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$5.3M “Healthy Start” Grant Targets Men April 03, 2019 - April 09, 2019

cilitate supportive and productive partners during pregnancy, after their child’s birth, and with their own health.”

Harris said NHHS should be able to increase its staff by around five people with the new grant funds. The program currently employs four people at its central office on Audubon Street and another five care coordinators out in the field.

“It is a comprehensive approach to maternal and child healthcare,” DeLauro said in praise of NHHS.

by THOMAS BREEN New Haven Independent

With the help of an infusion of federal dollars, New Haven is dealing men into the process of ensuring babies are born alive and healthy.

That was part of the news Monday, when the 22-year-old New Haven Healthy Start (NHHS) announced it has received over $5.3 million in grant money from the federal Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA).

Operated out of the Community Foundation for Greater New Haven (CFGNH), Healthy Start focuses on reducing the city’s infant mortality rate.

NHHS director Kenn Harris announced the receipt of the grant at a Monday morning press conference at the fifth-floor CFGNH at 70 Audubon St. He said the grant money will fund the program’s core care coordination services for another five years.

And for the first time in its two decadeplus history, Harris said, the grant money will be used specifically for working with at least 100 husbands and male partners every year to encourage them to actively participate in securing the good health of pregnant women and infant children in their lives.

“Building strong partnerships in the community is one of the reasons why New Haven Healthy Start has succeeded,” Harris said on Monday, “and it is the reason why we will continue to succeed.”

Community Foundation President Will Ginsberg said that, although NHHS was formally founded in 1997, the program actually dates back to the mid-1980s, when a group of local health professionals approached then-Mayor Biagio DiLieto about the gross racial and ethnic disparities in local infant mortality rates.

U.S. Rep Rosa DeLauro, also in attendance on Monday, said that New Haven’s infant mortality rate in the mid-1980s was at more than 20 deaths per 1,000 live births.

As of 2016, that number had dropped by over a half to around seven deaths per 1,000 live births.

But that number is for women across all racial and ethnic groups, she said.

According to NHHS statistics, the infant mortality rate for local black women between 2014 and 2016 was 11.50 deaths per 1,000 live births. That’s over double the 5.78 infant mortality rate for white women during that same period, and nearly quadruple the 3.64 infant maternal mortality rate for Hispanic women during that same time period.

“These disparities remain absolutely unconscionable,” Ginsberg said.

DeLauro added that the United States has a higher infant mortality rate than Kuwait and Kazakhstan. “The data points must be a call to action,” she said.

That’s where Harris’s program comes in.

NHHS places community outreach workers and care coordinators at Yale-New Haven Hospital, Fair Haven Community Health Care, Cornell-Scott Hill Health Center, and, as of this year, Project Access, to work with pregnant women to ensure healthy and

She added that, through her leadership on the House Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies Appropriations Subcommittee, the 2019 federal budget allocated $123 million to the 100-plus Healthy Start programs through the country.

President Donald Trump’s proposed budget for 2020, she said, flat funds the Healthy Start program and reduces the Maternal and Child Health Block Grant program by $17 million.

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successful births.

They refer uninsured women to the city’s Health Department to sign up for HUSKY, the state Medicaid program for children and parents. They help arranged childcare, transportation and translation services.

They refer pregnant women and parents to specialists and mental health providers.

And they connect women at risk of homelessness with housing services.

Harris said that the new federal grant money requires NHHS to be working with 600

women every year.

And, for the first time in the program’s history, the funds also require NHHS to work with 100 male partners and husbands every year to ensure that they are intimately involved in their partner’s pregnancy and their infant child’s good health.

That new male outreach will include a program called Texting for Dads. According to a NHHS executive summary of grant-funded programs, the program will “provide automated nudges/tips to engage fathers, fa-

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THE INNER-CITY NEWS - April 03, 2019 - April 09, 2019

Safe Sex, Stopping Stigma Preached For HIV Prevention

by THOMAS BREEN New Haven Independent

Use condoms. Don’t use dirty needles.

And keep talking and talking and talking about HIV, to both raise awareness and reduce the stigma.

Seth Poole shared those tips on combating the spread of HIV/AIDS in New Haven at Tuesday night’s regular monthly meeting of the Newhallville Community Management Team in the cafeteria of Lincoln-Bassett School on Bassett Street.

Poole, a youth development specialist and educator at Planned Parenthood of Southern New England (PPSNE), is a member of the Mayor’s Task Force on AIDS, an advisory body charged with advocating for New Haveners with HIV/ AIDS through community partnerships, conversations, and fundraising efforts.

Poole told the roughly 50 attendees at Tuesday night’s management team meeting that the Elm City has come a long way from the height of the epidemic in the late 1980s and early 1990s, when HIV/AIDS was the leading cause of death among New Haveners between 25 and 40 years old, 25-40 year old.

But three decades later, he said, men who have sex with men, people who inject drugs, and, increasingly, heterosexual women of color are still disproportionately vulnerable to contracting HIV, the Human Immunodeficiency Virus, which

is the virus that leads to AIDS, the Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome.

“We are very close to stopping the spread of HIV/AIDS in our community,” Poole said. But that shouldn’t blind New Haveners to the risk the disease poses, particularly in black and brown communities, particularly when people feel too uncomfortable or ashamed to get tested.

Poole said that, since 1981, New Haven has seen 3,265 documented cases of HIV. As of 2017, according to the latest data collected by the state Department of Public Health HIV Surveillance Program, New Haven has 1,403 people living with HIV. Sixty-four percent of those people are male, 36 percent female. Fifty percent are African American, 29 percent Hispanic, and 17 percent white.

Twenty-four percent are men who contracted HIV through sex with other men, 35 percent contracted HIV through injecting drugs, and 28 percent contracted HIV through heterosexual contact.

Poole noted that 32 New Haveners were newly diagnosed with HIV in 2017, a small drop from 36 new HIV diagnoses in the city in 2016.

However, he added, the city saw a “4 percent spike” in HIV diagnoses among black heterosexual women in New Haven from 2016 to 2017.

He said that 30 percent of people who show up at Yale-New Haven Hospital with complications from HIV/AIDS die as a result of their illnesses.

“We have to turn this tide immediately in order to avoid a public health crisis,” he said.

A young boy, no older than 5 years old, piped up with a question at the end of Poole’s presentation.

“How do people get HIV anyway?” he asked.

Though dirty needles, Poole responded.

And through unprotected sex.

“People with HIV, we always encourage to practice safe sex,” he said.

He encouraged parents in the room to talk with their kids about using condoms and dental dams. He advised everyone to get tested for HIV whenever they start having sex with a new partner.

“Know what your status is,” he said.

People at high risk of contracting HIV, he said, should take the Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) Truvada, which dramatically reduces the risk of contracting HIV among HIV-negative individuals who come into with HIV. “In the state of Connecticut,” he said, “only one child has been born with HIV in the past decade.” That’s a trend that New Haveners should all like to see continue.

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THOMAS BREEN PHOTO

New Haven Mayor’s Task Force on AIDS member Seth Poole.

Alder Greenberg Resigns THE INNER-CITY NEWS -

by PAUL BASS

New Haven Independent

Wooster Square will have two separate elections for alder this year, thanks to the resignation of Aaron Greenberg.

Greenberg handed in his letter of resignation as Ward 8 alder Tuesday morning to Mayor Toni Harp.

That means a special election for his spot will take place within 45 days to complete Greenberg’s two-year term through the end of 2019. Then another election takes place in November for the term beginning in January.

Greenberg is leaving New Haven to take a job teaching at Deep Springs College, which he described as “a small, liberal arts college and working ranch in the high desert at the foothills of the eastern Sierra Nevada in California.”

Greenberg, a political science grad student at Yale, has served as alder for the Wooster

THOMAS BREEN PHOTO

Aaron Greenberg chairing the affordable housing task force.

April 03, 2019 - April 09, 2019

Square/Farnam Court/Jocelyn Square ward since 2014. In time he took a lead on citywide issues like affordable housing (chairing a task force), school funding and bus safety (chairing the board’s Education Committee) while also diving into neighborhood issues like beautification, building, traffic-calming, and zoning.

Like other Yale students who have involved themselves in local politics, Greenberg learned a lot that doesn’t get taught in a classroom.

“If there’s anything that this experience has confirmed to me,” he told the Independent Tuesday, “it’s that when it comes to policy changes big or small, people really do matter. Phone calls matter, emails matter, organized advocacy matters.

“I’ve been really lucky to work with so many passionate, committed, and thoughtful advocates in the ward, and luckier still to call so many of them my friends and

neighbors. I’m going to miss my constituents and this wonderful community.”

Greenberg was part of a team of alders affiliated with Yale’s UNITE HERE local unions who have constituted a board majority. He served a stint as chair of the UNITE HERE local seeking to unionize graduate student teachers, leading a hunger strike that attracted national attention in pursuit of a contract. Supporters of the UNTIE HERE board majority argue that it provides an essential check on the political power of Yale, which for generations often used its weight to influence local decisions; and that using political power to push the city’s largest employer to pay workers better lessens poverty and lifts the entire economy. Critics argue that the board majority has pursued a narrower self-interested agenda that at times conflicts with the broader public interest.

Fire Chief Asks For More Bucks

by SAM GURWITT New Haven Independent

As Hamden Fire Chief Gary Merwede’s presented his budget request to the Hamden Legislative Council, the radio at his hip cut in and out constantly. It was alerting him to the ever increasing calls his department responds to without increasing its force.

That helped prove his point: In order to meet the explosion of calls, he has asked for more money in training, supplies, and maintenance.

Merwede made the presentation this past Wednesday night, one of a series of department presentations before the council over two evenings.

In 2018, the Hamden Fire Department responded to 11,715 calls, a 1,266-call increase over the previous year. Yet, as Merwede told the council in his presentation, the department has the same manpower it did in 1992.

The department has been able to respond to those calls, but not without significant effort. According to Merwede, in 2018, the department had to deal with concurrent calls in 53 percent of cases. He said that 22 firefighters will be honored in May for their efforts amid that pressure.

Keeping up with all of those calls, said Merwede, requires resources, and that was why he had come before the council to justify his budget and ask for more money than the mayor had allotted in a few places.

Most of the fire department’s budget — approximately 90 percent — is committed to personnel costs (including benefits) as covered by the collective bargaining agreement between the union and the town. That leaves only about 10 percent of the budget for Merwede to administer his department.

In his proposed 2020 budget, contractual obligations comprise about $13 million.

On top of the contractual portion, Merwede

requested $458,226.65.

Merwede urged the council in particular to approve his request for increases in funds for training, general firefighting supplies, and vehicle maintenance.

“The pernicious effect of managing line items to the bare necessity in areas like training, maintenance, and safety supplies, is that when the unexpected happens, it becomes more like crisis management instead of responsible administration,” Merwede told the council. “The fire department will not squander your resources.”

He requested $55,000 for training, though last year’s budget allotted him only $7,500 for that line item. The mayor gave him $40,000 in his budget.

“The pool of eligible certified candidate applicants has dwindled to the point that talent pool and demographic band of applicants is far less than desired,” Merwede wrote in the presentation he gave to the council.

With only $7,500, Merwede was unable to send trainees to the Connecticut Fire Academy last year, meaning he could hire only applicants who are already certified. That, he said, severely limits the pool of people he can hire. “I’d like to have a higher range of people to choose from,” he said.

If he gets the funding, he said, he hopes to send five people to the academy in the 2020 fiscal year — two to fill vacancies, two to replace firefighters who retired last fall, and one to fill a position that will open after promotions. Those numbers, however, are just an estimate, because he never knows for sure who will retire and how many positions he will have to fill.

The rest of the $55,000, if he gets it, will help him with other training costs. He hopes to bring in a bailout simulator this year, which is a large prop that allows fire

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Gery Merwede

fighters to train rolling out of a window and rappelling down. The four-day program costs around $5,400, he said.

Merwede said he’s also looking into a program to train his staff in peer counseling.

There has been focus recently on how first responders often experience post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Merwede would like to train the firefighters in his department to recognize “the signs and symptoms of experiencing extreme stress,” so that they can help their peers before it becomes a problem.

For vehicle maintenance, Merwede requested $95,900; the mayor budgeted $90,000. Last year, that line item was funded at $84,000.

The increasing number of calls has put extra strain on the department’s vehicles,

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Merwede said. He said he measures the hours that the department spends responding to calls, and has found that every year adds hundreds of hours to the time the trucks are in use.

When the trucks need repairs, said Merwede, he needs to have the tools on hand to fix them quickly because there are no backup vehicles. If one is out of commission and a call comes in, it quickly becomes a matter of crisis management, he said.

On March 25, the department added a new Engine 9 to its fleet in northern Hamden. It has a 1,000-gallon tank because a lot of places in its district don’t have fire hydrants. It arrived at 10 a.m., and was already out on its first call 27 minutes later, according to the Hamden Fire Department Twitter page.

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Tattoo Cop Agrees To Wear Make-Up THE INNER-CITY NEWS - April 03, 2019 - April 09, 2019

by CHRISTOPHER PEAK New Haven Independent

A trio of face tattoos nearly cost Officer Jason Bandy his job but now a tube of makeup might help him make up with the chiefs who sought to kick him off the force.

Bandy offered that literally face-saving compromise of applying concealer every day on the job, during a termination hearing Wednesday night at the department’s Union Avenue headquarters.

The Police Commission called the hearing to consider the Acting Chief Otoniel Reyes’ recommendation to fire Bandy over his new tattoos, which cover parts of his face and neck and remain visible to the public when he patrols the streets. Bandy had rejected a previous settlement deal to avoid the termination.

During the two-hour hearing, a lawyer for the police union needled Reyes about what rules Bandy had actually broken and whether the department had fairly considered any work-arounds to keep Bandy in uniform.

After new evidence came up about why Bandy had rejected the settlement deal, the lawyers for both sides asked the Police Commission to hold off on making a decision for 30 days. It turns out Bandy said he will agree to the chief’s key demand — that he conceal the face and neck tattoos. So the two sides will now negotiate other aspects of the settlement.

The “Last Frontier” Bandy has been to a termination hearing before, for a different reason: He was fired in 2010 for calling in sick to work, then going out to a bar anyway, getting drunk with two fellow cops, urinating on the bathroom floor at the Center Street Lounge and refusing to leave, until he was arrested for breach of peace and interfering with an officer. The department later rehired him.

Since Bandy first became a cop in 2008, his body has been covered in ink. He has illustrations of a poker hand, a roll of dice, a portrait of Don Corleone from “The Godfather” and of Jesus Christ, a serpentwrapped Eve under the Tree of Knowledge, floral blooms and a perched bald eagle that spreads its wings across his jugular veins.

But the department brass said the latest marks on his face — “Veni, Vidi, Vici” on his forehead, for the Roman emperor Caesar’s boast over his conquered rivals; “D” by one ear, for Detroit; and the Roman numerals for 4004 BC by the other ear, for a 17th-century scholar’s calculation of the world’s start date — finally went too far. (Read more about that in the first story reported on this subject by the Register’s Mary O’Leary.)

Even among tattoo-parlor regulars, marking up one’s face has long been considered extreme, partly because of its association with prison culture, where those serving life sentences didn’t worry how society would judge the teardrops, crowns or swastikas on their face. “If you want to be transgressive,” Anna Felicity Friedman, a tattoo historian, told The New York Times last year, “the last frontier is the face.”

CHRISTOPHER PEAK PHOTO Officer Jason Bandy at Wednesday night’s termination hearing.

Officer Bandy, without make-up.

Commissioner Greg Smith holds up a copy of the disputed settlement offer.

Acting Chief Reyes said that he doesn’t have a problem with body ink; in fact, he admitted that even he has a few tattoos.

But he argued that face tattoos just don’t fit with the department’s brand.

“Your face is the first thing the public sees when you walk into a room, and you represent a brand of the New Haven Police Department,” Reyes said. “When an officer

walks in with tattoos on their face, there are segments of the population that we serve that may be confused and offended. They may not understand what that’s all about, and they may question the mental stability of an officer. At the end of the day, when we’re out there, we’re not supposed to be a distraction to the people that we serve; we’re supposed to be a comfort. We submit

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that when an officer does this, it takes away what the brand of the department means.”

