Connecticut – Jobber Wiki

Casinos and Consulting? Pandemic Spurs Tribes to Diversify

26Feb

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News

Casinos and Consulting? Pandemic Spurs Tribes to Diversify

MASHANTUCKET, Conn. (AP) — When the COVID-19 pandemic shuttered Foxwoods Resort Casino in Connecticut for three months in 2020, its owners, the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation, had to reckon with decades of relying heavily on gambling as the tribe's main source of revenue.“The fact that the casino revenues went from millions to zero overnight just fully reiterated the need for diverse revenue streams,” said Tribal Chairman Rodney Butler.The 1,000-member tribe has since expanded its efforts to get into the federal government contracting business, making it one of several tribal nations to look beyond the casino business more seriously after the coronavirus crisis. Tribal leaders and tribal business experts say the global pandemic has been the latest and clearest sign that tribal govern...

Sundance Doc Looks Into Brett Kavanaugh Investigation

21Jan

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News

Sundance Doc Looks Into Brett Kavanaugh Investigation

PARK CITY, Utah (AP) — A new documentary looks into the sexual misconduct allegations against Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh and raises questions about the depth of the FBI investigation in 2018.“Justice,” from filmmaker Doug Liman, debuted Friday night at the Sundance Film Festival to a sold-out theater surrounded by armed guards.The film, made under intense secrecy, focuses on allegations made by Kavanaugh's Yale classmate Deborah Ramirez that were detailed in a New Yorker article in 2018. Ramirez alleged that at a gathering with friends when she was a freshman in 1983, Kavanaugh pulled down his pants and thrust his penis at her. Kavanaugh has denied those claims. “Justice” also plays a taped recording of a tip given to the FBI from another Yale classmate, Max Stier, that descr...

Wealth Looms Big as Ever in Post-Scandal College Admissions

15Jan

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Wealth Looms Big as Ever in Post-Scandal College Admissions

Celebrities wept in court. Coaches lost their jobs. Elite universities saw their reputations stained. And nearly four years later, the mastermind of the Varsity Blues scheme was sentenced this month to more than three years in prison.But there’s little belief the college bribery scandal has stirred significant change in the admissions landscape. Some schools tweaked rules to prevent the most flagrant types of misconduct, but the outsize roles of wealth, class and race — which were thrust into public view in shocking plainness — loom as large as ever.College admissions leaders say the case is an anomaly. Corrupt athletics officials abused holes in the system, they argue, but no college admissions officers were accused. Still, critics say the case revealed deeper, more troubling imbalance...

Yale Grad Students Vote to Unionize After Decadeslong Push

9Jan

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News

Yale Grad Students Vote to Unionize After Decadeslong Push

NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) — Graduate teachers and researchers at Yale University overwhelmingly voted to unionize, according to results released Monday.The final tally showed 91% of the more than 2,000 votes cast were in support of authorizing the formation of a bargaining unit, Local 33-UNITE HERE. It comes after decades of attempts to form a union, the first dating back to the early 1990s.“Generations of grad workers have organized before us, and I'm really excited to finally win,” Ridge Liu, a graduate student in school's physics department, said in a written statement. He said graduate workers need better pay and health care, as well as grievance procedures.Yale has seven days to file any objections. In a letter to the Yale community posted Monday, President Peter Salovey said “the univ...

1Dec

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Politics

10 years since Sandy Hook – what’s changed? Politics Weekly America special – podcast | Politics

On 14 December it will be 10 years since the Sandy Hook elementary school mass shooting, when a 20-year-old killed 20 children aged six and seven, as well as six adults. The Guardian’s Joan E Greve travelled to Newtown, Connecticut to speak with Nicole Hockley and Mark Barden of Sandy Hook Promise, the parents of Dylan and Daniel, who were killed that day. She meets teenagers from the Junior Newtown Action Alliance, who now go through terrifying lockdown drills as preparation for another shooting, who want to see more change in gun legislation. She also speaks with Senator Chris Murphy, who helped draft the first significant gun control policy in the US in 30 years this year. Together they discuss what more could and s...

