Why the rich don't feel rich




Baltimore Ravens jersey cheap There’s just about no tolerance left in America for wealthy people griping about their financial woes. But put down the pitchforks for a moment and consider one possible exception we might all learn something from.
The money-news site The Billfold recently ran an interview with an anonymous physician who earns $570,000 a year and says, “I know that technically I am in the 1%, but I don’t feel rich at all.” He went on to explain how he owns a home worth nearly $1 million, three cars, a couple of investment properties, and a chunk of a profitable healthcare company yet still frets that he doesn’t have enough. “I don’t feel secure,” he said. “Before I had a job, the six-figure mark was a goal for everyone. And now I’ve hit the half-million dollar mark. I don’t know if I’d feel rich if I ever met the seven-figure mark.”
Commenters howled, Pullover Hooded Sweatshirt nhl jersey cheap of course, deriding the discontented doc’s self-indulgence and making many predictable observations about materialism run amok. “It’s emblematic of the insane level of lifestyle creep that allows someone who makes $500k+ a year to feel not rich,” wrote one reader, reflecting the sentiment of many others.
The anonymous doc, whom the site dubbed “Jake Smith,” acknowledged his own materialistic impulses. “There is a palpable pressure to keep up with the Joneses,” he said of the social demands in his affluent community, which is in the suburbs of a sizeable eastern city, according to Logan Sachon of The Billfold. Yet he also showed a degree of restraint, making do, for instance, with a 7-year-old Lexus when many of his neighbors drive brand-new Range Rovers. That doesn’t exactly generate sympathy but it shows more self-awareness than the wealthy — or caricatures of the wealthy —customized nhl jerseys cheap are typically known for.
The lengthy Q&A also reveals a few legitimate concerns about money, whether you have a lot or a little. Here are four reasons to cut some slack to wealthy worriers such as the $570,000 man, assuming he actually exists:
They take risks. “Jake Smith” invested in one business that flopped and lost “maybe a few hundred thousand dollars” in bad investments overall early in his career. Those losses wiped out his cash, he said, and left his family living paycheck to paycheck for a while. Yet he learned from those mistakes instead of retreating into a shell, and had the guts to invest in another business. That might sound easy to do when you read about it, but in reality it’s damn hard to risk your own money on an unproven venture — which is why most people never do. People who take risks earn higher returns for good reason.
Kids nfl jerseys cheap They’ve been burned. A lot of wealthy people who earn their fortunes (instead of inheriting them) stumble along the way, and it’s often the ability to bounce back rather than some magic knack for making money that leads to their success. Smith describes feeling “scarred” by earlier setbacks, like many people who have survived difficulties. “There were people depending on me and I felt like I was letting them down,” he says. “I know it’s very easy to squander what you have.” Like Depression survivors who grew up to become misers, Smith might never be fully free from worry, even if he ends up with millions in the bank.
The soaring cost of college scares everybody. College tuition has been rising at 2 to 4 times the rate of inflation, making education a huge financial burden for many families. Smith has three kids, which could add up to $600,000 in college bills, at a rate of $50,000 per student per year for tuition, room and board. Cheap new mlb youth jerseys And it’s safe to assume a family in his income bracket won’t quality for financial aid.
Taxes on the rich are probably going higher. To his credit, Smith doesn’t whine about this, but his taxes went up considerably this year, since he’s above the cutoff for some of the “fiscal cliff” tax hikes meant to hit only the wealthy. Beyond that, the kinds of additional revenue-raising measures getting a serious look in Washington — such as eliminating mortgage-interest deductions for second or third homes and ending some investment tax credits — are designed to snare people exactly like Smith, while exempting most working people.
Rather than attacking Smith’s sense of entitlement, it might be worth reconsidering what it means to be rich in the first place. A lot of wannabe millionaires fantasize about a life in which they never have to worry about money at all. But that may be the very thing that leads to the gaudy behavior we find most appalling about the rich. 13-14 Inter Milan soccer away jersey A healthy dose of worry might help the wealthy remember how the other half lives, and even spend their money more like the 99 percent.

