Page 13 - Ct Viewpoints News Today

Investment in electric grid infrastructure is critical to economic progress How public dollars can upgrade broadband and the grid at the same time As the country enters a new era, it finds itself behind in the infrastructure that will shape its future: broadband and the electric grid. A lack of investment in the wires and cables we take for granted threatens our economic growth. Fortunately, we can maximize the impact of public dollars through coordinated upgrades of our electric system and b...

Recently, State Rep. Roland Lemar introduced a bill in the General Assembly that seeks to prevent coastal towns from using access and parking fees to exclude non-residents from public beaches. Critics charge that these exorbitant fees for non-residents are designed to prevent certain “undesirable” groups from being able to enjoy access to public outdoor spaces in towns they could otherwise not afford to live in. The proposed bill comes in the wake of a heated 2020 summer that saw numerous ...

Monthly CT VIEWPOINTS -- opinions from around Connecticut On pot issue, lawmakers and their constituents are not served by the same old scare tactics. Lawmakers and their constituents are not served by the same old scare tactics. Brendan Ruberry Contrary to the organization’s name, (“Smart Approaches to Marijuana”) what it advocates is not a smarter approach at all: it’s a paranoid, puritanical one — couched in clever but unsound reasoning �...

Both child tax credit and context are critical to lifting children out of poverty As a pediatrician who has devoted a career of more than five decades to promoting children’s optimal health, development, and well-being, I am excited that U.S. Rep. DeLauro’s bold, relentless, and persistent push for expansion of the child tax credit is finally receiving the bipartisan attention that it deserves.  The prestigious National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine concluded that the ex...

The pandemic fog is beginning to lift Cloe Poisson :: CTMirror.org Aldin Winslowet-Alps, 82, (right) gets the first dose of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine from paramedic Don Hart (left) at the Vernon Senior Center. Almost a year has passed since COVID-19 shut down the world, sent our economy into crisis, and placed our children in front of computers instead of loving teachers. Sue Hatfield Most of us know someone who has passed away from COVID-19 or has had to watch an elderly relative spend thei...

G.W. Petteway knew education would change life for Black people During Black History Month, I frequently think about my great-grandfather who was born a slave in North Carolina in 1834. I think of how he made education such a vital part of his life, as he was allowed to read when reading was against the law for most Blacks. He shared the word of the Bible with the community, and founded the first school in the area for newly freed slaves. Chion Wolf :: Connecticut Public Radio Gary A. Franks Th...

The Access Community Action Agency Mobile Food Pantry. For nearly 60 years, community action agencies (CAAs) have worked to address and reduce the causes and conditions of poverty by providing comprehensive case management services and application assistance for social service programs to the state’s poorest residents. CAAs connect low- and moderate-income people of all ages, in all 169 cities and towns, with resources that stabilize and improve lives and communities. These services and reso...

Build public housing in the suburbs to improve population health The Eastview Terrace II property in New Haven, operated by the New Haven Housing Authority. The COVID-19 pandemic has brought renewed attention to a pre-existing and severe affordable rental housing crisis throughout the U.S. and here in Connecticut. Prior to the pandemic, there was no state in this country where a full-time minimum wage job was sufficient to affordably rent a one- bedroom apartment. Here in Connecticut, nearly tw...

Cloe Poisson :: CT Mirror.org A sign was taped to a car window calling for the freeing of prisoners at York Correctional Institution in Niantic, Monday, April 13, 2020, during a car protest by community organizers and prison advocates in a park next the womenÕs prison. They were calling for the release of prisoners who are at risk on infection from the Covid-19 virus. In April, former Commissioner of Department of Correction (DOC) Rollin Cook issued a department-wide memorandum requiring staff...

Gov. Lamont, why the silence on racism as a public health crisis? Cloe Poisson :: CTMirror.org Rev. A.J. Johnson, an organizer with the Center for Leadership and Justice, speaks at a rally in front of Hartford City Hall following a march organized by the Greater Hartford Interfaith Action Alliance (GHIAA) to demand police accountability and transparency in response to the recent death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police. The 2020 DataHaven Community Wellbeing Survey confirmed tha...