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THE INNER-CITY NEWS - May 04, 2022 - May 10, 2022

Grad Students, “Grad” Hotel Workers On The March

by KIMBERLY WIPFLER New Haven Independent

Graduate student teachers marched alongside hotel workers on closed-off downtown streets in support of two new unionization drives: a revived 30-year-old campaign at Yale, and one at the Graduate New Haven (née Duncan) hotel.

Over 500 Yale student workers and supporters relaunched the drive to win recognition here for what’s now called UNITE HERE Local 33. That was the official reason for the march — but it ended up occurring on the same day that workers at the now-christened New Haven Graduate hotel on Chapel Street took a step toward filing for a unionization election. So they joined the event too.

The two campaigns reflect two labor trends sweeping the country: Renewed successes in efforts to win union recognition for graduate students who teach classes. And a new wave of successes in service industries (including Starbucks coffee shops and Amazon warehouses).

A combination of changing labor-management dynamics and a Democratic-appointed National Labor Relations Board has fueled the labor surgence.

Speakers at Wednesday’s rally said the graduate students seek a union so the university will acknowledge their work as essential, pay salaries that meet the cost of living, provide better health and dental services, and create a grievance procedure to address workplace complaints.

Yale has successfully beaten back the graduate student drive since its first incarnation in 1992 as the Graduate Employee Student Organization (GESO). That effort first took the name of the Graduate Employees and Students Organization (GESO). In 2016, it rebranded as Local 33, linking the graduate student teacher effort with the larger union that represents Yale’s blue-collar workers and office and research workers. After a spate of high-profile public actions and demonstrations in 2016 and 2017 — including a nationally watched hunger fast and a partially won election — Local 33 quietly withdrew a union-recognition petition from the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) in February 2018, fearing a labor-hostile decision from that board under the Trump Administration.

“Yale supports open and robust discussion on the topic of graduate student unionization, with respect for everyone’s viewpoint,” Yale spokesperson Karen Peart said in response to Wednesday’s rally and revived effort.

Last week, the Board of Alders unanimously voted in support of a resolution approving street closures and backing related special event permits to allow the group to host the rally. Local 33 Co-Presidents Paul Seltzer and Ridge Liu wrote in an April 4 letter to Board of Alders President Tyisha Walker-Myers in support of the street-closing resolution that the rally would be “the first public ac-

KIMBERLY WIPFLER PHOTO The scene at Wednesday's rally.

tion in our campaign” to win a graduate teacher union.

Local 33 organizer Abigail Fields, who emceed the event, announced that they would deliver the message to Yale with over a dozen binders including the student signatures and the intended union’s terms. With the help of fellow organizers, Fields handed these binders over to Pilar Montalvo, assistant vice president in the Office of the Secretary and Vice President for University Life.

The group then marched from the intersection to the President’s House on Hillhouse Avenue for a second set of speeches. Along the march, supporters chanted: “Yale had better change their tune; there’s a union coming soon!” And: “Labors and classrooms don’t divide the workers standing side by side. Unequal raises won’t divide the workers standing side by side.”

They carried a wide variety of picket signs, some handmade and others distributed by the union. The group had brought over 30 three-foot cubes that were plastered with multicolored papers which read, “I want _____ & a union!” with the blanks filled in by supporters. Many wore orange T‑shirts or vests . Some brought their children or dogs.

Spirits were high from start to finish. During speeches, the crowd loudly cheered or booed in accordance with each expressed sentiment. In between, upbeat music played over the loudspeaker (like Beyoncé’s “Run the World”).

“We’re here today with our allies … to demand that Yale follow the federal law and recognize graduate workers as workers,” said Local 33 organizer Fields.

“We are in the middle of an exciting new wave of graduate worker organizing in this country. A decade ago, there were zero graduate unions with contracts

at private universities. Today, there are nine, there are dozens of campaigns like this one,” said Seltzer, who is a graduate teacher in the history department in addition to his role as co-president of Local 33.

Earlier this month, graduate students at MIT voted to form a union by a 2‑to‑1 margin.Over 1,000 graduate student workers at Indiana University’s Bloomington campus extended went on strike for almost two weeks this month.

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The unionization efforts were joined by their partner organizations: UNITE HERE Local 217, Local 34, Local 35, Yale Unions Retirees Association, Students Union Now, and New Haven Rising.

Also in support of the cause was a brandnew unionization effort by workers at the Graduate (which reopened in 2019 as an upscaled version of the former Duncan) hotel on Chapel Street. Earlier Wednesday morning, workers at that hotel pre-

sented cards to file for a National Labor Relations Board election. The effort was supported with cards signed by 80 percent of their coworkers.

Jackie Sims, who has been a front-desk employee at the Graduate since it opened in 2019, said, “We are proud to be a part of the current wave of union organizing and glad to be standing along our brothers and sisters, the graduate workers at Yale.”

Cecelia Harold, a graduate researcher in the Yale Department of Genetics, told the crowd why she joined the unionization effort: “I grew up in a strong working class family. I’ve had relatives who were in unions previously, and I know the difference that a union job can make and not being one medical disaster from complete financial ruin.”

Harold said she was previously a member of 1199 SEIU, a medical workers union at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx, where she worked as a lab manager.

“The main difference between there and here is that I don’t have a contract, and I don’t have protections for my work.”

Harold said she manages radioactivity, and without the same lab safety standards as stipulated at Einstein, there is a higher likelihood of someone getting hurt.

Harold said she and her coworkers had hundreds of conversations to rally support for the union. Daniel Judt, a graduate student worker in the History department, said that the efforts grew exponentially as inspired supporters became organizers themselves.

Buğra Şahin, a Ph.D. candidate in the Fortner Lab, told a story about his troubles with the dental plan provided by Yale when he required a procedure. He said he had put off the procedure for a long time, knowing it would be a major expense.

Ultimately, he paid $500 for the Yale dental insurance, which only allowed him $1,000 worth of coverage. This coverage left him to pay $2,500 out of pocket, which he said depleted his savings. Now, Şahin said he is living paycheck to paycheck.

Hill Alder Ron Hurt told the crowd, “Let’s bring the wave of graduate unionization to our city. We will all be more powerful when Local 33 wins, and you shall win.”

President of the Board of Alders Tyisha Walker-Myers enthusiastically repeated the chants of the crowd: “Local 33!”

Fields recognized other New Haven alders who turned out for the event: Adam Marchand, Charles Decker, Steve Winter, Majority Leader Richard Furlow, Sal DeCola, Alex Guzhnay, Sal Punzo, Ellen Cupo, Eli Sabin, Deputy Majority Leader Evelyn Rodriguez, Evette Hamilton, as well as Hamden Councilman Justin Farmer, and former Alders Al Paolillo, Dolores Colon, and Jill Marks. Also in attendance were Laurie Kennington, former president of Local 34, and Karen DuBoisWalton, candidate for state treasurer.

THE INNER-CITY NEWS - May 04, 2022 - May 10, 2022

2 Years Later, Barack Obama School’s Official Ribbon Cut

by MAYA MCFADDEN New Haven Independent

New Haven celebrated keeping hope alive at The Barack H. Obama Magnet University School (BOMUS) Sunday, officially welcoming a new teacheroriented public school that opened its doors two years ago at the dawn of the Covid-19 pandemic.

City leaders and the public school community joined for an official ribbon-cutting and celebration of New Haven Public Schools’ (NHPS) partnership with Southern Connecticut State University (SCSU) in BOMUS at 69 Farnham Ave., on the SCSU campus.

The partnership aims at leading the nation in “educational innovation” that offers higher-education students a chance to teach in the classroom, and elementary students the chance to see themselves on a college campus where they might one day pursue teaching careers.

Formerly known as the Strong 21st Century Communications Magnet School, BOMUS became a magnet school six years ago. The school is pre-K through fourth grade.

The redesigned school reopened in Jan-

uary 2020 but was closed shortly afterwards due to the pandemic. That put any official opening ceremony on hold.

BOMUS was also in part established to offer students a full-circle journey of attending elementary school then later returning to pursue higher education all in the same place.

SCSU President Joe Bertolino described the partnership as the institution’s “responsibility in and of the community.”

“To the Owlets in the back of the room, I am very much looking forward to you becoming Owls in the next several years, because all you’ll need to do is walk down the street,” he said, referring to the SCSU mascot fowl.

Southern is the leader in training the most teachers in the state, Bertolino reported.

Bertolino and SCSU Dean of Education Stephen Hegedus each gifted a miniature plush Southern owl to BOMUS and its young scholars.

The lineup of speakers included Superintendent Iline Tracey, Bertolino, Hegedus, Mayor Justin Elicker, NHPS Board President Yesenia Rivera, BOMUS Principal Jamie Baker, students Nagedlie Da-

MAYA MCFADDEN PHOTO Sunday's ribbon cutting ceremony.

vid and Yamileth Barranco, and U.S. Rep. Jahana Hayes.

Speakers thanked former Mayor Toni Harp, former Superintendent Reginald Mayo, and former Board of Education Presidents Carlos Torre and Darnell Goldson for working on the project as

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well over the years. Rivera credited Goldson for suggesting the idea to dedicate the school to President Barack Obama.

The BOMUS student choir and SCSU Steppin’ Up Drill Team joined the celebration to give musical performances.

Principal Baker described the NHPS/

SCSU partnership as one that “rattles the narrative.”

She said BOMUS allows scholars to dream big with confidence and enhances student access.

Baker recited an Obama quote; “For too many students in America, zip code still determines how far they’ll go. And that’s not acceptable.”

BOMUS will teach new educators how to teach in an “urban classroom,” Baker said.

“College is no longer unobtainable. It does not have to be the leap of faith that I had to take without a safety net,” she added.

BOMUS fourth-grade students Nagedlie David and Yamileth Barranco said they have enjoyed being on the SCSU campus this school year.

“We have many Southern students coming and helping us learn and grow, as they do the same. Ironically my sister now has to share her college campus with me,” said David.

Hayes told the Sunday crowd that she skipped church to celebrate her alma mater.

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THE INNER-CITY NEWS - May 04, 2022 - May 10, 2022

Battle Of The Chefs Promotes Community In Dwight

by LISA REISMAN

New Haven Independent

It was a battle of Afrotina ’s Latin-flavored southern cuisine versus Eat Up ’s Italian-inspired soul food cuisine: Chef Ohioma Odihirin’s Sazon chicken took on Chef Bryan Burkett-Thompson’s mumbo chicken, and Chef O’s homemade Voodoo sauce vied with Chef BB’s pineapple salsa.

That contest took place Saturday afternoon at the first annual Battle of the Chefs at Kenia Massey’s Black Corner Store on Edgewood Avenue.

The big winner of the day, staged in the store’s backyard as the T-shirts of the Eat Up team read, was community, as a host of activities in addition to the official cook-off brought neighbors together.

The event’s primary mission was “to bring a neighborhood back together through food, music, and entertainment,” Massey, aka “Ms. Kay,” said as roughly 35 guests enjoyed the dueling dishes at picnic tables amid a mesquite aroma wafting through the late-April air.

Each guest had paid $30 for the feast, the entertainment, the camaraderie, and the right to decide whose dishes would prevail. Funds raised will go back into the operation of the Black Corner Store, Massey said.

The event was a natural extension of the mission of the store, which Massey and her husband Michael opened last June. In addition to the snacks, sweets, and accessories lining the shelves, they serve free meals to children and offer clothing, toys, and shoes to anyone in need.

“Switch!” emcee Ife Michelle Gardin called out during the cook-off. “Now, everybody on this side will get Eat Up’s chicken, and everybody on that side will get Afrotina’s.”

She instructed the crowd to record their preference on a card, along with any comments or thoughts.

Jim Nicholas of the Black Business Alliance was among the three judges, along with the popular Connecticut food blogger Allison Carasone, and Topic King of Harp’s Bar & Grille in West Haven.

Comedian Melissa “Mizz Conduct” Elmore performed at the event as well.

“I think this is a phenomenal idea,” Elmore said after her act, which covered topics ranging from her weight-loss woes to dating tips to her travails as a single mother.

“Nowadays, folks need a push. They’ve been in the house for so long, people are accustomed to doing their own thing. So now it’s like: Let’s get outside. Let’s reconnect,” she said.

Over on the Platt Street side of the corner store, Dawn Taylor-Groom of D.L.T.G. Groom Collection, assisted by her son Gregory Byrd, was vending her homemade bracelets, hairpins, rings, and earrings.

“I love this idea of getting people together, because it gets people out and you get to know people and socialize,” said

Eat Up's Isaiah Pinion, Bryan Burkett-Thompson, and Kristen Threatt.

Black Corner Store owners Kenia and Michael Massey.

Chef Bryan Burkett-Thompson, Kenia Massey, emcee Ife Michelle Gardin, and Chef Ohioma Odihirin.

Taylor-Groom, who lived on Edgewood Avenue for over 18 years.

“People, get some bling from Dawn for church tomorrow,” Gardin was saying from the backyard. “And for those of you ready for dessert, check out the peach cobbler.”

The peach cobbler was from Carleene Lake’s Peachy Leen, which was also offering vegan ice cream and cake cups. On Lake’s head was a crown. It was her birth-

day.

“My ice cream is vegan. I don’t use a lot of sugar,” she said. “And I do my own twist on cake cups.”

“Peach cobbler for my sister, my cousin, and myself,” Marvena Best told her, as Lake’s mother, Adjoe Gzifa, handed out samples to customers.

“We’re getting exposure because we have something to offer,” Lake said, adding that The Black Corner Store was in-

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terested in selling her ice cream.

By then, spoken word poet Tahj Galberth was performing “Racially Charged” in the backyard.

“I came from the spray of firehoses from a country that craved free speech/ I came from the life of a house maid who had to raise a white family’s children instead of her own,” he recited.

“Spaces like these are where I feel most comfortable,” he said afterward, as he finished a small plate of Afrotina’s Sazon chicken. “Any spaces where community is able to commune is really nice and not only to network, but to share space and learn about what someone else is about.”

