INNER-CITY NEWS

INNER-CITY July 27, 2016 - August 02, THE INNER-CITY NEWS - NEWS August 29 , 2018 - September 04,2016 2018

Justice a Key Focus 2016 NAACP Convention 3Financial Out Of 4 Black Americans Haveat High Blood Pressure by 55 New Haven, Bridgeport

INNER-CITYNEWS

Volume 27 . No. 2294 Volume 21 No. 2194

Ugly And On The Air

“DMC”

Malloy Malloy To To Dems: Dems:

Ignore Ignore“Tough “ToughOn OnCrime” Crime” Dana Cobbs Turns The Tables On New Haven

Color Struck?

Snow in July?

Elm Shakespeare Does A Winning

UN Observes International Remembrance of Slave Trade

“Love’sFOLLOW Labour’s Lost” US ON 1

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Birks Splits High School’s Founders THE INNER-CITY NEWS - August 29, 2018 - September 04, 2018

by PAUL BASS

NEW HAVEN INDEPENDENT

A plan to break up the two-person team that founded and runs New Haven Academy, one of the city’s leading schools, has caused chaos and sparked outrage days before the opening of the academic year.

Parents learned late Thursday that Superintendent of Schools Carol Birks, citing a department anti-nepotism policy, has decided to remove Meredith Gavrin from the 325-student Orange Street magnet high school. Gavrin and husband Greg Baldwin founded the school 15 years ago on the basis of a Holocaust-themed “Facing History and Ourselves” social-justice curriculum.

It has grown and earned a national reputation among a “small schools” network for its use of “Facing History,” developed a community-service curriculum that has involved students in New Haven, and sends almost every graduate of its diverse senior classes to college.

Baldwin and Gavrin began as co-facilitators of the school. Baldwin then became the principal. Gavrin assumed her leadership role under the title “magnet resources coordinator.”

To address the nepotism issue, the school system arranged, at the couple’s request, to have a central office administrator, not Baldwin, supervise and evaluate Gavrin.

That administrator was the district’s director of instruction.

Birks, who’s about to begin her first full academic year as superintendent, has cut the position of director of instruction as part of a broader plan to eliminate a $19 million budget deficit.

She informed Gavrin this Tuesday that she must now work in a different school building. The school year starts next week.

Gavrin informed parents of the change in an email Thursday afternoon. She said she would like to report to a different central office administrator and remain at New Haven Academy; she fears that anyone else coming in won’t have the same familiarity with NHA’s specialized curriculum. Outraged, parents and teachers immediately began networking to fight the decision.

Gavrin has asked Birks to allow her to report to one of the new assistant superintendents Birks has named as part of a central office reshuffling. Those assistant superintendents have assigned the duties formerly held by the director of instruction. Birks has so far declined the request.

“While I have nothing but respect for my colleagues across the District and recognize that valuable and important work is being done in every school (including the New Haven Public Schools my three children attend), my heart and soul are at New

PAUL BASS PHOTO

New Haven Academy co-founders Meredith Gavrin & Greg Baldwin.

Haven Academy,” Gavrin wrote to parents.

“I hope that the Superintendent can find a way to enable me to stay in my current position at the school, or else I will be left with no choice but to resign.”

Parents and teachers are in a uproar.

Teachers planned to begin circulating a pe-

Mike Carter Calls It Quits

by PAUL BASS

NEW HAVEN INDEPENDENT

One of Mayor Toni Harp’s top aides suddenly resigned Friday, leaving the city’s front-line departments temporarily leaderless.

The aide, Chief Administrative Officer Michael Carter, submitted a letter of resignation, effective Sept. 7. His resignation letter did not include his reason for leaving, according to a mayoral press release As CAO, Carter oversees the cops, the fire department, emergency management, and public works, among other city agencies.

He came to the city job soon after Mayor Harp took office in 2014. She found out about him through her friend and former aide Vanessa Burns, a New Havener who supervised Carter as public works chief of Washington, D.C. Carter’s personal relationship with the mayor became strained in recent months, with Carter reportedly growing openly critical of her performance. A lunch between the two failed to ease tensions.

Carter could not be reached for comment for this article. He has been out this week on vacation.

Carter established himself as a low-profile, no-nonsense, nonpolitical, hands-on administrator. News of his resignation Friday stunned his colleagues, although

tition Friday seeking to preserve Gavrin’s job in anticipation of a Monday night Board of Education meeting where Gavrin’s fate might be decided.

Birks did not return a call seeking comment for this story. District spokesperson Will Clark released this statement: “The Board of Education is in the process of updating and reviewing its policies. In our review, we learned that the District has a Nepotism Policy (4210) that has been on record since 1999. Once learned, the em-

ployee was advised that it was possible that the Board may want to move to enact this policy.

“No decisions have been made regarding the employee’s assignment for next year.

Any decision would require recommendation through the Personnel report and subsequent Board of Education action.

“The BOE Policies are on the District website and there is a Policy Committee working on updates along with a CABE review that has been done to assist in that process. Updates of the Committee work are discussed at BOE meetings and any policy changes are voted/adopted in public session after discussion and review.”

Among the appeals sent to the board was a letter from a teacher named Leszek Ward.“Losing Meredith,” he wrote, “would be an unthinkable and unnecessary obstacle to the continued success of our students. At this point, our principal will have no opportunity to interview, select, or attempt to prepare any potential replacement. Anyone thrust into Meredith’s position would be entirely unfamiliar with our theme, approach, and school community. As a result, our students will lose a dedicated, selfless school leader that has exemplified the kind of stability students spoke about so movingly just a few weeks ago. They will lose grants Meredith works hard to secure. They will lose the community partnerships she has worked so hard to build. ...

“More than that, they will lose faith in the leadership of their city.”

Deportation Stayed For Immigrant Mom

by CHRISTOPHER PEAK NEW HAVEN INDEPENDENT

MARKESHIA RICKS PHOTO

CAO Mike Carter.

Carter was known to have bristled at some of the political infighting in the adminsitration over the past couple of years.

Officials who worked with Carter expressed disappointment at the news.

Fire Chief John Alston Jr., whom Carter hired, called him “insightful. He’s a brilliant man, a brilliant strategist.”

“He’s spectacular,” said city economic development chief Matthew Nemerson.

“He was calm. Every moment I was with him I learned how to help people and how to solve problems.”

Carter, who has a side gig refereeing col-

lege football games, earned plaudits for overseeing a revamping of how the city clears snow, buying new equipment and improving the way crews operate.

His resignation comes a time when City Hall has been buffeted by bad news, from a wave of over 100 K2 overdoses in several days on the Green, to controversy over city budget deficits, credit ratings agencies, education cuts, employee theft with a city credit card, and the purchase of $4,000 of uniofrms for mayoral staffers.

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An immigrant mother from New Haven who faces deportation back to Bangladesh will be able to move her son into college, after immigration authorities granted her an emergency stay.

With help from elected officials, Salma Sikandar, a Bangladeshi immigrant who overstayed her visa in 1999, was able to put off an order to leave the country this week.

On Wednesday afternoon, the Board of Immigration Appeals, the Justice Department’s internal 17-member panel that conducts “paper reviews” of cases, denied Sikandar’s request to reopen her case. But just a few hours later, U.S. Immigrations & Customs Enforcement (ICE) granted a stay of her removal order.

Her son, Samir Mahmud, wept at a press conference in City Hall on Tuesday morning, as he thought about how his mom wouldn’t be there for his move-in day at Quinnipiac University next week. It now looks like she’ll be able to take him backto-school shopping while her case continues to work its way through the legal system.

“I am delighted that Salma Sikandar’s stay of removal has been granted by ICE,” U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, who contacted ICE about Sikandar’s case last month, was quoted as saying in a statement released by

CHRISTOPHER PEAK PHOTO Salma

Sikandar, with her son.

her office. “We will continue working with her as well as her family and lawyers to ensure she can remain in the United States.”

Outside the federal courthouse in Hartford, members of Unidad Latina en Acción in Hartford filmed the family’s reaction after their lawyer told them the news. Click the video below to watch.

THE INNER-CITY NEWS - August 29, 2018 - September 04, 2018

Speaking for State Dems, Bloomfield Pols Say Elimination of Income Tax Will Put Towns In Deficit

by Christine Stuart CT Newns Junkie

HARTFORD, CT — Local elected officials from Bloomfield came to the state Capitol Monday to criticize Republican gubernatorial candidate Bob Stefanowski’s proposal to eliminate the income tax over eight years.

Dispatched by the Connecticut Democratic Party, Bloomfield Mayor Suzette DeBeatham-Brown offered an argument against Stefanowski’s proposal. She said about $12 million of Bloomfield’s annual budget comes from the state and about $7 to $8 million of that $12 million goes toward education. She presumed most of that funding would disappear under Stefanwoski’s proposal.

“Without this tax the towns are going to feel it. It’s like putting your foot on the necks of small municipalities,” DeBeatham-Brown said.

She said if the income tax is cut, the money will have to come from somewhere.

Stefanowski’s plan doesn’t include details about what he would cut in order to pay for the elimination of a tax that comprises 51 percent of the revenue the state receives on an annual basis. The lack of detail has allowed those in the Democratic Party to fill in the blanks.

“We can’t play the ‘if, but, what’ game. We can’t use this as an experiment,” DeBeatham-Brown said.

The idea of cutting the income tax is popular, but many voters see it as “unrealistic,” according to a recent Quinnipiac University poll. The poll found 49 percent of 1,029 voters surveyed support the elimination of the income tax, but 56 percent believe it’s unrealistic.

Rep. Bobby Gibson, D-Bloomfield, said there are places in the budget that can be cut, but with respect to proposing the elimination of the income tax without identifying spending cuts, he said “that’s not the answer.”

“When you cut a tax, like the state rep said, you’re going to have to replace it with something,” DeBeatham-Brown said.

Stefanowski’s campaign was able to get through the Republican primary and beat his four Republican opponents without identifying where he planned to cut spending.

It’s almost September and he has yet to detail his plan beyond the 26-page report from Reagan economist Arthur Laffer that’s on his website.

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Ned Lamont also has a plan to reduce taxes for a certain segment of the population.

Lamont’s plan would require the state to find $400 million in spending cuts or revenue increases to pay for an increase in the property tax credit.

Lamont tried to identify areas he would look to cut spending or enhance revenue collections, but it’s not going to be as easy as it may seem.

Lamont said he thinks he can find savings in the Department of Correction, which is already running a $9 million deficiency one month into the new fiscal year. He also believes he can improve tax collections with technology and will be able to broker a deal to allow sports betting in Connecticut.

But none of the revenue he’s identified is a sure bet, and Connecticut’s next governor is facing a $4.6 billion deficit over the first two years of his term.

DeBeatham-Brown said the state is going to have to go through its budget “line-byline” to see what they can do to “free us up financially.”

She said if the state doesn’t take “intentional” steps with its budgeting, then the municipalities are going to feel it.

“Doing things the way we’ve done it for years has gotten us into this situation,” DeBeatham-Brown said.

Stefanowski’s campaign did not respond to requests for comment.

CHRISTINE STUART / CTNEWSJUNKIE PHOTO

Bloomfield Mayor Suzette DeBeatham-Brown and state Rep. Bobby Gibson

LCI Pushed To Charge More To Sell Property

by MARKESHIA RICKS NEW HAVEN INDEPENDENT

Plans to sell two city-owned properties changed after a board questioned whether New Haven government underprices the properties it sells.

That action and debate took place at City Hall Wednesday afternoon during the regular monthly meeting of the board of directors that oversees the Livable City Initiative (LCI), government’s anti-blight agency.

The board was considering two proposals

by LCI to sell vacant land in its portfolio.

LCI had asked the board to approve a proposed $2,000 sale to the Fair Haven Community Health Care Center on a foreclosed brick building at 342 Grand Ave. . FHCHC is looking to expand its services. The clinic currently occupies three buildings on Grand Avenue that are close to the building that it wants to buy. (Read more about that here.)

The offer struck directors as particularly low considering that the city is experiencing budget woes while simultaneously enjoying a development boom. It also struck them as low because it’s a good-looking building that they learned Wednesday has a court-appraised value of $119,000.

Selling it to a nonprofit for such a small amount of money, when it will ultimately come off the grand list, struck directors wrong, though they all took great pains to show their support for the work of the center.

Evan Trachten, LCI’s city acquisition and disposition coordinator, said he also believed the offer was low. Bu given that the long-term public benefit and the amount

CARLY WANNA PHOTO

MARKESHIA RICKS PHOTO

of money the nonprofit might have to put into rehabilitating the building, the tradeoff would be worth it, he argued.

Frank D’Amore, deputy director of LCI neighborhood and property services, told commissioners that when the property was being foreclosed on, the anti-blight agency intervened with the courts to propose that the health care center be considered as. a buyer. The judge liked the idea and ordered a strict foreclosure that put the city in control of the building.

LCI board member Seth Poole praised the

work of the center and called it a good fit for the building. But he said it would be irresponsible on the board’s part to let the building go for $2,000.

“I fully agree that they deserve the space, but two grand?” he said. “That’s less than it will cost to do the floors.”

Poole made a motion offering a counterproposal to ask the center to come up with 10 percent, or $11,9000, of the appraised value of the property. Three additional board members joined Poole in support of that motion, and it passed. The vote also

LCI’s board made a counter offer on this Grand Ave. building.

Seth Poole: “That’s less than it will cost to do the floors!”

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would allow the center an additional oneyear extension to conduct a thorough structural analysis and environmental cleanup.

Board Chair Tim Yolen said though the original offer of $2,000 was low; he had reservations of asking for $11,900 given all the good work that the center does. Yolen has served on the LCI board for nine years, and Wednesday was technically his last meeting. He said if he had any parting wish of his fellow directors it was that if the center cannot come up with 10 percent, the city will work with the center to come to an agreeable amount.

Trachten noted that the Board of Alders would still have to approve any agreement so the price could go down before a final price is settled.

“Our hearts are very much with the Fair Haven health center,” Yolen said. “It’s an entity that touches so many lives.”

Yolen wasn’t feeling equally generous when it came to a vacant two-family house at 59 Elliott St. that LCI proposed to sell to Gemma Joseph Lumpkin for $10,000.

Trachten said Lumpkin came to LCI with the proposed purchase. She’s interested in renovating the property and renting it. He noted that no local nonprofit had expressed any interest in the foreclosed property. In an effort to get the blighted property fixed up and off the books, LCI staff said it would like to take the offer.

“Has it been advertised?” Yolen queried.

When Trachten said it hadn’t, Yolen was incredulous. (The potential Fair Haven health center site also had not been advertised.)

“I think we would be crazy to sell this for $10,000,” he said. “This is not a giveaway.”

Yolen said the board has directed the sale of worse looking properties for more money. The property’s 2016 appraised value is $108,000, though thanks to neglect the vacant property is likely worse than can be seen from the outside.

Poole said he would like to see such a house go to an owner-occupant, and if not that to someone with a track record of rehabilitating and maintaining such property.

Newhallville Alder Delphine Clyburn asked how Lumpkin found out about the property if it had not been advertised.

Trachten said some people make it a point to stop by LCI and check for property acquired by the city.

