INNER-CITY NEWS

THE INNER-CITY NEWS October 26, 2016 - November 01, 2016

Farnam Courts Redo Part II Gets Underway

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THE INNER-CITY NEWS October 26, 2016 - November 01, 2016

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THE INNER-CITY NEWS October 26, 2016 - November 01, 2016

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THE INNER-CITY NEWS October 26, 2016 - November 01, 2016

Detective Builds Cases — And Muscles

by PAUL BASS

NEW HAVEN INDEPENDENT

The time had come for Shayna Kendall to approach the Body Master, grab the handles, pull the cables, work her triceps. She left behind the other thoughts that had occupied her mind: Her investigation of a grandfather’s sexual assault of his 11-year-old granddaughter. Or her brother’s murder. Or her cousin’s murder.

Earlier in the day Kendall (her first name means “beautiful” in Yiddish) had reviewed the sexual assault details as she prepared an arrest warrant at her job as a detective in the New Haven police’s special victims unit.

And she has found herself thinking every day about how her 15-year-old cousin Jacob Cragget’s was shot to death in the Hill two years ago, and about how her brother Jason was shot to death in the Hill in 2004. In fact, the police response to Jason’s murder inspired her to become a cop.

But now the work day was over.

Her time at the Montanari Brothers Powerhouse Gym on Middletown Avenue was hers alone, cut loose in a sea of other sweaty, gleaming, hard bodies, tuning out trauma, tuning in to the thumping music from the sound system and the demands from the Body Master to lift more weight.

Kendall has made this a daily afternoon routine. The routine has in two years propelled Kendall to a new side career as a competitive figure athlete. She has become good enough at it to win her first regional championship earlier this month.

And she’s just getting started.

The routine keeps her strong, Kendall said. She’s not talking only about the muscles ripping from her calves and triceps.

“There’s always someone [physically] stronger than you. That’s not what this is about,” she said in an interview.

“My strength comes from everything I’ve been through and not giving up and not giving in. To be able to replay the words of my parents telling me to move forward, to keep

Kendall, the new East Coast figure champ.

pressing on and improving. “ While she has only recently taken the competitive figure plunge, Kendall started down the path 12 years ago, when she met Cheach.

Kendall was 19 at the time. A 2002 Hillhouse graduate raised in the Newhallville and Hill neighborhoods, she was the first member of her family to attend college. She also had a job at Yale-New Haven Hospital. That’s where she met Cheach, a.k.a.

Frank Celentano, a hospital protective services employee with a sideline as an athletic trainer.

Cheach suggested pursuing a career as a figure athlete. “I could see she had that competitive drive in her,” he recalled. But “it took years before she gave it a try.”

For a while, Kendall was sidelined coping with grief after an armed robber confronted her brother Jason on the steps of his grandmother’s house, then shot him in the back as he turned around to walk inside.

Kendall admired the way detectives handled the investigation — both how they dealt with the family and how they cracked the case.

She decided she wanted to become a detective herself one day.

But for a while she drifted.

She took a leave from college.

Then something changed.

“For a long time, you ask: ‘Why Why? Why?’ Then you realize you’re not going to get answers.

Something inside propels you to stop asking the questions,

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almost accept it.” She also determined to be strong for her younger brother, who had been present when Jason was killed.

She reenrolled in college, this time at Albertus Magnus. And she graduated with a degree in psychology. She subsequently made it through the police academy. She became a city cop seven years ago, walking a beat, then making detective in 2014.

She also started making it to the gym and working out with Cheach. She needed a daily release, a break from both the memory of her brother’s slaying and then, later, the similarly random and brutal killing of her cousin Jacob. She also needed a daily release from the horrors she encounters in investigating sexual abuse.

“You have to be able to take a break mentally and then return to work,” she observed. “Without that form of release, it’s just draining. Seeing kids being penetrated by grown family members, hearing children tell you about this godawful stuff…. There has to be a way to compartmentalize.”

The daily Powerhouse gym workouts under Cheach’s direction offered that release.

Cheach noticed her discipline, how hard she worked.

He suggested Kendall try enrolling in figure competitions, in which contestants execute mandatory poses to showcase their physique, from broad shoulders to tapered waistlines to muscular but lean quadriceps and hamstrings.

At first Kendall wasn’t buying.

“I was like: ‘I don’t want to look like a man!’ I thought of the women who take steroids. I said, ‘No thanks.’”

Then she learned more about what was involved, and saw how women maintained their femininity. She also learned that steroids weren’t part of the routine.

The routine involved discipline, setting and meeting goals, getting healthy. They didn’t look like men. She decided to give it a try, including the healthful eating part (lots of protein, whole foods, no preservatives or added sugars). A naturally competitive person, Kendall enjoyed

the challenge. And the results.

She said she sees a parallel between training and the methodical work of building sexualviolence cases: “You have to be consistent. You have to be dedicated. You have to be motivated to get to the end the next show. Or with work, did I interview everyone who could assist with this investigation?

You have to have goal-setting.”

Kendall got good, fast. She bulked up from 112 pounds to 150 (which she drops to a lean 134 for competitions). “I feel strong,” she said. “Not just on the outside.”

She qualified as a professional, meaning she was recognized by the World Natural Bodybuilding Federation (WNBF), which holds competitions and conducts drug testing to ensure participants don’t take steroids.

She also signed up for competitions conducted by the National Physique Committee (NPC).

It was at an NPC competition held two weeks ago at East Haven High School, drawing contestants from the Atlantic states, that Kendall had her big moment: She won the East Coast cup as the overall figure champion.

She was blown away, proud of how far she’d come in just two years.

“I expected it,” remarked Cheach, who has been fitness-training and coaching for 45 years. “I’ve been in this so long; I could tell.”

The first member of her family to have a full-time career, Kendall has more goals in mind. She expects this fall to complete Albertus Magnus’s master of science program in management and organizational leadership.

She intends to keep advancing in the police department.

And Kendall intends to win more bodybuilding competitions. Her first pro competition sponsored by the WNBF is on Nov. 6. Then she’s setting her sights on her first national NPC competition next summer. Kendall made a choice not to succumb to despair, to take the challenges life threw at her and to keep winning.

THE INNER-CITY NEWS October 26, 2016 - November 01, 2016

John P. Thomas Publisher / CEO

Babz Rawls Ivy

Editor-in-Chief Liaison, Corporate Affairs Babz@penfieldcomm.com

Advertising/Sales Team Trenda Lucky Keith Jackson Delores Alleyne John Thomas, III

Editorial Team Staff Writers

Christian Lewis/Current Affairs Anthony Scott/Sports Arlene Davis-Rudd/Politics

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

_______________________

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

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ACES Honors Companies at its 17th Annual Employer Recognition Dinner

On Wednesday, October 19, 2016: Area Cooperative Educational Services held its 17th Annual Employer Recognition Dinner. 200 representatives from seventy companies joined ACES staff, students and consumers to celebrate the theme “Together Everyone Achieves More” at ACES 17th Annual Employer Recognition Dinner. Anthony Rescigno, President, Greater New Haven Chamber of Commerce was the keynote speaker.

Ray Andrewsen, WQUN radio personality and general manager served as master of ceremonies.

ACES Employer Recognition Dinner recognized 70 companies & organizations who work with ACES to provide work and vocational training opportunities to over 300 students and adults with developmental and physical disabilities. Highlights included performances by ACES ECA Jazz Collective, directed by Will Cleary and student and client speakers from ACES Whitney high School East / West, ACES Whitney High School North and ACEA ACCESS program.

The evening was organized by ACES Business Advisory Council (BAC). The BAC is a diverse group of business professionals from the greater New Haven region that supports ACES staff in the development and enhancement of employment and training for ACES’ students and clients.

The following are

Photo: Erika Forte of ACES with Crystal Lopes, Owner, It’s All About U Hair Salon. Contact: Evelyn Rossetti-Ryan, EdD / erossetti-ryan@aces. org / 646-643-0094

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members of ACES Business Advisory Council: Glenn Archer, Co-Chair, CONNECT Computers; Mary Stager, Co-Chair, Cannon Solutions America; Michael Crutchfield, Wepawaug-Flagg Federal Credit Union; Michael Fatse, RTO Group; William DeRosa, Diversified Employment Service; Andy Hodes, Jewish Cemetery Association; David Litvinoff, Town Fair Tire; Eric Melillo, COFORGE; Tony Poccia, EMCOR Services New England Mechanical; John Prins, Prins Associates; Michael Shiner, Freeman Roberts; Marilyn Ferguson, Chair Emeritus and Mary-Ann White, Coldwell Banker. ACES’ staff also play a key role in the Business Advisory Council. They include Gene Crocco, Carolyn Nelson, Bill Jacobs, Fred Oglesby, Barbara Green, Kim Wallis and Evelyn Rossetti-Ryan.

ACES is the Regional Educational Service Center for the 25 school districts in South Central, Connecticut. ACES programs, schools, and services include adult and vocational programs, magnet schools and interdistrict programs, children and adolescent services, professional development and school improvement, and technology services. For additional information, visit www.aces.org.

THE INNER-CITY NEWS October 26, 2016 - November 01, 2016

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Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump wasn’t at City Hall Friday, but the ghost of his words about rigged elections and possibly refusing to accept the results if he doesn’t win the “rigged” Nov. 8 election haunted the place.

Three elected officials banned together in a mid-morning press conference there to bust voter fraud ghosts and myths, and assure the state’s more than two million voters that the election will be tamper free.

For one thing, they said, there is very little evidence that voter fraud even occurs. For another thing, it’s hard to commit without getting caught.

“We are outraged” at Trump’s accusation of rigged elections, Mayor Toni Harp said on behalf of the hundreds of workers who are trained an sworn to dutifully administer elections and done so with integrity year after year. She called the allegations of a rigged election baseless.

“Any question about the validity of these local elections is an insult to all who work so hard to ensure accuracy and an attack at the very core of New Haven’s nature,” she added. “There have been insinuations that ‘certain areas are more prone to voting irregularities.’ Again with no substantiation. And those insinuations target minority voters who happen to be more densely concentrated in New Haven and other urban areas.

As one of those minority voters I urge utter rejection of such talk, and such nonsense, and of those who insist upon repeating it.”

With just 18 days until the big showdown at the polls, political leaders across partisan lines have collectively raised their voices against allegations that the American voting system can be rigged.

U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro praised the state’s commitment to “fair and free elections,” pointing out that there are measure in place such as trained moderators of

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MARKESHIA RICKS PHOTO Secretary of the State Denise Merrill reminds people that they can register to vote from their phone.

Students from Conte West Hills met Harp, Merrill and DeLauro during a tour.

polling places, ballot checkers and checks of voting machines.

She said what voter suppression by intimidation occurs far more often than fraud.

“No state that has passed a strict voter ID law has been able to demonstrate or document and incidence of voter fraud,” she said.

“These harmful laws are a misguided solution in search of a problem yet we hear today urban

myths to paint a false picture of widespread voter fraud. Preposterous claims of a fixed election. And we know that it’s about undermining our election process. Claiming that our election process is rigged is an insult to our democracy.”

DeLauro said instead of focusing on allegations of voter fraud, the country should turn its attention to making sure that every citi-

THE INNER-CITY NEWS October 26, 2016 - November 01, 2016

Mayo To Tackle Morale, Tame Truancy

by MARKESHIA RICKS NEW HAVEN INDEPENDENT

Returning temporarily to the helm of a school system he ran for over two decades, Reginald Mayo said he hopes in eight months to turn over to New Haven’s next superintendenta district where faculty and staff morale is higher, the number of students who are absent from school is lower, and the achievement gap is closing.

After sitting through a shorter than average Board of Education (BOE) meeting Monday, where he was named the interim superintendent of schools, Mayo spoke about what he hopes to accomplish in the less than one year that he has to lead the district.

