DAVOL DIES DURING CHARITY RIDE
Longtime Connecticut political strategist Ben Davol is dead after suffering an apparent heart attack during a charity bicycle ride. Davol was participating in the Closer to Free event to fight cancer in New Haven on Saturday when he was stricken. Davol worked for politicians that include the late Senator John McCain and former Connecticut Congressman Rob Simmons. He was a Stonington resident, and was 58-years-old.
NORWICH ROTATING CHIEFS
The Norwich Fire Department’s four battalion chiefs will start a rotation on two-week assignments as acting fire chief. Former Chief Kenneth Scandariato officially retired last Thursday. A written agreement with the battalion chiefs has been reached with City Manager John Salomone until a permanent chief is selected. Salomone said last week the new fire chief job description will include emergency management director as a permanent dual role for the fire chief.
PRECINCT WORKERS BEING RETRAINED
Montville election officials will be retrained in assisting voters who are blind, disabled or unable to read or write. In 2017, a complaint was received from a woman who alleged moderators infringed on the voting rights of her husband, who has Alzheimer’s. In her complaint, the woman described the scene as an embarrassing “three-ring circus ” that resulted in election officials helping her husband in a non-private setting and violating his right to designate her as an assister. When told election officials would receive retraining, she said she would likely try to assist her husband to vote again this November.
LAW CENTER GETS NEW EXECUTIVE
The Immigration Advocacy and Support Center in New London has a new chief executive. He’s New London resident Joe Marino. The center offers free legal services to those who can’t afford help. A New York City native, Marino has worked as a law clerk and a pro se staff attorney in federal courts in Manhattan, Brooklyn and New Orleans. He was charged with researching and writing decisions in high-profile cases and helped people without lawyers understand how to keep their cases alive.
HOT SUMMER HELPFUL
The Northeastern states, which are some of the worst for Lyme disease in the U.S., may be benefitting from the hot summer. State officials are still totaling the number of Lyme cases from the summer months but indicators show the disease abating, and public health authorities are finding fewer deer ticks. The ticks have more difficulty surviving in hot and dry weather. Officials say its possible that the drought at the end of last summer killed a lot of ticks that should have appeared this spring. Some scientists have suggested that warming temperatures ultimately could make the disease more prevalent.
