Author Archives: James Collins

No governing body in the United States would be allowed to plagiarize an entire Web site and then pass it off as part of its own. The managers of the popular YaleStation Internet portal, an agency officially controlled by the Yale College Council, were accused last week of doing exactly that. WesMatch Network, a company »

New Haven’s next aldermanic elections are more than 13 months away, but political currents are already swirling in at least one of the city’s 30 wards. Frances “Bitsie” Clark, the longtime executive director of the Greater New Haven Arts Council, is eyeing a run for Ward 7 alderwoman, city hall sources said this week. Current »

More than 75 public officials, first responders and Yale administrators attempted to contain a virtual smallpox outbreak Tuesday, during a two-hour “tabletop scenario” designed to assess the city’s ability to respond to bioterrorism. Representatives from all three area hospitals, the Yale and New Haven police departments and the New Haven Fire Department worked with state »

As a student walks to a physics class on Science Hill, the Yale and New Haven police departments patrol the streets under his feet, and at least 10 federal and state agencies monitor Connecticut’s airspace overhead. Armed guards guarantee the safety of the nuclear power plant that feeds the lights in his classroom. On his »

New Haven’s political landscape is set to change next fall under a newly approved and potentially controversial plan to redraw the city’s aldermanic wards. Members of the 11-member redistricting committee praised the result this week as an exercise in political compromise. But some critics suggested that the plan could face a challenge in court because »

New Haven’s charter reform proposals will go before the electorate this fall, but not without continued controversy surrounding mayoral and aldermanic term lengths. City voters will consider fundamental changes to the city’s hiring policies and campaign finance laws this November as part of a referendum on charter revision. But several aldermen said the way the »

Beginning late last year, an organization with strong ties to Yale’s labor unions began releasing a series of reports criticizing Yale’s role in New Haven. In the first report, published last fall, the Connecticut Center for a New Economy concluded that New Haven residents would not benefit from Yale’s enormous investment in biotechnology research. That »

NEW YORK — As the elevator stopped on the 20th floor of New York City’s venerable Yale Club yesterday afternoon, solitary pairs of alumni — as diverse in race as they were in age — trickled into the club’s Grand Ballroom to hear about one New Haven minister’s vision for the University’s future. Each of »

Yale undergraduates will be a greater force than ever in wards 7 and 22 if the Board of Aldermen approves the newest version of a city redistricting plan released yesterday. Ward 1, which currently includes Old Campus and eight of the 12 residential colleges, will remain a Yale stronghold under the plan, gaining Pierson and »

The nation’s top public housing official ventured into one of the most blighted sections in New Haven Monday as part of his visit to Yale, calling the city’s West Rock neighborhood “extremely isolated” and “impoverished.” Six months after his department turned down the city’s application for a $35 million grant to improve the isolated community, »

Sitting behind his own desk in his own three-room office suite in New Haven City Hall, Julio Gonzalez ’99 grins as he rocks back in his chair and stares out the window. Through the huge floor-to-ceiling picture windows, Gonzalez — the chief of staff to Mayor John DeStefano Jr. — can see most of the »

After a suggestion from Ward 17 Alderman Matt Naclerio, New Haven’s Charter revision commission will consider allowing the Board of Aldermen to hire its own full-time independent lawyer. Naclerio said that members of the Board of Aldermen are often unable to obtain independent legal advice from the corporation counsel’s staff, which is appointed by the »