Connecticut Lawmakers To Highlight Price Gouging Bill

Some Connecticut lawmakers are seeking support for legislation they say will address price gouging for storm-related services, such as snow removal and lodging during long power outages. Senate Majority Leader Martin Looney of New Haven, Wethersfield Sen. Paul Doyle and Bloomfield Rep. David Baram are appearing Monday at Mountain View Landscape in Cromwell to discuss the legislation. They say it addresses an inadequacy in Connecticut's current price gouging laws, which mainly apply to the price gouging of goods. The lawmakers said recent extreme weather events in Connecticut, including the Feb. 8 blizzard, have led to a higher demand for services. That has provided an  opportunity for unscrupulous businesses to gouge vulnerable consumers. Similar legislation was proposed over the past two years, but it ultimately failed

Bill Establishes Standards For Connecticut School Pools

Legislation that sets stronger pool safety measures following the recent deaths of two Connecticut students is facing a public hearing. The proposal establishes standards for people who can teach and supervise a physical education course using a swimming pool, requiring an additional supervisor to be on hand if a course has more than 25 students. The bill also requires school districts to create swimming pool safety plans and the state Department of Public Health to adopt regulations regarding swimming pools and natatoriums in the Public Health Code. The General Assembly's Education Committee is scheduled to hear testimony on the bill during a public hearing on Monday. A student at Manchester High School and a youngster at East Hartford High School drowned last year in their school pools.

Homeowners Face Stark Choices After Sandy

Hundreds of homeowners in Connecticut are facing stark choices after Superstorm Sandy flooded their homes: Sell, demolish and rebuild or elevate. In flood zones, houses must comply with elevation requirements if the cost to repair damage exceeds half the home's value. The requirements are related to the current sea level In Connecticut, officials say about 3,000 homes were damaged by Sandy, including about 500 that had major damage. In Fairfield, officials say 100 to 200 homes suffered that level of damage and homeowners will have to elevate, demolish or sell. Twelve permits have been issued to lift houses. Some are selling because it's too costly or overwhelming to rebuild, while others are taking on huge debts and enduring many months out of their homes while they repair and elevate.

Former Anti-Apartheid Activist To Speak At Yale

A former anti-apartheid activist will talk at Yale University about South Africa's transition from apartheid to democracy. Colin Coleman, head of Goldman Sachs Sub Saharan Africa, will give a behind-the-scenes account on Monday. The Yale talk is free and open to the public. Titled "South Africa: How it won Its freedom and what it's doing with It now," the talk will be at the Luce Hall auditorium at 4 p.m. It is sponsored by the Whitney and Betty MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies at Yale. Yale says in the 1980s Coleman was involved in bringing about the end of apartheid in South Africa and later in the nation's transition to a new constitution. Coleman also is credited with helping negotiate an agreement for all parties to participate in South Africa's 1994 elections.

Mother Frustrated In Search For Dead Son's Jewelry

The mother of a shooting victim who died in a Bridgeport hospital last year is demanding the return of her son's jewelry. The Connecticut Post reports that Gloristine Thomas says three rings and other jewelry belonging to Greg Thomas are valued at more than $2,500. She says St. Vincent's Medical Center, where her son died, has not returned the items. St. Vincent's says law enforcement has the jewelry, but police say they don't have the rings. A few days after the killing on New Year's Day 2012, police returned her the wallet of her 26-year-old son. It contained about $70. William Kaempffer, a spokesman for Bridgeport police, said detectives collected evidence at the crime scene, but did not have Greg Thomas' rings.

House Speaker Seeks Regionalism To Cut Town Costs

Connecticut House Speaker J. Brendan Sharkey is again seeking a regional approach for towns to cut costs. The Journal Inquirer reports that Sharkey appointed Rep. Timothy Larson of East Hartford to head the Municipal Opportunities and Regional Efficiencies Commission. He is to propose changes to state law to promote regionalism. The commission's ideas likely will be given priority by lawmakers. Larson said he hopes to include changes in the two-year state budget that lawmakers will pass this spring. Sharkey says towns must learn to save money because the state will eventually cut municipal funding. One idea is that towns save on computer technology costs by sharing computer servers. Sharkey and Larson acknowledge that previous efforts to get cities and towns to team up to save money have failed.

UConn Offers Degree In Digital Media

Students at the University of Connecticut will soon be able to get a degree in the relatively new field of digital media and design. UConn's Board of Trustees last week approved two new degree programs. The school's Department of Digital Media & Design will begin offering a bachelor of arts and a bachelor of fine arts degree next fall. More than 135 students are already involved in the program. Digital media and design encompasses everything from creating visual effects for television to making computer images of molecules and cells to innovative digital advertising. The school says the fine arts program will focus on creating the digital media, which students earning a B.A. will specialize in using digital media techniques in marketing, science, and other fields.

Yale To Announce Literary Prize Winners

Yale University is planning to announce the winners of new $150,000 global literary prizes. The first recipients of the Donald Windham-Sandy M. Campbell Literature Prizes will be announced Monday by Yale President-Elect Peter Salovey. The Windham-Campbell Prizes recognize English-language writers for outstanding achievement in fiction, nonfiction and drama. The prizes, established with a gift from the estate of Donald Windham, are administered by the Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library. Writers do not apply for the prizes themselves. Experts in the field are asked to submit names for consideration. Recipients are each awarded $150,000 to support their writing. Winners must receive their awards in person at a ceremony at Yale in September and take part in a three-day literary festival celebrating their work.