INNER-CITY NEWS

THE INNER-CITY NEWS January INNER-CITY NEWS July11, 27,2017 2016- -January August 17, 02, 2017 2016

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INNER-CITYNEWS 2214 2213 Volume 21 No. 2194

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THE INNER-CITY NEWS January 11, 2017 - January 17, 2017

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THE INNER-CITY NEWS January 11, 2017 - January 17, 2017

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How To Hack(er) Our Democracy THE INNER-CITY NEWS January 11, 2017 - January 17, 2017

by PAUL BASS

NEW HAVEN INDEPENDENT

American democracy is sick, in the view of a local democracy doctor. His prescription: more democracy. And that doesn’t mean just voting.

The democracy doctor is Yale political scientist Jacob Hacker. He runs the university’s Institution for Social and Policy Studies. A prominent author and opinion writer, Hacker has advised government leaders in the United States and abroad and was an influential voice for a public option in deliberations over crafting national health care policy.

These days he has focused much of his attention on the economic decline of the middle class and the loss of confidence and participation in American democracy (including in his latest book, American Amnesia: How the War on Government Led Us to Forget What Made America Prosper). His concerns grew greater in the wake of Donald Trump’s election as president. He said he is wondering “whether

PAUL BASS PHOTOS A post-election

rally on Elm Street.

democracy can survive.”

“I don’t think it’s a question I have ever asked before,” Hacker said Wednesday during an interview on WNHH radio’s “Dateline New Haven” program. “I turned 46 yesterday — so in my adult life I’ve seen very big scandals.

Iran-Contra. The impeachment of President Clinton. And the George W. Bush presidency. But I’ve never questioned whether our democracy could survive.”

He spoke of the growing inability of the political system to tackle the country’s most pressing

challenges, from climate change to the new global economy’s impact on American workers.

He spoke of voter ID laws that have restricted the ability of many low-income people to cast ballots. He spoke of government “dysfunction,” the evaporation of responsible business-sector civic leadership, and the inability of people to obtain legitimate information awash in a wave of fake and slanted news.

“We really need in this era of more than ever to teach people how to be informed consumers of and users of information. We are awash in information. But much of it — more of it than ever — is suspect,” Hacker argued.

In light of the stated agendas of the incoming Republican Congressional leadership and the Trump administration, Hacker called for citizens to participate in a “broad-based movement” that will “defend and protect certain core individual rights. I see that threat in manyy places, notably in the taking away of fundamental voting rights from significant of the voting public.”

He also called for systemic

changes in U.S. government.

“I am not a fan of every state getting two senators,” he said. “I am not a fan of a state that has only two escalators in the whole state — Wyoming — also getting to have two senators. It is a tiny little state with a tiny population.

As a result a voter in Wyoming has something like 60 times the influence of a voter in California in the Senate. It doesn’t make any sense.”

While changing the twosenator rule may be a long shot, Hacker said, the country needs in some way to address how the concentration of black and Latino voters in cities ultimately runs up their voting power in those districts, but overall diminishes their national political power.

He supports some form of proportional representation or “ranked” voting. “The fundamental issue is the system involves enormous amounts of wasted votes,” he said.

And he called for fixing gerrymandered districts that have helped polarize the country and produce gridlock in Washington.

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THE INNER-CITY NEWS January 11, 2017 - January 17, 2017

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

Editorial Team Staff Writers

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

_______________________

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

20 Retire, Resign From Schools

by MARKESHIA RICKS NEW HAVEN INDEPENDENT

The Board of Education bid adieu to two top administrators at its meeting Monday night, and it will do the same when three principals and a supervisor of social work retire this coming summer.

That was just a handful of the people who have decided to retire or resign from the school district since the board last met in December. The district also announced two teacher retirements and eight resignations at the meeting, held at Beecher School.

All together, the Board of Education approved a personnel report that included 20 retirements and resignations.

The departures come at crucial time for the school district as it attempts to fill an estimated $4.6 million hole in its current fiscal budget. Interim Superintendent Reginald Mayo said that he has been able to get the deficit down to about $4.1 million by reducing the number of teacher vacancies by 20. Some of those reductions were achieved by moving positions from the general fund to special funds. He said he will scrutinize

MARKESHIA RICKS PHOTO Mayo

20 more teacher vacancies in the coming weeks.

Several of the school-level retirements won’t happen until June 30, so there won’t be any immediate savings to the school system’s budget. But some departures— like those of Director of Communications Mercy Quaye and Adriana Joseph, deputy chief of youth, family & community engagement will happen this month, or have already happened.

Quaye, who joined the district in May 2016, is returning to the not-for-profit education world after Jan 26 to take a position

Memberships

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with Board Member Che Dawson at Monday’s meeting.

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with Educators for Excellence.

Joseph, who had been on Family and Medical Leave Act leave since November, was approved Monday night to return to work Dec. 19.

She then tendered her resignation, which also was approved by the board and was effective Dec. 22.

When asked by board member Darnell Goldson how the district plans to to get along without those administrators, Mayo said that he initially was not going to fill the communications position. He then concluded some part-time help might be in order. Goldson pointed out that because the position

belongs to AFSCME Local 3144, which represents the city’s managerial positions, the union might have something to say about any hiring for the position.

Mayo told the board that he will not be filling Joseph’s position.

He indicated after the meeting that he also will not be filling any teacher vacancies created by the most recent round of resignations either, at least not with full-time teachers.

“We’ll try to make a couple of the positions part time,” he said.

Mayo also downplayed the number of administrator retirements, saying in his experiences as many as 10 administrators put in retirements by this time of the year. He noted administrators who inform the school district about retirement plans before the end of the year get a $7,500 bonus because it gives the district time to search and plan for a replacement.

As far as the closing the budget deficit, Mayo said, so far he’s “feeling pretty confident” that enough changes can be made to fill the gap. He said he’ll be talking to principals this Wednesday to look at school level budget changes.

“It could be worse,” he said.

2 Paths Seen To Black Power THE INNER-CITY NEWS January 11, 2017 - January 17, 2017

by THOMAS BREEN NEW HAVEN INDEPENDENT

Fighting back in 2017 requires crafting a “black agenda” or an “American agenda” two different approaches suggested in a passionate community discussion held Tuesday night in Newhallville. The event, the third in a monthly post-election series of “community conversations” hosted by the New Haven Alumnae Chapter of the Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, was held at ConnCAT in Science Park. It brought to the fore key differences in emphasis and tactics, if not necessarily in goals or good will, among leaders of New Haven’s African-American community present on the panel.

The discussion focused on how best to establish a united local effort to benefit New Haven’s black community at a time of national political anxiety and uncertainty.

Around 60 people filled one of ConnCAT’s second-floor workshop rooms to listen in and participate.

Inner City News editor Babz Rawls-Ivy posed a seemingly straightforward question to the group of African-American community leaders sitting in front of her: If the black agenda of the Civil Rights Movement centered on equal rights, and if the black agenda of the late 1960s was Black Power, then what is the black agenda of 2017?

Valerie Shultz-Wilson, president and CEO of the Urban League of Southern Connecticut, disagreed with the premise of the question.

“Why do we need a black agenda?” she replied, earnest and incredulous.

“Our agenda is an American agenda.

We want jobs. We want education.

We want housing. We want criminal justice reform. Why do we need to label it? We cannot allow people to continue to say, ‘That’s a black agenda, so we don’t have to worry about it.’ These are things that every American should want.”

CTCORE’s Camelle ScottMujahid, sitting at the other end of the table, jumped in to offer a different perspective.

“When you look historically at how change has happened in this country,” she contended, “whenever we have ignored race, the solutions that have been proposed and that have been accepted have always passed our community by. We need to insist on being seen, because

Traore, Scott-Mujahid, Goodridge, Shultz-Wilson, Graves, Rawlings.

to not have our own agenda is to accept invisibility.”

Shultz-Wilson, Cathy Graves of The Links, and Jim Rawlings of the Greater New Haven NAACP stood proudly as the panel’s established generation of civil rights leaders, advocating for sustained political and civic engagement through a renewed commitment to institutions with proven track records of raising the quality of life for New Haven’s African-American community.

“This year is the 100th anniversary of the NAACP in New Haven,” Rawlings said, reflecting on his branch’s long history of civil rights advocacy, including its recent involvement in the successful push to abolish Connecticut’s death penalty.

“We have the largest branch in all of New England. We are the boldest and the baddest, and we intimidate for a reason: because we have numbers behind us. If we show up with five people, the system is not going to change. But if we show up with a thousand people, we change things. If we walk away from strong organizations, we only make those who want to destroy us stronger.”

Earlier in the conversation, ShultzWilson made a similar argument about the importance of the Urban League’s long history of encouraging economic prosperity in minority communities, citing her organization’s sturdy foundation as an invaluable asset in allowing for some requisite agility and flexibility over the next four years.

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“Linda McMahon was just nominated to be the head of Trump’s small business administration,” she said, referring to the World Wrestling empire builder and former Republican U.S. senate candidate.

“Well, she lives here in southern Connecticut. And she’s one of my donors. I can’t just say, ‘Oh jeez, because she’s working for Donald Trump, she can’t do anything positive for African Americans in the small business community.’

“It is my responsibility to educate her and [HUD nominee] Ben Carson as to the needs of African Americans in this state. I have the data. I have the programs. I have the support.

And if they’re not willing to get on board, then it’s my responsibility to shine that light and hold them

accountable.”

On the other side of the panel, Scott-Mujahid, Black Lives Matter New Haven co-founder Dawnise Traore, and Valencia Goodridge of the National Coalition of 100 Black Women represented a younger generation of organizers and activists. Scott-Mjahid and Traore spoke of using a direct, grassroots approach to addressing the twin evils of systemic racism and political apathy. Their calls to arms relied less on institutional loyalty or even power in numbers, but instead on raised racial and political consciousness.

“When we talk about policies and things of that nature, sometimes people on Section 8 and people who are not going to school are just not interested,” Traore said, pointing instead towards Black Lives Matter New Haven’s strategy of street-level demonstrations as well as short story competitions that celebrate African history as ways of engaging a broader base in a clear and positive way.

“We want to work at a micro-level to get those people who are stuck on social media, who are stuck on TV, to come out and see what’s really going on in the world.”

Scott-Mujahid, a professional organizer and a training director at CTCORE-Organize Now!, stressed raising the political awareness of New Haven’s black community more broadly in order to help realize its full potential for social and political change. That awareness, Scott-Mujahid insisted, has to come first and foremost from a recognition of the persistence, and pervasiveness, of white supremacy in American society today.

“We need to teach black people in our community that there’s nothing wrong with who they are and that there’s nothing wrong with who their parents are,” she said, working her way towards her own definition of a black agenda for 2017.

“We need to be fearlessly honest.

We need to be fearlessly engaged in dismantling systemic racism and calling it out wherever we see it. Because sometimes there is an intense pressure to sugarcoat the truth about what you are seeing and experiencing. And that just cannot happen anymore.”

THE INNER-CITY NEWS January 11, 2017 - January 17, 2017

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LIFE LEGACY AND LOVE of

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THE INNER-CITY NEWS January 11, 2017 - January 17, 2017

End Of An Era: Q House Comes Down

by MARKESHIA RICKS NEW HAVEN INDEPENDENT

Bill MacMullen hadn’t been involved the demolition of a large New Haven institution since the implosion of the Veterans Memorial Coliseum back in 2007.

