News August 5

Senator Sanders

Rich Get Richer As a new IRS report showed 1,470 millionaires paid no income taxes in 2009, Sen. Bernie Sanders said Republicans in Congress will refuse to ask the wealthiest people and the largest corporations to contribute to deficit reduction. "That`s what they`ve said. That`s what they`ve done. That`s what they will continue to do," Sanders said on MSNBC. VIDEO

Super Committee The Campaign for America`s Future is circulating a petition saying Sanders should be named to a new congressional committee that will determine further deficit-reduction measures. "I wouldn`t hold my breath, but I would certainly like to serve," Sanders told MSNBC. VIDEO

Debt Deal Unpopular A Gallup survey found 39 percent approve the agreement and 46 percent opposed. NBC News online saw "evidence that conservative opinion leaders ... have more sway ... than liberal opinion leaders (Krugman, Daily Kos, Bernie Sanders)..." because more of Democrats sided with Obama than with "the liberal opinion elite." LINK

Sanders Job Approval A whopping 90 percent of Vermont Democrats approve of the job Sen. Sanders is doing as a senator. President Obama's approval rating among Vermont Democrats in the same new poll is 81 percent, according to National Journal. LINK

The Fed With the world's attention focused on the US debt ceiling debate, some startling but little-noticed evidence was released that the Federal Reserve laid out a whopping $16 trillion to deal with the financial crisis, according to The Hindu. The Indian daily newspaper said the Government Accountability Office report was required under a Sanders' provision in the Wall Street reform law. LINK

Medicaid The deficit debate in Washington is threatening the sustainability of one of our great national legacies - the Medicaid program of public health insurance ... We know that Sens. Leahy and Sanders and Congressman Welch will do their best to protect Medicaid, Sheila Reed, associate director of Voices for Vermont's Children, wrote in the Times Argus. LINK

Senators Support Guard Forty-six senators including Vermont's Patrick Leahy and Bernard Sanders, now sponsor legislation that would give the National Guard a voice in final resource decisions at the Pentagon, Vermont Press Bureau reported. LINK

World

Global Turmoil What began as a weak day in the stock markets ended in the worst rout in more than two years, as investors dumped stocks amid anxiety that both Europe and the United States were failing to fix deepening economic problems, The New York Times reported. LINK

National

Unemployment Ticks Down As the United States economy continued to wobble, employers added 117,000 jobs in July, the Labor Department reported on Friday. The July unemployment rate fell a notch to 9.1 percent, The New York Times reported.

Disapproval Rate for Congress at Record The debate over raising the debt ceiling, which brought the nation to the brink of default, has sent disapproval of Congress to its highest level on record and left most Americans saying that creating jobs should now take priority over cutting spending, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News Poll. LINK

F.A.A. Impasse That Hit 4,000 Ends The Obama administration has reached a patchwork agreement with Congressional leaders to end a 13-day partial shutdown of the Federal Aviation Administration, the Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, said Thursday. LINK

Vermont

Milk Monopoly A judge yesterday approved a settlement that would require Dean Foods Co. to pay more than 9,000 Northeast farmers and their attorneys $30 million to settle antitrust allegations, the Burlington Free Press reported. LINK

Vermont Yankee The nuclear plant operator insists there's no evidence linking it to radioactive strontium-90 found in fish samples from the nearby Connecticut River, but an Associated Press review of Nuclear Regulatory Commission records found evidence of strontium-90 releases into the environment several times since Entergy bought the reactor in 2002. LINK

Electric Rate Hike Green Mountain Power said Wednesday that is seeking a 3.2 percent rate increase because of capital expenditures and a slight increase in power costs. GMP's parent company, Montreal-based Gaz Metro, recently announced plans to acquire Vermont's largest power company, Central Vermont Public Service Corp. AP reported.