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Accountability terrifies public higher educators
Chris Powell
Apr 01, 2026
Connecticut’s public higher educators, or at least those with the ear of the General Assembly, want to prohibit the public from finding out what they’re teaching students at tax expense. For the fourth straight year they have persuaded legislators to advance a bill that would exempt the outlines of their courses — “syllabuses” — from disclosure under the state’s freedom-of-information law.
Thus the courses being taught — their materials, assignments, grading policies, and teaching schedules — would become state secrets.
Why? Because the higher educators are terrified of criticism — terrified that the FOI law might be “weaponized” by anti-intellectual yahoos to try to hold them to account for their work.
But of course to serve as a weapon of accountability in government is the very point of FOI law. There can be no accountability if the governed can’t examine what the government is doing.
In recent years higher education, like lower education, has been taken over by the political left and now is sometimes much engaged in propagandizing as much as teaching. Liberals and Democrats outnumber conservatives and Republicans in education jobs by dozens to one. Any institution so politically one-sided needs extra scrutiny to determine if it serves the public interest.
Indeed, the secrecy legislation sought by Connecticut’s public higher educators is proof that they can’t be trusted to serve the public interest.
The public higher educators are also again seeking legislation to prevent disclosure of records about their teaching or research on scholarly issues, again fearing that disclosure will facilitate criticism, which they deliberately misconstrue as harassment and intimidation.
Yes, some government records will always be requested by people who dislike what the government is doing or what they suspect it is doing. Some requesters of records may even be malicious. But so what?
For in a democracy people are entitled to dislike what the government is doing and even to hate it. They are simply entitled to know. The public higher educators may have forgotten it, but disliking what the government is doing was at the heart of the American Revolution.
Besides, the state Freedom of Information Commission is already empowered to dismiss requests for public records that constitute mere harassment.
The problem is that Connecticut’s public higher educators, or at least those who purport to represent them, consider simple accountability itself to be hateful. So they should switch to teaching in private colleges and universities, or in government colleges and universities in places like Russia, China, North Korea, or Iran. Their “academic freedom” might be constrained in those places, but they’d never have to answer to the public for what the government paid them to do.
Limit property
tax exemptions
New Haven is celebrating Yale University’s decision to increase its voluntary annual payment to city government by 43% over the next seven years, from $23 million now to $33.6 million in 2033. This may be generous of the university in light of the huge new punitive tax the federal government has levied on Yale’s $40-billion-plus endowment and other big university endowments.
Despite the big increase in Yale’s annual gift, the city is likely to raise its property taxes by 4%, which, like the property taxes of all Connecticut’s cities, are already far too high. Welcome as it is, the university’s higher annual voluntary payment doesn’t really address the city’s big tax problem.
That problem is that most real estate in New Haven, about 56% of it, is tax-exempt under state law, and while the university is still the city’s second-largest property taxpayer, it owns 45% of the property in the city and most of it is tax-exempt — $4.5 billion worth.
This is a gross failure of state government policy. Property tax exemptions per property owner should be sharply limited, starting with a gradual reduction of Yale’s exemption to $1 billion. Eventually that would bring tens of millions of dollars in additional revenue to New Haven city government each year, allowing a reduction in property taxes and state financial aid.
Yet state government pays little attention to the issue.
Chris Powell has written about Connecticut government and politics for many years.
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Kent housing proposal draws support, concerns at first hearing
Alec Linden
Apr 01, 2026
Rendering of the proposed Kent Green Commons development, showing a village-style layout of residential buildings clustered near Town Hall with open space preserved to the south.
Rendering provided
KENT – A public hearing for a proposed 80-unit housing development in downtown Kent remains open after a largely positive but cautious response from residents during the first round of public vetting of the substantial proposal.
More than 75 residents, town officials and developers logged into the commission’s Zoom meeting Monday night, March 30, to discuss the installation of a neighborhood-style development on a 12.5-acre parcel beside the village center. At least 20%, or 16 units, of the complex, currently operating under the name Kent Green Commons, are planned to be designated as affordable housing. Five acres are designated to be preserved as public open space.
The hearing itself examined the adoption of a Planned Development District on the Town Hall-adjacent property, a zoning tool used to address unique projects that would be complicated to deal with under standard zoning procedure but are in alignment with the town’s overall development goals. If P&Z decides to approve the PDD, as it is commonly known, the developers will still have to finalize a site plan, which will also need zoning approval.
