Andy Thibault's Blog, page 34

Bentivegna: Income Inequality is Caused by a Lack of Moral Hazard

By Dr. Joseph Bentivegna

It is the consensus of opinion leaders that income inequality is a major political issue. Mayor DeBlasio, who ran on this issue in the recent New York City mayoral race, won by a 43% landslide.

There are various causes cited on both sides of the political aisles. Conservatives cite globalization and advancing technologies allowing corporations to either export jobs overseas or replace workers here with automation. Liberals favor a more progressive tax structure in order to redistribute wealth. Both sides cite numerous facts, figures and academic studies to support their view. And both are wrong.


The real cause of income inequality is what economists call “moral hazard.” Simply explained, it means that human beings will take significant financial risks if they are assured they will not suffer the consequences. For example, a blackjack player may be unwilling to take a $10,000 loan to gamble; however, the same individual would be perfectly willing to gamble away a $10,000 loan given the assurance that the loan did not have to be paid back.

Complete column
Dr. Joseph Bentivegna, an eye surgeon, is a novelist and the author of non-fiction books including ‘When to Refuse Treatment' and ‘The Neglected and Abused: A Physician’s Year in Haiti.’ Watch for the seventh edition of the Haiti book in September 2014 via IceBox Publishing




Blast from the past: Willie Pep event photos and Bentivegna remembrance, ‘Call me Willie’

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. @JimmyGreene warming up @litchfieldjazz 8-10-14

- photo by Andy Thibault, The Cool Justice Report

On stage Sunday, Jimmy Greene said an opening tune was an attempt to catch a piece of his late daughter’s life ...

HuffPo: Jazz Musician Jimmy Greene’s New Album ‘Beautiful Life’ Inspired By Daughter Killed In Newtown Tragedy

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'more COOL JUSTICE,' a 2nd collection of narrative storytelling about cops, courts, poets, writers, missing persons, musicians, boxers, other extraordinary personae, real douche bags & victims of the so-called justice system:

more COOL JUSTICE website

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IceBox Publishing, Westport, CT

Introduction by Ravi Shankar

Prologue by Ondi Timoner

Foreword by Andrew Kreig


Cover design / more COOL JUSTICE website by Carin Handsun, iweb results

Cover photo courtesy of
Chloe Poisson
and The Hartford Courant:

Bonnie Foreshaw Released

Journalist Andy Thibault waves to Bonnie Foreshaw (off camera) after Foreshaw inquired, “Where’s Andy?” during a press conference at Bridebrook Park in Niantic minutes after Foreshaw was released from nearby York Correctional after serving 27 years of a 45-year sentence for the murder of Joyce Amos. Thibault was instrumental in Foreshaw being granted clemency after uncovering a memo written 24 years ago by then-public defender Jon Blue about the mishandling of Foreshaw’s legal defense. With Thibault are author Wally Lamb, a friend and supporter of Foreshaw, and Wilburt Guy a friend, supporter and former co-worker of Foreshaw. (Photo courtesy of Hartford Courant / Cloe Poisson, November 15, 2013)




Documentary filmmaker Ondi Timoner of Interloper Films follows up on her 1994 work “The Nature of the Beast” during Bonnie Foreshaw’s clemency hearing at a Niantic jail on Oct. 9, 2013.
- Back cover photo by Bob Thiesfield

Interloper Films
‘more COOL JUSTICE’ EBook coming soon; print edition scheduled for September

Print pre-order available via

IceBox
THE LATEST:

What they’re saying about 'more COOL JUSTICE'


“I don’t even know how he found out about my case; I was sitting in an immigration cell waiting to find out when I was going to be deported for my post 9-11 [so called] ‘anti-American’ poetry when I heard about the article. It was during a phone conversation with my wife, it was the first time since my arrest that I could feel the hope I heard in her voice as she read it to me. Even though we hadn’t ever met, Andy wrote the article like we had been lifetime friends. The article garnered so much attention that the immigration judge I eventually faced commented on it in his closing by saying, ‘You could’ve been a little easier on us.’ Since then I have had the pleasure of knowing this tenacious, truth driven brother I proudly call my friend.”

- IYABA MANDINGO, painter, actor, poet, playwright and author of ‘unFRAMED,’ ‘41 Times,’ ‘Sins of My Fathers’

---
“When they came up with the term ‘muckraker’ a little over a century ago, they had Andy Thibault in mind. Unafraid, even eager to take on the highest authorities, as outraged by an injustice to anyone as he would be as if it had been done to his best friend, Thibault sounds the alarm and runs with it anytime he finds an individual or a family being chewed up by a corporate or governmental tractor. His columns are written with energy, passion, grace, and style. They are about events in Connecticut, but I commend them to anyone who loves freedom and wants all human beings treated with decency and respect.”