“And they gave us food too,” poet Jaala Welch said with a smile: she had just performed her poem “Body.” “And both dishes were so good.”

“Thank you, Miss Kay, for community,” emcee Gardin was saying. “And we want to say happy birthday to the beautiful cake lady.”

Everyone cheered.

“Could you put on the Stevie Wonder one?” Gardin asked DJ R-NICE. “In this community, we sing the Stevie Wonder version.”

Everyone broke into full-throated happy birthday song.

“Did everyone get something to eat?”

Gardin asked when the song was over.

“Did everyone get their cards in?”

Meanwhile, the Masseys headed into the store to tabulate the votes. “It was all good.”

With that, DJ Ryan turned up the tunes.

Several in the crowd grooved to The Wobble. A father in a Didi Gregorius Yankees jersey played with his infant daughter.

“That’s my cardio for the day,” said Elmore, the comedian, as she collapsed into her place at the picnic table, a wide grin on her face.

Fifteen minutes later, Gardin was calling for order.

“This is the moment we’ve all been waiting for,” she announced. “The vote was close, which means everyone liked everything.”

The result: Eat Up took home both trophies, prevailing in the critical and popular vote for its mumbo chicken with black bean cilantro rice and pineapple salsa.

“But that Voodoo sauce,” Gardin added, referring to the topping on Afrotina’s Sazon chicken with herb rice and corn.

“That is where it’s at.”

Massey, who’s also an event planner, said her plan is to produce Battle of the Chefs on a regular basis.

“Hopefully, next year we have 20 of these events in a bigger spot,” she said.

“I love the fact that Ms. Kay is always thinking about good things to do, and making sure everyone’s a little more aware and everyone’s also comfortable and feeling safe,” said neighbor Marinda Hannans, referring to Massey.

“There’s just a good feeling all over today.”

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THE INNER-CITY NEWS - May 04, 2022 - May 10, 2022

Sisters’ Journey May Survivor of the Month - Barbara White Clemons

In October 1997, I was diagnosed with breast cancer. I have now been a survivor for 25 years. I hope my story will be an encouragement for someone.

The day of my diagnosis will always be a vivid memory for me. I worked the second shift and had my doctor’s appointment before my shift began. Thinking I was going for a regular visit, I was surprised when I was told that my left breast did not look good. My doctor made an appointment with a surgeon who confirmed after a biopsy that I had cancer in my left breast. I left the office that day with only negative thoughts. I went to work without sharing my news with anyone, not even my family. I thought back to one day when I was showering and my left breast was a fiery red. This had happened a few times but I never thought anything of it because it never lasted, and I had never experienced any pain. It was at this point that I realized that everyone should always pay attention to the signs that their body exhibits.

Praying for healing mercies, I accepted my illness, saying, “Why not me?” I then only told my immediate family. I was not ashamed of my illness. I only wanted to be treated with the same attitude as I had

always received. I wanted to continue living life as I had done in the past. This attitude cleared my mind of the diagnosis of cancer, and I knew that I would be fine!

Accepting this also meant that I must follow all of the do’s and don’ts that were given to me by my doctors. Even though some things might be hard, nothing would be worse than not living.

After completing the tests, it was confirmed that I had Stage 2 breast cancer. By this time, I was able to accept the news and keep positive thoughts. My adult children would only ask how the visits were.

Their attitudes of not dwelling on the negative supported my positive thoughts.

My daughter went with me to the doctor visits and carefully researched breast cancer so that we were well informed of the information that was provided to us. I was given the choice of lumpectomy or mastectomy. I chose the lumpectomy and that went well for me.

After the surgery, I received chemotherapy and only experienced a few side effects. I was never sick. Making my appointments on Thursday allowed me to be fine on Sunday and attend church.

During my chemotherapy sessions, there were people there who I became friendly

with, and we kept each other in good spirits mostly by making jokes about our hair loss. The doctor had explained I would lose my hair as well as other side effects of the chemotherapy. On my next visit, he was surprised that I still had hair.

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Well, there was a New Year’s Eve dance that I was going to with my friend.

My daughter was doing my hair and it was then that it started to come out in clumps. Laughing through this hair-do, we grabbed some hair spray and placed

the hair in the spaces and sprayed it stiffly back in place. My daughter told me not to touch my hair. I made it through the evening by being careful not to touch it. Since I always wore hats, it was a perfect cover up and no one knew I had lost my hair.

My place of work was closing and there was no longer a dress code, so I wore caps to cover my hair loss. Be thankful, your hair will come back.

Going through radiation also caused loss of body hair. Thank goodness for eyebrow pencils, mascara and other makeup.

The heat from the radiation also caused scaring and left dye on my bras. The ointment given to me completely cleared the scaring and my body hair returned lightly.

A good wash of the bras took the dye out.

I felt good as new!

Since 1997, medical science has improved and procedures are different. I still discipline myself to follow my doctor’s orders by having my annual mammogram, eating healthy, examining my breasts and exercising by walking. Keep your faith and happily live each day knowing that you will be fine. Know that you are a survivor and can help someone else!

Ribbon Cut On 299 New Luxury Apts THE INNER-CITY NEWS - May 04, 2022 - May 10, 2022

by THOMAS BREEN

New Haven Independent

New Haven’s building boom continued apace — with the official opening of 299 new luxury apartments at the recently built Olive & Wooster complex on the downtown edge of Wooster Square.

Mayor Justin Elicker, New York Citybased developer Darren Seid, Hill Alder Carmen Rodriguez, and economic development officials and boosters gathered in a second-floor common area of the new complex Wednesday to cut the ribbon on the new apartment building at 87 Union St. Seid, whose company Epimoni co-developed the project with the fellow New York City-based firm Adam America, said that the first tenants started moving in to the six-story, 299-unit complex last November.

The building is currently 30 percent leased up. He also said that monthly rents range from $1,200 per bed in some of the “co-living”-style four-bedroom apartments to around $3,000 per two-bedroom apartment to over $6,200 for the most expensive and largest apartments.

The building contains a mix of studio, one-bedroom, two-bedroom, three-bedroom, and four-bedroom units.

Imagine what this stretch of Olive Street

THOMAS BREEN PHOTOS Builder Seid (center with scissors) and Mayor Elicker at ribbon cutting.

on the downtown edge of Wooster Square looked like five years ago, Elicker said.

“It is ridiculous the way that the community has changed here, and development has changed.”

That’s not just because of the 299 new luxury apartments at the now-open Olive & Wooster. It’s also because of the still

under-construction 230 new market-rate apartments that a Houston-based firm is currently buildng right next door at the former Comcast site on Chapel Street.

A Philadelphia-based developer, meanwhile, recently won rezoning approval of an adjacent surface parking lot on Chapel Street, where it plans to build a new

13-story apartment tower. And just to the south of Olive & Wooster, Seid’s New York-based company has already won city approval to build another 185 new market-rate apartments along Fair Street.

“There are so many developments in the pipeline,” Elicker said. These hundreds of new apartments will help bring down

rents and the current “pressure on the housing market” citywide, he predicted.

City Deputy Economic Development Administrator Carlos Eyzaguirre agreed.

“This is really larger than just 300 units in the neighborhood,” he said about Wednesday’s ribbon cutting. “It really speaks to a larger reconnection of the downtown to Wooster Square, and of downtown to the Hill.”

Hill Alder Carmen Rodriguez, whose ward stretches north to include the section of Wooster Square now home to the Olive & Wooster complex, praised Seid for making sure that “everyone has a seat at the table” when planning his neighborhood-transforming developments.

“You’ve done a lot of homework,” she said.

Apartment complexes that bring downtown, Wooster Square, and the Hill closer together, all right next door to transit hubs like Union Station and the State Street train station, Rodriguez said. “Who can ask for anything better?”

Eyzaguirre said that some version of this apartment complex at 87 Union St. has been in the works since 2014.

Adam America and Epimoni bought the site from local building Noel Petra and Westport developer David Adam ReCon’t on page 19

Solar Youth Names New Leader

by STAFF

New Haven Independent

A leading environment-themed youth program in the city, Solar Youth, has named a new executive director, Candace Wright (at left in photo).

The text of a release sent by the organization follows: Solar Youth has announced Candace Wright as its new executive director. Over the last 22 years, Solar Youth has served 3500+ New Haven youth, providing them with opportunities for creative problem solving, community and environmental service, and youth leadership development.

Wright, a New Haven native, has served as Solar Youth’s director of operations for 13 years and as its Interim executive director since July 1, 2021. Wright brings a unique set of skills and experiences to the role, having streamlined internal operations, mentored staff, and stewarded relationships in the New Haven community throughout her time at Solar Youth.

“This is an incredible opportunity for all of us in the New Haven community. Through the recent months of the pandemic, Candace has led Solar Youth courageously and whole-heartedly with a passion to justly serve youth in our community. We are thrilled that she will continue to drive

get there.”

“These past few years of what seems to be a never-ending pandemic greatly impacted our youth and families and yet, we remain resilient,” said Wright. “Many of our families have been in our programs for multiple generations. As we began our strategic vision planning, we are excited to reconnect with families. This next generation of leaders will continue the legacy of those before them, and I consider it a privilege to be a part of this journey with them,” said Wright.

There is a great longing for connection and opportunities for youth to experience joy. This summer for the second time we will continue our partnership with BCGNH in providing “Mashup Summer Camp.”

For further information or to get involved, please contact the Solar Youth office 203−387−4189. About Solar Youth — Solar Youth is a non-profit organization, founded in 2000. Its mission is to empower youth from New Haven’s low-income neighborhoods to achieve lifelong success.

Through programs that connect youth to the environment, their communities and each other, youth build the skills and motivations necessary to contribute positively to their community, create healthy relationships, maintain physical and mental health, and develop economic self-sufficiency.

Solar Youth’s impact,” said Board Chair Maria Angelita Gomez, who helped guide this transition in concert with the Solar Youth Board and Kia Levey Burden from Launch Consulting.

With Wright’s leadership, Solar Youth hopes to deepen and broaden its impact, invest in youth leadership within the organization, and place the needs of New Haven’s communities of color at the center of the organization. “Solar Youth has always been a constant presence and place of safety for youth and families of New Haven.

We are eager to resume our full programming, strengthen our partnerships, and create new opportunities for our stewards, teens, and alumni,” said Wright.

“I am extremely excited for Candace Wright to lead Solar Youth into its next phase,” said Joanne Sciulli, Founder of Solar Youth. Sciulli stepped down from her role of executive director at Solar Youth in 2021. “For over 12 years I witnessed the depth of her values, strength and resilience, and her drive to make positive change in her home community. Challenges do not sway her from keeping the core mission of Solar Youth in central focus. And as a result, more young people will have the opportunity to become architects of their own success, and build the connections that support them to

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THE INNER-CITY NEWS - May 04, 2022 - May 10, 2022

Staff Changes Spark Common Ground Protest

by MAYA MCFADDEN New Haven Independent

After a day of student-led protest, Common Ground High School’s board voted to allow the administration to discontinue contracts of four teachers at the end of the academic year amid a broader discussion of the school’s direction.

The vote took place Monday night at a virtual meeting of the school’s board of directors. Two hundred people attended.

Earlier in the day, students protested on the campus of the West Rock environmental-themed charter high school. Students walked out in support of the four teachers — Win Vitkowsky, Allison Hornak, Leonardo Cisija, and Rikki Brown — who were each sent email notices a week ago informing them each that their teaching positions will not be renewed.

An additional seven teachers were notified that their positions are being considered for termination.

Before the Monday night vote took place , dozens of students, staff, and parents spoke during the meeting’s public comment portion to denounce the plan.

On the verge of tears 2015 graduate Stephanie Torres said one teacher is the godparent of one of her kids.

“It’s just really frustrating to hear that you’re letting go of loyal staff members who understand and value what Common Ground represents,” she told the board.

Teachers argued that they received no explanation from administration for the non-renewals.

New Haven teachers’ union President Leslie Blatteau expressed solidarity with the Common Ground educators. “How can this high school, Common Ground, be making a conscious choice to eliminate teaching positions when everywhere else is so focused on hiring and retaining teachers?” Blatteau argued. “It leads us to

believe that these cuts are connected to brave and inspiring union organizing and advocacy that took place last year.“ Charter Ground Executive Director Monica Maccera-Filppu and High School Director Cherry Pacquette-Emmanuel explained to the community and teachers that the plan to not renew up to one-third of the teachers’ contracts is to restructure the school’s staff numbers to where they were pre-pandemic. They added that they are within legal rights to take the action, and were following a “statutory requirement” to give notice of a plan to not renew contracts of those who are not appointed tenure.

They cite budget pressures facing the school as the pandemic-relief money runs out.

Maccera-Filppu said Brown’s position in the math department is to be eliminated next school year as a part of reduction efforts to the department. Cisija’s positon will also be eliminated from the math department; it was noted that he is not tenured or certified for the position.

Vitkowsky’s contract is being considered for non-renewal because of performance concerns, she said. Hornak’s art position is being terminated and the teacher lacks tenure and position certification, she said.

The board voted 7−3−3 to approve the administrative restructuring plan, including providing legal notice to the teachers of non-renewals of their contracts for the 2022 – 23 school year.

“We did not get to pick and choose to say that we want one particular teacher versus the other. We really had to look at who’s tenured and who’s not, and those who are not tenured are the ones that would have to exit first,” Pacquette-Emmanuel said.

The administration’s restructuring plan comes as a result of needing to increase special education and social worker staff-

DISHA PATEL PHOTOS Students protesting Monday in support of teachers facing nonrenewals.

ing next school year amid budget limitations, Pacquette-Emmanuel said.

Maccera-Filppu added that the school’s $600,000 Covid relief funds are running out. She said she plans to give an in-depth budget presentation at the May board meeting.

“We have to prepare a budget that looks pretty much like it did pre-pandemic. We can’t go back to a scenario where we do not make the investments in our students’ mental health and we’re not educating the whole child,” Pacquette-Emmanuel said.

The administration decided that new staffing must address pandemic-related needs.

Board members debated before the vote with arguments in favor of approving the non-renewals as a way to provide the most options once the budget is complete.

