INNER-CITY NEWS

INNER-CITY NEWS July 20, 2016 - July 27, 2016

Police Recruits Learn Nonviolence 101 New Haven, Bridgeport

INNER-CITYNEWS Volume 21 No. 2193

What Clinton better learn

Walker, Ritter Still Competing For Majority Leader Impromptu Barbershop

Set Up On The Green

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INNER-CITY NEWS July 20, 2016 - July 27, 2016

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INNER-CITY NEWS July 20, 2016 - July 27, 2016

Ricky D’s Gets A Shack

by MARKESHIA RICKS Robin Willoughby was determined to find the man with the ribs. “I’d seen him on TV,” she said. A little sleuthing led her to a Facebook page and a phone number. “I was like, ‘I wonder if he’s open, because I want some of those ribs!’” she recalled with a laugh.

“He” happens to be Ricky Evans, owner of Ricky D’s Rib Shack. And he was definitely open for business — finally. For three years Ricky D’s Rib Shack has been a shack in name only.

Or rather, a shack on four wheels only.

The popular local food truck has been a fixture in front of the Yale Art Museum and at major events throughout the city including the annual Food Truck Festival. You can usually find the truck at an event if you look for the longest line.

Evans is hoping Ricky D’s will become a fixture in a new neighborhood now that he’s serving up his sweet-savory, Kansa-Lina style barbecue, at the crossroads of the Dixwell/ Newhallville neighborhoods. Just a few days before the Fourth of July, Evans hung out a shingle at 302 Winchester Ave. at Science Park and achieved a goal that has been three years in the making — having his own storefront.

And you can smell the smoke before you hit the front door. Evans runs the business with the help of his younger brother, Brandon, Robert “The Wing King” Covington and Jerome “The Clean King” Houfer Jr. When a customer asked how sweet the sweet tea is, Brandon lets him know that it’s sweet and then some, just as it’s done in the South.

“I might better not have that,” the man said. “I’m diabetic.”

“No,” Brandon said, “I wouldn’t recommend the tea then. But that water? The water is sugar free.”

With old school R&B pumping through the restaurant’s sound system, the men are cheerfully serving many of the favorites that people have come to love from the truck, such as ribs and pulled pork. They’re also dishing up a bigger menu that includes more sides like baked mac and cheese, chicken wings and salads.

“On the truck we don’t have propane, so it’s really just the grill,” Evans said. “This allows me to extend the menu. With the ovens I can add mac and cheese, I can add cornbread. I have space to do salads, so we’re doing salads with the smoked chicken, pulled pork or the brisket on top. We’ve got

PHOTOE vans mans the phone while brother Brandon explains the menu to Willoughby at their new rib joint. fryers. Before we didn’t do wings.

When you have the equipment you can take advantage of that.”

Evans said the storefront also allows him to do more and bigger catering jobs, which was good news to Willoughby. She’s getting married soon and has a bridal shower coming up. Barbecue could be on the menu.

“We can bring the cookout to you,” Evans told her.

Making every day a cookout is part of Evans’s strategy for success. He said for the last year and a half he’s been looking for a storefront for the restaurant, but nothing seemed to be the right fit. In fact, he’d looked at a location around the corner in Science Park that would have put him right near the intersection of Winchester Avenue, Munson and Henry Streets across from the ever popular Farmington Canal.

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But it would have required a lot more resources, so he passed.

Then a broker from Yale University Properties contacted him about the space at 302 Winchester Ave., which hadn’t been available when he initially looked at the other Science Park location. (It was occupied by a Chinese restaurant at the time.) He decided to check it out.

“It just was the right place, at the

right time,” he said. The location puts him directly across from the Winchester Lofts apartment complex and around the corner from the new Ashmun Flats apartments. In addition to the Farmington Canal the restaurant is just a short walk, bike or skateboard ride from Yale’s Ingalls Rink. It also stands a good chance of reaping the benefit of the Science Park lunch crowd and Newhallville neighbors like Willoughby, who lives just down Winchester Avenue. The restaurant is open until 9 p.m. Monday through Friday and until 10 p.m. Saturday, making it one of the few in the area serving more than wings and sandwiches well into the evening.

“We’re really the only place open on the weekend,” he said. “That’s why I really love this location. We’re right in the middle of both sides of town where we can attract people from Yale, downtown is not far, the local community over here, the hockey rink, the Science Park area.”

“It feels good,” Evans added.

“We’re in the community, and we just want to market to New Haven and surrounding areas and establish that relationship with the community and have them connect with us actually having a location versus us only being on the food truck.”

Evans said the food truck isn’t going away, but he wants to get the rhythm of the storefront and understand the flow of the business to see how the truck might fit in going forward. He’s also looking forward to getting signage installed thanks to a facade grant he was able to secure from the city. Once that’s done, he’ll be looking at what he needs to do to get some outdoor seating and some bike racks.

“It took a lot of hard work and motivation to get here,” he said. “We’re still going to add more decor. This is just a start. We want customers to come here and I want them to grow with us and say, ‘I remember when the only thing they had on the wall was ‘Every Day Is A Cookout’ and ‘Don’t Bite Ya Fingers.’’”

Evans said he wants his “shack” to have a storied and humble beginning as all great barbecue restaurants do.

While customers can dine in a storefront, there are no TVs for watching the game, or a bar for bellying up.

“But I think if I was to look at a next location, I’d look to add a bar and TVs if that opportunity was to come up,” he said. “But I wouldn’t want to move too fast. I want to get this location established. This is the original.”

INNER-CITY NEWS July 20, 2016 - July 27, 2016

Walker, Ritter Still Competing For Majority Leader State Rep. Matt Ritter may be holding a fundraiser Thursday with Majority Leader Joe Aresimowicz in Rhode Island, but it doesn’t mean the two have teamed up to take over the number one and number two slot in the Connecticut House.

Aresimowicz, who is vying to become the next Speaker of the House, is hosting a fundraiser with Ritter at the home of John and Barbara Hooper. www.reedsmith.com/john_hooper/ »Mr. Hooper is the co-chair of ReedSmith’s complex litigation group and a partner in the New York law firm. The suggested donation is between $250 and $1,000. The money will go to the Connecticut Majority Team PAC, which is chaired by Matthew Brokman, Aresimowicz’s chief of staff and former union lobbyist.

As of July 10, the PAC had about $97,000 of cash on hand. The PAC spent $10,000 in February to hire Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research to conduct a poll to gauge public opinion on some policy initiatives and the popularity of Democratic Gov. Dannel P. Malloy. Earlier this year they declined to release the results of the private poll.

The PAC has been able to raise about $40,000 since January.

Democratic lawmakers and almost every lobbyist at the capitol on any given day during the legislative session has given between $50 and $100 to the PAC. Democratic leadership is responsible for defending its current 87-64 majority in the House. Raising funds for its PAC is part of the effort to defend the seats it currently holds, while trying to pick up more.

Ritter, the son of former House Speaker Thomas Ritter, is seeking to climb the ladder from co-chair of the Public Health Committee, to majority leader — the post being vacated by Aresimowicz.

However, unlike Aresimowicz, Ritter has some competition for the position.

Rep. Toni Walker of New Haven, who has co-chaired the powerful Appropriations Committee for six years, is also vying for the position.

Walker said Monday morning that she is still campaigning for the position and asking her colleagues for their support.

“Raising money should not be a defining factor of our leadership,” Walker said.

Walker said her strength is in party-building and messaging.

“We have to have a message,” Walker said.

She said she’s been hard at work talking to her Democratic colleagues in the House about how to develop the policies that back up that message, so that they are ready to hit the ground running in January.

She said she’s working on figuring out how to incorporate some of the platform document, expected to be adopted at the Democratic National Convention next week, into workable policies for Connecticut.

The current draft calls for free community college and tuitionfree education at in-state public colleges for families earning less than $125,000 per year. Walker believes it’s a policy Connecticut could modify.

John Hooper, Connecticut Majority Team PAC, dh

REY HARP TAKES OVER DIRECTORSHIP OF GNHBPA

Arlene Davis-Rudd Staff writer ICN

“The Board of Director’s of the Greater New Haven Business & Professional Association (GNHBPA) recently appointed Reynaud L. Harp as its Executive Director. The GNHBPA, chartered in 1965, is one of the oldest small business’ and minority-owned business advocacy organizations in the State of Connecticut.

Greater New Haven members and affiliates are representative of construction and trades contractors, professionals, restaurants, beauty shops, retail establishments, and other local entrepreneurs and

business enterprises.

Mr. Harp is the founder and managing principal of Nutmeg State Business Advisors LLC, a small business consulting firm providing strategic counseling and business planning for Connecticut start-ups and ongoing businesses.

Currently, Mr. Harp serves on the Board of Directors of the Greater NH Chamber of Commerce. He received his B.A. degree in Political Science and Urban Studies from Carleton College and a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Chicago Law School.

Before coming to Connecticut, Mr. Harp served in regulatory and legal positions for the State of Minnesota. More recently, he served as Director of Corporate Affairs for Renaissance Management Company, (RMC) Inc., one of the largest private owner-managers of HUD/CHFA multi-family hous5

ing developments in the Greater New Haven area. Mr. Harp also served as a staff adviser for Architects Environmental Collaborative (AEC) Inc. the real estate developer affiliate of RMC. As stated by Mr. Wesley Oliver, President of the Board of Directors (GNHBPA), “Like many of our members, our organization faces severe challenges to its economic businesses. Rey Harp’s experience and training in regulatory issues as well as his extensive knowledge and participation in civic affairs will serve our many and varied members’ business interest into the Greater New Haven economic development agenda.”

