DoingItLocal

(HARTFORD, CT) – Governor Ned Lamont today announced that due to an updated weather forecast indicating that this stretch of brutally frigid temperatures Connecticut is experiencing will remain for at least another ten days, he is ordering the duration of the state’s currently enacted Severe Cold Weather Protocol to remain in effect until noon on Thursday, February 5, 2026.

The protocol was initially enacted on Friday, January 23, 2026, and had been originally set to expire on Wednesday, January 28, 2026. However, the updated forecast now indicates that bitterly cold weather will remain even longer, with well below normal temperatures persisting into the middle of next week. Overnight temperatures over the next ten days will largely dip into the single digits, even reaching below zero on several nights.

With today’s extension, this current activation will become the longest duration of time that Connecticut’s Severe Cold Weather Protocol has been consistently in effect without interruption for a single period in more than a decade.

“What we’re experiencing right now is an uninterrupted, long-duration cold spell that Connecticut hasn’t seen in many years, with well below normal temperatures expected to stick around for more than another week,” Governor Lamont said. “Shelters and warming centers are open throughout the state, and we are working with our municipal and nonprofit partners to ensure they have the resources to help anyone who needs this support.”

The purpose of the protocol is to ensure that the most vulnerable populations receive protection from the severe cold, which could be life threatening if exposed to the elements for extended periods of time. While enacted, a system is set up for state agencies and municipalities to coordinate with United Way 2-1-1 and Connecticut’s network of shelters to make sure that anyone in need can receive shelter from the outdoors, including transportation to shelters.

Anyone in need of shelter or a warming center is urged to visit 211ct.org or call 2-1-1 to find available locations. Transportation can be provided if necessary.

(Hartford, CT) — Attorney General William Tong today, joining a coalition of 20 attorneys general, filed an amicus brief in support of Minnesota’s lawsuit challenging the Trump Administration’s extraordinary campaign of lawlessness during its deployment of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and U.S. Border Patrol to the Twin Cities area of Minneapolis and Saint Paul. Over the course of just a few weeks, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has sent more than 3,000 federal agents into the area. These agents have fatally shot one resident, Renee Good, seriously wounded others, attacked peaceful protestors, and systematically conducted unconstitutional stops and arrests. In the brief, the coalition urges the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota to order an immediate halt to the federal government’s lawless actions — actions that are visiting unacceptable harm on Minnesota, its cities, and people, and show unprecedented disregard for foundational constitutional principles.

“What’s happening in Minnesota is not immigration enforcement. It’s a lawless and reckless militarized assault on an entire American city. A mother dropping her child off at daycare is dead. A baby was tear-gassed to the point of unconsciousness. A five-year-old was detained and used as bait. Businesses cannot operate. Schools cannot teach. Trump’s dangerous attack on Minnesota will not end in the Twin Cities unless the courts act now to restore public safety and the rule of law,” said Attorney General Tong.

Beginning in December 2025, DHS began to threaten an escalation in enforcement targeting Minnesota and the Twin Cities area. One operation, dubbed “Operation Metro Surge” — what U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Acting Director Todd Lyons has called the agency’s “largest immigration operation ever” — follows Donald Trump’s campaign promise of an aggressive mass deportation program that would be the largest in American history. Throughout the operation, public reporting has indicated that Secretary Noem has deployed as many as 3,000 federal immigration officers to Minnesota. Of that number, 2,000 are ICE personnel, hundreds are Border Patrol agents, and others are from Justice Department agencies. More recently, President Trump threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act, and it is reported that the Pentagon is possibly preparing to deploy 1,500 troops to Minnesota. These actions have endangered public safety, with local law enforcement agencies being forced to divert large portions of their forces to respond to unrest caused by the federal officers.

Since Minnesota filed its lawsuit, the violence by ICE agents has only escalated. Just one week after the fatal shooting of Renee Good, a federal law enforcement officer in Minneapolis shot another person in the leg. ICE also exploded a tear gas canister underneath a car carrying a couple and six children, trapping them inside their vehicle, rendering a six-month old unconscious, and requiring a mother to administer CPR to her infant child. This extreme conduct is ripping at the fabric of society and every aspect of daily life for Minnesotans is being affected. Pregnant women are afraid to go to their prenatal appointments for fear that they or their loved ones will be detained by federal agents. Vibrant shopping centers have turned into ghost towns, and businesses report 50% to 80% in revenue losses due to the presence of immigration officers. As a result of the threats to public safety caused by DHS, more than 100 schools were temporarily shut down in the Minneapolis Public School system, affecting 30,000 children, and school attendance continues to drop with families afraid to send their kids to school.

In their brief, Attorney General Tong and the coalition argue that a temporary restraining order is important to protect the public from these deliberately aggressive and unlawful immigration enforcement practices. They highlight that these tactics threaten sovereign powers — like policing and promoting the public safety, health, and welfare of the people — that the Constitution reserves for the states.

In filing the brief, Attorney General Tong joins the attorneys general of Arizona, California, Colorado, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawai’i, Illinois, Massachusetts, Maryland, Maine, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Vermont, Washington, and Wisconsin.

(Hartford, CT) – Attorney General William Tong today led a bipartisan group of 35 attorneys general demanding that xAI, the company that owns both the X social media platform and the AI chatbot Grok, take additional action to prevent its AI chatbot, Grok, from generating nonconsensual intimate images and child sexual abuse material.

Over the past weeks, Grok has made this content publicly available at the click of a button, driving harassment and exploitation that deprives people of control over how their bodies and likenesses are portrayed.

“xAI has enabled a torrent of vile sexualized content, including abusive and disgusting nonconsensual fake sexual images of women and children. Elon Musk and xAI unleashed this monster, and it’s on them to immediately pull down abusive content, decisively disable Grok’s ability to produce these images, and to hold bad actors on their platform accountable. Bipartisan attorneys general representing a majority of states across the country are united in this demand, and prepared to pursue all available legal remedies should this online abuse continue,” said Attorney General Tong.

Users have repeatedly prompted Grok to “undress” women and children and to place them in sexualized contexts without consent. In some cases, Grok has generated images depicting children in minimal clothing or sexual situations. The attorneys general note that xAI has marketed Grok’s permissive content generation as a selling point and warn that “the ability to create nonconsensual intimate images appears to be a feature, not a bug.”

Although xAI has recently implemented limited measures that appear to have reduced the volume of this content, the attorneys general are demanding assurances that these safeguards are effective, durable, and consistently enforced. They are also urging the company to honor requests to remove this content – a requirement that will soon be mandated under federal law when the Take It Down Act becomes enforceable in May 2026.

As the chief law enforcement officers of their states, the attorneys general raise serious concerns that Grok’s outputs may violate state and federal civil and criminal laws governing nonconsensual intimate images, the creation and distribution of child sexual abuse material, and the legal remedies available to victims.

The attorneys general are demanding that xAI share how it intends to:

•             Ensure that Grok is no longer capable of producing nonconsensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material.

•             Eliminate such content that has already been produced.

•             Take action against users who have generated this content.

•             Grant X users control over whether their content can be edited by Grok.

Attorney General Tong is sending this letter alongside the Attorneys General of North Carolina, Utah, Pennsylvania, American Samoa, Arizona, Colorado, Delaware, District of Columbia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Northern Mariana Islands, Oklahoma, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Vermont, Virgin Islands, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.

A copy of the letter is available here: https://portal.ct.gov/-/media/ag/press_releases/2026/letter-to-xai_final.pdf?rev=5bb87050e07748a8aeb7e34e0b3add9b&hash=3F84FFE741877348230CB72696EA9715