“We’re not individuals here; we’re part of a team and we’re part of a brand,” Reyes added. “When an officer puts three tattoos on their face, they are trying to control the image of the department, and we can’t have that.”

The termination hearing was the first test of Reyes’s leadership of the department.

He assumed the job of acting chief this week after Chief Anthony Campbell quit in protest over the top brass’s health benefits.

On Wednesday night, Bandy showed up in full-dress uniform, with concealer and foundation powdered over his face to hide any of the black lettering.

His supporters, several of them sporting tattoos down their arms, filled up the conference room and overflowed out into the hallway. As the questioning heated up, a few standing behind the chief started to snicker, and Reyes turned back to glare at them.

While there’s no explicit policy forbidding tattoos, the top cops argued that Bandy’s three facial tattoos violate the department’s requirements that all officers maintain a “neat and clean appearance” and a “businesslike manner.” Reyes argued that the prohibition on face tattoos didn’t need to be written down.

“It comes down to common sense. It’s probably the most important tool an officer has,” Reyes said. “I would equate that to an officer not falling asleep on the job.

There’s nothing on the books that says you can’t fall asleep on the job. There’s no specific rule, but it’s covered by the general orders.”

The union’s lawyer, ex-cop Marshall Segar, responded that a policy like that is too general to be enforceable. He said it should be “void for vagueness.”

But as the two sides sparred, the crux of the argument eventually came down to whether the department had really given Bandy a chance to meet its standards.

That’s because the question of whether Bandy could use make-up to hide his facial tattoos got mixed up with other settlement negotiations, Segar said.

At first, in November, top cops transferred Bandy to booking and asked him to have the tattoos surgically removed. But they relented after Bandy’s dermatologist said that kind of operation would be costly, would take several months and would leave permanent scars at his hairline.

Working with corporation counsel and labor relations, they came back with a more detailed offer in February that said Bandy could stay on the job as long as his tats stayed out of sight.

But the deal came with a few catches.

The settlement said Bandy could face “potential termination for noncompliance, whether such is intentional or not.” Bandy said that put his career at risk during every thunder storm or heat wave.

Even after the deal was amended to give him a reprieve when “the chief of police determines that extenuating circumstances

excuse such noncompliance,” Bandy still said he wasn’t sure he’d be treated fairly.

Should Women Cops Shave Their Heads?

The union pressed Reyes about whether other dress-code violations would put an officer up for termination hearings in a testy exchange.

Segar: Do female officers with long hair wear their hair up, in accordance with policy?

Reyes: Yes, sir.

Segar: If during a tussle, a fight or some other type of police-related action, if their hair was to fall off their head and be non-compliant, what would you tell them to do?

Reyes: To put up their hair.

Segar: Would you tell them to shave their head?

Reyes: I wouldn’t say that.

Segar: If an officer showed up with a wrinkled uniform, what would you tell them to do?

Reyes: I’d tell them to iron it.

Segar: Would you tell them throw it out and buy a new one?

Reyes: If it was damaged.

More importantly, the department’s offer would have also required Bandy to withdraw two complaints he’d filed with the Connecticut Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities (CHRO), alleging gender-based discrimination and retaliation. But Bandy said he didn’t want to give up his due-process rights.

In late February, he turned the package down. Another meeting was set up for midMarch, but after the city cancelled, it hasn’t been rescheduled, Segar said.

“The issue here is that the chief has said that Officer Bandy refused accommodations. That’s untrue. He’s here before you tonight in the fashion as you would see him on the street, but the accommodation is not solely that,” Segar said.

“He’s not going to agree to withdraw the CHRO, but he’s willing to comply with a directive from the chief of police to cover his tattoos,” Segar added. “As with anybody else who had facial hair, long hair, unshiny shoes or unkept uniform, if the chief said, ‘Shine your shoes,’ he would do it. He will comply with a directive, which has not been given by the chief, to cover your tattoos.”

After that back-and-forth, the commissioners called for a five-minute break. That stretched on as the attorneys met in Chief Reyes’s office to talk over the deal.

Once they returned to the conference room, Jarad Lucan, a partner at Shipman & Goodwin hired to represent the police department, said that Reyes hadn’t been aware of exactly why the earlier negotiation fell apart. He asked for more time to see if a compromise could be reached, and the commissioners agreed to table the hearing for 30 days.

On the way out of the meeting, Bandy, Segar, Lucan and John Rose, the city’s corporation counsel, all declined to comment on the upcoming negotiations.

Birks Moves To Close Riverside THE INNER-CITY NEWS -

April 03, 2019 - April 09, 2019

by CHRISTOPHER PEAK New Haven Independent

Riverside Education Academy, the city’s last alternative school, could close next school year amid the latest round of budget cuts.

Superintendent Carol Birks made that surprise announcement at the Board of Education’s Finance & Operations Committee meeting Monday afternoon at the district’s Meadow Street headquarters.

As she seeks to close a $30.7 million budget shortfall, Superintendent Birks had previously asked the school board to terminate its lease at 560 Ella T. Grasso Blvd., the site of Riverside, which currently has about 135 students.

Then, on Monday, Birks said she thought the board had also given her the go-ahead to make even more significant changes, after they looked over her budget mitigation plan. She thought that allowed her not just to move Riverside elsewhere, but to close it entirely because the mitigation plan mentioned emptying out rented buildings.

Birks didn’t put an exact figure on the savings, though the main driver will be ending the $332,500 lease. Altogether, Birks said she’s aiming to collect $2.5 million next year by reevaluating all program consolidations, district-provided services and lease agreements.

Joseph Rodriguez, the committee’s vicechair, said after the meeting that Birks needs to check whether the board had actually given her that authority.

“The superintendent is going to go back,” Rodriguez said. “Despite the mitigation plan that was passed with the budget, she’s going to make sure that, legally, if there’s subsequent votes that need to occur, then that will be presented at the next meeting or so. We still have additional time to ensure that any appropriate vote will occur.”

Riverside is the destination for students with severe behavioral issues, traumatic memories or overwhelming family circumstances. While a small number of freshmen choose the school for its small class sizes, most students arrive at Riverside after being kicked out of other high schools. In the past week, six new students arrived.

Superintendent Birks said that she’s not sure the model is working, because its students are missing too many days of school.

She said she’s considering plans to send approximately 100 students who won’t be graduating this spring into three other programs.

Some will go back to the comprehensive high schools with additional supports, some will enroll in a vocational-focused program at Gateway Community College, and some will be sent to high-priced outside special-education providers.

“Right now, we’re not sure if the way we’re delivering our programming for our opportunity students is helping. We’re not sure, based on data. The last I checked, the chronic absence rate was still high,” with around three-quarters of the students missing weeks of class, Birks said.

“Who can go back to their mainstream

CHRISTOPHER PEAK PHOTO Superintendent Birks with her budget team.

CHRISTOPHER PEAK PHOTO Students protest school closures in May 2018.

classroom? Who could go to Gateway Community College?” she asked. “We don’t have a facility where we can put 135 students, nor do I think that’s the best way to do this, especially in an existing school building. ... There might be 40 kids somewhere, but we’re still looking at the programming.”

Birks said that she’s asked her team to meet with every single student at Riverside to ask what they need next year.

The school’s principal and several teachers are already warning that closing the district’s last alternative school will hurt students. They called Riverside a “necessity.”

“I certainly respect what Dr. Birks is trying to do with the budget, but I don’t agree with closing the school down,” said Principal Larry Conaway, who’s set to retire at the end of the year. “They’ve already closed two alternative schools and cut our staff and cut our budget. I thought that we gave our fair share last year, and now they’re cutting it completely out.

“I don’t think that’s a wise investment on the district’s part. I think they’re going to

spend more money with support services and outplacements, and I don’t think students are going to get what they need,” Conaway added. “With this last alternative school being proposed for closure, I don’t think it’s the best route to go.”

Nationally, alternative schools often act as a dumping ground for the most difficult students, allowing the rest of the district to boost its stats.

“Alternative schools are often located in crumbling buildings or trailers, with classes taught largely by computers and little in the way of counseling services or extracurricular activities,” ProPublica reporter Heather Vogell wrote in a 2017 investigation.

New Haven’s alternative schools have avoided that reputation, even if its buildings are pretty dingy. Their intimate setting has given kids with profound challenges the help that they need to earn a diploma.

At a recent graduation, students said they had survived unthinkable traumas, including being raped as a grade-schooler, watching a friend commit suicide, and being

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hospitalized for anxiety. After being told they were troublemakers, they said the alternative schools were often the first place where they heard affirmation, where they weren’t overlooked.

“That smaller environment was what allowed them to be successful. It gave them the programs that they needed and more attention from the teachers. It gave them an environment where they felt safe, respected and appreciated,” said Michael Pavano, an art instructor at Riverside who was named the district’s Teacher of the Year in 2017. “They knew that staff saw them in a different light: as an individual, not just as a kid that’s in the hall causing problems.

That one-on-one relationship, that’s what makes a difference in their life.”

With a low disciplinary rates among the high schools, with only 6.7 percent who were suspended or expelled last year, Riverside is seen as a model of restorative practices. And through its partnerships with Youth Stat, which was formed after a Riverside student was murdered in 2014, it’s also seen as a model of integrating wraparound services in a school.

Last year, as the school district faced a $19.3 million budget deficit, Birks recommended consolidating three alternative schools Riverside, New Light and New Horizons at one location.

At the time, board members wondered why they’d locate the school in a rented building on Ella T. Grasso Boulevard with a $590,000 annual lease (that the landlord later significantly discounted to $332,500) when two district-owned buildings would be vacated. “Closing other facilities and leasing that facility, for me, is problematic,” said Darnell Goldson, the Board of Ed’s president.

Birks said that merger at the Boulevard location would give the district a chance to reimagine the alternative school model, with more links to Adult Education. She

called it an “opportunity school.”

“If they’re not coming to school, if we’re not graduating them at a high rate, is this the best way to run a school?” Birks said at the time. “We need to look at that, and it’s going to take more than a day or week.”

But in actuality, with a smaller staff and a limited budget, Riverside didn’t have much of a chance to reinvent itself.

Just before the academic year started, Birks sent Assistant Principal Paul Camarco, who’d spent all summer working on plans, to another school. And the limited budget forced Conaway to let five part-timers go, including a teaching aide, a music instructor, and a woodworking instructor whose Pallet Project had given teens a chance to work hands-on at real construction projects.

Within Riverside, some teachers feel like the decisions to consolidate and close the alternative-education programs are being driven by dollars.

“What we’re caught up in is money, but what are we all doing this for? The intent was always to look out for our students. In the case of Riverside, it’s the most needy population of students that need the most support. They’re the ones we’re ready to disperse?” asked Steve Mikolike, a special education teacher who’s worked in the alternative schools for 18 years. “From a kid’s perspective, why is this the right choice?”

Birks pointed to high chronic absenteeism rates as one reason why she felt the alternative school model isn’t working. According to state records, 59 percent of Riverside Education Academy students missed more than a tenth of last school year.

But the alternative school’s rate isn’t that far off from most of the high schools’ spotty attendance among high-needs students. Among kids from the poorest families, 38.7 percent at James Hillhouse High School and 45.3 percent at Wilbur Cross High School missed more than a tenth of last school year too.

“We’re a landing ground,” Conaway said.

“We have teenage parents; we have individuals coming in from incarceration. The challenges are real, the complexities are real, and what we do matters. It’s not a traditional education, but it’s a real education.”

Pavano said that one metric of chronic absenteeism doesn’t give the full picture. For starters, he pointed out, it doesn’t compare whether those students are showing up more often at Riverside than their previous high schools. And, he added, it doesn’t tell anything about why students are missing class.

For instance, Pavano said, a student recently returned to class after almost four months of absences. He said she’d been working full-time at McDonalds, but only after months away did she realize she wanted to earn her diploma at Riverside.

“How do you show that in data? All they see is that she lost 20 weeks of school; all Con’t on page 08

THE INNER-CITY NEWS - April 03, 2019 - April 09, 2019

Cross Crushes Beacon Falls 14-1 In Season Opener

by ALLAN APPEL New Haven Independent

Fernando Doria, or “Nando,” as his teammates kept cheering him on at the plate, connected for two towering hits, driving in four of 14 runs to power the Wilbur Cross Governors to win their season opening baseball game.

Centerfielder Doria’s long drives in the third and fourth innings, along with Andrew Marrero’s fast ball that struck out a half dozen Woodland Regional High School Hawks, led the way in a game in which the entire team contributed with singles, base stealing and generally aggressive play.

The opening game took place Monday on a picture-perfect sunny day at Rice Field in East Rock, grass turning green

beneath the Angel of Peace, a brightly white chalked field, bunting that reminds you of the World Series or an inauguration, a national anthem sweetly sung, and a school principal and a mayor to throw out the opening day ball.

Doria’s two RBIs were followed by two more thanks to a long single by lead-off hitter and right fielder Luis Roman.

“We are good!” declared one of the team’s coaches, Adam O’Leary, a gym teacher at the Fair Haven School.

“We’re in mid-season form on day one,” confirmed Marc Lefort, a Metropolitan Business High School gym teacher and another coach, who was keeping the stats by O’Leary down the first base line.

“We got to keep it up,” said O’Leary.

The Govs will have a chance to do so

when they play the second and third games of the season, both at Rice Field, on Wednesday and Friday.

If the team wins eight of its 20 games this season, it advances to the playoffs.

Last season the team missed that chance by one victory A dozen players have returned from last year’s squad, determined to make this time.

After the game, a 14-to-1 trouncing of the Beacon Falls-based Woodland Regional High School Hawks, the Govs’ new coach, Angel Ramos, said he was not surprised by his team’s performance.

A lot of preparation, made possible by family and volunteers, preceded the season opener.

“We’ve got good hitters,” he added.

“The more we play, the better we’ll get.”

Destined to Succeed Whatever your child wants to be is within reach when you are involved.

Your engagement in their education will prepare them for the future.

To learn more about the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) and how you can advocate for your children, visit us at www.nnpa.org/essa Sign-up for our ESSA alerts at www.nnpa.org/essa

© 2019 NATIONAL NEWSPAPER PUBLISHERS ASSOCIATION

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Team booster Pablo Melendez surrounded by Mayor Harp and Cross Principal Edith Johnson, who threw out the season-opening ceremonial baseballs.

THE INNER-CITY NEWS -

April 03, 2019 - April 09, 2019

60 Minutes Features Connecticut’s German Prison Experiment

by Lisa Backus Ct News Junkie

Shyquinn Dix admitted to “60 Minutes” correspondent Bill Whitaker that he was skeptical of correction officials who told him they would help him succeed in life through the Connecticut Department of Correction’s T.R.U.E. Unit.

“I thought it was some B.S. because of just the stuff they were saying,” Dix said.

“Like, ‘Oh, the correctional officers and staff here care about you. You get a second chance at life if you take it serious.’”

Dix is now a Dean’s List student and basketball star at the University of Maine at Presque Isle whose story was featured during a 60 Minutes segment on T.R.U.E which aired Sunday night.

Started in 2017, the unit houses a select group of incarcerated men ages 18 to 25 at Cheshire Correctional Institute. The young inmates are paired with “lifers” who act as mentors. They receive intensive counseling and learn personal responsibility through incentives offered by staff and mentors.

The unit was inspired by a trip to Germany made by former Connecticut Gov. Dannel P. Malloy and former state DOC Commissioner Scott Semple four years ago supported by the Vera Institute of Justice’s Restoring Promise Initiative, which also supports the T.R.U.E. unit.

“We are proud to see T.R.U.E. and its residents and staff featured on 60 Minutes,”

Semple said. “T.R.U.E. is part of a journey that began when then-Gov. Dannel Malloy and I traveled with Vera to Germany to see a different approach to incarceration rooted in human dignity. We were honored to work with Vera to bring it home.”

The name of the unit, Truthfulness, to oneself and others, Respect, toward the community, Understanding ourselves and what brought us here, and Elevating to success embodies the curriculum of the program focusing on character development and the tools for success through mentorship.

Whitaker toured the unit with Warden Scott Erfe, who admitted that he wasn’t sure at first if the German methods would work in Connecticut. He now can point to the program’s unique opportunities. “You wouldn’t have correctional officers playing board games with the inmates. That’s just not done in general population,” Erfe said. “Everybody here, you can tell, is just totally relaxed.”

