Gov. Dannel P. Malloy asked legislators to consider nearly $320 million in revenue increases to mitigate the massive cuts he would be forced to impose if Connecticut enters the new fiscal year Saturday without a budget.
June 2017
Posted inCT Viewpoints
Men, testing for HIV and sexually transmitted diseases is important
June 12-18 was National Men’s Health Week, and Planned Parenthood of Southern New England encourages men to take charge of their sexual health with regular checkups, screenings, and testing for sexually transmitted infections (STIs), including HIV. Regular checkups can keep a person healthy and can find health problems before they become serious. Free HIV testing will be available at PPSNE health centers in Connecticut on Tuesday, June 27, and in Rhode Island on Wednesday, June 28.
Posted inPolitics
Ted Kennedy Jr. rules out run for statewide office in ’18
Ted Kennedy Jr., whose famous name has made him the subject of speculation for higher office since his election to the state Senate in 2014, issued an 84-word statement Monday ruling out a run in Connecticut’s open race for governor or any other statewide office in 2018.
Posted inMoney
Malloy, unions agree on sending tentative concessions to a vote
A tentative concessions framework between Gov. Dannel P. Malloy and state employee unions took a step forward Monday with the news that all bargaining units have agreed to submit the proposed concessions to a vote by rank-and-file members. Ballots are expected to be cast in mid- or late July.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
This bill would leave us more vulnerable than before the Great Recession
The Financial CHOICE Act in Congress would leave our economy even more vulnerable to Wall Street’s recklessness than before the ’08 crisis. Our members of Congress should vote against it.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
Doing better for all Connecticut Learners
Learning a new language could be daunting and especially more challenging for new immigrants that not only come face to face with a new culture, but to a totally different environment. Most times children adapt easily, but in the case of English Language Learners, the assimilating process may take longer than most, particularly when the primary language spoken at home is not English.
Posted inEducation, Health, Money, Politics
Prolonged CT budget standoff will hurt towns, disabled, needy
A prolonged state budget fight inevitably would force cuts both to town aid and to social services for the most vulnerable, even though those programs would be prioritized, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s budget director said.
Posted inNews
A week of conflicting and colliding principles
It has been a week with many principles in play — some in opposition to others. The big issues affected were the state budget and U.S. Senate’s health care bill.
Posted inJustice
A hard look at what prison means for the kids left behind
One in every 14 children in the U.S. has had a parent in prison. For poor families, it’s one in eight. They are the collateral damage of a mass incarceration movement that has made the U.S. the nation with the most prisoners in the world. Our Sunday conversation is with Aileen Keays Yeager, whose job is to figure out what that means for children in Connecticut.
Posted inJustice, Politics
New Haven natives take key roles in Russia probe
They both grew up in New Haven and were educated at Hopkins School and Yale. Now they find themselves on opposite sides of a legal drama that has riveted the nation: the special counsel’s investigation into the Trump campaign’s possible collusion with Russia to sway the 2016 election and any possible subsequent coverup.
Posted inPolitics
Trump administration says DACA protections will stay for now
The Trump administration said “Dreamers,” undocumented immigrants who came to the U.S. as children, will remain protected for now — a short-term win for educators who had entered the classroom thanks to the new protections and for students worried about deportation and losing a path into the workforce.
Posted inNews
More than 100 federal agencies fail to report hate crimes to FBI
In violation of a longstanding legal mandate, scores of federal law enforcement agencies are failing to submit statistics to the FBI’s national hate crimes database, ProPublica has learned.
Posted inHealth, Money
Malloy stands by pledge to aid Planned Parenthood despite cost
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy is maintaining his commitment to fully fund Medicaid reimbursements to Planned Parenthood in Connecticut if the federal government ends its financial support as part of the Republican plan to dramatically reshape the Affordable Care Act, a spokeswoman said.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
Focus educational help on improving minority high school graduation
Government funding for underprivileged students to attend college is not an effective way to close the education gap because it does not address the core problem, which is that many low-income students never make it to graduation in the first place. The government should be providing students with the resources they need in order to graduate from high school and be successful when they go to college, instead of providing a donation toward a college fund for students who made it to graduation.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
CT opioid crisis more deadly than guns, auto accidents combined
There were over 2,000 drug overdoses in Connecticut in a four-year span: 2012-2015. In just 2016 alone, opioids claimed the lives of 917 people from Connecticut. These alarming numbers constitute a full-blown epidemic. In Connecticut, opioid drugs and addiction are now more deadly than gunshots and car accidents combined.