BURLINGTON FREE PRESS. With the prospect of another presidential campaign in the air, Sen. Bernie Sanders mingled with hundreds of allies in Vermont on Thursday for an event meant to strengthen the national progressive movement.

"The message of this weekend is that we're going to try to break through the silos that exist within the progressive community," said Sanders, I-Vt., as he kicked off the three-day conference in Burlington.

The Sanders Institute, a think tank led by Sanders' son and founded by his wife, Jane O'Meara Sanders, organized the event.