“I gotta tell you,” he said, “for a long time nobody thought this would happen.” “This” was the long awaited demolition of the Dixwell Community “Q” House in preparation for the construction of a new Q House. The takedown of the old building, which was built in 1967 and closed in 2003, got underway at the end of last week and is expected to wrap up by next few weeks, weather permitting.

The main event the actual tear-down of the gutted building’s exterior took place over the past three days.

There are no explosives involved in taking down the old Q House.

MacMullen, the capital projects architect for the city’s engineering department, still had a little gleam in his eye Thursday morning as he watched a man methodically use heavy equipment to take down one of the two wings of the old building and carefully extract the mangled steel, separating it from the rubble of cinderblocks.

“They’re separating out the steel so that it can be recycled,” MacMullen pointed out. “The rest can be ground up and taken to the landfill.”

For Dixwell Alder Jeanette Morrison the demolition is the manifestation of five years of the neighborhood’s efforts to get a new Q House built.

“I went and took pictures this morning myself, I was so happy,” Morrison said.

Seeing the

MARKESHIA RICKS PHOTO Thursday’s

demolition.

demolition finally get underway “is confirmation. For a long time people didn’t believe it. People were losing hope.”

The seeds of hope grew little by little as Mayor Toni Harp made a new Q House a priority for her administration, and as Gov. Dannel P. Malloy made good on a promise to deliver more than $15 million in state funds that included $1 million for a new home for the Stetson Library branch.

Morrison said demolition makes it even more real.

“People were starting to say, ‘Well we got this money, but we don’t see anything,’” she said. “But now people are seeing that that behind the scene action has finally paid off. This building we’re getting ready to build—that’s going to be awesome.”

The new Q House, which MacMullen said will be about 47,000 square feet; the original plan called for about 54,000 square feet, but was scaled back to keep the cost from going up. The complex will feature not only the new library branch, but a health center, a senior center and a full gymnasium.

While it will be a different Q House from the one where Morrison learned gymnastics and former Board of Alders President Jorge Perez learned to play guitar, many are expecting it to have the same impact providing a place of pride and community for Dixwell and all of New Haven. Morrison credited the Committee of Concerned Citizens that has “been holding this Q House torch since it closed in 2003.”

“The Q House has really impacted

8

lives,” Morrison added. “It has always been one entity in the city that everybody could go to. Though it’s on Dixwell Avenue, it’s for everyone. And it’s going to function 15 to 17 hours a day, when you think about it. It’s a one-stop shop.”

City Engineer Giovanni Zinn said the prep work including the abatement of asbestos began a couple of months ago, and actually demolishing the building is the part of the project that will go fastest.

After the building is down the site will be cleaned of the debris and everything hauled away.

MacMullen said the orientation of the new Q House will put the building at the corner of Foote Street and Dixwell Avenue. The site of the old building will be the new parking lot.

Zinn said the city hopes construction

will begin this year. The project hit a slight snag when Regina WintersToussaint, architect for the new Q House, died last year. The rest of Winters-Toussaint’s team at Zared Enterprises, which was hired to design the center, together with Kenneth Boroson Architects, will continue on the project.

“We’re very excited to see building coming down,” Zinn said. “It makes it real when the building is coming down, and shows that a lot of the planning that went into this project and the work really is starting to progress.”

Zinn said New Haveners interested in working on the new Q House should be on the look out for opportunities for subcontracting on the project.

“Stay tuned,” he said. “In the coming months there will be a lot of opportunities for trades people from the community to get involved in the construction of the Q House.

We plan to go above and beyond to target our outreach efforts so that the people of New Haven know about every construction opportunity, every training opportunity on this project.”

Mayor Harp, who got to see some of the demolition progress on Wednesday, said in a statement that the new Q House will reflect “a broad-based commitment to a vibrant, supportive community center.”

“Ever since the 2003 closure of the Q House, New Haven residents have been eager to welcome its next incarnation,” she said. “This week’s large-scale site demolition is irrefutable progress toward that new construction.”

THE INNER-CITY NEWS January 11, 2017 - January 17, 2017

Rose: Heed Us, Or Pay Your Own Bill

by THOMAS BREEN NEW HAVEN INDEPENDENT

Can the city’s chief legal adviser deny representation to a department head who refuses to heed his advice? Should the city have to foot the bill when a city employee then seeks outside counsel?

These two questions occupied the first half of a nearly threehour meeting held by the Board of Alders Finance Committee at City Hall Monday night.

A unified front of alders pushed and pulled with city Corporation Counsel John Rose Jr.over just how far the city’s legal department should go to defend municipal employees caught up in legal disputes, especially when those clients disregard the advice offered by the city’s appointed attorneys.

The debate arose out of a motion that the alders at first found little to squabble over: Whether City Clerk Michael Smart be allowed to transfer $15,000 from his department’s “Other Contractual Services” account to his department’s “Legal Services” account. This money would be used to retain outside legal counsel in case his department should find itself in court over an ongoing dispute with former Deputy City Clerk Sally Brown, whom Smart put on indefinite paid leave last July for alleged insubordination.

Smart reassured alders that the money would be coming from within his department’s own existing budget, and that the money, if not used by the end of the fiscal year, could be deployed by the city’s budget director to shore up shortfalls elsewhere in the city’s budget. The alders unanimously approved the transfer request.

“I understand your department ended last year with a budget surplus, and that you’re projecting to end this year with another surplus,” Annex Alder and recently elected

THOMAS BREEN PHOTO

Rose at Monday night’s hearing.

Smart at the hearing.

State Rep. Al Paolillo Jr. said with appreciation to the city clerk. “Thank you for being a good steward of your budget.

That’s not always the case with departments in this city.”

Then the conversation shifted, quite dramatically, as the alders reviewed a letter sent from Corporation Counsel Rose’s office, which strongly advised Smart to issue Brown a letter of reprimand for allegedly altering a document (which Brown denied doing) and then bring her back to work rather than keep

her on leave. To date, Smart has kept Brown on the payroll but out of the office.

Rose’s letter, as read aloud

by Dixwell Alder Jeanette Morrison, ended with the following warning: “If you should choose to ignore our legal advice and pursue further punishment or extend [Brown’s] administrative leave, let this letter serve as a warning that the City of New Haven may elect to deny coverage to you for any claimed damages by this employee should she file any 9

suit or action against you in your individual or official capacity.”

“Is that legal?” Morrison asked with a start, raising a concern throughout the committee that any city employee could be left out to dry by the city’s top lawyers if he or she decides not to heed their advice.

Rose, who was already present in the aldermanic chambers, came to the front of the room to make his department’s case.

For the next hour or so, the alders and Rose went back and forth, back and forth, over just what the city’s legal department is required to do when city officials reject their advice but still expected representation.

For Rose, the point was moot, because Smart is not even involved in a lawsuit yet.

Therefore, he argued, the budget transfer request was premature, ill-advised, and would establish bad precedent.

“I am not aware of any threatened or actual proposed litigation against the office of the city clerk at this time,” Rose said to the committee, explaining that neither Smart nor Brown had initiated or threatened any lawsuits to date. “This

application [is] not something that this committee ought to be entertaining.”

“But that’s not the point,” Morrison offered in return.

“Your office said, ‘If something comes up, we may elect not to defend you.’ So your office is being premature, saying that, whatever’s going on in this case, if a person decides to go at you, we may elect not to defend you.”

“If we give legal advice to a client, and that client determines not to take that legal advice, then that client may go outside and pay his own legal counsel, not using city funds,” Rose replied.

“If you choose to ignore the legal advice from corporation counsel, and if you decide to seek outside counsel, you should do that on your own stick. It should be your own money, not the city’s money.”

Ultimately, the alders remained resolute in their decision to approve the motion, sympathetic to Smart’s argument that the budget transfer in preparation for a potential lawsuit was proactive rather than premature, especially considering that the case is now under review by the State’s Election Enforcement Committee and may indeed result in litigation soon. The fund transfer matter now goes to the full Board of Alders for approval.

But they left the chambers on slightly less certain ground as to whether or not the corporation counsel or city money has to support continuing to defend a city department head who declines to follow the office’s legal advice. That assurance, neither in explicit conflict or accordance with the corporation counsel’s charter, was left ambiguous as the committee adjourned for the night. Rose is expected to follow up with alders with a clarification of his office’s responsibilities in cases like these.

THE INNER-CITY NEWS January 11, 2017 - January 17, 2017

Students, Employers Go On A Speed Date

by BETSY KIM

NEW HAVEN INDEPENDENT

More than 230 New Haven public-school graduates descended the staircase at the Payne Whitney Gym, looking for the match that could help spell a promising future.

Their goal: to land one of the approximately 100 paid summer internships being offered by 32 employers, who waited at tables to take turns at meeting them.

The college students rotated among the tables handing out their resumes, getting to know their potential employers faceto-face.

Three 15-minute introductory sessions, matched by compatibility of professional interests, were followed by two 10-minute sessions based on the students’ choices. Music cued the students when it was time to move on to visit a possible interested employer at the next table.

The speed-dating-style internship event was organized Wednesday evening by New Haven Promise, the Yaleand Community Foundation-funded college scholarship program for New Haven high school graduates.

The session was the fourth

annual internship fair Promise has organized for graduates it has helped attend college.

Most of the employers present were from Yale University departments; other corporations such as UBS and New Haven University were also looking to hire. At one meet-and-greet session, Yale Police Lts. J. Jones and Von Narcisse described the 35hour weekly, five-week summer internship at the department’s Camp New Haven. “Don’t run away,” Jones joked. We won’t arrest you.” The police explained the interns would work and learn from counselors at the camp and added it was a good opportunity for people who liked the outdoors.

Paola Otera, an 18-year-old student at Gateway Community College, stopped by the police department’s table. Otera said she hopes to have a career in teaching art and therapy.

She would like an internship, where she could work in New Haven and help children, including troubled and at-risk youths.

Isaac Bloodworth, a 21-yearold senior at the University of Connecticut, Storrs, became a New Haven Promise scholar upon graduation from Cooperative

BETSY KIM PHOTO

Lts. Jones & Narcisse make their pitch.

Isaac with dad Earl Bloodworth.

Serving All Vessels Equally, Inc Announces Justice Sunday Honorees

In recognition of outstanding and invaluable service to youth and education, Serving All Vessels Equally, Inc. (SAVE) is pleased to recognize Dr. Lynne Moore (Norwalk Public Schools), Officer Cesar Ramirez (Norwalk Police Department), Jackie Roberson (Carver Center) and Rosa Murray (Former Member of Norwalk Board of Ed).

Each of the recipients will be honored on Sunday January 15, 2017 as part of the JUSTICE SUNDAY ™ Observance at Canaan Institutional Baptist Church, 31 Concord St, Norwalk, CT. The annual theme of JUSTICE SUNDAY™ is “A Charge To Keep We Have To Serve This Present Age.” The title, JUSTICE SUNDAY™, is a symbolic call to action, which reminds us of the responsibility, we each have, in our own way, to serve this present age. These lyrics from a familiar hymn challenge us to engage in community capacity building for collective impact and to be the change, which aims to right civil wrongs.

