NYU Hires Law Firm to Investigate Behavior of {Michael H} Steinhardt, a Prominent Donor

NYU Hires Law Firm to Investigate Behavior of {Michael H} Steinhardt, a Prominent Donor

NYU said on Monday that it had hired a prominent law firm to investigate whether the namesake of its school of education, Michael H. Steinhardt, had engaged in inappropriate conduct with students, faculty or staff.

The review will be headed by Joan McPhee, a lawyer who last year helped lead an investigation of Lawrence G. Nassar, a USA Gymnastics team doctor who last year was sentenced to 40 to 175 years in prison for sexually abusing young women. McPhee was hired by NYU as part of its response to a New York Times-ProPublica article that alleged a pattern of crude and demeaning sexual comments by Steinhardt toward women over decades.

Steinhardt, a hedge fund pioneer and philanthropist, denied many of the specifics of the allegations, saying that his behavior was always meant in jest, and never involved physical contact.

Harvard Won't Renew Prof Ronald Sullivan Jr. + Stephanie Robinson As Faculty Deans of Winthrop House

Harvard Won't Renew Prof Ronald Sullivan Jr. + Stephanie Robinson As Faculty Deans of Winthrop House

Harvard announced on Saturday that Ronald Sullivan Jr. and his wife Stephanie Robinson, who is a lecturer at the law school, would no longer continue as faclty deans of Winthrop House, one of Harvard’s residential houses for undergrad students. In 2009, the couple became the first African American faculty deans in Harvard’s history.

The decision not to renew the appointments of Mr. Sullivan and Ms. Robinson as faculty deans won’t impact their positions at the law school, where Mr. Sullivan is the Jesse Climenko Clinical Professor of Law and the director of the Criminal Justice Institute.

Exactly what moral and ethical point Prof Sullivan is making -- putting Weinstein first -- is obviously an important one to him. But the message he send to his young students under his mentorship is one they justifiably rejected in significant numers.

Those students were led by Harvard student Danu Mudannayake, 21 years old, and a visual and environmental studies student in film production at Harvard College.

DANU MUDANNAYAKE, 21 YEARS OLD, VISUAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES: FILM PRODUCTION, HARVARD COLLEGE

Angelina Jolie Is "Too Busy" To Play Céline Dion | Is Jolie Not Allowed To Make Her Own Choices?

Angelina Jolie Is "Too Busy" To Play Céline Dion | Is Jolie Not Allowed To Make Her Own Choices?

AOC didn’t go looking for news that Celion Dion is reportedly ‘devastated’ that Angelina Jolie is “too busy’ to play Dion in the biopic of her dreams.

Full disclosure, I wrote my first AOC blog post in the summer of 2007, after reading Angelina Jolie’s Esquire interview. Smart Sensuality Woman Angelina Jolie: Virtue Considered in Carversville's Country Air. In three hours, she changed my life around in a good way.

Always a social actvist ‘conscientious objector’ especially in the arena of racism and women’s rights, I had become a bit too comfortable in life. Jolie inspired me to action once again — and I’ve never looked back in my revitalized second act life.

It seems that the lives of “friends” Céline Dion and Angelina Jolie have intersected over Dion’s biopic.

A source told RadarOnline: ‘For years now, Celine’s big passion has been a musical movie adaptation of her life, career and marriage to Rene [Angelil]. She wants this to happen for both her kids and her fans, and was dead-set on Angie playing Celine Dion. ‘Celine considered Angie a good friend, and is devastated that she’s turning down the role.’

Caster Semenya: How Much Testosterone Is Too Much For A Female Athlete?

Caster Semenya: How Much Testosterone Is Too Much For A Female Athlete?

By Daniel Kelly, Lecturer in Biochemistry, Sheffield Hallam University. First published on The Conversation.

The South African athlete, Caster Semenya, has lost her case against the athletic governing body, IAAF, which means that she will have to take medication to lower her testosterone levels if she wishes to continue competing internationally in running events.

