News Releases

  • Vaccine Intentions of Parents

    A new study finds that between 35 and 40 percent of pregnant women and parents of young kids in the U.S. plan to fully vaccinate their child on schedule, including Covid and flu vaccines. Women in their first pregnancy expressed the most uncertainty about vaccinations, with 48 percent being unsure of how they would proceed in vaccinating their child. 


  • Not a War in Gaza — It’s Genocide

    “I don’t know of any comparable situation. Recent estimates show that about 70 percent of the structures in Gaza are either completely destroyed or severely damaged. The argument that the I.D.F. [Israel Defense Forces] is conducting a war in Gaza is simply cynical, there is no war in Gaza. What the I.D.F. is doing in Gaza is demolishing it. Hundreds of buildings are being bulldozed every week. This is not a secret, but mainstream media coverage has been insufficient.”


  • ​Medical Debt Rule Struck Down

    A federal judge in Texas has vacated a Biden-era Consumer Financial Protection Bureau rule that removed medical debt from Americans’ credit reports. 


  • Pope Condemns “Barbarity” as Israel Kills People Waiting for Food

    The Guardian reports: “Pope condemns Gaza war’s ‘barbarity’ as 93 reported killed by Israeli fire while waiting for food” and “Christian patriarchs make joint visit to shelled church in Gaza.” The Guardian also reports: “‘Humanitarian city’ would be concentration camp for Palestinians, says former Israeli PM.” America magazine reports: “A Palestinian Christian community is the latest target of settler violence in the West Bank.” KATHY BOYLAN, [email protected]    Boylan is a member of the Dorothy Day Catholic Worker community in Washington, D.C. and has been is holding a vigil at the Papal Nuncio there, imploring Pope Leo to go to Gaza immediately. See video. She said today: “Pope Pius XII should have visited the Nazi concentration…


  • HHS Moving to Restrict Head Start Access

    The Department of Health and Human Services has announced that it intends to redefine Head Start as a federal public welfare program, not a public education program, barring access to the program for undocumented immigrants. The change is at odds with the way that the Supreme Court has treated K-12 education since 1982, when it ruled that children have a right to free public education regardless of their immigration status. Historically, Congress has not considered Head Start a welfare program. Experts expect there to be legal challenges that would put a temporary restraining order on the change. 


  • Hague Group: Action or More Rhetoric?

    The only thing that Israel understands is power. So governments that would truly enforce international law and protect Palestinians from Israel’s depravity must impose economic pain and render it vulnerable to attack by cutting it off from trade, weapons and fuel.”


  • Will The Hague Group Live up to Their Legal Obligations?

    Colombian president Gustavo Petro is hosting a meeting of The Hague Group in Bogota and recently wrote the piece “Governments like mine have a duty to stand up to Israel. Far too many have failed.”


  • 80 Years After Trinity Atomic Test, “Oblivious to the Threat of Oblivion”?

    Eighty years after the atomic age began with the Trinity bomb test in New Mexico on July 16, 1945, American media and politics are “routinely oblivious to the threat of oblivion,” says an article published today by The Nation.


  • Peace Force for Gaza “the Least” the Hague Group Can Adopt

        “The Uniting for Peace precedent was established to break Security Council deadlocks and to uphold the UN’s founding promise: to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, as well as to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights and in the dignity and worth of the human person, and to establish conditions under which justice and respect for international law can be maintained. That promise is being tested by Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza.” 


  • Measles: U.S. May Soon Lose Elimination Status

    The U.S. is at risk of losing its elimination status for measles after the CDC reported the highest number of cases of the virus in 33 years. Cases have been reported in 38 states, with the highest concentration in West Texas. 


  • Nonproliferation Realities: * McNamara * Ellsberg

    With the review conference on the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) continuing at the United Nations, commentators available for interviews include: ROBERT McNAMARA Former Secretary of Defense McNamara said today: “The NPT was signed by a president. It was submitted to the Senate; it was ratified by the Senate. It is today the law of the land.…

  • Bush in Tbilisi: Why Is Georgia on His Mind?

    President Bush’s schedule in Tbilisi on Tuesday includes meeting with Georgian government officials and speaking to a crowd in the city’s Freedom Square. Why is Bush in Georgia? RONALD GRIGOR SUNY Suny, a professor of political science and history at the University of Chicago, is author of The Soviet Experiment: Russia, the USSR, and the…

  • After Blair’s Weak Victory, Key Issues Remain

    Many observers note that Tony Blair’s support for the Iraq war did significant damage to the Labor Party’s showing in yesterday’s British election. ANURADHA MITTAL Mittal is founder and executive director of the Oakland Institute, a progressive think tank that focuses on economic and social policy issues. She said today: “Anti-war sentiment and lack of…

  • Non-Proliferation and the Nuclear Shadow

    With the review conference on the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) now underway at the United Nations, commentators include independent policy analysts and Americans who have direct experience with nuclear weapons tests. JOHN BURROUGHS Burroughs, executive director of the New York-based Lawyers’ Committee on Nuclear Policy, is monitoring the Non-Proliferation Treaty conference in New York. Burroughs presented…

  • Nuclear Obligations: Iran and the United States

    A long-awaited review conference on the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) got underway at the United Nations today, with the talks scheduled to last until May 27. The NPT treaty obliges existing nuclear powers to dismantle their arsenals and non-nuclear powers to refrain from obtaining nuclear weapons. ROSS POURZAL A Washington-based political analyst who is on the…

  • Major Issues on Immigration

    JUDITH GOLUB Congress is expected to soon pass a piece of legislation known as the Real ID Act. Golub is senior director of advocacy and public affairs for the American Immigration Lawyers Association. She said today: “Real ID is an example of the legislative process gone wrong — both procedurally and substantively. It’s been tacked…

  • Thirty Years After Vietnam War: The Logic of Withdrawal from Iraq

    HOWARD ZINN Thursday marks the 30th anniversary of the withdrawal of the U.S. military from Vietnam. Zinn’s 1967 book Vietnam: The Logic of Withdrawal argued for the U.S. to pull its troops out of Southeast Asia. He said today: “The U.S. is not doing any good with its military in Iraq. It’s not bringing liberty…

  • Where’s the Accountability? * One Year After Abu Ghraib * Misleading About WMDs

    MARJORIE COHN Thursday is the first anniversary of the publication of the Abu Ghraib photos. Professor at Thomas Jefferson School of Law, executive vice president of the National Lawyers Guild, and author of “Torture of Prisoners in U.S. Custody,” Cohn said today: “Although Donald Rumsfeld approved the use of physical coercion and sexual abuse of…

  • Big Oil: High Prices, Record Profits

    TYSON SLOCUM Research director for Public Citizen’s Critical Mass Energy and Environment Program, Slocum said today: “Since Bush took office, the largest five oil companies operating in the U.S. have after-tax profits of $205 billion. We need to examine the relationship between U.S. oil company profits and the higher prices for consumers and American industry.…

  • Behind the Hand-Holding: Bush and the Saudis

    AS’AD ABUKHALIL AbuKhalil is author of the book The Battle for Saudi Arabia: Royalty, Fundamentalism, and Global Power, professor in the Department of Politics at California State University, Stanislaus, and visiting professor at University of California, Berkeley. He said today: “The meeting today will cement the continued improvement in U.S.-Saudi relations despite criticism of the…

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