by | Apr 17, 2024 2:07 pm | Comments (7)
Edgar Becerra and Josue Mauricio Arana in court.
Laura Glesby Photo
Edgar Becerra protests his former employer, MDF Painting and Power Washing, before the eviction proceedings.
A judge has ruled that Edgar Becerra and Josue Mauricio Arana must find a new place to live, ending an eviction case that sparked protests over alleged exploitation of migrant workers.
by | Apr 16, 2024 3:14 pm | Comments (11)
Paul Bass, LinkedIn Photos
911 stalwarts Joe Vitale, David Mancini, and Kenya James.
One of the year’s 164,949 emergency calls to New Haven’s 911 center came from a man at the edge of a bridge. Kenya James answered it.
by | Apr 1, 2024 1:15 pm | Comments (5)
Daphne Geismar photo
Feras on the job on Nash Street.
Feras celebrated his first job in the U.S. Monday morning by walking into traffic — and slowing down cars.
by | Apr 1, 2024 11:48 am | Comments (21)
Maya McFadden file photo
Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum, Instruction & Assessment Keisha Redd-Hannans.
The Board of Education has approved renewing the contracts of five high-level New Haven Public Schools (NHPS) administrators.
by | Mar 26, 2024 10:49 am | Comments (13)
Wikimedia photo
Only one kind of grass allowed for public mower job hopefuls.
City of New Haven job posting
Pre-employment drug test required for seasonal parks caretaker job.
If you want to make $18 an hour cutting grass in the city’s parks this summer, then you better not smoke grass before applying for the job.
Because New Haven requires prospective seasonal parks workers to pass a drug test, including for marijuana, even though recreational cannabis is now legal statewide.
by | Mar 8, 2024 4:42 pm | Comments (51)
Thomas Breen Photo
Patricia Clark in her office before retiring: “Yelled” at applicants when “she did not believe them.”
“Happy Hunting!” wrote New Haven’s vital statistics chief Patricia Clark to a federal investigator as she reported yet another immigrant getting married in City Hall.
The city released a 41-page investigatory report on Friday finding that Clark committed misconduct by reporting 93 marriage-seeking couples to federal immigration authorities and denying services to constituents arbitrarily.
Meanwhile, officials announced that Clark evaded disciplinary action by retiring in late February, the day she faced a hearing.
Continue reading ‘Probe Reveals Marriage-License Misconduct’
by | Mar 7, 2024 11:57 am | Comments (9)
UNITE HERE, the parent of Yale’s politically powerful union locals, issued a statement Thursdsay calling on all hostages to be released and all fighting to stop in Gaza.
Continue reading ‘UNITE HERE Calls For Gaza Ceasefire, Hostage Release’
by | Feb 29, 2024 9:16 am | Comments (34)
Laura Glesby Photo
Supt. Negrón: Targets 60 percent student-teacher gap.
Schools officials unveiled a plan to increase the number of educators of color in New Haven classrooms by 15 percent in three years.
by | Feb 23, 2024 9:43 am | Comments (6)
Laura Glesby Photo
Edgar Becerra protests with ULA outside MDF Painting and Power Washing.
“We have human rights,” Edgar Becerra called into a bullhorn, speaking in Spanish. “We have a heart.”
He was surrounded by over 25 immigrant rights activists outside the Branford headquarters of his Fair Haven landlord and former employer — who brought him to the U.S. as a temporary worker, allegedly fired him for work-related injuries, and is now trying to evict him a second time.
by | Feb 21, 2024 11:57 am | Comments (7)
Tirzah Kemp.
New Haven has a new “community resilience” chief and will soon have a new tax collector.
by | Feb 19, 2024 5:12 pm | Comments (89)
Hopkins head Glendinning: "Very upsetting and unsettling.”
A private school has placed an employee on administrative leave after his wife and a neighbor got in an argument over the war in Gaza.
Continue reading ‘Hopkins Suspends Palestine Protester's Spouse’
by | Feb 19, 2024 9:00 am | Comments (6)
Yash Roy Photo
Davis-Taylor at Saturday's graduation: Ready for steady work.
Cameron Davis-Taylor is ready to reenter the workforce. This time around, she plans on being a chef.
She had no professional culinary experience until she joined the ConnCAT Culinary Arts Academy half a year ago. Now she knows she is ready to start a business and begin working.
Continue reading ‘ConnCAT Sends 23 Adults Back Into Workforce’
by | Feb 9, 2024 4:51 pm | Comments (2)
Jesenia Rodriguez en route to Capitol: Putting in policy miles to protect future rideshare workers.
“It’s been a journey getting here,” Uber driver Jesenia Rodriguez said as she parked her boyfriend’s stoplight red Toyota across from the state Capitol building.
She was running late. First she had to drop her grandkids off at Jepson School. Then she missed three exits on her way into Hartford while fielding phone calls from fellow rideshare and delivery drivers.
But now she had arrived, with a message to deliver.
by | Feb 6, 2024 2:06 pm | Comments (2)
Laura Glesby Photo
Becerra and Arana: They beat the landlord in court.
