HARTFORD — With State Rep. William Tong of Stamford out of the senatorial race, Chris Murphy is shoring up his chance at victory.

On Monday at noon in City Hall, the Connecticut Hispanic Democratic Caucus and Hartford Mayor Pedro Segarra is expected to officially endorse Murphy’s 2012 bid for the U.S. Senate.

The fifth district includes villages in Litchfield County, Farmington Valley towns including Avon, Farmington and Simsbury. But it doesn’t represent Hartford.

On Saturday, the CHDC held a debate as part of their process to determine their endorsement for Connecticut’s open Senate seat. Murphy’s staff said that by an overwhelming majority, Chris Murphy received CHDC’s endorsement.

HARTFORD – After almost 10 hours of  intense debate, the state Senate voted 21 to 13 early Saturday to legalize  the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes.

The legislation now goes to Governor Dannel P. Malloy for his signature. Malloy is expected to sign it.

The measure comes after decades of  national advocacy. Proponents argue that marijuana has medicinal benefits.

State Senator Eric D. Coleman (D-Bloomfield), Senate Chair of the Judiciary Committee, said the vote poises Connecticut to become the 18^th state to adopt medicinal marijuana legislation, in addition to the District of Columbia.

“I have participated in multiple public hearings on the subject of medicinal marijuana. Countless individuals suffering from chronic medical conditions have come before the legislature to testify that marijuana provides the only significant relief available for their symptoms,” said Senator Coleman. “This legislation, first and foremost, is rooted in compassion. We should not make criminals of chronically ill patients.”

The legislation, House Bill 5389, will permit a licensed physician to certify an adult patient’s use of marijuana after determining that the patient has a debilitating medical condition and could potentially benefit from the treatment.

The bill allows qualifying patients and their primary caregivers to possess a combined one-month marijuana supply, an amount to be determined through regulation by DCP.

Qualifying medical conditions for marijuana treatment include: cancer, glaucoma, HIV/AIDS, Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis, spinal cord damage, epilepsy, cachexia wasting syndrome, Crohn’s disease, and post-traumatic stress disorder. In the future, DCP may allow additional conditions through regulation.

However, these protections do not apply to use of medicinal marijuana at work, at school, in public places, in moving vehicles, or in front of children.

The bill does not allow marijuana to be dispensed from, obtained from, or transferred out-of-state, nor may licensed producers sell or transport marijuana to or from an out-of-state location.

Senator Coleman said that under this legislation, no one will be required, or permitted, to grow their own marijuana or to obtain it from illegal dealers.”

By Andrea Comer

HARTFORD – Seven years after 19-year-old Jashon Bryant was shot and killed by a Hartford police officer, his family is still waiting for justice.

At 3:30 p.m. this  Saturday,  Jashon’s family will mark the anniversary with a march from the corner of Main and Sanford Streets to the cemetery where Jashon is buried.

“The seventh anniversary of Jay’s death was particularly hard for me because of the Trayvon Martin shooting,” said Shirin Bryant, Jashon’s older sister. “It took about 50 days for the Justice Department to review and bring charges in that case, but we’re still here, waiting for justice for my brother.”

Jashon Bryant was shot by former Hartford police officer Robert Lawlor on the evening of May 7, 2005; Lawlor was acquitted of manslaughter and assault charges on Dec. 8, 2009. A year later, the State NAACP sent a letter to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and Assistant Attorney General Tom Perez, requesting an investigation into the shooting. Following a visit to Washington, D.C. by the family, the Justice Department agreed to open a civil rights investigation into the shooting, and as recently as February of this year indicated that the investigation was still ongoing.

By Jonathan Smalls, Film Critic

For an action film that Marvel led into with four other films, including the great Iron Man, and Iron Man 2, and the dull Thor, what can moviegoers expect from the convergence of all of these characters into one title?

Thankfully writer Joss Whedon found the magic formula where the plot is driven by the witty, and enjoyable Robert Downey Jr, and the rest of the characters are really second to him.

Avengers  definitely manages to be one of the better entries in the series by remaining truer to a proper comic book. There is a lot of exposition in explaining the premise for any one, who has not seen the films for the individual characters, but Whedon manages to get to it all, and still have a fully explained, and cohesive film by the end of it.

Earlier Avengers fans may question the inclusion of the Scarlett Johanssen as the Black Widow in the crew, and with good reason. She was certainly in the Avengers in the original comic book canon, but in this film Johanssen primarily just struts around, and gives a lot of booty shots to room full of testosterone.

