• Burlington code enforcement director Bill Ward runs a tight ship, holding landlords' feet to the fire to keep the city's housing stock up to snuff. And check out the sidebar to see tips for renters.
• Studies have shown racial bias in Vermont traffic stops. A police academy class is teaching new cops to overcome their internalized prejudices. 
• Public water is public water, right? Not in Essex or Shelburne — these towns are keeping nonresidents away from their beaches.
• No more dodgeball targets! Vermont gym teachers are reforming physical education to make it better for body and mind — for everybody.
• And in Fair Game: Vermont's congressional delegation is split on whether to cut off aid to Egypt amidst turmoil. Plus, Lt. Gov. Phil Scott's worries over the health care exchange, and media news from the Times Argus and Burlington Free Press.

Grab this week's issue in print, online or on the iOS app.

Uncertainty and anxiety now pervade a 23-year-old program involving the purchase and planned demolition of scores of homes in a high-noise zone adjacent to Burlington International Airport.

Several remaining neighbors affected by the emptying of those houses and subsequent vandalism to many of them expressed anger and worry at a South Burlington city council meeting Monday night.

Aviation director Gene Richards (seated in photo) repeatedly assured the council that Burlington, the owner of the airport, wants to "mend relations" with South Burlington and to ensure "a better tomorrow." But airport officials were unable to allay concerns about the future of the buyout program or the condition and fate of some 60 vacated homes.

These already-purchased properties are slated to be wrecked or moved away. But a lawsuit filed in Vermont Supreme Court is preventing implementation of that plan, airport planning and development director Bob McEwing (standing in photo) told about 100 residents attending the council meeting at the Chamberlin School.

The vacated homes are meanwhile being vandalized "across the board," added council member Pat Nowak. "Glass has been replaced again and again" in smashed windows in several houses, she said. South Burlington councilors have assessed the current state of about 80 properties in the high-noise zone, Nowak reported.

"We try to keep them secure," McEwing commented prior to Nowak's remarks, "but it's pretty tough." Richards added, "We spend an abnormal amount of resources to take care of those homes."

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Moved on from last summer's Democratic primary for attorney general?

Bill Sorrell hasn't.

After a federal appellate court ruled against the state Wednesday in its bid to shut down the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant, we reached out to Attorney General Sorrell for comment. His office, with the help of outside counsel, argued the case.

In a voicemail message in response to our call, Sorrell said he was "disappointed" that the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with a lower court judge that the state improperly considered radiological safety when it tried to close the plant. 

But Sorrell clearly wanted to focus on the positive.

In the same decision, the court reversed an earlier finding that the state violated Vermont Yankee owner Entergy Corp.'s constitutional rights by demanding lower energy prices. The court's reversal means that Vermont won't have to pay Entergy's considerable — and rapidly growing — legal bills.

That's a signficant victory, at least in Sorrell's eyes.

"We're very happy we didn't violate Entergy's constitutional rights, so consequently we're not on the hook for something in excess — and potentially well in excess — of $5 million of attorneys' fees for them," Sorrell said in the message.

And then the AG said something surprising: "For those who questioned the wisdom of taking the appeal to the 2nd Circuit, that was a great decision because we saved millions of dollars on the constitutional issues."

To whom was Sorrell referring?

You know the drill — another Wednesday, another Seven Days. No epic website outages here today (knock on wood!), so here are the news and politics stories you can read right now:

• More than 2000 low-income Vermonters could lose their housing due to the federal sequester.
• University of Vermont researchers are testing an experimental cholera vaccine by, well, giving people cholera.
• One Burlington Telecom advisor, claiming that Al Jazeera is "spreading Sharia," wants the service to carry conservative pundit Glenn Beck's TV station.
• Drones aren't just used for dropping bombs and spying! Here in Vermont, hobbyists are building their own remote-controlled flying machines for fun — and they swear these drones are innocuous.
• In this month's Poli Psy column, Judith Levine writes about the vagina, which has had a pretty up-and-down year so far.
• This week in Fair Game: Gov. Peter Shumlin jets to D.C. on the state's dime while asking workers to travel less. Plus, the gov talks pot decriminalization and the less-than-savory donors giving money to the DGA.

Grab it on newsstands, online or on the app.

State Rep. Kurt Wright criticized ice-cream baron Ben Cohen, who in turn had indirectly accused Burlington Mayor Miro Weinberger of lying.

And so it went at Monday night's speak-out on the proposed basing of the F-35 warplane at Burlington International Airport. The Burlington City Council meeting drew a placard-holding, finger-wiggling, standing-room crowd that generated almost two hours of public comments — to which city officials listened but did not respond.

Ward 7 Democrat Tom Ayres had earlier withdrawn a resolution that would have postponed a council decision on stationing the fighter jet at Burlington's city-owned airport. Ayres said private conversations had indicated that his proposal lacked support "across the spectrum."

The council's Progressives dissed the resolution because it did not explicitly oppose basing the F-35 at the airport. Democrats, who form the largest bloc on the council, had declined last year to oppose local basing, instead passing a resolution that amounted to a slightly weaker version of Ayres' aborted proposal. Ayres said during a meeting recess that council Dems, including himself, remain unwilling to go on record against local bed-down of the stealth fighter.

