January 20 / 6:15 pm
Bugs Infest School, Some Parents Keep Kids Home
(Ansonia-WTNH) _ Parents send their kids to school, hoping they'll be in clean, safe surroundings. So what they're finding at one elementary school really has some bugged out - Roaches.
 News Channel 8's Jocelyn Sigue reports.
Priest Ordered Taken Into Custody
(Bridgeport-AP) _ An order has been issued for sheriffs to locate and take a Connecticut Roman Catholic priest into custody in a sex abuse case. A Bridgeport judge presiding over a lawsuit has issued the order to find the Reverend Raymond Pcolka who is accused of molesting more than a dozen children. Pcolka has failed to come to court to answer the accusations in the civil lawsuit against him. Attorneys who represent 14 of people who claim they were abused by Pcolka asked the judge to issue the order after the priest did not show up for a court-ordered deposition. The order directs sheriffs to take Pcolka into custody and bring him to court January 27th. He is believed to be living in Southbury. Pcolka, whose last assignment was as pastor of Sacred Heart parish in Greenwich, is accused in lawsuits of sexually assaulting children from the mid-1960s to the early 1980s.
Clintons's Lawyers Call Some Statements "Insignificant"
(Capitol Hill-AP) _ Two White House lawyers have spent the afternoon trying to shoot down House charges that President Clinton committed perjury and obstruction of justice. Deputy White House counsel Cheryl Mills said the House Republican prosecutors have "dramatically shortchanged the truth" in making the case that Clinton was behind his secretary's decision to retrieve and hide gifts Clinton had given Monica Lewinsky. Mills says there's no evidence to suggest that Clinton told her to do that. And she says Betty Currie took that action out of friendship with Lewinsky.She also says Clinton's conversation with Currie, the day after his deposition in the Paula Jones case, was not an effort to influence her testimony. For one thing, she says, there was no threat or intimidation involved. And she says Clinton was more concerned at that point with the media finding out about his relationship with Lewinsky than he was with whether Currie might become a witness in the Jones case.
Earlier, White House counsel Greg Craig argued against the perjury charge -- saying the allegation that Clinton lied before the grand jury was a dispute over "semantics." He told senators to look at the grand jury testimony itself -- and said they'd find Clinton to be truthful. The Clinton defense team wraps up its opening statement tomorrow.
President Proposes Social Security Investments - Will it Fly?
(WTNH) _ Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan doesn't like the idea of playing the stock market with Social Security money. He says it could damage the economy. Last night the president proposed putting a percentage of the budget surplus towards Social Security, and using a quarter of those savings into stock investments. It's a plan that sounds reasonable, but does it go too far?
News Channel's Ned Berkowitz reports.
Jesse Jackson Meets with Health Care Workers
(Hartford-WTNH) _ The state of our nursing homes and care for our elderly was in focus Wednesday, as Rev. Jesse Jackson toured Hartford's facilities on behalf of state's employees. The 1199 labor union wants Connecticut to increase funding for the homes. They say no money means not enough care and inadequate patient services.
News Channel 8's Jayne Saffer reports.
Family of Woman Killed Reaches Settlement with Security Company
(WTNH) _ A family's fight for justice is over. Suzanna Srb was killed at Middlesex Community College in 1995, she was cleaning out her late husband's office when she was shot to death by a campus security guard.
Srb's family sued the security company, and now they have reached a settlement.
The details of the settlement are not being released, but the attorney for the Srb family tells News Channel 8 his clients are satisfied.
Towns Look to Feds for Help With Flooding Problem
(North Branford-WTNH) _ The towns of North Branford and East Haven are calling on the federal government to find a solution to a 20 year flooding problem along the farm river. Hundreds of homeowners in East Haven have been affected, but a proposal to build a large earthen dam in North Branford to stop the flooding was rejected by that town. The mayors and state representatives from both areas are banding together and calling on congress to allocate money so that the Army Corps of Engineers can find a permanent solution. They may be fighting the Corps though, which has previously said that there is not enough economic justification for federal assistance.
Lawmakers Consider Wider Distribution of Anti-Radiation Compound
(Waterford-WTNH) _ The state is getting involved in a growing public health issue: the use and distribution of an anti-radiation compound potassium iodide.
