Meteorite crashes through roof in Connecticut, scientist says

Published April 24, 2013

Associated Press

NEW HAVEN, Conn. –  A Yale scientist says a rock that crashed through the roof of a home in Wolcott was a meteorite.

Police say resident Larry Bech called them Saturday morning to report that his home had been damaged by a falling rock the night before.

Authorities suspected the object was a piece of runway from a nearby airport.

But Stefan Nicolescu, the collections manager for the Mineralogy Division at the Yale Peabody Museum, examined the rock and tells WVIT-TV it is a meteorite.

Nicolescu says the meteorite likely comes from the Lyrids meteor shower, which happens every year at this time when Earth crosses the orbit of comet Thatcher.

View the original article here

Connecticut Senate approves gun control bills, sends to House

• 

  April 3, 2013: Paul Regish of East Hartford, Conn., holds signs as gun rights advocates enter the legislative office building at the Capitol in Hartford, Conn.AP

HARTFORD, Conn. –  The state Senate on Wednesday approved wide-ranging legislation in response to last year's deadly school shooting in Newtown, including gun control measures that ban the sale of large-capacity ammunition magazines and 100 weapons that previously had been legal.

Following a respectful and at times somber debate, the Senate voted 26-10 in favor of the bill crafted by leaders from both major parties in the Democratic-controlled legislature.

The bill was to go to the House of Representatives, which was expected to pass it. It would then be sent to Democratic Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, who has said he'll sign it.

The December massacre of 26 people inside Sandy Hook Elementary School, which reignited a national debate on gun control, set the stage for changes in Connecticut that may have been impossible elsewhere: The governor, who personally informed parents that their children had been killed that day, championed the cause, and legislative leaders, keenly aware of the attention on the state, struck a bipartisan agreement they want to serve as a national model.

"The tragedy in Newtown demands a powerful response, demands a response that transcends politics," said Senate President Donald E. Williams Jr., a Democrat. "It is the strongest and most comprehensive bill in the country."

The legislation adds more than 100 firearms to the state's assault weapons ban and creates what officials have called the nation's first dangerous weapon offender registry as well as eligibility rules for buying ammunition. Some parts of the bill will take effect immediately, including background checks for all firearms sales

Connecticut will join states including California, New York, New Jersey and Massachusetts in having the country's strongest gun control laws, said Brian Malte, director of mobilization for the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence in Washington.

"This would put Connecticut right at the top or near the top of the state with the strongest gun laws," Malte said.

Colorado and New York also passed new gun-control requirements in the wake of the Newtown shooting, in which a 20-year-old gunman used a military-style, semi-automatic rifle to kill 20 first-grade children and six educators.

Compared with Connecticut's legislation, which, for example, bans the sale or purchase of ammunition magazines holding more than 10 rounds, New York restricted magazines to seven bullets and gave owners of higher-capacity magazines a year to sell them elsewhere. Colorado banned ammunition magazines that hold more than 15 rounds.

"There are pieces that are stronger in other states, but in totality, this will be the strongest gun legislation passed in the United States," Betty Gallo, a lobbyist for Connecticut Against Gun Violence, said of the Connecticut bill.

The legislation was unveiled this week, and debate began Wednesday in the Senate.

Many senators spoke of balancing the rights of gun owners with addressing the horror of the Sandy Hook shooting. Lawmakers said they received thousands of emails and phone calls urging them to vote either for or against the bill, with veteran Sen. Joan Hartley, a Democrat, saying she's never seen a more polarizing issue at the state Capitol.

Gun rights advocates who greatly outnumbered gun-control supporters in demonstrations at the Capitol railed against the proposals as misguided and unconstitutional, occasionally chanting "No! No! No!" and "Read the bill!"

"We want them to write laws that are sensible," said Ron Pariseau, 66, of Pomfret, who was angry he'll be made a felon if he doesn't register his weapons that will no longer be sold in Connecticut. "What they're proposing will not stop anything."

In the legislature, where Democrats control both houses, leaders waited to unveil gun legislation until they struck a bipartisan deal that they say shows how the parties can work together elsewhere. They touted the package as a comprehensive response to Newtown that also addresses mental health and school security measures, including $15 million to help pay for school security infrastructure upgrades.

But momentum on federal legislation has stalled in Congress, and President Barack Obama has planned a trip to Connecticut on Monday to step up pressure to pass a bill.

A silent majority in favor of stronger gun control has emerged following the Newtown massacre, Gallo said.

Among gun control advocates are Dan and Lauren Garrett, of Hamden, wearing green shirts in honor of the Sandy Hook victims, who traveled to Hartford with their 10-month-old son, Robert, to watch the bill's passage.

Both hope lawmakers will build on the proposal.

