WASHINGTON–Christie Hager had a perch in the ultimate ivory tower last spring, teaching public health at Harvard University after a grueling, exciting stint at the center of Massachusetts’s health care reform debate. But one month after President Barack Obama signed the sweeping federal health reform bill, modeled in part after the Massachusetts law, Hager was […]

A wristwatch in Connecticut is considered clothing, not jewelry, in the budget bill being debated in the Senate. Why does it matter? By calling a watch clothing, the 7 percent luxury tax kicks in at $1,000 — not the $5,000 threshold for jewelry. The luxury tax is applied at clothing that costs more than $1,000, […]

As newsrooms across the country have been shrinking, the public relations industry has boomed, John Sullivan reports at Pro Publica. In a story co-published with the Columbia Journalism Review, Sullivan says the number of newspaper reporters and editors has fallen from a high of 56,900 in 1990 to 41,600 this year. Newspaper advertising revenue declined […]

Gov. Dannel P. Malloy and Democratic legislative leaders have agreed on a revised budget that will forgo a gasoline tax increase sought by Malloy, clearing the way for Senate and House votes on Monday and Tuesday, top legislators said Sunday. The revised plan also makes clear that the legislature will return to implement any concessions […]

Ted Kennedy Jr. drank in the applause of a labor crowd Sunday in Hartford’s Bushnell Park after a speech that made him sound like a Democrat who is keeping his options open for a campaign some day – but not in 2012. Ted Kennedy Jr. “I am here today to honor you and to thank […]