Connecticut
Post posts about what is happening in the State of Connecticut.
Jarjura Offers to Hire Perez
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Fri, 06/18/2010 - 12:21In an effort to boost his sagging race for Comptroller, Waterbury Mayor Mike Jarjura announced today that he will offer a position to Hartford Mayor Eddie Perez. Perez was convicted today on charges of bribery and extortion. Jarjura said that he believed Perez’ experience matched the experience of other people he has recently hired, such as former Governor John Rowland. “These are people who know how to get deals done,” Jarjura said.
Jarjura is no stranger to deal making. It was a backroom deal with the New Haven Democrats that managed to get him on the ballot. Similar backroom deals with the Perez administration may enable him to carry the city of Hartford in the primary.
Healthcare advocate Kevin Lembo, who is the Democratic Nominee for Comptroller refused to get in the mud to wrestle with Jarjura, Perez, Rowland or Garcia, even if it was a political event sponsored by WWE.
Blogger Aldon Hynes, who wrote this acknowledged that he has no real information about any sort of deal between Jarjura, Perez or others, but that it seemed like too good a satirical piece to pass up.
(Cross posted at MyLeftNutmeg.)
Woodbridge Students Discuss National Educational Reform
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Fri, 06/18/2010 - 10:44What started off as the End of the Year Celebration for the Multi Age Group Program at Beecher Road School in Woodbridge, CT ended up becoming a forum on national educational reform.
The Multi Age Group, or M.A.G. program at Beecher Road School is a special educational opportunity where students in grades one through four participate in learning events together. While the name focuses on the age grouping, there is much more to the program. Key highlights include an integrated curriculum where a topic is explored throughout the year in all disciplines. For example, this year, the students focused on bluebirds and invasive species. Last year, the focus was on water. The integrated curriculum also provides many opportunities for hands on learning.
Other aspects include a strong focus on respecting all people. Instead of the dichotomy between teachers and students, education is focused on learners helping other learners, whether they be adult learners, fourth year learners or first year learners. To facilitate this, there is a strong effort to make the learning environment as democratic as possible. Students hold meetings to discuss important issues that they face.
The End of Year Celebration started off like so many other end of year ceremonies. The students filed in as friends and family sat in the auditorium. They sang a few song; songs that the students chose. This was followed by individual performances. In introducing the first performance, Elizabeth said that she learned how to express herself in MAG. She then did an interpretive dance to the music of Alice and Wonderland. She received a hug from a classmate after her performance. The opening comment, the dance and the hug provide a good insight into the MAG program.
Abby recited a poem by Shel Silverstein which brought forth another aspect of MAG:
No teacher, preacher, parent, friend
Or wise man can decide
What's right for you--just listen to
The voice that speaks inside.
Other students expressed sadness about leaving MAG. Yet the penultimate individual performance tied it altogether into the discussion of national educational reform. Daniela read a piece about MAG, Twenty Years Later. The twentieth reunion takes place as a pot luck dinner in the Beecher Road Cafeteria. It reflected a sense of sharing that both pot luck dinners and MAG exemplify.
The MAG program has grown in such popularity that they have their own building. The students have gone on to great things as ball players, dancers, veterinarians, artists, and teachers. The underlying theme is that all of them are using their skills to make the world a better place. They have worked hard to help children with a Children’s Imagination Center. They have seen great success in addressing environmental issues. One of the students has gone on to become the first woman president of the United States. In that role she has worked to make sure that programs like MAG are available to students in every school in the nation.
The students in MAG have been brought up in a trying time. They were born under the shadow of 9/11. Their country has been involved in wars during their whole life. There has been a crippling recession and an ecological disaster. Yet through all of it, Daniela’s words reflect a common belief of many MAG students summarized in a quote on the back of the program. “It will be what we make it.”
The MAG program is a phenomenal success. It has helped students learn to express themselves, to dream, to work towards fulfilling their dreams, to help things become what they can be, if they make it. Will the dream of national educational reform based on ideas from MAG become a reality? If these students are any indication and hold fast to their dreams, it will.
(Cross posted at the WOodbridge Citizen.)
