttered for nearly four years.
The rioters — who were chanting “Death To England” — were in fact state-sponsored Basij thugs.
It is the same sinister paramilitary force that is responsible for the policing of morals in this hardline Shi’ite Muslim state, including the wearing of the hijab or headscarf.
Yet these repressive goons are far from representative of the beating heart of this oil-rich nation.
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Oliver’s ‘Denmark’ passportCredit: Supplied
A short stroll away in the teeming Grand Bazaar, women shoppers, in the all- covering black cloak-like chador, were out looking for bargains.
But surprisingly, Union Jack-patterned knickers and bra combos were on sale on at least three stalls.
American stars and stripes underwear was also available in several shops.
One black-clad shopper in her thirties told me: “The underwear is very popular.
“We have nothing against your country.”
The message that the lingerie worn under the chadors sent out was clear: Knickers to the hardliners.
Indeed, as a metaphor for things being very different under the surface in Iran, it couldn’t be bettered.
“We don’t hate Britain,” a 26-year-old Red Devils-mad taxi driver told me.
“Far from it.
“We admire your freedom.”
After a few days in Tehran I took a shared taxi on the five-hour, 280-mile journey to Iran’s third largest city Esfahan.
It’s home to an exquisite square overlooked by the imposing aquamarine dome of Shah Mosque, regarded as one of the masterpieces of Persian architecture.
The city’s outskirts are also home to one of the largest uranium enrichment facilities in the country.
‘EVERYBODY BREWS THEIR OWN NOW’
Terrified that Iran was close to producing a nuclear weapon to make good on its doomsday prophecy, the site was pummeled by more than two dozen US Tomahawk cruise missiles on Sunday morning.
I had checked into a largely empty hotel in the city centre which had no safe for valuables.
That evening I went out shopping for a Persian rug.
Warily passing some soldiers in the street, I was dismayed to see them beckon me over.
Yet they simply wanted a selfie alongside a rare Western traveller.
Emerging with my new carpet, I was heading for an electronics store bearing a fake Apple logo when I was surrounded by pickpockets.
Now passportless, I was petrified about being stopped by police and asked to produce my documents.
I then remembered meeting some Iranian migrants in Calais who had told me they used to work as smugglers, trekking over the mountains from Iran to Turkey with some contraband alcohol in backpacks.
Finding an internet cafe to research the journey, a man started using the computer next to me to watch porn.
The idea of attempting to walk alone over rugged mountains seemed more hazardous than another internet suggestion — go to another country’s embassy and throw myself at their mercy.
Travelling back to Tehran I attempted to check into a hotel but the receptionist insisted I needed to show my passport.
When I explained my predicament, he told me: “I’ll phone the police and they’ll sort this out.”
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Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the last Shah of Iran, who was toppled in 1979Credit: Getty
I told him I needed to collect my luggage then scarpered.
Knowing no one in the country, a contact then put me in touch with someone who could put me up.
The grey-haired father lived alone in a ramshackle flat and said I was welcome to the sofa.
“I was jailed for protesting against the Shah when he ruled,” he told me.
“Now I wish I hadn’t bothered.
“This regime is far worse.
“We have far less freedom now.”
Deciding the Dutch would be most amenable to a stricken Brit, I tried their embassy but it was closed for holidays.
So I went to the Danes instead.
They took my details and I was told to return the following day.
Presented with a paper Danish temporary passport 24 hours later, I profusely thanked the embassy staff for making me an honorary viking.
Taking a cab to the airport, I checked my bag on the flight then queued up at immigration dreaming of a glass of red on the plane.
A bearded border guard disdainfully looked at my Danish passport, sniffing as he tossed it away: “No good, no ministry stamp.”
It was back to my new friend’s sofa to watch subtitled TV, including shows with Jamie Oliver and James May.
The former prisoner — raising a glass of home-distilled spirits — revealed: “Twice every year the police go upon the roof and smash up all our satellite dishes.
“But we simply go out and buy some more.
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A chanting crowd during the Iranian revolution in 1979Credit: Getty
“There’s a saying here that the regime closed down thousands of brewers during the revolution but created a million more.
“Everybody brews their own now.”
After two days queuing at the relevant Iranian ministry — and praying that they wouldn’t google my identity — I finally got my stamp.
My plane banked over the vast mausoleum built to house Khomeini’s remains as it headed west.
One after another, most of the women on the flight removed their head scarves, then their restrictive chadors.
Settling with a glass of wine, I hoped one day to return to this fascinating land under better circumstances.
Now, with the ayatollahs’ regime perhaps at threat of being toppled, I may one day make it to Persepolis.
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Reporting from Sacramento — It’s been nearly four decades since a 25-year-old Frank Lindsay landed on California’s sex offender registry after he pleaded no contest to improperly touching a girl under 14.
He has not committed another crime since then, but state law requires Lindsay’s name to remain on the registry, which the public can see on government websites, for the rest of his life.
The listing cost him a business and sustainable livelihood, subjected him to death threats, prevented him from visiting his daughter’s school and resulted in injuries when he was attacked by an angry, hammer-wielding stranger who broke into his home after seeing his name on the registry, according Lindsay, news accounts at the time and his attorney, Janice Bellucci.
“You can’t work where you want. You can’t live where you want. It makes it virtually impossible to live a normal life. It can make you bitter,” said Lindsay, now 64 and a resident of Grover Beach in San Luis Obispo County.
Now, with more than 105,000 people on California’s registry, some criminal justice leaders, including Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Jackie Lacey, are looking to overhaul the system.
They recently won state Senate approval of a proposal that would allow the names of those who committed lower-level, nonviolent sex crimes or are judged low risks to reoffend to be removed from the registry after 10 or 20 years.
“The state’s sex offender registry has lost significant value over time because it contains so many low-risk offenders with decades-old offenses,” Lacey said. “Our bill will improve public safety by creating a tiered system that will allow investigators to focus on those offenders who pose the greatest risk.”
The proposal has stirred up deep emotions in a state where voters have, in the past, approved initiatives that are tough on sex offenders.
Opponents of the bill include Erin Runnion, who in 2002 founded the Joyful Child Foundation, an Orange County advocacy group for victims, after the abduction, molestation and murder of her 5-year old daughter, Samantha.
“Californians should be able to find out if someone they met is a convicted sex offender before leaving a child in their care, or going with them on a date, or agreeing to tutor them, etc.,” Runnion said in an email.
