News Releases

  • Biden’s Executive Order on Asylum Seekers

    “The current numbers [of border crossings] are much lower than in 2023, but still higher than 2,500 daily. These new quotas exclude various groups, including people who arrive with previously-scheduled appointments made with CBPOne App, the app used by Customs and Border Patrol. People from Cuba, Nicaragua, Haiti, and Venezuela also have a special [Temporary Protected Status] program for them. In practice, [the new cap] also probably excludes people from Ukraine, people with young children, and unaccompanied minors. It is unclear who will be counting the entrances: Border Patrol––which tends to overcount people in Mexico––could manage lists and meter entrances…


  • Nuclear Peril: One Year After Death of Daniel Ellsberg

    The one-year anniversary of Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg’s death on June 16 is being marked by Daniel Ellsberg Week and the release of a new documentary directed by Oscar-nominated filmmaker Judith Ehrlich, with never-before-seen footage of Ellsberg warning about heightened dangers of nuclear war. Now premiering online without charge, the 37-minute film “A Common Insanity: A Conversation with Daniel Ellsberg About Nuclear Weapons” can be viewed here. Ellsberg’s last book, The Doomsday Machine: Confessions of a Nuclear War Planner, points to scientists’ conclusions that a thermonuclear war would cause “nuclear winter” and doom almost all of the Earth’s inhabitants.


  • Biden Allowing More Israeli Atrocities

    A London Times investigation recently found: “The Israeli government insists that Hamas formally sanctioned sexual assault on October 7, 2023. But investigators say the evidence does not stand up to scrutiny.” The piece quotes Orit Sulitzeanu, the executive director of Israel’s Association of Rape Crisis Centers: “The politicization of rape by the Israeli government was part of the political agenda of this government. … I did not think that was sensible. … They didn’t mean ‘believe Israeli women.’ They meant ‘believe Israel.’”


  • U.S. Jury Holds Chiquita Liable for Colombian Death Squad’s Murder of Banana Workers

    Common Dreams reports: “U.S. Jury Holds Chiquita Liable for Colombian Death Squad’s Murder of Banana Workers” that: “In what case litigants are calling the first time an American jury has held a U.S. corporation legally liable for atrocities abroad, federal jurors in Florida on Monday found that Chiquita Brands International financed a Colombian paramilitary death squad that murdered, tortured, and terrorized workers in a bid to crush labor unrest in the 1990s and 2000s.


  • U.S. “Ceasefire” a “Ploy to Sabotage the Rule of Law”

    Reports indicate that the U.S. government is pushing for a vote in the UN Security Council today on a resolution it drafted. UN whistleblower Craig Mokhiber commented: “A distorted U.S. draft that would (1) divert diplomacy from the UN to a U.S. controlled process (2) compel Hamas to accept but not Israel (3) dictate to the Palestinians who will govern them (4) ignore Palestinian prisoners (5) return to the failed two-state ruse (6) NOT demand a ceasefire.”


  • New U.S. ICBM Tests Spark Criticism

    The coordinator of the coalition, Emma Claire Foley, is the author of the landmark report “The Real Cost of ICBMs.” After this week’s tests, in an article titled “America’s Nuclear Missiles Make Its Citizens Less Safe,” she wrote that ICBMs “are not only strategically impractical but a threat to the lives of millions.”


  • The Corporate Power Brokers Behind AIPAC’s War on the Squad

    “AIPAC wading into elections was nothing new. … But the sheer scale of AIPAC’s spending – enabled by Supreme Court decisions that have unleashed the distorting influence of big money in elections – and the tactics being used are more recent developments. These pro-Israel groups now directly intervene in Democratic primary races, flooding the airwaves with negative ads defaming progressives in the eyes of loyal Democratic voters. …”


  • Assessing Race-Neutral Tests for Lung Function

    A new study shows the implications of adopting race-neutral equations when physicians are testing for lung function.


