A new city flag — designed by two middle schoolers — will fly in the Queen City. On Monday night, the Burlington City Council approved the new design, which was submitted by twin brothers Owen and Lucas Marchessault.

The new flag features blue, white and green stripes, and was chosen from among 138 submissions, according to Burlington City Arts. The public competition was launched in September to replace the city's current flag, which was designed in 1990 and features a coat of arms.

The Marchessault brothers, both seventh graders at Edmunds Middle School, said in their artist statement that the blue represents the sky and the Lake Champlain waterfront; the white stands for snow-covered mountains and the breakwater; and the green represents the Green Mountain State.

Facing a July 1 national deadline to legalize marijuana, Québec lawmakers recently unveiled a set of proposed rules that are generally seen as restrictive.

While the federal Canadian legislation would allow people to grow small amounts of marijuana at home, Québec wouldn't allow it, under draft legislation written by the province's ruling Liberal Party.
Instead, the Québec government would retain total control of recreational marijuana sales, much like it controls alcohol sales in its ubiquitous SAQ stores. The province aims to have 15 marijuana stores open by July and as many as 150 within two years. It will also sell marijuana online. The province has not set a price.

The federal government has mandated nationwide marijuana legalization by July 1, while leaving details to the country's provinces. Like Vermont, Québec already has legal medical marijuana and is struggling to develop a framework for broader legalization.

Vermont officials are cautiously optimistic after a federal judge ruled Monday night that President Donald Trump's administration can’t revoke funding to so-called sanctuary cities and states.

Last week, the U.S Justice Department sent letters to 29 local and state governments, including Vermont and Burlington, threatening to withhold federal funds for failing to carry out its immigration directives. It gave them a December 8 deadline to prove they aren't breaking federal law.

Vermont stands to lose about $500,000; Burlington could lose $40,000. The letters provoked an immediate outcry from the state's congressional delegation, Gov. Phil Scott and Burlington Mayor Miro Weinberger, who maintain that the city's and state's policing policies are perfectly legal.

U.S. District Court Judge William Orrick came to a similar conclusion Monday in a California court case, ruling that the Trump Administration had violated the separation of powers doctrine in the Fifth and Tenth Amendments by attempting to strip sanctuary cities of funding.

Vermont Attorney General T.J. Donovan on Tuesday announced that he settled a campaign finance lawsuit against former lieutenant governor candidate Dean Corren for $255, resolving a tangled case initiated by his predecessor, former attorney general Bill Sorrell.

The case, which was scheduled to go to trial in December, dates to 2014, when Corren, running as a Democrat and Progressive, made a failed bid to unseat then-lieutenant governor Phil Scott.

Corren received about $180,000 in public money for his campaign. When accepting public financing in Vermont, candidates agree not to solicit contributions from outside sources.

This story was updated at 11:53 on November 21, 2017.

Competition for spaces in Winooski's downtown municipal parking garage landed in court Monday.

Lenders connected to Spinner Place, a 312-unit student apartment complex, filed suit against the City of Winooski in U.S. District Court, claiming that the city unfairly terminated a garage lease for building residents last January.

The city "illegally took parking dedicated to, and needed by, downtown residents and gave the parking as an incentive to other developers," said a statement issued Monday by Montpelier lawyer Ronald Shems, who represents the Spinner Place lenders. The loss of parking "severely limited" the ability to fully rent the units and created additional costs, the statement continued.

The city has "oversubscribed" the 916-space garage with lease agreements for 923 spaces and now refuses to consider a long-term lease with Spinner Place, the suit says.

It seeks an injunction requiring the city to enter into a long-term parking lease with Spinner Place and pay damages and legal costs.

The lawsuit was filed by UMB Bank of Kansas City, Mo. It is the trustee for bondholders who helped finance the construction of Spinner Place in 2004 through the Vermont Housing Finance Agency.

In a statement issued Tuesday morning, Winooski City Manager Jessie Baker said municipal officials are working on creative solutions to meet the long-term parking needs of Spinner Place residents and others.

"People want to live and work in Winooski," Baker's statement reads. "This is a good problem to have. We look forward to continued conversations in partnership with all the downtown property owners to ensure that parking needs are met."

It also suggested that the lawsuit was not the right approach.

"We are disappointed that the UMB Trustee has opted to sue the city instead of continuing discussions about long-term parking solutions," Baker stated. "We are hopeful that the parties can come to agreed upon terms and avoid lawsuits that ultimately cost the taxpayers."

Earlier this year, Baker defended the city's management of the garage and said a study was under way to respond to concerns about parking for Spinner Place and downtown employers including MyWebGrocer.

Competition for slots in the city garage has intensified with the successful $200 million-plus redevelopment of downtown Winooski over the past dozen years. Some have started calling the old mill city the Brooklyn of Burlington.

But this Brooklyn lacks a subway system to help people travel car-free.