Incentives include more family time, movies and a job within the prison. The goal is to reduce recidivism by allowing the inmates to get help facing their demons while building skills that will make them good citizens when they get out.

Inmates painted a colorful mural on the walls of the yoga studio. Correction officers sit in the audience as inmates stage lip sync contests.

Participants receive intensive therapy and

have their progress tracked by mentors and staff on a regular basis. Those who repeatedly engage in bad behaviors are moved out of the program and back into the general population. About 12 have been removed, officials said. About 50 inmates are currently participating.

The program is still too new to track recidivism rates, but Correction Lt. Ashley McCarthy, who supervises the unit, told CTNewsJunkie in February that she tracks the number of incidents in the T.R.U.E. unit and compares them to the number of incidents among 18- to 25-year-olds at Cheshire and other prisons across the state.

“The numbers are off the charts,” McCarthy said.

Overall 18- to 25-year-olds are responsible for 25 percent of the incidents behind bars, but just 0.5 percent come from the T.R.U.E. unit.

In the T.R.U.E. unit, McCarthy said the inmates are more likely to receive tickets for not participating in a program or if their cell is out of compliance. She said they are much lower level incidents than those experienced in the general population.

Mentors see the program as a chance for redemption, said one mentor who is serving a life sentence. “I tell these guys all the time, they give me a purpose to live,” the man told Whitaker in the 60 Minutes interview.

After touring the unit in February, Gov.

Cheshire Warden Scott Erfe and 60 Minutes Correspondent Bill Whitaker

Ned Lamont pledged his continued support for the unit and is getting businesses on board with hiring graduates of the program.

A correction officer worked with Dix, calling college basketball coaches throughout

Another Top Cop Moves On

by PAUL BASS

New Haven Independent

The New Haven state’s attorney’s office is starting to resemble the third floor of 1 Union Ave. That’s because Assistant Police Chief Herb Johnson is retiring to take a job as an inspector in the state’s attorney’s office.

Johnson has put in for his retirement from the New Haven police department effective April 11.

In his new job, Johnson will join a former colleague from the third-floor chief’s suite at the Union Avenue police headquarters, Anthony Campbell. Campbell retired as New Haven’s police chief last Friday to take a job with the state’s attorney as well.

Like Campbell, Johnson has worked for the New Haven police department for 21 years; they were academy classmates.

Like Campbell, Johnson had a reputation for working well with the community and with other cops. In his most recent sting, he oversaw the detective division. He has played a central role in the department’s coordination with federal and state and suburban law enforcement to target violent crime, during a period when shootings have fallen to their lowest point in decades.

Unlike Campbell, Johnson did not leave the job in part because of concerns over health benefits or future retirement benefits.

Johnson is married to former Capt. Julie Johnson, who retired form the police force

in 2016; so his family’s benefits were set.

Rather, he’s leaving because he has always been interested in working for the state’s attorney, Johnson said Thursday. He had applied for the position in February when it first opened; Campbell ended up getting it then. When another position opened up, Johnson applied again.

“It was a job that I always was interested in from being a detective, to work in the state’s attorney’s office. I felt I couldn’t pass up putting in for it,” said Johnson, who’s 46.

“I’m happy where I’m at. If there was any job that would take me away, it would be that one. I’m still working in New Haven.

Still working for victims.”

Johnson added that his is “grateful to the community, city, and men and women of this department for my career. It was these partnerships that helped me climb the ranks.”

Johnson’s imminent departure will leave the department with two assistant chiefs (who have also been looking for other jobs). Before Campbell left, the department had four assistant chiefs. In addition to Johnson, Otoniel Reyes was one of the assistants; he is now serving as acting chief and in the running for the permanent position.

The department must now decide whether to fill the assistant chief positions. Reyes said Thursday no decision has been made

the northeast to help make his dream become a reality.

He was serving a four-year sentence for felony check fraud when he entered the program. He was able to get a sentence reduction based on his progress with T.R.U.E. He’s now a heavy hitter on the basketball court and in the classroom — he achieved a 3.8 grade point average — by getting all As. “I wake up in my dorm room and I’m in college now,” he said. “It’s crazy.”

Con’t from page 06

Birks Moves

THOMAS BREEN PHOTO

Asst. Chief Herb Johnson addressing the press during last August’s K2 overdoses.

yet.

“Over the next few weeks, we will be deciding” how to structure the top tier, Reyes said.

For many years the department relied on just one assistant chief. That changed after an FBI corruption investigation hit the department in 2007. On the recommendation of an outside consulting group, the NHPD

8

created four assistant positions to increase oversight and develop and enforce standards.

In recent years, especially with a financial squeeze that has led to an exodus of officers to better-paid departments, debate has centered on whether the department needs four assistants, or whether it should return to one or two.

we see is that a kid finally figured it out and is ready to get to work,” Pavano said.

“We can’t quantify any data without talking about the data as an individual, but that doesn’t show well on paper.”

Several board members on Monday night said they want more information before they’ll sign off on closing Riverside.

“The programming there is so unique and caters to a special population of young adults. If you take that program away, what are you replacing it with?” said Tamiko Jackson-McArthur, the Board of Ed’s secretary. “I think that program is vital. If it’s going to change, I want to know exactly how it’s going to change before I can give any kind of okay.”

Matt Wilcox, the father of an alternativeschool grad and the mayor’s latest nominee for a school board slot, watched Monday’s meeting from the audience. He too said he wants to know more than just how much money could be saved.

“I’m interested to see the plan that takes into account the needs of the students, rather than the financial needs,” he said. “I want more details about the district’s plan for this population.”

THE INNER-CITY NEWS - April 03, 2019 - April 09, 2019

Don’t Leave Your Car Running!

A burglary inside an unlocked Cleveland Road garage, a suspicious check sent to Fountain Street, and a theft of a running car left unattended on West Hill Road led to a series of “professional tips” from a top cop.

The top cop, West Hills/Westville/West Rock/ Beverly Hills/Amity District Manager Lt. Rose Dell, offered those tips as part of her weekly write-up of notable police calls.

On 3/24, a resident of Cleveland Road reported that he went into his garage in the morning and found the door open. His wife’s vehicle was entered and some loose change, an iphone charger and a pair of women’s gloves were stolen. The garage door had been unlocked.

PRO TIP: This is the second incident in the area where a garage door was left open and a car was burglarized. Please remember to lock all doors around your homes.

A resident of Fountain Street received a check in the mail for $2,490 along with a letter that said the company wished to hire her as a personal assistant after they viewed her resume on Indeed.com. Officer Paul Mandel advised the resident that the check was part of scam that could be used to obtain her checking account and routing number. PRO TIP: Do not be conned by fake check scams. Never deposit a check from someone you don’t know.

On Sunday morning, a resident of West Hills Road left her vehicle running in the driveway while she went into the house for around five minutes to tend to her children. When she went back outside, her vehicle was missing.

PRO TIP: It takes seconds to steal a car. Never leave your vehicle running, unlocked and unattended.

Monday evening a black Kia Optima pulled into the driveway of the firehouse on Fountain

Street. An unknown male opened his window and threw a number of Ziploc bags onto the driveway. The bags contained flyers with anti-government propaganda. Other firehouses across the city received similar deliveries.

On 3/36, a resident of Curtis Drive heard her car alarm go off at around 9:30 am. She grabbed the car keys, looked outside and shut the car alarm. A short time later, she went outside and noticed that the front passenger side door of the vehicle was open, and there were various items strewn about the interior. She did not notice anything missing and could not remember if the doors had been locked.

On Monday evening, Officer Thomas Testa was flagged down while on patrol in the area of Yale Avenue. A witness said she saw the front door of a residence on West Rock Avenue was wide open and heard the alarm going off. She then saw two men wearing all black carry boxes from the house and load them into a black, American made pickup truck.

The homeowner informed the Officer that the boxes contained a new GE dishwasher and microwave. The burglars made entry through a basement door that they forced open. Detectives responded and are on the case.

On Saturday night at around 1 am, Officer Samantha Romano was patrolling the motels in the area. She saw a female idling in a vehicle at the Three Judges Motel. She approached the driver who said she was waiting for her boyfriend to rent a room. Officer Romano smelled a strong odor of marijuana, and the driver admitted to smoking in the car while she waited for her boyfriend. A bag of marijuana was found in the vehicle. The operator was arrested for drug possession and trespass.

Lamont Adds His Own Twist To Bond Commission Traditions

by Christine Stuart Ct News Junkie

HARTFORD, CT — Gov. Ned Lamont’s first state Bond Commission meeting was “skinny” in terms of the amount of money Connecticut will borrow and a little less formal than the meetings headed by previous Democratic governor.

Lamont and the Bond Commission approved $115.9 million in borrowing Tuesday for a number of projects, including grants to municipalities and money for police body cameras. It also approved $159.7 million in special transportation bonds for paving 221 miles of highway and local bridge repairs.

Lamont, who has been in office 84 days, called lawmakers by their first name and seemed surprised everyone stood when he entered the room and then waited for him to sit before taking their own seats.

The press conference after the Bond Commission meeting was different too. There were no chairs provided to the media because Lamont’s staff thought it might prolong the back and forth, which his predecessor relished.

“We have a shorter agenda, but it also means we couldn’t afford chairs for you all,” Lamont joked as he took to the podium. “I’m happy to take a few questions.”

Rep. Chris Davis, R-East Windsor, who Lamont called “Chris” said “Gov. Lamont is definitely bringing a different style to the governorship than what we’ve experienced over the last eight years.”

He called it “refreshing.”

But it doesn’t mean Lamont is on the verge

of brokering a compromise with Republicans over how to fund transportation improvements.

Lamont said he’s playing the “long game” when it comes to finding a funding stream for improving Connecticut’s transportation infrastructure, and is open to discussing Republicans plans for prioritizing bonding.

“We gotta make sure we have a funding stream for transportation long-term,” Lamont said.

He said voters approved the lockbox for transportation and anything to do with tolling is subject to federal authorization and has to go to transportation by law.

“If you let me consider public-private partnerships each and every one of those projects that toll revenue goes to that project first before it goes anywhere else,” Lamont said.

However, Democrats in the legislature may not be as keen on the proposal as Lamont.

They recently changed Lamont’s language in a public-private partnership bill related to economic development and not everyone is sold on the idea of electronic tolls, which come with congestion pricing.

Davis said it’s obvious that the governor doesn’t even have the votes in his own caucus to support some of his goals.

As far as compromise is concerned, Lamont shouldn’t expect votes from Republicans to try and raise taxes on people, Davis said.

“The people of Connecticut are taxed enough already. We all want to fix roads and bridges and help the rail stations, but

CHRISTINE STUART / CTNEWSJUNKIE PHOTO Gov. Ned Lamont

we want to do it in a fiscally responsible manner that doesn’t call for more money from the people of Connecticut,” Davis said.

He said Republicans want to solve these issues within existing resources.

Questions about your bill?

Yale New Haven Hospital is pleased to offer patients and their families financial counseling regarding their hospital bills or the availability of financial assistance, including free care funds.

By appointment, patients can speak one-on-one with a financial counselor during regular business hours. For your convenience, extended hours are available once a month.

Date: Monday, April 15 Time: 5 - 7 pm Location: Children’s Hospital, 1 Park St., 1st Floor, Admitting Parking available (handicapped accessible) An appointment is necessary. Please call 203-688-2046.

Spanish-speaking counselors available.

9

That Waffle Cone Is ... A Real Waffle THE INNER-CITY NEWS -

April 03, 2019 - April 09, 2019

by MARKESHIA RICKS New Haven Independent

New Haven’s frozen dessert options just grew with the opening of a Milkcraft at the corner of Crown and High streets. Three intrepid fellow writers joined me on a pilgrimage there for a culinary adventure unlike any we’d had before.

My partners in this sugar fest were Karen Ponzio, Tom Breen, and Lucy Gellman.

What we found in the latest Milkcraft shop — the third and the largest to open in Connecticut was loud, occasionally messy and pretty tasty.

Let me explain.

We hit the new Milkcraft shop, located at 280 Crown St., at around lunchtime Monday with empty stomachs and dairy on our minds. First impressions? The place is huge. The New Haven location of the ice cream shop is Milkcraft’s biggest locations, at 1,500 square feet. (The other two locations are in Fairfield and West Hartford.)

Karen arrived ahead of us and scoped out the menu, which is made up of “chef composed” flavors, according to Milkcraft.

They include: • Smores Campfire: deep cocoa chocolate, fire roasted marshmallow, and graham cracker crumbs (being dressed in the above pictures); • Milk & Cereal: all-natural vanilla served with Fruity Pebbles, Coco Puffs, or Frosted Flakes; • Vietnamese Coffee: cold brew Cafe Du Monde coffee, condensed milk, chicory, and steeped coffee beans; • PB & J Roasted Banana: all-natural peanut butter, pure jam, and caramelized banana.

• Choco Du Leche: dark chocolate, dulce de leche, and smoked black sea salt flakes.

Karen’s first choice a flavor called Bourbon Breakfast, which features Madecasse vanilla bean, corn flakes, and a touch of Whistle Pig Maple Bourbon wasn’t available.Karen had a backup plan: the Smores Campfire.

While she was happy with her second choice a yummy mix of chocolate ice cream with legit fire roasted marshmallow on top she couldn’t help jonesing for what might have been had the Bourbon Breakfast been available.

“Bourbon, I love,” she said. “So the fact that it’s in an ice cream would make me want to have it. Whistle Pig is a phenomenal brand—an expensive pour. So I would definitely want to try that in an ice cream.”

Tom and Lucy (pictured above) went for the Vietnamese Coffee, mostly out of Tom’s undying love for coffee. I went for the infinitely Instgrammable and nostalgic Milk & Cereal, which is also pictured above.

“I think coffee is my favorite flavor of ice cream,” Tom said. “It’s not the sweetest option on a menu overwhelmed by overwhelmingly sweet options.”

“You were like, ‘Let me go for the thing that might have the slightest chance of be-

10

ing a little bitter’ because coffee has that bitterness,” I said to Tom. “I think that was a wise choice.”

Both the smores and coffee flavors were a big hit among our crew. We each got one scoop of our choice in one of Milkcraft’s famous Hong Kong-style Bubblecones, which isn’t a waffle cone but actually a waffle. (More on that below.) That portion, about the size of my head, was more than enough to share with friends.

My choice — Milk & Cereal — was made to “do it for the ‘Gram.” And I did get some great social media pictures. But it might have over-delivered when it came down to taste. It really does taste like the sweet milk left behind from your favorite childhood sugary cereal. You’ll be transported back in time to Saturday morning cartoons in your PJs with just a bite or two.

That’s great for about the first five bites.

It was fun to try; the flavor was spot on.

But it was our least favorite of the three.

“Yeah, I wouldn’t eat the whole thing,” Karen said. And I didn’t.

Lucy pointed out that the concept of cereal milk as dessert is having a whole moment thanks to the efforts of New York City-based pastry chef Christina Tosi of Milk Bar, a spinoff of Momofuku Noodle Bar. (Read more about that here and here.)

But cereal milk is a flavor we all would take in much smaller doses spread out over many more people if we get a doover.

Milkcraft is known for making its ice cream to order with a little help from food-grade liquid nitrogen, which creates small ice crystals and thus a super smooth texture. When you place your order, you get a little magic show of watching the visible vapors rise from the row of countertop stand mixers whipping up your ice cream. That chemical reaction accounts for the exceptionally smooth texture of the ice cream, which might be good, or not depending on who you ask.

“I know this is like their thing, but I find it like a weird kind of glue,” Lucy said. “It tastes a little homogenized but not in a like Breyer’s ‘find it in the packaged ice cream section’ way.”

The Milkcraft smoothness is altogether different from, say, your traditional soft serve. The texture is pretty silky; it coats your tongue. It’s not bad. It’s just different.

“You’re either into the mouthfeel or you’re not,” Lucy concluded.

The same could probably be said for the Milkcraft Bubblecone. Three out of four of us had seen the cone on social media but weren’t sure what the hype was about or how much it was like a waffle cone.

We discovered that it was nothing like a waffle cone. It is an actual waffle. Made right on site. The waffle maker in which it is cooked creates these little pillow pockets of dough interspersed with crispiness.