Ultimately, the board voted to table the proposed sale and opted to take a field trip out to the property to make sure they don’t give it away for a song.

The board also voted to approve the city’s acquisition of the former Walt’s Cleaners at 310-312 Dixwell Ave. and property at 777 Orchard St. for $150,000 as part of a revitalization plan for Dixwell Avenue.

Trachten said there are no definite plans but the idea involves creating a mixed-use space that would be home to both commercial and residential use. The city will use demolition and brownfield funds to acquire the site. Once it does that it will likely issue a request for proposals to demo the site and build it. The Board of Alders still must approve the acquisition.

Impeach Trump? Not So Fast THE INNER-CITY NEWS - August 29, 2018 - September 04, 2018

by Peter Urban CT Newns Junkie

WASHINGTON — Senator Richard Blumenthal and Representative Jim Himes said it is too soon to talk impeachment of President Donald Trump as two more of his associates face jail time for illegal activities.

In separate interviews by CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, the two Connecticut Democrats were asked if impeachment could be on the horizon for President Trump should the midterm election results shift power in the House from Republicans to Democrats.

While not mincing words about their disdain for Trump, both Blumenthal and Himes suggested that impeachment proceedings shouldn’t be under consideration until after Special Counsel Robert Mueller completes his investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

“If Democrats take the majority is it appropriate to immediately begin impeachment?” Blitzer asked Himes.

“No, Wolf, I do not,” Himes answered.

“And, I feel very strongly about this — no forward motion should be made on impeachment until Special Counsel Mueller has had a chance to finish his work and to tell us what the truth is,” later adding that “Congress shouldn’t start throwing around the concept of impeachment until we have all the facts.”

Blitzer raised the question of impeachment after former Trump campaign man-

ager Paul Manafort, a New Britain native, was found guilty this week on eight counts of tax and bank fraud, and Trump’s former personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, who pleaded guilty to a range of charges, testified that Trump directed him to arrange payments ahead of the 2016 presidential election to silence two women who said they had had affairs with Trump.

Blitzer asked Blumenthal if what Cohen says suggests Trump has committed an impeachable offense. The senator did not offer a direct answer but said: “what the remedy is going to be will depend on what more is found as a result of this continuing investigation by this special counsel and here is what I believe is most important, Wolf, on this day the Congress of the United States has to protect the special counsel.”

President Trump was asked about the possibility of his being impeached during a “Fox and Friends” interview. He dismissed the chances saying: “I don’t know how you can impeach somebody who’s done a great job.”

Trump went on to say that if he were to be impeached the stock market would plunge.

“I think everybody would be very poor.

Because without this thinking,” he said, pointing a finger at his head, “you would see, you would see numbers that you wouldn’t believe in reverse.”

Both Himes and Blumenthal emphasized

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the need for Mueller to complete his investigation without interference from President Trump. They also cautioned Trump against granting Manafort a pardon.

“If the president were to pardon convicted or admitted felons, all of whom are his guys [then] what’s the difference between the Oval Office and the mafia?” Himes said. “How are Americans to think differently about the president then they would about some sort of kleptocratic mafia boss or Vladimir Putin?”

Cheryl Brown, president of the administrators union.

and enter into another round of negotiations with the union to ensure that.

In the district’s view, the principals weren’t being given extra work.

The collective bargaining agreement states that administrators with a 12-month work year, who can earn up to $156,255, “are required to be on duty at all times.” The contract makes an exception for administrators to take a four-week break and two weeklong recesses, but it adds that the

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Publisher / CEO

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Blumenthal said granting Manafort a pardon could also set up the president for potential charges of obstruction of justice because he would be “misusing that power to protect himself as a target of that investigation.” Blumenthal also noted that if Trump granted Manafort a pardon: “He would be screaming to the world, ‘I am guilty!’ And he would so undermine the credibility of his office that it would be a disaster for the nation.”

Principals Grieve Summer Workload

Principals newly tasked with running the district’s summer school programs are looking for a bump in their six-figure salaries. The new schools superintendent argues they already have year-round jobs.

The School Administrators Association filed a formal grievance against the district in late June, arguing that Superintendent Carol Birks shouldn’t have forced eight principals to oversee summer sessions within their buildings without extra pay.

This month, behind closed doors, Birks debriefed the Board of Education about the grievance and other “mid-term negotiations” with the administrators union. Once returning from the executive session, the board did not disclose what was discussed or whether they’d given Birks any direction about how to proceed.

According to the grievance, which was obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, Cheryl Brown, the union president, complained that Birks had “unilaterally imposed duties and responsibilities” on the principals without their input. Brown considered that to be a violation of the collective bargaining agreement, which says that principals can’t be given extra work “without prior negotiations.”

The grievance asks that district “cease and desist” from “misinterpreting or misapplying” from the agreed-upon rules for salaries

John P. Thomas

superintendent, “in [her] sole discretion,” decides when they’re off.

From July 5 to Aug. 1, the district offered a variety of summer programming at all grade levels: literacy and math support at seven schools for kindergarteners through fourth graders; a science and technology camp at Hill Central and Fair Haven Schools for fifth through seventh graders; and credit recovery at Metropolitan Business Academy for any high schooler who

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failed a class.

In total, the district budgeted about $625,000 for the part-time personnel who staffed summer school. Shifting administrative costs onto principals this year was estimated to save about $64,000.

Brown did not respond to multiple email messages and phone calls requesting comment. Will Clark, the chief operating officer, said that the district does not comment on “pending negotiations and grievances.”

As the district works to close a projected $19.3 million budget deficit this year, many have asked why administrators have been spared from the deep cuts that have already led to the closure of three schools and the layoff of 15 school counselors, 5 library media specialists and 4 physical education teachers.

Reached by phone on Thursday afternoon, Dave Cicarella, the teachers union president, said that everyone in the district needs to do their part to mitigate the budget deficit.

“I do understand that this is something that they have not had to do before, but we are all being asked to do more, considering the circumstances,” he said. “The fact is that savings could pay for another teacher.”

Cicarella has also pressed Birks to uphold a pledge she made this spring to evenly distribute staffing reductions, matching the Con’t on page 08

Contributing Writers David Asbery Tanisha Asbery Jerry Craft/Cartoons Barbara Fair

Dr. Tamiko Jackson-McArthur Michelle Turner Smita Shrestha William Spivey Kam Williams Rev. Samuel T. Ross-Lee

_______________________

Contributors At-Large

Christine Stuart www.CTNewsJunkie.com Paul Bass New Haven Independent www.newhavenindependent.org

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THE INNER-CITY NEWS - August 29, 2018 - September 04, 2018

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THE INNER-CITY NEWS - August 29, 2018 - September 04, 2018

Elm Shakespeare Does A Winning “Love’s Labour’s Lost”

by BRIAN SLATTERY NEW HAVEN INDEPENDENT

A half-hour before Elm Shakespeare Company’s production of Love’s Labour’s Lost is set to start in Edgerton Park, several of the cast members strut onstage with instruments — a guitar, a banjo, a bass, a trumpet, a sax, a drum — to explain that they’re going to warm up the crowd. And warm the crowd they do, with take after enthusiastic take on early jazz, with a few more modern flourishes thrown in.

It’s the kind of music that makes the audience tap their feet and chuckle spontaneously. It’s also a great encapsulation of Elm Shakespeare’s approach to this not-oftenperformed Shakespeare play. This Love’s Labour’s Lost is smart, lighthearted, full of energy, and a lot of fun.

The play runs through Sept. 2.

Love’s Labour’s Lost is pretty much a sex farce. Four guys — Ferdinand, the king of Navarre, and three of his friends, Berowne, Longaville, and Dumaine — make a pact to devote themselves to their studies for three years, adopting an ascetic lifestyle that involves a very meager diet, only three hours of sleep a night, and no sex. You can guess how long that’s going to last. Within a few minutes, their monastic plans are foiled by four women — the Princess of France, Rosaline, Maria, and Katherine — who arrive in Navarre on a diplomatic mission. The women and men are instantly drawn to each other, but nothing in these stories can ever

Closing of Practice

After treating patients for over 25 years, Dr. Jan Owens-Lane (Dr. Jan) is announcing the closing of her psychological private practice at 295 Washington Avenue, Suite 5S, Hamden, Connecticut 06518 as of September 30, 2018 to transition into increased roles in management consultation, mentoring, supervising and teaching.

For my patients that need to be referred to another therapist, I will facilitate that referral and transfer process, closely matching the patients with other therapists in the community. Each patient will need to sign a Disclosure (Release Form) giving me permission to make contact with another therapist to facilitate that referral. It is extremely important that each patient’s needs be met.

Every patient I have treated has been very special to me. Therefore, I am stepping away in sadness after so many years of commitment to serving patients in the New Haven/Hamden area. I am so grateful to have treated you. Thank you for putting your trust in me.

Gratefully Yours,

Jan Owens-Lane, Ph.D. Clinical Psychologist

be simple. Letters are sent and apprehended. Arrangements are tampered with. There are machinations and misunderstandings.

There is Russian dancing. Meanwhile, in an even more ridiculous B-plot, a Spanish visitor named Don Adriano de Amado is set to punish Costard, a local fool, for a dalliance with a local girl, Jaquenetta. He enlists the aid of Moth, a young page, and ends up in a thrown-together theater troupe with a schoolteacher, a priest, and a constable, who are set to perform for the local and visiting royalty.

You’ll be forgiven if the above sounds both a little cobbled together and also familiar. Scholars are unclear when exactly Shakespeare wrote Love’s Labour’s Lost, but it feels a lot like a first draft of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, which, it is believed, Shakespeare wrote at the same time or shortly thereafter. So many elements appear in both: the young, thwarted lovers; a royal couple trying to connect; a mockable play within a play; even a small, impish character who acts as the play’s court jester. Putting the two plays side by side, it’s easy to see why Love’s Labor’s Lost isn’t performed all that often while Midsummer is performed all the time. Love’s Labor’s Lost isn’t nearly as coherent as Midsummer is, and Lost doesn’t have anything in it to rival the profound wonderment of Nick Bottom’s famous speech, or the chance for a sudden, gut-wrenching bait-and-switch at the end of an intentionally amateur drama originally played for laughs.

What Love’s Labour’s Lost does have, however, is some of the most delightful language Shakespeare wrote. Overwrought in the best sense, with line after impossibly clever line, the play is the kind of thing someone writes when they’re drunk on their own creativity — and since

MIKE FRANZMAN PHOTO

Kingston Farady and Betzabeth Castro.

Shakespeare was a genius, his version of that is a thrill to hear, and a thrill to see performed. The play is at its best and most fun when it’s most off the rails. And thanks to Rebecca Goodheart’s fleet direction, an immensely talented and game cast, and some inspired set and costume design, Elm Shakespeare finds a way to make every joke land, no matter how preposterous.

As the four young men, Martin Lewis, Aaron Bartz, Michael Hinton, and Kingston Farady exude camaraderie and wellintentioned, misspent youth. Bartz in particular shines as Berowne, a natural ham who is somehow both the smartest and the dumbest of the lot. Rachel Clausen,

Lori Vega, Sasha Mahmoud, and Betzabeth Castro come across as four women who have been friends for a long time and all know they’re way smarter than their suitors. James Andreassi gloriously chews the scenery as the melodramatic Don Adriano, and Brianna Bauch imbues Moth with a wired athleticism that is a joy to watch.

The set, designed by Izmir Ickbal, is redolent of the best Jazz Age party you wish you could have gone to, complete with a pavilion of lights that by rights should be a permanent installation in Edgerton Park. A clever color-coded costume design by Elivia Bonvenzi pairs off the four men and four women right from the start, making the end

of the romantic entanglements seem like a foregone conclusion, until the colors mix and remix as the machinations and misunderstandings kick in.

But as the 23-member cast populates the stage more and more, it becomes clear that Love’s Labour’s Lost is really an ensemble piece, and not just an extended ode to love (and horniness). It’s also an extremely selfaware piece of theater to the point where it’s almost ahead of its time. It’s as much about a playwright in love with the theater, and in love with the musicality of language, the songs he can make the grammar sing. It’s thus a rare treat to see the play performed, and performed so well.

Quinnipiac University School of Law to host Dispute Resolution Workshop, ‘#MeToo, Time’s Up, and Theories of Justice’ on Sept. 14 North Haven, Connecticut – Aug. 29, 2018 – Lesley Wexler, a professor at the University of Illinois College of Law, will talk about her recent article, “#MeToo, Time’s Up, and Theories of Justice,” from noon to 1:30 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 14, at Quinnipiac University’s Lynne L. Pantalena Law Library, 370 Bassett Road.

The event is free and open to the public, and a buffet lunch will be provided.

Wexler will explore the meaning, utility and complexities of restorative justice and the insights of transitional justice for dealing with sexual misconduct in the workplace.

Professor Charlie Pillsbury, who codirects Quinnipiac Law School’s Center on Dispute Resolution, said, “Professor Wexler’s timely article takes a hard look at male-dominated workplace cultures through the lens of restorative justice to find ways to privilege survivors’ voices and hold perpetrators accountable.”

Her presentation is part of the Quinnipiac-Yale Dispute Resolution Workshop

Lesley Wexler,

series, which features nationally recognized scholars and practitioners. The talks are open to the public as well as the Yale and Quinnipiac communities and are

6

structured to allow time for questions and discussion.

Wexler joined the Illinois Law School in Fall 2010. She specializes in sex discrimination, human rights law, and international humanitarian law. Her articles on passive discrimination, Wal-Mart v.

Dukes, and sex selection in China have appeared in the Chicago Law Review, the Wake Forest Law Review, and the Chicago Legal Forum.

Before coming to Illinois, Wexler taught at the Florida State University College of Law. Prior to teaching at Florida State, she spent two years at the University of Chicago Law School as a Bigelow Fellow and Lecturer on Law. Wexler has clerked for Judge Thomas Reavley of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and for Judge William Wayne Justice of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas. Wexler earned her JD with honors from the University of Chicago Law School, where she served on the board of both the Chicago International Law Journal and the Chicago Legal Forum.To register, email Sue Ann Ney at sueann.ney@

qu.edu by Friday, Sept. 7.

About Quinnipiac University School of Law Quinnipiac University is a private, coeducational, nonsectarian institution located in Hamden, Connecticut, with close proximity to New York, New Haven, and Boston. Founded in 1977, the School of Law affiliated with Quinnipiac in 1992 and moved onto Quinnipiac’s Mount Carmel Campus in 1995. In 2014, the school again relocated to the university’s North Haven Campus. Quinnipiac School of Law now enrolls more than 300 students pursuing a juris doctor degree or a joint JD/MBA degree. The law school offers concentrations in civil advocacy and dispute resolution, criminal and advocacy, family, health, intellectual property, international law and policy, tax and workplace law. The School of Law also boasts many externships and in-house clinical programs. Quinnipiac is fully approved by the American Bar Association and is a member of the Association of American Law Schools. For more information, please visit Law.QU.edu.

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THE INNER-CITY NEWS - August 29, 2018 - September 04, 2018

Dana Cobbs Turns The Tables On New Haven

by Julie Francois, The Arts Paper

As a kid, Dana Cobbs grew up dancing to disco and hip-hop. She never once thought she’d be the one playing that music for others to groove to, too.

