Connecticut
Sun fall to Wings, 82-71
Connecticut Solar head coach Curt Miller begins every postgame press convention with a gap assertion earlier than taking questions.
Miller didn’t trouble giving one after Tuesday evening’s 82-71 loss to the Dallas Wings at Faculty Park Middle in Arlington, Texas, and let the media ask away.
There’s simply so many occasions Miller can say the identical issues as Connecticut (14-8) dropped its fourth sport in six tries headed into the All-Star break.
There’s additionally simply so some ways to ask the Solar how they trailed after the primary quarter once more (Dallas led, 28-16). Or their continued wrestle to make photographs away from the basket after being tops within the WNBA in discipline aim proportion previous to June 19.
“We haven’t shot the ball nicely,” Miller stated. “Individuals choose their poison with our submit sport, and so they crowd the paint and pressure us to make photographs. Tonight, we actually executed (to get) open photographs if it was a pull-up two, if it was threes, if it was inside. I assumed we bought a bit bit sloppy late, however you already know that’s (us) attempting to make performs.
“We simply haven’t shot the ball nicely from the three-point line since Atlanta.”
The Solar roasted Atlanta, 105-92, on June 10. They shot 51.9-percent towards a protection that had held opponents to a league-low 38.6 p.c previous to that sport. Additionally they made 10 of 15 threes within the first quarter and completed making 53.8 p.c (14 of 26).
Connecticut has made simply 29 3-pointers over the past six video games. It missed 16 of 20 towards Dallas and shot 43.1 p.c from the sphere.
“Basketball is basketball,” Solar Courtney Williams stated. “Some video games you don’t shoot the lights out. Some video games it’s going to be common. …. That’s simply the fact of basketball.”
Connecticut’s Brionna Jones added, “I feel it’s simply discovering methods to win once we aren’t hitting photographs.”
Jones and Williams have been among the many few Solar gamers who shot nicely towards the Wings. Williams made 12 of 17 for a season-high 25 factors with six rebounds. Jones made 6 of 11 contained in the paint for 16 factors.
Jonquel Jones, final 12 months’s WNBA MVP, made 4 of 10 photographs for 10 factors with seven rebounds.
The remainder of the Solar shot simply 22.2 p.c (6 of 27).
Connecticut did add one thing new in Tuesday’s loss because it was outrebounded (34-29), which has been a power. That included Dallas having an 11-4 edge on the offensive glass.
“We bought damage on the boards,” Miller stated. “We had bother getting second-chance alternatives. Our proportion was in all probability the bottom of the season on offensive rebounds. They usually have been in a position to get to the 50-50 ball offensive rebounds which become factors and (they bought) factors off turnovers.”
Arike Ogunbowale scored 20 for the Wings (10-12) and Allisha Grey had 12 factors and eight rebounds.
Dallas additionally bought manufacturing from reserves Teaira McCowan (14 factors, seven rebounds) and Satou Sabally (14 factors).
Ogunbowale made two free throws with 6 minutes, 32 seconds left within the first quarter to place Dallas forward to remain, 10-9. It additionally began an 11-3 run.
McCowan’s 11-foot jumper gave the Wings their largest lead, 32-20, with 7:59 left within the first half.
Connecticut bought as shut as three factors on three events however couldn’t maintain its offense.
n.griffen@theday.com
Connecticut
Connecticut’s time for energy investment is now – if state leaders get on board
As a 15-year veteran of the utility industry, I can tell you with certainty there’s nowhere like Connecticut. In other states, when utility companies receive downgrades in their credit rating, regulators and consumer advocates haul them into hearings, demanding to know their plans to rectify them.
Not so in Connecticut, where regulators themselves are named as the reason for the downgrades, and policymakers like the Office of Consumer Counsel and the Chairs of the legislature’s Energy and Technology Committee work overtime to provide political cover.
Meanwhile, the scope of these downgrades – from S&P and Moody’s, two of the most respected financial institutions in the world – extend statewide, from two Avangrid companies, Eversource and all its subsidiaries, to even a small water company.
Whatever the political rhetoric, the impacts are serious and the damage long-term. Building a grid for Connecticut’s future will require billions in new investment over the decades to come, and with the downgrades warning investors to be increasingly skeptical of Connecticut utilities, every single dollar just got more expensive.
The state has a long list of goals for its economy and clear objectives for its utilities: build a modern, sustainable, reliable, resilient, renewable, innovative electric grid capable of supporting massive capacity increases from electrification and data centers. Alienating the investment community does nothing to further those goals; it only makes them less attainable.
But until PURA and state policymakers abandon their anti-utility bias, they will continue to miss today’s golden opportunity to build the energy system of tomorrow –- an opportunity other states are rigorously pursuing. Instead, the excellent reliability that customers rely on, built through a long legacy of investment, will be whittled away even as costs continue to rise.
This, to a question that Sen. Norm Needleman and Rep. Jonathan Steinberg raise in their editorial, is why companies like ours “care” if our credit rating is downgraded. We are not so short-sighted as to shrug off the consequences of higher costs for our customers.
But even more significant are the consequences to long-term energy investment in Connecticut. Utilities are some of the most capital-intensive businesses in the country. We rely on selling bonds to finance safe, reliable, high-quality service through investments like new substations, battery storage, flood walls, microgrids and more.
Downgrades signal to investors they should pull their loans, leaving us with insufficient capital to advance these innovations. Instead, utilities are forced to put what limited capital we can raise (through higher premiums on our bonds) into the most basic, fundamental projects, like storm restoration efforts or pole replacements after traffic accidents.
