INNER-CITY NEWS

INNER-CITY NEWS July 27, THE INNER-CITY NEWS - October 09,2016 2019- August - October 2019 02, 15, 2016

Financial Justice a Key FocusTRINIDADIAN at 2016 NAACP LOCAL ORGANIZATION NAME JAMAICAN, AS 2019 Convention TRAILBLAZERS New Haven, Bridgeport

INNER-CITYNEWS

Volume 27 . No. 2353 Volume 21 No. 2194

1 Million

“DMC”

“Second Chance” Jobs

Malloy Malloy To To Dems: Dems:

Ignore Ignore“Tough “ToughOn OnCrime” Crime”

Hartford Girls Rock!

Hartford Girls Rock! Class of 2019 (PHOTO BY LESLEI GOMEZ)

Color Struck?

Chairman of Parole and Pardons

Snow in July?

Visits New Haven The "Little Red Hen" FOLLOW USSprints ON Into Fall

Pic1( Back row)Left to row- Harvey Fair and Pastor John Lewis (mid row) Left to right Richard Sporaco Exec Dir Board of Pardons and Parole, Carleton Giles, Chair Board of Pardons and Parole. (Front row) Ledft to right - Jonae Outlaw, Barbara Fair and Rep Robyn Porter

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THE INNER-CITY NEWS -

October 09, 2019 - October 15, 2019

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THE INNER-CITY NEWS - October 09, 2019 - October 15, 2019

Academy Award Winner Ruth Carter Tells Hartford Girls Rock!

“Be Your Authentic Self! Do Something Special!”

By Bobbi Brown, Communications/Journalism Eastern Connecticut State University

With 7 awards and 40 film credits to her name, Academy Award-winning costume designer Ruth Carter graced the stage on Sept. 22 at the Connecticut Convention Center for the Sixth Annual Hartford Girls Rock! A sold out crowd heard Carter describe her role as a costume designer, her Academy Award and her road to success in the film industry.

Carter, of Springfield and a Hampton University alumna, congratulated the 10 young women in Hartford Girls Rock! for their outstanding academic achievements, leadership, and community services throughout the Greater Hartford area. Founded six years ago, Hartford Girls Rock! is a unique program developed by the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. and Epsilon Omicron Omega Chapter (AKA), in partnership with the Foundation for Educational Opportunities, Inc. (FEO). Mentored by AKAs and members of the community, these ten young women participated in workshops on goal setting, creating and maintaining healthy choices, career exploration and self-empowerment. Many noticed their achievements, and community-based organizations chose them to be recognized.

The young women recognized included Makiydah Berry of Pathways Academy of Technology & Design; Dayzra Bourne of Capital Community College; Danielle Cloud of Farmington High School; Chyla Drawhorn of the University of Connecticut; Shian Earlington of Capital Community College; Onyae Hill of Bristol Eastern High School; Shawndia Jones of Watkinson School; Datari Mathis of the University of Bridgeport; Angelique Phillips of Watkinson School; and Sherisa Smith of the Connecticut International Baccalaureate Academy.

More than 900 people roared cheers as Carter approached the stage. She offered the audience some sage advice and numerous pearls of wisdom on selfconfidence and focusing on accomplishing one’s goals. “Don’t worry about someone being better than you… have confidence to be your authentic self. Authenticity finds itself in your research.

Research brings out something new within you that you did not even know you had in yourself. Do the work, don’t worry about the competition.”

In addition to proper, thorough research, Carter said urged the young women to find something they really enjoy and pursue it with a passion. “It took me 17 weeks to just prepare for ‘Black Panther.” A ton of research goes into everything I do to give the proper voice and detail to the story we want to tell.”

She said she studied the Amistad case her

Ruth Carter waves to crowd as she approached the stage. (DWIGHT PHOTO)

Academy Award Winner Ruth Carter enters the Convention Center ballroom where the Foundation for Educational Opportunities, Inc. (FEO) and the AKA sorority celebrated the achievements of 10 young women from Hartford.

(DWIGHT PHOTO)

Ruth Carter with Academy Award (PHOTO BY LESLIE GOMEZ)

Hartford Girls Rock! Class of 2019 (PHOTO BY LESLEI GOMEZ)

in Connecticut and the growing protests and Civil Rights Movement to produce costumes in the movie “Selma.” She cited Lorraine Hansberry’s “Raisin in the Sun” and “For Colored Girls Only,” as examples of research she conducted in preparing for designing costumes for films. “Detailed research is my civil rights duty to the struggle for human and civil rights.”

A native of Springfield, MA, Carter began her costume-designing career at a theatre in Springfield, MA. There, she eventually collaborated with Hartford Stage. While working locally, she always knew she wanted to do something special. Then, it happened. Carter recalled a moment she will never forget: “One day, I get this call and the voice on the other end said, “This is the man of your dreams!” I laid back, closed my eyes and said “Denzel!” The voice said “Naw, Baby, this is Spike Lee!” Director

Ten young women at their reserved dinner table (DWIGHT PHOTO)

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Spike Lee hired her to design costumes in his film “School Daze,” launched in 1988. After that, she worked in a number of films ranging from “Do the Right Thing,” directed and starred by Lee himself, to “Selma,” directed by Ava DuVernay, Malcolm X and many more.

However, she made history in the phenomenal, blockbuster film “Black Panther.” At the 91st Academy Awards earlier this year, Carter became the first African-American woman to win in the category of “Best Costume Designer.”

In “Black Panther,” more than 700 costumes depicted African culture through textiles and patterns. Carter placed emphasis on how she wanted to portray the African culture as authentic as possible.

“I love telling stories, especially our stories… Historical research tuned me in. I had to be tuned into African kings and kingdoms to create those intricate costumes.”

Just as European powers have stolen Africa natural resources throughout history, in “Black Panther,” invaders tried to steal the natural resource vibranium, a rare, powerful metal found in Wakanda which reflected how scientific Africans were. Vibranium powered African technologies and was used in their weapons.

And yes, thanks to Carter, “Black Panther” himself even wore a vibranium suit, which absorbed kinetic energy that he could use as a negative force energy to repel his enemies who tried to steal the vibranium from Wakanda.

After making history Carter expressed, “At times, the movie industry can be pretty unkind. Nevertheless, it is about sticking with it, keeping faith and growing as an artist. This award reflects resilience. We need to keep encouraging young Black girls to achieve… to be a student of your passion. Never ever stop learning.”

“Think outside the box and go do something special. You have your whole life to live, so begin thinking early on of something special you want to do. Then, go do the research. Go do the work. Thank you all so much. I love you. I have to go catch a plane to go back and finish my work on “Coming to America 2!”

The audience gave Carter thunderous applause as she left, carrying a framed image of the 10 young women honored and proclamations from the City of Bloomfield and Hartford and gifts from the Foundation for Educational Opportunities, the AKA sorority and Hartford Girls Rock!

Sponsors for this year’s Hartford Girls Rock! Featuring Ruth Carter include The Travelers, ESPN, Aetna, Fairview Capital, Liberty Bank, 50 Elm & Spirits, Connecticut Health Foundation and Charter Oak Health Center. ###

THE INNER-CITY NEWS -

October 09, 2019 - October 15, 2019

At CAW, Artists Rally For Sanctuary Lucy Gellman, Editor, The Arts Paper www.newhavenarts.org

The dress is almost too much to take in at first. From the neckline, it blooms into color: blue and red squares of an American flag on each sleeve, and a heartshaped red, white and blue collage just beneath the breasts. A neat line of red-orange stitches winds down the sternum, attached to a pendant. At the waistline, it slides into a welcome riot of color: yellows and reds mingle with words and images, painted thickly enough that they gleam in the light.

Maria de los Ángeles’ “I love America” is one of over 100 staggering, heartrending and thought-provoking pieces in Sanctuary Cities and the Politics of the American Dream, running at Creative Arts Workshop (CAW) now through Nov. 9. A collaboration between CAW Director Anne Coates and curator Luciana McClure—who is herself a Brazilian immigrant doing sanctuary city work—the show explores and expands the meaning of sanctuary, extending it to indigenous rights and land reclamation, more humane policing, and the end of an industrial carceral state. It is funded by a grant from the International Association of Greater New Haven.

A month-long series of onsite events including collaborations with Interference Archive and Sanctuary Kitchen will accompany the exhibition. The show comes as New Haveners continue their call for official Sanctuary City status, which has yet to come before the city’s Board of Alders despite an executive order issued by Mayor Toni Harp earlier this summer.

“I feel very pleased and very proud to have been able to present this platform for conversation, which for me is essentially about human rights,” Coates said at an opening reception Thursday night. “I care deeply about making this space available to as many people as possible, to engage with creativity on all sorts of levels. And so for me, to open my arms wide, to open our arms wide, is very meaningful to our vision.”

Inside the space’s two-floor gallery— and through new collaborations with the Connecticut Bail Fund, Unidad Latina en Acción, Planned Parenthood of Southern New England and others—that mission comes alive in vibrant color. Multimedia work packs the walls, hangs from the ceiling and sits installed on the floor, somehow economical even in a total, very welcome takeover of the space.

It beckons from the street, visible through the building’s huge front-facing windows.

Many of the pieces call to the viewer right away, drawing them closer with intricate detail.

On the first floor, one of those is Kat Chavez’ 2018 “Only The Earth Knows,” an installation of silkscreen and acrylicon-canvas squares that have been cut roughly, with their threads still exposed.

Piled before the viewer and pinned to

John P. Thomas Publisher / CEO

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

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

Editorial Team Staff Writers

Christian Lewis/Current Affairs Anthony Scott/Sports Arlene Davis-Rudd/Politics Maria de los Ángeles’ work draws on her own experience as a DACA recipient and fine artist. Lucy Gellman Photos (all work by the artists) with permission of Creative Arts Workshop.

a temporary wall, they sing with resonances: woodblock prints and early cyanotypes, nature before anything has been picked or mowed, blood at its most immediate, when the body blooms and smells like copper.

Not one of them is exactly the same, which gives the viewer pause. Some are clean and tidy, statements in perfection.

Others smudge and blur, red covering red as if the plants are half-submerged, or have slipped under this surface entirely.

They are intensely tactile, and the urge to touch them, hold them in one’s palms, and pick them up becomes almost too much to bear the longer one looks. It feels like part of the point, as if the viewer is also implicated in the piece.

“I am evoking history in everything I do, whether that be personal history, cultural history, or art history,” Chavez writes in an artist statement. “My body belongs to a lineage of womxn and femmes who have questioned the abuse of our individual and collective bodies, seeking new forms of healing and empowerment through the arts.”

Another is Susan Clinard’s “White Space.

White Noise. Family Separation at the Border,” an all-white sculpture depicting huddled masses that are bent and broken just so. Across a frieze that looks almost holy, figures reach for each other, looking out at the viewer as if to ask for help. Their bodies are not so different from the bodies that stare back: mothers and children, just trying to live.

Because the piece is installed below eye level, viewers must lean down to see it, experiencing their own discomfort or unease as they do. A closer look reveals a more juxtaposition: the sheer beauty and iconography of the piece rubs right up against the violence and inhumanity of its subject matter. Family separation, Clinard seems to say, isn’t just wrong: it’s a crisis of profound and entirely manmade moral

proportions. What are viewers going to do about it?