Cobbs is a disc jockey and model living in New Haven, whose recent DJ work has brought her more visibly onto the scene.

At a strong six feet tall—that’s without hair and heels—she has also modeled for designers including local fashionista Neville Wisdom, Detroit-born Tracy Reese and Wakanda’s own Ruth E. Carter. But it wasn’t until this year, she said in a recent interview, that she’s started to feel recognized for her work in New Haven and unique flair as an artist.

Now the director of media at an ad agency in Farmington, Cobbs grew up in Bridgeport in the 1970s, at a tine when disco and Soul Train were always playing in her house. Late in the decade, her father brought home her first taste of hip-hop— “Rapper’s Delight” by The Sugarhill Gang.

Just one play, and she was completely lost in lyrics.

Bang bang, the boogie to the boogie/Say up jump the boogie to the bang bang boogie Let’s rock, you don’t stop/Rock the rhythm that’ll make your body rock “That kind of turned everything around for me,” she recalled. “I wanted to know every word that was on the record, [I] studied every lyric. And after that first record came many more.”

She became infatuated with the whole hip-hop scene. She doodled graffiti in notebooks, tried to dress like the artists, and mastered the lyrics to every song. She loved music and fashion, yet struggled with the label of “artist” or “creative” that peers in the art world tried to foist on her.

“I think, ‘what do I do?’” she laughed.

Her resistance to a career in the arts led her to college at Clark Atlanta University, where she declared a major in sociology.

Bit the fashion of the 1980s called out to her, and she left college her sophomore year to pursue modeling. She had grown up tall and skinny; it was as good a time as any for her to “dive into that world.”

And so, at just 19 years old, Cobbs moved to Europe. With her mother rooting her on, she met with casting agencies, travelled on “go sees,” attended photoshoots, and passed her information on wherever she could.

“I really just wanted to see if I could pull it off,” she said.

It turned out that she could: she was young and bright-eyed, and got gigs in France.

But it was more exhausting than she imagined it would be. After a year and a half of working abroad, she returned to the U.S. and finished her studies in sociology, earning a Bachelor’s Degree from Clark. She continued modeling on a freelance basis, which she still does today.

Her sociology degree led her to a career in analytics and statistics. In the late 1990s, she decided to move to New York work-

Dana Cobbs ing to work in advertising. She missed her family, no analogue for them in the south.

And New York beckoned with professional development opportunities: the city just had more to offer. She was sold on it.

Living in New York, Cobbs was exposed to a whole new world of culture, music, fashion, and beauty. Her job was booming. And then the 2002 recession hit. Cobb decided to take her unemployment checks and buy turntables, a mixer, and records that had moved her years ago She taught herself to deejay while let off from one job,

and looking for another.

“I just wanted to see if I could do it,” she said. “I always loved music and thought it would be cool to provide music to others.”

She started by booking small gigs at New York bars, sometimes as favors to friends and colleagues, sometimes by or word of mouth. As her profile rose in the city, her music took her to California, Florida, and along the Northeast Corridor. There were years, she said, that she couldn’t go anywhere without people recognizing her.

Then seven years ago, she decided to move

Hope, Worry On Vernon As LCI Cracks Down

by THOMAS BREEN

NEW HAVEN INDEPENDENT

Ernest Willis looked across the street from his home of 30 years at two adjacent, vacant properties. Both had chipped facades. One had a gaping hole in its cellar.

“I hope they tear those down,” he said.

Willis, an 82-year-old retired CTtransit driver, has lived with his family in a twoand-a-half story home at 42 Vernon St. in the Hill since 1988.

He said he gets along well with his neighbors and has enjoyed living on his small, residential block in the shadow of the YaleNew Haven Hospital (YNHH) medical complex on Howard Avenue.

But when he looked out from his front porch on Wednesday afternoon, he saw both encouraging signs of progress and frustrating signs of decay for the block.

Without knowing it, he was also looking out at the latest entry in YNHH’s yearslong effort to build affordable housing around the hospital.

Just across the street from Willis’s porch are two three-family homes at 35 Vernon and 37 Vernon.

The vacant, two-story home at 37 Vernon is home owned by YNHH. According to city land records, the hospital acquired the property from its prior landlord, Medical

Ernest Willis at his Vernon St. home.

Center Reality, Inc. in 2016.

The city’s anti-blight agency, the Livable City Initiative (LCI), issued an anti-blight and property maintenance civil citation to YNHH on Aug. 21 for failing to keep up the vacant property.

According to city land records, Arthur Natalino, Jr., the Hill’s neighborhood specialist, found during an Aug. 20 inspection

Vacant homes at 37 and 35 Vernon. that the building exterior is dilapidated, the foundation might need to be repaired, the exterior walls need immediate repairs to chipping paint, and landscape maintenance is needed on the sides and rear of the property.

Natalino’s inspection also found that the property is “open to trespass” and “attracting illegal activity creating a safety con-

8

cern for the neighborhood.”

Indeed, during a visit this week, one of the sides of the building’s brick exterior visibly contained a gaping hole that looks into the home’s cellar.

The LCI citation notes that YNHH will be on the hook for $100 per day for every day that the blighted conditions continue unaddressed.

Vin Petrini, YNHH’s senior vice president of public affairs, said that 37 Vernon is the latest home on the block that the hospital is hoping to transform into affordable housing either for hospital employees or for other neighborhood residents.

Petrini said that the hospital has been working with the Habitat for Humanity of Greater New Haven over the last several years to renovate, rehabilitate, and construct homes on Vernon Street, Sylvan Avenue, and around the St. Raphael’s campus on Orchard Street.

Petrini said that YNHH and Habitat for Humanity have already built seven new homes on Vernon Street alone over the past few years, including two new properties at 45 and 47 Vernon. He said two families moved into those two new properties just last month.

“This is part of a much broader transforCon’t on page 13

back to Connecticut and settle in New Haven. It was time to be close to the place where her music bug began. She went into advertising during the day, putting her DJ skills to use at night, on the weekends, at at special events. She became close with other local DJs including Dooley-O and Kode Red, with whom she has deejayed late night dance sessions at Rudy’s bar downtown.

She said that making mixes and putting together music comes easy to her because of her expansive exposure to all types of music throughout her life. She has role models to guide her: Jazzy Jeff and Benjie B are among her favorites, and she will often listen to BBC Radio to get new songs to listen to or play. On a daily basis, she researches new music and re-listens to her own mixes to remind herself of old sounds and rediscover old music.

“I know when I’ve done a good job when I feel confident after a show,” she said.

“Especially after moving around the music around all night and still keeping the floor full.”

She said she feels lucky to have been giving opportunities to prove herself musically across the country. But, she added, it hasn’t always been easy. The music world is still dominated by men, and she feels it when she gets booked for and shows up at a gig.

“All I ever want to be known for is having the same skill set as a man would,” she said. “I don’t want to be booked for how I look … I hear a lot of men say, ‘Well, you have the look so just go for it.’ and I hate that. It’s a little demeaning because I just want to be treated like everyone else.”

Still, Cobbs said she is glad to have always been able to put her best foot forward in whatever she does.

“You never know when your phone is going to ring with opportunity, or you’ll run into someone while running errands,” she said. “I hope I’m able to surprise people when they first meet me, and they think I’m talented and better than what they expected. I hope I’m formidable.”

To see more of Cobbs’ work, visit her on Instagram at @thatdanagame or online at her website www.thatdanagame.com Dana Cobbs: From New Haven to France to New York and back. Julie Francois Photo.

Con’t from page

Principals Grieve

loss of 135 educators with 25 fewer administrators.

Before Monday’s vote to finalize two dozen layoffs, Birks said that the district had eliminated 134 teaching positions and 14 administrative positions.

Would 11 more administrators be cut?

“We’re still looking at it,” Birks said earlier this month. “Right now, those proposed administrative reductions weren’t just at the Central Office. They were throughout the district.” Was she referring to school sites?

“Possibly,” Birks said. “We’re still every exploring everything.”

THE INNER-CITY NEWS - August 29, 2018 - September 04, 2018

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Ugly And On The Air THE INNER-CITY NEWS - August 29, 2018 - September 04, 2018

by Adia Sakura-Lemessy, The Arts Paper

Joe Ugly has a message for New Have ers—if you’re going to try something, you might as well do it yourself.

Ugly is the founder and director of Ugly Radio, an independent, internet-based radio station in downtown New Haven that plays hip-hop, R&B, and reggae from independent recording artists across the city, state, and country. Operating out of an intimate, second-floor office space on Chapel Street, he has grown the station from a oneman operation to a part-time and volunteer staff of disc jockeys, musicians, low-key tech geeks, and aspiring radio hosts.

He’s had 13 years to do it, building on his previous experience as a DJ at Ultra Radio. In addition to his work online, he hosts a three-hour drive time show that plays on WNHH Community Radio’s airwaves weekday mornings, before InnerCity News editor Babz Rawls Ivy takes the mic at 9 a.m.

Some trappings of the studio are what you’d expect: turntables, microphones, a soundproof recording studio and window decals that mark the spot from Chapel Street. Off to the side, there’s an office where Ugly can do his work. A couch and chairs sit unoccupied, in case anyone on the opening shift—that’s 5 a.m., with an earlier arrival—needs a nap later in the day.

On a recent morning, the space was

hopping. Early-morning light peeked in through the window, increasingly bright and warm as the sun climbed. A highpitched cackle filled the room, followed with full-bellied laughter. DJ Rob Nice was making sure that the independent music kept coming. Longtime volunteer Preston Wilson leaned into a mic to read the day’s local “Ugly Headlines.”

There are quirks like that that New Haveners won’t find on other channels. Ugly has staff read off the “ugly” local, state and national headlines; he invites local guests to talk about the work they’re doing in the city. But what sets it apart, Joe Ugly said in a recent interview, is that the station doesn’t play any music by signed artists.

“A lot of people think that because I only play independent artists’ music … [that] I’m wholeheartedly against record labels,” he said. “[That’s] wrong. I just see room in the game for everybody. Especially with technology.”

But there’s a whole, winding history to that love for independent music, and approach to running a radio station.

Joe Ugly was born in Trinidad, just one in a family of self-starters. As a kid, he remembered watching his uncle pick up garbage with a trolley attachment on his bike.

Years passed, and his uncle graduated to a pick-up truck, then an actual truck, then multiple trucks. He eventually became a full-fledged company, laying claim to what

Ugly called the biggest trash-collecting service in Trinidad aside from one run by the government.

Ugly immigrated to the U.S. with his family in the 1970s, settling in New Haven’s Newhallville neighborhood and attending Wilbur Cross High School. As a high school freshman during the first wave of hip-hop, he recalled hearing rap for the first time in 1976 at a Labor Day parade

in Brooklyn. It sparked his initial interest in the genre, and led him to begin rapping with some of his friends when he got back home to New Haven. By the end of the decade, he was part of a local group that performed around town.

But when he graduated high school, Ugly went into banking. It seemed like a solid enough plan: make good money, have a nine to five. Except he was unhappy. Re-

ally, really unhappy.

In the 1990s he decided that he wanted to market rap, and that radio was the best way to do it. He started working with a local radio station and an Urban FM Station, where he not only learned the fundamentals of the business, but saw that working in radio offered him an opportunity to help independent artists. After working as a DJ at Ultra Radio, he started Ugly Radio in 2005. It moved into its current digs in 2007.

Ugly recalled that his brother-in-law told him that if he used the internet for his venture in radio, he would be ahead of the game. But it was the late 1990s to early 2000s —CDs still reigned and dial-up was the fastest standard connection to the web. Streaming music was very much an underground thing. And then there was the simple issue of skepticism.

“When I first started this thing, people were like ‘independent artists? Are you kidding me? Good luck,’” he recalled. “They were laughing … ‘give him three months, he’ll be playing signed artists’ music.’”

Even after he hit landmark after landmark without caving, he said that, “there were those out there who were literally counting down [to him playing signed artists].”

Instead, Ugly dug deeper into independent artists, discovering unsigned local Con’t on page 23

DNC Gives Pennsylvania Democratic Party $175K Grant

By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Contributor

Only 40 percent of the voting eligible population voted in the 2016 election and with midterm turnouts historically low, the Democratic National Committee has swung into action providing grants to 41 states and territories to help prevent voter suppression and other Republican-based strategies ahead of the crucial election.

In its latest bid to win control of the House and Senate, the DNC has awarded a $175,000 grant to the Pennsylvania Democratic Party.

The grant is specifically designed to help with base community organizing ahead of the 2018 midterm elections, party officials said in a statement.

Combining traditional boots-on-theground organizing with innovative digital and technological tools, these investments will support the DNC’s “IWillVote” initiative, which aims to reach 50 million voters

by Election Day, party officials said.

The new investment in Pennsylvania is in addition to the $100,000 already awarded to the Keystone State’s Democratic Party through the State Party Innovation Fund.

Further, DNC officials said the latest round of investment includes $1.2 million for organizing in African American, Latinx, AAPI, millennial, and rural communities that will help fund over 50 organizers in 16 states, including Nevada, Arizona, Georgia, New Mexico, Tennessee, Mississippi,

Florida, West Virginia, Michigan, Ohio, Minnesota, New Hampshire, Maine, California, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

Each state party is receiving funding to hire African American, Latinx, AAPI, rural or millennial organizers, who will be hired by early summer and be part of the coor-

10

dinated campaign through the end of the election cycle.

“The new DNC has been working tirelessly to support our state parties, motivate voters to get to the polls, and organize around issues that matter for country’s future,” said DNC Chair Tom Perez.

“We are investing in our base communities and putting organizers on the ground across the country because we know that’s the only way we’ll win,” he said.

In total, the DNC has awarded 41 states and territories with grants through the State Party Innovation Fund.

That is in addition to the $10,000-amonth investment that state parties receive through its “Every ZIP Code Counts” program.

“This investment will help ensure that Democrats are talking to voters in every community, and make sure that activists and candidates have the new tools and resources they need to succeed,” Perez said.

“The DNC is proud to partner with our state parties to expand our engagement in all communities and support Democratic candidates running up and down the ticket.”

Recently, the DNC announced a multi-

million-dollar investment, which includes a nationwide cell-phone acquisition, a complete overhaul of the party’s data for voter-registration targeting and further data investments for the party’s voter-protection efforts.

As part of the DNC’s “IWillVote” program, the DNC plans to launch a six-figure digital ad buy across the country to encourage Americans — with a focus on sporadic voters, especially those who​dropped off in 2014 from 2012 — to commit to vote this November.

“We are thrilled that the DNC is investing in Pennsylvania. We need to ensure that people of color continue to have a voice and play a role in the direction of our Party,” said Pennsylvania Democratic Party Executive Director Sinceré Harris.

“That’s why we are happy to partner with the DNC to reach out to and organize in communities of color from Erie to Hazleton, Philadelphia to Reading, and places in between. Chairman Perez and Chairwoman Mills are committed to engaging these ever-important communities to ensure that we elect Democrats up and down the ballot,” Harris said.

THE INNER-CITY NEWS - August 29, 2018 - September 04, 2018

Putting college degrees, and New Haven’s future, in their hands.

