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1 In 8 Go Hungry

1 In 8 Go Hungry In Hamden THE INNER-CITY NEWS -

May 01, 2019 - May 07, 2019

ten years. DeLauro said that she is working to stop cuts like that.

“Every time I turn around they’re cutting our benefits,” New Havener Kim Hart, who volunteers with Witnesses to Hunger and receives SNAP benefits herself, told the Independent. “If they’re going to stop cutting our food stamp every time I turn around, we have to change the law.”

Kathleen O’Connor Duffany of the Yale School of Public Health presented the report’s findings.

Then Deborah Clark got up to speak. Clark said that she goes to pantries at least four times a month, and that she also receives SNAP benefits. She came to Hamden in 1996. She is 55, the youngest of 15 siblings.

“I didn’t plan to be standing here telling you that I’m homeless, sleep in a truck, and I’m hungry,” she said. “I was always the person that came to the pantries and helped the elderly and cooked for the elderly and brought them food.”

She said that she loves the pantries, including the monthly one held at the Keefe Community Center, but that “it’s hard for me because I don’t have a can opener in the truck.

I don’t have a microwave in the truck.”

Though the pantries provide a great service, she said, it still is not enough. “I’m letting you know that there are people out here like me that is hungry with the pantries because it’s so many of us, that sometimes it’s just not enough.”

She said that she gets her vegetables from the pantries, but that they’re usually canned.

She would like to see more fresh vegetables, she said.

After a brief video from U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy, who could not be there in person, Witnesses to Hunger members at each table facilitated smaller discussions on hunger, using three general questions to start.

Hart, who facilitated at one table, asked how many people in the U.S. struggle with food insecurity. After a few members at the

by SAM GURWITT

New Haven Independent

As paintings of famine-stricken mid-19th century Irishmen stared from the walls, politicians, hunger advocates, and community members gathered Thursday morning to deliver a message: hunger is not a distant problem but rather a harsh reality for many Hamden residents.

At the event, which took place at the Ireland’s Great Hunger Museum, representatives of United Way of Greater New Haven (UWGNH) and other collaborators presented the results of a new report on hunger in the town.

“Facts & Faces: Food Hardship in Hamden” is the culmination of over a year of research by the Hamden Food Security Task Force, which includes contributors from UWGNH, the Town of Hamden and Hamden Public Schools, local universities, and community organizations.

The report found that 12 percent of Hamden residents, or one in eight, experienced food insecurity in the last year, and that 39 percent of families struggle to put food on the table. It found that food insecurity varies widely among different demographic groups. Some 14 percent of women experience it, while only 9 percent of men do.

Nineteen percent of black and Hispanic/ Latinx Hamden residents are food insecure while only 8 percent of white residents are.

Of those with up to a high school diploma: 18 percent. Among those with at least a bachelor’s degree: 4 percent.

Hamden Mayor Curt Leng was the first politician to speak at the event.

“As the mayor of this beautifully diverse town, I take it personally that children here are going hungry,” he told the 60-odd attendees. He said that when his son asks him why people in Hamden are hungry, he wants to be able to say that “our community and our leaders took a stand to say we’re not going to have that in our community.”

The task force has already begun a number of programs in Hamden in the past year. It established a monthly mobile food pantry in partnership with the Connecticut Food Bank and added three summer supper meal sites and two backpack programs, which send kids home with backpacks of food.

“Hunger is not a far off problem,” said U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro. “It’s not limited to the most rural or urban enclaves in our country.

Hunger is here in Hamden, Conneciticut. In the Third Congressional District 25 towns that I represent one of seven people do not know where their next meal is coming from.

In the state of Conneciticut, statistically the richest state in the nation.”

She said that wage inequality “is not the result of technology or globalization but rather the public policy choices that we make and what we are investing in in our country.”

In Washington, she also fights for food assistance programs, she said, including the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which provides food stamps. In his 2020 budget, President Trump proposed cutting SNAP by $220 billion over the next

SAM GURWITT PHOTO

Rosa DeLauro at Thursday’s event.

D Jackson and Willie Tyson, both of whom volunteer at Friendship Baptist Church in New Haven.

Cop Who Shot Had A Clean Record

by SAM GURWITT

New Haven Independent

The Hamden police officer who opened fire on an unarmed couple on April 16 had an almost spotless record in the department, save for a fender bender with a lamp post.

The Hamden department released the personnel file of the officer, Devin Eaton, to the Independent in response to a publicrecords request.

The file shows Eaton came to the Hamden Police Department in June, 2016 after serving as an officer in New Haven since 2014.

On the morning of April 16, he and Yale Police Officer Terrance Pollock opened fire on Paul Witherspoon and Stephanie Washington, sending Washington to the hospital.

The shooting sparked protests and calls for the release of body cam footage, greater transparency in both departments, and a private investigation.

Before joining the New Haven police

Mayor Curt Leng.

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table guessed, she told them.

“Forty-nine million people struggle to put food on the table. and that shouldn’t be so in this land of milk and honey,” she said.

After a few minutes of lively discussion, UWGNH President and CEO Jennifer Heath had someone from each table stand and say something about what their table had discussed.

Doretha, or “D,” Jackson stood to represent Hart’s table.

“We have a voice,” she said. “We want our voice to be heard for hunger… [and] for everyone because my name is D Jackson and I stand.”

Though Jackson and Hart had not met before, they agreed that it’s essential to get the voices of people who experience hunger out more.

“If you can put a face to that one in seven that goes hungry every night, I think that’s more impactful,” said Hart.

She said it took her a while to find her voice, but that eventually she did. She realized that sitting around her table and talking to a few friends was not going to make change.

“It took me just being so broken, so fed up, so tired, until I said there has to be another way.” She started going to Mothers and Others for Justice, and then began to speak out about hunger, testifying in front of lawmakers in Hartford.

Hart said that she was homeless for two years and five months. She said that it takes courage to get up and tell such personal stories in a room full of lawmakers, but that “once I found my voice, once I found out that people can really listen to me, that’s all it took. Now I can’t shut up.”

She now volunteers for multiple organizations and tries to speak out as much as possible and air the voices of others with similar experiences. Her goal is to make political change.

“We know that in order to effect change, you have to affect policy.”

force, Eaton was a manager and server at the Hamden Townhouse Restaurant. He attended Gateway Community College from the spring of 2009 until the fall of 2010, but did not graduate.

In his time with the Hamden Police Department leading up to the April 16 shooting, Eaton was disciplined only once. On Feb. 22, 2018, he was pulling into the Hamden Hall parking lot, and struck the concrete base of a lamppost, which he said he did not see. After an investigation, the department determined that he had violated department policy through “failure to properly care for assigned equipment and vehicles… damaging or causing damage to same due to neglect or carelessness.”

One sergeant determined that the accident had caused $10,000 of damage. His punishment: a “verbal reprimand” from Chief Thomas Wydra.

THE INNER-CITY NEWS - May 01, 2019 - May 07, 2019

Stop & Shop Local Ratifies New Contract

by SAM GURWITT

New Haven Independent

Hundreds of local Stop & Shop workers unanimously approved a new contract Thursday night that preserves employee healthcare and pension benefits, as well as time-and-a-half pay on Sundays.

The vote marked the climactic conclusion of one of the more dramatic private sector labor battles to take place in New England in years.

“Does anybody want to vote no?” asked Mark Espinosa as he looked out at a crowd of around 500 Stop & Shop workers gathered at the Omni Hotel.

The room was silent.

“I think it’s unanimous.” The room erupted in cheers, with one vuvuzela adding to the din.

Espinosa, who is president of the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 919, spent from January to Easter Sunday at the negotiating table with Stop & Shop’s New England-regional President Mark McGowan.

On Thursday, he finally got to present the fruits of his labor a new three-year contract, which he called a “complete success.”

After contract negotiations stalled on April 11, 31,000 Stop & Shop workers went on strike in Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island. The region-spanning picket lines reduced the flow of customers to less than a trickle for 11 days, until UFCW and Stop & Shop came to a new tentative agreement agreement on Sunday.

“It wasn’t even about money,” Espinosa told the crowd. “It was about ideology.

They wanted to create your future as they saw it… by attempting to remove everything that you earned over your career at Stop & Shop. And we said, ‘Hell no!’”

The main sticking points of the negotiations were the healthcare plan, the pension, and Sunday time-and-a-half pay. UFCW managed to get what it wanted on all three counts, and also negotiated wage increases, Espinosa said.

He said the company wanted to remove spouses from employee health care plans, decrease company pension fund contributions, and pay employees their regular wage plus $1 on Sundays, rather than paying the current Sunday rate of paying time and a half.

The new contract keeps spouses on the healthcare plans. Weekly pre-tax payroll deductions for individuals, without any family on their plans, will increase by $2 to $15 on July 1, and by another $2 in 2020 and in 2021.

Deductions for employees with either a spouse or children on the plan will increase to $24 on July 1, and will increase to $27 in 2020 and $30 in 2021. Those with a full family on the plan will pay $30 on July 1, and will increase to $34 the next year and $38 the following year.

UFCW managed to keep Sunday time and a half, though new employees will need a few years to get there. Employees hired on or before Feb. 23 (when the last contract ended) with less than 12 months of experience will get their normal wage plus $1.50 on Sundays and holidays for a year, after which they will earn time and a half. Em-

ployees hired after Feb. 23 will have premiums of $1.50, then $2.00, then $3.00 for their first three years respectively, after which they will receive time and a half.

Full-time employees hired before April 19, 2016 who are at the top of their respective pay scales will get wage increases of $25 per week in 2019, $20 in 2020, and $25 in 2021. For employees hired on or after April 19, 2016, those increases are $15 per week, a $1,250 bonus, and $15 per week again in 2019, 2020, and 2021 respectively.

Employees also receive retroactive pay for the period when they did not have a contract, which began Feb. 24 and ends with the ratification of the new contract.

“It’s just a really really good feeling for everyone for part-timers, for full-timers,” said Rich Paul, who is produce manager at the Amity store. He said it’s great to be back in the store, and that he and his colleagues continue to get support from customers.

Even the bosses, he said, were happy to have their workers back.

Janet Butz, who works in the health and beauty department at the Westport store, said that keeping spouses on the healthcare plan was a big victory for her. She said that her spouse has his own business so he depends on her Stop & Shop healthcare.

When they were striking, some people told workers to get a real job, thinking Stop & Shop was just a temporary or part-time gig, said Shameika McKinney, who is bakery manager in Westport. “They don’t understand this is a career for a lot of people.

You move up in the company,” she said.

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Local 919 President Mark Espinosa.

Janet Butz and Shameika McKinney.

THE INNER-CITY NEWS -

May 01, 2019 - May 07, 2019

Protesters Press Leng On Independent Probe

always looked up to law enforcement,” he said.

Then he was arrested. He said he had come to terms with what he had done and knew it was wrong. The officers stripped him down to his boxers and put his hands in handcuffs and his feet in shackles.

He recalled telling the officers, “I feel like a slave.”

One of the officers responded: “You’re the one in shackles, not me.”

That moment, he said, changed his perspective on the police. He said that moment left “a fire inside me,” but that he felt sorry for the police, “because if only they knew. If only they could see not just the half side of things, but the whole picture.”

At around 5 p.m., community organizer Kerry Ellington gathered the crowd of around 60 into a circle to explain the demands that she and other organizers planned to deliver to the mayor. In addition to an independent investigation into the April 16 shooting and the immediate termination of Officer Eaton, they also demanded the town launch a separate independent investigation into the death of Jarelle Gibbs, who died in a police-chase crash in August.

After a few speeches, the crowd took to the sidewalk, marching south on Dixwell Avenue to the Hamden Government Center. “No justice, no peace, no racist police!” they chanted as they walked, along with: “Ain’t no power like the power of the people / cause the power of the people don’t stop.”

Once they arrived at the town office building, they filed through the doors and up the stairs to pack into the mayor’s office, chanting “Justice for Stephanie and

by SAM GURWITT

With the ink barely dry on their poster boards, protesters marched Monday afternoon into Hamden Mayor Curt Leng’s office to demand he hire an independent investigator and fire the cop who shot at an unarmed couple over the town line in New Haven’s Newhallville neighborhood on April 16.

On Friday, Leng announced that in addition to the State Attorney’s Officer investigation that was already underway, the Hamden Police Department had launched its own internal investigation into the shooting of Stephanie Washington by Hamden Police Officer Devin Eaton and Yale Police Officer Terrance Pollock.

For the protesters, however, that is not enough.

At around 3:30, New Haven and Hamden activists and residents gathered outside the Miller Memorial Library to make posters, which they would later bring to the mayor’s office with a list of demands.

As protesters young and old sat on the cement and drew block letters with the markers that lay about, a few told their stories.

Pedro Hanlan and Michaellie Gonzalez (pictured) sat by a raised bed of bushes drew their signs. At the top of Hanlan’s was a drawing of a light incased in a triangle, and below it the message: “Wake up brothers and sisters, Your life matters.”

“The light,” said Hanlan, “represents not what is but what could be.” He said he envisions a world in which people are at peace with themselves and the people and things around them.

Hanlan, who is from New Haven, said that his view of police changed when he had an encounter with them. “Honestly I

Con’t on page

Harris Tapped For Ward 8 Alder

by PAUL BASS, Campaign 2019 New Haven Independent

A longtime public-housing tenant leader is looking to bring her talents downtown to City Hall, at least for a while.

The leader, Brenda Harris, has won her Democratic ward committee’s endorsement for a seat on the Board of Alders in a special election.

