Connecticut Postings

BRIDGEPORT — A bicyclist has died after being struck by a dump truck on Iranistan and South avenues this afternoon, according to a city fire official.
Emergency crews are still at the scene. We will post more information as we get it.

TRUMBULL – Police are searching for a masked man who held up a customer this morning outside a bank here.
According to Deputy Police Chief Michael Harry, sometime before 11 a.m., a local business owner was walking to the Fairfield County Bank on White Plains Road when he was confronted by a masked man.
“The business owner was walking across the parking lot with a bag containing cash to make a deposit when a masked man came up to him and sprayed a chemical agent into the businessman’s face,” Harry said.
He continued that the chemical caused the victim to become disoriented and the masked man grabbed the bag containing several thousand dollars and ran to a small black car and drove off.
The identity of the business owner was not immediately released.
Harry described the suspect and being young and wearing a flowered shirt.
—–By Daniel Tepfer

Bridgeport has announced it has opened cooling centers in three city schools for residents who want to escape the heat. They are at: the Waltersville School complex at Hallett St., Central High School on Lincoln Blvd., and at Columbus School which is currently located at 160 Iranistan Avenue, near the University of Bridgeport campus. The centers are open until 5 p.m. and the Red Cross will be there with water and snacks, city officials said.

 Rocky Hill _  Gov. M. Jodi Rell today celebrated legislation that establishes a state-run incentive a program to help school districts pay for equipping school buses with three-point, lap-and-shoulder seat belts.

 The new law comes six months after Vikas Parikh, 16, a Rocky Hill High School student died when the bus in which he was a passenger plunged down an embankment after a highway collision. The bus was not equipped with seatbelts.

       Under the program, the state’s Department of Motor Vehicles will begin offering a program in July 2011 to offset a portion of the sales tax bus companies pay for school buses equipped with three-point seatbelts. The program will be funded through a $50 increase in the fees paid for restoring suspended or revoked driver’s licenses, commercial driver’s licenses and vehicle registrations.  The program will run through at least 2018.

BRIDGEPORT — Firefighters are on the scene of a fire at a high-rise condominium complex at 2600 Park Ave, known as Embassy Towers.
Two people suffering from smoke inhalation have been taken to the hospital, according to Assistant Fire Chief Tom Connor. He said right now there doesn’t appear to be any serious injuries. The fire began around 9 a.m. on the 10th floor.
The person who owned the condominium damaged by the fire was at work at the time. A parrot inside the dwelling perished in the blaze.
The high rise was evacuated, but some elderly residents were allowed back into the lobby of the building because of the hot weather outside. Mayor Bill Finch was handing out water to residents.
Because city firefighters were already busy battling a factory fire on Hancock Avenue, firefighters from Fairfield, Milford, Westport, Stratford and Trumbull were called in to help fight the Park Avenue blaze.