#ff #swct #getitdone in a #doacracy
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Fri, 06/18/2010 - 07:22#pcct #cttu #googlehaven
Typically on Follow Fridays (#FF) I list people that I’ve been following. I try to tie them together into a theme; people I’ve met at some conference, people I know from some online group, and so on. This week, I’m doing things a little bit differently. I am focusing on hashtags.
For those who don’t know what hashtags are, they are tags frequently used in Twitter that begin with the hash mark to get them to standout. #ff, #swct, #getitdone, #doacracy, #pcct, #cttu, and #googlehaven are all examples of hashtags. The theme is focused on Social Web Week Connectict, #swct.
#swct is an event bigger than any of us, so my perspective on how it got started will be different from other people’s perspectives. It is also hard to say exactly when and where it really started. In my mind, it probably started at the New Haven Social Media Club in May. As we talked, I asked about how Social Media Club’s activities related to other social media activities in the state. I talked about the Tweet Crawls (#cttu) and the Podcamp (#pcct) plans.
When it was decided to have the ShareAThon in July, we talked about trying to have a Tweet Crawl in July in New Haven as well. It turns out that Suzi Craig was already in talks with Bun at Miya’s Sushi about having a Tweet Crawl in New Haven in July and I wrote:
Sounds like New Haven Social Media Week 2010 is starting to take shape. Will GoogleHaven, Ripple100, or other groups arrange events? I'll see if there is the possibility of a Drupal Meetup sometime that week in New Haven
A few days later there was ‘Twushi’, a gathering of Twitter aficionado’s at Miya’s Sushi. A few of us talked more about the idea of a Social Media week in New Haven. A few weeks later, the idea was discussed at a meeting of people in the Left to Right movement, #l2r, Andre Yap sent out an email inviting people to the swct Google Group, I set up a draft website, and things were well on their way.
Here is where the genealogist in me takes over as I look at some of the ancestors of this. Social Media Club started in 2006 in San Francisco and has grown to chapters around the world. At one point, I received an email about a Social Media Club meeting in New Haven. I sent out a message that I would be attending, and about half a dozen of us gathered at a New Haven Restaurant. It turns out that the person who had initially set it up had a conflict and couldn’t attend. She had sent out a message saying the meeting was cancelled, but several of us didn’t get the message and we had a good meeting nonetheless. It was there that I met Amy Desmarais, who at the time still had a day job, but was working to help get Ripple100 launched.
Another important ancestor of #swct is #googlehaven. Like #swct, #googlehaven has its own history, and my views will probably miss important aspects. I first heard about #googlehaven, the idea of bringing Google Fiber to New Haven from Jack Nork. I’m not sure how Jack and I originally connected. I believe it was via Twitter and we ended up deciding to meet in the Woodbridge Starbucks to talk about Twitter and other social media.
Google is looking for a testbed to launch their fiber network, and municipalities around the country have put together proposals. Jack, together with Andre Yap of Ripple100 and others have done a great job in promoting #googlehaven. #googlehaven developed a life of its own. At one of the #googlehaven meetings I noted that there were many municipalities trying to get Google to chose them and I wanted to know what would happen to all the great #googlehaven energy after the application was completed and after the decision was made. This idea resonated and has fed into the #swct effort providing great energy.
There is also the Tweet Crawls. I mentioned how Jack and I had met via Twitter and our talk at the Woodbridge Starbucks was, in many ways, a very small Tweetup. I’ve been to many Tweetups over the past years. Joe Cascio has done some great work in pulling Twitter Aficionados together. Later, Suzi Craig took this to a whole new level with monthly Tweet Crawls at different locations around Connecticut.
Some of the people involved in Tweet Crawls also attended Podcamp Western Mass 2. At discussions at the end of that Podcamp and at subsequent Tweet Crawls, the idea of having a Podcamp in Connecticut was discussed and slowly emerged into a core group of people trying to organize PodcampCT. The first PodcampCT is now scheduled to take place in New Haven in October. The Podcamp planning, which overlaps nicely with the TweetCrawlers has been brought in as part of Social Web Week.
At this point, I would like to dig back to the very early roots of Podcamp. Podcamp is a derivation of Barcamp, which was a response to Foocamp, and all of them are based on Open Space meetings dating back to Organizational Transformation meetings in the 1980s, about the same time that I first got on the Internet. As far as I know, the early OT meetings did not use the Internet, but Internet tools are very well suited to Open Space meetings.
