Lamont puts 11 cities and towns on ‘red’ virus alert

Gov. Ned Lamont, citing local increases in COVID-19 cases, put 11 cities and towns on “red” alert Thursday. While Lamont has resisted a statewide rollback of coronavirus restrictions, he’s given cities and towns with higher infection rates the options to make changes on a local level. The governor also said the state would be rethinking its travel advisory, given that three dozen states are currently included and Connecticut is fast approaching case numbers that would land it on its own list. Alternatively, Lamont is considering requiring all travelers to Connecticut to quarantine upon arrival here or produce a negative coronavirus test result.

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The big story

11 towns under ‘red’ coronavirusalert:

Lamontandinterimstate public health Commissioner Dr. Deidre Gifford announced Thursday that 11 towns in the state, most in southeastern Connecticut, were being placed on “red” alert status due to local increases in coronavirus infections. The towns included Canterbury, East Lyme, Griswold, Montville, Norwich, New London, Preston, Sprague and Windham, as well as Hartford and Danbury, where cases first began to rise in late August. The alert levels are based on number of new cases per day per 100,000 residents. Cities and towns on red alert are asked to cancel public events, postpone indoor activities and consider shifting students to online learning if they have more than 25 new cases per day per 100,000 residents. People living in those places should limit trips outside their home, particularly individuals at high-risk of severe illness from COVID-19, and avoid gathering with non-family members. Local officials in those communities can also revert to phase 2 of the state’s business reopening guidelines, which would limit indoor dining capacity at restaurants and other businesses and delay the opening of indoor performing arts venues. “Thepurposeof this newalert level mapis to makesure every person in Connecticut can look at that map andknowwheretheirtownis… and take the actions that we’re recommending,” Gifford said.

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Hayes, DeLauro face vile online attacks: Rep. Jahana Hayes and Rep. Rosa DeLauro faced unseemly online attacks this week, with racist Zoombombers interrupting an online event Hayes hosted for constituents and a gory photo of DeLauro being passed around social media. The Democratic congresswomen were quick to rebuke their attackers and alert authorities, attributing the incidents to a continuing decline in civil discourse. “Stopsayingthat this doesn’t happen here,” Hayes wrote in anessay published after the racist attack. The anonymous commenters repeatedly told Hayes, who is Black, to “Go pick your cotton” and flooded the chat with racial slurs. DeLauro said she was made aware of a photo illustration of a since-removed statute of Christopher Columbus in New Haven holding her severed head. “This act is part of the culture of violence beingfostered byPresident Trump,” DeLauro said. She said Facebook and Twitter removed the image shortly after being contacted.

Blumenthal tries, fails to block Barrett nomination: Sen. Richard Blumenthal Thursday made a lastditch effort to delay the confirmation of Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court, but the move failed on a party-line vote. Blumenthal, who has already said he will oppose Barrett’s confirmation, saying it should be up to the winner of the Nov. 3 presidential election to choose Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s replacement on the nation’s highest court, called for the Senate Judiciary Committee to delay voting on Barrett because she had failed to disclose a number of events she participated in at Notre Dame Law School, including a talk with a campus anti-abortion group. The motion to indefinitely delay Barrett’s confirmation failed and the committee is expected to vote Thursday, with the full Senate voting before Election Day. Barrett’s nomination is expected to pass the Republican-led Senate, but Blumenthal said he had not lost all hope and that constituent pressure could force enough Republicans to change their minds.

Connecticut to crack downon voter intimidation: Thestate’s top law enforcement andelections officials gathered at the state Capitol Thursday to deliver a stern warning than anybody accused of voter intimidation or other Election Day meddling will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. “We will have zero tolerance for that kind of conduct here in Connecticut,” state Attorney General William Tong said. “I want to be very clear about that, and we’re all in agreement on that. Zero tolerance. We are not going to put up with any unlawful interference with this election.” UnderConnecticut law, interfering in a way that prevents an individual from voting is a Class D felony that carries a maximumoffiveyears in prison. With as many as 66% of votes in Connecticut expected to be by absentee ballot this year, officials have pointed out that instances of ballot fraud are exceedingly rare.