"It's just the beginning of this bill. In six months from now, it's going to get stronger and stronger," said Dan Garrett. "I think they're watching us all over the country."

But gun rights advocates and some lawmakers questioned whether the legislation would have done anything to stop Adam Lanza, who blasted his way into Sandy Hook Elementary. State police say he fired 154 shots with a Bushmaster .223-caliber rifle inside the school, then killed himself with a handgun. He had also shot to death his mother, Nancy, before going to the school, and search warrants of the Lanzas' home showed it was packed with weapons and ammunition.

In a state where gun manufacturing dates back to the Revolutionary War, law-abiding gun owners are paying the price for the actions of a deranged young man, said a Republican state senator, Tony Guglielmo.

"The problem is I can't connect the dots between Adam Lanza and the good guys. So I think we need to do something, but I guess we should be doing something that does good, not something that just feels good," he said.

View the original article here

Ban on high-capacity magazines part of deal struck on strict Connecticut gun laws

Connecticut lawmakers announced a deal Monday on what they called some of the toughest gun laws in the country that were proposed after the December mass shooting in the state, including a ban on new high-capacity ammunition magazines like the ones used in the massacre that left 20 children and six educators dead.

The proposal also called for background checks for private gun sales and a new registry for existing magazines that carry 10 or more bullets, something of a compromise for parents of Newtown victims who had wanted an outright ban on them, while legislators had proposed grandfathering them into the law.

The package also creates what lawmakers said is the nation's first statewide dangerous weapon offender registry, immediate universal background checks for all firearms sales and expansion of Connecticut's assault weapons ban.

A new state-issued eligibility certificate would also be needed to purchase any rifle, shotgun or ammunition under the legislation. To get the certificate, a buyer would need to be fingerprinted, take a firearms training course and undergo a national criminal background check and involuntary commitment or voluntary admission check.

The deal is "the most comprehensive package in the country because of its breadth," said Senate Minority Leader John McKinney, a Fairfield Republican whose district includes Newtown.

McKinney said people tend to focus on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, but he said "there's a lot here underneath the surface" addressing mental health, school security and other issues.

The proposal was revealed to rank-and-file lawmakers Monday after weeks of negotiations among legislative leaders. A vote was expected later this week in the Legislature, where Democrats control both chambers, making passage all but assured. The bill would then be sent to Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, who has helped lead efforts to strengthen the state's gun laws.

Connecticut is sending a message to Washington and the rest of the country "this is the way to get this job done," said House Speaker Brendan Sharkey, a Democrat from Hamden. Both Democratic and Republican leaders were expected to support the proposal, which had been in the works for about a month.

The shooting reignited the gun debate in the country and led to calls for increased gun control legislation on the federal and state levels. While some other states, including New York, have strengthened their gun laws since the shooting, momentum has stalled in Congress, whose members were urged by President Barack Obama last week not to forget the shooting and to capitalize on the best change in years to stem gun violence.

The gunman in Newtown blasted his way into Sandy Hook Elementary School and fired off 154 shots with a Bushmaster .223-caliber rifle within five minutes. He went through six 30-round magazines, though half were not completely empty, and police said he had three other 30-round magazines in addition to one in the rifle. He gunned down 26 people, then shot himself to death with a handgun.

Six relatives of Newtown victims visited the Capitol on Monday, asking lawmakers to include a ban on existing high-capacity magazines. Some handed out cards with photographs of their slain children. They delivered a letter signed by 24 relatives that demanded that legislators include existing large-capacity ammunition magazines in the ban on the sale of magazines that carry 10 or more bullets.

Allowing such large-capacity magazines to remain in the hands of gun owners would leave a gaping loophole in the law, said Mark Barden, whose 7-year-old son, Daniel, was killed in the shooting.

"It doesn't prevent someone from going out of the state to purchase them and then bring them back. There's no way to track when they were purchased, so they can say, `I had this before,"' Barden said. "So it's a big loophole."

Jake McGuigan, a spokesman for the National Shooting Sports Foundation, which is based in Newtown, said he wouldn't comment on the proposal until he saw it in the writing, but he questioned the mechanics of a registry for magazines.

"How will they register a magazine? It seems a little weird," he said.

View the original article here

Endangered giraffe gives birth at Connecticut conservation center

Published March 24, 2013

Associated Press

GREENWICH, Conn. –  A rare, nearly 6-foot-tall giraffe listed as an endangered subspecies has been born in a Connecticut conservation center.

The Greenwich Time reports (http://bit.ly/ZJI63V ) that Petal, a 6-year-old Rothschild giraffe gave birth on Friday to female calf as a group of other giraffes and staff at the LEO Zoological Conservation Center watched.

Marcella Leone, founder and director of the center, said the young animal is curious, approaching humans early on in its first days of life.

