The fight over whether to base next-generation F-35 fighter jets in Vermont landed on the front page of the Boston Globe Sunday.

The focus of reporter Bryan Bender's above-the-fold story is whether Sen. Patrick Leahy — "one of the National Guard's most powerful political allies in Washington" — used his clout to secure the F-35 squadron for his home state.

Bender's answer appears to be yes — and he's got at least a couple insiders who say the same. The Globe scribe quotes an anonymous Pentagon official "directly involved with the review" of base criteria, who says in no uncertain terms that the Air Force cooked the books to please Leahy:

One of the Pentagon officials said in an interview that the lengthy base-selection process was deliberately “fudged’’ by military brass so that Leahy’s home state would win.

“Unfortunately Burlington was selected even before the scoring process began,” said the official, who asked that he not to be identified for fear of reprisals from his superiors. “I wish it wasn’t true, but unfortunately that is the way it is. The numbers were fudged for Burlington to come out on top. If the scoring had been done correctly Burlington would not have been rated higher.”

Bender's Pentagon sources — he makes clear there's more than one — tell him that the Air Force made several "errors" in its initial base review, and one source insinuates that the errors may have been intentional:

“It would be more costly to do these missions at Burlington,” one of the officials said. “They came up with this scoring model to be independent and stand up to scrutiny. But political promises were made.”

This isn't the first time an anonymous military source has cast doubt on the Air Force's base selection process. 

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Here's what's happening in Vermont news and politics this week. Got a newsworthy event for next week's calendar? Email by Friday to submit.

Monday, April 15

• At 10 a.m., Burlington bigwigs (mayor, police chief) and law enforcement will hold a press conference at the U.S. Attorney's office in Burlington on the "heroin epidemic," which has rather suddenly replaced prescription opiates as the scourge of Vermont. 
• That whole assault-weapons ban in Burlington thing? The city council's charter change committee takes it up today. At the very convenient time of 11:30 a.m. in city hall.
• Vermont's health care reform is important — but damn confusing. Hear Mark Larson, director of the Office of Health Care Access, explain it live at 5:25 on Channel 17.

Rest of the week after the break...

Federal, state and local law-enforcement officials have scheduled a Monday morning press conference in Burlington to outline new initiatives against the growing use of hard drugs in Vermont and the crimes associated with them.

The current scope of these problems "is like nothing any of us have ever experienced," a police chief with 30 years' experience in the state told a neighborhood meeting in Burlington last week.

Lianne Tuomey, head of the 24-member University of Vermont police force, added that methamphetamines have become part of the mix of illegal drugs used on the UVM campus and in the rest of the city. "We mirror the culture from which we come," Tuomey said in regard to drug use among UVM students.

Many local opioid addicts have switched to heroin from Oxycontin, a prescribed pain-killer, Burlington Police Chief Mike Schirling (pictured) said at the Ward 6 Neighborhood Planning Assembly meeting on April 11. The reason, he explained, is a change made in the Oxycontin formula by its manufacturer, Purdue Pharma, that has diminished the drug's attractiveness to abusers. Oxycontin has been re-engineered to decrease its potency when snorted or injected — which had been favored modes of ingestion among those seeking quick highs.

Heroin use has consequently burgeoned in Burlington, Schirling said. And the expense of maintaining this habit has fueled the upsurge in burglaries in the city during the past couple of years, he added. Schirling said a "mid-level addict" requires as many as 15 bags of heroin per day, each of which retails for $20 in Burlington. That equates to a yearly cost of about $100,000.

"That's what's driving these issues," Schirling said in regard to the rise in burglaries and other thefts in Burlington. "The No. 1 driver is opiate addiction." The BPD has had "some significant successes" in burglary-related arrests, the chief continued. But by way of analogy to the crime/drug "epidemic" in the city, Schirling added, "We're plugging fingers into lots of holes in a gigantic dam."

In this week's issue of Seven Days...

