Leaders of the Connecticut Public Defender Attorneys Union, represented by AFSCME Local 381, are disappointed by our Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, Mr. Daryl McGraw’s, degradation of women through a public Facebook post.
We do not condone demeaning actions or communications towards any marginalized groups. It is unacceptable for anyone, and especially someone with Mr. McGraw’s title, to say things that perpetuate any of these victimizations.
The union supports a DEI program. We understand that the Division of Public Defender Services must work to eradicate such behavior within our own agency. However, we cannot accept the head of the DEI program, the person who is supposed to guide us through this process, engaging in such behavior himself.
We demand his immediate resignation.
Leaders of the Connecticut Public Defender Attorneys Union called for the resignation of Daryl McGraw, the Division of Public Defender Services Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, for a misogynist post he put on his Facebook page. Union leaders condemned the post’s “degradation of women.”
Daily Ructions broke the story Wednesday morning. Before noon, McGraw sent a response by email to agency colleagues. It ignited a storm of replies. McGraw wrote, in part, “I became aware that the post, initially shared on my personal page, had an unintended impact within our division, leading to some people being upset. I deeply regret any discomfort this may have caused, especially to those who felt affected.”
Public defenders and others in the agency wondered what impact other than alarm and dismay McGraw thought his post would have on others who saw it.
McGraw’s graphic on his post declared that “Grown women want to…get bent over the balconies,” holding out the prospect of stepping up one’s game. The controversy adds to the tumult that has racked the agency this year under the leadership of Chief Public Defender TaShun Bowden Lewis.
Read and subscribe to Now You Know–The Cultural Lives of Others. This week’s guest is popular WVIT meteorologist Ryan Hanrahan. Learn what he does with his brains.
November 15, 2023Comments Off on Public Defenders union calls for resignation of DEI director over “degradation of women” Facebook post.
The turmoil in the Division of Public Defender Services continued Tuesday when employees discovered a misogynist post on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Director Daryl McGraw’s Facebook page. The post featured a photograph of McGraw announcing “exciting news.” and introducing Paper Chase Academy.
The post tells “former street hustlers” to “discover the secrets to becoming an LLC or 501c3. The $146,000 a year director advises readers that “Grown women want to travel, eat well. and get bent over the balconies.” Women–and men– in the agency were both disgusted and alarmed at the post on Tuesday. Bending women over balconies is not a measure of success in life the more than 400 lawyers and support staff expect the DEI director to promote on his Facebook page.
Read and subscribe to Now You Know–The Cultural Lives of Others. This week’s guest is popular WVIT meteorologist Ryan Hanrahan. Learn what he does with his brains.
November 15, 2023Comments Off on Public Defender DEI Director “Grown women…want to get bent over balconies” FB post raises alarm in agency.
More troubles at the Connecticut lottery. The agency announced on it website Monday that it could process no more winning tickets. The announcement remained on its website early Tuesday morning.
A critical element of the sale of lottery tickets is that winners—who beat formidable odds—will be able to redeem their tickets at will. Lottery administrators appear to have lost the plot on this. Earlier this year the lottery’s new point-of-sale machines were unable to accurately scan tickets.
A $2 million winning PowerBall ticket was sold in Connecticut several weeks ago. Paying out a rare big prize may have upended daily life at the lottery’s new Wallingford headquarters.
Beloved former Republican National Committeewoman Pat Longo has died at 86. The generous Wilton resident spent nearly 40 years encouraging young people to get involved in politics and then provided help as they navigated campaign shoals.
Pat was a loyalist but challenged the established party order when the moment called her. As corruption deluged the Rowland administration in 2003 into 2004, state Republican party committee members met to elect two national committee members, a man and a woman. The incumbent woman representing Connecticut, Jo McKenzie, was a Rowland confidant and a minor player in the scandals that were consuming his administration.
Pat Longo allowed her name to be placed in nomination against McKenzie, who had held the seat for 14 years. John Rowland, the New Haven Register reported, stood in the back of the room while the committee met. McKenzie defeated Longo, 46.5 to 31.5. These were people with no history of bucking party leadership, especially the first Republican elected governor in 24 years. Pat Longo had, but allowing her name to go forward, stiffened many spines.
Two months later, Rowland would resign. A few days before Christmas he would plead guilty to federal corruption charges.
After the deluge, Pat Longo succeeded McKenzie and serve on the RNC for ten years.
Not every RNC duo from each state works in harmony. Pat Longo and John Frey were more than colleagues. He was a loyal and essential friend to Pat in her final years, a reminder that politics can create bonds that transcend elections.
Published November 7, 2023.
November 7, 2023Comments Off on Pat Longo (1937-2023). Former Republican National Committeewoman loved politics and her nation. Her 2004 display of courage set her apart.
Russell was nominated last month for a seat on the federal bench in the District of Connecticut. Senator John Kennedy (R-Louisiana) asked Russell about the substance of the letter and why she failed to include it in documents submitted to the committee as part of the confirmation process. Russell appears as the 669th signatory on the letter that excoriates Connecticut’s criminal justice system.
Russell was not much help in answering Kennedy’s questions. She said she did not recall the letter. A letter from Russell to the committee explaining her demands of Governor Lamont seems inevitable. Republicans seem likely to highlight the contents of the letter and Russell’s failure to provide it. The video had nearly 850,000 views by Sunday evening, November 5th.