Accepting – and even incentivizing – PURA to enable meager investments to support only the most basic service puts Connecticut out of step with our neighbors, as other northeastern states are doing the hard work of system planning for the future. It’s no coincidence that Eversource is putting forward 30-year investment plans in Massachusetts while pulling $500 million in investments from Connecticut. Nor should it be surprising that Avangrid company New York State Electric & Gas (NYSEG) is building two 1-megawatt battery energy storage systems that tap directly into New York substations, a major resiliency investment, while nothing of the sort is happening in Connecticut.
Regulators in Massachusetts and New York are far from easy or passive. They have high standards that utilities must work hard to meet, and they do not get everything they ask for, as Needleman and Steinberg baselessly claim is our demand.
What Massachusetts and New York do is set the rules of the road for utility companies. They set clear standards of performance they expect from utility companies – in everything from the level of detail in rate cases to their forward-looking investment plans – and they hold them accountable.
That is not the case in Connecticut. Legislators can obfuscate, downplay, or even offer fictitious conspiracy theories -– most incredibly, that we would pay credit rating agencies, which are independent referees under federal law, to downgrade our credit ratings when downgrades are good for no one.
But none of these political games change the fact that energy companies cannot invest in a state in which PURA puts politically expedient rate cuts over its stated objectives. Nor will they alleviate the underinvestment these policymakers are apparently willing to accept in favor of the fabrication that PURA is “simply holding utilities accountable.”
I fear Connecticut’s energy infrastructure, and the economy it’s built on, will be left behind as other states move forward with a clear vision. The golden opportunity for investment in the energy future is now, and we are at serious risk of missing it as our regulators and policymakers prioritize waging political war on the state’s utilities. The longer they dally, the more likely it is that PURA’s actions and inaction will leave us in the dark.
Charlotte Ancel is the Vice President of Investor Relations at Avangrid, the parent company of United Illuminating, Connecticut Natural Gas, and Southern Connecticut Gas.
Connecticut
Library in South Windsor wraps up 14th annual Gingerbread House Festival
Some people found a sweet escape from Sunday’s frigid winter temperatures. A chance to step outside the cold and into a different snowy environment.
It just made it feel like Christmas,” said Michael Mizla, of Manchester.
“We try to do this every year,” said Susan, Mizla’s wife.
Sunday was the last day to check out a festive, holiday tradition at the Wood Memorial Library and Museum in South Windsor – The 14th Annual Gingerbread House Festival, which organizers say is one of the largest gingerbread house festivals in New England.
“People have made this their tradition,” said the library’s executive director Carolyn Venne. “We see the same large Vermont family every year the day after Thanksgiving on opening day. So, as people come in to see family locally, this becomes part of their tradition, and that makes it all meaningful for us.”
These gingerbread houses are on display in multiple rooms and floors throughout the library for weeks, from late November to just before Christmas.
“We probably range from about 75 to 150, and I think one year we topped out around 200,” said Venne.
Venne says behind these intricate candy creations are bakers, students, and community members.
At the end of the day, the gingerbread houses went to some lucky raffle winners or were donated to a nursing home in the area.
Those who needed to do some last-minute holiday shopping, were covered – just like the icing on these graham cracker homes – as people could visit the library’s ‘Ye Old Gingerbread Shoppe’ and take some of the magic home with them.
“The holidays are full of things you remember as a kid, so it just feels like the kind of tradition you will remember as you grow up.”
While Sunday was the last day to immerse yourself in these festive, edible villages, there are more holiday traditions coming up at the library, including a Christmas concert next Saturday at 1:30 p.m.
Connecticut
Connecticut farmers to benefit from federal disaster relief package
Funding to help farmers impacted by disaster is on the way for those who have been seeking help.
That’s one aspect of what came out of a vote in Washington D.C. that in part prevented a government shutdown.
A 13 minute hailstorm in August destroyed William Dellacamera’s crops and cost him $400,000. He was only able to receive a little less than half of that from programs already in place.
“From that day on, basically everything I had grown for the season was destroyed,” said Dellacamera of Cecarelli’s Harrison Hill Farm.
He’s become known locally for driving his tractor from Connecticut to Washington D.C., advocating for more state and federal funding for farmers like him.
In his travels, he landed meetings with the USDA and Connecticut’s delegation.
“I think they’re taking it seriously, and they did. They took it seriously,” said Dellacamera.
President Biden signed a disaster relief bill into law, advocated for in part by Connecticut’s delegation.
Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro says Connecticut has lost 460 farms over the last five years, primarily related to weather events that put their livelihoods at stake.
“I am pleased that we have an agreement on $100 billion in disaster aid,” said DeLauro on the House Floor Friday, who advocated for the bill.
As part of that, Connecticut farmers like Dellacamera will be able to tap into $23 million of relief from crop losses, according to Representative John Larson.
“Now knowing this is going to make a difference is a big deal. And I hope it does, I hope it does make a difference,” said Dellacamera.
Also part of the bill, DeLauro advocated for a block grant of $220 million that’s only for small and medium-sized farmers who have lost crops in 2023 and 2024.
All of New England would fit in the parameters for the grant, allowing farmers to get help without crop insurance or a national disaster declaration.
“We came to a conclusion that these were all of the pieces that were needed to move forward,” said DeLauro on the House Floor Friday, about the bill as a whole.
DeLauro’s team tells us that disaster relief funding will go from the USDA to the states to get payments out.
Dellacamera says he’s grateful, and there’s more work to be done. He hopes this block grant and general disaster relief funding will be able to live on.
“It takes the red tape out of it a little bit,” said Dellacamera of the block grant. “Hopefully it could be funded into the future, you know, as it might be needed more and more,” he said.
In the meantime, the state of Connecticut will be identifying which farmers experienced disasters in 2023 and 2024 to see who would benefit from block grant funding.
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