Issues. People. Events.

   The spires of St. Anne's Church dominate the Waterbury skyline with the Town Plot neighborhood looming in the background. St Anne's was the center of the French-Canadian community in Waterbury for most of the past century. It has now evolved into The Shrine of Saint Anne for Mothers, and is a place of pilgrimage and worship where the sanctity of life is honored by praying for mothers, grandmothers and godmothers. Photograph by John Murray

Danielle Rodgers of Naugatuck slams an elbow into a pad.

   Every two minutes, someone in the United States is raped. The vast majority (nine out of ten) are women; 80% are under the age of 30, 44% are under the age of 18. Since 2009, Jane Doe No More, Incorporated has partnered with the professional team at East Coast Training Systems to deliver self defense classes to women and girls ages 12 and older. Our Escape Alive™ Survival Skills program is designed to give women and girls a fighting chance in the face of attack.

  The U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee announced that U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) will chair the Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on European Affairs. The subcommittee oversees matters concerning European nations, and focuses on issues related to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the European Union and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. Murphy released the following statement on his chairmanship:

   "I’m proud to be a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and I’m honored to be named chairman of the Subcommittee on European Affairs. The United States and the European Union have the largest bilateral trade relationship in the world, and this subcommittee will provide me with opportunities to strengthen this transatlantic relationship. Europe and the United States represent nearly half of the world’s gross domestic product, and nearly one third of the world’s trade. However, there are remaining obstacles to trade that must be removed so that our partnership can be even more robust.

Sarune Macys was born in Lithuania and came to the United States in 1952. She dressed in traditional costume and stood and sang the Lithuanian National Anthem this morning inside City Hall in downtown Waterbury during a Lithuanian Mayor For The Day ceremony in Veteran's Hall. Edward J. Bebrin was proclaimed the ceremonial mayor. Photograph by John Murray

   The nearly six hundred members of Mayor O'Leary's Snow Brigade busted their humps today clearing snow from the following schools; Tinker, Gilmartin, Kingsbury, Walsh, Duggan, Maloney, Chase, Reed, Wilson, Wilby, Crosby, Kennedy, Bucks Hill and WAMS. It wasn't all work, however, as kids being kids, they managed to have a few chuckles along the way.

   In this picture Anthony Romero, 16, gives a big smile after being blasted by a shovel of snow from his buddy, Anthony Del Valle. Romero and Del Valle were joined at Reed School by their friend Jonathan Castellar, and they called themselves "The Three Musketeers."

   Thank you Musketeers for working hard, being enthusiastic, and reminding Waterbury that work can be fun.

                                                By John Murray

There was an astounding response to Mayor Neil O'Leary's offer to pay Waterbury youth to help shovel out the schools. At least 500 kids packed the entire upper floor of City Hall, filling both Veteran Memorial Hall, aldermanic chambers, and the hallway inbetween. It's hard to imagine that more city residents have ever been in City Hall at one time. An historic response to an historic crisis. Very cool.