It was horrible timing.  As workers in Japan struggled to prevent a nuclear plant meltdown, federal regulators granted a license extension for the aging Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant. Sen. Bernie Sanders said the action "defies comprehension."  Like others in Congress, Sanders wants President Obama to provide more details on U.S. missile strikes against Libya. The Supreme Court let stand a ruling that the Fed must open more records to public scrutiny. A Sanders provision in the Wall Street reform law already forced more Fed revelations. In Vermont, the state House passed a single-payer health care bill. Meanwhile, hundreds of Vermonters packed four Sanders' town meetings. Filling out your income tax returns this weekend? You might wonder how General Electric posted $5 billion in U.S. profits last year but paid no federal income taxes. Sanders on Friday discussed that and other topics in the news this week with syndicated radio host Thom Hartmann.

Nuclear Safety Federal regulators on Monday gave the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant a 20-year license renewal. Sen. Bernie Sanders couldn't help but notice that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission action came as Japanese workers struggled to contain a near meltdown at a tsunami-damaged nuclear power plant in Japan's Fukushima prefect.  The NRC decision, Sanders said, "defies comprehension." The senator, a member of the Senate panel that oversees the NRC, had urged regulators to hold off on the Vermont Yankee license. Sanders also urged President Obama to place a moratorium on nuclear licenses renewals in the United States and called for a presidential commission to study plant safety. Coincidentally, just one month before a powerful earthquake and tsunami crippled the plant at the center of Japan's nuclear crisis, U.S. regulators ignored safety warnings and approved a 10-year extension for the oldest of the six reactors. To read more about Sanders's letter to the president, click here. To read The New York Times account of the cozy relationship between the Japanese government and that nation's nuclear industry, click here.

War in Libya Air and missile strikes pounded Libya in what the White House euphemistically called a "kinetic military action." Whatever you call it, there were members of the Senate and House who wanted the president to engage in more consultation with Congress.  "I would have much preferred for the president to give us his reasoning and game plan," Sanders told Vermont Public Radio in an interview broadcast on Friday.  "We are now in the midst of two wars [and] I am very nervous about the United States getting into a third war without a clearly-defined end game." He voiced disappointment over dissipating support by Arab nations for the NATO-led mission.

The Fed's Secrets The Supreme Court on Monday let stand a lower-court ruling compelling the Federal Reserve to reveal the names of banks that borrowed money at the Fed's so-called discount window during the credit crisis. The records were requested by Bloomberg News and other media organizations. The Wall Street reform law that Congress passed last July included a Sanders provision that mandated the release of other Fed bailout details. Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke "now must finally understand that this money doesn't belong to the Federal Reserve, it belongs to the American people and the American people have a right to know how their taxpayer dollars are being put at risk," said Sanders, who wrote transparency provisions in Dodd-Frank. The Supreme Court order, Sanders Said, would "peel away another layer of secrecy at the Federal Reserve." To read more, click here.

G.E. Pays No Taxes General Electric was one of the companies that received a huge Fed bailout.  Now it turns out that the nation's largest corporation didn't pay a penny in U.S. taxes last year.  In fact, G.E. claimed a tax benefit of $3.2 billion. It posted worldwide profits in 2010 of $14.2 billion including $5.1 billion from its operations in the United States. G.E. is not alone. Discussing The New York Times article on his weekly nationwide radio show, Sanders told Thom Hartmann that Bank of America paid no taxes on $4 billion in income.  Exxon, for all its profits, got a rebate.  Etc., etc. To listen to the opening segment of Friday's interview with m Hartmann, click here. To read the article in The New York Times, click here.

Single Payer in Vermont The Vermont House on Thursday passed a bill setting the state on a path toward a single-payer health care system. With the bill now headed to the state Senate, Sanders was scheduled to address a rally of medical students, nurses and other health professionals from throughout New England at a weekend rally in Montpelier.

Town Meetings Top subjects at the senator's town meetings were lingering effects of the recession and spending cuts sought by congressional Republicans for almost everything from money to run Social Security to grants for college students. In Bennington, for example, a page-one story the next day's newspaper said "Vermont's firebrand junior senator rallied hundreds of constituents at a town-hall style meeting Wednesday, decrying proposed cuts to the federal budget impacting low-income Americans and vowing to push back against those efforts in Congress."  To read the Bennington Banner, click here. To read the St. Albans Messenger article, click here.