I found the waffle, which isn’t very sweet, to be a nice foil for the very sweet

ice cream. But after a while, the cold, rapidly melting ice cream stole the little bits of crispiness. Luckily, the waffle doesn’t turn into a soggy mess. Though before the waffle absorbs the ice cream, you’re likely to get it on your hands and even your nose as Lucy found out. And the consistency of the ice cream seems to be a factor in its stickiness.

“It is good,” Tom said. “It’s a very messy experience. Messier than I thought.”

The waffled acted as a bit of a sponge that helped mop up the ice cream ... much to Karen’s dismay.

“I had no idea about the cone,” Karen said.

“I’m not a waffle cone person or a waffle sundae person. I am a hot fudge sundae person. But I kind of looked at it and I wanted that experience.”

Now that she’s experienced the cone, she said, “I’m good.”

“I would have rather just eaten the melted ice cream,” Karen added as she showed how she tried to scoop every last bit of her chocolate ice cream but found it absorbed by the spongey waffle pictured above. “I don’t want any more of this cone.”

Tom said the waffle was very soft but he’s more of a fan of a waffle that is pretty crispy. The diplomatic Lucy acknowledged that some people might actually enjoy eating an ice cream soaked waffle, as another layer of the Milkcraft experience.

One thing we all agreed on was that eating ice cream at Milkcraft might be a little like eating ice cream at your dentist’s office which also doubles as a club. Maybe we’re getting old, but the sounds of the machines providing the liquid nitrogen were surprisingly similar to the sounds of a dentist’s drill and they are loud. And the music at the Crown Street location? Even louder.

Tom observed that really loud music is a startling trend that seems to be relegated to the businesses on Crown Street. He said he had a similar experience during a recent trip to Mecha Noodle Bar down the street.

“I wonder if Crown Street food businesses feel like…this is the club row so they feel like they need to amp that shit up,” he said.

“Can you imagine Arethusa doing this?”

Nope. Arethusa closes by 9 p.m. on the weekend and 8 p.m. during the week.

Milkcraft will be open until 2 a.m. on the weekend—perfect for the club and bar scene let out that clusters in the blocks of Crown Street between Temple and High streets.

“I could so see coming here after the bar closes,” Karen said.

All in all, we liked the Milkcraft experience. The ice cream is good and watching the making of whatever concoction you choose is a good time. But we recommend that you bring your friends, share and maybe carry some Wet Ones and some earplugs.

“I like this place,” Karen said. “I’d tell people to come.”

THE INNER-CITY NEWS - April 03, 2019 - April 09, 2019

Management Teams Slow On Civilian Review Names

by ALLAN APPEL

New Haven Independent

With only a little more than a month left before the May 9 deadline for submission, only two of the 12 community management teams have sent in to the mayor their nominations for the city’s new police Civilian Review Board.

Some confusion reigns about aspects of the nomination process, like which specific application form is legal.

Those issues emerged at Tuesday night’s regular meeting of the Quinnipiac East Management Team (QEMT). The meeting drew a small crowd but triggered a big, animated discussion in the library of the Ross/ Woodward School on Barnes Avenue.

On Jan. 7, after a campaign that spanned decades,the Board of Alders passed an ordinance setting up a newly strengthened version of the all-civilian police review review board (CRB), which has the teeth of investigatory power and a budget.

Many questions remain, such as whether the CRB will have genuine subpoena power and whether the mandated $50,000 budget will be sufficient. Meanwhile community management teams (CMT) are beginning to think about which of their members they might nominate to serve on the 15-member CRB. A dozen of those 15 member, by language of the new ordinance, must come from a pool of nominees from the city’s 12 management teams in the city’s neighborhood policing districts.

Aaron Jafferis, one of the activists who have pushed over the past decade for the strengthened CRB, argued that a wider +net needs to be cast. In addition to CMT rec-

ALLAN APPEL PHOTO

Armmand and Quinnipiac Meadows Alder Gerald Antunes at Tuesday night’s meeting. ommendations, the process should include individual applications emailed directly to the mayor’s office for consideration, Jafferis suggested at the meeting.

Some of the best people in a neighborhood might not be known to a CMT, he said. Activists have been distributing an unofficial

alternative form tot he official one used by CMTs, including an opportunity for interested parties to submit essays.

“The mayor’s office is not who chooses.

The mayor wants the CMT to choose.

That’s the concept,” replied mayoral aide Esther Armmand, who is helming the se-

lection process. The vetting process at the mayoral level includes checking that an applicant is not serving on any other board or commission. It’s disqualifiying, Armmand said, if you serve on another board or commission, unless the applicant resigns in order to throw a hat in the CRB ring.

“The CMT should submit several choices,” added Quinnipiac Meadows Alder Gerry Antunes.

“She wants you to own your decision,” Armmand said of the mayor. “Put up three, or a fourth, but the decision should be grounded at the CMT level; the decision should be made there to come up with a representative.”

Armmand said she couldn’t comment on Jafferis’s advocacy for the alternate application form. But she repeatedly said that only one form is legal and that is the standard board and commission’s essay-less, nuts-and-bolt one-pager.

She reiterated that the CMT recommendation is critical, and if an advocate like Jafferis, for example, wants to put forth an applicant, it should be not to the mayor but to the CMT members. That’s where the debate should take place, said. Then the CMT makes its choices, and passes those along to the mayor.

Antunes said that he and his aldermanic colleagues, who will ultimately approve or not the mayor’s choices, would like more information about candidates rather than less.

“We’ll ask the questions they won’t ask,” he said.

Armand said the mayor’s office is not that concerned that at this point so few CMT recommendations have come in. “We’re hopeful,” she said.

Just to help that hopefulness along, Armand said, “we’ll be sending out [a reminder] this week to the CMT teams.”

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THE INNER-CITY NEWS -

April 03, 2019 - April 09, 2019

Legislation Introduced to Establish African Burial Ground Museum In New York

By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Correspondent

Members of the New York Democratic delegation, led by U.S. Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer, U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand and U.S. Representative Jerrold Nadler, joined Representatives Gregory Meeks, Yvette Clarke, and Adriano Espaillat, this week in announcing the reintroduction of the African Burial Ground International Memorial Museum and Education Act. The legislation would establish a museum and education center at the African Burial Ground in Manhattan, a site that currently holds the remains of an estimated 15,000 free and enslaved Africans and early-generation African-Americans from the colonial era, according to a news release from Schumer’s office.

The museum would be managed by the National Park Service in consultation with the African Burial Ground Advisory Council, which would be established by new legislation.

“The African Burial Ground is culturally and historically significant to New York and the nation,” Schumer said.

“The establishment of a museum and an education center at this cemetery will illuminate the plight, courage and humanity of the free and enslaved Africans who helped create New York,” he said.

The African Burial Ground is a cemetery in Manhattan that’s considered the oldest and largest known burial ground in North America for free and enslaved Africans. It serves great historical, cultural, archaeological and anthropological significance.

The burial ground includes DNA samples from the remarkably well-preserved human remains that will enable researchers to trace the home roots in Africa of those individuals buried there.

The site became a National Historic Landmark in 1993 and was designated as a national monument in 2006.

“As a nation, we must always remember the tremendous burdens and afflictions experienced by those who were brought here in bondage, and who fought – for generations – against impossible odds to achieve the full measure of dignity and equality and

Alice Ball Biography Chemist (1892–1916)

by Editors, The Biography.com Alice Ball was an African-American chemist who developed the first successful treatment for those suffering from Hansen’s disease (leprosy).

Who Was Alice Ball?

Alice Augusta Ball (July 24, 1892 – December 31, 1916) was an African-American chemist who developed the first successful treatment for those suffering from Hansen’s disease (leprosy). Ball was also the very first African American and the very first woman to graduate with a M.S. degree in chemistry from the College of Hawaii (now known as the University of Hawaii). Tragically, Ball died at the young age of 24. During her brief lifetime, she did not get to see the full impact of her discovery. It was not until years after her death that Ball got the proper credit she deserved.

Leprosy Treatment – The Ball Method

Photo Courtesy National Parks Service

justice that they were due,” Schumer said.

“I am proud to cosponsor this legislation and I urge my colleagues to pass this bill and for the president to sign it into law,” he said.

“The burial ground serves as a tribute to the enslaved and free African men and women who lived in and helped build New York,” said Gillibrand. “Establishing a museum and an education center at this location would memorialize their stories and protect their legacies.”

“This is an important part of New York’s history that deserves to be recognized. I am proud to work with my colleagues in the New York delegation to introduce this legislation and urge my colleagues in Congress to pass this bill,” Gillibrand continued.

Nadler added that, “on the site of the African Burial Ground lie the remains of thousands of free and enslaved early African residents of New York, making it a site of the utmost historic and cultural significance for New York City and the United States.”

“A Memorial Museum and Education Center on those grounds will pay respects to the thousands buried there, acknowledge the central role that enslaved and free African men and women played in building New York City from its earliest history, and

educate Americans and other visitors about the profound and far-reaching impact of slavery on American society,” he said.

From the beginnings of the colonial past to long after the formation of the union, enslaved Africans and their descendants have endured bondage and forced labor, followed by segregation and discrimination in America, Meeks said.

“Their resiliency should be commemorated, and their plight: never forgotten.

Constructing the African Burial Ground Memorial Museum will serve to commemorate their bravery, remind us how long the journey towards justice has been, and contextualize the historical roots of the inequities that still persist to this day,” he said.

The sacred African Burial Ground Memorial Museum and Education Center will serve as a tool to educate communities on the long-lost history of the enslaved and freed African-Americans, whose labor ultimately built the City of New York, said Clarke.

“Amid the fight for equity, justice and fairness, we must shed light on the human rights violations that occurred in both colonial and federal New York City during the 17th and 18th centuries. This history deserves to be honored, remembered and studied by all Americans to ensure that such cruelties never occur again,” Clarke said.

Espaillat added that this year marks 400 years since the first African slaves were brought to the United States and the beginning of one of the darkest periods of our nation’s history.

“Establishing the burial ground is a tremendous way to reflect on the significant suffering and injustice slavery had throughout the United States,” Espaillat said.

“We can never forget the horrors that were inflicted through slavery, and the African Burial Ground Memorial will play a vital role in our ability to better understand the past and honor the history that all groups of people have had on American culture and our continued crusade for freedom and justice for all,” he said.

12

After earning undergraduate degrees in pharmaceutical chemistry (1912) and pharmacy (1914) from the University of Washington, Alice Ball transferred to the College of Hawaii (now known as the University of Hawaii) and became the very first African American and the very first woman to graduate with a M.S. degree in chemistry in 1915. She was offered a teaching and research position there and became the institution’s very first woman chemistry instructor. She was only 23 years old.

As a laboratory researcher, Ball worked extensively to develop a successful treatment for those suffering from Hansen’s disease (leprosy). Her research led her to create the first injectable leprosy treatment using oil from the chaulmoogra tree, which up until then, was only a moderately successful topical agent that was used in Chinese and Indian medicine.

Ball successfully isolated the oil into fatty acid components of different molecular weights allowing her to manipulate the oil into a water soluble injectable form. Ball’s scientific rigor resulted in a highly successful method to alleviate leprosy symptoms, later known as the “Ball Method,” that was used on thousands of infected individuals for over thirty years until sulfone drugs were introduced.

The “Ball Method” was so successful, leprosy patients were discharged from hospitals and facilities across the globe including from Kalaupapa, an isolation facility on the north shore of Molokai, Hawaii where thousands of people suffering from leprosy died in years prior.

Thanks to Alice Ball, these banished individuals could now return to their families, free from the symptoms of leprosy.

Death and Discovery Credit Stolen Tragically, Ball died on December 31, 1916 at the young age of 24 after complications resulting from inhaling chlorine gas in a lab teaching accident. During her brief lifetime, she did not get to see the full impact of her discovery.

What’s more, following her death, the president of the College of Hawaii, Dr. Arthur Dean, continued Ball’s research without giving her credit for the discovery. Dean even claimed her discovery for himself, calling it the “Dean Method.” Unfortunately, it was commonplace for men to take the credit of women’s discoveries and Ball fell victim to this practice (learn about three more women scientists whose discoveries were credited to men).

Alice Ball In 1922, six years after her death, Dr. Harry T. Hollmann, the assistant surgeon at Kalihi Hospital who originally encouraged Ball to explore chaulmoogra oil, published a paper giving Ball the proper credit she deserved. Even so, Ball remained largely forgotten from scientific history until recently.

Long Overdue Accolades In 2000, the University of Hawaii-Mānoa placed a bronze plaque in front of a chaulmoogra tree on campus to honor Alice Ball’s life and her important discovery. Former Lieutenant Governor of Hawaii, Mazie Hirono, also declared February 29 “Alice Ball Day.” In 2007, the University of Hawaii posthumously awarded her with the Regents’ Medal of Distinction.

In 2017, Paul Wermager, a scholar who has been researching, publishing and lecturing about Alice Ball for years at the University of Hawaii-Mānoa, established The Alice Augusta Ball endowed scholarship to support students in the College of Natural Sciences pursuing a degree in chemistry, biology or microbiology.

Acknowledging the importance of Ball’s work through this scholarship, Wermager stated: “Not only did she overcome the racial and gender barriers of her time to become one of the very few African-American women to earn a master’s degree in chemistry, [but she] also developed the first useful treatment for Hansen’s disease. Her amazing life was cut too short at the age of 24. Who knows what other marvelous work she could have accomplished had she lived.”

Early Life and Family Alice Augusta Ball was born on July 24, 1892 in Seattle, Washington to Laura, a photographer, and James P. Ball, Jr., a lawyer. She was the middle child with two older brothers, Robert and William, and a younger sister, Addie.

Her grandfather, James P. Ball Sr., was a wellknown photographer and was amongst the first to practice daguerreotype photography, a process of printing photographs onto metal plates.

The family enjoyed a middle-class lifestyle.

In 1903, they moved from chilly Seattle to the warm weather of Honolulu in hopes that James Ball Sr.’s, arthritis pains would be alleviated.

Sadly, James Ball Sr. died shortly after their move and the family relocated back to Seattle.

Ball excelled at Seattle High School, graduated in 1910, and went onto obtain multiple graduate degrees from the University of Washington and the College of Hawaii.

THE INNER-CITY NEWS - April 03, 2019 - April 09, 2019

New Interactive Website Featuring Henry Louis Gates

Tracks Slave Voyages

125

YEARS

By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Correspondent

In his PBS series, “Finding Your Roots …” Henry Louis Gates Jr. presents guests whose roots cover the globe – from Samoa, Nigeria, Taiwan and Sicily to Iran, Ireland, India and Cuba – and almost everywhere in between.

Each episode weaves together their stories, gleaned from cutting-edge DNA analysis and old school genealogical detective work.

And, at the center of it all and guiding every discovery is Gates, the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor at Harvard University and director of the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research.

Gates is also now featured on a newly updated website, slavevoyages.org, which contains databases of the TransAtlantic and Intra-American slave trade.

The databases are the culmination of several decades of independent and collaborative research by scholars who draw upon information in libraries and archives around the world, according to a news release.

The new slave voyages website counts as the product of three years of development by a multi-disciplinary team of historians, librarians, curriculum specialists, cartographers, computer programmers, and web designers, in consultation with scholars of the slave trade from universities in Europe, Africa, South America, and North America.

Among the many unique features are an African names database.

The producers of the site note that during the last 60 years of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, courts around the Atlantic basins condemned over 2,000 vessels for engaging in slave trafficking and recorded the details of captives found on board those ships, including African names.

Links are provided to the ships in the Voyages Database from which the liberated Africans were rescued, as well as to the African Origins site where users can hear the names pronounced and help us identify the languages they think the names originated from or are used.

The site also takes a deep look at the slave trade within the Americas, which, after the initial disembarkation of African captives in the New World, has received scant attention from historians, especially for the period prior to the abolition of transatlantic slave traffic.

An article on the site examines similar types of intra-American trafficking as an introduction to the launching of the IntraAmerican Slave Trade Database, which aims to document evidence of slave voy-

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“The site now offers access to details of more than 36,000 slave trading voyages between Africa and the New World; 11,000 voyages from one part of the Americas to another part; and 92,000 Africans who were forced to take the voyage,” said Henry Louis Gates Jr., the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor at Harvard University and director of the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research.

ages throughout the New World.

