National and International stories in 2022 that impacted Connecticut

Nationwide, the lottery has smashed records between Powerball and Mega Millions jackpots.

Just days into the new year, the Powerball jackpot already hit the seventh largest in its history as it hit $630 million. 

No one from Connecticut won all of that money but a little over a month later, a ticket that offered a $185 million prize was sold at a Cheshire store.

In July, Mega Millions soared to a whopping $1.33 billion, the largest jackpot in the game's history. Only one person won the entire jackpot. 

But, if you thought over a billion dollars was a lot of money, Powerball returned to snatch the spotlight away from Mega Millions in early November. After 40 consecutive drawings, the Powerball jackpot launched to new astronomical heights, reaching $2.04 billion and smashing the previous #1 record number, which was nearly $1.6 billion, reached in 2016. 

And again, just one single ticket won the entire jackpot.

No one from Connecticut claimed any of the major jackpot prizes but there were plenty of $1 million prizes as well as other prize amounts that were won, which is certainly nothing to sneeze at. 

While the Olympics may have taken place a continent and ocean away, Connecticut had athletes representing Team USA.

Strauss Mann from Greenwich is a member of the U.S. Men's Hockey team. He was a goaltender at the University of Michigan and was the 2020 Big Ten Goaltender of the year and First Team All-Star.

Mann and Team USA Hockey's hope of medaling was cut short against Slovakia. Mann played a total of 70 minutes in the game, saving 34 shots, but a late-game equalizer from Slovakia brought the game into penalty shootouts. Team USA has been eliminated in a PK shootout two years in a row now.

Lindsey Jacobellis from Roxbury was on the U.S Snowboarding team. She is a four-time olympian and has 1 silver medal. She medaled in her first Olympics in Torino in the Snowboardcross event.

Jacobellis won the first gold medal for Team USA in the 2022 Winter Olympics, as she finished first in the women's snowboardcross final.

Kristen Santos from Fairfield was on the U.S. Speedskating team. Santos could not participate in the 2018 Winter Olympics due to an injury, so the Beijing Olympics were her first. 

Santos did not medal in the women's 1500m short-track speedskating competition. She came in first place in the quarterfinals, but in the semifinals, another skater interfered with her keeping her from a top-two finish. She was placed in final group B but didn't have a chance to medal.

Julia Marino from Westport was a member of the U.S. Snowboard team. Marino participated in the slopestyle and big air events. This was her second Winter Olympics as she participated in 2018.

Marino took silver to score the U.S. its first medal in the Beijing Winter Games. Two-time defending champion Jamie Anderson finished ninth, and fellow American Hailey Langland finished 11th.  

Marino did not participate in the Big Air competition due to an injury after taking a hard fall in practice.

Mac Forehand from Southport (Fairfield) was on the U.S. Freeski Team. He participated in the Freeski Slopestyle events during the games. Forehand is only 19 years old. At 17, he made history by winning the Overall World Cup Title in slopestyle.  

Forehand qualified for the Freeski Big Air Event alongside his two other American teammates. His score of 171.000 placed him eighth in qualifiers.

Forehand came in 11th place in the Freeski Big Air Final, scoring 80.25. His teammate Colby Stevenson came away with the silver medal.

Olivia Giaccio from Redding was on the U.S. Freestyle and Mogul team. She attends Columbia University and has been a member of the U.S. Olympic team since 2017. 

Giaccio made it into the medal round but finished sixth. Americans Hannah Soar and Kai Owens finished seventh and tenth, respectively.

Zachary Donohue from Madison was on the U.S. Figure Skating team and participated in the ice dance event. In the ice dance event, he participates with his partner Madison Hubbell. In the 2018 Winter Olympics, Donohue and Hubbell placed fourth in their event. 

in 2021, Donohue won the silver medal in the World Championship for their rhythm dance performance.

Donohue and Hubbell were on the podium of the ice dancing final, winning a bronze medal after a thrilling free skate dance. They scored 130.89 in the free dance and a final score of 218.02 after combining it with their rhythm dance score of 87.13.

The duo has said this was their last Olympic appearance before retiring.

Tucker West from Ridgefield was on the U.S. Luge team and Beijing was his third straight Olympics. West came in 26th in 2018's Winter Olympics.

West's first run clocked in at 58.079 seconds, +1.016 behind first-place finisher Johannes Ludwig. For the second run, West finished 1:55.910, +1.409 behind Ludwig who again finished first.

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On Feb. 24, Russia officially invaded Ukraine for what continues to be an ongoing war over the soul of the country and its land. 

Ukraine’s government said Russian tanks and troops rolled across the border is a “full-scale” war that could rewrite the geopolitical order and whose fallout already reverberated worldwide. It was Moscow’s most aggressive action since the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979.

Connecticut, home to its own Ukrainian population responded by rallying together to raise funds and other fundraisers for equipment needed by the Ukrainian fighters. In March, Little Poland in New Britain was named Little Ukraine. 

Things like a huge donation truck from the Ukrainian National House in Hartford were packed with locally donated medical supplies. It headed to an airport in New Jersey and was then shipped to Poland.

Residents in Connecticut who had family in Ukraine opened their doors for their safe arrival and stayed as they fled the violence in the country. 

Local leaders and experts also expressed their outrage after Russia invaded, hitting cities and bases with airstrikes or shelling as civilians piled into trains and cars to flee.

