It’s Monday. Connecticut’s Congressional delegation wants answers from the U.S. Coast Guard for failing to address and report dozens of sexual assault and harassment cases at the service’s New London academy since the late 1980s.
The Coast Guard apologized Friday for not taking “appropriate action” years ago, especially after a six-year internal investigation that concluded in 2020. The Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, which has oversight of the Coast Guard, was not informed of the investigation until a recent informal briefing.
The Coast Guard said it has made improvements to its sexual assault policies.
U.S. Senator Chris Murphy accused the Coast Guard's leadership of hiding the report, and said that “anyone involved in this cover-up should be terminated.”
Here’s a bite-sized look at what else we are hearing:
Rep. George Santos was back in federal court on Long Island Friday after his indictment in May. Prosecutors presented 80,000 pages of evidence in the fraud and money laundering case. He is also charged with making false statements to the House of Representatives. Santos denies wrongdoing and is due back in court on Sept. 7.
Connecticut’s top prosecutor will investigate state troopers for filing false traffic tickets. An audit last week revealed more than 25,000 erroneous tickets were reported, detailing traffic stops for white drivers. Non-white drivers were also not accurately reported. The ACLU criticized prosecutors for working alongside State Police, saying they cannot be trusted to police themselves.
Connecticut released $23.8 million funds to clean up and revive former industrial sites. The brownfields remediation funding affects 480 acres on 22 properties in 15 communities. The projects include a $990,000 loan to build a mixed-development with more than 70 residential units at the former Southern New England Telephone Company offices in Bridgeport, and $3 million grant for 240 residential units at a transit-oriented, mixed-use development at the site of the former Bullard Machine Tool Company site on Black Rock Turnpike in Fairfield.
New York will work with a Chicago investment firm to support social equity cannabis businesses. Alongside the state’s $50 million, Governor Kathy Hochul announced the company Chicago Atlantic will provide up to $150 million in loans to help cannabis retailers lease real estate and build their shops. The money will be focused on entrepreneurs with past marijuana convictions. New York has been slow to open about a dozen dispensaries statewide, partly due to this funding gap for retailers.
A youth camp counselor was attacked by a bobcat early Friday morning in Connecticut. The state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection said the man was sleeping in a hammock when he was attacked on Selden Neck Island. He and two other adults then killed the bobcat. While the adults were taken to a hospital, officials said no campers had contact with the bobcat.
The Connecticut Port Authority received the $30 million increase it requested to finish redeveloping the State Pier in New London. The site is expected to be a hub for the offshore wind industry. This additional funding will put the project at more than $309 million, which is three times the original budget.
Three more Suffolk County beaches are closed to bathing due to excessive bacteria. Those include Tanner Park Beach in Copiague, West Islip Beach, and Sayville Marine Park. Also closed are Amityville Beach and Benjamin Beach in Bay Shore. Contact with contaminated water can cause stomach illness and infections of the eye, ears, nose and throat. Gold Star Battalion Beach in Huntington and Ronkonkoma Beach in Islip have reopened.
The Connecticut Bond Commission approved $22 million for state parks and open space for recreation. The goal is to protect 21% of Connecticut’s land as open space, half of which are parks, forests and wildlife areas. A portion of the money will also help the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection test private drinking water wells for the presence of PFAS chemicals.
The UConn men's basketball team is heading abroad. This summer, the 2023 NCAA champion will practice and compete in Monte Carlo, Monaco, and Barcelona, Spain. The Huskies fly out to Nice, France on Aug. 2. It’s the program's first foreign trip in nearly two decades.