The keynote speaker for the 11:00 A.M. service will be Rev. James Newman, pastor of the New Freedom Missionary Baptist Church, New Haven, CT. All are welcome!

Yoshimine checks out potential matches.

Arts & Humanities High School.

Through the program, he held internships for the last three summers at the Yale University Art Gallery. He is studying puppet arts within a dramatics arts major.

Upon graduation, Bloodworth is looking to land a job at the art gallery, to teach puppetry at local high schools, and to start a community art space. His ultimate goal is to work at Pixar. He noted much of Star Wars and other film effects are puppetry-based, and would combine his interests

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in visual arts and performance.

Jeff Yoshimine, deputy director for exhibition and collection management at the Yale University Art Gallery, was one of the Bloodworth’s supervisors. He observed Bloodworth’s growth over the years as an intern, a person and a budding arts professional.

He noted Bloodworth is a very social person, which could have been a distraction in high school.

Over the years, Yoshimine said, Bloodworth matured, becoming more serious and focused.

“He understands his work has meaning and importance in terms of his professional aspirations.”

Bloodworth’s father, city government prison-reentry staffer Earl Bloodworth, said he appreciates the program, referring to today’s youth as tomorrow’s resources. “If we don’t support or invest in them, New Haven won’t be sustainable.”

The New Haven Promise program is a growing investment.

According to New Haven Promise President Patricia Melton, the program has disbursed $5 million in scholarships since 2010.

New Haven Promise President Patricia Melton explained the organization’s motto: “To, through and back.” “We help them get to college, afford it, succeed in college, and then help them make that really critical leap from being a college student to being a citizen in the city with job,” she said.

The New Haven Promise program has two components: Through a competitive process, tuition scholarships are granted to selected students who graduated from New Haven public high schools, live in New Haven and attend colleges in Connecticut. However, even if the students do not accept the scholarships and attend out-ofstate schools, as scholars, they can still participate in the internship program.

Yale University predominately pays for the scholarships and the participating employers fund each of the internships. The program does not use federal, state or city dollars.

Chris Brown, director of New Haven community hiring initiatives at Yale, said the university has now hired more than 130 interns over the last three years. In the first year, the internship program started in the lobby of the Yale University Art Gallery with 69 students and nine departments. Now there are 250 students and 25 participating Yale departments, according to Brown.

The average scholar makes $4,000 after taxes during a summer internship, according to Amy Gaither, New Haven Promise talent development manager. Gaither said in addition to the internships offered at the fair, employers will frequently add more positions during the hiring process.

THE INNER-CITY NEWS January 11, 2017 - January 17, 2017

Martin Luther King Day 2017 Yale University mlk.yale.edu "The Kings at Yale" Exhibit January 11-March 3 Sterling Memorial Library Nave, 120 High St. Gather Out of Star-Dust: The Harlem Renaissance Exhibit January 13-April 17 Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, 121 Wall St. Hidden Figures Book Discussion with the Yale African-American Affinity Group January 13 | 12:00-1:00pm 221 Whitney Ave., LL5 & 6 Exhibition: "Let Us March On: Lee Friedlander and the Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom" January 13 – July 9 Yale University Art Gallery, 1111 Chapel St. 21st Annual Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Celebration & Food Drive at the Yale Peabody Museum January 15 - 12:00-4:00pm | January 16 - 10:00am4:00pm | Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History, 170 Whitney Ave.

STEPPING STONES OF MEDITATION: A Path through a World of Uncertainty, Lecture by Paul R. Fleischman January 16 | 3:30-5:00pm Yale School of Medicine, Mary S. Harkness Auditorium, 333 Cedar St. Pierson Tea with Blain Snipstal January 16 | 4:30-6:00pm Leitner House, Pierson College Rev. Dr. MLK Jr. Dinner January 17 | 5:00-7:00pm Residential Colleges & HGS Conversation: “The Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom: Racial Justice Activism in 1957 and Beyond” with William P. Jones, La Tanya S. Autry, and others January 19 | 5:30-7:30pm Yale University Art Gallery, 1111 Chapel St. The Cultural Centers at Yale present: “Voices of Hope & Resistance” Poetry Slam & Open Mic January 19 | 7:00-9:00pm Afro-American Cultural Center E-Room, 211 Park St.

“In Celebration of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.” Exhibit January 16 | 12:00-5:00pm Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, 121 Wall St.

Women's March on Washington January 21 | 10:00am-4:00pm Independence Ave. and Third St. SW Hidden Figures: Lecture by Author Margot Lee Shetterly & Film Screening January 21 | 4:00-8:30pm (Lecture at 4:30p, Film screening at 5:45p) Whitney Humanities Center, 53 Wall St. Intervening in Bias Incidents: Strategies for Action in the Moment Multiple sessions on each of the following days: January 22, 1:00-2:30pm, 3:00-4:30pm January 24, 6:00-7:30pm January 26, 6:00-7:30pm January 31, 8:00-9:30pm MLK KEYNOTE ADDRESS: Diane Nash on “Courage, Conflict and Creative Maladjustment: Speaking Truth to Power across Generations” January 25 | 5:30-7:30pm Battell Chapel, 400 College St. Black Church at Yale & University Church in Yale Joint Worship Service January 29 | 10:30am-12:00pm Battell Chapel, 400 College St.

The MLK 2017 Planning Committee would like to thank the following partners for their tremendous efforts to commemorate the life and legacy of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on campus and throughout New Haven: Afro-American Cultural Center at Yale University, Black Church at Yale, COMCAST, Communication and Consent Educators (CCEs) at Yale University, Connecticut Department of Energy & Environmental Protection, Department of African American Studies at Yale, Dwight Hall at Yale | Center for Public Service & Social Justice, Eli Whitney Museum and Workshop, Howard K. Hill Funeral Services, Integrated Refugee and Immigrant Services, Intercultural Affairs Council at Yale, La Casa Cultural Julia de Burgos, Native American Cultural Center, New Haven Public Schools, Office of Gender and Campus Culture, Office of the Provost – Yale University, Office of the Secretary & Vice President for Student Life of Yale University, Pierson College, Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church of New Haven, Staples, Stop & Shop, Subway, Theta Epsilon Omega Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., United Way of Greater New Haven, University Church in Yale University, Walmart, Women’s Center at Yale, WYBC 94.3, Xi Omicron Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., Yale African American Affinity Group, Yale College Dean's Office, Yale Dining, Yale Faculty of Arts & Sciences Dean's Office, Yale Office of Pubic Affairs & Communications, Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History, Yale Sterling Memorial Library, Yale Sustainable Food Project, Yale University Art Gallery, Yale University Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Yale University Office of Diversity & Inclusion, Yale University Office of New Haven & State Affairs

11

THE INNER-CITY NEWS January 11, 2017 - January 17, 2017

Collective Consciousness Theatre (CCT) presents “The Mountaintop”

by Katori Hall, January 19-February 4

“The Mountaintop”, an award winning, internationally known drama by Katori Hall plays January 19th, 20th, 21st, 26th, 27th, 28th, 29th and February 2nd, 3rd and 4th at Erector Square (Building 6 West, 2nd Floor, Studio D) in New Haven, CT. This production is presented by Collective Consciousness Theatre (CCT), a community based theatre dedicated to social change through performances, workshops and community conversations.

Directed by Dexter J. Singleton, “The Mountaintop” is a fictional retelling of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s last night on earth and features actors Terrence Riggins and Malia West. The production stage manager is Brianna Ingraham.

Set Design by David Sepulveda, Lighting Design and Projections

by Jamie Burnett. Jenny Nelson is the Production Producer.

A gripping re-imagination of events the night before the assassination of the civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. On April 3, 1968, after delivering one of his most memorable speeches, an exhausted Dr. King retires to his room at the Lorraine Motel while a storm rages outside.

When a mysterious stranger arrives with some surprising news, King

is forced to confront his destiny and his legacy to his people.

Actor Terrence Riggins has appeared in several major films and TV shows including supporting leads in What’s Love Got To Do With It?, Candyman, The Bold and The Beautiful, and Law & Order.

Actress Malia West has many local theatre credits including Ragtime, Spring Awakening and Bring It On! Katori Hall is a playwright/

performer from Memphis, TN. Hall’s plays include: The Mountaintop (2010 Olivier Award for Best New Play), which recently ran on Broadway at the Bernard Jacobs Theatre starring Angela Bassett and Samuel L. Jackson, Hurt Village (2011 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, Signature Theatre), Children of Killers (National Theatre, UK and Castillo Theatre, NYC), Hoodoo

ya l e i n s t i t u t e o f sa c r e d m u s i c joins the

inner city news in celebrating the accomplishments of African Americans to the cultural and spiritual life of New Haven and the world.

E v e n t l i s t i n g s at www.yale.edu/ism

12

Love (Cherry Lane Theatre), Remembrance (Women’s Project), Saturday Night/Sunday Morning, WHADDABLOODCLOT!!!

(Williamstown Theatre Festival), and Our Lady of Kibeho. Her awards include the Lark Play Development Center Playwrights of New York (PONY) Fellowship, the ARENA Stage American Voices New Play Residency, the Kate Neal Kinley Fellowship, two Lecomte du Nouy Prizes from Lincoln Center, the Fellowship of Southern Writers Bryan Family Award in Drama, a NYFA Fellowship, the Lorraine Hansberry Playwriting Award and the Otis Guernsey New Voices Playwriting Award.

Hall’s journalism has appeared in The New York Times, The Boston Globe, UK’s The Guardian, Essence and The Commercial Appeal, including contributing reporting for Newsweek. The Mountaintop and Katori Hall: Plays One are published by Methuen Drama. Hall is an alumna of the Lark Playwrights’ Workshop, where she developed The Mountaintop, and a graduate of Columbia University, the A.R.T. at Harvard University, and the Juilliard School. She is a proud member of the Ron Brown Scholar Program, the Coca-Cola Scholar Program, the Dramatists Guild, and the Fellowship of

Southern Writers. She is currently a member of the Residency Five at Signature Theatre Company in New York City.

Performances of “The Mountaintop” will be held January 19th, 20th, 21st, 26th, 27th, 28th, February 2nd, 3rd and 4th, Thursday-Saturday at 8pm, Sunday January 29th at 3pm. Tickets are $20 online, $25 adults, $10 students and are available online at http:// socialchangetheatre.ticketleap. com/the-mountaintop-bykatori-hall/ or at the Collective Consciousness Theatre website at www.socialchangetheatre.org.

Every Thursday performance is Pay What You Can at the door only.

Erector Square is located at 315 Peck Street in New Haven, CT. Collective Consciousness Theatre’s production of “The Mountaintop” is performed in Building 6 West, 2nd Floor, Studio D. “The Mountaintop” is produced by special arrangement with Dramatists Play Service, New York, NY. Funding support for this project is provided in part by New Alliance Foundation and Arts Council of Greater New Haven in partnership with the Connecticut Department of Economic Development, Office of the Arts, and the National Endowment for the Arts.

THE INNER-CITY NEWS January 11, 2017 - January 17, 2017

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You can receive up to $200 for completing the program.

