New York

On the one hand, obituaries are an amalgam of a bunch of different kinds of journalism: they're feature stories, they're profile pieces, they cover history, and they're hard news too.

On the other hand, the subject is always... dead.

Cartoonist Bill Griffith based his legendary character Zippy the Pinhead on Schlitzie, a real life sideshow 'pinhead' who appeared in Todd Browning's 1932 film Freaks. Early audiences were appalled by Browning's use of real sideshow characters to seek revenge on those who treated them cruelly.

Griffith's graphic novel is his effort to understand Schlitzie and the sideshow family who cared for him. We talk to Griffith and a member of Schlitzie's sideshow family.

Also this hour: the man who saved thousands of premature infants by exhibiting them in incubators at the Coney Island sideshow.

Olivia Rodrigo's "drivers license" is in its second week as the No. 1 song in the country, having debuted there last week. It is the first debut single by any artist to hit the Billboard Hot 100 at No. 1 in history.

And: Pretend It's a City is Martin Scorsese's seven-part Netflix documentary series about Fran Liebowitz that's actually also kind of about New York City.

And finally: How To with John Wilson is John Wilson's six-part HBO documentary series of advice and tutorials that's actually also kind of about New York City.

Today, we reflect back on the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, 19 years ago. Nearly 3000 people died when hijacked passenger jets slammed into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Another would crash into a field in Pennsylvania.

We hear about the health impacts first responders continue to face and the long fight to secure funding for their medical treatments.

Later, we look at the legacy of 9/11 on American foreign policy. Almost two decades after the attacks, how does that day shape our country’s foreign policy today? We talk to two international relations experts.

In a taste of what may be ahead for Connecticut, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is tightening quarantine orders for of out-of-state travelers from areas with high rates of COVID-19. 

Because of the coronavirus, New York City is now home to an abundance of underemployed, world-class musicians. Many of them will be participating in a 24-hour, live streaming music marathon beginning this evening.

The 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act introduced a new initiative, the Opportunity Zones Program, to spur investment in the nation’s most distressed communities. The state of Connecticut is home to 72 Opportunity Zones. What efforts are being made to attract investors to these regions? This hour, we find out, and we also hear from you. Do you live in or near an Opportunity Zone? 

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.

A New York lawmaker is fighting Connecticut’s plan to toll a stretch of an Empire State highway that briefly cuts through southwest Connecticut.

The 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act introduced a new initiative, the Opportunity Zones Program, to spur investment in the nation’s most distressed communities. The state of Connecticut is home to 72 Opportunity Zones. What efforts are being made to attract investors to these regions? This hour, we find out, and we also hear from you. Do you live in or near an Opportunity Zone? 

Wednesday marked the 18th anniversary of the terrorist attacks on 9/11. In East Haven, The Shore Line Trolley Museum commemorates the day with a special permanent display. The museum has one of two subway cars that survived the collapse of the World Trade Center. 

Gov. Ned Lamont interrupted a two-week vacation at his summer home in Maine on Tuesday to fly to Lockport, N.Y., for a morning of sport fishing and policy talks on Lake Ontario with Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York. 

The FBI, the Justice Department's inspector general and the New York City medical examiner will investigate how billionaire and convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein was found dead in his jail cell at Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan early Saturday morning. 

Staffing unrest at the Connecticut Lottery Corp. has been a longtanding source of intrigue.

But an employee's whistleblower case before the state Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities sheds new light on the level of infighting that unfolded at the quasi-public agency under its previous leadership.

It's a tale that includes secret recordings and the FBI.

Painful rashes, diarrhea, even possibly blindness or deadly brain inflammation -- these are all symptoms of measles. Before researchers developed a vaccine, this disease once affected millions in the U.S. and hospitalized tens of thousands every year.

Thanks to the vaccine, measles was eliminated from this country two decades ago. Yet today, communities in New York and Washington state are experiencing devastating outbreaks today. This hour, we ask why is a virulent, deadly, but entirely preventable disease reappearing in the U.S.?