  • 1967 War Myths Key to Gaza Today

    “Most people, even those knowledgeable about the Middle East, if asked how Israel portrayed its invasion of Gaza and Sinai in 1967, will say that it claimed self-defense on a rationale that Egypt was about to invade. In fact, that is inaccurate. In the Security Council, Israel claimed that Egypt had initiated hostilities by shelling three Israeli settlements just across the frontier from Gaza. The United States knew that claim was false, because Foreign Minister Abba Eban had just been in Washington trying to convince the Lyndon Johnson Administration that Egypt would attack. Johnson’s response to Eban was that there…


  • Palestinian Groups Call to Declare Gaza a Famine-Stricken Area

    The groups “call on the United Nations and the Palestinian Authority to immediately declare Gaza a famine-stricken area due to famine, environmental pollution, and the spread of diseases.”


  • Judicial Nominees: How Should the Senate Proceed?

    NATHAN NEWMAN Newman is chair of the Judicial Nominations Committee of the National Lawyers Guild. He said today: “With the changeover in control of the Senate, there is now the chance for a counterbalance to Bush’s attempt to pack the federal courts with right-wing appointees…. The loss by the Republicans of control of the Judiciary…

  • Beyond the Bush Daughters: Alcohol Policies Under Attack

    While many have focused on the specifics of President Bush’s daughter Jenna being charged with underage drinking at an Austin restaurant last week, some specialists in alcohol policies are urging a shift in public focus — to scrutinize key roles of the alcohol industry. The following policy analysts are available for interviews: LAURIE LEIBER Leiber…

  • Education Spending: Beyond the Rhetoric

    This evening, Laura Bush is scheduled to give the keynote address to the Reach Out and Read national conference in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The following analysts on education policy are available for interviews: EDWARD KEALY Executive director of the Committee for Education Funding, a coalition of over 100 educational organizations, Kealy said this afternoon: “The president…

  • Bush on Public Lands: After the Photo-Op

    Today’s newspapers include pictures of President Bush as he spoke about the importance of public lands in front of some of the world’s oldest trees. The following policy critics are available for interviews: CHAD HANSON Executive director of the John Muir Project, Hanson said today: “George W. Bush’s speech from Sequoia National Park rings hollow.…

  • Bush in California: Energy Blame Game?

    President Bush’s meeting with California Gov. Gray Davis today brings heightened attention to energy issues. Critics assert that the White House still fails to address key factors. Among those available for interviews: MINDY SPATT Media director of The Utility Reform Network in California, Spatt said today: “California is facing economic disaster due to a failed…

  • The Senate: Looking Ahead

    The following policy analysts are available for interviews about implications of the Senate shakeup: LARRY AGRAN Agran is the mayor of Irvine, California. He said today: “It’s unwise to expect too much from the national Democratic Party. Instead of organizing nationwide against Bush’s outrageous $1.6 trillion tax-cut bonanza for the rich, the Democrats folded like…

  • Tax Cut: Who Benefits?

    ROBERT McINTYRE McIntyre is director of Citizens for Tax Justice, which has the only computer model outside the government capable of a detailed analysis of the effects of the proposed tax cuts. CTJ has a series of reports on its website, including the newly released “Distributional Effects of the Senate Finance Committee-Passed Version of the…

  • Responses to Mitchell Report on Mideast

    ALLEGRA PACHECO An American/Israeli Jewish human rights lawyer who represents Palestinians in the West Bank, Pacheco is now a Peace Fellow at the Bunting Institute at Harvard/Radcliffe. She said today: “In calling for the end of the building of settlements on occupied territory, the Mitchell report is calling for Israel to stop an illegal act.…

  • Implications of New Census Data on Rise of Single-Parent Families

    New census data released today show an increase in single-parent families. “The portion of the country’s total 105.5 million households that were headed by single fathers with children living there doubled in a decade, to 2 percent,” the Associated Press reports. AP added that “single-mother homes made up 7 percent of all households in 2000,…

  • Energy Policy: Analysts Available

    With President Bush announcing proposals for a national energy policy today, the following analysts are available for interviews: MINDY SPATT Media director of TURN, The Utility Reform Network, Spatt said today: “Many outside California don’t understand why deregulation has failed. The generators (like Reliant, Dynegy, Mirant) and traders (like Enron and Williams), which control our…

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