• On the cover: Vermont ACLU director Allen Gilbert is sounding the alarm about government intrusion. Is anyone listening?
• A small elementary school near the Canadian border bucks the achievement gap trend. What can other districts learn from the success of Montgomery's impoverished students?
• Rolling Stone reporter Matt Taibbi has issued several scathing reports on the perilous state of the financial industry. He's in Burlington for a town meeting event on too-big-to-fail banks with Sen. Bernie Sanders on Friday night.
• A bill in the House would offer Vermont student athletes greater protections from the effects of head injuries.
• Gun control efforts are dead at the state level, but Burlington isn't backing down from its push to ban assault rifles and high-capacity ammunition clips. Mayor Miro Weinberger even appeared in a PSA with other pro-gun control mayors.
• In Fair Game: Senate Democrats are regularly meeting outside the Statehouse in secret. Innocent strategy sessions, or violations of Vermont's open-meeting law?

Read these stories and more in print, online or on the Seven Days app.

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One week and six votes later, the Burlington City Council broke a deadlock Monday night and reelected Ward 5 Democrat Joan Shannon council president.

Shannon's selection came after her sole opponent, Ward 6 independent Karen Paul, pulled out of the race, saying a continued stalemate "is not in the best interest of the city." It also came after Shannon and her fellow Democrats promised to share power with the council's non-Democrats and cede to them the presidency next year if another tie occurs.

"I very much appreciate the spirit of compromise of this council," Shannon said after Paul ended her candidacy. "It really says that we're all trying our very best to work in the interest of the city of Burlington, to get to the business of the city and to not delay any further."

(Pictured: Shannon, second from back left, speaks with Councilor Kevin Worden; Paul, back right, speaks with Councilor Norm Blais.)

Here's what's happening in Vermont news and politics this week. Got a newsworthy event for next week's calendar? Email by Friday to submit.

Monday, April 8

• Burlington City Council. Shannon v. Paul. Round two. The gloves come off 5:30 p.m. at City Hall Auditorium.
• After that, at 7 p.m., a newly appointed panel tries to succeed where the Burlington City Council failed by avoiding a lawsuit and completing a mandatory redistricting of the city's seven wards. At Burlington High School. Channel 17 will carry both meetings live.
• At 7:30 p.m., VTDigger.org presents a talk by Dan Gillmor, columnist for the Guardian, a former Vermont Press Bureau reporter and an expert on new media. Alumni Auditorium at Champlain College. 

Rest of the week after the break...

Unlike a certain other 14-member Burlington policymaking panel, the city's school board had no trouble electing a chair in a vote held Tuesday night. Alan Matson, an independent financial consultant, unseated incumbent chair Keith Pillsbury in a 9-5 vote. This photo shows him in the chair's seat, next to superintendent Jeanne Collins.

There was none of the drama that had accompanied the city council's failure the previous night to agree on a leader. The school board session, held in the cafeteria of Burlington High School, drew a 25-member audience — hardly the standing-room-only crowd that turned out Monday evening to witness the council's 7-7 deadlocked presidential vote. The whole process of choosing a school board chair lasted about 15 minutes.

In remarks prior to the vote, Matson cited his work as head of two board committees — policy and finance — and promised to promote greater efficiency in the body's deliberations. Noting that school board candidates often run unopposed, Matson said he would strive to ensure "the time commitment is not so daunting that we put people off from running or from playing an active role on the board." He also said he would focus on improving communications with schools superintendent Jeanne Collins and on developing a long-term financial plan for the district.

Pillsbury, a retired teacher first elected to the Burlington board in 1987, told his colleagues he would seek "more rigorous evaluation and accountability of all employees" if he were chosen for a second two-year term as chair. Pillsbury added that he had sought to develop relationships with several groups involved with the schools, including "our budget critics."

Matson had nothing negative to say — or even imply — about Pillsbury's performance. But the longtime member was weakened politically when he barely survived a Town Meeting Day challenge for his Ward 1 school board seat by write-in candidate Kyle Dodson. Pillsbury also presided over the board during a period marked by diversity-related tensions — the school system has recently experienced major changes in the racial make-up of its student body.

Matson was gracious in victory. Referring to the "challenges" of the past year, he said of Pillsbury, "I have held him in admiration."

