The Peace & Justice Center is hiring a police officer to stand guard at a forum on "white privilege" in the Essex Junction library next week, after receiving a concerning phone message from someone who promised to alert "a certain neo-Nazi organization" about the event.

Kyle Silliman-Smith, the PJC's program manager, said she received the voicemail last Friday from an unidentified woman taking issue with an event called "Making Whiteness Visible." In the message, the caller questions why the workshop "singles out white people as having something wrong with them."

"I need to let you know that I plan to forward your event to somebody in the neo — in the, uh — in a certain neo-Nazi organization. I think they need to know about what you're doing," the caller says. "So you put that yellow star on yourself and not on me. Good luck with your workshop. I hope only friendly people show up. Bye-bye."

Full audio: 

The PJC event at Essex Junction's Brownell Library on April 7 combines the screening of Mirrors of Privilege: Making Whiteness Visible, with a talk about "white privilege." The event is being co-presented by a number of racial justice groups, including Conversation on Race Now and the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom.

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

Monday, March 25

• It's legislative breakfast day! At 7:30, Lt. Gov. Phil Scott gives a mid-session update to the Randolph Chamber of Commerce at Gifford Medical Center (then rides something called the "Maxi Taxi.") And at 8:15, Gov. Peter Shumlin is in St. Johnsbury to address the Northeast Kingdom Chamber.
• Live at 11, Reps. Terry Macaig (D-Williston) and Jean O'Sullivan (D-Burlington) are on Channel 17. Watch.
• At noon, University of Vermont prez Tom Sullivan will be on "Vermont Edition" to talk about his first year in office — and what he's doing to keep UVM "affordable" for Vermonters. Listen live.

Rest of the week after the break...

Who won and lost the week in Vermont news and politics? 

Here's the Scoreboard for the week of Friday, March 22:

Winners:

Big Wind — The Senate's decision to put off until next week a vote on whether to subject renewable energy projects to Act 250 regulation suggests that anti-wind folks don't have the votes to pass S.30.

Vermont's 2002 congressional delegation — Ten years ago this week, the U.S. invaded Iraq with the permission of 77 members of the Senate and 297 members of the House. The only congressional delegation to unanimously oppose the use of force in Iraq in October 2002? Vermont's. Ten years later, Sen. Patrick Leahy, former senator Jim Jeffords and then-congressman Bernie Sanders are looking pretty wise.

Your car — House passes transportation bill, ensuring that roads will be paved and bridges fixed. Runner-up loser: Your wallet, 'cuz guess who's paying for it at the pump!

Burlington Free Press and Gov. Peter Shumlin — The gov signed legislation Wednesday allowing judges to force public employees who steal from their employers to forfeit some or all of their pensions. The new law stems from Freeps' public-records maestro Mike Donoghue's big scoop last year uncovering ex-state trooper Jim Deeghan's rampant time-sheet-padding.

The dead — Because cadavers have rights too, obvz.

Publicity stunts — Burlington Mayor Miro Weinberger's week at Burlington High School prompted important coverage of pressing educational issues. Or at least of Weinberger himself.

Rufus — The Seven Days office dog gets overdue press coverage as NECN's Jack Thurston discovers what slackers we are here at 7D HQ.

Losers after the break...

Done scraping the ice off your windshield on this first day of spring? Good. Because there's a new Seven Days awaiting on newsstands, online and on the app. This week's lineup of news and politics features...

• In this week's cover story, Paul Heintz profiles Sen. Patrick Leahy. Vermont's senior senator wields more clout than ever on Capitol Hill, and he won't say what his future holds.
• Accused cop car crusher Roger Pion is one of many Vermont defendants ruled incompetent to stand trial due to traumatic brain injuries. But what happens to TBI-afflicted defendants after their charges are dismissed?
• Neighbors have raised concerns over a natural gas pipeline's proposed extension through Addison County and across Lake Champlain. Why is the pipeline so important to Ticonderoga's International Paper in New York?
• This week in Fair Game: Burlington's city council is evenly split between Democrats and everyone else — and the vote to elect its next president could very well end in a stalemate. Plus, Jim Douglas talks rebranding Republicans, and Paul Heintz shines a light on some job shuffling in the ranks of the state's government workers.

Cover photo by Charles Steck.

Burlington Mayor Miro Weinberger went back to high school today; he's making good on a campaign promise to move his office to Burlington High School for a week. This Monday through Friday, the mayor and his three-person staff will be conducting city business out of a fishbowl office belonging to BHS assistant principal Nick Molander.

Last night, the mayor tweeted a photo of his backpack as he prepared for his first day at school. 

