– Molly Shattuck, estranged wife of Constellation Energy CEO Mayo A. Shattuck III and a lifestyle guru who was once the oldest cheerleader in the NFL, was arrested in Delaware yesterday and charged with third-degree rape, unlawful sexual contact with a 15-year-old boy, and providing alcohol to minors, reports the News Journal. Shattuck, due back in court in December, pleaded not guilty and was released on $84,000 bail, reports the Baltimore Sun. She is the mother of three, the oldest of whom is a classmate of the alleged victim. Police outline the alleged timeline in court documents: They say that Shattuck commented on photos of the teen on Instagram in May; Shattuck's son then reportedly gave the boy his mom's cell phone number and prodded him to text her, saying "she is obsessed with you." The former Baltimore Ravens cheerleader later allegedly had make-out sessions with the teen in the back of her Cadillac Escalade, and invited him (along with her children and their friends) to her beach rental over Labor Day, where she allegedly performed oral sex on him. Police say the teen told them that Shattuck also offered him sex that weekend, but he "decided to leave at that point and go back to the rooftop."

Expand this summary.

CLOSE Molly Shattuck, a former Ravens cheerleader and estranged wife of a prominent energy corporation president, has been charged with having a sexual relationship with a 15-year-old boy in Delaware over the Labor Day weekend, police said.

 Molly Shattuck (Photo: Submitted)

 Well-known, former Baltimore Ravens cheerleader Molly Shattuck's Instagram-fueled attraction to a 15-year-old boy led to her arrest Wednesday and charges of third-degree rape and unlawful sexual conduct, according to Delaware State Police.

 The exchange was further prompted by the woman's son who encouraged the victim to text his mother because "she is obsessed with you," police said in court documents.

 Shattuck, 47, estranged wife of former Constellation Energy CEO Mayo Shattuck III, was indicted Monday by a Sussex County grand jury on two counts of third-degree rape, four counts of unlawful sexual contact and three counts of providing alcohol to minors, said Sgt. Paul Shavack.

 The relationship began at the end of May when Shattuck spotted photos of the teen on Instagram and posted a comment about them, according to information contained in an application for a search warrant.

 After the victim replied thank you in a private message through Instagram, Shattuck's son sent the victim his mother's cell phone number, saying, "You should text my Mom, she is obsessed with you," according to court records.

 Molly Shattuck rented this house on Dukes Road Labor Day weekend in Bethany Beach for her children and their friends. (Photo: Google)

 The budding friendship continued through the summer and progressed from chats about daily life to provocative talk and text messages into trysts in the rear seat of Shattuck's Cadillac Escalade where the two would make out and grope each other, court records said.

 It culminated Labor Day weekend in Bethany Beach where Shattuck had rented a house on Dukes Road for her children and their friends, who also included the victim. She provided beer to at least three of the minors and engaged in some sexual acts with the 15-year-old victim, unbeknownst to the other children in the house, police said.

 On Sept. 26, state police detectives were contacted by police in Baltimore County, Maryland who reported a 15-year-old boy had been involved in an inappropriate relationship with a woman, later identified as Shattuck, in Delaware's jurisdiction, Shavack said.

 An affidavit for a search warrant of Shattuck's Blythewood Road residence obtained by The News Journal outlines how the two first met in late June while the teen was visiting a friend in her neighborhood. That meeting ended with a hug but no other physical contact, court records said.

 The seduction continued from there to meetings in the Escalade at an AMC movie theater in Columbia, Maryland, and at a parking lot at a middle school in Mount Airy, Maryland.

 Through the month of July, while the teen attended summer school, Shattuck picked him up for lunch "five or six times" and drove to a parking garage where they would "talk and eat and then get in the back of the car and kiss or make out," police said in court records. During one of these incidents, Shattuck allegedly touched the teen's penis.

 "Between their encounters, Shattuck asked for pictures via text message" and he would send pictures of himself shirtless and one in his underwear, the victim told police.

 Over Labor Day weekend, she allegedly performed oral sex on the victim while outside the home and later invited him to her bedroom where they each stripped down to their underwear and fondled each other, the documents show.

 The victim told police Shattuck had offered to have sex with him, but he "decided to leave at that point and go back to the rooftop."

 Later that morning, the victim's father picked him up and took him home.

 In mid-September, Shattuck sent the teen pictures through Instagram of him taken at the beach over the Labor Day weekend with the other teenage house guests.

 During the Sept. 28 interview with police, the teen told investigators he had not seen or talked to Shattuck since Labor Day.

 The search warrant, executed October 1, led investigators to seize Shattuck's cell phone, computing and storage devices and external drives pertinent to the investigation. Detectives also specifically sought a pink lace bra and panties that the victim described her as wearing in the bedroom of her beach house.

 According to the nine-count indictment, filed in Sussex County Superior Court, it states the sexual incident occurred Aug. 31 in Delaware where Shattuck and the teen exchanged in foreplay. Eventually, according to a police account in the search warrant, Shattuck said to the teen that if he wanted to have sex, she would.

 Shattuck is also accused of purchasing alcohol for the boy and two other teens, all younger than 21.

 Shattuck's attorneys would not discuss the charges after her arraignment.

 "This is a difficult situation for everyone involved," one of her lawyers, Michelle Lipkowitz, said outside the courthouse. "That's all we have today."

 Earlier this year, Shattuck released a book entitled, "Molly Shattuck Vibrant Living," a back-to-basics approach to embracing lifestyle changes and better health. She is well-known in Baltimore for her marriage to Mayo Shattuck III and her stint as the NFL's oldest cheerleader. She also participated in the reality show Secret Millionaire in 2008.

 She is a prolific contributor to political candidates – one of the few political donors to give $5,000 to both the Obama and Romney campaigns in 2012. She also gave $5,000 to a Romney joint fundraising committee and $15,000 to an Obama joint committee. Federal Election Commission records note her occupation as "homemaker," "housewife," "spouse," and "self-employed."

 In an unpublished 2012 interview with USA Today, Shattuck said she used the contributions to pitch her idea of "solutions-oriented presidential campaigns." Just like beauty pageant winners use their reign to bring awareness of a cause, Shattuck proposed that presidential candidates use part of their campaign war chests to sponsor a charity.

 "If you think of all this money that's put into campaigns, none of it solves any problems," she said. "I thought about the idea for a long time." She described herself as a "very moderate Republican" and said she once worked on Capitol Hill for Rep. Doug Walgren, D-Pa.

 In a society profile in The Baltimore Sun in March, Shattuck said there had been "no animosity" in her split with her husband, and said they still spent time together with their children.

 "We are in a good place. Neither of us is in a serious relationship with another person," she told the Sun. "Who knows? Maybe we'll get back together someday."

 Shattuck was released Wednesday following her arraignment after posting $84,000 secured bail.

 Staff reporter Melissa Nann Burke and USA Today reporter Gregory Korte contributed to this story. Contact Terri Sanginiti at (302) 324-2771 or tsanginiti@delawareonline.com. Contact James Fisher at (302) 983-6772, on Twitter@JamesFisherTNJ or jfisher@delawareonline.com.

 Read or Share this story: http://delonline.us/1qpoNZi ||||| Molly Shattuck, the former Ravens cheerleader who was married to onetime Constellation Energy CEO Mayo A. Shattuck III, was arrested Wednesday and charged with third-degree rape and unlawful sexual contact with a 15-year-old boy, Delaware State Police said.

 The 47-year-old mother of three, who has been active in local charities such as the United Way of Central Maryland and the Baltimore School for the Arts, is accused of giving alcohol to the boy, who is her son's classmate, and performing oral sex on him at a Delaware beach house over the Labor Day weekend, according to an affidavit for a search warrant filed in Baltimore County District Court.

 Shattuck was arraigned Wednesday morning in Sussex County Superior Court in Georgetown, Del. She pleaded not guilty and was released on $84,000 bond — on the condition that she have no contact with the alleged victim or other minors except her own children, according to the Delaware attorney general's office. She was also required to turn in her passport, officials said.