The real star is Downey Jr as Iron Man. Of the primaries, there is not much competition for our attention. Chris Evans plays Captain America as a well meaning buffoon from the past, Mark Ruffalo is shy with little to say as Bruce Banner, and then completely off screen as the Hulk, quite unlike the tortured Edward Norton ( remember him? ). Chris Hemsworth as Thor is just as one dimensional as ever, and Hawkeye is mostly just some one for Johanssen to “fight” with her absolute lack of super powers.

That leaves Downey Jr as Iron Man, and Tom Hiddleston as Loki to do the heavy lifting. Both of them work well opposite each other are the primary theatrical depth associated with the film, and are good enough to ensure that will have life beyond this blockbuster season.

Mix all of this together with a whole lot of special effects, a few fight scenes, and more fan excitement than you can shake a stick at, and you have the kind of film that audiences will actually want to watch on network television ten years from now.

Jonathan Smalls is a freelance writer from Boston Massachusetts. You can read his blog at Jonathan.Smalls.cc.

HARTFORD — The state Senate’s Democratic majority is at least four votes shy of passing a compromise minimum-wage increase approved last week by the House of Representatives, leaving one of the House speaker’s key bills all but dead in the annual session’s final seven days.

Senate President Pro Tem Donald E. Williams Jr., D-Brooklyn, said he texted House Speaker Christopher G. Donovan, D-Meriden, from the Democratic caucus room Tuesday, telling him he did not see a path toward passing a 25-cent increase in the $8.25 hourly wage.

“Barring some significant turnaround, we have a significant number of folks who would not support the minimum-wage bill as it is,” Williams said.

Senate President Pro Tem Donald E. Williams Jr.

He declined to give a hard vote count, but acknowledged being at least four votes short. Democrats hold 22 of the 36 seats in the Senate. Democrats routinely support raising the minimum wage, but many in both chambers balked at an increase with the economy still fragile.

“It was the timing,” Williams said. “They felt the economic times were not right. They supported minimum wage increases in the past. They strongly supported the earned-income tax credit last year, which provided a boost to low-income workers.”

A spokesman for Donovan acknowledged the speaker is aware of the vote count. Donovan was not immediately available for comment.

On a party-line, election-year vote, the House of Representatives voted 88-62 last week for a compromise to raise the $8.25 minimum wage by 25 cents in each of the next two years, bringing pressure on a reluctant Senate to follow.

Donovan submitted the bill to a vote without a commitment from the Senate to take up the bill, a calculated risk.

His own caucus was lukewarm on an increase this year, but he lost only 10 Democrats, including Rep. William Tong of Stamford, then a candidate for U.S. Senate, and Rep. Timothy Larson of East Hartford, the brother of U.S. Rep. John B. Larson, a Democratic congressional leader.

House Minority Leader Lawrence F. Cafero Jr., R-Norwalk, said he was surprised that the House speaker would tie up the House for a day without knowing if the Senate had the votes for passage.

“I’m appalled. I mean, come on man,” Cafero said. “By the way, I’m probably not as angry as many Democratic legislators are. They were so uncomfortable to make that vote. They only did it with the assurance it would pass the House, the Senate and be signed by the governor.”

Senate Minority Leader John McKinney, R-Fairfield, said he expected that proponents will bring “all kinds of pressure” on Senate Democrats to reconsider.

“I’m not going to hold my breath until midnight May 9,” he said, a reference to the constitutional adjournment deadline for the 2012 session.

To win passage, Donovan, a congressional candidate presiding over his last annual session, accepted a two-thirds reduction in his original proposal, abandoned an automatic cost-of-living provision and delayed implementation from July to January.

But Williams said even the changes were not enough to win support in the Senate.

The setback for Donovan is a potential complication in the session’s last week, when House and Senate leaders routinely hold each other’s bills hostage until favored legislation is passed.

This story was first published on CTMirror.org; Photo by wesport-news.

HAMDEN, CT — Connecticut baseball fans back the New York Yankees over the Boston Red Sox 43 – 38 percent, the fourth straight year of Yankee dominance in the state, according to Quinnipiac University’s annual Connecticut Baseball Poll.

While the Red Sox are the favorites, 46 – 34 percent, of fans over 65 years old, the Bronx Bombers lead in other age groups, the independent Quinnipiac (KWIN-uh-pe-ack) University poll finds.  Women fans prefer the Yankees 45 – 39 percent while men back the Bombers 42 – 37 percent.

A total of 53 percent of Connecticut adults say they are “very interested” or “somewhat interested” in Major League Baseball.  Trailing the Yankees and Red Sox in that group are the New York Mets with 7 percent.  No other team scores above 1 percent.

