INNER-CITY NEWS

THE INNER-CITY NEWS - March 10,2016 2021- August - March 16,2016 2021 INNER-CITY NEWS July 27, 02,

Financial a Key Focus at 2016 NAACP Connector Convention New HavenJustice Mourns Manny Rivera, A Cultural New Haven, Bridgeport

INNER-CITYNEWS DuBois-Walton

Volume 29 . No. 2430 Volume 21 No. 2194

Takes On Elicker

“DMC”

Malloy Malloy To To Dems: Dems:

Ignore Ignore“Tough “ToughOn OnCrime” Crime” Mayor Justin Elicker

City Ordered

To Rehire Color Struck?

Nichole Jefferson

Snow in July?

Firefighters Answer The Autism Call

FOLLOW US ON

Troy Frost, Tanner, Shytanya Floyd, Foskey, Miguel Rosado, and Cannon.

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THE INNER-CITY NEWS - March 10, 2021 - March 16, 2021

City Endorses CDC Post-Vaccination Advice

by THOMAS BREEN

New Haven I ndependent

Fully vaccinated New Haveners should feel comfortable ditching their masks as they gather indoors with no more than one unvaccinated household at a time — while all New Haveners should continue to wear face coverings and keep six-foot social distances while out in public, even as the state’s business-reopening restrictions loosen.

City Health Director Maritza Bond and Mayor Justin Elicker delivered those messages Monday afternoon during the mayor’s latest Covid-19-related press briefing, held online via Zoom and YouTube Live.

The virtual presser took place just after the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released highlyanticipated safety guidelines on what fully vaccinated people should feel comfortable doing, and should continue to avoid doing, two weeks after getting their final doses of a Covid-19 vaccine.

That guidance permits gathering indoors with fully vaccinated people without wearing masks. It endorses gathering indoors with unvaccinated people from no more than one other household without wearing masks.

The online press conference also took place several days after Gov. Ned Lamont announced that, starting Friday, March 19, the state will no longer limit capacity at stores, libraries, gyms, museums, offices or houses of worship. The state will continue to require people to wear face coverings and maintain social distances

of six feet or more, and will maintain an 11 p.m. closing time at restaurants.

Elicker and Bond endorsed both federal and state pandemic-related updates — and encouraged New Haveners to maintain their public health vigilance as the Covid-19 pandemic passes the one-year mark in the Elm City.

“We don’t want people, given the opening-up changes by the governor’s office, to feel like it’s time yet to celebrate,” Elicker said. “We’re not out of the woods yet. We have a long way to go.” Thus the importance of social distancing, mask wearing, and being “very, very cautious,” even with most business capacity restrictions soon-to-be lifted.

Bond said she is “pleased” to see the CDC’s new guidelines for fully vaccinated people. “I think it’s giving a lot of us hope that we can visit our loved ones,” especially for fully vaccinated grandparents who haven’t been able to see their children and grandchildren in over a year.”

“Although the guidance did get issued, it’s important that we understand what these guidances mean. We do not want to send mixed messages,” particularly for what unvaccinated people should and shouldn’t feel safe doing.

Bond also encouraged those who have been vaccinated to carry around their vaccination cards with them, particularly if they plan on traveling out of the city and out of the state. “It is important for individuals to carry that certification with them so, if asked, you can show evidence of that, especially if you’re going to be traveling to see family members.”

THOMAS BREEN PHOTO Fair Haven Health’s Dr. Lagarde vaccinates school social worker Stephanie Willis.

Elicker said that, since the start of the pandemic, New Haven has seen a total of 11,573 positive Covid cases and 184 related fatalities. Bond said that the city Health Department has vaccinated a total of 9,700 residents. That includes those who have received first doses as well as those who have gotten first and second

doses.

How Many Teachers Have Been Vaccinated? Not So Clear When asked how many New Haven Public Schools (NHPS) teachers have been vaccinated so far, the mayor responded, “We are not allowed to track

that.”

The city and the school system can send out surveys to staff asking about vaccination levels, he said. But, because of HIPPA privacy restrictions, “we’re not allowed to track individuals and how they’ve been vaccinated”—that includes Con’t on page 09

Whalley Brainstorms On $5.5M Safety Fix

by MAYA MCFADDEN

New Haven I ndependent

More street lights. Outdoor dining. More crosswalks. Bike and bus lanes.

Those ideas are among several suggested

by New Haveners and city staff so far for a safety-improvement plan in the works for Whalley Avenue.

The city’s Engineering Department and Transportation, Traffic and Parking Department are working together on a series of plans to improve commercial corridors around town. Each project will aim to improve traffic safety infrastructure in high-traffic areas for pedestrians, bikes, CTtransit buses and cars.

On Wednesday night City Engineer Giovanni Zinn hosted a public input session with Whalley Avenue neighbors to hear their concerns about the busy roadway and the emerging plan for that corridor. The project will be on the city-owned portion of Whalley Avenue (from Broadway to Ella T. Grasso Boulevard).

The project team is using an online com-

ment tool for community members to add their personal concerns and ideas. The goal is to make Whalley Avenue safer for all users of the road. Wednesday night’s meeting was the latest installment of an ongoing quest: Click here to read about a walk officials took with neighbors in 2020 to highlight safety concerns on the Avenue.

“We want a road that is intuitive to use for all the different users of the roadway,” Zinn said.

Zinn plans to gather public comments and suggestions for the project throughout March. He plans to host a follow-up public meeting in in May or June to present concept designs. A construction timeline won’t be determined until designs and approvals are finalized Zinn said.

The team hopes to secure a total of $5.5 million for the Whalley Avenue project.

Three million dollars of state funds have already been granted to the Transportation, Traffic and Parking Department from the state’s Local Transportation Capital

THOMAS BREEN PRE-PANDEMIC PHOTO WASSD President Allen McCollum (right), with City Traffic

Engineer Bijan Notghi on 2020 walk: It’s dark.

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Improvement Program (LOTCIP), Zinn said. The city plans to make an additional request of the remaining $2.5 million from the LOTCIP. The city foresees the projects continuing into 2023.

At the moment all of Whalley Avenues street lighting is on utility poles, Zinn noted.

More than 20,000 cars travel on Whalley a day, Transportation, Traffic & Parking Director Douglas Hausladen reported.

“Pedestrian safety is priority one, two, and three of the project,” said Zinn.

The team hopes to better “stitch the neighborhood together” by giving it more of a neighborhood look and feel.

To improve transit services, Hausladen suggested adding bus lanes to Whalley making it possible for buses to move faster and reducing the number of stops buses have to make.

Allen McCollum from Whalley Avenue Special Services District (WASSD) added that if Whalley is easier to cross and

THE INNER-CITY NEWS - March 10, 2021 - March 16, 2021

DuBois-Walton Takes On Elicker For Mayor

by PAUL BASS

New Haven I ndependent

Promising to rally New Haveners to tackle big challenges with “equity,” Karen DuBois-Walton has decided to explore a challenge to incumbent firstterm Mayor Justin Elicker in a Democratic primary.

DuBois-Walton said in an interview Friday that she plans to hold an announcement of an exploratory mayoral campaign committee on Monday, which is International Women’s Day. The formation of the committee will enable DuBois-Walton to raise money for her exploratory campaign. She said she intends to limit individual contributions to $375, so that when she switches over to a formal campaign she can participate in the city’s publicfinancing Democracy Fund.

Donald McAaulay Sr. is serving as her campaign treasurer. Robin Golden is her deputy campaign treasurer.

No campaign manager has been announced yet.

DuBois-Walton, who is 53, serves as president and CEO of the Housing Authority of New Haven/Elm City Communities. She has spent months meeting with people about a mayoral run; she said she encountered “excitement” in many quarters about a potential run: “A lot of people feel left out, not included. They want to see leadership that will be inclusive and bring people together with energy.”

Elicker announced in January that he is running for reelection this year.

(Click here to read about that, including his case for reelection.) Both he and DuBois-Walton are Democrats.

After Elicker’s 2019 mayoral victory, DuBois-Walton served on his transition team. In Friday’s interview, she refrained from criticizing him. Rather she focused on the moment, and the challenge, facing a diverse city looking to emerge from a brutal pandemic year.

“I don’t want to say anything ‘anti,’” DuBois-Walton said.

DuBois-Walton said that, if she decides to run, “I’m running for a vision, which is a vision of equity and inclusion, a vision of bringing people together. I don’t think any of these problems get solved in isolation. We [will] bring a team together that is energetic and excited about tackling problems.”

She spoke of inspiring a community recovering from the health, economic, and social losses of the Covid-19 pandemic: “It means positioning our young people to address this learning loss they’ve had, also the loss of recreation time and play time with friends.

It’s addressing the distress our commu-

THOMAS BREEN PHOTO Karen DuBois-Walton: “New Haven knows how to come together and solve big problems in creative ways.”

MAYA MCFADDEN PHOTO DuBois-Walton, at center, cutting ribbon in October on Phase II of rebuilt Rockview homes.

nity is feeling which is coming out in many ways, including the increase in criminal activity and the tragic loss of life due to homicide.”

DuBois-Walton came to New Haven in 1985 to study at Yale.

“What drew me to New Haven is New Haven’s ability to come together and have big vision and take bold actions

that you don’t see any other place daring to do. That’s the kind of leadership that’s needed to take on the multiple pandemics New Haven is facing right now. ... Let’s come up with some creative stuff that people feel included in, rooted in equity. A spirit unlike the spirit we’ve lived through in the national conversation. Let’s do what

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New Haven knows how to do: come together and solve big problems in creative ways.”

DuBois-Walton has been a part of that civic problem-solving process for decades, beginning with her work at the Yale Child Study Center in the early years of its joint program with city cops to help children exposed to violence

address their trauma. Besides heading the housing authority, DuBois-Walton has served as mayoral chief of staff and city chief administrative officer, overseeing line departments like police, fire, parks, and public works. She serves on the state Board of Education.

In the past four years she has organized community-wide forums about how to respond to the Trump administration; and, with her husband, she has organized Storytellers New Haven, events at which a diverse group of people active in the community have shared personal life stories. DuBois-Walton and five fellow Black women in September launched a political action committee called Ella’s Fund aimed at translating this summer’s grassroots uprisings for racial justice into lasting state and local political power.

In eyeing the mayor’s office, DuBoisWalton said Friday, she will look to do on a broader scale the kind of work the housing authority has done in low-income neighborhoods under her watch.

Part of that work has involved rebuilding rundown developments into clean, safer neighborhoods, such as Rockview and Brookside, and Mill River Crossing (formerly Farnam Courts).

Part of that work has involved offering opportunities for families: prenatal and early-childhood programs, in-school tutoring and after-school and employment programs for students, workforce development programs for adults.

“None of it is perfect,” DuBois-Walton said. It involves “working with people to meet them where they are, dream with them, and then put in supports.”

New Haven has traditionally given mayors second terms. The last oneterm mayor, Thomas Tully, was elected in 1929; he wasn’t on the ballot in 1931. The one-term mayor before him, Samuel Campner, did lose a reelection bid in 1917. But Campner (New Haven’s first and only Jewish mayor) was actually a half-term mayor: As president of the Board of Aldermen (as it was then named), he ascended to the mayoralty in 1917 when the previous mayor died, and he served out the term.

“I welcome Dr. DuBois-Walton to the race,” Elicker told the Independent.

“I’m running for reelection so I can continue to ensure that we get through the pandemic, people get vaccinated, we get our kids back into school, we can continue house permanently individuals experiencing homelessness, and build on the work that we’ve already done.”

THE INNER-CITY NEWS - March 10, 2021 - March 16, 2021

City Gets At Least $94M From Stimulus

by PAUL BASS

New Haven I ndependent

The soon-to-pass federal Covid stimulus bill will send close to $100 million in direct aid to the city and then millions more to the schools and other local agencies.

But in itself it won’t solve the city’s budget problems or prevent a tax hike.

That word emerged from a press conference outside City Hall Monday morning featuring Mayor Justin Elicker and U.S. Sens. Chris Murphy and Richard Blumenthal.

They held the event to tout the local impact of the $1.9 trillion pandemic economic stimulus bill passed by the Senate Saturday and likely to pass the House of Representatives this week.

The senators estimated that the bill will bring $4 billion in aid to Connecticut’s state and municipal governments, including $94.7 million to New Haven. They called it a game-changer in the nation’s efforts to address poverty and tackle the effects of the pandemic.

It’s still too early to break down exactly what that money will go toward, and whether it will enable New Haven to avoid a tax hike and service cuts in its budget for the fiscal year starting July 1.

But it’s clear it will offer financial boosts

FACEBOOK LIVE PHOTO Chris Murphy in New Haven Monday.

to parents (through a child care credit), stretched renters and landlords, restaurant owners, theater and concert-hall owners.

It will probably cover the estimated $3 million in parking meter revenue and fines lost this year due to the pandemic as well as increased police overtime costs, Elicker said. So that will help New Haven address a $13-$14 million deficit for the current year.

And some future costs will get reimbursements: infrastructure costs that can

be billed to the Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA), for instance. And putting air filters in schools.

In fact, the schools are potentially in line for millions of dollars not even counted in that $94.7 million eyed for the city, and some of that money can support social services for students struggling with impacts of the pandemic, along with teacher retention.

But Elicker was clear when asked if this bounty will solve the upcoming year’s

budget crisis.

“It doesn’t mean that,” he replied.

The city still needs the state and Yale to pony up an additional $53 million to prevent a tax increase and cuts including potential closure of the Mitchell branch library, Whitney Avenue fire station, and East Shore Senior Center, according to Elicker.

Murphy was asked whether the $2.7 billion going directly to the state might help fund the extra urban aid New Haven’s looking for under a revised Payments in Lieu of Taxes (PILOT) formula. It’s “too early to know,” he said, but “my goal is to allow the maximum flexibility” for state and local governments.

Elicker also said the stimulus infusion will boost New Haven’s longer-term efforts. For instance, he’s hoping it can fund a hoped-for development of fiber-optic internet access in town. It may help plans to improve infrastructure in neighborhood commercial corridors.

The money gives New Haven “an opportunity to think big and long-term,” Elicker said. His administration plans to hold “conversations” with the Board of Alders and neighborhood groups “to make sure this funding has long-term significance to our community.”

CROWN Act Signed Into Law

Penfield Communications Inc

John P. Thomas Publisher / CEO

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

Advertising/Sales Team Keith Jackson 10 Delores Alleyne John Thomas, III

Editorial Team

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Contributing Writers David Asbery / Tanisha Asbery Jerry Craft / Cartoons / Barbara Fair Dr. Tamiko Jackson-McArthur Michelle Turner / Smita Shrestha William Spivey / Kam Williams Rev. Samuel T. Ross-Lee

Contributors At-Large Christine Stuart

by STAFF

www.CTNewsJunkie.com

New Haven State Rep. Robyn Porter’s legislative quest to combat discrimination against Black women because of their hairstyles came to fruition as Gov. Ned Lamont signed the CROWN Act. CROWN stands for “Creating a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair.”

Porter authored and quarterbacked passage of the bill, which mirrors bills passed in seven other states. Similar proposals are being considered in other states. Connecticut is the first state to pass the law in 2021.

It takes effect in Connecticut immediately.

The law “expands civil rights protections by prohibiting discrimination, including in the workplace and other public accommodations, based on hairstyles that are commonly associated with people of color, such as afros, afro puffs, Bantu knots, braids, cornrows, locs, twists, headwraps, and wigs.”

