ELECTION DAY
Voter turnout this Election Day reported steady, as voters decide local municipal races. Norwich registrars report 22-percent turnout as of 5 PM today, lower than the previous municipal contests 2 years ago, Montville 21-percent, Waterford 22-percent. Polls are open until 8 PM.
ATTEMPTED ESCAPE
A Suffield woman who tried to bust out of the York Correctional Institution in Niantic this morning didn’t make it very far. 24-year-old Caitlin Roncalli was taken to York on Monday after being arrested in Southington and charged with various offenses, including carrying a dangerous weapon. State police Trooper Kelly Grant says Roncalli snuck out of her housing unit and made her way into the prison yard. She started climbing the fence, but Grant says she was captured quickly. Roncalli has been charged with first-degree escape from a correctional institution.
ENFIELD PRISON CLOSING
ENFIELD, Conn. (AP) – Connecticut Gov. Dannel P. Malloy says the state will close another prison in response to declining crime rates. The Democratic governor announced Tuesday that the medium security Enfield Correctional Institution, which currently houses about 700 inmates, will close in early 2018. Enfield, which opened in 1962, is the seventh prison or section of a prison to close since 2010. Malloy says the move will save the state about $6.5 million in operating costs. He says there are now just over 14,000 inmates in the Connecticut prison system. That is down from just under 19,900 in 2008 and more than 800 fewer than at the same time a year ago. Malloy says the state hopes to redeploy many of the prison’s 190 staff members to nearby facilities.
VANDALISM ARRESTS
Stonington police have charged two 17-year old high school students with vandalizing a soccer field named in memory of a local 9/11 victim. The two suspects are accused of using an SUV to tear up Josh Piver Field Saturday night or early Sunday morning. The names of the accused aren’t being released due to their age. They are to appear in Juvenile Court. Town officials sys it’ll cost some 3-thousand dollars to repair the field, which will be done in two phases. Josh Piver is a 1996 Stonington High graduate, and former goalkeeper for the soccer team, who died while working in the World Trade Center in New York on 9/11.
ANTHEM AND HARTFORD HEALTH CARE TOLD TO MAKE A DEAL
HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) – Some of Connecticut’s largest employers are calling on Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield and Hartford HealthCare to immediately resolve a contract dispute they say is disrupting care for many patients. A letter was sent Tuesday to presidents of both entities from state Comptroller Kevin Lembo, the chairman of the Mohegan Tribal Council which owns and operates the Mohegan Sun casino, two top officials from West Hartford and the executive director of a group representing union health benefits funds. Anthem and Hartford HealthCare both failed to reach an agreement last month on a new three-year contract. Due to the missed deadline, state patients insured through Anthem are considered out-of-network and now face higher out-of-pocket costs. The employers are warning how their workers are frustrated and are finding alternative providers.
ALL RERUNS ON CT-N
HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) – The office overseeing Connecticut’s State Capitol complex is airing a loop of old programming until it figures out how to run the state’s cable TV and online public affairs network for near future. Jim Tracy, executive director of the Office of Legislative Management, said Tuesday his office is “trying to put something together for the rest of the fiscal year” within available funds. The fiscal year ends June 30. The Connecticut Public Affairs Network, Inc., the nonprofit entity that’s been running the Connecticut Television Network, last week terminated its agreement to operate CT-N, citing devastating budget cuts and “encroachments on our editorial independence.” The vendor has been at odds with legislators about its coverage. Legislative Management has invited the network’s staff to submit applications to possibly keep working at CT-N.
