The 81st Session of the Texas Legislature has ended, and Texans have reason to be proud that legislators in the House and Senate overwhelmingly supported domestic violence legislation. Initially, the Session presented a daunting picture as the nation found itself in the worst recession, banking crisis and stock market collapse in decades. Only 1,461 out of 7,443 bills eventually became law, which is approximately one out of five bills. Despite these grim overall statistics, the Texas Council on Family Violence (TCFV) was able to accomplish every single legislative priority it set.  All of the priorities championed by TCFV are now law. This was made possible due to the overwhelming support from legislators, family violence service providers, survivors of family violence and partners in law enforcement, prosecution, community supervision and local and state government as well as ordinary Texans who refuse to accept that family violence should continue in our society. TCFV’s 81st Legislative Update can be viewed below in PDF format.
Legislative Report

by Simone Dupree

According to many media outlets Ryan Alexander Jenkins is accused of murdering his former wife and current girlfriend Jasmine Fiore. Mr. Alexander first appeared as a contestant on “Megan Wants a Millionaire”. The show completed production in March and Jenkins married Fiore a short time later. The couple’s marriage was annulled two months after they wed.

Fiore a model and promoter was last seen alive on August 13 when she and Jenkins went to a hotel in San Diego. Jenkins left the hotel the next morning reportedly alone according to authorities. A bloody suitcase was found in a trash bin off Interstate 5 in Buena Park. A man looking for recyclables came across the grizzly scene on Saturday morning. She was beaten badly, all her teeth were missing, and every finger cut off. Jenkins reported her missing the same day the suitcase was found. According to authorities, he then fled to Southern California and has recently been sighted in Washington State.

Examiner.com

…Experts say there will never be an end to the epidemic of domestic violence until men begin to hold other men accountable for their actions…

Yes, but men’s rights advocates continue to scour the news for any inkling of women involved in domestic violence incidents.  Like Robert Franklin, Glenn Sack’s talking head on Men’s News Daily,  waiting for Bob Herbert to condemn the Kuwaiti massacre, how pathetic.  Did Robert cover anything dealing with the recent massacre by the Tennessee man who killed six family members?  This man had recently tried to get custody of his kids by calling his ex-wife unfit.  Yeah, really.   Someone needs to tell Robert this isn’t a juvenile tit-for-tat spat, that real women and men are hurt by domestic violence.  And by the way, women are victims of it far more than men, deal with it…

Justiceformothers.wordpress.com

Battered Womens’ Advocate Leslie Brown Simmons Grieves For Her Sister Who Was Killed In A Domestic Shooting

CHICAGO (CBS) A domestic violence survivor who dedicated her life to helping battered women like herself wasn’t able to save her own sister from a similar fate. Leslie Brown Simmons is now grieving over the murder of her sister, also the victim of domestic violence.

CBS 2’s Anne State reports that Leslie Brown Simmons says she told her sister: ‘Don’t repeat what happened to me. Change your locks. Don’t let your husband in the house.’

Cbs2chicago.com

SALT LAKE CITY – A committee that blends Utah and Arizona state agencies, nonprofits and representatives from polygamous groups wants to help service providers learn how to work with plural families. The First Annual Safety Net Clinical Training Conference was held in Salt Lake City on Aug. 17. The seminar provides cultural education for social and domestic violence workers, medical providers and others. An estimated 37,000 polygamists live across the intermountain West, most in Utah and Arizona. Traditionally, plural families avoid accessing social services for fear of prosecution. Bigamy is illegal in both states.

Fox13now.com

Jeremy Ross FOX 6 Reporter

WITI-TV, MILWAUKEE – For years Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett has been a supporter of one organization dealing with domestic violence, that group is calling his actions a model for intervention.

Carmen Pitre of Sojourner Family Peace Center says, “I consider him a hero I think he’s got great conviction, and courage and he put it into action.” Pitre also believes Barrett is a role model for domestic violence intervention.

The Sojourner Family Peace Center receives about 16,000 calls for help with domestic violence per year. That’s more than 40 calls per day, detailing the kind of violence surrounding the Barrett incident.

Fox6now.com

By Alexis A. Moore

Today, there are increasing numbers of cases involving identity theft and domestic abuse. Domestic violence and stalking victims often fall prey to a form of identity theft which is often referred to by experts and prosecutors as identity theft as abuse” a subset of cyberstalking.

Identity Theft as Abuse is unique from traditional identity theft because instead of the intent and purpose being for “financial gain”, domestic abusers utilize these tactics in order to continue to have power and control over their victims.

Domestic violence abusers armed with their victims personal identifying information often apply for credit cards, magazine subscriptions, e-mail accounts, create web sites including my space and facebook accounts and use the victims identifying information to reek havoc upon their lives-often causing damage to the victims credit and reputation both of which are very difficult to restore once they are lost.

 Examiner.com

By Bob Herbert

“I actually look good. I dress good, am clean-shaven, bathe, touch of cologne — yet 30 million women rejected me,” wrote George Sodini in a blog that he kept while preparing for this week’s shooting in a Pennsylvania gym in which he killed three women, wounded nine others and then killed himself.

We’ve seen this tragic ritual so often that it has the feel of a formula. A guy is filled with a seething rage toward women and has easy access to guns. The result: mass slaughter.

Back in the fall of 2006, a fiend invaded an Amish schoolhouse in rural Pennsylvania, separated the girls from the boys, and then shot 10 of the girls, killing five.

 Nytimes.com