Category Archives: Connecticut

More than 10,000 US hotel workers strike on Labor Day weekend

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Staff demand wage increases and reversal of pandemic-era cutbacks that impose ‘painful’ working conditions

Thousands of US hotel workers went on strike on Sunday for improved pay and conditions in a dispute likely to disrupt many Labor Day weekend holiday travelers, amid union warnings that industrial action could escalate.

More than 10,000 workers walked off the job at hotels in Boston, Seattle, Honolulu, Kauai and Greenwich, Connecticut, as well as the Californian cities of San Francisco, Sand Diego and San Jose after contract talks with the establishments’ owners collapsed.

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US rapper Fatman Scoop dies after collapsing on stage mid-performance

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New York-born artist, 53, known for collaborating with Missy Elliott, was performing in Connecticut on Friday

The US rapper Fatman Scoop has died after he collapsed mid-performance during a free concert in Connecticut on Friday night, according to reports.

The New York-born artist, whose real name is Isaac Freeman III, was headlining the so-called Green & Gold Party in Hamden, Connecticut, when he had what was described as a medical emergency. He was seen in a video posted on X to have collapsed behind the DJ booth after urging concertgoers to “make some noise”.

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Yale students continue hunger strike in protest over Israel’s war on Gaza

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Protesters into seventh day of hunger strike in support of Palestinians and in effort to demand university divestment

A group of students at Yale University were on Friday into the seventh day of a hunger strike in support of Palestinians in Gaza and in a protest to pressure the university to divest from any weapons manufacturing companies potentially supplying the Israeli military.

The group titles itself Yale Hunger Strikers for Palestine and one protester, the graduate student Miguel Monteiro, described losing weight and feeling dizzy, while attempting to put the group’s efforts into a wider perspective.

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Biden and Trump sweep four primaries including battleground state Wisconsin

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Both candidates have clinched nominations, but Connecticut, New York, Rhode Island and Wisconsin turnout may hint at 2024 results

Both Joe Biden and Donald Trump won primary elections in four states, including the crucial battleground state of Wisconsin.

Hundreds of delegates were up for grabs in Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York and Wisconsin on Tuesday, and Biden and Trump have already amassed enough delegates to win their respective nominations. But the turnout could provide more clues about the general election in November.

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Wisconsin, New York, Rhode Island and Connecticut primaries: follow live results

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Voters cast ballots in four states including key battleground for Trump and Biden. Get up to speed with the results as they come in

Voters in Connecticut, New York, Rhode Island and Wisconsin cast ballots in the presidential primaries on Tuesday. Much attention will be paid to Wisconsin, where voters will signal strength and weaknesses in the critical swing state for Joe Biden and Donald Trump.

There are also options in Connecticut, Rhode Island and Wisconsin for voters to choose “uncommitted” in a show of protest against Biden’s support for Israel in the war in Gaza.

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Joe Lieberman, former US senator and vice-presidential nominee, dies at 82

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Lieberman, Connecticut senator for four terms, was Al Gore’s Democratic running mate in 2000

The former US senator Joe Lieberman, who ran as the Democratic nominee for vice-president in the 2000 election and became the first Jewish candidate on a major-party ticket for the White House, alongside presidential candidate Al Gore, has died at the age of 82.

Lieberman died in New York due to complications from a fall, according to a statement from his family. He was a Connecticut senator for four terms.

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Alex Jones offers $55m to Sandy Hook families to satisfy $1.5bn judgment

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Families of the slain schoolchildren had earlier proposed an $85m settlement for the Infowars host’s lies about the 2012 massacre

The conspiracy theorist Alex Jones has proposed to pay $55m over 10 years to the Sandy Hook families who sued him for spreading lies that the 2012 school massacre in Connecticut, one of the worst in American history, was a hoax.

The offer came after a Texas judge ruled that Jones, the host of Infowars, could not use bankruptcy protection to dodge the nearly $1.5bn he was ordered to pay to the victims’ families, who suffered abuse and threats from believers of Jones’s lies.

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Peruvian man arrested for making more than 150 bomb threats to US schools

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Suspect, arrested in Peru, allegedly threatened schools after failing to ‘sextort’ nude photos from schoolchildren

A Peruvian man was arrested in Peru for sending more than 150 fake bomb threats to US schools, airports and a synagogue.

Eddie Manuel Núñez Santos, 33, was arrested by Peruvian officials on Tuesday in Lima, according to a press release from the justice department.

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Floods, tornadoes, heat: more extreme weather predicted across US

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Over a third of Americans under extreme heat warnings as Vermont, still recovering from historic flooding, prepares for more storms

The US is bracing for more extreme weather from coast to coast, with a heatwave hitting California, tornados in the midwest and the east expecting more rain as it continues to reel from historic flooding.

Residents of Vermont, still suffering from an onslaught of dangerous weather in recent days, are preparing for another round of severe storms in the area beginning as early as Thursday night.

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US faces week of dangerous weather with flooding and heatwave alerts

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While the north-east was inundated by heavy rains, southern states are gripped by record heat levels predicted to intensify

Deadly flooding in the north-east on Monday coupled with alerts over longer, hotter heatwaves set to boil much of the southern and western US kicked off a week of dangerous weather, as July warnings about the climate crisis intensify.

Rescue teams raced into Vermont after relentless, torrential rain drenched parts of New England and north-east overnight, washing out roads, forcing evacuations and halting some airline travel.

