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New York Times

New York’s Public Housing Isn’t Getting Better

Reports from a federal monitor and residents suggest the city needs a new approach to fixing a crisis for hundreds of thousands of residents.

When the Dollar Is Mightier Than the Gun

Gun violence is not an abstract concept for Rabbi Joel Mosbacher. His father, Lester, was shot dead in 1999 as he opened up his check-cashing business on Chicago’s South Side. Rabbi Mosbacher, who had been ordained just six months earlier, struggled to make sense of the murder, even as well-meaning friends struggled to find words of comfort and support.

A Priest’s Legacy: Blessing His Flock, and Organizing It

Soft light shone upon the body of the Rev. Neil Connolly, which lay in repose under the dome of St. Mary’s Roman Catholic Church on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. A procession of mourners — nuns, priests, family and friends — made their way up the aisle, hugging one another as they approached his open coffin, stopped and prayed, then gently touched his pristine robe as a final goodbye.

Here’s a Way to Control Guns

NEARLY three years ago, in the days after the mass killings at Sandy Hook Elementary School, President Obama went to Newtown, Conn., to speak at a vigil for the victims. He spoke movingly, and seemed to embody the nation’s outrage and its determination to reduce the number of people killed with guns in America. “Do not lose heart,” he told the families of the victims. He said he would use “whatever power this office holds.”

Edward Chambers, Early Leader in Community Organizing, Dies at 85

Edward T. Chambers, a lapsed seminarian who succeeded Saul Alinsky as leader of Mr. Alinsky’s social justice foundation, advancing his radical agenda of community organizing and grounding its progressive objectives in the Gospels, died on April 26 at a nursing home near his home in Drimoleague, Ireland. He was 85.

Facing Suit, New York City Agrees to Remove Mold in Public Housing More Quickly

The New York City Housing Authority will deal more quickly and more thoroughly with mold in its apartments as part of an agreement by the Bloomberg administration to settle a federal lawsuit by people living in housing projects and coping with asthma. (click link for more)

For New York Police, There’s No End to the Stops

New York City’s public advocate, Bill de Blasio, put forward a modest proposal last week. He wants the Police Department to include the number of street stop-and-frisks, which is in a state of geometric expansion, in its weekly review of precinct crime statistics.

Home Is Where the Mold Is

Sarita Latchman, a vibrant 42-year-old mother and former parks worker, has a sound like a baby’s rattle at the back of her throat. Which is not surprising, as her apartment in the Jefferson Houses in East Harlem is speckled with soot-black mold. A thick carpet of it runs down her bathroom wall and across the ceiling of her children’s bedrooms. Rub it and the spores float, landing on sink tops and children’s hair. They also journey through Ms. Latchman’s nasal passageway into her lungs.

At Advocates’ Offices, Confronting an Anti-Liberal Scheme

Young, bearded, a bit scruffy, a young man walked into a community organizing office in East Harlem, lugging a heavy bag. A little nervous, he said that his name was Melvin Howting, and that he worked for an environmental company in New Jersey and had a few questions about how to organize a union.