HARTFORD – Calling Hartford one of the most beautiful cities in the country, Mayor Pedro E. Segarra announced a comprehensive greening effort to clean, revitalize and sustain the Capital City’s historic parks.

In joining the national celebration of Parks by the National Parks Service, Hartford’s  “Week of the Parks” will take place August 23-28^th but the efforts that happen leading up to it are just as important, Segarra said.

“A strategy and vision are already in place as part of our ‘One City, One Plan’ conservation and development.  What is essential is that we recognize the value of our parks which are huge assets to our city,” said Mayor Segarra.  “But the most important and essential part of all of this, if it is to be a success, is to get the community involved.”

Click here for details about Hartford\’s parks.

There are several elements of this greening campaign including jobs, the physical clean-up and repair, health and recreational activities, and educational events.  The hiring and re-hiring of 30 seasonal part time workers has already been announced and is underway, according to a press release.  Clean-up efforts regarding tree-trimming, mowing and picking-up litter have begun as well throughout the city’s parks and cemeteries.

Watch PBS documentaries about national parks

The Week of the Parks schedule will include a centralized focus on the following areas:

Monday, August 23^rd:  Keney Park  (Woodland Street entrance):

• Cut and remove fallen trees
• Clean and remove leaves along hiking roads and trails
• Remove old fence at tennis courts, clean area
• Repair broken benches
• Repair broken basketball rims
• Clean, patch and paint handball courts
• Remove old baseball backstop

Tuesday, August 24^th:  Colt Park

• Cut, remove and prune trees
• Repair park benches
• clean area under old stage/pavilion
• Clean and remove boards at old ice rink
• Repair Massek parking lot
• Repair basketball courts

Wednesday, August 25^th:  Goodwin Park

• Remove branches and wood along Maple Avenue
• Repair fit trail and equipment
• Repair basketball courts
• Trim and cut trees on Maple Avenue

Thursday, August 26^th:  Bushnell Park

• Remove perimeter shrubs near Pump House
• Repair park benches
• Prune Pump House shrubs
• Refurbish mulch beds where needed
• Trim and prune trees
• Remove old fencing around playground area

Friday, August 27^th:  Keney Park (Barbour Street entrance)

• Cut up and remove fallen trees
• Remove old fence and nets at northern tennis courts
• Replace or repair rims and nets at basketball courts
• Paint basketball courts

The Department of Health and Human Services, as part of the City’s “Health Hartford” campaign, will sponsor a number of activities in the parks on these same days.  Health screenings and recreational events will occur and swimming pools will remain open this week (the week before school starts in Hartford) which is one extra week beyond what has already been scheduled.

The educational component will engage the newly created Green Ribbon Task Force.  Mayor Segarra announced that neighborhood activist Bernadine Silvers and noted local architect Tyler Smith— both Founding Directors of Riverfront Recapture— are the Chairpersons.  One of their many roles is to be part of panel discussions about the unique park system’s past, present and future including exciting activities at the Pump House in Bushnell Park.

What will kick off on August 20^th as a celebration at the Riverfront with the Dragon Boat and Asian Festival will culminate on Saturday, August 28^th with a Community Clean-Up Day.  All of this is in conjunction with the long term vision of the “One City, One Plan” strategy for conservation and development (POCD 2020) that was adopted in June.

More information will be made available as the “Week of the Parks” approaches, city officials said.

By Ann-Marie Adams, Staff Writer

BARBADOS — In Barbados, you’ll find many people with a long-lived life.

Settled by the British in 1627, the Caribbean island has the most people over 100 years old per capita and who are among the most healthy. Such has been the case since its early colonial days when America’s first president, George Washington, visited the island in 1751 with his ailing brother. They journeyed to the southeastern Caribbean to seek out the “cures of the island.”

Of his visit to Barbados, Washington wrote in the 1700s that: “The Healthiest of this Island sufficiently shown in the countenances of the Country Gentleman and its said they live to great ages where they are not intemperate.”