Last year, the IAAF introduced new regulation for female athletes with “difference of sexual development” (DSD). Athletes with circulating testosterone of five nanomoles per litre of blood (5nmol/L) or above and who are androgen-sensitive, have to meet certain criteria if they wish to compete internationally. One criterion is that DSD athlete must use medication to reduce their blood testosterone level to below 5nmol/L for a continuous period of at least six months.

Semenya felt that the IAAF was targeting her, specifically. She took her case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), but the court rejected the 28-year-old athlete’s challenge against the IAAF’s new rules. Although CAS found the rules to be discriminatory, it also said that they were “necessary, reasonable and proportionate”.

Christy Turlington Burns Honors Mothers With Vogue Mexico Covers + Onia Swim Collab

Christy Turlington Burns Honors Mothers With Vogue Mexico Covers + Onia Swim Collab

Salvadorian-American activist supermodel Christy Turlington Burns has three covers for the May 2019 issue of Vogue Mexico. Photographer Alique captures Christy styled by Celia Azoulay in Altuzarra, Isabel Marant and Tory Burch.

Christy Turlington was one of the first top models to embrace activism and leveraging her global popularity to turn her gaze on others and not her supermodel self. To reach her goal, Turlington founded Every Mother Counts in 2010.

The nonprofit engages and mobilizes new audiences to support maternal health programs around the world, including the United States where maternal deaths among women of color and women living in states like Texas are skyrocketing. The closure of Planned Parenthood clinics in red states has caused maternal death rates in Texas to reach third-w0rld levels.

Women Activists Form SuperMajority.com, Led By Cecile Richards, Alicia Garza + Al-jen Poo

Women Activists Form SuperMajority.com, Led By Cecile Richards, Alicia Garza + Al-jen Poo

Three very prominent women activists: Cecile Richards, the former head of Planned Parenthood; Alicia Garza, co-founder of Black Lives Matter; and Ai-jen Poo, executive director of the National Domestic Workers Alliance have formed Super Majority. The group, which describes itself as multiracial and intergenerational, has a goal of training and mobilizing 2 million women over the next year to become organizers and political leaders in their communities, reports TIME.

A community for women who want to use our power to transform this country-for good. http://bit.ly/2Was7P3

Did Cindy Crawford's George Magazine Cover Portend America's Struggle With A Female President?

Did Cindy Crawford's George Magazine Cover Portend America's Struggle With A Female President?

Supermodel Cindy Crawford graced the first cover of ‘George’, a crucial decision in making it clear that the magazine was’t the “John Kennedy magazine” but a publication that stood on its own. Kennedy invited fashion photographer Herb Ritts and his creative director Matt Berman over to his TriBeCa loft, where they joined Kennedy’s wife Carolyn Bessette.

(Kate) Story writes that Bassette loved the Crawford idea, calling it “perfect”. Bessette listed the supermodel’s attributes: “She’s all-American, a self-made woman, sexy, strong, and smart.”

For a moment, there was more to the story — a move that would have been sensational for ‘George’ and also for America’s always on its knees women’s movement, as exemplified by Hillary Clinton’s loss to Donald Trump two decades later.

Story writes: “It wasn’t just the wig. After studying old paintings on the set of the photo shoot, the team decided to stuff Crawford’s skintight breeches with a sock.

Why Age Gives West African Women More Autonomy and Power

Soninke people of Senega dancing at the declaration of Bakel festivities via Tostan

Why Age Gives West African Women More Autonomy and Power

Several studies, covering about 58 countries across the world, found that as women get older they are more able to make decisions independently of men. But scholars have struggled to pin down explanations for this age dividend – why are women given more independence the older they get? We wanted to know what the reasons may be.

The Wing WeHo Opens Its Women-centric Doors In Los Angeles In New Collab With Time's Up

The Wing, a members-only, women-focused working space has opened in Hollywood on Thursday, in a partnership with Time’s Up.