The election was been called to fill the Ward 8 seat after incumbent Aaron Greenberg resigned earlier this month to take a teaching job in the California desert.

So far no one else but Harris has filed papers to seek the seat. If that’s still the case

by May 3, no election will take place. The seat will be hers through 2019. If a lastminute candidate emerges, the special election is scheduled for May 17.

Another election takes place this fall for the seat the regular general election.

The ward includes Wooster Squasre and the part of the largely industrial but also in-

creasingly residential “Mill River” district west of the Mill River along Grand Avenue, East Street, Chapel, and Hamilton.

Harris said she’s not sure she plans to run again in the fall. She said she agreed to run to succeed Greenberg for now at the urging of her ward committee, as her civic duty.

“I’m just doing it for now. I don’t know yet” about the fall, she said in an interview.

Harris works as a part-time school bus monitor. She has worked on election campaigns for years.

She has also served for years as residents council leader at what used to be called the Farnam Courts public-housing development on Grand Avenue and Franklin Street.

Like other tenants, she had to leave while the housing authority razed old buildings and constructed a new mixed-use complex called Mill River Crossing. Now she has moved back in and remains head of the residents council.

MARKESHIA RICKS PHOTO

Resident leader Brenda Harris at the groundbreaking for the first phase of the Farnam Courts redo.

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Cadillac Crew , a Review

THE INNER-CITY NEWS - May 01, 2019 - May 07, 2019

Higher Ed Collab Brings Free SCSU Courses To GCC

by THOMAS BREEN

New Haven Independent

Gateway Community College students interested in pursuing a four-year bachelor’s degree can can now take select courses taught by Southern Connecticut State University (SCSU) faculty for free at Gateway’s downtown campus, thanks to a newly bolstered local higher ed partnership.

Gateway President Paul Broadie and SCSU President Joe Bertolino announced the new SCSU@GCC collaboration Monday during a “Meet The Presidents” presser held in the Gateway cafeteria at Church Street and George Street.

Broadie, who is also president of Housatonic Community College in Bridgeport, explained to a circle of two dozen local community college undergrads that, starting next fall, students working on earning their associate’s degree at Gateway will be able to take an introduction to public health class and an education class called “Teachers, Schools, and Society,” as taught by SCSU faculty on Gateway’s campus.

They will be able to take those classes for free and use credit earned towards the completion of a four-year degree at SCSU, if they choose to move on to SCSU after graduating from Gateway.

“We want to make sure this is a seamless pipeline,” Broadie said, so that students who start their higher education paths at Gateway will be able to finish at Southern.

Broadie said that Housatonic and SCSU are embarking on the exact same partnership.

Bertolino added that all of this will cost Gateway students exactly nothing. That’s $3,600 worth of savings, considering the cost that those community college students would have to pay today in order to take those two Southern classes.

“If you’re on the fence” about attending Southern after graduating from Gateway or Housatonic, he said, “come up the street first and visit.”

This isn’t the first time that Broadie’s and Bertolino’s schools have joined hands to ease community college students’ transition from associate’s degree to bachelor’s degree programs.

Gateway students can live on Southern’s campus for the same price SCSU students pay in room and board, SCSU Associate Vice President of Enrollment Terricita Sass said. She said roughly 700 onetime Gateway students currently study at SCSU, having already graduated or transferred from the community college.

Monica Maldonado, a third-year Gateway student in the school’s environmental science and toxicology program, asked the presidents how they chose education and public health as the first two courses eligible in this program.

Broadie said that the two schools launched a pilot version of this program last summer, and selected the education and public health classes for eligibility based on feedback from the 30 students who participated in that pilot. As students participating in the program grows, he said, so too will the number and variety of eligible classes.

Bryant Barcey, a second-year Gateway student in the human services associate’s degree program, said he wants to be a

by Francette Carson, ICN Correspondent

Gateway Community College President Paul Broadie and SCSU President Joe Bertolino.

Monday morning’s “Meet The Presidents” event at Gateway.

Bertolino, Broadie, and Bryant Barcey.

social worker. While the two courses currently available through this new GatewaySouthern partnership aren’t necessarily in his field of study, he is very interested in moving on to Southern after graduating from Gateway because of the former’s heralded social worker program.

“To be the best you’ve got to go to the best,” he said.

And Caitlyn Cruz, a second-year mechanical engineering student at Gateway, said she she’ll be keeping her eye on which courses are added to this new program.

“They may not have something I’m looking into right now,” she said. But once the two schools add some engineering classes to the program, she’ll be ready to register.

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There is no better way to receive a history lesson of little known facts about black women and their involvement in fighting for desegregation and women’s rights, than to be an audience member at the Yale Repertory Theatre viewing the powerful world premiere play titled “Cadillac Crew” written by Tori Sampson and directed by Jesse Rasmussen.

This timely new play takes the audience through a time travel during the Civil Rights Movement with four women that have different perspectives on how to approach the fight for racial and gender equality. Sampson is dropping loads of knowledge about Women Activists that have been excluded from our history books. She enlightens the viewers through an intellectual journey of discovery revealing the interconnected relationship between past and present social injustices with a view of the future and how the movement is predicted to continue. The characters are graduates of historically black colleges and universities; emphasizing the power and strength of a college educated black women.

The strength of a woman is significant standing alone but can have a massive impact when joined in large numbers for the same cause.

The “ Cadillac Crews” were groups of black and white women driving Cadillac’s traveling through the south joining women together in the fight for justice to promote racial integration. The crews were organized by Ms. Dorothy Height, the founder of the National Congress of Negro Women. The setting takes place in a civil rights office in Virginia. Rachel, Abby, Dee, and Sarah work in the office providing advocacy for women issues, civil rights, organizing voter registrations, and convocations to promote awareness. The pressing agenda at the opening of the performance is the controversy surrounding Rosa Parks speaking engagement which was organized by Rachel. The tragedy of the original Cadillac Crew motivates these four women to take a journey of their own and the setting changes as they travel on their fight for justice. Jesse Rasmussen, Director strategically merges the past with the present. The passing of time and change of generations appeared to be effortlessly achieved. The audience transition from one era to the next was accomplished without the feeling of an abrupt disruption.

The theatrical performances were deeply rooted in anger and frustration as a result of the racial injustices and gender bias. These four women distinct identities are revealed through their ideas, dialogue, and communication. The combination of their differences, inequities in our society, sprinkled with comedy challenged the audience to take a more in-depth look into our societal problems and various ways to have a positive impact.

Rachel(Chalia La Tour), a graduate of Fisk and Howard University, portrays the role of a strong, determined woman set on leading the way. Rachel performance is as strong as her character’s persona. She delivers with passion and determination. Her body language reflects her strength, drive, and courage. Her voice projects her character’s confidence.

Abby(Dria Brown) a recent graduate of Hampton University, the main goal is to receive higher pay and more notoriety for her

efforts. Her honesty regarding her agenda is refreshing as it holds no lesser value of dedication in comparison to the other women.

Abby plays into the femininity of her character. She is flirtatious, honest and witty which nurtures a genuine friendship amongst the characters. Dee(Ashley Bryant) a domineering personality that has no problem challenging Rachel. Her decision to partake upon the journey of the Cadillac Crew is fueled by her dedication to her daughter. Sarah (Bronte England-Nelson), a white woman serving as an alliance to the struggle of black people.

Sarah’s performance presented an opportunity to confront issues of racism head-on and to explore the long term effects. Sarah remained true to her character offering honest feedback and commentary in the tone of her identified persona. The characters’ interactions blend seamlessly together with their unique personalities and different agendas in the fight for the same cause.

The Creative Team’s collaboration was phenomenal. The music of Nina Simone, a strong black women Activist in the Civil Rights movement was a remembrance of the strength and influence of a woman. The change of scenery was made impactful by the agenda at hand. The scene of the women traveling on the road was an impressive show of power and strength; in the movement of the screen and journal entries. The tone and dictation let the audience know the issues were urgent and the women activist wanted to be heard. The lighting effects and changing video screens were reflective of the changing times and emphasized the urgency of the continued fight for the cause.

The play is overwhelming with so many issues being addressed going back and forth between women’s issues and racial issues.

Sampson masterfully sets the tone of being overwhelmed with the contents of the play; as it is truly reflective of a black women’s day to day struggles in facing racial and gender bias in our society. Tori Sampson push boundaries” The audacity of a woman” to have a desire to say “I am qualified to lead in this struggle.” “I will not be silenced.” “I will not allow fear to cripple me.” The production of Cadillac Crew highlights the importance of scrutinizing and understanding the past, and it’s an influence on our present day struggles.

The history lesson reveals the triumphs of great women such as Dorothy Heights founder of National Council of Negro Women, Shirley Chisholm the first black congresswoman, first black woman to run for president and founder of National Congress of Black Women were amongst the few influential activist and leaders of the Women’s and Civil Rights Movement. There have been others in the past, present and many more to come.

The question remains “My America are you ready to embrace me?” Don’t wait for an answer, find your local chapter of the National Congress of Black Women, National Council of Negro Women, Black and Hispanic Caucus, National Coalition of a 100 Black Women, and NAACP. Join the Black Lives Matter movement. Find a way to support the women of color in Congress. The fight begins with support, engagement and becoming a part of the political process. “Voting is Power.”

THE INNER-CITY NEWS -

May 01, 2019 - May 07, 2019

Hospital Announces Neuroscience Center

by MARKESHIA RICKS AND PAUL BASS New Haven Independent

Yale-New Haven Hospital Monday unveiled plans to build up its St. Raphael campus with a 505,000-square foot, $838 million neuroscience center for research and treatment of diseases like Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, and strokes.

The announcement took place at a press conference held inside a tent on a parking lot at 659 George St., where the hospital system plans to build the new center.

The project will develop a neuroscience focus for the St. Raphael campus while Yale’s cancer hospital takes the lead at its original York Street campus. Yale School of Medicine researchers will play an active research role at the new center.

• Easing the shortage of beds at the hospital, especially at its 1950s-era York Street campus East Pavilion, so that patients need not have roommates. “Our beds have been full nearly every single day,” she said.

• Seizing opportunities for investment in research into neuroscientific diseases.

• “Moving closer to the eradication of insidious disease” through “innovative therapies and new treatments.”

“The project will be built within the existing footprint of the hospital campus, bordered

by Sherman Avenue and George Street. It will shift the main entrance of the hospital from Chapel Street to George Street. An existing parking garage on Orchard Street will be extended to George Street to accommodate patients and a new 200-space underground garage will support the facility,” a hospital release stated..

The new center will provide an important “link to our research,” Yale School of Medicine Dean Robert Alpern said at the event.

“Where Yale stands out in the nation is in the neurosciences,” capturing the most Na-

tional Institute of Health research funding.

Its current research includes new ways to reduce strokes and Parkinson’s and painreduction alternatives to opioids. Yake is part of an NIH network for clinical trials and a northeast ALS clinical trial consortium.

The “number-one priority” for the space his school just took over at the Alexion 100 College St. tower will involve neuroscience research, he said.

Robert Alpern, dean of the Yale School of Medicine, said that the new Neurosciences Center, which is slated to open in 2024, will build on the university’s nationally recognized work in neuroscience. He noted that Yale is No. 1 in National Institutes of Health funding for neuroscience and houses one of the four Kavli Institutes founded by the Kavli Foundation. It is home to one of eight Alzheimer research centers in the country as well as a leader in multiple sclerosis research and the home for where a new depression drug has been developed in collaboration with Mount Sinai.

Alpern said his school’s number-one priority in the space it has taken over at the 100 College St. Alexion building will also involve neuroscience. He told the governor that not only will the new center further solidify Yale’s leading status for neuroscience but it might “help you build the economy of Connecticut by spinning out a lot of companies.”

“This will be transformational on this campus, transformational in this city and transformational in health care,” he said.

Yale New Haven President Rick D’Aquila said that the new center will allow the hospital “to provide a full spectrum of neuroscience care” from early diagnose to genetically tailored care. Currently, every brain tumor that the hospital treats is genomically sequenced; D’Aquila said the new center will ultimately allow it to expand to such

MARKESHIA RICKS PHOTO Harp: Game-changer for city.

Medical school Dean Robert Alpern, alders President Tyisha Walker-Myers, Mayor Toni Harp, Mayor, Gov. Ned Lamont, Yale New Haven CEO Marna Borgstrom, Yale New Haven Persident Rick D’Aquila at Monday’s event..

sequencing for every neurological disease.

“This will provide groundbreaking care on a national level,” he said. “New Haven is a central hub” for the life sciences,” Gov. Lamont said at the event. He spoke of improving transportation and housing so more scientists can live and work here.

The city’s counting on $8 million in building fees form the project over three years.

There’s no understating the significance” of the new center for “long-term prosperity,” health care, and jobs, Mayor Toni Harp said at the event. She echoed Lamont’s call to improve the state’s transportation infrastructure to support economic initiatives like this one.

She and Board of Alders President Tyisha Walker spoke of how “three brilliant women” who worked on the deal — they and Borgstrom “got it done.” “We’re going to get some jobs out of this” as well, Walker noted.

Earlier, during her most recent appearance on WNHH FM’s “Mayor Monday” program, Harp called the deal a big boost for the city. She said the new center will benefit public health in addition to creating jobs and spinning off millions of dollars in related economic impact. She predicted that the new center will advance neuroscientific research and care in ways “the medical establishment has had trouble addressing.”

One listener asked Harp if she believes “people will receive fair care as YNHH will ultimately have a monopoly in New Haven County.” She responded that the hospital system’s teaching role and its widespread free care will prove a plus on balance. She also predicted a shift in the balance of power between hospitals and insurance companies given consolidation in the health care industry, which she suggested could enable a “stronger medical role” in decided what kind of care gets coverage.