Having visited Barbados myself, it’s not difficult to see why the island attracts many from Europe and other parts of the world, including North America. Soon after landing in Barbados, it was clear to see that it was mighty hard to get depressed in the peared shaped island. A dose of happiness comes from the brilliance of the sun, sea and sand, all of which easily penetrate one’s psyche and then lift the spirit. On a four-day weekend, I was lured by the roar of the deep, blue ocean punctuated by the local sparrows’ crisp chirps and the spectacular colors of the rainbow that bursts from the sky after a brief torrential shower. At night, I closed my eyes and listened to the sounds of the wind rustling in the palm trees, serving as a lullaby as I drifted into sleep.

Stay:

This experience is bound to be yours if you stay at a hotel like Cobblers Cove, an English Country House style hotel and a member of the prestigious Relais & Chateaux. Located in the historical Speightstown, the Cove is surrounded by lush flora and fauna indigenous to Barbados, a setting that might have a special appeal to Connecticut residents who relish understated elegance and exclusivity. The Cove sits on the edge of the platinum coast known for its soft, white, sand beach with clear blue ocean water tamed enough for swimming.

Eat:

Champers Wine Bar and Restaurant is an elegant dining facility with sumptuous meals for discriminating taste buds. Highly recommended is the coconut shrimp with chili sauce.

The dinner menu offers a wide variety of delectable fish dishes. And the ambiance is, without a doubt, one of its main features because the outdoor dining area sits on a cliff and offers a panoramic view of the Atlantic Ocean.

Visit:

George Washington House and Museum is a restored 18^th century plantation house where George and Lawrence Washington slept in 1751. Barbados boasts that it is the only place American’s first president visited outside of Virginia. The museum is open weekdays from 9 a.m. to 4: 30 p.m.

St Nicholas Abbey was built in 1650 and is one of only three houses of Jacobean architecture still standing in the Western Hemisphere. It was the home of a prominent farmer and has no connection with any religious order. That might explain why they are now manufacturing rum there. Visitors can tour the home. They will be entertained by the 1936 gentleman’s chair in the study. The mahogany chair, made in England in the 1830s, is one of the ultimate luxurious relaxations with adjustable tables, book holder, reading lamp, back rest and foot rest. It gives many a peek into the gender roles of that era. Visitor could also take a sip of Barbados specialty: it’s pure rum. The estate is open to the public weekdays from 10: a.m. to 3: 30 a. Admission is $15.

HARTFORD — Here in Connecticut, we are always looking for that quick getaway. We usually head to New York City or Boston. But now we can mix it up a bit. We  found a new locale we can hop to in about two to three hours from Hartford.

So if you need a “holiday” from the 4^th of July holiday weekend, you can head to the Adirondacks to experience Lake Placid Lodge’s new “Treats” package, offering the ultimate in relaxation, rejuvenation and respite. The three-night package, available mid-week (Sunday through Thursday), July 5 – 12, 2010, includes everything a guest needs to fully de-stress following a long weekend of 4^th of July entertaining, including  accommodations in a breathtaking mountain view cabin, a fully prepared daily breakfast for two served in-room or in Artisans Restaurant overlooking Lake Placid and two lunches in Maggie’s Pub. 

Folks at the Lodge say that your  experience will end as peacefully as it began with complimentary chocolate covered strawberries delivered to the cabin on the last evening, followed by a deep sleep with a late check-out at 1:00pm the following day.  For additional information on Lake Placid Lodge, visit www.lakeplacidlodge.com.

By Ann-Marie Adams, Staff Writer

LONDON – London, England is unbelievable warm and pleasantly foggy in the wintertime. So in the summer, you should brace yourself for a hot and sticky but quaint experience that’s affordable—if you plan your trip carefully and frugally.

There’s now reason to search out this Old World country. That’s because it has become an affordable European destination for North Americans. Summer is a good time to hop over the Atlantic because fares are cheaper, which  is good news for the busy and budget conscious wanderlust.