Mr. Harp stated “I am thrilled and challenged to be working with an organization with such a rich and varied history of serving NH Minority Businesses. I couldn’t ask for a better opportunity for public

service than the one I now have.”

Rey Harp replaces Mr. George Clarke as Executive Director. Mr. Clark takes on the position of consultant and will support and assist Rey Harp in the GNHB&PA’s dayto-day operations.

In embracing the change, Mr. Clarke commented, “As a member of the GNHB&PA for several years, I am delighted to be a part of this wonderful thinking and planning for the future of this organization that has served the Greater New Haven, successfully, for more than fifty years. This move can only lead to many more years of positive economic growth to our city, state and surrounding areas.”

For information, contact: C. Irvin 190 Dixwell Ave. @ 203.562.2193

INNER-CITY NEWS July 20, 2016 - July 27, 2016

Undocumented Students Take Part in Protest Rally Outside RNC

by Dillon Carr

Yenimar Cortes of New Haven holds a “United Against Hate” sign during an anti-Trump rally in downtown Cleveland.

said. “But he’s (Trump) brought so much against race and color.”

Specifically, Trump’s statements on immigration and national security stand out as policies of direct hatred to Cortes and her family, she said.

“It’s very heart breaking, actually,” she said. “It (Trump’s wall policy) demonstrates that he wants to separate cultures and people. But every city is beautiful.”

Cortes’ group rallied at the corner of St. Claire and Mall Drive in Cleveland at 12 p.m., where protesters chanted “the people, united, will never be defeated,” and “dump Trump.”

Mexico to live in New Haven.

“Just like everyone else, they wanted me to have a good future,

United We Dream was just one of the groups present during

New Haven Independent

CLEVELAND — Yenimar Cortes, a Tlaxcala, Mexico native who grew up in New Haven, joined United We Dream activists Monday during an anti-Donald Trump rally in Cleveland’s downtown area outside the Republican National Convention.

Cortes, an 18-year-old undocumented Mexican, said she was standing against hate.

“He already has brought hate.

It is a foretaste of what is to come if he is president,” Cortes said of presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump.

At age 2, Cortes traveled with her parents from her hometown in

to get a good education, go to college. I always thought this country was just and right,” she

Monday’s counter events organized by the Coalition to Stop Trump. After the the rally, the groups marched in Cleveland’s downtown streets.

According to a Connecticut Students for a Dream press release, at least 70 immigrant youth from across six states also joined the rally and march.

The group has plans to be in Cleveland throughout the week during the RNC. Dillon Carr is a reporter with the RichlandSource.com, a news site covering North Central Ohio. He is covering the Republican National Convention this week in Cleveland.

Tough Pill to Swallow for Bernie Supporters

by Jack Kramer New Haven Independent

Hard-core Connecticut supporters of Bernie Sanders are having a hard time digesting that the 74year-old Democratic socialist campaign for president is over — and — that he endorsed Hillary Clinton.

That ending came Tuesday when Sanders endorsed his long-time rival for the Democratic nomination.

Clinton and Sanders formally declared an end to their political rivalry, joining forces at a rally in Portsmouth, New Hampshire to take on a shared enemy: Republican Donald Trump.

Dan Durso, co-director of Bernie Sanders’ Connecticut Team, admitted Wednesday that Connecticut supporters are still reeling a bit.

“Although the end was kind of inevitable, people, especially the younger ones who haven’t been through a lot of campaigns before, are taking it pretty hard,” said Durso, of East Hartford. “They put their heart and souls into this campaign. Some of us who have been around politics a little longer know how this works. We know he endorsed Hillary because that is how politics work. It’s the only thing he could do to protect the

platform issues he cared about.”

One of those who admitted Wednesday that Sanders’ endorsement of Clinton Tuesday “knocked the wind out of me,” was Debra Cohen, the co-founder of Sanders’ Connecticut Team.

Cohen, of Wethersfield, said she was “devastated” by the endorsement of Clinton, adding she was “still hoping for a miracle,” meaning that Sanders would somehow still win the presidential endorsement at the upcoming Democratic convention.

Clinton and Sanders fought a tough campaign in the Connecticut Democratic presidential primary in April, with Clinton winning by a 52 to 42 percent margin.

At the unity rally in New Hampshire on Tuesday, Clinton walked through a number of policy issues where Sanders had pulled her to the left during the course of the election minimum wage, the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal, college affordability — to make a broader concession: the movement that Sanders created was nothing short of a political revolution.

“Senator Sanders has brought people off the sidelines and into the political process. He has energized and inspired a generation of young people who care deeply about our

FACEBOOK Durso

FACEBOOK

Cohen

country,” Clinton said. “To everyone here and everyone across the country who poured your heart and soul into Senator Sanders’ campaign: Thank you.”

At the unity rally, Sanders declared: “I am endorsing Hillary 6

Clinton. She must become our next president.

“This campaign is about the needs of the American people and addressing the very serious crises that we face,” Sanders said as Clinton stood nodding at his side.

“And there is no doubt in my mind that, as we head into November, Hillary Clinton is far and away the best candidate to do that.”

The long-anticipated unity event, coming less than two weeks ahead of the Democratic National Convention, effectively puts to rest Democratic fears of a political nightmare scenario: that Sanders might sit on his hands in the general election, or worse, run as a third-party candidate on the left.

When Durso was asked whether he felt Sanders was forced to endorse Clinton earlier than he might normally have because of Trump, he answered, quickly: “Absolutely. Bernie felt pressured to come out for Hillary to combat Trump’s campaign of hate, his campaign of racism and bigotry.

There is no doubt.”

Durso added that if the Republican candidate for president was someone who didn’t have the blue collar support that Trump has “Say, a Jeb Bush then I could have seen a scenario where Bernie would have considered a third-

party run for president.”

Durso said what’s important now, “is to keep this movement going forward,” adding, “There will be other campaigns, other campaigners, not just on a national level, but on local and state levels with candidates that believe in our platform. We must keep energized.”

Lindsay Farrell, executive director of Connecticut Working Families Party, also put a positive spin on Sanders’ presidential run.

“Bernie’s campaign accomplished some remarkable things,” Farrell said. “It sparked millions of people to action by putting forward a bold, progressive agenda. It shifted the Democratic Party’s platform and the national dialogue, and it has inspired people to adopt it and run for office on it.”

Farrell added that there’s more to do.

“The political revolution doesn’t end, and it was always about more than one candidate and one election,” Farrell said. “In Connecticut, our focus is going to be on electing progressive champions at the state and local level who want to see the things we want, from a $15 minimum wage to making college affordable to getting big money out of politics.”

INNER-CITY NEWS July 20, 2016 - July 27, 2016

Street Maze Frustrates Neighbors

by DAVID YAFFE-BELLANY New Haven Independent

When she drives her children to school, Newhallville’s Robin MillerGodwin has to take a circuitous route: She turns right at the corner of Ivy Street and Newhall Street, drives past Hazel Street, turns left onto Starr Street, takes another left onto Winchester Avenue, and finally zooms past Hazel and Ivy in one inconvenient loop.

Miller-Godwin, who owns her late grandmother’s house on Ivy, traces her frustration to an annoying quirk in the design of the one-way street. A single block at the end of Ivy, which extends from Dixwell Avenue to Winchester, runs in the opposite direction from the rest of the street the result of a redesign initiative intended to curb speeding in the neighborhood.

Miller-Godwin, a manager at the Housing Authority of New Haven, described her problematic commute to a team of city officials gathered recently at the restaurant 30 Plus on Fitch Street for a meet-and-greet with the mayor. She called for the city to reverse the last block, between Newhall and Winchester, so that commuters driving down Ivy can turn directly onto Winchester.

She is not alone in her frustration.

Newhallville Alder Delphine Clyburn has advised city officials to change the design, after numerous meetings with neighbors who find the street turnaround more irritating than helpful.

“I did the homework on that,” Clyburn said. “That is completed on our part, and the city has it now. It’s in their ballpark now.”

City transit chief Doug Hausladen told the Independent that his team is examining the block in question as part of a larger traffic study in Newhallville.

He has spoken to Clyburn, he said.

He hesitated to make any promises.

“I would like a broader study before changing one particular block of one particular street,” he said. “We’re thinking of changing a number of streets, and working through a community process to do it.”

He added that adjusting one street in isolation, without developing a plan for the rest of neighborhood, often creates more problems than it solves.

Drugs and Fast Cars Miller-Godwin became interested in the history of Ivy St. in 2009, when

DAVID YAFFE-BELLANY PHOTO

This block runs in the opposite direction to the rest of Ivy Street.

Miller-Godwin.

Clyburn: Up to city now.

she took over her grandmother’s house.

“After having to go around and around, I said, ‘Let’s see if we can get some information,’” she said.

She soon discovered that in 2003 then-Newhallville Alder Charles Blango wrote to the Department of Traffic and Parking requesting the very design change that now infuriates residents.

“Cars have been known to speed throughout several areas in the 20th Ward,” Blango wrote. “There have been at least three separate accidents where speeding motorists have struck children.”

He wrote that the issue came to his attention “after several calls from my constituents and meeting with the area residents.” His letter was dated July 3, 2003. That July 8, the Traffic and Parking Department issued a notice announcing that the block would be reversed in August.

Miller-Godwin, who said she has canvassed long-time area residents

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for information, maintained that the community was never consulted and that many in the neighborhood resent a change that they feel was imposed from on high.

“My grandmother and the neighbors said they had never had any meetings. They didn’t find out about it until it was done,” MillerGodwin said.

Blango, who coordinates the city’s truancy and dropout prevention program, rejected that account of the design change, saying he discussed the issue at numerous community management team meetings.

“Everybody was invited. That’s where the discussions came,” he said.

“People choose to come. It’s like doing homework – ‘I forgot it,’ or

‘The dog ate it.’ I was always inclusive.”

