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.

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.”

CityPlace Burlington developers have met the city’s first set of demands to get the long-delayed project back on track.

Brookfield Properties wired the city $192,000 on October 7, the first of three deadlines set by Mayor Miro Weinberger in a September 27 letter that demanded the company make good on its promises.

“They have fully and timely complied,” Weinberger said. “It’s a step in the right direction, and it’s a step toward restoring some confidence in them and in the project.”

The Burlington City Council passed a resolution Monday that asks members of the charter change committee to consider expanding voting rights to noncitizens.

The measure passed 10-2 with Council President Kurt Wright (R-Ward 4) and Councilor Ali Dieng (D/P-Ward 7) voting no.

Councilor Adam Roof (I-Ward 8) introduced the resolution in part to increase civic participation among Burlington's sizable refugee population. He said the issue is timely because the legislature will consider a similar charter change request for the city of Montpelier once lawmakers reconvene next year.

“It is my hope Burlington can be at the table while they do so,” Roof said.

The Burlington City Council on Monday will consider a resolution that would revive the issue of noncitizen voting in local elections.

Councilor Adam Roof (I-Ward 8) sponsored the measure, which asks the city's Charter Change Committee to consider expanding the right to vote to "all citizens of Burlington, regardless of citizenship status." The resolution requests the committee report back to the council by the end of November. If the council approves it, voters could weigh in on Town Meeting Day in March 2020, Roof said.

"All residents have the right, in my eyes, to participate in a democratic process, and the highest level of participation in that process is being able to cast your vote," he said.

The Vermont Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on October 22 in a case about the Burlington Telecom sale.

The Burlington City Council approved the BT sale to Indiana-based Schurz Communications in 2017 for $30.8 million. The Vermont Public Utility Commission approved the deal in February.

It's not uncommon to bump into Burlington's favorite son, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), strolling down Church Street or grocery shopping at Hannaford. But it's not every day that the presidential candidate is spotted brunching in the Queen City with an even bigger liberal superstar.

That was the case Saturday morning when U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) — aka AOC — joined Sanders, wife Jane O'Meara Sanders and campaign manager Faiz Shakir at Burlington's Penny Cluse Café.

According to owner and chef Charles Reeves, who was working in the kitchen that morning, Sanders is a semi-regular and "usually gets the buckwheat pancakes with blueberries." Ocasio-Cortez ordered scrambled eggs with rye toast and home fries, Reeves reported.

"They're totally regular people when they eat," he said of Sanders and O'Meara Sanders. "And we don't make a big deal about it."

What was up for discussion Saturday morning was less clear. Sanders' campaign did not respond to a request for comment and Seven Days could not reach an Ocasio-Cortez spokesperson, though her office confirmed the meeting to CNN.

Burlington's only low-barrier homeless shelter will be under new management this winter.

ANEW Place, a transitional housing organization based on North Street, will run the low-barrier shelter on the corner of King Street and South Winooski Avenue. The 37-bed facility is open from November 1 to April 15 each year and is available to anyone. Other Queen City shelters allow only sober people to drop in, except in emergencies.

The nonprofit is taking over from the Community Health Centers of Burlington, which ran the shelter for the last three years. ANEW Place's board of directors approved the decision earlier this month.

Executive director Kevin Pounds said his organization focuses on helping the homeless find permanent housing but also recognizes that a warming shelter is "a means to an end."

"We do feel compelled to do something and not just sit by," he said, adding, "If there isn’t a low-barrier shelter in town, it’s very difficult for somebody to survive on the streets here through the winter."

The drivers have spoken: The City of Burlington will widen the too-tight intersection at St. Paul and Maple streets in response to numerous complaints from motorists that a redesigned curb there is causing havoc.

Known as a "bump-out," the extended curb design is meant to lessen the road-crossing distance for pedestrians. It's just one feature of the city's Great Streets Initiative, which aims to create friendlier roadways for walkers and cyclists in the six blocks contained by Maple, Battery, Pearl and South Union streets. The ongoing construction project on St. Paul Street, from Main to Maple, is the city's first Great Streets endeavor.

The Green Mountain Transit driver who was fired after ordering Burlington school children off his bus on May 23 is back on the job.

Union leaders successfully challenged the driver's termination in a labor grievance, and he returned to work in August.

"We followed a contractual grievance process with our union partners and he was reinstated," Jon Moore, GMT's interim general manager, said Tuesday morning after a regularly scheduled board meeting. 

In a separate development, two parents of kids involved in the May incident have filed a complaint with the Vermont Human Rights Commission.

A parent originally drew attention to the incident by posting on Facebook that the driver had singled out children of color and ordered them off the bus for "singing and clapping."