The Activity Kit for Babies & Toddlers at Risk: How to Use Everyday Routines to Build Social & Communication Skills (Book review)
Psych Central
… While there’s no definitive handbook for new parents, The Activity Kit for Babies and Toddlers at Risk offers a clear path to help caretakers take opportunities to promote crucial learning, thinking, and communication skills at appropriate stages during those important first thirty-six months. … Author Deborah Fein is a distinguished professor in both psychology and pediatrics at the University of Connecticut, and Marianne Barton is the department of psychology’s clinical professor and director of clinical training. Molly Helt is an assistant professor in the department of psychology and neuroscience at Trinity College and the parent of an autistic child. Finally, Lynn Brennan is a board-certified behavior analyst in Massachusetts who has worked with children on the autism spectrum for more than twenty years…

Fate of anti-union lawsuit hangs in balance after Scalia’s death (Video)
WFSB (Hartford, Conn.)
The death of Justice Antonin Scalia could make or break an anti-union lawsuit now in the hands of the United States Supreme Court.” The case known as Friedrichs versus California Teachers Association challenges whether members should be forced to pay dues if they don’t agree with the political activity of their unions. The court has been divided. Scalia was said to be vote that would have said teachers could opt out. “With Justice Scalia no longer there they can do any number of things, they could wait until a new justice is confirmed,” Trinity College political professor Kevin McMahon said.   If justices remain divided, the lower court ruling would have the final say which supported the union’s position. Although because this is such a big case, they will more than likely wait for a new justice…

‘Van Gogh’s Bedrooms’ Review – An exhibition brings together three takes on a personal space – By Mary Tompkins Lewis
The Wall Street Journal
Though he posed for a self-portrait with palette and brushes, and painted still lifes and figure compositions in corners of his ateliers, Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890) never painted his studio. He did, however, paint his bedroom. In the small but compelling “Van Gogh’s Bedrooms,” an exhibition of about 35 of his paintings, drawings and illustrated letters curated by Gloria Groom of the Art Institute of Chicago, we discover that this intimate space, which the artist depicted on three separate and long-separated canvases, provided Van Gogh with both a sanctuary and a potent pictorial subject. Organized chronologically, the show introduces viewers at the outset to the short-lived artist’s stunningly peripatetic life and the blistering pace and productivity he somehow sustained. … Ms. Lewis teaches art history at Trinity College, Hartford, Conn.

Do Markets Need Government?
The American Conservative
“The person who says it can’t be done should not interrupt the person doing it.” This saying, which I often read for inspiration, could well summarize Private Governance, the inspired book by Edward Peter Stringham. Many economists, and others, have argued that government is needed to enforce contracts and settle disputes. They say that the market—private actors—can’t do that. Stringham would say that these skeptics should not get in the way of private actors who are doing just that: enforcing contracts and protecting people from predators. Stringham, who holds a chair in the economics department of Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut, shows how well private governance has worked in areas ranging from stock markets to gated communities to credit-card markets…

Paul Assaiante’s Wisdom Reaches Even Bill Belichick
Hartford Courant
The text message arrived on Paul Assaiante‘s phone not long after the Patriots had lost that heart-aching AFC title game in Denver. “We just weren’t good enough.” The text was from Bill Belichick. “The Patriots must have been on their way home,” said Assaiante, the coach of one of the great dynasties in college athletics. So what did you text back? “You’re Bill Belichick. You’ll be back. Just remember, Coach: Knocked down nine times, get up 10 times.” Belichick’s reply? “Thanks.” The coaching interaction was as simple as it was profound. Belichick’s son, Brian, played lacrosse at Trinity. Assaiante, Trinity’s longtime squash coach, met Belichick when he was involved in the admissions process. On the surface, at least as media interviews go, Assaiante and Belichick couldn’t be more different. Assaiante, who got his 500th career win on Jan. 23 against Penn, is effusive and expansive. Belichick is universally known as guarded and monotone. Yet at their coaching core they are similar in their pursuit of perfection and similarly placed in the relentless expectation of success. Belichick has won four Super Bowls. He has been to 10 AFC title games. He pitched a perfect regular season in 2007. That’s something Assaiante can identify with: His Bantams won 252 consecutive matches between 1998 and 2012, the longest streak in any sport in college history…

‘Global/Local 1960-2015: Six Artists From Iran’ Review – By Michael FitzGerald
The Wall Street Journal
When you visit New York University’s Grey Art Gallery to see “Global/Local 1960-2015: Six Artists From Iran,” don’t miss the basement. Deep underground, the last work in the show will shake you.  Shiva Ahmadi’s animation, “Lotus” (2014), is not one of those plodding videos almost everyone avoids. At less than nine minutes, it grabs viewers and immerses them in a terrifying parable of enlightened government turned bad. With remarkable subtlety and stunning beauty, a peaceful world presided over by a Buddha-like leader is transformed by merchants of death into a wasteland of violence and wanton destruction. Curated by Lynn Gumpert, the exhibition focuses in depth on the six artists to sketch more than half a century of Iranian art. Art-world cognoscenti will critique the issues captured by the title—the globe-hopping debate about whether the art of a particular place can maintain its roots in a local culture and also address global expectations. … Mr. FitzGerald teaches the history of modern and contemporary art at Trinity College, Hartford, Conn.