Yale Bride-to-Be missing; prison rape; and GCNova update.

As posted last Friday, GCNW officially launched its international organization on September 4, 2009 in the UK. Please visit the GCNW official website for up-to-date information, and read a full report of the launch here.

***

the big story this week has been the mysterious disappearance of 24-year-old Annie Le, a Yale graduate student and bride-to-be. Just five days before her planned nuptials, Le disappeared. She was last seen outside of Yale's School of Medicine building, wearing a knee-length brown skirt, a bright green short-sleeve t-shirt, brown shoes, and a brown necklace. Yesterday, Yale announced a $10,000 reward for anyone who comes forward with information about the missing woman. Follow the CNN release here.

Also, the Huffington Post has released a piece by actress Christina Ricci about the importance of ensuring aid to victims of sexual assault and violence.

And, a news report released yesterday by the U.S. Department of Justice has caused quite an uproar as it found that sexual abuse of inmates by U.S. federal prison staff has doubled in the past eight years. The report also reveals that, of 257 cases discovered and referred to prosecution, only 102 were actually prosecuted, resulting in 83 convictions. Finally, the report also revealed that prison staff were willing to break many serious rules and regulations in order to inflict and/or conceal sexual abuse, including: subversion of security procedures, acceptance of bribes, provision of contraband to prisoners, and lying to investigators.

Finally, a GCNova update. Yesterday, I met with Carol Anthony of the Center for Peace and Justice Education and Maren Miller, a fellow Villanova student interested in pursuing issues of violence against women. Together, the three of us figured out a game plan for moving forward. The first call-out meeting of GCNova will take place on Thursday, October 1 at 7:00pm in the Center for Peace and Justice Education. In these upcoming three weeks, we will be working hard to reach out to students and other student organizations for collaboration, plan our future fundraising events, and publicize GCNova on campus. Also, GCNova's registration on the new VUGroups platform has been submitted for approval.