California is one of only four states that require lifetime registration of sex offenders. The others are Alabama, South Carolina and Florida.
Current law requires people convicted of specific sex offenses in California to register for life when they leave prison, providing addresses, the names of employers, fingerprints, photos and license plate numbers. The law requires the state Department of Justice to make information on most registered sex offenders available to the public on its website. The website does not include the name of juvenile offenders or those convicted of incest to protect the identity of relatives who are victims.
Sex offenders in California are required to re-register annually, filling out extensive paperwork on their activities and locations because there are rules prohibiting them from being close to schools, parks and other locations where children congregate.
Local authorities spend large amounts of time processing the paperwork, much of it from people who have not committed a crime for years and don’t pose a risk, said state Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco), who introduced the new proposal to reform the system, Senate Bill 421.
“Right now, the sex offender registry is broken and it undermines public safety,” Wiener said, citing the time spent on paperwork for low-risk offenders and the huge list of names that makes it harder for police investigating new crimes to find potential offenders.
He said many early offenders landed on the list because of discrimination by police who targeted gay men who were having sex in parks or in cars during the 1950s and ‘60s.
“Whether you are a sexual predator or an 80-year-old gay man caught having sex in a park in 1958, you are treated the same. You are on that registry the rest of your life,” Wiener told his colleagues during the recent floor debate on his bill.
The law also affects 18-year-olds convicted of statutory rape for having consensual sex with 17-year-olds, he said.
He said those on the registry face barriers to stable housing and employment, often leading to drug addiction and mental illness.
The legislation would create three tiers for how sexual crimes are treated by the registry.
The first tier, where offenders are eligible for removal from the registry after 10 years, includes those convicted of misdemeanor indecent exposure, felony possession of child pornography with intent to distribute and misdemeanor sexual battery among other crimes.
The second tier, which would allow removal from the registry after 20 years, includes those convicted of rape, forceable sodomy and lewd and lascivious conduct with a child under 14, the crime Lindsay committed.
Lifetime registration would still be required in the third tier, for those convicted of repeat felony child molestation, a second offense of a violent and serious sexual crime, kidnapping with intent to commit specific sexual crimes and those deemed “sexually violent predators.”
The latter determination is made by state officials when felons have been convicted of a violent sex offense against one or more victims and are diagnosed with a mental disorder that makes the person a danger to others.
The bill would create a process for sex offenders in the lower tiers to petition for removal from the registry when they became eligible, with cases reviewed by prosecutors.
The measure automatically clears from the registry the names of offenders in the 10- and 20-year tiers if their convictions are 30 years or older, which would include Lindsay.
The bill has drawn bipartisan opposition.
Democratic Sens. Steve Glazer of Stockton and Josh Newman of Fullerton joined eight Republicans in voting against the measure.
“I agree with the goal of the bill to better differentiate the type of offenders, but didn’t feel comfortable reducing the registration requirement for some of the more serious crimes in Tier 2,” Glazer said.
Republican Sen. Jeff Stone of Murrieta opposed any early removal from the registry, saying it is important for residents to know when sex offenders live in their neighborhood.
“Let’s protect victims of sexual predators and maintain the list of sexual registrants to protect the public,” Stone said.
In addition to Lacey, others who support the change include the American Civil Liberties Union of California, the Assn. of Deputy District Attorneys, the California Police Chiefs Assn., the Los Angeles Police Protective League and Equality California, a gay rights group.
“By creating a path off for people who are rehabilitated, SB 421 will make our system fairer and more just,” Wiener said.
Lindsay said he paid his debt to society by serving six months in jail for a crime he committed as a young man while he was drunk. He admits he “crossed the line” with the female victim but declined to provide more details.
He is hopeful that the Legislature will end what he said has been the “nightmare” of being kept on the registry for nearly four decades.
“That’s not who I am. It’s what I did approaching 40 years ago,” Lindsay said.
Having his name removed from the list “would be awesome,” he added. “I would be really excited to be able to take my passport and go on a journey somewhere in the world without having to worry about being tagged as a sex offender.”
Terrance “T.A.” Dixon, once a hype man to rapper Fat Joe, has sued his former employer for $20 million, making some allegations that might blend right in at Sean “Diddy” Combs’ RICO and sex-trafficking trial.
The federal lawsuit, filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in the Southern District of New York and reviewed by The Times, alleges that the rapper underpaid Dixon, cut him out of promised pay for contributing to album tracks, defrauded authorities about his income, ditched Dixon in foreign countries without money or transportation home and is running a criminal organization built on intimidation and violence.
The lawsuit alleges that Fat Joe forced the hype man — a sort of backing vocalist who pumps up the audience — into approximately 4,000 sex acts with women in front of him and his crew.
The 54-year-old rapper, born Joseph Antonio Cartagena, is also accused of having sexual relationships with girls who were 15 and 16. The allegations go back to when the rapper was in his late 30s, the lawsuit says. Fat Joe’s song “She’s My Mama,” which has graphically sexual lyrics, was based on what is alleged to have happened with him and one of the girls in real life, the lawsuit says.
The lawsuit states that Dixon’s role over about 16 years was more than that of the usual hype man. He “consistently” had duties that included co-writing lyrics, structuring hooks, recording background vocals, performing at more than 200 live shows as Fat Joe’s primary onstage counterpart and managing travel logistics, including equipment transport, security and emergency arrangements. The complaint alleges that Dixon also acted as Joe’s bodyguard and handler during tours.
According to the filing, Dixon wrote or co-wrote tracks including “Congratulations,” “Money Over Bitches,” “Ice Cream,” “Cupcake,” “Blackout,” “Dirty Diana,” “Porn Star,” “Okay Okay,”“No Problems,” a version of “All the Way Up,” “300 Brolic,” “All I Do Is Win (Remix verse),” “Red Café (Remix),” “Winding on Me,” “Cocababy” and “Get It for Life.”
The complaint alleges that Dixon was not properly paid for his efforts, even though he says he was promised certain ownership percentages and documented credit on songs that Fat Joe released commercially. Dixon, who left Fat Joe’s team in 2020, was unable to obtain certain evidence of wrongdoing until a person named as “Accountant Doe” came forward last year with information, the lawsuit says.
Fat Joe “exercised sole control over contracts, budgets, tour management, licensing, and credit attribution and intentionally omitted Plaintiff’s name from liner notes, publishing registrations, and royalty structures, despite Plaintiff’s direct contributions to these works’ creative and commercial success,” the complaint says.
