Rebuild America "We are in the most serious financial crisis since the Great Depression. People are frightened." Sanders said Friday on Air America Radio's Thom Hartmann Program. He said he is working with others in Congress on a bold initiative to help the economy. He called it Rebuild America. He said it would be an aggressive effort to fix crumbing roads, bridges, highways, schools, water and sewer systems, develop alternative energy sources, extend unemployment benefits, and expand health care services. "What I am trying to do now is work with others members of Congress to come up with a major Rebuild America program," Sanders said.

G-7 The United States and six other nations that are among the world's richest agreed on Friday to a coordinated plan to rescue the financial industry, but fell short of offering concrete steps to backstop bank lending on a day when fear tightened its grip on investors from Wall Street to Hong Kong. The Group of 7 countries broadly endorsed the idea of taking ownership positions in banks a strategy first adopted by Britain and now emerging as a major part of the rescue effort in the United States, The New York Times reported.

Worst Week on Wall Street The Dow Jones Industrial Average capped the worst week in its 112-year history with its most volatile day ever, as hopes for a major international bank-rescue plan were overwhelmed at day's end by another wave of selling. Some investors who normally would be jumping to buy beaten-down stocks after a 22% drop over eight trading days said the relentless declines have left them shell-shocked and unwilling to take new risks, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Stocks swung wildly on Friday at the end of a sustained selloff that hammered markets around the world. In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average nosedive amounted to what The Wall Street Journal called "a slow-motion crash." More than 20 percent of the market's value evaporated in eight straight trading days. At home in Vermont, Senator Bernie Sanders told Thom Hartmann's nationally broadcast Air America Radio program that "we are in the most serious financial crisis since the Great Depression. People are frightened about their retirement savings." Sanders said he is working with others in Congress on a bold initiative to help the economy. He called it Rebuild America.

Banker Bonuses Bankers' bonuses have come under scrutiny as taxpayers money is being used to bail out ailing financial institutions. Shortly after Treasury Secretary Paulson announced a $700-billion loan to buy financial firms' bad debts, Bernie Sanders, an independent senator from Vermont, organized a petition protesting at "the exorbitant salaries and bonuses" made by executives and traders. In London, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said Thursday that "the days of big bonuses are over," slamming the "irresponsible behavior" of some working in the financial sector, Agence France Presse reported.

Heating Help Under a $5.1 billion appropriation by Congress, Vermont could get about $35 million, up from $17 million last winter. The boost was based on a bill Sen. Sanders introduced. The provision also gives states the option of expanding the eligibility for the assistance, reported The Associated Press, The Burlington Free Press, WPTZ, WCAX and Fox 44. Sanders said the state ought to use the bolstered funding to raise income thresholds used to determine eligibility, the Vermont Press Bureau reported.

Consumer Rights There have been complaints across the country as cable providers shift channels to the digital-only realm. Cable companies are using confusion about the forthcoming digital TV transitionwhich applies only to TVs with antennasas a chance to boost bills. "We support proposals like that of Sen. Bernard Sanders who wants the cable provider in his state to cut rates when it cuts channels and to offer free installation of set-top boxes for those who now need them to watch channels they used to receive," asserted Consumer Reports magazine.

The nation's financial and economic crisis worsened Friday when battered stocks lost even more ground. The losing streak was extended to the eighth trading day in a row in what The Wall Street Journal called "a slow-motion crash." Major exchanges in Europe and Asia also fell as attention turned to a crisis meeting of the Group of 7 finance ministers in Washington. At home in Vermont, Senator Bernie Sanders told a nationally broadcast radio program, "We are in the most serious financial crisis since the Great Depression. People are frightened about their retirement savings." Sanders said he is working with others in Congress on a bold initiative to help the economy. He called it Rebuild America.

The press is playing Toto, pulling back the curtain in a re-examination of Alan Greenspan, the former Federal Reserve chairman who for more than a decade was the nation's leading proponent of letting market forces run free. "Now, the nation is confronting the consequences," according to the front-page article in Thursday's New York Times that concluded Greenspan wasn't much of a wizard after all. There were a few who doubted Greenspan even in his heyday. At a congressional hearing in 2000 on the merger boom, then-Representative Bernie Sanders asked: "Aren't you concerned with such a growing concentration of wealth that if one of these huge institutions fails that it will have a horrendous impact on the national and global economy?" "No," Greenspan replied. "I'm not."

Greenspan Reconsidered At a congressional hearing in 2000 on the merger boom, then-Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan was asked by then-Representative Bernard Sanders: "Aren't you concerned with such a growing concentration of wealth that if one of these huge institutions fails that it will have a horrendous impact on the national and global economy?" "No," Greenspan replied. "I'm not." Greenspan enabled letting market forces run free, according to The New York Times. Now, the nation is confronting the consequences.

Tomato Aid Blocked An attempt to help tomato growers offset more than $100 million in losses due to a salmonella outbreak ran into a roadblock from a senator critical of Florida growers because of their refusal to support worker compensation agreements reached between fast-food chains and the Coalition of Immokalee Workers. ''Sen. Sanders is less than sympathetic to bailing out an industry which pays its workers abysmal wages, has been involved in cases of human slavery and continues to adamantly oppose all efforts to improve the lives of some of the most exploited workers in America,'' a spokesman told the Miami Herald.

Home Heating More money is on the way for home heating assistance. Congress passed a bill that will provide more than five billion dollars for the Low Income Heating Assistance Program. Vermont will get $35 million dollars, up from $17 million last year. The measure also makes more families eligible for help. Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders introduced the bill cosponsored by Senator Patrick Leahy and Representative Peter Welch, according to WCAX.

TThe press is playing Toto, pulling back the curtain in a re-examination of Alan Greenspan, the former Federal Reserve chairman who for more than a decade was the nation's leading proponent of letting market forces run free. "Now, the nation is confronting the consequences," according to the front-page article in Thursday's New York Times that concluded Greenspan wasn't much of a wizard after all. There were a few who doubted Greenspan even in his heyday. At a congressional hearing in 2000 on the merger boom, then-Representative Bernie Sanders asked: "Aren't you concerned with such a growing concentration of wealth that if one of these huge institutions fails that it will have a horrendous impact on the national and global economy?" "No," Greenspan replied. "I'm not."

The press is playing Toto, pulling back the curtain in a re-examination of Alan Greenspan. The former Federal Reserve chairman for more than a decade was the nation's leading proponent of letting market forces run free. "Now, the nation is confronting the consequences," according to the front-page article in Thursday's New York Times. Turns out Greenspan wasn't much of a wizard after all. There were a few who doubted Greenspan even in his heyday. At a congressional hearing in 2000 on the merger boom, then-Representative Bernie Sanders asked: "Aren't you concerned with such a growing concentration of wealth that if one of these huge institutions fails that it will have a horrendous impact on the national and global economy?" "No," Greenspan replied. "I'm not."