JARED BERNSTEIN, [via Karen Conner] Jared Bernstein is a senior economist with the Economic Policy Institute and co-author of the report “Missing the moving target: Meager job growth and the poor track record of the administration’s job forecasts.” He said today: “The jobs paradox continues with the March 2004 jobs report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics reporting a whopping 308,000 new jobs, at the same time as the unemployment rose from 5.6 to 5.7 percent. Today’s unemployment numbers show that for the first time since the ‘jobs and growth’ tax cut went into effect in June 2003 the administration…

NORMA CASTILLO ALEXIS CASTILLO Norma Castillo and Alexis Castillo are aunt and uncle to Camilo Mejia. Tonight on CBS, 60 Minutes II will be airing a segment on Mejia, the Florida National Guard staff sergeant who did not return to Iraq from leave and turned himself in recently. Mejia has filed for conscientious objector (C.O.) status and has spoken out against the war in Iraq, saying: “I could not continue to do the things I was doing in Iraq…. I’m completely against it because it’s an oil-motivated war.” [For more on Mejia’s case, see: http://citizen-soldier.org/CS07-Camilo.html, www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/03/29/60II/main609216.shtml.] More Information LUKE HIKEN…

LAURA FLANDERS Flanders is author of the just-released book Bushwomen: Tales of a Cynical Species, which includes profiles of Condoleezza Rice, Karen Hughes, Laura Bush and others. Flanders said today: “Much of the reporting on Rice has tended to play up the personal — her childhood in segregated Alabama — and play down the political. But Rice, who served for 10 years on the board of the Chevron Corporation, deserves at least as much scrutiny as the other members of Bush’s oiligopoly. In the first Bush administration, she defended the CIA when it stood accused of misleading Congress into arming…

The U.S. has recently increased military operations in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Colin Powell is leaving for a conference in Berlin about Afghanistan on Tuesday. Afghan President Hamid Karzai this weekend proclaimed that elections would be delayed. The following are available for interviews: BEAU GROSSCUP Grosscup is author of the book The Newest Explosions of Terrorism and professor of international relations at California State University in Chico. He said today: “The so-called ‘Spring Offensive’ in Pakistan seems to be mostly symbolic… Especially in the light of insider accounts from Paul O’Neill and Richard Clarke that the administration was fixated on Iraq…

ANN NORTON President Bush is speaking about housing today in New Mexico. Norton is president of the Housing Preservation Project. She said today: “Affordable housing is very much an issue here in New Mexico. Bush is touting this ‘American Dream Down Payment Act.’ But at the same time, he is proposing a budget that is cutting housing assistance. The administration is pushing for significant cuts in the Section 8 voucher program which provides for subsidies for low-income rents in private housing.” More Information SHEILA CROWLEY, [via Kim Schaffer] President of the National Low Income Housing Coalition, Crowley said today: “While…

TERESA CRAWFORD Teresa Crawford was arrested and expelled by Serbian authorities last March while engaging in conflict-resolution efforts in Kosovo. She is a university fellow in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University. “That the international community has resorted to bombing as the only way to deal with Milosevic and his regime jeopardizes the future of the region,” she said. “Bombing or no bombing, all the people of Kosovo whose communities are being destroyed will have to live together.” More Information JULIANNE SMITH Senior analyst at the European Security desk at BASIC (British American Security Information…

ALAN SAGER DEBORAH SOCOLAR Sager and Socolar are directors of the Health Reform Program at Boston University’s School of Public Health. They released a report in October 2003 entitled “New Medicare Rx Benefit Means Big Profits for Drug Makers.” Sager said today: “In 2003, actuaries predicted that the Medicare Trust Fund would be depleted in 2026 — 23 years ahead. Yesterday, the actuaries predicted depletion in 2019 — seven years sooner. The evidence from past years is clear that managed care privatization has cost Medicare money. So no one should be surprised that the Medicare actuaries have cited the new…

DAVID MacMICHAEL A former analyst for the CIA, MacMichael said today: “Richard Clarke is not the first to make the point, though he does it from the inside, that the administration had priorities that superseded protecting the American people. According to Gary Hart, the Hart-Rudman report lay unopened until August 2001 on Condoleezza Rice’s desk; on Sept. 10, 2001, Ashcroft was trying to cut counterterrorism budget items….” ANDREW RICE Andrew Rice’s brother was killed at the World Trade Center on 9-11. He said today: “Among many of the family members who have followed the 9-11 Commission closely, there is great…

STEVE NIVA Niva wrote “Israel’s Assassination Policy: The Trigger for the Latest Suicide Bombings?” and other articles on Israeli violence and Palestinian suicide bombings. Niva, who is writing a book on the subject, is professor of international politics at Evergreen State College in Washington. More Information More Information MUSTAFA BARGHOUTHI, M.D. President of the Palestinian National Initiative, a democratic opposition movement, Barghouthi said today: “There has been a shift in the intifada [the Palestinian uprising] toward more nonviolent struggle, with peaceful protests by Palestinians, Israelis and others against Sharon’s apartheid wall. This assassination is trying to push things in the…

ED BICE Executive director of the People’s Opinion Project, Bice said today: “International public opinion polling shows continued strong opposition to U.S. foreign policy among the people of the world… The Pew Center poll released yesterday found majorities in all foreign countries surveyed, except Britain, had unfavorable views of the U.S. and ‘believe that controlling Mideast oil supplies is an important reason why the U.S. is conducting the war on terrorism.’ In all foreign countries, majorities had an unfavorable opinion of President Bush and ‘believe that America pays little or no attention to their country’s interests in making its foreign…