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. 


  • Earth Summit: Another Global Snub by the U.S.?

    The Earth Summit — or World Summit on Sustainable Development [see www.johannesburgsummit.org ] — begins on Monday in Johannesburg, South Africa. The following analysts are available for comments: COLLEEN FREEMAN A policy analyst with Friends of the Earth, Freeman said today: “Clearly, the promises of the Rio Earth Summit of 10 years ago have not…

  • Women’s Equality Day: Interviews Available

    This Monday is Women’s Equality Day — the anniversary of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, allowing women the right to vote. The following analysts are available for interviews: YIFAT SUSSKIND Susskind, associate director of MADRE, an international women’s human rights organization, said: “Women’s Equality Day provides an opportunity for us all to reflect…

  • Interviews Available: Critical Voices on Iraq

    STEPHEN ZUNES Associate professor of politics at the University of San Francisco and senior policy analyst and Middle East editor for the Foreign Policy in Focus Project, Zunes said today: “Claims of Iraqi ties to Al Qaeda appear to be little more than a desperate effort by administration officials to convince the American public to…

  • Iraq’s Use of Chemical Weapons: A Reason for Invasion?

    Bush administration officials have cited the Iraqi government’s use of chemical weapons as a key reason for launching an overwhelming attack on Iraq. Condoleezza Rice said last week: “He [Saddam Hussein] has used chemical weapons against his own people and against his neighbors…” On Sunday, a front-page New York Times article reported: “A covert American…

  • Reparations: Interviews Available

    On Saturday (August 17) in Washington, D.C., there will be a march calling for reparations for African Americans. The following commentators are available for interviews: JOE FEAGIN Graduate research professor at the University of Florida and author of numerous books on racism in the United States, Feagin said today: “Reparations for the enslavement and later…

  • Interviews Available: * Colombia * Mideast

    ADAM ISACSON Director of the Colombia program at the Center for International Policy, Isacson said today: “At a time when a new hardline president is declaring a state of emergency in Colombia, the U.S. government is broadening its military mission from counter-narcotics to counter-terrorism. This could lead just about anyplace. Those two trends are worrying…

  • Bush Economic Forum: Beyond the Photo-Ops

    JOHN MILLER Professor of economics at Wheaton College in Massachusetts and contributing editor for Dollars & Sense magazine, Miller said today: “The Bush administration is rounding up the usual suspects — conservative politicians, economists, business types, and even large donors — for a forum on why that pesky economy refuses to respond to Bush tax…

  • Interviews Available on Weapons of Mass Destruction: * Iraq * Hiroshima

    SCOTT RITTER Ritter, who was a chief UN weapons inspector in Iraq, is available for limited interviews. When asked by the Institute for Public Accuracy if he would be willing to go to Iraq with members of Congress, Ritter said he would consider such an option. He said today: “The offer by Iraq for members…

  • Interviews Available on Major Economic Stories

    MARK WEISBROT Co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, Weisbrot wrote the article “Economists in Denial” in today’s Washington Post. He said this afternoon: “[Treasury Secretary Paul] O’Neill is visiting countries in the grip of serious economic and financial crisis: Argentina’s economy has collapsed, and Brazil is headed toward default on its debt.…

  • War and the U.S. Congress: Responsibilities and Evasions

    MIKE GRAVEL Gravel, currently president of Direct Democracy and sponsor of the National Initiative for Democracy, was a noted critic of the Vietnam War while in the Senate. He entered the Pentagon Papers into the Congressional Record. He said today: “This is a déjà vu of Tonkin and the evidence seems to be as flimsy.…

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