Activists call for increased mass transit accessibility on Transit Equity Day
Connecticut to receive $11.6 million to expand CTrail Hartford Line: Lamont
A coalition representing bus drivers, climate justice activists, health advocates and transit users gather to celebrate Transit Equity Day. They're calling for increased access to mass transit, such as allowing people 18 and under to ride Connecticut buses for free.
'Currently, children four and under do ride free on buses, but for children five and older who are riding with their parents…free child fares would assist with affordability,' Adrian Huq, New Haven Climate Movement co-founder, said. 'Especially for parents of multiple young children that are connecting them to services, education and activities and allowing parents to free up money for other necessities.'
Other issues highlighted include new investments to improve road safety and taking more steps towards emission reductions.
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Washington Post
15-07-2025
- Washington Post
Who'll be in Trump's hero garden? There are a few surprises.
The list of nearly 250 includes the famous, the obscure and, in some cases, the intentionally controversial. Perhaps in a few years, you'll be able to stroll through a garden — location TBA — past life-size statues of 250 mostly famous Americans and American-adjacent folks, from George Washington and Rosa Parks to Dr. Seuss, Christopher Columbus, Muhammad Ali and Elvis. A tiny chunk of the big bill that President Donald Trump signed into law on July 4 allots $40 million to create a 'National Garden of American Heroes,' a park Trump first proposed during the racial justice protests of 2020, when many Confederate and other monuments nationwide were being toppled. So if the garden is a go, who are the heroes? A 2021 executive order listed 244 mostly household names, all deceased, who embodied 'the American spirit of daring and defiance, excellence and adventure, courage and confidence, loyalty and love.' The list comes with one giant caveat: These people were chosen four years before Trump's 'anti-DEI' scrubbing of references to some notable people, including Black, Hispanic and female veterans, from federal spaces. A White House spokesperson said in an email last week that the final list of honorees remains under consideration. Astronauts, explorers and pioneers Hover on a bubble to explore the data Hover on a bubble to explore the data 1600 1700 1800 1900 2000 Daniel Boone Daniel Boone Amelia Earhart Amelia Earhart Sally Ride Sally Ride The list was compiled by members of a task force who asked for input from state and local officials. Another executive order, in January of this year, states that a few names will be added by the assistant to the president for domestic policy, a role held by Vince Haley, for a total of 250. Story continues below advertisement Advertisement Most were (relatively) recent, some were controversial Birth dates of people on the list range from the mid-1400s to the late 1900s. About half were in their prime during the 20th century. Astronauts, explorers and pioneers 1600 1700 1800 1900 2000 Columbus b. 1451 Daniel Boone Daniel Boone Amelia Earhart Amelia Earhart Sally Ride Sally Ride Because Trump thought some protesters went too far in removing statues, he wanted the garden to include significant historical figures despite their flaws. The earliest person on the list is Columbus, the celebrated Italian explorer who also brutalized Native people in the Caribbean. The most recent is NBA superstar and 'girl dad' Kobe Bryant, who died at 41 with his daughter in a helicopter crash on his way to coach her basketball team. Seventeen years earlier, he had grappled with a sexual assault allegation. TV, movie, music and sports figures 1600 1700 1800 1900 2000 Kobe Bryant Kobe Bryant Billie Holiday Billie Holiday In between are scores of people who fought for liberty, some of whom owned enslaved people, and scores more who changed the world in positive ways, but not necessarily for everybody. Story continues below advertisement Advertisement A few immigrants, a lot of New Yorkers More than 1 in 10 people on the list were born in New York, not including crooner Frank Sinatra, from nearby Hoboken, New Jersey, who sang Trump's favorite version of 'My Way.' They include poet Walt Whitman, Yankees slugger Lou Gehrig and polio vaccine creator Jonas Salk. At least nine states have no homegrown 'heroes' — 10, if you believe President Andrew Jackson was born north of the border between the Carolinas. (No one is sure.) D.C. has