NOW on the News | PBS

After serving almost nine months in a military prison for desertion, Camilo Mejia, a veteran of the Iraq conflict, talks about why he refused to return to the war in a web-exclusive interview.

Ahead of a much-anticipated vote in the Senate, Judy Shepard, whose homosexual son was beaten to death in 1998, talks to NOW about why she believes the government is "giving permission" for people to harass homosexuals. The Matthew Shepard Act, which would expand the coverage of federal hate crimes to include violent attacks against homosexuals, cleared the House in March. If the Senate approves the measure, President Bush is expected to veto the bill. In a web-exclusive audio interview, Shepard talks to Senior Correspondent Maria Hinojosa about the need for expanding the law, and her son's lasting legacy.

Reggie Cervantes, a 9-11 volunteer emergency responder featured in Michael Moore's new film "Sicko" says she's desperate for health care. Cervantes, who traveled to Cuba for Moore's new film about health care in America, says she was forced to seek medical treatment in Havana because she could not afford it in the U.S. As criticism mounts that ground zero rescue workers were not sufficiently protected from toxic pollutants, Cervantes told NOW: "We're sick, we're dying, we're begging for help."

In a Web-exclusive interview, actor, director, and environmentalist Robert Redford talks to NOW's David Brancaccio about why he thinks "change is in the air" as businesses find value in going green. Redford says environmental issues are gaining traction as social entrepreneurs discover "there [is] money to be made by doing good." An executive producer of the new documentary "The Unforeseen," Redford also talks to NOW about why he thinks global warming will be "huge" in the 2008 presidential election.

In a NOW on the News web-exclusive interview, a former secretary of labor, Robert Reich, calls the current Senate immigration bill "the last opportunity we have probably for the next ten or 15 years" to deal with immigration reform. Reich, who served under President Bill Clinton, told NOW's Senior Correspondent, Maria Hinojosa, that the divisive issue may be "too hot for politics."

Days after leaving the anti-war movement Cindy Sheehan says she'll "come back stronger." Sheehan tells NOW that she plans to rest up, spend time with her family, and then continue her struggle against the Iraqi war. "We're going to pull back and regroup and figure out a better way to come at this," Sheehan told NOW on the News in a web-exclusive audio interview. Sheehan -- whose son, Army Spc. Casey Sheehan, died in Iraq in 2004 -- announced on Memorial Day that she was done being the public face of the movement. "I think my mission, my activism has reached a brick wall," she told NOW's David Brancaccio. Sheehan gained national attention when she camped outside President Bush's Texas ranch in August 2005 demanding to talk with the President.

Bill Drayton, the innovator who popularized the term "social entrepreneur," talks to Senior Correspondent Maria Hinojosa about what he thinks social entrepreneurship is the next big thing. Drayton runs Ashoka, an organization that finds and fosters social entrepreneurs around the world. He is Bill Clinton's pick to become a winner of a Nobel prize.

Matthew Currier Burden, a military blogger and author of "The Blog of War," talks to Senior Correspondent Maria Hinojosa about new Army regulations for military bloggers and why he fears the rules will keep the truth from coming out of Iraq.

Chris Simcox, founder and head of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, which considers its mission to be "assisting Border Patrol in better defending" the border with Mexico, talks to Senior Correspondent, Maria Hinojosa, about his views on illegal immigration.

Activist and Writer Ellen Bravo, author of "Taking on the Big Boys," talks to Senior Correspondent Maria Hinojosa about why women make less money than men in the United States and what to do about it. Bravo shares her opinions on why corporations need to be redesigned "not just to shatter the glass ceiling" but to improve the lives of all working Americans.