The Yankees are on top 54 – 18 percent in Fairfield County and 46 – 36 percent in New Haven and Middlesex Counties, while the Red Sox lead 47 – 37 percent in Hartford County and 57 – 29 percent in Tolland, Windham and New London Counties.

“The New York Yankees have topped the Boston Red Sox in every one of Quinnipiac University’s 10 annual polls of Connecticut baseball fans, except for a 41 – 40 percent split, tipping to the Red Sox, in 2008,” said Quinnipiac University Poll Director Douglas Schwartz, PhD.  “The Yankees lead is due to their big advantage in Fairfield County.  The Yankees continue to do better among younger fans while the Red Sox are stronger among older fans.”

From April 18 – 23, Quinnipiac University surveyed 1,933 Connecticut adults with a margin of error of +/- 2.2 percentage points.   Live interviewers call landlines and cell phones.

The Quinnipiac University Poll conducts public opinion surveys in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Florida, Ohio, Virginia, and the nation as a public service and for research.

New America Media, Andrew Lam

SAN FRANCISCO—Recently, in front a packed crowd at Duke University, former Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice regretted the failure of passing the comprehensive immigration reform act and the shift in Americans’ attitude toward immigrants.

Accepting and welcoming immigrants “has been at the core of our strength,” she said. “I don’t know when immigrants became the enemy.”

These days it is refreshing, if rare, to hear someone of Rice’s stature to speak on behalf of immigrants. Over the last few years the public discourse has been shrill and, if anything, media coverage seems to stoke anxiety to an unprecedented level.

Instead of a larger narrative on immigration—from culture to economics, from identity to history— what we have now is a public mindset of us versus them, and an overall anti immigrant climate that is both troubling and morally reprehensible.

America’s Difficult Love Story

Yet I often see the story of immigration in America as a kind of difficult love story.

Take the scandal involving Sheriff Paul Babeu of Pinal County, Arizona. Running for Congress, the sheriff is tough on undocumented immigration–but he had a secret: a love affair with Jose Orozco, an immigrant whose legal status remains in question.

The romance went sour, alas, and the immigrant lover alleged that the sheriff threatened to deport him if he came out with their story. Babeu vehemently denied the deportation threat. Orozco promptly filed a lawsuit.

What struck me most about this story is the contradictory nature of the relationship and how emblematic it is to the larger American narrative. We want and benefit from immigrants’ cheap labor, but we don’t want to acknowledge our relationship with them. We need them; we don’t want to be associated with them.

Meg Whitman, the billionaire who ran for governor in California in 2010, wanted to “hold employers accountable for hiring only documented workers.” But she didn’t include herself.

The year before Whitman’s campaign, she’d fired Nicky Diaz Santillan, who in a spectacular press conference revealed that she was undocumented. She had been taking care of the Whitman’s household for nearly a decade.

When Santillan reportedly asked Whitman for help finding an immigration attorney after she was fired, Whitman allegedly told her, “You don’t know me and I don’t know you.”

In the war on terrorism, the immigrant is often the scapegoat. He becomes a kind of insurance policy against the effects of recession. By blaming him, the pressure valve is regulated in time of crisis. The master narrative regarding immigration seems to require those it vilifies to obey the rule of silence. Their tongues are often kept in check through the threat of imprisonment and deportation.

God forbid if they become articulate, organize, participate in union politics and demand better wages and fair treatment. God forbid if they hold a press conference or get together to make an updated movie version of The Help.

Immigrants: Canaries in the Coal Mine

Yet, in the context of a free and open society, the immigrant is often the canary in the coalmine. The horror stories from detention centers are just too many:

*Pregnant women shackled to a hospital bed while giving birth;*Inmates shackled and paraded in pink underwear on the streets of Arizona, a scene reminiscent of Abu Ghraib;*Rape incidents uninvestigated;

*Healthcare dangerously lacking in immigrant detention facilities where the suicide levels are alarming;

*Deportees forced to take psychotropic drugs so they act docile in their long journey back to their countries of origin.

Human-rights abuse by law enforcement in America’s Southwest is so notorious that organizations like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch are ringing alarm bells for the lack of accountability. This terrible treatment reflects a legal system that’s gone so badly wrong that America’s very humanity is now put in question.

“You don’t know me and I don’t know you.”

Perhaps we don’t want to know about the tragedy and psychological and economic impact on tens of thousands of American-born children whose parents have been taken away by the authorities. But it is a fact that we are in the process of creating a whole generation of Americans who are becoming permanent outsiders, a vast second class of citizens.

