Map courtesy of Bill Morris/Geosprocket

Burlington’s first attempt to redraw its electoral map failed last year when a politically gridlocked city council punted the job of redistricting to a panel of mostly neighborhood volunteers. That group, which is more than six weeks into the job, doesn’t appear to be doing much better.... Read more

A fractured ankle couldn’t keep Douglas Paine from a successful opening. Though he’s leaving the line to other cooks until the end of the month, the chef oversaw the debut of Hotel Vermont’s first restaurant, Juniper, last Thursday. The hotel itself opened the next day; an official grand opening for both will follow in June. ... 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

Bill and Benedicte Dodge have always believed that art should be affordable. It shouldn’t be about spending great wads of cash but about, as Bill Dodge puts it, “lifting people up where they need it, when they need it.”... Read more

When director Baz Luhrmann went on “The Colbert Report” last week to talk about his new adaptation of The Great Gatsby, he mentioned that a “very regal woman” took him by the hands after the movie’s world premiere and told him she’d come all the way from Vermont to see what he’d done with her grandfather’s book.... Read more

The Saints & Poets Production Company’s production of The Witches hauls out a big trunk filled with theatrical effects and unpacks them all for our delight. Director Kevin Christopher and the energetic 13-member cast use everything from video to puppetry, plus a dollop of special effects, to present David Wood’s theatrical adaptation of Roald Dahl’s story of a boy thwarting a group of witches.... Read more

Jane Williamson used to watch wistfully as tour buses tooled past the Rokeby Museum in Ferrisburgh, where she has worked as director for the past 18 years.... 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

Middlebury College is viewed as one of the greenest academic institutions in the country, but its support for a proposed natural-gas pipeline in Addison County is putting that reputation to the test. Last week a group of students and faculty presented college officials with a petition demanding the school adopt a neutral position on the Vermont Gas Systems project. Adding to the awkwardness: Among the 1400 signers is the college’s “distinguished scholar” and celebrated climate-change activist Bill McKibben.... Read more

Vermont police report that a staggering amount of heroin is flowing into the state right now. But where are the drugs coming from?

The cops say they’re from urban areas such as New York, Philadelphia, Lowell and Holyoke, Mass., Albany, and even Chicago and Detroit. Rutland Police Chief James Baker says a bag of heroin that sells for $5 in a big city can fetch as much as $30 on the streets of his city.... Read more