WASHINGTON: Costs incurred in sex-change operations and procedures are tax-deductible, the US Tax Court has ruled.

The court ruled that hormone therapies and sex reassignment surgeries were necessary to treat gender identity disorder in the case of a Boston man who became a woman named Rhiannon O’Donnabhain after 20 years of marriage that produced three children.

”The court is persuaded that petitioner’s sex reassignment surgery was medically necessary,” Judge Joseph Gale wrote in a decision for the majority.

The decision is the first to rule that sex-change operations qualify as medical care and overturns a 2005 Internal Revenue Service policy denying medical expense deductions in such operations on the grounds they are ”cosmetic”.

The case involves a $US5679 ($6450) tax bill assessed by the IRS, which denied medical deductions Ms O’Donnabhain claimed after she underwent sex reassignment-surgery in 2000.

Ms O’Donnabhain, a civil engineer, was diagnosed with gender identity disorder in 1997.

She sued the IRS after it denied her a deduction of $US25,000 in out-of-pocket medical costs associated with the surgeries and other care such as hormone treatments and counselling, according to Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders, which represented her in court.

Karen Loewy, a lawyer with Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders, said the court’s decision ”recognises that expenses related to medical care for transgender people should be treated no differently than expenses related to an appendectomy or chemotherapy”.

STORY SOURCE: http://www.smh.com.au

That Jennifer Lopez honeymoon tape just went from Rated X to PG.

“There wasn’t anything close to sex in it,” Lopez’s attorney John Lavely tells PEOPLE. “We never alleged that. But it’s still private and personal to my client.”

A Los Angeles judge agreed Tuesday, upholding a ruling that Lopez’s ex, Ojani Noa, is forbidden from using 11-plus hours of home video – 20 percent of which allegedly features Lopez – for a mockumentary about his life as a Cuban immigrant, previously titled How I Married Jennifer Lopez: The JLo and Ojani Noa Story.

“They’re trying to stop me from making my documentary and I’m fighting for my rights,” said Noa outside the courtroom. “They’re not being fair.” The aspiring actor and model denies he ever tried to peddle the footage as a sex tape.

The footage has scenes from the ex-couple’s marriage in Florida and honeymoon in Cuba, Noa’s film partner Claudia Vazquez tells PEOPLE, but the project was misrepresented by a tabloid as being sexual, she says. Vazquez adds the project’s title has since been changed to The Escape in reference to Noa having fled his home country.

STORY SOURCE: http://www.people.com

Here’s a role for which Sandra Bullock probably never prepared: wrestling with her husband’s porn star ex-wife, Janine Lindemulder, over custody of their 5-year-old daughter.

The actress is involved in a custody battle between her husband and his ex-wife.
Bullock, the perpetual girl-next-door actress famous for films including “The Proposal” and “Miss Congeniality” has been helping her husband, Jesse James, raise his daughter since January of this year while Lindemulder was in prison for tax evasion. Now out of jail, Lindenmulder faces a fierce custody battle against James, the tattooed biker and star of cable TV’s “Monster Garage” and his megawatt Hollywood actress wife who has said she is now relishing her role as a stepmother.

In a letter to the judge at Lindemulder’s sentencing, Bullock denies the assertion that her desire to gain custody of the girl is rooted in her inability to have children. “We realized that due to the instability in [the girl's] life, bringing another child into the world at this time would not be in [the girl's] best interest,” she wrote.

Bullock further alleges concerns about the girl’s safety, stating that the child was left alone during the day while Lindemulder was “asleep from drug use.”

Read Full Story at Source: http://abcnews.go.com

An Orange County Republican resigned from the California Assembly Wednesday after a videotape surfaced of the lawmaker bragging about his sexual exploits with two women, one of whom reportedly is a lobbyist.

Assemblyman Mike Duvall, R-Yorba Linda, resigned soon after Assembly Speaker Karen Bass, D-Baldwin Hills (Los Angele County) stripped him of his committee assignments and ordered an Ethics Committee investigation of the two-term lawmaker.

Duvall was recorded making lurid comments during an appropriations committee hearing in July when he apparently thought his microphone was turned off. The meetings are regularly recorded and archived by the Assembly.

Shortly after his resignation, Duvall released a written statement saying he was “deeply saddened” that his comments had become a distraction to other members of the Assembly.

“I have come to the conclusion that it would not be fair to my family, my constituents or to my friends on both sides of the aisle to remain in office,” said Duvall, a second-term Assemblyman who is married and has two children.

In the video, first broadcast by the KCAL television station in Los Angeles Tuesday night, Duvall talks with a Republican colleague about his sexual activity with two women, one of whom lobbies for Sempra Energy, a San Diego-based utility, according to other media reports. That company often has business before the Assembly Utilities and Commerce Committee that Duvall vice chaired until his removal Wednesday.

