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Good morning, Friend!

Last Friday in this space, I told you about the years-long battle I’ve been having with our neighborhood squirrels. And I seem to have struck a nerve. I got a number of emails with various bits of advice and different powders and other substances I could use to protect our Christmas lights. The great Mike Zizka wrote just to commiserate about the annoyance of the whole thing. There’s evidence that my strategy (wrapping the light strands in electrical tape) is working. Hopefully the squirrels don’t care enough to try to overcome it. But Connecticut Public’s digital editor Patrick Skahill pointed out that some animals hold grudges. So now I’m worried that the squirrels just don’t LIKE that I put the lights there. Sigh. We’ll see what happens.– Jonathan McNicol, producer

NEED TO KNOW

• More kindergarteners in Connecticut received their required measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine shots in the 2023–24 school year, according to the latest data from the state Department of Public Health (DPH). Among schools with more than 30 kindergarten students, there was a 3% increase in the number of schools with MMR vaccination rates at or above 95%, compared with last year.

• A family of four in the northeastern U.S. needed to earn close to $151,100 in 2022 to be economically secure, according to a Washington, D.C.-based think-tank. The group, also found that roughly half of people in Connecticut and nationally don’t enjoy this status.

• For the second year in a row, 19 of the Cape’s 21 public drinking water supplies received an “Excellent” water quality score, and none received a “Poor” score. But the annual State of the Waters report also found that about 90 percent of embayments and more than a quarter of tested ponds on Cape Cod have "Unacceptable" water quality.

• Hannah Hidalgo had 29 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists, and No. 8 Notre Dame handed second-ranked UConn its first loss with a 79-68 victory Thursday night.

• From light displays, community holiday celebrations to live performances, we're making a list. (And checking it twice.) Find holiday events to enjoy this weekend!

THE LEAD

Monique Milner, the niece of Thirman Milner comforts the former mayor’s close friend Annette Shack as they visit his casket while he lies in state at Hartford City Hall on December 12, 2024. (Ryan Caron King/Connecticut Public)

Thirman Milner, New England's first popularly elected Black mayor, remembered in Hartford

Former Hartford Mayor Thirman L. Milner laid in state at City Hall on Thursday, the first former leader of the city to receive such an honor.

Milner, who died in November at the age of 91, became both Hartford’s and New England’s first popularly elected Black mayor when he took office in 1981. He served in the role until 1987.

A steady stream of mourners paid their respects Thursday to a man who paved a trail for increased Black representation in Connecticut politics.

AJ Johnson, the senior pastor at the Urban Hope Refuge Church in Hartford’s North End, said he was inspired by Milner.

“Becoming the first black mayor of New England is not an easy feat, but he had the faith and the strength and the ability to do it,” Johnson said.

FROM OUR MEDIA PARTNERS

• Gov. Ned Lamont pushed against an anti-diversity, equity and inclusion trend in politics and corporate America on Thursday by highlighting the hiring of the first leader of the new Connecticut Office of Equity and Opportunity, reports The Connecticut Mirror.

• Rev. Shelley Best, former CEO of the Greater Hartford Arts Council (GHAC), who was fired in September after a battle with the organization’s board of directors, is demanding answers as she prepares to take legal action against her former employer, according to Hartford Business Journal.

• U.S. officials can withhold their rationale in family separation cases that relate to national security. There have been about 80 children separated for these reasons this year, with an estimated 50 of them Russian, ProPublica reports.

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