by | Jul 11, 2020 10:32 pm | Comments (57)
Ko Lyn Cheang photo
Andre Alexander outside DiBella’s with his forbidden mask.
Demonstrators converged on a Hamden sub shop Friday and the store closed early, after an employee was sent home for showing up in a face mask reading, “Black Lives Matter.”
by | Jul 9, 2020 4:00 pm | Comments (3)
Sam Gurwitt Photo
Pension board attorney Marc Wallman.
Three weeks after Hamden’s retirement board heard a presentation from its actuary outlining its options for recouping $12 million in historical overpayments to pensioners, some of those retirees are banding together to protect their pensions.
by | Jul 9, 2020 3:38 pm | Comments (18)
Paul Bass Photo
Dan Barvir, who is retiring as East Rock Park ranger.
Dan Barvir has noticed chipmunks and bunnies scampering around these days like never before in his 35 years as guardian of East Rock Park.
by | Jul 7, 2020 7:26 pm | Comments (43)
Dixwell station Facebook page
Now-retired veteran city firefighter Bob Crisco.
After sending an image to colleagues making fun of the police killing of George Floyd, a 25-year veteran city firefighter retired on July 4 — averting discipline from commissioners who said they could do little more than condemn his behavior.
by | Jul 7, 2020 9:24 am | Comments (4)
WFSB
“Black Money Matters! Brown Business Matters” protesters chanted at a rally outside City Hall, demanding more jobs for Black and Hispanic New Haveners on the Dixwell Community “Q” House project.
Continue reading ‘Q House Protest Cry: “Black Money Matters”’
by | Jul 6, 2020 4:46 pm | Comments (2)
Thomas Breen photo
Judge Abrams conducting the hybrid physical-virtual status conference Monday.
The facts of the case are pretty clear. What remains in question is who was right, who was wrong, and whether the city needs to find a way to put “toothpaste back in the tube.”
Those words were heard — if not necessarily spoken — in a fourth-floor state courtroom as a lawsuit filed by New Haven alders against the mayor regarding fire union President Frank Ricci’s extra retirement benefits moved ahead.
by | Jul 6, 2020 4:24 pm | Comments (2)
Ko Lyn Cheang photo
Douglas Wardlaw outside the Goffe Street firehouse.
It was Friday night before the fourth of July, and Douglas Wardlaw was hoping he would not need to investigate any fires.
Continue reading ‘Fire Investigator Tackles Covid, Fireworks’
by | Jul 6, 2020 3:15 pm | Comments (3)
Quinnipiac President Judy Olian: Layoffs, expansion.
A week after Quinnipiac University professors sent a letter to university administrators decrying recent layoffs and demanding that the university rehire faculty and staff, the university appeared before the Hamden Inland Wetlands Commission to start the approval process for a new student wellness center it plans to build this fall.
by | Jul 2, 2020 3:25 pm | Comments (10)
Sam Gurwitt Photo
The Hamden Stop & Shop.
As Americans across the country this weekend celebrate 244 years since the signing of the Declaration of Independence, Stop & Shop workers will mourn a different milestone: the end of their extra Covid-19 pay.
by | Jul 1, 2020 2:43 pm | Comments (12)
Paul Bass Photo
Ricardo Rodriguez: We helped prevent arrests.
Ricardo Rodriguez believes that policing can change for the better — with cops remaining in schools.
by | Jun 30, 2020 6:24 pm | Comments (21)
Christopher Peak Photo
Protests against last year’s proposal to cut teaching jobs.
High school elective options will not shrink. Kindergarten class sizes will not grow. Families relying on New Haven Public Schools childcare for their preschoolers before and after school, though, will need to find another option.
by | Jun 30, 2020 1:15 pm | Comments (2)
Sam Gurwitt Photo
Jorge Cabrera on the Stop & Shop picket line last year.
Citing his work as a union organizer, the Connecticut AFL-CIO has endorsed Jorge Cabrera’s bid for the 17th State Senate District seat.
by | Jun 29, 2020 10:07 pm | Comments (13)
Sam Gurwitt Photo
New Haven will pay its school bus contractor $1.5 million less than normal for time the buses were idle during the pandemic — but more than they should, according to some Board of Education members.