Blango added that speeding was not the only issue at play in his decision to request the redesign. He also hoped that making the neighborhood less hospitable to passing cars would curb drugdealing and other street crimes.

And, he said, he will fight any attempt to have the block reversed.

Blango, who lives on the corner of Ivy and Newhall, said neighbors are still divided on the issue. Those who live on the long stretch of road between Dixwell Avenue and Newhall, he said, did not experience the brunt of the crime and the speeding. Neighbors living between Newhall and Winchester, however, were the primary victims of those problems and therefore better understand the value of a redesign that he claims has contributed to a drop in crime.

“This is not for convenience,” Blango said. “This is for safety, this is for illegal activity.”

Miller-Godwin said she disagrees: In her view, the updated design has done nothing to combat the problems in the neighborhood.

“Down on Ivy Street, they still speed, and they still go the wrong way oftentimes,” she said. “It’s just ridiculous how they’ve switched the streets around, and it hasn’t stopped this drug trade, because it’s still going on.”

INNER-CITY NEWS July 20, 2016 - July 27, 2016

Tomorrow’s “Sisters” Tapped To Dream

by MARKESHIA RICKS New Haven Independent

Deborah Busch Wright was playing the role of fairy godmother, her pixie stick doubling as wand and conveyor of fairy dust. If money were not a barrier, she asked the room full of girls and a smattering of women, what would you wish to do?

Seventeen-year-old Zuri Huntley of Waldorf, Md., said she’d go to college and pursue her dreams.

Recent Career High School graduate Keyanté Reaves, 18, said she would travel to Japan.

“Well. with this pixie stick, I am tapping you all on the head,” said Wright, who serves as a West Haven police commissioner. “You have all the money you need. I want you to create your book of possibilities. Nothing is off limits. The sky is the limit but you can go to outer space.”

With Wright’s encouragement the attendees of the ninth Sisters of Today and Tomorrow (SOT) National Leadership Conference for Girls got busy clipping out pictures from magazines and envisioning dream careers, educational opportunities, even weddings and proms. The conference was held this past weekend at the African American Cultural Center on Park Street.

New Haven Academy junior Jonaya-Moné Muse. who hopes to study psychology after she graduates.

“You don’t have to know what your passions are,” Wright said encouragingly. “What is is you like and want to do? This is all about you. Not what your mother wants, not what you see on Facebook, not what you see celebrities doing, but what is inside you.

What makes you feel really good when you’re doing it? Put anything on there that makes you smile.”

Wright said the point of the exercise is to give the girls an opportunity to focus on what they want for their future and give them something for which to strive.

“There are so many things that take the focus off them,” she said.

“Something like this places the

MARKESHIA RICKS PHOTO

Pamela Nealy drove four girls and a parent from Gainsville, Ga. for the conference.

Busch Wright at confab: No limits on dreams.

DuBois-Walton tells her story.

focus back on them. They may not stick to it, things can change, but it’s something reach for.”

Prior to the dream board exercise the girls shared lunch with Karen DuBois-Walton who talked about leadership and shared her personal story of dreams changing. The New York City native thought she wanted to be a doc-

tor, but that changed after her parents both developed cancer before she was slated to head off to Yale University in 1985. Though her mother was presumed sicker with pancreatic cancer, her father died of lung cancer just weeks before she started her freshman year. Her mother would die just a few short months into DuBois-Walton’s 8

freshman year.

“The first couple of years here were really rocky,” she told the girls at the conference “I’d love to tell you that had a 4.0, but I certainly didn’t because I was just keeping myself together.” She said the cultural center held a lot of memories for her because it is where she found the support she

needed to deal with the death of her parents, but also the will to change her major to psychology.

“I thought that I wanted to be a doctor, possibly a pediatrician treating children,” she said. “I became a doctor, but in a different kind of work.” DuBois-Walton ultimately obtained a doctorate in clinical psychology from Boston University. (Today she serves as executive director of the Housing Authority of New Haven.)

When DuBois-Walton asked the attendees about leaders they admire, many said their mothers.

First Lady Michelle Obama also was on several lists of most admired leaders.

“If you could meet Michelle Obama, what would you want to ask her?” DuBois Walton asked.

One girl said she would want to know if it is stressful being married to the president.

“It looks like it’s stressful,” she said, which drew some chuckles.

Pamela Nealy, director of the Pink Diamonds program for the Boys & Girls Club of Gainsville, Ga., said she’d simply want to pick Obama’s brain about raising two daughters and keeping them inspired to achieve. She also would want her tips for how to help girls understand that who they are now can impact who they can become later.

“When I graduated from high school, I had a 1.5 GPA,” Nealy said. “I wasted a lot of time when I was their age. You don’t have time for people to take you away from you.”

This year’s conference took on as its theme “Sisters Rise: Why We Matter,” echoing the concept of the #BlackLivesMatter movement. Carla Morrison, founder and executive director of SOT, said women are finding their voice, leading in all arenas, and standing against injustice, and by introducing young girls to women who are doing these very things, the conference helps prepare the next generation to lead. Next year the conference will be held in Atlanta. It is scheduled to return to New Haven in 2018.

INNER-CITY NEWS July 20, 2016 - July 27, 2016

City Explores Equipping Cops With Narcan

by DAVID YAFFEBELLANY The city is looking at putting the opioid antidote Narcan in the hands of cops after a string of deadly overdoses, provoking skepticism from the heads of the police and fire unions.

Police Chief Dean Esserman told the Independent earlier this week that Mayor Toni Harp has instructed him to “review the feasibility of police being trained in using Narcan,” which currently falls under the purview of the fire department alone.

A city task force is evaluating several options, including storing Narcan in patrol cars and strapping a kit to the belt of every cop in the city.

After 17 people, three of them fatally, overdosed on street-sold fentanyl on June 23, and the city almost ran out of Narcan to revive victims, public debate focused on how to make sure enough emergency responders have the antidote, which city officials credited with saving numerous lives.

One question now is: which emergency responders?

“It wouldn’t be done in place of the firefighters. It would be done in addition to the firefighters,” Esserman said. “The goal is: What’s the best way to save lives?”

The prospect of cops carrying Narcan, often administered as a nasal spray, has raised concerns over police safety and training logistics. And it has led skeptics to question the budgetary wisdom of spending tens of thousands of dollars on equipment that officers might never use at a time when other departmental needs feel more pressing.

City emergency management chief Rick Fontana, part of the city’s Narcan taskforce, said any initiative would require significant time and expense.

“The mayor has been very clear,” Fontana said. “She wants the police officers to be able to administer Narcan. Unfortunately, it’s not something that you can just say, ‘OK, let’s do it.’”

He said that one of the plans under discussion putting kits on the belts of all 400 New Haven police officers would cost around $40,000, even discounting the additional expense of reconfiguring police vehicles to store the antidote at the right temperature.

And, he noted, officers would need to be trained in the types of medical maneuvers that firefighters are taught to employ at the scene of an accident.

Frank Ricci, the president of firefighters union Local 825, said he opposes the plan to give Narcan to police officers out of concern for their safety.

“If a police officer goes into an apartment, and they’re giving Narcan, that means they have to do mouth to mouth,” Ricci said.

“You have a police officer with an exposed gun at a crime scene.”

In the vast majority of cases, he said, firefighters equipped with Narcan arrive at the scene of an overdose long before their police counterparts.

Fontana said the Narcan task force has taken safety concerns into account and will likely recommend giving officers mechanical respiration equipment so that they do not have to perform Con’t on page

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INNER-CITY NEWS July 20, 2016 - July 27, 2016

Crowd Cries “Free Corey!”; Case Continued

by DANIELA BRIGHENTI & DAVID YAFFE-BELLANY New Haven Independent

The African-American cafeteria worker who lost his job after breaking a slavery-themed stained-glass window in Yale’s Calhoun College said he resigned as part of a quid-pro-quo agreement with the university not to pursue charges against him.

He kept his end. He’s still facing charges.

Yale has not yet persuaded the state to drop a felony charge against the former worker, Corey Menafee, whose case has sparked local and national outrage since this story appeared Monday in the Independent against both a campus and national backdrop of racial soul-searching.

Menafee showed up at state Superior Court on Elm Street Tuesday morning to a rapturous reception from dozens of demonstrators gathered on the courthouse steps.

Then he went inside for a scheduled court appearance. Dozens of supporters filled Courtroom A it was standing room only for the one-minute appearance, during which the judge continued Menafee’s case until July 26.

Menafee faces a second-degree misdemeanor charge of reckless endangerment and a first-degree felony charge of criminal mischief in connection with the windowsmashing incident; he has yet to enter a plea.

A mass exodus from the courtroom followed his appearance.

Outside the courthouse, Menafee told reporters that contrary to what Yale told the press Monday, the university agreed to seek to have his charges dropped only on the condition that he resign “If Yale wants to do the right thing, we will help them,” said Menafee’s lawyer, Patricia Kane, who met her client for the first time this morning at the request of local philanthropist Wendy Hamilton, who recruited her after reading Monday’s article about Menafee. “There was an agreement for him to give back his job in exchange for not being prosecuted.”

DANIELA BRIGHENTI PHOTO

Menafee outside the courthouse.

“I signed it,” Menafee said. He said he could not produce a copy of the report.

Menafee who does not own a phone or computer and was unaware of the public support until he arrived at the courthouseseemed slightly dazed as he walked down the courthouse steps, fist-bumping with activists and judicial marshals to cries of “Free Corey Menafee!” from the assembled demonstrators.

“I didn’t know I was supported this much. I didn’t realize what I did had such an impact on other people,” he said.

