WICC The Voice of Connecticut

We tackled invasive species during our Zoo Minute discussing mitten crabs and spotted lantern flies. How did they get here? Why are they such a problem? If we see them, how can we help mitigate the problem? Gregg Dancho addressed all of those questions. 

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This year's summer covid surge in Connecticut is not letting up just yet. According to the CDC, a big reason for the spike is due to the oppressive heat forcing people to gather indoors. 

Also, federal health officials say the number of measles cases in the U.S. this year already tripled the total for 2023.  

Dr. Fred Browne from Griffin Health was back with all the latest infectious disease topics including covid, measles and handling peanut allergies.

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Melissa welcomed in one her coworkers, Kevin Begley, to the program to talk about the Connecticut Pizza & Brew Fest, a festival he helped come up. 

Image Credit: Meghan Boyd

Host Paul Pacelli's Wednesday edition of "Connecticut Today" touched on a recent Wall Street Journal story detailing the number of states - including Connecticut - that are seeing a big jump in marijuana use connected to deadly road accidents (00:34). Connecticut Restaurant Association head Scott Dolch talked about a Hartford Courant story on recent restaurant closures in the state (13:36). Hearst Connecticut Media columnist and senior editor Dan Haar shared his thoughts on some of the state's major story (23:50)

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Continuing our previews of the Connecticut Pizza & Brew Fest, Melissa welcomed Leeane Paige, the owner of Big Green Truck Pizza! They talked about the legacy of the trucks, the pizza and everything in between, as well as the upcoming Pizza & Brew Fest.

Image Credit: Meghan Boyd

Tis the season for the Connecticut Pizza & Brew Fest! To kick off WICC's previews of it, Melissa welcomed Mark DiSilva, the Owner of BADSONS Beer Company to talk about the event, the brewery and its sister restaurant, SBC!

Image Credit: Meghan Boyd

While there are a lot of things happening and news headlines coming out of the Park City, most of our calls from Bridgeport residents are about Success Village and the Board of Education. We talked about them both with Bridgeport Mayor Joe Ganim.

Image Credit: Eric Urbanowicz

A new report highlighting the epidemic of drug, alcohol and suicide deaths was released to the public, thanks to Trust for America’s Health (TFAH). The data shows two things: first, improvement in combined substance misuse and suicide mortality rate in five years; and two, trends remain alarmingly high. We spoke with an author of the report, Dr. Nadine Gracia, who is also the President and CEO of TFAH.

For more information: Tfah.org

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This summer, there have been hundreds of orca whale attacks on boats off the coast of Spain. It’s a new trend we’re seeing and learned that this is a taught behavior and that orcas aren’t trying to cause harm, but believe they are playing. How do we know that though? Science expert, David Mestre, explains how a story of “salmon hat” in 1987 correlates to what’s happening today in orca news.

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Tuesday's "Connecticut Today" with host Paul Pacelli featured an update on U.S. Senate passage of the "Kids Online Safety Act," co-authored by Senator Richard Blumenthal (00:38). Quinnipiac University assistant professor of interactive media design John Powers also weighed in on Senate passage of that bill (12:44). Stratford GOP State Sen. Kevin Kelly talked about the precarious state of Connecticut's "small group" insurance market (23:13). We also featured our weekly check-in with Yankee Institute blogger Meghan Portfolio (32:03)

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