News Sources: Economic Stimulus Talks

President Bush has jump-started the talks between the White House and Congress over how to give a needed boost to the slowing US economy, announcing he wants to pump about 140 bln usd into the hands of consumers and businesses.

Philip N. Jefferson - Associate Professor of Economics, Swarthmore College - Former research economist at the Federal Reserve Board. Has researched small business employment and effect of the money supply on economic performance. Expert on the Fed and its chairman.

Ann Owen - Associate Professor of Economics, Hamilton College - Economics professor Ann Owen served as an economist for the Federal Reserve Board of Governors before joining Hamilton College. She has published several papers on long-run growth and income distribution. Owen is a frequent media commentator on issues related to Federal Reserve decisions, Social Security, and various economic indices for outlets including MarketWatch, Associated Press, The New York Times, UPI, Atlanta Journal Constitution and the Baltimore Sun. She also serves as director of the Arthur Levitt Public Affairs Center at Hamilton College.

Steven E. Schier - Position:Dorothy H. and Edward C. Congdon Professor of Political Science, Carleton College - Schier's interests are primarily in methodology and American politics, including the role of interest groups, elections, fiscal policy, generational politics, and political parties. Schier also publishes widely on the federal government. He is co-author of Payment Due: A Nation in Debt, a Generation in Trouble, and author of Congress in Default, which looks at why Congress has failed to solve the federal budget deficit.

News Sources: God and the Capitol Flags

The acting Architect of the U.S. Capitol has decided to overturn a policy that banned political and religious statements on certificates included with flags flown over the U.S. Capitol. His action follows complaints from House Republican Leader John Boehner of Ohio, numerous Republican members of Congress and citizens across the country who said the separation of God and country had gone too far. 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):

William C. Placher - Professor of Philosophy and Religion, Wabash College - Placher is the author of The Domestication of Transcendence: Where Modern Thinking About God Went Wrong. He is recognized as one of the great contemporary theologians.

Lief Carter - McHugh Distinguished Professor of Political Science, Colorado College - Carter's areas of expertise include constitutional law, legal theory, courts and politics, administrative law and politics, contemporary Supreme Court, and religion and law. He is the author of five books, including Contemporary Constitutional Lawmaking: The Supreme Court and the Art of Politics, and The Limits of Order.

Paul Apostolidis - Assistant Professor of Politics, Whitman College - Apostolidis has extensively researched the politics of U.S. evangelical conservatism, including analyzing radio broadcasts of Focus on the Family, a leading Christian right organization. He published his findings in "Stations of the Cross: Adorno and Christian Right Radio"

'Poisonous' Air in Washington

The race for the White House is "wide open," but the atmosphere in Washington is "poisonous," the host of NBC's "Meet the Press" told Bucknell University students. Tim Russert said that, with 390 of the 435 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives deemed "safe" seats, "There is no incentive to reach across the aisle and try to achieve common good."

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.