The Burlington High School girls soccer team and its #EqualPay jerseys have gone viral. They've been featured on ABC's "Good Morning America" and in the news on NBC, CBS and CNN, and even in Britain's Daily Mail — all since Friday night.

“It is unreal," co-captain Helen Worden, a 17-year-old senior, said on Monday. "It's just out of this world.”

The publicity blitz began after refs yellow-carded Worden and three other players for wearing #EqualPay jerseys during a home game Friday evening at the high school. The display violated regulations that state only official team jerseys can be worn during games.

Irene Wrenner isn’t shy about pulling a stunt.

In 2016, the former Essex Selectboard member handed condoms to primary election voters outside of the polls — on the middle school campus — with the message, “Stop STDs (Special Tax Districts): Vote NO December 13!” And she’s vociferously voiced her displeasure with various plans to merge Essex Junction governmental departments with the greater town of Essex.

But Wrenner, who lost reelection in March after 12 years on the board, took it to another level earlier this month when she belted out an Essex-relevant rendition of Jethro Tull’s “Locomotive Breath” at a selectboard meeting. With an instrumental version of the song playing in the background, Wrenner, clad in a leather jacket and jeans, danced as she wailed her own lyrics into the microphone.

“Oh this merger train is speeding, towards Election Daaaaayyy,” she sang when it was her turn to speak during public comment. “Only voters can stop it, with a vote of nay! That’s the way to slow this merger train down.”

U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) delivered a jolt of star power during a huge and boisterous Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) campaign rally in Queens on Saturday. Thousands gave her rapturous ovations and chanted “AOC! AOC!” during her 15-minute speech.

But the adoring crowd erupted with even greater enthusiasm when Sanders strutted onstage in Queensbridge Park. The impressive turnout, which the campaign asserted was more than 25,000 people, and Sanders' nearly hourlong recitative combined to prove the candidate's contention that, “To put it bluntly, I'm back!”

Declaiming his standard litany of issues in spirited cadences, Sanders gave no hint of having suffered a heart attack less than three weeks ago. The delivery of his speech, as much as its content, seemed designed to convince skeptics — and to warn political opponents — that Sanders can make good on his promise of waging “a vigorous campaign.”

Documentary filmmaker Michael Moore gave a humorous, if indirect, response to misgivings about Sanders' age in a warmup speech. “Bernie's not too old,” Moore told the crowd. “Here’s what’s too old: The electoral college is too old. A $7.25 minimum wage: That’s too old. Women not being paid the same as men: That’s too old. Thousands and thousands of dollars of student debt. What is that? Too old.”

After more than 100 hours at the negotiating table, City Market, Onion River Co-op and its 270 unionized employees arrived at a new contract this month.

Negotiating teams approved a tentative agreement on October 1, and union members "overwhelmingly approved" it during a vote last weekend, according to union treasurer and negotiator Shannon Williamson. The City Market board is scheduled to ratify the contract at its next meeting.

The three-year agreement gets about halfway to the union's goal to land a $15-an-hour wage for its lowest-paid employees. Instead of starting at $11 an hour — just 22 cents above Vermont's minimum wage — the workers will start at $13. By the end of the three-year contract, that same person will make $14.07 hourly, according to the approved wage schedule.
"I am certainly pleased that the people who really needed the help the most are going to get the biggest bump," said Williamson, a third-shift lead who has worked at City Market for almost two years. "I can't imagine how people lived on $11 an hour."

Updated at 2:16 p.m.

Former vice president Joe Biden plans to travel to Vermont next month, his campaign said Friday. The brief announcement included no details, other than the date of his visit: November 9.

R. Christopher Di Mezzo, a spokesperson for the Vermont Democratic Party, said the organization had not been contacted by the Biden campaign and had no additional information.

The trip will bring the former vice president to the home state of a top rival, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who picked up 86 percent of the vote in Vermont's 2016 presidential primary.

Updated at 5:33 p.m.

Four years after they were accused of cheating customers out of $100 million, a group of Vermont gasoline distributors has agreed to settle a class-action lawsuit for a fraction of that amount.

The proposed settlement, filed Thursday in Vermont Superior Court, calls for the companies to pay $1.5 million to gasoline consumers in northwestern Vermont. Up to $500,000 of that could go to the lawyers who brought the suit and more could be subtracted for the cost of distributing the money.

The agreement, which must be approved by a judge, includes no admission of wrongdoing, though it requires the companies to abide by written antitrust policies and requires employees who set the price of petroleum products to undergo antitrust training. The defendants are R.L. Vallee, Inc., which owns the Maplefields gas station chain; S.B. Collins, Inc., which owns the Jolley chain; Champlain Farms/Wesco; and Champlain Oil Company, which operates Jiffy Mart-branded stores and was acquired last year by Massachusetts-based Global Partners.

Those who owned a car, bought gas from one of the four companies and lived in Chittenden, Franklin or Grand Isle counties between April 2012 and June 2015 are eligible to claim a portion of the funds. A settlement administrator was charged with contacting potential recipients, who can claim a standard amount or provide receipts or credit card statements showing how much gas they bought during the three-year period.

The suit, filed in June 2015 by Fairfax resident Jacob Kent and five other Vermonters, alleged that the companies had conspired to "fix the price of wholesale and retail gasoline in northwestern Vermont" at artificially high levels. At the time, they controlled more than 64 percent of gas stations in Chittenden, Franklin and Grand Isle counties and sometimes earned profits twice the national average, the plaintiffs alleged.
The companies denied the charges and argued that prices in the region were, in fact, competitive. According to the settlement agreement, they “maintain that they have acted completely independently of each other, are competitors in the sale of gasoline, have not conspired in any way, have set gas prices fairly based on existing market forces, and did not violate any laws.”

