Burlington has cracked another "Best place to (insert whatever here)" list. But the Queen City's latest superlative is not as one of the top burghs to raise a family or for the highest rate of smug Prius drivers per capita. According to the folks over at the Daily Beast, BTV ranks as the 25th booziest city in the country. (Milwaukee, Boston was number one, FYI.) 

I was initially surprised, and a little offended, we only ranked 25 — behind the likes of Cleveland and Fargo, no less. That is until I remembered that Burlington is also routinely named among the healthiest cities in the country. So that either means the boozehound portion of the population seriously gets after it to make up for the teetotalers — a notion supported by the study's finding that 19.4 percent of the local populace are binge drinkers — or that Burlingtonians have an uncanny ability to snowshoe/ski/kayak/save the planet/raise kids with devastating hangovers. Either way, slaínte!

The local music scene was deeply saddened by the news that one of Burlington's preeminent turntablists, DJ A-Dog, was diagnosed with leukemia in mid-December. A-Dog, (a.k.a. Andy Williams), 37, is currently undergoing chemotherapy at the Fletcher Allen Health Center in Burlington. Fortunately, he was diagnosed in the early stages of the disease. Still, he'll be hospitalized for about a month, followed by outpatient treatment. And like most working musicians, he doesn't have health insurance.

To help foot what promises to be a hefty bill, the Burlington music community will come together tonight, Thursday, January 3, at Club Metronome in Burlington for "Friends For A-Dog," the first of what is likely to be several benefit shows in support of Williams. The showcase features a slew of local talent including DJs Craig Mitchell, Disco Phantom and Big Dog, EDM collective Bonjour Hi and punk rockers, Rough Francis, among many others.

If you can't make the show tonight, but still want to lend a hand, A-Dog is accepting donations here. Additionally, rumors are beginning to circulate regarding future benefit shows at various venues around town, and we'll have more details on those as they become available. 

In this week's issue of Seven Days, now available in print and online...

• More homeless Vermonters than ever are currently living in motels. Critics say that's not helping them find permanent homes.
• The feds crack down on Vermont businesses that are failing to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act.
• Some magazines and books are banned behind bars in Vermont, although exactly which ones are forbidden seems to vary depending who you talk to.
• One Vermont teen is sharing her story of how the foster-care system failed her. With the closure of one social-service agency, the state's foster-care system is facing new struggles.
• In Fair Game: Sen. Bernie Sanders is taking a hard line against Medicare cuts in fiscal cliff negotiations, but Sen. Patrick Leahy and Rep. Peter Welch won't go that far. Plus, the secretary of state proposes new campaign finance regulations, and local politicos find new jobs.

Illustration by Stefan Bumbeck

In this week's print edition of Seven Days, you'll find these bits of news:

• In Fair Game: the new cops and courts reporter at the Times Argus is a convicted sex offender — and the TA doesn't want to talk about it.
• Vermont environmentalist Bill McKibben
  and his allies are pushing divestment as the next big weapon in the fight against climate change.
• Vermont's future medical marijuana dispensaries will likely face money woes in the face of high licensing fees, few patients and federal laws that consider them illegal.
• Speaking of pot: A former New York City prosecutor, now a Vermont Law School professor, has launched a new blog to examine drug policies, and their consequences, in the United States.
• One year after the Occupy movement, activists are turning to a new trend: offering free food to the needy.
• And just for fun, find out what Seven Days writers have on their wish lists for Vermont. (Paul Heintz wins the award for least practical suggestion.)

Write-in candidate for governor Annette Smith amped up her rhetoric on wind energy today during an appearance on WDEV-FM's "The Mark Johnson Show," comparing wind turbines to "a terrorist" landing in your community.

"Don't shoot the messenger. I'm sorry, I thought wind was going to be part of the solution," Smith told the radio host. "When you work on the wind issue, and you go into these communities — it's like a terrorist has landed in your community."

Here's audio of the quote:

Smith: "Don't shoot the messenger."

Smith, who is waging a write-in campaign as an independent after narrowly losing a write-in campaign for the Progressive nomination, appeared on Johnson's show to talk about her campaign and her choice to remain at the head of the nonprofit advocacy group Vermonters for a Clean Environment, among other topics.

Smith's no stranger to strong words about wind development. In March, she told me developers are "making climate-change victims out of the people who live around the projects" — to which climate change activist Bill McKibben, a supporter of wind development, retorted that there are plenty of people and places around the world that better qualify as victims.

CLAIM: “Montpelier is keeping a $5 billion secret. Why? Because the truth will result in the largest single tax increase in state history.”

 — Television commercial from conservative super PAC Vermonters First

FACTS: So what’s the secret? The super PAC Vermonters First is referring to the state’s current annual health care expenditures, including private insurance and federally funded programs, which total $5 billion. If Vermont moves ahead with a publicly financed universal health care system, residents would pay taxes instead of insurance premiums to cover the cost.

Correction: Our good buddy Nathan Burgess over at the Stowe Reporter informed us that Rutland was apparently not the first city to prohibit medical marijuana dispensaries. Stowe passed a prohibition in June.

Rutland has apparently become the first municipality in Vermont to officially prohibit medical marijuana dispensaries within its borders.

The Rutland Herald's Gordon Dritschilo reports that Rutland's board of aldermen on Monday voted unanimously — and without debate — to pass an ordinance banning medical pot facilities from setting up shop within city limits. A state law passed in 2011 permits four state-sanctioned dispensaries in Vermont; to date, the state has approved two, one in Burlington and the other in Waterbury.

More than a year after scores of Franklin County residents began reporting bizarre and unexplained medical problems, state and federal health officials have concluded there's no evidence to link those ailments to formaldehyde use on Vermont's dairy farms.

The Vermont Department of Health (VDH) and the federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) have both released studies saying there's no causal connection.

However, the activist who first began documenting these medical issues and brought them to light is challenging that conclusion, saying that the public air sampling the studies were based on were flawed. The VDH report, issued today, can be found here. The ATSDR report can be found here. Additional background info from VDH can be found here.