Inmates serving lengthy prison sentences for crimes committed as children may be released much sooner than expected, as the House of Representatives passed a bill Tuesday that would make dozens of inmates eligible for parole as soon as this fall. One of those inmates is William Freeman Jr., who has been incarcerated for the last 33 years […]
May 22, 2013
In treating the homeless, lessons for the health care system
Dr. Jim O’Connell was fresh off his residency when he took what he expected would be a six-month job at a Boston homeless shelter. He figured the staff would be thrilled to have someone with his training. He certainly wasn’t expecting what the nurses there gave him as his first assignment: Soaking clients’ feet. It […]
Speaking up about mental illness to combat stigma
When he’s with friends in college, Dan Olguin said, he sometimes feels like he’s leading a double life. He’s wary of how people will react if he tells them he has bipolar disorder, so he avoids talking about his past or letting them know he survived a life-altering crisis. Statistics suggest Olguin is far from […]
Yale study finds bias toward elderly on Facebook
Ageism exists and has been unmasked on Facebook. A startling — and some say disturbing — percentage of young people berate old people on Facebook, a Yale study has found. Researchers at the Yale School of Public Health analyzed 84 Facebook groups and found that all but one had negative stereotypes of older people. Many […]
Democrats may sidestep spending cap
Struggling to secure the super-majority necessary to exceed the current spending cap by half-a-billion dollars, legislative leaders are weighing a plan to green-light the extra spending with a simple majority. According to sources close to budget negotiations, the Democratic majority has discussed effectively shifting more than $400 million in Medicaid spending off the books over […]
Americans driving less, but state not getting the message, advocates say
Bad traffic on your way to work? Regardless, Abe Scarr of the Connecticut Public Interest Research Group (ConnPIRG) has some news for you: “The driving boom is over.” In other words, the decades-long increase in driving in the United States that began after World War I is finally starting to reverse. Americans today don’t drive […]
Conflict? UConn expansion needs OK from other college system
When the governor proposed a dramatic enrollment expansion at the University of Connecticut, concerns immediately arose as to whether that would siphon students away from the state’s other public college system already coping with steady enrollment declines. But the governing board for the Connecticut State Colleges & Universities will need to sign off on many […]
Madelyn Colon: The ACA could lead to more savvy consumers
Moving 37,500 adults who are currently insured out of the state Medicaid HUSKY A Program and requiring them to buy their own health insurance on Access Health CT, the new Connecticut health insurance exchange marketplace, isn’t such a bad idea.
Madelyn Colon: The ACA could lead to more savvy consumers
Moving 37,500 adults who are currently insured out of the state Medicaid HUSKY A Program and requiring them to buy their own health insurance on Access Health CT, the new Connecticut health insurance exchange marketplace, isn’t such a bad idea.