Porter joined Gov. Lamont and Lt. Gov. Susan Bysiewicz Wednesday for a ceremonial signing of the act outdoors at the Capitol Wednesday. (Lamont signed the bill last week.)

A Dove 2019 CROWN Research Study indicating that Black women are 50 percent more likely to report being sent home

www.newhavenindependent.org

New Haven I ndependent

Paul Bass

Memberships National Association of Black Journalist National Newspapers Publishers Association Greater New Haven Chamber of Commerce Greater New Haven Business & Professional Greater New England Minority Supplier Development Council, Inc.

or know of someone who was sent home because of their hair, and 80 percent are more likely to change their hair from their natural state to meet workplace expectations.

“Some people don’t know we go through this — we really do have to conform. We have to try to assimilate and be ‘professional.’ It’s said the way we wear our hair is not professional. It’s not ‘tidy.’ It’s not

appropriate,’” Porter said at Wednesday’s Capitol event.

“Today is a day of liberation, of celebration, of freedom, giving Black and brown people, women, men and children the room and the opportunity to show up authentically who we are ...

“My hair is me. Depending on how I feel is how I show up. I may wear an afro. I may put it in some twists. I may let it dry

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and get curly. Or I may cut it all off, because as y’all know I did that. Sometimes the crown is just a crown.”

“When a person of color has a job interview or simply goes to work, they should never be judged based on anything other than skills, work product, commitment, dedication, and work ethic,” the governor said. “This measure is critical to helping build a more equitable society.”

The Inner-City Newspaper is published weekly

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THE INNER-CITY NEWS - March 10, 2021 - March 16, 2021

Firefighters Answer The Autism Call

by MAYA MCFADDEN

New Haven I ndependent

Firefighters Local 825 is looking to increase autism awareness in the community with the help of local nonprofit Total Joy Are You Autism Foundation (TJAY).

Members of the New Haven Fire Department (NHFD) and Local 825 donated $2,000 to TJAY on Monday.

Last October, Captain Troy Frost, Battalion Chief Miguel Rosado, Battalion Chief Danny Coughlin, and Fire Fighter Shytanya Floyd organized a T-shirt fundraiser to fund local autism awareness efforts.

The NHFD gathered at the New Haven Regional Fire Training Academy Monday to present TJAY with the donation.

The members sold T-shirts within the department and to the community and raised $1,000. Local 825 then matched the proceeds. Frost designed the T-shirts for the month-long fundraiser.

The department then granted approval for firefighters to wear the shirts on duty for the month of December.

TJAY was founded in 2015 by Tracey Foskey. Foskey, a social worker, has a son on the autism spectrum whom she raises in Westville.

Foskey first realized there was need in the community for autism awareness when she received a PPT notice from her son’s school on a Friday for an important

meeting scheduled for the coming Tuesday. Foskey wondered why the important meeting was not scheduled with her.

“What about the parents who don’t know their rights? What about the parents who are looked at as just being neglectful towards their children when they’re really not?” she recalled asking herself before founding the organization.

TJAY board member Valerie Tanner joined Foskey Monday at the donation handoff.

Foskey said she hopes to work with the NHFD in the near future to train firefighters to better understand and identify the disorder.

“Many kids can be misread, and if we can identify, we can help everyone equally,” said Floyd.

The proposed training would involve strategies for firefighters to use when responding to calls with autistic community members. “With training, it could take our education to another level, which is good for us and the community. Our bottom line is safety,” said Frost.

This past July Foskey celebrated her son’s 16th birthday but could not host a party due to the pandemic. A friend was able to arrange for the NHFD’s Westville engine to do a drive by for her son.

“He still talks about it ‘til this day,” she said.

NHFD and Local 825 members with Total Joy Are You Autism Foundataion.

Rosado said his 7-year-old son, who has autism, helped him to be more aware and understanding when on calls. Floyd also has a family member with autism and learned many of her fellow firefighters have autistic family members.

With the donation Foskey hopes to add additional virtual activities to the organization’s programs like a snack and paint event, baking workshops, and read-alouds

for local youth.

West Rock Alder Honda Smith joined the gathering in support of the efforts made by TJAY and the NHFD. “You’re not just fighting fires to save lives. You’re also dabbling into communities, and you’re rendering the services that are needed for all children,” Smith said.

Foskey told the firefighters that many on

the autism spectrum can get overstimulated from fire engines’ noise and lighting.

Members also gifted Foskey with a necklace made and donated during fundraising.

The NHFD is looking to allow members to wear the awareness shirts on duty for Autism Awareness Day in April.

Photo Credit: Downtown Evening Soup Kitchen

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THE INNER-CITY NEWS - March 10, 2021 - March 16, 2021

City Ordered To Rehire Nichole Jefferson

by THOMAS BREEN

New Haven I ndependent

Former city fair-hiring chief Nichole Jefferson has won her job back — along with roughly $300,000 in back pay — thanks to a State Supreme Court ruling that ends a legal dispute that spanned over five years and two mayoral administrations.

The state’s highest court issued that unanimous decision, written by Justice Christine Keller, on Thursday in the case City of New Haven v. AFSCME, Council 4, Local 3144 (SC 20362).

The court affirmed an April 2018 state Board of Mediation and Arbitration decision and an April 2019 state Superior Court decision, thereby ordering the Elicker Administration to do what the former Harp Administration resisted for years.

The court ordered the city to reinstate Jefferson to her prior role as executive director of the city’s Commission on Equal Opportunities (CEO), which enforces the city ordinance that requires the hiring of Black, Latino, and female workers and minority-owned and female-headed firms on government-funded construction projects. Former Mayor Toni Harp fired Jefferson from that position in August 2015 over transparency and ethical concerns.

The top court’s decision also ordered the city to pay Jefferson back pay and other contractually-required benefits covering the period from Aug. 1, 2017, through the date she is formally rehired by City Hall.

Justice Keller’s ruling technically applies to a 2019 appeal the city filed in response to the lower court’s finding in favor of Jefferson’s award. In that appeal, the former Harp Administration argued that rehiring Jefferson would violate public policies concerning bribery and conflicts of interest.

The Supreme Court ultimately disagreed, and refused to vacate the 2018 award.

“I feel wonderful. I feel very happy with the decision,” Jefferson told the Independent Friday afternoon. Jefferson has consistently denied all allegations made against her by the former Harp Administration.

Mayor Justin Elicker, who inherited the Supreme Court appeal and the five-anda-half year legal case from former Mayor Toni Harp’s administration, said that the city “will be abiding by the court’s decision and working to facilitate the payment in back wages and the reinstatement of Nichole’s employment with the city.”

“I’ve always enjoyed working with Nichole, and look forward to working with her again,” he said.

Elicker said that, when he first came into office a little over a year ago, his administration was open to settling the case with Jefferson. Jefferson campaigned for Elicker against her former boss during the 2019 mayoral race.

“However, the amount of money she was asking for for the settlement was way be-

yond what was responsible for us to agree to,” Elicker said, “and way beyond the amount the court is requiring the city to pay.”

He said the city’s current estimate as to how much it owes Jefferson in back pay and benefits is around $300,000 in total.

He said that Jefferson had sought a settlement payment of $2.9 million.

In a statement sent by text message to the Independent Friday afternoon, Jeff Bagnell, Jefferson’s personal attorney, wrote, “We are happy with the Court’s decision and Nichole being vindicated a third time.

Now she needs to be made whole after a five year campaign to unjustly defame her.”

Bagnell also said that the $300,000 calculation offered by the mayor is lower than what Jefferson should receive in back pay when reinstated.

“After years of legal proceedings and consecutive appeals, Ms Jefferson’s total back pay and pension losses are far more substantial than the Mayor notes,” he wrote. “Moreover, the notion that she can now come back to her desk after five years of traumatizing, scorched earth litigation is absurd, as every experienced labor and employment attorney knows. The case law makes this clear. Front pay and reinstatement, legally, are two sides of the same coin. It is now time for a global, and permanent, resolution of this politically motivated destruction of a stellar employee’s reputation.”

“Egregious,” But Not “Incorrigible” Keller’s 24-page written opinion, which can be read in full here, details the past five-plus years of legal wrangling between Jefferson and the city.

Each step of the way, the courts and state arbitrators found that the former Harp Administration should have resorted to “progressive discipline” rather than outright firing of Jefferson back in 2015. As the city persisted in its attempts to uphold its decision to fire her, the courts kept ruling in Jefferson’s favor.

Jefferson was employed by the city from March 1996 through August 2015.

“During that time,” Keller wrote, “she enjoyed an excellent employment record, won various awards and was promoted five times, the last time, in 2001, to the position of executive director of the commission.”

Keller recounts how the arbitration board ultimately upheld only three of the 11 claims put forward by the city as to why it fired Jefferson in the first place.

Those three factual claims, which the city made and the arbitration board, Superior Court, and Supreme Court all upheld, were: • That Jefferson did not have city authorization, nor did she disclose to the city, that she had formed in Connecticut a separate consulting company that advertised contract compliance services—regarding the same rules she was charged with en-

PAUL BASS PRE-PANDEMIC PHOTO Jefferson: returning to City Hall.

Jefferson (left) with Elicker on the campaign trail in 2019.

forcing in her city role as head of CEO. The existence of that separate company “led to the appearance of impropriety and a conflict of interest as defined and argued by the city.” In her defense, the panel found no evidence that Jefferson ever provided any such services in Connecticut or ever intended to deceive the city about her company’s existence.

• That Jefferson failed to comply with former Economic Development Administrator Matthew Nemerson’s May 2015 request for information related to City

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Hall’s investigation of her office, and therefore she “did not cooperate with the investigation,” as required by the Local 3144 collective bargaining agreement.

In her defense, the panel found that Jefferson was simply following the union’s advice when she did not comply with Nemerson’s request.

• And that, in 2008, Jefferson issued four letters under her signature in which she sought donations for the Construction Workforce Initiative 2, a program created by the city to provide training and em-

ployment opportunities in the construction industry for low-income city residents, from the same contractors whose employment practices she was charged with enforcing. While this was a legitimate fundraising activity per city law, the panel found, “it was improper for her to solicit them in lieu of fines”—which the city accused her of doing. In her defense, the panel found that soliciting donations in lieu of fines was not tantamount to bribery, and that there is no evidence showing that Jefferson ever personally benefitted from those four memoranda signed in her name.

While Jefferson did disregard a city attorney’s advice not to solicit donations in lieu of fines from companies whose practices she oversaw, and while Jefferson did form a private company that “ran afoul of the city’s conflict of interest laws,” the arbitration panel found that the city authorized Jefferson to solicit donations from said companies and it did allow her to perform consulting work for one of those companies in New York.

“Thus, the city is hardly blameless in this matter,” Keller wrote. Indeed, it is evident that the city’s own policies and decision making at critical junctures created for Jefferson an ethical tightrope that could only end in the ethical lapses and errors of judgment of which the city now complains”.

Keller ultimately agreed with the Superior Court’s findings that, to quote Superior Court Judge James Wilson Abrams, “While the court finds that there was actual harm sufficient to consider the behavior at issue egregious,’’ there was ‘‘insufficient support for the argument that . . . Jefferson would not respond appropriately to progressive workplace discipline, and, as a result, [the court] cannot find her ‘incorrigible.’”

In the end, Keller wrote, Jefferson’s actions, “though serious, were not so egregious” to merit her firing.

The Supreme Court justices noted that the arbitration award effectively docked Jefferson two years worth of pay—from August 2015 through August 2017. That decision in and of itself sends “a powerful message to other municipal employees and the public at large that similar conduct will not be tolerated.”

Keller also emphasized that, in Jefferson’s nearly two decades of city employment, she “enjoyed a spotless employment record and was cited on several occasions for her high ethical standards.”

If the city wishes to fire employees like Jefferson for what the city proved she did, then it should negotiate with the relevant city unions to include such provisions in collective bargaining agreements.

“Until such time, however, the employer must abide by the arbitrators’ determinations regarding just cause and the appropriate remedy for that conduct.”

THE INNER-CITY NEWS - March 10, 2021 - March 16, 2021

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THE INNER-CITY NEWS - March 10, 2021 - March 16, 2021

New Haven Mourns Manny Rivera, A Cultural Connector

by Lucy Gellman, Editor, The Arts Paper www.newhavenarts.org

Manny Rivera was always cooking up something. Sometimes it was a fragrant sancocho that took five hours from start to finish. Sometimes it was a cultural festival that brought neighborhoods together to dance. Or a 3 a.m. picnic on the New Haven Green, with a handful of best friends in tow. Always, it left everyone with full bellies, and fuller hearts.

When he died suddenly at the age of 52 last month, it left a community reeling.

He was buried at Evergreen Cemetery last week; the family still does not have a cause of death. His sister Carrie Cobián said that he was healthy and energetic in the days leading up to his death on Feb. 26.

Friends and family remembered Rivera last week, in a series of interviews that told the story of how deeply one person can touch hundreds of lives in a small city. He is survived by his mother Nilda Cobián, for whom he was the primary caregiver, as well as his sisters Carrie and Adelisa Cobián, Monique and Laura Rivera, his brother Jonathan Rivera, and a bevy of nieces and nephews who adored him from Puerto Rico to New Haven’s Kimberly Avenue.

From the time he was young, Rivera held fast to New Haven’s cultural community, which he treated as a canvas capable of diverse and joyful expression. The long list of local nonprofits he worked for over the course of his career—including the Arts Council of Greater New Haven, AIDS Project New Haven, and Liberty Community Services—became one testament to his unflagging energy. The indelible impressions he left with friends was another entirely.

“The thing that strikes me so is just how committed he was to the arts, to the community, to forging a way forward,” said Rivera’s longtime friend Jonathan Berryman, a music educator and founder and director of the New Haven Heritage Chorale. “If you never argued with Manny, then you never knew Manny. He would insist that you make your thinking visible.

From how to best approach things, to what the best answer was for the artistic world.”

Rivera entered the world in May 1968 in New York City, bubbly and opinionated from the time he could speak (“he was true to that Taurus life,” remembered Berryman). Born to Nilda Cobián and John Frank Rivera, he moved to New Haven as a kid and remained in the city for over four decades.

Just some of the lives Rivera touched.

Top row: Jonathan Berryman, Aleta Staton (pictured with Toto Kisaku and Elizabeth Nearing), Alisa Bowens-Mercado. Center row: Sean W. Hardy, Rivera himself, and Debbie Hesse. Bottom row: Babz RawlsIvy, Ryan Sperry and Ricky Mestre, and Hardy and Rivera before the pandemic.

Lucy Gellman, New Haven Independent, and contributed photos.

He had dozens of titles, but brother, son, and uncle Manny may have been the ones he wore most proudly. Growing up in the Hill neighborhood, he became a role model to both fellow students at school and to his younger siblings at home. Years later, he brought that same approach to caring for his nephew Nelson, with whom he was especially close. This summer, Rivera was planning to take him on a series of college tours in the tristate area.

“He took the role of a dad,” recalled his younger sister, Carrie Cobián, in a phone call Friday morning. “He was always very attentive to my needs, and then later to the needs of my kids. He was such a good role model. He would say, ‘we’re the village.’”

Cobián described him as deeply proud of his Puerto Rican heritage, which was often the first point of order after a brief introduction. While she was “the shy one,” her big brother Manny always knew what to say, she said. Whether he was going to the classroom or the board room, a discussion on cultural and economic equity always came with him.