Kerry presses Egypt on economic reform, says aid depends on it




Cheap new mlb youth jerseys Secretary of State John Kerry urged Egypt to act swiftly on economic reforms to secure a $4.8 billion International Monetary Fund loan, saying the measures were needed to get further aid from the U.S. Congress, an American official said.
Kerry met Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi for about an hour on the sidelines of an African Union summit on Saturday, discussing Syria's civil war, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, human rights in Egypt and the country's faltering economy, the official said.
Egypt's Islamist-led government has been resistant to introducing the austerity measures needed to win the IMF funding, including raising taxes and cutting fuel subsidies, fearing such painful reforms could provoke social unrest.
However, an IMF deal could help shore up investor and donor concerns after two years of political instability since the overthrow of former president 2013 Atlanta Braves jerseys Hosni Mubarak in early 2011. The instability has depressed tourism, a crucial industry for Egypt.
The U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Kerry had made the argument that the reforms were necessary to persuade American lawmakers to proceed with further economic support for the country, which borders U.S. ally Israel.
"He urged action on making reforms happen now to move towards requirements to get the IMF package," the official said.
During his first visit to Cairo as secretary of state, on March 3, Kerry told Mursi the United States would provide the first $190 million of $450 million in pledged budget support because of Mursi's commitment to see the IMF process through.
The remainder, 13-14 Inter Milan soccer away jersey however, would depend on the economic reforms, a point Kerry made again in the Ethiopian capital.
"He said ... we need to be able to show Congress that you have taken the necessary reforms," said the official. "I have been a strong advocate of support for Egypt. I continue to support aid for Egypt, but ... we need to see reforms in place that will encourage my former colleagues back at home to act."
Kerry served in the U.S. Senate for nearly 30 years before becoming the country's top diplomat on February 1.
Egypt has in recent years received about $1.3 billion in military aid from Washington, support that dates back to its signing of a peace treaty with Israel more than 30 years ago. Discount 2013 nba jerseys That assistance, however, is not seen as contingent on Egyptian economic reform.
 
 

Syrian opposition struggles for unity as battle rages




Cheap youth nfl elite jerseys Syria's opposition resumed talks on Saturday aimed at closing their fractious ranks, as government forces launched a fierce onslaught on a rebel-held border town to try to gain the upper hand in the civil war.
A failure of the opposition to unite could weaken the hand of Russia and the United States, co-sponsors of a proposed peace conference on the war, which has killed 80,000 and threatens to spill over borders and whip up wider sectarian violence.
The U.S. and Russian foreign ministers are to meet in Paris on Monday to discuss how to shepherd Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and the opposition into the talks in Geneva.
As opposition leaders met in Istanbul, Assad's forces reinforced by Iranian-backed Shi'ite Lebanese Hezbollah fighters unleashed heavy artillery and tank fire to try to seize more rebel terrain in the Sunni Muslim border town of Qusair on Saturday, sources on both sides said.
Baltimore Ravens jersey cheap Syria is becoming a proxy conflict between Shi'ite Iran which backs Assad, whose Alawite faith is an offshoot of Shi'ism, and Arab states such as Saudi Arabia and Qatar which support Assad's mostly Sunni enemies.
George Sabra, the acting head of the opposition Syrian National Coalition, said thousands of fighters from Iran and Hezbollah were involved in the attack on Qusair, close to the Lebanese border, and in battles in the capital Damascus.
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said his group would stay in the Syrian conflict "to the end of the road" and would win the war for Assad's government.
"We accept this responsibility and will accept all sacrifices and expected consequences of this position," he said in a televised speech, speaking from an undisclosed location. "We will be the ones who bring it victory, God willing."
Discount 2013 nfl jerseys Assad's forces are believed to have seized about two-thirds of Qusair and largely surrounded the rebels. But the price was high and rebels insisted they were preventing further advances.
The insurgents see Qusair as a critical battle to preserve cross-border supply lines and deny Assad a victory they fear may give him the edge in the prospective peace talks next month.
More than 22 people in opposition-held areas were killed by Saturday afternoon, most of them rebels, and dozens wounded, according to pro-opposition monitoring group the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
The pro-opposition Syrian Network for Human Rights said 73 people were killed by Assad's forces, and opposition campaigner Adib Shishakly said Nasrallah lost 75 fighters in the battle for Qusair and that rebel defenders were doing "an excellent job."
U.S. CONCERNS
The United States, new cheap nhl jerseys concerned by the rising influence of hardline Islamists, has pressed the Syrian National Coalition to resolve its divisions and bring more liberals into the fold.
Sources at the coalition, which began its third day of meetings, said major players would focus on such international demands for a broadening of the Islamist-dominated group, leaving leadership issues for later.
Attempts to strike a grand bargain involving veteran liberal campaigner Michel Kilo and businessman Mustafa al-Sabbagh, Qatar's point man in the coalition, went nowhere in talks that stretched overnight, senior coalition sources said.
"We are back to square one," one of them told Reuters.
In Addis Ababa, on the sidelines of an African Union summit, Pullover Hooded Sweatshirt nhl jersey cheap U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry appealed to U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon "to try to get something moving with respect to Syria", according to a pool reporter. Ban told Kerry he and his special Syria envoy Lakhdar Brahimi "are working very hard to convene, to make this Geneva conference a success".
Saudi Arabia, the most powerful Arab adversary of Assad, will want to see the Geneva conference, which could convene in the next few weeks, put the exit of Assad at the top of the agenda, diplomats and coalition members said.
But they said Russia, a longtime ally of Assad, wanted it to focus on a ceasefire although there is scant rapport between opposition politicians abroad and rebels inside Syria.
The inability of the coalition to alter its Islamist-dominated membership and replace a leadership damaged by power struggles is playing into the hands of Assad who, according to Russia, cheap Chicago Blackhawks jersey intends to send representatives to the peace conference.
PIVOTAL BATTLE
"The coalition risks undermining itself to the point that its backers may have to look quickly for an alternative with enough credibility on the ground to go to Geneva," a senior opposition source at the talks said.
Senior opposition figures said the coalition was likely to attend the conference, but doubted the meeting would secure their central demand - an immediate deal for Assad to quit.
While the opposition remained riven by differences, the assault by Assad's forces and their Hezbollah allies on Qusair over the past week is evolving into a pivotal battle.
Qusair controls access to Syria's Mediterranean coast, the heartland of Assad's minority Alawite community, customized nhl jerseys cheap and the battle may prove a weighty test of his ability to withstand the revolt.
Hezbollah's intervention is hardening fears that the civil war will cross borders at the volatile heart of the Middle East.
"It is ironic that Lebanon's civil strife is playing itself out in Syria. The opposition remains without coherence and the regime is intent on taking back anything it promises with violence," said one diplomat.
The diplomat was referring to a deepening sectarian divide between Shi'ite and Sunni Muslims in Lebanon, where Syrian troops were present for 29 years, including for most of the Lebanese civil war that ended in 1990.
Kids nfl jerseys cheap The death toll in the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli reached 25 on Saturday in the seventh straight day of clashes between Alawite and Sunni factions backing opposing sides in Syria's war, security sources said.
 

