Hartford

Wethersfield’s police department was flagged Thursday as having significant racial disparities in traffic stops for a sixth time. The Connecticut Racial Profiling Prohibition Project has examined nearly 200,000 stops on roads bordering Wethersfield and found that Black and Hispanic motorists were more likely to get pulled over going into the town than coming out.

The 34th Connecticut LGBTQ Film Festival gets underway in Hartford later this week. After last year’s all-virtual festival due to COVID concerns, this year’s event will be a hybrid of virtual and in-person screenings at Trinity College’s Cinestudio.

In 1884, a young Hartford woman named Ada Brown was murdered in her home.  It made national news, but Ada’s story faded into obscurity. This hour, we learn why a history class at University of Saint Joseph spent the past semester digging into her story, 136 years later.

And we learn what it meant to one of Ada’s descendants.

A New Haven firefighter who died while responding to a blaze last week was celebrated across Connecticut on Thursday.

The remembrance of Ricardo Torres Jr. started with a Funeral Mass in New Haven. It included a brave testimonial from his pregnant wife, Erica Martinez, who’s also left caring for their 11-month-old son.

Who's afraid of the Bix bad Beiderbecke?

Hartford has an amazing jazz history, and Colin has a lot of jazz musician friends. This hour, a little onstage jazz party recorded in front of a live audience long before the pandemic put a pause on live audiences as a thing.

Colin and the panel look to make jazz accessible to mere mortals. They talk about what makes jazz jazz, invite the audience to sing, and teach the audience to scat.

Elementary school music programs have seen a drop in the number of students enrolling in band or orchestra. The pandemic has forced music teachers to abandon their typical recruiting methods. But now a coalition of Connecticut symphony orchestras has stepped in with a series of free online services to encourage potential musicians to sign up.

The Yard Goats are back in Hartford.

This hour, a look into a future that might be for the city of Hartford. 

Some planners want to bury I-91 along its path between the Connecticut River and downtown Hartford.  

They would reimagine the levee underneath the highway as a green hill overlooking the river. 

They envision extensive development in nearby parts of Hartford with restored water views.

Connecticut First District Congressman John Larson is no stranger to big plans for highways in the Hartford area.  He sees a unique opportunity for the city.

Universal Basic Income, a program popularized --by presidential candidate Andrew Yang, might be coming to a Connecticut city. 

With signs and chants of support, a small group of Colombians living in Connecticut gathered in front of Hartford’s City Hall on Thursday to denounce the violent response by Colombia’s security forces against demonstrators.

Hartford resident Alina Zúñiga, who moved to Connecticut from Cali, Colombia, 30 years ago, organized the rally. She said ongoing corruption and abuse have been a decadeslong reality for the people in her native country. Zúñiga said young adults are responding on the streets, and she wanted to show her support.

Almost two weeks ago today, two children in Hartford were shot and killed within hours of each other. This week, on the heels of the Derek Chauvin verdict, a sixteen year old black girl was shot and killed by the police in Columbus, Ohio. 

This hour, we discuss what happens after gun violence.

Representative Brandon McGee and Kelvin Lovejoy from Hartford Communities That Care join us.

Hartford police have arrested a teenager in the recent shooting death of a 3-year-old boy in the city’s North End. Jaziah Smith, 19, was charged in the killing of Randell Jones.

Balloons, teddy bears and candles decorated the corner of a Hartford street where 3-year-old Randell Jones was shot and killed on Saturday afternoon. 

Families and friends gathered Monday in a vigil organized by Mothers United Against Violence.

As friends and families consoled the boy’s mother, Solmary Cruz, her sister Johanna Vazquez said the family is raising funds to bury her nephew, whom she remembers as a happy child. His family affectionately called the toddler “Jun Jun.” 

Hartford police have confirmed that a 3-year-old boy died of gunshot injuries suffered in a drive-by shooting in the city Saturday afternoon. Rondell Jones was in a car with his mother and two older siblings when he was shot.

About two hours later, a 16-year-old was killed and another person injured in a shooting about a mile from the first. Investigators do not believe the two incidents are linked. The 16-year-old was later named by police as Jamari Preston of New Britain.

As she was raising children with mental health needs, Milagros Vega learned how to access multiple services in Hartford. She moved to the city from Puerto Rico 25 years ago. Now she’s caring for a grandson with similar needs. 

The Hartford Courant is America’s oldest continuously published newspaper. But the proposed acquisition of the paper’s parent company Tribune Publishing by hedge fund Alden Global Capital has reporters worried about the newspaper’s future.

This hour, we look at the future of the Courant.  In a changing world, how will newspapers and other media companies survive?

Insurance giant Chubb has broken its silence over The Hartford’s rejection of its takeover offer, but the company did not make clear whether it intends to return with a sweetened bid.