By the time Rivera graduated from Richard C. Lee High School in the 1980s, he had gained a reputation among his friends as a community connector. It was one he had just started to grow.

In the early 1990s, Rivera started doing outreach for AIDS Project New Haven, now called A Place To Nourish Your Health (APNH). The city was at the height of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, and Rivera concentrated his efforts on raising awareness in Black and Latinx neighborhoods.

As director of volunteer services at the

time, Inner-City News Editor Babz Rawls-Ivy remembered him as eager to help, with an easygoing attitude and starburst of a smile that made him a fast friend.

“He was such a good guy,” she said.

“He was the kind of guy where if he went somewhere with you, he would have your back. He looked out for you.”

He was also fun, she said. When she left APNH in 1995, she stayed in touch with him. Every few months, she’d run into him at a cultural event or outdoor concert, which he often upgraded to a dance party with his presence alone. When she moved from Beaver Hills into a new home in Newhallville, he brought wine by her porch to christen the new space. She saw him for the last time a year ago, while passing through City Hall. The two talked about a trip to Florida that he was hoping to take.

Then the pandemic hit.

“He was the party,” she said. “His death was a huge shock to my system. It was a huge shock. He was always full of life. It just seemed so strange.”

Rivera had that magnetic effect everywhere he went. In the late 1990s, local journalist Michelle Turner met him when she landed an assignment covering Latino Youth Development, Inc., of which he was then the director. At the time, the organization ran a summer program for dozens of young people in the city. Turner took to Rivera for his no-nonsense manner from the moment they met. They stayed in touch for the next two decades.

“He made sure that people of color were represented in rooms that didn’t have representation,” she said. “He would definite-

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ly let you know how he was feeling about something … definitely no holds barred.

When I would run into him, he would give me tidbits about what was going on in communities. He was always good for that. Very active in the community.”

Rivera also made a first impression because he was sharp, she said—sharptongued, sharp-witted, and always sharply dressed. He was a man who took pleasure in his outfits, and also in his company. If he had time for a friend—and he always did, no matter how busy he was—he made them feel listened to and seen, she said.

When she was getting ready for his funeral at Evergreen Cemetery last week, she heard his voice in her head.

“All I could hear was Manny saying ‘Girl, I know you are not coming in here without no makeup!” she remembered, laughing. “And so I made my face.”

“We had a lot of conversations about race,” she continued. “And a lot of conversations, different solutions, about what could be done and how to do it. We both had concerns about kids … about what was available to them. And how you build community between Black and Latino people, and how to make it better for us.

I’m gonna miss those. I’m gonna miss Manny on so many levels.”

In the early 2000s, Rivera started taking courses at Gateway Community College that bloomed into undergraduate and then graduate studies at Southern Connecticut State University (SCSU). While he studied political science and public administration, it was arts and culture that kept pulling him back. During his time in

school, Rivera worked as the director of community cultural development at the Arts Council of Greater New Haven.

Debbie Hesse, the Arts Council’s director of programs and artistic services at the time, remembered him as “able to tap into the soul of New Haven.” It was Rivera who thought to go into neighborhoods and partner with organizations including JUNTA, the New Haven Board of Education, Regional Water Authority, the New Haven Free Public Library, the Greater New Haven NAACP and all of New Haven’s six colleges.

In fall 2003, he coordinated “Nuestra Herencia” (“Our Heritage”), a celebration of Latinx culture and history that brought together dance, music and poetry at the Educational Center of the Arts on Audubon Street. The following year, he organized “Tell All the Children Our Story,” a community conference with storytelling, music, and workshops that ranged from HIV awareness to gun violence prevention to reparations. He coordinated the event with a whopping 25 community partners, all of whom met at Gateway Community College.

It was during that time that he met Alisa Bowens-Mercado, owner of Alisa’s House of Salsa. When the two were on the clock, he was her partner in crime, working to make sure she provided the entertainment at neighborhood events. When they weren’t on the clock, they were friends and impromptu dance partners. The two called each other “boopsie” as a mutual term of endearment.

When he called her on the lip of her 50th birthday two weeks ago, she turned off her car in the parking lot of a CVS and talked on the phone for two hours. She said she’s so glad she picked up.

“When he met me, he was like, ‘Oh my gosh, you’re the salsera!’” she recalled between laughs on Friday afternoon. “When he called, we’d be on the phone for two or three hours. He just gave to his community, and he always wanted his community to do better. He was everywhere. He just wanted to show people, especially Latinos, that there’s a world out there. We had a business connection, but we had a very, very deep personal connection as well.”

Every artist he came into contact with became a friend, some of them for life. In the early 2000s, Bridgeport-based artist Ricky Mestre worked with Rivera after landing a show at the Arts Council’s Audubon Street offices. Rivera struck him as refreshingly trusting—he didn’t second guess Mestre when he walked in the door “with a bunch of questions.”

“I wasn’t used to being the one calling the shots,” Mestre said in a phone call Friday.

“I remember him saying, like, you have the power all along. He wanted it to come from me. He wanted it to be authentic.”

Mestre took that with him as he mounted the exhibition, for which his mom cooked plates and plates of Puerto Rican food that made the offices warm and fragrant.

Con’t on page 10

THE INNER-CITY NEWS - March 10, 2021 - March 16, 2021

Con’t from page 02

City Endorses CDC Post-Vaccination Advice

teachers.

He and NHPS Asst. Superintendent Paul Whyte (pictured above) said that the school system has identified roughly 3,500 school staff — including teachers, bus drivers, and afterschool program workers — to encourage to get vaccinated.

Elicker also noted that Fair Haven Community Health Care is vaccinating roughly 300 people per day at its Wilbur Cross High School clinic, which opened last Wednesday. “The vast majority of individuals vaccinated [during the first few days of operations] were school staff,” Elicker said. NHPS also hosted 14 school-based vaccination clinics with school nurses, teachers, and school staff last week.

When asked why NHPS plans to reopen high schools for hybrid, in-person learning for the first time in over a year starting April 5, Whyte said, “We’ve always wanted to have our kids back.” The school system brought back PreK-5th grade students in January, and middle school students last week.

“We wanted to have the high schoolers have an experience there as well,” he said.

“We are really pleased with the reopening” since PreK through 5th grade students started coming back to in-person classes in January, Bond added. She said that the city and the school system have been “very successful in ensuring” contact tracing takes place when students or staff come down with Covid, and with ensuring there are nurses available in reopend schools.

Stagehands Picket College Street Music Hall

by EMILY HAYS

New Haven I ndependent

The action took place offstage and on the street Monday, as a dozen stagehands stood in the cold in front of College Street Music Hall to assert that the concert venue is not willing to offer them the same benefits there as the Shubert Theatre does across the street.

The International Alliance of Theatrical Stagehands Local 74 has been in nine months of contract negotiations with College Street Music Hall, with key sticking points centering on health care, retirement and a standard hourly wage, according to the union.

“While 22 feet away, stagehands at the Shubert have all of that. I don’t think the public knows,” said Local 74 Business Agent Jim Shea.

At the last virtual meeting with College Street Music Hall, management refused to participate in health care or retirement benefits and continued to push back against the hourly wage requests, according to the union.

College Street Music Hall is owned and operated by by the nonprofit New Haven Center for Performing Arts Inc. Keith Mahler, who runs the shop, declined to comment.

“We don’t negotiate in the press,” Mahler said.

Health care is a particular focus for the union during the pandemic.

All stagehands have been out of work since the Covid-19 shutdown began,

Local 74 reps Gardner Friscia and Jim Shea.

aside from a few television gigs and performances in empty theaters. The larger union has been able to continue providing health insurance for its members during the pandemic. Otherwise, the stagehands are on unemployment benefits, if they can get them.

“It’s about peace of mind. You don’t think about it when you have it,” said Local 74 President Gardner Friscia.

Shea, for example, has three children.

His health insurance has allowed them to go to regular doctor’s appointments and check-ups. For other members, the health insurance has helped them pay for giving

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birth, cancer treatment and airlifting a child with a diabetes emergency.

In normal times, performance venues state how many stagehands they need for a particular show, and the union drafts up a list of people to work on that show. This could mean eight hours of set-up, plus following lighting, sound and equipment cues during the performance and breaking down the show.

The workers get paid a daily rate, regardless of whether they have worked eight hours in one day or 15. (It’s more often 15, according to Shea.) They get credits toward health care each time they

start a job. The performance venues pay into a fund managed by the union, which provides for health care for each family based on the work stagehands do.

Shea and Friscia float two different venues to check the safety of the workers who are sometimes 60 feet or 100 feet up to handle lighting and other equipment.

Shea has had 30 years of experience as a stagehand and has been with the union for 25 years.

The two union reps don’t have favorite shows, because they never watch them.

It’s more about whom they get to work with, Friscia said.

College Street Music Hall was one of 800 venues across the country that asked for relief last spring as the pandemic shuttered the entertainment industry. Mahler was trying to keep full-time workers on the payroll then by repairing and refurbishing the music hall. At that point, concerts had just been postponed and concert-goers had held onto their tickets, assuming entertainment would restart in the summer and fall.

Now, Mahler has no immediate plans to reopen the music hall, because it’s a venue that doesn’t work well with social distancing requirements.

Shea and Friscia said that they are readying the Local 74 contract so they can get back to work once audiences are mostly vaccinated.

“We know we’re coming back to work.

We don’t want to work without a contract,” Shea said.

Cardona Confirmed

THE INNER-CITY NEWS - March 10, 2021 - March 16, 2021

by STAFF

New Haven I ndependent

It’s official:

New Haven’s schools have a friendly ear in the Biden administration.

That friendly ear belongs to Miguel Cardona. The U.S. Senate confirmed Cardona’s appointment as the new secretary of education.

As Connecticut’s education commissioner, Cardona helped New Haven schools close the digital divide during the pandemic, while retreating from forcing the schools themselves to reopen. Click here to read a previous story about the praise he earned from New Haven education officials for his commitment to equity.

Cardona grew up in Meriden. His parents were originally from Puerto Rico. Miguel enrolled in Meriden public schools without knowing English. He started his career as an elementary public school teacher and moved into principal, assistant superintendent and university professor positions

Miguel Cardona. The U.S. Senate

before becoming the state education commissioner.

Lt. Gov. Susan Bysiewicz released a statement late Monday celebrating the confirmation vote.

“Miguel Cardona’s career and life exemplify the power of public education,” Bysiewicz stated.

“Throughout his career as a public school educator and later as Connecticut’s Education Commissioner, Miguel has been a champion for inclusivity and equity. He’s worked tirelessly to lift up all students by working to close the opportunity gap, recruit more minority teachers, and encourage more young girls to pursue an education in STEM. And, he’s worked to broaden access to advanced-level courses and has ensured that all students have the resources needed to pursue a higher education. During an unprecedented public health emergency, Miguel created a blueprint for how to reopen our schools safely while protecting the health of educators, administrators, staff and students.

Varick Vaccinates

by MAYA MCFADDEN

New Haven’s oldest Black church, Varick Memorial AME Zion Church, partnered with the Health Department to offer 51 vaccinations Wednesday at the city’s 12th pop-up clinic aimed at protecting communities of color from Covid-19.

Varick Pastor Kelcy Steele opened the church’s doors to the public to help make vaccination distribution accessible and equitable.

Many people said they felt more secure getting vaccinated at a place of worship like Varick, Steele said.

“This is a safe place, and many came because they felt most comfortable inside a church,” Steele said.

So far the city has administered 7,351 vaccinations, including 5,555 first doses. (That’s separate from the vaccinations administered by Yale New Haven Health, Hill and Fair Haven Health centers, or nursing homes), With these Wednesday pop-up events the city has gone out into the community to reach people who otherwise might not get the vaccine.“It’s very important for us to ensure that we provide the communities that historically have not had access to health care the opportunity to get vaccinated,” Mayor Justin Elicker said.

In coming weeks Varick will partner with Cornell Scott-Hill Health to offer an additional space for its weekly vaccination clinic, Steele said.

West Rock/West Hills Alder Honda Smith said she was skeptical about the vaccination when it first rolled out.

“Now I’ve got the courage because I want to live,” she said. “I was tired of sitting at home in fear.”

Smith recorded the ten-minute process of registering for the vaccination then getting the shot on Facebook Live to urge the community to follow in her footsteps.

Christopher Blazejovsky, 32, who lives in

a New Haven sober house, heard from the home’s owner that he was eligible to get vaccinated.

Blazejovsky went through drug and alcohol treatment in Florida and recently was moved to New Haven. The pandemic has caused for his recovery journey to be more difficult because of a lack of family time, he said. “It’s been tough with staying sober when you can’t do much to stay busy.”

His treatment meetings have been switched to a virtual platform. “You don’t have the security of hugging or shaking hands” Blazejovsky said.

After getting vaccinated, Blazejovsky said he hopes to visit his family more often.

Dixwell/Prospect Hill Alder Steve Winter said the city must expedite its strategy to open vaccination sites in neighborhoods the way it expanded Covid testing in the summer.

“We need to ramp up access to vaccinations in the community so that our Black and brown residents are well served,” Winter said.

Sharon Willard, 71, got vaccinated Wednesday as a staff member at Community Action of New Haven.

“I know others are hesitant, so I figured I ought to get it,” she said. Willard said she called into the Health Department last week and within five minutes was offered her Wednesday appointment.

Charles Moye, 73, couldn’t get vaccinated at his local CVS in Seymour because they hadn’t received their shipment. He called the New Haven Health Department Tuesday and got scheduled for a Wednesday appointment.

Moye was urged by his son to get vaccinated because his underlying health issues put him at risk if he gets Covid. Since the start of the pandemic, Moye has been avoiding visiting he hospital as much as possible. “I’m still not sure what’s in it and all of its effects. because they don’t tell you that stuff. But I don’t want to run out of time when they run out,” he said of the

vaccine.

While in nursing school, Moye visited a hospital and saw a patient suffering from a severe case of the flu struggling to use a ventilator.

Moye recalled thinking to himself: “I don’t want to die like that.” So he got the vaccination.

Since the start of the pandemic Annette Moore-Powell, 67, has been only to church and the grocery store. Moore-Powell, who lives in North Haven, got vaccinated after her daughter, who lives in New Haven, told her about the Varick pop-up site. “It was nice here. A church definitely makes it feel more safe,” she said.

Moore-Powell was motivated to get vaccinated by her nephew, who caught Covid recently.

“The way he explained it to me is like nothing you want to get,” she said of Covid-19. She also has a niece who got sick from Covid.

Despite being worried about the potential side effects of the vaccination, she got her first dose of the vaccine Wednesday and left with a scheduled appointment to get her second dose in March.

Whiling bringing his mom to get vaccinated, James Carr noticed the registration sheet said first responders are eligible to get the shot. As a fire inspector for Yale University, Carr didn’t hesitate to register himself as well Wednesday.

“It’s a no-brainer,” he said.

The pandemic has increased Carr’s workload at the department. Not only has work caused him stress, he said, but some of his friends have passed away after catching Covid.

“I want to avoid passing it along to my mom and the community,” he said.

All community members who got vaccinated Wednesday left with a scheduled follow-up appointment to get their second dose at Varick on March 24.

