Annette Kirk, a supervisor at the Knights of Columbus, and Dan LaTorraca, a retired banker from Hamden, were fixed up on a date at Bar Bouchee in Madison thanks to the New Haven Register Matchmaker program.

Amanda Pinto, Alexandra Sanders and Susan Misur launched the Register’s “Matchmaker” program last year after Managing Editor Mark Brackenbury asked staff to think up community engagement ideas.

They set up readers on dates at local restaurants, who donate a $100 gift certificate for the occasion and get some free publicity in the process.

Pinto got the idea after being glued to a similar feature, “Dining with Cupid,” a few years ago in the Boston Globe.

“I was convinced the model would work here – as a vehicle to bring in younger readers and foster community engagement,” Pinto said. “It is intriguing copy, and it has that ‘reality TV’ voyeurism aspect that is so popular today.”

Pinto had to think through liability issues, seeking and getting permission from the Globe to mirror its legal release form for participants. And how to best solicit participants.

“There have been hiccups,” she said. “The first match we sent out was a disaster, and the man, who maligned an ethnic group during his date (according to the woman he dined with), threatened to sue us if we published the column. Even though he had signed off on all the paperwork, the decision was made that it was best not to start off on that foot.”

“Once we started publishing matches, there were other challenges – daters who bailed at the last minute or never returned our calls,” Pinto said. “We very nearly sent one woman to a restaurant owned by her former boss (the work relationship had ended badly).”

But there have been many success stories.

Since launching in late summer, 140 readers have signed up to participate, ranging in age from 21 to 83.

Melissa Tardif, a custodian at Quinnipiac University and dental hygienist, and Vincent Cerbone, an ultrasound technologist from Fairfield, hit it off from the start at their Matchmaker date at Leon's in New Haven. "I noticed how gentleman-like he was. ... He seemed genuine and real, like a great father, attentive."

Pinto, Sanders and Misur have paired readers up for dates once a week since August, with the help of 17 participating restaurants. They’re on their 20th match.

Readership has been strong.

“One dater told me she got recognized on the street for her participation in Matchmaker, and that a convenience store clerk spotted her and regaled other customers with a retelling of the column,” Pinto said. “Another reporter here was told a small office ‘didn’t get any work done’ the morning one of the columns came out, because they couldn’t stop discussing the date, which featured a ‘great kisser.’”

Matchmaker participants are asked to describe the night in an article that appears each week in the Register and to give a letter grade to the date.

And the possibility of a love connection? Many of the readers who have been set up on Matchmaker dates say they’ll see each other again.

- The news judgment and journalistic chops of founder Paul Bass and the team he’s built over the years.

- Their strong connections to the community and seamless engagement in community dialogue and solution-seeking.

- The participation of their audience at every step in the process, from story idea, to reporting, to editing, reaction and follow-up.

It’s a formula we have tried to emulate at our newspapers in Connecticut, bringing transparency to our process and investing in community engagement both in terms of resources and focus.

So it was like a needle scratching across a vinyl record yesterday to read that Paul was shutting down story comments on the site.

How can the community be part of your journalism if you don’t even allow them to comment on what you do?

The Independent has had a pretty tightly moderated story comment system that has been praised by media critic Dan Kennedy and for several years stood in stark contrast to the New Haven Register’s “everything goes up and is policed after the fact” policy. We changed that policy in the fall and now have basically the same system as the Independent. You can still comment anonymously, but every comment is screened in advance by our staff and we have a set of rules and guidelines for those commenting and for moderators.

Paul Bass said in his explanation about shutting off comments that he’s noticed the tone getting worse, even with moderation, and was stung by a recent incident in which a nasty comment accidentally made it up on the site. (We’ve seen this kind of human error happen, too, for sure … especially with the large volume of comments we’re dealing with.) He said:

“Is this the long-awaited new dawn of democracy and accountability we thought we were helping to help spark in New Haven by launching the Independent in 2005? Or are we contributing to the reflexively cynical, hate-filled discourse that has polluted American civic life? Are we reviving the civic square? Or managing a sewer with toxic streams that demoralize anyone who dares to take part in government or citizen activism?”

In his column, Paul suggested that the Independent was taking a “break” from story comments, hinting that perhaps after regrouping they would be back with either a renewed moderation effort or a different system.

But he also suggests that maybe they shouldn’t exist at all, and that perhaps the conversation happening via social media on Independent stories has or can replace the very concept of story comments.

There are so many problems with the latter argument. What a way to speed alienation and distrust in your audience – to say that they can “go elsewhere” to react, challenge or add context to your journalism. And you’re not even saying that you’ll be joining them “over there” (and if that discussion is happening on individual Facebook pages, you won’t necessarily even have access). Because (implied) you don’t care what they have to say and don’t believe they have anything to contribute.

To me, this is the “anti-New Haven Independent” philosophy of news. It goes against so much of what has made that organization great.

(And P.S. – just because the conversation happens on social media, with verified identities, doesn’t mean it will be any less nasty. Have you followed Facebook and Twitter conversations lately?)

So I’m hoping that, indeed, this is a very short “break” that will allow Paul Bass and the New Haven Independent to come up with a better model for story comment and on-site engagement … maybe something we can learn from once again.

Mathew Ingram is far more articulate than I in defending the existence of story comments and in making the case that anonymous comments have value. But I wonder if the Independent will go to a system such as a Facebook plug-in (requiring you to comment with your Facebook ID) or take it a step further and switch to the old letters-to-the-editor-style verified identity system that has been used at the Lewiston Sun Journal in Maine and advocated by Howard Owens, another leader in creating a sustainable hyperlocal model.

