The cost of health insurance in Connecticut could skyrocket if Congress does not act
Some Connecticut families could see an increase of $3,000 per year for health coverage if legislation is not passed soon.
Enhanced subsidies created through the 2021 American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) and extended through the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) have made health insurance coverage more affordable and accessible for millions of Americans enrolled in federal or state-based marketplaces like Access Health CT (AHCT).
Reducing the rate of the uninsured is a critical part of AHCT’s mission, and these subsidies have played an important role in cutting the state’s uninsured rate in half and bettering the health of thousands of people.
This financial help has led to record-breaking enrollment in Connecticut. AHCT enrolled a total of 151,151 residents in Qualified Health Plans (QHPs) for Plan Year 2025, exceeding last year’s record of 129,000 people. Because of the enhanced subsidies, 90% of Connecticut residents enrolled in a QHP get financial help, for a total of $91,460,464 each month.
Unfortunately, the enhanced subsidies are set to expire at the end of this year. This will impact everyone. Many Americans, including tens of thousands of Connecticut residents, will see their health coverage costs dramatically increase if Congress does not act to extend or make these enhanced subsidies permanent. Many could be left without healthcare coverage at all.
As healthier-than-average people exit the marketplaces if the enhanced subsidies are no longer available, insurers will raise premiums for the remaining enrollees. In addition, hospitals will continue to treat those who are uninsured and unable to pay, further increasing uncompensated hospital costs. Those costs are then passed along to consumers.
These enhanced subsidies substantially increase the amount of financial help AHCT customers can receive and expand that help to people who were previously ineligible. According to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), the uninsured rate in the United States is at an all-time low because of this increased financial help. And if the subsidies do expire,
the Congressional Budget Office expects nearly four million Americans will lose their insurance by 2034, leading to a sicker country overall.
If the enhanced subsidies are not extended past Plan Year 2025, Connecticut residents could expect to pay $1,527 more on average per year for their health insurance. Some residents will see a nearly $3,000 increase per year. This will be catastrophic for many families in our state.
Connecticut is fortunate to have strong advocates at the legislative level who have championed increasing access to health coverage and making it more affordable. Our state leadership has also shown strong support for the enhanced subsidies that benefit so many.
We hope the Connecticut delegation in Washington D.C. will continue to advocate for the extension of these subsidies and encourage others from across the country to join them in support of all Americans. We must do all we can to protect families from being unable to afford health insurance or we will see a dramatic decrease in the overall quality of health in our state.
Access Health CT is committed to helping keep our customers healthy in any way we can.
James Michel
Chief Executive Officer, Access Health CT
Lost Tribe Finds Its Way Home
by Jisu Sheen
“The telepathy up here is crazy.”
Jocelyn Pleasant, leader of Connecticut’s well-loved Afro-funk fusion ensemble The Lost Tribe, might have been talking about communication between band members, but she also set the stage for an intimate connection between the band and the audience at a performance Thursday night at NXTHVN in Dixwell.
The band’s two sets were filled with repetitions of motifs from West African, Latin American, and Black American cultures. Instruments followed each other’s lead, recreating and transforming every offering. As the record breaks of a turntable echoed rhythms from the drums, DJ Stealth adjusted his headphones so his left ear was sometimes exposed to the sounds of the room, sometimes locked into the beats he was making. The drum-driven ensemble has performed in recent months in Massachusetts and Rhode Island; their next show is in Vermont. Performing in New Haven, though, especially Dixwell, was something special. Pleasant noted that many of the band members are from Hartford or New Haven, saying about multiple instrumentalists, “We go way back.” In introducing the jembe player, Pleasant repeated, “New Haven’s own Seny Camara!” three times as the crowd celebrated.
Camara later noted how perfectly the band’s combination of cultural influences reflects his own life and upbringing. For generations, his mother’s side of the family has lived in the neighborhood where the band was performing Thursday night.
Camara grew up on salsa and cumbia, influenced by the Dominican, Puerto Rican, and Mexican communities around him. The drums Camara brought to life Thursday were from his father, all the way from Guinea in West Africa. “I mix what I know here with what I know from there,” Camara said with the same big, easy smile he flashed while performing.
Camara’s smile was in good company. The eye contact on stage was itself a performer. The ugliest stank faces from keyboardist Michael Carabello seemed to somehow say the same things as bassist Joel Hewitt’s absolutely calm poker face.
No half-second in the music was lonely. The absences that made up
the syncopation of one drum pattern were not empty but filled with rhythms and beats from another. The effect was overwhelming in a way that encouraged the audience to transcend. When the ground is completely covered, where can you go but up?
The crowd was, in Pleasant’s words, “so polite, you got your arms crossed, you got your legs crossed … no no no no no, we’re gonna undo that.” And they did.
Jasmin Agosto, NXTHVN’s programs and exhibitions manager, took a moment to note the small miracle it was to be in the space together, given “all the personal, national, international things we are going through.” It wasn’t just a metaphorical space but a real one, in a real neighborhood. NXTHVN sometimes brings in a crowd that is unfamiliar with Dixwell, or New Haven in general. Agosto was eager to show them the ropes. In introducing the band, her last words were, “For those that don’t know, y’all ’bout to find out.”
Velvety trombone from Nathan Davis came gliding in like the whispers of a love song. Doug Wilson’s rockand-roll electric guitar indulgences led one audience member to shout “Shredding!” as Pleasant introduced Wilson to the crowd (which Pleasant then echoed, adding it to Wilson’s moniker). The celestial vocals of I Shea, belting poetry and song into the mic, draped the stage in a loving
glow. At times, one long, sustained note from Carabello would hold all the moving pieces together like the wire in a mobile. When almost all percussion stopped for a moment except for claps and wood on wood, there was a shout of “Wepa!” leading into an inevitable dance break. The music was full of play. The coy entrances and exits of brass and keyboard formed a game the band was always winning. The band members often broke into smiles, shaking their heads before playing harder. People from the audience laughed out loud, calling out “Ah shit!” in response to the deep tones of the dundun interrupting a lighter call-and-response. From rolling cascades of the keys, the joy the bandmates expressed in each others’ solos, and special guest Corey Hutchins’ impossibly fast tap dancing against the “let loose” call of the cowbell, the show turned into one big party. The members of the band looked at each other with wonder and anticipation like they didn’t know what would come next. And perhaps they didn’t.
Many elements of the show seemed spontaneous. At one point, Pleasant got the idea to start the next song by “build[ing] it from scratch can we, can we build it from the first piece? Hold on.” She went around to each of the percussion instrumentalists, even the tap dancer, to start their rhythms for them like one candle lighting the rest. As Pleasant explained to the crowd, “We figure it out together, we figure it out together.”
Even when the show was over, it wasn’t over quite yet. After the clapping and closing announcements, the bandmates picked up their instruments one last time to play out the audience as they left.
“We don’t just do it to put it out,” Camara said about the band’s connection with the audience. “We do it because we realize it made us feel good, and we want to share it.” He held his hands out as he talked, drummers’ hands, and it was clear how deep he felt this to be true.
“We have a ball every time.”
NXTHVN’s next event is Saturday, Feb. 22, a Black History Month spoken word show put together by NXTHVN’s high school apprentices.
Jisu Sheen Photo I-Shea on the Conga, Seny Camara on Jembe, and Douglas Wilson III on guitar.
Douglas Wilson III on guitar and The Lost Tribe leader Jocelyn Pleasant on drums.
The New Haven independent
DJ Stealth at his turntable.
Douglas Wilson III on guitar and The Lost Tribe leader Jocelyn Pleasant on drums.
State Closer To Compensating 3 Of 5 Wrongfully Incarcerated Men
by Thomas Breen
A state panel Friday gave a thumbs up to paying three New Haveners a combined $16 million for spending decades in prison on wrongful convictions while putting on hold plans to compensate another two.
The vote took place at a hearing of the General Assembly’s Judiciary Committee.
Under the chairmanship of New Haven State Sen. Gary Winfield, the committee debated whether to approve a proposed combined $37.5 million package of settlements for a total of eight Black men including the five from New Haven who were wrongfully incarcerated for murders they should never have been convicted of committing.
At the end of the hearing the committee members voted to approve a $5,843,985 award for Stefon Morant, a $4,817,954 for Vernon Horn, and a $5,312,921 for Marquis Jackson.
A state claims commissioner held hearings last year for all three men’s cases. The award amount in each case was determined by a formula set in state law: multiply the years served by 200 percent of the median family income in Connecticut, which is currently $96,300. (The law also empowers the claims commissioner to increase the proposed award by 25 percent depending on evidence presented by the claimant.)
Those awards for Morant, Horn, and Jackson now head to the full state legislature for a final vote.
The committee members voted to delay final determinations on two other recommended awards for two other wrongfully incarcerated Black male New Haveners. They did so in order to get further information from the state claims commissioner as to whether or not they are truly eligible for such funds under state law.
The proposed awards that the committee remanded back to the claims commissioner for eligibility review on Friday were $7.9 million for Adam Carmon and $6.7 million for George Gould.
Each case involves a long journey in the life of a New Haven man, as told in previous Independent stories:
Horn said he wanted to attend Friday’s hearing, but he heeded his attorney’s advice not to.
The day marked the culmination of trying to resolve his complaint with the city, then finding a legislator his state senator, Gary Winfield to pick up the cause.
“Everybody thought this wasn’t going to happen. All the lawyers told me this wasn’t going to happen,” Horn told the Independent Friday. “Then I got into Gary Winfield’s ear. Once he heard the story, he and his colleagues got this bill [started]. I can’t believe how he moved to get this done.”
Horn said that if the bill passes and he receives the money, “it’s never going to change traumatic issues I deal with every day. But it gives me courage. I can tell my daughter, ‘Your father was dealt with unjustly. But I’m here to help make your world a little bit better.’”
Veteran New Haven defense attorney Kenneth Rosenthal wrote in to the committee with separate letters of support for his clients, Morant and Jackson.
“Mr. Morant’s 21+ years of wrongful incarceration was the result of extraordinary misconduct on the part of law enforcement officials and false testimony brought about at their behest, as documented by an extensive FBI investigation following the conviction of Mr. Morant and his co-defendant,” Rosenthal wrote in one of those letters.
In support of Jackson’s award, he wrote, “Notwithstanding the devastating impact of Mr. Jackson’s wrongful incarceration for more than 19 years, during what should have been the prime of his life … he has devoted the period since his release to constructive endeavors and contributions to the New Haven community of which he has been a part his entire life.”
The committee members did not go into detail on Friday on any of the proposed awards up for their consideration. Republican State Rep. Craig Fishbein of Wallingford and Democratic State Rep. Steven Stafrom of Bridgeport did press Claims Commissioner Robert Shea, Jr. to explain how and why certain claimants were legally eligible for these awards. Fishbein pointed to a state law amended last year that details exactly who is eligible for a wrongful incarceration award.
In order to be eligible for such an award, he said, a person’s conviction had to have been vacated or reversed on “grounds of innocence or grounds consistent with innocence” or on grounds that a state actor, like a police officer or prosecutor, engaged in “malfeasance or serious misconduct” in that person’s case.
Fishbein questioned whether or not Carmon qualifies for a wrongful incarceration award from the state based on these criteria. He cited state Judge Jon Alander’s decision to vacate Carmon’s conviction, in which the judge “expressly says there are no findings of innocence
here. There was bad procedure.” Fishbein pressed Shea to explain on what grounds he believed Carmon was eligible.
Shea responded by stating that the attorney general’s office and Carmon’s attorneys mutually agreed that Carmon was eligible for such an award, and had agreed to informally resolve the claim without a hearing. The same was true in Gould’s case.
Stafrom didn’t question the merits of Carmon’s or Gould’s claims for wrongful incarceration awards, but he too pushed the claims commissioners to explain why he believed these cases are eligible for awards if he never held a hearing on their eligibility. Shea again said that the attorney general’s office and the claimants’ attorneys had agreed not to litigate eligibility, and his office was relying on their determination.
Later on during Friday’s hearing, state Deputy Attorney General Eileen Meskill assured the legislators that “we do take a hard look at eligibility under the statute” for each of these cases. She said she’d be happy to provide documentation to the committee explaining why her office believed each claimant on Friday’s agenda was eligible for an award.
In the end, the committee members decided to send Carmon’s and Gould’s proposed awards back to the claims commissioner for him to formally weigh in on whether or not they are eligible for such government funds.
Carmon’s attorney, Doug Lieb, submitted a letter to the state legislators on his client’s behalf in advance of Friday’s hearing. “Mr. Carmon spent nearly 29 years in prison for a murder he did not commit and that another man, unrelated to Mr. Carmon, had credibly taken responsibility for,” he wrote. “Mr. Carmon has demonstrated remarkable resilience notwithstanding his unjust conviction and prolonged incarceration.”
A review by CT Mirror found that, if approved, the new round of compensation will bring the state’s total wrongful-con-
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viction awards to $128.9 million an average of $5.2 million paid to each of 25 claimants, all but one since 2015.
Five of the eight awards on the agenda Friday are for Black men convicted and imprisoned for murders in New Haven, a city responsible for the biggest share of wrongful conviction awards about $60 million, including the latest claims. The most recent of the verdicts were returned 25 years ago.
“It would be easy to say, ‘Hey, it wasn’t us.’ But it is troubling to us. It’s troubling that that happened to people in the past,” said New Haven Police Chief Karl Jacobson, who was promoted to chief of police in 2022 after 15 years as a New Haven cop. “And it’s real important that we get it right.”
Changes in procedures and technology have raised the standards for corroborating and recording witness and suspect interviews in their entirety, a check against misleading or leading questions, he said.