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Con”t from page 08

New Haven Mourns Manny Rivera

It stayed with him as he grew his cultural footprint in Bridgeport and New Haven, where he would run into Rivera every couple of years. The last time they saw each other was in 2019, while Mestre was in the midst or coordinating Bridgeport’s annual Pride Month celebrations. Rivera called him “Mr. Socialite,” and said that he’d been watching his career blossom from afar.

“He was definitely an awesome person,” Mestre said. “We always stopped when we saw each other. It felt more like it was part professional, part friend.”

Aleta Staton, who is now the director of learning at Long Wharf Theatre, also met Rivera during those years. She had brought a West African peanut butter soup to Audubon Street to share with the Arts Council’s staff when Rivera came right over, asking for a taste. They quickly became close friends, bound by a love of food and of the performing arts.

Staton, who lost a younger brother when he was just 14 months old, called Rivera “hermanito” because he was exactly the same age that her brother would have been. In return, he often called Staton his wife, as though they were a family unit.

The two fought as lovingly and fiercely as family “about everything,” Staton said— from how they were wearing their hair to what jobs they were considering taking.

“And sometimes I looked at him and wondered, ‘Are you him? Are you my brother’” she said. “We fought and had joy just like family. It was an amazing, amazing privilege for me to be in his circle.”

He was always there, she added. When Staton fell ill last November, he dropped off food on her porch and checked in to make sure she was doing okay. He sent her roses on her first day of work at Long Wharf. The last time she saw him, he brought her a homemade sancocho that had simmered for five hours on the stovetop. At her request, he promised to teach her how to make it when in-person gathering was safe again.

“He was amazing,” she said. “He had a capacity for love that I have never known.

I’m still in a state of disbelief. This was somebody who cared so much about every person around him.”

Fellow friends remembered him as equally giving. Berryman first met Rivera in the mid 1990s, and “we would just weave in and out of each others’ lives.”

Because both of them were in the arts— Berryman teaches in the city’s schools and plays in its houses of worship—their paths kept intersecting.

The two became very close about a decade ago, when Rivera cooked for an event that Berryman was having with friends. From that point on, they saw each other often, usually with a small group of friends who loved food and fellowship. Berryman was with Rivera at Soul de Cuba restaurant, one of their favorite haunts, the night before he died.

Berryman remained close with Rivera as he cycled through work with Project

M.O.R.E., Liberty Community Services, and the City of New Britain. He watched as Rivera worked for himself as a nonprofit consultant, collaborating with fellow artists and community members from all corners of the city. Somehow, he said, Rivera still had time for him. When Berryman got Covid-19 in November, Rivera dropped off soup on his porch. That last night at Soul de Cuba, he and Berryman were planning a trip to Hawaii for the May birthdays in their friend group.

“I’m still, like most people, processing,” he said in a phone call Friday. “We were at a point in our lives where they were weaving back together again. We were really starting to do some wonderful things. It really is a great loss for the arts community. It is a great loss for the community, period … he was always pushing forward.

Full of ideas. And I don’t know if anybody else had them. If anything, it taught us to acknowledge the value of people while they’re here, and listen to people while they’re here.”

A longtime educator at Mauro Sheridan Interdistrict Magnet School, Sean Hardy was also with Rivera the night before he passed away. The two first met over 30 years ago, but became close through a circle of friends that included Berryman a little over a decade ago. When Hardy had brain surgery two years ago, Rivera made sure he was eating. He checked in on him often. Last month, the two ate dinner at Soul de Cuba two weeks in a row, with conversation that jumped from Rivera’s current work to his upcoming 53rd birthday.

Rivera called him “beloved,” a nickname that was often followed by a command (“beloved, you need to eat something,” he told Hardy after surgery) or more often, a huge smile and hours of catching up between close friends. Hardy said he is still trying to wrap his mind around Rivera’s sudden absence.

“I’m very disturbed by his death,” he said. “He had great plans for the future, and I’m just saddened that those plans for the future won’t be carried out. Having dinner with him one day, and he’s gone the next. He’s gonna be so missed.”

His family is still adjusting to a world that he is not physically part of. At home, Cobián is now caring for her 77-year-old mother. Her son, Rivera’s 17-year-old nephew Nelson, is thinking of the college tours that Rivera was so excited to take him on.

A string musician at Cooperative Arts and Humanities High School, Nelson said that his uncle often pushed him to excel in school. Last year, he encouraged him to join the high school fellowship program at the International Festival of Arts & Ideas.

Staton, who was formerly at the Festival, remembered the two as thick as thieves.

“It’s hard,” he said. “I want people to know that even though he had this stern attitude, this intensity, he had a good heart.

He wanted the best for people.”

Coming 2 America THE INNER-CITY NEWS - March 10, 2021 - March 16, 2021

FILM REVIEW:

By Dwight Brown, NNPA Newswire Film Critic

Nothing wrong with a little nostalgia.

But if you’re looking for a comedy revelation, this isn’t it. It’s an ‘80s throwback with a comic superstar, his merrymen/women and a tinge of Wakanda fever. Grab a seat and be prepared to yawn before you laugh hysterically. f 1988 feels ancient to you, you’re young, go sit in a corner. If that era brings back pleasant memories, step up. Things have happened since back in the day. The larger public has learned what the African American community has known all along, being Black is cool and being Black in Africa is mythically awesome. That’s what made the original Coming to America iconic.

A long, long time ago, Akeem Joffer (Eddie Murphy) was the young prince of Zamunda, a fictional country over in the motherland. Rather than taking part in an arranged marriage, as expected by his father the king (James Earl Jones), Akeem eschewed tradition. He and his wingman/coat-holder Semmi (Arsenio Hall) went to Queens, New York, looking for a wife. He found Lisa (Shari Headley), a commoner, the daughter of Cleo (John Amos) a man who owned a fast-food restaurant named McDowell’s. The two lovebirds married and lived happily ever after—until…

That’s the old plot. The step off point for screenwriters Kenya Barris, Barry W. Blaustein and David Sheffield. It’s like they cheated off an old term paper to write the new formulaic one. Innovation, wild imagination, uncanny scenes or profound dialogue—nope. Expect, with Barris at the helm, inside culture jokes, bawdiness (an attempted male adult circumcision. Ouch!) and Blackish humor.

Prepare for a few surprises (a welcomed touch of female empowerment).

There are plenty of laughs, one-liners, sight gags, rivalries and problems to solve. None add up to much more than an excuse to give Eddie Murphy one more run at Akeem before we all go to the elephant burial ground.

Director Craig Brewer, who guided Murphy to a career-redefining performance in Dolemite Is My Name, helms the project. Comedy is his stomping ground, but not much else. He works in a Black Panther angle with a few martial arts warrior fight scenes—none particularly convincing. Romantic moments are shallow at best.

Settings in Africa and New York’s

Arsenio Hall (left) and Eddie Murphy are back in Coming 2 America, now streaming on Amazon Prime Video.

largest and most diverse borough provided opportunities for stunning exteriors of African plains or bustling streets, but few exist. That’s because the production was largely shot at Tyler Perry Studios. Pageantry, elaborate processions, fancy royal bedrooms, neighborhood barbershops, it all looks fake. What isn’t bogus are the comic performances, which Brewer nurtures perfectly.

These days, King Jaffe Joffer is ailing, old, contemplating succession and mortality. He turns to Semmi with certain derision: “I will be dead soon. Why couldn’t it be you?”

Old laws dictate that Prince Akeem’s successor must be a male heir. That displeases the prince’s eldest daughter Meeka (Kiki Layne, If Beale Street Could Talk) and his two other offspring

(Akiley Love and Murphy’s real offspring Bella Murphy).

Marrying Meeka off to General Izzi’s (Wesley Snipes) useless son Idi Izzi (Rotimi Akinsosho) could have two benefits: A future male prince and uniting the two, potentially warring nations of Zamunda and Izzi’s country Nexdoria.

It’s a plan, until Akeem discovers that, due to an old indiscretion, he has a son back in Queens. When Lavelle (Jermaine Fowler), his mom (Leslie Jones) and Uncle Reem (Tracy Morgan) show up at the palace, things get complicated.

The slow, tedious buildup may make viewers doze off before any signs of action appear, like Lavelle being tasked with outsmarting a lion or a women vs. men crucial action scene.

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Otherwise, the rhythm is slow (editors David S. Clark, Billy Fox, Debra Neil-Fisher) and the cinematography (Joe “Jody” Williams, TV’s Empire) unremarkable. Campy, garish costumes (Ruth E. Carter, Black Panther), extravagant sets (Douglas A. Mowat, Inception), a funky musical score (Jermaine Stegall) and a host of cameos (En Vogue and Gladys Knight) fill in the cracks nicely.

The commissary at Tyler Perry’s studios must have been packed during the shoot. Hefty main cast. Lots of supporting roles. Extras in abundance. Murphy plays a prince, but he is truly the king of Black comedy — and luminous.

The Nigerian sounding accent, wicked smiles, dramatic acting and horsey laughs.

He plays a host of other characters too,

the most frenetic is rock/soul musician Randy Watson, a Rick James knock off in a powder blue outfit warbling “We Are Family.” Equally disarming is Wesley Snipes as the duplicitous snake Izzi. He’s wonderfully evil.

Arsenio Hall in drag could give kids nightmares. Whoever hit him with the ugly stick should be properly credited.

Also begging for laughs and attention are Jones and Morgan with more nuanced performances by Layne, Headley and Nomzamo Mbatha as Lavelle’s love interest.

Tune in looking for the old days, Afrocentric culture and silly comedy and you’ll be satiated. Expect something earth-shatteringly new, and you won’t.

Remember how two African interlopers once changed audiences’ perception of Queens, New York? Zamunda forever!

THE INNER-CITY NEWS - March 10, 2021 - March 16, 2021

COMMENTARY:

The Future of America is People of Color

By Roger Caldwell, NNPA Newswire Contributor

As America struggles with the challenges of Covid-19, and a depression/recession, there is sunshine and a belief of tremendous success with people of color (POC).

Truth, integrity and factual information are the foundation that President Biden and Vice-President Harris are building their administration upon. The past four years were based on corruption, lies and textbook racism. But Democracy — and America’s voice: the vote — won again.

Many Republicans and political pundits may see the new administration as a mistake, but 84 million people, the most in the history of America, voted with their hearts and their souls. So, this is the new truth. America has shifted, and Republican foolishness and corruption will be exposed and destroyed on a daily level.

There is dangerous behavior being exhibited in the Republican Party, with Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene.

On Thursday, 2/4/21, Congresswoman Greene was stripped of her committee posts, in education and budget. The House Democrats joined by 11 Republicans felt she was a danger to the integrity of the body, and many are calling for her to resign her position as a Congresswoman.

“Mostly, the headlines have been about her (previously held) conspiratorial QAnon beliefs, claims that 9/11 did not happen, that school shootings such as the one at Sandy Hook 2012 in Connecticut that

killed 26 children and adults were staged and more,” says Andrew Buncombe – reporter for The Independent. This is an indicator that millions of Americans think like her, and they are caught up in a delusionary reality.

As the Republicans remain in gridlock, the Democrats have learned that they cannot wait for them to make up their minds, nor wait to see which way they will go.

The Democrats have majorities in the Senate/House, and they are preparing to move forward.

There is a diversity explosion taking place across the country, in the White House, in Congress, with women and with people of color. The new census reports confirm the importance of racial minorities as the primary demographic engine of the nation’s growth.

“The new census projections indicate that for youth under the age of 18, the post millennia population, minorities will outnumber Whites in 2020,” says William Frey, Senior Fellow, Brookings Institution Metropolitan Policy Program. This is amazing data for people of color, because Whites are not replacing themselves with babies. Soon there will be an inflection point, and there will be more people of color than White people in America.

William Frey is projecting in 2045; America will become “minority White.”

There is nothing Americans can do about this scientific fact. As the Biden administration begins to address criminal justice and prison reform, the killing of Black

and Brown people must end. There are many organizations across the country, fighting in solidarity to change policing in America.

There are now more than 40% of the residents in the country, who identify themselves as people of color (POC). The future of America is with people of color, because they are an interchangeable member of a shared group, and also has a unique identity such as Black or Hispanic.

Public discussion often overlooks the fact that groups called minorities can choose from several identities. A person

of color can call themselves Black, Latino, Asian, Mexican, Jamaican, Chinese or any other culture they are comfortable with. Depending on the circumstances, this is a new identity that will get larger as people refuse to call themselves White.

As America shifts under the administration of Biden, the majority in the Democratic Party will be people of color (POC). This makes sense as it reflects the commonality of America, and the fight is for racial equity, and respect for people as human beings.

As anti-racist efforts and organizations continue to grow and unfold, the battle will be coordinated and organized by people of color. People of color will no longer be the minority, they will become the majority, and this will happen before 2045.

The responsibility of people of color is to stand up and be counted. To relax and wait for change is no longer an option. If you want change, remember you are no longer the minority as people of color, and register and vote.

Morgan State Alum Dropped Out, Drove for UPS, Presents University with $20 Million Endowment

By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent

He attended Morgan State College nearly 40 years ago and had to drop out because he could not afford it. (In 1975, Morgan State was designated a university by the Maryland State Legislature).

Calvin E. Tyler Jr. and his wife, Tina, presented the historically Black college with a $20 million commitment, increasing an endowed scholarship fund previously established in the Tylers’ name.

According to a news release, the monumental gift is the largest private donation from an alumnus in University history.

It’s the most significant contribution of its kind to any Historically Black College or University (HBCU) nationwide from an alum.

“Morgan is so proud to call this son and daughter of the great City of Baltimore our own, and through their historic giving, the doors of higher education will most certainly be kept open for generations of aspiring leaders whose financial shortfalls may have kept them from realizing their academic dreams,” David K. Wilson, president of Morgan State University, stated in the release.

“For public institutions, like Morgan,

our charitable alumni are testaments to the legacy we collectively uphold, and the Tylers’ generosity over the years, culminating with this transformative commitment, is a remarkable example of altruism with great purpose. We are forever indebted to the Tylers,” Wilson noted.

Calvin Tyler’s story is remarkable.

He enrolled at Morgan State College in 1961 to study and earn a degree in business administration.

Tyler counted as the first in his family to make it to college, but two years after enrollment, he was forced to drop out because he lacked the funds to pay for tuition.

Instead, he went to work as a UPS driver – becoming one of the first 10 UPS drivers in Baltimore.

At UPS, he steadily climbed the corporate ladder, ultimately working his way to senior vice president of operations before his retirement in 1998.

Tyler then joined UPS’s board of directors.

Still, Morgan State officials said he never lost sight of his humble beginnings, committing with his wife Tina to support those who, like him, encountered hardships and financial insecurities while pur-

suing their college degree.

In 2002, the couple started the Calvin and Tina Tyler Endowed Scholarship Fund to provide full-tuition scholarships for select need-based students residing in Baltimore – the Tyler’s hometown.

Because of the coronavirus pandemic, the Tylers expanded their giving, mak-

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ing the endowed scholarship available nationally.

According to the release, the endowed fund has supported 222 Morgan students through 46 full-tuition and 176 partial scholarships, with the promise of benefiting more ‘Tyler Scholars’ with the increased multimillion-dollar pledge and an

expanded scope.

“My wife and I have become keenly aware of the effect that the pandemic has had on a number of young people trying to get an education [and] we have the resources to help a lot of young people,” Tyler shared in a statement.

