Connecticut is one of 17 states whose residents are more likely to die from unintentional drug overdoses than in motor vehicle accidents, with the majority of those deaths caused by common prescription opioid painkillers. From 1998 to 2010, the latest year for which data are available, an average of 272 people, ages 20 to 64, […]
Michael Gambina
Posted inNews
For some, DOMA decision is immediately life-altering
Story revised to clarify the effect of the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling for binational couples. For one Connecticut same-sex couple, the decision on the DOMA was immediately life-altering. Lucy Truman and Kelli Ryan, a binational couple living in Newtown, had two things packed Wednesday morning as they anxiously awaited the Supreme Court’s decision: Truman’s suitcases […]
Posted inNews
Historic day ends with celebration
Members of Connecticut’s lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community, and their supporters, gathered at Real Art Ways in Hartford Wednesday night to celebrate the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn the Defense of Marriage Act. Below is a photo gallery of some of the couples reveling at the party — young, old and in-between. First, though, […]
Posted inNews
Interactive: A look at hospital charges in Connecticut
Consumers in May got to see what hospitals across the country charged for some of the most commonly performed inpatient medical procedures. “Up until now there hasn’t been a one-stop shop to compare hospitals in the state, across multiple procedures,” said Victoria Veltri, Connecticut’s healthcare advocate. “It was a big move nationally, never mind for […]
Posted inNews
Activists protest Koch brothers’ potential purchase of Courant parent
On Broad Street in Hartford outside the headquarters of the nation’s oldest, continuously published newspaper, activists mobilized in protest against the Koch brothers’ reported interest in buying the Tribune Co. “We’re concerned about the way that the Koches know nothing about, and represent nothing about, the values of journalism,” said Josh Stearns, Journalism and public […]
Posted inNews
Immigration bill moves forward, leaving gay couples behind
Washington –- Lucy Truman and Kelli Ryan, a married same-sex couple living in Newtown, are considering leaving the country, but not because they want to. Truman, who was born in the United Kingdom, has a visa she obtained as a research scientist at Yale University, but it expires June 30. Her wife, though a U.S. citizen, is not […]
Posted inNews
Sandy Hook Run honors the fallen, raises funds for support of those left behind
Before they took off from the starting line, more than 15,000 people in downtown Hartford shared a moment of silence to honor the women and children who lost their lives at Sandy Hook Elementary School on Dec. 14. The only sound was the ringing of 26 bell tolls echoing down Main Street. Opening ceremony. Photo […]
Posted inNews
CCSU students rally against proposed tuition, fee, housing increases
New Britain — Central Connecticut State University student Cameron Sutphion is mindful of the cost of college, so he saves money where he can. He started off his college career at a more affordable community college, lives with his parents in Enfield and commutes to school to avoid having to take out student loans for […]
Posted inNews
Architects warn Sandy Hook panel of security limits
School architects gave the Sandy Hook Advisory Commission a blunt lesson Friday in the limits of physical security measures, warning that the best architecture can do against an attacker like Adam Lanza would be to slow him until law enforcement can arrive. “We can mitigate risk, we can delay risk, we can control risk, but […]
Posted inNews
Supervision, planning, training are keys to school security
The NRA has suggested armed guards as the best way to protect America’s schoolchildren. Others say metal detectors, video cameras and sophisticated alarm devices would help defend and protect against mass shootings like the one at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown. School safety experts Gregory Thomas and Michael Dorn think differently. They think student […]
Posted inNews
Can we predict school violence?
Following the mass shooting at Columbine, the Secret Service and the U.S. Department of Education tried to determine if they could predict such future attacks. They examined 37 school-targeted attacks, committed by 41 individuals over the span of 25 years from 1974 to 2000. The final result of the study was the Safe School Initiative. […]
Posted inNews
Mass shootings in the U.S. since 1949
On Sept. 6, 1949, in only 12 minutes, Howard Unruh shot and killed 13 people, including three children. The World War II veteran would not be the last to spread such carnage. From then until the infamous massacre of elementary students at Newtown, there have been 65 mass shootings in the United States, defined by […]
Posted inNews
‘Gun Appreciation Day’ comes to the State Capitol
Hundreds rallied Saturday outside the State Capitol on “Gun Appreciation Day,” protesting the prospect of new gun-control legislation in Washington and Hartford in response the shooting deaths of 26 children and educators in Newtown. “Write your legislators, email them, call them, put the pressure on them,” Robert Crook, a lobbyist for gun owners as director […]
Posted inNews
Most Connecticut killings are with handguns, not rifles
The shooting deaths of 20 schoolchildren and six of their faculty at Sandy Hook Elementary School have prompted the governor and Connecticut legislature to seek ways to reduce gun violence. This is one of an ongoing series to inform that effort. Two thirds of the murders in Connecticut from 2006 to 2011 – some 454 […]
Posted inNews
Connecticut gun sales increasing every year
The shooting deaths of 20 schoolchildren and six of their faculty at Sandy Hook Elementary School have prompted the governor and Connecticut legislature to seek ways to reduce gun violence. This is one of an ongoing series to inform that effort. Connecticut’s people have a lot of guns… …And are acquiring more at an ever-increasing […]