“The site now offers access to details of more than 36,000 slave trading voyages between Africa and the New World; 11,000 voyages from one part of the Americas to another part; and 92,000 Africans who were forced to take the voyage,” Gates said.

“Users can analyze data and view video and they can contribute corrections and add information on voyages the editors don’t even know about,” he said. The website allows viewers to explore the dispersal of enslaved Africans across the Atlantic world.

According to the website, the digital memorial raises questions about the largest slave trades in history and offers access to the documentation available to answer them.

It recounts how European colonizers turned to Africa for enslaved laborers to build the cities and extract the resources of the Americas. Also, how those colonizers forced millions of mostly unnamed Africans across the Atlantic to the Americas, and from one part of the Americas to another.

Those viewing the website can analyze these slave trades and view interactive maps, timelines, and animations to see the dispersal.

Sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities, the work on the site

was done at the Emory Center for Digital Scholarship, the University of California at Irvine, and the University of California at Santa Cruz with the Hutchins Center of Harvard University providing support.

“I find it inspiring that our fellow Americans are so determined to explore their own ancestral heritage,” Gates noted.

13

The NHSO marks the 80th Anniversary of Marian Anderson’s groundbreaking performance at the Lincoln Memorial with a concert that celebrates the perseverance of the human spirit and the ability of music to speak to power. This resonant, poignant performance will use the words of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr; original art by Elliott Forrest; and music by Aaron Copland, Joseph Schwantner, Daniel Bernard Roumain, and others to commemorate and examine what it means to be an American.

Tickets on Sale Now! (203)787-4282 | NewHavenSymphony.org

THE INNER-CITY NEWS -

April 03, 2019 - April 09, 2019

COMMENTARY:

Toward a Living Wage

By Julianne Malveaux, NNPA Newswire Contributor It is unfathomable that the federal minimum wage has not been increased in more than a decade, since 2007. That the wage, at $7.25 per hour, has remained flat through recession and recovery, through extremely high unemployment rates and much lower ones. Republicans have absolutely refused to consider minimum wage increases, and in early March rejected a bill that would increase the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2024. Still, with the Democratic majority in Congress, the bill came out of committee on a 28-20 party line vote.

While the federal government drags its feet, six states, the District of Columbia and several other cities now have a minimum wage that will rise to $15 in the next few years. In late March, Maryland joined California, Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey and Illinois in increasing the minimum wage, even though Republican governor Larry Hogan vetoed the legislation. Both houses of the Maryland legislature overrode his veto, even though he melodramatically noted that a higher minimum wage would “devastate” the Maryland economy.

Unions, McDonald’s workers, and the Fight for Fifteen have fueled the national push to raise the minimum wage, especially as people have noted that wage stagnation has resulted in an extremely uneven economic recovery.

While those at the top are celebrating economic growth, those at the bottom have barely experienced it. And the current minimum wage of $7.25 produces annual pay of $15,080, assuming that someone works a full 40 hours a week all 52 weeks of the year, which is often unlikely because many minimum wage jobs are part-time jobs.

The poverty line for a family of three (a working mom and two children) is $16,910.

A woman working full time at the minimum wage is living below the poverty line. She qualifies for SNAP (food stamps), and possibly for federal housing aid if she can get it.

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full, as is public housing, so assistance is not an option. What is a woman earning such a low wage to do, then, living at the economic periphery? She house-shares lives with family or endures homelessness. She lines up to get food at food banks or from other charities.

She struggles to make ends meet, while her Congressional Representative earns $174,000 a year whether they produce or not. (I’d suspend Congressional pay when they choose to shut down the government).

Too many of the people who earn the minimum wage, mostly women, are caretakers.

They mind our children and our elders, as nannies and home health workers. While we say that our children and elders are precious, we don’t pay the folks who care for them as if they are. Parking lot attendants, who care for our automobiles, often earn more than the people who care for our children, mothers, and grandmothers. And yet the economy depends on them! How many working women would be hard pressed to work if their nannies or home health workers stayed home? And how would the economy adjust to the absence of nearly half of the labor force?

Ai-jen Poo, the Executive Director of the National Domestic Worker’s Alliance, recently spoke about workers in the care industry, how poorly they are paid, and how essential they are. Eighty-eight percent of these workers are

women, mostly women of color, and while demand for their services is increasing (with an aging baby boom, and increased births to millennial women), pay is not. All don’t make the minimum wage, but far too many do, and their efforts, though essential, are all too often invisible. Poo and her organization are working to raise the visibility of these workers, not just so we can see them, but so we can ensure that they are adequately paid. Most Americans will have to interact with the care industry at some point in their life, arranging help for elderly relatives or for children. The movement toward a living wage must include these workers.

Kudos to Maryland for taking a step in the right direction. Shame on House Republicans who are enjoying economic recovery, but denying its benefits to those at the bottom. The Fight for Fifteen has momentum now. This is a great time to keep up the pressure on the states and on the federal government. Increasing the minimum wage lifts people out of poverty. Shouldn’t we all be able to support that?

Julianne Malveaux is an author and economist. Her latest book “Are We Better Off? Race, Obama and Public Policy” is available via www.amazon.com for booking, wholesale inquiries or for more info visit www.juliannemalveaux.com

COMMENTARY:

Will Self-Driving Cars Help or Harm Our Communities?

By Richard Ezike In cities like Washington, D.C., the arrival of self-driving vehicles has the potential to profoundly change how we get around. But whether those changes are for the better or the worse depends on the choices we make today, before these vehicles become widely available.

At the Union of Concerned Scientists, I’ve been studying the possibilities and the risks of autonomous vehicles. Our new study, “Where Are Self-Driving Cars Taking Us? Pivotal Choices That Will Shape DC’s Transportation Future,” analyzes how automated vehicles may impact congestion, public transit and job access in the region by 2040, focusing on what these impacts will mean for low-income communities and communities of color.

One way or another, this technology is coming. These cars are already being tested in many cities such as Phoenix and in the near future, Washington, DC. If we do not plan and set out thoughtful policies, driverless cars could exacerbate the challenges we see in transportation today—especially for black communities. Like any other technology, what results from these vehicles will largely depend on the rules we make for using them.

Without smart policies, autonomous vehicles could just mean more cars on the road, with the upside of greater access undermined by much greater congestion and exposure to unhealthy pollution, which disproportionately affects black communities. We could also see the gaps in access to jobs between wealthy

communities and low-income communities get even larger.

So how do we make sure these new technologies work for everyone, and don’t exacerbate problems we already face?

First, automated vehicles need to work in tandem with an expanded mass transportation system, not compete with it. Mass transit is more efficient and less costly than private vehicles and must play a central role in transportation in the decades to come. According to the Pew Research Center, black communities are three times more likely to use public transit than white communities. Automated vehicles will need to complement, not replace, public transit systems.

We need to ensure that driverless cars are not used by single individuals, but instead shared by two or more passengers. Local governments could help ensure this by expanding high-occupancy vehicle lanes, charging a fee to vehicles that only have one passenger, and adapting street design to emphasize passenger pick-up and drop-off instead of parking.

Automated vehicles must be electric. Otherwise, Black communities could be hit with large increases in air pollution, not to mention the increase these vehicles will cause in global warming emissions.

We need to think carefully about how we will integrate automated vehicles into our daily lives. We need to prioritize people, not vehicles, and craft strong policies to incentivize drivers and ride-sharing companies to use these vehicles in a way that reduces congestion, cuts emissions and promotes equitable access.

There’s a new future of transportation around the corner—the only question is whether we’ll work today to make sure it’s a good one.

This article originally appeared in the Los Angeles Sentinel.

THE INNER-CITY NEWS - April 03, 2019 - April 09, 2019

Dr. Julius Garvey Still Seeking Redemption for his Father and Africans

“The charges against the other three were dropped, but my father was convicted by an all-white jury on charges that were widely considered politically-motivated and in a trial tainted by misconduct,” Dr. Garvey said.

After spending nearly three years in jail, President Calvin Coolidge, under public pressure in 1927, commuted Garvey’s sentence but still deported him.

The senior Garvey wasn’t allowed to return to America and his son has said that all of the momentum his father built up on issues of racial justice stalled.

By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Correspondent

Dr. Julius Garvey probably felt like channeling his father, the late civil rights leader Marcus Garvey, when he responded to Fox News analyst Katie Pavlich’s misguided comment that America should get “credit for being the first country to end slavery in 150 years.”

Garvey simply laughed and brushed off such superficial racist rhetoric. “It shows that she has no clue,” Garvey said during a Black Press Week luncheon in Washington, DC just days after Pavlich’s remarks.

“Look, it’s pretty said,” he said.

Marcus Garvey died in London in 1940.

He also said a healthy discourse on reparations is long overdue.

“Reparations is a conversation that is indepth and involved and it’s a long and necessary conversation,” Garvey said.

Garvey was born on September 17, 1933 in Kingston, Jamaica.

He graduated from Wolmer’s Trust High School for Boys in Kingston in 1950; and then earned his B.S. degree from McGill University in Montréal, Canada in 1957, and his M.D., C.M. degree from McGill University Faculty of Medicine in 1961.

Garvey began his medical career by interning at The Royal Victoria Hospital in Montréal in 1961, according to his biography from The History Makers.

In 1962, he began his first residency in surgery at The Mount Sinai Hospital of New York, completing his residency in 1965 and completed residencies in surgery at the Harlem Hospital Center in 1968 and in thoracic & cardiovascular surgery at the University of Maryland Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland in 1970.

He became an instructor in surgery at the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1971 and later joined the Albert Einstein College of Medicine as an instructor in surgery where he became an assistant professor of surgery.

While teaching at Columbia University and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Garvey served as an attending

surgeon in cardiothoracic surgery at the Harlem Hospital Center and Montefiore Hospital, as well as associate attending and head of thoracic surgery at the Montefiore Morrisania Affiliate.

In 1974, Garvey was named attending-incharge of thoracic surgery at Queens Hospital Center, in addition to serving as an attending surgeon in thoracic and cardiovascular surgery at the Long Island Jewish Medical Center.

He became the Long Island Jewish Medical Center’s acting program director for the Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery from 1980 to 1982, and assistant professor of surgery at State University of New York at Stony Brook from 1978 to 1988.

Garvey started his own private practice in 1983.

Garvey served as chief of thoracic and vascular surgery at Queens Hospital Center from 1993 to 2006, and chief of vascular and thoracic surgery at Wyckoff Heights Medical Center from 2000 to 2004.

In addition to his other medical appointments, Garvey served as an attending surgeon at North Shore University Hospital, Franklin General Hospital, Massapequa General Hospital, Catholic Medical Centers, and Little Neck Community Hospital.

In recent years, he has worked to secure a pardon for his famous father who, along with three others, was charged with conspiracy to use the mails to defraud.

“I wish to clear my father’s name and to continue to help Africans wherever we are in the U.S., Caribbean and on the continent,” Dr. Garvey said.

He said reparations are necessary if there is ever to be a complete healing of the evil slave trade. “WE are the original people and the original civilization. African praxis directs us to the truth that we are at home in the universe and should treat it as our home,” Dr. Garvey said.

It’s also up to those of African descent to assume some responsibility in carrying forward the legacies of his father and other civil rights leaders, Dr. Garvey said.

“That will move us further along the arc of redemption, renaissance and the redevelopment of our people as a civilization,” he said.

Comcast Formally Launches Afro and Cleo, Two New Black-Centric Networks

By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Correspondent

During a star-studded evening complete with a Red Carpet entry at the Newseum in Washington, D.C., Comcast formally announced the addition of two television networks that highlights the company’s commitment to diversity.

TV One’s Cleo TV and Afrotainment’s Afro are the latest independent channels to receive broad distribution on Comcast’s cable systems.

“African Americans have stories to tell and we’re not monolithic people, we come from different backgrounds,” said Michelle Rice, the general manager at Cleo TV. “I’m excited that this is by us, for us and there’s going to be a lot of great content that reflects our lifestyle,” said Rice, who joined cast members from various Cleo TV shows, executives from Comcast Afro and others to celebrate the launch of the new channels at the Newseum on Thursday, March 14.

Cleo TV is billed as a lifestyle and entertainment network that targets millennial and Gen X women of color.

Derived from the name Cleopatra, one of the most powerful, trendsetting, rule-breaking and iconic women in history, Rice said Cleo will offer quality content that “defies negative and cultural stereotypes of today’s modern women.”

Rice, a TV One veteran, has overseen

and led all business, operational and creative aspects of the network and she’s also credited with green-lighting and premiering successful series like “Uncensored,” “We’re the Campbells,” and “ATL Homicide.”

Among the many duties at TV One, Rice handled domestic and international program sales and distribution for the network.

“We’ve put together upbuilding and aspiration entertainment for millennial and GEN X women of color. We all recognized that there were still more room for quality content for GEN X and women of color,” Rice said.

Meanwhile, Afro also offers a culturally diverse peek into the global black community, said Yves Bollanga, the CEO and founder of Afrotainment.

“Afro celebrates the richness and diversity of the black culture with original and exclusive content. It is important to recognize that the African-American community is not a homogeneous group. … They are Afro Caribbeans, Africans or Afro Hispanos who are young, educated, greatly underserved and represent substantial long-term revenue growth opportunities,” Bollanga said.

“We are excited to showcase all shades of the black culture to millions of Xfinity viewers both live and on demand,” he said.

When Bollanga moved to the United States from Cameroon in 2000, he said he

turned on the television and immediately noticed a void for black viewers.

“There was nothing that really looked like us or captured our culture,” he said.

“I felt this unfulfilled demand for Black content and our vision was and continues to be to produce and broadcast Afro-centric original content to as many devices and households as we possibly can.”

Bollanga previously founded several media companies, one of which is AB ROLL, a video production company based in France.

He also co-founded Telesud with a childhood friend, Constant Nemale.

Telesud was the first Pan-African TV channel in Europe and Africa.

In 2005, under Bollanga’s leadership, Telesud launched in America on DISH. Later, he partnered with Shafquat Chaudhary to found Afrotainment and the company now features 10 channels: Afro, Afrotaiment, Afrotainment Plus, Africa Box Office, Haiti HD, TV Naija, Yebo, Oui TV, Afrotainment Music, Afro Sports.

“Comcast is excited to add both Afro and Cleo TV,” said Keesha Boyd, the Executive Director, Multicultural Products at Comcast Cable.

“We remain committed to delivering a wide array of programming by partnering with independent networks, such as [Cleo and Afro], to better serve our increasingly

15

diverse customer base,” said Boyd, who was among the many to attend the launch at the Newseum.

Attendees included Urban One Founder Cathy Hughes, Sister Circle hosts Rashan Ali and Syleena Johnson; singer Brave Williams; Project Runway winner Liris Crosse, Chef JJ and April Reign of “Cleo Speaks.”

After evaluating more than 50 proposals, Comcast said in choosing Cleo and Afro that its main criteria were the content of the network; whether the network was fully financed; and whether the network’s own-

ership and/or management group(s) are well established, have relevant experience, and are substantially owned by AfricanAmericans.

“The offerings from both Afro and Cleo TV serve as an excellent complement to the growing catalog of programming choices we offer about global black communities,” Boyd said.

Urban One Founder Cathy Hughes (left) with Urban One President and CEO Alfred Liggins III (Center) and Cleo TV “New Soul Kitchen” Star Chef Jernard Wells

THE INNER-CITY NEWS -

April 03, 2019 - April 09, 2019

Expanding Minority Doctorate Pipeline Began with Facebook Group

By LaMont Jones, Diverse Education

LaShonda Horrison-Gurley said she “didn’t know whether to laugh, to cry or break out in a praise dance” when she successfully defended her dissertation last week, but the doctor of education earner knew she was grateful for critical support along the way – including from a social media group created two years ago to support Black and first-generation students seeking doctoral degrees.

That’s why Horrison-Gurley, in the tradition of others before her, shared her good news with the more than 12,100 members of PhinisheD/FinishEdD, a Facebook group page launched in January 2017 by Dr. Daniel Jean, executive director of the Educational Opportunity Fund Program and Academic Development at Montclair State University.

