After pledging during the campaign that he would maintain state funding for local education, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy backed off a bit Thursday, saying that is “a goal” that he will “try to accommodate.” “That’s a goal that I have in preparing a budget,” he said during his first press conference after taking office. “There […]

If state government hopes to finance a robust capital program that creates jobs, it has to stop using its credit card to cover day-to-day operating costs, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy said Thursday. Chatting with Capitol reporters one day after taking the oath of office, Malloy again insisted that Connecticut must maintain a “substantial competitive advantage” […]

In his first gubernatorial press conference, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy today addressed matters of public policy, personal preference and realpolitik. First, the personal. It turns out he prefers Dannel to Dan, his nom de campaign. “My cards say Dannel. I insisted that we go back to my formal name, as opposed to Dan. I like […]

Susan Herbst, the first woman to be named president of the University of Connecticut, will take office later this year as the state and the university confront the most serious financial crisis in decades. In a wide-ranging telephone interview with The Mirror, Herbst talked about that challenge, as well as her views on high-profile athletic […]

As Congress gears up for another health reform fight and Connecticut lawmakers contemplate state-level reforms, a group of consumer and mental health advocates is trying to draw attention to a less-noticed federal law they say stands to benefit many state residents. The Paul Wellstone and Pete Domenici Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of […]

Gov. Dan Malloy balanced Connecticut’s past glories as an industrial and entrepreneurial power against the challenges of its contemporary fiscal crisis today in a State of the State address praised by fellow Democrats, opposition Republicans, business and organized labor. “I was impressed. I think it was a good start,” said House Minority Leader Lawrence F. […]

While Gov. Dan Malloy used his first executive order Wednesday to begin whipping Connecticut’s finances into shape, state legislators warned they aren’t ready to go cold turkey when it comes to budget gimmicks. And though Malloy kept a campaign pledge to begin the conversion to generally accepted accounting principles on Day One, he stretched that […]

WASHINGTON–Democrat Richard Blumenthal was sworn in as Connecticut’s junior U.S. Senator on Wednesday, joining a weakened Democratic majority and fulfilling his own lifelong political aspiration. Blumenthal took the oath of office at 12:10 p.m., with his hand on a weathered Bible he borrowed from a family friend. He was one of 13 new senators-but the […]

Dannel P. Malloy took office today as Connecticut’s 88th governor and its first Democratic chief executive in 20 years, assuming responsibility for a state with a stagnant economy, a historic deficit and an appetite for change at the start of a new decade. Under a vast skylight in the drill shed of the State Armory […]

Thank you all for joining me today and welcome to all of the distinguished public servants here, members of the clergy, other honored guests, my extended family, friends and all the citizens throughout our great state, a special mention to my great friend Lieutenant Governor Nancy Wyman, and a special mention to the former First […]

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 […]