On Thursday, Leahy called for a hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which he chairs, to discuss the discrepancy.

"Federal policy and now state policies are in conflict and so that raises the question of how that conflict will be resolved," says spokesman David Carle.

Leahy's office also released a letter the senator sent last week to Office of National Drug Control Policy director Gill Kerlikowske seeking clarity on the White House's position.

"What assurances can and will the administration give to state officials involved in the licensing of marijuana retailers that they will not face federal criminal penalties for carrying out duties assigned to them under state law?" Leahy asks Kerlikowske in the letter.

Leahy's letter hints that the senator could be open to changing federal law to legalize small amounts of marijuana — at least in Colorado and Washington.

"Legislative options exist to resolve the differences between federal and state law in this area and end the uncertainty that residents of Colorado and Washington now face," he writes. "One option would be to amend the Federal Controlled Substances Act to allow possession of up to one ounce of marijuana, at least in jurisdictions where it is legal under state law."

But asked Thursday whether Leahy would support such an amendment, Carle demurred.

"He has not taken a view on decriminalization and does not weigh in on state matters," Carle said.

Vermonters opposed to basing the F-35 stealth fighter at the Burlington airport rallied outside and inside Senator Patrick Leahy's downtown office on Wednesday afternoon.

The 100-plus demonstrators who assembled near the Democracy sculpture on Main Street were asking to talk with the senator about his support for stationing up to 24 of the planes in Vermont. Opponents were also urging Leahy to convene a public hearing on the F-35's environmental impact, especially the effect of its engine noise on thousands of residents within earshot of the airport.

"No" and "no" was the response of John Tracy, Leahy's chief of staff (pictured below, after the jump). "He's in Washington and won't be speaking with you," Tracy told a a delegation of about a dozen F-35 opponents who crowded into a waiting area in the senator's fourth floor suite of offices at 199 Main Street. "We're not making a commitment to a public hearing at this time."

A few of the protestors peppered Tracy with questions and criticisms in an exchange that lasted about 20 minutes.

Here's the newsy stuff in this week's commemorative 12/12/12 edition of Seven Days...

• Librarians at Burlington's Fletcher Free Library are adapting to a changing job — which includes responding to the many homeless people that hang out in the library every day.
• With an app called SeeClickFix, the city of Burlington is taking a new approach to fighting curbside litter with the public's help.
• Meet Liz Miller, the former Department of Public Service head who now faces a tall task as Gov. Peter Shumlin's incoming chief of staff.
• In Fair Game: If Green Mountain Power execs didn't want journalists arrested on Lowell Mountain last year, what took so long to exonerate Barton Chronicle publisher Chris Braithwaite?
  
  And while the governor and two mayors visit a Florida air base to hear the F-35, learn about why a nearby, conservative-minded city is lukewarm towards the new jet.

Library photo by Matthew Thorsen

click to enlarge

That's what happened this week when Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) drew Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) in the second annual Senate Secret Santa. They were two of sixty U.S. senators — 40 Democrats and 20 Republicans — who took part in this year's gift exchange, which was organized by funny-man Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.).

Lee's gift to Leahy? (Keep in mind: There's a $10 limit.)

A Batman Snuggie.

"He just thought it was an appropriate gift, given the fact that Sen. Leahy made a cameo in the recent Dark Knight film," says Lee spokeswoman Emily Bennion. "And it's cold up in Vermont, so he thought that would be the perfect gift for Sen. Leahy."

Leahy (not pictured in Snuggie at right) has made appearances in four Batman films over the years.

If you think that's cute — and it is — wait 'til you get a load of the poem Lee wrote and sent along with the Snuggie:

click to enlarge

With the panel's current chairwoman, Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), set to move over to the Senate Budget Committee, the second-term independent is poised to assume the top spot on the Veterans Affairs Committee.

Writes Gaskell:

Sanders, 71, did not serve in the military and protested against the Vietnam War, but he’s had a seat on the committee since he came to the Senate in 2007 and gets high marks from veterans groups.

"Sen. Sanders has been a strong advocate for veterans issues,” said Tom Tarantino, legislative director for Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America. “He has pushed to expand veterans health care, opposed budget cuts that would trim military retirement and veterans disability cost-of-living allowances and co-sponsored the new Post-9/11 GI Bill, which dramatically expanded educational benefits for new veterans."

In addition to the Veterans Affairs Committee, Sanders currently serves on four Senate committees: Budget; Energy; Environment; and Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP). Though he chairs a subcommittee on green jobs, Sanders has never chaired a full committee during his six years in the Senate or 16 years in the House.

Sanders spokesman Jeff Frank said Tuesday that his office had nothing to announce, pending decisions by Senate leaders.

"Leadership has not made any announcements about chairmanships yet," Frank said. "Seniority says he's next in line. He's said he'd be interested in the chairmanship, but as of yet there hasn't been anything official."

In his escalating feud with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), gasoline magnate Skip Vallee is preparing to go nuclear.

The owner of nearly 40 Vermont Mobil stations has produced a 30-second political attack ad accusing Sanders of siding with "big business" to damage the state's environment. And he's threatening to plunk down a chunk of cash to put his ad on-air.

Sanders and Vallee have been duking it out since July, when the senator launched a campaign against fuel dealers he believes are overcharging for gasoline in northwestern Vermont. Sanders has singled out Vallee for attempting to block Costco's plan to build a self-serve gas station at its Colchester warehouse — just a stone's throw away from one of Vallee's own Maplefields gas stations.

