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News July 30

Senator Sanders

Play Ball This is a big country, with enough important problems for just about everyone to ponder. Take this e-mail from the office of Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart.  "As Members of the Cuba Democracy Caucus," the message to Hill aides said, "your bosses are cordially invited to a meeting…to discuss the very troubling granting of a…license to a little league team to travel to Cuba. The Washington Post said one reason for Treasury's decision may be the bipartisan support the team had from the two states' top politicians. The team of 11- and 12-year-olds from Vermont and New Hampshire is to play several games next week in Havana with Cuban counterparts. LINK

 
Rural Route Ripton “Suddenly, out of nowhere, a sign went up a few weeks ago saying that the US Postal Service was closing our post office in Ripton. As soon as the closure sign went up on the post office door, people began to mobilize…As Senators Patrick Leahy and Bernard Sanders and Representative Peter Welch wrote to Postmaster General Jack Potter, "The town of Ripton is a small, close-knit community. The Ripton General Store and the post office are a center and a primary gathering place for residents."…Then, suddenly, the mail came back to Ripton, Bill McKibben and Sue Halpern wrote in The Boston Globe. LINK

 
Incumbency “Not that the current congressional delegation is in any serious risk of being defeated any time soon, but just how powerful is the advantage of incumbency? In Vermont -- very. The last time an incumbent U.S. Representative from Vermont lost an election to a challenger was in 1990 when Peter Smith was defeated by Bernie Sanders. On the other hand, since the state held its first direct election for U.S. Senator in 1914, no incumbent who ran for re-election has been defeated by a challenger,” according to PolitikerVT.com. LINK

 
White House ’08 “McCain even suggested that Mr. Obama is a socialist to the left of the Senate’s only avowed socialist: Bernie Sanders of Vermont. Mr. Obama’s politics are hardly far-left, and anyone who has spent time in a socialist country knows how ridiculous that label is for any member of Congress. It would be bad enough if Mr. McCain honestly believed what he said,” The New York Times editorialized. LINK

International

Talks on Trade Collapse World trade talks collapsed in Geneva on Tuesday after seven years of on-again, off-again negotiations, in the latest sign of India’s and China’s growing might on the world stage and the decreasing ability of the United States to impose its will globally. Pascal Lamy, director general of the World Trade Organization, could not bridge differences between a group of newly confident developing nations and established Western economic powers, The New York Times reported. LINK

 
US Auditor: Stop Funding Iraq Rebuilding Rising production and skyrocketing prices could more than double the Iraqi government's expected bonanza in oil revenue this year, leading a top U.S. government auditor to call for an end to American funding of Iraqi reconstruction projects, the Los Angeles Times reported. LINK

National

Stevens Indicted Alaska's Ted Stevens, the longest-serving Republican senator in U.S. history, was indicted yesterday on seven charges of making false statements about more than $250,000 that corporate executives doled out to overhaul his Anchorage area house, The Washington Post reported. LINK

 
Democrats Urge EPA Head to Resign Four Democratic senators called yesterday for Stephen L. Johnson to resign as administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, and they asked Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey to investigate whether Johnson lied in testimony to a Senate committee. The senators, all members of the Environment and Public Works Committee, said Johnson -- the first career scientist to head up the agency -- had repeatedly succumbed to political pressure on decisions vital to protecting health and the environment, The Associated Press reported. LINK

 
Stimulus Program Working The government's economic-stimulus payments are being spent at "significant rates" and should boost consumer spending substantially into the current quarter, a pair of professors found in a preliminary study of the program's effects. The Wall Street Journal reported that the typical family increased its spending on food, drug products and other daily merchandise by 3.5 percent when the rebates arrived relative to a family that hadn't received its rebate yet, the study found. LINK

 
Gregg Slammed Over Home Energy Vote “Sen. Judd Gregg, Republican of New Hampshire, set himself apart on Saturday — and not in a good way. He was the lone New England senator who voted to prevent consideration of a bill that would have released more than $2 billion for the low-income energy assistance program ­ an estimated $27 million of which would have gone to help poor people in the Granite State. One oddity about his position is that Mr. Gregg was one of the bill’s original sponsors. The other odd thing about his vote is what it means for a group of cold, not especially well-off people: his own constituents…What are the state’s voters thinking, sending a Senator to Washington who is working to ensure that they or their neighbors won’t be able to afford to turn on the heat this winter?” The New York Times asked in an online editorial. LINK

Vermont

Budget Squeeze Gov. Douglas and legislative leaders will spend the next three weeks looking for more than $30 million in cuts to government spending after accepting revised revenue estimates Tuesday from their economic advisers, The Burlington Free Press reported. LINK

 
Efficiency Vermont Despite eight years with an aggressive program to reduce statewide energy consumption, Vermont is consuming more electricity than it did in 2000, National Public Radio reported in a profile of Efficiency Vermont, which it said “has proven to be one of the country's most innovative and successful conservation initiatives.” LINK

 
Douglas: Lock Up Sex Offenders Gov. Douglas said Tuesday he understands why communities like Barre and Rutland want to restrict the neighborhoods where sex offenders can live, but said local action wouldn't be necessary if the state would lock offenders up for longer periods.

 
Vermont Castings Bought Monessen Hearth Systems purchased what it calls the "key assets" of the corporate owner of Vermont Castings in bankruptcy court earlier this month, the Kentucky-based company announced Tuesday. The fate of the jobs at the two Vermont facilities — which total just more than 200 — was not clear Tuesday, the Vermont Press Bureau reported. LINK

 
Old North End The Burlington Free Press reported that about 60 Old North End residents, police, State’s Attorney T.J. Donovan and local politicians crowded into the community-meeting room at Burlington College to talk about complaints that drug dealing is more open than usual, as City Councilor Clarence Davis said, and that police have held off at times in making drug arrests in hopes of catching major suppliers, according to Tim Ashe, the ward’s other councilor,. LINK

 
Randolph State Representative Dies Rep. James Hutchinson, a Democratic state representative and Select Board member from Randolph, died suddenly at his home Monday, according to friends and colleagues. He was 60, the Vermont Press Bureau reported.