National Protest in Atlanta to Block Cop City

Melinda Tuhus, Stop Cop City Connecticut

Block Cop City will take place in Atlanta on Nov. 13, when hundreds of people from the city and beyond will attempt to peacefully occupy the Atlanta (Weelaunee) Forest. It’s the site of the proposed Atlanta police training facility known to its opponents as Cop City.

The forest was occupied for two years in an effort to stop the project, which has the support of the City Council and the Mayor, all Democrats. A forest defender, Manuel Este-ban Paez (“Tortuguita”), was killed by police back in January; in March, 41 people at a music festival in the forest were arrested with no proof of wrongdoing and charged with domestic terrorism, a felony carrying decades in prison upon conviction; in September those 41 and 20 more were charged under RICO (the Georgia organized crime law).

An effort to put the issue on the ballot garnered 116,000 signatures over the summer, twice the number needed, but city officials refused to verify them so the earliest it can be on the ballot is next March, when construction will be well underway.

Some CT residents are heading down for the Days of Action Nov. 10–13, including two days of non-violent direct action and de-escalation training culminating in the occupation. Others will be providing support like cooking and child care. If you are interested in going or have questions, text or call Melinda Tuhus at 203-623-2186. If you would like to take action locally (being determined, but all legal actions like a rally, vigil, etc.), email stopcopcityct@gmail.com.

Charter Revision Will Be on the Ballot for New Haven Voters on Tuesday, Nov. 7, 2023 Newhavenvotes.org

The Question on the ballot: “Shall Charter changes as recommended by the Charter Revision Commission and adopted by the Board of Alders be approved and adopted?”
What the charter revision recommendations would do:

  • Four-year terms for mayor, alder, and city clerk,
  • Increase annual stipend for Alders from $2000 to $5000,
  • Explicitly clarify that alders must approve all city contracts of at least $100,000,
  • Extend the window for alders’ approval of appointees to city boards and commissions from 60 to 90 days,
  • Move most requirements for department heads out of the Charter and into the Code of Ordinances, making them easier to change.
  • Make language in the charter gender-neutral.

    The Registrar of Voters confirmed that the referendum question will be placed on the far right-hand side of the ballot, as they have typically been in the past. We need to work hard reminding voters: “Look to the right-hand side—because on charter revision you decide!” Learn more: www.newhavenvotes.org. New Haven Votes Coalition, PO Box 207063, New Haven.

CT Green Energy News

News and events for advocates of clean energy, energy efficiency, and climate action at the state and local levels, focusing on Connecticut. Brought to you by People’s Action for Clean Energy (PACE). Visit www.pacecleanergy.org.

CT energy assistance needs more state funding, advocates say:
CT Mirror. “With federal heating assistance projected to drop and oil prices rising, advocates say CT officials should use state funds for heating aid. Energy assistance advocates are renewing their call for Connecticut to tap its robust coffers to help keep poor families warm this winter. The alarm intensified after a Hartford-based nonprofit closed its summer/fall energy assistance program one month early due to high demand. With projected federal heating assistance projected to drop as much as $970 per household this winter—and with home heating oil prices rising steadily since mid-June—advocates say things could turn ugly this winter unless state officials end their reluctance to use state funds.”

No hydrogen hub for CT and the Northeast:
CT Mirror. “Connecticut and the Northeast came up losers Friday in the high-stakes competition for regional hydrogen hubs—part of the Biden administration’s Bipartisan Infra-structure Law’s focus on hydrogen as an important clean energy source to fight climate change. A seven-state consortium of Connecticut and the rest of New England, except New Hampshire, plus New York and New Jersey, were not among seven hubs selected to share $7 billion … Among the hubs selected were several in swing presidential race states as well as ones with difficult senate races for Democrats looking to maintain control, including West Virginia and Montana. And many of them are in heavy fossil fuel-producing areas that face potential negative economic impacts as the country transitions towards clean energy.”

