Senator Sanders

Health Care The Senate voted to begin full debate on major health care legislation, but big disagreements remained. CNN White House correspondent Ed Henry noted that Sen. Bernie Sanders put out a statement saying, "My vote is not a guaranteed yes on final passage." Sanders told Politico: "I have made it clear to the administration and Democratic leadership that my vote for the final bill is by no means guaranteed."  Bob Cusack, managing editor of The Hill, talked on Fox News about Reid's bind. "If you move the vote right to get Snowe you may lose Sanders or Burris." LINK, VIDEO and VIDEO

Health Care Sanders said one of his problems with the bill is its cost containment measures need to strengthened, as well as the public option initiative that would allow Americans to buy government health insurance if policies offered by private insurers are too expensive, The Burlington Free Press reported. Sanders said he doesn't have enough support to pass his favored single-payer system. "On the other hand, I am fighting hard to make sure that states are given the authority, are given the waivers, to be able to go forward with a Medicare for all single payer system," he said on WCAX.. LINK, LINK and VIDEO

Health Care "Despite the fear mongering rhetoric of demagogues, our health-care system is not in such critical condition that only the radical surgery recommended by Sen. Sanders and other leftists will save it," Jim Goff of Shelburne wrote in a Burlington Free Press op-ed. LINK

Dairy Workers Sanders said he would support legislation allowing Vermont dairy farms to legally import foreign workers. Federal agents armed with subpoenas visited five farms in northern Vermont last week seeking records proving their workers were in the country legally. "I am not a great fan of guest worker programs," The Burlington Free Press reported that Sanders told a South Burlington press conferennce the predicament of the dairy industry is so "desperate" that a guest worker program is needed. LINK

Too Big "No single financial institution should be so large that its failure would cause catastrophic risk to millions of American jobs or to our nation's economic well-being. No single financial institution should have holdings so extensive that its failure could send the world economy into crisis. No consumer or small business should have to pay interest rates on credit cards and other loans so high they would make a loan shark blush," Sen. Sanders and Rep. Hinchey wrote in an op-ed published by the Stamford, Conn. Advodate and the Athens, Ga., Baner-Herald. LINK

Bailouts and Bonuses Nomi Prins, former managing director at Goldman Sachs, talked with Sen. Sanders about the 2008 financial crisis and her latest book, "It Takes a Pillage: Behind the Bailouts, Bonuses and Backroom Deals from Washington to Wall Street."  The program that first aired Saturday will be rebroadcast on C-SPAN at 9p.m. and midnight. LINK and VIDEO

International

Afghanistan American and Afghan officials have begun helping a number of anti-Taliban militias that have independently taken up arms against insurgents in several parts of Afghanistan, prompting hopes of a large-scale tribal rebellion against the Taliban, The New York Times reported. LINK

National

Great Recession Three in 10 Americans in the latest ABC News/Washington Post poll say they or someone in their household has lost a job in the past year -- a new high. And the impacts can be devastating: Beyond financial hardship, large numbers report anger, stress and depression as a result. Given the state of the economy - 10.2 percent unemployment, 17.5 percent including those who've given up looking - "surprise" is the least common reaction measured in this survey. Nonetheless, more than half of those who report a layoff in their household, 52 percent, were surprised by it. LINK

Louisiana Purchase On the eve of Saturday's showdown in the Senate over health-care reform, Democratic leaders still hadn't secured the support of Sen. Mary Landrieu, one of the 60 votes needed to keep the legislation alive. The wavering lawmaker was offered a sweetener: at least $100 million in extra federal money for her home state. As Landrieu walked onto the Senate floor midafternoon Saturday to announce her aye vote, she said,. "I am not going to be defensive...And it's not a $100 million fix. It's a $300 million fix." LINK

Kennedy Can't Take Communion Bishop Thomas J. Tobin has forbidden Rep. Patrick J. Kennedy to receive the Roman Catholic sacrament of Holy Communion because of his advocacy of abortion rights, the Rhode Island Democrat said Friday. "The bishop instructed me not to take Communion and said that he has instructed the diocesan priests not to give me Communion," Kennedy said in a telephone interview with the Providence Journal. LINK

 Vermont

Healthy but Hungry The number of Vermonters suffering from severe hunger has risen so high so fast, the state now has the sixth worst percentage of residents facing the problem in the nation. Vermont made national news last week when the nonprofit United Health Foundation named the state the healthiest in the country, but a just-released U.S. Department of Agriculture report says more than 14,000 Vermont households (one in 20, or triple the number since 2000) face hunger so severe that adults frequently go without food, according to the Vermont Press Bureau. LINK

Health Care With Washington, D.C., debating vast changes to the country's health care system, reform efforts in Vermont for 2010 are in a holding pattern as lawmakers and advocates take a wait and see approach. "By now, we would normally have a better idea of what's on the agenda for next year," Peter Sterling, the executive director of the Vermont Campaign for Health Care Security, told the Vermont Press Bureau. "But no one knows what's going to happen with health care reform on the federal level." LINK