 "She is maintaining her innocence," said Shattuck's defense lawyer, Eugene Maurer, of Wilmington, Del. "She is obviously quite distraught." Shattuck is due back in court Dec. 3 for a case review, Maurer said.

 A Delaware grand jury handed up a nine-count indictment against Shattuck on Monday, and it was unsealed Wednesday. She was charged with two counts of third-degree rape, which carries a potential sentence of two to 25 years in prison on each count; four counts of unlawful sexual contact in the second degree, with a penalty of up to three years in prison, and three counts of providing alcohol to a minor, which carries a fine of $100 to $500 and could lead to an order of community service or imprisonment of up to 60 days.

 The news that Molly Shattuck, the former Ravens cheerleader and ex-wife of a prominent businessman, was charged in Delaware with third-degree rape and unlawful sexual contact with a teenage boy has instantly spread across the country and even overseas on sites in England and Australia.

 According to the affidavit, the boy — a student at the McDonogh School — told police that Shattuck began a flirtation with him on the social networking site Instagram in May.

 The Baltimore Sun does not name alleged victims of sexual crimes.

 The McDonogh School issued a statement Wednesday saying that administrators contacted police in late September as soon as they learned of allegations involving a student and a parent of another student.

 "The safety and well-being of our students is our greatest priority at all times," Headmaster Charles W. Britton wrote to parents of McDonogh students in an email Wednesday. The letter said the parent — who was not named — had been banned from campus.

 Shattuck, a self-styled fitness and lifestyle guru who was the oldest cheerleader in the history of the NFL, began sending provocative messages to the boy in the spring saying, "we would have fun together," according to the affidavit.

 The two had sexual contact in the parking lot of a Columbia movie theater, the affidavit said, and also drove to a middle school parking lot where they kissed in the back seat of Shattuck's Cadillac Escalade.

 In the summer, she would pick up the boy during his lunch breaks from a class and drive him to the parking garage of the T. Rowe Price building in Owings Mills where they would "get in the back of the car and kiss or 'make out,'" according to the affidavit.

 Over Labor Day weekend, the boy joined Shattuck and her three children — who range in age from 11 to 15 — and their friends at a Bethany Beach rental home, according to the affidavit. The boy, who had traveled to the beach separately, asked his father for permission to spend the night with Shattuck's family. Shattuck, documents say, assured the boy's father that "there was no alcohol or drugs at the residence and she was the only adult."

 However, she shared wine with the alleged victim while he played "music and games" with the other boys, according to the affidavit. Around 2 a.m., Shattuck left the younger children asleep in the rental home and took the alleged victim and other teenagers to a liquor store and purchased Miller Lite and Bud Light beer for them, the document states.

 Back at the house, Shattuck asked the alleged victim to help her walk the dog. Once they got outside, she began kissing and fondling him, then performed oral sex on him, according to the affidavit. The boy then went up to a rooftop deck, where he and the other teens drank alcohol.

 Shattuck then "came up and said that [the alleged victim] needs to go to bed," according to the affidavit.

 The boy then went into Shattuck's bedroom, where she stripped to her underwear, performed oral sex on him again and told him she would be willing to have intercourse, the affidavit states. He decided to leave the bedroom. The boy's father picked him up in the morning, and the boy has not had contact with Shattuck since the incident, according to the affidavit.

 According to the letter from the headmaster of the McDonogh School, he learned of allegations against a parent on Sept. 24. Britton said in the letter that he immediately reported the allegations to Baltimore County police.

 "I want you to know that the parent has been prohibited from entering McDonogh's campus," he wrote, "and additional security measures have been in place to assure the safety of our students since the incident was reported."

 Delaware authorities said in a statement that Baltimore County police contacted them Sept. 26 to report that the 15-year-old had said he had an inappropriate relationship with a woman later identified as Shattuck.

 Delaware State Police searched Shattuck's North Baltimore home Oct. 1, seizing items they identified as "pertinent to the investigation." The affidavit gave police permission to seize Shattuck's cellphone, computers and other electronic devices as well as the "pink lace bra and underwear" that the alleged victim said Shattuck wore at the beach house.

 Howard County police said Wednesday that the alleged incident at the Columbia movie theater was not reported to authorities at the time.

 Police are investigating the allegations, said Howard police spokeswoman Sherry Llewellyn.

 Baltimore County State's Attorney Scott D. Shellenberger said his office had "reviewed the facts and the circumstances of the allegations" but was deferring prosecution due to the "seriousness of the allegations in Delaware."

 "Should additional facts come to light or circumstances change in the case in Delaware, this decision will be revisited," Shellenberger said.

 A spokeswoman with the U.S. attorney's office in Baltimore said Shattuck had not been charged by that agency. The agency will neither confirm nor deny the existence of an investigation, she said. |||||


– Are you a "digital native" or a "digital immigrant," and does it make a difference? Research recently published in the Teaching and Teacher Education journal indicates the concept of so-called digital natives—aka, those slotted into the "millennials" category and younger, and often thought to be masters of technology and multitasking—is a myth, reports Discover magazine. Why it's important for this myth to be shattered, scientists say, is because companies and educators have been urged to revamp their processes and environments to cater to the supposedly more tech-savvy younger generation, Quartz notes. "The answer is not how we can adapt [to the younger generation]," says lead author Paul Kirschner, an Open University educational psychology professor. "We have to treat people as human, cognitive learners and stop considering one specific group to have special powers." Previous studies have suggested digital immigrants—those born before the early '80s and, as Nature puts it, thought to be "doomed to be forever strangers in a computer-based strange land"—can handle technological tasks as well as the younger set. In fact, every generation has trouble multitasking (think emailing and watching TV at the same time) because our brains just aren't equipped to fully concentrate on multiple tasks at once. Even Marc Prensky, the educator who first popularized the terms "digital native" and "digital immigrants" in a 2001 essay, is now moving away from those labels and embracing the term "digital wisdom," which he says we can all aspire to. "The Digital Natives/Digital Immigrants metaphor is NOT about what people know, or can do, with technology," his site notes. "It's more about culture and attitudes." (Not taking anything away from this 4-year-old, though.)

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Thomas Trutschel/Photothek/Getty

 Some people put the cut-off at 1984, but for most it is 1980. People born after that date are the digital natives; those born before are digital immigrants, doomed to be forever strangers in a computer-based strange land.

 The generational difference between the groups goes beyond their numbers of Facebook friends and Twitter followers: it can also help to explain differences in how they buy insurance. At least, that’s according to a report released this week for the insurance industry. Targeting Millennials with Insurance explains that young people aren’t like those who came before and queued passively for cover. They “prioritize holidays”, for one, which might surprise some of them. Because they are digital natives, they “will favor technologically innovative insurance policies”.

 But a paper published last month in Teaching and Teacher Education reaches the opposite conclusion. The digital native is a myth, it claims: a yeti with a smartphone (P. A. Kirschner and P. D. Bruyckere Teach. Teach. Educ. 67, 135–142; 2017). The implications go beyond insurance. Many schools and universities are retooling to cope with kids and young adults who are supposedly different. From collaborative learning in the classroom to the provision of e-learning modules in undergraduate courses, the rise of the digital native is being used as a reason — some say a justification — for significant policy changes.

 Education policy is particularly vulnerable to political whims, fads and untested assumptions. From swapping evolution for creationism to the idea that multiple types of intelligence demand multiple approaches, generations of children are schooled according to dogma, not evidence. Surveys show, for example, that teachers and education experts subscribe to dozens of different and opposing ‘learning styles’. Under these, children can be categorized as activists or theorists, organizers or innovators, non-committers or plungers, globalists or analysts, deep or surface learners, and so on. Could the latest example be altering access to, and the provision of, technology in the classroom, simply because a new cohort is believed to be more familiar with it?

 It is beyond dispute that people brought up in the most recent decades have been exposed to a lot of digital technology — at least in developed countries. And paper co-author Paul Kirschner, an education researcher at the Open University of the Netherlands in Heerlen, happily describes himself in his academic work as a “windmill-fighter”. But whereas Don Quixote aimed against solid walls, the digital-native assumption, on closer inspection, does seem illusory. It is certainly no giant.