Afghan students protest women's rights decree




New youth jerseys cheap Hard-line Islamist students protested in the Afghan capital demanding the repeal of a presidential decree for women's rights that they say is un-Islamic. It was the latest sign of a backlash against the legal protections passed in the 12 years since the toppling of the Taliban regime known for its harsh treatment of women.
The protest came days after conservative lawmakers' vehement opposition blocked an attempt to cement the decree's provisions in legislation.
Most of international force that ousted the Taliban is now preparing to withdraw by the end of next year, and activists fear an erosion of the women's rights will follow if hard-liners pressure the elected government.
More than 200 male students protested in front of Kabul University on Wednesday against the decree on Elimination of Violence Against Women, new mlb youth jersey customized which includes a ban on child marriage and forced marriage, makes domestic violence a crime and says rape victims cannot be prosecuted for adultery. It also outlaws "ba'ad," a traditional practice of exchanging women or girls to settle disputes or debts.
Protester Fazel Hadi, 25, said the decree was "imposed by foreigners" and violates Islamic Shariah law.
Mawladad Jalali, the mullah of the university mosque and one of the organizers of the protest, led chants decrying democracy in general and the women's law specifically.
"Our main demand is that this law should be repealed in the parliament," he said before leading a brief march while police who cordoned off the area looked on.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai issued the decree on women's rights three years ago as part of a raft of commitments to international donors, kids nhl jersey cheap but lawmaker and activist Fawzia Kofi wanted to pass it in parliament to prevent any future president from reversing it.
The brief parliamentary debate Saturday was ended by the speaker after fierce opposition from conservative lawmakers who said several provisions — including the ban on child marriage and jail time for domestic abuse — violated Islamic law. The decree remains in force, but the debate appears to have galvanized opposition to it.
The United Nations' mission in Afghanistan this week urged the government to do more to enforce the women's rights decree, saying it is only sporadically applied when women report abuse.
"It is imperative for the development of Afghanistan that women are able to exercise their rights and be free from violence in their homes and workplaces," UN Special Representative Jan Kubis said in a Monday statement MLB embroidered jersey.
In another worrisome sign for activists, the international group Human Rights Watch said Tuesday that the number of women and girls jailed for alleged loose morals is the highest since the ouster of the Taliban, even though most of those detained are victims of abuse and have committed no crime under Afghan civil law.
The Taliban imposed their strict interpretation of Islamic law during their five-year reign, ordering beatings for women failing to wear the full-body burqa garment in public, closing girls' schools and banning women from leaving their homes without a male relative. They were toppled in a U.S.-led invasion for sheltering the al-Qaida's terrorist leadership and now wage an insurgency.
Human Rights Watch's Afghanistan researcher Heather Barr said that discount new mlb jersey Afghanistan risks losing international aid if it does not meet commitments to uphold women's freedoms.
 