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Girls Gather S.T.E.A.M. THE INNER-CITY NEWS January 11, 2017 - January 17, 2017

by LUCY GELLMAN NEW HAVEN INDEPENDENT

Tatyana Ramirez was struggling with the “tower of power” twominute challenge — how to build the highest, most stable structure in the room with only candied fruit and toothpicks — when she had an algebraic revelation: Use a triangular base.

Ramirez spread the message to her team, and they methodically stacked candied chunks of orange and the thin wooden toothpicks they’d been given. At two minutes exactly, they lifted their hands off the project. Even before the room’s towers had been measured, it was clear they had won.

An eighth grader at Ross Woodward School, Ramirez is one of 35 seventh and eighth-grade girls who have been selected for a six-month “S.T.E.A.M.” science, technology, engineering, arts, and math intensive-learning program hosted by the new local chapter of the National Coalition of 100 Black Women (NCBW) and Ross Woodward School.

Tuesday evening the girls and their families gathered for an orientation in Ross Woodward’s cozy music room, where they heard from NCBW members and guests a little about the next few months.

From now through June of this year, the group will convene once a month at Greater New Haven universities, libraries and research hubs for lessons on why

the S.T.E.A.M. subjects are so important for young women to pursue. Activities will include a visit to the Milford laboratories of the Northeast Fisheries Science Center, hour of code challenge, lecture from a mathematics professor, and screening of the new film Hidden Figures.

The series is part of a greater initiative, driven at the national level by both universities and President Barack Obama, to bring more women and particularly women of color into fields traditionally dominated by men.

“You ladies are going to be the future of our cities ... Think about where technology is going to take us in your lifetime,” said Mayor Toni Harp, noting how small and accessible computers have become since she had been in college. “Will you be ready to live in that world? Will you be ready to work in that world? Well, you will be if you think about the importance of S.T.E.A.M.” “Even when the world is against you and limits your progress, if you have strong skills, whatever those skills are, you can overcome,” she

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said, referencing N.A.S.A.‘s team of black female engineers featured in Hidden Figures. “If you work hard and you know more than everybody [on that subject], it doesn’t matter what your background is, it doesn’t matter whether or not you’re a woman or a man, people will use what you bring to the table. But you’ve got towork hard.”

“You’ll go places with these skills,” added Patrice Antoine, a NWCB-NHV member.

That message stuck with several of the 35 young women who have

come out for the event. Sitting with her mom and older sister at the end of one long table, seventhgrader Elizabeth Xicohtencatl clapped enthusiastically.

An aspiring artist, detective and forensic scientist, she believes that the S.T.E.A.M. program will give her more confidence in her biology class, where tackling cellular development has thrown her for a loop.

“I’ll be learning things that I don’t learn in school,” she said. “That I want to get better at.”

That was also the case for India Osbia, who wants to become a dance choreographer but also wants a grounding in those core S.T.E.A.M. subjects to help her focus in school.

“It’s just not true that girls aren’t as good at some subjects,” she said. “And I think they really can run the world some day.”

Meanwhile, eighth-grader Dayanara Chacon said she’d been thrilled to be selected because all of the S.T.E.A.M. subjects particularly math will help her work toward her goal: becoming a civil rights lawyer in New Haven, where she can stand up for people “if I see their rights are being violated.”

“I just don’t think it’s right when people say girls aren’t as good at math and science,” she said.

“Because we are! It’s wrong. I’m not saying guys are useless, but girls can do anything guys can.”

THE INNER-CITY NEWS January 11, 2017 - January 17, 2017

Margot Lee Shetterly, author of ‘Hidden Figures,’ to deliver Black History Month Lecture at Quinnipiac University Feb. 8

Margot Lee Shetterly, author of ‘Hidden Figures,’ to deliver Black History Month Lecture at Quinnipiac University Feb. 8 Best-selling author Margot Lee Shetterly will discuss her book, “Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race,” when she delivers Quinnipiac University’s annual Black History Month lecture on Wednesday, Feb. 8, at 7 p.m. at Burt Kahn Court, 275 Mount Carmel Ave. This lecture is free and open to the public.

Shetterly will share the story of how black “human computers” used math to change their own lives and America’s future. Set against the rich backdrop of World War II, the Space Race, the Civil Rights Era and the burgeoning fight for gender equality, her talk will bring to life the stories of Dorothy Vaughan, Mary Jackson, Katherine Johnson, and Christine Darden, who worked as mathematicians at NASA during the golden age of space travel.

Teaching math at segregated schools in the South, they were called into service during the WWII labor shortages. Suddenly, these overlooked math whizzes had jobs worthy of their skills at the

Margot Lee Shetterly Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory, in Hampton, Virginia. Even as Jim Crow laws segregated them from their white counterparts, the women of this all-black “West Computing” group helped America achieve a decisive victory over the Soviet Union in the Cold War. They were part of a group of hundreds of black and white women who, over the decades, contributed to some of NASA’s greatest successes.

In this keynote, Shetterly will

explore race, gender, science, the history of technology, and much else. She will explain the ways that women and people of color have contributed to American innovation while pursuing the American Dream. In sweeping, dramatic detail, she sheds light on a forgotten but key chapter in our history, and instills in us a sense of wonder, and possibility.

The book has been adapted into a new biographical drama film that will be released on Jan. 6, 2017. The film stars Taraji P. Henson as Katherine Johnson, the African American physicist, space scientist, and mathematician who calculated flight trajectories for Project Mercury and the 1969 Apollo 11 flight to the Moon.

The film also features Octavia Spencer, Janelle Monáe, Kevin Costner, Kirsten Dunst and Jim Parsons.

For more information about Shetterly’s lecture, please call 203-582-8652.

For more information, please visit www.qu.edu. Connect with Quinnipiac on Facebook at www. facebook.com/quinnipiacunews and follow Quinnipiac on Twitter @QuinnipiacU.

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THE INNER-CITY NEWS January 11, 2017 - January 17, 2017

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THE INNER-CITY NEWS January 11, 2017 - January 17, 2017

Historians Rank President Obama’s Legacy

By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA News Wire Contributor

Supporters and critics alike may eventually come to view President Barack Obama’s two-term White House tenure the same way.

His determination for change never appeared to cause him to stumble on his goals, be it Obamacare or commuting the sentences of so many who were imprisoned for so long — primarily because of antiquated laws that punished mostly lowlevel minority drug offenders.

Even as Obama is set to leave office, he took unprecedented steps to retaliate against alleged Russian interference in the 2016 election.

Obama labeled Russia’s action as significant, malicious and cyber-enabled and sanctioned six Russian individuals and five Russian entities while ordering dozens of Russian diplomats to leave the country.

The president also gave them and their families just three days to pack up and leave.

“These actions follow repeated private and public warnings that we have issued to the Russian government, and are a necessary and appropriate response to efforts to harm U.S. interests in violation of established international norms of behavior,” Obama said in the statement released by the White House.

It’s the kind of action that some said will make them miss the progress of the past eight years and critics will come to realize that Obama’s place in history will be a lofty one.

“The biggest tragedy of the Obama presidency was the relentless and often irrational unwillingness of Republican lawmakers to work with him to achieve meaningful objectives,” said Mario Almonte, a public relations specialist who also blogs about politics and social issues. “Even so, many years from now, when the history of his presidency comes into better focus, our society will come to recognize the enormous impact Barack Obama had on American culture and possibly world culture as the first Black president of the United States.”

And, as Kevin Drum a writer for “Mother Jones” noted, Obama has moved forward on eight substantial executive actions over the past month – aside from the Russian sanctions – including enacting a permanent ban on offshore oil and gas drilling in areas of the Arctic and the Atlantic Seaboard; he’s refused to veto a UN resolution condemning Israel’s settlements in the West Bank; designated two new national monuments totaling more than 1.6 million acres – Bears Ears Buttes in southeastern Utah and Gold Butte in Nevada; and he’s instructed the Department of Homeland Security to formally end the long-discussed NSEERs database.

Obama has also instructed the Army Corps of Engineers to deny final permits for the Dakota Access Pipeline where it crosses the Missouri River near the Standing Rock Sioux reservation and he’s issued a final rule that bans the

practice among some red states of withholding federal familyplanning funds from Planned Parenthood and other health clinics that provide abortions.

Also, the outgoing president completed rules to determine whether schools were succeeding or failing under the “Every Student Succeeds Act.” “He was most effective as a normal president, and he helped put the presidency back on a human scale,” said Stephen Walt, a professor of international affairs at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government.

“He was a devoted and involved father, a loving husband, a man with acknowledged – albeit – vices, and someone who made it clear that he did not regard himself as omniscient.”

Walt continued: “As president, he showed that effective governing requires careful deliberation, discipline, and the willingness to make hard and imperfect

18

decisions, and he let us all watch him do just that.”

Walt added that future historians will give President Obama “full marks” for never acting impulsively or cavalier.

Daniel Rodgers, the Henry Charles Lea Professor of History, emeritus and historian of American ideas and culture who taught at Princeton University, wrote that what buoyed Obama’s aspirations was not a program, but a dream that in his person, the people might come together and shape politics to their will and common aspirations.

“That was what the ‘we’ in the brilliant ‘Yes We Can’ slogan in the 2008 campaign was essentially about,” Rodgers said. “He has not called the nation to new feats of courage — ala Kennedy — to make war on poverty — as Johnson did — even to dream more freely than ever before — as stated by Reagan. What Obama’s words have called for is for Americans to be the people they already are.”

The single, biggest impact on Obama’s presidency has been the shattering of psychological obstacles in the American psyche toward electing a non-White president, Almonte said.

“When Hillary Clinton first ran for president, her gender was a major issue among voters. The second time around, it was not,” Almonte said. “With this psychological barrier removed, in future elections, we will see candidates from all walks of life, genders, nationalities, and possibly even lifestyles pursue the presidency with greater ease than they could have before.”

Even as Donald Trump and other Republicans promise to do all they can to repeal the Affordable Care Act, known as Obama’s signature piece of legislation, historians wrote in New York magazine that it has been the president’s greatest accomplishment.

They noted that presidents from Harry Truman to Bill Clinton failed to accomplish a passable affordable health care law.

“Obamacare is easily the signal accomplishment of this president, assuming current efforts to unravel it will be defeated,” said

Thomas Holt, the James Westfall Thompson Professor of American and African-American History at the University of Chicago.

“It’s an achievement that will put Obama in the ranks of [President Franklin Delano Roosevelt] with social security and Lyndon B. Johnson with Medicare because of its enduring impact on the average American’s well-being,” Holt said. “He won’t need bridges and airports named after him since opponents already did him the favor of naming it ‘Obamacare.’”

The Affordable Care Act’s progressivism stands out as the embodiment of Obama’s best intentions, said Nell Painter, an American historian notable for her works on southern history of the nineteenth century and a retired professor at Princeton University.

“Some three million poor people have gained access to health care, thanks to the extension of Medicaid. But those people will not be in deep-southern states where poor people are numerous, but Republicans rule,” Painter said. “I see this convergence as a consequence of watermelon politics, as unsavory a legacy of Obama’s time as Obamacare is fine.”

Finally, one historic trend-break that occurred during Obama’s presidency that has major significance for the well-being of African-Americans has been the beginnings of a decline in the national prison population, after decades of expansion, said Gavin Wright, professor of American Economic History at Stanford University.

