Preparations are under way for Sen. Bernie Sanders to kick of his presidential campaign at Burlington's Waterfront Park this evening. It's shaping up to be a hot, hazy evening, but promises of free ice cream and music will likely help draw a crowd. Also, the crowds might come out for, you know, that whole presidential campaign launch thing.

We're keeping an eye on social media as the buzz builds. Take a look (and if you're already over it, check out our Bernie Sanders Drinking Game):

When Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) formally launches his presidential campaign Tuesday evening at Burlington's Waterfront Park, he'll likely deliver a stump speech unlike anything you've ever heard before.

OK, that's not true.

He'll almost certainly deliver the same speech he's given since he first ran for Senate in 1972. (It didn't work so well that year. He won just 2.2 percent of the vote.)

If you've heard it all before, consider spicing it up a bit. Bring a road soda to the shore of Lake Champlain and play the Bernie Sanders Drinking Game — brought to you by none other than Seven Days. If you miss the speech and find yourself bored at home, play the game to Sanders' 8.5-hour faux-libuster or our Bernie Beat archive of historical Sanders coverage.

What are the rules? It's simple. Drink every time Sanders:

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) has signed on veteran New Hampshire labor organizer Kurt Ehrenberg to help him win the Granite State's first-in-the-nation presidential primary. 

The hire is a coup for Sanders, who has struggled to generate the enthusiasm enjoyed by fellow progressive Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.). Until last week, Ehrenberg served as state director of Run Warren Run, a group founded by the national progressive groups MoveOn.org and Democracy for America to persuade Warren to enter the Democratic primary.

The former New Hampshire AFL-CIO political and legislative director calls himself a longtime Sanders supporter and says he informally advised the senator's early exploratory efforts in New Hampshire. After spending the past four months unsuccessfully attempting to draft Warren, Ehrenberg formally joined the Sanders campaign last Wednesday. 

"The Elizabeth Warren draft effort was a terrific idea, and I'm glad we did our best to try to get her in the race," Ehrenberg says. "I think many people still have hope that she will run, but I think the chances are less every day and every time she says she's not running. So I think we should begin to take her at her word."

Sanders spokesman Michael Briggs confirmed the hire Tuesday, saying Ehrenberg would serve as New Hampshire field director. 

Burlington attorney Eric Miller is getting the go-ahead from President Barack Obama to become the next U.S. attorney for Vermont, Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) announced Thursday.

Leahy recommended Miller for the job in February. Obama's nomination now puts the decision in the hands of the U.S. Senate, which must confirm his appointment to the federal prosecutor post.

If confirmed, Miller would replace Tris Coffin, who took the job in 2009 and returned to private practice this year. Eugenia Cowles has been serving as acting U.S. attorney since Coffin's departure.

Miller has been a lawyer in the Burlington firm of Sheehey Furlong & Behm PC since 1999, serving as partner since 2002. 

His wife, Liz Miller, is departing this month from her job as Gov. Peter Shumlin's chief of staff.

When Democrat Peter Shumlin was locked in a close race with Republican Brian Dubie in 2010, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) pitched in by holding a series of rallies that helped Shumlin win the open seat.

When Democrat Miro Weinberger was vying to become mayor of Burlington in 2012, Sanders’ endorsement helped the politically untested Weinberger follow Sanders to City Hall.

What thanks does Sanders get?

Both men are endorsing Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination for president.

Mayor Miro Weinberger is asking the police department to step up enforcement of the city's taxi ordinance.

Wednesday, police announced that they'd arrested an Uber driver who also has a city taxi license on a sexual assault charge. Thursday, Weinberger asked the police department to step up enforcement of the city's taxi ordinance.

"In the wake of this terrible event and based on escalating concerns about the city’s taxi system, we must redouble our efforts to reform the system and enhance our enforcement efforts," he stated in a news release.

The mayor has instructed Police Chief Michael Schirling to assign officers to enforce taxi regulations for "at least 90 days." He's asked the department to recommend permanent changes to how the city enforces the rules for vehicles-for-hire. Weinberger also committed to adding $60,000 to establish positions for taxi enforcement to his proposed budget for fiscal year 2016 — if the police recommend that.

