Open Sesame: Navy Admits Radio Signal Responsible for Garage Door Problems

Residents living in Connecticut have been experiencing issues with their automatic garage door openers, and they can thank the Top Secret work taking place on a nearby submarine naval base for the problems!

Officials with the U.S. Navy acknowledged on Monday that a radio signal being transmitted out of the Groton Submarine Base in Connecticut is likely the cause behind the residents’ garage-door woes. Residents began complaining to the Overhead Door Company out of Norwich, Connecticut, that they were suddenly unable to use their remote devices to open their garage doors. The company inspected all of the devices and could not find a problem with their equipment. 

After some investigating, it was discovered that the nearby naval base was using the same digital frequency as the garage door devices as part of  the Enterprise Land Mobile Radio (ELMR) system, which is used by the military to coordinate responses with local civil emergency workers.

A manager with Overhead Door has explained that the company is not responsible for replacing the devices as the problem has to do with homeland national security. "Because garage door openers are unlicensed devices, they are not offered any protection from interference by licensed users in the same frequency band, and in fact are required by federal law to accept interference from licensed users," the spokesperson told local media. 

In School, No One Can Hear You Scream: Conn. School Under Fire for "Scream Rooms"

A school in Middletown, Connecticut, has come under fire for placing unruly or disruptive students in so-called "scream rooms".

Parents in the upscale New York City suburb are outraged over allegations that school staff and administration at Farm Hill Elementary have taken to removing problem students from the class and placing them  in a separate, closet-sized room with concrete walls and no windows. (AKA a prison cell.) Parents became concerned after children began telling them about the "scream room", with many of the students expressing great fear at going to school out of concern of being placed in the cell. “Kids come home and they cry, because they’re afraid to go to school. And it’s often,” one parent told a local news channel investigating the story.

Reports of children harming themselves while in the room have also surfaced. (Shouldn't the school have invested in a padded cell to prevent the little ones from harming themselves, like the ones mental facilities use?) School Superintendent Michael Freschette claims that allegations of children harming themselves in the timeout rooms are not true. However, the Board of Education is currently investigating all allegations against the school.