Noelle E. C. Evans

On Sept. 20, 2017, Hurricane Maria touched down in Puerto Rico. Thousands of families relocated to Rochester in the months that followed. 

Karla Reyes Ríos is from San Juan, Puerto Rico. She’s 23 years old and a mother of three. She describes Hurricane Maria as dangerous and chaotic.

“Wow, the water -- you could swim in the water,” she says. “The windows crashed down and the door couldn’t close because literally the water was coming through.”

(AP & WXXI News) U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, actress Jane Fonda and attorney Gloria Allred were among the inductees at the National Women's Hall of Fame on Saturday.

The Class of 2019 inducted into the hall in Seneca Falls also included activist Angela Davis , attorney Sarah Deer, fashion designer Diane von Furstenberg , retired Air Force fighter pilot Nicole Malachowski, the late artist and suffragist Rose O'Neill and the late U.S. Rep. Louise Slaughter of New York.

The ceremonies were held at the del Lago Casino & Resort in Waterloo.

The National Women’s Hall of Fame induction ceremony is Saturday. Attorney Gloria Allred, will be recognized as a trailblazer and pioneer for women’s rights. She is known for often taking on controversial and high-profile cases. 

Allred says she’s grateful to be recognized along with other women, some of whom, like Sonia Sotomayor are her “sheros,” as she calls them. 

Gloria Allred:

I’m just looking forward to congratulating them as well.

Rochester City School District’s Office of Adult and Career Education Services, OACES, will be receiving a six-figure grant for a mentoring program for young adult refugees. 

OACES will receive $110,797 from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Administration for Children and Families for their Making a Connection program. The program will connect recent refugees aged 15 to 24 with an adult mentor to help them adapt to the local culture, prepare for careers,  assist them with financial literacy, and more.

Flowers are in bloom in what used to be a vacant lot on Joseph Avenue in Rochester. Those working in the hot sun and soil this summer have been uncovering aspects of Rochester’s opioid epidemic.

Eric Pough works as a landscaper in the Community Bloom garden. Almost 21 years old, Pough spends the days planting, weeding, and mowing the grass.

"I’m glad to be doing something for the community, everything’s going well," Pough says.

Rochester’s local labor community kicked off the Labor Day parade on Monday with remarks from organizers and local officials. A recent labor law for farmworkers was a highlight. 

Mary Sullivan, with the Civil Service Employees Association says that this holiday comes from labor organizing.

"Today is our day! Labor Day was founded to celebrate you, me, and everyone who works for a living," She says.

Abigail Hernandez’s legal team filed an appeal Tuesday. That’s after losing a bond hearing earlier this month. Her immigration attorney compares the case to something out of a Lewis Carroll novel.

Hernandez is a 22-year-old woman with an intellectual disability. She made an online threat against East High School in Rochester back in 2018. Though protected under DACA at the time, she is now an immigrant without legal status.

Community leaders spoke Thursday at the Black and African American Equal Pay Day Rally. The event highlighted the historical context around pay inequity, and shed light on ways to close the gap.

Tanishia Johnson with the child education advocacy group, Roc the Future, says that simple steps can help change what she says is a human rights matter, as well as a systemic racism, and gender discrimination issue.