After All Things

Rising rates

Recent bills from UI and Eversource take many Connecticut residents by surprise. Long Islanders will pay more for natural gas beginning next month. Increased service at Tweed Airport raises concerns from the New Haven community. And the latest from WSHU’s Off the Path.

Duration:: 12m
Broadcast on:: 16 Aug 2024
Audio Format:: mp3

I'm Suzanne Bona and I'm the host of Sunday Baroque on WSHU Public Radio. I listen to music when I drive. I listen to all kinds of music. It would probably curl Sunday Baroque listener's hair to hear the kind of music that I have on my phone and my playlist of. But yeah, I always listen to music when I drive. It's probably when I listen to the most music in fact. To donate your card to WSHU Public Radio, just go to WSHU.org. [MUSIC] [MUSIC] You're listening to After All Things, WSHU's Daily News and Culture Update from the Long Island Sound region. Residents are reeling over utility hikes in both Connecticut and on Long Island. Increased service at Tweed New Haven Airport raises concerns from the local community. And the latest from WSHU's Off the Path, those stories and more are ahead. I'm Sabrina Garon. [MUSIC] Connecticut lawmakers from both sides of the aisle say they're unhappy with the state's rising electric rates. WSHU's Molly Ingram reports on what lawmakers want to do to lower them. July bills from United Illuminating and Ever Source took many Connecticut residents by surprise. The public benefits portion of their bill had skyrocketed and the companies say it's the state's fault. Earlier this week, the public utilities regulatory authority approved another rate hike. This time, the money will go toward bolstering the electric vehicle charging grid. Democratic leaders of the legislature's Energy and Technology Committee have formally asked Pura to reconsider their decision. And Republican leaders want Governor Ned Lamont to call a special session. Lamont says he'll consider it if there are specific proposals on the table. Molly Ingram, WSHU News. >> And New York State regulators approved a three year rate hike for national grid, the region's utility company. That means higher natural gas bills for long islanders beginning next month. WSHU's Desiree Diorio reports. >> Average residential gas customers on Long Island will see a $33 monthly increase on their September bill, an $8 hike next year, and another $19 in 2026. The Public Service Commission unanimously approved the increases Thursday. The hearing was interrupted by protesters who opposed the expansion of gas use. National grids as the increases will pay for new gas lines and expanded customer service. The utility company serves about 600,000 customers on Long Island. About 50,000 of them are behind on their gas bills, according to a consumer advocate group that opposed the rate hike. Desiree Diorio, WSHU News. >> This week's announcement that passenger air service at Tweed New Haven Airport will soon expand is raising concerns from the airport's residential neighbors, including Connecticut Senate President Martin Looney. WSHU's Ebong Udama has more. >> Tweed New Haven Airport announced on Tuesday that Breeze, a second airline, is joining a villo in bringing commercial flights to Tweed. Between them, they'll soon be servicing 37 cities from New Haven. Looney says he and other neighbors had not expected such a rapid expansion before a longer runway and terminal were built. >> Most people in the community believed that the significant expansion of flights would not come until the new terminal was built in East Haven. >> Looney says he'll use his position to push the Lamont administration to get the expansion done. >> East Haven should be given whatever incentives are necessary from the state in order to make that happen. >> There had been no commercial flights from Tweed for many years prior to a villo setting up service in 2021. All the flights land on a short runway on the New Haven side of the airport, which is in a residential neighborhood, Ebong Udama, WSHU News. >> The legendary Captain Kidd went from a social light to a pirate hunter to a pirate himself in the late 1690s. Part two of the story of Captain Kidd, part of WSHU's off the path, is coming up first a message from our supporter. Health 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. >> New York Governor Cathy Holkel says she'll speak at the Democratic National Convention on its opening night Monday as the party gathers in Chicago. Holkel, who was quick to endorse Vice President Kamala Harris, spoke with reporters yesterday. >> I've been honored to accept the invitation to appear Monday night. I understand there's another lineup with President Biden will be there and Hillary Clinton, and I'm really, really honored that they selected me to be on that night. >> A month ago, Holkel was one of President Joe Biden's strongest defenders as he faced mounting calls to drop his reelection bid. She and several other governors had met with Biden at the White House after his shaky debate performance just days before he halted his campaign. 