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Sunday, March 4, 2018

ANDREW HEADS FOR SOUTH KOREA

Andrew outfitted with his team uniform in the Paralympic Village

My nephew Andrew Haraghey boarded a flight yesterday morning for a 17 hour trip to Pyeongchang , South Korea.

After years of hard work and training, Andrew qualified for the US Paralympic Alpine Ski Team. It is a quest that many of you who read this blog have assisted with through your support and donations over the last few years. Here is one of my past postings about Andrew, 
http://wethepeoplehartford.blogspot.com/2012/09/it-is-always-adventure-with-andrew.html

I have written about him several times here, but much of the credit has to go to his immediate family, especially my sister Sheryl , Andrew's mother, for her never ending quest to encourage her son. Sheryl has over the last few years been tireless in her fundraising efforts to pay for Andrew's quest as well as writing a book and illustrating it describing Andrew's efforts, maintaining his website with information, and just basically being Andrew's "manager" , and countless trips to Vermont's Mount Snow for Andrew's training. Sheryl is also an Adaptive Ski Instructor and still volunteers many hours at Mount Snow working with skiers with disabilities

Here is an update I posted in 2014 about Andrew's efforts  http://wethepeoplehartford.blogspot.com/2014/03/an-update-on-my-nephew-andrew.html

Sheryl has dealt with airlines to get reduced airfare rates for Andrew's trips to various ski locations in Colorado and Canada and his training around the Country , worked with organizations such as the Enfield Elks to host spaghetti suppers to raise the necessary funding, and spent endless weekends at Brown's Harvest pumpkin patch in  Windsor painting pumpkins to raise funds and selling the "Andrew Rocks" painted rocks , which proved very popular. And she did all of this while still maintaining her own career and being a devoted mother  to her youngest son Ryan and wife to her husband Rich

And although this posting is about Andrew, I have to give credit to Andrew's younger brother Ryan, who has many times remained in the shadow due to his brother's "notoriety"Ryan started off skiing with Andrew and then also becoming a mentor in the adaptive skiing program at Mount Snow, skiing along side and assisting other skiers with disabilities.

Ryan is always there for his "big" brother. When they were both in High School, Andrew was in the marching band for Fermi High. Due to his Cerebral Palsy, I think Andrew knew he was going to have problems marching the whole Memorial Day Parade in Enfield route a few years ago, his "little" brother Ryan stepped up and pushed Andrew in  his wheelchair the entire parade route so that he could be part of the band's celebration

I don't think Andrew has ever seen himself as disabled and I think that spirit shines through today in accomplishing the first step in his goal to make the Paralympic Ski Team. There were challenges as well as injuries along the way, but Andrew has always bounced back. Andrew lives with Cerebral Palsy, but it doesn't rule his life and I wish every child born with a disability had the same strong family , parents and community around to support them as Andrew has.

It quite frankly scares the hell out of me when I was watching the recent Olympics and came to the realization that my nephew, Andrew Haraghey, the kid that we were never sure if he would ever walk, would be coming down those same slopes at 65 or 70 miles an hour as a member of the US Paralympic Ski Team

Best of luck Andrew. Stay safe and stay healthy. Continue to be the inspiration that you are to everyone. Beijing 2022

You can read more about Andrew at his website Andrew Races http://andrewraces.com/

And its not cheap getting to South Korea and all the competition to qualify for the Paralympics. It will probably be over $10,000.00 in the end, and the competitors fund that themselves. Thank you to everyone that has helped on the fundraising efforts over the years, and Andrew's "Go Fund Me" is still open and accepting contributions http://www.gofundme.com/andrewraces

Wednesday, February 21, 2018

JUDGE SHAPIRO HAS SPOKEN IN HDTC DEBACLE

More on this later, but here are the documents.



The legal brief's submitted to the court are below.

Krayeske Peterson Brief on Scribd


HELP WELCOME CHIEF ROSADO TOMORROW


Friday, February 16, 2018

HARTFORD DEMOCRATIC TOWN COMMITTEE DRAMA CONTINUES IN COURT TODAY

Just a quick update. The drama between the dueling 6th District Democratic Town Committee slates continues today in Hartford Superior Court.