Beth Klingher, who voted yes to the nonrenewals, argued the administration can always “hire people back.”

They also offered ideas like severance pay and certification opportunities for the staff.

Several speakers in the public hearing portion argued that the non-renewal choices were made in retaliation to teachers’ vote in the fall to unionize with local 2110 of the United Auto Workers.

“This is not a witch hunt. This has nothing to do with unionizing,” PacquetteEmmanuel responded.

Parents and students testified Monday that the loss of several committed teachers would “destabilize the school” and give students one less reason to view school as a safe space.

Teacher Emily Schmidt argued that with the student population growing, instructional staff should be increased too.

Former students testified that several of the teachers being considered for nonrenewls saved their lives by helping them

fight depression, build confidence, get their first jobs, and supported them like family while students.

“If you take away the teachers that make it a safe space, it’s a tragedy,” said alum Emma Hausler.

Common Ground teacher A’Lexus Williams expressed solidarity with her colleagues: “The fiscal issues or rather fiscal irresponsibility at the hands of the executive director — that has been a main justification for these recommended reductions. [They] should not fall on the shoulders of those that did not create the problems.”

Current student Emerson Zecena said being taught by teachers like Mel Morales strengthened his personal confidence: “I longed to see a teacher who looked like me, shared similar culture, and even spoke the same language as I did.”

The celebration took place Sunday morning at the church on Fountain Street.

The parish had previously occupied buildings on lower Fountain and Emerson Streets before the current building was erected in 1922 under the supervision of Father John McGivney (brother of Knights of Columbus Founder Father Michael McGivney), to serve a growing Catholic population in Westville.

In what is a national trend, Catholic church attendance has declined in Westville, and citywide, in the last decades. The result has been mergers: St. Brendan’s on Whalley merged with St. Aedan’s a decade ago.

The convent building on the southern end of the campus was sold in 2021 to developers.

That change, and the challenge of revitalization, were on the mind Sunday of Judy Rodican, who was arriving early for the mass’s choir practice.

“I grew up in this parish,” she said. Her mom taught at the St. Aedan’s school for 30 years.

“We’ve seen lots of changes. Back then, a hundred years ago, families supported the church. Now families are smaller, and younger people don’t go to church. It used to be at Christmas the church was filled and the overflow was in the school. We don’t have that anymore.”

Yet, Rodican added, “Church is church, and I am dedicated to this place.”

In addition to Archbishop Blair, St. Ae-

St. Aedan’s Marks Centennial

by ALLAN APPEL

New Haven Independent

When the apostles sent out their nets at the shore of Lake Tiberias, according to the Book of John -– ultimately a metaphor to become “fishers of men” –- there were no real ichthyological prey to be caught.

When they came to believe and to give witness, then they filled their nets. And, thanks to God, there was a big catch.

That was the apt homily for how to keep rebuilding the Catholic community in Westville and the heart of the message of Archbishop Leonard Blair as he celebrated mass in front of 200 of the faithful on the occasion of Westville’s St. Aedan’s and St. Brendan Parish’s main building’s 100th anniversary.

ALLAN APPEL PHOTO Judy Rodican outside church on Sunday.

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100 Rally For Abortion Rights THE INNER-CITY NEWS - May 04, 2022 - May 10, 2022

by MAYA MCFADDEN New Haven Independent

In the wake of a reported pending U.S. Supreme Court decision to outlaw Roe v.

Wade, New Haven activist are demanding that the nation follow in the footsteps of countries like Colombia, Argentina, and Mexico where abortion is a protected human right.

Those cries from protesters echoed over the New Haven Green Tuesday during a city rally calling for “Safe and Legal Abortion “and “Bans Off Our Bodies” organized by Unidad Latina en Acción (ULA), Workers’ Voice CT, and Socialist Revolution.

More than 100 demonstrators stood on the steps of the federal courthouse on 141 Church St. to protest the recent draft of a majority opinion written by conservative Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito suggesting that the nation strike down Roe, which established a federal constitutional right to an abortion. If the court issues that decision in final form, abortion will become largely illegal or access greatly restricted in states throughout the nation.

Leading the speaking program were ULA organizers Rosalba Montoya, Megan Fountain, and Nayeli Garcia.

The rally leaders reminded the crowd of the mass protests in Poland, Ireland, Colombia, Argentina, and Mexico in recent years that resulted in laws allowing safe access to abortions for all.

Together the crowd chanted;

MAYA MCFADDEN PHOTO Protestors at courthouse Tuesday.

“Abortion is a human right” “Health care is a human right” “Mi cuerpo, mi decisión” (“My body, my choice”) “What do we want? Free abortion.

When do we want it? Now!” Speakers included a “pro-choice gynecologist,” nursing students, and others, some of whom told stories about being assaulted and needing to get an abortion as a result. Dozens took the microphone

one by one in support of free, safe, and legal abortion for their friends and families.

Party for Socialism and Liberation member Kirill Staklo took the mic to add that “we need a new system that defends people’s human rights.”

“And in the state of Connecticut, where we might feel safe, this [decision], if it happens the way that it is threatening to be happening, sets a very dangerous president for anybody who care about pri-

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vacy and anybody who cares about bodily autonomy,” Staklo added. “No Supreme Court is supreme enough to be supreme over the law of the people.”

Crowd members held signs reading “Stay out of my uterus” and “Keep your laws off my body.”

“When we say banning abortion, what we’re actually saying is forced birth,” argued one speaker. She added that as a nursing student she has seen people get

abortions because they weren’t taught sex education or lacked access to birth control.

“What the hell party wants to have a 13-year-old girl give birth to their father’s baby? What the fuck is up with that?” said another speaker.

One 70-year-old speaker took the mic to share that 50 years ago she had an illegal abortion. “Let me tell you, it was hell,” she said. “Believe me. I had to have it.”

She said she traveled to Nebraska to get the procedure and said she was sexually molested by the abortionist.

“We can’t go back to women dying with hangers,” she said.

After an hour of attendees taking the microphone to voice their support for abortion rights and personal experiences with abortion the crowd took it to the streets and marched to Yale’s Cross Campus.

Another speaker named Ponce said she use to be “pro-life” and at age 10 would stand outside of Planned Parenthood protesting with her parents and church that “life is a gift.”

That changed when she was assaulted, she said.

“When I was assaulted, where was the church for me when I needed them?” she said. “They only care about life in the imagination. What happens to the children whenever they’re left and they’re put into the foster system?”

“Is my life not as precious as those life in the womb?” Ponce said.

THE INNER-CITY NEWS - May 04, 2022 - May 10, 2022

Trailblazing Black Press Journalists Remembered with Special White House Correspondents Honor

By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent Alice Dunnigan, a Kentucky-born granddaughter of slaves and Ethel Payne, the renown ‘First Lady of the Black Press, received posthumous honors during the 2022 White House Correspondents Association’s (WHCA) dinner.

Dunnigan and Payne, both of whom penned articles for the Chicago Defender, earned recognition from the WHCA, who established the Dunnigan-Payne Prize for Lifetime Career Achievement in their names, honoring each as the initial recipients.

The WHCA announced they would present the award, which recognizes meritorious service throughout an individual’s career as a White House correspondent, periodically.

During a black-tie gala at the Washington Hilton on Saturday, April 30, Gayle King of CBS Mornings presented the award to relatives of Dunnigan and Payne, who died in 1983 and 1991 respectively.

“This association of White House reporters has never given its due to these two pioneering WHCA members who paved the way for so many,” said WHCA president Steven Portnoy.

“We are proud to see to it that Alice Dunnigan and Ethel Payne will be forever remembered for their service to the profession and to the American public.”

In 1947, Dunnigan became the first African American female reporter to be credentialed at the White House.

Blacks in Virginia Beach Are Closing the Wealth Gap

By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent

Virginia Beach landed on the top spot of cities where African Americans fare best economically and where Black businesses thrive.

According to the personal finance website Smart Asset, Virginia Beach also has the seventh-highest median Black household income, at roughly $65,600, and the sixthhighest Black labor force participation rate, at 78.7 percent.

A few years later, Payne joined her and both women reportedly distinguished themselves during the presidency of Dwight Eisenhower.

The WHCA said the two regularly pressed him at news press conferences – when no other reporters would – about his administration’s support for civil rights for Black Americans.

Eisenhower insisted that he eschewed racial discrimination, and that his administration was aiming to do what was “decent and just.”

But in the summer of 1954, in response to a question about whether Black Americans could count on his support for a ban on segregation in interstate travel, Eisenhower sternly told Payne that he would not act “to support any particular or special group of any kind.”

The moment – which occurred just two months after the Supreme Court’s Brown v. Board of Education ruling – sparked the headline in the Washington Evening

Star: “President Annoyed by Query On Travel Race Ban Support.”

Dunnigan repeatedly asked Eisenhower about segregated schools on military bases in the south, as well as the president’s overall support of civil rights legislation.

The President eventually stopped calling on the two women at his press conferences.

During President John F. Kennedy’s first news conference in 1961, Dunnigan asked about Black sharecroppers who were being evicted from their land in Tennessee simply for registering to vote.

Jet Magazine reported it was the first time Dunnigan had been called on in two years.

“In the face of the racism and sexism of the era, these two women fearlessly brought the concerns of their readers directly to the most powerful man in the world,” Portnoy said.

“It is our honor to lift up their legacies.”

The statistics reflect 2019, the most recent data available.

Grand Prairie, Texas; Aurora, Illinois; Pembroke Pines, Florida; and Miramar, Florida, comprised the other cities in the top 5.

Charlotte, North Carolina; Garland, Texas; Durham, North Carolina; Enterprise, Nevada, and Elk Grove, California, rounded out the top 10.

The report noted the struggles of African Americans in homeownership and the overall wealth gap.

“Census data from 2019 shows that the median Black household income is 33 percent lower than the overall median household income.

Stephanie Horan wrote for Smart Asset that the Black homeownership rate is 22 percentage points lower than the general homeownership rate.”

She noted the Federal Reserve’s 2019 Survey of Consumer Finances data on wealth accumulation, depicting even starker disparities.

may 4-5, 2022

That data places Black families’ net worth at 87 percent lower than white families and 33 percent lower than Hispanic families.

For Virginia Beach, Census Bureau data revealed that the 2019 poverty rate for Black residents stood at 10 percent, the fourth-lowest in Smart Asset’s study.

More than 5 percent of businesses are Black-owned in the Virginia BeachNorfolk-Newport News metro area, the seventh-highest percentage overall for that metric.

Smart Asset officials reported that preliminary 2020 estimates show that Black Americans have been disproportionately affected by the health impacts of COVID-19 and its corresponding economic effects.

The authors wrote: “The regional economic effects of COVID-19 on Black Americans are difficult to determine due to insufficient localized data, but the available national data paints a grim picture: Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data shows that as of December 2020, the Black unemployment rate was 3.9 and 3.2 percentage points higher than the white and overall unemployment rates, respectively.”

The Black labor force participation rate was about 2.0 percentage points lower than both white and overall participation rates.

Horan offered three financial tips for African Americans, including checking if homeownership made sense, opening a retirement account, and considering a financial advisor.

“A financial advisor can help you make smarter financial decisions to control your money better,” Horan wrote. “SmartAsset’s free tool matches you with financial advisors in your area in five minutes.”

Many returning and new donor incentives, including a special match pool from The Black Futures Fund for participating Black-led and Black-serving nonprofits.

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THE INNER-CITY NEWS - May 04, 2022 - May 10, 2022

HBCU Student Business Pitch Competition Deadline Nears Ally- and TMCF-hosted Moguls in the Making event will award $185,000 in scholarships, paid internships and hands-on business lessonsStudents must register by May 15 for program

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Ally Financial Inc. and the Thurgood Marshall College Fund (TMCF), the largest organization exclusively representing the Black College community, are closing in on the final weeks of registering students for the fourth annual Moguls in the Making pitch competition. Students must apply online by May 15 for program consideration. Sixty students will be selected to compete, earning an opportunity to learn vital business skills, while competing for valuable scholarships and paid internships.

To participate, students must be current, full-time rising sophomores, juniors or seniors in good standing at a Historically Black College or University (HBCU) or a Predominently Black Institution (PBI) and must have a minimum cumulative 3.0 GPA. To apply or get more details, students should go to https://www.ally.com/go/moguls/ or https://www.tmcf.org/students-alumni/ entrepreneurship/moguls-in-the-making/.

To help students better understand the program, Ally and TMCF will hold a virtual session via the Handshake college recruiting platform on May 12. The 90-minute session will start at 6 p.m.

ET. Former Moguls participants will be on hand to answer questions.

During the Moguls in the Making competition, which will take place Sept. 15-

18, students will be grouped into teams of four from 15 HBCUs and asked to develop and pitch business ideas that promote economic mobility in Charlotte. The teams will pitch their ideas to a panel of judges from the business community with each member of the top three winning teams earning scholarships for $20,000, $10,000 and $5,000 respectively as well as guaranteed paid internship offers from Ally, a laptop and other prizes. All students from each of the 12 other teams will earn $1,000 scholarships for their participation in the rigorous challenge.

“We’re looking forward to another year of dynamic energy and creativity from the HBCU students who give their all to develop innovative and viable business ideas that can have incredible impact on communities,” said Natalie Brown, director of Corporate Citizenship at Ally. “Moguls in the Making attracts students who are eager to grow and want to be future corporate leaders and top entrepreneurs.”

Moguls in the Making (MITM) was developed in 2019 to provide HBCU students with career-launching business experience, networking access to executives and internships and scholarships, while also giving Ally a new path for reaching diverse talent. Since MITM launched three years ago, Ally has hired 36 of the participants as interns

and 12 as full-time employees, working on teams across the company, from IT and marketing to product design and development. The digital financial services company has awarded $356,000 in scholarships through the program since 2019.

Last year’s winning idea from the North Carolina A&T team focused on a new way to generate power locally to lower electric bills for residents in low income neighborhoods. Other winning ideas involved using technology to improve high school graduation rates, help people get jobs in skilled trades and provide health care for the uninsured.

