Senator Sanders

Health Centers Expand A new round of federal grants will support three more federally-funded health clinics in Vermont in addition to the eight already caring for one in five Vermonters. Sen. Bernie Sanders announced Thursday that the Battenkill Valley Health Center based in Arlington, Vt., the Five-Town Health Alliance based in Bristol, Vt., and clinics affiliated with Gifford Medical Center in Randolph, Vt., will receive the federal designation. Altogether, 163,000 Vermonters will now receive affordable primary medical, dental and mental health care and low-cost prescription drugs, according to the Bennington Banner, Rutland Herald, Vermont Public Radio and an Associated Press article carried by the Burlington Free Press, Times Argus, Valley News and others. “It is just a huge step forward for primary health care in the state of Vermont,” Sanders said. LINK, LINK, LINK, LINK, LINK

Senate Approves Ban on Gay Bias at Work The Senate passed legislation Thursday banning workplace discrimination against gay and transgender workers, nearly two decades after a push for such protection began in Congress. It would bar government agencies, labor unions and private employers with more than 15 employees from making decisions about hiring, firing, promotions or other matters based on a worker's sexual orientation or gender identity, which covers transgender workers. “I am very pleased that the Senate has taken this important step toward making America the democratic and inclusive society it should be,” Sen. Sanders said in the Burlington Free Press, The Associated Press and on WPTZ-TV. LINK, LINK, VIDEO

Minimum Wage Push Senate Democratic leadership is weighing when to consider a bill that would raise the federal minimum wage from $7.25 to as much as $10.10 per hour, Politico reported. Sen. Sanders said “there’s a desperate need to raise the minimum wage.” LINK

Veterans Day As Veterans Day approaches, Sen. Sanders joined top veterans organizations to discuss priorities for aiding the nation's veterans, McClatchy reported. “Bottom line here is that we owe a debt of gratitude to the veterans’ community that can never be repaid,” Sanders said. “But we have the moral obligation to do everything that we can to make those lives as good as they possibly can be, and that’s what Veterans Day 2013 means to me.” Support for veterans overcomes partisan differences, Sanders added. “Congress is dysfunctional but there will be a bipartisan agreement to defend our veterans,” Sanders said, according to Talk Radio News Service. LINK, LINK

Veterans Day In honor of veterans and to celebrate Veterans Day, Johnson State College is holding a public ceremony on Monday. Sen. Bernie Sanders is scheduled to give an address, according to Thursday’s Stowe Reporter. LINK

Veterans Disability Pay Members of the House Veterans' Affairs Committee will take up legislation from Sen. Sanders passed by the Senate that will increase the disability compensation rate for veterans and their families, The Hill reported. LINK

NSA Spying Sen. Sanders said he would not support legislation by the Senate Intelligence Committee that is “much too weak” to address abuses by an “out-of-control” National Security Agency that has harvested telephone and Internet records on millions of Americans and spied on leaders of our allies. Does Sanders think his phone calls have been monitored? “I can’t give you a definitive ‘no,’” he told Vermont Public Television’s Mark Johnson. “I wish I could say, “Don’t be ridiculous.”

FDA to Ban Trans Fat The Food and Drug Administration announced Thursday it will require the food industry to gradually phase out all trans fats, because they are a threat to people’s health, The Associated Press reported. Sen. The ban is “probably a good idea,” Sen. Sanders said on Vermont Public Television. LINK

White House ’16 Asked on Vermont Public Television about a potential White House bid, Sen. Sanders said he was “not closing the door” because it would be a way to get issues discussed but added that a presidential campaign was “a long shot” and that “realistically” someone with his views would have difficulty raising the resources needed to mount a credible campaign.

Bipartisanship Calling the gridlock in Congress a crisis, a Times Argus and Rutland Herald editorial praised Sens. Sanders and Patrick J. Leahy and Rep. Peter Welch for “trying to be part of a solution … Take the headline today on community health centers. This program got a big boost in the Affordable Care Act with the support of Sen. Mike Enzi of Wyoming, who was then the ranking Republican on the health committee. Earlier this week on CNN’s “Crossfire,” support for the community health centers, Sanders’ drumbeat, was echoed by both Sen. David Vitter and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich. Sanders also worked with former Rep. Ron Paul of Texas to pass the provision that ended up in the Dodd-Frank Act calling for the first-ever audit of the Federal Reserve during the period after the 2008 financial crisis … And all three members of the delegation have worked with Republicans on privacy concerns about the National Security Agency sifting through the emails and phone records of millions of Americans.” LINK

Vermont Republicans Vermont Republican John MacGovern, who ran against Sen. Sanders in 2012, is a candidate for chair of the Vermont Republican Party, WVNY-TV reported. VIDEO

World

Iran Nuclear Talks Negotiators from Iran and six world powers convened on Thursday in Geneva to discuss Iran’s nuclear activities, The New York Times reported. American officials signaled that the United States is prepared to offer Iran limited relief from economic sanctions if Tehran agrees to halt its nuclear program and reverse part of it. LINK

