A "saddened" Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said Friday he disagreed with President Obama's decision to accept Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric Shinseki's resignation.

The retired four-star general stepped down Friday after a weeks-long controversy over allegations that Department of Veterans Affairs managers falsified records to mask long wait times at its hospitals. 

Sanders, who chairs the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, has stood by Shinseki and defended the care provided by VA hospitals, as we reported in last week's Fair Game. He did so again Friday during an appearance on CNN, when host Wolf Blitzer asked whether he thought Obama did "the right thing in accepting [Shinseki's] resignation."

"I would have preferred otherwise, to be honest with you," Sanders said. "I think this guy is a very gutsy guy, who I think wanted the opportunity to clean house and make the changes that he now understood were necessary."

Oh, Vermonters! Round up your L.L. Bean boyfriends, your canvas tote bags, your Sunday-best flannel, and mark your calendars for October. L.L. Bean is bringing a little bit of Maine to our very own Green Mountain State.

The outdoor retailer announced today plans to open an 18,290-square-foot, two-level store this fall in the Burlington Town Center, the city's downtown shopping mall. L.L. Bean estimated it will employ 100 people at the store — the brand's 20th retail outlet outside Maine, and its first in Vermont. 

“Our stores are where the L.L.Bean catalogs come to life for our customers,” said Ken Kacere, senior vice-president and general manager of retail at L.L.Bean, in the announcement. 

Gov. Peter Shumlin maintains he won't focus on his reelection campaign until Labor Day. But after returning from a two-day Democratic Governors Association fundraising event in Connecticut, he's holding a fundraiser for his own campaign tonight at Montpelier's Main Street Grill.

In the past week, he's been hitting the phones to ensure a solid turnout.

Six registered lobbyists told Seven Days they received an emailed invitation to the event, and four of them said they had received phone calls from the governor himself asking them to attend. Citing the desire to continue doing business in the state, the lobbyists requested anonymity. 

Former state auditor and senator Randy Brock hasn't said whether he'll seek to unseat Gov. Peter Shumlin this fall, but his allies are working to clear the Republican field for him.

In an open letter released over the weekend, former Vermont Republican Party chairman Jack Lindley urged the Vermont GOP to "unite and support Randy Brock for Governor." On Wednesday, Brock's former campaign hand, Darcie Johnston, called on another potential contender — Milne Travel president Scott Milne — to refrain from entering the race.

"Vermonters should unite around Randy Brock to have the best opportunity and maybe the only opportunity to run a successful campaign against Peter Shumlin," Johnston said. "I'm absolutely saying Scott Milne should not run." 

Outgoing Burlington superintendent Jeanne Collins is heading south — the Rutland Northeast Supervisory Union board voted unanimously Wednesday evening to hire her for its top job after carrying out an "over-the-top thorough" review.

Collins was one of two finalists for the position which opened up in April when the current superintendent, John Castle, announced he was leaving to serve as superintendent for the North Country Supervisory Union. Days before the board planned to make a decision, the other finalist dropped out of the running to take different superintendent post. 

Collins came under fire in Burlington after an audit in April uncovered flaws in the district's budgeting procedures. Mayor Miro Weinberger and several city councilors urged the school board to part ways with her, and in early May it did just that. Collins and the Burlington board signed a separation agreement, under which she will depart the district on June 30, two years before the end of her contract, with $225,000 in severance pay. 

Carol Brigham, the chair of the RNESU board, said they were well aware of the controversy in Burlington, but after an exhaustive vetting, they concluded she had been "scapegoated" during what became a political maelstrom. 

In an email to Seven Days, Brigham explained, "Many on the board were initially skeptical, as are some in our community, due to the controversy surrounding Ms. Collins tenure in Burlington. This is why our interview process was so “over-the-top” thorough, including contacting no less than 60 people in reference to Ms. Collins. The responses we got from folks offered an insight into a political situation in Burlington which, in the opinion of many, has scapegoated Ms. Collins for problems which were largely not her fault and which she was on track to remedy."

 Peighton Geraw's mother beat and shook him just before a Department for Children and Families worker visited on the day the 15-month-old Winooski child died, her boyfriend told authorities. 

His mother, Nytosha Laforce, 28, pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder in Chittenden Superior Court this morning and was ordered held without bail, according to court documents.
 
Throughout hours of interviews with investigators, Laforce has denied causing the injuries that killed her son, and pointed the finger at her boyfriend, Tyler Chicoine. But Laforce has failed polygraph tests in recent weeks, while Chicoine passed a polygraph during which he denied hurting the child and told police he saw Laforce shake Peighton and slam his head on the floor.

"I love her but I'm not going down for something I didn't do," Chicoine said, according to a police affidavit.

DCF contact with Laforce and Peighton began in May 2013, when authorities learned that Laforce, who was on probation, had fled to New Hampshire with Peighton. As a result, Peighton was taken into the custody of the New Hampshire Department of Children and Families, and later transferred to the Vermont agency, according to court documents. Vermont DCF had Peighton in custody until October 2013, when the agency returned the child to Laforce. She was living then in Lund Family Center, a supervised setting for troubled families in Burlington.

In January, she moved into the apartment on Mallets Bay Avenue where Peighton would be found dead on April 4.

Former state senator William Carris, who served as Democratic majority leader, was charged with driving under the influence this morning after swerving into oncoming traffic and colliding with a pick-up truck, causing minor injuries to its driver, Vermont State Police said.

