• Welfare workers report that girls in gangs are often raped by the male members of the gang as part of initiation, but many of them accept this as routine. "The girls think they are going to be protected by the gang if they have sex with one person but then they find there are more boys there," said Teresa Pointing, chief executive of In-volve, a charity that works with teen girls. • According to White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, Sasha and Malia Obama have not been vaccinated for swine flu. The vaccine is currently unavailable to the twogirls because they are not at high risk. • Doctor Patrick O'Brian recalls being shocked at the state of pregnant women in Uganda, a country that apparently has some of the worst maternal care in the world. In efforts to address this issue, he started a program with the University College Hospital in London that works to distribute medicine to women in need and offer pre and post-natal care to mothers. • Researchers have found that breast reduction surgery may have unexpected benefits. Through testing the removed tissue, doctors may be able to better identify patients at risk for breast cancer. Another upside to breast reduction? Decreased back pain and increased range of movement. • According to a new study, well-educated older women who live alone report a lower emotional well-being than breast cancer patients who live with a partner. •  A little girl from Brooklyn has made the news for a heartbreaking letter she wrote to Sasha and Malia Obama. Bianca's mother was shot several years ago by an abusive boyfriend, and the 6-year-old and her father are still struggling. In her letter, she begged for help for her family, and readers of the Daily News have been quick to respond. • Researchers have found that sperm itself - and not just the fluid it travels in - may transmit HIV to healthy cells. Doctors previously suspected that sperm could transmit the virus, but they were unable to prove this until recently. • A revealing new poll from the UK shows that 90% of expecting mothers are denied the choice as to where they will give birth. The vast majority of women in Britain are not offered the option to give birth at home or at a birthing center attended by a midwife. • The Daily Beast on sexism in nonprofits: "Charity is not allowed to use the same tools as business because society subconsciously regards it as female, and discriminates against it the same way it has historically discriminated against women." Read the rest of their interesting take on charity here. • Good news: The Saudi king has decided not to flog a female journalist charged with participation in a television show in which a man spoke publicly about his sex life. • Among women with BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes, breast cancer is diagnosed six years earlier than in previous generations. Doctors don't know if women are screened better today, or if hormonal and environmental factors are giving women cancer earlier. • Jury selection will begin today in the trial of the first 12 male members of the polygamist sect whose Yearning For Zion ranch was raided last year. Flora Jessop, who escaped the compound 15 years ago, said she's happy to see the men go on trial but, "What I'm upset the most about, I think, is the fact that none of the women have been indicted, as well. ... I think that the women were nothing but pimps on that compound and giving their daughters over to these perverts knowing what was going to happen to them." • A study by the National Center for Voice and Speech found that female teachers used their voices about 10 percent more than males when teaching and 7 percent more when not teaching. Female teachers speak louder than male teachers at work. All teachers spend more time talking than most professionals and are at a greater risk for hurting their voices. • Debbie Davis, 29, of Sunderland, England has been named Britain's top Avon saleswoman. She started selling the cosmetics when she was laid off five years ago and now she's making $408,000 a year. • 14-year-old Dutch girl Laura Dekker says she will wait until the school year is over to begin her attempt to become the youngest sailor to circumnavigate the globe. She had planned to head out in August but was stopped by authorities who said she was too young. The court is expected to rule on her case by Friday. • Elizabeth Edwards told a local news station that John Edwards said of their relationship, "Perhaps [it's] not the great love story that we hoped, but maybe a great love story nonetheless." Well, most great love stories don't involve the man possibly fathering a child with another woman. • After more than 120 years, the Beloit's girls reformatory school in Kansas closed for good in August. Before 1983 the institution often housed girls who hadn't committed criminal offenses, but were considered "incorrigible," "immoral," or had suffered abuse at home. Under some administrations, girls were punished with huge doses of vomit- and diarrhea-inducing castor oil, humiliated with forced hair clipping, or even sterilized. • After a "concerned citizen" in Yulee, Florida tipped the police that the Girls Gone Wild bus was in town, police organized an undercover investigation and arrested seven women who complied with the organizers' request that they "show their breasts so they could be photographed/filmed or so they could have their breasts spray painted. The women were charged with indecent exposure along with the bar's owner and two Girls Gone Wild employees, who were each charged with illegally operating a sexually oriented business. •

Last April 439 children were seized from the ranch. Department of Family and Protective Services Commissioner Anne Heiligenstein testified in a House Human Services Committee hearing that the Fundamentalist Church of Latter-Day Saints group now realizes forcing teenage girls into marriage is sexual abuse. However, committee members said she may be too optimistic, since the group has been known to coach the children to give misleading information. They suggested that there is no way to be sure if church members are being honest about underage marriages now. [UPI]

The ACLU's doubts about the constitutionality of Texas's actions have been bolstered by evidence that the original call that brought authorities to raid the YFZ ranch — from a 16-year-old named Sarah Jessop Barlow, who claimed to have been forced to marry a 50-year-old when she was 15 — was a hoax.

According to the right-leaning American Spectator, Texas and Arizona authorities believe that the call may have been placed by a 33-year-old pathological liar named Rozita Swinton. "Swinton came to the attention of Texas officials after anti-polygamy advocates with an Arizona-based organization said they also received similar calls from 'Sarah,' which police then traced to Swinton, who appears to have been obsessed with the FLDS sect," the Spectator reports. Police have since raided Swinton's home and found a trove of FLDS information — though the Spectator also gleefully points out that Swinton is an Obama supporter; they're not exactly unbiased.

To combat all the poor publicity the FDLS sect has received in recent weeks, many of the female fundies have appeared on TV in order to put a "human face" on polygamists. Reports the AP, "FLDS women are speaking publicly about the heartbreak of being separated from their children and sharing some details of their life." This PR push is particularly important in the wake of Friday's decision.

FDLS mothers will be allowed to stay with their children only until DNA testing on all 416 children is complete. After that, only mothers under the age of 18 — still arguably children themselves — will be allowed to stay with their biological offspring. The DNA testing will not only show which children belong to which parents, but will also give insight into the FDLS family tree, which some describe as a "wreath" because of all the incest that takes place in the FDLS community. (There is a very rare strain of extreme retardation called Fumarase Deficiency that is reasonably common in the FDLS community because of all the intermarriage and the massive DNA testing could isolate the gene that causes Fumarase.)

ACLU Weighs In On Texas Polygamist Custody Case [CNN]
Searching For "Sarah" [Spectator]
Polygamous Sect Unleashes PR Campaign [AP via MSNBC]
Tracing The Polygamists' Family Tree[Time]

Earlier: Authorities Take 400 More Kids From Polygamist Sect In Texas
Please Do Not Cry For Those Poor Polygamist Wives, Fox News