Federal Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson ruled on Monday evening that Microsoft has violated antitrust law. The following analysts are available for interviews beginning Tuesday: NORMAN HAWKER A law professor at Western Michigan University, Hawker said: “Judge Jackson crossed the Rubicon in the antitrust case against Microsoft.” Hawker, who has published numerous articles on antitrust law and the Microsoft case, noted that “the verdict against Microsoft demonstrates both the vitality of antitrust law and the need for strong remedial steps to restore competition in markets threatened by Microsoft.” ELEANOR FOX Professor of Law at New York University and co-author of the…

A year to the day before his assassination on April 4, 1968, Martin Luther King Jr. gave a landmark speech in which he denounced the Vietnam War — and challenged global economic relations. Now, 32 years later, hundreds of organizations are preparing to protest the policies of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund in mid-April in Washington, D.C. The following activists are available for interviews: REV. JAMES LAWSON A colleague of King and pastor emeritus of the Holman United Methodist Church in Los Angeles, Lawson said: “What Clinton and others call ‘globalization,’ King would call simply another way…

The following analysts are available for interviews about the just-released Trustees’ report on Social Security and Medicare: MARK WEISBROT Co-author of Social Security: The Phony Crisis and co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, Weisbrot said today: “Social Security is financially rock solid — something that one would never know from listening to politicians argue about who is going to ‘save’ the program. From what? This latest Trustees’ report shows that Social Security could be left on automatic pilot for the next 37 years and everyone would get every dollar of their promised benefits. Of course, it’s silly…

New occurrences of misconduct by police officers are in the national news. The following critics of abuses are available for interviews: RON DANIELS Daniels is executive director of the Center for Constitutional Rights and author of the essay “The Crisis of Police Brutality and Misconduct in America: The Causes and the Cure” in the forthcoming book “Police Brutality: An Anthology”. He said today: “Racial profiling and the militarization of the police are a large measure of the problem. The [New York Mayor Rudolph] Giuliani model of zero-tolerance policing that goes after petty crimes has resulted in tens of thousands of…

JAN HARTSOUGH Shortly after the bombing of Yugoslavia started a year ago today, Hartsough traveled to the Balkans with a social-change organization called Crabgrass. She also attended the Women in Black international conference in October 1999 in Montenegro. She said today: “A police force that can establish law and justice in Kosovo still has not been established. I’m concerned about the prospects of another outbreak of war in the Balkans, this time in Montenegro.” More Information JEREMY SCAHILL Pacifica Radio’s “Democracy Now” program. He reported from Yugoslavia during the bombing last spring. Today he said: “One year after the initiation…

WASHINGTON — While the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee holds a hearing today to focus on health and safety issues at two Department of Energy atomic plants, representatives of workers and others subjected to radiation exposure say that the Senate panel is dodging a wide array of serious problems at DOE nuclear facilities across the country. Reporters and producers are invited to directly contact the following people for interviews: TRISHA PRITIKIN The daughter of nuclear workers at the Hanford facility near Richland, Wash., Pritikin has serious thyroid ills. Both her parents died of cancer. “My brother died shortly after birth, in…

NEIL TANGRI Field director for the Multinationals Resource Center, Tangri has worked in India on development issues. He said today: “The past 10 years have seen dramatic changes in the Indian economy. Frustrated by corruption and a sense of losing the economic race to China and the ‘tiger’ economies, Indian politicians on both the right and left have thrown their support behind economic reform policies of privatization, deregulation, and increased international commerce. These policies have buoyed the fortunes of the wealthy to an unprecedented degree, but also increased poverty. Clinton’s trip to India will attempt to ensure a firm U.S.…

As the stock market continues to rise, many analysts are proclaiming a “New Economy.” They argue that computer technologies have created a market not bound by the physical constraints of the old industrial economy. But are we becoming increasingly unprepared for a downturn? Among the critics of the New Economy available for interviews are: ELLEN FRANK Professor of economics at Emmanuel College in Boston, Frank said today: “Market economies have long periods of growth and then recessions. Since World War II, we’ve had an infrastructure in place to deal with a recession: full employment budgeting, a welfare system, food stamps…

The new report from the International Financial Institutions Advisory Commission, created by Congress in 1998, is adding to calls for drastic reform of the International Monetary Fund. The “Meltzer Commission” report urges full cancellation of the debts owed by poor countries to the IMF and the World Bank as well as significant reduction of the role of these institutions. Congressional hearings on these issues begin this week. The following analysts are available for interviews: MARIE CLARKE Co-director of the Quixote Center, Clarke said: “A Congressional Commission with members across the political spectrum came together with the common message of 100…

LEONARD WILLIAMS Professor of political science at Manchester College and co-author of the recent Campaigns and Elections article “‘Moderates Win’ and Other Political Myths,” Williams said today: “In part the election fits the standard scenario of the more established candidates winning after a bit of trouble. But up to this point in the campaign there’s been more of a progressive ideological center of gravity than in years. There’s an emphasis on promoting education, protecting Social Security, having a Patients Bill of Rights and campaign finance reform. If you’d said all these things 10 years ago, you’d be laughed off the…