INNER-CITY NEWS

INNER-CITY NEWS July 27, 02,19, 2016 THE INNER-CITY NEWS - January 13,2016 2021- August - January 2021

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Why Reopen

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THE INNER-CITY NEWS - January 13, 2021 - January 19, 2021

Parents, Teachers Ask: Why Reopen Now?

by EMILY HAYS

New Haven I ndependent

Over 30 parents and teachers asked why some public schools are reopening during the peak of the Covid-19 second wave, when vaccines are right around the corner.

City health officials answered that the district is reopening only for young students, who will not affect transmission levels, according to a large body of research. This rationale convinced a majority of the New Haven Board of Education that they did not need to stop the opening.

“Why now? What has changed since November? We’ve gotten more evidence. What we’ve learned over the last two months is that it would be safe for this specific group,” said New Haven Community Services Administrator Me-

hul Dalal.

Monday night was the first Board of Education meeting since Superintendent Iline Tracey announced that public schools would reopen for young students, students with severe cognitive disabilities and a few English learners.

The virtual meeting was at capacity.

Over 40 parents and teachers spoke over the course of one and a half hours. The vast majority urged the school board to reconsider reopening in-person classes.

“I don’t feel the school system should be sending any of our students back to school when there is Covid-19 uptick.

Vaccination is around corner and that will begin to make students and teachers safe,” said parent Sean Reeves. “We can wait a few more months. It’s not going to harm us as much as it already has.”

New Haven Federation of Teachers

President Dave Cicarella said that his union members overwhelmingly oppose reopening school.

“Our biggest concern is the reliance on data, which is raw and still evolving,” Cicarella said. “We recognize that this was not a callous decision, but no reasons separately or collectively outweigh the safety of students or staff.”

However, the Board of Education ultimately decided, on a 4-3 vote, not to vote on reopening. Those in favor of a vote were Darnell Goldson, Tamiko JacksonMcArthur and Larry Conaway.

Jackson-McArthur asked why the district could not postpone reopening for another six weeks, to give teachers time to get vaccinated in the next phase of vaccines.

Mayor Justin Elicker and City Health Director Maritza Bond explained that

THOMAS BREEN FILE PHOTO City Community

Services Administrator Dalal: “The research supports that elementary school kids can return to school safely.”

many people are included in Phase 1B and that New Haven is already running out of each shipment of the vaccine early in the much smaller first phase.

Board member Matt Wilcox clarified that this meant it could be months before teachers and other school staff members get their vaccine, even if they make an appointment as soon as their link to sign up goes live. He also clarified that half of New Haven families still want to sign their child up for in-person school.

“I deeply respect our organized parent groups. I also respect the number of parents willing to make that decision,” Wilcox said. “If things aren’t ready for Jan. 19, if local conditions change, Dr. Tracey or Director Bond, will you use authority to push off the date?”

Yes, absolutely, Bond responded.

Watch the meeting below.

Hamden Police Chief John Sullivan Sworn In

by COURTNEY LUCIANA New Haven I ndependent

Fifty Hamden officials, residents, and community members gathered on Wednesday afternoon for the swearing-in ceremony of Police Chief John Sullivan and three new Hamden police officers.

Mayor Curt Balzano Leng started off the commemoration at the Hamden Memorial Town Hall by recognizing Sullivan’s achievements.

“This comes at a time when challenges that face all governments and all local police departments are very serious,” Leng said. “With these challenges and more, John Sullivan reported for duty with purpose and confidence. His and his team’s ability to deliver the great reforms and improvements that we need can make a real impact on public safety in our town.”

Sullivan, who grew up in Hamden, has been on the force for 25 years. Judge Lubbie Harper, Jr. swore in Sullivan while noting the higher purposes of his role

The Sullivan family.

COURTNEY LUCIANA PHOTO Judge Lubbie

Harper administers the oath.

“Just to name a few, Sullivan portrays accountability and transparency,” said Harper. “I say to you, Chief, I know you will work tirelessly to provide public safety and to create an efficient and effective

police environment. May you fulfill your responsibilities to the needs of the Hamden community.”

Sullivan told the crowd that his parents were not happy with his decision to become an officer back in 1995.

“After a long conversation, they realized that they weren’t going to change my mind. They said to me, ‘Don’t be a bad person. Don’t be a bad cop,’” Sulli-

van said. “I knew exactly what they meant when they said that. They were way ahead of everyone in police reform. Everyday when I put the uniform on, I think of that conversation.”

Sullivan vowed to promote more community-based initiatives. Strengthening Police Community Partnerships (SPCP), a project of the U.S. Department of Justice, has established a council in Hamden that will have its first meeting on Jan/ 16. The meeting will focus on concerns raised by residents about policing in Hamden.

“We will work together to find solutions to any of the problems that they come across,” Sullivan said. “It’s a diverse group of people that we pulled together to be on the council. We have business people, people with disabilities, law enforcements, government, and clergy. We tried to reach out to everyone in the community to be a part of this so that everyone’s voice can be heard.”

Officers Eduardo Diaz, Chris Kaplan, and

Michael Vivenzio were also sworn in.

Vivenzio, an officer for four years, and Kaplan, for five years, have transferred from the Bridgeport Police Department. Diaz had been an officer for 29 years for the New Haven and New Britain forces.

“I think for me, it’s getting to be engaged with the community,” Kaplan said. “Also, the most recent issues have been car thefts, so to be able to curb as much of that as possible.”

“We want to do our part and try to help out the best that we can to alleviate all of that,” Vivenzio, added.

“I think that it’s great they’re coming here with experience,” Sullivan said. “My whole career I’ve always felt that I can learn from the youngest officer here just as well they can learn from me. Law enforcement is an evolving profession, so things are changing. Laws are changing.

Everyone brings something different to the table.”

Capitol Police Increase Security At State Capitol

by Christine Stuart

The Capitol Police are increasing patrols and leaving up the barriers they used for last week’s swearing-in ceremony after reports of a Federal Bureau of Investigation memo about possible armed protests at all 50 state capitols.

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“The State Capitol Police is committed to providing a safe and secure environment in which to conduct the legislative process,” the Capitol Police said in a statement Tuesday.

Officer Scott Driscoll said if there are events in Hartford this weekend, police will be “over prepared.”

Sources say it’s likely an event will be held Sunday, but intelligence has been hard to gather with sites like Parler gone. Tech platforms booted the social network for failing to moderate violent rhetoric that led to the deadly scene at the U.S. Capitol last week.

In the meantime, Capitol Police will be increasing security and K9s will be doing daily security sweeps of the Legislative Office Building Garage, Legislative Office Building, the Capitol building and Capitol grounds with police “highly visible” inside

and outside on campus. The LOB garage and parking around the Capitol will be closed to the public.

Capitol Police said they are in communication with Hartford police, state police, governor’s security, the FBI and other law enforcement agencies.

“The Connecticut State Capitol Police has gone to great lengths to provide a safe and secure working environment and will continue to do so,” Capitol Police said in a statement.

The Connecticut State Police are also monitoring the situation.

“Understand that we are constantly moni-

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toring events and information. We are sharing information with our local, state and federal partners. While we are very focused on the safety of all, at this point, we cannot get into specifics,” Brian Foley, spokesperson for the Department of Emergency Services and Management said Monday.

At his daily press briefing Monday, Gov. Ned Lamont said, state, local and national agencies are working together, “tracking social media very, very carefully and so, we’ll be ready, but I have a high degree of confidence that Connecticut is going to stay peaceful.”

Paul Mounds, Lamont’s chief of staff,

said the Connecticut National Guard stands ready to provide support to partners in D.C., but at this point, no requests have been made.

As far as the Capitol in Hartford is concerned, Mounds said the governor is receiving daily security briefings that will continue through the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden Jr. on Jan. 20.

“The state of Connecticut from a security standpoint will be ready and prepared,” Mounds said.

Mounds declined to provide any information about any specific threats the state may have received.

THE INNER-CITY NEWS - January 13, 2021 - January 19, 2021

Radio Stevie Finds Himself In “Elm City”

by KAREN PONZIO

New Haven I ndependent

“I wrote all my feelings down on white lined paper. I don’t always tell you what I’m thinking, baby.”

The heartfelt admissions begin, and the beats build, becoming a straight-up bop as memories of “the 203” become a plea to go back to a sweeter time in “Elm City,” the latest song from New Haven-based rapper, singer, songwriter, and producer Radio Stevie, also known as Stephen Grant. “‘Elm City’ at its core is about honesty and the journey to get there,” said Grant about his new single, though there is also that “obvious” reference to his hometown. Written in pieces while living away from New Haven and released this past Friday, Grant notes he was “missing home” and having “bouts of loneliness, but I was also happy and fine and curious” during that time.

“All of those cycles when I was away from home snuck into the writing of this love song, asking this question of ‘do I stay or do I go,’ and the feelings about being away from home and away from New Haven.

It’s a love song that happens in New Haven. I’m happy with it.”

Like many others in 2020, Grant became more familiar with being at home more often as his job switched into work-from-home mode due to Covid-19 restrictions.

“In 2019 I got a job in New York City and had been commuting, and then with Covid-19 I started working from home and got time back,” he said, noting that it also resulted in being able to focus more on his music.

“The not commuting” and “less hustle and bustle” allowed him “to be in the zone.”

Grant said he initially had “no major plans for 2020” musically. But with the newfound time he “started to revisit a lot of lyrics from the past.”

“That’s kind of my practice anyway, to come back to them, and I was not commuting so I had a lot of time to make beats,” he said. “It was a good release to me as things happened. A lot of beats came out of me.”

This resulted in Grant having multiple singles released in 2020, as he combined these fresh beats with revisited lyrics pulled from what he refers to as “the vault.”

“Creating in 2020 I focused so much on the music side, making beats with no sort of plan except my own release. Making them at home, everything at home, I was dumping these feelings out, just letting it out, putting these emotions into these beats. Then I go into the vault and say, ‘what are the lyrics that have the mood?’ and I make the connection between the two.”

“Heartbeat”, released in June, “was going to be more lyrical and I ended up taking them out,” he said. “I wanted to just dance, to make something that was a moment of peace.”

“Recipe,” released in November, “is another song I also worked on a while back. I sat with it with fresh eyes and feelings in 2020, and it spoke to me all over again. It felt very timely.”

“Prejudice,” a song he recorded with JUNE, an artist from Brazil who he met in 2016 in a showcase while living there, was released on May 29.

“Gay/queer musicians are not alone,” said Grant. “We fight proudly to be who we are.” Grant worked on the lyrics in 2018, recorded it in 2018 with JUNE, and released it through Sony in May. “The song is about a fight for freedom, to be who you are,” said Grant.

“Those words I wrote in 2018, it was like an older version of me talking to me in 2020. Everything I said in 2018 was true in 2020.”

“To revisit that song and hear it again, the emotions connected to the world,” Grant continued. It was released four days after George Floyd was killed. “That song was about me fighting back and standing up for

I HAVE A DREAM Radio Stevie

my right to be me 100 percent. It was an interesting way of experiencing my own music this year. In a lot of ways, in particular this song, it’s a reminder of what it’s been like to be Black and queer. Those emotions in 2018 — in “Prejudice” and in “Elm City” — they are still there. A reminder of how some things don’t change, but I’ve always been there for myself.

I’m saying ‘yes, you are going to fight for yourself.

You always have.’ And to revisit that emotion and say ‘we’ve been here, we know what to do, we’re going to do that,’ that is how we get free.”

Grant realized as he revisited these songs he “loved myself just as much as two years ago, and with ‘Prejudice’ also saying ‘you’re not alone,’ in addition to fighting back. I’ve always had me. I’ve always been there for myself.”

Grant was able to perform a couple of shows this past year, including one digitally for Pride Week in New Haven, but his main focus now, as it has always been, is on simply creating.

“Before I am a performer before all that stuff, all that is secondary music is the thing that guides me, that navigates me in this world,” he said. “All of this is just so deeply embedded in my survival in this world. It is who I am.”

“As long as I can remember, music and creating music is what I leaned on,” he continued. “As a kid being in my bedroom with my brother, banging on shoe boxes and tin cans and freestyling. That’s what we did, that’s how we survived. This can bring me joy; this can help me understand, release my frustrations with the world, and realize my dreams. It’s who I am, not just a hobby. This is just honestly truly who I am.

When someone asks me, ‘how do you do it?’ it’s like answering ‘how do you breathe?’ These are emotions, feelings, experiences.”

And Grant wants to share that with his audience, be it through his recordings or during a show.

“When I perform live, I always open by saying ‘this is a show about freedom,’” he said. “It’s always about freedom and survival. It’s not about me on stage. It’s about everyone tapping into that energy. And I always try to end with an instrumental so we can dance it off.

Bringing in that atmosphere of music so someone else can have this experience that I can get.”

Grant has no immediate plans for another record — “right now ‘Elm City’ is my little baby,” he said — but he hopes to put out more singles this year and maybe an EP by the end of the year. Either way, he will continue to make beats, cultivate his creativity and be inspired by the work of others.

“The arts come with this whole other world,” he said.

“What drives me to work with art is I’m inspired by art, by someone else’s survival and life. It’s not for prestige. It’s to be engulfed in the experience of art and that experience you get with creativity. That’s the key.”

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HONORING THE LEGACY

MARTIN LUTHER KING JR

THE INNER-CITY NEWS - January 13, 2021 - January 19, 2021

Rising Republicans See Post-Trump Hope

by PAUL BASS

New Haven I ndependent

Next-generation local Republican leaders see a future for their party — one that leaves Donald Trump, hard-right policies and last week’s Capitol violence in the rear-view mirror.

Don’t look for these young Republicans at “stop the steal” rallies at the state Capitol this coming week. Don’t look for them to defend the president’s actions. Don’t look for them to make excuses for the mob that invaded and trashed the Capitol, attacked cops, and went hunting to kill the vice-president and speaker of the House while seeking to stop the certification of the presidential election results.

But do look for them to stick with the Republican Party — and try to steer it back a bit toward the middle.

That was the upshot of a discussion with leaders of the New Haven County Young Republicans.

The leaders — Matt Schwartz, Kassie DeFala, Patrick Burland, and Rob Mullins — mixed outrage with optimism during the discussion, which took place Tuesday on an episode of WNHH FM’s “Dateline New Haven” program. (Watch the episode above.)

At times they sounded more like Republican officeholders of generations past like the late U.S. Rep. Stewart McKinney, back when their party won Congressional races, than like, say, the current state party chair.

None of them have been Trump supporters. They voted for other presidential candidates. One of them, Burland, a Georgetown University student who hails from Woodbridge, began warming to some of Trump’s policies, from renegotiated trade deals to negotiated normalization of relations between Israel and Arab nations.

But then Trump lost him, too, with his mishandling of the Covid-19 pandemic and “the way he handled the 2020 election” and its aftermath.

Scenes from last Wednesday’s Capitol invasion.

All four consider themselves conservatives. They envision helping to rebuild a state party that takes a conservative line on taxes and spending and pro-business policies, while moderating some of the national party’s positions on immigration and climate change.

But first, they said, the party needs to move away from the events of the past week in D.C. The group issued this press release right

after the storming of the Capitol, calling for prosecution of the “domestic terrorists” who participated.

“Like most Americans, regardless of party, we were pretty horrified by what was going on,” said Schwartz, a state lobbyist from Woodbridge who serves as the group’s political director. “It surprised us.

As young Republicans, we’re fighting for a better Connecticut and a better country.

What took place at the Capitol does not

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represent our party or what we stand for.

We needed to condemn violate at its roots lest it be accepted.”

DeFala, a first-year Quinnipiac University law student who hails from Derby and Naugatuck, was working out to a Youtube video when her phone exploded with messages about the insurrection. She tuned in — and turned “angry.”

“We’ve worked so hard as Young Republicans to make a better name for the party.

We know better than this. we do better,” she said. On Facebook, she posted: “This is NOT democracy. If you support this delete me and save me the time and energy because we are not friends.”

Mullins, an Xavier High School student from North Branford, saw the Confederate flag being waved, and thought about seeing that flag displayed on T-shirts at the Durham flag. He felt “disgusted,” he said. “It’s absolutely ridiculous that people think the Confederate flag means anything other than racial hate and division.”

“It was disheartening to see the hesitation of the president and the House leadership for our party,” said Burland, who stayed away from the rally but walked over with his roommates to view the melee from afar after it broke out. “How do we stay with the party with this? It’s important at these inflection points that as leaders coming up in the party, we take a stand.”