Blumenthal urges increased LIHEAP funding as CT families face chilly winter:
CT News Junkie. “The winter heating season has already started, Operation Fuel has stopped taking applications, and Congress level funded the Low Income Heating and Energy Assistance Program… ‘Applications for heating assistance are up by about 20%,’ Blumenthal said. However, the funding is still only about $4 billion nationwide. … Operation Fuel’s Gannon Long said, ‘the affordability gap between what people can pay for their energy needs and what they’re being asked to pay has increased 37% in just two years.’ … Last year, the nonprofit approved around 3,900 applications during its Summer/Fall application period. Two years ago, the program received only around 2,000 applications during that same period.”

Evergrow completes first IRA tax credit transfer through solar project in Connecticut:
Solar World. “Evergrow, a clean energy finance company, has successfully completed the funding of a clean energy tax credit transfer on its platform, the first of its kind to be announced … Under the IRA, developers and owners of clean energy projects can sell their tax credits to raise funding. With demand for clean energy tax financing expected to exceed $80 billion by 2031, this funding helps pay for the cost of building clean energy projects, such as solar power, battery storage, electric vehicle chargers and more … Developers of clean energy projects often struggle to access tax credit funding, particularly for projects on the smaller end of the scale. By using technology to build a modern platform for clean energy finance, Evergrow is unlocking greater access to funding for developers of all sizes.”

For a complete listing of clean energy events, visit the on-line Calendar: www.pacecleanenergy.org/calendar. You can submit an event to the PACE Calendar and also subscribe to it.

WATT ELSE?
Updates to Furnace Efficiency Standards for First Time in 16 Years:
Last updated in 2007, the U.S. Department of Energy has announced final rules for residential gas furnaces to go into effect in late 2028. Non-weatherized gas furnaces and those used in mobile homes will require 95% efficiency. Read more: https://www.utilitydive.com/news/doe-finalizes-gas-furnace-efficiency-rule/695330.

Rules for electric vehicle instant rebates at dealerships are here:
Treasury lays out rules for instant EV rebate – E&E News by POLITICO (eenews.net). Starting Jan. 1, 2024, EV buyers can transfer their Inflation Reduction Act electric vehicle credits to dealerships and receive cash or apply the credit toward the cost of the car. The IRA provides a tax credit of up to $7,500 for certain electric vehicles and used EVs are eligible for a $4,000 credit.

Outrageously High GAS RATE HIKES Proposed by CNG and SCG

by Kathleen Fay, Neighborhood Housing Services

Please see the email below from Thomas Wiehl. Then,

  • Respond directly to Tom if you would like to be part of the discussion.
  • Share widely to members of your task forces and other networks including other municipal staff.
  • Consider drafting letters for your group to sign onto and submit to the media and/or to Office of Consumer Council or Public Utilities Regulatory Authority (PURA). Or individual letters.
  • If you or your organization wish to be interveners in the PURA docket, please note the deadline for filing is Nov. 15.

For additional details or support: Kathleen Fay, Director of Community Sustainability, Neighborhood Housing Services, 203-562-0598, Ext. 225, www.nhsofnewhaven.org, 333 Sherman Ave, New Haven.

Hello all,

 

CT Natural Gas and Southern CT Gas have filed their notices of intent in their pending rate cases, seeking ten percent and TWENTY PERCENT increases to delivery revenues, respectively. You can see the notices here: www.dpuc.state.ct.us/dockcurr.nsf/8e6fc37a54110e3e852576190052b64d/f65a98e3aa41173585258a390072492d?OpenDocument

OCC will be directly engaging in this proceedings and would certainly welcome collaborative discussions with anyone with an interest in critically analyzing these upcom-ing rate applications. Contact: Thomas Wiehl, Director of Utility Oversight & Regulatory Reform, State of CT, Office of Consumer Counsel, 860-827-2906, Thomas.Wiehl@ct.gov, www.ct.gov/occ.

Updates from the Movement for the CT Environmental Rights Amendment

Kim Stoner, CT Environmental Rights Amendment Alliance

Big news! The lawsuit in Montana, where a group of young people established their right to a stable climate, based on the environmental rights in the Montana state constitution, drew attention to the power of constitutional environmental rights across the country and here in CT.

