by | Jun 7, 2024 11:35 am | Comments (0)
One hundred sixteen years after George Smith’s Grand Avenue workers started flattening warmed hard candy into circles on a stick, Connecticut’s governor has officially recognized his contribution to American culinary culture.
Continue reading ‘It's Official: New Haven's "Lolly" Is Connecticut's Candy’
by | Jun 5, 2024 11:15 am | Comments (14)
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State legislative candidates Nyrell Moore and Johnnie McFadden at WNHH FM.
Nyrell Moore and Johnnie McFadden agree that voters in neighborhoods like the Hill should have a choice when they vote — and they’re presenting themselves as that choice this November.
Continue reading ‘2 Challenge Incumbent Dems For State Seats’
by | May 29, 2024 4:27 pm | Comments (7)
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Seeking Conn.-grown solutions: Comptroller Scanlon pictured Tuesday during a stop at New Haven's Louis' Lunch.
Connecticut needs to pay doctors and hospitals more for Medicaid care. We also need to find a way to pay for it.
Sean Scanlon says he has an idea.
by | May 28, 2024 1:24 pm | Comments (21)
Thomas Breen photos
Paid sick leave advocates celebrate ...
... Gov. Lamont's signing of bill, alongside Lt. Gov. Bysiewicz and State Sen. Kushner.
The bill doesn’t single out female workers as such.
But everyone who took the microphone to speak at a packed, celebratory press conference heralding the expansion of the state’s paid sick days program made clear on Tuesday that this law — freshly signed by the governor — is meant to make Connecticut a more family-friendly place, by helping women stay in the workforce.
by | May 22, 2024 11:09 am | Comments (13)
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Filibuster-ready if needed: State Sen. Gary Winfield at WNHH FM.
Gary Winfield was ready to talk. And talk. And talk. For hours and hours.
He let his colleagues in the legislature know that he was ready to talk and talk and talk.
So he didn’t need to end up talking. He got the message across — and mission accomplished.
by | May 16, 2024 9:09 am | Comments (35)
Changing of the guard: Incumbent Porter, nominee Winter.
It appears something momentous will happen this year in New Haven: Voters will elect a new state legislator, for the first time in eight years.
That’s because incumbent State Rep. Robyn Porter did not show up to a convention Wednesday night to receive the Democratic Party’s endorsement to run for a sixth two-year term representing the 94th General Assembly District.
Continue reading ‘Surprise! Winter Tapped For Porter's Seat’
by | May 13, 2024 3:41 pm | Comments (60)
Maya McFadden file photo
At a Career High class about race and America.
New Haven is hustling to find more white, Asian, and suburban kids for three inter-district magnet schools — or else face a potential fine for having too many students enrolled who are Black, Hispanic, and from the city.
by | Mar 27, 2024 12:15 pm | Comments (2)
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Sean Allen: Kids "expected to be like adults at 14.”
When the state made public buses free during the pandemic, it was a lifeline for Sean Tomany’s high school students. They could get to school earlier, stay later, participate in extracurriculars, and meet one-on-one with teachers.
The free buses went away, as did the opportunities that so many of his students could access for a short while, helping make sure they did not join the one in five kids in Connecticut who have dropped out or are at risk of dropping out.
Continue reading ‘New "119K Commission" Gets Advice On Helping At-Risk Youth’
by | Mar 14, 2024 4:03 pm | Comments (40)
File photos
Local landlords Shmuel Aizenberg (top left) and Mendy Edelkopf (bottom left), 2 of 20 signatories of form letter opposing state bill; tenant advocates Sinclair Williams (top right) and Sarah Giovanniello (bottom right, with Amy Eppler-Epstein), in support of bill.
“I am a part of a group of landlords in the area who help each other out by discussing issues and providing support and guidance to each other,” wrote Ocean Management’s Shmuel Aizenberg.
Mandy Management’s Adir Chen wrote that too. So did Julian Cardona and Menahem Edelkopf and Alejandro Soriano and Menahem Lebenhartz and more than a dozen fellow New Haven-area landlords and property managers.
Each “wrote” those same words in individually signed form letters seeking to persuade state legislators to protect their right to evict rent-paying tenants whose leases have expired.
Continue reading ‘Local Landlords, Unite! vs. Eviction Bill’
by | Mar 8, 2024 11:15 am | Comments (11)
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Rolling up a mattress before bulldozers come in to demolish a Lamberton Street homeless encampment.
As executive director of New Haven’s Downtown Evening Soup Kitchen (DESK) and drop-in center, Steve Werlin has seen firsthand the state’s “historic” rise in homelessness. He told state legislators about that — to urge them to find extra money this year to help front-line agencies like his save lives and work toward solutions.
by | Mar 5, 2024 9:45 am | Comments (0)
Students Monday outside the parked cARTie bus.
cARTie museum educator Nicole Pappo reads to students outdoors.
When asked “does art matter?” second graders Mercedes, Mason, and Elia agreed “yes.” Then they showed some of the reasons: Mason drew a sign reading “art = peace.” Elia drew a self-portrait. And Mercedes drew a rainbow, reading “I love art.”
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 | Jan 10, 2024 11:30 am | Comments (74)
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SCSU officer escorts protester from Chamber breakfast forum.