The group condemned plans for militia members and other Trump diehards to storm all 50 state capitols this coming Wednesday and next week leading up to Wednesday’s presidential inauguration.

“Anyone encouraging that should be stopped. Any politician should be condemned” for supporting it, DeFala argued. “The process has played out. You have to respect it.”

At the same time, they said, they’re sticking with their party.

They cut their political teeth working on campaigns of Republican state legislators like State Sen. George Logan and State Rep. Themis Klarides and Derby Mayor Richard Dziekan. They believed in their candidates, and still do.

Looking ahead to next year’s gubernatorial candidates, they see a promising field,, from Klarides and New Britain Mayor Erin Stewart to 2018 nominee Bob Stefanowski. (The first two publicly opposed efforts to overturn the presidential election. Stefanowski did not.) Schwartz was particularly bullish on Klarides, several of whose campaigns he has worked on: “I think she would be a great governor. I think she could appeal to fartherright Republicans but also middle-ground Democrats.”

“We need somebody more toward the middle if Republicans want to win. Republicans left a bad taste in people’s mouths” with the recent turn of events, argued DeFala.

The interviewees all embraced fiscally conservative positions geared toward lim-

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THE INNER-CITY NEWS - January 13, 2021 - January 19, 2021

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THE INNER-CITY NEWS - January 13, 2021 - January 19, 2021

Leaders Decry Mobs’ “White Privilege”

by THOMAS BREEN

New Haven I ndependent

Black New Haveners saw Wednesday’s invasion of the U.S. Capitol by armed Confederate-flag-waving Donald Trump supporters unfold in black and white.

They saw armed terrorists storm the Capitol, stop government from functioning, and drive members of Congress—who were in the midst of certifying electoral votes, a cornerstone of the peaceful transfer of power—into hiding.

And, for hours, as they scaled walls and shattered windows and hung Confederate flags from the rafters and destroyed federal property, they met little resistance from any kind of law enforcement.

“What I saw today was white privilege at its best,” Board of Alders President Tyisha Walker-Myers said at a speakout convened by Mayor Justin Elicker Wednesday night outside of City Hall.

“That’s what I saw.”

Walker-Myers stood alongside a halfdozen alders and local faith leaders and in front of the Amistad memorial, which was illuminated with foot lights.

Elicker contrasted Trump’s use of the National Guard to tear gas Black Lives Matter protesters in Lafayette Park this summer with the president’s encouragement of mostly white rioters on Wednesday to take over the Capitol.

“This is white supremacy,” he said.

“This is the definition of white supremacy. And we’ve got to call this out as a nation.”

The half-hour event came just before New Haven’s representatives in D.C.— who were all unharmed and hidden for hours in undisclosed locations—joined their legislative colleagues to resume certifying President-elect Joe Biden’s victory at 8 p.m. in a cleared Capitol building.

The local event brimmed with frustration, fatigue, outrage, and a deep and personal emotional hurt.

“I watched what happened with my children,” said Walker-Myers. “I was embarrassed. I was upset. I was frustrated.”

She said the level of anxiety she saw her daughters experience “broke my heart. I did not know what to say to them.”

“We’ve got to stop having two sets of rules for different people depending on what you look like.”

Greater New Haven NAACP President Dori Dumas agreed.

“I was disgusted, but I was not surprised,” she said about the day’s events.

“It was not a protest. It was a riot, a coup, incited by Trump. His reckless, shameful leadership and misuse of power led to an assault on our very democracy.”

She too referenced the teargassing of Black Lives Matter protesters by the Na-

THOMAS BREEN PHOTO Alders President Tyisha Walker-Myers at community rally by City Hall’s back-lit Amistad statute: Daughter was frightened.

tional Guard in Lafayette Park.

“Where was the Capitol police?” she asked. “The National Guard? This was clearly white privilege at its best. If they were Black people, the outcome and the response would have been much different.”

She said she stands with the NAACP’s national president in calling for Trump’s impeachment. And she spoke of how her daughters and granddaughter both live in Washington, D.C., and how she was on the phone with them both all day, pleading with them to stay low and stay safe.

“This is a sad day for our country,” Dumas said. “I am praying for our country.”

One of the last speakers of the night, Darrell Brooks of Beulah Heights Pentecostal Church, offered a potential path forward for undoing this country’s racial double standard.

“It’s often that you will see a Black face, a Black woman, a Black man crying about, ‘No justice, no peace,’” he said. “But what we need in America is a

blend of voices. White Americans need to stand up and say that what happened today cannot be tolerated in this country.”

New Haven U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro issued a statement expressing her determination to get back to work completing the process of certifying Biden’s election.

“I am grateful for the outpouring of support and relieved to report that both my staff and I are safe, DeLauro wrote.

“Make no mistake, this was a coup attempt instigated by President Trump.

Everyone who has aided and abetted him for the past four years bears responsibility for today’s violence. January 6 will go down as a dark day in United States’ history, but our democracy will prevail over the violent mob that ransacked our Capitol. In two weeks, President-elect Biden will take office and begin the work of healing our nation.

“I stand ready for Congress to reconvene and complete our work counting

6

the Electoral College votes and formalizing President-elect Biden’s victory. Together, we can overcome the hate that inspired today’s events and move forward to a brighter tomorrow.”

“My staff and I are safe at a secure location,” Connecticut U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal stated in a release. “I am absolutely sickened by scenes of anarchist mobs violently swarming the Capitol.

It’s not a protest – it’s armed insurrection. This is an assault on the heart of our democracy incited and fueled by the President of the United States and his enablers. Make no mistake: Congress will do its job. This election will still be certified, and President-elect Biden and Vice President-elect Harris will be sworn in on January 20.”

And Connecticut’s Democratic Party tweeted: “We have confirmed that all five of CT’s US Representatives are safe.”

The fast-moving events Wednesday afternoon at the nation’s Capitol — with elected officials given gas masks and directed into hiding as Confederate flag-waving Trump mobs breached barricades to enter the Senate, House of Representatives, and offices of Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other politicians — had New Haveners on edge, but with no reason to be concerned for their own safety.

Police Chief Otoniel Reyes said his department is staying in touch with the FBI. “We’re monitoring the events in D.C..

At this point there is no local concern.

We have been in touch and will continue to be in touch with our federal partners,” Reyes said.

In D.C., on the other hand, the National Guard has been called in and a citywide overnight curfew declared, and the process of counting electoral votes to announce Biden’s victory has been suspended as law enforcement battles the Capitol mobs.

New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker issued a statement calling a “dark day in American history.”

I am watching the TV now feeling a combination of outrage, sadness, and disbelief. Our country was founded on a peaceful transfer of power. What is currently happening in Washington, with protesters forcing their way into the Capitol Building and putting the country’s elected representatives at risk, is a clear violation of the foundation of this country, our Democracy. I am outraged that in his last days in Office, the President of the United States incited an insurrection in what would be an otherwise ceremonial process.

My heart goes out to all those members

of Congress and their staff who were trying to certify the results of a free and fair election: I hope you are in a safe place and can all get back to work when this is over. This is another reminder that there are some in this country who want to use division for their own personal gain.

We have much to do as leaders, and that starts with calling out lawlessness and holding those in power accountable.

Today is a dark day in American history.

Individuals are inciting violence and undermining our democratic institutions.

We must move forward with resolve in the face of adversity, fight to hold our country together, and move it forward to a brighter day. I am proud to lead the City of New Haven, where we have a history of peaceful protests, respect for each other, and enough dignity to recognize the results of an election, even if it did not go our way.

Con’t from page

Post-Trump Rising Republicans See Post-Trump Hope

iting taxation and government spending and removing barriers to business growth.

They sought more of a “middle road” on immigration.

Burland spoke of enforcing laws, especially on employers who depress wages through underpaying people hired illegally, while “making sure people can come here legally” and stop “using children as a way to threaten new immigrants.” He called that last strategy “a moral failing for our country” that “hasn’t stopped” undocumented immigrants from crossing the border.

“Younger Republicans like us want to put more of an emphasis on protecting the environment. We love this earth. We want it be here long after we’re gone,” said Schwartz.

Jonathan Wharton, a former New Haven Republican town chair, has watched the new crew coalesce. He has taught some of them in his political science classes at Southern Connecticut State University.

The group may meet resistance from some old-guard town chairs and state central committee members, Wharton predicted. He urged those established leaders to “take this younger group seriously.” This fall’s municipal elections will test the younger group’s impact, Wharton said.

“You’re dealing with a younger population of people who are more pragmatic to offer old ideas and make them new again,” Wharton observed. They show that the Republican Party is not “monolithic,” he said, and doesn’t have to be the party of Donald Trump.

THE INNER-CITY NEWS - January 13, 2021 - January 19, 2021

Republican Party

Chairman Resigns Early

by Christine Stuart Ct.News junkie

Republican Party Chairman JR Romano, a staunch supporter of President Donald Trump, abruptly resigned Tuesday in a letter to state Central Committee members.

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“After much personal reflection I am officially resigning my chairmanship. This decision is what’s best for the organization to move forward,” Romano said. “It is time for a new voice to be heard from the Connecticut Republicans. I am grateful for having had the opportunity to lead the Party. Thank you.”

Romano’s term was not up until ‘June and he had already announced a week before Election Day that he would not seek another term as chairman. However, at the time he said he would stay until his term ended.

Back in August, Romano resisted calls from within his party that he resign after 2nd Congressional District candidate Thomas Gilmer was arrested on felony domestic assault charges.

In a state where some Republican candidates have maintained some distance from Trump, Romano has been a strong supporter.

Romano, a political operative from Der-

CTNEWSJUNKIE FILE PHOTO

JR Romano

by, was 36 years old when he took over the party chairmanship in 2015.

In an October interview, he highlighted his party’s gains in 2016, which saw Republicans tie Democrats for control of the state Senate. Although Democrats regained control of the chamber two years later, he said Republican influence helped hold the line on tax increases during that time. He said the party has also made headway internally under his leadership.

Sue Hatfield is the vice chairwoman of the Connecticut Republican Party. She said it’s likely that a special election will be held on February 23. The committee has 60 days to elect a successor.

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The Senate chair of the Judiciary Committee says its agenda will most likely include legalizing cannabis but skip major changes to the police accountability law during the newly minted legislative session.

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The curtailed 2020 session left several criminal justice initiatives on the table and appetite to address them now,, said Sen. Gary Winfield, D-New Haven.

“There’s a lot of desire to do a lot since we lost a session,” Winfield said.

The trick will be to focus on the important issues since the pandemic continues with its eventual impact on the session unknown, Winfield said.

Advocates plan to revive a version of a “clean slate” law that would erase some misdemeanor and class D felony convictions. The American Civil Liberties Union of Connecticut is also pursuing a prosecutorial accountability law that would shorten the terms of the appointed state’s attorneys to four years rather than the current eight-year terms.

Winfield expects the committee will again look at legalizing cannabis, a muchdebated initiative that ultimately stalled in 2019.

He said he doesn’t think the committee will spend much time making serious adjustments to the controversial police accountability law which drew fire from police and Republicans. However, cer-

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CTNEWSJUNKIE FILE PHOTO Sen. Gary Winfield, co-chairs the Judiciary Committee

tain provisions in it will be under review, including the hiring of an inspector general to independently investigate deadly use-of-force incidents by police and incustody deaths.

The inspector general was to have been hired by Oct. 1, but the Criminal Justice Commission failed to approve one of the two candidates for the job. At present, only attorneys within the Division of Criminal Justice can apply and discussion has centered around including attorneys from outside the office to enhance the independence of the position.

“We’re beginning that conversation about how we make that work,” Winfield said. “We haven’t made the progress we’d

like on that.”

The CT ACLU will pick up again with “clean slate” legislation to erase some less serious convictions after a period of time.

The organization’s attorney, Kelly Moore, said convictions for serious felonies would not be eligible for erasure. Instead, the measure is aimed at giving people second chances.

“Let’s have people who are reentering know that there is a light at the end of the tunnel,” Moore said. Often when a person is released from prison they have great difficulty securing a job due to their criminal history, she said.

Moore said the legislation would include

THE INNER-CITY NEWS - January 13, 2021 - January 19, 2021

Is Removing Confederate Monuments, Changing Sports Teams Names Just A Distraction?

By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent

Protests and unrest in 2020 sparked by the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis shined an even brighter spotlight on police brutality against African Americans.

The actions led to renewed calls to remove Confederate statutes and other racially-insensitive structures.

Professional sports team, including the Washington Redskins and Cleveland Indians announced they would drop the names that many said were offensive to Native Americans.

Despite incremental progress, many still argue that unless much more is done to show that Black lives matter, removing racist monuments and changing racially insensitive team names and logos are just mere distractions.

In other words, those who spoke with the Black Press on the subject said they are eager to see more tangible results.

“Dismantling Confederate monuments and ridding sports teams and brands of racist imagery is not enough,” Marcos Martinez, the owner of the blog, http:// www.themenwhobrunch.com, wrote in an email.

“For there to be racial progress, there need to be drastic improvements in failing schools in minority communities,” Martinez exclaimed.

He noted the many academic studies that prove education leads to better life oppor-

tunities.

“I know this firsthand because I lived in Brownsville, one of the most impoverished neighborhoods in New York,” Martinez remarked.

“Many of my [peers] who attended the schools in Brownsville didn’t graduate or didn’t pursue higher education. Most of them are either incarcerated or deceased due to gun violence.”

Darryl Smith, the founding partner for the firm, Florida Car Accident Law Team, said backlash remains from the dismantling of racist statues and the changing of names by some sports teams.

“The dismantling of the monuments and the rebranding of the teams’ racist imagery is not an end unto itself, and that should be remembered in the face of the expected backlash from those who really don’t want to see that imagery go away and make outsized noise about it,” Smith offered.

“We want to remember that these things are distance markers on the road to moving society toward a more inclusive future,” he continued. “[Monuments] are inappropriate for spaces that are meant to represent all of the people in a particular jurisdiction as opposed to a select few. This is different from the concept of fighting systemic racism.”

Since the murder of Floyd in May, an estimated more than 100 Confederate symbols have been removed from around the country, including a Confederate Gen.

Robert E. Lee from the U.S. Capitol that had represented Virginia for more than a century.

In July, the Washington Football Team announced it would drop the racist nickname, Redskins, after Pepsi, Nike, and FedEx received letters from investors calling on them to end their more than $620 billion sponsorship deals with the team.

The Cleveland baseball team later announced it would drop “Indians” as its nickname after the 2021 season.

“Changing sport teams names and tearing down statues are great PR moves by companies and politicians, but we’re never going to fix the problem until we educate the youth,” pronounced , the founder of https://coffeesemantics.com/.

“Racist parents that raise racist kids is the reason why we still have an equality issue in America. Kids aren’t born racist.

They are raised to be racist,” Hickey declared.

“It’s the same as when people say pit bulls are mean. There is no such thing as a

mean pit bull, only mean owners.”

Ken Eulo, the Smith & Eulo Law Firm’s founding partner in Orlando, Florida, said tangible change is needed.

“In 2021, rebuilding is likely to be a recurring theme. Black Americans want to reinforce the idea of rebuilding and developing communities in what we hope will be a post-COVID-19 society,” Eulo said.

“We want to see news, think pieces and human-interest stories that lend themselves to the idea of this being the time for Black innovation and excellence in a way that may not have been advisable before.”

This year needs to be a time “where we as individuals and a community find new ways to uplift ourselves after a year where we saw widely held beliefs, and longstanding conventions broken and cast aside in the wake of a global pandemic,” concluded Smith, of the Florida Car Accident Law Team, “This is a time where finding ways to function outside the box can reap real benefits at a time when all bets appear to be off,” Smith demanded.

“We need to see examples of Black people and black communities thriving in the face of this unprecedented adversity, and examples of our political and economic influence being wielded for the betterment of Black Americans and the Black diaspora.”

Workers remove statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee from U.S. Capitol/ Photo By Jack Mayer, Office of Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam

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In 2020, Dr. Love co-founded the Abolitionist Teaching Network (ATN).She has also provided commentary for various news outlets including NPR, Ed Week, The Guardian, and the Atlanta Journal Constitution.

She is the author of the book, “We Want to Do More Than Survive: Abolitionist Teaching and the Pursuit of Educational Freedom” (2019).

