Tonight at 6:00 PM, if you don't have anything to do (like shoveling snow), come out to the the The William J. Knight Foundation A Faith-in-Action Fundraiser.
Entitled "“Bridging And Accepting The Different Cultures Through Music and Dance”, the fundraiser is to benefit the New Hope Baptist Church Building fund and feature the following:
• The New Hope Baptist Church Mass Choir • The All Nations Worship Team • Grace-N-Motion Praise Dancers • Speeches from Ase’ Amenra Kariamu and The Reverend Phyllis J. Leopold
Admission is free but a donation of 10.00 dollars would be nice.
Come down and enjoy in the celebration:
6:00 PM to 8:00 PM at the All Nations Baptist Church 234 Main Street Danbury, Ct 06810
In honor of the spew of lies and misinformation from the Friday-night cable access pro-ICE ACCESS/anti-immigrant talking heads, I wanted to give everyone an update on the latest expansion of this site, HatCityBLOG-TV.
The project is coming along smoothly as I met with the local access coordinator last month and filled out the necessary paperwork to get the show on the air. Right now, I'm in the process of completing four episodes and as soon as I send my pilot into Comcast, I'll make the final arrangements to secure a timeslot.
I'm planning on having HatCityBLOG-TV broadcast on as many cable stations across Connecticut as well as in New York and I'm planning on the first show to hit the airwaves some time in late March-early April with a sneek preview set for mid-March online.
The days of the Friday-night pro-immigrant spin machine is about to come to a dramatic end.
HatCityBLOG EXCLUSIVE: Sex offender Ad-hoc committee
Friday, February 22, 2008 Time: 4:26 PM
Before I continue my critique of the sex offender ordinance, I want to share with you this complete raw video footage from the ONE AND ONLY MEETING OF THE SEX OFFENDER AD-HOC COMMITTEE FROM AUGUST 2007.
NOTE: The following file is provided in TV-quality and in order to view this file, you need to download the VEOH-TV player. After downloading the program (which can be used to view YouTube and Google videos), you can download the file eith by clicking here, or clicking on the download symbol in the viewer window. For more info on the partnership between HatCityBLOG and VEOH, click here.
A lower-quality Google video of the ad-hoc committee will be provided at a later date.
The latest battle between war against irresponsible development centers around Joe Putnam's transfer station proposal at Plumtrees Road.
Since I'm in the middle of re-designing this site and expanding HatCityBLOG, I've been a bit behind in updating everyone on the latest developments and for that, I apologize.
Soon, I'll have a special section of this site devoted to the transfer station proposal but until then, from the January 30 Planning Commission public hearing, here's video footage of the public's opposition to the project.
State Assemblyman Greg Ball believes that correctional officers should receive immigration law enforcement training.
[...]
Last week, the Danbury City government gave its police chief authorization to enroll officers in the ICE training while Brewster Village officials have also expressed a desire to have village cops enrolled.
Ball criticized both decisions: "This is really not the way to go because most local police agencies don't have the resources or the time to dedicate themselves to immigration law enforcement."
For those who don't know Ball, here's my report on him and his anti-immigrant political antics from last year.
Several attempts by Democrats to offer amendments, which would have addressed several problems with the proposal, were dismissed by the Republican majority at the ad-hoc committee (which was noted by 5th Ward Council member Duane Perkins). During the Common Council meeting, in an attempt re-visit several problems with the ordinance, Tom Saadi offered an amendment to fix one of the various loopholes in the ordinance (note the portion in bold):
Mr. Saadi moved to amend the main motion to change the language in Section (3) Enforcement Procedure, that reads “If the person refuses to leave or is later found to be in the same Child Safety Zone....” to “If the person refuses to leave or is later found to be in “a” or “any” Child Safety Zone....”. Seconded by Mr. Chianese. Mr. Saadi stated that the current language would allow offenders to “zone hop”.
Zone Hop basically means the following:
As the ordinance is written, if a sex offender is in a Child Safety Zone, the police will give one warning; if that person is caught in the same Child Safety Zone a second time, then he'll gets a slap on the wrist by the police.
In other words, under the current language, the offender is only slapped on the wrist if he's found in the same Saftey Zone two times.
Here's the smaller video file focusing on the highlights of the debate surrounding the zone-hopping loophole.
You can watch the entire debate on the sex offender ordinance by clicking here. Later, I'll show you what happened AFTER this flawed ordinance was approved.
Taking pictures of the moon is probably one of the hardest things to do when you only have a 400 MM zoom lens, no tripod and only a couple of minutes to capture the moment.
If you missed the nightshow, you'll have to wait till the next eclipse in 2010.
