After All Things

Calverton chemicals

Suffolk officials want a cancer study done in the area surrounding Calverton. Fairfield plans to create a cultural district for downtown. New road sign proclamations in Connecticut spark debate on social media. And the latest from WSHU’s Off the Path.

Duration:: 11m
Broadcast on:: 05 Sep 2024
Audio Format:: mp3

I'm Davis Donovan. I had a 1992 Toyota Corolla. I got in a wreck on the LIE, smashed up the front of it, parked it on a suburban street in Queens. It got towed and impounded. I went to the impound lot, which was under the 59th Street Bridge, and they told me how much it would cost to get it out of the impound lot. And I said, "Can I just have a trash bag and go get all my stuff out of that?" That's the last time I saw that car. Any car can turn into your favorite programs here at WSHU. Go to WSHU.org. You're listening to After All Things, WSHU's daily news and culture update from the Long Island Sound region. Suffolk officials want a cancer study done in the area surrounding Calvertan. Fairfield plans to create a cultural district downtown, new road sign proclamations in Connecticut sparked debate on social media, and the latest from WSHU's Off the Path. Those stories and more are ahead. I'm Sabrina Garon. Suffolk County officials want the New York State Department of Health to study cancer rates in Calvertan. The community was contaminated with chemicals when military contractor Northrop Grumman operated there. WSHU's Desiree Diorio has more. Officials requested a comprehensive health study to find out if soil and water contamination has increased cancer rates or caused other health problems. Congressman Nick Laloda represents Eastern Long Island. He says the study will provide updated information and transparency for the public. We want to ensure and anticipate as much as we can any issues that would be water quality issues that would be challenging my constituents in that area. A health department spokesperson says they're evaluating the request. Last month, the department agreed to a new cancer study in Bethpage where Grumman operated a separate facility. Desiree Diorio, WSHU News. A youth correctional facility in Connecticut will no longer use solitary isolation to discipline children. WSHU's Janisse Roman reports. The U.S. Justice Department has reached an agreement with the State Department of Correction. It comes after an investigation of Manson Youth Institution, an adult facility which houses children. Christina Coronta is the executive director of the Connecticut Justice Alliance. Coronta says isolation has proven to inflict mental and emotional harm on children whose brains she says are still developing. "In incarcerating someone during that time, taking them out of all the societal norms, taking them away from family and other connections really puts them at a disadvantage even if it's for a short period of time." Coronta says she is glad to see that the Connecticut Department of Correction is being held accountable for some of the harmful practices that dehumanize youth. She says the policies have disproportionately targeted black and brown children continuing a systemic cycle of injustice. Janisse Roman, WSHU News. The town of Fairfield, Connecticut says it's planning to set up a cultural district downtown, WSHU's Shelly Hussman-Caitis reports. The area would include downtown Fairfield centered on the post road as well as Fairfield University and the historic areas around the old post road. The Fairfield Arts Commission says the district would promote artists and cultural attractions and promote tourism. They say the state designation may also qualify the town to apply for grants to support artists and creative businesses. Once town officials approve the plan, they can submit it to the state office for the arts. Seven other cities and towns in Connecticut have set up cultural districts since the state opened the process in 2019. Shelly Hussman-Caitis, WSHU News. New Port Rhode Island became famous as a pirate haven in the late 1600s. The latest installment of WSHU's Off the Plank is ahead. Local support for After All Things 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. Auto Shredder Residue known as Carfluff is raising environmental concerns in Brookhaven. The residue is part of the town's landfill according to Newsday. It's often made up of plastic, rubber, glass, and other materials from vehicles. Carfluff is a form of PFAS, a potentially dangerous chemical. Researchers found elevated PFAS levels in a groundwater plume near the landfill last year. WWE's former headquarters is up for sale in Stanford. The property was appraised at $18 million last year. The company officially relocated to downtown Stanford. The real estate firm says the space can be repurposed