Hartford

Today’s inauguration festivities in Washington, D.C., will feature a new work by a composer who studied at the University of Hartford’s Hartt School.

2020 is ending on a brighter note for Connecticut arts organizations, which have struggled to remain operational through the prolonged pandemic.

The state is considering early release for a Hartford man convicted of killing his cousin in 1994.

Attorneys for Clyde Meikle, who is serving 50 years for murdering Clifford Walker with a shotgun, have recommended he get out in 2022 after serving 28 years. The potential release has generated strong feelings from both state officials as well as the victim’s family.

In anticipation of potential COVID-19 surges in the coming weeks, state officials and health experts are expanding the Hartford region’s hospital bed capacity.

The state National Guard and the Department of Public Health in partnership with Hartford HealthCare are reopening a 600-bed field hospital at the Connecticut Convention Center. They say this is a precautionary move as numbers of cases and hospitalizations continue to generally trend upward. 

Surrounded by colleagues underneath a tent that protected them from the freezing rain, Dr. Ajay Kumar rolled up his sleeve as a nurse cleaned the upper part of his arm with an antiseptic wipe.

“Here we go, number one,” someone shouted. 

The Hartford-based music ensemble Cuatro Puntos and the University of Saint Joseph in West Hartford have partnered for a yearlong series of virtual concerts and discussions that intersect music and positive social change around the world.

Shootings are up in Hartford in 2020, including what the city’s mayor calls an “unusual and severe” spike into the fall. And while this problem isn’t unique to Hartford, there is a major effort underway to pinpoint the cause of the problem in Connecticut’s capital.

Hartford Public Schools will continue to offer an in-person learning option for at least two more weeks. Since September, there have been 52 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the city’s schools but only one probable case of in-school transmission, officials said.

Connecticut prison officials are monitoring a coronavirus outbreak in Hartford Correctional Center, where 56 incarcerated people tested positive but are not showing symptoms, according to Karen Martucci, spokeswoman for the Department of Correction.

Pablo Liriano is an 85-year-old urban gardener who is voting for the first time in November’s election. After waiting more than a decade, he got his citizenship in 2018, and he then registered to vote at Hartford's Park Street Library in the heart of the city’s Latino community. 

Connecticut recently passed a police accountability bill after the killing of George Floyd by police in Minneapolis. Though the bill is now law, legislative candidates who oppose it are using it as a political issue.

Back in August, families with children in Hartford Public Schools responded to an online survey aimed at finding out the reasons behind their decision to send their kids back to school.

Hartford Public Schools canceled the first day of both in-person and online classes after hackers hit its computer systems with a ransomware attack. Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin says there’s no evidence the hackers actually demanded any ransom. 

Howard K. Hill wants to bring the economic, social and cultural vibrancy back to Hartford’s Barbour Street. On a hot summer day, the funeral home owner may have been the only person dressed in a full suit strolling down a street peppered with closed businesses, dilapidated housing and streets in need of a serious cleanup.

Bill Moore was 24 when police say he fired the bullets that would kill one 17-year-old and injure another.

He grew up in Hartford, Connecticut, and would hang out with friends who lived in the apartment building on Park Street that would eventually become a crime scene.