On Monday night, Hartford’s City Council voted to overturn ordinance Chapter 31, Article I, Section 31-5 of Code de Skateboards. Which barring any mayoral veto, officially repeals the archaic and unnecessary ban of skateboarding on Hartford’s streets and sidewalks. The ban, which has been in place for 33 years was hardly-if ever-enforced and most citizens were not even aware it existed. After a few minutes of debate in favor of and against lifting the ban, the council voted 7-1 to repeal the ordinance with Councilman Calixto Torres the stand alone against.

Most of the council were not impressed by the scare tactics employed by Corporation Council John Rose and Councilman Torres, that lifting the ban would open the flood gates for lawsuits and increased liability to the city and it’s taxpayers. In fact, some members saw this strawman argument as a ploy by the business district to further encourage a “pedestrian only” downtown.

Councilman Luis Cotto, who has lead the charge to lift the ban, argued that skateboarding is a legitimate form of transportation and  an excellent way for Hartford’s youth to stay in shape. Councilman Cotto is also responsible for creating a task-force consisting of Hartford residents, artists, skateboarders, and business leaders to look into the the viability of building a skate/bmx park and mixed-use arts area at New Ross County, Wexford Park, affectionately known as “Heaven” by local skateboarders.

The council has recently approved the initial recommendations of the Task-Force which include building a poured-concrete style park, urban arts wall, and a stage for performances.

Students from Classical Magnet School in Hartford discuss the work they’re doing around youth homelessness in the city.

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Cindy Martinez of Hartbeat Ensemble discusses the fifth annual Plays in the Parks series, coming to Hartford in July.  The plays take on a number of critical issues such as homelessness, mental illness, the mortgage crisis, and health care.

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RadioActive brings you audio from two events in Hartford from June 4, an education forum at La Paloma Sabanera and the Gaza rally downtown.

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Part 2 of a presentation given by Dave Zirin, author of A People’s History of Sports in the United States, part of the Howard Zinn People’s History series.  The talk took place May 22 at the West Haven Public Library. For more information visit edgeofsports.com

Click here to download the MP3

On May 30, 2010, at 10:06am, the National Priorities Project Cost of War counter – designed to count the total money appropriated for the Iraq and Afghanistan wars – reached the $1 trillion mark.

To date, $747.3 billion have been appropriated for the U.S. war in Iraq and $299 billion for the war in Afghanistan.

The pending supplemental making its way through Congress will add an estimated $37 billion to the current $136.8 billion total spending for the current fiscal year, ending September 30.

What Can You Get For $1 Trillion?

Federal Funding For Higher Education — $1 trillion would give the maximum Pell Grant award ($5,500) to all 19 million U.S. college and university students for the next 9 years.

For $1 trillion, you could provide:

294,734,961 people with health care for one year, or

21,598,789 public safety officers for one year, or

17,149,392 music and arts teachers for one year, or

7,779,092 affordable housing units, or

440,762,472 children with health care for one year, or

137,233,969 head start places for children for one year, or

16,427,497 elementary school teachers for one year, or

1,035,282,468 homes with renewable electricity for one year

WHAT DOES $1 TRILLION LOOK LIKE?

$1,000,000,000,000 (“1” and twelve zeros)

If you earned $1 million a year, it would take you 1 million years to earn $1 trillion.

In Dollar Bills:

If you converted $1 trillion into one dollar bills, and laid them end to end, it would reach 98 million miles. That’s 4,000 times around the Earth. Its 205 trips to the Moon. And back. It’s more than the distance to the Sun.

In Silver Dollars:

If someone handed you a silver dollar every second, it would take almost 32,000 years for them to hand you $1 trillion. Not that you could hold them – they’d weigh nearly 9 million tons.

About NPP’s Cost of War Counters

NPP’s Cost of War counters provide information on the cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan for each of the 50 states.

The counters also provide cost amounts and “trade-off” data for hundreds of U.S. cities and towns.

To see NPP’s Cost of War counters and our Notes & Sources, visit http://www.nationalpriorities.org/costofwar_home

The National Priorities Project (NPP) is a 501(c)(3) research organization that analyzes and clarifies federal data so that people can understand and influence how their tax dollars are spent.  Located in Northampton, MA, since 1983, NPP focuses on the impact of federal spending and other policies at the national, state, congressional district and local levels.  For more information, visit http://www.nationalpriorities.org.

Contact: Christopher Hellman, Communications Liaison, 413.584.9556 (o); 703.945.3950, or

Jo Comerford, Executive Director, 413.584.9556 (o); 413.559.1649 (c)

National Priorities Project office located at:
243 King Street
Suite 109
Northampton, MA, 01060
United States