In some wrongful conviction cases, lawyers alleged witnesses were fed information, shown biased photo arrays of potential suspects, or both.
George Gould and Ronald Taylor were convicted in 1995 of the robbery and murder of a bodega owner in New Haven on the strength of testimony from a single witness, a heroin addict, whose story changed repeatedly. She identified them from a photo array, claiming she followed hints from police.
She complained of leading questions and favors from both police and, later, a defense investigator. The cops, she said, helped her buy heroin.
Gould was sentenced to 80 years and exonerated in 2024, helped by lawyers with the Innocence Project, as well as a review of the case by a Conviction Integrity Unit established by the chief state’s attorney in 2020. Gould is on the agenda Friday for a $6.7 million award. Taylor died of cancer in 2011.
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Vernon Horn, Marquis Jackson, and Stefon Morant en route to getting their money.
The New Haven independent
WE WELCOME THE CURIOUS
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Since 1660, Hopkins School has provided students with an exceptional education and the skills required to succeed in the world.
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HONORING
PIONEERS IN SCIENCE & MEDICINE
Today, we can thank leaders like inventor Lewis Howard Latimer, astrophysicist
Neil deGrasse Tyson, chemist Marie M. Daly, heart surgeon Daniel Hale Williams, doctor and astronaut Mae C. Jemison, and mathematician
Katherine G. Johnson for their contributions to advancing science and medicine. Boscov’s celebrates African-American innovators who set the standard and pushed boundaries in their fields of science, technology, and beyond.
Lewis Howard Latimer
Mae C. Jemison
Marie M. Daly
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Neil deGrasse Tyson
Dr. Daniel Hale Williams
Katherine G. Johnson
“Two Trains” Never Leaves the Station
by Jamil Ragland
Two Trains Running
Hartford Stage Hartford
Two Trains Running belongs to August Wilson’s ten-play cycle describing African American life in each decade of the 20th century. It takes place in Pittsburgh, as restaurant owner Memphis fights to get a fair price for his business as the city attempts to redevelop the area.
The lede of the play is buried under racial and social discussions of the era. The play takes place in 1969, which the play bill describes as part of the Civil Rights Era. But by 1969, the Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act had already been passed, and the leading Civil Rights figures of the era Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, John Kennedy were all dead.
That’s not to say that African Americans weren’t still struggling with realizing their rights or making a better life for themselves. But the conversation had already shifted from what white people owed us to what we were gonna do for ourselves. It was the era of the Black Panthers and Black Power, of afros and glove-clad fists at the Olympics.
In this regard, Two Trains feels dat-
ed even on its own terms. Listening to Memphis and Halloway argue about how White people have gotten over on Blacks feels like a conversation that belongs in 1959. The entire decade preceding the play was about Black people finally getting what they deserve, and Two Trains rehashes that context to the detriment of the story its trying to tell.
Most frustrating is that none of these conversations lead to anything new or interesting. When Memphis declares that it was Black people who shot Malcolm X; when Sterling comments about Risa’s cutting of her legs; when Hambone goes on about the meat that he’s owed, I just kept finding myself wondering what any of it had to do with each other, or the main thrust of the play.
So much of the dialogue between the characters felt like they were talking for its own sake. The disparate people who made up Memphis’ diner never congealed into a cohesive whole, or even into a dysfunctional one. The characters felt like mouthpieces for tropes about African American life that spent the play talking past each other instead of discussing things. I found it hard to follow who was who because there wasn’t so much characterization as there was speechifying about various subjects.
None of this is the fault of the per-
formers, who did their best with a script that consistently presents them as broad stand-ins instead of individuals. Godfrey L. SImmons, Jr., a regular performer at Hartford Stage who always does great work, seems burdened by Memphis’ nonspecific anger. Simmons brings that anger to life admirably, whether he’s lashing out at Risa (Taji Senior, who barely even speaks in the script) or rejecting Sterling’s youthful drive for change. Why is Memphis so angry? The play never tells us, and it leads to a feeling of disconnect between the performer and the character. Sterling, played by Rafael Jordan, is another character who comes across as a “hopeful youth” instead of a person. What informs his optimism, especially after spending time in prison at such a young age? Jordan plays him as bright eyed and bushy tailed, but there should be multitudes to this character that Jordan could have sunk his teeth into, because he certainly has the talent. But he and the rest of the cast are only given platitudes. It should probably come as no surprise that I really wanted to like this play for several reasons, not the least of which is because Fences is one of my all-time favorite plays. But I suppose there’s a lesson for me in Two Trains Running after all: no one bats 1.000.
Newhall Homeowners Still Seeking ARPA $
by Lisa Reisman
A Newhall meeting saw neighbors and Hamden town officials engaged in debate over what community members really need, in the latest installment in a group of residents’ fight to allocate one-time federal funds to addressing their crumbling home foundations.
Video showing basement of Tina Jennings-Herriott, with wall breached by contractor replacing contaminated soil. The meeting, held last Wednesday, provided a space for members of the Hamden Newhall Neighborhood Association (HNNA) to push town officials to use $6.4 million in federal American Recovery Plan (ARPA) funds to repair their homes, which are crumbling due to their standing on once-contaminated soil, rather than to build a community campus on the site of a former school a campus that neighbors say is not a priority.
The Feb. 5 meeting, on a night that portended snow, included 40 community members, Mayor Lauren Garrett and members of the legislative council, as well as representatives of the engineering consulting firm Haley & Aldrich.
The meeting also remembered Keith M. Butler, who was a beloved member of the community and had been attending legislative meetings for the past 20 years the last in early December—trying, often
pleading, with the council to address the damage wrought by the town’s remediation of contaminated soil on the properties in his neighborhood.
“He was one of us,” said HNNA President Tina Jennings-Harriott, in a packed room at Breakthrough Church on Shelton Avenue, referring to the Newhall residents’ decades-long fight for funding
to repair the crumbling homes caused by years of New Haven manufacturers dumping industrial waste and contaminating soil and a cleanup effort that didn’t leave the job finished.
“If something doesn’t change, folks like us who take pride in our homes, who clean up in our neighborhood, who care about our neighbors, we won’t be here,”
Jennings-Harriott said. “This has gone on long enough. No more passing this on to future generations to beg for what’s right.”
HNNA members argued that there is a once-in-a-generation opportunity for the town to make things right with Newhall property owners: $6.4 million in federal ARPA funds allocated to a community campus on the site of the former Michael J. Whalen Middle School in Newhall.
The HNNA’s request, which was issued at the December legislative meeting, is to address the more critical need of repairing their homes rather than committing those funds to a new building.
The town designated $3.5 million in ARPA funds for Newhall foundations in October; after $1.8 million for Haley & Aldrich assessments, $1.7 million remain, an amount that residents contend is woefully inadequate.
According to Legislative Councilwoman Rhonda Caldwell, the town can still legally use the ARPA funds to fix the foundations.
At the December meeting, the council voted to table any decision of the allocation of the $6.4 million earmarked for the community center until Haley & Aldrich completed their assessments of the 300 affected properties, putting the funds in eligible municipal expenses, a general town fund. That means, considering that
no work has begun and there is an out clause in the contracts, Caldwell said, “it’s up for grabs.”
The HNNA said the town has over and over again failed to seek out the community engagement that ARPA requires for the receiving and spending of the funds. “If they had done any outreach, if they had just asked us, they would know nobody wants a community center,” said Tonya Campbell, HNNA vice president, who said the group has door-knocked throughout the neighborhood.
(Mayor Garrett’s chief of staff, Sean Grace, has said the opposite, stating to the New Haven Register that “the community is overall in support of this project.”) Garrett declared her commitment to both the community center and the foundation repair projects at the Feb. 5 meeting. “We’re pushing everything,” she said. “We have a lot of work that’s happening in Newhall, from foundations to the community center to drainage to traffic calming. All of that stuff is being designed and happening right now.”
Her solution to funding the repairs, as set forth in a Feb. 4 “Report on the Environment and Structural Issues in the Newhall Neighborhood,” is, instead of the ARPA funds, to use state bonding. Her reasoning is that before commencing repairs, “it would be better to do as many
Con’t on page 17
Godfrey L. Simmons, Jr. (Memphis) and Postell Pringle (Wolf) in August Wilson's Two Trains Running.
Pastor Loria Morrison of the Coalition of Apostolic Leaders: Ask the community what it needs.
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The New Haven independent
Black And Puerto Rican Caucus Lays Out Legislative Agenda
by Jamil Ragland
HARTFORD, CT – The Connecticut General Assembly’s Black and Puerto Rican Caucus (BPRC) announced its six pillars for the ongoing legislative session Thursday, honing in on subjects ranging from education to artificial intelligence that lawmakers say are crucial to the well-being of communities of color across Connecticut.
The six pillars – education, career advancement, justice, housing, health and human services, and economic empowerment and stability – will serve as “guiding lights” for legislative policy that the caucus will pursue this session, said Rep. Derell Wilson, D-Norwalk, vice chair of the caucus.
Chair Rep. Antonio Felipe, D-Bridgeport, spoke about the educational disparities that exist in Connecticut for students of color and how Connecticut has one of the worst racial education achievement gaps in the nation.
“We are doing things and we are moving forward, but we are not moving forward fast enough, and there are studies that show that,” Felipe said. “We can look at higher education. I know that there are members behind me who have talked about student loan debt forgiveness and we have seen that in this current budget, that is not reflected in the way that we think it should be.”
One of the major priority bills that Senate Democrats have introduced this year is Senate Bill 2, which deals with many elements of the budding artificial intelligence industry. Sen. Jorge Cabrera, D-Hamden, spoke about how unregulated use of artificial intelligence can have negative impacts on communities of color.
“In the summer of 2024, Lehigh professors published a paper where they studied a chat bot used for making mortgage
Antonio Felipe, D-Bridgeport,
Screengrab / CT-N
decisions,” he said. “They found that if you had a 640 credit score, but you were white, you had a 95% chance of getting approved for your mortgage. But if you had a 640 credit score and you were black, you only had an 80% chance of getting approved for your mortgage. So we’re seeing these algorithms more and more affect our economy, become part of our society, and we’re calling for the legislature and this caucus to support SB 2 to make sure that these detrimental negative impacts on our constituents can be prevented and to make sure that people are given a fair shot at the American dream.”
The state’s housing crisis was addressed by Rep. Kadeem Roberts, D-Norwalk, who called on the legislature to pass House Bill 6114 that would address the issue of the “benefit cliff,” where families receiving rental assistance lose their ben-
efits at a faster rate than their income and other assets increase, creating a gap they cannot fill.
Roberts also addressed the governor’s announcement during his budget address of shifting funds to build 500 more units of supportive housing.
“Great idea, just not enough,” Roberts said. “We need more. We can’t afford for people to keep moving out of our communities. We need them to stay here. In this session we are tackling homelessness and we are tackling working with our communities so that the children are the future and that the elderly are available, those that are on fixed costs, to provide for their families and themselves.
Rep. Kai Belton, D-Middletown, co-vice chair of the Public Health Committee and co-chair of the Black Maternal and Infant Health Caucus, laid out a health agenda
that includes improving health care access and affordability, including mental health, and addressing the disparity in maternal health for women of color in the state.
One of the bills that Belton has introduced is HB 6589, An Act Establishing Accountability Measures For Maternity Care.
“Black women are still dying at alarming rates during and after childbirth and we will not accept this as status quo,” Belton said. “The stats are improving for everyone else but us. So this session we will advance policies that will hold hospitals accountable.”
Belton has also introduced HB 6590, which would create a task force to be created to focus on maternal mental health, as mental health and substance use are the
leading causes of deaths for moms and babies. She also introduced HB 6584, which would require the licensure of international board certified lactation consultants to help new mothers and newborns. “Public health is a right that we all deserve, and the BPRC is committed to ensuring that every policy we push forward this session reflects that belief,” Belton said.
Immigration issues have moved to the forefront for many constituents, and Rep. Geraldo Reyes, D-Waterbury, discussed the caucus’ full commitment to the Trust Act and protecting immigrants in the state.
“Folks, we are really in unsettling times,” Reyes said. “We are being led by a president that is acting as an authoritarian, not as a president. And what I have to tell you is that in my community and the communities that we represent, we have hard-working, contributing immigrants that are now afraid of living in the villages and the towns that we represent. And these are folks that contribute. They run daycares. They run construction companies. They do the work that a lot of people here don’t want to do. We have to protect them in the BPRC.”
Rep. Toni Walker, D-New Haven, cochair of the appropriations committee, reiterated the caucus’ commitment to justice and fairness for all the state’s residents.
“Let me be clear. Equity is not a word, it’s a mandate,” Walker said. “Connecticut Statute Section 4-74A does not suggest equity, it requires equity. Equity is a cornerstone of governance that works for all people in this community. It is a force that levels the playing field so that every person, no matter what your background, where you live, what your zip code is, has a fair shot at success. We want that and we want it now and that is why we’re here today.”
Bridgeport Celebrates Partnership and Progress with Dedication of Alan Wallack STEM Learning Center
Bridgeport, CT – February 13, 2025 –Bridgeport Public Schools, in partnership with the City of Bridgeport’s Hall Neighborhood House and Cal Ripken Sr. Foundation proudly announces the dedication of The Alan Wallack STEM Learning Center at Jettie S. Tisdale School to the Rosnick Family. This dedication honors the Rosnick Family’s lasting contributions to education and their unwavering support for students, helping to shape the future of Bridgeport.
The Alan Wallack STEM Learning Center, a state-of-the-art facility, is designed to inspire students in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). It will provide hands-on learning experiences, cutting-edge technology, and resources that will empower students to excel and prepare for success in the 21st-century workforce.
