ReportWire

Tag: Connecticut

  • It was ‘haunting’: Ballard recalls mission to Titanic site

    It was ‘haunting’: Ballard recalls mission to Titanic site

    [ad_1]

    FALMOUTH, Mass. (AP) — The sheer size of the vessel and the shoes were what struck Robert Ballard when he descended to the wreckage of the RMS Titanic in 1986, the year after he and his crew from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution helped find the ocean liner that struck an iceberg and sank in the North Atlantic in 1912.

    “The first thing I saw coming out of the gloom at 30 feet was this wall, this giant wall of riveted steel that rose over 100 and some feet above us,” he said in an interview from Connecticut on Wednesday, the same day the WHOI released on 80 minutes of never before publicly seen underwater video of the expedition to the wreckage.

    “I never looked down at the Titanic. I looked up at the Titanic. Nothing was small,” he said.

    The crew of Alvin, the three-person submersible he was in, headed to the surface when it started taking water into its batteries, and as it rose Ballard saw the Titanic’s portholes.

    “It was like people looking back at us. It was pretty haunting actually,” he said.

    There were no human flesh or bones left, but he saw shoes, including the footwear of what appeared to be a mother and a baby, that looked like tombstones marking the spot where some of the roughly 1,500 people who perished came to rest on the ocean floor.

    “After the Titanic sank, those that went into the water that didn’t have lifejackets died of hypothermia and their bodies came raining down,” he said.

    The liner sank on its maiden voyage from Southampton, England, to New York City after hitting an iceberg in the early morning hours of April 15, 1912.

    The WHOI team, in partnership with the French oceanographic exploration organization Institut français de recherche pour l’exploitation de la mer, discovered the final resting place of the ship in 12,400 feet (3,780 meters) of water on Sept. 1, 1985, using a towed underwater camera.

    The newly released footage was from a return expedition the following year.

    There had been prior efforts to find the wreck. But the 1985 discovery and the 1986 trip were made possible by sophisticated underwater vehicles that could withstand the unforgiving conditions, said WHOI engineer Andy Bowen, who helped develop them.

    “The water is near freezing temperatures and probably the biggest challenge is the remoteness of the location, and in particular the harsh environment with regard to the pressure our equipment is exposed to,” he said.

    Ballard said he went through the gamut of emotions during the 1985 mission.

    He was concerned that the public would figure out that he was a Naval intelligence officer who was on a top secret Cold War mission funded by the Navy to study the wrecks of two nuclear submarines that had also gone down in the North Atlantic. The search for the Titanic was a bit of an afterthought.

    “I wasn’t a Titanic groupie,” he said. “I was heavily involved in my military program. So I wasn’t expecting to be affected by the discovery.”

    The ship sank at about 2:20 a.m. The 1985 discovery using the underwater camera occurred at about 2 a.m.

    Ballard recalled one of the crew glancing at the clock and saying: “She sinks in 20 minutes.”

    “We actually stopped the operation and raised the vehicle to gather my thoughts and I said, ‘I’m going to go outside and just get myself back together’ and everyone else followed,” he said. “We had a small memorial service for all those that had died. But we were there, we were at this spot.”

    It was hallowed ground, like at the Gettysburg battlefield, he said.

    The video, much of it haunting and grainy interiors of the ship taken by the remotely-operated underwater exploration vehicle Jason Jr., is being released in conjunction with the 25th anniversary release on Feb. 10 of the remastered version of the Academy Award-winning movie, “Titanic.”

    “More than a century after the loss of Titanic, the human stories embodied in the great ship continue to resonate,” James Cameron, the film’s director, said in a statement. “Like many, I was transfixed when Alvin and Jason Jr. ventured down to and inside the wreck. By releasing this footage, WHOI is helping tell an important part of a story that spans generations and circles the globe.”

    The story of the Titanic fascinates people to this day for many reasons, Ballard said. It was at the time the world’s largest ocean liner and was supposed to be virtually unsinkable. Its passengers included some of the world’s most wealthy and famous. And in the aftermath, the world heard remarkable stories of heroism and bravery by the crew and passengers.

    He said: “I think everyone wonders in their own mind ‘If I were there, what would I have done?’”

    ___

    This story has been corrected to show that Ballard spoke from Connecticut, not Florida.

    ___

    Associated Press writer Mark Pratt reported from Boston.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Democrats in Connecticut want to ban state agencies from using ‘Latinx’ | CNN Politics

    Democrats in Connecticut want to ban state agencies from using ‘Latinx’ | CNN Politics

    [ad_1]



    CNN
     — 

    Several state Democratic lawmakers in Connecticut are seeking to ban state agencies from using “Latinx,” – the latest example of political backlash against the term.

    Members of the Connecticut state House introduced a bill last month that would prohibit state agencies and employees acting on behalf of state agencies from using “Latinx” in official communications.

    Rep. Geraldo Reyes, one of the primary sponsors of the bill, told CNN on Thursday that he and his colleagues behind the bill are Puerto Rican and consider the term offensive.

    “It’s a term that we believe is unnecessary because the Spanish language, which is 1,500-plus years old, already identifies male, female and neutral,” Reyes said on “CNN Newsroom,” adding that “Latin” and “Latino” were both gender-neutral options.

    Reyes told CNN that a state House committee is screening the bill, and that he hopes it will soon receive a public hearing. If the committee approves the bill, it would need to pass the state House and Senate and be signed by the governor before it becomes law. Democrats have full government control in Connecticut.

    Some activists, academics, companies and progressive groups have adopted “Latinx” in an effort to include those who fall outside the male/female gender binary. But many Hispanics and Latinos take issue with the term, calling it clunky and nonsensical for Spanish speakers.

    The term has also been swept up into the nation’s culture wars. In one of her first acts as Arkansas governor, Republican Sarah Huckabee Sanders barred the use of “Latinx” in official state documents and ordered a review of state agencies’ past usage of the term. GOP Rep. Monica De La Cruz of Texas, meanwhile, mocked the term during her victory speech last November, characterizing her win as “a victory for every single Hispanic who loves the Spanish language and does not want to be called Latinx.”

    While “Latinx” is often derided by those on the right, politicians from both parties have expressed opposition to the term. Aside from the state lawmakers in Connecticut, Democratic Rep. Ruben Gallego of Arizona said in 2021 that he had instructed his office not to use the term in official communications.

    “Look y’all. Hispanic, Latin American are gender neutral. So we have already gender neutral options to describe the Latino community. Adding an x and creating a new word comes off as performative,” Gallego tweeted at the time. “It will not lose you an election but if your staff and consultants use Latinx in your mass communication it likely means they don’t understand the Latino community and is indicative of deeper problems.”

    Data suggests that “Latinx” is not widely used among the people it is meant to describe.

    A Pew Research Center survey published in 2020 found that only about one in four adults in the US who identify as Hispanic or Latino have heard the term “Latinx,” while just 3% say they use it to describe themselves. Those who used the term tended to be younger, US-born and Democratic-leaning. They were also more likely to be bilingual or predominately English speakers and were more likely to have gone to college.

    Similarly, a 2021 Gallup poll found that just 4% of Hispanic and Latino Americans prefer the term “Latinx” over “Hispanic” and “Latinx,” though a majority of respondents said it didn’t matter to them which term was used.

    Other surveys point to divides along cultural lines. An Axios-Ipsos Latino poll in partnership with Telemundo from last year found that a majority of Mexican Americans surveyed were comfortable with the term “Latinx,” while around just one in three Central Americans were.

    Critics of “Latinx” have noted that the term falls outside the bounds of Spanish grammar and is difficult for Spanish speakers to pronounce. And given its popularity among predominately English speakers, some also feel that the term imposes English conventions upon Spanish speakers.

    In recent years, others have opted for new alternatives such as “Latiné,” which is gender-neutral and more consistent with the way Spanish is spoken.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Lego to move from Connecticut to Boston starting in 2025

    Lego to move from Connecticut to Boston starting in 2025

    [ad_1]

    The Lego Group announced Tuesday that it will move its North American headquarters from Enfield, Connecticut, to Boston, Massachusetts, by the end of 2026.

    Skip Kodak, president of the Lego Group in the Americas, said in a release that the move supports the Denmark-based global toymaker’s growth ambitions.

    “Boston is ranked one of the best cities in the world to attract and retain talent,” Kodak said in a statement. “This, along with its world-class academic institutions, skilled workforce and great quality of life makes it an ideal location for our US head office.”

    Lego has about 740 full-time employees in the Connecticut office.

    All of the employees will have a position at the Boston office and receive relocation help if they want to make the move, the Lego Group said. The move will happen in phases starting in mid-2025 and be completed by the end of 2026, the company said.

    Boston Mayor Michelle Wu said in a statement that she was thrilled to welcome the Lego Group to Boston and looks forward to supporting the company as it transitions its headquarters and joins “our mission to become the most family-friendly city in the country.”

    The Lego Group opened the Connecticut office in 1975. Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont said in a release he was disappointed to hear about the move.

