Author Archives: Jack Mirkinson

Charter schools may be gaining popularity among communities looking for alternative education solutions, but Connecticut’s largest teacher’s union and a New Haven-based nonprofit disagree as to whether or not they are effective. At the heart of the argument is a pair of dueling reports on public education. A September report released by the nonprofit Connecticut »

Come this Friday, the New Haven Housing Authority hopes to have an additional $4 million to combat urban blight. The State Bond Commission is expected to approve the grant at its Jan. 26 meeting to help fund the Quinnipiac Terrace Redevelopment Project in Fair Haven, Governor M. Jodi Rell announced last Thursday. While the funding »

In a speech in Dwight Chapel on Monday, National Resources Defense Council President Frances Beinecke ’71 FES ’74 said global warming is the biggest threat to the health of the planet. Beinecke, this year’s Dwight Hall Distinguished Mentor, laid out the NRDC’s future agenda and discussed who her personal mentors have been throughout her long »

Ward 14 Alderwoman Erin Sturgis-Pascale is a walker. If it were up to her, New Haven would be a pedestrian paradise, flush with public transportation and safe, walkable streets. People like Sturgis-Pascale would never have to drive anywhere, particularly in a city where, she says, traffic should be the number one concern. “I live on »

Over the fall of her senior year at the Hopkins School, Katie has visited her college counselor constantly, stopping in several times a week to ask advice about her Ivy League applications. Edgar, a student at New Haven’s public Wilbur Cross High School who struggles with his English-language skills, said his counselor has tried to »

As temperatures drop, frustrations are mounting among directors of New Haven shelters struggling to accommodate the yearly influx of homeless people that winter brings. The problem of overcrowding in the city’s homeless shelters happens each year, said Alison Cunningham, executive director of the Columbus House shelter in Fair Haven. Although shelter administrators are adding beds »

The son of University Chaplain Rev. Frederick J. Streets is among the victims injured by a wave of shootings over the past few days that resulted in the death of one Dixwell resident. Bennett Streets is recuperating after being shot late Sunday night, a representative for the New Haven Police Department said. His shooting is »

Dwight Hall, the 80-year-old Old Campus mainstay that houses most of Yale’s community service and social justice groups, will move to a new building in 2010, the group announced Friday. Dwight Hall’s Board of Directors voted Friday to move the organization to 143 Elm St. at the corner of Elm and Temple Streets rather than »

HARTFORD — Running as an independent, Senator Joseph Lieberman ’64 LAW ’67 clinched a decisive victory over Democratic rival Ned Lamont SOM ’80 Tuesday, bringing sighs of relief to Lieberman’s cross-party supporters in Hartford and disappointment at Lamont’s Meriden headquarters. After edging out Lamont and Republican Alan Schlesinger, Lieberman announced in his victory speech that »

The city will receive a $180,000 grant to help curb underage drinking, city officials announced Thursday. The grant was offered to the New Haven Commission on Substance Abuse Policy and Prevention as part of a $2 million statewide allocation of funds by the Connecticut Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services. While state and city »

To some around New Haven, “Gateway” is the buzzword for an ambitious redevelopment of New Haven’s urban core that will bring Gateway Community College into a new state-of-the-art campus downtown and will trigger the next phase of the Elm City’s urban renaissance. But for the more than 9,000 students who make the daily commute to »

Maura Fitzgerald ’08 spends two hours a week helping students with fractions, decimals and percentages. She says her students appreciate the one-on-one attention that comes with tutoring. But unlike other Yalies who tutor in local schools, Fitzgerald’s pupils return to a jail cell after sessions. Fitzgerald is one among a small group of Yale students »