And now from the Department of the Completely Obvious: The Green Mountain State likes its ganja.

According to a new poll commissioned by the Marijuana Policy Project, 57 percent of Vermonters favor legalizing, regulating and taxing marijuana. Thirty-four percent oppose doing so, while 9 percent aren't sure. The survey, conducted earlier this month by the Castleton Polling Institute, had a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percent.

Says Matt Simon, MPP's New England political director, "People are increasingly comfortable with this idea: that marijuana should be regulated instead of criminally prohibited in Vermont."

Haven’t heard of Vermont’s Turkish Cultural Center? You clearly are not a well-connected political official.

Effusiveness went unchecked at the center’s ribbon-cutting ceremony on Wednesday. Vermont’s governor and attorney general, a handful of lawmakers and Burlington’s mayor took turns extolling the Anatolian initiative to promote “cross-cultural awareness.” An FBI Special Agent, Wayne E. Shuptrine, also attended.

The center, which started in 2011, is sharing its new space on Burlington’s College Street with two other “sister” organizations: the Peace Islands Institute — founded, as you might guess, to promote peace — and the Turkic American Chamber of Commerce, which, according to its leadership, “has been bringing investors to investigate business opportunities in Vermont” and aims to provide local Vermont businesses with "networking opportunities" in the Turkic world.

The organizations are local offshoots that fall under the umbrella organization, the Council of Turkic American Associations. According to Eyup Sener, the council’s New England regional director, Vermont is home to roughly 4,000 people of Turkic heritage. (The Turkic region, he made a point of clarifying, includes not just to Turkey but also Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, and Azerbaijan.)

On Wednesday, well more than 50 people, including men in dark suits, milled about the 5th floor offices during the lunchtime celebration. A group of men sat around an oval table in a side office, conferring with the door open, while the rest of the crowd listened to speeches. In one corner, an elderly man wearing a skullcap sat with cane resting against his knee.

With the Department for Children and Families under fire for the deaths of two small children allowed to stay in their troubled homes,  Gov. Peter Shumlin today announced a series of reforms to bolster staff at the agency, streamline its operations and add scrutiny to decisions to reunify children with their guardians.

“It breaks my heart, and I know it breaks the heart of all Vermonters when we lose children to someone who is so empty hearted that they would take the life of a child,” Shumlin said during an afternoon press conference. “In the case of Dezirae and Peighton, we have as a state failed. These are the circumstances that give you sleepless nights.” He was referring to Dezirae Sheldon and Peighton Geraw, the children who died.

Shumlin announced that he was taking the following steps:

- Allowing DCF, using existing budgeted funds of about $1.6 million, to bring in 18 new social workers and six substance abuse screeners to decrease caseloads and enhance supervision.

- Requiring a supervisor  in DCF’s central office to review all decisions to return children who have been seriously abused to their families. Currently, caseworkers can make those decisions.

- Calling for increased training for DCF and other state workers

- Ordering Human Services Secretary Doug Racine to develop a plan to reorganize DCF and potentially take away some the agency’s responsibilities. DCF was forged in 2004 from two independent agencies, the Department of Prevention, Assistance, Transition and Health Services, and the Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services. The combined agency serves more than 200,000 of Vermonters in a variety of social programs. Shumlin said he is considering essentially undoing that move, and narrowing DCF’s focus to protecting children and strengthening families.

“The challenges the department has faced over the last several years raises legitimate concerns about whether the current structure can provide sufficient oversight across all the areas of responsibility,” Shumlin said.

Shumlin was careful to stress that the moves were not a direct result of perceived mistakes in the two cases — the death of two-year-old Dezirae Sheldon in Rutland and 15-month-old Peighton Geraw of Winooski. He declined to comment on those cases.

DCF’s caseworker staffing levels have long been a concern in Montpelier. Shumlin said ratios of caseworkers to families under supervision have come down from 1:20 to 1:17 under his watch, still well short of a legislatively mandated target of 1:12, which comports with national standards.

It was not immediately clear what the ratio would be with the addition of 18 caseworkers.

When asked why DCF did not previously require a supervisor to review decisions to reunify abused children with their families, DCF Commissioner Dave Yacovone said it had been discussed, but never implemented. He also said that the DCF’s main office had cut staff from from 96 to 66 in the past several years in an effort to preserve staff levels at field offices, where most caseworkers operate.

“I’ve asked myself that question,” Yacovone said. “In hindsight, do I wish we had changed that policy? Sure, absolutely.”