Continue reading ‘1st Student Gets $7M For Not Driving Kids’
by | Jun 26, 2020 4:56 pm | Comments (1)
Laura Glesby Photo
Romero, Filardo, Wnek, and Ramirez pop in on Grand Fish Thursday evening.
Inside, Wnek checks the signs.
Grand Avenue was trying its best.
Plastic barriers were up. In most cases, people had masks on. Some required signs were prominent and bilingual. Others were missing, but could be easily replaced.
by | Jun 26, 2020 1:21 pm | Comments (2)
Paul Bass Photo
Chris Helland at work, 2018.
The crew at the city’s 911 emergency call center (aka “Public Service Answering Point, or “PSAP”) was saddened to learn of the death of Chris Helland, one of the hard-working dispatchers who help New Haven navigate crises.
by | Jun 26, 2020 12:37 pm | Comments (1)
Sam Gurwitt Photo
Cappiello at a “unity walk” up Dixwell Avenue with members of a Hamden mosque at the beginning of June.
Updated 3:40 p.m. — After six months on the job, following over a year in an interim capacity, Hamden Police Chief John Cappiello will retire on Tuesday, capping over 36 years in the department.
by | Jun 25, 2020 5:00 pm | Comments (15)
Thomas Breen photo
Carpenter Ernest Pagan and small business contractor Rodney Williams outside the Q House construction site Thursday.
City of New Haven
A third of the way through the construction of the new Q House, only 9 percent of subcontractors working on the project have been African American-owned companies, and less than 8 percent of the total construction workforce for the project has been Black.
A dozen local, Black small business contractors rallied outside of the future community center site to protest that lack of work, and to lambast a city-funded hiring initiative they argued benefits the county more than it does New Haven proper.
by | Jun 24, 2020 2:04 pm | Comments (1)
Christopher Peak Photo
Mia Edmonds-Duff (left) reads to Ross-Woodward fourth graders.
Now that Iline Tracey is officially superintendent of New Haven Public Schools, she is beginning to assemble the team who will mold the district’s curricula, technology policies and school operations under her tenure.
Continue reading ‘3 Principals Named As Tracey Assembles Executive Team’
by | Jun 18, 2020 4:00 pm | Comments (6)
Thomas Breen photo
Newly minted Detectives Chris Stroscio and James Paxton.
The two new detectives with the assistant chiefs and chief.
Two six-year police veterans rose the ranks from officer to detective during the first promotion ceremony to take place since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic and the current nationwide uprisings against police brutality.
Continue reading ‘2 Officers Promoted To Detective In Turbulent Times’
by | Jun 17, 2020 4:36 pm | Comments (4)
Denise Rogers with late husband Howard: Covid-struck, left in cold.
Denise Rogers told lawmakers a triple Covid horror story: How it hospitalized her. How it killed her husband. And how the state then turned down her quest to obtain workmen’s compensation benefits to continue to live.
Continue reading ‘Shuttle Driver Brings Covid Plea To State’
by | Jun 17, 2020 12:13 pm | Comments (12)
Christopher Peak File Photo
NHFD Paramedic Keith Kerr treats man who overdosed on heroin.
Weeks after approving a budget that would outsource paramedic services to a private company, alders voted on Tuesday night to create a working group that would revisit the issue.
by | Jun 16, 2020 10:29 am | Comments (3)
Zoom
Assistant Supt. Keisha Redd-Hannans: We weren’t taught how to teach during pandemics.
New Haven teachers will have more formal guidance on how to handle distance learning this fall than when the Covid-19 pandemic started, along with helping kids wrestle with trauma, if all goes according to the district’s latest plan.
by | Jun 15, 2020 10:58 am | Comments (2)
A state referee has denied an Elicker administration request to reconsider her decision to grant unemployment benefits to fired city youth chief Jason Bartlett.
by | Jun 9, 2020 3:24 pm | Comments (16)
Zoom
Iline Tracey.
Iline Tracey will transition from interim superintendent to official superintendent in July, the New Haven Public Schools Board of Education announced on Monday evening.
Continue reading ‘Tracey Officially Appointed Superintendent’
by | Jun 2, 2020 4:50 pm | Comments (0)
Maya McFadden Photo
As Felix Rodriguez gave Jermaine Gibbs and his son an edge up at Orlando’s Barbershop Tuesday, he made sure everyone wore a mask, the chairs and tools were disinfected.