In this week's issue of Seven Days, starring local musician Jim Rooney on the cover...

• A loophole in Vermont law means downloading child porn is illegal, but merely viewing it is not. Lawmakers are looking to change that.
• Two contests for the South Burlington City Council could determine the future of a number of big issues there, from the F-35 to a development freeze.
• Some local students are attending high school in Québec, with tuition assistance from Vermont.
• Trouble sleeping? Maybe you need to have someone watching you sleep at the Sheraton Burlington.
• In Fair Game: Doug Racine made his career on fighting poverty, but now he's the unlikely lead pitchman selling Gov. Peter Shumlin's welfare cuts. Plus, how can you fight the influence of super PACs? Give more money to the parties themselves, of course. 

Find your copy on newsstands, at sevendaysvt.com or in the App Store.

UPDATE POSTED BELOW:

The Democratic machine that helped elect Miro Weinberger mayor of Burlington and pushed Gov. Peter Shumlin to a landslide victory last fall is humming again.

And by humming, we mean dishing out the nasty to its political enemies.

The Vermont Democratic Party has fired off two missives in the past week aimed at Ward 2 city council candidate Jane Knodell, an old-guard Progressive hoping to reclaim the seat she held for 14 years. She's facing Democrat Emily Lee, a neighborhood activist and vice president at Merrill Lynch.

Last Friday, the Dems issued a press release attacking Knodell (pictured) for voting against a symbolic resolution supporting the decriminalization of marijuana in 2009, and for saying during a recent candidate forum that she couldn't remember a single vote on which she differed from Republican former councilor Kurt Wright.

Then, on Wednesday, the party went after Knodell for what it called a "golden parachute" she's receiving during a leave of absence from the University of Vermont, where she served as provost and will return as a professor in 2014. As Seven Days reported last week, and the Burlington Free Press expanded upon on Wednesday, Knodell will be paid her salary of $270,000 through June — when her contract as provost was set to expire — followed by 12 months' pay at the professor's salary of $150,000 during a year's leave of absence.

"Knodell's golden parachute sounds like an elite, big-city retirement plan, not one that comes from an organization like UVM that exists to serve Vermonters — and that receives taxpayer money to do so," Burlington Democratic Chair David Scherr said in a statement. "At a time when tuition is going up and budgets are being cut, it is hard to understand why Knodell would choose to profit from a golden parachute at the expense of workers and students."

Progressive City Councilor Max Tracy, who is managing Knodell's campaign, hadn't seen the press releases until Seven Days asked him for a reaction to them on Wednesday, but he responded forcefully.

"We had every intention of bringing a positive, issue-based campaign that emphasized Jane's unbelievable record of public service and her ability to execute for Ward 2," he said. "Unfortunately, party hacks have decided to take it in a decidedly negative direction because they realized there was no way that Emily was going to be able to match Jane's tremendous amount of service to the Old North End."

The second-in-command at the Burlington Free Press newsroom has landed a new gig.

The Freeps reports that Associate Editor Mike Kilian has been named executive editor of the Gannett-owned Daily Times of Salisbury, Md. Kilian will also oversee eight weekly newspapers and the website Delmarvanow.com.

He starts the new gig on March 4, the Freeps reports.

From the story:

Kilian joined the Burlington Free Press in fall 2010. In Vermont, he planned and edited coverage recognized in Best of Gannett, Associated Press Media Editors and Sigma Delta Chi contests, including First Amendment work on Vermont’s embezzlement scourge and on poor oversight of search warrants, breaking news and features coverage of Tropical Storm Irene, and online coverage of the nation’s first fatal shooting at an Occupy encampment.

Executive editor Mike Townsend lavished praise on his number two — in a gruff, terse newsman sort of way.

“I am proud of Mike. He will be missed at the Free Press,” said Burlington’s executive editor, Michael Townsend. “He was the best assignment editor I’ve ever hired.”

