As the economy continued to take a beating, Sen. Bernie Sanders highlighted the need to create jobs by investing in rebuilding American roads, bridges and other much-needed projects. At a press conference on Thursday, the senator and seniors organization leaders outlined a plan to strengthen Social Security.  He also pressed federal regulators to curb oil speculation that artificially inflates gasoline prices. The usually slow dog days of summer were unusually eventful.  Hurricane Irene churned up the Atlantic coast.  The same region experienced a rare earthquake on Tuesday that rattled nerves and buildings as far north as Vermont.

Economy Sputters The U.S. economy grew at a meager 1 percent annual rate this spring, slower than previously estimated. The Commerce Department revision was issued on Friday, the same day Fed Chairman Bernanke was upbeat in a widely-anticipated speech offered no new plans to boost the economy. Earlier, a Congressional Budget Office report on Wednesday said growth will remain sluggish and "well below" the economy's potential for several years. CBO projected that unemployment would stay above 8 percent until 2014. In reality, the jobless rate today is 16 percent when you combine those who can't find work with those forced to settle for part-time jobs plus those who have given up hunting for work.  "That's 25 million Americans," said Sanders on Tuesday. "Let's start investing in job creation."

Social Security Sanders will introduce legislation to strengthen Social Security by applying the same payroll tax to incomes of more than $250,000 a year.  Flanked at a news conference on Thursday by leaders of Vermont seniors organizations, Sanders also cautioned that Social Security may be in jeopardy as a powerful new congressional super committee looks for ways to cut deficits by $1.5 trillion over the next decade.  "We are here today to send a loud and clear message to this super committee: do not cut Social Security," Sanders said.  Read more

Oil Speculation Federal regulators should obey a year-old law and halt excessive speculation in oil markets. Commodity Futures Trading Commission data Sanders made public revealed that Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and other banks and hedge funds dominated oil markets in 2008 when prices rose sharply and topped $140 a barrel. The records shed light on the role of speculators at a time when oil prices soared and the pump price for gasoline spiked to around $4 a gallon. In a letter sent on Monday to the commission chairman, Sanders urged an emergency meeting to crack down on speculators. He also worried about people in cold-weather states, like Vermont, who face sharply higher prices this winter for oil to heat their homes.

World News In Libya, rebels consolidated their hold after capturing fugitive leader Moammar Gaddafi's fortress-like compound in Tripoli on Tuesday. In Japan, Prime Minister Naoto Kan announced his resignation Friday, ending a 15-month tenure defined by a nuclear power crisis caused by a powerful earthquake and tsunami.

Mother Nature Forecasters issued weekend hurricane watches as the eastern seaboard and New England.   Sunday's dedication of a Martin Luther King Jr., memorial in Washington was postponed because of the storm warnings. Heavy winds and rain from the season's first hurricane to lash the United States followed a  powerful earthquake that struck on Tuesday. From its epicenter in Virginia, the quake damaged the Washington Monument, the National Cathedral and other structures but caused no injuries. Sanders was working in his Burlington, Vt., Senate office when the quake hit. "I was sitting at a table and I thought the person was shaking the table. The table was going up and down. I had a little bit of a sea-sick feeling," he said.