Speaker after speaker sounded familiar themes Monday night as the two sides clashed in their third showdown at a local city council in the past six weeks. Winooski's council voted 4-0 against the BTV basing option, while South Burlington's council reversed its earlier opposition and passed a resolution on a 3-2 vote in support of the planes.

But the stakes are potentially higher in Burlington, which owns the airport.

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In this week's Fair Game, we touched on Sen. Patrick Leahy's (D-Vt.) use of a "leadership PAC" to collect contributions from corporate and union political action committees.

As we noted, only a slim minority (14 percent) of the $136,000 he raised in his traditional campaign account last quarter came from special interest groups. But a majority (70 percent) of the $197,000 he raised for Green Mountain PAC during the first half of the year came from those sources.

We focused in the column on contributions Leahy reaped from the aerospace and weapons industry. But that's not the only sector forking over the dough. Here's a sampling of other groups who contributed $2500 or more to Green Mountain PAC during the first six months of 2013:

• Labor: IBEW ($5000), Laborers' Political League ($2500), International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers ($5000)

• Banking: Bank of America ($2500), Deloitte ($5000)

• Entertainment: Directors Guild of America ($2500), National Association of Broadcasters ($3500), News America/FOX ($2500), Commissioner of Major League Baseball ($5000), Sony Pictures ($5000), Walt Disney ($2500), Viacom ($2500)

• Telecom/Cable: Comcast/NBC ($5000), DirecTV ($2500), EchoStar/Dish Network ($2500), National Cable and Telecommunications Association ($5000), Verizon ($2500)

• Law: Alston & Bird ($5000), American Association for Justice ($5000), DLA Piper ($2500)

• Aerospace/Military: Boeing ($5000), General Dynamics ($5000), Lockheed Martin ($2500), Raytheon ($2500), United Technologies ($3500)

• Technology: GoDaddy ($2500), Microsoft ($5000), Netflix ($2500)

• Beverage: Miller Coors ($2500), National Beer Wholesalers ($500O), Wine and Spirits Wholesalers ($5000)

Again, those are just contributions to Green Mountain PAC. Some of those very same organizations also gave money to the senator's traditional campaign account. For instance, General Dynamics gave another $1000 to the Leahy for U.S. Senator Committee; GoDaddy gave another $2000; and Raytheon gave another $1000. 

Today's Seven Days is worth picking up just to see our writers in adorable little cartoon form on the cover, as illustrated by Rob Donnelly (right). But if you're looking for actual news, here's what we've got this week:

• Jasper Hill Farm isn't named for a place, but for a guy who was actually named Jasper Hill. But Hill's son calls the farm owners "grave robbers" and says they've cut off his access to water.
• Al Gobeille owns four restaurants. What makes him the right choice to be head of the Green Mountain Care Board?
• In Fair Game: One week after laying off 13 at the Burlington Free Press, is Gannett slowly killing its newspapers? Plus, Sen. Patrick Leahy rolls in the dough from special interests.
• And finally... Seven Days writers have been called many things, but "outdoorsy" is rare. We sent the team outside of their comfort zones. Worth a click to see Ken Picard riding a kiteboard.

Pick up your copy in print, online or on our app. And BTW, Northeast Kingdom-ites, did you know we now distribute more papers than ever in your neck of the woods?

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UPDATED THROUGHOUT AT 5:52 P.M.

The Burlington Free Press laid off 13 employees Thursday, including at least five newsroom staffers. 

Among them is longtime staff writer Matt Sutkoski, a general assignment reporter who wrote the popular Weather Rapport blog. Sutkoski joined the paper full-time in 1992.

"It's the way the business is. It kind of feels like it was inevitable," Sutkoski said. "Things happen. I'll just redirect myself and I'll be fine."

The layoffs also included reporter Elizabeth Murray, editor Emilie Stigliani, copy editor Jordan Kilty and photographer Maddie McGarvey, according to several sources familiar with the situation.

That's right. The 2013 Daysies are here — in this week's whopping, 152-page print edition of Seven Days. And that's not all.

In other news this week...

• Radical leftist Rachel Siegel wants her fellow Burlington City councilors to talk about racism, sexism and gun control. But will they listen?

• Twenty-one months and $700,000 later, Burlington's new accounting system still isn't fully functional. According to one city councilor, that's leaving the Queen City "flying blind."

• And in this week's Fair Game: Vermont media outlets could soon receive a $2.3 million stimulus, thanks to Obamacare; lefties go nuts after Howard Dean pens an anti-death-panel op-ed; and Bill Sorrell and T.J. Donovan may be cruising toward a rematch. 

The Service Employees International Union, which claims 1.9 million members nationwide, cited the cost, divisiveness and long odds it faced in its battle to represent what will become the the state's largest collective bargaining unit. 

With the SEIU out of the running, its sole opponent — the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees — is almost certain to prevail in an election scheduled to conclude in early October. AFSCME will then be charged with negotiating state subsidies and benefits for independent contractors who provide in-home care to elderly and disabled Vermonters.

"We were having a difficult time getting our message to be as well-received as we would have liked," explains Matt McDonald, who ran the SEIU's organizing campaign in the state. "You know, I think we were highly disadvantaged by the fact that we don't have members here in Vermont."