Shumlin has the power to unilaterally reorganize DCF if he decides to do it after receiving Racine’s report.

Administration officials say that the demand for DCF’s services exploded at the same time the agency was losing staffers during the recent recession.

Since 2008, the number of child abuse investigations has doubled, and the number of families subject to open DCF cases grew from 80 to 450, officials said.

Shumlin pinned part of the blame for that demand on the “rising tide of opiate addiction,” that he has made a priority in recent months.

“As long as addiction continues to rise, the caseload will rise,” Shumlin said.

After months of deliberation, Campaign for Vermont founder Bruce Lisman said Wednesday he's decided against challenging Gov. Peter Shumlin this fall. 

The Shelburne resident and retired Bear Stearns executive said that while he "did give it careful consideration," he came to the conclusion that a bid for public office would detract from the mission of his nonprofit political advocacy group.

"I was concerned that a candidacy would undermine the nonpartisan nature of Campaign for Vermont," Lisman said. "Instead of highlighting good ideas and solutions to problems we recognized, it would instead obscure them."

Since founding CFV in 2011 and investing more than a million dollars in the organization, Lisman has been seen as a possible political contender. He said Wednesday he had spoken to "a large number of groups" over the past few months about the possibility of challenging Shumlin.

"I did take seriously those people who asked me to run and did give it considerable thought, and learned a considerable amount about the political process along the way," he said. "Some wanted to have, if you will, a performance evaluation of the governor through my candidacy."

Six years after he was arrested for one of the most notorious crimes in Vermont history, Randolph resident Michael Jacques rose inside a packed courtroom gallery this morning and apologized.

With the family of 12-year-old Brooke Bennett, the niece that he drugged, raped and murdered in the summer of 2008, looking on, Jacques offered his first public comments about the saga that triggered Vermont's first Amber Alert and prompted lawmakers to rewrite the state's sex offender laws.

"I realize that few people are likely to care what I have to say," Jacques said in U.S. District Court, minutes before he was sent to federal prison on a life sentence. "Nothing I could ever say could compare to what I've done. My abuse of trust is unfathomable. I was welcomed ... into a family that graciously gave me love and I gave them tragedy and pain in return. I live with what I've done every hour of every day, and I should. The victims live with what I have done every hour of every day, and they shouldn't have to. Yes, I am guilty, and I alone am the reason you feel pain today. And for that I am very sorry, and very ashamed."

As a legal proceeding, today's sentencing hearing was largely devoid of drama: In reciting the narrative of Jacques' crime, Assistant U.S. Attorney Craig Nolan offered little information that hadn't already been included in hundreds of pages of court papers filed in the past six years. And the outcome of the hearing was never really in doubt: Judge William Sessions III imposed the sentence — life plus 70 years — agreed to by attorneys last year in a plea bargain that spared Jacques a possible death penalty.

UPDATE 3:30 P.M. 5/20/2014 Story was updated to include Jeanne Collins' comments on her job search.

Embattled Burlington Superintendent Jeanne Collins agreed last week to leave her job — effective June 30 — but she's already a finalist — the only finalist, in fact — for the open superintendent position in the Rutland Northeast Supervisory Union.

The Rutland Herald reported that Rutland Northeast held a community forum Monday night in which Collins fielded questions from residents. Collins' competition for the post, Carl Chambers, withdrew from the running last Friday, after accepting the superintendent position with the Windsor Southeast Supervisory Union, according to the Herald. 

The search commenced in early April and Collins applied the first week in May, according to Carol Brigham, head of the search committee. Twenty-two people applied, eight of whom were qualified and four of whom were interviewed, she said.

The Burlington School Board negotiated a separation and settlement agreement with Collins after an investigation into the district's chronic deficits uncovered problems with the way her administration had been drawing up school budgets for the last several years. Collins, who makes roughly $130,000 a year plus benefits, and whose contract would have run through June 2016, is leaving with $225,000 in severance pay. The board initiated formal discussions, in executive session, about Collins on April 18.

The search committee is aware of what happened in Burlington and is researching the situation, Brigham said.

After Seven Days asked her to comment, Collins emailed a statement out Tuesday afternoon that read: 

"I would like to make a statement about being a finalist for the Superintendent position for Rutland Northeast Supervisory Union. As of June 30th I do not have a job; it was not my choice to be in a position of looking for a job as I wanted to continue to work in Burlington Schools, but that option is no longer available. The School Board approached me to consider resigning if we came to an agreement on my contract and we have reached an agreement.