representation, though: jazz great Duke Ellington and Tuskegee Airmen leader Benjamin O. Davis Jr. Puerto Rico, too, with baseball Hall of Famer and humanitarian Roberto Clemente. Inventors, scientists and pioneers in medicine 1600 1700 1800 1900 2000 Luis Walter Alvarez Luis Walter Alvarez Samuel Morse Samuel Morse Thirty-seven people on the list were born abroad, in 20 countries, including longtime 'Jeopardy' host Alex Trebek (Canada for 200, Ken!) and theoretical physicist Albert Einstein (Germany). Not all immigrated intentionally. Phillis Wheatley, who in 1773 became the first African American woman to publish a book of poems, was kidnapped as a young child from West Africa and sold into slavery in Boston. She was still enslaved when her book was published. Rs and Ds, famous and not-so-famous The garden's organizing structure is yet to be determined, so we gave it a shot, slotting each person into a group based on what they were best known for to see what patterns emerged. Plenty of people would fit into more than one of these categories. Artists, architects and literary figures 1600 1700 1800 1900 2000 John James Audubon John James Audubon Harper Lee Harper Lee Booker T. Washington Booker T. Washington The list leans ideologically conservative, but not overwhelmingly so. Thought leaders such as author Russell Kirk ('The Conservative Mind') and William F. Buckley (longtime host of the public affairs talk show 'Firing Line') are included, along with conservative Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. But so is Scalia's liberal 'best buddy' (her words), Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and Thurgood Marshall, the first African American on the court. The 17 presidents on the list are split fairly evenly, party-wise: eight Republicans, five Democrats, two Democratic-Republicans (the precursor to the Democrats), a Federalist (John Adams) and George Washington, the only president who had no party affiliation. Presidents 1600 1700 1800 1900 2000 Ulysses S. Grant Ulysses S. Grant Ronald Reagan Ronald Reagan George Washington George Washington Civil rights activists Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King are among four married couples, along with actors Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall. Two first ladies made it in addition to their husbands: Dolley Madison, who largely defined the role, and Eleanor Roosevelt, who turned it into a platform for advocacy. Activists 1600 1700 1800 1900 2000 Medgar Evers Medgar Evers Sojourner Truth Sojourner Truth Some names are less well known than their actions, such as the Black women mathematicians known as 'human computers' at NASA who calculated orbital trajectories during the space race in the 1960s. Katherine Johnson, Mary Jackson and Dorothy Vaughan were portrayed in the 2016 movie 'Hidden Figures.' At least a dozen are remembered mostly for one heroic act. 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Breakdown by race or ethnicity and gender Breakdown by race or ethnicity and gender Male Female White 155 35 Sally Ride Neil Armstrong Black 19 15 Thurgood Marshall Native American 3 7 Maria Tallchief Hispanic 7 Asian 2 Note: At least one person's ancestry is debated. Breakdown by race or ethnicity and gender Male Female Native White Hispanic Black Asian American 155 7 19 2 7 Thurgood Marshall Neil Armstrong 35 15 3 Maria Tallchief Sally Ride Note: At least one person's ancestry is debated. Montana's Jeannette Rankin was the first woman elected to the U.S. Congress, and it happened in 1916, about four years before women were guaranteed the right to vote. Maria Mitchell was the first American scientist to discover a comet. Civil War flag-bearer Joseph De Castro was the first Hispanic American to receive the Medal of Honor, the military's highest award for valor in combat. Maria Tallchief was the first Native American prima ballerina. Barbara Jordan of Texas, whose powerful speech to the House Judiciary Committee in July 1974 helped turn the country against Richard M. Nixon, was the first African American woman in the 20th century to be elected to Congress from the South. Story continues below advertisement Advertisement Five Catholic saints are on the list, including Elizabeth Ann Seton, the first American-born person to be canonized, in 1975. However, there is not a single female athlete, unless you count sharpshooter Annie Oakley. Regardless of who makes the final cut, federal statues typically take years to commission, design, cast and install. The park's opening was originally planned for July 4, 2026, the nation's 250th birthday, but a White House spokesperson said the new goal is sometime before the end of Trump's presidency in January 2029. As of now, no site has been chosen. However, South Dakota Gov. Larry Rhoden (R) is promoting a mining company's offer of land near Mount Rushmore, a plan that local Indigenous groups oppose. If the White House accepts the offer, maybe the four presidents depicted there can come off the garden's to-do list. Only 246 to go. Illustrations by Lucy Naland/The Washington Post; Library of Congress; Mark J. Terrill/AP; iStock; Reed Saxon/AP; iStock; NASA/Bob Nye; NASA; iStock