 A 2011 review for the Higher Education Academy in York, UK, put it bluntly, as the first of its executive-summary conclusions: “There is no evidence that there is a single new generation of young students entering Higher Education and the terms Net Generation and Digital Native do not capture the processes of change that are taking place”. Many members of the digital-savvy generation use technology in the same way as many of their elders: to passively soak up information. Children say they prefer IT in their lessons and courses? Do schools listen when kids say they prefer chips for lunch every day?

 The Teaching and Teacher Education paper raises another concern. Digital natives are assumed to be able to multitask, it warns. But the evidence for this is also scant. Reading text messages during university lectures almost certainly comes at a cognitive cost. So too, employers might assume, does fiddling with smartphones and laptops in meetings. Buy that technologically innovative insurance policy another time. ||||| Marketers and social theorists love to talk about digital natives. This group is supposedly a generation of early adopters under the age of about 35, uniquely adept at technology compared to their older counterparts. But according to a recent editorial in Nature, these digital natives are a figment of our collective imagination—about as easy to find as a “a yeti with a smartphone.“

 The editorial points to a review paper published this June in the journal Teaching and Teacher Education, which concluded that “information-savvy digital natives do not exist.” Despite assertions that younger generations learn differently and require specialized, multimedia teaching strategies because they grew up with smartphones and the web, the authors say that there is no evidence to suggest that digital natives are more tech-savvy or good at multi-tasking than older generations.

 This idea of the digital native was born out of the a 2001 essay by educator Marc Prensky, who claimed that a new generation was especially skilled at processing multiple streams of information and using technology, reports Discover Magazine. Prensky argued the world should adapt its teaching methods accordingly. But Paul Kirschner, co-author of the Teaching and Teacher Education study and a professor of educational psychology at the Open University in the Netherlands, argues that we hurt, rather than help, students learn when we assume that they have unique technological skills. ”We have to treat people as human, cognitive learners and stop considering one specific group to have special powers,” Kirschner tells Discover.

 This idea is backed up by other research showing that millennials do not necessarily possess special skills at basic computer programs compared to older generations. Research has also shown that multitasking is neither a special domain of the young nor an effective way to get good results for virtually anyone.

 If the idea of “digital natives” was just jargon that advertisers used to sell to the under-30 crowd, all this might not matter much. But the idea that digital native are fundamentally different is influencing everything from the way curriculums are designed to the way companies shape their corporate work environments.

 A better approach might be to rethink how we define generations. Digital natives have not developed unique intellectual abilities from their proximity to technology because basic human cognition doesn’t change from generation to generation. But Jean Twenge, a professor of psychology at San Diego State University, argues that categorizing people into distinct generations can be useful for certain things. She points out that millennials show significant differences from older peers in terms of their workplace preferences, life goals, religious participation, alcohol and drug use, and trust in institutions. In other words, generations may have different habits and world views—but the way people learn won’t change so quickly. ||||| Digital Natives

 Marc coined the terms “Digital Natives” and “Digital Immigrants” in an essay in 2001, bringing together under this umbrella concepts that had been floating around the idea world in various guises. (See this updated 2006 blog post by Marc on the origins of the terms.)

 The terms “Digital Natives” and “Digital Immigrants” have since circled the globe, being used by Bill Gates and Rupert Murdoch among millions of others. Books have been published by others on the subject (e.g. “Deconstructing Digital Natives”) and Harvard Univerity initiated a “Digital Natives Project”.

 The terms also brought their share of controversy, which Marc found surprising— given that this was, for him, only a metaphor to help people understand why and how things in their world were changing. Marc believes that much of the controversy was due to a mis-interpretation of the term Digital Native by some people to mean that “everyone born after a certain date knows everything about technology.” That, of course, is patently false.

 Today Marc has largely moved on from using this metaphor, and now focuses on all people finding “Digital Wisdom” together. For those who care, Marc’s current view of Digital Natives and Digital Immigrants is this:

 The Digital Natives / Digital Immigrants metaphor is NOT about what people know, or can do, with technology. Everyone has to learn in one way or another. It’s more about culture and attitudes. Digital Immigrants lived in two cultures: the pre-digital and the digital. Digital Natives have known only the digital culture. A great many of the Digital Immigrants’ deeply-felt attitudes and preferences were formed in, and reflect, the pre-digital culture and age. The Digital Natives / Digital Immigrants metaphor is basically a shorthand way of expressing that many of the attitudes formed by those who grew up in the old, pre-digital culture clash with those of the Natives, whose attitudes were formed in the new, digital culture — this is independent of what each may “know” about how digital technology works. Problems too often stem from people making judgments that reflect their own formative cultures, and thinking of those judgments as culture-independent or absolute. Immigrants have to watch out for thinking the way they learned to do things is still the best way. Natives need to realize that they still have to learn many things about technology — and life. That is why it is important that we all learn to work together, with mutual respect, to find Digital Wisdom.

 (See also Controversy) |||||


Summarize this article:

Acknowledging that survivors of sexual violence often behave differently than victims of other crimes, researchers at the University of Texas at Austin released an expansive report Monday that the UT System will use to train hundreds of officers who handle campus sexual assaults.

 The Blueprint for Campus Police, drafted by UT Austin’s Institute on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault, will be incorporated into training for almost 600 officers across all eight of the system’s academic institutions.

 “Police in America, historically, have responded to the investigation of crimes in kind of a generalized fashion, regardless of whether it’s a homicide, robbery, theft,” or assault, according to Mike Heidingsfield, the UT System director of police. Because assault victims have experienced trauma, their cases often call for a more specialized officer response he said.

 The training is especially necessary because of the prevalence of sexual assault, according to Noël Busch-Armendariz, the report’s principal investigator. One study, released in September, found that more than 18 percent of female undergraduates at UT Austin had been sexually assaulted since arriving on campus.

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 The report offers specific guidelines for officers from the moment they first interact with victims. “Let the victim know that they are safe,” the report reads. “Let the victim know they will not be judged,” and “understand that a victim’s alcohol or drug use is an issue of increased ‘vulnerability rather than culpability.’”

 The specificity of the report allows officers to approach abstract concepts, like empathy, in immediate, real-world ways, according to Busch-Armendariz. “We wanted to make the blueprint a product that was meaningful and useful,” she said.

 Some signs that might indicate an individual is lying about being the victim of a crime — if their story changes between retellings, or if they can’t remember key details, for example — must be reinterpreted in the context of assault, she added.

 “Trauma victims often omit, exaggerate, or make up information when trying to make sense of what happened to them or to fill gaps in memory,” the report reads. “This does not mean the sexual assault did not occur.”

 The eight academic institutions in the UT System have unique cultures — and unique prevailing beliefs about assault — but some misunderstandings about rape are widespread nationally, Heidingsfield said. Two years ago, the U.S. Department of Education launched a federal investigation into UT Pan American (which has since been merged into UT Rio Grande Valley) and 54 other colleges over their handling of sexual abuse complaints.

 The report acts as sort of a primer about the reality and impact of sexual assault, addressing a number of “common rape myths” as well as concepts such as victim blaming.

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 “If a girl is raped while drunk, she is at least somewhat responsible for letting things get out of control,” reads the first entry on the myth list. Other items include “if a guy is drunk, he might rape someone unintentionally” and “a lot of times, girls who say they were raped agreed to have sex and then regret it.”

 After adapting their perceptions based on the reality of assault, police officers are encouraged to adopt policies that are “victim-centered, science-based, and trauma-informed,” Heidingsfield said.

 Another dominant theme of the report is victim behavior after an incident of assault. Although officers might expect survivors to be hysterical or crying, they are often “in shock and passive, quiet, and unemotional,” the report reads.

 “The crown jewel to this research effort for us is that we now have the science to understand neurobiology, and victimology, to apply that to how victims present themselves to police officers,” Heidingsfield said. This “allows us to push tradition to the side and now understand why victims say what they do.”

