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News Releases

  • * Ten Commandments * Labor Day * Against School * Psychiatric Protests

    Rev. GRAYLAN S. HAGLER Senior pastor of Plymouth Congregational United Church of Christ and national president of Ministers For Racial, Social and Economic Justice, Hagler said today: “The legal controversy around the Ten Commandments monument in Alabama highlights the misuse and abuse of religion in the United States. A monument of this kind is a radically conservative statement that hardly reflects the inclusion and tolerance that we seek to effect in this society…. Furthermore, as a preacher of the Gospel, I am astonished that there is so much passion around a monument, when in fact we ignore religiously what the…

  • Crisis with North Korea: Critical Analysis

    As representatives of six governments hold talks in Beijing regarding North Korea’s nuclear capability, the following analysts are available for interviews: BRUCE CUMINGS Author of several books including The Origins of the Korean War, Korea’s Place in the Sun: A Modern History and most recently Parallax Visions: American-East Asian Relations at the End of the Century, Cumings is a professor of history at the University of Chicago. More Information SEUNG HYE SUH Suh is an organizer with the group Nodutdol for Korean Community Development and assistant professor at Scripps College in Claremont, Calif. She said today: “This is a dangerous…

  • Bush at American Legion: Interviews Available

    PAUL COX Cox is a Vietnam War veteran and the commander for the American Legion Post 315 in San Francisco. He said today: “Bush made assertions that the primary reason for the invasion of Iraq was weapons of mass destruction. Exactly a year ago today, Cheney said to the Veterans of Foreign Wars: ‘Simply stated, there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction.’ It now appears increasingly likely that there were no such weapons. They lied to the American people, to the world and to the United Nations. Bush is the prototypical chickenhawk — pretends…

  • Interviews Available: The March on Washington

    The 40th anniversary of the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom is August 28. Events begin today in Washington, D.C. The following analysts and activists are available for interviews: Rev. JAMES LAWSON Pastor emeritus of Holman United Methodist Church, Lawson was a longtime associate of Martin Luther King Jr. and is available for a limited number of interviews. Though involved in the planning of the 1963 march, he did not attend it, having given his bus seat to a student. He said today: “The entire march was under pressure from the Kennedy administration. John Lewis changed his speech…

  • The U.N. Role in Iraq: Interviews Available

    NANCY LESSIN, CHARLIE RICHARDSON Co-founders of Military Families Speak Out, Lessin and Richardson have a son, Joe, who just returned from Iraq. They said today: “Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson and others are arguing that attacks in Iraq mean we have to send more troops. We have 58,000 names on a wall — and millions of dead Vietnamese — to tell us where that road leads.” More Information More Information EMAN AHMED KHAMMAS, in Baghdad via: Khammas is co-director of the Occupation Watch Center in Iraq. She said today: “The U.N. is not very reputable here. Many people consider the U.N.…

  • Assessing the Blackout: Interviews Available

    GREG PALAST Palast is coauthor of Regulation and Democracy (a book that includes analysis of power markets) and author of the best-selling The Best Democracy Money Can Buy. He said today: “Like some sort of mediaeval doctors bleeding their patient, the Bush administration keeps pushing for more deregulation when it’s been the problem — not the solution.” More Information WENONAH HAUTER Director of Public Citizen’s Critical Mass Energy and Environment Program, Hauter said today: “Electric deregulation was the major factor behind the blackouts last week. Because deregulation replaced integrated resource planning — where states ordered local utilities to provide adequate…

  • *Blackout * New Nuclear Weapons

    LLOYD J. DUMAS Dumas is the author of Lethal Arrogance: Human Fallibility and Dangerous Technologies and is a professor of political economy at the University of Texas at Dallas. He said today: “The massive failure that knocked out power to the Northeast and Midwest U.S. and Canada looks like the disastrous blackouts of 1965 and 1977. Once again we are reminded of our technological vulnerability and the impossibility of eliminating failure. Electric systems were connected together to make blackouts a thing of the past. In 1965, when part of the grid failed and the rest took over, the strain caused…

  • * Schwarzenegger and Ken Lay Meeting * Perspectives on Recall

    DOUG HELLER CARMEN BALBER Consumer advocates with the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights, Heller and Balber said today: “The California energy crisis was the culmination of a decade-long push to remove consumer protections and regulatory oversight of California’s electric power system… Leading the charge was Ken Lay, the former CEO and Chairman of Enron, whose close ties with the Bush family were supplemented by campaign contributions both in Washington and across the country, notably including more than $100,000 to California Governor Gray Davis. It was, of course, no surprise that Governor Davis failed to meaningfully take on the power…

  • Doctors Call for National Health Insurance

    Today an article in the Journal of the American Medical Association (embargoed for 3 p.m. ET), backed by more than 7,000 physicians, proposes national health insurance. A news conference on the proposal, including two former Surgeon Generals, was set to take place today at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., at 10 a.m. Dr. STEFFIE WOOLHANDLER, [via Kimberly Soenen] A lead author of the proposal being presented today, Woolhandler is a primary care doctor practicing in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. She said today: “We are already spending enough to provide every…

  • * Jobless Recovery? * Forecast * Vacation Starvation?

