As prices for home heating fuel soared, a group of senators from New England states and elsewhere urged the president to release funds for home-heating assistance. The adjutant general of the Vermont National Guard joined Senator Sanders to announce a $3 million expansion of a program to reach out to GIs returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. A Verizon Wireless bid to monopolize cell phone service in Vermont drew more scrutiny. The saga of safety concerns at the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant continued. The senator took his concerns straight to the top of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. With the Senate out of session, Sanders traveled across Vermont and has set more "listening sessions" for the week ahead.

Home Heating Assistance Senator Sanders was among 32 senators who wrote to President Bush urging him to release $20 million to help people with low incomes afford to heat their homes. The Energy Information Administration has estimated that households will pay up to 22 percent more for heating fuel this winter than they paid one year ago. "With gasoline and home heating oil already over $3 a gallon, it could be a long and financially painful winter for Vermonters," the Rutland Herald reported. To read the article, click here.

Vermont Yankee "The Nuclear Regulatory Commission lowered its safety rating for the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant last year after the facility mistakenly sent a piece of machinery with abnormally high radiation readings to a Pennsylvania plant," The Burlington Free Press reported. Sanders said the report "only heightens anxiety that Vermont Yankee suffers from safety defects." He renewed his call for an independent safety inspection of the plant in Vernon. To read The Burlington Free Press article, click here.

Hold the (Cell )Phone The Department of Homeland Security asked the Federal Communications Commission to hold off on a bid by Verizon Wireless to acquire Unicel. So did the Department of Justice and FBI. The State of Vermont also followed the lead of Sanders, the Vermont Public Interest Research Group and the Champlain Chamber of Commerce. "In my view, unless strong conditions are spelled out in advance to protect Vermont consumers and businesses, this agreement should not be approved. Otherwise, Vermonters would continue to experience unreliable cell phone service," Sanders said. The FCC also heard from individual Vermonters. "Year in and year out, I keep hoping that wireless service will improve. The proposed deal decreases my hopes," wrote a cell phone customer in Underhill. To read more of what Vermonters have told he FCC, go here and click on the comments.

Vermont Veterans Sanders on Monday announced new federal funding that will enhance the Vermont program aimed at helping returning GIs get help. A Department of Defense appropriations bill contains $3 million for expanding the Vermont National Guard outreach program and $3 million in seed money to spread the successful project to other states. "This is a hugely important issue, because we are seeing a staggering number of people coming home with PTSD and traumatic brain injury," Sanders told The Associated Press. To read more, click here .

Climate Change A new United Nations report makes the case, more forcefully than ever before, that reductions in greenhouse gases are needed to avert a global climate catastrophe. "The scientists are now telling us the situation is worse than they previously thought. It is incumbent upon Congress to pass bold and aggressive legislation or the planet is going to suffer severe and irreversible harm," Sanders said.

Vermont Listening Sessions In a visit to Rutland High School on Monday, Sanders told students at the Stafford Technical Center that Congress finally passed legislation to make college more affordable. "Quite frankly, it's the best higher education legislation that's been passed in decades," he said. It was one of several stops around Vermont during the two-week Senate break. Coming up are town meetings on Tuesday in Burlington to discuss the future of the controversial No Child Left Behind Act, a listening sessions in Wednesday in Montpelier and on Sunday in Rutland and Vergennes. To learn more about dates, times and locations, click here.