Happy Saturday! President Joe Biden is expected to be in West Hartford next Friday. He’s likely to attend a major gun control summit hosted by Senator Chris Murphy. The summit is attracting national attention, as the Connecticut Legislature just passed some of the country’s strongest gun laws.
The event will be at the University of Hartford. Other speakers include U.S. Senators Chris Murphy and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), national Education Secretary Miguel Cardona of Meriden, and former U.S. Representative Gabby Giffords, a national gun control advocate who was shot more than 10 years ago in Arizona.
Here’s a bite-sized look at what else we’re hearing:
Some students who vandalized UConn Storrs after the NCAA basketball tournament have been expelled. More than a dozen students were arrested and 16 were hospitalized after the men’s team won the tournament in April. The vandalism, which included smashing windows, damaging a police car and displacing light poles, caused thousands of dollars of damage to the university campus. It is not publicly known how many students faced expulsion.
Stratford will get a say in the Bridgeport-owned Sikorsky Airport deal. That’s thanks to language included in the budget deal that Connecticut legislators passed this week. Bridgeport has been trying to sell the airport, which is based in Stratford, to the Connecticut Airport Authority since the fall of 2021. State Rep Steven Stafstrom (D-Bridgeport), who helped organize the deal, said Straftford will not have veto power, but will have a seat at the table.
New Yorkers may pay more for offshore wind energy than originally expected. Project developers have asked state regulators for “flexibility” as they work to understand the final costs. The companies cited the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine, as well as rising inflation, for the cost changes. When the projects were announced in 2019, residents were told the average customer would only see a price increase of around a dollar a month.
The Quinnipiac men’s hockey team will visit the White House next week. They won the national championship in April. They will meet the president on Monday as part of "College Athlete Day" on the South Lawn.
The 2021 West Hempstead Stop and Shop shooter will spend 50 years in prison. Gabriel DeWitt Wilson murdered his supervisor and attempted to murder two of his co-workers in April of 2021. Nassau County District Attorney Anne Donnelly said Wilson has shown no compassion or remorse since his arrest.
New York small businesses seeking COVID-19-related reimbursement now have until September 30. The state has extended the deadline with its new budget. Around $25 million of the $250 million program has been awarded so far, according to a spokesperson from Empire State Development, which is overseeing the program. The program is open to businesses with less than 100 employees with gross receipts of less than $2.5 million annually.
The Bay Shore School District Board is suing to stop the sale of the East Main Street American Legion building. The lawsuit claims the district had the “right of first refusal to purchase” the building, and the Islip Town and American Legion Post 365 in Bay Shore violated that. The building has been there since the early 1900s.
Seven Connecticut recreation areas are alcohol-free for the summer. The state’s Department of Energy and Environmental Protection reimpose the bans to keep residents safe and protect the areas. These are the areas that are alcohol-free: Gardner Lake State Park and State Boat Launch in Salem, Paugussett State Forest (upper section)/George Waldo State Park in Southbury, Wadsworth Falls State Park in Middletown/Middlefield, Lake Waramaug State Park in New Preston, Quaddick State Park in Thompson, Beach Pond State Boat Launch in Voluntown including a portion of Pachaug State Forest, and Billings Lake State Boat Launch in North Stonington including a portion of Pachaug State Forest.
