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News Releases

  • Global Warming Warning?

    ROSS GELBSPAN Author of The Heat Is On: The Climate Crisis, the Cover-Up, the Prescription, Gelbspan said: “This year in the United States, a 315-mile-an-hour tornado destroyed parts of Oklahoma City, one of the worst droughts on record is decimating crops in the mid-Atlantic states and a summer heat wave has killed more than 270 people in the Northeast. These extreme weather events represent an early stage of global warming — the heating of our atmosphere from the buildup of coal and oil emissions. To restore our climate’s stability requires us to cut those emissions by 70 percent — and…

  • Fallout From Nuclear Exposure

    Newspaper accounts this week report that workers were unknowingly exposed to deadly radioactive isotopes at key Department of Energy facilities. The following analysts are available for interviews: JAY TRUMAN Founder and director of Downwinders, a group of people exposed to radiation during nuclear tests, Truman said: “The news that the workers at Paducah (Ky.) and Oak Ridge (Tenn.) were unknowingly exposed to plutonium and other dangerous isotopes for up to three decades is yet another tragic example of the price paid by average American citizens for this country’s nuclear weapons policy. For decades, these workers were led to believe by…

  • Farmers: Beyond the Drought

    These analysts are available to talk about the drought and other issues facing farmers: KATHY OZER Director of program operations at the Federation of Southern Cooperatives, which works with small (mostly African American) farmers, Zippert said: “What’s far more serious than the drought for our farmers is the price of agricultural commodities. They’re getting 3 or 4 cents a pound for watermelon… The prices that farmers are receiving are the same as 50 years ago… The farmers are not getting the full value of these products, a series of middlemen are. You have the food processors and the agribusiness corporations,…

  • Congressional Focus on Nigeria: Interviews Available

    WASHINGTON — While a congressional hearing today focuses on Nigeria, advocates for human rights and environmental protection are available for interviews on the role of oil companies in backing repressive actions by the Nigerian government. Among those available for interviews are: BRONWEN MANBY A researcher for Human Rights Watch, Manby is one of three witnesses to be testifying before the House subcommittee on Africa about the human rights status of the Niger Delta. She is author of The Price of Oil: Corporate Responsibility and Human Rights Violations in Nigeria’s Oil Producing Communities (1999). Manby said: “The oil companies operating in…

  • Budget Priorities

    LINDA GORDON Professor of history at the University of Wisconsin/Madison, Gordon said: “The budget surplus provides Americans with an opportunity for a conversation about our priorities. Most Americans want better schools, better policing, cleaner air and water, an end to global warming, and above all, medical insurance for everyone. Taxes offer a fair and efficient way of providing these and many other services to the public. Buying these things privately is either impossible or more expensive for everyone. The proposed tax cuts, which benefit mainly those who live on investments and inflated CEO-type salaries, will further the deepening inequality which…

  • News Report Says Sale of KPFA May Be Imminent; Station’s Supporters Denounce Pacifica Foundation

    In a major development this morning in the uproar over the censorship and lockout of the staff at KPFA Radio, the San Francisco Chronicle reported that “a proposal to sell Berkeley radio station KPFA is expected to come today before the policy-making body of KPFA’s governing Pacifica Foundation.” Denials of plans to sell the station — which is broadcast throughout much of northern California — have come from Mary Frances Berry, who chairs the Pacifica Foundation board of directors and also chairs the U.S. Civil Rights Commission. But the San Francisco Chronicle reports today: “Speaking on condition of anonymity, sources…

  • Tax Cut?

    These analysts are available for interviews about the tax bill just passed by the House of Representatives and the implications of such legislation: MICHELE McGEOY Michele McGeoy is the CEO of RH Solutions and a member of Responsible Wealth, a national network of affluent Americans working for fairer and more effective economic policies. She said: “Wealthy people like me, I’ve discovered over the years, tend to find we have ‘friends’ we never knew existed. My newest friends sit in Congress. They must really like me. With all the problems in the world today, they’re worried that I’m not rich enough……

  • Uproar Over Free Speech and Lockout: “Unprecedented” Stifling of Radio Station

    A nationwide outcry is growing as the Pacifica Foundation continues its lockout of staff and volunteers at radio station KPFA in the San Francisco area. A week ago, the foundation’s management halted the station’s evening newscast in mid-sentence while the news anchor was reporting on the latest developments in the KPFA-Pacifica conflict. Since then, archival tapes have been airing. Among those who can be called for interviews are: MATTHEW LASAR Author of Pacifica Radio: The Rise of an Alternative Network (Temple University Press, 1999), Lasar said: “The Pacifica Foundation is clearly abandoning the most basic precept of community broadcasting —…