CT Supreme Court rules against local municpalities
Wednesday, February 20, 2008 Time: 1:44 PM
Oh my. This decision stating that towns bordering Candlewood Lake can't enforce zoning or building regulations will definitely irritate City Hall.
The state Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that the five towns bordering Candlewood Lake lack the power to enforce zoning or building regulations in the narrow band of land that circles the lake.
[...]
The court's decision -- Thomas Hackett v. J.L.G. Properties LLC -- stems from a 2004 zoning dispute in New Milford.
That year, Gerard's Marina began building a 16-foot by 50-foot deck along the edge of the lake for its customers. It never applied for a building permit or a zoning variance to build the deck. The town issued a cease-and-desist order to stop construction, and Gerard's initially obeyed that order and applied for a zoning variance for the work. But when the town denied Gerard's request, the marina proceeded to finish the deck without town permits.
It did so because it had a construction permit from the owner of the thin ribbon of land that circles Candlewood Lake -- the hydroelectric utility which was then Northeast Generation Co. and is now First Light Power Resources Inc.
That ribbon of land is commonly referred to as the 440, because it extends from the edge of the lake to 440 feet above sea level. The utility owns and administers it under the aegis of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
Candlewood, Lillinonah and Zoar are created by hydroelectric power plants, which FERC regulates under the Federal Power Act of 1935.
Gerard's attorney, Peter Hunt of Danbury, successfully argued in state Superior Court in 2006 and at the state Supreme Court in 2007 that in such cases federal law and power always trump local regulations. Therefore, Gerard's, having obtained permission from the utility, was not required to get local zoning or building approval.
In its decision, the Supreme Court did acknowledge that towns can enforce health and sanitation regulations in the 440 zone. Marsicano, of Candlewood Lake Authority, said people will also have to obey state wetlands regulations.
But the concluding paragraph of the decision says plainly that because of FERC's federal jurisdiction, First Light or people building on its land do not have to obtain local zoning and building permits "for the development of recreational resources."
With the Governor Rell presenting her budget proposal tot he general assembly, mayors and first selectmen are making the rounds on the media outlets and expressing their concerns.
On WVIT, Mansfied Mayor Elizabeth Paterson and Jim Finley: Executive Director of Connecticut Conference of Municipalities talk about their problems with Rell's proposal while on WFSB, Simsbury First Selectman Mary Glassman and Old Lyme First Selectmen Tim Griswold talk about the impact Rell's proposed budget will have in their communities.
Why is this important to Danbury? It's simple, when it comes to funds, towns and cities are the last on the food chain. If the money doesn't come from the feds, or from the state, it will come out of YOUR pocket in the form of property taxes (remember bitching about the property assessments...)
Some of the taxes you pay (i.e., sales tax) goes directly towards the state so you want to do everything you can to see some of that funding come back to your community so you won't get whacked with higher property taxes of a decrease in city services. Danbury's budget is connected to the state's budget so whatever happens on the state level, will effect you on the local level.
(As we go back to do follow-ups on previous topics, it's necessary to bring new readers up-to-speed on other items of irritation at City Hall. Here’s a post I did on the ongoing problems with the sex offender ordinance. Originally posted March 9 2007).
While I'm getting ready for tonight's meeting(s) at City Hall, I wanted to fulfill a recent request from several readers who wanted to see the sex offender ordinance debate from December.
Many people I talked to after the meetings were left with the impression that the proposal was rushed to a vote without any regards to addressing several legitimate issues Democrats brought to the council's attention. Now that's not to say that Democrats don't care about kids, but rather the opposite since it was the Democrats who attempted several times fix various problems with this proposal, which makes the ordinance as a whole, rather weak and why people should be concerned.
Here's a PERFECT example of a LARGE problem:
Several attempts by Democrats to offer amendments, which would have addressed several problems with the proposal, were dismissed by the Republican majority at the ad-hoc committee (which was noted by 5th Ward Council member Duane Perkins). During the Common Council meeting, in an attempt re-visit several problems with the ordinance, Tom Saadi offered an amendment to fix one of the various loopholes in the ordinance (note the portion in bold):
Mr. Saadi moved to amend the main motion to change the language in Section (3) Enforcement Procedure, that reads “If the person refuses to leave or is later found to be in the same Child Safety Zone....” to “If the person refuses to leave or is later found to be in “a” or “any” Child Safety Zone....”. Seconded by Mr. Chianese. Mr. Saadi stated that the current language would allow offenders to “zone hop”.
Zone Hop basically means the following:
As the ordinance is written, if a sex offender is in a Child Safety Zone, the police will give one warning; if that person is caught in the same Child Safety Zone a second time, then he'll gets a slap on the wrist by the police.