“The Obama Administration deserves a fair share of credit,” Wright said. “In 2010, Obama signed the Fair Sentencing Act, reducing prison time for convictions involving crack cocaine.”

Wright continued: “Under Attorney General Eric Holder, sentencing guidelines were made retroactive, leading to the release of thousands. To date, the reductions have been small compared to the total incarcerated population, but the reversal is historic, and its disproportionate significance for African-Americans is evident.”

THE INNER-CITY NEWS January 11, 2017 - January 17, 2017

As President Obama Departs, We Owe Him Our Thanks

By Reverend Jesse Jackson, Sr., President and Founder/Rainbow PUSH Coalition

The final days of the Obama presidency are upon us. His popularity is rising with the economy, and with the increasingly stark contrasts to his successor.

It is worth being clear about the legacy that he leaves behind.

Obama came to office facing the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. The global financial system teetered on collapse; the auto industry faced bankruptcy; the economy was shedding 400,000 jobs a day. He also inherited the catastrophe George Bush had created with the debacle in Iraq and government misrule dramatized by the shame of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, La.

Now, eight years later, the economy nears full employment, with more than 15 million jobs created and private sector job growth at a record 81 consecutive months and counting. Wages are beginning to rise, after long years of stagnation or worse. The auto industry has enjoyed some of its most prosperous years.

This isn’t an accident. Obama helped rescue the economy by passing the largest stimulus in history, the most ambitious financial reform since the 1930s, and daring and direct intervention to save the auto industry.

Economic growth helped lower the annual budget deficit to less than half the level he inherited.

Obama also passed the largest health care reforms in six decades, providing health insurance for 20 million Americans. His reforms saved those with pre-existing conditions, provided the young with protection under their parents’ programs and, although

most Americans don’t realize it, slowed the rise of health care costs dramatically.

Running for re-election in 2012, Obama recognized that income inequality had become “the defining issue of our time.” With his progressive tax reforms both in his health care plan and in the partial repeal of the top-end Bush tax cuts, and with expanded tax credits for low-income workers and families with children, Obama made a significant beginning in addressing that inequality.

Abroad, Obama struggled against great opposition to reduce America’s exposure in the wars without end in the Middle East.

His nuclear agreement with Iran, not only dismantled its nuclear weapons capable facilities, it also provided the most comprehensive and aggressive verification mechanisms in the history of arms control. In opening relations with Cuba, he helped reduce America’s

isolation in our own hemisphere and made the historic turn from a policy of embargo that had failed for five decades.

His most historic contribution was to understand the clear and present danger of catastrophic climate change. The agreement with China and subsequent Paris Accord cemented a global consensus on the need for bolder action on global warming. On his watch, America began to reduce its reliance on coal and its greenhouse gas emissions.

Obama won a majority of the votes in both his election and re-election, something neither his predecessor nor successor achieved. He governed with grace and dignity, despite grotesque and too often racist provocations.

His family provided a model for all Americans, with Michelle winning hearts across the country.

He and his administration were remarkably free of scandal. His administration demonstrated once

more that competence could be valued in Washington.

He did all of this while facing unprecedented, unrelenting partisan obstruction, with the Republican leader of the Senate opposing him at every turn, intent on making him a one-term president. In part because of that opposition, much remained undone. The stimulus would have been larger and the recovery stronger except for Republican opposition.

The national minimum wage would have been raised. A national infrastructure project to rebuild America would have been launched. Progress on making America the leader of the green revolution, the next global industrial revolution, would have been greater. Guantanamo, the shameful prison in Cuba, would have been closed. The Voting Rights Act would have been revived, and much more.

For most Americans, the Con’t on page 24

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THE INNER-CITY NEWS January 11, 2017 - January 17, 2017

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THE INNER-CITY NEWS January 11, 2017 - January 17, 2017

A Reflection on the State of Criminal Justice on Martin Luther King Jr. Day

By Jeff Grant, JD, M Div “The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.” - Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. What should I do, as a white man, prison minister who was incarcerated for a white-collar crime, and as Executive Director of a Connecticut criminal justice nonprofit, to walk in the footsteps of Martin Luther King Jr.? How do I apply his words, that are so easy to read but so difficult to put into action? How do I honor his

memory in these most challenging and controversial of times?

The moment of our comfort and convenience is certainly over. This is true on the national level where we have new, untested leadership.

And this is also true here in Connecticut, where the budget crisis has made the state unable to do what is just, and fair, and safe.

Our state government has closed prisons and reduced the prison population to the lowest level since the 1970’s. This is a good thing.

However, we are in a paradigm shift of epic proportions in which there is no public money to fund solutions to our current problems - and no adequate explanation as to how we got into this situation.

And yet, we keep going back to the state looking for handouts for funding the way it has always been. And we are surprised and

hurt when the answer is no.

I urge everyone, and especially my fellow criminal justice colleagues, to wake up.

The fiscal crisis has caused the state to terminate the funding for and close down - our communitybased prisoner reentry behavioral health programs. This means thousands of people, many or most of them people of color, will be released from jails and prisons this year without access to therapy, life skills training, mental health services, substance abuse counseling, housing opportunities, education, or even minimum wage jobs. I propose that without this critical support, most are going to recidivate and will go back to prison in record numbers. But not before they return to the very behavior for which they were incarcerated in the first place. This is a very bad thing – for everyone.

How big is this problem?

Michelle Alexander, in discussing her seminal book “The New Jim Crow” cites that there are more African American men in prison and jail, or on probation and parole, than were slaves before the start of the Civil War. The theologian Audre Lorde brilliantly observed that, “the master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house.” If this is so, we need to find new tools. We need to stop groveling. With fewer government dollars to support our missions, we can get creative. We can seek out and find solutions even if the state has limited ability help us. We can envision a real private/public partnership, with compassionate foundations and other institutional sources willing to fund our justice reform efforts.

These funding sources will provide support for our advocacy

in promoting change and will reward our evidence-based impact in reducing recidivism - and hold our feet to the fire if we do less.

So, where do I stand at this moment of challenge and controversy? I will do as Dr. King did - do my best. Do anything and everything it takes. And like Dr. King, take comfort in knowing that - if we really work together for it - we, as a people, will get to the Promised Land.

Blessings, Rev. Jeff Grant, JD, M Div Executive Director, Family ReEntry & Founder/Director, Progressive Prison Ministries, Inc. Greenwich CT & Nationwide Mailing: PO Box 1232, Weston, CT 06883 jgrant@prisonist.org 203-339-5887

What Would Martin Luther King, Jr. Think of The Age Of Trump?

By William Spivey, Noted Blogger and ICN Contributing Writer Many that never knew Martin Luther King, Jr have tried to use his words in a way he never would have intended. Yes, he advocated non-violence but not passivity, acceptance or denial.

Martin Luther KinJr was a warrior, he did battle on behalf of righteous causes. He was fierce, getting on the nerves and in the face of Sheriff’s, Governor’s and President’s for not making their lives easier by accepting the status quo.

The Age of Trump is my name for the current era seemingly defined by the reaction of many white people to declining demographic sway, loss of privilege and blaming the wrong people for their economic decline.

Instead of looking at the top two percent who are amassing all the wealth. They pull down the other

crabs in the bucket that don’t look like them.

Most of the tactics being utilized in the Age of Trump are not new. They can’t even be ascribed to Trump who has yet to have an original idea. He is only the blowhard figurehead of a thinly veiled effort to make white people great again at the expense of all others. He openly has no real values or moral compass, shifting with every wind. He stands for white uber alles, and for that reason alone many voted for him with his promise to, “Make America Great Again!”

We now find him on the verge of becoming President. What would Martin think of all this?

I think Martin would not find this all new. He would look at Jeff Sessions and see Bull Connor. An Alabama official that advocates voter suppression and warns black people about how to speak to whites would be all too familiar. That an FBI Director would take steps which may have turned the tide of an election would not shock. The Director in his time, J. Edgar Hoover, blackmailed Presidents and legislators and tried to

convince MLK to kill himself.

The voter suppression of today is far less deadly though perhaps equally effective as when people literally died trying to get the right to vote.

I think he would side with “Black Lives Matter.” He would recognize the categorization of them as “radical” and “divisive.”

He would knowingly nod at attempts to de-legitimize the messenger because they have no response to the message.

What I call The Age of Trump did not begin when Donald Trump received the Republican nomination for President.

Not when he announced his candidacy. It began on November 4, 2008 when a black man, Barack Hussein Obama, was elected President of the United States. The following January, while Barack and Michelle Obama were attending inaugural balls. Mitch McConnell and Republican leaders were clandestinely meeting about how to undermine the new President.

Donald Trump didn’t initiate the movement that became The Age of Trump. He soon became its unquestioned leader, heading

21

up the Birther Movement and making his appeal to the far right and the ultra-white.

Would Martin Luther King, Jr hate Trump?

“Let no man pull you so low as to hate him!”

Would he be afraid?

“We must build dikes of courage to hold back the flood of fear.”

Would he be bitter?

“Never succumb to the temptation of bitterness.”

Would he lose hope?

“We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope!”

In the Age of Trump, Martin Luther King, Jr would do now as he did then. He would lead. He would organize. He would advance the struggle and prioritize. He would form coalitions and grow the movement. You would not find him at pity parties. Lamenting everything Trump. He would lead. He would organize.

During the Age of Trump, we have seen major protests, some of which resulted in violence. In Ferguson, Oakland, Los Angeles, Dallas, Baltimore and Brooklyn.

Some would ask, “What would

Dr. King think?” Remembering his desire for non-violence.

Here’s what he did say after outbreaks in his day: “A riot is the language of the unheard.”

During the Age of Trump there are many that are unheard.

Martin Luther King, Jr would not advocate violence. But he would act. No doubt his life would be threatened now as before. What would he say?

“A man not willing to die for something is not fit to live!”

Martin would call out for us to get involved. Each according to their gift. He would not seek consensus, he would mold it.

Dr. King is no longer with us.

Others must take his place.

Maybe him, maybe her… maybe you? The Age of Trump is not the time to do nothing.

“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter!”

William Spivey is a blogger and writer living happily in Orlando, FL. He can be read at www.

EnigmaInBlack.wordpress.com spiveywilliamf@gmail.com

THE INNER-CITY NEWS January 11, 2017 - January 17, 2017

Advocates Slam Senate Democrats for Failing to Hire More Blacks, Latinos

By Lauren Victoria Burke, NNPA Newswire Contributor

Don Cravins, the National Urban League’s senior vice president for policy, challenged members of the U.S. Senate, particularly the Senate’s 46 Democrats, on the lack of minority hiring in their senior staff positions at a two-hour forum on Capitol Hill.

“Out of 300 senior-level positions in the Senate, only three are occupied by African Americans.

What’s most insulting to me is that only one of them works for a Democrat member — a party that goes out every election and relies on Black voters to elect them,” said Cravins, a former Louisiana state senator; Cravins served as Chief of Staff for former-Senator Mary Landrieu for two years. “I’m not happy, today. I’m frustrated and embarrassed and I’ve had enough.”

Cravins added: “The time for lip service is over, we won’t stop pressing this issue.”

About 250 people showed up for the open discussion on congressional hiring, specifically focused on the low numbers of Black and Latino staff in the U.S. Senate.

