With no evidence, The Times claimed that hundreds of ‘male-bodied sex offenders were classified as women’ in recent years

 https://www.thepinknews.com/2022/01/07/the-times-corrections-trans-misinformation-rape-chestfeeding/

In the story, Massie claimed: “We pretend that women can — and do — commit rape… In England and Wales 436 male-bodied sex offenders were classified as women from 2012 to 2018.”

In the correction, The Times said: “In fact, under English law, accessories to a crime are charged as principal offenders, and therefore women can be charged with rape.

“How many female defendants were ‘male-bodied’ is not recorded. We are happy to make this clear.”

Following the correction, The Times has now re-published the piece, removing the explicit claim that all recorded female sex offenders are trans.

However, at the time this article was published, it continued to claim that “436 rape defendants were classified as women”.

Republican Senator Faces Backlash at Home Over Gay Marriage Vote

 https://www.newsweek.com/republican-senator-faces-backlash-home-over-gay-marriage-vote-1766874

A GOP senator is experiencing significant backlash in her home state after she voted in favor of a bill to protect gay marriage.

Joni Ernst, a two-term Republican from Iowa, was among 12 GOP senators to vote for the Respect for Marriage Act, whose primary function is to codify protections for same-sex and interracial marriages into federal law. In response to her vote, several county-level Republican organizations in Iowa are considering resolutions that would condemn or censure her, according to the Des Moines Register.

Transgender prisoner who sexually assaulted inmates jailed for life

 https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/oct/11/transgender-prisoner-who-sexually-assaulted-inmates-jailed-for-life

Karen White, 52, who was described as being a danger to women and children, admitted sexually assaulting women in a female prison and raping another two women outside jail.

White was transferred to New Hall prison in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, on remand last September after being arrested on suspicion of repeatedly stabbing a neighbour. The attacks on fellow prisoners took place between September and October.

The 52-year-old, who is currently transitioning, was sentenced yesterday for two counts of rape, two sexual assaults and one offence of wounding.

White has previous convictions for indecent assault, indecent exposure and gross indecency involving children, animal cruelty and dishonesty.

The Ministry of Justice has apologised for moving her to the women’s prison, saying that her previous offending history had not been taken into account.

A Groundbreaking Scientific Discovery Shows That We Can Reverse Death

 https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/a42216404/is-death-revesible/

Problem is, the idea of reversibility hits right at the heart of the debate about the medical definition of death. According to a recent article in the Daily Beast, one question that cropped up when the Uniform Law Commission (ULC) met over Zoom to debate death again in March was whether to call it “irreversible” or “permanent.” Seema Shah, JD, a bioethicist at Lurie Children’s Hospital in Chicago, who attended the ULC’s virtual forum, says it can be hard to know what “permanent” means if you can restore function in cells. “That starts to call into question the different practices that we do,” she says.

People who skipped their COVID vaccine are at higher risk of traffic accidents, according to a new study

 https://fortune.com/well/2022/12/13/covid-unvaccinated-greater-risk-car-crash-traffic-accident-new-study-says-canada-government-records-pfizer-moderna/

Of course, skipping a COVID vaccine does not mean that someone will get into a car crash. Instead, the authors theorize that people who resist public health recommendations might also “neglect basic road safety guidelines.” 

Jerusalem home welcomes formerly ultra-Orthodox Jews

 https://www.i24news.tv/en/news/israel/culture/1670932642-jerusalem-home-welcomes-formerly-ultra-orthodox-jews

Barata' offers a refuge for those who left the closed world of ultra-Orthodox Judaism

Those who once tried to follow all of Judaism’s laws now celebrate the beginning of Shabbat as a purely cultural event at "Barata" — an open house in Jerusalem for former ultra-Orthodox Jews.

Yoni Klapholtz founded Barata four years ago. Two years ago, he moved the project into a house next to Jerusalem’s central Machane Yehuda Market.

“We love the Shabbat, we eat Shabbat food, sing Shabbat songs. We are not religious therefore we also make music. We add to the Shabbat, we don’t take away from it," Klapholtz said.

Covid-19 vaccination not responsible for excess deaths in US

 https://factcheck.afp.com/doc.afp.com.32ZT4XW

US health authorities agree Covid-19 vaccination saves lives, but an article claims official data indicate the shots are actually causing excess deaths. This is false; no such link has been proven, and experts say high mortality figures in 2022 correlate closely with the number of people who succumbed to coronavirus infections.

