WICC The Voice of Connecticut

Governor Ned Lamont signed a bill into law this week that passed in the state senate and house last week in a special session. Republican Senators alerted the media that shady politics went into this legislation and described the agenda as an arrogant majority move. We wanted to know what state Democratic lawmakers thought about that. Connecticut House Speaker Matt Ritter shared feedback on this and specifics around the new law.

** NOTE: We reached out to Senate Majority Leader Bob Duff, Senate President Martin Looney and Governor Ned Lamont but did not hear back. **

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Host Paul Pacelli opened Tuesday's "Connecticut Today" with more revelations from Washington insiders about President Joe Biden's fitness for office (00:31). Connecticut Inside Investigator reporter Marc Fitch detailed recent arbitration decisions affecting the telecommuting policy for state workers (12:47). Yankee Institute blogger Meghan Portfolio talked about the recent General Assembly special session (23:55)

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Monday's "Connecticut Today" with Paul Pacelli jump started a new week and new month with Paul's thoughts on the role of First Lady Jill Biden in the current controversy over whether her husband should leave the 2024 White House race (00:41). CT NewsJunkie columnist and Substack.com blogger Terry Cowgill also weighed in on the mounting pressure for President Joe Biden to drop out of the 2024 race (14:17). Landmark Legal Foundation Attorney and Vice President of Legal Affairs Mike O'Neill analyzed the final two U.S. Supreme Court decisions of the current term, including one regarding an immunity claim by former President Donald Trump (27:05)

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We are continuing to follow local and state elections ahead of the 2024 general election. We welcomed Senator Ryan Fazio, representing the 36th State Senate District. This district consists of several sections of southern Fairfield County, including Greenwich, portions of Stamford and New Canaan. We learned what the incumbent senator believes he’s achieved since being elected to office in 2021 and what he wants to continue working on if re-elected in November.

Image Credit: Senator Ryan Fazio

If you are always running late, does that tell a bigger story about you as a worker and can it derail your career? According to new research, the youngest generation of workers believes 10 minutes late is still right on time. The online meeting company, Meeting Canary, asked over 1,000 British adults about their attitudes to punctuality and almost half of those aged 16 to 26 said that being between five and 10 minutes late is just as good as being punctual. However, a staggering 70% of boomers surveyed said they have zero tolerance for any level of tardiness. We asked career strategist, Julie Bauke, about ‘being on time’ and whether it’s an archaic indicator of workers.

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It’s been a horrible stretch of tragedies on Connecticut highways in the last month. And now there are more calls for state worker protections on our state roads. Connecticut State Police Trooper First Class, Aaron Pelletier, was struck and killed by a motor vehicle on May 30, while performing a traffic stop on I-84. And Connecticut Department of Transportation employee, Andrew DiDomenico, was struck and killed by a motor vehicle on June 28, while performing routine maintenance to a greenway is adjacent to an on and off-ramp connecting to I-91 in Wallingford. We asked Josh Morgan of the DOT if laws can really change the problems we are seeing on the roadways or does it come down to education and driver behavior?

 

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National statistics show almost three quarters of the US population stresses about just planning a vacation. On average, most people deal with pre-vacation, vacation and post-vacation stress. So, if stress is inevitable with vacation, how do we handle it in a healthy way and are there signs that there’s a deeper problem brewing in life outside the vacation expectations? We spoke with counselor, Julius Dudics, about it.

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The AARP Connecticut Livable Communities Grant Program is now open for applications to help fund community improvement projects across Connecticut. What is the liveable communities grant program? What kind of projects are getting approval over the years? Who can apply and how much money can a town or city get for a project? We got all the details from Nora Duncan, state director of AARP Connecticut.

For the application: www.aarp.org/ct

 

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We did a power hour with Bridgeport city officials all about summer safety:

-- Scott Appleby / Director of Emergency Management

-- Chief Roderick Porter / Police Dept.

-- Chief Lance Edwards / Fire Dept.

IMAGE CREDIT: Tiadora Josef 

Summer is officially here and it’s not just the temperatures going up. There are three scams we see big upticks in during this time of year: vacation rental scams, utility company imposters and paving scams. Kristen Johnson of the Better Business Bureau outlines the three scams and how to protect yourself from them.

To report a scam or look up a scam visit BBB's Scam Tracker at bbb.org/scamtracker

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