Traveling from the southern part of London from Gatwick Airport to Central London by bus is not that exciting unless you want to see lots of fog and prairie.  It’s also not cheaper to fly in there and go by bus, so opt to fly in closer to London. Then after settling in, head out on a doubled decker bus or the underground tube. Both are good ways to get around because taxis are expensive.


About $30 will get you an all week multiple pass called the Oyster. This makes for traveling around London easier and faster, especially by the Tube. Most of London’s historic landmarks are at the Westminster stop on the tube’s green and yellow district lines.

Up from the tube, depending on which exits you take, you can see the London Bridge, the Parliament with Big Ben, West Minister Abbey, the London Eye, the Tate Museum,  Parliament Square and of course, the Thames River—all in one day.

Here’s a suggestion for the budget-conscious and busy traveler who can get away for four-day weekend.  Since the pound is stronger than the dollar, almost two to one, you should opt for places with free admission.

First up is the West Minister Abbeythat sits in the middle of Parliament Square. The Anglo-Saxon church is believed to have been built in the year 960.  All of Great Britain’s kings and queens, bishops and gentlemen of stature are buried there. The tomb of Sir Issac Newton and many familiar names to Americans are also prominently displayed in Abbey.  This gothic building holds the distinction of being the coronation church of all the crowned sovereigns since William I in 1066. The monks of the Westminster followed the Rule of St. Benedict, devoting their lives to regular worship, manual labor and study. But if tombs and architecture is not your thing and you don’t want to pay $30 to take a tour, you can experience the awe of the Abbey by just attending church services. It’s for free. There is so much to see in this ancient and cavernous building, you may be overwhelmed. But a one-hour self-guided tour is available to help you along.

Step outside the Abbey and across the street you can see the House of Parliament building with Big Ben atop the northeastern section of the building. Big Ben is a four-face chiming clock that is synonymous with London, just like the Eiffel Tower is signifies Paris and the Empire Building signifies New York. The Parliament houses heads of government officials who conduct the business of governance in England. You are allowed to sit in the gallery during debates among parliamentarians. You will find the debates similar to ones here in the US, except with a British accent.

Next to the Parliament is London Bridge. With legendary tales that preceded it, you would expect to see a towering and monumental bridge. But no, it’s quite small in comparison to the Brooklyn Bridge. The bridge sits above the muddy and powerful Thames River, on which you can experience the Cruise on the Thames. The river runs 215 miles long. But it also serves a functional role: to get you over to the other side if the bridge and put you in Southwark, where you can hop on the London Eye.

The London Eye is a 30 minute rotational tour of the city of London.  It’s the alternative to seeing London on foot or by bus. No wonder, it’s the most visited attraction in London. This year there’s a special price—(£10 for a rotation or flight). That’d be about $20.

Quite frankly, if it’s a foggy day, all you will see is fog. It the sky is clear, you will see miles and miles of ancient buildings, very little greenery or mountains. So it’s something to splurge on if you haven’t paid for the West Minister Abbey. Or you want to experience their new 4D Theater.

A stroll along the river or two bus stops up the road from the Abbey is the Tate Modern Museum, known for cutting edge modern art shows. And diagonally across from the Museum, is the Lamberth’s Palace walled in and situated in the middle of London’s bustling center. Entry is free, except for major exhibitions.

London is so rich with its well-preserved heritage on every cobbled street, gothic building, and prominently placed pubs.  It’s a city that has impacted every part of the world. You owe it to yourself to visit this old country that changed the course of lives for many in the Americas.

BY KATHY BARRETT

IPS NEWS AGENCY

NEGRIL, JAMAICA (Tierramérica) — For centuries, Negril, a seven-mile stretch of white sand beach on the western tip of Jamaica, was cut off from the rest of the island by bad roads and a large swamp.

It remained relatively unknown to the world until the 1960s and 1970s, when U.S. “hippies,” students and Vietnam veterans gravitated towards this laid-back village.

The U.S. travelers arrived in ever-increasing numbers and, towards the end of the 1970s, Negril blossomed as a tourist destination. But with the growing population and improved infrastructure, the natural beauty of Jamaica’s third largest tourism centre has suffered visible deterioration.