Most important action you can take now: Sign our petition to key state legislators to move the CT Environmental Rights Amendment forward in the coming session: https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/we-want-our-right-to-a-healthy-environment-in-the-ct-constitution.

We already have more than 300 signatures!

Wed., Nov. 1, 4 p.m. Want to get more deeply involved? We are offering a training webinar, “Get Up to Speed to Lead, Part 1.” Register at ct-era.org/events/ct-environmental-rights-amendment-virtual-training.

Kim Stoner had an opportunity to talk over the Held v. Montana case with Paul Bass of the New Haven Independent and WNHH radio. You can find the interview here: https://ctnofa.org/dr-kimberly-stoner-interviewed-on-wnhh-fms-dateline-new-haven.

The national movement had a great webinar with legal experts on constitutional rights and environmental justice. Ready for a deep dive? See the recording on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NASBpfok0AM.

Thanks to Eluned Li, we now have our own state website. Check it out: https://www.ct-era.org/.

Change a Charter, Change a Community, Change a Nation = Changing the World

by Frank C. Rohrig, The Egalitarian Quest

Dear Fellow Citizens,

I’m writing this letter as a matter of societal urgency to implore your participation in a movement/cause absolutely critical to the very salvation of our democracy, as well as the world’s future stability and security….

In spite of all the advances women have made through decades of fighting for fairness and equality, the most important and significant area of disparity that affects all of their lives every single day is the political arena. The ratio of male to female representation in all areas of governance is roughly 75% to 25%. “Having a seat at the table” or “being in the game” has never been so desperately important as it has become entering the twenty-first-century “global world.” This disparity is a detriment to the majority of the citizenry….

Gender parity in governance is the first step in countering the greed and corruption that have decimated this nation’s economy and a further step towards the Constitution’s promised aspirations of an Egalitarian Society. We as a nation can no longer wait for promises made and broken. We can and must begin the movement together (men and women) for GENDER PARITY (50%-50%) throughout our entire nation and world. Every house, as well as every nation, needs a strong foundation; so we must attain parity in the smallest of communities, in statehouses, and throughout the federal government, until every taxpayer-supported entity is governed with a shared purpose in betterment for all its citizens. Nothing short of 50/50 male/female representation shall suffice in a nation/world that is so presently divided and ineffective.

Good Jobs Are a Human Right

Sarianna Sabbarese, CT Jobs and Human Rights Task Force

In our lifetimes, we have seen the rapid deterioration of once robust union protections. Even as social conditions have improved for many, economic disparities grow. Despite artificially low criteria for poverty, the threadbare American social safety net creaks and groans. We watch in anxious horror as a new cast of hard-right chaos agents in-filtrate Washington’s highest offices, wondering if democracy is on the brink of collapse. What can we do― besides shop―to hop off this doom spiral? Even if we feel driven to create a better future, where do we begin?

In 2021, Sarianna Sabbarese and Dr. Stephen Tomczak worked as representatives of the National Jobs For All Network to organize a Town Hall Meeting, holding these concerns and sentiments in mind. NJFAN has long operated as the premiere organization in the United States seeking to advance Full Employment via a large-scale, direct government job creation program: the jobs agenda to which FDR aspired when he called for a “second, economic Bill of Rights.”

The Town Hall explored the economic and social justice work of many different representatives from the New Haven community―including educators, students, activists, and people with lived experience of economic and social inequities―and the intersections of that work with Full Employment. It was a meeting place and a reminder that, despite necessarily limited sets of personal priorities, all present were engaged in a single, shared project.

Out of this event, the Connecticut Jobs and Human Rights Task Force formed, organized by macro social work practitioners Jennifer Perez and Sarianna Sabbarese, and advised by Logan Martinez and Dr. Stephen Tomczak. The group works to advance the right of people across the state to living wage remuneration, laying local infrastructure for direct government job creation so that jobs are created where they are actually needed―and not merely to serve the interests of wealthy individuals and corporations. As a group built on the supposition that economic justice is the bedrock on which social justice rests, they are committed to interjecting people-oriented priorities into economic policy.