The STEM program, which started a few years ago at Hall Neighborhood House, has now expanded to a dozen K-8 schools across the district, with the goal of reaching all 28 Bridgeport schools
within the next decade.
Dr. Royce Avery, Interim Superintendent of Bridgeport Public Schools, expressed his gratitude to the Rosnick Family for their generosity and dedication to education. "This dedication represents the power of collaboration and the incredible impact that happens when our community comes together," said Dr. Avery. "It is through partnerships like this one that we create lasting opportunities, equipping our students with the skills and resources they need to become future leaders."
The City of Bridgeport, Hall Neighborhood House and Cal Ripken Sr. Foundation have been integral partners in making this vision a reality, ensuring that our students have access to high-quality STEM education. Mayor Joseph Ganim emphasized the importance of these collaborations, stating, "We are deeply grateful to the Rosnick Family for their generous support. Their commitment to education is helping to shape the future of Bridgeport, and this STEM program is vital in giving our students the tools they need to
succeed."
Additionally, none of this initiative costs taxpayers a dime. The support of generous donors and the collaboration with the City of Bridgeport, Cal Ripken Sr. Foundation and Hall Neighborhood House have made it possible to provide these vital resources to students without burdening the local taxpayer.
Alan Wallack, a longtime Bridgeport Public Schools employee, also played a critical role in the district. As a former Athletic Director and facilities worker after his retirement, Wallack was a dedicated “BPS lifer” who spent many years serving the students and community of Bridgeport.
A dedication ceremony took place on Tuesday, February 11, 2025, at Jettie S. Tisdale School, where city officials, school district leaders, members of the Rosnick Family, and representatives from Hall Neighborhood House celebrated the Center’s impact and the community’s collective dedication to fostering student success.
Rep.
chair of the Black and Puerto Rican Caucus, discusses the group’s agenda Friday, Feb. 14, 2025, in Hartford. Credit:
CTNewsJunkie
HONORING
VISIONARIES IN HUMANITY
From Booker T. Washington’s advances in education, to George Washington Carver’s inventions, to the scientific contributions of Dr. Patricia Bath and Dr. Shirley Jackson, to the pivotal role Rosa Parks played in the civil rights movement, and to Maya Angelou’s literature and social activism, Boscov’s celebrates courageous African-American humanitarians everywhere for their accomplishments and the lasting contributions they have made in education, science, and beyond.
Maya Angelou
Dr. Shirley Jackson
Booker T. Washington
Rosa
Dr. Patricia Bath
George Washington Carver
Rosa Parks
Best Video Sends Out An Emergency Appeal
Lucy Gellman
When Raizine Bruton started working at Best Video Film and Cultural Center (BVFCC) three years ago, it became the cultural lifeline and vibrant third place she wished she'd had as a kid. Now—as a mom, a lifelong cinephile, and a nonprofit leader—she's asking the community to help keep the doors open for generations to come.
Bruton, who is the acting executive director at Best Video, made that case in an emergency appeal Monday, with the news that the beloved Hamden arts hub would need to raise $50,000 in eight weeks or less. As the organization's future hangs in the balance, community members have rallied to support it, putting their dollars behind a small Spring Glen storefront that has hosted film clubs, concerts, popup bakeries, artist markets, celebrations of local fiction, and dozens of on-site and remote cinematic collaborations.
As of Thursday evening, BVFCC had raised $37,548, with over 400 donors. This winter marks Best Video's 40th anniversary year, a testament to a space that has continued to adapt with the digital age. Donate here.
"I've lived in New Haven all my life and I never had a space like this," Bruton said in a phone call Thursday morning, as her young daughter babbled softly in the background. "I can't imagine how wonderful it would have been to be in this safe space as a kid. It's a place where literally everyone feels welcome."
It is the latest financial chapter for the storefront in four decades that have weathered the rise of DVDs and Blurays, streaming services, and a global pandemic that vastly changed how Americans were (and are) consuming media, including film and video. In 2015, it became a nonprofit in its 30th anniversary year. Two years later, Best Video sent out a similar appeal, explaining that it had fallen behind on vendor payments. Within days, the community had rallied, saving the then-nascent nonprofit from financial insolvency.
This time, the ask comes as arts nonprofits across the region—and the country—run on increasingly thin margins, a result of endangered and pulled federal
funding, fewer available grants, and pandemic relief dollars that are precipitously drying up. In the past few years, Best Video has grown its footprint with new partnerships and collaborations, trying to balance its role as a “third place” for Hamdenites and New Haveners with the financial strain of staff and expanded programming.
This year alone, BVFCC's budget is $460,052, which covers ten staff members (seven are part-time and three are full-time), general operating support, and weekly programming that ranges from concerts to film screenings to a Queer Film Club now in its second season. In the next week alone, for instance, there are screenings in Fairfield, Westville, and at Best Video; jazz and indie rock concerts, and a reading series. While some of the events are ticketed, Best Video covers most of the costs, like film rights and operating its cafe to provide food and drink during the event.
Meanwhile, annual rent comes in at $48,468, a number that is not insignificant, Bruton said. While some of the budget is covered by a tiered membership structure, BVFCC still relies heavily on grants and donations, the former of which have seemed fewer and farther between in recent years.
"I've already made cuts to some of the programming," Bruton said. "This money will give us a little bit of breathing room to help us become sustainable. This is going to give us the space to make the changes that we need to make to stay open another 40 years."
Bruton is optimistic for the future, she added—and not just because donations have been pouring in. In the last few years, she’s seen firsthand how Best Video brings people together, for events and festivals and movie rentals, as well as for coffee dates and meetings that turn the
space into a de facto office and coworking space.
“It's like Hamden's living room,” she said. On any given day, customers will linger in the store, and offer to watch her daughter for a while so Bruton can work uninterrupted. She’s heard spirited debates around film and politics without a single raised voice. The coffee—Willoughby’s—still draws a crowd in an area bereft of cafes.
“Everyone doesn't agree, but we respect one another … you do feel like family,” she said.
Ashley LaRue, an organizer for East Rock House and founder of Qommunity, stressed the importance of a place like Best Video for groups like Queer Film Club, of which she is a member and organizer. When the club first got off the ground in 2023, BVFCC’s then-Director Julie Smith welcomed the group into the
space with open arms.
The rest was history: screenings are often packed to the gills, and attendees get there early to mix and mingle. Last year, LaRue recalled, BVFCC also made it possible to hold offsite, outdoor screenings at Spring Glen Church and Massaro Farm in Woodbridge.
“It’s become a little staple, especially as a third space, especially for queer and trans people,” LaRue said. “It's just become a little hub for us. We're really looking forward to them keeping their doors open and us continuing to do what we need to do.”
“I just love it there,” she added a few moments later. “It would just be a real shame for us to lose a space like Best Video. We don't really have that many spaces like that. Even though it's not exclusive to us, it feels like it's for us.”
Lyric Hall founder and owner John Cavaliere, who partnered with BVFCC on a screening series that started last fall, echoed that feeling in a phone call Thursday afternoon. Born and raised in Spring Glen, he fell in love with Best Video during its early years, and has remained a staunch supporter of its work since. In its four decades, he’s watched it brave the transition from VHS to DVD to digital, miraculously bouncing back every time. Almost a decade ago, he installed a Best Video drop box at his Whalley Avenue space, to encourage Westvillians to attend and rent from the store more often and save them the trip back. He’s also known Bruton for years, through her previous jobs at Edge of the Woods and the Criterion Bow Tie Cinema downtown. So he was thrilled last year, when she helped him dream up the idea of screenings in his once-bustling cabaret theater. The two plan to show Mullholland Drive next Tuesday, in a tribute to the late David Lynch.
“I think it's just a treasure,” he said. “I think we're very lucky to have Best Video. All the people who work there are wonderful … they've got a big footprint and I think it's great for our community.”
Raizine (Rai) Bruton and Jules Larson in 2022, at the first screening of BVFCC's “Por trait of a Cinema on Fire: Feminist Filmmakers" series. Lucy Gellman File Photo.
The New Haven independent
Cellist Loops In
by Paul Bass
Fresh off an NYC premiere, Johnathan Moore picked up his bow, turned on his BOSS RC-600 Loop station, and transformed into a one-man orchestra.
Moore, a 27-year-old Cooperative Arts & Humanities High School and Southern grad who is making a career out of a distinctive approach to cello, made that transformation Thursday in the WNHH FM studio.
He was performing on the station’s “Acoustic Thursday @ Studio 51” program. He brought along the cello he’s been playing since he was a kid growing up in a musical New Haven family, along with the machine he uses to layer different parts of his original compositions in live performance.
Moore brought along the machine last April as well when he first performed on “Acoustic Thursday.”
That time the machine broke, and he played a more traditional set of single-track plucked, slapped and bowed passages.
The machine was working this time around, enabling Moore to show what makes his music different from that of other cellists’: The way he lays down a rhythm or theme, clicks his foot to have it continue to play on a loop, then builds new parts, loops them, and continues to play on top of them.
You often see guitarists, for instance, do that. But rarely cellists.
Moore decided to apply the technique to cello as a junior at Coop. One day strings teacher Nick Neumann brought a loop station into the class. “You guys wanna mess with this?” he asked.
They did.
“I’d seen other musicians” use loop pedals, “but not cello,” Moore recalled. “I was messing with distortion pedals at the time and chorus pedals, because my father is a bass player.”
Soon Moore and his cellist buddies Luis and Gabe were creating a multi-part piece called “Journey” on it.
Gabe and Luis took their music in other directions after that. Moore kept perfecting the loop technique for cello to amplify his emerging blend of classical, gospel, hip-hop, funk, and, starting in college, jazz elements. He built a repertoire of originals, some more improvised, some more fully composed, with a core missions as a solo musician who can build a full sound.
He has been making a living out of it, performing and holding residencies in Connecticut, New York, and Florida. Last month saw the premiere of a project he’s been working on for two years called “Pyramid.” He composed and performs the music in conjunction with a friend’s dance company (called It’s Showtime NYC). They performed the premiere at Manhattan’s Guggenheim Museum. Click here to watch an Instagram clip.
On “Acoustic Thursday,” Moore previewed three untitled new pieces. The first was a composed work inspired by daily walks he takes, during which music ideas come to him. The second was more freestyle, without the loops. He finished with a more multi-layered piece drawing on a wider variety of rhythms, which he plans to include on an album he’s currently working on with an increased palette of genres.
“There’s another side of this cello that nobody has heard,” he teased. Stay tuned.
INNER-CITY
CELEBRATING BLACK HISTORY MONTH
Boscov’s celebrates Black History Month and salutes the men and women whose many accomplishments and contributions have transformed our society. Their impacts on athletics, entertainment, education, journalism, government, and industry continue to influence our lives. We look forward to the youth of today continuing to mold our world and its bright future.
Dr. Marilyn Hughes Gaston
Michael Jordan Harriet Tubman
Simone Biles
Aretha Franklin Nelson Mandela Martin Luther King Jr.
Moore performing at WNHH FM.
The New Haven independent
Connecticut Nonprofits Warn Of Devastating Cuts As $19 Million Budget Shortfall Threatens Vital Services
by Karla Ciaglo
HARTFORD, CT – Connecticut’s nonprofit service providers are facing a dire financial shortfall, with leaders warning Tuesday that a proposed budget cut could result in an effective $19 million loss in the first year, jeopardizing essential services for the state’s most vulnerable residents.
These organizations provide critical services and support, including for mental health and addiction treatment for individuals with developmental disabilities, homeless shelters, and re-entry programs for individuals involved in the criminal justice system.
Nonprofit leaders and state legislators emphasized the devastating impact of inadequate funding during a news conference at the Legislative Office Building.
Gian-Carl Casa, president and CEO of the CT Community Nonprofit Alliance, stressed that without an annualization of federal ARPA funds, the governor’s budget plan translates into a significant cut.
“Nonprofits are already operating with 30% less purchasing power than they had in 2007,” Casa stated. “If the legislature does not act, this shortfall will
force organizations to cut services, lay off staff, and leave thousands of people without the support they need.”
State Sen. Cathy Osten, a Democrat from Sprague who co-chairs the Appropriations Committee, stressed the im-
portance of nonprofit funding, a cause that she stated was close to her heart.
“This $19 million is not about luxuries – it’s about keeping the lights on, keeping homes heated, and ensuring people have food,” Osten said. “These organi-
zations are already struggling, and we cannot afford to let them collapse.”
Osten also tackled the misconception that CEO’s of nonprofits were taking home large sums of money.
“People ask about CEOs in nonprofits making hundreds of millions of dollars, but I haven’t seen any of them yet,” she said. “What I do see are nonprofit employees who need the same services as the clients they serve.”
Dan Osborne, CEO of Gilead Community Services, detailed how the lack of funding forced his organization to shut down a women’s intensive outpatient substance abuse program, leaving hundreds without care.
“These are hundreds of individuals who were receiving care from highly trained professionals who are now no longer receiving care from us,” Osborne said. “We hope they’re receiving care from someone, but we just don’t know the outcomes. These are lives at stake, ” he said “Costs for electricity, heating, and essential supplies keep rising, but our funding keeps shrinking. That’s not sustainable.”
Fernando Muniz, CEO of Community Solutions, which serves individuals involved in the criminal justice and child welfare systems, discussed the staffing
crisis nonprofits face due to low wages. “Our residential reentry programs are filled to capacity daily, but we’re struggling to pay a decent wage to our frontline staff,” Muniz said. “One of our primary functions is to find employment for our clients, and we’re often placing them in jobs that pay more than our own staff earns. That’s tragic.”
