The House of Representatives debated the legalization of recreational marijuana use for 90 minutes late Tuesday afternoon, only to table it afterward.
June 6, 2017 @ 8:29 pm
Posted inHealth, Politics
Paid leave bill gets air time in Senate before being tabled
The Senate devoted about an hour and a half Tuesday night to a symbolic debate on a bill to guarantee Connecticut workers between two and three months of paid family and medical leave. It was tabled at the end of the discussion.
Posted inPolitics
Deal is struck: House to authorize tribes’ East Windsor casino
The Senate’s approval of a little-noticed mixed-martial arts bill Tuesday evening was the signal: A deal has been struck for the House of Representatives to vote in the waning hours of the 2017 to authorize the owners of Connecticut’s tribal gaming resorts to develop a casino in East Windsor.
Posted inPolitics
Bills on hate crimes, opioids win unanimous final approval
Updated at 6:50 p.m.
The Senate has passed several non-controversial House bills awaiting final action since gaveling in Tuesday afternoon, including bills on hate crimes, opioids, eye care in the digital age and pregnant women in the workplace.
Posted inPolitics
Farmers rally against merger of Agriculture Department
Farmers, agricultural leaders and lawmakers gathered outside the State Capitol despite some light rain Tuesday afternoon to rally against one budget proposal that largely has flown under the radar – the elimination of a stand-alone Department of Agriculture in the state.
Posted inEducation
East Hartford again surfaces in DeVos’s school-choice pitch
U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos on Tuesday again held up the story of a student who graduated from East Hartford High School 17 years ago to push her case for school choice.
Posted inMoney, Transportation
House inches CT closer to tolls — but stops short
The House of Representatives took two steps Tuesday — one legal and one symbolic — to move Connecticut slightly closer to the imposition of tolls on its highways.
Posted inMoney, Politics
Analyses show concessions would save $24B over two decades
The tentative concessions framework struck by Gov. Dannel P. Malloy and state employee union leaders would save $4.8 billion over the next five years and $24.1 billion over the next two decades, according to analyses prepared by the administration, Connecticut pension actuaries and its healthcare consultant.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
Connecticut — It’s time to get on the right side of history
This month, Connecticut legislators will decide which side of history they will join. A pending bill currently in front of the Connecticut General Assembly would ban the use of solitary confinement against juveniles and people with severe mental illness or disabilities. Under H.B. 7302, Connecticut’s Department of Corrections also would have to report on its use of solitary confinement throughout the system. Given the well-known harms that come from locking a person up for 23 hours a day, these are good and important changes.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
Connecticut public lands need our help
An important national debate is playing out in Hartford right now as the Connecticut General Assembly is currently considering a state Constitutional Amendment about the future of the Connecticut’s public lands. S.J. 39 would prevent the state from transferring, swapping, or selling state-owned lands without appropriate public input — and if it passes, it will further demonstrate Connecticut’s long history of valuing our parks, wildlife areas, waterbodies, and open spaces.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
Is our state legislature failing Connecticut’s immigrant communities?
In times of open hostility, from the President of the United States, trickling down to our institutions and communities toward immigrants and people of color, we find it outrageous that the Connecticut General Assembly has refused to respond to the demands of the people for peace and equity and to pass legislation that would benefit our immigrant community.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
Connecticut college funding cuts killing our intellectual souls
Soren Kierkegaard, the Danish philosopher, wrote more than a century ago about “the sickness that is not until death.” He did so in an essay about despair, loss, and fear. Notwithstanding the gloomy topic, Kierkegaard was an optimist. The sickness about which he wrote, after all, is “not until death.” The sickness until death, he wrote, would be a deeper sickness—the one that comes from the separation of one’s soul from the spiritual core that is deepest part of one’s being. Welcome to the world of Connecticut higher education, college and university-style, circa 2017.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
Please protect open space here in Connecticut!
With only a few days left in the Connecticut General Assembly’s regular session, I am really concerned that SJ 39, known as a Constitutional Amendment to Protect Open Space, will get left behind. We need State Sen. Kevin Witkos to lead the charge in support of this amendment again this year, before it can appear on the ballot in November 2018.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
The moral case for letting Connecticut go under
Amidst growing concern over the shaky financial conditions of California, Illinois, and New Jersey, my home state of Connecticut is often overlooked. Its size and population are relatively small, and its position between Manhattan and Boston make the state appear unimportant. Moreover, with some of the nation’s wealthiest communities — Darien, New Canaan, and Greenwich — how bad could things really be? Very bad, according to a 2016 study for the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. The study calculated the fiscal health of each state according to its short- and long-term debt, unfunded pensions, and other key fiscal obligations. Connecticut came in the sickest of all.
Posted inJustice
House passes new limits on solitary confinement
The House of Representatives unanimously approved a measure late Monday to prohibit incarcerated minors from being placed in solitary confinement.