WLIU: Connecticut State News (2010-01-22)

AP-CT--Right Now,1500

Latest Connecticut news, sports, business and entertainment:

CONNECTICUT UNEMPLOYMENT
Conn. unemployment reaches 8.9 percent in December

WETHERSFIELD, Conn. (AP) - Connecticut officials say the state
lost 4,800 jobs in December, pushing the unemployment rate to 8.9
percent.
The December figure was an increase from 8.2 percent in
November. One year earlier, it was 6.6 percent.
The state Department of Labor says Connecticut has lost 94,500
jobs since March 2008, although recent declines have been much
slower than the pace earlier in 2009.
The biggest declines were reported in retail, leisure and
hospitality jobs. The only sector to add jobs was educational and
health services, which had 1,300 new positions.
The national unemployment rate in December was 10 percent.

ATTORNEY GENERAL
Bysiewicz leads Dems running for Conn. attorney general

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) - Susan Bysiewicz (BY'-suh-witts) holds a
sizable lead among Democrats seeking their party's nomination for
Connecticut Attorney General.
A Quinnipiac (KWIHN'-uh-pee-ak) University Poll released
Thursday shows 61 percent of registered Democrats support
Bysiewicz, while 10 percent back former Senate Majority Leader
George Jepsen, and three percent support Waterbury Mayor Michael
Jarjura, who has voiced interest in the seat.
The poll did not include Rep. Cameron Staples, who says he's
also seeking the Democratic nomination.
The survey has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 4
percentage points. It was conducted around the same time a
Democratic blogger questioned whether Bysiewicz meets a requirement
in state law that the attorney general have 10 years of active law
practice in the state.
Bysiewicz is seeking a legal opinion from Attorney General
Richard Blumenthal on the matter.

GANIM-PRISON
Bridgeport ex-mayor out of prison

BRIDGEPORT, Conn. (AP) - Former Bridgeport Mayor Joseph Ganim
has been released early from a federal prison in Pennsylvania and
has been transfered to a halfway house in Hartford.
Ganim was released from the McKean Federal Prison Camp in Lewis
Run, Pa., on Thursday and sent to the Watkinson House to serve the
final six months of his sentence because he participated in a
drug-treatment program.
Inmates who are diagnosed with a verifiable drug problem and
successfully complete 500 hours in the program at the prison camp
are eligible for a sentence reduction of up to 12 months.
The 50-year-old Ganim served five terms as the city's mayor. He
began serving his sentence in 2003, after he was convicted of 16
federal corruption charges.
---
Information from: Connecticut Post, http://www.connpost.com

HAITI-SAVE THE CHILDREN
Save the Children says all staffers accounted for

WESTPORT, Conn. (AP) - Connecticut-based Save the Children says
all 59 of its staff members who were in Haiti when last week's
earthquake hit are now accounted for.
A spokeswoman for the Westport-based group, Eileen Burke, says
one staff member died and another remains in critical condition.
The staffer who died was identified as 24-year-old Similien
Mackendey.
Save the Children says the remaining staff members are safe and
in good health, and they continue to help survivors of the
earthquake. The group is setting up temporary shelters and camps
for children and families.
About a third of the organization's workers couldn't be found in
the days after the earthquake devastated Port-au-Prince.
---
Information from: The Hour, http://www.thehour.com

CONN-BUSINESS SHUTDOWNS
Conn. business closings declined in 2009

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) - Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz
(BY'-suh-witts) says slightly fewer companies went out of business
in Connecticut last year than in 2008.
However, fewer new businesses started in 2009 compared with the
year before.
In 2009, 13,414 businesses filed paperwork to dissolve. That was
down 0.3 percent from 2008.
Bysiewicz says the number of businesses that closed in 2008 was
the greatest since the numbers were first recorded in 2000.
In Connecticut 25,891 new businesses started last year, down
about 6 percent from 2008.
The chairman of Gov. M. Jodi Rell's Council of Economic
Advisors, Don Klepper-Smith, says the 2009 numbers confirm that
economic weakness in Connecticut is abating.