While Governor Ned Lamont’s budget proposal includes $157 million for nonprofit service providers in addition to the nearly $327 million allocated for fiscal year 2025, nonprofit leaders argue that failing to fully annualize federal funds results in an effective budget cut. The consequences, they warn, could be severe—longer waiting lists, service reductions, and increased pressure on an already stretched system.
As the legislative session continues, nonprofit leaders and their advocates are urging lawmakers to take action before the funding shortfall leads to irreversible consequences.
“This isn’t just a budget issue—it’s a human crisis,” Casa warned. “We cannot turn our backs on those who rely on these services. Connecticut has a history of supporting its most vulnerable residents, and we need to uphold that commitment now more than ever.”
State Sen. Cathy Osten, co-chair of the Appropriations Committee, talks to reporters about the need to fund the state’s nonprofit service providers. Credit: Screengrab / CT-N
HYPERLOCAL
Anti-Eviction Fight Returns To Capitol
by Thomas Breen
Hartford – Connecticut Tenants Union
President and New Havener Hannah Srajer was in the middle of laying into the “unchecked greed” of corporate landlords who use no-fault evictions to hike rents when the co-chair of the state legislature’s Housing Committee said her three minutes were up. She asked Srajer to summarize the rest of her testimony. “The tenant movement is here to stay,” Srajer concluded. “We’re not raising new problems. We’re just making them more visible. Let’s get this done.”
What Srajer and other tenants union advocates who turned out to a marathon state Housing Committee hearing on Tuesday were looking to get done is passing Raised House Bill (H.B.) 6889: An Act Concerning Evictions For Cause. If passed and signed into law, the bill would prohibit a landlord from evicting a rent-paying tenant simply because their lease has expired, so long as that tenant has lived in an apartment building with five or more units for at least a year. The same protections already exist for disabled and elderly tenants, and a similar bill was heard by the Housing Committee last year.
This year’s proposal is co-sponsored by rookie State Reps. Steve Winter of New Haven and Laurie Sweet of Hamden, among more than half a dozen fellow Democrats. The “just cause” expansion bill comes a year after a similar bill made it through the Housing Committee on a
party-line vote, but ultimately failed for lack of support from state lawmakers.
More than 280 members of the public
Questions about your bill?
signed up to testify at Tuesday’s hearing on 26 Housing Committee bills, including the “just cause” expansion proposal.
Yale New Haven Hospital is pleased to offer patients and their families financial counseling regarding their hospital bills or the availability of financial assistance, including free care funds.
By appointment, patients can speak one-on-one with a financial counselor during regular business hours. For your convenience, extended hours are available in-person at Yale New Haven Hospital once a month.
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Supporters of the bill, like Srajer and Downtown/East Rock Alder Eli Sabin (who wrote in with pre-submitted testimony), argued that expanded “just cause” protections will create a more stable rental market and reduce evictions and their manifold associated harms for tenants at no cost and right away by tapping into a law that has been on the books for certain renters since the 1980s.
“If I could blink my eyes and build 150,000 new units immediately, I would do that,” Srajer said on Tuesday, referencing the argument that the best way to address the state’s housing crisis is to add lots more supply. “This [just cause bill] is a way to safeguard the housing stock that we have.”
Just like last year, landlords from across Connecticut including New Haven came out in full force against the bill. They submitted dozens of pieces of written testimony criticizing the proposal as exaggerating the prevalence of so-called “lapse of time” evictions and by essentially requiring landlords to house problem tenants so long as they continue to pay rent.
“Cause is a very difficult thing to prove and can take years and courts to reach a conclusion,” Wooster Square landlord Adam Bonoff of Easton stressed in his own written testimony. “A drug dealer may be a very good payer but very bad for a building, as is a child molester, thief or other type of intimidator. If this becomes law it will help way more bad guys and harm many more good people.”
Meanwhile, Srajer’s appearance before the Housing Committee as a lead proponent of this anti-eviction bill was just the latest indication of the growing political statewide power of a New Haven-grown tenants union movement. Fellow city residents and tenants union leaders Luke Melonakos-Harrison and Jessica Stamp were also scheduled to testify in support of the bill later in the day.
Roughly three hours in to the ongoing hearing, Srajer took her turn to urge the legislators to back the bill after Democratic State Rep. Ann Hughes of Easton ceded the majority of her public testimony time to the New Haven-based statewide tenants union organizer.
Srajer told the committee members that the hundreds of Connecticut Tenants Union members she represents are “sick and tired of watching out-of-state corporate landlords evict whole neighborhoods, whole communities, so they can raise the rent for maximum profit.” They’re sick and tired of advocating for timely repairs, preventative maintenance, and reasonable rents “only for landlords to retaliate with no-fault evictions.” She framed H.B. 6889 as an “easy, nocost step to solving the record-high displacement, insecurity, and instability that renters in Connecticut face.” She pointed out that these very protections have existed for four decades for renters over the age of 62 and those with physical and mental disabilities. It’s time to expand these protections to an even wider group
Con’t on page 15
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Thomas Breen file photo Prez Srajer: "The tenant movement is here to stay."
The New Haven independent
Fight Returns
of tenants.
When Democratic State Sen. Martha Marx of New London asked her to wrap up her testimony and Srajer responded with the tenant movement’s staying power, members of the public sitting behind her including those wearing white shirts emblazoned with bold black text reading “Expand Just Cause” burst into applause. Marx asked attendees not to clap at the public hearing; Democratic State Rep. and Housing Committee Co-Chair Antonio Felipe, of Bridgeport, asked attendees to instead raise and wave their hands quietly when they want to indicate their support for a certain piece of testimony.
The only Housing Committee member to push back on Srajer’s testimony Tuesday was Ranking Member and Republican State Rep. Tony Scott of Monroe. What happens if a landlord needs to remove a tenant from a building in order to make needed repairs? he asked. “Really, truly renovating that unit” often requires getting a tenant out. How could one do that if evictions were only allowed for “just cause” like nonpayment of rent?
Srajer replied that passing this bill would empower more tenants to speak up to landlords about parts of their properties that most need to be fixed. Right now, she said, so many tenants are too afraid of a potential no-fault eviction to ask their landlords to make needed repairs. “What passing an expanded just cause law would do is enable folks who right now fear retaliation for speaking out for repairs to say, ‘Hey, I really need you to look at the heating.’ ”
She added that, if a landlord needs to make major fixes to an apartment, then they should temporarily house a tenant elsewhere as is the case after, say, a fire and then move that tenant back into the unit when the repairs are done. “I just want to say thank you for being here,” Committee Co-Chair Felipe said to Srajer. “I know this is a big priority for you guys” at the Connecticut Tenants Union. He said that, in his district of Bridgeport, he’s seen “mass evictions” of tenants by landlords looking to raise rents.
Srajer agreed. “If it’s not in your district, it is coming for your districts.” Unless, she said, if this bill is passed. In written testimony submitted to the committee, local landlord and property manager David Parisier, speaking up as a member of the Connecticut Apartment Association, wrote that “lapse of time” the legal term for an eviction due to the expiration of a lease “is not an eviction” at all. “It is simply the conclusion of a pre-agreed upon lease contract between a tenant and a landlord.” He added that “lapse of time is rarely used and it is a housing provider’s only way of removing a resident who is breaking the terms of a lease and threatening the quiet enjoyment of the entire community. … The narrative that land-
lords use lapse of time to clear out a building, renovate, and increase rents is overblown nobody wants to get rid of a good resident.”
(The written testimony Parisier submitted was a form letter, which was signed and submitted by a number of different landlords from across the city and the state, including, among others, Scott Ferguson of Cue Residential, which owns the Liberty apartment building downtown.)
“This is a blatantly unconstitutional interference with private contracts,” wrote landlord lawyer Robert Chesson, “it is a ‘taking’ of property under a variety of protections, and cannot be supported by a compelling government interest.”
A number of tenants and tenant advocates, meanwhile, wrote in in support of the bill.
Downtown/East Rock Alder Eli Sabin, writing in his job as legislative coordinator for Connecticut Voices for Children, submitted testimony in support of the proposal.
“These requirements are not unprecedented. Connecticut’s just cause eviction statute, established in the 1980s, has been vital in ensuring that elderly and disabled residents cannot be evicted without reason,” Sabin wrote. “H.B. 6889 is a natural progression of this statute, and other states such as New Jersey, New Hampshire, Oregon, Washington, and California have already implemented just cause protections for all renters.”
This bill would “improve housing stability and work to slow or even reverse the trend of rising evictions,” Sabin continued. “By expanding just cause evictions, as proposed by H.B. 6889, nofault move-out notices and evictions in the state can be reduced by more than 11 percent, increasing housing stability for Connecticut’s tenants and families and preventing more people from experiencing homelessness.
Connecticut Coalition to End Homelessness CEO Sarah Fox agreed. “Connecticut is in the midst of a housing affordability and homelessness crisis,” she wrote. “We cannot afford to let unjust evictions undermine the stability of thousands of families. By passing H.B. 6889, you can strengthen communities, prevent unnecessary homelessness, and protect the fundamental dignity of renters who have done everything right.”
Thomas Connolly, a West Hartford resident, also submitted testimony on behalf of New Haven’s Peoples Center, in support of the bill.
“What’s the holdup? Hardworking tenants who pay rent and follow the rules are being evicted simply because landlords want higher profits,” he wrote. “Many of these landlords are from out of state, focused solely on maximizing their earnings with no regard for Connecticut residents.” The only reason not to pass this bill, he said, is “pressure from unscrupu-
Advocates Say Aquifer Exemption Bill Circumvents Affordable Housing
by Jamil Ragland
HARTFORD, CT – The General Assembly’s Housing Committee heard testimony Thursday on several bills including legislation that would provide towns with what could effectively lead to an exemption from affordable housing requirements.
House Bill 5365, introduced by House Minority Leader Vincent Candelora, R-North Branford, would exempt municipalities containing aquifer protection areas from the appeals procedure that is part of the state’s 8-30g affordable housing law. Currently, only towns that have met the 10% threshold of affordable housing units are exempt from the appeals procedure that can see developers build affordable units in a municipality without the town’s consent.
“My concern is, as we have this debate on affordable housing, is just recognizing those areas that are really needed to be conserved,” Candelora said in testimony before the committee. If you look at the state plan of conservation, most of [North Branford] is under a state plan of conservation, which means the state, as a public policy issue, doesn’t want to see that land developed for obvious reasons.”
Candelora said that although there are areas in his hometown that have sewers and other utilities more conducive to denser development, he doesn’t see how North Branford would be able to reach the 10% threshold to qualify for 8-30g exemptions due to the amount of the town that constitutes watershed.
Sen. Tony Hwang, R-Fairfield, also spoke in favor of HB 5365, although he acknowledged what he called the “noble” intent of 8-30g and said that there needed
to be room for compromise between municipalities, developers, and people seeking housing.
“I think another part of it is that we need to look at how we can all work together to define affordable housing in these various communities that are aquifer-based areas or watershed protection areas,” Hwang said. “And I hope that this is a bill that’s a start to be able to work together to find needs in addressing these solutions.”
Hwang added that he felt any municipality that applied for an exemption based on aquifer status must have a plan to increase affordable, accessible, and diverse housing before it could qualify for the exemption.
“Having a plan to move forward is a
critical part, and for any community that considers this type of exemption they must have a plan moving forward and I think the solution has to be incorporated that incorporates local property owners, local municipalities, state, and federal,” he said.
Fair housing advocates, however, said HB 5365 is just another way for towns to circumvent state mandates for affordable housing.
Matthew Morgan, the executive director of the nonprofit housing advocacy group Journey Home, spoke in support of House Bill 6893, a bill that would appropriate $33.5 million in additional funding for the Department of Housing for programs to assist people experiencing homeless-
He says that the funds need to be annualized and connected to inflation to deal with the challenges faced by people experiencing homelessness.
“We’ve already heard of three deaths this winter from people who were unsheltered, and just this past week we heard of a person who had frostbite and had to have both of his legs amputated and is in the hospital,” Morgan said. “The hospital tried to discharge him just a couple of days ago, and we’re trying to figure out a stable place for him to go when our warming centers are full.” Morgan said that the only way for Connecticut to end its homelessness crisis is to build more affordable housing, and that he had come to speak against HB 5365
for that reason.
“I’m also here speaking against one of the bills that exempts municipalities that have an aquifer protection area in their municipalities from 8-30g. From what I look at, when I look at the map of the aquifer areas in Connecticut, that’s 47% of the municipalities. We’re never going to get to building that 100,000 units of housing we need if half of Connecticut is not subject to these requirements of building more housing that is affordable for people.”
Other housing advocates also called out HB 5365 over its language targeting affordable housing specifically.
“This bill is not about protecting aquifers. Rather, it is about exempting towns from their responsibilities under the Affordable Housing Appeals Procedure (Section 8-30g), even though the towns fail to meet the exemption standard,” said Sean Ghio, policy director for the Partnership for Strong Communities, in written testimony. “It is difficult to understand why the bill singles out affordable housing developments as singularly dangerous to our water supply while excluding other types of housing including market-rate multi-family and single-family developments.”
Ghio continued: “Section 8-30g applies to both types of housing developments. Single-family developments can be and have been Section 8-30g developments. What makes an affordable housing development, whether single-family detached homes or multifamily homes, a greater danger to our water supply than the same development without affordability restrictions?”
5 High School Seniors Win Black History Month Book Awards
by Staff
Yale New Haven Health (YNHHS) marked President’s Day by honoring five high school seniors who will receive $1,000 to help pay for their firstyear college book s.
