Senator Sanders

Trade Deal Bad for Workers, Sanders Says in Indianola Sen. Sanders told a crowd in Indianola the agreement would be bad for the country's middle class.  "Since 2001 we have lost almost 60,000 factories in America and millions of decent-paying manufacturing jobs. Not all of that is attributed to trade, but much of it is," said Sanders. "Our view has got to be that trade should work not only for CEOs of large corporations, but for the workers of this country," The Des Moines Register reported. LINK

Sanders: Invest in America Supporters of the trade pact hope to hold a new vote this week on the part of the package rejected by the House on Friday. But there was little indication over the weekend that many minds had been changed, according to The New York Times. ''We need to regroup and come up with a trade policy which demands that corporate America start investing in this country rather than in countries all over the world,'' Sen. Sanders said Sunday on ''Face the Nation'' on CBS.

Immigration It was the closest Sanders had come to getting heckled during his trip to Iowa. As he was leaving a town hall meeting in Marshalltown, Iowa, on Saturday, Isaac Medina, a 19-year-old University of Iowa sophomore, followed him out of the building with a question he hadn’t been able to ask during the question-and-answer session: What was Sanders going to do about immigration?  Sanders said he supports comprehensive immigration reform and bringing people out of the shadows, Bloomberg reported. LINK

Student Debt All this student debt is an enormous drag on the economy and, as Sen. Sanders has pointed out, even a minuscule transaction tax at the Wall Street casino would be enough to fund a public college education for every American who wants one. That, combined with a lowering of the interest rate on new loans and the ability to finance older ones, would have an enormously beneficial impact on the economy, Alex Miller wrote in a column for the Denver Post.

Climate Change Climate change is getting a boost of fresh attention heading into the 2016 presidential campaign thanks to Pope Francis. The Vatican is set to release a highly anticipated encyclical -- an official document delivering teachings from the Pope -- on the environment and climate change. Sen. Sanders expressed himself in his announcement speech, CNN reported. LINK 

World 

U.S. Airstrike in Libya The United States carried out an airstrike in Libya early Sunday against the mastermind of the 2013 terrorist seizure of an Algerian gas plant that left 38 foreign hostages dead, American and Libyan officials said on Sunday. The airstrikes killed the terrorist leader, Mokhtar Belmokhtar, and “a number” of Libyan terrorists in the eastern part of the country, reported The New York Times. LINK

National

Obama Fights to Save Trade Bill A deep Democratic divide over President Barack Obama’s ambitions to expand trade in the Pacific clouded prospects this week for reviving key legislation after the House dealt it a stinging setback and Hillary Clinton expressed her own qualms Sunday from the campaign trail. Obama administration officials maintained Sunday that they still expected Congress would find a way to pass legislation expanding Mr. Obama’s trade-negotiating powers as the U.S. tries to wrap up a sweeping deal with 11 other countries around the Pacific, The Wall Street Journal reported. LINK 

Vermont 

College in Financial Trouble Trustees of the Vermont State College system have approved another loan to help struggling Vermont Technical College. The loan was anticipated and the college’s president says VTC’s financial situation is improving. Trustees signed off on the $1.9 million supplemental loan in May when they approved the college’s annual budget, Vermont Public Radio reported. LINK