Shutting off comments (for good, I mean … I respect the Independent’s decision to “pause and hit the reset button”) deals with abusive commenters and a toxic environment the way that cutting your arm off would deal with a skin rash.

The ability to comment is at step one in building a relationship of trust and collaboration with our audience. Preventing the jerks from pissing all over that platform is step two. We’re not there yet, but building a better sense of community (which must involve injection of more real identity commenting, but doesn’t necessarily have to preclude anonymous) and constant and quality engagement in story comments by our reporters and editors should follow.

East Haven Mayor Joseph Maturo, Jr., apologizes in his office at East Haven Town Hall January 25 for his statement concerning tacos from the previous day. Photo by Arnold Gold/New Haven Register

So much has been written about racial profiling in East Haven and the problems with the police department and mayor that I thought it would be a good idea to link to key articles and columns from the past month.

But first, the story from the New Haven Independent that started it all. Paul Bass and team have not gotten enough credit from us for breaking the news of the video that showed East Haven police lied about their arrest of Father James Manship.

Tuesday, January 31

FBI probe widens: Mayor, top aide, ex-zoning chairman, school maintenance chief investigated, New Haven Register

“While the federal investigation that resulted in the arrest of four police officers last week centers on alleged police profiling and harassment of Latinos, investigators have asked questions about officials in other ends of government — including Mayor Joseph Maturo Jr.’s office.”

Monday, January 30

East Haven Police Chief Leonard Gallo retires amid federal probe of department, New Haven Register

“Mayor Joseph Maturo told an 11 a.m. Town Hall press conference packed with local, regional and national media that the decision, which Gallo informed him of on Friday, was ‘a selfless act designed to assist in the healing process’ with the Latino community, some of whom East Haven police are accused of mistreating.”

Main Street celebrates Gallo’s departure, New Haven Independent

“East Haven Police Chief Leonard Gallo’s retirement launches a new chapter in the saga of a New Haven exile as well as of a white-majority town’s resistance to change, infused with echoes of mid-20th century standoffs between southern communities and the federal government. The news also brought smiles to Guti’z Bakery.”

East Haven police chief resigns; Commissioners want him fired, Hartford Courant

“Maturo said he will put together a search committee for a new chief, which will begin its work immediately. The new chief will have to “restructure the department, implement reforms and work with the community,” he said. He named deputy chief John Mannion to head the department on an interim basis.”

East Haven residents react to Gallo’s retirement, Hartford Courant

“East Haven police Chief Len Gallo’s decision to retire has exposed a wide rift in this seaside town.”

Police chief in investigation of anti-Latino bias is retiring, Los Angeles Times

“‘The poison begins at the top more often than not when leaders of these towns take after immigrants,’ said Mark Potok of the Southern Poverty Law Center, which monitors hate crimes nationwide. With census figures predicting that non-Latino whites will lose their majority in the United States by 2050, Potok said there was an ‘enormous level of rage and resentment’ in some towns with fast-growing immigrant communities, such as East Haven.”

East Haven police chief retiring after charges for officers, New York Times

“Chief Gallo ‘cultivated a racist and dishonest police force,’ said the Rev. James Manship, a priest at St. Rose of Lima Catholic Church, whose efforts to document police behavior helped prompt the federal investigation. Father Manship called for the local prosecutor, Michael Dearington, to review the convictions of people who had been arrested by the four indicted officers, and to seek to vacate those convictions that were ‘tainted by racial bias or other unconstitutional conduct.’”

Opinion: East Haven police troubles go deeper than mayor’s ‘taco’ comment, CNN

“This history of abuse and marginalization will not be remedied by after-the-fact apologies or a public relations campaign. It is actions – not words – that need to change in East Haven. Gallo’s resignation was necessary, but it is not enough. The allegations documented in the criminal indictments, the civil rights lawsuit that Father Manship and Latino residents have filed, and the Department of Justice report make it abundantly clear: nothing short of a top-to-bottom overhaul can fix the East Haven Police Department.”

Online petition calling on East Haven mayor to oust police chief supported by 15,000 people, New Haven Register

“An online petition calling for Mayor Joseph Maturo Jr. to immediately replace Police Chief Leonard Gallo and “send a message that racial profiling won’t be tolerated” had almost 15,000 signatures as of Sunday evening.”

Sunday, January 29

Maturo confronts East Haven controversy, says he will lead town through it, New Haven Register

“Maturo said he already had taken some steps to address the town’s problems, including forming a new committee, the Law Enforcement Advisory Resource Network, to address criticism and usher in change at the Police Department, and would be reaching out to East Haven’s Latino community “soon,” although he did not say when or how.”

Opinions vary on how East Haven can redeem itself, New Haven Register

“… the Rev. James Manship, the pastor of St. Rose of Lima Church in New Haven who was arrested by East Haven officers a few years ago while trying to document alleged incidents of profiling of Latinos, says, ‘The mayor’s inability to recognize there’s a problem continues to be an obstacle to moving forward on this.’”

Coming to America: Mistreatment of immigrants is nothing new, New Haven Register

“Part of the way Italians, Irish and other Europeans would deal with the bias against newcomers was to “define themselves as white … to find common cause against African Americans and Latinos.” … The lack of a path to citizenship for the 11 million undocumented people in the country also further isolates this group.”

SUSAN CAMPBELL: East Haven changed  – no one told the mayor, Hartford Courant

“It’s time to go. Take the police chief with you, and reintroduce yourself to the (changed) town you grew up in. Start with Guti’z Bakery. The bakery is owned by a family from Ecuador. They don’t serve tacos, but the empanadas will melt in your mouth.”