    Lamont said based on his conversations with Lego’s leadership Tuesday morning that “their move is motivated not by any Connecticut policy but rather LEGO’s desire to consolidate their business operations near the company’s Education Office and to enhance their partnership with MIT,” referring to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, located in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

    Lamont said the Connecticut Department of Economic Community Development, Office of Workforce Strategy, and Department of Labor will work with Lego to find employment for workers who decide to the leave the company and stay in Connecticut.

    Some industry watchers said in June that the Lego Group’s announcement that it would build a new factory in Richmond, Virginia, may not be a good sign for the company’s future in Connecticut.

    A company spokesperson said at the time that the decision would have no impact on the size and scope of the Enfield headquarters.


    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Legal weed sales start in Connecticut at 7 medical marijuana establishments

    Legal weed sales start in Connecticut at 7 medical marijuana establishments

    [ad_1]

    Connecticut’s first round of retail cannabis sales for adults 21 and older began Tuesday at seven existing medical marijuana establishments across the state, less than two years after Gov. Ned Lamont signed legislation making Connecticut the latest state to legalize recreational sales.

    As many as 40 dispensaries, along with dozens of other cannabis-related businesses, are expected to eventually open in Connecticut by the end of 2023.

    “Today is historic, but the real story is about the benefits to come that will transform lives and communities,” Adam Wood, president of the Connecticut Cannabis Chamber of Commerce, said in a statement. He estimates the new industry will create more than 10,000 jobs over the next couple of years and generate hundreds of millions of dollars in new revenue that will help benefit communities most impacted by the war on drugs.

    Lamont, a Democrat, said Tuesday that one of the goals of the legislation that legalized recreational marijuana was to create a regulated, safer product for consumers. Another part of the law allows convictions for low-level marijuana crimes to be erased, many automatically. Nearly 44,000 such convictions have been erased since the start of the new year, officials said.

    “Today marks a turning point in the injustices caused by the war on drugs, most notably now that there is a legal alternative to the dangerous, unregulated, underground market for cannabis sales,” Lamont said in a statement.

    Recreational sales were allowed to begin at 10 a.m. on Tuesday. State-approved shops in Montville, New Haven, Branford, Newington, Stamford, Willimantic and Meriden were expected to open their doors to the general public on the first day. Two other approved dispensaries, in Danbury and Torrington, will open at a later date.

    Joshua Frazer smokes a marijuana cigarette outside the Legislative Office Building during a rally April 20, 2021, in Hartford, Conn.
    Joshua Frazer smokes a marijuana cigarette outside the Legislative Office Building during a rally April 20, 2021, in Hartford, Conn.

    AP Photo/Jessica Hill


    In Montville, local state lawmakers and the mayor turned out for a ribbon-cutting ceremony at The Botanist. A steady stream of medical marijuana patients stopped by to pick up their items before recreational sales began. Workers inside a heated tent folded free T-shirts and prepared to help customers place orders in kiosks.

    Lynn Goldstein, 60, of Norwich, was the first customer in line in Montville. She said she has suffered with chronic pain since 2011 and has been a medical marijuana customer. She said she was glad recreational sales are now legal, but had some concerns.

    “I do worry about the young people because they don’t know how to handle it and they will be driving stoned, and it’s going to be very hard for police to figure out what’s what,” she said.

    Goldstein added that she didn’t intend on being the first in line but was happy that she was. She was given a bag of goodies, including a $250 vaporizer.

    It’s unclear whether the novelty of legalized marijuana has worn off a bit for Connecticut consumers, considering retail sales began in 2018 in neighboring Massachusetts and last month in neighboring Rhode Island and New York.

    Twenty-one states have legalized recreational marijuana for adults over the past decade, even though it remains illegal under federal law. After voters approved legalization in Maryland and Missouri in November, marijuana advocates are now pressing forward with similar efforts elsewhere in the U.S., including in Oklahoma and Ohio.

    As of Feb. 3, 2022, 37 states, three territories and the District of Columbia allow the medical use of cannabis products, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

    Connecticut’s “hybrid” medical and recreational cannabis retail shops prepared for large crowds Tuesday.

    Kate Nelson, senior vice president of the Midwest and Northwest regions for Acreage Holdings, which owns The Botanist brand, said about 200-300 medical marijuana purchases are made on average at the Montville location. She’s predicting there will be a 150% uptick in sales during the first week of adult-use recreational business, but acknowledged that will likely level off.

    The company’s second location in Connecticut, located in Danbury, is expected to open in the next few weeks after local approvals are finalized.

    “I think even before the 40 operators come online, you’ll start to see less of that excitement of something new and more so of kind of what the status quo will become,” she said. “We’re in an area now in the country where there’s other adult-use states nearby. So it’s really going to be a focus of ours, in the state of Connecticut specifically, to make sure that this adult-use program has the product that it needs to have and we can support the industry … to make sure Connecticut sets themselves apart from other competing markets.”

    Initial sales in Connecticut will be limited to one-quarter of an ounce (7 grams) of cannabis flower or its equivalent, in an effort to ensure there will be enough support for medical marijuana patients. Different items can be purchased together to make up the one-quarter ounce. The state’s Department of Consumer Protection plans to watch retail sales and manufacturing supplies closely to determine when that amount can eventually be increased.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Alex Jones’ motion to set aside Sandy Hook verdict denied

    Alex Jones’ motion to set aside Sandy Hook verdict denied

    [ad_1]

    HARTFORD, Conn. — A Connecticut judge on Thursday denied Infowars host Alex Jones’ motion seeking a new trial and the overturning of a jury verdict requiring him to pay hundreds of millions of dollars to families of victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre.

    The ruling found the motion was not supported “by any evidence or case law.”

    Chris Mattei, an attorney for the Sandy Hook families, said in a statement that the court “has now affirmed the jury’s historic and just rebuke of Alex Jones.”

    Jones attorney Norm Pattis called it “an expected and disappointing decision” and said they would be heading to the appellate courts.

    For years Jones described the 2021 shootings in Newtown, Connecticut, as a hoax on his Infowars broadcasts.

    In October the jury decided that he must pay victims’ families $965 million in compensatory damages, and a judge later added on another $473 million in punitive damages.

    The Connecticut decision came after a separate jury in Texas awarded the parents of a child killed in the shooting $49 million in damages earlier this year.

    Jones filed for personal bankruptcy earlier this month.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Court upholds Connecticut’s transgender athlete policy

    Court upholds Connecticut’s transgender athlete policy

    [ad_1]

    HARTFORD, Conn. — A federal appeals court on Friday dismissed a challenge to Connecticut’s policy of allowing transgender girls to compete in girls high school sports, rejecting arguments by four cisgender runners who said they were unfairly forced to race against transgender athletes.

    A three-judge panel of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York City upheld a lower court judge’s dismissal of a lawsuit challenging the policy. The panel said the four cisgender athletes lacked standing to sue — in part because their claims that they were deprived of wins, state titles and athletic scholarship opportunities were speculative.

    “All four Plaintiffs regularly competed at state track championships as high school athletes, where Plaintiffs had the opportunity to compete for state titles in different events,” the decision said. “And, on numerous occasions, Plaintiffs were indeed “champions,” finishing first in various events, even sometimes when competing against (transgender athletes).”

    The judges added, “Plaintiffs simply have not been deprived of a ‘chance to be champions.’”

    The Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Council argued its policy is designed to comply with a state law that requires all high school students be treated according to their gender identity. It also said the policy is in accordance with Title IX, the federal law that allows girls equal educational opportunities, including in athletics.

    The American Civil Liberties Union defended the two transgender athletes at the center of the lawsuit — Terry Miller and Andraya Yearwood.

    “Today’s ruling is a critical victory for fairness, equality, and inclusion” Joshua Block, a lawyer for the ACLU’s LGBTQ & HIV Project, said in a statement. “This critical victory strikes at the heart of political attacks against transgender youth while helping ensure every young person has the right to play.”

    Transgender athletes’ ability to compete in sports is the subject of a continuing national debate. At least 12 Republican-led states have passed laws banning transgender women or girls in sports based on the premise it gives them an unfair competitive advantage.

    Transgender rights advocates counter such laws aren’t just about sports, but another way to demean and attack transgender youth.

    Christiana Kiefer, a lawyer with the conservative Alliance Defending Freedom who represented the four Connecticut cisgender athletes, said she and other alliance attorneys are considering how to respond, including possibly asking the U.S. Supreme Court to review Friday’s decision.

    “Our clients, like all female athletes across the country, deserve fair competition,” Kiefer said in a phone interview. “And that means fair and equal quality of competition, and that just does not happen when you’re forced to compete against biological males in their sports.”

    Kiefer added, “The vast majority of the American public recognizes that in order to have fair sports, we have to protect the female category, and I think you’re seeing that trend increasingly with states across the country passing laws to protect women’s sports. … This is certainly not the end of the road in the fight for fairness for female athletes.”

    The plaintiffs sought injunctions to bar enforcement of the state policy on transgender athletes and to remove records set by transgender athletes from the books, as well as money damages.

