Each week when we compile The Scoreboard, we send out anemail to a number of friends, sources and other assorted scofflaws asking their help in identifying the week's winners and losers in Vermont news and politics. 

This week, every single person who replied suggested thesame name for our loser column: Gov. Peter Shumlin.

We’ve never seen that kind of uniformity.

So this time we’re going to switch things up a bit and startwith the losers. Without further ado, here’s The Scoreboard for the week endingFriday, May 24:

Losers:

Gov. Peter Shumlin — Politics and shady-looking land deals just don't mix. Ask Bill Clinton. Worse yet are rumors of FBI investigations. But the biggest problem for the governor in his dispute with neighbor Jeremy Dodge is that it reinforces the notion that he's a cold-hearted capitalist with little regard for poor Vermonters. Whether there's more to the story than meets the eye — and we suspect there is — this has simply been a terrible week for Peter Shumlin.

Chittenden County — It is one soggy mess.

Magic Hat — Wait, aren't Vermonters supposed to be the good guys in trademark disptutes? 

Winners after the break...

If you haven't picked up this week's print edition of Seven Days, you might've missed our special edition of the The Scoreboard, looking back at the 2013 legislative session's winners and losers.

Well, nothing's happened since then — except this:

Vermont's legislators have retreated back to their caves until next winter. Lobbyists are readying their invoices to cash out on the session. And Statehouse reporters, recovering from their epic benders following Tuesday's adjournment, are coming to terms with the fact that they'll have nothing to write about for another eight months.

And The Scoreboard's gone on vay-cay for the week.

So, if you're looking for a dose of winners and losers this week, we direct you back to Wednesday's paper, where you'll find out how everyone fared these last four months.

Here are this weeks winners and losers in Vermont news and politics:

Winners:

Gov. Peter Shumlin — After saying "no new taxes" for weeks, the wily gov managed to strike an agreement with legislative leadership Tuesday involving, um, no new taxes. Heck, he's even managed to convince most people he didn't try to raise $32 million in new taxes earlier this year!

Sen. Claire Ayer — The Addison County Democrat seemed on the verge of defeat Tuesday night when she was unable to draw a 16th vote to support her version of "End of Death with Digni-cide Choices" legislation. But the next day, she pulled not one but two rabbits out of her hat and pushed through a compromise on a 17-13 vote. Runner-up winners: Patient Choices Vermont lobbyists Adam Necrason, Amy Shollenberger, Jessica Oski and the rest of their team.

Migrant farmworkers — Who will soon have the right to drive. Runner-up loser: Rep. Duncan Kilmartin, who seems to think that'll help the drug cartels and terrorists.

Rutland — No joke: Rutland hit the big time this week... in The Onion. Runner-up winner: The Rutland Reader's Jim Sabataso for exhaustively chronicling Rutland's previous claims to fame. Most of which, it seems, also involved fleeting references in The Onion.

Losers after the break...

Who won and lost the week in Vermont news and politics? Behold, The Scoreboard for the week of Friday, May 3.

Winners:

Fletcher Allen Health Care — Nothing'll make your week quite like the gift of a $13 million property.

Jane Kitchell & Tim Ashe — The approps and finance chairs got their budget and tax bills through the Senate this week relatively unscathed. Both bills picked up bipartisan support from a handful of Republicans each — and both earned nay votes from Sen. Anthony Pollina (P/D-Washington), who evidently isn't going along to get along.

Labor — They lost battles this week over unionizing states' attorneys and requiring newspaper bosses to pay unemployment insurance. But on the biggest labor issues of the session — "Fair Share" and creating a home health care workers union — they won big.

Patrick Leahy — Vermont's senior U.S. senator hits the crème de la crème Sunday talk show this week with an appearance on NBC's "Meet The Press." But when will we next see him back in Vermont?

Seven Days — For coining the term, "flatlander cows."

Losers after the break...

