News Sources: Driver's Licenses for Illegal Immigrants

New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer on Wednesday dropped a plan to issue driver's licenses to illegal immigrants in his state because of overwhelming opposition to the proposal in an issue with repercussions in the U.S. presidential campaign. 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):

Dean Hubbard - Professor of Public Policy, Sarah Lawrence College - Holder of the Joanne Woodward Chair in Public Policy, Hubbard’s expertise focuses on issues of immigrant laborers, U.S. labor law, employment discrimination and community organization.

Ellen Percy Kraly - Associate Professor of Geography, Colgate University - Kraly's studies on emigration are displayed in exhibits on Ellis Island and frequently cited in national publications. She has served as a consultant to the United Nations Statistical Office and U.S. Commission on Immigration Reform on immigration and the environment, and is currently working on a federally funded study of undocumented migrants in the U.S. workforce.

Robert Smith - Assistant Professor of Sociology, Barnard College - Smith has authored numerous articles on immigration, and is currently revising book on Mexican immigration. He is co-author of a report to U.S. State Department comparing InterAmerican and Mediterranean-European migration systems.

News Sources: GM Workers Go on Strike

Workers at General Motors Corp. plants across the U.S. have walked out on strike after talks with the main auto union failed to reach a new pay accord. It's the first U.S.-wide strike during auto contract negotiations since 1976. The negotiations apparently stalled over the union's quest to protect jobs by getting the company to guarantee that new vehicles would be built in U.S. factories. 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):

Candace Howes - Associate Professor of Economics, Connecticut College - Howes is an auto industry analyst for the United Auto Workers, who published a monograph for the Economic Policy Institute on the effect of Japanese direct investment on employment and wages in the U.S. (University of Michigan Press, 2000) and a book on industrial competitiveness and economic performance.

Gary Chaison - Professor of Industrial Relations, Clark University - Chaison is one of the most widely regarded scholars on unions worldwide and an expert in collective bargaining, labor movements and union organizing extensively. He has been quoted on the UPS strike and UAW/United Steelworkers merger, and has written Union Mergers in Hard Times-A View from Five Countries.

Janet C. Goulet -Professor of Economics, Wittenberg University - Goulet is former director of Center for Labor Management Cooperation and is an expert on labor-management cooperation in economic development. She has served as an arbitrator for the Ohio Employee Relations Board, the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service and the American Arbitration Association. She has been published in the Journal of Behavioral Economics.

News Sources: Mexican Trucks Roll in U.S.

The Bush administration is proceeding with a pilot program to allow up to 100 Mexican trucking firms to haul their cargo anywhere in the United States. The program has drawn the ire of Teamsters and members of Congress, who charge it is an attempt at "union-busting" and doesn't address environemental and safety concerns. 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):

Jorge Gonzalez - Associate Professor of Economics, Trinity University - Gonzalez is an expert in trading patterns between Mexico and the U.S., intra-industry trading, the economic impact of immigration, political economy of international trade, and the Mexican economy. His most recent research "The Term Structure of Interest Rates and the Mexican Economy," was published in Contemporary Economic Policy.

Raymond Robertson - Associate Professor of Economics, Macalester College - Robertson specializes in Latin American economic policy. Most of his research is conducted in Mexico, where he has lived. He can discuss a range of issues including the effects of NAFTA on Mexico, unskilled workers, and foreign investment in Mexico.

Elizabeth DeSombre - Associate Professor of Environmental Studies, Wellesley College - Desombre can speak on international environmental politics and law. Her research projects include the use of economic sanctions for environmental goals, the relationship between trade and environment, and environmental, labor and safety standards on ocean ships.

News Sources: Undocumented Worker Crackdown

The Department of Homeland Security is about to issue new regulations on how businesses must respond when informed that there are discrepancies in a worker's tax records. Under the new rules employees would have a limited time to contact the Social Security Administration to correct the information or face possible fines. Critics say the federal crackdown on the hiring of undocumented workers will leave farmers without workers to pick crops, restaurants without cooks and dishwashers, and will reduce employment in the construction, janitorial and landscaping industries. Repoerters 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):

Dean Hubbard - Professor of Public Policy, Sarah Lawrence College - Holder of the Joanne Woodward Chair in Public Policy, Hubbard’s expertise focuses on issues of immigrant laborers, U.S. labor law, employment discrimination and community organization; and international labor relations.

Frank C. Wykoff - Elden Smith Professor of Economics, Pomona College - Wykoff is the author of Understanding Economics Today and Macroeconomics: Theory, Evidence and Policy. He is the editor of Economic Inquiry, the Journal of the Western Economic Association, and a consultant to the U.S. General Accounting Office, the U.S. Labor Department. and the U.S. Treasury Department.

Robert Smith - Assistant Professor of Sociology, Barnard College - Author of articles on immigration, currently revising book on Mexican immigration; co-author of report to U.S. State Department comparing InterAmerican and Mediterranean-European migration systems.