Incidentally, if you're wondering where the heck Salisbury, Md., is, it's here.

Kilian tells the Freeps that he wants to increase enterprise reporting in Maryland  and will "aim high" when it comes to investigative and "First Amendment" reporting. He also says he'll expand the use of social media at the papers.

Kilian did not immediately return a phone call Tuesday evening, and an email came back with an auto- reply message that said he was out of the office until Wednesday, February 20.

Grab a bottle of your favorite spring water and sit down with this week's print or digital edition of Seven Days, featuring these news and politics stories...

• The most interesting race of Town Meeting Day 2013 might be in Burlington, where former Progressive council president Jane Knodell and newcomer Democrat and banker Emily Lee face off in Ward 2's city council contest.
• As automatic license plate readers see more use among the state's law enforcement officers, legislators are considering a bill to regulate the technology in response to privacy concerns.
• This week's cover story: Famously free-spirited Goddard College has had its ups and downs through the years. Can new president Barbara Vacarr stablize the school without sacrificing its quirks?
• In media news, three well-read winter sports magazines make an unlikely home in Jeffersonville.
• And in Fair Game, Vermont's "death with dignity" bill lives another day in the Statehouse, while Vermont's congressional delegation wants answers from Obama on the use of drones.

Read it all on the new Seven Days app for iPad and iPhone.

After grappling with concerns about constitutional rights and drawing a distinction between "behaviors" and "type of individuals," Burlington's city council voted unanimously Monday night to initiate what a Church Street Marketplace official describes as "a timeout for adults."

The new ordinance empowers police to issue a citation exiling an individual from the Marketplace. It specifies that a no-trespass notice can be handed out only to a person engaged in illegal actions such as disorderly conduct, property damage, public consumption of alcohol or possession of banned drugs. A first offense would result in banishment from the pedestrian mall for the remainder of a day; a second citation puts the Marketplace off limits for 30 days; and a third ostracizes an offender for up to one year.

Advocates argued that the new measure is needed because current penalties have not adequately deterred illegal behaviors on Church Street. Outdoor Gear Exchange owner Marc Sherman told councilors that potential customers don't want to expose their children to the "reality show at Church and Cherry" — the location of Sherman's store.

Councilors then debated what could be interpreted as an offensive or illegal "reality show."

Rachel Siegel, a Ward 3 Progressive, proposed stripping from the ordinance references to "inappropriate" or "antisocial" behavior. These terms are "extremely subjective," Siegel argued, noting that years ago when she was a Marketplace peddler, she regarded one store's amplified tape loop of Alvin & the Chipmunks as "antisocial."

Ward 4 Democrat Dave Hartnett added, "I don't want it to apply to people who have purple hair."

If you’re drunk and belligerent on Church Street, it could be a while before you're allowed to return.

That's the goal of a proposed ordinance, which comes up for a vote tonight by the Burlington City Council. If approved, the new rule, sponsored by city councilors Vince Dober (R-Ward 7), Sharon Bushor (I-Ward 1) and Chip Mason (D-Ward 5), would give police the authority to issue no-trespass warnings and citations for "anti-social behavior...[that] enhances a sense of fear, intimidation, and disorder within the Church Street Marketplace District."

Under current law, police can issue a no-trespass order on Church Street only if the offensive or illegal behavior occurs indoors or on private property, such as a restaurant, bar, store or in the mall.

Burlington Police Chief Mike Schirling describes the ordinance, which has been talked about downtown for years, as a creative tool for preventing "repetitive and poor behavior." In most cases, it wouldn't require police to arrest offenders, then dump them into the court system. Instead, he says, the new rule would act as a deterrent to those who want to be downtown. Police would have the discretion to issue a no-trespass order for as little as one day, or for as much as one year.

The new ordinance is modeled on those already in place in City Hall Park and Fletcher Free Library. Schirling notes that in City Hall Park, where the ordinance took effect just 18 months ago, police have already seen a "notable decrease" in their call volumes.