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THE INNER-CITY NEWS - January 13, 2021 - January 19, 2021

D.C. Officials, Feds Tracking Credible Inauguration Day Threats

By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent

D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser is urging law enforcement to vigilantly work to sniff out potential violent plots by insurrectionists and other nefarious actors.

The mayor joined others who expressed growing concern over whether some would attempt to disrupt President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris’ Jan. 20 election in Washington.

Bowser is demanding unprecedented protection for the event. Meanwhile, multiple reports indicate that the FBI is aware of chatter about plots by rightwing extremists who plan to continue their protests of the 2020 Presidential election and possibly inflict further acts of domestic terrorism like that carried out on Jan. 6 at the U.S. Capitol.

The inauguration is scheduled to begin at 9:30 a.m. EST on the steps of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 20.

The U.S. National Park Service has already announced the closure of the Washington Monument through Jan. 24.

In a statement, Park Service officials cited threats and disruption to the set-up and execution of inaugural events.

Washington Metropolitan Area Transit is also planning to cancel many of its D.C. area train and bus routes.

However, a spokesperson could not be reached to determine which lines would be affected.

“Homeland Security must adjust its approach to the inauguration in several specific ways,” Bowser wrote in a letter this week to Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf.

“There must be a federal force deployment [plan] for all U.S. government property,” Bowser demanded.

In a televised interview Monday, Adam Schiff, the U.S. House of Representatives Intelligence Committee chairman, announced that he expected authorities to ensure safety at the inauguration.

Former Presidents Barack Obama, George W. Bush, and Bill Clinton, and their spouses, are all expected to attend.

Their attendance, which is traditional for former presidents, only enhances the need for extra vigilance, Schiff and others said.

Also, there is a growing belief that outgoing President Donald Trump, whose rhetoric fueled the deadly insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, will encourage his supporters to lash out.

“There’s certainly a danger that the President will continue to incite his followers to further violent activity, aimed at stopping the peaceful transition of power,” Schiff related.

Protesters gathering outside the Capitol; Donald Trump speaking to supporters at the “Save America” rally; crowd is appearing to retreat from tear gas; tear gas being deployed outside the Capitol Building; A crowd pressing into the Capitol at the Eastern entrance/Tyler Merbler via Wikimedia common

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Bowser called the insurrection “an unprecedented terrorist attack” and warned that it could occur at the inauguration if law enforcement is not watchful.

The mayor has repeatedly called on non-residents to stay away from the nation’s capital during the inauguration.

Authorities have reported discovering encrypted chat rooms that have praised the insurrectionists, calling them “Patriots.”

The FBI said calls for more protests, including a “Million Militia March” on Jan. 20, have dominated chatter on social media and other intercepted mediums.

Yahoo News reported obtaining an FBI document that contained warnings about threats made at the state and local level around the country.

“The situational information report, produced by the Minneapolis field office of the FBI, is based on information provided by what it describes as “collaborative sources,” and was issued the week before a mob of Trump supporters violently stormed the U.S. Capitol,” Yahoo reported.

The outlet specifically noted that the document addressed concerns about rallies that the far-right boogaloo movement plans to hold in cities across the country on Jan. 17.

The report warns that “some followers indicated a willingness to commit violence in support of their ideology, created contingency plans in the event violence occurred at the events and identified law enforcement security measures and possible countermeasures.”

Specifically, the report describes evidence of credible threats related to events planned for Jan. 17 at the state Capitol buildings in Michigan and Minnesota, Yahoo added.

Further, it said those rallies are part of what members of the violent farright and libertarian boogaloo movement hope will be a nationwide “armed march” on Capitol Hill and all 50 state capitols next Sunday.

“These individuals reportedly “scouted general law enforcement presence at the earlier rallies and “also identified law enforcement sniper locations and considered breaking into federal buildings for use as firing locations, if fighting occurred,” the report relayed.

“One Boogaloo movement follower indicated the building with the snipers would need to be blown up in order to protect Boogaloo fighters in the event of a gun battle during the event, and another planned to put colored duct tape on the back of his body armor to appear as law enforcement and cause confusion.”

THE INNER-CITY NEWS - January 13, 2021 - January 19, 2021

OP-ED | Take It Easy on Students:

Don’t Fail Them

by Jamil Ragland Ct.News junkie

I was working as a third-grade teacher when the coronavirus pandemic started.

I’ve worked in schools in one capacity or another since I was 18, but nothing I experienced was as stressful as the transition from in-person school to online teaching. Students, teachers and parents were thrown into a new method of learning with only two weeks of lead time. In the background was a pandemic that was killing hundreds of people a day.

So you know what I did? I took it easy on my kids. If they did their work, I looked at it and provided feedback. If they didn’t, no big deal. It didn’t make much sense to harp on crossing T’s and dotting I’s during a literal fight for survival. Many of my colleagues agreed, and it led to a major change in grading policy across the state: no students would fail the 2019-2020 school year.

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With Education Commissioner Miguel Cardona moving to Washington as the next Secretary of Education, Connecticut will need a new statewide education leader. Our next leader should extend the moratorium on failing students through the end of the 2021 school year.

I say this because of my firsthand experience as a teacher during the pandemic, and as a parent. My son’s mother, stepdad and sister all recently contracted COVID-19 despite the precautions they took. For a month, we all existed under the pall that one of them, or all of them, could get very sick.

During that month, I really didn’t give a damn about whether my son did his school work. I was too focused on the idea that my son might also catch the virus and die. Afterward, I wasn’t interested in making him catch up on all of that missed work, either.

For what? What is an “A” worth under these conditions? Or an “F”?

Schools are full of pointless busywork on the best days. Why should I add to the pressure my son by faced by making him do all the pointless busywork he missed while caring for his mother?

Almost 6,000 Connecticut residents have died since March from COVID-19.

How many of our children in school are grieving loved ones? We have no idea.

How many of their family members survived, but only after our kids watched

them suffer through the ordeal? Or are helping them manage long-term health issues as a result of their infection?

Again, no clue. It frankly seems cruel to fail students who are living under these conditions.

Teaching was so stressful that I quit.

But students don’t have that option.

In fact, there has been endless handwringing about the lack of participation from students during online classes. The phrase that students are “falling behind” permeates the discussion about learning in the 2020-2021 school year.

I suggest that students aren’t falling behind. Instead, they’re surviving a pandemic. One which, despite constant assurances to the contrary, does in fact affect children – over one million so far.

So let’s shelve the conversations about learning loss and the deficiency-laden language that will mark our children for years.

There is one important lesson that this year will teach students, and it’s not about history or politics. It’s about us – the adults in their lives who are charged with their protection. Are we responding to the overwhelming challenge of this moment with compassion and care, or are we simply modifying old systems to barely soldier on?

How we treat our kids now is how they will treat their children when their own moment of crisis arrives. Let’s use school for its highest ideals and purpose then, to teach our kids how to respond to the death which surrounds them now.

Let’s continue taking it easy on them.

Jamil Ragland writes and lives in East Hartford. You can read more of his writing at www.nutmeggerdaily.com.

The views, opinions, positions, or strategies expressed by the author are theirs alone, and do not necessarily reflect the views, opinions, or positions of CTNewsJunkie.com.

2nd Wave Hits Harder

by EMILY HAYS

New Haven I ndependent

Well into the second wave of the pandemic, the moment finally arrived: Courtney Acker saw a patient die of coronavirus on her watch.

It happened during a grueling night shift in December, in the midst of a second Covid-19 wave that Acker, a Yale New Haven Hospital nurse, has been finding more exhausting than the last.

“If there’s a third wave,” Acker said, “I don’t think people in hospitals will be able to deal with it again. It’s so overwhelming on us and stressful.”

Acker works three, 12-hour night shifts a week, on an alternating Monday-FridaySaturday, Sunday-Tuesday-Wednesday schedule that feels like one long, six-day week.

She technically works for the surgical intensive care unit (ICU). She “floats” to the Covid-focused ICUs every few weeks to help out.

This rotation was less frequent during the first wave of the pandemic, but the hospital has brought in fewer outside nurses this time to travel between units. The hospital has also not closed down elective surgeries, so the workload is higher in general as well, Acker said.

On this Saturday in early December, Acker knew that she was floating to the Covid-19 unit. She clocked in around 6:45 p.m. and learned that she was assigned to two rooms. A woman in her late 70s was dying in one of the rooms. An man in his late 60s was in a months-long recovery process in the other.

With how sick the female patient was, one nurse should have been assigned to her room alone, Acker said. YNHH doesn’t have enough staff for that right now, so Acker had to prioritize her time based on the severity of illness of her two very sick patients.

“It’s hard that we have to spend more time with one patient than the other. It’s very tough from a moral standpoint,” Acker said.

Acker learned about her patients’ conditions from the nurse who had watched over them during the day. She also found out that the family of the dying woman had been unhappy with her care and started lawsuits against the hospital. Her sense was that they were not ready to see their family member go and had just signed off on a do-not-resuscitate order that day for if her heart stopped.

That made Acker nervous. What if the patient were to die on her watch?

She went into her female patient’s room.

None of the signs looked good. The patient was nonverbal and was not opening her eyes. Her arms and legs would not straighten out because her body was so stiff. She was already on two different medication drips to help her blood pressure. She was on a ventilator with the highest level of oxygen available.

Acker always talks to her patients, even when it doesn’t seem like they can hear

10

EMILY HAYS PHOTO Yale New Haven Hospital nurse Courtney Acker: This has to end.

her. She explains every step of what she is doing, just in case they are scared and wondering why she is rolling them onto their side.

She added a third medication to help her patient’s blood pressure. She called the respiratory therapist to tell them that oxygen levels were dropping despite the ventilator’s highest setting. She added an intravenous (IV) drip to help with her patient’s sugar levels and gave her a pain medication, in case her high heart rate was hurting her.

After Acker had gone through the list of potential interventions, she worked on other ways of making her patient more comfortable. She gave her a bath. She changed her sheets. She saw blood around her patient’s mouth and trachea, where a tube was helping her patient breathe, so she cleaned her face.

Her patient looked like she had stabilized some around 11 p.m, Acker degowned and prepared her set of personal protective equipment (PPE) to enter her second patient’s room.

The nurse in charge of the unit had already handled the elderly man’s medications, so Acker just focused on giving him a bath and preparing him for bed. After an hour with him, she went back to her dying patient.

“Everybody’s been really great. Everybody knows it’s stressful, so nurses try to help each other out. It’s the only way we can survive and make sure we take care of all of these patients equally,” Acker said.

Around 1:30 a.m, Acker was working on the computer outside her patient’s room and starting to eat a few bites of lunch when she heard the central monitor for all the patients go off. Her patient’s heart rate had hit zero and stayed there.

The hospital called the woman’s daughter to tell her that her mother had died. Within 45 minutes, Acker was escorting the daughter and a man, possibly the daughter’s husband, into the room. The daughter burst into tears. It was their first visit, because the hospital is not allowing visitors unless a patient has died.

Seeing families cry for their loved ones never gets easier, Acker said.

“It’s hard to find the words to say to people.

I said that I’m sorry and got them a chair to sit down on. I told them, ‘Spend as much time as you want. I’ll be right out here,’ and gave them some privacy,” Acker said.

Despite Acker’s earlier fears, the daughter did not blame her for her mother’s death.

When the family left, Acker had to take care of the after-death logistics, calling the organ bank and placing her former patient in a bag to go to the morgue.

Around that time, her second patient woke up. He had gotten Covid-19 months before and was having difficulty getting off the ventilator. He wanted her to hold his hand as he drifted in and out of sleep. She brought her computer in and worked on it for an hour and a half until he calmed down and settled into sleep.

Acker was grateful that she had the time to just sit with him.

“It was nice that I had time to do that—reassure him and comfort him while he was by himself in the hospital. It was nice to do that when we’re not able to do that a lot of the time,” Acker said.

Acker’s fiancé Argenis Rodriguez works in the hospital too. He had visited her twice while she watched over her dying patient and she texted him when her patient died.

When her shift went an hour over, he waited for her so they could drive home together.

Sometimes Acker takes care of her horse, Nate, to calm her work nerves. After shifts though, she just wants to shower and fall asleep. The sleep helps her emotions settle and makes her feel better.

She said that Sunday, she really did not want to go back to work in the evening. She was still drained.

And it looks like the second wave may last months more.

Acker got the first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine at the end of December. Her arm was sore but her hopes were a little higher.

“We have to stop this somehow,” she said.

“There has to be way that we can at least calm down the spread so it’s tolerable.”

THE INNER-CITY NEWS - January 13, 2021 - January 19, 2021

184 Vaccinated At Mary Wade Home

by COURTNEY LUCIANA New Haven I ndependent

Covid-19 vaccines arrived Thursday at Fair Haven’s Mary Wade nursing home, and 104 residents and approximately 80 employees got their shots.

CVS and Walgreens pharmacies vaccinated staff and residents all day, as apart of a statewide rollout of Covid-19 vaccinations at nursing homes, which have struggled to keep people well and alive during the pandemic.

Mary Wade Executive Director Doug Melanson said the home prepared for weeks for the arrival of vaccines, holding discussions about the process and giving residents consent forms to fill out.

Out of a total of 107 long-term residents, only three of them refused. Out of 170 employees, roughly half of staff received their vaccinations on the first trial. In 21 days, the other half of employees will receive their injection. On the third trial after another 21 days, everyone will be vaccinated.

“We planned out how many vaccinations to ask the pharmacies to bring ahead of time. We anticipated getting a little more

folks to vaccinate than the original list,” Melanson said. “Some folks did opt in last minute.

CEO David Hunter said that Mary Wade was the first senior care community in the state to test residents and staff and receive the test results back in 24 hours.

“Prior to that, we couldn’t get people tested. We got hit hard in the beginning.

You had to have symptoms before receiving a test and needed a doctor’s order to get the test. The lab didn’t have test kits available. Then it took five to seven days to get a result. Since the first week of May, we’ve been doing well.”

After additional testing kits became available, Mary Wade staff has been consistently tested for coronavirus twice a week and residents have been tested once a week. Employees are required to receive the flu shot but not the COVID-19 vaccine, as of yet.

“We’re going to wait and see what happens with regular testing after the trials.

Once you get the vaccine, it doesn’t mean that you can’t or won’t get COVID,” Hunter said. “The vaccination is too new to require it to be mandatory.”

The home’s director of nursing, Kara Taylor, has been at Mary Wade for 21 years. She said that the vaccination is the establishment’s way of moving forward after a wave of fatalities.

“We’re hoping to move forward toward the future so that we can get the herd immunity that we need. I’m more administrative, but once COVID hit, all our staff

became hands on. Between the staff and residents being tested every week, we’re doing 400 nasal swabs a week. Most of our week is conducting testing and reporting the results into a portal.”

Mary Wade is divided two sections:residential care living and skilled nursing home. Shirley Stafford has been living in the residential care for one year

and was the first resident of her section to receive her vaccination Thursday morning.

“I was scared in the beginning. At first, I said, no,” Stafford. “Then I said yes. I changed my mind because I figured that one way or the other. If I catch the virus, I catch it. If I don’t, I don’t. I don’t have a headache or nothing. I don’t feel any side effects.”

Stafford stood by the door to cheer on the director of boardman residence, Maria Olmo, to receive her vaccination. Olmo has worked at Mary Wade for 11 years.

“We are very family oriented here,” Olmo said. “I was worried about getting the vaccination. I’ve been going back and forth on making the decision, but I was here for the beginning when COVID first hit and it’s something that I would never want to relive. If it means getting the vaccine will keep the residents safe as well as myself and my family then it’s a chance that I have to take.”

“I did it just for you,” Olmo told Stafford, after receiving her vaccination.

“I love you,” Stafford told Olmo.

Stressed? Overwhelmed?

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1-844-TALK-4CT

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THE INNER-CITY NEWS - January 13, 2021 - January 19, 2021

Valley Community Foundation Welcomes New Members to Board of Directors and Announces New Officers

ya l e i n st i t u t e o f s a c r e d m u s i c joins the

i n n e r city news in celebrating the accomplishments of African Americans to the cultural and spiritual life of New Haven and the world.

e v e n t l i st i n g s at ism.yale.edu

The Valley Community Foundation’s (VCF) Board of Directors is pleased to welcome Tammy Burrell, Christopher Grizzle, and Patricia Tarasovic to the VCF Board of Directors. Each new member has extensive involvement in their personal, professional, and volunteer capacities throughout the Valley region.

