News Sources: Health Insurance Cost Hikes

The increasing cost of health insurance is putting coverage out of reach for many small to midsize companies and their workers, even though the rise in premiums this year was the lowest increase in eight years. Since 2001, the cost of premiums has gone up 78 percent, far outpacing a 19 percent increase in wages and 17 percent jump in inflation, according to a survey released Tuesday by the Kaiser Family Foundation, a health care research group that annually tracks the cost of health insurance. Reporters looking for experts to interview on this topic can find them online at the collegenews.org database of news sources and subject matter experts from America's leading liberal arts colleges, including (click on names for contact information):

Merton Finkler - Professor of Economics, Lawrence University - Finkler is a specialist in the economics of health care. He has served as consultant to California's Kaiser Permanente Medical Group since 1987. He also runs Innovative Health Associates, a private consulting firm specializing in long-term care and managed care evaluation and strategy. He is a former Robert Wood Johnson Faculty Fellow in health care finance.

Alan H. Goodman - Professor of Biological Anthropology, Hampshire College - Goodman teaches and writes on the health and nutritional consequences of political-economic processes such as poverty, inequality and racism. He conducts several long-term studies into undernutrition in ancient cultures and correlating social factors. He is the author of Races and Wrongs: Why Good Science is Bad Science.

Martin A. Strosberg - Professor of Management, Union College - Strosberg, a leader in the evaluation of intensive care units, co-edited Rationing America's Medical Care: The Oregon Plan and Beyond and Rationing of Medical Care for the Critically Ill. He has researched the impact of New York State's 1987 Do-Not-Resuscitate Law.

A Ticklish Matter of "Law and Order"

NBC yanked episodes of its show "Law and Order" featuring Fred Thompson from its schedule after he officially announced his candidacy for president. Would running them violate federal equal-time regulations - even the syndicated reruns on lower rated cable channels like TNT and USA? DePauw University Communications Professor Jeffrey M. McCall says maybe not, and that anyone who presses such a claim runs the risk of looking like a whiner and giving Thompson even more attention.

Sounding the Alarm for Leaf-Peepers

Tree species are being affected by global warming, and that in turn is hurting the fall foliage in the Northeast, says Hamilton College Professor of Biology Ernest H. Williams, Jr. Warmer climates are causing a decline in the sugar maples and red maples that are responsible for most of the magnificent oranges and reds, says Williams, who is the author of The Nature Handbook: A Guide to Observing the Great Outdoors.

News Sources: Ramadan, Rosh Hashana Coincide

This year, the Jewish High Holidays of Rosh ha'Shana coincide with Ramadan, the Muslim holy month of daylong fasts that mark the giving of the Qur'an to Mohammed. This rare overlap provides an opportunity to observe not only how the two religions differ in important ways, but also how much these two Abrahamic faiths also have in common. Reporters looking for experts to interview on this topic can find them online at the collegenews.org database of news sources and subject matter experts from America's leading liberal arts colleges, including the following (click on names for contact information):

Randall Balmer - Ann Whitney Olin Professor of American Religion, Barnard College - The author of several books on religion in America, Balmer has also produced three PBS documentaries, including the award-winning Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory, based on his book by the same title. He has appeared as commentator on The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, CNN, Fox News, ABC News and National Public Radio.

Everett Fox - Allen M. Glick Chair of Judaic and Biblical Studies, Clark University - Fox is an expert in the Hebrew Bible, Jewish ritual, folklore and thought. He has completed a widely-heralded new translation of the Five Books of Moses, published as The Schocken Bible. The translation is considered the most significant translation since the King James version and took Fox more than 25 years to write.

Shalahudin Kafrawi - Instructor of Islamic Studies, Moravian College - A native of Indonesia, Shalahudin is a scholar of the Qur’an and Islamic thought. He is the author of Fakhr Al-Din Al-Razi’s Methodology in Interpreting the Qur’an, a reworking of his master’s thesis at McGill University.

News Sources: Hillary's Health Experience

Hillary Clinton touts her experience is her long suit, her ace-in-the-hole against Barack Obama. However, says DePauw's Ken Bode, her experience includes a time when she had the power and the opportunity to push for universal healthcare. He says her moral certainty and stubborn opposition to compromise lost the battle and drove the issue off the national agenda for 14 years.

Bennington College Faculty Member Guiding Peace Talks

Earlier this month, Iraq peace talks were held for four days at an undisclosed location in Finland. News accounts say representatives from Sunni and Shiite groups in Iraq reportedly are making “huge strides” towards agreeing on a roadmap to peace. Bennington College faculty member Mac Maharaj and former visiting lecturer Roelf Meyer have helped guide the talks, reportedly involving more than 30 high-level delegates from the feuding groups, and study lessons learned from successful peacemaking efforts in South Africa and Northern Ireland.

News Sources: Petraeus Reports on the Surge

Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, and Ryan Crocker, U.S. ambassador to Iraq, are set to deliver their much-anticipated assessment of progress in Iraq since the beginning of the U.S. troop "surge" there, which President Bush ordered last winter. The two men will deliver their report to Congress in testimony beginning Sept. 10. And while much has already been reported about what they are expected to say, no one knows for sure. Reporters looking for experts to interview on this topic can find the online at the collegenews.org database of news sources and subject matter experts from America's leading liberal arts colleges, including the following (click on names for contact information):

Guilain P. Denoeux - Associate Professor of Government, Colby College - Studies democratization in the Arab world, Arab-Israeli conflict, Middle East and North African governments. Author of "Urban Unrest in the Middle East" and chapters about Iraq and Lebanon. Worked in Iraq, Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, Syria, Tunisia and Israel. Was charge de mission of the French Cultural Service in Baghdad.

Alex Roberto Hybel - Professor of Government, Connecticut College - Hybel was the author of Power Over Rationality: The Bush Administration and the Gulf Crisis in which he criticized decision-making processes of former President George H.W. Bush's administration. In 2003, he presented series of lectures on U.S. policy toward Iraq in which he said the U.S. should move forcefully, even if unilaterally.

Bob Snyder - Professor of Political Science, Southwestern University - Professor Snyder is the author of Hating America: Bin Laden as a Civilized Revolutionary and The Myth of Preemption: More than a War Against Iraq. He can discuss Middle East politics, U.S. foreign policy and Islamist terrorism.

Bennington in the Thick of Things for Poetry Fellowships

The competition for the prestigious Ruth Lilly Poetry Fellowships has been narrowed down to 12 finalists, and two of them hail from Bennington College - alumna Valerie Wetlaufer and current student Amanda Auchter. The Fellowship is particularly prominent in that they each carry an award of $15,000, which is among the largest prizes offered for aspiring writers in the United States.

Middlebury Lauded for Sustainability Efforts

Middlebury College has set a goal of becoming carbon neutral by the year 2016, and its efforts are gaining national attention. The Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) presented Middlebury its annual Campus Sustainability Leadership Award.