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News Releases

  • Global Warming: A Crucial Moment

    In recent days, the Bush administration has moved away from restricting emissions of carbon dioxide. Today, it is being reported that the Bush administration plans to pull out of the Kyoto protocol on global warming altogether. The following analysts are available for interviews: ROSS GELBSPAN Author of The Heat Is On: The Climate Crisis, the Cover-Up, the Prescription, Gelbspan said today: “President Bush is correct in saying the Kyoto protocol is flawed — but not for the reasons he puts forward. It is flawed because its targets are far too low in the face of an increasingly disruptive climate. With…

  • Erin Brockovich and Bill Moyers Put Toxic Chemicals in National Spotlight

    The night after Julia Roberts won an Oscar for her fact-based portrayal of environmental activist Erin Brockovich, the chemical industry is set to take another blow on national television Monday evening as PBS airs “Trade Secrets” — an expose of “secrets buried in thousands of confidential documents from America’s chemical companies.” The following researchers and policy analysts are available for interviews: ADRIENNE ANDERSON For decades, Anderson has assisted communities poisoned by various chemicals. She teaches environmental ethics at the University of Colorado at Boulder and is currently filing a whistler-blower case. DAVID ROSNER Coauthor of the forthcoming Deceit and Denial:…

  • Eighteen Years After “Star Wars” — What’s Behind NMD?

    Today is the 18th anniversary of President Reagan’s announcement of his intention to begin a massive missile defense research program for the Strategic Defense Initiative. Reports are circulating today about a major reassessment of weapons systems by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who is a major proponent of National Missile Defense. The following analysts are available for interviews: WILLIAM HARTUNG Senior research fellow at the World Policy Institute and co-author of the recent report “Tangled Web: The Marketing of Missile Defense, 1994-2000,” Hartung said today: “The revival of NMD has everything to do with special interest lobbying by an unholy alliance…

  • Campaign Finance Reform

    STEPHANIE WILSON Executive director of the Fannie Lou Hamer Project, Wilson said today: “During the civil rights movement of the last century, voices rose in resistance to racism, inequality, brutal oppression and disenfranchisement, and they could not be silenced. Their cries resulted in both the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts — legislation that Congress could no longer avoid or delay. Yet even this landmark legislation would prove to be inadequate in fulfilling the promise of democracy for all Americans. Today, our elections remain largely the stronghold of the racially and economically privileged of the nation. We are awash and…

  • Sharon’s Visit

    SUSAN AKRAM An associate professor at Boston University School of Law who specializes in refugee issues, Akram said today: “The deteriorating situation is a reflection of a complete lack of focus on the international law principles that should guide a just solution for the millions of Palestinian refugees and for the Palestinian-Israeli conflict generally. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is a total rejectionist of any solution that entails even minimal justice for the Palestinians. He is moving towards the total ‘cantonization’ of the Palestinian areas, establishing 46 separate isolated areas.” More Information ELLEN SIEGEL Siegel has worked with various Jewish…

  • Coke and Commercialization of Schools

    The Coca-Cola company announced on Wednesday that it intends to change the way it does business with school districts. The list of changes includes encouraging local representatives to negotiate non-exclusive contracts, supplying of vending machines that have school messages on the outside rather than Coke ads, and offering a wider variety of “nutritious” beverages. The following critics of commercializing schools are available for interviews: GARY RUSKIN Director of Commercial Alert, Ruskin said: “Coke is on the run. Their announcement today is a desperate PR effort to keep angry parents from kicking Coke, Pepsi, Channel One and other junk food marketers…

  • A Year After Warning of Stock Collapse, Economist Cites Political Leaders’ “Negligence”

    An economist who predicted a collapse of stock prices a year ago, when the Nasdaq composite index was near its peak, said today that “the nation’s political leaders chose to ignore the stock market bubble” — and “as a result, millions of families have seen their dreams of a secure retirement or their children’s college education vanish.” In a news release issued by the Institute for Public Accuracy on the afternoon of March 16, 2000 (a day when the Nasdaq closed at 4,717.39), Dean Baker of the Center for Economic and Policy Research said: “The main feature of the ‘new…

  • Taxes and Triggers

    MAX SAWICKY Senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute, Sawicky said today: “Because some members of Congress view President Bush’s proposed tax cut as a budget buster, they would like to make these large tax cuts subject to cancellation or postponement if economic and budget prospects begin to dim. The buzz word for such devices is a ‘trigger.’ There are problems if this scheme works, as well as if it doesn’t. Typically a trigger would aim to enforce arbitrarily tight and unnecessary fiscal criteria such as a surplus target or a debt limitation. If it works it’s bad, since when…

  • Repeal of Workers’ Safety?

