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CB:I know that there has been some back-and-forth regarding the financial situation of the office. What is the status of the federal grants that seem to be taking forever?
JP: That's pretty much it. I know the DOE grant has been fully funded; the people at the Department of Education have been very helpful. Dr. (Ellen) Plummer has been working with the people at the Department of Justice and members of Congress who represent this area, Congressman Boucher and Congressman Goodlatte have been enormously helpful in trying to help find a way to pry that money loose from the Department of Justice, right now we're still waiting on it. That having been said, the remarks that have been attributed to both Larry Hincker and Charles Steger at the very beginning still hold true: 'We need to do this.' We'll find the resources to run this office, period.
CB: Do you know what has been done the past year to make it work?
JP: It clearly was, robbing Peter to pay Paul. I don't know which Peters were robbed. All I know is, we're here.
CB: The future of the office, what is in store for the next five years, 10 years?
JP: Well, we're going be here for a while. Who knows how long 'for a while' is, the folks at A&M told us that they had work that went on for five or six or seven years and, again, they were set up a little differently. So it's very clear that there is a need to continue this kind of a function for the foreseeable future. How long that is I think is going to be determined largely by events and circumstances and certainly for so long as there are students at school here who were here on April 16, 2007, I can imagine that this office is going to be here as well. That having been said, just like in a business, if the economy continues to go south and the state appropriations continue to be reduced, then a lot of people have to make difficult decisions about things. The resources used to fund this office, aren't used to fund something else. But we're going to be here for as long as necessary to continue the work that we're doing.
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Why would VT pick someone who has spent his career destroying people's health & lives with the tobacco industry? Is it the years of deception & chicanery? What, if any, qualifications does Mr. Poole possess that uniquely position him for this role? Was anyone else considered or interviewed for this position?
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