Pendragon: Bypass State’s Attorney

by PAUL BASS

New Haven Independent

New Haven mayoral candidate Urn Pendragon took a third path from two of her opponents on the question of who should conduct the investigation into the shooting

by Hamden and Yale cops of an unarmed couple inside a Honda Civic in Newhallville.

Mayoral candidate Justin Elicker last week called for the state to transfer the investigation to a state’s attorney from outside New Haven, the way it automatically does whenever a cop shoots someone to death.

In this April 16 incident, a young woman was struck and injured by a cop’s bullet, but she survived. Elicker argued that the local state’s attorney has a conflict of interest because he deals daily with the local police on other criminal matters.

Incumbent Mayor Toni Harp, who’s running for a fourth two-year term, responded by supporting New Haven State’s Attorney Pat Griffin’s ability to oversee a fair investi-

THOMAS BREEN PHOTO Urn Pendragon at an affordable-housing rally outside City Hall.

gation by state police. She said she’d prefer to have him do it than someone who doesn’t work here and doesn’t know New Haven.

Pendragon sided with activists who are calling for an independent, non-police, non-prosecutor investigator to take over the case.

“There does need to be a third party. That’s the only way to be impartial,” she said Wednesday.

Pendragon made the comment during an appearance on WNHH FM’s Dateline New Haven” program.

She also spoke of promoting a mandated 20 to 22 percent affordable-housing requirement on new development; training cops better on how to deal with the homeless; performing an audit of all city spending.

Toni Harp did an “excellent job” in her first two terms but erred in spending money on a business trip to China, raising her salary, and outfitting her office workers with new uniforms, Pendragon argued. “I don’t like

6

how she’s managing the budget.”

If elected, she promised, she will slash the mayor’s salary, which is currently $134,013.

“I could definitely survive” on $85,000, she said.

Pendragon, 50, grew up in Virginia, North Carolina, and Oklahoma. She said her greatgreat uncle was legendary circus showman P.T. Barnum.

She has been homeless in Connecticut twice in the past decade, including when she first moved here and when she was laid off from a job, she said. She spoke of living in an SUV for 11 months off Route 15 in the Meriden-Wallingford area. She also spoke of transitioning to female six and a half years ago. Those experiences, she argued, help her understand important issues facing New Haven.

Listener Patricia Kane asked Pendragon what experience she has had to help her manage city government.

Pendragon replied that she said she studied government budgets when she earned

her master’s degree at Southern Connecticut State University. She also said that she volunteered to “work the floor” and perform other supervisory tasks when she held nonmanagement jobs at Radio Shack and in another tech support position. She currently holds two part-time jobs, one with a temporary nursing support agency, another at a local retail outlet, she said.

She is currently collecting signatures to qualify for an unaffiliated spot on the November general election ballot. She’s also lobbying alders and state representatives, she said, in hopes of winning the Democratic Party’s endorsement in the September primary. So far she has attracted three volunteers to her campaign, she said. At first, she had hoped not to have to raise money, she said, but she now has concluded she will need to.

Pendragon was asked to assess the odds of her winning this election and becoming New Haven’s next mayor.

THE INNER-CITY NEWS - May 01, 2019 - May 07, 2019

Dumping Motor Vehicle Tax For Higher Home Assessment Gets Hearing

by Jack Kramer Ct. News junkie

HARTFORD, CT — A bill that would eliminate car taxes but make up for the loss of local revenue by increasing the property tax assessments on homes and businesses was panned Monday by the two municipal lobbies.

The bill calls for phasing out property taxes on motor vehicles over a five year period, except on rental cars, and increases the property tax assessment rate from 70 percent to 100 percent to offset the municipal revenue loss. The bill was one of 15 that was up for a Finance, Revenue and Bonding Committee public hearing.

Bills, including some that would impose a flat, statewide tax rate for all cars regardless of which town they’re registered in, have been raised in the past. A law passed several years ago sought to use a half percent

of the sales tax to offset losses in towns that ended up losing money from lowering their motor vehicle tax mill rate. The theme is the same — that it is unfair that the same car is taxed at different rates depending on the municipality where it is registered.

During the recent gubernatorial campaign, Gov. Ned Lamont floated the idea of a single statewide rate for motor vehicle taxes as a fairer, more equitable way for all taxpayers.

Municipal leaders say that’s a great idea in theory, but where are they going to make up for the lost revenue.

Harwinton First Selectman Michael Criss, testifying on behalf of the Connecticut Council of Small Towns (COST), said: “shifting more than $850 million onto the backs of homeowners will overwhelm property taxpayers and devastate housing values throughout the state.”

“Eliminating this tax and increasing the uniform assessment rate, will shift hundreds of thousands of dollars in additional property taxes onto homeowners and businesses,” Criss said.

Criss said municipal leaders from Connecticut’s smaller communities are very concerned that residents are at a tipping point. Homeowners in our communities are frustrated about rising property tax levels.

Changes in federal law that capped the amount of state and local taxes residents can deduct from their income taxes have shined a spotlight on Connecticut’s property tax burdens, Criss added.

“Unfortunately, SB-1139 will make things worse by increasing the cost of homeownership and diminishing housing values. Not only will this impose a greater burden on already overburdened homeowners, it will

COURTESY OF CT-N

Harwinton First Selectman Michael Criss

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Con’t on page 22

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May 01, 2019 - May 07, 2019

Neighborhood Development Plan Sought

by THOMAS BREEN

New Haven Independent

Don’t forget neighborhoods.

Alders issued that plea at a public hearing to the city’s economic development team as they pushed for a boom-era strategy for attracting new businesses, investors, and developers to build beyond Downtown.

At the same hearing, a city official made the first public pitch for a plan she said would do just that for Newhallville.

That call for wider-spread economic development came Thursday night in the Aldermanic Chambers of City Hall during the latest Finance Committee budget workshop regarding Mayor Toni Harp’s proposed $556.6 million operating budget for Fiscal Year 2019-2020 (FY20).

Finance Committee Vice-Chair and Westville Alder Adam Marchand joined Board of Alders President and West River Alder Tyisha Walker-Myers in pressuring Deputy Economic Development Administrator Steve Fontana to step up his team’s encouragement of developers to look outside of the city center.

The current Downtown development boom will eventually subside, they warned.

And if the city doesn’t have a deliberate neighborhood economic development strategy in place when it does, then city residents will remain stuck living next to empty lots, and city taxpayers will be left holding the bag.

“In my neighborhood, in our little village, there are lots of empty lots,” Marchand said. “Many empty lots, underdeveloped land, properties that are currently owned by people who keep them empty, doing nothing. That’s a great concern for us in Westville.”

“If we have these hidden treasures as a city,” Walker-Myers added, “we definitely need to be telling [developers] about them.

We definitely know how to talk about our Downtown in a very nice way. There’s a lot of opportunities that I think we’re missing.”

Fontana said that his department tends to be in much more of a “responsive mode” when it comes to new development in the city. When new builders or businesses approach the city about setting up shop in New Haven, his team asks them a host of questions about if they want to buy or lease, if they want to be near a highway or a bus stop or a train station, if parking is important. The department budgets a certain amount in capital funds every year to help developers who are rehabbing dilapidated properties cover parts of the costs of environmental remediation and flood mitigation.

“We don’t steer them so much as we try to respond to what it is they’re looking for,” he said. Ultimately, the decision as to where to locate is up to them.

Nevertheless, he said, the city is seeing some largely residential developments getting off the ground outside of the Downtown core, with hundreds of apartments planned for 201 Munson St. in Newhallville, dozens of condos planned at the old Lehman Brothers printing plant in Goat-

Finance Committee Vice-Chair Adam Marchand and Chair Evette Hamilton.

ville, and 130 artist lofts and affordable apartments planned for the old clock factory at 133 Hamilton St. in MNill River “We’re very open and eager to pursue development throughout the city,” he said.

That’s not good enough, Walker-Myers said. She said she can still remember when West River had a vibrant commercial district of small businesses, which are all but gone as Downtown continues to see new shops and restaurants opening on a nearly weekly basis.

“The city needs to be thinking along those lines about how to expand economic development in other areas,” she said. Even as new housing trickles into the neighborhoods, new businesses have been slow to follow.

Fontana said that one answer may lie in the city’s new Opportunity Zones, seven federally designated “distressed” areas of the city where investors can receive significant federal capital gains tax breaks if they put their money into new housing or business projects. He said the city’s economic development and city plan departments have recently formed a working group to develop new strategies for promoting investment in the Opportunity Zones, which include Fair Haven, West River, Dixwell, Newhallville, and the Hill.

“We are working on the Opportunity Zone opportunities,” he said.

Laundry Co-Op Pitched At the same hearing, her first public pitch to alders in support of a proposed workerowned laundromat at the old state social services building in Newhallville, the city’s anti-blight and neighborhood improvement director argued that a short-term $88,000plus hit to city tax rolls is worth the risk.

The project, when it gets off the ground, will bring new jobs, businesses, homeowners, and a burst of economic activity to a working-class community “that’s been ask-

Board of Alders President and West River Alder Tyisha Walker-Myers.

THOMAS BREEN PHOTO

LCI chief Serena Neal-Sanjurjo and deputy Rafael Ramos testify.

8

ing for help for a long time,” promised Livable City Initiative (LCI) Executive Director Serena Neal-Sanjurjo.

Neal-Sanjurjo confirmed that the city is in negotiations to purchase the former state Department of Social Services (DSS) building at 188-206 Bassett St. and 218222 Bassett St., which has been empty since 2013, when the state department moved its local offices across town to 50 Humphrey St. A proposed order is currently before the aldermanic Community Development Committee that would allow the city to buy the 70,953-square-foot building from its New York-based private owner, Time Equities, for the currently negotiated price of $900,000, and then help turn that building into a worker-owned laundromat, fitness center, job training site, and small business hub for the neighborhood.

Neal-Sanjurjo said her department and the mayor’s office have been working on this economic development plan for the building for the past two and a half years. The end result could transform Newhallville, she said.

“It’s a project that could be an economic turn for that neighborhood. This has come at the request of a neighborhood that’s been asking for help for a long time.”

East Rock Alder Anna Festa noted that the privately-owned building currently is currently assessed at just over $2 million, and provides over $88,000 a year in property taxes. How will this project mitigate that immediate hit to the city’s tax rolls if and when the city purchases the property?

By adding new jobs and new businesses to the neighborhood, and by increasing home values and attracting new homeowners to surrounding city streets, Neal-Sanjurjo replied. “It will completely give a burst to a neighborhood that has had none for a long time.”

She said the city is currently working with the Newhallville Community Management Team to set up a new neighborhood development corporation like the Dwight Community Development Corporation. Then, just as the Dwight organization did years ago with the former Shaw’s site that is now home to Stop & Shop on Whalley Avenue, the new Newhallville corporation would take ownership of the property.

She said LCI is currently working on finding businesses to lease space in the building alongside a commercial laundromat that could employ upwards of 140 people. She said the city’s economic development department and mayor’s office are currently in conversations with the Cleveland-based Evergreen Cooperative Initiative to build out the laundromat component of the proposed small business center.

“It’s got to be a public private partnership,” Neal-Sanjurjo said. “Or it’s not going to work at all.”

Festa asked if the city has any contracts already in place from local institutions interested in using the prospective workerowned laundromat.

While the mayor’s office is taking the Con’t on page

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May 01, 2019 - May 07, 2019

Top Cops Confront Concerns In Newhallville Walk

by ALLAN APPEL

New Haven Independent

Two happy little girls received badges and became junior police officers. A couple of moms took applications for the Police Athletic League summer camp, and several said the police gesture was positive yet also made pleas for more programs for young people.

Meanwhile, one longtime activist also said not a single police officer is trusted in Newhallville except the district manager.

One young woman called the whole parade of police brass and other officials, after a police-involved shooting, “pathetic.”

That was the range of emotional reaction heard Saturday morning as nearly all the police district managers and other brass from the New Haven police department and the Yale Police Department, accompanied by alders and other community officials, walked the streets and knocked on doors in Newhallville in an effort to listen, and help heal community anxiety.

The event was called in response to the anxiety and fear the have mounted, along with demonstrations for changes and more accountability, in the aftermath of the officer-involved shooting on April 16, at the corner of Dixwell and Argyle..

There, at 4:30 a.m. on April 16, a Hamden police officer and a Yale police officer shot at two unarmed people in an attempt to search for evidence of a first degree assault in a red Honda that was stopped by police vehicles at that location. One occupant Stephanie Washington, who was hit and went to the hospital. The other, Paul Witherspoon, survived without serious physical injury.

Yet by all accounts the incident has caused injury to the community and brought into the open of a lot of grave and fundamental questions: Who is policing us? Is there too much of it? Whose jurisdiction is whose?

And how can residents begin to trust officers more?

New Haven Acting Chief Otoniel Reyes summoned all of his district managers to join, one officer with one alder or local leader, to lend an ear to people’s concerns.

Even before they set out a single step or knocked on a single door along Argyle and Dixwell, where the shooting occured, officers got a polite but passionate earful from two prominent Newhallvillians: Stetson Branch Librarian Diane Brown and Newhallville Management Team Co-Chair Shirley Lawrence.

“It’d be upsetting for me if you’re here just for this one day,” Brown told Reyes.

“If this is successeful, yes, in theory, we will be back,” Reyes responded. But, Reyes added, he knows the community is overwhelmed by the incident and by police presence, “so we’ll re-convene and we’ll see.”