TMCF is a natural fit for Ally’s initiatives, given to its history of success in supporting nearly 300,000 students who attend HBCUs and Predominantly Black Institutions (PBIs). Since its founding in 1987, TMCF has awarded over $300 million in scholarships and boasts a 90% graduation rate for students in its programs.

“We are proud of our relationship with Ally and fully support the next generation of leaders from HBCUs, institutions that play a critical role in ensuring young people of color are not left behind,” said TMCF Chief Programs Officer Eric D. Hart, Ed.D. “Moguls in the Making provides additional opportunities for students of color which will ultimately lead to a more diverse workforce, both

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at Ally and beyond.”

The Moguls competition was cited

by Fast Company as a reason Ally was named 6th on its 2021 list of Best Workplaces for Innovators, which recognizes companies that foster creative cultures.

About the Thurgood Marshall College Fund (TMCF) Established in 1987, the Thurgood Marshall College Fund (TMCF) is the nation’s largest organization exclusively representing the Black College Community. TMCF member-schools include the publicly-supported Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Predominantly Black Institutions, enrolling nearly 80% of all students attending black colleges and universities.

Through scholarships, capacity building and research initiatives, innovative programs, and strategic partnerships, TMCF is a vital resource in the PK-12 and higher education space. The organization is also the source of top employers seeking top talent for competitive internships and good jobs.

TMCF is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt, charitable organization. For more information about TMCF, visit: www.tmcf.org.

About Ally Financial Ally Financial Inc. (NYSE: ALLY) is a digital financial services company committed to its promise to “Do It Right”

for its consumer, commercial and corporate customers. Ally is composed of an industry-leading independent auto finance and insurance operation, an award-winning digital direct bank (Ally Bank, Member FDIC and Equal Housing Lender, which offers mortgage lending, point-of-sale personal lending, and a variety of deposit and other banking products), a consumer credit card business, a corporate finance business for equity sponsors and middle-market companies, and securities brokerage and investment advisory services. Our brand conviction is that we are all better off with an ally, and our focus is on helping our customers achieve their strongest financial well-being, a notion personalized to what is important to them. For more information, please visit www. ally.com and follow @allyfinancial.

For more information and disclosures about Ally, visit https://www.ally. com/#disclosures.

Moguls in the Making (MITM) was developed in 2019 to provide HBCU students with career-launching business experience, networking access to executives and internships and scholarships, while also giving Ally a new path for reaching diverse talent. (Photo: 2021 Winners, the North Carolina A&T State University Team: Claudia Duverglas, Darren Rippy, Joshua Weaver, Kameran Harris, Lance Davis)

THE INNER-CITY NEWS - May 04, 2022 - May 10, 2022

She Lives Through You: 8 Ways To Honor Your Mom’s Memory On Mother’s Day

by Elizabeth Overstreet, BlackDoctor.org Contributor

When you’ve lost your mother – whether by death, abandonment or other painful circumstances – birthdays and holidays can be the hardest days to get through, especially Mother’s Day. This time of year is one of solace, reflection and grief, making the holiday even more difficult for you.

There is a saying, “Grief is just love with nowhere to go.” Right now, you likely want to reminisce, laugh and cry all at the same time. It’s okay to grieve, no matter how many years have passed.

Recognize that these emotions are normal because of the close bond between a mother and child. Because of this, you will always miss your mother.

However, there are some ways you can still honor and celebrate your mother even if she is not physically in your life.

1. Find a cause which honors your mom. Honor your mom through a cause in which she was passionate about during her life. Was your mom active with homeless shelters? Did she love animals, spend time helping children through a specific organization? Look

up your mom’s cause on a website and see how you can help this particular organization. Pay homage to your mom by finding a way to spend time volunteering at the organization. If your time is limited, you can also make a donation to this nonprofit.

2. Plant a tree or garden in her memory. You can visit a nursery or local store that sells plants or trees and plant a tree in your mom’s honor. You can also use a nonprofit like National Arbor Day Foundation to have a tree planted in memory of your mother. This is a way to create a lasting memory of your mom.

3. Cook your favorite childhood meal.

If there was a special dish your mom made for you as a kid, prepare it and share it with your family and friends along with the memories that made that particular meal special to you. Spend time swapping stories about your childhood that make you laugh and remember the qualities that made mom special to all of you.

4. Post your favorite photos and memories of your mom on social media.

Reach out to your family and friends and ask them to share their memories and photos as well. This will help you

recall many of the fond memories and positive experiences you shared with your mom. You will be surprised by the many memories your mom created for you and others as well.

5. Spend time with your family members. Use this time with your loved ones to catch up, share family memories and talk about those things that made your mom so lovable and appreciated by all of you. Embrace your family connection, time and love that all of you have for one another. This will help you to celebrate the family union that your mom helped to create.

6. Get back in touch with nature. Use Mother’s Day to reconnect with nature and also as a way to collect your thoughts and feelings. Go to the beach, take a hike along a trail, visit the botanical gardens or your local park. Give yourself time in a peaceful environment outside to take in the beauty of nature.

Not only will this give you some time for reflection, but also some time to reconnect with nature and yourself without distractions.

7. Write a letter to your mom. Take some time to write a letter to your mom.

Tell her all of the new things that have

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been going on in your life. Share with her how much you miss her and appreciate everything she has done for you.

If you become emotional while writing this letter, it’s ok to release those feelings. It will feel cathartic to get how you are feeling down on paper. You can then choose to do what you like with the letter. You can keep it, release it, or save it and re-read it on a future Mother’s Day. 8. Do something that you enjoy on Mother’s Day. If you want to grieve your mom’s passing, this is fine. If you want to pamper yourself with something you enjoy doing like a spa treatment, a meal at a favorite restaurant, or something of that nature, go ahead and do what makes you happy. Mom would understand that you miss and love her, but in taking care of yourself, it is helping you be happier which is every mom’s goal for her child.

Your mom may not be with you physically, but she will always be active in your memories and heart. Taking time to honor and celebrate your mom will help you to grieve for her in a respectful and loving way. Your mom would love the fact that you are doing exactly that for her!

THE INNER-CITY NEWS - May 04, 2022 - May 10, 2022

As Midterms Get Closer, January 6 Committee Chair Talks Next Steps

By Lauren Victoria Burke, NNPA Newswire Contributor

Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS), the Chair of the House select committee investigating the January 6 Capitol Hill insurrection, stated that there will be at least eight hearings during the month of June.

Though he did not confirm that former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and advisor to Donald Trump would testify in front of the committee.

Thompson did indicate that a few of Trump’s relatives could be called to testify.

The investigation of the attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021 has gone slow. The Department of Justice, led by Attorney General Merrick Garland, has yet to make a major arrest in the attack.

photo: Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS), the Chair of the House select committee investigating the January 6 Capitol Hill insurrection.

House Committee Plans Hearing on

Members of Congress have been implicated in the planning of the attack with protest organizers connected to “stop the steal,” an organization falsely claiming that the 2020 election in which President Joe Biden won by 7 million votes over Trump, was somehow “stolen.”

Chairman Thompson told reporters on April 29 that were members of Congress the committee has reached out to already but there will be more. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy is one of the members who will likely be called to testify. Others include Reps. Scott Perry (R-PA) and Jim Jordan (R-OH). Specific dates have not been determined but one date remains unchanged: The date of November 8, 2022.

As the midterm elections close in, Democrats are faced with the challenge of having to pursue and complete a complex investigation that Republicans are likely

to immediately end if they take power in January 2023.

Republicans are already talking as if they are assured to win the midterm elections and take control of the U.S. House.

The U.S. Senate is 50-50 in terms of who supports each party including two Independents voting with the Democratic Party on major issues.

Thompson remains in an important position as he navigates the moves on the bipartisan investigative committee that includes two Republicans. The U.S. House is out of session the week of May 2.

Lauren Victoria Burke is an independent journalist and the host of the podcast BURKEFILE. She is a political analyst who appears regularly on #RolandMartinUnfiltered. She may be contacted at LBurke007@gmail.com and on twitter at @LVBurke

Rep. Adams and Williams Focus on Student Loan Debt, Biden Extends Moratorium

‘Underfunded’ and Operationally Challenged IRS

By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent

In March, the Internal Revenue Service reported being chronically underfunded for more than a decade, with its budget cut by nearly 20% since 2010.

The agency noted a “historically low level of funding,” which has resulted in operations not being equipped to provide adequate service.

Officials at the agency also noted that the pandemic had created new operational challenges, including the IRS being called upon to distribute three rounds of Economic Impact Payments to 85 percent of American households.

“These circumstances have created significant challenges. Entering a normal filing season, the IRS typically has well under one million pieces of inventory,” the agency said in a statement.

“This year, the IRS entered the filing season with a backlog more than 15 times as large.”

U.S. Rep. Gerald E. Connolly (DMass.), the chair of the Subcommittee on Government Operations, plans to hold a virtual hearing to examine the operations and financial condition of the IRS. National Taxpayer Advocate Erin Collins and IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig plan to participate in the hearing.

Officials plan to address how the agency will fare this tax season specifically.

He noted that the agency processes more than 150 million individual and business tax returns each year.

“But as it heads into the 2022 tax season, the agency is still struggling to ad-

dress a massive backlog of more than 23 million pieces of correspondence related to the 2020 tax season, including tax returns waiting to be processed, suspended returns, and returns that were amended,” Connolly noted in a news release.

In its 2021 Annual Report to Congress, the Taxpayer Advocate Service (TAS), an independent entity that ensures taxpayers are treated fairly by the IRS, called 2021 “the most challenging year taxpayers and tax professionals have ever experienced.”

According to the news release, the IRS has a long history of resource and staff shortages.

The agency realized a budget cut of about $929 million between the Fiscal Year (FY) 2014 and FY 2019.

The IRS workforce has been reduced by 22 percent since 2010, leaving one-third the number of enforcement agents and less than half the number of customer service representatives.

The coronavirus pandemic further strained the IRS, tasked with issuing more than $1.5 trillion in economic relief to qualifying individuals, families, and businesses and processing annual tax returns.

“Many Americans rely on their tax refunds to pay for food, childcare, medication, utilities, and other necessities,” Connolly noted.

“The hearing will examine ways Congress can ensure the IRS has the resources and staffing flexibilities it needs to effectively fulfill its duties with the 2022 tax season already underway.”

Rep. Alma Adams (D-NC) and Rep. Nikema Williams (D-GA)]

By Lauren Victoria Burke, NNPA Newswire Contributor On April 5, Rep. Alma Adams (D-NC) and Rep. Nikema Williams (D-GA), held a press event on legislation to provide student debt relief. Student loan debt payments were scheduled to resume on May 1, 2022 at the end of a moratorium, but the Biden Administration announced on April 5 that they will extend the moratorium.

Student loan debt impacts 41 million Americans and Adams and Williams pointed out that Black borrowers are disproportionately impacted.

Reps. Adams and Williams are leading on a series of bills focused on assisting borrowers with student loan debt. High student loan debt disproportionately is carried by Black women who then disproportionately earn less money which the members say continues to drive the wealth gap.

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Three bills have been offered by the Congresswomen: the Clean Slate Through Consolidation Act; the Clean Slate Through Repayment Act; and the Student Loan Rehabilitation and Credit Score Improvement Act. “I can tell you this with certainty: The debt is too damn high. Student debt is crippling generations of Americans.

Countless predatory practices have taken one of the most transformative human experiences – going to college and getting an education – and made it a burden.

Instead of making higher education a place to develop the mind, body, and soul, we’ve turned college and university into another barrier that keeps families out of the middle class,” Adams told a room full of reporters on Capitol Hill at a February 5, press conference.

“Any Gen Xer, Millennial, or recent college graduate knows how important that credit score can be when it comes to buying a car, opening a small business, ob-

taining a loan or line of credit, or applying for a mortgage,” Rep. Adams continued.

Adams was a professor at Bennett college for 40 years.

Rep. Williams mentioned that she herself has student loan debt that she will have to repay and emphasized that the Atlanta area, which she represents, is disproportionately impacted by the weight of student loan debt.

In December 2021, President Biden directed the Department of Education to pause federal student loan repayments.

On February 5, 2022, he extended the moratorium again.

Lauren Victoria Burke is an independent journalist and the host of the podcast BURKEFILE. She is a political analyst who appears regularly on #RolandMartinUnfiltered. She may be contacted at LBurke007@gmail.com and on twitter at @LVBurke

THE INNER-CITY NEWS - May 04, 2022 - May 10, 2022

Phoenix Suns Owner Robert Sarver’s Pivotal Gift to Historic Thurgood Marshall Center Trust in Washington, DC

By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent

A national landmark is getting new heating, ventilation, and air conditioning unit thanks to a generous gift from the owner of one of the best teams in the National Basketball Association.

The Thurgood Marshall Center Trust for Service and Heritage received a $100,000.00 donation from The Penny and Robert Sarver Charitable Foundation that will go a long way toward the new HVAC system before summer activities begin at the historic landmark located in Washington, D.C.’s Shaw neighborhood.

“We’d like to thank The Penny and Robert Sarver Charitable Foundation for their generous donation to assist in upgrading the HVAC system at the Thurgood Marshall Center,” said Thomasina Yearwood, the president of the Thurgood Marshall Center Trust, Inc. Yearwood’s national nonprofit organization is dedicated to educating, encouraging, and empowering children, youth, and families to pursue equality and social and economic justice through provocative dialogue and collective action.

“With the Thurgood Marshall Center being a historic building located in the Shaw community, it is committed to preserving the legacy of Justice Thurgood Marshall and civil rights,” Yearwood stated.

“Additionally, with Justice Marshall being the first Black U.S. Supreme Court judge, it’s important that we continue this legacy, and this generous donation has

made that happen.”

Saundra Lamb, the vice-chair of the Thurgood Marshall Trust, said Sarver’s contribution helps affirm the national connection and support for the center’s mission.

“It helps us with something that we found ourselves in vital need of with our HVAC system,” said Lamb, an attorney.

“We appreciate the Sarvers because they took time to hear, listen, and act. I think it’s a reiteration of how this is a national treasure and how we need all handson deck and encourage others to follow through.”

