JAMES LOVE Director of the Consumer Project on Technology, Love said: “The merger is an attempt to avoid competition. Sprint plays an important role in servicing resellers in the long distance market, smaller companies that buy bandwidth from the big three. For twenty years, you’ve had these three major players. Prices have gone down because there has been competition in the long distance market. This merger is good for the shareholders of the long distance industry, but bad for consumers because it will reduce competition.” More Information DEBBIE GOLDMAN Research economist with the Communication Workers of America, Goldman said: “When…

QUENTIN YOUNG, M.D. The national coordinator of Physicians for a National Health Program, which today released an analysis of Census data figures, Young said: “The number of uninsured climbed by 833,000 to 44.3 million in 1998, according to data released by the Census Bureau. Though the Census Bureau claimed that children’s health coverage had not deteriorated, an analysis by PNHP reveals that the number of uninsured children rose by 330,300 in 1998, following rises of 188,000 in 1997 and 755,000 in 1996. Overall, the data show a clear and significant trend of deteriorating coverage among children. Since 1992, when President…

DEAN BAKER “The public debate over the budget has almost completely missed the real issues,” said Baker, an economist at the Preamble Center. “The debate has been portrayed as a dispute over whether to spend the surplus on social programs or whether to pay it out in tax cuts. In reality, the projected surplus is based on the assumption that social programs will be cut in real terms over the next decade. The issue between the President and Congress is actually about how much these programs will be cut. Of course the even bigger deception is that we are making…

As congressional hearings on the Russian financial scandal continue, the following analysts are available for interviews: JANINE WEDEL Author of Collision and Collusion: The Strange Case of Western Aid to Eastern Europe and associate professor at the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Pittsburgh, Wedel said: “As more becomes known about Western participation in the laundering of Russian money, the Washington establishment will likely try to hide behind stories of faraway organized crime and distance itself from any culpability. But U.S. policy toward Russia has contributed to that country’s sorry condition. Among those under investigation…

ROSS GELBSPAN Author of The Heat Is On: The Climate Crisis, the Cover-Up, the Prescription, Gelbspan said: “The ferocity of Hurricane Floyd — like Hurricane Mitch, which last year killed 9,000 people in Central America — is part of a pattern of extreme weather which results directly from early-stage global warming. Warmer surface waters fuel more intense and severe hurricanes. In the last few years, surface waters in both the Atlantic and Pacific have warmed by several degrees — independent of El Niño events. That increase, coupled with a warming-driven rise of atmospheric humidity of 5 percent per decade since…

Despite Indonesia’s agreement to an international force in East Timor, the violence there continues. The following people, most of whom were UN-accredited observers for the late August vote, have recently returned from East Timor and are available for interviews: BARBARA NASH A UN-accredited observer with the International Federation for East Timor, Nash just returned on September 8. Nash is a teacher and grandmother. More Information JEROME HANSEN Hansen, who has also done election monitoring in Sri Lanka and Cambodia, is currently a graduate student in conflict analysis and resolution at George Mason University. MIRIAM YOUNG and ANDREW WELLS Associated with…

KRISTIN SUNDELL A UN-accredited observer with the International Federation for East Timor and national field organizer with the East Timor Action Network, Sundell recently returned from East Timor. She is in contact with others who are just returning and have witnessed the brutality there. More Information AMY GOODMAN and ALLAN NAIRN Goodman and Nairn have each won numerous journalist awards for their coverage of East Timor. They both survived the 1991 Santa Cruz massacre there. Goodman, host of Pacifica Radio’s “Democracy Now!” program, was recently expelled from Indonesia because she is on a blacklist. She is in regular contact with…

News reports from East Timor indicate that the Indonesian army and the militias are now working together openly to wreak new terror on the streets of East Timor’s capital, Dili. The following analysts and commentators are available for interviews: JOSE RAMOS-HORTA Jose Ramos-Horta is winner of the 1996 Nobel Peace Prize and the International Representative of the National Council of Timorese Resistance. (He will be at a news conference at the National Press Club at 9 a.m. on Wednesday.) More Information ALLAN NAIRN An award-winning journalist, Nairn has written about East Timor for The Nation, The New Yorker and other…

LAURA JONES A recent study by the 2030 Center, a public policy institute that advocates for the economic interests of young adults, examined the threats to job security due to increases in temporary work. Jones, communications director for the 2030 Center, said: “As Americans race to the beach this Labor Day weekend, an army of young temporary workers will keep American businesses humming — and they won’t be getting holiday pay to do it. Wages and job quality are actually declining for young Americans — since 1973, entry-level wages for young workers have fallen between 5 and 29 percent… Few…

Indonesian-backed forces have increased their violence in recent days as Monday’s UN-organized referendum on self-determination approaches. In 1975, Indonesia invaded East Timor with tacit U.S. backing. In the 24 years since, 200,000 people have died, a third of the population. Interviews are available with the following analysts: LYNN FREDRIKSSON Washington representative of the East Timor Action Network, Fredriksson said: “Few doubt that the vast majority in East Timor will opt for independence if the vote is free. But just days before the long-awaited referendum, the people of East Timor face escalating paramilitary threats, intimidation and outright terrorist attacks. The human…