Founding WeHo members include entertainers Mindy Kaling, Jessica Alba, Katy Perry, Shonda Rhimes, Maya Rudolph, Lucy Liu, Amandla Stenberg, Busy Philipps, Laverne Cox, Lucy Hale, Marisa Tomei, Sharon Stone, Susan Kelechi Watson, Sarah Silverman, Margaret Cho,​ ​Roxane Gay, Gabourey Sidibe, Hari Nef, Gia Coppola and Liz Goldwyn; Rodarte designers Kate and Laura Mulleavy; Hollywood stylists Karla Welch (who styles Tracee Ellis Ross) and Jamie Mizrahi (who styles Perry); and 42 West publicist Leslee Dart and ID PR’s Kelly Bush Novak. 

Katherine Lo's Eaton Workshop Hotel DC Workshop Hosts May 19 Black Moms' Toxic Birth Event

Katherine Lo's Eaton Workshop Hotel DC Workshop Hosts May 19 Black Moms' Toxic Birth Event

Katherine Lo, the daughter of Langham hotel founder Lo Kah-shui, has opened her Washington DC Hotel Eaton Workshop. AOC profiled Lo in July 2018, sharing both her philosophy and plans for three more Eaton Hotels in Hong Kong, San Francisco and Seattle.

Today’s entrepreneurs often throw around words like purpose and human values, but Katherine Lo is raising the bar. For example, on May 19, 2019 from 2-4pm, the Eaton Workshop DC is hosting ‘Avoiding Toxic Birth: Rethinking How Black Moms Give Birth’.

The statistics are staggering--Black women are three to four times more likely to die from childbirth than non-Hispanic white women, and socioeconomic status, education, and other factors do not protect against this disparity.  Tickets are $50.

Malala Yousafzai + Father Ziauddin Sign With UTA Agency Culture + Leadership Head Darnell Strom

Malala Yousafzai + Father Ziauddin Sign With UTA Agency Culture + Leadership Head Darnell Strom

21 years-old Pakistani activist and Oxford University student Malala Yousafzai and her father Ziauddin have signed with United Talent Agency’s new Culture and Leadership division. which reunites them with their former CAA (Creative Artists Agency) agent turned UTA division head Darnell Strom.

Thando Hopa Covers Vogue Portugal April Issue 'Africa Motherland' Dedicated To Humanity's Home

Thanda Hopa Covers Vogue Portugal April Issue 'Africa Motherland' Dedicated To Humanity's Home

South African model Thando Hopa covers Vogue Portugal’s April issue with the awesome title ‘Africa Motherland’. The issue is "dedicated to origins and Africa, as the cradle of humanity".

This reality of human existence is the very ‘blood and guts’ of Anne of Carversville and our GlamTribal Jewelry collection.

No — it’s not a case of cultural appropriation that fashion is claiming Africa as the homeland of humanity. It’s a much-needed recognition of a scientific reality and one that is controversial.

A 29-year-old international model, lawyer and activist, Thando Hopa also makes history as the first woman with albinism to grace the cover of Vogue.

Michigan Trumpsters Chant "AOC Sucks" As Junior Condemns All Things Green Except Money For Trump Family

Michigan Trumpsters Chant "AOC Sucks" As Junior Condemns All Things Green Except Money For Trump Family

Part of the crowd at Thursday night’s Trump March 28, 2019 rally in Michigan started chanting "AOC sucks," referencing Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), after Donald Trump Jr. criticized her ideas. After all, the president’s son is such an authority on American politics, and his father loves women targets, in particular.

“Think about the fact that every mainstream, leading Democratic contender is taking the advice of a freshman congresswoman who three weeks ago didn’t know the three branches of government,” the president's son told the crowd ahead of his dad’s speech. “I don’t know about you guys, but that’s pretty scary.”

After Junior’s remark — AOC calls him ‘Junior’ — the crowd broke into the "AOC sucks" chant. Read Charlotte Alter’s cover story 'Change Is Closer Than We Think.' Inside Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's Unlikely Rise’. We hope that AOC will just ignore the chants, because they may be with her all the way to 2020.

The Trump crowd loves to denigrate smart women because females with brains that function on overdrive have a very small place in their universe. Daddy’s girl Ivanka Trump, Trumpsters embrace. Do you see a pattern here? I’m sure that Trump had a proverbial heart attack when Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez — hardly a member of the Trump family inner sanctum — showed up on the cover of last week’s TIME magazine.