    In arguments before a federal judge in Connecticut in February 2021, Roger Brooks, another lawyer for the Alliance Defending Freedom, said Title IX guarantees girls “equal quality” of competition, which he said is denied by having to race people with what he described as inherent physiological advantages.

    Brooks said the transgender sprinters improperly won 15 championship races between 2017 and 2020 and cost cisgender girls the opportunity to advance to other races 85 times.

    Miller and Yearwood, the transgender sprinters from Bloomfield and Cromwell, respectively, frequently outperformed their cisgender competitors.

    The plaintiffs competed directly against them, almost always losing to Miller and usually finishing behind Yearwood. One of the plaintiffs, Chelsea Mitchell of Canton High School, finished third in the 2019 state championship in the girls 55-meter indoor track competition behind Miller and Yearwood.

    All the athletes have since graduated from high school.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Lawmakers announce ‘framework’ on bill to keep gov’t open

    Lawmakers announce ‘framework’ on bill to keep gov’t open

    [ad_1]

    WASHINGTON — Lawmakers leading the negotiations on a bill to fund the federal government for the current fiscal year announced late Tuesday they’ve reached agreement on a “framework” that should allow them to complete work on the bill over the next week and avoid a government shutdown.

    Congress faces a midnight Friday deadline to pass a spending bill to prevent a partial government shutdown. The two chambers are expected to pass another short-term measure before then to keep the government running through Dec. 23, which will allow negotiators time to complete work on the full-year bill.

    “Now, the House and Senate Appropriations Committees will work around the clock to negotiate the details of final 2023 spending bills that can be supported by the House and Senate and receive President Biden’s signature,” said Rep. Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut, the Democratic chair of the House Appropriations Committee.

    Earlier in the day, Senate leaders said lawmakers from the two parties were nearing an agreement, but Republicans warned Democrats that lawmakers would need to complete their work by Dec. 22 or they would only support a short-term extension into early next year. That would give House Republicans more leverage over what’s in the legislation, since they will be in the majority then.

    “We intend to be on the road going home on the 23rd. We intend not to be back here between Christmas and New Year’s, and if we can’t meet that deadline, we would be happy to pass a short-term (resolution) into early next year,” said Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader in the Senate.

    McConnell voiced confidence Republicans would be able to meet their priorities of increasing spending on defense without “having to pay a bonus above what President Biden asked for” on non-defense priorities. He said Democrats were willing to accept that because they had previously passed two bills on a party-line basis that allow for more government spending on various domestic priorities.

    Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., said last week that the two parties were about $25 billion apart in what is expected to be about a $1.65 trillion package, not including mandatory spending on programs such as Social Security and Medicare. However, Democrats in their statements did not indicate what topline spending number had been reached in the framework announced Tuesday.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • A decade after Sandy Hook, grief remains but hope grows

    A decade after Sandy Hook, grief remains but hope grows

    [ad_1]

    NEWTOWN, Conn. — They would have been 16 or 17 this year. High school juniors.

    The children killed at the Sandy Hook Elementary School on Dec. 14, 2012 should have spent this year thinking about college, taking their SATs and getting their driver’s licenses. Maybe attending their first prom.

    Instead, the families of the 20 students and six educators slain in the mass shooting will mark a decade without them Wednesday.

    December is a difficult month for many in Newtown, the Connecticut suburb where holiday season joy is tempered by heartbreak around the anniversary of the nation’s worst grade school shooting.

    For former Sandy Hook students who survived the massacre, guilt and anxiety can intensify. For the parents, it can mean renewed grief, even as they continue to fight on their lost children’s behalf.

    In February, Sandy Hook families reached a $73 million settlement with the gunmaker Remington, which made the shooter’s rifle. Juries in Connecticut and Texas ordered the conspiracy theorist Alex Jones to pay $1.4 billion for promoting lies that the massacre was a hoax.

    In mid-November, a memorial to the 26 victims opened near the new elementary school built to replace the one torn down after the shooting.

    Ten years on, some victims’ relatives and survivors aren’t without hope for a brighter future.

    ACTIVISM IN TRAGEDY’S AFTERMATH

    After the massacre, Nicole Hockley and Mark Barden were among many victims’ relatives who turned to activism. They helped form Sandy Hook Promise, a nonprofit group that works to prevent suicides and mass shootings.

    Hockley, who lost her 6-year-old son, Dylan, and Barden, who lost his 7-year-old son, Daniel, both find it difficult to believe their children have been gone for a decade.

    “For me, Dylan is still this 6-year-old boy, forever frozen in time,” Hockley said. “This journey that we’ve been on the last 10 years, it doesn’t feel like a decade and it doesn’t feel like 10 years since I last held my son, either.”

    A decade hasn’t diminished the disbelief Barden and his wife feel over Daniel’s death.

    “Jackie and I still have moments where we just kind of look at each other, still wrapping our heads around the fact that our little 7-year-old boy was shot to death in his first grade classroom,” he said.

    “I can’t help but wonder what he’d be like now at 17,” he said, repeating the number 17. “I just think he would be still a more mature version of the beautiful, sweet, compassionate, thoughtful, intelligent little boy that he was at 7. And it breaks my heart to think of the wonderful impact he would have had in these last 10 years and what he would have still yet to come, and it’s all been taken away from him.”

    Sandy Hook Promise’s programs have been taught in more than 23,000 schools to over 18 million children and adults. Key components include education about the warning signs of potential school violence or self-harm and an anonymous tip system to report a classmate at risk for hurting others or themselves.

    Hockley and Barden say they believe the educational programs and reporting system have prevented many suicides and stopped some school shootings.

    “It’s a tremendous satisfaction and it’s a serious responsibility,” Barden said of the group’s work. “And it’s a gift in a way that we have built something that allows us this mechanism with which to honor our children by saving other children and by protecting other families from having to endure this pain.”

    GROWING UP A SURVIVOR

    Ashley Hubner was in her second grade classroom at Sandy Hook Elementary when the shooting happened. She and her classmates ran to the cubby area to hide. The school intercom system clicked on. Everyone could hear gunshots, screaming and crying.

    When police arrived, she and her classmates didn’t want to open the door. They thought bad guys could be impersonating officers. They screamed “No!” The officers had to convince them they were actually police.

    Ashley, now a 17-year-old senior at Newtown High School, developed post-traumatic stress disorder and has struggled with anxiety and depression, like other students who were there that day. Ashley said she always gets more emotional and irritable around the shooting anniversary.

    “Even though it’s been 10 years, like this is still a problem that a lot of us still have to handle in our everyday lives and it still affects us greatly,” she said.

    Adding to the grief is the fact that mass shootings keep happening, she said.

    “We’ve had 10 years to change things and we’ve changed so little, and that’s just disgusting to me,” she said.

    Ashley said there wasn’t much talk among her classmates yet about the anniversary.

    “I feel like everyone just tries to pretend like everything is normal and then when it gets to that day, I’m sure people will reach out and I’ll reach out to people.”

    Ashley wasn’t sure how she might mark the day. All town schools will be closed for staff development. She said she may make her first trip to the new memorial.

    She said she has been happy with her senior year at Newtown High, calling it one of the best school years she’s had. She is looking forward to going to college.

    “I’m really, really excited to leave,” she said. “Just like to get new experiences, grow up and move on with this chapter of my life, you know?”

    LIGHT CONQUERING DARKNESS

    St. Rose of Lima Church has been a gathering point for the Newtown community since the day of the shooting, when hundreds of people packed the Roman Catholic church and stood outside for a vigil. It has held a special Mass every Dec. 14 since.

    Monsignor Robert Weiss still struggles with his own trauma. The church led the funerals for eight slain children. He hasn’t slept well ever since and becomes emotional easily. During Mass, he always keeps watch on the entrances, worried about a violent intruder.

    “It’s a very difficult time for me having buried eight of those children,” he said of the anniversary. “It just brings back so many memories of true sadness.”

    The anniversary Masses are hopeful, Weiss said, with a theme that light conquers darkness.

    “The darkness of evil is not going to conquer good and we as a community have to work together to be sure that happens,” Weiss said. “We want to celebrate and remember the children and the families, and how it’s turned this tragedy into so many positive things to assist other people.”

    2022 ‘TIPPING POINT’ IN GUN SAFETY

    After Sandy Hook, there was frustration among many gun violence prevention advocates that nothing was being done to stop such massacres. The failure of a gun control bill in the months after Sandy Hook was another hard loss.

    But U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy, a Connecticut Democrat, said the shooting gave new energy to the movement, with numerous groups forming to demand action.

    “In the 10 years leading up to Sandy Hook, the gun lobby controlled Washington. Anything they wanted they got,” said Murphy.

    “After Sandy Hook happened, we started building what I would describe as the modern anti-gun violence movement,” he said. “During the next 10 years, there was essentially gridlock. The gun lobby no longer got what they wanted, but unfortunately in Washington we weren’t getting what we wanted either.”

    After mass shootings last spring killed 21 people at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, and 10 people at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, Congress passed the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, the first major federal gun control law in decades. The law expands background checks for younger gun buyers, boosts school mental health programs and promotes “red flag” laws to temporarily confiscate guns from people deemed dangerous.

