The Center on Climate Change and Health at the Yale School of Public Health has just released a report on climate change and health in Connecticut. It comes to some troubling conclusions and makes urgent calls to action. One of the authors of that report is Laura Bozzi, Ph.D. She outlined the report’s findings on Connecticut Public Radio’s All Things Considered .

“Essentially, all life depends upon the soil. There can be no life without soil and no soil without life; they have evolved together.” That was Charles Kellogg writing in the USDA Book of Agriculture about 100 years ago. There's a new appreciation of our soils underfoot, especially as we search for ways to slow the pace of global warming. Soils and plant roots can capture carbon from the atmosphere and hold it in the soil for decades. Soil is also a living entity upon which all life depends.

Shootings are up in Hartford in 2020, including what the city’s mayor calls an “unusual and severe” spike into the fall. And while this problem isn’t unique to Hartford, there is a major effort underway to pinpoint the cause of the problem in Connecticut’s capital.

Yale Law School and the National Veterans Council for Legal Redress are calling for the release of incarcerated veterans who may be at high risk of contracting COVID-19.

Typically, the foot traffic in and out of the Wheeler Family Health and Wellness Center on Woodland Avenue in Hartford would be pretty steady. But since the COVID-19 pandemic hit in March, Keturah Kinch said in-person activity has been a bit quieter.

The U.S. Supreme Court’s new 6-3 conservative majority was assumed by many to be the death knell for the Affordable Care Act. But a funny thing seems to have happened Tuesday during oral arguments. Conservative Justices John Roberts and Brett Kavanaugh appeared to indicate their support for leaving the ACA intact -- with the exception of the individual mandate.

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.

Horns honked across New Haven around noon Saturday, just after Joe Biden was declared the projected winner of the presidency. Cities across the country held impromptu gatherings in the street, but the scene in downtown New Haven was more subdued.

Even in a deep blue state like Connecticut, Saturday’s announcement of Joe Biden’s win in the U.S. presidential election was met with a mixture of caution, elation, disappointment and disapproval. Two opposing camps of people outside the Capitol building in Hartford made that well known as they shouted at each other from opposite sides of Capitol Avenue -- President Donald Trump supporters in front of the gold-domed building and Biden supporters in front of the state Supreme Court.

Three days after Election Day, no president-elect had yet been named. As the wait for a decision stretched out, voters on both sides of the partisan divide are anxiously awaiting a call. The Naugatuck River Valley is home to both kinds of voters.