Connecticut’s U.S. senators and two of its congressmen asked Monday that the inspector general of the Department of the Interior investigate the department’s role in blocking the Mashantucket Pequot and Mohegan tribes from jointly developing a commercial casino in East Windsor to compete with an MGM gaming resort under construction in Springfield.
February 2018
Posted inEducation
UConn considers netting more revenue from student charges
The University of Connecticut’s governing board next week will consider overhauling student charges in a move that would bring a net increase of $1.3 million into the public university’s coffers.
Posted inMoney, Politics
CT will use ammo from ‘red’ states to fight IRS over tax plan
WASHINGTON — Connecticut’s bid to do an end run around the limits on the deductibility of state and local taxes under the new federal law is likely to engender a new clash with the Trump administration, but it’s also based on precedent and law.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
We must do more to protect people with IDD from sexual predators
Sexual assault has dominated the news cycle. It is clear that this issue can no longer be ignored. Easy to miss was a recent story about people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD), who are sexually assaulted at a rate seven times higher than those without disabilities. That’s right – seven times. Truly an epidemic. This is horrifying. Sadly, it does not surprise me.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
Funding nonprofits is essential, necessary — and they should not be cut
Connecticut’s community nonprofits are in a precarious state. Year after year of tight state budgets have put increasing pressure on providers, leaving them to face an uncertain future at a time when the demand for essential services is increasing. With the prediction of at least three more years of budget crisis, there is little good news on the fiscal horizon.
Posted inEnergy & Environment
Solar is again the flashpoint in CT’s new energy strategy
The final version of Connecticut’s new energy strategy and the bills that would implement it are before the legislature. So is a controversy that has dogged the plan since it was first released – solar policy.
Posted inNews, Politics
The Working Families, pushing Democrats to the left
“I think Democrats have been just afraid of their shadows for a very long time and we’ve seen that in resistance to things like minimum wage increases and paid family leave and fair immigration policies.” But Lindsay Farrell of the Working Families Party says things might be changing. Our Sunday Conversation.
Posted inNews
Fairness in Connecticut is fair game in politics
Fairness, it is fair to say, is in the eye of the beholder; and last Wednesday, delivering his State of the State address, the beholder was Gov. Dannel P. Malloy.
Posted inPolitics
Labor in New Haven bets on MGM casino for Bridgeport
New Haven’s labor unions are flexing their political muscle to back MGM Resorts’s proposed casino in Bridgeport, as a showdown begins over tribal nations’ competing plans.
Posted inHealth
Despite changes undermining the ACA, marketplaces ‘stable’
After much drama leading to this year’s open enrollment for Affordable Care Act coverage — a shorter time frame, a sharply reduced federal budget for marketing and assistance, and confusion resulting from months of repeal-and-replace debate — the final nationwide tally paints a mixed picture.
Posted inEducation
See how the state graded your school and district
The grading system is based on more than a dozen measures. However standardized test scores still account for 80 percent of the grade.
Posted inEducation
State grades every school district and three-quarters see a drop
The large majority of public schools and school districts in the state earned worse grades this year than last on the state’s annual assessment of school performance, according to data released Friday by the State Department of Education.
Posted inPolitics
An unlikely rebuke of the General Assembly over election laws
With a blandly titled “informational forum,” a Democratic state senator choreographed an unusual rebuke of the General Assembly and its leadership Friday, eliciting testimony about the systematic weakening of campaign finance laws in Connecticut, most recently by provisions inserted into the bipartisan budget adopted in special session last fall.
Posted inHealth
Call-wait times for medical transport better but complaints persist
After having experienced some hours-long wait times, Medicaid patients haven’t had to wait longer than 15 minutes for someone to pick up the phone when calling about medical transportation in the last two weeks, according to Josh Komenda, president of Veyo, the state’s new non-emergency medical transportation contractor. But that figure was immediately challenged.
Posted inMoney, Politics
Labor says ‘tax fairness,’ vibrant cities are keys to CT’s recovery
Labor leaders called Friday for a more progressive state tax system and greater investments in Connecticut’s cities to revitalize the economy and stabilize the budget.