The first 100 days of the Obama administration are coming under a media microscope. The biggest accomplishment was passage by Congress of a major economic stimulus package. The new president also began to restore respect for America around the world. Even bigger challenges lie ahead as we reform our broken health care system and transform our energy system to stop global warming. On Capitol Hill and at the White House last week, the focus was on the economy, credit card ripoffs, health care and Justice Department memos.

The Economy Family wealth in the United States continued to take a beating as its housing market and financial markets suffer. Household wealth in the U.S. dropped sharply after reaching an $81 trillion peak in 2007. By the end of last year — the last full quarter for which data are available and one full year into the current recession — about $15 trillion in private family wealth had evaporated. According to a report by the Center for American Progress, "This is the sharpest relative wealth decline in more than 50 years." To read the report, click here.

Credit Cards The president took credit card executives to task at a White House meeting on Thursday. Lenders are raising interest rates and lowering credit limits even on good customers. "Their interest rates on credit cards are going from 15 percent to 25, 30 percent. To me that is simply an example of usury," Sanders told Fox News. He wants to cap credit card rates at 15 percent. To read some of the e-mails to the senator from Vermonters angry about credit card interest rates and charges, click here. To send him an e-mail that he could read on the Senate floor or post online, click here. To watch him share with senators what Americans have to say about credit card ripoffs, click here.

Torture The White House and Senate leaders signaled on Thursday that they would block an independent commission to investigate the Bush administration's approval of harsh interrogation techniques. Pressure for a full inquiry intensified after President Obama released four secret Justice Department memos that provided a legal rationale for harsh interrogation tactics. "I hope and believe that we are going to hold those people who condoned this behavior accountable," Sanders told radio host Thom Hartmann on his nationally-syndicated program. "The United States of America is not about abrogating our constitutional rights."

Health Care Sanders has introduced a bill in Congress to create a single-payer system that drew notice during a forum at the University of Vermont. And in an op-ed published Friday by The Hill, Sanders touted another bill he introduced to expand community health centers, concluding that "in the richest country in the world, no American should have to go without basic healthcare." To read the column, click here.

Joe's Pond The ice went out at Joe's Pond in Danville last Monday, signaling the unofficial end of winter in Vermont.