Lawrence upped the ante on the issue of trust and constancy of presence: She said the officers were many days and many shots late.

“I don’t trust you and a lot of people feel the same way. However, I know you have to start somewhere but a lot of people

ALLAN APPEL PHOTO

Newhallville District Manager Lt. Manmeet Colon with newly badged Briella Adantor.

Chief Othniel Reyes with Newhallville CMT Chair Kim Harris at the outset of the tour.

Shirley Lawrence and Yale Police Asst. Chief Steven Woznyk exchange views.

Post-walk, Reyes looks for a candy in Harris’s bucket.

10

won’t say it to your face. You need daily activities. I watch officers pull people over, shine lights on them, search their cars, and let them go. At this point, I wouldn’t want to introduce my grandchildren to you.

Except for Officer [Newhallville District Manger Lt. Manmeet] Colon. Her presence is real. Right now the kids are scared.”

“This is why we are here,” replied Reyes.

“All we can do is try to bridge those gaps, one by one.”

The top cops then divided into groups, with a plan to reconvene at Shelton and Division in two hours.

Lt. Colon’s group included Addie Kimbrough, captain of the Shepard Street block watch, Board of Ed engagement staffer Daniel Hunt, Officer Scott Shumway, and others.

At 72 Shelton Ave. they met Latoya Bailey, arrived in Newhallville just a couple of years from New York City, along with five kids. When officers explained their presence, the Argyle/Dixwell incident and other shootings, Bailey said, “What kind of neighborhood is this!”

“A great one,” replied Colon.

Bailey said she appreciated receiving Police Athletic League applications for all her kids, including an opportunity for one of the older ones to serve as a counselor.

What appealed to her daughter Briella was the junior police badge that Lt. Colon pinned on her.

Just down the block, Denisha Morrison was engaged by Rev. Steven Cousin of the Bethel A.M. E. Church, who is a city fire commissioner.

He had his work cut out for him. “Now people feel like they can’t talk to you and trust you,” she said.

Cousin urged her to come to the community management team to express her concerns. Colon provided the meeting time and location and gave Morrison, as she did to a dozen people on the walk, her cell number.

“Our goal is so that we can all live in peace,” said Lt. Sean Maher. Then he told to Morrison his beat officers need to hear from residents like her, as does he, so that he can help them in their training to that end.

In the end, Morrison was heartened by the visit. She termed it “a step in the right direction.”

Morrison’s neighbor Tamika Frazier said she has challenges with her 12-year-old son, who wants to go out a lot. “I don’t let my son out without me,” she said.

Another resident nearby, who is raising five kids, three foster kids and two of her own, described a similar problem: Her young son went to the corner store and was jumped,his money taken. Now he refuses to go to the store and has fears about going out at all.

“This gives a chance,” said Frazier, “for the community to know the officers. It’s important.”

Halfway through the tour, around 1 p.m., Lt. Colon made the acquaintance of Louis Bosley, a 31-year retired city firefighter who lives on Shelton with one of his two

sons.

“It’s a hard job,” he said of what police officers do. “But they have to know who’s who. I get stopped, but I don’t mind because I didn’t do anything! You do have thugs out here, but I’ve lived here all my life.”

As if on cue Colon’s radio crackled with a report of a stabbing incident at Dixwell and Bassett. In seconds, cruisers’ sirens were audible. She dispatched Officer Scott Shumway, who had been with the group, to the scene.

“Pass the word to the young’uns,” Colon told Bosley, that she is there to listen and to help.

“You got a card?” he asked, deeming the visit “a good idea.”

As she was talking to another nearby Shelton Avenue resident, Laura Daniels, and badging her daughter Halo, yet another call came in on the radio. This time it was a shooting on upper Quinnipiac Avenue.

“What’s wrong with people?” Colon declared, as she exchanged phone numbers with Daniels, and the group moved on.

At Division and Shelton, Colon decided to knock on a few doors of the Presidential Gardens apartment complex. She sensed someone behind the first door but not answering.

Colon has an easygoing with a touch of the unflappable and serene. “I don’t care if they don’t want to say hi,” she said, as we walked away. “I’ll keep waving until they do.”

She met a challenge to that attitude at the next door, where a young woman, from the Dwight-Kensington neighborhood was visiting. “If it [the shooting] didn’t happen, you wouldn’t be here, right? Two weeks ago you weren’t knocking!” she said.

“It wasn’t the New Haven police” who did the shooting, Kimbrough noted.

“That’s bullshit. You’re all the same,” persisted the young woman, who refused to be photographed or to give her name. “My brother got shot by the police. I don’t care what you say ...” “... But I care what you say,” Colon interjected.

“The police are pathetic,” concluded the young woman as she closed the door.

Afterwards, the various groups gathered for a debriefing — and some candy from management team leader Kim Harris—at the Community Baptist Church parking lot at Division and Shelton. Daniel Hunt said among his main takeaways from his listening is that people want more programs for kids.

Yale Police Department Chief Ronnell Higgins reported he heard that too. He and his officers did connect one kid, as they walked, to the Youth and Police Initiative.

He said others said they were happy the police had paid them this visit.

Reyes thanked his officers for participating. He acknowledged that people are angry and the moment is a time for leadership. He promised reforms are coming.

THE INNER-CITY NEWS - May 01, 2019 - May 07, 2019

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May 01, 2019 - May 07, 2019

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THE INNER-CITY NEWS - May 01, 2019 - May 07, 2019

Protesters Demand Yale Deliver On Promises

by MARKESHIA RICKS New Haven Independent

Hundreds of protesters took to the streets Thursday afternoon to demand justice from Yale for an unarmed couple recently shot by a university police officer and a Hamden police officer.

More than 200 people rallied and marched from the corner of Grove Street and Prospect Street downtown to Yale President Peter Salovey’s house on Hillhouse Avenue to demand that the university fire the police officer who was involved in the April 16 shooting of Stephanie Washington and Paul Witherspoon at the intersection of Argyle Street and Dixwell Avenue.

The university has placed the officer, Terrance Pollock, on administrative leave pending the outcome of an ongoing investigation by the state police of how he and Hamden Officer Devin Eaton came to fire on the couple 16 times, injuring Washington.

After days of protests and rallies demanding that body camera footage and the 911 call be released, the state police commissioner did so on Tuesday. State detectives also have filed a search warrant application that indicates they may file first-degree assault charges against Hamden Officer Eaton, who initiated the stop.

Protesters said that justice for Witherspoon and Washington won’t be served until both officers are fired and possibly charged for their actions.

“Yale, hire us, don’t shoot at us,” said New Haven Rising’s Rev. Scott Marks (pictured at the top of the story) from the flatbed of a truck Thursday. “Somebody ought to be ready to say: Enough is enough.”

Rodney Williams (pictured), who is Witherspoon’s uncle, thanked the diverse crowd for doing more than simply watching all of the action on his nephew and Washington’s behalf, and actually being a part of the demand for justice.

“This is how it should be all the times,” he said.

Protesters demanded that Yale follow through on commitments to diversity including hiring more New Haveners and hiring more faculty and staff of color. The event pulled from a diverse cross-section of groups including Yale unions, New Haven Rising, Students Unite Now (SUN), the Yale Endowment Justice Coalition and the Greater New Haven Chapter of the NAACP. Charles Decker, an East Rock alder and Yale graduate teacher (pictured above) who also serves as the vice president of the graduate teachers union Local 33, announced the release of a report drafted by the Equal Rights and Access Committee called “Failure To Commit.” The report takes the university to task for its failed commitment to increase the number of black tenured and tenure-track professors, and other diversity goals.

“I hear a common theme of Yale doing one thing and saying another,” he said of the demands across groups. “What they’re saying and what their actual record is is crystal clear: On racial justice in the academic

MARKESHIA RICKS PHOTO

community, their record is appalling.”

To which the crowd chanted: “Shame!

Shame! Shame!”

“Things aren’t getting better,” he said.

Andy Archer of the Yale Endowment Justice Coalition (pictured) said that justice looks like Yale not only firing Officer Pollock but also fully disarming the univer-

sity’s cops. He said it also looks like Yale acknowledging how its financial investments that include buying more parts of the city and thus rendering them tax-exempt and withholding financial opportunity by failing to hire more New Haveners hurt the city.

Barbara Vareen, a chief steward for the

13

university’s clerical and technical workers union, Local 34, and a resident of Newhallville, said her neighborhood is triple-policed because Yale, Hamden and New Haven Police officers all work in that section of the city. That has to change, she said.

The marchers made their way through the

tree-lined avenue to President Salovey’s house while New Haven Police officers patrolled on foot and blocked traffic for the processional. Yale police officers didn’t appear to be present during Thursday’s event.

Marks encouraged people to plant their signs in Salovey’s front yard.

THE INNER-CITY NEWS -

May 01, 2019 - May 07, 2019

Trump, Media Assaults on Omar a New Low for American Politics

town was charged after sending approximately 28 threatening emails on March 10 to a college professor, whose name and affiliation was withheld by federal officials. Haviland is facing federal threat charges and cyberstalking.

In an affidavit, FBI task force officer Richard Laft, Jr. wrote that the professor told authorities Haviland’s “views regarding abortion and politics have become more extreme” within the last year.

The professor, who had been friends with Haviland for about 11 years, believed Haviland’s views changed because “of the way the news media portrays” President Donald Trump, Laft wrote.

By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Correspondent

American politics appears to have hit a new low.

According to reports, Congresswoman Ilhan Omar has beefed up security following the vicious attacks she’s received and even news reports that paint her as un-American.

What’s worse, the attacks stem from tweets made against her by President Donald Trump.

“The criticisms of Congresswoman Omar, what Trump has been saying about her, is reprehensible,” said New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, a Democratic presidential candidate.

“It is trafficking in Islamophobia, and should be condemned by everyone,” Booker said.

One of the first Muslim women to serve in Congress, Omar has come under repeated attack from the president and others, including Fox News as a result of her questioning America’s relationship with Israel.

“We will never forget,” Trump tweeted in all-capital letters recently, attaching a video that spliced together comments Omar made with footage of the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks.

Some media favorable to the president have also attacked Omar and despite death threats made against her, Trump has continued his assault by calling her –without any supporting evidence and against her denials – “anti-Semitic,” and

“anti-Israel.”

Booker noted that Trump has also attacked other African American women leaders like California Rep. Maxine Waters.

“The kind of language this president uses, especially about black women in power, is toxic,” Booker said.

That Trump claims he’s not racist isn’t satisfactory, Booker said.

“It’s not enough to say, I’m not a racist.

We must all be anti-racist,” he said.

The rhetoric by Trump and his allies against Omar have resulted in the Senator ramping up security, particularly as she’s received death threats.

Recently, a Rhode Island man allegedly threatened to “kill every Democrat in the world,” federal officials said.

Matthew Haviland, 30, of North Kings-

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Authorities said Omar was among the Democrats whom Haviland threatened to kill.

Latagia Copeland-Tyronce, a writer and journalist out of Detroit, said as a black woman and social justice advocate, she knows “all too well what it feels like to be attacked for speaking up and out.”

“And, as such, I believe that there should be a zero-tolerance policy in regards to our black representatives in Congress,” Copeland-Tyronce said.

“We, as a people, cannot allow our black leaders to be attacked for their advocacy.

I am a proponent of freedom of speech and freedom of the press, however, abuse and racism crosses the line and should be called out when and where it rears its ugly head,” she said.

Dr. Omekongo Dibinga, an American University professor and director of Upstander International, said it’s imperative that all stand up to bigotry.

“We need to fight fire with facts. I know that President Trump has ushered in the era of fake news and alternative facts, but I believe at the end of the day, the reality of his policies of lies and dissension will do him in, even with his followers as the effects of [Former President] Barack Obama’s positive economy begin to dwindle and they realized he never cared about them in the first place,” Dibinga said.

Shiwon Oh of Sogang University in Seoul, South Korea, said Trump’s presidency exposes a racist underbelly of America that has always been there from the beginning.

“He just gave validation to their opinions and beliefs that its influence is now seeping into mainstream media channels like Fox News,” Oh said.

“All people can do is continue countering the lies with facts, voicing their opposition to racial oppression, and urging their communities to be on the right side of history, even if it means being ridiculed by some,” she said.

Representative, Ilhan Omar (D-MN) speaking at a Hillary for MN event at the U of MN, October 2018. (Photo: Lorie Shaull / Wikimedia Commons)

Con’t from page 08

Plan Sought

lead on that initiative, Neal-Sanjurjo said, she herself has sat in on multiple meetings with Yale University and with Yale New Haven Hospital administrators about their interest in the project. She said the hospital in particular has committed to supporting the project when it gets off the ground.

“I hope they stick to that commitment,” Festa said.

“We’ll make sure they do,” Neal-Sanjurjo replied.

Neal-Sanjurjo also assured alders on Thursday night that her department is committed to following through on recommendations included in the Affordable Housing Task Force’s final report from January.

Neal-Sanjurjo was one of the members of the task force, and helped draft the 44 recommendations for how to increase and improve the quality of low-income housing in the city and in the region over the short, mid, and long-term.

“I think the work that we did at this table through that process was probably one of the best things I’ve done in a long time,” she told the Finance Committee alders, “and I’ve been in this work for 35 years.

It was thoughtful. It was compelling. And the work that we are currently doing in our neighborhoods is a response to that.”

She said that, in addition to continuing to work on a host of affordable housing and new homeownership developments throughout the city, her department has committed to working with the city’s Economic Development Corporation to find additional resources to fund new affordable housing developments through new market tax credits, Opportunity Zone investments, and new partnerships with market-rate apartment developers.