The former long time superintendent, who will be paid for a maximum 174 days at a per diem rate of $750, or $130,500, said it will be a challenge, but he’s excited about coming out of retirement to suit up for the home team.

(Mayo will continue to collect his pension while serving as interim superintendent, according to district spokeswoman Mercy Quaye.)

Mayo is taking over from the man who was his successor when he retired in 2013, Garth Harries. Harries tendered his resignation in September after enduring more than a year of criticism from both the board and the public.

His last day is slated for Nov. 1.

The BOE is on the hunt for Harries’ permanent replacement.

“I think there is a morale issue in the schools,” Mayo said after the meeting Monday. “I’m sitting here listening to negative, after negative, after negative.

You wallow in that sometimes.”

During the public comment section of the meeting, Mayo sat in the audience and listened to a parent who called for more accountability for students with individual education plans and a community member who seemed to suggest that the district is failing to teach reading and math. He also heard a continued call from paraprofessionals to not be used as substitute teachers. He heard about a lack of resources and culturally appropriate learning materials.

Mayo also got to hear teach-

MARKESHIA RICKS PHOTO Mayo, back in charge.

ers, instructional leaders and administrators push against what they saw as misinformation, particularly when it comes to data and student performance.

“The perception is that schools are bad in urban America,” he said.

“You’re always fighting that tie.

You always have to fight to put positive things out there. But we have some of the best curriculum in the state in the country. And it’s done by teachers. It’s engaging and we change it every five years.

He said New Haven is progressive in making early childhood education a priority, pointing out that some school districts still don’t have full-day kindergarten. He also pointed to the reading and math specialists in every K-8 school. “New Haven has done well,” he said. “There are urban district that just can’t believe it when we talk about

some of the resources we have.”

Mayor Toni Harp, who also serves as BOE president, suggested that it might be time to start highlighting the positive at board meetings. Mayo agreed.

“We’ve got to stop people from just talking up the negative, because it starts catching on,” he said. “We’ve got to turn this thing around, otherwise morale will stay low. We’ve got some hardworking teachers in this school district. We have some very, very capable people, competent people in this school district. We have competent administrators in this school district and we’ve got a lot of parents who just don’t care about their own children. They care about all the children. Let’s take those human resources and get some positive action out of it.”

He said part of that starts with him, but it also starts with a a board that

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functions in a more positive way.

“I think you have to realize that if you’re at the top and you’re positive I really believe it filters down,” he said.

New Haven Teachers Federation President David Cicarella alluded to the need to not only recognize the good that is happening in the district, but to remember how far the district has come. He said when he speaks to new teachers at orientation he’s honest with them about the state of the schools before the district undertook a reform drive.

“I say to them that years ago, it really wasn’t all that great to be a New Haven teacher,” said Cicarealla, who was a classroom teacher for 22 years and instructional coach for six. He pointed out that back then, teachers worked in “decaying buildings, we had low test scores, morale was low.

People tended to go other places

and they would look down on us.

“It was a very different place,” he said. “Now buildings are newer, morale is much different, and the school reform work has been a centerpiece of it. The joke I make to the new teachers is that you walk with a swagger if you’re from New Haven. Everyone knows us and that we do good work. Despite the bumps in the road, we have done very good work along the way. It’s time to move on from where we are now.”

Mayo said part of moving on will involve setting the stage for the next superintendent. He credited the outgoing Harries for making sure the transition is smooth and said he hopes to do the same for the next superintendent. In his mind that means not only focusing on morale, but also making sure that students come to school, that parents are involved and that everyone is pulling in the direction of closing the achievement gap.

“I think as I look around and in talking with the board we’ve got to continue with [closing] the achievement gap,” he said. “That’s the core and the basic elements of what we’re here for. It’s teachers, educators, curriculum and instruction. It’s teaching kids how to read, write and do math. That’s always number one in my mind.”

“Attendance is important,” he said. “It was important when I became superintendent, and it still is. If we can’t get them to school, how can we teach them? They’ve got to be here.” Before laying out any specifics, he said, he wants to get reacquainted with the school system and how it has changed in the three years that he’s been gone.

But he’s optimistic about the challenge, which includes student testing coming up in just four months. He said he hopes that eight months from now he will help facilitate a similarly smooth transition.

“Garth has given me a great transition,” he said. “It’s the kind of transition I hope I am able to lay out an equally smooth transition so that the next superintendent can hit the ground running. I want to have it orderly and laid out everything in curriculum, instruction, data, financially. But I’ve got to really catch up quickly.”

Teacher Hiring Quest Aims Sout THE INNER-CITY NEWS October 26, 2016 - November 01, 2016

by PAUL BASS

NEW HAVEN INDEPENDENT

A renewed effort to hire more black and Latino schoolteachers rests in part on Debbie Breland finding Southerners to make the same move north that she made three decades ago — to teach in a New Haven public school.

NHPS Breland is the new minority teacher recruitment coordinator for the city school system.

She joined local government and NAACP leaders outside the Board of Education on Meadow Street Thursday in announcing a renewed determination to lure more teachers of color, a quest that has proved difficult for many school systems like New Haven’s.

The announcement came on the day when the governor signed Public Act 16-41, a new law aimed at making that quest easier, by, among other efforts, eliminating some teacher certification requirements considered outdated and irrelevant to needed skills; and by easing the way for qualified teachers to transfer their certification to Connecticut, especially from southern states.

New Haven officials said at the Thursday event that they plan to use those tools to build a “pipeline” to the 30 historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) that have teacher certification programs. Those schools tend to be located in southern states from which until now it was difficult to transfer teaching certification to Connecticut.

The state and local NAACP announced that it will help build that pipeline by co-hosting a minority teacher recruitment conference at Yale on Dec. 1 and 2. Invitees will include presidents and deans from HBCUs, along with school principals and human resources officials, according to state NAACP President Scot X. Esdaile.

“Students will learn more readily when they make a connection with a teacher and with the way in which a teacher presents information,” Mayor Toni Harp said. “When a student of color walks into a classroom and sees a teacher of color, a connection is likely to be made

PAUL BASS PHOTO

Breland, center, at Thursday’s announcement with NAACP’s Dori Dumas and Harries.

more readily and a student / teacher relationship can more quickly grow to become that between a student and a mentor. The ability to ‘identify’ with one another is the key in these interactions.”

Talk about the southern pipeline took Breland’s mind back to 1987, when, as a 22-year-old Fayetteville State University graduate in North Carolina, she received a recruiting call from New Haven.

The city’s then-schools superintendent, John Dow, had made recruiting black teachers from

HBCUs a priority. Breland was flown to New Haven to attend a recruiting event sponsored

by Yale and the Urban League.

When she signed on to teach English at Career High School, she received help finding an apartment where the landlord agreed to waive the security deposit.

Breland has remained in the system ever since, recently ascending to the teacher recruitment post, where she said she’s working with her colleagues in the school system to revive that pipeline.

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“I’m growing my own,” she added.

Her daughter, a Coop High senior, plans to attend Southern Connecticut State university next year with the intention of earning her teaching certification in order to work with children with autism. Breland said her dream is for her daughter to teach at the new $45 million K-4 Strong “lab” school New Haven is building in partnership with SCSU. Data Revelations Most New Haven public school students 82 percent are black and Latino. Most New Haven teachers 77 percent are white.

Data released Thursday by the school system cast doubt on assumptions made by those on the left and the right about why the city doesn’t have more black teachers.

Affirmative-action critics have charged that the school system plays racial favorites, meaning that white candidates can’t get hired for teaching positions. The school district has publicized its efforts to recruit more teachers of color.

And yet it’s still hiring more white candidates than black and Latino candidates. Recruitment efforts have produced some re-

sults: 18 percent of teachers hired over the past year are black, and 13 percent are Latino, Superintendent of Schools Garth Harries announced Thursday. That means the vast majority are still white.

Some critics in town have charged that school officials prefer to hire white teachers and bypass black and Latino candidates. It turns out that the district doesn’t receive many applications from teachers of color. District human resources chief Lisa Mack estimated that only 25 percent of applicants are black or Latino.

Board of Education member Edward Joyner and teachers union President David Cicarella agreed that the problem lies not in an intention to avoid hiring blacks and Latinos, but rather in the need to develop more of an applicant pool, in part through that south-to-North pipeline. “You can be a great teacher in North Carolina,” Joyner remarked, and not get permission to teach here in New Haven. He said New Haven would benefit by changing that. Just ask Debbie Breland.

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THE INNER-CITY NEWS October 26, 2016 - November 01, 2016 Con’t from page

Officials Blast ‘Rigged Election’ Rhetoric AND THE

AC E S B U S I N E S S A DV I S O RY C O U N C I L

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zen eligible to vote gets to do so.

She is an original co-sponsor of a voter empowerment bill drafted by her colleague and civil rights icon U.S. Rep. John Lewis, who was brutally beaten during the Selma to Montgomery marches for voting rights. Their bill would modernize the voting registration systems, expand early voting, require the equitable distribution of polling places and equipment, and prohibit the challenging of registration status at polling places.

Also at Friday’s press conference, Secretary of the State Denise Merrill said that one of the reasons that Connecticut has a safe process is because it relies on paper. While people can now register to vote online, they still have to come in person and fill the bubble next to their candidate. They also have to provide some form of identification at the polls. She said at nearly every point of the election process there is a system for checking to make sure that fraud does not occur. Also, the machine that scans your vote is not hooked into a computer connected to the Internet, further guarding against fraud.

“You can’t hack a system that is not connected in a any way, shape or form to the Internet,” she said.

The state’s voter registration database is connected to the internet. But only a limited number of election officials can even access it, Merrill. She said cyber attacks have occurred on such databases, but only two have been successful. They happened in Arizona and Illinois, but no information was manipulated. But to that end, Con-

necticut is one of the states participating in “cyber cleansing” by the Department of Homeland Security.

“Despite all of this, we’re on high alert,” she said. “We have several systems in place including a program with the Connecticut Bar Association that puts 100 attorneys on standby if anything should happen at the polls. Based on the conversation I have heard nationally what I am most concerned about is voter intimidation, not voter impersonation.”

Merrill urged people who have not registered to vote to do so

by Nov. 1, which is the deadline for voting in person, online or by mail. The state has already seen a surge in new voters 100,000 since Jan. 1and another 15,000 were pulled in in the last month when the Department of Motor Vehicles started offering voter registration. She said that the state has already approached its high watermark of 2008.

And there’s still time to register.

Anyone who misses that deadline in New Haven but still plans to participate in the election would have to do same-day voter registration down at City Hall. Mayor Harp urged those who do so on Election Day to arrive at City Hall early. During the last gubernatorial election City Hall was overrun with same day voters, a number of which had to leave the polls without casting a vote because they had not had the opportunity to register before the polls closed.

Harp said City Hall will be properly staffed and ready for a crowd, but “when the polls close, they close.”

THE INNER-CITY NEWS October 26, 2016 - November 01, 2016

Farnam Courts Redo Part II Gets Underway

by MARKESHIA RICKS NEW HAVEN INDEPENDENT

Brenda Harris is becoming a minor celebrity at Farnam Courts redevelopment groundbreakings.

The lifelong tenant shovel in hand and hard hat atop her headwielded a shovel at the groundbreaking for the now almost-done first phase of the redevelopment at the 75-year-old public-housing complex on Grand Avenue.

And she was there again with a shovel Wednesday as phase two of its rebuilding got underway.

“I just look forward to coming back into a new, beautiful home,” she said.

Harris joined Mayor Toni Harp and other city, state and federal officials Wednesday for a groundbreaking ceremony held in the complex’s courtyard to kickoff of a project that Housing Authority Executive Director Karen DuBois-Walton said will help knit Farnam Courts to neighboring Wooster Square and downtown.

