WASHINGTON — Connecticut’s Latino and Puerto Rican Affairs Commission has asked Congress for quick action on legislation to help Puerto Rico with its $72 billion debt crisis.
March 2016
Posted inPolitics
Murphy, legislators help kick off grassroots effort for Clinton
WASHINGTON — Sen. Chris Murphy said Thursday that he and other state Democratic officials are helping to launch a phone bank aimed at helping Hillary Clinton win the state’s April 26 Democratic primary.
Posted inEducation
Session notes: Leader of CT higher education agency retiring
Jane Ciarleglio, the longtime leader of the state agency that oversees state financial aid and for-profit colleges, is retiring Friday.
Posted inNews
Session Notes: Malloy hits N.C. on anti-LGBT law
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy announced an executive order Thursday banning official state travel to North Carolina, joining a growing list of public officials and corporations to condemn that state’s passage of a law hostile to the gay and transgender communities.
Posted inPolitics
Wolf files overdue finance report, names new team
August Wolf, the only announced Republican candidate for the 2016 U.S. Senate race in Connecticut, named his new leadership team Thursday, an effort to stabilize a campaign rocked by turnover, unusually public dissension and fundraising challenges. He also filed his long overdue end-of-year finance report.
Posted inCT Viewpoints, Talking Transportation
No Wi-Fi on Metro North, and here’s why
Discount bus lines like Megabus have free Wi-Fi. Even Connecticut’s new CTfastrak commuter bus system to Hartford gives its passengers free Wi-Fi.
But there is no Wi-Fi on Metro-North. And the railroad says none is planned, even though the new M8 railcars are ready for the needed gear. And therein lies a story.
Posted inEducation
After contract storm at state universities, relative calm in community college talks
The Board of Regents is seeking cost savings from community college faculty and staff, whose response has been notably less confrontational than that of faculty at the regional Connecticut state universities when asked for givebacks last November.
Posted inJustice
Malloy hears from homeowners with crumbling basements
ENFIELD — The good news Wednesday night was that at least a dozen of the people waiting to question Gov. Dannel P. Malloy had minimal interest in Connecticut’s intractable budget problems. The bad news: They came to talk about their crumbling basements, a problem that may affect thousands.
Posted inJustice
With broad support, bail reform seems inevitable
Pushed by a coalition that stretches across the political spectrum, reform is coming to Connecticut’s bail system. The only question seems to be how far and how fast the General Assembly is prepared to go.
Posted inEducation
Michelle Rhee group merges with education advocates with CT roots
Updated at 7 p.m.
The national 50CAN education reform group – whose founding was inspired by the Connecticut-based advocacy group ConnCAN – is merging with StudentsFirst, a national group that was started by the controversial past chancellor of Washington, D.C., schools, Michelle Rhee.
Posted inMoney, Politics
Malloy: State workers to get layoff notices in about two weeks
The major round of state employee layoffs that Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s administration has been hinting at since February is about two weeks away, the governor said Wednesday.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
Connecticut should fix its unfair ballot-position picking system
I suppose that congratulations are in order to fringe candidate Roque “Rocky” de la Fuente on ‘winning’ a random drawing for the top ballot position in the Democratic primary for president taking place on April 26. It is a stroke of luck which will perhaps net the California businessman a few hundred additional votes due to a phenomenon social scientists refer to as the “primacy effect” or “serial position effect.” Rocky has met all the statutory requirements for appearing on the ballot and seems like a decent person, but he does not deserve this unearned advantage. Neither does Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders or any other candidate.
Posted inHealth
Tiny opioid patients need help easing into life
Swaddled in soft hospital blankets, Lexi is two weeks old and weighs six pounds. She’s been at Women and Infants Hospital in Providence, Rhode Island, since she was born, and is experiencing symptoms of opioid withdrawal. Her mother took methadone to wean herself from heroin when she got pregnant, just as doctors advised. But now the hospital team has to wean newborn Lexi from the methadone.
Posted inEducation, Health, Money, Politics
Legislature adopts bipartisan plan to close this year’s modest deficit
The General Assembly overwhelmingly adopted a bipartisan plan Tuesday afternoon to close most or all of the current budget deficit, immediately shifting the legislature’s focus to a far larger projected shortfall for the fiscal year beginning July 1.
Posted inJustice
Child sex slavery: No pimps convicted by state in last 10 years
While more than 400 children who have been sold for sex or forced labor have been referred to Connecticut’s child welfare agency in recent years, not a single person has been convicted in state court of trafficking in the last 10 years, according to top state legislators and the Permanent Commission on the Status of Women.