Connecticut state lawmaker DebraLee Hovey (R) has penned a lengthy editorial calling for warning labels on video games and for a sin tax to be levied against interactive entertainment products rated "M" by the ESRB. This is the second time Hovey has called for a sin tax on video games in the state, though her last effort failed to get passed by CT lawmakers.

What's faster than a speeding train? Apparently U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), who was nearly clipped by one at a press conference on Friday while standing on a train platform. Ironically enough, Sen. Blumenthal (who is known on GamePolitics as a politician keen on passing laws against gaming and the video games industry at large) was at the train stop to promote train safety.

Yale University's Play2Prevent lab is using a grant from the Women’s Health Research at the Yale Pilot Program to create a game that teaches about effective ways to reduce HIV infections among young African American women. The team will spend this year working with groups of black teens and 20-year-olds to design a game that will be "relevant, entertaining and a model for future public health projects."

A report on the investigation of last year’s horrific shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School has been released to the public.  The purpose of the report is to identify persons other than the shooter who are criminally responsible for the twenty-seven homicides that occurred in Newtown, Connecticut on December 14, 2012 and indicate if there will be any state prosecutions.

Almost a year after Adam Lanza stormed the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut and killed 20 children and six adults before taking his own life, a report on the investigation will be released to the public, according to prosecutors overseeing the case. The report will be published on the website of Connecticut's Division of Criminal Justice, www.ct.gov/csao.

An indie game developed by a man from Sydney, Australia is getting national attention this week because of its controversial subject matter: the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting that happened almost a year ago in Newtown, Connecticut. Politicians, journalists, parents of victims, Connecticut state officials, and even the National Rifle Association have weighed in on the game, "The Slaying of Sandy Hook Elementary."

Connecticut Speaker of the House Brendan Sharkey (D-Hamden) has sent a letter to top executives at the ESA, Activision Blizzard, Take-Two Interactive, and Valve urging them to end the practice of licensing and marketing products from gun manufacturers for video games. The letter was addressed to Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick, Activision Blizzard CEO Robert Kotick, Valve front man Gabe Newell, and Entertainment Software Association CEO Michael Gallagher.

Update: Keen-eyed readers may have noticed that two items among all the crap that was hauled out of the Lanza residence were an "NRA certificate for Nancy Lanza" and a copy of the "NRA Guide to the Basics of Pistol Shooting."  This has lead many to assume that the Lanza's were NRA members.  As such, the National Rifle Association was quick to release the following statement:

Lieutenant J. Paul Vance of the Connecticut State Police issued a brief statement yesterday in response to a New York Daily News report detailing particulars of the Sandy Hook Elementary school shooting that occurred last December. An anonymous source attending a law enforcement seminar in New York leaked supposed information from the investigation about the shooter, Adam Lanza, claiming that he had a spread sheet filled will data from other mass shootings.

A sensational New York Daily News report (dug up by Kotaku) details what a "law enforcement source" (who spoke at length with the paper) calls Adam Lanza's "score sheet," a spreadsheet filled with information from past mass killings.

A Connecticut high school went into lockdown mode this afternoon after a threatening note was discovered in a hallway, the Weston Forum reports. Weston High school, which is located in the southern part of the state and not too far from Newtown, was locked down after a note was found threatening specific members of the school staff and students.

Today lawmakers in Connecticut held a public meeting to get feedback from the community and interested parties on several pieces of legislation that have been proposed about video games in the wake of the Sandy Hook Elementary school shooting in December. Supporters of legislation to regulate video games told members of the General Assembly’s Children’s Committee that they believe that there is a causal link between playing violent video games and violent real-world act committed by youth.

The Hartford Courant is reporting that lawmakers in Connecticut are set to hold a public hearing on Tuesday related to several proposed bills to deal with video game violence. A public hearing of the legislature's Children Committee is scheduled for Tuesday to decide on a bill pushed by Sen. Toni Harp (D-New Haven) that would prohibit minors from playing violent games in arcades. The hearing will also address a bill pushed by Sen.

An interesting article on The Atlantic examines why sin taxes like the one proposed for video games by Connecticut State Rep. Debralee Hovey (R-112th District) never really do anything productive. You may recall that Hovey, who represents the district that includes Newtown, Connecticut, proposed a 10 percent sin tax on violent video games rated "Mature" by the ESRB.

Over the weekend, two Newtown, Connecticut residents opened a family friendly video game arcade in the town called the Sandy Hook Arcade Center (as reported by Polygon). The all-ages arcade is meant to help the town heal and promote family values in the aftermath of the elementary school shooting in December where 26 human lives were lost as the result of a shooting rampage by a lone gunman.