Encouraging young people to attend college can help to ensure them a successful future for the vitality of New Haven. Through our support for New Haven Promise, Yale New Haven Hospital is helping city youth make the dream of college a reality.

The Promise program offers scholarships covering up to 100% of a student’s college tuition. The key to success is that Promise creates a culture of college readiness by requiring high-schoolers to maintain high grades and good attendance, while participating in a minimum of 40 hours of community service. This year alone, 359 New Haven students received scholarships to colleges throughout Connecticut.

Higher education makes for stronger communities and engaged citizens ready to tackle the future. At Yale New Haven Hospital, we believe in that future and the young people who will shape it. Which is why we’re proud to support Promise. It’s another example of our commitment to caring beyond the bedside. ynhh.org/community

Breylin Jones, New Haven Promise scholarship recipient and talent acquisition sourcer, Yale New Haven Health.

Yale New Haven Hospital was awarded the 2017 Foster G. McGaw Prize for Excellence in Community Service from the American Hospital Association. The McGaw Prize is awarded annually to a single healthcare organization that provides innovative programs that significantly improve the health and well-being of its community.

11

THE INNER-CITY NEWS - August 29, 2018 - September 04, 2018

With a Black Woman Running for Governor, Georgia Voter Suppression Games Begin

By Lauren Victoria Burke, NNPA Newswire Contributor

Less than 80 days from the time a Black female nominee is to appear on the ballot for Governor of Georgia for the first time in the state’s history, election officials have begun to turn to familiar tactics of voter suppression.

Officials on Georgia’s Randolph County Board of Elections are planning to eliminate seven out of nine voting precincts prior to Election Day. Randolph County is 60 percent Black.

Many voters would be forced to drive or walk over ten miles to vote.

Randolph County supported Hillary Clinton with 55 percent of the vote in 2016.

One precinct of the nine that may be closed is nearly 100 percent Black. The Randolph County Board of Elections will soon hold a meeting to make a final decision on the poll closures.

In less that 80 days on November 6, former Georgia State Legislator Stacey

Abrams will be on the ballot as the Democratic nominee for Governor. She will be the first African American female nominee

for Governor in Georgia’s history.

This week, the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law on behalf of the

New Georgia Project, the Georgia State Conference of the NAACP, sent a presuit-demand letter to the Randolph County Board of Elections Board’s decision. The Georgia NAACP is also pushing hard against the move.

NAACP Georgia State President, Phyllis Blake, scrambled to attend the Randolph County Board of Elections hearing in which the decision was first discussed.

The two-person board arbitrarily proposed closing the polling places during a discussion on August 16.

“We know how various tactics for voter suppression have been embedded by opponents to real democracy, especially since the gutting of the Voting Rights Act, and I was surprised that folks had the audacity to try this in my state,” said NAACP Georgia State President Phyllis Blake in a August 22 statement.

Randolph County Democratic Party Chair Bobby Jenkins, said there was “no indication” a poll closing decision was in the works. Abrams’ Republican opponent

for Governor, Brian Kemp, Georgia’s secretary of state, issued a statement urging Randolph County officials to “abandon this effort.”

On August 23, members of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) wrote the Randolph County Board.

“Unfortunately, this proposal is just the latest foray into the deeply problematic, well-coordinated playbook of voter suppression spearheaded by Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp and his ally Mike Malone. The former has played an instrumental role in cancelling tens of thousands of voter registrations and purging even more existing voters from the rolls by leveraging the same controversial racially biased technology Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach made infamous for targeting Black voters. The latter was allegedly deployed by Kemp to provide a series of recommendations for poll closures across the state,” wrote CBC Chairman Cedric Richmond (D-LA) and Georgia Congressman John Lewis (D-GA) and others.

Voter Suppression Scheme Snuffed out in Georgia

By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Contributor

The efforts of a prominent Washington, D.C. organization has resulted in a major voting rights victory for individuals of color in a small – but significant – Georgia town.

District-based Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law led others including the ACLU of Georgia and the NAACP Legal Defense Fund in successfully getting election officials in Randolph County, Georgia, to keep open polling sites in the mostly Black precincts.

Officials in the town had voted to close the sites ahead of the midterm elections and as African-American female gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams counts as the favorite to win her race to become the state’s first Black female governor.

“We won,” said Kristen Clarke, the president and executive director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. “Our community partners beat back a voter suppression scheme that was being undertaken by officials in Randolph County. Remarkably, officials were trying to shutter 7 of 9 polling sites in this poor, majority Black community,” Clarke said.

The scheme undoubtedly was hatched to silence Black voters in the small rural, low-income community where many residents lack access to public transportation, she added.

“The burden would have been felt heaviest by Black voters, who are three times more likely than white voters to lack access to a vehicle. We pushed back against this textbook example of voter suppression and we prevailed,” Clarke said.

The effort has galvanized national civil

rights and voting rights groups aiming to block attempts to suppress minority voter turnout in Georgia and in other states ahead of critical midterm elections, according to USA Today.

The Congressional Black Caucus urged county election officials to drop the plan, saying it would violate the 1965 Voting Rights Act to close the polling sites so close to an election.

“We are deeply concerned that the bedrock tenets of democracy would be under attack should this proposal be adopted and implemented,” the caucus wrote in a letter.

The two members of the Randolph County Board of Elections and Registration voted unanimously not to make changes. The board, which has one vacancy, held two hearings on the proposal.

Tommy Coleman, an attorney for the county in southwest Georgia, said he doesn’t think the board members meant harm by considering the proposal but that it might have been ill-timed.

“It gives you the appearance that you’re trying to do something to alter the vote in November. I don’t think that’s the case.

I’m certain it isn’t,” he told USA Today.

“The people who do this in rural Georgia – these two people – are just volunteers.”

The issue garnered national attention in part because of the historic nomination of Abrams, the Georgia Democrat who could make history if she wins in November.

Abrams and Republican Secretary of State Brian Kemp, who is also running for governor, both called for officials to drop the plan.

The proposal was offered earlier this year after the county hired a consultant when the election superintendent quit

three weeks before the May primary, Coleman said.

The consultant, Mike Malone, recommended closing the polling sites because they didn’t comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act. But, Coleman said, the proposal “doesn’t seem to be backed up with any real data.”

Critics of the proposal argue the sites were used for elections earlier in the year and in the years since the county was called out in 2016 for not complying with the ADA. “Why all of a sudden do you want it to be ADA compliant when you haven’t complied in all of this time?” said Helen Butler, executive director of the Georgia Coalition for the Peoples Agenda.

“What is the rush if it wasn’t a rush in all these years,” added Butler, who also serves on the Board of Elections in Morgan County, Georgia.

Nse Ufot, executive director of the New Georgia Project, a nonpartisan civic engagement group, said county election officials could have moved polls to local churches and other sites that are ADA compliant.

“This is a blatant attempt at voter suppression,” she said. “Voter suppression in Georgia is a lot more sophisticated, I think, than people realize.”

Coleman described Randolph County, the sixth smallest in the state, as very poor and struggling with a declining population and economic base.

He said there have been discussions about the cost of polling sites because there were few voters there. For example, he said, one precinct had about 100 people.

But Coleman said the timing of proposing closures could have been better.

12

“It was probably ill-timed. We certainly went through the primary and the runoff from the primary and why we would need to do it before November in the teeth of this kind of heightened political environment, I think, is what the problem was,” he said.

“It needs to be given more thought away from elections.”

There have been lawsuits in the past over the county’s noncompliance with the ADA, Coleman said. The county used a $200,000 grant to upgrade some buildings, including the courthouse. Coleman said he suspects there are some buildings, including some of the firehouses that have been used for polling sites, that are not in

full compliance.

Coleman couldn’t say what steps the county will take to comply with the ADA, but he said, “I think they will now.”

Meanwhile, Clarke and others celebrated the victory and vowed to remain vigilant on such issues.

“The defeat of this proposal shows the power of resistance and the impact that we can have by leveraging our voices against injustice,” Clarke said.

“We have seen these voter suppression schemes before – they have been pervasive throughout the 2018 midterm cycle… Now we move on to fighting other counties in Georgia that are entertaining similar tactics.”

THE INNER-CITY NEWS - August 29, 2018 - September 04, 2018 Con’t from page 08

Hope, Worry On Vernon As LCI Cracks Down

mation of Vernon Street that we’ve been working on for the past couple years,” Petrini said. “This is part of a broader plan to create affordable housing that’s new and attractive in the area.”

He said that the homes that YNHH has partnered with Habitat on are open to Habitat’s long list of prospective tenants to move into. He said that the homes are also available for YNHH employees to purchase with the help of Yale’s homebuyer program, which offers $10,000 in forgivable loans as well as $200 off monthly mortgage payments for the first two years of a mortgage.

Petrini said that 37 Vernon is the last lot on the block that YNHH is looking to build on. He said the hospital and Habitat are still assessing the property and have not yet determined whether they can renovate or rehabilitate the existing structure, or whether they need to demolish what’s there and build something new.

Petrini also noted that YNHH provided financial support for the construction of the new Ronald McDonald House, a 20-bedroom medical home for very sick children located at 860 Howard Ave., which is just behind 45 and 47 Vernon.

He said the hospital has invested over $35,000 in sidewalk improvements for Vernon Street as part of the Habitat and Ronald McDonald House rebuilds.

Just next to 37 Vernon is another vacant, dilapidated three-family home. This one, at 35 Vernon, is not owned by the hospital, but by the Orchard Street-based landlord Dirkovril Reid.

LCI also issued an anti-blight and property maintenance civil citation to Reid on Aug. 21 for failing to keep up the vacant property.

The citation notes that LCI’s Natalino found during his Aug. 20 inspection that the building exterior is dilapidated, the front balcony is in need of repair, the exterior walls need to be fixed, the property needs immediate landscape maintenance, and rubbish and debris on the lawn need to be removed.

A Wednesday afternoon visit to the property found a brightly-colored row of flowers planted in front of an otherwise blighted home. The ground-floor windows revealed furniture piled on end inside the home, and a trail of paper bowls filled with dog food lined the front porch.

“Property maintenance is deficient or lacking,” the citation’s boiler plate language reads, “leading to progressive deterioration of said property and the creation of blighted conditions.” The citation notes that the landlord will be fined $100 per day for every day that the blighted conditions continue unaddressed.

Reid told the Independent during over

the phone that he will fix up the property, which he hopes to renovate and then rent, as soon as he raises enough money. He said he’s already spent $30,000 fixing up the roof, and that he is looking into getting a loan to repair the rest of the building.

“All I can do is what I can,” he said.

But Willis isn’t just concerned with the two dilapidated properties across the way.

He said what vexes him most on the block is the vacant, overgrown lot at 49 Vernon St. Four-foot tall grass spills over the chain link fence and onto the surrounding sidewalk.

According to city land records, the empty lot is owned by a Quogue, N.Y.-based company called Municipal Capital Appreciation Partners through a Connecticut holding company, 49 Vernon LLC. It has owned the property since 2007.

Despite the thousands of dollars of sidewalk improvements sponsored by the hospital, Willis said he’s still not satisfied with what he sees outside of his own home.

Pointing to a cracked and uneven sidewalk in front of his home, he said he had hoped that the city would fix the crumbling sidewalk during the Ronald McDonald House’s development.

“We were waiting” on the sidewalk repairs, he said. As of yet, they still haven’t come.

Pulitzer-Winning Black Composer George Walker Dead at 96

By Afro Staff George Walker, a Black Pulitzer Prizewinning composer, pianist and educator, died Aug. 23 at the age of 96. According to NPR, the pioneering virtuoso died at the Mountainside Hospital in Montclair, N.J., from the results of a fall.

A prolific originator, Walker has composed over 90 works for orchestra, chamber orchestra, piano, strings, voice, organ, clarinet, guitar, brass, woodwinds, and chorus.

A 1946 work, Lyric for Strings, has been one of most frequently performed orchestral work by an American composer, and his other works have been performed by virtually every major orchestra in the U.S. and many others abroad.

“His music is always characterized by a great sense of dignity, which is how he always comported himself,” says composer Jeffrey Mumford, who, as a music professor at Lorain County Community College in Ohio, uses examples of Walker’s music in his classes. “His style evolved over the years; his earlier works, some written while still a student, embodied an impressive clarity and elegance.”

Even at the nascent stage of his career, Walker broke new ground. His 1945 debut made him the first Black pianist to perform solo at New York’s Town Hall. Two weeks after that performance, he became the first Black instrumentalist to perform with the Philadelphia Orchestra. And, that year, he also became the first Black graduate of the renowned Curtis Institute of Music.

In 1996, Walker reached the pinnacle of

George Walker

his career when he became the first Black composer to win the Pulitzer Prize for his Lilacs for voice and orchestra. He was previously nominated for the coveted award in 1977 for his piece, Dialogus for cello and orchestra.

“This composer has finally gotten the recognition he deserves,” said renowned conductor Zubin Mehta, at the time.

Walker was born in Washington, D.C. on

June 27, 1922. His father, a West Indian immigrant, was a physician, and his mother, Rosa King, supervised his first piano lessons that began when he was 5.

Walker attended Dunbar High School and, upon graduation, was admitted to Oberlin College as a scholarship student in 1937.

At the age of 18, he graduated from Oberlin College with the highest honors before joining the Curtis Institute. He later attainted a doctoral degree from Eastman School of Music in 1956.

In addition to being a composer and musician, Walker was also an educator. He taught at Dillard University in New Orleans after his first European tour. Later, he held faculty appointments to the Dalcroze School of Music, The New School for Social Research, Smith College (1961-68) (where he became the first Black tenured faculty member), the University of Colorado (1968-69), Rutgers University (196992, where he was Chairman of the Music Department), Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University (1975-78) and the University of Delaware (1975-76, where he was the recipient of the first Minority Chair established by the University).

Walker has received numerous accolades for his work. In addition to his Pulitzer, he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1999 and was inducted into the American Classical Music Hall of Fame in 2000.

This article originally appeared in The AFRO.

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THE INNER-CITY NEWS - August 29, 2018 - September 04, 2018

Congresswoman Frederica S. Wilson’s Response to Secretary DeVos’ Plan to Arm Teachers

Washington, D.C. August 23, 2018 –Congresswoman Frederica S. Wilson issued the following statement in response to news reports that the U.S. Department of Education is considering allowing states to use federal tax dollars to purchase guns for teachers: “I was astounded to learn today that the U.S. Department of Education is allegedly considering using federal tax dollars to arm public school teachers by diverting funding from the Every Student Succeeds Act earmarked for mental health treatment, antibullying programs, and drug prevention in our nation’s poorest schools. Such a policy would not only endanger students, but also would rob them of access to these critical support programs.

“The department has pushed back on the

news reports and said that it received an inquiry from the Texas state Department of Education about funding for firearms, which it ignored. I believe that it should have responded to the agency with a resounding ‘no.’

“Earlier this year, Congress passed the bipartisan Stop School Violence Act, which allocated $50 million yearly to local school districts to augment school safety, and specifically prohibits funding for firearms. I will continue to work with my colleagues on initiatives to stem gun violence and prevent weapons from reaching classrooms.