    Last night, the Senate voted to roll back a new federal rule protecting workers from repetitive stress injuries. House action is expected later this week. The following analysts are available for interviews: PAMELA VOSSENAS Vossenas is co-chair of the health and safety committee of the National Writers Union, which is affiliated with the United Auto Workers. She said today: “The Senate’s action, under the Congressional Review Act, is a draconian measure by the Bush administration with a clear intention to kill the ergonomics standard forever. It’s an extremist action that will not only maim over a half-million workers each year,…

  • South Africa AIDS Trial

    With a historic trial underway in South Africa, as 39 pharmaceutical companies try to stop the South African government from importing cheaper versions of AIDS drugs, the following analysts in the United States and South Africa are available for interviews: ROBERT WEISSMAN Co-director of Essential Action and author of the recent paper “AIDS and Developing Countries: Facilitating Access to Essential Medicines,” Weissman said today: “With an appalling human tragedy unfolding in Africa, the multinational pharmaceutical industry has in its South African lawsuit decided to place its narrow proprietary interests over the life-and-death concerns of people with HIV/AIDS. Win or lose,…

  • FTAA: Crossroads at Miami Summit

    JOSEFINA HERNANDEZ PONCE and PEDRO EUSSE and SEVERINA RIVERA, Hernandez Ponce is a sewing machine operator and president of SITEMEX, the only union in the sweatshop garment industry in Mexico. The union was founded last year after two years of efforts which began when Hernandez Ponce and four other workers refused to eat the factory…

  • Behind the “Special Relationship”

    GREG PALAST Palast is author of the New York Times bestseller The Best Democracy Money Can Buy. His investigative reports appear on BBC Television and in the Guardian Newspapers of Britain. He said today: “Blair, like Margaret Thatcher before him, faces revolt within his own party. They believe he lied to get Britain into Bush’s…

  • Mr. Bush Goes to London

    MILAN RAI The British author of Regime Unchanged, a just-released book on the invasion of Iraq, Rai is in the U.S. until November 25. He said today: “President Bush recently said in an interview with the BBC of the war on Iraq: ‘War is my last choice, not my first choice.’ In March 2002, a…

  • * Iraq * Israel * WTO — Interviews Available

    MEDEA BENJAMIN Benjamin, the founding director of the international human rights group Global Exchange, is also co-founder of the Occupation Watch Center in Iraq. Paul Bremer, in Washington mid-week, repeatedly cited the Iraqi Governing Council in his remarks. Benjamin said today: “The Bush administration wants the Iraqi Governing Council to rubber-stamp policies coming from Washington…

  • * Medicare Profiteers * Jobs * Mutual Funds * HealthSouth

    ALAN SAGER DEBORAH SOCOLAR Sager and Socolar are co-directors of the Health Reform Program at Boston University’s School of Public Health. They have recently released a report entitled “New Medicare Rx Benefit Means Big Profits for Drug Makers.” The report finds that “an estimated 61.1 percent of the Medicare dollars that will be spent to…

  • Interviews Available: Families of Military and 9/11 Victims

    JARI SHEESE Sheese owns a small business in Indianapolis, Indiana. Her husband is stationed in Iraq. She said this afternoon: “He had just dropped me a line telling me that he’d be getting around by helicopter and that made me feel better — then a helicopter gets downed killing 16. We find some way to…

  • Interviews Available on Iraq: * Invasion Fatalities * Visitors in the U.S. * More Attacks? * Like Vietnam?

    CARL CONETTA Co-director of the Project on Defense Alternatives, Conetta wrote the just-released report “The Wages of War: Iraqi Combatant and Noncombatant Fatalities in the 2003 Conflict.” Conetta said today”Reviewing U.S. combat data, battlefield press reports, and Iraqi hospital surveys, we have found that approximately 13,000 Iraqis (plus or minus 16.5 percent or 2,150) were…

  • Interviews Available: Bush vs. Facts

    Analysts are available to scrutinize some of President Bush’s claims, including those from Tuesday’s news conference, focusing on Iraq and the recent attacks there: BUSH: “I would assume that they’re [the suicide bombers] either, or, and probably both Ba’athists and foreign terrorists.” FACT: “There are a growing number of interviews with Iraqi resistance fighters that…

  • Welfare Policy: Interviews Available

    With welfare legislation for Temporary Assistance to Needy Families reauthorization making its way through the House and Senate, interviews with the following are available: LIZ ACCLES Accles is with the Welfare Made a Difference National Campaign, which is organizing with a host of other groups the “Shirts Off Our Backs Day” in Washington, D.C. —…

  • Bush’s Asia Trip: Interviews Available

    MARGO OKAZAWA-REY Director of the Women’s Leadership Institute and a visiting professor at Mills College in California, Okazawa-Rey has authored a number of papers about U.S. bases in East Asia. She said today: “Many activists in South Korea, the Philippines and Okinawa/Japan are opposing their governments that support U.S. policies, largely due to political and…

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