Known as K-I, it can protect people from getting thyroid cancer if they're exposed to high levels of radiation. With the Millstone nuclear power plant up-and-running in Waterford, some state lawmakers think the compound
should be supplied to everyone.
News Channel 8's Peter Standring reports from Southeastern Newsroom at The Day.
Stanley Settles "Made in America" Complaints
(New Britain-AP) _ The Stanley Works has reached agreement over complaints about the use of the term "Made in USA" on some of the tools it sells. The New Britain hardware company yesterday reach a settlement with the federal government and the state over what the federal trade commission says have been misleading claims.
The FTC says Stanley and six other companies made misleading claims about their products' origin. Stanley has admitted no wrongdoing but agreed to pay the state $50,000. Federal and state officials say Stanley had claimed in advertisements, packaging and markings that its Husky and Proto mechanic's tools were manufactured in the United States when the metal parts were shaped in Europe and Asia.
Man Gets Probation in Theft of Sexy Videos
(Hartford-AP) _ A former executive at Middlesex Hospital has been given probation in a case involving theft of hospital money to buy sexy videos. Alan Jonas was given three years probation in Hartford federal court yesterday after his lawyer argued he suffered psychological problems. He had been chief financial officer at the Middletown hospital. Jonas had been charged with embezzling more than 22-thousand dollars to buy pornographic videos. He was convicted in October of mail fraud for using a hospital credit card to buy X-rated videos over three years. Jonas resigned from his $165,000-a-year job after federal investigators began looking into the misuse of hospital funds.
Regulators Suggest Rate Cuts for Electricity Customers
(New Britain-AP) _ Customers of Connecticut Light and Power could be getting a four percent rate cut. In a draft decision, state regulators are proposed a nearly $96 million cut as part of a review of the utility's finances.
The state Department of Public Utility Control says the company has been earning too much profit because it's paid less for oil and payroll. Attorney General Richard Blumenthal says the DPUC can cut even further. He's suggested a rate cut of nearly 13%. Customers would start seeing the savings after February Fifth if the regulators give final approval to the proposed cuts. The DPUC will hear oral arguments on the issue February First.
Student Accused of Threatening Teachers Gets Special Probation
(Meriden-AP) _ A 1998 Cheshire High School graduate accused of threatening teachers in an underground student newspaper column has been given special probation. Jed Molaver was in court yesterday and even though he was not given jail time, the judge did says that Molaver did write what he described as "sick stuff."
Kidnapping Sends Man to Prison for 13 years
(Hartford-AP) _ A kidnapping of his former boss has landed a Hartford man in prison for 13 years. Edward Peyton of Hartford was sentenced in federal court in Hartford yesterday. He is one of four men who have pleaded guilty to kidnapping Nicholas Martinelli, the vice president of Addressing Services Company Incorporated in East Hartford a year ago.
Gasoline Prices Continue to Drop
(Hamden-AP) _ Gasoline prices across Connecticut continued to drop over the past month but remain well above the national average, according to the state chapter of the Automobile Association of America. The average price of self-serve, regular unleaded gasoline was $1.13 per gallon on Tuesday, according to the AAA's monthly survey of stations. That's down from $1.15 in December and $1.30 in January 1998. But Connecticut consumers are paying 11 cents more per gallon, on average, than motorists filling up in Massachusetts; nine cents more than drivers in Rhode Island; and seven cents more than those buying gasoline in New York, according to the AAA's national survey.
Low Prices, Ample Supply of Home Heating Oil
(New Haven-WTNH) _ It's estimated that there is 30% more home heating oil available than a year ago, and prices are down. In fact, home heating oil prices are lowest the industry has seen since the 1980s. So how much longer will the trend continue?
Consumer Team 8's Anna Sava reports.
Hospitals Try to Head Off Y2K Problems
(New Haven-WTNH) _ $60 million - that's a rough estimate of how much year 2000 compliance will cost Connecticut's hospitals. Health care facilities have been working together, and have been very pro-active on their own to make sure Y2K is not a matter of life and death.
Health Team 8's Kristen Cusato reports.
State Sex Offender Website Online
(Hartford-WTNH) _ The State of Connecticut's Sex Offender Registry went online at the first of the year. Residents can look to see if a convicted sex offender is living in their neighborhood by accessing the information through the Department of Public Safety's website at www.state.ct.us/dps/
|
|