Lamb continued: “I thank the Sarver family greatly because I know they have a lot going on right now, and the fact that they followed up and acted is a real tribute to them with all of the great things they are already doing.”

Located in Phoenix, Arizona, where Robert Sarver’s Phoenix Suns are vying for an NBA title, The Penny and Robert Sarver Charitable Foundation has earned a global reputation for its generosity.

Robert Sarver helped to build the Sarver Heart Center at the University of Arizona

13

in memory of his late father, who was among the first to undergo heart bypass surgery.

With more than 150 doctors and scientists, the heart center helps prevent and cure cardiovascular disease through research, education, and patient care.

Physicians have spearheaded the development of the SynCardia temporary Total Artificial Heart.

This award-winning project became the world’s first and only total artificial heart to win FDA approval as a bridge to human heart transplant in patients near death from heart failure.

The center also focuses on stroke research, heart disease in women, sudden cardiac death, minority-specific cardiovascular problems, and electrophysiology.

The Sarver Foundation also helped build the 70,000-square-foot Children’s Museum of Phoenix with a $1 million donation.

“When I reached out to corporate leaders across the nation to help the Thurgood Marshall Center Trust Building, located in the heart of the Shaw Community in Washington, DC, to renovate and to upgrade its HVAC system, Robert Sarver was the first to immediately respond to help sustain this vitally historic nonprofit that represents the best of Thurgood Marshall’s legacy of civil rights advocacy and public educational programs,” said National Newspaper Publishers Association President and CEO Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis Jr. “We hope that other American corporate leaders will follow the philanthropic example set by The Penny and Robert Sarver Charitable Foundation. Our nation is blessed with the ongoing generosity of the owner of the Phoenix Suns NBA Team,” Dr. Chavis stated.

Dr. Chavis also sits on the board of the Thurgood Marshall Center Trust. Chavis in addition confirmed, “The National STEM Honors Society, based in Boston, MA, has just announced plans to work with the Thurgood Marshall Center Trust to enhance K-12 education in science, Con’t on page 14

THE INNER-CITY NEWS - May 04, 2022 - May 10, 2022

Cosby Documentary by Kamau Bell is Ratings Flop, Janet Jackson Doc Scores Big

By Lauren Victoria Burke, NNPA Newswire Contributor Though the media rollout on Variety, Hollywood Reporter and CBS was vigorous, ratings for W. Kamau Bell’s documentary “We Need to Talk About Cosby” were less than impressive. The series debuted on Showtime on January 30 and ran for four nights and six hours. W. Kamau Bell, a comedian with a show on CNN, was the director and producer of the docuseries.

The documentary project faced criticism on social media and by Black commentators with YouTube platforms. Regardless, celebrity-related documentaries are often big ratings hits on cable TV. The four-part documentary “We Need to Talk About Cosby” was an exception.

In comparison, Janet Jackson’s fourepisode series, titled “Janet Jackson,” averaged 3.1 million viewers between Lifetime and A&E. The documentary garnered more than 15 million viewers overall and was a huge ratings hit. Jackson’s documentary included interviews with the star and exclusive anecdotes from her career.

The six-part documentary series “Surviving RKelly” by Dream Hampton, which aired on Lifetime in 2019 won an average of 2.1 million total viewers, according to Nielsen ratings. “Among adults aged 25-54 and 18-49, 1.2 million tuned in; that includes 858,000 women

aged 25-54 and 798,000 women 18-49,” wrote Variety in January 2019.

In the case of “We Need to Talk About Cosby” the ratings were low in comparison and no episode of the series reached over 200,000 viewers. Episode one earned 166,000 viewers, episode two earned 184,000 viewers, episode three won 126,000 viewers, and episode four, which aired on February 20, earned 145,000 viewers.

A repeated critique of Bell’s documentary heard on many of the videos by Black commentators reviewing “We Need to

Talk About Cosby” is that others who have faced similar allegations regarding alleged criminal sexual behavior have not received similar media attention or deep dive documentary level analysis.

Critics of Bell’s documentary have brought up white males who have been accused, and in some cases convicted, of sexual violence including Harvey Weinstein (who was convicted in February 2020 and sentenced to 23 years in prison), Jeffrey Epstein, Roman Polanski (in 1977, he pled guilty to “unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor” involving

a 13-year old), the Fox News executive Roger Ailes, former CBS executive Les Moonves, former CBS anchor Charlie Rose and director Woody Allen.

In addition to “Surviving RKelly” (who was convicted of racketeering and sex trafficking in Sept. 2021) there have been three other documentaries featuring accused Black men: “On the Record,” regarding allegations against Russell Simmons, “Leaving Neverland” regarding allegations against Michael Jackson.

There was also a second “Surviving RKelly” documentary-series entitled

LeVar Burton to receive Lifetime Achievement Award for literacy advocacy

By Courtesy of The AFRO Staff LeVar Burton is a fixture in the memories of many African Americans, having played a pivotal role in the seminal slavery saga, “Roots” and hosting “Reading Rainbow” for more than two decades.

This year, the actor and television host will be recognized for his contributions to advancing literacy, receiving the Lifetime Achievement Award during the first ever Children’s & Family Emmy Awards which will debut this year, according to CBS News.

“Whoa,” Burton posted on Twitter in response to the news, along with a surprise emoji.

The multi-talented actor, director, host and educator served as the executive producer and host of “Reading Rainbow” for 23 years from 1983 to 2006.

When the show debuted in 1983 and thereafter, it changed the television and education landscape, fostering a love of reading in generations of children. It became the most watched PBS show in the classroom, and garnered more than 250 awards, including the prestigious George Foster Peabody Award, Telly Awards, Parent’s and Teacher’s Choice Awards,

and a total of 26 Emmy Awards, including ten for outstanding series.

When the program went off the air, Burton retooled it into an iPad app and edu-

cational aid. And, in his continued drive to advance storytelling and literacy, he currently hosts the podcast “LeVar Burton Reads,” in which he narrates interesting

14

stories; and the YouTube series, “This is My Story,” in which he shares personal experiences with racism.

“You need to teach your children how to read, and you need for them to love to read,” said Burton in an interview with Think Progress. “If you want free, independent thinkers, people who can discern for themselves, people who want to actively participate in a democracy, you want them literate. If you want to control people, if you want to feed them a pack of lies and dominate them, keep them ignorant. For me, literacy means freedom. For the individual and for society.”

Burton’s lifetime achievement award would be the latest in many accolades.

The “Star Trek: Next Generation” actor has garnered many Emmy Awards, a Grammy Award for Spoken Word Album, the Fred Rogers Award and many others.

He even served on the National Commission on Libraries and Information Sciences under President Bill Clinton. He’s also slated to host the upcoming Scripps National Spelling Bee. The Children’s & Family Emmy® Awards, created by the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, is the first standalone expansion of the Emmy Award competition since 1979. It will take place on Dec. 11 in Los Angeles.

“Surviving R. Kelly Part II: The Reckoning, which premiered on Lifetime on January 2, 2020.”

During an interview shortly before the documentary aired on Showtime, CBS correspondent Jericka Duncan asked Bell about why Cosby’s side was not included in the documentary. Bell answered that the documentary did include his views on the many controversial issues covered.

“It didn’t feel like if you were going to put the survivors in here that you also put Bill Cosby in here,” Bell answered Duncan.

In a 6-1 ruling on June 30, 2021, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court overturned Cosby’s 2018 conviction of sexual assault (regarding Andrea Constand) and ruled that a controversial “non-prosecution agreement” with a previous prosecutor meant that a second set of charges against Cosby shouldn’t have moved forward.

Cosby, then 83, served three years of a 10-year sentence in maximum-security in a prison near Philadelphia. Cosby returned home as Bell’s documentary was still in production.

Lauren Victoria Burke is an independent journalist and the host of the podcast BURKEFILE. She is a political analyst who appears regularly on #RolandMartinUnfiltered. She may be contacted at LBurke007@gmail.com and on twitter at @LVBurke

Con’t from page 13

Thurgood Marshall

technology, engineering and mathematics throughout the U.S. Again, the Sarver donation is so timely and on point for the center’s programmatic future.”

First constructed in 1853 as the 12th Street YMCA and built to house the nation’s first Black Young Men’s Christian Association, a renovated and restored Thurgood Marshall Center opened 22 years ago.

The 35,000-square-foot building quickly became a focal point in the community, where tens of thousands visit regularly.

Tenants of the historic building include the NNPA, the National Bar Association, Concerned Black Men, Inc., Washington Literacy Center, and 21st Century School Fund.

Since its inception, the center has served as a co-location for several nonprofits that serve children, youth, and families.

“It’s so important when you think about this historic building and the fact that we serve about 40,000 people who come through our doors each year,” Yearwood remarked.

“Making sure our HVAC system is operable and functioning helps us, and it helps meet the community needs as we serve them because we get so many calls from people who want to have events at the center.”

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THE INNER-CITY NEWS - May 04, 2022 - May 10, 2022

Mysterious Multi-Million MeToo Lawsuits Against Snoop Dogg, Trey Songz and Chris Brown End ciplinary action against Mitchell, including sanctions. On April 9, police in Las Vegas stated, “The LVMPD has concluded the investigation into the sexual assault allegations against Tremaine Neverson and determined that no criminal charges will be filed from a sexual assault allegation made against him November 2021.

On August 19, 2020, Songz’s twitter account read, “I usually stay quiet on this, but I feel that in many ways the movement to fight for the women who actually have suffered harassment and abuse on various levels, has been hijacked by those who find it convenient for themselves to come up as they seek to destroy someone’s life.”

On January 28, singer Chris Brown was sued for $20 million by a woman claiming the superstar drugged and raped her on a yacht docked outside Sean Combs’ home in Miami in late December 2020.

The suit was filed by an anonymous “Jane Doe” dancer/model/actress in Los Angeles Superior Court on Jan. 27.

But on March 9, representatives for Chris Brown directed media to a story

By Lauren Victoria Burke, NNPA Newswire Contributor Days before a much-publicized appearance at the Super Bowl halftime show, an anonymous woman filed a $10 million dollar lawsuit against well-known rap superstar Calvin Broadus, 50, better known as Snoop Dogg, on February 11, 2022.

The lawsuit was filed by a “Jane Doe” complainant who alleged that back in May of 2013, Snoop Dogg and Bishop Don “Magic” Juan, whose real name is Donald Campbell, 71, sexually assaulted her.

The Jane Doe accuser, the complaint described as a dancer, filed the lawsuit in a Los Angeles federal court on February 9.

Super Bowl fifty-six took place on February 13. Snoop Dogg performed a highly promoted never-seen-before routine with other rap and hip-hop superstars, Mary J. Blige, Dre, Eminem and Kendrick Lamar.

On February 11, a spokesperson for Snoop Dogg described the allegations in the lawsuit as, “part of a self-enrichment shakedown scheme to extort Snoop Dogg right before he performs during this Sunday’s Super Bowl halftime show.”

“Her attempt to use the courts to advance this scheme is shameful too and does a disservice to real victims who deserve to be believed,” Snoop Dogg’s spokesperson added. The accuser’s attorney, Matt Finkelberg, told media that the Jane Doe accuser, “refuses to be silenced and intimidated any longer.”

“Our client’s hope is to inspire other victims of sexual harassment, assault, and battery to understand that they have rights, will be protected, and although they are victims, they will not have to be silenced forever,” Finkelberg said.

On April 8, the “Jane Doe” individual

(Photo: Jørund Føreland Pedersen, CC BY-SA 3.0 , via Wikimedia Commons)

who filed the lawsuit withdrew it “in its entirety.” U.S. district judge George H. Wu ordered the dismissal as requested.

But Snoop Dogg wasn’t the only major Black male music superstar to be sued for millions and accused of a major sex crime.

On February 16, a woman represented

by Miami-based attorney Ariel Mitchell, but whose name is unknown, filed a $20 million lawsuit against singer Trey Songz, 37, real name Tremaine Neverson. The

civil lawsuit alleged a 2016 rape against the singer, who is worth $12 million, at a party in West Hills, California.

Law.com reported on February 15, that an attorney for Songz, filed a complaint against Mitchell claiming she was engaging in a form of witness tampering.

Mitchell denies the claim and said the complaint wasn’t true. But Songz attorney Jeff Neiman asked Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Gina Beovides to dismiss the complaint against Songz and pursue dis-

16

on RadarOnline that included screenshots of text messages allegedly sent by the unidentified Jane Doe suing Chris Brown for $20 million and Chris Brown himself. The messages appeared to show a different version of events than what was represented in the lawsuit, including the accuser courting Brown with “lewd language and bare-naked selfies almost immediately after the alleged rape took place.” After the text messages were revealed on Brown’s social media and amplified elsewhere, the accuser’s attorneys George Vrabeck of Vrabeck Adams & Co. Inc., and Ariel Mitchell withdrew from the case.

“Chris Brown had 9 months’ worth of text messages from that woman. He needs to file lawsuits on media outlets and so many other people,” wrote Toni Carter on Twitter on March 9.

Lauren Victoria Burke is an independent journalist and the host of the podcast BURKEFILE. She is a political analyst who appears regularly on #RolandMartinUnfiltered. She may be contacted at LBurke007@gmail.com and on twitter at @LVBurke

Raiders Owner Mark Davis Open to Colin Kaepernick Playing

By Lauren Victoria Burke, NNPA Newswire Contributor In an interview on April 28, Las Vegas Raiders owner Mark Davis became the first owner to speak on Colin Kaepernick possibly having an opportunity to play in the NFL again.

“I believe in Colin Kaepernick,” Davis said, per Monte Poole of NBC Sports Bay Area. “He deserves every chance in the world to become a quarterback in the National Football League. I still stand by it.

If our coaches and general manager want to bring him in or want him to be the quarterback on this team, I would welcome him with open arms.”

Kaepernick, 34, has been speaking out a lot lately about wanting to play in the NFL again. Though he has been quiet over the last four years he has recently become more vocal. Kaepernick hasn’t played NFL football since 2016. Back then he played with the San Francisco 49ers, but he was blackballed by the 32 owners who control policy in the NFL after silently protesting police brutality by kneeling during the national anthem at the start of each game. He was then joined by other players.

