Appearing Tuesday and Thursday on college campuses, Sen. Bernie Sanders told students they have a major stake in the Nov. 4 elections but their voices won’t be heard in Washington if, as in past elections, only one out of five young people show up at the polls. For seniors and disabled veterans, the news came on Wednesday that they will get only a 1.7 percent cost-of-living bump in their benefits next year. Sanders has proposed changing how COLAs are calculated to reflect rising health care costs that have a disproportionate impact on seniors.

College Tour “The bottom line here is that it is unacceptable that 80 percent of young people are not participating in the political process while at the same time billionaires are buying elections,” Sanders said in an interview with The Dartmouth, the student newspaper. “I know that many young people have very serious concerns about a number of issues — the high cost of college, student indebtedness, global warming, pay equity for women, women’s rights, national priorities — and none of those concerns will be effectively addressed unless young people stand up and fight, and one of the aspects of standing up and fighting is to participate in the political process.” Sanders’s stop at Dartmouth was part of a tour of college campuses that also included Plymouth State College, Keene State College and the University of New Hampshire.

Social Security Sanders was disappointed by Wednesday's announcement of only a 1.7 percent increase in the cost-of-living adjustment for Social Security beneficiaries and disabled veterans. Disabled veterans, military and federal government retirees will get the same COLA. “At a time when the prices of prescription drugs and electricity are skyrocketing, I am disappointed that seniors and disabled veterans will only be getting a 1.7 percent increase next year,” said Sanders. “This is the third year in a row that the cost-of-living adjustment will be less than 2 percent.”  The increase is one of the smallest since automatic annual adjustments were adopted in 1975. Read more

Global Warming September was the warmest September ever recorded, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced Monday. Earth’s average temperature in September was 60.3 degrees, the warmest since NOAA began keeping records in 1880. Using a separate measurement, the National Aviation and Space Administration also concluded that last month was the warmest September ever.

GI Bill The Department of Veterans Affairs in November will begin accepting applications for college scholarships for surviving spouses of service members who died in the line of duty. Sanders, the Senate veterans’ committee chairman, worked hard to get the provision in a bill Congress passed in July. He urged all eligible spouses to take advantage of it. Until the law was changed this summer, the Post 9/11 GI Bill had offered scholarships to children of those who died in the line of duty but not their widows or widowers. Now, eligible spouses may be entitled to full tuition for up to 36 months plus a stipend to cover the cost of housing, books and supplies. Read more

Save First-Class Mail The Postal Service plans to shut down as many as 82 mail processing plants beginning in January. The closings would put 15,000 jobs at risk. A bipartisan majority of senators wants a one-year moratorium on mail service cuts in order to give Congress time to modernize the Postal Service and eliminate an expensive, unprecedented and unnecessary requirement that more than $5 billion a year be set aside for future retiree health benefits. The fund already has more than enough in reserve. Watch the senator on MSNBC 

On Strike Sanders on Tuesday joined a picket line with FairPoint Communications workers in Keene, New Hampshire. The strikers were among 1,700 workers in Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine who went on strike on Friday over the company’s imposition of major cuts in health care and retiree benefits.

What Will Bernie Do? There has been a flurry of press speculation about what might happen if the number of independents in the Senate increased as a result of the Nov. 4 elections. Reporters have asked Sanders if he would continue to caucus with Democrats in the next session of Congress.  “I intend to caucus with that party that will most likely support a major federal jobs program putting millions of Americans back to work rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure; supports overturning the disastrous Citizens United Supreme Court decision; supports raising the minimum wage to a living wage; supports pay equity for women workers; supports a single-payer national health care program; ends our disastrous trade policies; addresses the grotesque level of income and wealth inequality; and is prepared to aggressively address the international crisis of global warming. I could be wrong,” added Sanders, the longest serving independent in the history of Congress, “but my guess is that will not be the Republican Party.”