When Seven Days' Ken Picard covered the state's little-understood Public Service Board last year, he referred to its three members as "Vermont's most powerful men you've never heard of."

Come October, those three will remain all-powerful — but they won't all be old white dudes.

On Monday, Gov. Peter Shumlin appointed Rep. Margaret Cheney (D-Norwich) to replace David Coen, who's retiring after 18 years on the board. She'll be charged with overseeing Vermont's regulated utilities, which include everything from electric power to telecommunications to pipeline gas.

After seven years on the House Natural Resources and Energy Committee — including four as its vice chairwoman — Cheney (pictured here) says she's looking forward to her new assignment, which begins when she's sworn in on October 1.

"It builds on a base of knowledge I've been accumulating over the last seven years. Working on energy issues, I feel like I've almost earned an advanced degree," Cheney says.

So much for niceties! 

Hours after former treasury secretary Lawrence Summers withdrew from consideration to lead the Federal Reserve on Sunday, one of his sharpest critics, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), fired off a parting shot. 

"I applaud Larry Summers for withdrawing his name from consideration," Sanders said in a written statement sent to reporters Sunday evening. "The truth is that it was unlikely he would have been confirmed by the Senate."

Oh, snap!

"What the American people want now is a Fed chairman prepared to stand up to the greed, recklessness and illegal behavior on Wall Street," Sanders continued, "not a Wall Street insider whose deregulation efforts helped pave the way for a horrendous financial crisis and the worst economic downturn in the country since the Great Depression. The Fed now must help develop policies which create millions of decent-paying jobs and rebuild the middle class."

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Yes, I know. You're all tired of reading about the Vermont congressional delegation's tortured positions on potential Syrian air strikes, which — at least for now — aren't gonna happen.

Believe me. I'm tired of writing about them.

Buuuuuuuut... Sen. Bernie Sanders' regular "Bernie Buzz" e-newsletter crossed the transom earlier today and something about it struck me as a little odd. Here's the lede:

In the midst of widespread public opposition to military strikes against Syria, which Bernie shares, President Obama seized the opportunity to explore a proposal for international monitors to take over Syria’s arsenal of chemical weapons. Bernie welcomed the president’s new approach.

Sanders "shares" "widespread public opposition" to the strikes?

From what I recollect, Sanders never actually came out in opposition to Obama's proposed air strikes. Sure, he talked Ed Schultz's ear off on a near-daily basis on MSNBC about his reservations. He said time and again that he was hesitant to get "involved in a bloody and complicated civil war in Syria." 

But every time I asked him or his staff whether he'd decided to vote against the strikes, they brushed off the question.

If he runs for reelection this fall, Vermont Republican Party chairman Jack Lindley can expect a battle.

According to several top GOPers, Lt. Gov. Phil Scott and his merry band of moderate Republicans have been beating the bushes in recent months to drum up a challenger to Lindley (Pictured at right). 

"I think we need a change," Scott says, before dropping the inevitable stock-car metaphor. "It's nothing against Jack. I think he's tried to do the best he can, but it's almost like a change in crew chiefs on a racing team or a change in coaches or managers on a baseball team. Sometimes you need to change things up to get better results."

So who might challenge Lindley?

"There's a few people that have shown some interest, and I don't think we've decided right now," Scott says. "But obviously I think there are a number of people who would like to see some changes in the party, so we're hoping to have a candidate."

Among the names Seven Days has heard bandied about are Chittenden County Republican Party chairman Jeff Bartley, former Chittenden representative Jim Eckhardt, former Rutland Town representative David Sunderland and 2012 Franklin County state senate candidate Joe Sinagra.

* Updated throughout at 3:55 p.m. *

The Vermont National Guard's Camp Ethan Allen has been selected as a finalist to host a potential East Coast missile defense facility, according to the office of Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.).

The Jericho site was one of five chosen by the Department of Defense's Missile Defense Agency to contend for the system, which is designed to destroy nuclear-armed, intercontinental ballistic missiles. The facility would be operated by the Department of Defense — not the Vermont Guard — and could host 20 interceptors.

Leahy said Thursday morning he would oppose Camp Ethan Allen's selection as a missile defense site. 

"I’ve always felt that the multiple billions spent on missile defense are a monumental waste of money, on technologically challenged systems, and I am emphatically against putting one of these sites in Vermont," Leahy said in a statement.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Congressman Peter Welch (D-Vt.) and Gov. Peter Shumlin joined Leahy later Thursday in criticizing the Pentagon's announcement. 

"My first impression is that this is a very bad idea and, for a wide variety of reasons, I do not believe that it will ever happen," Sanders said.

"This is absurd," Welch added. "It's the wrong location for a bad idea and dead on arrival."

Said Shumlin, "Vermonters are well-served by our federal delegation's thoughtful involvement and deep experience in these issues, and I agree with Senator Leahy, Senator Sanders and Congressman Welch."

All four men are strong supporters of the Pentagon's proposed basing of F-35 fighter jets in Vermont.