“This is why we are increasing our commitment at Morgan; we want to have more full-tuition scholarships offered to young people so that they can graduate from college and enter the next stage of their life debt-free.”

Five years ago, Calvin and Tina committed $5 million to Morgan State, a contribution that stood as the largest in the university’s history.

“Endowed scholarships and other gifts have far-reaching implications for any institution, but for a public, urban university like Morgan, with students from a broad spectrum of academic, social, and economic backgrounds, the need is especially great,” stated Donna Howard, vice president for Institutional Advancement.

“We are forever grateful to the Tylers for their unrelenting charity to alma mater.

The impact of their generosity will have a prevailing effect fostering Morgan-made leaders for generations.”

THE INNER-CITY NEWS - March 10, 2021 - March 16, 2021

A federal rule will reverse strides in cancer treatment

By Richard M. Ingram “You’ve got cancer.”

That’s one of the scariest sentences in the English language. But it’s less frightening than it used to be. Cancer death rates plummeted 29 percent between 1991 and 2017, according to the American Cancer Society. Survival rates have soared. Almost 99 percent of prostate cancer patients are still alive five years after diagnosis -- up from 68 percent in the 1970s.

We can thank cutting-edge drugs for these gains. My fellow oncologists now prescribe breakthrough medicines rather than relying on old-school chemothera-

pies that kill healthy cells alongside tumorous ones.

Unfortunately, the government is about to make our jobs harder -- and cut off access to cancer drugs for millions. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services recently finalized a “most-favorednation” rule, which was set to take effect on January 1.

The rule’s goal is to lower drug prices for Medicare patients. But the rule is sure to backfire, with tragic consequences.

The most-favored-nation rule imposes a cap on how much Medicare will pay for 50 drugs, including many cancer treatments. The limit is pegged to the amount government health systems in other developed countries pay for those drugs.

CMS hopes this tactic will force drug makers to lower prices. That’s a risky gamble. The rule notes that “some manufacturers will adhere to their current pric-

ing instead of lowering sales prices.” The rule goes on to say “this behavior may persist,” and “would result in unmet demand.”

Patients who need specific cancer medications won’t get them. CMS assumes by 2023, 19 percent of Medicare recipients who would otherwise have received topof-the-line therapies will not have access to them.

The rule will also jeopardize patients’ access to treatment by shuttering local oncology clinics. There are more than 2,100 community cancer centers around the United States, treating 65 percent of the nation’s cancer patients. These centers provide top-notch doctors, nurses, pharmacists, social workers, and financial counselors. Undergoing cancer treatment is an exhausting endeavor. These professionals make a life-or-death difference.

At my clinic, Shenandoah Oncology, we

figuratively -- and often literally -- wrap our arms around patients. Our licensed clinical social workers provide emotional support to patients and families. Our pharmacists and nurse navigators guide patients through the ups and downs of treatment regimens. And our financial counselors sign patients up for assistance programs.

Drugs shrink tumors, but a full-spectrum support network enables patients to truly beat cancer.

Currently, clinics like mine buy drugs up front, administer medications, and then bill Medicare. The program reimburses us for the cost of the drugs plus a small fee to cover services provided by essential workers.

When the rule kicks in, the dollar amount of reimbursements to clinics will drop.

Clinics will have to decide if they can afford to offer certain drugs. Worse, they’ll

have to lay off staff and cut services, if not close altogether.

Many clinics will go out of business, leaving patients with no good options.

Especially in rural areas, patients might have to drive hours to find a safety-net hospital. Those hospitals rarely provide the same resources and support.

If not reversed, the most-favored-nation rule will lead to lower quality life and earlier death for thousands. We have made enormous progress in combating cancer.

Let’s not set it back.

Dr. Richard M. Ingram is a practicing medical oncologist and president of Shenandoah Oncology, in Winchester, Virginia. He is also president of the Virginia Association of Hematology Oncology, and volunteer on the board of directors of the Community Oncology Alliance. This piece originally ran in the Virginian-Pilot.

After a Century of Land Theft and Exclusion, Black Farmers Getting Needed Government Aid

By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent

With the objective of ending systemic racism, the House of Representatives passed two bills this week: The George Floyd Justice in Policing Act and the For the People Act of 2021 that attacks voter suppression. Lawmakers have also signaled their desire to stamp out oppression affecting another group of Americans: Black farmers.

“More than a century of land theft and the exclusion of Black people from government agricultural programs have denied many descendants of enslaved people’s livelihoods as independent, landowning farmers,” Mark Bittman, an author, and former food columnist, wrote in an op-ed for the New York Times.

Bittman noted that “African-American labor built much of this country’s agriculture, a prime source of the nation’s early wealth.”

“In the years since the end of slavery, Black Americans have been largely left out of federal land giveaways, loans, and farm improvement programs,” he continued.

“They have been driven off their farms through a combination of terror and mistreatment by the federal government, resulting in debt, foreclosures, and impoverishment.”

In February, the U.S. House Agriculture Committee approved a landmark $5 billion program of debt relief for socially disadvantaged farmers, despite Republican objections that the aid was an unconstitutional form of reverse discrimination.

According to Successful Farming, an agriculture-themed website, Chairman David Scott, a Georgia Democrat, said minority farmers deserved the help because they had been overlooked in the mammoth trade war and coronavirus re-

lief programs that began in 2018.

Under the proposal, the government would pay off USDA loans and USDAguaranteed loans held by socially disadvantaged farmers and give an additional 20 percent to the farmers to cover income taxes associated with the debt relief.

The measure is part of President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan now before the U.S. Senate.

More than 600 leading food companies, racial equity leaders, and farm organizations have come also together to support the Emergency Relief for Farmers of Color Act, led by U.S. Senator Reverend Raphael Warnock (D-GA).

Sen. Warnock said the legislation offers direct relief to Black, Indigenous, and Hispanic farmers and other agricultural

producers of color to help them respond to the devastating consequences of the pandemic and resulting economic downturn and address long-standing inequity in agriculture.

“This once-in-a-century pandemic, and the economic downturn that followed, has revealed and exacerbated long-standing disparities in our government that have left certain communities behind, particularly Black farmers and farmers of color,” Sen. Warnock remarked in a statement emailed to NNPA Newswire.

“This legislation is a major step toward righting some of these injustices and leveling the playing field for farmers and farming families of color to help them not only recover from the devastation of these crises but give them the tools and

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assistance to thrive that they’ve long been denied,” Sen. Warnock continued.

“Considering the urgent need for this funding and the overwhelming support this proposal has garnered from across the agricultural community, we can’t get this relief passed and out the door quickly enough,” he stated further.

Specifically, the Emergency Relief for Farmers of Color Act would provide $5 billion to America’s Black, Indigenous, Hispanic and farmers of color who have long struggled to keep their farms and ownership of their land in rural communities because of long-standing discrimination by the USDA and other government agencies, Warnock added.

Senators Cory Booker (D-NJ), Ben Ray Luján (D-NM), and Debbie Stabenow (D-

MI) are co-sponsors to the legislation.

“In addition to the economic pain caused by the pandemic, socially disadvantaged communities are also dealing with a disproportionate share of COVID infection rates, hospitalizations, and death,” U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack remarked.

“The American Rescue Plan expands testing and vaccinations and ensures that we get the economy on track for everyone, especially those who have been marginalized or shut out of federal assistance in the past,” Vilsack continued.

“I applaud the provisions in the bill that begin to address systemic discrimination and provide relief and assistance to Black, Indigenous, Hispanic and other farmers of color.”

THE INNER-CITY NEWS - March 10, 2021 - March 16, 2021

AARP Creates New Business Group to Expand Its Commitment to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

WASHINGTON — AARP CEO Jo Ann Jenkins announced the creation of a new group, Diversity, Equity & Inclusion, and a new executive-level position, Chief Diversity Officer. The group and role were created to heighten the organization’s focus on its social mission work and best serve Americans 50+, a rapidly diversifying demographic.

Jenkins also announced that she has promoted Edna Kane-Williams into the role of Executive Vice President and Chief Diversity Officer. The CDO position reports directly to the CEO and serves on the AARP Executive Team. Kane-Williams has worked at AARP since 2006, most recently serving as Senior Vice President of Multicultural Leadership.

“AARP’s commitment to diversity, eq-

uity and inclusion runs deep. Today’s announcement to fine tune our structure and expand our DEI work builds on our long and strong commitment to serve all Americans 50+, caregivers and families,” said AARP CEO Jo Ann Jenkins. “Edna Kane-Williams has an extraordinary track record of championing equity and inclusion, and in her new role, she will be a key partner in helping AARP achieve its goals and lead with our values. I look forward to our expanded work together.”

As CDO, Kane-Williams is responsible for driving AARP’s enterprise Diversity, Equity and Inclusion workforce, workplace and marketplace strategies. This work includes AARP’s strategies around age discrimination, disparities and multicultural audiences; the Disrupt Aging

initiative; AARP’s Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Advisory Council; and AARP’s Strategic Enterprise Employee Resource Groups.

Said Kane-Williams: “At a time of momentous change, AARP is broadening our work and deepening our commitment to our nearly 38 million members, our entire demographic, and our workforce. We are and will continue to be inclusive and equitable in how we fulfill our mission and carry out our work. I look forward to helping AARP achieve success.”

Kane-Williams brings more than twenty years of experience in non-profit and forprofit organizations to her new role. She currently serves on the Board of Directors for Legal Counsel for the Elderly and for the Center for Responsible Lending, and she is a founding member of the Conference Board’s Multicultural Marketing Advocacy Council. She earned a Master of Arts from George Washington Uni-

versity and a Bachelor of Arts from Yale University.

About AARP AARP is the nation’s largest nonprofit, nonpartisan organization dedicated to empowering people 50 and older to choose how they live as they age. With a nationwide presence and nearly 38 million members, AARP strengthens communities and advocates for what matters most to families: health security, financial stability and personal fulfillment. AARP also produces the nation’s largest circulation publications: AARP The Magazine and AARP Bulletin. To learn more, visit http://www.aarp.org, http://www. aarp.org/espanol or follow @AARP, @ AARPenEspanol and @AARPadvocates, @AliadosAdelante on social media.

Gina Grant continues to soar BlogTalkRadio.com/Cheryl’s World Host of “From Marva with Love” Texas Metro News

By Marva J. Sneed

On From Marva with Love, we are celebrating Black Entrepreneurs for Black History Month. Gina Grant is the Founder and CEO of Women That Soar, a Dallas-based media and content development company. Her focus is all about empowering and inspiring women to overcome their obstacles and soar, both personally and professionally. Women That Soar has been hosting an award show since 2007 for women who have overcome those obstacles and celebrates their accomplishments.

MS: Gina, tell us about some of the people that have received the Women the Soar Award and how you found them.

GG: Well, Women That Soar is the brand of the media company. It’s the brand, but

the WTS Awards is named after the company and is all about honoring women who have courageous stories of going through the ups and downs of life and who are willing to share their stories with others about how they learn to soar. So we find the women based on other people just sending us stories. We look for women who have reached the pinnacle of success. But yet at one point in their lives, they were at the bottom. They were in the pit a lot of times. Nancy Lieberman and Gloria Campos were honored among others.

MS: How did COVID affect your business?

GG: COVID hit in March 2020, when we had just partnered with the city of Dallas. We had come off one event, on February 15. We had Yolanda Adams

there, and this is where we made the big announcement that we were going to do part two of the WTS Awards. We had filmed part 1 and in November 2020 were supposed to be part two. It was going to be a three day event. We had every celebrity and we were bringing Hollywood to Dallas, and COVID hit and shut us all down. Honestly. I was in Prayer day and night. Productions were dying. Everyone was losing money left and right. We went in the hole, and God just started speaking to me and said, “share your story.” I started to writing. So every day I would get up and I just wrote my own story and I sent it to my producing partner, Reuben Cannon, and he said, “Gina, we’ve got to shoot a docu-series and it’s got to be focused on minority women.” I said, it has to be about African American and

Hispanic women.

MS: Tell us about the docuseries.

GG: Overcomers is an unscripted, preeminent docu-series that is like none other. It explores the raw, real-life stories of single mothers who have chosen to rise above their current circumstances and fight for a better future for themselves and their children… To hear the full interview with Gina Grant, go to BlogTalkRadio.com/ Cheryl’s World link: http://bit.ly/3qI42yp or Texas Metro News FB: https: //bit.ly/2LZBOjj. Follow Gina Grant at www.womenthatsoar. com.

Tune into “From Marva with Love Fridays 11 am-1 pm on BlogTalkRadio and Facebook.com/ TexasMetroNews marvasneed@myimessenger.com

Inspired by Langston Hughes, Jazz Artist Candice Hoyes Talks New Music

By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent

NuSoul and Jazz artist Candice Hoyes has brought what her record label calls an otherworldly vocalism to her new single “Waiting for the World (Tired).”

Inspired by the Harlem Renaissance poet Langston Hughes, the single can be streamed here.

In an interview with the National Newspaper Publishers Association’s (NNPA) “Let It Be Known” breaking news program, Hoyes explained why Hughes serves as one of her inspirations.

“Langston Hughes is a huge part of the inspiration for new single [because] the central message comes transmit-

ted through Langston Hughes for me,” Hoyes stated during the interview, which can be viewed here.

“I’m a music artist, but I grew up while being exposed to music and playing piano reading a lot,” she remarked.

“I’m fortunate that I had Black books in my home. It really shaped me and the ideas I want to put across. I always had a special connection to Langston Hughes and his poetry. I live in Harlem now not far from the Langston Hughes home.”

Hoyes also lists Sade, Anita Baker, and Billie Holiday among her inspirations.

“Waiting for the World (Tired)” not only celebrates Black Heritage Month, but Hoyes said it pursues sonic time travel, linking the past with the future — intoning Hughes’s 1930 poem on

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racial reckoning “Tired” across a lush, synth-infused landscape of her imagining.

On the heels of her successful 2020 single “Zora’s Moon,” Vogue Magazine spotlighted Hoyes for her “chill-inducing range,” and JazzFM (UK) named her “an artist with the most eclectic and delicious voice ever.”

The song was also spotlighted on NPR’s “Here and Now.” A multi-genre vocalist, archivist, and sampler, Hoyes is an artist and producer with an eye for bringing “Black history into the present,” according to NPR. She is a winner of the coveted 2020 NYC Women’s Fund for extraordinary recording artists.

To connect more deeply with the en-

ergy of Hughes’s poetry, Hoyes spent time in his historic brownstone in Harlem.

When inspiration struck, she sat by his piano and began writing, ultimately collaborating with Grammy award-winning jazz pianist Sullivan Fortner.

“Waiting for the World (Tired)” is produced by Grammy award-winning producer Casey Benjamin and features Fortner, Chris Parks, and Grammy award-winning drummer Mark Colenburg.

The new song features a virtual tour of Black-owned and Queer-owned bookstores and book clubs, including Well-Read Black Girl, Vintage Black Glamour, Yaya Bookstore, Bowties and Books, and more.

THE INNER-CITY NEWS - March 10, 2021 - March 16, 2021

Thinking about the vaccine?

We put our best minds on it to ensure its safety.

At Yale New Haven Health, we’re not only proud to offer this long-awaited COVID-19 vaccine to the general public, we’re proud to have led the way worldwide with Yale School of Medicine when it comes to ensuring its safety and efficacy. Learn more about the vaccine and how, when, and where to get yours at ynhhs.org/covidvaccine.