Who won and lost the week in Vermont news and politics? Behold, The Scoreboard for the week ending Friday, April 26:

Winners:

Chikin — Everybody's favorite kale-eating t-shirt maker, Bo Muller-Moore, lost round one of his fight against Chick-fil-A this week. Apparently the U.S. Trademark and Patent Office thinks we're all too stupid to distinguish between kale and "chikin" — whatever that is.

Bankers, smokers and low-income workers — A last-minute proposal by Gov. Peter Shumlin to stick five large banks with a higher franchise tax rate seems to be going nowhere in the Senate, while the Finance Committee has put higher cigarette prices on the back burner. Most significantly, the committee's leaving alone the Earned Income Tax Credit, which Shumlin tried to gut.

Vermont newspapers and radio stations — They got a half-million-dollar infusion of cash earlier this year when the beverage industry went on a spending binge to kill the soda tax. Now those aren't empty calories.

Vermonters First — The state's left-leaning political establishment loves to poo-poo the conservative super-PAC-turned-lobbying-outfit, but it does so at its own peril. The group's latest mailer — it hit House Democrats who backed a trio of tax increases — shows it'll relentlessly target its opponents in the 18 months leading up to the next election.

F-35 opponents — The plane-haters nabbed a high-profile ally this week when Ben & Jerry's cofounder Ben Cohen scooped up the anti-Pentagon rhetoric outside Sen. Patrick Leahy's Burlington office. Runner-up loser: Leahy, who's refused to personally sit down with the opposition, but who was more than happy to take a phone call Tuesday from Cohen. Guess you gotta have Chunky Monkey bucks to get your calls returned!

Losers after the break...

Typically in this space we focus on the narrow little world of Vermont news and politics. But after an awful week in Boston, Washington and Texas — and with all eyes right now on Watertown, Mass. — we're broadening our focus a bit.

Here's the The Scoreboard for the week ending Friday, April 19:

Winners:

First responders, law enforcement officials and all the good people in this world

Losers:

Too many to name

Who won and lost the week in Vermont news and politics? These guys:

Winners:

Bipartisan bong rips — Plenty of Rs got down with the Ds and Ps as the House voted 98-44 to decriminalize up to an ounce of marijuana. Runner-up losers: Vermont political columnists who are running out of fresh — or dank — pot jokes.

Peter Galbraith — The Windham County senator didn't make many friends during his crusade against corporate contributions to political candidates, but the guy did get his amendment through the Senate. Runner-up loser: Senate President Pro Tem John Campbell for failing to stop Galbraith and flip-flopping on the issue.

Burlington Democrats — After a weeks-long stalemate, the other guys blinked first and Democratic council president Joan Shannon kept her job. Remember: their promise to turn over the presidency to a non-D next year only applies if the council remains split 7-7. Runner-up loser: Councilor Karen Paul, who pissed off members of her fragile coalition, prompting them to cut a deal with Shannon.

Losers after the break...

Who won and lost the week in Vermont news and politics? We thought you'd never ask.

Here's The Scoreboard for the week ending Friday, April 5: 

Winners:

Milton Elementary School students — They got to hang with Michelle Obama Thursday and help her plant the White House garden. But did they neglect to present her with an "Eat More Kale" t-shirt? Runner-up winners: WCAX's Bridget Barry Caswell for drawing national coverage of her sit-down with Obama and the Milton Independent's Jackie Cain for snagging a sweet photo of the real White House rock star, Bo Obama. 

Migrant workers — The Senate voted 27-2 Friday to grant them a "driving privilege card." And, in only tangentially related news, the Associated Press this week purged the term "illegal immigrant" from the journalistic lexicon.

Weed — Marijuana decriminalization smoked the legislature this week. House Judiciary is poised to approve a one-ounce threshold, while last year's top narcs — House Speaker Shap Smith and Senate Judiciary Committee Dick Sears — say they won't stand in the way.

Bird lovers — Gov. Peter Shumlin's weekly press conference went to the birds Wednesday. Really. Rather than talk budget and taxes, the gov spent half an hour promoting a new edition of the Vermont Breeding Bird Atlas. Runner-up losers: nighthawks, whip-poor-wills and meadowlarks, which are all on the decline in Vermont.