If you are interested in joining the Task Force, please email Jennifer Perez (jennymperez89@gmail.com) or Sarianna Sabbarese (ssabbarese@gmail.com)

Indigenous Peoples’ Day’s Solidarity on the Green

Lucy Gellman, Arts Paper

The sound of drums coasted over the New Haven Green, mingling with the scent of sage still in the air. …Monday [Oct. 9], [Jennifer] Rawlings and her son, Dyami Pimentel, joined close to 50 people observing Indigenous Peoples’ Day on the Green, which sits on unceded Quinnipiac land across from New Haven’s City Hall. Organized by longtime activist Norm Clement, this year’s gathering made space for Indigenous storytelling, culture, and ceremony across cultural and geographic borders, addressing colonialism as both an ongoing problem and source of deep generational trauma….

“I hope we’re bringing some love and community here today,” said Clement, who is a water protector, confederate member of the Quinnipiac tribe, and a member of the Penobscot nation. “We are still here. They’ve tried for [over] 500 years to get us, but we’re still here.”…

Monday, that sense of solidarity was everywhere, from attendees who came straight from the [Palestine] rally to those who shared stories of growing up Indigenous in New Haven, in Connecticut, and across the country. As Clement filled a polished abalone shell with sage, fanning it with a turkey feather, Rawlings stepped in close, listening to details about the ceremony to come. …[Clement] called for a moment of silence to remember Sadé Heart of the Hawk, who for decades dedicated her life to suicide prevention, trauma reduction, and education and advocacy for Two-Spirit people.…“She is now one of our ancestors,” Clement said, his voice strained and reverent as Ricky Looking Crow lifted a drum and began to play….

Before the observance concluded, Clement and Looking Crow held up a banner that they planned to place at the Knights of Columbus Museum on State Street, a final act of resistance and solidarity. … A number of red handprints crowded the top register, a reminder of the epidemic of missing and murdered Indigenous women in this country and well beyond it. 500 Years of Genocide/And/We Are Still Here, it read. And Clement had added two green, white, and red Palestinian flags.

[Read the article in its entirety at https://www.newhavenarts.org/arts-paper/articles/indigenous-peoples-day-centers-celebrates-solidarity-on-the-green

Tens of Thousands attend New York City Climate March Sept. 17, 2023

From “Democracy Now!” Sept. 18, 2023

Tens of thousands of people filled the streets of midtown Manhattan Sunday to send a clear message to the world and leaders coming to the city for the U.N. General Assembly this week: End fossil fuels.

Climate March in NYC, Sept. 17, 2023. Photos Paula Panzarella

As part of more than 200 actions around the world leading up to the first-ever United Nations Climate Ambition Summit this Wednesday, more than 700 grassroots groups together called on President Joe Biden to declare a climate emergency, stop all federal approvals for new fossil fuel projects, phase out production of fossil fuels on federal public lands, and build a new clean energy future.

Climate March in NYC, Sept. 17, 2023. Photos Paula Panzarella

Speakers at the massive march’s rally included New York Democratic Rep. Jamaal Bowman, environmental justice activist Sharon Lavigne, former Irish President Mary Robinson, actor Susan Sarandon and climate scientist Peter Kalmus. “Every little bit of fossil fuel we burn makes the planet a little hotter,” warned Kalmus, while Bowman and Robinson condemned fossil fuel investment as “subsidizing” the planet’s “own self-destruction.” Added Kalmus, “This is a task of cosmic importance. …

We are on the brink of losing absolutely everything.”

https://www.democracynow.org/2023/9/18/march_to_end_fossil_fuels_presser

Ocean Rescinds Eviction Notices after Union Pushback

Nora Grace-Flood, NH Independent Sept. 8, 2023

A megalandlord has walked back on threats to evict 16 tenants and agreed to negotiate on lease security, rent stability and living conditions — after members of the city’s first legally recognized tenants union used public and legal pressure to hang on to their homes.