The road to earning a doctor of education or a doctor of philosophy is arduous, a journey on which “you need support, you need encouragement,” said Horrison-Gurley, a wife and mother of three who once stopped out of her education leadership and management program at Capella University due to family issues and felt like giving up near the end because of financial challenges and programmatic policy changes.

“I ran across the Facebook page on somebody else’s profile about a year and a half ago and decided to check it out, and joined,” said Horrison-Gurley, who works as director of multicultural development and a deputy Title IX coordinator at Ohio Northern University. “I’m a first-generation, and nobody else in my family has navigated this before. And going to school online is a dif-

Dr. Daniel Jean

ferent journey from brick and mortar. I felt I wasn’t alone, having that support group there rooting me on to finish.”

In that regard, PhinisheD/FinishEdD is doing exactly what Jean envisioned. Although primarily intended for doctoraldegree seekers and holders who are people of color or first-generation, the private page has members from various ethnic groups in countries beyond the United States, including Canada, China, Nigeria, the United Kingdom and United Arab Emirates. About 70 percent are women.

“I noticed others using Facebook as a toy, not a tool,” said Jean. “I set it up as a motivation and resource page, and by the end of the first month I had 1,000 members. I started updating it more and posting pictures, and it just took off and has become an unbelievable network that helps people stay on task and be motivated.”

The page is a forum for soliciting and

offering specific advice, seeking and providing encouragement and celebrating milestones up to and through degree completion. As added motivation, new graduates usually tag #WhoGotNext when posting their picture and announcement.

“People develop accountability partners through the page,” said Jean, who earned an Ed.D. in higher education leadership at Seton Hall University.

Observing need and growing demand for support among doctoral students, Jean expanded the mission of PhinisheD/ FinishEdD to include a summit for doctoral students each semester. The next one, March 30 in New York City, is on track to have 100 attendees, quadrupling attendance last fall, he said.

Jean, the U.S.-born child of Haitian immigrants, attended a magnet school in New Jersey. When he was in the eighth grade, his father died and his grades plummeted.

But thanks to a program for low-income, highly motivated students – the very program he now directs – Jean eventually got his groove back and earned a bachelor’s degree in public communications at Ramapo College of New Jersey and a master’s degree in higher education counseling at Montclair State University.

He decided to earn a doctoral degree, and credits participation in a conference for minority doctoral students through SREB as a tremendous support. That experience inspired him to create new pathways to doctoral degrees for underrepresented students like him, including his first doctoral summit at Montclair State in fall 2016.

Jean has given more than 600 keynote speeches, presentations and trainings across the nation, primarily for graduate students. His mission, he said, is inspired

by Dr. Ansley Abraham and Abraham’s work as founding director of the Southern

Regional Education Board (SREB) State Doctoral Scholars Program in Atlanta.

Now in its 26th year, the program presents various initiatives, including hosting the largest gathering of minority doctoral students in the nation. It has directly supported nearly 1,700 scholars, with about 80 percent of its nearly 1,000 graduates working in education, said Abraham.

Those alums include Jean, whose passion and efforts to create diverse communities of scholars and increase inclusion in academia were praised by Abraham.

“I love what he’s doing,” said Abraham.

“We need a whole lot more Daniel Jeans out there, understanding what the issues are and really trying to push this system in a way it’s not used to being pushed. He’s been very, very successful.”

Dr. Renetta Garrison Tull, associate vice provost for strategic initiatives in the graduate school of University of Maryland Baltimore County’s College of Engineering and Information Technology, met Jean at an SREB conference. She was so impressed with his presentation that the school began bringing him to campus for mentoring in residence and other initiatives.

His innovative methods of mentoring were so helpful at the graduate level that the university has had him also work with undergraduates, she said.

“He has a personal testimony that resonates with students,” said Tull. “He infuses a lot of pop culture, which resonates with students, and he is powerful and affirming.”

This article originally appeared in The Birmingham Times.

Facebook won’t let employers, landlords or lenders discriminate in ads anymore

By Jack Gillum and Ariana Tobin, ProPublica

Facebook advertisers can no longer target users by age, gender and ZIP code for housing, employment and credit offers, the company announced last Tuesday as part of a major settlement with civil rights organizations.

The wide-ranging agreement follows reporting by ProPublica since 2016 that found Facebook let advertisers exclude users by race and other categories that are protected by federal law. It is illegal for housing, job and credit advertisers to discriminate against protected groups.

ProPublica had been able to buy housingrelated ads on Facebook that excluded groups such as African Americans and Jews, and it previously found job ads excluding users by age and gender placed by companies that are household names, like Uber and Verizon Wireless.

“This settlement is a shot across the bow to all tech companies and platforms,” said Peter Romer-Friedman, a lawyer with Outten & Golden in Washington who represented the plaintiffs along with the ACLU. “They need to understand that civil rights apply to the internet, and it’s not a civil rights-free zone.”

The changes apply to advertisers who offer housing, employment and credit offers to U.S.-based users of Facebook, Instagram and Messenger. Facebook said it hopes to implement the requirements by the end of the year.

The agreement also will create a separate online portal for housing, credit and employment offers. Those advertisers will not be able to target users in a geographic area smaller than a 15-mile radius, which advocates say tamps down on “digital” neighborhood redlining.

Housing, job and credit advertisers will also now only be able to choose from a few hundred interest categories to target consumers, down from several thousand.

Critics have said such a swath of finely tuned categories, like people interested in wheelchair ramps, are essentially proxies to find and exclude certain groups. Facebook said it will keep more generic interests like “real estate,” “apartment” and “job interview.”

Facebook also said it will create a page where users can see all current housing ads whether or not the users were among those targeted. The agreement says Facebook will also study how algorithms can be biased.

“There is a long history of discrimination

in the areas of housing, employment and credit, and this harmful behavior should not happen through Facebook ads,” Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg wrote in a statement on Tuesday of last week.

The changes are part of Facebook’s settlement in five discrimination lawsuits. Plaintiffs included the Communications Workers of America and several fair-housing organizations, as well as individual consumers and job seekers. The settlement includes a payout of about $5 million to plaintiffs, mostly to defray legal costs.

The company agreed last year to limit advertisers’ ability to target by some demographic categories, following a complaint

by Washington state.

Facebook has previously said that it was being held to an unreasonably high standard, and that ads excluding users by age and gender were not discriminatory. “We completely reject the allegation that these advertisements are discriminatory,” Vice President of Ads Rob Goldman wrote in a December 2017 post. “Used responsibly, age-based targeting for employment purposes is an accepted industry practice and for good reason: it helps employers recruit and people of all ages find work.” The post was titled: “This Time, ProPublica, We

16

Disagree.”

Facebook said Tuesday it had “not seen the kind of explicit discriminatory behavior that civil rights groups are concerned about.” But ProPublica used a crowdsourcing project to find dozens examples of job ads that excluded workers over 40, women and other protected groups.

Facebook has made another move re-

cently that resulted in less transparency around ads. This year, it moved to block a ProPublica project that allowed the public to see how political ads are being targeted on Facebook.

The company said it was simply enforcing its terms of service.

This article originally appeared in the Louisiana Weekly.

THE INNER-CITY NEWS - April 03, 2019 - April 09, 2019

OP-ED: Why are you paying more in taxes than Amazon and Netflix?

Breaking Barriers in the “App”lication of Technology

By S. E. Williams

By Morris Pearl This tax season, millions of Americans will be receiving smaller refunds from the IRS — or worse, a bill. At the same time, two of the most profitable companies in the country are not only avoiding paying taxes altogether, but one is receiving a federal rebate check of hundreds of millions of dollars.

Both corporations and individuals are subject to federal income taxes. For those individuals who earn their money through work, the rates are anywhere from 10 to 37 percent. For those of us who live off investment income, marginal tax rates are zero percent, 15 percent and 20 percent (this sucks too, but I’ll get into that at another time).

On the other hand, the corporate tax rate is 21 percent. It would be reasonable to assume that companies like Amazon and Netflix would pay 21 percent — or at least close to that figure — after applying deductions and other tax credits. This has not been the case.

From 2012 to 2017, Amazon paid federal income tax at an average rate of 11.4 percent on over $8 billion in profits, almost half the highest marginal tax rate for corporations now and less than one-third the marginal tax rate for corporations before 2018, which was 35 percent. In both 2017 and 2018, the company paid $0, and this year, the company will be receiving a $129 million rebate.

Netflix didn’t pay much more, either.

Con’t on page 19

In honor of International Women’s Day and “the continued urgency of the fight for gender equality,” this month the technology publication Wired featured several women for what it defined as—their success breaking boundaries, making new worlds possible, and setting the stage for the future.

Included among those celebrated was Atlanta entrepreneur, Jewel Burks Solomon.

An advocate for representation and access in the technology industry, she is co-founder of Partpic, a startup designed to streamline the purchase of maintenance and repair parts using computer vision technology.

In 2015 Burks Solomon was invited to the White House for Demo Day and met with then-President Barack Obama. That day, she and co-founder Jason Crain had an opportunity to explain how they came up with the idea for “Partpic,” a replacement part recognition application designed to help companies order the correct part(s) to get their machines back in operation.

The application allows those searching for a replacement part to use a smartphone to snap and upload a picture of any mechanical part in need of replacement, it also helps process the placement order for the part(s).

Interestingly, Burks Solomon had no background in computer vision, yet she recognized a need forB:9.25” such an app and taught herself how to build it. She subsequently T:9.25” raised over $2 million dollars in venture S:9.25”

capital from prominent investors like Steve Case, the co-founder of AOL and Comcast Ventures and integrated “Partpic” software into mobile apps and websites of large parts distributors and retailers.

During an interview with USA Today in 2015, Burks Solomon described how she got the idea for the application. The seed was planted after she managed a parts call center and it was nurtured from a personal experience, she had helping her grandfather get a replacement part for his tractor.

“It was really tough,” she explained. “I wanted to create an easier and more simple way for people to search for a part and that’s what really got it started.”

Burks Solomon’s success was especially notable according to Wired, because women—particularly women of color—face difficulty getting funded.

In late 2016, “Partpic” was sold to Amazon where Burks Solomon currently works as a team leader. Amazon now uses the application to power the replacement-part visual searches for replacement parts in its own mobile shopping app.

In addition to her technology success and entrepreneurial acumen, Burks Solomon has also earned a reputation as a strong advocate for racial and gender inclusion in the tech industry. According to her website, she is a board member at Goodie Nation and the Harvard Debate Council Diversity Project and spends much of her free time mentoring startup founders and angel in-

Jewel Burks

Solomon

vestors.

Wired also featured Burks Solomon in its 25th anniversary issue as someone who will “shake up the next 25 years” of tech.

This article originally appeared in Black Voice News.

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THE INNER-CITY NEWS -

April 03, 2019 - April 09, 2019

Sarasota’s Newtown Community Added to the U.S. Civil Rights Trail as Southernmost Attraction Special Newtown Trolley Tours Offered in Commemoration of 400th Transatlantic Slave Trade Anniversary

(Black PR Wire) SARASOTA, Fla. – Visit Sarasota County is pleased to announce the addition of The Newtown African American Heritage Trail as an official attraction on the U.S. Civil Rights Trail, which has more than 100 attractions across 15 states. The Newtown African American Heritage Trail is now the southernmost site. The announcement was made in Sarasota, Florida by Vickie Oldham, founder of Newtown Alive, an organization formed to promote the history and culture of Newtown, one of Sarasota’s oldest communities and Overtown, the neighborhood of the earliest African American settlers.

The Newtown African American Heritage Trail attraction on the U.S. Civil Rights Trail highlights the history of Sarasota’s African-American Newtown community and Newtown Alive! tours and will focus on the 1950s and 1960s efforts of Newtown residents to desegregate Sarasota’s beaches. These efforts included car caravans from their community to Lido Beach only 10 minutes away. “Wade-ins” of the 1950s were held to force beach integration. The strategy drew media attention and opened an early front in the fight for equal rights years before better-known state and national civil rights victories of the 1960s. The wadeins, modeled after lunch counter sit-ins, coupled with activists’ attendance at city and county commission meetings moved the needle toward beach access at a time when less than two miles of Florida’s 2,000 mile shoreline were open for use

by African-Americans. It wasn’t until the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964 that Sarasota County beaches were fully integrated.

“Change did not occur overnight, in a year or even in two years. Generations of Newtown residents carpooled to the beach and faced jeers, hurled rocks and intimidation,” said Newtown Alive founder and director Vickie Oldham. “They opened access to Sarasota’s number one asset for everyone. Telling the stories on tours are a way to celebrate the courage, dignity, and determination of activists,” Oldham added.

Newtown Trolley Tours Allow Participants to Take A Step Back in Sarasota’s Black History To commemorate the addition of the Newtown African American Heritage Trail to the U.S. Civil Rights Trail and the 400th Anniversary of transatlantic slave trade, an expanded schedule of New Newtown Alive Trolley Tours are available for both residents and visitors throughout the upcoming spring travel season. There are 15 historic markers to explore and three stops, including the just added Newtown African American Heritage Trail. Visitors are treated to onboard storytelling by African American pioneers who transformed one of the city’s oldest neighborhoods with freedom song leaders providing musical inspiration. The cost is $40 per person. For more information, schedules and to book a tour: http://www.newtownalive. org/book-trolley-tour/ “Many of us take our beautiful, 35 miles of pristine, white sand Gulf of Mexico beaches for granted. However, the sad reality is that most of our beaches were off limits for African Americans during the 50’s and 60’s,” said Virginia Haley, president, Visit Sarasota County. “It’s important that we remind ourselves of this terrible point in our history especially

during this year when we as a nation commemorate the 400th anniversary of transatlantic slave trade. It’s also key that we educate our residents and visitors on the significant impact that the black community and the Newtown neighborhood had on our city’s development. The Newtown Trolley Tours are an excellent and enjoyable way to do this.”

About Sarasota County Visit Sarasota County leads and supports the tourism industry in Sarasota County by providing the highest quality, and most innovative, marketing programs and promotions to ensure the continued growth of tourism and travel from visitors around the world. It is the mission of VSC is to make Sarasota County the must experience destination on Florida’s Gulf Coast. To learn more, visit www.visitsarasota.com.

About the U.S. Civil Rights Trail The U.S. Civil Rights Trail is a collection of churches, courthouses, schools, museums and other landmarks primarily in the Southern states where activists challenged segregation in the 1950s and 1960s to advance social justice. Famous sites such as the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama; Little Rock Central High School in Arkansas; the Greensboro, North Carolina, Woolworth’s where sit-ins began; the National Civil Rights Museum at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee; and Dr. King’s birthplace in Atlanta, to name a few. The people, locations and destinations included in the Civil Rights Trail provide a way for families, travelers and educators to experience history firsthand and tell the story of how “what happened here changed the world.” For details about dozens of significant sites and to see interviews with civil rights foot soldiers, visit www.CivilRightsTrail.com.

18

Census 2020: THE INNER-CITY NEWS - April 03, 2019 - April 09, 2019

Copn’t from page 17

Why are you paying more

The streaming service paid $0 in tax in 2017, and their tax rate was 1 percent for 2018. This is despite Netflix boasting 139 million paying subscribers in 2018, with a profit of about $845 million.

Unfortunately, this is a longstanding problem with the tax code; not simply a result of Republicans’ Tax Cuts and Jobs Act going into effect. In 2017, after raking in $5.6 billion in U.S, profits, Amazon paid $0 in federal income tax. They achieved this zero-dollar tax bill in part by claiming tax credits for executive stock options.

These companies get a tax deduction when people with stock options exercise these options. For example, say two years ago (when the stock price was $140), the company issued stock options with an exercise price of $140. Let’s say that now, the stock price is $340, and employees cash in their options. The company issues them shares of stock, and the company gets a tax deduction of $200 per share even though the company does not actually have any cash expenses (on a cash basis, the company is actually up $140 per share). In fact, for financial accounting purposes, the company only has the much smaller expense of the value of the option at the time it is granted.

Netflix did the same, as well as something even more ridiculous. To lower their tax contribution, Netflix claimed a number of research and development (R&D) credits. This credit doesn’t just mean that research is deductible (like any other expense), but that (for the eligible R&D costs) the federal government actually pays 100 percent of the costs one of two ways.

