COVID-19

Rep. Campbell and Sen. Rush Present Bill to Overhaul Soldiers’ Homes After COVID-19 Deaths

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Sweeping legislation to overhaul operations of the state’s soldiers’ homes is moving ahead, steered by local state Rep. Linda Dean Campbell and state Sen. Mike Rush, chairs of the former Special Joint Oversight Committee on the Soldiers’ Home in Holyoke COVID-19 outbreak. The legislation addresses the 14 key findings and recommendations in the Special Joint Oversight Committee’s report that addressed longstanding and immediate issues at the Soldiers’ Homes that led to the 77 deaths from the COVID-19 outbreak at the Holyoke Soldiers’ Home in 2020. “This legislation defines comprehensive reforms for systemic and critical governing deficiencies that were present before the COVID-19 outbreak occurred and that created the perfect storm for this preventable tragedy,” said Campbell. “Governing deficiencies included no clear lines of chain of command, accountability and responsibility, among others.”

The legislation calls for elevating the secretary of Veterans’ Services to a cabinet-level position and removing the Department of Veterans’ Services from within the Executive Office of Health and Human Services; creating a statewide Veterans’ Homes Advisory Council to provide continuity, predictability and stability across all state-operated veterans’ homes and ensure the highest quality of care; creating local bodies to serve as community advocates for each home; establishing a consistent, transparent process for the appointment of each superintendent and deputy superintendent; requiring each superintendent be a licensed nursing home administrator; requiring a full-time specialist in infection control and emergency preparedness at each home; requiring annual performance reviews for all leadership positions; establishing a clear chain of command from superintendent to the executive director of Veterans’ Homes and Housing to the secretary of veterans affairs to the governor; among other measures. The proposal also requires regular situation reports to state officials during emergencies; regular meetings between the executive director of veterans’ homes and housing and the leadership at each home; add an ombudsperson and an emergency hotline to allow residents, their families and staff to communicate concerns and time-sensitive issues more easily, with whistleblower protections in place; direct the Department of Public Health to conduct inspections of each home twice per year; ensure mental health resources are made available to staff who worked at the Holyoke Soldiers’ Home during the outbreak in 2020 and that such resources are made available in the event of any future emergency; and more.

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Mass. Rivers Alliance Honors Rep. Campbell for Work on Combined Sewer Overflow Legislation

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State Rep. Linda Dean Campbell was one of three legislators recognized Sunday by the Massachusetts Rivers Alliance as a champion of river conservation who achieved big wins this year for the environment and public health. At the association’s annual celebration, Campbell, of Methuen, state Sen. Patricia Jehlen, of Somerville, and former state Rep. Denise Provost were honored for, what was described as, a notable victory in February when their sewage notification bill was signed into law. “It is no small thing to get a bill enacted into law in this state, and it’s especially rare to get a legislative win like this for the environment,” said Mass Rivers Executive Director Julia Blatt. The new law requires timely public notification when sewage enters a Massachusetts waterway, such as through combined sewer overflows. In a statement, Mass Rivers said it worked closely with the three legislators to build a broad-based, bipartisan coalition of state officials, municipal leaders and environmental advocates who helped to push the legislation across the finish line.

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DiZoglio, Backed by Former Fox News Employees, Renews Call Against Taxpayer-Paid ‘Hush’ Money

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State Sen. Diana DiZoglio, renewing her call to end the abuse of non-disclosure agreements, said taxpayers should not pay “hush” money to “silence employees and victims of abuse.”

DiZoglio testified Tuesday before the legislature’s Joint Committee on State Administration and Regulatory Oversight on legislation she sponsored to prohibits such agreements as a condition of employment or in a settlement agreement between a governmental body and employee or student. Lending their support for the bill during the hearing were journalist, author and empowerment advocate Gretchen Carlson and political strategist Julie Roginsky, both of the advocacy group Lift Our Voices. “It is sorely overdue that we make meaningful policy changes here in Massachusetts, not only to help those who have already been silenced but also to protect potential future victims from abusers who could be hiding in plain sight,” said DiZoglio. Lift Our Voices was founded by Carlson, Roginsky and Diana Falzone in an effort to end the practice of mandatory non-disclosure agreements, confidentiality provisions and forced arbitration that seek to silence workers who want to speak publicly about toxic workplace conditions. Carlson and Roginsky both sued former Fox News Chairman Roger Ailes for sexual harassment, while Falzone sued Fox News for gender discrimination.

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Gov. Baker is ‘Enthusiastic Supporter’ of COVID-19 Booster, But Said State Doesn’t Have Details

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The federal government plans to begin making COVID-19 booster shots available next month to adults who have already received both doses of a Moderna or Pfizer vaccine. Gov. Charlie Baker said plans for a booster program did not come up in a regular Tuesday call between governors and Biden administration officials “on all things vaccines and all things COVID.”