“This is yet another example of Secretary Betsy DeVos’s disdain for our nation’s public schools and underscores the urgent need for Democrats to remain steadfast in

the fight to safeguard our students, teachers, and schools.”

Congresswoman FredericaS. Wilsonis a fourth-termCongresswoman from Florida representing parts of Northern MiamiDade and Southeast Broward counties.

A former state legislator and school principal, she is the founder of the 5000 Role Models for Excellence Project, a mentoring program for young males at risk of dropping out of school. Congresswoman Wilson also founded and chairs the Florida Ports Caucus, a bipartisan taskforce that coordinates federal action in support of Florida’s harbors and waterways. The Florida lawmaker sits on the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and the Education and the Workforce Committee.

Betsy DeVos considering letting school districts use federal funds to buy guns The Education Department is considering whether to allow states to use federal funding to purchase guns for educators, according to multiple people with knowledge of the plan.

Such a move appears to be unprecedented, reversing a longstanding position taken by the federal government that it should not pay to outfit schools with weapons. And it would also undermine efforts by Congress to restrict the use of federal funding on guns. As recently as March, Congress passed a school safety bill that allocated $50 million a year to local school districts, but expressly prohibited the use of the money for firearms.

But the department is eyeing a program

Betsy DeVos,

in federal education law, the Student Support and Academic Enrichment grants, that makes no mention of prohibiting weapons purchases. That omission would allow the education secretary, Betsy DeVos, to use her discretion to approve any state or district plans to use grant funding for firearms and firearm training, unless Congress clarifies the law or bans such funding through legislative action.

“The department is constantly considering and evaluating policy issues, particularly issues related to school safety,” said Liz Hill, a spokeswoman for the Education Department. “The secretary nor the department issues opinions on hypothetical scenarios.”

NNPA Official Statement on the Passing of Senator John McCain

Washington, DC, August 27, 2018 — The National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA) extends sincerest condolences to the family of Senator John McCain. Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis Jr, President and CEO of the NNPA emphasized, “John McCain’s integrity and courage were his greatest virtues. His national leadership example is still needed today not only in the U.S. Senate, but also in every state, city and town across America.”

Dorothy Leavell, Chairman of the NNPA and publisher of the Crusader Newspapers, stated, “The death of Senator John McCain reminds us that none of us are immortal, but his life was one of service and love for his country. Giving of one’s service until the end speaks volumes of his integrity and he fulfilled the call from our maker to be of service to others.”

Cloves Campbell III, former Chairman of the NNPA and publisher of the Arizona Informant observed, “Senator John McCain will be remembered in the African American community of Arizona as a national statesman who grew and evolved particularly in his later years as an elected official who transcended partisan politics and who eventually did what he thought was the right thing to do rather than to be confined to political party loyalty. That is why he voted pivotally to save the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) at a time when most Re-

Congresswoman Frederica S. Wilson (D-FL)

CNN suspends Trump-defending pundit Paris Dennard after sexual harassment claims

By Defender News Service Defender News Network, Entertainment, Media, News

Less than two hours after The Washington Post published its damning exposé about Paris Dennard, a prominent cable news defender of President Donald Trump, CNN announced that it was suspending the pundit “effective immediately.”

“We are aware of reports of accusations against Paris Dennard,” a spokesperson for CNN said Wednesday evening. “We are suspending Paris, effective immediately, while we look into the allegations.”

Those allegations, reported by Aaron C. Davis for The Washington Post, paint the picture of a man who was repeatedly accused of sexual harassment before he was ultimately fired by Arizona State University four years ago.

“I cannot comment on items I have never seen regarding allegations I still believe to be false,” Dennard wrote in an emailed statement. “This is sadly another politically motivated attempt to besmirch my character, and shame

Paris Dennard me into silence for my support of President Trump and the GOP.” Dennard served as a surrogate for Trump during the 2016 campaign and continues to defend him regularly for CNN, where he is a paid political commentator. He also serves as a political analyst for NPR and a contributor to The Hill.

This post was originally published by the Defender News Network.

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Photo of John McCain during an interview, April 24, 1974. Collection of the Library of Congress. publicans were voting to end the ACA.” “His acts of service in war, where he was held captive, and then at home, was one of dignity, respect and care in the United States Senate far surpassing many others in similar circumstances,” concluded Leavell.

“Above all, he put partisanship aside to

make decisions that were in the best interest of all of the citizens of the United States and usually without much fanfare. We shall remember him and miss his brand of high character in the Senate. We add our condolences to his family and our country as a whole. Rest in peace (RIP) dear Senator.”

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THE INNER-CITY NEWS - August 29, 2018 - September 04, 2018

“Hidden Figures” Katherine Johnson Turns 100

By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Contributor

Spencer and Janelle Monáe.

In an earlier interview, she told NNPA Newswire that she missed working.

Katherine Johnson, who hand-crunched the numbers for America’s first manned space flight – a feat that finally got its Big Screen acknowledgement just two years ago, turned 100 on Sunday, August 26, 2018. “[On Sunday], we celebrate Alpha Kappa Alpha’s own, Katherine Johnson. She’s credited with crunching the numbers by hand that allowed NASA to launch the first U.S. astronauts into space,” leaders of the Alpha Kappa Alpha said in a statement.

“I’d go back now,” she said.

After leaving her teaching job in 1953, Johnson began working for NASA and was able to calculate the trajectory for numerous space missions, including for the space flight of Alan Shephard, the first American in space and the trajectory for the famed 1968 Apollo 11 flight to the Moon.

“I’d do them over if I had to. I’d do anything for anyone,” she said.

“We are women of many first. First and finest.”

Many others paid tribute via statements and social media.

“If you haven’t seen the movie about what she and other brilliant Black women at NASA accomplished, be sure to watch the fabulous movie, ‘Hidden Figure,’ in her honor,” said comic book writer Grace Randolph.

“I stand on your shoulders,” said Dr. Camille Alleyne. “You blazed the trail which I and so many have had the privilege to walk on … Katherine, you are my hero. I love, honor and salute you,” Alleyne said.

Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis Jr., president and CEO of the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA), also paid homage to Johnson.

“Katherine Johnson’s historic contributions to the evolution of applied mathematics and aerospace science epitomizes her genius to overcome the scientific challenges of her generation,” Chavis said.

“Today, African American women in particular should be inspired by the example of Katherine Johnson in STEM career fields,” Chavis said.

“The NNPA salutes Johnson’s transformative legacy that is no longer hidden.”

The recipient of the 2015 National Medal of Freedom, and a 2016 People Magazine honoree as being among the 25 Women Changing the World, Johnson enjoyed a brilliant 33-year career at NASA and her life story finally was told on the big screen in “Hidden Figures,” the award-winning movie that starred Taraji P. Henson, Octavia

(Photo: NASA/Bill Ingalls, Wikimedia Commons) Former NASA mathematician Katherine Johnson is seen after President Barack Obama presented her with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, Tuesday, Nov. 24, 2015, during a ceremony in the East Room of the White House in Washington.

At an early age, Johnson developed enviable math skills so much so that even NASA officials wrote a story about her titled, “The girl who loved to count.”

“I counted everything. I counted the steps to the road, the steps up to church, the number of dishes and silverware I washed … anything that could be counted, I did,” Johnson said.

“I entered college, I was 15. I was going to be a math teacher because that was it. You could be a math teacher or a nurse but I was told I would make a good research mathematician and they had me take all of the courses in the catalogue,” she said.

When Astronaut John Glenn went to the moon, Johnson said her “Hidden Figures” crew acted as the computer for the mission.

She said calculating everything involved in the flight became like a geometry problem.

“I felt most proud of the success of the Apollo mission. We had to determine so much. Where you were, where the moon would be and how fast the astronauts were going,” Johnson said.

“We were really concerned but the astronaut had to do it just as we laid it out.

I was looking at the television and hoping that were right,” she said.

Born in 1918 in West Virginia, Johnson was a research mathematician, who by her own admission, was simply fascinated by numbers, according to her biography posted by NASA. By the age of 10, Johnson was a high school freshman – an amazing feat in an era when school for African-Americans nor-

mally stopped at eighth grade.

Her father was determined that Johnson would have a chance to meet her potential.

“He drove the family 120 miles to Institute, West Virginia, where I could continue my education through high school,” she said.

An achiever at the highest level, Johnson graduated from high school at 14 and from college at 18. By 1953, the growing demands of early space research meant there were openings for African American computers at Langley Research Center’s Guidance and Navigation Department – and Johnson found the perfect place to put her extraordinary mathematical skills to work.

Glenn requested that she personally recheck the calculations made by the new electronic computers before his flight aboard Friendship 7 – the mission on which he became the first American to orbit the Earth.

She continued to work at NASA until 1986.

Her calculations proved as critical to the success of the Apollo Moon landing program and the start of the Space Shuttle program, as they did to those first steps on the country’s journey into space, according to NASA. Still, Johnson said the book, the Academy Award nominated movie and her celebrated work with NASA aren’t her greatest accomplishments.

“Just staying alive is the greatest accomplishment,” she said.

In a statement, NASA also praised Johnson.

“Today, retired NASA Langley mathematician Katherine Johnson makes her 100th trip around the sun as she celebrates her birthday.”

Johnson’s computations have influenced every major space program from Mercury through the Shuttle program. Johnson was hired as a research mathematician at the Langley Research Center with the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), the agency that preceded NASA, after they opened hiring to African-Americans and women.

Black Festival Ranks Among the Five “Top Theatre Festivals to Visit Around the World”

Atlanta, GA — The Atlanta Black Theatre Festival (ABTF), which is commonly referred to as the festival of “40 plays in four days,” provides attendees with access to the largest selection of world-class, afro-centric theatre, in the entire country, all under one roof. The ABTF was recently ranked among the “Top Theatre Festivals to Visit Around the World” by TopTenZilla.com The dates for the annual event have now been released for 2018, and those planning their October events in Atlanta can schedule this amazing festival for October 3rd to October 6th. The event will take place at the Porter Sanford III Performing Arts Center in Decatur, Georgia.

“We are excited about this year’s marathon celebration of Afrocentric theatre, culture, and art,” stated Festival Director, Toni Simmons Henson. “When it comes to Atlanta festivals, there are more than a few to choose from. However, this celebration is one where the plays and events envelop you until it feels more like a family reunion than an art festival.”

Regardless if an attendee is a fan of traditional theatre (August Wilson), urban contemporary (Tyler Perry) or just loves a great art festival, this event has something for everyone. The diverse line-up of plays, exhibits, parties and market vendors have been curated from around the corner, and

around the world.

“Recently, this festival has also been named as one of the ‘Best Fall Festivals’,

by MyAJC.com, as well as a ‘Can’t Miss Fall Festival’ by the Atlanta Convention and Visitors Bureau,” continued Henson.

“There’s no question that the Atlanta Black Theatre Festival is going to become one of your favorite things to do each year when in Atlanta and we invite you to stop by and see what it’s all about this year.”

Additional information about the line-up for the 2018 Atlanta Black Theatre Festival can be found by visiting the organization’s website at www.AtlantaBTF.org.

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3 Out Of 4 Black Americans Have High Blood Pressure by 55 HealthDay News

According to a new study, a startling 75 percent of black people in the United States develop high blood pressure by the age of 55. That’s a far higher rate than seen among either white men (55 percent) or white women (40 percent).

So, why does this hit so close to home for black Americans?

“We started to see differences between blacks and whites by age 30,” said lead researcher S. Justin Thomas. “We need to start focusing on preventing hypertension [high blood pressure], particularly in blacks, at an early age,” he added.

Thomas is an assistant professor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham’s department of psychiatry.

It isn’t known why black Americans are more prone to high blood pressure at an earlier age than white Americans, Thomas said. But he speculated that a combination of lifestyle and genetics may explain why.

Thomas said preventing high blood pressure needs to start by getting kids to develop healthy habits.

“I don’t think you can start too early,” he said. “It should start at elementary school.

If kids are told frequently that this is impor-

tant, they will adopt it.”

High blood pressure can lead to serious health problems over time, the researchers noted.

Dr. Gregg Fonarow explained that high blood pressure “is a leading risk factor for heart attack, heart failure, stroke, kidney disease and premature cardiovascular

death.” He is a professor of cardiology at the University of California, Los Angeles, and was not involved with the new study.

Black men and women in the study had twice the risk of high blood pressure than white men and women, even after adjusting for other differences, he added.

“Prevention, awareness, treatment, and

control of high blood pressure is essential, as cardiovascular disease remains the leading cause of fatal and non-fatal cardiovascular events, disability, hospitalizations and financial hardship,” Fonarow explained.

For the study, Thomas and his colleagues collected data on nearly 3,900 young adults who were part of a heart disease risk study.

The participants were enrolled in the study when they were 18 to 30 years old, and they didn’t have high blood pressure at the time.

High blood pressure is defined as a systolic pressure (the upper number) of 130 mm Hg or higher and a diastolic pressure (the lower number) of 80 mm Hg or higher.

These blood pressure benchmarks were first released in 2017, replacing the previous definition of high blood pressure of 140/90 mm Hg. This lower threshold for defining high blood pressure means even more Americans will be diagnosed with high blood pressure at younger ages, Thomas said.

Excess weight was the biggest risk factor for developing high blood pressure, regardless of sex or race, the researchers found.

Blacks and whites who kept to a DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hyperten-

sion) diet were able to lower their risk for high blood pressure, the study findings showed.

The DASH diet is rich in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, low-fat or fat-free dairy, fish, poultry, beans, seeds and nuts, and low in red meat and salt.

Dr. Byron Lee is director of electrophysiology laboratories and clinics at the University of California, San Francisco. He said that “in many ways, 55 is the new 65.

We used to not worry about hypertension until we reached our mid-60s, but it’s clear now that many of us need to take action much sooner.”

Lee pointed out that high blood pressure is a “modifiable risk factor for heart attack and stroke. And if we don’t act on it, we are missing a major opportunity to decrease mortality.”

SOURCES: S. Justin Thomas, Ph.D., assistant professor, department of psychiatry, University of Alabama, Birmingham; Byron Lee, M.D., professor, medicine, director, electrophysiology laboratories and clinics, University of California, San Francisco; Gregg Fonarow, M.D., professor, cardiology, University of California, Los Angeles; July 11, 2018, Journal of the American Heart Association, online

UN Observes International Remembrance of Slave Trade

By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Contributor

“The fact that slavery was underway for a century in South America before introduction in North America is not widely taught nor commonly understood...”

A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots — Marcus Garvey Washington, DC, August 23, 2018 — The National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA) announces the launch of a global news feature series on the history, contemporary realities and implications of the transatlantic slave trade, according to NNPA President and CEO, Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis Jr. The night of Aug. 22 to Aug. 23, 1791, in Santo Domingo – today Haiti and the Dominican Republic – saw the beginning of the uprising that would play a crucial role in the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade.

The slave rebellion in the area weakened the Caribbean colonial system, sparking an uprising that led to abolishing slavery and giving the island its independence.

It also marked the beginning of the destruction of the slavery system, the slave trade and colonialism.

Each year, on Aug. 23, the United Nations hosts an International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition to remind the world of the tragedy of the transatlantic slave trade.