American Cowgirls, French Fashion, Dale Evans , Patriarchy + Religion's 'Big Gods'

American Cowgirls, French Fashion, Dale Evans , Patriarchy + Religion's 'Big Gods'

Big Gods Came After The Rise of Civilizations, Not Before, Finds Study Using Huge Historical Database

Big Gods Came After The Rise of Civilisations, Not Before, Finds Study Using Huge Historical Database

When you think of religion, you probably think of a god who rewards the good and punishes the wicked. But the idea of morally concerned gods is by no means universal. Social scientists have long known that small-scale traditional societies – the kind missionaries used to dismiss as “pagan” – envisaged a spirit world that cared little about the morality of human behaviour. Their concern was less about whether humans behaved nicely towards one another and more about whether they carried out their obligations to the spirits and displayed suitable deference to them.

Nevertheless, the world religions we know today, and their myriad variants, either demand belief in all-seeing punitive deities or at least postulate some kind of broader mechanism – such as karma – for rewarding the virtuous and punishing the wicked. In recent years, researchers have debated how and why these moralising religions came into being.

Now, thanks to our massive new database of world history, known as Seshat (named after the Egyptian goddess of record keeping), we’re starting to get some answers.

NASA Cancels First All-Female Spacewalk, Not Having Two Equipped Spacesuits In Women's Sizes

NASA Cancels First All-Female Spacewalk, Not Having Two Equipped Spacesuits In Women's Sizes

NASA has cancelled their highly-promoted two-women space walk due to not having two size medium space suits available. Earlier this month, America’s US space agency announced that astronauts Anne McClain and Christina Koch were set to make history this Friday, installing lithium-ion batteries at the International Space Station (ISS).

NASA doesn't have two smaller space suits for the ladies, as only big guys are astronauts. Please forgive us for being sarcastic. In fact, NASA is trying to change this image of promoting only men as astronauts, but outfits to wear floating out there in the universe weren’t on the checklist.

Koch will now exit the ISS with male colleague Nick Hague instead. She will wear the medium-size suit used by McClain on a spacewalk with Hague last week.

Damien Mander Creates Female 'Akashinga' Anti-Poaching Force In Zimbabwe's Phundundu Wildlife Park

Damien Mander Creates Female 'Akashinga' Anti-Poaching Force In Zimbabwe's Phundundu Wildlife Park

Faye Cuevas is not alone in recruiting women as wildlife rangers, responsible for patrolling and even shooting if necessary, ivory poachers. In September 2018, the BBC featured former Special Forces sniper, Australian Damien Mander, who says he found his ‘higher calling’ protecting wildlife in Africa. Knowing what key global military experts, including America’s own top military brass believes, Mander specifically focused on creating a female anti-poaching force in Zimbabwe’s Phundundu Wildlife Park nature reserve a 115 square mile former trophy hunting area that is part of a larger ecosystem home to some 11,000 elephants.

Though women rarely serve as rangers in Africa — a reality that Faye Cuevas also confronted in Kenya — Mander believes that putting the well-being of wildlife in their expertly trained hands could usher in a new way of carrying out conservation. In Mander’s vast experience, he believes that women rangers will create conservation practices that are far less violent, while empowering women and improving communities in the process.

“There’s a saying in Africa, ‘If you educate a man, you educate an individual, but if you educate a woman, you educate a nation’,” Mander says. “We’re seeing increasing evidence that empowering women is one of the greatest forces of change in the world today.”

Mander is hitting roadblocks, especially in his vision for 4,500 female rangers protecting wildlife across Africa. You can imagine the havoc he’s creating!

Michael Steinhardt, a Leader in Jewish Philanthropy, Is Accused of a Pattern of Sexual Harassment

MICHAEL STEINHARDT SHOWING ANTI-ISRAEL, ANTI-BIRTHRIGHT PROTESTERS WHAT HE REALLY THINKS. SOURCE: TWITTER PHOTO CAPTURE. VIA JNS

Michael Steinhardt, a Leader in Jewish Philanthropy, Is Accused of a Pattern of Sexual Harassment

By Hannah Dreyfus for ProPublica and Sharon Otterman, The New York Times

Sheila Katz was a young executive at Hillel International, the Jewish college outreach organization, when she was sent to visit the philanthropist Michael H. Steinhardt, a New York billionaire. He had once been a major donor, and her goal was to persuade him to increase his support. But in their first encounter, he asked her repeatedly if she wanted to have sex with him, she said.