“All of our residents have waited for this project,” DuBois-Walton said. “We are a stone’s throw away from downtown but it feels like a world away in a lot of ways. We are right next door to Wooster Square but it also at times feels far away.”

The cost of the onsite second phase of the redevelopment runs to more than $42 million and includes costs for new roads and other nonredevelopment infrastructure such as streetscaping. The off-site phase cost about $30 million, according to information provided by the housing authority; that money pays for replacement apartments at two different locations, the former Cott soda factory in Fair Haven and EastView Terrace in the Heights.

Farnam Courts is the latest public-housing development to be rebuilt, following in the wake of reborn complexes in West Rock, in Dixwell, and in Fair Haven. .

Harris said she’s lived in the complex here entire life, even raising her own daughter there. She said she’s just happy to see her home be redeveloped into something that she will love when its done.

“I’ve lived here 53 years,” said Harris, who also serves as the Farnam Courts Tenant Resident Council president. “I’ve been here

MARKESHIA RICKS PHOTO Harris at groundbreaking. from the time that I was a baby.

I’m just just glad that it’s happening. I had fun here. I enjoyed being here. I just loved living here.”

Mayor Harp noted that it’s an exciting time for market rate housing development in the city, but that’s not the only real estate

market in high demand. The demand for affordable and subsidized housing is also very high.

“Those who can’t afford new, market rate housing must also have safe, housing options available to them,” she said. “This redevelopment will go a long

11

way in meeting that demand.

The onsite redevelopment of Farnam Courts includes 8 market rate units and 86 affordable, Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD) program family housing. It also includes 24 one-bedroom apartments, 51

two-bedroom apartments, eight three-bedroom apartments and three four-bedroom apartments.

In addition to becoming a multistory complex with 5,900 square feet of retail space on the lower floors, the rebuilt Farnam will get a new community center and a new Ted DeLauro Park, which will be moved to the interior of the complex. Once all phases of the Farnam Courts redevelopment are complete there will be a total of 228 RAD family units between the onsite location and the development in Fair Haven.

Last December, HANH broke ground on the Fair Haven portion of the development, which is an off-site component that allowed residents of the original Farnam to be relocated. DuBois-Walton said Wednesday that some residents have already started moving into the 57 RAD units on that site and lease are already being granted for the other 27 two-bedrooms, 28 three-bedrooms and 2 four-bedroom units in those locations.The completion of that part of the project allows for the relocation of the rest of the residents at the onsite location.

THE INNER-CITY NEWS October 26, 2016 - November 01, 2016

Young Ladies and Gentlemen, Start Your ... Applications

by ALLAN APPEL

NEW HAVEN INDEPENDENT

Devonte Fletcher, who plays the trumpet and is the band’s drum major, wants to be a music/ band teacher—preferably right back at Hillhouse High School in the years to come.

Flutist Iyonna Pottinger is equally passionate about majoring in music education, but wonders whether she should apply at an historically black college or to an in-state school where tuition is less.

Those two and the 241 other Hillhouse High School seniors began to answer those questions and formally planning for their college or other post-secondary school lives Wednesday morning.

They participated in an annual American College n Campaign which, along with the participation of New Haven Promise, is seeking to increase the number of firstgeneration and low-income students pursuing a college degree or other higher education credential.

Students in all nine high schools

ALLAN APPEL PHOTO

Seniors Pottinger and Fletcher.

in the city participated in the daylong series of workshops on topics such as college essay writing, literacy about financial aid, navigating the common application, applying to New Haven Promise,and roll playing mock college interviews.

That latter is particularly im-

portant to Iyonna and Devonte.

They said they are less worried about getting their applications in and more about acing the musical auditions required in any school they would hope to enter.

“I’m going to pick the hardest, most frustrating piece [of mu-

sic] and do it beautifully, ” said Devonte, who lives the Hillhouse band and its teachers.

District Lead School Counselor Dr. Chaka Felder-McEntire complimented the Hillhouse High seniors gathered in the spacious auditorium. She briefed them about choosing, minimally, one “reach” school and one “safety” school; that is, having a Plan A and a Plan B. She also made sure the kids were locked in on the difference between “early action” and “early decision.” The latter is binding, but not the former. And if you go with “early action,” which is often required before Christmas,” then you can “chill” and have a relaxing time with your family during the holidays, with at least one school waiting for you, Felder-McEntire noted. She urged the teens to get their parents on board especially on getting in their FAFSAs. Translation: Free Application For Federal Student Aid. To be eligible parents submit their tax returns.

Felder-McEntire said the goal this year is to have the city’s se-

niors submit 10,000 college applications by the campaign’s Dec. 15 deadline. If you apply on March 15, you’ll get the “FAFSA leavings,” she admonished.

“Procrastination and s nio tis are not your friends senior year,” she added.

One person who is definitely the kids’ friend is Olafemi Hunter, one of only two guidance counselors on staff at Hillhouse. Although he has some other staff back up, he and another counselor split the class of 243, and guide them through the process, which includes individual meetings with all 243 students in addition to all the workshops, trips, and other sessions.

Hunter is in his third year as a guidance counselor at the school.

Prior to Wednesday’s kick-off his team had already organized two workshops on financial aid.

Hunter said he takes heart from one of apothogems that’s a favorite among the brothers of his college fraternity, Omega Psi Phi: “The difficult we do immediately. The impossible takes a little longer.”

Civil Rights Champion Diane Polan Dies

by PAUL BASS

NEW HAVEN INDEPENDENT

Diane Polan was New Haven’s toughest “cookie” and New Haven became a better place as a result.

Polan, a crusading criminal defense and civil rights lawyer, died Friday morning from an inoperable brain tumor at the age of 65.

Her nickname was “Cookie.” She was sweet, but she didn’t crumble easily. If at all.

Since coming to New Haven in 1969 as a member of Yale’s first class to admit women, Polan took on barriers with determination, good cheer, and intelligence. After graduation from Yale Law School, she set up shop in New Haven, representing women, workers, and others whose rights were violated. She took on high-profile criminal cases as well, including a not guilty verdict in a murder case based on a wrongfully obtained confession.

Early on, before more women en-

PAUL BASS PHOTO

Polan outside Superior Court with client Jennifer Gondola.

tered the legal profession, Polan fought back against male lawyers who tried to intimidate women entering the bar. One day when she received an anonymously

mailed lewd cartoon about female lawyers, she had the postmark traced to the office of a prominent local attorney (who later became a judge) and outed him.

12

In recent years she represented citizens who had cellphone cameras confiscated by New Haven police. Her work not only exonerated them in court, but forced the police department to change its approach to training cops in respecting the rights of citizenphotographers; and led to a change in state law. That led to her and one of her clients being named New Haven Independent “Women of the Year’ in 2012.

When the feds rounded up 105 reputed gang members in a massive sweep called “Operation Bloodline,” she convinced a federal judge that the arrestees’ rights to a speedy trial and effective counsel were being violated. In one difficult defense case involving a man who fled from and then drove at the cops, Polan won a mistrial by revealing misconduct by officers.

She devoted years to serving on the board of New Haven Legal Assistance Association, including a term as board president.

She was known for encouraging other women to become lawyers, then mentoring them.

Polan also agitated for change in the public schools as a publicschool parent, succeeding in getting more textbooks ordered.

“Cookie was a woman of extraordinary depth and strength and has been a civil rights advocate her entire career, always helping the disabled, the disenfranchised, and the disadvantaged,” said Tom Ullmann, New Haven’s chief public defender. Ullmann and Polan were lifelong friends ever since they studied together for the bar exam in the early 1970s. “We will miss her terribly,” he said.

Polan was in hospice when the Connecticut Criminal Defense Lawyers’ Association last week gave her a Champion of Liberty Award. It set up a new annual Cookie Polan Award in her honor.

She is survived by her spouse, Linda Barrett, and twin daughters Rosa and Maya.

THE INNER-CITY NEWS October 26, 2016 - November 01, 2016

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THE INNER-CITY NEWS October 26, 2016 - November 01, 2016

Church St. South Refugees Fight Back

a doorway to something that approximates an equal approach and an equal to justice that’s not dependent on your social class.”

Rosen praised the work New Haven legal aid did in forcing the government to act to get the families new housing. “But they’re still behind because of what was done to them. A private lawyer like me can bring an action for money damages for these families,” Rosen said.

by PAUL BASS

NEW HAVEN INDEPENDENT

The quest for justice for hundreds of families who lost their health, their belongings, and ultimately their homes in New Haven’s worst housing disaster in a generation took a new turn Thursday with the filing of a federal class-action lawsuit.

New Haven civil rights lawyer David Rosen filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court on behalf of six named plaintiffs and 280 people overall from 85 different families who lived in the federally subsidized Church Street South housing complex across from Union Station over the past three years. The class could eventually cover more than 1,000 people, Rosen said.

The 32-page suit against the complex’s Massachusetts-based owner, Northland Investment Corp.; Northland board chair Lawrence Gottesdiener; and affiliated corporate entities seeks unspecified monetary damages for the respiratory problems, skin disorders, migraines, loss of furniture, temporary dislocation and homelessness suffered by the families because of rampant mold, leaking ceilings, crumbling porches, and other long-term safety hazards at the 301-unit complex known as “The Jungle” and “Cinderblock City.”

Northland knew about the problems in the complex and made shoddy repairs, which failed to address the roots of the problems, only after government inspectors hounded them about over 1,000 health and safety violations, the suit charges. The suit accuses the company of neglect and recklessness in pursuing “demolition by neglect” allowing conditions to deteriorate so badly that the complex would need to be torn down at the expense of tenants’ health and safety. That strategy amounted to a violation of the Connecticut Unfair Trade Practices Act, the suit charges.

“Defendants’ conduct was a plan of ‘demolition by neglect,’ allowing conditions to deteriorate to a point where tenants would be forced to move out,” attorney Rosen and associates Barbara

PAUL BASS PHOTO

Lead named plaintiff Personna Noble, at right, with fellow former Church Street South tenant Leeza Skovinski.

Lateisha Parker, whose family remains at Church Street South, said she’s still contending with mildew thanks to patchwork repairs.

Goren and Alexander Taubes write in the complaint. “Defendants knew that each tenant relocated from Church Street South would be another tenant unlikely to desire a place in a future development of the property and that its neglect of Church Street South made the eventual condemnation of apartments inevitable, but they refused to address the hazardous conditions, instead spending as little money as they could repairing the structural elements of Church Street South,” such as replacing porous decades-old roofs.

Northland bought the property in 2008 at the invitation of a mayor

who wanted the company to raze it to build a market-rate development. “I bought it,” Gottesdiener recalled, “to build something better there.” But the city and Northland failed to reach an agreement about how to do that, differing over the amount of affordable housing the new development would contain.

So Northland continued housing poor families there with the help of some $3 million in annual Section 8 rental subsidies from the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).

It took a lawsuit by the New Haven Legal Assistance Association

14

and continued failed inspections

by New Haven’s Harp administration to push HUD to force Northland to find new homes elsewhere for the remaining 269 tenant families and then to demolish the unsalvageable complex.

Since the decision was made 13 months ago to raze rather than seek to permanently repair Church Street South, officials have scrambled with the biggest familyrelocation challenge in memory.

Meanwhile, a question has lingered: What’s the best way to bring justice to the families whose lives were uprooted and harmed?

Rosen said Thursday’s lawsuit is one way to accomplish that. It can recompense uprooted families for the losses to their health, for their lost furniture, for their emotional distress, and for the time their kids missed out on school or spent living cramped in temporary hotel rooms.

“Poor people in America, as elsewhere, don’t have much power at all,” Rosen said. “They have very few means to do things rather than have things done to them.

They have a voice that is a vote, which is critical. The other route that poor people have is the civil justice system. The civil justice system is built on the premise that same justice is going to be given to rich and poor alike. It is

Shelley White, legal aid’s litigation director, said her agency doesn’t file personal injury cases seeking money damages. Private attorneys can take on those cases, she said. She said legal aid takes on cases that private attorneys can’t afford to take on like the original suit that forced HUD to take action against Northland.