 Although the report outlines best practices for dealing with survivors of sexual assault, researchers did not actually interview survivors in the process of conducting their study. Instead, they relied on 27 interviews with campus presidents and police officers, among others.

 The report’s authors did employ previously collected data from survivors in other institute studies, Busch-Armendariz said.

 “The retelling of incidents wasn’t really necessary for the data they’re collecting, and they had the information they needed,” said Jenny LaCoste-Caputo, a UT System spokeswoman. The researchers did not want to “reopen real emotional wounds,” she added.

 Disclosure: The University of Texas at Austin is a corporate sponsor of The Texas Tribune. A complete list of Tribune donors and sponsors can be viewed here. ||||| Male student files lawsuit seeking court’s help to dismiss pending disciplinary hearing

 The University of Texas at Austin has been sued for allegedly wrongly seeking to expel a male student over accusations that he sexually assaulted a non-UT student in her off-campus apartment.

 No criminal charges were ever filed against the male student over the alleged assault. The alleged victim herself never filed an official complaint with campus or city police officers, according to the lawsuit.

 But the University of Texas at Austin has recommended that the 21-year-old male student, who is one semester away from earning a degree in physics, be expelled for violating the institutional rules of the college, the suit states.

 The attorney for the male student has asked a judge to stop UT-Austin from holding a planned disciplinary hearing at which Title IX investigators for the school have recommended his expulsion.

 Court documents state the male student has not been afforded his Constitutional due process rights and that the allegations in question do not constitute sexual assault, among other protestations lodged by the plaintiff’s attorney.

 Drunken sex?

 On the night of the alleged assault on March 6, 2015, the plaintiff, John Doe, met two girls, Jennifer Smith and non UT-Austin student Jane Roe (names changed to protect privacy) at a house party near campus.

 After several hours of excessive drinking and flirting, the plaintiff went to Roe’s apartment along with Smith. Roe was drunk and largely incoherent, and Smith allegedly told Doe at that point that if he had sex with Roe it would be rape, court documents state, adding Doe asked to crash on the couch and Smith and Roe went to sleep in the bedroom.

 However, not long after, Smith came out from the bedroom and asked Doe to have sex with her, a version of events both agree upon, court documents state. They had sex on the bed as Roe was asleep next to them.

 The following morning was just as eventful.

 According to the lawsuit, “Ms. Roe, who had fallen to the floor during the night, woke up and got back into bed” – the bed where Smith and Doe were asleep. Roe and Doe then began to touch each other in suggestive manners. Smith left the bed during the foreplay to give the two privacy, the lawsuit states.

 “While collecting her things, Ms. Smith heard Ms. Roe talking, saw her responding to the plaintiff’s touching, and believed that Ms. Roe intended to have consensual sex with the plaintiff as she was about to leave,” the suit states.

 “At no time during sex was Ms. Roe unconscious,” it added. “She was an active sexual participant at all times during the intercourse that took place that morning.”

 Later that day, however, Roe texted Smith that she was unconscious during the sex and was upset her friend had left her alone in her apartment with Doe: “I don’t remember throwing up, or coming home, or having this random fucking guy in my bed. … I didn’t want this guy. At all. This guy wanted me and got me when I wasn’t conscious.”

 In reply to Roe’s text, Smith said: “Dude I didn’t realize you were unconscious, you were talking to me…”

 In the weeks after the incident, Doe and Roe texted each other. At first, Roe indicated she was upset with Doe and said she thought the sex was nonconsensual because she was unconscious. However, through chatting on Facebook and texting, Roe became satisfied “that both the plaintiff and Ms. Smith believed Ms. Roe was awake and sober during the sex that took place, despite her own lack of memory,” the suit states.

 “Ms. Roe would acknowledge that she believed the sex between her and the plaintiff ‘sounded passionate’ and she was surprised that she had confided in him that she had appeared in pornographic films,” the suit states.

 In texts, Doe and Roe talked about meeting up, but never did meet face to face again.

 RELATED: Students taught determining factor between sex and sexual assault is consent

 Investigation launched

 About a month later, on April 8, 2015, Roe’s father called the University of Texas Police Department claiming his daughter had been sexually violated by the plaintiff. However, the department contains no record of Roe reporting any assault and no charges were pursued against the plaintiff, the suit states.

 But the father’s call to police was referred to UT Austin’s Dean of Students office, which commenced a Title IX investigation into the events, despite Roe not being an actual student at the University of Texas.

 On May 18, 2015, during the campus investigation, Doe told campus Title IX officials he believed he had consent from Roe because “she was talking dirty, she was enjoying it,” court documents state.

 “We had sex and then she fell asleep and then woke up and had sex again,” Doe had added. “That’s when she told me she had a girlfriend and that she had done a porn movie a few months prior. I feel like as evidence she is telling me all this personal stuff about her, it’s not just me raping this drunk girl.”

 “I don’t remember her puking at all,” Doe also told investigators of Roe. “There was a time when she passed out and I had written her off then. After she passed out, (Ms. Smith) let me chill on the couch so I didn’t have to walk home. Nothing after that would have happened if (Ms. Smith) hadn’t invited me back into the bedroom.”

 But the campus Title IX investigators, also named as defendants in the suit, found that the plaintiff “had sexually assaulted another student …” court documents state.

 RELATED: Student expelled for ‘gray rape’ accusation settles lawsuit against university

 Due process in question

 In November 2015, Doe received word that his expulsion had been recommended for violating the institutional rules of the college, but that he would be granted a hearing to contest the recommendation.

 The lawsuit argues that there was gender bias by investigators against the plaintiff in violation of Title IX, and that the hearing Doe has been afforded has such strict rules on presenting evidence that it hampers his due process rights under state law. For example, he cannot cross examine Roe. He cannot subpoena witnesses.

 “Students have a protected liberty interest in public higher education, and therefore cannot be deprived of that protected liberty interest without due course [due process] of law,” it adds.

 Due course of law in the state is provided by the Texas Constitution. It directly states: “No citizen of this State shall be deprived of life, liberty, property, privileges or immunities, or in any manner disfranchised, except by the due course of law of the land.”

 What’s more, according to the lawsuit, the university’s “definition and application of the term ‘consent’ in the context of sexual assault disciplinary actions is so broad that the University may expel a student without proving that there were any objective indicators of non-consent from the alleged victim.”

 The plaintiff’s attorney is Brian Roark, an Austin-based lawyer known for successfully defending former Texas Longhorn football player Kendall Sanders, who was found not guilty of sexual assault last October. Sanders had been kicked off the team after his arrest in July 2014 and faced two to 20 years in prison if convicted.

 Roark did not respond to a request for comment from The College Fix on when the judge is expected to rule on the request to halt the expulsion proceedings against Doe.

 RELATED: Rape accusers sue University of Tennessee for giving accused students due process

 Like The College Fix on Facebook / Follow us on Twitter

 IMAGE: Shutterstock ||||| A physics major one semester away from graduation is suing to stop University of Texas-Austin from expelling him based on the unproven accusation he sexually assaulted a woman in a drunken, off-campus encounter.

 In one of the latest cases of male college students turning to the courts after being punished by public universities for being accused of sexual assaults, the 21-year-old man identified as John Doe in legal papers claims the school is violating his Constitutional right to due process. His alleged victim, who did not attend the school, never filed a police report, according to his lawyer, yet the school took action based on her father’s complaint.

 “What we’re seeing here is a nationwide movement that has gone too far in what the system sees as victims of campus assaults,” said Brian Roark. "Give us a fair hearing, and we'll deal with the consequences."

 “My law office gets phone calls every day from students who want to defend their right to due process.” - Andrew Miltenberg

 Doe, who claims the sex was consensual, is facing a disciplinary hearing that could result in his expulsion, The College Fix reported. He filed the suit about two months ago with the goal of clearing his name.

 The alleged incident occurred on March 6, 2015, after a night of heavy drinking at a house party where Doe met two unnamed women, according to the lawsuit. The three spent the night at an off-campus apartment belonging to one of the women, where Doe had sex with one woman that night and the other the next morning, according to the lawsuit.