CONN-VENTURE CAPITAL
State: Venture capital firm boosts Conn.'s economy

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) - Connecticut's economic development agency
says investments by the state's quasi-public venture capital firm
in high-technology businesses has boosted the state's economy even
in two downturns.
The Department of Economic and Community Development says that
Connecticut Innovations Inc. created an average of 1,610 jobs a
year from 1995 through 2008. The agency also says investments by
Connecticut Innovations, established by the legislature in 1989,
drew $1 billion in investments outside the state during the period.
Rocky Hill-based Connecticut Innovations invested $152 million
in a portfolio of 84 companies. Of that amount, $106 million was
from state bond money and the remainder was earned in returns on
investments.

BUSH ATTORNEY-ATTEMPTED MURDER
Ex-Bush lawyer pleads not guilty in attack on wife

STAMFORD, Conn. (AP) - An attorney who worked in both Bush
administrations has pleaded not guilty to Connecticut charges that
he tried to kill his wife by beating her with a flashlight and
choking her two days after she delivered divorce papers.
Fifty-seven-year-old John Michael Farren appeared Thursday in
Stamford Superior Court. Farren's lawyer, Eugene Riccio, said
Farren pleaded not guilty to charges of strangulation, attempted
murder and a new charge of first-degree assault.
Police say his wife, Mary Farren, was beaten so severely Jan. 6
at their New Canaan home that she was at points knocked unconscious
and lost vision.
Farren was deputy White House counsel during President George W.
Bush's second term. He was undersecretary for international trade
in the Commerce Department under Bush's father, President George
H.W. Bush.

CABLEVISION-SCRIPPS
Cablevision, Scripps reach deal over fee dispute

NEW YORK (AP) - Cablevision customers in the New York Tri-State
area can watch the Food Network and HGTV again beginning Thursday.
Cablevision Systems and Scripps Networks Interactive said
Thursday they reached an agreement allowing for the return of Food
Network and HGTV programming to Cablevision's customers in the
area.
They did not give terms of the agreement.
Cablevision had dropped the channels for its 3.1 million
subscribers in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut in a fee
dispute with Scripps.

FISHERY ENFORCEMENT
Review: NOAA must revamp fishery law enforcement

BOSTON (AP) - A federal review of how the nation's fisheries are
policed says policy changes are needed to address complaints by New
England fishermen that the process for penalizing them is arbitrary
and unfair.
The report released Thursday by the U.S. Inspector General's
office says National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
officials must do a better job of overseeing fishery law
enforcement.
It also says the agency should consider restructuring its
law-enforcement staff. Ninety percent are criminal investigators,
even though most fisheries infractions are misdemeanors.
NOAA head Jane Lubchenco requested the nationwide review in June
after fishermen complained of excessive fines and retaliation.
Local lawmakers asked Lubchenco for the review, saying mistrust
between enforcement officers and fishermen was "at an all-time
high."

DEAD DUCK
Duck's killing prompts Conn. reward offers

MERIDEN, Conn. (AP) - Police in the central Connecticut city of
Meriden are investigating what they consider a murder most fowl.
Officials say the killing this month of a popular duck at a city
park has prompted local business owners to pledge a $2,000 reward
for information to find the perpetrator.
It has also upset many parents who brought their children to
Hubbard Park to feed the tame orange-beaked duck, whose image is on
"in memoriam" posters plastered around the park.
Meriden police say the white duck, found dead Jan. 12, looked
like it had been run over. A poorly punctuated note nearby read,
"Killed with intent how pathetic we are as a species."
Police hope the reward money and publicity gooses someone to
come forward with information on the killing.
---
Information from: The Hartford Courant, http://www.courant.com

SCHOOL TWINS RECORD
Conn. school hopes to break record for most twins

SOUTHBURY, Conn. (AP) - Students in a Connecticut high school's
senior class are used to seeing double, so much so that it may be a
world record.
The 13 sets of twins in the Class of 2010 at Pomperaug High
School in Southbury gathered Wednesday to have their photographs
taken and submit documents to verify for the Guinness Book of World
Records that they hold the record for most twins in a single school
class.
Guiness says the current record holder is Raymond J. Grey Jr.
High School in Acton, Mass., which had 10 sets of twins in the same
class in the 2006-07 year.
To claim the record, the Pomperaug students have to send a
videotape of Wednesday's verification session, photographs of the
twins and statements from two witnesses independent of the school
to Guinness headquarters in London.
---
Information from: Republican-American, http://www.rep-am.com

(Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

AP-NY-01-22-10 0101EST