Obamas hosting Carole King: What's the special occasion?




Youth nfl elite jersey cheap President Obama and first lady Michelle Obama are hosting singer/songwriter Carole King at the White House tonight. Is it a special occasion? Why yes, it is – they’re honoring Ms. King for winning the 2013 Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song.
Mr. Obama will present the award himself, and then the First Couple and favored guests will watch a concert featuring King, Billy Joel, Gloria Estefan, James Taylor, Jesse McCartney, Emeli Sande, and Trisha Yearwood. That’s a mix of generations there, but it’s still heavy on the singer/songwriter era, isn’t it?
The concert will be live-streamed from the White House website starting at 7 p.m. Eastern time on Wednesday. It’ll also be broadcast on many PBS stations next Tuesday as part of the “In Performance at the White House” series. Cheap customized nba jersey
RECOMMENDED: Know your US presidents? See if D.C. Decoder can stump you!
King plans to debut a new song during the concert, “I Believe in Loving You." She co-wrote it with lyricist Hal David, who was a co-winner of the Gershwin Prize in 2011 with his longtime collaborator Bert Bacharach. Mr. David passed away in September of last year.
“I’m hoping that this will become a song that people will want to play at their weddings. It’s so romantic. Hal is such a great writer, and his words live on forever,” King told the Associated Press this week.
The Manhattan-born King herself is a songwriter whose work has defined a generation. Her first No. 1 was “Will You Love Me Tomorrow” for the Shirelles. Her 1971 album “Tapestry," which included the hits “It’s Too Late” and “I Feel the Earth Move," Discount 2013 nhl jersey among others, remains one of the best-selling records of all time.
Everyone from the Beatles to Aretha Franklin has recorded her work. That’s why King is so remarkable, said Librarian of Congress James Billington.
“When the Beatles got off the plane, the first person they wanted to meet was Carole King when they first came to America,” said Mr. Billington. “She was kind of a phenomenon among the performers themselves.”
The Gershwin Prize hasn’t been around that long. Billington created it in 2007 as part of the Library’s mission to foster creativity. The first winner was Paul Simon. Stevie Wonder was the second, Paul McCartney the third, and the Bacharach and David team the fourth.
Yes, but who picks the winner? Good question. Cheap new nba jerseys It’s not exactly a scientific or rigorous electoral process. (No, we’re not calling the results into question, we’re just pointing that out.)
Here’s the way the Library of Congress describes it: “The selection is made by the Library of Congress in consultation with a board that is both credible and broad enough in scope to represent the full spectrum of popular song. Board members may include but need not be limited to scholars, producers, performers, music critics, songwriters, and subject specialists within and outside the Library of Congress."
Hmm. We wonder if the president has veto power over the choice. After a long day dealing with IRS scandal and so forth, the last thing you need is an evening listening to someone whose records you hated in high school or who recorded the favorite song of Youth mlb jersey cheap the girlfriend/boyfriend who dumped you first.

What’s next for the immigration reform bill?




