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Vehicle reportedly in the water at country club in Glastonbury

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Vehicle reportedly in the water at country club in Glastonbury


A vehicle was reportedly in the water at a country club in Glastonbury on Saturday.

Police said it was reported at Glastonbury Hills Country Club.

It’s unclear if anyone was injured.

Authorities did not release any additional details, but said the investigation was ongoing.

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Connecticut

CT no-fault evictions ban expansion dies in legislature

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CT no-fault evictions ban expansion dies in legislature


Proposed reform to state eviction laws — which would have required landlords to provide a reason for evicting someone, a concept known as “just cause” — will not move forward this year, proponents said Tuesday.

As the legislature’s 2025 session approaches its final weeks, Housing Committee Co-Chair, Rep. Antonio Felipe, D-Bridgeport, said he doesn’t expect House Bill 6889 to come up for a vote in the House. The bill, which had broad support from Connecticut renters and housing advocates, passed the Housing Committee in March.

Although lawmakers who endorsed eviction reform said many of their colleagues privately supported it, not enough of them were willing to go public with that support by voting in favor of the bill.

“I don’t think there is any path forward at this point,” Felipe said Tuesday morning. “I believe we have the votes. I don’t believe those votes are all willing to be public at this point.”

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Last year, Felipe faced problems in the House with a similar bill that would have reformed evictions in Connecticut. Although Senate leadership believed they had the votes, the House wasn’t able to secure enough support.

Felipe championed the just cause eviction bill again this session. The bill would have banned no-fault evictions, which typically occur at the end of a lease, in buildings with five or more units, after the tenant had been there for at least a year. Connecticut has similar protections in place for renters with disabilities and seniors.

Tenants say this type of eviction may be used in retaliation when renters complain about housing conditions or to evict every resident of a building or complex when new ownership purchases the property.

Negotiations over the bill have been going back and forth for weeks. Members of the Democratic party were split, even in the committee process.

H.B. 6889 drew some of the most heated debate and the largest number of speakers of any bill the Housing Committee considered this session.

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Landlords opposed the bill, saying it would make it harder for them to evict problem tenants.

“There is no more cause for the ‘just cause’ bill today than there was when the legislature rejected it last year, because it does not protect Connecticut’s apartment communities and will not build one new apartment home to relieve the state’s housing shortage,” the Connecticut Apartment Association said in an April press release about the bill.

Ultimately, the bill faced a similar fate this year.

Luke Melonakos-Harrison, vice president of the Connecticut Tenants Union, said Tuesday that the news of its demise was disheartening, particularly considering the hundreds of renters who testified and the broad support it drew from advocacy groups focused on housing, homelessness, health and labor unions.

“I don’t understand what these Democrats are so afraid of,” Melonakos-Harrison said, adding that about a third of Connecticut residents are tenants compared to a much smaller number of landlords.

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“It’s such a massive constituency that I struggle to understand why legislators, so many of them, seem to recognize landlords as a constituency with shared concerns, but don’t seem to recognize tenants as a constituency,” Melonakos-Harrison said.

The statewide Connecticut Tenants Union has gaining political power for the past few years, formalizing its structure and increasing lobbying activities. But lobbying groups representing landlords maintain a more established presence in the state Capitol.

While the bill was under consideration, some Connecticut residents received phone calls asking them to oppose the measure. “Imagine living next to someone who makes you feel unsafe, and there is nothing you can do about it. Can we count on you to oppose this bill?” one caller said.

House leadership earlier this month said support had been difficult to gather within the party caucus. Speaker of the House Matt Ritter, D-Hartford, said he’d fielded concerns from lawmakers who feared that if new owners couldn’t evict renters, they wouldn’t be able to make renovations and rental housing would deteriorate.

Members of the Democratic caucus also raised concerns that it would be hard for landlords to evict “bad tenants,” Ritter said. Landlords have repeatedly raised the same issue — that if someone is smoking or being disruptive, it’s sometimes easier to evict them through a no-fault eviction. 

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“You have people saying, ‘If you don’t incentivize people to come in, and then they can’t charge higher rents, they’re going to let their buildings be decrepit, deteriorate, and then flip it,” Ritter said. “And we could not solve that in the caucus. That was probably the single biggest issue.”

House Majority Leader Jason Rojas, D-East Hartford, said it’s a tough balance to strike between tenants’ rights and landlord issues.

Republican lawmakers broadly opposed the bill.

“I had serious concerns with this same proposal last year, which would have established a general right for any tenant to remain in a rental unit after a lease term expires in perpetuity. It didn’t even come up for a vote in the House because it’s a problematic concept,” said Housing Committee ranking member Rep. Tony Scott, R-Monroe, in a text message after the launch of the just cause campaign.

Sen. Rob Sampson of Wolcott, ranking member of the Housing Committee, has said the bill would violate landlords’ rights and that government shouldn’t encroach on private contracts like leases.

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It wasn’t clear whether Gov. Ned Lamont supported the bill. At a recent press briefing, he gave what he admitted was a neutral response when questioned about his stance.

“Look, rents are going up a lot,” Lamont said. “There’s a lot of sudden shock. A lot of people are at risk of losing a place to stay. So I understand the worry about that. You also want to get a balance and make sure we have people continuing to invest in a state like this with rental units.”



