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Congress approved nearly $72.3 million to build a new pier at Naval Submarine Base New London, but the money may be snatched away to help build President Donald Trump’s wall along the Rio Grande.

The money for the pier, the largest construction funding appropriated for the Groton sub base in years, is among $10.5 billion Congress appropriated for military construction at U.S. bases across the nation and overseas, money that is spent on housing and schools, airplane hangars, base training centers — and new piers for submarines.

They might look like something out of science fiction, but star-nosed moles are real-life creatures that can be found across the East Coast, including in Connecticut. These small, furry mammals are a bit larger than a house mouse, and live underground in wetlands, digging tunnels with their enormous claws.

But their most distinctive feature is their pink, star-shaped nose.

Ken Catania, Stevenson Professor of Biological of Sciences at Vanderbilt University has studied the neurobiology of the star-nosed mole’s strange snout for decades. He told Where We Live about the science behind these incredible creatures:

It’s been 20 years, and James Tillman still hasn’t forgotten what it felt like the first time he trudged down the narrow, gray hallways into the bowels of Northern Correctional Institution.

“It was like walking into the circle of hell,” said the wrongfully convicted inmate-turned-activist. “The conditions are so terrible – worse than any animals could be subject to.”

Connecticut’s major cities have some of the highest eviction rates in the nation, and one lawmaker says it’s time to take action on the issue. 

A 2016 study by The Eviction Lab at Princeton University lists the top 100 evicting cities in the United States. Four out of the five cities listed in the Northeast are in Connecticut -- Waterbury, Hartford, Bridgeport and New Haven. 

Gov. Ned Lamont on Thursday announced the first CEO of the Paid Family and Medical Leave Insurance Authority, a quasi-public agency that will run a new state system of paid family medical leave.

For several long hours, Francisco, then 15, sat on the bank of the Rio Grande River in Mexico trying to work up the courage to cross it. On the other side of the river was the United States, and the promise of seeing his mother in Connecticut.

Connecticut’s attorney general says the state will join a group of 20 states in challenging soon-to-be released Trump administration regulations regarding the online release of plans for 3D-printed firearms.

The White House wants to transfer jurisdiction over the issue from the State Department to the Commerce Department. 

Three fatal shootings by police officers in Connecticut have occurred in the early weeks of 2020. In light of these incidents, State Sen. Gary Winfield said lawmakers have an opportunity to address police use of force in the upcoming legislative session.

The Senate impeachment trial of President Donald Trump began Tuesday with warring views of how it should proceed.

Democrats, including Connecticut Sens. Richard Blumenthal and Chris Murphy, slammed Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s rules for conducting the trial, calling them corrupt and “rigged” to result in Trump’s acquittal before the president gives his State of the Union speech on Feb. 4.

The body of a University of Connecticut student has been recovered by campus police.

House and Senate Democratic leaders said they hope to finalize a tractor trailer tolls bill at a meeting Tuesday afternoon with the administration of Gov. Ned Lamont, then schedule a public hearing for next week on Lamont’s 10-year, $19 billion infrastructure plan.

The leaders originally said they planned to make the legislation public Tuesday, but they expect some revisions after the meeting, meaning the bill’s public release is unlikely before Wednesday.

He doesn’t need the money, and the issue can be toxic. But a Democratic freshman senator from Essex plans to work this election year on building support for the first state legislative pay raise in 20 years.

And it’s a raise he wouldn’t benefit from personally because he doesn’t accept a salary from the state.

With one in four workers now aged 55 and older, Connecticut lawmakers of both parties are rallying around a relatively modest bill aimed at age-discrimination: a prohibition on employers requiring prospective employees to list their age, birth date, or graduation year on an application.

Lev Parnas, a former associate of Rudy Giuliani, said he dismissed information given to him by Robert Hyde, a Republican candidate for Congress in Connecticut's 5th District. 

On a sunny, cool day as fall gave way to winter, a team of biologists and technicians dragged white cloths through the underbrush at Lord Creek Farm in Lyme. They were looking for blacklegged ticks, which carry Lyme disease and four other deadly illnesses.

A leading child advocacy group challenged state leaders Wednesday to reverse escalating income and wealth inequality and provide tax relief for up to 90% of Connecticut by shifting tax burdens onto the state’s millionaires.

The state’s commissioner of energy and environmental protection said Wednesday that Connecticut is being forced to invest in natural gas plants it doesn’t want or need.

Robert F. Hyde, a Simsbury construction company owner, Trump donor and a Republican candidate for the U.S. House, is now a figure in the presidential impeachment inquiry after documents suggest he spied on the former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch.

Police announced Tuesday that they have found the mother of a baby who was left in a parking lot in 1988.

Police Chief Jeffry Cossette identified the mother as Karen Kuzmak Roche. Detectives described her as remorseful when they found her at home on Jan. 2, 2020. 

Lawmakers are wasting no time seeking public input on a proposal to erase Connecticut’s religious exemption from mandatory vaccinations.

They have scheduled a public hearing on the plan for Feb. 19 – just two weeks into the legislative session. A draft of the bill is expected to be released next week.

Connecticut’s Department of Education said it’s ready to help school districts take in Puerto Rican students evacuated from the island because of recent earthquakes.

Senate Minority Leader Len Fasano, R- North Haven, called an impromptu press conference Monday to demand Democratic leaders in the Senate and the governor’s office show their hand about whether they have the votes to pass a transportation bill that includes tolls on trucks.

“They need to stop pretending they can pull a deal off because they can’t,” Fasano said. “It’s been talked about forever and we are no step closer to resolving this issue to the detriment of businesses and the state of Connecticut. … They had their shot. They tried the best they could. They can’t get there.”

Sen. Richard Blumenthal is joining with lawmakers from New York and Massachusetts in asking big tech companies like Apple and Google to help truckers avoid accidents and collisions with bridges.

He wants GPS apps like Waze, Google Maps and Apple Maps to include height and weight restrictions for limited-access highways like the Merritt and Wilbur Cross parkways.

New archival research has revealed the identity of an unknown shipwreck off the Connecticut coast.

There are more than 100 historic shipwrecks in Long Island Sound by most accounts, but one particular wreck that was discovered by divers seven years ago off the coast near New London was initially a mystery. Only a few artifacts remained from the wreckage, which made it impossible to identify the ship.