    “I think this summer marked the tipping point, where finally the gun safety movement has more power than the gun lobby,” Murphy said.

    “It’s going to be a hard December for those families, but I hope they know what a difference that they have made in the memory of their children in these 10 years.”

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • A decade after Sandy Hook, grief remains but hope grows

    A decade after Sandy Hook, grief remains but hope grows

    [ad_1]

    NEWTOWN, Conn. (AP) — They would have been 16 or 17 this year. High school juniors.

    The children killed at the Sandy Hook Elementary School on Dec. 14, 2012 should have spent this year thinking about college, taking their SATs and getting their driver’s licenses. Maybe attending their first prom.

    Instead, the families of the 20 students and six educators slain in the mass shooting will mark a decade without them Wednesday.

    December is a difficult month for many in Newtown, the Connecticut suburb where holiday season joy is tempered by heartbreak around the anniversary of the nation’s worst grade school shooting.

    For former Sandy Hook students who survived the massacre, guilt and anxiety can intensify. For the parents, it can mean renewed grief, even as they continue to fight on their lost children’s behalf.

    In February, Sandy Hook families reached a $73 million settlement with the gunmaker Remington, which made the shooter’s rifle. Juries in Connecticut and Texas ordered the conspiracy theorist Alex Jones to pay $1.4 billion for promoting lies that the massacre was a hoax.

    In mid-November, a memorial to the 26 victims opened near the new elementary school built to replace the one torn down after the shooting.

    Ten years on, some victims’ relatives and survivors aren’t without hope for a brighter future.

    ACTIVISM IN TRAGEDY’S AFTERMATH

    After the massacre, Nicole Hockley and Mark Barden were among many victims’ relatives who turned to activism. They helped form Sandy Hook Promise, a nonprofit group that works to prevent suicides and mass shootings.

    Hockley, who lost her 6-year-old son, Dylan, and Barden, who lost his 7-year-old son, Daniel, both find it difficult to believe their children have been gone for a decade.

    “For me, Dylan is still this 6-year-old boy, forever frozen in time,” Hockley said. “This journey that we’ve been on the last 10 years, it doesn’t feel like a decade and it doesn’t feel like 10 years since I last held my son, either.”

    A decade hasn’t diminished the disbelief Barden and his wife feel over Daniel’s death.

    “Jackie and I still have moments where we just kind of look at each other, still wrapping our heads around the fact that our little 7-year-old boy was shot to death in his first grade classroom,” he said.

    “I can’t help but wonder what he’d be like now at 17,” he said, repeating the number 17. “I just think he would be still a more mature version of the beautiful, sweet, compassionate, thoughtful, intelligent little boy that he was at 7. And it breaks my heart to think of the wonderful impact he would have had in these last 10 years and what he would have still yet to come, and it’s all been taken away from him.”

    Sandy Hook Promise’s programs have been taught in more than 23,000 schools to over 18 million children and adults. Key components include education about the warning signs of potential school violence or self-harm and an anonymous tip system to report a classmate at risk for hurting others or themselves.

    Hockley and Barden say they believe the educational programs and reporting system have prevented many suicides and stopped some school shootings.

    “It’s a tremendous satisfaction and it’s a serious responsibility,” Barden said of the group’s work. “And it’s a gift in a way that we have built something that allows us this mechanism with which to honor our children by saving other children and by protecting other families from having to endure this pain.”

    GROWING UP A SURVIVOR

    Ashley Hubner was in her second grade classroom at Sandy Hook Elementary when the shooting happened. She and her classmates ran to the cubby area to hide. The school intercom system clicked on. Everyone could hear gunshots, screaming and crying.

    When police arrived, she and her classmates didn’t want to open the door. They thought bad guys could be impersonating officers. They screamed “No!” The officers had to convince them they were actually police.

    Ashley, now a 17-year-old senior at Newtown High School, developed post-traumatic stress disorder and has struggled with anxiety and depression, like other students who were there that day. Ashley said she always gets more emotional and irritable around the shooting anniversary.

    “Even though it’s been 10 years, like this is still a problem that a lot of us still have to handle in our everyday lives and it still affects us greatly,” she said.

    Adding to the grief is the fact that mass shootings keep happening, she said.

    “We’ve had 10 years to change things and we’ve changed so little, and that’s just disgusting to me,” she said.

    Ashley said there wasn’t much talk among her classmates yet about the anniversary.

    “I feel like everyone just tries to pretend like everything is normal and then when it gets to that day, I’m sure people will reach out and I’ll reach out to people.”

    Ashley wasn’t sure how she might mark the day. All town schools will be closed for staff development. She said she may make her first trip to the new memorial.

    She said she has been happy with her senior year at Newtown High, calling it one of the best school years she’s had. She is looking forward to going to college.

    “I’m really, really excited to leave,” she said. “Just like to get new experiences, grow up and move on with this chapter of my life, you know?”

    LIGHT CONQUERING DARKNESS

    St. Rose of Lima Church has been a gathering point for the Newtown community since the day of the shooting, when hundreds of people packed the Roman Catholic church and stood outside for a vigil. It has held a special Mass every Dec. 14 since.

    Monsignor Robert Weiss still struggles with his own trauma. The church led the funerals for eight slain children. He hasn’t slept well ever since and becomes emotional easily. During Mass, he always keeps watch on the entrances, worried about a violent intruder.

    “It’s a very difficult time for me having buried eight of those children,” he said of the anniversary. “It just brings back so many memories of true sadness.”

    The anniversary Masses are hopeful, Weiss said, with a theme that light conquers darkness.

    “The darkness of evil is not going to conquer good and we as a community have to work together to be sure that happens,” Weiss said. “We want to celebrate and remember the children and the families, and how it’s turned this tragedy into so many positive things to assist other people.”

    2022 ‘TIPPING POINT’ IN GUN SAFETY

    After Sandy Hook, there was frustration among many gun violence prevention advocates that nothing was being done to stop such massacres. The failure of a gun control bill in the months after Sandy Hook was another hard loss.

    But U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy, a Connecticut Democrat, said the shooting gave new energy to the movement, with numerous groups forming to demand action.

    “In the 10 years leading up to Sandy Hook, the gun lobby controlled Washington. Anything they wanted they got,” said Murphy.

    “After Sandy Hook happened, we started building what I would describe as the modern anti-gun violence movement,” he said. “During the next 10 years, there was essentially gridlock. The gun lobby no longer got what they wanted, but unfortunately in Washington we weren’t getting what we wanted either.”

    After mass shootings last spring killed 21 people at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, and 10 people at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, Congress passed the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, the first major federal gun control law in decades. The law expands background checks for younger gun buyers, boosts school mental health programs and promotes “red flag” laws to temporarily confiscate guns from people deemed dangerous.

    “I think this summer marked the tipping point, where finally the gun safety movement has more power than the gun lobby,” Murphy said.

    “It’s going to be a hard December for those families, but I hope they know what a difference that they have made in the memory of their children in these 10 years.”

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Connecticut’s first retail cannabis sales to begin Jan. 10

    Connecticut’s first retail cannabis sales to begin Jan. 10

    [ad_1]

    HARTFORD, Conn. — Connecticut’s first retail recreational cannabis sales will begin as soon as Jan. 10, state regulators announced Friday, with about half of the state’s medical marijuana operators expanding their businesses to include the new market for all adults 21 and over.

    As many as 40 more retailers, along with dozens of other marijuana-related businesses, are expected to open by the end of 2023. Additional retailers could follow.

    “This is is just a start,” said Department of Consumer Protection Commissioner Michelle Seagull. “More retailers will be opening up over time as they build out their businesses and get approval from us.”

    Medical marijuana dispensaries in New Haven, Branford, Torrington, Newington, Stamford, Willimantic, Danbury, Montville and Meriden successfully completed the necessary steps to convert to a “hybrid license” and therefore will be allowed on Jan. 10 at 10 a.m. to sell cannabis products to all adults — not just people with medical marijuana cards.

    They have also met local zone requirements. Roughly 50 of the state’s 169 cities and towns have so far issued a prohibition or moratorium on cannabis establishments.

    The Department of Consumer Protection’s announcement of upcoming retail sales comes a little more than a week after customers in neighboring Rhode Island were allowed to buy recreational marijuana at five retail stores, a number that could grow to as many as 33 stores.

    About 20 states nationwide had approved recreational marijuana sales, including neighboring Massachusetts where it’s been legal for about four years.

    Initial sales in Connecticut will be limited to one-quarter of an ounce of cannabis flower or its equivalent, in an effort to ensure there will be enough support for medical marijuana patients. Different items can be purchased together to make up the one-quarter ounce. Seagull said her agency will be watching retail sales and manufacturing supplies closely to determine when that amount can eventually be increased.

    “We’re going to continue evaluating how things play out as the market opens. It’s really hard to know what the demand may look like on those first days,” said Seagull, noting how many of the early states had long lines and shortages. Given the fact people can legally purchase marijuana in neighboring states, it’s unclear whether there will be the same degree of pent-up demand in Connecticut.