Yale University spokesman Tom Conroy issued a statement Tuesday repeating the claim that Menafee voluntarily resigned; and stating that Yale is asking the state

to drop the charges.

Yale University police originally arrested Menafee on June 13.

As cafeteria workers gathered in the dining hall for a staff appreciation event that day, Menafee used a broomstick to knock down a stained-glass panel that depicted two slaves carrying bales of cotton. He later told the Independent that he found the image “racist and degrading.” It followed a year of controversy about whether Yale should continue to name the residential college after ardent slavery advocate John C. Calhoun, a former vice-president; and over what kind of art should hang there.

Kane met Menafee at the courthouse Tuesday morning as he was applying for a public defender.

She offered him her services pro 10

bono, and he gratefully accepted.

In an interview, Pamela George, who works as an assistant dean at Yale and joined the demonstrators in a crowded courtroom, condemned the university’s actions.

“He’s not the problem,” George said of Menafee. “It’s the continued injustice and disrespect of people who are offended by images of slavery, and the racism that continues to go on in the institution that is Yale.”

Asked about the alleged quidpro-quo resignation agreement after Menafee’s court appearance, university spokesman Conroy sent the following statement to the Independent: “The employee apologized for his actions and subsequently resigned from the University. The University has called the State’s Attorney and requested that charges not be pursued. Yale is also not seeking restitution.”

Asked specifically when the call was made and whether an agreement between Menafee and the University in fact existed, Conroy wrote that “actually, we requested that the charges not be pursued. I believe [it] was a written request.”

He did not specify whether the agreement exists, and did not reply to a third request for comment by the time this story was published.

But on Monday, in another statement, Yale Vice President for

Communications Eileen O’Connor told the Independent that the university did not make an agreement with Menafee requiring him to resign in exchange for the charges to be dropped.

O’Connor could not be reached for comment on Tuesday morning following Menafee’s court appearance. (Update: After this story was published, O’Connor stated: “An agreement exists but there is no mention in that agreement of a quid pro quo about dropping the charges if he resigned. I’m not going to go into all of it because personal, some is personal issues. It’s about how he’s going to resign. ... We worked with his union to work out, to help work out this issue.”)

Menafee, 38, has injected new drama into a racially charged dispute that has roiled Yale’s campus since last summer. Calhoun College named for infamous slavery proponent Calhoun served as the epicenter of year-long protests by students and faculty who called for the college to be renamed and for the removal of raciallycharged artwork from campus. In April, university President Peter Salovey announced that Yale would keep the Calhoun name.

But in recent months, Head of Calhoun Julia Adams has worked independently of the university to remove racially charged artwork, including paintings of Calhoun, from the college building.

Menafee’s case has refueled the Calhoun naming debate during quiet summer months when most students are away from campus.

Over the last three months, activists have vehemently denounced Salovey’s decision to maintain the Calhoun name and the slaverythemed artwork throughout the college’s buildings.

The activist group Unidad Latina en Accion, working alongside members of the Center for Community Change, organized a demonstration in support of Menafee outside the courthouse Tuesday morning. About 50 community members attended the Con’t on page 12

INNER-CITY NEWS July 20, 2016 - July 27, 2016

11

INNER-CITY NEWS July 20, 2016 - July 27, 2016

Impromptu Barbershop Set Up On The Green

Con’t from page 10

Case Continued rally including New Haven residents, current and former Yale students, and Yale employees.

“He took a stick to that window and said he had enough,” said William General, a part-time employee for Yale Catering. “We don’t need another lesson in slavery. We get it.”

“The Yale faculty and students have led this movement, but the majority of New Haven residents are minorities and have to walk by and see this college, the signs, everyday,” ULA organizer John Lugo said.

Kica Matos of CCC made a similar case noting that Yale continues to perpetuate a hostile working environment for Menafee and others like him, who feel antagonized by the public display of panels like the one he struck down.

“Every day he has to walk into a college named after one of America’s biggest proponents of slavery,” Matos said. “What he did was a service to Yale, to all of us.”

Angelina Xiang, a rising senior in Calhoun College, said students are also disturbed by the images, and that Menafee did something a lot of students also wanted to do.

Menafee, who has worked in Yale’s dining halls since 2007, has a degree in mass communications from Virginia Union University.

He previously worked for a management services company, and as a substitute teacher.

“He’s very bright,” Kane said.

“A college-educated dishwasher.

What is wrong with this picture?”

“He’s a writer,” she added.

“He’s not been able to get a job in the field that he’d like to be in.”

She added that Menafee is not looking to be rehired by the university, because it would not offer him a positive work environment. (Menafee told the Independent on Saturday that he regretted actions that cost him a job he loved.)

The judge in Courtroom A, Philip A. Scarpellino, noted that the University is seeking to retrieve 27 pieces of broken glass that were collected by the police

department after the panel broke.

“Yale can wait for their glass,” Scareplleino told the crowded courtroom, “and hopefully won’t put it back together.”

As news of Menafee’s arrest spread, support groups sprang up to help him financially as well as condmening Yale and calling for redress. One example is this letter drafted by Yale law students. It states, in part: “For decades, primarily Black dining hall workers have served primarily White students beneath Arcadian depictions of slavery in a college named for man who devoted his life to their servitude. Yet you privileged the sentimentality of rich White donors over racial equality by keeping that name.

You patronizingly explained that we should value the name “Calhoun” as a history lesson, even though it relegates Black staff and students to continue to work and live under the shadow of slavery.

“And now you have called the police on a Black man for shattering an image that celebrates Black bondage. You called the police even though Mr. Menafee presented no immediate threat and you would never have done so if Mr. Menafee were a student. Most shamefully, you called the police in full knowledge of the humiliation of arrest and the potential consequences of prosecution for him and his family.

“Yale does not exist in a vacuum. Yale’s relationship with a majority-minority New Haven has often been challenging. But this task should be easy. You recently announced your commitment to a “better Yale,” and the need for “inclusivity and respect.”

You can honor that commitment by ensuring that another Black man’s life is not needlessly destroyed by the the criminal justice system. What Mr. Menafee did was a service to the University, Yale students, Yale workers and the New Haven community. ”

by DANIELA BRIGHENTI

Wednesday might have been just another day on the job for barber Darryl Pervis.

The only difference? Instead of giving haircuts at his Hamden shop, Godly Cuts, Pervis worked right from the grass at the New Haven Green. For free.

For about the fifth year in a row, local stylists volunteered their time and skills to give nearly 80 homeless residents free haircuts. The event was organized primarily by Karaine Smith-Holness and Jesse Hardy, who runs a nonprofit called Jesse’s Homeless Outreach Project (J-HOP).

When asked for a comment on Wednesday’s impromptu barbershop on the Green, Hardy shied away from the spotlight, and chose to focus instead on the four local stylists who were present at the eventt.

“This is about them out there today,” Hardy said, pointing towards the quartet, who had their styling chairs up on a makeshift stage. “They’re the ones making it all possible here.”

The four stylists included Dexter Jones from Dexter ’s Barbershop, Omar Sangster from Sangster Barber and Salon, Patrice Johnson from Hair’s Kay Beauty Salon and Pervis. Homeless residents sat down in a waiting area to receive their free haircuts from one of the four.

For Pervis, this was his third year participating in the event. He runs his own service organization, called Faith Inspired Servants Helping Everyone Reach Services (F.I.S.H.E.R.S). He said he sees great value in giving back to his community.

“I do this completely out of love,” Pervis said. “I’ve been [giving back] for many, many years. This isn’t anything new to us.”

According to Smith-Holness, the homeless population on the Green looks forward to this annual event. “Oh, they know when we’re coming,” she said, looking around at the crowded waiting area.

That is exactly how Warren Freeman, who’s homeless, came to find the event.

12

“I saw a big crowd gathered, and I figured it must be haircutting day,” Freeman said. He was number 16 in line.

Freeman has been living in New Haven for most of his life. He said he is thankful for the opportunity to have access to something so basic: “You know, we just want a haircut.”

Such seemingly routine events can make a difference for someone without a home, Hardy noted. He was homeless himself for a period of time, and his experiences influence the programs he develops today. In addition to the annual haircut event, Hardy runs free-food markets and flea markets and offers occasional meals on the Green.

“I wanted people to do this sort of thing for me,” Hardy said. “I just couldn’t get a break [back then]. It would have been nice to have things like this.”

The next idea he has cooking is a shower bus, which would drive up to the Green and allow homeless people to shower in warm water. He said he has a potential backer for the idea.

“It warms my heart, seeing it,” State Representative Robyn Porter said of the annual haircutting event, which she attended. “They stand up a little differently after the haircut. The change is tangible.”

A van arrived nearly 20 pizza boxes for the homeless nearing the end of the two-hour event.

INNER-CITY NEWS July 20, 2016 - July 27, 2016

Muslims Celebrate After A Trying Ramadan

by DAVID YAFFE-BELLANY

said, he has had numerous conversations with Muslims and non-Muslims alike about true Islamic values in an age of terror.

“We have to explain to them what is the reality of Islam,” he said. “Some of them get confused.”

New Haven Independent

Ali McMillan saw the headlines and watched the fall-out on television. But he refused to let the news of worldwide terrorist attacks committed under the banner of radical Islam affect his spiritual concentration during the holy month of Ramadan.

An observant Muslim and New Haven native, McMillan managed to keep his focus throughout the month of fasting and it paid off. He joined hundreds of fellow Muslims Wednesday evening at a parking lot carnival held at 254 Bull Hill Ln. in honor of Eid al-Fitr, a holiday celebrated by millions of Muslims around the world to mark the end of Ramadan.

“I’ve heard about [the attacks], and I’ve thought about them,” said McMillan, an energetic father of eight. “But I focus on my family.

If you think about it too much, it would sadden you and destroy the mood.”

