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Senator Sanders

Ambassador for the “Most Livable” Place on Earth There’s a best-of list for everything, including countries. A new study commissioned by Reader’s Digest added environmental health to the equation to rank “the planet’s greenest, most livable places.” The U.S. came in at number 23 on the list of 141 countries, Seven Days reported in an article about the upcoming visit to Vermont by the U.S. ambassador from Finland. Senator Bernie Sanders arranged the trip. LINK

Columnist Calls it Quits In Peter Freyne's column, left was right and right was wrong…For 20 years, the left-leaning "Inside Track" newspaper columnist dished the dirt on Vermont politics in a style that owed as much to Rona Barrett as it did to Woodward and Bernstein. "I don't cross swords with him. He crosses swords with me. He's the one with the sword," Senator Bernie Sanders told The Associated Press. LINK

World

Iraq PM to Rebels: Quit or be Killed Iraq's prime minister on Wednesday gave gunmen in the southern oil port of Basra a three-day deadline to surrender their weapons and renounce violence as clashes between Shiite militia fighters and Iraqi security forces erupted for a second day. At least 55 people have been killed and 300 wounded in Basra and Baghdad after the fighting spread to the capital's main Shiite district of Sadr City, The Associated Press reported.  LINK

United States

Outlook for Medicare, Social Security The Bush administration issued a grim report on Tuesday on the financial outlook for Medicare and Social Security, but said the condition of the programs had not significantly deteriorated since last spring.The new report, like the one issued last April, said Medicare’s hospital insurance trust fund would be exhausted in 2019, while Social Security’s reserves would be depleted in 2041, according to The New York Times. LINK

Justices Rebuff Bush and World Court The Supreme Court yesterday issued a broad ruling limiting presidential power and the reach of international treaties, saying neither President Bush nor the World Court has the authority to order a Texas court to reopen a death penalty case involving a foreign national, The Washington Post reported. The justices held 6 to 3 that judgments of the International Court of Justice, as the court is formally known, are not binding on U.S. courts and that Bush's 2005 executive order that courts in Texas comply anyway does not change that.  LINK

Clinton Erred on Bosnia Story Hillary Rodham Clinton said Tuesday she made a mistake in claiming that she came under hostile fire in Bosnia 12 years ago, as rival Barack Obama's campaign continued to challenge her credibility. In a recent speech and interviews, the New York senator described a harrowing scene in Tuzla, Bosnia, in which she and her daughter, Chelsea, had to run for cover as soon as they landed for a visit, but video footage of the day showed a peaceful reception in which a young girl greeted the first lady on the tarmac, according to AP. LINK

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Vermont

Housing Prices Rise Housing in Vermont is slipping further out of reach of first-time home buyers and wages aren't keeping up with the increasing costs of housing, according to a study released Tuesday. Last year, the median price for a new home increased 13 percent, to $317,900, while the price of existing homes climbed 2 percent, to $201,000, according to the study released by the Vermont Housing Council and the Vermont Housing Awareness Campaign, The Associated Press reported.  LINK

Teen Accused of Defacing Bennington Monument A teenager pleaded innocent at his arraignment yesterday on charges that he spray-painted graffiti on the 306-foot Bennington monument on February 14, AP reported. LINK

Defense Contractor Lands Rocket Work The General Dynamics Armament and Technical Products plant in Burlington will perform systems engineering and program management for a $166 million U.S. Army contract to produce Hydra-70 rockets. The unguided rockets can be fired from both attack helicopters and fighter jets. LINK

House Panel Wants to Borrow for Roads The House Transportation Committee is frustrated by the worsening condition of the state's roads and highways. So the committee has taken the unusual step of trying to force the Douglas Administration to borrow money to pay for the needed repairs, Vermont Public Radio reported. LINK