COLIN McENROE: Mayor’s gaffe pales next to police conduct, Hartford Courant

“I’m probably “too sensitive,” but using “racial profiling” to cover this sickening stew of unreasonable force, false arrest, intimidation and cover-up is like citing Nero for fire code violations.”

East Haven Chief: From street cop to dog pound to center of federal probe, Hartford Courant

“When Len Gallo became the chief of the East Haven police in the summer of 1998, the department was in trouble over race relations and the embattled mayor was Joe Maturo. Sound familiar? Fourteen years later, he is at the center of a federal probe into civil rights abuses and his tenure has proved a source of bafflement even to people who are generally supportive of police. Gallo is the unnamed co-conspirator in last week’s federal indictment of four officers, his lawyer has acknowledged.”

Saturday, January 28

MATT DeRIENZO: Latinos are all from one country, right? More ignorance from East Haven Mayor Maturo, New Haven Register

“Whether he’s racist, arrogant, ignorant, stupid, or all of the above, Joseph Maturo Jr. should not be overseeing a department that carries guns and has the power to arrest and detain people who live in or travel through East Haven. And he has proven by his words and actions so far that he is not capable of overseeing reform of that department.”

Friday, January 27

Former Connecticut official says FBI did investigate ‘taco’ mayor and others, WPIX

“On Thursday, PIX 11 reported exclusively that the Feds have been asking about the business relationship between Mayor Maturo and his close friend Chief Gallo.”

East Haven bakery donating 700 cupcakes to show town’s sweeter side, New Haven Register

“East Haven’s secret weapon in the battle for public opinion and to restore the town’s good name — the nationally-celebrated “Cupcake Wars” champion Sugar Bakery & Sweet Shoppe — launched the sweetest sort of counter-offensive today. … Through the generosity of an anonymous donor, it will donate 500 cupcakes in the community’s name to a Greater New Haven charitable organization that benefits children.”

East Haven police not using staff contingency plan yet, but officers worried, New Haven Register

“Down four more officers as of Tuesday’s arrests, the Police Department is continuing to cover its shifts, but individual officers — who have complained for months that morale has never been lower — are worn out, sources say. Board of Police Commissioners Chairman Fred Brow and others have said that more arrests are likely — with some estimates, however speculative, ranging as high as 15 possible arrests.”

With trays of tacos, joining in condemnation of a mayor, New York Times

“In East Haven, Connecticut, the menu on Thursday, not surprisingly, was tacos, and perhaps crow, in an episode featuring both allegations of serious civil rights violations and goofy Twitter fodder.”

Thursday, January 26

EDITORIAL: An Outrage in East Haven, New York Times

“Mayor Maturo should now resign. He has shown a stunning incapacity for understanding the severity of the scandal in his government and has been fatally compromised by his knee-jerk support for the tainted police department and its chief. The mayor’s repugnant remark is the least of it. This case is about institutional brutality and oppression.”

Taco protest in East Haven: ‘Disgust’ delivered to Town Hall over Maturo’s comments, New Haven Register

“An extra, extra large order of tacos arrived at Town Hall Thursday afternoon for an absent Mayor Joseph Maturo Jr., but soon was taken to an area soup kitchen as a donation. Reform Immigration for America, an advocacy group, sent about 500 tacos in disposable foil trays to protest Maturo’s now infamous “taco” comment.”

Immigration reform group delivers hundreds of tacos to East Haven mayor, Hartford Courant

“‘Hopefully you know now that your comments have only heightened the racial tensions and help to explain how the kind of racial intolerance uncovered by the United States Department of Justice was allowed to take hold of the East Havenpolice department,’ said Latrina Kelly of Junta For Progressive Action. They read statements in English and Spanish.”

Fourth accused East Haven cop makes bail, monitoring device considered, New Haven Register

“Zullo has been charged with five counts of excessive force and one count of conspiracy against rights. He was arrested Tuesday morning with union President Sgt. John Miller and Officers Dennis Spaulding and David Cari following a lengthy federal investigation into allegations of profiling and using excessive force against Latinos, as well as making false arrests. All four now are on administrative leave from the Police Department, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Krishna Patel.”

East Haven mayor’s ‘taco’ comment furthers stereotype, some residents say, New Haven Register

“The comment furthers a stereotype, some said, that associates all Spanish-speaking people with tacos. Some residents called Maturo’s words ‘inappropriate,’ but a couple of others felt too much is being made of the response.”

She has a taco, and an American tale, for Joe, New Haven Independent

“After East Haven’s mayor’s words made her cry, Reyna Catalán invited him to Middletown Avenue to try her tacos—and witness the sacrifice immigrants make.”

After charges of Latino abuse, anger shifts to a mayor for his ‘taco’ remark, New York Times

“For more than a decade they have been joined at the hip, the police chief with an old-school, tough-guy reputation and the mayor who resurrected the officer’s flagging career, made him his chief and then stood by him at every turn.”

CHRIS POWELL: Wrong apology sought from East Haven mayor, Journal Inquirer

“Rushing to condemn East Haven Mayor Joseph Maturo Jr. for political incorrectness or insensitivity, his critics have let him get away with a real offense: his complicity in the perjury committed by his town’s police officers.”

SARAH DARER LITTMAN: When in doubt, blame the media, CT News Junkie

“Hate to break this to you, Mr. Mayor, but we reporters don’t to need to twist it or turn it at all to make you sound like a low-IQ bigot. Your words speak for themselves without any editing whatsoever. Let’s just roll the tape.”

