The short 2018 session means the legislature’s 26 working committees will be squeezing a lot of business into three months. Here are some possibilities that the could be on committee agendas and a few likely definite items: The Insurance and…

WATERBURY – The public can weigh in on tentative redevelopment plans for 70 acres around Freight Street downtown at City Hall Tuesday night. Using federal funds, the city is undertaking nearly $20 million in upgrades to local roads and pedestrian…

LITCHFIELD – It was an afternoon for the ladies – and Gilbert Library in Northfield – at the Northfield firehouse on Saturday. The library and its board of directors hosted the sixth annual Valentine Doll and Tea Luncheon, a fundraiser…

TORRINGTON – The Torrington Area Health District inspected the establishments listed below between Jan. 22 and Jan. 26. A minimum score of 80 is required to pass. “Pre” means the operation was inspected at its opening, after a change of…

WATERBURY – Mayor Neil M. O’Leary plans to raise at least $75,000 to hire 20 young men and women to clean the Naugatuck River as a summer job. “We are going to do a river brigade,” O’Leary said. “We will…

HARTFORD – State lawmakers in the closely divided legislature return Wednesday to try to straighten out the state’s budget mess and tackle other issues in a short, three-month session in an election year. The legislature will get Gov. Dannel P….

WOODBURY – The Region 14 Board of Education, in response to concerns about declining enrollment, formed a committee to study student numbers, district demographics and the space needs at all school buildings in both towns. Committee Chairman James Agostine recently…

It took the nation’s top environmental court seven months to decide on the merits of a proposed cleanup of PCBs from the Housatonic River. It took Dennis Regan a split-second to answer whether the ruling is good or bad for…

TORRINGTON – Burr Pond State Park was so crowded Saturday, people had to be turned away from the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection’s 12th annual Winter Festival. An estimated 1,000 people attended the event, which featured free ice fishing,…

WINSTED – Ben Paletsky believes his South Farms events facility in Morris could serve as a blueprint or the inspiration for future entrepreneurs in Northwest Connecticut. Speaking at the end of last week’s third annual Northwest Connecticut Economic Development Summit…

SOUTHBURY – Town leaders are considering an ordinance banning fracking waste in Southbury, joining other Connecticut towns including Andover, Ashford, Bloomfield and Lebanon. Food & Water Watch, a nonprofit organization that “champions healthy food and clean water for all,” and…

TORRINGTON – The casualties of budget cuts made last year, many of them capital projects, have not gone away. City and school leaders will need to consider about $5.9 million that was cut from the current budget when they craft…

TORRINGTON – After accepting a plea deal on charges she supplied narcotics to a 49-year-old man she left to die of an overdose in a city motel room in 2016, Krista Rafferty will be sentenced to up to four years…

WATERBURY Oil spill has far-reaching effects on rivers Six days after an industrial spill in Waterbury, an oily sheen could be seen along the banks of the Naugatuck River as far south as Derby, where it empties into the Housatonic…

  WATERBURY – Police are investigating a shooting, which led to a motor vehicle accident on Griggs Street in Waterbury early Saturday morning. Deputy Police Chief Fernando Spagnolo said at 3 a.m., Saturday a 29-year-old black male was driving east…

TORRINGTON He was the guy to talk to if you had a problem, whether it was work-related or at home. He always expected you to do the right thing, and he was an inspiration to many. Police officers long retired…

SOUTHBURY – Southbury’s grand list held steady despite the recent revaluation, dropping by 0.4 percent in 2017. Assessor Michael Moriarty says a grand list can have its biggest fluctuations after a revaluation when property values go up and down, according…

WATERBURY – Electric Banshee Tattoo has opened downtown and the Waterbury Regional Chamber welcomed them with a ribbon cutting on Jan. 19, the day before the shop’s grand opening party. Dora Sambuco said she and co-owner Bronwyn Lewandowski wanted an upscale,…

NAUGATUCK – If Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s threats to indefinitely freeze spending on new transportation projects and cut new trains from the Waterbury Branch come to fruition, the rail line will have new sidings and signalization without any trains to…

TORRINGTON – Found guilty by a jury in November of domestic violence charges lodged in 2015, Fredrik Holmgren was sentenced to 10 years in prison Friday in Torrington Superior Court. The 59-year-old former city man chose not to speak when…