When a society hides behind the apparatus of draconian policies, allowing the authorities almost unchecked power to detain and deport, the only logical outcome is injustice and cruelty.

Missing Voices

Missing from the national conversation are voices like that of the former secretary of state’s, of pro-immigration reformers and civil rights leaders, who can speak on behalf of those who have no voice. Where are the leaders who can speak to the idea that it is not alien to American interests, but very much in our socioeconomic interest–not to mention our spiritual health–to integrate immigrants, that our nation functions best when we welcome newcomers and help them participate fully in our society?

What’s missing is compassion.

If I am sympathetic to the plight of immigrants of all kinds, I have good reason: I was once a Vietnamese refugee. Like millions who left Vietnam, my family and I fled that country illegally, without passports. We entered another country without visas. That I am a writer and journalist today is due to the American generosity, my Americanization story is a love story, a success story.

But that generosity has all but faded. The United States is no doubt at a very important crossroads. In one direction is a country ruled by distrust, xenophobia and continual exploitation—with its need to strengthen law enforcement. That choice offers us a society willing to look away while an entire population lives in fear, in a de facto police state. It’s a country in which the immigrant becomes indeed the enemy.

In the other direction is a global society defined by openness and with the understanding that we as a nation have always depended and thrived on the energy, ideas and contributions of immigrants. It’s a promised land that can only be envisioned by the newcomer to our shore, who still dreams the dream. For even if we don’t know it yet, we all desperately need to be reborn through his eyes.

Andrew Lam is an editor of New America Media and the author of East Eats West: Writing in Two Hemispheres and Perfume Dreams: Reflections on the Vietnamese Diaspora. His book of short stories, Birds of Paradise, is due out in 2013.

HARTFORD –  Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, Secretary of the State Denise Merrill and Congressman John Larson on Monday will host a news conference with Martin Luther King, III in support of legislation preserving voting rights and expanding access to voter registration.

The Voting Rights Act of  1965 was the federal government response to states disfranchisement of voters to years leading up to the Civil Rights Movement. The act also bars the denial or abridgment of the right to vote based on the literacy tests.

The act also enforces the 15th Amendment.

In other news,  Malloy will also speak at the Connecticut Immigrant and Refugee Coalition’s annual Connecticut Immigrant Day event, honoring local and statewide immigrants who have contributed to their community and/or profession and he will then meet with  Department of Education Commissioner Stefan Pryor and a group of Hartford parents for a roundtable discussion on his proposals to improve the state’s public school system and close the achievement gap.

HARTFORD – Six members of Connecticut’s Congressional Delegation last week called on the National Collegiate Athletic Association to review and modify a new rule regarding the Academic Progress Rate of its  student basket ball players.

In a letter to NCAA President Mark Emmert, delegation members called on the NCAA to review and modify new APR rules by removing the retroactive application of sanctions, which, they said “currently have unfair and negative ramifications for academic institutions and their students.”

“The uncompromised commitment to the academic success of student-athletes remains the paramount responsibility for any academic institution engaged in intercollegiate athletics,” the letter states. “With this obligation in mind, we support necessary and reasonable measures that condition participation in intercollegiate post-season events on a requisite level of academic progress or achievement by student-athletes. However, and no less critical, the process for developing, adopting and implementing regulatory type measures that will be applicable to all academic institutions must be grounded in fundamental fairness.”

The letter comes after the NAACP applauded the new rule that monitors academic progress of basketball players who score high on the basket ball courts but low on academic work. The NAACP and other concerned advocates, including Arne Duncan pushed to  strengthen the academic requirements for eligibility in the March Madness basketball tournament.

The alarm came when  disparities in the graduation rates between white and black players. Last year, the gap in graduation rates between white and black men’s players rose to 32 percent, ringing alarm bells for those with a concern for racial equity, according to a report on the Huffington Post.

The full text of the letter is below:

Dear President Emmert:

We write to express our concern with the implementation of the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s new structure for the Academic Progress Rate (APR). As currently implemented, we believe this structure will have unfair negative ramifications for our academic institutions and their students.

As you are aware, last October the NCAA Board of Directors adopted new standards (four year average of 900 or two year average of 930) that institutions must meet in order to qualify and participate in NCAA post-season championship events. These standards were made effective immediately and were to be applied to student-athlete academic performance that had already occurred.

