New America in the News: 2007

New America Senior Research Fellow Stephen Burd appeared on the April 24 edition of CNN's "Lou Dobbs Tonight." A partial transcript is available below; for the full story please visit the CNN website.

KAI RYSSDAL: Boris Yeltsin first truly got the West's attention in August of 1991, when he jumped up on that tank in front of the Russian Parliament building. But it wasn't until January of the following year that he really turned communism upside-down — when he lifted 75 years of Soviet price controls.

Yeltsin died today at the age of 76. And that shove that he gave Russians toward a market economy is still shaking itself out.

Rajan Menon teaches international affairs at Lehigh University. Professor, good to have you with us.

WASHINGTON, April 22 — After a Chinese interceptor smashed into a target satellite in January, Bush administration officials criticized the test as a destabilizing development.

It was the first successful demonstration of an antisatellite missile by any country in more than 20 years. Pentagon officials warned that the test had increased the threat to American satellites. Space experts fretted that it had spawned a cloud of orbiting debris. American diplomats complained to their counterparts in Beijing.

WASHINGTON — Since forming in 1994, the Blue Dog Coalition, a group of House Democrats who call themselves fiscal conservatives, has argued for trimming federal spending. Now, with the Iraq supplemental-spending bill in limbo, its members find themselves defending legislation President Bush and Republican members of Congress have characterized as fiscally irresponsible.

St. Paul, Minn. — In recent years, many people have been hearing more about Islam because of 9/11 and the war in Iraq. In recent days, it may be because of the controversy over Muslim taxi drivers in the Twin Cities who don't want to carry passengers with alcohol. Sometimes, those stories can reinforce negative and misleading stereotypes...

A Department of Education official who oversaw the student-loan industry and owned at least $100,000 worth of stock in a student-loan company has been placed on leave, a department spokeswoman said this month.

Matteo Fontana, who keeps an eye on lenders and loan guarantors that participate in the Federal Family Education Loan Program, was placed on leave with pay April 6, a day after his ownership of stock in Education Lending Group Inc. was disclosed by Higher Ed Watch, part of the New America Foundation, a Washington think tank...

Newborns typically are mailed birth certificates and Social Security cards within weeks of leaving the hospital. In at least two states they could soon be receiving other important documents: savings account statements.

A bill being considered in the California Legislature would create savings accounts for every child born in the state after Jan. 1, 2008. Each account would be seeded with $500 in state funds, and the money could be used only for specific purposes, such as college or technical education or buying a first home...

Sallie Mae, the nation's largest student lender, will become a private company owned by Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase and two private equity firms under a $25 billion deal announced Monday.

The buyout comes as student lenders grapple with federal funding cuts and a widening investigation into deceptive college lending practices. Last week, Sallie Mae agreed to pay $2 million and alter its lending practices as part of a settlement with New York's attorney general...

The warnings are dire: The number of available radio frequencies is declining, say U.S. government officials, and with it the Pentagon’s ability to introduce new communications technology...

But a seven-year-old firm a stone’s throw from the Capital Beltway says it can harness “white space” in the spectrum to provide interoperable communications. The 30-employee firm, Shared Spectrum, had 2006 revenues of “about $8 million to $9 million” and expects about the same this year...