James Millstein, the development manager for the project and owner of the property, introduced the project on Monday evening as “a village-scale residential neighborhood that fits naturally in Kent while addressing the town’s documented housing needs.”
“This isn’t a speculative development,” he continued, but a “direct response” to Kent’s Housing Plan, a document adopted by the town in 2022 that calls for expanded dedicated affordable homeownership and rental opportunities and a diversified housing landscape.
Millstein handed the presentation over to Jeremy Lake, an architect and community designer with Rhode Island-based firm Union Studios, who outlined the layout of the “campus”-like proposal. The 14 buildings, ranging from smaller townhouses to 12-unit walk-up style structures, are set to be arranged around a central thoroughfare that connects Kent Green Boulevard to Maple Street Extension.
He said the aim is to construct “simple, handsome, vernacular-feeling buildings” that align with the architectural character of Kent’s village center. The housing itself will be concentrated in the northern part of the parcel, near Town Hall, while the southern meadows will be preserved against development.
Engineer Dainius Virbickas, of Artel Engineering Group, went through the stormwater management plans and affirmed that the Kent Sewer Commission had determined that the town’s system had sufficient capacity for the development.
P&Z Chair Karen Casey then handed the floor over to members of the public, many of whom spoke out in support of the proposal and its mission.
“I know there are many of us that would like to have such a unit,” said PJ Magik, noting that she has been on waitlists for affordable housing in the region. She added that many who have been priced out of town may come back if the opportunity arose. “Kent’s a special place,” she said.
Andrea Schoeny, a mother of young children, said she welcomes the idea of bringing more families to the village center. “As someone who lives downtown,” she said, “we’re looking forward to new neighbors.”
John McPhee, co-owner of the Kent Collection inns, lauded Millstein’s commitment to the project. “He’s doing it because he loves Kent,” McPhee said, noting that the town needs an injection of working families to thrive. “If we want to support our institutions like the Kent Center School over the long term, we need families with kids,” he said, referencing the declining enrollment at the elementary school.
Some residents, though generally stating support for the mission of the proposal, balked at its size.
Bonnie Bevans said she agrees with the need for expanded housing opportunities and more affordable options, but that she’s “very concerned the project is too big.”
“Where is everybody going to park?” she asked, also raising concerns about traffic, construction noise and impacts to wildlife. Millstein and his development team assured that the plan currently calls for 162 parking spaces, well above the minimum requirement for the capacity, and can add more if needed. He noted that the property could handle a bigger development, too.
“Frankly, we haven’t maxed out what the zoning would permit” on the site, he said.
Chris Garrity and P&Z Commissioner Lawrence Dumoff both said a more diverse construction plan would ease the minds of residents who feel the development to be too much of a condominium complex. Lake, the project designer, said that simulating neighborhoods that have grown organically over many years is extremely difficult, not to mention cost-prohibitive, which is a big concern when developing affordable housing. He said the team would be glad to work with the Commission for solutions to that concern as the project moves forward, though.
The public hearing will resume at P&Z’s next regular meeting on April 9.
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Mudge Pond faces rising nutrient levels and invasive species
Alec Linden
Apr 01, 2026
Mudge Pond, where water clarity is declining
Alec Linden
SHARON – A new scientific report highlights growing concerns at Mudge Pond, including declining water clarity, rising nutrient levels and the spread of invasive species, prompting local advocates to shift from monitoring the lake to taking action.
After several years of data collection, members of the Mudge Pond Association say the findings confirm that the lake is facing mounting pressures that will require intervention to protect both water quality and recreational use.
“Now that we’ve got a couple years of data, we’re going into the action phase,” said Andrew Cahill, chair of the Mudge Pond Association, a community organization dedicated to preserving ecosystem health and recreation opportunities on the lake.
The report, compiled by Connecticut consultancy Northeast Aquatic Research and based on data collected throughout the 2025 calendar year, found that invasive species and nutrient loading continue to threaten the lake. The study follows another from the previous year conducted by the same firm that reported similar findings.
Water quality trending downward
“Our lake is going in the wrong direction,” Cahill said. Average water clarity declined between the 2025 and 2024 data, from about 3.7 meters to 3.3. Clarity varies widely throughout the year, but 2025’s overall trend was downward compared to the prior year in a lake that is meant to be, by southern New England standards, quite clear.
