Updated at 2:59 p.m.

Two Burlington police officers who were placed on administrative leave following the fatal shooting of a shovel-wielding man earlier this month are returning to duty tomorrow, Burlington Police Chief Michael Schirling said, as preliminary investigations have showed they did not violate any rules or laws.

While the Vermont State Police and the Burlington Police Department are still reviewing the shooting death of Wayne Brunette in the New North End on November 6, early indications are that Cpl. Ethan Thibault and Cpl. Brent Navari acted appropriately, Schirling said. 

'They don't see any red flags," the chief said in an interview.

The officers are at a training today and will return to regular duty tomorrow, Schirling said.

Brunette was shot four times, the Vermont State Police announced this afternoon, and died of wounds to his torso.  

Thibault fired all four shots, Vermont State Police said. The rounds recovered from Brunette, 49, who had a history of mental illness, will be sent to the Vermont Forensic Lab for ballistic analysis.

Navari did not fire.

The Vermont Office of the Chief Medical Examiner ruled Brunette’s death a homicide — a medical definition, not a legal one. The formal autopsy report will be incorporated into the ongoing Vermont State Police investigation, which will be submitted to Vermont Attorney General Bill Sorrell and Chittenden County State’s Attorney T.J. Donovan for review.

It seemed like a normal day at JFK Elementary School this morning when I dropped my kids off for school. The only sign that today was different than any other was the larger-than-usual contingent of staff and administrators waiting to greet us as we approached. They welcomed both my kids by name — my daughter gave principal Mary O'Rourke a hug.

Looking at the scene, you’d never guess that hours before, the school was surrounded by police cars and officers with guns drawn.

About an hour after school let out yesterday afternoon, a home invasion was reported near the Winooski Educational Center, a complex that houses JFK, along with the Winooski Middle-High School. According to school officials, the Winooski Police believed two suspects fled in the direction of the school, prompting a lockdown for the students and staff remaining in the building. During the lockdown, someone inside the school called 911 to report that a gunman was inside.

Multiple law enforcement agencies responded and thoroughly searched the school. News of a possible gunman exploded on social media. Reporters and community members posted numerous updates and photos from the scene. Parents whose kids were in the after-school program raced to the scene, terrified about what they might find.

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In the fourteen months since Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans were killed in a terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee has become an epicenter of outrage over the incident.

Its Republican members have criticized the Obama administration for failing to keep U.S. diplomatic personnel safe and, they allege, for covering up details of the attack.

Last weekend, four committee members — including Congressman Peter Welch (D-Vt.) — traveled to Libya to review the State Department's progress in implementing security improvements to American embassies. It was a rare chance, Welch says, to put aside the partisan rancor and focus on substantive changes.

"The Oversight Committee, I think, unfortunately politicized what happened in Benghazi," he says. "But this trip, I thought, was an opportunity for two Republicans, two Democrats to start looking at this in a broader perspective and hopefully bring that back to the committee."

Joining Welch on the four-day trip to Libya, Egypt and Malta were U.S. Reps. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.) and Stephen Lynch (D-Mass.). Chaffetz, a conservative Republican who chairs an oversight subcommittee focusing on national security and foreign operations, has been particularly critical of the administration's handling of the embassy attack.

 Can't find a parking space in downtown Burlington?

You probably haven't looked in the right places.

About 35 percent of the nearly 8500 public and private parking spots in the Queen City are empty even at peak times, attendees at a "parking summit" were told on Wednesday.

Photo By Staff

Kelly Devine, director of the Burlington Business Association, noted that Burlington aims to introduce some major changes in its parking system in the coming years.

With improved signage, technological innovations and enhanced public-private partnerships, it should be possible to hook up many more motorists with available parking slots, city officials said at the meeting.

Kelly Devine, director of the Burlington Business Association, noted that one downtown garage with room for 100 cars is almost entirely unused after business hours. That facility is located underneath the Main Street Landing building on the waterfront and is accessible by turning right off King Street just before reaching the bike path, Devine explained.

Burlington aims to introduce some major changes in its parking system in the coming years, Devine said in an interview following the event held at the Hilton Hotel on Battery Street.

Gov. Peter Shumlin will travel to the nation's capital Thursday to address members of the Democracy Alliance, a fundraising alliance Mother Jones has called "the liberal answer to the Koch donor network."

Shumlin, chairman of the Democratic Governors Association, will deliver remarks at a Democracy Alliance conference, according to DGA spokesman Danny Kanner. He will then introduce two of the DGA's top recruits for the 2014 election: former Trek Bicycle Corporation executive Mary Burke, who is running for governor of Wisconsin, and Texas state Sen. Wendy Davis, who is running for governor of the Lone Star State.