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Calling himself the "transparency governor," Peter Shumlin on Wednesday identified who he met with privately last Saturday at a Democratic Governors Association retreat in Manchester.

As we reported in this week's Fair Game, Shumlin and three fellow Democratic governors wined and dined five- and six-figure donors to the partisan electoral organization last weekend at the Equinox Resort and Spa. Between official events, according to lobbyists who attended the gathering, the governors met privately with some of the DGA's top donors.

Last Thursday, DGA spokesman Danny Kanner claimed that Shumlin "has no scheduled meetings or events between breakfast and dinner on Saturday." Asked again Monday who Shumlin met with over the weekend, Kanner declined to answer the question.

Seven Days put the question to spokespeople for Shumlin, New Hampshire Gov. Maggie Hassan, Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy and Washington Gov. Jay Inslee. Only the Washingtonian's office responded.

Inslee's communications associate, Lisa Harper, said in an email Monday, "The governor's visit to the DGA this weekend was on his personal time and not an event our office was involved with." Asked who might be able to answer the question, Harper said her office doesn't "interface" with the appropriate person and could not provide a name.

This week's Seven Days has something new attached to it: augmented reality! Now you can interact with the old-fashioned print edition with the help of a smartphone or tablet. All you have to do is download the Layar app and scan whenever you see the little symbol, and the page will come to life. In the screenshots below, you'll see what happens to the cover...

With Layar, dancers start to dance across the paper! Whoa! We are living in the Harry Potter universe, people.

Once you're done with that, there's lots of good news and politics content for your consideration, too.

• What has Champlain Valley parents peeved? A proposal to shorten summer vacation and redistribute those days to "intersession" periods during the school year.
• The South Burlington City Council election held earlier this year was unusually contentious, and it may have included a campaign-finance violation by the council's chair.
• In Fair Game, Gov. Peter Shumlin wined and dined fellow Democratic governors and big-money donors in Manchester last weekend — but our own Paul Heintz got thrown out. (See the post below on this blog for more on that.)
• The long-dormant, waiting-for-redevelopment Moran Plant on Burlington's waterfront isn't good for much these days, but at least it makes a good muse for these artists.
• In this week's WTF column, we try to find the Indiana Jones-worthy story behind a "sacred" space that threatens to turn Norwich cadets to dust.

With Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) at its helm, the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday sought clarity from a top law enforcement official on how to reconcile conflicting federal and state marijuana laws.

At a Capitol Hill hearing, the committee zeroed in on the Department of Justice's announcement last month that it would permit Colorado and Washington to host a regulated marijuana industry. The two states passed referenda last year to legalize recreational use of the drug by adults.

Deputy Attorney General James Cole, a star witness at the hearing, issued a memo Aug. 29 advising prosecutors to focus enforcement on those who sell the drug to minors, distribute it to states where it remains illegal or use state laws as a cover for drug trafficking.

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* Updated below with new comments from Sen. Patrick Leahy *

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Congressman Peter Welch (D-Vt.) voiced a cautious optimism late Monday that the United States might yet find a peaceful resolution to its standoff with Syria.

The comments came after a frenetic day of diplomacy and public relations, in which U.S. and Russian officials signaled a willingness to avert a showdown by convincing Syria to surrender its chemical weapons to international monitors. That development prompted Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) to postpone a test vote previously scheduled for Wednesday on whether to strike Syria.

In a written statement released late Monday, Sanders said he "appreciate[s] that the majority leader delayed a vote and that President Obama is prepared to work with Russia to have Syria turn over control of its chemical weapons to international monitors." 

While Sanders has yet to explicitly state his opposition to Obama's proposed strikes, he has expressed grave reservations about the prospect in countless interviews with the national news media. 

"Most Americans would support an effort that could remove chemical weapons from Syria without American military involvement in another Middle East war," he continued in the statement. "I urge the president and Russia to work vigorously to achieve that goal."

Welch, meanwhile, addressed the developments Monday night during an hourlong "telephone town hall meeting" with Vermonters. 

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The Vermont politician with arguably the most diplomatic experience in the Middle East won't have a chance to vote this week on whether the U.S. should strike Syria.

That's because former ambassador and veteran diplomat Peter Galbraith now serves in Vermont's state senate, whose foreign policy jurisdiction ends at the New Hampshire border.

But if he could vote, Galbraith says, he'd oppose President Obama's proposed strikes.

"We should not, because the airstrikes won't accomplish anything," Galbraith says. "They are not going to degrade the Syrian government's ability to use the weapons. They are not going to change the military balance. So they're really about making a statement, and that's not, in my view, an appropriate use of military force."

Galbraith knows a thing or two about chemical weapons. Twenty-five years ago this month, while serving on the staff of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Galbraith traveled to the Iraqi-Turkish border, where he uncovered evidence of Saddam Hussein's gassing of the Kurds. That discovery led to Senate passage of the "Prevention of Genocide Act of 1988," which Galbraith credits with prompting Hussein to halt his use of chemical weapons.