33 Connecticut businesses have made ink magazines list of the fastest growing private companies in the U.S. The list includes the New Haven-based restaurant chain Haven Hot Chicken, which ranked seventh in the food and beverage category, also athletic brewing company in Milford, which makes non-alcoholic beer, and Aloha, a plant-based protein company in Darien. The rankings are based on revenue growth over the last three years. The East Hampton Housing Authority plans to build 50 apartment rentals on two vacant properties acquired by the town this summer. This is the town's latest effort to expand affordable housing on Long Island's pricey East End. Many student loan borrowers have seen duplicate records of their loans on their credit reports. That's because the records were incorrectly transferred from one loan servicer to another. WSHU's Ada Usenlar reports the U.S. Senate is now investigating. U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut says botched student loan transfers from servicers Mohila Tanelnet have caused more than a million duplicate loan records to appear on some borrowers' credit reports. Blumenthal says that error can be devastating for those who are already borrowing money for their education. It means they may be unable to borrow for a car purchase or a mortgage or graduate school loan. The botched transfers have also led to incorrect balances and issues accessing cancellation programs. The inquiry into the issues will be led by U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren, Ada Usenlar WSHU News. Captain Kidd is synonymous with buried treasure even if there's no proof he actually buried much treasure. That hasn't stopped treasure hunters from scouring the Atlantic coast for hundreds of years. WSHU's Davis Dunovan tells us why they still persist. It's for the series off the path. Charles Island is just off the coast of Milford, Connecticut. You can walk to it from a sandbar during low tide. I stood on the beach and looked out at the island with Marissa D'Angelo, a second grade teacher and author. We are looking at this beautiful island right now. The trees are not full anymore because of the season. There's no boats docked there. It's completely deserted. Nobody is there. There are a few snowy owl nests on the top of the trees that you could see if you look closely. But yeah, very mysterious. Marissa says people walk across that sandbar and picnic are hike on the island from time to time. But they will also bring their metal detectors out to Charles Island and they will try to look for Captain Kidd's treasure. The rumors of Captain Kidd's buried treasure on the island persist because he did leave treasure somewhere else on the eastern seaboard on Gardener's Island off the coast of Long Island. That wasn't really a secret. So why look at Charles Island? Well, Captain Kidd may have stopped here at some point, although there's no proof of that. And the island has its own allure. That includes a haunted resort, the ruins of a monastery and multiple curses going back to indigenous times. All this inspired Marissa DiAngelo to write a novel about Captain Kidd and Charles Island. He comes over this way on his boat. He sees this mysterious island and he docks there with his men and some of the men might go missing. I won't give too much away, but a lot of bad things happen on the island. Charles Island is just one place rumored to hold buried treasure from Captain William Kidd. Historian Rebecca Simon says there are dozens of these places. These are places that kind of dot areas all up and down the New England coast going up as far as Newfoundland saying that he stopped here, he buried his treasure here, but a lot of that are rumors and there isn't really any validity to it. There's no evidence of it. There are a few spots in Connecticut aside from Charles Island and there are places in New Jersey and Delaware, but the most famous is probably Oak Island Nova Scotia where dozens of people have spent millions of dollars over the course of centuries searching for a treasure rumored to be anything from Captain Kidd's gold to no kidding, the Ark of the Covenant. A reality show about a crew looking for gold on Oak Island ran for 11 seasons on the History Channel. Yeah, that's not the only time the show promised evidence of real treasure, but they never found a single verified scent. In fact, nobody's ever found treasure in any of the rumored spots, not Captain Kidd's treasure or anyone else's. All of those stories are not true. What's historian Eric J. Dolan? In fact, there's not a single instance that we know of of any pirate during the Golden Age burying their treasure. Why would they? First, pirates often like to keep the treasure with them and spend it when they could. Second, if they buried their treasure, there's no guarantee they're ever going to return to that spot. But Dolan says myths about buried treasure are obviously pretty exciting. Who wouldn't want to go along a lonely beach and start digging and find gold-the-bloons and pieces of eight? It would be absolutely wonderful. So what happened to all Captain Kidd's money? Dolan thinks he and his crew probably spent it, maybe in the Caribbean before he sailed to Boston where he met his fate, a trial and a public hanging. This is Off the Path from WSHU Public Radio. I'm Davis Donovan. Thank you for listening to After All Things, supported by Hartford HealthCare for more stories from the Long Island Sound region. Listen on the radio, stream online at WSHU.org or download the WSHU app. That's also where you can get more great podcasts from WSHU, like Off the Path with Davis Donovan, or listen wherever you get your podcasts. And as always, reach out with any thoughts or story ideas. Our email is news@wshu.org. I'm Sabrina Garone. Enjoy the rest of your day and have a wonderful weekend. I'll talk to you on Monday. [MUSIC] [BLANK_AUDIO]