“When I first visited Negril from Kingston in 1960, just after the first road to the coast was built, there were no buildings the entire length of the beach. The waters were crystal clear,” wrote Thomas J. Goreau, president of the non-governmental U.S.-based Global Coral Reef Alliance, in a paper published in 1992.

“Now that it is Jamaica’s fastest growing resort area, all the tall coconut trees are gone, the beaches are crowded with people and buildings,” states the text.

Eighteen years later, the demise of the Negril environment has again been brought into sharp focus, this time by United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) Division of Early Warning and Assessment.

Expert Pascal Peduzzi, who heads the Early Warning Unit, predicted in March that several beaches on the western end of Jamaica could be totally wiped out in the next five to 10 years if local authorities and residents do not act now.

His prediction is based on data coming out of a UNEP study on the role of the ecosystem in disaster risk reduction.

“The data has found that beaches in Negril are receding between half and one meter per year,” said Peduzzi.

The scientific evidence shows that over the past 40 years Negril’s beaches have undergone severe and irreversible shoreline erosion and retreat, according to the study entitled “Risk and Vulnerability Assessment Methodology Development Project (RiVAMP): The Case of Jamaica.”

“The highest erosion rates have occurred after 1991, when beach recovery after storms has been slower, and these trends are likely to continue,” Peduzzi said.

The UNEP report says bad environmental and building practices and illegal dumping of pollutants in the sea were killing sea grass and coral reefs, thus reducing their effectiveness in protecting the beaches from erosion.

In the opinion of Maxine Hamilton, executive director of the Negril Environmental Protection Trust, the UNEP study will help determine the way forward in finding solutions for an already fragile environment.

“It will help us to structure our program to ensure that we conserve the environment and to increase the resilience of the vulnerable communities in our area to natural disasters… It gives us ammunition to move ahead to take the appropriate action,” she said.

In April 2000, the Negril Chamber of Commerce invited professor Edward Maltby, who headed the Commission on Ecosystem Management of the World Conservation Union, to visit Negril and assist in guiding the community on the way forward.

Maltby was adamant that the Negril Great Morass, a wetland covering 2,289 hectares, must be revitalized. The Great Morass constitutes one-fifth of Jamaica’s wetland area.

The Great Morass once completely surrounded the Negril beach, preventing access to the coast. The area has been subjected to extensive man-made changes that have influenced its hydrological function as well as its role as a wildlife habitat.

“Greed is what functions now. They have built hotels on the last forest swamp which had mangroves and was where the crabs and fish spawned,” ecologist and hotel owner Sylvie Grizzle told Tierramérica. She moved here from her native France in 1981.

The red mangrove (Rhizophora mangle) in the area grows toward the sea, holding the sands in place. “That gave us a bit more land every year, so of course that’s gone, that’s finished,” she said.

“I was probably the only person who protested. I said, ‘please, you can have your hotel anywhere else, just not in that area because that is the last little bit of coastal forest that we have’.”

“One of these days we won’t even have a beach if nothing is done,” lamented Grizzle, who owns the Charela Inn and is a pioneer in the country’s environmental movement.

She says there has been no planning in Negril or in the rest of Jamaica. “We are destroying our coastlines everywhere. Jamaica is a small island and Jamaicans are being pushed out and that is terrible,” Grizzle said.

One of the problems, she says, is the violation of rules and regulations. “For those who put their hotels on the sea, let them pay a terrible tax for the rest of their days for breaking the law” or tear down their buildings.

(*This story was originally published by Latin American newspapers that are part of the Tierramérica network. Tierramérica is a specialized news service produced by IPS with the backing of the United Nations Development Program, United Nations Environment Program and the World Bank.)

IPS NEWS AGENCY

By Ann-Marie Adams, Staff Writer

KINGSTON, JAMAICA — White-sand beaches on the north coast or lush, green countryside of Jamaica comes to mind when thinking of a winter respite–not its capital city, Kingston.

