Thumbs up, thumbs down
Thumbs up to the launch Friday of the CTrail Hartford Line that now links Springfield, Massachusetts, to New Haven where riders can switch and travel through Fairfield County and on to Grand Central Station in Manhat- tan. The $768 million project, in the works for about15 years, is the first new commuter rail line in the state in decades. The line is hoped to be a boon for economic development while relieving some of the congestion on state highways. On the first weekend, during which fares were free, 21,850 riders tried the line.
Thumbs up to the stay of deportation to Honduras for Stamford resident Nelson Rosales Santos on Thursday. But the sixmonth federal reprieve may not be enough for the man who needs dialysis several times a week as he awaits a kidney transplant. Santos is scheduled to receive a new kidney from a private donor in August, but Mount Sinai Hospital will perform the operation only if he gets a year-long stay in this country. Santos has no criminal record, but was issued an order of removal when he arrived illegally nearly 30 years ago. The 49-yearold chef is married to a U.S. citizen and the couple has three children. It would be cruel to break up the family and send someone with renal failure away. Dozens of supporters rallied outside the Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in Hartford last week on behalf of Santos.
Thumbs up to Connecticut, and New York, on the U.S. District Court decision Wednesday that orders the Environmental Protection Agency to reduce smog from Midwestern states that is carried by prevailing winds to pollute the Northeast. The EPA will have to uphold the Good Neighbor Provision of the federal Clean Air Act for ozone standards and make states such as Pennsylvania and Ohio reduce their emissions. We will all breathe a bit easier once that happens.
Thumbs down to the shrinking number of donors who provide life-saving blood to the American Red Cross, about 80,000 fewer annually for the last four years. The agency is responding with a clever effort this month — eliminating the letters A, B and O from brands, social media and websites. The Missing Types campaign is intended to draw attention to the need for new donors and for those who haven’t donated in a while to do so. More than 13,000 blood donations a day are needed for patients at the approximately 2,600 hospitals in this country.