All the board members, as well as several district staffers in attendance, rose from their seats as they applauded Pillsbury's service to the schools.

Shortly after Burlington Mayor Miro Weinberger had declared a half-dozen times Monday night that the city is "moving in the right direction," the city council showed it was at an impasse over choosing a leader.

Councilors voted three times on whether Democrat Joan Shannon (right) or independent Karen Paul (left) should be president of the 14-member body. Each time, the seven Democrats, four Progressives, two independents and one Republican deadlocked 7-7. The Dems all voted for Shannon; everyone else voted for Paul.

A 15-minute recess ensued, during which councilors huddled in shifting groups. But when Chief Administrative Officer Paul Sisson, presiding as a temporary — and uncertain — chair called the meeting back to order, independent Councilor Sharon Bushor proposed that she and her colleagues take a week to confer and perhaps emerge with a consensus choice as president. The council agreed to reconvene on Monday, April 8, at 5:30 p.m. in city hall to vote again.

In interviews following tonight's meeting, councilors said no third candidate had been identified in private discussions as a possible compromise choice. But unless at least one member defects to the other side on the Paul-Shannon standoff, the council will have to come up with an alternate choice if it is to avoid displaying symptoms of Potomac Disease: a stubborn refusal to compromise.

While you nurse an Easter candy hangover, here's what's happening in Vermont news and politics this week. Got a newsworthy event for next week's calendar? Email by Friday to submit.

Monday, April 1

• At 7:10 a.m., House Minority Leader Don Turner is on "Charlie + Ernie + Lisa in the Morning" - WMVT 620 AM. At 8:10 a.m., the guest is Burlington Police Chief Mike Schirling.
• Congressman Peter Welch will confab with renewable- energy execs in Williston today to announce legislation on funding clean-energy projects. 12:45 p.m. at AllEarth Renewables.
• Showdown at the Burlington City Council: Joan Shannon vs. Karen Paul for all the marbles. 7 p.m. Mayor Miro Weinberger also delivers a state-of-the-city address.

Rest of the week after the break...

Who won and lost the week in Vermont news and politics? Behold, a special Good Friday edition of The Scoreboard, for the week ending March 29:

Winners:

Wind — First it was a moratorium. Then it bolstered local control. Now it's just a study. Sure, anti-wind legislation passed the Senate this week, but only after its teeth were knocked out. Now look for the House to further defang it.

Gov. Peter Shumlin and House Speaker Shap Smith — In their escalating tax fight, both men win. By railing against the House's broad-based tax hikes, Shumlin looks like a fiscal conservative outside the Statehouse. Inside the building, Smith gets credit for standing up to Shumlin and opposing the governor's own proposed tax hike on working Vermonters. Runner-up losers: Shumlin, Smith and the Democratic Party, because other than people who read this blog, most Vermonters just hear a bunch of Dems arguing over how much to raise their taxes.

VPR's Kirk Carapezza — For shamelessly goading Shumlin into providing a little more color at Wednesday's weekly presser. Color he got.

Pot jokes — They didn't quite hot-box the Statehouse, but House Judiciary Committee members got to sample — or at least eyeball — a couple baggies of kind bud Thursday as the po-po educated them on what an ounce of pot looks like. As if they didn't already know!

Queen City partisanship — It's still looking like Democrats v. Everybody Else in the looming April Fool's Burlington City Council presidency showdown, as 7D's Kevin Kelley reported this week. But as Kelley asks, who would want the job?!

AP's Dave Gram — Oops! Turns out an administration official may have uttered that much-disputed $2 million figure after all, as the Burlington Free Press' Terri Hallenbeck discovered early this week.

Heady Topper & Switchback — After four rounds of voting, the Waterbury and Burlington brews are facing off in the finals of (SHAMELESS PLUG!) Seven Days' 2013 Vermont Brew Bracket, sponsored by Three Penny Taproom (think they'll give me a free Edward next time I'm in there for dropping their name?). Drink — I mean, vote — early and often.

Losers and ties after the jump...