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At a glance: what you need to know about Canada wildfires and smoky US skies

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Hazy skies hung over north-eastern US a day after the midwest received a similar alert from the Environmental Protection Agency

Canada is dealing with a series of intense wildfires that have spread from the western provinces to Quebec, with hundreds of forest fires burning. Wind has carried smoke from the fires southward, triggering air-quality alerts throughout the United States.

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Tuesday issued a poor air-quality alert for New England, a day after parts of Illinois, Wisconsin and Minnesota received a similar advisory. Last week, US officials as far south as Maryland, Virginia and Pennsylvania reported being affected by the wildfires.

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North-east arctic blast sets record -108F wind chill on New Hampshire summit

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Dangerously cold temperatures and wind chills dropped as low as -45 to -50F across the rest of the region

Arctic air in the US north-east on Saturday brought dangerously cold temperatures and wind chills including a record-setting -108F (-78C) on the summit of Mount Washington in New Hampshire.

Authorities in Massachusetts took the unusual step of keeping the South Station transit hub open so homeless people had a place to sleep. High winds brought down a tree branch on a car in western Massachusetts, killing an infant.

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Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones seeks new trial after nearly $1bn Sandy Hook verdict

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Jury ordered Jones to pay $965m in damages to families subjected to harassment from Jones’s lies about Newtown school shooting

Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones has asked a Connecticut judge to throw out a nearly $1bn verdict against him and order a new trial in a lawsuit by Sandy Hook families, who say they were subjected to harassment and threats from Jones’s lies about the 2012 Newtown school shooting.

Jones filed the requests Friday, saying Judge Barbara Bellis’s pretrial rulings resulted in an unfair trial and “a substantial miscarriage of justice”.

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Criminal charges dropped against man left with paralysis in US police custody

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Randy Cox was arrested by Connecticut law enforcement and en route a detention center when he was knocked against a van wall

A man who was left partially paralyzed while in police custody has had all criminal charges against him dropped.

On 19 June, 36-year-old Randy Cox of New Haven, Connecticut, was arrested on charges of illegal handgun possession. Cox was put into a police transport van without any seatbelts and was en route to a detention center when the officer behind the wheel, Oscar Diaz, suddenly braked. Video footage released by Cox’s family and published by CNN shows a handcuffed Cox sliding across the bench and hitting the van’s wall with his head.

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Alex Jones ordered to pay Sandy Hook families $965m over hoax claims

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Verdict is second big judgment against Infowars host over promotion of the lie that the 2012 massacre never happened

The conspiracy theorist Alex Jones should pay $965m to people who suffered from his false claim that the Sandy Hook elementary school shooting was a hoax, a jury in Connecticut decided on Wednesday.

The verdict is the second big judgment against the Infowars host over his relentless promotion of the lie that the 2012 massacre never happened, and that the grieving families seen in news coverage were actors hired as part of a plot to take away people’s guns.

The Associated Press contributed reporting

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Progressive Ilhan Omar wins closer-than-expected House primary in Minnesota

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Democrats select progressive Becca Balint for Vermont House seat while Trump-backed candidate nominated for Wisconsin governor

Minnesota congresswoman Ilhan Omar, a member of the select progressive group in the House of Representative dubbed the Squad, eked out a closer-than-expected Democratic primary victory on Tuesday night against a centrist challenger who questioned the incumbent’s support for the “defund the police” movement.

The evening went far smoother for another progressive, Becca Balint, who won the Democratic House primary in Vermont – positioning her to become the first woman representing the state in Congress.

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Alex Jones worth up to $240m, expert says, as family seeks punitive damages

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Jones ordered to pay $4.1m for defaming Sandy Hook parents by claiming shooting was a hoax, but could be forced to pay more

A financial expert testifying for the parents of a child killed in the 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting has estimated that Alex Jones and his media company are worth between $135m and $240m as they seek punitive damages beyond the $4.1m they secured a day ago for the US conspiracy theorist’s falsehoods about the massacre.

The expert, Bernard Pettingill, said from the witness stand in an Austin courtroom that Jones and his Free Speech Systems company earned more than $50m annually between 2016 to 2021 – even as popular social media companies banned him from promoting himself through them – due to his “rabid following” of millions.

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Connecticut mechanic finds art worth millions in dumpster at abandoned barn

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Work by Francis Hines, who wrapped buildings and paintings and died at 96 in 2016, found in dumpster and now destined for sale

Paintings and other artwork found in an abandoned barn in Connecticut turned out to be worth millions of dollars.

Notified by a contractor, Jared Whipple, a mechanic from Waterbury, retrieved the dirt-covered pieces from a dumpster which contained materials from a barn in Watertown.

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Nor’easter lashes eastern US with snow and wind gusts near hurricane force

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  • Philadelphia, New York and Boston in path of storm
  • Flooding, high winds and cold weather expected

A nor’easter with hurricane-force wind gusts battered much of the US east coast on Saturday, flinging heavy snow that made travel treacherous or impossible, flooding coastlines and threatening to leave bitter cold in its wake.

The storm thrashed parts of 10 states, with blizzard warnings from Virginia to Maine. Philadelphia and New York saw plenty of wind and snow, but Boston was in the crosshairs. The city could get more than 2ft of snow by early Sunday.

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Hurricane Ida death toll nears 60 as states begin to comb through debris

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The US death toll from Hurricane Ida rose towards 60 on Saturday, nearly a week after one of the most powerful storms ever to hit the US mainland made landfall in Louisiana. Two more evacuated nursing home residents were confirmed to have died in the southern state.

Related: Louisiana Shell refinery left spewing chemicals after Hurricane Ida

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