Good morning! Mohegan Tribal Chief Lynn Malerba was named Connecticut’s 72nd Citizen of the Year by the Chamber of Commerce of Eastern Connecticut.
In 2010, Malerba became the 18th and the first female chief of the Mohegan Tribe in more than 300 years. She was the first Indigenous person appointed as U.S. Treasurer in 2022 by President Joe Biden. Malerba established the new Office of Tribal and Native Affair, and oversees the U.S. Mint, the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, and Fort Knox.
Check your wallet! Her signature now appears on U.S. paper currency. Here’s a bite-sized look at what else we are hearing:
The Suffolk County Legislature will investigate the operations of its Child Protective Services. The county agency was at the center of a murder trial into the death of 8-year-old, Thomas Valva. His father’s fiancee, Angela Pollina, was sentenced to 25 years to life for her role in the boy’s death. Prosecutors said they forced Thomas and his brother to sleep in the garage of their Center Moriches home. He died of hypothermia.
A flight school plane crashed into a Danbury home on Monday, injuring two passengers. The Cessna 152 was heading back to the Danbury Municipal Airport to land when an unknown error occurred, forcing the plane to crash land on a shed and damaging two nearby houses. The owners of the shed were able to rescue the passengers and were taken to Danbury Hospital for minor injuries. Federal authorities are investigating the crash.
New York has updated its sexual harassment model policy to improve remote working. The state Department of Labor announced the policy on Tuesday. It’s designed to better protect LGBTQ people from gender discrimination and gender role stereotyping to ensure employees feel safe in equitable and inclusive workplaces.
The sale of the Sacred Heart R.C. Church campus in Cutchogue will be delayed until this summer. The sale was planned to be finalized by March to allow for renovations to make the site the Peconic Community School’s new permanent home by fall 2023. The delays will push back the opening until January 2024 at the earliest. Peconic Community School is a private school serving over 100 students from preschool through grade 8.
Some parents are calling for a book ban at the high school library in Brookfield, Connecticut. They said the young adult nonfiction book “This Book Is Gay” contains “pornographic material.” The book was the focus of last Wednesday’s Board of Education meeting with groups urging for the book to be pulled from digital shelves. Some parents defended the book as a much needed source of information for LGBTQ students.
Early voting in Connecticut could cost up to $9.2 million over the next few years, according to state Office of Fiscal Analysis estimates. The exact cost of early voting will depend on lawmakers determining if early votes should occur either ten days or two weeks before Election Day. The majority of voters in Connecticut approved to introduce early voting in 2022, with Connecticut being among four states in the country that doesn't offer early voting.
The Connecticut Department of Administrative Services will use $2.5 million to pay for state employee vehicle accidents. Over 20 liability claims were submitted so far this year costing the department millions of dollars. Funds from the department's personnel services will be used to cover these claims and higher insurance cost premiums.