The VCF Board announced additional developments: Jack Walsh, former ViceChair, will now serve as the incoming Board Chair and current Board Chair, Donald Smith, Jr. will become the Immediate Past Chair on the Executive Committee until the completion of his term of service in 2021. Jennifer Magri has been elected to Vice-Chair with Raymond Oppel and Marianne Smythe continuing their respective roles as Treasurer and Secretary.

During his tenure on the Board, Don Smith has served as Governance Committee Chair and Vice-Chair. During 2020 Don led VCF through strategic decision making and responsive measures to assist Valley nonprofits during the pandemic. Incoming VCF Board Chair, Jack Walsh, is a life-long resident of Derby who served as President & COO of Valley United Way from 1989 until his retirement in 2016. He currently serves as President of the Board of Directors at the Derby Neck Library and is Chairman of Derby’s Water Pollution Control Authority. He is a past Chair of Derby’s Park & Recreation Commission, currently chairs the City’s Greenway Committee, and is co-chair of the Naugatuck River Greenway Committee. Jack most recently chaired VCF’s Program Committee in addition to serving as Vice-Chair of the Board.

Additionally, VCF thanks Alan Tyma for his extensive service on the Board of Directors. Now completing his second and final seven-year term, Alan was among the founding members of the VCF Board of Directors when the organization was established in 2004. During his tenure, Alan served a three-year term as VCF Board Chair and as the first Mission Related Investment Committee Chair for the organization. During his first term, Alan served on the Board for VCF’s partner in philanthropy, The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven, where he also served as Board Chair.

In a statement, Sharon Closius, VCF President and CEO, said: “On behalf of the VCF Board of Directors, we are thrilled to welcome Tammy, Chris, and Patricia.

While each is entering their first term on the Board, they bring incredibly impressive and diverse lived experience as it relates to their community involvement. Their contributions will be invaluable resources to VCF as we build the Valley’s permanent endowment. We also thank Don for his Board chairmanship during such an unprecedented year. His leadership has positioned VCF to respond to our Valley’s rapidly changing needs. I look forward to working with Jack Walsh. His knowledge of the Valley and the area nonprofits couldn’t come at a better time as we continue to respond to the COVID crisis. We also extend a very appreciative and warm farewell to

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Alan Tyma. As a founding Board Member, Alan has been involved with so many Valley nonprofits and projects that it is very difficult to name them all. We are fortunate that he took on the project to help start a community foundation in the Valley! We are forever grateful for his time, counsel, ambition, and belief in VCF over his many years of committed service.”

New VCF Board Members: Tammy Burrell Tammy L. Burrell is a life-long Valley resident who grew up in Shelton. She is a CPA and has been a partner at for more than 20 years. Tammy has maintained an active role on the BHcare Board of Directors for 15 years. In this capacity, she serves as Treasurer and Chair for the Back to School Program and the Under the Tree Project.

She has lived in Seymour with her husband, Al, since 1997. Together they have volunteered with a range of nonprofit organizations in support of Thanksgiving and holiday efforts. In her free time, Tammy enjoys spending time with family and friends, traveling, and being outdoors.

Christopher Grizzle Christopher (Chris) H. Grizzle is a recently retired, 28-year Air Force Veteran.

Throughout his military career, he was able to travel the world, embrace many different cultures, and serve as a K-9 handler specializing in bomb and drug detection. During his time as a handler, Chris was selected to work with the Secret Service and was assigned to the Presidential Support Team.

Chris later served as a Cyber Transport Technician for nearly a decade with the Connecticut Air National Guard where he deployed twice for Operations Enduring Freedom and Noble Eagle, as well as providing support domestically following Hurricane Katrina.

From 2008-2019, he served as a Production Recruiter, Recruiting Office Supervisor and Recruiting and Retention Manager.

Throughout his recruiting career, he was able to build and nurture strong relationships with educators, influencers, families, and young adults.

He is also an active member of James H. Wilkins Lodge #9 based in Ansonia.

Chris loves the outdoors. Some of his hobbies include fishing, skiing, kayaking, and hunting. Even with his adventurous side, he still refuses to jump out of a perfectly good aircraft or ride on rollercoasters. Chris and his wife, Sonia, have resided in Ansonia since 2001.

Patricia Tarasovic Patricia C. Tarasovic has spent three decades working in the nonprofit sector, serving on a range of committees, councils, and task forces, and has spent her professional career supporting the long term good of the Valley. Since retiring from Valley United Way in 2020 as the Vice President of Community Engagement, Patricia has continued to remain active in the community for which she has a very special appreciation.

In her various roles, Patricia created and advanced a number of initiatives such as the Corporate Volunteer Council, High School Volunteer Council, Harvest House, as well as the Back to School Clothes for Kids and Youth Leadership Programs.

She helped develop the Food Security Task Force, served as Chair on the Valley Council for Health and Human Services, and received a Governor appointment to the CT National Service Committee where she serves as a Commissioner. She served as Co-Chair of the Breast Wellness Center Campaign and Co-Chaired the Valley Goes Pink for five years.

Recognized for her contributions, Patricia has received numerous awards. She is a Chamber of Commerce Gold Seal recipient, CT Statewide Education Association Volunteer of the Year, and a Dr. John Ireland Award recipient from Derby Historical Society. She has also been a Derby-Shelton Rotarian for the past 20 years, where she also served as President. Pat is a Griffin Hospital Corporator and has been recognized as a Woman Making a Difference.

Patricia, who is originally from Massachusetts, and her husband, Nicholas, have lived in Oxford for 40 years. Together they have three children and six grandchildren.

Departing Board Member: Alan Tyma Alan Tyma was raised in Derby. He was a founding Board member of the Valley Community Foundation and returned for a second seven-year term. Alan created the John Tyma Fund at VCF to honor his father, who passed away at a young age.

Alan is also a co-founder of the law firm, Ryan & Tyma, located in Shelton. Alan has served as counsel to many local nonprofits and Corporation Counsel to Derby and Assistant Corporation Counsel to Shelton. He has also served in leadership positions on many area Boards of Directors, including The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven, the Valley Chamber of Commerce, Griffin Hospital and the Valley Regional Water Authority, among others.

THE INNER-CITY NEWS - January 13, 2021 - January 19, 2021

Church Street South Community Lives On

by MAYA MCFADDEN

New Haven I ndependent

While the old Church Street South housing project was being demolished, Tiffany Jackson returned to capture photos of the stripped and crumbling complex. She felt as if she were “grieving a slow death.”

“You may have demolished our childhood home,” she said, “but we stand strong. We are not the bricks. We are the people. And we will rebuild as we have already, story by story.”

She wasn’t alone. She discovered that childhood friends Tyrone Palmer, Shawn Anderson, Ramona Davis, Rhoda “Gail” Melvin, Manny James Sorrells, Tracey Menafee, and Andrea Taylor-Lee felt similarly.

They all reconnected recently for an online discussion about their memories of Church Street South (CSS) and their personal journeys decades after they left.The demolition caused lifelong friends to be displaced from their beloved homes and their first-ever encounter of a community.

The friends carry forward a vision, bringing talents nurtured at the complex to the wider world.

“Church Street South was more than low-income projects,” Jackson said.

“Church Street South was a family.”

Rebuilding A Vibrant Cultural Mecca The federally Section 8-subsidized private complex across from Union Station was constructed in 1969. It housed 301 low and moderate-income families. Due to prolonged failed upkeep by the building owners and failed government regulation, CSS was demolished in 2018.

In the discussion, the group recalled what CSS physically consisted of—not just apartments, but community rooms, nursery, laundromat, food mart, candy store, pharmacy, preschool, tennis court, basketball court.

As kids, Palmer and his friends would play with Matchbox cars outdoors while making race tracks out of popsicle sticks.

“We would make up our own games out of anything,” he said.

Popular games amongst the group included hot peas and butter, hide and seek, and leapfrog over concrete court benches.

CSS tenants would distinguish sections of the housing complex by communal hangout spots like Jose Marti Court, Cinque Green, and Diego Court. Palmer argued Cinque Green’s tire swings made it the best ; Melvin argued in favor of Diego Court with the basketball court.

The design of those hangout spaces offered them an “option to bond” that “made us into a strong community,” said Menafee.

Menafee was the “big sister” of the group. She got girls involved in scouts, cheerleading, Camp Cedarcrest, double dutch competitions, 4-H, and the Phoenix drill team. She also looked after the boys and made sure they stayed out of trouble.

As the double dutch coach, Menafee led

JENNIFER POTEAU PHOTO Neighbors return to now-demolished site of their childhood homes.

the CSS team to a statewide competition.

“You saved our lives. You kept us busy with positive activities,” Jackson told her during the online reunion.

“This was family. It wasn’t residents. It was family,” Melvin said.

Growing up in CSS meant the mothers had a mutual understanding and obligation to look out for all of the community kids, not just their own.

When Menafee left for college in 1984, her presence remained with the group.

“I’m going to college like Tracey,” the others remembered saying.

The former neighbors recalledd block parties in the court known as the Square.

The gatherings later turned into “hip-hip extravaganzas,” as the genre blew up in the ‘70s. Residents would haul their stationary home speakers to and from the popular parties. The hip-hop music would pulse through what seemed like the whole city, Melvin said. “Every apartment felt the music.” Residents would walk across the street to the train station and ride to New York. Or New York would come to CSS. “We were instrumental in the proliferation of hip hop on the East Coast,” Jackson said.

Menafee’s brother, known as DJ Reggie Reg. put together CSS block parties with performances by New York’s rappers, including then up-and-comers like LL Cool J and Big Daddy Kane, she said. When

the rappers visited, they would sell their records.

At CSS, the group recalled, they learned life lessons like how to work as a team, be gracious, and deal with loss.

“There are some things that are never outdated. Technology can get old, but when it comes to morality and ethics those things, our value systems, every kid should learn them,” said Jackson.

“Who Says No Good Thing Comes From The Hood?”

The eight former tenants talked about the village-like community of CSS in the ‘70s and ‘80s.

CSS was frequently referred to as “The Jungle,” a trouble spot for drug dealing and shootings. Despite the negative narrative, CSS for these tenants meant “family,” “community,” “love,” “safety,” “the best place in the world that a kid could grow up in,” “a village,” “lifelong relationships,” and “excellence.”

Melvin moved to CSS in 1970; her family left in 1990. She remembered CSS offering all her family needed onsite. They would leave only for church or to visit her mom’s accountant.

When Melvin would go with her mom to the accountant growing up, she decided when she grew up she was going to CSS’s accountant. Today Melvin is a governmental forensic accountant. She founded an accounting firm, TheRho Financials, which aims to assist marginalized indi-

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viduals and business owners.

Palmer’s family was one of the first to move to CSS. They arrived in 1970; his sister was the last to leave the complex in 2018.

When Palmer wasn’t playing basketball at CSS, he would hang out on the other side of the street at Union Station shining shoes and selling newspapers.

“It kept me out of trouble, and I made some money,” he said.

Now Palmer works for Metro-North Railroad.

Jackson’s family moved to CSS in 1976.

She went to college in 1989 while her family remained there until 1997.

Jackson and Davis used to sing in their CSS apartment hallways as young girls.

Jackson had no idea she lived in the same city as the Neighborhood Music School, until she expressed her interest in music at Co-op High School. Then she took lessons at NMS. This led her down her career path as a classically trained singer and voice professor. She also started Gift Passion Purpose Project, a nonprofit on a mission to provide resources to young musicians in underserved communities.

Davis’s family of ten moved to CSS in 1972 and left in 1993. Growing up in CSS, Davis was motivated by her mom, a social worker whom she looked up to.

Today Davis is an administrative assistant for the chief of police and plans to get into human resources in the future.

Manny James moved to CSS in 1979 and left in 1997. At age 8, he would listen to the music of the neighborhood and sing along. “This is where my music dream started,” he said. He had many mentors at CSS. While a camp counselor for LEAP at 14 years old, he became motivated to help young kids. Today James is a recording artist, songwriter and composer. He created and manages his own record label, called Church Street South Entertainment, and and runs a Church Street South Arts and Music Program for youth.

Menafee’s family moved to CSS in 1969.

She left for college in 1994 and her mom left in 2016. For ten years Menafee worked for the city health department and did social work for different organizations. She now works as a school security officer and a bus driver.

Taylor-Lee moved to CSS in 1974. Her family left in 1983. Taylor-Lee’s family includes some of CSS’s original staff, like her Aunt Brenda, who was a secretary in 1970. Her family’s roles have ranged from property managers to members of the residents council to organizers of arts and crafts programs. Taylor-Lee was motivated by her mom’s community work and retired as a state social worker after 26 years. She was also an emergency room social worker 19 years.

THE INNER-CITY NEWS - January 13, 2021 - January 19, 2021

Qommunity Builds A Brand Around Black, Queer Healing

by Lucy Gellman, Editor, The arts Paper www.newhavenarts.org

Ashley LaRue spent years searching for a platform that could support her—and peers who looked like her—as an artist. When she didn’t find what she was looking for, she began to build it herself.

27-year-old LaRue is the founder and director of Qommunity, a small business dedicated to raising money for healingcentered creative projects through the sale of small, limited-batch clothing and sticker designs. The initiative focuses specifically on healing for queer people and Black people, and those who live at the intersection of both identities.

“This is for Black, queer creatives,” she said in a recent interview on Zoom. “Black and queer people. Of course anybody can wear it because anybody can support, anybody can be an ally. But my community is Black and queer people. And it’s for people who look and believe in the things that I do and want to support that.”

Qommunity is a nod to her work as both an artist and a lifelong New Havener. Born and raised in the city’s Hill neighborhood, LaRue grew up as one of two daughters in a big extended family. Warm nights, long summers, and holidays meant houses full of food and conversation, as her mom and aunts perfected their lobster boils and LaRue learned to grill. Beyond her sister and cousins, she had an extended church family, so tight that she became what she later described as “a poster child” for her house of worship in an essay for the Hartford Courant.

Art was always there, somewhere between school work and family, to catch her. As a student at Helene Grant School (now Wexler-Grant Community School), she designed paintings and set pieces for school theater productions. She “lived in the art room,” even when classes weren’t in session. When she discovered that Hill Career Regional High School didn’t offer art classes her freshman year, she declared an afterschool independent study with eight other students. Through the independent study, she learned about Artspace New Haven.

In some ways, that became the earliest groundwork for Qommunity. As a student in Artspace’s summer apprenticeship program, she was one of only three Black teenagers among a sea of white kids from the Connecticut Shoreline and the city’s magnet schools. She looked around, amazed that her friends from Cooperative Arts & Humanities High School weren’t part of the program. She called it the first time she truly saw how segregated the arts—and arts funding—were in the city.

During those years, LaRue also felt a pull away from the arts. She pursued the high school’s finance track and considered a career in marketing. In college, she jumped into business courses at the University of Connecticut (UConn). Then she realized that the field wasn’t the right fit for her at all.

“I am just very passionate about people,” she said. “I like to kind of figure out how people work, if that makes sense.”

She changed her major to human development and family studies, with the goal of becoming a guidance counselor. Around the same time, she joined UConn’s fledging slam poetry team, then called “Poetic Release.” She joined an a cappella group with her friends. She started painting and selling her artwork. Her plan, she said, was to put that work on the back burner while she went to graduate school.

That wasn’t what happened. After “an unfortunate series of events” caused her to pause her graduate studies at Fairfield University, LaRue fell into a spiral of depression. She found herself taking iPhone photos—first a few, and then dozens upon dozens of them—in an attempt to claw her way out of it. On Christmas three years ago, her partner gifted her a camera.

“I was just trying to find a way to get out of the funk that I was in, because I was so depressed,” she said. “When you’re depressed, you lose the motivation to do things that once were fun. So I just felt like I couldn’t draw. I couldn’t paint. I couldn’t write. I just felt like, I need to do something that’s creative that’s different from all the things that I’ve done before. Just to shake myself out of whatever that was.”

In the spring of 2018, LaRue started taking portraits of friends. A few portraits became a year of portraits, and then a project on LGBTQ+ artists, activists, and organizers that she published in the Hartford Courant in summer 2019. In the series, which she later titled The Courageous Project, she photographed subjects in houses of worship, backyards, parks, and beaches. They appeared in long robes and various states

of undress; with head wraps and natural hair and skin that glowed in the sunlight.