“We are making it abundantly clear, the time is now,” said Don Bell, who added that Senator Schumer, who became the new Democratic Leader in the Senate

when Sen. Harry Reid (D-Ariz.) retired, only has Black staff at non-senior staff levels.

The senior staff positions on Capitol Hill are Chief of Staff, Legislative Director and Communications Director.

“There are nearly 40 general counsels of color standing at the helm of Fortune 500 companies in America. Forty. And yet you’d be hard pressed to find one Black one in the Hart Senate Office Building,” Cravins told the audience of staff, advocates and press. “It’s an embarrassment. It’s a travesty. Something has got to be done.”

Will Searcy, the director of the Black Talent Initiative at the Joint

Center for Political & Economic Studies, said that Senate staff dictates that the Senate’s legislative agenda controls the $3.8 trillion dollar federal budget and provides oversight over federal employees — collectively 4.1 million people.

Republican Senator Tim Scott’s Chief of Staff Jennifer DeCasper, the only Black Chief of Staff currently serving in the U.S. Senate, participated in the discussion. The only Black Legislative Director in the Senate, Clint Odom, who was recently hired by Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), was in the audience.

The National Urban League and the Joint Center for Political

and Economic Studies have been specific to focus on Black and Latino hiring to senior staff positions in the Senate; Chief of Staff, Legislative Director and Communications Director. The reasons are obvious to Capitol Hill insiders; Senior staffers hire junior staff, control the office budget and handle the most important issues in the office from policy priorities to communications.

The lack of minority hiring and promotion is particularly bad for Senate Democrats, many of whom owe their election victories to Black voters. No Senate Democrat from a state with over 20 percent African American population has an African American in any of the

three senior staff positions.

New Democratic Senate Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), Senators Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Mark Warner (D-Va.), Ben Cardin (D-Md.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), currently have no Black senior staff members.

Additionally, Sen. Van Hollen became the Chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee in November 2016 and hired no Black senior staff, even though the electorate is becoming increasingly Black and Brown.

“The numbers are worst than they have ever been,” Cravins railed.

“We’ve been talking about this issue for decades.”

The issue of Senate staff diversity has been raised several times before in the press and in reports issued by the Congressional Hispanic Staff Association in 2010. Their 2010 report “Unrepresented: A Blueprint for Solving the Diversity Crisis on Capitol Hill,” received media attention, but no measurable hiring changes. The Joint Center’s recent study, “Racial Diversity Among Top Senate Staff,” was released in December.

Ten years ago, in 2007, Politico reported that, when it came to senior staff positions, “the number approached zero” regarding African Americans.

Blacks Con’t on page 24

Astronaut Jeanette Epps Makes History As First To Board Space Station!

By T. R. Causay, BlackDoctor.org

For the first time ever, NASA will be sending an African-American crew member to the International Space Station.

The astronaut, Jeanette Epps, will be headed up to the station under the command of veteran astronaut Andrew Feustel in 2018.

“Each space station crew brings something different to the table, and Drew and Jeanette both have a lot to offer,” said Chris Cassidy, chief of the Astronaut Office at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. “The space station will benefit from having them on board.”

While previous African-American astronauts have been part of space

shuttle missions, Epps, whose training includes the Russian language so that she will be able to speak with the other people on the

ISS, is the first African-American to be part of the space station.

It might seem like she is coming out of nowhere, but actually Ms.

22

Epps has seemed to excel at just about everything all her life.

She was selected as an astronaut in 2009, in NASA’s 20th astronaut class. She was one of nine selected out of 3,500 applicants.

The New York native was a NASA Fellow during graduate school and authored several journal and conference articles.

Dr. Epps worked for Ford Motor Company where she received both a provisional patent and a U.S. patent. After leaving Ford, she joined the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) as a Technical Intelligence Officer before becoming an astronaut. Yes, the CIA too!

The training for her upcoming space flight include scientific

and technical briefings, intensive instruction in International Space Station systems, spacewalk training, robotics, T-38 flight training and wilderness survival training.

“If something breaks, anyone of us will have to be able to go out the door,” she said. “We have to be jacks of all trades. It’s not a job that’s like any other.”

Epps was inspired to become an astronaut when her older brother came home to visit from college at the Rochester Institute of Technology. He was impressed by her and her twin sisters’ grades and told them they could become aerospace engineers or even astronauts.

THE INNER-CITY NEWS January 11, 2017 - January 17, 2017

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23

THE INNER-CITY NEWS January 11, 2017 - January 17, 2017 Con’t from page 22

Failing to Hire More Blacks, Latinos

account for roughly 13 percent of the U.S. population, but only 0.7 percent of the senior staff members in the U.S. Senate — three people of 300 senior staff jobs. Currently Latinos are 17 percent of the U.S. population, but only 2.3 percent of top staff.

“I find it ironic that many of these politicians didn’t have a problem outreaching to Black and Latino people during the election, but now they need a director to do it, but okay,” Cravins said when speaking on a recently considered diversity position to deal with the hiring issue.

One reason that there has been no change in the numbers over decades is that members of Congress are exempt from labor laws that would prompt a lawsuit in any other sector.

Congress is not required to adhere to the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the Equal Employment Act of 1972. There’s no legal requirement for Senators to answer to anyone on hiring issues and no requirement to post job vacancies in Congress. Since Congress is also exempt from freedom of information requests, there’s also no requirement to report data on hiring.

Ironically, federal officials that must be confirmed by the U.S. Senate must adhere to such guidelines.

Lauren Victoria Burke is a political analyst who speaks on politics and African American leadership. Lauren is also a frequent contributor to the NNPA Newswire and BlackPressUSA.com. She can be contacted at LBurke007@gmail.com and on Twitter at @LVBurke.

Con’t from pag 19

We Owe Him Our Thanks

24

recovery was slow; for many it was invisible.

Donald Trump won election promising working people a better deal. He appealed to our weariness with war, suggesting a less interventionist policy. He played upon divisions, rousing fears about immigrants and Muslims. He pledged to “Make America Great Again,” in part by undoing everything Obama.

So it is worth marking what Trump will inherit, as we head into what is already a rocky and tempestuous presidency. Unemployment under 5 percent. Eighty-one months of jobs growth and counting. Average wages rising at 2.4 percent over the last year. Growth at 3.5 percent over the last full quarter. Inflation at 2 percent. 20 million more Americans with health insurance. America, one of the global leaders in the green industrial revolution.

A president respected at home and abroad, known for his thoughtfulness and his great eloquence. Let us hope that Trump can build on that legacy, and not lead us into a far deeper hole.

Keep up with Rev. Jackson and the work of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition at www. rainbowpush.org.

THE INNER-CITY NEWS January 11, 2017 - January 17, 2017

COMMENTARY: Trumpism and White Tribalism Cannot Prevail

By Askia Muhammad, The Washington Informer On the eve of the new Trump era of leadership, danger lurks.

Emboldened by Trump’s win and a series of stunning other victories in recent elections by the “altright,” tea party, conservative and ultra-conservative movements, in this country and in Europe, white tribalists are openly advocating the most dangerous ideas since the days of Wisconsin Sen. Joe McCarthy in the 1950s.

Trump and some of his inner circle of advisers speak in the most coarse and insensitive language, to put it mildly. Carl Paladino, an adviser to the president-elect, is typical.

When asked what he would like to happen in 2017 he said he hopes President Barack Obama “catches mad cow disease” and dies after having sexual relations with a Hereford cow.

What?!

When asked what he would like to see go away, Paladino, a former Republican New York gubernatorial candidate, said he wanted First Lady Michelle Obama to “return to being a male and [be]let loose in the outback of Zimbabwe where she lives comfortably in a cave with Maxie the gorilla.”

Really! Really. That is reprehensible.

Paladino’s comments were in response to a survey by weekly magazine Artvoice, according The Washington Post’s Abby Phillip. Paladino last met with the president-elect in early December at Trump Tower in New York City.

Trump is no slouch, rhetorically or Twitter-wise. His personal strategy may be what one historian calls Richard Nixon’s “Mad Dog” technique. Nixon wanted it known that he might do anything, like a mad dog, including the use nuclear weapons, in order to intimidate concessions out of the U.S. adversary in Vietnam.

Russia? China? Arms race?

Bring it on, Trump says. But that rhetoric is irresponsible.

Sadly, folks who yearn for the

Trumpian, “Ozzie and Harriet” world of White comfort within White privilege don’t take into account that what they wish for is wicked and cannot stand. It was wicked in the “Ozzie and Harriet” days when this country was destabilizing governments in Africa, Asia and Latin America.

In fact, all that Founding Fathers stuff is just stuff. They were slave owners, whose very presence in slave quarters struck unspeakable terror in the hearts of their victims. There was no social media to alarm the public. No. The offending murderers and lynchers would sometimes stake the heads of the victims as a warning to other slaves not to rise up against their masters.

Despite the frequent disavowals of the incoming Trump administration, I don’t believe Trump and his crew even have good intentions for the future, for world peace or for national security.

Which brings us to this moment. Even before taking any of the belligerence of Trump into account, a group of cynics, philosophers and other intellectuals who publishes “The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists” say that human life as we know it is just minutes from oblivion, according to their “Doomsday Clock.”

The Doomsday Clock is described by its creators as “an internationally recognized design that conveys how close the world

is to destroying its civilization with dangerous technologies of their own making,” including nuclear weapons, climate-changing technologies, biotechnologies and cybertechnology that could “inflict irrevocable harm…to our way of life and to the planet.”

“The probability of global catastrophe is very high,” the scientists said. “And the actions needed to reduce the risks of disaster must be taken very soon.

That probability has not been reduced. The clock ticks. Global danger looms. Wise leaders should act immediately.”

But this country’s greatest liability is the sins of its bloody past. Millions and millions of souls kidnapped from Africa and made slaves. Their three centuries of free labor made this country rich. That slave trade and its aftermath constitute a “crime against humanity.”

And then there is the genocide committed against the native people whose land the European settlers and slave traders stole. That unconscionable act constitutes genocide.

Those crimes were stopped before. They will not prevail in the 21st century, no matter what Donald Trump and whatever combination of four-stars and billionaires he can assemble around himself.

White tribalism, profit, comfort and ease at the expense of nonWhite people of the earth cannot prevail.

25

THE INNER-CITY NEWS January 11, 2017 - January 17, 2017

JOB FAIR

Town of Bloomfield Assistant Assessor $37.01 hourly

For details and how to apply, go to www.bloomfieldct.org.

Pre-employment drug testing.

CONSTRUCTION POSITIONS PROJECT: Farnam Court Phase 1

AA/EOE

New Haven Section 3, DAS certified MBE & WBE subcontractors wanted Encore Fire Protection is looking for Section 3, DAS certified MBE & WBE subcontractors to install a fire sprinkler/suppression system. All interested bidders, companies and employees are to be licensed in the State of Connecticut, Bonded and Insured. Work duties will include all tasks required for proper fire sprinkler system installation per approved plans. Construction experience is a must. All F2 licensed mechanics are responsible to arrive to the job site on time, have a minimum of OSHA 10 training and possess approved personal protection equipment. You will also participate in daily, weekly and monthly progress reports. If interested, please contact encorefire110@gmail.com.