Clinard’s question is one that rises again and again, taken on by a number of artists. In a back room that is easy to miss, poetry by local author laura Altshul joins writing from several New Haven high school students, poems arranged in a row that viewers can pick up and read. Simone Alter Muri’s “Plight of the Refugees (Mexico and the Internment Camps)” layers history on top of history, making her viewers how many times they will let the past repeat itself.

Indeed some of the most intriguing works in the show probe the complexity of migration, sanctuary, and statehood—including what one gains and what one loses in the process. In the main gallery, Kim Weston’s “Aztec Warrior”—a long exposure that is worth at least an hour of close looking on its own—raises questions on indigeneity, displacement, and collective visual memory.

Upstairs, artists Zohra Rawling and Camille Eskell both draw on family histories of migration and cultural assimilation, past meeting present through the literal binding of materials. In Rawlings’s “Untitled,” she has sculpted a tower that seems to melt despite its stillness, flickering to reveal a pendant of an Assyrian lamassu inside. At the opening Thursday, she spoke about the difficulty of leaving that piece of her in the sculpture—she has had the necklace with her for decades—but “it had to happen” for the piece to feel like a complete statement on what one loses in gaining a new home.

In Eskell’s “Marriage Turban Fez: To Have and to Hold,” traditional male and female headpieces from the Middle East come together, in a stunning installation that warrants many long, close looks.

“Marriage Turban Fez: To Have and to Hold features a traditional Mid-East Turban (male headgear) adorned with a bridal

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veil bordered by family portraits,” she writes in a statement on the piece, one in her series “The Fez as Storyteller.” “The piece speaks to enforcing a stronghold on the family group, especially the females.

Back on the first floor, artist Jesus Torres brings the viewer literally to their knees with “La Virgen de Escultura,” asking them to join him in an act that makes a secular, charged space suddenly holy.

WonJung Choi’s “Borderless” presents a pair of nonfunctional slippers, metal pieces that have been brought together to form a cohesive object meant (at least in theory) for movement. Jaishri Abichandani takes it in a different direction, pointing to the need for intersectionality in political movements.

Some of the works bring the border crisis directly to New Haven, reminding viewers how deportation as much a local epidemic as a national one. And they are right to do so: this month, immigrant Nelson Pinos has spent almost two years apart from his home, seeking sanctuary in a church downtown.

On the second floor, textile artist Marsha Borden stuns with her disarmingly simple “A Migrant Child’s Blanket,” in which she has sewn a child-sized quilt into the type of aluminum blanket used in hieleras or “ice boxes,” short-term detention facilities that have been so named for their frigid, often life-threateningly cold temperatures and often hold migrants for much longer than a few days.

The image, which takes a moment to register, stops one in their tracks: it is visceral and deeply empathetic all at once. And it’s thought provoking: while hieleras have become part of mainstream coverage during Donald Trump’s presidency, they are a trademark of the Obama administration.

Without the Deporter-In-Chief, it asks, would we be where we are now?

Others suggest that there might be moCon’t on page

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

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

_______________________

Contributors At-Large

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

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

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THE INNER-CITY NEWS - October 09, 2019 - October 15, 2019

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THE INNER-CITY NEWS -

Connecticut Reports First Vaping-Related Death

by Shawn R. Beals HARTFORD, CT—The state Department of Public Health said Thursday that a Connecticut resident has died after being hospitalized with a “lung injury related to vaping.”

The DPH said the patient, who was between the ages of 30 and 39, died last week. State officials consulted with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to confirm that the person died from a vaping-related lung injury.

“Sadly, one of our residents with vapingrelated lung injury has died,” DPH Commissioner Renée D. Coleman-Mitchell said in the statement. “Our prayers go out to the family. We are working with the CDC along with health departments across the country to find out what the specific causes of these injuries are to educate the public by providing the information needed to mitigate the risk of illness and death.”

The patient’s specific age and other identifying information are prohibited from disclosure, an agency spokesman said. The patient’s location is also being withheld because it has no impact on public health, he said.

There are a total of 25 cases of vapingrelated illnesses that have been reported to the Department of Public Health, and a patient in one of the cases is currently hospitalized. The DPH said 13 of the 25 are between the ages of 18 and 34 years old.

“I am asking Connecticut residents to not use e-cigarette or vaping products,” Coleman-Mitchell said. “If you choose to continue vaping, you should not buy vaping products off the street or from

another person, including a friend, or modify or add any other unregulated substances to these products.”

The Connecticut resident who died is apparently at least the 19th person in the country to die of a vaping-related illness.

The CDC is reporting 1,080 cases associated with e-cigarette or vaping use.

An update Thursday said most of the patients who have had reported vapingrelated illnesses “report a history of using THC-containing products. The latest national and regional findings suggest products containing THC play a role in the outbreak.”

About 80% of the patients are younger than 35, the CDC said.

The state said cases here have involved symptoms including “shortness of breath, fever, cough, vomiting, and diarrhea. Other symptoms reported by some patients included headache, weight loss, and chest pain.”

U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal said he is holding a roundtable discussion on vaping on Friday morning at A.I. Prince Technical High School in Hartford.

“The vaping epidemic has now hit home — tragically. This epidemic now exploding in force has turned deadly here.

Every day teens are starting lifetimes of addiction and disease, thinking vaping is harmless. As I have warned repeatedly over years, e-cigarettes deliver powerfully addictive nicotine, dangerous chemicals, and unknown poisons.

The FDA must act before there are more deaths and more lives put in peril. It should ban flavors immediately, and take other necessary long overdue steps,” Blumenthal said in a statement.

Post-Vietnam Memorial Planned For City Hall

by THOMAS BREEN The Board of Alders unanimously approved installing a new plaque commemorating post-Vietnam Era war veterans in City Hall.

The board took that vote Monday night at its regular bimonthly meeting on the second floor of City Hall.

Morris Cove Alder and City Services and Environmental Policy (CSEP) Committee Chair Sal DeCola said the plaque will go on the empty wall space immediately a djacent to a current memorial plaque honoring Vietnam War veterans on the second floor of the building.

“This provides the city with a way of honoring our post-Vietnam Era veterans by installing a plaque adjacent to the Veterans Memorial plaque,” he said. “It

October 09, 2019 - October 15, 2019

Justice Lubbie Harper, Jr. Honored with Lifetime Achievement Award

On Oct. 3, at Anthony’s Ocean View in New Haven, in front of more than 400 people, the New Haven County Bar Association presented former Connecticut Supreme Court Justice Lubbie Harper Jr its Lifetime Achievement Award for his years of superior intellect, excellent professionalism, integrity, inspiration to hundreds and his exceptional service to the legal community and beyond.

Almost every single person in the room—a wide range of lawyers, judges and justices— talked about the impact Justice Harper had on their life, providing guidance!

Judge Brian Fischer was named recipient of The Yale Sappern Civility Award. More pictures and story to come later.

.Justice Lubbie Harper Jr. accepts the Lifetime Achievement Award from CT. Chief Supreme Court Justice Richard Robinson, left, and Giovanni Spennato, Harper’s mentee and the new president of the New Haven County Bar Association.

Justice Lubbie Harper Jr. and Chief Justice of the Connecticut Supreme Court Richar Robinson.

Judge Brian Fischer receives the Yale Sapper Civility Award from Judge John Keyes, left, and Giovanni Spennato, new president of the New Haven County Bar Association.

Justice Lubbie Harper at the head table

is our hope to have this plaque installed soon.”

According to a packet of information about the proposed plaque submitted to the Board of Alders by DeCola in May, the plaque might read, “All gave some, some gave all”.

That packet also listed the 12 major U.S. military conflicts that have followed the Vietnam War, as described on the website infoplease.com.

Those include the Dominican Republic (1965), Lebanon (1982-1984), Grenada (1983), Panama (1989), the Gulf War (1991), Somalia (1993), Bosnia (19941995), Kosovo (1999), the Global War on Terror (2001 through the present), Afghanistan (2001-2014), the Iraq War (2003-2010), and the War Against the Islamic State (2014 through the present).

Justice Lubbie Harper's Family.

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Left to right, Twyla Harper, Superior Court Judge Melanie Cradle; CT Supreme Court Justice Maria Kahn.

THE INNER-CITY NEWS - October 09, 2019 - October 15, 2019

Goal: 1 Million “Second Chance” Jobs

by THOMAS BREEN

A nationwide campaign to land jobs for one million formerly incarcerated people made a stop in New Haven with a pitch focused on encouraging hospitals to step up as “second chance” employers.

Roughly 300 people turned out Monday afternoon for the NAACP‘s One Million Jobs Campaign Corporate Network Reception, held in a third-floor auditorium at the Southern Connecticut State University (SCSU) Student Center at 345 Fitch St. Organized by state National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) President Scot X. Esdaile, the networking event featured a diverse lineup of political and corporate speakers exhorting businesses throughout the state to help train and hire people recently released from prison.

Johns Hopkins Medicine Senior Director of Strategic Workforce Development Yariela Kerr-Donovan served as the keynote speaker and the Connecticut Hospital Association as one of the campaign’s regional partners. The event targeted its hiring message towards hospitals, which Esdaile described as many of Connecticut cities’ largest employers following the long, slow demise or urban manufacturing jobs.

“We want to give our families, our communities, and these companies a second chance,” Esdaile said.

The event was held as part of a nation-

wide NAACP campaign to partner with governments, nonprofits, community organizations, schools, and businesses throughout the country to help get one million formerly incarcerated people jobs.

Esdaile, who is also the chair of the national NAACP Criminal Justice Committee, said that he convinced the organization to conduct a three-year pilot of the campaign in his home state of Connecticut. In April, he and Gov. Ned Lamont joined over a 100 business leaders and state officials in Hartford to kick off the statewide pilot, which has a goal of landing 10,000 jobs for formerly incarcerated Connecticut residents by 2022.

Esdaile said that the NAACP has prioritized this jobs campaign because of the disproportionate impact that mass incarceration has had on black and brown communities. Now that states like Connecticut have been working more and more towards reducing their prison populations and shutting down prisons, he said, civil rights organizations like his have to work all the more closely with the government and with employers to make sure that those returning home from prison aren’t barred from the workforce because of their criminal history.

“The question is: Are we prepared for these individuals coming back?” he asked the representatives from 250 different businesses he said had registered to attend Monday’s event. All too often, he said, the answer from the employer side

is, “No.” Thus the jobs campaign.

Each of the subsequent eight speakers proceeded to take the mic and praise the NAACP for spearheading such a hiring initiative, and to describe both the economic and social justice imperatives of making sure that people who complete their prison sentences are able to achieve steady, good-paying employment.

“Let’s have a real conversation about what it takes to survive in society today,” said state Department of Correction (DOC) Commissioner Rollin Cook.

Food, water, shelter, education, healthcare, and all the other bare necessities of life require money, which in turn requires employment.

Imagine having two, three, four strikes against you, he said. No references. An unstable family life. Maybe a history of addiction. Maybe a lack of formal education. “Imagine what that feels like,” he said.

He called on Connecticut’s employers to exercise “stoic courage” in not holding every mistake against an employee, in looking past a rap sheet when determining whether or not he or she might be a good fit for a job.