She wrote an essay about her own experience as a queer Black artist, in which she chronicled a split with the Christian church and journey back to God. The project healed her, she said. She also pinpoints that moment as the official beginning of Qommunity.

The business also took off as a matter of necessity. At the end of 2019, LaRue lost her job. While she was searching for work, she started selling packs of stickers on which her original designs were printed.

Friends pitched in. Then friends of friends.

Then people she didn’t know. It allowed her to financially tread water—and think about what other designs she was interested in drawing and selling.

Her designs are full of quirk, and sometimes full of history too. There is a brainshaped Magic 8 Ball, with wet grey folds on its curving sides where a slick black surface would normally be. On one pair of socks, large blue and green ferns stretch against off-white polyester. On another, a pincushion has come to life, and bears its sharp white teeth against punk buttons and dainty red pinheads.

This year, she experimented with the iconic image of a black panther, its mouth open wide and surrounded by the words “An attack against one/Is an attack against all!/Black Panther Party/All power to the people,” in a reference to a late 1960s poster from the Robert Brown Elliott League.

Her most recent designs were inspired by New Haven’s summer of protests, paired with the 50th anniversary of the Black

14

Panther trials in New Haven. When she’s creating, she thinks of artistic and political heroes including Shirley Chisholm and Angela Davis. LaRue said she often returns to the image of Davis speaking at Madison Square Garden in 1972, surrounded on all four sides by bulletproof glass.

“Being out in that and feeling that kind of energy, and knowing the history that New Haven has with Black Panthers,” she said.

“You know, you see a Trump supporter somewhere and they have their gear. They have their MAGA [gear], they have their different flags. You know one when you see one. And I just felt like, I want to have something that is branded for me. I want to be able to be like, this is my gear.”

“The Panthers did that, back then,” she continued. “When you saw them, you saw them. So it’s just an homage to that. And I still resonate with the message ‘All power to the people.’ It is what it is.”

A year in, she said she sees the project as the kind of creative space that often isn’t supported by New Haven’s philanthropic community and Economic Development Administration. When there is money and professional development training— through Collab’s small business incubator or small state grants, for instance—there never seems to be enough to go around.

“That’s what I want Qommunity to end up being,” she said. “Its own resource.

I think if we had that, we would see a lot more artists in the community. That’s what it is. People need resources. People need money. ” As she builds the business, she wants to partner with fellow Black, queer artists,

city residents of color and young creatives from New Haven to create a circle of financial support. Future projects include a 12-vignette photo series on mental health in communities of color. It is tentatively titled Mend, as shorthand for the phrase “mind your mental health.” She already has collaborators in mind.

“I have of close family friends who were lost to suicide, and it was born out of wanting to understand what it is about who you are that kind of kept you from letting people in to know that these things are going on,” she said. “It was originally called Delusion, because we delude ourselves into thinking that we don’t need help with our mental health when we really do.”

In order to fund Mend—and projects that may follow it—she still needs to make money. She’s starting small: everything is currently made to order, with options for custom printing for clients who are interested. As a photographer, she runs the business alongside freelance work, from New Haven’s first Black art fair in August to protests over the carceral state from the Katal Center for Equity, Health, and Justice.

“I’m excited to have the dream of Qommunity,” she said. “I am. It’s keeping me going at this point. It really is. And all of the Qommunity projects are not just for me.

The ideas that I have are definitely inspired by my life experiences, but they’re not just for me. A healing project is only a healing project if you’re doing something for the greater good. If you’re not, what is the real point?”

THE INNER-CITY NEWS - January 13, 2021 - January 19, 2021

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THE INNER-CITY NEWS - January 13, 2021 - January 19, 2021

Stability Touted In Choice Of New Top Cop

by THOMAS BREEN & PAUL BASS

Stability. Continuity. Competent and tested leadership.

Those themes came up again and again as the mayor, the outgoing police chief, and the head of the police commission symbolically handed over the reins of the New Haven Police Department to current Assistant Chief — and soon-to-be Acting Chief — Renee Dominguez.

Mayor Justin Elicker, Police Chief Otoniel Reyes, and Police Commission Chair Anthony Dawson joined dozens of uniformed city police officers on the front steps of the department’s headquarters Thursday afternoon to endorse that upcoming transition in leadership.

Dominguez will step into the role of acting chief in March, when Reyes starts using up his remaining vacation time before formally retiring in June. Reyes has led the department for two years, and has worked for the NHPD for 21 years. He has taken a job as head of security of Quinnipiac University.

“The department needs stability. The community needs stability. It’s always difficult when there’s a transition,” Dominguez said during Thursday’s presser. “I know that together we will be able to make it a smooth transition, and then to move on.”

Every official speaker at the half-hour press conference cited the importance of promoting a NHPD veteran to its lead role in a bid to maintain organizational and

operational stability at a time when the Covid-19 pandemic, mass protests against police brutality, and a nationwide surge in violent crime have caused so much social unrest.

Dominguez, who is 41, has worked for the NHPD for 18 years. Currently the assistant chief in charge of patrol, she also has served as a patrol cop, detective, K-9 keeper, district manager, and head of the special victims unit, among other posts.

She led the department’s training of officers to avoid arresting victims involved in domestic-violence calls. As a supervisor in the field, she earned the fierce loyalty of beat cops and developed relationships throughout the community.

“There is a lot of good talent in the department,” Elicker said Thursday. “I think it is vital that we have stability as we go through this transition period. It is also important that we have tested leadership.”

Dawson agreed. “The mayor is on point,” he said. “We just have to use the consistency of what talent we have already. We have a lot of talent in the department. Picking the assistant chief to replace Chief Reyes is a good situation.”

Once appointed acting chief, Dominguez could fill that role until Reyes’s current term expires in January 2022. Then the mayor would have appoint a new permanent chief, who would have to be confirmed by the Board of Alders.

“As a leader of this city, what brings me

THOMAS BREEN PHOTO Dominguez, tapped as acting chief, at Thursday announcement.

the greatest joy is that I can pass the baton to a leader within the department who can continue the work that we are doing here in New Haven,” said Reyes.

He said that there is “no one more dedicated, not just to police work, but to the men and women of this department.”

Dominguez was asked for her vision for the department and her assessment of the state of community policing in New Haven more broadly. In response, Dominguez recalled walking the beat when she first

joined the force nearly two decades ago.

“While that may have changed, we have not lost the essence of community policing, in what we want to deliver to the community,” she said. “We believe in that collaboration. We believe in knowing our officers. And we believe in doing everything we can together. We’re not in this alone. We’re in this together as a community.”

Elicker chose Dominguez after interviewing both her and Capt. Anthony Duff about

the chief’s position.

New Haven has never had a female permanent chief. Stephanie Redding served as interim chief for five weeks in 2010 after Chief James Lewis left town and before Chief Frank Limon came to town to replace him.

Dominguez had wanted to be cop since she was 8 years old. She began working on the Newtown police force while she was still in college, juggling night classes and finishing a degree in criminal justice at the University of New Haven while attending police academy. She transferred to New Haven two years later to be closer to her family.

In addition to providing continuity, Dominguez will be auditioning, in a sense, for the permanent chief position. If she takes on the chief’s job on a more permanent basis in 2022, she would need to move into the city.

Williams: What About The Community?

Halfway through the presser, community activist and small business construction contractor Rodney Williams pressed the mayor and police chiefs about what the revolving door at the top of the department.

The next chief will be the sixth since 2008.

“When you say this department is about community policing, and we keep getting chief after chief, we keep trying to establishing relationships with a chief ... and then you just leave us,” those true community bonds with the leadership of the

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THE INNER-CITY NEWS - January 13, 2021 - January 19, 2021

Former NBA Star Junior Bridgeman Purchases EBONY Magazine

By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent

The legendary EBONY magazine is being revived.

Former NBA star Junior Bridgeman reportedly has anted-up $14 million for the famed Black media publication.

The magazine, which was founded by John H. Johnson in 1945, was forced into bankruptcy earlier this year after an attempt to revive EBONY failed. EBONY sold its photo archive for $30 million last year, and Willard Jackson briefly took over as CEO but left the company soon after.

“EBONY kind of stood for Black excellence, showing people doing positive things that could benefit everyone,” Bridgeman said, according to Black Enterprise. “It just made you feel good.”

Bridgeman has a history of business success, Black Enterprise reported.

As the CEO of Manna Inc., the holding company for his franchise empire of quick-service restaurants, he is a longtime member of the [Black Entreprise] 100s.

According to the Michigan Chronicle, Bridgeman, who played for the Milwaukee Bucks and Los Angeles Clippers, was once featured on a 2016 Forbes top-paid athletes list.

He is the CEO of a Coca-Cola bottling company and part-owner of Coca-Cola Canada Bottling Limited.

The former athlete attempted to purchase Sports Illustrated in 2018 but eventually withdrew his bid a year later.

According to BlackPast.org, EBONY earned fame by honoring Black identity – portraying Black life, refuting stereotypes, and inspiring readers to overcome

Former NBA Star Junior Bridgeman Purchases EBONY Magazine

racial and other barriers to success.

John H. Johnson began his career with Negro Digest in 1942 and started Ebony three years later.

Both magazines were so successful that in 1972 the Magazine Publishers Association selected Johnson “Magazine Publisher of the Year.”

EBONY occasionally presented works by well-established literary figures such as Langston Hughes and Gwendolyn Brooks.

It also frequently published special issues, such as the 1963 one hundredth year commemoration of the Emancipation Proclamation, that highlighted issues deemed particularly relevant to African Americans.

EBONY first featured articles about notable African Americans such as celebrities and sports figures, and during the late

1950s ran Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s column, “Advice for Living By.” By the 1960s, articles supporting civil rights appeared as the magazine provided reliable coverage of the civil rights movement as it unfolded across the United States.

EBONY also discussed the increasing opportunities for African Americans, suggested ways to overcome obstacles, and encouraged the Black community to exhibit racial pride.

“When you look at EBONY, you look at the history not just for Black people, but of the United States,” Bridgeman said. “I think it’s something that a generation is missing, and we want to bring that back as much as we can.”

Former NBA star, Junior Bridgeman, has a history of business success, according to Black Enterprise.

Len Bias is Posthumously Going into the Hall of Fame

By Nsenga K. Burton Ph.D, The Button Wire

The internet is celebrating news that late basketball legend Len Bias will be inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame. Bias leads a group of six players and two coaches that will be enshrined in Kansas City next November. In addition to Bias, Hershey Hawkins, Jim Jackson, Paul Pierce, Antawn Jamison and David Greenwood are the other players who will be inducted.

In a tragic set of circumstances, University of Maryland basketball star Len Bias, who was chosen No. 2 by the Boston Celtics in the 1986 NBA draft, died days later of an accidental drug overdose.

Read more about the 2021 Basketball Hall of Fame class at ESPN.

This article originally appeared in The Burton Wire.

Nsenga K. Burton, Ph.D. is an awardwinning writer, entrepreneur and professor living her best life with her daughter Kai and fur-son Mr. Miyagi. She is founder and editor-in-chief of The Burton Wire, a news blog covering news of the African Diaspora. Dr. Burton is an expert in the intersection of race, class, gender, sexuality and media related industries. An activist scholar, Nsenga has authored numerous articles on the subject and recently co-edited a book on Black Women’s Mental Health. You can see and hear her on radio, tv and new media waxing poetic about these issues. In her spare time she vacillates between fighting the power and Happy Hour. Follow her on Twitter @Ntellectual.

Doctor Susan Moore, An African American Physician, Chronicles the Racist Medical Care that Led to Her Death

By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent (EDITOR’S NOTE: You can make a donation to the GoFundMe campaign set up for Dr. Moore’s funeral costs and expenses for her 19-year-old son and elderly parents. As of this writing, the campaign has raised more than $162,000.)

The disparities in health care treatment for African Americans extend not only to the millions of underserved patients in U.S. hospitals and medical facilities but also, sadly, to frontline healthcare professionals.

Just weeks after Dr. Susan Moore, an African American physician, posted a video that showed the world how her doctor, who is White, downplayed her complaints of pain and discomfort, she died of com-

susceptibility to the virus faced by African Americans.

Others are skeptical of both of the newly approved vaccines.

“Dr. Susan Moore knew all the fancy terms and treatment nuances when she was struggling with COVID-19 in the hospital. Yet, the doctor treating her was dismissive, and it felt to her like only one thing mattered to him: That she was Black. Dr. Moore died Sunday [December 20],” New York Times Journalist John Eligon wrote on Twitter. plications from COVID-19.

Many say that Moore’s plight illustrates the healthcare industry’s institutional biases and inherent systemic racism. A pattern of operation, care and treatment that has only exacerbated the disproportionate

Eligon wasn’t the only person to express outrage.

“Today, I want to speak out on behalf of a fellow Black woman physician, Dr. Susan Moore, not to let our stories go

17

unheard,” Dr. Omolara Uwemedimo of Long Island Jewish Hospital in New York stated.

“Sadly, while so many have fallen victim, her story is marred by systemic racism, even as a doctor.”

Indeed, in her last moments, Dr. Moore had complained about her treatment.

cation after tests proved her initial complaints upon arriving at the hospital.

“I put forth, and I maintain, if I was White, I wouldn’t have to go through that,” Moore said in her video after explaining that her doctor only agreed to give her pain medication after a CT scan revealed new pulmonary infiltrates.

“He made me feel like a drug addict,” she said of the physician who downplayed her complaints of pain and suggested she be discharged from the hospital.

Dr. Moore was admitted to the Indiana University North Hospital in Carmel, Indiana.

In a December 4 Facebook video, Dr. Moore offered her complaints to the public.

She said that she only received medi-

“And that man never came back and apologized.”

Dr. Moore continued: “I don’t trust this hospital, and I’m asking to be transferred. These people wanted to send me home with new pulmonary infiltrates and all kinds of lymphadenopathy in my neck.

“This is how Black people get killed.

When you send them home, and they

THE INNER-CITY NEWS - January 13, 2021 - January 19, 2021 INNER-CITY NEWS July 27, 2016 - August 02, 2016

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Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer M/F/V Phone: 243-2300 HOME INC, on behalf of860Columbus House and the New Haven Housing Authority, Drug Free Workforce is accepting pre-applications for studio and one-bedroom apartments at this develEmail: tom.dunay@garrityasphalt.com opment& located at 108 Frank Street, Haven. Maximum Women Minority Applicants are New encouraged to apply income limitations apply.Affi Pre-applications willEqual be available from 9AM TO 5PM beginning Monday Ju;y State of Connecticut rmative Action/ Opportunity Employer 25, 2016 and ending when sufficient pre-applications (approximately 100) have Office of Policy been received at the offices of HOME INC. Applications will be mailied upon request by calling HOME INC at 203-562-4663 during those hours. Completed pre- and Management Garrity Asphalt Reclaiming, Incoffices seeks: applications must be returned to HOME INC’s at 171 Orange Street, Third Reclaimer Operators and Milling Operators with current licensing Floor, New Haven, CT 06510. and clean driving record, be willing to travel throughout the NorthThe State of Connecticut, Office of east & NY. We offer excellent hourly rate & excellent benefits Policy and Management is recruiting for

NOTICIA

Operates electric distribution substation and Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system for an electric utility serving 25,000 customers. Coordinates electric system switching and places equipment in and out of service during routine and emergency operations. Requires HS diploma/GED with 2 years experience in the operation of Distribution SCADA equipment and/or switchboards used in the distribution of electricity.

Experience and training may be substituted on a year for year basis. Must maintain valid system operation certification from Connecticut Valley Exchange (CONVEX) or other approved agency or be able to obtain the same within 90 days of hire. Must posses and maintain a valid State of CT driver’s license. $ 34.63 - $ 41.15 per hour plus an excellent fringe benefit package. Apply to: Department of Human Resources, Town of Wallingford, 45 South Main Street, Wallingford, CT 06492. Fax #: (203) 294-2084. Closing date will be January 29, 2021. EOE.

ELM CITY COMMUNITIES

an Agency Labor Relations Specialist position.