“It is hard for us to do building,” she said.

“But it is not hard for us to make partnerships where people are already doing building.”

She said LCI is working with the City Plan department to develop a group that will scope out how to implement formal inclusionary zoning rules, which would require a certain percentage of units in new apartment buildings be set aside at affordable rental rates.

And, she said, her department will prioritize finding a solution to reduce youth homelessness in the city.

“We will commit to figuring out a way to implement these recommendations,” she said, “because they are important to the city, and they are important to the people who live here, and they are very important to the region as it continues to grow.”

Westville Alder and Finance Committee Vice-Chair Adam Marchand asked NealSanjurjo if LCI would provide staff support for a new permanent Affordable Housing Commission, if the alders were to vote to create such a body.

Neal-Sanjurjo said that LCI would. After talking with fellow members of the task force and reviewing the work of various city departments, she said, “there’s no other department that’s better suited to do it.”

THE INNER-CITY NEWS - May 01, 2019 - May 07, 2019

James Byrd’s Killer Didn’t Deserve the Death Penalty COMMENTARY:

By Julianne Malveaux, NNPA Newswire Contributor Killing is wrong. Killing Black people because they are Black is even more wrong. Lynching Black people is exponentially wrong. So why was I opposed to the state-imposed killing of John William King, the despicable murderer of James Byrd, Jr.? I happen to think that there are worse things that can happen to you than death. The now 44-year old King could have gotten a sentence of life in prison and lived miserably there for the rest of his life. In some ways, death is salvation for him. Imagine being relatively healthy with nothing to look forward to? Just sitting there, in jail, surrounded by the Black people your white supremacist self purports to hate. That might be torture worse than death.

James Byrd, Jr. was dragged for almost three miles near Jasper, Texas in 1998.

John William King and two other men (one whose death penalty sentence was carried out in 2011, another who was sentenced to life in prison) were found guilty one of the most horrific hate crimes in modern US history (Black men were also burned alive in the heyday of lynching).

Mr. Byrd’s family was present at the execution in Huntsville, Texas. Byrd’s sister, Clara Taylor, noted that the murderer, who maintained his innocence, showed no remorse when he was convicted, and showed none when he was executed. He never acknowledged, and never looked at James Byrd, Jr.’s family.

Does a man whose body sported disgusting tattoos, including, according to one news source, “one of a black man with a noose around his neck hanging from a tree” deserve the death penalty? I say no.

Keep that filth alive and keep him miserable. His execution creates a martyr for white supremacists. Had he lived he would have evolved into nothing more than pitiful irrelevance. The death penalty has been abolished in 20 states, with moratoriums on executions in other states, most recently in California, thanks to Governor Gavin Newsome. It ought to be abolished nationally.

According to the Death Penalty Information Center (https://deathpenaltyinfo. org/documents/FactSheet.pdf), nearly 1500 people had their death sentences carried out between 1976 and now. Despite the fact that African Americans are just 13 percent of the nation’s population, we were more than a third of those executed after receiving a death sentence.

People who killed white people were far more likely to get the death penalty than people who kill Black people. There are

racial biases replete in the application of the death penalty, with numerous studies supporting the many ways the death penalty is unfairly awarded. According to the Death Penalty Information, as an example, Washington state jurors were “three times as likely to recommend a death sentence for a Black defendant than a white one.”

In Louisiana, someone who killed a white person was nearly twice as likely to get the death penalty as one who killed a Black person. The death penalty is applied through a racial lens – based on the race of the criminal and the race of the victim.

From that perspective, the man who murdered James Byrd, Jr. committed a crime so egregious that jurors acted contrary to the statistics, voting to apply the death penalty to an avowed racist white man who participated in the brutal murder of a Black man. But I am frequently reminded of the 1920 Tulsa, Oklahoma lynching of Ray Belton, an 18-year old white man who shot a taxi driver. Though Belton confessed to his crime and said it was “an accident,” he was denied the due process of a trial and conviction. After his lynching, a Black newspaper editor opined that if a white person could be lynched, so could a Black person. A year later, the attempted lynching of the Black shoeshine “boy” Dick Rowland because of the false accusation that he assaulted the white elevator operator Sarah Page, was the spark that led economically envious whites to destroy the Greenwood (Black Wall Street) section of Tulsa.

This walk down history lane is extremely relevant to the present. If we could execute the white murderer of James Byrd, Jr. (I try not to mention the names of devils more than is necessary), we can execute a Black person accused of something, whether they did it or not. Applying the death penalty erodes our humanity, whether the accused is guilty or not.

I think it is far more appropriate to let a reprobate like James Byrd Jr.’s killer simmer in his repugnance. If he had lived his life in prison, with no hope, no help, no possibilities, that would have been a greater punishment than death. While I respect the Byrd family and ache with them at the gruesome murder of James Byrd Jr, I would prefer a punishment for racist murderers that is both humane and inhumane.

We don’t execute them because we don’t stoop, as a society, to the level of committing a crime we abhor. We ignore them and exacerbate their misery be reminding them that they have no hope of release.

The death penalty is inhumane. It should be abolished.

Julianne Malveaux is an author and economist. Her latest project MALVEAUX! On UDCTV is available on youtube.com. For booking, wholesale inquiries or for more info visit www.juliannemalveaux.com

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THE INNER-CITY NEWS - May 01, 2019 - May 07, 2019 Con’t from page 04

Protesters Press Leng On Independent Probe

Paul.”

After about a minute, Leng came out and greeted the protesters. “We are here to demand that you recommend to your police commission that [Officer Eaton] be immediately terminated, and we are also here to demand that you recommend an immediate investigation that is independent into the lethal shooting of Stephanie Washington and Paul Witherspoon,” Ellington told Leng. “And we also are here to demand not an internal investigation we want to be clear about an independent investigation” into both the recent shooting and the death of Jarelle Gibbs.

“I have seen enough to recommend termination,” said Leng. “Now we have to see what happens with the criminal investigation and our local investigation.”

As soon as he finished, the crowd replied: “No! Terminate now! Terminate now!”

Protesters, led by Ellington, reiterated their demands: that Leng immediately recommend, on camera, that the Hamden Police Commission fire Devon Eaton and launch an independent investigation.

Leng said that he wasn’t sure whether it was possible for the commission to launch such an investigation.

“I don’t think that our police commission has done this,” he said. He promised protesters that he would find out if it is possible.

“I’ll find out for you tomorrow. I’ll find out for you tonight,” he said, adding that he would talk to a police commissioner and the town attorney and get answers to the protesters as soon as he did.

Though Leng said that he would look into all of the protesters’ demands, he did not agree to any of them then and there. “I won’t do anything right now until I talk … with the town attorney,” he said.

Protesters continued to push. “It is fair” to continue making these demands, said Ellington, “as a black woman in this country when our people are being gunned down in cities like Hamden and people like yourself say you don’t know what the powers are of your own police commission.”

Eventually, Leng went back into his office, and the protesters filed out into the parking lot.

“You can never tell, but Mayor Leng, he seems sincere and I want to believe him,” said New Haven community organizer Shelton Tucker (pictured). At least Leng came out to talk, he said, which was more than some mayors had done in the past.

Shelton said that his family left Hamden about 20 years ago because of the police department. He recounted a time when his brother was arrested, and when his mother went to see what was happening, the police surrounded his mother and arrested her too for assault on a police officer. “It’s a culture of harassment that’s been going on in Hamden for a very long time,” he said.

Black Family-Owned Business Introduces Fried Catfish Brand to 1,200 Grocery Stores Nationwide Joe’s Gourmet has partnered with Inland Seafood to offer the ultimate fried catfish experience in more than 1,200 Food Lion locations nationwide

Nationwide — Joe’s Gourmet has proudly announced a partnership with Inland Seafood and the launch of a new product line now available in the seafood section in over 1,200 Food Lion locations. Based in Atlanta, the veteran-owned company is creating a major buzz nationwide. Together with Inland Seafood, a Georgia-based company that already operates an extensive distribution network in the U.S. Southeast, Joe’s Gourmet it is now offering a co-branded and fully Sustainable Breaded Catfish featuring Joe’s Gourmet Fish Fry. “Here at Joe’s Gourmet, we take great pride in offering a delicious and all in one seafood breading mix that beats all the other breading mixes,” said Joe Dowell, the company’s founder. “We are simply offering the best fried Catfish you will ever taste and our growing number of customers are backing this claim with full confidence in our products,” he added.

Joe’s Gourmet has also been recently featured on ABC’s Shark Tank where they were offered a deal by Daymond John.

In addition, the Joe’s Gourmet products use a blend of herbs and spices to bring out the best in seafood without overpowering it with salt. Moreover, this tasty blend does not absorb oil and as a result, it gives a unique and delicious crispy crunch on the market’s best sustainable catfish.

“It’s the best of both worlds,” said Joe, while talking about the company’s recent partnership with Inland. “We bring a niche market of passionate fans while Inland brings marketing, manufacturing and distribution expertise. Working with their team is a dream come true for our company,” he added.

Joe’s Gourmet is a family operated business started by Joseph Dowell III after his parents gifted him their life savings. Together, the Dowell Family is pushing this

business towards success.

For more information, please send an email at maranda@joesgourmet.com

Or to place an order online, please visit the company website at www.joesgourmet. com

Donald Glover launches new Adidas collaboration with ad starring Mo’Nique

By Cassidy Sparks

Donald Glover, aka rapper Childish Gambino, has announced his collaboration with major sports brand Adidas. The partnership was unveiled in a series of short film clips featuring Glover and actress and comedienne Mo’Nique.

In a nearly seven-minute video promo directed by Ibra Ake, Mo’Nique repeatedly and unmercifully teases Glover, who is sporting the first sneakers in his “Donald Glover Presents” line.

This collection will “reimagine” three Adidas shoe styles: the Nizza, Continental 80 and Lacombe. Glover’s designs feature raw imperfections that make the shoes unique, ranging from their eggshell color to their tattered strings and frayed edges. The rapper explores the concept of sneakers as a symbol of life’s experiences.

Glover spoke about the partnership, which has been in the works since September 2018.

“Rich is a concept,” he said. “With this project, I wanted to encourage people to think about how their stories can be told on their feet. Value isn’t quantified by what you wear, rather the experiences from

them. And you make the decision on what works for you, you live through your own lens. The partnership for me is about being able to exemplify what doing your own thing truly looks and feels like.”

The “Donald Glover Presents” shoes,

which range from $80 to $100, will be available April 26, 2019. Click the next page to watch the video ad featuring Glover and Mo’Nique.

Donald Glover is partnering with Adidas

Originals on a new show line. (Photo provided by Adidas) This article originally appeared in Rollingout.com.

Ava DuVernay To Open New Theater, Provide Grants to Filmmakers Of Color

By LA Focus

Director Ava DuVernay (“Selma” “A Wrinkle In Time”) is looking to move beyond just telling stories, but creating a platform for others to shine as well. DuVernay’s production company ARRAY (formerly known as the African American Film Festival Releasing Movement) is opening state-of-the-art 50-seat theater that will screen half a dozen ARRAY titles that it plans to reach in 2019 as well as work by local artists, IndieWire reports. The independent theater will be built on ARRAY headquarters located in Echo Park.

“It’s about not only ownership, but also access,” ARRAY Vice President Tilane Jones noted. “We are really trying to honor the theatrical tradition, so our audience has access to work they may not see elsewhere, effectively changing the mindset of what they believe should or should not be on the big screen.”

Along with providing a place for local artists to showcase their work, the ARRAY’s non-profit arm ARRAY Alliance is planning to create grants for African American Latino and Asian American film festivals, societies and clubs. Last year, it partnered with Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti and

17

producer Dan Lin to launch the Evolve Entertainment Fund, which provides promotion, grants, and gap financing for communities historically excluded from the entertainment industry.

Ava DuVernay from 13th accepting her award during The 76th Annual Peabody Awards Ceremony at Cipriani, Wall Street on May 20, 2017 in New York City. (Photo by: Stephanie Moreno/Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communications | Wiki Commons)

Ava DuVernay

This article originally appeared in the LA Focus.

THE INNER-CITY NEWS -

May 01, 2019 - May 07, 2019

Black Men Still Incarcerated at Disproportionate Levels

By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Correspondent

The fact that African Americans make up a disproportionate amount of the United States’ prison population remains a defining characteristic of the nation’s criminal justice system, and though the latest numbers from the U.S. Sentencing Commission show a gradual change, many organizations said it’s still cause for alarm.

The most recent available report shows that African Americans comprise only about 12 percent of the total population in America, but still represent 33 percent of the federal and state prison population.

By contrast, 64 percent of American adults are white, but just 30 percent of those individuals are locked up.

It’s statistics like those that have some organizations and media outlets trying to get to the bottom of why America continues to lock up African-Americans, particularly Black men. (The Vera Institute have continued to write about this issue and CNN now has a series called “The Redemption Project with Van Jones,” which airs Sundays at 9 p.m.)

According to the most recent U.S. Sentencing Report, which analyzed data over five years from 2012 to 2016, black men serve sentences that are on average 19.1 percent longer than those for white men with similar crimes.

Without considering all of the facts involved per case, some might argue that criminal history and other mitigating circumstances come into play when a judge imposes a sentence – regardless of color.

However, the Commission’s report also

debunks that view.

“Violence in an offender’s criminal history does not appear to contribute to the sentenced imposed,” according to the authors of the Commission’s study.

When accounting for violence in an offender’s past, black men received sentences that were on average 20.4 percent longer than that of white men, the report noted.

