Connecticut

Tom Kania is working with a community co-sponsorship group and IRIS to welcome an Afghan refugee family of up to six. The Middletown apartment has been fully furnished by IRIS and is ready for the family when they arrive.

‘It’s the American spirit’: These Connecticut landlords are stepping up to help Afghan refugees arriving in the US

Afghanistan

As military bases temporarily hosting refugees reach capacity, states are being asked to help, according to resettlement agencies. Connecticut alone is expecting more than 500 refugees — a jump since the initial 300 estimated in September. And the number could see another increase. But as Connecticut prepares for the influx, affordable housing has become a challenge.

A black-and-white section of a painting of a woman surrounded by men in Puritan garb.

Most witches are women, because witch hunts were all about persecuting the powerless

Women & Gender
man hugging woman pastor in front of tall altar

They took sanctuary in a Connecticut church — but did not hide from immigration officers

Immigration
Ilhan Omar clasps her husband’s mother's face in her hands as she smiles

These are the women who made history in this year’s midterm elections

Women & Gender
The overall catch from lobstering in Maine was down 16.4 percent in 2017 from the year before. Those who catch lobsters for a living in the state are hoping that downfall does not continue in 2018.

The feast-or-famine life of lobstering in Maine

Jobs
Free the beaches

A new book chronicles efforts to desegregate Connecticut’s beaches in the 1960s

Books

The US civil rights movement to end racial segregation may have been most intense in the South, but there were also battles in the North, including in affluent beach communities in the state of Connecticut.

Agent in uniform stands on bridge looking over green river

This is what the ‘zero-tolerance’ policy on the border means for people fleeing violence

Immigration

A pregnant woman from Honduras and her young daughter broke away from a caravan and crossed the Rio Grande to get to the US. Had she done so just a few weeks later, she would have been arrested and separated from her child under a new DHS policy.

Before the school shooting in Parkland, Florida, five states had "red flag" statutes called gun violence restraining orders. Recently, Florida became the six state to add the statute.

Researchers still struggle to get funding to study gun violence

Culture

Any potential money is barred by a congressional act known as the Dickey Amendment, which mandates that none of the funds available for injury prevention and control at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) would be “used to advocate or promote gun control.”

Now Playing: Family

Arts, Culture & Media

Everyone has a different idea of family. Right now at the Aldrich Museum in Connecticut some of those ideas are together under one roof.

Democratic Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro at a rally in February 2017. DeLauro has become one of the most outspoken critics of NAFTA in Congress.

Progressives in Congress side with Trump on trade

Economics

NAFTA has governed the rules of trade between the US, Mexico and Canada since 1994. Today, many progressives who dislike NAFTA say President Trump is giving them the best chance in a generation to rewrite the rules of trade.