After the murder of George Floyd in 2020 the NFL was compelled to change its stance on how they dealt with players protesting in various ways. In 2020, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell put out a statement that in part said, “we were wrong for not listening to NFL players earlier and encourage all to speak out and peacefully protest.”

Photo by Mike Morbeck / Wikimedia Commons)

The current makeup of players in the NFL is over 78 percent Black.

In Michigan for an exhibition game on April 2, Kaepernick said he can “absolutely still play in the NFL,” “and I can help make you a better team. I can help you win games.”

Lauren Victoria Burke is an independent journalist and the host of the podcast BURKEFILE. She is a political analyst who appears regularly on #RolandMartinUnfiltered. She may be contacted at LBurke007@gmail.com and on twitter at @LVBurke

THE INNER-CITY NEWS - May 04, 2022 - May 10, 2022 Con’t from page 07

St. Aedan’s Marks Centennial

dan’s local pastor. Rev. Robert Morgewicz, presided at Sunday’s service. Having arrived five years ago, he helped oversee a major interior renovation including the repair of ten years of water damage.

“We are building on the sacrifices of others,” he said.

“We’ve only been here 43 years,” said Ken Maltese. He and his wife Diane were among those helping to organize the centennial reception after services and other anniversary-related events.

“We’re starting to see new families,” said Maltese, citing the decline in attendance due to Covid that has been characteristic of all houses of worship. “Some older folks are still leery of Covid, but each week a few more attend. One of our goals is to speak with those a little ambivalent about coming to church and introduce them so they come on a regular basis.”

On Ash Wednesday, he reported nearly 186 attendees. The church, which seats about 700 people, continues to have three masses, at 9:30, 11:30, and 4:30, which derives from the past when the neighborhood was thronged with church-goers, he said. “The more convenient we make it, the more people will come.”

Georgianna Zimmerman raised her kids at Sacred Heart in the Hill. When that building was sold in 2009 by the archdiocese, she moved her regular worship to St. Aedan’s.

“I enjoy services in both places,” she said, “but my kids were christened and baptized” at Sacred Heart on Liberty Street, she said.

Why in general does she go to church?

“I don’t think about it. I was raised in the church. It’s something you do. You need church in your life. Church, God, spirit.”

In the homily, Archbishop Blair concluded: “With the passing of time many things have come and gone. Many challenges. So many do not practice the faith. … Maybe the fish don’t seem to be biting, but we are still challenged to be fishers of men, to draw people to church through your witness. Don’t be discouraged to leave the comfort of the shore. If you listen to Jesus, your nets will be filled through him.”

Con’t from page 03

She recalled being a student teacher at Hillhouse High School while at Southern and being shaped by the college’s school of education.

“This campus and this city gave me the audacity to hope and believe that I can change education,” Hayes said.

She thanked NHPS and Southern for “understanding the assignment.”

Hayes described the BOMUS scholars as roses growing from concrete.

“An urban public school experience helps you to face any obstacle in the world with the confidence of knowing you were built for this,” Hayes said.

She concluded that the Obama School name is well suited because the school and its partners teach students to “hold onto hope” and know that change is possible.

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THE INNER-CITY NEWS - May 04, 2022 - May 10, 2022

Voting Charges Dropped Against Pamela Moses — Tenn. D.A. Gets ‘Pound of Flesh’

By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent

Pamela Moses spent 82 days in custody after a Tennessee judge handed down a six-year prison sentence against the 44-year-old Black woman for trying to register to vote.

On April 22, prosecutors declared that they’d gotten their pound of flesh.

Charges were dropped against Moses after another judge granted her a new trial.

“Our original offer to the defendant Pamela Moses was a guilty plea to a misdemeanor and no time to serve,” Shelby County District Attorney Amy Weirich declared.

“She rejected that offer and asked for a jury trial. At the conclusion of the weeklong trial, the jury convicted her on the felony charge of false entry on permanent voter registration.”

Weirich continued: “She was taken into custody and spent 75 days in jail before Judge Mark Ward granted her motion for a new trial. In total, she has spent 82 days in custody in this case, which is sufficient. She is also permanently barred from registering to vote or voting in Tennessee as a result

of her 2015 conviction for Tampering with Evidence. In the interest of judicial economy, we are dismissing her illegal registration case and her violation of probation.”

The vital issue had always centered on whether Moses knew she lost her voting eligibility.

A probation officer filled out and signed a form indicating the end of her supervision stemming from a 2015 felony conviction.

The officer admitted the mistake but left Moses wondering whether she could vote.

Prosecutors alleged that she deceived the officer and knew of her ineligible status.

However, following her conviction, The Guardian newspaper uncovered evidence through public records that undercut Weirich’s false claim that Moses duped the probation officer.

“In September 2019, just two days after a probation officer mistakenly signed a certificate telling Moses her probation was complete, officials at the Tennessee department of corrections investigated how exactly their employee made the error,” The British daily newspaper reported.

“Their investigation didn’t find that Moses had deceived a probation officer, but rather that the officer had made a goodfaith mistake.

“The review found that the probation officer – referred to as Manager Billington – spent about an hour investigating whether Moses was still on probation. Billington came across a note in Moses’ file noting that in 2016, she had been placed on supervised probation for two years.

Even though the system said that Moses remained on unsupervised probation, Bil-

lington thought this was a mistake. The person who handled the file, he believed, forgot to close out the case when the supervised probation ran out. That’s why he ultimately signed Moses’ voting certificate saying her probation had expired in 2018 and she was eligible to vote.”

Joe Williams, an administrator in the department of corrections, wrote a letter

to a top department official stating that Billington failed to investigate the status of the case adequately.

“He failed to review all of the official documents available through the Shelby county justice portal and negligently relied on a contact note from a court specialist in 2016,” Williams stated, according to The Guardian.

Williams noted that if Billington had looked more thoroughly, he would have found additional documents issued in 2019 that said Moses was on probation.

Williams conceded that it was “tedious” to find some of that information.

“The information that Manager Billington had at the time he signed the Voters Restoration was insufficient to reasonably affirm that an offender was off supervision.”

Meanwhile, Moses waited in the lobby of the probation office and “seemed impatient while Billington investigated.

However, it does not suggest that Moses bore responsibility for the mistake,” The Guardian reported.

“This really runs contrary to the prosecution’s characterization of the incident as Ms. Moses tricking the probation officer,” Blair Bowie, an attorney at the Campaign Legal Center.

Moses has declined to speak with reporters but has maintained she believed she had a right to try and register to vote.

Restitution? Africa and the fight for the return of African art

out Africa.

Even as the African people and cultures were denigrated and oppressed, their art was used to curate museums and private collections in England, France, Germany and other countries in the Western world.

From the Benin Bronzes to priceless statues to the remains of Africans exploited as part of human exhibitions such as Sarah Baartman, activists, art experts and heads of state are pushing to repatriate the art and ancestors to their homelands. Will their efforts be enough to bring lasting change?

By Courtesy of The AFRO.com

Season 14, episode four of AfroPoP: The Ultimate Cultural Exchange focuses on issues surrounding the ownership of African Art, stolen over centuries of colonialism.

Directed by French filmmaker Nora Philippe, “Restitution: Africa’s Fight for Its Art” recounts the true and troubling history of the theft of African artwork and sacred artifacts by European nations during the colonial period. The episode also discusses the contemporary demand for the return of the artifacts to their rightful countries of origin.

“In this long exile, more than threefourths of sub-Saharan heritage was taken away,” Philippe said. “It’s also about resistance because from the start voices have demanded restitution of the stolen work from the exiled objects.”

In 2017, for the first time in history, the President of France officially promised to return artifacts on request “Within 5 years, I want conditions in place for temporary or permanent restitution of African artifacts to Africa,” said French President Emmanuel Macron, at the University of Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso.

In 2021, the country made good on its promise with the return of 26 statues to

(AP Photo/Michel Euler) their native African nation of Benin.

The repatriation was made official through legislation that was signed on Nov. 9, 2021, at the Élysée Palace by Presidents Emmanuel Macron and Patrice Talon.

The next day, Benin had their bronze statues returned and welcomed them with an official reception ceremony.

France is just one example of the successful repatriation of African Art. Through archival footage and present-

18

day conversations with African and European art historians and cultural experts including Hamady Bocoum, Bénédicte Savoy, Felwine Sarr, Ben Okri and more, Philippe’s film explores the lasting cultural trauma that still reverberates through-

The film can be streamed in its entirety on PBS. AfroPoP: The Ultimate Cultural Exchange is presented by Black Public Media and WORLD Channel. For more information, visit worldchannel.org or blackpublicmedia.org.

The 19th century Throne of King Ghezo, left, and Throne of King Glele, from Benin, are pictured at the Quai Branly Jacques Chirac Museum, Oct. 25, 2021, in Paris. France displayed 26 looted colonial-era artifacts for one last time before returning them home to Benin in November 2021. The wooden anthropomorphic statues, royal thrones and sacred altars were pilfered by the French army in the 19th century from Western Africa.

THE INNER-CITY NEWS - May 04, 2022 - May 10, 2022 Con’t from page 06

Ribbon Cut

alty for $10 million in 2018. They then received a five-year site plan extension from the City Plan Commission, giving the developers until 2025 to finish the project. The developers broke ground on the project in March 2019, and soon thereafter demolished the sole remaining building on the site, the former home of Torrco plumbing supplies. In 2020, they sold the roughly 50,000 square-foot lot at 87 Union St. for $10 million to a holding company controlled by a real estate investment trust (REIT) called Safehold, and then signed a 98.5-year lease with the new ground owners, while retaining responsibility for building up and managing the apartment complex. $3K For 2BRs. Not Including Pet Fees Seid said during the ribbon-cutting press conference that this new 299-unit apartment complex casts a wide net by having rents at a lower “entry point” that some comparable new luxury buildings.

For example, he said, most comparable new buildings in town offer studio apartments at “an entry level pride of $2,000.”

“Ours has an entry point of under $1,200 per month,” he said. That’s for anyone who wants to rent one of the beds in a four-bedroom, four-bathroom apartment.

If one wants to rent a full apartment, and not just a bedroom, how much might that cost?

Seid estimated that one-bedroom apartments at this new complex rent in the range of $2,200 per month. Two-bedroom apartments rent in the range of $3,000 per month. “The most expensive unit might be around $6,200 or $7,000,” he said.

A handout provided to the Independent by Olive & Wooster leasing manager Melissa Lillo, meanwhile, showed that it costs $75 to apply to live at this new apartment complex. It then costs an extra $425 if that application is accepted. It then costs a $350 deposit and a $25 monthly fee to have a pet in your apartment. It then costs an extra $150 per month for parking. Tenants are also responsible for covering the costs of electricity and water, on top of all that.

How does Seid feel about all of the other competition soon to come online within a two-block radius on Olive Street? Is there enough demand in this small stretch of New Haven’s housing market for apartments at these prices?

Seid said he thinks so. But don’t just listen to him. “The data just keeps proving it true,” he said. “A lot of smart investment dollars are chasing this around.”

As he works on “capitalizing” the 185unit complex he plans on building next door on Fair Street, he keeps finding that investors are lining up to put their money in New Haven housing.

“A lot of smart people with access to a ton of data are very excited about this whole area,” he said.

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New Haven, Connecticut VALENTINA MACRIParking RENTAL HOUSING PRE- APPLICATIONS AVAILABLE New Haven Authority Project #22-035

HOME INC, on behalf of Columbus and the at New Haven Qualifications dueHouse April 28, 2022 3:00 P.M. Housing Authority, is accepting pre-applications for studio and one-bedroom apartments at this develThe Qualification will be available via email beginning Aprillimitations 8, 2022 at apno opment located Documents at 108 Frank Street, New Haven.

Maximum income cost by emailing Fortunata Houde, Executive Secretary at fhoude@nhparking.com . ply. Pre-applications will be available from 9AM TO 5PM beginning Monday Ju;y 25, 2016 and ending when sufficient pre-applications (approximately 100) have New Parking Authority is an equalINC. opportunity/affirmative beenHaven received at the offices of HOME Applications will be action mailiedemployer. upon request by calling HOME INC at 203-562-4663 during those hours. Completed preapplications must be returned to HOME INC’s offices at 171 Orange Street, Third The Housing Authority of the City of Bridgeport Floor, New Haven, CT 06510.

ELM CITY COMMUNITIES Invitation for Bids Pest Control Services

Elm City Communities is currently seeking bids for pest control services. A complete copy of the requirement may be obtained from Elm City Communities’ Vendor Collaboration Portal https://newhavenhousing.cobblestonesystems.com/gateway beginning on

Wednesday, April 20, 2022 at 3:00PM.

Cheshire Housing Authority 50 Rumberg Road Cheshire, CT 06410

Invitation for Bid (IFB)

Elevator Preventive Maintenance and Repairs NOTICIA Solicitation Number: 211-AM-22-S

VALENTINA MACRIofVIVIENDAS ALQUILERd/b/a PRE-SOLICITUDES DISPONIBLES The Housing Authority the City of DE Bridgeport Park City Communities (PCC) is currently seeking bids from qualified elevator companies to provide full-service elevaINC, enand nombre la Columbus House New Housing está tor HOME maintenance repairdeagency-wide, there yisdea la mix of Haven elevator types Authority, and locations. aceptandopackage pre-solicitudes estudiosony April apartamentos de un en este Solicitation will bepara available 11, 2022.