Courts say elected officials can’t block critics on social media: A number of elected officials in Connecticut have taken to blocking their critics on social media, something civil liberties experts – andcourts – have deemed a form of censorship that runs afoul of the First Amendment.“Theright to criticize the government is at the hart of the First Amendment, and courts have recognized blocking people from government social media accounts is infringing on that right,” said Dan Barrett, legal director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Connecticut. The issue stretches across party lines, with people reporting they’ve been blocked by both Democratic and Republican politicians here. Kevin Coughlin, a spokesman for Democrats in the state Senate, said the caucus advises senators “that you can’t block. That’s our general policy.” Lawyers for one of the most prolific Twitter users of all — President Donald Trump, who has admittedly blocked critics — have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to weigh in on the matter.

Uncertainty surrounds funding for tuition-free community college:

A program to provide tuition-free community college to seniors graduating from Connecticut high schools is in jeopardy just one semester after it began due to significant budget shortfalls at the state’s regional universities and community colleges. The Board of Regents for Higher Education authorized a one-time expenditure of $3 million to launch the program this fall but said funding to continue it in the spring was uncertain. While the legislature vote to enact the program, it did not allocate any funding toward it. “No plan exists … to fund the program in the spring semester,” a budget document presented to the regents Thursday reads. “Should the legislature fail to secure funding for the program’s continuation” the Connecticut State Colleges and Universities system will have to either dip into dwindling reserves to fund it or consider ending the program, which could lead to a potential enrollment decline and a drop off in revenue.

Odds and ends

House Republican leader Themis Klarides is not seeking reelection next month but she already has a new gig lined up, heading up the Fight for Connecticut PAC that plans to raise and spend money to support Republican candidates. “Serving as honorary chair of the Fight for Connecticut PAC is a way for me to try and get people thinking about a brighter future for Connecticut, and I believe that starts with accountable government,” Klarides said in a news release Friday. … Derby Mayor Richard Dziekan tested positive for the coronavirus Monday, not long after Waterbury’s mayor also revealed he had a confirmed case of COVID-19. Derby City Hall was closed Tuesday to undergo a deep cleaning. Dziekan told Hearst Connecticut Media he felt like he was battling “a cold” and was taking over-the-counter medications. He told Hearst on Thursday that he was beginning to feel better and hadn’t had a fever in two days. … Monte Frank, an attorney from Newtown, will succeed the late Oz Griebel as head of the Connecticut branch of the national Serve American Movement, a nonpartisan group that advocates for open primaries, expanded mail voting and term limits. When Griebel, who died this summer after he was struck by a tractor-trailer while jogging, ran for governor as an independent in 2018, Frank was his running mate. Frank, a past president of the Connecticut Bar Association, has participated in numerous bike rides from Newtown to Washington, D.C., to bring attention to gun violence prevention. … Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton said Thursday that “Last WeekTonight” host John Oliver hasagreedtocometothecity for a ribbon-cutting of the newly renamed John Oliver Memorial Sewer Plant. After Oliver attacked Danbury, seemingly at random, on his popular HBO program, Boughton fired back that he’d name the plant after Oliver, who he said was “full of [expletive].” Oliver was tickled by the mayor’s retort and offered tens of thousands in donations to local nonprofits to make it happen. Nodatehasbeensetforthe ceremony. … U.S. District Judge Charles S. Haight Jr. Wednesday dismissed a challenge by the Connecticut State Police Union of a provision in a new police accountability lawthatwouldgivethepublic access to information in trooper personnel files that hadbeensealed by the union’s contract. The troopers argued the move violated the Constitution’s contract clause, but Haight said that Connecticut lawmakers had “legitimate public purpose” to make the change given the national outrage over policing spurred by the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.