There is a political group in England pushing for a child access ban for parents accused of domestic violence. Look here for the BBC news report. Of course, it's obvious on the surface that this is a good idea, and that children shouldn't be put in the hands of violent parents. But the sad truth is that, at least in the U.S, false allegations of domestic and sexual violence often arise in divorce settlements, and this could be used to leverage more control from women who are willing to make false accusations. Where should the balance lie?

More news on men's health: there was a special insert in last Sunday's New York Times which had the cover story: Men and Cancer. You can read it on-line. It has lots of information about cancer, cancer testing methods, and resources for those who want to learn more. How much to you know about cancer? What is a PSA test? Read it and find out.

Congressman Duke Cunningham of California has introduced new legislation that would establish an Office of Men's Health at the Department of Health and Human Services. The bill is H.R. 4653, and you can download the bill in Adobe .PDF format here. Cunningham's press release can be found here. If you're from California, or even if not, please send Cunningham a note of support!

The Ottawa Citizen printed this story that the Alberta Human Rights Commission has publicly decried a domestic violence brochure printed by a counselling center which ignores family violence against men. It's uplifting to see this issue get some much-deserved attention and action; the brochures being attacked were retracted by the counselling center.

The Britain Sunday Times printed some excerpts from Christina Hoff-Sommers' new book, The War Against Boys. It is followed by a short article by someone who is apparently trying to downplay the importance of the book. Nevertheless, the book excerpts make a much stronger statement.

I just wanted to wish everyone a happy Father's Day from the Men's Activism News Network. Fathers Day 2000 has its own web site, with information about a march in Washington, D.C. in support of fathers and father's rights. I wish all fathers the best and I hope the march gets some attention from the mainstream press.

Joe submitted this story from the June issue of the American Spectator. It's an article that discusses the ways fathers are demonized and marginalized by both political parties, and also examines several myths about fathers. It seems that dads can't win no matter what they do, and Young asks that fathers be given more respect by the media.

This week is National Men's Health Week, and ABCnews is running a series of on-line chat sessions with health experts and doctors on various topics related to men's health. You can read the transcripts to the already completed ones at the address linked to above.

An unlikely source for this kind of news, Wired magazine posted this article about new legislation that would repeal the Pennsylvania law which prohibits men from requesting paternity tests on children born during their marriage. Obviously, knowing whether you are the true father or not is very important in deciding child support and custody issues, and it's appalling that men don't have this right in PA.

Fred Reed, a conservative writer, wrote this piece which is a sort of review of the book From Courtship to Courtroom by Jed Abraham. He talks about the dark side of marriage - divorce. And with statistics as they are, it is becoming less cynical to dispense this type of advice. I was hesitant to post this, but the facts must be known. It can and does happen.

Salon magazine has printed a few articles on Fathers, and a particularly good one written by Cathy Young on the topic of "Maternal Chauvanism", the idea that women consciously or subconsciously try to sabotage fathers from being as good parents as mothers. There's lots of insight in this article, and good food for thought.

More news from Britain: Stockport College, of Greater Manchester, has recently decided to ban the use of a few dozen "offensive" words, according to this Telegraph story. And we're not talking terms such as "nigger" or "bitch", but rather "lady", "history", and references to "the blind", among others. More shocking news on the censorship front.

In America, 250,000 paternity tests are done each year (15,000 per year in Britain). The Sunday Times printed an article about the rise of DNA paternity tests, and some of the issues surrounding them. The question of men's reproductive rights and custody issues is briefly mentioned, but the article in general is of interest to men.

This AP news article reports that the alleged gender "pay gap" that feminists are often quick to promote is being challenged in a Congressional Testimony where at least two female economists denied that the gap was due to discrimination. Shameless plug: I might add that recently I did some research on the pay gap and printed my results here.

Carl Friedan, former husband of Betty Friedan, has created a web site to speak out against the "misleading allegations of spousal abuse made by my ex-wife", which were made in Betty Friedan's recent book Life So Far. According to Mr. Friedan, the claims made in Life So Far are misleading at best, and he paints a much more complex description of their marriage. Particularly relevant is the "Living with Insanity" section of his site. Note also that in a recent Washington Post article, Betty Friedan is quoted as saying "I almost wish I hadn't even written about it, because it's been sensationalized out of context...My husband was no wife-beater, and I was no passive victim of a wife-beater. We fought a lot, and he was bigger than me", which sounds much like a weak admission that things weren't quite as she made them out to be.