Maybe it’s because Yale wouldn’t stop reminding students to get flu shots, but the number of flu cases in Connecticut is down — at its lowest level since 2003, in fact. Last year thousands of cases were reported, but as of Dec. 27 this year, only 58 cases had been confirmed.

As of yesterday at about 6:30 p.m., several seats on La Casa’s bus to Washington for the inauguration were still unclaimed. For those who miss out on the buses to D.C., Jonathan Edwards College will install a “giant screen” in the Great Hall during lunch the day of the inauguration.

Yale investments czar David Swensen told the Wall Street Journal in an interview Tuesday that “compensation in the investment-management world, broadly defined, is excessive” in response to a question about whether he is paid too much. According to tax forms, he has made as much as about $2 million a year. (A bargain, Yale officials have long argued, considering the billions of dollars he has made for the University.)

Gov. M. Jodi Rell showed her commitment to Connecticut’s troubled economy by deciding to go without pay Tuesday, saving the state $575 (she still came into the office, however). To help the state close its budget shortfall, Rell has asked her managers and commissioners to take a day of unpaid leave, too.

The presence of a suspicious package closed down Orange Street between Elm and Court streets yesterday morning to enable a police investigation, according to the television station WFSB.

A car belonging to a disabled woman, outfitted “to accommodate the owner’s wheelchair and short stature,” was stolen from the parking lot of the Graduate Club in New Haven on Tuesday night, according to City Hall. The car was found yesterday in Hartford after the New Haven Police Department alerted the news media, the public and other police departments to watch out for it.

Beep beep. The ID scanner at the Davenport gate — infamous for its lack of beep — has been fixed.

This day in Yale history

1970 The NCAA put Yale on “full athletic probation” for two years — from Jan. 15, 1970 until Jan. 15, 1972 — meaning Yale could not participate in any national collegiate championship event, postseason meet or NCAA-sponsored tournament. The probation occurred because Yale allowed Jack Langer, a reserve center on the basketball team, to play in the Maccabiah Games in Israel over the summer. The Games were off-limits to collegiate athletes. The NCAA decision noted that Yale had “willfully shown disregard and disdain” for the rules.

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