Senator Sanders

Health Care - Public Option In return for concessions on their proposal for a new government-run health insurance plan, liberal senators pushed Monday for expansion of Medicare and Medicaid and more stringent federal regulation of the insurance industry. "I am intrigued, but there is a lot in the mix right now," Sen. Bernie Sanders told MSNBC's Chris Matthews on Hardball. "Whatever the end result will be in terms of a public option, it has got to be strong. It has got to cover substantial numbers of people." VIDEO

Health Care - Public Option Democracy for America plans a vigil outside Sanders' Burlington office at 5:30 tonight to thank Sanders for his support of the so-called public health insurance option and to warn other Democrats against scuttling the public option in the name of compromise, The Burlington Free Press reported. LINK

Health Care - Single Payer "Burlington Friends urged Vermont Sens. Sanders and Leahy to work to keep all key provisions of the House bill that would ensure high-quality coverage for all U.S. citizens that is affordable, comprehensive, and fairly financed...We believe a single-payer system would be the ideal,"  Louis Cox wrote in The Burlington Free Press. LINK

Health Care - Abortion The divisive issue of abortion emerged Monday as an obstacle to Senate passage of health care reform. An amendment by Sen. Ben Nelson would bar any private insurance company from offering plans to cover abortion if they receive federal subsidies. "It is not going to happen that a Democratic Congress and a Democratic president are going to take back rights that women have fought for for years," Sanders said on MSNBC.  LINK

From Fringe to Forefront With populist anger running deep, it is becoming more likely that the Federal Reserve's scope will be narrowed. The House this week is expected to approve a bill that calls for the GAO to audit the Fed. Similar legislation offered by Sen. Bernie Sanders has two cosponsors, according to The Hill and the American Banker. LINK

Hold on Bernanke "The American people want a new direction on Wall Street and the Fed," Sen. Sanders concluded in an op-ed published by The Hill. "I wonder sometimes if Bernie is the only Senator who is actually worrying about who is running our key financial institutions," Matt Taibbi blogged. LINK and LINK

International

Baghdad Bombs Kill 121 A series of devastating car bombings rocked Baghdad on Tuesday, killing at least 121 people and wounding hundreds more, according to preliminary accounts by witnesses, the police and hospital officials.  Five bombs in all, including at least three suicide attacks, struck in what appeared to be a coordinated assault on the capital, The New York Times reported. LINK

Pakistan Told to Ratchet Up Fight Against Taliban The Obama administration is turning up the pressure on Pakistan to fight the Taliban inside its borders, warning that if it does not act more aggressively the United States will use considerably more force on the Pakistani side of the border to shut down Taliban attacks on American forces in Afghanistan, American and Pakistani officials told The New York Times. LINK

UN: The Warmest Decade on Record This decade is very likely to be the warmest since record keeping began in 1850, and 2009 could rank among the top-five warmest years, the U.N. weather agency reported Tuesday on the second day of a pivotal 192-nation climate conference, AP reported. LINK 

National

Obama Jobs Plan President Obama is promoting help for highways and small businesses, bridges and energy-efficient homes in a broad pitch to get Americans back to work and roll back the double-digit unemployment that's approaching a quarter-century high, an administration official told The Associated Press on Tuesday. LINK

Solis Pushes Agenda to Bolster Labor Labor Secretary Hilda Solis said her agency will seek to enact an array of 90 rules and regulations next year aimed at giving more power to workers and unions, The Wall Street Journal reported. LINK

Historic EPA Finding: Greenhouse Gases Harm Humans The Obama administration took a major step Monday toward imposing the first federal limits on climate-changing pollution from cars, power plants and factories, declaring there was compelling scientific evidence that global warming from manmade greenhouse gases endangers Americans' health, AP reported. LINK

Vermont

Lake Cleanup Additional programs are necessary to reduce phosphorus pollution that drives algae blooms and weed growth in Lake Champlain, according to the Agency of Natural Resources. The price tag was put at perhaps as much as $800 million over 15 to 20 years in addition to the $14 million to $19 million a year in state and federal dollars Vermont already spends to abate lake pollution, The Burlington Free Press reported. LINK

DUI Deaths Down Drunken driving fatality rates have fallen in 40 states, a sign that crackdowns are improving highway safety. Vermont was among eight states that saw fatality rates involving alcohol-linked crashes decline by 20 percent or more, The Associated Press reported. LINK

Douglas Departure Gov. Douglas' deputy chief of staff and communications director announced Monday she would step down from her job at the end of the year as the Republican governor winds down his last term in office. Dennise Casey will move to a new position with the Republican Governor's Association in Washington, D.C, the Vermont Press Bureau reported. LINK

Vermont Top Syrup Producer U.S. sugarhouses this year produced 2.3 million gallons of syrup, the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The top states was Vermont, which produced 920,000 gallons, followed by Maine, New York, Wisconsin and Michigan, AP reported. LINK