"What we found is what we had hoped," Schirling says. "In City Hall Park there have been very few arrests or the need for very few trespass warnings issued. The very fact that [the ordinance] exists is enough to change behavior."

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

Monday, February 11

• At 7:10 a.m., "Charlie, Ernie & Lisa" host Baylen Linnekin, the founder of KeepFoodLegal.org discussing the state's proposal to tax sugar-sweetened drinks. On WVMT 620 AM.
• At 7:30 a.m., the Lake Champlain Regional Chamber of Commerce and Greater Burlington Industrial Corp. hold a legislative breakfast at the Sheraton on Burlington. On the menu: Burlington Mayor Miro Weinberger and Lt. Gov. Phil Scott.
• At 12:30 p.m., Gov. Peter Shumlin speaks at the Addison County Legislative Luncheon at the Bristol American Legion. Break-open tickets for everyone!
• At 7 p.m., the Burlington City Council meets to take up, among other business, a new and expanded no-trespass ordinance to kick troublemakers off Church Street. 

Rest of the week after the break...

Feeling in the mood for fancy pizza and fancier drink, I put on my Prada shoes and Armani jacket and drove my Porsche down to American Flatbread Burlington Hearth last night.

Just kidding.

I wore my ragged Burton parka and insufficiently-insulated jeans and walked there with snot frozen to my face. Anyway, there I found the holy grail of Vermont beer snobs and elitists, as shouted out by Gov. Peter Shumlin himself: the actual Gucci beer.

More specifically, it was the Gucci Cru, a Belgian dubbel-type ale brewed by Zero Gravity Craft Brewing. Naturally I had to order one to go with my special buffalo chicken flatbread. Like most Zero Gravity beers, it was stellar; a little fruity in the way Belgian beers should be, and nice and malty without being too sweet for my taste buds (full disclosure: I'm normally a hophead).

Best of all: A full pour of Gucci Cru did, indeed, cost $5. Right on, Jeb Spaulding.

click to enlarge

Opponents of basing the Air Force's next-generation fighter jet in Burlington have a new trick up their sleeves: They want the state to compensate homeowners whose property could be devalued if the F-35 comes to town.

"I mean, you can't have it both ways," Rep. George Cross (D-Winooski) said at a Statehouse press conference Thursday morning, arguing that the plane's proponents should be ready to dish out the cash to anyone harmed by the basing.

"The point is if you are a legislator — if you are a Vermonter who supports the F-35 — then you must also support the notion that if you're wrong and, in fact, it is harmful and it has grave adverse impacts on people who live in the impacted zone, then in fact they deserve to be compensated in some fashion," Cross (pictured above) said.

In a bill he plans to introduce in the House next week, Cross proposes to create an "F-35 Adverse Impacts Compensation Board" that would be charged with "awarding compensation to property owners, landowners and other persons harmed or damaged by the noise and other adverse impacts" of the planes.

This week's Seven Days is the annual love and marriage issue. (That's the Pinterest-inspired cover over on the right.) Rest assured that despite the wedding bells, this week's news and politics stories are as contentious as ever.

• The State Police Advisory Commission exists to hold state law enforcement accountable. Critics say it's failing in its mission.
• One gun control measure in the Statehouse already sputtered out this year, but here comes a new one, tackling high-capacity ammo clips, background checks and more. Does it stand a chance of passing?
• New details have been revealed in the 2011 case of a prostitution ring for migrant farmworkers — including new customers and co-conspirators.
• In Fair Game: Gov. Peter Shumlin stands by his much-maligned plan for new childcare subsidies. Plus, more global trips for the governor, the Legislature takes on the F-35 and a former Massachusetts governor settles down in Vermont (not the one that just ran for president).

Lastly, one more reminder that if you've got an iPad or iPhone, you can get all the page-flipping satisfaction and pretty layouts of the print edition with our new app. Click here to download it.