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Picking cherry tomatoes in the school greenhouse Now is the time for our state to invest in collaborative efforts that bring the education and agriculture sectors together for the benefit of our communities. Support is growing in the state legislature for the CT Grown for CT Kids Program. This bill would fund projects and programs that promote farm to school activities, potentially increasing the economic vitality of local farmers while improving the health and wellness of our children. But what is farm to school? Joey Listro Consider how often your child may have participated in farm related...

The time is now to create the CT Office of Community Gun Violence Prevention Sen. Marilyn Moore, D-Bridgeport, organized a news conference in mid-April following the shooting death of a three-year old in Hartford. On Friday, she convened a joint informational committee hearing to hear about gun violence intervention and prevention. On a recent Saturday in Hartford, 3-year-old Randell Jones was shot and killed while sitting in a car with his siblings. Later that afternoon, just a mile away, 16-year-old Ja’Mari Preston was shot dead. These are not isolated events. Over the 10-year period endi...

For The People Act: More than just a remedy against restrictive voter laws People register to vote at Hartford City Hall. It can be hard to vote, even in “blue state” Connecticut. Connecticut does not have early voting or no-excuse absentee voting. Most voters are forced to vote in person on election day. The only option for voting on a day other than election day is to vote absentee with a qualifying excuse. To vote absentee a Connecticut resident must fill out a form, mail the form to their town clerk who will then mail an absentee ballot, which the voter then has to mail back. The mo...

Adding to a misguided policy mix: Zoning proposals in Connecticut Recent home sale listings from Darien. There has been much debate about whether the zoning practices of towns in Connecticut are discriminatory.  Discriminatory has become a politically weaponized pejorative word used to presume the motivations of any town and their residents with a different demographic than what is considered ideologically “righteous.”  Any town with under-representation of an economic, racial, or ethnic minority is assumed guilty of moral turpitude. The reality is there is one gating factor in many of...

Why I am a Progressive legislator On Earth Day, some legislative colleagues and I joined about 40 young environmental activists at Hartford’s Riverfront Plaza for a “Meet Your Legislator” event hosted by the youth-led Sunrise Movement. I got there a bit early, and, standing on the stage beneath the awning, watched the young activists walk up the wooded path along the Connecticut River with garbage bags slung over their shoulders. After a morning spent picking up all manner of human detritus – soda bottles, discarded plastic gloves and beer cans — they were eager to cool off and talk...