Youth nfl elite jersey cheap It's been a good week for proponents of immigration reform. The sweeping bill that seeks to legalize most of the country's 11 million unauthorized immigrants was passed by the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday night, after five full days of debate and amendments that did little to significantly change the original compromise.
So, what's next for the bill?
It is likely to be introduced on the Senate floor as early as June 3, and lawmakers will be able to propose more changes to the legislation there. Meanwhile, a secretive bipartisan group in the House also may release a competing immigration bill, though members are divulging few details about what their proposal will look like.
Immigrant advocates are worried the Senate reform bill may face a tougher crowd in the Republican-led House than it has so far in the Senate.
Youth mlb jersey cheap Ben Monterroso of the Service Employees International Union said advocates worry that GOP House members, all already in election mode for 2014,"are going to play to the base."
"I'm not sure that the extremists [in the House] are going to allow this process to go without a fight," Monterroso said.
Overall, the bill moved slightly to the right during its trip through the Senate committee. Republicans on the 18-member Senate Judiciary Committee were able to push through a few modest amendments that beefed up some of the border security provisions of the original bill, as well as loosening restrictions on and increasing the amount of visas for the high-tech industry to hire foreign workers.
Unions were unhappy with the high-tech visas amendment but willing to live with it. Cheap new nba jerseys "We appreciate the work done by the Gang of Eight, as well as all those senators—both Democrats and Republicans—who engaged in good faith in the arduous job of advancing this bill," said AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka in a statement. "We applaud the progress by the Judiciary Committee, but we will still work to make a good bill even better."
Meanwhile, liberal groups expressed disappointment that the bill does not yet include a provision to allow people in same-sex marriages to be able to sponsor their spouses for green cards. Sen. Patrick Leahy, a Democrat of Vermont, withdrew the amendment this week after being warned it could disrupt the fragile bipartisan coalition that supports immigration reform.
Though the bill remained largely unchanged in the Senate committee, three main issues have emerged as major potential sticking points that could derail the bill in the coming months:
1. The low-skilled worker compromise
Cheap Club Soccer jersey Both the Chamber of Commerce and the AFL-CIO are defending their hard-fought compromise over how many low-skilled workers will be allowed in the country each year under the law. The groups negotiated for nearly a year over this provision, which allows up to 200,000 temporary, noncollege-educated workers into the country each year based on business needs. Any significant changes to this plan could cause one or both of the groups to walk."It's very carefully crafted, and it is not subject to change," Tom Snyder, campaign manager for the AFL-CIO's Citizenship Now campaign, said on Wednesday. "We're going to resist any change in that bill."
Some free-market conservatives want the number of visas to be higher to allow businesses easier access to labor, while more protectionist Republicans align with some Democrats in saying the number is too high and could drive down wages for American-born workers.cheap new ncaa jerseys Both business and labor say this compromise is a delicate balance that cannot be disrupted by politicians without serious consequences for the bill.
2. The pathway to citizenship
Key Democrats—including President Barack Obama and Sen. Harry Reid—have insisted from the beginning of the process that any immigration reform bill must include a pathway to citizenship for the nation's unauthorized immigrants.
During the markup, Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas offered an amendment to change the bill so that the unauthorized immigrants would be legalized but not eligible for citizenship. It failed. Some House conservatives also have expressed support for a similar plan, however, so it's possible the push could be duplicated in the House.
3. The border security trigger
Discount 2013 nhl jersey A key dispute among conservatives right now centers around the enforcement and border security provisions of the Senate bill. The bill requires some key benchmarks to be met before any of the nation's unauthorized immigrants are allowed to apply for permanent residency, which leads to citizenship. But immigrants can gain temporary legal status in the meantime, which allows them to work legally. Under the bill, a group of Southwest border leaders, including governors and law enforcement officials, would have to certify that the border is "secure" before the green card process begins. E-verify, which employers will be required to use to check the immigration status of workers, also will have to be in effect.
But some Republicans, including Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, want to move up this timetable so that none of these immigrants can legalize his or her status before these benchmarks are met. That would most likely delay the current 12-year path to citizenship in the bill by several years and alienate liberal support for the bill. Cheap customized nba jersey Grassley's proposal to change the bill in this way failed in the markup, but it could be introduced again on the Senate floor or be duplicated in the House

