Week in Review

The Senate voted to expand services for veterans. The legislation includes a provision by Senator Bernie Sanders for a national veterans outreach program. Also on Capitol Hill, safety concerns about the aging Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant were aired at a Senate oversight hearing. At the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue, President Bush made good on his threat to veto a children’s health insurance program, a move Sanders called “beyond comprehension.” There was good news. A 101-year-old Ver

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Fair Trade

Costa Rica on Sunday will become the first country where citizens have the opportunity to vote for or against a trade agreement. Despite being heavily outspent by the moneyed interests, despite opposition from the Costa Rican government and the U.S. ambassador, despite an extremely hostile media, the latest polls show momentum building for the opposition to the Central American Free Trade Agreement. The Wall Street Journal editorial page, the voice for the wealthy and powerful in the United Stat

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Senate Approves Veterans Outreach Program

The Senate approved $10 million for a national outreach program to assist returning service members and their families. The program, proposed by Senator Bernie Sanders, is modeled on a first-of-its-kind program in Vermont funded with $1 million previously secured by Sanders. “We have a moral responsibility to reach out to these soldiers and their families and to help them,” Sanders

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Vermont Yankee

“I would hope the people of Vermont would have confidence in the NRC,” Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman Dale Klein told Senator Bernie Sanders at a Senate hearing on Wednesday. “They don’t,” Sanders interjected. Seated before a dramatic photograph of a cooling tower that collapsed on August 21 at the power plant in Vernon, Vt., the senator also mentioned a recent reactor shutdown at Vermont Yankee. “It does cause people to have concern,” the NRC chairman allowed. Sanders said the recent e

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Reaching Out to Veterans

“Retired Vermont National Guard Sgt. 1st Class Michael Currier heads out looking for service members who are having trouble readjusting to civilian life. Some days, he meets with members of the clergy, soldiers’ wives, parents, employers, sometimes the police. And of course, he meets with the soldiers themselves. Based in Springfield, he’s looking for soldiers having trouble resuming a routine after having spent time in Iraq or Afghanistan,” began an Associated Press article on a first-of-its-ki

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Vt. Delegation Reacts to President Bush’s Veto of Children’s Health Insurance Program

Vermont’s Congressional Delegation – Sen. Patrick Leahy (D), Sen. Bernie Sanders (I), and Rep. Peter Welch (D) – issued the following reaction to President Bush’s veto of legislation renewing the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). The legislation protects insurance coverage for 6.6 million children currently enrolled in the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) and pro

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