What's the ballroom polka got to do to get some respect in this state?

Yes, it was another year of disappointment for Ansonia's Peter Danielczuk. He's tried unsuccessfully for three years to have the Ballroom Polka named the official state polka.

"I'm disappointed. I thought this might have been the year for the state polka song," said Danielczuk, an Ansonia native known as "Connecticut's Prince of Polka Music."

Click here to continue reading Ann Marie's report.

Starting Tuesday, Connecticut's lower Naugatuck Valley will have a new, nonprofit option for local news - The Valley Independent Sentinel.

This new, online-only newspaper is being published by the not-for-profit Online Journalism Project that operates the Sentinel's pioneering sister site, The New Haven Independent. New Haven's Paul Bass is the executive director of the Online Journalism Project and editor of the New Haven Independent. The Sentinel is being funded by a two-year, $500,000 grant secured from the Knight Foundation by the Community Foundation for Greater New Haven and the Valley Community Foundation.

The State Attorney's Office announced Wednesday that a veteran Cromwell lawmaker will not be charged in connection with the January freezing death of a Rocky Hill woman.

In this press release, it says that New Britain State's Attorney Scott Murphy determined there was insufficient evidence to charge Rep. James O'Rourke, D-Cromwell, with criminally negligent homicide in connection with the death of Carol Sinsigalli.

In an unusual move state prosecutors decided to publicly announce its denial of the arrest warrant because the case had received so much publicity.

Police scurried Monday afternoon to chase new leads in three cases involving kids who've been shot or killed -- as well as one man's cascade of confessed crimes, from a carjacking to a Yale firebombing.

Assistant Chief Pete Reichard updated reporters in a press conference outside police headquarters about the latest developments in the four fast-breaking stories:

Click here to continue reading Paul's report.

(Updated 6:47 p.m.) A child advocacy group issued a report Monday which shows the state's film tax credits are subsidizing out-of-state personnel and businesses.

The Connecticut Voices for Children report, which relies on data from the Commission on Culture and Tourism, found that only $41.5 million of the $113.2 million in film tax credits awarded to productions were "actual Connecticut expenditures."

Of the 60 productions completed before the end of May, eight productions, which received a total of $9.3 million in these tax credits reported no "actual Connecticut expenditure" at all, evidently transporting all production-related personnel, equipment and supplies from other states, the report says.

Late Friday afternoon Democratic lawmakers unveiled their latest publicity effort to garner public support to restore Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell's proposed budget cuts. Earlier this week Rell sent this email to lawmakers asking them to go over her proposal and let their leadership know which spending cuts they find unacceptable.

The Democrats interactive Google map of Connecticut highlights Rell's proposed budget cuts and how they would affect every town and city across the state. Click here to view the interactive map.

Exploring Mars in your own space pod is now possible with the touch of a button and it's just one of many exhibits you'll find only at the new Connecticut Science Center. The facility opened Friday and both children, as well as adults wandered its 10 galleries and 150 hands-on exhibits.

Nearly a decade in the making, the building with its magic carpet roof designed by Cesar Pelli of New Haven, has changed the skyline of downtown Hartford, but will it be able to change anything else?

After initially fighting his extradition, a New Jersey blogger who asked his readers to "take up arms" against two lawmakers and a state official, turned himself into Capitol Police Thursday afternoon.

Harold 'Hal' Turner, 47, of North Bergen, New Jersey was released on a $25,000 bond and is expected to appear in Hartford Superior Court on Monday, June 22.

Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell may have cut the Commission on Culture and Tourism's budget in more than half, but that didn't stop her Tuesday from giving the state's tourism industry a boost.

Surrounded by wooden carousel horses at the New England Carousel Museum in Bristol Rell promoted her "Staycation" program urging residents to take advantage of the savings from participating attractions.

Police returned to the spot where a hit-and-run driver left behind a dead 15 month-old baby to appeal to the public for information.

The cops have some leads on the Mercedes Benz driven by a man who sped through a Mansfield Street at 10:50 p.m. Saturday and crashed into an SUV traveling west on Division Street, killing the baby, Montez Stanley, Jr., in the back seat.

Click here to continue reading Paul's report.