The Senate will try again to extend benefits for the long-term unemployed.  Senate Republicans repeatedly have blocked efforts to keep help flowing at a time when a record number of Americans, including thousands of Vermonters, have gone without jobs for six months or more. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid on Wednesday tentatively set another vote next Tuesday that could end the filibuster. The timing was based on the expectation that West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin III by the end of this week will appoint an interim replacement for the late Sen. Robert C. Byrd.  The newest senator may help achieve the 60-vote supermajority needed to move ahead with the bill. "When emergencies take place, they're funded," said Sen. Bernie Sanders. "If it's a flood, if it's a hurricane, as Americans we come together. I think you've got to look at long-term unemployment in the worst recession in 70 years in the same sense. This is an emergency.” 

To read more about unemployment in Vermont, click here.