"You ask, why does [the ad] seem like a political campaign?" Vallee says. "Because I think Bernie's undertaking a political campaign to take a very public position on the Costco process. And this is meant to counteract his advocacy for the project."

In the ad — which Vallee provided to Seven Days, but which has not yet aired on television — a narrator ruminates over Vermont's "treasured history of protecting our natural environment." In the background, a waterfall kicks up spray and a kayaker paddles Lake Champlain.

"Leaders like Sen. Patrick Leahy have fought to provide resources to make Vermont a cleaner place. That's why we are so disappointed with Sen. Bernie Sanders," the narrator says as the soundtrack turns darker. "Bernie sided with a multinational, billion-dollar corporation over Vermonters — supporting development that will increase traffic and idling emissions and phosphorous runoff in Lake Champlain, leading to more algae blooms."

The ad concludes by asking viewers to "take action and tell Bernie he's wrong to side with big business."

Here it is:

Here's what's happening in Vermont news and politics this week. Got a newsworthy event for next week's calendar? Email by Friday to submit.

Monday, December 10

• At 10:15 a.m., U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders holds a press conference in his Burlington office to discuss fiscal cliff negotiations and — what else? — gas prices. Stay tuned for Off Message updates.
• At noon, homelessness is the topic on Vermont Public Radio's "Vermont Edition," and the guests are COTS director Rita Markley and Angus Chaney, director of housing at the Vermont Agency of Human Services. Read Kathryn Flagg's story on the record number of homeless Vermonters living in motels.
• At 1 p.m., Campaign for Vermont — retired Wall Street exec Bruce Lisman's self-funded "policy campaign" — will release a set of proposed education reforms at the offices of Capital Connections, CFV's lobbyists.
• At 3:30 p.m., activists from Action.org say they'll be "connecting with" U.S. Rep. Peter Welch's staff at the congressman's Burlington office to "thank him for his support of a balanced approach to the fiscal cliff debate." Uh, don't you want to save that until he's actually voted?
• Today is International Human Rights Day and the Vermont Workers' Center is celebrating by unveiling its own financing proposal for Shumlicare. More info here.

Rest of the week after the break...

The Shumlin administration has hand-picked two Vermont reporters to tag along: Vermont Public Radio's Kirk Carapezza and the Burlington Free Press' Terri Hallenbeck.

Both news outlets say their participation in the trip is tentative, pending confirmation of financial arrangements with the Greater Burlington Industrial Corporation — a business group that favors basing the F-35 in South Burlington and which is sponsoring the trip to Eglin Air Force Base.

"I will be curious to see and hear them," Hallenbeck says. "But I go into it knowing that I won't necessarily be able to discern which one was louder and whether that means they'll be louder every day in the same place. I go conscious that [Shumlin] is being taken by people who are for this and really, really want it — and really want to convince people that this is a good thing."

VPR news director Ross Sneyd says he believes there's news value in sending Carapezza to record the takeoff and landing of the planes — but also to provide context about what the politicians experience during the trip.

"It's like any other story we'd report. We have to have a reporter there who can give context," he says.

In their latest love-fest — I mean interview —PBS' Bill Moyers and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) take on new rules proposed by the Federal Communications Commission which they fear would lead to further media consolidation.

Both men are up in arms about a draft proposal being circulated by FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski that would loosen restrictions preventing a single company from owning newspapers and broadcasting outlets in the same media market. Just yesterday, Sanders and Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) held a Capitol Hill press conference to blast the proposed changes.

In their conversation, which will air this weekend on Moyers & Company, Sanders and Moyers talk about how media consolidation has already impacted Vermont journalism. Reading from a May 28 New York Times story, Moyers notes that Burlington's Fox44 and ABC22 are technically owned by separate companies, but are essentially a single entity. (Yet another company is currently in the process of buying both stations, as we reported last month.)

"That's exactly what I'm talking about," Sanders says in the interview. "I can tell you that when I was mayor of that same city, Burlington, Vt., and we used to hold press conferences, you would have four or five or six different radio stations showing up. And, you know, we'd be talking about the school board or the city council — local issues. Now if we're lucky we'll have one radio station showing up, and that's true all over the United States of America."

Here's a preview of the Moyers show:

The city of Barre will pay a renter $10,000 — and pay her lawyers considerably more — for shutting off her water supply over her landlord's failure to pay the bill. The payments settle a federal class-action lawsuit brought by Brenda Brown and another Barre renter in 2011.

According to documents filed in U.S. District Court in Burlington this week, Brown will receive $10,000 within 30 days, pending approval of the settlement by the Barre City Council next Tuesday.

The city will pay Brown's lawyers at Vermont Legal Aid $59,862 in fees and costs. The Granite City will pay a second Barre renter, Earl Brooks, $500. He received an improper shut-off notice — but his taps were not actually turned off — because his landlord didn't pay the water bill.

Barre Mayor Thom Lauzon said he expects the council to approve the settlement when it meets next Tuesday. All but $500 of the payments will be covered by the city's insurer, the Vermont League of Cities and Towns, Lauzon said.

In July, U.S. District Judge Christina Reiss struck down Barre's five-year-old water shut-off policy as unconstitutional because it doesn't give renters an opportunity to appeal a shut-off notice.