AltWeeklies Wire
The Nokia Lolitas: A Combustible Mix of Minors, Sex and Technologynew
An emerging trend of DIY teenage sex imagery raises questions about the limits of technology and the appropriate legal response. Should kids be facing criminal records for taking naked pictures of themselves? Also: Just how widespread is this trend, and how should officials handle it when students make their sex lives public?
New Haven Advocate |
Rachel Slajda and Erin Lynch |
07-22-2008 |
Tech
Web of Hummer Hatred: The Monster Truck Wars are Over, and the Greens Wonnew
By almost any measure, the Hummer haters have won. These behemoths are languishing on the sales floor. General Motors, which owns the Humvee brand, says sales in the first half of 2008 were about half of what they were at the 2006 peak of 71,524.
New Haven Advocate |
Adam Bulger |
07-01-2008 |
Transportation
The Real Solutions to Our Energy Crisis are Off the Tablenew
After a marathon special session that lasted into the early hours last week, the State Legislature proudly proclaimed that it had acted to address soaring gas prices. Too bad it focused on supply-side issues, and didn't look at the demand side of the equation.
New Haven Advocate |
Jim Motavalli |
06-24-2008 |
Economy
Banning Sex Offenders from West Haven's Public Places Won't Keep Kids Safenew
There are 57 registered sex offenders living in West Haven, and the City Council is trying to ban all of them from its beaches, parks, sports facilities and swimming pools in order, they say, to protect the children. The idea comes riddled with questions about constitutionality, enforceability and its real effect on the safety of children.
New Haven Advocate |
Rachel Slajda |
06-24-2008 |
Crime & Justice
New Haven Housing Authority Slapped with Class-Action Suit Demaning Help for Disablednew
The lawsuit was filed by a woman with spina bifida, a birth defect affecting the spine, who is losing her apartment because her landlord is facing foreclosure. The disabled woman, Rebecca Taylor, hoped the Housing Authority would help her find a new handicap-accessible apartment, but she had to resort to a federal lawsuit to get that help.
New Haven Advocate |
Betsy Yagla |
06-10-2008 |
Housing & Development
The Rich Get Richer and the Poor Get Poorer in Connecticutnew
A new report from Connecticut Voices for Children (CVC), a research and advocacy group for low-income families with offices in New Haven and Hartford, offers a stark analysis: Connecticut is the only state in the nation to see a significant decline in the real wages of the poorest 20 percent of state residents.
New Haven Advocate |
Jim Motavalli |
06-10-2008 |
Economy
New Haven's City Budget Relies on an Unreliable Source of Incomenew
By statute, Connecticut is supposed to fund PILOT -- which compensates cities for tax-exempt property like hospitals, universities and schools -- at 77 percent of the real estate's full value. In New Haven, that adds up to big bucks. But PILOT's only been fully funded twice in the last decade.
New Haven Advocate |
Betsy Yagla |
05-20-2008 |
Policy Issues
Can the Cosmetics Industry Fight Chemicals with More Chemicals?new
There are toxins in makeup, beauty products and standard personal hygiene stuff like toothpaste, deodorant and soap, but do they have to be there? The director of Yale's Center for Green Chemistry and Green Engineering says that as chemistry advances, scientists are learning how to design substances to be nontoxic from the get-go.
New Haven Advocate |
Rachel Slajda |
05-20-2008 |
Environment
Is the Ailing 'New Haven Register' Fit-to-Print for The New York Times Co.?new
The financial free-fall and dwindling readership of the Journal Register Co. and its flagship Register are old news, but that doesn't mean somebody doesn't think they can turn the business around. JRC honchos won't tell us a thing, but a source inside the Reg hints that no less a monolith than The New York Times Co. may be a suitor.
New Haven Advocate |
The New Haven Nose |
05-20-2008 |
Media
In Connecticut, Government and Businesses Combat the Toxic Terror Known as E-Wastenew
If all goes well, by July 1, 2009, towns across the state will provide free recycling of home computers, television and other electronic devices, and the entire operation will be paid for by the manufacturers, not the taxpayers.
New Haven Advocate |
Daniel D'Ambrosio |
05-20-2008 |
Environment
Can Connecticut's New Carbon Emissions Cap Deliver?new
The bill requires the state to reduce greenhouse gas emissions an ambitious 17 percent from current levels by 2020, and a huge 80 percent by 2050. It doesn't specify exactly how we're going to reach that goal, and current efforts -- while laudable -- don't appear to be nearly enough to get the state on track for such big reductions.
New Haven Advocate |
Jim Motavalli |
05-20-2008 |
Environment
High Metal Prices Fuel Underground Trade of Stolen Scrapnew
Scrap dealers and police say they cooperate to prevent the sale of stolen goods, and Connecticut law has recently been toughened. But the rise in metal heists begs the question: Would there be so much theft if there wasn't a network of places to "fence" the swag?
New Haven Advocate |
Jim Motavalli |
05-13-2008 |
Economy
Discrimination Suits Accuse Southern Connecticut State University of Institutional Discriminationnew
Five SCSU business professors, past and present, are suing the university for discrimination and harassment, and all say the university president is aware of and maybe even condones the problems. If the claims are true, the lawsuits paint a bleak picture of academic life at the state school.
New Haven Advocate |
Betsy Yagla |
04-29-2008 |
Education
Four Govs Gather at Yale Climate Conference to Promise They Won't Let the World Endnew
Governors Jon Corzine, Kathleen Sebelius, Jodi Rell and, of course, Arnold Schwarzenegger, met to sign a declaration to renew statewide efforts to reduce our collective carbon footprint. The event marked the 100th anniversary of the original 1908 "governors conference" sponsored by then-President Theodore Roosevelt, which called the public "to consider the weightiest problem now before the nation."
New Haven Advocate |
Alexis Fitts |
04-29-2008 |
Environment
Mubarakah Ibrahim and Her Muslim Sisters Break Stereotypes and Empower Womennew
In the two years that Ibrahim has owned New Haven's Balance Fitness, her business has been making waves far beyond the health industry. She has become something of a poster child for a breed of Muslim women who are publicly defying the stereotypes of suppressed, submissive women of Islam.
New Haven Advocate |
Alexis Fitts |
04-22-2008 |
Religion