During an interview last week with Seven Days, Weinberger was noncommittal about whether the city would put more resources into taxi enforcement. As we reported Wednesday, several taxi companies have been accused of flagrantly disregarding the city ordinance for extended periods of time. Further, many people who were initially denied licenses to drive taxis, including for criminal or traffic violations, appealed the denials and were granted licenses.

People who arrived at the housing summit with concerns about unbridled development probably didn't leave feeling any less worried. 

The keynote speaker, Tom Angotti, a professor of urban affairs and planning at Hunter College, came bearing stories of gentrification and development gone awry in New York City. 

"We’re seeing that happen here," a woman in the audience told Angotti. "So what do we do?" 

 "Three suggestions," offered the visiting professor: "Organize, organize, organize."

Burlington residents have been doing plenty of that already. Members of Save Open Space Burlington, which formed when Burlington College was selling a large tract of lakefront land to developer Eric Farrell, have joined forces with people concerned that putting housing in the South End's Enterprise Zone will squeeze out artists and business owners.

Both groups came together to plan Wednesday's event, along with members of the neighborhood planning assemblies. Held at Contois Auditorium in Burlington City Hall, it was billed as a response to Mayor Weinberger's 18-point housing action plan.

The 15th annual Spring Move Out Project (SMOP) brought hundreds of people to the center of Burlington Wednesday. Many students took advantage of the opportunity to disgorge the contents of apartments they were vacating at designated drop-off zones on Loomis and Buell Streets. As they got rid of stuff, mostly for free, throngs of people gathered to shop for items that would cost them absolutely nothing. (Dirty mattresses, shredded couches and other beyond-hope items went into dumpsters for a small fee.)

The event is designed to reduce illegal dumping on greenbelts as thousands of students move out and new ones prepare to take over their leases. Word has definitely spread about SMOP and many freegans were on hand to peruse the (non)merchandise. I took a look too, and while I left empty-handed, I collected a fair bit wisdom by examining seven items.     

Thing One
 
A long coat made from emerald green velvet with a lavender satin lining and brass buttons caught my eye. Double-breasted and loosely constructed, it reminded me of something Kate Moss would wear to the opera with her haughty, aging-supermodel expression, after stepping into some crazy high heels. I wondered about the provenance of the coat as it lay crookedly against a blue tarp on the ground on Loomis Street. But before I could check the label and inspect the mild discoloring on the front, I was distracted by an excited cry of "Car coming in!" The crowd moved toward an SUV with Connecticut plates as it pulled into the swap zone. I walked over to watch a tatty couch being unloaded, and when I came back to the blue tarp, the green coat was gone.

Moral No. 1: Don't get too picky.

Thing Two

The next item that stood out to me was a chocolate-brown faux leather double recliner. Everything about it said "man cave." Perhaps it had started out in a den, with a bachelor who didn't know or care that it takes a rare woman to attach herself to such an ungainly piece of furniture. Maybe the guy came to understand this basic truth and outsourced the recliner to his nephew's college apartment. The kid loved it, until it was time to move on, let go and accept that form matters just as much as function. So it wound up at SMOP.

At least this is the backstory I was imagining. Then, as I watched, a man loaded the recliner into a vehicle. Of course, I thought, smirking, he just couldn't resist. But as I eavesdropped on his conversation with the woman in the front seat  I realized with a shock that the recliner wasn't for him. It was for her.  

Moral number two: Assume nothing. 


Thing Three

Gender roles and relationships are an important topic, and I don't understand the first thing about them, as illustrated by my stereotyping about recliners. But who knew a board game exists to help novices like me master this tricky terrain? And wasn't it a coincidence that a spanking new edition of the Men Are From Mars, Women Are from Venus board game, based on the hugely popular book, was sitting atop a pile of jigsaw puzzles? Eagerly, I lifted the lid and peered at the directions, which quickly established that the 1,000-piece jigsaw puzzle of a sunset next to the game would be more elucidating than the game itself. 

Moral number three: Popular wisdom often isn't.  