We appreciate and support the NCAA’s pursuit of new standards as a means to improve academic achievement. We are dismayed, however, that the NCAA based eligibility for the 2013 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament on data from the already completed academic years of 2009-10 and 2010-11. As a result, Student-athletes and their institutions were given no phase-in period, no opportunity to adjust to the new standards, and no chance to avoid the penalty. We are deeply concerned that with this action the NCAA is ignoring the reality that more current, data are now available to determine an institution’s most current APR for purposes of determining eligibility for the 2013 Tournament. Using the most current, available data would remedy the existing unfairness.

While we understand and support the goals of ensuring quality educational opportunities for student-athletes and the need for strong sanctions for failure to meet those goals, we have misgivings about the retroactive implementation of the penalty. In particular, the NCAA appears to have imposed an overly harsh and unfair penalty by imposing APR sanctions retroactively for conduct and circumstances that had already occurred. By including previous years in a rolling four year average, it should have been clear at the time of adopting the new standard that some universities would be unable to avoid the new penalties – even if the university had achieved a stellar score in the most current year. Due to this rule’s retroactive application, student-athletes, who are not in any manner culpable for the APR performance that is the basis of these new penalties, will be punished.

The uncompromised commitment to the academic success of student-athletes remains the paramount responsibility for any academic institution engaged in intercollegiate athletics. With this obligation in mind, we support necessary and reasonable measures that condition participation in intercollegiate post-season events on a requisite level of academic progress or achievement by student-athletes. However, and no less critical, the process for developing, adopting and implementing regulatory type measures that will be applicable to all academic institutions must be grounded in fundamental fairness. Only then will the regulatory structure appropriately address the institutional responsibility for academic success without penalizing innocent individual student-athletes.

With the enactment of the new APR penalty structure, however, we believe the NCAA has failed to meet this important standard. The NCAA has the means to address this matter at its upcoming meeting of Committee on Academic Progress on April 23. We therefore call on the NCAA to review and modify the APR rule this session to remove its retroactive application. Such an approach would be a sensible and fair way to resolve this matter while ensuring tough standards and penalties to ensure future compliance.

Thank you for your consideration of our concerns.

Sincerely,

Senator Joseph Lieberman

Senator Richard Blumenthal

Congressman John Larson

Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro

Congressman Joseph D. Courtney

Congressman Chris Murphy

HARTFORD — Mayor Pedro E. Segarra on Tuesday will kick off a citywide, weeklong celebration of “progress and innovation in Hartford’s parks.”

The event, “Hartford Beautiful, A Celebration of Our Parks,” will begin at 5:00 a.m. Tuesday morning with “Wake Up Wired,” which will include an early morning cleanup, an overview of the week’s events and a special announcement at Hyland Park on Summit Terrace. Yes, that was 5.a.m. as stated in the press release.

“Our parks are snapshots of our history, and spaces that belong to all of us,” Segarra said. “By highlighting all there is to celebrate in our City parks, it is my hope that everyone will take pride in and ownership of these treasures every day.”

Segarra will join representatives from the City’s Departments of Public Works and Marketing, Events and Cultural Affairs, the Recreation Division, the Parks & Recreation Advisory Commission and the Knox Parks Foundation for a series of park-centered events.

These events include:

Tuesday, April 24 – Going Green – Projects, Preview and Presentations: From 5:30 p.m. to 7:00 p.m., Department of Public Works Director Kevin Burnham and Parks Operations Manager Jack Hale will host a presentation on parks projects at the Hartford Public Library’s Center for Contemporary Culture, 500 Main St.

The dialogue will focus on recent accomplishments, as well as current and future projects. In addition, progress on the recommendations made by the Green Ribbon Task Force and renewed efforts of the Parks and Recreation Advisory Commission will be discussed.

Thursday, April 26 – Olmsted Day – “Rediscovering Old North Cemetery”: At 5:30 p.m., Dr. Andrew Walsh, Norma Williams and Phillip Barlow will present a program that focuses on the history of Old North Cemetery and the many famous individuals buried there. Among them is Frederick Law Olmsted, whose firm designed the Hartford park system and Central Park in New York City. The discussion will be held at the Hartford Public Library – Center for Contemporary Culture.

Also on Thursday, the various “Friends Of” parks groups will host an open house, detailing the work of parks groups and how those interested can get involved.

Friday, April 27 – TGIA! (Thank Goodness It’s Arbor Day): From 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., Mayor Segarra will join volunteers from The Hartford and others for a tree planting in recognition of Arbor Day. Additionally, Riverfront Recapture will host a Community Service Day with students from the University of Hartford.

Finally, DPW crews will be on site each day to perform improvements to Hartford parks throughout the City. For more information on the DPW schedule, visit the following link: http://mayor.hartford.gov/documents/park_week_plan.pdf.