Two weeks after a heart attack sidelined him from the presidential campaign, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) made clear Tuesday night that he was ready to get back in the game.

Throughout a three-hour Democratic debate in Ohio, the senator from Vermont appeared energetic, forceful and on-message as ever. If there were doubts that he could perform under pressure after such a major medical event, he put them to rest — at least, for now.

“I’m healthy. I’m feeling great,” Sanders said as CNN anchor Erin Burnett attempted to change the subject from opioid-industry abuses to the senator’s own health. “But I would like to respond to that question.”

Only after linking pharmaceutical companies to fossil fuel companies and the perils of “unfettered capitalism” would Sanders address Burnett’s original question: How would he prove to voters that he was “up to the stress of the presidency?”

“We are going to be mounting a vigorous campaign all over this country,” he responded, plugging a “Bernie’s Back” rally this Saturday in Queens, N.Y. “That is how I think I can reassure the American people.”

Even before he left the debate stage, Sanders’ campaign confirmed a Washington Post report that Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), a darling of the progressive movement, would endorse his candidacy and join him at the rally in Queens. Later Tuesday night, the campaign announced that Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) would also endorse him.

Burlington Telecom will invest $3 million in the local tech economy over the next 10 years to boost startups and nonprofits in Burlington.

The telecom's general manager, Mike Loucy, made the announcement Tuesday at the kickoff for the fourth annual Innovation Week, a series of events hosted by BTV Ignite that celebrate Burlington’s tech businesses.

“Depending on how well that goes, it could endure past that,” Loucy said at the Vermont Center for Emerging Technologies office on Main Street. “But that's our commitment out of the box, just to see how it works."

The Community Investment Funds were one of several incentives promised by BT's buyer, Schurz Communications, during contentious negotiations with the city. The Burlington City Council selected Schurz's $30.8 million bid to purchase the city's telecom in 2017, but the sale was only finalized this past March. A group of community activists have sued over the sale, arguing that the terms don't provide the greatest return to taxpayers.
The money will be funneled into two separate pots. The Burlington Telecom Innovation Fund will invest $250,000 a year in a Burlington company in the startup or growth phase, and the STEM & Technical Skill Fund will provide a $50,000 annual grant to a nonprofit or similar organization that promotes technical education and workforce development.

“Even though Burlington Telecom is not a city department anymore, it is continuing to move the community forward in numerous ways,” Mayor Miro Weinberger said. “This is an exciting example of that."

The innovation fund will be disbursed at the direction of an Investment Committee, a group of seven entrepreneurs that was established through the BT sale process. Priority will be given to businesses led by women, people of color and those with disabilities.

“This isn't just the usual suspects getting funded,” Weinberger said. “We'll look back in a decade and really see that this has moved the needle in important ways."

BT will retain some equity in the selected companies in return for its investment, but the committee has not determined what percentage, Loucy said. It will ideally start accepting applications by December, he added.

The BTV Ignite board will open the STEM grant competition on October 15. Applications will be accepted through November 27, according to its website. The award could be split between more than one entity each year; winners should be announced before year’s end, according to BTV Ignite project manager Adam Roof.

The announcement marked Loucy’s first public appearance since he was named BT’s president and general manager in May. He most recently worked at the Vermont Electric Power Company in Rutland for 10 years as a senior manager focusing on business development and VELCO’s fiber optic network, according to a BT press release. He also worked for Unicel and Sprint.

Loucy replaces Stephen Barraclough, who had served as the telecom’s GM since 2010 and is largely credited with improving BT’s financial standing.

Loucy said he’s excited for the community fund rollout, adding BT is committed to helping new businesses grow.

"It will give incentive to new startups that are like, ‘Where can I start right out of the box?’ It doesn’t have to be somebody established,” Loucy said. “That’s really the goal of both of these funds: Have a nice, diverse group.”

Vermont's governor and secretary of state say they disagree with Attorney General T.J. Donovan's recent decision to charge those who take photographs of public records while inspecting them.

Donovan's new policy came in response to the Vermont Supreme Court's ruling last month that, while government agencies can charge members of the public for copies of records, they cannot charge for merely viewing the records. According to Donovan, those who use their own personal devices, such as a smartphone, to take photos of the records while reviewing them are essentially requesting copies.

But Gov. Phil Scott and Secretary of State Jim Condos say they understand the Supreme Court's decision quite differently.

"I don't agree with the position that the Attorney General's Office has taken on this," said Condos, who, like Donovan, is a Democrat. "I don't think it's right to charge a member of the public for taking a picture of a public record with their device."

According to Rebecca Kelley, a spokesperson for the Republican governor, Scott believes the Supreme Court's ruling means "we cannot charge for inspections." She added, "If copies are obtained during that inspection without the use of staff resources and no actual expenses are incurred, we would not charge in that scenario either."

Kelley said the governor would work with Secretary of Administration Susanne Young to make clear to state agencies and departments within the executive branch that they should follow Scott's interpretation of the Supreme Court decision, not Donovan's. The governor issued a verbal directive to that effect Tuesday morning during a meeting with his cabinet, according to Kelley.

For many years, youngsters at Burlington's Edmunds Elementary School paraded in costumes along Main Street or the field next to school to celebrate Halloween. Passing drivers often tooted their horns in appreciation and parents and pedestrians clapped.

The ritual won't be happening this year.

Friday afternoon, principal Shelley Mathias let parents know in her weekly newsletter that the parade has been deep-sixed.

"We will no longer be having a Halloween Parade. I know that this will be disappointing to some of our students, but there are enough students who are marginalized for any number of reasons that it isn’t appropriate to continue a tradition that has an effect of dividing students," Mathias wrote.