After All Things

Credible reports

The task force investigating the Long Island serial killer case has received 15 credible reports from incarcerated sex workers who say they interacted with suspected killer Rex Heuermann. Bridgeport’s wastewater treatment facility is getting a $2 million upgrade. And officials are warning residents to stay safe over the Fourth of July weekend.

Duration:: 14m
Broadcast on:: 03 Jul 2024
Audio Format:: other

(soft music) - You're listening to After All Things, WSHU's Daily News and Culture update from the Long Island Sound region. The task force investigating the Long Island serial killer case has received 15 credible reports from incarcerated sex workers who say they interacted with suspected killer Rex Huerman. Bridgeport's wastewater treatment facility is getting a $2 million upgrade and officials are warning residents to stay safe over the 4th of July weekend. Those stories and more are ahead. I'm Molly Ingram. The task force investigating the Long Island serial killer case has received 15 credible reports from incarcerated sex workers about their interactions with the alleged killer. WSHU's Desiree Diorio reports. Officials at correctional facilities across Long Island have interviewed about 300 sex workers currently behind bars in an effort to collect more evidence against Rex Huerman. He's pleaded not guilty to murder charges in the deaths of six women, some of them sex workers. The Suffolk County Sheriff told Newsday that investigators plan to interview more women at Rikers Island in New York City. Credible reports from those interviews will be provided to the task force. Huerman is the prime suspect in a seventh murder, according to the Suffolk County District Attorney. Desiree Diorio, WSHU News. The city of Bridgeport announced it will expand its water pollution control facilities after it received federal funding. WSHU's Janice Roman has more. The Bridgeport Water Pollution Control Authority received $1.5 million in federal funding for facility upgrades. It is one phase of a project to expand its facilities starting with the West Side Plant. Mayor Joe Gannam says the facility is in need of upgrades and these renovations will have a major impact for residents. For that amount of money, new state-of-the-art technology that will allow the advancements for what will effectively be those that inherit this Long Island sound on this earth, the next generation. Gannam says the federal funding comes from clean water grants. He expects the city to receive more funding in the future. Gannes Roman, WSHU News. Connecticut residents have been advised to think about safety as they celebrate the Fourth of July holiday. Some are as known as trauma season because of a rise in preventable injuries among children. WSHU's Ebong Udama has more. Officials say an average of 2,000 children under the age of 15 will be injured by fireworks. 38 kids will die from being left in hot cars and 11 more will die of drowning. State Representative Liz Linahan says adult supervision could prevent most drownings. It's very important, even if you think your child is a strong swimmer, there should be an adult there to watch at all times. Sarah Egan is a state child advocate. She says teen boys are at the highest risk of drowning in lakes, ponds and creeks. Let's talk to our kids about water safety. Even the ones we think know how to swim, even the ones we think that are beginning to exercise better judgment, let them know about making safe choices. Egan says more than half of the 41 children who drowned in Connecticut in the last 10 years were adolescent boys, Ebong Udama, WSHU News. (upbeat music) During the American Civil War, Connecticut was named the provision state for its contributions to General George Washington's army. WSHU's Sabrina Garon sat down with the director of the Connecticut River Museum to talk about the state's contribution to the war efforts. More on that is ahead. First, a message from our sponsor. (upbeat music) Local support comes from Hartford HealthCare, the only health system in the Northeast, with all its hospitals receiving A grades for safety from the LeapFrog group, the nation's leading independent safety watchdog group, HartfordHealthCare.org. (upbeat music) A Westport Westin Family YMCA employee was arrested for possessing child pornography. Brian Myers was arrested after the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children tipped off the Westport police. Myers was fired following the arrest and no porn has been found to be tied to members of the YMCA. He is scheduled to appear in Stanford Superior Court on Friday. All 10 Connecticut and two Long Island locations of Bob's stores will close because the clothing chain is going out of business. The store's owner filed for bankruptcy in late June. As the stores begin to close, all products will be discounted up to 70% off and gift cards are accepted until July 14th. A California-based gun rights group is suing New York State for its body armor ban. The ban prohibits the sale or purchase of body armor to anyone besides the police or military. It was enacted after 10 people were killed in a 2022 supermarket shooting in Buffalo. The firearms policy coalition believes the ban violates people's Second Amendment rights and deprives people from being able to defend themselves with body armor. Governor Kathy Hochl announced new funding for pool safety and access in New York this week. WSHU's Ada Usenlar has more on the get-off line, go outside campaign. As a part of the campaign, Hochl says she's making entry to pools in New York State Parks free, including at Jones Beach and Montauk Down State Parks on Long Island. She says that in providing that resource, she's also taking steps to make sure kids stay safe. - The number one cause of death for infants ages one, up to toddlers age four is drowning. And for ages five to 14, it's the number two cause of death. Hochl says there are also racial disparities in those numbers. Black children are three times more likely to drown than their white peers. So the campaign also includes $1.5 million to fund youth transportation to help kids access swimming lessons. Ada Usenlar, WSHU News. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) - From farming to shipbuilding, Connecticut played an essential role in the war effort during the American Revolution. It was even nicknamed the provision state for its contributions to General George Washington's army. Elizabeth Kaiser, director of the Connecticut River Museum, says that's reason to celebrate this Independence Day. WSHU's Sabrina Garone caught up with Kaiser ahead of the holiday. - Could you give us an idea of what life was like in Connecticut around this time of the American Revolution and the different kinds of industries that were going on here? - A lot of Connecticut was pretty rural. There were some small urban areas in Hartford and New Haven, New London and Middletown, but it was pretty quiet. For timber and iron were all still big trade commodities and were being shipped all over the globe. And in part that shipping was amplified by the fact that the Connecticut River had become a place for shipbuilding. And over the course of 200 years, thousands of boats were built and these vessels were constructed along the river and then generally went off to larger trading hubs places that are more like a New London or New York or a Boston to participate in global trade. But this was a key sort of factor for the economy along the lower Connecticut River. Connecticut is kind of uniquely situated on the east coast where we're not quite on the open ocean, but we got the full length of Long Island Sound. How important was it to the revolution to have this kind of access to the water? - Connecticut was well located and really sort of working in both directions. The Connecticut River itself is 410 miles. It stretches essentially from the border with Canada to Long Island Sound. And so it traverses all of New England, essentially. But many other waterways were navigable and you could get up towards Boston and into Rhode Island. And then, of course, you also have Long Island Sound. So there was a lot of opportunity for shipping and for trade and a lot of the waters in Long Island Sound are fairly deep and so they were good places for boat building. And as the revolutionary war approach, they were also good places for privateers to sort of hang out and hide out. - I think when we talk about this time in American history, the big players are like Boston, Philadelphia, New York City, but were there any other key moments in the American Revolution that took place here in Connecticut that people might be surprised to learn about? - Well, I think one of the things that's interesting about Connecticut is that it was never occupied by the British in the way that, say, New York was. And that meant that Connecticut could contribute in other ways. It manufactured a lot of things for the war effort and during the American Revolution, took on the nickname, the Provision State. So it was very much involved in the war effort, but the war wasn't necessarily happening in Connecticut in quite the same way as it was in some of the other places that we think of. And I think one of the great sort of provisions that was provided and was particularly provided by the people of Essex was the Oliver Cromwell, which was a huge warship. And it was commissioned by Washington by the army in early 1776. And so the creation of this warship was a massive undertaking. It involved a lot of different trades. When you think about building a boat, it's not just one thing or another. You need people who are making sales. You need people who are making ropes, people who are making spars, people who are making truddles. There are all of these ancillary trades and people who are working very hard to build this boat, but also many others like it that were being used for the war effort. And so I think that that's really sort of the, at least for our kind of corner of Connecticut, the real story that there was a lot of provision of goods that were needed for the war effort, which could be sailed out of Long Island Sound and to other areas that needed repurvisioning. - Yeah. I think it's easy to forget sometimes, you know how much history there really is right here in our own backyards. Why do you think it's so important for people not just to know their country's history, but know their history more locally, like their state or even their town or city? - And I think that history is always with us. History informs everything that we do. And sometimes we're not even aware of it. You know, the way towns are laid out, the houses that are preserved, all of this is sort of a reflection on where we've been. I give tours sometimes, and I find myself talking about the past and present tense. And I think that there are some truth to that. You know, people say things like, if you don't know about history, you're doomed to repeat it. And I think that, you know, there's validity to that as a concept. But I think that really, you know, we need to understand where we've been, what choices were made, what the outcomes of those choices were, so that we can be informed as we continue to make new choices. We are in charge of our own collective destiny. And where our local communities are going, are in our hands. And, you know, you want to make good decisions that are informed with as much information as you can possibly gather. And that certainly includes what came before. - That was WSHU's Sabrina Garone, speaking with Elizabeth Kaiser from the Connecticut River Museum. The museum in Essex is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. Visit ctrivermuseum.org for a full list of special events. (gentle music) - For the latest news from Long Island in Connecticut, listen on the radio stream online at wshu.org or download the WSHU app. After all things is supported by Hartford HealthCare. I'm Molly Ingram. Have a great 4th of July. (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) [MUSIC PLAYING]