The seniors were the winners of the first annual Black History Month Book Awards created by YNHHS’ Office of Diversity Equity, Inclusion & Belonging.
Following is a release with the details: Yale New Haven Health’s (YNHHS) Office of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Belonging has announced the inaugural Black History Month Book Award recipients.
This award is bestowed upon Connecticut high school seniors who demonstrate a commitment to higher education, with those honored receiving a one-time $1,000 award to support their first-year book expenses. The Black History Book Award is available to students in communities
across Connecticut and neighboring regions where Yale New Haven Health provides services.
Those honored with the inaugural YNHHS Black History Award Book award are:
• G. Brown Gervi, Central High School, Bridgeport. Presenting essay on Bayard Rustin
• Kaeleigh Graham-Purdy, Greenwich High School, Greenwich. Presenting essay on Dr. Jewel Plummer Cobb
• Janiya Greene, Metropolitan Business Academy, New Haven. Presenting essay on Shirley Chisholm
• Raymond Lomax, Jr. Nonewaug High School, Woodbury. Son of Darcey Cobbs-Lomax, Executive Director, Health Equity & Community Impact. Presenting essay on Jackie Robinson
• Elissa Matthews, Hopkins School, New Haven. Presenting essay on William Grimes
Matthew Morgan, center, executive director of the nonprofit housing advocacy group Journey Home, sits with other housing advocates during a public hearing before the Housing Committee on Thursday, Feb. 13, 2025, at the Legislative Office Building in Hartford. Credit: Jamil Ragland / CTNewsJunkie ness.
Present at the ceremony, from left: Denise Morris, VP Inclusion & Belonging, Employee & Labor Relations, Yale New Haven Health; Christopher O’Connor, CEO, Yale New Haven Health; Katherine Heilpern, President, Yale New Haven Hospital, Elissa Matthews; Kaeleigh Graham-Purdy; Janiya Greene, G. Brown Gervil; Raymond Lomax, Jr.; Ena Williams, Chief Nursing Executive, Yale New Haven Health; Jorge Rodriguez, Executive VP, Chief Ambulatory Officer, Yale New Haven Health; Pamela Sutton-Wallace, President, Yale New Haven Health and Melissa Turner, SR VP, Chief Human Resources Officer, Yale New Haven Health. CTNewsJunkie
NXTHVN Takes NXT
Still Seeking
assessments as we can of those affected properties, and that will take time,” she said at the meeting.
It also brings on nine high school student apprentices, each of whom works one-on-one with a fellow on a year-long project. Last year, the summer exhibition Roots To Benevolence grew out of that collaboration. Later this month, apprentices will host a virtual Black History Month open mic night, a first for the organization. Kemp, who worked previously at The Future Project, has been working closely with students as they pivot from virtual apprenticeships back to in-person gathering this year. He pointed to the importance of play and experimentation in their work.
Jennings-Harriott took issue with the mayor’s proposal to wait until most assessments are complete before disposition of the funds. (As of Jan. 31, Haley & Aldrich reported completion of 60 assessments out of the 300 properties, with 30 more on the schedule. A pie chart exhibited at the meeting showed 50 percent of those properties with issues of water intrusion, 25 percent with structural issues, and 25 percent with wear and tear and thus ineligible.)
“At some point we have to stop the assessments,” Jennings-Harriott said. “We’ve got to start somewhere. Those of us with water intrusion issues, they are not going to get magically better with time, they’re going to get worse.” For a myriad of reasons absentee landlords, houses demolished and still on the list, unoccupied properties “we’re never going to get close to 100 percent, so we need to be realistic about that.”
“That gets lost a lot in schools, sometimes even in other after-school programs,” he said. “To really play in their imagination, and then being at a place like NXTHVN, which was created out of imagination.”
He added that being in person has allowed him to check in honestly with students, all of whom have now lived with pandemic-era education for almost two full years. He’s acutely aware of the level of anxiety that students are facing, he said. The program is meant to be the antidote.
For Jennings-Harriott, the issue isn’t about opposition to the community center. “It’s about priority,” she said. “This is a humanity issue. How can a community campus take precedence over people who are suffering right now, who are paying taxes, who are working hard just to get by?”
”It’s to the point, not to get too deep here, where it’s not just ‘I suffer from anxiety,’ but ‘I am anxiety,’” Kemp said. “That’s what I hear from a lot of young people. They almost take depression and anxiety on as their identity. So a lot of what we do is directing them towards their own power.”
Regarding the mayor’s proposal to fund the repairs through the Bond Commission, Councilwoman Caldwell outlined the four-step process one that, as she explained, is long, involved, and vulnerable to setbacks at any stage, as well as dependent on variables in the current economic climate unrelated to any project.
TRAIN LIVE
Non-residential Job Corps students have the flexibility to live at home while receiving the same career training and education as those who live on campus.
STUDENTS RESIDENTIAL STUDENTS
ENROLLING AS A NON-RES STUDENT?
In March, 2021-2022 curatorial fellows Marissa Del Toro and Jamillah Hinson will open Let Them Roam Freely at the Henry Street gallery. Then in early June, studio fellows Layo Bright, John Guzman, Alyssa Klauer, Africanus Okokon, Patrick Quarm, Daniel Ramos and Warith Taha will all be part of a show in New York City, at a gallery that NXTHVN has not yet shared the name of. The organization is still accepting applications for its 2022-2023 fellowship; people can apply here.
Tuition-free career training and education
“We have the money right now in the ARPA funds,” she reiterated. “All the council needs to do is call a vote to move the funds from the eligible municipal expenses to the foundations-restricted account.” She maintained the community campus should instead be funded through the bonding commission.
Town officials preached caution. “You can’t go both fast and accurate, and to make sure this is done really well, it’s going to take longer than you want,” said Garrett.
McCraven, an early-career art historian, curator and Fulbright alum who grew up in the area, said that she’s especially eager to show young people that “this is really a viable path,” and NXTHVN is for them, too. After years attending the International Festival of Arts & Ideas and later working for Kaphar and the Amistad Center for Art & Culture in Hartford, it feels like a full-circle moment.
Earn your high school diploma or the equivalent
Train in high-growth industries
Gain hands-on work experience
Take community college classes
Participate in clubs and sports
Get involved with community projects
Non-res might be for you if you are:
– 16–24 years old
– enrolling at a Job Corps center in your hometown
– responsible for taking care of children or other family members
“I would hate for us to put a Band-Aid on something because it feels good,” legislative member Tasha Hunt agreed. “As you begin to uncover one thing, it could be ten more things,” said Jacqueline James, the newly appointed economic and community development director. “This is how we got to where we are now, decades later,” Jennings-Harriott replied. “We don’t know enough to know if we have all the money. We can’t do anything until we can do everything. That’s not the solution either.”
Develop friendships and connections
Receive nutritious meals and basic medical care
“Growing up in the area, I didn’t see something like NXTHVN,” she said. “And if I had, I think I would have come to the arts even earlier.”
– motivated to train for a career during the day, Monday through Friday
There was, nonetheless, seeming progress. Haley & Aldrich agreed to furnish residents with a report advising them of their property’s eligibility for relief for water intrusion or structural issues within 30 days of the assessment. There was also
NXTHVN’s fellowship program is currently accepting applications for its 20222023 cohort. People can apply through Feb 21. There is no formal education requirement. www.nxthvn.submittable. com/submit
Elks Flocking To The Library
by Allan Appel
Gary Hogan wants you to know that while the Elks’ light may be temporarily dimmed due to the sale and demolition of their Webster Street building, and while a new club house is in the making further up on Dixwell, they are sponsoring a wide range of new literacy and cultural programs in a partnership with the local Stetson Branch Library.
And the result is, having turned a loss into an opportunity, the group is recruiting more Elks, and younger ones, to the charitable and civic activities of one of Dixwell’s most venerable civic and charitable organizations
That good news emerged Thursday afternoon at a planning session convened at the Stetson Branch Library on Dixwell Avenue attended by local Elks’ Exalted Ruler (and Beaver Hills Alder) Gary Hogan, Daughter Ruler Arlice Brogden, City Librarian Maria Bernhey, and long-time Stetson Branch Librarian Diane Brown.
“We’ve a target of about 50 kids,” said Hogan, that he’d like to see attend an upcoming and expanded summer reading program at Stetson, which would be one of the main focuses of the Elks-library partnership.
The Elks, formally known as the Improved Benevolent Protective Order of Elks of the World (I.B.P.O.E.W) is an African American fraternal order that emerged in the late 19th century and, in New Haven, in 1907, when the white Elks refused to let African Americans join.
“We came about,” said Hogan proudly, “long before the N.A.A.C.P. and the [African American] sororities and fraternities.”
It has profound roots in the Dixwell neighborhood where Christmas and other celebrations, dress-up galas, Thanksgiving turkey-giveaways, funerals, welcome-wagon type activities for new residents, and pivotal community meetings have over the decades been held in their clubhouse.
So the temporary loss of a clubhouse, Hogan said, has triggered fresh thinking about programming, and thus the natural partnership with Stetson.
Because of those roots in Dixwell, Dwight, and Newhallville over the generations, the Elks know by name and address some of the families in deepest need and the kids requiring lots of mentorship, and those are young people that the new partnership is seeing come into Stetson’s bright new building, where the entire first floor is devoted to kid programming, with the teens and young adults up on the second floor.
In the run-up to the summer reading program, other activities, which began in January, also have included inter-
active story-telling, families learning together to paint on canvas, a kind of hip hop-based session helping to teach healthy eating habits, a Kwanza event, and, most recently, on Wednesday a two-hour Black history teen hangout.
Stetson’s teen librarian Brooke Jones said you turn the library into a Black history-themed teen “hangout” by providing tasty New Haven style pizza and other good things to eat and drink; you show on a large screen a cool movie, in this case Hidden Figures, the biopic about a brilliant and unappreciated trio of African American women mathematicians who helped John Glen orbit the earth and keep America in the early space race.
And you also have a little machine around where the teens while talking, eating, and watching the film! can also learn how to make button badges featuring a favorite figure from African American history.
“The image of the Elks,” said Hogan, “is sometimes its parties, but that’s a fallacy. We’ve been behind the scenes doing essential work in the community since 1907.”
If you think of a kind of combination of the Shriners, the Masons, and the Rotary Club, said Hogan, that’s the New Haven Elks, who are officially Elks Lodge 141, comprised of the East Rock Lodge and the Pocahontas Temple of the I.B P.O.E.W of Elks. And until the new clubhouse rises, both groups have been holding their gatherings at Stetson, Hogan added.
That essential community work includes the Poster Child program, said Brogden one of her favorite of the formally designated areas of Elks’
tivities, the others being civil liberties, youth work, beauty and talent, and education. The Poster Child program entails identifying special needs kids in the community and offering financial, equipment, spiritual, and other support.
Through June of this year other activities being planned include American Red Cross CPR trainings for teens; reinvigorating the Elks’ signature beauty and talent pageant; trips to NBA games for local teens; and one of Hogan’s favorites, an intergenerational senior gala or pageant, where, for examples, teens and an older aunt or mentor celebrate their relationship and in the process show off the cool threads, as we used to say in the 1960s.
“But,” added Brogden, “in the run up the teens are also taught some life skills too, etiquette, and manners.”
“Stetson’s [summer reading program] is one-on-one, group and family-oriented,” added City Librarian Bernhey, a program that last year drew 17 kids and is the target for expansion with the infusion of the Elks’ support.
And it’s also, in no small part, because the Elks are involved, very much family focused.
That often means that a reading-atthe-library experience might begin with a child, but soon one of the teachers learns that some of the parents have literacy struggles as well, and the next thing you know the family is reading together.
“Building family time around reading, more family nights, more books to take home,” said Bernhey are important features of the summer reading program at Stetson that will be augmented through the partnership with the Elks.
“We found adults,” added Diane Brown of last year’s summer reading program “who could not read at all.”
“This is another example,” said Bernhey, of how the library has become a community hub, with bridges to many other organizations (like the Elks).
“That’s the thing, a bridge.”
“We are a benevolent, charitable organization teaching young people to learn, to give, to help. We’re embracing young people to show them something different. We have an opportunity to sway the needle in these kids’ lives,” Hogan said.
The next link in that bridge or sway in that needle takes place Saturday, Feb. 22 from 2:00 p.m. to 4 at Stetson, a second “Hip Hop Heals” combining music with health and life style activities. For more information, the number: 203 – 946-8119.
The new programming link with the library, Hogan thinks, is unique in what he termed “Elkdom.” And for that reason and its success he and Brogden
Allan Appel Photo Stetson Branch Librarian Diane Brown (at right) with teen librarian Brooke Jones and children's librarian Phil Modin.
City Librarian Bernhey, Diane Brown, Arlice Brogden, and Gary Hogan.
The New Haven independent
The Black Press: The Last Line of Defense as Trump Seizes Control of the National Archives
“Silence is complicity in state-sponsored amnesia. The Black Press plays a vital role in resisting this erasure,” Ebanks insisted. “The truth will not preserve itself. The Black Press must continue its mission—not just to inform but to resist.”
By Stacy M. Brown @StacyBrownMedia
Donald Trump’s recent takeover of the National Archives marks yet another chilling step in his broader campaign to rewrite history, erasing the truths that challenge his authoritarian ambitions. With the forced resignation of Acting Archivist William Bosanko, Trump and his allies are moving swiftly to reshape how American history is recorded, preserved, and ultimately remembered. This power grab, executed under the banner of Project 2025 and backed by figures like Elon Musk, is more than just an attack on government records—it is an existential threat to the preservation of Black history and the truth itself.