The report identifies Mudge Pond as an “oligo-mesotrophic” lake, a term scientists use to describe water bodies that are just a step more vegetated and biodiverse than a crystalline alpine lake. Keeping Mudge Pond within that category should be the focal point of future lake management efforts, the report notes, as a more nutrient-dense environment could damage the lake’s ecosystem as well as put swimmers and recreators at risk from harmful algal blooms.
Cahill said he was especially concerned about the finding that toxic cyanobacteria, which are fed by nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus, were found in the lake at elevated levels. In August, the most productive time of the year for such harmful “blue-green algae” blooms, 35,160 cyanobacteria cells per milliliter of water sampled were found, above the “safe” management goal of between 10,000 and 20,000.
The World Health Organization considers densities above 20,000 to indicate a “moderate probability of adverse health effects,” according to the report.
High nutrient levels in the water column are likely due to two factors. Both studies found that a persistent layer of deoxygenated water at the lake bottom each summer, formed by a process called “stratification,” which separates warm, oxygen-rich water at the surface from colder, oxygen-poor water below, allows previously buried nutrients at the lake bottom to leach back into the lake.
The report also examined two inlets where runoff water flows into Mudge Pond, finding high levels of nitrogen entering the lake from one inlet during the spring. Cahill said that the Mudge Pond Association has contacted upstream landowners who had been very cooperative about exploring potential causes for this nutrient loading.
Northeast Aquatic Research has also recommended that lake managers explore installing an aerator to oxygenate the water, but Cahill said while the Association is open to exploring diverse strategies, this approach may be prohibitively expensive and potentially controversial.
Invasive plants abound, but no hydrilla
Cahill said that the Association will be focusing its most immediate efforts in 2026 on addressing the more immediately visible threat to Mudge Pond: invasive plants.
Four non-native invasive species were found in the lake – Eurasian milfoil, curly-leaf pondweed, water chestnut and fanwort. Eurasian milfoil and fanwort were the most abundant of the invasives, while water chestnut was the least established. Brittle naiad, another invasive plant that was found in the previous study, was not found by the researchers in 2025.
Despite the low prevalence, Cahill said the Association is prioritizing water chestnut as its first point of attack, as the lily-pad like plant becomes extremely difficult to eliminate when entrenched in the ecosystem. Also, in low numbers it can be hand-pulled, making for a relatively uncontroversial removal process.
Cahill said the Association is planning outreach events to train volunteers on how to identify and remove the plant, ultimately coordinating large-scale removal efforts in the summer and fall.
For the remainder of the invasives, though, the report recommends using herbicides, which historically has been a polarizing topic in Connecticut lake communities.
“As a town, we have to have that discussion,” Cahill said. “Do we want to do this?”
Cahill said the Association is planning to eventually organize a public forum for community input on the issue, eventually leading to a vote on how the town wishes to proceed.
Whatever the outcome, though, Cahill emphasized urgency is key in dealing with invasive plants. “The longer we wait, the more there will be.”
Hydrilla, a highly aggressive invasive waterweed that has invaded nearby water bodies and cost lake communities large sums in removal efforts, was not found in Mudge Pond in 2025. While that is encouraging news, Cahill said it’s too early to celebrate.
The lake’s public boat launch is controlled by the state, meaning the town has little regulatory power over it. With inconsistent oversight, Cahill said it may only be a matter of time before the plant gets into Mudge Pond.
“I think it’s going to fall to each of our lake communities to have a plan in place in case hydrilla arrives.”
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North Canaan selectman Brian Ohler takes medical leave
Ruth Epstein
Apr 01, 2026
Brian Ohler
Patrick L. Sullivan
NORTH CANAAN — Following a medical emergency in February, North Canaan Selectman Brian Ohler is taking a medical leave of absence from his duties as a public official.
North Canaan is governed by a three-member Board of Selectmen, meaning Ohler’s absence leaves the town operating with only two active members. However, the town is legally able to operate with just two members, since it is deemed a quorum, according to the town attorney.
In a recently posted Facebook message, Ohler, president and CEO of the Northwest Connecticut YMCA, described experiencing symptoms of a stroke shortly after arriving at his office in Torrington.
“While seated at my desk, within a matter of about 45 seconds, I began to experience intense double vision, deafening ringing in both of my ears, slurred speech, and head-to-toe paralysis on the right side of my body. Having been an EMT for many years, I immediately realized that these symptoms were a clear sign that I was having a stroke. With my left hand I was able to unlock my cell phone and alert staff members of my situation.”