Eid al-Fitr marks the end of a month of daily fasting, the end of abstaining from food or drink from sunrise to sunset for about 30 days.

The day is usually a time of uninterrupted celebration. And on Wednesday, Muslims gathered in the parking lot for games and ice cream, with bemused parents watching their children chase each other with water balloons between rounds on the bouncy castle.

This month’s event, hosted by the New Haven Islamic Center, was also held against the backdrop of terrorist attacks in Orlando, Florida and Dhaka, Bangladesh, among other places, that have rekindled anti-Muslim sentiment across the world.

Mohammed Abdelati, the imam at the New Haven Islamic Center, said the carnival which featured foosball tables, a pick-up basketball game, and food trucks selling cheap pizza and falafel was designed partly to give his community a positive face.

“We are trying to invite everyone around us to come and experience Islam,” he said. “We need to do this. The media is corrupting our image.”

Over the last month, Abdelati

The Hussein brothers.

Maher and Sal Hussein, brothers who live in Wooster Square, said they feel obligated to explain the peace-loving nature of Islam to skeptics they encounter at work and in everyday life.

“We engage people, when something like this happens,” Sal Hussein said. “The imam engages people that this is not the right way.”

Maher Hussein said the attacks the most recent of which was an Islamic State bombing dle-east36720720"that killed 250 people in Baghdad cast a shadow over the holiday.

“This is the holiest month,” he said. “Everyone is supposed to be at their best, at their most peaceful.”

“It does weigh on you,” he added, as a stray water balloon landed on his foot. “You feel like you have to explain yourself. You shouldn’t. It sucks that you have to.”

McMillan his eyes fixed on the

Abdelati, the imam at the New Haven Islamic Center.

13

bouncy castle, where his son was jumping excitedly said he tried not to let the wave of radical terrorism take away from the month-long holiday.

“I don’t discuss it too much,” he said. “You make prayer for the people going through it, and you keep moving.”

He was in the right city for that kind of spiritual focus a city with a growing Muslim population surrounded by mostly sympathetic outsiders.

The New Haven Islamic Center which opened in the late 1970s when a group of students at the University of New Haven bought a house to use for prayer has expanded rapidly since it opened a second site two years ago.

Yassine Boualem, a volunteer who sits on the board of the Islamic Center, said this year’s carnival was far more elaborate than past Eid al-Fitr celebrations in New Haven’s Muslim community.

“It’s important the kids here have a holiday like the other kids in the US,” he said. “If you want to see the true Islam, come here and witness it yourself.”

“We’re people just like everyone else,” Boualem added, gesturing in the direction of the food trucks.

“We like to celebrate.”

INNER-CITY NEWS July 20, 2016 - July 27, 2016

Police Recruits Learn Nonviolence 101

By MARKESHIA RICKS After watching videos showing cops in Birmingham and Selma turning fire hoses and police dogs on protesters and beating peaceful marchers, New Haven police recruit Natalie Crosby made a connection: The distrust of police officers today might be rooted in the actions of the police of yesterday.

“It made me ashamed that the profession I’m getting into could have been so drawn to do something like that,” Crosby said. “It didn’t make sense to me.”

Crosby and 28 other members of her police training academy class were watching some of the earliest televised images of police brutality. They were learning about a method of deescalation, conflict management and resolution called INK “http://ctnonviolence.org/programs/kingian-nonviolencetrainings/”Kingian Nonviolence Conflict Reconciliation Training.

The four-hour training was organized on Tuesday by Victoria Christgau, founder and executive director of violence.org/”the Connecticut Center for Nonviolence, and taught by three officers trained in Kingian Nonviolence, Sgt. Jackie Hoyt, Lt. Sam Brown and Capt.

Patricia Helliger.

It’s the first time a recruit class has been exposed to such training; the senior officers are hoping it’s not the last. They said they want every recruit class going forward to receive fuller Kingian training and sworn rank and file officers to have in-service training annually in the strategy.

Hoyt told the recruits that the training is good for more than just police work. “I have used it many times in my personal life,” she said.

Brown said there is much more to the training including lots of role playing that they were unable to cover Tuesday, but hope to do so in the future through in-service training. It will be up to police brass to decide whether such training will become a regular practice for police academy recruits and officers.

(Indirect support for such training came even as they were delivering it Tuesday from Mayor Toni Harp’s Community and Police Relations Task Force.)

During the course of the training

Recruit Gregory Dash said he couldn’t imagine any of his classmates using the racially charged language that they heard in the video.

recruits learned about the types and levels of conflict, the six principles of the Kingian philosophy from a law- enforcement perspective and how to employ them as a method of deescalation. According to information provided by the Connecticut Center for Nonviolence, six principles of the philosophy are: —Nonviolence is a way of life for courageous people: It is a positive force confronting the forces of injustice, and utilizes the righteous indignation of the spiritual, emotional and intellectual capabilities of people was the vital force for change and reconciliation.

The beloved community is the framework for the future: The nonviolent concept is an overall effort to achieve a reconciled world by raising the level of relationships among people to a height where justice prevails and persons attain their full human potential.

Attack the forces of evil, not the persons doing evil: The nonviolent approach helps one analyze the fundamental conditions, policies and practices of the conflict rather than reacting to one’s opponents or their personalities.

Accept suffering without retaliation for the sake of the cause, to achieve the goal: self-chosen suffering is redemptive and helps the movement grow in a spiritual as well as a humanitarian dimension.

Avoid internal violence of the spirit as well as external physical violence: the nonviolent attitude permeates all aspects of the campaign.

The universe is on the side of justice: Truth is universal and human society and each human being is oriented to the just sense of order of the universe.

Kingian training is based on strategies used by slain civil rights 14

leader Martin Luther King Jr. King, who used them to organize nonviolent resistance to achieve legal equality for blacks in the late 1950s and 1960s. Hoyt, Brown and Helliger have each gone through about 80 hours of training to become trainers of the philosophy and they said that their aim is to have the recruits use the methods as police officers walking the beat in the city.

While many of the recruits knew a little about King’s legacy, not many of them knew the specifics of the Montgomery bus boycott, the campaign to end segregation in Birmingham, or the march from Selma to Montgomery. No one in the room had seen the 2014 historical drama Selma. Several recruits said they were surprised that men in uniforms like the ones they all hope to wear could be so brutal.

Recruit Brian Watrous said he was taken aback by the violence of the police department in the video about Birmingham.

“As someone going into the profession, it was hard watching,” he said. “I could see where that could still leave distrust in the [police department]. You can see why it’s there and how it is still there.”

Pastor John Lewis, who also is a nonviolence trainer with the center, reminded the recruits that the officers in the video were following orders. “Who was the chief?” Pastor John Lewis asked. “Bull Connor,” a few recruits said quietly. “They

were following whose orders?”

Lewis continued.

“The chief ’s,” they replied louder, in unison.“When you are given a command you are to do what? Follow the order, right?,” Lewis said. “Your chief ain’t like that. We have a whole ‘nother society, a whole ‘nother department.

That’s not what it is today. [But] it gives you an idea of what some people might be feeling. We’re a family. We’re apart of the beloved community. And you all deserve an opportunity to understand the community, where their minds are and what they feel, so that you don’t feel that it’s personal.”

Lewis said that they too might have to follow orders with which they disagree. That’s why they talked about different types of conflict and using the “Six Steps of Nonviolence” to manage those conflicts which include: information gathering; education; personal commitment; negotiation; direct action; and reconciliation.

Though New Haven has a positive reputation for communitybased policing, Assistant Chief Luiz Casanova reminded recruits at the outset of the training that it took the city 20 years to get where it is today, and in the blink of an eye things could change for the worse. He said that’s why it’s important that the department and its officers keep seeking ways to improve policecommunity relations.

“What’s going on around the country is awful and horrific,” Casanova said, referencing the fatal shooting of two black men by police officers in Louisiana and Minnesota, and five police officers in Texas. “Horrible things have happened. Thank god it’s not happening in New Haven. But we’re not immune. We are just an incident away from something like that happening here. I believe it hasn’t happened because of our relationships here. I’m optimistic that things will change, and I say that because people are paying attention.”

When asked to explain what he wrote under the sixth principal, recruit Gregory Dash said the universe is on the side of justice because he believes that ultimately the forces of good win.

“Good always prevails,” he said.

INNER-CITY NEWS July 20, 2016 - July 27, 2016

Principal Looks to Keep Progress Going

by ALIYYA SWABY New Haven Independent

Upon receiving improved state audit results for the second year running, Principal Janet BrownClayton is hitting the ground running to keep turning around Lincoln-Bassett School.

In its second year as a state “turnaround” school, LincolnBassett has gone from being a lastchoice school fraught with behavioral problems and staff tension to a thriving preK-6 neighborhood school in Newhallville. With two years of improvements under her belt, Brown-Clayton is turning her sights to the future ensuring the school’s trajectory remains pointed upward even when the grant is gone.

Brown-Clayton has shown up at the past two Board of Education meetings to urge members to figure out a way to conserve LincolnBassett’s special services and programs after a crucial state grant runs out in a year. Upon receiving improved state audit results for the second year running, she is hitting the ground running to plan to continue those improvements.

Brown-Clayton took over when a scathing 2013 audit report landed the school in the state Commissioner’s Network, a group of underperforming schools that sign up for a state-funded and supported internal makeover. As the new principal, she replaced most of the teachers and instituted a free before- and after-school program, expanding the potential school day by a total four hours.

The Connecticut Center for Arts and Technology (ConnCAT) and the Boys and Girls Club run two different after-school programs.

The before-school program was run by Camp Antrum Community Program the first year.