Contact: Rick Tousignant Phone: 860- 243-2300 VALENTINA MACRI VIVIENDAS DE ALQUILER PRE-SOLICITUDES DISPONIBLES Email: rick.tou-

Further information regarding the duties, signant@garrityasphalt.com eligibility HOME INC, en nombre de la Columbus House y de la New Haven Housing Authority, estárequirements and application Women & Minority Applicants are encouraged to apply instructions are available at: aceptando pre-solicitudes para estudios y apartamentos de un dormitorio en este desarrollo Affirmative Action/ Equal Opportunity Employer

ubicado en la calle 109 Frank Street, New Haven. Se aplican limitaciones de ingresos máximos. Las pre-solicitudes estarán disponibles 09 a.m.-5 p.m. comenzando https://www.jobapscloud.com/ Martes 25 CT/sup/bulpreview.asp?R1= julio, 2016 hasta cuando se han recibido suficientes pre-solicitudes (aproximadamente 100) en lasTrailer oficinasDriver de HOME INC. & Las pre-solicitudes serán enviadas petición Tractor for Heavy Highway Construction Equip- por correo a201214&R2=5257MP&R3=001 llamando HOME INCLicense, al 203-562-4663 duranterecord, esas horas.Pre-solicitudes deberán remitirse ment.

Must ahave a CDL clean driving capable of State of Connecticut is an equal . a las oficinas de equipment; HOME INCbe enwilling 171 Orange Street, tercer piso, 06510 operating heavy to travel throughout theNew Haven , CTThe opportunity/affirmative action employer Northeast & NY. We offer excellent hourly rate & excellent benefits and strongly encourages the applications of women, minorities, and persons with disabilities.

Email: dana.briere@garrityasphalt.com

Union Company seeks:

Contact Dana at 860-243-2300

Women & Minority Applicants are encouraged to apply

NEW HAVEN

242-258 Fairmont Ave CITY OF MILFORD 2BR Townhouse, 1.5 BA, 3BR, 1 level , 1BA

Seeking qualified condidates to fill numerous vacancies to include, All Health new apartments, new appliances, carpet, I-91informa& I-95 Public Nurse, Mechanic Sewernew Line and close more.toFor nearinstructions, bus stop & shopping center tion and detailedhighways, application visit www.ci.milford.ct.us Pet under 40lbon allowed.

Interested parties MariaTITLE. @ 860-985-8258 Click SERVICES, JOBScontact and JOB

Real Estate Controller

CT. Unified Deacon’s Association is pleased to offer a Deacon’s Certificate Program. This is a 10 month program designed to assist in the intellectual formation of Candidates in response to the Church’s Ministry needs. The cost is $125. Classes start Saturday, August 20, 2016 1:303:30 Contact: Chairman, Deacon Joe J. Davis, M.S., B.S. Fusco Management is seeking a Real Controller.

Candidate should have (203) 996-4517 Host, General Bishop Elijah Davis, Estate D.D. Pastor of Pitts Chapel U.F.W.B. Church 64 Brewster

leadership, communication and supervisory skills. Controller should have 6+ St. New Haven, CT year’s hands on accounting experience and have a BS in Accounting.

Duties and Responsibilities:

SEYMOUR HOUSING AUTHORITY

Oversee the activities of the Accounting Department for the accurate and timely dissemination nancial by management reports including andSeymour external Sealed bids of arefiinvited the Housing Authority of theinternal Town of monthly financial statements, and annual budgets. until 3:00 pm on Tuesday,annual Augustaudits 2, 2016 at its office at 28 Smith Street,

Seymour, CT 06483 for Concrete Sidewalk Repairs and Replacement at the Desired Skills and Experience Smithfield Gardens Assisted Living Facility, 26 Smith Street Seymour.

Qualifications: • • • •

Electric Utility System Operator/Dispatcher

Construction

Garrity Asphalt Reclaiming, Inc seeks:

Construction Equipment Mechanic preferably experienced in Seeking to employ experienced individuals in the labor, foreman, Reclaiming and Road Milling Equipment. We offer factory operator and teamster trades for a heavy outside work statewide.

Reliable personal transportation and a valid drivers license retraining on equipment we operate. Location: Bloomfield CT quired. To apply please call (860) 621-1720 or send resume to: We offer excellent hourly rate & excellent benefits VALENTINA MACRI RENTAL HOUSING PRE- APPLICATIONS AVAILABLE Contact: Tom Dunay Personnel Department, P.O. Box 368, Cheshire, CT06410.

Proficient in Microsoft Word, Excel, Timberline and Timberscan, BNA, TValue.

A pre-bid conference willand be good held communication at the Housing skills.

Authority Office 28 Smith Discretion, good judgment Street general Seymour, CT at 10:00 am, on Wednesday, 20, 2016.

Strong ledger, accounts payable and accountsJuly receivable.

Real Estate experience a plus.

Bidding documents are available from the Seymour Housing Authority OfEducation and Experience Required: fice, 28 Smith Street, Seymour, CT 06483 (203) 888-4579.

Bachelor's degree in Accounting or Finance. CPA certification a plus. Must have 6+years of hands-on accounting managerial experience. Fusco Management ofThe Housing Authority reserves the right to accept or reject any or all bids, to fers a competitive benefit package. Fusco is an Affirmative Action/ Equal Opreduce the scope of the project to reflect available funding, and to waive any portunity Employer

informalities in the bidding, if such actions are in the best interest of the Housing Authority.

Invitation for Bids

Fire Alarm System, Fire Pump and Vestibule Upgrades at George Crawford Manor

The Housing Authority of the City of New Haven d/b/a Elm City Communities is currently seeking Bids for fire alarm system, fire pump and vestibule upgrades at George Crawford Manor. A complete copy of the requirements may be obtained from Elm City’s Vendor Collaboration Portal https://newhavenhousing.cobblestonesystems.com/gateway beginning on Monday, December 14, 2020 at 3:00PM

EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY

HCV-Section 8 Family Self-Sufficiency Coordinator FT Grant Position: Bristol Housing Authority is seeking an individual with working knowledge of and experience in federally subsidized housing program rent calculations. Individual will work with InvitationFamilies to Bid: to find services to enrich their lives. Send resume with references by Jan.20, 2nd Notice 2021 to Melissa Green, Deputy Chief – Director HCV-Sec. 8.

Town of Bloomfield

SAYEBROOKE VILLAGE

Lead Building Maintainer - Facilities

Old Saybrook, CT Full Time - Benefited (4 $31.26 hourly Buildings, 17 Units)

Town of Bloomfield

Taxdrug Exempt & Not Prevailing Wage Rate Project Pre-employment testing.

For more details, visit our website – www.bloomfiWood eldct.org New Construction, Framed, Housing, Selective Demolition, Site-work, CastDeputy Town

Engineer

in-place Concrete, Asphalt Shingles, Vinyl Siding, $75,909 to $117,166 Flooring, Painting, Division 10 Specialties, Appliances, Residential Casework, Pre-employment drug testing. AA/EOE. Mechanical, Electrical, Plumbing and Fire Protection.

Seeking qualified condidates to fill For Details go to www.bloomfieldct.gov This contract is subject to state set-aside and contract compliance requirements. numerous vacancies to include, Benefits & Pension Coordinator Bid Extended, Due Date: August 5, 2016 and more. For information and Anticipated Start: August 15, 2016 detailed application instructions, Project documents available via ftp&link below:Inc. (FHI) is seeking a part-time, Senior Corporate Strategy ManFitzgerald Halliday, visit www.ci.milford.ct.us ager to assist FHI with the implementation of our Strategic Plan and other significant corhttp://ftp.cbtghosting.com/loginok.html?username=sayebrookevillage Click on SERVICES, JOBS and porate initiatives. The candidate should have strong strategic, communications, mentoring, and leadership skills who also has a strong understanding of the transportation industry on JOB TITLE. Fax or Email Questions & Bids to: Dawn Lang @ 203-881-8372 dawnlang@haynesconstruction.com

CITY OF MILFORD

Senior Corporate Strategy Manager

QSR

a local, regional, and national level. This position will provide critical strategic consultHCC encourages the participation of all Veteran, S/W/MBE & Section 3 Certified Businesses ing to FHI as well as hands-on implementation of key strategic initiatives. This position Construction Company, 32 Progress Ave, Seymour, CT 06483 STEELHaynes CORPORATION requires a candidate with at least 25 years of professional experience in the transportation AA/EEO EMPLOYER industry in the private or public sector. The candidate should have at minimum a bachelor’s

APPLY NOW!

Steel Fabricators, Erectors & Welders Top pay for top performers. Health Benefits, 401K, Vacation Pay. Email Resume: Rose@qsrsteel.com Hartford, CT AFFIRMATIVE ACTION/EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER

18

degree with leadership, project management, business development, and strategic planning experience. The candidate should demonstrate excellent communication skills with strong written, oral, editing, analytical, and strategic abilities. This position will partner with the Vice President of Projects and Client Services and requires the ability to form strong working partnerships with other senior staff to effectively execute and support the company’s objectives. Salary commensurate with level of experience. Send resume to seniorstrategist@fhiplan.com or 416 Asylum Street, Hartford, CT 06103. Fitzgerald & Halliday, Inc. is an EEO/AA /VEV/Disabled employer.

THE INNER-CITY NEWS - January , 2021 - January 19, 2021 INNER-CITY NEWS July 27,13 2016 - August 02, 2016

Notice of Public Hearing NOTICE

The Bristol Housing Authority is developing its 2021-2025 Agency Plan in compliance with the HUD Quality Housing and Work Responsibility Act of 1998. A Public Hearing will be held by telephone conference (due to public health and safety concerns) on February 1, 2021 VALENTINA MACRI RENTAL HOUSING PRE- APPLICATIONS AVAILABLE at 11:00 a.m. Dial-in Number: (508) 924-3009. An in-person meeting may replace the telephone conference should government guidelines permit – such a change will be duly posted.

HOME INC, on behalf of Columbus House and the New Haven Housing Authority, is accepting pre-applications studio and one-bedroom apartments at this Information is available for reviewforand inspection at Bristol Housing Authority, 164develJerome Ave., Bristol, CT during regular opment located at 108 Frankbusiness Street, hours.

New Haven. Maximum income limitations apply. Pre-applications will be available from 9AM TO 5PM beginning Monday Ju;y Please call (860) 582-6313 for an appointment.

25, 2016 and ending when sufficient pre-applications (approximately 100) have been received at the offices of HOME INC. Applications will be mailied upon request by calling HOME INC at 203-562-4663 during hours. Completed preHealthy Older Volunteers Needed Forthose a Blood Specimen applications must be returned to HOME INC’s offices at 171 Orange Street, Third Collection Clinical Research Trial.

Floor, New Haven, CT 06510.

ONE Visit And Receive a Gift Card Up to $75 Upon Completion.

Call Chase Medical Research in Hamden, CT NOTICIA

at 203-419-4404 For More Information.

VALENTINA MACRI VIVIENDAS DE ALQUILER PRE-SOLICITUDES DISPONIBLES HOME INC, en nombre de la Columbus House y de la New Haven Housing Authority, está aceptando pre-solicitudes para estudios y apartamentos de un dormitorio en este desarrollo ubicado en la calle 109 Frank Street, New Haven. Se aplican limitaciones de ingresos máximos. Las pre-solicitudes estarán disponibles 09 a.m.-5 p.m. comenzando Martes 25 julio, 2016 hastaTechnician cuando se han recibido suficientes pre-solicitudes 100) Distribution - The Town of Wallingford Electric (aproximadamente Division is seeking highly skilled candidates electric utility experience to work in the utility’s distribution sysen las oficinaswith de HOME INC. construction Las pre-solicitudes serán enviadas por correo a petición tem.

The successful applicant be a H.S. graduate behoras.Pre-solicitudes fully qualified as a journeyman llamando a HOME INC almust 203-562-4663 duranteand esas deberán lineman remitirseor first-class lineman. Hourly rate: $40.70 to $46.09, plus an excellent fringe benefits package. The closlas oficinas de HOME INC en Orange tercerofpiso, NewResources, Haven , CT 06510 . ingadate for applications is January 29,171 2021.

Apply:Street, Department Human Town of Wall-

ELECTRIC

ingford, 45 South Main Street, Wallingford, CT 06492, (203) 294-2080, Fax: (203) 294-2084. EOE.

Meter Technician – Electric Utility Meter Technician A – The Wallingford Electric Division is seeking a highly qualified individual

NEW HAVEN

to perform skilled work on alternating current and direct current circuits, metering devices and meter equipment. Requires graduation from a high school, trade, or technical school with course of study in the electrical field and 4 years of experience as a meter technician in an electric utility or related experience. Experience and training may be substituted on a year for year basis up to 2 years. Must have a valid State of CT Driver’s License. $36.34 to $38.65 hourly plus an excellent fringe benefit package.

Apply to: of Human Resources, Town of Wallingford, 45 South Main Street,&Wallingford, AllDepartment new apartments, new appliances, new carpet, close to I-91 I-95 CT 06492. (203) 294-2080. Fax #: (203) 294-2084. Closing date will be January 29, 2021. EOE.

242-258 Fairmont Ave 2BR Townhouse, 1.5 BA, 3BR, 1 level , 1BA

highways, near bus stop & shopping center Pet under 40lb allowed. Interested parties contact Maria @ 860-985-8258

Waste Treatment

CT. Unified Deacon’s Association pleased to (Attendant offer a Deacon’s Wastewater Treatment PlantisOperator I): Operates and maintains equipment Certificate Program. This is a 10 month program designed to assist in the intellectual formation of Candidates and processes in a municipal sewage treatment plant.

Requires a H.S. diploma or GED in response to the Church’s Ministry needs. The cost is $125. Classes start Saturday, August 20, 2016 1:30plus State of CT Dept. of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) Class I Op3:30a Contact: Chairman, Deacon Joe J. Davis, M.S., B.S. (203) 996-4517 General Bishop Elijah Davis, Pastor IofOperator-in-Training Pitts Chapel U.F.W.B. Church 64 Brewster erators LicenseHost, or higher certification, or D.D. a Class certification.

St. New Haven,and CT maintain a valid driver’s license. $ 20.70 to $ 25.76 hourly / $ 21.79 Must possess to $ 25.76 based on certifications & experience plus an excellent fringe benefit package.

Apply: Department of Human Resources, Town of Wallingford, 45 South Main Street, Wallingford, CT 06492. The closing date will be that date the 50th application form/ resume is received, or January 26, 2021 whichever occurs first. EOE

SEYMOUR HOUSING AUTHORITY

Sealed bids are invited by the Housing Authority of the Town of Seymour until 3:00 pm onMaintenance Tuesday, August 2, 2016 at its office at 28 Smith Street, Mechanic Seymour, CT 06483 for Concrete Sidewalk Repairs and Replacement at the Maintenance RepairAssisted Technician Skilled mechanic in the repair and Smithfield Gardens LivingI-Facility, 26 Smithneeded Street Seymour.

maintenance of all plant equipment to include pumping station equipment and motor vehicles for the Town of Wallingford Sewer Division. Requires graduation from H.S./trade A pre-bid willspecialized be held atmaintenance the Housingtraining Authority 28 Smithin school with 1 conference year of post H.S. and 2 Office years experience theStreet repairSeymour, and maintenance mechanical Must obtain CDL Class B motor CT at of 10:00 am, onequipment.

Wednesday, July 20, a2016. vehicle operator license within 6 months of employment. $25.63 to $30.54 per hour plus an excellent fringe benefit package. Apply to: Human Resources Department, Town of Bidding documents areStreet, available from theCTSeymour Housing OfWallingford, 45 South Main Wallingford, 06492. Fax #: (203)Authority 294-2084. Closingfice, date28 will be January 26, 2021 or the date the 50th application is received, whichever Smith Street, Seymour, CT 06483 (203) 888-4579. occurs first. EOE.

The Housing Authority reserves the right to accept or reject any or all bids, to reduce the scope of the project to reflect available funding, and to waive any

REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS

DELIVERY PERSON

NEEDED

Computerized Accounting System New Haven Parking Authority New Haven, CT

Proposals due January 29, 2021 at 3:00 P.M. EDT

Part Time Delivery Needed One/Two Day a Week,

Must Have your Own Vehicle If Interested call

(203) 387-0354

POLICE OFFICER City of Bristol

$67,170 - $81,648

Required testing, registration info & apply at www.bristolct.gov DEADLINE: 12-13-20 EOE

QSR STEEL CORPORATION

APPLY NOW!

