HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — Connecticut Secretary of the State Denise Merrill will leave office six months before her third term ends, telling The Associated Press she is resigning Thursday, effective at noon, to spend more time with her husband, who is facing serious health problems.

The veteran Democrat, who was first elected as the state’s top elections official in 2010 after serving 17 years in the Connecticut General Assembly, said that it was a hard decision, considering this is an election year, and that she feels responsible for making sure it runs smoothly. However, Merrill, 73, said she can no longer juggle the job and helping care for her husband.

“It’s too much for me. I can’t do both, and I have to be at home,” she said during an interview Tuesday in her office, where she was packing up old photos of her days in the legislature. “I don’t have full-time caretakers, and it wouldn’t work, anyway. He’s very dependent on me, and I’m dependent on him in a lot of ways.”

Merrill’s husband, Dr. Stephen Leach, 78, has been living with Parkinson’s disease for years and has been dealing with various health setbacks more recently, she said.

The two, who live in Storrs, have been a couple for about two decades. 

Prominent civil rights attorney Ben Crump said Tuesday he will lead the legal fight on behalf of Randy Cox, a Black man who was seriously injured in the back of a police van in Connecticut when the driver braked suddenly.

Crump also called for a federal civil rights investigation into the treatment of Cox, 36, who was being taken June 19 to a police station in New Haven, Connecticut, for processing on a weapons charge when his head struck the back wall of the van.

Crump said police mocked Cox’s cries for help and later dragged him by his feet from the van and placed him in a holding cell before he was taken to a hospital. Cox, whose legal first name is Richard, is in intensive care, paralyzed from the chest down, Crump said.

Connecticut's minimum wage will increase from the current rate of $13 per hour to $14 per hour beginning on Friday, July 1st.

The change is the result of legislation signed into law three years ago, from the then-rate of $10.10 an hour.  It schedules several increases in the minimum wage over a five-year period.  The wage increased to $11 in October 2019, to $12 in September of 2020, $13 in August 2021 and the now to $14 an hour.  The last scheduled increase is to $15 an hour on June 1st 2023.

Ultimately, beginning on January 1st 2024, that same law requires the minimum wage to become indexed to the employment cost index, which is calculated by the U.S. Department of Labor, and for the first time in Connecticut the rate will grow according to economic indicators.

Governor Lamont says for too long while the nation’s economy grew, the income of the lowest earning workers has stayed flat, making already existing pay disparities even worse and preventing hardworking families from obtaining financial security.  He added that this is a fair, gradual increase for workers who will invest the money right back into the economy and continue supporting local businesses in their communities.

AAA Northeast says there's some positive news for prospective travelers this July 4th holiday weekend: the national gas price average has dropped to $4.90 a gallon, 8 cents lower than last week.  But that is not so positive when looking over the longer term.  The price is still 30 cents higher than last month and $1.75 higher than last year.

Connecticut’s gas price average has declined to $4.87, down 7 cents from a week ago, but up 19 cents from a month ago and $1.89 from one year ago.
 

Connecticut ranks 24th on the list of states with the highest gas price in the nation.  AAA says Georgia registers the lowest at $4.40 a gallon while California has the highest at $6.32.

NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) - Three additional Connecticut police officers have been placed on paid leave after a man was seriously injured in the back of a police van when one of the officers said he braked hard to avoid an accident. Video shows the man, 36-year-old Richard Cox, later being dragged into a police holding cell before being taken to a hospital with signs of paralysis, according to authorities. Two other New Haven Police officers were placed on paid leave Tuesday. Acting Police Chief Regina Rush-Kittle said Thursday the three additional officers had been assigned to work in the detention facility on Sunday where Cox was taken after a gun charge arrest.

WASHINGTON (AP) - The House has sent President Joe Biden the most wide-ranging gun violence bill Congress has passed in decades. The bill that passed the House on Friday is a measured compromise that at once illustrates progress on the long-intractable issue and the deep-seated partisan divide that persists. The Democratic-led chamber approved the election-year legislation on a mostly party-line vote, capping a spurt of action prompted by voters' revulsion over last month's mass shootings in New York and Texas. The night before, the Senate approved it by a bipartisan 65-33 margin, with 15 Republicans joining all Democrats in supporting a package that senators from both parties had crafted.

