Generic DrugsTuring Pharmaceuticals sparked nationwide outrage and government investigations by raising the cost of Daraprim, a drug for treating AIDS and cancer, from $13.50 a capsule to $750 last month. This week, the biomedical company Imprimis Pharmaceuticals of San Diego introduced a competitor to the medication — for $1 a capsule, The Los Angeles Times reported. Imprimis plans to take the same strategy to undercut other generic drugs sold at far more than their manufacturing cost. The move comes after Sanders started investigating increasing drug prices in October of 2014. LINK
Exxon MobilSanders has asked Attorney General Loretta Lynch to examine whether Exxon Mobil violated federal law and engaged in "corporate fraud" by pushing "a misinformation campaign" about fossil fuels, The Houston Chronicle reported. The company is pushing back with a news release blasting the allegations as "inaccurate and deliberately misleading" and a top executive taking to Twitter to repudiate the claims - comes amid mounting calls for a federal investigation of the company. They point to corporate efforts to fill the substantial gaps in knowledge that existed during the earliest years of climate change research," Exxon’s Vice President of Government Affairs Ken Cohen tweeted at some critics, including Sanders, the Sierra Club, and 350.org founder Bill McKibben. LINK
Column: Workplace Democracy Act“We are demanding a free and fair organizing process just like the one Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is proposing in his “Workplace Democracy Act.” Instead of going through a sham election, we should be able to join a union by just signing a union membership card. Nobody should interfere with our right to sign-up for a union just like no one can stop us from signing up for a church or political party,” Betrand Olotara and Luz Villatoro wrote in The Hill. LINK
World
Hurricane PatriciaJust a day after menacing Mexico as one of history's strongest storms, Hurricane Patricia left surprisingly little damage in its wake Saturday and quickly dissipated into a low-pressure system that posed little threat beyond heavy rain, The Associated Press reported. LINK
National
Driving While Black A New York Times examination of traffic stops and arrests in Greensboro, N.C., uncovered wide racial differences in measure after measure of police conduct. LINK
Puerto Rican Debt Crisis Sen. Bernie Sanders said Thursday that Wall Street financiers who loaned money to Puerto Rico may "have to take a haircut" on their returns from the fiscally troubled island. "The lenders are not going to get 100% of their dollars back. They're going to have to take a haircut -- probably a pretty significant haircut," the Vermont independent senator told CNN en Espanol's Juan Carlos Lopez on "DirectoUSA." “Why should they get 100 percent of their investment when they are paying 30 to 70 percent for their bonds?” Sanders said in a hearing on Puerto Rico's crisis according to The New York Times, The Associated Press, The Washington Post and NPR’s All Things Considered.LINK, LINK, LINK, LINK, VIDEO, AUDIO
The Time for Real Change "The American people understand that our current economic system is rigged, and that our campaign finance system is corrupt. They know that while the very rich get much richer, millions of Americans work longer hours for lower wages, and we have the highest rate of childhood poverty of almost any major country on Earth," Sen. Bernie Sanders wrote for Concord Monitor. "Now is the time for bold action to rebuild our disappearing middle class. Now is the time to protect the most vulnerable members of our society – the elderly, the disabled and the children." LINK
Prison Phone Calls The Federal Communications Commission on Thursday voted to slash what it called “excessive rates and egregious fees” that families have to pay to call their relatives in prison. Currently, calls to inmates can cost as much as $14 a minute. The FCC decision comes a week after Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders and 15 other Democrats wrote a letter to the agency’s chairman Thomas Wheeler in support of his reform effort. The lawmakers were critical of the existing system, which they said has profited from charging inmates “unreasonably” high call rates, MSNBC reported. LINK
ConsistencyJohn Dillon, news director at Vermont Public Radio, has covered Sen. Sanders for more than 25 years and says the candidate has focused on economic inequality from his earliest campaigns, Iowa Public Radioreported. “Even when he was running as a third party candidate for U.S. senator and governor in the state of Vermont back in the 70s, he talked about these issues that he’s talking about today.” LINK
Marijuana Sen. Sanders suggested on Jimmy Kimmel Live that he is open to supporting the legalization of marijuana, The Hill, MSNBC, Rolling Stone, The Week and National Journal reported. "We have large numbers of lives who have been destroyed because of this war on drugs," he stated. "I think we have got to end the war on drugs. I am not unfavorably disposed to moving toward the legalization of marijuana," Sanders said. LINK, LINK, LINK, LINK, LINK
