Sam Smink

Feb 19, 2025 | actionnews5.com | Owen Kingsley |Zoe Strothers |Sam Smink

ROCKY HILL, Conn. (WFSB/Gray News) - A young girl with a rare disease is preparing for a lengthy road to recovery. And she’s hoping to decorate her hospital room with first responder patches. Three-year-old Hailey Wetmore loves to play with all of her toys, but her collection of patches from Connecticut police, fire, and EMS departments are her favorite. “Hailey always called them tattoos. We’re not really sure where that started.

Feb 17, 2025 | fox5vegas.com | Sam Smink

(InvestigateTV) — Buying a home is a milestone for many, but that milestone may frustratingly stay out of reach for some. This is especially true for first-time home buyers as housing experts say regulatory fees are contributing to a low housing supply. These fees are associated with the development and construction of a new home, including changes to building codes, zoning approvals, site studies, and complying with labor laws. They’re all part of the final price tag for home buyers.

Nov 15, 2024 | ourcommunitynow.com | Sam Smink

Share HARTFORD, Conn. (WFSB) - All week the I-Team has been reporting on CT’s Housing Crisis, in our Impossible Dream series. Thousands in Connecticut say they just can’t find affordable places to live. Does the state have solutions? While showing us around his apartment, Stephen Bennett pointed out the obvious. “That closet is actually full of milk crates of CDs that can’t fit out here. I have a little bit of a music problem,” says Bennett.

Nov 11, 2024 | ourcommunitynow.com | Sam Smink

Share HARTFORD, Conn. (WFSB) - It’s sold as the American Dream: the yard, the white picket fence, but for thousands in Connecticut, owning a home now looks and feels like an impossible dream. Every night this week, the I-Team is digging into different parts of the affordable housing crisis in the state, from the bad policies advocates say lead to this crisis, to the solutions the state is looking into.

Oct 18, 2024 | fox5vegas.com | Sam Smink

(InvestigateTV) — More than 5 million Americans use wheelchairs. That is about the same amount of people as the populations of Chicago and Houston combined. For one of those millions of users who need their wheelchair repaired, there’s usually not a quick fix. Wheelchair users across the country say frequent repair delays have left them without the very thing they need to survive. A Connecticut wheelchair task force has been urging lawmakers to come up with a solution.