Senator Sanders

Health Care Many senators would vote against a health bill lacking a strong public option, Sen. Bernie Sanders warned Monday on MSNBC, saying he's "very reluctant to support any legislation which does not have that." On CNN, he said it would be "very hard" to support a bill that was "a massive bonanza for private insurance companies." The Vermont Press Bureau said his vote is not yet secure. Sanders told Ed Schultz that White House backing for a public option is critical. "We need them in there with guns blazing." LINK, LINK, VIDEO and VIDEO

Health Care - CNN In addition to satisfying moderate Democrats, Democratic leaders also have the challenge of keeping liberal senators happy. For instance, Vermont independent Bernie Sanders and Ohio's Sherrod Brown are drawing their own line in the sand, saying they want a public option, CNN's Brianna Keilar reported from Washington. The same point was echoed by political editor Mark Preston in an interview on CNN in Europe. VIDEO

Health Care - Fox "What I found most interesting was the number of liberals who...said it's possible that they would not support this bill if the public option wasn't in the final bill. I don't believe them for a second, but it is clear they are feeling pressure from the moderates who are in a position to get whatever they want with this horse trading so that the liberals are coming out, Bernie Sanders said it, Roland Burris said it, no public option, it doesn't get my vote,"  The Weekly Standard's Steve Hayes said on Fox News. VIDEO

Health Care - Fox An equally skeptical Mara Liasson of National Public Radio added on Fox, "I don't want to dismiss the liberals' concerns. They are the majority of the caucus. They have to have their concerns in this bill. But this bill has been moving steadily, tiny step by tiny step, to the center since it was introduced in committee, and that's the direction it is going to keep on going if it is going to get 60 votes in the United States Senate. VIDEO

Health Care - MSNBC "Is it as blunt as this: don`t tamper further with the public option or you lose you lose the four conservative Democrats; and if you do tamper further with the public option, you lose Sanders and Burris and maybe others?" MSNBC's Keith Olbermann asked Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse. "I think there`s a little bit more room to maneuver than that...If people go through that whole process and then want to take their ball and go home, that`s a very different thing than having never been heard." VIDEO

Health Care - Pundits "Sanders is right to play hardball like this, but...it's hard to imagine he'd cast the vote to kill health care reform," Steve Benen blogged for Washington Monthly. "Would he really stand in the way of legislation that covers 31 million people and bans preexisting condition exclusions once and for all?" Matthew Spieler asked at Faster Times online. LINK and LINK

Single Payer California Nurses Association organizer Donna Smith sought support for Sanders' single-payer proposals at Common Dreams. Her call was echoed at Firedoglake. LINK and LINK

Dairy Crisis In recent years many dairy farmers who can't find local farmhands have turned to illegal immigrants. Now Vermont's congressional delegation is voicing strong support for a new guest-worker program. Even Sen. Sanders, a longtime critic of guest-worker programs, now says the economics of today's dairy industry should make it an exception, WPTZ and In These Times reported. LINK, VIDEO and VIDEO

Trade Deal Secrecy Some senators are finally beginning to question how Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement is being handled. Sens. Sanders and Brown sent a letter to US Trade Rep Ron Kirk asking for documents to be made public, the trade blog TechDirt reported. Proponents of the pact say it is a response "to the increase in global trade of counterfeit goods and pirated copyright protected works." LINK

Too Big to Fail "At the dawn of the 20th century, Presidents Teddy Roosevelt and William Howard Taft took a big stick to the largest and most powerful corporate interests of their era. Today, it is time to take a page out of the book of these courageous Republicans and break up financial institutions and insurance giants that have become too big to fail," Sen. Sanders and Rep. Maurice Hinchey wrote in an op-ed published by The Record in northern New Jersey and the Gulf Times in Qatar. LINK and LINK

Vermont Senate Rutland attorney Bill Meub formally declared his interest Monday in an open state senate seat. He joins fellow Rutland attorney and Pittsford Rep. Peg Flory on the caucus ticket. Meub most recently challenged then-U.S. Rep. Sanders in 2002. Despite losing, Meub said he was encouraged by a strong showing in Rutland County, the Rutland Herald reported. LINK

