Tag Archives: Connecticut

Connecticut may become first U.S. state to allow deadly police drones

By Barbara Goldberg

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Connecticut would become the first U.S. state to allow law enforcement agencies to use drones equipped with deadly weapons if a bill opposed by civil libertarians becomes law.

The legislation, approved overwhelmingly by the state legislature’s judiciary committee on Wednesday, would ban so-called weaponized drones in the state but exempts agencies involved in law enforcement. It now goes to the House of Representatives for consideration.

The legislation was introduced as a complete ban on weaponized drones but just before the committee vote it was amended to exclude police from the restriction.

Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy, a Democrat, was reviewing the proposal, “however in previous years he has not supported this concept,” spokesman Chris Collibee wrote in an email.

Civil libertarians and civil rights activists are lobbying to restore the bill to its original language before the full House vote.

“Data shows police force is disproportionately used on minority communities, and we believe that armed drones would be used in urban centers and on minority communities,” said David McGuire, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union in Connecticut.

“That’s not the kind of precedent we want to set here,” McGuire said of the prospect that Connecticut would become the first state to allow police to use lethally armed drones.

In 2015, North Dakota became the first state to permit law enforcement agencies to use armed drones but limited them to “less than lethal” weapons such as tear gas and pepper spray.

So far, 36 states have enacted laws restricting drones and an additional four states have adopted drone limits, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

If Connecticut’s Democratic-controlled House passes the bill it will move to the Senate, which is split evenly between Democrats and Republicans.

Representative William Tong, a Democrat from Stamford, nor Senator John Kissel, a Republican from Enfield, who are co-chairs of the Judiciary Committee, were not immediately available for comment.

(Editing by Frank McGurty and James Dalgleish)

U.S. Northeast braces for late winter blizzard

A woman is seen through a snow soaked car window walking in the snow at Cunningham Park in the borough of Queens in New York, U.S.

By Chris Michaud and Daniel Trotta

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Forecasters put the U.S. East Coast from New York City to Boston on a blizzard watch starting as early as Monday night, with authorities warning residents to prepare for the possibility of widespread power outages, road closures and flight disruptions.

Weather experts predicted the region could see 12 to 18 inches of wind-blasted snow from Monday to early Wednesday.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced preparations for the so-called Nor’easter storm, activating the state Emergency Operations Center as of Monday night while also directing state agencies to be on heightened alert.

“I encourage all New Yorkers in affected regions to plan ahead and avoid any unnecessary travel as the storm progresses,” Cuomo said in a statement, adding that commuters should expect road closures, delays and cancellations.

The storm also raised the potential for power outages with damaging winds across eastern Long Island and southeastern Connecticut, the National Weather Service said.

Significant disruption to air travel in the region was also anticipated with the storm.

Blowing snow and strong winds could lead to whiteout conditions with visibility as poor as a quarter mile, the service said. Sub-freezing temperatures were forecast in the upper 20s Fahrenheit.

New York City issued a snow alert for Monday night into Tuesday, expecting snowfall rates of up to 2 to 4 inches per hour Tuesday morning and afternoon, with gusts of up to 50 mph.

Mayor Bill de Blasio warned New Yorkers that “besides the snow, it will be cold,” while officials recommended that people avoid driving and use mass transit when possible.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey was installing hundreds of pieces of snow equipment at the three New York area airports. Thousands of tons of salt and sand were prepared for airport roads, parking lots, bridges and tunnels.

As some 50 million people along the Eastern Seaboard came under storm or blizzard watches, Washington, D.C., which often bogs down with even low levels of snow, was expecting 5 inches and twice that in outlying areas.

The storm comes near the end of an unusually mild winter along much of the East Coast, with below-normal snowfalls in some areas, including New York City and Washington. It was the warmest February on record in nearly the entire area, according to the Northeast Regional Climate Center.

Last week in New York, temperatures hovered near 70 degrees Fahrenheit, according to Accuweather.com, hitting 60 or higher on six days in February.

Meanwhile, in the western United States, the weather service forecast potentially record-setting heat in Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah, where temperatures were expected into the 90s in some places.

(Reporting by Chris Michaud and Daniel Trotta; Editing by Randy Fabi)

Tremors in U.S. Northeast caused by sonic boom, not quake: USGS

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Residents from New Jersey to Connecticut reported feeling earthquake-like shaking on Thursday afternoon, but U.S. seismologists said the vibrations were likely the result of a series of sonic booms.