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THE INNER-CITY NEWS - March 10, 2021 - March 16, 2021

EPCOT Unveils ‘The Soul of Jazz: An American Adventure’ Exhibit at The American Adventure Pavilion New experience at Walt Disney World Resort takes guests on a musical tour across America with Joe Gardner from Disney and Pixar’s ‘Soul’

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. – Originated by African Americans and fusing the influences of many different cultures, jazz is a distinctly American art form. This living, breathing music is the basis for the new Disney and Pixar film “Soul,” and now the focus of a new exhibit inside EPCOT at Walt Disney World Resort.

“The Soul of Jazz: An American Adventure” debuts today at The American Adventure, inviting guests on a musical tour of the United States to learn more about this colorful, inspiring and constantly evolving genre of music. This new exhibit features Joe Gardner, the musician, mentor and teacher from “Soul,” as he shares the rich and surprising history of jazz from several influential cities: New Orleans, Chicago, New York City, Los Angeles and San Juan, Puerto Rico.

“Walt Disney Imagineering is thrilled to bring the compelling story of jazz to EPCOT,” said Carmen Smith, Executive, Creative Development and Inclusion Strategies, Walt Disney Imagineering.

“Our team was honored to work with jazz experts and institutions across the country to explore the rich history and influence of this truly American musical art form.

We hope guests are as inspired by ‘The Soul of Jazz: An American Adventure’ as our Imagineers were bringing this exhibit to life.”

In creating the exhibit, Walt Disney Imagineering collaborated with historians and curators from top jazz institutions, including the Historic New Orleans Collection and the New Orleans Jazz Museum in Louisiana, as well as the Louis Armstrong House Museum in New York. The exhibit showcases historic artifacts from worldrenowned jazz musicians, including: Jazz legend Louis Armstrong’s Selmer trumpet “Jazz Jubilee” sheet music, handwritten by Jelly Roll Morton, one of the genre’s original performers and compos-

precocious soul, 22 (voice of Tina Fey), who has never understood the appeal of the human experience. As Joe desperately tries to show 22 what’s great about living, he may just discover the answers to some of life’s most important questions.

Directed by Academy Award® winner Pete Docter (“Inside Out,” “Up”), codirected by Kemp Powers (“One Night in Miami”) and produced by Academy Award nominee Dana Murray, p.g.a.

(Pixar short “Lou”), Disney and Pixar’s “Soul” is now streaming on Disney+ (where Disney+ is available). *Message, data and roaming rates may apply. Availability subject to handset limitations, and features may vary by handset, service provider or otherwise.

Coverage and app stores not available everywhere. If you’re under 18, get your parents’ permission first.

Con’t from page 2

ers “Skin Deep” percussion sheet music of Duke Ellington drummer Louie BellsonCornet belonging to Bix Beiderbecke, an early jazz soloist from the 1920s Drumsticks of Gene Krupa, member of influential jazz groups such as the Benny Goodman Orchestra and Tommy Dorsey’s band Guests will also soon be able to use the Play Disney Parks mobile app to interact with the exhibit and test their knowledge of jazz.* This new experience is part of the continuing and historic transformation of EPCOT, as the park celebrates curiosity, discovery and the magic of possibility.

For more on EPCOT and Walt Disney World Resort, visit WDWNews.com and DisneyParksBlog.com.

What Collaborators Say About ‘The Soul of Jazz: An American Adventure’

“Louis Armstrong, affectionately called ‘Pops,’ ushered in a new era of musical innovation that has influenced musicians of all genres performing today. The Louis Armstrong House Museum is thankful to Walt Disney Imagineering for giving light to the impact of jazz as a uniquely American art form.” – Regina Bain, Executive Director, Louis Armstrong House Museum “At the New Orleans Jazz Museum, we work from the idea that jazz is one of the foundations for all American music. We are overjoyed to see a movie that recognizes its importance and are even more happy to participate in an exhibit that celebrates jazz at EPCOT.” – David Kunian, Curator, New Orleans Jazz Museum “Jelly Roll Morton’s manuscript music, part of the William Russell Jazz Collection at The Historic New Orleans Collection, stands as testament to the genius of

one of the originators and unique voices in traditional jazz. More than a performer, Morton was one of the first jazz composers, and his hand-written scores – including ‘Jazz Jubilee’ – are tangible reminders of his legacy.” – Eric Seiferth, Curator/ Historian, The Historic New Orleans Collection About Disney and Pixar’s ‘Soul’ What is it that makes you … YOU? Pixar Animation Studios’ all-new feature film “Soul” introduces Joe Gardner (voice of Jamie Foxx) – a middle-school band teacher who gets the chance of a lifetime to play at the best jazz club in town. But one small misstep takes him from the streets of New York City to The Great Before – a fantastical place where new souls get their personalities, quirks and interests before they go to Earth. Determined to return to his life, Joe teams up with a

Largest Black Doll Show to Open a Black Doll Museum in Shipping Containers BlackNews.com

Detroit, MI — Sandra Epps decided to turn her negative into a positive after surviving three near-death experiences due to lupus. In 2005, she established Sandy’s Land where the mission is to party with a purpose, to encourage women and girls to “Love the Skin They’re In!” Presently, Sandy’s Land LLC conducts art parties and hosts the Detroit Doll Show which is the largest black doll show of its kind. She founded The Detroit Doll Show in 2011 with the purpose of celebrating history, culture, self-love, and diversity with the promotion of Black dolls.

Epps decided that with the up-rise and reveal of injustice to people of color and the establishment of the Black Lives Matter movement, the

Black Doll Museum will be a perfect resource for visitors to learn about the positive history and culture of Black people, while little brown girls will be inspired to love themselves. The buildout shipping containers will include the Black dolls in addition be a space to host art parties, doll-making workshops, and classes taught by black historians, therapists, and gardeners. Epps comments, “The Butterflyy represents the rash that appears on a lupus patient’s face when they are experiencing a flare-up. The butterfly is also symbolic of hope, transformation, peace, and prosperity. And these vivid and powerful insects are now quasi-extinct due to lack of habitat caused by new development, pesticides, and climate change.”

Her plan is to help save the butterfly by incorporating them into her busi-

ness space. With the help from the community, black doll collectors, butterfly lovers, nature enthusiasts, or just admirers Epps will make her dream a reality. She will introduce an entertainment space that uplifts black culture, empower brown girls and assist the environment.

The launch of the GoFundMe for the Black Doll Museum & Butterfly Garden is to raise funds to purchase land and to then kick start the foundation work for the build-out shipping containers in Detroit, Michigan. The space will be intentional with empowerment including black art, statues with affirmations, and classes to be taught

by African American doll makers, historians, gardeners, entomologists, therapists, and nutritionists. Also, there will be a pond with koi fish, gazebo,

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and rock path of hope to pay homage to loved ones. In addition, patrons can participate with interactive Nature Fun Facts. And Epps plans to become a certified way-station for Monarch Butterflies to have a safe pesticide-free habitat to eat, to lay their eggs, to grow, and be released to migrate.

Epps plans to purchase land in 2021.

There are two ways to support the construction of the Black Doll Museum.

People can make a donation on the GoFundMe page or with the purchase of Girlfriend, It’s Time to SOAR! A Work Journal for Personal Transformation written by Sandra Epps. The proceeds from each book will go toward the purchase of land for the Butterflyy Garden and Black Doll Museum at DetroitDollShow.com.

Whalley Brainstorms

walkable, particularly at night, it will attract more local business.

At Wednesday night’s online public session, community members met in smaller breakout rooms to discuss their personal experiences and suggestions “Whalley doesn’t really have any sitdown restaurants. Most of these restaurants are fast or takeout,” said McCollum.

Hausladen agreed and suggested giving the businesses on Whalley Avenue more sidewalk space to offer outdoor seating.

The group used D’Amato’s Seafood II as an example of how more food spots can use Whalley’s wide sidewalks.

The group proposed that the wider sidewalks on Whalley be used for pedestrians and bikes.

Make Haven shop manager Lior Trestman said Whalley doesn’t feel like a neighborhood road but more like a highway. Trestman, who travels by bike often, said businesses on Whalley Avenue with limited parking would benefit from having an outdoor experience to attract bikers and pedestrians.

McCollum said many street lights are covered by trees, preventing drivers from seeing pedestrians crossing outside of crosswalks.

“If cars drive more respectfully, we would only need a little bit more reasonable lighting,” said Trestman. “Reducing the road speed would give drivers more time to see pedestrians at night.”

Hausladen reported that Orchard-Whalley intersection is one of the three most dangerous intersections in the state to cross. The group suggested adding a midblock crosswalk to that spot.

Amos Smith of Community Action Agency also suggested the project team look into the areas of Whalley where senior residents live, to potentially shorten crosswalks.

Alders in the area agreed to work on gathering input from businesses on Whalley Avenue.

THE INNER-CITY NEWS - March 10, 2021 - March 16, 2021

Children and the COVID Vaccine …anytime soon? by by Althea Ward-Curtis, BlackDoctor.org

Vaccines are now available to fight against COVID-19. The first vaccines released are authorized for use in adults and teens who are at least 16 years old. Highrisk groups such as frontline workers and elderly people are first in line to receive the vaccines, with other adults and teens possibly gaining access this spring.

Research shows the COVID vaccines are effective and safe and the American Academy of Pediatrics urges teens and adults to get the COVID-19 vaccine as soon as it is available to them. And yet, as the rollout of vaccinations against the coronavirus continues to ramp up, one group — kids — has been conspicuously absent from any of the priority groups.

Although children represent a small but significant percentage of coronavirus cases, a few of those patients have experienced some of the most severe COVID-19 symptoms. Plus, research has shown children are responsible for at least some of the virus’s spread. So, why aren’t kids getting vaccinated yet?

There are a few reasons. First, neither of the vaccines currently being used in the US has been approved for those under

16. But there’s also the fact that children tend to have a higher rate of recovery from COVID-19 than almost any other age group.

Second, clinical trials need to be completed before COVID-19 vaccines become available for younger teens and children. Obviously this is done to ensure the vaccine is safe and effective for these age groups.

Right now, it appears unlikely that a vaccine will be ready for children before the start of the next school year in August. While there are current studies that include children as young as 12 years of age, children of all ages must be included in more trials in order to safely administer the vaccine to them.

As of late January, Pfizer’s trial is now fully enrolled, including children age 12 to 15. The company has declined to provide an estimated timeline of when research will likely wrap up, but in general, clinical trials conducted in the US have moved along faster than anticipated, due in part to the country’s high rate of infection. Moderna has also begun clinical trials focusing on ages 12 through 17.

So far, however, the company has run into some trouble finding enough volunteers to fill its study. Parents can volunteer

it and make vaccine recommendations for children and adolescents. Based upon the current pace of research, it may be possible to have a vaccine for some age groups of children and adolescents before the 2021-22 school year begins.

Health authorities, including the CDC and the AAP, will recommend when and how children should receive the vaccine. State governments will to determine which if the COVID vaccine will be required for school entry. Those decisions could vary by state.

If your children are age 15 and under, continue to check the links below for information on when your child may be vaccinated. Until such time, continue to exercise the measures the CDC has in place to help prevent the spread of COVID 19.

online to allow their adolescent children to participate, but Moderna says only about 800 of the 3,000 or so volunteers needed per month have signed up.

Despite Moderna’s lack of participants for the trial, pediatricians expect vaccines for adolescents to be authorized sometime this year. Younger children, however, may

have much longer to wait. Regarding trials for children under 12, Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel told Business Insider in January, “We have to age de-escalate and start at a lower dose. So we should not anticipate clinical data in 2021.”

Once trials are completed and the information is available, the AAP will review

COVID-19​ (HealthyChildren.org) Children and COVID-19: State-Level Data Report https://services.aap.org/en/pages/2019-novel-coronavirus-covid-19-infections/children-andcovid-19-state-level-data-report/ COVID-19 Vaccine: Frequently Asked Questions (AAP.org) Interim Guidance for COVID-19 Vaccination in Children and Adolescents https://services.aap.org/en/pages/2019-novelcoronavirus-covid-19-infections/children-andcovid-19-state-level-data-report/

“Getting vaccinated protects you, your family, and your community.”

Dr. Reginald J. Eadie, President and CEO Trinity Health Of New England

ct.gov/covidvaccine 17

GET THE

FACTS ON THE

VAX

THE INNER-CITY NEWS - March 10, 2021 - March 16, 2021

Remembering a Forgotten World War II Hero

By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent

bestowed for such self-sacrificing bravery.

As noted at history.com, the 1.2 million African Americans who served in World War II fought for democracy overseas while being treated as second-class citizens by their own country.

“Despite African American soldiers’ eagerness to fight in World War II, the same Jim Crow discrimination in society was practiced in every branch of the armed forces,” historians at history.com wrote.

“Many of the bases and training facilities were located in the South, in addition to the largest military installation for Black soldiers, Fort Huachuca, located in Arizona. Regardless of the region, at all the bases there were separate blood banks, hospitals or wards, medical staff, barracks and recreational facilities for Black soldiers. And white soldiers and local white residents routinely slurred and harassed them.”

Perhaps out of fear of global embarrassment, Adm. William F. Halsey, Jr., sent French a letter of commendation.

The letter read, in part, “For meritorious conduct in action while serving on board of a destroyer transport which was badly damaged during the engagement with Japanese forces in the British Solomon Islands on Sept. 5, 1942.

“After the engagement, a group of about fifteen men were adrift on a raft, which was being deliberately shelled by Japanese naval forces. French tied a line to himself

It remains by far one of the most heroic acts performed in war, and it also counts as one of the most underappreciated sacrifices in American history.

Charles Jackson French, an African American orphan, and championshipcaliber swimmer navigated shark infested waters for about eight hours during World War II on a frigid September 1942 night to pull to safety a raft of 15 sailors.

A United States Navy Messman, French courageously acted after the Japanese navy struck a U.S. ship in the South Pacific during the conflict.

Dozens of Americans were killed, and many others wounded, included French.

It didn’t stop the Foreman, Arkansas native and avid swimmer since the age of eight, from tying a rope around his waist, jumping into the waters, and defying the multitude of sharks that hungrily searched for prey.

His mission was to rescue fellow soldiers.

Despite his heroism, the ignorantly prejudiced United States all but ignored French.

The nation’s hierarchy denied French the Medal of Honor and did not consider him for a Silver Star, two of the highest honors

and swam for more than two hours without rest, thus attempting to tow the raft.

His conduct was in keeping with the highest traditions of the Naval Service.”

Many at home believed French should have received more. “[The] episode was complicated by the issuance of a posthumous Silver Star to Lt. Cdr.H. F. Baurer, the ship’s CO. Wounded and dying, the skipper ordered two companions to leave him and go to the aid of another crewman who was yelling for help,” historians wrote.

“He was never seen again. By Navy standards, it would be nearly unprecedented for a subordinate to receive a higher decoration for an act of heroism comparable to that of a superior.”

French was memorialized on War Gum trading cards, in syndicated comic strips, on calendars, and The Chicago Defender named him Hero of the Year.

Born Sept. 25, 1919, French died on Nov. 7, 1956, at 37.