Joe Tacopina, an attorney for Fat Joe, called the lawsuit “a blatant attack of retaliation” and labeled the allegations “complete fabrications” that his client denies in a statement to Variety. Retaliation referred to the slander lawsuit that the rapper filed against Dixon in April after the former hype man accused him on social media of flying a 16-year-old across state lines for sex.
Dixon’s attorney, Tyrone Blackburn, is also representing producer Lil Rod (Rodney Jones) in his $30-million federal lawsuit filed last year against Sean “Diddy” Combs and others in Combs’ orbit, in which Lil Rod alleged sexual harassment and sexual assault. A judge tossed out a majority of Lil Rod’s allegations against Combs in late March.
Both lawsuits include trigger warnings in bright red type ahead of the allegations — something not often seen in such documents.
“Fat Joe is Sean Combs minus the Tusi [pink cocaine],” Blackburn said in a statement to the Independent. “He learned nothing from his 2013 federal conviction,” the attorney added, referencing Fat Joe’s four-month sentence and $15,000 fine in a plea deal for failure to file a tax return in multiple years on more than $3.3 million in income.
In addition to Fat Joe, defendants in the new lawsuit include Peter “Pistol Pete” Torres, Richard “Rich Player” Jospitre, Erica Juliana Moreira and several companies —including Roc Nation — that are affiliated with the rapper. Dixon is asking for a jury trial.
Members of a British Airways cabin crew team found themselves in a mortifying situation after being accidentally being checked into a sex hotel, complete with an anatomically detailed tub
A recent blunder led to blushes among one British Airways team
Crew members aboard a British Airways flight endured a seriously awkward night, after a booking blunder saw them being checked into a sex dungeon.
While in the stylish Italian city of Milan, it had been decided that the colleagues would spend the night at the Motel Mo.om, a popular modern hotel with good transport links.
Unfortunately, in what has been described as a “comical mistake”, the team reportedly found themselves bedding down for the night at the similarly named Mo. om Hotel. Although at a glance, the names of these hotels appear almost indistinguishable, this is where any comparisons end.
It soon became clear to the crew that this was no ordinary establishment, as they took in the bondage-themed beds and vagina-shaped spa tub. And if these features didn’t drive the point home, the incessant “moaning and groaning” from fellow patrons certainly did.
Noises from excitable fellow guests interrupted their much-needed shuteye
A source told The Sun: “Crew were booked into a pay-by-the-hour sex hotel last Thursday. They were confronted with bondage sets, mirrored ceilings, human dog cages and leather harnesses. It was obvious that this wasn’t the place the crew was supposed to stay.”
Although there are humorous elements to the mishap, this sleeping situation was decidedly less than ideal for airline staff, for whom adequate rest is imperative.
As the source explained: “It was a comical mistake by the hotel booking team, but had serious implications. Some of the team who stayed in the sex dungeon didn’t get any sleep, so they couldn’t operate on BA services the following day. They were kept awake by thrill seekers moaning and groaning all day and night.”
Crew members were allegedly left horrified by ‘suspicious fluids in their rooms which made their skin crawl’
As well as struggling through “constant noise” as a “24 hour orgy” raged on, employees allegedly also had to deal with witnessing “suspicious fluids in their rooms which made their skin crawl”.
A British Airways spokesperson told the Mirror: “A small number of crew were moved to unapproved hotel rooms following availability issues with our usual accommodation provider. This happened without our knowledge, and we’re urgently investigating to prevent it from taking place again.”
12 crew members were affected, with British Airways said to be now ‘urgently investigating’
It’s understood that 12 crew members spent one evening in the unapproved accommodation, due to availability issues with the airline’s usual provider.
There was also thankfully no delay to the flight that the staff members had been scheduled to operate, meaning they were able to get back to normal after their unexpected stay.
Five California women sued a Fresno County school system Wednesday, alleging officials brushed aside claims they were being sexually assaulted by a second-grade teacher who was later convicted of similar abuse.
The case against the Clovis Unified School District comes amid a tidal wave of sexual abuse litigation that has left lawmakers scrambling to stop misconduct — and schools struggling to pay settlements owed to victims suing over crimes that stretch back decades.
The latest case dates back to the late 1990s and early 2000s. Plaintiff Samantha Muñoz, now a 28-year-old mother of two, is among those alleging she was abused by then-Fancher Creek Elementary School teacher Neng Yang.
Muñoz claims in the lawsuit that Yang began molesting her in 2004, when she was his 7-year-old student. By that time, the lawsuit says, girls had been complaining to Clovis Unified School District officials about Yang for years. The teacher was eventually arrested for producing child pornography in 2012, and has spent the past decade in federal prison in San Pedro, where he is serving a 38-year term for sexual exploitation of a minor.
“Clovis Unified was protecting this predator,” said Muñoz. “They continued to have him teaching at that school knowing he was [assaulting students].”
The Times does not typically identify victims of sexual assault, but Muñoz and two of her four co-plaintiffs said they wanted to speak out publicly about what happened.
Kelly Avants, a spokeswoman for Clovis Unified, said the district had not yet received notice of the lawsuit.
“We have not been served with the suit yet, but will review it when we are served and respond accordingly,” Avants said.
The public defender’s office that represented Yang in his criminal case referred questions to federal prosecutors in the Eastern District of California. A spokesperson for that office said they could offer no comment.
“When a teacher saw him showing me child pornography on his phone, school officials interrogated me and then encouraged me to say nothing,” Muñoz said. “I was left in his classroom and he kept abusing me.”
The Fresno case follows a landmark $4-billion settlement this spring over sexual abuse in L.A. County’s juvenile facilities, group and foster homes — believed to be the largest in U.S. history.
On Tuesday, the state’s largest school district, Los Angeles Unified, announced it would sell up to $500 million in bonds to help cover its anticipated sexual abuse liability.
“There’s tremendous cost pressures on school districts,” said Michael Fine, head of California’s Fiscal Crisis and Management Assistance Team, which published a report in January estimating state education agencies could be liable for $2 billion to $3 billion for past sexual misconduct. “No matter what, the money’s coming out of their current resources.”
The payouts stem from a series of recent changes to California’s statute of limitations for child sexual assault. Beginning with Assembly Bill 218 in 2019, the state opened a brief window for allegations going back as far as 1940. The law permanently extended the deadline for victims to file child sex abuse claims until age 40, or within five years of realizing a new illness or “psychological injury” as a result of abuse.