Weinberger's schedule for the week includes riding the school bus, hosting his weekly coffee klatch in the school cafeteria and hosting a business roundtable on Wednesday in the school auditorium. A "press corps" of student reporters will reportedly be blogging about his time there, and posting updates on social media.

Is Weinberger playing hooky? Getting stuffed into a locker? Batting .400 for the school's baseball team? Get up-to-the-minute reports on his activities on Twitter, using the hashtag #miroBHS. 

Weinberger kicked off his week in residence at BHS at a schoolwide assembly Monday morning. Hundreds of students and community members turned out to see him get his keys, ID badge and a BHS ballcap. 

But orientation wasn't the only thing on the agenda — the mayor hoped to use the gathering to highlight the Burlington-Winooski Partnership for Change, a three-year, $3-million-plus effort to remodel Burlington's and Winooski's high schools, made possible by a grant from the Nellie Mae Foundation.

On hand to celebrate the partnership were a whole host of lawmakers and local officials, including Gov. Peter Shumlin and House Speaker Shap Smith (D-Morristown), as well as representatives from Senators Leahy and Sanders' offices.

Are you now, or have you ever been, a card-carrying member of the Communist Party? If so, don't even think about applying for a job as a Burlington cop.

In addition to the usual background queries included on the PHI, or "personal history information," section of the Burlington Police Department job application  — along with aliases, bankruptcies, criminal convictions, past and present drug use, dishonorable military discharges, and (yes, this is true) every crime you've ever committed since the age of 10 — question 48 asks the following: 

"ARE YOU A MEMBER OF, OR HAVE YOU EVER BEEN A MEMBER OF, ANY COMMUNIST OR SUBVERSIVE ORGANIZATION OR ANY POLITICAL PARTY OR ORGANIZATION WHICH ADVOCATES THE OVERTHROW OF OUR CONSTITUTIONAL FORM OF GOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES?

Whoa... Did I just back my DeLorean into a temporal vortex and land in the 1950s?

Nope. Evidently, the Burlington PD wants to know whether its job applicants have a fondness for Marx, Lenin, Castro or Kim Il Sung.

Happy Monday, news and politics geeks. We're getting to crunch time in the Statehouse, Burlington's mayor is going back to school, and Seven Days is running this year's Vermont Brew Bracket — a subject near and dear to many of your hearts, we know. Here's what you should add to the calendar.

If you have an event you want to see on next week's calendar, email Andy Bromage with details.

Monday, March 18

9:45 a.m.: As I write this, Burlington Mayor Miro Weinberger is moving his office to Burlington High School. He'll be there all week to connect with students and teachers and promote something called the Partnership for Change, and we'll highlight more of the interesting events in this here post.

6 p.m.: The Burlington Board of Finance and City Council hold their Monday meetings at Burlington High School.

It's crossover week in the legislature, when deadlines become real, so winners and losers are changing quickly. We'll have more when the dust settles, but for now here's the Scoreboard for the week of Friday, March 15:

Winners:

Manners: Here in Vermont, even our crooks are nice.

Senate Government Operations Committee — After considering a "campaign finance reform" bill that would've drastically increased candidate contribution limits, the committee came to its senses Thursday, Green Mountain Daily's John Walters reports.

PETA — For getting more press than they deserved from their anti-fishing publicity stunt. 

Moretown residents — The Agency of Natural Resources is dumping the dump.

Losers after the jump...

After less than two years in the volunteer position, party chairman Jake Perkinson unexpectedly announced Wednesday that he plans to resign from the post on Saturday. He said vice chairwoman Dottie Deans of North Pomfret would lead the party on an interim basis, until the party elects a new chair.

The 42-year-old Burlington lawyer cited competing professional and family obligations and said the party would be just fine without him. While he hinted that he'd "had discussions with people" about possible job opportunities, he has no other immediate plans at present.

"I've always got things both from a business and a personal perspective I'm interested in pursuing, and the reality is the party takes a lot of time," Perkinson says. "The party's in a great position right now to go forward, and I don't have the arrogance to think I'm the only one to move it forward."

Vermont's cities and towns will see a few newcomers taking office this week after Town Meeting Day. Here's to small-town democracy. It's also gun-control advocates' turn to rally at the Statehouse on Wednesday, and the week ends with St. Patrick's Day on Sunday. (Here's a reminder that you shouldn't drink green beer and you REALLY shouldn't drink Irish car bombs on Sunday.)

Andy Bromage is off this week, so send your submissions for next week's political calendar to me instead.

Monday, March 11

7 p.m.: The Burlington City Council meets for the first time since Town Meeting Day. See the agenda here.