As media have turned their attention elsewhere, breaking news of Egypt’s uprising has fallen into the shadows. Local activists report that in Egypt the military is banning the local press from covering any of its activities. So Egyptian activists are turning to other methods — including testimonial videos on YouTube — to reach the public…

Several hundred people are now protesting at the Saudi Embassy in Washington, D.C. and plan to march to the White House. Organizers expect between one and two thousand people to take part today. The rallies protest the Bahrain regime’s crackdown against the pro-democracy movement there as well as Saudi and U.S. government backing of the…

President Obama said yesterday: “This larger debate we’re having, about the size and role of government, has been with us since our founding days. And during moments of great challenge and change, like the one we’re living through now, the debate gets sharper and more vigorous. That’s a good thing. As a country that prizes…

MAURA STEPHENS Stephens is a co-founder of the Coalition to Protect New York. She said today: “T. Boone Pickens has President Obama and a lot of other politicians buying into his propaganda that ‘natural’ gas is a clean domestic fuel. “But it’s not clean, it’s filthy. A new study shows the entire process of high-volume…

STEFFIE WOOLHANDLER, M.D., MARGARET FLOWERS, M.D. Woolhandler, a professor of public health at CUNY and visiting professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, is a co-founder of Physicians for a National Health Program. She said today: “Congressman Ryan promises to save money by ending Medicare and instead giving seniors a voucher to pay for private…

TERRY O’NEILL, via Lisa Bennett O’Neill is president of the National Organization for Women. She said this morning: “Today we mark Equal Pay Day, which occurs at a pivotal time for U.S. workers, particularly women. As feminists call attention to the persistent gender wage gap, we would do well to demonstrate its link to the…

WENONAH HAUTER, via Darcey Rakestraw Executive director of Food and Water Watch, Hauter said today: “The latest agreement between Congressional leaders and President Obama decimates water protections. The ability of the Environmental Protection Agency to help municipalities deliver clean water to U.S. citizens has been seriously threatened with cuts to the Clean Water and Drinking…

The Japanese government has raised the emergency at the Fukushima nuclear plant to level seven, from a level five. This puts it at the highest level, as was Chernobyl. KARL GROSSMAN Grossman and others have been advocating raising the emergency level as a first step for weeks. Professor of journalism at the State University of…

JOHN FEFFER Feffer is a fellow with the Institute for Policy Studies. He said today: “Just-released figures for global military expenditures by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute show that the world spent more than $1.6 trillion on the military. Even in the middle of a global economic crisis, military spending has increased, with the…

Reversing tax giveaways to the super-rich and the nation’s largest corporations could raise $4 trillion within a decade and avert possible government closures, according to a newly released report.   Today the Institute for Policy Studies issued the report “Unnecessary Austerity,”  which states Congress could raise more than $4 trillion in revenue over the next…