Vermont and Arizona don't have a whole lot in common. The Grand Canyon State has blazing hot deserts, we shoveled out our cars on the first day of spring. They're mostly red, we're deep blue. They've got scorpions, we've got moose. So what links our two states, apparent opposites geographically and politically? Gun rights.

Guns & Ammo magazine released its list of the best and worst states for gun owners last week, and Vermont tied with Arizona at the top of the heap. The magazine's graphic, at right, confusingly says Vermont is number 2 and places the state in the crosshairs (why shoot Vermont if it's awesome for guns?), but the Green Mountain State and the Grand Canyon State are level on points atop the list. Each came one point short of a perfect score.

Done scraping the ice off your windshield on this first day of spring? Good. Because there's a new Seven Days awaiting on newsstands, online and on the app. This week's lineup of news and politics features...

• In this week's cover story, Paul Heintz profiles Sen. Patrick Leahy. Vermont's senior senator wields more clout than ever on Capitol Hill, and he won't say what his future holds.
• Accused cop car crusher Roger Pion is one of many Vermont defendants ruled incompetent to stand trial due to traumatic brain injuries. But what happens to TBI-afflicted defendants after their charges are dismissed?
• Neighbors have raised concerns over a natural gas pipeline's proposed extension through Addison County and across Lake Champlain. Why is the pipeline so important to Ticonderoga's International Paper in New York?
• This week in Fair Game: Burlington's city council is evenly split between Democrats and everyone else — and the vote to elect its next president could very well end in a stalemate. Plus, Jim Douglas talks rebranding Republicans, and Paul Heintz shines a light on some job shuffling in the ranks of the state's government workers.

Cover photo by Charles Steck.

Burlington Mayor Miro Weinberger went back to high school today; he's making good on a campaign promise to move his office to Burlington High School for a week. This Monday through Friday, the mayor and his three-person staff will be conducting city business out of a fishbowl office belonging to BHS assistant principal Nick Molander.

Last night, the mayor tweeted a photo of his backpack as he prepared for his first day at school. 

Weinberger's schedule for the week includes riding the school bus, hosting his weekly coffee klatch in the school cafeteria and hosting a business roundtable on Wednesday in the school auditorium. A "press corps" of student reporters will reportedly be blogging about his time there, and posting updates on social media.

Is Weinberger playing hooky? Getting stuffed into a locker? Batting .400 for the school's baseball team? Get up-to-the-minute reports on his activities on Twitter, using the hashtag #miroBHS. 

Weinberger kicked off his week in residence at BHS at a schoolwide assembly Monday morning. Hundreds of students and community members turned out to see him get his keys, ID badge and a BHS ballcap. 

But orientation wasn't the only thing on the agenda — the mayor hoped to use the gathering to highlight the Burlington-Winooski Partnership for Change, a three-year, $3-million-plus effort to remodel Burlington's and Winooski's high schools, made possible by a grant from the Nellie Mae Foundation.

On hand to celebrate the partnership were a whole host of lawmakers and local officials, including Gov. Peter Shumlin and House Speaker Shap Smith (D-Morristown), as well as representatives from Senators Leahy and Sanders' offices.

Are you now, or have you ever been, a card-carrying member of the Communist Party? If so, don't even think about applying for a job as a Burlington cop.

In addition to the usual background queries included on the PHI, or "personal history information," section of the Burlington Police Department job application  — along with aliases, bankruptcies, criminal convictions, past and present drug use, dishonorable military discharges, and (yes, this is true) every crime you've ever committed since the age of 10 — question 48 asks the following: 

"ARE YOU A MEMBER OF, OR HAVE YOU EVER BEEN A MEMBER OF, ANY COMMUNIST OR SUBVERSIVE ORGANIZATION OR ANY POLITICAL PARTY OR ORGANIZATION WHICH ADVOCATES THE OVERTHROW OF OUR CONSTITUTIONAL FORM OF GOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES?

Whoa... Did I just back my DeLorean into a temporal vortex and land in the 1950s?

Nope. Evidently, the Burlington PD wants to know whether its job applicants have a fondness for Marx, Lenin, Castro or Kim Il Sung.

Happy Monday, news and politics geeks. We're getting to crunch time in the Statehouse, Burlington's mayor is going back to school, and Seven Days is running this year's Vermont Brew Bracket — a subject near and dear to many of your hearts, we know. Here's what you should add to the calendar.