History Under Siege
For centuries, African Americans have fought for their place in the national narrative, often relying on the Black Press as the only means to document the realities of systemic racism, discrimination, and resilience. From Ida B. Wells’ fearless reporting on lynching to the Chicago Defender’s pivotal role in the Great Migration, Black newspapers have long served as the voice of the silenced. With Trump’s grip tightening over the agency responsible for safeguarding historical records, the need for an independent, unflinching Black press has never been more urgent.
Trump’s purge at the National Archives follows a pattern of systematic erasure. His administration has already waged war on diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives, gutted affirmative action, and worked to dismantle programs designed to level the playing field for marginalized communities. Now, by taking control of the Archives, he is moving to rewrite the nation’s past to justify the injustices of the present and future.
The forced removal of archivists and the potential installation of loyalists like
Hugh Hewitt or John Solomon—far-right operatives with no historical credentials—signal that the agency’s purpose is shifting from preservation to propaganda. Reports indicate that the Archive’s leadership under previous political influence had already begun censoring mentions of Indigenous land displacement, removing references to Japanese American internment, and even swapping out images of Martin Luther King Jr. for Richard Nixon and Elvis Presley in museum exhibits.
This power shift is part of a broader authoritarian trend, as seen in the elimination of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs and affirmative action. The rollback of these initiatives disproportionately affects Black Americans and other marginalized communities, making the work of the Black Press more crucial than ever.
Black Press as a Corrective Force
In a recent episode of the “Seizing Freedom” podcast, journalist Adam Serwer spoke about the historical role of the Black Press in countering misinformation. “There were whole newspapers that said the Klan did not exist,” Serwer explained. “You had people who were victims of the Klan who were literally testifying in Congress about seeing people be murdered or being attacked or mutilated themselves. And you would have these Democratic-aligned papers and some Republican papers as well saying, ‘Oh, you know, the Ku Klux Klan is like a fictional invention of fevered imaginations.’ But it was completely made up, and Black newspapers were saying, ‘This is nonsense; it’s made up.”
A display wall showcases the front pages of the nation’s Black newspapers. Member papers could benefit from President Biden’s Build Back Better Act. (Travis Riddick/NNPA)
Similarly, Ida B. Wells was relentless in exposing racial terrorism. “She was one of the people who was primarily
responsible for not only countering that propaganda that was justifying that campaign of terrorism,” Serwer noted, “but for laying down a historical record that historians would use to show that it was, in fact, a propaganda campaign.”
A Dangerous Precedent
Many argue that this is not just an assault on history; it is an assault on truth. In authoritarian regimes, controlling the historical record is a crucial strategy for maintaining power. As historian George Orwell warned, “He who controls the past controls the future.” Trump’s latest move places America firmly on that trajectory, echoing tactics used by totalitarian states to whitewash history, from Stalin’s Soviet Union to China’s suppression of ‘historical nihilism.’
Onlookers have observed that Musk’s control over X (formerly Twitter) — and now the government — further illustrates the danger. Politicians, historians, and others have noted that, under Musk’s leadership, the platform has become a
haven for misinformation, with accounts spreading white nationalist rhetoric and conspiracy theories while voices advocating for racial justice face suppression.
“The Black Press remains one of the last independent institutions able to challenge these narratives,” National Newspaper Publishers Association President & CEO Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis Jr. has often declared.
A Call to Action
Texas Democratic Rep. Jasmine Crockett remains among the few unafraid to speak truth to power, particularly when her Republican colleagues show ignorance of Black history. She recently lit into the MAGA loyalists who claimed white men are oppressed in America.
“There has been no oppression for the white man in this country,” she declared in a fiery, nearly two-minute speech.
“You tell me which white men were dragged out of their homes. You tell me which one of them was dragged across an ocean and told they were going to work,
have their wives stolen, and have their wives raped. That didn’t happen. That is oppression.”
Crockett pointed out that Republicans are constantly trying to erase Black history from school textbooks. They want to keep American schoolchildren in the dark, she says, so they “can then misuse words like oppression”—just like her House colleagues were doing at that moment.
Writing in the Detroit Free Press, Keith Owens asserted, “You can’t erase Black history for the same reason you can’t erase air; because air simply exists whether you want it to or not. It’s not multiple-choice. Stop breathing, and you will find out. It’s science, and it’s also fact.”
Owens further argued, “Any attempt to extricate Black threads from the American tapestry will result in the entire fabric becoming undone. Just to make it plain; there is no American history without Black history. That’s because there is a strong likelihood that America never would have evolved into the economic powerhouse that it became – and might not have evolved much at all – without Black Americans.”
Historians warn that suppressing history is often a precursor to further civil rights rollbacks. They argue that the Black Press must be the frontline against these efforts as it has done for centuries. “It must continue reporting on the realities that mainstream media overlooks, challenge disinformation, and preserve the voices of those history seeks to erase,” said self-described New York Amsterdam News loyalist and accountant Jonathan Ebanks.
“Silence is complicity in state-sponsored amnesia. The Black Press plays a vital role in resisting this erasure,” Ebanks insisted. “The truth will not preserve it-
‘Smooth, sultry, and premium’ – Megan Thee Stallion unveils her own tequila brand
by Francis Akhalbey, Face2FaceAfrica.com
Renowned Houston rapper Megan Thee Stallion celebrated her 30th birthday in style as she unveiled her new tequila brand, Chicas Divertidas. A press release stated that the new alcoholic beverage will hit the shelves in two premium offerings, Blanco and Reposado.
“As someone who values good vibes and great memories, I knew I wanted to create a tequila that was designed to be shared and savored with my Hotties,” Megan, who turned 30 on February 15, said.
“Smooth, sultry, and premium. This process has been years in the making, and I’m so proud to take this next step in my journey as an entrepreneur and launch this brand. I know the Hotties are ready,
it’s time to give them a drink made by me! I’m excited to share this labor of love with you all and hope you are inspired to enter your CHICAS ERA!”
The release stated that Chicas Divertidas was produced at “Casa Centinela (NOM 1140), a distillery preserving tradition since 1904.” The new liquor brand is said to benefit from the “region’s rich terroir of volcanic soil and a cooler climate yielding a naturally sweeter agave.” The release added: “The piñas are cooked in traditional masonry ovens and distilled in premium copper stills, resulting in an authentic and flavorful juice.”
The bottle’s design was inspired by the Angel’s Trumpet flower. “A completely unique look, each bottle features cuts and grooves inspired by the agave plant and gradient hues of orange, pink, red and purple,” the release stated.
“A dagger-pierced heart crowns the bottle, encapsulating the brand’s essence: keep it cute, classy and cut-throat.”
The ingredients in Blanco include “a pure and delicately sweet liquid with citrus notes and herbal hints of rosemary and green tea that harmonize in a silkysmooth finish.” “Reposado is meant to be savored, delivering a richly balanced profile of caramelized agave, American oak and cooking spices with an elegant finish,” the release added.
Since breaking into the music industry in 2019, rapper Megan has shown no sign of slowing down in both music and business. From taking $500 gigs in her hometown of Houston, she has grown her brand to the point where she now rubs shoulders with some of the established brands.
Megan Thee Stallion unveiled new tequila brand -- Photo Credit: Chicas Divertidas
Assistant to the Tax Collector
The Town of Wallingford is seeking an individual with strong supervisory skills to assist in the collection of revenue from local property taxes including revenue generated from town utilities. The position requires an A.S. degree in Business Administration or related field and 2 years of accounting, bookkeeping, or collections experience, or an equivalent combination of education and experience substituting on a year-for-year basis. Must possess a CT driver’s license and obtain designation as a CT municipal tax collector within 3 years of appointment. Salary: $69,124 to $87,566 annually. The Town offers an excellent fringe benefits package that includes pension plan, paid sick and vacation time, individual and family medical insurance, life insurance, 13 paid holidays, and deferred compensation plan. The closing date will be February 11, 2025 or the date the 40th application is received, whichever occurs first. To apply online, please visit: www.wallingfordct.gov/government/departments/human-resources/. Applications are also available at the Department of Human Resources located in Room #301 of the Town Hall, 45 South Main Street, Wallingford, CT 06492. Phone: (203) 294-2080; Fax: (203) 294-2084. EOE
The Glendower Group, Inc
Request for Qualifications Interior Design
The Glendower Group, Inc., is currently seeking proposals from qualified firms for Interior Design Services. A complete copy of the requirement may be obtained from Elm City’s Vendor Collaboration Portal https://newhavenhousing.cobblestonesystems.com/gateway beginning on
Wednesday, February 19, 2025, at 3:00PM.
Assistant Production Manager
Large CT Fence and Guiderail Contractor looking for an Assistant Production Manager. Duties shall include but not be limited to: Assist superintendents with planning & execution of residential, commercial & industrial projects including review of plans, shop drawings, material take-offs & material & equipment staging. Assist with truck & equipment inspections each morning. Assist in oversight & enforcement of the company safety program. Monitor registrations, insurance, fuel stickers, drivers medical card statuses, yard equipment operator licenses & any other required state/federal documents using Tatum’s Asset Software reporting. Assist with creating work orders & setting daily production expectations for all shops. Monitor shop production quality & labor hour utilization. Assist Purchasing Department with inventory management & purchasing logistics. Update schedule to reflect status of ‘make items’ required for installation. Check timesheets for accuracy & send to payroll for processing. Attend daily meetings with superintendents and Production Manager to discuss current day/next day project statuses, material & equipment requirements & staffing issues. $35.00 per hour. Email resume to gforshee@atlasoutdoor.com. Atlas is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer.
360 Management GROUP
Request for BID Marshal Services
360 Management Group is currently seeking proposals from qualified firm for Marshall Services. A complete copy of the requirement may be obtained from Elm City’s Vendor Collaboration Portal https://newhavenhousing.cobblestonesystems.com/gateway beginning on
Wednesday, February 19, 2025, at 3:00PM.
REQUEST FOR BIDS
Architectural Repairs and Improvements at Union Station Building New Haven, Connecticut New Haven Parking Authority Project #23-020
Bids due March 19, 2025 at 3:00 PM EDT
Bid Documents including Special Notice to Bidders for Community Subcontracting Opportunities, Project Manual, Drawings and Bid Forms will be available beginning Wednesday, February 19, 2025 at no cost to you by downloading from the BuildingConnected FTP system website. Please contact Maryann Bigda of Turner Construction Company, which is the New Haven Parking Authority’s professional construction program manager, at (203) 712-6070 for BuildingConnected FTP system access information.
The New Haven Parking Authority will receive sealed bids for Architectural Repairs and Improvements at Union Station Building, NHPA Project #23-020, until 3:00 PM EDT on Wednesday, March 19, 2025. All Bids shall be submitted through the BuildingConnected FTP system. Bids may be submitted at any time leading up to the specified due date and time and will remain sealed within the BuildingConnected FTP system until the specified due date and time. The New Haven Parking Authority will be conducting a virtual public bid opening using the Zoom Link provided in the Bid Documents. At this Zoom bid opening, all bids will be publicly opened and the name of the Bidder and its total Bid Price will be read aloud. Bids received after the time set for the opening will be rejected.
The work for this project includes, but is not limited to: main & anterior lobby refinishing, upper floor common area interior repairs, stairwell repairs & improvements (including miscellaneous metals), floor & tile repairs, cleaning of limestone & marble walls, cleaning of main waiting room lights, replacement of brass door assemblies, miscellaneous tenant space repairs, exterior repairs (including masonry & waterproofing repairs), terracotta cornice cleaning and repairs, hazardous building materials abatement, miscellaneous coordination, together with all incidental work thereto and in accordance with the Bid Documents. This project is funded through the State Department of Transportation (CTDOT) and, as such, is subject to certain requirements of the State Capital Funding Agreement.
Bidders will be responsible for the requirements of ALL documents made available and will not be relieved of responsibilities for requirements indicated in any bid documents not downloaded or viewed.
Bidders must submit with their Bid on forms provided a list of their Intended Subcontractors, together with CHRO contract compliance requirements, including:
a. the utilization of DAS-certified Small Business Enterprises (“SBE”) for a requirement of at least 30% of the Bidder’s entire contract value;
b. the utilization of DAS-certified Minority owned Business Enterprises (“MBE”), Women owned Business Enterprises (“WBE”) and/or Disabled owned Business Enterprises (“DisBE”) for a requirement of at least 25% of the Bidder’s entire contract value. Please note that the MBE, WBE, and/or DisBE are part of the SBE; and
c. Independent of the SBE/MBE/WBE/DisBE requirements herein, a minimum of 10% of the Bidder’s entire contract value must include businesses having a place of business within the City of New Haven limits.
A satisfactory bid bond executed by the bidder and acceptable surety in an amount not less than ten percent (10%) of the total bid shall be submitted with each bid.
Lowest Responsible and Qualified Bidder: As used in this section, “lowest responsible and qualified bidder” means the bidder whose bid is the lowest of those bidders possessing the skill, ability and integrity necessary to faithfully perform the work. As a prerequisite, all Bidders with a contract value in excess of $1,000,000 must be pre-qualified by DAS. Additionally, all subcontractors with a subcontract value in excess of $1,000,000 must be pre-qualified by DAS.
The New Haven Parking Authority is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer. Minority/Women/Disabled Business Enterprises are encouraged to apply.
Listing: Facility & Inventory Assistant
Opening for a part-time Facility & Inventory Assistant in a HVAC department. Some heavy lifting required. Computer knowledge a plus. Valid Driver’s License required. Organizational skills needed. Send resume to HR Department, hrdept@eastriverenergy.com, 401 Soundview Road, Guilford, CT 06437.