    The state’s existing medical marijuana producers have met the requirements for expanded licenses allowing them to supply both the medical and adult-use cannabis markets. State law requires at least 250,000 square feet of marijuana growing and manufacturing space to be in place before retail sales can begin.

    Meanwhile, about 100 marijuana-related businesses are moving through the state’s licensing pipeline, including those submitted by social equity and lottery applicants.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Alex Jones files for personal bankruptcy; owes nearly $1.5 billion to Sandy Hook families for hoax lies

    Alex Jones files for personal bankruptcy; owes nearly $1.5 billion to Sandy Hook families for hoax lies

    [ad_1]

    Infowars host Alex Jones filed for personal bankruptcy protection Friday in Texas, citing debts that include nearly $1.5 billion he has been ordered to pay to families who sued him over his conspiracy theories about the Sandy Hook school massacre.

    Jones filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in Houston. His filing listed $1 billion to $10 billion in liabilities and $1 million to $10 million in assets.

    Jones acknowledged the filing on his Infowars broadcast, saying the case will prove that he’s broke, and asking viewers to shop on his website to help keep the show on the air.

    “I’m officially out of money, personally,” Jones said. “It’s all going to be filed. It’s all going to be public. And you will see that Alex Jones has almost no cash.”

    Newtown Shooting-Infowars
    FILE – Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones takes the witness stand to testify at the Sandy Hook defamation damages trial at Connecticut Superior Court in Waterbury, Conn. Thursday, Sept. 22, 2022.

    Tyler Sizemore/Hearst Connecticut Media via AP


    Jones, who sells dietary supplements and other items on his Infowars site, and promotes them during his shows, said he would not be commenting further on the bankruptcy.

    For years, Jones described the 2012 massacre as a hoax. A Connecticut jury in October awarded victims’ families $965 million in compensatory damages, and a judge later tacked on another $473 million in punitive damages. Earlier in the year, a Texas jury awarded the parents of a child killed in the shooting $49 million in damages.

    The bankruptcy filing temporarily halted all proceedings in the Connecticut case. A judge was forced to cancel a hearing scheduled for Friday on the Sandy Hook families’ request to secure the assets of Jones and his company to help pay the more than $1.4 billion in damages awarded there.

    Chris Mattei, an attorney for the Sandy Hook families in the Connecticut case, criticized the bankruptcy filing.

    “Like every other cowardly move Alex Jones has made, this bankruptcy will not work,” Mattei said in a statement. “The bankruptcy system does not protect anyone who engages in intentional and egregious attacks on others, as Mr. Jones did. The American judicial system will hold Alex Jones accountable, and we will never stop working to enforce the jury’s verdict.”

    An attorney representing Jones in the bankruptcy case did not immediately return a message seeking comment.

    In the Texas and Connecticut cases, some relatives of the 20 children and six adults killed in the school shooting testified that they were threatened and harassed for years by people who believed the lies told on Jones’ show. One parent testified that conspiracy theorists urinated on his 7-year-old son’s grave and threatened to dig up the coffin.

    Newtown Commemorates One Month Anniversary Of Elementary School Massacre
    Photos of Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre victims sits at a small memorial in Newtown, Connecticut, just a month after the 2012 shooting. 

    John Moore / Getty Images


    Erica Lafferty, the daughter of slain Sandy Hook principal Dawn Hochsprung, testified that people mailed rape threats to her house.

    Jones has laughed at the awards on his Infowars show, saying he has less than $2 million to his name and won’t be able to pay such high amounts. Those comments contradicted the testimony of a forensic economist at the Texas trial, who said Jones and his company Free Speech Systems have a combined net worth as high as $270 million. Free Speech Systems is also seeking bankruptcy protection.

    In documents filed in July in Free Speech Systems’ bankruptcy case in Texas, a budget for the company for Nov. 26 to Dec. 23 estimated product sales will total nearly $3 million, while operating expenses will be nearly $739,000. Jones’ salary is listed at $20,000 every two weeks.

    Sandy Hook families have alleged in another lawsuit in Texas that Jones hid millions of dollars in assets after victims’ relatives began taking him to court. Jones’ lawyer denied the allegation.

    A third trial over Jones’ comments on Sandy Hook is expected to begin within the next two months in Texas, in a lawsuit brought by the parents of another child killed in the shooting.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • How a Connecticut school district improved elementary math scores amid a nationwide decline

    How a Connecticut school district improved elementary math scores amid a nationwide decline

    [ad_1]

    Meriden, Connecticut — When Dan Crispino took the job overseeing the curriculum for elementary schools in Meriden, Connecticut, it was 2019 and he had a big problem to solve. The low-income district, where nearly 75% of kids receive free or reduced lunch, was struggling with math. 

    “When I would go into classrooms all over the district, I could see that kids didn’t seem as excited about math,” Crispino said. “And it didn’t surprise me that our results were depressed in math.” 

    Crispino said math classes were 60 minutes then. They are now 90 minutes, beginning with a 30-minute lesson followed by an hour-long block where every minute counts. The class is made up of tightly timed segments, where students and the teacher rotate through small groups. 

    Every classroom is on the same lesson, using the same math vocabulary. No one moves on until everyone understands the new material. For the first time, tutoring is offered during the school day.  

    With the changes spearheaded by Crispino, a remarkable transformation has taken place. Nationwide, student math scores plummeted during the pandemic, with the steepest decline ever recorded. But in Meriden, scores went up at nearly every elementary school in the district.

    “We’re going to be trendsetters,” Crispino said. “People are going to want to know what we’re doing in math. It’s going to be that good.” 

    Teacher Amalia Calafiore thinks it could be a model for schools nationwide. 

    “I think it’s something that might seem daunting to start,” she said, “Once you get the hang of it, it’s actually much easier.” 

    Student Colin Flynn may love recess but he now also looks forward to addition, subtraction and division. 

    “What makes math fun is that you usually get to work with a partner or go one-on-one with a teacher,” Flynn said. “Because then sometimes it’s like competition, or sometimes it’s you just reviewing and knowing what you did wrong.” 

    Crispino says the new curriculum is creating more opportunities for the students’ futures. 

    “Opportunities to do things in college that are connected to mathematics,” he said. “You know, giving kids another avenue of what their future can look like.” 

    Meg Oliver


    meg-oliver-promo-2019.jpg

    Meg Oliver is a correspondent for CBS News based in New York City.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Connecticut woman sentenced to year in jail for voyeurism

    Connecticut woman sentenced to year in jail for voyeurism

    [ad_1]

    STAMFORD, Conn. — A wealthy Connecticut woman whose criminal case file was sealed from public view was sentenced Tuesday to one year in jail for secretly recording three people, including a minor, in a manner involving sexual desire.

    Hadley Palmer, 54, of Greenwich, was led out of the state courtroom in Stamford in handcuffs by judicial marshals. She declined to make a statement on her behalf during the hearing, only answering several yes or no questions by the judge.

    Judge John Blawie, who sealed Palmer’s case file earlier this year over objections by the The Associated Press, ordered that the file remain sealed Tuesday, keeping the specifics of the charges included in an arrest warrant shielded from public view.

    Blawie previously ruled the privacy of the victims outweighed the public’s interest in seeing the case documents, and it was not possible to redact all the documents to sufficiently protect the victims’ identities. The AP disagreed, saying documents in many other Connecticut cases involving sex crimes have been redacted in ways to protect the victims.

    The daughter of a notable hedge fund founder, Jerrold Fine, Palmer is currently divorcing her venture capitalist husband, Bradley Palmer. She is seen in photos on the internet at fundraising galas and other society events. The sealing of her case file was called unusual by open government advocates and defense lawyers not associated with the case.

    Under the sentence, which was part of a plea bargain, Palmer also must register as a sex offender for 10 years and will serve 20 years of probation after the jail term.

    She pleaded guilty in January to three counts of voyeurism and one count of risk of injury to a minor — all felonies committed between 2017 and 2018. She already served 90 days in jail earlier this year. The sentencing range of the plea bargain was at least 90 days in jail and up to five years in prison.

    Stamford-Norwalk State’s Attorney Paul Ferencek released some new details of the crimes Tuesday, saying the victims were video recorded in various stages of undress, including fully naked, without their knowledge or consent. He said the videos were used for the sexual gratification of Palmer and an unnamed third person.

    Ferencek also said the victims did not want Palmer to serve more time in jail than she already had. But one of the victims, a female, requested a 30-year criminal protective order barring Palmer from having contact with her, a request approved by Blawie.

    “Obviously this is an upsetting factual situation,” Ferencek said. “I think is is a fair disposition.”

    The victims’ lawyers declined to comment Tuesday, and none of the victims spoke in court.

    Palmer’s lawyer, Michael Meehan, called the sentence just.

    “She’s taken responsibility for her actions,” Meehan said. “This is a very caring, loving and sincere human being.”

    Blawie accepted the plea bargain, saying “Make no mistake, the defendant is paying a price for her actions.”

    Palmer’s case file has been sealed from public view ever since her arrest in October 2021. On the day of her arrest, she applied for a special probation program that automatically results in the sealing of defendants’ files.