Parking woes are by now familiar. Both a proposed hotel and a proposed live music venue in Winooski, the Strand, have triggered opposition from some residents and business owners who are worried that new development will aggravate the parking crunch.

The lawsuit says the City of Winooski first entered into a parking agreement with Spinner Place in 2004 for 230 spaces. The agreement was amended and extended at least three times, the suit says.

Then on October 3, 2016, the city issued a letter to the property manager of Spinner Place, Hallkeen Management, stating that effective January 1, 2017 it "will no longer be leasing spaces in the garage to customers without a long-term contract, including Spinner Place residents."

The letter further stated that "public metered spaces are available for use by any garage customer displaced by this change," according to the lawsuit.

The suit says that the metered rate is "more than four times greater than typical monthly residential parking rates for downtown parking, and grossly out of proportion with fair market student parking rates."

In the meantime, the suit says, the city has leased spaces in the garage to other entities including a "yet-to-be developed concert and performing arts venue," an apparent reference to the Strand project.

The city agreement with the nightclub developers would provide up to 550 spaces in the parking garage for evening and weekend events — "the same time that Spinner Place residents are typically at home and need parking," the lawsuit states.

Two eliminated Burlington Telecom bidders, Schurz Communications and ZRF Partners, have gotten back in the running — this time as partners. On Monday, the Indiana communications company Schurz and the New York City investment firm put forward a $25 million joint bid that would invest heavily in the local tech economy.

Theirs was one of three final proposals for Burlington Telecom submitted to the city in advance of the city council's final decision on November 27.

The publicly traded Tucows put forward a $32.5 million proposal, up $2 million from its previous offer. And the co-op Keep BT Local raised its bid from $12 million to $18 million — though the co-op has yet to raise the $6 million difference.

Vermont Democratic Party leaders cleared the path Saturday for party staff members to join the United Steelworkers union.

Calling the move “historic,” VDP executive director Conor Casey said he thinks it’s the first time a state party has voted to recognize a staff union. As executive director, he’ll be on the opposite side of the bargaining table from his four staff members. But as the former political director for the Vermont State Employees Association, he’ll likely be a sympathetic negotiator. He may not have much to offer, however, given the party's recent fundraising drought.

“We were looking at our platform [which has] an enormous concentration on collective bargaining rights,” said Casey. “We want to practice what we preach.”

The party also elected new leaders at its annual meeting Saturday. Terje Anderson, a longtime HIV/AIDS activist from Montgomery, will take over as chair, replacing Faisal Gill, who decided not to run again. Anderson's opponent, Bolton town chair Peter Jemley, dropped out of the race earlier in the week, endorsing Anderson.

The Burlington bitters and tonic company Urban Moonshine has been sold to Traditional Medicinals, which claims to be the largest organic tea company in the U.S.

“The world needs more herbs and this is our best way to do it,” said Urban Moonshine founder Jovial King, who started the business nine years ago, brewing tinctures in her kitchen.

Today, Urban Moonshine products can be found in co-ops and health food stores around the country, and in some chain stores including Whole Foods Market. It does more than $2 million in annual sales.

Despite the popularity of its herbal remedies (some of which conveniently double as cocktail ingredients), the company has faced financial hardship.

The chair of the University of Vermont Progressives announced Thursday that he would challenge Adam Roof (I-Ward 8) for his Burlington City Council seat next March.

Sophomore Carter Neubieser, 20, declared his candidacy on the steps of UVM's Bailey/Howe library, a backward baseball cap snugged over his shaggy blond hair.

"Our generation has been handed quite the mess," he said, citing high tuition, low wages, climate change and a growing drug epidemic. About 15 students turned out for the announcement, as did Isaac Grimm, the political engagement director of Rights and Democracy, and, briefly, city Councilor Max Tracy (P-Ward 2).

Neubieser, of New Britain, Conn., said that if elected, he would work for increased affordable housing, including co-op housing for students on campus, and improved walking and biking routes across the city.

A state working group tasked with proposing legislation and identifying a funding source for Vermont’s 20-year effort to reduce phosphorus pollution in its waterways has finished its work — without achieving either of its primary goals.

The Working Group on Water Quality Funding was created by Act 73, a law passed this year by the state legislature. Its members were mainly officials from the administration of Gov. Phil Scott. Its final report was delivered to the legislature on Wednesday.

Natural Resources Secretary Julie Moore, a member of the group, blames its failure to reach conclusions on a short timeframe and a raft of complications. “There’s a need for several important public policy questions to be discussed,” she says. “We need to have clarity on how much we need to raise before we can propose legislation.”

Other complications, she adds, include how to collect and administer a per-parcel water-quality fee that remains the most likely long-term revenue source, and how to split costs between state and local governments for many types of improvement projects. The working group is effectively kicking back many of those questions to the legislature.