    ROBERT POLLIN Professor of economics at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and author of the forthcoming book Contours of Descent: U.S. Economic Fractures and the Landscape of Global Austerity, Pollin said today: “Recently there has been much talk, and some signs, of a recovery out of the long stagnation that has gripped the U.S. economy since the stock market bubble burst three years ago. In fact the evidence of a recovery is mixed. But it is also true that economies will in some sense always recover from three years of a slump. The nature of the recovery is the…

  • Iraq Analysts Available

    JOHN QUIGLEY Professor of Law, Ohio State University. Specialist in the Mideast and in international law. “There is no basis in any Security Council resolution for unilateral military action by the U.S.” BARBARA LUBIN Executive director, Middle East Children’s Alliance More Information JEFF GUNTZEL Traveled recently to Iraq with Voices in the Wilderness, delivering medicine…

  • Iraq Sanctions: What’s the Policy?

    Whether the United States bombs Iraq or not, there are reports that the U.S. is changing its policy to a more sanctions-based approach. While many are claiming that Iraq would be rid of the sanctions if it complied with the weapons inspections, an examination of U.S. policymakers’ statements since the Gulf War suggests otherwise: April…

  • Environmentalists Urge Clinton to Live Up to Rhetoric

    With the Earth’s climate on the table as delegates from more than 160 nations gather in Buenos Aires for a global climate summit, some U.S. specialists are voicing concern that the White House is not honoring its promises. Among those available for comment: ROSS GELBSPAN Gelbspan, author of The Heat Is On: The Climate Crisis,…

  • Victories for Campaign Finance Reform in Two States Likely to Inspire Grassroots Efforts Nationwide

    Statewide ballot measures for campaign finance reform won approval Tuesday in Arizona and Massachusetts. Activists say those victories will inspire a groundswell of efforts around the country to clean up the elections process at the grassroots. “This sends a message nationwide,” said Kaia Lenhart, political director of Arizonans for Clean Elections. “There’s no doubt about…

  • Election Issues That Weren’t

    As the 1998 campaign nears its end, some observers contend that key realities of American society have remained out of focus. Several policy analysts are available for interviews on subjects they say have gone largely overlooked during this campaign season: JOHN C. BERG Director of Graduate Studies at the Government Department of Suffolk University, Berg…

  • Social Security: Economists Call for Realism

    Three economists issued statements Friday warning against unrealistic scenarios for privatizing Social Security. The researchers took aim at a new book put out this week by the Cato Institute (Common Cents, Common Dreams) which argues for privatization. They are available for interviews on Social Security policy options. RICHARD Du BOFF Professor of Economics at Bryn…

  • Pinochet Arrest Raises New Questions in Washington

    WASHINGTON — The arrest of former Chilean dictator Gen. Augusto Pinochet has focused new attention on the record of his regime, which remained in power for 17 years after the 1973 coup that toppled Chile’s democratically elected government. Some pointed questions are being raised about the Washington-based Cato Institute’s current embrace of Jose Pinera, who…

  • Analysts Decry Inaction by Congress on HMO Reform

    WASHINGTON — The failure of Congress to pass legislation on health care reform before adjournment has angered many Americans. A number of doctors and health care analysts are available for interviews about Congressional inaction on a patient bill of rights to address problems with HMOs. Some of these specialists regard such a bill of rights…

  • Social Security: Would Privatization Help Minorities?

    WASHINGTON — A range of organizations today criticized rosy claims about Social Security privatization for Latinos and African Americans. At a presentation in Washington organized by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, the widely cited Heritage Foundation was faulted for “technical errors” and “gross inaccuracies” in its claims that racial minorities would fare better…

  • “Surplus” and Poverty in America

    WASHINGTON — While President Clinton announces budget surplus figures today, some economists and poverty specialists are challenging the idea that poverty is receding as a national problem. Among those available for comment are: ANURADHA MITTAL Policy Director at the Institute for Food and Development Policy – Food First, Mittal said: “Extreme poverty is growing fastest…

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