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With schools closed today for the holiday, many families lined Park Street to watch the small parade. The “three kings” riding camels were the highlight.
The parade began near SAMA (Spanish American Merchants Association) at 95 Park Street. Here, people could pose for photos beside the camels while waiting for festivities to get moving. Continue reading 'Feliz Día de Reyes'»
During what he called a “grueling 3 1/2 years” without a permanent address, Harry Mitchell, who recently found a place to call home, learned firsthand about the “ridiculous stigma” surrounding homelessness.
During Wednesday’s memorial service for the homeless in Hartford, Mitchell spoke about what how society treats homelessness and those who experience it. Of this problem’s cause, Mitchell said “people say it’s the system,” but it’s actually caused by “our own neighbors” who do not want shelters “in their backyards.” Continue reading 'A Full House for Homeless Persons’ Memorial Service'»
“We been there all this time and they kicked us right out the door,” said Eddie Williams, a 20-year employee of Capitol Cleaners who has spent eighteen of those years working inside of the Hartford Courant building.
Williams is one of the janitors whose last day of work will be this Friday, due to the lost contract.
Razmik Hovannis and Anna Hit — also cleaning staff at the Courant and members of SEIU 32BJ — looked grim about their futures. Hovannis has worked ten years in the building and has been employed with Capitol Cleaners for 20 years; Hit has been with them for nine.
Although not ideal, the next move has been to try to secure their jobs at the building by applying for work with Pressroom Cleaners, the new cleaning contractor. Wojciech Pirog, a union delegate and representative for members employed by Capitol Cleaners, says the janitors have applied for work with with the new company, but have so far heard nothing. Continue reading 'Mourning Job Loss'»
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“We’ve become complacent” about AIDS, a community member said during Tuesday’s World AIDS Day forum in the Hartford Public Library.
In the 1980′s and 1990′s, she said, society talked about AIDS. Now, not so much. She called for the need to have conversations in places like barbershops. grocery stores, and in Spanish; then, she passed her microphone to another audience member, who delivered comments in Spanish.
This sentiment was echoed by panelists. One of them, Yvette Highsmith-Francis, the Director of Community Health Center, Inc., said we should be having these dialogues at Thanksgiving dinner and when having pedicures.
Even in 2011, misinformation about the transmission of HIV exists. Highsmith-Francis told the audience about an encounter with a woman in her forties who believed she could “catch AIDS” from hugging someone. Continue reading '“Getting to Zero” Community Forum on HIV/AIDS'»
The excitement of Friday evening’s opening ceremony carried over into this afternoon:
Continue reading 'Sounds Like Winterfest'»
If the police issue several traffic advisories letting the public know that they will likely be unable to use a street during part of the day, and then they barricade that street so that no vehicular traffic can use it, can activists who — after the road has been made impassable already — are physically blocking an entrance ramp on that block be arrested for impeding traffic?
Yes.
A dozen people, including some with SEIU, CCAG, and the machinists’ union, were peacefully arrested after blocking the Broad Street on-ramp to I-84 East. Peter Goselin, with the National Lawyers Guild, said that the arrests were carried out smoothly.
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