    Blawie accepted the application, but Palmer was not eligible for the program because of the seriousness of two of the original charges — employing a minor in an obscene performance and possession of child pornography. Those charges were dropped as part of the plea bargain.

    Palmer later withdrew the application for the probation program, but Blawie kept the case file sealed from the public.

    Palmer also requested that the courtroom be closed during portions of Tuesday’s sentencing including her own statements, which also was unusual and opposed by the AP, but her lawyers withdrew the request at the last minute.

    Adding to the secrecy surrounding Palmer’s crimes was the fact that her name and court case numbers often disappeared from the state court system’s website in the months following her arrest. As her application for the probation program was pending, her name and case numbers only appeared on the site on the days she was scheduled to be in court, unlike other cases that appear daily on the website and involve the probation program.

    Court officials did not know why Palmer’s information disappeared sometimes from the website.

    Nearly every week in Connecticut’s courts, people charged with sex crimes and crimes against children appear before judges and their case files aren’t sealed. Arrest warrants with detailed information on allegations are generally available to the public, although the names of the victims may be redacted or replaced with pseudonyms.

    ————

    This story has been corrected to show Palmer’s lawyer withdrew the request to close the courtroom and the request was not rejected by the judge.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • 5 Connecticut police officers charged after Black man left paralyzed following ride in police van

    5 Connecticut police officers charged after Black man left paralyzed following ride in police van

    [ad_1]

    Five Connecticut police officers were charged with misdemeanors Monday over their treatment of a Black man after he was paralyzed from the chest down in the back of a police van.

    Randy Cox, 36, was being driven to a New Haven police station June 19 for processing on a weapons charge when the driver braked hard, apparently to avoid a collision, causing Cox to fly headfirst into the wall of the van, police said. The incident was caught on video.

    Prisoner Paralyzed Connecticut
    In this image taken from police body camera video provided by New Haven Police, Richard “Randy” Cox, center, is pulled from the back of a police van and placed in a wheelchair after being detained by New Haven Police on June 19, 2022, in New Haven, Conn. 

    / AP


    As Cox pleaded for help, saying he couldn’t move, some of the officers mocked him and accused him of being drunk and faking his injuries. Then, the officers dragged him by his feet from the van and placed him in a holding cell prior to his eventual transfer to a hospital.

    “It made me sick to my stomach, to treat somebody like that,” Cox’s sister, Latoya Boomer, told CBS News.

    The five New Haven police officers were charged with second-degree reckless endangerment and cruelty to persons. The officers were identified as Officer Oscar Diaz, Officer Ronald Pressley, Officer Jocelyn Lavandier, Officer Luis Rivera and Sgt. Betsy Segui.

    All have been on administrative leave since last summer.

    New Haven’s police chief, speaking to reporters Monday along with the city’s mayor, said it was important for the department to be transparent and accountable.

    “You can make mistakes, but you can’t treat people poorly, period. You cannot treat people the way Mr. Cox was treated,” said Police Chief Karl Jacobson.

    The officers turned themselves in at a state police barracks Monday. Each was processed, posted a $25,000 bond and are due back in court Dec. 8, according to a news release from state police. Messages seeking comment were sent to attorneys for the officers.

    The case has drawn outrage from civil rights advocates like the NAACP, along with comparisons to the Freddie Gray case in Baltimore. Gray, who was also Black, died in 2015 after he suffered a spinal injury while handcuffed and shackled in a city police van.

    The attorney for Cox’s family, Ben Crump, said Monday that the New Haven officers need to be held accountable.

    “It is important – when you see that video of how they treated Randy Cox and the actions and inactions that led to him being paralyzed from his chest down – that those police officers should be held to the full extent of the law,” Crump said.

    Cox was arrested June 19 after police said they found him in possession of a handgun at a block party. The charges against him were later dropped.

    Cox’s family filed a federal lawsuit against the city of New Haven and the five officers in September. The lawsuit alleges negligence, exceeding the speed limit and failure to have proper restraints in the police van.

    Four of the officers filed motions last week claiming qualified immunity from the lawsuit, arguing that their actions in the case did not violate any “clearly established” legal standard.

    New Haven officials announced a series of police reforms this summer stemming from the case, including eliminating the use of police vans for most prisoner transports and using marked police vehicles instead. They also require officers to immediately call for an ambulance to respond to their location if the prisoner requests or appears to need medical aid.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • 40 states settle Google location-tracking charges for $392M

    40 states settle Google location-tracking charges for $392M

    [ad_1]

    HARTFORD, Conn. — Search giant Google has agreed to a $391.5 million settlement with 40 states to resolve an investigation into how the company tracked users’ locations, state attorneys general announced Monday.

    The states’ investigation was sparked by a 2018 Associated Press story, which found that Google continued to track people’s location data even after they opted out of such tracking by disabling a feature the company called “location history.”

    The attorneys general called the settlement a historic win for consumers, and the largest multistate settlement in U.S history dealing with privacy.

    It comes at a time of mounting unease over privacy and surveillance by tech companies that has drawn growing outrage from politicians and scrutiny by regulators. The Supreme Court’s ruling in June ending the constitutional protections for abortion raised potential privacy concerns for women seeking the procedure or related information online.

    “This $391.5 million settlement is a historic win for consumers in an era of increasing reliance on technology,” Connecticut Attorney General William Tong said in a statement. “Location data is among the most sensitive and valuable personal information Google collects, and there are so many reasons why a consumer may opt-out of tracking.”

    Google, based in Mountain View, California, said it fixed the problems several years ago.

    “Consistent with improvements we’ve made in recent years, we have settled this investigation, which was based on outdated product policies that we changed years ago,” company spokesperson Jose Castaneda said in a statement.

    Location tracking can help tech companies sell digital ads to marketers looking to connect with consumers within their vicinity. It’s another tool in a data-gathering toolkit that generates more than $200 billion in annual ad revenue for Google, accounting for most of the profits pouring into the coffers of its corporate parent, Alphabet — which has a market value of $1.2 trillion.

    In its 2018 story, The AP reported that many Google services on Android devices and iPhones store users’ location data even if they’ve used a privacy setting that says it will prevent Google from doing so. Computer-science researchers at Princeton confirmed these findings at the AP’s request.

    Storing such data carries privacy risks and has been used by police to determine the location of suspects.

    The AP reported that the privacy issue with location tracking affected some 2 billion users of devices that run Google’s Android operating software and hundreds of millions of worldwide iPhone users who rely on Google for maps or search.

    The attorneys general who investigated Google said a key part of the company’s digital advertising business is location data, which they called the most sensitive and valuable personal data the company collects. Even a small amount of location data can reveal a person’s identity and routines, they said.

    Google uses the location information to target consumers with ads by its customers, the state officials said.

    The attorneys general said Google misled users about its location tracking practices since at least 2014, violating state consumer protection laws.

    As part of the settlement, Google also agreed to make those practices more transparent to users. That includes showing them more information when they turn location account settings on and off and keeping a webpage that gives users information about the data Google collects.

    The shadowy surveillance brought to light by The AP troubled even some Google engineers, who recognized the company might be confronting a massive legal headache after the story was published, according to internal documents that have subsequently surfaced in consumer-fraud lawsuits.

    Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich filed the first state action against Google in May 2020, alleging that the company had defrauded its users by misleading them into believing they could keep their whereabouts private by turning off location tracking in the settings of their software.

    Arizona settled its case with Google for $85 million last month, but by then attorneys general in several other states and the District of Columbia had also pounced on the company with their own lawsuits seeking to hold Google accountable for its alleged deception.

    ———

    Gordon reported from Washington, D.C. AP Technology writer Michael Liedtke in San Ramon, California, contributed to this report.

    ———

    This story has been updated to reflect that the Supreme Court ruling on abortion was issued in June, not last month.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Can Public Regionals Grow Their Way Out of Financial Trouble?

    Can Public Regionals Grow Their Way Out of Financial Trouble?

    [ad_1]

    Eight years ago, New Jersey City University began several ambitious efforts to expand its campus locations through real-estate deals and a public-private partnership meant to bring in more students and money.

    But the university’s grand vision has crumbled in the wake of the pandemic: Enrollment has slid more than 14 percent over the past two years, the university ended the previous fiscal year with a $14-million budget deficit (more than 10 percent of its total budget), and the president who helped lead the expansion plans resigned suddenly in June. College leaders are preparing to cut programs and faculty members, and the state’s governor has called for an investigation into the institution’s finances. Some state lawmakers are even questioning whether the university, commonly called NJCU, should remain open.

    NJCU’s story is a cautionary tale for similar institutions — small public regional colleges with ambitions to expand in a crowded higher-education market. While its real-estate dealings have drawn unfavorable scrutiny, the university was responding to challenges that face its peers, in northern New Jersey and around the country: increased competition for a declining number of high-school graduates.

    “It was reasonable for them to take a shot at growing,” said Robert Kelchen, a professor and head of the department of educational leadership and policy studies at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville. “But the overall pool of potential students is far smaller than anyone was expecting, and students are generally wanting to go to bigger, more selective institutions.”