**An Affirmative Action/ Equal Opportunity Employer including Disabled and Veterans *
SENIOR ENGINEER – WATER AND SEWER
The Town of Wallingford has an excellent career opportunity for a strong technical leader to be responsible for improving current facilities and providing for future growth of the water and wastewater systems. Applicants should possess 7 years of experience in engineering utility operations, of which 4 years must be water or wastewater related, plus a bachelor’s degree in civil or sanitary engineering, or an equivalent combination of education and qualifying experience substituting on a year-for-year basis. Salary: $113,556 to $141,944 annually. The Town offers an excellent fringe benefits package that includes pension plan, generous paid sick and vacation time, individual and family medical insurance, life insurance, 13 paid holidays, and deferred compensation plan. To apply online by the closing date of February 28, 2025, please visit: www.wallingfordct.gov/government/departments/human-resources/. Applications are also available at the Department of Human Resources located in Room #301 of the Town Hall, 45 South Main Street, Wallingford, CT 06492. Phone: (203) 294-2080; Fax: (203) 2942084. EOE
CHIEF MAINTAINER
The Town of Wallingford Water Division is seeking a skilled supervisor to direct a work crew engaged in the operation, maintenance, repair and construction of facilities pertaining to the Town’s potable water transmission and distribution system. Applicants should possess a H.S., trade/technical school diploma plus 5 years’ experience as a Maintainer for a water utility or in the field of construction, with work experience in the installation of underground pipelines (water main, sanitary sewer, storm drain or gas main) and related equipment; with two (2) of those years involved in the supervision of others. Up to two (2) years of post-high school education in an applicable field may substitute for the general experience requirement. Must possess at the date of appointment and maintain in good standing a valid State of Connecticut Class B Commercial Driver’s License (CDL). Wages: $30.43 to $36.64 hourly plus on-call pay when assigned. The Town offers an excellent fringe benefits package that includes pension plan, generous paid sick and vacation time, medical/dental insurance, life insurance, 13 paid holidays, and a deferred compensation plan. To apply online by the closing date of February 18, 2025, please visit: www.wallingfordct.gov/government/departments/human-resources/. Applications are also available at the Department of Human Resources located in Room #301 of the Town Hall, 45 South Main Street, Wallingford, CT 06492. Phone: (203) 294-2080; Fax: (203) 294-2084. EOE
Listing: Commercial Driver
Immediate opening for a Class A full time driver for petroleum/ asphalt/like products deliveries for nights and weekends. Previous experience required. Send resume to: HR Manager, P. O. Box 388, Guilford, CT 06437 or email: hrdept@eastriverenergy.com
PLUMBING WORKERS NEEDED.
Have you ever wanted to become a plumber or work in the plumbing field? LBR Mechanical Corp is seeking plumbing mechanics, journeymen and helpers for a construction project located in Bridgeport, CT. Experience in plumbing/heating, construction and roughing a plus. Will train the right candidates. Driver’s license and proof of citizenship required. Please call 914-276-1493 for an application to start your new career.
NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING FOR THE ELM CITY COMMUNITIES/HOUSING AUTHORITY OF NEW HAVEN (ECC/HANH) FLAT RENT SCHEDULE 2025
According to (24 CFR 960.253(b) Notice PIH 2021-27, and Section 6 III (D) - Flat Rent of ECC/HANH’s Admissions & Continued Occupancy Policy (ACOP) ECC/HANH must establish a schedule of flat rents annually give a family of a choice of flat rent or income-based rent and provide families with the information on how to choose the rent.
The thirty (30) days comment period begins on Monday, February 24, 2025, and ends on Monday, March 24, 2025. Copies of the Flat Rent schedule 2025 will be made available on the agency website www.elmcitycommunities.org or via Facebook www.facebook.com/ElmCityCommunities and all Property Management offices.
You are invited to provide written comments to: ECC/HANH Flat Rent Schedule 2025, Attn: Evelise Ribeiro, 360 Orange Street, New Haven, CT 06511 or via email to: eribeiro@elmcitycommunities.org.
A public hearing where public comments will also be accepted and recorded is scheduled for Monday, March 17, 2025, at 3:00 PM via RingCentral: https://v.ringcentral.com/join/324785192?pw=ec70759479fa8ec2d9d921d7fe08c6d5
Meeting ID: 324785192 Password: 2y2hnScDHi
Anyone who requires a reasonable accommodation to participate in the hearing may call the Reasonable Accommodation Manager at (203) 4988800 ext. 1507 or TDD (203) 497-8434.
AVISO DE AUDIENCIA PÚBLICA PARA LAS COMUNIDADES DE LA CIUDAD
ELM/AUTORIDAD DE VIVIENDA DE NEW HAVEN (ECC/HANH)
LISTA DE ALQUILER FIJO 2025
De acuerdo con (24 CFR 960.253(b) Aviso PIH 2021-27 y la Sección 6 III (D) - Alquiler Fijo de la Política de Admisiones y Ocupación Continua (ACOP) de ECC/HANH, ECC/HANH debe establecer una lista de alquileres fijos anualmente para darle a las familias la opción de alquiler fijo o alquiler basado en los ingresos y brindarles información sobre cómo elegir el alquiler.
El período de comentarios de treinta (30) días comienza el lunes 24 de febrero de 2025 y finaliza el lunes 24 de marzo de 2025. Se pondrán a disposición copias de la lista de alquileres fijos 2025 en el sitio web de la agencia www. elmcitycommunities.org o a través de Facebook www.facebook.com/ElmCityCommunities y todas las oficinas de administración de propiedades.
Se le invita a enviar comentarios por escrito a: ECC/HANH Flat Rent Schedule 2025, Attn: Evelise Ribeiro, 360 Orange Street, New Haven, CT 06511 o por correo electrónico a: eribeiro@elmcitycommunities.org.
Se ha programado una audiencia pública en la que también se aceptarán y registrarán comentarios públicos para el lunes 17 de marzo de 2025 a las 3:00 p. m. a través de RingCentral:
https://v.ringcentral.com/join/324785192?pw=ec70759479fa8ec2d9d921d7fe08c6d5
ID de la reunión: 324785192
Contraseña: 2y2hnScDHi
Cualquier persona que requiera una adaptación razonable para participar en la audiencia puede llamar al Gerente de Adaptaciones Razonables al (203) 498-8800 ext. 1507 o TDD (203) 497-8434.
NAACP Sues Trump Administration Over Dismantling of Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
By Stacy M. Brown NNPA National Correspondent @StacyBrownMedia
The NAACP has filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia challenging the legality of the Trump administration’s decision to dismantle the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). The civil rights organization argues that the move undermines protections for Black, elderly, and vulnerable consumers, leaving them exposed to financial exploitation. NAACP
President and CEO Derrick Johnson condemned the administration’s actions, calling them a reckless assault on consumer protections. “Once again, we are witnessing the dangerous impacts of an overreaching executive office. The Trump Administration’s decision to dismantle the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau opens the floodgates for unethical and predatory practices to run rampant,” Johnson stated. “We refuse to stand idly by as our most vulnerable communities are left unprotected due to irresponsible leaders. From seniors and retirees, disabled people, and victims of disaster to so many more, our nation stands to face immense financial hardship and adversity as a result of the elimination of the CFPB. If our President refuses to put people over profit, the NAACP will use every tool possible to put Americans first.”
The lawsuit comes after a series of drastic actions following the ouster of CFPB Director Rohit Chopra. President Trump replaced Chopra with Russell Vought, who immediately instructed staff not to perform any work tasks and
ordered the closure of the agency’s headquarters, taking steps to cancel its lease. Vought also suspended all investigations, rulemaking, public communications, and enforcement actions. Keisha D. Bross, NAACP Director of Opportunity, Race, and Justice, said the organization maintains its commitment to restoring the bureau’s critical role in protecting consumers. “The CFPB is an agency of the people. From the protection from junk fees to fighting excessive overdraft fees, providing assistance to impacted victims
of natural disasters, and holding predatory practices accountable, the NAACP stands firm in bringing back the CFPB,” Bross said. “The NAACP will fight to hold financial entities responsible for the years of inequitable practices from big banks and lenders.”
The lawsuit, filed alongside the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU), the National Consumer Law Center, the Virginia Poverty Law Center, and the CFPB Employee Association, argues that the administration’s actions violate the
Constitution and the Administrative Procedure Act. According to the complaint, the Trump administration has taken deliberate steps to dismantle the CFPB, including firing 70 employees via form email, canceling over $100 million in vendor contracts, and shutting down the agency’s consumer complaint system, which processes hundreds of thousands of cases monthly. The plaintiffs warn that these actions will leave millions of Americans defenseless against financial fraud and predatory lending practices. The
lawsuit details the harm already inflicted by the agency’s closure. Among those affected is Rev. Eva Steege, an 83-year-old pastor with a terminal illness who was seeking student loan forgiveness through a CFPB-facilitated program. Her meeting with CFPB staff was abruptly canceled, leaving her without recourse to resolve her debt before passing.
The NAACP and other plaintiffs seek an immediate injunction to halt the administration’s actions and restore the CFPB’s operations. The legal challenge argues that the President has no unilateral authority to dismantle an agency created by Congress and that Vought’s appointment as acting director is unlawful. President Trump has made no secret of his desire to eliminate the CFPB, confirming last week that his administration was working to “totally eliminate” the agency. Tech billionaire Elon Musk, a key player in Trump’s “Department of Government Efficiency,” celebrated the move with a social media post reading “CFPB RIP.”
If successful, the lawsuit could force the administration to reinstate the agency and resume its enforcement actions against financial institutions accused of predatory practices. “Neither the President nor the head of the CFPB has the power to dismantle an agency that Congress established,” the plaintiffs argue. “With each day the agency remains shut down, financial institutions that seek to prey on consumers are emboldened— harming their law-abiding competitors and the consumers who fall victim to them.”
Black Press, NAACP, and Lawmakers Warned America—Now Trump’s Project 2025 Agenda is Reality
By Stacy M. Brown NNPA National Correspondent @StacyBrownMedia
The Black Press warned Americans. The NAACP warned Americans. Texas Democratic Rep. Jasmine Crockett warned Americans. Several others who paid attention to the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 sounded the alarm too. Yet, despite Donald Trump’s lies and attempts to distance himself from the plan’s hateful and destructive mandate, reality has set in. Less than one month into his presidency, Politico noted that Project 2025 has shown up in 37 of Trump’s executive orders, placing its architects squarely in power and moving swiftly to reshape the nation’s policies. Despite public denials, the fingerprints of the far-right Heritage Foundation’s sweeping agenda are unmistakable. Among the immediate actions are Trump’s reinstatement of harsh immigration policies, directives rolling back civil rights protections, and a push to gut the Department of Education’s diversity programs—each item aligning with the Project 2025 blueprint. Executive orders dismantling environmental safeguards, restricting reproductive rights, and grant-
ing broad powers to law enforcement have followed, echoing the project’s call for a return to what its authors describe as “traditional American values.” “This is exactly what we warned about,” Rep. Crockett said. “They’re moving with precision, targeting the most vulnerable communities first—immigrants, Black and brown people, LGBTQ+ folks—and they’re doing it under the guise of restoring law and order.”
The Black Press of America issued numerous reports before the election detailing how Project 2025 aims to strip away civil liberties and concentrate power in the executive branch. Critics say the speed at which these policies are being implemented proves that Trump’s earlier denials were calculated deception.
The NAACP released a statement emphasizing the stakes: “This is not about politics—this is about survival,” officials at the nation’s oldest civil rights organization stated. “Communities of color will bear the brunt of these policies. We told you this was coming.”
Behind the scenes, Trump has appointed several Heritage Foundation affiliates to top White House positions. John McEntee, one of Project 2025’s key contributors, now oversees personnel decisions,
ensuring federal agencies align with the agenda’s hardline stance. Meanwhile, another architect of the plan, Russell
Vought, plays a central role in rewriting federal budget priorities to defund programs that benefit marginalized groups.
The executive orders have included eliminating funding for diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives across government agencies, establishing federal penalties for “disruptive” protests, and reinstating the controversial “Remain in Mexico” immigration policy.
“Donald Trump can pretend he’s not involved, but look at the people in his administration,” said Derrick Johnson, president of the NAACP. “Look at the policies being pushed through with record speed. This is Project 2025 in action.” Many of Trump’s moves echo those listed in the Heritage Foundation’s publicly available 920-page blueprint. The document outlines plans to overhaul the Department of Justice, weaken protections against police brutality, and limit LGBTQ+ rights, all of which have been reflected in Trump’s recent directives. Civil rights organizations are rallying to fight back, filing lawsuits, and urging Americans to mobilize. Still, the road ahead remains steep, with Republican-controlled legislatures supporting many of these initiatives. “There’s no time for complacency,” Rep. Crockett said. “What we are witnessing is the normalization of fascism disguised as patriotism.”
HBO’s Eyes on the Prize III Revisits Black America’s Modern Civil Rights Struggles
By Stacy M. Brown NNPA National Correspondent @StacyBrownMedia
HBO is set to debut Eyes on the Prize III: We Who Believe in Freedom Cannot Rest (1977-2015), the latest chapter of the groundbreaking documentary series that has long served as a definitive account of the fight for racial justice in America. The six-part series, executive produced by Dawn Porter, premieres Tuesday, February 25, with two episodes airing backto-back on HBO. All six episodes will be available to stream on Max. Building on the foundation of Henry Hampton’s 1987 documentary Eyes on the Prize: America’s Civil Rights Movement, this new installment shifts the timeline beyond the traditional civil rights era, highlighting the continued struggle for justice from the late 1970s through 2015. The series captures pivotal moments in Black activism through archival footage and firsthand accounts, from grassroots battles over housing and healthcare to the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement.
Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis Jr., who appears in multiple episodes, played a key role in the history explored in the series. As a leader in the fight for racial equity, Dr. Chavis was the principal national organizer of the Million Man March in 1995 and the environmental justice movement in 1982 that challenged corporate and government negligence in Black communities. The series revisits both turning points, featuring voices from the front lines who fought for justice in the face of systemic resistance. The first episode, America, Don’t Look Away (1977-1988), explores community activism in New York’s South Bronx and Philadelphia. Local leaders took on fair housing and
healthcare inequities during the final years of the Carter administration and the onset of Reaganomics. The episode includes former Bronx borough president Fernando Ferrer, public health officials, and activists who fought for Black communities amid the AIDS crisis.
As the series progresses, it turns to the criminal justice system’s impact on Black communities. Trapped (1989-1995) follows public defenders in Washington, D.C., and organizers in South Central Los Angeles who took on policies that disproportionately targeted Black residents. The documentary highlights the work of figures such as Congresswoman Maxine Waters and former U.S. attorney Robert Wilkins. The third episode focuses on one of the most defining moments of modern Black activism—the Million Man March.
The 1995 gathering in Washington, D.C., on October 16, 1995, drew over one million Black men to assemble in the daylong gathering in a call for unity, responsibility, and community upliftment. Chavis, who was the National Director and a key organizer of the march, is featured alongside Rev. Al Sharpton, journalist Michael Cottman, and Professor Emerita Angela Davis. The episode details both the controversy and the lasting impact of the historic event.
Environmental justice takes center stage in the fourth installment, which examines the fight against industrial pollution and toxic waste in Black communities. Activists in North Carolina, West Virginia, and Florida battled corporations and government agencies that failed to protect Black neighborhoods from environmen-
tal hazards. Dr. Chavis, Deputy Executive Director of the Commission for Racial Justice of the United Church of Christ at the time, is featured along with Dr. Robert Bullard, widely regarded as one of the founders of the Environmental Justice Movement (EJM) along with Chavis, and former Vice President Al Gore. The final two episodes focus on legal and political battles over race in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. One installment looks at affirmative action and the shifting landscape of school desegregation, featuring UCLA law professor Kimberlé Crenshaw and civil rights leader Dr. William J. Barber II. The last episode explores the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement during the Obama years, as police killings of unarmed Black citizens galvanized a new generation of activists. It includes BLM
co-founders Alicia Garza and Patrisse Cullors, as well as Rev. Al Sharpton.
The series arrives at a time when the fight for racial justice remains urgent, and the Black Press continues to document these struggles as it has been for nearly two centuries. Founded in 1827 with Freedom’s Journal, the Black Press of America was created to give Black communities a voice when mainstream media ignored or distorted their stories. That mission continues today through the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA), representing over 230 Black-owned newspapers nationwide. Chavis, who leads the NNPA, has also co-authored a new book with NNPA Senior National Correspondent Stacy M. Brown. The Transatlantic Slave Trade: Overcoming the 500-Year Legacy is a deep examination of the lasting impact of one of history’s greatest atrocities. Covering the period from 1500 to 2024, the book details how the forced removal and brutal exploitation of millions of Africans laid the foundation for the systemic racism that persists today.
“The transatlantic slave trade isn’t just history—it is the root of the struggles we continue to face,” Chavis said. “To understand the present, we must confront the past.” Rock and Roll Hall of Famer and Public Enemy frontman Chuck D wrote the book’s foreword, recognizing its role in providing historical context for the challenges Black Americans still endure. With the release of Eyes on the Prize III and The Transatlantic Slave Trade, the importance of truth-telling remains clear. “For 198 years, the Black Press has ensured that our history is recorded accurately,” Chavis said. “We must continue to tell our own stories and ensure the truth is never erased.”
DR. JAMAL BRYANT’S 40-DAY TARGET ‘FAST’ GAINS MOMENTUM
To offer alternatives, Bryant has partnered with Ron Busby, president and CEO of the U.S. Black Chambers, providing consumers with a directory of 300,000 Black-owned businesses.
By Stacy M. Brown
NNPA National Correspondent @StacyBrownMedia
Dr. Jamal Bryant, the influential pastor of New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in metro Atlanta, is leading a 40-day fast—or boycott—of Target in response to the retailer’s decision to phase out its diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives. Bryant is calling for 100,000 people to sign a petition and halt their spending at Target as a direct challenge to what he describes as the company’s retreat from its commitments to Black businesses and consumers.
Target, headquartered in Minneapolis, where George Floyd was murdered in 2020, initially pledged $2 billion in investments to Black-owned businesses. However, Bryant condemned the company’s announcement on January 24 that it would end its DEI initiatives and simultaneously abandon that financial commitment.
“After the murder of George Floyd, they made a $2 billion commitment to invest in Black businesses,” Bryant said during an appearance on the Black Press’ Let It Be Known News. “That commitment was due in December 2025. When they pulled out of the DEI agreement in January, they also canceled that $2 billion commitment.”
Bryant said that Target’s role in the Black consumer market makes it the logical first target of this economic protest. “Black people spend $12 million a day at Target,” he said. “Because of how many dollars are spent there and the absence of commitment to our community, we are focusing on Target first.”
Set to coincide with Lent, the fast is designed to leverage Black economic power to hold corporations accountable. Within just one week, 50,000 people had already signed onto the campaign at targetfast. org, which the pastor said highlighted the movement's momentum.
Bryant’s demands go beyond reinstating
DEI. “White women are the number one beneficiaries of DEI,” he said. “What I am asking for is a quarter of a billion dollars
to be invested in Black banks so that our Black businesses can scale. Target has 10 distribution centers near HBCUs, and I’m asking them to partner with the business departments of these institutions.”
Separate, the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA), representing the Black Press of America, has announced a national public education and selective buying campaign in response to the corporate retreat from DEI commitments. “We are the trusted voice of Black America, and we will not be silent or nonresponsive to the rapid rise of renewed Jim Crow racist policies in corporate America,” said NNPA Chairman Bobby R. Henry Sr.
NNPA President and CEO Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis Jr. reinforced the need for financial realignment. “Black Americans spend $2 trillion annually. We must evaluate and realign to question why we continue to spend our money with companies that do not respect us. These contradictions will not go unchallenged.”
To offer alternatives, Bryant has partnered with Ron Busby, president and CEO of the U.S. Black Chambers, providing consumers with a directory of 300,000 Black-owned businesses. “You can’t tell people what not to do without showing them what to do,” Bryant said. “If you’re not going to Target or Walmart but need essentials like toilet paper, soap, or detergent, we’ll show you where to get them and reinvest in Black businesses.” The impact of the boycott is already being felt, he insisted.
“Since Black people have been boycotting Target, the stock has dropped by $11,” Bryant said. “Stockholders are now suing Target because of the adverse impact this boycott has had on their stock.” “This is just phase one,” Bryant continued. “After the 40 days, we’ll figure out who’s next. But we have to go after Target first. Amazon and others come right after. “America has shown us time and time again: if it doesn’t make dollars, it doesn’t make sense.”
ANOTHER PUSH FOR REPARATIONS FOR SLAVERY AND BLACK A WALL STREET
By April Ryan
The growing movement for reparations for the descendants of Africans enslaved in America is receiving another jolt of energy. Democratic Massachusetts Congresswoman Ayanna Presley is revitalizing the work of the late Texas Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee with the reintroduction of H. R. 40. The newly reintroduced bill would create a 15-member commission to study concrete solutions to the Black Wall Street Tulsa Massacre. Also, the new H.R. 40 bill would develop recommendations for reparations for slavery. Democratic New Jersey Senator Cory Booker is introducing a similar bill in the United States Senate. However, Pressley says the House bill already has 70 co-sponsors, and she will ask Republicans and Democrats to co-sponsor H.R. 40. However, there are no official Republican sponsors yet. The bill would also probe racist disparities that inhibited Black wealth. Marc Morial, the head of the National Urban League, says,” We must stay the course!” The
head of the economic civil rights organization says the current wealth gap disparity between Blacks and whites is “10-1 at least. Maybe higher.”
Pressley wants what she calls the “reparative work,” similar to what was offered to Native Americans and Japanese Americans. In 1988, Republican President Ronald Reagan apologized to the surviving Japanese Americans for their incarceration during World War ll. 80,000 Japanese Americans received $20,000 each from the federal government as part of the apology. Reparations for Native Americans also occurred after World War ll. 1.3 Billion dollars was paid by the Indian Claims Commission as it provided $1000 per person. Democratic Chicago congressman Joshua Jackson pointed to Evanston, Illinois. That town currently offers reparations as the first municipal program in the United States to address racial discrimination and segregation. Black residents and their descendants who lived in Evanston between 1919 and 1969 are eligible for up to 25 thousand dollars to help with real
recommendations for reparations for slavery. estate-related issues. From the press conference on Capitol Hill, Pressley encouraged President Donald Trump and the man she calls his “co-president,” Elon Musk to support H.R. 40.
Congressional leaders attending and supporting the reintroduction of H.R. 40 were Congressman Johnathan Jackson, Congresswoman Summer Lee, Congresswoman Bonnie Watson Coleman, and the Chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, New York Democratic Congresswoman Yvette Clarke. Presley is the third Black congressional leader who carried on the legacy of a movement toward reparations. It began in 1969 with the late Michigan Congressman John Conyers and was reintroduced by Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee in recent years. Congresswoman Lee received 140 co-signers on the bill that Congresswoman Pressley and Senator Booker now champion. Texas Congresswoman Erica Lee Carter, the daughter of the late Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee, said, “This is not the past” but about the present and future.
Corporate America Abandons DE&I, But Black-Owned Brands Are the Future
NNPA NEWSWIRE — Black entrepreneurs continue to build, innovate, and thrive. According to NBC Select, over three million Black-owned brands are in the U.S., spanning every industry
By Stacy M. Brown
While corporations retreat, Black entrepreneurs continue to build, innovate, and thrive. According to NBC Select, over three million Black-owned brands are in the U.S., spanning every industry imaginable. As corporate America abandons its DE&I commitments, the power shifts to conscious consumers who invest in businesses that uplift and sustain marginalized communities.
Here are just a few standout Blackowned brands leading the charge:
Clothing & Accessories
• Telfar – The brand that revolutionized luxury fashion with its motto: “Not for you—for everyone.”
•Hanifa – A trailblazing womenswear brand founded by Anifa Mvuemba, known for its stunning digital fashion shows.
•Pyer Moss – Founded by Kerby Jean-Raymond, this label merges activism and high fashion.
• Grayscale – A streetwear brand bringing bold aesthetics and social commentary to the forefront.
•Sassy Jones – A standout accessories brand built on bold, unapologetic self-expression.
Beauty & Skincare
•Fenty Beauty – Rihanna’s globally inclusive beauty empire that set a new standard for shade diversity.
•Mented Cosmetics – Beauty products created specifically for deeper skin tones.
• The Lip Bar – A Black-woman-owned brand disrupting the beauty industry with
bold, non-toxic lipstick shades.
•Pattern Beauty – Founded by Tracee Ellis Ross, specializing in products for textured hair.
•Alikay Naturals – Natural haircare products with a devoted following.
Home & Lifestyle
•Estelle Colored Glass – Hand-blown glassware that brings Black excellence to fine dining.
•Jungalow – A home décor brand from designer Justina Blakeney, blending culture and bohemian flair.
•Linoto – Luxury linen bedding made
with sustainability in mind.
•Yowie – A modern design studio curating unique home goods from independent artists.
Food & Beverage
•Partake Foods – A Black-owned snack company offering allergen-friendly cookies and treats.
•McBride Sisters Wine Collection – The largest Black-owned wine company in the U.S., run by two sisters redefining the industry.
•Uncle Nearest Whiskey – Honoring Nathan “Nearest” Green, the Black distiller
behind Jack Daniel’s original recipe.
•Capital City Mambo Sauce – The D.C. favorite taking over the condiment industry.
Meanwhile, corporate America’s performative commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I) is unraveling at an alarming rate. In the years following the murder of George Floyd, corporations made bold promises to support marginalized communities, pledging billions in investments to level the playing field. But as the political landscape shifts and accountability wanes, those commitments are being discarded. A staggering number
of major corporations have scaled back or eliminated DE&I programs: Amazon, Target, Amtrak, Goldman Sachs, Disney, Deloitte, PBS, Google, Pepsi, General Motors (GM), GE, Intel, PayPal, Chipotle, Comcast, Accenture, The Smithsonian Institution, the FBI, Meta, Walmart, Boeing, Molson Coors, Ford Motor Co., Harley-Davidson, and John Deere have all abandoned or severely reduced their diversity efforts. The very companies that once paraded their commitment to racial equity in multimillion-dollar ad campaigns are now quietly erasing those initiatives from their bottom lines.
Not everyone is staying silent. Dr. Jamal Bryant, the influential pastor of New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in metro Atlanta, is leading a 40-day economic fast—or boycott—of Target in direct response to the retailer’s decision to phase out its DE&I initiatives. Target, headquartered in Minneapolis—the city where George Floyd was murdered in 2020—originally pledged $2 billion in investments toward Black-owned businesses. That commitment was due in December 2025, but on January 24, Target announced it would end its DE&I efforts, effectively abandoning that financial commitment. Bryant, appearing on the Black Press’ Let It Be Known news program, condemned the move. “After the murder of George Floyd, they made a $2 billion commitment to invest in Black businesses,” he said. “When they pulled out of the DE&I agreement in January, they also canceled that $2 billion commitment.”
