Portal:Connecticut
The Connecticut Portal
Connecticut (/kəˈnɛtɪkət/ kə-NET-ik-ət) is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its capital is Hartford, and its most populous city is Bridgeport. Connecticut lies between the major hubs of New York City and Boston along the Northeast Corridor, where the New York metropolitan area, which includes six of Connecticut's seven largest cities, extends well into the southwestern part of the state. Connecticut is the third-smallest state by area after Rhode Island and Delaware, and the 29th most populous with slightly more than 3.6 million residents as of 2020, ranking it fourth among the most densely populated U.S. states.
The state is named after the Connecticut River, the longest in New England which roughly bisects the state and drains into the Long Island Sound between the towns of Old Saybrook and Old Lyme. The name of the river is in turn derived from anglicized spellings of Quinnetuket, a Mohegan-Pequot word for "long tidal river". Before the arrival of the first European settlers, the region was inhabited by various Algonquian tribes. In 1633, the Dutch West India Company established a small, short-lived settlement called House of Hope in Hartford. Half of Connecticut was initially claimed by the Dutch colony New Netherland, which included much of the land between the Connecticut and Delaware Rivers, although the first major settlements were established by the English around the same time. Thomas Hooker led a band of followers from the Massachusetts Bay Colony to form the Connecticut Colony, while other settlers from Massachusetts founded the Saybrook Colony and the New Haven Colony; both merged into the former by 1664.
Connecticut's official nickname, the "Constitution State", refers to the Fundamental Orders adopted by the Connecticut Colony in 1639, which is considered by some to be the first written constitution in Western history. As one of the Thirteen Colonies that rejected British rule during the American Revolution, Connecticut was influential in the development of the federal government of the United States. In 1787, Roger Sherman and Oliver Ellsworth, state delegates to the Constitutional Convention, proposed a compromise between the Virginia and New Jersey Plans; its bicameral structure for Congress, with a respectively proportional and equal representation of the states in the House of Representatives and Senate, was adopted and remains to this day. In January 1788, Connecticut became the fifth state to ratify the Constitution. (Full article...)
Alphonse "Buddy" Fletcher Jr. (born December 19, 1965) is an American former hedge fund manager and founder of the Fletcher Foundation. He began his career as a quantitative equity trader at Bear Stearns and later worked at Kidder, Peabody & Co. Fletcher, who is African American, sued Kidder Peabody for racial discrimination. Although his racial discrimination claims were dismissed, he eventually won an arbitration award of $1.26 million. Fletcher has also been involved in litigation centered on a dispute with the board of The Dakota apartment building in New York City.
Fletcher founded Fletcher Asset Management in 1991. His main fund, Fletcher International, may have been insolvent since 2008 and was declared bankrupt in 2012. (Full article...)General images -
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State facts
- Nicknames: The Provisions State, The Land of Steady Habits, The Constitution State, The Nutmeg State
- Capital: Hartford
- Governor: Ned Lamont (D)
- Lieutenant Governor: Susan Bysiewicz (D)
- Secretary of State: Stephanie Thomas (D)
- Attorney General: William Tong (D)
- Senators: Chris Murphy (D), Richard Blumenthal (D)
- Representatives: Jahana Hayes (D), Jim Himes (D), Joe Courtney (D), John B. Larson (D), Rosa DeLauro (D)
- Total area: 5,543 mi2
- Land: 4,845 mi2
- Water: 698 mi2
- Highest elevation: 2,379 ft (Mount Frissell)
- Population 3,576,452 (2015 est)
- Admission to the Union: January 9, 1788 (5th)
State symbols:
- Animal: Sperm whale
- Bird: American Robin
- Fish: American Shad
- Flower: Mountain Laurel
- Fossil: Dinosaur Track
- Insect: European Praying Mantis
- Ship: USS Nautilus (SSN-571)
- Songs: Yankee Doodle
- Tree: Charter Oak
- Mineral: Almandine
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The Paugussett Trail is a 14-mile (23 km) Blue-Blazed hiking trail "system" in the lower Housatonic River valley in Fairfield County and, today, is entirely in Shelton and Monroe, Connecticut. Much of the trail is in Indian Well State Park and the Town of Monroe's Webb Mountain Park. The mainline (official "Blue-Blazed") trail is primarily southeast to northwest with three short side or spur trails.
The Paugussett Trail today is composed of four (4) trails of which one is the upside-down V-shaped Southeast-to-North-to-SouthWest mainline trail (13.3 miles) plus three shorter side or access spur trails. The northernmost point on the trail is at Connecticut Route 34 and Lake Zoar's southern shore. (Full article...)Did you know? -
- ... that a Connecticut TV station was dedicated to the state's first female governor, Ella Grasso, whose son was a minority owner?
- ... that under a new Connecticut law, abortion providers in the state can countersue anyone who sues them under the Texas Heartbeat Act?
- ... that after her father received hospice care, Connecticut state legislator Claudia Powers introduced bills to include hospice under Medicare?
- ... that a Connecticut radio station was "the loser in a survival-of-the-fittest battle"?
- ... that New Haven, Connecticut, was home to the world's first commercial telephone exchange?
- ... that the directors of the Dutchess and Columbia Railroad stole back the railroad from a bankrupt lessee?
In the news
- February 10: Disney to shut down Blue Sky Studios, animation studio behind 'Ice Age'
- October 17: Hundreds arrested for 'dark web' child porn by international task force
- October 3: World War II era plane crashes in Connecticut, US, killing at least seven
- February 21: Sixteen states sue U.S. President Trump to stop declaration of emergency for border wall
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