The committee appointed by Senator Richard Blumenthal and Senator Christopher Murphy to screen applicants for Connecticut vacancies on the federal bench meets in secrecy and imposes that secrecy on applicants. A more open process might have revealed the extraordinary letter during the early stages of the selection process..
Published November 5, 2023.
November 5, 2023Comments Off on Quinnipiac law professor confronted at Senate confirmation hearing with letter urging Governor Lamont to empty state’s jails and prisons at start of pandemic. Russell failed to give letter to committee.
Finding significant evidence of the mishandling of absentee ballots in Bridgeport’s September 12th Democratic primary for mayor, Superior Court Judge William F. Clark ordered a new primary a week before the November 7th municipal election.
The ruling is a triumph for challenger and former Ganim supporter John Gomes. Ganim edged out Gomes by 251 votes. Gomes defeated Ganim on votes cast at polling places on primary day but lost to the incumbent when absentee ballots were counted. Video recordings emerged several days after the primary of Ganim loyalist Wanda Peter-Pataky repeatedly putting absentee ballots in a depository at the Margaret Morton Government Center.
“Quite simply the defendants ask this court to ignore the significant mishandling of ballots by partisans that were caught on video flouting the mandatory provisions of Connecticut law,” Judge Clark wrote in a decision released Wednesday afternoon.
Published November 1, 2023.
November 1, 2023Comments Off on Blow to Ganim: Judge orders new Democratic primary in Bridgeport race for mayor.
Governor Ned Lamont’s deputy chief of staff, Nick Simmons, is expected to seek the 2024 Democratic nomination for state senator in the 36th District, Daily Ructions has learned. The seat is held by Republican Ryan Fazio. He’s likely to seek a third term.
Simmons may not enjoy a coronation to the Democratic nomination. Democrat Trevor Crow, who lost to Fazio in 2022 by 89 votes out of the 42,845 cast, may take a second run at Fazio. With that narrow margin, Crow would have a strong claim to the nomination. The district includes Greenwich and portions of Stamford and New Canaan. Fazio recaptured the traditionally Republican seat in the summer of 2021 in a special election caused by the resignation of Democrat Alex Kasser. Kasser claimed her contentious divorce made it impossible for her to continue to live in Greenwich.
Nick Simmons is the brother of Caroline Simmons, who is serving her first term as mayor of Stamford. She has been in a prolonged battle with local Democratic activists. They could use a low turnout summer primary between Simmons and Crow to send a firm message to the high-handed mayor about her own political prospects.
A former currency trader, Nick Simmons did a turn at the U.S. Department of Education before returning to the Lamont administration as deputy chief of staff at the start of the governor’s second term.
Published November 1, 2023.
November 1, 2023Comments Off on Lamont aide Nick Simmons expected to seek 2024 Democratic nomination in 36th Senate District. Path not cleared for scion.
Tuesday brought evidence of more growing pains in the ocean-based wind power industry. Orsted, the Danish wind power company, announced it is scuttling two significant wind proposals off the coast of New Jersey, according to the AP.
The company pointed to supply chain problems the big cost of financing with interest rates rising to unanticipated levels when the project was planned. Orsted is on the hook for a $100 million guarantee it posted in October for the completion of the projects.
Orsted said it will continue with its Revolution Wind project in Connecticut and Rhode Island.
“Today’s decision by Orsted to abandon its commitments to New Jersey is outrageous and calls into question the company’s credibility and competence,” Governor Phil Murphy said. Murphy has been an enthusiastic advocate of wind power to reduce carbon emissions. The blow comes a week before the state’s legislative elections in which the wind projects have been an issue in some contests.
Wind power developers and their state government partners have misjudged the economics of an industry that is new to the United States. Companies have complained that their government subsidies are inadequate to changing market conditions.
Avangrid announced a month ago that it was abandoning its Park City Wind project due to the same supply and financial challenges that it is incapable of withstanding. It will pay the state a $16 million penalty for terminating the deal.
We are witnessing internationally supported genocide. This latest siege comes as a continuation and escalation of the daily violence Palestinians faced for decades from Israeli colonization; an apartheid regime whose occupation is in clear violation of international law, but persists with the support of powerful governments globally. In 2023 alone, the United States has sent $3.8 billion to prop up the Israeli military and consistently legitimized Israel’s human rights violations on a global stage. The European Union too has brazenly supported Israel’s aggression, while failing to reflect on the historical irony to “never again” commit genocide.
There is no mention of the more than 200 hostages Hamas terrorists continue to hold. Nor do the sociologists find space to mention the October 7th slaughter of Israelis by Hamas. (And they use “foregrounds” as a verb, which may reveal a telling detail about the process of obtaining an advance degree in sociology.)
The document descries “the dehumanizing language used by heads of state, military leaders, and journalists throughout the West,” but makes no mention of the October 7th slaughter of Israelis by Hamas. It refers to the violence of the last week, but Hamas’s barbarity was visited on Israelis 17 days ago. That goes unacknowledged.
“As educators, it is our duty to stand by the principles of critical inquiry and learning,” the poisonous bloviators continue, without calling for the release of more than 200 hostages held by Hamas.
October 24, 2023Comments Off on UConn faculty member joins 1,900 sociologists in anti-Israel screed to “contextualize” Hamas slaughter of innocents. Silent on hostages.