The state grant decreased from $750,000 to around $400,000 this year. Brown-Clayton had to hire individual school leaders and community members to run the morning program instead of contracting an outside organization.

“We hired as employees people that could do the work in the morning. Our [paraprofessionals]

ALIYYA SWABY PHOTO

Brown-Clayton (right) with instructional data/tech coach Lorrie Quirk.

ALIYYA SWABY PHOTO Lincoln-Bassett’s

Keona Kujo and Elysia Brown on Chromebooks.

rotated throughout the building in the morning as well,” she said.

Brown-Clayton said she worries the improvements noted in the audit will slow without the extra funds.

The grant has definitely led to marked success in transforming the school culture although leaders still have to focus on improving classroom instruction. The 2015 midyear audit rated the school mostly “proficient” in 23 different sub-indicators under four categories: school talent, academics, culture/climate and operations. In that audit, 14 of 23 sub-indicators were a 3 or “proficient” and eight of 23 were rated “developing,” including three that had improved from a 1 or “below standard” in 2014. The school improved in 18 of 23 subindicators between 2014 and 2015.

Lincoln-Bassett School

improved in four of 13 subindicators between midyear 2015 and 2016: leadership effectiveness, school environment, student attendance, and family engagement. Five of the 13 remained at a 2 or “developing.”

For the first time, the school also received three 4 or “exemplary” ratings. None of the ratings decreased from previous years.

The school’s climate data has improved nearly across the board, with more students attending school daily and fewer being suspended. The number of out-ofschool suspensions dropped from 128 in 2014, to 66 in 2015, to 11 from August to February 2016.

And chronic absenteeism decreased as well, alongside a districtwide dip with a new “Attendance Matters” campaign that deploys truancy officers and school leaders to keep kids going 15

to school.

Superintendent Garth Harries acknowledged the progress Lincoln-Bassett has made and said he is dedicated to working on how to sustain it.

“It really is a transformed school and I think everyone in Newhallville should feel really proud of that,” he said.

Lincoln-Bassett is still struggling with raising standards of classroom instruction and academic rigor to a uniform high.

Though the audit report says the instructional practice has improved at the school, auditors also found “variable evidence of rigorous instruction and authentic student work.”

Brown-Clayton does not like the word “rigor,” because it reminds her of post-mortem “rigor mortis,” of “stiffness and death,” she said.

“I like to talk about higher-order questioning, higher-order thinking skill.”

To build that in the classroom, teachers and students are going to have to “think outside the box,” she said. More than 75 percent of teachers were new to the profession in 2014. “Coming into a certified position where you’re responsible for what your students learn—it is hard,” she said.

Teachers must learn to feel confident enough in their skills to guide students to think creatively about the material, she said.

Brown-Clayton said the reduced

number of sub-indicators makes it harder to know the true rating; more data points would allow for an easier comparison to visualize growth.

The state Department of Education changed the audit report to focus more intensely “on the indicators that have the biggest impact on school transformation,” said spokesperson Abbe Smith.

“Some of the indicators no longer included on the formal audit form are still considered when evaluating the overall success of the school.”

One difficulty not fully included in the audit: lack of funding and support for special education students.

The audit report is based on a February 2016 site visit. The school received a 2 or “developing” for its supports for “special populations,” including English language learners and special education students. The added note praises school leaders for providing services to students in their regular classrooms.

But those groups of students continue to grow at the school, leaving Brown-Clayton shortstaffed.

In 2014, when she arrived at the school, 9 percent of the student population were receiving special education services. Now, about 17 percent of students are.

Brown-Clayton attributes that increase to an improved process for diagnosing students. The school has a high transience rate, with many new students enrolling midyear.

Lincoln-Bassett has one fulltime special education teacher and another staff member who chair the Planning and Placement Team, which plans and manages those special services. The chair has “conducted over 100 meetings this year,” she said, and is not available to be in the classroom.

She needs more personnel to fill in those gaps.

The Board of Education at its full meeting Monday approved a final budget of $228 million, which includes a deficit of $3.6 million, due in part to reduced allocations Con’t on page 17

INNER-CITY NEWS July 20, 2016 - July 27, 2016

Human Rights Campaign Shows Support for “Common Sense” Gun Control painful to us, unconscionable,” he said.

By Victoria Jones The Human Rights Campaign (HRC), a civil rights advocacy group and political lobbying organization for the LGBTQ community, showed support for the victims of the Orlando massacre by posting photos of the victims with their names and ages in each window of their downtown Washington, D.C. office. In huge block letters a sign read: “We are Orlando.” Just outside their building, the organization hung a wreath and a board where supporters posted messages of love, solidarity and condolences for the victims of the tragedy and their families.

it’s

The filibuster lasted for nearly 15 hours and ended after Republican Party leaders reportedly agreed to allow votes on two proposed gun control measures. The measures considered a ban people on the government’s terrorist watch list from obtaining gun licenses and whether to expand background checks to gun shows and Internet sales.

The gunman, Omar Mateen, was investigated by the FBI twice and cleared of suspected ties to terrorists, before he purchased the guns that he used during the massacre.

In the aftermath of the Orlando shootings, the HRC released a policy position statement that favored gun control legislation.

guns by people who shouldn’t have them.”

HRC Communications Director Jay Brown said, “We are endorsing common sense gun safety prevention measures and that we recognize anti-LGBTQ hate is real and it’s made even more deadly with the unsafe access to

Residents and visitors to Washington, D.C. also expressed their unity with the victims and their families through donations, marches and candle light vigils.

Emmanuel Kamonyo, who is originally from Rwanda and

currently working in Nairobi, came to the HRC headquarters to share his feelings about the tragedy.

“I support equality. I support non-discrimination,” said Kamonyo. “It’s a terrible event, so I passed by to give my support and to sign something.”

Joe Solmonese, a Washington, D.C. resident and a member of the LGBTQ community said that the HRC memorial is an extraordinary and incredible tribute to the victims and the strength and the power of the community in Orlando, Fla., in Washington, D.C. and the world.

“This is beyond emotional. The amount of love that people have shown in such a bad, hateful, evil situation has been unbelievable,” said Joanna Osterhout, an Orlando resident and a LGBTQ member. “It’s really been emotional and empowering, and it makes you want to fight the injustice that was done, not just for the 49 individuals and the 53 that were injured, but for anyone who has not stood up for it.”

Denise Murray, who is also an Orlando resident and a member of the LGBTQ community said that she was very honored and touched to be in Washington, D.C. and see the support for the victims of the tragedy of Orlando.

“We came on this trip to 16

support our team, the Orlando Pride, with our supportive group ‘The Crown,’ and the city has embraced us and really helped us with our mourning process, so we are very grateful,” said Murray.

“Our hearts are forever touched by the compassion that we have seen here in D.C. for our city.”

The June 12 Orlando massacre at Pulse nightclub left 49 people dead and 53 injured. The club was considered a safe space for the LGBTQ community.

Three days after the shooting, Senate Democrats started a surprise filibuster holding any legislation hostage until the issue of gun safety reform was addressed. According to the Associated Press, Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) started the filibuster at about 11:20 a.m. on June 15. Murphy tweeted before he began speaking that he would stay on the floor as long as necessary and prevent legislators from bringing any other issues to the floor for as long as he could continue talking.

According to AP, Murphy referenced Congress’ failure to pass any legislation in the aftermath of Sandy Hook during his speech. “For those of us that represent Connecticut, the failure of this body to do anything, anything at all in the face of that continued slaughter isn’t just

Earlier this week, Democrats, led by civil rights icon Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) staged a historic sit-in on the house floor at the U.S. Capitol to protest the lack of progress on legislation that would address gun show loopholes and measures that would prevent people that landed on “no-fly” list from buying guns and ammunition.

Rep. Lewis said that lawmakers must return after the July 4th break, “more determined than ever before,” according to CNN.com.

“We are going to win,” said Lewis after the sit-in had ended, CNN.com reported. “The fight is not over. This is just one step of when we come back here on July the 5th we’re going to continue to push, to pull, to stand up, and if necessary, to sit down.”

Victoria Jones is a 2016 NNPA “Discover The Unexpected” (DTU) journalism fellow at The Washington Informer. The DTU journalism fellowship program is sponsored by Chevrolet. Check out more stories by the fellows by following the hashtag #DiscoverTheUnexpected on Twitter and Instagram. Like our Facebook page at “NNPA Discover The Unexpected.”

Learn more about the program at www.nnpa.org/dtu.

INNER-CITY NEWS July 20, 2016 - July 27, 2016

Hillary Clinton Up Close diversionary programs so that we’re not suspending and expelling five-, six-, seven and eight-year-old kids, who are acting out. We have a terrible disciplinary divide where kids, who are either having problems or are just acting like normal kids, are being suspended if they’re African-American or Latino and White kids doing the same thing aren’t. That starts the whole cradle to prison pipeline.”

By Kai EL’Zabar, Executive Editor, Chicago Defender Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton came to Chicago on her Midwest campaign jaunt to address the Women’s International Luncheon at the Rainbow PUSH Coalition 45th Annual Convention. After the luncheon, the “Chicago Defender” sat down, up close and personal, with the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee to get greater insight into her vision for a better America.

In her effort to end the cradleto-prison pipeline, Clinton envisions doing more to intervene in helping young children be successful, including after school support intervention programs.

“I have an old-fashioned belief that if you run for president, you should tell people what you’re going to do,” Clinton said as she revved up. “Listen, the next president of the United States can have the opportunity to select one, two, three Supreme Court justices…and we don’t want that president to be Donald Trump.”

Back stage, Clinton said that she has a personal commitment to working with the Black Press and all local press. However, she has noticed in particular the assumption of some, in various parts of the country where she has traveled, that the Black Press will show up.

