A soon-to-be-occupied room at Bethsaida community Norwich — Cookies shouldn’t make you cry. But when Debbie dropped a raw egg on the kitchen floor, it was just too much. “I lost it,” she said, laughing at the memory a few days later, sitting on a plush couch in the living room of her new home. […]
2011
Posted inHealth
‘Love and Autism’
In an ongoing series, “Autism, Grown Up,” New York Times writer Amy Harmon, in the Sunday paper, has a story that plunges into all the messiness of a new relationship, but among two young adults with Asperger syndrome. View “Navigating Love and Autism,” here. It’s writerly, filled with story arcs and nuance. And it throws […]
Posted inNews
With a dash of drama, state picks solar projects
Christmas arrived a couple of days early for two solar power developers chosen Friday by the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection to build a total of 10 megawatts of clean power that will go into the electric grid. Despite a tight timetable that prompted complaints, developers proposed 21 projects, with the winners promising clean […]
Posted inNews
‘No method to madness’ of early education spending
A week after the U.S. Department of Education gave the state’s early education efforts a C-minus, a new study concludes that the system is underfunded, ill-coordinated and insufficiently monitored to know what the state is getting for its annual investment of $224.6 million. “As our data amply show, there is no method to the madness […]
Posted inEnergy & Environment
Jepsen makes a new push for PURA to review the NU/NSTAR merger
Attorney General George Jepsen said today he has filed comments with state utility regulators urging them to review the merger of Northeast Utilities, which owns the largest electric company in Connecticut, and NSTAR, which provides electricity to Greater Boston. In a statement issued this afternoon, Jepsen said the study by Witt Associates of how NU’s […]
Posted inMoney
With billions in ‘tax expenditures,’ legislature ignores spending cap
What are the odds that the Connecticut Legislature would violate its own laws? Would the odds go up or down if those laws concerned billions of dollars? The billions of dollars involve what is known as tax expenditures. These are tax laws intended to subsidize selected economic activities and favored taxpayers. Because these subsidy measures […]
Posted inEducation, Energy & Environment, Money
Connecticut leads the way with green schools
The US Green Building Council’s Center for Green Schools recently published a report for state legislators, providing them with a guide to best policy practices concerning green schools. The report states that Connecticut is one of only 12 states that have policies in law encouraging green school construction. In 2006, Connecticut passed legislation mandating that […]
Posted inNews
Your credit card bill is high? The state owes $19.5 billion
Holiday shoppers aren’t the only ones taking a wary look at their credit card balances these days. State government recently undertook its own annual debt review, looking from several perspectives but coming to the same conclusion each time: Connecticut remains one of the most indebted states in the nation. The state entered the fiscal year […]
Posted inNews
LeBeau hopes to renew debate on smaller legislature
While a new report shows Connecticut outspends most other states in terms of legislative costs, an East Hartford lawmaker hopes it will breathe a second life into his Quixotic bid to eliminate jobs by shrinking the General Assembly. Sen. Gary LeBeau said that when the next regular session convenes in February he either will re-introduce […]
Posted inEnergy & Environment
Electric rates trending down
At least for now, the trend in electric rates is favorable to consumers in Connecticut. Average monthly electric bills for standard service from CL&P will go down $9.39 next year. For UI customers, the drop will be $13.96. The Public Utilities Regulatory Authority on Thursday finalized rates that will mean savings for the second consecutive […]
Posted inNews
For the developmentally disabled, it’s public vs. private care
Pauline Bouffard says her son used to hold his arms out every time she visited him at the state-run residential facility for the developmentally disabled in Meriden, signaling his desire to go home. Now he lives in a private, community-based group home, and she says he’s not in such a rush to leave. “They were […]
Posted inNews
Congressional map to be the drawn by the Supreme Court
With the GOP pressing for advantage and Democrats defending a favorable status quo, a deadlocked redistricting commission missed its court-imposed deadline of noon Wednesday, forcing the Connecticut Supreme Court to take on the job of drawing five new U.S. House districts. Republicans on the bipartisan panel gave up on a radical plan to create a […]
Posted inNews
Lawmakers fear state budget cuts forced UConn tuition hike
Defending a plan to collect an extra $50 million per year from students by 2016, University of Connecticut officials said Monday that represents the cost of adding nearly 300 faculty. But another way of describing the extra student costs is that they also match a hole punched into UConn finances in recent months by Gov. […]
Posted inHealth, Money
Working group on collective bargaining for home care workers draws critics, supporters
The fight over unionizing home care attendants continued Wednesday as the working group charged with recommending ways to structure collective bargaining rights for the workers heard testimony from the public. People who work as personal care attendants spoke of the challenges of doing their jobs with low pay, no benefits and no paid sick time. […]
Posted inNews
Bridgeport tabs national figure to head school reform effort
A nationally known educator who led school reform efforts in Chicago, Philadelphia and New Orleans will try to turn around one of Connecticut’s most troubled public school systems. The Bridgeport Board of Education was expected late Tuesday to name Paul Vallas as acting superintendent while the school district prepares to find a permanent successor to […]