“They’ve paid their debt and served their court-imposed sentence,” he said. “Collectively we can stop the life-long sentence that occurs when society won’t forgive and provide these people the chance to succeed.”

Questions about your bill?

Yale New Haven Hospital is pleased to offer patients and their families financial counseling regarding their hospital bills or the availability of financial assistance, including free care funds.

By appointment, patients can speak one-on-one with a financial counselor during regular business hours. For your convenience, extended hours are available once a month.

Date: Monday, October 21 Time: 5 - 7 pm Location: Children’s Hospital, 1 Park St., 1st Floor, Admitting Parking available (handicapped accessible) An appointment is necessary. Please call 203-688-2046.

Spanish-speaking counselors available.

7

THOMAS BREEN PHOTO Connecticut NAACP President Scot X. Esdaile on Monday.

Lt. Gov. Susan Bysiewicz said that making sure that the formerly incarcerated have ample employments opportunities makes economic sense for employers.

More people in a community with stable jobs, higher purchasing power, and more marketable employment skills only contribute to, rather than detract from, a thriving economy.

“In other words,” she said, “doing good is really good for business.”

Alan Lazowski, the founder and president of LAZ Parking, said that only 15 percent of people who have a job after

getting out of prison go on to commit another crime that lands them back in prison. Roughly 60 percent who are released without a job, he said, do return to behind bars.

The son of a Holocaust survivor and prominent state rabbi, Lazowski said he has prioritized hiring the formerly incarcerated for positions ranging from valets to managers out of a commitment to “conscious capitalism” and “elevating humans through business.” Employers must step up in the fight for criminal justice reform, Con’t on page 22

THE INNER-CITY NEWS -

October 09, 2019 - October 15, 2019

Communities and Families

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Photos and story

by Barbara Fair In the summer of 2018 Brennan Rogers Magnet School Family Resource Center and the Comer School Development Program came together to form a support group for families of incarcerated people residing in the Rockview-Brookside area of New Haven.

Several mothers met with site coordinator Lensley Gay, coordinator at the Brennan-Rogers Resource Center and decided to form a support group for families experiencing the loss of family members to the criminal justice system.

The co- founders of the group were trying to find ways to cope with losing their sons and daughters to the system yet had no idea where to begin.

In March of 2019 a formerly incarcerated woman, author and Executive Director of Transitional Housing for women, Susan Burton, was invited to come to New Haven as a guest speaker to talk with the co-founders of the support group to help guide them in what needed to do for the group’s success. In 2000 following a period of incarceration Susan founded A New Way of Life, a Reentry Project and today has five transitional housing spaces for women leaving prison.

In 2006 she partnered with UCLA School of Law and opened a free legal clinic to support the legal needs of the women she houses. Susan was named CNN hero in 2010 and is now a nationally renowned activist and author helping women across the country access

Reentry services. Susan sat with the women and helped them come up with a name and mission statement for the group. They decided on Communities and Families Rising 4 Justice (CFRJ).

They meet Fridays at the Brennan-Rogers New Haven Public School at 2:30 in the Family Resource Center where they share resources for families and their children who need support with navigating the system and maintaining connections with their loved ones.

Yale University Graduate Fellow and PHD candidate in Sociology, Patrice Collins is also a tea member. She helps coordinate resources and facilitate group meetings. Ms Collins work at Yale is focused on Urban ethnography, parental incarceration and social and racial inequality as it relates to social policy.

Meetings help to empower women to communicate with stakeholders invested in the social and emotional wellbeing of children and families with loved ones in jail or prison. CFRJ is both a support and advocacy organization. Stress is a major issue for both parents and children of incarcerated individuals. Overwhelming stress contributes to diminished activity, poor diet and mental health issues such as depression and anxiety. CFRJ strives to create awareness as well as plan actions to support people facing incarceration, currently incarcerated and those transitioning home from a period of incarceration.

To learn more about the group and how one can become involved contact Site Coordinator, Lensley Gay at 475-2202221.

THE INNER-CITY NEWS - October 09, 2019 - October 15, 2019

2019 ALPHA PHI ALPHA

FALL SCHOLARSHIP BRUNCH SET FOR OCTOBER 20th at 11:30 AM at cascades in hamden

Family friendly event features a Celebration of beloved

leaders and great expectations The Eta Alpha Lambda Scholarship Fund of the Greater New Haven Chapter of the Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity will hold its Fall Scholarship Brunch on October 20, 2019 at Cascades Banquet Hall in Hamden CT.’ The event will celebrate some local beloved leaders and encourage the great expectations being realized by local youth.

Honorees include: New Haven Fire Chief John Alston, the Cornell Scott Hill Health Center, the Higher Heights Youth Empowerment Program Community Activist Daniel Hunt, New Haven Police Sargent Shayna Kendall, the Youth Council of the Waterbury NAACP, and the St. Luke’s Steel Band.

Entertainment will be provided by Daedream Theater Company, Ignite the Voice Youth Group and St. Luke Steel Band.

The event is to support to programs of the hosts including the first Melvin Mason scholarship for local youth interested in communications/journalism or a media related field.

For more information about the event including tickets, sponsorships, ads or donations. Please visit tinyurl.com/ALPHA-FALL-BRUNCH or email newhavenaphia@gmail.com.

Homeless Atlanta honor student goes to Yale

ATLANTA DAILY WORLD News “Homelessness taught me how to work hard, always persevere and never let anything get in my way,” said Chelesa Fearce.

Atlanta native Chelesa Fearce is living proof that you can rise above your circumstances and overcome the odds. Despite battling homelessness throughout her high school years, she went on to be named valedictorian of her class, graduated from Spelman College and is now a student at Yale University, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.

Chelesa Fearce was homeless in high school. Now she’ll be pursuing a medical degree and PhD at Yale University.

Chelesa Fearce graduated at the top of her class, as her and her family dealt with being homeless.

Fearce, 23, is currently pursuing her MD–PhD degree at the Yale School of Medicine; a major step towards her goal of launching a career in psychiatry.

Fearce’s journey to the prestigious Ivy League school was no easy feat. While attending Charles R. Drew High School in Riverdale, Georgia she and her family were homeless. She would often go without food and would use the stove lights at

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Chelesa Fearce (Photo by: atlantadailyworld.com) This article originally appeared in the Atlanta Daily World.

motels for her studying sessions. Despite living in those conditions, she earned a 4.5 grade point average and was named valedictorian of her class in 2013. Her academic accomplishments garnered her a full scholarship to Spelman College.

After graduating from the historically Black college with a degree in biochemistry, she went on to work for a national health agency and started the next step in her academic journey at Yale last month.

Fearce says her experience with homelessness instilled values that she has taken with her throughout every stage of her life. “Homelessness taught me how to work hard, always persevere and never let anything get in my way,” she told the news outlet. “It really helped show my resilience when I applied for college and medical school.”

Fearce and her family have been dedicated to paying it forward and helping those in need. There was a scholarship named in her honor for homeless students determined to further their education. Her mother Reenita Shepherd has become the foster parent of four children and is currently serving as a caretaker for a former homeless shelter director.

THE INNER-CITY NEWS -

October 09, 2019 - October 15, 2019

The "Little Red Hen" Sprints Into Fall Lucy Gellman, Editor, The Arts Paper www.newhavenarts.org

By noon on a recent Saturday, the Little Red Hen was looking cleaner than it had for a few weeks. In one corner, students worked together to pull weeds from under a tomato plant. In another, two medical residents studied the directions for a tool shed. A volunteer jogged by with a milk crate full of live worms. A monarch, circling in the heat, landed on a pink zinnia.

Stacy Spell looked around, taking in a symphony of sun-soaked, weeding hands. He gave a quick set of instructions to volunteers, then headed towards the chicken coop.

It’s a snapshot of the Little Red Hen that is becoming increasingly common on the weekends, as Stacy Spell uses urban farming to counter food insecurity, gun violence and crime in the city’s West River Neighborhood. A retired police officer who is now the director of Project Longevity, Spell has expanded the Mead Street space with students from the Yale Medical School and volunteers from St. Thomas More Catholic Chapel and Center at Yale.

“With this kind of help, we can get stuff done,” he said. “The whole thing is trying to get the community together.”

In addition to community gardening

and a take-what-you-need policy during the week—the gate is never locked— there is a workday each weekend, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturdays.

For Spell, the story of the Little Red Hen began in 2010, when Shaw’s supermarket closed on Whalley Avenue and New Haveners learned that they would have to drive out to the suburbs for groceries (Stop & Shop, which is now in that location, did not arrive until 2011).

In a city already struggling with food insecurity—as it still is today—Spell could see neighbors who were hit particularly hard by the closure.

As part of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholars Program, he led an initiative in the neighborhood, surveying residents on what they wanted to see for a better quality of life.

He heard the same thing over and over again: fresh, organic produce that was both affordable and readily accessible to them.

The next year, the garden started with a few raised beds in a plot owned by the Board of Education, which operates Barnard Environmental Magnet School across the street. It is named after the children’s story of the same name, which follows a little red hen who wants to bake bread, and needs help from her fellow farm animals.

Since expanding that mission in 2012,

Photos by Lucy Gellman.

that small plot has bloomed into raised beds of tomatoes, bright zinnias, marigolds, and sunflowers, kale and collard greens, hot green peppers, sugar watermelon and cantaloupe. A chicken coop sits further back, close to honey bees that Spell introduced a few years ago.

As beds have multiplied, so too has the garden’s wildly beating heart: Spell has used it as a space to bring together town and gown, pulling in Yalies, longtime West River residents and kids from the community. When he learned that Tyrick Keyes, a longtime green thumb in the garden, had been killed by gunfire in Newhallville, he was crushed.

“It’s still a burden on my heart,” he said.

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On a recent workday it was a riot of green, punctuated by laughter and a pitter-patter of hands and feet working from plant to plant, bed to bed. Cindy Du, a medical student who met Spell in her first-year course “Intro To The Profession” last year, welcomed groups of volunteers into the garden and got them situated with work gloves and weeding tasks.

In the front of the garden, the sharp scent of not-yet-ripe tomatoes mingled with the occasional call of a rooster.

Sprays of black-and-yellow caterpillars crawled along the beds and onto plants, gripping the stems.

As Spell inspected beds, a steady trickle of volunteers arrived, some dressed in Saint Thomas More t-shirts and others in long work pants and gardening gloves already creased with dirt. He paused to scrutinize a gaggle of undergraduates close to the greenhouse, full of plants

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even in the warmer months.

“You just pulled out a tomato there, young man!” he shouted to a new volunteer, a smile still on his face. As the volunteer apologized, Spell waved it off: not worth stressing about. But not something to repeat.

Some volunteers, like Dr. Robert Rock, have been returning for years.

After moving to New Haven for medical school, Rock lived not far from West River, on Congress Avenue in the city’s Hill neighborhood. In 2014, he visited the Little Red Hen as part of a class and wanted to do more with it, inspired by Spell’s mission of using farming to respond to food insecurity.

Before graduating, he helped found the U.S. Health Justice Collaborative, drawing a through line between medical training, public health, food justice and poverty-related illness.

“We tried to establish the idea that this is not service learning,” Rock said. “This is being part of the community where you live.”