“How best is justice brought to these families? To allow them to live in safe, comfortable housing,” Northland’s Gottesdiener argued Thursday in an email message to the Independent. He said that’s what his company is currently doing in coordination with New Haven’s Harp administration and the Housing Authority of New Haven. They have been working since last fall first to arrange new HUD subsidies for the tenants to move into permanent new apartments elsewhere, then to help those tenants obtain the subsidies and find the new apartments. Gottesdiener stated that he “cannot comment on pending litigation at this time”; in previous interviews he said his company inherited a mess and spent millions of dollars trying to keep it livable.

Northland originally promised to have all families out of Church Street South by the end of 2015.

The process which includes finding and qualifying interested private landlords, working with tenants has proved slower and more difficult than predicted. According to Gottesdiener, 118 families remain on site.

The housing authority is overseeing lining up tenants with subsidies and new homes. Three families have requested and obtained “project-based” Section 8 subsidies that are attached to a different Con’t on page 26

THE INNER-CITY NEWS October 26, 2016 - November 01, 2016

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THE INNER-CITY NEWS October 26, 2016 - November 01, 2016

Are Breast Cancer Deaths Declining Among Black Women? Yes, and Here's Why!

Although Black women have a higher rate of getting breast cancer before age 45 and are more likely to die from breast cancer at every age, a study from the U.S. Centers For Disease Control (CDC) has revealed that breast cancer deaths for this demographic are finally going down.

Closing the racial gap There has always been a racial gap when it comes to death rates due to breast cancer among white and black women. The good news is that mortality rates due to breast cancer are on the decline -- for black women as well as white

women. This may mean that the racial gap is closing. According to the CDC, breast cancer incidence is about the same now for women of both races, and deaths from breast cancer are going down among both black and white women, especially among younger black women.

“Even among women ages 60 to 69, rates dropped 2 percent per year among white women and 1 percent among black women,” according to Dr. Lisa Richardson, director of the division of cancer prevention and control at the CDC.

Dr. Richardson believes that increased breast cancer education, more cancer screening and better treatment may be valid reasons why the numbers are going down. Early detection is key to producing positive results from treatment of breast cancer.

Although black women still have a higher mortality rate than white women of dying from breast cancer, the latest statistics hold out hope that more and more black and white women can be saved from this potentially deadly disease.

For more details about the study, visit www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/65/wr/mm6540a1.htm

Early detection making a big difference

Black Women Have Higher Breast Cancer Death Rate In 42 Out Of 43 Cities, New Study Finds

by Ruthie Hawkins, BlackDoctor.org Contributor

this data and see these numbers, they understand we need to make sure we are ending breast cancer for every woman, not just some women, and I hope it is a call to action in many of these communities.”

Breast cancer deaths are increasing for Black women, researchers say. In a new study released just in time for Breast Cancer Awareness Month, investigators reveal a shocking link between the most common form of cancer found in women and their geographical location.

According to the Avon Foundation funded study, which examined breast cancer deaths between 2010 and 2014 in 43 of the most populated U.S. cites, African-American women were nearly half – 43 percent– as likely to die from breast cancer than White women. Even more shocking, in 2006, findings noted a difference of only 39.7 percent.

Dr. Sheryl Grabam, Director of the AVON Comprehensive Breast Center, believes too many Black women are being diagnosed later when the cancer is harder to treat, according to a Fox5 Atlanta report.

Atlanta – where Black women are of breast cancer at a rate more than double that of White women.

Austin, TX Wichita, KS San Antonio, TX Kansas City, MO Dallas Memphis, TN Los Angeles Oklahoma City Chicago

In 2013, 230,815 women and 2,109 men in the United States were diagnosed with breast cancer. While, 40,860 women and 464 men in the United States died from breast cancer, reports the CDC.

Meanwhile, the report also noted that in cities like Boston, Memphis, and Philly, both Black and White women are falling victim to the cancerous disease at a similar rate — significantly improving the gap.

So, which U.S. cities topped the list with the largest breast cancer death disparities?

As for the purpose behind the findings, Cheryl Heinonen, president of the Avon Foundation said, “My hope is that as people look at

16

Though the reason behind the gap is still unknown, one researcher believes a lack of access to quality health care plays a major role in the startling disparities. Advances in mammography and in treatments “were disproportionately available to white women,” so deaths among White women decreased, said study researcher Bijou Hunt, an epidemiologist at the Sinai Urban Health Institute in Chicago.

“Black women were not getting the same access to resources, so their rates stayed the same or got worse,” added Hunt.

So what’s next? In addition to focus groups held weekly in cities like Atlanta at Emory University and Morehouse College, Hulbert argued that a solution “has to involve all the hospitals, imaging facilities, and private practices across a city to make a difference.”

In the meantime, you can take control of your own health, by getting regular mammograms and never be fearful to ask questions. Women have a better chance of surviving breast cancer when diagnosed early.

THE INNER-CITY NEWS October 26, 2016 - November 01, 2016

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THE INNER-CITY NEWS October 26, 2016 - November 01, 2016

3 Side Effects Of Too Much Apple Cider Vinegar

by Dr. P. Gould, BlackDoctor.org Many of us already know that apple cider vinegar is great for a number of things. It can do a lot of good inside and outside of your body from your skin to weight loss, etc.

But some of us take the healing power of apple cider vinegar a little too literally and take too much of it. Remember that age old saying that “too much of a good thing is bad for you”? Well, it’s true with apple cider vinegar too. Take a look at what happens when you have too much of it.

1. Tooth Enamel Too much apple cider vinegar can erode tooth enamel. The acetic acid can damage the enamel on your teeth, making them more susceptible to tooth decay. Diluting the vinegar before use can help, but it’s wise to talk to your dentist before you consume apple cider vinegar.

The effects of apple cider vinegar on teeth are particularly significant because people often consume it directly and can drink a considerable amount at a time.

For example, in one reported case a teenager was consuming a glass of apple cider vinegar (undiluted) each day, in an effort to lose weight.

That behavior resulted in significant damage to her teeth.

Research has also indicated that vinegar can lead to a loss of minerals in teeth, which could contribute to tooth decay.

Now, this issue is likely to be most significant when you’re drinking the apple cider vinegar straight, especially as vinegar is acidic and fairly harsh on the body.

2. Blood Sugar Apple cider vinegar can also have an antiglycemic effect on blood sugar, meaning it can lower glucose levels in the bloodstream.

This may benefit the management of type 2 diabetes and insulin resistance, but people with uncontrolled blood sugar levels could find its use problematic.

Blood sugar may drop to the point of diabetic hypoglycemia. This could deprive the brain of glucose, leading to seizures and loss of consciousness. If you have type 2 diabetes or insulin resistance, talk to your doctor before taking

5 Unique Risk Factors In Black Women

By Ruthie Hawkins, BlackDoctor.org Contributor

apple cider vinegar in any amount.

3. Loss of Potassium The body uses potassium to maintain proper functioning of the nerves and muscles. Without it, problems occur. Apple cider vinegar can adversely interact with your prescription and lead to low potassium levels. Low potassium, medically referred to as hypokalemia, can cause constipation, weakness, muscle cramps and even abnormal heart rhythms.

There is one case study where this did occur and the pattern was believed to cause osteoporosis because of the apple cider vinegar leaching minerals from the bones.

In this particular case, the amount of apple cider vinegar consumed was excessive (around 250 ml or 8.5 fl oz), which is much more than anybody should be drinking in a day. Furthermore, the patient had been consuming apple cider vinegar at that level for around 6 years.

As such, the health issues experienced aren’t likely to happen if you’re just consuming a couple of tablespoons of apple cider vinegar per day.

Nevertheless, the potential impact of apple cider vinegar on potassium levels is something to be aware of, especially if your potassium levels are likely to be low for any other reason.

African American woman doctor looking at x-ray Osteoporosis is a metabolic bone disease characterized by low bone mineral density (BMD) which makes bones fragile and susceptible to fracture. Many African American women believe that osteoporosis is only a concern for white women. This misperception can be a barrier to prevention and treatment.

It’s true that African American women tend to have higher bone mineral density (BMD) than white women throughout life, however, there are specific issues that African American women face when it comes to developing osteoporosis that are less well known. These issues include the following: Under recognized and undertreated. The NIH Osteoporosis and Related Bone Diseases National Resource Center acknowledges that “Although African American women tend to have higher bone mineral density (BMD) than white women throughout life, they are still at significant risk of developing osteoporosis. The misperception that osteoporosis is only a concern for white women can delay prevention and treatment in African American women who do not believe they are at risk for the disease.”

Hip fractures. As African American women age, their risk for hip fracture doubles approximately every 7 years.

Sickle cell anemia and lupus. Diseases more prevalent in the African American population, such as sickle cell anemia and lupus, are linked to an increase risk of developing osteoporosis.

Insufficient calcium and vitamin D intake. African American women consume 50 percent less calcium than the Recommended Dietary Allowance. Adequate intake of calcium and vitamin D throughout life, as part of a healthy dietary pattern, may reduce the risk of osteoporosis, by helping build and maintain good bone health.

18

Vitamin D can be made in the skin when exposed to sunlight. However, skin pigmentation is one of several factors that can determine how much sun exposure you need.

African Americans have dark pigment, which lessens the body’s ability to produce vitamin D in the skin. Obesity—which is high among African American women, may also play a role in keeping vitamin D levels low. That’s because obesity reduces the body’s ability to use vitamin D. Lactose intolerance. As many as 75 percent of all African Americans may experience lactose intolerance. Lactose intolerance can hinder optimal calcium intake.

People with lactose intolerance may avoid milk and other dairy products even though most are excellent sources of calcium because they have trouble digesting lactose, the primary sugar in milk.

Building Stronger Bones Eating a well-balanced diet ad-

equate in calcium and vitamin D throughout life is key to building bones and lowering risk for osteoporosis. Calcium and vitamin D can be found in the foods you eat. Dairy products such as milk, yogurt and cheese, are the primary sources of calcium in American diets. Dietary patterns that provide 3 servings of dairy products per day can improve bone mass. Vitamin D functions in the body to maintain proper levels of calcium and phosphorous, thereby helping to build and maintain bones. Milk and yogurts that are fortified with vitamin D can be good sources of this nutrient. Other sources of vitamin D include fish such as salmon or tuna, and vitamin D-fortified ready-to-eat breakfast cereals.

According to the 2015 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, older children, teens, and adults have a recommended dairy intake of 3 servings a day, while children 4 to 8 years old are recommended to consume 2.5 servings, and 2 servCon’t on next page

THE INNER-CITY NEWS October 26, 2016 - November 01, 2016 Con’t from page 18

ings per day are recommended for children 2 to 3 years old.

In general, a serving of dairy is 1 cup of milk, 1 cup of yogurt, 1.5 ounces of natural cheese, or 2 ounces of processed cheese.

For those who are lactose intolerant, smaller portions (such as 4 fluid ounces of milk) may be well tolerated. Lactose-free and lowerlactose products are available.

These include lactose-reduced or lactose-free milk, yogurt, and cheese. Yogurt can be a more easily digestible alternative to milk because it contains live and active cultures that help with lactose digestion. In addition, yogurt on average contains less lactose per serving than milk so you may be able to enjoy yogurt products with fewer associated symptoms. Also, enzyme preparations can be added to milk to lower the lactose content.

The tips listed below will help you make wise dairy choices everyday: Try nonfat or lowfat yogurt as a snack. If you drink cappuccinos or lattes — ask for them with non fat (skim) or low fat milk.

Make fruit-yogurt smoothies in the blender. Add non fat or low fat milk instead of water to oatmeal and hot cereals.