 The father of the woman who had sex with Doe the next morning told campus police of the encounter a month later, prompting a school investigation. Doe told investigators that the woman was enthusiastic about the encounter and talked about being in a pornographic movie.

 “It’s not just me raping this drunk girl,” Doe told investigators, according to the lawsuit.

 But the alleged victim later told her friend, who had had sex with Doe hours earlier, that she was still intoxicated from the previous night and was in fact unconscious during sex.

 “I don’t remember throwing up, or coming home, or having this random … guy in my bed,” the alleged victim texted her friend, according to the lawsuit. “I didn’t want this guy. At all. This guy wanted me and got me when I wasn’t conscious.”

 Her friend reportedly responded, “Dude I didn’t realize you were unconscious, you were talking to me,” according to the lawsuit.

 Differing accounts of drunken sexual encounters are at the core of most similar cases being dealt with by colleges and universities in the wake of a 2011 directive from the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights. In that letter, the federal government threatened to withhold funding under the gender equity law known as Title IX if schools did not demonstrate they were taking serious action to halt the epidemic of sexual assaults on campus.

 While proponents say the federal efforts have protected women on campus, critics say it sparked a rush to judgment against young men who can have their lives ruined by unproven accusations.

 "The university has been placed under enormous political pressure to appear tough on those accused of sexual assault and as a result have adopted a practice of expelling males from the university without regard to the rights of the accused student of the evidence,” the lawsuit states.

 Roark said UT-Austin's policy barred Doe from having legal representation, cross-examining the accuser or even calling on testimony from corroborating witnesses, including the other woman. He scoffed at the “27-year-old education grads” he said typically staff the school-run probes.

 UT-Austin declined to comment, citing a policy of not discussing ongoing litigation or student discipline.

 Dozens of young men are going to court to seek relief from punishment and reputational damage meted out by schools for alleged sexual assaults, according to Inside Higher Ed. As of November, there are more than 50 pending lawsuits filed by men who claim they were unfairly expelled from college after being accused of sexual assault.

 “I think you can have a system that encourages victims to come forward while protecting the rights of the accused,” Andrew Miltenberg, a lawyer who specializes in campus assault due process, told FoxNews.com. “But are we there yet? No.”

 Miltenberg gained national attention when he represented a Columbia University student accused of raping a fellow student who went on to conduct a campaign against the man by carrying a mattress around campus and making a video re-enactment of her alleged rape.

 Paul Nungesser was cleared of rape charges, but is now suing the school in federal court for failing to stop Emma Sulkowicz from harassing him. Sulkowicz, with the help of three friends, carried the mattress when she received her diploma during graduation to the cheers of fellow students.

 Nungesser’s mother, who was at the graduation ceremony, told Newsweek, “I would have liked to go to every single parent in that audience and say, ‘I am the mother of Paul, and I am very proud of my son, and I hope you discuss with your sons and daughters what they did to him.”

 In one of the first of its kind, the U.S. District Court in Rhode Island on Monday ruled to allow a former student’s lawsuit to proceed against Brown University, alleging that the school violated his due process and discriminated against him based on gender during a wrongful sexual misconduct investigation.

 “My law office gets phone calls every day from students who want to defend their right to due process,” Miltenberg said. “The courts are going to have to see enough of these that there is a sense across the country that, Wait, this is coming up too much, there really must be something wrong.”

 Edmund DeMarche is a news editor for FoxNews.com. Follow him on Twitter @EDeMarche.

  |||||

– A 21-year-old University of Texas-Austin student is suing the school to keep from being expelled one semester before graduating after being accused of raping a woman, Fox News reports. His lawsuit claims a disciplinary hearing scheduled to decide his fate violates "his Constitutional right to due process." The College Fix explains the unnamed student won't be able to call witnesses or cross-examine the alleged victim during the hearing. The school has already recommended he be expelled. The alleged sexual assault took place last March after the student met two women at a house party and went home with them. He had sex with one of the women that night before having sex with the alleged victim in the morning. The lawsuit states the student believed the alleged victim was consenting to sex, in part, because she "talked about being in a pornographic movie." But she later texted her friend that she was still unconscious from heavy drinking the night before and didn't remember having sex with the student. The lawsuit points out the alleged victim never filed a police report (she did talk to campus police, and her father later complained to the school) and claims she later told her friend the sex must have been consensual because it sounded "passionate" even though she didn't remember it. The University of Texas-Austin released a report Monday detailing how its officers deal with sexual-assault allegations, according to the Texas Tribune. “Trauma victims often omit, exaggerate, or make up information when trying to make sense of what happened to them or to fill gaps in memory,” the report states. “This does not mean the sexual assault did not occur.”


Write an article based on this summary:

– The Portland teen accused of peeing in a city reservoir on Wednesday insists he didn't do it—in a relatively NSFW defense. "Yeah, it's f---ing retarded, dude," 18-year-old Dallas Swonger tells Vocativ in what the site calls an "expletive-filled interview" given as Swonger smoked a Newport cigarette. "I didn't piss in the f---ing water." He explains that he did urinate, after a night of skateboarding at Mount Tabor Park, but he did so against the wall of the reservoir, not into the reservoir. "I was like, 'Dudes I have to piss so bad.' So I just went over to the wall. I leaned up against the wall and pissed on it. Right there on the wall, dude. I don’t know else how to describe it." Officials beg to differ (a Water Bureau official got very specific about it, saying that surveillance video showed Swonger making sure "to get his little wee wee right up to the iron bars"), and thus decided to dump 38 million gallons of water, but Swonger notes that even if his urine had made it into the water, he doesn't see what the big deal is. "Dude, I’ve seen dead birds in there. During the summer time I've see hella dead animals in there. Like dead squirrels and s---. I mean, really, dude?" Vocativ also got amusing quotes from Swonger's mom ("I’m sorry, he just graduated from high school. He’s trying to get his stuff together") and one of the friends skateboarding with him that night ("He just doesn’t make the best decisions. Honestly, he has the potential to do really good"). Possible criminal charges are still pending, the Oregonian notes. The paper also reports that the water tested clean of urine-related toxins, but all 38 million gallons will still be dumped.

Water from the Mt. Tabor Reservoir system tested clean of urine-related toxins Thursday, news that came as no surprise to Water Bureau administrators yet also did not change their decision to dump 38 million gallons after a man peed in the Southeast Portland storage pool a day earlier.

 City leaders said they were going ahead with plans to drain the water in Reservoir 5 to ensure no health risks to Portland water customers. The decision to empty and clean the reservoir has drawn mention of Portland -- much of it disbelieving or out-and-out derisive -- by national and international news media.

 The chief point of contention: Reservoir 5 can hold up to 50 million gallons of water. The typical adult human bladder can hold two or so cups of urine. So the possibility someone getting sick because of Wednesday morning’s incident is, as Water Bureau officials acknowledge, slight at best.

 “From a public health protection standpoint, it’s not necessary to get rid of the water,” said Anna Harding, co-director of the School of Biological and Population Health Sciences at Oregon State University. “The urine, which has very few microorganisms to begin with, would be very, very, very, very diluted.”

 Still, city officials say, any risk is too much.

 “The professionals told me this is the way to go. I’m following their advice. We’ve got plenty of water, so we will go ahead and take the safest course,” said City Commissioner Nick Fish, who oversees the utility. “People can feel free to second guess, but this is not a debate. This is the best public health decision.”

 The second-guessing came from far and wide Thursday, including the leading advocate of a May ballot measure to switch control of the city’s water away from the City Council to an independently elected water district board.

 Kent Craford, a former lobbyist for large industrial water customers and co-petitioner of the ballot measure, said he thinks flushing 38 million gallons is a bad idea.

 “It’s a public relations decision," he said. "I wouldn’t waste all that water, all that money.”

 Craford would not speculate whether the water board he’s proposing would feel the same.

 “That would be up to the board, up to the managers,” he said. “Our belief is that a water district board will make better decisions than the City Council, and that they would ensure better management than what we have right now.”