“And that’s not always the case, so we want to make sure that we make the effort to reach out, and not only during the campaign, but even in the White House,” Clinton said. “I see the Black Press playing an active role in getting our message out directly to its readers, participating in various activities such as today’s luncheon, and making sure that it has access as well as being included in the advertising buy.”

Hillary Clinton has made it clear that she will continue the initiatives that President Barack Obama implemented and work to enhance affordable health care.

She credits the president with

“We just need a big wrap around, ‘It takes a village to raise a child’ attitude about how we’re going to help our kids,” the former Secretary of State said.

saving America from another national economic disaster, having inherited the worst financial crisis in American history since the Great Depression. And he’s done so much more than he is given credit for, she said, and she plans to continue support of those efforts.

When asked about the Black, Latino, and LGBTQ communities, Hillary Clinton said she has plans to address the issues that disproportionately affect each of those underserved communities, and you can actually go to her website and read for yourself exactly what her vision is. She provided additional insight, adding that, “we need more good jobs with rising incomes, because we’re just not seeing enough of them. There aren’t enough employment opportunities in Chicago’s

underserved communities.”

It’s clear that Clinton recognizes the disparities that plague the marginalized.

“We need to make sure that there are some big, bold programs like infrastructure, like clean, renewable energy, like advanced manufacturing, that are within the reach of those people who need those jobs and [that should] have the chance to compete for them,” she proposed, noting that over the last 10 to 15 years Americans have seen a lot of the jobs in the country that are not within reach of those who live in the most distressed urban or rural areas.

Hillary Clinton said she wants to make jobs available first.

Second, she wants make high quality education more accessible. She was adamant about the need for the United 17

States to do better at preparing our youngest children to go to school and supporting them throughout their academic careers.

“There are a lot of ways we can do that. I am committed to working with communities, churches and educational systems to try to figure out how,” she said. “But parents and grandparents have to be supported in doing the most important job of raising the next generation of children, and we need to do all that we can to see to it that we do that.”

Clinton spoke about her vision to restore, “schools that people believe in, that they are passionate about, and we have that in a lot of places and I know that you don’t have that in Chicago.”

Clinton continued: “We need

For the older youth, Clinton said that she recognizes that oftentimes teenagers don’t have opportunities to direct their energy in positive directions and how easy it is for them to be misdirected, often leading to gang affiliation or some other form of violence or destructive behavior.

Clinton said that, “The policing issue is an essential, necessary step to be resolved, and then we have to figure out what more can we do to keep people safe.”

The Chicago Defender is a member publication of the National Newspaper Publishers Association. Learn more about becoming a member at www.nnpa.org.

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton addresses the Women’s International Luncheon at the Rainbow PUSH 45th Annual Convention in Chicago.

(Worsom Robinson/Chicago Defender)

INNER-CITY NEWS July 20, 2016 - July 27, 2016

NOTICE VALENTINA MACRI RENTAL HOUSING PRE- APPLICATIONS AVAILABLE HOME INC, on behalf of Columbus House and the New Haven Housing Authority, is accepting pre-applications for studio and one-bedroom apartments at this development located at 108 Frank Street, New Haven. Maximum income limitations apply. 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 request by calling HOME INC at 203-5624663 during those hours. Completed pre-applications must be returned to HOME INC’s offices at 171 Orange Street, Third Floor, New Haven, CT 06510.

NOTICIA VALENTINA MACRI VIVIENDAS DE ALQUILER PRE-SOLICITUDES DISPONIBLES HOME INC, en nombre de la Columbus House y de la New Haven Housing Authority, está aceptando pre-solicitudes para estudios y apartamentos de un dormitorio en este desarrollo ubicado en la calle 109 Frank Street, New Haven. Se aplican limitaciones de ingresos máximos. Las presolicitudes estarán disponibles 09 a.m.-5 p.m. comenzando Martes 25 julio, 2016 hasta cuando se han recibido suficientes pre-solicitudes (aproximadamente 100) en las oficinas de HOME INC. Las pre-solicitudes serán enviadas por correo a petición llamando a HOME INC al 203-562-4663 durante esas horas.Pre-solicitudes deberán remitirse a las oficinas de HOME INC en 171 Orange Street, tercer piso, New Haven , CT 06510 .

NEW HAVEN 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 1:30-3:30 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

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.

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

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 Housing Authority.

POLICE OFFICER The Wallingford Police Department is seeking qualified applicants for Police Officer. $1137.20 weekly plus an excellent fringe benefit package.

The physical performance, written and oral board exams will be administered by the South Central Criminal Justice Administration. Candidates must register at: www.PoliceApp.com/WallingfordCT. Registration/Application deadline is Friday, August 19, 2016. The registration requires a fee of $85.00. EOE 18

INNER-CITY NEWS July 20, 2016 - July 27, 2016

Confidential Secretary/Records Administrator-Fire Department:

The Town of East Haven is currently conducting an examination for the position of Confidential Secretary/Records Administrator-Fire Department. Qualified candidates must possess a High School Diploma or GED and Three (3) years of with progressively responsible clerical work including bookkeeping and public contact or any equivalent combination of experience and training. The starting salary is $46,083 per year. The application is available at www.townofeasthavenct.org/civil-service-commission/pages/ job-notices-and-tests or the Civil Service Office, 250 Main Street, East Haven CT and the deadline to apply is August 9, 2016. The Town of East Haven is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Minorities, Females, Veterans and Handicapped are encouraged to apply.

FIREFIGHTER Town of Greenwich Applications are being accepted thru 7/21/16 4PM. Candidates must possess a H.S. diploma or G.E.D., valid driver’s license, & be at least 18 years of age & a US Citizen. Candidates must also possess CPAT certification (Candidate Physical Ability Test) issued 1/1/16 or after, or be registered for the fall CPAT with the CT Fire Academy by 7/21/16. For detailed information & to apply online visit www.greenwichct.org/jobs. Town of Greenwich, HR Dept., 101 Field Point Rd, Greenwich, CT EOE M/F/D/V 19

INNER-CITY NEWS July 20, 2016 - July 27, 2016

100 Black Men, General Motors Encourage Young People to Pursue STEM Careers cars would include. The young men designed everything from cars that could hover and drive themselves to cars that could be unlocked with a fingerprint rather than a key.

By Brelaun Douglas, NNPA/DTU Fellow, Atlanta Voice

In an effort to boost minority participation in science and technology, 100 Black Men of America recently hosted a panel discussion with representatives from General Motors to encourage young minorities to think outside the box when it comes to their career paths.

This summer, 100 Black Men of America, an organization dedicated to educating and empowering African American youth, held their annual conference in Atlanta, Ga., that focused on topics like civic engagement and managing money. The event also included a panel discussion titled, “Bringing STEM Education to Life,” a workshop geared towards getting youth interested in science, technology, engineering and math fields, commonly known as “STEM.” Panel members included Sherwin Prior, managing director for General Motors Ventures; Tobin Williams, executive director of human resources and corporate staff for General Motors; and Aaron Richardson, senior manager for IT development for General Motors who discussed how STEM was involved in something young boys often love: cars. “[Technology] is absolutely essential. Over 33 years, the company that I work for [has become] a very different company,” said Williams.

“Thirty-three years ago it was primarily a manufacturing company. Three

The crowd was populated with young, Black boys, mainly middle and high school-aged, from across the nation including 13-year-old Noel Towson, who finds the 100 Black Men beneficial to him.

years ago it was primarily a finance company and today it’s pretty much a software company. We are continuously looking for individuals who have the capability in software. There is a blending in terms of the software skill capability between engineering and computer science.”

Prior agreed, stating that STEM is all about “ thinkers and problem solvers” and that the panelists were some of the people who drive the technology behind cars.

The panelists also talked about the challenges that the young people may face in an industry or career path where most people don’t look like them.

In 2012-2013, Black males accounted for just 8.7 percent of the

people who earned degrees in STEM fields, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.

“Opportunities are rarely convenient,” said Richardson.

“They’re often disguised in something that seems like, ‘oh, I got to do this,’ or ‘I can’t do this, I can’t do that.’ It’s always disguised in challenge. So I challenge you to think about that as you think about how you want to continue your learning in the STEM area to think about the sacrifices that you have to make that will ultimately lead to significant benefits in the long term.”

Prior also told the youth not to be discouraged by the lack of diversity in STEM fields.

“It’s about changing the narrative,”

he said. “Don’t believe that African Americans aren’t doing phenomenal fantastic things. They just aren’t talked about in the media like they should be.”

After the discussion, participants lined up to ask the panelists questions about how the technology in the cars worked and about the science and engineering that goes into building the cars. Questions included things such as what is the future of jobs for workers when more and more jobs are becoming automated, how safe the vehicle is and what the future of the technologic capabilities of the car looked like.

Towson, along with five other young men from the South Bend, Ind., chapter, came to the conference with his chaperone Eldridge Lewis Chism Jr., who is also a 100 Black Men member. Chism has been involved with the organization for years and found the conference and panel beneficial because it gave the young men “new thoughts and new ideals and hopefully provide[d] them an opportunity.”

“My mom took me to the ‘100 Black Men’ the first time,” said Towson. “I liked what they taught us, the life lessons and how to better prepare ourselves for the future, so I just stuck with it.”

Brelaun Douglas is a 2016 NNPA “Discover The Unexpected” (DTU) journalism fellow at the Atlanta Voice. The DTU journalism fellowship program is sponsored by Chevrolet. Check out more stories by the fellows by following the hashtag #DiscoverTheUnexpected on Twitter and Instagram.