A landlord has to start all over again if he still wants to evict two of the Guatemalan temporary workers he brought to Fair Haven to work at his painting company.
Continue reading ‘Migrant Workers' Eviction Stopped, For Now’
by | Jan 29, 2024 3:17 pm | Comments (34)
Seeking higher ground: former staffer Victor Rios, student Kiana Camacho and friend, and former staffer Nicole Mackin.
Students, staff, and parents at Common Ground High School say the school is going downhill because of high teacher turnover and distrust for administration. The environmental-themed charter school’s board and leaders say they are working to get to the bottom of these concerns.
by | Jan 24, 2024 3:06 pm | Comments (7)
Nora Grace-Flood Photo
Seeking justice, Tony Zona readies for jury selection.
A Yale PhD student was asked on the witness stand if he could take a firm and fair stand in a trial of cop against cops.
“What is … ‘fair’?” the graduate student responded to attorneys as jury selection kicked off in a case that will test whether top cops can be held accountable for seeking to retaliate against alleged whistleblowers.
by | Jan 23, 2024 3:30 pm | Comments (9)
Laura Glesby Photo
Superintendent Negrón: We're on it.
Connecticut’s minimum wage rose to $15.69 in 2024 — but Abe Benghiat’s substitute teaching paycheck stayed at $15.
by | Jan 21, 2024 12:35 pm | Comments (24)
NHPD image
Ofc. Diaz, Sgt. Betsy Segui, and Ofc. Ronald Pressley lifting Cox into wheelchair on June 19, 2022.
(Updated with union comment) State arbitrators have overturned the firing of the police officer who transported Richard “Randy” Cox on a fateful ride that ended up paralyzing Cox and costing New Haven $45 million.
Continue reading ‘Fired Cox Cop Van Driver Wins Arbitration’
by | Jan 17, 2024 3:03 pm | Comments (24)
Nora Grace-Flood Photo
Mark DeFrancesco: I treated tenants/workers well.
Mark DeFrancesco denied that he offered no beds to the 19 Guatemalan migrants working for him and living in one of his houses.
He denied that he deliberately locked out two of those tenants after they got injured at work.
And he denied that the eviction he has launched against those two tenants is a way to avoid paying worker’s compensation.
“I got them a 60 inch TV!” he testified in housing court. Two of them, in fact, he added at his lawyer’s prompting.
Continue reading ‘Boss/Landlord Defends Booting Injured Worker’
by | Jan 17, 2024 12:41 pm | Comments (28)
Firefighters and security workers huddle in office next to the work site ...
Paul Bass Photos
... as Fire Chief John Alston and Mayor Justin Elicker confer with construction company President Alex Babbidge at scene.
Unsafe conditions at a Yale construction site sent 14 workers to the hospital for exposure to carbon monoxide.
Continue reading ‘Workers Poisoned At Yale Construction Site’
by | Jan 12, 2024 2:54 pm | Comments (24)
Edgar Becerra in court: "I just want everyone to know the name of this company and all the injustices they did."
Construction boss-landlord Mark DeFrancesco, right, in court with lawyer Josh Brown.
Edgar Becerra fell off a 30-foot ladder — then landed in court this week fighting to stay in the country against a boss who first fired him then moved to evict him.
Continue reading ‘Landlord-Boss Boots Injured Migrant Worker’
by | Jan 8, 2024 4:27 pm | Comments (25)
Paul Bass Photo
Jisu Sheen helps customer Monday at soon-to-close Artist & Craftsman.
Jisu Sheen refuses to sign away her rights in return for four weeks of severance pay. Including to a company she supposedly “owns.”
Continue reading ‘Worker-"Owner" Won't Shut Up For Severance’
by | Jan 8, 2024 12:33 pm | Comments (8)
New Haven has a controller controller again.
Continue reading ‘New City Controller, Parks/Public Works Chief Hired’
by | Dec 16, 2023 8:43 pm | Comments (7)
Thomas Breen photos
Earth and planetary science PhD students Elly Goetz and Alex Ruebenstahl, voting "yes" on Local 33's first contract Friday.
At the 425 College polling place.
(Updated) Yale’s graduate teachers and researchers voted to ratify their first ever union contract with the university by a tally of 1,705 to 10 — making official a new five-year agreement that will see PhD students get at least 15 percent pay bumps and dental insurance, among other provisions.
by | Dec 13, 2023 12:15 pm | Comments (6)
Jeanne Newman photo
Past and present SNET/Frontier employees, at the 4 Hamilton St. garage. Back row: Charles Nixon, Tommy Joyner, Earl McCoy Sr., Webster Zackery. Front row: James Jones, Rodney Diggs, Edward McClain, Jermaine Allen.
Earl McCoy, Sr. grabbed a rung on the phone company ladder, lifting other Black New Haveners along with him into lives of stable employment at a livable wage.
He and other SNET “legends” connected offline to reflect on that journey, and where it’s headed today.