“There are definitely school districts out there that feel the state changed the law so the state should pay,” Fine said.
Some in the debate argue only abusers — not cash-strapped schools — should be liable for misconduct.
For most California school districts, the money is likely to come from a public entity risk pool, a collective pot that multiple agencies pay into to cover liabilities such as health insurance and workers’ compensation.
Many pools are assessing their members “retroactive premiums” in an attempt to cover sex abuse suits touched off by the change in the law, Fine said. That means even schools that haven’t been sued face higher operating costs.
“There’s impacts to the classroom whether there’s a claim or not, because they’ve got to pay the retroactive premiums somehow,” he said. “If they were in the pool, they’re on the hook.”
In its report, the agency recommended alternative ways the state and school districts might cover liabilities stemming from the law — including a modified form of receivership for agencies that can’t pay, and a new state victim’s compensation fund — as well as concrete steps to stem abuse.
The latter have been enthusiastically adopted by California lawmakers, including state Sen. Sasha Renée Pérez (D-Alhambra). But other suggestions have been ignored, Fine said.
“There isn’t a bill out there that carries the rest of our recommendations,” he said.
After months spent trying to understand the scale and the magnitude of the liability California institutions are facing, stories like those in the Clovis Unified suit haunt him, Fine said.
“It’s emotionally overwhelming,” he said.
Plaintiffs in the Clovis case described nearly identical abuse stretching back to 1998, when Yang was still a student teacher.
According to Wednesday’s complaint, then-second-grader Tiffany Thrailkill told the Francher Creek principal, vice principal and school counselor that Yang had groped her and forced her to perform oral sex.
“In response, [officials] took the position that Tiffany was lying and referred her to psychological treatment,” the suit alleged.
Despite laws dating back to the 1980s that require abuse to be reported, school officials kept the allegations quiet and never investigated Yang, the suit said.
“Instead of reporting Yang and protecting their students, it appears school officials blamed the girls, looked the other way, and enabled Yang to abuse their students for over a decade,” said Jason Amala, the plaintiffs’ attorney.
Ultimately, Yang was caught by the Central California Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, a partnership between the Clovis Police Department and Homeland Security Investigations.
For Muñoz, the teacher’s conviction was cold comfort. While she believes speaking out about her experience will inspire other victims to come forward, she now faces the agonizing decision of whether to send her nonverbal 4-year-old for early intervention services at the same elementary school where her suit alleges her nightmare began.
“Why would I want to go drop off my son at a place that’s nothing but bad memories?” the mother said. “It’s like signing my life away to the devil again.”
“I just need them to be accountable for who they protected,” Muñoz said.
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that states may ban hormone treatments for transgender teens, rejecting the claim that such gender-based discrimination is unconstitutional.
In a 6-3 decision, the justices said states are generally free to decide on proper standards of medical care, particularly when health experts are divided.
Chief Justice John G. Roberts, writing for the court, said the state decides on medical regulations. “We leave questions regarding its policy to the people, their elected representatives, and the democratic process,” he said.
In dissent, Justice Sonia Sotomayor said the law “plainly discriminates on the basis of sex… By retreating from meaningful judicial review exactly where it matters most, the Court abandons transgender children and their families to political whims. In sadness, I dissent.” Justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson agreed.
The ruling upholds laws in Tennessee and 23 other Republican-led states, all of them adopted in the past four years.
Tennessee lawmakers said the number of minors being diagnosed with gender dysphoria had “exploded” in recent years, leading to a “surge in unproven and risky medical interventions for these underage patients.”
California and other Democratic-led states do not prohibit doctors from prescribing puberty blockers or hormones for those under age 18 who are diagnosed with gender dysphoria.
While the court’s ruling in the Tennessee case should not directly affect California’s law, the Trump administration seeks to prevent the use of federal funds to pay for gender affirming care.
This could affect patients who rely on Medicaid and also restrict hospitals and other medical clinics from providing hormones and other medical treatments for minors.
Wednesday’s decision highlights the sharp turn in the past year on trans rights and “gender affirming” care.
Solicitor Gen. Elizabeth Prelogar, representing the Biden administration, had appealed to the Supreme Court in November, 2023, and urged the justices to strike down the red state laws.
She spoke of a broad consensus in favor of gender affirming care. It was unconstitutional, she argued, for states to ban “evidence-based treatments supported by the overwhelming consensus of the medical community.”
But Republican lawmakers voiced doubt about the long-term effect of these hormone treatments for adolescents.
Their skepticism was reinforced by the Cass Report from Britain, which concluded there were not long-term studies or reliable evidence in support of the treatments.
In his first day in office, President Trump issued an executive order condemning “gender ideology extremism.”
He said his administration would “recognize two sexes, male and female. These sexes are not changeable and are grounded in fundamental and incontrovertible reality.”
His administration later said its ban on gender affirming care for minors would extend to medical facilities receiving federal funds.
WASHINGTON — On the morning of Nov. 22, 1971, Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s usually stern expression dissolved into a satisfied smile when she read the New York Post’s banner headline: “High Court Outlaws Sex Discrimination.”
As plaintiff’s lawyer in a case before the Supreme Court, Ginsburg had succeeded in writing a new chapter in the history of women’s rights by asserting a simple philosophy that she learned from her mother: Women and men are equal.
That idea, which Ginsburg applied in case after case, made her the principle architect of a legal strategy that achieved many of the early legal gains for women. As a result, today’s women live in a world that bears the stamp of her personality, training and experience.
To be sure, despite three decades of progress for women, the Supreme Court still will be struggling with gender issues when Ginsburg–if confirmed by the Senate, as expected–takes her seat on the nine-member panel next fall. Men and women still do not fully agree on what that seemingly simple idea of equality should mean when it is applied to gender.
Further, many modern feminists have criticized Ginsburg’s approach even as they acknowledge what she achieved. Her line of argument, they have contended, has served in some ways to perpetuate discrimination against women. By emphasizing equality of men and women under the law instead of recognizing their differences, they have argued, Ginsburg inadvertently affirmed a system in which women must adhere to male standards to succeed, as she has done.
Nonetheless, her life story has shaped the lives of every woman in America. And the careful, one-deliberate-step-at-a-time approach to a complex and controversial issue that is revealed in the fine print of her arguments on the women’s rights cases casts valuable light on how she is likely to approach her work on the Supreme Court.
