Senator Sanders

Poor Americans Die Younger Sen. Bernie Sanders held a hearing Wednesday on disparities in life expectancy between regions of the United States, The Associated Press, The Charleston (W. Va.) Gazette, The Nation, Congressional Quarterly and The Raw Story reported. “The lower people’s income, the earlier they die and the sicker they live,” testified Dr. Steven Woolf, who directs the Center on Society and Health at Virginia Commonwealth University. LINK, LINK, LINK, LINK, LINK

Economic Populism Rachel Maddow said “economic populism” espoused by Sens. Sanders, Sherrod Brown and Elizabeth Warren “is on the offensive.” She interviewed Warren about expanding Social Security. VIDEO

White House '16 Sen. Sanders is considering a run for president in 2016. The Washington Post website cited a Sanders interview with radio host Tavis Smiley in which the senator insisted he would not be a “spoiler” and promised an independent campaign wouldn't pull votes from a Democratic nominee.  Saying that progressive Democrats appear anxious to recruit a primary challenger for Hillary Clinton, The Week mentioned Sens. Sanders and Warren, former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean and Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley as prospective challengers. LINK, LINK

Socialist in Seattle Kshama Sawant, a self-proclaimed socialist and newly elected city council member from Seattle, had advocated a workers "take-over" of a local Boeing plant, Salon reported. “We can re-tool the machines to produce mass transit like buses, instead of destructive, you know, war machines,” she told a local radio station. The article by Matthew Yglesias noted that Sen. Sanders “is in some technical sense a socialist” but added that “his views don't seem distinct from those of a dozen or two other Democratic Party senators.” LINK

World

Afghanistan Afghan President Hamid Karzai told his countrymen on Thursday a vital security pact with the United States should not come into effect until after next year's election and conceded there was little trust between the two countries. About 2,500 tribal elders and political leaders from all around Afghanistan gathered in Kabul to debate whether to allow U.S. troops to stay after the 2014 drawdown of foreign forces.  Without an accord, the U.S. could pull out all its troops at the end of 2014 and leave Afghan forces to fight the Taliban insurgency on their own, Reuters reported. LINK

National

Democrats Expected to Curb Filibuster Rules Soon Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is rallying Democrats to pass new rules easing the confirmation process for executive-branch nominations and for many federal judges. Reid now has the needed 51 votes to change the rules, said Sen. Michael Bennet, a member of the Senate Democratic leadership. He said it was "a real possibility'' that Reid would call a vote on Thursday. The change would curb the minority party's main source of leverage in the Senate's frequent battles over confirming the president's nominees to executive and most judicial posts, The Wall Street Journal reported. LINK

Republicans Map Out Attacks on Health Law A memo to House Republicans this week was part of an organized Republican attack on the Affordable Care Act by Republicans who intend to keep Democrats on their heels by gathering stories of people affected by the health care law through social media, letters from constituents, or meetings during visits back home. For a House more used to disarray than methodical game plans, the success so far has been something of a surprise, even to the campaign’s organizers, according to The New York Times. LINK

Fed Considers New Economic Support Federal Reserve officials debated alternate ways of supporting an ailing economy, meeting minutes revealed Wednesday, according to The New York Times. Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke said in the meeting that 6.5 percent unemployment would be a turning point at which the Fed would fade out its existing stimulus program. LINK

Far Fewer Homeless Veterans The number of homeless veterans and people who have been homeless for at least a year has dropped significantly, according to the latest survey by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. USA Today reported that the number of homeless veterans fell 24 percent over the past six years, to 57,850, and the number of chronically homeless people decreased 25 percent to 92,590. Overall, there were 610,040 homeless people in the U.S., a 9 percent drop from 2007, according to the annual count of the homeless. The number of homeless families, which shot up during the recession, also decreased 8 percent since 2007 to 222,200, the report shows. LINK

Vermont

Almost Universal Broadband The state will fall short of its goal of universal broadband coverage by the end of this year, but Gov. Peter Shumlin announced that “over 99 percent” of Vermont now has access to broadband. The state says only 3,000 addresses remain to be served.  Expanding broadband in Vermont has taken millions of dollars in state grants, major investments by service providers and most of all $174 million in federal money. Officials say the federal figure represents the highest per capita U.S. government investment in broadband in any state in the country, Vermont Public Radio reported. LINK

Tight Budgets Gov. Peter Shumlin's administration briefed lawmakers on Wednesday about tightened state budgets to come, The Associated Press reported. LINK

Rutland Rail Upgrade Vermont's top transportation official is going to ask the Joint Transportation Oversight Committee Thursday for permission to spend $8.9 million in federal grant money to upgrade rail lines for 20 miles north of Rutland, AP reported.

Burlington City Council The committee on redistricting in Burlington on Wednesday approved a proposal to lengthen city council terms from two to three years, the Burlington Free Press reported. LINK