VSEA.org

Dr. Robert Pierattini is head of psychiatry at Fletcher Allen Health Care. He has long voiced concern that [Gov.] Shumlin’s plan to create a regionalized psychiatric care system would diffuse expertise and provide fewer acute care beds than the state had before Irene.
“We’re turning away a record number of people who take admission,” he told the legislators. “We’re running at the maximum census we can manage.

Dave DeBoer was a long-time VSEA activist, who worked for the Department for Children and Families in St. Albans. VSEA members may remember him from a VSEA VOICE article in 2007. Dave received a kidney donation from one of his co-workers, Janet Suker. Here’s what Dave told the VOICE at the time about Janet’s donation:

"I think that Janet’s donation is just the most wonderful thing. I’m optimistic that after the surgery, I’ll be able to go off dialysis and return to a normal life. I’ll be especially excited to be able to travel again and see my family. It’s all just so amazing!"

Rest in peace Dave.

WCAX Stories About Dave & Janet

"Restore Our Communities is a campaign to reduce the number of Vermonters in prison, end Vermont’s use of private prisons, and bring back to Vermont those incarcerated out of state."

“We have a very real fear that, left unchecked, this [VLRB] decision invites management to misapply the plain language of our union contracts and thus deny state workers the benefit of their bargain,” Mitchell said. “I say that because we believe the decision overlooks the plain meaning of existing contract language by ignoring that Waterbury State offices were ‘completely closed’ after August 29, 2011, and creating a new definition of the terms ‘State offices and facilities’ out of whole cloth.”