Make a yogurt parfait with whole grain cereals, fruits and nonfat or lowfat yogurt for breakfast. Use non fat or low fat milk when making condensed cream soups (such as cream of tomato).

Make a dip for fruits or vegetables from nonfat or lowfat yogurt.

Top sliced fruit with flavored nonfat or lowfat yogurt for an easy-tomake dessert.

For dessert, make chocolate or butterscotch pudding with non fat or low fat milk. Top casseroles, soups, stews, or vegetables with shredded reduced fat or low fat cheese.

Include milk as a beverage at meals. Choose non fat or low fat milk. Top a baked potato with nonfat or lowfat yogurt.

Exercising regularly throughout life, with an emphasis on weightbearing activities such as walking, jogging, dancing, and weight training can also help lower risk of osteoporosis.

19

THE INNER-CITY NEWS October 26, 2016 - November 01, 2016

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His deep voice will stop you in your tracks. At 6-foot-3, with broad shoulders, his presence is immediately known in a room.

Colter is the newest entry into Marvel’s superhero world, playing the role of Luke Cage, Marvel’s newest superhero franchise that debuted on Netflix to rave revues.

Luke Cage is not Iron Man, saving the entire world from an alien threat. Being bulletproof and with super strength, he’s a citizen, saving Harlem from itself. Saving it from the gang culture, the street-level drugs and guns that seem to overrun any inner city street corner.

Colter is also the first black person to lead a Marvel property, beating Black Panther actor Chadwick Boseman to the punch by almost two years.

“He is one of the first black superheroes who has his own TV series and is bulletproof right now. You have to embrace it and take it as a positive because it is a point of conversation.”

That conversation – concerning diversity and shootings in the US – is on everybody’s mind. Video after video, death after death of Black men, it hits home for Colter too.

“You just don’t know how to process it,” Colter told the Observer. “You have to ask, ‘What do you have to do to not get shot?’

There’s no easy answer. There’s no book to figure out how not to become a victim of police brutality. It’s flat-out murder. You don’t know how to process the things that are happening because no one is being brought to justice.

It’s a paid vacation for the person who pulled the trigger.

But Colter is far from vacation himself. In fact, with more episodes and seasons in the works, plus other acting roles, he’s keeping busy. So how did Colter prepare for this role as the Black 20

(photo credit: Luke Cage twitter)

‘hero-for-hire’?

By hitting the gym and lifting some serious weights to put on 30 pounds of pure muscles, Colter says. But he’s no stranger to getting physical for roles. Colter had to get fit played a boxer in box office smash, Million Dollar Baby starring Hillary Swank.

His first line of attack to build the muscle mass needed for Luke Cage was intense cardio training.

He did cross-training workouts because he felt like he needed to shock his body.

As a result, he over-lifted and ended up hurting his shoulder.

That injury caused him to rethink his entire… … workout plan. So he slowlstarted adding two vegan plant protein shakes a day to his diet and took glutamine to help with muscle breakdown after weight training sessions.

Knowing that his diet contributes to over 80% of his body, his diet is high in protein (beef, chicken, pork, turkey, fish, eggs) helps to build muscle and keeps the body lean.

Colter is not a fan of the traditional gym workouts that other actors do. He doesn’t want to just spend his time in a weight room strength training; he prefers to mix it up with other exercises, including swimming, cardio training, and playing basketball.

As far as what’s next for Colter?

He’s taking it one day at a time.

“This is a gift. It’s not something I take for granted,” Colter said.

“It’s something that if you’re lucky and you can do whatever you want to do with your life and you’re happy doing it, then it’s no longer a job and you have a career and you can kind of enjoy it.”

THE INNER-CITY NEWS October 26, 2016 - November 01, 2016

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21

Only 30 minutes from Hartford

Kevin Hart: What Now? THE INNER-CITY NEWS October 26, 2016 - November 01, 2016

Kevin Hart Wows Hometown Crowd of 50,000 at Lincoln Financial Field Film Review

by Kam Williams

Step aside Chris Rock, Eddie Murphy and Martin Lawrence, the undisputed reigning “King of Comedy, “ pound-for-pound, is clearly now Kevin Hart. That’s after his “What Now?” world tour during which the diminutive comedian staged 168 shows across the United States and Canada, as well as ports-of-call in Europe, Asia, Australia and Africa.

The pinnacle of the 16-month standup series was an outdoor event at Lincoln Financial Field. where the Philly native son performed in front of a very appreciative crowd of 50,000 hometown fans. And the record-making turnout marked the only occasion on which a comic has ever sold out a mammoth football stadium.

The highlights from that venue’s production were cobbled together to create Kevin Hart: What Now?, the 5’ 4” funnyman’s fifth foray into the concert flick genre, and his first since Let Me Explain (2013). While most of the movie is ostensibly composed of the best of Kevin’s latest standup

act, it opens with another one of his trademark set pieces, in this case a spoof of a famous James Bond scene from Casino Royale.

Directed by Tim Story, the skit features Kevin as a suave card shark and co-stars Halle Berry as his love interest Miss Money

Berry, Don Cheadle as his straight man, David Meunier as a ruthless Russian mobster, and Ed Helms as an affable bartender. The basic idea behind the bit is to have Hart amass millions in winnings at the poker table before mounting a daring escape with Halle in

tow and arriving just in time in Philly to launch the proceedings.

Let’s face it, comedy has become more of a challenge in this politically-correct era when formerly-favored, bottom feeding fare focusing on misogyny, homophobia and race have underRP inner city news oct.qxp_Layout 1 10/11/16 10:56 AM

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standably become controversial, hot-button topics. However, Kevin has never had any trouble working with such constraints, as his observational brand of humor is mostly of an introspective nature.

Instead, he continues to mostly exploit himself, milking mirth from jokes revolving around his size, his fear of being photographed while sitting on a public toilet seat, his dislike of his wife’s endless hypothetical questions, and his newfound fear of wild animals like snakes, coyotes and mountain lions which has surfaced now that he resides outside of L.A. As Kevin himself suggests just as the closing credits start to roll, his hilarious act’s universal acceptance by the diverse audience made up of members of every ethnicity and orientation effectively delivers a timely message that if we can all laugh together, then we can all live together, too!.

Very Good (3 stars) Rated R for pervasive profanity, the N-word, and some sexual references.

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THE INNER-CITY NEWS October 26, 2016 - November 01, 2016

ellington jazz series

the LANGSTON HUGHES PROJECT Friday at 7:30 pm • Tickets start at $20, Students $10 Morse Recital Hall • 470 College Street, New Haven Box Office: 203 432-4158

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23

THE INNER-CITY NEWS October 26, 2016 - November 01, 2016

CLOSES OCTOBER 29TH

Why We Must Continue to Fight Efforts to Suppress Black Votes

HazWaste Central Working with Communities to Protect Our Water Resources SAFE & FREE DISPOSAL OF HOUSEHOLD CHEMICALS SATURDAYS ONLY, 9 AM–NOON THROUGH OCT. 29, 2016 HazWaste Central is for residents in these participating towns: Bethany, Branford, Cheshire, East Haven, Fairfield, Guilford, Hamden, Madison, Milford, New Haven, North Branford, North Haven, Orange, Wallingford, West Haven, Woodbridge.

Partial list of what to bring. For a complete list of what to bring: www.rwater.com/products-and-services/hazwaste-central/ KITCHEN & BATHROOM Aerosols

Metal & Furniture Polish

Bathroom Cleaners

Floor Care Products

Oven & Drain Cleaners

Nail Polish Remover

GARAGE & WORKSHOP Gasoline

Auto Body Repair Products Paint Thinner & Stripper

Auto Batteries

Other Oils/Cleaners

Used Motor Oil*

Brake & Transmission Fluid

Latex & Oil-Based Paints*

Antifreeze

GARDEN & MISCELLANEOUS Chemical Fertilizer

Herbicides & Insecticides

Batteries*

Fungicides

Pesticides

Photographic Chemicals

Swimming Pool Chemicals

Fluorescent Bulbs (Including CFL Type)*

Small (1 Pound) Propane Cylinders

Mercury & Mercury-Containing Items

* Local disposal options may be available. Please check with your public works department or local transfer station or the following resources: Batteries: call 1-800-8-BATTERY or log on to www.call2recycle.org (excluding alkaline and auto batteries).

Compact Fluorescent Light (CFL) Bulbs: call 1-800-CLEANUP, or log on to www.earth911.com Paint: log on to www.paintcare.org and visit the Connecticut portion of the site to find a drop-off location for household paint.

No Gas-Grill Size Propane Tanks or Electronics

Residential Waste Only

SMALL BUSINESSES: CALL 203-401-2712 FOR DISPOSAL INFORMATION For more info call 203.401.2712 or email ask.hazwaste@rwater.com.

Located at 90 Sargent Drive, New Haven at the Regional Water Authority’s Headquarters.

Take I-95 exit 46 and follow signs to the RWA.

By Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis, Jr., President and CEO, NNPA In all democracies, the right to vote is fundamental to the legitimacy of an elected government chosen by the participatory action and will of the people eligible to vote. For 47 million Black Americans, the right to vote is a sacred responsibility without the fear of reprisal, retribution or repression.

It’s 2016 and this year’s national elections in the United States are only a few days away. Yet in many states early voting has already begun. Keep in mind in the last national presidential race in 2012, Black Americans went to the polls in record numbers with over 17.8 million casting their ballots even in face of voter suppression tactics mainly by Republican officials in various states in the Midwest, Southwest and in the South.

Black America had a higher percentage turnout of voters than White voters across the nation in 2012. The Black percentage turnout was 66.2 percent versus 64.1 percent for White voters. The election results in November will ultimately be determined by the percentage of overall voter turnout.

If the Black vote was not so strategically important and determinative today, you would not

see the current manifestations of blatantly racist acts designed to suppress the Black vote. Such is the case today especially in Indiana, North Carolina and in other states where Black voter turnout is key to winning the election.

Indiana Governor Mike Pence who is now aggressively campaigning to be Vice President of the United States of America, has permitted and encouraged the Indiana State Police to target and shut down the most successful voter registration organization that has registered Blacks to vote in Indiana. The dastardly use of state police to intimidate and prevent Black people from registering to vote demands public outcry and challenge.

On October 4, 2016 Indiana State Police raided the headquarters of the Indiana Voter Registration Project, coordinated by a group named Patriot Majority USA in Indianapolis, Ind. The Indiana State Police shut down this voter-registration program that was helping to register tens of thousands of law-abiding, eligible Black Americans in Indiana.

According to Craig Varoga, the president of Patriot Majority USA, “Mike Pence has a well-oiled political machine that is using the Indiana State Police to suppress African American votes and violate the Constitutional rights of tens of thousands of Hoosiers. This is not only voter suppression at its worst, it is an insult to all of the honest troopers in the state police, and to law-enforcement officials across the country, who disapprove of wasting precious crime-fighting resources on partisan witch hunts that further

harm relations between police officers and minority communities.”

In North Carolina, even after the 4th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals recently overturned the state’s severe voter suppression law, many Republican county officials across the state have established policies to limit early voting and Sunday voting that will, again, target those counties in N.C., where Black Americans are concentrated.

But Black leaders and organizations are fighting back. Reverend Dr. William Barber, President of the N.C. NAACP, affirmed, “We’re fighting and staying strong. Tomorrow early voting starts in North Carolina. They can register and vote the same day. We’re leading a march on the campus of North Carolina Central University and going all over the state and other HBCUs.” The ultimate antidote to Black voter suppression is to ensure a massive Black voter turnout across the nation between now and Tuesday, November 8, 2016. Let’s all work to stop racist voter suppression. We vote for freedom, justice, equality and empowerment.

Follow the NNPA’s voter registration campaign on social media with #BlackVotesMatter, #BlackPressMatters, #BlackVotersPoll.

Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis, Jr. is the President and CEO of the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA) and can be reached for national advertisement sales and partnership proposals at: dr.bchavis@nnpa.org.

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24

THE INNER-CITY NEWS October 26, 2016 - November 01, 2016

NY Attorney General goes after Construction Discrimination Beyond the Rhetoric by Harry C. Alford

After three decades of fighting against discrimination amongst construction unions, I finally see a shining example of due diligence.

Most elected officials don’t give much attention to leveling the field for minority and female contractors. Start calling out the fraudulent general contractors who will do anything to try and game projects where the owners have good intentions by setting targets or goals for minority and female subcontractors and they just ignore you. Some depressing days would cause me to say to myself “Am I the only one who sees this?”

But finally it appears that leaders are catching on to this expensive and illegal activity that decimates our workforce and blocks the development of minority entrepreneurs. Most of the discrimination

is targeted towards Blacks. The people of Rochester, New York have received a blessing. That blessing is New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman. After hearing complaints about the fraud and fronting on a multi – renovation school system project, the Attorney General began to look at this $325 million 13 schools project funded by the State of New York.

He organized a formal investigation and on October 14, 2016 he announced his conclusions. There were five construction firms guilty of discrimination against minority and female firm who sought subcontracting tasks. The firms have agreed to pay $825,000 in fines after they were “cold busted”. A whistleblower stepped in and exposed what was happening and the firms – Concord Electric Corporation, Manning Squires Hennig, Hewitt Young Electric, Michael A. Ferrauilo Plumbing & Heating Inc. and Mark Cerrone Inc. blamed it all on sloppy paper work and unforeseen mix-ups.

According to the Attorney Gen-

eral, “All five firms lied about sub-contracting with minority and women owned businesses when in reality, they got materials and labor elsewhere. In many cases, the firms gave MWOBs (minority women owned businesses) kickbacks in exchange for falsifying documents.” I certainly hope he has no mercy on the minority culprits who went along with these games.

The program was well intended. Not only will they correct the above but will also start similar programs. Reviewing what went wrong in Rochester, the Syracuse school systems will now begin on their renovation and have pledged to do it right. The mayor of Syracuse has pledged decent minority and female participation and has hired a consultant to monitor the progress and assure the numbers and percentages are real and correct. After that comes Buffalo. These and other New York cities understand the seriousness of the Attorney General.

The fines that will be collected

by Rochester will go into the

needed funding for more ongoing city projects. Syracuse is raising a $400,000 fund to assist minority and female contractors who are being paid in a very slow process.

This is called “factoring”. Slow pay is a major issue for small businesses. Another pledge by the Syracuse mayor is that most of the workers will be Syracuse citizens – no carpet bagging which construction unions are noted for. It is a new day coming for the Black contractors of upstate New York and that is a very, very good thing.

As our new friend, Attorney General Schneiderman laments, “Women and minority owned businesses have historically been shut out of government contracts for all the wrong reasons. That’s why our state, and localities, implement reasonable diversity standards to level the playing field.

These contractors engaged in flagrant schemes that flouted the diversity rules they were required to meet, and in the process, denied minority and women owned businesses a fair shot at winning

valuable sub-contracts. My office will continue to aggressively enforce the law against contractors who game the system.” Look out!

There is a new “sheriff” in town.

All attorney generals, prosecutors and mayors should emulate what is happening in New York. Most urban areas outside of the South are menaced with vile and racist contractors who refuse diversity and will plague minorities and females to satisfy their greed. Wherever there is high union activity in construction there will be games played. Sign them to firm diversity standards. I am not talking “goals” but requirements. Monitor them and accept no excuses.

Here is some homework. What is the status of construction diversity in your community? All you have to do is ask and verify. If it is not going right, then get an investigation to see where the problem is.

Mr. Alford is the co-founder, President and CEO, of the National Black Chamber of Commerce®.

Website: www.nationalbcc.org Email: halford@nationalbcc.org

Four Ways President Obama Can Help Blacks in His Last 100 Days in Office

By Julianne Malveaux, NNPA Newswire Columnist The countdown to President Obama’s last one hundred days began on October 13. Already, the President has committed to spending his waning days in office by campaigning for Hillary Clinton, the Democratic nominee for President. Indeed, he has put his legacy on the line, telling Black people at his last Congressional Black Caucus dinner that he will be personally insulted if folks don’t get out to vote for Hillary. Instead of staking his legacy on the results of the November elections, however, President Obama might be better advised to improve his legacy by taking bold actions in these last days of his presidency.

What might he do to positively affect the African Americans he

far too frequently scolds? For one thing, he might step up the pace of the pardons and sentence commutations for nonviolent drug offenders, who are disproportionately African American. In 2011, thenAttorney General Eric Holder said there were as many as 10,000 federal drug offenders that could be released. While President Obama has offered pardons and commutations, only a fraction of those whose sentences could be commuted have been. For whatever reason, the Department of Justice has moved at a snail’s pace with commutations. President Obama could direct Attorney General Loretta Lynch to bring more pardon applications to his desk. He would make a tremendous impact if the number of nonviolent drug offenders with sentences pardoned or commuted were closer to 10,000 than 1000.

President Obama might also consider a posthumous pardon for Marcus Garvey, the Jamaicanborn activist and founder of the Universal Negro Improvement

Association (UNIA). At its peak, UNIA had millions of members in 1100 chapters in 40 countries.

Garvey was wrongfully convicted of mail fraud and deported from the United States in 1923. Garvey was really only guilty of loving Black people and organizing us. President Obama could lift up an organizer, correct a historical wrong, and signal that he is not as indifferent to Black people as he sometimes seems. Such a small gesture would go a long way toward contributing to his legacy.

The President might also consider the request from The Institute of the Black World 21st Century to appoint a John Hope Franklin Commission on Reparations. He could do this by executive order and the commission could potentially hold a few hearings in the month after the November election. This would be a small gesture, but it would go a long way toward continuing an important conversation about the origins of our nation’s wealth gap.

President Obama could also use

25

an executive order to direct unspent Department of Education funds to Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs).

What if he directed at least $1 million to each HBCU, pushing Dr. Kim Hunter Reed, Acting Executive Director of the White House Initiative on HBCUs to go to each federal department to release unspent funds for contracting and scholarship opportunities? These dollars would make a great difference, especially at our nation’s smallest, private HBCUs. The president made important points in his recent visit to North Carolina A&T State University at a gathering hosted by ESPN’s “The Undefeated” and led by anchor Stan Verrett. He could combine talk with action by aggressively addressing HBCU issues as his term winds down, making amends for the ways his administration treated HBCUs earlier.

President Obama has lots of unfinished domestic and foreign policy matters, and there will be numerous demands in these last 100

days for him to address a plethora of issues. As a lame duck, he has limited tools – the executive order and the bully pulpit. Congress may return after the November election chastened, especially if Republicans lose the Presidential race, and inclined to cooperate on some legislative matters. It is more likely, however, that they will continue their obstruction to anything President Obama proposes.

Still, President Obama has the power to do more both symbolically and substantively in these last days of his Presidency. I’d urge him to consider some of the things he can do to address the African American community that has steadfastly supported him, even when he has not been so supportive of us.

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

THE INNER-CITY NEWS October 26, 2016 - November 01, 2016

It’s Not All Good In The Neighborhood: Where You Live Can Be A Stroke Risk Factor

by Keith Hoots, M.D. and George Mensah, M.D. BlackDoctor.org

A higher neighborhood advantage, or socioeconomic status, of where a person lives contributes to a lower risk of having a stroke no matter the person’s race, according to findings published in the Oct. 14 online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

The report from the University of Alabama at Birmingham REasons for Geographic And Racial Differences in Stroke study shows this effect is the same for black and white adults, both men and women.

“More blacks than whites in the United States have strokes and die from strokes,” said Virginia Howard, Ph.D., lead author of the study and professor in the UAB School of Public Health Department of Epidemiology. “More people who live in the Southeastern area known as the stroke belt have stroke and die from stroke compared to those who live in the rest of the United States.”

This study showed that residents in more disadvantaged neighborhoods had greater stroke risk than those who lived in more advantaged neighborhoods. The neighborhood index is composed of six factors, including a higher value of housing units and higher proportion of residents employed in professional occupations. A higher score in all of these categories leads to a higher advantaged neighborhood.

The observation was true even after adjustment for age, race, sex and region of the country. But after adjustment for other stroke risk factors, there was no association between the level of the neighborhood advantage and stroke risk, suggesting that those living in more disadvantaged neighborhoods are more likely to develop risk factors including hypertension, diabetes and smoking. Because of being more likely to develop these risk factors, they are at higher risk of stroke.

“These results are consistent with other evidence showing that factors associated with living in

more disadvantaged neighborhoods contribute to stroke risk.

However, it is difficult to separate the influence of neighborhood characteristics from characteristics of the individuals living in the neighborhood,” Howard said.

“Many social and behavioral risk factors, such as smoking and physical inactivity, are more prevalent in the less advantaged neighborhoods. Greater attention needs to be paid to risk factor management strategies in disadvantaged neighborhoods in order to make a difference in preventing stroke on an individual level.”

The current study looked at measures of the neighborhood advantage where people live to determine whether these factors contributed to future stroke risk.

Data came from the REGARDS study, a national random sample of

the general population with more people selected from the stroke belt and about half black, half white.

The study involved 24,875 people with an average age of 65 who had not had a stroke at the start of the study. The participants were divided into four neighborhood groups, ranging from lowest level of advantage to the highest. The participants were followed for an average of seven and a half years.

During that time, 929 people had a stroke.

This study has advantages over other studies in that it includes individuals of low, middle, uppermiddle and high individual wealth across 1,833 urban and rural counties in the United States, and a large number of both blacks and whites. Other stroke risk factors were measured prior to the stroke.

26

Con’t from page 14

Church St. South Refugees Fight Back

housing development; the other 266 have requested portable Section 8 vouchers they can take to any qualified landlords (and then to new places if they move again), according to authority Executive Director Karen DuBois-Walton.

The government has issued 251 of those 266 vouchers; DuBoisWalton said her staff hopes to issue the other 15 after meeting with families this week. She said 133 families have moved into new homes so far, 101 in New Haven, 32 in other communities. The others are still looking for apartments.

Twelve families, three of which will probably move to new homes this weekend, remain in hotels, DuBois-Walton said.

Future Justice A larger question of justice concerns not just the fate of those families, but the availability of affordable housing in New Haven.

Church Street South was one of the few remaining complexes in town where poor families on Section 8 could find three-, four-, or five-bedroom apartments they could afford.

The plan for rebuilding Church Street South calls for a mixeduse developments with stores, maybe offices, and 900 to 1,000 apartments. The initially skeptical Harp administration has now agreed to work with Northland to rebuild the complex rather than try to get the property in new hands.

The two sides have agreed to seek federal or state money to support making 30 percent of the new apartments there “affordable.”

(The rest would be market-rate.)

The meaning of “affordable” will depend on what government source provides the funding: It could mean “low-low-income” families like the current and recently displaced Church Street South tenants, many of whom make under $30,000 a year in income. Or it could mean four-person households earning as much as 120 percent of New Haven’s $87,000 annual area median income.

“We have huge concerns around regentrification,” said statewide NAACP President Scot X. Esdaile. “My fear is this will be like 360 State. A successful model would be like Ninth Square,” where as much as 40 percent of the housing is subsidized in mixed-

income apartment buildings.

Legal aid lawyers have continued to push city officials to make sure that New Haven preserves, or even gains more, affordable housing during this process, through a combination of site-based Section 8 subsidies at other locations as well as a replacement of the 301 or so subsidized apartments to be lost when Church Street South comes down. Officials have promised that any former tenants who want to return to the newly rebuilt complex will have an opportunity to do so.

It’s not clear that many, if any, will want to return.

