There’s been no shortage of congressional outrage in the week since the Guardian exposed new details of the government’s expansive snooping into phone records and online networks.

But on Tuesday, at last, came the first significant legislative response.

A bipartisan crew of eight senators, including Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), introduced a bill that would declassify certain legal opinions drafted by the government’s secret surveillance court. ... Read more

That Chittenden County is growing ain’t exactly breaking news. But a report issued late last week by the Air Force sheds new light on what that growth means for a proposal to base next-generation fighter jets in South Burlington.

The short story? If the Air Force picks the Vermont Air National Guard to host a squadron of F-35s, plenty more people will be exposed to high levels of noise than the Pentagon previously acknowledged. ... Read more

Perhaps the saddest part of last week’s Dickensian drama involving a wealthy governor and his destitute neighbor is that none of it seems terribly surprising.

Anyone who’s followed Gov. Peter Shumlin’s career for any length of time knows that the guy loves nothing more than a deal, and thrives on living dangerously.... Read more

Two of the nation’s leading labor unions worked hand in hand during this year’s legislative session to win collective bargaining rights for some 7000 home-care workers in Vermont.

But with that decided, the two unions are now gearing up to fight each other over the spoils: the right to represent what’s expected to become the largest bargaining unit in the state.

“They’re like two heavyweight boxers eyeing each other and getting ready for the big fight,” says one person involved in the skirmish. ... Read more

Who knew Gov. Peter Shumlin was so scared of cutting taxes for 73 percent of Vermonters?

Who knew the legislature’s Democratic super-majority was so scared of Shumlin that it wouldn’t dare challenge him to veto such a tax cut?

And who knew it would take just one blustery, fact-free press conference by the governor to scare House Speaker Shap Smith and Senate President Pro Tem John Campbell into submission?... Read more

Politics ain’t no game, but it comes with its fair share of winners and losers. Each Friday on Seven Days’ news and politics blog, Off Message, we try our darnedest to figure out which one’s which. We call it The Scoreboard.

It’s hardly a scientific process, but our goal each week is to provide a handy cheat sheet for those who don’t spend the day monitoring #vtpoli on Twitter or hitting the “refresh” button on our homepage. ... Read more

When the legislature calls it quits in the coming days, most everybody in Montpelier will be ready to declare victory and go home.

None more so than Gov. Peter Shumlin, who’s spent the past four months locked in battle with fellow Democrats over how much money to raise, how to spend it and who should foot the bill. ... Read more

Like moths to a flame, nothing attracts Vermont’s corporate lobbyists to a Statehouse committee room like the threat of an industry tax hike.

So it was no surprise last week to find a standing-room-only crowd crammed into the Senate Finance Committee’s first-floor digs as the panel whittled down a list of potential new taxes in search of $10 million in revenue. ... Read more

Sen. Peter Galbraith (D-Windham) just couldn’t help himself.

Two years into his quest to rid Vermont politics of direct corporate and union contributions to candidates, the former ambassador was on the verge of victory last Wednesday. ... Read more

The smell of spring is in the air — and with it, the smell of compromise in the Statehouse. Or is that just body odor from too many hours in cramped committee rooms?

Either way, legislators are ready to skedaddle out of Montpelier — perhaps as soon as May 11 — and Gov. Peter Shumlin will be happy to show them the door.

“I think we’re getting to that time of the legislative session where we need to start seeing some movement toward the finish line,” says Shumlin’s secretary of administration, Jeb Spaulding.... Read more