 The debate about dumping or keeping the water is uniquely Portland with roots in the city’s multi-year battle against new federal mandates on open-air reservoirs. Portland leaders opted to stop fighting last year, and Mt. Tabor’s open reservoir system must be disconnected from the city water system by the end of 2015. The open-air reservoir at Washington Park must go offline by the end of 2016.

 “Politics had no impact on our decision in this case,” Fish said. “But this is Mt. Tabor and the reservoirs, and everything that happens up there is evaluated through a political prism. I know people are going to second guess. That’s their right.”

 -- Anna Griffin

  ||||| Update: Kavanaugh and Vocativ are now reporting that the paperwork on this case lists an incorrect last name for the man accused of urinating in the reservoir. His name is Dallas Swonger.

 Dallas Delynn says he didn’t urinate in Portland’s drinking supply, but rather on a wall next to it.

 The 18-year-old caught on video hanging around the Mt. Tabor Reservoir system early Wednesday morning has granted his first interview to the online news magazine Vocativ.

 In the free-flowing, profanity-laced conversation with former Oregonian reporter Shane Dixon Kavanaugh, Delynn said he did not urinate in the water:

 “Everybody thinks it’s funny and a joke and I’m going to be on the news,” he says, flicking the cigarette butt into a nearby bush. “It’s no … joke, dude. I don’t want people thinkin’ that Dallas is dumb ass because he pissed in the … water. In our drinking water. Yeah, that’s … awesome. I mean, wouldn’t you be pissed about that?”

 Instead, Delynn said he urinated on the wall next to Reservoir 5.

 Delynn and two friends were given written citations for trespassing – Delynn also was written up for urinating somewhere other than a park bathroom – and barred from Mt. Tabor for 30 days. Portland Water Bureau officials are working with the Multnomah County District Attorney to determine whether there are criminal charges to be filed.

 Delynn also told Kavanaugh he thinks it's silly to flush 38 million gallons of water:

 "Like, how they can do that?” says Delynn. “How can they be like, ‘Yeah, we’re gonna flush all that water.’ Dude, I’ve seen dead birds in there. During the summer time I’ve see hella dead animals in there. ... I mean, really, dude?”

  |||||

 Dallas Swonger wants the world to just know one thing.

 “I didn’t piss in the fucking water,” he says, pulling a drag off a Newport cigarette.

 Dallas Swonger

 The Portland teen is in the hot seat after surveillance video supposedly captured him taking a leak in a city reservoir early Wednesday morning, prompting officials to flush 38 million gallons of drinking water down the drain.

 For those more visually inclined, that’s enough H20 to fill about 57 Olympic-size swimming pools. Or 304 million tallboy cans of Pabst Blue Ribbon.

 “Yeah, it’s fucking retarded dude,” Swonger says.

 In an exclusive, expletive-filled interview with Vocativ outside his mother’s home Thursday, the 18-year-old insisted that his piss never trickled into Portland’s drinking supply. He also lamented the looming reality that this story will make him a national (and international) laughing stock.

 “Everybody thinks it’s funny and a joke and I’m going to be on the news,” he says, flicking the cigarette butt into a nearby bush. “It’s no fuckin’ joke, dude. I don’t want people thinkin’ that Dallas is a dumb ass because he pissed in the fuckin’ water. In our drinking water. Yeah, that’s fucking awesome. I mean, wouldn’t you be pissed about that?”

 The night that launched the whiz-seen-round-the-world had started off on a more feel-good note for Swonger. He says he had moved back to town that very day from St. Helens, which is 30 miles north of Portland, where he had been living with his dad. Eager to shred with some friends, he and two buddies went to skateboard at Mount Tabor Park after hours, which is home to three of the city’s five uncovered drinking water reservoirs – and a handful of excellent hill runs. After bombing down the park’s western slope, nature began to call Swonger. It was around 1 a.m. and the three friends, along with two other people they met in the park, were near one of the reservoirs.

 “I was like, ‘Dudes I have to piss so bad,’” he says. “So I just went over to the wall [of the reservoir].”

 “I leaned up against the wall and pissed on it,” he says. “Right there on the wall, dude. I don’t know else how to describe it.”

 Water Bureau officials, however, insist Swonger took a leek in the drink. “When you see the video, he’s leaning right up because he has to get his little wee wee right up to the iron bars,” bureau administrator Davd Shaff told the Oregonian. “There’s really no doubt what he’s doing.”

 Water Bureau security and Portland Police officers later stopped Swonger and his two friends, identified as Trey McDaniel and Daniel McDonald, and cited all three with trespassing. Swonger was also cited for public urination.

 While human pee is not a health hazard – and scores of animals piss, shit and die in Mount Tabor’s reservoirs every year – the city says it will dump a total of 38 million gallons of water, even though test results on Thursday showed no signs of water contamination.

 “Like, how they can do that?” says Swonger. “How can they be like, ‘Yeah, we’re gonna flush all that water.’ Dude, I’ve seen dead birds in there. During the summer time I’ve see hella dead animals in there. Like dead squirrels and shit. I mean, really, dude?”

 Yes, really. In 2011, city officials flushed 7.8 million gallons of reservoir water from Mount Tabor after another man decided to unzip and rip. The Water Bureau also says that it intends to pursue additional charges against Swonger.

 Mount Tabor Reservoir: The city is flushing 38 million gallons of drinking water down the drain because it says Dallas peed in the open reservoir. REUTERS/Steve Dipaola

 The whole ordeal has Swonger pretty rattled. “Dallas is really bummed out about all of it,” says his skateboard buddy McDonald, who we reached by phone on Thursday. “He’s a really good guy at heart. He just doesn’t make the best decisions. Honestly, he has the potential to do really good.”

 As Swonger stood outside his family’s yellow, single-story house talking to a reporter, his mother suddenly opened the front door. “Dallas, don’t do anything stupid,” she says, ushering him indoors. She adds: “I’m sorry, he just graduated from high school. He’s trying to get his stuff together.”

 Swonger stops at the front door and turns around. “Sorry, dude,” he says. “I don’t know, dude. I don’t know what’s going on.” |||||


Article:
Centers for Disease Control recorded 918 cases of syphilis in infants in 2017, a 46% increase on the previous year

 Number of babies born with syphilis in US hits 20-year high, report finds

 Nearly 1,000 babies were born with syphilis in the United States last year – a number that has more than doubled in just four years, new statistics show.

 The spike in babies born with the dangerous but easily curable disease is one face of a sexually-transmitted disease (STD) crisis that has worsened across the country, with diagnoses hitting a new record high in 2017.

 US opioids: number of addicted women giving birth quadrupled over 15 years Read more

 There were 918 cases of syphilis in infants in 2017 – a 20-year high, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That’s up 46% from the 628 cases the year before, and up from 362 in 2013.

 “It’s just a systemic public health failure,” David Harvey, the executive director of the National Coalition of STD Directors, told the Guardian. “It’s shocking that this has come roaring back in the United States.”

 The spike in the disease, known as congenital syphilis in infants, comes even as the US has come close to eliminating the transmission of HIV from mothers to children.

 The 918 cases last year included 64 babies who were stillborn, and 13 who died as infants.

 It is easily preventable: women who test positive for syphilis while pregnant can be treated and cured with penicillin, and won’t pass the disease on to their babies.

 But some women never get tested, while others test negative but then contract the disease during their pregnancy. Left untreated, there’s an 80% chance a woman will pass the disease on to her baby.

 “When passed to a baby, syphilis can result in miscarriage, newborn death and severe lifelong physical and mental health problems,” said Dr Jonathan Mermin of the CDC.

 “No parent should have to bear the death of a child when it would have been prevented with a simple test and safe treatment,” Mermin said.

 The spike in infant cases comes amid a jump in syphilis infections overall – there were 30,644 diagnoses in 2017, a 76% increase from the previous year.

 Gay and bisexual men make up a large majority of people diagnosed with syphilis. But for the last five years, syphilis rates among women have been rising as well.