SISTER MARY ELLEN BURNS: East Haven mayor failing Latino constituents, Hartford Courant

“The Latino population of greater New Haven, East Haven included, is very diverse, with representatives from 18 countries of Central and South America and the Caribbean, as well as Puerto Rico. Latinos are diverse in their immigration status (from the undocumented to the third-generation American), in their levels of education, professions, families — just the way every other hyphenated-American group is. And they don’t all eat tacos.”

Wednesday, January 25

MATT DeRIENZO: East Haven mayor’s racism an embarrassment to Connecticut, Italian community, New Haven Register

“Let’s not mince words. The thin translation of Maturo’s taco comment is, ‘I am a full human being and you are less than one.’ If you don’t look like me, if I don’t understand the language you speak; if your customs are not my customs, you are not a member of this community. THAT is what Maturo was saying.”

RICK GREEN: Dumb ‘tacos’ remark distracts from deeper worries in East Haven, Hartford Courant

“Certainly, things are far worse than Maturo’s flippantly distasteful ‘I might have tacos’ comment to a reporter who had asked what he was doing for the Latino community. One Ecuadorean business owner told me of routine harassment of customers who are afraid to leave their homes because of local police.”

EDITORIAL: The Mayor Is An Idiot: Joseph Maturo ‘tacos’ comment is insensitive, inappropriate, Hartford Courant

“Mr. Maturo doesn’t speak for Italian Americans, most East Haven residents or state residents, but he managed to embarrass all of us. His pathetic attempt at an apology doesn’t wash. He ought to resign.”

EDITORIAL: Maturo says all the wrong things, New Haven Register

“How can things get better with Maturo saying, ‘I don’t believe we racially profile?’ How can things get better, if he minimizes the alleged misconduct by contending that there is a ‘very small segment of Latinos in town,’ or by expressing his concern about their treatment with the quip, ‘I might have a taco when I go home tonight?’”

Grand jury probes Gallo and evidence tampering, New Haven Independent

“First Lennie Gallo, an aspiring New Haven top cop, was exiled to the animal shelter when his boss said he couldn’t be trusted with humans. He reemerged as next-door East Haven’s chief—and now the center of a federal probe into alleged evidence-tampering that goes beyond harassing Latinos.”

Civil Rights Coalition presses for stronger profiling prohibition, New Haven Register

“What happened in East Haven, where Sgt. John MIller and officers Dennis Spaulding, David Cari and Jason Zullo were arrested Tuesday in pre-dawn FBI raids,’is not an anomaly,’ said Hartford City Councilman Louis Cotto, citing historic fears that many of his Hartford constituents have of driving through parts of Avon, Glastonbury and Manchester.”

Amid growing criticism, Maturo apologizes for ‘taco’ comment, New Haven Register

“My sincerest apologies go out to the East Haven community and, in particular, the Latino community for the insensitive and off-collar comment that I made to WPIX reporter Mario Diaz yesterday regarding the recent events affecting our community and our police department. Unfortunately, I let the stress of the situation get the best of me and inflamed what is already a serious and unfortunate situation. I regret my insensitive comment and realize that it is my job to lead by example.”

NAACP says it’s ‘appalled but not surprised’ by Maturo’s comments, New Haven Register

“The history of East Haven leadership be it from the Mayor’s office or those they have hired to suppress the rights of minorities goes back decades with the Greater New Haven Branch of the NAACP. The most egregious case being the loss of life of Malik Jones in 1997 where a federal grand jury ultimately found the town of East Haven and their Police Department guilty of his wrongful death. Indeed over the last few decades there is no town that we have had more issues with relative to racial profiling, the lack of minorities in any civil service and in any leadership positions.”

East Haven mayor’s ‘taco’ comment draws media criticism, CT News Junkie

“’They represent either a horrible lack of judgment or worse, an underlying insensitivity to our Latino community that is unacceptable.  Being tired is no excuse,’ said Gov. Dannell Malloy. ‘He owes an apology to the community, and more importantly, he needs to show what he’s going to do to repair the damage he’s done.  And he needs to do it today.’”

ALFONSO ROBINSON: Look out, Mark Boughton … you have competition, Connecticut Post

“Look out Mark Boughton! When it comes to your well-deserved title as the state’s most racially insensitive mayor, it looks like you have competition from East Haven.“

East Haven mayor appealing to keep his disability pension, Yankee Institute

“East Haven Mayor Joseph Maturo Jr., who has been in the center of the news after the arrest of four East Haven police officers by federal investigators and ensuing inflammatory comments, is appealing a decision by the State Employee Retirement Commission to end his disability pension. Maturo received a pension for $40,113 in 2009, according to CTSunlight.”

Tuesday, January 24

East Haven Mayor Joseph Maturo says he ‘might have tacos’ for Latino community, New Haven Register

“Mayor Joseph Maturo Jr. was caught on camera Tuesday in what he called a “gotcha moment” when a New York TV reporter asked him what he was doing for Latinos Tuesday night. ‘I might have tacos when I go home. I’m not quite sure yet,’ Maturo told the WPIX reporter.”

‘Cancerous Cadre:’ FBI arrests four East Haven cops in profiling probe; chief not charged, but labeled ‘co-conspirator,’ New Haven Register

“The FBI arrested four police officers just before dawn Tuesday morning, alleging a conspiracy that one official called ‘a cancerous cadre’ of ‘bullies with badges’ to deprive some residents, particularly Latinos, of their constitutional rights.”