French was memorialized on War Gum trading cards, in syndicated comic strips, on calendars, and The Chicago Defender named him Hero of the Year. (Photo: Pinterest / Mia Corseca)

It Starts With A Dream

KEEP

KEEP

GOING LEARNING KEEP

REACHING

Celebrating Diversity Daily J O I N T H E T E A M T H AT T R A N S F O R M S L I V E S

TRIPLE the IMPACT Norwalk Community College

www.aces.org

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THE INNER-CITY NEWS - March 10, 2021 - March 16, 2021

COMMENTARY:

Trying to Rewrite the January 6th Coup Attempt

By Bill Fletcher, Jr., NNPA Newswire Contributor There is something amazing going on in Republican Party circles. If I did not know better, I would assume that I was watching a television comedy. Segments of the Republican Party are attempting to tell us that the January 6th coup attempt did not actually happen. Instead, they argue, what we SAW on television was allegedly orchestrated by Antifa and the Black Lives Matter movement.

There are certain noteworthy things about this argument, the most important being that it is not based on any facts.

None. The second is that this line of argument started as soon as the coup attempt had ended. Right-wingers claimed that it was a so-called false flag operation that was conducted by the political Left in order to delegitimize the political Right.

There are many problems with this line of thinking, not the least being that many of the alleged perpetrators of the 1/6 coup attempt were avowed right-wingers who conducted this operation in the full view of video.

So, what is going on? Simply put, the pro-fascist elements in the Republican Party are attempting to convince a critical mass of the public that what they saw… they did not really see. This is not even equivalent to a magician’s trick with the sleight of hand. They are going one step further and asserting that what all of us

saw on television or the web, for which many people have been arrested and charged, did not happen or, if it did, it was really conducted by the political Left.

It is important to note that both Antifa and the Black Lives Matter movement are networks, at best. There is no one organization called “Antifa,” for instance, and there are many organizations that operate under the banner of Black Lives Matter.

Therefore, the right-wing assertions of an Antifa and BLM conspiracy would not make sense in the best of all possible worlds. But more importantly, there is no evidence to back up such assertions!

The pro-fascist element within the Republican Party is attempting several things at the same time. First, to lay the basis for further repression of anti-fascist and anti-racist forces. This is part of the motivation behind an increase in anti-terrorism legislation in various states when the government already has the authority to prosecute terrorists.

Second, the pro-fascist element in the Republican Party is trying to obscure both the reality of January 6th but also the antics of Trump. They are simply trying to deny that there was a coup attempt where people were injured and/or lost their lives.

There is a famous term for what the profascist element is doing. It comes from an iconic film. The term is “gas lighting,” i.e., to lead people to believe that what they are actually experiencing or seeing is

not really happening.

We cannot afford to ignore this. Precisely for these reasons, the fascists and their collaborators need to be prosecuted to the full extent of the law, thereby demonstrating the danger that they pose to

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any democratic political system. This is no comedy.

Bill Fletcher, Jr. is a past president of TransAfrica Forum and a longtime trade unionist and writer.

There is a famous term for what the pro-

fascist element is doing. It comes from an iconic film. The term is “gas lighting,” i.e., to lead people to believe that what they are actually experiencing or seeing is not really happening. (Photo: Anthony Tilghman)

THE INNER-CITY NEWS - March 10, 2021 - March 16, 2021

NFL Hires First Black Woman Referee

By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent

Maia Chaka knows well that Women’s History Month is all about commemorating, observing, and celebrating the vital role of the fairer sex in American folklore.

She just didn’t know she would become a part of that history.

After years of officiating games in the Pac-12, Conference USA, and the NFL’s Officiating Development Program, Chaka will head to the NFL in the Fall.

When she takes the field in September, the Norfolk State University graduate and health and physical education teacher will do so as the first Black woman to work as a referee in the NFL. She’ll also be just the second woman to wear the zebra stripes. Sarah Thomas, who worked last month’s Super Bowl, is the other.

“This is a funny thing. I was actually at home, and I was playing NBA2K with my nephew online because that’s what I like to do at night,” Chaka told NNPA Newswire just hours after an appearance on NBC’s “Today” show.

“Then, I received a phone call at around 9:15 p.m. [March 4], and I just dropped everything I was doing. The next thing I know, I’m getting told ‘welcome to the National Football League,’” Chaka exclaimed.

Did she think it was for real?

“I just jumped up and threw everything off my lap. I thought I was being punked because I didn’t believe it at the time. But it was true,” she remarked.

Troy Vincent, an African American and the NFL’s second-in-command behind Commissioner Roger Goodell, celebrated Chaka’s appointment.

“Maia’s years of hard work, dedication, and perseverance – including as par to the NFL Officiating Development Program –

have earned her a position as an NFL official,” Vincent declared.

“As we celebrate Women’s History Month, Maia is a trailblazer as the first Black female official and inspires us toward normalizing women on the football field,” Vincent concluded.

Chaka told NNPA Newswire that she expects coaches and players to treat her the same as any other official.

“I think the coaches just want a good official who is going to get the play right,” Chaka stated. “And I think they just want consistency. I hope they do not hold us to a different standard [than men] because we are all officials at the end of the day. It does not matter what gender we are. We are all wearing the same uniform.”

The importance of her historic promotion isn’t lost on Chaka.

“It’s an honor to join the National Football League, commented Chaka, who works with at-risk girls in Virginia.

“I just want young girls of color – young women – to know that if you have a drive for something, don’t let anything hold you back just because you think something may give you some limitations. Work hard and follow your dreams.”

Her promotion to the big league also demonstrates to women of color that they can work and succeed in a male-dominated field, Chaka said.

“As long as you put in the work and you are fundamentally sound in anything that you do, you know you will reach your goal,” Chaka offered.

“I think it’s important that they see the representation in these fields.”

Asked if she would switch from playing NBA2K with her nephew and challenge him to Madden Football, Chaka demurred.

“No, he couldn’t handle me on Madden,” she retorted.

Shalanda Young Getting Strong, Bipartisan Support for Top OMB Post

By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent Shalanda Young, a native of Baton Rouge, La., who serves as Clerk and Staff Director for the House Appropriations Committee, appears the likely choice to replace Neera Tanden as President Joe Biden’s choice to lead the Office of Management and Budget.

Reportedly, multiple Congressional Black Caucus members are pushing for the experienced Young to get the job.

Several Republicans, who have otherwise shredded, demeaned, and denigrated some of the president’s minority picks, have indicated they would confirm Young.

As staff director, Young already oversees $1.3 trillion in annual appropriations

bills.

She moved to Washington 20 years ago to serve as a Presidential Management Fellow at the National Institute of Health.

Young, who holds a master’s degree from Tulane University and a Bachelor of Arts Degree from Loyola University New Orleans, had voiced support for Tanden.

Tanden came under repeated fire over controversial tweets she’s posted in the past.

“You saw Neera Tanden apologize profusely about the tweets. I think what you also saw is an expansive knowledge of various policy areas,” Young told lawmakers.

“I do think we both bring some skill sets in different areas where we’d make a great team if both of us were confirmed,” she continued.

During Young’s confirmation hearing as OMB deputy director, Sen. Lindsay Graham (R-S.C.) vowed his support.

“You’ll get my support. Maybe for both jobs,” Sen. Graham declared.

“I think our country would be served well by Shalanda Young,” offered Congresswoman Rashida Talib (D-Michigan).

After removing Tanden from consideration, the White House said the president was still considering his options.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Majority Whip James Clyburn (DS.C.) have thrown their support behind Young for OMB’s top job.

In a joint statement released on Wednesday, Pelosi and Clyburn noted that they take great pride in recommending Young as OMB director as longtime members of the Appropriations Committee.

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as a nation,” the pair wrote. “Her legislative prowess, extensive knowledge of federal agencies, incisive strategic mind, and proven track record will be a tremendous asset to the Biden-Harris administration.”

“We have worked closely with her for several years and highly recommend her for her intellect, her deep expertise on the federal budget, and her determination to ensure that our budget reflects our values

The statement continued: “Her leadership at OMB would be historic and would send a strong message that this administration is eager to work in close coordination with Members of Congress to craft budgets that meet the challenges of our time and can secure broad, bipartisan support.”

Shalanda Young, a native of Baton Rouge, La., currently serves as Clerk and Staff Director for the House Appropriations Committee. (Photo: Mount Madonna School)

THEINNER-CITY INNER-CITY NEWS March , 2021 - March 2021 NEWS- July 27,10 2016 - August 02, 16, 2016

NOTICE WE ARE TAKING APPLICATIONS/RESUMES FOR THE

FOLLOWING POSTIONS IN OUR PORLTAND, CT LOCATION:

VALENTINA MACRI RENTAL HOUSING PRE- APPLICATIONS AVAILABLE

CDL Drivers – Class A & B Senior Project Manager – Environmental Division HOME INC, on behalf of Columbus House and the New Haven Housing Authority, Compliance Manager is accepting pre-applications for studio and one-bedroom apartments at this develTechnical Services Representative opment located at 108 Frank Street, New Haven. Maximum income limitations apData Entry Clerk ply. Pre-applications will be available 9AM TO 5PM beginning Monday Ju;y Dieselfrom Mechanic 25, 2016 and ending when sufficient pre-applications Human Resources Assistant (approximately 100) have been Please received at the offices of HOME INC. Applications will be mailied upon resubmit questions/inquiries and resumes to HR@redtechllc.com

quest by calling HOME INC at 203-562-4663 during those hours. Completed preapplications must be returned to HOME INC’s offices at 171 Orange Street, Third Floor, New Haven, CT 06510.

CROSSING GUARD:

THE TOWN OF EAST HAVEN IS CURRENTLY ACCEPTING APPLICATIONS FOR

THE POSITION OF CROSSING GUARD. INTERESTED CANDIDATES MUST BE AVAILABLE 10 HOURS PER WEEK, MONDAY THRU FRIDAY, MORNINGS AND AFTERNOONS DURING THE SCHOOL YEAR. THE POSITION PAYS $20.00/HOUR. APPLICATIONS AVAILABLE ONLINE AT www.townofeastVALENTINA MACRI VIVIENDASARE DE ALQUILER PRE-SOLICITUDES DISPONIBLES havenct.org<http://www.townofeasthavenct.org/> AND MUST BE RETURNED BY MARCH 26, 2021.

THEdeTOWN OF EAST IS AN EQUAL OPPORTUNITY HOME INC, en nombre la Columbus HouseHAVEN y de la New Haven Housing Authority, está EMPLOYER. MINORITIES, FEMALES, HANDICAPPED AND VETERANS ARE aceptando pre-solicitudes para estudios y apartamentos de un dormitorio en este desarrollo ENCOURAGED TO APPLY.

NOTICIA

ubicado en la calle 109 Frank Street, New Haven. Se aplican limitaciones de ingresos máximos. Las pre-solicitudes estarán disponibles 09 a.m.-5 p.m. comenzando Martes 25 julio, 2016 hasta cuando se han recibido suficientes pre-solicitudes (aproximadamente 100) en las oficinas de HOME INC. Las pre-solicitudes serán enviadas por correo a petición llamando a HOME INC al for 203-562-4663 esas horas.Pre-solicitudes deberánPrevious remitirse Full time Class A driver petroleumdurante deliveries for nights and weekends. aexperience las oficinasrequired. de HOMECompetitive INC en 171 Orange Street, tercer piso, New Haven , CT 06510 wage, 401(k) and benefits. Send resume to: HR.

Listing: Commercial Driver Manager, P. O. Box 388, Guilford, CT 06437.

********An Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer**********

PJF Construction Corp is seeking to fill following positions.

NEW HAVEN

Laborer Heavy and Highway Construction experience.

Equipment Operator 242-258 Heavy andFairmont Highway Construction experience.

Ave CDL Driver 2BR Townhouse, 1.5 BA, 3BR, 1 level , 1BA Prevailing Rate. PJF Construction Corporation is an equal opportunity employer M/F

All new apartments, new appliances, new carpet, close to I-91 & I-95

Please forwardhighways, inquiriesnear and/or to attielordan@gmail.com bus resumes stop & shopping center

Construction

Pet under 40lb allowed. Interested parties contact Maria @ 860-985-8258 Seeking employAssociation experienced individuals in the labor, foreman, operator and teamCT. UnifiedtoDeacon’s is pleased to offer a Deacon’s Certificate This is aoutside 10 monthwork program designed toReliable assist in thepersonal intellectualtransportation formation of Candidates ster tradesProgram. for a heavy statewide. and a in response to the Church’s Ministry needs. The cost is $125. Classes start Saturday, August 20, 2016 1:30valid driversChairman, license Deacon required. apply please 3:30 Contact: Joe To J. Davis, M.S., B.S. call (860) 621-1720 or send resume to: (203) 996-4517 Host, General Bishop Elijah Davis, D.D. Pastor of Pitts Chapel U.F.W.B. Church 64 Brewster

Personnel St. New Haven, CT

Department, P.O. Box 368, Cheshire, CT06410.

Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer M/F/V Drug Free Workforce

SEYMOUR HOUSING AUTHORITY Land Surveyor Civil Engineer

Sealed bids are invited by the Housing Authority of the Town of Seymour Boundaries is aTuesday, full-service land surveying rmits located CTStreet, We are until 3:00 LLC pm on August 2, 2016fiat officein atGriswold, 28 Smith accepting resumes for the following positions: Seymour, CTcurrently 06483 for Concrete Sidewalk Repairs and Replacement at the Smithfield Gardens Assisted Living Facility, 26 Smith Street Seymour.

Survey Field Technicians Survey Office Technicians

A pre-bid conference will Licensed be held atLand the Surveyors Housing Authority Office 28 Smith Civil Engineers Street Seymour, CT at 10:00 am, on Wednesday, July 20, 2016.

Resumes will be accepted from 2/15/21 through 12/31/2021. Interested parties can contact us at 860-376-2006 or submit yourthe resume to jfaulise@boundariesllc.net Bidding documents are available from Seymour Housing Authority Of-

fice, 28 Smith Street, Seymour, CT 06483 (203) 888-4579.

Boundaries LLC is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer

The Housing Authority reserves the right to accept or reject any or all bids, to reduce the scope of the project to reflect available funding, and to waive any

DELIVERY PERSON

NEEDED

Part Time Delivery Needed One/Two Day a Week,

Must Have your Own Vehicle If Interested call

(203) 387-0354

Town of Bloomfield Finance Director Full Time - Benefited $96,755 to $149,345 Pre-employment drug testing.

For more details, visit our website – www.bloomfieldct.org

QSR STEEL CORPORATION

APPLY NOW!

Steel Fabricators, Erectors & Welders Top pay for top performers. Health Benefits, 401K, Vacation Pay. Email Resume: Rose@qsrsteel.com Hartford, CT AFFIRMATIVE ACTION/EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER

The Housing Authority of the City of New Haven is accepting applications as of March 22, 2021 for its Housing Choice Voucher (Section 8) waitlist The Housing Choice Voucher Program (HCVP) provides rental assistance to help lowincome persons afford decent and safe rental housing. The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) funds the program and Elm City Communities (ECC) administers it in the city of New Haven. Once an applicant is pulled from the waitlist HCVP will issued a rental voucher and the applicant is then free to locate a dwelling unit suitable to the family’s needs and desires in the private rental market.

REQUIREMENTS: Earnings must be between 0-50% of the Area Median Income (AMI) at the time the applicant is drawn from the waitlist. Please see the table below for specific income and household requirements. Placement on the waitlist will be based on the date and time the application is received with accommodations made for applications received by mail or hand delivery to give fair access. Applications will be date and time stamped as they are received.