Now deep in a family medicine residency in the Bronx, he has made a point to return when he can. By noon on a recent Saturday—Spell had announced a cookout he didn’t want to miss—he found himself working through the weeds with Zoe Adams, a third-year medical student who traded book and podcast recommendations (“Woke WOC Docs” is a favorite of theirs) among the budding tomato plants.

“Community service work has been commodified,” said Adams. “We want to be very intentional in what we mean by doing community work. Who comes up with the ideas? How is it sustainable? Is

it an equal partnership?”

Rock and Adams are just a few of the health care practitioners and community members that Spell has lured to the garden in recent years. Elizabeth Fitzsousa, who is now in her third year at the medical school, parlayed her work in the garden into a grant from Yale Wellness to purchase and build a tool shed with a lock. Last weekend, she and several volunteers finished it, tying it to a tree trunk for extra security.

In the past year, Spell has also been working to draw in new immigrants and Afghan refugees, many of whom have been resettled nearby on Derby Avenue.

With a working knowledge of Spanish, he has also done outreach to Latinx members of the community, inviting them in to try the fresh produce.

There are new-old visitors like NewYork based doctor Helena Hansen, a graduate of the Yale School of Medicine whose work is at the intersection of poverty, psychology, and mental health. In the midst of planning a panel with Spell and New Haven Farms Director Jacqueline Maisonpierre, she got an invite from Spell to come to a cookout, and jumped at the chance to meet him. She called the garden a new way of practicing social medicine.

“To see it in action, this just seems right,” she said. “This is the way medicine should be going.”

Hansen’s lecture is scheduled for Oct. 3 from 5 to 7:30 p.m. at 35 York Street, room 020. New Haveners interested in volunteering in the garden are welcome to join each Saturday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

THE INNER-CITY NEWS - October 09, 2019 - October 15, 2019

New Quinnipiac Poll Finds Voters Nationwide Remain Divided on Trump Impeachment

by Sal Christ

A new Quinnipiac University poll found that voters nationwide remain divided in their support for the impeachment and removal of President Donald Trump from office.

The poll — which was conducted by telephone from October 4-7 — found that 49% of voters oppose the idea of impeaching Trump while 45% support it.

Though voters remain split on whether Trump should ultimately be impeached, some 53% of those surveyed said they support the impeachment inquiry currently underway in the U.S. House of Representatives. Those numbers indicate a slight increase in national support for the inquiry and a slight decrease in support for impeachment when compared to a similar Quinnipiac poll conducted last week.

Of those surveyed this week, just 51% say they believed the inquiry is a legitimate investigation, with 92-5 percent of Democrats and 52-40 percent of Independents backing it. By comparison, 88-8 percent of Republicans surveyed called the investigation “a witch hunt” The polling numbers come after key figures in the impeachment inquiry publicly confirmed their involvement in the Trump administration’s request that the Ukrainian government investigate the Biden family’s activities in Ukraine, including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who confirmed he was on the July 25 call

between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky where Trump solicited investigative assistance. The polling data also follows the issuance of several subpoenas from three different House Committees to the White House, the Pentagon, and several individuals — including Trump’s personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani — and the emergence of a second whistleblower with firsthand knowledge of the events.

In a released statement Tuesday, Quinnipiac University Polling Analyst Tim Malloy noted that despite the new developments, national sentiment around whether to impeach and remove Trump from office largely remains the same.

“The country remains closely divided on whether to impeach and remove President Trump from office, and his base remains granite solid,” he said.

The same poll found that Trump’s national job approval rating has also remained largely unchanged with 40% of voters approving his job performance versus a 41% approval rating last week.

Quinnipiac University surveyed 1,483 self-identified registered voters for the poll. The poll has a 4.7% margin of error.

“Michelle’s House” Opens To Combat Sickle Cell Disease

by ALLAN APPEL

“We are not standing by to wait for a magic bullet for a cure. We’re going after education and prevention and we are going to bend that curve.”

The curve is the one that shows, nationally, a 17 percent rise in those diagnosed with the painful and still incureable genetic disease, sickle cell anemia, which largely afflicts African-Americans.

The above words of conviction belong to James Rawlings (pictured above at center with Mayor Toni Harp), chairman of the board of the Sickle Cell Disease Association of Southern Connecticut.

He uttered the words Friday afternoon as he led an emotional and optimistic ribbon-cutting for “Michelle’s House,” the northeast’s first education, prevention, and community-support center dedicated to offering a way out of the shadows for suffers of the often unreported and misdiagnosed disease.

Named after former First Lady Michelle Obama, the center operates out of an old, abandoned, now spiffy, Victorian located at 1389 Chapel St., across the street from the St. Raphael campus of Yale New Haven Hospital. The organiza- He described going through years of “The house is historic, but what’s really tion rents the house from the hospital for sometimes excruciating pain. He missed historical is its new residents. Today we one dollar a year, after having invested school trips and participation in sports. are making history,” said Charles Colmore than $200,000 in an historically His disease was a major factor in the lier, another board member of the assopoverty in which he grew up. Now, hav- ciation. “Michelle’s House will allow for sensitive gut-rehab.

Among the most moving speakers ing just graduated from Southern Con- an invisible community to be visible.”

Friday was Frank Tavares (pictured), necticut State, he’s bound for medical Here’s where to get more info and to a young board member who has suf- school to become a doctor and to take make all important donations to the susfered from the disease1SCSU_GOH_InnerCity_5.472x5.1.qxp_Layout his whole life. care of sickle cell patients.

1 9/23/19 9:16 AM tainability Page 1 of the new center.

Position Yourself for Success!

School of Graduate and Professional Studies Open House Thursday, October 10, 2019 | 3 – 7 p.m. | Adanti Student Center Ballroom When you pursue a graduate degree at Southern Connecticut State University, you’re already positioning yourself for success.

Join us for an opportunity to learn how Southern’s graduate programs can uniquely align with your career goals. Visit our campus and explore the possibilities of graduate education at Southern.

Meet with graduate faculty in more than 40 areas of study in education, business, health and human services, and the arts and sciences.

• Speak with faculty and admissions representatives • Engage with current graduate students • Explore financial aid opportunities • Take an optional tour of our campus

To register, visit SouthernCT.edu/gradopenhouse 11

THE INNER-CITY NEWS -

October 09, 2019 - October 15, 2019

Chairman of Parole and Pardons Visits New Haven Photos and story by Barbara Fair

Chairman of CT Parole and Pardons, Mr Carleton Giles, made an appearance at Christ Chapel New Testament Church located on 220 Dixwell Ave, New Haven. He came to inform the community about the Parole and Pardon board its function and the process involved in begin granted parole or a pardon. He brought along handouts for the audience to further inform them.

A panel discussion was facilitated by Mr Harvey Fair and teen activist, Ms Jonae Outlaw. The mission of the board, made up of 12 individuals, is to facilitate the successful reintegration of people back into their community following a period of incarceration. The board consists of both full and part time individuals who serve the State of Connecticut. Giles was appointed by then governor Malloy in 2013 as a full time board member and then promoted in 2014 to the role of Chair. Giles a former police officer served Norwalk for 33 years spending several years appointed to the Youth Division. During his career he has worn several hats. He is a former school resource officer, coached youth sports teams, counseled at risk children and youth, served as mentor and tutor, served as a former chair to Milford Po-

Pic1( Back row)Left to row- Harvey Fair and Pastor John Lewis (mid row) Left to right Richard Sporaco Exec Dir Board of Pardons and Parole, Carleton Giles, Chair Board of Pardons and Parole. (Front row) Ledft to right - Jonae Outlaw, Barbara Fair and Rep Robyn Porter

lice Commission as well as a member of the religious clergy in Ct. Giles with his pleasant and witty personality set the tone for what turned out to be a successful and fun evening. He brought along his gracious wife and the Executive Director of Parole and Pardons, Richard Sporaco. He talked about the importance of family and friends getting involved in parole and pardon hearings to support their loved ones.

He talked about how individuals should prepare for hearings and factors that lead to successful outcomes and those that don’t. Sporaco, his administrative assistant, spent a long career within Department of Corrections. He was hired in 1992 as a Social Work trainee and served as a parole officer within DOC Hearings Division where he implemented the parole risk assessment tool.

In 2000 he was promoted to parole and community services manager overseeing community releases and violations of parole. He now directs all administrative affairs. Both men took the time to explain the difference between parole and pardons as well as report on recent updates which include individuals having the right to an attorney at parole hearings. Giles explained the parole board is separate from DOC. His department simply provides administrative

support to DOC. Community parole is under DOC. Both explained the power the board holds. The board can grant: (1) absolute or full pardons (2) certificate of employability meaning individuals with criminal records should have the opportunity to employment (3) commutation in which the board can change the term of someone’s sentence to a lesser term (4) make decisions about who is released and under which conditions.

Crimes not eligible for parole include murder, felony murder, capital murder, arson murder and first degree aggravated sexual assault.

The event was a huge success. Officials attending the event included State Representative Robyn Porter, Senator Gary Winfield, ACLU Executive Director, David MsGuire, two off duty police officers and Ms Rubye(Jackie) Pullen Daniels who was appointed to the board in 2007 and no longer serves. Three gift cards were raffled off to close the night.

Giles extended his services to anyone in the community who might wish for him to speak to others.The Board of Pardons and Parole is located at 55 W Main St, Waterbury. Any questions or concerns call (203) 805-6605.

LOCAL ORGANIZATION NAME JAMAICAN, TRINIDADIAN AS 2019 TRAILBLAZERS

By Patrick Buddington, IMC Media Group

Monday, September 30, 2019 – A leading financial affairs executive has come out in support of those persons who are making a difference in the lives of others.

Jamaican Gerald L. Hector, Executive Vice President and Chief Business Officer at historically Black Moorehouse College, in Atlanta, Georgia, noted that these persons have garnered the necessary skills to impact racial reconciliation and healing.

Delivering the keynote address at the 9th annual Trailblazer and Scholarship Banquet, put on by the Jamaican American Connection (JAC) of Greater New Haven, Connecticut, on September 14, Hector offered that there have been a few such persons, among them; Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, Marcus Mosiah Garvey, William H. Gray III, Robert Smith and Bill Gates.

“Too many people have never experienced what it is like to live in someone else’s world,” he said, while referencing the 1998, Gates Millennium Scholarship Program, affording tertiary education scholarships to 20, 000 minority students and more recently, the gesture of goodwill from African American Billionaire

Photos courtesy of RichSimpson Photography, CT. TRAILBLAZERS. (l-r); Caron Chung, Executive Director/AFJ; Dr. Camille Wardrop Alleyne – NASA Scientist; Gerald Hector-Keynote Speaker; Dr. Sherene Mason-Pediatric Nephrologist and Karaine Holness-President of JAC,

Robert Smith, to pay off the student loan balance for the graduating class at Moorehouse College.

In a pointed challenge to the youth in the audience, Hector, a KC alum, urged them to use the technology and the information that is available, to move forward, ‘but more importantly, contextual-

ize what it means to be a human being, living in this imperfect world and an era many thought had long passed’.