Personna Noble, the lead named plaintiff in the new federal suit, said she won’t want to come back if Northland continues to own the complex. “They’d still have the same workers,” she said. Noble said she lost all her furniture after it got destroyed during three months in storage while Northland put her family up in a hotel.

She now has a permanent new apartment on Quinnipiac Avenue. She said she’s happy there.

“Not if it’s under the same management,” agreed fellow former tenant Leeza Skovinski, who’s now living on Eastern Street. She said Northland moved her to a new apartment on site after it couldn’t eliminate the mold in her original one. Then “I came home with a newborn from the hospital and I didn’t have hot water” for a month in her second Church Street South apartment. “No one would fix it.”

THE INNER-CITY NEWS October 26, 2016 - November 01, 2016

The NAACP’s Proposed Moratorium on Charter Schools Doesn’t Make Sense

By Larry Lee, Sacramento Observer, NNPA Member Access to a good education can reap tremendous benefits in the lives of individuals and in society. That’s why the NAACP should recognize and support all successful educational models, including charter schools.

Even though non-profit charter schools that focus on Black student achievement have shown great success across the country, on October 15 in Cincinnati, the National Board of the NAACP is considering a resolution calling for a moratorium on the expansion of charter schools.

The rationale for the resolution does not accurately reflect the realities in many charter schools that successfully serve African American students and other students of color in California, where the measure originated.

The state of California has

Why Low Income Students on Food Stamps Do Better in School

A recent study by The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities showed that low-income children who are receiving Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits, also known as food stamps, actually perform better in school than children who are not receiving the benefits.

When children go hungry, they can’t concentrate, they are much more likely to become ill, and they are either too embarrassed or too proud to ask for food. So, they suffer in silence.

Why their test scores are higher

In states like Vermont, where every four children under the age of 18 in on a food stamp program, teachers see hungry children every day. Many teachers keep food and snack items in their desk drawers to help out children they know are suffering from hunger. Even local citizens are trying to help by donating fruits and vegetables from their gardens.

The reason is very simple. They have food in their tummies. Being hungry affects the ability to concentrate in school, resulting in lower test scores and the higher possibility of not graduating from high school. Basically, being hungry affects their entire lives and their future. Poor students receiving food stamps are 18 percent more likely to graduate from high school, according to the study, especially young girls who showed increased scores in reading and math.

Children from low-income families often do not get the same amount of food as other children, and may even be skipping meals due to economic circumstances.

Teachers see hungry children every day

the most public charter schools and public charter school students in the United States. In 2015-16, more than 1,200 charter schools served 572,752 students throughout the state.

A majority of those students would be students stuck in some of the state’s low-performing schools.

There has been tremendous evidence that shows that charter schools are serving minority and poor families well.

A study entitled “A Step Up: How Charter Schools Provide Higher Levels of California Public University Access” found that charter schools are closing the University of California (UC) acceptance rate gap for under-represented student with African American and Latino charter school students almost twice as likely (19 percent) to apply to the UC as their traditional public school peers (11 percent).

Additionally, charter schools serving majorities of low-income students have the highest acceptance rates of all — 21 percent.

The acceptance rate at similar traditional public schools is only 11 percent. One study by the Center for Research on Education Outcomes at Stanford University found that charter schools do a better job teaching low-income students, minority students and students who are still learning English, than traditional public schools.

Separate studies by the Center on Reinvention Public Education and Mathematica Policy Research have found that charter school stu-

dents are more likely to graduate from high school, go on to college, stay in college, and have higher earnings in early adulthood.

The NAACP should understand that as public schools in California, charter schools can only exist if they are authorized by a publicly elected school district board of education or county board of education.

A few charter schools may also appeal to an appointed state board of education, but that is the same body that adopts regulations for all public schools in California.

In addition to being authorized by a publicly elected board, many charter schools also have an appointed board which conducts its business in accordance with the same state laws — the Brown Act, as publicly elected boards.

As California charter schools are public schools, they are publicly funded and must adhere to the state regulatory laws, oversight, audit requirements and dissemination of information about their operations.

Nearly all charter schools in California are operated by nonprofits or school districts, except about 1 percent that are operated by for-profit organizations — a practice the California Charter Schools Association opposes.

Calling for a moratorium on privately managed charter schools, as the NAACP resolution does, paints charter schools led by non-profit organizations with the same brush as for-profit operators. That’s wrong.

Few would argue that all char-

ter schools are perfect. But, the same can be said of traditional public schools where there have been state takeovers or schools placed on federal “program improvement” for years.

Charter schools do not have so many years to reach their goals.

They face re-authorization determinations every three to five years.

By almost any measure — the National Assessment of Education Progress Scholastic Aptitude Test, college admissions rates, college graduation rates — African Americans still fare worse than any other ethnic group in most traditional public schools.

And yet, there are effective public schools serving African American students in the United States, including charter schools. California and the nation need to accelerate the replication of such schools, not curtail their growth.

The venerable organization should focus on the results of effective schooling for students rather than defending policy positions that have more to do with adult issues and less to do with proven, effective student performance.

No policy should be established to retard the growth and replication of successful schools.

Larry Lee is the publisher of The Sacramento Observer.

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

Vermont is certainly not the only state that sees hungry children. There are other communities across the country that have children in need.

For more details about the study, visit www.cbpp.org/research/ food-assistance/snap-works-foramericas-children

For more information on ACES schools, programs and services, please visit our website.

(203) 498-6800 | www.aces.org 27

THE INNER-CITY NEWS October 26, 2016 - November 01, 2016

NOTICE OF REQUEST FOR QUALIFICATIONS HOUSING AUTHORITY OF THE CITY OF DANBURY Inventory Consultant RFQ No. RQ16001 CONTACT PERSON

Ms. Devin Marra, Director of Procurement Telephone: 203-744-2500 x141 E-Mail: dmarra@hacdct.org Contact Ms. Devin Marra, via phone or email.

Housing Authority of the City of Danbury 2 Mill Ridge Rd, Danbury, CT 06811 Envelope Must be Marked: RFQ No. RQ16001 Inventory Consultant October 31, 2016 – 10:00 am (EST)

HOW TO OBTAIN THE RFQ DOCUMENTS: SUBMITTAL RETURN

SUBMITTAL DEADLINE

[Minority- and/or women-owned businesses are encouraged to respond]

The Glendower Group, Inc Request for Proposals

CO-DEVELOPER FOR ROCKVIEW PHASE II The Glendower Group, Inc an affiliate of Housing Authority City of New Haven d/b/a Elm city Communities is currently seeking Proposals for CO-Developer for Rockview Phase II A complete copy of the requirement may be obtained from Elm City’s Vendor Collaboration Portal https://newhavenhousing.cobblestonesystems.com/gateway beginning on Friday, October 7, 2016 at 3:00 PM. NOTICE OF INVITATION FOR BID HOUSING AUTHORITY OF THE CITY OF DANBURY Landscaping/Glen Apartments IFB No. B16003

CONTACT PERSON HOW TO OBTAIN THE IFB DOCUMENTS:

BID SUBMITTAL RETURN PRE-BID WALK THROUGH BID SUBMITTAL DEADLINE/BID OPENING

Ms. Devin Marra, Director of Procurement Telephone: 203-744-2500 x141 E-Mail: dmarra@hacdct.org Contact Ms. Devin Marra, via phone or email.

Housing Authority of the City of Danbury 2 Mill Ridge Rd, Danbury, CT 06811 Envelope Must be Marked: IFB No. B16003 Landscaping Glen Apartments 25 Memorial Drive, Danbury, CT 06811 November 3, 2016 by 2:00pm EST November 09, 2016 at 10:00am EST

[Minority- and/or women-owned businesses are encouraged to respond]

NOTICE OF INVITATION FOR BID HOUSING AUTHORITY OF THE CITY OF DANBURY Snow Removal/Glen Apartments IFB No. B16004

CONTACT PERSON HOW TO OBTAIN THE IFB DOCUMENTS:

BID SUBMITTAL RETURN PRE-BID WALK THROUGH BID SUBMITTAL DEADLINE/BID OPENING

Ms. Devin Marra, Director of Procurement Telephone: 203-744-2500 x141 E-Mail: dmarra@hacdct.org Contact Ms. Devin Marra, via phone or email.

Housing Authority of the City of Danbury 2 Mill Ridge Rd, Danbury, CT 06811 Envelope Must be Marked: IFB No. B16004 Snow Removal Glen Apartments 25 Memorial Drive, Danbury, CT 06811 November 3, 2016 by 2:00pm EST November 09, 2016 at 10:15am EST

[Minority- and/or women-owned businesses are encouraged to respond]

28

THE INNER-CITY NEWS October 26, 2016 - November 01, 2016

Housing Authority of the City of New Haven

Union Company seeks:

Tractor Trailer Driver for Heavy & Highway Construction Equipment. Must have a CDL License, clean driving record, capable of operating heavy equipment; be willing to travel throughout the Northeast & NY. Contact Greg at 860-243-2300.

We offer excellent hourly rate & excellent benefits Contact: Dana Briere Phone: 860-243-2300 Email: dana.briere@garrityasphalt.com Women & Minority Applicants are encouraged to apply Affirmative Action/ Equal Opportunity Employer

INVITATION TO BID

DAS Certified Minority Business Enterprise (MBE) Subcontractors are invited to bid on the Abatement Package at the Sono Life Center located at 2 Merritt Place, Norwalk, CT 06854 This Package will be awarded to DAS Certified Minority Business Enterprise (MBE) subcontractor as part of the Set-Aside Contractor Program. BIDS DUE 12:00 PM, November 4, 2016.

Send Email to ngorneault@pacgroupllc.com for electronic access to the bid package.

PAC Group LLC, the Construction Manager and the owner reserve the rights: to accept any, all, or any part of bids; to reject any, all, or any part of bids; to waive any nonmaterial deficiencies in bid responses; and to award the bid that in its judgment will be in the best interests of the owner.

Invitation for Bids Snow Removal Services at Newhall Gardens and Prescott Bush The Housing Authority of the City of New Haven d/b/a Elm City Communities is currently seeking Bids for Snow Removal Services at Newhall Garden and Prescott Bush. A complete copy of the requirement may be obtained from Elm City’s Vendor Collaboration Portal https://newhavenhousing.cobblestonesystems.com/gateway beginning on Wednesday, October 12, 2016 @ 3:00 PM.

Housing Authority of the City of New Haven Invitation for Bids Snow Removal at Westville Manor and 295 Wilmot Road The Housing Authority of the City of New Haven d/b/a Elm City Communities is currently seeking Bids for Snow Removal at Westville Manor and 295 Wilmot Road. A complete copy of the requirement may be obtained from Elm City’s Vendor Collaboration Portal https://newhavenhousing.cobblestonesystems.com/ gateway beginning on Wednesday, October 12, 2016 @ 3:00 PM.

Housing Authority of the City of New Haven Invitation for Bids Snow Removal Services at Valley and Waverly Townhouses The Housing Authority of the City of New Haven d/b/a Elm City Communities is currently seeking Bids for Snow Removal Services at Valley and Waverly Townhouses. A complete copy of the requirement may be obtained from Elm City’s Vendor Collaboration Portal https://newhavenhousing.cobblestonesystems. com/gateway beginning on Wednesday, October 12, 2016 @ 3:00 PM.

Elm City Communities

AFFIRMATIVE ACTION / EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER

Public Notice

The Manchester Housing Authority will close the waiting list for the Federal Low Income Public Housing (LIPH) program (Elderly/Disabled, 0/1 BR units) at 4:00 PM October 31, 2016. Applications are available in person and on the MHA website at http://manchesterha.org and will be accepted until 4:00 PM October 31, 2016. There is no scheduled date to re-open the waiting list. When the MHA is prepared to re-open the waiting list a public notice will be issued in order to give proper notice to interested parties.

