April 12, 2011 @ 12:00 am

MIDDLETOWN–A feisty Gov. Dannel P. Malloy parried challenges to his budget from the left and right Tuesday night at the last of his 17 town-hall meetings. But he concluded on a softer note, calling his two-month listening tour an exercise in personal growth for a new governor. “I appreciate so many people across the state […]

Possession of any amount of marijuana in Connecticut now can result in a criminal record and up to a $1,000 fine–but members of the Judiciary Committee voted to change that Tuesday night. Under terms of a bill the committee approved, getting caught with a half-ounce or less–which committee members said is about 30 marijuana joints–would […]

Against the backdrop of the brutal Cheshire home invasion case, the legislature’s Judiciary Committee Tuesday approved a bill that would abolish the death penalty–but only for future crimes. Opponents argued that the prospective nature of the bill–it would eliminate the death penalty only for murders committed after it takes effect–is a tacit acknowledgment that some […]

Policymakers working to reshape the way long-term care is delivered in the state have long criticized what they call an institutional bias: Anyone who qualifies can get Medicaid coverage to live in a nursing home, but getting Medicaid to pay for home care is complicated. To qualify, someone must fit into one of several specific […]

Gov. Dannel P. Malloy will face his 17th and last town-hall meeting on the budget tonight in Middletown, listening to compliments and complaints. But paying attention to signs waved at him? Not so much. As union members were starting to suspect, it turns out that signs–especially the elaborate messages spelled out by audience members holding […]

WASHINGTON–Rep. John Larson has revved up his alliance with oil tycoon T. Boone Pickens and House Republicans in a push to make natural gas a more dominate fuel–replacing traditional gasoline–in America’s transportation sector. This week, Larson will join Pickens–an Oklahoma native who made his fortune in the oil and gas industry–to promote legislation that would […]

A $1 billion list of cuts in municipal aid circulated today by the administration of Gov. Dannel P. Malloy is not the governor’s contingency plan if his concession talks with state employees fail to yield $1 billion in labor savings, according to his senior adviser, Roy Occhiogrosso. Occhiogrosso released the list to illustrate what the […]

Lisa Wilson-Foley of Simsbury, a businesswoman who ran for lieutenant governor last year, today joined the crowded Republican field for Congress in the 5th District. “What do you do when the government has pushed you to a point where you simply say, ‘I’ve had enough?’ My answer is this – you fight. You fight to […]

The qualifications required to serve as state attorney general drew much attention during Susan Bysiewicz’s star-crossed bid for the office last year, but just one person testified Tueday about a proposal to relax the standard. And it wasn’t Bysiewicz, who saw the Connecticut Supreme Court rule her ineligible to become attorney general just days before […]

The federal health care reform law includes a $100 million program to reward Medicaid recipients for making healthy choices–but experts aren’t sure the incentives will work, Aimee Miles reports in Kaiser Health News. The program is intended to reduce Medicaid costs by rewarding patients for such things as quitting smoking, losing weight or keeping their […]