Davis drew national attention in June when she spent 11 hours filibustering legislation that would have banned abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy and imposed new restrictions on doctors who perform abortions. She's expected to face off against Texas attorney general Greg Abbott to succeed Gov. Rick Perry, who's stepping down after three terms.

Vermont's high rate of suicide with firearms was the dominant theme of a well-attended and well-mannered forum held Monday night in Burlington City Hall.

Organized by advocates of gun-safety measures in a state with few firearms regulations, the event took place 50 yards from the site of a fatal shooting almost exactly two years ago. Josh Pfenning, 35, died on November 10, 2011, from a self-inflicted gunshot wound while camped in City Hall Park during the Occupy Burlington protests.

The way in which Pfenning died is not unusual in Vermont. With the exception of Pennsylvania, Vermont has the Northeast's highest per-capita rate of gun-related deaths, most of which take the form of suicide, said Eliot Nelson, a pediatrician at Fletcher Allen Health Care.

Vermonters are far more likely to kill themselves than one another, noted Sean Ackerman, a Fletcher Allen resident in child psychiatry. The state suicide rate stands at 16 deaths per 100,000 residents and the homicide rate is 1.6 per 100,000, he said, adding that more than half of suicides are carried out with firearms.

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Gov. Peter Shumlin said Monday he's "hopeful" the state's ailing health insurance exchange will be able to process payments electronically by the end of November. 

But citing his administration's inability to meet previous deadlines to fix that component of Vermont Health Connect, the governor declined to say when it would be fully functional.

"We're testing it right now, as you know. We're hopeful that those tests will continue to go very well," Shumlin said at a Montpelier press conference Monday afternoon. "As I've told you, I've learned a lesson as governor: I'll never say a date again. But I'm very hopeful that we'll have it up and running by the end of the month. That's my hope. I'm not promising. That's what we're working really hard to try and do."

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A divided and politically marginalized Vermont Republican Party on Saturday chose a new leader who pledged to turn the state GOP's attentions away from internal conflict and toward winning elections.

David Sunderland, a former Rutland state representative, was elected to succeed outgoing party chairman Jack Lindley, who was sidelined in September by health problems and announced last week he would not seek reelection.

By a vote of 48 to 30, Sunderland (pictured at podium) defeated John MacGovern, the party's 2012 candidate for U.S. Senate, to become the next chairman of the Vermont GOP.

"I think today what we can take away from this is that the Vermont Republican Party has voted for change — a change in direction, a change in tone, and we plan on going forward," Sunderland said after the election.

A Burlington police officer fatally shot a 49-year-old man in the New North End yesterday evening after his mother called police to report that he had been acting irrationally, authorities said.

Wayne Brunette, a longtime Burlington resident, was killed two minutes after two police officers arrived at the home he shared with his parents on Randy Lane, in a quiet neighborhood tucked behind the Lyman Hunt Middle School, police said.

Brunette approached the officers in a “threatening manner,” while holding a “long-handled pointed spade shovel," Vermont State Police Major Glenn Hall said at a late morning press conference inside the Burlington police station.

Corporal Ethan Thibault, a 12-year-veteran, fired his .40 caliber Glock, killing Brunette. It was the first time Burlington police have fired their weapons at someone since 1997.

Corporal Brent Navari, a 10-year-veteran, did not fire. Neither officer was injured. Brunette was pronounced dead at the Fletcher Allen Health Care emergency department.

Burlington Police Chief Michael Schirling (pictured) said that, while the investigation is in its infancy, authorities currently believe Thibault followed the applicable rules and laws in firing at Brunette.

Citing a desire to focus on his health, Vermont Republican Party chairman Jack Lindley announced Wednesday he will not seek reelection to his leadership post. The GOP party boss has been recovering from an unspecified illness since September.

"My time and energy is best spent working on building my strength and fully recovering," Lindley (pictured at right) told fellow Republicans in an emailed statement, which was first reported by the Vermont Press Bureau's Neal Goswami.

Lindley, who has led the party since February 2012, urged his fellow party members to elect former senatorial candidate John MacGovern as party chairman when the Vermont GOP meets this weekend in Montpelier. MacGovern is facing off against former Rutland state representative David Sunderland, the preferred pick of Lt. Gov. Phil Scott.

MacGovern, who unsuccessfully challenged Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) last November, said Thursday he was "deeply moved and honored" to earn Lindley's support. 

"We should not be ashamed of our values," MacGovern said in an emailed statement. "Our ideas, of a smaller, more limited government with more personal freedom and individual liberty and responsibility are winning ideas."