International

Afghanistan Announcement Expected President Obama held a "rigorous final meeting" with his Afghanistan war council and is expected to announce his revised strategy for the eight-year-old conflict just after his Thanksgiving break. Military officials and others expect Obama to settle on a middle-ground option that would deploy an eventual 32,000 to 35,000 U.S. forces, The Associated Press reported. LINK

McChrystal and U.S. Ambassador to Testify The top U.S. general and the U.S ambassador in Afghanistan have been told to prepare to testify before Congress as early as next week, according to White House and other U.S. officials, giving an indication of how and when President Obama plans to announce his war strategy, The Washington Post reported. LINK

National

One in Four Borrowers Is Under Water The proportion of U.S. homeowners who owe more on their mortgages than the properties are worth has swelled to about 23 percent, threatening prospects for a sustained housing recovery. Nearly 10.7 million households had negative equity in their homes in the third quarter, according to First American CoreLogic, The Wall Street Journal reported. LINK

Proposal to Break Up Banks Gains Momentum Momentum is growing in the U.S. and abroad to deal with the problem of gigantic financial institutions deemed too big to fail by breaking them up before they can threaten the economy, the Los Angeles Times reported. LINK

Blacks Hit Hard by Economy Joblessness for 16-to-24-year-old black men has reached Great Depression proportions -- 34.5 percent in October, more than three times the rate for the general U.S. population, according to The Washington Post. LINK

Nuclear power regains support Nuclear power -- long considered environmentally hazardous -- is emerging as perhaps the world's most unlikely weapon against climate change, with the backing of even some green activists who once campaigned against it, The Washington Post reported. LINK

U.S. to Set Emissions Target Before Climate Talks The United States will propose a near-term target for reducing greenhouse gas emissions before the United Nations climate change meeting in Copenhagen next month, a senior administration official told The New York Times on Monday. LINK

Vermont

Champlain Bridge Demolition Vermont Transportation officials say the "chances are good" the deteriorated Lake Champlain bridge could be dropped into the water with explosives before the lake freezes over.  Transportation Agency spokesman John Zicconi says the pieces of the bridge between Addison, Vt., and Crown Point, N.Y., would then be removed from the water for disposal, reports The Associated Press. LINK

Barre-Montpelier Tussle Montpelier Mayor Mary Hooper is being harshly criticized by Barre officials for releasing information - they say prematurely - on a plan to transport granite waste via rail from the Rock of Ages Corp in Barre Town through Barre, Berlin and Montpelier.  Barre Mayor Thomas Lauzon and Jeff Blow, chairman of the Barre Town selectboard, essentially accused Hooper of blindsiding them by violating the spirit of a gentlemen's agreement they say was reached at the meeting organized by Barre Area Development last Thursday, reports the Times Argus. LINK

Ct. River Watershed $359,000 has been approved to restore flood plains and fish migration within the Connecticut River watershed.  Funding was included in the Energy and Water Appropriations bill recently signed by President Obama. The Connecticut River Watershed Restoration project is a joint effort between the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and The Nature Conservancy to restore healthy river flows to the river, reports The Associated Press. LINK

Speedy Confirmation for Vt. Judge U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy says the confirmation of Vermont's new federal judge by the Senate was the fastest one this year.  Leahy, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, says it took 17 days between the confirmation hearing for Vermont state judge Christina Reiss (Rice) and Saturday's confirmation by the U.S. Senate, reports The Associated Press.  LINK

St. Albans Fire Fire broke out at Bernie Gauge Plumbing and Heating on Stebbins Street around 5 a.m and quickly consumed the building. The flames damaged the adjacent Town and Country Auto Body and slightly damaged Top Notch Car Wash.  Authorities closed nearby streets; power was cut to a few dozen homes and businesses surrounding the blaze; and, because of disruptions caused by the fire, school officials closed Bellows Free Academy in St Albans for the day.  As of 7 a.m., no serious injuries were reported, according to The Burlington Free Press. LINK