-PAUL LEVINSON, PhD, Fordham Prof & author of ‘New New Media’ and ‘The Plot to Save Socrates’

Cool Justice Blog

‘They are trying to keep a lid on this:’ Smoking gun document among items suppressed at FOI hearing on hidden records about a police-involved shooting

CT Freedom of Information case 2013-775

ISAAC AVILUCEA, ANDY THIBAULT, REGISTER CITIZEN V. CT STATE POLICE

Hearing conducted Wednesday, July 30, 2014 in Hartford

Around the time of a police-involved shooting at the Interlaken Inn in Salisbury, a state police source said: “They are trying to keep a lid on this.”

A state police report was available the night of the incident, Nov. 16, 2013.

Information about the case was requested multiple times by The Register Citizen beginning on Nov. 22, 2013.

State police finally produced the report sometime after April 10, 2014.

Connecticut’s FOI law demands prompt production of documents. Generally, prompt means immediately unless the public agency can demonstrate that production of the public records would interfere with the normal course of business.

Following is one of the documents suppressed today by hearing officer Matthew Streeter and coverage of the hearing by news outlets including The Connecticut Network and ABC affiliate WTNH Channel 8.

Other highlights of the hearing include State Police Lt. Paul Vance's denial under oath that he ever claimed to be the decider of what prompt means under the FOI law.

FS13-00716978 Domestic arrest / discharge of a firearm Salisbury 11/16/2013, 2229 hours

On the above date and time, Troop B personnel were dispatched to 74 Interlaken Rd in Salisbury for a report of a domestic between husband and wife. Dispatch advised the husband is an off-duty Sergeant for Newtown P.D. and a firearm was accidentally discharged in the hotel room. Upon arrival, it was determined through the investigation that Johnny Cole (DOB: redacted by Cool Justice) and his wife Ellen Cole (DOB: redacted by Cool Justice) were at the Interlaken Inn on a retreat with several other Newtown Officers and their spouses. A verbal argument ensued after a comment made by Ellen Cole. While in their hotel room, Johnny was packing his belongings to leave for the night and in so placed his loaded service pistol on the bed to be packed. While Johnny was packing, Ellen picked up the pistol and fired one round in the opposite direction of Johnny Cole into the wall leading into the bathroom. The round exited into the bathroom and proceeded into the bathroom ceiling. The floor is separated by concrete flooring and did not penetrate the second floor upon investigating. Subsequent to the investigation Ellen Cole was arrested and charged with Unlawful Discharge of a Firearm, Criminal Mischief third degree and Disorderly Conduct. Interlaken Inn night manager on scene and aware of the incident. Newtown Sgt. David Kullgren of Newtown P.D. was on scene and was present. Capt. Rios of Newtown P.D. was notified of the incident and will handle a department inquiry as well.



CT-N Video of CT FOI hearing on case 2013-775


WTNH Channel 8 coverage

FOI complaint filed in December 2013

Many complaints against state police for hiding public records

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Fight photos, Foxwoods, 7-2-14, second annual “50 Cent’s Birthday Bash”

Photos by JOHN SALATTO for The Cool Justice Report
OK for use w/ credit


New Haven’s Jimmy Williams mixes it up with Stephon Owusu of the Bronx en route to earning a unanimous decision in a 6-round super welterweight bout.
-- JOHN SALATTO photo via @cooljustice

Williams dropped Owusu in the second round and staggered him in the third, staying undefeated while recording his seventh win.
-- JOHN SALATTO photo via @cooljustice

Shelly Vincent of New London talks with reporters after winning a split decision over Nydia Feliciano of the Bronx in a 6-round super bantamweight slugfest. Vincent improved her record to 12 wins without a loss.
-- JOHN SALATTO photo via @cooljustice

Dancers who were part of Vincent’s grand entrance leave the ring.
-- JOHN SALATTO photo via @cooljustice

Promoter 50 Cent, aka Curtis James Jackson III, exits the ring after congratulating Australia’s Billy Dib. Dib won a 10-round decision over Alberto Garza of Mexico in a super featherweight bout.
-- JOHN SALATTO photo via @cooljustice

Corner man checks out Dib, who suffered a head butt in the first round. Dib, a former featherweight champion, improved his record to 37 wins against three losses.
-- JOHN SALATTO photo via @cooljustice

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Complete results via The Sweet Science

Video: Vincent v. Feliciano

Ring Magazine features Shelly Vincent

Cool Justice Blog

Post Watergate Motto: 'We Eat Lawyers' Bones For Breakfast'

Cool Justice Editor's Note:
Watch in The Coming Months for 'More Cool Justice'
- A Sequel to 'Law & Justice in Everyday Life'

Dear Reader,
This will be the last regular installment of Cool Justice for 21st Century Media in Connecticut. I have the pleasure of digging into a couple special assignments and expect to have some work in print with our group over the next few months.

As Cool Justice concludes this chapter, I thought it would be fun to share a few remembrances ...