Todormitorio obtain a copy of desarrollo the soliciubicado en la send calle your 109 Frank Street, New Haven. Se aplican limitaciones de reference ingresos tation you must request to bids@parkcitycommunities.org, please máximos.number Las pre-solicitudes disponibles a.m.-5 p.m. comenzando solicitation and title onestarán the subject line. 09 A pre-bid conference will Martes be held25at 2016 hasta se hanCT recibido suficientes (aproximadamente 100) 150julio, Highland Ave,cuando Bridgeport, 06604 on Aprilpre-solicitudes 26, 2022 @ 10:00 a.m. Although aten las is oficinas de HOMEsubmitting INC. Las pre-solicitudes serán enviadas por correoconference a petición tendance not mandatory, a bid for the project without attending is not in theabest interest the Offeror.durante Additional questions should deberán be emailed only llamando HOME INC alof203-562-4663 esas horas.Pre-solicitudes remitirse to bids@parkcitycommunities.org later than May 3, piso, 2022New at 3:00 P.M. Answers a las oficinas de HOME INC en 171noOrange Street, tercer Haven , CT 06510 . to all the questions will be posted on PCC’s Website: www.parkcitycommunities.org. Seal bids will be received until May 12, 2022 @ 10:00 a.m. at which time the bids will be publicly opened and read aloud.

Construction NEW HAVEN

242-258 Fairmont Ave

Seeking to employ experienced individuals in the labor, foreman, operator and teamster 2BR Townhouse, 1.5 BA, 3BR, 1 level , 1BA trades for a heavy outside work statewide. Reliable personal transportation and a valid All new apartments, newplease appliances, new carpet, or close I-91 &to:I-95 drivers license required.

To apply call (860) 621-1720 sendto resume Personnear busCT06410. stop & shopping center nel Department, P.O. highways, Box 368, Cheshire,

Pet under 40lb allowed. Interested parties contact Maria @ 860-985-8258 Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer M/F/V Drug Free Workforce

CT. Unified Deacon’s Association is pleased to offer a Deacon’s Certificate Program. This is a 10 month program designed to assist in the intellectual formation of Candidates in response to the Church’s Ministry needs. The cost is $125. Classes start Saturday, August 20, 2016 1:303:30 Contact: Chairman, Deacon Joe J. Davis, M.S., B.S. (203) 996-4517 Host, General Bishop Elijah Davis, D.D. Pastor of Pitts Chapel U.F.W.B. Church 64 Brewster

DISPATCHER

The Town of Wallingford is seeking responsible candidates to perform 911, police, fire New Haven, CT andSt.EMS emergency dispatching duties. Must be able to work under stressful conditions and be able to type information with a high rate of speed and accuracy. Must be able to work all three shifts including weekends and holidays and be able to work additional shifts beyond the regular shift schedule. Requires a H.S. or business school diploma with courses in typing and 2 years of responsible office work experience. Wages: $ 23.72 ~ bids are invited by the Housing Authority of the Town of Seymour Sealed $28.28 hourly plus shift differential and excellent fringe benefits. Closing date is May onofTuesday, 2016 at itswhichever office at occurs 28 Smith 2, until 2022, 3:00 or thepm date receipt ofAugust the 50th2,application, first.Street, Apply: Seymour, CT 06483 for Concrete Sidewalk Repairs and Replacement at the Department of Human Resources, Town of Wallingford, 45 South Main St., Wallingford, CT 06492.

Forms will be mailed upon request from the Department of Human Smithfield Gardens Assisted Living Facility, 26 Smith Street Seymour.

Resources or may be downloaded from the Department of Human Resources Web Page.

Phone: 203-294-2080, Fax: 203-294-2084. EOE.

SEYMOUR HOUSING AUTHORITY

A pre-bid conference will be held at the Housing Authority Office 28 Smith Seymour, CT OF at 10:00 am,OFonNORWALK, Wednesday, 20, 2016.

THEStreet HOUSING AUTHORITY THE CITY CT IS July REQUESTING PROPOSALS FROM

CONSULTANTS OR ARCHITECTURAL/ENGINEERING FIRMS FOR AN UPDATED PHYSICAL NEEDS ASSESSMENT OF 12 FEDERAL FINANCED HOUSING PROPERTIES. TO OBTAIN A COMPLETE COPY Bidding documents are available from the Seymour Housing Authority OfOF THE REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL DOCUMENTS, CONTACT GUILLERMO BENDANA, PROCUREMENT fice, 28 AT Smith Street, Seymour, CT 06483 HOUSING (203) 888-4579.

SPECIALIST GBENDA@NORWALKHA.OGR NORWALK IS AN EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER. ADAM BOVILSKY, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR.

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

Pre Applications for waiting list at Section 8 Elderly complex called Beachport will be accepted May 10, 2022 9:00 am to August 8, 2022, 3:00pm. To qualify you must be either 62 years old or disabled with a maximum gross annual income of 39,450 (one person), 45,050 (two people). Interested parties may pick up a pre-application at 50 Rumberg Road; print off our website at www.cheshirehousing.org or call to have an application sent to you 203-272-7511 x2. Completed applications must be returned NO LATER than 3:00pm August 8, 2022.

For more information call 203-272-7511 x2

Construction

Seeking to employ experienced individuals in the labor, foreman, operator and teamster trades for a heavy outside work statewide. Reliable personal transportation and a Invitation to Bid: valid drivers license required. To apply please call (860) 621-1720 or send resume to: 2nd Notice Personnel Department, P.O. Box 368, Cheshire, CT06410.

Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer M/F/V

SAYEBROOKE VILLAGE

Drug Workforce OldFree Saybrook, CT (4 Buildings, 17 Units) QSR STEEL Tax Exempt & Not Prevailing Wage Rate Project CORPORATION

APPLY NOW!

New Construction, Wood Framed, Housing, Selective Demolition, Site-work, Castin-place Concrete, Asphalt Shingles, Vinyl Siding, Flooring, Painting, Division 10 Specialties, Appliances, Residential Casework, Steel Fabricators, Erectors & Welders Electrical, Top pay for topMechanical, performers.

Health Plumbing and Fire Protection.

Benefits, 401K, Vacation Pay.set-aside and contract compliance requirements.

This contract is subject to state Email Resume: Rose@qsrsteel.com Hartford, CT AFFIRMATIVE ACTION/EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER

Bid Extended, Due Date: August 5, 2016 Anticipated Start: August 15, 2016 Project documents available via ftp link below: http://ftp.cbtghosting.com/loginok.html?username=sayebrookevillage

TOWN PLANNER

Fax or Email Questions & Bids to: Dawn Lang @ 203-881-8372 dawnlang@haynesconstruction.com HCC encourages the participation of all Veteran, S/W/MBE & Section 3 Certified Businesses Haynes Construction Company, 32 Progress Ave, Seymour, CT 06483 AA/EEO EMPLOYER

Full-time position Go to www.portlandct.org for details 20

DRIVER CDL CLASS A Full Time – All Shifts Top Pay-Full Benefits EOE Please apply in person: 1425 Honeyspot Rd. Ext. Stratford, CT 06615

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

Town of Bloomfield

Vehicle Mechanic Technician Salary $30.97 hourly (non-CDL) Salary $31.91 hourly (CDL) Pre-employment drug testing.

AA/EOE.

For Details go to www.bloomfieldct.org

Town of Bloomfield Maintainer II Salary $28.58 hourly Pre-employment drug testing.

AA/EOE. For Details go to HYPERLINK "http://www.bloomfieldct.org/" www.bloomfieldct.org

INNER-CITY 27,042016 - August THE INNER-CITYNEWS NEWS July - May , 2022 - May02, 10,2016 2022

NOTICE Experienced Commercial Property/Facilities Manager VALENTINA MACRI RENTAL HOUSING PRE- APPLICATIONS AVAILABLE Fusco Management Company is seeking a qualified Property/Facilities HOME INC, onabehalf of Columbus House and the Haven Housing Authority, Manager with minimum of 3 to 5 years of New experience managing comis accepting pre-applications for organizational studio and one-bedroom apartments at this develmercial properties.

Excellent and communication skills are opment located at 108 Frankinclude: Street, New Haven. Maximum income limitations aprequired.

Responsibilities ply. Pre-applications will be available from 9AM TO 5PM beginning Monday Ju;y 25, 2016 and and ending when of sufficient pre-applications (approximately 100) prephave Budgeting forecasting expenses - timely approval of invoices, been received thepackages offices of HOME INC. Applications will be mailied upon rearation of clientatbill quest by calling HOME INC at 203-562-4663 during those hours. Completed preOversight ofmust maintenance andINC’s subcontractors - prioritizing and applications be returned staff to HOME offices at 171 Orange Street, Third scheduling work, reviewing work order requests, oversight and Floor, New project Haven, CT 06510. coordination of subcontractors to minimize disruption to the property

NOTICIA

Oversight of janitorial, landscaping, and other vendors inspections - continual follow up with subcontractors to ensure optimum performance

VALENTINA MACRI VIVIENDAS DE ALQUILER PRE-SOLICITUDES DISPONIBLES

Assists in developing specifications for bidding work and purchasing within HOME guidelines.

INC, en nombre de la Columbus House y de la New Haven Housing Authority, está aceptando pre-solicitudes para estudios y apartamentos de un dormitorio en este desarrollo Maintaining and client relations - responding to de tenant reubicado en lapositive calle 109tenant Frank Street, New Haven.

Se aplican limitaciones ingresos quests, follow up to ensureestarán completion máximos.

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

julio, 2016 hasta cuando se han recibido suficientes pre-solicitudes (aproximadamente 100) Excel, computer skills would helpful en lasWord oficinasand de Outlook HOME INC. Las pre-solicitudes seránbe enviadas por correo a petición llamando a HOME INC al 203-562-4663 durante esas horas.Pre-solicitudes deberán remitirse Company will make best efforts to have the managed properties within a las oficinas de HOME INC en 171 Orange Street, tercer piso, New Haven , CT 06510 . counties in reasonable proximity to candidates home. Medical and dental benefits, 401k. Equal Employment Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer. Please submit resumes to openjobs.group@fusco.com. Phone calls will not be accepted.

HAVEN State ofNEW Connecticut 242-258 Fairmont Ave Office of Policy and Management

2BR Townhouse, 1.5 BA, 3BR, 1 level , 1BA newofapartments, appliances, newManagement carpet, close I-91 & I-95 TheAllState Connecticut,new Office of Policy and is to recruiting for an OPM Public Information Manager (State Program highways,Program near bus stop & shopping centerManager) and a Staff Attorney 1 (Confidential).

Pet under 40lb allowed. Interested parties contact Maria @ 860-985-8258

Further information regarding the duties, eligibility requirements and application instructions are available at: https://www.jobapscloud.com/CT/sup/bulpreview.

CT. Unified Deacon’s Association is pleased to offer a Deacon’s Certificate Program. This isasp?R1=220414&R2=4799MP&R3=001 a 10 month program designed to assist in the intellectual formation of Candidates in response to the Church’s Ministry needs. The cost is $125. Classes start Saturday, August 20, 2016 1:303:30 Contact: Chairman, Deacon Joe J. Davis, M.S.,and B.S. (203) 996-4517 Host, General Bishop Elijah Davis, D.D. Pastor of Pitts Chapel U.F.W.B. Church 64 Brewster https://www.jobapscloud.com/CT/sup/bulpreview. asp?R1=220413&R2=1637CR&R3=001

St. New Haven, CT

The State of Connecticut is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer and strongly encourages the applications of women, minorities, and persons with disabilities.

SEYMOUR HOUSING AUTHORITY

Sealed bids are invited by the Housing Authority of the Town of Seymour until 3:00& pmBoucher, on Tuesday, August 2,has 2016openings at its office 28 Smith Street, Black LLC foratexperienced asSeymour, CT 06483 for Concrete Sidewalk Repairs and Replacement the phalt milling machine operators for our Wirtgen W220’s and atW50 SmithfieldPositions Gardens Assisted Facility, 26work.

Smith Union Street Seymour. machines. are fullLiving time seasonal wages along

with Union Benefits (Health, Pension, Annuity, Supplemental UnemA pre-bid conference will be held at thenights Housing Office 28 Smith ployment).

Must be willing to work andAuthority some weekends.

Work Street Seymour, CT at 10:00 am, on Wednesday, July 20, 2016. is in the New York/New England area. Black & Boucher, LLC is an Affirmative Action and Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified apBiddingwill documents available fromfor theemployment Seymour Housing Authority plicants receiveareconsideration without regardOf-to fice, 28 Smith Street, Seymour, CT 06483 (203) 888-4579. race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, and protected veteran status.

The Housing Authority reserves the right to accept or reject any or all bids, to reduce the scope of the project to reflect available funding, and to waive any informalities in the bidding, if such actions are in the best interest of the

CITY OF MILFORD

Seeking qualified condidates to fill numerous vacancies to include, Deputy Assessor, Mechanic Sewer Line, Public Health Nurse and more. For information and detailed application instructions, visit www.ci.milford.ct.us Click on SERVICES, JOBS and JOB TITLE.

DELIVERY PERSON

NEEDED Must Have your Own Vehicle If Interested call

Part Time Delivery Needed One/Two Day a Week,

(203) 435-1387

DRIVER CDL CLASS A Full Time – All Shifts Top

Pay-Full Benefits

NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING FOR

THE ELM CITYCOMMUNITIES, HOUSING AUTHORITY OF NEWHAVEN

(ECC/HANH) MOVING TO WORK (MTW) FY2023 ANNUAL PLAN

Section II (C) of the Authority's Moving to Work Agreement {the "Agreement") requires that ECC/HANH hold at least one public hearing per Annual MTW submission and make the Annual MTW Plan available for public comment for at least thirty (30) days. The Agency agrees to take into account public comments on the program design, including comments from current tenants/participants to the extent such comments are provided are provided.

The thirty (30) days comment period begins on Sunday, April 17, 2022 and copies of the Moving to Work (MTW) FY2023 Plan, will be made available on the agency website www.elmcitycommunities.org or via Twitter, www.twitter.com/ECCommunities or via Facebook www.facebook.com/ElmCityCommunities.

You are invited to provide written comments addressed to: ECC/HANH, Moving to Work FY2023 Annual Plan, Attn: Evelise Ribeiro, 360 Orange Street, New Haven, CT 06511 or via email to: eribeiro@elmcitycommunities.org.

