Bloomberg is reporting on new government data showing that “the number of people living in the nation without medical insurance rose 2.9 percent to a record 46.6 million in 2005 as health-care costs climbed.” CLAUDIA FEGAN, MD Co-author of the book Universal Health Care: What the United States Can Learn from the Canadian Experience, Fegan…

ROBERT GREENSTEIN LAWRENCE MISHEL JARED BERNSTEIN Greenstein is executive director of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities; Mishel is president of the Economic Policy Institute and Bernstein is director of the Living Standards Program at EPI. They will hold a joint conference call briefing Tuesday, August 29, at 1:30 p.m. (ET) to provide analysis…

SANGITA NAYAK Nayak is communications director of the Praxis Project, which coordinates the Katrina Information Network, an informational clearinghouse. She can arrange media interviews with grassroots groups and survivors from East Biloxi to New Orleans who can comment on the gaps in the recovery. More Information TRACIE WASHINGTON Washington, a lifelong New Orleans resident and…

ERVAND ABRAHAMIAN Author of the article “Iran: The Next Target?” and several books including Inventing the Axis of Evil and Iran Between Two Revolutions, Abrahamian said today: “Some seem to want to move to air strikes in the near future as if Iran were on the verge of having a nuclear bomb when the CIA…

RAED JARRAR Jarrar, the Iraq Project director for Global Exchange, is just back from a trip to the Mideast which included meetings with Iraqi Parliament members in Jordan and a visit to Syria. Bush said today at his news conference: “The United States of America must understand it’s in our interests that we help this…

CINDY SHEEHAN Cindy Sheehan is the mother of Casey Sheehan, who was killed in Iraq on April 4, 2004 and who inspired Camp Casey, which is currently set up near President Bush’s ranch in Crawford, Texas, as it is whenever he is scheduled to be there. Sheehan’s latest piece about her experiences in the Mideast,…

CRAIG MURRAY Former ambassador from the UK to Uzbekistan, Murray wrote in a recent piece titled “The UK Terror Plot: What’s Really Going On?” that: “None of the alleged terrorists had made a bomb. None had bought a plane ticket. Many did not even have passports, which given the efficiency of the UK Passport Agency…

ADAM SHAPIRO HUWAIDA ARRAF RASHA SALTI MEDEA BENJAMIN SAMAH IDRISS WADIH AL ASMAR All of these activists are participating in a civilian peace convoy to the south of Lebanon. More information is at Lebanon Solidarity. Arraf and Shapiro are co-founders of the International Solidarity Movement. Shapiro said today: “Israel has in effect depopulated the south…

August 22 marks the tenth anniversary of President Clinton signing into law “The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996.” GWENDOLYN MINK Co-editor of the two-volume Poverty in the United States: An Encyclopedia of History, Politics and Policy, Mink said today: “Congress changed the welfare law last February, stepping up federal disciplinary control…

MILAN RAI Rai’s most recent book is 7/7: The London Bombings, Islam and the Iraq War. More Information DAVID POTORTI David Potorti, who lost his brother James at the World Trade Center on 9/11, is a member of September Eleventh Families for Peaceful Tomorrows. He said today: “Nearly five years after 9/11, we are learning…