 The syphilis rate went up 143% among reproductive age women since 2013, according to the CDC, bringing with it a jump in babies born with the disease.

 Infants born with syphilis were reported in 37 states, with western and southern states the hardest hit. Louisiana had the highest rate of congenital syphilis of any state.

 Harvey said the increase reflects a failure to make sure women are tested for the disease at the correct times in their pregnancies, and a lack of access to prenatal care overall.

 The opioid epidemic has also contributed to the uptick, with women who use drugs more likely to engage in risky sex and less likely to get proper treatment.

 “A small number of women are trading sex for drugs,” Harvey said. “There is a very real intersection between congenital syphilis and substance abuse.”

 Total STD diagnoses have reached a record high – with nearly 2.3m cases of chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis in 2017, according to the CDC’s report. That’s an increase of more than 200,000 cases from the previous year, and the fourth straight year there has been a sharp increase.

 “Not that long ago, gonorrhea rates were at historic lows, syphilis was close to elimination, and we were able to point to advances in STD prevention,” Dr Gail Bolan, the director of the division of STD prevention, said in the CDC’s report. “That progress has since unraveled.”

 The infections have surged as STD prevention funding has dwindled, and condom use has declined.

 Harvey is pushing the Trump administration and Congress to declare the issue a public health emergency.

 “This field is starved for resources. It’s become a crisis,” he said. ||||| This crawl of online resources of the 115th US Congress was performed on behalf of The United States National Archives & Records ||||| The number of babies born with syphilis surged from 362 in 2013 to 918 in 2017, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Tuesday. (Photo: Orbon Alija, Getty Images)

 The number of babies born with syphilis has more than doubled since 2013, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a trend that medical professionals said shows the need to be vigilant about testing and treating the rare but potentially disease.

 The number of babies born with syphilis rose from 362 in 2013 to 918 in 2017, the CDC reported Tuesday. The greatest number of cases were in the South and West.

 Syphilis is a bacterial infection that is easily cured with penicillin. But women with untreated syphilis can pass it on to their fetuses during pregnancy or to their babies during birth.

 If transmitted, it can cause miscarriage, stillbirth or newborn death. Syphilis caused 77 stillbirths or newborn deaths in 2017, the CDC reported.

 For babies who survive, it can lead to an assortment of physical and mental health problems.

 More: Sexually transmitted diseases surge for the 4th straight year, CDC reports

 More: STDs reach all-time high in California, leading to spike in stillbirths due to syphilis, state health authorities say

 More: Washing hands and other ways to protect newborns from deadly herpes virus

 David Harvey, executive director of the National Coalition of STD Directors, called the surge "a systemic failure."

 "We are failing pregnant women in the United States," he said. "We are seeing almost 1,000 babies born with syphilis that can easily be prevented."

 The United States has made HIV transmission from mothers to newborns extremely rare, in part through the federal Ryan White Part D program, which funds community programs that provide care to pregnant women with HIV.

 Harvey's organization wants a similar program to prevent the mother-to-newborn transmission of syphilis. Harvey said pregnant women should be tested for syphilis as early as possible and later in their pregnancies.

 According to the CDC, mothers of one in three babies born with syphilis in 2016 were tested during pregnancy. But they were either infected after getting tested, or they were not treated in time to prevent passing the infection to the baby.

 Thirty-seven states reported cases in 2017. Louisiana ranked first with 93.4 cases for every 100,000 births.

 "We're not proud of these numbers," said Dr. Rebekah Gee, secretary of the Louisiana Department of Health. "Every case of syphilis should be preventable."

 Gee said Louisiana has worked to reduce the number of new cases.

 The state examines every case of newborn syphilis to lean steps that could prevent future cases, she said. One trend they discovered was moms who initially tested negative for the infection or were treated in their first trimesters contracted syphilis during later stages of pregnancy.

 Louisiana requires doctors test pregnant women for both syphilis and HIV in the first and third trimesters.

 The health department has also assigned case managers to Baton Rouge and Shreveport, the two regions with the highest number of cases. They work to raise awareness among doctors about the need to test.

 Case managers and doctors also warn pregnant moms who have been tested or treated that they can contract the infection again, said DeAnn Gruber, the department's director of infectious diseases.

 "Education is really important," Gruber said.

 The Arizona health department's newly formed maternal morbidity review board identified congenital syphilis as a growing problem.

 Arizona's 36 cases so far in 2018 already have surpassed last year's total, state health officials said. Six babies have died at or shortly after birth this year.

 California had the most cases of congenital syphilis in the nation, and the third highest rate, according to the CDC.

 One of the state's biggest challenges is reaching people who don't have access to prenatal care, said Heidi Bauer, chief of STD control for the California Department of Public Health.

 Bauer said common barriers are poverty and unstable housing. Some moms are struggling with substance abuse, and may avoid drug testing or interaction with government agencies such as Child Protective Services.

 California public health officials have attempted to reach out to at-risk people through needle exchanges and in prisons, Bauer said.

 "Syphilis is one of those ancient diseases that tends to reemerge where people are largely marginalized," Bauer said.

 Preliminary figures reported by the CDC last month showed new cases of the most common treatable sexually transmitted diseases – chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis – spiked nearly 10 percent in 2017 to an all-time high.

 These infectious diseases have continued a four-year climb. Analysts cited changing sexual behavior and a lack of awareness.

 Read or Share this story: https://usat.ly/2pBI8Po |||||Summary:

– The CDC's director of STD prevention says that "not long ago" syphilis was close to elimination. But some troubling new statistics show that a lot of ground has been lost in the fight against STDs, and it's affecting some of the most vulnerable members of society. According to a new CDC report, 918 babies were born with syphilis in the US in 2017, the Guardian reports. That's a 20-year high. For context, there were 628 cases of syphilis in infants in 2016. In 2013, there were 362. Of the 2017 cases, 77 resulted in stillbirths or newborn deaths, per USA Today. Western and southern states had the most cases of congenital syphilis in 2017, per the report, with Louisiana having the highest rate. "It's just a systematic public health failure. It's shocking that this has come roaring back in the United States," David Harvey of the National Coalition of STD Directors tells the Guardian. Syphilis is easily treated with antibiotics, and women can be treated while they are pregnant to prevent the disease from being passed on to their child. But, per the Guardian, some women do not get tested, and others contract the disease while pregnant after testing negative. In some cases, there is a connection to drug use. Overall, there were 30,644 syphilis diagnoses in the US in 2017—up 76% from the year before.


Article:

From Facebook:

 Earlier this evening, President Obama called to inform me that American forces killed Osama bin Laden, the leader of the al Qaeda network that attacked America on September 11, 2001. I congratulated him and the men and women of our military and intelligence communities who devoted their lives to this mission. They have our everlasting gratitude. This momentous achievement marks a victory for America, for people who seek peace around the world, and for all those who lost loved ones on September 11, 2001. The fight against terror goes on, but tonight America has sent an unmistakable message: No matter how long it takes, justice will be done. ||||| In 2008 I founded Huck PAC to promote conservative principles and help elect conservative candidates at every level of government. I believe that America is at a crossroads, and the choices we make in the coming years will determine the future of our country for generations. — Mike Huckabee ||||| ABC's Karen Travers and Z. Byron Wolf report:

 Former presidents are weighing in on the killing of Osama bin Laden by American forces operating inside Pakistan.

 Former President George W. Bush, whose entire presidency was defined by the September 11th attacks, said in a statement tonight that President Obama called him to inform him of the news of bin Laden’s death.

 Bush called the operation a “momentous achievement” that “marks a victory for America, for people who seek peace around the world, and for all those who lost loved ones on September 11, 2001.”

 “I congratulated him and the men and women of our military and intelligence communities who devoted their lives to this mission. They have our everlasting gratitude,” the former president said in a statement. “The fight against terror goes on, but tonight America has sent an unmistakable message: No matter how long it takes, justice will be done.”

 Former President Bill Clinton, who was in office for the first World Trade Center bombing in 1993, also issued a written statement.

