Mitchell Smith writes in pointing out this story focusing on paternity laws at ABCNews.com.

"The paternity debate is heating up in the courts, too. Two men recently attempted and failed to get the U.S. Supreme Court to hear their cases after lower courts ruled they must continue paying support for children who turned out not to be theirs. One, Carnell Smith of Decatur, Ga., is trying to recoup more than $40,000 from his ex-girlfriend after learning three years ago that her 13-year-old daughter is not his."

The Men's Health America list has three recent criticisms of the National Institutes of Health and bias in their heart disease programs. Despite the fact that men have approx. 50% higher risk of death from heart disease, the NIH has underrepresented men in heart disease studies, has more sex-specific publications for women than for men about heart disease, and is currently readying a special heart disease awareness campaign targeted at women, but not men. This is about men dying, folks. We all need to make some noise over this injustice, and physicians and others in the medical field have a deep obligation to speak out and demand more attention to heart disease in men. Educate yourself with these three MHA postings - one, two, three. And then take a moment and write.

chicago joe writes "This is National Domestic Violence Awareness Month and the Chicago Sun-Times newspaper has given us a golden opportunity to be heard. To raise awareness and education about domestic violence, the newspaper is running an essay contest to hear men and women discuss personal stories concerning DV, and more importantly, present ideas on how to diminish it. The winners of the essay contest must be from Illinios and will be honored at a women's forum at the end of the month. While I know we are not interested in winning any contest, the opportunity to e-mail a major newspaper and flood them with statistics and research concerning abused men is an opportunity that should not be passed up." See the Read More section for some strategic tips chicago joe suggests, as well as where to e-mail your essay/information.

Kristin Prolux of the Concord Monitor wrote an outstanding article on the current status of the NH Commission on the Status of Men. She informs readers of the controversial nomination of Scott Hampton, and the most recent nomination of Neal Boutin, who I understand works directly in child support enforcement and is trying to enact significant reform in this area to improve fairness to non-custodial parents. Update: The Union Leader, NH's largest newspaper, also printed a story today on the NHCSM. I've been wondering when they'd finally give it some attention.

SJones writes "A Nashville woman used her fingernails to rip off the testicle of her sleeping boyfriend in a case of blatant sexual battery which was only prosecuted as domestic violence and only resulted in an arrest due to outstanding warrants against the violent female sexual predator. This is a case of blatant sex discrimination by the attorney general's office in that the attack is clearly sexual battery and has not been prosecuted as such. The article, buried in the back pages of the Tennessean, is found here. Contact the Governor of Tennessee and complain about the failure of the prosecutor and police to charge this sex offender with sexual battery. This exact crime, the ripping off of men's testicles by women using only their hands, is becoming more and more frequent as no prosecutor has ever filed appropriate charges. In fact, this is the only case I have found in which the woman served any jail time at all, and that was only because of mandatory domestic violence arrest laws and her outstanding warrants. She got away with committing a crime of sexual violence and will not be forced to register as a sex offender as she should be." Could anyone dig up the contact info for the TN Governor, and perhaps the AG who has jurisdiction in this case?

Due to the generosity of several individuals, Mensactivism.org has received the full $200 in donations which were matched with another $200 from Richard Cann. I'm in the process of getting permission to name the donors who contributed during this time, but felt it was important to announce that the matching fund drive is over so people were aware of this fact. I'm humbled that people completed this drive so quickly, and cannot thank you all enough. Update: The following people are to be thanked as generous supporters of Mensactivism.org: Marc Angelucci, Steve Imparl, Thomas Parker, Luke Brackett, Christopher Fritz, David H, K.S, Anonymous1, Anonymous2 (member of NCFM-LA), and of course, Richard Cann.

