You know there's, like, a whole world on the other side of Lake Champlain, right? Where you can canoe, eat, get an Airstream refurbished, eat, fight over environmental stuff and so much more? Well, there is. So make like Samuel de Champlain, and get crossing!

In other news this week ...

• Mary Alice McKenzie of the Burlington Boys and Girls Club wants to talk about gangs. Is Burlington ready to listen?
• Sewage plants overflow frequently into waterways where Vermonters recreate, but the volume of those spills remains a mystery.
• State prosecutors took the rare step of using a grand jury to charge a Winooski cop with assault for a recent shooting incident. Why did they do it? 
• And in Fair Game, Paul Heintz evaluates Shumlin's first term as chair of the Democratic Governors Association, looks into a possible ambassadorship for Vermont's biggest political fundraiser, notes our senior senator's Vermont fundraiser for D.C. donors and bids farewell to one of our own.