It looks like Connecticut Sen. Toni Harp (D-New Haven) and Rep. DebraLee Hovey (R-Newtown) are not the only Connecticut lawmakers that proposed bills related to video game violence in the January session. Sen. Scott Frantz (R-Greenwich) and Sen.

Connecticut State Representative Debralee Hovey (R-112th District) isn't the only one that introduced a bill in the January session apparently. Connecticut State Senator Toni Nathaniel Harp (D-10th District) introduced S.B. No.

The Escapist reports that Connecticut State Representative Debralee Hovey (R-112th District) has introduced H.B. No. 5735, or "an act establishing a sales tax on certain video games." The bill would add a ten percent tax in Connecticut on video games rated "Mature" by the ESRB, which would then be redirected to the State's department of Mental Health and Addiction Services.

Sen. Christopher Murphy (D-Conn.) gave a speech (which you can watch for yourself to your left) during Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s (D- CA) press conference introducing a new bill that would ban assault weapons and high capacity magazines. Murphy said that if Feinstein's bill had been law many of the children that died during the December 14 school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut might still be alive. Senator Murphy also blamed video games for their part in influencing the shooter, though proof that video games had anything to do with influencing him has yet to be produced.

New York Senator Charles Schumer and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg criticized the National Rifle Association for releasing its iOS shooting range simulation app NRA Practice Range on the one month anniversary of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown Connecticut. Pressure from politicians around the country ultimately forced Apple to change the rating from age 4+ to a rating of 12+. Schumer had called for a rating of 17+.

Last week SouthingtonSOS, a group comprised of Southington, Connecticut community organizations announced a violent videogame buyback program, where citizens could deposit violent games into what basically amounted to a trash bin for a gift certificate provided by local merchants. Those game discs would be snapped and tossed in the trash...

The Escapist reports that community members in the town of Southington, Connecticut have put a bulls eye on violent video games in the wake of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting that saw 20 children and six adults murdered by a lone gunmen in mid-December.

The Hartford Courant is highlighting a story about a 12-year-old Newtown, Connecticut boy who has started a campaign to "stop playing violent video games." Max Goldstein, a 12-year-old student who attends Newtown Middle School, says that he decided to stop playing games like "Call of Duty" after attending the funeral of one of his brother's friends who had been killed during the Sandy Hook Elementary School shoot

The Entertainment Consumers Association has issued a statement today on the tragic shooting on Friday, Dec. 14 at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, CT that resulted in the death of 20 children, six adults at the school, the shooter and his mother.

You can read the entire statement below:

Final Update: A number of things about our previous story are proving to be erroneous as more details about the shooting today in Newtown, Connecticut comes to light. Here is what we know so far:

Adam Lanza, and not Ryan Lanza (his older brother) has been identified as the shooter. His brother Ryan Lanza, who lives in Hoboken, New Jersey is being questioned by police. Lanza's father, who lives in Connecticut, was similarly questioned, one of the law enforcement officials said.

Earlier this month we wrote a story on the President's re-election campaign invading Westport Connecticut to take part in a fundraiser hosted by movie producer Harvey Weinstein. We thought it was simply a bad case of timing for a number of reasons (it caused chaos in the city and because he was pushing hard for passage of the Cybersecurity Act of 2012 in the Senate).

Last Friday the White House confirmed that they were weighing their options regarding an Executive Order since the Senate was unable to pass Senator Joseph Lieberman's (D-Connecticut) Cybersecurity Act of 2012, despite significant lobbying resources spent by the MPAA, RIAA and ESA. The announcement was met with lukewarm enthusiasm by legislators on both sides of the isle, who are not used to the Oval Office creating such broad-sweeping new laws.

In March of last year the state of Illinois decided to pass a law that collected Internet sales tax from online companies like Amazon.com and eBay. Commonly referred to as an "affiliate nexus tax," the law passed by Illinois and other states including California, Connecticut, and New York, required online retailers who advertised on "affiliate sites" that had a physical presence in the same state to collect sales tax. The Illinois law had broad support among lawmakers and the state’s governor, Gov. Pat Quinn (D).

The Connecticut State Senate is considering a bill that would add taxes to digital goods. The "stated purpose of the bill, is "to include digital movies, books, music, ringtones, audio and video works and similar downloadable products as subject to the sales and use tax." If passed, the bill would take effect July 1, 2012, and would apply to sales occurring on or after that date.

While we're likely not going to post every letter we get from readers who receive some sort of response from their elected representatives concerning SOPA and Protect IP, the following response received by ECA president Hal Halpin from congressmen Jim Himes (D- Connecticut’s 4th District) is worth reading - only because it strikes a balance between thinking free speech and rights (like due process and fair use) should be protected with copyright holders' interests.