FBI: Four arrested police officers were ‘bullies with badges,’ Hartford Courant

“They were known as ‘Miller’s boys,’ a small group of East Havenofficers on the 4-to-midnight shift arrested Tuesday following a long federal investigation and charged with terrorizing Latinos who dared enter the town’s borders.”

Police gang tyrannized Latinos, indictment says, New York Times

“They stopped and detained people, particularly immigrants, without reason, federal prosecutors said, sometimes slapping, hitting or kicking them when they were handcuffed, and once smashing a man’s head into a wall. They followed and arrested residents, including a local priest, who tried to document their behavior. They rooted through stores looking for damning security videotapes of how they had treated some of their targets, described by one of them on a police radio as having ‘drifted to this country on rafts made of chicken wings.’”

Two arrested East Haven officers ordered to stay out of town, New Haven Register

“During the proceedings, Patel also announced that prosecutors learned a new message was found on a union bulletin board at the Police Department Tuesday that was similar to other allegedly threatening messages and cartoons that had previously been posted and are detailed in the indictment. According to Patel, the message said ‘not to speak and to be a team player.’ She added that Miller, as union president, is the only person with a key to change the board.”

Other Connecticut cops worry they’ll be viewed the same, New Haven Register

“There’s a lot of diversity in the department. There’s a lot of diversity in the city, and I think that helps eliminate racial profiling. East Haven doesn’t have that.”

East Haven police profiling case timeline, New Haven Register

View a timeline of the East Haven Police racial profiling case below, beginning with the arrest of Rev. James Manship in February 2009. Click on a bubble to read more on that item.

JOE AMARANTE: Whether cops are guilty or innocent, a changing East Haven must deal with perceptions, New Haven Register

“The federal indictment alleges a conspiracy from 2007 through 2011 ‘to injure, oppress, threaten and intimidate,’ but it was the video moment with Manship — sparking an arrest that was later dismissed in court — when simmering social pressures reached a boiling point that continued to spill over and singe the town’s reputation.”

Monday, January 23

East Haven police policies manual from another era: Outdated guidelines lack equality for women officers, New Haven Register

“The manual’s section on ‘policewomen’ says female officers ‘shall patrol public places and streets and inspect all places of commercial recreation, including dance halls, skating rinks, theaters and all other places that may be frequented by women and girls…’ It adds that ‘a Policewoman shall not engage in work for or with any male member of the Department except when directed to do so by a superior officer or when the emergencies of police business so require.’”

Sunday, January 22

At heart of discrimination case, priest takes fight to police, Hartford Courant

“The self-proclaimed ‘French-Canadian, kind of Yankee Catholic’ pastor of St. Rose of Lima Church in New Havenhas stuck his collar out more than once for his overwhelmingly Latino congregation, which includes many undocumented immigrants.”

Saturday, January 21

When enforcing undocumented workers law, one police department dominates, Hartford Courant

“Dealing with immigration law is primarily a federal issue, but over the past 10 years local police departments have issued 14 tickets under an obscure state statute that prohibits businesses from employing someone who is in the country illegally. Half of those citations have been issued in East Haven, almost all of them by two officers currently under a federal investigation probing charges of racial discrimination within the department.”

Thursday, January 19

Lawyer grilled in Malik Jones appeal, New Haven Independent

“As three federal judges weighed the death of Malik Jones at the hands of an East Haven cop, they zeroed in on the significance of shots fired at another young black man, six years earlier, by the same cop.”

Monday, January 16

EDITORIAL: Fix state’s racial profiling law, New Haven Register

“East Haven was one of the towns that ignored the law until the Justice Department’s civil rights investigation began in 2009. The federal analysis of two years of East Haven traffic stops found that 19.9 percent of those stopped were Hispanics, although only 11.1 percent of drivers in the town and adjoining census tracts are Hispanic.”

Wednesday, January 11

Motion seeks to drop third East Haven cop from civil rights lawsuit, New Haven Register

“A third East Haven police officer would be dropped from the pending federal civil rights lawsuit accusing 12 East Haven police officers of mistreating Latinos, and claims relating to a defendant who now wants to withdraw from the case would be dropped against a fourth officer, according to a recently-filed court document.”

Wednesday, January 4

Latino legislators call for more aggressive enforcement of anti-profiling law, cite East Haven, New Haven Register

“’The situation in East Haven could have been addressed more easily and with less effort on behalf of the (U.S.) Justice Department with proper collection and disclosure of motorist data by Connecticut law enforcement agencies,’ said state Rep. Kelvin Roldan, D-Hartford.”

Racial profiling law ignored for a decade, CT Mirror

“Only 27 police departments consistently file annual reports required by state law to show whether minorities are targeted in traffic stops — not that it would matter if more departments complied. No one has analyzed the limited data that is filed since 2001.”

Tuesday, January 3

East Haven plans panel to help implement police department changes, New Haven Register

“Maturo formed the Law Enforcement Advisory Resource Network last week to guide the department in following recommendations in the Police Executive Research Forum’s report and those made by the Department of Justice. The DOJ recently said members of the department have engaged in racial profiling and mistreatment of Latinos and issued a list of changes it deems necessary for the force.”

Monday, January 2

DUI arrest brings new federal probe into East Haven Police Department, New Haven Register

“Federal investigators are looking into an incident in which the son-in-law of the former acting police chief, Inspector Gaetano Nappi, was arrested on drunken driving charges Dec. 17, sources said.”

