• todays lady news

Today’s Lady News: NFL Star Lawrence Taylor Indicted In Teen Prostitute Sexual Assault

  • NFL star Lawrence Taylor has been indicted on charges of rape after allegations that he sexually assaulted a 16-year-old prostitute. The former Giants player was arrested on May 6 for allegedly having sex with a teen at a Holiday Inn in New York. If convicted, he faces four years in prison. [USA Today]
  • In other sports-y/rape-y news, pitcher Johan Santana of the New York Mets has been accused of sexual battery for an incident at a For Myers, Florida, golf course in 2009. [Buzzfeed]
  • “The Daily Show” has one female correspondent and will have a grand total of two if Playboy and Maxim cover girl Olivia Munn survives her tryouts. Irin Carmon at Jezebel spoke with comedy writers who’ve been past “TDS” staffers — on-air or in the writing room — about the “boy’s club” atmosphere and why “insecure, broken, needy, neurotic” humor was for men-only. [Jezebel]

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Today’s Lady News: Woman With No Arms Earns Her Black Belt In Taekwondo

  • Sheila Radziewicz, 32, of Salem, Massachusetts, does not have either one of her arms, but that hasn’t stopped her from earning her black belt in taekwondo! For her black belt test, she had to break wood, kick, punch, and spar. Watch out: she’s also got nunchucks. [Boston Globe]
  • In the wake of gossip blog Gawker’s exposés that American Apparel allegedly hires its employees primarily on looks, the company is allegedly issuing new hires a crazy-strict “confidentiality agreement” that punishes blabbermouth employees with a $1 million fine if they discuss their jobs or Dov Charney’s precious reputation with the media. [Gawker]
  • Finland’s president has appointed Mari Kiviniemi as the country’s second female prime minister. In other news, the United States still hasn’t had a female president or vice president. [AFP]

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Today’s Lady News: American Apparel Doesn’t Hire Based On Looks, Says Founder

  • Dov Charney, embattled American Apparel CEO, wants you to know the condemning internal emails and screen grabs of the company’s intranet are not “evidence” that they hire based on looks. “Photographing people head to toe is the right thing to do if you want to see how people present themselves to customers,” Charney defended himself. “It’s not for a beauty pageant like Miss America where we’re looking at someone’s breast size. We want to see their style.” Hmm, that doesn’t sound so nefarious. We’re not sure we believe him, though. [Signature9.com]
  • Constance McMillen, 18, the lesbian teenager who was told by her high school that she was not allowed to bring her girlfriend to prom, will visit the White House tomorrow. Constance will be a guest at a reception to honor lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender citizens. Later this week, she will march in New York City’s gay pride parade. [USA Today]
  • The Center for Reproductive Rights, a pro-abortion rights group, released a report today stating they are unclear how deeply Elena Kagan, a Supreme Court nominee, supports abortion rights. [AP]

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Today’s Lady News: Tennessee Church Kicks Lesbian Softball Coach Out Of The League

  • Hmm, what do you think God would say about this? A lesbian softball coach says her team was kicked out of a church league because of her sexuality. Jana Jacobson said a minister from Bellevue Baptist Church in Cordova, TN, told her she and her team, which has gay and straight members, were not welcome to play in its softball league because it might look like the church was condoning the “gay lifestyle.” [Fox News]
  • An advisory committee for the Food & Drug Administration has recommended approval for ella, a morning-after pill that works up to five days after unprotected sex. The current morning-after pill, Plan B, only works up to three days after your condom ripped. [CNN]

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Today’s Lady News: No More ‘Round The World Sailing, Young Ladies!

  • A Dutch court has extended a ban on allowing 14-year-old Laura Dekker to sail around the world solo. Dekker is hoping to beat Australian Jessica Watson’s record of being the youngest girl to sail around the world at age 16. The judge who extended the ban against Dekker’s plans until August said the court has “concerns for her social-emotional and identity development.” We think they’re probs just freaked out over 16-year-old Abby Sunderland‘s recent dramz. [AFP]
  • Model Crystal Renn has responded to “Britain’s Next Top Model” judge Julien Macdonald’s comment that having a plus-size model on the show would be a “joke.” Renn wrote a piece for the London-based Independent begging to do away with the term plus size. “Part of the problem is this focus on straight sizes and plus sizes,” she wrote. “It is creating an ‘us and them’ mentality. We need to change the way we approach the whole thing, and do away with these terms. All we are is a bunch of models, no matter what size.” [The Independent]
  • A mother in Tulsa, Oklahoma, was asked to cover up or go someplace else to breastfeed her infant son at Big Splash Water Park. Tina Russell said she was watching her other child play in the pool and does not think other parents should be offended that she stayed put to feed her littlest one. In any case, OK state law protects mothers who breastfeed in public. [KTUL]