Steve writes "Scott Haltzman and I will host this week's MANN chat, Wednesday night (10/2), starting at 9:30 PM Eastern Time, at the usual location. The topic for this chat will be "War with Iraq: A Men's Activism Issue." They're in the news daily: war, Iraq, the draft, weapons of mass destruction, inspections, the overthrow of Saddam Hussein. All of these points ignore--or at least understate--the simple reality. If the United States (and its allies) go to war, it will be men dying, and men killing men. We can debate foreign policy and national security until we are blue in the face, but a war with Iraq still means a lot of dead men. Join us at this week's MANN chat to discuss why the prospect of war in Iraq is an important men's issue. Invite some friends to the chat, too!"

Men's Health America has released a special report called Heart Disease: Why Are Men Still at Higher Risk of Death. This informative posting includes some statistics on heart disease, factors that have affected the rates of heart disease, and most importantly, why men are at such higher risk for death from heart disease. It will serve as good material to draw on for an upcoming activism project that MHA is doing.

Dan Lynch writes "Joe Manthey has come out with an article that coincides with every thing I have been saying for a while now. I really like the way he puts this piece together and shows up Michael Moore for what Michael is really doing "Curing Sexism with Sexism"?!. Duh! Anyways I want people to look at this piece objectively. Try to not see the points about racial hate crimes as a tit for tat but to see how misconceptions create hostility; hence, more crime and division."

alphamale writes "Will the male-bashing by corporations ever stop? The latest company is the A & P grocery chain in Canada. In their most recent flyer (ending October 05) one page 2 they have an advertisement for a "60 minute quick roast." The large bold heading reads "So easy it could be cooked by a child. Heck, even a husband."

I hope you are all as outraged as I am. As a husband and father of two I am deeply offended by this ad. I hope you too will show your outrage. A & P can be contacted at www.freshobsessed.com or 1-877-76fresh. We must stand up against this type of sexist, misandrist advertising! For a fact, you know they will not be running an ad next week with the word wife inserted for husband!

As for me.....I've stopped shopping there. They just lost thousands of dollars of my business."

Thundercloud. writes "Well, here we are at the end of September, 'Prostate Cancer Awareness Month'. So, did everyone else see all the news coverage and reports on this in the media? ... Neither did I.
I watched and waited all month to see even ONE mention of the subject.
But I waited in vain. I saw zilch! However, I did notice Katie Couric, about a week ago, reminding everyone that October is 'Breast Cancer Awareness Month'! How nice (and typical) of her and the rest of the media to remind us that October is "Breast Cancer Awareness Month", during "Prostate Cancer Awareness Month". and make NO mention of the latter!" Thundercould makes some valid points. I also saw very little attention to PCAW compared to what I remember last year. Where did we go wrong this time - what do you think?

Marc writes "Governor Davis vetoed AB2240. In Davis' statement below you can see that his reason is mostly based on the requirement of "personal service." In my opinion the personal service amendment was a poison pill and should never have been there. We're nowhere near finished with this." An Anonymous User also wrote in with the bad news, saying "An insightful explanation of WHY he's ignoring DNA evidence is in this news story: "the state might not meet federal requirements on collecting child support payments, putting California at risk of losing $40 million in federal funds." My take on it is that Governor Davis is defrauding men, taxpayers and the U.S. government." See the Read More section below for the veto letter that Davis wrote himself.

drakematrix writes "I am a columnist for the Daily Kent Stater. This week, my column discussed Paternity Fraud Legislation pending in the Michigan State Legislature. you can access the story by going to this page." Nice work, Michael. We need to get these issues addressed in colleges and universities, and help educate men as early as possible.

Foster's Daily Democrat reports here about the rejection of Scott Hampton's nomination to the NH Commission on the Status of Men. Rep. David Bickford had a really strong quote printed, saying that Hampton's nomination by Shaheen "was kind of like putting Osama bin Laden on a Jewish, anti-defamation board." Also of interest is that the NCFC-NH web site now has a summary of the current history of the NHCSM, which is useful to get background on the commission.

Wendy McElroy will be moderating this week's iFeminist/Mensactivism.org on-line chat, this Sunday, Sept. 29, at 9 PM EST. I will be there to discuss the current status of the NH Commission on the Status of Men and what still needs to be done (we're not totally out of the woods yet). Please join us at the iFeminist chat room for the discussion.