When fully grown, the newborn, who will mingle with a group of five giraffes, which includes two pregnant giraffes, could reach 18 feet in height.

The calf is the first born at the off-exhibit conservation center.

Rothschild giraffes were named and described by Lord Walter Rothschild, a British zoologist, after an expedition to East Africa in the early 1900s.

View the original article here

Colt to bolt? Gun maker's boss says company feels unwelcome in Connecticut

• 

  Sergio Pereira adds a completed Colt rifle to a rack of newly assembled guns at the company headquarters in West Hartford. (Michael McAndrews/The Hartford Courant)

• 

  Jan. 28, 2013: Dennis Veilleux, CEO and president of Colt's Manufacturing Company, speaks out against attempts to ban certain guns and push for restrictions to prevent people with mental problems from obtaining weapons at a news conference at the Legislative Office Building in Hartford, Conn. (AP)

Next Slide Previous Slide

Colt's Manufacturing, the company that has made the iconic gun dubbed "The Peacemaker" for more than a century, could pull up its Connecticut stakes after coming under fire in the national debate over the Second Amendment.

President and CEO Dennis Veilleux said the pro-gun control climate that has taken hold in the wake of the Sandy Hook school massacre and other firearm attacks has left him feeling unwelcome in the state his company has called home for 175 years. Proposed laws being debated by the Legislature and pushed by Gov. Dannel Malloy include a new gun offender registry, an expanded assault weapons ban, ammunition restrictions and a ban on bulk purchases of handguns. Veilleux said those measures have put Colt and its nearly 700 employees in the crosshairs.

“At some point, if you can’t sell your products … then you can’t run your business."

- Dennis Veilleux, CEO of Colt's Manufacturing

“At some point, if you can’t sell your products … then you can’t run your business," Veilleux told FoxNews.com. "You need customers to buy your products to stay in business.”

Veilleux, who wrote an op-ed that appeared in The Hartford Courant this week in which he raised the prospect of leaving the state, said the company doesn’t have any such “definite plans.” But if Malloy follows through on his promise to ban the purchase and sale of AR-15 rifles, the centerpiece of the company’s business, he said leaving could become an option.

Veilleux, 47, said Colt is “constantly approached” by other states to relocate. Several red state governors have made no secret of the fact they covet firearms makers, an industry that by some measures contributes $1.7 billion annually to Connecticut's economy.

Click for photos of Colt's Manufacturing and Connecticut through the years

The gun company boss acknowledged that even raising the possibility of a move could be troubling to workers, whose roots in Connecticut are in many cases as deep as Colt's.

“The employees are what the company is,” he said. “It’s not a building with a bunch of machines in it. The company is the employees. They’re proud of what they do, they represent their community – and I would say a lot more than some of the legislators do. They’re real people.”

Malloy spokesman Andrew Doba says the Democratic governor does not want Colt and its 670 employees to leave the state.

“The governor has been clear for some time that while he does not want manufacturers to leave the state, we need to move ahead with common sense gun violence prevention legislation that will improve public safety,” Doba wrote FoxNews.com in an email.

Veilleux made headlines last week when he closed down his factory and bused 400 workers to the state Capitol so they could personally urge lawmakers not to pass gun control legislation that they say could risk their livelihoods.

Connecticut's unemployment rate was 8.2 percent in December. In Hartford County, where Colt is based and provides what Veilleux considers high-paying jobs, that figure was 8.1 percent. Both jobless rates are well above the national average of 7.7 percent.

Ron Pinciaro, executive director of Connecticut Against Gun Violence, defended the pieces of legislation currently under consideration.

"We feel that because of the enormity of the situation that happened on Dec. 14, that if we just put some Band-Aids on things, it's really not going to be enough," Pinciaro said.

Twenty first-graders and six educators were killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School on Dec. 14. Gunman Adam Lanza also killed his mother, Nancy Lanza, before committing suicide as police responded to the school.

Full coverage of Colt's Manufacturing from The Hartford Courant

The shootings, as well as last year's movie theater massacre in Aurora, Colo., have triggered a renewed debate over gun laws, especially laws governing background checks and assault rifles. On Wednesday, a Colorado ammunition magazine manufacturer went a step further than Veilleux, saying that it will leave the state after lawmakers approved new gun laws there.

Magpul Chief Operating Officer Doug Smith said the moving process has begun following the signing of a bill by Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper that bans the sale of gun magazines with more than 15 rounds. A new location has yet to be determined.

“Our moving efforts are under way,” Smith told the Denver Post. “Within the next 30 days we will manufacture our first magazine outside the state of Colorado.”

Magpul, which employs roughly 200 workers, is based in Erie, about 30 miles north of Denver. It’s the largest Colorado company that potentially would be affected by the bill, one of three state gun measures passed this year.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

View the original article here