In other words, under the current language, the offender is only slapped on the wrist if he's found in the same Saftey Zone two times.
Seems silly right? Seems like this should be fix rather easily right?
Saadi's amendment would have changes the language in such a way so if a sex offender is found in ANY child Safety zone a second time, he'd get a slap on the wrist by the police. In other words, if an offender is in a Child Safety Zone, he'll be in violation of the ordinance and be fined if he's found in ANY Safety Zone as opposed to the same Safety Zone.
Republican At-Large Council member Mary Saracino joined the Democrats in approving the amendment but once again the Republican-majority rejected a Democratic-sponsored amendment in an effort to rush the entire proposal though the process. In the video, you'll notice the frustration among many Democrats (most notably Duane Perkins and Ben Chianese) who wanted to pass the ordinance free of any loopholes that allows any offender to get around the ordinance.
In the end, all but one council member approved the ordinance and in conversations with several Democrats who approved the ordinance, planning to address loopholes in the ordinance in the future. If one is concerned about the welfare of children, then every step should be taken by the common council to fix the loopholes so this ordinance has the real enforcement capability it needs.
Many critics of the mayor called this proposal nothing more than an election-year gimmick to at on his resume at the last minute along with the 311 system, the new concern over open space/over development, and the mayor's sudden "flip-flop" on broadcasting local government meetings. In any case, here's the requested video from December 2006.
If you haven't noticed, the site is going through several cosmetic changes. Since dealing with HTML code can be a real pain, postings on the site will be light for a while.
Part one of the HatCityBLOG transition is complete
Sunday, February 17, 2008 Time: 2:16 PM
It's what great pleasure that I announce that one of the major upgrades on this site is now complete.
One of my major problems with YouTube is the degrading of uploaded videos on it's service. Because of the YouTube's limitations, I've been unable to show my videos in it's original TV format...but now that's change with VeohTV.
VeohTV is a new video service that's allows users to upload high resolution videos without degrading the file. In other words, with VeosTV, you'll be able to view my videos that way they were meant to be seen, without a loss of video or audio quality. What's even better is that unlike YouTube, you'l be able to actually download the files straight to your computer for later viewing on your monitor or television. Even better, you can VeohTV allows you to watch videos from other services such as Google and YouTube.
Miss a episode of Danbury Live, Community Forum, or Ideas at Work and Beyond or HatCityBLOG-TV (which is coming soon to cable)? Now, you'll be able to view them whenever you want.
To start, go to Veoh.com and download VeohTV (or Veoh player if you own a Macintosh). After installing the program, downloading videos is a snap.
To download a video, while running a video, click on the download button on the upper right hand portion of the viewer.
There is one drawback...
Since I'm making a full transition to Veoh, you should know that videos that are over twenty minutes long will have to be downloaded for full viewing. The reason for this is because unlike Google, Veoh is a smaller service and streaming large videos take up quite a bit of bandwidth.
Again, I welcome everyone to download VeohTV (or the Veoh Player for Macintosh users), upgrade to one of the best videos services on the internet, and watch videos on this site the way they're suppose to be viewed.
HatCityBLOG VIDEO: Common Councilman Duane Perkins remarks on ICE ACCESS
Time: 1:03 PM
While I'm re-organizing the content on this site and working on a project with other media outlets, from February's Common Council meeting, here's comments from Councilman Duane Perkins who spoke truth to rhetoric in opposition to the ICE ACCESS proposal.
04.25.22 (RADIO): WSHU Latino group call on Connecticut lawmakers to open a Danbury charter school
06.03.22 (OP-ED): KUSHNER: "Career Academy ‘a great deal for Danbury"
On September 26, 2007, ten plaintiffs filed suit in response to an arrest of aday laborers at a public park in Danbury, Connecticut. Plaintiffs amended their complaint on November 26, 2007.
The amended complaint states that plaintiffs sought to remedy the continued discriminatory and unauthorized enforcement of federal immigration laws against the Latino residents of the City of Danbury by Danbury's mayor and its police department.
Plaintiffs allege that the arrests violated their Fourth Amendment rights and the Connecticut Constitution because defendants conducted the arrests without valid warrants, in the absence of exigent circumstances, and without probable cause to believe that plaintiffs were engaged in unlawful activity. In addition, plaintiffs allege that defendants improperly stopped, detained, investigated, searched and arrested plaintiffs. Plaintiffs also allege that defendants violated their Fourteenth Amendment rights when they intentionally targeted plaintiffs, and arrested and detained them on the basis of their race, ethnicity and perceived national origin. Plaintiffs raise First Amendment, Due Process and tort claims.
Plaintiffs request declaratory relief, damages and attorneys fees.