The U.S. Geological Survey, which monitors earthquake activity, said no quake had struck. The agency reported at least nine sonic booms had been recorded over 90 minutes starting at 1:24 p.m. near Hammonton, New Jersey, about 35 miles southeast of Philadelphia.

On Twitter, users said they felt several tremors, particularly in southern New Jersey.

It was not immediately clear what had caused the sonic booms, which are generated by airplanes traveling in the air faster than the speed of sound.

Some news reports suggested that military aircraft from McGuire Air Force Base, approximately 35 miles north of Hammonton, were the likely source.

But the McGuire base said on Twitter that its training ranges were clear on Thursday and that none of its aircraft are capable of creating sonic booms. In a subsequent post, the base said it was working with local authorities to determine a cause.

Seismologists at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory at Columbia University in New York also confirmed that no earthquake had occurred in the region and that they had measured vibrations and low-frequency sound waves consistent with about eight sonic booms from approximately 1:20 p.m. to 2:40 p.m.

Won-Young Kim, a research professor at the observatory, said residents on the ground likely would not have heard the booms but would have experienced 15 to 20 seconds of shaking during each one.

The tremors produced numerous emergency calls to local police departments, some of which took to Twitter to ask residents not to flood their emergency lines with any more reports.

No damage was immediately reported.

Some Twitter users offered a lighthearted response. One person using the handle @VixenRogue quipped: “Aliens are invading New Jersey. What’s the best way to let them know the other 49 states are just fine with this?”

The reports came two days after residents in Charleston, South Carolina, said they felt tremors. The shaking was likely caused by sonic booms from F-18 fighter jets on a training run from a nearby military base, according to media reports.

Sonic booms are often mistaken for seismic activity, according to the USGS website.

(Reporting by Joseph Ax; Additional reporting by Curtis Skinner in San Francisco; Editing by Andrew Hay and Sandra Maler)

Untreatable Tick Borne Virus Found in Connecticut

An untreatable tick-borne disease has been found in parts of southern Connecticut.

The Powassan virus is similar to Lyme disease with headache, nausea and fever.  Unlike Lyme disease that can be easily treated with antibiotics, Powassan virus can often be fatal.

The virus impacts the central nervous system and causes encephalitis and meningitis.

Dr. Theodore Andreadis of the Connecticut Agriculture Experiment Station, told WCBS that fortunately there has not yet been a human case of the disease in the area.  However, the fact ticks in the region carry the disease could be a serious threat to hikers and anyone who is close to a wooded area.

“These ticks will transmit this virus when they feed within a matter of hours, whereas with Lyme disease, for example, ticks generally have to feed up to two days before they’re capable of transmitting it,” Andreadis told WCBS 880.

Twelve cases of the disease were found in the U.S. in 2013, the last year statistics for the disease have been published by the CDC.

Connecticut Debates Physician Assisted Suicide

A new proposal in the Connecticut legislature would legalize physician-assisted suicide in the state.

A public hearing was held last week to debate the matter.  One of the pro-death speakers was Rep. Kelly Luxenberg (D-Manchester) whose father committed suicide by drowning himself after a battle with Parkinson’s disease.

“He never learned to swim and was intensely fearful of the water. So there is an even sadder irony in the way in which he chose to die,” she told the Judiciary Committee and those gathered. “Parkinson’s stripped my father of a life with dignity. Wouldn’t it have been great if in death his dignity could have been regained?”

Pro-life speakers also had their say before the Committee.

“People with disabilities, advocates against elder abuse are rightly concerned that the ‘right to die’ could become a ‘duty to die,’” Peter Wolfgang of the Family Institute of Connecticut told those gathered.

“Is it acceptable for someone’s life to be shortened because people may be actually on a wrong prognosis, or because they have been pressed to make this final move?” asked Cathy Ludlum of Second Thoughts Connecticut, who is disabled.

The bill would allow a doctor to prescribe a lethal dose of medication to the patient who would then ingest it on their own to end their life after submitting two requests to a physician and having two witnesses unrelated to the patient review the case and be present for the administration of the procedure.

Connecticut Rocked by Earthquake

The fans of the New England Patriots celebrating their team’s hosting of the AFC Championship Game this weekend weren’t the only thing causing the ground to shake in New England.