U.N. officials said it provides an opportunity to think about the historic causes, the

methods, and the consequences of slave trade.

Experts said it’s important to never forget.

And, with the approaching 500th anniversary of the date Africans were first forced into slavery in America, many like Felicia M. Davis, the director of the HBCU Green Fund, which invests in sustainable campus solutions for historically black colleges and universities, said she believes African enslavement demands reexamination.

“The fact that slavery was underway for a century in South America before introduction in North America is not widely taught nor commonly understood,” Davis said.

“It is a powerful historical fact missing from our understanding of slavery, its magnitude and global impact. Knowledge that slavery was underway for a century provides deep insight into how enslaved Africans adapted,” she said.

Far beyond the horrific “seasoning” description that others have provided, clearly generations had been born into slavery long before introduction in North America, Davis argued.

“It deepens the understanding of how vast majorities could be oppressed in such an extreme manner for such a long period of time. It is also a testament to the strength and drive among people of African descent to live free,” she said.

The history of the United States has often been described as the history of oppression and resistance to that oppression, said David B. Allison, the editor of the book, “Controversial Monuments

and Memorials: A Guide for Community Leaders.”

Slavery and the resulting touchstones stemming from slavery throughout the history of the United States run as a consistent thread that illuminates the soul and essence of America, said Allison, a historian with a master’s degree in U.S. History from Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis.’

“From the compromises and moral equivocation in the founding documents during the Revolutionary Era – statements like ‘All men are created equal’ were written by a man who kept Black men and women as decidedly unequal as slaves – to the Civil War and Civil Rights Movement, the tragedy and terror of slavery are fundamental to the history of the United States,” Allison said.

Today, the fallout from the events of Aug. 2017 in Charlottesville – brought about by a white supremacist rally and touched off the debate around the potential removal of a statute to a leader of the Confederacy – continue to weigh down the collective psyche of this nation, Allison continued.

“Moreover, the rise in police profiling and brutality of Black men and the resulting rates of incarceration for African Americans highlight the ongoing oppression that was initially born in the crucible of slavery,” he said.

Allison added that it’s “absolutely essential to understand and remember that 2019 is the 500th anniversary of slavery in the United States so that we can understand both how our country became how it is

18

now and how we might envision a more just future for all citizens.”

Each year the UN invites people all over the world, including educators, students, and artists, to organize events that center on the theme of the international day of remembrance.

Theatre companies, cultural organizations, musicians, and artists take part on this day by expressing their resistance against slavery through performances that involve music, dance, and drama.

Educators promote the day by informing people about the historical events associated with slave trade, the consequences of slave trade, and to promote tolerance and human rights.

Many organizations, including youth

associations, government agencies, and non-governmental organizations, actively take part in the event to educate society about the negative consequences of slave trade.

Here in America, many organizations, activists and scholars are focused on 2019 as the anniversary of the arrival of the first Africans to be enslaved in Jamestown and 160 years since the last slave ship arrived, Davis said.

Also, there’s a growing list of apologies for slavery from colleges and universities, local governments and corporations.

Efforts are underway by the HBCU Green Fund to organize a national convening under the theme “Sankofa Remix” Con’t on page 23

THE INNER-CITY NEWS - August 29, 2018 - September 04, 2018

NEW HAVEN’S GRASSROOTS COMMUNITY RADIO STATION!

Endangered Amur Tiger cubs born November 2017.

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IN THE MORNING Weekdays 6-9 a.m.

THE TOM FICKLIN SHOW

MAYOR MONDAY!

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Mondays 11 a.m.

Mondays 1 p.m.

“THE SHOW”

“DJ REL”

MICHELLE TURNER Tuesdays 9 a.m.

50% OFF BEARDSLEY ZOO CHILD ADMISSION (ages 3-11)

with purchase of adult ticket and this coupon.

Limit 1 discount ticket per household. May not be combined with other offers. EXPIRES: 12/31/18

“WERK IT OUT”

ELVERT EDEN Tuesdays at 2 p.m.

MORNINGS WITH MUBARAKAH

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Wednesdays 9 a.m.

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We Offer: • Employer Incentives to Hire • On-the-Job Training • Job Search Assistance • Re-Training • Transportation Assistance • Hiring Events

4 Locations: New Haven: (203) 624-1493 Meriden: (203) 238-3688 Middletown: (860) 347-7691 Hamden: (203) 859-3200 Open Mon-Fri, 8:30am – 4:30pm Hamden opens at 8am

Visit www.workforcealliance.biz/services/wheredoistart Be Part of the South Central CT Economy

*There is never a fee for the jobseeker or the employer. Services are funded through state and federal grants.

FRIDAY PUNDITS Fridays 11 a.m.

19

INNER-CITY NEWS July 27, 2016- September - August 02,04, 2016 THE INNER-CITY NEWS - August 29, 2018 2018

Dispatcher

ELM CITY COMMUNITIES

NOTICE Invitation for Bid Pest Control and Preventative Maintenance Services

Galasso Materials is seeking a motivated, organized, detail-oriented candidate to join its truck dispatch office. Responsibilities include order entry and truck ticketing in a fast paced materials The Housing Authority of the City of New Haven manufacturing VALENTINA MACRI RENTAL HOUSING PRE- APPLICATIONS AVAILABLEand contracting company. You will have daily ind/b/a Elm City Communities is currently seeking Bids teraction with employees and customers as numerous truckloads for PestINC, Control and Preventative Maintenance of material cross our scales daily. We are willing to train the right HOME on behalf of Columbus House and theServices.

New Haven Housing Authority, individual that has a great attitude. NO PHONE CALLS PLEASE. A is complete copy of the requirement may be obtained from accepting pre-applications for studio and one-bedroom apartments at this develReply to Hiring Manager, PO Box 1776, East Granby, CT 06026.

Elm City’s Vendor Collaboration Portal opment located at 108 Frank Street, New https://newhavenHaven. Maximum income limitations apEOE/M/F/D/V. housing.cobblestonesystems.com/gateway

ply. Pre-applications will be available from 9AM TO 5PM beginning Monday Ju;y Monday, 6, 2018 at 9:00AM.(approximately 100) have 25,beginning 2016 andon ending whenAugust sufficient pre-applications been received at the offices of HOME INC. Applications will be mailied upon request by calling HOME INC at 203-562-4663 during those hours.Our Completed pretree service company is looking for a laborer Common Ground is hiring a part timeoffices Grants As-Orange Street, applications must be returned to HOME INC’s at 171 Third to assist the Shop manager. Basic mechanic knowlsociate.

ForHaven, a complete job description and directions Floor, New CT 06510.

Shop Assistant

on how to apply, please visit http://commongroundct. org/2018/07/common-ground-seeks-part-time-grantsNOTICIA associate

edge a must Responsible for filling in where needed around our garage and yard. Doing minor repairs and maintenance on equipment and vehicles, loading mulch and/or firewood

VALENTINA MACRI VIVIENDAS DE ALQUILER PRE-SOLICITUDES DISPONIBLES

ELM CITY COMMUNITIES

Candidate is subject to a drug check.

HOME INC, en nombre de la Columbus House y de la New Haven Housing Authority, está Request for Proposals Email resume to mclellantree@comcast.net aceptando pre-solicitudes para estudios y apartamentos de un dormitorio en este desarrollo Program Management Services Consultant ubicado en la calle 109 Frank Street, New Haven.

Se aplican limitaciones de ingresos Or Fax: 860-261-7755 We areMartes a medium sized 30+ year company that offers máximos. Las pre-solicitudes estarán disponibles 09 a.m.-5 p.m. comenzando 25 The Housing Authority of the City of New Haven d/b/a Elm City julio, 2016 hasta cuando se han recibido suficientes pre-solicitudes (aproximadamente 100) medical and dental benefits as well as 401K plan Communities is currently seeking Bids las oficinas de HOMEServices INC. Las pre-solicitudes serán enviadas petición Action/Equal Opportunity Employer forenProgram Management Consultant.

A complete copy of por correo aAffirmative a HOME al 203-562-4663 durante esas horas.Pre-solicitudes deberán remitirse thellamando requirement mayINC be obtained from Elm City’s Vendor Collabo. a las oficinas HOME INC en 171 Orange Street, tercer piso, New Haven , CT 06510KMK ration Portal de https://newhavenhousing.cobblestonesystems.com/ Insulation Inc. gateway beginning on Monday, August 27, 2018 at 3:00PM.

The Town of East Haven is currently accepting applica-

1907 Hartford Turnpike North Haven, CT 06473

Mechanical Insulator position.

Insulation company offering good pay and benefits.

Responsible for the sampling and laboratory analysis of domestic and industrial water and wastewater. Requires an A.S. degree in biology, chemistry or related field and 2 years experience in laboratory analysis. Experience and training may be substituted on a year for year basis. Must have a valid State of CT driver’s license. $26.96 to $32.41 hourly plus an excellent fringe benefit package. Apply: Human Resources Department, Town of Wallingford, 45 South Main Street, Wallingford, CT 06492, (203) 294-2080, Fax #: (203) 294-2084 The closing date will be that date the 50th application form/resume is received, or September 11, 2018, whichever occurs first. EOE

LEGAL NOTICE MBE/WBE/SECTION 3 HVAC LICENSED CONTRACTORS CITY OF NEW HAVEN HOUSING PRESCOTT BUSH MALL Nero Air Conditioning, Heating & Refrigeration, Inc. invites interested and qualified/licenses MBE/WBE/Section 3 HVAC contractors to submit a bid for the above mentioned project.

Bid documents will be available on Thursday, August 23, 2018 at Merritt Graphics’ Plan Well site located at www.merrittplanroom.com. You can also contact Merritt Graphics at 800-344-4477. Fees to purchase sets are non-refundable. You can also view plans at TriCon’s office at 400 Goodrich Street, Hamden, CT Mandatory meeting will be held on Friday, August 31, 2018 at 10:00AM at

Tri-Con 400 Goodrich Street Hamden, CT 06514 Make sure to review Bid Documents for ALL requirements.

Any questions, please contact Steve Nero at Nero Air Conditioning, Heating & Refrigeration, Inc.

tions from qualified candidates for the position of Mechanic. The 203-248-8110 starting salary is $46,608 per year and the town offers an excellent Please mail resume to above address.. MAIL ONLY benefit package. Only candidates with at least 6 years of experience This company is an Affirmative Action/ Equal Opportunity Employer.

Invitation to Bid: in motor-mechanic work, a High School Diploma or GED supplemented by trade school training and a CDL, class 2 will be consid2nd Notice is seeking to fill the position of Director of Gift Planning. ered. Applications are available online at http://www.townofeast- Common Ground High School is hiring a Full Time Grade 10 Inhavenct.org/civiltest.shtml or the Mayor’s Office, 250 Main Street, terdisciplinary Lab Instructor, a Full Time Teaching Assistant and Please refer to our website for details: http://www.cfgnh. a Part visEast Haven CT. apartments, The deadline for submission is September 18, 2018.

All new new appliances, new carpet, close to I-91Time & I-95certified Social Studies/History Teacher. Please Oldjob Saybrook, CT it http://commongroundct.org/get-involved/join-our-staff/ for org/About/ContactUs/EmploymentOpportunities.aspx. highways, near bus stop & shopping center (4 Buildings, 17 Units) The Town of East Haven is committed to building a workforce of descriptions and how to apply.

EOE. Pet under 40lb allowed. Interested contact Maria @ 860-985-8258 diverse individuals.

Minorities,parties Females, Tax Exempt & Not Prevailing Wage Rate Project Electronic submissions only. No phone calls Handicapped and Veterans are encouraged to apply.

NEW HAVEN

The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven

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

Electric

SAYEBROOKE VILLAGE

QSR STEEL CORPORATION

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

Distribution Engineer

New Construction, APPLY NOW! Wood Framed, Housing, Selective Demolition, Site-work, Cast-

DELIVERY PERSON NEEDED

in-place Concrete, Asphalt Shingles, Vinyl Siding,

Fabricators, Erectors & Welders Flooring, Painting, Division 10 Specialties, Appliances, Residential Casework, Top pay for top performers. Health Benefits, 401K, Vacation Pay. Mechanical, Electrical, Plumbing and Fire Protection.

Email Resume: Rose@qsrsteel.com Hartford, CT

sion seeking St. is New Haven, a CThighly technical individual to work in the design and development of overhead and underground power distribution lines. The This contract is subject to state set-aside and contract compliance requirements. utility serves 23,000 customers in a 50+ square mile distribution area AFFIRMATIVE ACTION/EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER with a peak demand of 130 MW. The position requires a B.S. degree in electrical engineering plus 2 years of responsible experience in utility Bid Extended, Due Date: August 5, 2016 engineering, or an equivalent combination of education and experience Anticipated Start: August 15, 2016 substituting on a year-for year basis. Salary: $73,999- $94,676 annually Sealed bids are invited the Housing of the Town of Seymour plus an excellent fringe benefit by package.

Apply to:Authority Human Resources Project documents available via ftp link below: Department, 45 South Main Street, until 3:00Town pm ofonWallingford, Tuesday, August 2, 2016 at Wallingford, its office at 28 Smith Street, Requesthttp://ftp.cbtghosting.com/loginok.html?username=sayebrookevillage for Proposals CT 06492. Fax #: (203) 294-2084. Closing date will be September 11, Seymour, CT 06483 for Concrete Sidewalk Repairs and Replacement at the 2018 or the date the 50th application is received, whichever occurs first.

Material Testing Services Smithfield Gardens Assisted Living Facility, 26 Smith Street Seymour.

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

SEYMOUR HOUSING AUTHORITY

The Glendower Group, Inc

Part Time Delivery Needed One/Two Day a Week,

Must Have your Own Vehicle If Interested call

(203) 435-1387

all Veteran, S/W/MBE & Section 3 Certified Businesses The Glendower Group, IncHCC anencourages affiliatethe ofparticipation Housingof Au-

Company, 32 Progress Ave, Seymour, CT 06483 City of New Haven d/b/a Haynes Elm Construction city CommuniA pre-bid conference be held at the Housing Authority thority Office 28 Smith Common Ground iswill looking for an Assistant Manager of FaAA/EEO EMPLOYER ties is currently seeking proposals for Material Testing Street Seymour, CT at 10:00 am, on Wednesday, July 20, 2016. cilities and Grounds to assist the Site Manager with the care, upkeep and maintenance of Common Ground’s site and facilities in order to ensure Services. A complete copy of the requirement may be they effectively meet all of Common Ground’s programmatic needs. obtained from Elm City’s Vendor Collaboration PorBidding documents are available from the Seymour Housing Authority OfClick here for a full job descrtipion and how to apply: http://commongroundct.org/2018/07/common-ground-is-seeking-an-assistant-managfice, 28 Smith Street, Seymour, CT 06483 (203) 888-4579. tal https://newhavenhousing.cobblestonesystems.com/ gateway beginning on Monday, July 30, 2018 at 3:00PM er-of-facilities-and-grounds/

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

20

Property Management Company is seeking a Resident Services Coordinator in New Haven, CT. Part time- 16 hrs/wk. Must have experience working w/ senior and disabled community. Social Services background preferred. Please call (860) 951-9411 x238 for inquiries.