Pursuant to said Section II (C), a public hearing where public comments will be accepted and recorded is scheduled for Monday, May 16, 2022 at 4:00pm via: RingCentral: https://v.ringcentral.com/join/975943490?pw=2e34ff6769797e68e96a95bb953d 0d81, Meeting ID: 975943490, Password: yozWY5m3ib.

Or dial 1 (650) 419-1505 Access Code / Meeting ID: 975943490 Dial-in password: 9699956342 Any individual requiring a Reasonable Accommodation to participate in the hearing may call the Reasonable Accommodation Manager (203) 498-8800, ext. 1507 or at the TDD Number (203) 497-8434.

EOE Please apply in person: 1425 Honeyspot Rd. Ext. Stratford, CT 06615Invitation to Bid: 2nd Notice LAS COMUNIDADES DE LA CIUDAD DE ELM, AUTORIDAD SAYEBROOKE VILLAGE SENIOR ADMINITRATIVE DE VIVIENDA DE NEWHAVEN (ECC/HANH) MOVIMIENTO Old Saybrook, CT AL TRABAJO (MTW) PLAN ANUAL FY2023 (4 Buildings, 17 Units) Tax Exempt & Not Prevailing Wage Rate Project La Sección II (C) del Acuerdo de Traslado al Trabajo de la Autoridad (el "Acuerdo")

AVISO DE AUDIENCIA PÚBLICA PARA

ASSISTANT Full-time position

requiere que ECC/HANH celebre al menos una audiencia pública por presentación de

MTW anual Demolition, y que el Plan de MTWCastanual esté disponible para comentario público duNewto Construction, Wood Framed, Housing, Selective Site-work, Go www.portlandct. rante al menos treinta (30) días. días. La Agencia acepta tener en cuenta los comentarios Concrete, Asphaltpúblicos Shingles,sobre VinylelSiding, org forin-place details diseño del programa, incluidos los comentarios de los inquilinos/ Flooring, Painting, Division 10 Specialties, Appliances,actuales Residential participantes en la Casework, medida en que se proporcionen dichos comentarios.

El período de comentarios Mechanical, Electrical, Plumbing and Fire Protection. de treinta (30) días comienza domingo 17 de abril de 2022 y State of Connecticut del Plan Moving to Work (MTW) FY2023 estarán disponibles en el sitio web This contract is subject to state set-aside las andcopias contract compliance requirements.

Office of Policy de la agencia www.elmcitycommunities.org o a través de Twitter, www.twitter. com/ ECCommunities o a través de Facebook www.facebook.com/ElmCityCommunities.

Bid Extended, Due Date: August 5,a2016 Lo invitamos proporcionar comentarios por escrito dirigidos a: ECC/HANH, Moving LEGAL NOTICE to Work15, FY2023 Annual Plan, Attn: Evelise Ribeiro, 360 Orange Street, New Haven, Anticipated Start: August 2016 Request for Proposals (RFP) for Services CT 06511 o por correo electrónico a: eribeiro@elmcitycommunities.org.

Project documents available via ftp link below: The State of Connecticut, Office of Policy and ManDe conformidad con dicha Sección II (C), una audiencia pública donde se aceptarán y agement, is seeking proposals to provide certain serviceshttp://ftp.cbtghosting.com/loginok.html?username=sayebrookevillage related to a Housing and Segregation Study. registrarán los comentarios públicos está programada para el lunes 16 de mayo de 2022 The intent of the request is to identify individuals a las 4:00 p. m. a través de: RingCentral: https://v.ringcentral.com/join/975943490 ?pw or firms with the necessary expertise to provide =2e34ff6769797e68e96a95bb953d0d81, Fax or Email Questions & Bids to: Dawn Lang @ 203-881-8372 dawnlang@haynesconstruction.com ID de reunión: 975943490, Contraseña: yozanalysis of the impact of federal and state housing programs within Connecticutthe on economic and racial HCC encourages participation of all Veteran,WY5m3ib.

S/W/MBE & Section 3 Certified Businesses segregation within a stated timeframe.

Haynes Construction Company, 32 Progress Ave, Seymour, CT 06483 O marque 1 (650) 419-1505 The RFP is available online at: https://portal.

Código de acceso / ID de reunión: 975943490 AA/EEO EMPLOYER ct.gov/DAS/CTSource/BidBoard and https:// Contraseña de marcación: 9699956342 portal.ct.gov/OPM/Root/RFP/Request-For-

and Management

Proposals or from Pauline Zaldonis, Office of Policy and Management, Data and Policy Analytics Division, 450 Capitol Ave., MS#52DPA, Hartford, Connecticut 06106-1379. E-mail: dapa@ct.gov.

Telephone (860) 418-6304. Deadline for response submission is 3:00 P.M., April 29, 2022.

21

Cualquier persona que requiera una Adaptación Razonable para participar en la audiencia puede llamar al Gerente de Adaptación Razonable (203) 498-8800, ext. 1507 o al Número TDD (203) 497-8434.

THE INNER-CITYNEWS NEWS July - May , 2022 - May02, 10,2016 2022 INNER-CITY 27,04 2016 - August

NOTICE

PVC FENCE PRODUCTION

NOTICIA

Union Company seeks:

Contact Dana at 860-243-2300

Email: dana.briere@garrityasphalt.com Women & Minority Applicants are encouraged to apply Affirmative Action/ Equal Opportunity Employer

NEW HAVEN

THE GLENDOWER GROUP, INC.

Construction

Garrity Asphalt Reclaiming, Inc seeks:

Construction Equipment Mechanic preferably experienced in Seeking to employ experienced individuals in the labor, Reclaiming and Road Milling Equipment. We offer factory foreman, operator and teamster trades for a heavy outside training on equipment we operate. Location: Bloomfield CT work statewide. Reliable personal transportation and a valWe offer excellent hourly rate & excellent benefits id drivers license required. To apply please call (860) 621Contact: Tom Dunay VALENTINA MACRI RENTAL HOUSING PRE- APPLICATIONS AVAILABLE 1720 or send resume to: Personnel Department, P.O. Box 368, Cheshire, CT06410.

Phone: 860- 243-2300 HOME INC, on behalf of Columbus House and the New Haven Housing Authority, Email: tom.dunay@garrityasphalt.com is accepting pre-applications for studio and one-bedroom this develAffiatrmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer M/F/V Women & Minority Applicants are encouraged to applyapartments Drug Free Workforce opment located at 108 Frank Street, New Haven.

Maximum income limitations apAffirmative Action/ Equal Opportunity Employer ply. Pre-applications will be available from 9AM TO 5PM beginning Monday Ju;y 25, 2016 and ending when sufficient pre-applications (approximately 100) have been received at the offices of HOME INC. Applications will be mailied upon reGarrity Asphalt Incduring seeks: CT Fence quest by calling HOMEReclaiming, INC at 203-562-4663 those hours.Large Completed pre- Company looking for an individual for our Reclaimer Operators and Milling Operators with current licensing PVCStreet, Fence Third Production Shop. Experience preferred but will applications must be returned to HOME INC’s offices at 171 Orange and clean driving record, be willing to travel throughout the Northtrain the right person. Must be familiar with carpentry hand Floor, New Haven, CT 06510. east & NY. We offer excellent hourly rate & excellent benefits & 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 poContact: Rick Tousignant Phone: 860- 243-2300 sition. Duties include building fence panels, posts, gates and Email: rick.touMust have a valid CT driver’s license & be able to obtain VALENTINAsignant@garrityasphalt.com MACRI VIVIENDAS DE ALQUILER PRE-SOLICITUDESmore.

DISPONIBLES a Drivers Medical Card. Must be able to pass a physical and Women & Minority Applicants are encouraged to apply drug test. Please email resume to pboucher@atlasoutdoor.com.

Affirmative Action/deEqual Opportunity HOME INC, en nombre la Columbus House y Employer de la New Haven Housing Authority, está AA/EOE-MF aceptando pre-solicitudes para estudios y apartamentos de un dormitorio en este desarrollo ubicado en la calle 109 Frank Street, New Haven. Se aplican limitaciones de ingresos máximos. Las pre-solicitudes estarán disponibles 09 a.m.-5 p.m. comenzando Martes 25 Tractor Trailer Driver for Heavy & Highway Construction Equipjulio,Must 2016have hastaacuando se han recibido suficientes pre-solicitudes ment.

CDL License, clean driving record, capable of (aproximadamente 100) en las oficinas HOME INC. Las pre-solicitudes serán enviadas porSeeking correo atopetición operating heavyde equipment; be willing to travel throughout the employ experienced individuals in the labor, foreman, llamando HOME INC alexcellent 203-562-4663 horas.Pre-solicitudes deberánand remitirse Northeast &aNY. We offer hourlydurante rate &esas excellent benefits operator teamster trades for a heavy outside work statewide. a las oficinas de HOME INC en 171 Orange Street, tercer piso, New Haven , CT personal 06510 . transportation and a valid drivers license reReliable

Construction

Request for Proposals Construction Monitor The Glendower Group, Inc. is currently seeking proposals for a construction monitor. A complete copy of the requirement may be obtained from Glendower’s Vendor Collaboration Portal https://newhavenhousing.cobblestonesystems.com/ gateway

Accounts Payable Clerk- Part-time Fusco Management Company is seeking a part-time accounts payable clerk to work 20 hours per week.

The position will support the accounts payable function processing vendor invoices and similar administrative duties. Familiarity with accounting systems and data entry required. Candidates must be detail oriented with good communication skills. On-site work required.

Equal Employment Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer. Please submit resumes to openjobs.group@fusco.com. Phone calls will not be accepted

quired. To apply please call (860) 621-1720 or send resume to:

ELM CITY COMMUNITIES

Personnel Department, P.O. Box 368, Cheshire, CT06410.

Request for Proposals Intelligent Document Management

Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer M/F/V

242-258 Fairmont Ave 2BR Townhouse, 1.5 BA, 3BR, 1 level , 1BA All new apartments, new appliances, new carpet, close to I-91 & I-95 highways, near bus stop & shopping center Pet under 40lb allowed. Interested parties contact Maria @ 860-985-8258 CT. Unified Deacon’s Association is pleased to offer a Deacon’s Certificate Program. This is a 10 month program designed to assist in the intellectual formation of Candidates in response to the Church’s Ministry needs. The cost is $125. Classes start Saturday, August 20, 2016 1:303:30 Contact: Chairman, Deacon Joe J. Davis, M.S., B.S. (203) 996-4517 Host, General Bishop Elijah Davis, D.D. Pastor of Pitts Chapel U.F.W.B. Church 64 Brewster St. New Haven, CT

Drug Free Workforce

Invitation to Bid:City Communities is currently seeking proposals for intelligent document Elm management. A complete copy of the requirement may be obtained from Elm State of Connecticut 2nd Notice City Communities’ Vendor Collaboration Portal https://newhavenhousing.

Office of Policy cobblestonesystems.com/gateway beginning on and Management

SAYEBROOKE VILLAGE Old Saybrook, CT

Monday, March 21, 2022 at 3:00PM. The State of Connecticut, Office(4ofBuildings, 17 Units) Policy and Management is recruiting Tax Exempt & Not Prevailing Wage Rate Project for a Policy Development Coordinator.

QUALITY CONTROL TECHNICIAN

New Construction, Wood Framed, Housing, Selective Demolition, Site-work, CastFurther information regarding the duties, eligibility requirements and application in-place Concrete, Asphalt Shingles, Vinyl Siding, instructions for this position is available Work in blacktop and stone QC Lab. Duties include sampling of stone and asphalt prodFlooring, Painting, Appliances, Residential Casework, at: Division 10 Specialties, ucts, and maintain accurate quality control reports. Must be able to lift 50lb samples.

Mechanical, Electrical, Plumbing andposition Fire Protection. https://www.jobapscloud.com/ Full time available. Valid driver’s license is required. Strong mechanical and CT/sup/bulpreview.asp?R1= This contract is subject to state set-asidemathematical and contract compliance backgroundrequirements. preferred. NO PHONE CALLS. Reply to Hiring Manager, 220330&R2=1581MP&R3=001

SEYMOUR HOUSING AUTHORITY Sealed bids are invited by the Housing Authority of the 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 Smithfield Gardens Assisted Living Facility, 26 Smith Street Seymour.

A pre-bid conference will be held at the Housing Authority Office 28 Smith Street Seymour, CT at 10:00 am, on Wednesday, July 20, 2016.

PO Box 1776, East Granby CT 06026.

Galasso Materials is an equal opportunity employer. All applicants will be considered The State of Connecticut an equal Due Date: BidisExtended, August 5, 2016 opportunity/affirmative action employer for employment without attention to race, color, religion, sex, orientation, gender idenand strongly encourages theAnticipated applications Start: tity, August 15, 2016 national origin, veteran or disability status of women, minorities, and persons Project documents available via ftp link below: with disabilities.

Listing: Sales/Operations Specialist

http://ftp.cbtghosting.com/loginok.html?username=sayebrookevillage

Fax or Email Questions & Bids to: Dawn Lang @ 203-881-8372 Petroleum dawnlang@haynesconstruction.com Company has an immediate full time opening. Excellent customer service DRIVER CDLtheCLASS HCC encourages participation of A all Veteran, S/W/MBE & Sectionspeaking 3 Certifiedat Businesses skill and public meetings a must. Retail oil operations knowledge and IT Company, 32 Progress Ave, Seymour, CToperating 06483 Full Time –Haynes All Construction Shifts Top knowledge of ADDS system required.

Previous petroleum experience and/or AA/EEO EMPLOYER experience in a very busy office environment a plus. Applicant to also perform administrative/clerical tasks as assigned. Please send resume to: H.R. Manager, Confidential, person: P O Box 388, Guilford CT 06437 or email hrdept@eastriverenergy.com

Pay-Full Benefits

Bidding documents are available from the Seymour Housing Authority Office, 28 Smith Street, Seymour, CT 06483 (203) 888-4579.

EOE Please apply in 1425 Honeyspot Rd. Ext. Stratford, CT 06615

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

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********An Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer**********

THE INNER-CITY NEWS - May 04, 2022 - May 10, 2022

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THE INNER-CITY NEWS - May 04, 2022 - May 10, 2022

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