Hartford Courant

As of Thursday, the relatively untouched Eightmile River has a chance of surviving: President Bush signed into law a natural resources act that includes a measure designating the Eightmile and its tributaries "wild and scenic."

Partisans of the town meeting form of government cherish it as a centuries-old tradition that is as New England as clam chowder and as sacred as democracy itself.

For months, state Sen. Edith Prague rallied support for nursing-home reforms from Democratic leaders and advocates for the elderly, telling anyone who would listen that "this is the year" for improvements to minimum-staffing requirements and stronger oversight of the industry.

Rep. Joe Courtney hopes to add $300 million to the federal budget for Virginia-class submarines, scoring an addition to a potential House spending plan that could also move up, by a year, a planned increase in sub construction.

Cities and towns have nothing to fear.

The University of Connecticut Thursday named an orthopedic surgeon who simultaneously earned an M.D. at Harvard and a doctorate in chemical engineering at M.I.T to head its troubled health center in Farmington.

A bill that would have barred the state trash authority from building a waste site in Franklin was dumped minutes before the legislative session ended Wednesday night, but residents of the small town vowed to continue fighting the proposal.

Facebook, the world's second-largest social networking Web site, is adding more than 40 new safeguards to protect young users from sexual predators and cyberbullies, attorneys general from several states said Thursday.

— An 80-year-old woman whose husband allegedly beat her with a hammer has died and the state medical examiner has declared her death a homicide.

The former top salesman for the Danbury trash company at the center of a federal price fixing case pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court Thursday to racketeering and making a false statement to federal investigators.

Hours before the legislature's 2008 session ended, the state Senate unanimously passed a comprehensive mortgage-relief bill that would help thousands of subprime mortgage holders threatened with foreclosure.

Foxwoods has a not-so-subtle plan to capture the public's attention for the May 17 launch of its new MGM Grand casino.

The big primaries are done. The remaining contests don't carry enough delegates to tip the balance. But that hasn't coaxed any commitments out of Connecticut's last two undeclared Democratic superdelegates.

Gov. M. Jodi Rell expressed strong reservations Wednesday about a Democratic bill that would permit municipalities, nonprofits and small businesses to join the state employee health insurance pool.

Latest Twist Furthers Debate About Response To Boy’s Shock-Emitting Camera

The mother of a 14-year-old Clinton high school student is suing the police officer who arrested her son last month after the ninth-grader brought to school a doctored disposable camera that emitted electrical shocks to willing students.

— A convicted sex offender who served three years for molesting a 14-year-old girl but claims that he has raped 58 children was sentenced Wednesday to a decade in prison for possessing child pornography on a home computer.

A day after 30 cats were found crying, hungry and covered in feces in a parking lot, Animal Control Officer Cheryl Gagnon has been inundated with adoption offers and questions about donations.

Are people going hungry because of the search for alternative fuel? According to the experts who testified at a hearing of the Senate's homeland security and governmental affairs committee Wednesday, the answer is: Sort of.

Aspiring early childhood and elementary school teachers will have to prove they know how to teach reading on a test the State Board of Education has added to Connecticut's teacher certification requirements. The change, which was made Wednesday, comes amid worries about stagnating or declining student reading scores statewide and concerns that not all state teachers know the mechanics of teaching reading.

A legislative controversy - which ignited after Gov. M. Jodi Rell's appointment early this year of a Republican activist from Old Lyme as a $121,615-a-year family support magistrate - died quietly Wednesday when the House failed to take up a Senate-approved reform bill.