News July 27

Senator Sanders

Tax Reform Sen. Bernie Sanders on Friday provided suggestions for tax reform to the Senate Finance Committee, Politico reported. Chairman Max Baucus and ranking member Orrin Hatch had asked for member input and offered to keep any suggestions secret for 50 years. Sanders declined the offer of secrecy, The Hill reported online. “Given the fact that my suggestions represent the interests of the middle class of this country and not powerful corporate special interests, I have no problem with making them public,” he said. LINK, LINK

Polluter Tax Sen. Sanders asked the Senate’s tax-writing committee to consider a $20 per ton tax on carbon and methane emissions as part of a comprehensive tax reform package, The Hill and Environment and Energy Daily reported. In addition to pricing carbon, Sanders also recommended reducing oil and gas tax breaks. LINK, LINK

Income Inequality Sen. Sanders discussed income inequality in America during an interview by Scott Rasmussen on “What America Thinks.” ‘The main goal, to my mind, is to revitalize the economy, create the millions of jobs we want, to raise the minimum wage so that people have work and decent income,” Sanders said in the program broadcast Saturday on WFOR-TV in Miami, KYW-TV in Philadelphia and other. VIDEO, VIDEO

The Fed Several Senate Democrats are backing Janet Yellen to be the next Federal Reserve chairman, according to Financial Times. Rumors about a nomination for Larry Summers have united many progressives around Yellen. A number of liberals, including Sens. Sanders and Jeff Merkley, voted against the current Fed chairman, Ben Bernanke, on grounds that he bore some responsibility for the financial crisis. LINK

Student Loans At a time when the average student graduates with $28,000 in debt, Sen. Sanders told Thom Hartmann on Friday that the Senate earlier this week passed a “very, very bad deal” for students and parents. The bill, if signed into law, would tie student loan interest rates to market rates. Sanders offered an amendment to void the deal in two years but that failed, ABC 22 and Fox 44 reported. AUDIO, VIDEO

Military Sexual Assaults Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand has assembled a bipartisan coalition around her proposal to alter the way the military prosecutes allegations of sexual assaults, The St. Louis Beacon reported. Sen. Sanders supports the legislation, which would separate the chain of command from the decision to prosecute. LINK

Federal Flood Aid The Department of Transportation is providing Vermont $1 million to help the state pay to repair damages from a series of unprecedented spring and summer floods that damaged roads across the state. “This is a much-needed infusion of federal funds to help towns throughout Vermont,” said Sens. Patrick Leahy and Sanders and Rep. Peter Welch in an Associated Press article published by the Burlington Free Press, Bennington Banner, Rutland Herald, Brattleboro Reformer and others. LINK, LINK

Independent Movement Sen. Sanders was listed among 10 influential politicians to watch in the independent movement, according to Independent Voter Network News. LINK

World

Scores Killed in Egypt The police and armed civilians opened fire Saturday with live ammunition on protesters against Egypt’s new military government, witnesses said, killing scores of people as hopes faded that the Egyptian military would reach any political accommodation with the Muslim Brotherhood and its ousted president, Mohamed Morsi, The New York Times reported. LINK

No Death Penalty for Snowden In an attempt to convince Russia to hand over National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden, Attorney General Eric Holder promised Russia that the United States would not seek the death penalty after Snowden’s extradition, The Washington Post reported. LINK

Iraq Veterans deployed to Iraq are expressing frustration as stories continue to mount with news of more deaths and insecurity in the embattled country. According to NBC News, some former Iraq War troops say the mental-health struggles faced by so many younger veterans may consequently deepen as veterans ask, "What was the point?" LINK

National

Consumer Sentiment Consumer confidence increased in July to the highest level in six years, according to a Reuters survey. LINK

Halliburton Pleads Guilty Halliburton pled guilty this week to destruction of critical evidence after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010, The New York Times reported. The oil services company said it would pay the maximum allowable fine of $200,000 and will be subject to three years of probation. LINK

Reshaping Surveillance Court Chief Justice John Roberts' assignments to the key Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court have reshaped the body, according to a New York Times report. Ten of the court's 11 judges were appointed by Republican presidents, making the court more likely to defer to government arguments that domestic spying programs are necessary. LINK

NSA Critics to Testify Congress will hear testimony from critics of the National Security Agency's surveillance practices after the contractor Edward Snowden leaked information about a pervasive domestic surveillance program, The Guardian reported. Glenn Greenwald, the journalist who first revealed details from Snowden about the programs, has been invited to testify. LINK

Fed Chairmanship President Barack Obama's administration signaled Friday that the president likely would not announce a choice to replace Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke until fall, Reuters reported. LINK

Vermont

Bosnian in Burlington Accused of War Crimes A Bosnian immigrant living in Vermont’s largest city pleaded not guilty Friday to lying to immigration authorities by denying involvement in war crimes during the conflict in Bosnia two decades ago. Prosecutors allege Edin Sakoc, 54, was involved in war crimes against a civilian Bosnian Serb family in 1992, AP reported. LINK

Solar Power Vermont ranks ninth in the country for per capita installed solar energy capacity, according to a report released this week by the Environment America Research & Policy Center and Vermont Public Interest Research Group, the Rutland Herald reported.

Goat Attack A Windsor County jury cleared Nick Ashline, 35, of charges related to the throat-slitting death of one goat and the maiming of another in a feud with a game warden, Steve Majeski, who owned the goats. “I feel bad about the goats,” Ashline’s attorney, Peter Decato, told the Rutland Herald after his client’s acquittal.