In this aspect, there are key ideas about barcamps, podcamps and related camps. Everyone is a rockstar. Whoever shows up are the right people to show up. Whatever are gets discussed are the right topics to be discussed. This fits nicely with Social Web Week. Somewhere along the way, a fleeting idea of New Haven Social Media Week has evolved. I don’t know the details of the evolution and it probably doesn’t matter. What does matter is that a great group of people have come together. They are people that #getitdone. They are connectors. They are people focused on a #doacracy approach to things. Organizational structure, meeting agendas and such only matter in so much as they help get things done, and if they get in the way of getting things done, they get passed over.
What will Social Web Week CT turn out to be like? It is hard to tell. It has evolved a lot since the discussions over sushi and it still has several weeks to continue to evolve. Whatever it finally ends up looking like, #swct, and related efforts like #cttu, #pcct, #googlehaven, and related efforts are well worth following this Friday and throughout the coming days.
CT Department of Agriculture Places New Britain Animal Shelter Under Quarantine
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Tue, 06/15/2010 - 11:12Monday, the Connecticut Department of Agriculture placed the New Britain Animal shelter under quarantine after several dogs were tested positive with canine parvovirus, commonly known as parvo. Parvo is a contagious virus with a very high mortality rate for untreated dogs. According to reports, parvo has been in the New Britain Animal Shelter since at least May 20th.
Most dogs are vaccinated against parvo, but dogs that run wild or are not properly cared for by veterinarians can contract and spread parvo. At times, parvo can be a major problem in larger cities and animal control officers may impound dogs with parvo. Normally, a shelter contacts the Department of Agriculture when a case of parvo is detected and the department quarantines the shelter for two weeks. Based on initial reports, the parvo outbreak was over two weeks ago which would mean that the department would not place the shelter under quarantine. However, subsequent reports indicated that as recently as June 7th, a dog was diagnosed with parvo and put to sleep. When the Department of Agriculture learned of the continued problem they promptly addressed the situation placing the New Britain Animal Shelter under quarantine. As with other requests about animal safety, requests for comment from New Britain Mayor Tim Stewart about the parvo outbreak were not returned.
While parvo is not a threat to people who have mature dogs that have been vaccinated for parvo, it can be a threat to young puppies that are not old enough to be vaccinated. Residents of New Britain are urged to make sure that their dogs have been properly vaccinated and to keep young puppies that are not old enough to be vaccinated in doors.
Fortunately, parvo is not a zoonotic disease that is a threat to humans. Yet as zoonotic diseases become more common, such as H1N1, concerns about how well prepared our state is to address animal borne illnesses becomes more important. When the Department of Agriculture learned of the outbreak, they handled the situation efficiently. However, there are concerns about why the Department of Agriculture was not notified, and why Mayor Stewart fails to address public safety issues.
Excitement at Center Field
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Thu, 06/10/2010 - 07:46Woodbridge – As parents chatted and watched the Bethwood Softball League’s Woodbridge Purple Panthers on a fine summer’s evening at Center Field in Woodbridge. A small drama played out in the crowded parking lot. Joanna Cooper’s car was hit by a vehicle which then left the scene of the accident.
The offending vehicle did not have a license plate on the front, but a witness in the parking lot chased the vehicle down the driveway and managed to get the license plate information. The police were contacted and a helpful member of Woodbridge’s Police Department inspected the damage and spoke with Ms. Cooper and witnesses.
Fortunately, the damage was minor and there were no injuries. Other parents in the stands were willing to give the driver the benefit of the doubt. Perhaps they did not even realize they had scraped up against the Cooper’s vehicle.
Yet the important part of the story is not about the damage to the car, or perhaps even what might have been going on in the mind of the driver leaving the accident. The real story, a common story that does not get told often enough, is about people in a community caring about and looking after one another.
Back on the field, the players finished out their game without ever knowing what had happened in the parking lot. In the Bethwood Rookie League, they don’t keep score. Instead, they work on improving their game, having fun, and playing nicely together. It provides a good example to others about how games should be played and a nice parallel to community members coming together in the parking lot.
(Cross posted in the Woodbridge Citizen.)
