CONNECTICUT

Beginning Monday, Bradley International Airport in Windsor Locks will add a drive-thru COVID-19 testing site open to travelers and all other community members.

The Connecticut Airport Authority is partnering with Hartford HealthCare to run the site in parking Lot 3 off Schoephoester Road. This will be the health organization’s ninth permanent testing location in the state. 

A new study of natural gas infrastructure in Connecticut says harmful amounts of methane are leaking from aging underground gas pipes. The findings add to an emerging body of science demonstrating the scale of methane leaks in America.

The state’s new covid exposure app for cellphones has reached over 600,000 downloads in less than a week.  Launched last Thursday, the app for iPhone and Android systems lets people know they may have been exposed to COVID-19.

Kristen Record, a physics teacher at Bunnell High School in Stratford, says a lot of her students are bailing on school.

Officials say two people are dead and three others are injured following an explosion at a Veterans Affairs hospital in Connecticut.

Connecticut is paying a stiff price for more than a decade of poor growth in high-paying jobs.

Unprecedented federal unemployment assistance pushed personal income nationally up 10 percent amidst the pandemic. But Connecticut — with an economy dominated by retail and hospitality jobs — ranked dead last with only half the national wage growth, according to a new analysis from Pew Charitable Trusts.

Connecticut’s Secretary of the State plans to ask lawmakers to allow any registered voter to cast an absentee ballot in future elections. But the president of Connecticut’s Town Clerks Association says the state lacks the resources for widespread mail voting.

Connecticut has reverted to a modified Phase 2 reopening plan after an increase in coronavirus cases. Among the changes, indoor dining at restaurants had to drop back to 50% capacity. They’re also required to close by 10 p.m., which is a change from the governor’s initial order to close at 9:30. 

Broadcast sports giant ESPN is telling employees that pandemic-related layoffs are coming. In a company memo sent to NPR, Jimmy Pitaro, chairman, ESPN and sports content, revealed that 300 people would lose their jobs. He also said 200 open positions will be eliminated.

Voter turnout in Connecticut is at 25 percent ahead of Election Day. That’s according to Secretary of the State Denise Merrill based on the number of registered voters and absentee ballots returned so far.

Voters in three Connecticut cities favor reallocating police funding to social services — that’s according to a new poll from the ACLU of Connecticut.

Federal and state elected officials announced two new grants of nearly $150 million for infrastructure improvements of two bridges in Connecticut. The Connecticut Department of Transportation has been awarded nearly $80 million in federal funds to assist with replacing the 124-year-old Walk Bridge in Norwalk, which carries nearly 200 trains on the Metro-North line each day.

Connecticut officials anticipate the largest number of voters in state history to cast ballots in next Tuesday’s election. The state now has 2.3 million registered voters — 700,000 more than four years ago.

Citing gaping deficits caused by the pandemic and a lack of philanthropic support, the University of Connecticut announced Wednesday it is discontinuing a program to offer free tuition for all low-income students whose families make less than $50,000 a year.

Vaccinations continue across Connecticut with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reporting Wednesday that a total of 916,075 doses have been distributed to the state and 738,191 doses have been administered.

So far, about 14.2% of Connecticut’s population has received at least one vaccine dose, according to CDC data.

Meanwhile, state public health officials report 584 people hospitalized with COVID-19.

A civil rights group based in Hartford, Connecticut, says it's suing the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development over recent rollbacks to protections against racial segregation.

Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont said the state needs to do more to convince Black residents that a COVID-19 vaccine will be safe and effective. 

A new survey from the Public Policy Polling has found that less than half of Connecticut voters are concerned that absentee ballots are not as secure as in-person voting, but more than 80% prefer to visit their polling precincts. 

City officials in Danbury, Connecticut, are moving closer to naming the city’s sewage treatment plant after comedian John Oliver.

With a worrying 3% positivity rate in southeastern Connecticut, Gov. Ned Lamont advised continuing vigilance against COVID-19 on Monday, contradicting President Donald J. Trump’s upbeat tweet after undergoing cutting-edge treatment for the disease.

It took Rich Scalora and his crew four days to drive from Connecticut to the Hoopa Valley Indian Reservation in northwest California. Normally they’d hop on a plane and be there in a day. But this year COVID-19 forced the 10-person crew onto the road, for a drive out West that contained hints of what they’d face in California. 

Governor Ned Lamont has called Connecticut lawmakers back to the state Capitol for a special session this week to consider allowing local election officials to begin processing absentee ballots the Friday before Election Day.

A video featuring a police encounter with a Black person -- this time a Hartford woman -- is again highlighting the tense relationship between law enforcement and the communities it serves.

A proposal buried at the end of Connecticut’s so-called “take back our grid” legislation would potentially make utilities compete for control of the energy efficiency programs they’ve operated for more than 20 years. 

And that has some lawmakers and contractors asking: Why?