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Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation helping members impacted by Milton, Helene

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Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation helping members impacted by Milton, Helene


Members of the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation have been helping facilitate recovery efforts for fellow tribal members impacted by Hurricanes Milton and Helene.

“Mashantucket is all one big family. And they make sure they take care of their own,” said Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation Fire Chief Floyd Chaney.

Thursday at the Mashantucket public safety building, Chief Chaney was among other tribal members and workers doing just that in the wake of Hurricane Milton.

“We are a family here, but we have–we have family members no matter where they are in the state,” said Mashantucket Social Services Manager Tanisha Minnis.

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To help family members in need, emergency and social services personnel established a wellness call center, reaching out to those down south in the aftermath of the storm.

“This is a scary situation, okay. Milton, Helene puts lives in jeopardy so we do whatever it takes to make them feel as comfortable as possible,” Chief Chaney said.

Minnis said they called over 70 family members on Thursday morning.

“I’ve spoken to individuals today and they were just really just excited to hear that we’re calling. It just lets them know that we care. That no matter where they are, that we’re concerned for them,” Minnis said.

She said many are safe, but others are dealing with the devastation.

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“Some have had damage to their homes like so many others in these states. Some have lost electricity for prolonged periods of time and are dealing with lost food and lost basic needs for them to survive,” said Mashantucket Pequot Chief of Government Administration Michael Purcaro.

Through the calls, those in Connecticut are facilitating aid to members down south by connecting them with local authorities and other resources.

“Essentially, whatever families might need as far as assistance, we’re here to try and connect them either to services that we have, support that we can provide from here or even locally where they’re living,” Purcaro said.

He added that for phone lines that did not connect, the Tribal Police are working to contact local authorities to ensure everyone is accounted for.

“Anything we gotta do in Connecticut, Georgia, North Carolina, Florida–whatever it takes,” Chief Chaney said.

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Connecticut

State police investigating suspicious incident in Burlington

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State police investigating suspicious incident in Burlington


BURLINGTON, Conn. (WFSB) – Connecticut State Police are investigating a suspicious incident at a residence on Case Road in Burlington.

Multiple state troopers and police vehicles were seen at the home conducting an investigation. A viewer reported seeing nine police cars and numerous troopers at the scene.

State police said there is no threat to the public at this time. The investigation is ongoing.

No additional details about the nature of the suspicious incident have been released.

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Ecuadorian national with manslaughter conviction sentenced for illegally reentering United States through Connecticut

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Ecuadorian national with manslaughter conviction sentenced for illegally reentering United States through Connecticut


NEW HAVEN, CT. (WFSB) – An Ecuadorian national with a manslaughter conviction was sentenced to 12 months and one day in prison for illegally reentering the United States through Connecticut after being deported.

40-year-old Darwin Francisco Quituizaca-Duchitanga was sentenced and had used the aliases Darwin Duchitanga-Quituizaca and Juan Mendez-Gutierrez.

U.S. Border Patrol first encountered Quituizaca in December 2003, when he used the alias Juan Mendez-Gutierrez and claimed to be a Mexican citizen. He was issued a voluntary return to Mexico.

Connecticut State Police arrested him in March 2018 on charges related to a fatal crash on I-91 in North Haven in March 2017. He was using the alias Darwin Duchitanga-Quituizaca at the time.

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ICE arrested him on an administrative warrant in Meriden in August 2018 while he was awaiting trial in his state case. An immigration judge ordered his removal to Ecuador in September 2018, but he was transferred to state custody to face pending charges.

Quituizaca was convicted of second-degree manslaughter in January 2019 and sentenced to 30 months in prison.

After his release, ICE arrested him again on an administrative warrant in Meriden in August 2023. He was removed to Ecuador the next month.

ICE arrested Quituizaca again on a warrant in Meriden on June 28th, 2025, after he illegally reentered the United States. He pleaded guilty to unlawful reentry on July 30th.

He has been detained since his arrest. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement investigated the case.

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The case is part of Operation Take Back America, a nationwide initiative by the Department of Justice to combat illegal immigration and transnational criminal organizations.



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Justice Department sues Connecticut and Arizona as part of effort to get voter data from the states

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Justice Department sues Connecticut and Arizona as part of effort to get voter data from the states


HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — Officials in Connecticut and Arizona are defending their decision to refuse a request by the U.S. Justice Department for detailed voter information, after their states became the latest to face federal lawsuits over the issue.

“Pound sand,” Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes posted on X, saying the release of the voter records would violate state and federal law.

The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division announced this week it was suing Connecticut and Arizona for failing to comply with its requests, bringing to 23 the number of states the department has sued to obtain the data. It also has filed suit against the District of Columbia.

Attorney General Pam Bondi said the department will “continue filing lawsuits to protect American elections,” saying accurate voter rolls are the ”foundation of election integrity.”

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Secretaries of state and state attorneys general who have pushed back against the effort say it violates federal privacy law, which protects the sharing of individual data with the government, and would run afoul of their own state laws that restrict what voter information can be released publicly. Some of the data the Justice Department is seeking includes names, dates of birth, residential addresses, driver’s license numbers and partial Social Security numbers.

Other requests included basic questions about the procedures states use to comply with federal voting laws, while some have been more state-specific. They have referenced perceived inconsistencies from a survey from the U.S. Election Assistance Commission.

Most of the lawsuits target states led by Democrats, who have said they have been unable to get a firm answer about why the Justice Department wants the information and how it plans to use it. Last fall, 10 Democratic secretaries of state sent a letter to the Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security expressing concern after DHS said it had received voter data and would enter it into a federal program used to verify citizenship status.

Connecticut Attorney General William Tong, a Democrat, said his state had tried to “work cooperatively” with the Justice Department to understand the basis for its request for voters’ personal information.

“Rather than communicating productively with us, they rushed to sue,” Tong said Tuesday, after the lawsuit was filed.

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Connecticut, he said, “takes its obligations under federal laws very seriously.” He pledged to “vigorously defend the state against this meritless and deeply disappointing lawsuit.”

Two Republican state senators in Connecticut said they welcomed the federal lawsuit. They said a recent absentee ballot scandal in the state’s largest city, Bridgeport, had made the state a “national punchline.”



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