Gov. Ned Lamont was beginning to tout Connecticut’s economy to a banquet hall of New Haven business leaders Wednesday morning when a dozen protesters swept into the room to protest the war in Gaza.
Continue reading ‘Pro-Palestine Protesters Crash Guv’s Speech’
by | Jan 10, 2024 9:03 am | Comments (15)
Secretary of the State Stephanie Thomas at WNHH FM.
Stephanie Thomas said she was “as shocked as everybody else” when she saw a video of a Bridgeport campaign worker allegedly hauling stacks of harvested absentee ballots into a drop box.
by | Jan 4, 2024 4:52 pm | Comments (13)
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State Rep. Josh Elliott at WNHH FM.
Joshua Elliott can see legal magic mushrooms for sale and ranked-choice ballots materializing in the distance.
Continue reading ‘Elliott Readies Next Legislative Steps Toward Freedom’
by | Dec 18, 2023 6:54 pm | Comments (5)
Maya McFadden photo
Gov. Lamont (right) "clearing the records" of thousands of Connecticut residents with years-old criminal convictions.
Helen Caraballo is looking forward to attending nursing school while raising her five children and bouncing back from an otherwise “rough year” — with the knowledge that she’ll no longer have to keep looking backward at a decade-old, low-level felony conviction, which will soon be erased.
Continue reading ‘80,000 Records To Be Cleared As "Clean Slate" Takes Full Effect’
by | Nov 21, 2023 8:49 am | Comments (2)
Lisa Gray Photo
Orsella Hughes, Ginne-Rae Clay, Fixing Fathers Inc. Founder Dr. David Asbery, and Larry Conaway.
In a music- and dance-filled celebration, the Prosperity Foundation distributed $900,000 in grant funds to 25 mostly Black-led organizations.
Continue reading ‘Prosperity Foundation Awards $900K In Cannabis-Legalization-Related Grants’
by | Oct 20, 2023 9:40 am | Comments (4)
Contributed photo
LaToya Howard (right) with Elm City Montessori's David Weinreb.
The following writeup was submitted by Elm City Montessori School to celebrate Thursday’s recognition of statewide parental involvement awardee LaToya Howard.
Elm City Montessori School parent and former NHPS T.A.P.S award winner LaToya Howard was honored at the Connecticut Family & Community Engagement Conference in Rocky Hill on Thursday as one of five recipients of this year’s State Education Resource Center (SERC) Parental Involvement Recognition Award.
Continue reading ‘Super Parent Honored For Family Organizing’
by | Oct 6, 2023 1:05 pm | Comments (1)
A new batch of $47 million in state money headed to New Haven will improve the lot of train riders as well as pedestrians and cyclists on car-crazy Whalley Avenue, among others in town.
Continue reading ‘State Bond Bucks Boost Whalley, Train Transformations’
by | Oct 4, 2023 2:41 pm | Comments (8)
Newly appointed state Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection Commissioner to-be Ronnell Higgins.
Gov. Ned Lamont has nominated former Yale Police Chief Ronnell Higgins to serve as the state’s next top public safety official — describing him as the “right man to take on this job” and get to the bottom of a roiling state police ticketing scandal.
Continue reading ‘Ex-Yale Chief Tapped As Next State Public Safety Commissioner’
by | Sep 29, 2023 3:15 pm | Comments (25)
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Alder Claudia Herrera (right) inside Dayvett's Gifts with co-owner Ines Vidals.
The state has awarded $6 million towards overhauling Grand Avenue to make the bustling Fair Haven commercial corridor safer, cleaner, better-lit, and more pedestrian-friendly.
Those improvements can’t come soon enough for neighborhood stalwarts like Maria Ocotecatl of Grand Fish Market, and Javier Sanchez of Evolution Hair Studio, and Angeles Romero of Rodeo Groceries, and Ines Vidals of Dayvett’s Gifts, who have built up their small businesses because of their diverse and supportive community — and despite some of the conditions that persist outside their shops’ front doors.
by | Aug 23, 2023 1:01 pm | Comments (8)
Thomas Breen photo
Juliana Garcia (center) at Fair Haven Health talk: "To what extent can I dream?"
Juliana Garcia can still remember being nine years old, uninsured, and telling her mom that it really was ok for her to pass on a dental surgery that would cost more than $4,000.
That the healthcare operation could wait. That that money needed to be spent instead on rent and food and other essentials.
Continue reading ‘In Fair Haven, Healthcare Expanders Dare To Dream’
by | Aug 14, 2023 2:42 pm | Comments (34)
Nora Grace-Flood photo
The Lamberton encampment, now cleared by the state.
Between ten and twenty people living under a Lamberton Street bridge by the Metro-North train tracks in the Hill were sent packing Monday morning after the state declared the site unsafe and cleared the campers’ belongings.
by | Jul 27, 2023 1:26 pm | Comments (17)
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Scanlon at WNHH FM: "We stink at communicating with people."
Connecticut’s comptroller had good news to tell the public. Would anyone listen, let alone believe it?
by | Jul 25, 2023 3:45 pm | Comments (12)
Nora Grace-Flood photo
Hana and Eva Feldman, both ready for college.
Hana Feldman plans to return to school once her firstborn is old enough for daycare — and hopes that two-week-old Eva will have an easier time following in her footsteps with state money newly set aside for college tuition.