Construction oriented company seeking full-time Accounting/Administrative Assistant to answer phones, schedule sales appts, filing, typing & other general office duties. Will also have accounting responsibilities-data entry, sales order billing, and processing A/P transactions, supporting our over-the-counter sales person, the controller & CFO. Min 5 yrs. Related experience, excellent written & verbal skills, ability to multitask, knowledge of basic accounting principles, excellent computer skills (5+ yrs. Experience) with Excel & Word, accounting software knowledge a plus. $31,200 annual salary-negotiable based on experience & qualifications. AA/EOE Email resume to mmunzner@atlasoutdoor.com

SPONSORED BY: HAYNES CONSTRUCTION COMPANY ELM CITY COMMUNITIES __________________________________________________ PLACE: FARNAM COURT COMMUNITY ROOM 177 FRANKLIN STREET (IN THE ADMINISTRATION BUILDING) NEW HAVEN, CT DATE: Wednesday, January 11, 2017 TIME: 3:00 P.M. – 6:00 P.M. HIRING ORDER OF PREFERENCE: 1. Farnam Court Former and Current Residents who have successfully completed apprenticeship

and training programs or another approved training program.

2. Farnam Court Empowerment Zone residents.

3. People residing in other New Haven Empowerment Zones.

4. Residents of other housing developments owned or managed by HANH. 5. Participants in HUD Youth-build programs carried out in the MSA. 6. Other low-income families or persons who reside in the MSA.

SUBCONTRACTORS AVAILABLE TO MEET AND COMPLETE NEW HIRE APPLICATIONS FOR SUBMISSION AND REVIEW. PLEASE BRING YOUR RESUME.

QUALIFICATIONS:

• CURRENT 10 HOUR OSHA CERTIFICATION BEFORE ACTUAL START DATE • DRUG SCREENING BEFORE ACTUAL START DATE • ELIGIBLE FOR EMPLOYEMENT VERIFICATION THROUGH E-VERIFY HCC encourages the participation of all Veteran and Local Residents Haynes Construction Company, AA/EEO EMPLOYER

Operations Administrator- Wallingford Proficient in Microsoft Office, Excel, Outlook. 1 to 2 years Construction Contract Experience.

Please forward resume to nnevins@trueblueenvironmental.com or fax: 203-265-6357 26

THE INNER-CITY NEWS January 11, 2017 - January 17, 2017

Elm City Communities Request for Proposals Housing Choice Voucher (Section 8) ProjectBased Assistance Program to Support the Development of Affordable Housing Housing Authority City of New Haven d/b/a Elm city Communities is currently seeking Proposals for Housing Choice Voucher (Section 8) Project- Based Assistance Program to Support the Development of Affordable Housing. A complete copy of the requirement may be obtained from Elm City’s Vendor Collaboration Portal https://newhavenhousing. cobblestonesystems.com/gateway beginning on Tuesday, January 10, 2017 at 3:00PM.

INVITATION TO BID

Northeast Building Group is accepting bids from qualified Minority/Female Business Enterprises for an upcoming project “REVITALIZATION OF THE OAK TERRACE HOUSING COMPLEX” located at 53 Conrad Street, Naugatuck, CT. Bids will be accepted by mail, fax, or email until 5:00PM on January 31, 2017, after which the bids will be privately opened. The project entails renovation of 188 housing units in 39 buildings. Trades include: site work, paving, utilities, abatement, rough carpentry, architectural woodwork, doors, frames and hardware, drywall, tiling, resilient flooring and base, painting, toilet accessories, appliances, window treatments, residential casework, plumbing, HVAC and electrical. Interested Connecticut DAScertified MBEs, DBEs, and WBEs are encouraged to submit bids and may contact Tim Burke by phone at 203-678-4030 or email at tburke@truebluecos.com to obtain plans and specifications. Bids received after 5:00PM on January 31, 2017 will be disqualified. Northeast Building Group is an is an Equal Opportunity / Affirmative Action Employer, 98 S. Turnpike Road, Suite F, Wallingford, CT 06492. Tel: 203-6784030 Fax: 203-678-4136.

The Housing Authority of the City of Bristol Request for Proposals Interior Painting Services The Housing Authority City of Bristol (BHA) is seeking proposals for Vacant / Occupied Apartment Painting Services from qualified vendors for work throughout the Agency.

Bidder Information packets can be obtained by contacting Carl Johnson, Director of Capital Funds at 860-585-2028 or cjohnson@bristolhousing.org beginning Wednesday, December 28, 2016 through Friday, January 13, 2017. A nonmandatory pre-bid meeting will be held Friday, January 13, 2017, 2:00pm at 164 Jerome Avenue, Bristol Connecticut.

All proposals should be clearly marked “RFP- Interior Painting”, submitted to Mitzy Rowe, CEO, The Housing Authority City of Bristol, 164 Jerome Avenue, Bristol, CT 06010, no later than 4:00 p.m., Friday January 20, 2017 at the office of the Bristol Housing Authority in a sealed envelope with one original and 3 copies, each clearly identified as Proposal for Interior Painting Services.

An Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Contractor

Construction oriented company seeking full-time Accounting/Administrative Assistant to answer phones, schedule sales appts, filing, typing & other general office duties. Will also have accounting responsibilities-data entry, sales order billing, and processing A/P transactions, supporting our over-the-counter sales person, the controller & CFO. Min 5 yrs. Related experience, excellent written & verbal skills, ability to multitask, knowledge of basic accounting principles, excellent computer skills (5+ yrs. Experience) with Excel & Word, accounting software knowledge a plus. $31,200 annual salary-negotiable based on experience & qualifications. AA/EOE Email resume to mmunzner@atlasoutdoor.com

Account Clerk-Payables: The Town of East Haven is currently accepting applications to participate in the examination for Account Clerk-Payables. The current vacancy is in the Finance Department of the Board of Education but this list may be used to fill other Account Clerk positions within the Town of East Haven. The starting hourly rate is $18.78/hour, 37.5 hours per week. Candidate must possess a High School Diploma or equivalent and an Associate’s Degree in Accounting or equivalent experience, and a minimum of 3 years’ experience in accounts payable and a thorough working knowledge of Microsoft Word and Excel. Applications are available from The Civil Service Office, 250 Main Street, East Haven, CT or at http://www. townofeasthavenct.org/civiltest.shtml and must be returned by January 24, 2017. The Town of East Haven is committed to building a workforce of diverse individuals. Minorities, Females, Handicapped and Veterans are encouraged to apply.

27

THE INNER-CITY NEWS January 11, 2017 - January 17, 2017

LEGAL NOTICE The Bristol Housing Authority is developing its 2017-2021 Agency Plans in compliance with the HUD Quality Housing and Work Responsibility Act of 1998. It is available for review at the Authority’s office located at 164 Jerome Ave., Bristol, CT. The Authority’s hours of operation are Monday, Wednesday, and Friday 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.; Tuesday 8:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. and Thursday 1:00 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.

In addition, a Public Hearing will be held on February 16, 2017 at 3:00 p.m. at Gaylord Towers Community Hall located at 55 Gaylord Street, Bristol, CT. Public comments will be received no later than February 27, 2017 at 4:30 p.m. EOE

Grants Administration

Program Planning Administrator-Seeking a highly qualified professional to administer, manages, and oversees the Town’s Grants and Economic Development Programs. Serves as a representative on various intergovernmental and interagency organizations. The minimum qualifications: Bachelor’s degree from a recognized college or university in government or public administration plus three years (3) of progressively responsible public administration and at least two years (2) of grant writing experience or an equivalent combination of education and qualifying experience substituting on a year-for-year basis. $77,695-$99,410 plus an excellent fringe benefit package. Apply to: Personnel Department, Town of Wallingford, 45 South Main Street, Wallingford, CT 06492. Closing date will be December 15, 2016. EOE.

ELECTRICIANS

Semac Electric is seeking Electricians (CT Licensed Journeymen & Foremen, E1 and E2) to join our team for medium & large commercial construction projects thru out the State of CT: Hartford, Fairfield & New Haven Counties. We have excellent wages and benefits. We are an Equal Opportunity Employer. Applications available at our main office at 45 Peter Court, New Britain, CT or send resume to P.O. Box 638, New Britain, CT 06050 or via fax to 860-229-0406 or email: careers@ semacelectric.com

Mechanical Insulator

Insulation Company offering good pay and benefits.

Please forward resume to P.O. Box 475, North Haven, CT 06473 This company is an APPRENTICE

Telecommunications Company looking for apprentice to learn indoor and outdoor low voltage cable installation, aerial bucket work, messenger and lashing; manhole and underground installation. Good salary with benefits. Fax resume to 860-6432124 or mail to Fibre Optic Plus, 302 Adams Street, Manchester, CT 06042.

Attn: Greg Brown AA/EEO Employer AFFIRMATIVE ACTION / EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER

The Housing Authority of the City of Norwalk, CT is seeking bids for Janitorial Services. Bidding documents can be viewed and printed at www. norwalkha.org under the business tab, RFPs/ RFQs. Norwalk Housing Authority is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

Curtis O. Law, Executive Director ELECTRICIANS

Semac Electric is seeking Electricians (CT Licensed Journeymen & Foremen, E1 and E2) to join our team for medium & large commercial construction projects thru out the State of CT: Hartford, Fairfield & New Haven Counties. We have excellent wages and benefits. We are an Equal Opportunity Employer. Applications available at our main office at 45 Peter Court, New Britain, CT or send resume to

Public Safety Dispatcher: The Town of East Haven seeks to fill 2 permanent part-time positions. The hourly rate of pay is $24/hour. The work schedule is Saturday and Sunday, 8:00 am-4:00 pm or Sunday and Monday, 4:00 pm -12:00 am. Candidates must possess a High School diploma or GED, State of Connecticut Telecommunication Certification, Priority Dispatch EMD Certification, Priority Dispatch EPD and EFD Certification is preferred, Nexgen LEAS Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) experience is preferred, prior COLLECT/NCIC certification is preferred, and Next Generation 911 System is preferred. Candidate must successfully pass a background investigation, fingerprinting, and a Medical exam including a drug screening as well as have the ability to distinguish and identify different colors and pass a hearing test and NCIC Training. Only qualified applicants should apply at www.PoliceApp.com/EastHavenCT. The fee to apply is $40 and the deadline is December 16, 2016.

The Town of East Haven is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

Minorities, Females, Veterans and Handicapped are encouraged to apply.

ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT - Portland Proficient in Microsoft Office. Knowledge of Haz. Waste Regs., & Manifests a +. RED Technologies, LLC, 173 Pickering Street, Portland, CT 06480; Fax 860.342.1042; or Email to HR@redtechllc.com RED Technologies, LLC is an EOE.

Class A Driver

Class A CDL Driver with 3 years min. exp. HAZMAT Endorsed. (Tractor/Triaxle/Roll-off) Some overnights may be required. FAX resumes to RED Technologies, at 860.342-1042; Email: HR@redtechllc.com Mail or in person: 173 Pickering Street, Portland, CT 06480.

RED Technologies, LLC is An EOE.

