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The Hartford Yard Goats are rewriting the lyrics to “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” after announcing earlier this month its Dunkin’ Donuts Park will be peanut-free. The Yard Goats, Double-A affiliate of the Colorado Rockies, are believed to be the first team to ban peanuts for an entire season. Peanuts are prevalent at baseball stadiums, making it difficult for children with peanut allergies to attend games. The Yard Goats held two peanut-free games last year where the park banned the item and did a deep clean of the stadium.

The chairman of a Connecticut school district's board of education resigned after the board voted to begin each meeting by reciting the Pledge of Allegiance. Josh Adams, chairman of the New Hartford Board of Education, ( reportedly stepped down) after opposing a vote by his fellow board members. Adams was overruled after telling board members that he would not propose the policy in a meeting, saying he decides on the agenda as chairman. He also said he doesn't pledge allegiance to anything and supports "principles on which the country was founded."

Southington — Oz Griebel, a petitioning candidate for governor who once led the state Transportation Strategy Board, told an audience of construction executives and union members Friday that Connecticut must embrace electronic tolling and higher gasoline taxes to preserve and improve its transportation infrastructure.At a transportation forum for Democratic and unaffiliated candidates, Griebel offered the broadest prescription for how to stabilize and grow a special transportation fund now projected to hit insolvency by 2022, leaving the state unable to borrow money to address a growing backlog of transportation needs.Many of the Democrats, unlike the Republican field at a similar event...

New York City is halting a $9.6 million incentive package offered to Aetna to move its headquarters to the city. The insurance giant announced in June that it would move its headquarters to New York City beginning in late 2018 after nearly two centuries in Hartford, Connecticut. But those plans were put on hold after CVS Health Corp. said in December that it was buying Aetna for $69 billion in a deal that would help the drugstore chain reach deeper into customer health care and protect a key client. At that time, Aetna said all of its locations would be...

Moody’s Investor Service issued a dire warning to lenders Thursday: Hartford will likely default on its debt by November and, if the city does not change course, will run up annual deficits exceeding $60 million through the next twenty years. On Sept. 26, Moody’s downgraded the city’s bond rating to Caa3 from Caa1, reflecting the investor service’s belief that “in the likely event of a default, bondholder recovery will be 65%-80% of principal,” it stated Thursday. Moody’s projects the city’s operating deficits will reach $60 million to $80 million per year through 2036, largely driven by fixed costs, which command...

Connecticut abolished tollbooths more than 30 years ago, and every attempt to reinstate them since has been blown out of the water. But that would have to change, says U.S. Rep. John B. Larson, D-1st District, should his proposed underground highway system in Hartford become reality. For the last eight months Larson has talked to nearly every civic group, news editorial board, local business, municipal government, state agency, and federal office, trying to drum up support for his proposed $10 billion “big dig” project. So far, support has been hit or miss for the plan that would sink interstates 84...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Hartford, the capital city of Connecticut, will likely seek to file for bankruptcy if the state does not have a budget in place in 60 days, Mayor Luke Bronin warned on Thursday. The cash-strapped city, like others in the state, has been waiting for clarity on how much state aid it will receive in the budget, which is more than two months overdue. In the absence of a budget, an executive order from Governor Dannel Malloy is guiding state spending, but it severely restricts expenditures. If no state budget is finalized by November, Hartford will be...

Hartford has hired a lawyer as city officials begin navigating the complex system of bankruptcy. The city is facing a $65 million shortfall this year and it remains unclear whether it will receive any additional state aid. Standard & Poor's downgraded Hartford debt to junk bond status late Tuesday, less than a week after the financially troubled capital city hired a New York law firm with expertise in restructuring municipal finances. The Wall Street ratings agency downgraded most city of Hartford outstanding debt to BB, a level that's classified as speculative, also known as non-investment-grade, or junk, from BBB-. That...

Connecticut Senator Richard Blumenthal is continuing to hammer President Trump. At a news conference on Tuesday, with a copy of the Constitution in hand, Blumenthal reiterated that Mr. Trump is blatantly breaking the law by refusing to give up ownership of his organization. “The bottome line is, we have no clue who most of the investors and partners of Donald Trump around the world. We have no accurate or complete knowledge of all those payments and benefits because he has made no disclosure,” said Blumenthal.

BELOIT — Gov. Scott Walker on Tuesday signaled he’s open to charging tolls on Wisconsin’s Interstates, but with a key condition: linking it to a reduction in the state’s 30.9-cent-per-gallon gas tax. Walker also said an impasse over the state’s next transportation budget risks costly delays to billion-dollar highway projects now under construction. That includes a $1.2 billion expansion of Interstate 39-90 from the Madison area to the Illinois state line. The Interstate formed the backdrop for Walker’s remarks in a press conference at a Beloit rest stop. Republicans who control the state Assembly have proposed seeking federal approval to...

