MONTVILLE HIGH EMERGENCY SHELTER
Town officials have opened Montville High School as an emergency shelter, as the municipality is coping with a high number of power outages caused by yesterday’s Nor’easter. Eversource Energy reports more than 37-hundred outages in the town as of 7 PM today. Outages are also reported in other area towns, including Salem, Ledyard, Preston, and Griswold.
GOV STILL PUSHING WAGE HIKE
HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) – Gov. Dannel P. Malloy says he plans to get more involved in year’s legislative effort to increase Connecticut’s minimum wage. The Democrat said Thursday he was disappointed the General Assembly didn’t approve a pay raise for people earning the minimum wage, which became $10.10 an hour in January 2017. Malloy says lawmakers had focused on eventually increasing the wage to $15 an hour.
Malloy says “it will be a tremendous miss to not raise the minimum wage in Connecticut two years in a row.” The General Assembly’s Labor Committee heard testimony Thursday on a proposal to gradually increase the wage to $15 an hour by 2021. The Connecticut Restaurant Association opposes an increase, arguing that higher labor costs, coupled with increased commodity costs, will damage the state’s hospitality industry.
POSSIBLE GOV CANDIDATE SAYS NRA SHOULDN’T BE PART OF PERMITTING PROCESS
HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) – A call to end the National Rifle Association’s official role in Connecticut’s firearms permitting process is becoming an issue in the governor’s race. Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin, a Democrat exploring a possible gubernatorial run, wants state officials to remove the NRA from a state statute requiring residents seeking a pistol permit to complete a training course with NRA-certified instructors or a state agency. He says Connecticut is “inadvertently supporting” the NRA by recognizing it in statutes. Democratic Gov. Dannel P. Malloy agreed Thursday, claiming it’s “a betrayal of the children we lost at Sandy Hook” by referencing the NRA in state law. He’s not running for re-election. Republican governor candidates Peter Lumaj and Tim Herbst claim Bronin and Malloy are insulting law-abiding gun owners and trying to score political points.
FUGITIVE NABBED
A fugitive wanted in Florida on charges of domestic violence, and battery by strangulation, was picked up in Danielson. State police say 37-year old James Alston was taken into custody Tuesday evening while on Main Street. The Polk County Sheriff’s office in Winter Haven, Florida had an active arrest warrant out on Alston. He was presented in Danielson Superior Court, and was expected to be extradited to Florida.
PAY EQUITY PUSHED
A proposal to close the gender wage gap is generating plenty of support in Connecticut. Killingly senator Mae Flexer says the time has come for the legislature to approve a pay equity law. Sprague senator Cathy Osten is pushing a separate bill that would raise the state’s minimum wage to 15 dollars an hour. Osten and Flexer are also touting legislation that would create a paid family medical leave program in Connecticut. They spoke during a press conference in Hartford on Thursday.
BOTCHED DRUG DEAL
A drug deal gone bad has led to the arrest of a Greeneville teenager and two juveniles. Norwich police say 18-year old Pierre Dalce, Junior, along with the juveniles, are accused of robbing and assaulting a 17-year old male while trying to conduct a drug deal February 3rd on Howard Street. Police say the alleged victim was buying LSD from the accused, when Dalce pointed a gun at him, the juveniles punched him, and he gave them his cell phone, before being told to leave. The assailants then drove away. Dalce was arraigned Thursday in Norwich Superior Court, with bond set at 50-thousand dollars bond. He’s due back in court March 29th. The juveniles have been charged as well.