INNER-CITY 2016 August 02,04, THE INNER-CITY NEWS NEWS - AugustJuly 29, 27, 2018 - -September 2018 2016

PUBLIC NOTICE NOTICE The Housing Authority of the City of Bridgeport (HACB) d/b/a Park City Communities (PCC)

will be opening itsMACRI Low Income Public HousingPREWaiting Lists for 1BRAVAILABLE Elderly/62 and VALENTINA RENTAL HOUSING APPLICATIONS over individuals and our 2BR & 3BR family units beginning Monday, August 13 through Friday, August 2018. of ToColumbus qualify forHouse Elderly, youthe must 62 years or older; for 2BR HOME INC, 31, on behalf and NewbeHaven Housing Authority, & 3BR units a family size MUST be a minimum of two (2) AND the annual gross income is accepting pre-applications for studio and one-bedroom apartments at this develmay not exceed the income limits shown below for the household size. Pre-Applications opment located at 108 Frank Street, New Haven. Maximum income limitations apmust be picked up at Gary Crooks Community Center, 301 Bostwick Ave. Pre-Applicaply.can Pre-applications will befrom available from www.parkcitycommunities.org.

9AM TO 5PM beginning Monday tions also be downloaded our website OnlyJu;y one 25, 2016 and (approximately 100) have pre-application perending family when will besufficient accepted; pre-applications duplicate pre-applications will be disqualifi ed.

been received at the offices of HOME INC. Applications will be mailied upon request by calling HOME INC at 203-562-4663 those hours.

Completed preApplications must be returned toduring Gary Crooks ONLY. applications must be returned to HOME INC’s offices at 171 Orange Street, Third This housing does have a preference point system: disabled, homeless, elderly, Floor, Newauthority Haven, CT 06510.

working, displaced, domestic violence, veterans, elderly congregate and witness protection. A waiting list with preferences means that applicants who qualify for the preference will receive

NOTICIA

Household size Income Limits

VALENTINA MACRI VIVIENDAS DE ALQUILER PRE-SOLICITUDES DISPONIBLES 1 3 2

HOME INC, enVery nombre de (50%) la Columbus House y de la$38,750 New Haven$43,600 Housing Authority, está Low $33,900 aceptando pre-solicitudes para estudios y apartamentos de un dormitorio en este desarrollo Extremely LowStreet, New $26,15 de ingresos $20,35 $23,25 ubicado en la calle 109 Frank Haven. Se aplican limitaciones 0 0 0 máximos. Las pre-solicitudes estarán disponibles 09 a.m.-5 p.m. comenzando Martes 25 julio, 2016 hastaLow cuando se han recibido suficientes (aproximadamente 100) (80%) $64,75 $50,35 pre-solicitudes $57,55 en las oficinas de HOME INC. Las pre-solicitudes serán 0 0 enviadas0 por correo a petición llamando a HOME INC al 203-562-4663 durante esas horas.Pre-solicitudes deberán remitirse If youde require a reasonable this process, helpHaven line will, be a las oficinas HOME INC enaccommodation 171 OrangeforStreet, tercera designated piso, New CT 06510 . available to receive your requests at (203) 337-8804 PCC Does not discriminate based upon race, color, disabilities, religion, sex or national origin.

NOTICIA PUBLICA NEW HAVEN

The Housing Authority of the City of Bridgeport (HACB) d/b/a 242-258 Park City Communities (PCC) Fairmont Ave

2BR Townhouse, 1.5 BA, 3BR, 1 level , 1BA

abrirá sus listas de espera de viviendas públicas de bajos ingresos para 1dorm. para personas de edad avanzada, y mas y nuestras familiares 2BR &close 3BR comenzando el Lunes, All new62apartments, newunidades appliances, newdecarpet, to I-91 & I-95 13 de Agosto hasta el Viernes, 31 de Agosto de 2018. Para calificar para ancianos, usted debe highways, near bus stop & shopping center tener 62 años o más; para las unidades 2BR & 3BR un tamaño de familia debe ser un mínimo de dos (2) el ingreso anual Interested no puede exceder límites de ingresos que se muestran a Pety under 40lbbruto allowed. parties los contact Maria @ 860-985-8258 continuación para el tamaño del hogar. Las pre-solicitudes deben ser recogidos en el Centro Comunitario Gary Crooks, 301 Bostwick Ave. las aplicaciones previas también se pueden descargar desde nuestra página Association web www.parkcitycommunities.org.

CT. Unified Deacon’s is pleased to offer a Deacon’s Sólo se aceptará una pre-solicitud por Certificate This is a 10duplicadas month program designed to assist familia; las Program. pre-aplicaciones serán descalifi cadas.in the intellectual formation of Candidates in response to the Church’s Ministry needs. The cost is $125. Classes start Saturday, August 20, 2016 1:303:30 Contact: Chairman, Deacon Joe J. Davis, M.S., B.S. deben serBishop entregadas a Gary CenterChurch solamente!

(203)Aplicaciones 996-4517 Host, General Elijah Davis, D.D.Crooks Pastor ofCommunity Pitts Chapel U.F.W.B. 64 Brewster St. New Haven, CT

La Autoridad de Viviendas tiene un sistema de preferencias: personas sin hogar, discapacitados, mayor de edad, empleados, víctimas de violencia domestica, veteranos, ancianos congregados y protección de testigos. Una lista de espera con preferencias quiere decir que personas que cualifican con su preferencia recibirán asistencia antes de personas sin preferencias.

SEYMOUR HOUSING AUTHORITY

Sealed bids areTamano inviteddelbyhogar the Housing1 Authority2 of the Town of Seymour Los limites de ingresos 3 until 3:00 pm on Tuesday, August 2, 2016 at its office at 28 Smith Street, Muy Bajo (50%) $33,900 $38,750 $43,600 Seymour, CT 06483 for Concrete Sidewalk Repairs and Replacement at the Extremademente Bajo $23,25 $26,15 Smithfield Gardens Assisted Living$20,35 Facility, 26 Smith Street Seymour.

0

0

0

Bajo (80%) $57,55 $64,75 A pre-bid conference will be held at$50,35 the Housing Authority Office 28 Smith 0 0 0 Street Seymour, CT at 10:00 am, on Wednesday, July 20, 2016.

Si necesita un ajuste razonable para este proceso, una línea de ayuda designada estará disponible

para recibir sus peticiones (203) 337-8804 Bidding documents are available from thealSeymour Housing Authority Office, Smith Street, CT 06483 (203) religión, 888-4579.

PCC 28 no discrimina basadoSeymour, en la raza, color, discapacidad, sexo u origen nacional.

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

Field Engineer

State of Connecticut Office of Policy and Management The State of Connecticut, Office of Policy and Management is recruiting for an Information Technology Analyst 1 position, a Municipal Assessment Professional position and a Research Analyst position.

BA/BS in Civil Engineering or Construction Management.

2-5 yrs. experience. OSHA Certified.

Proficient in reading contract plans and specifications.

Resumes to RED Technologies, LLC, 10 Northwood Dr., Bloomfield, CT 06002; Fax 860.218.2433; Email resumes to info@redtechllc.com. RED Technologies, LLC is an EOE.

Project Manager Environmental Remediation Division

For information regarding the duties, eligibility requirements and application instructions, please visit https://www.jobapscloud.com/CT and click on:

3-5 years exp. and Bachelor’s Degree, 40-Hr. Hazwoper Training Req. Forward resumes to RED Technologies, LLC,

Information Technology Analyst 1 (40 Hour) Recruitment #180815-7603FD-001

RED Technologies, LLC is an EOE.

Municipal Assessment Professional Recruitment #180817-5864AR-001 Research Analyst Recruitment #180822-6855AR-001 The State of Connecticut is an equal opportunity/ affirmative action employer and strongly encourages the applications of women, minorities, and persons with disabilities.

FENCE ERECTING CONTRACTORS

10 Northwood Dr., Bloomfield, CT 06002;

Fax 860.218.2433; or Email to HR@redtechllc.com

Garrity Asphalt Reclaiming, Inc

seeks: Construction Equipment Mechanic preferably experienced in Reclaiming and Road Milling Equipment. We offer factory training on equipment we operate. Location: Bloomfield CT We offer excellent hourly rate & excellent benefits Contact: Dan Peterson Phone: 860- 243-2300 email: dpeterson@garrityasphalt.com Women & Minority Applicants are encouraged to apply Affirmative Action/ Equal Opportunity Employer

Large CT Fence & Guardrail Contractor is looking for Fence Installer foreman and helpers. Foreman must have at least 5 years’ experience. Helpers-no experience required, will train the right person. Work available 10-12 months per year. Valid Ct. Driver’s license required and must be able to get a DOT Medical Card. All necessary equipment provided. Medical, vacation & other benefits included. Must be able to pass a physical and drug test. Foreman rates from $22 to $28.10/hour plus benefits, helper rates from $16 Invitation Bid: to $18.10/hour plus benefits. OSHA 10 trainingtorequired.

Please nd Notice email resume to pking@atlasoutdoor.com2 AA/EOE

Garrity Asphalt Reclaiming, Inc

seeks: Reclaimer Operators and Milling Operators with current licensing and clean driving record, be willing to travel throughout the Northeast & NY. We offer excellent hourly rate & excellent benefits Contact: Rick Tousignant Phone: 860- 243-2300 Email: rick.tousignant@garrityasphalt.com

SAYEBROOKE VILLAGE

CDL Driver with 3 years min. exp. HAZMAT Endorsed.

Old Saybrook, CT (Tractor/Triaxle/Roll-off)

(4 Buildings, 17 Units) FAX resumes to RED Technologies, at 860.342-1042; Email: HR@redtechllc.com Tax Exempt & Not Prevailing Wage Rate Project Mail or in person: 173 Pickering Street, Portland, CT 06480.

RED Technologies, LLC is EOE/AA.

Women & Minority Applicants are encouraged to apply Affirmative Action/ Equal Opportunity Employer

Union Company seeks:

New Construction, Wood Framed, Housing, Selective Demolition,Tractor Site-work,Trailer Cast- Driver for Heavy & Highway Construction Equipment. Must have a CDL License, in-place Concrete, Asphalt Shingles, Vinyl Siding, TRACTOR TRAILER DRIVER (F/T) clean driving record, capable of operating heavy Flooring, Painting, Division 10 Specialties, Appliances, Residential Casework, equipment; be willing to travel throughout the Perform routine driving (in state)/inspection of transported goods Mechanical, Electrical, Plumbing and Fire Protection. and material handling duties for retail operations. Valid CDL A & Thismed contract is subject to HS stateDiploma/GED set-aside andw/1-3 contract requirements. Northeast & NY. current examiner’s card. yrs.compliance exp.

Pay rate $19.21/hr. (DOE) plus benefits. Apply in person: 432 Washington Ave, North Bid Haven/hr@goodwillsne.org/fax:203-495Extended, Due Date: August 5, 2016 6108 EOE/AA – M/F/D/V

We offer excellent hourly rate & excellent benefits Contact Dana at 860-243-2300.

Email: dana.briere@garrityasphalt.com

Anticipated Start: August 15, 2016 Women & Minority Applicants are encouraged to apply Project documents via ftp link Affirmative Action/ Equal Opportunity Employer Common Ground is looking for an available Assistant Manager of below: Facilitieshttp://ftp.cbtghosting.com/loginok.html?username=sayebrookevillage and Grounds to assist the Site Manager with the care, upkeep and maintenance of Common Ground’s site and facilities in order to ensure they effectively meet all of Common Ground’s programmatic or Email Questions & Bids Dawn Lang and @ 203-881-8372 dawnlang@haynesconstruction.com needs.FaxClick here for a full jobto: descrtipion how to apply: http:// HCC encourages the participation of all Veteran, S/W/MBE & Section 3 Certified Businesses commongroundct.org/2018/07/common-ground-is-seeking-an-assisHaynes Construction Company, 32 Progress Ave, Seymour, CT 06483 tant-manager-of-facilities-and-grounds/ Large CT Fence

FENCE ERECTING SUBCONTRACTORS

AA/EEO EMPLOYER

EXP, welder for structural steel, misc. metals shop Send resume: hherbert@gwfabrication.com 21

& Guardrail Contractor is looking for experienced, responsible commercial and residential fence erectors and installers on a subcontractor basis. Earn from $750 to $2,000 per day. Email resume to pking@atlasoutdoor.com AA/EOE

THE INNER-CITY NEWS - August 29, 2018 - September 04, 2018

Black Prisoners Join National Prison Strike

By Barrington M. Salmon, Contributing Writer, Black Press USA

Prisoners in at least 17 states across the country went on strike this week to declare that the way they’re being treated by guards and prison officials is no longer acceptable.

The strike, which began on August 21 is scheduled to end on Sept 9. The dates are symbolic, marking the death of author and activist George Jackson by prison guards at Soledad Prison in California, and the Attica Prison rebellion. It’s still unclear exactly how many inmates are involved but prison reform advocates say this is the largest protest of its kind in history.

Dr. Heather Ann Thompson, who has written extensively on the history of policing, mass incarceration and the current criminal justice system, said the public should expect more protests from inmates who are chafing under the abuse, brutality and callous disregard exhibited by many guards.

“I’m notsure what will happen but I expect more protests. I will not be surprised if there are more eruptions,” said Dr. Thompson, a History professor at the University of Michigan and author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning book, ‘Blood in the Water: The Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 and its Legacy.’“In a broader sense, they will continue to happen. This has been normalized but it’s so abnormal.”

“I think we have as a country has been involved for so long in the War on Drugs and the War on Crime that we have forgotten that it’s not normal. We have a whole generation of children for whom it’s normal to be pulled over, be arrested and shuttled into the system. We have been in a catastrophic prison crisis for decades now. And conditions have gotten even worse. South Carolina was a wake-up call for people.”

She was referring to violence that erupted at Lee County Correctional Institution which left seven inmates dead.

“There is so much overcrowding that prison officials chose to put rival gangs in the same dorms. Guys were sending me videos of what was happening,” Dr. Thompson recalled. “Guys were stabbed to death and the guards were absent for 7 hours. The only way we know is because they recorded it on their cell phones.”

Representatives of the striking prisoners said inmates in institutions across 17 states are taking part by refusing to work

anywhere in prisons buildings, kitchens, laundries and on prison grounds. Palestinian inmates abroad have expressed solidarity and about 300 prisoners in Nova Scotia, Canada joined the strike. According to published reports, more than 150 organizations, including BYP 100 and the NYC Jericho Movement, have expressed solidarity with the strike, and solidarity rallies outside prisons have been planned in at least 10 cities.

The 19 days of peaceful protest was largely organized by the prisoners themselves, said a spokesman for Jailhouse Lawyers Speak (JLS).

“Fundamentally, it’s a human rights issue,” stated a JLS statement released before the march. “Prisoners understand they are being treated as animals. Prisons in America are a warzone. Every day prisoners are harmed due to conditions of confinement.

For some of us, it’s as if we are already dead, so what do we have to lose?”

The strike is organized by an abolitionist coalition that includes the Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee (IWOC), the Fire Inside Collective, Millions for Prisoners and the Free Alabama Movement. JLS activists began preparing the action in April after the debacle in South Carolina.