In the recording, Duvall bragged about having several sexual encounters with the women. At one point he makes explicit comments about their sexual activity, adding: “So, I am getting into spanking her. Yeah, I like it. I like spanking her. She goes, ‘I know you like spanking me.’ I said, ‘Yeah, because you’re such a bad girl!’”

Duvall made the comments to fellow Assemblyman Jeff Miller, R-Corona (Riverside County), also a member of the Assembly Ethics Committee. Miller said he “really wasn’t paying attention” to what Duvall was saying and did not alert the Ethics Committee about it. A spokeswoman for Bass said Miller will be removed from the Ethics Committee.

Bass said the ethics investigation would proceed even though Duvall resigned his office. “The resignation does not remove the responsibility of the Assembly Ethics Committee from reviewing the matter,” Bass said. She said she had met with Duvall and said he was “remorseful and regretful.”

Sempra Energy released a statement saying company officials were investigating the matter but said the lobbyist employed by the company has denied the “speculative media reports.”

“Our investigation will be conducted to ensure not only that our policies on employee conduct are strictly adhered to, but also that our employee is treated fairly,” the statement said.

Duvall’s Republican colleagues stopped short of condemning him for his actions.

“Mr. Duvall recognized his inappropriate comments would be an endless source of distraction for this institution and out of respect for his colleagues and love for his family decided to resign,” said Assembly Minority Leader Sam Blakeslee, R-San Luis Obispo, adding that he respects “(Duvall’s) decision to put his family first at this difficult time.”

Miller called the situation, “An unfortunate circumstance for Mike.”

Besides the utilities committee, Duvall was also a member of the Rules Committee. Prior to joining the Legislature in 2006, Duvall was a Yorba Linda city councilman and was twice elected mayor by his colleagues while on the city council. He also was president of the Yorba Linda Chamber of Commerce and was awarded the Ethics in America award in 2000 by Chapman University for his “demonstration of the highest standards of ethical integrity,” according to his campaign Web site.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has 14 days to call a special election to fill Duvall’s seat, which would be either Nov. 3 or Dec. 1 depending on when the governor acts.

Original Story:  sfgate.com

A jury was told that Marion Burton, 50, lured him into the act after repeatedly pestering him to give her syringes, vitamin B12 and the horse tranquilliser Ketamine.
Burton’s husband later demanded £20,000 from the doctor, who cannot be named for legal reasons, threatening that if he did not pay up he would pass the video to the media and the medical authorities.

However, the doctor told the police what was happening and the Burtons were arrested.
He told a jury at Reading Crown Court: “I felt intimidated and threatened and I still do.
“I am so frightened to be in my own home that I get in my car and drive away from my house and sleep in the car.”
He told how Burton arrived at the clinic on October 18 2008 dressed like a “prostitute” in a strappy cleavage-revealing short dress.
He said she exposed herself and he felt pressured to perform an intimate sexual act on her.
The court heard that he then carried out a sexual act on himself before continuing to administer the Botox treatment at the clinic in Maidenhead, Berks.
He told the jury: “I did nothing she did not consent to or want to do. At no time did she try to stop me. She encouraged it.”
He added: “I never instigated any sexual contact with Marion Burton.”
The court heard that at a previous appointment Burton had performed a sex act on the doctor that was not caught on camera.
When asked about the incident, he said: “I was trying to inject her face while she did it.
“I had the syringe in one hand and the swab in the other.”
The doctor described how Terry Burton, 51, approached him after the clinic had finished on October 18 and showed an intimate photograph , demanding £20,000 pounds to keep it out of the hands of newspapers and the General Medical Council.
The doctor said: “It was clear to me that he was going to attempt to do something with those pictures.
“He wanted to show them to my business partners, my wife, the medical council and the News of the World. He was aggressive.”
The doctor said he felt “threatened and intimidated” by Burton’s actions.
After the incident the doctor drove home to the West Midlands and contacted the police.
The jury was told that Terry Burton has already admitted blackmail but his wife, from Slough, Berks., denies a single charge of blackmail.
The trial continues.

Original Story:  telegraph.co.uk

A domestic battery case against porn star and potential Louisiana U.S. Senate contender Stormy Daniels has been dropped after the alleged victim chose not to prosecute.
Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Gregory Clifford, was arrested in Florida in July and charged after her husband told Tampa police that she hit him several times in a dispute about laundry and unpaid bills.
A spokeswoman with the state attorney’s office in Hillsborough County says prosecutors could not determine who was the aggressor in that situation. The alleged victim also signed a waiver of prosecution.
Daniels announced her interest in a 2010 run for a Senate seat in Louisiana in May. She launched a “listening tour” through that state in July. Her attorney could not be reached for comment.

Original Story:  google.com