May 30, 2012
Honoring Our Veterans
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Bernie participated in Memorial Day celebrations throughout Vermont this weekend. In Vergennes, he reminded listeners that we must never forget the men and women who made the ultimate sacrifice in defense of our country.
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As a member of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, Bernie is working on a wide range of issues to protect the interests of veterans in Vermont and America. He has helped expand access to health care, worked with the National Guard to develop an innovative outreach program for returning service members, and helped pass legislation to enable post 9/11 veterans to receive a college education. Bernie’s office also works hard helping veterans and their families resolve problems they may have with the VA or other federal agencies.
In a Memorial Day series published by The Caledonian-Record, Ed Drown shared that Bernie’s office helped him discover long sought-after details about his uncle, Harold Drown, who left his family's farm in Sutton, Vt., to join the Army when he was 18 years old. He was listed as missing in action in 1950 while fighting in the Korean War. Bernie's office helped walk Mr. Drown through the paperwork to obtain a memorial headstone for his uncle. Mr. Drown “was amazed at how helpful Sanders' staff could be and how willing they were to help,” The Caledonian-Record reported. Bernie spoke with Mr. Drown by phone Friday to express gratitude for his uncle's service.
Read more in The Caledonian-Record»
Read Bernie’s Memorial Day remarks »
Online resources for veterans »
Learn if Bernie's office can help you »
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Fix the Fed
Let’s never forget that the terrible recession that we are still experiencing was started by the greed and reckless behavior on Wall Street. Bernie is working hard to ensure that the taxpayers never have to bail out Wall Street again. Last week, in the wake of a $2 billion trading debacle at JPMorgan Chase, Bernie introduced legislation with Sens. Boxer and Begich to end conflicts of interest that he called “so apparent that they're laughable.”
“Here you have the Fed, which is supposed to regulate Wall Street. Then you have the CEO of the largest Wall Street bank on the board which it is supposed to be regulating,” Bernie said. “This is the fox guarding the hen house."
Read about Bernie’s bill »
Watch Bernie on CNN »
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Saving the Postal Service
The U.S. Postal Service backed off a plan to close thousands of post offices and scaled back plans to close mail-sorting centers, including the White River Junction mail processing plant which employs nearly 250 people.
The postmaster general’s original plan ran into widespread opposition from postal customers, unions, small businesses and members of Congress. That misguided approach would have put at least 145 Vermont post offices in jeopardy and called for closing 15,000 post offices nationally. Bernie helped build a coalition of senators to pass a Senate postal reform bill, which protects rural post offices and will help the Postal Service adapt to the digital age.
Read more »
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Vermont People: Leaving Behind Vermont’s Story
Gregory Sanford, 65, of Marshfield, Vt., spent the bulk of his three decades as state archivist building a free, online record of Vermont’s history. "I spent almost all my career saying, ‘OK, how do I fold this back into our public dialogues, get it to reporters, get it to legislators, get it to public officials,” the retiring archivist said.
The online archive includes genealogy databases, Civil War records, Vermont’s constitution, collections of photographs, and a comprehensive catalog of gubernatorial addresses ranging from Gov. Thomas Chittenden's 1779 speeches to Gov. Peter Shumlin’s 2011 Inaugural Address. For those interested in Vermont’s rich history, this is a treasure-trove which should be explored.
Governors' Inaugural and Farwell Addresses »
Search the photo archive »
Search the full online archive »
Read more in an Associated Press article »
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