Although he’s a freshman senator, Chris Murphy, D-Conn., has been given the chairmanship of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in charge of European affairs. That means Murphy can hold hearings on anything that concerns U.S. allies in Europe. He replaces Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., who headed the panel in the last Congress. “The United States […]
Ana Radelat
Ana has written about politics and policy in Washington, D.C.. for Gannett, Thompson Reuters and UPI. She was a special correspondent for the Miami Herald, and a regular contributor to The New York TImes, Advertising Age and several other publications. She has also worked in broadcast journalism, for CNN and several local NPR stations. She is a graduate of the University of Maryland School of Journalism.
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Connecticut’s defense industry braces for ‘unthinkable’ Pentagon cuts
Washington — Once unthinkable, dramatic cuts to the Pentagon’s budget that would hurt Connecticut’s defense industry are now looking more and more real. The so-called sequestration could cost the state as many as 42,000 jobs, one study estimates. Congress has a deadline of March 1 to find billions of dollars in cuts to the federal […]
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President to sound familiar themes in State of the Union
Washington — President Obama’s State of the Union Address to the nation tonight will have little that’s new, and instead focus mainly on themes the White House has promoted for months, if not years. The president will focus on manufacturing, the need for better roads and bridges, clean energy and education in his prime-time address, […]
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President Obama talks jobs, economy — and guns
Washington — Before a joint session of Congress, before a television audience of millions of Americans and before dozens of individuals whose loved ones had been victims of gun violence, President Obama Tuesday night declared that “the families of Newtown deserve a vote” on gun legislation, as do other American communities “ripped open by gun […]
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Gun-violence victims becoming advocates for regulation
Washington — Dozens of gun-violence victims and the families of those slain by guns are in the Capitol Tuesday to hear President Obama’s State of the Union speech and to lobby lawmakers. At an afternoon press conference those victims, who included Lynn and Chris McDonnell, parents of slain Sandy Hook Elementary student Grace McDonnell, beseeched members […]
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More Newtown residents heading to State of the Union
Connecticut’s senators, Richard Blumenthal and Chris Murphy, have joined a growing group of Democratic lawmakers who have invited Newtown residents and others affected by gun violence to President Obama’s State of the Union Address. Blumenthal said he’s bringing Newtown Selectwoman Patricia Llodra to Tuesday night’s speech. Murphy plans to invite detectives Daniel McAnaspie and Jason […]
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Tragedy in Newtown to color Obama’s State of the Union Speech
Washington — The violence at Newtown will cast a shadow over President Obama’s State of the Union Address Tuesday as the president and other Democrats make their strongest plea for support from Americans for gun control. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., announced Friday that she plans to bring a little girl who was affected […]
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House Democrats unveil gun control proposals
Washington — House Democrats unveiled an ambitious package of gun control proposals Thursday that closely follow President Obama’s recommendations. But the move is largely a political overreach. At a press conference in Leesburg, Va., where House Democrats are on retreat, party leaders and senior members of a gun-control task force issued more than a dozen […]
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Connecticut pulls short straw in Sandy aid
The first outlay of Hurricane Sandy recovery money has been distributed, and Connecticut has received a fraction, about $72 million, of the $3.2 billion Gov. Dannel P. Malloy said he needs. The Department of Housing and Urban Development announced Wednesday it would distribute one-third of the $16 billion appropriated by the Sandy recovery bill for […]
Posted inPolitics
DeLauro blasts postal service, GOP, for end to Saturday delivery
With a local mail processing plant and hundreds of jobs in her district at stake, Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-3rd District, Wednesday condemned the U.S. Postal Service’s plan to end Saturday delivery. “Today’s announcement is bad news both for the postal service’s employees and people across the country,” DeLauro said. “I have deep concerns that cutting […]
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In Congress, expectations dimming on gun control
Washington — As the debate on gun control intensifies in Congress, expectations of big changes in the nation’s gun laws are diminishing. On Tuesday, a bipartisan group of lawmakers, Reps. Patrick Meehan, R-Pa., Carolyn Maloney D-N.Y., Scott Rigell, R-Va., and Elijah Cummings, D-Md., unveiled a bill that would make “straw” gun purchases — buying a […]
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Connecticut gun makers quietly fighting gun control
Washington — While they’re keeping a low profile, representatives of Connecticut’s firearms industry are in the thick of the national gun control fight. After the shooting deaths of 20 young children and six educators in Newtown in December, Connecticut’s gun makers must weigh the damage that opposing gun control would have on public opinion against […]
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Blumenthal snares a chairmanship
Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., in office for a little over two years, has been given the chairmanship of a new Judiciary Committee panel apparently created just for him. Blumenthal will chair the Subcommittee on Oversight, Federal Rights and Agency Action, says Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt. The new panel is authorized to investigate possible […]
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Hagel skirts question on submarines
During a long, tough confirmation hearing, Secretary of Defense nominee Chuck Hagel deftly avoided being pinned down on the number of new submarines he thinks the Navy needs, despite prodding by Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn. At Thursday’s Senate Armed Services Committee hearing, Blumenthal asked Hagel, a former Republican senator from Nebraska, if he supported the […]
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Hearing showcases great divide in America, and on Senate panel, over guns
Washington — Two starkly different visions of the role of guns in American society — and the size of the divide in Congress over gun control — were on display at a Senate hearing Wednesday. Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee, including Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., promoted the reinstatement of a ban on assault weapons […]
