WASHINGTON – Congress is about to resume a bitter dispute about how much more federal help to provide Puerto Rico, where many residents are still without electricity or functioning schools or hospitals more than a hundred days after Hurricane Maria devastated the island. Sens. Richard Blumenthal and Chris Murphy, who just visited the island, said they are committed to sharply increasing aid to Puerto Rico.
January 3, 2018
Posted inEducation, Money
Top state education officials say there is nowhere left to cut
Top state education officials said they have concluded that cuts would place the state in danger of violating federal laws, including those governing the education of students with disabilities. State aid to local districts already has been cut enough, they said. But the state is anticipating large budget deficits, and the administration would not commit to protecting education from reductions.
Posted inHealth, Money, Politics
Malloy tries to head off Friday’s special legislative session
Hoping to focus legislators on closing a $224 million state budget deficit, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy suspended legislatively mandated cutbacks to a popular social services program for seniors and the disabled until July 1.
Posted inPolitics
No ticket for cop clocked driving Ganim at 87 in a 55
The Connecticut state police say a trooper was within his rights Wednesday in declining to issue a ticket or written warning to a city police officer clocked going 87 miles per hour in a 55-miles-per-hour zone on I-84 in Southington while driving Bridgeport Mayor Joseph P. Ganim to a gubernatorial campaign event.
Posted inPolitics
Malloy criticizes feds in visit to relief center for Caribbean evacuees
In a visit to a temporary Hartford relief center Wednesday, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy criticized President Trump for the federal government’s response to the damage inflicted by Hurricane Maria on Puerto Rico, where half the island is without power 100 days after the storm’s landfall.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
The Citizens Election Program is at risk again
Word is that a number of our legislators want to slice funding for the Citizens Election Program and/or the State Elections Enforcement Commission (SEEC), by 25 percent. The cuts would not make a dent in the state’s $208 million budget shortfall, but could be devastating to programs that in the past decade have made our elections cleaner and more competitive and our lawmakers more connected to the people they represent. Anyone who wants Connecticut to continue to lead the nation toward cleaner, truly fair elections, and not slip backwards toward corruption of, by, and for special interests instead of government of, by and for the people must speak up now. Action could come as early as this week.
Posted inPolitics
Eight years out of prison, Ganim says he’s ready to be governor
Bridgeport Mayor Joseph P. Ganim’s formal entrance into the race for governor Wednesday presents Democratic officials with two unsettling scenarios: Either they make peace with the prospect of their ticket being led by a convicted extortionist, or they try to dissuade the mayor of Connecticut’s largest city from running in a Democratic primary.
Posted inPolitics
Nappier to end 20-year tenure as CT’s treasurer
Hartford Democrat Denise L. Nappier, one of Connecticut’s longest-serving state treasurers and the first African-American woman in the nation to hold that post, announced Wednesday she will not seek a sixth term.