The Manchester Housing Authority does not discriminate based upon race, color, disability, familial status, sex or national origin.

Maintainer II Must have 2 yrs. exp. as laborer in field of construction work involving the operation and care of mechanical equipment or 2 yrs. in a skilled trade and 1 yr. exp. in construction operations or and equiv combination of experience and training. A valid Commercial Driver’s License (CDL) Class B and a clean driving record. Pay rate: $21.33 to $25.00 hourly plus an excellent fringe benefit package. Apply Personnel Department, Town of Wallingford, 45 South Main Street, Wallingford, CT 06492. The closing date will be that date the 50th application form/resume is received, or August 17, 2016, whichever occurs first. Candidates without a valid CDL should not apply. A copy of your license will be required when applying. EOE

Town of Bloomfield Town Assessor - Reposted $77,881 - $120,209

For details and how to apply, go to www.bloomfieldct.org. Pre-employment drug testing.

AA/EOE

Request for Proposals Direct Oversight/ Management of the Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) Program Housing Authority City of New Haven d/b/a Elm city Communities is currently seeking Proposals for Direct Oversight/ Management of the Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) Program. A complete copy of the requirement may be obtained from Elm City’s Vendor Collaboration Portal https://newhavenhousing.cobblestonesystems.com/gateway beginning on Monday, October 17, 2016 @ 9:00 AM.

FENCE ERECTING CONTRACTORS

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/hour plus benefits, helper rates from $18/hour plus benefits. OSHA 10 training is a plus. Please email resume to rhauer@atlasoutdoor.com AA/EOE

Portland Youth Services – Junior Staff

Town of Portland, CT (EOE) Junior Staff: High School Youth (age 15 to 18) part-time from August 31, 2016 to June 2017, Monday thru Friday 3:00 to 6:00 PM; Counselor I, $9.60 per hour. Individual schedule determined by need and availability. Based at Brownstone Intermediate School, the Kids Blast After School Program is a very structured team program. Working, interacting and supervising children ages 5 to 12. Help with homework by staff is required. Other creative activities are also planned. Previous experience working with children preferred. Send Seasonal Recreation Employment Application to: First Selectwoman’s Office P.O. Box 71 Portland, CT 06480-0071 Deadline: August 29, 2016 or until filled

29

THE INNER-CITY NEWS October 26, 2016 - November 01, 2016

Black Women Will Elect the Next President

By Freddie Allen,

NNPA Newswire Managing Editor

Black women will play a key role in electing the next president, according to a recent report by the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO).

The AFL-CIO is a national trade group and the largest federation of unions in the United States.

Carmen Berkley, the director of civil, human and women’s rights policy at the AFL-CIO said that the labor group wanted to provide context to the power that Black women voters have displayed over the past two presidential election cycles. In the briefing paper, researchers provided a case for why labor unions and non-profit organizations should be paying attention to Black women.

“Without Black women, President Obama would not have won the White House in 2012,” said Berkley. “Black women voters delivered in key battleground states like Ohio, Pennsylvania and Florida where President Obama picked up 67 additional electoral votes.”

Berkley continued: “If Black women had not turned out, President Obama would have been five electoral votes shy of winning the presidency.”

Denise Rolark Barnes, the publisher of The Washington Informer and chairwoman of the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA) said that Black women voters could make a monumental difference in the outcome of the 2016 election, just like they did in 2012.

But Rolark Barnes also expressed concerns that neither of the candidates have touched on the issues that are important to Black women and single parents, who are also the primary breadwinners in their families; issues like health care, education and the environment are very important to Black women and their families.

“I don’t think we’ve heard enough from the candidates about how they plan to address issues that affect Black and Latino families,” Rolark Barnes said.

Recently, Hillary Rodham Clinton spoke at a campaign rally in Durham, N.C., flanked by “Mothers of the Movement,” a group of Black women who have lost children to gun violence or during interactions with law enforcement.

The group included Gwen Carr, the mother of Eric Garner, Sybrina Fulton, the mother of Trayvon Martin, Lucia McBath, the mother of Jordan Davis and Geneva ReedVeal, the mother of Sandra Bland.

The Democratic presidential nominee also delivered remarks at the Black Women’s Agenda conference in September, where she acknowledged that even though the contributions of Black women are “often missing from the history books make no mistake you are the change makers, the path breakers, and the ground shakers. And, you are proof that yes, indeed, Black girl magic is real.”

Berkley said that Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has said that he knows the Black community, but he hasn’t proven that he understands the impact that Black people, especially Black women, have on society.

“Black women drive turnout for the Black community,” said Berkley. “We care a lot about police reform, raising the minimum wage, protecting social security and we are economically liberal when it come to the government.”

Berkley also noted that Black women have been very reliable

30

voters in the past two election cycles. In 2012 and 2014 Black women voted at higher rates than other women.

According to the briefing paper on the importance of Black women voters in 2016, “In 2012, 83 percent of registered Black women turned out, compared to 73 percent for all other women, a ten-point difference. Black women turned out at a higher rate than other women in 2014 as well. Fifty-five percent of registered Black women turned out in 2014, compared to 53 percent for all other women.”

Berkley said that Black women do more than vote.

“We’re very active in our churches, we’re very active in our communities and we’re very active in our unions,” she said.

According to a survey by Lake Research Partners (LRP), a leading public opinion and political strategy research firm, Black workers are far more likely to view labor unions favorably (77 percent for Blacks vs. 50 for all-respondents) compared to other workers. Petee Talley, the secretary-treasurer of Ohio branch of the AFL-CIO, said that evidence shows that Black women union members have stepped up in remarkable ways.

“Not only are they organizing inside of their unions, they are organizing the Black community around vote registration efforts,” said Talley.

And when Black women take on leadership roles, they have the power to significantly affect elections inside their unions.

The briefing paper said: “As labor scholars Kate Bronfenbrenner and

Dorian Warren found in their oftcited study “Race, Gender, and the Rebirth of Trade Unionism,” unions won 89 percent of elections where Black women were the lead organizers compared with 53 percent for female organizers overall and 42 percent for male organizers.”

The report noted that Black women were more likely than any other group to skip at least on race on the ballot.

“By skipping down ballot races, Black women lose the potential to be a political force in local races, which arguably have a more direct impact on the day-to-day lives of Black people,” the report said.

The briefing paper said that as the labor movement grows, it should look to Black communities and Black women organizers as a potential base for power.

“This requires incorporating Black communities into long-term strategic thinking and lifting up the most progressive voice of the Democratic base,” the briefing paper said. “For organized labor and other parts of the political left, Black women are a smart investment, in 2016 and beyond.”

Rolark Barnes said that Black women hold the power of the vote and also have the influence in their households to make sure their families and friends get out to vote.

Rolark Barnes continued: “We need to come out strong, like we did before, and make the difference we know we can make in November.”

THE INNER-CITY NEWS October 26, 2016 - November 01, 2016

Erasure, Overlay, Manipulation: James Baldwin’s Queer Dwellings Tuesday, October 25th - WHC Auditorium – 5.30pm

Magda Zaborowska, University of Michigan

Magdalena J. Zaborowska (B.A., M.A., Warsaw University, Poland [1987]; Ph.D., University of Oregon [1992], USA), Professor, Departments of American Culture and Afroamerican and African Studies, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

Research and teaching fields: literary and cultural studies approaches to intersections of social space and transatlantic discourses on race, nationality, (queer) sexuality, and gender; African American literature (esp.,James Baldwin), immigrant ethnicities, feminist,and critical race theory; post-totalitarian East-Central Europe.

Her publications include the MLA award-winning: James Baldwin’s Turkish Decade: Erotics of Exile (Duke UP 2009) and How We Found America: Reading Gender through East European Immigrant Narratives (University of North Carolina Press, 1995).

31

THE INNER-CITY NEWS October 26, 2016 - November 01, 2016

Married At 86-Years-Old: A Love Story 60 Years In The Making kiss me on the cheek before sitting down for the service.”

Millie and Harold didn’t see each other again for many years until Harold joined her new church, New Beginning Faith Fellowship Ministries in Orange, New Jersey.

When Harold started to get sick, Millie and other church members would visit him at his house and she offered to drive him back and forth to services. When he got better, they continued to see each other. Eight years later, he became sick again to the point where he couldn’t live alone.

“I asked him if he wanted to live with me instead of a nursing home,” Millie says.

“And he said, ‘Definitely.’”

When Harold got better a year later, Millie said to herself, “I love him, but I can’t have him living in my house…I have granddaughters and grandsons.”

“I’m a Christian woman and I want to live a Christian life ,” she says.

“We decided that even though we were in our twilight years, we want-

Barry Anderson, BDO Contributing Writer For all those who think they are too old, too grown, too divorced or even too “over it” to find the love of your dreams, STOP. Just ask Millie Taylor-Morrison and her new husband Harold Morrison.

They are the New Jersey couple who got married on October 16 — more than 60 years (yes, 60) after they first met.

Well, Millie, an 86-year-old proud mother and grandmother, was married to her first husband for 41 years before he died in 1992. Years later, she reconnected with Harold, 85, who was actually a guest at her first wedding in 1952. Since the whole church was invited to the wedding and Harold was a member of the church, he was there.

“I used to sing in the choir and Harold attended my church,” Millie tells People.com. “I would be standing with the other choir members, waiting to walk out and he would come over and

ed to be pleasing in God’s eyes.”

Well, Amen!

So the couple set a wedding date and tied the knot in front of 200 friends and family.

The 86-year-old was all smiles at her wedding reception — and she’s no stranger to posing for pictures. She used to model in the 1950s for Belle Mead Models, Inc. The wedding day was perfect and the bride looked stunning.

But that’s something that wasn’t new for Millie. She’s used the same beauty routine for years and it’s worked every time.

“I’ve always used Pond’s Cold Cream and African shea butter,” she shares. “And I never drank, never smoked. I try to eat right and exercise.”

After the ceremony, the honeymoon and she’s settled in a little over a week as a married woman, Millie says she’s happier than ever.

HJL PRODUCTIONS AND THE CITY OF NEW HAVEN YOUTH SERVICES DEPARTMENT

JASON Invite you to a Charity Concert with

NELSON SUNDAY

PROCEEDS TO BENEFIT “The Escape” TEEN CENTER AND “The Situation” YOUTH HOMELESS SHELTER

OCTOBER 30 | 2016

@ THE FLOYD LITTLE ATHLETIC CENTER 480 SHERMAN PARKWAY NEW HAVEN, CT 06511

Featuring

KERGYMA | NEW HOPE BAPTIST MASS CHOIR | GETHER MARIE MINISTRIES | JASON BENJAMIN | CATHEDRAL OF THE HOLY SPIRIT MASS CHOIR AND THE CATHEDRAL OF PRAISE MASS CHOIR!

Emceed by

PASTORS SIGMUND AND TINA MORRIAR

of Kingdom Center

CONCERT STARTS @ 5 PM DOORS OPEN @ 4:30 PM VIP | $50 GENERAL SEATING | $25 TICKETS CAN BE PURCHASED @ THE CITY OF NEW HAVEN YOUTH SERVICES OFFICE. For more information please call:

203.946.7582 32

THE INNER-CITY NEWS October 26, 2016 - November 01, 2016

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33

Connecticut

THE INNER-CITY NEWS October 26, 2016 - November 01, 2016

Toddler Special Mon-Thurs 10-12 • 1 Parent 1 Toddler • Only $15 1 hr $20 2 hr

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203-989-3357 • jumpoffct.com 27

34

THE INNER-CITY NEWS October 26, 2016 - November 01, 2016

35

THE INNER-CITY NEWS October 26, 2016 - November 01, 2016

Free educational programs for New Haven residents •Free science, technology and engineering programs •Full college scholarships for hundreds of New Haven students •Tuition assistance for lower-income New Haven families nhy300.org

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