"I am very excited about the possibility of working for the Rutland Northeast Supervisory Union as their Superintendent. I am very interested in this position and I believe I am good fit for their needs as well. I just want to be considered based upon my merits. I am looking forward to moving on. I hope that articles in the press do not adversely affect my getting this position. At this point I will have no further comments."
 
Brigham said the committee will continue to do reference checks and will visit Burlington sites before making a final recommendation to the full board on May 27.  

The feedback from residents was mixed, according to the Herald story: "Many approved of her leadership skills and involvement within the schools. One Brandon resident said, 'she sticks to her values and never backs down from a difficult situation.' However, many said they felt obligated to approve of her simply because they were presented with no other candidates." At least one question was asked about Collins' role in Burlington's most recent deficit. 

Supporters of the Burlington school budget gained a key recruit Monday. On a sun-soaked afternoon, standing under blossoming trees and in front of a crowd of parents and students, Mayor Miro Weinberger announced he'll be voting for the budget. 

In just two weeks — on June 3 — Burlington residents will decide whether to support a $67.4 million budget, which comes with a 7.2 percent tax increase. Until now, Weinberger withheld his endorsement, announcing in April that he wouldn't support the budget unless Superintendent Jeanne Collins was removed from her post.

Since Town Meeting Day, the school district has been embroiled in budget-related controversies, set off by the discovery that serious errors led to multi-million dollar deficits. 

On May 13, Weinberger got his way when the school board and Collins announced a settlement agreement that will send Collins packing on June 30, with $225,000 in severance pay. Now, one week later, he's decided to throw his weight behind the board's new budget. 

We at Seven Days were surprised to learn over the weekend about the shocking quantities of pizza and jewelry available in Burlington. Tim Johnson of the Burlington Free Press broke that story, and we tip our hats to his enterprise reporting.

It got us thinking: Are there other trend pieces waiting to be written? What other pairs are taking over the downtown Burlington scene?

Here are some that we came up with:

When 22-year-old Natalie Wheating headed to her Milton lakeside cabin last weekend to open up the camp for the season, she was startled by the sight that greeted her: "Hundreds, if not thousands" of dead fish were floating along the shore of the Lake Champlain.

Her first thought? "I just thought that something was being pumped into the water," said Wheating. 

The reason for the die-off, according to Vermont Fish and Wildlife, is a little less dramatic: Fisheries biologist Bernie Pientka said that mass deaths among alewives, an invasive species of herring, are normal in Lake Champlain at this time of year. Biologists believe the die-offs are a result of temperature fluctuations, food limitations and stress on the fish population following the winter season. 

"They're just not used to rapid temperature changes," said Pientka of the alewives, which first arrived in Lake Champlain in 2003. Alewives cause several problems for Lake Champlain. They outcompete native fish, such as rainbow smelt, and eat the eggs and larvae of other fish species. Alewives also cause major reproductive failure in landlocked lake trout and salmon. 

While the die-offs are "perfectly normal," Pientka said they're still worrisome for fisheries biologists. They point to the problem of invasive species in Lake Champlain, and act as a reminder of what can happen to an ecosystem put off kilter by invasive species. 

Updated 7:11 p.m. on 5/19/2014

Burlington police today identified the transient man found dead in a Pine Street encampment on Saturday, but said the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner has been unable to identify the cause of his death and will need at least three more weeks to conduct additional tests.

Forrest Bryant, 40, who had been in Burlington for three months, was found dead in a sleeping structure within the camp site on Saturday morning. The day before, authorities had notified the 10 or so people living in the encampment that they would have to leave in a few days, Police Chief Michael Schirling said during a morning press conference.

Further, police said a few hours after the news conference that they have a person of interest in the case in custody. Mark Delude, 52, of Burlington has been charged with obstruction of justice and trespass, authorities said, and was scheduled to appear Tuesday in Chittenden Superior Court. Police said that Delude was involved in an altercation with Bryant hours before Bryant's death, and tried to prevent police and rescue personnel from being called to the scene. Delude is a transient and has more than 70 prior arrests, police said.

Delude is being held in jail on $25,000 bail, police said. 

Earlier today, Schirling said the decision to clear the encampment, made after workers in the Pine Street area discovered it, does not appear to have played a role in Bryant's death.

Bryant had no signs of external wounds, and police do not believe any weapons were involved. Moreover, while a toxicology report is still pending, that is not the source of the hold-up at the Medical Examiner's Office, Schirling said.