Maria Horn

As the legislative special session draws closer, I have been doing my own “hearings”, reaching out to have conversations with those who are dealing with these issues on the ground.

It is now looking like the legislature will return to Hartford for a special session during the week of July 20, probably at the later end of the week. The House will go in first, then the Senate will follow, probably the following week. The House has installed new technology that will allow us to vote from our offices in the Legislative Office Building, entering the chamber (where we usually debate and vote) only to speak on the bill under consideration.

I hope you all had a happy Fourth of July weekend. While ours did not involve fireworks this year (though we could definitely hear a few sets going off in the neighborhood, which we tried to watch through the trees with little success), it did involve a couple of campfires. All of our kids are home for the first time since January, and having recently dug ourselves a firepit, we logged a lot of time in front of the fire catching up on topics old and new.

In this particular moment, when Pride Month, celebrating the LGBTQ+ community’s ability to live their true lives with love and freedom, has just ended, and the festivities around Fourth of July are about to begin, I found myself thinking a lot about that freedom: what it means, and how we achieve it.

On Saturday morning, more than 40 volunteers arrived at Housatonic Valley Regional High School (HVRHS), many as early as 5:45 am, and worked with diligence, patience, and good cheer to distribute more than 1,400 boxes of fresh produce to residents throughout the Northwest Corner.

Our schools are central to our communities in ways that go well beyond their core purpose of providing a quality education to every student.  In addition to teaching literature, biology, or Spanish, schools impact our social and emotional development in profound ways, and can help craft lasting relationships between peers, families, and teachers that can sustain us over a lifetime. Over the last three months, we’ve been forced to expand the means by which instruction is provided, which took ingenuity, creativity, and courage.   It has illuminated the work we know we need to do to ensure onl

This weekend included a graduation for the record books, as the Housatonic Valley Regional High School Class of 2020 celebrated theirs at Lime Rock Park racetrack on Sunday, which was also a great way to celebrate Father’s Day.

here are many occasions this weekend to celebrate and honor people and issues of importance to us.

The first happens today, which is Juneteenth, sometimes known as Emancipation Day, which marks the end of slavery in the United States. This year is the 155th anniversary of the day in 1865 when General Gordon Granger led Union troops to Galvieston, Texas to make the announcement that the Civil War was over and enslaved people were free, two and a half years after the enactment of the Emancipation Proclamation