Participants were then invited to draw their own cars and decide what type of technology, old or new, the

What Clinton better learn from Brexit vote

By Jesse Jackson Brexit — the stunning British vote to leave the European Union — is a clear and dramatic rebuke of the country’s political and economic elites. A majority voted to leave even though the heads of the United Kingdom’s two major parties, more than a thousand corporate and bank CEOs, legions of economists, the leaders of Europe

and the United States, and the heads of the international financial organizations all warned of dire consequences if they did not vote to remain.

For Americans, one question is whether this result has implications for the 2016 presidential campaign.

Political sea changes tend to cross national boundaries. Ronald Reagan’s election in 1980 tracked the rise of Margaret Thatcher to power in Great Britain. Bill Clinton’s New Democrats were mirrored by Tony Blair’s New Labour Party. So does Brexit presage the rise of Donald Trump in the United States?

The Leave campaign slogan — “Take back control” — is mirrored

by Trump’s “Make America great again.” The same economic insecurities, the sense of the system being rigged, the racial fears and the anger at immigrants that fueled the Leave campaign have elevated Trump’s candidacy. Like Trump, the Leave campaign expressed its scorn for experts and politicians.

Like Trump, the campaign told a clear story to voters about how they got in the fix they are in, and who is to blame.

In Britain, the vote divided along the lines of education, class and age. The better educated, more 20

affluent and younger voted to stay.

The less educated, less affluent and older voted to get out. Those campaigning to leave made appeals based on sovereignty, race and nativism. They campaigned against unaccountable bureaucrats and disdainful elites who rigged the system against working people.

What surprised pollsters was the strong turnout by non-college educated, older working people, who lined up to register their discontent.

There is a clear warning here for Hillary Clinton. She is the quintessential establishment candidate, having been in

Washington for the last 25 years.

She has presented herself as a continuation of the Obama years.

Her experience and expertise are universally acknowledged. But she is the candidate of the status quo at a time when people are looking for change.

Our political and economic elites tend to be in denial. They profit from globalization, take pride in the exercise of American power abroad, live in affluent communities, and often are closer to their international peers than to their poorer neighbors. They don’t see the America that has been Con’t on page 21

INNER-CITY NEWS July 20, 2016 - July 27, 2016

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ravaged by our ruinous trade policies. They avoid the killing streets of our impoverished urban neighborhoods. They were shaken by the Great Recession but largely have recovered. They don’t see that most Americans have lost ground over the course of this century.

They simply don’t understand the scope of their failure to make this system work for working people

— for the majority of Americans.

The Brexit vote showed that it is not enough to scorn the lies, exaggerations and divisive racial appeals of a demagogue. The Remain vote in Britain was explicitly a status quo vote — the EU isn’t great, it seemed to say, but it is what we’ve got and our elites and experts say change would be catastrophic. But when people feel that the elites have failed them, that the system has been rigged to favor

the few, that things are getting worse, not better, the invocation of authority in defense of the status quo loses force. People want to know what you will do to make things better. You’ve got to be able to tell a more convincing story that explains how we got where we are, who is to blame and what can be done about it. This is a lesson that Clinton surely understands.

The Brexit vote also reveals the comparative strength of the 21

Democratic coalition here in the United States. Young people in Britain voted overwhelmingly against leaving; young people here will not vote for Trump. Minorities and immigrants — a much smaller portion of the population in Britain — voted against leaving; minorities here will not vote for Trump’s racist politics. The question is only whether the young and minorities will turn out in large numbers or whether, uninspired,

they will stay home in large numbers. Turning them out also requires a campaign that gives them hope for a change, not simply a promise of more of the same.

Brexit is a warning. There will be a reckoning. A divisive demagogue like Trump can profit in such times, but the politics of inclusion can beat the politics of division — but only by offering people a new deal that gives them hope.

INNER-CITY NEWS July 20, 2016 - July 27, 2016

Saving Community Newspapers in the Age of Facebook

By Denise Rolark-Barnes (Chairperson of the NNPA)

And that’s a troubling possibility that should worry us all.

and Benjamin F. Chavis (President and CEO of the NNPA)

It is time regulators took a hard look at Facebook and its news aggregation and promotion practices in an effort to bring some much needed transparency to the new media king.

The democratization of the media could be on a collision course with decidedly anti-democratic and arbitrary forces. Think of the proverbial tree that falls silently in the forest because no one is there to hear it. Will Facebook have the power to allow entire forests to fall without much notice?

Hundreds of newspapers have disappeared in the last 15 years and readership is on the decline. No newspaper is immune from the migration of readership to online platforms, dwindling ad revenues, fragmented audiences and even reduced attention spans.

Even national-recognized newspapers with celebrated histories like “The New York Times” and “The Washington Post” have retrenched in the face of these mounting economic pressures. Many regional and community newspapers – including some members of the historic Black Press – are barely hanging on.

The ramifications of this can be profound. Local publications have long served as the glue that binds communities together. They have served as the microphone for voices that would otherwise be marginalized and the spotlight on the stories that seldom make it onto the front pages of major newspapers and magazines. For AfricanAmerican communities, the publications that make up the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA) have served as that voice across the nation.

Yet, we are being told that the silver lining is that journalism isn’t disappearing – and won’t be any time soon. Rather, it has just moved to an electronic form. Not only that, there are also more opportunities to tell more stories and express more opinions than ever before. Some have said that we should not mourn the loss of the local newspaper and that we should instead explore the myriad possibilities offered by the new media. Or so goes the mantra.

In reality, this upbeat vision obscures the threat that new media poses to community journalism.

And that threat is coming from a most unlikely place – the popular social media platforms that so many of us love. Chief among them is Facebook.

Like many other publishers who have recently written on Facebook’s growing power over the

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media and what Americans read, we too are alarmed with one company having such dominance in news aggregation. Online hubs like Facebook are able to engineer which stories catch on. And they’re able to decide by algorithmic fiat, which bylines, viewpoints and subject matter is promoted to the masses.

This is a new kind of power. It is unlike any power a media company has ever had before. A study last year reported that Facebook drove 43 percent of all the traffic to the top 400 news sites. That’s almost half coming from one powerful source!

What’s more, we don’t know how Facebook’s operations work.

The tech company isn’t transparent in its methods. So we don’t know whether the viewpoints of Black publishers are heard or if there is a bias against our views. Without knowing how Facebook’s “Trending Topics” or other algorithms are used in promoting stories, the owners of Black-owned newspapers, magazines and other media are left only to wonder why the stories our outlets produce are

relegated to the margins – if they are acknowledged at all. Our readers are at the mercy of powers unheard and unseen as never before.

With 63 percent of Americans and 74 percent of millennials going to Facebook as their source of news, Facebook’s power is only likely to grow in the coming years. And there is something ironic about that. The mainstream media was once derided as unimaginative and monolithic, largely because it had long been dominated by three TV networks and a handful of newspapers in large cities. The Internet was supposed to change all that by bringing a diversity of viewpoints to the table. While this has indeed happened, the emergence of one or even a handful of powerful gatekeepers like Facebook raises profound questions about the nature of news in this country in the years to come.

With so much power in the hands of one company, we risk surrendering our own decisions about what is or isn’t newsworthy to a gatekeeper who may someday push only stories it deems worthy.

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from the city and state.

The state grant was intended to be an “intense push of resources to help a school turn a corner,” Superintendent Harries said, and Lincoln-Bassett will not see that level of financial influx after it ends. Still, upcoming decisions on school-level budgets will keep the school in mind for extra resources.

“Lincoln-Bassett is a school that prior to the Commissioner’s Network was always at the bottom end of our funding scales. Part of what I hope we do as a district is make sure they stay on the high end of the funding scale,” he said.

Those decisions will “play out” throughout July, he said, along with “budget management” during the year.

Brown-Clayton said she will continue to attend Board of Education meetings to fight for a sustainability plan for the school.

The salaries of some of the leadership and support teams, including the culture and climate coach, and the reading interventionist, are paid through the grant. The school has also dramatically increased students’ and teachers’ access to working technology, and part of the instructional technology coach’s salary is also paid through the Commissioner’s Network grant.

“We’ve done wisely with the money that we’ve been given,” she said. “We want to move with the momentum that we’ve been able to gain. I don’t want to wait until 2017 to start talking about sustainability.”

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City Explores Equipping Cops With Narcan mouth-to-mouth or mouth-tomask resuscitation.

He added, however, that he could not think of a single incident in which a New Haven police officer equipped with Narcan could have prevented an overdose death. He added that he doesn’t know for sure or have data to settle the question.

“We’re making it a priority based on what [the mayor] asked us to do,” Fontana said. “Whether or not it comes to fruition, I don’t know that. There are so many other issues that have to be worked out.

I don’t want to say, ‘I don’t think it’s gonna happen.’”

Mayoral spokesman Laurence Grotheer brushed aside reservations about the initiative, saying the family of a hypothetical victim saved by Narcan that a cop administered would thank the city for expanding the antidote’s availability.

“The rationale is to make this life-saving antidote more readily accessible to combat a scourge of opioid overdose,” Grotheer said.

“It is the Mayor’s desire to explore all the city’s options to make Narcan available and accessible.”

Around 1,000 police departments nationwide are trained and equipped to administer Narcan.

According to Ricci, that statistic doesn’t offer the full picture. The vast majority of those cops work in rural areas with volunteer fire departments that are rarely the first responders to the scene of an overdose, he said.

Craig Miller, the president of the police union, said he has not been included in the city’s discussions, even though any adjustment to the duties expected of police officers would likely require new bargaining arrangements with the union.

“The chief of police needs to focus on getting the equipment this department needs to perform the duties we actively perform now,” he said, including providing officers with suitable cars.

“Let the FD do their job,” he said, “and let us do our job.”

INNER-CITY NEWS July 20, 2016 - July 27, 2016

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INNER-CITY NEWS July 20, 2016 - July 27, 2016

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