Senate

Tar Sands Pipeline Senators will vote Tuesday on legislation to authorize a pipeline to haul what Sen. Bernie Sanders said was “some of the dirtiest oil in the world” from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico, Bloomberg, the Burlington Free Press, WVNY-TV,The Huffington Post, Salon, Time magazine online and Mediaite reported. “We stand to gain more jobs from transforming our energy system than continuing to maintain a fossil-fuel energy economy,” Sanders told The Ed Schultz Show. LINK, LINK, LINK, LINK, LINK, LINK , AUDIO, VIDEO

Immigration President Barack Obama must use executive powers to fix the country’s broken immigration system because congressional Republicans have stalled comprehensive legislation, Sen. Sanders told CNN’s “New Day” on Monday. "Everybody knows executive orders are not the best way to do things," Sanders said, “but you have a party, now, and I have to say this, which is really recalcitrant in wanting to do much." VIDEO  

Health Care Republican efforts to repeal President Obama’s “modest” health care law are aimed at moving the United States to a private insurance-only system, Sen. Sanders told Ed Schultz on MSNBC Monday. “What they want is for all Americans to go into the private sector exclusively for the health care,” Sanders said. “And if you don't have any money and you can't afford it, tough luck.” VIDEO

Treasury Nominee Sen. Sanders cast a “wary eye” at the president’s nomination of Antonio Weiss for the post of Treasury undersecretary for domestic finance, Bloomberg reported. Weiss’ role as the global head of a merger advisory firm involved in several tax-inversion deals is a “pretty good nonstarter,” Sanders said. LINK

The Colbert Report Sen. Sanders was Stephen Colbert's guest Monday on “The Colbert Report.” VIDEO, VIDEO

America’s Agenda Americans in poll after poll support progressive policies like regulating Wall Street, raising the minimum wage and expanding Medicare and Social Security, Sen. Sanders said in The Washington Times. “The irony of our time," Sanders told radio host Thom Hartmann, "is that on virtually all of the important issues, the American people want government to act on their behalf, and are progressive.”  LINK  

The Billionaire Class The United States may be approaching a “tipping point” where only “the billionaire class” can make or break presidential candidates, Sen. Sanders said, according to Raw Story and The Washington Times. Any candidate wanting to take on the billionaire class would need “millions of people engaged in a real grassroots campaign to take on big money,” Sanders said. LINK, LINK  

Democracy Day After a mid-term election season with unusually low voter turnout, Sen. Sanders introduced legislation to make Election Day a national holiday, The Nation and Jamesville (Wisconsin) Gazette reported. “We should not be satisfied with a ‘democracy’ in which more than 60 percent of our people don't vote and some 80 percent of young people and low-income Americans fail to vote,” Sanders said. LINK, LINK  

White House '16 “If I do it, I want to do it well. If I do it, I know that I will need millions of people engaged in a grassroots campaign to take on big money,” Sanders said in a CNN interview and in excerpts on WPTZ-TV in Burlington, Vermont, WBIN-TV in Boston and KOKI-TV in Tulsa, Oklahoma. VIDEO, VIDEO, VIDEO, VIDEO

White House '16 Sen. Sanders is among contenders for the 2016 presidential nomination, The Hill, National Journal, National Review, Examiner.com, Commentary Magazine, Breitbart. Alex Seitz-Wald said on MSNBC that Sanders “is likely to run as a Democrat” and has “hired a top Democratic strategist.” Peter Nicholas of The Wall Street Journal said Sanders, unlike former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, "can afford to take a few risks and let the press – and by extension, voters – see him in an unscripted setting.” LINK, LINK, LINK, LINK, LINK, LINK, LINK

Burlington Mayor Steve Goodkind - a member of Sen. Sanders administration during his mayoral days - told Seven Days that he plans to run for mayor of Burlington in March. LINK 

World

Israeli Synagogue Attack Two Palestinians stormed a Jerusalem synagogue on Tuesday, attacking worshippers with meat cleavers and a gun during morning prayers and killing four people before they were killed in a shootout with police, The Associated Press reported. LINK

Russia and Europe Russia has deported several Polish and one German diplomat in recent days as relations sour between Europe and the isolated nation, which has supported insurgency efforts in Eastern Ukraine, The New York Times reported. LINK

Pope to Visit U.S. Pope Francis will make his first trip ever to the United States in September of 2015, USA Today reported. LINK

National

HealthCare.Gov Reopens Administration officials said that 100,000 people had submitted applications for health insurance on the first day of open enrollment, The New York Times reported. LINK

Ebola Patient Dies A surgeon who contracted Ebola while working in Sierra Leone, Dr. Martin Salia, died Monday while being treated at a center in Omaha, The New York Times reported. Salia was already in critical condition when he arrived at the Nebraska hospital on Saturday.  LINK

California Nurses Win Protections National Nurses United members are celebrating a win in California as state officials announced mandatory requirements for hospitals to provide protective gear and training for nurses and other health-care workers at risk of exposure to the deadly Ebola virus, The Washington Post reported. LINK

Ferguson Citing the "possibility of expanded unrest," Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon declared a state of emergency on Monday ahead of an expected grand jury decision in the case of Michael Brown, CNN reported. LINK

Senate Approves Child Development Bill The Senate accepted Monday a reauthorization of a program to help low-income parents obtain childcare, sending the bill to President Obama, The Hill reported. LINK

Vermont

Vermont Health Connect Vermont individuals and families seeking health coverage began enrolling in plans Saturday after fixes were made to the state's troubled health insurance exchange, AP reported.  LINK

FairPoint Back to Bargaining Table FairPoint Communications and representatives of more than 1,700 striking workers in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont are going back to the negotiating table. A federal mediator asked the telecommunications company and two unions to meet Tuesday in Boston to see if they can find any common ground that could end a strike by more than 1,700 workers. It's the first meeting since FairPoint declared an impasse in late August, AP reported.

GMO Labeling Vermont is asking a federal judge to throw out a food industry lawsuit that seeks to block the state's new genetically modified food labeling law from taking effect, The Associated Press reported. Attorney General Bill Sorrell said Monday that his office filed legal papers at the U.S. District Court in Burlington on Friday opposing the industry's request to block the law from taking effect. LINK

Ebola-Free Man Leaves Quarantine Peter James Italia was released from a 21-day quarantine in Vermont on Monday showing no signs of Ebola, the Burlington Free Press reported.