Connecticut
Connecticut Sun host youth clinic ahead of game at TD Garden
BOSTON — The Connecticut Sun are making their arrival in Boston well-known.
The Sun – who will play in the first WNBA game at TD Garden Tuesday night against the Los Angeles Sparks – held their first Connecticut Sun Youth Sports Festival Saturday afternoon at the Track at New Balance.
The event featured 20-minute clinics run by Sun Academy, the team’s official youth basketball platform. There were stations with the PWHL, NWHL and LPGA, as well as Microsoft’s Science of Basketball STEM sessions and Daily Human’s mental strength conditioning sessions.
“It’s really exciting and it makes us feel good because planning this was very nerve-racking. We were unsure if people would come, if they would hear about it,” Morgan Tuck, the Sun’s assistant general manager, said Saturday. “It’s to see and give people an understanding that the Connecticut Sun are here and that we can offer really good experiences – I think that’s what we try to focus on.”
Mitchell Hercule brought his son and daughter to the youth clinic. They’ll also be in attendance Tuesday at TD Garden as the Sun play in front of a sold-out crowd of 19,156. Hercule runs the “Ladies Night” basketball program in Brockton for girls ages 6-19 and has watched the women’s game grow over the past few years.
“It’s a great situation because all they’re used to seeing is guys playing basketball. When they see girls playing basketball, and women playing basketball, they can aspire to be like those women. You can only be what you can see,” Hercule said Saturday. “I’ve been working with girls’ basketball for 20 years in Massachusetts, and the last two to three years have been phenomenal for the girls.”
The Sun, known as New England’s WNBA team, are trying to further break into the Boston market and connect with a new group of fans through their game at TD Garden. Sun president Jennifer Rizzotti said the organization was unsure of what the reception of their Boston debut would be, but has been pleasantly surprised by the outpour of support.
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Tuesday’s sold-out, 7:00 p.m. matchup is the third-highest attendance to a WNBA game thus far this season, and the most-sold tickets to a Sun game in the franchise’s history. The Sun have played at Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Connecticut, since 2003 – it has a capacity of 10,000 seats.
“It’s really validating,” Rizzotti said Saturday. “To see the way that the Boston and New England market has turned out, and the excitement around having the chance to have access to a WNBA game has been unbelievable. I think it’s just a testament to how much the game has grown and how popular women’s basketball is across the county.”
The Sun will face the Atlanta Dream on Sunday before shipping up to Boston for Tuesday’s historic game at the Garden. Connecticut topped the Dallas Wings 109-91 in its first game action since July 16 on Friday. While every game in the latter half of the season matters, Tuesday’s matchup against the Sparks holds a greater meaning for the league and the state of women’s basketball as a whole.
“For a lot of our players it’s going to be the first time they’ve played in front of that many people or been in that situation,” Tuck said. “I think it is going to bring a lot more excitement to the game … a really proud moment to showcase our product.”
Connecticut
Tractor-trailer carrying thousands of gallons of fuel catches fire on I-91 in Wethersfield
A tractor-trailer hauling thousands of gallons of fuel caught fire on Interstate 91 North in Wethersfield on Friday morning.
State police said state troopers responded to I-91 North near exit 24 around 7:42 a.m. and found the cab of a tractor- trailer carrying 7,500 gallons of fuel on fire.
The driver was able to get out of the truck and was not injured, according to state police.
The fire departments from Wethersfield and Rocky Hill responded to the scene to extinguish the fire and troopers shut down I-91 North and South as well as oncoming traffic from Route 3 to I-91 South.
Because the truck was hauling fuel, troopers worked to move drivers who were nearby, state police said.
I-91 South reopened shortly after the fire was out.
The left two lanes of I-91 North have been reopened and the state police Fire & Explosives Investigation Unit is also responding to assist with the investigation.
State police said the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection later responded to the scene.
Connecticut
Connecticut couple charged in alleged Lululemon theft spree that netted up to $1 million
A Connecticut couple has been charged in connection with an elaborate two-month theft spree at Lululemon stores across the country that an investigator with the retailer estimates netted about $1 million worth of product.