Certainly, Ginsburg was well-prepared to succeed in a man’s world. Nurtured by a mother who valued her daughter as much as any son, she graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Cornell in 1954.
Yet like so many bright women of her era, Ginsburg had been encouraged to venture down a path of scholarship and achievement that inevitably would lead to disappointment. After graduating from Columbia Law School in 1959, she could not get a job practicing law because the law firms she contacted in New York City thought married women were mostly interested in having babies.
“It was a classic case of discrimination,” said Kathleen Peratis, a New York City attorney who worked with Ginsburg on litigation in the 1970s.
While teaching civil procedure at Rutgers and doing volunteer work as counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union, Ginsburg began to see a new kind of legal complaint being filed around the country and sensed a changing mood among American women.
A teacher was challenging a school’s right to remove her from the classroom when she got pregnant; a woman worker was objecting that her employer provided health insurance only to men, and parents were complaining when their school-age daughters were excluded from publicly funded education programs that were offered to boys.
In those complaints, Ginsburg saw a compelling legal strategy that would win equal rights for women. She would help to challenge a variety of laws based on gender stereotypes, arguing that they violated the right of equal protection under the law provided in the 14th Amendment of the Constitution.
In essence, Ginsburg decided to duplicate what she described as “the orderly, step-by-step campaign” of the civil rights litigation that led to Brown vs. Board of Education in 1954, which overturned the “separate but equal” principle. But she would substitute gender for race.
To understand just how novel Ginsburg’s approach was, it helps to remember that gender issues were never even mentioned in her constitutional law classes. Nor did she have the benefit of the vast fund of information that is now available on types of sex bias.
Law school courses on women’s rights issues did not begin appearing regularly on the curriculum until later. When Ginsburg set out to teach such a course at Rutgers, she found that reading the available literature “proved not to be a burdensome venture.”
Until 1971, the courts had held that because men and women had different responsibilities in our society, they could be treated differently under the law. This so-called “separate spheres” doctrine held that men were, by nature, the breadwinners and women the homemakers.
The turning point came when Ginsburg argued the case of Sally Reed of Idaho, who sought to be appointed administrator of the estate of a son who committed suicide at age 19. Her estranged husband, Cecil, also applied as administrator under an Idaho law that said: “As between persons equally entitled to administer a decedent’s estate, males must be preferred to females.”
By arguing that the Idaho law violated the 14th Amendment, Ginsburg persuaded the Supreme Court for the first time to declare that gender stereotyping was inconsistent with the equal protection principle. Ginsburg viewed Reed vs. Reed as the “awakening” of the court to gender issues.
But despite the enormous impact of the decision, Ginsburg had couched her arguments in such fine lines that Chief Justice Warren E. Burger’s opinion on behalf of a unanimous court did not explicitly acknowledge a break with precedent.
A close friend, Herma Hill Kay, now dean of UC Berkeley’s Boalt Hall School of Law, recalls that while Ginsburg was pleased by her victory, “she did not paint the town red.” It was still not clear to her whether women would prevail in similar cases involving other restrictions.
Kay noted that Ginsburg’s legal legacy for women was built on an accumulation of small gains, not one decisive victory. During the 1970s, as head of the ACLU Women’s Rights Project, she litigated a total of 20 cases that succeeded in establishing heightened constitutional scrutiny over gender-based distinctions written into federal, state and local laws.
In one case, the court ignored a warning from the solicitor general that thousands of laws would be jeopardized under the scheme advocated by Ginsburg. In fact, the Justice Department submitted a list to the court of more than 800 laws that contained gender references.
“The list proved extraordinarily helpful,” Ginsburg later recalled. “First, it provided a ready answer to those who claimed that with Title VII (of the 1964 Civil Rights Act) and the Equal Pay Act on the books, no more law-sanctioned sex discrimination existed. Second, it provided a stimulus for a next set of constitutional challenges.”
Ginsburg succeeded in challenging laws on jury service, military benefits and Social Security benefits, among other things. She was so successful, in fact, that she predicted at one point that women would achieve the full equality they sought under the law by 1978.
In the case of Frontiero vs. Richardson, an equal pay case that Ginsburg won, 8 to 1, the court stopped short of declaring that gender restrictions deserved “strict scrutiny” similar to those based on race. When only four justices supported strict scrutiny, it was assumed the court was waiting to see whether the proposed Equal Rights Amendment would be ratified by the states.
ERA later foundered amid a conservative backlash, and the court never permitted strict scrutiny of gender differences. As a result, while many gender-based laws have been eliminated, Ginsburg still sees the battle for women’s rights as “a story in the making.”
By precipitating a sea change in the historical balance between the sexes, Ginsburg won the admiration of many young women who aspired to break out of their traditional roles but also inspired the enmity of millions of other men and women who preferred the status quo.
Barbara Allen Babcock, law professor at Stanford University, remembered that some people viewed her as “something of a crank.”
As the years have passed, many of Ginsburg’s own allies also have begun to second-guess her approach to women’s rights. Some are critical of her for pressing cases that were either too trivial or dealt essentially with discrimination against men.
The case of Stephen Wiesenfeld, for example, involved a man who had played the role of homemaker while his wife worked. When the wife died in childbirth, Wiesenfeld was denied the Social Security benefits to which a widowed homemaker would have been entitled. The court struck down the Social Security regulation preventing him from getting benefits.
Ginsburg often chose cases in which gender stereotypes hurt men, according to her defenders, because she thought these cases would be more likely to persuade nine men sitting on the Supreme Court of her basic point: that gender stereotypes hurt both men and women.
Perhaps the most trivial-sounding case Ginsburg brought to the court was Craig vs. Boren, which challenged an Oklahoma law allowing girls to drink 3.2% beer at age 18 while boys had to wait until they were 21. “It’s hard to see that as a burning social issue,” said Deborah Rhode, a Stanford law professor and author of the book “Justice and Gender.”
Although Rhode is an admirer of the Supreme Court nominee, she noted that many younger women legal experts think Ginsburg should have challenged laws that were of more importance to women. She said that the cases chosen by Ginsburg “left us with a limited doctrinal legacy.”
But the most fundamental criticism heard of Ginsburg’s work is that she encouraged the court to preserve discriminatory laws applying to child bearing and other activities that mark differences between men and women through her arguments that men and women are equal. For example, the court has refused to outlaw the all-male military draft.
“Formal equality has not produced real equality,” Rhode noted. “Men remain the standard of analysis.”