The nonprofit Sentencing Project found that Black men are nearly six times as likely as white men to be incarcerated and for Black men in their 30s, one in every 10 are in prison or jail on any given day.

Though the gap is closing presumably because of stiffer policing in rural and

predominately white areas and the opioid epidemic that’s hit white areas hardest, agencies in cities around the country are still trying to offer ways to stop the mass incarceration of blacks.

According to a report from the Federation of Protestant Welfare Agencies (FPWA), if you are poor in New York City – especially if you’re a low-income person of color – there’s an increased likelihood that you’ll be drawn into the criminal justice system.

And once justice-involved, climbing out of poverty becomes harder, the report said.

Also, the report’s authors said the local government should be doing more to

support those who are justice-involved, including those who are formerly incarcerated and those with parole, probation, and community supervision.

These individuals and their families struggle with access to housing, employment, educational opportunities, and meeting health and mental health needs and experience a patchwork of services that are under-resourced and not targeted to meet the complex challenges that come before, during, and after justice involvement, FPWA officials said.

The result is a continuing cycle of poverty and incarceration that has a devastating impact on families for generations, they said.

“If we are serious about ending mass incarceration, if we want to disrupt systems that criminalize the poor, we must better utilize and resource the organizations that are already providing critical services in these communities,” Jennifer Jones Austin, FPWA CEO and Executive Director, said in a news release.

“Systemic racism drives both poverty and the mass incarceration of low-income people, especially people of color. This cycle of poverty and criminal justice involvement feeds on itself and creates herculean barriers to achieving economic and social advancement, for those who have been justice involved and for their loved ones,” Jones said.

“There are proven ways to support communities experiencing high levels of poverty, income insecurity and incarceration. Human services organizations are a key part of those solutions,” she said.

There’s a need for more resources, “more compassion, and more political will to end the poverty to prison pipeline and we must also recognize the role of intergenerational trauma in creating the pipeline and provide mental health and trauma-informed services to those who are justice-impacted,” said Michael A. Lindsey, Ph.D., MSW, MPH, Executive Director of the McSilver Institute for Poverty Policy and Research at New York University.

“As recommended, let’s create a ‘traumainformed New York,’ where health and human service providers, managed care companies, policymakers, governmental agencies, and community and faith leaders, have the tools to effectively work together to solve this crisis,” Lindsey said.

Former Paralyzed Runner Hits The Track Again And Inspires A Nation pened, he ultimately decided he wouldn’t let his circumstances defeat him. He was motivated to get back on the track.

But the eerie part of this story is that Lawson had already lost his oldest brother to a fatal car accident the year before. In his honor, he was determined to get better.

Lawson began rehabilitation, but seeing other people struggling to recover made Lawson appreciate what he was able to do, and he says it gives him a new perspective on life. Now, it’s his dream that one day won’t need to use his wheelchair.

He got one step closer to that dream when he back to his old high school track, got out of his wheelchair and decided to make his way around the track without it.

“I went out there, and just the feeling of my feet being on the surface that I did so much extraordinary things — it’s amazing and it just motivates me to hurry and get back faster,” Lawson said.

It took him more than 30 minutes to walk 200 meters, a distance he once covered in a matter of seconds, he said, but that didn’t let him get him down. In fact, it inspired him to push even more–feeling that he could do it.

“I’m going to up it to try to get it where I walk the whole 400 meters and knock it down to 30 minutes and then 20 minutes

by Derrick Lane, BlackDoctor.com

We get knocked down buck get back up again. That’s a saying that most of us use when something in life hurts us, but we try to persevere and get back in the game. Well, Tre Lawson is the living embodiment of that saying. He’s not only getting back up again, he’s hoping to inspire others while doing it.

All throughout high school, Lawson was one of the top track athletes in the country, but things took a tragic turn in 2017. After winning a track meet, he got into a car with a group of friends and the driver fell asleep at the wheel. The vehicle went off the road and crashed. Lawson suffered serious injuries including damage done to his head, abdomen, and spinal cord. He woke up in the hospital nearly a month after the accident occurred.

“It was a huge depressing moment. I thought maybe this is the last time I’ll be able to run again, my career is over. I was wondering if the coaches would still be interested in me even if I recover in due time,” he told Inside Edition. “Looking at the four walls of the hospital room, you become depressed really quickly.” Although it took a while for Lawson to come to terms with what had hap-

(Photo credit: Tre Lawson facebook)

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and then 10 minutes. It’s all a process,” he said.

The road to recovery has also inspired Lawson to give back. He started an organization called Rolling Hope to… … raise money for other Shepherd Center patients, and he’s studying early childhood special education at Fort Valley State University in Georgia.

The video of Lawson walking on the track with his walker has inspired others, too.

Here’s what he wrote on his blog just a couple of months ago: “Never give up because remember there is someone who is doing worse than you. God has a Plan for all of us. After realizing that I’ll be able to overcome this obstacle I decided to begin a brand that will help others who may not have the same opportunity to get better with similar injuries. The money I raise through my “Rolling Hope” brand will be used to further research in spinal cord injuries so that one day the world will equally treat humans no matter of their circumstances. God created everyone equally so with Rolling Hope the big picture is equality. Although I didn’t go to college on scholarships, I still went no matter my circumstances and I’m still determined to succeed to this day.

THE INNER-CITY NEWS - May 01, 2019 - May 07, 2019

New Film Chronicles Winningest H.S. Basketball Coach in History

By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Correspondent A place called Stop 6, an urban neighborhood of Ft. Worth, TX, was not known for much more than economic hardships, illegal drug abuse, and gang violence.

Sitting in the heart of the community is Paul Laurence Dunbar High School which has proved to be a beacon of light, according to the makers of a new documentary about the life of legendary Dunbar High School basketball coach Robert Hughes.

The film, “5700 Ramsey Ave.” named after the address of Dunbar High School, reveals that despite the hardships and harsh realities of the neighborhood, the successes of Coach Hughes and the Dunbar basketball team helped to shine a positive light on the residents in the community.

Coach Hughes, who’s now 90 and coached Dunbar from 1973 to 2005, compiled an incredible record of 1,333 wins (most alltime) to only 262 losses in his illustrious career.

Coaching at Dunbar for over 30 years, Hughes would only experience one losing season in which the team would still make the playoffs while winning two state championships.

Under Hughes’ tutelage, more than 200 men earned college scholarships and, in part because of Hughes’ approach to the game, the coach earned the reputation as a mean, no-nonsense men when those who know him still say he’s nothing more than a gentle giant.

“Like a Mule Bringing Ice Cream to the Sun”

BOOK CORNER: Author tells colorful story of aging, friendship, loss

By Marissa Wells

Coach Robert Hughes

Hughes was elected into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2017.

“I spent 4 of the most incredible years of my life under the tutelage of Coach Robert Hughes. I knew something was terrific about his presence at the age of 14, but I had no idea how to translate what I felt into words,” said the film’s director Mike Byars, who played basketball at Dunbar under Hughes.

“I promised myself that if the opportunity ever presented itself, I would do something special to honor his life,” Byars said.

Because the opportunity never came in the form of Hollywood documentarians, Byars said he created a documentary on his own – spending about 2 1/2 years making “5700 Ramsey Ave.” Con’t on page

Morayo De Silva, a senior cosmopolitan Nigerian woman, is in good health and makes the most of her life living in San Francisco, enjoying road trips, conversing with strangers and recollecting characters from her favorite novels.

After a fall, her independence crumbles, leaving her to rely on friends and chance encounters for support. In “Like a Mule Bringing Ice Cream to the Sun,” author Sarah Ladipo Manyika offers a story about aging, friendship and loss.

“Like a Mule Bringing Ice Cream to the Sun” was inspired by many of the older women Manyika has encountered in her life.

“I’ve met many older women who have lived colorful lives, and yet, when it comes to fiction, I don’t find many stories that mirror this, especially so when it comes to the lives of black women,” Manyika said.

The book introduces readers to characters of different social and cultural backgrounds and will no doubt allow readers to expand their understanding of others.

“One of the reasons why I love to read and I think one of the reasons why other people love to read is to be able to expand our understanding of humanity and to expand our horizons,” Manyika said.

B:9.25” in all of the charManyika feels invested acters but if she had to pick a favorite it T:9.25” would be Morayo. The main challenges S:9.25”

that protagonist Morayo faces are the physical and mental limitations that come with growing older.

“Morayo works hard to stay optimistic through the challenges that life brings. In the same way that she enjoys changing the endings of some of her favorite books, she also tries to embrace narratives that help move her forward rather than getting her stuck or depressed,” the author said. “I’ve written a character to inspire me and also, hopefully, my readers too.”

It is Manyika’s hope that readers not only enjoy the story but that it “gets readers to

think and ponder life and not to be fearful of the ‘other.’”

In addition to being an author, Manyika is an educator, mentor, and mother. She lives in San Francisco. To learn more about the author and her work, visit sarahladipomanyika.com.

“Like a Mule Bringing Ice Cream to the Sun” is available for $14.95 in bookstores and online bookstores like Amazon and more.

This article originally appeared in the Wave Newspapers.

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1. To qualify for this offer, you must have a new or existing Platinum Savings account and enroll the account in this offer between 03/25/2019 and 05/31/2019. This offer is subject to change at any time, without notice. This offer is available only to Platinum Savings customers in the following states: AR, CT, DC, FL, GA, MD, MS, NC, NJ, NY, SC, TX and VA. In order to earn the Special Interest Rate of 2.08% (Special Rate), you must deposit $25,000 in new money (from sources outside of Wells Fargo Bank, N.A., or its affiliates) to the enrolled savings account and maintain a minimum daily account balance of $25,000 throughout the term of this offer. The corresponding Annual Percentage Yield (APY) for this offer is 2.10%. The Special Rate will be applied to the enrolled savings account for a period of 12 months, starting on the date the account is enrolled in the offer. However, for any day during that 12 month period that the daily account balance is less than the $25,000 minimum, the Special Rate will not apply, and the interest rate will revert to the standard interest rate applicable to your Platinum Savings account. As of 02/15/2019, the standard interest rate and APY for a Platinum Savings account in AR, CT, DC, FL, GA, MD, MS, NC, NJ, NY, SC, TX and VA with an account balance of $0.01 and above is 0.05% (0.05% APY). Each tier shown reflects the current minimum daily collected balance required to obtain the applicable APY. Interest is compounded daily and paid monthly. The amount of interest earned is based on the daily collected balances in the account. Upon the expiration of the 12 month promotional period, standard interest rates apply. Minimum to open a Platinum Savings account is $25. A monthly service fee of $12 applies in any month the account falls below a $3,500 minimum daily balance. Fees may reduce earnings. Interest rates are variable and subject to change without notice. Wells Fargo may limit the amount you deposit to a Platinum Savings account to an aggregate of $1 million. Offer not available to Private Banking or Wealth customers. 2. Annual Percentage Yield (APY) is effective for accounts opened between 03/25/2019 to 05/31/2019. The 11-month New Dollar CD special requires a minimum of $25,000 brought to Wells Fargo from sources outside of Wells Fargo Bank N.A., or its affiliates to earn the advertised APY. Public Funds and Wholesale accounts are not eligible for this offer. APY assumes interest remains on deposit until maturity. Interest is compounded daily. Payment of interest on CDs is based on term: For terms less than 12 months (365 days), interest may be paid monthly, quarterly, semi-annually, or at maturity (the end of the term). For terms of 12 months or more, interest may be paid monthly, quarterly, semi-annually, or annually. A fee for early withdrawal will be imposed and could reduce earnings on this account. Special Rates are applicable to the initial term of the CD only. At maturity, the Special Rate CD will automatically renew for a term of 6 months, at the interest rate and APY in effect for CDs on renewal date not subject to a Special Rate, unless the Bank has notified you otherwise. 1,2. Due to the new money requirement, accounts may only be opened at your local branch. Wells Fargo reserves the right to modify or discontinue the offer at any time without notice. Minimum new money deposit requirement of at least $25,000 is for this offer only and cannot be transferred to another account to qualify for any other consumer deposit offer. If you wish to take advantage of another consumer deposit offer requiring a minimum new money deposit, you will be required to do so with another new money deposit as stated in the offer requirements and qualifications. Offer cannot be combined with any other consumer deposit offer, except the Portfolio by Wells Fargo $500 offer, available from March 25, 2019 until May 31, 2019. Offer cannot be reproduced, purchased, sold, transferred, or traded. 3. The Portfolio by Wells Fargo program has a $30 monthly service fee, which can be avoided when you have one of the following qualifying balances: $25,000 or more in qualifying linked bank deposit accounts (checking, savings, CDs, FDIC-insured IRAs) or $50,000 or more in any combination of qualifying linked banking, brokerage (available through Wells Fargo Advisors, LLC) and credit balances (including 10% of mortgage balances, certain mortgages not eligible). If the Portfolio by Wells Fargo relationship is terminated, the bonus interest rate on all eligible savings accounts, and discounts or fee waivers on other products and services, will discontinue and revert to the Bank’s then-current applicable rate or fee. For bonus interest rates on time accounts, this change will occur upon renewal. If the Portfolio by Wells Fargo relationship is terminated, the remaining unlinked Wells Fargo Portfolio Checking or Wells Fargo Prime Checking account will be converted to another checking product or closed. © 2019 Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. All rights reserved. Deposit products offered by Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. Member FDIC. NMLSR ID 399801

19

T:5.1”

Offers available in AR, CT, DC, FL, GA, MD, MS, NC, NJ, NY, SC, TX and VA. Portfolio by Wells Fargo® customers are eligible to receive an additional bonus interest rate on these accounts.3

S:5.1”

Talk to a banker for details. Offer expires May 31, 2019. Business owner? Ask about our business savings rates.