The Trailblazer Award was presented to Trinidadian Dr. Camille Wardrop Alleyne, NASA Rocket Scientist, Internationally-acclaimed speaker and Humanitarian and Jamaican, Sherene Mason,

12

Board-certified Pediatric Nephrologist and Attending Physician at Connecticut Children’s Medical Center.

“These are two phenomenal Black women and most deserving of our accolades and recognition and the full membership of JAC and the audience, including family members, are happy to be

able to share this experience with them,” said Karaine Holness, president of JAC, who noted that the event, staged at the Omni New Haven Hotel, exceeded expectations.

“We worked hard on it and it showed and we are hoping for bigger and better things next year when we celebrate our tenth anniversary.”

Academic scholarships were presented to three ladies – Aaliyah Kerr, first year student at UConn (Storrs campus), majoring in Political Science; Chamera Clark, frosh at Southern Connecticut State University (Marketing/Accounting) and Tashieka Sangster, first year at the University of New Haven, majoring in Criminal Justice.

As part of the entertainment, Janice Hart did a tribute to Louise Bennett, complete with traditional costume, and props including a Bankra and Chamber Pot (chimmey). DJ Fire provided music for dancing.

Formed in the summer of 2010, the charitable organization seeks to serve the unique and cultural needs of Jamaicans in the New Haven region through strategic partnerships with key stakeholder entities in education, community service and cultural engagement.

THE INNER-CITY NEWS - October 09, 2019 - October 15, 2019

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THE INNER-CITY NEWS -

Impeaching a President October 09, 2019 - October 15, 2019

By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Correspondent

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s decision to move for an impeachment inquiry into President Trump has rocked Washington.

The news of the resulting investigation has also unified Democrats, particularly those like Rep. Maxine Waters of California, who has argued for some time that Trump should face impeachment.

“Donald Trump has admitted to abusing the power of the presidency by asking Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to launch an investigation into his political opponent in order to get dirt that the Trump campaign could exploit in the 2020 U.S. presidential election,” Waters stated.

Trump allegedly asked Zelensky to dig up dirt on former Vice President Joe Biden, the current frontrunner to be the Democratic candidate in the 2020 election.

“This action within itself – where the president is seeking the cooperation and assistance of a foreign government in uncovering dirt on his opponent – is unlawful, unconstitutional, and unpatriotic. I am elated that the Congress of the United States will move forward in an expedited manner to investigate and impeach this president,” Waters said.

Still, experts and historians told NNPA Newswire that the probability of impeaching Trump remains extremely low.

The idea of impeachment as drafted into the Constitution by its framers, is designed to establish the process whereby we can remove a President from office that was engaged in unlawful activity, said David Reischer, an attorney and CEO of LegalAdvice.com.

“Technically, the House and Senate can impeach President Trump purely for political reasons but the standard by which to get sufficient votes in the House and Senate is whether ‘High Crimes and Misdemeanors’ have been committed,” Reischer added.

Section 4 of Article Two of the United States Constitution reads: “The President, Vice President and all Civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.”

The Constitution requires a two-thirds super-majority among Senators voting for conviction because the framers wanted to establish that removal from high office via any process that, thereby, overturns the vote (the will) of the electorate, justifies and requires a high burden of proof, according to experts.

“Like the Mueller report, while the allegations against the president are serious, the allegations stop just short of actually concluding that a crime had been committed,” stated Reischer.

Removal is not the only reason to launch a formal impeachment inquiry, according to Sam Nelson, an associate professor and chair of the Political Science Department at the University of Toledo.

“Many observers have focused on the futility of impeachment given that a Republican-controlled Senate will almost certainly not vote to remove the President,” Nelson noted.

He added that the impeachment investigation into President Richard Nixon proved that the proceedings could move public opinion when there is evidence presented in an open forum.

Additionally, an official inquiry strengthens the hand of the six committees already investigating the president and his administration, Nelson told NNPA Newswire, adding, “These committees are locked in legal battles with the White House over subpoenas, witness testimony, and executive privilege.”

“Courts are more likely to side with Congress in the exercise of its Article I power to investigate an impeachment than when they are engaged in regular oversight.

“And, perhaps most importantly, impeachment exists in the Constitution to be a deterrent to unconstitutional, criminal or illicit behavior by presidents, judges and other government officials,” he said.

Impeachment is the ultimate backstop for the constitutional separation of powers and Congress’s co-equal role in the constitutional design, according to Nelson. Impeachment, even if the Senate does not vote for removal, should act as a deterrent not just to Trump but also to future presidents of both parties, he said.

“To not open an impeachment inquiry given the gravity of the most recent allegations against the president is to give him, and all future presidents, vast, unchecked power to ignore the Constitution, the other branches of government, and the

public interest,” stated Nelson.

So, what’s the process to impeach the president?

Historian and radio show host Michael Hart said it begins when one member of the House drafts articles of impeachment against an elected official.

Impeachment is the same as an indictment in U.S. criminal courts.

Following the drafting of the articles of impeachment, the Speaker of the House decides whether to entertain the idea by convening an impeachment committee.

“This is done to discuss the merits the merits of the charges – and there could be many – and determine if support for the move is there,” Hart stated.

If the charges rise to the height of impeachment – as determined by the Speaker and under advisement from other caucus members, a formal declaration of impeachment is drawn, and hearings begin.

After the hearing, Congress decides whether to vote on impeachment.

If the vote succeeds, the Senate then must determine whether they will act.

“A little-known fact is that the impeachment of a president can be originated by a senator – but that senator would have to find a House member to sponsor and bring forward the call to the House,” Hart said.

Despite little chance of success, members of the House have used or considered impeachment as a way to taint a president, Hart noted.

“It’s a public condemnation, although it can be a risky one,” he said.

14

It can also bring forth needed facts, something Democrats and a growing list of other observers said is necessary for the current administration.

“An impeachment process is a viable option for the current House of Representatives given that the hearings will force several people in or close to the Trump Administration to testify before Congress under oath,” said D. Gilson, a writer who has taught popular cultural studies.

“Politically, this is smart as it will likely reveal misdeeds and contradictions leading up to the 2020 election. Judicially, this is smart as it requires folks to speak under oath, as opposed to on Twitter or Fox News,” Gilson stated.

Waters added that when coupled with Trump’s already shady history, there’s more than enough evidence for Congress to launch an impeachment query.

Although the U.S. intelligence community unequivocally concluded that Russia interfered in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, Trump has shown brazen support and deference for Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Kremlin and has continued to undermine and outright deny the validity of the U.S. intelligence community’s findings, stated Waters.

Special Counsel Robert Mueller identified at least ten instances of obstruction of justice by the president during the 2016 presidential campaign and through the course of the Russia investigation.

Mueller furthered the scope of what’s known about collusion and coordination between the Trump campaign, Trump’s allies, and the Kremlin in their efforts to undermine U.S. election systems on Trump’s behalf, Waters said.

This president orchestrated hush-money payments in order to silence his mistresses with the aid of his attorney, Michael Cohen, who pled guilty and is serving Con’t on page 15

Con’t from page

At CAW, Artists Rally For Sanctuary mentum in the movement for sanctuary— and that there must be, to get to a place of basic humanity in this country. In two prints, photographer Ellen Jacob shows the very cruel and real time consequences of an unjust immigration system, depicting children with parents who are undocumented immigrants, and thus afraid to show their faces.

Multimedia artist and chef Nadine Nelson has used her work “Rice And Beans; Neighbors Unforeseen” as a prompt for cross-cultural connection, placing dry rice and beans in the center of a table where viewers are meant to sit and talk.

In painter Nicole Bricker’s “Election Cake,” two women sit at a dinner table, watching each other over a white cake layered with purply-red jam. One wears a sticker that reads “Vote.” The other sits back, a blue-and-white form before her. Is she a first-time voter? Maybe a new citizen? Behind them, a recipe runs from side to side like ticker tape, listing ingredients for a cake that seems unfathomably large, with literal pounds of ingredients.

The painting is hopeful, in ways that the viewer may not even realize at first. Election cakes are a real thing: they have their sticky-sweet origins in the American Revolution, when groups of women would bake dense, self-rising spice cakes for soldiers. Studded with dried fruit, they were originally called muster cakes—which became election cakes after the revolution, when voting became more important than fighting.

There’s a bitter irony there, of course: the cakes’ bakers couldn’t vote, and neither could people of color. Meanwhile, they did most of the physical and emotional labor that supported the war, and then the sputterings of early and fragile American Democracy. So what does it mean to have two women, perhaps Latinx, women sitting around the same concoction, one getting ready to vote for the first time?

In this sense, McClure has succeeded wildly. She is a curator with a sharp eye, and has placed pieces beside each other in such a way that they talk back not only to viewers, but to each other. Now that the show is mounted—an effort that she said took a small village—she is using it as a lens to explore art as activism in her work and in the city.

“I think we need to really be intentional about the work that we want to do,” she said Thursday, praising CAW for opening the show to the community. “It’s what we have to do. If we’re not being intentional about the change, we can’t expect it to happen.”

“We’re in such a time where we’re not coming together,” she added. “So to be able to share space, commune with one another, laugh, hug—just be in a space and have positive feelings, it feels like a gift. It feels like something we should hold onto.”

Creative Arts Workshop is located at 80 Audubon St. Gallery hours are 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday and 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on Saturday.

THE INNER-CITY NEWS - October 09, 2019 - October 15, 2019

Con’t from page 14

Impeaching a President jail time for these acts, which are potential felony violations of campaign finance laws,” she stated.

“He and his children have sought out opportunities to enrich themselves during his tenure as president. He is under investigation for accepting payments from foreign governments and officials that have stayed at his hotels and golf properties in violation of the Constitution’s emoluments clause, which prohibits elected officials from personally profiting from payments from foreign governments and officials that have stayed at his hotels and golf properties.”

Waters continued: “This president has been documented by the Washington Post for having lied more than 12,000 times since taking office. Unlike any other president in modern history, Trump has refused to release his tax returns to the American people. These and a host of other actions are further evidence of his disgraceful and contemptible actions as the president of the United States.

“As I have stated time and time again, Donald Trump is a dangerous and dishonorable man. He has no respect for our democracy, our Constitution, or the rule of law. It is past time that Congress fulfills its Constitutional duty to impeach him. I am elated that it appears that day is upon us.”

Celebrating Women in GoGo

By Nyame-kye Kondo

The live performance review and GoGo honorarium, “The First Ladies of GoGo,” took place Sept. 19 on the rooftop of Eaton Hotel in downtown Washington, D.C. Featuring female pioneers in the GoGo music genre, the event was one of many GoGo themed events put up this year by music activist group “DontMuteDC.” Backed by the GoGo band Sirius and Company for the entirety of the night, “The First Ladies of GoGo” featured live performances by a handful of important female singers within the genre, including a rousing performance by Chrystian B, of GoGo band TCB, who sang a medley of ballads by D.C. native Ari Lennox. GoGo pioneer, Maiesha Rashad, lead singer of 90’s GoGo band Maiesha and the Hip-huggers was honored for the role she played in carving out a space for women in a male-dominated genre, where there had been none. The Hip-huggers started out as an old school cover band comprised of the legendary Sugarbear, Ju Ju House, and Sweet Cherie Mitchell.

Providing middle aged GoGo lovers with an outlet, and women with a new voice, Rashad was affectionately titled, “First Lady of GoGo,” and the GoGo subgenre she and her band created was

called “Grown and Sexy.”

