With gas prices still soaring, Sen. Bernie Sanders met Thursday with the federal government's top commodity market regulator about Wall Street speculators driving up oil prices.  The Senate on Wednesday passed a job-creating road and bridge construction bill. At a hearing pegged to the first anniversary of the Fukushima nuclear disaster, a Senate panel questioned what lessons were learned by U.S. safety regulators.  It was the last full week of an unusually warm winter. In Washington, the cherry blossoms bloomed early. In Vermont, forecasters predicted temperatures in the 70s by Sunday, stirring talk that the ice on Joe's Pond could break earlier than ever in the history of the annual contest.

Gas Prices 

Sanders told Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chairman Gary Gensler that he should invoke emergency powers to curtail oil speculators.  Gensler is dragging his feet. "He says he's considering this and he's considering that, but I have not heard from Chairman Gensler the kind of urgency that we need." Sanders also said that President Obama should be more engaged. "Is the president doing enough? In my opinion, no he's not."  The nationwide average price for a gallon of regular was up to $3.83 on Friday, according to AAA's daily fuel gauge report. 

Watch an interview on Current TV »

Rebuilding America 

By a vote of 74 to 22, the Senate passed a two-year, $109-billion transportation funding bill. It would create an estimated 1 million new jobs. Sanders, a member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, helped write the bill that that would provide $408 million for Vermont over the next two years.  "Given the infrastructure crisis facing our country, it is imperative that we get to work as soon as possible and this bill is a good start," Sanders said of the measure that now goes to the House.          

Nuclear Power 

A year after the catastrophic meltdown of nuclear reactors in Japan, a U.S. Senate panel questioned members of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission about nuclear safety in the United States. "We have got to understand how serious we must be in making sure nuclear power in this country is safe," Sanders said at a Thursday hearing of the Senate committee that oversees the NRC. Sanders, who had called for a moratorium on license renewals after the Japanese disaster, questioned why federal regulators extended the operating license for the aging Vermont Yankee nuclear plant within days of the earthquake and tsunami in Fukushima, Japan. 

Watch video from the committee hearing »               

Shorty Award 

What is one thing that President Obama, Justin Bieber, Miley Ray Cyrus and Nicholas Kristof  all have in common? All are winners or finalists for this year's Shorty Awards. The 4th Annual Shorty Awards ceremony will be on March 26 in New York.  Sanders won the vox populi award for best member of Congress on social media. "Social media provide a very important mechanism to communicate directly with people about issues that often don't get the attention they deserve by the mainstream media," he said. "We have seen lively and smart conversations on my Facebook, Twitter and Google+ pages on issues like the collapsing middle class, growing income and wealth disparity, increased poverty in our country and the lack of adequate health and dental care." 

Check out the Shorty Awards webpage »