Hartford Moves Closer to Bankruptcy, Soliciting Proposals From Law Firms - Courant Community http://www.courant.com/community/hartford/hc-hartford-bankruptcy-lawyer-20170509-story.html Courant Community Hartford Hartford Moves Closer to Bankruptcy, Soliciting Proposals From Law Firms Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin answers questions from the public about the 2017-18 city budget. Bronin stood his ground with different agencies trying to keep funding for their interests.  City leaders have taken a step toward bankruptcy, soliciting proposals from law firms that specialize in Chapter 9, which protects financially strapped municipalities. The city is reviewing several firms and could hire an attorney as early as this week, sources with knowledge of the plans...

Hartford Courant Let's Buy The Whalers And Bring Them Back Home Bring Back The Whalers Hartford city councilman John Q. Gale has proposed a way for the Whalers to come back to Hartford. By JOHN Q. GALE Friday, May 5, 2017 Forbes Magazine says that the Carolina Hurricanes (our Hartford Whalers) National Hockey League franchise is worth $230 million. As the team has the lowest attendance in the league, this is likely an overstatement, but let's work with it. Hurricanes owner Peter Karmanos Jr. said earlier this year that he would entertain offers for his team. What if all 38...

HARTFORD – Toll talk is back at the State Capitol. Some lawmakers say it will drive billions into the state over the next two decades and others want to put the brakes on the idea.At a hearing, Monday, the proposal to bring electronic tolls to Connecticut highways was discussed, with public comment both for and against it.State accountants said the way Connecticut funds transportation will no longer be sustainable in the next four years and a new revenue source is needed.“This doesn't make any sense at all," State Sen. Toni Boucher said. "This is just another name for another tax...

Connecticut, a state making its mark in both microgrid and fuel cell technology, today will put yet another microgrid into operation, this one in Hartford’s Parkville neighborhood. microgrid and fuel cellConstellation, Bloom Energy and the city plan to announce completion of the 800-kW fuel cell microgrid this afternoon at a ribbon cutting. The microgrid will generate clean energy, manage electricity costs and supply emergency power for public buildings and businesses. The fuel cell uses natural gas to produce electricity. The state helped fund the project with about $2 million through its Microgrid Grant Program. Hartford was among nine grant winners...

Taxes could soon be on the rise if a new house bill passes. House bill 7322 seeks to increase the sales tax up to 6.99 percent from its current rate of 6.35 percent and increase the income tax for some state residents. Other aspects of the bill would help towns generate more money by increasing state owned property payments. Properties like colleges and hospitals owned by the state would see an increase of their payments to their towns by roughly 23 percent. If the bill passes, regional governments would be responsible for creating plans to help pay for that. Another...

Not everyone is thrilled with U.S. Rep. John Larson’s proposal to build massive highway tunnels under Hartford, but Daniel Burnham might be, were he still with us. It was Burnham, the great Chicago architect and planner, who said, “Make no little plans. They have no magic to stir men’s blood and probably will not themselves be realized.”Larson’s is anything but a little plan; it is breathtaking in scope. It has stirred the blood of some public officials and business leaders. But the concept is so vast, complex and potentially expensive – it would be longer than Boston’s “Big Dig” tunnels...

“I was already terrified of white men,” one professor at the University of Hartford, Erin Bartram, admitted, but explained that there’s not even “a word to describe how scared I am of them now,” noting that “they are so much worse than” she thought. “How do I face these students who’ve just seen half of America repudiate their rights, their citizenship, their bodies, their very beings?!” she went on to exclaim.

Please let's not jump to any conclusions. Conclusion jumping must be avoided in the cases of Muslims killing people. Or rather we must jump to any and every other possible conclusion. This particular Muslim was homicidally suicidal... but in a non-Islamic way. A 28-year-old Jordanian Muslim who who was studying to become a pilot died after crashing a small plane Tuesday afternoon in Connecticut, and the instructor pilot who survived the crash said it was intentional. Arian Prevalla, another pilot on the plane said, “the crash was not an accident”. Local and state police, along with several federal agencies, including...

EAST HARTFORD, CT (WFSB) -Police and federal investigators continue to look into what led to a tragic plane crash on Tuesday afternoon. CBS News confirmed that the FBI is looking into whether or not the crash was "intentional."

A small plane crash that killed a Jordanian national and injured another man in Connecticut on Tuesday was "an intentional act," The National Transportation Safety Board said in a statement on Wednesday. The unnamed man who survived the crash also told investigators the wreck was not an accident, the mayor of East Hartford said Wednesday. That man was in critical condition at Bridgeport Hospital, but was able to speak to detectives, officials said.