A company can either take 100 percent of the eligible R&D costs and deduct it from whatever they owe or have it added to their refund. Interestingly, in all of the discussions of that credit that I read, members of Congress were always talking about inventing lifesaving drugs to cure cancer or something similar. I never heard anyone discuss the need for taxpayers to pay for research into making better recommendations for what shows you might like to stream, but alas.

Obviously, Netflix’s effective tax rate of 1 percent is fundamentally unfair, and Amazon getting a refund is absurd. But, after Republicans’ tax overhaul in late 2017, one can be sure their tax rate is lower than that of middle-class Americans is now absolutely by design and not a mistake.

There’s no reason why two extremely successful companies have lower effective tax rates than the average middleclass American, but here we are.

Morris Pearl is a former managing director at BlackRock, Inc., and Chair of the Patriotic Millionaires.

This article originally appeared in the Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder.

For all to count, all must be counted

By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Correspondent

While every Census faces challenges and even controversies, the count remains important because it’s the federal government’s very first responsibility to the U.S. Constitution, the cornerstone of the nation’s representative democracy and America’s largest peacetime activity, said Terri Ann Lowenthal, a consultant to many census stakeholders and former staff director for the U.S. House Subcommittee on Census and Population.

However, Lowenthal believes the 2020 Census is heading into “a perfect storm.”

“I think of unprecedented factors that could thwart a successful enumeration – one that counts all communities equally well,” said Lowenthal, who consults on The Census Project, a collaboration of business and industry associations; civil rights advocates; state and local governments; social service agencies; researchers and scientific societies; planners; foundations; and nonprofits focused on housing, child and family welfare, education, transportation, and other vital services.

“The risks include cyber-threats foreign and domestic, IT failures, weather events that have become more extreme, disinformation campaigns, and the unknown consequences of adding a new, untested citizenship question,” she said.

The official kick-off to the 2020 Census begins Monday, April 1 in Washington where the U.S. Census Bureau will host a live operational press briefing to mark the one-year out milestone from the 2020 Census.

Bureau Director Dr. Steven Dillingham and others in leadership plan to brief the public on the status of operations and provide updates on the success of the integrated partnership and communication campaign.

Lowenthal said the unknown consequences of adding a new, untested citizenship question are among the growing challenges facing the 2020 Census.

She noted other challenges including consistent underfunding and President Trump’s budget request for next year, which is well below the amount needed; distrust of government at many levels; and fear among immigrants that their census responses will be used to harm them and their families.

“An inclusive, accurate census is especially important for Black Americans and other people of color,” Lowenthal said.

“The census determines the distribution of political power, from Congress, to state legislatures, to city councils and school

boards, and guides the allocation of almost $9 trillion over the decade in federal assistance to states and communities for hospitals, public transit, school facilities, veterans services, Medicaid, school lunches, and many other vital services,” she said.

Unfortunately, advocates say the census is not an equal opportunity enumeration.

Scientific yardsticks since 1940 reveal that the census misses Black Americans at disproportionately high rates, especially Black men ages 18 to 49 and Black children under age five.

“At the same time, the census over-counted non-Hispanic Whites in 2000 and 2010.

And because the people who are more likely to be missed do not live in the same neighborhoods as those more likely to be double-counted, some communities get more than their fair share of political representation and resources, while others get less than they deserve and need,” Lowenthal said, adding that we then must live with those results for the next ten years.

The Census is a civil rights issue with huge implications for everyone, particularly people of color, added Beth Lynk, the director of the Census Counts Campaign at The Leadership Conference Education Fund.

“Census data are used to draw congressional district lines and help determine the amount of federal funding communities receive for programs like Head Start and SNAP,” Lynk said.

“Communities that are missing from the census lose out on what they need to stay

19

safe and healthy. Unfortunately, Black people and Latinos are considered to be harder to count, and accurately counting these populations takes a focused effort,” she said.

Lynk added: “That’s why it’s critical that local governments and community organizations educate their own constituents and members and encourage them to be counted.”

Census data are inherently personal; the data record and codify individual stories, and help to paint a mosaic of rich racial, ethnic, cultural, and geographic identities, said Jason Jurjevich, Assistant Director of the Population Research Center, a research institute in the College of Urban and Public Affairs at Portland State University in Oregon.

“Telling the story of diverse communities, including individuals of color, requires a fair and accurate count,” Jurjevich said.

“As with any census, an all too common obstacle is that some individuals are excluded, resulting in an undercount. In the 2010 Census, considered one of the most accurate censuses in recent American history, 1.5 percent of Hispanics and 2.1 percent of African-Americans were undercounted,” he said.

Jurjevich added that among AfricanAmerican men, ages 30 to 49, the undercount was much higher, at 10.1 percent.

The decennial census is the one chance, every ten years, to stand up and be counted, Jurjevich added.

Also, he noted that Census 2020 will offer

the first-ever online response option, which could improve census response rates and, at the same time, numerous challenges and barriers will likely make it more difficult to count Americans in the 2020 Census.

“This means that communities will need to organize and address on-the-ground challenges like the proposed citizenship question, increasing public distrust in government, growing fears among immigrants about the current sociopolitical climate, the first-ever online response option and concerns around the digital divide and security of personal data, and inconsistent and insufficient federal funding,” Jurjevich said.

Each community should first consider developing a Complete Count Committee – or CCC, he said.

“A CCC is a volunteer committee established by tribal, state, and local governments and community leaders to increase awareness of Census 2020 and increase census participation,” Jurjevich said.

The first step for CCCs is to develop a Complete Count Plan.

The plan should identify local barriers to a fair and accurate count, identifies potential sources of funding, build on the strength of trusted community voices, and develop culturally resonant messaging, Jurjevich said.

“For all to count, all must be counted,” he said.

Census data are inherently personal; the data record and codify individual stories, and help to paint a mosaic of rich racial, ethnic, cultural, and geographic identities

THEINNER-CITY INNER-CITY NEWS April 2019 - April 2019 NEWS -July 27, 03, 2016 - August 02,09, 2016

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Connecticut P.O.S.T.C Certified Police Officers. Applicants must be active P.O.S.T.C Certified Police Officers in good standing with their current department, or have retired in good standing, still having a current certification status with P.O.S.T.C. This Process will consist of Written, Oral, Polygraph, Psychological, Medical Exam, and Background InvesVALENTINA MACRI VIVIENDAS DE ALQUILER PRE-SOLICITUDES DISPONIBLES tigation.

The Town of Wallingford offers a competitive pay rate $68,598.40- $ 76,273.60 Application will be April 2019Haven Apply:Housing Authority, está HOME annually.

INC, en nombre de la deadline Columbus House y de 24, la New Human Resources Department, Town of Wallingford, 45 South Main St., aceptando pre-solicitudes para estudios y apartamentos de un dormitorio en este desarrollo Wallingford, (203)Frank 294-2080; (203) 294-2084.

EOE. limitaciones de ingresos ubicado enCT.laphone: calle 109 Street,fax: New Haven.

Se aplican

NOTICIA

Must Have your Own Vehicle

APPLY TODAY

If Interested call

(203) 387-0354

máximos. Las pre-solicitudes estarán disponibles 09 a.m.-5 p.m. comenzando Martes 25

julio,Housing 2016 hasta Authority cuando se han of recibido pre-solicitudes The the suficientes City of Norwalk, CT(aproximadamente 100) Listing: Accounting

en las oficinas de HOME INC. Las pre-solicitudes serán enviadas por correo a petición Accounting Department has two immediate openings for full is requesting proposals for Financial Advisory Services. llamando a HOME INC al 203-562-4663 durante esas horas.Pre-solicitudes deberán remitirse time Accounts Payable and Accounts Receivable professionals Request for Proposal documents can be viewed and printed at a las oficinas de HOME INC en 171 Orange Street, tercer piso, New Haven , CT 06510 . in a fast-paced office environment. Must be highly organized, www.norwalkha.org under the Business section RFP’s/RFQ’s possess good computer skills, be detail oriented, and able to Norwalk Housing is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

Adam Bovilsky, Executive Director. manage multiple projects. Benefits include health, dental & LTD insurance plus 401(k). Send resume to: Human Resource Dept. P O Box 388, Guilford CT 06437.

Garrity Asphalt Reclaiming, Inc seeks:

EMPLOYMENT SPECIALIST - (P/T)

Assist individuals receiving services in identifying and making choices about their social, vocation and personal goals. Duties include case management, job development/placement/retention services and job support as needed. Requires use of personal vehicle. B.A. in a related field; plus 2 yrs’ related experience or equivalent combination of education and experience. Pay rate $16.61/hr.

Apply to: GWSNE, 432 Washington Ave., North Haven, CT 06473/Fax (203) 495-6108/ hr@goodwillsne.org EOE/AA - M/F/D/V

CARPENTRY SHOP

Construction Equipment Mechanic preferably experienced ********An Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer********** InvitationLarge to Bid:CT Fence Company looking for a full-time carpenter for our Wood Fence Production in Reclaiming and Road Milling Equipment. We offer factory nd Shop.

Experience preferred but will train the right person. Must be familiar with carpentry Fairmont AveCT training on equipment we242-258 operate. Location: Bloomfield The GUILFORD HOUSING AUTHORITY 2 Notice hand & power tools and be able to read a CAD drawing and tape measure. This is an inWe offer hourly rate 1.5 & excellent benefits1 levelis, currently 2BRexcellent Townhouse, BA, 3BR, 1BA accepting applications for its efficiency and one shop production position. Duties include mortising & drill wood posts for fence panels, Contact: Rick Tousignant Phone: 860243-2300 bedroom apartments at Guilford Court and Boston Terrace building fence panels gates & more. Must have a valid CT driver’s license and be able to All new apartments, new appliances, new carpet, close to I-91 & I-95 Old Saybrook, CT Email: rick.tousignant@garrityasphalt.com or on obtain a Drivers Medical Card. Must be able to pass a physical and drug test. Please email highways, near bus stop & shopping centerin Guilford, CT. Applicants must be age 62 and over (4 Buildings, 17 Units) Women & Minority Applicants are encouraged to apply 100% social security or federal disability and over the age resume to pking@atlasoutdoor.com. AA/EOE-MF Pet under 40lb allowed.

Interested parties contact Maria @ 860-985-8258 Tax Exempt & Not Prevailing Wage Rate Project Affirmative Action/ Equal Opportunity Employer of 18. Applications maybe obtained by calling the applica-

NEW HAVEN

SAYEBROOKE VILLAGE

tion line at 203-453-6262, ext. 107. Applications will be acTruck Driver/Maintainer 3 - DPW Highway Division New Construction, Wood Framed, Housing, Selective Demolition, Site-work, Cast3:00 p.m. Credit, police, and by the authority.

Smoke free in-place Concrete, Asphalt Shingles, Vinyl Siding,

CT. Unified Deacon’s Association is pleased to offer a Deacon’s cepted until May 30, 2019 at Certificate Program. This is a 10 month program designed to assist in the intellectual formation of Candidates checks in response to the Church’s Ministry needs. The cost is $125. Classes start Saturday,landlord August 20, 2016 1:30- are procured 3:30 Contact: Chairman, Deacon J. Davis, Operators M.S., B.S. Reclaimer Operators andJoeMilling with current housing.

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

Garrity Asphalt Reclaiming, Inc seeks:

Town of Portland, CT (EOE) Flooring, Painting, Division 10 Specialties, Appliances, Residential Casework, Town is accepting applications for a full-time Truck Driver in the Public Works Highway

EQUAL OPPORTUNITY HOUSING Division; hours weekly; starting hourly wage $24.71; AFSCME union with fringe benMechanical, Electrical, Plumbing and40 Fire Protection.

licensing and clean driving record, St. New Haven, CT Be willing to travel throughout the Northeast & NY. We offer excellent hourly rate & excellent benefits

Contact: Rick Tousignant Phone: 860- 243-2300

Subject compliance to pre-employment drug/alcohol testing and DMV background check.

This contract is subject to state set-aside efits. and contract requirements.

Qualifications: High School diploma or GED equivalent + 2 years manual labor & equipment operation experience; valid Connecticut Commercial Driver’s License. Must have Bid Extended, Due Date: goodAugust ability 5, to 2016 understand and follow oral and written instructions. Must have physical sufficient Anticipated Start: strength August 15, 2016 to perform heavy manual labor, often under adverse weather conditions.

Send General Employment Application to: First Selectwoman’s Office, P.O. Box 71, PortProject documents available via ftp link below: land, CT 0648-0071. Deadline: 4/12/2019

SEYMOUR HOUSING AUTHORITY

Email: rick.tousignant@garrityasphalt.com Women & Minority Applicants are encouraged to apply Sealed bids are invited by the Housing Authority of the Affirmative Action/ Equal Opportunity Employer

KMK Insulation Inc.

Town of Seymour until 3:00 pm on Tuesday, August 2, 2016 at its office at 28 Smith Street, http://ftp.cbtghosting.com/loginok.html?username=sayebrookevillage Seymour, CT 06483 for Concrete Sidewalk Repairs and Replacement at the Deputy Finance Director, Town of Groton, $85,753 - $98,616. Bachelor’s in Finance/ 1907 Hartford Turnpike SmithfieldUnion Gardens Company Assisted Livingseeks: Facility, 26 Smith Street Seymour.

Fax or Email Questions & Bids to: Dawn Lang @ 203-881-8372 Accountingdawnlang@haynesconstruction.com and six years’ experience, including 4 years supervisory, or a Master’s in Busi-

North Haven, CT 06473

Tractor Trailer Driver for Heavy & Highway Construction HCC encourages the participation of all Veteran,ness S/W/MBE & Section 3 Certified Administration, PublicBusinesses Administration or related, and four years, including 3 years Haynes Construction Company, 32 Progress Ave, Seymour, CT 06483 Equipment.

Must have awill CDL driving record, supervisory.

Applications at Groton Town Hall, Human Resources, 45 Fort Hill Road, GroA pre-bid conference beLicense, held atclean the Housing Authority Office 28 Smith ton, CT 06340 or www.groton-ct.gov and must be returned by 4/24/19. EOE m/f capableSeymour, of operating equipment; be willing to travel AA/EEO EMPLOYER Street CT heavy at 10:00 am, on Wednesday, July 20, 2016.

Insulation company offering good pay throughout the Northeast & NY. The GUILFORD HOUSING AUTHORITY is currently accepting applications and benefits. Please mail resume to We offer excellent hourly rate & excellent benefits

Mechanical Insulator position.

Bidding documents are available from the Seymour Housing Authority OfContact Dana at 860-243-2300 above address. fice, 28 Smith Street, Seymour, CT 06483 (203) 888-4579.

Email: dana.briere@garrityasphalt.com Women & Minority Applicants are encouraged to apply

MAIL ONLY

company is an Affirmative Action/ The Housing Authority reserves the right to accept or reject any or This all bids, to Affirmative Action/ Equal Opportunity Employer reduce the scope of the project to reflect available funding, and to waive any 20 informalities in the bidding, if such actions are in the best interest of the Housing Authority.

for its efficiency and one bedroom apartments at Guilford Court and Boston Terrace in Guilford, CT. Applicants must be age 62 and over or on 100% social security or federal disability and over the age of 18. Applications maybe obtained by calling the application line at 203-453-6262, ext.

107. Applications will be accepted until May 30, 2019 at 3:00 p.m. Credit, police, and landlord checks are procured by the authority. Smoke free housing.

EQUAL OPPORTUNITY HOUSING

THE INNER-CITY NEWS - April 03, 2019 - April 09, 2019

Heavy Equipment Operator & Skilled Laborer Our growing construction company currently has 2 open positions available.

All work is 1st shift and we work only in the State of Connecticut.

Heavy Equipment Operator

Ideal candidate will have experience operating all types of heavy equipment on large municipal construction jobsites. A minimum of 3 years’ experience required.

Skilled Construction Laborer

In need of a skilled construction laborer who has experience prepping, forming, pouring and finishing concrete sidewalks. Additional labor skills a plus.

Both positions require current OSHA 10 Certificate (Hazwoper Certificate a plus).

Positions require taking and passing a drug test / background check. Apply by emailing your resume to TradeMarkLLC@att.net or fax to 860-314-1428.

Women & Minority applicants are encouraged to apply.

An Affirmative Action / Equal Opportunity Employer

HELP WANTED:

Large CT guardrail company looking for Laborer/ Driver with valid CT CDL Class A license and able to get a medical card. Must be able to pass a drug test and physical. Compensation based on experience.

