The Census Bureau today released its annual report “Income, Poverty and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States.” The following analysts are available for interviews: HEATHER BOUSHEY Boushey is an economist with the Center for Economic and Policy Research and co-author of the report “Hardships in America: The Real Story of Working Families.” She said today: “Changes in household income and poverty rates are directly related to the performance of the labor market because wages and salaries comprise about three-quarters of total family income. Health insurance is also directly tied to employment as most Americans get their health insurance from…

* Voting Rights: Florida Chill ALMA GONZALEZ Alma Gonzalez is spokeswoman for the Voter Protection Coalition in Florida and special counsel to the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. On an Institute for Public Accuracy news release dated July 29, 2004, Gonzalez had said: “Florida Department of Law Enforcement agents showed up at the homes of absentee voters, many of whom were minorities, and asked them if they had really voted, if they had actually sold their votes, and otherwise questioned them in an unfriendly manner while revealing their sidearms. This is unacceptable.” On August 20, New York…

DAVID MacMICHAEL A disabled veteran of ten years active Marine Corps service in Korea, MacMichael was a Defense Department consultant from 1965 to 1969 in Southeast Asia. During most of that period he was attached to the office of the Special Assistant for Counter-Insurgency at the U.S. Embassy in Bangkok. In that capacity he reviewed classified reports from the U.S. mission in Vietnam. MacMichael said today: “Some Vietnam veterans are outraged that presidential candidate Kerry in his 1971 Senate testimony spoke of atrocities reportedly committed by U.S. military forces in Vietnam. There is more than a little substance to the…

MIKE ALVAREZ via Jill Perry TED SELKER via Patti Richards A recent report by the Caltech/MIT Voting Technology Project for the Election Assistance Commission, an independent agency that serves as a national clearinghouse for information on the administration of federal elections, states that “four relatively simple and inexpensive steps can be taken to ensure that voting procedures in this fall’s presidential election are as accurate and reliable as possible.” The report also includes several steps that the group believes are necessary for avoiding lost votes in November. Mike Alvarez is a professor of political science at Caltech. He said: “Between…

Suzanne Mattei Mattei is author of the just-released report “Air Pollution and Deception at Ground Zero.” Head of the Sierra Club’s New York office, she said today: “Among our findings in the report are: * “The Bush administration knew the health risks and ignored its own long-standing body of knowledge about the harmful products of incineration and demolition. It should have issued a health warning immediately on that basis. * “This is not a matter of putting a political spin on a few early press releases. What we uncovered was a long-term effort to prevent the public from knowing the…

Attorneys for a decorated combat veteran serving in the Army Reserve are announcing Tuesday the filing of a petition challenging a “stop loss” order that requires the reservist to remain in the military beyond the term of his enlistment for possible duty in Iraq. The reservist is identified as “John Doe” for reasons of privacy. According to his attorneys, Doe’s case is the first legal challenge to the Army’s current “stop loss” program. Under the program, tens of thousands of soldiers have been prevented from retiring or leaving the military upon completing their enlistment terms so that they may be…

Hussain Ibrahimi Ibrahimi is the director of Iraqi Human Rights Watch in Karbala. He is with a delegation of religious leaders traveling from Karbala to Najaf. Ibrahimi said: “We want to ask for a peaceful solution to this problem, and for the fighting to stop.” Maxine Nash Currently in Baghdad, Nash is a member of the Christian Peacemaker Team, which has been active in Iraq since April 2003. They have been in communication with, and have been working with, Iraqi Human Rights Watch and Hussain Ibrahimi. Nash said today: “Tensions have been escalating here in Baghdad. There have been eruptions…

MARK WEISBROT Co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, Weisbrot testified recently before the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations about Venezuela. He said today: “Polls show [Venezuelan President Hugo] Chavez ahead in the referendum [set for Aug. 15], and according to most press accounts it is because of the government’s success in expanding access to health care, education, literacy programs, and subsidized food for the poor. If he wins, it will be the first time in the region in decades that a government won a national election on the basis of what it did — not promised,…

CHRIS UGGEN Uggen is a professor and McKnight Presidential Fellow at the University of Minnesota and co-author of the forthcoming book Locked Out: Felon Disenfranchisement and American Democracy. He said today: “Our survey of 1,000 Americans showed that 80 percent favor returning voting rights to former felons once they complete their sentences, 60 percent favor re-enfranchising parolees and probationers. In general, we find that a civil liberties view prevails over a punitive view that would deny political rights to non-incarcerated felons…. Felon voting affects elections in close Republican victories in states with very strict laws. Felon disenfranchisement is likely to…

“The general election presidential debates are the ‘Superbowl of Politics,’” said George Farah, founder and executive director of Open Debates. “And if history is any guide, Senator John Kerry and President George W. Bush will participate in debates sponsored by the Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD), which claims to have ‘no relationship with any political party or candidate.’ But the CPD substantially undermines voter education by deceptively awarding control of the presidential debates to the Republican and Democratic nominees.” GEORGE FARAH Farah is author of the new book No Debate: How the Republican and Democratic Candidates Secretly Control the Presidential…