Sunday, January 1

And the Register Person of the Year is: The Rev. James Manship of New Haven’s St. Rose Church, New Haven Register

“Five years ago, when an increasing number of teens at St. Rose’s Church wanted to go to college, but feared their undocumented status and lack of financial resources made that impossible, they turned to the Rev. James Manship for help.”

New Haven Register Community Engagement Editors Ed Stannard and Angi Carter

These are not issues you’re likely to see emphasized on CNN or at a Republican presidential debate this winter.

But this is what citizens wanted to talk about at the New Haven Public Library Wednesday night when two dozen people joined New Haven Register Community Engagement Editors Ed Stannard and Angi Carter for the first in a series of forums on how we should approach 2012 political coverage.

The New Haven Register, Middletown Press and Register Citizen are partnering with The Guardian and NYU’s Studio 20 journalism graduate school program on the “Citizens Agenda,” an approach to political coverage that aims to depart from “horse race journalism” and put readers in charge of determining the issues they want candidates to address.

While the Guardian focuses on the 2012 presidential race, our journalists in Connecticut will be applying the Citizens Agenda concept to two open and highly competitive races – the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Joe Lieberman and the 5th District U.S. Congress seat being vacated by Chris Murphy (who is running for Lieberman’s Senate seat).

Over the next month, we’ll be holding a series of open forums, reaching out to readers via social media, surveys and other methods and meeting with specific groups and constituencies seeking to identify, separately, the issues that voters most want addressed by candidates in those two races.

Then, instead of assigning reporters to get the inside scoop on “process stories” from Linda McMahon‘s campaign manager, or a Democratic Party establishment operative, we’ll assign a reporter to each of the issues that’s identified.

So, instead of chasing the story about who is up and down in polling or fundraising, or the daily barrage of press release pot-shots exchanged between the campaigns, one of our reporters, for example, would be writing about how the U.S. Senate candidates would shape policy on the issue of taxation.

Another reporter might be writing in-depth about the issue of job creation, engaging with readers and trying to compel the candidates to respond with specifics on that topic.

Other reporters might be focusing on health care, or redevelopment of Brownfields properties … whatever issues are identified through the Citizens Agenda process.

The crowd at our first Citizens Agenda forum in New Haven Wednesday included Democrats, Republicans, a Green Party activist, a Ron Paul supporter, a leader of the local chapter of the League of Women Voters and a long-shot U.S. Senate candidate who showed up with his 2-year-old son.

The most-talked about issue of the night was “peacetime conversion” – whether the country will continue its policy of funding a military that can fight two wars at the same time, how we’ll invest the billions that have been spent on the war in Iraq, whether our foreign policy will improve or worsen instability in the Middle East, and energy independence.

Corporate influence in politics was also a theme, with multiple people expressing alarm about the “Citizens United” decision and the role so-called Super PACs are playing in this year’s campaigns.

Because the Citizens United decision does not require donors (some who are pouring millions into the support of or opposition to particular candidates) be identified until after the election, one participant Wednesday urged the media to focus its reporting on “unmasking” those donors and documenting the role of Super PACs.

There was plenty of criticism of and suggestions about the media’s role in political coverage.

We were urged to include Green Party candidates and Libertarian candidates, and the ideas put forth in their platforms, as part of our coverage. Most media fail to even include them in listings of who is running, one man said.

Another person criticized the media for allowing candidates to make points based on isolated statistics or trends that don’t see the “long view” or bigger context.

The “shallow” nature of Associated Press reporting, and the lack of international perspective in American newspaper and TV reporting, were decried.

Another participant asked why the national media and candidates were allowed to focus obsessively on “early state” primaries and caucuses such as Iowa and New Hampshire when they represent a tiny number of electoral votes.

One man said he is left at a loss sometimes in reading long New York Times pieces that chronicle a viewpoint from one perspective, and then a viewpoint from the opposite perspective, but that don’t help bring much final clarity or conclusion on the topic for readers. (“View from Nowhere,” anyone?)

And finally, participants in our first forum on Wednesday, wanted to know “what good it’s going to do” to identify Citizens Agenda issues considering politicians are politicians and probably won’t change.

Jay Rosen of NYU and Amanda Michel of The Guardian said it best in explaining the Citizens Agenda launch:

“The ultimate goal of a citizens agenda is to bring the candidates to it, so that what people want the candidates to be discussing is actually addressed. Campaign coverage gains a clear purpose: information and access that is useful to people in getting their priorities addressed.”

Sylvester Salcedo

A little-known completely unknown candidate for the U.S. Senate showed up last night for the New Haven Register‘s first “Citizens’ Agenda” forum on what issues will be at the heart of our political coverage in 2012.

Instead of an entourage or handlers, Sylvester Salcedo showed up with a stroller, sippy cups and 2-year-old son Leonardo.

Salcedo was there just to listen to the two dozen residents who assembled at the New Haven Public Library for the open forum organized by New Haven Register Community Engagement Editors Ed Stannard and Angi Carter.

But the yellow legal pad be brought for taking notes was taken over by Leonardo’s coloring. And then there was the wiggling. And running away. And screaming. And throwing things.

I loved it because it reminded me exactly of any time I’ve tried to work with my 2-year-old son Cash in the room. That “I’m not alone!” feeling. This guy knows what it’s like!

And you’ve got to have some respect for an against-all-odds candidate who would spend two hours just listening to voters instead of spouting their own platform, while wrangling the most boisterous 2-year-old boy ever produced (after my own, that is – Cash would have destroyed that library).

Let’s see Chris Murphy bring his kids to the next campaign event, without aides or spouse to help.

And by the way, Salcedo seems like a pretty interesting guy. We’re looking forward to sharing his ideas with readers soon.