According to sources familiar with the case, today's testimony may revolve around work done by a Private Investigator regarding residency  trying to build the case that 6th District incumbents knowingly falsified documents.

The attorney for the 6th district incumbents apparently was trying to make the case yesterday that being truthful about the addresses they swore to as their residences didn't really matter as long as they slept somewhere in the boundaries of the district.

Stay tuned as this soap opera continues

Wednesday, February 14, 2018

THE PLOT THICKENS ON HARTFORD'S DIRTY POLITICS

Hartford is devoid of any real political leadership and here is just one more example. The Southend of Hartford is starting to boil over  on the topic of the contested Democratic Town Committee race. 
Why is a good question and allegations are being fired back and forth from both sides now, and in the end, it will probably be a Superior Court judge who will make the final ruling.
The uproar started over a lawsuit filed by Hartford Attorney John Kennelly alleging improprieties in the obtaining of required petitions by the challenge slate. You can read more about that here  : https://wethepeoplehartford.blogspot.com/2018/02/dirty-hartford-politics-are-about-to.html
Now the challenge slate are claiming improprieties of their own against the endorsed slate. The so called "Peterson Slate" is claiming that petitions were obtained improperly by the endorsed slate and that false addresses were used by "petition collectors"  when they certified the authenticity of the petitions.
One candidate prominently mentioned in the counterclaim is 6th District Town Committee member Jacqueline Nadal, wife of Hartford Councilman James Sanchez. As a side note, Sanchez is employed by the Metropolitan District Commission, also known as the "MDC". The MDC is Chaired by William DiBella, the father of Hartford's Democratic Town Chairman Marc  DiBella.
In the petition certifications, Nadal claims her residence as  646 New Britain  Avenue in Hartford, while her husband, Councilman Sanchez signed off on the petitions as 370 Freeman Street. Do they maintain separate residences since their marriage or is there more to the story?

The true story may lie in  loan documents obtained by "We the People" In which Nadal obtained a loan from the City of Hartford for the property she claims as her residence. In agreeing to accept the loan from the City of Hartford, Nadal agreed to maintain the 646 New Britain address as her bona-fide place of residency

According to sources familiar with the original petitions, Nadal had originally listed her address lawfully on her petitions as 370 Freeman Street and then subsequently "whited out" the address and wrote over it the 646 New Britain address, allegedly to make it appear as thought the 646 New Britain Avenue was in compliance with the residency requirement of the loan.

Further documents obtained by "We the People" showed that the Quit Claim Deed for Nadal and Sanchez's purchase of the 370 Freeman Street residence were handled by Hartford attorney Kathleen "Kate" Kowalshyn. Kowalshyn is also the spokesperson, or "Chairperson" of the current 6th District Town Committee.  The document was sworn to in front of her by Councilman Sanchez and in two locations it shows the "grantee's Address" (Sanchez) as 370 Freeman Street yet in various petitions Nadal swears that her address is 646 New Britain Avenue , the whited out/corrected address on the petitions. Interestingly , in addition to  on the documents Kathleen signed off to as their authenticity, she notes at the top of the document " After recording, please return to James and Jacqueline Nadal Sanchez at 370 Freeman Street..."

 So which is it? Were the election petitions false and an attempt to game the system, or was it a temporary lapse of judgment for Nadal, forgetting where she resides with her husband, the Councilman and MDC employee James Sanchez?

I guess we will have to wait for Judge Shapiro to answer that question and shine some light on how dirty Hartford's politics really are.

And again, in the effort of full disclosure, I attempted to get a comment from Attorney John Kennelly on the matter but I was unable since his Office phone has a recording that "The number you are calling is not in service, the number has been disconnected"

Only in Hartford.


 At least one other source familiar with the 6th District incumbents petition process claims that she knew Nadal was not listing the proper address, and when that was questioned, apparently Nadal claimed that the Democratic Registrar of Voters had told her it was "OK" to list the incorrect residence .
Counterclaim by Defendants 2018-02-14 by Kevin Brookman on Scribd

NEW DESSERT MENU LAUNCHED AT HARTFORD PUBLIC SCHOOLS