The racial injustice reckoning the nation is experiencing in the wake of George Floyd’s death has only amplified calls for sports teams to get rid of Native American nicknames. That’s a movement that was already underway in Connecticut.

Elizabeth Marshall Thomas has spent most of her life observing the natural world and writing about it. She’s written 14 books over her half-century career, including the New York Times-bestselling book “The Hidden Life of Dogs.” Her new book, “ Growing Old: Notes On Aging With Something Like Grace ,” came out this year. Thomas, 88, joined NEXT and talked about enjoying the slower pace of aging.

The Trump administration’s decision to issue a policy requiring international students at American universities to attend in-person classes in the fall or lose their visa status has caused a firestorm of criticism. The dean of Yale Law School, Heather Gerken, has released a strong statement in opposition to the move.

The pandemic has forced many people in New England into a dire economic situation. But there is at least one potential silver lining: the opportunity for climate action. It’s likely the federal government will approve stimulus money again to try to boost the economy, and many environmentalists propose we intentionally direct some of those funds toward “green” recovery.

This time of year it's important to be on the look out for weeds in the lawn and garden. One new Asian weed import that's spreading around the state is Japanese stiltgrass.

The killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis six weeks ago became a catalyst for the current, massive nationwide movement calling for an end to systemic racism. It’s also led communities to take a deeper look within, specifically racism as the root cause of poorer health care and health outcomes among Black residents.

If you want to find a group of people whose ears really perked up when the state announced plans to return K-12 students to classrooms this fall, look no further than parents of kids with severe disabilities. These special needs students got invaluable help learning and socializing from a team of professionals in school. That help was left up to the parents alone as schools moved to distance learning to slow the spread of the coronavirus.

At Bradley International Airport on a recent Wednesday, Lizzie McClellan had just gotten off a flight from Georgia, where she was visiting her grandmother for the last two weeks. Georgia happens to be on a list of states that are becoming hot spots for new COVID-19 cases. McClellan said because she frequently went to places that were open there, she plans to quarantine at home in Connecticut and get tested.

When the Connecticut Trail Census began in 2017, it relied on a group of electronic sentinels. They were tiny boxes, housing infrared counters, which logged trail visits across the state. The intent was to provide local and state officials a clearer picture about how trails were being used and could be improved.

Bridgeport is once again facing a federal criminal investigation into its City Hall. Mayor Joe Ganim was reelected to run the city in 2015 after having spent seven years in prison for corruption while previously in office.