Sen. Chris Murphy called Russia's actions "evil," and the Ukrainian people will fight to secure their nation from this foreign tyrant. He said the U.S. would stand with them in the fight.

"[...] The entire Post World War international order sits on a knife edge. If Putin does not pay a devastating price for this transgression, then our own security will soon be at risk," Murphy wrote on Twitter. "We must be unceasingly in our assistance to the Ukrainian people. We must levy crippling sanctions on Russia. And we must cut off Putin and his cronies from the global economy. A strong, swift response is vital."

Support from the state continued from a West Hartford preschool teacher gathering supplies for Ukraine, to former Miss Connecticut USA, Olga Litvinenko, also setting up a fundraiser for her native country.

By the end of October, and having to endure months of bombardments and other attacks on his country, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy spoke with students at Yale University about the conflict. 

With blue and yellow flags in hand, students from Yale got a chance to ask Zelenskyy questions about how the war with Russia is impacting the country. 

When asked when he anticipates the war in Ukraine will end, Zelenskyy replied, "It will end and it will end soon, it all depends on how willing we are and our motivation."

He said the exact end depends on multiple factors: People's morale and motivation to defend Ukraine, and the country's partners in providing support, which includes sharing stories of the war so that "the public and society does not forget about the war."

He also said the amount of pressure put on Russia to retreat is a factor.

In December, Russia's Foreign Ministry warned that if the United States confirms reports that it plans to deliver sophisticated air defense missiles to Ukraine, it would be “another provocative move by the U.S.” that could prompt a response from Moscow.

Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said in a weekly briefing that the U.S. had "effectively become a party” to the war in Ukraine, following reports that it will provide Kyiv with Patriot surface-to-air missiles, the most advanced the West has yet offered to help repel Russian aerial attacks.

Growing amounts of U.S. military assistance, including the transfer of such sophisticated weapons, "would mean even broader involvement of military personnel in the hostilities and could entail possible consequences,” Zakharova added.

She did not specify what the consequences might be.

On Dec. 20, Congress unveiled a $1.7 trillion defense bill to avoid a government shutdown.

The spending package includes about $45 billion in emergency assistance to Ukraine as it battles Russia's invasion, according to Sen. Patrick Leahy, the Democratic chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee. It would be the biggest American infusion of assistance yet to Ukraine, above even President Joe Biden's $37 billion emergency request, and ensure that funding flows to the war effort for months to come.

The U.S. has provided about $68 billion to Ukraine in previous rounds of military, economic and humanitarian assistance.

In early May, the unthinkable happened: A decision leaked from the United States Supreme Court. 

The leak, which was confirmed to be official, spelled out the majority opinion that would overturn the precedent that was Roe v Wade. The decision would rule that access to abortion would soon be up to the states. 

Connecticut, a state that protects abortion rights, was already in the process of passing a bill that would further extend those rights to protect abortion providers and those seeking an abortion who come from out of state. 

The State House already passed the bill less than a month before the supreme court decision was leaked. 

Three days after the decision was leaked, Gov. Ned Lamont signed the abortion rights bill into law. 

By June, the court officially released the decision, causing a massive uproar throughout the country, including Connecticut. Some states began passing their own anti-abortion legislation.

The fight over abortion rights did not stay contained as just several months later came the midterm elections. 

Several key issues were carried into the run-up to the midterm elections in November. 

The battle over abortion rights was one rallying cry for voters. Connecticut Rep. Jahana Hayes and Vice President Kamala Harris, along with abortion rights advocates, participated in a round table at Central Connecticut State University (CCSU). 

Abortion rights weren't the only thing that called people to the polls this election. 

A growing problem for many Americans and Connecticut residents' wallets was inflation. 

Inflation, especially heading into the holiday season, wasn't just affecting everyday residents but also places meant to help residents like food banks.

Recently, the Federal Reserve reinforced its inflation fight by raising its key interest rate for the seventh time this year and signaling more hikes. But it announced a smaller hike than it had in its past four meetings at a time when inflation is showing signs of easing. 

One way Connecticut attempted to battle rising inflation and gas prices was to put in place a gas tax holiday.

Lamont signed a bill passed in the House and State Senate in late November addressing the gas tax holiday, funding for energy assistance, and more as both chambers were called into special session. 

Under the bill, the state’s $.25 gas tax on regular gas will continue to be lifted through December. It was set to expire at the end of November. 

The gas tax holiday, enacted in April, was initially set to expire on June 30 but was extended through November 30. Beginning in the new year, the $.25 will be phased back in over five months in nickel increments. Connecticut is one of three states with a gas tax suspension in effect.

With abortion, inflation, COVID-19, and more heading into the midterms, it was a closely watched election across the country. 

In the end, Connecticut's congressional delegation remained in the blue, with Hayes, Rep. Jim Himes, Rep. Rosa DeLauro, Rep. Joe Courtney, and Rep. John Larson all keeping their seats. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, up for reelection this year, beat opponent Leora Levy. Lamont, who went up against 2018 opponent Bob Stefanowski, also won his reelection. 

The state continued its Democrat trifecta with the State House, Senate, and governorship all in the blue. 

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The Associated Press contributed to this report

Jennifer Glatz is a digital content producer at FOX61 News. She can be reached at jglatz@fox61.com.  

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