WASHINGTON (AP) - The White House is launching a partnership with 11 East Coast governors to boost the growing offshore wind industry, a key element of President Joe Biden's climate change plan. Biden administration officials will meet with governors and labor leaders Thursday to announce commitments to expand important parts of the offshore industry. Those parts include manufacturing facilities, ports and workforce training and development. The Democratic president has a goal of deploying enough offshore wind power by 2030 to provide electricity to 10 million homes and support 77,000 jobs. The governors are from Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island.

BOSTON (AP) - A Connecticut woman who says she's descended from slaves shown in widely published, historical photos owned by Harvard University can sue the school for emotional distress. The top court in Massachusetts on Thursday partly vacated a lower court ruling that dismissed a complaint from Tamara Lanier over photos she says depict her enslaved ancestors. The court concluded the Norwich resident can plausibly make a case for suffering "emotional distress" from Harvard and remanded that part of the claim to the lower court. But the high court upheld the lower ruling that the photos are the property of the photographer and not the subject.

Connecticut’s COVID-19 data report will transition to a weekly release every Thursday beginning next week.

The Connecticut Department of Public Health’s decision to switch to weekly reporting is being made as health officials are focused on monitoring long-term trends for understanding the impact of COVID-19 in Connecticut and making recommendations for protecting the health of the state’s residents. This change will accommodate plans for long-term reporting of COVID-19 data going forward.

The final formal daily report will be released on Friday. The first weekly report will be released on June 30th. Data on cases, tests, hospitalizations, and deaths will continue to be available on a daily basis at data.ct.gov/coronavirus and will be updated to reflect changes over the last seven days at the state, county, and town levels.

Residents can also subscribe to text message alerts from the state by texting the keyword COVIDCT to 888-777.

Individuals who have general questions that are not answered on the website can call 2-1-1 for assistance. The hotline is available 24 hours a day and has multilingual assistance.  This is intended to be used by individuals who are not experiencing symptoms but may have general questions related to COVID-19. Anyone who is experiencing symptoms is strongly urged to contact their medical provider.

Officials in Connecticut say two New Haven officers have been placed on paid leave and three others were reassigned after a man was seriously injured in the back of a police van. Mayor Justin Elicker and police officials said Tuesday evening that Richard Cox is being treated at a hospital and could be permanently paralyzed. State police have been called in to investigate. Officials say an officer driving the van Sunday braked hard to avoid an accident, and Cox flew head-first into a wall. The president of the Connecticut chapter of the NAACP is calling for a federal investigation.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency will be sending almost $3.7 million to the State of Connecticut to reimburse the state for setting up and operating a series of neighborhood testing sites during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The FEMA Public Assistance grant to the Connecticut Department of Corrections will reimburse it for setting up and operating three testing centers around the state between March and November 2020.

Using both state workers and contractors, the DOC procured pop up tents, weights, heating, cables, moveable furniture, 360,000 nasal test kits, 140,000 oral test kits, swab kits, and collection tubes for testing.

The DOC also leased 3 testing sites and provided boxed meals for field staff at a test site during a limited period in late April 2020 when restaurants in the area were closed during the pandemic.

So far, FEMA has provided almost 416 million dollars in Public Assistance grants to Connecticut to reimburse the state for pandemic-related expenses.

NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) - Officials say a Connecticut man may be paralyzed after he was injured when the officer driving him in a police van braked to avoid a crash. New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker said Monday that 36-year-old Richard Cox suffered a spinal injury after he was arrested on a gun charge Sunday night. Acting police Chief Regina Rush-Kittle said at a news conference that Cox was in the back of a police van when the officer driving the vehicle made an abrupt stop to avoid a crash. She said Cox suffered a serious injury and may be paralyzed. Rush-Kittle ordered an internal affairs investigation into Cox's arrest and injury.
 