Jadion Richards, 44, and Akwele Lawes-Richards, 45, were arrested on Nov. 14 in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Minnesota suburb of Woodbury. The couple, from Danbury, Connecticut, were charged with organized retail theft after a Lululemon retail crime investigator contacted local authorities in Minnesota.
But Lululemon’s investigator said evidence shows their crimes go back to September and took place in states like Utah, Colorado, New York and Connecticut, according to the criminal complaint.
Attorneys representing Richards and Lawes-Richards did not immediately respond to USA TODAY’s request for comment Thursday.
Richards claimed he was racially profiled, complaint says
Richards and Lawes-Richards were stopped after exiting the Lululemon store in Roseville, Minnesota, on Nov. 14 when the security alarm went off, according to the criminal complaint. Richards allegedly claimed store employees racially profiled him and the two were allowed to leave afterward.
The Lululemon investigator later alleged the two visited the store the day before on Nov. 13 with an unidentified man and stole 45 item valued at nearly $5,000. That same day, the pair had allegedly conducted four other thefts in Minneapolis, Edina and Minnetonka.
Officers arrested the couple at the Lululemon in Woodbury. The two denied any involvement in the theft, with Lawes-Richards allegedly claiming they were staying with her aunt and had only been in Minnesota for a day.
Officers found several credit and debit cards on the couple, as well as an access card to a Marriott hotel room. Using a search warrant, officers found 12 suitcases in their room, including three filled with Lululemon clothing with tags attached worth over $50,000, according to the complaint.
In all, the company investigator estimated the couple has taken up to $1 million in stolen product, according to the complaint, which does not detail how he arrived at the high figure.
Couple blocked cameras among other tactics: Investigator
The Lululemon investigator said one of the couple’s alleged tactics was for one of them to distract associates while another stuffed product in the clothes they were wearing, according to the complaint.
Another technique involved the two strategically exiting the store, with one of them holding a cheap item they had bought and the other carrying more expensive products that had sensors, according to the complaint. When the alarm would sound off, only the person with the cheap, purchased item would stay behind and show a receipt, while the other would keep walking with the stolen product, the complaint says.
The pair are accused in eight Colorado theft incidents between Oct. 29 and 30, and seven thefts in Utah on Nov. 6 and 7, according to the complaint.
The pair are currently being held at the Ramsey County jail in Minnesota, court records show. Their next court appearance is set for Dec. 16.
Connecticut
Connecticut readers get the shaft from newspaper’s vulgar Jets headline blunder
Ouch!
A newspaper in Connecticut had an unfortunate typo involving Jets linebacker C.J. Mosley’s herniated disc on Monday.
This past Monday, The Chronicle, a newspaper covering Eastern Connecticut, published an AP story on the front page of its sports section in the print edition that referred to Mosley’s “herniated d–k.”
Mosley has missed the Jets’ four games with the injury — the one in his neck, that is.
In the copy, Mosley’s injury was not shafted, getting described correctly in the nut graph.
The unfortunate phallacy did not go unnoticed: in an extra twist, the error went viral when it was posted on the X account of David Coverdale, the 73-year-old singer of Whitesnake.
An editor for The Chronicle told The Post that the newspaper would be issuing a correction in the paper.
Last week, prior to the Jets’ loss to the Colts, Mosley spoke about how he hoped to return after the Jets’ bye, when they host the Seahawks on Dec. 1.
“That’s definitely the goal,” he said. “I’m in a position where I’ve played a lot of football. Me missing this time won’t hurt me as much as another guy that might need this opportunity. It’s about safety at the end of the day. When I go home, I’m Clint Mosley. I’m C.J. I’m not the football player.”
Mosley said the birth of his daughter, who arrived the week after his injury, put things in perspective for him.
“I had a full week of having a normal neck and ever since then every time I’m looking down, my neck’s hurting,” Mosley said. “It puts things in perspective. There’s a lot of life after football. When I’m done playing, I want to make sure I’m 100 percent.”
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