February 20, 2013

Senator Sanders 

Senate Rankings Sens. Richard Blumenthal and Tom Udall tied in National Journal’s ranking of the “most liberal” senators. “Blumenthal is not a firebrand like Bernie Sanders, but he casts liberal votes that are a reflection of his constituency and his philosophy,” University of Connecticut political scientist Ron Schurin told The Connecticut Mirror. “Although Sanders is an independent with very progressive views, he sometimes votes against Democratic positions on a bill as a protest, which may account for his absence from the list of most liberal senators,” the news website speculated. James Risch was deemed by National Journal to be the “most conservative” senator during the last session of Congress.  LINK, LINK, LINK

VA Claims Backlog Breaking a backlog in veterans’ disability claims was a top priority of retired Army Gen. Eric Shinseki when he became VA secretary in 2009. In 2009, it took an average of 161 days for the VA to determine whether the veteran is entitled to monthly payments for service-connected injuries or medical conditions. The average today is 273 days. Sen. Sanders, chairman of the Senate Committee on Veterans Affairs, said it’s good that a million veterans a year get new benefits but the time it takes them to qualify is not. He will convene committee hearings on the issue next month, The Washington Examiner reported. LINK

USPS The best way to save six-day mail is to convince legislators to support Sen. Sanders’ Postal Service reform bill, Ed Schultz said Tuesday on WWRL-AM in New York, N.Y., and other stations. The Sanders bill and Rep. Peter DeFazio’s companion legislation in the House would “give them their budget back and … let them compete,” Schultz said. LINK

Global Warming Sens. Sanders and Barbara Boxer announced plans last week to try once more to draft laws that would benefit the environment and the economy, Former California EPA Secretary Terry Tamminen wrote for The Huffington Post.  The urban planning blog Planetizen compared a provision in Sanders’ climate bill to a program in Alaska where every resident received $872 last year from oil and gas industry royalties. LINK, LINK

Severe Weather As a March 1 deadline for automatic across-the-board spending cuts approaches, The Weather Channel reported on Tuesday that the federal government's weather satellite program could be slashed. “Right now, what we are seeing is devastating problems in our country and around the planet in terms of drought, in terms of flood, and in terms of extreme weather disturbances,” Sanders said. VIDEO

Wind Power “In the discussion on wind power I align with Bernie Sanders … [W]e are willing to sacrifice an unrestricted view of our mountains, for the sake of a long-term healthy Vermont for future generations, by supporting the development of clean, local, renewable resources like wind and solar,” Rebecca White wrote in a letter to the editor of the Burlington Free Press. LINK

World

Syria A missile strike leveled a block of buildings in an impoverished district of northern Syria Tuesday, killing at least 33 people, almost half of them children, and trapping many others under the rubble of destroyed houses and piles of concrete, anti-regime activists told The Associated Press.

Cuba U.S. lawmakers met Tuesday with Cuba’s foreign minister and have been told they will be allowed access to an American imprisoned in Havana, with the State Department saying they will push for his release. The delegation led by Sen. Patrick Leahy hoped to meet with Cuban President Raul Castro before it departs today. The detention of Maryland-native Alan Gross has become the chief impediment to improved relations between Washington and Havana, AP reported.

Afghanistan The general nominated for supreme allied commander of NATO will retire due to family health issues, CBS News reported. Marine Corps Gen. John Allen commanded coalition troops in Afghanistan for 19 months and had broad support from President Obama and members of Congress. Allen denied that his retirement had to do with a Pentagon investigation over e-mail exchanges he made with a Tampa socialite, who was part of the scandal that felled CIA Director David Petraeus LINK

China A detailed study links individual members of Chinese hacking groups to the Chinese military, according to The New York Times. LINK

National

Poverty in America Squeezed by rising living costs, a record number of Americans — nearly 1 in 2 — have fallen into poverty or are scraping by on earnings that classify them as low income. The latest census data depict a middle class that's shrinking as unemployment stays high and the government's safety net frays. The new numbers follow years of stagnating wages for the middle class that have hurt millions of workers and families, AP reported. While paychecks for low-income families shrink, higher-income economic brackets continue to see earnings climb by about 64 percent in the past 30 years. LINK

Campaign Contributions The Supreme Court will take up a case challenging a law that caps individual campaign contributions at $117,000, The Wall Street Journal reported. This would come in the wake of the 2010 Citizens United decision which eased regulations on corporate campaign spending. LINK

Prosecuting Wall Street The United States government has pushed for guilty pleas over fines and reforms in cases prosecuting members of the financial industry that may have contributed to the economic crisis, The New York Times reported. Lawyers for several large banks have reportedly urged clients to fire employees suspected of wrongdoing in the hope of appeasing authorities. LINK

Veterans Jobs The unemployment rate for veterans between 18 and 24 exceeded 20 percent last year and remained at double digits for those between 25 and 34, AP reported. This is despite a range of public efforts that include tax credits for companies that hire veterans and veteran job fairs. LINK

BP Oil Spill London-based oil company BP will go to trial next week to determine the size of the fines BP will have to pay for the 2010 Deepwater Horizon explosion that leaked millions of barrels of oil into the Gulf Coast and killed 11 people. BP will argue that it was not grossly negligent for the spill and that the oil spill was smaller than estimated, The Wall Street Journal reported.  LINK

Vermont

Tax Proposals A number of Gov. Peter Shumlin's new tax initiatives face strong opposition at the Statehouse, Vermont Public Radio reported. Shumlin wants to impose a 10 percent tax on the sale of break open tickets and shift $17 million from the state’s earned Income tax credit program to fund new child care subsidies. LINK

Maple Grading A request by the Agency of Agriculture to adopt an international labeling system for the state’s prized maple syrup moves on to the House, Vermont Public Radio reported. LINK