Messianic 'rabbi' charged with rape opens school board meeting

 https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/364384

Griffin, who heads a congregation in nearby Saginaw, Texas, that blends Christian beliefs and Jewish practices, is currently awaiting trial on four counts of sexual assault. According to reports of the indictment, he is accused of using his stature as a “rabbi” to sexually assault a woman in March 2020 after coercing her to become his “concubine” and citing Abraham and Jacob as examples of spiritual figures who enjoyed multiple partners. The victim claimed she had been assaulted in Griffin’s congregation, including in his office, which DNA samples seemed to corroborate, a warrant said.

Netanyahu must say no to the haredi party's demands - editorial

 https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-724803

Now it’s United Torah Judaism’s turn. They, too, had a hand in Netanyahu’s electoral victory, so they, too, will get. But they want more than just a ministry or a Knesset committee chairmanship. They have reportedly presented Netanyahu with a list of demands that, if met, would put Israel’s foot on the path toward becoming a state run by Halacha (Jewish Law – literally, “walking”).

Sexual abuse rampant in federal prisons, bipartisan investigation finds

 https://thehill.com/homenews/house/3773579-sexual-abuse-rampant-in-federal-prisons-bipartisan-investigation-finds/

Over the course of an eight-month investigation, the subcommittee found BOP employees sexually abused female prisoners in at least two-thirds of federal prisons over the past decade. 

The Bureau has also failed to prevent, detect and stop recurring sexual abuse in at least four federal prisons. 

Dem Dysfunction, Tabloid Hellscapes, Crime: How New York Almost Went Red

 https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2022/12/2022-midterms-crime-new-york-hochul-zeldin-new-york-post/

Adams and Zeldin’s rhetoric notwithstanding, no clear causality has been established between bail reform and the 30 percent increase in crime in New York this year. (Homicides are down 12 percent.) Quinn, the retired Queens prosecutor, studied the effects of bail reform in a report for the conservative Manhattan Institute. He found that 27 percent of people brought in on felony charges between July and August 2020 were rearrested while awaiting trial. In contrast, the office of New York City’s progressive comptroller Brad Lander concluded in March that there “has been essentially no change in the monthly percentage of people rearrested while released pending trial after bail reform.” 

Fact-checking claims bail reform is driving increase in violent crime

 https://edition.cnn.com/2021/07/07/politics/bail-reform-violent-crime-fact-check/index.html

Facts First: There’s no clear evidence linking bail reforms – which have been in place for years in some cities – to the recent rise in violent crimes. In fact, the majority of cities that have seen increases in crime have not eliminated cash bail. Many variables have contributed to the increases Graham is referencing but CNN has seen no evidence to suggest that bail reform is a major factor.

Times Union’s Josh Solomon on new DCJS crime stats

 https://spectrumlocalnews.com/nys/central-ny/politics/2022/09/29/times-union-s-josh-solomon-on-new-dcjs-crime-stats

One of the most politicized issues of this election cycle is bail reform. 

Republicans, including gubernatorial candidate Rep. Lee Zeldin, have argued that cashless bail has led to an increase in crime. Democrats like Gov. Kathy Hochul say it hasn’t. 

Until now, the numbers haven’t told a clear story. And it looks like, even with newly released crime statistics from the Division of Criminal Justice Services (DCJS), that the definitive answer some are hoping for on bail reform remains elusive.

According to Josh Solomon, a Capital Bureau reporter for the Albany Times Union who has done in-depth work on this issue, DCJS is urging New Yorkers to remain open-minded.

The Facts on Bail Reform and Crime Rates in New York State

 https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/facts-bail-reform-and-crime-rates-new-york-state

But the best available information suggests that bail reform is not the primary driver of these increases in crime. One recent analysis by the Times Union of Albany suggested that relatively few people released under the new law went on to be rearrested for serious offenses. The Times Union reviewed state data on pretrial releases between July 2020 and June 2021, identifying nearly 100,000 cases where someone was released pretrial in a decision “related to the state’s changed bail laws.” Just 2 percent of those 100,000 cases led to a rearrest for a violent felony; of these, 429 cases led to a rearrest for a violent felony involving a firearm. Roughly one-fifth of all cases resulted in a rearrest for “any offense,” regardless of severity, such as a misdemeanor or nonviolent felony.

That means any attempt to link bail reform to rising crime should be evaluated skeptically. Indeed, some early arguments about the effects of bail reform have been directly disproven. In 2020, the New York City Police Department claimed that bail reform and recent jail releases had led to an increase in shootings. But according to a New York Post analysis, the NYPD’s own statistics proved otherwise. Between January and late June 2020, according to NYPD data reviewed by the Post, “just one person released under the statewide bail reform laws” had been charged with a shooting.