With news of  crime  spilling out of garrisons, Kingston does not exactly beckon a jaded traveler who craves authenticity and relaxation. But while there in the Caribbean’s largest cosmopolitan center, I visited one of its newest hotels: the 109-room Spanish Court Hotel.

Inside the imposing, Spanish-influenced building, the elegant lobby is paneled with black, teak and jatobá woods. Bright, red walls accented with strategically placed garden flowers, local paintings and photographs evoke classic  SoHo chic—tinged with Jamaican aesthetics.

A weary traveler is soon ushered into a standard room, which is like an oasis in an Arabian desert. My experience defies expectations of sterile, overpriced, name-brand hotels that are culturally detached from the rhythms of exotic places far from their home base.

This is clearly not the case at the Spanish Court Hotel.

After two days there, I emerge from the hotel feeling like a monk after weeks of meditation on Blue Mountain, which serves as a backdrop to the crowded New Kingston area. And though my first-floor room faces a busy thoroughfare not far from the entertainment and business district, I am blissfully unaware and away from it all.

And this is only the standard room. The suites and deluxe rooms offer the same experience and more.

Most of the  107 rooms feature a delicate mixture of simple elegance tinged with bold trimmings, including the customized inset lighting, blackout blinds and decorative ceramic tiles—a mosaic that fits perfectly with the duval flooring and plush, white, leather sofas reminiscent of urban chic décor.  The bathroom is designed for pampering, what with its oval, soaking tub surrounded by ceramic tiles and a colorful glass tile backsplash.

Two delightful features noted at this stylized hotel is that it serves Jamaican cuisine, and there’s a complimentary breakfast.

A hotel nestled in the heart of the city and that offers “five star services at three-star prices” is the brainchild of Jamaican-born businessman Christopher Issa, whose goal is to “bring Kingston back on the map” and to promote the city as a destination instead as a rest stop on the way to other parts of the island. It’s the country’s grand design for Kingston 360, a tourism plan to make Kingston a main attraction.

Well, it is tempting to stay for a week or more, if only to mingle with the cosmopolitan crowd that gather each night at the Sky Terrace and bar next to the roof-top pool, or to tour the cultural attractions by day. But I experience plenty in one night, especially the soft caresses of the warm, night air on sun-kissed skin as I gaze at stars above the hills on the contours of the city.

By Reuters

KINGSTON, JAMAICA – An American Airlines Boeing 737 overshot the runway while landing at the international airport in Kingston, Jamaica Tuesday night, injuring dozens of the 143 passagers but no fatalities, a local newspaper reported.

“The injured passengers have been taken to the Kingston Public Hospital,” Information Minister Daryl Vaz told the Jamaica Observer. “There are no reports of fatalities.”

Up to 91 people have been taken to the hospital, CNN reports.

An FAA spokeswoman told Reuters the plane was American Airlines flight 331 from Miami. The flight originated in Washington DC.

The plane crashed and broke in two after landing, according to local reports.

The Jamaica Observer newspaper said the plane arrived in pouring rain at around 10 p.m. local time and overshot the runway.

CNN.com quoted Omar Lawrence, the airport’s operations coordinator, as saying there were 145 passengers and seven crew members aboard.

HARTFORD — The state has unvielded a new interactive travel information map just in time for the holiday season.

 Gov. Jodi Rell said the map has timely information about current road conditions will help reduce headaches and reduce congestion.

The Department of Transportation’s map allows users to view real-time roadway incidents.  Information from the state’s two Highway Operations Centers is used to update the map with the location and expected duration of congestion causing incidents throughout the state. 

Visitors to the site can use the left hand selection panel to choose which levels of information they wish to view at this site: CT Travel Map.

Commissioner Joseph F. Marie said hte map was built with ”in-house resources.

The Department’s network of intelligent transportation infrastructure is the backbone of incident management and mitigation, consisting of more than 300 traffic cameras, dozens of variable message signs, and speed sensors in locations throughout the state, officials said.  The cameras, variable message signs, construction information, as well as other travel-related information are all accessible on the map. 

The state’s existing “E-Traffic Alert” system emails real-time incident notifications to over 11,000 subscribers.  