Miami Herald
11-07-2025
- Miami Herald
Bus driver forces Black men to sit in the back or he'll call cops, MN suit says
Rosa Parks made history when she refused to move to the back of a bus in Montgomery, Alabama, on Dec. 1, 1955. Her refusal helped bring an end to legalized segregation on buses, among other Jim Crow-era laws. But, on July 13, 2023, two Black men were told to sit in the back of a bus, according to a Minnesota lawsuit filed on July 7. Two Black men boarded a Jefferson Lines bus in Fargo, North Dakota, and were instructed by the driver to sit in the back of the bus despite the company having a 'first come, first serve' policy for seats, the lawsuit said. The two men started to argue with the driver, but he threatened to call police if the passengers did not comply, the lawsuit said. One of the two men forced to sit in the back is now suing Jefferson Lines and the unnamed bus driver, accusing them of racial discrimination. 'Rosa Parks took a stand in 1955, refused to give up her seat, and we're not going back, not now, not ever, not in 2023, not in 2025,' the man's attorney, Samuel Savage, told McClatchy News in a phone interview. The attorney representing Jefferson Lines did not immediately respond to McClatchy News' request for comment on July 11. A spokesperson told KARE that the company doesn't comment on active legal matters. The plaintiff, who is seeking $50,000 in damages, sat in the back of the bus during his ride from Fargo to Crookston, Minnesota, rather than continue to argue with the driver, according to the lawsuit. 'I think in the moment, it was more of a 'I just want to get to my destination and be about my business,'' Savage said. The two men were the only Black people on the bus on July 13, the complaint said. Other passengers were allowed to choose their seats, according to the suit. Four days after the man's bus ride, Jefferson Lines asked the bus driver to create an incident report. The driver wrote that he asked the two Black men to sit in the back of the bus because they smelled like marijuana, the lawsuit said. The driver was given a verbal warning for 'deviating from the policy' the next month, according to the lawsuit. In January, the Minnesota Department of Human Rights said there was probable cause that discrimination occurred during the 2023 bus ride. A similar incident on a Jefferson Lines bus in Minneapolis occurred in 2009 when a driver told a mother and her 3-year-old daughter to sit in the back of the bus, which she said was because they were Black, the Minnesota Star Tribune reported. Crookston, Minnesota, is about a 70-mile drive northeast from Fargo, North Dakota.
CBS News
03-07-2025
- CBS News
Rosa Parks' former home in Detroit has earned local historic designation
The former Detroit home of the late civil rights activist Rosa Parks has been approved for a local historic district designation. Detroit City Council voted Tuesday to establish the Rosa and Raymond Parks Flat Historic District. The step takes effect immediately for the two-story home in the 3200 block of Virginia Park Street where the Parks lived for 27 years. A public hearing on the matter took place June 26 under the jurisdiction of the Detroit City Council Planning and Economic Development Standing Committee. Rosa Parks, who was active in the Civil Rights Movement, became nationally known for her refusal to follow the Jim Crow-era laws in Montgomery, Alabama. Specifically, she refused to give up her seat on a bus and move to the back of the vehicle on Dec. 1, 1955. Her arrest in that incident helped spark the Montgomery bus boycott. Eventually, Rosa and Raymond Parks settled in Detroit. He died in 1977. She died in 2005. Detroit's local historic districts are meant to be associated with people or events that are a significant part of Detroit's history, or have artistic or historical significance. Once a local historic district is established for a site, any exterior alterations to the building must go through the Historic District Commission.
