Senator Sanders

Youth Jobs Sen. Bernie Sanders wants to make sure young people are able to get jobs. He introduced a bill on Thursday that would give $5.5 billion to state and local governments to help employ one million Americans age 16 to 24. The bill also would provide training for those who finished high school, but may not have plans for college, WVNY-TV in Burlington, Vermont, reported. VIDEO

Taxes Sen. Sanders' proposal to raise taxes on the wealthiest Americans is part of a broader shift in tax politics that is rippling through the Republican world, too, John Harwood wrote in The New York Times. Under current law, according to The Washington Post, the IRS found that as you go from being merely wealthy (the 1 percent) to super-duper wealthy (the 0.001 percent), your average federal income tax rate actually goes down. “Some politicians, most notably … Sanders, have called for higher tax rates on the super-rich,” the Post added. LINK, LINK 

The Billionaire Class “There is something profoundly wrong when the top one tenth of 1 percent owns almost as much wealth as the bottom 90 percent. This grotesque level of inequality is immoral, it is bad economics, it is unsustainable. This campaign, starting today, is going to send a message to the billionaire class. And that is, You can't have it all!” Sanders said in a clip on “Hard Ball” on MSNBC. “I think he's got something,” host Chris Matthews said.  VIDEO

The Media Sen. Sanders has often been misrepresented as extreme, according to a Huffington Post blog by Robert Naiman. LINK

Centrists “The failure of the Democrats to succeed through centrist policies has bred impatience among Democrats who look at the growing income gap and the corruption of what Sanders calls “the billionaire class” and see the need for an unyielding politics of their own. The collapse of the center explains why Sanders is catching on with crowds in Iowa, New Hampshire and elsewhere. Sanders has never had much faith in the center,” the Rutland Herald editorialized. LINK

Socialists Many millennials have a different definition, and therefore a different opinion, of the word than most of their parents or grandparents, according to International Business Times. One 25-year-old said he liked socialism and Sen. Sanders because they tackle problems like income inequality.  LINK

Mayor Sanders Sen. Sanders left behind an outstanding legacy as mayor of Burlington, wrote Peter Dreier and Pierre Clavel in The Huffington Post. "Bernie realized that the economy doesn't have to be dominated by bad guys," explained Will Raap, a founder of the Burlington-based Vermont Businesses for Social Responsibility. LINK

Transgender Troops White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said Thursday the Obama administration has no position on ending the U.S. military’s ban on transgender service — an apparent reversal of a previously stated position in support of discontinuing the policy. The Washington Blade said Sen. Sanders supports ending the ban. LINK

National

China Suspected in Massive Hack U.S. officials suspect that hackers in China stole the personal records of as many as four million people in one of the most far-reaching breaches of government computers. The Federal Bureau of Investigation is probing the breach, detected in April at the Office of Personnel Management, The Wall Street Journal reported. LINK

NSA Expands Internet Searches Without public notice or debate, the Obama administration has expanded the National Security Agency‘s warrantless surveillance of Americans’ international Internet traffic to search for evidence of malicious computer hacking, according to classified N.S.A. documents. In mid-2012, Justice Department lawyers wrote two secret memos permitting the spy agency to begin hunting on Internet cables, without a warrant and on American soil, for data linked to computer intrusions originating abroad, The New York Times reported. LINK

Ex-Im Bank Supporters of the Export-Import Bank say they are poised to beat back a drive to kill the institution, but the victory may come only after a June 30 expiration of the bank’s charter causes a lapse in the bank’s ability to underwrite new loans, The Wall Street Journal reported. LINK

Clinton Calls for Universal Voter Registration Hillary Clinton on Thursday called for universal, automatic voter registration, saying every citizen in the country should be automatically registered to vote when they turn 18, The Huffington Post reported. LINK

Vermont

State Layoffs More than a dozen Vermont state employees are expected to be laid off next month as part of the state's first significant job reductions since the recession. A human resources official told the Burlington Free Press that the layoffs take effect July 11.

Jazz Musicians will be performing at venues, bars, restaurants and on the street during the annual Burlington Discover Jazz Festival. The 10-day event kicks off on Friday. The 32nd annual festival includes more than 100 free events as well as paid performances at various venues.