Press Releases

“The Nuclear Regulatory Commission lowered its safety rating for the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant last year after the facility mistakenly sent a piece of machinery with abnormally high radiation readings to a Pennsylvania plant,” The Burlington Free Press reported. Documents on file with the NRC showed that equipment packaged in a large container and shipped by truck had more than four times that acceptable hourly exposure to radiation, according to the article published on Sunday. On Mond

A Vermont program that reaches out to troops after they return home from tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan will receive $3 million in the coming year. The funding was included in legislation already signed by President Bush. Another $3 million is set aside in the bill for pilot projects in other states. “This funding will enable us to do everything we can to help National Guard and Reserve members and their families receive the help they need as they readjust and transition back to life here

BURLINGTON, Vt., November 17 – Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said today that a new United Nations report makes the case, more forcefully then ever before, that reductions in greenhouse gases are needed to avert a global climate catastrophe. “The scientists are now telling us the situation is worse than they previously thought. It is incumbent upon Congress to pass bold

The Senate received a House-passed bill that includes $50 billion of the nearly $200 billion that President Bush wants for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. It would require troop withdrawals to begin within 30 days, and sets a goal of complete withdrawal by mid-December 2008. The bill awaiting a Senate vote also would require C.I.A. operatives and other American personnel to follow Army Field Manual rules on torture, including ban on waterboarding, an interrogation technique that si

The Federal Communications Commission decided to take a longer look at the sale of Unicel’s assets to Verizon Wireless, Vermont’s two primary cell phone providers. The commission extended by three months the filing deadline before which individuals and groups can voice their opinions on this transaction. “Vermonters must take a very close look at what a Verizon Wireless monopoly would mean in terms of progress toward universal service at reasonable prices,” said Sanders. Verizon Wireless and

This has been the deadliest year for U.S. soldiers in Iraq since the 2003 invasion toppled Saddam Hussein. So far in 2007, according to the Department of Defense, 857 American troops have been killed in Iraq. Thousands more have been badly injured in the fighting, which of course also has been disastrous for innocent Iraqis. Without diminishing the terrible toll in lives and limbs, there is another way to calculate the cost of the war. A new study puts the literal financial cost of the wars