Ocean Management, one of New Haven’s largest property management-landlord-real estate investment outfits, signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Blake St. Tenants Union that rescinds those 16 notices to quit in exchange for the withdrawal of a lawsuit and fair rent complaint filed against the business by union members.

That all comes after the union fired back against the landlord’s attempt to kick out a quarter of residents at the Elizabeth Apartments complex at 311 Blake St. in late August, claiming that the lapse-of-time eviction notices — which stated that tenants had to move out because their leases had expired and the landlord did not want to renew — were actually an act of retaliation against tenants for organizing to push back against a potential rent hike.

Since Ocean first began distributing those notices to quit in residents’ doorways on Aug. 19, the tenants union delivered a petition opposing the eviction filings to their landlord, held a press conference, filed for injunctive relief, filed a lawsuit, and organized a protest with over 300 tenants rights activists and local labor organizers. On Sept. 1, Ocean drafted and signed a memorandum of understanding withdrawing those notices and promising not to pursue any more lapse-of-time evictions for at least three months.

Many Blake St. tenants were kept on month-to-month leases after Ocean purchased the property two years ago, meaning that every 30 days their landlord could choose to let that lease expire … [CT Tenants Union VP Luke] Melonakos-Harrison said he hopes the union’s win will also mean ​“more and more people will come to understand how unfair these types of evictions are and why we need universal no-cause eviction protections in Connecticut.”

Read more here: www.newhavenindependent.org/article/ocean_rescinds_notices_to_quit_after_tenants_persist

Martin Luther King Mural in Hamden Unveiled

Dorothy Johnson stands next to a portrait of her sister Lula White.

The unveiling of the Martin Luther King mural outside Miller Memorial Library, 2901 Dixwell Avenue, was held on Saturday, June 17, as the opening event of the Juneteenth Celebration.

RiseUP for Arts partnered with the Town of Hamden, local businesses, organizations, and community members in Hamden to create a large-scale public art mural in collaboration with artist Emida Roller on the Dixwell-facing side of Hamden’s Miller Memorial Library that celebrates the diversity and cultures of the community and highlights the messages of Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Hamden is the 16th town to produce an MLK39 Racial Equity Mural.

Each MLK39 Racial Equity Mural is inspired by the community. Hamden residents participated in a mural design survey that guided the mural design, and many took part in community volunteer paint days.

The mural celebrates the global legacy of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King and his dedication to advancing civil rights. For more information about the statewide campaign visit: www.theriseupgroup.org/mlk39.

Paula Panzarella photos

Others depicted on the mural are Hamden residents or people with deep ties with the town of Hamden who have passed on.

  • Mattie Mims, first African American woman elected to the Hamden Legislative Council
  • Rabbi Robert Goldburg, who invited Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King to speak at Hamden’s Congregation Mishkan Israel
  • Samuel Augustus Jones, first African American career firefighter for Hamden
  • Beulah Jacobs, first African American to teach in Hamden Public Schools
  • Fred Parris, founder of the Five Satins and creator of the classic song “In the Still of the Night”
  • Barbara Welfare, first African American master’s credentialed librarian at the Whitneyville branch
  • Samuel William Jones, first African American police officer in Hamden
  • Lula Mae White, Freedom Rider who non-violently fought against the segregation laws in this country. In 1961, she spent two months in Parchman State Penitentiary for sitting in the “whites only” waiting room of the bus terminal.

Lula’s inclusion in the mural is especially heart-warming for many PAR readers who knew her and worked with her for many years. Lula was a New Haven schoolteacher for almost three decades and was arrested and jailed during the teachers’ strike of 1975; she took part in many protests against war and other injustices; she was an active member of the Greater New Haven Labor History Association (at the Sept. 10 GNHLHA annual meeting she was given a post-humous award); and worked with many progressive organizations, including the PAR newsletter (see par-newhaven.org/?s=lula+white).

Also on the mural are the names of living individuals who are either firsts in their elected or district-appointed office, or have advanced the discussion of racial equity through literature.

You can see the news broadcast of the mural’s unveiling at www.wtnh.com/news/connecticut/new-haven/hamden-unveils-mural-to-commemorate-juneteenth.

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