Written by: Pat Carbonell on November 2, 2011.
What do you do when your traditional source of tourist income is dwindling because of a drawn out recession? You find a new source that isn’t.
On October 13 Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin and Porter Airlines CEO Robert Deluce announced the public-private effort to bring twice-weekly roundtrip air service from Toronto’s Billy Bishop Airport to Burlington International Airport beginning December 15th and running until April 8th.
The U.S. Senate passed an appropriations bill on Tuesday that includes $1.9 billion in additional emergency highway money and a waiver that would lift the $100 million cap on funding for rebuilding roads that were heavily damaged in Vermont by Tropical Storm Irene. The bill was approved by the Senate 69 to 30.
Blocking the Keystone XL Pipeline – the $7 billion, 1,700-mile project that could create 20,000 construction jobs and eventually transport 830,000 barrels of tar sands oil from friendly, stable, democratic Canada to hubs in Oklahoma and Texas — has become the environmental movement’s top agenda item.
By Charles Pope, The Oregonian The Oregonian
The Associated Press Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, right, and Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., seen here in 2009, have joined forces again to assess a transaction tax on financial trades. The tax is needed to deter high-volume trading that the lawmakers say distorts the stock market.
As participants in the Occupy Wall Street movement continue protesting the record profits made by banks bailed out by taxpayer money, a group of grassroots activists are hitting America’s largest banks—including JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Wells Fargo—where it hurts most: the wallet. Dubbing this Saturday, Nov. 5 as "Bank Transfer Day," activists are urging people to move their money out of the banks deemed "too big to fail" into local community banks and credit unions. Bank Transfer Day draws on an idea popularized by filmmaker Eugene Jarecki, economist Rob Johnson and columnist Arianna Huffington, among others. In 2010, they created the short film called "Move Your Money," which became a viral sensation. We speak with filmmaker Eugene Jarecki.
A public outcry has prompted Bank of America to back down from charging a $5 monthly debit card fee, which was set to begin next year.
Several other major banks had already backed off on their plans for fee hikes following protests and petitions from consumers across the country.
The news is being billed as a victory for bank customers.
Liberal Wisconsinites are waiting with bated breath for an announcement from Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin’s office. Will Ms. Baldwin run for Senate? If elected, Baldwin, a quintessential Madison liberal, who has represented her district in Congress since 1998, would be the first openly lesbian Senator in US history. In an interview with WISN on July 18th, she said “Diving into a US Senate race is a major decision, and I have to tell you, I take big decisions very seriously… I am certainly getting a lot of encouragement, and I am very likely to jump in.”
By Askia Muhammad -Senior Correspondent- | Last updated: Aug 11, 2011 - 1:08:22 PM
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WASHINGTON (FinalCall.com) - A united, committed faction of rabid, right-wing Republican members of the House of Representatives changed the face of U.S. politics July 31, dictating to the Democrat in the White House and to the Democrat-controlled Senate, the terms of an ultra-conservative budget slashing deal, in exchange for preventing the first ever default on the U.S. debt.
Ending a perilous stalemate, President Barack Obama and congressional leaders announced a historic agreement Sunday night (07) on emergency legislation to avert the nation’s first-ever financial default.
On August 1, the House approved a compromise deal to raise the debt limit in a 269-161 vote. The bill, which was brokered Sunday night in last-minute negotiations between the White House and congressional leaders, passed with the support of 174 Republicans and 95 Democrats.
Nearly two dozen Senate Democrats on Thursday challenged Republicans to ensure that the super committee tasked with coming up with a deficit-reduction plan "embrace job creation as part of its mission."
In a letter to Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), 23 Democrats wrote that tackling the nation's deficit problem is directly tied to the jobs crisis and urged the leader to ensure his picks for the bipartisan panel -- GOP Sens. Jon Kyl of Arizona, Rob Portman of Ohio and Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania -- are focused on creating jobs.
A group of Senate Democrats is pressing the White House to “stand strong” against immense industry pressure to weaken or scuttle smog standards that have been repeatedly delayed.
In a letter to President Obama Thursday, seven Democrats and two independents that caucus with the party express “disappointment” at administration delays in issuing Environmental Protection Agency ozone standards.
An NRO panel of experts assess the Republican candidates’ performances on Thursday night in Des Moines.
So much for Ronald Reagan’s “Eleventh Commandment” that says, “Thou shall not speak ill of any fellow Republican.” Tim Pawlenty was the biggest violator last night, but guess what? It worked. I thought it was pretty clear that he won the night.
In the midst of the dustup over Rupert Murdoch's News Corp phone-hacking scandal, a larger question is rarely raised in the corporate media coverage of the story. How did it come to be that one man - through an international media corporation - has come to exert such enormous influence over the UK government, much of the elected power structure in Washington, DC, and the political hierarchy in Australia?
AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) — The Maine attorney general's office has taken civil action against a Biddeford man accused of hurling racially charged insults at a pair of middle school students.
Attorney General William Schneider said Thursday that a Superior Court order forbids 31-year-old Michael Ryan from having any contact with the two students. It also bars him from assaulting or threatening people based on upon "race, color, religion, sex, ancestry, national origin, physical or mental disability, or sexual orientation."
Federal Reserve chair Ben Bernanke is firmly resisting the initiative in Congress to subject the nation's bank to a public audit. And he's reiterating his view that even though the economy will grow more quickly this year than last, we won't soon see a significant drop in unemployment.
Legislators who do and don't partner with polluters
Early last evening, Reps. Fred Upton and Ed Whitfield, along with Sen. James Inhofe, released a draft of the latest bill in Congress taking aim at air pollution protections.
This wasn’t a surprise, as they’ve been talking to press about their toils on legislation that would reverse current limits on carbon dioxide pollution. They are targeting the first-ever restrictions on CO2 on behalf of major polluting industries that until now have been able to spew this air pollutant unrestrained and at quantities unmeasured.
I’ll give Sanders credit, at least he admits he’s a socialist while the rest of the Democrats try and deceive the public.
(RCP) - “I hope to be able to get waivers from Congress and the White House to allow us to do so. At the end of the day, if you are going to provide health care to all of our people in a cost effective way, you have to get rid of the health insurance companies, not profiteering and bureaucracy,” Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) told MSNBC.