  • Trade Issues: Africa, Agriculture

    There have been a number of developments on trade issues this week: The World Trade Organization ruled on the European Union’s ban on U.S. hormone-injected beef, the Secretary of Agriculture made a speech on genetically modified foods and the House is set to vote on major Africa trade legislation. Among the analysts available to discuss these issues are: LORI WALLACH Director of Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch, Wallach said: “The House is about to vote on legislation that a coalition of oil companies dubbed the ‘African Growth and Opportunity Act.’ It certainly does nothing to help Africa grow or expand…

  • “Compassionate Conservatism”?

    LOUIS DUBOSE Editor of the Texas Observer, Dubose said: “‘Compassionate conservatism’ is in fact the same old wine, badly soured, in a shiny New Texas bottle. We are dead last in per capita government spending, 49th in spending on the environment — while first in pollution.” More Information EVA DeLUNA Budget and policy analyst at the Center for Public Policy Priorities, DeLuna said: “Texas has the fifth highest poverty rate — 3.3 million people, 1.4 million are children. On a per capita basis, Texas spends a negligible amount on natural resources, welfare, libraries, the arts or adult education. Things have…

  • Picket Lines at Congressional Offices: “Looming Threat of Nuclear War”

    “We’re going to show every member of Congress that we won’t be silent on the path to nuclear Armageddon. We have activists in every congressional district in the state saying with a unified voice that the costs of a nuclear arms race are too high, and that justice for communities like the Marshallese people have…

  • Zelenskyy and Canadian Parliament Give Ovation to SS Nazi Veteran

    “The AP caption described Hunka as having ‘fought with the First Ukrainian Division in World War II before later immigrating to Canada.’ The First Ukrainian Division is another name for the 14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS, the military wing of the Nazi Party; the unit was also called SS Galichina.”

  • National Nurses United Calls on CDC to Hold Public Meetings

    National Nurses United put out a letter calling for the CDC to hold public meetings before the agency votes on new infection control guidance updates.

  • Menendez Indictment and Egypt

    “At other points in the indictment, Menendez is described as skirting his committee, at one point asking the State Department for a breakdown of staffing at the U.S. Embassy in Egypt, information ‘deemed highly sensitive because it could pose significant operational security concerns if disclosed to a foreign government or if made public.’ …”

  • Biden and Trump Both Treat U.S. Jews as “Appendages of Israel”

    “Jews will hereafter be treated as foreigners in every country but Palestine. … I would ask of a British Government sufficient tolerance to refuse a conclusion which makes aliens and foreigners by implication, if not at once by law, of all their Jewish fellow-citizens.”

  • On Israel and Saudi: Biden Admin “Normalizing Atrocities and Apartheid”

    “Though the Biden administration has placed a huge premium on getting the deal done, it raises huge questions about the commitments it is making to an autocratic monarchy, whose ruler has murdered opponents like dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi.”

  • Updated CDC Mask Guidance for Healthcare Workers

    Draft CDC guidance recommends that healthcare workers wear surgical masks when treating patients with endemic respiratory infections, like flu. Workplace health and safety experts are concerned. 

  • Did U.S. Ukraine Policy Help Crush Pakistani Democracy?

    “The protests are the latest chapter in a year-and-a-half-long political crisis roiling the country. In April 2022, the Pakistani military, with the encouragement of the U.S., helped organize a no-confidence vote to remove Prime Minister Imran Khan. Ahead of the ouster, State Department diplomats privately expressed anger to their Pakistani counterparts over what they called…

  • Illinois Becomes First State to End Money Bail

    “As Illinois reduces the number of people incarcerated in county jails, it is essential that we work together to ensure that any economic benefits from these changes are passed on to the communities most harmed by pretrial jailing. Across Illinois, Black people have been disproportionately jailed by unaffordable money bonds.”

  • New Push to Reduce Injuries Among Warehouse Workers

    A coalition of labor organizations, small businesses and community organizations in New York is pushing for the state to pass legislation that would help prevent occupational injuries for warehouse workers.

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