Ginsburg’s critics also assert that formal equality has succeeded in opening doors only for the well-educated, comfortably situated women who are willing and able to play by men’s rules. Rhode said that it has been of less value to low-paid women.
In the face of such criticism, Ginsburg is uncharacteristically apologetic.
In a speech to the University of Chicago Legal Forum in 1989, she explained that in 1970 she “was hardly so bold or so prescient as to essay articulation of a comprehensive theoretical vision of a world in which men did not define women’s place. The endeavor was less lofty, more immediately and practically oriented.”
Ginsburg said that her approach was the only way to shake the notion that men and women naturally operate in different spheres.
Likewise, Ginsburg has angered feminists by criticizing the court’s 1973 Roe vs. Wade ruling, which established the right to an abortion.
In a speech earlier this year at New York University, she lamented that the lawyers challenged a Texas anti-abortion law on privacy grounds instead of challenging it under the equal protection clause. The Constitution does not explicitly mention a right to privacy.
Ginsburg’s views on abortion and her adherence to the concept of strict equality between men and women have fostered a widely held perception of her among younger feminists that she is old-fashioned and out-of-date.
“They call us equality feminists; we feel like dinosaurs,” quipped Peratis.
Still, most feminists are hoping that as a justice, Ginsburg will do what she failed to accomplish as an lawyer: persuade the court to declare gender bias a matter for strict scrutiny.
THE mother of a 21-year-old student who was murdered by a vile sex offender has slammed a ridiculous legal loophole that allows pervs to dodge the sex offenders register.
Lisa Squire’s daughter Libby was killed in Hull in 2019 by a prolific sex offender leaving Lisa heartbroken.
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Her daughter was tragically killed in 2019 by vile Pawel RelowiczCredit: ITV
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Lisa was left shocked to discover sexual offenders could avoid the registerCredit: PA
Lisa was horrified to learn that men who commit indecent exposure can avoid being put on the sex offenders register.
The loophole that prevents pervs from being put on the register means those who commit indecent exposure can avoid being monitored by police.
Pawel Relowicz, the vile sex offender who murdered Libby, had a history of indecent exposure.
Evil police officer Wayne Couzens who murdered Sarah Everard in 2021 also had a history of indecent exposure.
Ministers have been pushing for stronger legislation with mounting evidence showing those who commit indecent exposure go on to commit violent offences.
A landmark Bill making sure offenders can’t slip through the net is set to make its way back through the commons this week.
Libby’s mother, Lisa, branded the Bill Libby’s Law Part One and told The Mirror: “It’s a perfect legacy for Libby.
“Her death was so preventable, it shouldn’t have happened, but she’s making a difference.
“If we can learn from her death that’s perfect, it makes it a bit less senseless.”
Current laws require prosecutors to prove an offender caused alarm or distress with their actions to get a conviction for exposure.
I felt guilty for not making my daughter report indecent exposure – it could’ve saved her life, says Libby Squire’s mum
Commonly offenders are charged with outraging public decency instead which does not result in them being added to the sex offenders register and allows them to dodge police monitoring.
Soon after Libby’s killer Relowicz was arrested Lisa was told by cops that he had a history of committing sexual offences.
The evil killer plead guilty to nine sexual offences unrelated to Libby’s murder, including voyeurism and outraging public decency.
Lisa said: “If more people had come forward and reported their experiences, and if police had been able to join the dots there might have been a different situation.”
Since the horror loss of her daughter Lisa has campaigned for victims to report non-contact sex offences to police, saying doing so will prevent more cases like her daughter’s.
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Lisa has urged victims to report non-contact offences
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Libby was killed by a vile repeat sex offenderCredit: PA:Press Association
The distraught mum was shocked to learn that offenders charged with outraging public decency can avoid being put on the register.
She said: “I never even imagined that they wouldn’t be. When I found out they weren’t I thought it was ridiculous. These are people that we should be watching.”
Lisa has demanded compulsory treatment programmes to stop those charged with indecent exposure’s behaviour escalating to more violent crimes and called for jail terms for those convicted of non-contact sex offences like exposure and voyeurism.
She reportedly believes her daughters death could have been prevented if more serious action was taken against vile Relowicz at an earlier stage.
Lisa believes that lives could be saved with the loophole closed and has campaigned tirelessly to make that a reality.
The Mirror reveal data showing the number of indecent exposure cases reported to police has skyrocketed since 2019.
Data from 37 of the 43 police forces in England and Wales shows a 15% rise in five years, while arrests have gone up by around 35%.
Dame Diana Johnson, Labour’s Policing Minister, told MPs last year that in five years almost 250 men found guilty of indecent exposure were later found guilty of rape.
She told the Commons: “Indecent exposure and non-contact sexual offences are gateway crimes that are still not taken seriously enough.”
The Home Office has now commissioned research into the link between non-contact sex offences and more violent crimes.
A National Police Chiefs’ Council spokesman said: “Sexual exposure is an incredibly serious crime which can be invasive and distressing for victims.
“We have been working hard to improve our response to sexual exposure and other non-contact sexual offences.”
Justice Minister Alex Davies-Jones said: “Exposure is a degrading and cowardly crime, which can often escalate into serious offending.
“We’re strengthening the law to bolster protection for victims, meaning offenders with a broader range of motivations, such as the intention to cause humiliation or for the purpose of sexual gratification, can be prosecuted – and added to the sex offender register where necessary.
“I am grateful to Libby’s family, and other victims and survivors, who have bravely campaigned for change in this area.”
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Lisa has campaigned to protect victims for yearsCredit:
TIM STEWART NEWS LIMITED
A young couple’s two weeks of passion in the sun quickly turned to pain following an excruciating bedroom injury, which ended up throwing cold water over their holiday and, ultimately, their entire relationship
Their ‘honeymoon period’ came to a crashing halt (Stock Photo)(Image: Getty Images)
As she jetted off on holiday with her then-boyfriend, Harriet Smith* had no idea that their dreamy trip would result in an x-rated injury – and, ultimately, the death of their once-sizzling sex life.
Celebrating the end of their finals, the students, then in their early 20s, were in a jubilant mood as they landed in Tunisia for what should have been a blissful two-week break. They enjoyed plenty of romantic moments both inside and outside the hotel room as they looked ahead to a “new chapter.”
But then, around halfway through the holiday, a wince-worthy bedroom blunder through cold water over their dreamy getaway.
One night, after enjoying dinner and a few drinks together, things became especially steamy between the pair, who were still very much in their “honeymoon period”. Sadly, this “night of passion” would be their last.
