January 12, 2013

Senator Sanders

Obama Faces Heat from the Left President Obama is coming under pressure from liberals to appoint strong consumer advocates atop the Securities and Exchange Commission and at the No. 2 spot in the Treasury Department, The Hill reported. Sen. Bernie Sanders said people want the federal government to crack down on high credit-card interest rates and fraud on Wall Street. “People want the president to begin to stand up and address some of those issues,” Sanders said. LINK

Treasury Pick Panned Sen. Sanders opposes Obama’s choice of Jacob Lew as treasury secretary because the former Citigroup executive won’t stand up to Wall Street, the senator told MSNBC on Friday. "We don’t need a treasury secretary who thinks that Wall Street deregulation was not responsible for the financial crisis," Sanders said on Democracy Now. "As a supporter of the president, I remain extremely concerned that virtually all of his key economic advisers have come from Wall Street," Sanders said in the Montgomery (Ala.) Advertiser. Sen. Patrick Leahy supports Lew, Seven Days reported online. “Lew deserves, and has earned, a quick confirmation,” according to a Scripps Howard editorial that noted Sanders’ opposition. LINK, LINK, LINK, VIDEO, VIDEO, AUDIO 

Global Warming Climate legislation to be introduced by Sen. Sanders could raise $1 trillion by putting a fee on greenhouse gas emissions and would use the proceeds to make a “historic investment” in energy efficiency and renewable energy, Darren M. Springer, Sanders' chief counsel, told Bloomberg News. LINK

Rockefeller to Retire Sen. Jay Rockefeller announced on Friday that he will not seek a sixth term in 2014 when Democrats will try to defend 20 Senate seats while Republicans have 13 up for grabs. Currently, Democrats hold a 55-45 edge in the Senate including Sanders, an independent who often aligns himself with Democrats, according to Reuters. LINK

World

Afghanistan Troop Exit to Speed Up President Obama met Friday with President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan and said afterward that the United States would be able to accelerate the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan in coming months because of gains made by Afghan security forces, The New York Times reported. LINK

National

Senate Leaders Urge Obama to Bypass Republicans on Debt Ceiling Democratic leaders in the Senate on Friday urged President Obama to consider bypassing Congress to prevent the nation from defaulting on its spending obligations if lawmakers cannot agree to raise the nation’s $16.4 trillion debt ceiling next month, The Washington Post reported. LINK

Gun Sales Soar As Washington focuses on what Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. will propose next week to curb gun violence, gun and ammunition sales are spiking in the rest of the country as people rush to expand their arsenals in advance of any restrictions that might be imposed, according to The New York Times. LINK

Global Warming The impacts of climate change driven by human activity are spreading through the United States faster than had been predicted, increasingly threatening infrastructure, water supplies, crops and shorelines, according to a federal advisory committee, the Los Angeles Times reported. LINK

Vermont

Flu Epidemic The state Health Department on Friday said three people who died from the flu in Vermont were adults, two of them elderly, with serious underlying medical conditions. Now, there's a new push to get people vaccinated, WCAX-TV reported. The Centers for Disease Control which now reports flu activity is widespread in 47 states, including Vermont. LINK  

Disaster Planning The state of Vermont got a $1.8 million federal grant to help businesses, farms, towns and nonprofit groups use online resources to help respond to disasters such as the flooding from Tropical Storm Irene, AP reported that Vermont's congressional delegation announced on Friday. 

White House ’16 Howard Dean said Thursday he is not ruling out another run for the White House in 2016, but doesn't expect to be a candidate. "I think probably not, but we'll see," Dean told AP.