Author Archives: Ethan Rodriguez-Torrent

I was initiated into America’s gun culture the hard way: face-down in a darkened movie theater in Aurora, Colo., covered in a friend’s blood.

In the aftermath of the banishment of the Buddhist group Indigo Blue from campus, University Chaplain Sharon Kugler’s commitment to the Yale community has been tested — and found wanting.

I met Audrey by chance, while shooting a documentary that sought to portray arguments for and against the eviction of Occupy New Haven. Audrey has spent the last three years of her life on the streets. Until a month ago, she lived in a tent on the upper Green, close to the main Occupy encampment »

I’ll agree that there are people who smoke irresponsibly, and I personally will never sit down next to a non-smoker and light up. But here’s the problem with Nell Meosky’s op-ed (“A call against smoking”). The implicit assumption underlying the dogmatic anti-smoking position of most of my peers — many whom have never read a »

Bright yellow, with a cartoonish nose and pair of eyes and standing about 4 inches tall above its base, Keepon looks like a cross between a marshmallow Peep and a snowman. And Keepon has become a YouTube sensation — because this robot can dance. Keepon can improvise to any song with a reasonable beat, said »

Though the recent “war on terror” may have seemed like a pivotal ideological struggle, political scientist and statesman Zbigniew Brzezinski argued Thursday that the world will face far more complex challenges to human survival in the future. In front of an audience of over 200, Brzezinski — a well-known author, professor and former National Security »

In 2003, a sniper who struck repeatedly along a Columbus, Ohio, highway was apprehended with the help of gunshot-detection technology. Now, the same company that provided the technology to Columbus has been commissioned by the New Haven Police Department to install gunshot detectors in the Elm City. The ShotSpotter Gunshot Location System detects gunfire and »

Even before Mayor John DeStefano Jr. finished explaining the New Haven budget to his audience at a town hall meeting Wednesday night, 85-year-old Harry Conroy stood up in anger to take his turn. “I haven’t heard anything about the elderly,” he said forcefully. The mayor, he said, is not addressing the plight of the seniors. »

Some residents of the Newhallville neighborhood of New Haven say they have learned an age-old lesson: You can’t always get what you want. Besides the recently renovated 266,000 square feet of Yale office and lab space at 25 Science Park, the portion of the neighborhood located along Winchester Avenue between Munson Street and Division Street »

A new public-private collaboration in Science Park may help ease the blow of the city’s expected layoffs. A 2,000-square-foot space at 4 Science Park in the Newhallville neighborhood will host a new job and literacy center targeted at area residents, Science Park Development Corporation Chairman and CEO David Silverstone said. The building will house three »

Students walk streets to count New Haven’s homeless For four hours Wednesday night, about 100 volunteers, including students from the Yale Hunger and Homelessness Action Project and National Student Partnerships, surveyed the number of homeless people in New Haven for the Point in Time Homeless Count. Sixty-nine homeless were counted on streets and in public »

This article has been corrected. You may view this article’s correction here. Winstanley Enterprises LLC, a Massachusetts real estate company that owns several major properties in New Haven, last month announced its purchase of 370 Winchester Ave. The property, a few blocks northwest of the Sterling Chemistry Lab, the factory was abandoned following its closing »