Middletown

Now’s not a bad time to have a shoe fetish, especially if you’re a senior citizen. Connecticut Foot Care Centers LLC donated around 100 pairs of new shoes to a small Middletown-based nonprofit, St. Luke’s Eldercare Solutions, which provides free services to seniors. The foot care center recently stopped selling orthopedic shoes, but instead of returning the display shoes used for sizing, the doctors decided to give them away. The shoes came in a variety of sizes and styles, ranging from enormous sneakers to dainty Mary Janes, with extra cushioning for support. The shoes would retail for nearly $140 a 
pair. The total donation was worth around $10,000.

-The Middletown Press

Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz is filing suit in the Hartford Superior Court to prove that she meets the state’s legal requirements for the Office of Attorney General. A Middletown resident, Bysiewicz is seeking official confirmation of her eligibility as a candidate for the Attorney General position. Connecticut state law currently requires that the Attorney General be “an attorney of at least ten years’ active practice at the bar of this state.” In the suit, Bysiewicz argues that she meets this requirement through her service in private practice and public service as Secretary of the State for more than a decade. Connecticut has never had a female Attorney General in office.

-The Middletown Press

Fortunately for both the environment and Connecticut, more than half of the state’s towns will receive a total of $6.7 million in federal stimulus funds to help pay for energy efficiency projects. Middletown and other shoreline towns will receive $23,063. In addition, more than two dozen of the state’s largest cities were eligible to apply for federal stimulus grants for energy efficiency projects.

-The Hartford Courant

Hartford

Karen Fritsche, a West Hartford resident, began planning a citywide fundraising walk to help support Haiti relief efforts last July. As a co-founder of the seven-year-old Cambridge walk, which also gives support to Haiti, Fritsche expects a large turnout at what will be the first fundraising walk for Haiti in the state. The Connecticut walk is scheduled to take place in April and will stretch 2.5-miles through the West Hartford Center and the Blue Back Square.

-The Hartford Courant

After 16-year-old Vikas Parikh died in a school bus crash on the road to a national robotics competition, state legislators proposed a new bill seeking to instate a seatbelt requirement in all school buses by Jan. 2011.  The trade publication School Transportation News has estimated that it would cost between $1,500 to $2,000 per bus to install seatbelts. If a bill requiring seat belts on school buses is signed into law, Connecticut would become the seventh state to have such a mandate.

-The Hartford Courant

New Haven

New Haven is building back their bridges…literally. A new pedestrian bridge between Trumbull and Grove Streets was installed last week to replace the hole-infested construction previously in place. Before they get too ambitious though, the city is waiting until the spring to install the next bridge.

-wtnh.com

Forget about Boy Scouts, good Samaritans, and Karma. Kendrix Kelly, 25, was on his way to his girlfriend’s apartment when he stopped to check on a man he saw lying face down on the road. As he got out of his car to help the man, however, Kelly found himself held up by the man he was trying to help—now holding an AK-47—and another man who had snuck up from behind. Kelly lost $30, his cell phone, and his car, a 2000 Chevrolet Malibu. Kelly, however, was unharmed.

-The New Haven Register