Middlesex County

The Goodspeed’s 17th Festival of New Musicals gets underway this weekend in East Haddam.

Millions of dollars in state aid are available to school districts for HVAC upgrades, but municipalities must provide matching grants. Some schools with fewer resources are feeling left out.

A nonprofit organization has agreed to buy Killingworth’s 300-acre Deer Lake property and preserve it as open space, ending months of concern that the property would be sold to a private developer.Pathfinders Inc., which operates the Deer Lake Camp and Wilderness School, announced on a website Thursday that it had signed a contract with the Connecticut Yankee Council of the Boy Scouts of America to buy the camp for $4.75 million. The agreement covers the property, its buildings and other improvements. The closing is scheduled for Sept. 15.

Police arrested an 18-year-old East Hampton man Monday on charges including one frightening attention grabber -- police allege Clayton Hobby possessed one AR-15 assault weapon that had been converted into a fully automatic machine gun.

Connecticut now expects more than 500 refugees from Afghanistan, and resettlement agencies are preparing for the influx. But finding affordable housing has become a challenge. Rents in Connecticut are up by almost 15% this year, according to the state. And agencies worry that refugees could be priced out if more landlords don’t lend a hand.

U.S. Department of Treasury Deputy Secretary Wally Adeyemo stopped in Middletown Thursday to talk about the state’s emergency rental assistance program, UniteCT. Adeyemo applauded Connecticut for setting an example for other programs across the country.