Building Connections At UConn’s Rainbow Center

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Trinity Ford, a senior year at the Cooperative Arts and Humanities High School in New Haven, writes for her school’s newspaper, is a member of the Journalism Club, and has published a book of short poems.

She also runs the school’s Instagram page.   For her project at C-HIT’s multimedia journalism workshop, Trinity opted to try something different – video storytelling.  She stopped by the Rainbow Center at the University of Connecticut and interviewed Christopher Richard, the center’s coordinator. https://youtu.be/BS_meOn0QcY

Heat Waves Are the Tip Of Connecticut’s Climate Change Iceberg

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Frank Himmelstein typically works 12 hours a day in the fields of the historic Himmelstein Homestead Farm in Lebanon. Normally, it’s hard work managing fields full of squash, peppers and other vegetables, but July 20 was anything but a normal day. The temperature in Lebanon hit 95 degrees. “It’s not good for people to be working out in this heat,” Himmelstein said on July 21. “Yesterday, well, even I needed to pace myself yesterday.”

The average ‘extremely hot’ day in Connecticut is classified as reaching 90 degrees or above.

Connecticut Is An abortion “Safe Harbor,” But Oregon Has The Most Protection

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In Connecticut, abortion remains legal after Roe v. Wade was overturned, but there are states that still provide more protection for access to abortion. One of those states is Oregon which is deemed the “Most Protective” state, according to the Guttmacher Institute. Oregon offers abortion without any restrictions based on the gestational age, which is not the same for certain states such as Idaho, Arizona and Utah. In states such as Connecticut, the cutoff for obtaining an abortion is the gestational age of 24 to 26 weeks where there is fetal viability. This means that the fetus can live on its own without help from the womb.

“Hidden, Underground”: Lingering Concerns After Viral UConn Protest

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Protests, brought about by the campus’s rates of sexual assault, have swirled around the University of Connecticut since Alexandra Docken’s viral protest in February of her rape investigation. UConn’s subsequent investigation has raised questions and prompted distrust among some prospective students. In the most recent Clery crime report from the university, taken in 2020, there were seven reported cases of rape on the main Storrs campus and five cases of sexual harassment on the UConn Health campus in Farmington. Docken, from Cockeysville, Maryland, told Hearst Connecticut Media that she filed a Title IX complaint with UConn after she was sexually assaulted by a male student at an off-campus party in August 2021. She said she was discouraged by the school’s investigation of her claim and said there should be “major changes” in how these cases are handled.

Competitive Music Programs Statewide Take A Major Hit Due To COVID-19

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The number of high school students auditioning for competitive bands has dramatically decreased in Connecticut and the U.S. since the COVID-19 pandemic. Every musician has a predicament– COVID-19 is an airborne virus. They are unable to perform in public. This was a major setback not only for present musicians but also for the generation of high school musicians working to enter the professional world. “From what I’ve gathered from speaking to colleagues across the states, and actually across the nation, our programs have all taken a hit,” said Anne Halloran Tortora, a former music teacher at Saint Bernard High School in Uncasville and the current news editor for the Connecticut Music Educators Association (CMEA).

Inflation: Is It Hitting Communities Of Color The Hardest?

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Inflation, or a surge in the prices of consumer goods and services over a period of time, has detrimentally and disproportionately affected low-income communities, as they already struggle to financially sustain their lives, financial experts say. Basic human needs like groceries and housing are now more expensive, and the overall cost of living has increased. Neel Kashkari, a former Interim Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Financial Stability, describes the cause of inflation to be “a mismatch between supply and demand.” Supply is being withheld due to the COVID-19 pandemic and supply chains while demand is on the rise. Communities of color are likely to be hit the hardest by inflation, as they already lag behind in income compared to their white counterparts, numerous studies show. The pre-existing wealth gap between black Americans and their white counterparts has made people of color more vulnerable to the implications of inflation.

Strong Reaction To Overturning Roe v. Wade

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The U.S Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade and allowing states to come up with their own laws has created a firestorm of opinions. In interviews with Connecticut teens and young adults, attitudes vary greatly on what happened and what needs to be done. Queen, a 20-year-old who goes to the University of Connecticut, believes in personal choice. “I think women should have the right to have abortions cause it’s our body,’’ she said. “Who’s the government to tell me what to do with my body?