Carris, 69, was driving a 2013 Ford F-150 south on Route 133 in West Rutland when he crossed the center line around 8:30 a.m. and slammed into a 2008 GMC Sierra driven by Robert MacMurray,  a 71-year-old West Rutland resident, police said.

MacMurray was transported to Rutland Regional Medical Center with minor injuries, state police said. Carris was driving 30 mph in a stretch of Route 133 with a 40 mph speed limit. Both Carris, whom police say was uninjured, and MacMurray were wearing seat belts. Both vehicles were totaled, police said.

 Carris was cited to appear in court in August to be arraigned on a charge of suspicion of DUI/drugs, which bans driving under the influence of any drug that causes impairment or drug combined with alcohol that causes impairment.

Carris resigned from the Senate in December 2012 one month after winning re-election, citing chronic back and ankle pain. He had served three terms.

His family had long owned Carris Reels, which manufactures cables and employs several hundred people. The company is now employee-owned.

The mother of a 15-month-old baby found dead in their Winooski apartment last month has been charged with second-degree murder, police say.

Nytosha LaForce, 28, will be arraigned in Chittenden Superior Court tomorrow, the Chittenden County Special Investigations Unit said.

Police did not provide further details of what prompted them to charge LaForce with killing Peighton Geraw, who died of trauma to his head and neck.

LaForce is already in jail on unrelated charges.

At the time of Geraw's death, LaForce was on parole after serving more than two years in prison for stabbing a man in the neck, nearly killing him, and attempting to smuggle pills into prison. Her parole was revoked days after Geraw's death, when she tested positive for cocaine and marijuana, according to court documents.

Geraw's death has prompted criticism of the Department of Children and Families. A DCF caseworker was in the Mallett's Bay Avenue apartment an hour before Geraw died, and observed bruises on the baby's neck, according to court documents. LaForce's boyfriend was also in the apartment at the time of the caseworker's visit, according to court documents.

Last week, citing the death of Geraw and another young child who had come to the attention of DCF, Gov. Peter Shumlin announced a series of steps to reform how DCF handles child abuse cases.

Police said the investigation into Geraw's death is ongoing, and asked anyone with information to call Detective Pete Chapman at (802) 652-6898.

At 8 a.m. this morning, 31-year-old Sara Mehalick sat down in front of the main entrance to the Vermont Gas headquarters in South Burlington and chained herself to the building. There she planned to remain, she said, until Vermont Gas called off its plans for the construction of a new natural gas pipeline to Addison County.

More than four hours later, with protesters looking on from the sidewalk, Mehalick was arrested for refusing to leave the private property and was led away. 

Mehalick and the grassroots environmental group Rising Tide Vermont said the action was one of nonviolent civil disobedience. Vermont Gas took a different view.

"We respect peoples’ need and their rights to protest and voice their opinions," said spokesman Steve Wark in a phone interview with Seven Days. "However, today’s behavior crossed the line," he continued. In a news release issued this afternoon, Wark said that an administrative support staff member was assaulted while attempting "to ensure the protest did not impede the normal flow of customers" into and out of the building. "Protestors made physical contact with the Vermont Gas employee – with their hands and the chain – and physically, and visibly, injured the employee on the arm," Wark wrote. 

"We can no longer trust that [protesters] can express their views peacefully," wrote Wark, 

Rising Tide organizer Keith Brunner said that he wasn't present when the alleged assault took place, but that Rising Tide is "committed to nonviolent civil disobedience. That's what this was today."

"I’m really here defending a livable planet," said Mehalick by telephone, prior to her arrest. At the time, she sat on a small cushion and wore a U-shaped bicycle lock around her neck through which the chain blockading the door was threaded. 

Does today's action represent an escalation in the fight against the Vermont Gas pipeline, slated to carry natural gas from Chittenden County south to Middlebury and potentially beyond?

"Definitely," said Brunner. "I don’t think it’s going to stop here. We’re saying, we’re not going to stop until you stop. People are pretty serious. The stakes are way too high with climate change and fossil fuels."

Deirdre Hey, the self-described Winooski heroin addict who told Seven Days in April police exaggerated her role as a local drug dealer, is behind bars.

A week after the story ran, a federal grand jury indicted Hey, 47, on charges of conspiring to deal heroin and using her home  to sell heroin and cocaine. Hey is being held awaiting trial and faces more than 20 years in prison, according to court documents.

Court documents say that Hey "confessed," to having relationships with at least six groups of out-of-state drug dealers, buying drugs from them and allowing them to use her LaFountain Street apartment as a base of operations, prosecutors alleged in court filings. As each group was arrested, Hey told investigators, she moved to the next group.

Most recently, according to court documents, Hey aligned herself with two New York City men, Tyshawn Mack and Thomas Parker, beginning in late 2013, and allowed them to use her LaFountain Street apartment as a base of operations to sell heroin. Both Mack and Parker have been indicted on federal charges.

Prosecutors allege Hey also brokered a deal inside her apartment whereby Parker and Mack bought an assault rifle and several handguns that had been stolen from a home in Underhill, according to court documents.

"Hey is not simply a user of heroin," Assistant U.S. Attorney Nancy Creswell wrote. "She has admitted using runners to sell drugs for Mack and Parker and she sells drugs herself. She allows her apartment to be used as a base for drug sales. Moreover ... she has been involved with the trading of firearms for heroin."

In interviews with Seven Days in April, Hey, who had previously been charged by state prosecutors with selling heroin, scoffed at assertions that she was, in her words, a "big-time dealer." Rather, Hey said that she sold small amounts of heroin to fund her own addiction, and was so destitute that she couldn't pay her gas bill.