Gay Fla. teen charged for underage girlfriend




Cheap youth nfl jersey An 18-year-old Florida cheerleader is facing felony charges that she had sexual contact with her underage, 14-year-old girlfriend, leading gay rights advocates to say the teen is being unfairly targeted for a common high school romance because she's gay.
The criminal case against Kaitlyn Hunt is unusual because it involves two females, not an older male and a younger female. But advocates say older high schoolers dating their younger counterparts is an innocuous, everyday occurrence that is not prosecuted — regardless of sexual orientation — and not a crime on par with predatory sex offenses.
Hunt played on the basketball team with her younger girlfriend and shared the same circle of friends, said Hunt's mother, Kelley Hunt Smith. The two had a consenting relationship that began soon after Kaitlyn Hunt turned 18, and Hunt Smith said she assumed the younger girl's parents knew that.
Youth nhl jerseys discount But Hunt was kicked off the basketball team near the end of last year after the coach learned of the relationship because players were not allowed to date each other, her parents said. Then, in February, she was charged with lewd and lascivious battery on a child 12 to 16. The day before she was arrested, police and the younger girl's parents secretly recorded a phone conversation in which the two girls discussed kissing in the school bathroom, said Hunt's father, Steve Hunt.
"It's horrible. For my daughter's sexual preferences, she's getting two felony charges. It could possibly ruin her future," Steve Hunt told The Associated Press in a phone interview Tuesday.
The alleged victim is identified only by her initials in court documents, and her parents have not been publicly identified. The AP does not identify alleged victims of sex crimes.
Kaitlyn Hunt, who hopes to become a nurse, NFL elite jerseys cheap declined to be interviewed and is scared, her father said. However, the family has received support from all over the world, with messages coming from as far away as New Zealand, the Netherlands and Canada, Steve Hunt said. He said he reads them to her to keep her spirits up, but she feels like she has let everyone down, he said through t tears.
Prosecutors have offered a plea deal to Kaitlyn Hunt that would allow her to avoid registering as a sex offender if she pleads guilty to lesser charges of child abuse. State Attorney Bruce Colton said he would recommend two years of house arrest followed by one year probation if she takes the deal.
If she is found guilty, it's also possible that Hunt could apply to not have to register as a sex offender under a "Romeo and Juliet" law because the girls were no more than four years apart in age, Colton said.
Wholesale new nba jerseys Colton said the victim's family is not pushing for prison but wants Kaitlyn Hunt to be held responsible in some way. However, the Hunt family said they would accept a plea deal only if the charges are dropped to a misdemeanor.
"One of the reasons this case has gotten people's attention is because it's being publicized as a person being persecuted because she's gay, and that has nothing to do with the case, nothing to do with the law, nothing to do with the sheriff's office filing the charges," Colton said. He said the law is designed to protect younger children from older children who might be more aggressive in starting a relationship.
"The law doesn't make any differentiation. It doesn't matter if it's two girls or two boys, or an older boy and a younger girl or an older girl and a younger boy. Whatever the combination, it doesn't matter."
However, cheap customized mlb jersey gay rights advocates aren't buying that. The American Civil Liberties Union of Florida said Kaitlyn Hunt is being criminalized for behavior that "occurs every day in tens of thousands of high schools across the country, yet those other students are not facing felony convictions ... and potential lifelong branding as sex offenders."
Her support extends beyond the ACLU. A "Free Kate" Facebook page has generated more than 30,000 followers so far, and an online petition urging that the charges be dropped crashed at one point because it got so much traffic. It now has more than 100,000 signatures. And during a press conference Monday, dozens of supporters showed up outside of the Indian River Sheriff's Department, many wearing T-Shirts that read "Stop the Hate, Free Kate" with rainbow hearts.
"It's very difficult under these circumstances when the defendant and the victim do not see what they're doing as a crime,NCAA college football jerseys but understandably the law is very clear that when someone is more than four years older than the victim and the victim is under the age of 16, then they cannot give legal consent," said New Jersey defense attorney Gregory Gianforcaro, who has represented victims and defendants on both sides of this issue.
Gianforcaro said that Hunt's case is clearly not a predatory situation and that prosecutors should consider that when they look at sentencing and plea bargains.
"This is a very uncommon situation because of the fact there are two women. However, if it were a man and a woman and there was more than four years of an age difference, it's very possible that that kind of situation would be pursued criminally as well," Gianforcaro said.
The family said Kaitlyn Hunt had been demonized by some, and they disabled her personal Facebook account to protect her from negative comments. Womens mlb jerseys cheap At school in February, her 17-year-old sister spent a half-hour cleaning a mirror where someone had written a slur against women and other words including "rapist" and "disgusting," Steve Hunt said.
In the meantime, Kaitlyn Hunt has been attending an alternative school since her expulsion and will be allowed to walk with her class at graduation in June. Her mother said she was expelled by the school board even though a judge ruled she could stay.
Sebastian River High School's principal and assistant principal did not immediately respond to emails sent Tuesday.