Complete column at New Haven Register

Also at:

Middletown Press

Register Citizen

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Connecticut Council on Freedom of Information announces open government award recipients
Cool Justice Blog

Connecticut Council on Freedom of Information announces open government award recipients

Connecticut Newsroom post by Matt DeRienzo


Fire and brimstone from CCFOI President Jim Smith
-- Bob Thiesfield photo

HARTFORD -- A police chief, a state senator, an FOI Commission employee and two journalists have won the annual open government awards from the nonprofit Connecticut Council on Freedom of Information, which has been advocating for freedom of information for six decades.

Blogger and Digital First Media columnist Andy Thibault received the Stephen A. Collins Award for his dogged pursuit on virtually every FOI battlefront in the past year ...

Complete article at Register Citizen
Coverage also at:

Hartford Courant Alumni Assocation and Refugee Camp

The Laurel

Chief Matt Reed at Hartford Club with Mary Connolly, retired editorial page editor of the Danbury News Times. Behind Reed is Claude Albert, retired managing editor of the Hartford Courant.
-- Bob Thiesfield photo

Blast from the past: Police Chief Matt Reed at Register Citizen newsroom café

Big thanks to CCFOI, sources, readers, editors and colleagues from Cool Justice
-- Bob Thiesfield photo

CCFOI website

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More Cool Justice: Loitering in Provincetown, I see the light
Cool Justice Blog

Loitering in Provincetown, I see the light

“Decade after decade, artists came to paint the light of Provincetown, and comparisons were made to the lagoons of Venice and the marshes of Holland … ”

Norman Mailer tells us this in his fun novel, “Tough Guys Don’t Dance,” about a writer who finds a severed head in his marijuana patch.

I got my copy at Tim’s Used Books, which is just a few feet from the Provincetown Book Shop on Commercial Street. Pound for pound, these two shops constitute perhaps the best book haven in New England for readers in search of inspiration, comfort and adventure.

The poet Leo Connellan (“Crossing American,” “Provincetown,” “The Clear Blue Lobster Water Country” ) sent me here, but now I turn to a couple novelists and a hairdresser for navigational insights and contemplation ...

Complete column at Register Citizen

Also at:

New Haven Register

Middletown Press

Related column: Channeling El Bardo, Marvelous, Howard as sun sets over water on East Coast

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Channeling El Bardo, Marvelous, Howard as sun sets over water on East Coast

Letter from a reader:

I greatly enjoyed your column in the Register Citizen this morning. My husband and I used to spend some time at the Cape out near Wellfleet with our bikes and would stop by the Bay side of Eastham now and again, as well as in Provincetown. I didn’t realize that it was “one of the few places on the East Coast where the sun sets over the water.”

I remember one year our Pastor and his wife were out there observing the sunset with other nature lovers and it was apparently such a spectacular sight that after the sun dipped below the water the crowd of people on the beach broke into spontaneous applause! Isn’t that a grand memory?!

Thanks for reminding me of their awe and wonder at that simple occurrence that is available to us everyday if only we would stop and look.

Cool Justice column:
Walking where El Bardo and other giants walked, I find peace and purpose

It was Leo Connellan who dispatched me to a certain spot in North Truro, not far from the Provincetown line, nearly 30 years ago.

“Go see Jane and Ralph,” Connellan said. Tell them ‘El Bardo’ sent you.” I had driven many times on Shore Road by this bayside cluster of small houses and cottages and rows of motels without stopping. I’ve been stopping there ever since the late El Bardo, a former Connecticut Poet Laureate, gave me the heads up.

It’s a place where time is suspended. The tide on the bay goes out farther than the length of a football field, revealing long sandbars and soft muck that is home to sea creatures like hermit crabs.

It’s one of the few places on the East Coast where the sun sets over the water.

“The sun falls into the sea in Provincetown like an invisible big/

hand dipping, rinsing a plate … up the Moon!”

This is Connellan’s view of the Provincetown sunset in the title poem “Provincetown,” from his volume “Provincetown and Other Poems,” published by Curbstone Press of Willimantic in 1995.
And then, Connellan reports,

“Night’s needle suddenly pricks sun’s whole yellow ball /

across all wide sky so pink ocean is dark /

next to it … ”


Complete column at Register Citizen

Also at:

New Haven Register

Middletown Press

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New advance story & registration details for author Andrew Kreig's presentation at Litchfield library

Author Andrew Kreig to talk government secrets in Litchfield

LITCHFIELD -- Author and attorney Andrew Kreig is going to tell secrets of the federal government in his new book “Presidential Puppetry.” He will talk at the Rotary Club of Litchfield-Morris, and then the Oliver Wolcott Library on June 19 …

Complete article by Shako Liu at Register Citizen

Oliver Wolcott Library announcement

Library registration form

Justice Integrity Project

Hartford Courant refugee site notes upcoming appearance by author Andrew Kreig at Litchfield’s Oliver Wolcott Library

Cool Justice column on Kreig & Presidential Puppetry

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