Regional News

Connecticut public education is to get $1.1 billion from the federal rescue package. Governor Ned Lamont said he wants to use “a fair amount” of the money for summer school and children’s mental health services.

Health care advocates and immigrants rights groups are urging Connecticut lawmakers to expand the state’s Medicaid program eligibility to undocumented immigrants.

Proposed legislation in the state human services committee would allow anyone who meets state residency and income thresholds to enroll in HUSKY Health plans, regardless of citizenship status. 

One year ago, Gov. Charlie Baker ordered all schools and child care centers closed for three weeks, in hopes of slowing the spread of the new coronavirus.

In the next month, more students are scheduled to return to classrooms for the first time in over a year.

Massachusetts Elementary and Secondary Education Commissioner Jeffrey Riley spoke with WBUR’s Morning Edition. Highlights from this interview have been lightly edited for clarity.

Interview Highlights

On the hardest part of the past year for him as a parent

U.S. Sens. Chris Murphy and Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut joined House Speaker Nancy Pelosi Thursday to support the passage of stricter gun laws.

Essential workers infected by the coronavirus want Connecticut’s workers’ compensation system updated to meet their needs.

Connecticut is now the eighth state to have a law that prohibits discrimination against anyone because of the way they choose to wear their hair. Governor Ned Lamont signed the CROWN Act into law at a ceremony in Hartford on Wednesday.

On the edge of the Reggie Lewis Center’s indoor track turned mass vaccination site, Emily Rice barely seems to notice the hundreds of people getting inoculated in front of her. Instead, she’s focused entirely on the tiny vial between her fingertips. In her other hand, she eases the plunger back on a syringe, drawing 0.3 milliliters of the Pfizer vaccine into its chamber.

The race for governor of Massachusetts has begun — even though Election Day is still more than a year and a half away. The incumbent, Republican Charlie Baker, hasn’t said if he’ll seek a third term, but Democrat Ben Downing is already running.

The 39-year-old former state senator, who announced his candidacy in the 2022 gubernatorial race last month, has defied the political odds once before, and is hoping that his early start can help him do it again.

There’s a small business inside a big warehouse in an industrial area of Worcester.

Walk inside, and you’ll see scrawls in neon magic marker all over the walls — rants against cancer, against Donald Trump, against COVID.

And you’ll hear the sounds of pent-up pandemic frustration being let out.

This is a place where you go to break things. Where you’re supposed to bash and crush and pummel. It’s called Smash It 2.

Customer Danielle Blanchard has brought a bag full of stuff to smash to smithereens.

Gov. Ned Lamont has announced he will lift capacity restrictions for most businesses in Connecticut on March 19.

A day after President Biden and other public officials ramped up pressure to vaccinate teachers, Gov. Charlie Baker announced that teachers, school staff and early childhood educators will be able to sign up for the COVID-19 vaccine starting Thursday, March 11.

Baker said there will be specific days at state mass vaccination sites for educator appointments, and that he will release more information about that soon.