Sitting at the front of the stage, Rashad jammed to the performances and humbly accepted her praise.

KK Baby, the daughter of Chuck Brown, and one of the current members of “The Chuck Brown Band’ performed her fathers 2006 hit, “Chuck Baby” all the while memorializing Lil Benny, of Little Benny and The Masters. Continuously uttering the refrain “We still cranking,” KK Baby, made it a point to talk about Rashad bringing her feminine

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15

energy to the often times misogynistic Go-Go scene. “I appreciate your courage, your example, your feminine energy you brought to Go-Go culture,” KK Baby said.

Recently undergoing knee replacement surgery, and having limited mobility as a result, Rashad performed a brief but lively snippet of her band’s rendition of The Jackson Five’s, “I want you back.”

Facing the audience, her bright, red hair shining vibrantly before the audience,

Rashad’s voice resonated raspy and strong as she used call and response on the audience, “D.C, I want you back! Lil Benny, I want you back!, Chuck Brown, I want you back!”

The First Ladies of GoGo event took place at the Eaton Hotel Sept. 19, honoring Maiesha Rashad (center) of Maiesha and The Hiphuggers. (Courtesy Photo) This article originally appeared in The Afro.

THE INNER-CITY NEWS -

October 09, 2019 - October 15, 2019

This Black Pilot is Flying with a Mission of Diversity goal.

By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Contributor

Flying isn’t the only sky-high activity Stanislaus enjoys.

Despite the limited amount of African Americans in the cockpit, Stanislaus said now is the time for people of color to join the pilot ranks. “There is about to be a mass exodus of commercial pilots, and their spots will need to be filled,” he said. “African Americans should know that this is possible for them,” Stanislaus said.

He’s also a licensed skydiver.

“In April 2014, I went on my first skydive for my [ex] girlfriend’s birthday,” Stanislaus said. “I was really calm and excited until I got into the plane and it started to leave the ground. During the climb, I had this internal fear that intensified tremendously, but I was calm externally,” he said.

Walking onto an airplane and seeing a black pilot is as rare as a blood moon sighting.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that of the approximately 690,000 active certificated pilots in the U.S., less than 3 percent are African American.

While a blood moon occurs about every two years, Jerome Stanislaus often takes the pilot’s seat in the cockpit of a private aircraft.

He pilots friends, family members, and others from New York to Philadelphia.

Sometimes, he flies further south to Virginia.

And, there are occasions where he traverses the skies above the Big Apple on a traffic-beating short flight to Long Island.

“Right now, I’m in San Antonio going through Flight Engineer School in the Airforce for the C5 Galaxy,” Stanislaus said.

The C5 Galaxy is a large military transport aircraft.

“It’s a huge cargo plane, and I would like to continue training to make it [as a commercial airline pilot] when I am

When the door opened, Stanislaus said he could no longer “keep it together.”

“I began to freak out. All of my dignity, pride, and masculinity went out the door,” Stanislaus said.

done with this school,” Stanislaus said.

Despite the limited amount of African Americans in the cockpit, Stanislaus said now is the time for people of color to join the pilot ranks.

“There is about to be a mass exodus of commercial pilots, and their spots will need to be filled,” he said.

“African Americans should know that this is possible for them,” Stanislaus said.

The Brooklyn-born father of two said although he dreamed of becoming a pilot, he never believed he would. And, that belief stemmed from a blunt observation: “I had never seen a black pilot,” he said.

Earlier this year, Stanislaus began donating his free time to a nonprofit that helps racially diverse children and young adults explore their interest in flying.

“My family has always been extremely supportive of my flying. I have two daughters, and they have their dreams and flying isn’t one of them,” Stanislaus said. “As far as they are concerned they don’t need to be pilots if I can just fly them where they want to go,” he said.

After graduating high school, Stanislaus trained to become an aircraft mechanic in the Marine Corps.

Later, he earned a degree in airport management and then went to work as a school teacher.

Flying, however, remained his foremost passion.

He signed up for flight lessons and, in 2015, Stanislaus took his first solo flight on a Piper Warrior II single-engine plane.

While he doesn’t own a plane yet, Stan-

islaus said that is a dream that will one day become a reality.

It also makes sense because of the number of free flights he’s doled out to family and friends. He said he’s focused on saving money and he’s started a Go Fund Me to help expedite the process.

“The demand for what I offer is growing and renting no longer makes the most sense. In the long run, buying a plane is the most cost-effective course of action, so that is where I am focusing my money,” he said.

Stanislaus hopes to raise $50,000, and officials at GoFundMe have reached into their pockets, too.

“As part of our Gives Back program, we’re grateful for the chance to donate to campaigns that have touched us,” GoFundMe officials wrote on Stanislaus’ page. They donated $750 toward his

He later found the courage to complete the jump and then began searching drop zones to other jumps.

“I saw myself living myself to the fullest and inspiring others to do the same.

Most importantly, I saw myself finding the courage to face the biggest fear in my life and enjoying the fuck out of it,” he said.

“My ultimate goal in life is to inspire others.”

Jerome Stanislaus, a Brooklyn-born father of two, said although he dreamed of becoming a pilot, he never believed he would. And, that belief stemmed from a blunt observation: “I had never seen a black pilot,” he said

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SAVE THE DATE

Sisters' Journey

“It was hands down, the scariest moment of my life.”

SCSU_1619_InnerCity_4x8.qxp_Layout 1 10/9/19 4:02 PM Page 1

THE INNER-CITY NEWS - October 09, 2019 - October 15, 2019

~ Four hundred years ago, more than 20 Africans arrived in North America against their will ~

SMOKEY ROBINSON OCTOBER 18

Monday, October 21 • Opening Ceremony with Keynote Speaker Marc Lamont Hill * BET news host, social justice advocate, and professor of Media, Cities, and Solutions at Temple University Adanti Student Center Ballroom | 6 PM – 9 PM * Registration reqired Tuesday, October 22 • Impact on Innocence: Mass Incarceration Art Exhibition & Reception | Lyman Center | 4 PM –6 PM

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THE INNER-CITY NEWS -

October 09, 2019 - October 15, 2019

Legendary Olympic Athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos Earn Induction into U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame

By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Correspondent

Their raised fists were as legendary as they were controversial.

Tommie Smith and John Carlos, known for their Black Power salute during the 1968 Olympics medal ceremonies, have earned induction into the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame.

The induction is scheduled for Nov. 1.

Smith’s and Carlos’ gestures of declaration, performed at the height of the civil rights movement in the U.S., were among the most powerful statements made during that era in American history.

The two athletes courageously used the world’s biggest stage to take a stand against racism, injustice, and inequality.

Their selection to the Hall of Fame, an honor based on character, conduct, and off-field contributions, comes 51 years after the U.S. Olympic Committee — and much of White America — vilified the heroes.

“It sends the message that maybe we had to go back in time and make some conscious decisions about whether we were right or wrong,” Carlos told USA Today.

“They’ve come to the conclusion that, ‘Hey man, we were wrong. We were offbase in terms of humanity relative to the

human rights era.'”

The men competed in the 200-meter sprint during the Olympic Games held in Mexico.

Smith won the gold, while Carlos earned a bronze medal.

During the medal ceremony, the men wore black socks and no shoes. Each wore a single black glove.

Just months earlier, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was gunned down in Memphis.

The fight for civil rights had reached both its bleakest moment and its most volatile.

Also serving as a backdrop to the 1968 Olympics were raging anti-war protests, the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy, and the horrifying beating of protestors by police during the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

Racism was out of control. America was out of control, and the war raged on in Vietnam.

Immediately preceding the Games, African American athletes considered a boycott, but they ultimately decided to participate.

With King’s death and an atmosphere of unrelenting police brutality and racism, African Americans were angry. Justice forever eluded the Black community.

However, Smith and Carlos would courageously use the international platform

of the Olympics to take a stand for the world to see.

Smith also wore a scarf, and Carlos dangled beads around his neck to remember lynching victims. Their black socks sans shoes symbolized poverty in the community, while the black glove was a reflection of African American strength and unity.

As the national anthem played during

the ceremony, Smith and Carlos bowed their heads and raised their fists – an image that’s arguably among the most iconic in sports history.

As explained in a 2018 Washington Post article, Smith raised his right hand while Carlos lifted his left. One of them had forgotten his gloves, so they shared the one pair they had.

Carlos had also unzipped his Olympic jacket, flaunting Olympics rules of conduct, to show support of working-class people in Harlem whom he said had to struggle and work with their hands all day.

Carlos told the Post that he had deliberately covered up the “USA” on his Olympic uniform with a black T-shirt to “reflect the shame I felt that my country was traveling at a snail’s pace toward something that should be obvious to all people of good will.”

In his autobiography, Carlos wrote: “The stadium became eerily quiet.

There’s something awful about hearing fifty thousand people go silent, like being in the eye of a hurricane.”

Immediately after the ceremony, officials expelled the two from the stadium. They were soonafter ordered out of Mexico City and suspended from the track team.

“It was a polarizing moment because it was seen as an example of Black power radicalism,” Doug Hartmann, a Univer-

sity of Minnesota sociologist and the author of Race, Culture, and the Revolt of the Black Athlete: The 1968 Olympic Protests and Their Aftermath, told Smithsonian Magazine.

“Mainstream America hated what they did,” stated Hartmann.

American sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos, along with Australian Peter Norman, during the award ceremony of the 200 m race at the Mexican Olympic games. During the awards ceremony, Smith (center) and Carlos protested against racial discrimination: they went barefoot on the podium and listened to their anthem bowing their heads and raising a fist with a black glove. Mexico City, Mexico, 1968. (Author: Angelo Cozzi (Mondadori Publishers) / Wikimedia Commons ) American sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos, along with Australian Peter Norman, during the award ceremony of the 200 m race at the Mexican Olympic games. During the awards ceremony, Smith (center) and Carlos protested against racial discrimination: they went barefoot on the podium and listened to their anthem bowing their heads and raising a fist with a black glove. Mexico City, Mexico, 1968. (Author: Angelo Cozzi (Mondadori Publishers) / Wikimedia Commons )

Household HazWaste and Drug Take Back October 26, 2019, 9 a.m. – Noon Last Collection of the Year Located at the Regional Water Authority, 90 Sargent Drive, New Haven Residential Waste Only. Partial List of What to Bring: Auto Body Repair Products & Fluids

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Oils, Cleaners, Polishes

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What not to bring: Asbestos, Gas Grill Propane Tanks.

Unwanted medicine will be collected first. Please store it in an accessible location.

For more information and to sign in early, visit: www.rwater.com/hazwaste or call 203-401-2712.

A program brought to you by the Regional Water Authority and these participating towns: Bethany, Branford, East Haven, Fairfield, Guilford, Hamden, Madison, Meriden, Milford, New Haven, North Branford, North Haven, Orange, Wallingford, West Haven and Woodbridge.

18

THE INNER-CITY NEWS - October 09, 2019 - October 15, 2019

Dense Breasts

Q&A Guide

Do you know if you have dense breasts?

www.nationalbreastcancer.org Throughout her journey with breast cancer, Joan Lunden, triple-negative breast cancer survivor & longtime Good Morning America anchor, learned by chance that she had dense breast tissue.

