July 2 / 10:55 pm
Lightning knocks out New England air traffic control, CT flights affected
(Windsor Locks-WTNH) _ A nightmare for air travellers looking to take off for the holiday weekend. Passengers at Bradley International Airport and airports across the northeast were stuck on the ground because of a lightning strike at an air traffic control center in New Hampshire. The lightning, which hit about 3:30 Friday, knocked out part of the radar and as a precaution the FAA grounded almost all aircraft for several hours. Things are still not back to normal at Bradley.
 News Channel 8's Christina DeFranco reports.
Here's how the breaking story was reported on News Channel 8 at 6:00 pm
Having a safe Fourth
(WTNH) _ Travelers across the country are hopping in their cars and making their getaways for this Fourth of July weekend. And it's inevitable that with all that traffic there are going to be accidents.
In West Haven a van appeared to be resting on top of another car on I-95 in the northbound lane near exit 42 during the noon hour. That caused traffic to back up for some distance. No one was hurt.
News Channel 8' Leon Collins offers some tips to make sure this is a holiday to remember for the right reasons.
Hebron man hospitalized after motorcycle collides with car
(Columbia-AP) _ A Hebron man is in critical condition tonight after he was thrown from his motorcycle during an accident in Columbia. Police say 56-year-old Paul Mangarella was traveling eastbound on Route 66 shortly before 6:00 pm when he struck a westbound car as it turned left in front of him. The impact drove the car into another vehicle stopped in the intersection and threw Mangarella from his bike. Mangarella has been taken to Hartford Hospital with head and neck injuries. No one else was seriously injured.
Police investigate fatal pedestrian accident
(Rocky Hill-AP) _ The search for the driver of a car which struck and killed a male pedestrian in Rocky Hill continues. Police say no arrests have been made in the fatal accident, which occurred about 11:15 Thursday night. Witnesses say the car was light blue and had a spoiler of the same color on the trunk. They've described the car as a late 70s or early 80s Camaro style.
The name of the person killed has not been released.
Man questioned after Port Authority cop hit by car with CT tag
(Hartford-WTNH) _ A Hartford man questioned in connection with an early morning assault on a Port Authority police officer has been released from custody and is not considered a suspect.
Detective Philip Stephenson is in critical condition at a hospital in Queens.
New York police say Stephenson was working a drug case at Kennedy Airport when a car ran him over. The car, a tan Mazda with Connecticut plates, was later found abandoned in a section of Queens.
News Channel 8's Andrea Stassou reports.
Fireworks displays cancelled
(WTNH) _ Friday's stormy weather was bad enough to convince some towns to cancel fireworks displays. Officials in Madison cancelled their fireworks events, while officials in Putnam postponed their fireworks until next Friday. Fireworks in Vernon were postponed a second time. They are now scheduled to go off on Wednesday, July 7.
Connecticut, New York wage tax war
(Hartford-WTNH) _ A war over taxes has broken out between Connecticut and the state of New York. First it was Connecticut waging a battle over the New York commuter tax. Now New York is fighting back over Connecticut's tax rebates.
Chief capitol correspondent Mark Davis has the story.
Sub returns home after record tour
 The crew of the USS Pittsburgh is glad to have their heads above water after six long months at sea. It was an extraordinary voyage back to Groton. The crew was originally scheduled to train in the North Atlantic, but was was diverted to the Persian Gulf for potential action.
They spent the first 90-days without stopping to re-supply or even stretch their legs.
News Channel 8's Peter Standring reports.
Watch the arrival from Chopper 8 LIVE
Bald Eagle is off national endangered list, but not in Connecticut
(WTNH) _ One of America's national symbols is flying high again.
President Clinton removed the Bale Eagle from the national endangered species list. There are currently more than 5,800 eagles in the United States.
President Clinton: "It's hard to think of a better way to celebrate the birth of a nation than to celebrate the rebirth of our national symbol."
The news may be good but in Connecticut the Bald Eagle will remain on the endangered list. State Department of Environmental Protection officials say only a few pairs of eagles have nested in this state, and several more will have join them before their status will change.
Dams to be destroyed to help restore fish population
(Waterbury-WTNH) _ There's a trend that's growing to help improve fish beds in some of the nation's rivers - Dams are being destroyed.
Edwards Dam was used for more than 150 years to power a textile mill in Augusta, Maine. But that mill has been gone for years, and the dam was just slowing down the flow of water along the Kennebec River, making it hard for fish to swim and breed. So they're breaking it down. Now three dams along the Naugatuck River in Connecticut are being torn down for the same reason.
News Channel 8's Verna Collins reports.
Guard sentenced for sex with inmate
(WTNH) _ A prison guard is going to spend the next 18-months behind bars for having sex with a female inmate. 36-year old Gregg Hamler pleaded guilty to sex assault charges. Prosecutors say Hamler let the inmate out of her cell at the York Correctional facility as many as 30 times to have sex in a utility closet. Hamler was also charged with having sex with another inmate, but those charges were dropped.
Outage could affect experiments
(New Haven-WTNH) _ A power outage at Yale-New Haven Hospital and Yale School of Medicine may mean some lasting problems.
A transformer fire Thursday afternoon knocked out the power.
The hospital's generators got power back on in some places within seconds, but some labs at the school were in the dark for 8 1/2 hours, and that could wreak havoc with some ongoing experiments. It may take weeks to figure out the extent of any damage.
Model homeless program saved
(New Haven-WTNH) _ New Haven's "Safe Haven" project has been saved. Organizers of the model program designed for helping the homeless say they never lost hope that lawmakers and the community would respond to their cry for help.
News Channel 8's Verna Collins reports.
Torrington police arrest 16 on drug charges
(Torrington-AP) _ Torrington cops are calling it one of the largest drug busts in their town in the past five years. Sixteen people were arrested in a North End home at about nine last night and slapped with cocaine possession charges. Thirteen of the people charged are from Torrington. The other three are from Bantam, Winsted and Harwinton.
Murder suspect accused of prior violence
(New Haven-AP) _ The man accused of killing Penney Serra has been accused of harming women before. A lawsuit filed in 1994 by Edward Grant's ex-fiancee charges him with breaking her nose with his knee while friends looked on. That lawsuit was later dropped. 56-year-old Grant was charged last week with stabbing Serra to death in 1973. Authorities say claim they connected Grant to the murder through a fingerprint found on a tissue box in the car Serra was driving the day she died.
State plans improvements for juvenile jails
(AP) _ The state has hired an independent counsel to investigate allegations of abuse and neglect at the New Haven Juvenile Detention Center. And guards at the state's three juvenile detention centers will get additional training to deal with youths with emotional or mental disabilities. They'll also learn when and how to physically restrain children. Those are some of the dozen steps laid out yesterday by the state Judicial Department's executive director. The department is trying to improve conditions, training and efficiency at the state's juvenile jails.
Mastery test scores going up for Hartford students
(AP) _ Results from a practice test given in June show that 3rd, 5th, and 7th-graders in Hartford schools are doing better in school than last year.
When they took the Connecticut Mastery Test in 1998, Hartford students got the lowest scores in the state. School officials say Hartford's summer school program will enroll more students than any others in Connecticut, and will further prepare students for this year's round of mastery tests.
Firework-related injuries declining
(AP) _ Fireworks may be illegal in Connecticut, but officials say they're happy that the number of injuries they cause is dropping According to an informal survey of emergency rooms across the state, firework-related injuries hit a high of 75 in 1989, and dropped to only 13 last year. Officials are crediting public education, tougher enforcement and better products for the decline.
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