If you have an event you want to see on next week's calendar, email Andy Bromage with details.

Monday, March 18

9:45 a.m.: As I write this, Burlington Mayor Miro Weinberger is moving his office to Burlington High School. He'll be there all week to connect with students and teachers and promote something called the Partnership for Change, and we'll highlight more of the interesting events in this here post.

6 p.m.: The Burlington Board of Finance and City Council hold their Monday meetings at Burlington High School.

What a Cluster indeed: A Vermont organization that advocates for the rights of the Palestinian people has called on Ben & Jerry's ice cream to live up to its socially progressive values and stop doing business in Israel until the Israeli government "ends its occupation and colonization of Palestinian lands."

On Thursday, Vermonters for a Just Peace in Palestine/Israel (VTJP) issued a report titled "Peace, Love and Occupation: Ben & Jerry’s Economic Complicity in Israel’s Military Occupation and Illegal Settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory." 

The 20-page white paper — the name is a play on Ben & Jerry's marketing slogan, "Peace, Love and Ice Cream"— accuses the company of not remaining true to its social mission because it manufactures ice cream in Israel, then sells it in Jewish settlements in East Jerusalem and the West Bank.

The organization is calling on the South Burlington-based ice cream giant — owned by British-Dutch conglomerate Unilever — to stop manufacturing, marketing, catering and selling "Vermont's Finest" in Israel and Jewish-only settlements. VTJP is also asking Ben & Jerry's to issue a statement "calling for an end to Israel’s occupation and settlement enterprise" and to appeal to other socially responsible companies to do the same.

Friday morning, a Ben & Jerry's spokesman issued a statement indicating that that's not going to happen anytime soon.

It's crossover week in the legislature, when deadlines become real, so winners and losers are changing quickly. We'll have more when the dust settles, but for now here's the Scoreboard for the week of Friday, March 15:

Winners:

Manners: Here in Vermont, even our crooks are nice.

Senate Government Operations Committee — After considering a "campaign finance reform" bill that would've drastically increased candidate contribution limits, the committee came to its senses Thursday, Green Mountain Daily's John Walters reports.

PETA — For getting more press than they deserved from their anti-fishing publicity stunt. 

Moretown residents — The Agency of Natural Resources is dumping the dump.

Losers after the jump...

Ever wonder what happened to former state auditor Tom Salmon?

After quietly leaving office in January, the formerly up-and-coming Democrat-turned-Republican evidently took a position with the Massachusetts Department of Transportation. But after just one month on the job, the State House News Service reported Wednesday, Salmon left to pursue another gig with the federal government.

That's leaving some Bay Staters none too pleased.

"Despite making a commitment to stay on, he has taken that position and moved on," Massachusetts Inspector General Glenn Cunha said Wednesday at a meeting of the Inspector General's Council, according to SHNS. (Sorry, the story's not available online.)

Jack Meyers, a spokesman for the inspector general's office, confirmed to Seven Days Salmon's brief tenure as director of the special audit unit in the Department of Transportation.

"He started work here earlier this calendar year and then after about a month he said he was going to leave the post," Meyers said. "My understanding is that he was pursuing another job and also that he had some personal reasons to go back to Vermont."

Meyers said the IG's office was surprised Salmon so quickly departed what was supposed to be a six-year appointment.

White smoke has risen in the Vatican's chimney, which means there's a new issue of Seven Days. Or maybe they're just burning their copies. Here's this week's lineup of news and politics stories.

• How do new Americans put down roots in the Burlington area? Some immigrants are transitioning from being renters to homeowners — and landlords.
• Foreclosures are down in most parts of the country, but Vermont saw 33 percent more last year. Officials say Vermont banks are still less likely to foreclose on homeowners than national banks, though.
• Two of Burlington's most influential real estate developers are going their separate ways. It's like when the Beatles broke up.
• In news from other strains of Christianity, the Episcopal Diocese of Vermont could pocket millions if it sells the Rock Point property in Burlington. But the Diocese is, for now, resisting the temptation.
• This week is the Real Estate issue, so we traveled around Vermont (and Plattsburgh) to see what you can rent for $1200 a month. Or, if you're in the market to buy, how about one of these multimillion-dollar homes in Stowe?
• This week in Fair Game: Sen. Bernie Sanders stays relentlessly on message.

Grab your copy of Seven Days on newsstands and on our iPad/iPhone app.