for education or residential units. Welcome to Connecticut highway signs have been updated to showcase what the state has to offer, but not everyone agrees with the proclamations. The signs declare Connecticut as the basketball and submarine capital of the world, foodie capital of New England, and of course the pizza capital of the US made official in congressional record this year. A few nearby governors poked fun at that on social media, including Phil Murphy of New Jersey, who said Connecticut pizza isn't even top in the tri-state area, which I guess is debatable, but it's certainly not New Jersey. The signs were placed at state entry points on I-95 and 84, and they also feature Connecticut's new tourism logo, which was part of a rebrand from last year. Newport, Rhode Island became famous as a pirate haven in the late 1600s, known as the golden age of piracy. Pirates brought their stolen booty back to the city, and some used it to become respected civic leaders. WSHU's Davis Dunnevin walks us through the straits of Newport to see some of the institutions they built and ran in the latest installment of Off the Path, or as we're calling it this season, Off the Plank. I'm on a private walking tour of historic Newport with tour guide Patricia Drizzling. We stop in front of a red clapboard building. So here we are at the Whitehorse Tavern, built in 1673. It does indeed identify itself by its plaque out front there as America's oldest tavern. But we're not just here because this tavern is old. The Whitehorse Tavern didn't get its current name, Whitehorse, until the mid-1720s. Up to that point, it was referred to as the Mayes Tavern. Tavern keeper William Mayes Jr. worked the bar and poured the drinks. But this was not William Mayes Jr.'s first career, his first career. He was a pirate. William Mayes Jr.'s fortune is estimated at, back then, around 300,000 pounds, or about 60 million dollars by today's standards. No one knows what happened to his fortune when he died. In a partial list of his estate, William Mayes Jr., pirate booty has not included his possessions, "list only the modern furnishings of a tavern keeper." If you're a pirate trying to change careers, a tavern might make sense. A church, though, is a little more surprising. We make our way through Newport, and Patricia stops at Trinity Episcopal, one of the city's historic churches. We walk up to its door, and she shows me a plaque. The founders of Trinity Church, 1698, and there's none other than Thomas Payne. And not the fellow through the revolution who wrote the common sense pamphlets, but this Thomas Payne was a pirate. So now you know that Trinity Church was built in part with pirate booty. He took part in an infamous pirate raid on St. Augustine, and he was a wanted man in Bermuda when he made a break for it up the coast, and found himself in Newport, where pirates were more welcome. He bribed the governor in his own charming way to give him safe haven. That's local historian Gloria Merchant. Admiralty Court figures from Boston wanted to track him down, but he was basically protected by Rhode Island. It was known for protecting its pirates. They did not attack colonial shipping, and they brought wealth to the colony. He became a farmer and married into one of Newport's best families. Ultimately, he avoided arrest and prosecution. He completely turned his life around. And ironically, he found himself fighting to defend Rhode Island when it was attacked by pirates during a war with the French. They drove them out, so he became an able hero on top of everything else. But Thomas Payne kept one friend from his old days of piracy, Captain William Kidd. Merchant says we know Captain Kidd visited Payne in Newport while he was on the run from the law, and there were rumors he might have left some of his gold with Payne. This is pre-banking, so people with any kind of treasure, jewelry, foreign currency, any kind of treasure, if they couldn't bury it in their own backyard, would entrust it to people who could. But almost all the stories of Captain Kidd's treasure were just rumors and legend. As far as we know, Thomas Payne stayed clean for the rest of his life. Newport's tolerance for piracy ran out in 1723 in a particularly grisly way. And we'll have that story on the next episode of 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 news from around the sound, listen on the radio, stream online at wshu.org or download the WSHU app, which is also where you can find more great podcasts from WSHU, like Off the Path, or listen wherever you get your podcasts. And if you have any thoughts or story ideas you'd like to share with us, please send us an email. It's news@wshu.org. I'm Sabrina Garone. Enjoy the rest of your day. I'll talk to you tomorrow. [Music] (gentle music)