    The university’s fiscal situation will not get better anytime soon. Enrollment is projected to fall again next year, and officials estimate a shortfall of nearly $13 million in the 2023 fiscal year, according to a September report to the university’s Board of Trustees.

    How did things get this bad? Faculty members who objected to the expansion plans blamed the former president for mismanagement and betting the university’s future on risky ventures. None of the projects “have shown proper return on investment to date,” said a University Senate resolution of no confidence approved a year ago, “and it’s unclear when and if they ever will.”

    University officials acknowledged the deals have not worked out as planned, but said the arrangements are not entirely to blame for their fiscal troubles.

    “Would you have been able to predict a once-in-a-lifetime pandemic?” said Andrés Acebo, the university’s general counsel, describing the impact of Covid-19 on enrollment. “Since the fall of 2018, the university has lost close to 1,300 students,” Acebo said. “That would have a seismic impact on any institution. It would make life easier to say that real estate is the problem.”

    Public regional universities, like NJCU, enroll about 40 percent of all college students nationally, and a far larger percentage of minority, low-income, and first-generation students than better-known flagships and top research universities do. At NJCU, for example, more than 70 percent of students qualify for Pell Grants, according to federal data, and two-thirds are Hispanic or Black, a reflection of Jersey City’s extraordinary diversity.

    But a lack of state support, limited ability to attract students from outside the region, and sparse fund raising have made the university vulnerable to economic downturns and demographic shifts that have led to fewer high-school graduates, especially in the Northeast and upper Midwest.

    In Connecticut, for example, the system of state colleges and universities is facing a budget shortfall of nearly $270 million, according to news accounts, in large part because of declining enrollments and increased labor costs.

    In Michigan, public regionals are shuttering dorms or selling buildings to developers to offset the loss of tuition revenue, while enrollment at the flagships, the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor and Michigan State, has remained strong and is even growing.

    NJCU has fared worse than many of its peer institutions. From 2016 to 2021, undergraduate enrollment tumbled more than 21 percent, according to data from the university.

    This fall’s enrollment declined nearly 5 percent from a year ago, university figures indicate, and it’s projected to decline 8 percent again next fall, according to the September report to the university’s board.

    At one point, the university had a plan to put itself on a better footing, to serve more students in the region and diversify its revenues.

    In 2014 the president, Susan Henderson, signed a 20-year lease on a 70,000-square-foot building to house its business school, with an annual rent of $2.3 million.

    In 2017, Henderson was among the officials who broke ground on a 22-acre development that included a dormitory for the university, a performing-arts venue, and several commercial sites for apartments, retail stores, and parking. The land is owned by the university, but under their public-private partnership, the developers will not begin paying rent until the 2023 and 2024 fiscal years.

    In 2018 the university signed a 40-year lease for space at a former U.S. Army base, some 50 miles away from the campus, that was being redeveloped by the state. That deal cost NJCU about $1.6 million a year beginning in 2021.

    Initially, those plans seemed to work. Undergraduate enrollment grew 7 percent from 2014 to 2016, according to university figures.

    But then enrollment dropped. And over time the real-estate deals led to financial problems, according to university audits and financial analysts at the bond-rating agency Moody’s Investors Service, in part because NJCU’s early enrollment projections were too rosy.

    For example, the university’s foundation created a separate limited-liability corporation to finance the construction of the dormitory in the 22-acre University Place development. But because the university didn’t fill the dorm, it has “decided” to pay the corporation nearly $3.5 million since 2020 and has committed $3 million more for the current year, according to an auditor’s report.

    Acebo, the university’s top lawyer, also blamed the financial problems on the university’s financial-aid program, which he said had increased from $3 million to $14 million in recent years. The program guarantees that the state’s high-school graduates from families earning less than $65,000 a year can complete their degrees without any student loans if they attend full time. It was another cost that was difficult to cover due to falling tuition revenue and increased operating expenses.

    Henderson did not respond to a request for comment.

    While enrollment has fallen at NJCU, the possibility of recruiting more students in the region is dimmed by the crowded market for higher education around Jersey City.

    Within just a few miles of the university are several other institutions — Essex County College, Hudson County Community College, Rutgers University at Newark, and the New Jersey Institute of Technology — that are competing for some of the same students who typically attend NJCU.

    Some institutions are openly advertising for students in NJCU’s own community. Saint Peter’s University, the Jersey City campus famed for its surprising success in the 2022 NCAA men’s basketball tournament, is even advertising at bus stops around the campus, said Francis Moran, a professor of political science at NJCU and president of its University Senate.

    Montclair State University, about a 20-mile drive from NJCU, touts a seamless-transfer program with Hudson County Community College, which is just two miles away. Students in certain majors can start at Hudson and are guaranteed admission to Montclair to complete a bachelor’s degree. Unlike NJCU, enrollment at Montclair has declined only slightly during the pandemic.

    For competitive reasons, NJCU should be considering ways to add other locations as expansion projects, said Tennessee’s Kelchen, who was previously a professor at Seton Hall University, which is just 14 miles from NJCU. “If they didn’t try to grow, other universities would eat their lunch,” he said.

    But the university needs to be realistic, he said, about the kinds of projects it pursues and the competition for students in the region.

    Despite the challenges of enrollment and competition, New Jersey’s elected officials have cast the university’s financial problems more as a matter of mismanagement and questioned whether it can remain open.

    “I firmly believe an independent investigation into the school’s finances and operations would be in the best interests of the public at this time,” Gov. Phil Murphy said this past summer in a news release announcing his request for such an inquiry by the state comptroller.

    In the announcement, the governor, a Democrat, cited news reports that the university’s “2014 surplus of $108 million vanished within one year due to pension liability and the issuance of bonds toward a greater expansion venture.”

    The governor’s office did not respond to a request for comment.

    University officials have pushed back on those claims, explaining that the governor and journalists have confused the net position with a cash surplus. Instead, they have said, the negative net position is the result of 2015 changes in accounting rules that required NJCU to subtract the cost of pension liabilities that are paid by the state.

    Audits and financial analysts have flagged other problems in the university’s development plans. For the past two years, the university has paid $1.4 million to the Strategic Development Group, a real-estate development and consulting firm owned by a former member of the NJCU foundation’s Board of Directors, Anthony V. Bastardi.

    “In both fiscal years 2021 and 2020, the university incurred expenses of $0.7 million in monthly retainer fees, pertaining to real-estate consulting and project-management services,” according to the university’s audit.

    Acebo said Bastardi’s company had been hired through a competitive bidding process and presented no conflict of interest.

    Bastardi, who was on the foundation’s board from 2016 to 2020, said in an email that his company had “served as the special adviser to the president and Board of Trustees on real-estate matters. Our services were procured by means of state-compliant, competitive procedures, and our contract with the university was approved by its Board of Trustees.”

    No matter the reasons, the university’s financial woes will have a deep impact on employee morale and the student experience.

    Campus leaders are considering cutting up to 30 percent of academic programs, including many nondegree offerings, said Moran, the professor. More than 20 faculty positions could also be eliminated, he said, on top of the more than 40 already lost through attrition in recent years. NJCU employs about 250 full-time faculty members, according to university data.

    Many faculty and staff members who do keep their jobs will see a pay cut. The faculty union and the university have agreed to unpaid furloughs of five to 18 days, depending on the employee’s pay.

    Moran said many of his colleagues on campus are frustrated by the sense that NJCU is being singled out for a problem affecting many other public regional colleges in the state.

    Nearby William Paterson University, for example, cut $30 million from its budget last year and has planned to eliminate 100 faculty positions.

    At the same time, the governor added $100 million to the state budget to renovate athletic facilities at the flagship campus of Rutgers University. NJCU’s total budget is less than $140 million.

    “We’re going to lose faculty,” Moran said, “but Rutgers is going to get $100 million for a football stadium.” By contrast, he said, NJCU’s request for state money “is a drop in the bucket.”

    [ad_2]

    Eric Kelderman

    Source link

  • 3 accused of hoarding nearly 200 cats in Connecticut home each charged with over 100 counts of animal cruelty

    3 accused of hoarding nearly 200 cats in Connecticut home each charged with over 100 counts of animal cruelty

    [ad_1]

    Three adults have been charged with more than 100 counts of animal cruelty each after close to 200 cats were found in a home in Winchester, Connecticut, back in June, authorities reported Thursday.  

    Sixty-one-year-old James Thomen Jr., 53-year-old Laura Thomen and 30-year-old Marissa O’Brien were arrested Oct. 19 on 106 counts of animal cruelty each, the Winchester Police Department said. They were also each charged with two counts of risk of injury to a minor.

    Investigators also have an arrest warrant out for a fourth individual, police said. 

    Authorities first learned about the hoarded animals when they responded to the home, located in the community of Winsted, on June 13, after receiving an anonymous call about a sick cat. When they arrived, they “noticed a strong odor of urine” coming from the home, police said in a news release. 

    In addition to finding the animals, police found eight people living in the home, including the three suspects and two young children. The children, a 6-year-old girl and 10-year-old boy, were immediately removed by the state Department of Children and Families and placed with relatives, according to police.

