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Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni reached a settlement in early May 2026 to end their legal battle over the production of It Ends With Us, avoiding a trial scheduled for two weeks later. What are some lessons we can take away from this high-profile case? We asked employment attorney, Gary Phelan, with Hurwitz Sagarin & Slossberg in Milford and is also law professor at Quinnipiac University.

The man acquitted last summer of murder in the fatal stabbing of Jimmy McGrath at a Shelton house party made a brief appearance in court Friday morning. We spoke with Attorney Darnell Crosland who represents Raul Valle about the latest in the case and the possibility of a second trial.

This session, the Connecticut legislature passed House Bill 5468, tightening homeschooling regulations to introduce state oversight for the first time. Instead of hearing from lawmakers, we wanted to know what this legislation really means for a homeschooling families in Connecticut. Sylvia Duarte is known as the "former TV news reporter turned homeschooling mom." She also works in outreach for the National Hybrid Schools Project," since that's how I've connected with homeschoolers in Connecticut and across the country.

May is National Foster Care Month recognizing all those involved with foster care from the child in care, to the foster families and all the professionals and organizations that are part of the village that provides support and care. We spoke with a longtime foster parent, James Higgins, to learn about the impact of foster families in our state. For more information about foster care: https://www.anniec.org/ & https://www.fcaweb.org/Hotline for the Connecticut Alliance of Foster and Adoptive Families: 1-800-KID-HERO

Host Paul Pacelli (00:49) and Sacred Heart University Professor of Politics and Scholar-in-Residence Dr. Gary Rose (16:10) both chimed in on Monday's "Connecticut Today" regarding the latest controversy surrounding former New Britain Mayor Erin Stewart's gubernatorial campaign, centering on her use of a city-issued purchasing card for years. CTNewsJunkie columnist and Substack.com blogger Terry Cowgill offered his thoughts on today's major stories, including the Erin Stewart controversy (26:02)

The online education platform Canvas went offline after a data breach last week, temporarily leaving students and faculty at thousands of U.S. colleges without access to course materials and communications during finals period. Here in Connecticut, we learned University of New Haven and Yale uses Canvas. Whenever anything goes haywire in the news, we check in with our cybersecurity and AI expert, Dr. Vahid Behzadan.

It doesn’t take a genius to tell you things are really expensive today. From gas prices to groceries, we need financial relief not just in Connecticut but across the country. Have you ever thought about the impact of ending the can tax? A recent op-ed discusses that in USA Today, written by Phil Kerpen. Kerpen is the president of American Commitment and a leading free-market policy analyst, nationally syndicated columnist and author.To read the op-ed: https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2026/04/09/iran-war-steel-trump-tariffs-cost-groceries/89451506007/

Connecticut just wrapped up its legislative session where the budget was the priority. A recent headline touts how much work got done in a short session. This news headline reads “the Connecticut legislature is celebrating the passage of 218 bills this session. It matches the amount of bills passed in 2025, despite being a shorter session than last year.” That may be true, but what actually passed to bring long term affordability to Connecticut residents? We asked Senate Minority Leader, Steve Harding, who gave us the key takeaways from this legislative session.Image Courtesy of Senator Steve Harding and the Senate Republicans

Amanda Harmon, LCSW, MSW, is a licensed clinical social worker and Program Director of the Master of Social Work program at Sacred Heart University and she joined Melissa to talk about the growing demand for social workers.Image Courtesy of Sacred Heart University

Child sexual abuse is unfortunately common. In the U.S., the CDC says at least 1 in 4 girls and 1 in 20 boys experience sexual abuse before age 18. In about 90% of cases, the child knows the perpetrator (a family member, family friend, older child, coach, or other trusted person.) We talked about the unknowns about sleepovers and what to think about if your kid wants to attend one.