Speaking with the Mirror, Harriet recalled how, “right in the middle” of their intimate moment, her poor other half began “howling” in pain, screaming out, “Oh, god, oh god.” As Harriet herself put it: “It wasn’t even post coital, it was mid coital.”
Harriet’s ex started ‘howling’ right in the middle of their steamy session (Stock Photo)(Image: Getty Images)
Harriet, from the Midlands, told us: “I just remember him howling out and just thinking he was joking and like hopping around and then thinking, ‘S*** this is serious’.”
They immediately ceased their amorous antics. It was dark, and so the issue wasn’t immediately clear. Then Harriet realised what had happened. She revealed: “His foreskin had gotten stuck, and he couldn’t move it.”
Looking back more than 20 years on after the agonising blunder, Harriet, now 47, reckons their wild bedroom antics contributed to the horror injury. And their ordeal was far from over.
A “private” sort of person, Harriet’s partner was deeply “embarrassed” as he headed to A&E by himself, having to deal with the additional hurdles of being far from home, in a land where he didn’t speak the language.
Worried Harriet waited in their room for news. He arrived back around two hours later, with doctors having given him something to numb the excruciating pain. From that point on, however, it was clear that the second half of their holiday would be far less idyllic than the first.
Harriet shared, “It just obviously significantly impacted the rest of the holiday. There are before-and-after pictures where we’re smiling on camels and looking really loved up, and then there’s the after pictures where he just looks in pain, and he probably was.”
While the first week of their trip was spent camel riding, trying out extreme sports, and exploring local cities, the second was far more low-key, with plenty of relaxing by the pool and chaste early nights. Naturally, sex was off the table for the rest of their stay, with Harriet’s boyfriend being scared to even hug her or become “aroused” in any way.
The couple’s dream holiday turned into a nightmare (stock photo)(Image: Wowcher)
When they returned to the UK, Harriet’s partner had to have an operation. It would be “at least six weeks or two months” until they slept together again, which, as remarked upon by Harriet, “is quite a long time when you’re 21”. She added: “Honestly, it was never really the same again”.
As well as physical intimacy falling flat, Harriet also found that her partner was too humiliated to discuss the issue with her and, even though she was “very sympathetic”, there wasn’t really much she “could do to help”.
They stayed together for about another year after the Tunisia incident, and, looking back, Harriet believes the injury ultimately spelt doom for the relationship. She reflected: “It was always something. I was worried about hurting him. So I think it really took the wind out of our sails.
“It was a real passion killer. And I think he probably had that association with me that, you know, although it could have happened to anyone at any time, it happened to us. I don’t think it just ruined the holiday, I think it was probably not a relationship killer, but certainly quashed things in the bedroom.”
Until now, Harriet, who fortunately hasn’t been put off sex in the long run, has kepther story secret and has only ever confided in a few very close girl pals.
For a while, she’d “forgotten about it”, having “blocked it out”. However, being a mum of teenage boys has made her sympathise with her former beau’s plight all over again.
Harriet empathised: “I just think, ‘Oh my god, poor thing’. You know, that’s your nightmare as a man to have something like that happen!”
Nowadays, Harriet is no longer in touch with her ex, who now lives overseas with his wife and children. As far as she’s aware, there doesn’t appear to have been any lasting damage to his private parts.
She noted:“Obviously, the fact that he’s been able to have children, he’s sorted that out then. I mean, that obviously didn’t cross my mind at the time, but yeah, you know, everything’s in working order.”
Harry told the others – unaware Helena was listening from the villa: “For me, with Helena, it’s like, I don’t know if she’s just a good time girl. Like, as I know, the more I’m getting to know her, like…
“I’m having a good time, but I wanna have a long time.
“What I’m learning about her lifestyle, and like, what she does, like, she goes out a lot. We had the conversations – you were all there. She had a threesome.
“I don’t think that really worries me. Because like, I can guarantee I’ve done worse, sort of thing. But I think it did surprise me a little bit.
“What I’m learning about her lifestyle, and like, what she does, like, she goes out a lot. We had the conversations – you were all there. She had a threesome.
“I don’t think that really worries me. Because like, I can guarantee I’ve done worse, sort of thing. But I think it did surprise me a little bit.
Watch as Meg erupts in sweary rant and Helena storms off after watching the boys on Love Island
“It’s not I wanted to take a step back or anything. It was just more like, okay, I need to learn more, just to figure out what she’s gonna really be like.”
Back in the villa, Helena raged: “F**k me. Oh, my dirty laundry, is it?”
Harry continued: “But if she’s still there, if she’s still in that phase of her life where it’s like, she wants to have a good time, then it might not be the right time for me and her.”
One fan said: “Yayyyy double standards.”
Another remarked: “He didn’t care about her background when they went to the hideaway.”
A third shared: “What’s Harry’s surname? Ah yes Double-Standard, my bad I forgot.”
While a fourth remarked: “Wow, the judgement of that boy when ‘hes done worse’ the putdown before the brag is wild! Must be from the insecurity of going thin in the front talking!”
A fifth chimed in: “Hmm double standards eh one rule for a guy and one for the girl.”
Elsewhere, Helena chose to recouple with Harry – despite him expressing an interest in Shakira still.
Love Island 2025 full lineup
Harry Cooksley: A 30-year-old footballer with charm to spare.
Sophie Lee: A model and motivational speaker who has overcome adversity after suffering life-changing burns in an accident.
Shakira Khan: A 22-year-old Manchester-based model, ready to turn heads.
Blu Chegini: A boxer with striking model looks, seeking love in the villa.
Megan Moore: A payroll specialist from Southampton, looking for someone tall and stylish.
Alima Gagigo: International business graduate with brains and ambition.
June 13 (UPI) — The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit on Friday rejected President Donald Trump‘s attempt to get a retrial of the civil sexual abuse and defamation liability verdict against him in the E. Jean Carroll case.
The appeals court had already rejected an appeal of the verdict in December. The court voted 8-2 Friday to refuse Trump’s effort to overturn the verdict and retry the case.
Lawyers for Carroll said in a statement, “E. Jean Carroll is very pleased with today’s decision. Although President Trump continues to try every possible maneuver to challenge the findings of two separate juries, those efforts have failed. He remains liable for sexual assault and defamation.”
Trump’s lawyers then sought a retrial, petitioning to have the full appeals rule on it in what’s known en banc.