WASHINGTON (AP) - A Native American has been nominated to be U.S. treasurer, a historic first. President Joe Biden's nomination of Marilynn Malerba comes as his administration establishes an Office of Tribal and Native Affairs at the Treasury Department. The treasurer's duties include oversight of the U.S. Mint. The treasurer's signature appears on U.S. currency. Malerba is the lifetime chief of the Mohegan Indian Tribe, located in Uncasville, Connecticut. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen says Malerba will help further efforts to "support the development of Tribal economies." Yellen is set to visit the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota on Tuesday, the first time a Treasury secretary has visited a tribal nation.

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) - An argument between neighbors over a dog led to a shooting that killed two people in Hartford, police said Monday. A third person was shot and critically injured. Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin said the two people who were killed were a couple and they leave behind a 6-month-old child. The shooting happened around 9 p.m. Sunday. The slain victims were identified as Christina Dang, 27, and Chase Garrett, 39. The injured woman who was hospitalized has not been identified. No arrests have been made. Police say they have identified a person of interest in the shooting.

ENFIELD, Conn. (AP) - Officials in Connecticut say the decision of Lego Group to build a new factory in Virginia won't affect the company's North American headquarters in Enfield, but industry watchers say there could be cause for concern. The Denmark-based global toymaker announced last week it plans to invest more than $1 billion to build a factory in suburban Richmond. Gov. Ned Lamont's office tells Hearst Connecticut Media that the company has reaffirmed its commitment to maintaining its presence in the state. But some experts say it's not necessarily a good sign that the state wasn't chosen.

NEW CASTLE, N.H. (AP) - Three people have been treated at and released from a hospital after a 70-foot yacht burned and sank in New Hampshire. The New Hampshire Department of Safety says the vessel named the Elusive was on the Piscataqua River heading toward a marina in New Castle around 4 p.m. Saturday when a passenger noticed black smoke below deck. Three passengers and two dogs jumped overboard as the boat became engulfed. They were rescued by other boats. Photos showed flames and thick black smoke pouring from the yacht. The passengers were from Connecticut and Florida. The cause of the fire is being investigated.

The Connecticut Paid Leave Authority and insurer Aflac says a backlog of claims sparked in part by the COVID-19 omicron variant has been cleared and that steps have been taken to reduce wait times in the future. Officials made the announcement Thursday. The fledgling program began providing income replacement benefits to eligible workers in January and is administered by Aflac. The new staff quickly became inundated with requests for benefits when omicron hit Connecticut. Some applicants had to wait up to six weeks or more for a decision on whether they could receive the financial assistance. That led Aflac to bring in more staff, technology and other investments.

EAST HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) - Two people have been killed in what East Hartford police say may have been a targeted home invasion. Neighbors reported hearing several gunshots just before midnight Wednesday at the home. Police said they found two victims inside. Both were transported to a local hospital, where they were pronounced dead. Police said the sole resident of the home said he shot the men with his registered gun after they forced their way into the duplex. Police said all of those involved knew each other and they don't believe the public is in any danger.

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) - Connecticut's diesel tax will increase by 9 cents per gallon on July 1 after a scheduled rate adjustment. The tax is currently 40.1 cents per gallon and will increase to 49.2 cents per gallon. That's according to a letter released Wednesday from the Department of Revenue Services to top Democrats and Republicans on the General Assembly's tax-writing committee and to his budget director. State law requires that it be updated annually and be based on a complex formula that takes into account daily fuel prices at two terminals over the prior 365 days. Gov. Ned Lamont's GOP rival in the election has called for the tax to be suspended.
 

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) - Connecticut's inspector general has ruled that a police officer was justified in shooting to death an armed Hartford man despite a plea from the man's girlfriend not to kill him. Shamar Ogman was shot to death on Dec. 26, 2020, in a parking lot after ignoring commands to drop a rifle that he pointed at officers, according to the report released Wednesday. In a phone call with police, Ogman's girlfriend had reported that he was at her home in a rage and was armed, but pleaded with the dispatcher to tell police not to kill him.