No one had ever specifically told her this information or why it’s important to know.

According to the National Cancer Institute, nearly 50% of all women age 40 and older have dense breasts. Like Joan, many women don’t know whether they have dense breasts or what that means.

Knowing whether you have dense breasts is important because women with dense breasts have a higher risk of developing breast cancer, and often need supplemental screenings to a mammogram.

Our Dense Breasts Q&A Guide answers these commonly asked questions: • What are dense breasts?

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When it comes to your health, you are your own biggest advocate. This free guide aims to educate you about dense breasts and how to be your own best advocate for your health.

Workplace ‘Inclusion’ is Not Enough to Help Women of Color Feel Supported: Harvard Study

By Olivia Riggio The Harvard Business Review (HBR) conducted a study that found even seemingly “inclusive” workplaces still leave women of color in interdependent work environments feeling isolated.

The idea from the study, HBR said, came out of an episode of HBR’s “Women at Work” podcast, which discussed forging “sisterhood” relationships at work among women of different ethnicities. High-quality connections — relationships where people feel safe to display emotions — have an important role in the workplace. They benefit workers because they encourage respect and engagement, which, in turn, empowers employees, affirms their identities and affirms their competence, according to the Stanford Social Innovation Review.

The HBR study, however, found that a commitment to diversity and inclusion does not necessarily allow women of color to be emotionally vulnerable.

Black and Hispanic women whose jobs required more interaction with their colleagues reported being less emotionally vulnerable at work, which suggests they may not be fostering supportive relationships with their coworkers.

In other accounts of interpersonal workplace relationships, women of color reported not being invited to social events or being “accidentally” left out of information-sharing. This exclusion, whether intentional or not, made many women of color mistrust their colleagues, respondents said.

Additionally, it could impact their careers beyond relationships and support.

Social exclusion opens up the possibility of women of color being left out of more important workplace activities that could impact their careers, HBR suggested.

For their study, HBR asked 778 women from across the country, and many internationally, questions about inclusivity and interdependence in their workplace.

The average age of respondents was 42, but ages ranged from 19–71. Within the U.S. sample, respondents were 76% white, about 5% Black, 5% Hispanic, 4% Asian and 3% multiple races. Eightythree percent worked between 31 and 50 hours per week and 79% had been in their field for more than five years.

Breaking down the results based on race and ethnicity, HBR found that for Black and Hispanic women in interdependent jobs, inclusive climates actually led to lower levels of emotional vulnerability. This data suggests that though inclusivity benefits women overall, the more interdependent a Black woman’s job is, the less emotionally vulnerable she is willing to be. Black women with independent jobs that did not require as much interaction with others reported feeling more supported in these inclusive environments.

Therefore, an inclusive work climate

Photo by: pexels.com This post originally appeared in The Washington Informer.

alone may not be enough to support women of color.

In addition to these questions, the study asked respondents to share anecdotes about times they felt unsupported. Many Black women recounted feeling that even though their company practiced diversity and inclusion, they still struggled to feel a sense of belonging.

“I have never felt included in my orga-

nization. And I have worked there for 10 years,” a 41-year-old Black woman said.

“I searched for who would be the ones that I could trust,” a 45-year-old mixedrace woman said, recounting a time when she felt left out by a group she was working with at a seemingly “inclusive” company.

Other respondents of color noted a fear of speaking up and sharing information.

The study draws attention to opportunities for future research on the benefits of shared sisterhood and what impacts it has on productivity, innovation, commitment and job retention.

DiversityInc’s Oct. 2 Women of Color and their Allies event will focus on issues like these that affect women of color in the workplace, including the themes of code-switching and intersectionality.

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THE INNER-CITY NEWS -

October 09, 2019 - October 15, 2019

Accountant

HELP WANTED: Large CT guardrail company

This is highly responsible professional level accounting work in a municipal department or division. The position requires a Bachelor’s degree in accounting. Salary: $61,376 - $78,529 plus an excellent fringe benefit package. Apply to: Human Resources Department, Town of Wallingford, 45 South Main Street, Wallingford, CT 06492. (203) 294-2080.

Fax #: (203) 294-2084. The closing date will be October 21, 2019 or the date the 75th application is received, whichever occurs first. EOE.

Equipment Operator

ELM CITY COMMUNITIES Invitation for Bids Interior and External Door Installations and Repairs The Housing Authority of the City of New Havend/b/a Elm City Communities is currently seeking Bids for Interior and External Door Installations and Repairs. A complete copy of the requirements may be obtained from Elm City’s Vendor Collaboration Portal https://newhavenhousing.cobblestonesystems.com/gateway beginning on Wednesday, September 4, 2019at 3:00PM.

HELP WANTED: Large CT guardrail company looking for Laborer/

Driver with valid CT CDL Class A license and able to get a medical card. Must be able to pass a drug test and physical. Compensation based on experience.

Email resume to dmastracchio@atlasoutdoor.com AA/EOE M-F

The Housing Authority of the City of Bridgeport Request for Proposal (RFP) Repositioning Consultant Solicitation Number: 133-EO-19-S

The Housing Authority of the City of Bridgeport d/b/a Park City Communities (PCC) is currently seeking proposals from qualified repositioning firms. Solicitation package will be available on September 23, 2019. To obtain a copy of the solicitation you must send your request to bids@parkcitycommunities.org, please reference solicitation number and title on the subject line. A pre-proposal conference will be held at 150 Highland Ave, Bridgeport, CT 06605 on October 9, 2019, @ 2:00 p.m. Although attendance is not mandatory, submitting a bid for the project without attending conference is not in the best interest of the Offeror. Additional questions should be emailed only to bids@parkcitycommunities.org no later than October 16, 2019 @ 3:00 p.m. Answers to all the questions will be posted on PCC’s Website: www.parkcitycommunities.org. Proposals shall be mailed, or hand delivered by October 24, 2019 @ 3:00 PM, to Ms. Caroline Sanchez, Director of Procurement, 150 Highland Ave, Bridgeport, CT 06604. Late proposals will not be accepted.

Finance Town Treasurer/Accountant: Responsible for administrative and professional accounting work involving receipt, disbursement and investment of town funds and computer systems management. Requires a bachelor’s degree in accounting from a recognized college or university, plus two (2) years of experience in accounting work including experience in supervision of staff and use of data processing technology, or an equivalent combination of education and qualifying experience substituting on a year-for-year basis. $ 74,604 - $ 95,452 Apply: Department of Human Resources, Town of Wallingford, 45 South Main Street, Wallingford, CT 06492. The closing date will be that date the 50th application form/ resume is received, or October 23, 2019, whichever occurs first. EOE

looking for Laborer/Driver with valid CT CDL Class A license and able to get a medical card. Must be able to pass a drug test and physical. Compensation based on experience. Email resume to dmastracchio@atlasoutdoor.com AA/EOE M-F

Help Wanted: Immediate opening for Equipment Operator for Heavy and Highway Construction.

10 hour OSHA certificate required. CDL license a plus but not required.

Please call PJF Construction Corp.@ 860-888-9998. We are an equal opportunity employer M/F.

Laborer Help Wanted: Immediate opening for Construction Laborer for Heavy and Highway Construction.

10 hour OSHA certificate required.

Please call PJF Construction Corp. @ 860-888-9998. We are an equal opportunity employer M/F.

CDL Driver Help Wanted: Immediate opening for CDL Driver for Heavy and Highway Construction.

10 hour OSHA certificate and clean CDL license required.

Please call PJF Construction Corp. @ 860-888-9998. We are an equal opportunity employer M/F.

Project Manager/Project Supervisor Help Wanted: Immediate opening for a Project Manager/Project Supervisor for Heavy and Highway Construction. Previous experience on CTDOT projects required.

Please call PJF Construction Corp. @ 860-888-9998.

We are an equal opportunity employer M/F

Listing: Accounting

Accounting Department has an immediate opening in Ac-

counts Payable. This full time position in a fast-paced office environment could be an excellent entry to an Accounting career. Requires good computer and organizational skills, attention to detail, and multi-tasking. Benefits include health, dental & LTD insurance plus 401(k). Send resume to: Human Resource Dept. P O Box 388, Guilford CT 06437.

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

Town of Bloomfield Vehicle Mechanic Technician Full Time - Benefited $30.49 hourly Pre-employment drug testing. For more details, visit our website – www.bloomfieldct.org

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Civil Engineer

Diversified Technology Consultants (DTC) is a multi-disciple engineering and environmental consulting firm. DTC is a leader in servicing governmental clients for four decades. DTC prides itself as having worked on a wide variety of project types. From schools and senior centers to town halls and universities, our diverse portfolio provides extensive experience to our communities.

As DTC enters its forth decade, we are seeking an energetic, organized and proactive professional in our Civil Engineering Department. The successful candidate(s) will work closely with our technical staff in support of DTC’s strategic goals and objectives.

This is an entry level position located in our Hamden, Connecticut office.

Responsibilities:

• Assist in the preparation of plans, specifications, supporting documents, and permit applications for private and municipal projects.

• Assist in preparation of calculations such as storm drainage, water supply & wastewater collection, cost estimates, and earthwork quantities.

• Perform design and drafting using AutoCAD Civil 3D. MicroStation experience is beneficial but not required.

Qualifications:

• Graduate from an accredited college or university with a Bachelor of Science degree in engineering.

• Engineer in training certificate preferred.

For Further information or to apply send resumes to ellen.nelson@teamdtc.com DTC is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer.

DTC is a Drug Free Work Place.

Individuals with Disabilities, Minorities and Protected Veterans are encouraged to apply.

POLICE OFFICER

City of Bristol $63,934 - $77,714

Required testing,

Registration info & apply at www.bristolct.gov DEADLINE: 11-22-19 EOE

Team Member: Cook, Prep Worker, Dishwasher, Waitress/Waiter Lynon’s Restaurant & Bar in Hamden, CT

Compensation

$11 to $14 Hourly Employment Type Part-Time

Apply in person with Resume Wednesday-Friday between 5:00 and 7:00 at 2151 State Street Hamden CT 06517 Call (203) 675-4097 for appointment.

Construction Seeking to employ experienced individuals in the labor, foreman, operator and teamster trades for a heavy outside work statewide. Reliable personal transportation and a valid drivers license required. To apply please call (860) 621-1720 or send resume to: Personnel Department, P.O. Box 368, Cheshire, CT06410.

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

CITY OF MILFORD

Seeking qualified condidates to fill numerous vacancies to include,Benefits & Pension Coordinator, Clerk A,Truck Driver/Laborer, Electrician and more For information and detailed application instructions, visit WWW.ci.milford.ct.us Click on SERVICES, JOBS and JOB TITLE.

THE INNER-CITY NEWS - October 09, 2019 - October 15, 2019

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

SURVEYING Boundaries LLC is a full-service Land Surveying Firm located in Griswold, CT. We are recruiting for these positions and accepting resumes for: Survey Field Technicians, Survey Computer Technicians, Licensed Land Surveyors, Civil Engineers, From 9/12/2019 through 12/31/2019. Interested parties can contact us at 860-376-2009 or submit your resume to jfaulise@boundariesllc.net An Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer

The Housing Authority of the City of Norwalk, CT is requesting proposals for Legal Services.

