• New Haven school student Mario Aguilar Castanon returned home to family and friends this week, after being granted asylum. The Guatemalan native, who attends Wilbur Cross High School, was detained by ICE in September.
• Connecticut’s Sentencing Commission will again push for a revamp of the state’s sex offender registry in the upcoming legislative session. One big change would involve taking a “risk-based” approach to the registry rather than the current offense-based approach. That would allow some low-risk offenders, after proper review, to get off the public sex offender registry entirely.
• Connecticut officials need to step up funding for nonprofits that provide a variety of services to the state, says the president of the Connecticut Community Nonprofit Alliance. Gian-Carl Casa says nonprofits of all types face a “perfect storm” of increasing demand, decreasing contributions and a sluggish state economy that has led to cutbacks in state payments.
• Best friends Mary Mahoney and Allison Horrocks have turned their love American Girl dolls into a cult podcast that is part pop culture and part social commentary. They say the stories contained in the books that accompanied the dolls -- all the rage in the ’80s and ’90s -- sparked a lifelong love of history.

An Emerging Treatment Helps Children Manage Food Allergies And Gives Parents Peace Of Mind 

A new treatment that helps children manage certain food allergies is gaining traction among parents who say it relieves a lot of concern over accidental ingestion.

Oliver Racco (pictured above with his mother, Jessica) has a nut allergy, and every day, the 7-year-old eats a “maintenance dose” of a few peanut M&Ms to help maintain his newfound tolerance of nuts.

Oliver recently completed what’s called an “allergy desensitization process” at the New England Food Allergy Treatment Center in West Hartford. The process is intended to protect people with severe allergies in the event of accidental ingestion.

“Since we’ve gone through the treatment, it has taken away a lot of that worry,” said Jessica Racco, Oliver’s mother. 

The process can take 10 to 12 months, but Racco said it was well worth it.

“If [Oliver] is exposed to it somehow, whether it’s in something he’s eating, or on a table from a student before him, he will not have a reaction because of this treatment. He’s protected,” Racco said. MORE »

• New U.S. census data shows a continuing decline in Connecticut’s population over the past year, the Hartford Business Journal reports. 
• The IRS announced significant changes to its deal with the tax prep software industry that will make it easier for millions of Americans to find free online tax filing, according to ProPublica.
• Guns & America explores the strong link between excessive alcohol consumption and gun violence.