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Today’s Lady News: Study Says Obese Women Have Less Sex, More Unwanted Pregnancies

  • Obese women with a body mass index over 30 have less sex and more unwanted pregnancies, according to a new study in the British Medical Journal. Obese women are less likely to use oral contraceptives like birth control pills and more likely to use the “pullout method” … and, hence, get preggo. [CBSnews]
  • Uh-oh. The FDA is not so sure about flibanserin, the “female Viagra,” anymore. [Wall Street Journal]
  • Our friends at Jezebel.com gathered 27 menstruation scenes from movies. An awesome or eww tribute to menarche? [Jezebel]

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Today’s Lady News: “Top Model” Judge Calls Plus-Size Models A “Joke”

  • Julien Macdonald, a designer and a judge on “Britain’s Next Top Model,” issued a slap in the face to plus-size models everywhere when he said they don’t belong on his show. “There were no plus-size models,” he said, referring to the show’s sixth season. “This is a serious show. You can’t have a plus-size girl winning. It makes it a joke. It’s not fair on them. You’re setting them up for a fall. I know what would happen to them. They’re looked down upon.” Ugh, what condescending hogwash! Ever consider that maybe you are part of the problem, Julien? [Styleist]
  • Debrahlee Lorenzana, the former banker who is suing Citibank for sexual harassment, has hired feminist lawyer to represent her. [New York Post]
  • A 66-year-old Indian woman has become the oldest person in the world to give birth to triplets after IVF treatments. Bhateria Devi, who was childless before IVF, had two boys and a girl. All three of the babies were born under three pounds. [Daily Mail]

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Today’s Lady News: Teacher Canned For Premarital Sex

  • Jarretta Hamilton, a fourth grade teacher in St. Cloud, Florida, was fired for getting pregnant while she was engaged. When Hamilton’s boss at Southland Christian School asked her when she conceived, she answered honestly that she got pregnant three weeks before her wedding and was then fired for “fornication.” Now Southland Christian School is facing a discrimination lawsuit, arguing that pregnant, unmarried women would be fired under such rules while unmarried men who “fornicate” would not get caught. [ABCnews.com]
  • South African officials estimate 40,000 sex workers are on hand for the 2010 World Cup. Condoms, people. [TheGrio.com]

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Today’s Lady News: Abortion By Computer?

  • Abortion providers in Des Moines, Iowa are using videoconferencing — or “telemedicine” — to administer RU-486, the abortion pill. Women can sit next to a nurse at a clinic and with a click of the mouse, the doctor can open a drawer to provide her a dosage. Opponents of abortion rights say administering the abortion pill via telemedicine could compromise women’s safety. Abortion rights supporters say using telemedicine for RU-486 helps women who live in rural areas where clinics don’t exist — in part because of opponents’ activism to shut them down. [New York Times]
  • Next week, the Food and Drug Administration will consider approval for a new type of emergency contraception, called ellaOne, which can be taken up to five days after sex. Currently, doctors advise women who have had unprotected sex to take the existing form of E.C., called Plan B, up to three days after sex. [Salon.com Broadsheet]
  • Chris Brown had to postpone a concert in Glasgow, Scotland, earlier this week after he was denied a visa following his assault on ex-girlfriend Rihanna, last year. Said a government official, “We reserve the right to refuse entry to anyone guilty of a serious criminal offense. Public safety is one of our primary concerns.” [The Sun UK]

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Today’s Lady News: Samantha Bee On Tuesday’s “Ladies’ Night” Election


6/9/10 in :60 Seconds www.thedailyshow.com

  • Samantha Bee, have we told you lately that we love you? [The Daily Show]
  • On Tuesday night, a Queens, New York, sex offender beat his girlfriend, Tiffany Pettiford, to death with a baseball bat while his other girlfriend (?) and two children watched. Isaiah Smith, who was convicted in 1990 of raping a 10-year-old girl, allegedly suspected his girlfriend was cheating on him because she had left for several days. Pardon me, but why was someone who raped a child let out of prison in the first place? [New York Daily News]
  • The International Ski Federation has voted to create a women’s World Cup circuit beginning with the 2011-12 season with the goal of bringing women’s ski jumping to the Olympics in 2014. [Vancouver Sun]

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