Thing Four  
    
I perused the pile of books littering another tarp. They promised to teach readers all kinds of useful things: how to knit a sweater, book an ecotourism vacation and understand the meaning of life with a little help from Plato . A young man named Dan Fairley picked up a copy of a self-help manual titled Difficult Conversations: How To Discuss What Matters Most. He decided to take it home. The 22-year-old UVM graduate student, who was among some 50 volunteers who helped run the SMOP, has a job supervising RAs in the dorms and also deals with parents whose sons and daughters are involved in conduct hearings at the university for breaking various rules. Not all the parents are as mature as Fairley, apparently, and he has to say no when they occasionally announce the following: "I don't want to pay the fine so make it go away."

Moral number four: Trust in youth.

Thing Five

Is it clear by now that possessions say a lot about us? Our quirks, our pasts — our feet? I spied a handsome pair of men's dress shoes made from soft, brown leather and wondered if I should scoop them up for a friend or relative. Then I realized the shoes were very large, so large in fact they looked like all of Loomis Street could fit inside. I picked them up because I had to know the size: 14. I immediately felt sympathetic for the former owner, who must have a very hard time finding footwear or even an ottoman large enough to accommodate such planks. I felt a surge of affection for my own size 8 1/2 feet, fallen arches and all.

Moral number five:  Be grateful for what you've got.

Thing Six

Brenda Lee Riley looked pleased with the contents of her brown grocery bag: She'd found a curtain rod, a vase, and wall art of a glamorous woman vogueing in fur and shades. The Essex Junction resident was still looking for a carpet runner, but didn't let that get her down. The smile on her face was a reminder that free is good. "I like it all," she said, of the items all over the street.

Moral number six: Leave home without a credit card more often. 

Thing Seven

Amy Junger sat atop the three-drawer chest she found shortly after the SMOP began. "I just liked it. It's an old one, and it's pretty," she said. 

The Shelburne resident had heard about the event from her daughter, who just graduated from UVM.  "I think it's great, I love recycling," Junger said. Their strategy was to have Junger stay with the items they wanted until they could load them into the car. Meanwhile, her daughter checked out new wares as they came in. Junger watched the castoffs arriving and carefully weighed the fix-up time required, rejecting some items and quickly claiming others. As a wooden bureau on casters appeared in the swap zone, she called out to her daughter: "Get that dresser!"  

Moral number seven: Be decisive.
          

This story was updated on 5/21/2015 at 3:20 p.m. with information from court documents on the case.
In a recent email decrying Burlington's inability to supervise its taxi industry, the staff person in charge of licensing cabs  asked city officials a question: "Does somebody need to get hurt in order for this to become a priority?"

According to the police, someone already has been hurt. The Chittenden Unit for Special Investigations announced Wednesday evening that it arrested a man who drives for the ride-share company Uber, charging him with sexual assault of a passenger. The driver also had a license from the city to drive taxis.

A hulking warehouse in Williston is an unlikely place to glimpse the future of hospital care. Still, in a corner of a warehouse that stores old medical records and long aisles of supplies, Thomas Morris showed a visitor mock-ups of the patient rooms that the University of Vermont Medical Center wants for a seven-story tower project awaiting state approval.

Morris is a partner in the architecture firm Morris Switzer, hired to transform patient rooms at the state’s largest hospital. Most patients admitted today end up in double-occupancy rooms that no longer meet contemporary care standards. Only 30 percent of the hospital’s 447 staffed beds are single-occupancy. The medical center has proposed a $187 million project to replace the oldest double rooms with 128 spacious private ones in a new tower.

A parade of medical center officials and consultants presented the case for the project to the Green Mountain Care Board over two days earlier this week. Considerable testimony focused on the benefits of private rooms, which officials argued are no longer viewed as luxury suites but as the standard when hospitals undertake projects. The medical center’s certificate-of-need application argues that single rooms reduce infection risks, decrease medication mistakes, and enhance patient wellbeing by accommodating families and reducing noise and traffic.

Morris said the mock-ups — built to actual size with plasterboard walls, plywood closets, and paper pictures of outlets and equipment hookups — allowed his firm to tap the expertise of users to refine the design.