Who says there's no good news in the economic downturn? A Washington Post article says previously free-spending young men are having to cut back on their efforts to buy women's attention with large infusions of cash. No more rounds of $15 martinis for said woman and her friends. No more Moet champagne, $250 dinners.

In other words, it's not as easy on the wallet to get a desirable woman smashed before taking her to bed. Too bad.

One guy said he is more likely to take his dates hiking now than to fancy restaurants. Gosh, they might even find they can have fun together sober.

Interestingly, another Post story is about the health risks for women who drink even a glass of alcohol a day. I wasn't particularly happy to hear that--but maybe not a bad thing for women to know when, instead of a round of Manhattans, their date orders a round of Budweisers.

There are just a couple days left in the National Teen Dating Violence Awareness and Prevention Week, but hopefully we won't just forget about this issue by the weekend. You don't think you know any teens affected by dating violence? Don't be so sure. Take a look at just a few of the stats from an enlightening Family Violence Prevention Fund fact sheet to see how prevalent the issue is:

• One in four teen girls in a relationship says she has been threatened with violence or experienced verbal abuse, and 13 percent say they were physically hurt or hit.
  
  
• One in three teens reports knowing a friend or peer who has been hit, punched, kicked, slapped or physically hurt by a partner, and 45 percent of girls know a friend or peer who has been pressured into having sex.
  
  
• One in four teens in a relationship say they have been called names, harassed or put down by their partner through cellphones and texting.

Those of you who read the NYT article we wrote about last week already know that that third bullet point illustrates a category of partner abuse the Family Violence Prevention Fund is now calling "digital dating violence." To help teens identify and stop this type of abuse, which also includes harassment via instant messenger and online social networks, the Fund has partnered with the Ad Council and the USDOJ's Office on Violence Against Women to create That's Not Cool, a site with videos, callout cards, and a place to discuss related topics with their peers.  It's not always easy to tell when online and cell phone behavior shifts from fun and flirty to foul and fear-inducing, but hopefully this site will help teens differentiate between what's acceptable and what's not. 

As part of our ongoing effort to support healthy teen relationships, we've added to StayTeen.org a number of resources related to dating violence. Teens can take a quiz, learn how to spot warning signs of partner violence, discover how to help friends who are being abused, or link to Loveisrespect.org, the site of the National Teen Dating Abuse Helpline, to get even more resources.  Because dating violence shouldn't be a part of any teen's relationship reality.