“First time I heard about it was when I got home last night and saw the news,” Baker said during a WGBH radio interview. “So, I have no guidance, alright, even though we spent an hour on the phone yesterday with all of the people who probably knew something about what this is all about, which really bums me out.”

Baker described himself as an “enthusiastic supporter of a booster program” and said that once Massachusetts has more information about timing and other details, the state will “move very aggressively to make sure that those who are eligible to get boosters get them.”

“I think it’s really important that we do it, especially based on some of the studies that have come out of other countries that are farther ahead of us with respect to vaccines,” he said. During a White House COVID-19 Response Team briefing Wednesday, top health officials said that while the three vaccines used in the United States are highly effective at reducing risks of severe disease, hospitalization and death from the coronavirus, data show that levels of protection against infection decrease over time. Booster shots, they said, extend the protection.

Haverhill

DiZoglio Uses Cuomo Resignation to Renew Push for Banning Nondisclosure Agreements

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State Sen. Diana DiZoglio yesterday continued her push for ending nondisclosure agreements on Beacon Hill, calling on the House and Gov. Charlie Baker to follow the Senate’s lead. The senator used New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s resignation, in her words, “as (a) reminder of the sexual harassment that all too often permeates in our own state government.”

She said in a prepared statement, “It is sorely overdue that we make meaningful policy changes here in Massachusetts, not only to help those who have already been silenced but also to protect potential future victims from abusers who could be hiding in plain sight.”

In 2018, during a debate on sexual harassment policies, DiZoglio revealed she had been a victim of a nondisclosure agreement herself, saying she signed one after being fired as a House aide years earlier. In yesterday’s statement DiZoglio added, “The practice of using taxpayer-funded non-disclosure agreements to silence employees and victims of abuse across our state government is a shameful one, and one that must be ended. Governor Cuomo’s actions should encourage Beacon Hill to hold up a mirror regarding its own complicit inaction on behalf of survivors. Powerful politicians should not be able to continue to silence sexual harassment survivors in Massachusetts.”

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DiZoglio Co-Files Five Bills to Boost Pay, Match Benefits for Lowest-Paid State House Workers

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State Sen. Diana DiZoglio has co-filed legislation aimed at increasing the salaries of Beacon Hill’s lowest paid staffers, calling it an attempt to reduce the “barrier for entrance into public service for members of underserved populations, for persons of color, for recent graduates for whom student debt is an insurmountable obstacle.”

DiZoglio and state Somerville Democratic Rep. Erika Uyterhoeven filed five bills to assist State House staffers. The legislation was drafted following an anonymous, voluntary survey created by State House staffers in various offices, alongside Beacon BLOC, a collective of black, indigenous and other people of color staff members, devoted to ending racial inequities among State House employees. Concerns were raised around compensation, financial security, monthly work expenses pre/post-COVID-19, pay equity and overall dynamics in the building. “We always hear about the need for diversity, equity and inclusion, yet don’t recognize outdated policies that make it difficult for those who don’t already come from a position of privilege to get a seat at the table. Many in low-income and gateway communities can’t afford to take a job that isn’t offering basics like health care coverage on day one—especially on the heels of the pandemic,” DiZoglio said in a statement.

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DiZoglio Seeks to Clear Name of North Andover Woman Convicted of Witchcraft in 1693

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State Sen. Diana DiZoglio is working at clearing the criminal record of a woman who lived 328 years ago in what is now North Andover

DiZoglio has a bill before the legislature’s Judiciary Committee that would exonerate Elizabeth Johnson Jr., who was convicted of witchcraft in 1693. In written testimony to the committee, DiZoglio said it’s not clear why the legislature and courts did not take action on behalf of 22-year-old Johnson after clearing others in 1711, 1957 and 2001. The Methuen Democrat speculates one possible answer is that because Johnson “was neither a wife or a mother, she was not considered worthy of having her name cleared.”

“Because Elizabeth was not hanged for her alleged crime, she was overlooked. Because she never had children, there is no group of descendants acting on her behalf,” DiZoglio said in testimony before the committee. DiZoglio said she was inspired to file the bill by North Andover Middle School teacher Carrie LaPierre, whose students researched the issue.

Haverhill

House Approves Sports Betting; Vargas Agrees, Saying It Already Exists for Border Communities

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The House overwhelmingly approved a bill to legalize sports betting in Massachusetts Thursday night—even hearing reasoning from Haverhill state Rep. Andy X. Vargas that border communities already have such gambling. The House voted 156-3 to pass its sports betting bill, something a bipartisan parade of representatives said was long overdue. “I represent a district which borders New Hampshire. In Haverhill, you can literally walk across the border into New Hampshire and place a bet. I know that my constituents who partake in sports wagering would rather place these bets in their homes and in their own state and would rather have any revenue collected going towards benefiting their home state of Massachusetts,” Vargas told his colleagues.