The court’s Friday ruling written by Judge Myrna Perez said of Trump’s effort, “Simply re-litigating a case is not an appropriate use of the en banc procedure.”
She added, “In those rare instances in which a case warrants our collective consideration, it is almost always because it involves a question of exceptional importance or a conflict between the panel’s opinion and appellate precedent.”
Perez said of Trump’s earlier rejected appeal of the verdict, “Defendant-Appellant appealed a civil judgment against him for sexual assault and defamation, challenging several of the district court’s evidentiary rulings. For the reasons discussed at length in its unanimous opinion, the panel, on which I sat, found no reversible abuse of discretion.”
Trump denies sexually assaulting Carroll and defaming her.
A statement from a spokesperson for Trump’s legal team said, “The American People are supporting President Trump in historic numbers, and they demand an immediate end to the political weaponization of our justice system and a swift dismissal of all of the Witch Hunts, including the Democrat-funded Carroll Hoax, which will continue to be appealed.”
Trump-appointed Circuit Judges Steven J. Menashi and Michael Park dissented.
“I would rehear the case en banc to “maintain uniformity of the court’s decisions” and to resolve these important questions in line with longstanding principles,” Menashi wrote.
Writer Carroll won a $83.3 million defamation judgement against Trump, as well as a civil verdict, that he sexually abused her.
The jury in that case found Trump liable for battery and defamation in Carroll’s sexual abuse lawsuit. She alleged in that suit that Trump sexually abused her in a New York City department store.
CONCORD, N.H. — President Trump’s administration wants to be dropped from a lawsuit in which two New Hampshire teens are challenging their state’s ban on transgender athletes in girls’ sports and the president’s executive order on the same topic.
Parker Tirrell, 16, and Iris Turmelle, 14, became first to challenge Trump’s “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports” order when they added him to their ongoing lawsuit over New Hampshire’s ban in February. A federal judge has ruled that they can try out and play on girls sports teams while the case proceeds.
In a motion filed Friday, attorneys for the government say the teens are trying to “drag the federal government into a lawsuit well under way not because of an imminent injury, but because of a generalized grievance with policies set by the President of the United States.”
Deputy Associate Atty. Gen. Richard Lawson argued that the government has done nothing yet to enforce the executive orders in New Hampshire and may never do so.
“Plaintiffs lack constitutional standing and their stated speculative risk of future injury is not close to imminent and may never become ripe,” wrote Lawson, who asked the judge to dismiss claims against Trump, the Justice and Education departments, and their leaders.
Trump’s executive order gives federal agencies wide latitude to ensure entities that receive federal funding abide by Title IX — which prohibits sexual discrimination in schools — in alignment with the Trump administration’s view of a person’s sex as the gender assigned at birth.
Lawyers for the teens say the order, along with parts of a Jan. 20 executive order that forbids federal money to be used to “promote gender ideology,” subjects the teens and all transgender girls to discrimination in violation of federal equal protection guarantees and their rights under Title IX.
In its response, the government argues that the order does not discriminate based on sex because males and females are not similarly situated when it comes to sports.
Transgender people represent a very small part of the nation’s youth population — about 1.4% of teens ages 13 to 17, or around 300,000 people. But about half of the states have adopted similar measures to New Hampshire’s sports ban, with supporters arguing that allowing transgender girls to play is unfair and dangerous.
In interviews this year, neither New Hampshire teen said they feel they hold any advantage over other players. Tirrell says she’s less muscular than other girls on her soccer team, and Turmelle said she doesn’t see herself as a major athlete.
“To the argument that it’s not fair, I’d just like to point out that I did not get on the softball team,” Turmelle recalled of her tryout last year. “If that wasn’t fair, then I don’t know what you want from me.”
A TEACHER’S secret OnlyFans account was exposed by kids “excitedly” sharing the X-rated snaps around school.
Kirsty Buchan, also known as Jessica Jackrabbit x, was a staff member at Bannerman High School, in Glasgow, when she joined the adult platform.
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The former teacher resigned after her OnlyFans profile was discoveredCredit: Kirsty Buchan
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The 34-year-old was today struck off from the profession by the General Teaching Council for Scotland (GTCS)Credit: Kirsty Buchan
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The mum-of-one taught Physics at Bannerman High School, in GlasgowCredit: Kirsty Buchan
A disciplinary hearing was told the mum-of-one’s profile was discovered by pupils in 2022 and reported to headteacher Seonaidh Black.
Pictures of Ms Buchan, 34, “posing in lingerie” were handed over by shocked students.
In her bio she admitted to being a “good teacher gone bad… really bad”.
The profile was also easily accessible, requiring no payment or sign up.
Ms Black told the hearing: “I was approached by some S5 and S6 boys, who were very excited.
“They were saying things like, ‘Have you heard the news’. I said something like ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about’ as I did not want to engage them in this kind of conversation.
“I was then told something like, ‘If you haven’t heard, when you do, you’re going to go ballistic. Look out for Jessica Jackrabbit’.
“As I came back into the building, at least two staff stopped to ask me if I knew about Kirsty. It was obvious at this point that everyone knew what was going on.”
Ms Buchan, who had originally been a pupil at the school before teaching there, did not attend the hearing.
In her absence, the headteacher described the OnlyFans model as a “teacher who wanted to do a good job”.
Glamorous futsal player who was sacked after OnlyFans posts now earning 100 times more selling adult content
However there had been several occasions when she “was not always clear on boundaries”.
She told the panel she was referring to “having poor judgement” when it came to being open about sharing her social media with pupils.
One concerned mother had even contacted Ms Black and reported how her son left messages for Ms Buchan on her OnlyFans profile.
The 34-year-old quit her job shortly after her adult content platform was discovered.
She claimed to rake in £60,000 in just one month through her X-rated page.
Ms Buchan argued she signed up because she needed some extra cash after her wages decreased.
Ms Black added how “there’s still talk” about the ordeal now.
Hannah Oakley, who investigated the case for GTCS, told the hearing Ms Buchan did not “ensure that her profile picture and bio” was not accessible to those under 18.
The panel found all allegations to be proven and she was today struck off from the profession by the General Teaching Council for Scotland (GTCS).
Panel member Mr Burton said she was unfit to teach and there was a “significant blurring of boundaries between her private life and her professional life”.
He added how she “used her profession in her bio as a selling tool”.
Mr Burton said Ms Buchan’s actions were “fundamentally incompatible with being a registered teacher”.
