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

Pork, towels, scammers, former govs, vets and one lucky reporter.

Here's the Scoreboard for the week of Friday, August 23:

Winners:

Pork Tornados — Sen. Leahy rolled through Northfield and White River Junction Thursday and left a trail of federal largess in his wake. 

Vets, state workers and the state budget — All three dodged a bullet this week when the feds inspected the Vermont Veterans' Home and gave it a passing grade, sparing it a loss in Medicare and Medicaid funding. Runner-up winner: Sen. Bernie Sanders, who used his perch as Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee chairman to press the feds on funding.

Rosetta Stone — Gov. Peter Shumlin's gonna have to brush up on his Mandarin before traveling to China next month to sell visas for cash — ahem, I mean, seek overseas investment for job-creating projects in Vermont.

Ted Brady — After 13 years on Sen. Patrick Leahy's staff, the loyal staffer's in line for a plum federal patronage post: director of the USDA's Vermont and New Hampshire rural development office. 

Solar City — Rutland will be brighter than Vegas by the time Green Mountain Power's done with it. 

John Dillon — The Vermont Public Radio reporter went canoeing on Mirror Lake and passed it off as work. We'd never try that!

Tie Score:

Sandy Baird — The Burlington lefty is Glenn Beck's new BFF. But, um, does anybody actually watch TheBlaze?

Losers:

Scam artists — Mac Parker got 55 months this week, while Louis Soteriou got seven years. 

Vermont workers — The unemployment rate increased in July for the third month in a row, according to figures released this week. And, as the Rutland Herald reported, the total number of jobs in Vermont has been dwindling for much longer.

Howard Dean — On a trip to Iowa presumably meant to hype up presidential speculation, the former gov put the kibosh on Dean 2016 by essentially endorsing Hillary Clinton. Then, on Friday, the political group he founded, Democracy for America, laid off six employees. Runner-up winner: Howard Dean, who may be playing the long game for a cabinet post in a Hillary administration.

Madeleine Kunin — She lost her towel!

The Vermont Alliance for Ethical Healthcare — The anti-death-with-dignicide crowd released a bizarre new ad this week seeking to repeal a law permitting terminally ill patients to end their own lives, as the Burlington Free Press' Terri Hallenbeck first reported. But wait! You can't repeal a new law until the next biennium — meaning 2015 — right?!

The Morrisville drive-thru scene — 'Nuff said.