Michelle Tuccitto Sullo

If your missing child is no longer a child, there’s a good chance of that happening.

Adult missing persons cases are regularly ignored or mishandled by local police departments, who rarely coordinate among themselves and with state and federal agencies and databases even when they do take them seriously.

The subject has been the main focus of Michelle Tuccitto Sullo‘s reporting since she was named investigations editor at the New Haven Register in late November. It’s the first time in more than 20 years that position has existed at the paper as the newsroom reorganizes to focus on investigative and in-depth reporting, breaking news and community engagement.

In addition to traditional reporting on the topic, Michelle has set up a “Missing in CT” Facebook page that almost instantly was taken over by loved ones of the missing. They share updates and reminders of their cases, lobby for changes to law enforcement policy and government resources, encourage each other and inspirational stories from around the country of families who’ve refused to give up the search.

To a great extent, the movement runs on “Mom Power” – 78 percent of those “liking” the Missing in CT Facebook page are women.

Jan Smolinski is their de facto leader. Jan’s dogged pursuit of answers in the disappearance of her then 31-year-old son, Billy, was the catalyst for Michelle’s reporting. Her work has already prompted a change in state law that requires local police departments to take all missing persons cases immediately instead of telling family of adult victims to “wait three days” like the Waterbury police did in Billy’s case.

But there is a huge remaining gap in police policy, coordination and training when it comes to missing persons cases in Connecticut, times 100 in the case of adult missing persons.

In a piece kicking off her work on the subject, Michelle outlines calls for steps as basic as a statewide database of missing persons and making local police aware that federal missing persons and basic crime databases even exist.

CLICK HERE to read “Victim advocate, others call on state to do more to find adults who disappear.”

Read about some of the personal stories behind adult missing persons cases here, here and here.

And as part of her work on the topic, Michelle continues to pursue details of the still-unsolved Smolinski case. She reported January 7 that a key witness in the case, who at one point led police to sites where he claimed to have helped bury Billy Smolinski’s body, had escaped from a halfway house as he was serving out a sentence for lying to police over the matter.

Of course, Jan Smolinski and her network of moms took to Facebook to promote Sullo’s story and urge people with information to call police. The man was captured and sent back to prison less than a week later.

If you have information on the topic of missing persons, or are the loved one of a missing person in Connecticut, contact Michelle at mtuccitto@nhregister.com or 203-789-5707.  Follow her on Twitter at @nhrinvestigate.

UPDATE, 2/15/12: Connecticut State Police have announced the formation of a special unit devoted to missing persons cases.

We apologize to Pat Pickens and the editors and staff of the Fairfield Citizen and Connecticut Post.
– Matt DeRienzo, Group Editor, Fairfield Minuteman, mderienzo@journalregister.com

Boiling it down, we’ve learned that:

Managing Editor Emily M. Olson leads a workshop for local organizations and church groups on how to get information published by The Register Citizen.

- Transparency builds trust.

- Openness improves your journalism, leading to new and more diverse sources and improving accuracy and context.

- Partnerships make you stronger.

As Andy Carvin said recently, it’s not about “leveraging your audience.” It’s about listening and knowing how the audience is telling its own story, and in some ways acting as a facilitator as the community organizes itself around common interests or goals.

If you feel that you must own and control every piece of content and platform for delivery, you will wither and die in isolation from the networked world.

In terms of tactical lessons learned over the past year, we’ve found that:

- There will never be a good time to commit time to audience engagement, becoming more transparent, trying new things and training staff, especially in a newsroom as small as ours. You have to “just do it.”

- Effective community engagement won’t happen on your terms, it will happen on the audience’s terms. Their lives don’t revolve around your internal process or desire to get a story done. But the power of the crowd can be amazing when you’ve tapped into something that citizens care deeply about and are either already organizing around or have been waiting for a platform to organize around. Readers (for the most part) aren’t going to tune in to the live stream of your daily story meeting because they care about what you talk about every day. They’re going to tune in because they know you’ll be discussing a particular issue that affects their neighborhood, workplace or family. Or the ideal – they’ll tune in because they feel welcomed to bring up that issue to you because you HAVEN’T been discussing it and they think you should.

- The logistics of community engagement deserve a dedicated staff position (or positions), but it’s a principle that must be incorporated into everything we do and taken up by everyone in the newsroom.

- “Just do it” should be the mantra given the urgent need to transform our business model and how quickly things around us change. But we need to spend more time along the way communicating internally and making sure that every employee understands and buys in to the underlying principles of openness and engagement. You can be undermined pretty quickly by staff who are just going through the motions.

Significant articles that have been written about the Newsroom Cafe experiment and/or its role in the JRC turnaround over the past year:

GigaOm, “For Newspapers, the Future is Now and Digital Must Be First,” December 2, 2010

New York Times, “Walk in, Grab a Muffin, and Watch a Newspaper Reinvent Itself,” December 15, 2010

Poynter, “Register Citizen Takes Analog Approach to Reader Engagement: Open Doors,” December 16, 2010

Suburban Newspapers of America, “Opening Up Your Newsroom,” March 7, 2011

Editor & Publisher, “10 Newspapers That Do It Right,” March 15, 2011

Nieman Lab, “Journal Register’s Open Advisory Meeting: Bell, Jarvis and Rosen Put Those New Media Maxims to the Test,” March 25, 2011

Poynter, “At Washington Post and Register Citizen, ‘report-an-error’ forms make it easier to identify, respond to mistakes,” April 4, 2011

NewspaperTurnaround.Com blog, “Why Our Small Town Daily is Adding a Full-Time Curator,” April 20, 2011

