HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) Connecticut's governor is calling for houses of worship to mark the first anniversary of the Newtown school shooting by ringing their bells 26 times once for each of the victims killed inside Sandy Hook Elementary School.
Last year Gov. Dannel P. Malloy asked for bells to toll exactly one week after the Dec. 14 shooting.
He writes in an op-ed piece this weekend that he hopes houses of worship and other organizations will do the same thing at 9:30 a.m. next Saturday for people to grieve and to find the ``spirit of compassion and togetherness'' that emerged in the days after the tragedy.
On the anniversary the governor is urging people to donate to a charity, volunteer in their communities or appreciate time spent with friends and family.
The University of Connecticut has awarded the first two scholarships under a program launched to help those affected by last year's shooting.
UConn spokeswoman Stephanie Reitz says federal privacy laws prevent them from saying who received the scholarships, which totaled $18,075. But she says they have been given to incoming students who have already enrolled at UConn.
The school has raised about $1.1 million for its Sandy Hook Memorial Scholarship Fund. The money is earmarked for siblings of those killed, and the dependents of the adults who also lost their lives.
It also will be used in the future for students currently enrolled at the elementary school who are accepted to the university.
WASHINGTON (AP) The Senate is ready to renew an expiring ban on plastic firearms, the kind that can pass through metal detectors and X-ray machines unnoticed.
But Monday's vote will be bittersweet for supporters of gun control.
It comes days before the anniversary of the deadly mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School.
Congress has approved no new federal curbs on firearms since then although President Barack Obama made it one of his top domestic priorities.
Monday's vote is to extend the prohibition on undetectable plastic guns for another decade. That ban would expire Tuesday.
But gun control advocates seem sure to lose an effort to impose tougher restrictions.