Staff members immediately called 911, and paramedics transported him to Charlotte Hungerford Hospital. Ohler said his thoughts turned to his wife and six-month-old daughter as he hoped for a reversal of the paralysis.
After five days of tests and evaluations, he was discharged and returned home. By that time, he said, the paralysis had subsided completely and his motor functions had returned to normal.
Ohler reported that neurologists have been unable to determine a definitive cause but agreed that the rapid onset of symptoms indicated a stroke.
“They also realize that after suffering numerous traumatic brain injuries from various roadside bomb explosions, while serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, that there could have been an underlying condition that was brewing for quite a while. I have since been referred to specialists within the Veterans Affairs and Hartford HealthCare health systems. I am confident that we will soon be able to find all of the right answers.”
In his message, Ohler also expressed appreciation for the support shown to him and his family.
“At this time, I have chosen to take a medical leave of absence from all of my duties with the town of North Canaan until further notice, wanting to focus intently on my overall health and recovery, and of course, my amazing wife and beautiful baby girl.”
Ohler previously served in the Connecticut House of Representatives for the 64th District from 2017 to 2019. He also served as North Canaan’s first selectman from 2023 to 2025.
Ohler could not be reached for comment.
First Selectman Jesse Bunce said he wishes Ohler well and misses his input, particularly given his experience and familiarity with town issues.
He noted that having a two-person board could potentially be challenging.
“If Melissa [Selectman Pinardi Brown] and I disagree, there could be a tie vote and the board would be deadlocked. It makes it tough.”
Should Ohler step down, Bunce and Brown would determine his replacement. It would have to be a Republican and the appointment would be made following a recommendation from the party.
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Housatonic teacher arrested after alleged altercation with student
Alec Linden
Apr 01, 2026
Housatonic Valley Regional High School
File photo
FALLS VILLAGE — A teacher at Housatonic Valley Regional High School was arrested on March 20 after turning himself in to state police on an outstanding warrant related to an alleged altercation involving a student in September 2025.
The accused, technology education teacher John Christinat, 65, was charged with disorderly conduct in connection with the incident, in which a verbal confrontation escalated into a physical altercation between Christinat and a 15-year-old student, according to police. The student’s father reported that the juvenile is autistic, according to court records.
Region One Superintendent Melony Brady-Shanley said Christinat is currently on administrative leave. He has been employed at the school since August 2001 and has had no prior incidents, she said.
According to the warrant, which was signed March 18, troopers arrived at the school on the afternoon of Sept. 3 after a physical confrontation between a teacher and student was reported. The warrant states that the situation was calm by the time officers arrived and that no injuries were reported.
Both parties made statements to police, which were recounted in the warrant. The student said he asked Christinat what he thought of Aaron Rodgers, a professional football quarterback, and that the teacher responded by telling the student, “You act like a third grader. You’re obsessed with Aaron Rodgers.”
The student said he then asked why Christinat was so upset with him, and that Christinat used his body to push him out of the classroom. He said he later pretended to take a photo of the teacher, after which Christinat grabbed the phone from his hand, leading to a physical altercation in which both parties wrestled on the ground.
The student’s father told police that due to his condition, his son is “barely able to attend classes,” and that he is unable to let a conflict go until it is resolved.
In his own statement, Christinat told authorities that the student was being disruptive in his photography class, standing in the middle of the classroom and interrupting by talking about Aaron Rodgers. Christinat said the student was not a member of the class he was trying to teach.
He said the student “moved outside the classroom,” and that he locked the door to prevent him from entering. Christinat said he explained the situation to the student’s assigned special education supervisor.
Christinat, according to the warrant, said that the student banged on the classroom door, then went outside and started hitting the air conditioning unit attached to the room.
He told the troopers that later in the day, the student confronted him again and stuck his phone in his face. Christinat said he grabbed the phone, after which the student “threw [him] to the floor.”
The teacher said he has a background in special education and is trained in “the safe restraining of special education students,” and held the youth in a “basket hold.”
Christinat said he had pain in his shoulder and groin as a result of the incident. He could not be reached for comment.
Trooper Jean Colon Carattini, who filed the warrant, stated that he reviewed security footage of the incident. He said the footage showed that the student had “grabbed onto [Christinat] and pushed him to the ground in an attempt to retrieve the phone,” and that the two wrestled on the ground.
He reported that Christinat “eventually gained control over [the student] until school staff arrived,” who restrained the student as Christinat walked into another room.