The U.S. Geological Survey reports that a series of five earthquakes rocked eastern Connecticut area on Monday.  The strongest quake, magnitude 3.1, was felt in parts of Rhode Island and Massachusetts.

The USGS says that four of the quakes struck in a 20 minute span starting around 6:30 a.m. Eastern Time.

John Ebel, senior research scientists at the Western Observatory told WCVB-TV the quakes are not as unusual as you would think for that area.  He stated there is a tectonic plate from the West Coast to the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.

He said the quakes are caused by pressure being rleleased from those two boundaries.

Website Reveals Insurance Plans With Abortion Slush Funds

A new website has been launched by two pro-life groups that will allow consumers to find out if the health care plans they are buying actually include charges which will pay for abortions.

The Family Research Council and the Charlotte Lozier Institute announced the launch of ObamacareAbortion.com at a Thursday press event on Capitol Hill.  Representative Chris Smith of New Jersey spoke at the event and condemned the federal healthcare exchange for not providing the information.

“Once again, health consumers are almost clueless as to which plans fund abortion on demand and which do not,” Smith said. “That is why ObamacareAbortion.com is an extraordinarily useful new tool for healthcare consumers. … The Obama administration’s cover-up of abortion insurance plans on the exchange is unnecessary, unacceptable and absolutely unconscionable.  Consumers have the right to know. Abortion is not healthcare. It dismembers and chemically poisons defenseless unborn children and hurts women.”

The research from the ground found that in nine states that 90 percent of the health care plans cover abortions.  Until last week, Connecticut had no plans that did not include abortion in some way.

“It is virtually impossible to know what your plan entails in other states,” said Kerri Kupec of Alliance Defending Freedom to The Christian Post. “Even if you are not living in these four states, you could very well be living in another state that includes these surcharges and you don’t even know about it. That is why the work of Family Research Council and Charlotte Lozier Institute is absolutely crucial to taking down this web of secrecy.”

UConn Professor Conducts Hostile Confrontation of Christians

A professor at the University of Connecticut took it upon himself to make a hostile confrontation of Christians who were street preaching on the campus.

James Boster, who is a Professor of Anthropology, spent two hours trying to make students leave the area where several evangelists were sharing the truth of Christ and handing out information regarding Scripture.

At one point, Boster ran up to one of the evangelists and began swearing in his face.  Boster stood just inches away from the preacher and shouted that the man was ignorant for his belief in Christ.

Boster started chants of “Hail Darwin” and demanded to know if Christians in the area had accepted Darwin as their lord and savior.

Boster defended himself in an e-mail to Christian News Network saying that Darwin’s message that all humans are brothers and sisters and all mammals are our cousin is closer to the gospels than the preachers who were telling students to turn from their sin and accept Jesus.

The University of Connecticut released a statement saying the professor’s actions were unacceptable.

“Everyone has a right to exercise free speech on our campuses,” the school said to NBC.  “At the same time, we expect our faculty to act in a way that promotes civil discourse and to express themselves respectfully.  The use of abusive language and the confrontational posture seen here are inconsistent with UConn values.”

Connecticut High School Targets Pro-Life Students

A Connecticut high school is targeting a pro-life student group, denying them the opportunity to hand out information or set up displays during the lunch period like other student run groups.

Branford High School Principal Lee Panagoulias and other school officials told the six member pro-life club that they could not have models of a fetus on a display table, could not hand out literature or invite any other student to join their group.

Other student groups in the school do not have any of those restrictions.

The Alliance Defending Freedom has contacted the school and the school district demanding information about the discrimination against the Christian students.

“We cannot sit back while our pro-life students are denied their constitutional rights and bullied by their school administrators,” Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life of America, told Fox News.  “At Branford High School, there is a double standard for the pro-life students, and we intend to expose this injustice and correct it.”

The chairman of the local Board of Education said that if all the procedures of the school for student groups are being followed, they should be given the same rights as any other club.

Three Arrested After Lockdown At Central Connecticut State University

Three people have been taken into custody after reports of an armed man caused the lockdown of Central Connecticut State University.

Police were called to the campus in New Britain, Connecticut after students called 911 to report a man walking around wearing camouflage while carrying a handgun and what they described as a “sword-like weapon”.

After telling students and faculty to shelter in place, police began a search of the campus and took three people into custody inside one of the residence halls. One of those in custody is a CCSU student.

Police say all three are cooperating with the investigation.