News June 23
Senator Sanders
Oil Prices A bill to promote
Health Care The New York Times-CBS poll showed that 72 percent of Americans favored a government run health plan. When Sen. Sanders recently arranged for five prominent advocates of national health insurance to have a courtesy meeting with Senate Finance Committee Chair Max Baucus, the story was newsworthy because the political elite usually pretends that this viewpoint doesn't exist, much less that it represents the desires of two Americans in three, wrote Robert Kuttner wrote on The Huffington Post. LINK
A Leahy Profile Sen.
Patrick Leahy is banking on his bipartisan reputation as he prepares to
shepherd President Obama's first Supreme Court nominee through Senate
hearings in a few weeks...In his 35 years representing Vermont, he has
developed close relationships with many prominent state figures,
including one of the men he beat for Senate in 1974, Bernie Sanders.
"He's a friend of mine; he has a very good sense of humor; he is a very
strong family man," Sanders told The Washington Times. "Every other word out of his mouth is about his wife, about his kids and his grandchildren." LINK
Bats A year more of research may be needed to find a cause for white nose
syndrome, a disease that has wiped out bats by the thousands in caves
in
International
Iran Iran’s
most powerful oversight council has refused to nullify the contested
presidential election just one day after it announced that the number
of votes recorded in 50 cities exceeded the number of eligible voters
there by three million, Iranian state television said Tuesday, further
tarnishing a presidential election that has set off the most sustained
challenge to Iran’s leadership in 30 years, The New York Times reported. LINK
National
Health Care House Democrats are pushing forward with a partisan health care bill
even as a key Senate Democrat labors to achieve an elusive bipartisan
compromise on President Barack Obama's top legislative priority. The
action on both sides of the Capitol comes with lawmakers mindful of
next week's July 4 congressional recess, The Associated Press reported. Most will return home to face constituents with plenty of
questions about their plans to overhaul the nation's costly health care
system. A sweeping bill unveiled in the Democratic-controlled House
last week is to be weighed in hearings beginning Tuesday. LINK
Drug Prices The White House on Monday hailed what it described as a “historic agreement to lower drugs costs” for older Americans, but The New York Times said it was not immediately clear how much the government would reap in
savings that could be used to pay for coverage of the uninsured. As
part of the agreement, pharmaceutical companies promised to help narrow
a gap in Medicare coverage of prescription drugs that is known as the
doughnut hole. LINK
Obama Press Conference President
Barack Obama will hold his first Rose Garden news conference Tuesday. A
White House spokesman says Obama will open the afternoon event with
remarks on health care reform, energy legislation and
Occasional Smoker Signs Tobacco Bill President Obama does not discuss the fact that he still occasionally
smokes, a habit he very publicly tried to kick during his race for the
White House. But there he was on Monday, talking about cigarettes. As
he signed legislation bringing tobacco products under federal control
for the first time, the president conceded that the new law, aimed at
keeping children from starting to smoke, could have helped him three
decades ago, according to The New York Times. LINK
Voting Rights Act Upheld A key part of the landmark Voting Rights Act survived a constitutional
challenge yesterday in the Supreme Court, but justices made it clear
that a law forged in the darkest days of the nation's civil rights
struggles may no longer be appropriate in a new era of American racial
politics. The Washington Post said a surprisingly
unified court found a compromise that allowed it to sidestep questions
about whether the key provision of the law is constitutional, thus
avoiding a divisive showdown with Congress, which just three years ago
found that the 1965 act was still needed. LINK
Court Rules on Funding Special Ed The U.S. Supreme Court delivered a victory to parents of children with
disabilities who seek reimbursement for private-school tuition at
public expense. School systems warned the decision could drain millions
of dollars from tight education budgets. In a 6-3 ruling, the high
court said the family of an
Bernanke Reappointment Debate Begins Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke will defend his unprecedented
actions to prevent a financial collapse as debate on whether he should
be reappointed begins. Bernanke, whose term expires Jan. 31, faces
lawmakers at a hearing this week. President Barack Obama has said the
Fed chief has done an “extraordinary job” without committing to
reappoint him, Bloomberg reported. LINK
Death on the Red Line Federal
investigators are looking for recorders or other devices that could
tell them how fast a Washington subway train was going when it plowed
into another train, killing at least seven and injuring scores of
others during the height of Monday's afternoon rush hour. National
Transportation Safety Board officials said Tuesday the train may have a
recording device that would give its speed at the time of the crash and
whether it was being operated manually or automatically when it hit the
other train Monday in the nation's capital. LINK
Organic Food Pact The
U.S. Department of Agriculture last week signed an agreement with the
Canadian Food Inspection Agency allowing certified organic products
from either country to be sold on the other side of the border with the
organic label. Sen. Leahy, who helped write the 1990 Organic Foods
Production Act and is the senior member of the Senate Agriculture
Committee, said the agreement will strengthen the organic industry
across the country and will also help
GM Vermont
Attorney General William Sorrell is joining with attorneys general from
nine other states to object to some provisions of General Motors'
bankruptcy plan. Sorrell told the Times Argus the
state opposes a provision that would relieve GM of liability for prior
manufacturing problems. It also opposes a provision that would allow
the post-bankruptcy GM to modify or terminate contracts with franchise
owners, forcing them to take on new cars they don't want and barring
them from carrying other makes. LINK