The Vermont Republican Party — After a year without paid staff — an election year, no less — Vermont GOP chairman Jack Lindley finally got his act together this week and hired a full-time political director: Texas native and recent Army vet Brent Burns. Runner-up loser: Green Mountain Daily's John Walters for his unwarranted, but typical, 3:22 a.m. trashing of Burns. Welcome to Vermont!

Hopheads — Heady Topper wins the Vermont Brew Bracket while Three Penny Taproom invades the 'Noosk.

Who won and lost the week in Vermont news and politics? Behold, a special Good Friday edition of The Scoreboard, for the week ending March 29:

Winners:

Wind — First it was a moratorium. Then it bolstered local control. Now it's just a study. Sure, anti-wind legislation passed the Senate this week, but only after its teeth were knocked out. Now look for the House to further defang it.

Gov. Peter Shumlin and House Speaker Shap Smith — In their escalating tax fight, both men win. By railing against the House's broad-based tax hikes, Shumlin looks like a fiscal conservative outside the Statehouse. Inside the building, Smith gets credit for standing up to Shumlin and opposing the governor's own proposed tax hike on working Vermonters. Runner-up losers: Shumlin, Smith and the Democratic Party, because other than people who read this blog, most Vermonters just hear a bunch of Dems arguing over how much to raise their taxes.

VPR's Kirk Carapezza — For shamelessly goading Shumlin into providing a little more color at Wednesday's weekly presser. Color he got.

Pot jokes — They didn't quite hot-box the Statehouse, but House Judiciary Committee members got to sample — or at least eyeball — a couple baggies of kind bud Thursday as the po-po educated them on what an ounce of pot looks like. As if they didn't already know!

Queen City partisanship — It's still looking like Democrats v. Everybody Else in the looming April Fool's Burlington City Council presidency showdown, as 7D's Kevin Kelley reported this week. But as Kelley asks, who would want the job?!

AP's Dave Gram — Oops! Turns out an administration official may have uttered that much-disputed $2 million figure after all, as the Burlington Free Press' Terri Hallenbeck discovered early this week.

Heady Topper & Switchback — After four rounds of voting, the Waterbury and Burlington brews are facing off in the finals of (SHAMELESS PLUG!) Seven Days' 2013 Vermont Brew Bracket, sponsored by Three Penny Taproom (think they'll give me a free Edward next time I'm in there for dropping their name?). Drink — I mean, vote — early and often.

Losers and ties after the jump...

Who won and lost the week in Vermont news and politics? 

Here's the Scoreboard for the week of Friday, March 22:

Winners:

Big Wind — The Senate's decision to put off until next week a vote on whether to subject renewable energy projects to Act 250 regulation suggests that anti-wind folks don't have the votes to pass S.30.

Vermont's 2002 congressional delegation — Ten years ago this week, the U.S. invaded Iraq with the permission of 77 members of the Senate and 297 members of the House. The only congressional delegation to unanimously oppose the use of force in Iraq in October 2002? Vermont's. Ten years later, Sen. Patrick Leahy, former senator Jim Jeffords and then-congressman Bernie Sanders are looking pretty wise.

Your car — House passes transportation bill, ensuring that roads will be paved and bridges fixed. Runner-up loser: Your wallet, 'cuz guess who's paying for it at the pump!

Burlington Free Press and Gov. Peter Shumlin — The gov signed legislation Wednesday allowing judges to force public employees who steal from their employers to forfeit some or all of their pensions. The new law stems from Freeps' public-records maestro Mike Donoghue's big scoop last year uncovering ex-state trooper Jim Deeghan's rampant time-sheet-padding.

The dead — Because cadavers have rights too, obvz.

Publicity stunts — Burlington Mayor Miro Weinberger's week at Burlington High School prompted important coverage of pressing educational issues. Or at least of Weinberger himself.

Rufus — The Seven Days office dog gets overdue press coverage as NECN's Jack Thurston discovers what slackers we are here at 7D HQ.

Losers after the break...