Free Public College Tuition Sen. Sanders promised on Thursday to “revolutionize” higher education with universal free public college tuition, because it is the “right thing to do”, The Guardian reported. Sanders argued on Thursday that “an education should be available to all regardless of anyone’s station” both as the best chance for people’s personal fulfillment and also to give the US “the best educated workforce in the world.” LINK
Climate Change Sen. Sanders said late Wednesday that Republicans think climate change isn't real because of the Koch brothers and other big energy interests, The Hill reported. “When you have people like the Koch brothers and ExxonMobil today spending huge amounts of money trying to deny that reality, it slows up the entire world from aggressively addressing what is an international crisis,” Sanders said. "This is serious stuff." LINK
Column: Skyrocketing Drug Prices " For most Americans, the out-of-pocket prices that we must pay for essential prescription drugs, already too high, are increasing far too rapidly for our family budgets to sustain. The Congress has the ability to moderate these price spikes — but only a sustained national outcry from the American people will bring about reform," Rep. Elijah Cummings wrote in Afro. "For some time now, Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont and I have been investigating the skyrocketing prices for prescription drugs. We have received evidence of repeated drug price increases with no apparent justification and with no evident link to any increase in the cost of manufacturing these drugs." LINK
Tuition-Free College“It is time to build on the progressive movement of the past and make public colleges and universities tuition-free in the United States — a development that will be the driver of a new era of American prosperity. We will have a stronger economy and a stronger democracy when all young people with the ambition and the talent can reach their full potential, regardless of their circumstances at birth,” Sen. Sanders wrote in The Washington Post. LINK
ExxonSanders joined MSNBC’s All In with Chris Hayes about his call for the Justice Department to investigate whether ExxonMobil broke any laws by trying to sow doubt about climate change. “I happen to believe, obviously, that climate change is real and it’s one of the great planetary crises we face,” he said. “But when you have people like the Koch brothers and Exxon Mobil today spending huge amounts of money trying to deny that reality, it slows up the world from aggressively addressing what is an international crisis. This is serious stuff.” The letter cites an ongoing investigative series by InsideClimate News, which has revealed that Exxon scientists conducted rigorous climate research from the late-1970s to mid-1980s and warned top company executives about how global warming posed a threat to Exxon's core business, VICE News, Mother Jones and PolicyMic reported. VIDEO,LINK,LINK, LINK
Worker's Compensation Ten prominent Democratic lawmakers, including Sen. Sanders are urging the U.S. secretary of labor to come up with a plan to ensure that state workers’ compensation programs are properly caring for injured workers, ProPublica and NPR reported. The lawmakers’ letter, sent Tuesday, was prompted by an investigation by ProPublica and NPR, which found that more than 30 states have cut benefits to injured workers, created daunting hurdles to getting medical care or made it more difficult for workers with certain injuries and illnesses to qualify. LINK, LINK
KimmelSanders said Wednesday that he is open to the legalization of marijuana during an appearance on “Jimmy Kimmel Live” on ABC, The Washington Post reported. “We have more people in jail today than any other country on earth,” Sanders told Kimmel. “We have large numbers of lives that have been destroyed because of this war on drugs, and because people were caught smoking marijuana and so forth. I think we have got to end the war on drugs.” Sanders also pushed for his plan to make public colleges and universities free, saying, “Everybody knows that a college degree today is more or less the equivalent to what a high school degree was 50 years ago.”LINK,VIDEO
BernankeFederal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke told Fusion’s Jorge Ramos that he found finds some common ground with Sanders when it comes to distribution of wealth, Fusion reported.“Over the last forty years or so we’ve seen wages and wealth becoming more unequally distributed,” he told Ramos. “And it’s an important problem, one we need to address.” LINK, VIDEO
Prison Phone RatesThe Obama administration wants to cap the rates and fees companies charge for prison phone service, The Huffington Post reported. Phone companies paid prisons $460 million in commissions in 2013 – payments that Sens. Cory Booker and Sanders and 14 other Democrats said last Thursday amounted to kickbacks to win contracts. LINK
Doc Brown To mark Back to the Future Day, Sanders posted a photo of himself with Christopher Lloyd, the actor who played Doc Brown in the iconic movie series, TIME Magazine, The Hill and Entertainment Weekly reported. reported. Sanders is a guest on Wednesday night’s Jimmy Kimmel Live show, which is spending the week filming from Kimmel’s hometown of Brooklyn. Kimmel’s other advertised guest for Wednesday’s Back to the Future segment—October 21, 2015—will be star Michael J. Fox, who played Marty McFly in the iconic trilogy that also co-starred Lloyd. LINK, LINK, LINK