The waiting list will be updated as needed to ensure that all applicants and applicant information is current and timely. To update your online application please follow the instructions below:

# of people in household Maximum

1 $35,950

2 $41,050

3 $46,200

4 $51,300

5 $55,450

6 $59,550

7 $63,650

Applications can be submitted or updated:

Invitation to •Bid:Online at https://ecc.myhousing.com/ 2nd Notice FIREFIGHTER If you require a reasonable accommodation and would like to receive an SAYEBROOKE•VILLAGE City of Bristol Old Saybrook, CTapplication by mail, please call 475-355-7289 or send a written request to Attention: Waitlist Coordinator, Elm City (4 Buildings, 17 Units) Communities, PO Box 1912, New Haven, CT 06509 $53,964/yr.

Tax Exempt & Not Prevailing Wage Rate Project Requires valid CPAT Cert Applications received via mail will be based on a lottery process. issued on or afterWood JuneFramed, 1, 2020, New Construction, Housing, Selective Demolition, Site-work, Castwritten & oralin-place tests. Concrete, RegistraIf you need reasonable accommodation to complete the application call Asphalt Shingles, Vinyla Siding, tion 203-498-8800 ext. 1507 Casework, Flooring, Painting, Division 10 Specialties, Appliances, Residential informationMechanical, & apply online: Electrical, Plumbing and Fire Protection. www.bristolct.gov will be available March 22, 2021 . The waitlist will This contract is subject to state set-aside andApplications contract compliance requirements. remain open.

DEADLINE: May 2021 Due Date: August 5, 2016 Bid1,Extended, EOE Anticipated Start: August 15, 2016 Project documents available via ftp link below: http://ftp.cbtghosting.com/loginok.html?username=sayebrookevillage

DELIVERY PERSON

THE GLENDOWER GROUP

Invitation for Bids Fax or Email Questions & Bids to: Dawn Lang @ 203-881-8372 dawnlang@haynesconstruction.com Architectural Design for 34 Level Street HCC encourages the participation of all Veteran, S/W/MBE & Section 3 Certified Businesses

NEEDED

Haynes Construction Company, 32 Progress Ave, Seymour, CT 06483 The Glendower Group is currently seeking Proposals for Architectural Design AA/EEO EMPLOYER for 34 Level Street. A complete copy of the requirement may be obtained from

Part Time Delivery Needed One/Two Day a Week,

Must Have your Own Vehicle If Interested call

(203) 387-0354 21

Glendower’s Vendor Collaboration Portal https://newhavenhousing.cobblestonesystems.com/gateway beginning on

Monday, March 8, 2021 at 3:00PM.

THE INNER-CITY NEWS - March 10, 2021 - March 16, 2021 INNER-CITY NEWS July 27, 2016 - August 02, 2016

PUBLIC WORKS

Garrity Asphalt Reclaiming, Inc seeks:

Construction Equipment Mechanic preferably experienced in Reclaiming and Road Milling Equipment. We offer factory Performs a variety of semi-skilled training on equipment we operate. Location: Bloomfield CT tasks in road and grounds maintenance.

Must possess 2 years’ We offer excellent hourly rate & excellent benefits VALENTINA MACRI RENTAL HOUSING PRE- APPLICATIONS AVAILABLE experience as laborer in construction work involving operation Contact: Tom Dunay and care of trucks and other mechanical equipment used in conPhone: 243-2300 HOME INC, on behalf of860Columbus House and the New Haven Housing structionAuthority, OR two (2) years training in one of the skilled trades is accepting pre-applications for studio and one-bedroom apartments at this Email: tom.dunay@garrityasphalt.com and one (1)develyear of experience in construction operations OR an opment& located at 108 Frank Street, Haven. Maximum limitations apequivalent combination of experience and training. Must posWomen Minority Applicants are New encouraged to apply income ply.Affi Pre-applications willEqual be available from 9AM TO 5PM beginning Ju;y a valid commercial driver’s license (CDL) sessMonday and maintain rmative Action/ Opportunity Employer 25, 2016 and ending when sufficient pre-applications (approximately 100) have equipment. (Provide a copy of your CDL Class B to operate been received at the offices of HOME INC. Applications will be license mailiedwith uponyour re- application) $22.42 - $26.27 Hourly. Applicaquest by calling HOME INC at 203-562-4663 during those hours.tions Completed may be preobtained at the Department of Human Resources, Garrity Asphalt Reclaiming, Incoffices seeks: applications must be returned to HOME INC’s at 171 Orange 45 S.Street, Main Third Street, Room 301, Wallingford CT 06492. Forms Reclaimer Operators Floor, New Haven,and CTMilling 06510.Operators with current licensing will be mailed upon request from the Department of Human Reand clean driving record, be willing to travel throughout the Northsources or may be downloaded from the Department of Human east & NY. We offer excellent hourly rate & excellent benefits Resources Web Page. Fax (203)-294-2084 Phone: (203)-2942080. The closing date will be the date the 30th application or Contact: Rick Tousignant Phone: 860- 243-2300 resume is received or March 17, 2021, whichever occurs first.

VALENTINA MACRI VIVIENDAS DE ALQUILER PRE-SOLICITUDES DISPONIBLES Email: rick.touEOE signant@garrityasphalt.com HOME INC, en nombre de la Columbus House y de la New Haven Housing Authority, está Women & Minority Applicants are encouraged to apply aceptando pre-solicitudes estudios y apartamentos de un dormitorio en este desarrollo Affirmative Action/ para Equal Opportunity Employer ubicado en la calle 109 Frank Street, New Haven. Se aplican limitaciones deevent ingresos Outreach for any interested subcontracts regarding early release packages is 2/26/2021 at 6 pm.25 Please register for Teams meeting at ccpconsultingfirm.com. máximos. Las pre-solicitudes estarán disponibles 09 a.m.-5 p.m. comenzando Martes julio, 2016 hasta cuando se han recibido suficientes pre-solicitudes (aproximadamente 100) Shawmut & Construction, the Construction Manager, is currently seeking en lasTrailer oficinasDriver de HOME INC. & Las pre-solicitudes serán enviadas correo Design a petición Tractor for Heavy Highway Construction Equip- porproposals from subcontractors for work to be performed as part of the Southern llamando HOME INCLicense, al 203-562-4663 duranterecord, esas horas.Pre-solicitudes deberán remitirse ment.

Must ahave a CDL clean driving capable of Connecticut State University (SCSU) Business School Instructional Facility. The initial ,Early Release.bidding (six bid packages) is out for bid 2/22/21. This project a las oficinas de equipment; HOME INCbe enwilling 171 Orange Street, tercer piso, CT 06510 operating heavy to travel throughout theNew Haven

NOTICE

MAINTAINER II -

NOTICIA

Invitation to Bid

Union Company seeks:

Northeast & NY. We offer excellent hourly rate & excellent benefits

Contact Dana at 860-243-2300

Email: dana.briere@garrityasphalt.com Women & Minority Applicants are encouraged to apply

is the out-of-ground construction of the new 64,628 sf, four-story SCSU Business School Instruction Facility. There are SBE set-aside bid packages for Demolition and Concrete in Early Release portion.

For further bid details visit: https://shawmut.sharefile.com/ds594d1cdc9ad54d72b3399d9fe4eb5375 Shawmut is an Affirmative Action/ Equal Opportunity Employer

NEW HAVEN Fairmont Ave NOTICE242-258 OF INVITATION FOR BID 2BR Townhouse, 1.5 BA, 3BR, 1 level , 1BA HOUSING AUTHORITY OF THE CITY OF DANBURY All new apartments, new appliances, new carpet, close to I-91 & I-95 highways, near bus stop & shopping center Landscaping Services Pet under 40lb allowed. Interested parties contact Maria @ 860-985-8258 IFB No. B21001 SCOPE:

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

The Housing Authority of the City of Danbury hereby issues this Invitation for Bid to provide Landscaping Services St. New Haven, CT

PRE-BID WALK-THROUGH: Glen Apartments, 25 Memorial Drive, Danbury, CT 06811 March 22, 2021 at 2:00pm (EST) Sealed bids are invited by the Housing Authority of the Town of Seymour until 3:00 pm on Tuesday, August 2, 2016 at its office at 28 Smith Street, BID SUBMITTAL RETURN: Housing Authority of the of Danbury, 2 MillRepairs Ridge Rd, CT 06811 Seymour, CT 06483 forCity Concrete Sidewalk andDanbury, Replacement at the Envelope MustAssisted be Marked: IFB No.B21001, Smithfield Gardens Living Facility, 26Landscaping Smith StreetServices Seymour.

SEYMOUR HOUSING AUTHORITY

SUBMITTAL DEADLINE March 30, 2021 at 10:00am (EST) Bidding documents are available from the Seymour Housing Authority Of-

A pre-bid conference will be held at the Housing Authority Office 28 Smith Street Seymour, CT at 10:00 am, on Wednesday, July 20, 2016.

CONTACT PERSON IFB DOCUMENT: fice, 28 Smith Street, Seymour, CT FOR 06483 (203) 888-4579.

Ms. Devin Marra, Director of Procurement,Telephone: 203-744-2500 x1410 E-Mail: dmarra@hacdct.org

The Housing Authority reserves the right to accept or reject any or all bids, to reduce the scope of the project to reflect available funding, and to waive any [Minorityand/or women-owned businesses are encouraged to respond] informalities in the bidding, if such actions are in the best interest of the Housing Authority.

La Autoridad de Vivienda de la Ciudad de New Haven está aceptando solicitudes a partir del 22 de marzo de 2021 para la lista de espera del programa de vales de elección de Vivienda (Sección 8) El Programa de Vales de Elección de Vivienda (HCVP) proporciona asistencia para ayudar a las personas de bajos ingresos a pagar una vivienda de alquiler decente y segura. El Departamento de Vivienda y Desarrollo Urbano (HUD) financia el programa y Elm City Communities (ECC) lo administra en la ciudad de New Haven. Una vez que un solicitante es retirado de la lista de espera, HCVP emitirá un vale de alquiler y el solicitante será libre de ubicar una unidad de vivienda adecuada a las necesidades y deseos de la familia en el mercado de alquiler privado.

REQUERIMIENTOS: Las ganancias del hogar deben ser de entre el 0 y el 50% del ingreso medio del área (AMI) al momento en el que el nombre del solicitante sea seleccionado en la lista de espera. Consulte la tabla a continuación para conocer los requisitos específicos de ingresos y composición familiar.

La posición en la lista de espera se basará en la fecha y la hora en que se reciba la solicitud para brindar acceso justo se harán adaptaciones para las solicitudes recibidas por correo o entregada en mano. Las solicitudes recibidas por correo o entregada en mano serán marcadas con la fecha y la hora que se reciban.

La lista de espera se actualizará según sea necesario para garantizar que todos los solicitantes y la información del solicitante esté actualizada y sea oportuna. Para actualizar su solicitud en línea, siga las instrucciones a continuación:

# de persona s en el hogar

Maximo

1

$35,9 50

2

$41,0 50

3

4

$46,2 00

$51,3 00

5

$55,4 50

6

$59,5 50

7

$63,6 50

Aplicaciones se pueden someter o actualizadas: • En línea a https://ecc.myhousing.com/

FIREFIGHTER 2nd Notice• Si requiere una acomodacion razonable y quiere recibir una aplicación por por favor llamar al 475-355-7289 o envié una petición por escrito City of Bristol SAYEBROOKEcorreo VILLAGE con atención: Waitlist Coordinator, Elm City Communities, PO BOX 1912, Invitation to Bid:

Old Saybrook, CTHaven CT 06509 New

$53,964/yr. (4 Buildings, 17LasUnits) aplicaciones recibidas por correo serán basada en un sistema de lotería.

TaxCPAT ExemptCert & Not Prevailing Wage Rate Project Requires valid issued on or after June 1, 2020, Si usted necesita acomodación razonable para completar su aplicación llame al New Construction, Wood Framed, Housing, Selective Demolition, Site-work, Castwritten & oral tests.

Registration 203-498-8800 ext. 1507 in-place information & applyConcrete, online: Asphalt Shingles, Vinyl Siding, solicitudes estarán disponibles Flooring, Painting, Division 10 Specialties, Las Appliances, Residential Casework, el 22 de marzo de 202. La lista de espera www.bristolct.gov permanecerá abierta.

Mechanical, Electrical, Plumbing and Fire Protection.

ThisDEADLINE: contract is subject state set-aside and contract compliance requirements.

May 1,to2021 Bid Extended, Due Date: August 5, 2016 State of Connecticut Office of Policy and Management Anticipated Start: August 15, 2016 Seeking qualified condidates Project to fill numerous vacanciesavailable via ftp link below: documents to include, Benefits & Pension Coordinator and more. For http://ftp.cbtghosting.com/loginok.html?username=sayebrookevillage information and detailed application instructions, visit The State of Connecticut, Office of Policy and Management is recruiting for a

CITY OF MILFORD

www.ci.milford.ct.us

Leadership Associate (target class Agency Labor Relations Specialist) and an

Information Technology Senior Policy Advisor to the Secretary, OPM position.

Click on Email SERVICES, JOBS&and Fax or Questions BidsJOB to: TITLE. Dawn Lang @ 203-881-8372 dawnlang@haynesconstruction.com

QSR

Further information regarding HCC encourages the participation of all Veteran, S/W/MBE & Section 3 Certified Businessesthe duties, eligibility requirements and application Haynes Construction Company, 32 Progress Ave, Seymour, CT 06483 instructions are available at: STEEL CORPORATION https://www.jobapscloud.com/CT/sup/bulpreview.asp?R1= AA/EEO EMPLOYER

APPLY NOW!

Steel Fabricators, Erectors & Welders Top pay for top performers. Health Benefits, 401K, Vacation Pay. Email Resume: Rose@qsrsteel.com Hartford, CT AFFIRMATIVE ACTION/EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER

22

210217&R2=5989VR&R3=001 and

https://www.jobapscloud.com/CT/sup/bulpreview.asp?R1= 210217&R2=5571MP&R3=001 The State of Connecticut is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer and strongly encourages the applications of women, minorities, and persons with disabilities.

THE INNER-CITY NEWS - March 10, 2021 - March 16, 2021

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THE INNER-CITY NEWS - March 10, 2021 - March 16, 2021

Gigs of love.

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Offer requires enrollment in both automatic payments and paperless billing. Must enroll within 30 days of placing the order. Without enrollment, the monthly service charge automatically increases by $10. The automatic payment and paperless billing discount is for a period of 24 months and will appear on the bill within 30 days of enrolling. If either automatic payments or paperless billing are subsequently cancelled during the 24-month term, or services are reduced to Xfinity TV Limited Basic service only, the $10 monthly discount will be removed automatically. Offer ends 6/20/21. Restrictions apply. Not available in all areas.

New residential customers only. Limited to Performance Internet. Equipment, installation, taxes and fees extra, and subject to change. After promo. period, regular rates apply. Comcast’s current monthly charge for Performance Internet is $80.95/mo. (subject to change). Service limited to a single outlet. May not be combined with other offers. Actual speeds vary and are not guaranteed. For factors affecting speed, visit xfinity. com/networkmanagement. Xfinity xFi and xFi Advanced Security are available to Xfinity Internet customers with a compatible Xfinity Gateway. xFi Advanced Security activation requires Xfinity app login. Call for restrictions and complete details. NPA234445-0001 NED AAQ1 GIGV7

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2/25/21 1:41 PM