Senator Sanders

Youth Unemployment Sen. Bernie Sanders on Monday called youth unemployment a "national tragedy."  An Economic Policy Institute study requested by Sanders showed the real unemployment rate for black high school graduates, ages 17 to 20, was more than 51 percent during the 12 months ending in March, The Hill reported. The jobless rate for Hispanics in that age group was just under 34 percent. LINK  

Sanders Social Security Plan ‘Makes Sense’ The Government Accountability Study, which was prepared at the request of Sen. Sanders found that many workers who are approaching retirement have limited savings. He supports an expansion of Social Security benefits to make the wealthiest Americans pay a fair share of their income into the federal program and wants to raise the minimum benefit enough to bring millions of senior citizens out of poverty, according to a Bennington Banner editorial. LINK

College Debt “Americans would be well-advised to heed presidential candidate Sen. Sanders’ call to make public college education free, Darryl Lorenzo Wellington wrote in a column for the Las Vegas Sun. Lee Siegel, who defaulted on his student loan debts, published an op-ed in Sunday's New York Times. Appearing on CNBC, he endorsed a proposal by Sen. Sanders to finance tuition at state colleges and universities through a tax on financial transactions, The Huffington Post and the BBC reported. LINK, LINK, LINK

Newspaper Columns “The ideal progressive turns out to be someone who has never run anything and so has no executive record  … Hence too the affection for Bernie Sanders … whose socialism seems quaint only because it is safely confined to the Senate floor,” William McGurn wrote in a column for The Wall Street Journal.  Sanders “promises to get more traction with the party's liberal base” than others, Eugene Robinson wrote in The Washington Post. LINK, LINK

World

Supreme Court Backs White House on Jerusalem Passport Dispute  In an important separation-of-powers case, the Supreme Court on Monday struck down a law that would have allowed American parents of children born in Jerusalem to obtain passports saying the children were born in Israel. The president, rather than Congress, must determine national policy on the status of Jerusalem, the majority said. LINK

Turkey Faces a New Political Reality A surprisingly weak showing by Turkey’s ruling party in parliamentary elections is raising the specter of protracted uncertainty for a key U.S. ally facing mounting economic and national security challenges. Sunday’s election upset derailed President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s bid to transform Turkey’s government into a strong presidential system with him at its head, The Wall Street Journal reported. LINK

National

Trade Bill Union leaders are making a final push to scuttle controversial trade legislation by pressuring on-the-fence Democrats to vote against the measure when the House takes it up — which could come as early as this week. The Coalition to Stop Fast Track announced Monday that labor leaders, including the AFL-CIO, will buy TV ads in congressional districts nationwide where Democrats have announced intentions to vote for or are still deciding whether to support President Barack Obama’s request for authority to “fast-track” trade deals through Congress, Politico reported. LINK

For-Profit College Loans In a move against what he called “the ethics of payday lending” in higher education, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan announced Monday that the Education Department would forgive the federal loans of tens of thousands of students who attended Corinthian Colleges, a for-profit college company that closed and filed for bankruptcy last month, amid widespread charges of fraud, The New York Times reported. LINK

Police Brutality A new video of a police officer pointing a gun at teenagers in bathing suits and shoving a young black girl’s face into the ground has become the latest flash point in relations between the police and minorities, reported The New York Times. The cellphone video was taken at the community pool in Craig Ranch, a racially diverse subdivision north of Dallas. LINK

Vermont

Frustrations Mount Over Affordable Care Act Just a few years ago, lawmakers in this left-leaning state viewed President Obama’s Affordable Care Act as little more than a pit stop on the road to a far more ambitious goal: single-payer, universal health care for all residents. Then things unraveled. The online insurance marketplace that Vermont built to enroll people in private coverage under the law had extensive technical failures. The problems soured public and legislative enthusiasm for sweeping health care changes just as Gov. Peter Shumlin needed to build support for his complex single-payer plan. Shumlin shelved the plan in December, citing the high cost to taxpayers, The New York Times reported. LINK