Column: Means-Testing Entitlements“Sanders supports sufficient tax increases on the wealthy to cover the cost of universal free tuition, and then some. By raising taxes on investment income, financial transactions and the overall income of the richest Americans, as Sanders has advocated, the programs that Sanders champions would be fully paid for. Say what you will about Senator Socialist, he’s no budget buster,” Harold Meyerson wrote in The Washington Post. LINK
World
Hottest Year on Record Planet Earth is on a high temperature record-breaking tear this year, which shows no sign of relenting. 2015 is, by far, on track to become the warmest year in recorded history, The Washington Post reported. NOAA reports today the globally-averaged temperature for September 2015 was the warmest of all previous Septembers on record, dating back to 1880, and by an unprecedented margin of 0.19 degrees. LINK
TrudeauA day after defeating Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Prime Minister-designate Trudeau told President Obama by phone that he would make good on a campaign promise to withdraw Canada’s jets from the U.S.-led bombing campaign against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, The Washington Post reported. Canada has committed a half-dozen fighter planes, a fraction of the American air power in the fight. LINK
National
Heroin EpidemicFaced with a nationwide epidemic of heroin and prescription drug abuse, the Obamaadministration announced Wednesday it will take steps to increase access to drug treatment and the training of doctors who prescribe opiate painkillers, The Washington Post reported. The administration hopes to double the number of doctors who can prescribe buprenorphine, a drug used to treat opiate addiction, to 60,000 from 30,000 over the next three years. More than 40 medical provider groups have committed to training more than a half million doctors, dentists and others on the safe prescription of opiate medications. LINK
Speaker RyanHard-line conservatives cleared a path Wednesday for Rep. Paul Ryan to become House speaker when some of his most disgruntled fellow Republicans signaled that they would support his bid for the top job, The Washington Post. The decision to back Ryan by the House Freedom Caucus, a group of nearly 40 lawmakers that has risen in power and stature since its founding this year, came after the Ways and Means Committee chairman spent much of his day courting its support. LINK
Vermont
Unemployment Vermont’s unemployment rose by .1 percent in September, to 3.7 percent, Vermont Public Radio reported. Of the state’s 17 labor markets, Derby had the highest unemployment rate at 5.5 percent, while the lowest was 3.2 percent in Burlington-South Burlington. Unlike the statewide rate, the local rates are not adjusted to compensate for seasonal changes in employment. LINK
Reprinted from the Office of Senator Sanders/http://www.sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/newswatch/102115
Exxon Mobil’s Fraud Sen. Sanders asked the Department of Justice Tuesday to investigate ExxonMobil for sowing doubt about climate change after the company's own scientists had confirmed and accepted the role of fossil fuels in global warming, InsideClimate News, Slate, The Huffington Post, Think Progress and The Washington Examinerreported. The letter cites an ongoing investigative series by InsideClimate News, which has revealed that Exxon scientists conducted rigorous climate research from the late-1970s to mid-1980s and warned top company executives about how global warming posed a threat to Exxon's core business. ICN’s reporting also revealed that the company later curtailed its research program and instead led a long campaign to create doubt about climate science. Link, Link, Link, Link
Turn Post Offices Into Banks In an interview with Fusion’s Felix Salmon, Sen. Sanders raised the idea of turning post offices into banks, saying, “I think that the postal service, in fact, can play an important role in providing modest types of banking service to folks who need it.” Sanders’s idea is quite sensible, according to The Atlantic. Link,
Online Privacy In an email to Vice this week, a Sanders campaign spokesperson expanded on the his online privacy comments during the debate, saying, "In addition to government surveillance, the Senator is concerned about the lack of privacy consumers have, and how their information is often unwittingly collected, shared, and sold." Sanders has also come out in opposition to the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act of 2015, The Wall Street Journal reported. Link,Link
Drug Price Hikes A new CQ Roll Call interactive database shows how much drug prices have changed since 2013. The analysis shows that other drug companies have increased the prices of both brand name and generic drugs at rates similar to Turing. More than a year has passed since Sen.Sanders and Rep. Elijah E. Cummings announced they would launch an investigation into “soaring” generic drug prices. The Justice Department and state attorneys general have been looking into potential anti-competitive practices by drug companies. That effort, a congressional aide said, is “like playing whack-a-mole. It’s not solving the underlying problem.”
