Vermonters on Town Meeting Day overwhelmingly voted to limit corporate campaign cash. The Nation called Sen. Bernie Sanders the "champion of his state's uprising against corporate personhood." The Labor Department on Friday said February was the third straight month of job growth in the United States. The Senate on Thursday cleared the way to consider a job-creating transportation funding bill. Sanders on Monday led more than 70 senators and congressmen in demanding that federal regulators stop the excessive speculation in crude oil that is artificially pushing up gasoline prices.

Unemployment 

Despite 227,000 new hires last month, the official unemployment rate for the United States stayed at 8.3 percent because the overall number of workers grew. Altogether, 14.9 percent of the workforce was unemployed, underemployed or had given up looking for work. 

Jobs and Roads 

The Senate on Thursday cleared a parliamentary hurdle and paved the way for consideration of a two-year, $109 billion transportation funding bill. The measure would begin to address a massive infrastructure backlog.  What's more, rebuilding and repairing roads and bridges is one of the most effective ways to create jobs. "It is estimated that this bill will save more than 1.8 million jobs nationwide in each of the next two years, and it will create a million new jobs through an expanded infrastructure-financing program," said Sanders, a member of the Senate panel that drafted the bill.

Citizens United 

Voters at 64 Vermont town meetings called on Congress to pass a constitutional amendment to take corporate money out of politics.  "The people of Vermont have seen the huge campaign contributions being made by billionaires and large corporations because of Citizens United, and they understand how horrendous this is for the future of American democracy," Sanders said. "Vermont is helping to lead the nation on this important issue." The senator introduced the Saving American Democracy Amendment to override a 2010 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission. He talked about the town meetings in a Senate floor speech and in an interview on MSNBC. 

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Dental Crisis 

A town meeting on Saturday at Montpelier High School will focus on the dental crisis in America. Sanders asked people from Vermont and across the country to tell him about their experiences with dental care. More than 1,300 sent him e-mails. 

Listen to four people tell their stories »

Gas Prices 

Sanders and 71 other members of Congress on Monday sent a letter to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission saying the regulators must stop Wall Street futures traders from dominating the oil market.  As gas prices near $4 a gallon, the lawmakers say the commission has flouted a provision in the 2010 Wall Street reform law that required regulators to put tough new trading limits in place by Jan. 17, 2011. "We are disappointed that, more than a year later, the commission has not fulfilled this important regulatory duty," the letter said.  

A Cozy Keystone Deal 

The firm assigned to study the environmental impact of an oil pipeline from Canada to Texas was under contract to Trans Canada, the Canadian pipeline builder, not the U.S. State Department. The State Department acknowledgement, in response to a letter from Sanders, raises new questions about the impartiality of the study of the controversial Keystone XL pipeline. The contract was posted on a State Department website on Friday.  Sanders has criticized the pipeline proposal that would increase carbon pollution, exacerbate global warming, and raise the price of gasoline in the United States.

Made in America 

"Maple Landmark Woodcraft and Sen. Bernard Sanders have won their battle, finally persuading The Smithsonian Institution to carry some of its Vermont-made wooden toys," the Rutland Herald reported. 

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