JoyMayer.Com, “Inside the Engagement Experiments at The Register Citizen,” May 4, 2011

Columbia Journalism Review, “John Paton’s Big Bet,” July/August 2011

EditorsWeblog.Org, “JRC’s Jim Brady: Uniting Digital First With a Face-to-Face Approach,” September 5, 2011

Register Citizen Newsroom Cafe blog, “What the Newsroom Cafe Has Taught Us About Improving Local Journalism,” September 13, 2011

The Associated Press, Open Connecticut Newsroom Wins APME Innovation Award,” September 15, 2011

American Journalism Review, “Wooing Them With Coffee,” October/November 2011

Connecticut Newsroom blog, “Corrections, Fact Checking and Accountability: Our New Approach,” October 26, 2011

Annenberg Innovation Lab paper by Melanie Sill, “The Case for Open Journalism Now,” December 7, 2011

John Paton’s “Digital First” blog, “New Media’s New Role as Both Medium and Messenger in a World of Partnerships,” December 13, 2011

Their work will appear in the New Haven Register, Middletown Press and Register Citizen in both our online and print editions. And we’re off to a great start … a database-driven story this morning about how hundreds of criminal arrests are made in Connecticut schools each year, including of young children and for offenses that used to just mean detention, such as giving a classmate a “wedgie.”

In previous months, using data journalism and traditional methods, C-HIT has written about hospitals pushing patients out the door too quickly, driving high “readmission rates,” about the lack of oversight of the home health care industry in Connecticut, about the asthma rate in the state’s urban areas, problems with Connecticut veterans accessing benefits due to them, and the state of security in Connecticut’s ports.

The effort is grant-funded and part of Paul Bass‘s Online Journalism Project, which also founded the New Haven Independent and the Valley Independent Sentinel.

Director Lynne DeLucia, a former assistant managing editor at the Hartford Courant, and lead writer Lisa Chedekel, a former Courant reporter, (both are also alums of the New Haven Register) have hit upon a reporting niche in the state that was vastly under-served and are owning it.

Like the Independent, the C-HIT project is grant-funded, and the goal is for their reporting to have the biggest impact possible, which means being seen by the biggest audience possible. That means we are paying an extremely affordable rate – a tiny fraction of the cost of adding two health care-focused investigative reporters to our staff – to publish its work. But C-HIT gains more exposure, as well as some funding that supplements grant money.

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this post misspelled Lynne DeLucia’s first name. It’s “Lynne,” not “Lynn.”

That’s what Chris March’s new role will be at the New Haven Register and Journal Register Company’s other newsrooms in Connecticut.

Chris March

He’s been promoted to Assistant Managing Editor for Disruption and is an integral part of a bigger newsroom reorganization announced last week.

Go ahead, poke fun at the future-of-journalism pretentiousness of that title. But we wanted to send a strong message to our staff and our audience. We must, and we intend to, disrupt how we’ve operated for decades.

“We can’t afford to think and act like a newspaper anymore,” Chris said. “We can’t keep doing things a certain way because ‘that’s how we’ve always done that.’ That’s the reality. When you look at the Journal Register Connecticut newsrooms like that, you start to see things that don’t make as much sense as when we started doing them or when we had a bigger staff. That’s what we have to disrupt, or rethink.”

That includes many aspects of our internal, print edition-focused newsroom operation. That includes how we gather news and how we present it. That includes our definition of “news” and “content” and “journalism.” And that most certainly includes how we interact with and treat our audience.

We’re shifting significant resources away from print and toward Breaking News, Community Engagement and Investigative and In-Depth Reporting. To start, Chris will be leading us through the changes in technology and process that are needed to pull this off.

“I think some of the things we’ve started to dismantle and rethink already as part of our newsroom reorganization, such as how we approach election coverage, moderate online comments and engage with the community, is going to start making some big noise in a really meaningful way for us.”

Chris is quite literally a newspaper kid. His mother, Nancy, is editor of The Mercury, a JRC daily in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, and his father, Bill, is managing editor of The Daily Local, a JRC daily in nearby West Chester. “Growing up, they told me to get into anything but writing and newspapers, because of the hours and low pay. And I didn’t argue with that, because why would I?” he said. “But when I was captain of my high school cross country team … I started writing and publishing a weekly newspaper. And that was it. By accident, I stumbled across that joy of capturing a little community in words and watching everyone pass it around and talk about it. I haven’t wanted to do anything other than that since. Plus, it’s cool to rebel against your parents, right?”

Chris graduated from Penn State with a bachelor’s degree in journalism. He wrote about the punk and indie music scene for absolutepunk.net in college, which led to some freelance work in music and entertainment.

In 2007, he joined The Mercury as Promotions and Marketing Coordinator, and in May 2010, he moved to Connecticut to work at the New Haven Register as an online producer. In August of that year, Chris was named to Journal Register Company’s Idea Lab, which equips members with tech tools and frees them up to spend 25 percent of their work week experimenting on new ideas.

He lives in New Haven.

“My modus operandi is discovery and exploration. That extends from music and travel to beer and community journalism. I like being one of those people who sniffs around for the little places where truth and all-out-radness are waiting to be discovered. That’s why I like what we’re doin here at JRC and the New Haven Register right now. We’re exploring. And we’re discovering. And I’m very proud to be a part of that,” he said. “I grew up at a dinner table where the talk was often about how the newspaper business is broken, and a dead end. Now I sit down at the dinner table and talk about how we’re fixing it, and making it a road with possibility and promise.”