 "I congratulate the President, the National Security team and the members of our armed forces on bringing Osama bin Laden to justice after more than a decade of murderous al-Qaida attacks," he said. ||||| Within moments of President Obama’s statement late Sunday night announcing the death of Osama bin Laden, reaction from across the globe began to pour in:

 Former President George W. Bush: “Earlier this evening, President Obama called to inform me that American forces killed Osama bin Laden, the leader of the Al Qaeda network that attacked America on Sept. 11, 2001. I congratulated him and the men and women of our military and intelligence communities who devoted their lives to this mission. They have our everlasting gratitude. This momentous achievement marks a victory for America, for people who seek peace around the world, and for all those who lost loved ones on Sept. 11, 2001. The fight against terror goes on, but tonight America has sent an unmistakable message: No matter how long it takes, justice will be done.”

 Gordon Felt, president of the Families of Flight 93: “This is important news for us, and for the world. It cannot ease our pain, or bring back our loved ones. It does bring a measure of comfort that the mastermind of the September 11th tragedy and the face of global terror can no longer spread his evil.”

 Senator Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York: “This is a thunderous strike for justice for the thousands of my fellow New Yorkers — and citizens from all over the world — who were murdered on 9/11. It took close to ten years, but the world’s most wanted terrorist has finally met his deserved fate. New York’s heart is still broken from the tragedy of 9/11, but this at least brings some measure of closure and consolation to the victims and their families. This is a massive accomplishment for the countless military and intelligence personnel who have been urgently dedicated to this task for the past decade. Because Bin Laden’s evil dogma has poisoned the minds of so many others, we cannot let up in the war on terror. This successful mission sends a definitive message to those who would test the resolve of the people of the United States of America: do not doubt our resolve; if you do us harm, we will find you, we will mete out justice, and we will prevail.”

 Reince Priebus, chairman of the Republican National Committee: “Today is a tremendous day for our nation and the world, but most importantly those who lost loved ones on that horrific day. Justice was delivered to a ruthless terrorist courtesy of men and women of the United States military. For nearly a decade, literally thousands of American service members, intelligence officers and civilians have made it their mission to capture or kill the mastermind of September 11th. Tonight we honor their work and congratulate them on a job well done.

 Mitt Romney, former Republican governor of Massachusetts: “This is a great victory for lovers of freedom and justice everywhere. Congratulations to our intelligence community, our military and the president. My thoughts are with the families of Osama bin Laden’s many thousands of victims, and the brave servicemen and women who have laid down their lives in pursuit of this murderous terrorist.”

 Former President Bill Clinton: “This is a profoundly important moment not just for the families of those who lost their lives on 9/11 and in Al Qaida’s other attacks but for people all over the world who want to build a common future of peace, freedom, and cooperation for our children. I congratulate the president, the national security team and the members of our armed forces on bringing Osama bin Laden to justice after more than a decade of murderous Al Qaida attacks.”

 Tim Pawlenty, former Republican governor of Minnesota: “This is terrific news for freedom and justice. In the hours after the 9/11 attacks, President Bush promised that America would bring Osama bin Laden to justice — and we did. I want to congratulate America’s armed forces and President Obama for a job well done. Let history show that the perseverance of the U.S. military and the American people never wavered. America will never shrink from the fight and ultimately those who seek to harm us face only defeat. Today, justice is done, but the fight against radical Islamic terrorism is not yet over.”

 Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona: “I am overjoyed that we finally got the world’s top terrorist. The world is a better and more just place now that Osama bin Laden is no longer in it. I hope the families of the victims of the September 11th attacks will sleep easier tonight and every night hence knowing that justice has been done. I commend the president and his team, as well as our men and women in uniform and our intelligence professionals, for this superb achievement. But while we take heart in the news that Osama bin Laden is dead, we must be mindful that Al Qaeda and its terrorist allies are still lethal and determined enemies, and we must remain vigilant to defeat them.”

 House Speaker John A. Boehner of Ohio: “This is great news for the security of the American people and a victory in our continued fight against Al Qaeda and radical extremism around the world. We continue to face a complex and evolving terrorist threat, and it is important that we remain vigilant in our efforts to confront and defeat the terrorist enemy and protect the American people. I want to congratulate — and thank — the hard-working men and women of our Armed Forces and intelligence community for their tireless efforts and perseverance that led to this success. I also want to commend President Obama and his team, as well as President Bush, for all of their efforts to bring Osama bin Laden to justice.”

 Senator Harry Reid, Democrat of Nevada and the majority leader: “Osama bin Laden is dead, killed in a targeted U.S. operation authorized by President Obama. This is the most significant victory in our fight against Al Qaeda and terrorism, but that fight is not over. We will continue to support our troops and the American civilians who are fighting every day to protect our homeland. Nine and a half years ago, Osama bin Laden masterminded the horrific attacks against the United States that killed nearly 3,000 people. As we remember those who were killed on that dark day in September and their families, we also reaffirm our resolve to defeat the terrorist forces that killed them and thousands of others across the globe. Because of courageous Americans in our military and intelligence community, their leader is now gone.”

 Representative Nancy Pelosi, Democrat of California and the House minority leader: “The death of Osama bin Laden marks the most significant development in our fight against Al Qaeda. I salute President Obama, his national security team, Director Panetta, our men and women in the intelligence community and military, and other nations who supported this effort for their leadership in achieving this major accomplishment. It is a testament to the professionalism of our dedicated national security professionals that no American lives were lost in this operation. As we approach the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, I hope that today’s action provides some comfort to the 9/11 families who lost loved ones in the devastating attacks on our shores. Though the death of Osama bin Laden is historic, it does not diminish our relentless pursuit of terrorists who threaten our country.”

 Sarah Palin, former Republican governor of Alaska: “Americans tonight are united in celebration and gratitude. God bless all the brave men and women in our military and our intelligence services who contributed to carrying out the successful mission to bring Bin Laden to justice and who laid the groundwork over the years to make this victory possible. It’s a testament to the hard work and dedication of these brave Americans who relentlessly hunted down our enemy. This is a victory for the American people, for the victims who were heartlessly murdered on September 11 and in Al Qaeda’s other numerous attacks, and for all the peace-loving people of the world. May God bless our troops and our intelligence services, and God bless America!”

 Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida, chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee: “Tonight’s news, that Osama Bin Laden was killed by U.S. special forces in Pakistan, brings to justice a heinous individual who masterminded the murders of thousands of innocent people through many terrorist attacks around the world and thousands of Americans nearly ten years ago on Sept. 11, 2001. This terrible chapter in American history will never be forgotten, but tonight we can go to sleep knowing that no other innocent life will be taken by this terrorist. I cannot thank enough the men and women of our armed forces and intelligence agencies, who bravely fought, and continue to fight, to protect all Americans from terrorism. The fight has been long, but tonight, because of you, America rid the world of a mass murderer. President Obama’s leadership in making the targeting of Osama bin Laden our highest military and intelligence priority, warrants our gratitude. He deserves credit for refocusing U.S. efforts in Afghanistan and Pakistan to root out terrorism which no doubt helped lead to this historic announcement.” |||||
What is a summary?

– George W. Bush called the killing of Osama bin Laden a "victory for America." Members of the military and intelligence community who spent a decade chasing him "have our everlasting gratitude," he added. "The fight against terror goes on, but tonight America has sent an unmistakable message: No matter how long it takes, justice will be done." Read the full statement at the American Spectator. Bill Clinton also weighed in: "I congratulate the president, the National Security team and the members of our armed forces on bringing Osama bin Laden to justice after more than a decade of murderous al-Qaeda attacks." Mike Huckabee was more succinct, crowing: "Welcome to hell, bin Laden" in his statement. Gordon Felt, the president of the Families of Flight 93, noted: "It cannot ease our pain, or bring back our loved ones. It does bring a measure of comfort that the mastermind of the September 11th tragedy and the face of global terror can no longer spread his evil.” Check out the New York Times for comments from Mitt Romney, Rep. Harry Reid, Sen. John McCain, and more.