Now run by legislature, CT-N resumes live coverage

CT-N

From CT-N’s live coverage Monday.

CT-N resumed live broadcasting Monday with coverage of a hearing by the legislature’s Public Health Committee about patient abuse and excessive overtime at the state’s high-security Whiting Forensic Division of Connecticut Valley Hospital.

With the departure 10 days ago of its non-profit operator in a dispute over funding and editorial independence, the state-owned cable channel and its web site at CT-N.com will be directly managed at least temporarily by the Office of Legislative Management.

Coverage resumed after the hiring of 13 former employees of the Connecticut Public Affairs Network, which had run CT-N from its inception in 1999. The legislature is expected to advertise for a new operator in the spring.

A bigger test for CT-N will come Tuesday, when the Connecticut Supreme Court is to hear arguments in a firearms liability case of national importance at the same time the Senate is to convene in special session to make budget revisions.

James P. Tracy, the executive director of legislative management, said the office is trying to have CT-N cover both the arguments and the legislative session, but he was uncertain Monday morning if that would happen.