Request for Proposal documents can be viewed and printed at www.norwalkha.org under the Business section RFP’s/RFQ’s Norwalk Housing is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

Adam Bovilsky, Executive Director.

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

Garrity Asphalt Reclaiming, Inc seeks: Reclaimer Operators and Milling Operators with current licensing and clean driving record, be willing to travel throughout the Northeast & NY. We offer excellent hourly rate & excellent benefits Contact: Rick Tousignant Phone: 860- 243-2300 Email: rick.tousignant@garrityasphalt.com Women & Minority Applicants are encouraged to apply Affirmative Action/ Equal Opportunity Employer

Union Company seeks:

Tractor Trailer Driver for Heavy & Highway Construction Equipment. Must have a CDL License, clean driving record, capable of operating heavy equipment; be willing to travel throughout the Northeast & NY. 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 Affirmative Action/ Equal Opportunity Employer

EMPLOYMENT SPECIALIST - (P/T)

Assist individuals receiving services in identifying and making choices about their social, vocation and personal goals. Duties include case management, job development/placement/retention services and job support as needed. Requires use of personal vehicle.

B.A. in a related field; plus 2 yrs’ related experience or equivalent combination of education and experience. Pay rate $16.61/hr.

Apply to: GWSNE, 432 Washington Ave., North Haven, CT 06473/ Fax (203) 495-6108/hr@goodwillsne.org EOE/AA - M/F/D/V

DELIVERY PERSON NEEDED Part Time Delivery Needed

Request for Proposals Information Technology Consulting Services Housing Authority City of New Haven d/b/a Elm city Communities is currently seeking Proposals for Information Technology Consulting Services. A complete copy of the requirement may be obtainedfrom Elm City’s Vendor Collaboration Portal https://newhavenhousing.cobblestonesystems.com/gateway beginning on Wednesday, August 21, 2019 at 9:00AM

ELM CITY COMMUNITIES

One/Two Day a Week,

Request for Proposals Pay Per Use Laundry Services

If Interested call

The Housing Authority of the City of New Havend/b/a Elm City Communities is currently seeking Proposals for Pay Per Use Laundry Services. A complete copy of the requirements may be obtained from Elm City’s Vendor Collaboration Portal https://newhavenhousing.cobblestonesystems.com/gateway beginning on Wednesday, August 14, 2019 at 3:00PM.

Listing: Accounting

Large CT guardrail company looking for Laborer/ Driver with valid CT CDL Class A license and able to get a medical card. Must be able to pass a drug test and physical. Compensation based on experience.

Email resume to dmastracchio@atlasoutdoor.com AA/EOE M-F

Must Have your Own Vehicle

(203) 387-0354 Accounting Department has two immediate openings for full time Accounts Payable and Accounts Receivable professionals in a fast-paced office environment. Must be highly organized, possess good computer skills, be detail oriented, and able to manage multiple projects. Benefits include health, dental & LTD insurance plus 401(k). Send resume to: Human Resource Dept. P O Box 388, Guilford CT 06437. ********An Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer**********

Large CT. Fence Company is looking for an individual for our stock yard. Warehouse shipping and receiving and Forklift experience a must. Must have a minimum of 3 years’ material handling experience. Must be able to read and write English, and read a tape measure. Duties will include: Loading and unloading trucks, pulling orders for installation and retail counter sales, keeping the yard clean and organized at all times and inventory control. Individual will also make deliveries of fence panels and products, must be able to lift at least 70lbs.

Required to pass a Physical and Drug test, have a valid CT. Driver’s License and be able to obtain a Drivers Medical Card.

CDL B & A drivers a plus. Send resume to pking@atlasourdoor.com AA/EOE/MF

KMK Insulation Inc. 1907 Hartford Turnpike North Haven, CT 06473

Mechanical Insulator position.

Insulation company offering good pay and benefits. Please mail resume to above address.

MAIL ONLY

This company is an Affirmative Action/

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HELP WANTED:

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

NEW HAVEN POLICE NOW HIRING

Apply online at Policeapp.com Or Visit our Social Media Pages For More Information New Haven Police Department Recruitment Team

Nhpdrecruitment

NHPDrecruitment

THE INNER-CITY NEWS -

October 09, 2019 - October 15, 2019

Senate Education Chair blocks

Con’t from page 07

Goal: 1

bipartisan bill to extend HBCU funding Milliaon

By Charlene Crowell, Deputy Communications Director for the Center for Responsible Lending

When federal legislation is blocked that would extend and preserve funding for HBCUs, such actions are not only an affront to today’s college students, but also to a history that has led to only 3% of the nation’s colleges and universities educating nearly 20% of all Black graduates. The success of HBCU graduates is even more noteworthy considering that 70% of students come from low-income families.

Each year as families beam with pride at seeing a son, daughter or another relative graduate from college, that achievement is nearly always the result of a family’s commitment to higher education. And when these institutions are among the more than 100 Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), that pride is magnified by the history of how our forefathers overcame what once seemed to be insurmountable challenges.

According to the National Museum of African American History and Culture, between 1861 and 1900 more than 90 HBCUs were founded. From the first HBCU, Pennsylvania’s Cheney University, established in 1837, ensuing years led to even more educational opportunities that today include institutions spread across 19 states, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

So, when federal legislation is blocked that would extend and preserve funding for HBCUs, such actions are not only an affront to today’s college students, but also to a history that has led to only 3% of the nation’s colleges and universities educating nearly 20% of all Black graduates. The success of HBCU graduates is even more noteworthy considering that 70% of students come from low-income families.

On September 26, the damaging action taken by Tennessee’s Senator Lamar Alexander, chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee blocked HBCU funding.

Even worse, Senator Alexander made this move just days before funding was set to expire on September 30.

The bill sponsored and introduced on May 2 by Alabama Senator Doug Jones and co-sponsored by South Carolina Senator Tim Scott, was named the FUTURE Act, an acronym for Fostering Undergraduate Talent by Unlocking Resources Act. It began with bipartisan and bicameral support to extend critical

HBCU and other minority-serving institutions (MSIs) funding through 2021 for science, technology, engineering and mathematics education.

“Alabama is home to 14 outstanding HBCUs that serve as a gateway to the middle class for many first-generation, low-income, and minority Americans,” stated Sen. Jones. The FUTURE Act will help ensure these historic schools and all minority-serving institutions continue to provide excellent education opportunities for their students.”

Senator Scott agreed, adding “We all have a role to play in making the dream of college a reality for those who wish to pursue their education. The eight HBCUs in South Carolina have made a significant impact in our communities, creating thousands of jobs which translates to over $5 billion in lifetime earnings for their graduates.”

By September 18, a total of 15 Senators signed on as co-sponsors, including eight Republicans representing the additional states of Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, North Dakota, and West Virginia. Other Democratic Senators signing on represented Arizona, California, Connecticut, Minnesota, Montana, Virginia and West Virginia.

On the House side, two North Carolina Representatives, Rep. Alma Adams and her colleague Mark Walker introduced that chamber’s version that quickly passed in just two days before Alexander’s actions on the Senate floor.

So why would the HELP Committee Chair oppose a bill that had such balanced support – in both chambers as

well as geographically and by party?

“Congress has the time to do this,” said Sen. Alexander on the floor of the Senate. “While the legislation expires at the end of September, the U.S. Department of Education has sent a letter assuring Congress that there is enough funding for the program to continue through the next fiscal year.”

Alexander concluded his comments by using his remarks to push for a limited set of policy proposals that would amend the Higher Education Act piece by piece.

His comments prompt a more basic question: Why is it that Congress has failed to reauthorize the Higher Education Act (HEA) for so many years?

Competing HEA legislative proposals with different notions have been bandied about since 2014. Most of these ideas were variations of promises for improved access, affordability, and accountability, simplified financial aid applications and appropriate levels of federal support.

Yet, for families faced with a financial tug of war between rising costs of college and stagnant incomes, Congress’ failure to act on higher education translates into more student loans, and longer years of repayment.

The same day as Senator Alexander’s block of the bill, Wil Del Pilar, vice president of higher education at The Education Trust, a national nonprofit that works to close opportunity gaps that disproportionately affect students of color and students from low-income

22

families, reacted with a statement.

“The reauthorization of the Higher Education Act (HEA) is of vital importance to millions of students who currently struggle to afford college, lack adequate supports while enrolled, and are underserved by a system that perpetuates racial inequity,” said Pilar.

“Students need a federal policy overhaul that addresses these issues and acts to close racial and socioeconomic equity gaps, and they can’t afford to wait any longer.”

Ashley Harrington, a Senior Policy Counsel with the Center for Responsible Lending agreed adding “College is only getting more expensive every year, student borrowers are struggling to make payments, and servicers and for-profit colleges are getting free rein to mistreat their customers and students. As this crisis exacerbates the racial wealth gap and constrains an entire generation of taxpayers, we need a real plan to address these important issues.

We hope Senator Alexander reconsiders his position of holding hostage funding for HBCUs, Minority Serving Institutions and the students of color that they serve.”

Senator Alexander, here’s hoping you are listening.

Charlene Crowell is the Deputy Communications Director with the Center for Responsible Lending. She can be reached at charlene.crowell@responsiblelending.org.

he said, and they must do so by not just avoiding discrimination, but actually hiring those who have completed their sentences.

The keynote speaker of the event was Kerr-Donovan from Baltimore’s Johns Hopkins Medicine, which Esdaile described as one of the leading employers throughout the country in their focus on training and hiring those who have been “justice impacted.”

Kerr-Donovan listed a host of strategies that her employer and the Human Resources department under her leadership have pioneered in the past decade.

Those include not just “banning the box” so that applicants don’t have to identify their criminal history on job applications, but also making sure HR staffers in her department have sufficient knowledge of the criminal justice system to understand that not all past crimes are relevant to a prospective employee’s suitability for a given job.

“Who’s checking backgrounds?” she asked the employers in the room. “Do they know what they’re looking at?”

She also challenged the group to think hard about job descriptions, and whether or not education level and work experience requirements are true musts or just nice-to-haves. If nice-to-haves, she said, consider establishing an on-the-job training program that can stand in for work and educational experience, so that those without those credentials still have an opportunity to succeed.

Make sure there are venues for advancement within the workplace, she said, because people who are formerly incarcerated are some of the hardest-working and most loyal employees imaginable. They want to learn and succeed and rise the ranks, she said.

And, most importantly, treat all employees, regardless of their criminal history, to the same standards and provide them all with the same training and opportunities.

“This cannot be the process that we use for ‘those people,’” she said. “Separate but equal treatment,” she said, hasn’t ever worked in this country’s history, and it won’t work here.

Jennifer Jackson, the president and CEO of the Connecticut Hospital Association, said that representatives from all 27 member hospitals in her organization were present Monday, thus indicating the seriousness with which Connecticut hospitals want to participate in this hiring initiative.

Hospitals are committed to addressing the social determinants of health, she said.

“They are committed to keeping their communities healthy.” And one critical way of doing that is making sure that people in the communities they serve have good jobs.

THE INNER-CITY NEWS - October 09, 2019 - October 15, 2019

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THE INNER-CITY NEWS -

October 09, 2019 - October 15, 2019

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