Conn. Legislators Head Into Session on Gas Tax, Other Issues

27Nov

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News

Conn. Legislators Head Into Session on Gas Tax, Other Issues

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — Connecticut lawmakers are set to discuss gasoline taxes, heating-bill help, pandemic pay for essential workers and other issues when they convene Monday for a special legislative session.Gov. Ned Lamont said Wednesday he was calling the General Assembly into session to help Connecticut residents cope with “rising prices due to a number of international dynamics and market instability.”His proposals include extending the suspension of Connecticut's 25-cent-per-gallon gasoline tax. The suspension is currently set to end Nov. 30. The Democratic governor wants to keep the tax on hold through the end of the year, and then start adding back five cents per month until hitting the prior 25-cent-per-gallon amount in May.The governor also is asking the Democrat-led Assembly...

What’s Behind Worrying RSV Surge in US Children’s Hospitals?

24Oct

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News

What’s Behind Worrying RSV Surge in US Children’s Hospitals?

By CARLA K. JOHNSON, AP Medical WriterChildren's hospitals in parts of the U.S. are seeing a surge in a common respiratory illness that can cause severe breathing problems for babies.RSV cases fell dramatically two years ago as the pandemic shut down schools, day cares and businesses. With restrictions easing in the summer of 2021, doctors saw an alarming increase in what is normally a fall and winter virus.Now, it's back again. And doctors are bracing for how RSV, flu and COVID-19 could combine to stress hospital resources.“I'm calling it an emergency,” said Dr. Juan Salazar of Connecticut Children’s Hospital, where RSV has caused a shuffling of patients into playrooms and other spaces not normally used for beds. The institution explored using a National Guard field hospital, but has s...

Juul to pay nearly $440 million to settle states’ teen vaping probe

7Sep

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Business

Juul to pay nearly $440 million to settle states’ teen vaping probe

Electronic cigarette maker Juul Labs will pay nearly $440 million to settle a two-year investigation by 33 states into the marketing of its high-nicotine vaping products, which have long been blamed for sparking a national surge in teen vaping.Connecticut Attorney General William Tong announced the deal Tuesday on behalf of the states plus Puerto Rico, which joined together in 2020 to probe Juul's early promotions and claims about the safety and benefits of its technology as a smoking alternative.The settlement resolves one of the biggest legal threats facing the beleaguered company, which still faces nine separate lawsuits from other states. Additionally, Juul faces hundreds of personal suits brought on behalf of teenagers and others who say they became addicted to the company'...

Alex Jones’ media company files for bankruptcy amid defamation trial

30Jul

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Business

Alex Jones’ media company files for bankruptcy amid defamation trial

Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones' media company Free Speech Systems filed for bankruptcy on Friday — but his attorney said it should not disrupt the defamation damages trial underway in Texas that seeks to force Jones to pay $150 million or more to the family of one of the children killed in the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School attack.The trial in Austin, where Jones lives and Free Speech Systems is based, wrapped up its first week of testimony Friday and is expected to conclude next week. The bankruptcy filing was announced by Jones' attorney Andino Reynal late in the day.Reynal and attorneys for the family suing Jones told Judge Maya Guerra Gamble that the bankruptcy filing would not halt the lawsuit. The company wants "to put this part of t...

Abortion Access Finds a Place Even in Down-Ballot Campaigns

28Jul

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News

Abortion Access Finds a Place Even in Down-Ballot Campaigns

By SUSAN HAIGH and JULIE CARR SMYTH, Associated PressHARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — Appearing bare-shouldered in a TV ad, Connecticut Democrat Dita Bhargava looks directly into the camera and promises, if elected, to “lead the crusade" for abortion rights.Photos of other women flash on the screen, also with no clothes showing. “This is who have freedom over their own bodies stripped away,” Bhargava says in the commercial, referring to the U.S. Supreme Court's recent ruling overturning the constitutional right to abortion. “This is who the Supreme Court left completely vulnerable.”It would make sense to think Bhargava is running for governor, state legislature or Congress — positions that could play a direct role in future abortion laws. She's not. She's a candidate for state treasurer.Bhargava,...