Email resume to dmastracchio@atlasoutdoor.com AA/EOE M-F

ROTHA Contracting Company, Inc Project Engineer (Connecticut):

Project Engineer job opening available for a growing / established Heavy Highway Construction Contractor based out of Avon, CT. Tasks include takeoffs, CAD drafting, computations, surveying, office engineering, submittals, other miscellaneous engineering tasks. Competitive compensation package based on experience. Many opportunities for growth for the right individual. We are an Equal Opportunity Employer. Email resume to jobs@ rothacontracting.com

NOTICE OF REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS HOUSING AUTHORITY OF THE CITY OF DANBURY Executive Search Consulting Services RFP No. P19004 Seeking an experienced consulting firm to SCOPE: perform a search for qualified candidates for the position of Executive Director.

Ms. Devin Marra, Director of Procurement CONTACT PERSON: Telephone: 203-744-2500 x141 E-Mail: dmarra@hacdct.org HOW TO OBTAIN THE RFP Contact Ms. Devin Marra, via e-mail.

DOCUMENTS: Housing Authority of the City of Danbury 2 Mill Ridge Rd, Danbury, CT 06811 PROPOSAL SUBMITTAL RETURN Envelope Must be Marked: RFP No. P19004 Executive Search Consulting Services PROPOSAL SUBMITTAL April 22, 2019 at 2:00 PM (EST) DEADLINE [Minority- and/or women-owned businesses are encouraged to respond]

INVITATION TO BID

WESTBROOK VILLAGE PHASE 1

BID DUE DATE HAS BEEN EXTENDED FOR ALL TRADES. Bids are due on or before April 30, 2019 by 5:00 pm Please submit your best and final proposal to: dlang@haynesct.com

New Construction of: 6 Buildings, 75 Units, Approx 86,825 sf Project documents available via ftp link below: http://ftp.cbtghosting.com/loginok.html?username=westbrookvillage This contract is subject to state set-aside and contract compliance requirements as well as, City of Hartford set-aside and contract requirements.

HCC encourages the participation of all Veteran, S/W/MBE & Section 3 Certified Businesses Haynes Construction Company, 32 Progress Ave, Seymour, CT 06483 AA/EEO EMPLOYER

NVITATION TO BID Viking Construction, Inc. as Construction Manager is soliciting interested Connecticut vendors and subcontractors for renovation of existing buildings and sitework for the Lawnhill Terrace Phase 3 project located on Custer Street, Stamford, CT. This project consists of 50,000 GSF residential renovation of 8 residential buildings with 52 units, Community Building and associated Sitework. The renovation will take place over a 13 month duration commencing on or about July 1, 2019 and the work will include the following bid packages: BP-1 Temporary Power; BP-2 General Trades (Concrete, Masonry, Carpentry, Siding, Insulation, Doors, Windows, Drywall, Cabinets and Countertops, Appliances, Sitework, Paving, Landscaping); BP-3 Final Cleaning; BP-4 Selective Demolition; BP-5 Misc. Metals; BP-6 Roof Removal and Replacement; BP-7 Flooring: Ceramic Tile & Resilient; BP-8 Painting; BP-9 Plumbing; BP-10 HVAC; BP-11 Electrical & Communications; BP-12 Site Concrete & repairs; BP-13 Fencing, Bollards & Guide Rail The following bid packages are Diversity Set-aside bidding only: BP-1 Temporary Power; BP-3 Final Cleaning; BP-7 Flooring: Ceramic Tile & Resilient; BP-8 Painting; BP-12 Site Concrete & repairs.

This project is subject to the CT small contractor set-aside program administered through CHRO (25% SBE/6.25% MBE) as well as HUD Section 3 Business and Hiring requirements.

Viking Construction encourages the participation of all SBE/MBEs currently certified with Connecticut DAS Supplier Diversity program as well as any HUD Section 3 businesses. All interested companies who have not already received a direct invitation by Viking Construction, Inc. may request it and shall submit their complete company information, qualifications, and bonding capacity on or before 4/16/2019 by Noon via email: estimating@vikingconstruction.net Bids for BP-1, BP3 through BP-13 are due by May 1, 2019 at Noon to Viking Construction, Inc via email: estimating@vikingconstruction.net or by delivery to 1387 Seaview Ave, Bridgeport, CT 06607 Bids for BP-2 General Trades bids are due on or before May 3, 2019 at 2 PM to Charter Oak Communities, 22 Clinton Ave, Stamford, CT 06901 Viking Construction, Inc. is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer.

The GUILFORD HOUSING AUTHORITY

is currently accepting applications for its efficiency and one bedroom apartments at Guilford Court and Boston Terrace in Guilford, CT. Applicants must be age 62 and over or on 100% social security or federal disability and over the age of 18. Applications maybe obtained by calling the application line at 203-453-6262, ext. 107. Applications will be accepted until May 30, 2019 at 3:00 p.m. Credit, police, and landlord checks are procured by the authority. Smoke free housing.

EQUAL OPPORTUNITY HOUSING

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

LEGAL NOTICE Request for Proposal (RFP) RFP #2019-0904 AIDS Research Education Fund Peer to Peer HIV Interventions The Connecticut Department of Public Health (CT DPH) TB, HIV, STD and Viral Hepatitis Program announces the availability of fiscal year 2019 funds for human immuno-deficiency virus (HIV) prevention related services funded through the acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) Research and Education Fund. This Fund was established by the 1993 Connecticut General Assembly through PA-93-233 to allow state taxpayers to designate contributions from state income tax refunds in order to assist in developing HIV related programs that reflect community needs. Such programs may include, but are not limited to HIV/AIDS care and prevention research, education, and/or other community services related to HIV/AIDS. The CT DPH HIV Prevention Program is seeking proposals from Connecticut community-based agencies, private organizations, CT State agencies, or municipalities to create and /or support programs to individuals and populations living with or at risk of acquiring HIV. Funds from this Request for Proposals (RFP) can support HIV/AIDS related research projects, education and/or community services that focus on persons and populations either living with, or at risk for acquiring HIV/AIDS. The following categories are available for funding: • Category 1: AIDS Research using Peer to Peer Interventions • Category 2: AIDS Education and Related Community Service using Peer to Peer Interventions. Applicants may choose from the following options under this category: Option 1- Comprehensive HIV Prevention for Positives or Option 2-Comprehensive HIV Prevention for Persons who use drugs (PWUDs).

Applicants may apply for only one category. A total of 3 projects will be awarded in the amount of $25,000 annually of state funds to support projects. Funding will be for a two year period beginning approximately, November 1, 2019 through October 31, 2021, subject to the availability of funds and satisfactory program performance.

The RFP is available in electronic format on the State Contracting Portal at: https://biznet.ct.gov/SCP_Search/Default.aspx or from the Department’s Official Contact: Marianne Buchelli, HIV Prevention Department of Public Health TB, HIV, STD, and Viral Hepatitis Program 410 Capitol Avenue, MS#11APV, P.O. Box 340308 Hartford, CT 06134-0308 Phone: (860) 509-7801 Fax: (860) 509-7853 E-Mail: Marianne.buchelli@ct.gov The RFP is also available on the Department’s website at https://portal.ct.gov/DPH/Request-ForProposals/Request-for-Proposals (Request for Proposals). A printed copy of the RFP can be obtained from the Official Contact upon request.

Deadline for submission of proposals to the DPH is 4:00pm Friday, May 17, 2019

21

THE INNER-CITY NEWS -

April 03, 2019 - April 09, 2019

How The College Admissions Scandal Lawsuit Affects Black Alumni Of Schools Involved

By Nigel Roberts

A new lawsuit against elite universities over the admissions scandal suggests that Black alumni of those schools will likely face new scrutiny and fresh doubts in addition to what they’ve long encountered over affirmative action admission programs.

See Also: The College Admission Scandal Is A Reminder Of A Broken System Against Black Folks Two Stanford University students filed a class action suit on Wednesday against several universities, including Yale and the University of Southern California (USC), that were engulfed in a massive admissions cheating scandal involving wealthy parents who paid bribes to get their underachieving children into elite schools.

The two plaintiffs, Erica Olsen and Kalea Woods, alleged that fraud prevented them from gaining entrance to their school of

choice, despite their stellar qualifications.

The two Stanford students also said that the scandal means potential employers will undervalue their degree, USA Today reported.

The undervaluing of degrees from elite schools would add an extra layer of doubt about the qualifications of Black students from those schools. Racist views about the intellectual ability of Black students already fuel the view that the bar was lowered to allow them to enter and graduate from top schools.

Former First Lady Michelle Obama has spoken about her high school counselor discouraging her from bothering to apply to Princeton University. She ignored that advice and gained admission. As a student, she endured “that everyday drain of being in a deep minority” and feeling that she had to prove her intellectual abilities so that others would believe that she “belonged at Princeton, as much as anybody.”

the college admissions bribery scandal that got Felicity Huffman and Lori Laughlin indicted. #AdmissionsScam https://t. co/6g4NuxWTTb

NewsOne’s @DavidDTSS breaks down

— NewsOne (@newsone) March 12, 2019

In the federal lawsuit, Olsen said she had high standardized test scores and athletic abilities, but Yale rejected her after she paid the application fee.

“Had she known that the system at Yale University was warped and rigged by fraud,

she would not have spent the money to apply to the school,” the lawsuit states. “She also did not receive what she paid for — a fair admissions consideration process.”

Woods also said she achieved high scores on standardized tests and was an athlete.

But USC rejected her application, alleging that she “was never informed that the process of admission at USC was an unfair, rigged process, in which parents could buy their way into the university through bribery and dishonest schemes.”

Woods also claimed that the scandal means that her degree “is now not worth as much as it was before, because prospective employers may now question whether she was admitted to the university on her own merits, versus having rich parents who were willing to bribe school officials.”

This article originally appeared in the Chicago Defender.

Epidemic of Missing Black Girls Continues to Stump Authorities, Frustrate Parents Among the missing are:

By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Correspondent

Lashaya Stine, 16, was walking down the street alone in Aurora, Colorado.

It doesn’t appear that the young African American female had any sort of trip planned, as she left her wallet and phone charger, and she didn’t take any clothes.

According to a television station in Denver, police released surveillance video of Stine taken on the morning of July 15 around 2:30 A.M. She is seen walking by herself in the area of East Montview and Peoria Street.

The video was sent out to the public a little over two weeks after her disappearance in hopes of generating more leads.

The estimated 75,000 missing black women and girls continue to stump law enforcement while frustrating and devastating families. It forces the question: Does anyone care?

Since NNPA Newswire reported on the alarming lack of interest in the cases of missing black females, readers – including law enforcement – have responded by using social media to bring to light the host of African Americans and others of color who’ve gone missing.

The social media account for the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children retweeted the NNPA Newswire story and then accumulated a long thread of missing girls – some as young as a few months old.

They began each tweet with: “Have you seen this child?”

• Tim’Monique Davis, missing from Moorhead, Minnesota since Jan. 20.

• Anya Washington, missing from Houston, Texas since Jan. 29.

•R’Mahnee Williams-Turner, missing from Palmdale, Calif., since Jan. 26.

• Whitney Elliseau, missing from Lakewood, Calif., since Feb. 5.

• Jada Cyrus, missing from Boston, Mass., since Jan. 29.

• Myla Abanda, missing from Fairfax, Va., since Nov. 16.

• Zakiah Abdul-Khaliq, missing from Austin, Texas, since Aug. 27, 2018.

• Yasmin Acree, missing from Chicago, Ill., since Jan. 15, 2018.

• Harmony Adams, missing from Columbus, Oh., since July 18, 2018.

• Kelli Allen, missing from Atlanta, Ga., since Dec. 20, 2018.

• Kelly Allen, Missing from Berkley, Miss., since March 13, 2007.

• Kaaliyah Alston, missing from Hillsborough, NC., since Aug. 21, 2018.

• Hazana Anderson, missing from College Station, Texas, since Oct. 28, 2018.

• Karyn Anderson, missing from Walkersville, Md., since March 24, 2018.

• Rae’vanna Anderson, missing from Duluth, Ga., since Nov. 3, 2018.

Lashaya Stine, 16, Hazana Anderson, missing from College Station, Texas, since Oct. 28, 2018.

Anya Washington, missing from Houston, Texas since Jan. 29. Tim’Monique Davis, missing from Moorhead, Minnesota since Jan. 20. Rae’vanna Anderson, missing from Duluth, Ga., since Nov. 3, 2018. iStockphoto / NNPA). Photos of missing children: National Center for Missing & Exploited Children

22

A comprehensive list can be found on the website for the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC).

For families with a missing or sexually exploited child, NCMEC provides crisis intervention and local counseling referrals to appropriate profession-

als.

The organization’s “Team HOPE” program connects families with peers who have had similar experiences and can offer coping skills and compassion. When a missing child is recovered, NCMEC helps the family with the reunification process, including mental health services and travel assistance.

Psychologist and Navy veteran Sheri Davis said it’s vital that the missing are given attention by the media and especially law enforcement.

Davis said she relates well with them on a couple of fronts: She once went missing and she’s also the victim of domestic violence, a trigger for some who’ve been made vulnerable to abductions, run away and become the eventual victim of sex trafficking.

“One thing I think for sure about the missing teens is that human trafficking is a hotbed in my city [and around the country],” said Davis, who lives in Madison, Alabama. “I think it’s very easy for the courts and police to turn their heads the other way and not deal with the problem at hand.”

Davis continued: “I had to escape from my abuser in the middle of the night … naked and running down the road and praying that a good bystander helps me while I’m covered in blood. The families of these young ladies need to be in the face of [law enforcement officials] and let them see the pain they are in every day that those girls aren’t home or safe.”

SCSU_GOH_InnerCity_5.472x5.1.qxp_Layout 1 3/11/19 1:42 PM Page 1

THE INNER-CITY NEWS - April 03, 2019 - April 09, 2019

Graduate Admissions Open House

Join us for an opportunity to meet with graduate faculty in more than 40 areas of study in education, business, health and human services, and the arts and sciences. Visit our campus and explore the possibilities of graduate education at Southern.

• Speak with faculty and admissions representatives • Engage with current graduate students • Explore financial aid opportunities • Take an optional tour of our campus

Thursday, April 4, 2019 3 – 7 p.m.

Adanti Student Center Ballroom

To register, visit SouthernCT.edu/ gradopen house

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THE INNER-CITY NEWS -

April 03, 2019 - April 09, 2019

This Is Us available at xfinity.com/stream

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Offer ends 4/14/19. Restrictions apply. Not available in all areas. New residential customers only. Limited to the Standard Triple Play. Early termination fee applies if all Xfinity services (other than Xfinity Mobile) are canceled during the agreement term. Equipment, installation, taxes and fees, including Broadcast TV Fee (up to $10.00/mo.), Regional Sports Fee (up to $8.25/mo.) and other applicable charges extra, and subject to change during and after agreement term.

After agreement term, or if any service is canceled or downgraded, regular rates apply. Service limited to a single outlet. May not be combined with other offers. TV: Limited Basic service subscription required to receive other levels of service.

To access Netflix, YouTube and Prime Video on X1 requires an eligible set top box with Xfinity TV and Internet service. Netflix streaming and Prime Video subscriptions required. Netflix and Prime Video use your Internet service and will count against any Xfinity data plan. Internet: Best Internet service provider claim based on download speeds measured by over 111 million tests taken by consumers at Speedtest.net. Actual speeds vary and are not guaranteed. Voice: If there is a power outage or network issue, calling, including calls to 911, may be unavailable. Mobile: Requires a post-pay subscription to a residential Xfinity Internet service. New Xfinity Internet customers limited to up to two lines pending activation of Internet service. Call for restrictions and complete details. The Xfinity Mobile logo and “O” logo are the trademarks of Comcast Corporation or its subsidiaries. To see the Xfinity Mobile Broadband Disclosures visit: xfinity.com/mobile/ policies/broadband-disclosures. © 2019 Comcast. All rights reserved. HBO® requires a subscription. HBO® and related channels and service marks are the property of Home Box Office, Inc. THE HATE U GIVE ©2018 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. All Rights Reserved. Rated PG-13. NPA222868-0001 NED AA Q1 BAU V16

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