“We want to note that although there aren’t widespread reports of actions coming out of prisons, people need to understand that the tactics being used in this strike are not

always visible,” said Jared Ware during an August 22 press conference call. “Prisoners are boycotting commissaries, they are engaging in hunger strikes which can take days for the state to acknowledge, and they will be engaging in sit-ins and work strikes which are not always reported to the outside. As we saw in 2016, Departments of Corrections are not reliable sources of information for these actions and will deny them and seek to repress those who are engaged in them.”

“We have spoken with family members who have suggested that cell phone lines may be being jammed at multiple prisons in South Carolina, and New Mexico had a statewide lockdown yesterday. The departments of corrections in this country are working overtime to try and prevent strike action and to try and prevent word from getting out about actions that are taking place.”

Mr. Ware, a freelance journalist who was asked to be part of team that coordinated with the press, said inmates organized nationally and carefully crafted the demands, strategically whittling them down from 35 to 10. The decision to strike, he said, was prompted by the violence in South Carolina, an understanding of how the state contribute to the violence and the changes necessary to prevent a repetition of the violence.

“This is a human rights campaign and each of these demands should be understood

through a human rights lens,” inmate representatives said.

Prison Abolitionist Dr. Kim Wilson said several factors, including racism and the desire to maximize profits from cheap labor, drive the multi-billion-dollar prison industrial complex.

“Exploitation of prison labor is at heart of this strike,” said Dr. Wilson, a California resident and mother of two sons who are serving life sentences at Vaughn Correctional Facility in Delaware. “Some people are making zero. I don’t want people to get the idea that this it’s an at-will job. It isn’t a system where people have choice to work.

And nearer to the release date, you are expected and required to work.”

“At the largest wildfire in Mendocino County, thousands of inmates are fighting the fires. The reason is to save property.

Prison officials try to sell the idea of this being rehabilitative but that’s not true.”

Dr. Wilson cited examples nationally of other work inmates are forced to do. In Angola Prison in Louisiana – often characterized as perhaps the most brutal prison in the United States – inmates train and breed thoroughbreds and others pick cotton on The Farm. Inmates elsewhere work on pepper and strawberry farms, she said.

“You also have prisoners building furniture for schools and universities, sewing Little League team uniforms and making military equipment, like helmets. This is not a small operation,” said Dr. Wilson.

The prison system, she contends, must be dismantled but until then, prison officials and the larger society must confront and address societal issues that cause black and brown people to end up behind bars.

“As a prison abolitionist, I see prisons as part and parcel of problem,” she said. “I don’t know how they (the guards) sleep at night. Those individual people are part of a larger system. I’m more concerned with the system as a whole. We want an end to the physical places we call prisons and conditions that make it possible in our society. But we can’t do this without addressing underlying issues such as capitalism, gender violence, ableism all of which are deeply implicated in the broader prison system.”

Dr. Thompson agreed.

“What cannot be understated or ignored is the fact that this is created and driven by racism,” she said. “Seven point five million Americans are in the system. Most would not be here if they were the children of white lawyers, doctors and politicians.

People turn a deaf ear to reform because white folks often don’t see Black children as children, and think that black people can absorb more trauma than they can.”

“Authorities cannot lock up 2.5 million people and have the trauma we have and it go on indefinitely. The incarcerated will continue to protest and people will continue to seek release,” she said.

Bank Overdraft Fees Strip More Than $11 Billion from Consumers Each Year

By Charlene Crowell (Deputy Communications Director, Center for Responsible Lending)

For many people, little things can in time lead to big problems.

When personal checking accounts are involved, transactions without available funds in checking accounts can trigger a series of fees that wind up taking a big bite out of the next paycheck. What’s more, many times consumers have no way of knowing the real cost until after a bank statement arrives

weeks later.

Banks and other depository institutions market these fees as convenient “overdraft protection.” What they do to consumers is strip billions of dollars each year from personal checking accounts, while generating a lucrative, no-lose revenue stream for these institutions.

New research by the Center for Responsible Lending (CRL) finds that last year among the nation’s largest banks, overdraft fees were a $11.45 billion bonanza. “Unfair Market: The State of High-Cost Over-

draft Practices in 2017,” analyzes both how overdraft fee revenue is generated, as well as the practices borne on the backs of America’s working poor.

“Instead of serving families fairly, banks are driving many customers deeper in a hole and often out of the banking system altogether,” said Pete Smith, the report’s author and CRL senior researcher. “Over the last 15 to 20 years, many financial institutions have betrayed the trust of their account holders by replacing what was once an occasional accommodation with

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an exploitative system of routine high-cost overdraft fees that drive account holders deep into debt.”

“Banks set up systems at every turn where they can maximize the revenue they generate with these fees,” continued Smith.

“They’ve found a way to turn mistakes into a revenue source.”

Among the report’s key findings: The 2017 overdraft fees charged by the largest banks represent an increase above similar revenues recorded for both 2015 and 2016;

The 20 banks with the highest volume of fees received $9 billion or approximately 79 percent of the total reported $11.45 billion for 2017; and Although a few banks do not charge fees for point-of-sale (POS) and/or ATM transactions, all 10 of the nation’s largest banks charge overdraft fees higher than $30 per transaction.

These fees also come with unfair or abusive bank practices designed to maximize Con’t on Next page

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Black Prisoners Join

revenues. For example, some banks allow five or more overdraft fees to be charged per day to customers. If the overdraft fee is $35, a single day’s overcharges could be $175 – that will be taken by the bank from the next deposit or payroll. Consumers who rely upon debit cards for day-to-day purchases may unknowingly incur hundreds of dollars of charges in just a few days.

Other suspect bank practices add extended or sustained fees beyond the original overdraft fee. Yet another is to manipulate postings to customer accounts to generate the largest possible overdraft revenue.

Last summer, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) also released an independent report on overdraft fees. The Bureau identified the consumers most prone to incur these fees: those who have less than $350 as an average end-of-day account balance and have median credit scores of 600 or less. About 20 percent of consumers with frequent overdrafts do not have a credit score and are considered ‘credit invisible’.

Under CFPB’s first director, this research was to become the factual basis for rulemaking. However, under Acting Director Mick Mulvaney, rulemaking plans have been shelved.

But where there’s a will, there’s also a way. Two U.S. Senators have co-sponsored legislation that if enacted, would crack down on overdraft fees.

Entitled, “The Stop Overdraft Profiteering Act of 2018,” the bill would: Ban overdraft fees on debit card purchases and ATM withdrawals; Cap the number of overdraft fees on checks and recurring payments, with no more than six fees in a calendar year; Require that the amount of overdraft fees be reasonable and proportional to the institution’s cost of covering the overdraft; Require that banks post transactions in a manner that minimizes NSF and overdraft fees; and Improve consumer disclosures related to overdraft coverage by banks.

“Overdraft fees are a tax on paychecks already stretched thin,” said Ohio U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown, a co-sponsor of the bill.

“This bill keeps hardworking Americans’ money in their pockets and stops big banks from slapping big fees on customers for small overdraft amounts.”

The other bill sponsor, Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey, added his comments as well.

“For millions of hard-working Americans, every day is a struggle – they find themselves one late check or unexpected expense away from financial free fall,” said Booker. “Wages aren’t going up but the cost of everything else is, from prescription drugs to housing costs to pocketbook pain points like the fees banks charge consumers for overdraft services.”

Booker continued: “Worse yet, overdraft fees fall on those least likely to be able to afford them—individuals for whom a $35 overdraft charge could push them over the brink into financial ruin.”

Charlene Crowell is the Center for Responsible Lending’s deputy communications director. She can be reached at Charlene.crowell@responsiblelending.org.

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Remembrance of Slave Trade

with three tracks: past, present and future.

The goal is to examine history from an African American perspective, explore current impacts including backlash from the election of the first Black president, and crafting a vision that extends at least 100 years into the future that features presentations from artists, activists, technology, scholars and other creative energy.

“It is encouraging to know that Black Press USA is focused on this topic. It is our hope that plans are underway to cover activities throughout the entire year,” Davis said, noting that 2019 also marks the 100thanniversary of the Red Summer Race Riots.

“The UN Decade of African Descent 2015-2024 should also be highlighted as

the Black Press USA leads this important examination of history,” she said.

“Interestingly, the first and last slave ships to arrive in the U.S. both arrived in August. The HBCU Green Fund is working to put together a calendar of dates and observances.

“We would love to work with Black Press USA to promote a year-long observance that helps to reinvigorate and support the important role that the Black press plays in the liberation of Black people across the globe.

“We would be honored to have Black Press USA as a Sankofa Remix partner organization and look forward to collaboration opportunities,” Davis said.

Actor Larenz Tate & Wife Thomasina

Expecting 4th Son!

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Ugly And On The Air

voices by going around neighborhoods in Connecticut and hanging out in CD shops.

Independent artists would put their music in the stores, and then Ugly would walk in and ask the workers, “Who’s the hot indie that you’ve got? Just give me whoever is hot.”

He found about 62 different artists that way in the beginning, which he whittled down to a group of 29 he first started with.

He kept up the same practice for several years. But in more recent years, he said that the tables have turned: now the artists have to find him.

He’s received requests internationally from independent artists trying to get him to play their music, but says that if you’re serious about doing music, you wouldn’t let someone who’s thousands of miles away steal your airplay. That you have to do your research and see what’s going on right under your nose.

“I’ve had artists who came here, right out of New Haven, who said, ‘well, you know, I’ve never heard of Ugly Radio,’” he said.

“What does that mean? It doesn’t bother me none. If someone in London, England, knows who I am and knows what I do, and you’re right here in New Haven and you’re in the music game and you don’t know what I do, I’m not worried about you. You’re not serious. That person over in England is serious.”

The station, which is now 13 years old, has also made him think critically about music in his adopted country. He said that the American music industry has shown him that U.S. is a “brand-aware nation”— when you enter the music industry an artist, you have to build a brand before you can build a business.

“People like to say that they do music, and they stop,” he said. “But if you do music, so does the guy on the sidewalk with a guitar. He’s just doing music. Now if you want to get paid, that’s a different thing. You’re in the music business.”

Specifically, he said, he’s chosen to play specific genres because “Hip-Hop is about taking nothing and making it into some-

thing.” That extends to his faithful crew— people who love radio but don’t always have the technical know-how until they’re in the studio. He said he specifically likes working with Black men in America, who he has dubbed, tongue-in-cheek, “The PTSD Crew.”

“Being a Black man in America and seeing your people get shot all the time on the news is enough to give you PTSD,” he said.

He added that as he sees it, almost every famous hip-hop artist came out of struggle and often dire situations, and many of the new indie hip-hop artists are trying to do the same. Almost all of them think that the only way to turn their nothing into something is to join a record label.

And yet, he said, it’s easier than ever for an artist to be discovered by their fans because of outlets like Soundcloud and Bandcamp.

He added that he’s realistic— he understands that there are “roadblocks” that arise when people are in pursuit of their dreams.

Noting his son’s choice to switch from engineering to film directing, he emphasized that sometimes it’s not what one does, but how one does it.

“In order for a surfer to move on that board, he’s got to ride the wave,” he said.

“But does he wait for it to get under him, or past him? No. A surfer looks out and sees the swells and positions himself in front of it, and rides that wave to the shore. Most people are scared to get in the water and they see the wave on the shore. But by then, the fun of riding it is gone, and that’s with nearly everything.”

“That’s one of the reasons why I got at the front of the independent game, and I’ll ride this baby to the shore,” he added. “If you are waiting for [the waves] to hit the shore, everyone’s right on it and there’s no enjoyment. It’s lonely out there, it’s dangerous out there, it’s scary out there; but that ridein is [the] next level. And by the time you get to the shore and everyone’s splashing in it, you’ve got your board at your side, living the life.”

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by Aria Ellise, BDO Actor Larenz Tate will be celebrating 12 years of marriage with his wife Thomasina in November of 18. But it looks like the before then, the Menace II Society star and his bride will be celebrating another milestone: the birth of their fourth child this September.

The pair recently spent time hanging out with actor Bill Bellamy and his wife Kristen, who shared a pic on her Instagram. The photo shared the Tate’s posing in matching shirts that read, “New Recruit.” Through Thomasina’s shirt you can easily see her beautiful baby bump.

“Beauty and the Boys,” Kristen captioned the photo. “How she does it nobody knows… with boy number 4 in the oven it’s never a dull moment with the Tates. Can’t wait for our new little prince #teamtate.”

This is the fourth child for Tate and Tomasina and, if Kristen’s caption is true, it’s another baby boy. The pair already have three sons: Zander, Zion, and Miles.

And Larenz has two brothers, Lahmard and Larron. So the two uncles couldn’t be happier for their brother.

Tomasina Parrott has been known for her roles in Along Came Polly in 2004, Starsky and Hutch in 2004, Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous in 2005 and featured in the movie Rock Star in 2001. Tomasina is also an excellent choreographer. She has choreographed various dances in the 2003’s TV show Cedric The Entertainer Presents.

The projected birth date of the new “team member” is September, so it seems baby number four could arrive at any moment.

This would be close to papa Larenz’s 43rd birthday in September as well.

Larenz told Essence that they try and maintain a level of privacy, which is why you haven’t heard a real announcement on the part of the couple about their children — or heard much in general about anything that has to do with their relationship.

“We have three boys. And for us, our children are truly our pride and joy,” he said.

“I’m out there. But when it comes to our children, our three boys, it’s okay to have some level of privacy.”

We wish nothing but love and healthy pregnancy and birth to the Larenz and Thomasina. Keep those beautiful Tate Legacy alive!

The United Nations Mourns Former Secretary-General Kofi Annan

The United Nations is mourning the death of former Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who passed away peacefully after a short illness, on Saturday 18 August 2018. The renowned Ghanaian diplomat was 80 years old.

Mr. Annan was the seventh man to take the helm of the global organization and the first SecretaryGeneral to emerge from the ranks of its staff.

The current UN chief, Antonio Guterres hailed him as “a guiding force for good” and a “proud son of Africa who became a global champion for

peace and all humanity.”

“Like so many, I was proud to call Kofi Annan a good friend and mentor. I was deeply honoured by his trust in selecting me to serve as UN High Commissioner for Refugees under his leadership.

He remained someone I could always turn to for counsel and wisdom — and I know I was not alone,” Mr. Guterres said in a statement.

“He provided people everywhere with a space for dialogue, a place for problem-solving and a path to a better world. In these turbulent and trying times, he never stopped working to give life to the values of the United Nations Charter. His legacy will remain a true inspiration for all us.”

Kofi Annan was born in Kumasi, Ghana, on 8 April 1938.

He served as UN Secretary-General for two consecutive five-year terms, beginning in January 1997.

Mr. Annan joined the UN system in 1962 as an administrative and budget officer with the World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva, rising to hold senior-level posts in areas such as budget and finance, and peacekeeping.

As Mr. Guterres noted: “In many ways, Kofi Annan was the United Nations. He rose through the ranks to lead the organization into the new millennium with matchless dignity and determination.”

THE INNER-CITY NEWS - August 29, 2018 - September 04, 2018

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