INNER-CITY THE INNER-CITYNEWS NEWS July - May 2019 - May 07,2016 2019 27, 01, 2016 - August 02,

Black & Boucher, LLC is looking for experienced milling

EMPLOYMENT SPECIALIST - (P/T)

machine operators for our Wirtgen W220’s and W50 machines. Po- Assist individuals receiving services in identifying and making sitions are full time seasonal work. Starting pay is $38.87 an hour choices about their social, vocation and personal goals. Duties in(W220) and $38.20 (W50), includes benefits (Health, Pension, An- clude case management, job development/placement/retention sernuity). Must be willing to work nights and some weekends. Year- vices and job support as needed. Requires use of personal vehicle. in a related field; plus 2 yrs’ related experience or equivalent VALENTINA MACRIWe RENTAL PRE- APPLICATIONS AVAILABLE end Bonus also included. are anHOUSING equal opportunity employer, B.A. minority, female and veterans are encouraged to apply. Work is combination of education and experience. Pay rate $16.61/hr.

Apply to:Authority, GWSNE, 432 Washington Ave., North Haven, CT 06473/ in HOME the Southern England (Connecticut, and Housing INC, onNew behalf of Columbus HouseMassachusetts, and the New Haven Fax (203) EOE/AA - M/F/D/V Rhode Island) area.

Please emailforblackandboucher@earthlink.net is accepting pre-applications studio and one-bedroom apartments at this495-6108/hr@goodwillsne.org develif interested! opment located at 108 Frank Street, New Haven. Maximum income limitations ap-

The Glendower Group, Inc

NOTICE

DELIVERY PERSON NEEDED

ply. Pre-applications will be available from 9AM TO 5PM beginning Monday Ju;y

The Group in when N. Stonington, CT has Temporary, 12 25,Cooper 2016 and ending sufficient pre-applications (approximately 100) have

week positions for Finish Painters, starting 6/3/19. Requires min. been received at the offices of HOME INC. Applications will be mailied upon re2 years experience, ability to prep surfaces, brush paint and glaze quest by calling HOME INC at 203-562-4663 during those hours. Completed prewindows. Must have own tools and transportation. Fluency in Engapplications must be returned to HOME INC’s offices at 171 Orange Street, Third lish. We are an Affirmative Action/EOE. Send resume and referFloor, New Haven, CT 06510. ences to Employment@thecoopergroupct.com

Part Time Delivery Needed One/Two Day a Week,

NOTICIA Tree Company New Haven County looking for a bucket op-

Must Have your Own Vehicle

erator, climber and groundmen with Class B CDL. 2-4 years experience with large residential and commercial treePRE-SOLICITUDES removal. Full VALENTINA MACRI VIVIENDAS DE ALQUILER DISPONIBLES time with work year round. Experience with using a bobcat with grapple and everyday tree de removal equipment.

HOME INC, en nombre la Columbus House y de la New Haven Housing Authority, está Sign on bonus to the right person! Call (203) 466-2400 or email aceptando pre-solicitudes para estudios y apartamentos de un dormitorio en este desarrollo PCSLANDSCAPING@AOL.COM

If Interested call

(203) 387-0354

ubicado en la calle 109 Frank Street, New Haven. Se aplican limitaciones de ingresos máximos. Las pre-solicitudes estarán disponibles 09 a.m.-5 p.m. comenzando Martes 25 julio,Housing 2016 hasta Authority cuando se han of recibido pre-solicitudes The the suficientes City of Norwalk, CT(aproximadamente 100) 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.

Listing: Accounting

Garrity Asphalt Reclaiming, Inc seeks:

Request for Proposals

CONSTRUCTION MANAGER AT RISK FOR WESTVILLE MANOR The Glendower Group, Inc an affiliate of Housing Authority City of New Haven d/b/a Elm city Communities is currently seeking Proposals for Construction Manager at Risk for Westville Manor. A complete copy of the requirement may be obtained from Elm City’s Vendor Collaboration Portal https://newhavenhousing.cobblestonesystems.com/gateway beginning on Wednesday, April 24, 2019 at 3:00PM

Water

Electrical Technician – The Town of Wallingford Water Division is seeking a responsible and skilled individual to maintain, repair, and calibrate all of the electrical or electronic equipment pertaining to water treatment and distribution systems and operations. The position requires a high school diploma or GED and (2) two yrs. of college level education or specialized maintenance training and (4) four yrs. of experience in the repair and maintenance of electrical equipment or graduation from an accredited college or university with a Bachelor’s Degree in Electrical Engineering or related field and (1) one yr. of experience. Salary: $27.32 - $33.20 per hour (contract currently under negotiations) plus an excellent fringe benefit package. Apply to: Human Resources Department, Town of Wallingford, 45 South Main Street, Wallingford, CT 06492.

Fax #: (203) 294-2084. Closing date will be May 28, 2019 or the date the 50th application is received, whichever occurs first. EOE.

The Cheshire Housing Authority

Construction Equipment Mechanic preferably experienced ********An Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer********** is currently accepting application for Foote Commons non-subsidized family one, two and Invitationthree to Bid: in Reclaiming and Road Milling Equipment. We offer factory bedroom apartments. All applicants must meet the Income Limits set annually by the nd 2 242-258 Fairmont Ave Notice training on equipment we operate. Location: Bloomfield CT U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). To qualify you must have a The GUILFORD HOUSING AUTHORITY gross annual income of $50,350-one person $57,550-two people, $64,750-three We offer hourly rate 1.5 & excellent benefits1 levelis, currently 2BRexcellent Townhouse, BA, 3BR, 1BA accepting applications for its efficiency and one maximum people, $71,900-four people, $77,700- five people, $83,450-six people, $89,200-seven peoContact: Rick Tousignant Phone: 860243-2300 bedroom apartments at Guilford Court and Boston Terrace All new apartments, new appliances, new carpet, close to I-91 & I-95 Old Saybrook, CT ple, $94,950-eight people or be able to pay a rent of $794-$1,090 for a one bedroom, $930Email: rick.tousignant@garrityasphalt.com or on $1,278 for a two bedroom, and $1,075-$1,500 for a tree bedroom. 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 Interested parties may pick up an application at 50 Rumberg Road or may have one mailed.

Pet under 40lb allowed. Interested parties contact Maria @ 860-985-8258 Exempt Not Prevailing Wage Rate Project Affirmative Action/ Equal Opportunity Employer of 18. Applications maybe obtained by Tax calling the & applicaCompleted applications must be returned to the Cheshire Housing Authority 50 Rumberg

NEW HAVEN

SAYEBROOKE VILLAGE

tion line at 203-453-6262, ext. 107. Applications will be ac- Road, Cheshire, CT 06410. The wait list will open for 90 days (July, 19) or until the wait listSelective has 60 applications the required number by the State of Connecticut. If there are New Construction, Wood Framed, Housing, Demolition,orSite-work, Cast3:00 p.m. Credit, police, and units and wait list does not have the required number of applications, The Housby the authority.

Smoke free in-place Concrete, Asphaltopen Shingles, VinyltheSiding,

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:

Contact: Rick Tousignant Phone: 860- 243-2300

For more information call (203)272-7511 ext1 or 2

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

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

ing Authority may fill those units on a first come first serve basis. Section 8 vouchers are

Flooring, Painting, Division 10 Specialties, Appliances, Residential Casework, welcomed.

EQUAL OPPORTUNITY HOUSING Mechanical, Electrical, Plumbing and 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

The Housing Authority of the City of Bridgeport

Bid Extended, Due Date: August 5, 2016 Invitation for Bid (IFB) Anticipated Start: August 15, 2016 Elevator Maintenance Services Project documents available via ftp link below: Solicitation Number: 126-AM-19-S http://ftp.cbtghosting.com/loginok.html?username=sayebrookevillage

KMK Insulation Inc.

Town of Seymour until 3:00 pm on Tuesday, August 2, 2016 at its office at 28 Smith Street, Seymour, CT 06483 for Concrete Sidewalk Repairs and Replacement at the 1907 Hartford Turnpike The Housing Authority of the City of Bridgeport d/b/a Park City Communities (PCC) is SmithfieldUnion Gardens Company Assisted Livingseeks: Facility, 26 Smith Street Seymour.

Fax or Email Questions & Bids to: Dawn Lang @ 203-881-8372 dawnlang@haynesconstruction.com

currently seeking bids from qualified elevator companies to provide full-service elevator North Haven, CT 06473 Tractor Trailer Driver for Heavy & Highway Construction HCC encourages the participation of all Veteran,maintenance S/W/MBE & Section 3 Certified Businesses there is a mix of elevator types and locations. Soliciand repair agency-wide, Haynes Construction Company, 32 Progress Ave, Seymour, CT 06483 Equipment.

Must have awill CDL driving record, tation package will be available on April 29, 2019. To obtain a copy of the solicitation you A pre-bid conference beLicense, held atclean the Housing Authority Office 28 Smith must send your request to bids@parkcitycommunities.org, please reference solicitation 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 number and title on the subject line. A pre-bid conference will be held at 150 Highland Ave, throughout the Northeast & NY. Bridgeport, CT 06604 on May 15, 2019 @ 10:00 a.m. Although attendance is not mandaand benefits.

Please mail resume to We offer excellent hourly rate & excellent benefits Bidding documents are available from the Seymour Housing Authority Oftory, submitting a bid for the project without attending conference is not in the best interest Contact Dana at 860-243-2300 above address. of the Offeror. Additional questions should be emailed only to bids@parkcitycommunifice, 28 Smith Street, Seymour, CT 06483 (203) 888-4579.

Email: dana.briere@garrityasphalt.com ties.org no later than May 22, 2019. Answers to all the questions will be posted on PCC’s Women & Minority Applicants are encouraged to apply Website: www.parkcitycommunities.org. Seal bids will be received until May 30, 2019 @ This company is an Affirmative Action/ The Housing Authority reserves the right to accept or reject any or all bids, to Affirmative Action/ Equal Opportunity Employer 10:00 at which time the bids will be publicly opened and read aloud.

Mechanical Insulator position.

MAIL ONLY

reduce the scope of the project to reflect available funding, and to waive any informalities in the bidding, if such actions are in the best interest of the Housing Authority.

20

THE INNER-CITY NEWS - May 01, 2019 - May 07, 2019

Selective Boiler Replacement at Cambridge Park INVITATION TO BID

Bristol, Connecticut The Bristol Housing Authority will receive sealed bids on or before 1:00 p.m. EDT, Friday, May 31, 2019 at their offices at 164 Jerome Avenue, Bristol, Connecticut 06010 and said bids will be publicly opened and read aloud immediately thereafter.

The Housing Authority of the City of Norwalk, CT is requesting proposals for Financial Advisory Services.

Request for Proposal documents can be viewed and printed at www.norwalkha.org under the Business section RFP’s/RFQ’s Norwalk Housing is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

Adam Bovilsky, Executive Director.

HELP WANTED: Large CT guardrail company looking

Bids will be received for furnishing all labor, materials, tools and equipment necessary to complete “Selective Boiler Replacements at Cambridge Park” in Bristol, Connecticut 06010. The scope of work shall include but is not limited to Boiler replacements, new gyp. bd. ceilings and door replacements. Sealed bid packages to be clearly marked “Selective Boiler Replacement. Attention: Mitzy Rowe, CEO.”

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

A pre-bid walk through will be held on Wednesday, May 15, 2019 at 2:00 p.m. Please meet at the Bristol Housing Authority Office, 164 Jerome Avenue, Bristol, Connecticut 06010.

Attendance is strongly recommended for all bidders.

Project Engineer (Connecticut):

Contact Documents including Plans and Specifications, as prepared by J ASSOCIATES ARCHITECTS, 84 Market Square, Suite 3, Newington, CT 06111, will be on file at the Bristol Housing Authority 164 Jerome Avenue, Bristol, Connecticut. Contract Documents can be reviewed and purchased within the on-line plan room of Advanced Reprographics, Plainville, CT at www.advancedrepro.net or by calling (860) 410-1020. Project information can also be obtained online at Projectdog.com.

The Bristol Housing Authority reserves the right to reject any or all bids and/or to waive any informalities in bidding, when such action is deemed to be in the best interest of the Bristol Housing Authority. All bid documents must be filled out completely when submitted.

A satisfactory Bid Bond or Certified Check in an amount equal to five percent (5%) of the base bid, shall be submitted with each bid. The Bid Bond shall be made payable to the Bristol Housing Authority and shall be properly executed by the Bidder. A 100% Performance, Labor and Material Bond is also required. All sureties must be listed on the most recent IRS circular 570.

“Attention of bidders is directed to certain requirements of this contract which require payment of Davis-Bacon wages, and compliance with certain local, state and federal requirements. This is a Federally funded project.”

No bids shall be withdrawn for a period of sixty (60) days after the opening of bids without the consent of the Bristol Housing Authority.

For further information, please contact Carl Johnson, Bristol Housing Authority, Director of Capital Funds at (860) 585-2028 or Jay R. Victorick, J ASSOCIATES ARCHITECTS at (860) 665-7063.