Super Typhoon One of the strongest tropical cyclones ever observed spun toward the Philippines, as thousands of people in vulnerable areas relocated to safety, CNN reported. LINK

M23 Rebel Leader Surrenders The commander of the M23 insurgent group in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo has surrendered in Kampala, according to Ugandan officials, Reuters reported. The surrender occurred two days after M23 announced the rebels were ending its 20-month-old insurgency. LINK

National

October Unemployment at 13.8% U.S. employers added 204,000 jobs in October, an unexpected burst of hiring during a month in which the federal government was partially shut down for 16 days. The Labor Department announced on Friday that the unemployment rate rose to 7.3 percent from 7.2 percent in September, likely because furloughed federal workers were counted as unemployed. The real unemployment rate, according to the Labor Department, was 13.8 percent, up from 13.6 percent in September. That number counts people forced to settle for part-time jobs and those who stopped looking for work. The percentage of Americans working or looking for work fell to a fresh 35-year low, AP reported. LINK

Obama Apologizes for Health Cancelations President Barack Obama on Thursday said he was sorry that thousands of Americans are losing their current health insurance plans due to regulations in the Affordable Care Act, The Wall Street Journal reported. LINK

Obama Supports Minimum Wage Increase President Obama supports a bill sponsored by a pair of congressional Democrats to bump the federal minimum wage to $10.10 an hour, a White House official said Thursday. Sen. Tom Harkin and Rep. George Miller have been pushing a plan to raise the federal minimum wage from $7.25 an hour to $10.10 an hour in increments of 95 cents, The Washington Post reported. LINK

Fed Nominee’s Confirmation Hearing Set Senators will press Janet Yellen on a number of issues next week during a Nov. 14 confirmation hearing on her nomination to lead the Federal Reserve, The Wall Street Journal reported. Yellen, vice chairwoman of the Fed board, has been nominated to succeed Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke after his second term ends in January. LINK

Obama, Again, Turns to Wall Street President Obama nominated Bank of America executive Stefan M. Selig to oversee international trade as he seeks to jump-start the economy by appointing a Wall Street veteran to the Commerce Department. The White House announced the nomination Thursday, subject to confirmation by the Senate. Selig, Bank of America’s executive vice chairman of global corporate and investment banking, would report to Penny Pritzker, the Chicago businesswoman confirmed in June as Commerce secretary, The Washington Post reported. LINK

Billionaires Received Farm Subsidies The federal government paid $11.3 million in taxpayer-funded farm subsidies from 1995 to 2012 to 50 billionaires or businesses in which they have some form of ownership, according to a report released Thursday by the Environmental Working Group, The New York Times reported. LINK

Food Cos. Claim Victory Over Labeling The nation’s major food companies declared victory after this week’s election in Washington State, The New York Times reported. Voters rejected an initiative that would require companies to label foods that contain biotech ingredients. LINK

Airline Merger Jeopardizes Reagan Flights The Justice Department has been under mounting pressure from Congress to drop objections to a proposed merger of American Airlines and US Airways because a settlement could eliminate routes from Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport that are popular with lawmakers. US Airways has used Reagan National as a domestic hub offering flights to small- and medium-sized cities up and down the East Coast. For many lawmakers, those flights are transportation lifelines to their home districts. US Airways Chief Executive Doug Parker told a Senate subcommittee in June that those routes to small and mid-size communities would be sacrificed if the combined carrier was forced to divest routes, Congressional Quarterly reported. LINK

Vermont

LIHEAP ‘Panic’ Fuel dealers say the pricing structure on the new Low Income Heating Assistance contract this year with the state meant they couldn't afford to stay in the program. “We're hearing panic. Especially for the propane customers that are now in search of new propane dealers,” says Vicki Fletcher Crisis Fuel Coordinator at the Champlain Valley Office of Economic Opportunity, WCAX-TV reported. LINK

Energy Efficiency Vermont ranked seventh overall and second in utility-sector energy efficiency programs and policies, according to the State Energy Efficiency Scorecard released by the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE), VermontBiz reported. LINK

Hiring Our Heroes Military veterans who are looking for work were invited to attend the Hiring Our Heroes Job Fair on Thursday at the Holiday Inn in South Burlington, The Associated Press reported. LINK

Brainstorming Bullying More than 400 students and teachers gathered on Thursday at the 2nd Vermont Youth Congress at Capitol Plaza Hotel and Conference Center in Montpelier to combat bullying and promote respect for cultural differences, AP reported. LINK

Car Ownership Costs According to new analysis, it costs $2,954 annually to operate a car in Vermont, the Burlington Free Press reported. The national average cost was reported at $3,201. LINK

Fighting Patent Trolls Vermont is leading the nation in taking on patent trolls, passing the first law in the country intended to put some legal obstacles in their way. The legislation works by giving targeted businesses the right to counter-sue and try to prove a troll’s lawsuit or threat of lawsuit was made in bad faith, according to the Burlington Free Press. LINK