 Rell said that the interactive map will provide an additional resource on current traffic conditions.

OLD LYME — The Florence Griswold Museum in Old Lyme, Connecticut presents Call of the Coast: Art Colonies of New England, an exhibition developed in collaboration with the Portland Museum of Art in Portland, Maine. The art colonies of New England played a key role in the creation of a regional identity in the early 20th century. Art colonies in Old Lyme and Cos Cob, Connecticut, and Ogunquit and Monhegan, Maine, were inspiration for nationally recognized artists including Edward Hopper, Childe Hassam, Robert Henri, and George Bellows, among others. Call of the Coast chronicles the development of Impressionist Connecticut and Modernist Maine and features 73 works drawn from the collections of the Portland Museum of Art and the Florence Griswold Museum. Call of the Coast is on view at the Florence Griswold Museum October 24, 2009 through January 31, 2010.

The coast of New England has long attracted tourists and artists drawn to the primal drama of the ocean. The 19th century brought changes as coastal communities shifted from being an industrialized economic resource to a therapeutic shelter where the middle class enjoyed leisure time. Artists banded together for purposes of camaraderie, creativity, and commerce, and founded coastal art colonies from Connecticut to Maine. Old Lyme and Cos Cob, Connecticut, and Ogunquit and Monhegan, Maine were settled at different times by artists and illustrated life in each community.

Each colony offered artists the opportunity to commune with the coast in its different guises.  Maine offered sweeping vistas, dramatic cliffs, and craggy textures, while Connecticut’s eddying waterways provided a quiet mirror for autumnal foliage, old houses, and gentle hillsides. “We have tended to think of these colonies in isolation,” said curator Amy Kurtz Lansing, “but there was a greater degree of fluidity as artists moved between them. These painters not only captured the character of each place but contributed more broadly to the formation of our image of New England.”

Connecticut
Beginning in the early 1870s, the village of Cos Cob attracted artists from New York. These artists included Impressionists J. Alden Weir and John Henry Twachtman, who summered at the Holley House, the center of the community. Summer classes taught by Twachtman and Weir during the 1890s under the auspices of the Art Students League brought artists such as Charles Ebert, Mary Roberts Ebert, Daniel Putnam Brinley, and the Japanese artist Genjiro Yeto to the school and encouraged experimentation. Accomplished painters such as Impressionist Theodore Robinson and Childe Hassam also painted in Cos Cob.

In 1899, Henry Ward Ranger arrived in Old Lyme, Connecticut, attracted by the tidal marshes and ever-changing light conditions. While Twachtman saw the Connecticut coast as a place of isolation, Ranger viewed himself as the leader of a new school of American landscape painting. Ranger stayed in the boardinghouse of Florence Griswold and invited his artist friends including Lewis Cohen, Louis Paul Dessar, William Henry Howe, Henry Rankin Poore, and Clark Voorhees to join him; an art colony was born. Miss Griswold’s home became the epicenter of the Lyme Art Colony. The arrival in 1903 of the dynamic Childe Hassam inspired Old Lyme painters to experiment with high-key color and greater impasto associated with impressionism. Just as Ranger presided over the colony in its early years, Hassam set the tone for its later phase, for which it is best known. Lauded as “the American Giverny,” the town attracted artists with its old-fashioned atmosphere. They developed a repertoire of iconic subjects that became synonymous with the Colony – from the church to the quaint, wooden Bow Bridge over the Lieutenant River to the stately homes lining the main street. Works like Everett Warner’s The Village Church reflect the Lyme Art Colony painters’ dual affection for classic New England architecture and dappled Impressionist light effects.