Deborah Mohile Goldberg worked for Birthright Israel, a nonprofit co-founded by Steinhardt, when he asked her if she and a female colleague would like to join him in a threesome, she said.

Natalie Goldfein, an officer at a small nonprofit that Steinhardt had helped establish, said he suggested in a meeting that they have babies together.

Steinhardt, 78, a retired hedge fund founder, is among an elite cadre of donors who bankroll some of the country’s most prestigious Jewish nonprofits. His foundations have given at least $127 million to charitable causes since 2003, public filings show.

But for more than two decades, that generosity has come at a price. Six women said in interviews with The New York Times and ProPublica, and one said in a lawsuit, that Steinhardt asked them to have sex with him, or made sexual requests of them, while they were relying on or seeking his support. He also regularly made comments to women about their bodies and their fertility, according to the seven women and 16 other people who said they were present when Steinhardt made such comments.

NRA Puts Nancy Pelosi + Gaby Giffords Out For Target Practice. Will Sandy Hook Ruling Dampen Their Machismo?

NRA Puts Nancy Pelosi + Gaby Giffords Out For Target Practice. Will Sandy Hook Ruling Dampen Their Machismo?

The National Rifle Association left little to the imagination in their March 2019 issue of American Rifleman, citing Democrat Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, and gun control advocate, former Arizona Congresswoman Gabby Gifford — herself an assault rifle victim — as in the line of fire and perhaps in need of a little target practice.

There’s no doubt that these are macho men. The white nationalist assassin from Australia who Facebook livestreamed with his assault on two New Zealand mosques Friday is also a macho man. that currently leaves 50 dead and 50 hospitalized — many in critical condition.

On Thusday, March 14th, the Connecticut Supreme Court overturned a lower-court ruling, agreeng with Connecticut’s Sandy Hook families that the marketing employed by Remington Arms, a major manufacturer of deadly assault rifles and specifically the AF15, was so aggregious in appealing to men’s “killer instincts” that it transgressed against federal immunity laws that protect gun manufacturers from liability.

Connecticut law, the court wrote in the majority opinion, "does not permit advertisements that promote or encourage violent, criminal behavior." While federal law does offer protection for gun manufacturers, the majority wrote, "Congress did not intend to immunize firearms suppliers who engage in truly unethical and irresponsible marketing practices promoting criminal conduct, and given that statutes such as CUTPA are the only means available to address those types of wrongs, it falls to a jury to decide whether the promotional schemes alleged in the present case rise to the level of illegal trade practices and whether fault for the tragedy can be laid at their feet."

Read on in Salon. Sandy Hook Lawsuit Court Victory Opens Crack In Gun Maker Immunity Shield

NIKE, Pls Help Us FREE 'Fearless Girl' From State Street Global Advisors. We NEED Her Now More Than Ever

NIKE, Pls Help Us FREE 'Fearless Girl' From State Street Global Advisors. We NEED Her Now More Than Ever

Patriarchal, capitalist forces are clamping down on ‘Fearless Girl’, with her ‘owners’ State Street Global Advisors saying that Fearless cannot go worldwide, unless she flies the State Street banner. A New York federal judge issued a preliminary injunction this week, barring ‘Fearless Girl’s’ birth mother and creator, artist Kristen Visbal, from duplicating her likeness in any way.

The problem is that countries and their governments worldwide want their own ‘Fearless Girl’. She is a unifying, American vision, but her ‘owners’ State Street Global Advisors say “No Way. ‘Fearless Girl is our property.”

Simply stated, yet another female has become an unwilling advocate for big-money capitalism and the boys club. ‘Fearless Girl’s’ debut on International Women’s Day, March 8, 2017 inspired us beyond words. The small bronze goddess arrived in the dead of night, originally installed at Bowling Green in another legal battle with ‘Charging Bull’.