ELECTRICIANS

Semac Electric is seeking Electricians (CT Licensed Journeymen & Foremen, E1 and E2) to join our team for medium & large commercial construction projects thru out the State of CT: Hartford, Fairfield & New Haven Counties. We have excellent wages and benefits. We are an Equal Opportunity Employer. Applications available at our main office at 45 Peter Court, New Britain, CT or send resume to P.O. Box 638, New Britain, CT 06050 or via fax to 860-229-0406 or email: careers@semacelectric.com

Dispatcher - Portland Candidate must have 2-5 years relevant experience in hazardous waste transportation. Must have completed 40 HAZWOPER Certification, Asbestos Awareness Certification a plus.

Forward resumes to RED Technologies, LLC, 173 Pickering Street, Portland, CT 06480; Fax 860.342.1042; or Email to HR@redtechllc.com RED Technologies, LLC is an EOE.

Project Manager Environmental Remediation Division 3-5 years exp. and Bachelor’s Degree, 40-Hr. Hazwoper Training Req. Forward resumes to RED Technologies, LLC, 10 Northwood Dr., Bloomfield, CT 06002; Fax 860.218.2433; or Email to HR@redtechllc.com RED Technologies, LLC is an

EOE.

Special Projects Manager

Immediate opening in a fast-paced petroleum environment For a degreed manager with a BA Degree required, MBA Preferred with 5+ years of oil industry experience.

Proficient in oil, logistics software and solutions, IT Knowledge needed with assistance managing network and System projects. Strong Excel and analytical skills a must. Candidate must possess a high level of accuracy and

attention to detail. Petroleum and energy industry knowledge experience a plus. Send resume to: Human Resource Dept., P O Box 388, Guilford CT 06437. **An Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer**

The GUILFORD HOUSING AUTHORITY is currently accepting applications for COUPLES ONLY for its one bedroom apartments at Guilford Court and Boston Terrace in Guilford CT. Applicants must be age 62 and over or on 100% social security or federal disability and over the age of 18. Applications may be obtained by calling the application line at 203-453-6262, ext.107. An information packet will also be provided with the application. Applications will be accepted until March 31, 2017. Credit, police and landlord checks are procured by the authority. Smoke free housing.

EQUAL OPPORTUNITY HOUSING

Welder: Large CT fence & guardrail contractor looking for a shop welder. Duties include welding & fabricating chain link gates, steel gates and aluminum; some welding on road and equipment repair work. Must be able to weld steel and aluminum. All necessary equipment provided. Must have a valid driver’s license and be able to get a DOT medical card.

Required to pass a physical and drug test. Medical, vacation & other benefits included.

Please email resume to pboucher@atlasoutdoor.com AA/EOE

THE INNER-CITY NEWS January 11, 2017 - January 17, 2017

Trump’s New Deal for Black America Won’t Work

by Jason Nichols Special to the AFRO (Updated 1/5/2017) Presidentelect Donald J. Trump has a plan for Black America. However, the plan is tone deaf and pays little attention to the actual needs and desires of the community. In many ways they are just a rearticulation of his larger plans for the nation.

In his outreach to African Americans, Donald Trump is touting his support for school choice as a departure from traditional failings in public education which have so badly affected Black youth. Some have gone as far as to call school choice the civil rights issue of our time.

The substandard education that has historically been offered to African American students has in many cases been disturbing. Trump and his surrogates are not wrong for supporting Charter schools, vouchers, and school choice. The problem is they are positing it as a cure all for the ills of urban education and the achievement gap.

School choice has some undeniably excellent qualities. It could potentially not only rise teacher accountability, but teacher salaries along with it. Projections say universal school choice could raise teacher salaries by as much as $12,000 annually in Houston http://www.ncpa.org/sub/dpd/ index.php?Article_ID=24833.

Charter schools have produced excellent results in many parts of the country including the nation’s capitol. According to US News and World Report, “ CREDO (Center for Research on Educational Outcomes) found that charter students gained the equivalent of 72 days of extra learning per year in reading, 101 in math, compared to traditional public students” Proponents of school choice and charters tout the results in New Orleans which has transformed its educational structure to where 92.4% of students attend charter

schools. New Orleans has experienced promising spikes in graduation rates and college admission in a majority Black city where the child poverty rate is 39%.

However, opponents can point out that Louisiana is still the “worse school system in America”, largely due to its largest city. The state’s average ACT scores rank 47th in nation, which opponents of charters could argue that though students are graduating in high number, they are not prepared for collegiate level work.

Opponents also cite Detroit as an example where school choice and charters replaced the existing public education system. Schools open and close like storefront businesses with teachers and administrators losing their jobs.

Of all the big city school systems in the country, none performers lower than Detroit. Betsy Devos, Trump’s pick for Secretary of Education is ironically from Michigan and advocated for school choice and charters through large political donations.

The result of her efforts has been questionable. According to CNN, almost half of the charter schools in Michigan were ranked amongst the countries worst schools. The Detroit Public School Community District’s students are 96% Black or Latino. One can make a strong argument that the Devos system is failing Black and Brown children and runs the risk of taking that failure nationwide.

Conservatives love charters because they operate at a lower cost, but they still have a business model. In other words if they aren’t generating revenue, they run the risk of closing. Also, charters have a reputation for unfair disciplinary practices.

While 17% of charters educate children better than public schools (a high or low number depending on your expectations), they also expel problem students to achieve those results. Ultimately, some children will be left behind. School choice in many ways operates on the assumption that some children are worthy of an excellent education.

It also allows for wealthy private schools to depend on public taxpayer subsidies rather than

private scholarships that should come from their endowments.

Public schools, however, run the risk of being defunded.

The truth of the matter is school choice will fix some problems, but potentially create new ones. Trump’s new deal for Black America does not address fundamental issues that affect Black America.

Donald Trump promises safe communities by places more law enforcement officials in African American neighborhoods, without addressing the fractured relationship between the community and police. Their attempt to clean up the street could very well be interpreted as an occupation and their desire to rid the community of “drug dealers” and “gang members could turn into an assault on young Black and brown males. Drug dealers don’t typically wear signs that say they are drug dealers, and one can actually be a member of a street organization and not be involved in criminal activity. He would be better served working police reform and mentorship programs to create successful partnerships between law enforcement and communities.

President-elect Trump promises equal treatment under the law, and the abandonment of a two tiered criminal justice system, but gives hardly any details into how he plans to achieve this end.

In addition, knowing that Jeff Sessions may be the next Attorney General makes African Americans and other people of color feel frightened. Sessions called the Voting Rights Act, which was and remains an important Civil Rights protection literally won with the blood of Black people in his home state of Alabama, a “piece of intrusive legislation”.

Sesssions also allegedly called the NAACP and the SCLC, Dr. King’s organization, “un-American” .

According to a former employee, Sessions was against “okay” with the most murderous terrorist group in American history, the Ku Klux Klan, until he found out some were marijuana smokers.

Trump wants to stop illegal immigration, and makes his case to African Americans that

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this action would be to their benefit. However, the idea that undocumented immigrants are the primary obstacle to African American employment has long been debunked. African Americans struggle with unemployment and underemployment at all levels, including the highly educated.

Furthermore, Blacks have had high levels of unemployment since before undocumented immigration was an issue. African American unemployment is high and has been for decades due to institutional racism.

The next administration also claims to want to protect the African American church. He gives neither details on how the church was in jeopardy in the first place, nor how his administration will protect it. This also sounds suspicious, when Senator Sessions is also alleged to have made negative comments about the National Council of Churches Donald Trump’s plan makes consistent references to the inner

city as a euphemism for Black.

However, African Americans are leaving the inner cities in record number. Trump’s plan should be much broader than just focusing on inner cities.

In the end, Trump’s plan shows he listens only to those who echo what he already thought. He doesn’t address police reform and instead talks about lowering crime.

If the President elect is sincere, he will convene African Americans and Latinos from both sides of the political spectrum and do more listening as to what the concerns of the communities are and how the Trump Administration can assist.

Jason Nichols is a full-time lecturer in the African American studies department at the University of Maryland College Park and the current editor-inchief of Words Beats & Life: The Global Journal of Hip-Hop Culture, the first peer-reviewed journal of hip-hop studies.

YALE PEABODY MUSEUM

MLK

FOOD DRIVE MR FRED

The Yale Peabody Museum is hosting a food drive in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Join us in collecting non-perishable food items for the New Haven Community Soup Kitchen and Christian Community Action.

Suggested donations include: Beans Beef or Chicken Bouillon Canned Vegetables Cereal (hot or cold) Chicken Base Coffee or Tea Cranberry Sauce Granola Bars

Garlic Powder Gravy Ground Black Pepper Jelly Juice Mashed Potato Flakes Pasta Peanut Butter

Rice Salt or Season Salt Small Boxes of Raisins Soup Spaghetti Sauce Stuffing Tuna Yams

Donations will be collected from November 21st through January 17th All donations should be in cans, boxes, plastic containers or other sealed packages.

We cannot accept any items past their expiration date.

Please bring donations to: Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History 170 Whitney Avenue, New Haven For more information email peabody.events@yale.edu or call (203) 432-6646.

Thanks to our presenting sponsor COMCAST We also thank Yale African American Affinity Group, Subway, Stop & Stop, Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, Yale University Office of New Haven and State Affairs

THE INNER-CITY NEWS January 11, 2017 - January 17, 2017

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

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off

frequent jumper

10 1-hour jump/play passes reg. $150 now $90 Complete coupon must be presented at time of purchase.

One coupon per person. These coupons are only valid in park, in person, and not valid for online purchases.

Cannot be combined with any other offers. Exp: 9/30/16

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buy 1 hour, get second hour free buy 1 hour and jump/play for two hours Mon-Thurs only. Not to be combined with any other offer or promotion. Not valid online. Does not include required jump socks. Exp: 9/30/16

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Exp: 9/30/16

203-989-3357 • jumpoffct.com 27

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THE INNER-CITY NEWS January 11, 2017 - January 17, 2017

Join us in honoring revitalization strategy consultant, real estate developer, and Peabody Award winning broadcaster Majora Carter as the 7th Annual Visionary Leader LU N C H E O N A N D C E R E M O N Y 1 2 PM | O M N I N E W H AV E N H OT E L

W E D N E S DAY, JA N UA RY 2 5 , 2 01 7

Tickets online at ARTIDEA.ORG/MajoraCarter M A J O R A C A RT E R I N CO N V E R SAT I O N WITH DEBORAH BERKE Poynter Lecture and Reception | Wednesday, January 25, 2017 4pm | Hastings Hall, Paul Rudolph Hall; Yale School of Architecture | FREE and open to the public

GREATT GIF !

IDEA

Looking for a New Educational Opportunity for Your Child?

ACES Open Choice Can Help

“There is a p recision and beauty about everyth ing th performers d ese o.”

Washingto n Post

ACES Open Choice Program

203-498-6843 or go to www.aces.org

Thomas Edison Middle School |

GRADES 6-8

203-639-8403 or go to www.aces.org/tems

Wintergreen Interdistrict Magnet School |

Golden Dragon Acrobats

GRADES K-8

203-281-9668 or go to www.aces.org/wims

Saturday, May 6 • 8:00p.m.

Open Choice application will be available in March, 2017 at: aceschoicelottery.org Please contact Lynn Bailey at lbailey@aces.org or (203) 498-6843 for further information.

www.aces.org 31

GET YOUR TICKETS AT

LYMANCENTER.ORG

203-392-6154

THE INNER-CITY NEWS January 11, 2017 - January 17, 2017

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