Jimmy Kimmel Sanders will be a guest on Jimmy Kimmel's late-night show, airing this week from Brooklyn, New York, The Associated Press reported. Kimmel's show said another guest that night will be Michael J. Fox, whose first "Back to the Future" film is marking its 30th anniversary. Link
Column: Deficit Spending “Take Bernie Sanders' own favored example of Denmark: The Danes run a very generous welfare state, and have taxes high enough to pay for it. But Denmark is also facing a sluggish economy and rock-bottom inflation. So it's actually being much too fiscally responsible. Denmark should expand its deficit — in this case, given the size of its deficit, by cutting its tax rates — and loosen up its monetary policy to buy up all that new debt. Taxes, under this logic, aren't really about bringing in revenue — rather, they're just another dial for managing this flow. And it's conceivable that they would never need to balance with spending,” Jeff Spross wrote in The Week. Link
Column: Justin Trudeau “It’s a powerful one, with the potential to push politics beyond the limp austerity versus austerity-lite debate that has turned so many Americans (especially young Americans) against the idea that voting matters. This is, at least to some extent, what Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders is talking about when he proposes a “political revolution,” and it is what Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren and Congressional Progressive Caucus leaders such as Keith Ellison of Minnesota and Raul Grijalva of Arizona have been hinting at with big proposals to address student debt, alter trade policies, and invest in infrastructure in the United States,” John Nichols wrote inThe Nation. Link
World
Assad to Moscow President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia called his counterpart, President Bashar al-Assad of Syria, to Moscow for an unannounced visit to discuss their joint military campaign and a future political transition in Syria, the Kremlin announced on Wednesday, The New York Times reported. According to a transcript posted on the Kremlin website, Mr. Putin told the Syrian leader during the meeting late Tuesday that Russia was ready to contribute to the fight against terrorism and to a political settlement of the conflict that has raged for more than four years. Mr. Assad, in turn, briefed the Russian leader about the situation on the ground and on next steps. Link
National
Paul Ryan Representative Paul D. Ryan said Tuesday that he would be willing to serve as speaker if all the factions of his party could unite behind him, giving hope to House Republicans who have been divided by conflict and confusion, The New York Times reported. n what were at times pointed remarks in a private session with his colleagues, Mr. Ryan called for changes both to the way the speaker’s job is structured — focused more on communicating the party’s message and less on fund-raising — and for an end to the antics of “bomb throwers and hand wringers,” according to members in the room. Link
Vermont
Gun Safety All three members of Vermont's Congressional delegation say they support the outline of a new proposed gun control bill, Vermont Public Radio reported. Two weeks ago, Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy and Independent Sen. Sanders stood with roughly two dozen Senate Democrats on the steps of the Capitol Building in Washington to show their support for what they called a "common sense" approach to gun legislation. They said the bill was needed in response to the mass shootings that have taken place in this country over the past few years Link