Maine

In search of cooler temperatures, Old Lyme painters often made trips to Ogunquit and Monhegan, Maine. Ogunquit, a picturesque fishing village in southern Maine, played host to an ideological contrast between two artistic cultures in the early 20th century: the traditionalists (Bostonians) like Charles H. Woodbury and the avant-garde (New Yorkers) such as Hamilton Easter Field. Woodbury established a course of instruction that literally put Ogunquit on the map as an art colony with a reputation as a haven for single women from proper Boston families. Field established his own school in 1911. Field, who served as a catalyst for modern art in the United States, exhorted his students to “open your eyes wide, get the local tang. There’s as much of it right here in Maine as there is in Monet’s Normandy.” Artist Clarence Chatterton summered in Ogunquit for nearly thirty years, producing vivid, frank paintings that convey his friend Edward Hopper’s influence. The still, sunlit streetscape of Road to Oqunquit is a striking interpretation of the New York modernist’s interest in light, architecture, and man-made spaces. Tensions between the two groups held until the mid 20^th century when local organizations formed to preserve both aspects of the town’s remarkable role in the history of American art. The tale of Ogunquit illustrates that, in New England, modernism and regionalism were but two sides of the same coin.

The remoteness and rugged landscape of Monhegan Island, Maine, attracted artists in the 1890s including Samuel Peter Rolt Triscott and Eric Hudson. Old Lyme artists including Charles and Mary Ebert, Ernest Albert, William Chadwick, William Robinson, Edward Rook, Henry Selden, and Wilson Irvine summered on Monhegan. The most influential artist who worked on the island was Robert Henri. As a member of the Ash Can School and a teacher at the New York School of Art, Henri encouraged his fellow artists to visit Monhegan to escape the grittiness of the city. Henri and Impressionist painter Edward Willis Redfield worked side-by-side laying the foundation for an art colony, which included Rockwell Kent, Edward Hopper, Randall Davey, George Bellows, and Leon Kroll. Monhegan’s role as an artist colony is the subject of the largest selection of paintings in the exhibition.  The island continues to attract artists from around the country each summer.

Exhibition catalogue

A 128-page full-color catalogue accompanies the exhibition with essays by Thomas Denenberg, chief curator at the Portland Museum of Art, Susan Danly, curator of graphics, photography, and contemporary art at the Portland Museum of Art, and Amy Kurtz Lansing, curator at the Florence Griswold Museum. The catalogue is available in the Museum Store and online at www.FlorenceGriswoldMuseum.org for $29.95.

The Florence Griswold Museum
Located on an 11-acre site in the historic village of Old Lyme, the Florence Griswold Museum is known as the Home of American Impressionism. In addition to the recently restored Florence Griswold House, where the artists of the Lyme Art Colony lived, the Museum features a modern exhibition gallery, education center, a new landscape center, extensive gardens, and a restored artist’s studio.  The Museum is located at 96 Lyme Street, Old Lyme, CT, exit 70 off I-95 and is open year round Tuesday through Saturday from 10am to 5pm and Sunday 1 to 5pm. Admission is $9 for adults, $8 for seniors, $ 7 students, and free to children 12 and under.

For more information, visit the Museum’s web site www.FlorenceGriswoldMuseum.org

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Facing a variety of national problems, Mexicans are overwhelmingly dissatisfied with the direction of their country. But they are staying, according to a recent report by the Hispanic Pew Center.

Most describe crime, illegal drugs, economic issues, and political corruption as very big problems. Nearly six-in-ten Mexicans say those who leave their country for the United States enjoy a better life there. One-in-three would move to the U.S. if they had the opportunity and most of those would do so without authorization, the report says.

Nonetheless, the U.S. Census Bureau reported yesterday that immigration from Mexico to the United States is on the decline. The current Pew Global Attitudes survey finds that four-in-ten Mexicans say they know someone who left for the U.S. but returned because they could not find a job.  Even more , 47 percent, report knowing someone who returned because they were turned back by the border patrol.

Nearly all Mexicans see illegal drugs as a major problem, and there is strong support for a tough stance against drug traffickers.  Fully 83 percent  support using the army to fight drug traffickers and most believe the army is making progress in this campaign.

Face-to-face interviews were conducted with 1,000 adults in Mexico between May 26 and June 2, 2009.  The sample is representative of the country’s adult population. The full report, released at 11 am EDT, is available online at: www.pewglobal.org