The trooper stated that after further review of the footage, it was determined that Christinat was at fault in the incident.
Trooper Colon Carattini has not responded to immediate requests for comment.
After his March 20 arrest, Christinat was released on a $1,500 bond and is scheduled to appear before Torrington Superior Court on April 2.
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Trump is remaking the government and the country in his image
James Speyer
Donald Trump is rapidly remaking the federal government in his image. To a remarkable degree, virtually every aspect of his personality is being reflected and magnified in the policies and conduct of his administration. As a result, it can feel like the country is becoming a bizarro world facsimile of itself: a morally shriveled place where racism and cruelty are state-sanctioned, might makes right, incompetence reigns, knowledge and expertise is mocked, and our democracy and the rule of law that sustains it is attacked on a daily basis.
The indisputable facts prove this. Trump, and now his administration, is:
Tyrannical
As a private citizen, Trump repeatedly expressed his admiration for dictators and strongmen who were unconstrained by the rule of law. As president, he asserts that the Constitution gives him the right to do “whatever [he] want[s].” His administration has put that belief into action by running roughshod over the Constitution: it punishes people for exercising their First Amendment rights, imprisons people without due process, grabs for itself powers reserved to Congress (such as the fundamental powers to declare war and impose tariffs), and claims to have unilaterally abolished the constitutional right to birthright citizenship.
Cruel
Trump was found liable by a jury for sexual assault. He regularly degrades women and mocks injured and disabled people. That cruelty has metastasized throughout his administration into something far more sinister and lethal. The dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development has already caused the needless deaths of hundreds of thousands of children under five. The so-called Department of War gratuitously and intentionally kills dozens of civilians on the high seas and jokes about it.
Violence Loving
Trump encouraged his supporters to beat up non-supporters and asked his Secretary of Defense why protesters couldn’t just be shot. ICE now inflicts terror on an industrial scale through their well-documented use of excessive force, including roughing up peaceful protesters, pepper-spraying them, and smashing car windows.
Racist
Trump’s virulent racism is so well known it literally has its own Wikipedia entry. His administration recruits ICE agents by using a white supremacist slogan (“We’ll Have Our Home Again”) and posted an AI video featuring the Obamas as apes.
Ignorant and Hostile to Science
Trump has derided climate change as a hoax for many years. That denial of reality – rooted in ignorance and contempt for science – is now official United States policy, as evidenced by the EPA’s rescinding of its landmark finding that greenhouse gases harm public health. According to the esteemed science writer Bill McKibben, that decision “has to rank as one of the signal moments in America’s descent into idiocracy.”
A Bully
As a businessman, Trump routinely took advantage of those less powerful than him, including contractors whom he regularly stiffed. His administration now bullies nations, blue states, and corporations, as exemplified by his threats to invade Greenland if Denmark (a NATO ally for 80 years!) doesn’t hand it over.
A Malignant Narcissist
Trump used to slap his name on everything from buildings he didn’t build to casinos that went belly up to failed ventures like steaks and vodka. Now his administration unfurls 40-foot banners of his face on buildings that belong to the American people, places his signature on U.S. currency, and has desecrated the Kennedy Center – a public memorial to a fallen president, just like the Lincoln Memorial – by adding his name to the building.
Incompetent
Trump declared bankruptcy for six of his businesses after running each one into the ground. His administration’s handling of the Iran war – from killing scores of schoolchildren based on outdated intelligence to failing to prepare for the closing of the Strait of Hormuz to having no plan for the evacuation of stranded Americans in the region – is just the latest example of its systemic, and deadly, incompetence.
It’s as if the worst features of humanity have been concentrated in a single individual, and that individual — who by a ghastly coincidence happens to be the most powerful person on earth — has infected our country with those features. As a result, our country is now facing its gravest danger since the Civil War.
As that war was drawing to a close, Lincoln stated in his Second Inaugural Address that “it may seem strange” that anyone would support the abomination that is slavery. It may similarly seem strange that anyone would want to live in a country remade in Trump’s image. But as Lincoln went on to state in that Address, in words that apply equally today, “let us judge not that we be not judged.” Instead, let us embrace the growing number of people (as shown in poll after poll) who are deciding that living in such a country is not what they signed up for. And let us together fight for our very different vision of America.
James Speyer is a lawyer and a volunteer for Lawyers Defending American Democracy. He lives in Sharon.