    Winchester Town Manager Josh Kelly, who helped organize a rescue of the hoarded animals, said on Facebook that a total of 189 cats, two dogs and one ferret were removed from the home. After receiving veterinary examinations, all of the animals were either adopted or relocated to shelters and rescues a little more than one month after they were found in the home.

    Thinking about adopting a pet? There are over a hundred cats from Winsted’s recent animal hoarding situation that are…

    Posted by Town of Winchester/Winsted, CT on Wednesday, July 20, 2022

    At the time authorities found and rescued the animals, the home’s residents told police that they were trying to help the cats, but that things got out of hand, Winchester Police Chief William Fitzgerald said in a press conference in June.

    “The owners stated that they were just trying to help the animals from freezing outside, and one (cat) led to another, and (they) started feeding them, and (it) suddenly got out of control,” Fitzgerald said.

    The suspects who were taken into custody are scheduled to be arraigned Nov. 1. 

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • “He is my hero:” Funerals held for 2 Connecticut officers killed in apparent ambush

    “He is my hero:” Funerals held for 2 Connecticut officers killed in apparent ambush

    [ad_1]

    Thousands of police officers from across the U.S. gathered Friday at the Pratt and Whitney Stadium in Connecticut for the joint funeral of two Bristol officers killed in an apparent ambush last week. Lt. Dustin Demonte and Sg. Alex Hamzy were both promoted posthumously.

    “Our family was as close to perfect as it could be because we had you,” Demonte’s wife, Laura Demonte, said.

    rivero1.png
    This combo of images provided by the Connecticut State Police, show, from left, Bristol, Conn. Police Department Sgt. Dustin Demonte and Officer Alex Hamzy.

    Connecticut State Police


    “While you may know my officer as a number, know he is far more than that,” Katie Scott Hamzy, Hamzy’s wife, said. “He is my hero, my protection, the love of my life and of course my heart. I love you Alex.”

    Alongside the family members were Bristol police officers carrying the fallen.

    “Words cannot express the grief we are experiencing. The anger, confusion, frustration, fear, uncertainty and overall sadness,” said Bristol Police Chief Brian Gould.

    Both officers were fatally shot last Wednesday night after allegedly being lured by a fake 911 call reporting a domestic dispute, which officials suspect was a trap. Officer Alec Iurato was injured and fired one shot, killing the gunman.

    Hamzy, 34, was with the department for eight years and Demonte, 35, was a 10-year veteran. He was a father of two with a third child on the way.

    In observance of the funeral, much of Bristol was closed.

    Nationwide, 53 law enforcement officers have been killed by gunfire so far this year, compared to 50 at this time last year.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • “It’s going to be a rough winter”: Hospitals overwhelmed by pediatric patients with respiratory virus

    “It’s going to be a rough winter”: Hospitals overwhelmed by pediatric patients with respiratory virus

    [ad_1]

    Hospitals in 33 states are seeing a dramatic rise in children suffering from the respiratory virus called respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). Cases have more than doubled in 25 states, putting a strain on hospitals — with some facilities so overwhelmed, they’re running out of beds.

    At Connecticut Children’s hospital, doctors said they’re slammed with a surge in RSV cases. Dr. John Brancato told CBS News that every inch of the emergency room is filled, and the hospital is considering putting a tent on the front lawn to handle the overflow.

    The state of Connecticut is even thinking of bringing in the National Guard.

    “We’re having patients in hall beds,” Brancato said. “We’re using our orthopedic room. We’re using other treatment rooms as much as possible to take care of everybody.”

    RSV cases typically surge from December to February, but this month, the children’s hospital has more RSV cases than any other respiratory illness, including COVID-19.

    Further south, almost half of the ICU beds at Cook Children’s Hospital in Fort Worth, Texas, are filled with RSV patients.

    “It’s going to be a rough winter,” Dr. Daniel Guzman, who works at the hospital, told CBS News. “I mean, we’re already seeing our numbers spike over the last few weeks with over 550 E.R. visits per day.”

    Parents Zoe and Jeff Green said their 4-month-old daughter, Lindy, is in the ICU with RSV. They took her to an urgent care clinic because they were concerned that she had more than just a common cold.

    RSV symptoms are similar to a cold, but doctors said parents should watch for signs of respiratory stress, if their child’s nostrils are flaring while breathing, or if their skin is pulling towards their ribs.

    Doctors are also expecting an active flu season. They’re asking people to get their flu shots now — while it won’t prevent you from getting the flu, it could make your symptoms mild enough where you wouldn’t need to go to the emergency room.

    Omar Villafranca


    Omar Villafranca

    Omar Villafranca is a CBS News correspondent based in Dallas.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Violent week a grim sign as targeted killings of police rise

    Violent week a grim sign as targeted killings of police rise

    [ad_1]

    SEATTLE — The shooting deaths of two Connecticut officers and wounding of a third punctuated an especially violent week for police across the U.S. and fit into a grim pattern: Even as more officers left their jobs in the past two years, the number targeted and killed rose.

    According to organizations that track violence against police, 56 officers have been killed by gunfire this year — 14% more than this time last year and about 45% ahead of 2020’s pace. The country is on track for the deadliest year since 67 officers were killed in 2016.

    While the figures include a few officers killed by accidental gunfire, the number of ambushes in which police were injured or killed in surprise attacks with little chance to defend themselves has soared since 2020 and accounts for nearly half the officers killed this year.

    Such an attack apparently struck Wednesday in Bristol, Connecticut, where the state police said Bristol Police Sgt. Dustin Demonte and Officer Alex Hamzy were killed and Officer Alec Iurato was wounded when they responded to a 911 call that appears to have been “a deliberate act to lure law enforcement to the scene.”

    At least 11 police officers were shot around the country this week, including one fatally in Greenville, Mississippi, and another in Las Vegas.

    “Those are really scary numbers for law enforcement, not just for individual officers, but for the organizations they work for, which have to be taking this into account as they’re hiring, retaining and training officers,” said Bill Alexander, executive director of the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial, which tracks officer deaths in the line of duty.

    “It’s not lost on the officers that the job they signed up for has become more dangerous,” he said. “That has to be taking a significant mental toll on the agencies at large and the individual officers doing the work.”

    An off-duty officer was among five people killed in a shooting rampage by a 15-year-old boy in Raleigh, North Carolina, on Thursday evening, but it wasn’t clear if the officer was targeted. In late June, a man in the Appalachian foothills of eastern Kentucky opened fire on officers serving a warrant in a domestic violence case, killing three and wounding five others — a scene that deputies called “pure hell.”

    The Fraternal Order of Police reported that through Sept. 30 of this year, there had been 63 ambush-style attacks in which officers were wounded, with 93 officers shot, 24 fatally. That’s a lower number of such attacks than the first nine months of 2021, when there were 75 ambushes of officers, with 93 shot and 21 killed. The total number of ambushes in which police were hurt last year more than doubled from 2020.

    The increase in ambushes and killings of police comes at a time when many departments around the country face staffing shortages, with some agencies down hundreds of officers and struggling to fill vacancies.

    COVID-19 has been the biggest killer of police officers in the past few years, with 280 deaths in 2020, 467 in 2021 and 64 so far this year, the Officer Down Memorial Page reports. But many officers have retired early or resigned out of frustration with what they see as sagging public support amid “defund police” efforts prompted by the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis officer and the deaths of other Black people at the hands of law enforcement.

    The number of officers nationally fell from roughly 719,000 in 2020 to 688,000 in 2021, according to data reported to the FBI. Hiring of officers has rebounded some this year, but resignations and retirements continue to prove a challenge for departments around the country, the Washington, D.C.-based Police Executive Research Forum found in a survey early this year.

    Mike Zaro is the police chief in Lakewood, Washington, a city of about 60,000 people where four officers were assassinated at a coffee shop in 2009. He was the assistant chief at the time, and he said the department continues to see officers retiring early due to anxiety and stress that can be traced back to the attack.

    “I started back in the early ’90s, and back then and for a long time you just sucked it up and moved on whenever you dealt with any trauma related to the job, whether it was someone else’s or your own,” Zaro said. “After 2009, something of that magnitude, we recognized we had to try and do something different. We worked on the fly to develop methods of encouraging people to seek help. … Eventually it became ingrained in what we do. Today it’s called officer wellness.”

    Zaro recalls how crucial the support of the community was in helping the department get through the aftermath of the killings. Such support, he said, is instrumental in helping officers accept the risks they face.

    Many law enforcement supporters worry about whether departments still have such backing, given the tenor of the national discourse around policing. They stress that questionable or illegal uses of force by officers are the rare exception, not the rule, but police have lost trust from many people outraged at repeatedly seeing cellphone or body-camera videos online of officers abusing their power.

    “It would be infinitely harder to accept those risks and deal with the loss if the community is either suggesting the officers deserved it or making excuses for the person who committed the crime or just not supporting them,” Zaro said. “It’s more imperative now to make that part of the conversation, given the lashing out at police we’ve seen nationwide over the last couple of years.”

    [ad_2]

    Source link