Steel Fabricators, Erectors & Welders Top pay for top performers. Health Benefits, 401K, Vacation Pay. Email Resume: Rose@qsrsteel.com Hartford, CT AFFIRMATIVE ACTION/EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER

Proposal Documents will be available beginning January 8, 2021 at no cost by emailing Paul Wydra, Director of Finance at pwydra@nhparking.com.

NHPA is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer.

Solicitation of Interest

Wesleyan University located in Middletown, CT intends to renovate and expand their Public Affairs Center building in Summer 2021 through 2022. The project consists of 36,000 SF of interiors renovations and 33,000 SF expansion. Minority and women owned businesses are encouraged to provide proposals for materials and construction services this project which are due on February 2, 2021. Those interested in submitting a proposal should contact Mitch Berlandy or Ryan Heller for further information at FIP Construction, 860 470 1800 or email at berlandym@fipconstruction.com or hellerr@fipconstruction.com.

Electric

Meterman Helper - Apprentice Meter Technician - Trainee position involved in the instal-

lation, maintenance and repair of electrical metering equipment for a municipal electric utility. Requires a H.S./trade school diploma or an equivalent in experience and training. $26.27 to $34.95 hourly plus an excellent fringe benefit package. The closing date for applications is January 29, 2021 or the date we receive the twenty-fifth (25) application whichever occurs first. Apply: Human Resources Department, Town of Wallingford, 45 South Main Street, Wallingford, CT 06492. Phone: (203) 294-2080 Fax: (203)294-2084. EOE.

Invitation to Bid: 2nd Notice

WALLINGFORD HOUSING AUTHORITY Waiting List Opening- Studio

KMK Insulation Inc. SAYEBROOKE VILLAGE

1907 Hartford Turnpike Effective Tuesday, January 5th, 2021, the Wallingford Housing Authority (WHA) will open the zero (0) North Haven, CT 06473 Old Saybrook, CTbedroom studio waitlist for its McKenna Court Federal Elderly/Disabled housing proThe closing date for the Waiting List will be Friday, March 5th, 2021 at 3 p.m. Following Mechanical Insulator position.

(4 Buildings,gram.

17 Units) the closing date, each applicant’s Waiting List position will be determined by a lottery selection Insulation company offering good pay Tax Exempt & Not Prevailing Rate Projecttenant Selection Plan. All applications must be complete with copies of as setWage forth in the WHA’s and benefits. Please mail resume to all required documentation attached. Applications must be signed & dated by all adult members above address. MAIL ONLY of the applicant household 18 years of age and older. All applications & documentation must are an AA/EO Employer NewWe Construction, Wood Framed, Housing,beSelective Demolition, Site-work, postmarked or date-stamped at theCastWallingford Housing Authority on or before March 5th,

at 3:00Vinyl PM. Siding, in-place Concrete, Asphalt2021 Shingles, LEGAL NOTICE of10 Specialties,FAXED Flooring, Painting, Division Appliances, Residential OR EMAILED APPLICATIONSCasework, WILL BE ACCEPTED. WHA WILL NOT MAKE COPIES OF REQUIRED DOCUMENTS. Electrical, Plumbing and Fire Protection.

TOWN OFMechanical, PORTLAND, CT Due to the pandemic, the Housing Authority is currently closed to the public, however, applications can be obtained at Town of Portland has amended its Citizen Partici45 Tremper Drive compliance Wallingford, CTrequirements.

06492 in person by appointment request only. To request an application by mail/ or This contract is subject to state set-aside and contract pation Plan for the purpose of informing the public about its intent to apply for CDBG, Covid-19 funding. For a copy of the amended Plan go to www. portlandct.org.

fax, please call 203-269-5173. The fax number is (203) 269-5150 and the email address is info@wallingfordha.com.

Bid Extended, Due Date: August 5, 2016 WALLINGFORD HOUSING AUTHORITY Anticipated Start: August 15, 2016 Project documents available via ftp link below: Waiting List Opening- 1 Bedroom http://ftp.cbtghosting.com/loginok.html?username=sayebrookevillage

DELIVERY PERSON

NEEDED

Effective Tuesday, January 5th, 2021, the Wallingford Housing Authority (WHA) will open the one (1) bedroom waitlist for its McKenna Court Federal Elderly/Disabled housing program. The Fax or Email Questions & Bids to: Dawn Lang @ 203-881-8372 dawnlang@haynesconstruction.com closing date for the Waiting List will be Friday, March 5th, 2021 at 3 p.m. Following the closing each &applicant’s Waiting List position will be determined by a lottery selection as set forth HCC encourages the participation of all Veteran,date, S/W/MBE Section 3 Certified Businesses in the WHA’s tenant CT Selection Haynes Construction Company, 32 Progress Ave, Seymour, 06483 Plan. All applications must be complete with copies of all required documentation attached. Applications must be signed & dated by all adult members of the appliAA/EEO EMPLOYER cant household 18 years of age and older. All applications & documentation must be postmarked Part Time Delivery Needed One/Two Day a Week, or date-stamped at the Wallingford Housing Authority on or before March 5th, 2021 at 3:00 PM. Must Have your Own Vehicle If Interested call

(203) 387-0354 19

Si tiene dificultades para entender el inglés, llame a nuestra oficina para solicitar una traducción.

THE INNER-CITY NEWS - January 13, 2021 - January 19, 2021

Police Problem: Excessive Contact

by SHAFIQ ABDUSSABUR (Opinion.)I’ve researched this subject since 1998 and concluded that yes, excessive contact between police and minority communities leads to police use of deadly force.

The year of 2021 will be another turning point for policing in America. The perceptions of policing in America continue to operate under the shadow of previous police interactions with people of color, which have often ended in the use of deadly force.

At the forefront of this national debate on policing and interactions with people of color, has been an ongoing discussion about racial profiling surrounding motor vehicle stops and urban gun crime reduction strategies like that of the New York City Police Department’s stop-and frisk policy.

This year already bears the burdens of an evolving pandemic, increased mental health ailment, increased records of substance abuse, food insecurity, economic uncertainty, higher violent crime rates and racially charged political frictions. Therefore, it will be imperative that both policy and law makers consider recommendations that have the highest probability of curtailing deadly interactions between police and minority communities. In doing so we can assure immediate change to both municipal and state laws that will remove race and bias as a mainstay in police culture, police practice, and police standard operating procedures.

The social trigger for immediate police reform has its most recent roots in the deadly police shooting of unarmed Mike Brown in 2012. The more recent highlighted case of such is the deadly shooting of unarmed Andre Maurice Hill at the close of the year in December 2020 (Belle, 2020). These tragic incidents, and others that are not named here, represent an ongoing reminder of the systematic breakdown of one of the most vital resources to every community in America—personal safety.

Since 1998, I have examined the topic of community police relations and police use of force as it impacts communities of color, particularly Black, Hispanic, and Latino men. After 23 years of research, study and interviews with police and community members, I have concluded that the common factors that lead to many of the deadly encounters between police and the minority community are the result of excessive contact with police.

American society has significantly shifted to hold police officers accountable for acts of abuse and use of force only since then.

However, many official educators and legislators continue to grapple at delivering immediate relief to the affected community.

Many laws that encourage police contact

were written over 50 years ago, and many of them have not been fully evaluated to determine if they are effective in changing social behavior. Based on the state that one resides, the language may differ; however, the policies that govern them have the same effect and impact. My research and study in this area has identified these recommendations which are based on the implementation of actions aimed at moving policing away from “conflict spaces.”

The first recommendation is to discontinue chase and pursuit of stolen vehicles by police, unless the vehicle is classified as carjacking with a weapon, or involved in a life-threatening crime. A police officers’ scope of duties should not include stolen vehicle recovery for insurance agencies.

The second recommendation is amending motor vehicle statutes by removing all equipment, seat belt, tinted window, and registration violations, as well as emission expirations or insurance inquiries, as cause for an enforcement or motor vehicle stop by an officer. As of 2015, the Connecticut Motor Vehicle Infraction Code had approximately 493 motor vehicle equipment violations listed as law which translates into 493 additional reasons that give police officers the right to stop a motorist.

A police officers’ scope of duties should not be to act as fee collectors for any State.

Officers’ duties should have the focus of preventing, enforcing, and monitoring moving motor vehicle violations that put the public at immediate risk.

The third recommendation is amending state statutes for public drinking, loitering, and disorderly conduct. These violations require and allow officers to self-initiate enforcement that has led and often continues to be used as racially implicit or biasbased policing tactics. This usually results in disproportional police contact and enforcement.

More cutting-edge reform could include creating a mandated statewide use of force policy and procedures that must be adopted and implemented by all police departments, private detectives, and armed security agencies operating within that state. Such a policy should include guidelines for use of deadly force, use of non-lethal force, deescalation procedures, duty to render first aid, and duty to intervene.

Next steps would include creating a statewide public complaint or reporting system that also must be adopted and implemented by all police departments, private detectives, and armed security agencies operating within a state. The statewide data bank could be useful to track complaints by city, departments, officers, or dates. Data banks could also be accessible to the public to enhance public trust. The data should show status of complaint and outcome regardless of whether an officer is terminated, prosecuted, reinstated, promoted, or transferred to another department or employer. The complaint site and system could serve as a quality control for a police certification, recertification, intrastate hiring, and department lateral transfers. This transparency maintains accountability and retains trust.

Another community trust-building effort

would include creating a reporting system to capture racial, ethnic, gender, and religious data when conducting pedestrian stops (i.e., trespassing, loitering, disorderly conduct, breach of peace, and interfering with a police officer). This data should also be made public in an annual report.

Ultimately, we need to redefine the police scope of duties, which is one of the most effective non-bureaucratic efforts out of all the previous recommendations. Get police out of performing non-policing matters!

Discontinuing duties such as responding to homeless calls, medical calls, MVA calls (no-injuries), noise complaints, civil investigations, fraud (credit card/bank/checks/ identity theft/counterfeit bills), building code enforcement, loitering, public drinking, enforcing legal marijuana card verification and receptacle storage will drastically remove police from the personal space of the public overwhelmed with social-economic challenge that police have not been trained to properly address.

As America continues to try to heal from a pandemic, all efforts were made to find preventative treatment in nine-months that normally takes five to ten years. We did it!

And even during the pandemic, America has launched two missions to the moon.

Now is the time that we start working on a cure that brings an end to these avoidable deadly encounters and excessive misuse of police force with the public. We know better. Let’s do better.

Shafiq Abdussabur, a lifelong New Havener, is a retired New Haven police sergeant, author of books on policing, and law enforcement trainer.

References: Bella, Timothy. December 23, 2020. Ohio officer who fatally shot unarmed Black man relieved of duty for not turning on body camera until after incident. The Washington Post. Retrieved on Wednesday January 6, 2021 from https://www.washingtonpost. com/nation/2020/12/23/columbus-ohioshooting-black-man/ Chuck, E., August 13, 2014, The Killing of an Unarmed Teen: What We Know About Brown’s Death. NBC. Retrieved on Friday January 13, 2017 from http:// www. nbcnews.com/storyline/michael-brownshooting/ killing-unarmed-teen-whatweknow-about-brownsdeath-n178696 Shafiq R. Fulcher Abdussabur is the author of “A Black Man’s Guide to Law Enforcement in America,” a straight talk manual to interactions between police and urban males. He currently serves on The Police Transparency & Accountability Task Force for the State of Connecticut. He is a retired law enforcement sergeant with previous certification in FBI- LEEDS, Department of Homeland Security for Countering Violent Extremism, Amtrak RAILSAFE Counter Terrorism, and Daigle Law GroupUse of Force. His highlighted national lectures include 2016 Democratic National Convention panel speaker with Representative John Lewis “Disarm Hate: The Role of Guns in Hate Crimes,” Guest presenter at 2016 Federal Law Enforcement Training Centers- FLETC Summit on “Trending Issues in Policing,” and 2017 Guest Lecture

20

Con’t from page 16

Doctor Susan Moore

don’t know how to fight for themselves. I have to talk to somebody, maybe the media, somebody, to let people know how I’m being treated up in this place.”

Dr. Moore updated her post later, noting that she had spoken to the hospital’s healthcare system’s chief medical officer, and her pain was finally being “properly managed.”

She said that the CMO “stated that there will be some diversity training” and that they were “working on” getting an apology from her doctor.

After her discharge, Dr. Moore shared an update.

Con’t from page 16

Winfield:

an anti-discrimination provision making it illegal for employers to discriminate based on an erased record. The CT ACLU is pursuing a separate anti-discrimination law for those who have a criminal record but whose convictions are not eligible to be erased.

The CT ACLU also is seeking a prosecutorial accountability law which would work with the prosecutorial transparency law that was passed in 2019, Moore said.

“We know prosecutors are the most powerful actors in the criminal justice system and the least accountable and transparent,” Moore said.

The transparency law requires that the Division of Criminal Justice gather a wide range of arrest and demographic data that must be submitted to the legislature annually. Under the ACLU’s proposal, every two years during a shortened four-year term, the 13 state’s attorneys would have to submit their data gathered for the transparency law to the Criminal Justice Commission for review.

Moore said this would function as a review of a state’s attorney’s work and allow him or her to explain why certain statistics are higher or lower than other judicial districts. It would also require the state’s attorneys to come together to create standard operating procedures for prosecutors statewide.

“There is no standard operating procedure for prosecutors around the state,” Moore said. “There are disparities in the way people are charged and sentenced because there is no uniform policy.”

Winfield also expects the committee to address the use of solitary confinement and “Jennifer’s Law,” named for Jennifer Dulos, which would expand the definition of domestic violence for those seeking a restraining order or emergency custody.

Dulos has been missing since May 24, 2019 and is believed to have been kidnapped and murdered by her estranged husband. She was denied a restraining order and emergency custody of their five children in 2017 based on the definition of domestic violence which does not include intimidation or threatening.

“I was home for less than 12 hours,” Dr. Moore wrote.

“Spiked a temperature of 103, and my blood pressure plummeted to 80/60 with a heart rate of 132. I’m back in the hospital, a different hospital Saint Vincent Carmel.”

She continued: “Those people were trying to kill me.

Clearly, everyone has to agree they discharged me way too soon. They are now treating me for bacterial pneumonia as well as COVID pneumonia. I am getting very compassionate care. They are offering me pain medicine.”

In her final update, Dr. Moore said she was being transferred to the ICU and was on a BiPAP machine to help her breathe.

“Dr. Susan Moore, a physician, residing in Indianapolis, experienced an untimely death,” the GoFundMe campaign states.

“She had been fighting COVID for the past few weeks. She leaves a son who is 19 years old and her parents, both of which have dementia. The son is dealing with both situations at this time and is in good spirits.”

“Susan was a phenomenal doctor,” the campaign added. “She loved practicing medicine, she loved being a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., she loved helping people, and she was unapologetic about it.”

Con’t from page 16

department can’t be formed, Williams argued. Williams added that the mayor should have hosted Zoom community conversations about the next chief before announcing his pick.

“The community needs to be involved in decisions with the future of the New Haven PD, or let’s not call it community policing,” he said.

Elicker acknowledged that the NHPD has had much change in leadership over the past decade.

“Ideally, we’d have a police chief who is there for a very, very long time,” he said.

“We don’t live in a perfect world. I’ll do what I can to make sure we have a police chief there for as long as possible.”

As for community input, Elicker said, “At the end of the day, the community did have a voice in electing me, and I need to own the decision about the success of the department in the end. I felt that this has happened very fast, and that it’s important at this time, with so much transition going on, for me to be clear about this acting position and announce that very quickly.”

Reyes added that his own dedication to the city did not begin two years ago when he ascended to the role of chief. “I’ve been providing my heart and soul to the city for 21 years” since joining the department.

The same is true for Dominguez, he said.

“She didn’t start yesterday. There’s been continuity for almost 20 years of her serving the men and women of New Haven.”

Dawson said that naming Dominguez as acting chief fulfills the requirements of the city charter, which identifies the assistant chief in charge of patrol as next in line.

“She’s been doing a good job” as assistant chief, Dawson said. “She can manage it; she’s qualified.”

THE INNER-CITY NEWS - January 13, 2021 - January 19, 2021

Ossoff: “I Thank the People of Georgia for Electing Me to Serve You in the United States Senate”

Atlanta, Ga. — Jon Ossoff delivered remarks on the election results in his historic Georgia U.S. Senate runoff election against incumbent Senator David Perdue (R-Ga.).