"AN AFFIRMATIVE ACTION/EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER MBE’s, WBE's, SBE's AND SECTION 3 DESIGNATED ENTERPRISES ARE ENCOURAGED TO SUBMIT"

Elm City Communities Request for Proposals

Housing Choice Voucher (Section 8) Project- Based Assistance Program to Support the Development of Affordable Housing Housing Authority City of New Haven d/b/a Elm city Communities is currently seeking Proposals for Housing Choice Voucher (Section 8) Project- Based Assistance Program to Support the Development of Affordable Housing. A complete copy of the requirement may be obtained from Elm City’s Vendor Collaboration Portal https://newhavenhousing.cobblestonesystems.com/gateway beginning on Wednesday, May 1, 2019 at 3:00PM.

The Housing Authority of the City of Norwalk, CT is requesting proposals for Utility Allowance Study.

Request for Proposal documents can be viewed and printed at www. norwalkha.org under the Business section RFP’s/RFQ’s Norwalk Housing is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Adam Bovilsky, Executive Director.

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

ROTHA Contracting Company, Inc 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

Help Wanted: Galasso Materials LLC, a quarry and paving contractor, has positions open for the upcoming construction season. We are seeking candidates for 1) Quality Control (experience preferred), 2) Office clerks, 3) Truck/Scalehouse Dispatcher (experience and computer knowledge preferred) and 4) Equipment Operators and Construction Laborers. NO PHONE CALLS. Please mail resume and cover letter to Hiring Manager, Galasso Materials LLC, PO Box 1776, East Granby CT 06026. EOE/M/F/D/V.

PVC FENCE PRODUCTION

Large CT Fence Company looking for an individual for our PVC Fence Production Shop. Experience preferred but will train the right person. Must be familiar with carpentry hand & power tools and be able to read a CAD drawing and tape measure. Use of CNC Router machine a plus but not required, will train the right person. This is an in-shop production position.

Duties include building fence panels, posts, gates and more. Must have a valid CT driver’s license & be able to obtain a Drivers Medical Card. Must be able to pass a physical and drug test. Please email resume to pking@atlasoutdoor.com. AA/EOE-MF

FENCE ERECTING CONTRACTORS

Large CT Fence & Guardrail Contractor is looking for Fence Installer foremen and helpers. Foreman must have at least 5 years’ experience. Helpers-no experience required, will train the right person. Work available 10-12 months per year. Valid Ct. Driver’s license required and must be able to get a DOT Medical Card. All necessary equipment provided. Medical, vacation & other benefits included. Must be able to pass a physical and drug test. OSHA 10 training will be required. Please email resume to pking@atlasoutdoor.com AA/EOE – M/F

Town of Bloomfield

Library Director $90,364 – $139,476 For more details, visit our website – www.bloomfieldct.org 21

APPLY TODAY Town of Bloomfield

Youth & Family Program Assistant Part Time – Non benefited (5-15 hrs. wkly) $11.87 hourly Pre-employment drug testing.

AA/EOE For details and how to apply go to www.bloomfieldct.org

Large CT. Fence Company is looking for an individual for our stock yard. Warehouse shipping and receiving and Forklift experience a must. Must have a minimum of 3 years’ material handling experience.

Must be able to read and write English, and read a tape measure. Duties will include: Loading and unloading trucks, pulling orders for installation and retail counter sales, keeping the yard clean and organized at all times and inventory control. Individual will also make deliveries of fence panels and products, must be able to lift at least 70lbs. Required to pass a Physical and Drug test, have a valid CT. Driver’s License and be able to obtain a Drivers Medical Card. CDL B & A drivers a plus. Send resume to pking@atlasourdoor. com AA/EOE/MF

CARPENTRY SHOP

Large CT Fence Company looking for a full-time carpenter for our Wood Fence Production Shop. Experience preferred but will train the right person. Must be familiar with carpentry hand & power tools and be able to read a CAD drawing and tape measure. This is an in-shop production position. Duties include mortising & drilling wood posts for fence panels, building fence panels, gates & more. Must have a valid CT driver’s license and be able to obtain a Drivers Medical Card. Must be able to pass a physical and drug test. Please email resume to pking@atlasoutdoor.com. AA/EOE-MF

THE INNER-CITY NEWS -

Experts:

May 01, 2019 - May 07, 2019

Reparations Are Workable and Should Be Provided R. Segal Professor of American Social Thought and the author of numerous books including “My Face is Black Is True: Callie House and the Struggle for Ex-Slave Reparations,” told NNPA Newswire that, “as matter of justice and no matter how long it takes, there should be a full-throated demand for reparations for slavery echoing the demand of the thousands of ex-slaves in the 19th century and reasserted time and again since.”

“The odds against success are great but given the meager gains to date, it’s just as fruitful to argue for reparations as anything else and besides it is a just cause,” Dr. Berry said.

“Whatever we do, we should remind ourselves, as Frederick Douglass said, ‘Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never has. It never will,’” she said.

Berry, who once served as chair of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights and as Assistant Secretary for Education in the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare, scoffed at the idea that reparations are “unworkable.”

By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Correspondent

As Joe Biden prepares to enter the crowded Democratic field for the 2020 presidential election, it wouldn’t be surprising if the former vice president will join the other 19 declared candidates in using reparations for the Transatlantic Slave Trade as a political platform.

Candidates including New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, California Sen. Kamala Harris, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, and former HUD Secretary Julian Castro have said they intend to seek reparations for African Americans.

Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren has asked for reparations for both African Americans and Native Americans.

Just three years ago, a United Nations working group jumped into the fray.

Following 14 years and 20 days of speaking with U.S. officials, activists, and families of people killed by police in major American cities, the U.N. working group issued its conclusion that the slave trade was a crime against humanity and the American government should pay reparations.

The experts traveled to major cities including Washington, D.C.; Jackson, Mississippi; Baltimore; Chicago and New York.

“Contemporary police killings and the trau-

Dr. Mary Frances Berry

ma it creates are reminiscent of the racial terror lynching in the past,” a French member of the working group of U.N. experts Mireille Fanon-Mendes-France, told CBS News.

Dr. Mary Frances Berry, a Geraldine

Con’t from page 07

Dumping Motor Vehicle Tax For Higher Home Assessment Gets Hearing undermine Connecticut’s economy.”

Chiming in was Randy Collins, advocacy manager for the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities (CCM).

While Collins acknowledged that “the assessment of property taxes on vehicles can vary widely for the identical car based on location,” on the other hand, he said motor vehicle property taxes generate approximately $925 million annually for towns and cities.

“If we proceed to eliminate this tax, it must Con’t from page 19

New Film Chronicles Winningest H.S. Basketball Coach in History “It was the very least I could do to show my gratitude for the life-long lessons he passed along to me,” Byars said.

The feature-length documentary is scheduled to debut at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, May 2, at The Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, presented in partnership with the R.E.D.D.Y. Leadership Outreach.

“No matter where you go in the United States as far as basketball is concerned, Coach Hughes is well recognized,” Byars said.

Coach Robert Hughes/Courtesy 5700 Ramsey Ave./Screenshot

be done through a carefully thought out process that does not create a new class of winners and losers,” Collins said.

“Simply eliminating the tax on motor vehicles, even if done through a five-year phase out, and shifting that burden onto real property, will shift a significant burden onto businesses that do not own vehicles, urban homeowners that do not own cars and utilize public transportation, and to seniors,” Collins said.

Collins offered that CCM would be willing to work with legislators on the concept of eliminating the car tax, “but any plan that reduces $925 million in local revenue must provide for a means to replace it. To simply shift that revenue loss onto an already strained property tax base is problematic to say the least.”

Eliminating the property tax on motor vehicles will cost the Town of Litchfield more than $1.5 million dollars per year,” First Selectman Leo Paul said. “Without this revenue, our town will be left with a massive hole in its budget — a hole that will have to be plugged by increasing the mill rate on homeowners and businesses or cutting critical services.”

Eric Gjede, vice president of government affairs for the Connecticut Business and Industry Association, told the committee that the “business community is concerned

Precedent has already been set, she said.

“The country has lots of experience with reparations. The federal government gave compensation to slave owners in the border states who let their slaves enlist in the Union Army,” Dr. Berry said.

“Also, during the Civil War, compensation was given to slave owners in the District

of Columbia when slaves there were freed in 1862 and, more recently, compensation for Holocaust victims and the victims of Japanese Internment are examples of reparations,” she said.

Dr. Berry continued: “In the 19th century after the Civil War, Callie House, a former slave, led a movement to demand pensions for old ex-slaves as reparations for their poverty and unrequited labor during slavery.

“Her organization collected petitions including the names of former owners of ex-slaves and succeeded in having bills introduced in Congress and sued the federal government, losing on technical grounds.”

San Francisco-based attorney Dale Minami, who was involved in significant litigation involving the civil rights of Asian Pacific Americans and other minorities, said he believes the African American vote is critical to a successful reparations campaign.

“With the racial divide stoked by President Donald Trump’s racial bias, the need for some healing among the races is a progressive and necessary policy and redress and reparations promote this healing so that we can move toward a less factionalized, less racially divided country,” Minami said.

For those who believe reparations are unworkable, Minami said they’re conflating two separate issues: the deserving claim to

reparations and the difficulty in implementation.

“Reparations is a good idea and depending how you define implementation determines the ‘workability,’” he said.

“If reparations means individual payment, yes, there is a huge problem of allocation of money based on percentage of Black ancestry but if you define it as a Trust Fund to support Black institutions, community organizations, education, or other projects to improve the African American community, it’s bit easier to implement,” Minami said.

As an example, the Civil Liberties Public Education Fund of which Minami served as chairman, received $5 million as part of a Redress bill to give to projects that educate about the injustice of the incarcerations of Japanese Americans.

The original bill called for $50 million but so many were still alive when Redress was granted, the fund dwindled, Minami said.

“So, I think there are creative ways to help make up for the enormous cruelty of slavery and its long-term effects on the Black community,” he said.

“The odds against success are great but given the meager gains to date, it’s just as fruitful to argue for reparations as anything else and besides it is a just cause,” said Dr. Mary Frances Berry, a Geraldine R. Segal Professor of American Social Thought and the author of numerous books including “My Face is Black Is True: Callie House and the Struggle for Ex-Slave Reparations.

The Ida B. Wells Society Provides Investigative Reporter Training to Black Journalists

By Lauren Poteat, NNPA Washington Correspondent

It’s no secret that Black journalists are underrepresented within newsrooms across the nation — especially in terms of specialized investigative journalism.

In March, a dispute between CNN and the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) went viral after NABJ, the Congressional Black Caucus, Color of Change, the National Newspaper Publishers Association and the NAACP called out CNN’s president, Jeff Zucker, over the network’s scarcity of Blacks in senior management positions within the company’s news department.

The dispute brings national attention to the lack of newsroom diversity and inclusion that exists within most news organizations across the country.

Challenging these disparities and presenting new opportunities for journalists of color, the Ida B. Wells Society for Investigative Reporting, is embarking on a nationwide training program. The program’s primary goal is the development of Black investigative journalists, the specialty where Blacks are most underrepresented within newsrooms throughout the United States.

“In a time when mainstream newsrooms remain disproportionately white, where racial inequality continues to permeate every aspect of American life, and where investigative coverage of racial injustice is

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still lacking, the Ida B. Wells Society hopes to help steer more journalists towards the tradition of our spiritual founder,” reads a passage from the Society’s creation story.

Ida B. Wells was an iconic Black female journalist whose investigative reporting exposed lynching in the late 1800s on a national and international level. The Society which bears her name and whose motto is, “Be Twice as Good,” recently hosted an investigative journalism workshop at Morgan State University, a historically black university located in Baltimore, MD. The workshop will be repeated in other locations throughout the country throughout the year.

“Bringing programs like this is important to our institution,” Hamil Harris, former Washington Post reporter and current Morgan State University Journalism Professor

stated. “I really enjoyed being able to see different generations come together with a similar purpose of engaging and talking investigative journalism. This was an excellent session and I think everyone involved got a lot out of it.”

Delving into topics that included: sourcing techniques, paper trails, leveraging state and federal Freedom of Information Acts (FOIA), gun reporting and effective ways to pitch and manage projects, the two-day training session was led by the Society’s Co-Founder and a current International Investigations Editor for the Associated Press, Ron Nixon, who emphasized preparation. “I could talk to you all day about various reporting techniques, but if you don’t have the background research, it’s all just kind of a waste,” Nixon stated.

“Know your subject. Research their backgrounds, what they did and what they do.

This will help when figuring out their motivation for even being interviewed and always practice your questions…this will allow you more opportunities when asking questions.”

The training concluded with an in depth review of data journalism, a specialty area that is often overlooked but necessary for precise and accurate story-telling.

Future training session locations include, the Center for Investigative Reporting in Berkeley, CA (April 25), and the Seattle Times, in Seattle, WA (July 12–13).

For more information or to learn how you can participate visit the Society’s website, http://idabwellssociety.org.

THE INNER-CITY NEWS - May 01, 2019 - May 07, 2019

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THE INNER-CITY NEWS -

May 01, 2019 - May 07, 2019

It’s Time to Put People Before Drug Company Profits.

While too many Connecticut residents struggle to make ends meet, the big drug companies continue to rake in billions. It’s no wonder, considering that they make Americans pay the highest prescription drug prices in the world.

That’s why it’s critical for all Connecticut lawmakers to put aside their differences and support commonsense solutions to lower drug prices, including: • Allowing our state to negotiate for lower prices.

• Preventing brand-name drug companies from paying off generic competitors to stop more affordable medications from reaching consumers.

People shouldn’t have to choose between buying medication and buying food for our families. To all state lawmakers: It’s time to work together and pass bipartisan legislation to lower prescription drug prices—now.

Visit aarp.org/StopRxGreedCT to learn more.

Facebook.com/AARPCT @AARPCT aarp.org/CT Paid For by AARP

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