Matt Dwyer

The state House of Representatives has voted to extend Gov. Ned Lamont's pandemic emergency authority to July 20. Lawmakers also voted in favor of limits on how long public emergency declarations can last. The emergency authority legislation has yet to be voted on in the senate. Lamont has used his COVID-19 emergency powers to alter state laws and enforce emergency orders since a committee of state lawmakers signed off on expanded authority more than a year ago.

Former state lawmaker Robert Ward has died at the age of 68. Ward rose to the rank of Republican House Minority leader. He also served as commissioner of the state Department of Motor Vehicles, and as a state auditor. The Connecticut Mirror reports that Ward had kidney problems. His health had been declining in recent months.

The Catholic archbishop and bishops from Hartford, Bridgeport, and Norwich today announced that they will no longer excuse their followers from attending weekly masses. During the pandemic, Catholics in Connecticut were told they did not have to attend mass. They will be asked to return to the pews after May 22. Face masks will still be required. Many churches, mosques, and synagogues in the state held online services and gatherings during the pandemic, but most social distancing requirements will end in the state on May 19.

President Joe Biden will deliver the keynote address to this year's graduating class of Coast Guard Academy cadets. The ceremony is May 19 on the campus in New London. The number of people allowed to attend will be much lower than normal, because of the pandemic. Biden spoke at a Coast Guard Academy graduation once before, when he was Vice President in 2013. Presidents give speeches to the U.S. Military academies on a rotating basis. Last year's Coast Guard Academy ceremony was held virtually because of the pandemic.

Insurance giant Chubb is giving up on its efforts to purchase The Hartford Financial Services Group. In a conference call Wednesday, Chubb chairman and CEO Evan Greenberg responded to a question about the attempted acquisition.

A Stamford company is disputing an NBC News story focusing on the firm's failure to deliver a special kind of syringe -- so far -- during the pandemic. NBC reports that ApiJect was awarded contracts and loans under the Trump administration, to supply syringes prefilled with COVID-19 vaccine, but so far none have been made available for patients. The devices have not been approved for use. It is unclear if any requests for approval of their use have been made. At one point the company had said it would supply 100 million prefilled syringes by the end of last year.

Connecticut Sen. Christopher Murphy has applauded the president's decision to remove U.S. troops from Afghanistan by September 11. In a speech on the floor of the senate, Murphy said the decision to bring the troops home is the right one. He says after 20 years, it’s clear that continued  U.S. military presence will not create political stability in Afghanistan. Murphy is a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

The new mayor of Boston has connections to Connecticut. Kim Janey's grandparents lived in Connecticut. She studied at Greater Hartford Community College, now called Capitol Community College in Hartford. Janey was raising a young daughter at the time. She tells the Boston Globe that that period of her life forced her to grow up pretty fast. Janey will hold the job of mayor for at least seven months. She moved to the mayor's office from her position as city council president after Martin Walsh left during his term to join the Biden administration.

Yale student Nathan Chen is taking part in the World Figure Skating Championships in Stockholm, Sweden this week. He has won two world championships in the past, and he won a bronze medal at the Olympics. NBC Sports has reported that he is expected to take a year off from competitive figure skating after the next Olympics to complete his education in New Haven.

Connecticut's two senators are proposing $300 million in federal funding to help people and businesses with crumbling foundations. If the plan is approved, half of the money would be provided through the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The rest of the funds would go to states like Connecticut that set up nonprofit organizations to help homeowners pay to replace the foundations of their houses and condos. Tens of thousands of foundations in eastern Connecticut were built with concrete that was contaminated and which corrodes over time.

The Chief States Attorney and all thirteen of the states attorneys in Connecticut have signed on to a letter praising the independence of their offices. The letter was released late Friday. It’s a response to a proposal in the General Assembly that would set a range of new rules for the state prosecutors to follow. The bill would also move the states attorneys from the Division of Criminal Justice, to the executive branch of state government. That might give a governor more influence over the office.

Thousands of students in one of the largest school districts in the state are returning to in-person classes 5 days per week, starting today. Hartford students in ninth grade and younger have been hybrid learning, with some of their classes in person, and some online. Older high school students in Hartford will continue to split their time between online and in-person learning for the time being. Hartford has had problems with many student not engaging with online learning.

White people in Connecticut are more than twice as likely as Black and Hispanic people to be fully vaccinated for COVID-19. That's according to numbers released Thursday by the state Department of Public Health. Eight percent of white people are fully vaccinated. Less than four percent of Black and Hispanic residents are fully vaccinated. But the state health department says there is some uncertainty in those numbers.

Ministers, police, and the mayor of New Haven are speaking out today, after a violent weekend in the Elm City. Police Chief Otoniel Reyes says officers are working around the clock to solve these most recent acts of violence.

The shooting death of Yale grad student Kevin Jiang brought the total number of homicides in New Haven to six, Just five weeks into the year. The Yale School of the Environment is holding a community gathering today.