Ossoff and Reverend Raphael Warnock are the first Democrats to win a U.S. Senate race in Georgia in 20 years.

A transcript of Ossoff’s remarks appears below:

“Good morning. It is with humility that I thank the people of Georgia for electing me to serve you in the United States Senate.

Thank you for the confidence and trust that you have placed in me.

“At this moment of crisis, as COVID-19 continues to ravage our state and our country, when hundreds of thousands have lost their lives, millions have lost livelihoods, Georgia families are having difficulty putting food on the table — fearing foreclosure or eviction, having difficulty making ends meet — let’s unite now to beat this virus and rush economic relief to the people of our state and to the American people.

RECAP:

“I will work in the U.S. Senate to support a robust public health response so that we can defeat this virus, putting Georgia’s own Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the lead, trusting medical expertise, doctors, and scientists to bring the tools to bear, the technology to bear, the ingenuity to bear, and the resources to bear necessary to stop the spread of this virus to defeat it and to get our daily lives back — and to rush direct economic relief to people who need help right now.

“This campaign has been about health and jobs and justice for the people of this state — for all the people of this state. And they will be my guiding principles, as I serve this state in the U.S. Senate, ensuring that every Georgian has great health care, no matter our wealth, ensuring that we invest in an economic recovery that includes all communities, that rebuilds our state’s infrastructure, that lays the foundations for prosperity in rural Georgia, suburban communities, and urban communities alike, and securing equal justice for all, following in the footsteps of leaders who have departed

us in this last year like Congressman John Lewis and C.T. Vivian.

“I want to thank the people of Georgia for participating in this election, everybody who cast your ballot, everybody who put your faith and confidence in our democracy’s capacity to deliver the representation that we deserve, whether you were for me, or against me, I’ll be for you in the U.S. Senate. I will serve all the people of the state.

“I will give everything I’ve got to ensuring that Georgia’s interests are represented in the U.S. Senate. I want to thank all the volunteers who poured their hearts and souls into this campaign.

“I want to thank my family for their support and their patience. I want to thank my wonderful wife Alisha, who as we speak is at the hospital, helping Georgia mothers deliver healthy babies, helping save lives.

“Let’s emulate the spirit of courage and heroism of those who have given so much to the health response to this crisis, as we unite as a people, to overcome this challenge of COVID-19, and to build a republic

that lives up to our highest ideals of equality in God’s eyes and equal justice under the law. Georgia, thank you so much for the confidence that you’ve placed in me.

“I am honored — honored — by your support, by your confidence, by your trust, and I will look forward to serving you in the United States Senate with integrity, with humility, with honor and getting things done for the people of Georgia. Thank you so much.”

Jon Ossoff is the Democratic Nominee for the U.S. Senate in Georgia, challenging embattled U.S. Senator David Perdue (R-Ga.).

An anti-corruption journalist and media executive, Ossoff is committed to ensuring every Georgian has great health care, investing in infrastructure and clean energy, strengthening civil rights and voting rights laws, and reforming America’s corrupt campaign finance system.

Ossoff owns and runs a 28-year-old investigative media company. In the last three years alone, Ossoff’s company has produced internationally broadcast investigations of ISIS war crimes, high-level corruption in international sports, war crimes committed by international peacekeepers, and death squads that target children.

Rev. Raphael Warnock’s Historic Win in Georgia Senate Race

By Lauren Victoria Burke, NNPA Newswire Contributor

Rev. Raphael Warnock, who is the pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church, the Atlanta church where Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was pastor during the civil rights movement, is now the first Black Democrat to be elected to the U.S. Senate in the Deep South in the modern political era. Warnock is the first African American to win a U.S. Senate seat in Georgia’s history.

The runoff election featured historic turnout. A voter registration strategy implemented by former gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams, along with a push by grassroots groups like Black Votes Matter, led

by LaTosha Brown, was a deciding factor in Warnock’s decisive win. Black voters in Georgia over-performed in the early vote and on Election Day. The balance of power in Washington and

on Capitol Hill will now shift dramatically to Democrats who will now control Congress and The White House. The dual victories on the same night by Rev. Warnock and Jon Ossoff marks a repudiation of the GOP under Donald Trump.

Rev. Warnock won his heavily contested U.S. Senate race over billionaire Kelly Loeffler who was appointed to the Senate

by Georgia Governor Brian Kemp in December 2019. The U.S. Senate race cost over $200 million with soon-to-be Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell donating over $60 million from his PAC. By late Tuesday night and into Wednesday morning after Election Day in Georgia, Warnock had 2,227,296 votes to Loeffler’s 2,173,866.

On top of Warnock’s historic win, another Democrat, Jon Ossoff has won against incumbent Republican Senator David Perdue. As election results continued to come

Raphael Warnock for Senate / flickr.com)

in showing how close the Warnock/Loeffler race would be, some Republicans began assigning blame for the coming loss to President Trump.

The stunning double victory on a single night for Democrats will change the trajectory of the presidency of Joseph Biden, which begins on January 20. The U.S. Senate will be tied 50-50 and Vice Presidentelect Kamara Harris will now become a pivotal figure required to often preside over the U.S. Senate from the presiding officers Chair and break ties on key policy and nominees.

In the race for The White House in 2020, Trump lost Georgia to Joe Biden by over 11,000 votes on November 3, 2020. In the days before the runoff elections in Georgia, Trump spent most of his time criticizing other Republicans in Georgia. Trump had earlier called into question the validity of the voting process in Georgia. The Presi-

dent also pressured Georgia officials to flip the state in his favor as Congress is set to officially certify the presidential election.

Trump’s words signaled an internal war in the Republican Party as the out-going President caused problems within the GOP. Trump attacked Republican Georgia Governor Brian Kemp and the Secretary of State Brad Raffensberger. That, along with out-going U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell single handedly blocked $2,000 checks to assist Americans in a pandemic that has killed over 350,000 people, likely impacting the results in Georgia.

Lauren Victoria Burke is an independent journalist for NNPA and the host of the podcast BURKEFILE. She is also a political strategist as Principal of Win Digital Media LLC. She may be contacted at LBurke007@gmail.com and on twitter at @LVBurke

President-Elect Biden Nominates Miguel Cardona for Education Secretary Campaign Continues to Live up to Diversity Promise

By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent

On Wednesday, December 23, President-elect Joe Biden selected Connecticut Education Commissioner Miguel Cardona as his nominee for education secretary.

Cardona’s nomination delivers on Biden’s campaign pledge to appoint an individual with public school experience, following President Donald Trump’s education secretary, Betsy DeVos, who championed private schools and mostly turned a blinds-eye to the plight of underserved students.

The nomination also demonstrates Biden’s intentions on having what he’s called the most diverse administration

in U.S. history. Cardona would be just the nation’s second Puerto Rican education secretary.

“In Miguel Cardona, America will have an experienced and dedicated public school teacher leading the way at the Department of Education – ensuring that every student is equipped to thrive in the economy of the future, that every educator has the resources they need to

do their jobs with dignity and success, and that every school is on track to reopen safely,” Biden said in a statement.

“He will help us address systemic inequities, tackle the mental health crisis in our education system, give educators a well-deserved raise, ease the burden of education debt, and secure high-quality, universal pre-K for every three- and four-year-old in the country.”

Biden called Cardona a “lifelong champion of public education.”

Cardona was appointed Connecticut’s commissioner of education in 2019 after more than two decades as a public school educator.

He began his career as an elementary

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school teacher and later served ten years as a school principal.

In 2013, Cardona became the assistant superintendent for teaching and learning.

“Given the significant educational and economic declines impacting the nation this year, the new secretary of education, is a pivotal component of the overall success of the Biden administration, and for African Americans progress in particular,” Nicole L. McDonald, the assistant vice provost for Student Success Strategies at the University of Houston, wrote in an email to the Black Press.

“Moving forward, African Americans should expect President-elect Biden to position education and educational attainment as part of the front-line defense

in the nation’s economic recovery and workforce development, commitment to social justice and criminal justice reform, and in improving the accessibility of health and human services,” McDonald wrote.

She continued: “Moving past what minorities have endured under Secretary Betsy DeVos, requires a secretary of education with the experience, commitments, and especially the innovation to be a secretary of education for African Americans, and other minoritized and poor people. The way to move the needle for the United States educationally and economically, the way to lift all boats – is to lift from the bottom.”

THE INNER-CITY NEWS - January 13, 2021 - January 19, 2021

In First Act of New Congress, Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee Introduces Reparations Bill

By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent

With the start of the 117th Congress this week, Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas), a senior member of the House Committees on Judiciary, Budget, and Homeland Security, has reaffirmed her quest for legislation that could eventually provide reparations for slavery victims.

On Monday, January 4, 2021, Jackson Lee re-introduced H.R. 40, a bill that would fund a committee to explore whether Black Americans should receive reparations for slavery.

While it does not directly introduce payments, the Commission would study racial inequities and policy solutions.

“In short, the Commission aims to study the impact of slavery and continuing discrimination against African-Americans, resulting directly and indirectly from slavery to segregation to the desegregation process and the present day,” stated Jackson Lee. The Congresswoman also serves as the Ranking Member of the Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, Homeland Security, and Investigations.

“The commission would also make recommendations concerning any form of apology and compensation to begin the long-delayed process of atonement for slavery.”

Under H.R. 40, the Commission would comprise members appointed by the White House and both Congress chambers.

The bill has had increased support with 147 co-sponsors in the House, all Democrats.

Because Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) and Republicans in the Senate have indicated strong opposition to taking the measure up in that Chamber, the Georgia runoff elections count as a huge step toward getting the bill passed.

Two Senate seats are at stake in Georgia, with Democrats Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock squaring off against Republicans Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue.

“The impact of slavery and its vestiges continues to affect African Americans and indeed all Americans in communities throughout our nation,” Jackson Lee remarked.

“This legislation is intended to examine the institution of slavery in the colo-

nies and the United States from 1619 to the present, and further recommend appropriate remedies. Since the initial introduction of this legislation, its proponents have made substantial progress in elevating the discussion of reparations and reparatory justice at the national level and joining the mainstream international debate on the issues.”

Jackson Lee noted that some have “tried to deflect” the importance of these conversations by focusing on individual monetary compensation.

“The real issue is whether and how this nation can come to grips with the legacy of slavery that still infects current society.

Through legislation, resolutions, news, and litigation, we are moving closer to making more strides in the movement toward reparations,” Jackson Lee said.

The Texas Congresswoman noted that she expects more co-sponsors during the new Congress.

“Today, there are more people at the table — more activists, more scholars, more CEO’s, more state and local officials, and more Members of Congress,” she declared.

“However, despite this progress and the election of the first American President of

Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX), Jill Karnicki, Staff photographer, Houston Chronicle)

African descent, the legacy of slavery lingers heavily in this nation. While we have focused on the social effects of slavery and segregation, its continuing economic implications remain largely ignored by mainstream analysis.”

Jackson Lee continued:

“These economic issues are the root cause of many critical issues in the African American community today, such as education, healthcare, and criminal justice policy, including policing practices. The call for reparations represents a commitment to entering a constructive dialogue on the role of slavery and racism in shaping present-day conditions in our community and American society.

“I believe that H.R. 40 is a crucial piece of legislation because it goes beyond exploring the economic implications of slavery and segregation.

“It is a holistic bill in the sense that it seeks to establish a commission to also examine the moral and social implications of slavery.

“In short, the Commission aims to study the impact of slavery and to address continuing disparities in the African American community and discrimination against the African American community, resulting directly and indirectly from slavery to segregation.

“After its study, the Commission would offer proposals concerning the long-term impact of slavery and bring about solutions to these ongoing disparities in the African American Community.”

Which Foods are Good and Dangerous for Your Cholesterol Levels? by by Lotus Felix, BlackDoctor.org

There is an alarming prevalence of high cholesterol levels in Americans. According to the CDC, an estimated 93 million American adults –at least 20 years old – have cholesterol levels higher than 200 mg/Dl (the maximum range for healthy cholesterol levels).

For emphasis, 29 million adult Americans have their total cholesterol levels higher than 240 mg/dL.3. Oh, I can see knitting your brows already.

High cholesterol levels can result in complications like heart attack, high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease (CVD), and even stroke. But wait, what really is cholesterol?

What you should know about cholesterol Fundamentally, we all have cholesterol in our body. Your cells are made of fatlike substances called cholesterol.

Cholesterol plays critical functions in your everyday life processes like hormone and Vitamin D production, fat digestion, even as far as structuring the cells. The liver produces cholesterol.

Now, there are two types of cholesterol.

These are low-density lipoproteins (LDL) and high-density lipoproteins (HDL).

These two types of cholesterol have diverse effects on the body. Indeed, HDL is beneficial to the heart, absorbing cholesterol from the blood, transporting it to the liver to be dispelled out of the body.

On the other side, we have LDL, who is the bad guy. LDL triggers an unhealthy buildup of cholesterol, narrowing the arteries. This condition, called athero-

from seafood like mackerel and its other oily aquatic cousins like salmon and herring.

Vegetarian? No problem! Omega-3 PUFAs can still be sourced from plant sources like flax seeds, canola, chia, walnut oil, and soybean. Omega-6 PUFAs can be sourced from corn oils, sunflower, and safflower.

Omega-6 PUFAs help raise HDL (good cholesterol) levels while slashing LDL (bad cholesterol) levels. Omega-3 PUFAs reduce triglyceride levels.

Saturated Fats

sclerosis, is the infamous culprit behind strokes, peripheral artery disease, and heart attacks.

For adults, there are healthy ranges for LDL, HDL, and total cholesterol. Normal total cholesterol levels range between 125-200 mg/dL. For adult males, you have normal LDL levels if your LDL falls below 100mg/dL. For this same category of males, their HDL levels would be normal if it is at least 40mg/dL. For women, the normal HDL levels are at least 50mg/ dL. Indeed, your diet significantly alters your cholesterol levels. Precisely, an unhealthy consumption of fat will not doubt amplify your susceptibility to cardiovascular diseases. Care to know how? I will tell you.

Your cholesterol levels and the fat you eat Your cholesterol levels are not unrelated to the types of fat you consume. Basically, there are four types of fats in the foods we eat.

These are polyunsaturated fats, saturated fats, trans fat, and monounsaturated fats.

Sounds interesting? Wait till I tell you more about each fat type.

Polyunsaturated Fats (PUFAs) These are the healthiest types of fat you can eat as they can’t be produced in the body. PUFAs can be further categorized into Omega-3 PUFAs and Omega 6 PUFAs. Omega-3 PUFAs are commonly sourced

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Saturated fats are sourced from animal products like cheese, butter, and meat.

At room temperature, saturated fats are solid.

Depending on the source, the effect of saturated fats on your cholesterol levels varies. Specifically, while saturated fats, as found in dairy products and red meat, have shown promise in increasing HDL and LDL, saturated fats, as found in cocoa butter and beef, don’t have significant effects on LDL HDL cholesterol.

Monounsaturated Fats The bulk of monounsaturated fats is obtained from dairy fat and red meat sources. Interestingly, there are approximately equal amounts of monounsaturated and saturated fats in red meat.

Monounsaturated fats can also be derived from foods like avocados, nut butter, and olive oil. There is a buoyant chance of reducing your LDL cholesterol

by replacing your food’s saturated fats content with monounsaturated fats. Research has shown that monounsaturated fats significantly reduce your chances of heart disease.

Trans Fats One advice: run away from trans-fat.

Trans-fats are dangerous to your heart health. Specifically, trans fat suppresses your HDL while pumping up your bad LDL. Such a villain!

Among the four said types of fats, trans fats are the unhealthiest. These fats are produced by means when saturated fats are partially hydrogenated. On nutrition labels, trans fats are commonly referred to as partially hydrogenated oils.

Such a process occurs when food is industrially processed. Therefore, trans fats don’t naturally occur in high quantities in your everyday organic foods.

Trans fats are more prevalent in baked foods that were industrially produced.

You can also expect a notable trans-fat content in fried foods. Considering their unhealthiness, the FDA pushed for them to be taken off processed food supply earlier in the year in January.

There you are! We have emphatically explored what you need to know about cholesterol and how the foods you eat affect it. We cannot overemphasize the effect of eating healthily. You are only as healthy as you eat, aren’t you?

THE INNER-CITY NEWS - January 13, 2021 - January 19, 2021

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THE INNER-CITY NEWS - January 13, 2021 - January 19, 2021

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