Thumbs up, thumbs down

to the University of Connecticut men’s basketball team returning to the top of the regular-season weekly poll for the first time in 15 years. Yes, it puts every other team in a position to try to dethrone the Huskies, but that was already the mentality given their status as defending NCAA champions. A tight 66-65 win over Villanova Saturday kept UConn atop the polls and pushed their winning streak to seven. Xavier is on deck for a noon game on Sunday. to the Yale University research team that discovered that epilepsy drugs can be used to treat osteoarthritis. It’s estimated that the joint pain afflicts some 32.5 million people, which means the discovery could bring relief to people who endure pain, swelling, joint locking and stiffness. The professor of orthopedics in the Yale School of Medicine, who authored the study, deemed it a “groundbreaking discovery.” Millions of people hope he’s right. to a new website that’s designed to make it easier to find jobs in Connecticut. If it works, this could not only fill open positions and reduce the number of unemployed residents, but has the potential to lure job-seekers from outside of the state. The site, jobs.ct.gov, is more than a bulletin board. It includes tips, training and certification programs, along with resources for employers. to a needs assessment that suggests Connecticut has work to do to better assist the Deaf, hard-of-hearing and deaf-blind community. There will always be a need to boost resources for this population, but the results are particularly disconcerting because Connecticut was once a trailblazer in this area. Among other things, it was the first state to establish a permanent school for the Deaf. Much of this is surely due to Connecticut shuttering its Commission for the Deaf and Hard-ofHearing in 2016 over a lack of funding. Hopefully, Connecticut can do the work to reclaim its former reputation.