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House fire closes Route 72 in Bristol

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House fire closes Route 72 in Bristol


Emergency crews have extinguished a house fire on Monday morning and part of Route 72 is currently closed.

Firefighters responded to the home in the 100 block of School Street, which is also known as Route 72, around 5:30 a.m.

It was reported that there was fire showing in the back of the building. Firefighters were able to quickly knock it down.

Route 72 is closed between West Street and North Main Street. There is no estimate for the duration of the closure.

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No injuries were reported. All of the residents were able to self-evacuate before fire crews arrived.

The fire marshal is investigating the cause and origin.



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Face the Facts: How cuts could impact health care in Connecticut

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Face the Facts: How cuts could impact health care in Connecticut


Lawmakers in Washington, D.C. are working through the weekend on a reconciliation bill that includes massive cuts to Medicaid. Rep. Joe Courtney (D-2nd District) discusses how those cuts could impact health care in Connecticut.

Mike Hydeck: As the federal budget process continues in Washington, DC, the Trump administration is looking for $1.5 trillion in cuts they say will help make the government more efficient. So far, between buyouts and cuts, 120,000 jobs have been eliminated in the federal workforce, according to The New York Times. Rooting out waste and fraud is part of the goal of the administration, as well. This week, Republican Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, unveiled a draft of his budget, which includes things like cuts to Medicaid and changes to SNAP benefits, also known as food stamps. Congressman Joe Courtney spoke out about this on the House floor this week, he joins me now. Welcome back, Congressman. You said the speaker needs to go back to the drawing board. Why?

Joe Courtney: Because I think if he listened to the entire hospital sector of our country, from coast to coast, who have taken a look at this proposal and have unanimously denounced it in terms of the damage it’s going to do to the finances of our health care sector and again, we’re talking to Catholic hospitals, children’s hospitals, the larger umbrella group, the American Hospital Association. You know, they realize that if you take $800 billion out of the Medicaid system, which is what this measure proposes to do, it is going to again, put a lot of these facilities on even shakier ground than they are today, cripple their ability to hire more nurses and staff, which is really, you know, something they’re all desperately trying to achieve. Patient groups have also now risen up, whether it’s the American Cancer Society or Alzheimer’s Association, the disabilities community, you know for whom Medicaid really is a life blood sort of system in terms of making sure that people get essential care. Medicaid is again, different than Medicare, different than private health insurance. It’s not awash in cash. I mean, you talk to any doctor or physician out there, the rates that are paid through Medicaid are bare bones, but it does keep people connected to health care coverage. And the Congressional Budget Office weighed in and basically determined, if this measure was to come into law, that basically 8.6 million Americans would lose their health insurance. On top of that, the you know, exchange, you know, Obamacare premium subsidies, which are also hitting a cliff pretty soon, none of those subsidies were extended in the bill. That would add another 6 million people who would lose their their health coverage. So this is not the direction that I think anybody reasonable, reasonably wants to see this country to go.

Mike Hydeck: Among the other things in this plan, Republicans want to have work rep work requirements. Meaning, if you get SNAP benefits or Medicare and Medicaid, you should be required to work a certain number of hours. What’s your position on that? They’ve been talking about this for a while, by the way.

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Joe Courtney: Yeah. So I mean, if you look at the Medicaid program, if you take out people who are on social security and in nursing homes, which I think you know, that’s actually where the real money goes in the Medicaid program. The people who are covered by it are roughly, according to Sean Scanlon, it’s roughly about 75 to 80% are working in the system as it is. And that you know, again, means that really you’re, you’re dealing with people, probably with disabilities, who are not connected to the workforce. What we do know is this program, of, you know, so called work requirements, is going to create extra red tape in terms of administering the program. We know that because Georgia and Arkansas tried to do this, and it was a bust, you know, in terms of just, you know, really the amount of time that was consumed versus whatever return on investment. So, you know, people are going to, people are going to drop off the rolls. The issue of whether or not people on Medicaid are actually working, I think the numbers don’t lie. I mean, it’s not a program for people who are just sitting around playing video games like Speaker Johnson alleged the other day, which really was a, in my opinion, a disgraceful comment.

Mike Hydeck: So as we know, fraud in these programs has been an issue. There’s big cases in Florida. Throughout the country as well. In fact, this week, the Wall Street Journal reported that insurance company United Healthcare is being investigated by the Justice Department for overbilling. Can fraud be found in the system overall, in your opinion?

Joe Courtney: Absolutely. But if you really talk to people who are doing investigations for Medicaid fraud, there’s a whole unit in government in Connecticut that does this. It’s really, the most of the fraud, almost all of it, is in the provider side of the equation, where people, again, are gaming the billing system who are providers. You know, like is being alleged with United Healthcare. So you know, by all means, that effort should be sustained and expanded to make sure that nobody’s gaming the system. But in terms of beneficiaries, people who are recipients, the fraud numbers are tiny, and the value, or the the return on investment, is minuscule, as opposed to rip off artists who are basically running Medicaid mills, as they call them, that you know, that’s where the real fraud money is.

Mike Hydeck: Congressman Courtney, we have to leave it there. I have quite a few more questions. Hopefully we can have you back. We appreciate your time.

Joe Courtney: Happy to do so. Thanks, Mike.

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