The main event today is the inauguration of Dannel P. Malloy as Connecticut’s first Democratic governor in a generation, but the day also belonged to 24 new House members and five new senators who began their legislative careers on a day of celebration and sober talk, endings and beginnings. “Guess what? We may be dysfunctional […]

The State Board of Education selected a veteran educator Wednesday to fill in as state education commissioner until the job is filled permanently by Gov. Dan Malloy. George A. Coleman, deputy commissioner at the State Department of Education, was appointed to replace Mark McQuillan, who resigned unexpectedly last month. The appointment comes as the education […]

Democratic and Republican legislative leaders prepared for the 2011 session the way they did prior to the passage of campaign finance reforms in 2005: Hitting up lobbyists to replenish their political action committees. Banned from making political contributions in 2005, lobbyists are free again to contribute to Connecticut politicians, the result of a court decision […]

President Barack Obama re-nominated a bevy of judicial candidates on Wednesday, asking the new Senate to vote on 42 contenders whose names stalled in the 111th Congress. On Wednesday’s list: Connecticut’s Susan L. Carney, nominated by the White House to be a judge on the 2nd Circuit. Carney is now deputy general counsel at Yale, and […]

States have lost out on some $7.5 billion in federal highway money–including $149 million in Connecticut–because of unspent Congressional earmarks for transportation projects, USA Today says. Transportation earmarks, in which a member of Congress directs spending toward a particular project, are a popular way to send money back to the home district. But a lot […]

Sen. Andrea Stillman has been selected to co-chair the legislature’s Education Committee, following former chairman Sen. Thomas P. Gaffey‘s resignation after deciding to plea guilty to larceny. Stillman, D-Waterford, has been on the Education Committee for two years and leads a task force that is looking into modifying how Individualized Education Programs in schools are […]

One of Gov. Dan Malloy’s top appointees handed in a resignation letter after his State of the State speech today:, his choice to run the Department of Children and Families, resigned from the Connecticut Supreme Court, effective at the close of business. Wearing her black judicial robes, Katz sat with the rest of the court […]

Susan Bysiewicz completed her last duty as secretary of the state at 10:22 a.m., administering the oath of office to the state Senate and presiding over the chamber until Senate President Pro Tem Donald E. Williams Jr., D-Brooklyn, was formally re-elected to his leadership post. “Good morning, everyone,” Bysiewicz said. “We are calling the Senate […]

As his former colleagues were sworn in down the street, state Sen. Thomas P. Gaffey pleaded guilty to six larceny charges and received a six-month suspended sentence. He also officially resigned from office Wednesday. The charges stem from allegations that the eight-term legislator double-billed the legislature and his political action committee for travel expenses totaling […]

Wednesday, January 5, 2011 10 a.m.: The General Assembly convenes its 2011 session. Legislators and Lt. Gov. Nancy S. Wyman, who presides over the Senate, will take the oath of office. 1 p.m.: Dannel P. Malloy, Wyman and their families will march in a brief inaugural parade from the Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Arch in […]

Dan Malloy takes office Wednesday as the state’s 88th governor and its first Democrat in a generation with his administration still a work in progress: He has named permanent leaders for fewer than half the state’s 23 major agencies. Malloy, 55, is scheduled to take the oath at 2 p.m. at a ceremony in the […]

WASHINGTON–Try finding an apartment in Glastonbury for a young adult who is mentally ill, never finished high school, and is currently unemployed. “It’s almost impossible,” said Kim Beauregard, CEO of InterCommunity Inc., a nonprofit agency that serves adults and children living with mental illness and addiction problems. For the seven towns her agency serves, from […]

The resignation of nine Democratic legislators will take effect when the 2011 session of the General Assembly opens at 10 a.m. Wednesday, leaving six empty chairs in the House and three in the Senate to be filled by special elections in late February or early March. Rep. Chris Caruso, D-Bridgeport, who was named Tuesday evening […]

Despite a record-setting budget deficit, the state should consider creating a new agency to resolve a growing backlog of employee complaints of corruption, mismanagement, waste and unsafe behavior, Connecticut’s retiring state auditors proposed Monday. Robert G. Jaekle and Kevin P. Johnston also used their final annual report to recommend closing a loophole in the state […]